It's ALIVE!

Attention, siblings and other interested parties: Dad got the GTO running! The engine is a bit hard to hear over the Ready-Heater in the garage, but you can trust me... We took the plastic off the car and Dad took it around the block. Check out the next post for more adventures...

Homemade Marshmallows!

Oh, goodness. Talk about a sugar overload!

Forgive me for my absence from cyber-world...I've been traveling for the last month with work, and weekends only afforded me enough time to restock the fridge, run three loads of laundry, and then head to the airport for another flight out of town. Whew! But, I am home, and just in time for the holidays. Yay!

In my whirlwind of packing, I often forgot to pack any in-flight entertainment - either my daughter's confiscated Nintento DS Lite (shh! She's grounded from it!), or a book/magazine, etc. Sometimes, this wasn't a problem ("zzzzz"), but I did have a couple afternoon flights with long waits and layovers, so I purchased a magazine or two from the bookstore. Reader's Digest only got me so far, and really is a quick read, so on my second stop, I tried a special edition Rachel Ray Everyday magazine - her holiday issue, I believe. Kind of a downer - turned out to be 95% recipies, and only 5% tips and tricks. Not good for in-flight entertainment, but I made the best of it. One of the recipies that caught my eye was kind of a pan-version of s'mores. With Homemade Marshmallows!

Our adventure began last night - turns out, marshmallows are made of gelatin, sugar, corn syrup and a dash of vanilla. Let the gelatin gel, melt the sugar and corn syrup, throw them both together and whip like crazy in the Kitchenaid. WOO! The tricky part - spreading into the pan (lined with Saran wrap and sprayed with cooking spray!) without ending up in a sticky white mess. Cool in the fridge overnight, and they get sliced (kitchen scissors work great!) and tossed in powdered sugar. Quite an event! The clerk at the grocery store and I discussed this project, and she reacted as I did: "How do you make a marshmallow, anyway?" Well, now I know!

Tonight, I finished the recipie. I do have to report that the marshmallow part is the best part of this pan-S'mores project. The graham crackers are easy, and the chocolate part in the middle is another graham cracker dipped in chocolate. THAT was messy. The girls gave it a good try, but the S'more proved to be more than they could eat. I think we'll steal Rachel's marshmallow tricks and save the S'mores for the campfire. (I see some food coloring and shapes in my marshmallow future!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Fall, y'all!

Did you notice that it's October? Yeah, half-way through, in fact. Tonight is our first real fall-feeling evening - today was rainy, but tonight, the air is cool and crisp, and the leaves crunch under your shoes. (No more flip flops!) Good night for a camp fire.

So, I was driving to Meijer to fetch milk. It was after 9pm, and as I was driving, I noticed the full moon, and these thick clouds moving in front of it. Very cool. Very Halloween-y. Unfortunately, the car is not the best place to be taking photos, especially night/moon photos, and I didn't have my little camera with me anyway. I didn't exactly hurry to get through Meijer (although I should have $$$), and the moon and clouds were still out there when I got home.

(A confession about that "car is not the best place to be taking photos" bit. If you saw my post about a month ago, where I was taking pictures through my rainy windshield, you'll know I have been trying to take pictures from my car. And I did it again the other day - the other morning, the sun was coming up and the bottoms of the clouds were a purpley-red. If you can tell through the blur and dirty windshield. So, aside from the whole "driving hazard" thing, my car pictures don't turn out as well anyway.)

When I got home from Meijer, I got out my little camera and my big tripod. (My other camera is a Canon Powershot S2 15, which is very fun, but the memory card slot is broken. It's on my list to have repaired in October.) My little camera is an Olympus FE-310, which I bought because it's got a small profile, but 8.0 megapixel resolution and a 5x optical zoom. Ooooh, aaaah. The intent was to have a little camera I could keep in my purse for pictures at school and at work and things, and it's really been a good camera.

My little pocket camera has some pre-set photo modes: action, portrait, through glass, sunset, candlelight and fireworks. I got a chance to try the fireworks mode at the 4th of July party this year - the photos turned out really nicely. (Here's the scene at the 4th of July - kids in lawn chairs taking it all in, husband in the field setting off the fireworks, and my Junior Camera Geek Self: on the driveway, little camera in hand, big camera mounted sideways on the tripod shooting video. Hah!) Tonight, I used candlelight mode and fireworks mode, and the pictures turned out pretty cool. Thank goodness for the tripod - the shutter on this one was open FOR-EVER. There'd be no amount of built-in image stabilization that would have covered me on this shot. Yikes!

Anyway, now I feel like I kind of know what I'm doing with these night photos. Not quite as Halloween-esque as the scene when I left for Meijer, but still pretty cool. And I NEED to get my other camera fixed, so I can play some more!

The Sofa Search

Our house is (and always has been) decorated in a theme I called Early Newlywed - a little bit of everything, mostly hand-me downs. Now, I'm not knocking the hand-me downs...most of them came from my parents' house on their move out west (they intended to downsize right about the same time I was getting a Real Job, so the timing worked out well...except for that whole downsizing thing, but that's another story...). But, the things that are really starting to show their age are the upholstered pieces. Oh, and I don't think I can still be considered a newlywed. ;-)

Exhibit A: 30+ Year Old Hide A Bed Sofa. This relic lived in our family room until I was in high school, and was then relegated to the basement (??) until our move to Iowa. In Iowa, this was the furniture I had in my room (I got the smaller room, since I was in college and only home for the summer and occasional long weekend). It made the move to my house, where it served as either living room furniture, or basement/guest quarters. This couch started life as an avocado-green tweed, then was recovered (by my parents!) in a tweedy brown, and is now sporting a third skin - off white flame stitch fabric. With cat hair. The hide-a-bed frame is steel, we've replaced parts of the innards and the mattress at least once each. It's in good condition, but not the best solution for our basement TV/movie watching needs. But, I guess I'm sentimental.

