I'm cleaning off my desk today and just came across a card with this link on it. We went to a wedding this summer in Green Bay that blew our minds. It was the wedding of Rory's college roommate, John Link. John and Rory have many a tale to tell...
The wedding was held at an event center, ceremony in the lobby area (lots of windows and glass sculpture) and the reception was held on the stage of the performing arts area. The view was looking out over a huge, stunning auditorium. And the entire reception carried this performance theme. Fitting, as John is a movie maker. I'll post some pictures, but mostly, I just want you to see this video they put together, sharing their stories of dating and engagement. It's some funny stuff.
things I'm thinking about...
***I came home last night after work and found Rory doing Tai Chi in our living room. He had found a dvd at the library and wanted to give it a try. Only thing, was that the video had been shot at a senior home, and was geared towards geriatric tai chi-ers. He told me to just wait until the camera pans out. And when it did, there was the spittin image of my Grandma Harrington. Honestly, could have been her 10 years ago. I would have laughed, but it sort of wierded me out.
***I made enchiladas last night and decided to broil the cheese for a minute just at the end so it would turn nice and bubbly with spots of brown. Unfortunately, when I went to take the casserole out of the oven, my thumb touched the bright red broiler coil directly. Holy hannah, do not try this at home. I had trouble sleeping last night because my thumb was demanding lots of deep breaths and reshifting of the ice pack. Today it doesn't hurt nearly as bad, it hasn't blistered but instead there is a nice brown patch where it was burned. I'd show a picture, but I personally get woozy seeing other people's bodily injuries on their blogs, so I'll try to never do that.
***I have 32 women coming to camp tonight to learn the art of Ukrainian Easter Egg dying. Two years ago my sister-in-law Lisa taught me and I became an enthusiast immediately. Yesterday I spent the day at work mixing up 33 dyes, and hand bathing all 75 eggs, one by one. Pictures and stories to come, I'm sure!
***I made enchiladas last night and decided to broil the cheese for a minute just at the end so it would turn nice and bubbly with spots of brown. Unfortunately, when I went to take the casserole out of the oven, my thumb touched the bright red broiler coil directly. Holy hannah, do not try this at home. I had trouble sleeping last night because my thumb was demanding lots of deep breaths and reshifting of the ice pack. Today it doesn't hurt nearly as bad, it hasn't blistered but instead there is a nice brown patch where it was burned. I'd show a picture, but I personally get woozy seeing other people's bodily injuries on their blogs, so I'll try to never do that.
***I have 32 women coming to camp tonight to learn the art of Ukrainian Easter Egg dying. Two years ago my sister-in-law Lisa taught me and I became an enthusiast immediately. Yesterday I spent the day at work mixing up 33 dyes, and hand bathing all 75 eggs, one by one. Pictures and stories to come, I'm sure!***And finally, I'm excited for the weekend! I'm not flying to North Carolina or California...just staying in Nebraska and that feels lovely and calm. Happy Weekend everybody!
blogging about blondies
Blogging is funny, because so often the pictures paint the scene and leave you wanting to be a part of the moment. I recently saw the lovely sunlit picture above on martawrites.com where she wrote of her butterscotch blondies. And ever since I've been thinking, "my life needs some blondies." So last night, after my sweet husband ran to the store for flour and butterscotch chips, I made my own blondies. The batter didn't look like enough to fit in my 9x13 pan, so I opted for my smaller size. But at some point in the oven, that 1 Tablespoon of baking soda really took off, and when the timer went off, I found a loaf of butterscotch goodness. Unfortunately, the bottom of the loaf was still raw. So I took the bars out of the smaller pan (thankful for the tinfoil) and placed them in the 9x13 pan for another 20 minutes. And when they came out they were dense as (what's a really dense thing? hmmm...just googled this question and was given the answer plutonium) dense as plutonium.
Rory was gracious and used a lot of milk to get his down. And lets face it, with enough butter and sugar, it doesn't really matter what your end result turns out to be. But just take a moment to compare my picture below to Marta's above. Makes me laugh.
california recap: WITH WORDS!
As you can tell from the pictures, this was a full vacation. And honestly, I've just been regrouping since we got back. I was working on this post, and accidentally hit publish when the post was just pictures and after realizing I had done so, I thought, "I'm just going to go to bed and write my commentary later." And so here I am, two days later, doing just that.
The weekend was splendid. I had in my head that we would just go and hang out at John and Shannon's house, and lay on our bellies reading books and playing with cars with their 1 and 2 year old. But they had a fabulous itinerary for us, and every day was perfectly played out.
We arrived on my birthday around five, and drove to a fantastic neighborhood (San Francisco is basically all fantastic neighborhoods) for my birthday dinner. We went to a Roman restaurant that blew our minds. And puffed out our bellies. I actually had gotten ill on the plane ride, so I was more in to the bread basket and divine olive oil. But Rory had quail and I think John had rabbit and Shannon had something that was so good, her plate was empty before I could really get a good look. :)
After supper, we drove to a park area right under the Golden Gate bridge. Shannon had made individual molten chocolate cakes for us with a hot raspberry sauce (she microwaved it at a gas station in the hot-dog microwave, commenting that was the first time she had ever used one of those microwaves for personal use. ha.)
