Not in Your Mouth, Son.

Not Such a Good New Trick

Iain has learned to open doors. By itself, this is great. But.....

If you don't fully close the door (listen for the 'snick'!), he will go try to open it. And crawl out into the hallway and fall down the stairs to his death. Also, if you pick him up, he may reach for the door and pull it open as you lift, thus whacking himself or you with it. Joy.

Cabinet doors are a target, too. Any door will do, in fact. Thank goodness we no longer have a doggie door, because if we did that kid would be out in the snow faster than you can say 'spit'!

So it's a new trick. But not one I'm thrilled about. Once he can walk, I figure I'll teach him to hold the door open for Mommy, which is gallant. Until then, I just have to push the dresser in front of every door after I go through it. That's not so bad, right?

Why Yes, Thanksforasking

Hey John! In fact, it is snowing here. But that's ok. I'm not bitter that you're in SoCal where it's 60 degrees and sunny.

Not. Bitter. At. All.

[btw, I went over to your house and opened all the windows and doors. I put a sign in the yard that said, "Gone to California - please help yourself to my stuff." See you when you get back!]

Sunomono

I'd show you a picture, but we eated it.

In Japanese restaurants, especially sushi joints, they often serve a lovely little cup of cucumber salad before your meal. It's cold, it's tangy, it's yumyumyum.

We now know how to make this. And it's easy. And it's tasty. And you don't need much stuff. And it takes 20 minutes. And there are maybe 40 calories in the whole thing. Whee!

Sunomono:
1 small daikon*
1 small cucumber**
5Tbsp rice vinegar (we use Japanese unseasoned rice vinegar, sometimes labeled as sushi vinegar)
2Tbsp sugar
some salt

- peel and slice the veg. I peel with a peeler and then use my mandoline. I think you could also use the veg peeler to make long strips. Or just use your chef's knife.

- salt the veg and let it sit in a colander for 5-10 minutes. The longer it sits, the saltier it will be. I think 10 minutes is better.

- Rinse, drain, shake it off a bit. Pour into a bowl.

- Mix the vinegar and sugar, stir it around, and pour it over the veg, tossing the mixture a little to get it all in there.

- Refrigerate 15 minutes at least, and serve cold.

*I think this is a hilarious instruction, since daikon are not small. I bought a regular one (about 16 inches long, about 3 inches in diameter) and cut off 5 inches worth each time I made this. The one I bought, thus, made 3 preparations of sunomono. And it cost like $1.

**I think the dish tastes better with a 2-1 ratio of cucumber to daikon. So I used more like one large cucumber and 5 inches of daikon. I also like to slice the cuke into rounds and make the daikon into matchsticks, but I'm nuts like that. You do what you want.

Reading in the Sunshine

When it was 70 degrees (a million years ago! Ok. It was Tuesday.), Iain enjoyed a day in the sunroom. Here he is experiencing the joy of reading with natural light. Imagine that.

Of course, he didn't stay still for long.

Because anytime you can come over and mouth on the camera's lens cover, pull off Mommy's glasses, or otherwise amuse yourself - you should go for it.

Buuuuuut Why?

Look! Outside.

I love Outside. Yesterday, it was 74 degrees and I went Outside. For a W-A-L-K. They brought that thing with the smelly butt along, but I don't mind.

Today, though. Sigh. Today's 43 degrees and rainy. No Outside today. I feel sad. And not just Sad Doggie sad, but really, really sad.

Le Levée Iain

Louis XIV of France spent half the morning getting out of bed. Someone woke him up, someone else kissed him good morning, two people pulled off his nightshirt and a variety of folks took care of tasks as mundane as removing the chamber pot.

Compared to Louis, Iain's got it easy. Generally, only two members of the staff serve him, and visitors only rarely participate in the morning, bedtime, or bathtime rituals.

But The Grumpy Groom's comment regarding bathtime ("Bath time makes me grumpy too. And I'm going on 40! :)") does make one consider Iain's lack of privacy. After all, I suspect that his groomliness gets to take his baths alone. Perhaps even to dress himself. He stays up late, I bet, and picks out his own jammies.

These are all pleasures denied to Iain. Instead, he's subjected to being picked up, wiped off, inspected and groomed, washed, dried and brushed, dressed, undressed, re-dressed and fussed over. We even discard his own, 21st century, chamberpot (made by Huggies, of course).

So maybe his recent rejection of bathtime stems from a desire to be more like Greta Garbo. If so, he's sadly out of luck.