AROUND AND ABOUT - SUNDAY 10-11-26 AND MONDAY 10-16-26

Sunday, October 11th, 2026 at 4.44 p.m: it has rained for a good part of the night and all day. Wanting to make good use of my inside time, I made a Denver Omelet Pie which you should have seen yesterday. It turned out great and we ate it for brunch and supper. Still two pieces left for tomorrow. I put it together while Gregg fixed a new windscreen wiper blade on the car. He cleaned and vacuumed the inside of the car too. We were both productive.

While he was out there, I took the opportunity to add the recipe on here, and made date changes on a couple of the others, so you might have seen one already today as I accidentally published for a minute or two and I see someone popped in. Apologies to you! Tsk! I try not to do that but one gets through every now and again.  

I always enjoy finding out the history of these dishes, how they came to be, and historians and local folklore buffs point to several possible inventors:

A leading theory suggests Chinese immigrant laborers adapted the Cantonese egg dish 'egg foo young' by putting it between slices of bread for workers on the Transcontinental Railroad and in western mines (that last part reminds me of the Cornish Coalminers with their pasties). The bread was dropped later to make this pie.

Another theory is from a plaque in downtown Denver that claims the recipe was invented by early pioneers and wagon freighters to hide the taste of aging, unrefrigerated eggs, using strong aromatics like onions and green peppers.

In 1907, local Denver business owners and restaurateurs - including Albert A. McVittie and M. D. Looney - separately claimed to have invented or popularized the dish. 

Those are three of the stories anyway.

When we were out yesterday, we drove by my favorite house that decorates for Halloween. It was fun seeing this family on a walk stopping to take a look. I noticed the man on the right taking pictures. The kiddos looked riveted and so did the dog for that matter. It was a cute scene. I will have a post in a day or two, showing the decorations we have seen so far.

Our kiddos - yes not kiddos but still our kiddos - sorry guys but you'll still be our kiddos when I'm in my rocking chair - are in New York City for a long weekend. They love it up there and got to see many of their friends. We are going to be getting the whole story and a slide show soon. Looking forward to it.

Monday, October 12th, 2026 at 3.44 p.m: We have just finished a nice long conversation with those 'kiddos' I talked about yesterday. They are driving as I type this and should be home in another couple of hours. They had a fabulous time and told us so many stories, it was fun listening to them. I will probably share more of their photos as I think of them.

Their friends told them about this place. It is a diner where scenes from "Friday the 13th" were filmed. 

It was quiet when they arrived but the lady who took care of them said it gets regularly packed with tourists here. 

That movie did a lot of good for this community. Truthfully, I haven't seen any of these films and that's not putting it down. It's just that horror movies scare me. I remember one I saw with mum back in the day at the local movie theater with Barbara Stanwick and Robert Taylor. It was called The Night Walker. She was a big Robert Taylor fan and we really had no idea what the movie was about beforehand. It was pretty tame compared to today's standards, but it scared the dickens out of us. Neither of us watched another horror movie after that. We always read the synopsis beforehand from then on. We used to go to the movies a lot when I lived at home. We had fun doing that together.

Here are a few other photos I received from son and daughter-in-law. Blairstown (New Jersey) looks like a pretty little town, and you can read all about it here. 

Its population is 5,757.

Famous filming site for Friday the 13th. It served as the primary filming location for the original 1980 horror film, with local spots like the Blairstown Diner embracing the legacy with themed menu items and fan events. I wonder how they chose this town?

The Blair Waterfall, located right in the heart of downtown Blairstown in Footbridge Park along Main Street, is the visual centerpiece of the town's historic core. Powered by the Paulinskill River, this scenic spillway directly connects the town's early industrial roots to its modern-day pop culture fame. You might guess I am getting all this from Google.

The township is named after John Insley Blair (1802-1899), a prominent 19th-century businessman and railroad builder.

I added the circle around the town. Inside the circle you can just about make out the red dotted outline where it is located. It was enjoyable finding out about this place. My old love of those geography lessons kicked in. If you click on the picture, you can enlarge it to see more details.

Earlier Gregg and I drove over to our favorite bakery, Chantilly de Chateau Cafe, and it is located in the town of Chantilly. (I am going to have to look up what the connection is to the one in France.) I think I mentioned before but it is shabby chic, not at all what you might expect from the name but we both thoroughly enjoy this place and it is our favorite. Above is the table we sat at for the first time. I hadn't noticed its design before. I was trying to figure out what it was originally used for. Got any ideas? The tabletop is a narrow oblong slab of pretty varnished wood. 

I worried that the place would be packed but Gregg, always the optimist, assured me that wouldn't be a problem. We couldn't find a parking space in front. Gregg wanted to drop me off but I wanted the exercise. I used my favorite explanation which usually means I can't be persuaded - motion is lotion - so we drove around to the back and easily found a space. It's actually quite a walk as the building is a big block of several restaurants. When we got inside, there were a lot of people, but we managed to slip into a table right away - the one above - with a nice comfy sofa right near the entrance. Worries abated! Who's a worrier? That would be me. "I think the roads are going to be real, real busy. Maybe we should wait." "I think it is going to be so packed out, maybe we should wait and come back another day." Good job I am married to Gregg, my adventurous one who makes every day an adventure. With all that rain I have to admit it was good getting out.

This is one of the roads we took. I love driving along it.

And this is how the clouds looked today. The traffic wasn't actually that bad. Today is Columbus Day and also known as Indigenous Peoples' Day. Everyone has the day off. 

I will finish off with the following and it looks like I have set a theme for this post. Beetlejuice has been around for a few years now but thankfully only this time of the year. There are a couple of additions to the group photo. Though I am not a Halloween decorator, I admire the 'spirit' of my neighbors who are. You can groan now, I know that pun was a groaner.

Thanks for visiting everyone and I hope your day is a great one.