7/31/2004 05:53:57 PM|W|P|Anne|W|P|So I got a hankering this afternoon for some hot grease cooked pastry and found a recipe at the old standby place. Alton Brown looked like he knew what he was doing so I hunkered down and started making homemade doughnuts for the first time. While Lily clamored around my feet. The dough was easy enough and the three of us played outside for an hour while the dough rose. It was lovely to behold. Then, while Lily screamed at me, all red faced and sleepy with dirty black feet, I rolled the dough out and cut it into circles with holes. These rose for another half hour while Lily got washed and settled down for a nap. Then it came time for cooking in a 365 degree oil bath. They browned very nicely except for the holes, which sometimes cooperated with flipping over but more often than not wanted to roll back over to the portion that was already cooked, in the scorching grease. I dressed the finished product with a simple glaze or with powdered sugar or cinnamon/sugar sprinkles but the best ones were glazed. In my opinion, the dough lacked more sweetness, but the texture was dead perfect. When I first started cooking them, Shan walked over and smirked. "What?!" "Oh, I'm just laughing at the pregnant lady making doughnuts at 5PM on a Saturday night." Then he proceeded to eat at least 5 of them. Now who's laughing, Bozo?! |W|P|109131491703237945|W|P|Doughnuts to You|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/31/2004 09:15:11 AM|W|P|Anne|W|P|What was the BS I was trying to con everyone into a few days ago? That exercising made me want to eat healthier? HAH! Right before bed last night I scarfed two strawberry fruit roll-ups and two tootsie pops. note to self: the *new* blue raspberry flavor is AWFUL. |W|P|109128343121178074|W|P|Eating|W|P|shanne@comcast.net8/04/2004 06:13:17 PM|W|P|cecily|W|P|Since WHEN do you buy FRUIT ROLL UPS?7/29/2004 05:42:23 PM|W|P|Anne|W|P|Today's news from the successful sonogram: It's a girl! Lily is going to have a little sister to call her own. And other names too of course.   |W|P|109114106354687166|W|P|The Verdict|W|P|shanne@comcast.net8/03/2004 02:11:59 PM|W|P|Kerry|W|P|Omigosh, congratulations!!!! That's my dream right there, two little girls. I'm so excited for you!7/29/2004 09:09:01 AM|W|P|Anne|W|P|It's been raining since yesterday. All gray and windy rain that the ground so dreadfully needed and only now does it seem to be letting up at all. At least for a little breather.  This morning Lily woke me up. Shan had already left to check on one of his jobs, to make sure there hadn't been any leaks, and we padded into the kitchen for breakfast. Lily had waffles and I thought I'd try the new overpriced organic cereal. Some kind of thing with cornflakes and granola clumps and dried raspberries, flavored with ginger. It was good but probably not worth the 4 dollar price tag my pregnant desires catered to. Then I left to check an email in the office when I heard the unmistakable slap of something falling to the floor and the subsequent pouring out of cereal. So I rush into the kitchen and find the new box of cereal completely upended onto the floor with Lily in the middle exclaiming "num num!" sigh. Her little grabby hands are getting better and better at reaching things because I distinctly recall setting this back on the counter.   |W|P|109111050105376908|W|P|Rainy Morning|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/28/2004 03:40:50 PM|W|P|Anne|W|P|Lily is in a mood today. The first part, leading up to and right after her morning nap went great. A trip to the gym where she was an ideal child, no fuss-fuss when I left to work out, a nice poo when I retrieved her, cooperation at changing  in the back of the truck, trip to the grocery store, another trip by the office, and still another trip to return a bonked toner package from Office Depot. (note: the generic toners are not good, at least for old machines like the one my father-in-law employs) And then she went to sleep. Ever since she awoke, however, she's been a fine little toot. Nothing makes her happy or content. She ate lunch until she cried. weird. We play, then she complain-cries. I do anything remotely non-Lily related and she gets mad. Believe me when I say what a relief it will be when naptime rolls around again today. Meanwhile, a loaf of sourdough spiked with whole wheat flour and some ground flax seeds is baking in the oven. I have plans for an interesting chicken stock based soup amended with lots of shaved yellow squash and zucchini, and some farfalle pasta. (Thank you Cooking Light) Plus a nice dinner salad and we are good to go for supper. So I've started back to the gym after a month off and it is so surprising how my attitude toward eating has changed. Instead of automatically caving to junky things, I am more interested in the healthy options. More reason to stay in touch with the muscle tank I guess. Plus, there is another pregnant woman there I can compare weight gain with.  I think she is slightly behind me in time.   |W|P|109104797066842620|W|P|Talking, ever talking|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/28/2004 12:05:33 PM|W|P|Anne|W|P|Here is the deal, I really want and semi-need a new digital camera and Cess has me swooning for Canon's new Rebel. Everything about it seems ideal and right for me and it would be nice to have a good camera before the new little one comes along. I have *BIG* plans for a Christmas card photo featuring a proud cherubic Lily presenting her new sibling. But now I am wondering. Is there such a thing as moderately priced archival digital prints? I love Ofoto but some of the pics I have by them are already starting to fade and get a little blotchy, which is really irritating.  Anybody know anything?   |W|P|109103469364795801|W|P|Rebel|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/27/2004 11:43:02 AM|W|P|Anne|W|P|This is a very interesting article sent to me by my friend John. Interesting since I just finished reading an article in this month's Harper's (a pretty leftest mag) in which a panel alluded to the media's right wing bias, but naturally, they ( the panel) never provided any details to support this accusation. Check it out.   |W|P|109094682232353545|W|P|Tuesday |W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/26/2004 08:57:01 AM|W|P|Anne|W|P|This morning I was able to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast of toast with homemade fig preserves (don't knock it till you've tried it!) and hot tea with milk and sugar. Now that I've folded laundry, cleaned up a bit, and swam all over the internet I am ready for Lily to come back home. Something tells me her Gramma will drop her off in the next hour or so and I have a large day planned of errand running, while this gflorious cold front is hanging around. It's very much like a fall day outside, I have the windows and doors thrown open to let in the cool breeze but I know it is only a fluke. Tomorrow it will be back in the high 90's but for now I am in love.   |W|P|109085046180958820|W|P|Coming Home|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/25/2004 10:18:33 PM|W|P|Anne|W|P|And we just got back from seeing the movie. Very entertaining. I am really starting to like Matt Damon. yum.     |W|P|109081209327244647|W|P|The Bourne Supremacy|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/25/2004 03:31:23 PM|W|P|Anne|W|P|Today she learned "please" and "thank you" and last night she learned "cookie" although she says these things like this: peese and tankoo and tootie. I think she is having some kind of mighty intelligence growth spurt too. Last night Shan couldn't find the remote and he asked Lily, "Lily, do you know where the remote control is?" She nodded and he followed her down the hall to her room where she pointed it to him on the floor. Isn't that awesome! Then, this afternoon while I trimmed roses and weeded in the back, Shan was cleaning some filter in the driveway and couldn't reach a nearby broom. So he asked Lily, "Lily, can you hand me the broom?" And she did! Everything is on the up and up here. And then there was the dreaded trip to the post office on saturday morning. I had stayed up the night before finishing up some baby shower invites (they are incredibly beautiful; Cess would be proud.) and wanted to get them in the mail ASAP. So while Shan worked in the shop, I loaded Lily up and we went to go wait in line. There is always a line at the PO, no matter what day of the week or what time of day, and Saturday was no exception. And there we were. We became the family unit I used to scorn back in the days before Lily. Naturally she didn't want to be held, so I set her down and let her walk around me and the line. She'd look up and smile and screech once in a while for good measure, walk over to the copier, climb into the window and pull on the blinds, touch the trashcan. It was nice in much the same way as having a big whiteheaded zit on the end of your nose is nice.  Finally, after I bought stamps and mailed a few things off, we stopped over a t a table and I handed her my purse to get her to sit in one place for awhile as I put stamps on all the invitations. The purse is a failsafe control method. |W|P|109078811049506006|W|P|More and more...|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/21/2004 10:09:03 PM|W|P|Anne|W|P|Again with the deleting post after writing for an hour. This time, I had been saving as I got up to check on Lily with the old ctrl-c combo but towards the end of the bleeding thing, I started getting happy with the hyperlinks and when my finger slipped while trying to do another ctrl-c, everything was lost except for my last hyperlink. Don't even get me started on how pissed off I am. I can't imagine there is anyway on earth to regain the tender heartedness I was feeling for my darling girl but I'll try. In any event, I am going to summarize her latest accomplishments for the record. *Over the weekend we went  to her cousin's "new pool" party and frolicked amongst countless others in their beautiful new pool. It was gorgeous, with waterfalls all over the place, fancy limestone bricks, and a pebbled floor. My sister-in-law confided that yes, the floor is wonderful but very difficult to see kids when they go under. Despite that small negative, Shan practiced swinging Lily in an arc into the water so that her face was briefly submerged and she did just fine. No crying or fear, which is so good, since we have little opportunity to play in a real pool. *The potty chair I got soon after her last drs appt. has provided loads of entertainment for her. We haven't even gotten to the whole sitting on it to actually poo yet, but she does pull the thing all over the house, fill the bowl with food or water, and take turns climbing and sitting on it. I just want to get her used to it and don't feel any anxiety to press her into using it. If she is potty trained before Christmas I will be happy as a lamb. *During supper tonight I asked the munchkin if she'd like a peach. She regarded me very seriously and then shook her head slightly and said, "No. " This is very new in fact and even more cute than words can say. Since she isn't automatically screaming or shouting it yet, I just love to hear her say it. This reminds me, whenever we stand in front of the fridge or the pantry and I ask her if she would like something, she tends to start out with a very thoughtful, "ummm.." which would be bad if it weren't so damned cute! *She has learned to say her name, well, mostly. Because 'L's' are difficult for her 18 month old mouth to pronounce, she says "Nee-nee", which is fine by me. *Similarly, when she sees letters on the wall, or in books, she points and repeats, "Ah, E, O , Ah, E, O..." which is interesting since I don't recall anyone making a particular point to teach her vowels yet. Just the letters of her name. *Soon after her Uncle left, she began imitating his characteristic affirmative head nod. I see this as proof of her love for him. Both he and Aunt Lotte are some of Lily's favorite people, which is no surprise to me. And this is it for now. I need to update the new baby news but I've run out of time. More later. |W|P|109046697727137530|W|P|Growth|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/14/2004 01:42:20 PM|W|P|Anne|W|P||W|P|108983054097030470|W|P||W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/14/2004 11:35:15 AM|W|P|Anne|W|P|This is a very basic synopsis of our visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico since after blogging for an hour last night and working in all the details, all was lost when Blogger shut down for maintenance. Yes, it was ugly. Friday: Mom, Lily, and I flew into Albuquerque, NM. My brother and his wife Lottie picked us up at the airport and we went into Santa Fe for lunch and a bit of walking around. Santa Fe is beyond wonderful. The central plaza is gorgeous, with a number of little restaurants and shops all along the outside of a stunning courtyard filled with plants and flowers and berries. The walkways were made of old brick pavers and the walls and ceilings and arches and there were too many lovely structures to list here. This church was my favorite though. The next day we got to see some people who were just married streaming out during an overcast mid-evening. Anyway, we ate lunch at a fantastic little place called "The Shed" (as suggested by Lottie). Lots of red and green chiles on everything and all that we ate was tasty. Lily liked the beans, as she is a connoisseur. Then we drove into the mountains to the family reunion and had a small get-together, meet and greet, before breaking apart for supper. Because the group was so large, we knew there was no way everyone could eat at the same table. Mom and I were lucky to get in at a table of 12 with Lily my immediate family and the uncles and aunts and cousins closest to us. Food: mediocre. Company: unbeatable. I was finally with some people, and relatives no less, who have an even fouler mouth than me! Towards the end of supper, Lily let me know she was overtired and ready for bed by hitting the fork of blueberry pie I offered and knocking berries and juice all over my khaki skirt and white blouse. Yep, those were going to stain and stain they did. The next morning we got up and converged again in one of the conference halls for an even longer meet and greet. It was so long I started getting more bored than Lily, who made a spectacle of herself climbing on chairs and teasing the various men in the family. The first drama of the day started out with my brother offering me a vitamin, considered more water soluble than normal vitamins, which I swallowed without thinking about. Actually, as soon as I swallowed it I got freaked out and looked at the bottle. In addition to normal vitamins, each pill also contained bee pollen and ginseng and other herbal supplements. Now completely wigged, I handed Lily off, tried to calmly walk outside, left a message to my Dr in Texas, and made myself hurl into the nearest toilet. After gagging until my tongue and throat muscles were sore but still not seeing a horsepill floating in the basin, my Dr called me back and I got the chance to explain what a complete moron I was. He assured me that taking the vitamin once would not harm the baby but that no testing has been done on the effects of herbs and pregnant women, so to not do it again. The next stressor took place while I was in the middle of sugar crisis as we drove to lunch. Going off on a typical tangent, I managed to insult my sister-in-law and we exchanged heated words that ended in silence and suggested fury on both sides. Not wanting to leave it at that I tried to make amends, worried about becoming enemies over such a triviality. Lottie was silent and I was worried and still we drove. I stayed in the car when we got to lunch and tried to call Shan for advice out of my mess but of course the cell phone was in a hole and I got nothing. I took a sleeping Lily into the restaurant and sat with her but thankfully, Lottie said to me that we didn't need to remain angry or to take anything personally and I was just relieved. From that point on, Lottie and I had a new understanding of each other as well as a kind of newfound respect. Sometimes you just have to get mad to get though the walls we create and I am glad we got through. That evening, after tooling around Santa Fe some more, the whole family converged again at a nearby park called, "Fort Marcy". (Scroll down to see images of the park in Santa Fe.) One of my cousins is a successful artist in New York City and he has a show coming up in November. Part of the show involves still photography somehow layered against a backdrop of digital movie film and he wanted to involve the whole group in his project. The idea was to film during sunset at the apex of the park, while the cliffs and hills in the background changed color, and while we the family broke ourselves into self-appointed groups for portraits. It was so entertaining and fun and was pretty well the catalyst that brought the whole group together. My cousin wanted the whole thing to be very 'organic' and so did very little directing or even suggesting. We broke into groups of all women, then all men, then into the various family tree branchings, all while the sun went down. There was a lot of cutting up and customary highjinx and I am looking forward to seeing how his work turns out. To be honest, I can't even imagine. Right near the end, couples got their photos taken and I was missing my husband while everyone got all snuggly, but then my cousin looked at me and said "Why don't we do a 'Mother and Child' shot?" so basically, I love this man I hardly know. Now I can't wait for the next reunion in two years, wherever it might be. The next morning we left early on a flight back home and Lily had her first case of air sickness. All over my shirt. Thank goodness for Lottie, I don't know how we would have managed if she hadn't been there to help dab and lend me her sweatshirt afterwards. The flight attendent was nice but on the verge of throwing up in response and surprisingly, after Lily purged herself of the bit of oatmeal cookie she had eaten, she was fine as frog's hair. |W|P|108982506387533011|W|P|Family Reunion 2004|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/08/2004 08:55:37 AM|W|P|Anne|W|P|Since I am running behind and bearing to the left I'll have to come back later to describe my Dad's Memorial. There are a number of stories I'd like to post, just tiny snippets that poignantly describe the person he was, just for posterity. So that Lily has something to read and connect with in the future. It was incredible. But for now, I am scrambling around trying to get ready to leave town for New Mexico tomorrow. The family reunion is this weekend and not only do I have a ton of samples to get through first, but there is packing and shopping and all the inane blabla's that go along with living in a material world to contend with. Lily is growing inordinately fast. Yesterday when we came home from the lakehouse, she climbed up into her wooden highchair with no help from anybody. It was frightening, mainly because she could have easily just fallen right out onto the concrete floors. Over the weekend she learned to climb up into the dining room chairs, much to my delight and chagrin. Then, while my Mom was watching her pull a chair out from the table she was scolded with a 'Now Lily, don't climb up there, I have to put this dish away." When my Mom turned back around, Lily was STANDING on top of the dining table grinning away like a Cheshire cat. To sum, there is no way in HELL to babyproof your home when the child gets like this. Well, I suppose one could do away with all the furniture in the house and something inside me does like the simplicity inherent in that, but it's not very reasonable now is it?|W|P|108929535760899015|W|P|Weekend with Family|W|P|shanne@comcast.net7/12/2004 12:33:35 PM|W|P|Twinmama|W|P|Our garage would make a fine livingroom--that's where most of our furniture is now!