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The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found?
– J.B. Priestly
I figured if I was going to make the world a better place, I’d do it with cookies.
– Ana Pascal
I’ve got a post in the works about the story behind last Monday’s picture, but I wanted to share with you the madness that was the Great Cookie Weekend of Aught-Nine.
I arrived at Karen’s Friday night, and we set all of the ingredients out on her kitchen table. Here’s the before picture:
Then we went dancing. And got home at three. And then there was a mouse, which gets its own post. And then we got up at 9 Saturday morning and tore through 9 cookie recipes and 2 kinds of fudge. Here’s the after picture:
We ended up making two batches of three of the cookies because we loved them so much. Here’s closer look:
Clockwise from the top, we have:
1. Caramel Pecan cookies, without the pecans (these are made with Rolos and are very chewy)
2. Cinnamon Spiced Hot Chocolate cookies, drizzled with dulce de leche (which I discovered is super simple to make, so now I can get on with #38 on my 101 in 1001 list) (these are very crispy; the texture is more like a gingersnap than anything else, but I really loved the flavor of these)
3. Rosenmunnar, or thumbprint cookies (we used half strawberry jam – Cheesie’s homemade, actually – and half orange marmalade; next year, we’re thinking of using strawberry and mint, to make it more Christmasy)
4. Kissy cookies!
5. Polvorones de Canele (Polovorones are traditional Spanish Christmas cookies, but these did not turn out the way they were supposed to, though they aren’t bad. I think we didn’t use enough flour, because they are supposed to stay in balls, not spread out. I might try these again before Christmas to see if I can get them right)
6. Cream Cheese Sugar cookies
7. Scottish Shortbread (we added peppermint extract to the dough, then dipped them in candy chocolate coating when they were cooled and sprinkled them with crushed peppermint candy – hands down, these are the best cookies we made)
8. Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies (made with white chocolate chips; nice and chewy – yum)
9. Candy Cane cookies (the recipe called for almond extract, which we thought was dumb, so we added peppermint instead; these are fairly labor-intensive, but they look great)
In the middle we have chocolate fudge and peppermint fudge.
If you’re interested, I can provide you recipes for any or all of these delicious treats! Just leave a comment or email me. The three we made extras of were the Kissy cookies, the thumbprints, and the shortbread. SO good.
ETA: I almost forgot – we had a special helper:
That’s baby Ben, Aimee’s little boy, who is almost 2, if you can believe that! Aimee had to work Sunday, so we agreed to watch him for the day. He’s the best!
I don’t sing because I’m happy; I’m happy because I sing.
– William James
True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body: nourishment and refreshment.
– William Penn
In any world menu, Canada must be considered the vichyssoise of nations. It is cold, half- French, and difficult to stir.
— Stuart Keate
So when I said last time that I hoped it wouldn’t take me two weeks to blog the next leg of our vacation, what I really meant was, “See you in 6 weeks!” Sorry.
Anyway, we left Buffalo Thursday morning – another beautiful day – and headed north. We crossed the border with no problem and checked into our hotel, which was connected to the Rogers Centre where the Blue Jays would play that night. We immediately set out on foot for the Hockey Hall of Fame; David’s been wanting to go there for a long time. Of course, I made him pose for pictures:
But I got in on it too!
There was so much to see, but the crown jewel is the Stanley Cup, which we got our picture taken with:
Then we wandered our way around town a bit before heading back toward our hotel and the CN Tower. This is what it looks like from the ground:
Wow, right? Well, we decided to go to the top. David, who is afraid of heights, was a good sport on the way up, even though the elevator has glass peephole in the floor:
But that was nothing compared to the glass floor at the top, which freaked even me out:
There were a ton of kids up there, and none of them were scared; they were lying all over the glass floor, face down, or running back and forth all over it. I could barely look down, but I forced myself to walk across the glass part once.
Then we took in the view, which was amazing.
I took a panoramic “stitch” shot with my camera, but I don’t actually know how to stitch them together to show you (that’s part of #78 on my list – learn three features of my digital camera; haven’t gotten around to it yet!) so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
We headed back to the hotel for a few minutes to rest before heading downstairs, out the door, and around the corner to the baseball stadium to see the hometown Toronto Blue Jays take on the Evil Empire, aka the New York Yankees.
