Trader Joe's Maple Pancake Snaps are pretty darn good. Sure enough, their flavoring nails the maple syrup pancake flavor. You only need one or two though! Overall rating 8/10!
Sunday, June 25, 2023
Saturday, June 17, 2023
Random Dad Notes
The Tangeman family's "only" real vacation occurred in 1951 and was a trip to Colorado.
Dad's tuition at Georgia Tech in the early '60s was $235 / quarter... meaning a full year of school could be had for right at $700! Mine in the early '90s was ~$10K/year and I met an intern from GT during the summer of 2012 who said her cost was ~$40K/year!
Here's one of his favorite games he always talked about (and went to) from his days at Georgia Tech. A 7-6 victory over #1 Alabama, breaking their 26 game unbeaten streak in 1962.
He and Mom bought 302 Univ. in 1970 for $26K putting $6K down and financing the balance. The ended up paying it off in about 7 years.
Dad's Mom Dorothy was born in 1910 and died in 1964, the result of Myasthenia Gravis.
The story of the benefits of being able to read upside down
Dad walked into the Math Department office one evening before going home and noticed an application for tenure from one of his colleagues on the secretary's desk. He was able to read it (upside down) and took note that the applicant had far inferior credentials to himself. He hadn't intended to apply for tenure that year but figured if this applicant were to get it - there's no way the tenure committee could deny him! So he submitted his application the next day and sure enough - received tenure (along with the other, more politically connected but less qualified applicant)
The kids considered Rinso a pet and enjoyed playing with him and watching him grow. It was all good until one day when they came home from school they couldn't find Rinso.
Dad's tuition at Georgia Tech in the early '60s was $235 / quarter... meaning a full year of school could be had for right at $700! Mine in the early '90s was ~$10K/year and I met an intern from GT during the summer of 2012 who said her cost was ~$40K/year!
Here's one of his favorite games he always talked about (and went to) from his days at Georgia Tech. A 7-6 victory over #1 Alabama, breaking their 26 game unbeaten streak in 1962.
He and Mom bought 302 Univ. in 1970 for $26K putting $6K down and financing the balance. The ended up paying it off in about 7 years.
Dad's Mom Dorothy was born in 1910 and died in 1964, the result of Myasthenia Gravis.
The story of the benefits of being able to read upside down
Dad walked into the Math Department office one evening before going home and noticed an application for tenure from one of his colleagues on the secretary's desk. He was able to read it (upside down) and took note that the applicant had far inferior credentials to himself. He hadn't intended to apply for tenure that year but figured if this applicant were to get it - there's no way the tenure committee could deny him! So he submitted his application the next day and sure enough - received tenure (along with the other, more politically connected but less qualified applicant)
The H.P. Maddox Ham Story
Dad was long-time friends with a gentleman named H.P. Maddox. H.P. lived in Harrisburg, AR and was at one time the mayor of Harrisburg. Mr. Maddox was older and passed in 1994. Dad was asked to be a pallbearer. After the services and reception, Dad was sent home with a lot of the food people had brought to the family including most of a ham. Our family ate a lot of left-overs, which might contributed to my general disdain of most leftovers to this day, and we ate on this ham for a few days. The ham continued to be served and eventually we grew weary of ham. It was at this point that Uncle Bob and Aunt Carolyn came to visit (mid to late June based on H.P.'s June 2 date of death. Dad greeted Uncle Bob as they were coming in and cautioned him about eating the ham. Bill specifically remembers the quote as being, "Don't eat the ham, it will kill you!" As I understand it, the ham was served but not really consumed.
It should be noted that Dad's father, Lawrence (Larry) passed away on June 3, 1994 (one day after H.P.) so there was a lot going on at this time. I remember driving home from Atlanta and then driving to Nebraska for grandpa's funeral. Georgia Tech also made their best run ever in the College World Series happening during this period as well and we were able to attend one of the games below.
Rinso the Rabbit
We heard the story of Rinso several times through the years. I think it might have happened when the family was living in Alabama. The kids (Dave, Paul, Dad) came home and the family had acquired a rabbit. They named him Rinso, after a popular soap out at the time.
The dinner menu that night featured Rinso and it didn't go over to well with the kids. Dad commented that they family didn't have a lot of money and Rinso presented an opportunity for an inexpensive but good dinner.
White Owl
Dad's Grandpa was Abraham. The called him "white owl" because he liked that brand of cigar.
He was born in 1864 in Holland, Wisconsin and died in 1957. He lived in Firth, NE and is also buried in the cemetery there.
