I Just Couldn't Wait!

I normally try my best to not post twice in one day; afterall, if I do that, someone may miss an important post *gasp*.  However, Jay and I made the Best Christmas Presents EVER last night and I can't wait to show everybody.  I'm not giving anything away because they are for my grandmas, neither of whom have a computer or really give a damn about my blogging, so they'll never know that I shared their presents with you first.

Any gift giving is torturous for me - once I find the perfect gift I have to give it.  Right. Now.  Case in point: I bought my family members the Best. Present. Ever.  Normally, I'd go running to them to tell them what about the perfect present I found, but since it's for them, I can't do that.  Torture.  Failing that, I post it on my blog.  However, my family loves me and follows my blog.  Guess what that means?  Means I can't freakin' post about the Best. Present. Ever.

Thank God for my work family who at least pretends to be interested when I jump up and down and clap my hands when the Best. Present. Ever. is delivered to the office and I have to show it to everybody.  Every single person in my office knows what my family is getting for Christmas.  Sorry, I'm a blabber mouth, I can't keep a secret, so don't ask.  But...I'm also their boss, so they have to pretend to be interested and don't dare open their mouths, so - family, I'm talking to you here - don't try to bribe them unless you want to pay their unemployment.

Oh, I got off track...drum roll please...the Best Christmas Presents EVER...

I was at a loss for my grandmas.  One of my grandmas has a great outdoor flower garden that she has all sorts of ornamental stuff in, so I was thinking that she needed something along those lines for Christmas.  Then I talked to my mom, who reminded me that Grandma is always talking about the stuff she's got to haul out every summer and pack away every fall, so then I thought that it would be great if she had something ornamental for her house plants.  An inspiration from Sally at Environmental Art and Faerie Houses, who makes everything out of natural stuff, lead me to the indoor fairy houses.

I made this little gazebo from non-natural stuff we found at Michael's.  There's even a little cushy, soft bed for the faeries to sleep on and gossamer window treatments to filter the light.  And little flowerboxes outside of each window, just in case the faeries get tired of looking at Grandma's amazing houseplants.

This cute little A-frame is what Jay made for my other Grandma.  He carefully hand-placed each of the stones in the stone wall, which took hours.  We made this with the intent of nestling it down into one of her large indoor tree pots.  Don't ask - I don't know what kind of large indoor tree it is.  It's big and green with big, ginormous leaves.  The faeries should be happy to be sheltered by such a wonderful tree.  The trick now?  Keeping my niece from destroying it (even if she is old enough to know better).  Grandma doesn't have the word "no" in her vocabulary.

P.S. - Tink, I'll get to your generous award tomorrow.  Three posts in one day may be too much, even for me :)

Baking Weekend, Day Two

My laptop is back, though my jump drive is not, and for once I'm glad I'm behind on uploading my pictures from my camera, so I have pictures dating back from October.  *whew*

My girls and I had a great time during Day One of Baking Weekend, and it was hard to see them go.  The great thing about it is that I know that I'll see them again...and maybe next year, if everything goes just right, we'll have another little on in our troupe.  *sending good vibes to Robin's uterus - AI in just two days*

Day Two ended up just being family, which was wonderful!  We haven't had a "family-only" Baking Day in forever.  We were a cookie making machine.  It took us about six hours to add another six batches of Magic Window cookies and a couple of batches of gingerbread cookies.  Jay finished up his flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.  I think that chefs give foods fancy names just so us home cooks will never attempt things like ganache.  Do you know what's in a ganache?  Heavy freakin' cream, butter, and chocolate.  That's what!  That's all.  WTF?  A fancy name like ganache should include some culinary magic, not a simple double boiler.  Cripes, even I can work a double boiler!

While we were baking away in the kitchen, having a great - and loud - time, the snow was gently falling outside.  Big, fluffy white flakes descending ever so softly from the sky.  It was beautiful.  We worried not about the snow fall, afterall, we're a Colorado family, born and raised.  What's a little snow?

Well, a little snow plus a little snow adds up to four fluffy inches pretty quickly.  What did we do?  We turned up the music, put on some chili for dinner and my sister made homemade tortillas.  And we kept baking.  And baking.  And baking.

By the end of the day, we were pretty well done with cookies.  Didn't really care to see another one.  And if that damn timer went off one more time, well, we couldn't be held accountable for our actions.  But this is what we had to show for it...

...quite a bounty.  It may not look like much, but at our mid-point my nephew counted up the number of cookies that we had and it went something like:

• 
  
  22 dozen Magic Window cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  3 dozen chocolate chip toffee cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  10 flourless chocolate cakes
  
  
  
• 
  
  8 dozen candy cane cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  a couple-a dozen Neiman Marcus cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  a dozen (or so) peanut butter thumbprint cookies
  
  
  
• 
  
  and some chocolate-y chinese haystack thingies that my mom makes every year.
  
