[/caption]
When Cochran and Hasler purchased the property 14 years ago, the land surrounding the historic house (built in 1868) was pretty bare. “Karen says the garden had some pine trees, some spruce trees and some dead trees. And that was about it,” said Judy Robertson, ISO Women’s Committee board member and event organizer.
These days, guests can admire conifers, sun-loving flowers, hosta gardens and all sorts of perennials and types of trees. Also adorning the gardens are pieces of architectural salvage and fine art. There are no walking paths, but there is a natural flow to the layout. “The grounds are absolutely beautiful,” said Robertson. “I don’t know how they do it by themselves.”
An additional attraction to Saturday’s garden tour is the Honey Creek ensemble, who will play two 45-minute sets. Refreshments will include cookies, [caption id="attachment_3253" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="The house itself was built in 1868. - Submitted Photo"]
[/caption]tea and water.
The ISO Learning Community is the orchestra’s educational division. Donated funds support educational programs that reach as many as 80,000 Hoosier children. Popular programs include the instrument Petting Zoo, in which musicians visit school functions with instruments in tow for children to examine; Discovery Concerts, where children visit the Hilbert Circle Theatre; the Foreign Language Club, which offers bilingual students a chance to hear music from their home country and includes a tour of the theater conducted in that language; and Coffee Concerts, which feature an informational segment on the composer or movement.
The Young Musicians contest gives $2,000 to the instrumentalist who performs the best memorized concerto; the child also has the opportunity to play with the [caption id="attachment_3255" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Vic Hasler (left) and Karen Cochran (center) do all the gardening themselves. - Submitted photo"]
[/caption]ISO at Symphony on the Prairie. Entrants must be no older than high-school age. “We’ve had 11-year-olds make it to the finals before,” said Sarah Stoel, also on the Women’s Committee. “It’s kind of amazing.”
[/caption][caption id="attachment_3233" align="alignright" width="204" caption="Salutatorian: Patti Miller, College: University of Indianapolis, Major: Exercise Science / Kinesiology, High School GPA: 12.782"]
[/caption]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_3230" align="alignright" width="204" caption="Salutatorian: Curtis Vercruysse, College: University of Notre Dame, Major: Pre-Med"]
[/caption]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_3231" align="alignright" width="204" caption="alutatorian: Erin Woodward, College: Indiana University, Major: Fine Arts, High School GPA: 4.16"]
[/caption]
“What a picture that must have been: Darth Vader In His Jammies.”The heart thing goes back a couple of years to an episode when I was standing in a bookstore, felt an unusual “thump” in my chest and fainted. My keen mind, ever attuned to medical matters, instantly concluded that this was probably not the way things are supposed to go. So off I went to the doctor, who sent me directly to the emergency room, which passed me along to the heart center, which gave me a test, which prompted the cardiologist to say, “This is very, very serious.” Believe me, that is not a sentiment you want to hear from a cardiologist. So he shipped me to coronary intensive care, where I was an immediate hit with the nurses mostly because I was the only patient on the floor who was awake and under age 80. Also, since my arteries were clean, I was allowed to order something other than the usual cardiac patient fare (water, air, medicine). I ordered a cheeseburger and fries from Five Guys. Got it, too. You can make a lot of friends if you have fries in a ward where fries are illegal. [ad#single-post] My condition, ventricular tachycardia, causes my heart to jump out of gear and race. I control it through medication, but I have to be tested every so often to see if things are still manageable. Hence the heart monitor. This brings us to the mask. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea as part of trying find out why I was so tired and cranky all the time. Sleep apnea? Silly me. I thought I was just turning into my parents. Anyway, this led to the use of what’s called a CPAP machine, which blows air into my nose all night, allowing me to sleep peacefully. It does not, however, allow conversation, which is why it is a CPAP. It stands for Can’t Pronounce Anything Properly. Add to this the goofy stuff that’s going on with my endocrine system, and you can see that Medical Tests and Procedures have lately occupied a much more prominent place in my life than I prefer. I also seem to have a bunch of doctors who just love to run their patients through the obstacle course. Maybe it’s their way of getting people to take better care of themselves. It’s certainly working with me. I just have to keep reminding myself that everything the doctors are doing is to make my life better. That makes it all a little easier to take, although the tests are still giant pain in the you-know-where. Where, by the way, I had a test about six weeks ago – and which, you’ll pardon the expression, I passed.