He had a very small farm in Firth and also ran the Firth Mercantile that was later the location of the Firth Creamery (108 W 3RD St, Firth, NE)
He was heavy set guy. His wife, Elizabeth DeVries, died in 1944 and Dad vaguely remembers seeing her very sick in bed. There were three children. Ann, Marie and Lawrence (Larry). Marie lived in Houston for quite a bit of time (Uncle Paul would visit some when they lived there) and Ann lived in Hickman, NE. Her married name was Heckman.
Dad was named after Dirk Tangeman (the original Dirk) who was born in 1720 in Amsterdam. Abraham's father was also Dirk and was born in 1826 in the Netherlands. This Dirk was married to Anna Monteba and they had 6 children: Della, Jane, Abraham, Sarah, Nellie and Lena. All born in Wisconsin with the exception of Lena who was born in Missouri. Abraham and Elizabeth put in at the Firth cemetery shown above.
Dad's parents are buried in the Beatrice cemetery. They lived in Beatrice from ~'46 to '54 moving into the 1805 Elk St. in 1950. Grandpa worked at Dempster and made ~$3K / year in 1950. Dempster is still around today and the company was once owned by Warren Buffett.
The Story of Ardeth Wells
Dad always likes telling this story. It starts around 1948 when his Mom told him, an 8 year old boy that his Dad was having an affair with a lady named Ardeth Wells. Dad didn't really know what to make of it. Then, 40 years later, Theresa (his step-Mom) told him his Dad was having an affair with Ardeth Wells! Dad wanted to burst out laughing but kept his composure. He assumed, the claim was likely true coming from two independent sources 40 years apart!
Political Careers
Dad famously ran for the Mayor of Jonesboro sometime around 2010 I think. He didn't do all that well but it was entertaining from our perspective. His signs had kind of a Halloween theme to them and is campaign focused on the city bus issue. Jonesboro, at the time, had established a series of bus routes. Dad felt, rightly so, that this was silly for a town of Jonesboro's size. He spent a day riding the buses and largely determined he was the only person riding them. Leveraging data from his experiment he launched his campaign based on the average bus ridership being less than one!
Mom reminded us that he had a more successful career as a politician. At one point, back in the 70's maybe, he ran for a Justice of the Peace role and won!
The Mazda Miata
As part of Dad's infatuation with silver and gold he weaved a car into the picture in 2008 when he began liquidation of his gold with the hopes of having enough to purchase a new Miata. I helped him sell one of his coins on eBay in January '08 and it netted him ~$1000 towards the car. Bill and I had to talk him out of buying a Toyota Solara convertible and steer him towards the Mazda. In September of 2014, in typical trading fashion he agreed to sell the Miata to Stephanie and I with the condition that we send the agreed price ($5K) not to him but to Bill and Erin.
The Cool Birthday Gift
Probably around 1978 our TRS-80 computer was getting a lot of use. Heck - the local paper even did a write-up on our family as being one of the first in town to have a computer. Dad subscribed to a magazine - BYTE or something like it that often featured games you could type in and save on a cassette type and then load and play. One month, the magazine featured a basketball game and I wanted to play it so I started typing it in. It was a long program for an 8 year-old but I made progress. It must have been close to my birthday when all of this was happening because for my birthday Dad gave me the cassette type with the completed program that he finished for me. I was able to load and play the thing.
Dad got into genealogy a little bit and on occasion would drive around to look at points of interest from a Tangeman family perspective. This usually took him to Beatrice and Firth, NE and Minnesota. He wrote an autobiography which is pretty cool. A few relevant notes I captured (and subsequently researched) from a discussion or two with him are as follows:
Dad was named after Dirk. There are actually three Dirks in our lineage. One born in 1720 in the Netherlands. He also died in the Netherlands. Dirk married Willemijntje Sturms and they had two children (Jan and Cornelia born in 1764 and 1771 respectively). As mentioned, Jan was born in Holland on 1764 and married Neeltje Van Strijen and had 5 children. He passed away on 19 May 1835 in Burgh, Westerschouwen, Zeeland, Netherlands. The 5 children were: Lena, Willem, Dirk (this is the second Dirk), Willemina and Jan. Following the second Dirk, he was born in 1782 and died relatively young at 1825 but had a one child with Dina Pieterse Hogenboom in 1826. Though he never met his son you guessed it... it was the 3rd Dirk! This is the Dirk who had 5 children including Dad's grandfather and my great grandfather Abraham. Dirk III is buried in the Holland cemetery in Nebraska. Dad had the gravestone for Dirk III put in (I think it was Dirk - it was someone). Originally it was an unmarked grave but in a known section of the cemetery. Dirk's known section was the first recorded after a church fire destroyed previous records.
