Tiny shells with FREE barnacle!

Since I haven't posted in, oh, THREE YEARS, I thought I'd start with something easy... you know, no pressure to be profound or make up for the gaping black hole of events on my blog. So tonight, in an effort to break some bad habits (i.e.. sitting in front of the television every night after dinner), Danny and I drove over to Sullivan's Island to walk on the beach. This is an especially big deal for Danny who likes being near the beach but doesn't like sand and doesn't want to get in the water, hmmmm. But walk on the beach he did and as many of our walks go we (usually HE) notices something nature-y that we must analyze scientifically. Tonight was no exception. Danny spotted all these TINY shells, smaller than your little fingernail, and each one had a perfect little hole at the point where the shell would be attached to its other half and just to the right of that, a barnacle. And they were ALL like that! So  of course we are speculating as to why....ideas anyone? We invite your scientific theories.....

On the road again

We managed to leave SC on Friday by about 2pm and were making pretty good time until we got just north of the VA border and heard a high-pitched whine coming from the front end, pulled over and came to a thunking stop. Naturally it was dark and pouring rain but fortunately about two minutes after we pulled over a wrecker pulled up behind us. We were just a couple miles from a hotel so he dropped us off there and then took our jeep to his shop. The next day while he worked on it we hung out at the hotel. We had to check out at 1 and then we stayed in the lobby until 5pm when our truck was ready. We thought about driving straight through to the farm but decided it would be a better idea to stay over at Daddy and Fran's. Here's the boy and his cat as we traveled on to the farm...

I forgot THE CAMERA

Kristjan had his first track meet on the 2nd and in the rush I actually left the camera at home. ARGGHHH! Couldn't go back for it either as the meet was an hour from home. Drat. Naturally Kristjan did really well and I have no photographic evidence! Well, here are his stats:

4x100 relay 2nd place 57.2 sec Kristjan was anchor leg

400m dash 2nd place 56.8 sec

200m dash 8th place 27.7 sec

long jump 4th place 13'5.5"

discus 2nd place 66'8"

It's fun watching him run, he really can kick in the afterburners and pour on some speed. NEXT time there will be photos! For now, I will add this photo of him sunning himself in the backyard. He just had his hair cut for school and wasn't too happy about it (as you can see it's not exactly short but HE thinks it is!) and he's wearing his fave sunglasses for his Roy Orbison look.

Revised threat level

Yes, I changed my last post to amber - disaster has been averted and I managed to get my haggadah printed in time for Erev Pesach. Naturally, we found two more mistakes in the Haggadah as we read through it last night but they are minor corrections and fortunately I had not printed up the haggadahs for our guests on Saturday so theirs will be ok. Nastassja called while she and Ray were out shopping for Matzah, matzoh ball soup and horseradish. He is so cute...talking and singing non-stop. I can't wait to have him sing Mah Nishtahnah at our Seder sometime in the near future! Well, here's our cozy little family Seder...

Why is this night the same....??!?!

Normally I don't kvetch....at least not on my blog. But here it is a few days before Pesach, I'm doing my usual going nuts stuff...including revising my Haggadah, of course. Everything was going swimmingly....having a wonderful time using pages to make up my Haggadah (windows word - ICK!) making it really lovely with photos and nice backgrounds, pretty fonts, drop shadows, gradient fills - the works. And then - HORRORS - just when I get to the Hallel....my computer freezes. I'm not kidding. My MAC locks up! (never happens) I have to hit the big red button and - you guessed it - NONE OF MY WORK WAS SAVED!!!! Arrggghhh! Yeah, I never set up Time Machine so now I have to pick up with my last save tomorrow - Ur'chatz (hand-washing) - geez that's like page 3! Somebody shoot me....

Shabbat Shalom

Some of my favorite spring pictures....

Spring Flowers

Here are a few more pictures from our trip to GA. These are apple trees in bloom.

Locally, this is Jessamine. It's the state flower and grows as a vine. Once it makes its way up

into the trees it forms clusters of flowers like this and sends shoots out to other trees. The result is cascading bouquets of yellow flowers spilling out of the branches of the trees. It's especially pretty in the pine trees. We have some in our back yard, which is where I took these pictures.

