Where to go for news

Yesterday, I stopped by a local grocery store with a post office in it to send a few things to my nieces that appeared at my house by mistake. I looked at the paper rack and found this picture of something that looks close to where I grew up, despite the fact that it is being reported by the New York Times from the other side of the country. My brother discovered the same thing on the web, so you can read the whole article. Maybe they should let SF have the Olympics some year and they will stop protesting. I doubt it, but it might be worth a try.

Spring break

My daughter and I went on a brief college tour for Spring Break. We drove east on a Blue Star highway to my sister's house.

We crossed big pointy mountains.
We collected my sister and her daughter for one of the college tours. The instructions said to wear comfortable walking shoes. It is important to select the ones that show off your nail polish.
UW has grown so big, the buildings grow into each other. I am not sure which architectural style is represented here. The pictures above and below these words are the same building. They just keep adding on and pretend it was always supposed to be that way, I guess.
The tour guide suggested that this part of the library looks like the great hall at Hogwarts. It needs some floating candles.

Where are the books?
Oh, there they are.
Really serious books for really serious students.
Two very serious students.I will leave it up to you to guess which one asked what the fine was for swimming across this pool. The guide said it was strictly off limits, but that the University cleaned it out every fall before the students arrived and challenged each other to the swim. If caught, it costs $35 and earns one a picture on the front page of the school paper. Both girls thought it would be worth it.
Where my girl wants to go to school.

Happy cousins.
The cherry blossoms were blooming.


After eating in the cafeteria, one must watch one's fork go all the way around the bend, very slowly.

After taking a picture of the fish, watch out for the table when you step back. This is where the big boys play football. They were practicing when we were there, and lots of people were heading in to watch. We were looking for the pool. We found the building, but could not go inside. We found the rowing shells though. We could not go inside the boathouse, but we could see through the windows.
These structures have several purposes. One is to hold up the handrail. Another is to provide an exhaust vent for the garage under the large expanse of bricks.
They also provide a cozy spot to sit, until the lights turn on.

Someone turned on the snow machine while we were on the coast. Fortunately the road was bare and dry when we went through.

After about 75 miles, we were through the mountains, with this lovely vista for the rest of the trip.
Interrupted very briefly by a very large river in a very big ditch. We were chased out of the ditch by a lovely sunset.

Math is cool

Yesterday afternoon, my boy competed with lots of other fourth graders from all over the eastern part of our state in Math is Cool. They did individual tests. They did group tests. They did math relay problems. They did mental math. This one did not want Mom to take his picture.They competed for speed in a college bowl type of competition. All the while, it was snowing outside. Not just little flakes like one might exect the night Spring Break starts, at least a week into spring. These were the big fluffy white ones that land and stick to things and make driving interesting. These were the kind of flakes that show up in pictures taken through classroom windows.

When the competition was over, they handed out trophies and such. My son brought home the prize for the highest scoring individual from his school.

After it was all over, we walked out to the car. When I take the boy skiing, I expect to find white fluffies all over my car. It is part of the experience. When I take him to math competitions, I guess I should expect to find pi all over my car. I found white fluffies instead. Notice the shiny aluminum wheels? That means I took the snow tires off the car already.

When we arrived home, my Shadow insisted on a walk. Whatever the weather, she wants to go out and take me with her.

I ended up wearing a few flakes as well.This morning we went on our usual tour of the neighborhood. Never mind that the white stuff is piling up deep, there are birds to watch and squirrels to chase and other dogs out there to smell. We need to go out and play, now. So we went.

We saw drifting snow by the park. I guess they promised a little wind today too. It seems to have slipped between the cement barriers at the edge of the unused parking lot.

Then the sun came out and started to melt a few flakes away. Here's hoping your weather is at least as interesting as ours.

