Cooking! (a post by B)

Well, it's that time again for me (B) to do this post. So, I was sitting in bed last night trying to think of what I could write. At first I couldn't think of anything but then I thought "what do I like to do the most". The people who know me already know the answer to this question: COOKING AND EATING. Basically anything to do with food, I enjoy.

Some of you may not know that I never really started cooking until J and I got married (6 years ago Sunday Aug 31st). But once I discovered it, I became addicted! At first I always had to follow recipes because I knew nothing when it came to cooking. Then I started experimenting which proved to be, um, well, interesting. However, when we got to England, I really started learning. Since we did not have much money and couldn't get Bojangles, I had to be inventive with whatever was available and cheap.

It proved to be a learning time as a chef but we usually ended up eating tasteless baked beans or spaghetti. Then we moved here. Now, we have cravings ever so often for good American food so I have tried to learn how to make things like chicken parmesan, chicken cordon bleu, baked spaghetti, all kinds of desserts, and then there are my own inventions.

The boys love helping me cook!

Unlike in the US, where you can buy already-made sauces or foods I have to make everything from scratch. For example, one dessert that wouldn't take me long to make in the US would be punch bowl cake. At the bottom of the post, I've posted the recipe I used in America, as well as the one I've used to make it here, so you can compare (and anyone who wants to borrow the recipe, I highly recommend it, it's quite delicious!).

Another example is soups. I have to make my own sauces and soups which can be time-consuming. Now, you may be thinking "that poor girl" but let me assure you, I AM LOVING IT! I have always wanted to be able to cook from scratch, and now here I am, coming up with my own recipes and some of them have actually turned out to be good (according to our Russian friends, who wouldn't lie about that kind of stuff). ;-)

I am still trying to find Russian recipes and luckily my new language helper (Lena) loves to cook and eat almost as much as I do and she said she will teach me some recipes.

So, there you have it. It is a little longer than my normal post but then again it's what I love to do! I'm stopping now but I could talk about this all day. If you are still reading this I would love to know your favorite recipes (this doesn't include Bojangles or Taco Bell, as that won't do us a lot of good. Sorry, Rachael). I will leave you with some random pictures because I like these pictures, not that they have anything to do with this post.


It was our anniversary last week and we decided to go fancy: the cafeteria at IKEA. It's about the only restaurant in Moscow that you can go to for less than $15 a plate, so we each enjoyed some meatballs and borshch. It worked out that someone left some crawfish untouched on a plate near us, so we even got to try some of those.

Of course, Steven may look like J, but that doesn't mean he only takes after him. Here he's enjoying a mouthful of butter during one of our cooking episodes (like mother, like son - isn't that the saying?).

And of course, the required video of him helping to mix the batter.

So, that's about it. As for our lives, we're still just plugging away at our culture and language study. It's starting to get cold here already (this week we had a high of 7° C one day; that's like 45°!). Anyway, that about sums it up, so I hope you enjoyed reading this and thanks for thinking of us.

And below, as promised, for those interested, you can check out the difference between cooking here and back in the US. I've copied in the American and Russian versions for contrast.

Punch Bowl Cake: America

1 Pillsbury Plus Devil’s Food or Chocolate cake mix (w/pudding in the mix)

2 small boxes of Chocolate Fudge or regular Chocolate instant pudding mix

3 cups of Milk

½ cup Amaretto liqueur

1 large tub of Cool Whip

12 Heath bars (don’t substitute any other toffee bars for Heath bars!)

Instructions:

• Make cake according to directions and bake in jelly roll pan; let cool to room temperature;

• Mix the two boxes of pudding mix with the three (3) cups of milk and ½ cup of Amaretto for at least 2 minutes (or for however long it says to mix on the box). Chill in refrigerator until thickened;

• Chop Heath bars (if you use a food processor, don’t chop too fine);

• Cut cake into 12 pieces;

• Layer pieces of cake, then pudding, then Cool Whip and then crushed Heath bars in a punch bowl; Repeat two more times (i.e., should end up with three layers); remember that layers increase in size;

• Cover with Saran Wrap and chill in refrigerator at least four hours, preferably overnight; and

• Enjoy!

That was easy! Now here is how I make it here:

Punch Bowl Cake: Russia

Chocolate Cake (double recipe, from scratch as below)

Chocolate Pudding (double recipe, from scratch as below)

Whipped Cream (from scratch as below)

Chopped Walnuts

Instuctions:

• Prepare Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Pudding, and the whipped cream (recipes below).
  
• Allow the cake and the pudding to cool to room temperature.
  
• In a deep dish, crumble the cake and cover the bottom of the dish. Then add the pudding. Then add the whipped cream. Then add the chopped walnuts.
  
• Repeat this process until you have 2-3 layers ending with the chopped walnuts.
  
• Refrigerate overnight.

Chocolate Cake Recipe:

1¼ cup (170 g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (dutched/dark)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (200 g) sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
½ cup (1.2 dl) milk
½ cup (1.2 dl) vegetable oil
2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 150 deg C

2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.

3. Add milk, vegetable oil and eggs.

4. Mix everything together until smooth, either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed.

5. Transfer to bake tin and bake at 150 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.

Chocolate Pudding Recipe:

5 TBSP (75 ml) cornstarch (Maizena)

1/3 cup (80 ml) sugar

¼ tsp (1 ml) salt

2 1/3 cups (580 ml) milk

5 oz chocolate (this can be 5 oz of a chocolate bar)

1 egg

2 TBSP (30 ml) sugar

1 TBSP (15 ml) margarine

2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla

1 TBSP (15 ml) Rum

Instructions:

• Mix first 3 ingredients in a pan. Then add milk and chocolate.
  
• Cook on med-high heat until thickened, stirring constantly (this will take about 5 min). Remove from heat and let cool.
  
• In a separate bowl, combine the egg and 2 TBSP (30 ml) sugar. Beat with a mixer or by hand until light.
  
• Add 1 TBSP (15 ml) of the chocolate pudding to the egg mixture. If you can do this while mixing the egg mixture it is better. Continue to add the chocolate pudding to the egg mixture a little at a time until all the chocolate pudding is mixed with the egg mixture.
  
• Then add the margarine and vanilla. Mix well.
  
• Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes.
  
• Remove from heat and add the Rum. Mix well and let cool to room temperature.

Whipped Cream:

3 cups cream (33% of higher)- room temperature

4 oz white chocolate

1 TBSP (15 ml) milk

3 packets of cool whip mix

Instructions:

• Melt white chocolate and milk until smooth. Add to cream and mix well.
  
• Then add cool whip mix and beat with mixer or by hand until thick.

So there you have it! As you can see, it's approximately 5 times as hard here, but every bit as good in the end. Maybe even better, since you work up an appetite in the preparation!

Steven's Got a Girlfriend ...

... we all know where he's been, etc. And if you know the song I'm referencing, then you need to get some better taste in music.

Anyhoo, we thought you would enjoy the wonderful video of Steven and his new friend Nina. Yeah, you've all heard the story of how I never kissed a girl until my wedding day. Well, my son apparently doesn't take after me much, because he didn't even make it to sweet 2!

I think my wife is to blame, though. You can clearly hear her egging them on in the video. Shame on you, dear! (Although she assures me that they smooched on their own, and she only encouraged them later so she could document it for posterity. Oh, that makes it so much better!) Fortunately, it looks like the technique isn't quite there yet (you're not supposed to end up with a knot on your head as far as I know), so maybe we don't have to worry too much.

Language study is going swimmingly, as both B and I are pretty glad to have a bit more structure in our lives with the return of regular classwork. As you can tell from the video/pictures, though, we've also recently had a visit from some friends. David and Christy and their family (otherwise known as "Family Footprints" in our bloglist to the right) were here for a visit. It seems to be looking more and more like we'll be working with them in the future, so it was a fantastic time to get to know them better and just spend some time chitchatting in English for once. Plus, they have really cute kids and we got to hang out with them a bit as well.

Here B and our friend Julie are sitting with the kids on a swing, just enjoying the beautiful evening.

Aside from their visit, we've also been out and about on our own soaking up the sun. Last weekend we decided to head over to our local "forest" (which is how the Russians distinguish a big park from a little one). On our way in we passed some flyers for the day's event: the "Wild Mint Festival." We were unsure of what this might mean, but apparently there are New Age-y people in Russia as well! They're just as "different" here as they are in Oregon. They had some interesting music going:

but Steven's favorite was the sword fights! (Maybe I've missed this somewhere, since this isn't the first place I've seen it, but could someone explain to me what the connection is between New Age philosophy and medieval times?)

