Grandkids

All the grandkids (my parents' grandkids) were gathered in one place this past weekend.  From left to right:  Liam Wolfe, Alethea Thompson, Hunter Thompson, Logan Clark, Silas Wolfe, Shamus Wolfe

Cute huh?

A Word of Advice, from the (not so) Wise

When you go to the beach, it's not enough just to buy sunscreen.

That's right folks, simply buying the sunscreen and setting it in the sand next to your towel does not protect against sunburn.  Also, slathering it on your back but completely neglecting chest, face and legs is also horribly insufficient.

I will not post photos proving my point.  You'll just have to take my word for it...

Bridge!

Jeff built our first bridge yesterday! And I helped! I don't have a ton of time to write right now, but I think pictures speak louder in this case anyway.

Squaring it up:

Bridging is in, but the light is fading fast:

He got all but the end pieces of decking on (those needed to be ripped down and shaped) but the dark won!

The next morning: FINISHED!

(eventually the area between the decks will be landscaped, with a nice, stepping-stone path down to the bridge)

Doesn't it look lovely from upstream?

Barber-que

Last night we had a fun time with all Jeff's co-workers over for a barbecue in our newly yard-like backyard. (Although down here I suppose I should say we had a cook-out, since there was no pork, no vinegar, and no slow-cooking in sight.) 5 of his co-workers, four of their spouses, 5 assorted kids, and lots of chairs, salads, appetizers, desserts and beverages started showing up at our door around 6 o'clock. Jim brought us a pot with a little Japanese maple and an ornamental peach tree, and Brad brought Jeff this fancy beer from Holland that comes in these crazy bottles with stoppers. By 7:30 Floyd had taken over the grill, everyone was happily filling their bellies and the kids were running around the yard having a great time. One of the kids, Maggie, who I guess was about 13 (7th grade) treated us to a pretty amazing show of walking on her hands-- even down a step! I wish I'd had a camera.

It was a good time. I can see how Jeff and his "work buddies" get along so well. The funniest thing, though, is that even though they all get along really well in the office, this seems to be the first time that camaraderie has left the office.... even though some of them have been working together for 10 years. As they left, a few of them were already making plans to "do this at our house" next year.

A Funny Story

So, Jeff and I like to drink wine.  We don't go crazy or anything, but we like to have a glass with dinner pretty regularly, and to keep ourselves to a budget we take our monthly wine allowance to Total Wine and More at the beginning of each month and pick out our bottles for the month.  Well, we were almost finished with the ritual tonight-- I had picked mine and Jeff needed a $7 bottle to be right on the money.  He wanted to try something new, so we're trolling around the store, trying to find something interesting-looking, when all of a sudden out of nowhere a salesman comes walking over to us, asking quite enthusiastically, "What does the perfect glass of red wine taste like?"

Jeff and I look at each other, and back at him, slightly confused, and he asks again.  I shrug, not sure how to describe the "perfect glass of red wine"  and Jeff says "Aahhhh" in a contented voice.

The salesman's reply to this: "Six dollars and ninety-nine cents, Nostrada Tempranillo Tarragona"

"huh?"

"Nostrada Tempranillo Tarragona, it's a fantastic wine, we sell tons of it, people come back looking for it.  More even than a Blackstone or--"

"Blackstone's one of my favorites," says Jeff

"Oh!" says the salesman, "Oh, you're going to love this, I'm going to blow you away, come here..."

He scampers over to a computer, and we follow along and watch over his shoulder as he pulls up the monthly sales records for Blackstone Merlot, Jeff's favorite wine and one the salesguy says is probably the most popular wine in the country right now.  They sell about a case a week, with some weeks quite a bit higher.  Then he looks up the Nostrada he's been touting-- the store sells over 40 bottles most weeks.  So Jeff says sure, throw it at me.  It's the exact price we were looking for after all, and at this point it's definitely safe to say it's "interesting."  The guy leads us to the Spain section of the store, picks an unassuming bottle off the bottom shelf, hands it to Jeff, and hurries away as suddenly as he appeared.  We took the bottle home and of course had to try it right away, and you know what?

It's delicious.  

Pear Tart

My entire family (except for Rose and Nate, waaaaay down in Mississippi) convened at Bradley's and Clayton's apartment for Easter this year and I was asked to bring a dessert. Actually I think I asked Brad what he wanted me to bring and was told "if theres anything u can think of for dessert u can bring that cuz i haven't any idea what to make"

So, being me, I decided to make a pear tart, which I have never done before and which required the purchase of not only ingredients, but also a tart pan in which to bake said tart. It was a multi-step process that involved pre-freezing and pre-baking the crust, whipping up a frangipani base (no, I never heard of that either till I found the recipe) and poaching the pears in a mixture of water, sugar, cloves, lemon, and vanilla before slicing them and placing them on top of the almond frangipani. However, I haven't taken on any outrageously difficult or time consuming projects lately, so I was overdue, and honestly the tart wasn't as much work as I thought it'd be from reading the recipe.

I think the results ended up looking pretty good, and the tart was very tasty as well, though it was very sweet. I think I'll omit most if not all the sugar from the pears next time.

Teaching

For anyone who was wondering, my first class was a week ago tonight (I'm not teaching tonight, because the school is closed for one of those holidays that only schools and governments get-- Martin Luther King Jr. day)  I think all in all, both classes (we meet Monday and Wednesday nights for 3 1/2 HOURS each time) went pretty well.  I'm already making lists of what to do differently when - and if - I teach this class again, but mostly just ideas of things that may work better, not things that went wrong.  It's hard to write specifics about drafting when I'm not really writing to a drafting audience (with a couple exceptions) but I'm happy with my students' progress so far.  I'll post updates if anything interesting happens. :o)