Lemon Meringue Pie Revisited (Originally posted 18 June 2007)

[Ed. note: For reasons unknown to Grumpy, the photos of the Lemon Meringue Pies, originally a part of the June posting, disappeared. Maybe the INTERNET ate them! -- they did look and in fact were delicious!! So, anyway, since I found the photos again, I am taking the liberty of reposting this story -- maybe some more real LMP's will magically appear! Heh! heh!]

As the reader will no doubt remember, the probability of a Lemon Meringue Pie (hereinafter, LMP) appearing in the castle of the Great Grumpy Z was forecast recently [Ed: back in June -- and now in August the forecast has been reaffirmed] as "never again". Now this would probably be to the longer life benefit of the Great Grumpy, but tastebuds never forget that delicious aroma and the mouth-watering flavor of the Grand Mother's (aka, First Wife's) LMP. So any reprieve is always welcomed by the Great Grumpy!

It was therefore somewhat of a surprise to the Great Grumpy, when he noted the preparations for making of LMP in the Grand Mother's kitchen this past Saturday. Unwittingly, the Great Grumpy uttered some phrase or word which instantly illicited the Grand Mother's infamous pronouncement: "OK, that's it!!" [Ed.Note1:--This phrase usually means that a penalty is about to follow.] She continued, "I was going to make you a LMP, but now you can forget it!!" [Ed. Note 2: -- Forget it? Forget it? How could anyone forget the LMP of the Grand Mother!?]

But, with all the cleverness developed through my vast experience in understanding the Grand Mother, the Great Grumpy meekly acknowledged his wrong-doing (unintended though it was!), pleaded for forgiveness (which was summarily rejected, as usual) and stood by to assist the Grand Mother in anyway she might desire.

Her first request was to be taken to the grocery store for "some supplies, and I'm going to get what I want and I don't want any comments out of you!", she stated emphatically. As I always(?) try to do, I obeyed immediately, opening the car door and holding it as I "usually" do, but this time making a special effort not to slam it closed until she had her leg inside.

As I was helping put away the groceries upon returning home, I noted three (3) lemons. "What are the lemons for?" I asked, smugly aware that three lemons happens to be the exact amount required to make the famous LMP. I had her trapped! I had won!!

Her reply, however, shocked me out of my sensibilities, "I'm going to bake a LMP for Harry!"

Now I was aware that our oldest son, Ward Harry, was to be in the Pacific Northwest the week of 9-12 July 2007. I also was aware that a LMP does not keep well -- at least around here! -- for more than three or four days, at the most. I rather haughtily explained this to her, with the added comment that "they don't keep in the freezer, either!"

Undaunted, the Grand Mother put me in my place with, "Just you wait and see!" I retreated to the background while she wielded the rolling pin -- she was using it on the pie dough, but you can never tell what might happen if a Norwegian with a rolling pin gets upset at you!

I tried to soothe her hurt feelings and get myself back in her good graces by de-zesting the lemons and squeezing the juice from them. I even rinsed and drained the juicer, and, as is my habit, more or less followed her instructions as to how it should properly be done.

A couple hours later, the Grand Mother called me to the kitchen. She pointed to the two pies which had been out of the oven just long enough to cool down sufficiently to cut a piece. I thought she was going to forgive me and beg me to eat one of them right then and there! I was elated.

Instead, she asked, "Please, could you get a picture of these pies? I think they are especially beautiful, don't you? See how that meringue stands up! Don't you think that one on the left looks like a flower?" As I was taking the pictures, the Grand Mother was getting out the dessert plates and glasses, and the milk to drink with the LMP.

What a memorable day!!

But what a miserable night -- note the vanquished pie -- it was a two-Tums stomach ache that night. The Great Grumpy can never exercise moderation when it comes to eating the Grand Mother's Lemon Meringue Pie.

More Wanderings: To Oregon to Visit Cousins

Well, the Grand Mother and Grumpy left this past Friday for one more Summer adventure before the school year starts and we become more or less tied-down by home obligations. As the title suggests, this journey was to Oregon territory, but a couple of important stops along the way were mandated. The first was to visit Grumpy's oldest living cousin, Alberta (90 last December). We all enjoyed a good visit and continue to be amazed by her health -- she lives alone, with a caretaker coming twice a week to vacuum the carpet and do the washing. Amazing!

Also along the way lives a certain Grandson and his wife, James & Heidi, with two energetic and mischeivous little tow-headed Great Grandsons. We had dinner together at a convenient Olive Garden and enjoyed a long visit before the little boys had to go home to get what must have been a long and sound sleep.

The younger boy, Arthur, had somehow found out that, according to the Grand Mother "Grandsons can do no wrong". He readily extended this axiom to include Great Grandsons, hence he requested (and was granted) the privilege of sitting next to the Grand Mother when we ate. Later, when Grumpy made some perfectly innocent statement that was immediately taken by the Grand Mother to be "unacceptable for Lemon Meringue Pie eligibility" she made this finding known to Grumpy in her usual stern Grandmotherly tone. Arthur, grinning widely and giggling softly, said, "Grandpa is in trouble isn't he? Heh! heh! heh!"

After a good night's sleep, we journeyed on to Eugene OR where we had lunch with the Grand Mother's cousin, Bill, and his "Marvel-ous" wife. These two will soon be celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary! Both are in excellent health and are as lively today as they were almost 60 years ago when Grumpy first came to know them. We relived old times in our mutual native State of SD and exchanged showings of photos of Grandchildren and other recently enjoyed sights, including the two-hour traffic jam behind the buffalo herd in the North Dakota Badlands (see previous post, July 6, "Ward & Elynor's Summer 2007 Wanderings: Part V" -- http://grumpyzz.blogspot.com/2007/07/ward-elynors-summer-2007-wanderings_10.html).

From Eugene, we took a short drive up to McMinnville OR where the Grand Mother's other cousin, Marjorie, lives. We were graciously invited to have lunch with her in a semi-private dining room where we continued visiting. After a "forbidden" desert of unspoken calories, we retired to the living quarters where the two ladies continued visiting while Grumpy attended to some business (arranging for a motel for the night) and catching a quick cat nap.

Maryland Animals

The resident dog in the Maryland household is Lucille, a year-old Golden Retriever puppy who lavishes all the affection she can muster (and it's a lot!) on whoever she can find. She is fairly well-trained but is rambunctious as any puppy usually is, so controlling her is an exercise in quick reaction and a strong hand on the leash. She loves to play fetch/retrieve games, but is being spoiled by the resident duck hunter who persists in making a tug-of-war game out of the "hand-it-over" stage of the retrieve. Grumpy thinks he will regret his horseplay when the first duck is brought in and is then pulled apart by the replaying of the tug of war.

The next two pets are a pair of male "Tiger" cats, represented here by Mischa, the most colorful of the two. Grumpy caught Mischa relaxing on the living room carpet and got these two amusing positions as he wiggled around "to find his comfort zone". Needless to say, Lucille likes to "play" with the cats, but both cats are unafraid of the dog and are fully able to hold their own and do not back away when an opportunity presents itself to "put Lucille in her place"!

A Softball Game (Or How the Grand Mother and Grumpy Spent Saturday)

The Grand Mother and Grumpy drove out to a local softball arena where the youngest son of the ancestoral clan was to play in the regional tournament. If his team won (or didn't lose too badly) they would be entitled to go to the State tournament in Everett in a couple of weeks.

Darrell's first at bat yielded a base hit -- Grumpy is especially proud of getting this digital photo (above) showing both the freshly swung bat and also the ball (about ten feet in front of Darrell and about six feet off the ground, heading for an open area in left center field).

Subsequently, Grumpy got a video clip showing Darrell running to second base after the next batter got a hit and then another clip when he ran to third and then on home. Altogether, Darrell got three hits in this game (out of four at-bats), and his team won the game handily. When Grumpy figures out how to edit his video clips and to put them on a URL, it will be fun to share these bits with the readers.

In the afternoon, Darrell's team lost to a very good team when they scored six runs in the last inning to win by a score of 10-9. Grumpy thinks Darrell's team can play better ball than they played in this game and would have won if they had played well. But both teams had a good time and the Grand Mother and Grumpy were proud to watch Darrell's play, and especially happy that Darrell enjoys the game so much.

The Flight Home to Seattle

It was to be a late night when we were to get into Seattle after our scheduled departure at 3:55 pm from Reagan International Airport in Washington DC. Only our scheduled flight from Reagan was already cancelled when we checked in at about 1:30 pm. We were soon rebooked on another flight, this one via Atlanta for a departure at about the same time. However, as the time grew near, we were first informed that it would be delayed and then, "flight cancelled"! Again we were rebooked, for a later flight that same night; the passengers milling about grew restless. Was an uprising about to happen? (I was reminded of the spectacle of all those women (who were lucky to be chosen by one of us Zimmermen) who staged that "foot down" strike at the classical Z-pose picture-taking session a few days before. See picture series on side-bar.)

Would this lone male representative of the Z clan who happened to be here on this fateful day be able to help quell what seemed certain to degenerate into a war of some kind?

But I was premature in my worries; ultimately, the "last flight of the night" was also cancelled (all late arrivals and cancelled flights were due to heavy weather in and around Washington DC).

It was definitely better to be waiting on the ground that to be tossed around in an airplane battling tornadic winds and sheets of rain! We were rebooked on "the earliest available flight" the next day -- leaving Reagan at 11:55 am.

The Grand Mother and Grumpy decided early on NOT to call our recent host and hostess. They had already made four (4) trips between their estate out on the inner Maryland peninsula and Reagan airport. The distance, although about 40-50 miles, was secondary: the traffic was the worst Grumpy has ever seen! At least, the traffic in Los Angeles, which was usually bumper-to-bumper, moved -- at 60-70 mph! Gulp!!

We finally arrived home at about 6:30 pm, tired, sweaty, stinky and sleepy (after spending 18 hours lolling in the airport at Reagan). We had missed a much-anticipated re-union lunch with some old friends. But we looked forward to arising early Saturday morning to go watch our youngest son play left-center outfielder for his softball team. More about that in a later post.

Disorganization in the Z Ranks!! Oh my!!!

To adequately describe the mayhem that occurs when you get this many mostly-male Zimmerman's together with the women who were lucky enough to be chosen to be included into this famous (it does not start with "in-"!) clan, one must use pictures. As the reader may recall, a serious rift developed in the neat order (basements, workshops and other "special" places) which unusally prevails in the lives of a Zimmerman-led family. This rift represented in the photo above, was led by none other than the Grand Mother herself, ordinarily an obedient helpmate to the Old Man of the clan, Grumpy.

Other people shown in the above photo are, from left to right: Patricia and Sabrena, and Peggie, to the right of the Grand Mother. The observant reader will note the belligerent expression on the face of the Grand Mother and the attentive and obvious sympathetic attitude demonstrated by Peggie. It is all too obvious that collusion is going on.
The next photo shows the complete breakdown of discipline -- each of these fortunate (for having been chosen by a Zimmerman man) females having their feet firmly planted off of the designated log, thereby preventing the taking of the traditional photograph. The facial expression on the Grand Mother together with the sassy look on Peggie's face tells the whole story of the extent of this rebellion.

. This sequence of photos show the heroic effort required of Grumpy to squelch this untimely revolt. It is believed that these lucky (for having been chosen by the Z-men) women have learned their lessons and will henceforth exhibit proper respect for and obedience to their respective husbands.


Now, taking a look at the next photograph, taken shortly after the women staged their daring rebellion, the reader will observe the disorganized positioning of the younger Zimmerman boys; it is apparent that they have taken up the traitorous stance premiered by their Great Grand Mother. The boys are identified, from left to right, as: James Michael, Dalton, and Aiden, being restrained by his papa from complete, open revolt.

Now, there may be some among the readers, who will question why I didn't identify all the men in this picture. Well, as Grumpy became aware with the birthday card he got from Ray: "The Difference between Men and Boys" .....(opening the card) ... "Is Age; and You are Obviously no Longer in the Latter Class." So Grumpy decided to distinguish between those who can easily be identified as "boys" and those who, although many of them -- nah! all of them --, act like children at times, are otherwise definitely in the "man" category.

Anyway, to satisfy the curious, the men in this picture are: Grumpy, Howard and Ray. It may be that Joe, who isn't in this picture, joined the rebellion instigated by the Grand Mother.

