We are related to an Olympic champion!

Our niece, Olivia, is the 2008 Iowa State Special Olympics Bowling Champion - age 8-11. Here she is with her mom (Andrea's sister) Adriene.

Big horn sheep sighting!

Okay, I'm back folks. A couple of weeks ago, my buddy from Grad school, Larry, and his wife Mary came out to Colorado for a quick weekend off. They needed a break and she was way way interested in the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park (the hotel The Shining was filmed in), so they made arrangements and came out to stay a night. We picked them up the second day, and took them through Rocky Mountain National Park a bit. We did pretty well in RMNP, seeing some stray elk and one pretty big herd before leaving. We also took a nice walk around Bear Lake, where some industrious kid left us little tiny snowmen in pairs every so often along the trail, usually on the benches.

Now, I have to explain something about seeing wildlife up there. Usually, you will drive along, and you will notice 1 or more cars pulled over, their occupants apparently looking at trees on the side of the road; they're actually looking at deer or elk or whatever among the trees, and it's one of the best ways to spot wildlife. In the 4+ years we've been out here, we've stopped many times with the others, to see everything from deer and elk to voles (they're small rodents--think big mice--can't believe they stopped for them!). I've always thought it would be cool to be the one who actually was the first to spot the living animals myself.

So after we left RMNP, we were driving back down to Estes on a road that's on the side of a valley made by a creek flowing along down about 40 feet below and to the right, with houses interspersed on the hillside among the trees. I happened to see a bunch of white butts walking away along the edge of the creek. But the trees and houses kept anyone else from seeing them. Well, when I was growing up, the rule was that at least 2 people had to see the animals for them to be part of the 'official' count, so I demanded that we turn around and go back, as I needed verification. I didn't know what I'd seen exactly anyway, after all, there are a lot of animals with white butts out there. So we came back a ways, and stopped ahead of the way they had been headed, so as to meet them as they came. Larry and I got out and walked over on the side of the road to a driveway that went down to the creek. When we got there, we were face to face with a small herd of bighorn sheep coming up the drive! So I took a few pictures before any other cars came by, and some after. We tried to signal the first cars to slow down, and the very first one looked at me like I was an alien and had a sign "Will abduct you for food" or something. Well, he came pretty close to having a bighorn co-pilot after narrowly missing one in the road. I tried to tell him, didn't I?!!? I creeped closer, eventually getting within about 30 feet of them. The alpha male gave me a look and snorted at me, so I decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and backed slowly away. The encounter lasted about 10 minutes, and they ended up climbing the hill on the side of the road away from the creek and slipped into the woods.

I was first to see them!!! And the several other cars who saw them stopped after I got pictures myself!! Not that I'm excited about it or anything.......... ;-)

Do you own a crockpot?

We own two - medium and large. Dan and I both love using them - especially in the fall and winter when a hot homemade meal is that much better. Well, my friends, have I got a blog for you to check out. Stephanie is the author of (and chief cook for) "A Year of CrockPotting" I haven't tried any of her recipes yet but they look and sound delicious. And she does a great job of tagging her recipes so you can search by crockpot size and by recipe type/ingredient - see the index on the left side of her page. Today she featured John McCain's Crockpot rib recipe - tomorrow she will post Barack Obama's chili recipe.

Spooky Halloween Cupcakes!

How do you like my Mummies?

Take it easy on a first-timer?

I guess it's about time I (Dan) found out what all this blog hoo-hah is about eh? Ironic that I haven't been the major contributor, considering I'm the one with the most time on my hands!

Anyway, just thought folks might like to see what I've been occupying that time with (a little of it), rather than watching too many political attack ads and tearing my hair out because Mark Udall is apparently the anti-Christ. This is based on the number and ferocity of the attack ads of which he is a target; I think they account for better than half of all political ads here this season. Hitting the off button, like the guy recommended in Broadcast News, really is the only defense.

So you will see some pictures of the terraced beds I've been working on at the end of the landing strip (the long, two-car wide driveway that ends conspicuously at the yard without a garage). The backfill sloped down from the concrete into the yard, and I decided that I would plant some tomato plants there this year. When I watered them, it ran off really fast, so I had to water them very slowly and deliberately, which was also a giant pain in the @$$. So I considered terracing almost immediately, but it wasn't until I was over at cousin-in-law Dave's house that it finally all came together. He had removed a bunch of 4x6's of varying lengths from his own yard, and had thrown them over in a pile. I asked if he had any plans for them, and he said I could have 'em, and now they're the walls of my terraced beds!