With apologies to Karen, who is a Red Sox fan, here are some photos of some famous Yankees:
Jeter
Rodriguez
Damon
Posada
Our seats were about 4 rows up from the field. At one point, A-Rod chased a pop up into foul territory and ran smack into a Canadian police woman. What’s awesome about that? Well, in one of those pictures, you can sort of see me and David! Here, I’ll show you:
Great, right? We’re famous! Anyway, the game was just ok, really, and the Yankees trounced the Jays, but I was psyched to complete my goal of seeing three games in three different stadiums.
All in all, I really enjoyed our trip. We definitely did not have enough time to do everything we wanted to do, so we are planning a return trip at some point. You can check out the rest of my Toronto pictures on Flickr, if you like!
Her full nature . . . spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half doing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.
– from Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Some of you have asked after the woman I wrote the last Three Things post about, and I appreciate that. I’m more sorry than I can say to tell you that it’s my best friend Aimee’s mother.
Jeanette was diagnosed with Stage IV brain cancer this past March. She underwent surgery to remove most of the tumor and then received both radiation and chemotherapy. She had ups and downs, and the prognosis was never great, but we all so hoped for a miracle, or at least more time than we got. She began declining steadily towards the end of August, and by the end, she was bedridden and often unable to respond, though she usually knew when people were with her.
I have known Jeanette since I was 14 years old. It wouldn’t be exaggerating at all to say that she was like a second mother to me. In high school, Aimee’s house was the place all the kids wanted to be because Jeanette and Bill, Aimee’s step-dad, were totally laid back. They were great fun to be around, but they also knew when to make themselves scarce, and as long as we weren’t out of control, they left us to our own devices. They took all of us in and loved us and counseled us and fed us and, in my case (and in the case of her sister’s friends), sheltered us for a time.
As we grew and went off and had lives of our own, they still asked after us and greeted us with hugs and kisses and questions about what we were up to. They always encouraged us in whatever endeavor we took on and supported us and shared their wisdom, which was vast, freely. I loved them dearly.
Bill died in November 2005. The minister at Jeanette’s memorial service said it best: She was a widow, but she never stopped being married to him. Aimee told me that it was Jeanette’s great hope that, after she died, she would be reunited with Bill. I don’t know what I believe, really, about what happens to you after you die, but I hope with all my heart that they are together again.
Three weeks before Jeanette died, I went to Richmond to say goodbye. It was a difficult thing to do; she was bedridden, nearly bald, and able to communicate very little. She knew we were there, though, and we had some good laughs and a few tears. Aimee and her sister were gracious enough to give me a few minutes alone with Jeanette, and I was able to tell her how much she meant to me and how grateful I was to have her in my life. I know that she understood; she cried a little when she realized that what I was really saying was goodbye. She grew sleepy, so we decided to go. I was the last one out, and before I left her side, I kissed her forehead and said, “Goodbye, Jeanette; I love you.” And that was the last time I saw her.
Aimee asked me to share Jeanette’s obituary with you; you can find it here.
Jeanette with the quilt she made for Ben's 1st birthday
A journey is best measured in friends, not in miles.
– Tim Cahill
So when we last left off, David and I had collapsed into bed in our beautiful European-inspired hotel room in Chicago. That was Monday night. Tuesday morning we prepared to head back to Detroit. I had hoped to somehow meet up with Jane on our way out of town, but she had her own adventure to tend to, so we didn’t get the chance. Instead, David drove us along Lake Shore Drive to head out of the city on another beautiful day in Chicago so I could see the waterfront and Soldier Field and Comiskey Park (which isn’t called Comiskey Park anymore, but whatever). It was lovely. We stopped for breakfast at what David tells me is the only rest stop (anywhere?) that’s built on an overpass (that is, it serves both sides of the big highway). He tried to win me a Nintendo DS from a game machine, but didn’t have any luck. Oh well.
