Such an awesome day!  Attended a reunion of my college sorority - really my dearest friends.  I wish it had gone on forever.  I remember my mom often told me to work hard at keeping in touch with your friends as an adult.  And I always remember how silly that advice seemed.  Not anymore.  We've all grown, moved away, become busy with our families and our jobs.  Sometimes years go by between when I see my friends.  Thank goodness for the internet - makes it so much easier to stay in touch.  But my mom was right - I really do have to work at it.  But it is always worth it.  Nothing better than good friends.

I am taking a cake decorating class with a friend.  Just the basic class for me - icing, frosting, basic designs.  No fondant or anything fancy.  Tonight was the first class.  I can't ice a cake worth a darn.  They always look like a shakey blind person did it.  I just want to be able to make something respectable.  We simply learned some basic stuff about the types and consistencies of frosting, tips on how to make a cake well, how to load/use a bag and tips, and practiced making stars on cookies.

So my week of vacation time is over. Did basically nothing = best week ever LOL. To update my previous post, here are the results of my cooking /baking adventures:

Chicken Piccata = good, definitely a keeper, but I am going to alter the recipe slightly.  (Can't find the recipe online for this.)
Mexican Lasagna = the winner of the week. Easy to make, family friendly, reheats well.  I did mine with one pund of ground beef instead of the two pounds of chicken.
Pasta Ponza = meh. Not worth the effort, not that good.
Banana Bread = so much better than my old recipe. We bought extra bananas this week just so I can make more.
Apple and Walnut Tarts = ridiculously easy to make, good, but not great. Willing to give this one another try. Will cut two apples, will skin apples (surprising that wasn't part of the original instructions), and will add cinnamon next time.

... I feel like I am forgetting something, but I just can't remember what it is!

So all this week my schedule will let me have more time trying out some new recipes to see if they should be added to the regular rotation.

Last night: chicken piccata. Good, but I think I will slightly change the balance of lemon and salt. And I think I'd like the sauce to be a little creamier.

Tonight: a very basic Mexican lasagna. Meat, beans, veggies, tomatos sauce, tortillas, cheese, repeat... :) [don't quote me on that order of ingredients]. Seems basic; not even gonna print the recipe out.

A couple other things for later in the week including a YUMMY looking recipe for individual apple pies made using a big muffin pan. And I am eyeballing some bananas in the kitchen and hope no one eats them, because I found a great recipe for banana bread.

((the mood icon for "hungry" was a sad face, so I changed it to "relaxed" instead))

I was supposed to go to the Anaheim Comic Con tomorrow. Captain Kirk! Batman and Robin! Mini Me! and many more. But alas - I was home all day with a particularly yucky bout of a stomach flu and I am not going tomorrow. :(

I can't believe my purse got stolen! I was in Bed Bath and Beyond during lunch yesterday to buy table linens for Easter. I just turned my back for a moment as I weighed my tablecloth choices. I put my selections in the cart and pushed it to the closet organizing section when I noticed my purse was gone. I look up - there is no one in the table linens area. I do the pat down again - do I have it on me and I am just crazy? Nope. As I hurry to the front of the store I am already worried about everything I have lost. Then I remember I have to fly in a few days. How am I supposed to travel without a picture ID or credit cards?? I get to the front and tell them what happened. They have me stand by the door to keep watch. They radio their personnel. I aggressively scan every person exiting the store. After several minutes, a store employee comes carrying my purse!! Did the thieves abandon it after taking everything? No, everything seems to be intact. Then what happened? Turns out I had started putting my purchases in someone else's cart and left my purse in my cart there, sitting in table linens. Yep, I stole someone else's cart. I left my purse sitting there. Oops.

I wonder how many people are on the Kevin Smith diet without even knowing it? Or more accurately, the "I don't want to end up like Kevin Smith" diet. I have two business trips coming up and I find a mantra repeating in my head: I don't want to get kicked off a plane like Kevin Smith was kicked off. Now, I know that I am not *that* overweight, but still I realized that I've been eating well and exercising more since that incident.

Twins sleeping together in a basinet >> twins sleeping together in one crib >> Each baby having their own crib >> Getting rid of the cribs and laying the crib mattress on the floor >> honest-to-goodness big kid twin-size beds with box spring underneath.

I just can't believe they are in real big kid beds now. It will be interesting to see how tonight goes. Wanna make beds as to which one falls out of bed first??

9/26/09 Planted first row of carrots

12/6/09 Supposed to pull first row after 70 days (according to directions on seed packet), didn't look ready

1/16/10 Pulled a few but they didn't seem quite done (see second photo)

2/7/10 Pulled three more today, they *smell* carroty! If I added correctly, that's 134 days. (See first photo on dishtowel)
I am very hopeful!

BTW this is purposefully a variety that is supposed to grow in So. Cal. and is a "short" variety that is more suitable for the rocky soil I have. These will never be the long straight ones that you see at the store. They are about 6" long.

Have we as a modern society stripped away everything that identifies what a boy is? As you know I have twins - boy and girl. I am struck how often something comes up that is girls only. Hair ribbons. Dresses. Make-up (well, big girls, that is!). And nothing anymore is completely off limits and considered boys only. Sports? Both kids love anything that has to do with a ball. Pants? Cars? Trains? There is no such thing anymore as a boy-only toy. There is no such thing anymore as boy-only activity.

I often see the confused look on my son's face the few times this issue comes up. And I of course do my very best to couch in terms of not what he is missing, but how awesome the alternatives that are still open to him are. But I have to wonder the damage we are doing as a society.

Of course, when I think hypothetically about "well what should be boys only?" and the very thought of stepping backwards like that as a society just rankles. We as women took too long to earn or present position, and even that is still not equal. But, dare I say, shouldn't there be something that is just for boys and off limits to girls? Something or some activity to help them identify their role?

And amidst all of this, I always find myself so grateful that we are an intact family. How much harder it must be for little boys when their daddies are absent?