What we do for our children

Ten days ago, someone gave my daughter a starter for "Amish Friendship Bread." I believe it is really a test in this case of the friendship between the daughter and her mother. It came with instructions for what to do for the next 10 days. She was good on the "mush the bag" days. I did the add ingredients day. Today is the baking day. With track and field practice lasting until 5:30 in the evening, our baking time is rather limited today. Just to be sure that Mom gets to do the friendship baking all herself, my boy is competing in "Math is Cool" today and I am heading over to the school where that takes place at 5:30 this evening. I put the bread in the oven a half hour ago. It smells good. I will take it out in another half hour. I have created her starters to share with friends. I am hoping she gives them all away. If not, she can learn what to do with it in 10 days herself. The real challenge on this project is not the baking or the mixing or finding time on the appropriate day. The real problem is that spring break starts today, and she will not see her friends at school for 9 days. It is hard to share this stuff on myspace or facebook or in a text message. I think she will be visiting friends tomorrow.

If any of you lived close enough, I could share the fun with you. For my brother in the east, the stuff looks and smells a lot like the sourdough starter you have in the back of your fridge. Of course, compared to your day, baking bread looks easy.

Here are the instructions:

Amish Friendship Bread

Do not use any type of metal spoon or bowl for mixing. Do not refrigerate. If air gets in the bag, let it out. It is normal for the batter to rise, bubble and ferment.

Day 1 – Do nothing, this is the day you receive the batter. Make sure the bag is dated.
Day 2 – Mush the bag.
Day 3 – Mush the bag.
Day 4 – Mush the bag.
Day 5 – Mush the bag.
Day 6 – Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk to the bag. Mush the bag.
Day 7 – Mush the bag.
Day 8 – Mush the bag.
Day 9 – Mush the bag.
Day 10 – Mix and divide the starters, bake bread.

Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl. Add 1½ cups flour, 1½ cups sugar, 1½ cups milk to the bowl. Mix well, then measure 1 cup batter into four one gallon zipper bags. Keep one for yourself and give the other three to friends along with a copy of this recipe.

Add to the remaining batter in the bowl (about two cups):

3 eggs
1 cup oil or ½ cup applesauce
½ cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 large (5.1 oz) box of instant vanilla pudding

Options: add 1 cup chopped nuts, or dried apricots, or rhubarb, or craisins, or raisins. You may exchange chocolate pudding for the vanilla pudding.

Preheat the oven to 325°. Grease two large loaf pans and mix an additional ½ cup sugar and 1½ tsp. cinnamon. Dust greased pans with half of the sugar cinnamon mixture. Divide batter evenly between the two pans and sprinkle the remaining sugar cinnamon mixture over the batter. Bake for one hour. Cool until bread loosens from the pan evenly (about 10 minutes). Turn onto serving dish. Serve warm or cold.


Note: Should the starter and recipe not be passed to a friend on the 10th day, be certain to tell the recipients which date the bag is at in the process. If you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking every 10 days. Only the Amish know how to create a start, so if you give them all away, you must wait until someone gives you back a starter. The bread is very good and makes a great gift. Enjoy!

I think I put too much cinnamon sugar on top. It should still taste good, even if it looks funny.

Spring=Track season=interesting weather

The last few days have been graced with an interesting weather pattern. It is sure to please everyone at some time each day. We start with fresh snow in the morning, sometimes it falls overnight, and sometimes it is still falling when we wake up, eat breakfast, walk the dog, drive to school or hop on the school bus. In a few hours, the sun comes out and applies sufficient heat to the day to melt the snow. Oh, the joys of spring, seeing the grass and the flowers for the first time since yesterday. Afternoons have been sunny and windy, but unfortunately not all the way up to what I would call warm. This, according to many who have been through the experience before is the harbinger of track and field season.My daughter selected high jump this year. This afternoon (you know it is afternoon, because the snow has melted) I watched her jump at a meet. She made several successful attempts. It always feels good to make it over the bar a few times.You can tell that it is not a warm day by the plethora of garments one wears under the track uniform, which for some odd reason consists of a skimpy sleeveless top and shorts. I think my daughter would be out there in her snow suit and still shiver if she could.I love to see the bar still there when she lands in the pit. Today she made it over 4", which is her personal best.