Author: Eric

Pivot point for this idea

Enroute To New York

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A scene from the bus to Boston, South Station, where I will board the Amtrak Acela for New York. (You may be able to read the list of this month’s bus movies. Evan Almighty just got done playing.) I left my house @ 6:50am and expect to arrive @ 3:45pm in Penn Station. Flying from Bangor (very expensive and no direct flights — last time I did I flew to Detroit then NYC) or Portland (a two hour drive each way and less flexibility for times) require more trade-offs for time saved. So if a rapid arrival is not the only priority, this is the best way out of the wilds of Maine and into Metro US…and you may notice that this is a popular option: the bus is full. I got the LAST seat in Augusta.

Happy Halloween

I asked Alison to carve our Halloween pumpkin this year, which actually isn’t a pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo species) at all, but a French heirloom squash (Cucurbita maxima sp.), Rouge Vif d’Etampes, that happens to look just like the iconic pumpkin made into a carriage in the illustrations of the Cinderella fairy tale.

We didn’t grow this one ourselves — winter squash and pumpkins take up so much space in the garden that we limit ourselves to planting only squash that we really like to cook and eat. As beautiful as it looks, the RVdE is all looks and no substance. Right now our preferable variety includes the Long Pie Pumpkin, a Cucurbita pepo variety that doesn’t actually look like a pumpkin, but when mature looks like an overgrown zucchini. But the flesh is full of sweet pumpkin flavor, the seeds have very tender hulls (so are good eating when fried or toasted), and it is very productive here in mid-coast Maine. We now have about twenty of them stacked like cordwood in our unused and unheated upstairs bedroom ready to contribute to our winter menus. Our favorite meals with pumpkin include Thai curries with coconut milk, lamb and pumpkin Chinese dumplings, and of course Carol’s Pumpkin Pie. Although that pie is now a documented feature of the Katy T-Day Party in 2008, maybe Marc will post that recipe on Eats soon for posterity.

Halloween Snow Shower

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There is our pumpkin, now carved (the evening view will be posted tonight). And, yes, winter is coming to Maine. This is the first snow of the season, and the flakes were so large they even show up in a snapshot.

Autumnal Image

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Alas, we did not grow this pumpkin,  but it still looks pretty cool, huh?

This is my first try to post from my Droid; I’ll be interested to see how it works.

College Life in Atlanta

Don't I look so scholarly now?

Hey there Rectors! I am finally getting around to posting on here. As you all know, I am in college right now (Georgia State University! Go Panthers!). I have basically been here for about a month and I’m loving it. Honestly, I’ve been wanting to go to college since the sixth grade so the fact that I’m actually here feels amazing. City life is the best. Of course anything seems exciting when you’ve lived in a suburb for almost ten years. Anyway,  I’ve decided for my first post to give you a bit of a photo tour of my dorm . Disclaimer: I used a really ghetto 15$ camera, and I drank a lot of coffee when I took these, so please excuse the shakiness/blurriness on some of these. Here we go:

This is my door. I know it’s lame, but I love the fact that my room mate and I have very similar letters in our names. Masha and Myeshia. The M&M’s. Also, that is the peep hole I use to creep on people and see what they’re up to. (RE: Kiddie Freshman dorm room labels. GA State wants us to remember the fact that we are little Freshman, obviously.)
Continue reading “College Life in Atlanta” →

Rector 50 Reno

Yes, folks, it *really* happened: Marc and Carol celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on June 19th, 2010. Eric and Brian made sure they did it in style with their favorite people in Sparks. (Sparks is next door to Reno.) Sparks is roughly a three and a half to four and a half hour drive (depending on traffic) from the San Francisco Bay Area, through Sacramento. It is also roughly 40 miles north of Incline Village on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

Thank you to everyone who contributed a memory of where they were on June 19th, 1960. Here’s a link to a PDF version of the booklet I put together and handed out at the party. Marc and Carol had to think *a bit* with some of the entries (Marge was the hardest), but in the end they guessed them all.

The party took place at 5pm at

Vista Pavillion @ Hidden Valley Regional Park, Sparks/Reno, NV

a lovely spot managed by the Washoe Co. Parks and Rec department in the eastern hills above Sparks and Reno with trees for shade, tables, two barbecue stands, and a horseshoe pit. The view is to the west, so sunset is one of the featured events, especially when it back lights the incredible band we hired: Analog Jazz. The kept people dancing and singing through the whole party, part of the time fronted (spontaneously) by Marc’s sister Amy. We *highly* recommend hiring them for your next celebration in the I-80 Bay Area – Sacramento (where they’re based) – Reno corridor.

Google Map Link

Besides terrific jazz music from the 1960s, the party featured a visual display of some of the terrific movies that came out in 1960:

Butterfield 8
La Dolce Vita
Oceans 11 (the original)
Breathless
Psycho

and one movie that came out in the 1970s but is set around 1960 (in the CA central valley): American Grafitti.

The menu was a tribute to Carol Rector cuisine over the past 50 years:

Stuffed Mushrooms
Pimento Cheese on crackers
Eric’s Blue Thistle cheese (a new addition)

Brunswick Stew
Potato Latkes (fried potato pancakes) with cream cheese and chives
Butterflied Grilled Leg of Lamb
Grilled Bison T-Bone Steaks (a new addition)

Crepes Suzette, which flambeéd on the grill just as the sunset flambeéd the western sky.

The Rector family continues to travel this week as we celebrate Matt and Andrea’s wedding the following weekend. As soon as we all arrive back home, more pictures will be posted.

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Carol and Marc (on right) at OSU APX Formal, Spring 1960

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Continue reading “Rector 50 Reno” →

Ode to Bus

He loved his wife.
He loved his children,
his grandchildren, and
his great-grandchildren.
He loved his church.
He loved his camp.
He loved his country.
He loved to play cards and
won his share of nickels.
He was never late for dinner.
He always ordered the same thing and
he always tipped a dollar.
He always struck the same pose
for pictures but
he never struck a pose
for people.
He loved his sports;
from Bob Feller and
the Big Red Machine
to the surprising summer of ’90.
And of course he loved his Buckeyes
— all of them —
and he raised a grove
of his own.
He drove 35 on 22
and 55 on 71 but
he loved the rolling roads
through the small towns best.

He didn’t say much,
mum but never
mysterious.
Mark Twain once said
it’s better to keep your mouth shut
and be thought a fool than to open it
and remove any doubt.
But Bus was nobody’s fool,
and didn’t suffer them gladly.
His way was simple and sound;
he was always glad to see you
but the rest he left up to Liz.
He was old-school taciturn
and some would say
hard to know
but he is and always will be
easy to remember.