Perfect Brownie Pan

My mom gave me a fancy brownie pan for Christmas, but it wasn’t until yesterday I had a chance to try it out, seeing that we had so much extra food and sweets from Christmas. I made brownies to take to Rachel’s house for a small Superbowl party. You can see the steps of making the batter, inserting the divider, and removing it after baking.

The pan has a false bottom in it which means you can remove the pan using the stand that comes with it for a nice presentation. Cool.

I think I’d like to try it to make mini cornbread loaves.

Saturday

I don’t really have much to say today, but here’s a little update. First of all, the flower report. Maureen, we’re up to four blooms, and a fifth might be on its way. Very lovely.

Not much real news this week. We went to work and kept busy with email–never an end to that! We did purchase Gary’s tickets to Ghana for next month. He had considered making a side trip to Ethiopia, but he decided against that since he’s accept another offer for an all-expenses paid trip to Harvard the very next weekend. So sorry, Isabella!

Speaking of Isabella, I’ve heard a bit from Andrew and Laura. They said baby is now sleeping through the night again which makes everybody happier. Andrew safely returned from his week in Kenya where he was bunking at a convent with lights out at 10pm.

We’re also remembering Isabella this morning because grandpa is out vacuuming the van, cleaning up the mess she made. The weather has finally warmed up enough to work outside for a few minutes. (Laura, he found one of the baby bottle lids.)

I other van news, I had to drive Rachel to her field trip at Fair Park yesterday. She visited the African American Museum with her school kids while I walked down to the other end of campus and paid admission to the Discovery Gardens and Butterfly house.
I thought the price of admission was kind of steep, but I did enjoy my visit. Luckily I had my binoculars with me. I went from 50 degrees to 88 degrees with 88% humidity–luckily I had dressed in layers! The tropical butterflies and tropical plants were very cool. I learned from the docent that they are not allowed to breed these butterflies–so they have to buy the chrysalises from various supply houses. They hatch in a nursery and a new batch is released every day around noon.

I’m spending the rest of the day doing laundry and maybe the taxes, but tonight we’ll be going to our friend Bob’s 60th birthday. Wow, we’re getting old! As far as I know, we have no Super Bowl plans, so we’ll probably just watch it at home.

Cedar Waxwings

There is a flock of Cedar Waxwings hanging around. I think they’re eating the mistletoe berries, and we have lots to go around.

New Clothes

My clearance sale online order from Land’s End arrived today. I got 5 items and THEY ALL FIT!!!

Saying Good-bye to Baby at the Airport

I’m missing baby today so I dug out this video I took the day she left.

Hope Fulfilled

The bulb Maureen gave me for Christmas is making good on its promise. Photo taken during the early morning light.

“Good News from Malaita”

Rachel got a most unusual and unexpected gift from her grandpa this year–a CD that contained a 28 year old recording of the details of her birth. Though neither Gary nor I remember it, apparently we made a talking cassette tape recording, telling the details of Rachel’s birth in Auki, Malaita, Solomon Islands. Wendell kept this recording and had it digitally transferred to a CD.

I’ve loaded it into my iTunes player and saved it onto my hard drive. I can make a CD for you, if anybody is interested. (Not that you should be, but it was fascinating for us to hear it. It gave us the surreal feeling of being in a time machine!)

Footstool

Here is my latest “make something out of almost nothing” project–a footstool for a Christmas gift. See my Picasa album for details.I was quite happy with the results and it didn’t cost me a penny.

Goldfinches

Some time ago I bought a bag of thistle seed in an attempt to entice some goldfinches to come to my backyard, but not much luck. Very rarely I would see one or two on the main feeder, but never taking the thistle seed. About a week ago I bought a cheap mesh feeder that is for thistle seed, filled it and put it up in a tree using a hook which I manipulated into place using my window washing squeegie extended to its full length.

Just today I was thinking to take it down because I had never seen a bird there at all–except the one that is painted on the bag itself. Then I looked out the window and there were goldfinches in their winter clothes munching away.

I’ve had quite a few birds on my feeders since Christmas. Everyday there are house finches, cardinals, juncos, and mourning doves. Other common visitors are red-bellied woodpeckers, Carolina chickadees, field sparrows, white-winged doves, and tufted titmice. Occasionally I’ll see blue jays, yellow-rumped warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets, and Inca doves.

David, This Post Is For You

David called yesterday to talk to Andrew. I reminded him that if he would read this blog, he would know that Andrew and his family left on Wednesday. He also asked if Andrew had gotten Rachel’s mantle installed, so I’m posting this photo to show that yes, he did (the day before they departed). It looks pretty nice!

I’ve added a subscription widget, so you can have these wonderful bits of family news delivered directly to your inbox, if you want.

In other news, we have a long weekend to enjoy, but the weather is dreary. I’m thinking I’ll vacuum a few rooms, make a few beds, wash a few clothes, feed a few birds, eat a few leftovers, and write a newsletter.