“Someday you’re going to discover you’re not invincible, and it’s going to come as a shock.”
“Daddy, what does ’shock’ mean?”
We just had a very busy couple of weeks, Brassapalooza Trumpet Camp, Evan went to GenCon in Indianapolis, and Evan’s parents were here for a week to help us out. During this time, Evelyn, Earl, and I took the kids to the portrait studio to get some pictures done. I haven’t done pictures at the studio for a while, mainly because the photographers just seemed to be getting worse. This time we got some good pictures, but, the only one of the kids together took about 10 minutes and they had trouble with Keeg either trying to suck his thumb or almost crying. Hmmmmm. A Challenge. They have nice props and backdrops, though.
It was lovely having the Portland Sasses up. Earl ended up fixing tons of things for us! Thanks Earl!!! He fixed our droopy gutter, tackled our scary morning glory invasion, fixed the hole in the side of the house from where we took out an vent duct from the old stove (he fixed the venting on the new stove when we moved in a couple years ago), got rid of the yellowjacket nest (which was in the ground in our rosebed—it was the size of a soccer ball!), vacuumed the van, fixed the lightbulb in the bathroom and fixed the plumbing in the toilet (which broke the morning they were leaving!). Wow. We thank you so much for helping our little home stay running!
Evan came back on Monday. It is nice to have him home again! Trumpet camp was a complete success! YAY! The kids are doing great, and things are starting to ramp up faster into the school year. Zoey will be in the Inventors class at preschool. Keegan will be doing the Little Gym all year. We are signing up Zoey for more art classes for the Fall and then ballet starting up again in January, I think.
Summer has been great so far! We did some things, saw some people, played some music, had free time, took naps, and even watched some movies! Two more weeks of summer!
That’s the view I had on my way to Gen Con, but so far it’s pretty much the same on the way back home. I’m at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, spending a bit too much for wi-fi. Just one more hour left on my layover.
Judging by the constant announcements over the PA system, either most airports don’t care, or this one serves the most forgetful people in the world. I just hope I never leave my cell phone at the security checkpoint.
It was a good convention, but I’m very ready to be home.
In case you were wondering about the bluesy strains coming over the baby monitor a while ago, no, Keegan’s nap didn’t “take,” and yes, apparently Zoey left a harmonica in his crib.
“Thanks for getting more gorilla bars!”
“You’re welcome, Zoey.”
“I’m so proud of you, Mommy.”
Yesterday we moved Keegan’s crib into Zoey’s room—now Zoey & Keegan’s room—and he spent his first night in there with her. He had trouble falling asleep in the new space, and then woke up at Time I Can’t Remember From Lack Of Sleep in the night, but Zoey slept fine, which was my main concern. Rona did a great job cleaning out their room, which job included moving out a clutter-magnet chair, and it is great in there now. I declare Operation One Room a success!
In case you get your FrogTacoBlog from an RSS feed, or, like me, haven’t had your coffee yet, you might want to stop by and see what we’ve done to spiff up the place, or else pour yourself a mug and click F5.
Along with upgrading Wordpress, I installed a new theme and created some custom graphics that show off some of our favorites from our Flickr photostream.
I’d love to hear what any of you might think about the new look. I didn’t design it, but I can change it, so if anything is hard to read or confusing or seems broken in your browser, please leave us a comment. Which is also a fine thing to do if you like it.
I know, I know… We’re way behind on posting photos or even real honest-to-goodness updates or, well, anything really. So, here’s some food to show we still love you. Or to at least tide you over until we get the photo factory rolling along again.
Evan’s Pressure-Cooker Dhal (Indian Lentil Curry Soup)
Ingredients:
- 1 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil [edit: I've started using 1 TBSP extra-virgin coconut oil instead, if for no other reason than the amazing smell it wafts through the kitchen]
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 3-5 cloves of garlic, smashed & finely diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 1 or 3 tsp Patak’s Mild Curry Paste (or go spicier, or use whatever kind you can find or make your own)
- 1 can (14-15 oz.) Thai light coconut milk
- 1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, drained
- 32 oz. vegetable or chicken stock (buy a box at the store, or, make your own—it’s easy!)
- 1 1/3 cups red lentils, rinsed & picked over
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 6 cardamom pods
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- 1 lime, cut in half
Equipment:
- Pressure cooker (ours is 6 quarts—if yours isn’t or you don’t have one, just use a regular old large pot and it’ll just take a little longer)
- Food processor or blender
- Large mixing bowl or other large container that can take the heat
Start Cookin’:
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat, until it can run around the bottom of the pot like water.
