Lost in Lost

First off, I can't believe I made the mistake of scheduling a night class against the final season of Lost this semester. However, I shouldn't complain too much now that it's possible to watch episodes on hulu during office hours (heh heh).

This week's episode was probably the best ever. I am still sort of reeling. I've always liked the character Richard Alpert (and I'm apparently not the only one; see below), and now we know his story. Awesome.

spring broke

Our companions were NOT very psyched for a spring break roadtrip through southern Indiana.



After two hours of driving toward Bloomington, we made a pit stop at DQ and it was perfect. I recommend the cherry chocolate Blizzard.

We spent a night in Bloomington with our awesome hosts, who will soon be moving to Chicago. We will miss them!! L had a blast playing with D and A and their 3 cats.

On Sunday we drove the twenty minutes or so to Nashville, IN and browsed the little shops and stuff for awhile to take advantage of the fine weather. No fudge for us, and this coffee was inexplicably nasty (we actually threw it out, so you know it had to be bad), but the adults did some wine tasting and I personally enjoyed window shopping.

Nashville was pretty dead. Honestly, there's not much to do there unless you want to buy expensive crafts (some of it seems ok; most of it seems ridiculously overpriced stuff you can find elsewhere). We weren't tempted by the quaint little restaurants. You couldn't even pan for gold in off-season.

But that's ok. The Comfort Inn was awesome and also dead and it had a great indoor pool.

The next day we returned to Bloomington and spent a lovely early afternoon at Oliver Winery. The winery is really nice, with a pond in the back with a huge patio, lots of picnic tables, etc. We bought a bottle of wine and had a civilized picnic in the mud with hummus and a baguette that we brought from Bloomingfoods. V was totally into playing in the gravel by the pond. We literally found rocks in her diaper the next day after multiple diaper and clothing changes, which was mysterious.

Nice rock formations in the front, but the giant goldfish were nowhere to be seen in the little pools.

Then we started the inevitable drive home. We decided to stop at West Baden on the way. West Baden is awesome. We hadn't been in something like 5 years, when one could tour the crumbling ruin. It has since been restored and reopened as a fancy hotel with spa. Here are M and L with Sprudel in front of the beautiful fireplace.

I won't bore you with details (it use to be the largest domed structure in the universe or something) but it is very nice. The public bathrooms were amazing; even L was impressed by the gilded mirrors, lotion, and perfectly white hand towels. The towns of West Baden and French Lick have improved a bit since last we were there, but it's still pretty depressing to observe trailers and other crumbling buildings from the perspective of the manicured gardens.

Then we proceeded to Jasper on the way home. I was convinced that the girls would be hideous on the ride, and suggested we stop to eat and tire them out at the Schnitzelbank. I've been wanting to go there for some time; M, not so much. We've driven through Jasper before, but never by the Schnitzelbank, so we stopped to get gas and M asked the woman in front of us where we would find it. She said to drive up the street and look for the glockenspiel. I'm serious.





And there it was. Dinner was ok; needless to say, they don't specialize in vegetarian fare. But the "bountiful" salad bar was pretty good, and V ate some potato pancake. I got a beer, and L and I enjoyed the apple strudel with cinnamon ice cream. My plan worked: they both slept pretty much the rest of the way home.

And that was our spring break.

how we got through Feb

February is finally over. It's sunny, getting warmer, and it's the beginning of spring break! I am now cheered enough to reflect on the month.

L and I made cheese. I bought a kit from cheesemaking.com and tested it at home before making it in class the following week. It worked, and I now have enough rennet to make something like 35 more pounds of mozzarella. Anyone?



V was suited up with a backpack and monkey for a mardi gras trip through the living room.



Hot Mama from L's dollhouse was offered up to the Smuckers gods.



We ate a lot. Baked beans and spaghetti with sauce make a really nasty combo if you ask me.



Lastly, the dollhouse family illustrates our current (5-year) sleeping arrangment. At least it's warm.

The shortest month is strangely eternal

February is the longest, hardest month. This year we've seen many slight snowfalls that have cancelled public schools a few times, and this has improved house morale, but still, February is a bummer. This is what we were up to this time last year:


Last year I swore that we would get out of town this February to escape the endless cold, dark days. It's not happening no matter how many email last-minute cheap weekend package deals I view. I can't drop $1000+ for all four of us to spend the weekend in Cancun, Vegas, or similar. Instead, we went to the downtown post office and got the paperwork going for A's passport and L's renewed passport in preparation for big travels this summer. We got out of the stuffy passport office in record time, less than an hour! It took much longer to get A's passport picture taken at CVS last night (it was a horrible scene and I was in tears by the time we got home. She just totally resisted). The CVS people were great, though.

I spent a lot of time in this chair last February.



Two weeks to spring break for me! Not that we're going to Cancun or anything, but still.

Baby's first birthday

Presenting the one-year-old! L claims to have taken this picture.



We had great plans to bake a chocolate cake in this heart-shaped tube pan that I've never used, but it leaked out the bottom and all over the oven, so that didn't work. So, the remaining batter was baked in a square pan, and this was the result. It was yummy, especially after being improved with berries and chocolate syrup. V's chunk was reduced to crumbs in seconds.



After the cake, we went to CMOE. One awesome thing that they are doing these days is carpet skating. You put these slippery things on the bottom of your shoes and go for it. Grammy skated for a bit, and then Abba did. V loves it, as does L, of course.

V is starting to get into different parts of the museum.

She even climbed up on the giant lego table.

Happy birthday to our sweet baby! I can't believe a year has passed. V is so great and so funny; I can hardly remember what it was like before she came along. She is starting to say some identifiable words ("bye-bye Lilah," "baby," and "ball") and she's into everything. Soon she'll be walking and it will be even crazier!

scenes from last weekend

It snowed some last weekend, and it is going to snow a bit more tonight. Today it rained all day and there is currently no snow on the ground. Our front yard is a muddy mess.

Anyway, lots of people - including us - go to the mall when it snows here. What's to like at the mall?? Well, lemonade and soft pretzels for one.

And then there's the carousel. This was Vi's first Evansville carousel ride!

And there's the playground. Now that Vi can play too, one can actually sit and observe with coffee when there aren't many kids around. When there are lots of kids in there, we have to be vigilant so that Vi won't be trampled. We almost always see people we know there. Other mall highlights include the seasonal Israelis who work the kiosks. Only a few remain, and I didn't get any pictures of them.

see?