Merry Christmas

This December has been brutal for Chicago. In fact, Ryan saw today that it's the snowiest December since 1871. I not-so-secretly love snow but man, this is trying my patience. We wanted to leave town today but a snow storm has delayed us. Thankfully for you, I have time to post a Merry Christmas blog.

To everyone out there in the blogosphere, I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas and that you take the time to spend a few slow moments with your family to remember in the hustle and bustle.

Here are a few photos from around town...the huddled pigeons (instead of people) under the heat lamps at the train stop, the numerous packages on snowy doorsteps today and a snowman that was so cold this week he was really just made of ice.

See you all soon!

XO,
Kim

Grade school woes

So, I don't often think about grade school. I mean, I guess I do sometimes when I'm at my parents' house but that's about it. A few days ago I was suddenly contacted by a former classmate of mine who had been trying to find me on the internet. My class is having a 20 year reunion this summer and he was trying to find everyone for the list.

At first I felt kind of happy about it like, "Oh, won't that be nice. Everyone will have fun stories and it'll just be great" but now I'm starting to realize that I didn't really like grade school all that much. In fact, now that I'm on this email list and I'm getting a constant barrage of emails from people yucking it up, re-living the good times, talking about recent times they've all hung out together...I'm just realizing that all the memories...and all the insecurities are flooding back in for me. Was I a total bully in grade school? Was I funny? Did people think I was better looking than I thought I was? Do people have good memories of me? I have no idea and, frankly, I'm a little scared to hear.

I'm not 10 years old anymore but man, it's it interesting how those feelings are still so strong?

I know I don't talk all that deep on my blog mostly because I'm not usually a blabber about personal stuff to the world but something about it just made me want to write it down. It's just interesting how I just realized how much that whole period of my life affected me...good and bad...but how that formed such a huge part of who I am. People are still affected by what their parents did, their classmates, their teachers. We're all shaped by our experiences in our lifetime and we just can't shake that.

I can only hope that my role in the life of my step sons, nieces and nephews will be one that they will look back on fondly and, hopefully, helps shape them into happy people.

Cat Cookie

Several weeks ago at the DIY Trunk Show we got Ralphie a catnip-filled cat toy in the shape of a fortune cookie made by my pals Mary Ellen and Tyler of MELTY (they don't seem to have a website that I can find). Ralph loved it so much that within a few hours it already looked like this photo and by 48 hours it was nearly obliterated.

I managed to snap a photo before he disassembled it.

Just saw Obama!

I went downstairs to get a coffee at Hobin's (also known as Au Bon Pain) when Sarah and I noticed the calm on the street outside and a man stopped still just looking up the street. Since Sarah has seen Obama 4 times now her perceptive Obama-dar (a new form of radar) was alerting us to head outside immediately. We noticed all of Michigan Ave stopped dead and people were all stopping on the street waiting with eager frozen faces. And then he came on our little one way street so close to us...so exciting...in his SUV and on the phone with all the other SUVs behind him . I waved my little hand and did a little jig. Too bad I didn't have my camera!

Update on Janet!

Hey everybody! I got an email from Janet this morning letting me know they were going to induce her at 6am this morning since little baby Dorothy seems like she could be 9 1/2 pounds in there! Apparently she's not live-blogging this whole thing! Jeesh! (juuuust kidding)

Big secret project!

I'm sorry I keep spacing out and not blogging! Don't you just hate it? You check in here like everyday, every other day, every HOUR and I got nuthin! Arg!

I've been busy! I just finished up a big project for Christmas and I'm hopefully going to finally give my full effort to another Christmas present for my niece and then I really wanted to make my yummy minty chocolate balls (what did I call them last year? mint oreo truffles?).

So, anyways, I'm saying I'm sorry. I really do have a lot of photos I keep needing to show you. I'll try to get some up tonight!

XOXO,
Kim
P.S. This photo isn't mine. I think someone forwarded it to me a few years ago but I love it and just had to post it!

End of the train

After a very long commute to work this morning with unexplained train stoppings and delays, I wound up being the only person on the last train car between the last stop and mine. I sheepishly looked around the train a few times and realized it was true, then grabbed my camera and headed toward the back window in the door. I didn't have much time but I snapped a few photos of the snow-covered rails as evidence of our first real snow of the season.

Goodbye

Unfortunately, I feel like I've had to say a lot of goodbyes on my blog since starting it but this one...it took me over a month to write.

Goodbye Grandma.

From my earliest memories I thought you were the bee's knees. I savored every ounce of food you made from your famous cream puffs to your orange chiffon cake. I snickered at your declaration that you hated chicken and fish. I laughed just hearing you burst into a cackle. I liked hearing you fall asleep in my bed when you came to visit while I slept on the trundle. I clung to you on Halloween when the house in our neighborhood was too scary (and while you did more of that aforementioned cackling). I proudly announced you were my Grandma while the other kids at the Halloween party were screaming when "Dracula's Daughter" entered the room. I secretly cheered when you said "crap" in front of my mother and she scowled.

I love how joyful you were - how everyone in the room was happier that you were in it.

You were the matriarch.
You were Grandma and I would not be who I am today without your wonderful influence.

I love you.

Unsinkable

I can't even begin to tell you how emotional the last three weeks have been for me. Moving was bad enough but then the call about Grandma was overwhelming.

The best news to report is that Grandma is amazingly doing much better!! I can't even explain it myself. She was near death last Monday but we all prayed she'd make it until Tuesday when I got in to see her. Tuesday morning when my mom arrived the doctor said, "I think we have a little miracle here." Grandma was sitting up, jabbering about fish frys and spaghetti and winking at us again. Wednesday through Friday was another slow decline which led us to a hard realization - we had to honor her living will that said no feeding tubes even though she was unable to swallow herself. We moved her out to the nursing home my cousin works in with the idea that it would be hospice care. Even in those moments Friday when this healer came in to pray over her, my Grandma, who hadn't spoken much all day or made much sense, told my mom to sit down and relax.

Saturday morning we arrived heavy-hearted but soon saw my Grandma perk up, make jokes, more winking, I love yous and the planning of her 90th birthday party on October 17th.

When I left on Sunday I was completely unsure of what was going to happen but since then she's been eating ice cream and now being wheeled out into the dining room to hang out! Every day is another miracle with her and I'm just so thankful that I had the time to spend with her for that week while she was in the hospital. I hope that our love, adoration and making her laugh (as well as her making us laugh too!) helped inspire her to make it through this rough patch and on to more fun times ahead.

Thank you all so much for praying for her. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm totally in love with my Grandma and credit her for passing down some of the best genes I have! I'm in awe of her strength and her love.

Here's a photo I snapped of her on Sunday before I left. She had just gotten that little Dracula (her favorite man) from her friend and she was delighted! She'd kill me though if she saw this - she doesn't have her teeth in!

Grandma

Hi everyone,

Sorry I've been absent. I moved last weekend and then flew out Tuesday to be in St. Louis all week at my Grandmother's side. Things are not looking good for her right now. Please keep my lovely Bernice in your prayers.

Love,
Kim

We're moving!

Yes, yes, I know, moving makes it seem like we can't cut it in the neighborhood without the Morans but...well...we can't cut it in the neighborhood without the Morans. Oh I'm just kidding. Honestly, we've been thinking about moving anyway and, upon looking around for a while, we found a place exactly in the neighborhood we want! So, in two weeks we'll be hauling all of our junk over to a place in Lincoln Square. I'm excited to be able to walk to many of the places we love. I'll also be headed back on the CTA and using my ipod again!

Photo courtesy of future landlord.

Cute alert!

Ok, this cheered me up today in the midst of being way too busy at work!
Read this from the bottom up. I can't even explain how much I wanted to hold that little furry cutiepie! Check out this blog:
Buster's Journey

Felines

This past weekend we shopped around for cats!  We had it in our mind that we wanted a kitten...so cute...so silly...so tiny!  Anyway, within seconds of our visit to the Evanston animal shelter, the ladies were shaking their heads, smacking their gums, and telling us a kitten is just not a good idea to pal around with a bored and depressed 10 year old male cat.  I don't know if I agree...Ralph is pretty darn playful and seems like he'd adore something to just take care of but hey, I'm not professional cat psychologist so I don't know.