- Add the diced veggies and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent, about 2-3 minutes
- Add the curry paste and stir around until the veggies are coated
- Pour in the coconut milk and veggie stock
- Add the diced tomatoes
- Stir in the lentils
- Add in the cinnamon stick & cardamom pods (just leave ‘em floating on top)
- Close lid on pressure cooker, bring up to pressure, reduce heat, cook for 8 minutes while regulator doohickey gently rocks.
- Carefully transfer pressure cooker to sink (look out for escaping steam when you set it down) and run cold water over the top to force the pressure down and unlock the lid.
- Fish out the cardamom pods (these can be hard to find) and the cinnamon stick.
- Puree most of the soup mixture in your food processor or blender, only filling vessel up 1/2 way or less at a time to avoid steam causing a soup geyser.
- Transfer blended soup to bowl, mix in the bit you left out of the blender.
- Add salt and pepper to taste, and squeeze in fresh lime juice.
- Eat up!
If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just cook uncovered in a large stock pot for about 20 minutes. Recipe inspired by “Garlicky Lentil Soup” and “Spiced Lentil Soup” in The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Soup, Barnes & Noble Books, 2002 (ISBN: 0-7607-3096-2).
I forgot to mention a month or so ago that the following photo was chosen to represent the Seattle Aquarium on Schmap.com, a travel site.
Too bad it’s not a paying gig…
Yes, well, we haven’t ummmm, blogged in a long while. Sorry about that. We will try and do better. I know there are many, many drafts of blogs almost ready to go up…
Anyhoo, Keegan is now 14 months old! His first made-up word is “Ga-bay”. I don’t know what it means. Zoey had her first made-up word also, Bipth… Keegan uses it all the time. He slips in real words every once in a while. “Hi”, “Bye-bye”, “water” are a couple. He is mister crawler these days. And he is fast! He is so fast, he is starting to get bruises on his knees, especially when he is not wearing any pants.
Keegan is pulling himself up on things now. He doesn’t quite bring his right foot all the way to standing position, so he is effectively standing on the top/outside of his foot. Ouch. He doesn’t seem to mind. He is happy to find a whole new world of things to play with.
He has a great sense of humor already, too. He likes to put things on top of his head and balance them. Hmmm, where did he learn that from? He likes to play bongo belly using his big sister’s belly. He likes to play ball. He likes to color with crayons. He likes anything his sister is doing. He loves kisses. Oh, and he LOVES to eat. Anything. Everything. The past couple of trips to the farmer’s market, we just buy a pint of strawberries and he is very happy in his stroller and makes everyone laugh with the huge strawberry mess on his face and shirt. One of his favorites, besides strawberries is smoked salmon. Mmmmmmm. We get this salmon from Wilson Farms at the farmers market and they smoke it with maple and wine. It is just amazing. Keegan eats it like crazy!
We have a weight check with Dr. Tracy in a couple weeks for him. At his 1 year appt, he only gained 1 ounce in a three month time period. He was 20 pounds and 7 ounces and 28 inches tall. He was burning it all by crawling. Anyway, he is certainly heavier these days and we are keeping an eye on him. I don’t think he will waste away. His hair is starting to come in nicely! Can’t tell yet if it will be curly or not. We think it is a bit blonder than Zoey’s, but still on the red side.
A picture of him at his party. He was not feeling well and didn’t like everyone singing to him.
He was much happier on his actual birthday.
Keegan has started up at the Little Gym. He loves it! His first week was a week ago. Zoey will be starting her art class and “Ballerina” class this week as well. A very full week.
Last week we enjoyed a Fourth of July celebration with the Hess family. We grilled, played, ate, slept, and watched the fireworks from our deck. We can see about 35-40 different mini shows in the valley below us, plus I think Bothell’s and Lynnwood, perhaps. It lasted from about 9:30pm until almost midnight. A good time was had by all, plus Zoey got to stay up late and see the fireworks for the very first time. Next year, we need a bug candle.
Moving backward in time, a couple weeks ago we ventured down to Portland to see Evan’s parents and Aunt. It was a fun time. The kids had a blast! Evan and I got to go out on an actual date! We went to the Deschutes Brewery in Portland proper, then onto Hawthorne Street. That was my favorite! It seems very similar to Fremont. We will definitely be going back there! We ended up at a Gluten Free Fish & Chips place called Hawthorne Fish and Chips. It was amazing! I had some oysters and man, those were awesome!
Currently, we are in phase one of cleaning up our yard. We weeded most of the roses until the spot where there is a bee’s nest. Ouch. We will be buying some compost and weed-wacking the vegetable garden patch and putting on newspaper and compost so it will be wonderful next spring. Our Pear tree seems to have a disease. We need to figure that one out sometime, too. Lots to do. Gotta prioritize.
That’s all the news I can think of at the moment. We will post more soon. Really!
Quick quiz: Is this Zoey or Keegan?