Of course, it was a broiling hot day so B decided to take Steven for a plunge in the pond there. Russians have a more "European" style to their swimming attire, so we decided against a wider shot. Sorry to disappoint those of you who were looking forward to seeing any overweight older men in Speedos. ;-)

Maybe you're wondering how, without a double stroller, we can manage to get around if just one of us needs to take the kids out? Well, wonder no more, but instead marvel at the ingeniousness of the lovely B, who managed to transform our simple stroller into a double with the mere addition of a pillow!

In other news, we've had several other bits of excitement in our lives lately. Yesterday evening, Steven managed to get one of the drawers in the office open that was supposed to be closed. And of course, he managed to dig the most dangerous thing in that drawer out - a packet of straight pins. Not satisfied with merely getting them out, he had to taste them!

B, being the vigilant Mom that she is, spotted this and tried immediately to effect the removal of said pins. She got two out but was just in time to spot a third headed down his gullet. Well, we thought, it's off to the clinic we go. Until we called them, that is. Almost 1000 euros ($1500 or so) just for an X-ray and consultation. So, after researching the issue and finding out that they probably wouldn't do anything but just look at the X-ray and make sure it was on its way through, we decided to just keep a close eye on him. That made us take a step back and "think" about the situation and lift up Steven's health to him.

Basically, we were told, there's a pretty good chance it will just go through naturally and you only do surgery if it's caught in the esophagus or tears something. Watch out for coughing, pain, or vomiting and, barring that, you should be fine. Of course, later that night, Steven started to cough. This morning it was worse, and we were on the verge of taking him down to the clinic to get checked out.

However, this afternoon (after being stuffed full of food in an effort to make things speed up a bit) he passed the pin, as you can see below, without any ill effect whatsoever! We're very thankful to the appropriate party for working that out so well (and no, in case you're wondering, I didn't touch it to put it on that baby wipe!).

And that's about it. And for all you facebook addicts, I thought I'd leave you with this picture I saw recently about an imagined "Soviet facebook" (might need to click on it to read it). I found it funny, anyway.

My Turn

Well, J has taken his turn rambling so now it's my turn! I was going to post on Russian fashion and I how I've adapted to it, but I still need to take some pictures so we will save that until next time (hence the recycled image above). For now all I have to report is, well, nothing.

Our Russian teacher comes back on Friday and classes start again on Monday so life will return to normal (at least for us) next Monday. For the present, I am spending my days as any good, old-fashioned housewife should: cleaning, cooking, taking care of children (only this time I'm NOT pregnant).

We have been trying to spend as much time as we can outside since it has been so nice. It's funny because last year I could not understand why everyone wanted to "go for walks" every day. Now I understand that it's because during the winter you don't get out much and those who saw us when we arrived in the States in March know that we needed as much sun as we could get (for those who didn't see us, we were all yellow from lack of sun exposure).

Anyway, we both have been trying to eat healthier and with the added exercise have been losing weight. And let me just say at this time IT'S NOT FAIR! Why do guys have to basically do nothing and lose 20 lbs in a week while we women drink only water and eat only fruits and lose maybe 2 lbs a week? Yet another mystery in the world of women.

Well, if I haven't lost you because of the extreme boringness of the post let me move on to the cute pictures and videos of the boys since that is main reason for the post. A few of these pictures are older ones that I have been meaning to post. Enjoy:

A few cute ones of Matthew. Hopefully this will even out the imbalance of Steven getting his picture put on here a lot more than Matthew.

Steven has taken to my "Hip Hop Abs" exercise routine rather well. Here he's getting in on the act himself!

I got this video this evening while I was doing laundry. Steven had just gotten his bath and decided he wasn't quite ready to be put to bed yet (apologies for the nudity). ;)

And finally, for our Russian friends, I thought I'd post this picture of me back in the US with a bag of ice. They don't really use ice here, so we've been trying to explain how important it is in the South.

Image Management

So, our life is pretty much the same (language study, evenings with friends, taking care of kids, etc.), so I thought I would post some of my musings instead. I know, I know, you want to hear about how cute Matthew looks when he sleeps, but too bad!

Actually, it was a recent blog of our friend Lydia's that got my mind meandering down the path it's been on (and Lydia, I'm just crediting you since you prompted the initial thought - I know you didn't have anything like this happen). She was talking about how she had done something that embarrassed her; not that it was anything important or hurt anyone, it was just something that she did that made her look bad in front of other people.

Well, that set me to pondering. I've since developed a nascent theory about this, especially as it relates to the internet. Years from now, when I'm receiving my Nobel prize for this sociological development, you'll be able to say "I read the blog post which first elucidated this theory years ago!" Then all the people within earshot will beat you up, because that's what should be done to people who say things like that. I mean, really!

What, you don't think I'm smart enough to win it? Why not? Al Gore won it! Al freaking Gore!

Enough scolding, though. My theory is about how the internet makes traditional "image management" almost impossible. You see, in "real life," that is, life outside the confines of the internet, it's quite easy to be multiple things to multiple people. Around your boss, you do your best to cultivate the image of a responsible worker, diligently applying yourself for the good of the company. Around your parents' friends, you try your best to come across as respectful and ambitious, just the kind of person you know would make your parents proud. And then, of course, around your friends you try to be the gregarious fun-loving life of the party so that they'll all want to be more like you.

You could make that list last forever, because I think if we're honest with ourselves we all want pretty much everyone who comes into contact with us think that we're "better," however that applies to that particular person, than we really are.

And here is where the internet enters to spoil all of our well-laid plans. You see, when you post something on your blog or twitter or facebook or whatever it's not really possible for different people to see different versions. Maybe someday you'll be able to put something up on the web and tell it to "edit out the bit about the poker game when my grandmother reads it" and it'll know what to do. However, at this point in time, it's a real headache to do things like set permissions for certain people to have certain access, etc., so most of us end up not doing it.

You're not going to want your grandmother, friends, or even your dog to see this picture.

We've all had that situation, though, where we realized that someone wasn't who they appeared to be, at least not who they appeared to be to you. You know, like that girl in your group who sings special numbers on Sunday from the hymnal and has been homeschooled for the past 10 years. You think of her as a perfect little angel, and suspect that she only ventures out of the house to bring cookies to the people at the retirement home. Then, one day you venture onto her Facebook page and it's full of comments like "Whassup cracka! Yo we go'n roll tonight!" from friends you've never heard of with screen names like HottieMcTail92. It's like an alien life form has shown up to possess your friend.

This is not your friend. Probably.

Alas, the bubble is burst. You realize that, no matter what this person says or does, you'll never quite look at them the same again. That uptight textile management professor that you always thought was "quirky" is suddenly revealed to be a closet anarchist who supports ecoterrorism. It can be very disconcerting.

Dr. Bradford? Is that you?

So, what is the solution for those of us who blog? Barring a complex web of deception where we only give out the page to our computer-hacking blog to our geek friends and maintain the butterfly-collection blog for our extended family to see, we're forced to go with the J solution: writing for the MCD. That's right, the Most Conservative Denominator.

Let's face it, if our friends read our blog and they think it's a little lame, not much harm is done. However, if your rich teetotaller uncle reads your pineapple upside down cake recipe and realizes there's rum in it, he might just write you out of the will! Much more damage can be caused by going too risqué than playing it safe.

As an example, we have friends with a whole range of taste in movies. Some of them are more liberal in what they'll watch than we will. Some are more conservative. That's totally OK. However, watch what happens when I post, say, the "Holy Hand Grenade" from Monty Python:



See, there's a perfect example. Now, I think that is one of the more hilarious things ever captured on film. I see it as a parody of medieval religiosity, not an assault on faith. However, according to the rule of MCD things like this should never be posted, since I'm sure I have friends who would be offended by it.

Wait, I've just violated my own rule in order to give an example. Oh, bother. Here, take a look at this puppy. That should take away all your anger. ;-)

The High Life

For all of it's, well, lack of charm in the winter, Moscow is one of the world's nicest cities in the world to live in in the summertime. Everywhere you look, there are parks, bursting with green, and the weather is stellar. We've been taking advantage of this fact as much as possible these days.

B even seemingly has instituted a required quota of vitamin D absorption for the family every day, so we've been getting outside more regularly of late. It seems she doesn't want a repeat of our arrival in the States in the spring, when people asked us why we were so yellow (seems a lack of sunlight causes jaundice). Anyway, we're getting stocked up while we can!

So, many of you know that we've been on the hunt for another apartment. Our landlady came at us with a hefty (read: almost double!) rent hike, so that put us on the hunt. After searching high and low, we realized just what a great deal we were getting on rent last year. Only $1000/month for a 2-bedroom! Sounds outrageous when you consider that it's not as nice as the place we had for $500 in the US the year before we came, but when you compare it to some of our options it starts to look great, even at almost twice that price.

I've included a map for those of you with a Y chromosome, and in it you'll see our best option after much searching. Indeed, we were able to find a place that was a little cheaper (and a lot smaller, further from everything as the map shows, and much lower quality). However, by the time you add up the real estate agent fees, moving fees, and the cost of selling all our furniture only to buy new stuff in a year, it only saved us a tiny bit. Once we realized that, we decided just to stay put and trust him. If you're looking at the map, the office is where we go every day to study, and downtown Moscow is to the north. Our lives might get tricky this year, but we know the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills!

It's been good to get back into our studies, if at a slower pace than we were doing when we were here last. Unfortunately, our teacher went on vacation pretty much right when we got back, so for now we're self-studying in various ways until she gets back. Mostly I've been helping B and our friend Julie review some of the basics, and I've started to read the Chronicles of Narnia in Russian. You may laugh, but even kids' books are tricky when you're at my level. Fortunately, I've read them in English many times, which helps to fill in the gaps when I don't know a word or something. I have learned a lot of new vocabulary, though (who knew that Mr. Tumnus is also a фавн in Russian?)

On Tuesday night we had a friend over from one of the -stan countries (the one we used to want to work in). It was a fantastic conversation, which I can't really get into here, but I was thrilled to finally get beyond the surface in Russian and be understood! Maybe I didn't forget as much as I thought in the US. Anyway, we made some brownies for dessert, but left the pan of batter waiting on the counter while something else cooked.

It seems that I'm not the only one who likes brownie batter! Of course, we had to discipline Steven, which was hard as everyone was trying hard not to laugh so he'd understand that this was a no-no.

Enjoying the weather outside again. Steven really likes to swing, especially these two-seaters where he can share a ride with Mommy.

Of course, we can't have all the pictures be of Steven. Matthew's getting more interactive these days, and here he is smiling for all he's worth. Oh, and he rolled over the other day. It's funny, I remember that being such a big deal with Steven but it seems to be just another event for Matthew. I guess we need to make an effort to be excited about both of their accomplishments, even if we've seen it done before.

While I was in the US, my parents let me copy all of our old photo albums that they had scanned onto my computer. I thought you might enjoy some of the pics of me (that'd be J, just in case anyone was unclear) growing up. And so, I present, for your viewing pleasure, the _ family men (I'm on the far left):

What a muscular bunch! Oh, and of course, there was the classic "Family at Arms" photo that was hanging on everyone's fridge when we went home on furloughs. I'm on the left again, rocking the sports glasses. Actually, as an experiment, if you remember this photo being on your fridge, reply in the comments. I'll be interested to see how many there are - it was definitely a more "unique" choice than most of the other people in my parents' line of work.

That's about it. I might dig up a few more of the family pics from jungle days for future blogs, since I think they make a nice change of pace.

Возвращение!

Steven rummaging through the luggage

Yes, dear readers - we are back in Russia, we have resolved all internet-related difficulties, and are now prepared to post more of the information you all crave about our lives! Stop pretending you don't crave it. It's really nothing to be ashamed of. :)

Anyway, we are finally back in Moscow. While we had a great time in the US, it's good to get back home (and no, I don't want to reengage the semantic debate on the term "home" as it applies to The Wandering Family).

But lo, we have pictures of our last week in the US, and it appears that you will have to suffer through them before you will be privileged to enjoy any sights of Moscow with us. Well, that and the fact that we just unpacked our camera, and haven't had a chance to use it here yet, that is. Onward we rush, into the aforementioned pictures:


So, we wanted to make the most of our memory-making time, so we decided to take the kids to the beach with the whole family. We had to drag some of the entourage kicking and screaming, but after much gnashing of teeth, we arrived.

Of course, my mother being who she is, took 3 seconds after she realized that Steven might burn with so much time in the sun, she whipped up an improvised jacket by cutting some holes in a towel. He seemed to like it.

They even enjoyed building some sandcastles together!

The waves were, well, not exactly crushingly huge in the swell department. Here I demonstrate how to shred 18 inch waves for our Russian friends, who don't exactly have an illustrious history of surfing and maybe won't know any better.

