Oh, The Humanity!

Sometimes, I hate cats. I know, I know, it is blasphemy. But man, when our girls decide they are going to cause trouble, they go out of their way to be bad.

Pictured above is what used to be a happy little flat of seedlings. It used to be a great place, where many varieties of hot peppers were growing like crazy. Not anymore. Two nights ago, Eric and I were awakened by the sound of cat retching. Eric got up to investigate and, after cleaning up a foot-wide puddle of barf, decided that no one was seriously ill and came back to bed. The next morning, I went to water my 5 week old seedlings and, instead of being greeted with happy little plants, I was greeted with carnage. Like a fool I forgot to put the lid on the flat and Zoe decided that night would be a good time to sample the salad bar that we had been so considerately growing for her.

I suppose it isn't that big of a deal and I can just buy full grown plants to replace what Zoe ate. But I was really excited about some of those pepper plants. Stupid cat.

New Living Room Furniture - The Papasan

When Sarah and Nick left for Arizona, we "inherited" some stuff that was too big, too fragile or just didn't fit into the moving van. In this picture you can see two things that didn't make it on the Arizona truck that we have since put to good use. The papasan chair that used to be in my sister's bedroom now has a great new spot in our living room. The other is the jasmine tree, on the other side of the papasan. I have always loved that tree, so I was secretly a little glad when my sister declared that it wouldn't make the three day ride in a truck to Arizona. Despite our previous failures as owners of houseplants, this seems to be going well. The cats have been pretty good about leaving it alone, preferring to nap on the comfy, comfy papasan. Here they are caught in a rare photo, they are actually taking a nap together rather than on separate sides of the house.

For those of you who are wondering, the bright pillow is actually a microwavable heated cat pillow. Yeah. I know. They are totally spoiled.

Smidge Enjoying the Christmas Tree Box

An Apartment with a View

Here are some pictures from our 5 day trip visting Sarah and Nick in Arizona. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and I think this is the saddest I have ever been to be back from a vacation!

Local Nightlife

"What kind of music do you folks have here?"
"We've got both kinds. Country and Western!"

Bisbee, AZ

Sing it with me, "Thank god we live in this quiet, little mountain town!"

Lunch in Bisbee

Encouraging...

Come on, keep climbing that mountain! All your shopping dreams will come true...

Bordello or Winery?

Ahh...Arizona. Where everything used to be a Bordello...

Arizona Wine Country...Seriously!

Gorgeous View!

Wedding Is Over - Praise the Lord

So, my sister is officially Mrs. Clark. Wierd, huh? It was an awesome wedding. Here are some pictures.

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Sucess!!

Hooray! I have sucessfully made two test cookies that didn't crumble and fall off the sticks. The dough that was mostly eggs and flour ended up holding together really well after it was chilled. I could almost pick up the raw cookie without a spatula. And it was firm enough to actually insert the stick in it, instead of have to smoosh it into one side of the cookie (which automatically gives the cookie a "bad side"). But I purchased my secret weapon today at Lowes. One 1/4 inch dowel, split in half and taped down to the table makes and EXCELLENT guide for your rolling pin. My dough was the perfect thickness all the way around, which vastly improved cooking time.

Now, if you notice in the picture above, one cookie is 1/4 inch thick and the other is 1/2 inch thick. The 1/2 inch model was suggested by the recipe, but I don't think it does as well. As you can see in the picture below, the 1/4 inch cookie cooked up a lot more evenly, with the middle getting done at the same time as the edges. The other cookie was still raw in the middle while the edges were overdone. The raw middle made the cookie slide around on the stick during my scientific test where I waved them around to see if they fell off. So, 1/2 inch out, 1/4 inch in!


Thanks for all the ideas and advice, guys. The Pilsbury sugar cookie idea was a good one, and one that I seriously considered. If I didn't already have a whole fridge full of test batches, I would run out and buy some. But I think I have this figured out. I have all the "hardware" already purchased to make two more batches of the latest dough, and I am just going to make cut-outs for the gift bags out of the rest of the batches that didn't work out.

And thanks for the offer to use your kitchen, Andi! But I think I have a system down now that works. If I use every available flat space and I am organized, I think everything will be ok. And my Mom is coming on Friday to help me bake all day, in response to my sniveling, so I should be all good. And instead of frosting, I am just going to dip them in white chocolate! Easy!

Big Sack of Sugar

So, does everyone know how hard it is to make cut-out cookies? It's hard. It gives me a whole new level of respect for moms in general. It is messy, messy, complicated work. And my current sugar cookie experiments have been complicated by a few additional things. 1) My kitchen is small. No counter space means I am rolling cookies out on the sheets. 2) Eric keeps eating the dough 3) I have to have about...oh...6 dozen wedding-themed sugar cut-out cookies on sticks in 6 days to make into centerpieces for my sister's shower.

I think it is official. I am insane.

So, I have made three batches of cookie dough so far. The first was Grandma R's which was delicious, but too soft. It didn't want to stay on the stick. The second batch was something I found on the crisco can, I thought it would be more sturdy. Strangely enough, it tasted similar to Grandma's. In fact, after being covered with frosting, my blind taste testers couldn't tell the difference. But it too was not stick-worthy. My third recipe is a little different; it is mostly made up of flour and egg yolks. Hopefully this one will work out, or I am going to have to seriously alter my decorating plans for the shower!

The good news is that all this cookie baking has given me time to watch a lot of TV. Since we don't actually have a TV in the kitchen, I have been basically watching the laptop. And I discovered something kind of fun. AOL, while being completely useless in almost every other online function, actually has a good entertainment section. I have been spend a lot of time watching their shows on AOL Video. They have a lot of shows you have to buy to watch, but the free stuff is great. They have TONS of stuff from when I was a kid, like Marty Stouffer's Wild America and stuff from the 90's like Brisco County Jr. epsiodes. They even have some great lame cartoon Christmas specials, like the Smurfs, Cabbage Patch Kids and Christmas in Pac-land. Seriously, they really do! Anyway, I was just laughing my ass off at Pac Man's attempt to figure out why humans celebrate Christmas while I was rolling out my 100th batch of cookies, when I realized I might not be spending my free time as wisely as I could be....

Current Weather Conditions in WI

Well, it is official, we have reached "blizzard" status weather. With the snow currently falling at about 1 inch per hour, we are in for a fun storm! I can say that with the utmost sincerity, because I do not have to work today! YES! Hooray for new jobs and Fridays off!