Tuesday, September 16, 2008

blue, my favorite color...

You are type: Blue
12
Bl
9
Gr
8
Gl
7
Or

BLUE - To Love and be Loved
Congratulations, you are a primary Blue. Your heart-felt communication style creates peace and harmony in the workplace. You know how to bring out the best in others. Your complete color spectrum is shown above.

Your heart-felt communication style creates peace and harmony in the workplace. You know how to bring out the best in others. As a Blue personality you are gifted with tremendous people skills.

You're a heart felt communicator who has a strong need to make a difference in the lives of other people. This strength is immediately noticeable in the way you make connections and bring out the best in those you encounter. People usually feel relaxed and comfortable in your presence.

You love to build self-esteem and make others feel good about who they are. You can easily motivate and inspire people to make changes in their lives and reach their potential. This natural talent makes you excel a counselor, teacher, social worker and journalist


To find out what you are, click here


Have fun! -Emily


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Would you like fries with that?

Here it is. The break down. County by county. Do you agree? Do you care what other people call it? My only thing is that I do like Coke over Pepsi. So, in the south after asking for a coke, I'd have to follow up with, "do you have Coke or Pepsi?" They always thought I was weird....

Follow the link to the actual page here where you will find out why they call it a soft drink. (such an obvious explanation, yet I learned something new!)

Monday, September 8, 2008

the Pork Festival

For those of you who grew up in small towns, you can probably appreciate a festival. I grew up where there were several to choose from. The Apple Festival in Niles, where I was born. The Atlanta Earth Festival (Indiana, not Georgia). And the Tipton Pork Festival. As a member of my high school marching band, I marched in both parades at the Tipton Pork Festival. One was Thursday evening, marking the opening of the festival and the other was Saturday, when it was a much bigger parade (about an hour and a half long). The Tipton Pork Festival is known for, well you guessed it, pork. Local, Hoosier pork.

Only recently did I discover that the Pork Tenderloin sandwich is an Indiana thing. It happened when Heather and I went to visit Stephanie at Culver Academy in Culver, Indiana. We dubbed it "Chilton", and enjoyed at lunch at "Luke's" Diner. Not really. In fact I think it was called Rosie's... I can't remember. I was going to get a simple BBQ pulled pork sandwich, and then I saw it. The Pork Tenderloin. As I screeched in excitement, Stephanie and Heather thought I was nuts. That was when I realized they had no idea what I was excited about. This was something that was a monthly lunch staple all throughout my school days. It was part of the Pork Festival. Everyone knows what a pork tenderloin is. Or at least that it's a sandwich. Nope. Only those in Indiana know the delicious-ness of the tenderloin sandwich. That was when I realized not only was this an "Indiana" thing, but also that I had not attended the Pork Festival since 1999. It was time to go back.

The 40th Pork Festival was held the 4th, 5th, and 6th of September. I made it to my parents on Thursday night. On Saturday morning, we had our plans laid out. Dad still helps out with the Hamilton Heights Marching Band, and he left before 11am to go to the school. Mom and I went and watched Skylar play soccer. Then we headed up to Tipton.

The Pork Festival takes place around the Courthouse. I believe that all the courthouses in Indiana were built on a square. The town square, if you will. The four streets that surround the courthouse are completely taken over with food tents, trailers, merchandise tents, and people. The roads are closed around the square, and then closed off for the parade (sadly, I don't remember how long the parade route is... it's not too long unless it's a really hot day)


Our first stop was the Pork Tent. Mom got the BBQ pork sandwich and I headed over to find my Pork Tenderloin. My favorite toppings include: mayo and pickles. I will also eat it with tomatoes and lettuce. As you can see, it is pounded flat, breaded and then fried. And is much bigger then the bun! It was as good (even better) then I remember!

Then we headed over to find a good spot to watch the parade. The weather was perfect. It was in the mid-seventies, small clouds dotted the bright blue sky and there was a light breeze.

There are several bands that come from two counties to march in the parade. I'm pretty biased, but HHHS band looked the best this year! They were the biggest (that was not always the case back in my day), best dressed and sounded the best. We always complained about our brown top/white bottomed uniforms, but compared to Noblesville's all black, I'll take the brown and white all over again!

Here is one of the many Pigs in the parade!

Yup! Even an elk make an appearance. Yes, it's a real elk. Only to an elk can you say, "check out his rack!"

The man in the motorized wheel chair turned before I snapped the picture, I was trying to get his shirt which read, "When Pigs Fly"... And if you can tell, that is a flying pig on his head.

These were spray painted on the ground all around pointing to the Pork Tent! Just in case your nose was confused.

My favorite sight of the day was while we were eating. I was facing towards the outside of the tent. The Italian Sausage cart was very lonely. People don't go to the Pork Festival to eat Italian Sausages. All the vendors who had pork, corn and drinks had long lines. My favorite part of the day was when I got my elephant ear! Yum! Those are my favorite at any festival!

Just so you know, I was going to plan my next festival trip to the famous Popcorn Festival in Valparaiso, Indiana. When I visited the website, much to my disapointment did I find out that it is the same Saturday as the Pork Festival.... Next year there will be some strategic planning.

Here's to Pork, the other white meat

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The locked up silverware dilemma


Why does it always come back to locking up the silverware? Really? I would like to know; is it only United Methodist Churches that insist their silverware is better off locked up? I think every church I have been a member of (four at last count) has had this discussion. As I brought up tonight, what kind of image are we sending out to our visitors when our silverware is locked up? Whatever the answer may be I do know this, I got a smile and a "thank you" from the chair of the committee for standing up to saying "No!" to locking up the silverware.