Anyway, we left there and headed over to Felines, Inc. near our house.  They have about 140 cats in that place all just hanging around in a cageless building.  It was an amazing experience.  The staff was so cool and so nice - the just let us walk around and just hang out which was great.  We got to just sit and chill, pet the cats, check them out, let them schmooze us.  After we left I realized I had fallen in love with about 3 cats in just 30 minutes!  That's way better than trying to see which cat you think is cute while in it's cage!  WHA?  

We didn't get a cat that day...I think we're just sitting on the idea a bit...working on some more pressing issues (which I will fill you in on shortly), but I think we've decided we're in love with that place and would love to get Ralph a new buddy from them.  I'll keep you posted!

P.S. The first and third photo are of the cat they named Toto because he was left on an animal shelter's doorstep in a basket.  He was aaaadorable but maybe a little snippy toward some other cats.  He swiped at one guy while we were there but man, he even let me pick him up and snuggle him!  The second cat (oh, I can't remember his name) followed Ryan around the whole time, rolling around and looking cute until we'd go to pet him and he'd want to bite.  The big black and white guy was Moki and he was so calm, so sweet and cool.  I just wanted to scoop them all up and take them with me!  When I got home I was instantly on Petfinder.com looking up their cats like it was their personals ad.

A little bit of randomness

Here are some photos that I took a little bit ago when accompanying Ryan on a journey to his band's practice space.  I thought the area was the perfect Chicago hidden nook...I wanted to take photos of everything.  Between the rapidly setting sun and the battery dying in my camera, I didn't get a lot of photos but I got a few!

Andrew Bird show

Wednesday evening Ryan and I met up downtown at the Pritzker Pavillion in Millennium Park to see my favorite - Andrew Bird.  

He was spectacular.  Like a proud mom I watched my local boy rocking out one minute and silencing the crowd the next with his violin, his wildly waving pointing finger and his shoeless pedal-pushing feet.  

It was a perfect evening.

More to come

There will be more photos than this but this was the first one I really took a look at today and I kind of liked it. Last night we saw Andrew Bird down in the park and it was splendid.

Mini Doughnuts

Mmmm...doughnuts...

I bought a mini donut pan a couple of weeks ago to bake (=healthy) some doughnuts. In scouring the internet, I kept reading that the recipe that came with the pan was horrific but that the pan was pretty fun. I found a vegan recipe and somewhat de-veganed it for my own purposes and created some pretty tasty and cute doughnuts this morning!

Here's the recipe:

Baked Mini Donuts

Dry ingredients:
1c all purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ground nutmeg (yes, i really did grate a nutmeg this morning!)
1/8 t cinnamon

Wet ingredients:
1/2 c vanilla soymilk (i kept this part in)
1/2 t cider vinegar
1/2 t vanilla
1 egg
4 T butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients and set aside.

In a sauce pan, add in soymilk, vinegar, vanilla and butter. Set the heat to low and let it warm up slowly. When the butter is about 1/2 melted, add in the egg and stir wildly to combine. You don't want this liquid to be so hot that it cooks that egg and scrambles it so be sure everything is a nice baby's bottle temperature at the most.

When the butter is fully melted and the egg incorporated, add it into the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.

Spray mini donut pan with baking spray and, using a small spoon or pastry bag, load in batter to about 1/2 - 2/3 full. Bake for about 15 minutes or until browned. I suppose you could cook them longer if you want them super brown but they might get tougher on you. Transfer to a cooling rack.

When slightly warm you can roll them in sugar, cinnamon sugar or wait until they are cooled and dip them in a glaze or chocolate! I used all four methods and I'd say we liked the milk glaze the least. My favorite was the milk chocolate glaze with nuts (not pictured...whoops). For the chocolate glaze I mixed lightly melted milk chocolate Ghirardelli chips with milk until the desired consistency. Dip in the chocolate then dunk in the nuts. Yummmmmmms.

Yield: 24 mini doughnuts

Miss you guys

So our friends Janet, John and Henry moved away this past week. It's been sad to see their place from our usual perch with the binoculars and telescope (just kiddin) without them in it. We'll miss you guys, our easy walk over with food from across the street, being yelled at by Henry as I head out to work, being taunted by Janet still in her pjs and preventing the police from needlessly ticketing John's truck. It's going to be pretty boring around here without you.

Happy Birthday Declan & Henry!

Declan and Henry's birthdays are 10 days apart so they have the pleasure of celebrating them together...but like 100 times at everyone's houses over that 10 day span. We did our first celebration of their birthdays at our house the other day. I thought this series of photos was pretty funny.

Don't mention the store bought cake. Thank you. It's been so hot in our apartment that it's really not good to crank up the oven. Ryan said they wouldn't care one bit. Of course, when I put the cake down, Declan's first words were, "Did you make it?" I said, "No." He went, "AW." in a disappointing decrescendo. I did write "Happy Birthday" on it, added dinosaur sprinkles and white icing flourishes to the edges. Whichever, it kind of made me feel better in a way that he noticed...and likes my baking so much. :)

I love the rainy night

Growing up in Missouri, we had tornado sirens going off at least once a school year. We'd all practice running into the hallway, tucking up in a ball and waiting until the teacher said we could finally get back to our desks. I always liked the fire drills better since those you could at least go outside and talk to your friends. The tornado drill just made you intimately familiar with the dust bunnies down the corridor and the smell of pencil shavings that somehow permeated my uniform skirt.

Chicago doesn't seem to get tornadoes. Every lay person has their theory like, "the buildings are too tall, it just can get over here" or "the lake breaks up the pressure so we'll never have a tornado in the city." I don't know what the real story is (and clearly I don't care enough to look it up) but I'm usually comforted in knowing my house won't be swept up and thrown onto a witch anytime soon.

Last week we had an incredible storm here. The tornado sirens started going off and the emergency service kicked on our TV specifically giving a shout out to Rogers Park as in the path of imminent destruction. Ryan and I ran into the basement and sat on the floor hoping we wouldn't lose our electricity. Our basement neighbor was in his apartment blissfully unaware just cooking some dinner in the microwave.

When we ventured back upstairs I sat in awe of the powerful storm. The lightning was constant and gorgeous. I was hoping to catch one of those moments when the lightning stretched across our skylight but I never caught it. I did manage to catch a bolt of lightning illuminating the building across the street in a pale blue light. I thought it was beautiful.

Mr. Blue Sky

I think it's fitting that on Friday, the day the Olympics started in Beijing, I was so taken with the sky on my way to work I had to snap a few photos. There's no way that my quick clicks from the inside of my car could do it justice but here we go.

It just made me wonder what it would be like to live in a city where you never see the sky like this. For all of Beijing's accomplishments and construction, they can't build a new sky in which to over their bird's nest stadium.

Michigan Trip

A few weeks ago a whole group of my pals and I went up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to hang out at Brenna's family's cabins. We had an incredible time up there kicking back on Lake Superior. Here are some photos from the trip! It was so beautiful up there it was hard to decide what photos to use!

Goodbye Vashti

Some of you may already know that last Friday we had to let our cat Vashti go. She was suffering from a total shut down of her kidneys.

Although it was a hard span of 24 hours, we spent as much time with her as possible camping out on the bed in the air conditioned bedroom all having lunch together, petting her constantly and trying to make peace with what was to come soon.

She was a beautiful kitty who knew, after I lost Beano, that I needed a new best buddy. She followed me around the house, even pushing open the bathroom door with a little determined grunt just to see me (sometimes this was awkward), standing on the chair behind me as I was on the computer rubbing her head on my shoulder...just all of those sweet moments that brighten your day and make things feel like they'll be OK.

She is greatly missed.

Doileez

So I don't do much linking around to products and things I like. I'm not sure why...I guess I feel like there are so many blogs with so many things that are cool...where would I even start? But honestly, I might as well start somewhere. This morning I saw these super cool Doileez and I just fell in love seeing that image of the cake and two raspberries. The best part about this product - doesn't make you feel super guilty that you just bought a whole new set of dishes just because you think they're pretty! This way, you have very thin stacking Doileez that jazz up your existing plates, tables, etc. and the "I have way too much stuff and I feel bad about myself" guilt is as a minimum. :)

Aimee's new blog!

Howdy -
In true Kimkobiloba fashion, I've been failing to post new things because I have a serious backlog of great photos I need to edit before I can post images of my most recent trip. This is a problem that has been noted and has been forwarded all the way to the CEO, CFO, UFO and CPD. Thank you for your patience.