  
  

Even though the baking was done, were we done?  Oh, no.  That would be too easy.  After everything was out of the oven, we had to pack up our platters (or in my case, shirt boxes) full of cookies for distribution.

My sister and her heathi strung their Magic Window cookies with ribbon so they can hang them on their tree.  Me?  Nope, I just eat them.  I don't bother hanging them on the tree anymore - I just cut out the middleman - and go straight to the mouth.

Computer ITD Continues...

Good News: The IT God was able to get my laptop back up and running.  I love that man!

Bad News:  I lost pretty much everything.

Good News:  I had most of it backed up on my jump drive.

Bad News:  My jump drive also got an ITD.

Dead Computer

I'd love to post the pictures from Day Two of Baking Weekend.  There are so many beautiful pictures of the snow gently falling and the kitchen full of family and laughter.

Unfortunately, my computer caught a ITD (internet transmitted disease) and DIED.  I turned it on last evening and there was nothing there.  Just a blue screen with shortcut icons that led to nowhere.  Everything is gone.  My pictures, my work-in-progress, my iTunes.  Everything.  Our IT Director at work is working feverishly to resurrect my poor laptop.  I love that laptop.  There's nothing special about it, other than it's mine.  It's well broken in and fits like an old comfortable pair of shoes.  I may cry if he's not able to work his magic.  The good thing is that I backed up everything in September and back up my WIP each time I close it, so the only thing I'll really lose are pictures for the last quarter of the year.  I can live with that.  If I have to.

Until he's able to bring my computer back to life, I'm stuck with this loaner.  Despite being the exact same make and model, it's just not right.  It's like driving a rental car that's the same make and model of your car.  Familiar, but not right.

Being the optimist I am, I'm not transferring anything to this loaner. Nothing at all to make it feel more like mine.  So until my computer is back, the Day Two blog is on indefinite hold.  I'm not uploading my pictures to this one - I'll wait until I get my computer back.  Which, I'm hoping is by the end of the week.

Baking Weekend, Day One

Well, Day One actually started last night with Jay whipping up a couple quick batches of flour-less chocolate cake for his favorite customers on his route.  He used my step-dad's mother's old crank handmixer until his arms gave out, then he had to change to the electric handmixer.  Using the crank handmixer would have taken far too much effort for me, I would have just by-passed it in favor of the modern, easy-to-use, plug in style to begin with.  While Jay's cakes baked, I whipped up four batches of Magic Window Cookies dough.  The dough has to chill for at least an hour before use, and I figured it wouldn't hurt it to sit over-night.

This is my parent's breakfast table, which seats twelve adults, when I started this morning.  I began the morning with two double batches of chocolate chip toffee cookies while I waited for the best part of Baking Weekend to arrive - my girls!  Baking Weekend started out as Baking Day twelve years ago and has evolved into a two day bake fest.  Baking Weekend has seen us through break-ups, marriages, and babies.  It's the only weekend that we can guarantee that we'll all be together, even if it's only for a few hours one day.  Back before the marriages and babies, it truly was girls' weekend, but with family comes obligations.

Two hours into Day One, we were starting to see some progress...

Neiman Marcus cookies joined the chocolate chip toffee cookies, along with some M&M cookies and we kept trucking.

Jay's mom and sister joined in the festivities this year.  They came up to see "what it's all about" and got put to work.  Next year, they'll bring their own recipes and to-do list.  It seems like everyone's first year is kind of an "observation", then they get into the spirit and join in full throttle the following year.

This is the table after about four hours; I didn't get to take a picture of the full table - I just wasn't fast enough before the girls had to pack up to leave.  But imagine that the entire right side of the table is full of candy cane cookies.  More than half of the cookies left with the girls for their cookie platters or boxes, whatever they'll make with them.  Tomorrow, my sister and her crew is coming up and we'll knock out another six batches of Magic Window Cookies and bourbon balls and whatever else we feel like.

Right now, though, my feet hurt, my back hurts and I'm exhausted.  And I can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow.

Colorado Car Starting Attire

It's been COLD recently.  Even for Colorado winter, it's cold.  So for your edification...a tutorial on proper Colorado Car Starting Attire.*

Let's start with the boots, worn for two reasons: 1) easy on/easy off function - no tracking snow through the house - 2) the snow has to be really deep to fall inside - while not warm, toasty feets, at least dry feets.

