Knitted Babe Couture

Some of Kate's Collection

Winner winner!!!

When we finished running the LIVESTRONG event we had time to peruse the "village" and made a stop at the KGO News Radio tent. KGO is our fave local news radio station when we aren't listening to NPR. It's home to Len Tillem (a loyah) who gives free legal advice on weekends, Michael Finney consumer advocate and Dr. Dean Edell among others.

There was a raffle to win tickets to see Lewis Black Let Them Eat Cake tour. When I saw my beloved scribbling our personal info on this raffle entry form I knew he wanted it bad. Why risk inviting MORE junk mail? Heh. Because he loves Lew so much I doubled down and entered too.

Imagine my surprise when I got a letter in the mail today from KGO. All I could think was "oh no.. here comes the solicitations already!" Heckno, techno... I won two tickets to see Lewis Black live in August! WOO!

One of my favorite bits on hunting by Lew.

LIVESTRONG

LIVESTRONG Challenge San Jose CA - A journey

We awoke at 5am to NPR. Though not fully awake, we give our bodies fuel for the event.... Bircher Mueslix for Andie & Mags, two pieces of 12 grain toast for Chris. We are on the road by 5:45am. Lance and the 100 milers followed by 65, 50 and 10 mile cyclists began between 7:30am - 7:40am. We 5K runners started at 7:45am on the dot.

It was an amazing sight .. so much yellow... people doing the event as survivors, in memory of and in honor of participants. Thousands of people from different walks of life... all united for a single cause. Kick Cancer's Butt! It was amazing to see and hear Lance Armstrong speak in person. The entire experience was truly inspirational. We look forward to participating next year perhaps in one of the cycling slots.

Maggie and I wore In Memory Of bibs on our back for my dad. 2/3 of the way through she asked me what my Dad would say if he were there. I was caught off guard, but finally said that he would be proud of us. We were cheered on by folks on the side and police officers and fire fighters. A nice feeling to be cheered on by everyday heroes. We crossed the finish all holding hands. One pair of gals came up to tell us that they were feeling pretty tired but that they saw Maggie and she gave them the incentive to push through :o).

Thank you to those of you who supported our team and helped us not only reach, but exceed our personal team goal in fundraising. It was an amazing experience and we are so lucky to have been a part of this event. Here are just a few photos from the morning.

it's the end of the world as we know it

...and i feel fine.

last night my dearest and i had a date night. we went to see hancock which was a pleaser. i mean, will smith is always a fave and i've had a crush on jason bateman since he was derek in silver spoons. i digress..

after the movie we were walking downtown and two little emo boys were coming toward. i saw one working up a big loogey and spitting. disgusting, but whatever, right? move on... move on...

well, as we walked closer and they were just in front of us, the little jerk did it again. let me just say that he was not very old, he'd be lucky if his dodgeballs had dropped yet. they couldn't be more than 13-15. pimply faced. i said "dude, you shouldn't spit on the sidewalk".. he and his buddy dogged me the entire time they passed by and as a "parting shot" both worked up and spit a loogy.

it was at that moment i wished i had hancock powers so i could bend them in half and shove each of their heads up their own bums. i don't know, i know i never acted like that nor did any of my friends in our formative years. if i did something i knew to be wrong and an "adult" corrected me i would have been embarrassed and said sorry and skulked away. but point is, i wouldn't have done that cos my parents would have filleted me later so i knew better.

i'm pretty sure i'm not an "old lady", but my pondering make me realize i'm slipping into that demographic .... the ones that have to mediate as the "adult" .... cos the next generation is hopefully enjoying retirement. i wonder what is happening to society on the whole. what about common courtesy and respect? saying please, thank you and excuse me. my mom used to quote (i forget who) that manners are free.. everyone can afford them. what about caring about one's actions on society?

meh. maybe my knitting and a piece of hard candy will make me feel better. heh heh.

the incredible edible egg

Question: can you fry an egg on the sidewalk in summer?

