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May 30, 2010, at 10:00 pm
With my big vacation for the year fast approaching, I did a little shopping. If you recall, I was in the mood for a stack of gold bangles. These were exactly what I had in mind, but the $100 price tag was not working for me:
 Amrita Singh is having a big Memorial Day sale (50% off any order) and I have a sizeable reward credit left over from their winter holiday promotion, but I was pretty sure I could get the look without using $50 of my credit. I headed over to Harwin Street this weekend and paid about $12 for these:
 Not bad, eh? Maybe they’re not quite as pretty, but they’re cute enough for me! If any of them get broken or bent during my travels, I won’t be mentally calculating the loss. I love a good deal!
I haven’t resolved the gold flip-flops issue. It seems like all the pairs I like the most have terrible reviews on Zappos. My sister says Havaianas are worth the price, but I’m still thinking. I used to have rubber flip-flops in a rainbow of colors, but hours of Stacy & Clinton convinced me it was time to start wearing real shoes when I’m not at the beach, and I got rid of almost all of them — so now I wear leather flip-flops around town all summer, instead. I like to tell myself they’re slightly more respectable. :)
May 27, 2010, at 10:00 pm
You didn’t really think I was done posting insect pictures from the farm, did you?
Just one more set to come…
May 25, 2010, at 10:00 pm
I can never decide whether it’s more fun to send a care package or receive one, but someone important to me was in the hospital recently so I put together a little pick-me-up for her:
 Contents:
- Juicy Couture makeup bag
- Body Shop lotion in her favorite scent (plus they threw a little sample of something into the bag)
- Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple face wash (this is a great gentle wash, similar to Cetaphil but smells much nicer)
- MAC lipglass in Nymphette (I recently got a tube of this color for myself on Karen’s recommendation and I love it; it’s one of those rare colors that look great on a lot of different skintones)
- Ole Henriksen’s Three Little Wonders minis
- Magazines: Victorian Houses, Cooking With Paula Deen (later I thought maybe that’s a little cruel when you’re on hospital food..?), the Mother Earth News Guide to Growing Your Own Food (surprisingly, I found all of these at Target, which I usually regard as having a lackluster magazine section)
- Glittery butterfly greeting card
The hardest part was to stop shopping! What would be a must-have if you received a care package? Tops on my list would probably be Swedish Fish, followed by a book of crosswords or sudoku.
May 23, 2010, at 10:00 pm
One of my favorite things to do when we visit Hill Country is to stalk the farm with my macro lens, in search of insects and spiders. I’ve made it no secret that I love insects, but I’m also fascinated by discovering the tiny details about them that we seldom take time to notice.
Okay, a butterfly is technically not a baby, but this one is brand-new all the same!
 Anybody know what this is? I’ve identified some similar nymphs but none quite match.
 This guy turns into…
 …the pipevine swallowtail. Just emerged and stretching its wings!
 Praying mantis babies, smaller than a pinky nail.
Credit goes to Mark for spotting the emerging butterflies during our walk. He’s an excellent photography assistant!
May 20, 2010, at 11:39 pm
Who doesn’t like to get up at 5 AM on a Sunday to run around the woods in a helmet, bike some trails, run again, bike again, run again, and then crawl through a mud pit? Nobody, that’s who!
 Don’t we look excited??
Muddy Buddy has been an annual tradition for me since 2003 (minus 2008 when Mark and I were busy moving to TX), when I first learned of it and informed Jes that we would be participating. One year she went so far as to break her collarbone to get out of it, but my good friend Dan stepped in and wore our ‘Tough Broads’ team name proudly. She came back the next year under threat that I would personally break the other one if she got hurt again, or something like that.
Then Mark came on the scene and became our cheering section:
Until one day Jes moved to Colorado and passed the torch to Mark. We did our last (well, his first) VA Muddy Buddy in 2007, skipped 2008, and did our first TX Muddy Buddy in 2009, in Austin.
We pretty much decided that 2010 would be our last Muddy Buddy for a few reasons. Most importantly, I just don’t look forward to it all year like I used to. Maybe I am getting old, but I have several other ways I would like to spend a Sunday morning (hint: they all start with ‘sleeping’). Also, I kind of made a resolution to stop doing things that stress me out. See: 10K runs. There’s also the cost. I think when Jes and I entered in 2003, it was something like $80/team. Now it’s almost twice that. For a crawl through a mud pit and a t-shirt? And there isn’t even a swag bag anymore, even though the sponsors get bigger and bigger? You need $100,000+ per event for ‘race development,’ when the course is almost exactly the same every year? I love you, Muddy Buddy, but I’m starting to feel used.