By the time we got back to Detroit, we had just enough time to change and grab the tickets and David’s brother and head downtown to Comerica Park to watch the Tigers take on the hated Cleveland Indians. I had walked around the outside of Comerica at Christmastime, but this was my first time inside. I immediately went to the team store to purchase a Tigers visor so I could credibly root for the home team (and without betraying my Braves – the Tigers are in the AL).
We walked around the stadium so I could see everything, and I even got the boys to ride the mini baseball Ferris wheel with me!
I also got a half-yard frozen daquiri, but that is neither here nor there. We then got a beer and something to eat (I had egg rolls. Egg rolls! At a baseball stadium! And chili-cheese fries. Breakfast of champions.) before settling into our seats.
David’s dad snared excellent seats down the right field line off Stub Hub, and during warm ups, I looked up and who did I see? One Grady Sizemore, centerfielder for the Indians, stretching and jogging not 20 yards from me! He’s hot, let me tell you.
Once David figured out what I was doing, he tried to take my camera away, but I didn’t let him. It’s my duty to take pictures of hot baseball players, and I take that responsibility very seriously.
The game itself was great – the Tigers won – and we headed home to do a little laundry and fall in to bed.
Wednesday morning, we packed up and got back in the car, this time headed for a little town just northeast of Buffalo, New York. My cousin was to be married Saturday, and Wednesday evening was her bridal shower (she, and a lot of wedding guests, was from out of town, but nearly the entirety of our moms’ side of the family lives in this town, which is why the shower was there and so close to the wedding). Since she had asked me to be in her wedding, I needed to be at the shower that evening, so we left around 9 or so and headed for the border. The Canadian border.
As David is fond of telling me, if you head due south from Detroit, the first foreign country you come to is Canada. Going through Canada would save us several hours, assuming the border crossing didn’t take long, and time was of the essence that day, so with our passports in hand, we made a quick entrance into the Great White North.
We had a lovely Canadian day. First, we had breakfast at Tim Horton’s. Donuts, yum. Then we stopped at Canadian Tire. It’s hard to explain Canadian Tire – it’s a little like a KMart crossed with an auto parts store, I guess, but David has been talking about it as long as I’ve known him, so we had to go.
We found Canada t-shirts there, on sale for $8.99 (or “Nine dough-lers” as David was fond of saying), red for him, white for me. Then we stopped for lunch at Harvey’s, a Canadian fast food joint. This one was located inside a Home Depot. Thank goodness for GPS. Our burgers were delicious, and people in Canada are so friendly!
We made an equally smooth entrance back into the U.S., and made our way through the Western New York countryside on a gorgeous afternoon, and I honestly don’t know if there’s any better place to be. We got to my aunt’s around 3:30 and David encountered the first wave of family introductions. The shower was girls-only, so I left him there to await my uncle, the District Attorney, who had agreed to take David and Steve (the boyfriend of one of the other bridesmaids) out to dinner. He was not happy that I couldn’t be there for the introductions; I’m sure he had Sopranos-like visions of my Italian uncle picking him and “going for a ride,” but he was a good sport.
The shower was lovely; my aunts did an amazing job, as always. Afterwards, my cousin and I and one of the bridesmaids went to find the boys in town. We walked into the restaurant only to see my grandpa holding court at their table. I hadn’t expected him to be there, but I should have guessed he would be. We attempted to pull up a table to their booth to join them, but the waitresses stopped us, which was not a good idea. My grandpa doesn’t like to be told no. Next thing you know, the wait staff is dealing with an ornery old man, and my cousin and I are laughing our heads off because this is so typical. I think David might have been scared, though.
In the end, we took the booth behind them, and my grandpa came to sit with us for a bit. He told me how much he’d enjoyed talking to David and how glad he was that I’d brought him. Made me so happy. One of my aunts showed up and then the 6 of us – me and David, my cousin, my aunt, the bridesmaid and her boyfriend – headed to the only bar in town to catch up some more and play some darts. And with the exception of the boys, I can tell you that all of us are supremely bad dart players.
It was, however, a lot of laughs. I love my family, and I love how seamlessly David fits into it.