We went on lots of walks...this is the trail behind their house...it is glorious and feels so secluded. Very Lord-of-the-ringsy.
On Friday we took a tour of a vineyard in Napa Valley. It was a stunning day and I learned so much about wine! Rory and I don't really drink so for us it was just a bit more informative as we practiced our wafting and finding the legs on our wine.
We brought our new SLR camera on this trip and tried all sorts of depth of field pictures. Actually, that was Rory. I was just trying to get used to not focusing with my little index finger and using the actual lens! Crazy how digital my world has become.
They brought out local cheeses to pair with the wine. Rory and I do eat cheese. Let that be known. We love our cheese.
John and Shannon are friends who have made serious intentional decisions about what they eat and have been telling us about a homemade chicken broth that they make a few times a month. So John gave us a demonstration and let me tell you, it was AMAZING. And not all that complicated. It's amazing to think our grandma's all did this all the time because this is how cooking used to operate. Later John made this broth and veggies and chicken into chicken pot pies. Salivating as a type. They were to die for. 
On Saturday we were presented five choices for a Rory-Becca day. They all sounded fabulous (including a cheese factory tour!) But we chose Stinson Beach and the Redwood Forest. While on the beach we had fish tacos with a homemade salsa that we still haven't stopped talking about.
This was the meadow leading to the big redwoods. I love that guy walking that path. I'd follow him anywhere.
This is me, casually standing with my knee slightly bent. I'm getting loopy-punchy as I type this. Sorry.
On Sunday we celebrated baby Kate's first birthday! We were actually with John and Shannon one year earlier when Shannon went into labor right in front of our eyes. This is maybe my favorite story of all time to tell, but way better in person. Ask me sometime. We went to the park in Farifax where they live and this guy was making bubbles like this one. I thought many times that my mom should really get into this. It combines bubbles, spell-bound-joy-filled kiddos and the outdoors. She'd be a great Bubble lady.
The weekend was splendid. I had in my head that we would just go and hang out at John and Shannon's house, and lay on our bellies reading books and playing with cars with their 1 and 2 year old. But they had a fabulous itinerary for us, and every day was perfectly played out.
We arrived on my birthday around five, and drove to a fantastic neighborhood (San Francisco is basically all fantastic neighborhoods) for my birthday dinner. We went to a Roman restaurant that blew our minds. And puffed out our bellies. I actually had gotten ill on the plane ride, so I was more in to the bread basket and divine olive oil. But Rory had quail and I think John had rabbit and Shannon had something that was so good, her plate was empty before I could really get a good look. :)After supper, we drove to a park area right under the Golden Gate bridge. Shannon had made individual molten chocolate cakes for us with a hot raspberry sauce (she microwaved it at a gas station in the hot-dog microwave, commenting that was the first time she had ever used one of those microwaves for personal use. ha.)
We went on lots of walks...this is the trail behind their house...it is glorious and feels so secluded. Very Lord-of-the-ringsy.On Friday we took a tour of a vineyard in Napa Valley. It was a stunning day and I learned so much about wine! Rory and I don't really drink so for us it was just a bit more informative as we practiced our wafting and finding the legs on our wine.We brought our new SLR camera on this trip and tried all sorts of depth of field pictures. Actually, that was Rory. I was just trying to get used to not focusing with my little index finger and using the actual lens! Crazy how digital my world has become.
They brought out local cheeses to pair with the wine. Rory and I do eat cheese. Let that be known. We love our cheese.
John and Shannon are friends who have made serious intentional decisions about what they eat and have been telling us about a homemade chicken broth that they make a few times a month. So John gave us a demonstration and let me tell you, it was AMAZING. And not all that complicated. It's amazing to think our grandma's all did this all the time because this is how cooking used to operate. Later John made this broth and veggies and chicken into chicken pot pies. Salivating as a type. They were to die for. 
On Saturday we were presented five choices for a Rory-Becca day. They all sounded fabulous (including a cheese factory tour!) But we chose Stinson Beach and the Redwood Forest. While on the beach we had fish tacos with a homemade salsa that we still haven't stopped talking about.
This was the meadow leading to the big redwoods. I love that guy walking that path. I'd follow him anywhere.
This is me, casually standing with my knee slightly bent. I'm getting loopy-punchy as I type this. Sorry.
On Sunday we celebrated baby Kate's first birthday! We were actually with John and Shannon one year earlier when Shannon went into labor right in front of our eyes. This is maybe my favorite story of all time to tell, but way better in person. Ask me sometime. We went to the park in Farifax where they live and this guy was making bubbles like this one. I thought many times that my mom should really get into this. It combines bubbles, spell-bound-joy-filled kiddos and the outdoors. She'd be a great Bubble lady.Kate's party was fabulous...complete with lots of frosting and John Thomas (2 year old big brother) yelling, "look at Kate dive into that cupcake" bazillions of times. Kate's favorite gift? A card that played winnie the pooh when she opened it. Keep that in mind for your next 1 year old birthday. Simple, inexpensive and perfect for a proud kid.
So there you have it! Our vacation was wonderful and now I'm still just trying to get laundry, groceries and life back under control. It's amazing how that just takes a few days after a good vacation.
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