Reeves Is FIVE!

Tomorrow that is. My 9 pound, ten ounce, way-more-than-a-baby boy is turning five tomorrow. He announced this morning that daddy and I could get him anything we wanted for his birthday. "You can pick Mom, whatever you want...but I want LOTS of presents!," he said. And he meant it. The middle child syndrome - never enough - a nagging sense of desperation - cans of corn and pears hidden under his bed. That was our solution after we found out he was storing fresh fruit and candy in the back corner beneath his pillow. It has helped. If all our other worries were so easily solved...

Happy Birthday, Reeves! You are a glory and wonder and we can't get enough of you either.

Is There Anything Worse Than Having To Set An Elegant Table?

Could the universe have sent ole' brer rabbit anything more miserable to do today? Did Santa Claus come up with this wicked scheme to give me a day at work DECORATING A TABLE? Are you kidding? Would you like me to eat a Toblerone and drink Prosecco with strawberries too? The only thing that might have made me more unhappy is if Peter Rowan and Tim O'Brian had been playing live at Flip Flop Foto today. Yes, poor me had to do two table settings for the Red Cross "Summerscapes" fund raiser. They are both terrific -- if I do say so myself. Following are the imaginary menus for my two hypothetical table settings.

At the Blackburn Hollow table a couple would
have a romantic Mediterranean-style meal.

Tilapia with Calamata olives and cherry tomatoes

(From Kevin and Drew's garden) in a citrus-garlic broth
Served over couscous with Young Asparagus sauteed with lemon, butter, slivered garlic and olive oil, Daddy's homemade Sunday French Baguettes

and for desert...Summer Figs marinated in red wine and baked into a firm, rich chocolate pudding. (I had this at a Greek Restaurant in Chicago in 1997 and again in 1999 - AMAZING. Find this recipe and I will love you forever!)

At the Opelika-Auburn News Table

A Creamy Crab and Corn Chowder paired with
Fresh Mesclun Greens topped with crisp Parmesan corn bread croutons and thick cut bacon served with homemade Balsamic Vinaigrette

Warm Sourdough Bread

Baked Pears with a Bourbon Glaze and shaved Dark Chocolate for Dessert

Next year I think the Red Cross should pair the tables with restaurants in town and auction meals at the tables. I think they could double their money!

If you want to vote for one of my tables visit

http://www.leeredcross.org/SummerscapesTables.htm

All the proceeds benefit the Lee County Red Cross.

Yes, I have already voted for my own tables. Despicable, I know. But what do you expect from Brer Rabbit?

I've spent the evening working on a "Tablescape" for the Clara's Circle Red Cross Fund Raiser at Flip Flop Foto. I'm a last minute entry but I think it'll be pretty (and a little weird). Here's a preview...

Wow! I learned how to do something. This may be of interest to some of you. Instead of uploading the flash video I created on Adobe Premiere Elements, (which took a long time to upload, by the way) - it is much easier, faster and higher quality to copy the embed code from YouTube and paste that into the HTML code of my blog post.

Just yesterday my best bud and I were joking about my husband's favorite qoute, You have a choice of high-quality, fast or cheap. You can only pick two. A carpenter's mantra.

Guees what...this was all three. It was faster, better quality and cost me less time. Compare this version with the one below which took half and hour to upload and looks like...well, crud!

Yea, YouTube. Now some egg head is going to tell me why it's a bad idea. OK - bring on the eggheads.

This is what I do for fun...the kids are asleep, the afternoon is lovely, a bird must be born...never mind it took another 3 hours to make the video. Am I crazy?
Music by John Peterson. Catch him at the Gnusroom.
http://www.myspace.com/alabamahog

Is This Normal...No, Seriously...

There a six of us in about 1470 square feet. Yes, we're trying to renovate the basement and add a few hundred more but that dream seems to get farther and farther away. Mind you, I feel blessed because many don't have it as great as we do. In fact, it wasn't so long ago that we didn't have it a great as we do. Just over two two years ago five of us co-existed in 900 square feet. Even with the addition of Gama and her yelping 14-year-old Jack Russell, Molly, my mommy math says we have all experienced a 30% increase in living space. A lot to be grateful for.

None the less, there are days.... like today, yesterday, the day before that and probably tomorrow... that I just wish we could add a bathroom, close in the carport, extend the end of the house and build a 16 x 20 out building in the yard. Somehow I know even that would soon fall short and I'd be right back here blogging about a lack of physical and personal space.

So I'm going to stop complaining about that and start complaining about this...

With so many people and personalities in the house, there are varying ideas about how stuff (and I mean physical stuff, not philosophical stuff) should be managed. I tend to ignore things unless I have the time to put it where I believe it should go (the closet, the puzzle box, the proper drawer); my husband will kick, shovel and sweep everything into piles in the corner of a room; and my mother will get up in the middle of the night and organize every little object into every available container. I know that none of these approaches is ideal and that my habit of denying a problem until I'm ready to deal with it surely bothers them as much as their approaches bother me.

But now we have a new problem. A problem I like to call...receptacle disease. (See photo). All over the house there are objects that are intended to be decorative, discarded or recycled that have become the happy holders of things that are supposed to be somewhere else. This problem seems to grow exponentially. We live in a forest of containers. It makes me want to throw out every bowl, pot, pail and cup I see. Is this normal?