Exhibit B & C: Pair of 20-Something Love Seats. These were handed down from my grandmother, in another case of downsizing. She kept the full-size sofa, and we took the two love seats. Since coming into our possession, these have had a bit of a hard life - cats, kids, 'nuf said. They're covering the Family Room seating roles pretty well, and are awesome for napping on, but I'm ready for something new.

Aaah. "Something New." Yeah, that's a great concept, except when I have to actually try and pick something out. This upholstery purchase thing is something new to me. I can buy tables and bookcases and "hard" stuff all day long, but to pick out a couch, and colors and pillows and squishiness is new to me. And it seems like such a big decision - being that I've got upholstered pieces from my teenage years, I feel like whatever new couch/es I choose will be expected to last for a long time. Other problems - figuring out what the couches really need to do...this is something I think I got from the home makeover shows on TV - "What do you want to use this room for?"

For the basement, some home theatre seating would be ideal, but, by my rough estimates, we can only fit three seats across the seating area, and we have four people in our family. Plus, this is also the space that serves as our guest room, and home theatre seating does not come with hide-a-beds. So, that's the first dilemma.

For the family room, I'd like an l-shaped sectional, maybe with a chaise on one side, so it keeps the room open visually. But, after seeing this type of couch in the store, I'm afraid it's going to be too big for the room. My rough measurements here have not helped...I need someone to hold the other end of the tape measure, and I think the last set of dimensions I got on the sofa actually measured length as "all the way around the back edge of the sofa," to include around the corner. Hmmm.

I've got time; the furniture is serving us well for right now, and I need a chance to figure out design schemes and paint colors and such. But, I'm also diligently entering in the Bassett Furniture Sofa Giveaway . Maybe winning a sofa and being forced into a decision won't be a bad thing. ;-)

On the Road Again

Hello from the road! I'm in Boston for work. I came out on Saturday to see my sister - we had a good time! Today, in discussing tomorrow's schedule, we realized I didn't allow myself enough time to fininsh my training session and get to the airport. The training sessions here are going really well, and we don't want to reschedule the last session and lose momentum. It's been a while since I traveled through an airport of any real size, so, on the advice of my team, I changed my flight home. Since I haven't blogged since the last time I was on the road, I figured it was probably time to check in!

Steph and I ran through Target on Sunday, picking up a few things for my stay in town, and some stuff for Steph's house. I ended up at a different Target last night with some of the team from work, picking up a couple more things for the trip (and a book to read on the plane home). Good Old Target!

Other Boston Observations:

• The local newscasters don't have the local accent!
• The 99 Restaurant has pretty good food!
• There are more hills here than I expected (not sure why...)

That's it for now!

The Midwest Hurricane

This past Sunday, the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through our area. Between about noon and 3pm, the wind was whipping around like crazy - 70+ mph...it was still a Tropical Storm! But by 3:30, the wind died down, the leaves settled, and we came out to assess the damage.

We never lost power at the house, but my inlaws did, and are still out of power. Most of the rest of the city is also out of power, so school is cancelled, street lights are out, stores aren't open...

And I'm getting this all second hand. I'm out of town!

When I left for the airport on Sunday, I got an idea of how much of a mess Ike left behind - a HUGE tree had fallen across a road outside our neighborhood, all the traffic lights were out on the way to the interstate, leaves and limbs all over. I believe some areas are getting their power back, but the schools have been closed all week. I was at the airport when I saw the message from school that said they didn't have any power. As it turns out, this may actually be working out better for my husband, in that his sister is also out of school, and has been watching our girls at her house all this week. So, he doesn't have to drive all the way through town to drop off and pick up the girls.

Having deserted my husband and children at home in this mess, I'm anxious to see what state everything is in when I get home. I'm thankful that we have power at the house, and that everyone is safe and sound, even if they are having to hang out in the dark. ;-)

Fall is on the way

You would think I could tell this just by looking at the calendar. Well, yes, the calendar is a helpful indicator, but being that the weather is what we normally associate with Fall, the weather lately is also indicating that Fall is coming. And in my area, Fall is marked with rain just as much as cool, crisp air, the need for long sleeves in the evenings, and earlier sunsets. We were out at a friends' house last night, and sat on the porch after dinner, enjoying the lack of humidity, and after about an hour, I realized I needed some sleeves. Aah, Fall.



So, anyway, back to our First Fall-ish Friday. The morning was foggy, but warm (so Summer isn't giving up the ghost just yet!). The whole day was gray and drizzly, but not enough to warrant an umbrella, just like you were walking through a mister. All day. Not the formula for a Good Hair Day.

As I drove to work, the fog had settled in just at the tops of the buildings downtown. Since I've been carrying my new pocket-sized camera just about everywhere, I thought I'd try to capture the fog. Don't tell Mom...I was driving while I was taking these pictures. Isn't that the point of a point-and-shoot camera? It only takes one hand? Well, anyway, I'm sure if I'd pulled over and stood at the side of the road, these pictures would've turned out better (and the camera wouldn't be focused on the raindrops on the windshield). But, I didn't sit and review all the pictures while I was snapping away. I was totally focused on the traffic. Totally.

At some point, I guess I realized my camera was focusing on the raindrops on the windshield. I hit a traffic backup, and tried to capitalize on the artsiness while crawling along at 10 mph. Kinda cool.




For someone that's used to taking pictures of kids and people and using them to tell a story, I'm not sure what I'll do with these rainy pictures of my commute. Other than to share them on my blog! ;-)