Answer: yeah, well.... sorta

Yesterday was a warmish 110 degrees. So it hit me .. that childlike curiosity of whether or not we could fry an egg on the sidewalk just like the movie Father of the Bride.

First we gathered our egg.. a "nice medium brown" (segue, read Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love for more thoughts on eggs and how they fit just right in the palm of your hand and could be full of surprises .. even a fairy crown).

Then Maggie took a rock to crack the egg and gently deposited it on the sidewalk.

After that, we waited.... and waited

.... and waited

It seems Hollywood Magic is deemed so for a reason... there was no immediate sizzle and frying of the egg as seen in the movies. Actually it sat for a mo until the fluid albumen dissapated and left only the thick albumen (egg white) and vitelline (or yolk). Say, who said you couldn't learn something new every day! Isn't this a dandy little diagram of the chicken egg? :o)



So Maggie decided to poke at it a bit and try to break up the thick albumen from the vitteline to see what happens. Chris pointed out that the dried leaf she used resembles a fried piece of bacon. Hey.. bacon and eggs on the hoof, what could be better?



Scrambling the egg seems to have done the trick a bit because the yolk actually did appear cooked..... NOT that any of us were willilng to try it out... well, Chris doesn't hold with the likes of eggs and well, being the paragon of the ultimate mine-shaft canary when it comes to food poisoning I would not dare press my luck, let's not even mention the 5 second rule applies about 1,000-fold.

What a fun little science experiment to give a little wilted joy in the confines of the blazing hot sun.

Book Review: Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love

Lulu Atlantis and the Quest for True Blue Love by Patricia Martin (ISBN 978-0-375-84016-6) "had me at hello".

Actually, the cover is what got me. The cover art captured my attention at our local library. It was on the "new books" shelf in the children's library.

The story is intended for 2-4th grade children, but I have to tell you.. if you have a big soft grown up heart get this book for yourself. It's a quick read though 228 pages. The characters are adorable. Maggie and I shared reading this book. When I read out loud to her I like to give each character a voice and these were F-U-N! I pictured Yogurt Skunk sounding like a cross between Lou Costello and a Good Fella. I imagined Lulu's best friend Harry (a top-hat wearing daddy long leg spider) to be somewhat of an English gentleman with a gravely voice.

The bottom line is it's a wonderful story of friendship, sacrifices, heartache, joy, secret ingredients and yes... True Blue Love.

I encourage you to check it out at your local library or just pass GO and buy it. In our case we did both. It's one of those books that we will read and re-read.

Wild America

This morning I was plugging along at work and saw a commotion in the tree. It was a large bird, but it wasn't black so I know it wasn't the usual crow. After I saw it hopping around a bit I realized it was a raptor... some sort of hawk.

In it's talons was breakfast. He was hopping around on the branches trying to keep a hold of his quarry and balance on the branch. Finally he found his center (ooom) and Mags and I watched as he defeathered his breakfast. First came the poofy downy feathers... then came the larger grey feathers. I'm not sure what it was.... but I'm guessing breakfast might have been a mourning dove or a mockingbird.

We watched from my office window for quite some time. It was as if Discovery HD was on in front of us.. in our yard! I snapped some photos and was pleasantly surprised that the images came out rather clear for being taken 40 feet away through dual pane windows with an eastern exposure at 7am-ish! :D

In speaking with my dearest friend Mandy, who is a Wildlife Biologist, she said it looks like a Cooper's Hawk! Apparently they are not commonly sighted in our area and since he was comfortable dining in our mulberry, he may come back. Goody! To view photos, click to enlarge!

Tropsicles from Vegetarian Times Magazine

Looking for something fun to make and eat during this heat wave? Here is a tropical treat that's sure to please everyone. It's healthy, tasty and also vegan.

Bon Appetit!

Tropsicles

Coconut milk and banana give these ice pops a creamy consistency without dairy or soy. Be sure to puree the mixture until very smooth so resulting pops don’t contain crunchy buts that may be too icy for sensitive baby teeth.

2 cups fresh pineapple chunks
1 large banana, sliced
3/4 cup light coconut milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup agave nectar
Puree all ingredients in blender 1 to 2 minutes, or until mixture is smooth.
Ladle into ice pop molds, and ffreeze at least 4 hours. Run molds under warm water to unmold.

Vegetarian Times Magazine

Summer Nature Camp is here!

That is mini-me's favorite summer activity, bar none. It is a week long outdoor Bacchanalia devoted to creek walks, hikes, games, stories, one overnighter under the stars and dirt, dirt, dirt!!! The kid is a certified tree hugger extraordinaire and finds close examination of insects and various flora / fauna to be the ne plus ultra.

This is the kind of program where you watch the camp counselors grow up too. Each year we get to see alot of familar faces. Summer Nature Camp has become Mags "Cheers", if you will. When she walked in for this morning for the first time this summer they greeted by cheering her name and big hugs. That's a pretty darned good feeling.

It's going to be hot hot hot (plus 100, people!) so we invested in a small scale Camel Back. Coated in a nice shelack of spf 45, armed with the dromedary hydration station, healthy lunch and hat, we hugged toodles and I wished mightily I could go with her! Ah the lazy fun days of summer as a kid. Good times.

Pow Pow!

Another Independence Day come and gone. My dad would have been 77 this Independence Day. For years he convinced me that the fireworks, the day off for everyone... were all for him :p Every year we make fresh strawberry shortcake cos that was Dad's fave. It's also the 16th anniversary of the hubby and my first date!

We spent the day with good friends at their block party. It was a little slice of old fashioned goodness with good food, good drink, liars dice, make your own ice cream sundae's, splashing and of course fireworks.

Happy Birthday America and Happy Birthday, Daddy.

The good list

Kids laughing, splashing at the pool, sparklers, starry nights, the smell of my gardenias, watching a lazy copper-coloured dragonfly grace our pond, hummingbirds at our feeder, warm snuggles with Lil Bit, listening to Chris read to Maggie, tiki torches on our lanai, the smell my tomatoes plant give off when I pull the vines back to see if there are ripe fruit, watching Mags sleep and gently touching my cheek to her warm chubby cheek, home pedicures with my lil gal, playing Super Mario Bros on my DS and Chris teasing me for getting all jumpy and moving around like it's going to help Mario jump over that crevasse, peanut butter and homemade olallieberry jam sandwiches, BLT's with lettuce and tomatoes from our garden, Maggie's toesies, laughing with friends, rubbing feet with Chris, warm summer nights, a good book, drive-in movies, running, knitting something fantastic.

May your days be filled with wonderful things that make you smile :o)

Happy Independence Day!

On my list

Telemarketers, Jehovah's Witnesses and pull-string pinatas are on my list today.

Telemarketers:
Every morning at 10am I get a call from unknown number/name. I pick up and hang up and they call back. I've left my phone off the hook, let the machine pick up etc. Today I picked up and waited for the click and someone to say hello (stupid machine dialers.. why isn't there a code verification for phones!?). Someone finally did say hello, in the background I could hear many others calling their victims, and I simply said "remove me from your list, goodbye" and hung up. I wouldn't mind people doing their jobs except we're on the donotcall.gov list! It burns me that political calls are exempt. Poo poo!

JW's:
Next, 30 minutes later as I am trying to work, my doorbell rings. I see it is someone I don't know or have time for and hear the rustle of paper. I look outside and the whole street is crawling with people in clusters.. men with men and women with women.

I open the door, see the publication "Awake" which is a Watchtower publication. I calmly and deliberately take the publication and walk to my big recycle bin. A group of them is clustered near my house and my neighbors house. They were frozen like deer in headlights. Seeing "a live one" come out of their target door is unprecedented. It's as if they don't know what to do... go about their business or try to corner me. Apparently my swagger suggests they should leave me the heck alone, but not before they see me recycle their "reading material". :o) I heard a slight "ooooh" from one woman as in "oh no she di-n't" Oh YES. I DID! And to make the point clearer I saw a water bottle on our fence (not sure how that got there) and recycled that too.

