Busy Day Cake

Merry Merry

It has been a delicious week of being just-busy-enough-but-not-frantic. 

Last night we went to Mike's and had a delightful time (sniveling and sneezing aside).  Mike graciously let us bring Pepper which meant that she was exhausted by the time we got home.  And we all slept straight through until 8 o'clock thank you very much.

We had a slow morning of getting showered, breakfast (scones and lemon curd, a new tradition), and getting ready for our company at noon.  We didn't sit down to open presents until almost 11 and not once did MB ask, push or complain. 

Paul, Lisa and Ben spent the day with us - lunch, cookies, Attack Uno, puppy time, and just hanging out.

Snow Day

Nice to go to sleep last night feeling pretty sure that the next day will be a snow day. We got around 4 inches between yesterday and today.  Very pretty.

By 9 the sun was shining and we cleaned off the cars, took Pepper for a walk in the snow, read more of Harry Potter to MB on the couch, and I took a long coma-like nap on the couch.  Our weekends need to be more like this instead of the frenzied push to get things done.  New year's resolution #1.

I've been making dosas for two days it seems.  Dosas are Indian pancakes/crepes made from rice and lentils that you ferment for a day.  They are crispy and have a slightly sour taste, like sourdough.  The batter seemed endless and cooking one at a time took more time than I would have liked.  But the results have been delicious.  Inspired by the ones I had at the Hampton Chutney Company in Soho, we had them filled with chicken, spinach and feta for lunch today.

I'm really looking forward to a solid two weeks off.

Puppy Love

Can't you just heard Donnie Osmond now?

We had a sweet holiday weekend adjusting to life with Pepper. 

So far, she has a surprisingly calm temperament.  This weekend she was unphased by a playdate of which many imaginary storylines involved - you guessed it - a puppy; a visit from Tom, Wendy and their three kids worth of non-stop attention; her first trip outside to romp; and two vacuum sweepers going at one time.  Makes me think I might not have exhausted my former puppy often enough. 

After some midnight googling of nighttime puppy dos and don'ts, we have had mostly easy nights of expected two hour intervals.  She likes her crate, has learned the word quiet quickly.  We are all pinching ourselves several times a day that we really do have a DOG.

Thanks to Wendy for these fabulous puppy headshots.  They make me want to learn more about my Nikon settings asap.  So much cuteness to take in.

Welcome Pepper

Rolling

On Saturday, MB came home from her cousin's house with rollerblades.  We had been meaning to get her a pair but never got around to doing the research. 

Hooray for Ben's hand-me-downs!  MB has had them on in the house every moment she can.  An added advantage to having salvaged gymnasium floors in your house. 

And today we found a nice set of rollerblades for Kirsten. Hers don't have brakes but I think it's okay.

Post-Election

I really dislike the days and weeks after an election.  It doesn't really matter the outcome, I just find the posturing and gloating disappointing.  Bad sportsmanship.  And really, if women were more involved in politics would politics be so, um, sports-like?

In the aftermath of Tuesday's election, I am looking for happy things to focus on.  Here are a few things that make me happy today:

• Happy [Meal] news - way to go San Francisco!  It has always been hard to explain to MB why we don't get all those (junky) toys from fast food meals.  Thank goodness there are some sane people in this country.
• Good food and friendship in Columbus AND new fabric... of course.  Had an election day trip to Sew to Speak and found great solace in some new things for my stash and for some specific projects.  How many people would be this excited to make a new ironing board cover?
• MB and Emma had THE most amazingly creative session while Diane and I shopped at Sew to Speak.  The two of them haven't had time without siblings around in many years.  They gently insisted that we buy them little notebooks while in the store - to write down all of their creative ideas.  So lovely.
• New yarn.  My current obsession with Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls book has led to stocking up on worsted weight yarn in a variety of hair colors.  I have lots of dolls and toys ahead of me.
• A school superintendent in the Columbus area has made the recommendation that the district teachers do not use candy as rewards.  More sanity.
• A pot roast waiting for me at home in the crock pot.  Thanks to my new go-to cookbook.  And in looking up this link, I see there is a new one coming out next month. 
• Ice skating lesson tonight.  Also known as my knitting-and-chatting-with-Wendy–opp of the week.

Who needs politics when life is this good?

Market Season

With the arrival of colder weather, our lingering and socializing at the farmer's market is coming to an end.  I'm both sad to see it end and looking forward to the things that come with being inside more in the winter months.  It also makes me more aware of how important the community time at the market has become to us.

We made it to the market this weekend in time for MB to get her gluten-free cupcake (Betty has started saving a sampling for her). And after we got our gluten-free cracker and local goat cheese, apples and a few veggies, the cold sent us on our way.  The flip side is that it left more of the morning at home and time to chop and freeze a slew of sweet peppers and make granola and cookie dough to freeze. 

Kirsten had time to work in her kitchen too, once MB had time to make it.

Pearis, France

That's not a typo.  This is where Strawberry Shortcake goes in the movie World of Friends and where she meets Crepes Suzette and her dog eclair. 

Tonight was our small town uptown halloween night.  So nice.  Oh, and did I say FREEZING?!

We went with Fab, as is our tradition.  Got to see and be seen uptown, did some trick or treating at the businesses uptown and got hot cocoa before the high school band led the halloween parade.  And all in the company of good friends.  I mean, really, could we live in a sweeter place? 

Cracker Puzzle

 

MB and I opened a box of crackers and discovered that there wasn't a whole one to be found.  Geeky as it is, we decided to try to match them all up.  It was a neat problem solving exercise as each cracker had one word imprinted on it that we used to match up pieces.  Only a few were broken into more than two pieces.

Planting

I've been accumulating perennials all summer... but nary a one had been planted until today.  Some were barely alive, some I'm hoping are dormant (ahem).  The ground is so dry from our dry summer that I had to water the areas for a long time yesterday to prep them for planting today.  At long last they have come into contact with mother earth and lots of water. 

I even planted five square feet of seed garlic cloves.  It's a brilliant use of my vast vegetable bed space for something that I will certainly use and that won't go bad quickly.  I should be able to harvest them next July and dry them for use over the winter.  Very cool.

Trying to do a bit of planning for spring planting now, while my lessons are still fresh in my head.  Aside from the obvious resolution to water and spray with neem oil more, I'd like to winnow down my vegetable plantings to three beds out of the four and use the fourth one as a cutting garden.  Four beds of vegetables is too much to maintain and I found myself avoiding all of them this summer.  And maybe a few more regular sized tomato plants instead of 16 cherry ones?

Gotta love this volunteer tomato plant that appeared in our front flower bed by the front door over the last month.  It's not even a variety that we planted this year so I'm puzzled as to where the seeds came from.  I propped it up on the bird feeder post and we've harvested about 8 tomatoes already.