Yay, Mom and Rick!

Wow, it’s sure been a while. Quite frankly, I’m starting this up again because I realized it would probably be easier to do blog posts than email all the pictures of my day-to-day to my mom.

Jenny, my step sister, also spent part of the Saturday with us.

This weekend, I visited my family at home for the first time since I left for college. It was my mom’s birthday. Happy birthday, Mom! Know that you’re appreciated and loved dearly.

I got to cook, which was a big, big relief after being kitchen-deprived for over a month. Everyone reassured me that there would be a communal kitchen, but there is nothing but communal microwaves. Very, very sad, I know.

I was also very, very lucky in that my brother had a track meet that Saturday! It was a lot of fun, and I really loved that I got to see him run!

Those runners work so hard, I was impressed. I’m so, so proud of him. I don’t know how far they run, but it’s a fair distance. This race included running through woods and going through thigh-deep water. You can see from his red face that he was working hard!

Happy Birthday, Mom, and congratulations, Rick!!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fatherly men out there ^_^

We had a nice Sunday dinner of mashed potatoes, burgers, and green beans. I was fairly proud of the mashed potatoes -- I put gruyere in them, and they were fantastic. Yum yum.

For desert, I took store-bought pound cake, I food-processed some blueberries and strawberries, and spread it on the pound cake slices. I spread unsweetened whipped cream on top of that, and stuck some more berries on top. It was very yummy, and not overly sweet.

Jenny came over, as well. She thought that the cake-trifle-thing was very patriotic. I thought it was yummy :D

Also, we had a fabulous time in the park. We only stayed there a short while, but Rick skipped many rocks, and we all (except Jason, spoil-sport that he is) wandered around shoe-less. In the picture, by the way, is Jenny, not me. She got in and went, "oh! It's cold it's cold!"

I hope you're all having a beautiful time with your families this Sunday.

Mom's Wedding

Well, my mom got married in April, and as it's now June, I've really not been expedient with getting pictures up.

But, still, here they are.

Oh, and good news -- She did, indeed, not wear a suit!

The wedding was a lot of fun, it was the first time in ages that my whole maternal family had been gathered -- I think it's been six years, since Uncle Art's wedding to Aunt Shannon. As such, it was the first time I'd ever met little Jillian. She's adorable, and possibly more mature at three than Rick was at twelve (now thirteen). I also got to see my cousins Luke and Logan. Logan is now about ten feet taller than I am, and Luke has gotten enormous as well :D

This is Jason's mother, Grammy (not her real name, obviously, just what we call her). She's as sweet as anything, and a lot of fun besides. She lives in a DC suburb, and we like her a lot. She likes the victorians like I do. Also in the picture (duh): Mom and Jason.

I like this picture because Rick and Jennie are glaring at each other.

I like this one because you can see Rick's shiny little dress shoes, and my whole dress. I'd only finished it that morning ^^; Also, isn't Mom's dress nice?

Of course, no collection of wedding photos would be complete without a shot of the newlyweds traipsing down the aisle. As such:

Congratulations to Mom and Jason, even though they've been married for quite a while.

Also, because I said I would blog about it: Today for dinner, Jason made the Dinosaur Barbecue's recipe for Macaroni and Cheese Shepherd's Pie. I had two helpings -- INCLUDING THE BEEF. This is huge because I have been alive for eighteen years, and I have also been a vegetarian for that long, and as such I generally don't like meat and it makes me sick. However, I actually preferred the meat version of tonight's dish to the vegetarian version. I am proud of myself.

And proud of J&J, of course. Yes. Very nice job they did, getting married and all :D

Camping

This weekend, we went camping. We were in the Adirondacks, of course, and it was gorgeous. Although the last week had been very, very hot, this weekend was much cooler, and misty for most of Saturday, and rainy for today. We stayed in a cabin that had originally been built during the Great Depression as part of the job-providing efforts of the PWA (or so I gather), and which has been continually maintained since then. It was gorgeous. There were a few such cabins, and we were in a row of two (quite a row, I know), but we were on the end and the other cabin was unoccupied.

This was the room I slept in, it had the fireplace in it, which was awesome. I felt like a medieval princess, sleeping with a fire going all night. The fireplace was really nice, too, big and made of bricks. There was no heating systems in place other than the fireplace. There was one elecrical outlet in the kitchen, lighting consisting of a single lightbulb in all rooms, a refrigerator, and an oven/stove. I thought it was perfect.