A Walk in the Woods and Other Childish Deeds

The day of the big Birthday Celebration (Saturday, 4 August, to be exact) there were enough boys with the surname "Z" to surround the wor..... --- well, to surround a very large tree. One of the smaller boys -- actually, the smallest, Aiden -- invited the Great Grumpy and others to go for a walk into "the woods" with him. Aiden's papa, Ray (a Grandson who has so far not shown any tendency to allow his Grandpa to get in trouble with his Grandma), was also allowed to come along -- presumably so that "papa would not have to worry about his little boy 'way back in the deep woods".

All sorts of hazards were encountered, including a fallen tree over which the crossing of a rushing river had to be negotiated; a photo of the river is not shown because Grumpy has always been advised NOT to look down when he is at a height of more than about 6.5 feet above the ground. (Falls have happened! Just ask the Grand Mother.)

In the meantime, some skilled track-sniffing members of the Z clan had picked up our trail and soon caught up with our little party. Shown in this photo is Dalton, the oldest of the male Great Grandsons in this part of the country. Another Great Grandson, James Michael, was also a member of the track-sniffing group, but for reasons unbeknownst to this author, his picture did not appear on the camera's permanent memory. It is hoped that his image will soon appear on another post.

Actually, a third member of the track-sniffing people, one Ward Howard (an infamous and mischievous Grandson who has previously shown an inability to keep his Grandpa out of trouble with his Grandma), appeared just as this entire party (now numbering six -- including one frog which was caught by Dalton) was starting to wend their way back towards base camp (Harry & Peggie's house).

Stay tuned for more adventures at eleven.

Celebration Day in Maryland Part Two (The Best Part!)

The combined celebration of the birthdays of Grumpy (the Elder) and Ward (Not-so-Old) was the occasion for which this event took place. As told in an earlier post, much careful preparation had taken place, what with the emergency trip to the grocery store for needed supplies and the lighting of the charcoal pyre over which to "cook" (or incinerate) the meats from three of four different animals (apologies, again, to my vegetarian readers -- if any are still reading my posts!).

It is time now for the good parts: viewing the cooking meats and of the assembled guests; all of them Zimmerman's, as you may observe from looking closely at their facial similarities. As the careful observer will note in this next photo, there was a certain degree of domestic rebellion and some apparent collusion going on by the lucky wife of Not-so-Old when it came time for the photos to be taken of the wives who were lucky enough to be chosen by the afore-pictured Zimmerman men. One (namely, the Grand Mother of several), was particularly rebellious! But more about that later.

The meats on the grill were more appetizing than could be imagined by viewing the photo; some were treated to a special coating of a secret not-so-old family recipe mixed up for the occasion by none other than Not-so-Old himself.

The meats are identified as: two pork loins (perhaps both from one animal), two whole chickens (most probably two different-, i.e., not Siamese-chickens) and one whole bottom round beef roast (part of only one animal). [Editor's note, for the benefit of those who may have never seen such huge pieces of meat: the whole chickens can be identified by the fact that they have appendages called "legs" and "wings" attached; the pork loins can be identified by being long and slimy-looking -- not to be confused with "fish" or "snake"; the beef bottom round roast can be identified by its being HUGE]

Now, since this was a "Birthday" celebration, obviously there had to be "Birthday" cakes, so here is the one custom designed for Not-so-Old. As the reader may note by careful observation, the number inscribed thereon in green icing indicates that Not-so-Old, is actually "quite" old, indeed! (58?? Can it be that long since Grumpy was kept awake all night the first night he was brought home by the Grand Mother?!) Ah, pleasant memories.

Since the assemblage included those who prefer "yellow" cakes as well as those who prefer "chocolate" cakes, there had to be two more, shown here in color. The "yellow" cake was ostensibly in honor of Grumpy's 80th birthday and the "chocolate" cake was in honor of Not-so-Old's 58th. The wording on these two cakes ("Happy Birthday Ward") was duplicated because it cost less to have the same on both cakes rather than have them different. Or so we thought!

