Craxi Reads: Lamb, the Gospel according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

I was really looking forward to August’s Book Club selection: Lamb, the Gospel according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. It was chosen by one of the book club members and it sounded like a good book. Even though I had about 3 weeks to read it, I barely got it done in time for book club. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I never made it to book club. The Corny Walk took too long.

Lamb, the Gospel according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal tells the story about Jesus’ “lost” years from the time he was a teenager to his crucifixion told from the perspective of his best friend Biff, also known as Levi. Biff and Joshua (Jesus) become friends in early childhood and are inseparable. At age 10, they start their apprenticeship as stonemasons which lead to raising someone from the dead on an night excursion to the work site. Shortly after the Passover feast when they are 13, Joshua believes he has to find the three wise men to learn how to fulfill his duties on Earth.

On their journey, Biff tries to explain to Joshua what sex is like and at one point, Joshua insists that Biff have sex with several different prostitutes to try to give Joshua an idea of what it feels like since Joshua isn’t allowed to have sex. You have to remember that Biff and Joshua are teenage boys/young men.

Joshua and Biff’s journey takes them nearly 20 years. They spend time with each of the 3 wise men learning Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Joshua is a much better student than Biff and Biff only does what he needs to stay with Joshua. They learn alchemy, judo, and yoga among trying to figure out what his Father wants him to do during his time on Earth.  Their journey ends when Joshua gets a sign to go home.

Once Joshua gets home, he begins with his teachings and healings. He gains followers along the way. The rest of the book is similar to the Gospels of the Bible and ends with his death.

The book was very good. I wish I could have been able to get to book club to discuss it and find out everyone’s beliefs of the story. I read a book that towards the end mentioned the same concept of Jesus traveling to learn Eastern Religions prior to beginning his teachings. Since the Bible doesn’t mention anything from the time Jesus was at the Temple to the time he started his teachings, one can only guess what he did. Maybe he worked as a stone mason or a carpenter. Maybe he really did travel seeking out answers. I tend to want to believe the latter where we was traveling and seeking answers.

Yes the book is about Joshua (Jesus) and Biff but it is written in such a way that even if you aren’t a Christian, you will enjoy the book. Remember Joshua and Biff are teenage boys so there’s a lot of sex and teenage antics involved. If you are a hard core Christian that believes that the Bible is the absolute truth then I would suggest not reading this book. It doesn’t say that the Bible is wrong but it dives into the more grey areas of the Bible. It is definitely a humorous take on the middle years of Jesus’ life.

If I didn’t go to book club in May, I would have never heard of this book. Thanks to Book Club I have read a book that I probably never would have even heard of let alone read. Maybe I will try to get to September’s book club. We will see what happens between now and then. One thing is for sure, I’ll be reading.

Walking for Corn on the Cob

When Danielle mentioned she wanted to do a 5K a month and she found the Corny Walk in Menasha for August, I was game. The date worked perfect since the hubby was gone and it was early enough that I should be able to get to Book Club.

The Corny Walk was sponsored by the Menasha Park and Rec department. The walk was free and about 2 miles in length. I pre-registered. Danielle decided it was too hot but was nice enough to play chauffeur for me. Heather and the boys joined me. Initially I planned on starting at 5 so I would be done in time for book club but one thing led to another and Heather and I got to Curtis Reed Square about the same time.

It definitely was a family event. I was glad Heather and the boys joined me. There were about a dozen stops along the route where you had to complete an activity to collect tickets, snacks, or prizes. The first station was stretching. I don’t like to stretch. Then we walked a little farther and the boys had an activity to do at the farmer’s market.

The third activity was jump rope and we got a ticket for water after the walk. Down the road was a javelin throwing activity where we “won” popcorn. Then we had some hula hoops.

Once we got to the Trestle Bridge, we had to do burpees. If you completed 1 you got a can coozie, if you completed 3 you got a $5 certificate to the farmers market, if you completed 5 you got both. We all managed to 5. I got complimented on my kick outs. I couldn’t do the push up part very well but I sure could kick my legs out on the way down.

About halfway across the bridge was some jumping jacks for fruit snacks. On the other end of the bridge was a small obstacle course including hurdles, limbo, and gun shooting. We got police badges and coloring books.

After walking back across the bridge, there was a ring toss game that I wasn’t very good at. Pool noodles don’t toss very well. We got bananas. Up the road was a dice game where you had to do what was on the dice. The last stop was hopscotch for a token for an ear of corn. We barely finished in time.

After we completed the walk, we got a hot dog, corn, and water. It might have been an odd dinner but it was good.

I will definitely do the Corny Walk again. I just have to plan better next time -- either get there right at 5 or try not to do too many things in one evening. I liked all the stops and obstacles. It made the walk enjoyable.

Up, Up, and Away

One of the events that popped up in my Facebook feed was Summer Fun in the Park -- Flight Night. It was going to be at Darboy Community Park which is down the road from me and it would feature hot air balloons. It was August 10 when the hubby was in Massachusetts. I really wanted to check it out. Danielle said she was interested and we decided to go together.

