Usually The Husband’s and my weekend consist of either:

a) Going to visit family or
b) Spending most of the time in a near-vegetative state

This weekend, however, we decided to mix it up a bit.

We started out Friday night with an actual meal of steak and Smashed Potatoes, as opposed to our normal pizza or something else that will leave leftovers so we don’t have to cook the next day.

Then Saturday morning is set our alarm clock (!) early enough so that we could go to the local green market and bakery (and everyone not be sold out and packing up).

Both ended up being somewhat of a disappointment. We were hoping there would be a good variety of produce at the green market, but it was mostly baked good, crafts, and just your normal old potatoes, onions, peppers, etc. which we either already had plenty of or didn’t need. Instead I spent our budget on a bouquet flowers, which I broke up into smaller bouquets to brighten up little corners of the house.

The bakery was sold out of all their bread by the time we got done at the green market. We ended up getting them to set us back a baguette from the next batch and picked it and some various pastries up after running other errands (including a new globe for our bathroom light to replace the one I broke like 4 years ago. Yay, no more bare bulbs!) Really it turned out fine, because the baguette and pastries were to die for.

Seriously, we didn’t even get back into the house before we had to get a taste of the baguette and obviously I didn’t make it until after the photos were taken before sampling the almond croissant. Heaven.

The evening was spent with our friends, eating spanakopita (made by my friend Marissa, SO GOOD) and watching their kids play in their pool.

Then this afternoon I made homemade donuts (recipe via Joy the Baker). They turned out pretty good for a first attempt. The chocolate glaze wasn’t quite right in my opinion (The Husband thought it was fine), but I didn’t have any bittersweet chocolate on hand, only nonsweetened and I even after monkeying around with it trying to compensate it still didn’t float my boat, so to speak. The glazed however, were spot on.

Maybe after a get a couple more attempts under my belt, I can write up a tutorial. However, before I attempt again, I need to hunt me down some decent cutter. My normal biscuit cutters were the wrong sizes and I ended up having to improvise with an old meat maker thingy (which I never use to make meat pies, ironically enough) and the lid off a bottle of decorating sugar for the hole. Not the best tools for the job.

And after all that, I think the donut holes with cinnamon sugar ended up being my favorite part.

Oh I almost forgot, check out the supermega-awesome painting my little sister made me.

I swear if I didn’t love her so much I would be forced to hate her very, very much.

Now, if you will excuse me, I think I need to go see if there is a home remedy for sugar shock.

A few more photos of the flowers can be seen on my flickr photostream.

This weekend we celebrated the combo Mothers’ Day/My sister Rachel’s 17th birthday with another crawfish boil.

The birthday girl:

The gifts, sunflowers for Mama and the rings were what we got Rach, the painting and cupcake pendants in the last photo were made by Rach for Mom:

Other family members, including my other sister Hannah who believes tiaras should be everyday attire:

My parents’ garden(s) are always good fodder for photos:

I know I still need to get pictures of all the stuff we bought at IKEA while in Dallas, we have just been so slow about getting it all situated. Hopefully I will have them up soon though.

This weekend The Husband and I joined my Mom and younger siblings for a holiday weekend in Dallas. My mom was meeting Ms. EllynAnne Geisel there and attending her book signing, so we all decided to tag-along and make a vacation of it.

So Friday morningish we set out in a two-vehicle caravan and headed west.

That evening after getting checked into the hotel (complete with a room change when ours ended up having a busted air conditioner, which even in April is doubleplusungood), it was time to head out for a bit of shopping and supper. We decided to drive to up to Frisco to check out the mall and IKEA(!). Now there are several things that contributed to how we spent the next several hours of our lives:

• Being from a relatively rural area, our grasp of the concept of traffic is pretty tentative. Traffic for us is getting stopped at a the red light. So, for those like us, a tip: trying to get out of downtown during rush hour in Dallas, Texas probably not the best idea ever.
• Never take directions for granted. Apparently to some people “will take you right to it” is synonymous with “will take you at least 10 miles out of the way, which if you weren’t paying closer attention, you wouldn’t even realize until you were in Oklahoma”. How in the name of all that is holy did people travel before GPS and cell phones?
• If you find yourself navigating busy, unfamiliar highways late in the evening, it’s probably a good idea that arrangements be made for the pilot of your vehicle to be not night blind, as proficiency in echolocation in humans is quite rare. If you are the aforementioned night blind pilot, the next morning is probably the latest one should speak up and remind the other occupants of your affliction. Someone else being inconvenienced by driving is still preferable to everyone involved dying in a fiery car crash.

All that being said, we did eventually find Frisco, some supper and IKEA. Of course, we realized after an hour in IKEA that we had only made it about a 16th of the way through.