On our first night there, we didn’t have time for much else other than starting a fire. The menfolk drove off to find a local gas station from which to buy firewood (you’re not allowed to transport firewood more than 50 miles from where you found it. This rule is part of an effort to prevent the spread of some noxious insect, which we don’t want here in NY, thankyouverymuch.), and I set about finding some twigs from branches that had fallen to the ground, but were raised up off it so that they weren’t too wet for me to light. I was determined to get a fire going before the boys could get back with their bundles of firewood (I was worried they would try to cheat with lighter fluid), and I did. With half of one piece of newspaper and slightly damp wood, I might add. I am the Wyoming Princess.

In Wyoming, the mountains and woods are mainly treed with pine, with a few copses of aspen per forest. In New York, though, the trees and plants vary enormously. Even the colors of green vary from plant to plant, and area to area. There were probably five bushes of these purple flowers in a clump by the side of the road within our campground. The plants were taller than I was, and the purple flowers were gorgeous.

Saturday, we went for a walk around the lake, which was small but absolutely gorgeous. I think the misty weather contributed to the fantasy feel. Look at that lake!

Also, look at this pavilion. It made me think of Heorot, the hall of Hrothgar, the king that Beowulf rids of Grendel. I just thought it was the most gorgeous little building, in the most perfect setting. I would get married there, wouldn’t you?

I had a fantastic time, and I think everyone else did, too. Plus -- we had about a zillion marshmallows each.

Post-Apocalyptic Bread

This weekend, the Rapture wasn't, and I tried out making yeast bread. My experience with yeast consisted of once making home-made pizza, but I now have a half-eaten cinnamon swirl loaf in my kitchen, and three loaves of bread (two white, one cinnamon) in my freezer. I didn't try the white bread, because we have a loaf of store-bought bread already open, and I didn't want to waste it, so we'll probably thaw that out sometime around Wednesday. The cinnamon-swirl bread was really good, though, and simple (though time-consuming) to make. I used the recipe from The Good Book (also known as FIELDNAME, which I only wish that I were being paid to promote, and I do recommend it because it is the best cookbook ever), and it was perfect. If you ever make cinnamon swirl-bread, make sure that you use as much of the cinnamon-swirl mixture as you think you can possible cram into that bread. I thought mine would turn out overdone, but after tasting it, I think I could have put more in there.

While I was working on the cinnamon-swirl bread, which I made Saturday, I kept joking with my family that I really shouldn't have doubled the recipe, because there would be no way that we'd be able to eat both loaves before the world ended at six.

Then, of course, the clock struck six, and we realized that, obviously, we were just all awful people, and that was why we hadn't been raptured. That's the truth, you know, because obviously it's been long enough since Jonah's flood that the rapture couldn't be any time BUT now.

Duh.

All jokes aside, I do wonder how the people that really believed in the whole thing are feeling today. Betrayed? Confused? Scared? Really wishing they hadn't quit their job, sold the house, and stopped contributing to their children's college fund? Probably. I really feel for those people. Their faith is the most important aspect of many of their lives, I'd wager, and to have that faith crushed in an instant would be mentally and emotionally devastating. I read about one church that had been actively trying to make sure that the Camping's followers would go to them afterwards, as an attempt to help them recover from the emotional trauma that I'm sure many of them are suffering right now. It's sad though... You wonder how somebody could possibly believe something like that, but we all have our little unreasonable beliefs. I'm just lucky that I'm stupidly terrified of small dead rodents, instead of buying into end-of-the-world movements.

On a more positive note, we played Frisbee yesterday, which was fun. Frisbee is cool because I can throw Frisbees reasonably well when I try, and I can occasionally catch them, too, which is not the case in most games of catch. In any case, it's been a beautiful weekend, contrary to the weather reports from even as late as Thursday.

An Auspicious Day

Yesterday, May 17th 2011, was an auspicious day. It was Buddha Purnima, which celebrates the Buddha's birthday, the day of his enlightenment, and the day he died and passed into Nirvana.

It was also my birthday. To my knowledge, Buddha Purnima has never been on my birthday before (because it's a lunar thing), so that was really cool.

So, when my dad posted on my facebook wall, "What an auspicious day!" with a picture of a Buddhist holy man, it made me fairly happy that my birthday was "auspicious" because it happened to fall on the right day this year.

Then, today, while syncing my new ipod (this one can handle holding my entire music library, instead of less than half of it), I noticed an inscription on the back of it. It said, "Happy 18th birthday, Carlin! An auspicious day indeed!"

I suspected collaboration between parents, but Mom told me that she had simply chosen "auspicious" over the myriad of synonyms (splendid, stupendous, wonderful, great, grand, fantastic, special) by chance. She's wrong, of course. This is an omen -- My adult life is going to rock!

Sundaes

Today is a very special day. Today is a day to celebrate. Today is a day for feasting and good cheer. Today is the birthday of the ice cream sundae.

(This sundae made by JL. Wild congratulations should not be given to me for anything accomplished by his obsessive drive.)

So.

Forgo that diet and grab some ice cream and sauce. Combine, and eat.

But eat with good cheer, and with good friends and family! Eat with twelve-year olds in muscle shirts

Eat with soon-to-be stepsisters

Eat and rejoice at the wonder that is the ice-cream sundae (allegedly invented in 1892 in Ithaca, NY)!

And that’s what I did today.

Please note that with the exception of the picture of the sundae at the top, my mom took all pictures in this post. However, they are still "mine," so please don't take them. Especially the sundae at the top. JL would be displeased.

Tate and Werner Wildlife Museums

Yesterday, we went to the Tate Paleontology Museum, and then the Werner Wildlife Musem.

The Tate has "Dee" the mammoth, the largest Columbian mammoth found thus far in North America (and it was found right here in WY!).

It's very large. It's so large that I couldn't get it all in my camera at once. Therefore, I have a picture of its back legs and my dad, who is studiously reading every single word on the display.

The Twelve-Year-Old is studiously admiring dinosaur eggs. Yep. He sure is a solemn, studious lad. Sometimes I think he takes things too seriously.

This is Rick giving me his, "mneh, I don't wanna have my picture taken next to the jaws of a 'Giant Sea Lizard,' but okayyyy..." face.

If only this T-Rex would cooperate and chomp down when I ask him to!

*ahem* I mean, thank goodness this wee beastie has been dead for millenia.

Same not-hungry tyrannous king, but this time, he's losing a staring contest to me.

Someone panted a yellow-and-black-eye on a red Christmas ornament and hung it in this big ol' guy's eye socket. Even so, I beat him to the ground in our staring contest.

Oh, by the way, Dad has an electric guitar.

A Wedding Dress For Mother

By the way, my mother, the beautiful and just JM is engaged to the wise and kind JL.

They've been seeing each other for quite some time now, and I am shocked, not that both their names start with the letter J, but that I've really never noticed that commonality until now.

Next, allow me to inform you that the title of this post sounds like it ought to be a book. "A Daisy for Armadillo," "A Wedding Dress For Mother," you know, all in the same vein.

And thirdly, I stayed home sick (in the American and British senses of the word!) today, and I looked at wedding dresses.

A lot of them.

Actually, if I'm to be specific, I looked at Mother of the Bride dresses, because while my mother is getting married, she seems to think that wearing a poofy white concoction at age olderthanthou+ is ridiculous. So. Some of my favorites so far are:

I just love the detailed neckline and the pleated sleeves. It's a bit suit-ier than is my ideal, but it is her wedding, after all.

This dress is 50705, from David's Bridal (davidsbridal.com).

This dress's ephemeral quality is what blows my mind away. The grey color reminds me of smoke dissolving in the sky and the dream-like sheer overlay adds to that. I wouldn't want her marrying JL in that color -- and the effect wouldn't work in any other. Therefore, it's just here because I really like it.

This dress is 29994, from Montage Boutique (brides.com)

I like the lace of the top, I love the ruching, I love the delicate "lift" of the skirt... Beautiful dress, in all. This is the kind of thing I hope she'll wear -- romantic, and beautiful.

This dress is 29976, Montage by Mon Cherie (brides.com)

I love this dress because it's sophisticated and pretty, simultaneously gorgeous and unpretentious. I like the sheen of the top and the dullness of the bottom, I like the drip effect and the flowy sleeves...

It is M578 Demetrios Evening (brides.com)

This is my favorite. Its asymmetry adds a contemporary feel, as do the contrasting directions of the tucks. However, it's also romantic in its length and in its overall look -- I love it. Muchly.

This dress is A7682, by Avanti Designs (brides.com)

I made a gorgeous spreadsheet (much of it blank...) of the things we need to get done before this shebang happens, too. These things need to be decided (date, time, locale) and announced (invitations, flowers, cake), and talked about (caterers, music, decor)...

I am excited!