Abraham's other siblings included Dena, Sara, Lena and Nellie. Abraham had three children including my grandfather Lawrence (he went by Larry). Both Jack and I carry on the Lawrence name with our middle names. It makes for a good middle name! Larry's siblings were Marie and Anna. Larry was born August 14, 1908 in Nebraska and died June 3, 1994 in Beatrice, Nebraska. I drove from Atlanta to Nebraska to attend his funeral. I was just wrapping up my Master's degree at the time. I also remember that Georgia Tech had made it to the College World Series going on in Omaha at the same time. It was quite a drive that featured a stop in Jonesboro on the way. I think I had already landed a job and school was wrapping up or else I probably couldn't have made it.
The emptying of the freezer
Visit Mr. Spain....and the tools!
The hundreds of cans of dehydrated food!
The '87 Accord and the '88 Camry
Silver and Gold
Cheap Trick in Atlanta and Don Henley in Virginia Beach
The Physics Test at Georgia Tech
Mullins Mix
When Dad was into motorcycles he was also into keeping them clean. One of his concoctions for doing that was something he termed "Mullins Mix" Best as I recall, he had a friend named Mullins who came up with it. He and Uncle Bob used to reference it a lot. At one point I thought it was a very precise mixture of gasoline, soap, Tide, etc.. but I later learned the base was gasoline and you just mixed in whatever other cleaning agents you had on hand. Once this toxic mixture was made you would slather it on the oily, greasy areas of the bike and let it soak. Then you could repeat and scrub.
Things Dad Said
Heavy means good!
Giving blood is like getting an oil change for your body
You want the money flowing in...not out.
On November 19, 2014 Dad called to say he had been diagnosed with colon cancer.
On January 30, 2015 Dad passed away around 10:30am
Our eulogy to him at his memorial service covered 3 areas where he made an impact on our lives.
1. Giving quality time to us. Initial reference was to the 2015 Super Bowl, a great game between New England and Seattle. (though not as great as the Georgia Tech win over Georgia the prior November) Three "dad" ads appeared. Boiling down to the fact that, as a Dad, if you give quality time to your kids you are doing a good thing. Examples given were the Saturday morning breakfast tradition which we carry on with our kids as well as the regular phone calls Robert made from Georgia Tech to get Math and Physics help.
2. Encouraging and enabling us to see the world... Chevy Chase vacation style with Summer vacations driving around the country.
3. Knowing our Family - trips often involved family and he wanted us to know our extended family. Enables us to maintain good relationships through the years with cousins, Uncles, Aunts, etc...
Dad's parents are buried in the Beatrice cemetery. They lived in Beatrice from ~'46 to '54 moving into the 1805 Elk St. in 1950. Grandpa worked at Dempster and made ~$3K / year in 1950. Dempster is still around today and the company was once owned by Warren Buffett.
The Story of Ardeth Wells
Dad always likes telling this story. It starts around 1948 when his Mom told him, an 8 year old boy that his Dad was having an affair with a lady named Ardeth Wells. Dad didn't really know what to make of it. Then, 40 years later, Theresa (his step-Mom) told him his Dad was having an affair with Ardeth Wells! Dad wanted to burst out laughing but kept his composure. He assumed, the claim was likely true coming from two independent sources 40 years apart!
Political Careers
Dad famously ran for the Mayor of Jonesboro sometime around 2010 I think. He didn't do all that well but it was entertaining from our perspective. His signs had kind of a Halloween theme to them and is campaign focused on the city bus issue. Jonesboro, at the time, had established a series of bus routes. Dad felt, rightly so, that this was silly for a town of Jonesboro's size. He spent a day riding the buses and largely determined he was the only person riding them. Leveraging data from his experiment he launched his campaign based on the average bus ridership being less than one!
Mom reminded us that he had a more successful career as a politician. At one point, back in the 70's maybe, he ran for a Justice of the Peace role and won!
The Mazda Miata
As part of Dad's infatuation with silver and gold he weaved a car into the picture in 2008 when he began liquidation of his gold with the hopes of having enough to purchase a new Miata. I helped him sell one of his coins on eBay in January '08 and it netted him ~$1000 towards the car. Bill and I had to talk him out of buying a Toyota Solara convertible and steer him towards the Mazda. In September of 2014, in typical trading fashion he agreed to sell the Miata to Stephanie and I with the condition that we send the agreed price ($5K) not to him but to Bill and Erin.
