just guess where I have been

I'll give you some hints:

Hmmm.... This ketchup shape looks familiar but for those uncertain, this one is more apparent:

Yes, we took K & N with us (and the Mickey waffles and ketchup were for them although I'll admit to tasting both the ketchup and waffles in this format).

I suspect you have now confirmed the company, but did you guess the mode?

Still stumped?  Try this one...

If you haven't guessed it by now, we took a 7 day cruise on the Western Caribbean on the Disney Magic.  Despite the weather, we had a fabulous time!  The photo above is from our first stop at Key West, Florida before we ventured onto Grand Cayman (where it was hot and humid), Cozumel (Mexico), and, our favorite port, Castaway Cay.  The weather was windy and chilly in Cozumel and Castaway Cay although K & N braved the wind and chills to play in the sand at Castaway Cay anyway.  Suffice it to say,

• N is lamenting having to leave the cruise (& was already requesting to go on another cruise during our transport home by aircraft),
• K is pretending she's a room hostess and has been placing her blankets & stuffies on the master bed for the last 2 evenings (as she apparently can't create the towel animals)
• I am lamenting not having a room host/hostess to clean up after us
• N and I are lamenting not having servers and
• I am lamenting not having a chef to prepare our meals as I now have to ponder how to coordinate meals, a task I can apparently lose capacity to do within 1 week of leaving home.

There's so much to share so I'll post again soon!

living in interesting times

There's purportedly a Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times".  Indeed I am.

My workplace has undergone a merger.  I think I knocked them over backwards when I announced in December that I was not interested in promoting family law but seek to develop a practice in a completely opposite direction, a direction unforeseeable by the others until I announced it.  For a multitude of reasons, family law didn't seem the right path to follow.  The consequence is that I have a lot of work to do in marketing in a new area which could span multiple provinces.  If it pans out, I see significantly more business travel for me.  And longer non-billable hours that often will occur outside of office hours.  And yet for the majority of my work-place peers, there's been no significant change at all.

And as one who seems to stir the pot wherever she goes, I've also been attempting change at home as well which has caused a mini-revolt over dietary matters.  You see, I've been using different flours in meal preparation.  I've discovered that K & N will complain and turn up their noses to foods with spelt flour (or other non-white flours) when it is visible to them, even when I substitute 1/2 or less of the alternative flour in proportion to the white flour in the recipe.  They are obviously eating with their eyes.

There wasn't an ounce of complaint when I made pumpkin muffins with spelt flour:

I guess I just have to hide it better.  On a positive note, K & N have given the thumbs up to 2 quinoa recipes ~ a chocolate cake & Moroccan chicken.  It's taken some time, but they are getting used to quinoa.

a miracle at our house

Christmas is over.  The tree that almost wasn't is put away.  What????  The tree that almost wasn't?  The tree that I meticulously (yet crappily) photographed in my Picture the Holidays class?

In early December, we my dh set up the (artificial) Christmas tree.  He confirmed that the muted coloured lights were working before handing me the plug to our muted coloured lights so I started hanging the lights from the top of the tree.  After we got the lights up, my dh exclaimed that the lights were on backwards (so the plug wasn't at the right end of the tree).  We removed the lights and re-did them.  After a little spat because I didn't like how the lights were hung on the tree, I was delighted when he exclaimed that the lights were again on backwards and we needed to remove them. We re-did the muted coloured lights a third time only to discover at the end of the process that 2/3 of the tree wasn't lit with the muted coloured lights (although the tree was almost lit by the heated exchanges being used in the midst of the tree).  We couldn't figure out why the muted coloured lights weren't working.

Out came my mini-white lights that I have kept stashed ever since my dh and I came to an armistice by adopting the muted coloured lights instead of alternating between the white mini-lights (my choice) and my dh's god-awful bright coloured lights.  My dh objected to the mini-white lights but reluctantly agreed to them as a means of finishing the bloody tree.

The mini-white lights worked when they were tested and we mounted two strands on the tree.  Upon testing the lights, the 2nd strand did not work.  We were at the point of ripping the lights off the tree and having either a light-free tree or no tree at all when a miracle occurred and, for some unknown reason/intervention, the 2nd strand worked.  We all cheered.

PS: Happy new year!