I can haz cheesburger?

Lulu discovered the perils of eating with her daddy this evening at the Rubicon. Walter was holding her in his lap and attempting to eat his bacon-cheeseburger at the same time (foolish, I know!). It was all going (relatively) well until...he got about halfway through and then the grease that had accumulated in the wrapping paper started to pour on to poor Lulu's head! D'oh! We got her all cleaned-up and she sported an, um, interesting hair-do (very "There's Something About Mary") until we got her home and gave her a bath.

Man, did she smell good though!

Chocolate Yogurt Cupcakes

compliments of David Lebovitz and this website.



They make a very tasty breakfast! Unfortunately, no whipped cream like she recommends though...

Garden Photos

Golden Curly Leaf Oregano and Bull's Blood Beets:


Oregano:



Herb Garden:



'Hot Lips' salvia:


Gropius and our sugar snap peas:


Chives almost in bloom:



Lettuce:


Agave we're planning on putting in our front yard (someday):


Calendula in bloom:





Amaryllis in various stages of bloom:

This is one of our new ones from Smith and Hawken--it's a very dark red, very striking!



This one is supposed to be all-white, so it will be interesting to see what it looks like once it's opened?

The First Supper

Louisa's new high chair arrived last night as I was leaving for my German class. Walter had it assembled and all set up by the time I got home, so Louisa got to join us for dinner! I think she really enjoyed being at "our level" and communicating with us while we ate. After we got through, we fed her some pears and she was definitely interested. She really enjoyed the spoon and even managed to get a little bit of the pears down, too.





And for your enjoyment, a little video of the experience, too:


Next up: sweet potatoes!

CQ, CQ, CQ?

Jerry Hoytt Boles, Jr. 10/16/1927-2/22/2009

My grandfather was born in his mother's family's home in Waxahachie, Texas, seven short months after his parents' marriage. He largely grew up in the Texas panhandle in Tulia, Texas, moving with his family to Fort Worth when he was in high school. He attended Trinity University but graduated from University of North Texas. He met his first wife, my grandmother, in Taos, NM where they were both vacationing with their families. After spending a short time in Chicago while he attended McCormick Theological Seminary, they settled in Stamford, Texas where they raised my mother, uncle, and aunt. They moved to Dumas where he began having an affair with a woman in his congregation, subsequently divorced my grandmother, and married the other woman, Donna Sue (Lyle) Boles shortly thereafter.

I never knew my grandparents together. I have one photo of them sitting on a couch with me on my 1st birthday. On their drive back to Dumas, he asked my grandmother to move out. I am incredibly close to my grandmother, in part because she lived with us when I was younger. And I have never been especially close to my grandfather--in part due to loyalty (I am fiercely loyal to loved ones) and in part because he was not a "natural" grandfather-type. Physically, he was a large man with a loud voice and bushy eyebrows--not a comforting look to a small child. And he wasn't the type to really play with us much--he loved model trains and had an elaborate one set up in his "Play Room," but we were not allowed to touch it. We vacationed every summer of my childhood in Taos at the family cabin my grandparents built together, but he never spent time there with us because he only stayed at the cabin in August. Ironically, when we went to visit, I ended up spending more time with Donna Sue because Grandaddy was working across the street at the church.

This was also the same man who travelled to both my HS and college graduations and who cried every time our Suburban pulled out of his driveway. Who gave me an entire set of luggage when I left for college. Who willingly sat through miserable weather to watch his grandsons play football.

So, I guess I always held out hope that as I got older, became less childlike and more adult, that we would (could?) grow closer. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Donna Sue and her children from her first marriage coerced him into a nursing home where he received questionable care and his health deteriorated. Honestly, I think it was his incredibly forceful personality that kept him alive from Feb 2003 until this week. I can't say it was his will to live because he would cry, beg, and plead with us to just take him home (an experience no grandchild should ever have to live through).

In thinking about his passing, I guess I feel somewhat cheated. I'm not sure there was anything that I could do differently, but I am regretful that I didn't know him better. And it makes me more determined to foster loving relationships for Louisa with her grandparents.

88, W5CIV.

Chicken Paprikash

compliments of Food & Wine (March 2009):



Mmmmmmm!

Kaffee ist ein Turkische Getranke.