So we decided this year would be our last hurrah, which was the primary reason for our Hill Country trip and pretty much the only motivation that pulled us out of the warm bed at our rental cabin at 5 AM. And when it was over, we cleaned up, chowed down, and took a nap.
May 18, 2010, at 10:00 pm
We spent an extra-long weekend in Texas Hill Country, visiting some old friends:
It was pretty exciting, as far as relaxing weekends away go. On Saturday night we arrived to torrential rain and hail (very loud on a tin roof). We had to ford a couple small rivers and drive over snowdrift-like mounds of hail to get to dinner. They abated by the time dinner was over, though the hail remained on neighborhood lawns well into the next day.
Last night we were expecting another large storm, this time with 1-2″ hail, so we decided ahead of dinner that we’d park under a tree when we returned. However, we returned to find that a very large branch had fallen off one of the big, old pecan trees on the property, so we took our chances and parked in the open after Mark hauled the enormous limb out of the driveway.
I have to say, what passes for excitement on the farm is still relaxation for these city dwellers. I wonder whether our jobs would miss us…
May 16, 2010, at 10:00 pm
I seldom make chocolate chip cookies because they never live up to my fantasy — moist and THICK. A cookie can’t be too thick. So I was hoping that the recipe by Wendy Gaynor of Ruby et Violette would be the cookies of my dreams.
Recipe!
They were delicious and moist, and (Mom, stop reading) I licked every bit of dough from the beater (I told you not to read that. I promise I did not get salmonella!), but they did flatten out more than I’d hoped — especially the ones that had to bake directly on the pan because I ran out of parchment, oops. Also, I skipped the step where you refrigerate the dough because chocolate chip cookies are comfort food, and I am not interested in waiting OVERNIGHT for comfort food. Seriously, who has that kind of self-control? But maybe it would have kept them thicker, guess I need to try again to be sure. Oh, and the recipe is supposed to yield 36-72 cookies, but in this house, it yields closer to two dozen. I’m sure that had nothing to do with it. :)
The blog where I first stumbled across this recipe suggested that four cups of chocolate chunks were too many and I scoffed — does not the fact that two bags of Whole Foods’ dark chocolate chunks contain four cups plus just enough for a snack while they bake indicate that four is perfect? — but I have to admit that I agree. If you regard the cookie as merely a vehicle for chocolate, then four will work for you, but if you want to enjoy the cookie as well, scale back.
Anyone have a recipe that might work better for me, even if I cheat on some of the steps?
May 13, 2010, at 10:08 pm
Phoning this one in. It’s been a rough week, but I think there’s a light at the end of the pier!
Stumpy Stingray is ready for the weekend, are you?
May 11, 2010, at 10:00 pm
When I was on my business trip to Lake Charles, the only thing I missed as much as Mark and our Tempur-Pedic was my smoothie supply. I threw this one together on Saturday in an effort to use up some stuff. Blueberry isn’t the dominant flavor, just the dominant color:
 When Mark makes smoothies, they are always green or brown. I told him that sometimes I see him putting in so much spinach that I wonder how there will be any room for GOOD stuff. :) When I’m driving the blender, a handful is enough to make me feel virtuous for the day!
Contents: a handful of spinach, half of a small avocado (peeled), a banana, a couple very large chunks of pineapple, a cup and a half or so of papaya, a couple handfuls of frozen blueberries, a couple cups of frozen mixed fruit, and a longish pour of milk. The frozen mixed fruit came from a gigantic bag of HEB’s own brand, containing peach slices, cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, and grapes. I didn’t add any ice since so much of the fruit was frozen, and ended up with one pint glass and one Camelbak bottle’s worth. Drank the former, froze the latter and had it today for breakfast.
I know my directions are imprecise, but I duplicated it the next day without worrying too much about proportions and it was just as good. I always blend what looks like enough, taste it, and decide whether to add more of anything. I have to admit that it makes the engineer and the baker in me a little nervous to just throw things in so willy-nilly, but it works!
May 9, 2010, at 8:34 pm
Nobody makes [favorite food] like Mom does. Nobody fixes booboos like Mom does. Nobody reminds you that you’re special like Mom does.
Here’s to mothers, because nobody will ever love you the way your mama does…
(Except maybe Dad, but he’ll get his day next month!)
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