Parking was a little bit of a nightmare. People were parked on all the side roads near the park. We tried to park down a side street and gave up. I got the brilliant idea of parking at the school and walking over. That’s where I parked for the chicken chase last year. Hardly anyone was parked at the school and it was a nice easy walk on the bike path to the park.

When we got to the park, I expected to see the hot air balloons inflated and people wandering around looking at them. It said it went from 5-7:30. We got there about 6 and none of the hot air balloons were inflated. There were some kid’s activities going on such as bouncy houses and a barrel train.

We found a spot under a shady tree…okay more like under the shadow of a small tree but it at least it was in the shade. We couldn’t have been there more than 15-20 minutes when they started to inflate the balloons. The balloons took about at least 15-20 minutes to inflate. It was a cool process to watch. I didn’t realize it took so long or how many people were involved on getting a balloon off the ground.

Once the balloon was inflated it lifted off. It took a little while to get all four balloons in the sky but they all were aloft before 7:00 PM. I am not sure if they were going to land back at Darboy Community Park or USA Sports Complex, another spot for balloonists. We didn’t stick around to find out.

It was a fun evening. I am glad we didn’t decide to get there right at 5. We probably would have left thinking this thing was a bust. Now one day, I will have to experience a hot air balloon ride.

Running around the Streets of Green Bay in the Dark

When I saw that the Nitelite in Green Bay was on Friday, August 5th, I confirmed with the hubby what game he had and signed up. This gave me a chance to do a 5K in August and based on how my August was shaping up, it was my only chance. Holly and Tanya signed up too. Yea! I had a running buddy.

I knew that the Tall Ships Festival was in Green Bay that weekend but I didn’t realize that the ships were on the Fox River and not the Bay of Green Bay. Then Trump decided to hold a rally at the KI Convention Center -- 2 blocks from the start of the race. I expected it to be crazy downtown but it really wasn’t that bad.

We got down there around 6 and the race wasn’t until 8:15. After I found Holly, we walked over to the Ray Nitchke bridge and saw the Tall Ships. With the angel of the sun, some of the ships were really dark when we took pictures of them. They were really neat to see. If it wasn’t $12 to get into the Festival, I would probably have actually checked out the festival since we had time to kill.

After checking out the tall ships, we picked up our packets. The shirts this year were better than last year. They are dusty Badger Red with blue writing which beats the blues and greens I’ve gotten at almost every other race. We got 2 glow necklaces and bracelets. Jayden got one too. He was a very happy boy.

Bob wanted to check out the statues at the Packer Heritage Trail Plaza. We took some pictures and learned about Packer History. I thought the guy in the Fedora was Vince Lombardi. Bob informed me it was George Whitney Calhoun the guy who founded the Packers. It was the hat that made me think Vince.

Holly and I went back to her car to drop off her stuff while Jayden and Bob had pizza. Then we sat around the steps across from the children’s museum waiting for the race to start.

The race was more than a 5K I swear. It took me 45 minutes to do it and my phone said I ran 3.43 miles even with stopping it after the finish line there is no way I stopped at more than .3 of a mile later. The race had to be about 3.25 miles at least. It just never seemed to end. I did beat me time from last year. The worst part was the water station was after mile 2 so I was dying by the time we got there. Even running past the Trump rally wasn’t bad. Jayden ended up with many more necklaces as I picked them up along the route.

I’ll probably do this one again since Holly likes night runs. I’m not crazy about them but it’s something do and usually an inexpensive race if you register early. Hopefully next year there won’t be as much going on downtown though.

Perfecting the Paper Airplane

When I came back from Indiana, I had a memo on my desk about a paper airplane contest. Since it was the week of the fiscal year, I had better things to do than make paper airplanes. When my boss asked for my airplane on Monday, I was still recovering from year end so I quickly folded an airplane. It turns out that the actual competition wasn’t going to be until Thursday.

The original paper airplane

Since it was a slow week, a co-worker and I tried to perfect the paper airplane. I found a website that gave various designs of paper airplanes. I learned I am not very good at making paper airplanes and I still have no clue what an accordion fold is when it comes to a paper airplane – I know how to do a regular accordion fold but not one that is triangular. I did manage to try to fold several different styles of paper airplanes. Some worked by than others. My co-worker helped when I got stuck. By the end of the first day, I amassed a small air field on my desk and we were chasing airplanes all over our row and neighboring rows. It was good exercise.

By the time Thursday rolled around, I was confident in my first design and decided not to change it to a different one. Prizes were awarded for the design as well as distance. Because it was still slow, we kept practicing with our airplanes. At the last minute, I decided to change out my design. I should have stuck with the original. I think it would have gone farther. Oh well.

My final airplane

During a team meeting earlier in the day, someone asked the person in charge of the contest how they were going to measure the distance. I jokingly said my team could do it. Later, when the person in charges hands me two tape measurers and a ball of yarn, I guess he took me seriously. The contest was to take place outside on the patio. To save time, we marked off every ten feet using painters’ tape. We figured we could measure from the closest 10 feet and just add up as we go.

