Angela Law

animal lover, gardener, knitter, and gourmet cook
 
jake

scout’s honor

I don’t think I mentioned this before, but Jake quit karate a few months ago. It was time to move up to the next class and he just wasn’t interested. It seemed like a waste of time and money to force him to continue.

While I’m not one to push extracurricular activities, I do think it is important for him to be involved in something. If only so he gets to interact with other kids on a regular basis. Being an only child, things can get pretty boring around here for him at times. This issue has been mitigated somewhat this summer because a new family moved into the neighborhood and they have three kids around Jake’s age, so he’s been playing with them a lot. But, still, I think it’s good to have a more structured activity to go to.

Continuing our “character-building” theme for activities, we thought cub scouts would be a good thing for Jake to try next. Brian was involved in boy scouts and really enjoyed it, so he’s looking forward to some of the activities as well. Sign up was this past week, so Jake’s ready to go just as soon as we buy his handbook and uniform. He wasn’t all that interested in joining, but he had a great time at the sign up meeting because a bunch of his friends from school were there. I think this should work out pretty well for him.

movies

derailed

Brian and I watched this last night, sans Margarita (though we did have a lemonade with vodka. mmm. nothing to eat, though). We both really liked the movie. It had more twists and turns than route 56 into Bedford. I can’t really get into the plot because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but suffice it to say, it’s not your average affair flick. It was quite entertaining, though I wouldn’t call it great cinema. But, sometimes being entertained is enough. And, that was certainly the case last night.

I heard mixed reviews about Jennifer Aniston’s performance in the movie, but I thought she did a pretty good job–particularly once the story line unraveled.

Definitely recommended.

motorcycles

dog run 2006

We were debating all week whether to attend this year’s Dog Run party. We went last year and had a great time, but they raised the rates this year and we didn’t feel that it was worth the $60 seeing that I don’t drink beer and that is the only alcoholic beverage served. Brian finally made up his mind that we were going to just do the run, but not go to the party. As it turns out, no one could have watched Jake for us this evening, so it was a moot point. And, given the fact that it’s been raining since 6:30, I’m rather glad we didn’t have plans to go.

But, we “unofficially” did the run along with one of my friends from work, Jeff. Brian tried to get some of his biker friends to go, but no one was available this weekend. I’m glad Jeff went with us because it’s definitely more fun to ride with someone than by yourself–at least for something like this.

I think Brian was bummed about not going to the party because this evening, he expressed an interest in going to next year’s party and camping there overnight. Unfortunately, he did not read the fine print of our prenup agreement–“Except as otherwise provided below, Prospective Husband and Prospective Wife waive the following right: camping.”

auto

meaty ochre

As you may have read, we installed a new radio and cd changer in my car a few weeks ago. I’ve been enjoying the changer, but I was not happy with the sound coming from the speakers. Not one bit. We tried tweaking the EQ and every other setting on the radio, to no avail. The sound was mediocre at best, crappy at worst. So, the only thing left was to buy new speakers. We installed these on Labor Day, and oh, what a difference a few speakers can make. It all sounds quite wonderful now. The only thing I don’t understand is how is it that this is the most expensive vehicle I’ve owned, yet it had the crappiest speakers of all my vehicles. I’ve replaced a few radios in our vehicles over the years, but I’ve never had to replace the speakers. I’m sure we could’ve gotten a better sound if I would have, but the point is, none of them sounded bad until this one. I just don’t get it.

food & drink

sauced up

Last year, I was looking for a way to process my garden tomatoes for sauce. I didn’t have any luck last season, but I found this cool attachment for my KitchenAid mixer in the fall, so I grabbed it up and have been patiently waiting to use it ever since. Before Hurricane Ernsto blew through over the weekend, I picked all of the ripe tomatoes from my garden. I didn’t have quite as much as I normally use for sauce, but I thought it would do for a test. So, I attached the fruit and vegetable strainer to my mixer and started to process the tomatoes. It worked like a charm. The good stuff came out of one end of the strainer and the seeds and skins out of the other. My sauce turned out a little thinner than I like, but that happens to me every time I make sauce from fresh tomatoes. Next year (or if I get really lucky with my crop, next month), I’ll have to try cooking it longer to thicken it up. But, I do think this is the permanent solution for my tomato problem.