Parental Power!

I recently remembered a conversation that hubby and I had years ago, before we had kids. We were talking about parenting and how parents really create a culture for their children. Then we thought how funny it would be to have kids and raise them as an experiment. We could make up strange holidays and weird traditions that would feel normal to the kids, but no one else would understand, like Spatula Day. We could teach them that this annual event commemorated the invention of the frying pan, and that it was celebrated by wearing a spatula on your belt and greeting each other with flailing arms, saying "Hail Teflon!".

(And our kids would look like some cross between the Walmart happy face and Ralph Wiggum.)

When we decided to have kids, though, we forgot all about our experiment idea.
 The reason I'd been thinking about this again is that I think we ended up doing it anyway by accident. We seem to have raised kids who (like their parents) just don't fit in anywhere. They behave in strange, counter-cultural ways. No, no, we don't celebrate Spatula Day, but we seem to have done some equally weird things to our kids. For example, they think that "shut up" and "stupid" are swear words. Also, they think that it's normal to want to spend time with their parents, to think independently of their friends and to spend free time outside. Oh, and they're vegetarians. Poor kids, how will they ever be productive members of society now?!

Cake!

Yesterday was my son's twelfth birthday, and so I, of course, made him a cake. He wanted a duck pond on it, with ducks. White ducks, like his pets. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I ask them what they want on their cake, and then feel obligated to create what they request? Who do I think I am, anyway?
Well, I gave it my best shot. I bought some gum paste and played around with it, and I don't think I did too bad a job for my first time with the stuff.
Here is the finished product:

Actually, I like some of the shots I took before I wrote on it better. Like these:

This picture makes me feel like I'm sneaking up on the ducks. Hee hee hee!

I see all the flaws, (messy buttercream, bad piping, crumbs in the icing, insane duck eyes...) but my son was delighted with it. He wanted me to send it to Cakewrecks as a Sunday Sweet. I don't think I'll be doing that (Have you seen how beautiful those cakes are?!?!) but it was sweet of him to think it was that good! Ah, to be twelve again.

* One last thing *
 I found out that eating mocha mud cake with thick, gooey buttercream for dinner (Yes, that's right, for dinner.) will provide excellent fuel for a morning jog the next day!

My Wasabi Experience

There is a new restaurant in town; a sushi restaurant! We finally ate there last week and it was so good, I wanted more. So, today we got some take out. It came with such a cute little container of wasabi; how could I resist something so cute? I know it's hot, even though I've never tried it before (in fact that is why I've never tried it before) so I just had a little bit.
Yechky! Nasty stuff! I couldn't get rid of the taste! How does anyone enjoy that?! Okay, lesson learned; I do not like wasabi.
And then, it happened. The stabbing pain behind my right eye, the general feeling of unwell that means not only do I not like wasabi, it will also give me a migraine. Now I extra don't like it!
And then, well, it took me a while to understand this, partly because I was stupified by pain, and partly because I have never personally experienced hives before, but I also discovered that I am allergic to wasabi.

That is a terrible picture, but I'm sure that is what wasabi is thinking.

I really, really, really don't like wasabi.

In case you were worried, I'm fine now. Thanks for your concern.

I got to see it this time! I've barely slept the past few nights because I kept getting up to check on the chrysalis, but it is finally over and I didn't miss it! Check it out:

It was so amazing to watch. Seeing that butterfly flit around my garden and realizing that just hours before it had been packed up tight in that chrysalis was kind of boggling. It set me thinking. I think there is a great lesson in the butterfly, but I'll get to that another day. For now, just be amazed.

"Ordinary white light has within it all the colours of the rainbow when viewed the right way. Likewise, an ordinary day contains a full spectrum of beauty, if only we know how to see it. My mission: just be dazzled."

Coming soon...

I feel like an expectant mother. For the past couple of weeks I have been awaiting the moment, and it will be soon, I can tell.
This is what I'm waiting on:

I think I need some photography lessons; that is not a great picture!

It is a Monarch chrysalis. We brought a cute little half-inch long caterpillar into the house, put him in a jar and fed him all the milkweed he could eat until he formed this lovely chrysalis. I am really hoping that when the moment arrives for him to emerge that I will see it. The last time we did this it happened overnight. When we went to bed it was a chrysalis and in the morning, a butterfly. (It made me feel a bit like Spongebob when he thought the butterfly was a monster that ate his friend Wormy!)
If all goes well, my next post will be of a butterfly.

Mmm... coffee

Sometimes I think I love coffee just a little too much. That first mouthful in the morning is just heaven some days. The way you can feel the heat from it all the way down your throat, and then spreading like magic until it delivers happiness to the brain. A good cup of coffee in your favourite mug can turn a bad day around.

My favourite mug.

I gave up drinking coffee for quite a few years. I had been a serious coffee drinker in my youth. (Two pots a day of black coffee when I was 18.) It started to not sit so well, so I gave it up. I was okay with that; I got to the point that I didn't miss it. I would even have a cup occasionally, but I didn't start drinking it all the time again until.... The Machine.
Hubby came home from a friend's house raving about their coffee. He said I had to try it. I really didn't get what he was so excited about; coffee is coffee, right? There is good and bad, sure, but how great could this stuff be? And then I tried it. Elixir of the gods, it was. This coffee machine made the best cup of coffee I had ever had. I must have this machine. I won't go into what I went through to track it down; the investigating; the months of waiting; the tears of frustration. Finally, I acquired The Machine. And what do I do at every chance I get? I share a cup of coffee with some other poor soul, destroying their future ability to ever enjoy a sub-par cup of joe ever again.
Mwah ha ha!

Annual Elora trip, with pictures!

We did a family day-trip to Elora this week. We do this every summer, and this year I remembered to bring my camera! Unfortunately, I frequently forgot that I had it with me, so I didn't photograph all I could have, but here are some of the things that interested me enough for me to remember to snap them!
Due to construction we took a detour through Orangeville. As soon as I saw this place I was scrambling to unzip my camera bag. I wish we'd been able to stop so I could get a better picture of...

Ghostbusters Headquarters!
Okay, it's not exactly like it, but that's what it made me think of. It is the town's old fire hall.
See:

There is a store/gallery in Elora that has these really cool benches that are carved out of tree roots. They are really comfortable, as well as looking super-nifty!

It was inside this store/gallery that I found the piece I really want, though. I don't remember what the price on it was, I just remember that it was a lot. Check it out:

Doesn't that look great? But that isn't all; look at this:

How fantastic is that?! I love it! We were thinking of a steampunk theme for when we finally finish the family room; I think that table would look awesome in there!
That was about it for photo-worthy stuff. It was an incredibly hot day and we mostly gasped for air in the antique stores and shivered as our sweaty underclothes got chilly in the air-conditioned shops.
We're looking forward to going again next year!