Next, the ever sexy running pants circa late 1980s (yes, I've had them that long).  Again, two reasons: 1) they slip down into the easy on/easy off boots, so no snow gets stuck in the cuff (so I'm short, I have to cuff my scrubs) and 2) I can go back in the house, kick off my boots and pull on my scrubs or jeans over the top and be toasty warm.

Big fluffy coat that covers my butt.  'Cause there ain't nothin' worse than a cold ass. (Not even a dumb one.)

Gloves.  Have you ever stuck your hand to the car in sub-freezing weather.  'Nuff said.

Dry hair is preferable, but not required if you don't mind frozen hair.  But it's just hair, it'll thaw.

Now, some of you who follow my Tales From The Trail blog may realize that the Car Starting Attire sounds very similar to the Bear's In The Dumpster Attire.  Very astute.  It varies only by the britches (flannel jammies vs. running pants) and the state of the hair (clean and combed vs. bed head).

*The pictures are a tad fuzzy because of the frost on the inside of the door - my eldest son was too wussy to open the door for the pictures.

What A Nice Surprise!

Nathanael over at This Is How It Feels has honored me with a bit of blog bling, and what a great surprise it was!  Nathanael and I "met" when he was honored with the Honest Scrap award by Monda over at No Telling, I jumped over to his blog and fell in love.  We were both then honored by Monda when we were included in EasyStreet Prompts' Blog Carnival.

When I think about the people I've "met" via blogging, it's rather mind-boggling.  The internet, I know it's been said before, has opened up whole new worlds.  Where else would I have met a gay solder serving in Baghdad or a Southern gal with a passion for writing or another wickedly funny Southern gal or an endurance rider from California?  There are so many people that I've met through blogging that I would never have had the opportunity to meet before.  It truly is astounding.

The rules, as have been explained to me by Nathanael are:

1.) grab the award (check - see above)
2.) post it on your blog along with five things you love to do (Oh Jeez, just five.  I'll have to think about that.)
3.) five others you want to recognize... (Again, only five?)

Things I love to do: (in no specific order)

1. Ride my horse, Estes.  You can find the story of how I fell in love with her over at my other blog, Tales From The Trail
2. Blog.  Well, write.  I love to write, and blogging is an easy way to connect with people I wouldn't normally get to meet.  I also love my morning blog crawl and can't get through my morning without it; it's my equivalent of reading the morning paper, I guess.
3. Shoot.  Hence the name Gun Diva.  I love the feel of a controlled explosion, which is all shooting really is.  And, hey, I'm pretty good at it.  My friend and fellow Gun Diva, Tara Janzen, is a rifle shooting queen.  Me, I love the handguns.
4. Read.  This kind of ties in with #2; part of blogging is reading.  I get to read small, bite-sized stories daily and look forward to them, but I also love novels.  Really, anything with words.  Hell, I even read shampoo bottles.
5. Work.  I really do love my job and the people I work with; I can't imagine doing anything else.

Recognize Five Others... (again, in no specific order.  Nathanael, you know I'd send this back to you if I could.)

• K. Erickson at Preachers and Horse Thieves.  He was awarded Editor's Pick for the 1st edition of EasyStreet's Blog Carnival.  I jumped over to his blog and immediately followed.  I love his writing and his dedication to his wife.  Here's a man who is head-over-heels in love with his wife and isn't afraid to post it for the whole world.  Oh, and he's got some great stories, too.
• Monda at No Telling and EasyStreet Prompts.  She's a great storyteller and I look forward to her posts everyday.  I'm not sure how I stumbled upon No Telling, but I enjoy it immensely.  And, of course, EasyStreet Prompts has a place in my heart, as my Honorable Mention (posted over at Lyon's Roar) was my first ever blog bling.
• Candance at Crazy Texas Mommy.  I love this woman!  Her posts are guaranteed to make me laugh.  Everyone needs a little CTM in their life.  Imagine my surprise when I was talking to my brother in Arizona one day and he asked if I'd ever read CTM.  We both found her blog at about the same time and fell in love.  Shortly thereafter my step-dad started following CTM, so now it's kind of a family cult thing.  So...that sounds a little creepy.  Didn't mean it to come out that way.
• Roxanne at Pet Blog.  Her stories about Verne the horse trader keep me in stitches.  I love the way she's able to bring his stories to life in so few words.
• Bill and Juanita at It's A Horse Life.  Okay, so there's a bit of nepotism here, they are, after all, my parents.  And I was the one who not only talked them into blogging, but set it up for them.  It started as just a way to share some of their favorite stories and recipes and stay in touch with their guests, but they're really taken it and run and their hits counter is burning up. 
  

That was tough, only choosing five.  Please check them out; I think you'll enjoy them.  And be sure to tell them I said 'hi' when you stop by.