Dec 31, 2009

Elijah stared at the court jester, suspicion in every line of his body. But when the man bent down and lit a torch, sudden understanding flared in Elijah's eyes. He raised a tentative finger, shifted his weight expectantly.

The jester tossed the burning torch into the air and caught it. The small knot of onlookers applauded politely.

"HOT!" bellowed Elijah, pointing in earnest.

A small tittering swept the crowd. The jester turned to us and bowed. "This young gentleman is correct, good ladies and gentlemen. It is, verily, hot."

"HOT!" bellowed Elijah, still pointing.

The jester nodded again, then turned to the bulk of the crowd and began to juggle again.

"HOOOOOTTTT!!" The tiny finger waggled, whether in excitement or disapproval I could not say. Still, we beat a retreat from the courtyard, up the steps to the Great Hall....


...where Henry the 8th danced centuries ago, in Hampton Court Palace. Since we'd come early, there wasn't much going on yet, but it was far less crowded. And we did get to see some of the costumed folk and check out some other activities.

Besides, the scenery was pretty great:

And we were able to wear out a certain young fellow by letting him roam around. After this, he slept for 2 hours!


Anyhow, happy 2010 to everyone. I will catch up on some emails tomorrow, but for tonight I think I'm going to head to bed. B and I are just sitting here waiting for the clock to tick over to midnight, having watched a DVD. I've been doing a lot of cooking lately - pesto pizza, banana cake (modified from Dad's recipe), homemade bread, and, to challenge myself, a vegan meal of sweet potato and carrot soup. Which actually turned out pretty good.

This is making me sound... really... old. Well, I had a glass of wine tonight, so ha. Um, yeah. Maybe I'd better stop now. Mmhm. Good night, and happy New Year to all!

Hiccups and Pizzettes

I am awake.

I am awake because I watched the BBC's latest adaptation of Day of the Triffids (pt 1).

I am awake because I tucked my husband into bed after the show ended. As usual, we had a brief chat about our respective days (he spent his with friends out of town) and something that E did today had us in stitches of laughter.

I subsequently got the hiccups.

"There's a scratching at the window!" B said.

S... Scratching?! Triffids make scratching noises!

I yelped. Loudly. Meanwhile, B dissolved into a paroxysm of laughter, apparently under the impression that he was "curing my hiccups" by scaring me witless. Well, he cured them all right, but now I've got insomnia while he's peacefully drifting off to sleep. I oughta break out the ol' airhorn, but I thought I'd take the higher road and update my blog. (Besides, I don't even have an airhorn.)

So. Since B was away all day, I had to think of something cool for dinner. I settled on Dad's pizza recipe, which I modified slightly to make pizzettes for a certain young gentleman. Quick and easy (as long as you prep the dough and chop the ingredients in advance), they cook in less than 10 minutes.

I used a cupcake tray (oiled) and put dough bases in:


Loaded the bases with some pesto, grated mozzarella, and a bit of (cooked) sausage:


The finished product:


He couldn't wait to eat them, so I had to tear the pizettes into smaller chunks so that they cooled faster.



E's contribution to the cooking process was to drag a large amount of his toys into the kitchen and mix them up among things that he considers toys but which really aren't - like the dustpan and brush, fork, and dirty laundry that he helpfully unloaded from the washing machine. The latter isn't really his fault because I've been letting him help me unload the washing when it's done. It's actually somewhat helpful. But he's not at the stage where I can let him help me cook quite yet. He understands that the oven is hot but all those cool ingredients? They find their way to his gullet instead of into the pot.

So for now, I get this:


And that's all for now. I shall fight the urge to go out into the bitter cold and scratch at the window outside. Instead, I'll brush my teeth and go to sleep. Someone had better be grateful for this in the morning and COOK ME BREAKFAST IN BED. Just sayin'.

Merry Christmas

Tree!
Acclimating to the new baby-sized bathrobe from his great-aunt:

No more pictures!!!!

I'm Dreaming

of a White Christmas, just like the ones I used to know...

