Lincoln!

     Chelsi and I had today off, so we decided to go to Lincoln to try and find the Mueller Planetarium one last time. This time, we went online and got directions so we wouldn't have to rely on the crazy directions of Lincoln residents. We got to the University of Nebraska and parked our car. Where are we? "Excuse me, can you tell us how to get to the Planetarium?" "No, but I can show you where the Union building is so they can give you a map." "Thanks!"
     After acquiring a campus map and receiving some intricate directions from a very cute boy behind the desk, we ventured out to find the Planetarium. We walked, and walked... and were enjoying all the people out and about on campus. We finally found Mueller Hall! In through the doors... and into the line. Chelsi: "How much for the Planetarium?" Woman: "There are no shows today." Chelsi: "What? Why?" Woman: "The Planetarium is closed on Mondays." Chelsi: "Why is everything in Nebraska ALWAYS closed on Mondays?!?!" Woman: "I'm....not....sure..."

     Needless to say, the woman felt sorry for us so she let us get into the museum for free. We decided to go to the bookstore for a little retail therapy. They had a beautiful fountain outside. 

Inside the bookstore we decided to have some fun with the foam fingers...

     When we finally found my car, we headed downtown to the Hay Market. I wanted to show Chelsi the shop where I had gotten some Nebraska gear. We found some cool shops like Licorice International, which sells licorice from all around the world.

     We went into this extremely sketchy Russian shop... and found the Lincoln rail road mural.

    We looked at antiques and went into any store that was open. I had found a Plato's Closet in downtown Lincoln, and wanted to take Chelsi there. Plato's Closet is a clothing resale shop. We shopped and shopped, and then I had a surprise for Chelsi. Remember the "pop shop" that I got the strawberry soda from? I took Chelsi there, and we were literally like kids in a candy store. I bought strawberry cream saltwater taffy and a few sodas, and Chelsi got some pretty interesting "pop" as well!

     When Chelsi and I got home, Allison had dinner ready for us. It was delicious! Here is the recipe, it is called Romano skillet pasta:

1 lb Italian sausage crumbled
1 onion chopped
2 large cloves of garlic
2 cans diced tomatoes with herbs
8 ounces uncooked large sea shelled pasta (2 ½ cups)
1 cup water
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

Brown sausage in large skillet
Add onion and garlic
Cook until soft
Drain
Stir in tomatoes, pasta, water
Cover and bring to a boil
Reduce heat, simmer covered for 15 minutes or until pasta is tender
Stir occasionally
4 servings
Serve with parmesan cheese.

I wanted to include a "feature" at the end of this blog. My grandfather emailed me and told me some history regarding my previous blog about Homestead Days and the steam engine and thresher. I am going to copy and paste the email he sent to me today:
"regarding the thrasher and steam tractor, my dad when he was a young boy went to midalothian to help with thrashing on all the same equipment that you photographed,,,, they would not let him work on the thrashing but his job was to take the 2 mules and the wagon down to the creek and fill the wooden barrel in the wagon with water for the steam tractor, he always had his fishing pole and when he had been gone too long and the tractor was running low on water they would blow the whistle, toot, toooot, toot, to let him know that he had better get back or the steam engine might blow up because it was low on water..... the horse drawn item cutting grass for hay was called a sickle mower and i ran one behind a gasoline tractor when i was a boy... the other piece i believe is a hay rake...the fresh cut hay has to dry some before they can do anything with it and sometimes they would go back and rake it a second time to turn it over to help it dry....later as belt driven hay balers came along, [run by the steam tractor] they would bale the hay in square bales and had to let it sit in the field to dry some more... if it was stacked in the barn before it was completely cured in the sun it could spontainously combust [ ignite ] and burn down the barn.... my dad when in high school had that happen to some hay he put up in the barn when it was too green..... before the balers they just let the thrasher blow the haw into a tall pile and then it was called a hay stack.... they would just let the livestock eat around the hay stack to be fed..... so much for a history lesson......... love nanna and poppie....."