Baby Bree’s redemption from original sin

Over the Thanksgiving holidays we flew out to Oklahoma for Baby Bree’s christening. Jack is honored to be her Godfather.

She’s an adorable, good-natured baby.

Lazy Hot Buttered Rum

Right now both Jack and I are in the midst of terrible head colds. Add some chilly, rainy weather and you’ve got the perfect scenario for Lazy Hot Buttered Rums.

Here’s how you make ’em.

Some holiday reads …

Normally I’m a pretty voracious reader and can scream through a couple books a week; however, due to all the academic reading I’ve been doing for school my normal desire to pleasure read has transitioned to just a short stint before bed if I can keep my eyes open. And as Jack will attest to, I can’t keep the eyelids up for long these days.

Here are a couple of mine and Jack’s recent recommendations along with a little peak at what’s on top of my TBR (To Be Read) pile.

Word of warning: just like my taste in music, my taste in reading is wide and varied. 🙂

What are you guys reading these days?

Gettin’ in the holiday groove

(photo: Lower Lights)

It’s time, people! It’s time!!!

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Yesterday morning I woke up to find Jack in the kitchen measuring out ingredients. He had little bowls of sugar, flour, freshly ground nutmeg.

He was very chipper. It was annoying. As he arranged all his pretty little bowls of goodies he said, “Look, honey, I’m prepping everything you’re going to need to make blueberry crumb cake!”

Wha?

I couldn’t fathom what he was talking about.

What kind of fruit is this?

 

On our weekly pilgrimage to the local farm stand I walked by a huge pile of these dark green orange-looking things and they stopped me in my tracks. Why, hello. What what do we have here?

I think I’ve mentioned before that I could be a fruitarian. I’m attracted to fruit like … well, a fruitarian.

Needless to say, I saw this strange fruit and was fixated. Are these like the green oranges that they have in Vietnam? (I wrote about them here.) Because if yes, than I’m buying 5lbs of ’em, they’re soooooo gooood.

But they weren’t.

Hmmm. What the heck are these things?

Dog vs Toy

Hi, my name is Lily. I love soft, squishy, squeaky toys.

I love ’em, love ’em, love ’em. I haven’t met a squishy toy that I didn’t like.

The thing is … they don’t love me back so much. In fact, after a wee bit of my lovin’ TLC they tend to fall apart into little itty bitty pieces—like someone shredded ’em.

I don’t get it. And it breaks my heart. It really does!

So, my mom and daddy are always on the lookout for toys that will love me the way I love them—with intense affection and endurance. It would be nice if one of these toys survived more than 24 hours.

Here’s what they found.

A hometown Veteran’s Day parade

I love parades, especially hometown parades.

I like the feeling of community and camaraderie that it brings out in people. There’s really nothing but joy and support going on and frankly, it’s awfully nice to see.

We hung our American flag off the front porch, Jack made us some mimosas, we grabbed the camera and went to hang out on the sidewalk with everyone else to watch the parade. It was fun. We were pleasantly surprised that the parade lasted about an hour and a half. There were lots of veterans (there were even two WWII vets), eight million honor guards, ROTC groups, groups from Travis Air Force Base, tons of car clubs, Elk’s Clubs, military vehicles, Shriners, politicians … you name it and they were probably in the parade.

Now, here are a few disclaimers about the following photos:

1. They don’t represent everything or this spattering of photos would soon turn into torture for you AND me.
2. I like honor guards.
3. I like marching bands.
4. I love horses.
5. I like funky silly cars, people and kids.
6. There is an American flag in almost every photo. Often there are ten American flags in a photo.
7. There’s a lot of military folk.
8. If you don’t like any of these things, scroll no further.

If you’re still with me … scroll on through. 🙂 And have a wonderful Veteran’s Day weekend from our little part of small-town America.

Chocolate chip banana oat bran pancakes

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Not only is honoring our nation’s military veterans an important focus today (actually, it’s important every day of the year), but as a bonus it’s a federal holiday, which means we get the day off. Yay! It’s an occasion to sleep late, relax over the paper, eat a good hearty breakfast and go see the local hometown parade. ‘Tis a good day, folks—a good day.

In celebration of this terrific holiday let’s make some chocolate chip banana oat bran pancakes!

Surf’s up!

When we were living near the coast Jack used to go boogie boarding with a group of guys every Friday morning in Half Moon Bay. Some surfed long-board, but most went boogie boarding.

Since moving away from the coast he tries to make it back out there for a Friday morning surf with the fellas whenever he gets a chance.

This past Friday he persuaded me to get up at 5am (boo!) and drive out there with him. While he surfed I ran the beach with the dog.

For those who wonder “Why in the world do these guys get up at the crack of dawn to hurl themselves into churning COLD water?” well, here ya go.