Cookies!!

The other night I baked 440 shortbread cookies! Here's a picture of a few of them, I don't do fancy cookies, just nice basic shortbread. Everyone loves them though, even if they are a bit "rustic", possibly even a bit "tacky".

Sad News on the CBC, James Barber Has Left Us

I just heard that James Barber passed away on Thursday. To me he was a Vancouver icon, a friendly and down to earth guy who loved to cook and to teach. He authored many delightful cookbooks, and had an honest approach to cooking, no frills or fuss for James!

He passed away while reading a cookbook....with a pot of soup simmering on his stove.

Goodbye James! I will miss you!

You can read a full story here: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/tv/story/2007/12/02/barber-tvchef-obit.html?ref=rss

Waiting for the Last Minute. Again.

Why do I do this to myself?? Arrrggghhhh.

SNOW!! ACK!!

Yeah, yeah, I know that I grew up in Ottawa and in Winnipeg, and of course I lived in the Arctic (Baffin Island) for a while. But now I live in BC, the west coast of Canada, and damn it, it's supposed to be mild here. Snow should be an event...not a normal thing. So WTF???

Anyway. One member of the family who is loving the snow is Buddy McDoggerson the Wonder Dog. He hates the rain, when he has to go "pee-poo" (cute, huh?) he tippee-toes about on the lawn like some spastic Lippanzer stallion, trying desperately to not have his wee toes touch the wet, sodden grass. But snow....a different kettle of fish, so to speak. (not an apt analogy, but I'm doing my best. ) He loves the snow. So Buddy McDoggerson heads out onto the deck, and snarffles the snow with his nose...roles around in it, like a junkie who's found an Ikea ballroom filled with horse. He really just goes nuts, and it makes us happy, because he's basically a not very happy dog. He's tangled and challenging, but when the snow flies, he's just so into it, just a dog having fun.

I hope it snows every day.

We got the lights up today, btw, and they are awesome. Tomorrow the tree and the house stuff, and if it's still snowy and chilly, I think I'll have to bake bread.

This is Buddy McDoggerson, in the snow. This is as happy as he gets.

An Excellent Day!!

A perfect Friday! I went to Fort Langley and met up with my buddy Cheri, aka "the other Cheri". We shopped a few of the galleries, and she took me out for one of the nicest lunches that I've had in years....a perfect little Ceasar Salad, a pasta dish, spaghettini with a creamy sauce full of seafood, and *ahem* a nice slice of a chocolate ganache torte, with whipped cream and a garnish of fresh strawberry salad.

I'm now in a carb coma, but I'm a happy gal! Off to bake cookies, and do a bit of rapping. Er, "wrapping", I should say. Perhaps I'll rap a bit too, we'll see.

Have a good night, everyone!

Below is one of my favorite pictures of Cypher with David. It was a mutual adoration society from the second they met.....Cypher simply adored David, and vice versa.

Grocery Shopping. Hmmm.

Ever go shopping intending to buy a few things, and end up spending almost 300 bucks? That was my day.

But I did get enough supplies to bake hundreds of shortbread cookies, so that's the plan for this evening, to get started with "cookie factory" 2007.

I remember my beloved first dog Cypher, It was 3 years ago that we adopted him. The second night that he was home with us was a cookie baking night, and I made the mistake of leaving cookies cooling on the counter. Sweet Cypher was an accomplished counter-surfer, as I learned in a dramatic fashion. He managed to hoover at least 40-50 cookies before I caught him. I panicked, because he had recently survived a severe case of bloat.

Anyway....he "got rid" of the cookies, poor guy, and he was fine. So making cookies always makes me think of my darling doggy who's gone to the bridge.

Wow. I've got learn to click "save".

I had a nice long post, but it's gone. Damn.

Anyway, to sum up....good day...gallery took all my stuff....lunch with friend...no traffic...no dog pee when arrived home...happy happy good good.

Work tomorrow....shop again Friday.

Wish this blog wouldn't continually crash my browser...what up with that??? Ef-word spoken. Beer opened.

Night-night.

Okay, here goes. My very first blog-thingy post!

It's a chilly Monday, and I'm trying to prioritize my time. Doing fairly poorly, since I'm writing here instead of making beads. I do have a couple in the kiln, though. I got to get in a few hours more of work, then shift gears and get some jewelry done to take to a gallery tomorrow.

I'm excited about my new website, which is more or less good to go, finally. David spent hours yesterday working on it, I can only marvel at his patience ....a quality that I lack.

This whole blogging thing is actually quite appealing. I hope that I can get into a nice routine with it, keep it up-to date, etc. We'll see.

Right now the guys are here cleaning the gutters, and Buddy McDoggerson is going batshit. He's very "high strung", and hearing people walking on the roof is not something he's used to, so all of his protective instincts have gone into high gear. Poor doggy, I'll take him for a walk later, although last week we saw a bear on our street, and that makes me a wee bit nervous. It was just a juvenile black bear, but I know that Buddy woudl become, shall we say, *interested* if he were to see said bear. I'm not sure what I'd do. One thing though, it'd make a hell of an interesting blog post.

Stay tuned.