April Blues

I hate the last week of April. Passionately.

Flippin' Burgers (aka Climb School)

The annual SAC climb school was held this weekend and once again I flipped burgers for the students and staff. The CampChef works great and I can do ten burgers at a time, plus four vegiburgers on the Coleman. After watching David make omelets for several years at the Tae Kwon Do camp outs, I was brave enough to add a climb school breakfast on Sunday morning. I'm certainly not as practiced as David, but the omelets were good and I'm getting more skilled with the griddle on the CampChef.

The weather was wonderful in the Gorge, blue skies and no wind. Saturday's rock climbing classes were held at Horsethief Butte and Peter worked hard, helping to set ropes and belay climbers:



Craig and I were up at 5:45 am on Sunday to start the fire and breakfast. We decided to let Peter sleep while we packed up after breakfast. Not only did Peter sleep through breakfast, he didn't wake up even when I removed the poles from his tent, just pulled the tent around himself for warmth:


Craig, however, was ready to go and Peter's tent was the last thing that needed to be packed:

So Peter was unceremoniously removed from his tent and we headed for home. After unpacking the car and a much too short nap, I once again flipped burgers, this time for Susan's family. Kelly's birthday was Thursday and we celebrated today with a barbeque and German Chocolate Cake. I made vanilla ice cream in the new Cuisinart ice cream maker and added a bag of Skor toffee pieces. Very good. I had planned to make a recipe I found for German Chocolate ice cream, with coconut and pecans, but ... no time.

Snickerdoodle

Ben is all about cinnamon and has discovered Snickerdoodles. I am all about Cinnamon Ice Cream, ever since John mentioned that he was planning his wife's birthday party, complete with chocolate cake and cinnamon ice cream. Yum. While at Costco earlier this week, I picked up a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker and just couldn't wait until the weekend to try it out. I needed to make cookies for a divisional staff meeting tomorrow and decided Snickerdoodles would be lovely with some homemade Snickerdoodle Ice Cream. The recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg and, while the ice cream was wonderful, I think I'd forgo the nutmeg next time. Nutmeg is anything but subtle and detracted a bit from the cinnamon. The cookies were excellent, although Ben thought there should be cinnamon in the dough, not just sprinkled on top. Peter made himself an ice cream sandwich, with a scoop of ice cream between two cookies, and was very satisfied. Really, the last thing I need to be doing is baking cookies and making ice cream ... but I'll think about that after May 1st.

Guitars

The boys have decided they want to learn how to play the guitar. This, after begging them to take piano-violin-trumpet-any-musical-instrument lessons from the time they were tiny. I hear most parents just make their kids take some sort of music lessons; I wonder if all kids are as strong willed as mine. I have to admit, I do not mind listening to beginner attempts on the guitar. I don't think a guitar can sound bad. Maybe it's because the sound brings back such good memories of listening to my Dad play with his friends on warm summer nights.

I started sewing the denim jacket, so progress is being made in the craft department. I also got quite a bit done on the Birdseye Scarf while in Seattle (no, it's not done yet). Seattle, by the way, has a fairly serious sales tax, so I resisted adding to my yarn stash.

Seattle, Revisited

I'm back in Seattle for the WASFAA conference. There are two yarn shops nearby, Stitches and So Much Yarn. There is also a Coldwater Creek about two blocks away. And the sun is shining. Life doesn't get much better.

The Fabric

Isn't this the coolest fabric? It's taffeta, and the squares are velvet ... mostly green, but some blue. I'm envisioning a jacket, with a green velvet collar.

I finished cutting out the denim jacket and can't wait to start sewing. This is where a sewing room would come in handy. It's very annoying to have to move the sewing machine every time someone wants to eat.