I worked with the varied levels of the existing hill, and made the beds two different levels. The one on the right (if I've used the right pix!) is only 6 inches above the main yard level, while the bed on the left is about 12 inches higher than the yard. Since the lower one is also a little hemmed in from above, I'm thinking that it'll make a good herb garden, while the larger bed is going to be pepper or tomato or something a bit bigger--I'm open to suggestions, but I'm boycotting vining plants like cukes and squash just because they're such bedhogs. Not to mention very very THIRSTY plants! All that's left now is to add in some compost and fertilizer (cousin-in-law Sara, Dave's wife, has an in with a llama poop source...it worked for her this year!), and turn it all back over.

Friday, October 31

At my company Halloween is a BIG deal every year and even better that it falls on a Friday this year. In the morning there’s a costume contest (individual and group categories) and costume parade, at lunch most departments host a potluck and in the afternoon the company hosts trick or treating for the children and grandchildren of employees. I used to be in the Marketing department and we usually came up with a group costume – often travel destination related. Now I’m not in Marketing and I’m in a department that is very busy in the fall. So busy in fact that one third to one half of the team is on the road during October and we have a “skeleton” crew (Ba dum bum, kssshh) left to brainstorm and create our costume. This year I think our idea is rather clever and that’s mostly because we have someone in our department, Beth, who is obsessed by Halloween. I suspect she feels like she’s dragging the rest of us along, kicking and screaming.

The costume contest is very competitive – here’s an illustrative example. Two years ago Marketing decided to dress up as the members of “Guns N Roses” and their management team and roadies. It wasn’t good enough for them just to dress up – they created Ticketmaster tickets and gave a concert (lip synched) with instruments etc on the loading dock. They even convinced our COO to be their “manager” -- so he was dressed in a blazer and sunglasses with his backstage pass around his neck and a fake barbed wire tattoo on his neck. I realize you don’t know him but, trust me, he’s the LAST person you would expect to get into the spirit. OK, maybe the second to last person at GVI…Marketing had won the group costume contest for several years in a row so Product Development finally decided to give them a run for their money. The folks in Product Development decided to dress up as the characters from the Michael Jackson video “Thriller.” So we had a whole bunch of zombies with torn clothes, wild hair, zombie make up AND Michael Jackson. They somehow convinced the manager of their department to dress as Michael Jackson – face mask, red leather jacket, etc. AND they taught him the dance moves and recreated the music video. It was UNBELIEVABLE and they finally beat Marketing. Paul really was the LAST person you would expect to show up in costume demonstrating Michael Jackson’s dance moves. (I'm still sort of stunned when I think about it now.)

My department is having a potluck on Friday and I’m making some cute Halloween cupcakes (of course!). If they look as cute as I imagine they will, I will post some photos.

Happy Aniversary to us!

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 Wow! Time flies! Today is Dan's and my 5th wedding anniversary. We're celebrating by digging in the yard. How romantic! (And we're going out to dinner tonight.) I'm planting peony tulips in the front yard along the sidewalk and Dan is making some terraced beds off the "landing strip." If you have seen the driveway on the east side of our house, you would understand why we refer to it as the landing strip. See the illustrative photo above. We used it as a party pad/driveway during the luau this summer.

I've included a photo of how my tulips will look next spring - courtesy of the website where I bought the bulbs.

Photo Credit: Michigan Bulb Co.

Frosting Shots -- that's what I'm talking about!

One of my favorite blogs to read is Cupcakes Take the Cake -it is written by three lovely ladies who report on all things cupcake (news, photos, crafts, events, recipes, etc). Before I noticed a new trend in cupcake bakeries here in town I read about it on their blog - Frosting Shots! Can you believe it? I am one of those people who prefers a high frosting to cake ratio (hence my recent rejoining of the gym :-) ) and the frosting shots are the perfect solution to that problem. See the original news story here on their blog. Lovely Confections here in town sells them as does Happy Cakes. I haven't tried them yet but it brings back memories of licking the beaters or bowls of mom's homemade goodies when I was growing up.