Around 11, we headed back to my aunt’s house where we were staying and fairly collapsed into bed, again. First, though, we had to repack a small bag, because in the morning, we were headed back to Canada: Toronto. I’ll tell you all about Day 7 next time (which, hopefully, will not be two weeks from now)!
I had a total 36-hour love affair with Chicago. It started with our hotel, the Raffaello, where we got a great last-minute rate on hotels.com, especially considering how close it is to Michigan Avenue. It was very European (fairly small lobby, very small elevators), but we had a beautiful room with a flat screen tv and DVD player. My favorite part was the bathroom: it had one of those rain shower heads, where the water falls directly down on top of you; there was no tub, only a shower, and only half a glass door – part of the shower (the part away from the showerhead) was completely open to the rest of the bathroom; and it had a bowl sink, one of those that sits up on the counter. Perfect.
Since we arrived close to 1 am, we slept in a bit on Monday before heading over to Michigan Avenue to see the sights and head down to Navy Pier. It was a gorgeous day, and it wasn’t too long until we came across people engaged in what has to be one of the top-ten jobs I don’t want:
Skyscraper window-washing. NO. WAY.
We hung a left to head toward Navy Pier. The first time and only time prior to this that I had been in Chicago was 10 years ago, when the amusement park I worked for was going to open a Bubba Gump’s in the park. They sent me and my boss to the Bubba Gump’s in Navy Pier for training, since I would be managing the restaurant. Here it is:
Navy Pier is pretty touristy, but I wanted to ride the giant Ferris wheel, because I like being touristy, so we pressed on. Before we got to the Ferris wheel, though, we passed several outfits offering boat tours and decided that would be a great way to see the city. We opted for the SeaDog Architectural Tour that would take us down the Chicago River through the city and tell us about some of the buildings we’d see, and it included a “speedboat portion” out on Lake Michigan at the end. It was totally worth it – we learned all about the big buildings, many of which are quite iconic, and our tour guide was very funny (and punny, too!). There are too many pictures to share here, but you can check out my Chicago album on Flikr if you like. Here’s a couple of my favorites:
By the time we got back, it was lunchtime, so we set off in search of some authentic deep-dish pizza. We eschewed Uno’s in favor of Gino’s East which I had seen on our drive in the night before, and after consulting the GPS on David’s BlackBerry, we made it there without any trouble. It takes a looooong time to cook deep-dish, so we had an appetizer while we waited and I wrote “Melanie loves David” amidst all the (management-sanctioned) graffiti on the walls. The pizza was DEFinitely worth the wait – it was SO good and really hit the spot.
We had hoped to hit Millennium Park, but lunch took longer than we thought, so we just took a short walk back to the hotel to rest a bit before the game. David, who seems to know how to everywhere no matter where we are, led us to the El, where we hopped a train to Wrigley Field. I was SO excited – it’s one of the stadiums I’ve really wanted to go to (when I was in Chicago before, the Cubs were out of town, so we saw the White Sox and what was then Comiskey Park). I had to get the iconic shot, of course:
Then we headed inside. I really loved this stadium. Everyone was so friendly, and although it was packed (Cubs fans are die-hard, you know), it didn’t feel busy – the lines for concessions and bathrooms were not long at all. The only sad part was no Dippin’ Dots. David and I get Dippin’ Dots at every baseball game we go to, and Wrigley was the first we’ve encountered that didn’t have them. Oh well.
(David is not betraying his Tigers – he buys a hat of the home team at every stadium he goes to. He even has a Yankees cap. Boo.)
Oh, if you don’t follow baseball, you might not know that a seat at Wrigley Field can be a tough get. Some enterprising homeowners have made it a little easier:
That’s rooftop seating on Waveland Avenue, which runs behind left field. Clever, huh? There’s also a bunch behind right field.
Ok, maybe the best thing about Wrigley Field, for me, was the rediscovery of something I first saw (and haven’t seen since) at Comiskey Park 10 years ago:
It’s onion grinder for your hot dog! Fresh onion! Right there in Wrigley! David thinks I’m silly, but I dig this so much!
