12.30.04

Miracles

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:10 pm by Anne

an incredible story of the terrible tsunami(s). Read it if you haven’t already.

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12.27.04

I am still liking it.

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:12 am by Anne

Woot Rules. Especially for senseless consumerism. Check out today’s item. The write-up descriptions are just worth reading.

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12.26.04

The Day After

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:38 pm by Anne

Christmas Day began with Lily hopping into bed with us around 7. We both woke up and got tickled playing and talking with the girls while Gramma took a quick shower. (How she could take a shower before presents, I’ll never know.)Shan asked me if Santa had come during the night. Was he kidding me? Santa had put candy canes on the tree, filled the stockings with goodies (sponge bob cookies and emmy-emmies- Lily’s alltime favorite things) and toys, and he had left a number of gifts on the fireplace specifically for Lily to open. When Shan saw the gift bags with tissue paper poking out the top he commented, “When Santa brought me gifts as a child, he NEVER wrapped them.” Well Ho Ho hO! Next year there will be more collaborating with the santa business, I guess. Lily was thrilled with the cookies and m&m’s (Pease! Pease! Emmy-emmies! Pease! Bob!- Her ‘please’s are very forceful, infinitely demanding and not on the soft side of requesting for anything. It is hi-larious! )After gifts were opened I got to making breakfast:peppered thick cut bacon, scrambled eggs with cheese, and fried potatoes. Very yum indeed.

Shan surprised me with a pretty cool gift: He bought a number of tools and a little carrying bag specifically for me so I would no longer have to root around in his workshop for things. Pliers, screwdrivers, flatheads, utility knife, the best pair of clippers ever, wd-40, superglue, a level, and my very own tape measure. Now I can be a toolman too! Lily also got a toolset with an electric drill that spins and removes gears and screws in a little worktable. All plastic, of course, but very neat. Of all the Lily gifts though, the one she likes the best is on the back porch. Shan bought a bunch of sand and filled her little swimming pool and she just goes to town with it and the dumptrucks.

Then, after breakfast Shan and I took the tree down and put everything away. Our house is entirely too small to accommodate a tree for very long. Then Shan got a hair to organize his side of the closet and I followed. By the end of the night Christmas, there was a huge trashbag full of goodwill items and another full of just trash. Again I am reminded how important it is to simplify, if only for sanity’s sake.

I have a feeling that the office is next on the list for organization. Since the business went down, I still need to wrap it all up. Lab table needs to be cleaned off and stored with all of its implements, I need to badger a few more tardy payers, and then get on with an accountant for taxes. All much easier said than done.

And now it’s time to prepare for New Year’s. Wah-hoo!

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12.24.04

Merry Christmas from the UK

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:10 pm by Anne

nice

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The Full Monty

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:35 am by Anne

So now for a little holiday cheer.

I decide to take a shower after nursing Emma this morning. So I put her in bed with pillows all around her and get to the business of washing. My Mom is in the kitchen making cranberry sauce and cleaning etc. After the shower, with a towel wrapped around my head, I walk over to check on baby and think to myself, “It’s a good thing my Mom isn’t in the hallway right now.” and jus as I reach baby (with the bedroom door wide open), there’s my Mom, with a stack of folded laundry in each hand.

Needless to say, we were both a little embarrassed.

Jeez.

Merry Christmas Eve!

The yule log part two worked out great and today I just need to make the meringue mushrooms and pie crust leaves and voila. It’ll be promed for dessert tonight. After supper I’ll stay up wrapping Lily’s gifts (a few small items) and getting the stockings all filled and ready for the Christmas morning. I remember that used to be my Mom’s job but figure I’ll cut her some slack this time. Since I’m a mom now. Holy crap. I’m a mom!

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12.23.04

Yule Log Debacle

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:47 pm by Anne

So Emma woke us up at 4 this morning and refused to get comfortable and sleep until 6AM. After we both tried soothing her, following nursing and the requisite burping, we threw in the towel and just got up. This is the second morning I’ve gotten up so early. The three of us went into the living room, shan started a fire, made coffee, prepared oatmeal, and we just chilled in a cozy family way. Then we both got to missing Lily so Shan went into her room and picked her up and the four of us rested by the fire. Naturally, it didn’t take long for Lily to decide it was time to get up and while Shan slept with baby Emma and I conked out on the floor with some pillows, Gramma came to our rescue and fed Lily.

