Leggo!

Sat., Jan. 16 - Mon., Jan. 18, 2010 -- we got results this weekend!

Do we all feel this way? Whenever we cook something and it turns out to be the best you ever had? That's how I feel about these waffles. We ran out and bought a waffle iron just to fulfill this craving and I'm so glad we did. That's what Saturday is for! The waffles were so light in weight and crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Thank you, St. Martha, for the recipe:



After that hearty breakfast, I finished more light switch plates for the laundry room. I'm getting better at making them, so I may have to go back and redo first edition plates. The key to perfection is a hot glue gun:

I installed, all by myself, one of the smoke alarms. No help! I did bungle the other one, though. Not only is ATM going to have to install it, he has to patch the lovely hole I made, too! Stop helping!

ATM finished painting the laundry room. The yellow hue was cheerful & sunshiney, but with all of the doggie paw prints and smudges, it looked awful dingy. Now it's fresh and clean clean. We have a very grown up laundry room, I think:

At the Tree of Knowledge's annual Breakfast, Books & Booze sale (Locals, you must attend this next time around!), I finally scored Swallow Me Whole by native North Little Rocker (& friend!) Nate Powell. I read it in one sitting & it haunts me still, days later. It is a fantastic graphic novel & comes highly recommended!


ATM made biscuits! I think this is the first time I've documented his cooking ability. I like mine with strawberry preserves, he prefers his with blackstrap molasses:

For this year's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we volunteered with City Year @ the Rose City Boys & Girls Club. While we got to work with very sweet & motivated people, we were all a little put off by CY's organizational skills, our team leader, and the project we were assigned to. We were to build a cubby shelf for the Boys & Girls Club of Jacksonville. I was really excited because this would be my introduction to woodworking. We were led to a stack of pre-cut lumber; all of the boards were poorly measured & cut. They would not work for the dimensions they asked for, unfortunately. There were no saws of any kind to correct the mistakes, so we just did the best we could. I believe we did a damn fine job. I just really hate that we're giving sweet little things such a poorly built shelf that will give them splinters.

ATM, master hammerer. And, yes, the appropriate footwear for such a project is flip flops.

See? Not the worst thing ever! And this is A LOT of work, by the way. It inspired me to want to build our own shelves. A lot of it has to do with good measurements!

I don't know, I think we will take our volunteerism elsewhere next year. I don't know with whom or what, but that experience was less than satisfying. I don't want to just log in a few hours and call it a day, I want to do a project through completion AND it be a job well done. I feel that CY just wants the quantity, not the quality. You know, "another job done by City Year!". So not my style. Ugh, thinking back on it irritates me.

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I have so much going on around me, it's hard to keep up with & to document. I think I need to take a staycation, for lack of a better word, but in the realest sense. No obligations, just do as I please, even if it includes not blogging. Which I feel I haven't been doing anyway. Full circle, I have so much going on around me, it's hard to keep up with & to document.

Tomorrow I am meeting Luca. Who? Keiko & Rett's newest family member! She was born on January 16, 2010. I cannot tell you how delighted I am to finally meet her & to visit with her parents and her sister, Negi. I'm a crazy good (self-appointed) Auntie! I'm sorry that I haven't written about our newest family member sooner, but I wanted to give the new parents space in every sense, including the interwebs.

On Friday, we'll get to see our Habitat photo IN A MUSEUM. Thrilling!