The next day was devoted to exploring downtown. We headed down to Dealey Plaza to check out the Grassy Knoll, etc. While there, we spoke to some of the conspiracy theorist that were there hawking books, dvds and such. One of them was a man that (supposedly) was there near the Knoll that day. True or not, we had a good time. We were hoping to have time to do the book depository tour, but there just wasn’t enough time.

Next we walked down to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was crowded (why did no one tell the poor homeschoolers about aquariums on Saturday?) and warm, but it made for some great photo opportunities. By the way, I want a manatee for my birthday this year.

The next morning we packed up, checked out and headed to IKEA for final purchases before the drive home. Another tip: Always be sure to measure just how much you can fit in your vehicle before buying a metric asston of stuff at IKEA 300 miles from home (pictures of purchases coming, soon hopefully). Thankfully, it all fit, but it was touch and go there for awhile.

PS more pictures are available at my flickr photostream

I finally, finally, finally have the new design done and implemented. It took exponentially longer than I thought it would*, but I am quite happy with it for now. I don’t even know why it took so long, I had the mock-up done in a day or so and the bulk of the layout marked up in the same. See, this is the problem with being crazy, you get so wrapped up in details that the next thing you know it’s 6 hours later and you still haven’t figured out why <insert element here> is being a total <insert expletive here>. Plus, for someone who isn’t employed, I seem to be really busy lately. Anywho, it’s all done now.

What else? Oh I hope everyone had a good Easter. We spent it will our families. Good stuff

Also, while we were at my parents I finally remembered to get some pictures of the amigurumi baboon I made my sisters a couple years ago. His name is Clarence and he is a very long story that I could not even begin to do justice, but he has a fanny pack so I guess that goes without saying. Even without the story, I think he’s pretty cute.

Of course, he has a bright red baboon butt.

*doesn’t it always?

So Sunday morning my Daddy and sister drive down south to pick some up and, mein Gott, were they good.

Mom’s kitty Julius wasn’t so sure about this. We thought for sure he would at least try to play with it, but one poke on the nose was enough for him to lose all interest.

One word of caution: You do not want crawfish spice in your eyes, peel with care.

Even so, it was a beautiful day, and great eating and fun was had by all.

By the way, in case you couldn’t tell, my sisters are insane.

And Happy April’s Fool Day!

After a full week of being chilly and just generally dreary and rainy, the Sun made an appearance today, finally.

All the rain made the ferns on the old oak tree in our front yard go crazy. Silver lining and all that.

While taking pictures of the fern, I also got a photo of this little guy. He flitting around like crazy and this is the closest thing to a decent one I got of him.

While at the parentseses this weekend, Mom gave me a metric asston of herb seedlings of all kinds. Hopefully, I can refrain from killing them. If so, it will save me a fortune as I buy quite a bit of fresh herbs.

I have a bit of an obsession with photographing the moon, this is the best one I have taken yet though. I am hoping that during the next full one it will be nice, clear weather so we can stay with the in-laws and I can get some good ones out over the lake.

Until my moxie returns, here are a few pictures I took during the awesome weather:

Ah Mother Nature, what a exasperating trollop you are.

My mom as been going through old family photos, scanning them and uploading them to facebook. My family has a, perhaps unusual, fondness for family photos…come to think of it, maybe just photography in general. When we all get together, about 1 out of 3 times we will end up looking at photos for at least an hour. Anyway, I thought I might share a few here.

This is my mom’s dad (my Papa) cooking at his parents’ house in Texas as a teenager. The love of food runs deep in my family. When my grandparents first got married, my Papa did almost all of the cooking. He had learned growing up on the farm and because, where they lived in Texas, home ec was required for all student, boys and girls. My grandmother (my Nonnie) knew some basics but the primary cook when she was growing up was her sister (16 years her senior), who didn’t like people in the kitchen when she was cooking. The story is that the first time Nonnie tried to fry chicken she didn’t know that you had to bread it, she just threw chicken pieces in hot grease and wondered why it wasn’t getting crusty.

That’s my great-grandmother (my Bondon) with my great-uncle David and Papa as a baby. Given Papa’s age, this was the second half of 1933. You could definitely tell that Bondon was from the Great Depression generation. Even during the mid-to-late 80s and the resurgence of consumerism, she abhorred waste of any kind. I remember her once eating mayonnaise straight out of the jar because it was about to go out of date and she didn’t want it to spoil.

This is Nonnie when she was about 14 during WWII. Isn’t she beautiful? Nonnie’s two brothers, Jack and Charlie, were both in Europe during WWII. During this time, families of killed or missing soldiers were notified by telegraph which was delivered by a bicycle messenger. As a result, every time someone would see the bicycle messenger they would all hold their breath until he passed. One day he didn’t pass. He rode up to the porch and delivered a telegraph to Nonnie’s sister’s house. Nonnie was sent to her mother’s house (she lived down the street) to get her, she ran as hard as she could and then they both ran back. Nonnie said by the time they got back, she was just about to pass out from being out of breath and nerves. So finally everyone is gathered up and they open the telegraph, without saying a word Nonnie’s sister reads it and then hands it over to her mother who then reads it and continues to stare at it. Finally everyone else about to be in hysterics, she reads it. It was from her brother Jack, he had spent (ie gambled) all his money, could they send him a few dollars. Of course, I don’t tell it as well as she did, Nonnie could spin a quite a yarn.

This is my mom and her brother. Check out that stroller. Also notice how pristine those socks and shoes are.

That’s Papa, my uncle Butch, my mom and Nonnie. Don’t they look fine? Like they are straight out of MadMen.

My uncles Scott (bottom left) and Butch. That’s a pair right there, it’s a wonder Nonnie wasn’t crazier than she was. Like the time they were out playing (around the same age they are in the picture) and Butch comes running in screaming that Scott had been run over by the neighbor and she (Nonnie) has got to come help him (!). Nonnie runs out into the street frantically looking for Scott’s little broken body, Butch the whole time scream hysterically “Help him Mama, you have to help him”. She gets into the street and doesn’t see Scott anywhere, she turns around to ask Butch where he is and sees him standing in the yard just a cackling, she also then happens to notice the garbage can shaking suspiciously. She goes over and takes the lid off the can and there is Scott trying his hardest not to laugh. Can you imagine? I would have sold them both to the circus.

Seventy-four days until a new President, our first non-white President, is sworn in. A President for whom I voted*, for whom I am proud I voted. I am under no delusions that as soon as he repeats the words “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” that the sky will open up and the angels will sing on high. There is still a long road ahead, we’re still tangled up in two wars, still in what could end up being an economic catastrophe , etc etc.

But I have hope.

*Which will be a first. Not the voting part, but the winning part.

© Callie Shell / Aurora for Time.

© Callie Shell / Aurora for Time

© Callie Shell / Aurora for Time

© Callie Shell / Aurora for Time

(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

(EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

Ok first of all a few things I have learned since my last post:

1. No matter how liberal your estimate, it will take at least twice as long.
2. Dust is my least favorite substance EVER.
3. I am pretty sure manual labor isn’t my bag.
4. I have a tendency, when working on a project, to lose all perspective. Sometimes good enough really is good enough.
5. A decent ceiling fan is a magical thing.
6. A few house plants really do make a huge difference.
7. Whoever invented acoustic “popcorn” ceiling should have their sack nailed to the ceiling.

In retrospect, it was all worth it, but there were definitely times during the process where I didn’t know if that would be the case or not. The sanding and scraping of the ceiling was most assuredly the low point. I don’t think, with the exception of gall bladder attacks, I have ever been so miserable.

I started by removing the cheap (at least I hope the previous owners didn’t pay much for it, it sure looked cheap), poorly installed crown molding, to find yet more molding. That actually ended up being a good thing since we had thought we would have to install trim after painting but I was able to patch what was there enough to be presentable.

After all the molding was down, and what seemed like a million nails in various stages of rust were removed, came the ceiling work. What a bitch. Put on fogged up goggles, a head cover, and a dust mask, roll around in some wet chalk dust, now stand on a ladder and hold various tools and implements above your head for several hours a day for a week or so and you will just about have the experience captured.

Next was all the wiping down, sanding, caulking, spackling, and patching of the walls and trim. The time between the beginning of the ceiling scraping and the priming was a period of at least a couple weeks (I literally lost all sense of time) but I don’t have many pictures of this time because my entire world became dust and dirt and I was too paranoid about getting the camera grimy to do any documenting.

Ah, and then after the final wipe down, came my favorite part (seriously, I am not being sarcastic at all) priming and painting. I find the process of priming and painting almost…meditative. Maybe it’s the OCD and/or my obsession with color but there is just something about the transformative powers of paint I find therapeutic

There are still a few things that I need to do before I can call it “done”. I need to hang pictures and art on the walls, since I took these pictures, we have installed the new ceiling fan, eventually we are going to paint the front and closet doors. We couldn’t decide whether to just paint them the trim color or so something a little more adventurous. We also would like to buy a new rug (leaning towards FLOR tiles) and perhaps a coffee table for the first time since we’ve been married.

Overall, the English language can not fully express how happy I am with the results. I think this is the most “me” room I have ever had.

Notes: The credenza/dresser/tv stand was my grandparents’, it was part of their bedroom suit they bought when they got married. The bench was built for us by my husband’s grandfather. The white vase and white ceramic bowl thingy  were my grandmother’s (a set of two), the blue miniature pitcher on the shelf and little pine straw basket on the tv stand were made by my great aunt (grandmother’s sister) and the Eiffel Tower was a souvenir my parents brought back for me from their trip to France earlier this year. The little ducks I found at a local antique store and the fish we bought in Jamaica.

Edited: I wanted to add a picture with the new ceiling fan and a rough mock up of what I was thinking for above the couch.