“For the rest of the summer, I looked like I was wearing white butler gloves with my shirt on, and, with it off, my forearms looked hairier than Robin Williams’."High socks, Oakleys, or your favorite watch — these are perhaps some of the most common ways to develop heavy-duty tan lines. Consciously avoiding such items in the sun is a good start towards a nice tan, but it’s not enough. Hoosiers seeking an even bronze this summer have to think of everything ahead of time in order to ensure that any part of their body that might be uncovered in public gets adequate exposure. For example, last year I spent too much time wearing gloves outside. By the time I could no longer kid myself about the growing contrast between my pale white hands and my brown forearms, the aesthetic damage was beyond repair. For the rest of the summer, I looked like I was wearing white butler gloves with my shirt on and, with it off, my forearms looked hairier than Robin Williams’. [ad#single-post] This summer, I avoided that problem but encountered another after I failed to account for my hair being longer than normal. After it was cut last week, the blatant jump from tan to white on my forehead made it easy to see how long my bangs used to be. Many people — like myself — too often fail to consider that the decisions they make in early May could affect what we’re wearing and what we look like come midsummer. You can’t decide in August that you want to start wearing flip flops. By then, your legs might be fairly tan, but your feet still match your socks. Likewise, having a full beard while laying out through May and June is fine — until you decide to shave it for July 4. Poor planning for tanning can’t be reversed after a certain point. You can’t, for example, realistically wear pants for a month while your feet catch up in color just as you can’t get a mini spray tan on your now clean-shaven beard line. Hoosiers who make these mistakes, as I have found out every year, must either alter their looks to match their unpleasant tan lines or go ahead as scheduled, knowing they’ll look ridiculous. But while it may be too late for some of the heavy gardeners or Speedway regulars, the rest of us may still be able to achieve the look we want for this summer — evenly tan all over, no matter what we’re wearing. Now that we’ve had our reminder, though, it should be easy to avoid our common tanning trouble spots and eliminate those unpleasant lines. The only thing left to do now is shave our heads, strip down and soak in the rays.
“Ain’t nothin’ sexy about you, chick.”“Ain’t nothin’ sexy about you, chick,” I said to the comical view in the mirror. A few minutes later, knowing I had to spend 20 minutes with my scalp under the grocery bag, I switched on the TV. And there they were … the mannequin women from New Jersey Housewives on Bravo. [ad#single-post] A few months ago, I obsessed for awhile about the Housewives of Orange County, lost interest and returned to old episodes of Seinfeld. Once again, however, I was enthralled by the fact that these extremely wealthy women spend entire days on beauty enhancement. They’ve had so much botox, they look like ventriloquist dolls with movement only in the mouth when they interact together. None of them have back fat or little ham hocks hanging off their hips. And I’m pretty darn sure they don’t sit around with a smelly, sticky grocery bag stuck on their heads, waiting for the rusty-can orange to be bleached away. Personally, I hate all the female fuss. I dye my hair only because I’m vain enough to want to avoid looking like my great grandma before I’m 50. Other than that, I don’t put much time into all the fluff. I’ve got more to do than walk around looking like I’m going to the prom. I’m not flitting around in cute little sundresses. I mow around the barns in my faded overalls, perched on top of the Dixie chopper. I don’t have time or patience for fake fingernails either, since I love to dig in the dirt. And even though the orange tint has disappeared from my hair, it’s not curled into a pretty hairdo. No, it’s sweaty and flat, stuck to my wrinkled forehead. I’m one of many real women of Johnson County. We dare to grocery shop with bed head and naked faces. We love sweat pants and beat up old flip flops. We blaze the trail for washing our own cars and doing our own laundry, raising our own kids, counting our own wrinkles. New Jersey can’t hold a candle to us.
“Regrettably, the hamburger is currently considered a high-risk food because of the poor health standards.”Dawg-gonnit! Eating sizzling, aromatic hamburgers hot off the grill is a birthright; an investment into patriotic tradition. Barbeques are a magical part of summer. I recall those lazy summer twilights playing hide-and-go-seek when Dad would begin the ritual stoking of the grill, burning a few burgers, and to our glee slapping the sizzling bovine succulence onto a fluffy hamburger bun previously adorned with yellow mustard, tomato from the garden, onion and pickle. Mom would plop down her home made potato salad — American nirvana — and all was good with the world. Gosh those were magnificent times and they still can be, providing you employ a few safety precautions and common sense. Simply switching to whole grain buns would be a major diet improvement. You can do it. Just close your eyes. [ad#single-post] As grilled burger consumption increases, so do occurrences of food poisoning. Don’t fret. It’s easy to kill the germs in meat by cooking them till they are piping hot and the thickest part of the sizzling burger has reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees. A meat thermometer is a life-saving investment. Also, meat is safer to eat when there is no pink meat visible and the juices run clear. Don’t assume because meat is charred on the outside it will be cooked properly on the inside. Cut the meat and ensure none of it is pink on the inside. During the cooking process, raise the level of the grill so the outside of the burger doesn’t get blackened. New data presented by the American Association for Cancer Research finds that charred meat may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer. How do you avoid the MSG that’s added to conventional grocery hamburger today? MSG has been linked to rapid heart rates, headaches and allergic reactions. How do you avoid the hormones, pesticides, insecticides and antibiotics fed to cattle today, which science confirms make you sick? The answer is to do your homework, make an acquaintance with the sustainable farming community and purchase humanely raised beef grown in a chemical-free environment from a local, ethical source — a source where cattle were fed and raised in a manner which would gratify our Creator. May I suggest visiting www.factoryfarming.com?
» SST Front Page
» Obituaries
» For the Record
» Police Blotter
» Archives
» Education
» Sports
» Community Links
» Mike Redmond
» Kevin Kane
» Sherri Coner-Eastburn
» Torry's Top Ten
» Letters to the Editor
» What's it Worth?
» Personal Finance
» Steve Maple
» Pets
» Chef Wendell
» Recipes
» Anti-Aging
» Outdoors
» Fashion
» In Spirit
» Technology
» The Bookworm
» At Play Calendar