Also, if they really believe that only 144,000 people go to heaven, why recruit "competition" door to door? Of course, I've read that they believe that is the sweet spot number of the "elite" JW's who get to recreate earth at the "second coming" while the rest of the peons just get to be reborn back to the "glorified earth", what.. to start again? Sounds a bit like Hitler's "master race" to me .... or.. if you like we can put a Marxist spin on it... the bourgeoisie controlling the proletariats .. the haves vs the have-nots. Shouldn't a better earth be a unified and egalitarian earth? My sweet hubby probably would have invited them in were he here. He's always interested in hearing these things as an Atheist.

My mother, a fine woman, used to tell me "no one is better than you and you are no better than anyone else.... we all take our pants down to sh*t". Not just pretty words. They are wise and true.

I don't mind people having their personal beliefs, just don't come to my door or call my house uninvited to push your agenda. As Jack Nicholson said once "go sell crazy somewhere else... we're all stocked up here". Pfft.

Pull-string pinatas:
Who invented this? They should be tied to a string and bobbed up and down avoiding the stick. Pull-string pinatas are pointless.... as my friend Butterflychica says "may as well just give the kids the candy". Thwacking the heck out of a paper decorated cardboard or balloon to get to the third tier candy is FUN, PEOPLE! Why take away life's simple pleasures and replace them with politically correct, "safe fun". BLERG!

Worst Person in the World

Any Keith Olbermann fans out there???

We are fans of Countdown and the amusing reparte of Keith on Bill O'Reilly. Prior to seeing this clip of Bill O I found him to appear unstable... like he could crack at any minute. Yes yes, I know what you're thinking... all of us have job stress and have lost it, but there is something not right there. Also, I think BillO is a certifiable nutjob espousing hatred, intolerance and ignorance. Not everyone can fit THAT bill.. heh heh... no pun intended.

There are many YouTube clips with the "full Monty" of BillO dropping the f-bomb and it's funny but something about the bleeps from Countdown makes it funnier for me.

Unfortunately the embedding feature is disabled, but you can view it here. It really makes me want this shirt......and yes, I doctored that too with flowers cos this is a family blog.....

Berrymania

Another successful berry-picking season for Rosendin-kind! This year we went a little earlier in the season and the berries were much firmer, but still sweet. We managed 10 and a half pounds. There were still loads of unripe berries with the sweet promise of tomorrow :o) I guess if time allows and the urge hits us we have the opportunity to go back for more!

We had a lovely dinner at Carpos and Mags and I enjoyed our olallieberry shakes. Mmm.. Sunday was spent doing this and that and making some jam. We reserved a few pounds of fresh berries to be used later for other delights. Yay!

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Last night we enjoyed a fine grilled steak, corn on the cob and Mediterranean Pasta Salad. I picked the tomato and basil from our garden just as I needed to add them to the dish. Our fresh picked basil packed quite a fragrant punch!

I humbly share this recipe with you. I modified one I found on-line. Forgive my kluge "measurements" as I have begun the metamorphosis into my mom's way of cooking. Measurements are a "pinch of this", "enough to fill the hollow of your palm" for that. Life is too much fun without measuring spoons!

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

• 8oz cooked rotini pasta
• 1/4 C finely chopped red onion
• 1-2 persian cucumbers, thickly sliced
• Handful of pitted, halved kalmata olives
• Handful of fresh chopped basil
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• Crumbled Feta Cheese
• Vinegar
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and let marinate in the fridge for an hour.
The fresher the ingredients the better the taste! Feel free to increase or decrease ingredients as desired. Serve chilled.

Bon Appetit!

progress

I am giddy because our limited edition poster "Progress" by Scott Hansen finally arrived last night! Glad we ordered when we did as it's now sold out. Since we were out getting Mags ears pierced we missed the delivery but found it this morning when we took a peek at a new morning glory.