The first guests to stay in our guest room...

Cheryl (a former coworker of Dan's), her husband, Mike, and their daughter, Munchie (OK, her real name is Lauren) stayed with us a week ago. They live in Portland, OR and came out to Colorado for a wedding up in the mountains.

Here's Lauren playing with our neighborhood stray kitty - she loves kitty cats.

Congratulations Marcia and Kathryn!

I flew out to California this weekend for the wedding of my best friend, Marcia. She married her partner, Kathryn, whom she has known since 1988. Dan and I still have them beat - we met in 1986.

Here are their flowers - their colors were pink, black and white.

They met at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and were married by another Mac alum. Hmmm...also similar to Dan and I, except we met at Grinnell and were married by a Grinnellian on campus.

Here's me, signing their marriage license. Below are their wedding cupcakes. :-)

Moth Balls, Dryer Sheets and Knee High Nylons

OK, the title of this post might seem little bizarre and certainly these things must be unrelated but all three were utilized at our house this summer to defeat a common backyard pest. Did you know we have a pear tree in our backyard? Did you know pears are Dan's favorite fruit? Last summer, the squirrels STOLE all the pears from our tree!! This year we decided to take matters into our own hands, starting with the above referenced tools. I read online that squirrels don't like the smell of moth balls and the website suggested suspending a healthy supply from several branches in knee high nylons. So, we tried that, it worked fairly well. Then we heard that dryer sheets have the same effect and they smell a lot better than moth balls. So, we tried that. Eventually we bought a BB gun. That at least allowed Dan to harvest enough pears to make some jelly. Hence the photo above. The pear jelly is in the center. The peach jelly (No, we don't have a peach tree in our backyard) is on the right and the peach/rum jelly is on the left.

Once Domestic Super Hero Dan got started on the pear jelly, he decided to make peach too. So he bought a lug of peaches from Craigslist and got started. Do you know how much a lug of peaches weighs? That's a lot of blanching and peeling. Yikes!

My mom canned vegetables and made jelly when I was younger and my sister, Adriene, does it now. It does call for some special tools - none of which we owned. But DSH Dan was undeterred. He adapted and made one of the tools himself. See his cool tool below.



He adapted a funnel we already had to make a W-I-D-E mouth funnel…would you have thought of that? The peach and pear jelly recipes came from my sister. The peach/rum jelly came from Receipezaar (my favorite recipe website) and you can find it here. Or, you can figure out a way to become DSH Dan's new best friend.

Big excitement in our neighborhood!

This out in front of the elementary school across the street from our house.

The Tinkerbell Room TRANSFORMED

I'm sure everyone (when they move into a previously inhabited house) questions the decorating tastes and choices of the previous owners. Since we bought our house in April 2007 we've asked ourselves many times "What were they thinking?!" Our house has three bedrooms - one that was the "master" bedroom (two off white walls, two grey/green walls), one that was the "teenager's" bedroom (four dark purple walls and ceiling) and the little girl's bedroom (lavender walls, light green trim, blue sky ceiling with clouds and Tinkerbell wallpaper border and Tinkerbell stickers - hence our nickname for the room). See the before photos ABOVE.

Dan's mom was determined to transform the Tinkerbell room into something we would be interested in inhabiting as adults. Dan had done most of the real remodeling that had to be done - moving closets, etc. So Pat took on the patching, priming and painting. We chose pale blue with white trim. See the after photos BELOW.

Our 2nd Annual Luau

Last year we hosted a luau (on Bastille Day for you Francophiles) for our housewarming party. This year we decided to do it again while we had family (i.e. unpaid assistants) in town. Pat and Jim (Dan's parents) arrived at the beginning of August and my sister, Adriene, her husband, Dwane, and their three daughters, Naomi, Olivia and Danielle, arrived a week later. Dan and I decided to serve the same menu as last year: Pineapple-glazed pork loin, Teriyaki chicken legs, Broccoli Slaw, Tropical Fruit Salad, Asian Tossed Salad, and Frozen Fruit Bars. It was a real family affair: Adriene and Pat did most of the shopping, Dan and Jim did last minute repairs to our deck, Dwane, Jim and the girls did most of the set up/decorating and Dan, Adriene and I did most of the prep/cooking.