Yeah, growing up in coastal California didn't expose me to a lot of snow. You have to go inland for that, past Sacramento or so. Actually, the one December it did snow (albeit about 10 flakes) in MV, I was with a friend's family in Bear Valley, skiing. I remember those few flakes moved inland and became a massive storm. It was great! It blizzarded overnight, giving us a few feet of fresh snow. Drawback? Windchill was oh... -9F or so. Every time we hit the ski lift we'd have to knock off the icicles that formed on the bottoms of our scarves.

And when I was 15 or so, we spent Christmas with Chris O in WA in whiteout conditions... but that was the day after Christmas, wasn't it? So did that count? Maybe? I think it does!

Speaking of snow...

That's our front garden. I reckon that's the better part of an inch, there. E was slightly intrigued by the stuff, but I don't think he entirely grasped what was going on. He had a good poke about, though, and did some shuffling about. I couldn't get any pics, however, since I need both arms to wrangle him. Dude can seriously sprint, now. Bet he'd take gold in the Toddlerympics 400 dash.

It's still pretty cold here. We went to visit our friends on Sunday for an impromptu dinner at their place. It was only a 10 minute drive or so but the side roads were like ice skating rinks. Right now, it's raining, so I doubt we'll see a white Christmas. But that's ok.

Things on my to-do list:

-Make some mulled wine
-Wrap presents and attempt to avoid the "giant spitball" look
-Do up some stockings for the three of us
-Christmas Eve walk
-Long relaxing bath
-Bake a pecan pie
-Bake a pumpkin pie (both from Dad's recipes)

Hope everyone is keeping well and has a good holiday, wherever you are!

Overheard.... (PG13)

This morning, while B let me have a nice lie-in (we were both up with E last night at varying points). While I was lying there, I realized yet again why I am married to him.

"Come here, Mister. Do I smell something? Yes, yes I do. Ewwwww. Come here. Uuuup. Hnng, come on then. This is the second time today; how unfair! Down you go. No, don't wriggle around. Here... here's an item to hold. Oh, what a thumping chunk that is, yuck. Don't wriggle. Right, all done, up you go."

Out of Bruges

Been too busy to sit down and blog, so I'm snatching some time now while E plays with his Mozart Cube before bed. I've been concentrating on my novel (man, that still sounds pretentious) because I've finished the rough draft (68k words) and am now revising it with a view to expanding the word count to around 80k.

Anyhow, the second part of our trip to Bruges went well. I think the highlight for me was the horse-drawn carriage ride we took. It was 30 minutes long and took us around the inner city. The coachman was knowledgeable and gave us good commentary.


3/4 of the way through, we stopped at a designated resting place so that the horse could have a break. There was a great fountain there which we discovered while letting E have a quick leg stretch.

After the ride, it was beginning to rain, so we found a tearoom to shelter in for awhile. E had some of B's apple pie. Sorry for the blurryness.


Meanwhile, I had the best hot chocolate ever.



The blurry picture doesn't do it justice. Basically, this treat consisted of a cup of hot milk. On top of that was a shallow dish of pure chocolate. Beside the dish (not pictured) was a glob of whipped cream. And chocolate wafers to dish. There was also a lump of sugar. But really, who'd need sugar with all of the above?!

Bruges has such awesome church bells sounding at different times of the day. I know I'm a sucker for pretty-sounding bells and carillons, but I always enjoy visiting places with lots of loud church bells.

The Eurostar home was uneventful. E fell asleep on the train from Bruges via Ghent to Brussels, then stayed asleep for part of the journey on Eurostar. Funfact: The Eurostar goes 186 miles per hour. And it's MUCH preferable to flying, unless you enjoy cavity searches and cramped seats. As for us, we were offered champagne and an enjoyable meal both ways, and the seats were more than comfortable for a just-under 2 hour journey. The train to Bruges from Brussels was about an hour and was quite pleasant too - a double-decker train. It'd be nice if the UK got some of those but I've never seen one in service here.

Lastly, a picture of me (in the Chocolate Museum) so that B stops nagging me about posting my own mug on my own blog.


I have a few more photos that I'll try and stick up here and there, plus a couple of videos. As for now, it's time to put the sprog into bed.