And since I'm at it

Here're the rest of the photos I wanted to share. Not feeling into captions so just comment with questions.

Not Arizona

I told everyone I was going to Tucson, Arizona and many have asked me but the way things have worked out, I've been in Cupcake Land. This Seattle winter has been characteristically mild and I've enjoyed the many sunny days. My sister bought the Martha Stewart (my niece: why do you call her by her last name?) Cupcake book and we've gone relatively wild. Here's the meringue step of the lemon curd cupcakes we made for my eldest sister's birthday.

And these are clearly Valentine's. In detail: these are Red Velvet covered (and unintentionally infused with) chocolate ganache with melted white chocolate for the hand-written part.

Detail of Valentine's cupcake. And most likely, if you're reading this, I do. :)

My niece in birthday pancake drag.

Baby with "2" pancake.

More later. Glad my sister showed me how to locate images on her Mac. How confusing for a Windows girl.

Old year's end

My dad's 73rd birthday. I'd forgotten (bad me) but my mom reminded me before I got home. We ate shrimp for dinner.

Mooch with jingle bell from Robyn's wedding, winter spirit.

My sister Jane took my parents and me to the Seattle Symphony. It was beautiful. The Christmas lessons with sing-along carols, I leaned over to my mom during one point and whispered: this is better than church!

The Big 5, as we now call them. Used to be the Big 3 but now there's two more babies.

My eldest niece being very responsible with the younger two of the Big 5. We left the babies at home with my mom while we went to bell ring for the Salvation Army. Record breaking take in, cute kids = genius marketing.

Mom and one of the babies.

Jane's three after Christmas eve service.

Funny faces waiting for our newer tradition of prime rib and crab legs.

Mom and the other baby. As my brother-in-law Doug says, seeing my mom bounce around giving the granddaughters piggyback rides is not the picture of 73-years-old one usually thinks of.

Baby and "What God Wants for Christmas" boxes.

These two are the same age difference between me and my sister Delphine, only with two more kids in between.

Took Jane's two big girls on Seattle Ride the Duck tour. Pretty hilarious. Here they are with their quackers.

Got a chance to catch up with childhood best friend, Amy. She is in a Masters of Education program at University Washington, cares for her 2 year old son and is expecting. Phew!

This was last night's new year's eve hot pot dinner with my mom and dad. It was yummy and I stayed in and updated my iPod with all the CDs I've acquired over the year.

My sister Delphine fell ice skating a few days ago so on Sunday my mom will head back to Seattle (I just took the Greyhound back to Richland yesterday) via bus to help them out. I probably should have stayed but oh well. Hope to catch up with Tri-Cities friends and Monday I am scheduled to take a 2010 Census worker test. In other job related news, I'm going to try to start some sales leads for my brother-in-law's business and a friend from NYC asked me to draft a play he's been envisioning for some time now. So, praise God, "stuff" is coming up.

Exit wounds

Not that I've been shot. It's just the pin prick-sized scabs on my hand just healed from helping arrange roses at the TSC volunteer banquet--and that was about two weeks ago. And there's a fading bruise on my shin from when I ran into Juanita's granny cart containing her Christmas tree. And, well, the gap in my heart whenever I leave NYC. And, well, well, it's time. I'm done. Time to shut down the blog because there are no more travels.

Nancy (of Richland) asked me today if I plan to be temporary for much longer. And it's like: yes, I not only plan to be temporary, I AM temporary. And eternal. Confusing right? It's the dot, not the line--according to Randy Alcorn. But no, I want to be Somewhere. I don't like being elsewhere. I like location, I just don't like fixed location. (A big thank you to Nancy for the lovely lunch and chat!!)

My dad said I need to own things to teach me responsibility. Like a computer. Or a car. Using things that don't belong to me, I don't learn to take care of them. I didn't get mad, visibly. Certainly my internal resume ticker was flashing: I just took care of my sister's FOUR kids for a week! My Linkedin recommendations rock! I bought and installed RAM for your computer...Oh hollow justification.

Anyway. Here's some pictures to lighten the mood of this post.

Some of my ex-colleagues at the Deutsch department party I crashed.

Kristin and Linsey prepping lemon tart.

Closeup of tart.

Juanita and the tree. :)

Ninth morning in Queens

I've got two hours to post some photos. Let's go!



Thanksgiving! My whole family at my sister's house with her husband's family too.



Sue, my roommate from my Israel trip, with Mooch's cousin!













The view from Sue's kitchen window. You better believe that I want to take her up on her guest room offer! Amazing.



Currant scone and curd at Rice in Fort Greene.















Nini! Just as cute as last time we hung out.




Linsey with her fabulous new hair cut!

















Anna and Ben's menagerie: Bubbles (the bear), Nay Nay (the donkey), and Pigletta. I didn't get the little ones' names. Hung out with Anna yesterday, met for lunch at Zemi, where the tofu was quite good, and then I saw her apartment in Park Slope. It's beautifully decorated and there is lots of light.




After leaving Anna's, I traveled deeper into Brooklyn to Nancy's mom's house where she persuaded her mom to cook for me (and the rest of the family and half the neighborhood). Chicken and spaghetti. Oh my! Yum! This is it cooking.




And here it is plated, my plate to be exact.


Final shot is Evelyn (Nancy's mom), Alexis (Nancy's brother), and Nancy. What fun! We decorated and laughed well into the night. I am thankful for good eats and shared eats.

Seven 7-and-unders

I went medium-sized photos this post, only because I think my nieces and nephew are so cute.

Here's the older three of the Seattle set calmly reading together. A lovely thing.

The middle two goofin'

The youngest playing with rubber kitchen gloves.

Nephew with his Play-Doh creation complete with ears!

Nap time...

Every is dressed up as princesses. And prince!

Violin recital.