We also managed to get Matthew dedicated our last Sunday, after which we got together with all our friends for a farewell dinner.

First, though, we had to at least try to get a decent picture of the boys. Not a bad try, I guess. We still have not managed to get a good family picture with all four of us, but this will have to do in the meantime.
Of course, any two of us - that's not a problem. It's just when you try to get both kids, B, and me all at the same time, well, not so good.

The farewell dinner, which mostly consisted of all our friends trying one last time to fatten us up, was by most accounts a success.

We also managed to get one last picture of Matthew and his cousin Natalie, born only one day after he was. It's mostly here for the "Aaaaaaawww" factor.

And that was about it. We'll have to fill you in more on our trip here later, but the short version is that we got here without any major problems. Actually, on our long flight across, we were soooo blessed to be on a half-full flight so we could lay the kids down and rest.

We're slowly adjusting to the time difference, wishing we could convince the kids to rest when the sun is still out, but overall we're doing well. Thanks for thinking of us, and we'll have more on the housing situation when we know a bit more.

Happy Birthday USA!

So, it's the 4th of July, and we haven't posted in a while. It seems that all our friends decided to wait until the last minute of our time in the US and then all invite us over at once! Unfortunately, having not yet mastered the art of warping the time-space continuum to the point where we can be in two places at once, we're limited to just one at a time. That's kept us quite busy, with lunch and dinner invitations most days. And while it's been really good to catch up with people, I think next time we'll be more proactive about inviting ourselves over to your places a little earlier in our visit! :)

Anyway, on to the pictures:


One of our first stops since our last post was to visit our friends Rich and Lydia. We had a good evening catching up with them. After dinner, they invited some friends from their family group over for dessert, since they had some orphans from Belarus staying with them for the summer. Anyway, the idea was for us to chat with them in Russian some, which we did, but somewhere along the line it morphed into a giant pillowfight that threatened to consume the living room decor. Sorry, Lydia! I guess you'll know better than to invite us over again.

One of the neatest things about being back in the US has been getting to see our boys and grandparents getting to know one another. J's family has had us over to eat and spend time quite often, and we've been living with B's parents, so we've gotten to see both of them quite a bit. In the above picture, Steven's Aunt Kellie is taking him for an airplane ride of sorts.

He seems to really like his grandmothers (and really, who doesn't like their grandmother?). Here Steven sleeps on J's mom's chest while we visited with some friends from a local family group.

While we were at the same people's house, we decided to try our best to get a decent family photo. Unfortunately, we didn't get anything that great, and due to cropping and recropping this picture turned out a little weird. Of course, I've only played with it for a minute or two, so hopefully we'll have a decent family picture soon with both kids in it for all of you.

We also got over to see our friends Mike and Martha last week, and our friends Dan and Valerie came over as well with their little boy Cooper. It wasn't as chaotic as you'd think with three toddlers in the same house at the same time, but it wasn't relaxing either.

B's sisters took her out to dinner the other night just to spend a bit more time with her before we leave, and here's a pic of them dressed and ready to head out.

Of course, the boys' maternal grandparents are worried that they might not turn out culturally as "American" as they'd like (what, you mean like me?), so they're doing their best to expose them to the culture here. ;-)

Last night they took B and Matthew to a minor league baseball game while I got to go waterskiing with some other friends (sorry, no videos of that bit of contra-athleticism exist to humiliate me later). To me it looks like Matthew has the look of a football/soccer fan being forced to watch a baseball game - utter and complete boredom. Maybe he'll turn out after all!

They even tried to get him to dance to "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"! Disgusting!


Of course, today was the 4th of July, which requires that you celebrate with what else - food! Hamburgers, hotdogs, chili, fixin's, tea, ... you know, the essentials.


Of course, since your humble narrator's birthday is coming up soon, I got to pick out the cake. The cake on the right was my choice (the hand is there just to give a sense of perspective) - a punchbowl cake complete with layers of chocolate cake, chocolate pudding with Amaretto flavor, whipped cream, and crushed Heath bars. Heavenly!

My cousin Daniel managed to teach Steven the art of giving him 5, and here he's displaying his new skill. Ah, the challenges of raising a boy-genius!

Seriously, though, it is funny to watch kids learning things that you've taken for granted for longer than you can remember - they take so much joy in simple things.