In the meantime, I wanted to mention that my good pal Aimee has created a new blog called Label-Free. It's entirely about the world of "homesewn" - a world I've been daydreaming about joining in earnest very soon. I wish some of these folks lived in Chicago to help tutor me!

Ryan's Father's Day Note

Ryan received this note with his Father's Day card from Declan on Sunday. Thankfully I was laughing about Henry being goofy when Ryan read point #2 out loud so I could freely keep on hysterically laughing without Declan knowing it was about his note. I'm assuming he means that Ryan is a very loving father. :)

I really, really like you

Ryan and I have been seeing these signs that someone has made and posted up around our neighborhood. It's not an original idea - the "you are beautiful" guy championed this several years ago - but it still makes you stop, think about who this is, why they're doing it...

And this morning I'm using his signs that we took photos of to post for myself on my blog to give my sleeping Ryan an apology for biting his head off last night as we tried to install the air conditioners and fix the blinds in the horrible heat.

I'm sorry I was a meanie pants. :(
I still really, really like you.

New No Poop

Looks like this year my downstairs neighbors got a fancy new sign for the front yard! I like!

Here comes the sun

Vashti

So over the last few months Vashti has decidedly changed her personality into a very sweet and loving little cat. The problem may be that I'm allowing her to be too spoiled to the point where, if I don't pick her up enough, she'll just walk around and cry. I'm trying to cut back, honestly, but who doesn't find it fun to have a cat that will just hang out and be held while you blog on the computer, while you brush your teeth, look for the right pair of socks, etc.? Am I right, people?

Anyway, I'm trying to cut the cord a bit so she's totally not in my lap while I'm writing this. Actually, I think she's eating. I'm always second fiddle to that bowl of dry food.

Cupcakes

The joy of letting them decorate their own cupcakes...

OkGo

okgo show

The other evening I had the pleasure of receiving some free tickets to see OKGO from my pal Neysa. It was an outdoor event for Columbia College's big art festival, Manifest but I was *special*.

We weren't supposed to have cameras so I couldn't go crazy with the photos but here is what I did manage to snap that was noteworthy.

I won't race unless I'm Chased

Last Thursday I participated in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge (race thingy). I had convinced my entire pod (for laymen that means the 4 cubicles of people that all sit together at my office) to participate. I am no runner so I determined ahead of time that this would be a purely walking endeavor.

After the 1/2 mile walk down there, standing around, listening to all the runners going for 15 minutes, we finally began to scramble up to the starting line. At about the 1/2 mile point we got right alongside the runners who were nearing the end of the run. :( 3 miles to go...

And then, at about 2.5 miles we just all got bored. I felt like jogging...which clearly means I'm losing my mind...and we all ran out of things to talk about except how bored we were. I came up with the idea of strapping a laptop around my neck next year so I could at least email or maybe even do a real-time blogging event! But we persevered and headed to the finish. At the last few moments I decided to sprint and took off like a mad woman toward the finish. I made the photographer laugh.

All in all, I think it was close to a 5 mile walking day. I was proud of my pod for participating and proud of myself for sticking to it.

Happy Memorial Day!

Nothing like a giant hot dog balloon to wish you a Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Lou's Birthday

Here are some images from Heidi Lou's birthday soirée earlier this month. We had a great time with tons and tons of great food from Brenna, some homemade burgers and quite a few cupcakes. I had made the pink ones which tumbled inside the carrier on the way over to the party so the little white ones were a photo substitute but heck, I still took photos of the pink messes anyway. And please note the sad clown, Brenna. She was cutting onions.

Maybe Brenna will be so kind as to send over some of our group pictures? We were posing for a photoshoot for Brenna all huddling over Heidi, and Otis (Brenna's doggie) was licking his chops each time we leaned him in...then his party hat would slip to the side and Heids and I would cry with laughter.

It was one of the funniest evenings I have had in a long long time.

Happy Birthday, Lou! Love you real much!

Me? Career Day? Huh.

Earlier this month the super boss of the whole office got an email asking if he could send a photographer or at least a researcher to talk at Career Day at Rosario Castellanos Elementary School on the southwest side. The request was then filtered down until it got a yes from me (the reigning "employee of the quarter", i might add).