Unfortunately, the Cubbies went down to the Astros, but a good time was definitely had by all.
We took the El back, but intentionally switched trains to ride a little longer and see what we could see before heading back to the hotel. We pretty much collapsed into (the awesome, comfortable) bed when we got back, so that’s really all there is to tell for now!
Day 5 is heading back to Detroit and the Tigers game, and Day 6 has us crossing the border into Canada on our way to Buffalo, so check back later this week to continue our journey!
Oh! ‘darkly, deeply, beautifully blue’
As someone somewhere sings about the sky
– Lord Byron
It’s a supersized edition to make up for last week! Here’s what I’ve got:
1. this very recent picture of the Princess (probably my favorite that I’ve ever taken of her):
2. the (truly) vintage wedding dress my cousin wore for her wedding last weekend – sleek, simple, and gorgeous, and handed down from our moms’ cousin
3. that my mom’s side of the family loved David and that he was included in all our family pictures at the wedding
4. a 10-day road trip with someone you don’t mind spending 10 days in a car with
5. this building on the Chicago River, where I have decided I want to live:
6. seeing three baseball games at three different major league baseball stadiums in three different cities in four days
What are you happy about this week (or what were you happy about last week?)?
One day, Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Chesire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” was his response. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”
– from Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
Where to begin? I can’t even keep track of all the great stuff we did and saw.
We left for Detroit on Friday morning and arrived somewhere around 6pm. On the way, somewhere in Ohio, we passed the Happy Hooker Bait Shop, which made me giggle for about a mile. We also stopped at a place we discovered on the way home from Detroit at Christmas: Beef Jerky Unlimited. And it’s just what it sounds like: barrels and barrels of all types and flavors of jerky, though not just beef – they have pork and turkey jerky (hee) too. Here’s a picture from Christmas:
The sign on the door prohibited pictures, so I can’t show you the awesomeness inside. I did take a picture of the sign, though.
Friday night, we went bowling with David’s best friend from home. Despite my fancy purple bowling shoes, I only broke 100 once in three games. But at least there was beer.
On Saturday, we went to The Henry Ford. We only had enough time to tour the museum, but they have some great stuff. Unfortunately, the pictures are on David’s computer at the moment, so I can’t show you the museum-worthy Ford Taurus. Maybe later. The best part of the whole museum, though, is the Dymaxion House. I want one of these round, aluminum houses so much. Sadly, Mr. Fuller’s financing fell through and only one of them was ever actually built. The Graham family lived in the house, but they built around it so it looked like this. They eventually donated it to The Henry Ford Museum, and my dreams of living in it are forever dashed. Boo.
Saturday night we headed to Dave & Busters with David’s friends for some fun games. I had never played table shuffleboard (or whatever it’s called) before, but it was fun. Must put that on the list of things to have in the game room of our fantasy house. David kicked my butt in air hockey, despite my best trash talk. We amassed somewhere in the neighborhood of 3500 tickets that night, but we opted not to cash any in – they didn’t have anything good in the prize room.
Sunday we had a birthday lunch for David with his dad’s family, which was lovely. After, we played some games with his brother and step-mom, including Clue, which I haven’t played in ages. David won 3 out of 4 games. I won zero. Awesome.
We had always talked about getting out of town, at least overnight, during our stay in Detroit, but we hadn’t decided where to go. Around dinner time, we started discussing it in earnest, and tossed out Toronto (we knew there was more we wanted to do there than our brief trip from Buffalo would allow), Grand Rapids, Traverse City, and “Up North.” We had considered Chicago before we left on the trip and dismissed it because David said the Cubs were out of town. Well, we double checked Sunday evening, and he had been wrong. We saw that we were able to get tickets, which meant I could fulfill #64 on the list (go to three Major League ballparks I’ve never been to) in this one trip, and that sealed the deal. We quickly booked a hotel and packed a bag, and left for Chicago at 8pm, and arrived around 1am Monday morning. That’s the most spontaneous trip I’ve ever been on in my life, and it was so fun!
And I’ll tell you all about it next time!
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