Woonsocktoberfest

Today, as I worked Jen worked twice as hard on enriching activities for the Wombats. Partly this was to give them lots of stimulation and entertainment. Partly it was to make me look like a jerk when I take over Mr. Mom responsibilities in a couple of weeks.


Before I left for work she even picked out some different fabrics to drape them in to give them exciting sensations. I would never think to do something like that. The best I would be able to come up with would probably be something like having a detailed discussion about Cobra Commander's role in G.I. Joe: The Movie.


Since we already had the "authentic" German style Oktoberfest dinner on Saturday night I opted to go for a meal from my hometown of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. My mother had brought over some dynamites on a previous visit. This is a traditional Woonsocket meal consisting of a grinder or dynamite role filled with a mixture of cooked onion, pepper, celery, ground beef, and tomato.


To go along with the dynamites I served up Rhode Island's own beer Narragansett Brewing Company. While probably not an original variety we enjoyed their Fest lager. This was a very nice Marzen, far better than I'd expected. While it would have been more authentic to enjoy it with regular Narragansett lager it was nice to try one of their different offerings and I have to say that this was probably my favorite Narragansett beer to date.

After a night of enjoying my hometown favorites I was sadly unable to come up with a traditional Woonsocket dessert. I'm not really sure what that would be. There's that ice cream dish our family friend (and my first grade teacher) made that looks like watermelon. Then there's just a brick of Neapolitan ice cream. Or I could have made a doughboy but that is pretty much just fried dough and has a different name any place on earth that you go.

Instead we enjoyed some quiet time with the babies and watched Northern Exposure episodes to relive our high school years, and the years when we first moved to New York. This was a nice reminder of a time when I first left the fertile crescent of the Blackstone Valley and moved nearby another river on the tiny island of Manhattan. Things had changed a lot at that point and they've changed even more since then.

Vani tass, vani tatum, et omni i vani tass
Only when we understand all is vanity, only then, it isn't.

Sorry. We've been watching an awful lot of Norther Exposure these days.