BFFs

There's something special that separates the average F, or even BF from the true BFF. In the case of me and my BFF Kelly, that something has frequently been thousands of miles, since we haven't lived in the same city (and often not in the same state) since high school. We met up at the Renaissance Festival, walked around, ate things on sticks, admired each others' children and briefly considered getting our hands dipped in wax. And then... just as I was mourning the absence of any pictures to document it, she came through again with this lovely gem:


Yes I'm truly a lucky woman. Lucky in love and lucky in friends. I am never going to Plantersville without my BFF again.

Blurgh

Ah! No Halloween Pictures! I am THE WORST.

Actually, to really secure the title, it would help for you to know that we went to the AWESOME and wonderful Texas Renaissance Festival in Plantersvile last weekend and forgot to bring the camera. Dozens and potentially hundreds of hilarious photos were lost, including documentation of various knights, moors, pirates, wenches, and other people you would not, the rest of the year, trust within a 20 ft. anti-molestation radius of your children.

Hey guys remember that cold I had? The really awful one? The kids have that now. And the immunization police have chosen sick week for their crack down, so I am having to decide whether to immunize sick (GRUMPY) kids or not be allowed to send them to school. Which is pretty moot, since they can't go to school anyway, because they're SICK.

Anyway, over the cacophony of whines in my house right now, I can't tell if I'm being coherent at all. I did find one picture from Halloween:


Perfectly representative of the evening as a whole. Imagine Chase in a big red gnome hat, and it's like you were there.

feeling better

I'm finally kicking the cold, thank goodness. Every time I'm sick I remember that not being sick alone is one of the chief comforts of the family unit. So even though it can be annoying for the un-sick one, and even though one might have been woken intermittently for several days by snorting and piteous moaning, and even though caretaking might not come naturally to some people, I still am REALLY GRATEFUL for all the patience and kindness from my loved ones. Moving on...


Hey that looks familiar! Just like that header up there! Only more of it! And all together.

I decided not to machine quilt this one, mainly because I've been cold at night and I want a new blanket. I'm tying it with what I sincerely hope are square knots. I guess I'll find out the first time I wash it.

And getting back to work on this has also made me come to terms with the fact that I really hate my bed. And I'm not going to be able to buy a new bed for a long time.

I love my quilt and I want to put it on a bed I love, so I need to find a cheap fix. I'm thinking sandpaper and paint, probably. If anyone has some inspiration, please give me advice.

Since I've Been Gone

Among other things, we made pear butter. It went well, although Chase maybe got slightly too into the whole canning process. I had to leave at one point, and there were repeated texts on the aspects of vacuum seals and jar tongs.


We made pumpkin bread which was great. I also made two loaves of banana bread, which will give you an idea of what the fruit fly situation in our kitchen was prior to baking/pear butter day...



We did this -



Before we came home and did this-


I like that you can see Wren directing the action there. She's pointing out the eyelashes on the jack-o-lantern schematics she had drawn up.

I made a red gnome hat for Chase's costume, which I sadly took not one single picture of, apparently. I made this, and if you are looking for a huge fattening new favorite dish of comfort food, it's a good bet.

I finished up the pressing school work, and now I just have to get a jump on the next big school thing. Chase and I went on a date, and saw Where the Wild Things Are. Which FAILED as a date movie. FAILED. I had to drink a few glasses of water to rehydrate myself after all the weeping. Sorry hon. I think it was the double punch of reliving the worst of childhood, and then looking at my beloved Wren, right on the cusp of encountering all that in her own world.

I mean, you know, except for the part where her parents divorce and her mom starts dating new dudes. Anyway, thanks to the Ruperts for babysitting. You guys might be the only people I know with a tumbling mat in the living room.


In other news, Jane ate my lipstick.

eyes on the prize

I've dropped out of this space lately- real life is taking all my concentration.

Well, you know, real life with regular breaks for escapist reading. At least I have my priorities. Thanks, Tim, for recommending new Sci-fi. Or should I say Syfy?


