Ah...the weekend

My top favorite things about this weekend:

DVD. A viewing of In July (funniest moment: the final result of a physics instructor figuring out how fast he has to drive to jump over a small river) on Friday night.

Children's store. A trip to Lots for Tots (children's consignment store): found another baby gate, a set of wooden blocks, one pair of white socks and a hanging toy that fills the missing spot on our bouncy seat.

MMMM....food. A well needed trip to Sam's Club to stock up on supplies. Best find: Cuties California Clementines, clementines that taste better than any other clementine I've ever tasted. I loved to eat these in CA, but haven't found them in Minnesota until yesterday. I've tried other brands over the years, hoping for the taste of a California Cutie....yuck yuck yuck. I am in heaven and will go back and get 20 more pounds.

[pause...clementine break]

Cooking. An afternoon spent in the kitchen..I boiled eggs, made an apple crisp and began my yogurt making experiment.

Homemade yogurt. I decided to make my own yogurt because it seems relatively easy, is cheaper than buying store-bought yogurt, is a food B will be eating soon and is rumored to be very creamy and super sweet (not tart like store-bought yogurt). I followed the directions from Super Baby Food. In a nut shell you 1) heat milk to approx. 185 degrees, 2) cool milk to approx. 115 degrees, 3) add starter (either a packet of bacteria or a couple spoonfuls of yogurt), 4) incubate between 90 and 120 degrees for 4-12 hours. Steps 1-3 were fairly easy, but step 4 proved to be a little more difficult. If I lived in the Middle East or Riverside, CA, I could just put the yogurt mixture outside and wait. But I live in Duluth. So I used my half-gallon Igloo Playmate water jug. I'm not sure how long it really took, as I went to bed after 5 hours of incubation and at 3AM took it out of the cooler. I put it in the fridge and this morning I had my own home-made yogurt. It smelled and tasted like yogurt, so I must have done something right.

Scrabble. A Saturday night game of Scrabble with my husband...a complete game. He won by just a handful of points. Background music: The Lawrence Welk Show

A giggle. I think B giggled on Saturday, but I can't say for sure. I made a tent out of a blanket with both of us underneath it. I started tickling her, and she made some strange laughing noise she hadn't made before. It wasn't a squeal, it wasn't a scream, but more like a chuckle.

The Heater. The heater decided to quit working....on a Sunday...on one of the coldest days of the year. It was only a condensation pressure switch, but it cost $173 to fix.

Overall, a great weekend!

Yo, Rocky!

I love the new movie Rocky Balboa...it has me whistling Rocky's theme song all the time. Clay and I went and saw it last week. My parents watched B while we went. All said, we were gone exactly 2 hours and she slept the whole time. so all my worrying during the film was for nothing. Maybe it was because it's the first movie I've seen in a theatre since The DaVinci Code and An Inconvenient Truth this summer. Maybe it was because it was my first "fun" thing without the baby (Christmas shopping, car shopping and a CPR class don't count). I found the movie very endearing even though I think boxing is a dumb sport.

So last night...we watched Rocky I
Tonight it's Rocky II

:)

We've had to wait a week to rent them. There must be a big demand for these old flicks.

Travels with an infant

This past week, B and I travelled to California to visit my parents. We had a great time, and it flew by too quickly. Here is a list of the highlights:

• B travelled relatively well and slept during the flight to and from California. We had the luxury of three seats to ourselves on the trip out West, which made life a whole lot easier. We shared a seat on the trip back, but it wasn't so bad.
  
  
• Can you say hot hot hot?! While I was there, Southern California broke many temp records for November. Luckily my mom's friend had given her a ton of baby clothing, which included many cute summer outfits. Wearing sandals and tank tops in November seemed wrong, but so right.
  
  
• Yay, a pedicure! I feel human again.
  
  
• It was great to see my good friend Mary and her boyfriend Dana. They are both excellent baby whisperers.
  
  
• We had a delicious lunch with my friends Catherine (and her cutie son Kenny), Jennifer and Christine at California Pizza Kitchen in Fashion Island. Jennifer initiated B to the concept of facing forward in her carrier. It was a beautiful day.
  
  
• My dad and I strolled along the strand after a lunch with my mum at Hennessey's in Hermosa. The Good Stuff standcam caught us talking on the phone to Clay.
  
  
• Downtown Disney was a cool place to hang out with B's adoring Uncle Micah. Good food, good company and great atmosphere.
  
  
• My friend Jamie and I took our daughters to UCLA to meet our friend Brian and have lunch at the faculty center. Jamie's account of the day is spot on!



• And a visit to Redondo Beach is not complete without a trip to Captain Kidd's for dinner. :)
  

Snowy Day

Last night was the first significant snow fall of the season. It probably won't stick, but it's nice to look at.