Railway Museum

This past weekend we decided to go to the Railway Museum of  San Angelo. This museum is the Historic Orient-Santa Fe Depot that was built and opened by the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient (KCM&O) in 1909. I have to say, it was by far one of the better museum experiences I've had. I don't know if it was the actual content (learning about the running of a train station) or the honest enthusiasm of the tour guide, but whatever it was, it worked.

I discovered that building or working on railroads required and probably still requires some serious muscle. As I held a few heavy antique tools in my hands, I could almost imagine what it must have been like to be out in the hot Texas sun working on a railroad with grit under my nails, straining muscles, and looking around at the treeless desert that was San Angelo, Texas in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

There was a case showing off the china that was decorated according to the train it belonged on. There was even an old menu listing what was available for those in the ritzier portion of the train. 45 cents for a cup of coffee. For those not traveling first class, there was an old refrigerator in which you put ice at the top and your food at the bottom.

Upstairs, orginally the headquarters of the Texas branch of the KCM&O, are several elaborate model trains. One was a model of Coleman, Texas and another was a model of a portion of the KCM&O down in Mexico where they built a monument from the remains of a train wreck. This monument is built up into the side of a hill/mountain and is made up of several train cars stacked on top of each other. I have to say, I think Hannah liked the model trains the best. Her little legs started wiggling when a train would come zooming past her and she would reach out, desperately wanting freedom to rain terror on small model cities and the little trains running around them.

The final portion of our museum trip included climbing onto real train cars and engines. Despite the heat, we had a marvelous time and took quite a few pictures.

If you're interested in the museum, I encourage you to check out their website at http://railwaymuseumsanangelo.homestead.com/index.html



This was a replica of an actual train that a man made and rode around in on his ranch.



Infant Potty Training, Day 5

Yep, we're potty training our 9 month old. And it's going well.

I stumbled across mention of infant potty training (also known as elimination communication and various other names) on the Kellymom website on a page about attachment parenting. I was admittedly confused at first because I've never heard these terms before and had no idea that anyone outside of a third world country potty trained children under the age of one. So I did what I do best, used my obsessive-compulsive tendencies for research purposes.  

I began researching elimination communication on Tuesday along with the current methods of potty training. I checked out some books from the library, read numerous websites, decided elimination communication was the way to go and promptly started. My general outlook was - 'heh, we have a potty, I have the time and the energy, let's give this a try.'

And it worked. I probably nearly wet myself when Hannah promptly 'went' in her little pink potty after I followed the advice given by Laurie Boucke. No fighting, no bribing, no coercion of any kind. (I did hold her there long enough to distract her with song/toy/book but that's it.) I put her on her potty, gave her the signals, and away she went. Who knew putting a child (who needs to go to the bathroom) on a potty would result in the child actually 'going' in the potty?! And she's only 9 months old. I almost tear up at the thought of years of diapers I might not have to buy.

Anyways, we purchased a little potty and a potty seat for traveling. I began to closely watch Hannah's behavior and I discovered that she already uses clapping as her signal. I have now begun trying to teach her to use the American Sign Language sign for toilet to hopefully replace clapping. She has now used the toilet sign a couple of times, but she still uses clapping as her standard cue. I would guesstimate that we have reduced our diaper usage by maybe 3 diapers a day. I can honestly say that Ray and I both have really enjoyed embarking on this new phase in Hannah's life. It's incredible, our level of communication with Hannah has really improved.

In starting this post, I realized that there's way too much information to share in one post, so I plan to do a little series on the information I found. The next installment will likely be a brief history of potty training.
To close I will include my favorite song that we sing to Hannah in the restroom. Ray came up with the lyrics and it's sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Tinkle tinkle on the pot

Going wee-wee where we ought.

Up upon your chair so high

Like a princess in the sky

Tinkle tinkle on the pot

Going wee-wee where we ought

Chocolate Tasting

Yes, I am writing a post about chocolate tasting. Milk chocolate tasting to be exact. I got started on this idea when I was on a website and received a request to fill out a survey. The survey asked me to list as many brands of chocolate as I could. I think I was able to list four and this got me to wondering if there was really a difference in the various brands of chocolate. Is one brand of milk chocolate like another brand of milk chocolate?


