Sledding Follow-up

What's up with stores trying to jam me for $40 for a foam sled?! I guess when they know that all the Costcos are out of them they can jam you. I almost paid the asking price when O really wanted it but came to my senses. I waited a few days then picked one up for $19 once the trucks could make it through to refill the shelves at Costco.
We hope Mateo and the Gang drive safely back to SoCal. They stayed an extra day to avoid the much predicted storm we all thought would kill us. The minute they left this morning it started snowing. Timing.

Sledding & Scones

We are rocking in the New Year with a sore coccyx and about 2 lbs. of sweet cream butter and honey that rode its way into my body through 2 straight days of deep fried scones. We made them apres sledding at Sugarhouse. Then a 3rd time we made a meal out of them after neither ak nor I knew what to fix for dinner. "Well, let's fry up some more of this fatty dough in some liquid fat, then we'll make Navajo tacos!" So that was dinner. Diet starts tomorrow! right.

Sledding was a blast. I'm surprised there were no breaks, concussions, or red snow. I did see a little kid get blasted by an inner-tube and rider at break-neck speeds do a complete aerial flip and live to tell about it. H & O caught some of the "best rides of their lives"!
We even found new uses for a Pottery Barn box.

Bob Vila Jr.

So I've been working on the 3-month long "Christmas present" of replacing the bedroom doors, casings, and baseboards upstairs. I was pretty sore and tired when H came upstairs and started with this attitude of a been-around-the-block handyman.
"So Dad, how are the doors coming?"
"Really good," I said.
"That's awesome. They look great. Did you get new door knobs?"
"Yep."
"Dad that's great." I showed him around the rooms and what we had changed or added.
You should have heard his tone and enthusiasm. I let him run the shop-vac. That takes vacuuming to another level. The shop-vac.
I just should have had him put on his little orange apron from Home Depot. Icing.

Television drought

We got rid of directv and replaced it with none of the equivalents (dish, comcast, etc). We replaced it with hours of me getting slaughtered by the West Regional Scrabble Runner-Up 2006 AK! We've got to find a replacement game fast. Suggestions? Battleship, Pick-up-Sticks, Pencil Fights?

My parentals got rid of tv for a while as a kid, but we had 5-acres to turn into a snake-catching, tree-fort building, zucchini-war fighting, rooster-roundup chasing, rabbit-cage cleaning paradise!

My Wife the Wonderful Philanthropist

Saturday night AK and I attended the event for which AK has spent dozens of woman-hours preparing. Countless latenight meetings, begging for items to be contributed for the auction all for the Junior League's annual B&W Ball. I think she was one of 5 ladies organizing their biggest fund-raising event of the year. Last year I heard this event lost money (in the red). This year, in ticket sales alone they raised at least $9k, and with auction items up for bid like a Tony Dorsett signed football, I'm sure the grand total raised went much higher.

I had an enjoyable evening stuffing my face with Citrus Grill catered (and donated) food while milling around the works of Andy Warhol at the Museum of Fine Art like a fish out of water.
Splendid job AK! Nice dress too.

Big Snow Year Predicted

We can't wait for some deep snowboarding days this year, and these early season storms are making us more anxious. H and I visited Uncle Chip's shop in Park City on Saturday to see some snow and check out the new gear.
H is stoked for skiing this year, so long as I'm not his instructor after our last outing together.

Bread Snob

Can someone please tell me the difference between a baguette and french bread?? I'm a simple man. Born and raised in the Oregon plains (and a few years in a small desert-town, Phoenix). Reared on home-made whole-wheat bread. Maybe I didn't even spell baguette correctly for all I know.

The Funny Madre made a delicious bisque (that's a soup, for all of you readers in Glendale) and asked me to bring home a baguette. I became confused in the bakery after handling, inspecting, pinching, and sniffing the assorted bread shapes. Nothing was labeled "baguette". Do you think I'd stop and ask someone behind the counter?

I came home with a long loaf of sourdough I thought would work. It did work, but it was not a baguette according to FM. I've been known to cook a good loaf every now and then, but that's my limit to the bread world.

Great dinner AK. That "Home Chef" degree is paying off. Bisque every night.

I mean "snob" in the most loving sense of the word.