Later, Shan took Lily with him to check his work jobs and Mom and I got to working on the Buche de Noel for Christmas Eve supper. I couldn’t remember which recipe for spongecake I had used before and wound up trying a new one. Big eff-ing mistake. After spending all morning making a really complicated version of a chocolate sponge with whipped ganache, I was rewarded with a dry and brittle cake that refused to roll into the necessary roulade shape. Very disappointing. After checking in “The Cake Bible” I found the recipe I should have used in the first place and right now have the finished cake cooling in its pan. Cross your damn fingers that this one works out because it is my last chance.

The other hideousness is in the fridge because my Mom convinced me it was better revenge to eat the hideous thing than to chunk it in the trash, which I really wanted to do in my baker’s rage. And you know, it i damn ugly but very tasty.

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12.22.04

non-preggo jeans…just barely

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:01 pm by Anne

So, going through the closet this afternoon I dreamed about the day I’ll fit back into my old jeans, which got me to thinking about my depressing weight and how going back to the gym, in a few weeks will greatly help matters. Then I hopped on the scale to start keeping track. Again. Depressing. Next, I went back to the closet and started putting away my husband’s laundry and I ran into his jeans. Hm. He is bigger than me, or rather, he used to be. (cough) So I tried on some of his GAP doobers, 34X34. Now, I know all of you smaller and petite women may cringe but I have to say I was finally able to get these guys on. Despite this miniscule victory, they looked too weird and I had a feeling Shan would be less than impressed if I were to start sharing pants with him so I looked around my stash of post-pregnancy-but-still-not- normal-jeans and found a pair of 33X34’s. And they are, well, let me say, snug. Zipped up and buttoned,in certain positions I almost have to hold my breath.

Yep. I’m losing it and just in time for the holidays!

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sleet and snow

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:09 am by Anne

Woke up at 5:30 this morning, okay Emma was the cause, but then I remembered we were supposed to be in for some inclement weather and I just got up. Emma and I spent some quality time (WOOT was kinda neat today though I don’t need a blender nor do I know anyone who does)together. Which reminds me, the mechanical swing that Lily used as an infant is quickly becoming one of the most useful baby items this time around. I placed Emma in it and got to making creme caramel (read: elegant flan) while everyone else slept. The swing is the best place to keep baby while I’m doing anything in the kitchen and if I can prevent Lily from stopping the mechanism or from extricating Emma from the seat then all’s the better.

It’s been sleeting since we’ve been up and the temperature is dropping, albeit slowly. I am all ready to take a bunch of Lily in the snow pictures today!

Meanwhile, we still have no present for Shan’s paternal grandfather. And I still need to wrap the rest of Lily’s gifts.

Hope all of you are keeping warm and enjoying the last few days before Christmas!

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12.19.04

WOOT!

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:15 am by Anne

I love this site. Read all about it and please explain why I am thusly intrigued because I am simply at a loss to explain.

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12.18.04

3 weeks new

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:41 pm by Anne

Baby is doing well. Lily is doing well. And we are enjoying a nice visit with friends from austin.

Last night Lily got her first taste of vietnemese cuisine and it went over okay. She liked the vermicelli and the rice but not so much the coconut-lemongrass chicken or barbequed pork, and you can just forget about the spring rolls. It’s all about introducing foods gradually. The bubble tea was a huge hit though. HUGE.

The night before last, sleep was a scarce commodity. I was fresh out of it. For some reason, Emma wasn’t interested in participating at all. As a result, I way overslept the next morning while my Mom and our friends played with Lily. Dealing with Emma while others watch Lily is very easy for me. In fact, I am really good at it and this is what worries me. What in the hell am I going to do when my Mom leaves?
I tell myself I need to start trying to do more so that it won’t be sucha shock when I HAVE to do everything but it is much easier to hand things off to her. Def-Con 4 goes down in just a matter of weeks, people!

Meanwhile, I’m happy to say all the Christmas shopping is done. Except for Shan’s 2 grandfathers. But I’ll let him figure those out. Right now I am planning on how to decorate the gingerbread house. I got a new mold a few months ago (on sale of course) and assembled it last night with some non-tasty royal icing. Today the house is unbreakable. Well, okay, maybe not that strong, but it is well stuck together and it is time for me to trim it with good tasting frosting and all the candies (gummi bears, soft old timey candycane poles, m&m’s, red hots, etc) I was planning on taking it over to the family Christmas party tomorrow but now I don’t know. Have you ever actually seen anyone eat a gingerbread house? That’s what I’d want to happen.

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