Entertainment for a Rainy Afternoon

We like bing cherries. They just happen to go well with cabernet sauvignon.

After years of denouncing it as a unitasker, I purchased a cherry pitter. We like it. I haven't used it on olives yet, but we like this thing anyway. Preliminary tests indicate that this gadget will shoot a cherry pit six feet.

I also finally got us corn picks. A household isn't really established until your guests can hold a cob of corn in style.

Yep, we're happenin' people. We finally got a new dishwasher this afternoon; what better than a good cherry pittin' session to follow that?

Another one

Another day of swearing, but this one went up satisfactorily. Today I spent some time up in the attic, also known as Itchy Hellish Realm. I needed to locate and reinforce a particular part of the soffit in order to support a cabinet full of dishes (the next stud over was 1 3/4" too far to the right to be of any help, of course). Boo hoo for me. I bring this crap on myself.

Anyway, we are very satisfied with the results.

And now it's time to fix the damaged dishwasher drain tube. After that, perhaps a cocktail or three....

Lunch Break

Testimony to my newly found laziness: I am now at the office for the 3rd consecutive day during lunchbreak.  I don't know if its because I'm pregnant that's why I'm lazy or its because I've no shopping money right now, but I don't really feel like walking out the door during lunch breaks as I usually would, up until last week.  Now I want to just stay in the office and hug my cute pillow during the break, get a shut-eye for 15-minutes, and then wake up still sleepy at 1pm.
Oh, and I'm really happy that so far, there are no pregnancy symptoms yet.  Last time I didn't get any, I'm hoping this time its the same, a few cravings here and there, and then some throwing up a FEW times is ok.  I did that for like less than 5 times during my first pregnancy and I'm hoping its the same thing now.
Oh, I'm glad I am back to blogging now.  Hopefully, I'll be able to write down my experiences from now on, its something I miss doing, but now I resolve to write again.  I want my second pregnancy to be just as memorable as the first one.

fitness first

My husband likes to invest in gym equipment ever since we got married. Just after we got married he bought a home gym that took up a huge amount of space in our living room and later on in the bedroom. When we moved to our own home he then bought a stationary bike, which, unfortunately, is also gathering a lot of dust particles in our room. We don't have a gym room so the stuff is parked in our bedroom, with the bed being in between the bike and the gym. Uncanny. I'm more inclined to think that I want us to have a much, much smaller fitness essentials, such as a Kettlebell, which won't take up so much space in our home. Of course, it not like I want or need it now, but for those thinking about getting them a home gym, consider getting something small and light.

The Wedding in Jamaica

The ceremony took place on top of a seaside cliff at the resort, officiated by a Jamaican minister:


The afternoon was overcast, but a glorious sunset broke through right at the end. A great shot of a very handsome wedding couple, I think:


The reception, with all its eating, drinking, dancing and jubilant noise took place in the resort's restaurant:


Part of the celebration was a box of Cuban cigars. Here's a slightly blurry shot of me enjoying an excellent Cohiba and a bit of rum. It was an excellent cigar. Stupid embargo.

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Merry Christmas

Yeah, you read it right. I said "Merry Christmas," not "Happy Holidays."

This was my brother's first North Carolina Christmas. He has been elevated in status because my wife made him a stocking:

He made our Christmas Eve even more merry by bringing Ollie over, complete with a red collar. Christmas cat is a decadent yuletide treat.

I made some pain a l'ancienne, a delayed-fermentation bread from The Bread Baker's Apprentice:

The dough sits overnight in the refrigerator. I made boules for Christmas dinner.

Here they are, fresh out of the oven (by the way, these pics were taken with our new, impossibly tiny, fabulously feature-laden digital camera given to us by Lindz's folks):

And here is how the boules were used. Bryan made a rich seafood newburg (full of scallops, shrimp and crab), and we put it in bread bowls. It was delicious, and it brought back memories of Christmases past. We drank a tasty Rutz pinot noir with it.

Bryan, in his Christmastime extravagance, made the mythical Bee Pie. Lindz has heard about this pie for years now, and Bryan decided to bring forth the legend so she could actually have some.

She liked it. By the end, we were full and dazed in that old-timey Noel way.