Friday Night, Date Night

Friday night, Callie came over. You know this since you saw the previous set of pictures of Callie being Callie (ie, overwhelmingly adorable). But she brought her staff along for the night (someone has to feed her dinner, after all), and Iain's staff also invited a guest.

Callie, of course, does not feel that she should have to supervise, so she turned her attention to Iain's truck. She enjoyed offloading the blocks and beeping the horn.


Meanwhile, the staff discussed current affairs. So long as they provide a tasty dinner and don't insist on early bedtimes, Iain and Callie permit this little indulgence.


Callie's dad, enjoying a respite from sentences like, "Hey! Come look at this diaper!"


Callie interviewed one member of our party, primarily to determine whether she could make him her slave. As you can see, he was entirely smitten, as are we all.

At bedtime, Miss Callie tried to avoid putting on her jammies. They ended up on her head.

FYI: Here's a camera tip. It's hard to take a focused picture of a squealing, giggling toddler with her jammies on her head. Thought you'd want to know.

Coming up: pics of the garden and pictures of Miriam's bridal shower in Louisville. We laughed, we cried, we made crafts with toilet paper. You read that right.

Pretty

In between cartoons portraying Horace Greeley as a monkey and Charles Sumner as a nasty, fat old fool, I found this lovely engraving from a photograph of the new synagogue at 55th and Lexington in New York. The image is from 1872, and you can see (among other things) the dirt streets.

Slice of 50s Nostalgia

The 1956 introduction of the Eames Lounge Chair, from the Arlene Francis "Home" Show. A bit of a long piece that takes a while to cut to the chase, but interesting on many levels. I like how towards the end they show that even for what we now consider a classic piece that some assembly was required.

Oh, Hai

Callie would love to stay and chat with you, but she's gotta take off. The world needs cuteness and she's here to deliver.


Oh, did you want a last dose of cuteness? 'Kay.


Whew! It's hard work being so adorable. I think Callie needs a nap.

[Yesterday we had to break it to Iain's favorite checker at Fresh Market, Effie, that he's cheating on her. It's true. He was visiting Effie to buy steak so he could have a hot date with Callie. Poor Effie was sad. She acknowledged that Callie is probably pretty appealing, but I pointed out that Callie eats with her hands and has a limited vocabulary, whereas Effie can use a knife and fork and knows many words to use with Iain (such as "genius" and "delicious" and "cookie"). I'm not sure Effie was placated.]

Kill It

Gardening is about sex and death. Or so I hear.

Anyway, tomorrow there's going to be some death. I planted a seedling that was supposed to be borage. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Either way, the leaves (which I was told to use in salad - tastes like cucumber) are huge, and hairy in the way that stinging nettles are hairy. Almost as prickly, too.

So that's either not what I thought or not what I wanted. And tomorrow it will meet its fate.

Oops! I Did It Again

A sink full of dirty dishes. How did this happen?


Well, there was some booty-shaking involved. I can tell you that. When cooking, it's necessary to shake your tail feather a bit. Otherwise, things don't mix properly.


My immediate supervisor wasn't sure what to think about the "dancing." However, he enjoyed hearing about how "shorty" was "on fire" on the dance floor. Also, I determined that no matter how much you want to show your son how to crack an egg properly, you cannot crack an egg on his high chair. Too resilient.


He approved of my mixing technique, though, and of the ultimate result: Smitten Kitchen's Buttermilk Raspberry Cake.


After baking, before eating:

I'll be making a honey mascarpone sauce for this, just to dollop a little on the side. Also on the menu? Grilled flank steak, roasted asparagus, potato, and yellow squash, green salad. A nice simple dinner for early summer.

New Skills

Old trick: drinking out of a sippy cup.
Really Old trick: drinking out of a bottle.
Really, Really Old Trick: drinking Chez Mom.
New Trick: drinking (maybe) out of these:


The boys went on a tour at Woodford Reserve last weekend, and these little shot glasses were freebies. They're about an ounce and a half, and they're made of plastic. So for someone small who is learning to drink out of a cup (and who often wants me to hand over my pint glass of iced tea so he can dribble it down his shirt while smacking my laptop with his sticky fingers), this might be a way to learn to use a glass. It won't break. It doesn't hold much so he can drink a full glass and if it spills, no biggie.

Granted, it currently says "Woodford Reserve," but it's pretty clear that a few episodes in the dish washer will cure that disease.

In other news, here's a photo of Iain climbing the alphabet rug (all packed up in its zip case) in order to get at the blinds. He's obsessed with the blinds this week. But check out Mr. Mountain Climber: