And as I near the end…

by Matthew | Jul 18, 2011 | Emma

I receive a postcard!  It just brings into perspective how dangerous their efforts in the great wild north.

Staring into the gaping maw of this monster, I certainly feel glad to have held the fort down here in Chestertown.

The family will be back soon, with Matthew returning first, in the next few days.  I imagine them salt crusted, with bleary eyes and bellies full of fish, ready to reclaim their soda stream, their foot massage machine, their comfortable sofa and reclining chair.  Thanks for reading!

Cat Report Cards

by Matthew | Jul 18, 2011 | Emma

Oscar and Lily were, overall, really great! They were definitely happy I was around to give them attention, even if the attention was shooing them out of the bathtub so I could shower.

Lily curled up behind me wherever I sat, and when I tried to sleep, she would lay down on my head or hair.  She would mow loudly to get my attention if I fell asleep, or refused to pay her any attention.  But she ate her food and used the litterbox well.  A-.

Oscar gradually spent more and more time outside of the bathtub, which was great — except he spent more and more time by his food dish, swatting at me plaintively as I passed, and insisting that I feed him at all hours of the day.  I didn’t.  He retaliated by making litterbox duties unpleasant.  However, he was otherwise sweet and friendly, if cranky.  B+.

Thanks guys for keeping me company here at the Barn!

A Birthday Masterpiece

by Matthew | Jul 17, 2011 | Emma

For my sister’s 20th birthday, I figured I should get her something suitably adult and forthright, to celebrate her passage out of the teens and into my decade.

So I got her a Magic Tree, which we grew together in a few hours the night of her birthday.  Beautiful, no?

Don’t ask me about the chemicals involved, or the toxicity.  It sells for a few bucks at Twigs and Teacups,  in the children’s section, and neither of us have died yet.  She is keeping it out of reach of her dogs, though…

Barn Trek: Deep Socket Nine

by Matthew | Jul 13, 2011 | Emma

I have a confession to make. Six days ago, Matthew sent me an email which promptly got buried under a bunch of other emails.  I may or may not have valid excuses for allowing it to do so, but let me just say that the email contained a request that I go to an auto supply store, of all places, for “a 1 and 1/16 inch deep socket with a 1/2 inch drive.”  I don’t exactly speak that language… There were other details, instructions to get a “regular” socket and not an “impact” socket, etc.

Yesterday, I got a rare phone call from Matthew.  Did I get his email?  Oh, that email.  Oops!  I set forth, anxious to get this socket purchased and sent to Alaska as soon as possible and redeem myself.

It was a gorgeous day.  The flowers tossed lazily in the hot summer breeze.  I don’t even know if it’s appropriate to call it a breeze, it was so humidity-laden.  Look at how tired the flowers were:

I don’t know why I was worried.  The guy at Kunkel Auto Supply didn’t even grimace as I stiltedly read my request off the printed-out email.  Within minutes, I had the appropriate deep socket.

This socket had spent a good long time waiting for a lifetime warranty-less socket to fail… or maybe auto shops just collect a lot of dust?

It certainly was a deep socket.

I escorted the socket to the post office (did I mention it was a gorgeous day?),

where a postal worker helped me determine the best, sturdiest package for the socket.  The socket is now travelling post haste to Alaska, land of the sockeye salmon.

In the meantime, let me also redeem myself in your eyes, readers, by presenting you with photographic evidence that I have in fact finished, completely finished, preparing the subscriber mailing!  (Don’t worry, your addresses are actually on the labels; I just photoshopped them out for the picture.)

A Very Berry Birthday

by Matthew | Jul 8, 2011 | Emma

In the interest of keeping you all in suspense over the status of the subscriber mailing, here are instead pictures of things that I did while not leading the dark hoard of gummy bears to stuff envelopes and so forth.

Sunday happened to be the birthday of one of my absolute best friends (Olivia), so my other best friend (Lindsay), and I took her berry picking.  We went to a top secret location about 20 minutes from here (or maybe farther, or closer — in order to keep it top secret, Lindsay drove us in circles for a bit).   For those of you familiar with the Eastern Shore, who might like to use your detective skills, the countryside en route looks something like this:

Or is that on the way out of town?  In any case, it’s clear that the secret is safe with me.

Lindsay’s friend Jessie says that the native raspberry canes there have been around since colonial times.  This means we didn’t just go berry picking, we became archaeologists.

(In the interest of rear-end anonymity, as well as basic human decency, I have reduced them to thumbnails here.)

I found a beautiful, empty birds’ nest…

But I was more interested in the berries.

There was also this random, gorgeous old mailbox:

We picked and picked and sweated and picked and got scratched and picked and finally Olivia and Lindsay had enough and dragged me away.  Did I mention I absolutely love picking wild berries?  It may as well have been my birthday.  And we picked so many!

We were so hot and gross that the air conditioning in the car couldn’t come on soon enough.  Olivia took desperate measures, draping her hair over the back of the seat to allow for better ventilation to her neck.

And since it was her birthday, I won’t post the shot of her happily munching berries on the way home.  She’ll probably hate it for some reason.

Lindsay couldn’t believe how many berries we picked — and still had left, even after Olivia munched on them.

For some reason, we were utterly ravenous when we got back.  Berries couldn’t satisfy us any longer.  But I had a plan.  It involved eight peaches, dark chocolate, a pound of pasta, shallots, white wine, and a lot of butter.  Chocolate peach pasta!

My fellow chefs approved.

Of course, we didn’t forget it was a birthday…

Yes, that is a “cake” of homemade Tasty-Cakes, courtesy Olivia’s aunt.  And… a trick candle: