Author: Launi

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A Good Daughter…Gone Bad?

July 3 002

Several weeks ago, my sweet Jillian packed up and took off to New York, and promptly became a bad guy.

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Oh, she was excited about it, all right.

Hobart College

She was very stalwart to call us as soon as she arrived and was shown to her room at the 100 year old Hobart College.

Soon after, she broke the news.

“Mom,” she said, “I’m a Harvest Dancer.”

“That’s nice, dear,” I said.

“And…” she said, “a non-believer bad guy.”

“A WHAAAAT?!”

She sounded disturbingly…happy.

I tried to stay calm–but it was tough. After all, this is my Jillian we are talking about. What on earth would she know about being a bad guy?

HillCumorah

A few days later, she sent us pictures of the Hill Cumorah that she will be running up and down for weeks–carrying her spooky torch…because, as I said, she is a bad guy, and bad guys carry torches…apparently. Who knew?

HC Pageant

Here’s part of the Hill Cumorah Pageant set where she will be her old bad guy self–you know, trying to stone ancient prophets–that sort of thing–(I assure you, she was raised better than this) while the good guys run around trying to get the wicked people to behave themselves.

The redeeming news is that apparently towards the end my girl has a change of heart and decides to become a “believer” after all.

That was close.

Jillian the non-believer

You know, it’s funny…

She still looks like my sweet Jillian.

Phew…

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Harry Potter and the Family of Wack

No, no…it’s not the newest Harry Potter book.

The “Family of Wack” well,

that would be…

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…us.

LyndiRandom 020Harry’s Birthday Celebration

Yeah. We really get into this sort of thing.

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The crowds…

Lyndi3 104Professor Dumbledore

the costumes…

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Voldemort

even the scary guys…

Lyndi3 096Scera Theater Midnight Showing

and believe it or not–the lines turn out to be an event.

Yes, a new Harry Potter movie is coming out–TODAY and quite frankly, I keep forgetting which number this one even is.

Lyndi3 106Professor’s Sprout and the Mandrake

But seriously, who cares? Life is more interesting and fun where there’s something to look forward to. In fact, by the time you read this–we will have already stood in line and caught the show with all the other Harry Potter Wack-jobs.

Our only defense…

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we love this stuff!

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Sherbet Melon

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I’ve seen this sweet idea in magazines and have wanted to try it for a long time now. It’s actually very easy. All you need is Raspberry and Lime Sherbet and about 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

First, line a medium size serving bowl with plastic wrap.

Next, make sure your sherbet is soft enough to work with–but not too melty–kind of like the consistency of Play-doh.

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Now, spoon your green Play-doh–I mean sherbet, into the bowl and with your hands in sandwich bags–press the cold stuff into place about an inch and a half around the inside edges of the bowl. Plop it back in the freezer for a while–go shopping or something.

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When you know the “melon rind” is firm and frozen hard, spoon the raspberry sherbet into the middle and press it down–again, with your hand in a sandwich bag. Smooth the top with a spatula.

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I’ve seen recipes where they stirred the chocolate chips into the pink sherbet before pressing it into the “rind,” but…we chose to set the chips in separately, so they weren’t covered with sherbet. Looks more dramatic–don’t you think? Now, cover the top with plastic wrap and freeze good and solid.

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When you remove it from the freezer, set the whole bowl in a larger bowl with about 2 inches of slightly warm water–to loosen it from the frozen bowl.

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Don’t worry if it looks kinda chunky and weird–because your going to flip it over anyway.

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So…now…flip it over onto a plate. If you need to smooth the sides–to make it prettier–do that now with a spatula.

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It slices easy enough into wedges, if you use a large, thin knife.

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remove the wedge and set on a plate…

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then add the chocolate chips. Either set the plates back in the freezer or serve immediately.

Be prepared for everyone to say, “Cute, cute, cute.”

And so they should.

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A Boy With A Stick

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Knight’s Tale

Remember in the movie, “Knight’s Tale” with Heath Ledger…oh, Heath…

Sorry, anyway, remember where the pretty girl says to the brave, impostor knight, “Better to be a silly girl with a flower, than a silly boy with a horse and a stick.” Remember?

Well, our Beckham would disagree. Wholeheartedly.  He may not have a horse–yet–but he does have a whole, unattended pantry to mess with…

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and the baby boy chooses…

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a stick.

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And now–apparently, life has new meaning.

Boys…boys…

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My Boyfriend’s Back…

Hey la…hey la…

My beloved sewing machine–my Bernina 930…is back.

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It has been gone for a few years on an extended road trip to my daughter’s place–while I strayed away from the proven paths, and explored different, fancier, more high-tech sewing machines.

I’m back now and I’ve repented.

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What I’ve learned, Dorothy, is that while the more expensive, snooty machines can indeed, do everything from defrosting the freezer to performing surgery on ingrown toenails–for me, I just missed the plain, old, regular sewing time. Usually that was because the fancy, ridiculous machine was in the shop—again.

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Now to be fair, I’ve heard that most of these new darlings are wonderful and fill the owner’s life with complete bliss and joy–but somehow I missed that part. In fact, I hated the darn computerized, embroidery-ing, push this button and I’ll sing your kids to sleep ordeal.

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The thing is, with a conventional, metal machine–if something goes wrong, you change a needle or adjust the tension and keep on cookin’. But with the Wonder Woman deal, if an eyelash falls out or the planets aren’t aligned perfectly, the whole diva beast shuts down and you have no idea what the problem is. Now you are once again forced to find a crane to load it back into the car and take it to. the. shop. again. SHEESH.

But this is not a negative post. No, no. This is a happy, joyous, rejoicing, exuberant post. Because my cute daughter–who is now, also converted to the old school, no nonsense, plow-horse machine, just bought one of her very own and handed me this handsome fellow–back. Yee haw!

Welcome home my dah-ling.

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The mending basket has missed you.

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The fabric stash has missed you.

We shall make beautiful music together.

On second thought, forget about the music.

Let’s just sew.