Happy Happy this month

There are lots of August celebrations I would like to note here.

Family:
My Mom, August 13 birthday
Annie, August 19 birthday
Dan's parents, August 19 anniversary

And three coworkers birthdays:
Doug, August 16 birthday
Larry, August 18 birthday
Kathy, August 19 birthday

My high school friend Angie, August 24 birthday

Why did the elk cross the road?

We love visiting Rocky Mountain National Park and we decided to try out the new jeep a few weekends ago with a trip up Trail Ridge Road. See our slide show here. It's a good thing we went when we did because last weekend we had snow above 10,000 feet in Colorado and they closed Trail Ridge Road temporarily.

Trail Ridge Road is the name for the stretch of U.S. Highway 34 and is the highest continuous highway in the United States. It crosses the Continental Divide at Milner Pass (elev. 10,758 ft) and reaches a maximum elevation of 12,183 ft, near Fall River Pass (elev. 11,796 ft). It is closed during the winter, and often remains closed until late spring or early summer depending on the snowpack.

Book Review: The Big Oyster

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell
by Mark Kurlansky

I read another of Mark Kurlansky’s books, “Salt: A World History”, last month for my Book Club. Though I didn’t choose the book this month, I’m a big non-fiction fan and I thought “Salt” was very interesting (though sometimes a little dry). Did you know Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt and that’s the origin of the word “salary”? Me neither.

So I looked for other food-themed history books by Kurlansky. I found “Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World” and “The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell.” The library waiting list for “Cod” was rather long so I moved on to "The Big Oyster."

Although the title and cover suggest that the book is about oysters, it's actually a history of New York City--the choices and, in particular, the mistakes (in hindsight) the city residents made in handling the environment that transformed Manhattan island and its surroundings from pastoral beauty to modern Gotham. Today, New York is the very representation of "city." This is how it got that way--through the eyes of the oyster. Here's more info if you would like to order it yourself from one of my favorite local bookstores.

Darin, Charlene and the kids come for a visit

Darin and I grew up in the same small town in Iowa and he was in Adriene's class (a year behind me) but we didn't really get to know each other and become friends until we went to college. We saw each other more frequently when I lived in the midwest but since he and Charlene moved back to our home town, I hope to see them more often. They decided to vacation in Colorado this year and spent most of their time in Estes Park but they came down to Denver and had dinner at our house one night. We mostly caught up with each other and discussed all the flooding that had just happened in eastern Iowa (more on that topic later). See photos of them and Zach, Adam and Penelope below.

Dan's trip to the 2007 World Series

As luck would have it, I bought 2007 Colorado Rockies season tickets for Dan for Christmas the year before. He's really a Cleveland Indians fan but he had to make do with the local team. Incredibly, the Rockies were a team on fire in September as the season wound down. So, we made it into the playoffs and then the World Series. Season tickets holders got first crack at it and we decided to buy four tickets for all the home games. On a whim, I called my sister and asked her if she and her husband would like to come out for one of the games. Considering I gave her less than a week's notice to make the plans, find some where for my nieces to stay (thanks Mom and Dad!), and drive 500 miles. They arrived late Friday night and she and worked a Craft Fair on Saturday. The guys hung out during the day and then got ready for the game which started at 7. My brother in law appears below. They had a good time even though the Rockies lost and it was a little chilly that night.

Gazpacho - one of my summertime favorites

Gazpacho is a cold soup originating in the southern region of Spain called Andalusia . It descends from an ancient Andalusian concoction based on a combination of stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar — a cold breadsoup.
Today, in the United States , most gazpacho recipes include tomato, cucumber, bell (sweet) pepper, onion, garlic, and celery. Some also include olive oil, bread, vinegar or lemon juice, fresh herbs, sugar, canned tomato juice, or hot sauce. Gazpacho is sometimes pureed until smooth, and sometimes served with small or large chunks of vegetables.

Try this one:
http://www.recipezaar.com/60897

More of Chrissy's artwork

Dijon Marinade for chicken or pork

A few weeks ago I concocted a new marinade recipe for grilled chicken. Dan, as always, had a good suggestion to make a few tweaks and here's the final result.

1/2 cup dijon mustard
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
garlic powder to taste (probably 1-2 tsp)
black pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together and marinate your meat of choice for at least an hour.

I made the chicken version for Girl's Night and we marinated a pork loin when Dan's dad was here.

Speaking of cupcakes

Lisa brought some delicious Raspberry Lemonade cupcakes to Girl's Night from a local bakery (Happy Cakes) and we all loved them. Thanks Lisa! I promptly requested 4 or 5 cupcake cookbooks from the library. For photos, my favorite cookbook was "Hello Cupcake" and for recipes, my favorite cookbook was "Crazy About Cupcakes."

Last night (good thing we have air conditioning) I decided to make and decorate some cupcakes. I used a yellow cake mix since I had it on hand and truthfully, I was more interested in the decorating than the baking. Of course, I enlisted Dan's help. He gets dragged into a lot of my little crafty projects...

The frosting recipe was a simple Vanilla Buttercream from "More from Magnolia Bakery" that we divided and colored these soothing pastel shades.

Girl's Night

Dan left town a few weeks ago to fly back to Ohio and drive the jeep back to Colorado. I took the opportunity to host a Girl's Night with a few friends. Chrissy brought her henna and we all got tattoos.

Yummy homemade Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is an English favorite and has many uses. It is a wonderfully tart, soft, thick, spread that originally was served with scones at teatime, but it now used on toast, to fill cakes between the layers or crepes, in tarts, as an ice cream or cheesecake topping. Mix it with whipped cream for a quick lemon mousse. I decided to try making it for the first time.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
3 lemons, zested
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

DIRECTIONS
In a microwave-safe bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until smooth. Stir in lemon juice, lemon zest and butter. Cook in the microwave for one minute intervals, stirring after each minute until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from the microwave, and pour into small sterile jars. Mine took 5 1/2 minutes at 50% power. Store for up to three weeks in the refrigerator.

Glass Fusing Class - look I'm an artist!

In early March I took an all day workshop called "Beginning Fusing" at Bella Glass Studio here in Denver. It was an early birthday present from Dan. The class description reads: "Explore the creative designs of hot glass. In this class you will learn the fundamentals of kiln forming while creating your own exciting fused glass pieces." We made 2 pendants, a vase, 2 coasters, and a picture frame. I really love the pendants and the vase. The white, red and black pendant was "tack" fused. In other words, it was heated just enough for the glass to stick to itself. The blue pendant was "fully" fused. The blue glass is on the bottom and a slightly larger piece of clear class was placed on top. Then I added chips of iridescent dichroic glass on top of that. Then the pendant was heated enough so all the layers of glass melted together to form a smooth surface. For the vase, we each selected a flat, square piece of class. After you polish the edges and corners a little (to make them less sharp), you simply center the piece of glass over a vase form in the kiln, when the glass is fired, it melts or slumps over the form.

With the coasters, I was trying to match the colors in our living room but the execution was a little disappointing. For the picture frame, our only color choice was black and then we could add other colored glass chips. I chose pastels because they would show up against the black and it doesn't really match any color scheme in our house.

It surprised me a little that the class was mostly about the technical aspects of the craft - very little about the artistic aspects. Over all, it was enjoyable and I might go back and take more classes.

Coconut Sandwich Cookies

Carroll, at the library, brought these to work a few weeks ago. I tried one (not realizing they were Coconut) and they were delicious. I got the recipe from her and made them last weekend. They were a big hit!

Coconut Sandwich Cookies
From “Everyday Food”

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 package (7 ounces) sweetened shredded coconut (about 2 ¼ cups), divided
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Creamy Vanilla Filling (see below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Place ½ cup of coconut into a small bowl; set aside. Place remaining coconut in a food processor; pulse until coarsely ground. Set aside.

Using electric mixer, beat butter with sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and ground coconut; mix until just combined.

Drop dough by level tablespoons onto two baking sheets, 1-2 inches apart. Bake until lightly golden around the edges, 10-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make filling while cookies are cooling.

Dividing evenly, spread filling on flat side of half the cookies; sandwich with remaining cookies. Roll edges in reserved coconut, and chill until ready to serve.