Now to the matter previously mentioned concerning the rebellion of a certain member of the Zimmerman clan. As can be seen in this photograph, some disciplinary measures had to be taken to overcome this short-lived rebellion. The reader is directed to the lucky wife on the left, who it is sad to say, appears to be considering rebellion in the future -- her husband is urged to watch for further signs and to take necessary measures to insure that this does not progress. (His penalties for doing so, however, will be his own responsibility -- Grumpy will not assume any blame for difficulties a certain Grandson finds himself in!)

Also, it must be added, "certain" penalties were incurred by Grumpy -- the exact identity of which shall remain undisclosed for the time being, but it involves the use of lemons and eggs and certain other secret ingredients known only to the Grand Mother, but allegedly including Worstershire sauce and vinegar.

Due, we think, to the uprising promulgated by the Grand Mother and her female gang of co-conspirators, photos of the Great Grandsons aligned in the traditional fashion were not possible at this time. Hopefully they will appear in a later posting.

Celebration Day in Maryland with Ward the Not-so-Old

Saturday morning found a much-rested Grumpy arising with the sun and amazingly cheerful for not having all his luggage delivered. But this was to be a festival day: a big barbeque was to be lit and much meats and other delicious foods would be prepared, and all the Zimmerman's in the eastern half of the United States would be present, with their kids, to celebrate a couple old duffers' birthdays.

Ward the Not-so-Old and Grumpy left shortly after breakfast for an emergency run to the nearest grocery stores to purchase needed supplies for the big day. There was 40 pounds of charcoal and a large container of some kind of flammable liquid, as well as meats from three or four different animals (vegetarians, skip this part). Of course, we went in the Jeep Rubicon -- this was an emergency run, remember!

Preparation of the grill, being a job for the professional, was performed by Not-so-Old. As you can see in the photo, Not-so-Old had calculated that the full 40 pounds of charcoal was required for the masses of meat to be cooked (Grumpy thought that maybe there was enough fuel for a full and total incineration!).

After adding precisely the amount of flammable liquid necessary for adequate ignition of the huge pile of charcoal, (note five gallon can of gasoline!) Not-so-Old lit the fire! The wives, who had heard the explosion from their comfortable perches in the kitchen, wisely investigated the scene before alerting the local volunteer fire department that the fire-ball would soon dissipate and that the smoke was not toxic. At least not yet.

A later report is planned to describe the taste and texture of the food. Photos of the honored guests are also planned. Stay tuned.

Our First Day in Maryland with Ward the Not-as-Old

The Grand Mother and Grumpy journeyed via a Delta Airlines Boeing 757. Grumpy's proudest moment at Boeing occurred two years before he retired, having lead the development and final design of the first All-Electronic Propulsion Control System (EPCS) used on a production airplane. But, other than flight test airplanes, he had never before flown on a scheduled commercial airplane with "his" system (Delta was the premier airline buying their first 50 757's with this system).

We changed planes at JFK in New York City, catching a small Canadair twin jet from there down to Reagan International in Washington DC. That's when the "fun" began: our baggage was not on this last flight. After determing that the next flight (in two hours) would "bring our baggage", we went several miles outside the DC area, stopping at a "Jimmy Mac's Roadhouse" style restaurant for a very fine meal with Ward & Peggie, Joe and the Grand Mother & Grumpy.

Upon returning to Reagan by a roundabout way (Joe, on his GPS calling out the turns -- sometimes "a little too late") we found one of the two pieces of our baggage. It did not include our clothes and other valuable stuff that Grand Mother and Grumpy desperately needed for our comforts. We reported our lost baggage to Delta, with the hope that the other bag would be delivered sometime during the night after the midnight flight in from JFK.

A call the next morning revealed that our lost piece of luggage was at Reagan; Ward and Grumpy took off in his Jeep Rubicon for the airport. Unfortunately, this piece of luggage was actually two parts which Grumpy had taped together for ease of carrying into SeaTac. The Delta personnel at checkin had insisted that they be considered one piece with one luggage tag and that they be put in a big plastic bag, which I did. At Reagan, the big bag (with our clothes) was not in the plastic bag and the smaller green bag with Grumpy and Grand Mother's other important things, was not to be seen.

Time will tell whether this smaller green bag is ever found and if it ever gets back into Grumpy's hands. More later.