As this idea blossomed into a full out chocolate tasting, I decided to do the chocolate tasting in two parts. The first part would be without any knowledge of how to do a chocolate tasting and the second part would be done after having done a little research on the proper way to do a chocolate tasting. My aim here was to have a layman's perspective and an educated perspective.


So here is how we set up our layman's perspective chocolate tasting. Raymond and I purchased 10 brands of milk chocolate - two of which had something extra in them besides the milk chocolate. We included these two because either we couldn't find that brand's plain milk chocolate or that was the brand's version of plain milk chocolate. We did the tasting in the evening and water and milk were made available for cleansing the palate between chocolates. Small chunks of each chocolate were placed on a plate according to the numbers on a clock. We recorded in a notebook which chocolate was at which number. This was done to try to discourage bias towards particular brands. We then tasted each chocolate and made comments accordingly. We then put down our top three favorites.

Here is a list of the 10 chocolates:

Toblerone (with honey and almond nougat)

Godiva

Rittersport with Cornflakes

Milka

Dove

Lindt

Hershey's Symphony

Cadbury

Ghirardelli

Hershey's

Our favorites from round one all came from the first 6 chocolates we tasted. By the end of the first tasting, we realized that we had not properly cleansed our palates between chocolates, and the last four chocolates all tasted a little odd. Our taste buds had been overwhelmed, and the results may  likely reflect that fact. We did discover that yes, there is a difference between brands of chocolate. Our favorites tended to be the ones with the smoothest, softest chocolate that melted easily in the mouth. The Lindt had a creamy center that was a pleasant surprise after all the solid chocolates we had tasted. Also, the Ghirardelli had a fruity flavor to it that was a delightful surprise. The Cadbury had a nice slightly stronger cocoa flavor to it and we both found we liked the chocolates that had something in them such as the Rittersport and the Toblerone.

My Top Three:

Toblerone

Lindt

Rittersport with Cornflakes

Raymond's Top Three:

Toblerone

Rittersport with Cornflakes

Milka

The research I did on chocolate tasting came from one website. The suggestions were to have no more than 6 chocolates in a tasting session. For more than six chocolates in a tasting session, they suggested waiting at least 15 minutes before continuing with the tasting to allow the taste buds to recover. AllChocolate recommends the chocolate be at room temperature (65-72 degrees F). Their palate cleansing suggestions included water (also at room temperature), unsalted crackers, and plain white bread. The website also notes that it is best to have a tasting follow a light meal.

When grading the chocolate, they recommend assessing aroma, texture, flavor notes, and the order in which you experience the flavors (such as at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end). This website goes on to suggest beginning by looking at the chocolate, then touching it (get an idea of its firmness), break the chocolate and listen for the snap, smell the chocolate, and so on.

Ray and I didn't follow most of this for the second tasting, which took place about two weeks after the first tasting. We changed our method by doing only 5 at a time and had water and (salted) crackers to cleanse the palate between chocolates. We then finished the last 5 the next day.

Sadly, I don't think some of the chocolate stood the test of time very well because several had very different flavors the second time around. This could have been due in part to overwhelmed tastebuds in the first tasting, but I think it was just that the chocolate had aged.

So here are the winners for the second round!

My Top Three:

Toblerone

Lindt

Ghirardelli

Raymond's Top Three:

Toblerone

Rittersport

Cadbury

We also decided to come up with different categories for grading the chocolate.

Here are the categories and the top chocolate(s) for each one.

For best "go-to" chocolate (As in, now that you've had a chocolate tasting, which will you likely buy when you're craving milk chocolate.) This does take into account price and availability to a small extent.

Ray's pick was Cadbury. Mine was Milka with Dove in a close second.



Most unique chocolate

Rittersport with corn flakes won hands down for both of us. There was just something really nice and balanced about milk chocolate with corn flakes.

The chocolate we actually bought the next time we wanted chocolate

Toblerone (Ray found a smaller portion of it and decided to get some.)

We had a marvelous time having a chocolate tasting and we enjoyed learning about and eating chocolate. We totally recommend trying a chocolate tasting yourself. Our suggestions would be to have the palate cleansers recommended by AllChocolate and definitely do not taste more than 4 or 5 in one session without a 15 minute break. Enjoy!