The Cool Birthday Gift
Probably around 1978 our TRS-80 computer was getting a lot of use. Heck - the local paper even did a write-up on our family as being one of the first in town to have a computer. Dad subscribed to a magazine - BYTE or something like it that often featured games you could type in and save on a cassette type and then load and play. One month, the magazine featured a basketball game and I wanted to play it so I started typing it in. It was a long program for an 8 year-old but I made progress. It must have been close to my birthday when all of this was happening because for my birthday Dad gave me the cassette type with the completed program that he finished for me. I was able to load and play the thing.
Dad got into genealogy a little bit and on occasion would drive around to look at points of interest from a Tangeman family perspective. This usually took him to Beatrice and Firth, NE and Minnesota. He wrote an autobiography which is pretty cool. A few relevant notes I captured (and subsequently researched) from a discussion or two with him are as follows:
Dad was named after Dirk. There are actually three Dirks in our lineage. One born in 1720 in the Netherlands. He also died in the Netherlands. Dirk married Willemijntje Sturms and they had two children (Jan and Cornelia born in 1764 and 1771 respectively). As mentioned, Jan was born in Holland on 1764 and married Neeltje Van Strijen and had 5 children. He passed away on 19 May 1835 in Burgh, Westerschouwen, Zeeland, Netherlands. The 5 children were: Lena, Willem, Dirk (this is the second Dirk), Willemina and Jan. Following the second Dirk, he was born in 1782 and died relatively young at 1825 but had a one child with Dina Pieterse Hogenboom in 1826. Though he never met his son you guessed it... it was the 3rd Dirk! This is the Dirk who had 5 children including Dad's grandfather and my great grandfather Abraham. Dirk III is buried in the Holland cemetery in Nebraska. Dad had the gravestone for Dirk III put in (I think it was Dirk - it was someone). Originally it was an unmarked grave but in a known section of the cemetery. Dirk's known section was the first recorded after a church fire destroyed previous records.
Abraham's other siblings included Dena, Sara, Lena and Nellie. Abraham had three children including my grandfather Lawrence (he went by Larry). Both Jack and I carry on the Lawrence name with our middle names. It makes for a good middle name! Larry's siblings were Marie and Anna. Larry was born August 14, 1908 in Nebraska and died June 3, 1994 in Beatrice, Nebraska. I drove from Atlanta to Nebraska to attend his funeral. I was just wrapping up my Master's degree at the time. I also remember that Georgia Tech had made it to the College World Series going on in Omaha at the same time. It was quite a drive that featured a stop in Jonesboro on the way. I think I had already landed a job and school was wrapping up or else I probably couldn't have made it.
The emptying of the freezer
Visit Mr. Spain....and the tools!
The hundreds of cans of dehydrated food!
The '87 Accord and the '88 Camry
Silver and Gold
Cheap Trick in Atlanta and Don Henley in Virginia Beach
The Physics Test at Georgia Tech
Mullins Mix
When Dad was into motorcycles he was also into keeping them clean. One of his concoctions for doing that was something he termed "Mullins Mix" Best as I recall, he had a friend named Mullins who came up with it. He and Uncle Bob used to reference it a lot. At one point I thought it was a very precise mixture of gasoline, soap, Tide, etc.. but I later learned the base was gasoline and you just mixed in whatever other cleaning agents you had on hand. Once this toxic mixture was made you would slather it on the oily, greasy areas of the bike and let it soak. Then you could repeat and scrub.
Things Dad Said
Heavy means good!
Giving blood is like getting an oil change for your body
You want the money flowing in...not out.
On November 19, 2014 Dad called to say he had been diagnosed with colon cancer.
On January 30, 2015 Dad passed away around 10:30am
Our eulogy to him at his memorial service covered 3 areas where he made an impact on our lives.
1. Giving quality time to us. Initial reference was to the 2015 Super Bowl, a great game between New England and Seattle. (though not as great as the Georgia Tech win over Georgia the prior November) Three "dad" ads appeared. Boiling down to the fact that, as a Dad, if you give quality time to your kids you are doing a good thing. Examples given were the Saturday morning breakfast tradition which we carry on with our kids as well as the regular phone calls Robert made from Georgia Tech to get Math and Physics help.
2. Encouraging and enabling us to see the world... Chevy Chase vacation style with Summer vacations driving around the country.