This is the first time in our voting lives either of us has felt passionate about a candidate. When we saw this poster, we fell in love with the artwork and the meaning. We look forward to hanging a little bit of historical progress in our home.

Yes we can.

ain't that a kick (holes) in the head

After a rocky try on the first attempt and proclamations of "never ever ever" wanting them, Maggie decided 8 months later that she did, indeed, want pierced ears after all. She was very brave, not a peep. She was very proud of herself later and pleased with the results. Another milestone for our baby. ***sigh***

a little piece of americana goes dark

Summer berry pickin' time is here and each year we make our pilgramage up the 1 to pick olallieberries just north of Santa Cruz. We finish up sticky and stained and giddy about our haul. What doesn't get eaten in route will eventually end up in our world famous olallieberry jam. It's world-famous, trust us :o) If there's enough left over we make olallieberry ice cream. Maybe this year I'll reserve some for a berry crisp.

Usually we stop and hit the beach in Santa Cruz and play. Sometimes I get to visit a yarn shop :o) As far as eats.. well, we have our faves... one year we stopped at Carpos and had yummy eats and olallieberry shakes. Occasionally we hit the Upper Crust Pizza for a slice of pesto pizza and often end our evening with tilapia fish and chips and a pint of Seabright's finest. Don't worry... Mags has a pop :o)

If we aren't too sun-tired from berry picking and surf fun, we hang out until we can catch a movie at the Soquel Skyview Drive-In. Well, we used to...... Sigh. Like most great slices of Americana this too has gone the way of the Do-Do. After some research I found that the land was bought by some medical developer. As Eloise would say Poo Poo!

Well, I guess we could always bring the portable dvd player, park near the ocean and watch a movie! :o) We'll be sure to have some ice cream..... Let's hope this landmark stays put!

Gorgonzola Pear Pasta

Occasionally I crave meat and lots of it. Other times I crave simple vegetarian dishes.

Here is a simple but delicious meal that is a favorite in our home.

Gorgonzola Pear Pasta

• 2 pears, skinned, sliced into wedges
• 1 sweet onion, sliced into thin wedges
• 5oz of Gorgonzola (or 1 tub of crumbles)
• 1 package of pasta (we like farfalle - bowtie)
• Olive oil
• Grated or shredded Parmesan cheese
  
  Bring pot of water to boil for pasta and cook while preparing onion/pear mixture.
  
  Prepare onion and pears. Heat olive oil in pan and add onion. Saute until translucent then add pears. Saute pears and onion on medium-low heat adding more olive oil if necessary. Cook until lightly browned on all sides. Turn off heat.
  
  When pasta is cooked, drain and add to the pear and onion mixture, mix lightly and add Gorgonzola. Mix well.
  
  Serve hot with shredded or grated Parmesan cheese on top.
  
  Bon appetit!

Bountiful Garden Update

Each day I look in our garden I am amazed at the beauty of growing our own food.

A few things we bought already as plantlings, but our scallions, carrots, corn and lettuce are all seed-grown. We started those in a little seed greenhouse back in March.

I just came in from picking some sweet 100 tomatoes and some lettuce. Oh happy day! It just makes my heart swell with joy to see this bounty of goodness. All organic :o)

We have a few bell peppers growing, jalepenos and ambrosia melons. The corn has several ears getting bigger by the day. I wonder if you can hear corn grow? I hope our zucchini make a comeback and produce.. I worry cos I removed one of three and replanted the two about 2 weeks after planting them. It may have been too traumatic :o( My cukes are sorta hanging on but I saw one baby cornichon and if I get one for my salad I'll be a happy girl.

Last weekend Maggie and I picked our first harvest of lettuce and I had the BEST BLT on the planet!! We grilled some burgers Sunday night and enjoyed lettuce from our garden. Can't wait to put our tomatoes on there too.

Below is a sampling of our garden for you. Mmm... have a taste.. it's organic fresh picked!