Yellow team flying their planes

Each team was allowed 3 pilots to fly the planes off the balcony. When the first team went, we tried to get exact measurements but they didn’t wait for us to measure before sending the next one into flight. Some of them went into the bushes while a few went over the fence. Someone said why not just guesstimate the distance. So that’s what we did for the other teams. Since each patio block was 2 feet, it really helped. I could use the 10 foot markers and then count blocks to figure out distance. I ran around and got a lot of steps in by doing this.

My team came in 2nd overall distance despite having the fewest participants. We came in first for average distance. One day we will get dilly bars I was told.

It was a fun team building/get to know other people activity. I got a lot of steps while perfecting my airplane. I still really can’t make a paper airplane but I had fun trying and practicing.

Dining with Craxi: Tony's Pizza

After softball on Sunday, the hubby wanted to go out for pizza – big shock there! Since we were in Two Rivers Manitowoc, he wanted a place in either one of those places. He mentioned Tony’s in Manitowoc. I checked Yelp and the reviews were ok mainly complaining about slow service -- all from 2015. I came up with a couple other options… one was only a delivery/carry out place and we can do Luigi’s in Appleton. So Tony’s it was.

The hubby had a vague idea of how to get to Tony’s. However, I still had to navigate using Google Maps. Luckily, I learned I can use Google maps, see where I am, and not use any data. I’ve not tried using the navigation with data being off…. Only tricky part came when we got to the one way street and had to figure out where to go from there. It was just a slight hiccup but we found a street that would take us to Washington Street without any difficulty.

Tony’s is a bar type pizza place. It does have a take-out window. We got there after 8 pm and the place almost empty. We got a seat at a high top in the bar. The waitress took our drinks and returned to take our order. We ordered garlic bread and pizza.

The garlic bread arrived in a soup bowl. The garlic bread looked to be smushed into the bowl. It tasted alright and was the perfect size for the two of us. I did put parmesan cheese on my slices.

The pizza arrived hot. The hubby asked before he ordered if they made their own sausage and the waitress said they made everything in house. Being the pizza snobs we are, we had to dissect the pizza. The crust was a thick cracker that had cornmeal on the bottom. It was quite tasty and even good reheated. The sauce was too sweet for my liking but the hubby liked it. The sausage was fantastic. There was plenty of cheese.

We ordered the 18” pizza and that was more than enough. The sizes were probably my only complaint. There was no 16”. You could get 12”, 14”, 18” or 20” but no 16”. I guess that meant I had lunch for the week among with the leftovers as even the hubby who didn’t eat anything all day couldn’t finish all the pizza.

Either the service improved or we came in at a dead time because we had no issues with the service. The hubby said that this gets to stay on the list and we will be stopping here again when we are in the area. He even said it’s not any farther than going to Schuster’s for chicken.

#3991. Have a sundae at the Washington House in Two Rivers

One of the things that I’ve wanted to do for years now is go to the Washington House in Two Rivers for an ice cream sundae. The Washington House is the birthplace of the ice cream sundae. Granted it Two Rivers is only about an hour away but that’s a bit far for ice cream. Usually the hubby is in Two Rivers for basketball so that doesn’t really work either. When I saw he was in Two Rivers for softball on Saturday, I was excited… until I realized I had to work. Luckily he was also at the same tournament all day on Sunday so I planned on walking to get my ice cream sundae.

The walk to the Washington House was about 1.5 miles from the tournament. 3 miles for ice cream…. It was a nice walk. If I had more time and planned my day better, I would have stopped at the Rogers Street Fishing Village Museum or explored the Lakefront some. However, all I planned on doing at this point in time was walk the 1.5 miles, eat my sundae, and walk back.

This was someone's lawn ornament

The Washington House is an old immigrant hotel in 1850s. The ice cream shop in the back is a replica of Ed Berners' Ice Cream Parlor, where he invented the ice cream sundae. When I walked into the Washington House, there were old ladies playing cards in the parlor. You could take a self-guided tour, which I may do another day. You could also dress up and they would take your picture behind the bar. I definitely need Stacy or Danielle for that. Dress up is no fun by yourself.

The original ice cream sundae comes in a souvenir plastic bowl. You get 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, a cherry, and nuts. It was very good. I thought since I was getting a take home bowl, I would have gotten a plastic spoon but I still had a real spoon to eat it with. After I was done, I could either have my original bowl washed out or just get a new one. Because there was a line, I opted for a new bowl. I didn’t need my exact bowl that I had my ice cream sundae in.

Besides ice cream sundaes, you could have one of 18 different Cedar Crest ice cream flavors or a root beer float. If you wanted water it was served in a glass. The ice cream parlor wasn’t very big but it was cozy. It reminded me of an old fashioned ice cream parlor.

I’m sure if we were done with softball before 8, we would have stopped again so the hubby could have had some ice cream. I will be back. It is cute and charming and definitely reasonable. My sundae was only $2.50. I just hope it won’t be another 35 years before I get back.