I arrived at the school right around lunch time and I was greeted by some kids who were told to carry all my stuff for me...pretty sweet. So my lackeys and I went off into the library where there were pans and pans of what looked like the best Mexican food I had seen in weeks (Hah! Sorry, I eat a lot of Mexican food). I fixed a small plate and headed for a seat when I immediately recognized our local NBC morning weatherman, Andy Avalos. I smiled, he smiled and said hi and then I shuffled to the table behind him because I felt silly.

After lunch (where we were even offered homemade flan but I had no room to eat a bite) I was led to my classroom. There were three sessions of kids, so three presentations I was supposed to do, each lasting 30 minutes. I had no idea what my angle was going to be. I figured, "I'm a talker, I'll come up with it on the fly."

So there I am in the middle of talking about my basic stuff like what I do, where I grew up, blah blah, and I'm thinking, "I'm supposed to advise these kids on what it's like to be a photo researcher? I'm supposed to be a model of a career path when I tend to meander through school touching on 4 different majors and being forced to finally just pick something due to a lack of time, a career largely based on meeting a hilarious guy at my Kinko's who's parents happened to own a photo researching business...this is all supposed to inspire kids?"

Huh.

And then I realized my angle...it was so clear to me. I spoke, "You know, some of you will just know what you want to do in life. Someone here might really want to be a doctor, someone here might really want to open their own restaurant, or be a basketball player. My best friend knew in college she wanted to be a photographer and that's exactly what she did. I've never been that person. As a kid I loved art, I loved music, theatre, cooking...and that's pretty much what I still love today. I've never found it easy to decide which of those things I've wanted to concentrate on. I know there will be some of you out there who will feel that way too...that you're interested in a lot of things and you're good at them. I think the best advice I can give you is that it's ok. It's ok to not know what you want to do. You don't necessarily have to choose one career that you're going to be in for the next 50 years. Keep your eyes and ears open, keep yourself learning along the way, and try to keep learning about the things you love. It's ok to figure it out as you go."

And there we had it, that was my angle, the girl who, to them, looked like she had this awesome career working with photographers in this cool company downtown but who really made a lot of detours (especially in college...sorry Mom) but still ended up doing pretty well for herself.

The funny part is I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

P.S.

I looked for a contraband video from our show last night and couldn't find one but here's an ok video from an earlier performance. This is one of their new songs which was pretty cute. At our show Jemaine messed up the lyrics and they had to restart which was amusing...and we didn't have the sing along...and Bret's hair is shorter now...so many subtle yet important differences to note...I'll quit boring you with the details. On with the show!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aT-gyVrwYI

And, not to support the people who were blatantly taking photos at the show although we were told not to, here is someone else's photo from the show just for posterity.

Flight of the Conchords

Yes, that's right, we were two of the 3,600 people lucky enough to get tickets for the Flight of the Conchords show tonight! This is all due to Ryan's smart move of getting in line at 9:30am the day the tickets went on sale. We got 4th row slightly to the left...probably 25-30 feet away from Bret and Jemaine for their brilliantly funny show at the Chicago Theatre.

They played a bunch of their stuff from the show and the album as well as four new songs. It was sad that Ryan was still pretty sick or else he would have been laughing much harder. :( Poor Mr. Ryan.

If the guards at the theatre wouldn't have been so threatening I could have tried to take more photos besides these sneaky ones!

Smile!

Ok, everybody, put on your best fake smile for the camera! Lookie here! Greeaat! Thank you!

The Sublets at Lilly's

Last week I saw a raucous show out at Lilly's in Lincoln Park. It was this new band called "The Sublets". The lead singer/guitarist looked amazingly like my very own fiancé. They sounded great, looked pretty cute too and had what was the best merch I've ever seen for a new band! They have a bunch of shows booked for the summer already so I'll be taking more photos...hopefully in a place that's more photogenic than this one!

Seattle

Hi there!

A few weeks back I went out to Seattle to visit my good pal Nikki thanks to a frequent flyer ticket. The weekend was short but so fun to hang out with her, meet her pals and see some great scenery.

Here are some of my favorite photos from my trip!

