I am in Key Largo. I have seen more life, more wild, happening-all-around-me LIFE, in the last few days than I have in the last 10 years. I have the Atlantic Ocean to one side of me and the Gulf of Mexico to the other. Every day, I wake up and am in disbelief that I'm even here. Today, I was informed that there is an 8-foot saltwater crocodile ( Read more... )

This evening I made a new soup: Potato-Leek. As usual, I looked for the simplest recipe I could find. It was simple and relatively quick to prepare, especially since Jimmy wanted something with protein and we were working at two different things in the same kitchen at the same time. Which means beautifully-choreographed chaos! But it worked out ( Read more... )

Merry Chrismahannukwanzaakah!

I just received our mutual Christmas present from Jimmy's stepmom and dad, which is really mostly for me. I knew that it was coming, I knew that I was not supposed to wait for Christmas but to open it as soon as it got here, and I even knew roughly what it was going to be: cooking stuff. What I didn't know was that it was going to be a 14-piece ( Read more... )

Mmmmm. White bean soup with a sprinkle of shredded parmesan, some toasted garlic cheddar bread, and an Anchor Steam beer. No, I'm not worried about drinking this early in the day, because this is actually my evening. I'll be going to bed soon, full and very happy.

Jimmy and I have spent hours quite some time today doodling around with Google Earth since we've both been awake for hours already. He showed me Iceland, where he lived around age seven, Adak Island in Alaska, where he lived as a teenager, and even managed to find something on the island of Guam, where he lived for two years as a pre-teen, that he ( Read more... )

Did I mention that I bought Alex a book this weekend, and she shut herself away with it, and read it all in, like, a day? Like stepmother, like stepdaughter. The heart, she hurts, but it's a good hurt.

In related news, I really need to locate a library up here in Riverside county. There are books that need summoning.

Weather.com says it's 50 degrees outside right now. Oh, I'm so happy!

The autumnal chill in the air is not all the reason why. Most of the reason why is that I've had two exceptionally happy days in a row. Yesterday I spent the morning with my dear friend, Erin, (who is usually in South Carolina and will soon be in Germany - for three to five ( Read more... )

Easter was loverly. Jimmy agreed to bring the kids up to my sister's by himself, (though he did ask me to set out the girls' Easter dresses and all accessories the night before). I went up to Fallbrook by myself, picked up Gramps and brought him up to my sister's. It was raining when we first arrived, but eventually it dried up, and by that time ( Read more... )

I could have sworn we had a bag of unpopped corn. I guess the popcorn ball dream dies until next year ( Read more... )