Trees falling in the wood

One night after dinner, we suddenly all heard a crash...it turned out to be a long dead tree, falling on the cabin.  Up went my brother to the roof to do some improptu tree removal.

Tall tree, though quite dead and light enough to be held.

Perched on the roof

Sunset from the roof, courtesy of my brother

The Roo!

Ayden is a jumper, hence the nickname roo (as in kanga-roo).  If there's a treat, you can bet she'll get it, no matter how high you hold it.

 Doggy smile

Sleepy

Why yes I AM happy to see you!

I just went on a swim!

See!  I love the water.

My puppies

Ayden and Hillary. 

Sigh.  I wish I could have one here in Boston.

Family Reunion!

Also known as the time that I took eleventy billion pictures of my cousin's lovely little girl.

I cannot STAND how cute this grin is.  Seriously.

Guarding puffcorn from the dogs!

She has a rather boisterous dog of her own at home, so she knows how to handle Hillary. 

The cabin

Muffins: year four!

Today begins year four of making muffins for my girls, and I can safely say that I have learned to make a good muffin.  At 60 muffins a week, 15 weeks a semester, 6 semesters, I've made roughly 5,400 muffins over the past three years, not counting all of the cupcakes I made in preparation for my labmate's wedding last October.

That's a lot of muffins.

One day, I will do a glorious photoshoot of muffins and fulfill my secret desire to be Deb, but today is unfortunately not that day.  However, I did want to share some tips for baking muffins, whether you're doing one batch or several at a time.

--use muffin cups.  Cleanup is way easier, plain and simple.  I buy these from amazon.

--while vintage muffin tins are the best (I have a 6 muffin pan that it is my absolute favorite!) --- when you mix and match different metals, cooking times and browning changes.  Pick one pan, buy two (or four if you're me) and stick to using those. 

--an ice cream scoop is the best tool to dispense batter into baking cups in a predictable and repeatable amount. Now, you may find that using this, you don't get the giant muffins you're used to, and instead of making a dozen muffins, the recipe makes 18 smaller muffins. 

--baking times are never, ever right.  Check using a fork or toothpick at least five minutes before they're supposed to be done.

--Speaking of cooking time, I love the timers we use in lab - but since I don't have them at home unless I'm doing a big project, I use an online egg timer. 

Rainbow!

The second full-arc double rainbow I've seen this year...amazing.

Golden Lion Antiques

While back in Minnesota, my mom and I found a fabulous store in St. Paul called Golden Lion Antiques - it's one of those that had things jammed in every corner, from glasses to mickey mouse figurines to vintage dresses to old farm ephemera to books to 40s Christmas ornaments to I know not what.  The owner is at least 75, and he also does a good deal of work with estate sales, so I think the hours of the store are rather sporadic. 

One of my purchases of the day --- see the Paris duo?  I'll repost pictures once they are cleaned up and ---gasp--- on the wall in my apartment.  They're signed "Anio" --but my detective work so far hasn't yielded any more information about the artist.

A knitting machine

The owner and I are really on the same wavelength...milk glass, metro shelving, glassware sorted by color...

I have my own collection of these lovely German advertising art pieces from the Guggisberg cheese company!

It's really so hard to give you the feeling of just how chock full of stuff this place was --- about 16 rooms, plus creepy, creepy basements. 

I also bought a beautiful 1947 edition of Omar Khayyám Rubaiyat.  I'm still in awe of the illustrations.

I also, erhm, bought a wedding dress.  Not necessarily my wedding dress, but hey, it was gorgeous ivory satin with a beautiful boatneck top and train---no stains and no rips, a marvel for something at least 70 years old.  It was $40.  I totally bought it. 

I didn't have a mannequin around, so please excuse the use of padded hanger...but yeah, it's wonderful.  Comparable prices for similar 1940s satin wedding gowns--$450.  So if nothing else, it's an investment piece.  And it's pretty.  So there, Roth IRA.  When you're as pretty as this dress, I'll think about it.