#1 - Pike Place Market (with Nikki's beautiful flowers and a Beatles cover band)
#2 - Tulips outside of Seattle (it was a week early for the tulips but please note Nikki's mandatory cup of coffee)
#3 - Night time ventures in Seattle (and playing with very low light)
#4 - La Conner, Washington
#5 - Nikki's apartment and the Space Needle

Sabor

Ryan and I have found this great little Mexican place not too far from our house. We first went there about a month ago when I was feeling the combination of wanting to eat melted cheese (does that mood hit everybody or is it just me?) and wanting to venture out more in our neighborhood.

There's this stretch of street that has at least 25 Mexican restaurants on it...all of them looking unique in their own way...all of them small businesses. So it's hard to determine which one is THE ONE you're going to try. We decided to go for the one with the bright paint job and old diner counter.

The food was great...fresh...generous portions...creative yet traditional...everything I really wanted. So last night we went back for our second visit. This time they recognized us and treated us more like regulars. I realized then that the place is owned by two people in their early thirties (and to me that's young and wonderful). They're making the horchata from scratch. They're starting the beans from a soak. He's making up citrus marinates for the pork. It was then that I felt, "This is our place!"

I don't know if everybody is like that...I guess maybe they are, take the theme song from Cheers, for example. But I loooove finding that new special place where I not only love what they're selling but I want to support them in their success as well. I do it with my hair dresser, I do it with my Mexican food, I do it with my sushi & Thai. To me, there's nothing better than seeing my money going to support someone else's dream, their passion and their hard work.

Maybe I'll think about finally signing up for the fresh vegetable boxes from the local farmers with that same idea. Maybe that will make me fall in love with brussel sprouts the way I fell in love with Sabor Michoacan's horchata.

It's a Boy!

No silly, I'm not pregnant but my sister-in-law is! We just found out yesterday that she's having a boy! After three girls they are thrilled to be bringing home a boy to play with legos and Star Wars with Daddy. Of course, Daddy has trained the girls to like those things too!

Congratulations and HOOOOORRRRAAAYYY!!

Brown sugar

The rest of the light brown sugar mingling with the dark brown sugar...

This chocolate chip cookie recipe was insanely good. The cookies stayed chewy and the mix of chocolate was a stroke of genius on my part. (If I do say so myself)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 c unsifted flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
2 t vanilla
2 eggs
1 c Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips
1 c Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 375. Stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy and lightened in color (about 4 minutes). Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed until incorporated.

Gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Yield: nearly 4 dozen cookies

It occurred to me the other night that there are tips in baking cookies that I can impart to my dear readers. Here goes:

1) Cook one pan of cookies at a time for best even cooking. I know sometimes I've tried to jockey two pans in the oven but I'm constantly worried and it always seems one pan is overdone too quickly. If you can just take your time you're better off.

2) When you take the cookies from the oven, remove them quickly and place on wire baking racks. They'll cool down the quickest and have the best texture.

3) Use as many pans as possible. When I take one pan from the oven I can throw another pan in for baking. I then remove the cookies from the first pan, wipe the pan with a paper towel to remove crumbs and distribute any grease, then cool down the pan before loading it up with new drops of cookie dough. If you put the dough on a hot cookie sheet too soon, the butter will start melting from the dough and spread out along the pan, causing an ugly spreading thin cookie that will have super dark edges. Always try to get the pan to room temperature.

Signs of Spring

Easter photos

This Easter was so early we had snow the day before it. That was hard to stomach when I thought about the joy of a good Easter egg hunt, the flowers starting to pop out of the ground...the usual sort of thing I conjure up when I think of Easters past. It was a nice day, however, and not super cold (the snow melted off by afternoon) and we had a great time. The boys were treated to a surprise indoor Easter egg hunt from the Easter Bunny when we arrived home from Grandma's house. As you can see, Declan broke into a dance from the robin-egg candy rush and then ended up floored.

Happy Easter!

Hi everybody! Sorry I've been completely absent lately but I've been organizing a "green week" at my office about the environment, making peep cupcakes for our baking contest and generally working constantly without stopping. I had a quiet moment this morning to say hello so I thought I'd reassure you that I'm still here and will be posting more soon. For now I leave you with a photo of my baking contest-winning peepcakes from earlier in the week so I can get ready for Easter at the future in-law's house!

xoxoxo