Parent’s Weekend

Getting ready…my parents are visiting for a long weekend, and should be here any minute!  Persimmon Pudding is made, Loki has helped with the dishes, Tim has mopped, and the drier sucks.  I think it is creating humidity, hence wet clothes.

Bookcase for Giants

We aren’t giants, but would you expect anything less than a 9′ tall bookcase in this house? There are still boxes of “lesser” books in the basement that we can’t bear to part with, like my treasured S.E. Hinton collection, and Jane Hamilton, who I always read but never really like. I wonder sometimes how I ended up with so many books about Russian history, but it isn’t really a mystery. They came from the intersection of a little bit o’ cash slinging puffballs at the Lion, access to good used books (the Red Cross booksale), and a peaking interest after my undergrad. Having a brother who lends/buys you books about Stalingrad and Prince Felix Youssoupov doesn’t hurt either. I love having my books out, and it finally completes the living room.

I can’t reach the Russia shelf without a ladder, but Tim made me the perfect bookcase for this house!

Unwrapping

No, we weren’t waiting for the winter solstice, but decided to go ahead and open the majority of presents tonight. Tim is a sweet pea, and despite talking about not getting each other gifts, he plied me with many books. I shall never complain of not having anything to read.

Hopefully with all the cash received (thanks moms and dads!!), we will be heading to the big city to go shopping while Tim is still on break. Indy, here we come!

Prodigious Start

This is what Tim’s office looked like after he finished finals. There wasn’t an inch of space not covered by papers, wires, cups, papers, books, papers, blankets, and more papers. That path in the middle? Only there to be able to walk from the door to the computer. Today it is neat and tidy, and? Tim has heard back on his final projects and knows his overall grades. He did excellent! Yay! I knew he could do it.

Also?

Helper cat, helps. With the quilts. Binding is 5/8 done!

App

Parmesan Sticks waiting to go into the oven. These are sort of a pain to make, but are so delicious and you can freeze them too. Just in case there are leftovers, which there won’t be. I think this is my mom’s recipe. YUM!

Parmesan Sticks
Makes 5-6 dozen

2 C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Cayenne pepper
2 C all-purpose flour
1 C butter
4 oz. cream cheese
1 egg
Paprika or poppy seeds

1. Stir Parmesan, a few grindings of pepper and a dash of cayenne into flour. Mix well.
2. Beat butter and cream cheese in mixer until smooth and creamy.
3. With fingers, work in flour mixture until you can round up dough in a ball. Wrap in saran wrap, flatten slightly and chill for a few hours or overnight.
4. Remove dough for 10-20 minutes before shaping.
5. Divide in ½ (keeping other ½ in fridge) and roll into oblong on a lightly floured counter until ¼ inch thick.
6. Cut into strips 1 inch wide and 3 inches long, using pastry wheel if you have one.
7. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and brush with slightly beaten egg. Sprinkle with paprika or poppy seeds (or ½ and ½ )
8. Refrigerate cut strips that have been brushed and sprinkled for 30 minutes. Remove.
9. Bake at 375 degrees until golden and slightly puffed, about 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Border

Have I told you how much I love my desk? Yes? Well, its true. It allows me to be creative when the mood strikes. And if the mood strikes to cut out 256 triangles to make the border for Thiên’s quilt, then I can do that. And if I need a break between the cutting, pressing and trimming, then I can just shove them in a drawer. A drawer in my desk.

Thankfully the library is closed today (though Tim is at work), so I am home reading, blog surfing, watching tennis, and maybe some sewing and trimming (see above).

Things

Some day soon we will run out of money and quit buying stuff.

But now you can come and visit. We have places to sit. What are you waiting for?

Fruity

Is is ok to buy fruit solely on the basis that it is cute? I mean look at this little baby melon!

I stopped by the farmer’s market on my walk home from work to buy some tomatoes and couldn’t pass this up. It will be dessert after we grill a bunch of veggies that we bought last weekend at the market, including some Indiana corn.

Students are arriving en masse this week and creating “traffic”. How annoying.

Drawers

We are no longer living out of boxes in our bedroom! A beautiful cherry dresser was delivered yesterday morning and we could not be more pleased. It was a little more money than we wanted to spend on a dresser, but it isn’t made out of particle board either. Real! Grown-up! Furniture!

I had a great birthday, thanks for all the wishes, texts, calls and emails!

Open Letter to Internets

Dear Internets,

Why has thou forsaken me? I heard that one could find anything using the Google and the tubes. ANYTHING. Well, it isn’t true. In fact, it is a bunch of lies.

We are only trying to find a sofa that is 68″-72″, modern design, with arms, preferably in leather (or really anything other than the color of nubby cement or “paprika”) and less than $2,000 including shipping. Oh, and I don’t want to wait 6-8 weeks either. Should it be that hard internet? I don’t think so.

Seriously? It can’t be impossible. But, it seems that it is. Impossible.

Tomorrow I turn 32 so for the hell of it, here is a gratuitous shot of my cat (bonus points to anyone who can place the bag: