trick or treat!

halloween cookies

We went to a pumpkin carving party tonight (great idea, I thought!) and because we couldn't decide which kind of cookie to make, we made both! I found these two recipes and couldn't resist the temptation. It took me most of yesterday and this afternoon and I had a great time.

These were cute. I love the vampires still, even after decorating and looking at them all night (not true of the ghosts or pumpkins, really). The cookie recipe, while it held its shape as promised, was not the best. While they are perfectly edible, I won't use that recipe again.(I took that picture upside down. Can you tell? Flipped around it's giving me vertigo.)

I was so proud of my Domos! The cookie tastes like a chocolate shortbread cookie. It was a pleasant change after the sugar overload of the other sweets. They were a ton of work but definitely worth it, I thought. A few thoughts on the recipe: the recipe has a brown:red ratio or 2:1. I think it should be closer to 3:1. Also, if the red dough had been firmer the mouths would have stayed more square. Next time, I will make more brown dough and the red dough firmer.Here are all 4 pumpkins. Ours is the one on the far left.Even though this picture is blotchy and blurry, it's one of my favorites of the night.

Encore, how I loathe thee.

I have been mostly pleased with my new public library. (You might not think there's much difference from library to library, but I know Janssen will back me up on this one.) Anyway, this one is pretty good. I can have 5 holds at a time (up from 3 at the last place), there are no fees for forgetting to pick up a hold (something I've only done once in 4 years but it still makes me sad to pay $2 and also not get the book I waited for), and they are open 7 days a week (which is nice since I always seem to want to go on Mondays when lots of AZ libraries are closed). Still, you can only renew a book once (sad) and can't have DVDs shipped from other libraries in the system so it's not quite perfect. One thing I hate hate hate about this library, though, is it's online catalog (which is called "Encore"...I think it should be called "never again" instead). It's stupid.

Case in point: I searched for "story logic and the craft of fiction" a book I read about here. I did not search by title, just a regular overall search. My result was "No catalog results found.

Did you mean: sammy keyes and the art of deception?" No, actually, I didn't. Besides, I might not capitalize my searches but shouldn't you, oh library database, capitalize book titles? I don't know why this bugs me more than just "no results found" but I feel like it should be smarter than to think the craft of fiction should lead me to the story of a seventh-grade sleuth who investigates happenings at a local art gallery. Although, as I type that out, it sounds kind of interesting. Maybe the library catalog is smarter than I think. Also, I always type "catalogue" but Blogger does not approve. I like grey better too, so take that Blogger!

Oh, and for anyone who just reads the blog for pictures, a picture of Jonah:

a new first (updated**)

First tornado warning today. Freaky. It starts like a thunderstorm/flash flood warning but ends with: "Take cover now." Yikes!

Unless of course you're on campus taking a test and then it's a high pitched siren warning you to take cover to which your teacher says, "oh, just ignore it." Or so I hear.

**I actually was pretty freaked out just because I didn't think tornadoes really ever hit here (come to find out 2 people I know have had major tornado incidents). I did a report on tornadoes in 4th grade and have been afraid of them ever since (Twister didn't help much either). On the other hand, it wasn't even really stormy in Tuscaloosa and the tornado warning was for a few counties over, so I wasn't too concerned. Never fear, grandmothers, we were safely indoors and barely even got a breeze or a sprinkle.

words of wisdom

Me: (sigh) Why is parenting so hard?
Josh: Because if it was easy, teenagers would want to do it.

