Happy Halloween!

More fun than a barrel of monkeys! Many greetings to all of our ghost and ghouls worldwide.

This yummy graveyard cake was made from Cook's Country's Lost Recipes cookbook (another branch of America's Test Kitchen) Chocolate Blackout Cake. It's apparently based upon a legendary recipe from now defunct Ebinger’s Baking Company in Brooklyn. It sure was delicious. Love the Peeps!



As always, the guests make the party. Zorro and I are with some scary hockey player and a diminutive cowpoke.








Later on we
ran into Vampire Alex and our Egyptian yoga instructor. What an excellent array of characters we know!

Ack! It's almost September?

What happened to the summer? It seems to have completely missed me by this year. Must be working too much. Or at least too many hours, if not actually working too much. Even with all the rush of days this year, we did get to squeak in some really good memories.

Back in May, I was able to take a week to visit the parental units in their new Texan mansion. I slept in my own wing of the estate. (Dad points out that indeed, it has its own Air Conditioning 'zone') I think the whole state of Texas is just crazy because of all the land they have available. Who really needs that much sprawling space? Ok, so I'm a little jealous. I flew out in time for Mother's day. It was a whole Mom-themed week too! Not only did I get to hang out with my own mom, but with my sister Kate and all her motherly existence.

I even was able to attend one of Lily's ballet classes. She was most definitely the most adorable, smart and energetic of everyone. I can tell that by the fact that she was running all over the room, and nobody got upset that she wasn't paying attention to what they rest of them were doing. Obviously, someone so adorable knows they can get away with that kind of thing.


Of course she was also 9 months pregnant. At least for most of the visit. The last two days, she was actually not pregnant any longer. Instead, I got to meet our new niece Penny! Yay babies! Although, to be honest, it looks more like an alien for our family. Who ever heard of one of our family members being so non-Scottish looking? It's like my sister married an Italian or something. Dark curly hair and cute little dimples. It also may have something to do with the fact that this is the first relative, at least to my knowledge, to be born in the foreign country of TX. Yes, Penny was born at the Smith and Wesson hospital, in Temple. Or something like that.

So now the two cutest and adorable kids live in Texas. Sisters. I am going to see if we can't at least get them to wear the same kind of clothes, so people actually believe that they are related. Except for it may backfire, because little Penny is just too cute to believe, and she looks more like Lily's baby-doll, dressed in matching clothes.


We also were able to spend time with the most coolest of our nieces. Hannah came for a visit this month and we took a stay-cation in the DC area. We had an excellent time up in Baltimore, toured a submarine, then ate a Peking Duck. In DC we went to the Smithsonians, then she ate a Banana Split. Afterwards we saw a great Thai film "Tears of the Black Tiger" and then she had some Panang Chicken. We also drove down to visit Lurray Caverns, and then had an ice cream Sunday at Giffords. Monday, Dan & I actually had to appear at work for a few hours, so she was able to hang out and play Fallout 3 mostly, after which I took her out to our favorite Pho spot. All in all, we've discovered that not only is our niece Hannah smart, good looking, and fun to be with, but she also is a teenager. And eats like one. I needed to go back to food rehab afterwards. We had a great time though.

Also sometime this summer we fit in a visit from my parents, and went Blackberry picking. *Yummy Blackberry Cobbler!


AND we gained yet another niece! Our nephew Josh got married in June to Sarah. Sarah is now the newest, yet oldest of all our four nieces. Welcome to the family Sarah! Congratulations to All!

Mutant City Blues

There's another new RPG which was just published, that Dan got me involved in... Mutant City Blues.

The game setting is kind of a CSI meets X-Men environment. I was tempted into getting involved when they put on a who-dunnit competition. I guess it must be my competitive nature or something, but both Dan & I submitted entries.

Neither of us won, but Hey! I got Honorable Mention! (and a $30 voucher)

Remembering Pascal

We lost our sweet 16 year old Pascal last month. She has left a huge empty hole in our lives, which our other kitties have been trying hard to make up for with extra purring and snuggling. She will always be our princess, the elegant girl among the rabble rousing boys. Although I know she lead a full and loving life, every day I'm so sorry she's gone. We miss carrying her around like a baby, having her wake us up by petting our nose, seeing her cross her delicate little legs to look ladylike, and we even miss having her knock everything off the table until Dan moves off her spot on the sofa to watch TV with us.

We love our Pascal with our whole hearts and will never forget her.

Just say Cheese!

As much as I hate to say it, Bush really gets my goat; or today, France's sheep. In his last days of office, he decided that he would enact one of those most effective and necessary items that somehow will add to his legacy of presidency.

He effectively has banned Roquefort cheese in the US. Yes, there will be no more Roquefort. He enacted a 300% import duty on Roquefort cheese as a knee jerk reaction to the EU restrictions on hormone-treated beef. What the heck? How does this help us, our economy, or how we will view Gov. Bush in the future?

All I have to say is that he has no taste in quality cheese.

It's Snowing!

So, the car was covered in snow this morning. It's a light snow, the kind that's easy to wipe off the car windows and would make a really awesome snowman. That is if I took the day off... tempting, but no. Montgomery county schools are closed for the day, but the federal government is opened for business as usual. Dan's convinced that because our new president is from Chicago, we won't get a single snow day off for the next four years. I can't even imagine that Obama is the one making the call for snowdays. Wouldn't that decision be one that is staffed out?

Anyhow, since schools were closed, the snow was scheduled to continue all day, and I was going to be coming home early for another Vet appointment, I was able to work from our branch Rockville office today. I SO want to reduce my daily commute and work from there all the time, but it's a process... I'll probably work there again tomorrow, since tonight we're expecting more snow and freezing rain. Traffic certainly won't be improving with that kind of weather.

This past weekend we had a new furniture addition to the house. We'd been looking for a long time to find a good looking buffet for the dining room. With vaulted ceilings, a contemporary home, and specific tastes (and limited cash) the choices seemed very limited. Nobody seems to make decent buffets any longer! Those in catalogues are too shallow, just for show, or too darned tacky. Craig's list to the rescue! We found this beautiful mid century modern teak buffet for a song. It's six feet long, and the left two doors open to pull out shelves. Each of the doors has wood inlay with a hourglass design, and the handles are angled to match the inlay. Slowly I am moving stuff into the buffet, but it's a good time to sort things to head down to the basement.

We also had another vet visit today; a dental for Pascal. After last week's surgery, she's doing well. Unfortunately, after having blood drawn today, she's uncomfortable and whiny. She stands in the hall and wails loudly, making full use of the echo to make sure we notice. Upon going to see what's up, she changes to a pitiful mew and watery big eyes. All she wants is to be held really. So, this blog has been typed one-handed, and with full assistance from Pascal. (She is purring now as I hold her wrapped in a blanket.)

Footprints in the Snow

Lately it's been really cold in DC, as most of the TV watching world heard about last Tuesday the 20th. Further north, we did get a little bit of snow. Because it's so cold, the snow stayed on the ground all week. The benefit? We get to see where our little critters in the yard wander. The photo on the left is one of our bunnies. The one on the right, I'm not sure of, but they have itty bitty feet (the foot prints above the little ones are the bunny tracks again.)

Even without much snow, it's still been so cold in the area that the Potomac has frozen over. It's not the smooth ice that I remember ice skating on as a kid, but a big chunky ice over the whole river.