Calling all altar servers! Kevin and I got to serve on the altar at Holy Cross this past week—something we certainly didn’t foresee happening. There was a 3:30pm wedding last Friday, and the altar needed to be completely rearranged before 5:20pm daily Mass. We arrived at 5:00pm as did Rosemary, the parishioner who is apparently in charge of set-up and cleanup of the worship space. She hadn’t anticipated that they would have left everything after the ceremony as it was: white cloth going from the back of the church to the altar, rose petals scattered about, the furniture on the altar moved to accommodate the wedding couple, nuptial candles, etc.
When we saw her looking a bit overwhelmed and trying to move large pieces of furniture back to their appropriate positions, Kevin and I both went up to help. We introduced ourselves to Rosemary, who we have seen each day when we’ve gone to daily Mass at Holy Cross, and she thanked us up, down, and sideways for our help. She’s still come up to us before Mass a couple days this week to express her undying gratitude that we pitched in when she was in a pinch. How humbling that we could assist this woman and have the opportunity to serve on the altar, even if it wasn’t in the traditional sense, at the Church that’s been our by the beach haven for daily Mass while in Rochester this summer. -2-
Men, Mechanics, and Motorcycles…For a number of years, my husband has really regretted that he sold his Honda Nighthawk 650 motorcycle. He misses those days dearly and has been talking about how much fun he had. Last night his cousin Rob came by to visit and shared some more stories of full-throttle speed, and testosterone tempered fun he remembers from when he and Kevin were growing up. Rob shared some stories I’d heard from Kevin, and other ones that were new to me. The prevailing theme of their race down memory lane can best be summed up by a physics tidbit and macho-motorhead philosophy my husband still reminds me of today: “It’s not speed that kills; it’s sudden deceleration.”
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Friday Fish Fry. Another tradition in Rochester that revolves around food is the Friday evening fish fry. Several restaurants in the area offer a fish fry on Fridays which, I’m guessing, began a number of years ago when restaurants were trying to appeal to a large Catholic population observing the Lenten fast of no meat on Fridays. A while back, Catholics weren’t supposed to eat any meat on Fridays throughout the year as a way of fasting on the day of the week when Christ’s Passion led to His Crucifixion and Death. Some people still refrain from eating meat on Fridays by continuing to observe this fast year-round. Though there are lots more Catholic Churches per capita in Rochester than in any of the other places my family and I have lived, the fish fry tradition has likely remained due to its continued culinary popularity in these parts more than its original religious fast observance dictated by Catholicism. Kevin and I are looking forward to getting a fish fry out with family this Friday after we go to daily Mass.
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Guess what?! It’s playtime! Family friends of ours introduced us to a fantastically entertaining game called Catchphrase, which is a contest between two teams competing to produce quick answers using a combination of word clues, charades, guessing, and high speed. We played Catchphrase at their house as part of a birthday celebration, and it was quite amusing.
Kevin and I purchased a completely electronic version of Catchphrase and pulled it out last Sunday when his three sisters, (Deb, Wendy, and Chari) along with their two husbands (Bob and Pete), and one’s boyfriend (Jim), came to the cottage for the long-time tradition of a Sunday evening family dinner at the Lake. Once we’d eaten some of the rather messy, very unique main dish created with the enormous zucchinis from Chari and Pete’s garden as part of our meal and had some chocolate walnut zucchini cake with chocolate frosting for dessert, I pulled out Catchphrase. All of us were sitting outside in lawn chairs. As in the past, we decided to play guys versus girls. The game was definitely a hit. We were laughing so hard, at times, that it was hard to breathe both before, during, and after the game. Kevin’s stomach actually hurt from laughing so much that evening.
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Simply Sinfully Scrumptious. Yes, I realize that food has often been highlighted in recent posts and quick takes, but this, I feel, ought to be included. Wegmans family owned grocery stores makes incredible baked goods among many other things. Their chocolate chip cookies and coconut donuts have been part of our summer splurges ever since I was little. The other day, I asked Kevin if he would get me a coconut donut and some chocolate milk while I got some work done on our computer in the Wegmans café. They didn’t have any coconut donuts out, so the woman offered to make some fresh. My mom’s already exceedingly jealous that Kevin and I are getting so much time on what she refers to as “[her] lake,” but I think she just might have lost it if she’d found out that I had the delectable privilege of eating a coconut donut fresh from the Wegmans bakery.
Kevin and I took Wegmans peanut butter fudge brownies and a small chocolate cheesecake to my uncle Rob and aunt Diane’s house the other evening, and both were also very well received.
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Wednesday my necklace broke, so we headed back there for a repair. Check back later to check out the impressive array of offerings at Trilliant Jewelers.
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Durand Eastman Park. Kevin has enjoyed spending some of his time as a beach bum over at Durand-Eastman Park, a place which holds a number of memories for my parents as well as Kevin and his friends. My parents used to go to Durand-Eastman Park to sled in the winter. They often drove through the winding roads on their way to Don and Bob’s for ground rounds, hot dogs, and fries. Kevin loved going as fast as he could in whatever motor vehicle he happened to have at the time around the curves and over the hills.
Over the past couple weeks, Kevin’s headed down to a section of beach in Durand-Eastman Park that’s got some shade, a nice breeze coming in over the Lake, and some friendly beach sentries who he’s chatted with while chilling in his chair in the shade.
Check out Jennifer Fulwiler’s 7 Quick Takes Friday series and her high-traffic for good reason blog Conversion Diary.
