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Sorry if you have already applied your mascara.

Song in the video is Praan by Garry Schyman

 

This is the church where Rick and I got married.  Quite a handsome church, don't you think?

On Sunday I spent part of the afternoon wandering around Stanford University.  I didn't have my camera with me but I took a few pictures with my iPhone. 

It was nice growing up in a University town.  My father was a professor at Stanford.  My mother, sister, aunt and niece all worked there.  When I was in high school my friends and I would ride our bikes over to the campus on Friday nights and watch Woody Allen movies for $1.  And feel very sophisticated in doing so.

I actually worked there for one Summer.  In one of the libraries.  If I remember correctly there are a whole warren of passageways underground that lead from library to library.  Or maybe it just seemed that way.  I can remember I hated having to go down to the 'stacks' to retrieve a book for someone.   It was gloomy and spooky down there.

The library I worked at was the biology library but I was occasionally loaned out to the main library on campus.  The library had a system where professors could check out books as long as they liked.  However there were a few professors that took advantage of this system and kept books for ages.  The library kept a list of the worst offenders and what books they had checked out and I was given the task of calling them and gently suggesting they might think about returning them.

When I looked at the list the first name on it was my very own father!  I didn't bother calling him but when I got home that evening I lectured him on the importance of returning books in a timely manner.  He didn't even remember that he still had the books.

Isn't this a pretty drive onto campus? It is aptly named Palm Drive.  The church can be seen at the very end of the road.  It is really a gorgeous campus and if you are ever in the area it's worth a visit.

 
 

After taking Evan to the airport at the crack of dawn on Sunday I had the entire day wide open.  I decided to make it a pampering kind of day.

I started off with a manicure and pedicure at a new nail salon.  Then I had my hair trimmed.  Then I decided to wander around Stanford University with all the tourists, taking pictures.

In my travels around town I kept passing a cupcake shop so I stopped in to see what it was all about.

It's called Kara's Cupcakes at Town and Country Village in Palo Alto.  A very clean, modern shop but pink like a bakery box. 

They had about a dozen types of cupcakes to choose from.  Even a few gluten free options.  I ended up getting Sweet Vanilla, S'More, Meyer Lemon and Sweet Chocolate. 

So far I have just had half of the vanilla one.  My dad had the chocolate one.  I guess we are purists when it comes right down to it.

I found the frosting to be a little overly sweet so I wiped most of it off.  The frosting to cake ratio is quite tricky, isn't it?  The cake part was delicious.  Perfect actually.  And as for the fosting I was warned – it is called Sweet Vanilla for a reason.

I think it would have been better chilled.  I can't wait to try the S'More one.  Something about toasted marshmallow frosting is quite alluring.   

 
  

Okay this is probably the least interesting and most unattractive photo I've had on this blog.  Bear with me.

My child, my BABY is traveling out of the country today for a two week vacation in Portugal. 

This is what he has packed (well minus the suitcase part) to take with him on his two week trip.  Out of the country.  You could fit that in a brown paper lunch bag.  And have room for a couple of Twinkies and a bag of chips.

I suggested perhaps he might like to take a few more shirts, an extra pair of shoes.  Or how about socks (to which he hopped into his car and drove over to Wal-Mart to buy clean ones.  Easier than running a load of laundry at this stage of packing)?

At what point does it not actually physically hurt to have your children out of earshot? Said child is the same age I was when I got married but he is a boy and cannot be expected to understand all the dangers and pitfalls of international travel.

If you need me I'll be the quivering lump of nerves over in the corner for the next two weeks until he is back in my clutches.
 

Photo from Susan Branch

I can't remember when Susan Branch first entered my consciousness.  I just remember being utterly enchanted by her life and her books.  I think she was the original blogger – only on paper.  She had that same style of openness and sharing of her life that bloggers have. 

I felt invited into her world – like I could show up on her door step and she would welcome me in and whip up something wonderful for us to eat.  Then she would show me her latest watercolors for her upcoming cookbook.

One thing that has always stayed with me is my absolute lust for her little kitchen garden.  She had a teeny picture of it on the end paper in one of her books.  I have carried that picture in my mind for about 15 years now. 

It has always been my intention to have a kitchen garden, surrounded by a white picket fence just like that.  Now my intention is going to come into fruition. 

Our plan is to have the chicken Palais be one end of the garden.  There will be four raised beds with gravel paths between them.  We purposely centered the screen door on the chicken run so it would line up with the gravel path down the center of the garden.  

I am thinking that the space will be both a vegetable garden and a cut flower garden and I'm envisioning  a bucolic scene of chickens free ranging amongst the flowers and tomatoes, keeping the pest population down while simultaneously fertilizing the place (and in my fantasy they leave the vegetation alone…we'll see how that goes).

We hope to break ground this fall and get the fencing up and the beds laid.  I'll drag you all along in the process.

In the meantime I wholeheartedly recommend you pick up some of her books (okay – all).  They are the cookbooks in my collection that just fall open to well-loved, well-splattered recipes.