Georgia

We're in Fort Benning, Georgia today. Actually it's Columbus, GA but we're here for Danny to go to Fort Benning for some training. We're just here for the day but it was a seven hour drive out here from SC yesterday and we'll be driving back tomorrow. Last night after we checked into the hotel we went downtown to the Cannon Brewpub for dinner. Neat restaurant - looks like a warehouse inside. It's two stories high but there's only one floor so the ceiling is pretty high. At the back of the restaurant you can see the vats where they make the beer (they make 7 or 8 kinds as well as a root beer). Danny got the beer sampler - 6 samples of beer in shot glasses served up on a long wooden paddle with descriptions of each beer. After dinner we went down to the Riverwalk which was just a block from the restaurant. It's very pretty, 15 miles long. I'll try to get some pictures of it tonight. I only had the pocket Nikon with us last night. Here's a picture Kristjan took of one of the (peach?) orchards on the drive out.

Thai Coconut Chicken Soup

Here's one for my baby girl who just loves good soup, my own version of Thai Coconut Chicken Soup.

olive oil

2-3 big garlic cloves chopped

1" square piece of ginger, finely chopped

4 green onions - chop white and green parts    seperately

2 Jalapenos or Serranos sliced in rings

3 or 4 medium sized yellow squash, chopped

8 oz. assorted mushrooms (I used baby bella, white, oyster and enoki) 

juice of one lime

3 cups chicken broth

1 Tbs. Turmeric

3 boneless chicken breasts, sauteed in butter then diced

1 can coconut milk

cilantro

Over medium heat sautee garlic, ginger, white part of green onion, and jalapenos for a couple minutes, add squash and mushroom and cook for a couple more minutes, add more olive oil as necessary. Stir in lime juice, chicken broth and Turmeric, cover and let simmer about 15 minutes or until squash is tender. Remove about 2 cups of soup and puree in blender (try to get plenty of the squash for this to make the soup thicker) add back to soup. Stir in Chicken and coconut milk, bring to a low simmer for about 5-10 minutes so everything is heated through. Serve with cilantro and green onion for garnish.

   

Festivus for the rest of us!

Ah, Festivus. The kids started this tradition. I'm not sure what year we started it but here are a few of the earliest pictures I could find along with some of this year. For some reason the kids wanted to go to the garage for something. Then I guess they just wanted to go outside barefoot. Naturally, I didn't want them to (get some boots on! wear a coat!) but once they made it clear it was a competition...well, that's different. Far be it from me to discourage my children from attaining a goal. Then of course they had to see who could go the farthest. Here Kristjan makes for the basketball hoop. This was in 2003 so I guess he's 9.

And here he is this year completing a walk all the way around the house with Danny and Brandon.

Here I am on my very brief dash. I like to participate but I have no delusions about winning.

I went farther this year but I'm still last.

And here's Nastassja, I guess she's 13 here - definitely beat me.

And once again, Nastassja takes the ladies division by storm - she even went twice...

Here's the toughest part, at least in my book. The AFTERMATH. You think it's over, but no. The snow is stuck to your feet - now we keep towels handy to get it off as fast as possible. It doesn't really help. Oh but the exhilaration of another successful Feats of Strength!

We usually hold Festivus on Dec. 26th (Daddy's birthday) but this year we bumped it up to New Year's Eve since Nastassja, Anthony and Ray wouldn't be there until Dec. 28. We kicked off the festivities with Mexican food - enchiladas, the kid's favorite. Then Nastassja and I went for our walk. It was a little hazardous this year since we had had a couple of warm days in wich the snow melted and then refroze. Then it snowed again - about 6 inches, so there was powder with a layer of ice underneath, nice. Oh, and the temperature was 12. When we finished the boys took their walk around the house. When they got back there was some dispute about the winner. I had declared Brandon the winner since he was last, even pausing for his photo to be taken after Danny and Kristjan went in. Some declared there was too much, um, complaining during the trek ( I believe the accusation was "Brandon screamed like a girl the whole way") So the boys decided to take it to a new level by making snow angels with their shirts off. Then they decided to do it face down! Too much fun....

A reader wants to know "what about the airing of grievances?" No dear reader, we don't do the airing of grievances....unless one counts "screaming like a girl" while walking around the house. Oh, and I must point out that the girls didn't "scream like girls!"