We had an awesome time camping with friends last weekend, and I will talk more about that soon. In addition, as you might have guessed, the cold weather has brought on a yarn explosion at our house, and right now my lap is full of this incredible cranberry silk/merino blend that I just cannot stop picking up and squishing. I'll eventually take some pictures of the instant gratification knits I'm working on.

All that will be in the future though, because right this minute I'm trying to power through my final portfolio for grad school. I am so so so close to done and I can't pick my head up from the work (distressingly often - busy work), or even really say anything about the experience, until I'm DONE. Which will be soon, please God.

After this Friday, I can get back to enjoying wonderful fall because seriously Austinites, have you looked outside? Isn't it incredible?! I know our fall might not measure up to Smokey Mountain fall, or Vancouver fall, or whatever, but it is absolutely wonderful, nonetheless. The girls and I took a blanket to Ramsey park this morning and stayed waaaaaay past the usual everyone-is-melting-down-Jane's-arm-is-stuck-in-the-swing-get-to-the-car-before-someone-calls-cps point. So like an hour and a half. Still, though. It's really nice outside.

Gourmet

Having never actually been a subscriber, and also having never to my knowledge faithfully followed a Gourmet recipe ONCE all the way through (there's always just one change you have to make, without that stash of agave nectar in the pantry, or Brazilian Cachaca, or, you know, octopus meat...) it seems silly to be so sad about Gourmet Magazine closing down.

I am not the target audience, but I still love Gourmet. I love the idea that people, not just chefs, actually cook like this (minus the octopus). Gourmet was taking insanely beautiful and inspiring COLOR pictures of food when the rest of the culinary landscape looked more or less like this -


Only in black and white...which actually might do that particular example (pulled from this Flickr pool) some favors.

Gourmet started in 1941, that's twenty years before The French Chef went on the air. Now, when food porn and celebrity chefs are so 2005, and everyone is taking insanely beautiful pictures of their lovingly prepared, locally sourced dinners, it's easy to forget we're standing on the shoulders of giants. FOOD GIANTS!!!

RAWR!!

ANYWAY, I have always bought the October and November issues, and I'm bummed that this year I'll just be buying the October issue. I'm sad to see Gourmet go.

So, in honor of the closing of Gourmet Magazine, here is the most insane recipe (sans octopus) that was immediately apparent on their site:


Why yes, Rachel. That IS a frozen peanut butter pie with candied bacon!
Recipe here. And if that's not to your taste, at least take a minute to scroll through the fall favorites, and mourn the passing of this awesome source of unrealistic but still wonderful inspiration.

Callahan's

What to do on a rainy Saturday morning with two grumpy kids and no money? Last weekend we drove out to Callahan's. They get their chick shipment on Thursdays, apparently, so they still had quite a bunch of adorable babies cheeping away in the back room.


As much as I would love to take home a few ducklings, or some guinuea fowl, or even a couple of buff orpingtons, we had to resist the temptation. Eventually we wandered out of the back room and looked around.


Wren was pretty interested in the horse section- rows and rows of saddles and bridles and little velcro braces and blankets. Jane was interested in the deadly pesticides at ground level area, the sharp objects for hurting babies area, and the "this is where we balance various mallets and hammers precariously on their heads, for easier child crushing" area. I love Callahan's partly because it is so far removed from the concerns of the rest of my world.

Speaking of the rest of the world though, when we wandered over the western wear section, we saw a couple of guys with ACL artist wrist bands. Chase and I are kind of thinking about talking to them, but we don't recognize them, other than just by general uniform- "first pair of skinny jeans Callahan's has ever seen on a dude not in the rodeo." Then later we see them at the register, and they're all buying washboards.

I actually ended up in the canning section, and was seduced by adorable packaging-


I'm not sure how many of those gadgets I'll actually need. We were going to the farmer's market for our apples afterwards, but then skipped because of the rain. Maybe next weekend. To tell the truth I'm pretty intimidated by the whole apple butter making process, and do not mind procrastinating a bit longer. If anyone else has ever done this, please advise me?