Labor Day: my new favorite holiday

In the line-up of widely celebrated and much anticipated holidays, Labor Day usually is not at the top of the list. The biggies like Thanksgiving and Christmas and Groundhog Day are really the heavy hitters. Okay, I'm kidding about Groundhog Day, but you get the point.

However, I really have to say that my last two Labor Days have been, well, outstanding! Last year Joy and Dad and I had a great time exploring the area and catching up. I was visited by my dear friend Eric and his beautiful family and, though I wasn't really at the point of writing about it at the time, it was also the first week that Brian and I started dating.

This year, Dad came up for the long weekend again and, as already mentioned, we had fun visiting with the folks at his church, playing on the rail trail and making yummy frozen yogurt treats. We were planning a lazy Sunday evening of watching movies and lounging around when I got a surprise phone call from another very dear friend from my college days.

Fairlight's husband, Jonathon, had ridden his bike from Toccoa to Tybee while Fairlight and the kids followed him down in the car. Their planned accommodations hadn't panned out and they were wondering if I had room for them to spend the night. Anyone who has seen my apartment knows that space is one thing I have plenty of, so I was excited to have them all over!

The kids enjoyed my library, craft supplies and the dogs. The adults enjoyed a chance to chat and catch up. And the dogs enjoyed cleaning the floors after meals. So a great time was had by all!!

Skye and Dad's Weekend of Fun!

What a wonderful weekend Dad and I have been enjoying! Friday night we went out to dinner with Jessie and had some great Indian food at Pakwan in the Oglethorpe Mall.

Saturday was a very busy day, but in a good way. Last week my dryer decided to break and being an avid do-it-yourself-er I decided to take the dryer apart and fix it. Luckily the Sears parts store was open so I was able to pick up a new belt for $20. Dad helped and we were able to get the dryer up and running in just about an hour.


Several months back Dad and I had some very yummy gelato at Mr. Koolz. He was really excited because they had sugar-free gelato, so he didn't even have to cheat. The vanilla tasted a bit like marshmallow, and that got him craving Rocky Road. So this weekend we picked up some sugar-free chocolate (which, surprisingly, actually does taste like chocolate!), mini-marshmallows and walnuts.

I whipped out the Cuisinart Ice Cream machine and blended up a batch of sugar-free Rocky Road frozen yogurt. It was delicious!

I even used a little of the extra frozen yogurt to blend with some mixed berries for a fruity frozen yogurt treat. What a way to celebrate the end of summer!

This morning the weather was so nice, fairly cool (for Georgia) and lowish humidity (again, for Georgia). So we laced up our walking shoes, slathered on some sunscreen, pulled on our hats and headed out to the McQueen's Island Historic rail trail! It was beautiful! Friends have been telling me about this place since I moved here, but I've never made the time to go until now. Altogether it is six miles from one end to the other. Dad and I parked at the mid-point and walked a mile and a half down the trail.

Along the way we saw a few really neat sights: herons, pelicans, butterflies, dragonflies, marshes and mudflats full of baby crabs. These cheerful morning glory-like flowers were teeming with yellow butterflies having brunch.

All this, and we still have the rest of today and tomorrow morning! Dad's been talking about getting a new car soon, so we may go out for a few test drives after lunch. All in all, it's been a pretty great weekend.

Care Package #37: Cowgirl Bars

I'm not really sure how these bars got their name. But rest assured, I have not purchased leather boots, a hat that is measured by gallons, or a horse. However, I did make a pretty mean batch of super crunchy snack bars! I found this recipe in the Savannah Morning News under a section about up scaling your road trip fare. Not too shabby, but they could possibly remove fillings if bitten the wrong way... consider yourself warned!

Cowgirl Granola Bars

.3 C sunflower seeds
.3 C flax seeds
2 C old fashioned oats
.5 C chopped figs
4 TBS vegetable oil
.5 C honey
.5 C brown sugar
.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
.25 tsp nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 and line a 13.5" x 10" baking sheet with parchment paper.

Toast the flax and sunflower seeds, for no more than 10 minutes. In a large bowl mix together the oats, seeds and dried figs.

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk together the vegetable oil, honey, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook this only until the brown sugar melts and the ingredients come together (about 2-3 minutes).

Pour the spice-sugar mix over the oats and stir with a wooden spoon until evenly coated. Press the mix into the cookie sheet using a spatula to apply pressure and get an even thickness. Bake for about 30 minutes or until it begins to brown. Let cool slightly, then cut with a very sharp knife.

Care Package #36: First Date

On August 29, 2009 I was lucky enough to go on an outstanding first date (with Brian, in case you didn't make the connection). We met for dinner at Carrabas and ended up sitting there talking for over 2 hours. After the waitress cleared the table and wiped it down we got the hint that she was encouraging us to move along. But I didn't want the date to end yet, so I broke one of my cardinal rules of dating: no movies on a first date. If you're trying to get to know someone and see if you click, what good is it to sit in the dark and not talk for 2 hours? Not to mention that you never know what kind of awkward or charged issue could come up in a movie storyline. Still, I wasn't ready to say goodnight just yet, so I suggested catching a movie. We both agreed on "Funny People" and, awkward sexual humor aside, it was pretty funny.