Creamy Vanilla Filling
½ cup (1stick) unsalted butter
1 cup confectioners sugar
½ tsp pure vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, beat room temperature butter until light and fluffy. With mixer on medium, beat in confectioners sugar ½ cup at a time, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add ½ teaspoon vanilla; increase mixer speed to high and beat until filling is light and fluffy, 5 minutes.

I love RECIPEZAAR

For the uninitiated, Recipezaar.com is a recipe website. One of many...I don't remember how I stumbled across it but I've been using it for 4 years or so. They post monthly articles about seasonal menus or recipe collections (right now they are featuring Crock Pot recipes and Mardi Gras menus). Truth be told, I don't usually read them. I usually log on searching for something specific. One of the reasons I love it is that there are many recipe search criteria (Cooking Method, Ingredients, Occasion, Rating, etc). It's taken a bit of trial and error over the years but now I can even narrow the search using multiple elements (crock pot, chicken, low carb).

Another reason I love this site is that many of the recipes have been tried and rated by other cooks. Here's one comment I found posted recently that I love: "I served this casserole at a church brunch, everyone loved it. Men wanted seconds and women wanted the recipe. It was a big hit. I am making it again tomorrow." Once I narrow down my search, I usually sort all the qualifying recipes by rating (highest to lowest). That way I get the best recipes in any given category.

Dan's Mushroom Soup

Yum yum! Several friends have asked for this recipe so here you go:

Mushroom Soup with Port
1 oz. dried wild mushrooms (such as shiitake or porcini)
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3/4 lb. cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced (we usually substitute portabello mushrooms)
3 Tb. all-purpose flour
salt and white pepper
2 tsp. soy sauce
5 Tb. tawny port
1 cup half and half
2 Tb. finely chopped fresh parsley for garnish

In a medium saucepan, combine dried mushrooms and broth. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. In a medium soup pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion and saute, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes or until soft. Add cremini mushrooms and saute for another 3 minutes. Sprinkle with flour, salt and pepper. Stir for 1 minute to cook flour and coat mushrooms. Whisk in the broth and dried mushrooms. Add the soy sauce and simmer for 15 minutes, partially covered. With a hand held blender, blend soup until roughly pureed OR transfer the soup into a regular blender in batches and roughly puree. Return to soup pot and add the port and half and half. Bring to a simmer and let simmer for 2 minutes or until the alcohol has burned off. Taste for seasoning. Ladle into bowls and garnish with parsley.

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris...

“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast.”

At the Globus holiday party in December 2006, I was lucky enough to have won a set of two roundtrip tickets on Continental Airlines - anywhere in the world. We had already booked our Italy trip for March of 2007 (more posts on that later) so we had to choose another destination to travel to before December 2007. While we were in Italy we found out the offer on the house had been accepted so that put another trip off a little longer. We also figured out that we better plan to visit someone we knew so we could take advantage of their hospitality and sofa bed. :-) So we choose Paris and Eindhoven, Holland. We left for Paris in late September and arrived just in time for the Rugby World Cup being hosted by France. The photo above on the left is the jumbotron in front of the Hotel de Ville (city hall) in Paris showing World Cup matches day and night.

It turns out that the French (the whole world in fact) are pretty crazy about rugby. If you look closely at the photo on the right, you'll see an inflatable rugby ball suspended inside the Eiffel Tower!

-A

What would we do without PBS?

PBS in our house means two things. It does mean Public Broadcasting Service to be sure but it also means "Pearls Before Swine" -- our favorite comic strip by Stephen Pastis. Have you read it? I know we've recommended it to a few of our friends and family members. It features a small cast of animals - the ever cynical Rat, the naive Pig, a cadre of crocodiles (Larry, JoJo, Frank) and a zebra (or Zeeba if you're a crockydile with a funny accent). Our favorite strips are the ones pitting the crocodiles against their neighbor zebra. The zebra is generally in a battle of wits with several unarmed crocs. Check it out for yourself. http://www.denverpost.com/comics

We also live without cable so the other PBS is also a lifeline - especially because we have access to two local stations (Colorado Public Broadcasting and Rocky Mountain PBS). Tonight we're tuning in to watch "The Pioneers of Television" and "The Jewish Americans."

-A