3. Knowing our Family - trips often involved family and he wanted us to know our extended family. Enables us to maintain good relationships through the years with cousins, Uncles, Aunts, etc...
Wednesday, June 07, 2023
Pete as a pup!
There's a new golden doodle pup in the neighborhood named Biscuit. We ran across this pic of Pete and they look remarkably similar as you might expect!
Thursday, June 01, 2023
Bill and Erin’s Wedding
Bill found this snap from Dad's old phone captured by him at their wedding in Vegas
Such a fun wedding week-end and celebration! Happy Anniversary Bill and Erin!!!
Sunday, May 21, 2023
Ed Sheeran Concert!
The sky was on full display for the Ed Sheeran show in Tampa. Steph and Elle went with friends.
Here's the setlist - Tampa, May 20, 2023
Wednesday, May 03, 2023
Sautéed Cobia!
Our neighbors caught a huge Cobia fish in the gulf near Cedar Key and shared some filets with us. Steph did a wonderful job on the prep and we ate well!
Sunday, April 30, 2023
Saturday, April 22, 2023
Thursday, April 20, 2023
Gator Baseball!
We went to the Gator baseball game With Rick and Rick as part of a fun week-end of golf, food and family!
Sunday, April 16, 2023
Sausage Rigatoni!
Steph and Jack were away for the week-end so Elle and I got to play in the kitchen! She first made brownies (barely visible on the counter in the pic) and then we made our favorite dish that Steph makes - Sausage Rigatoni. We even found the particular Classico sauce that we could no longer find during the Covid years! The recipe is below.
Ingredients (Serves 6-8)
1 lb. of rigatoni pasta
1 lb. Italian sausage
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 jar (24 ounces) Classica Marina with Plum Tomatoes & Olive Oil (pic above)
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
1 pkg. (8 ounce) of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (cubed)
Several fresh basil leaves (torn or chopped to garnish)
Start heating the large pot of water to boil the pasta.
Brown the sausage in a large skillet. Drain any excess grease (usually there isn't much so draining isn't needed) Add minced garlic and place on low. Add the sauce and continue to cook on low.
When the pasta water is boiling, add the pasta and begin cooking per directions. Usually 11-12 minutes. Add the cubed cream cheese to your sauce and stir regularly until it has melted and blended. Turn heat up if necessary.
Drain the pasta when cooked to liking and add to pasta sauce. Stir until blended and ready to serve.
Add parmesan cheese and basil to liking.
Pete Excited for a Pup Cup!
Elle and I took Petey to Starbucks for a "pup cup" or a "puppacino". He didn't mess around and licked it up quickly!
Friday, March 24, 2023
Jeep Grand Cherokee Hits 100k
We went in with Jack to purchase Rick and Barb's old 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee. As we were driving it home we got to celebrate it hitting 100,000 miles. I've personally only had one other car make it to 100,000 - my old 1987 Honda Accord which I ultimately sold when it had ~130k miles to buy a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse. Something I still regard as a mistake!!!
The Jeep, however, was not a mistake. It is in fantastic condition and will be a great first driver for Jack in the Fall.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
Thursday, February 23, 2023
Moon Series from Ring in St. Augustine
Here's a cool moon progression shot from our Ring doorbell in St. Augustine. The pics are in reverse chronological order and occur about two hourse from one another.
This one was around 5am and you can just barely see the moon.
The one was 3am.
And this one around 1am.
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Tuesday, February 07, 2023
Go Big Red!
Elle is loving her (and my) Nebraska gear. I bought the hat out of necessity when I visited Bill for his 50th birthday party. We went to the Husker-Wisconsin game and it was cold!!!
Sunday, February 05, 2023
Superbowl i-Chat
During the big game Robert and I kept tabs on each other... <initial draft submitted 2/5/2008>
Saturday, February 04, 2023
Elsa’s Apple Tag Working!
One month in and Elsa's Apple Tag tracker is still working! We've been able where she likes to hang out around the neighborhood.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Sunday, January 29, 2023
Rio Grande in Fort Collins
Bill and I had an opportunity for a quick meet-up and shot up to Fort Collins for a few hours. We took full advantage of our time by visiting some of my favorite places when I was there 25+ years back.
One of those was Rio Grande known for its strong margaritas!
I always appreciated how clear their classic margarita was as well. We inquired on its ingredients and learned this classic margarita actually doesn't contain lime juice. Their fancier margaritas do.
The other notable thing was the weather. It snowed throughout our trip to the Fort and was cold!
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