Stew Leonard

One of the highlights of my Saturday with Richard this week (i.e., July 2nd), was our visit to Stew Leonard's grocery and dairy store in Newington, CT. This may seem like a strange highlight to some but I quite enjoyed the experience. This is not a regular, typical grocery store. Rather, it is like a huge barn where specialty foods are sold. They seem to focus on fresh items, locally produced (e.g., no cucumbers from South America). Mass produced items seemed to be minimal and limited to a few types of breakfast cereal and chips. They have their own bakery, butcher shop, and flower shop.

The Newington, CT store.

Since it was Saturday, they had lots of free samples. We tried donuts, puffed rice cakes, crab, oatmeal cookie, chicken salad on mini-toast (2 of 3 kinds), several types of cheese, and two types of salad and dressing. The only thing we bought was a bottle of Stewart's Key Lime Soda for Richard to wash down the samples.

I wish there was a store close to me; the nearest one is in Norwalk, CT. I used to take Richard there when he was a toddler to see the animals (chickens, goats, cows)(no animals at the Newington store). I really liked the salad items, and fresh veggies and yummy pastries.

New Books

The Book of Job (in the Bible)

Having finished the Book of Tobit, I have started my bible study of the Book of Job. The bible study group at St. Mark's is planning to do this in the Fall; so I want to get a head start.  I am using the New American Bible (NAB), an old issue of God's Word Today (now out of print), the Jewish Study Bible, and the (free) NET Bible. The NET bible has extensive notes that are a useful supplement. I started to use the Anchor Bible version by Marvin Pope but it proved to be too pedantic (and distractingly difficult for a neophyte like me).

Treasure Island (by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Readers of this blog will be aware of my recently acquired affinity for Treasure Island. The Walt Disney version version awakened my interest. The Victor Fleming movie furthered my curiosity. The terrible Muppets movie version thankfully did not distract me.  While the movies sparked my desire to read the book, unfortunately my local library did not have a good copy. Fortunately, I found a nice version at the West Hartford Library book sale: a Junior Deluxe Editions version (see picture at left).

Instead of buying the Sparks notes or Cliff Notes, I put together my own supplementary material, primarily derived from the Wikipedia entry (see link above). It includes notes from two different editions (very helpful for some of the archaic language and nautical terms), the preface from the biographical edition by RLS's wife, and an essay by RLS on how he wrote the book.

I learned that, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Treasure Island was originally published in serial form in a children's magazine (see above or here). I don't think someone Richard's age would enjoy reading TI although the story is great. As I mentioned above, the book is filled with rather language, but it is not as hard as Shakespeare and much more thrilling. I'm looking forward to more reading of the works of the Scotsman, RLS.

Hannah + Dave

Or Dave and Hannah (if one speaks in the traditional order). On Saturday July 2nd, my niece, Hannah, married Dave. She is the first of my nieces and nephews to marry. I wish them much grace, endurance, patience and God's blessings during their upcoming adventures as a married couple.

Their marriage mass was conducted in Nebraska, where they went to college. Due to the distance, I was not able to attend. However, my mom drove there with one of my sisters; another sister and her family attended (and of course, so did Hannah's family); and my sister from Chicago and her family.  Hopefully, someone will email me a picture so I can post it here.

A reception in Ohio is planned for the end of this month.