homecoming

Yesterday was Homecoming and Josh was required to work a booth at the quad all day long. Boo! On the positive side, Anna-Lisa and Juan Carlos came to visit so I wasn't alone. On the down side, Josh had to work all day so Juan Carlos was stuck with just me most of the visit. Still, it was really great to be together. Before it got too hot, we headed down to campus to check out the reptiles.I cut a strange woman power walking and therefore the snake's head out of this next picture. Josh liked it better whole but I found her blurry leg distracting. This is an albino something or another (some kind of python I think). None of the snakes on display were venomous. Apparently, snakes are not poisonous but are instead venomous (something that has a delivery system for the venom as opposed to a poisonous mushroom that you have to eat to be poisoned or something like that). Juan Carlos waited with Huaso just in case dogs made the snakes or Josh's adviser nervous (negative on both accounts). Jonah lives for Huaso's love. He was very sad when they left.After a trip to the bookstore (or "supply store" as it's called here), we hung out at the fountain. Jonah loved it, but as soon as his feet got splashed on he would high tail it out of there. Again and again and again.
I made it into a picture! We might not be looking the same direction but at least all eyes are open.

lazy, gross, or genius

After Jonah laid down for a nap today, I was hungry but too lazy to do much about it. Enter one lone hard-boiled egg in a bowl in the fridge. I grabbed the salt and the bowl and headed to the table. I used the bowl for the shells and also salted the egg over the bowl because I didn't feel like walking over to the trash can.

Next, I wanted some ice cream (which is what I want for every meal, duh). Here was a perfectly good bowl sitting next to me with the exception of a few measly egg shells. I wiped out the bowl (finally having made it over to the trash can), scooped in some ice cream, and sat down to eat and read blogs.

To my surprise, the first bite had some salt on it! I can either be grossed out and afraid of egg shells or I can praise my genius for inventing salted rocky road. It was actually pretty yummy.

it changed my life

Two separate incidents brought about this post. #1: Josh made an off-hand comment this week that we should get one of those motorized carving knives. My response was, "yep, but that's not even on the top 5 kitchen gadgets list" because yes, I have a few lists running around in my head at all times. Who doesn't have a "top 5 places I'd fly if I had a free ticket and weekend" list? (Today: Arizona, DC, Seattle, Spain, Uruguay or Peru depending on which twin is out of country at the moment. Anyway.) #2: Janssen asked on Facebook if anyone had a good recommendation on immersion blenders. One of her friends said something along the lines of, "I'm not sure what brand mine is but it changed my life."

So just for kicks, today's kitchen gadget list, in no particular order:
5. immersion blender (especially since our regular blender broke so we are really blender-less)
4. food processor
3. pressure canner
2. potato ricer
1. pizza peel

Also, the five things we already have that I would hate to do without:
5. Bosch (Thanks, Mom. I didn't even realize how awesome it was for the first 4 years I had it.)
4. pizza stone (Thanks, Toni!)
3. silicone pastry brush
2. griddle- we use it for pancakes (3 days this week), french toast, bacon, trout patties, and, and and...
1. apple slicer (Josh said we didn't need one ["it's called a knife] and after wanting one for years I finally just bought one. Even he uses it now. Ha!)

So what am I missing? What should be on the list that I don't even know I'm missing?

when all else fails, "give said the little stream"

Jonah loves the ukelele (or as he calls it, "my hailey"). The other day, we let him "use the hailey" (as in, "I want to use the hailey, mama!") and recorded him singing all the songs he knows. Of course, he wouldn't oblige us with all the songs, but we were pleased with the results. At Josh's request, I combined the songs into one 3 minute video. Three things to keep in mind: 1) The video was taken with our regular camera, 2) This is the very first time I have done any video editing of any kind, 3) While it seems totally normal to let him run around in just a diaper at home (it's hot; I wish I could run around in my underwear too!), watching the video after the fact he kind of reminds me of this guy. Sorry about that.

nerd or maybe not

I don't care for rolling backpacks. Call it a sign of my age (I also think bike helmets are nerdy, but luckily most little kids are over that). When Jonah brought me his blocks and wanted them "like a backpack" I told him they had no straps. "Like a backpack, please?" Then I explained that we could put his blocks IN his backpack but that this was not a backpack.

Oh. Then I remembered his backpack has wheels. His blocks have wheels and an expandable handle. Bleh. So off he went, happy as a lark, with his "backpack" rolling behind him.