Fast forward one year, and I was racking my brain to come up with a "First Date" themed care package. Since we ate at an Italian restaurant, I decided to bake an Italian snack: chocolate almond biscotti (recipe below). Biscotti is one of my favorite snacks and it took every ounce of will power not to eat the whole batch by myself!


But just sending biscotti was not enough. I decided to recreate as best I could our actual first date. Of course, real Italian food would never survive the trip to Iraq. But Chef Boyardee could! I also picked up a copy of "Funny People" and some movie candy to round out the package. Everything seemed to arrive in good condition, except the Milk Duds melted into one big Dud.

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

1.75 C flour

.3 C unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

.5 tsp salt

6 TBS butter, room temperature

1 C sugar

3 large eggs

1.5 tsp vanilla

1 C chocolate chips

1 C slivered almonds

Line two cookie sheets with heavy duty tin foil.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Mix the butter and sugar with a hand mixer. Add eggs one at a time then add vanilla. Add flour mixture just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips and almonds.

Put half the dough on each cookie sheet and, with wet fingertips, shape into logs about 3" by 12". Refrigerate for half hour.

Heat oven to 350. Bake logs for 25 to 35 minutes or until top begins to crack and toothpick comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes then cut into 1" thick slices and place flat on cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, remove from oven and turn slices over. Return to oven and bake for another 8 minutes. Let them cool completely then store in an airtight container.

You know you're a neat freak when...

...your idea of a fun weekend is helping your Dad clean out the garage.

This past weekend I went down to Dad's and we tackled the garage. He had done a good bit of prep work on it, but I'm not sure he was really ready to take the ultimate cleaning mantra seriously: Less is more.

I've become a real fan of the Zen organizing method of eliminate, simplify, organize. This works well for me in so many areas of my life, but I know it can be kinda harsh for people who aren't as fastidious. We went through boxes, bins and bags, piles and heaps, drawers and shelves. Everything was evaluated, then only what was useful was dusted off and given a new home. I'm pretty sure there were a few times when even my mild-mannered Dad wanted to shout "No, I haven't used it in the past year, I don't know when I'll use it in the future. I want to keep it just because, okay?"

But when all was said and done, he now has a very tidy and spacious garage where he, wonder of wonders, can actually park his car!

The Craigslist Curb Alert heap-o-stuff that lined the driveway was pretty impressive. What was even more impressive was how much of that stuff was picked up by the next day! This picture is actually just the stuff that could be reused. There ended up being a whole other pile of garbage to haul out to the curb Sunday night.

Warning: Politcally Charged Issue Below

I have to admit, I have not closely followed this hub-bub about the "Mosque" at Ground Zero. I've heard snippets about it on the radio and read blurbs in the newspaper. But I just don't see what the big deal is. I can't make the jump from a few extremist using planes as weapons of mass destruction to all Muslims being the monsters under our country's bed. Olbermann put it way better than I could, but even before I saw this clip, I thought to myself "In trying to block this cultural center, aren't we becoming exactly the enemy that we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan?"

(Oh, and in case Dad is reading this, you know I don't have TV, so I'm not even sure who this Olbermann guy is: Right or Left, Republican or Democrat I have no idea. I don't pick teams, I pick logic, and his argument makes sense to me)

P.S. Thanks to Alana for bringing this clip.

Housekeeping, Hats and Hugs

Last weekend I decided to revive a habit that I developed when I was living in Pawcatuck: comb through all my belongings and cull out things that I don't want, need or enjoy. I don't shop much, but it seems like Stuff just makes its way into my house. I'm not exactly sure where this attitude came from, but I find that having a lot of Stuff brings me a lot of stress. I see the books sitting unread on the shelf and feel anxious. I see the kitchen supplies that I literally have not touched since I unpacked them and feel anxious. In just a quick sweep of the apartment I found 6 canvas tote bags worth of Stuff to donate! Stuff is denoted with a capital "S" and italics because in my mind it takes on its own personality and becomes almost like a presence in my life... an unwelcome, annoying presence. Like someone microwaving fish in the kitchen at work. As opposed to just regular stuff that sits around and minds its own business.


I toyed with the idea of purging the craft room, but decided that I should wait until after I finished all my holiday crafting. Whatever is left after December is fair game for the chopping block...


A few more hats have found their way off my needles. The red hat came out a bit larger than expected, mainly because I didn't knit a swatch and just guessed about how many stitches to cast on. I'm thinking I may try to felt it a bit, just to resize it.

In an attempt to be spontaneous, I made this striped hat with random bits of pink yarn. The biggest challenge for me was not falling into the habit of changing colors every third row. When it comes to crafting, and various other parts of my life, randomness is a forced behavior for me. I tend to lean towards structure and organization (shocker, I know).

The blue rolled-brim hat was super quick to knit since there was no carrying over of multiple colors. But I didn't read the directions very carefully (I was supposed to use a smaller needle for the rolled part) so the brim is a bit looser than it should be. Still, I think if I iron it a little it should keep its form alright.

On Tuesday my super-hero of a friend, John, stopped by on his way to his new post in Hawaii. He rocked Navy dive school and is now off to work with the Navy Seals. When I first met John, 15 years ago at Camden County High School, he was a scrawny theatre freak with long hair. I never would have pegged him as going into the military, but it seems to suit him well. Harley was excited to have a guy in the house, but showed amazing restraint. I've worked with her to train her to keep her paws on the floor and off of humans, so John had to really coax her into giving him some sugar.