Brian's Pitts Cross Country

Brian has been working on getting a Pitts biplane ready to fly out to Rookie School in Reno Nevada.  The air race is in September, but he first has to attend and complete Rookie school, which is the second week in June.  Here are pictures from today, just before he left.

 Final check of the paperwork.

 

 Just a good picture - talking to his dad about something.

 

 A rare family photo.

 

 Brian and the Pitts.

 

 Brian and Titus.

 

 Being goofy.

 

 Brian and Isabele.

 

 Being goofy.

 

Here he was starting to lean forward - love her expressions.

 

 

I just heard that he made it to Omaha / Fremont, Nebraska today.  Staying the night with some friends of Alan's from AirForce days.

Upcycled t-shirt to Isabele tank top

I have a huge box of t-shirts that Isaac made and sold some of on ebay years ago.  Trying to use them or sell them or something.  I found a free pattern and tutorial on making tank-tops for kids, so used an old shirt to try it before using my better fabric.

 The old shirt.

 Turned to tank top.  Then embellished.

 

Yes, I did the tatting - trying to pick it up again and this was some "practice" stuff that I didn't have a use for other than practice.  I thought it would go great with the beads I told Isabele I'd add to the neck.

 

I think it worked out great, and I'm sure Isabele will like it too.

Jalapeno and tomato plants

Pictures taken 28-May-2014

 

I will try to remember to add pictures throughout the summer.

 

08-Jun-2014 Update:

 

Regrowing Celery??

I saw a picture on Pinterest the other day that looked like someone was growing celery from the bottom part that we throw away when we buy celery at the store.  So, I just used up a bunch of celery and thought I'd look it up.  I found info that says you can, indeed grow a new celery plant from the base of the celery.  Some set the base in a dish of water overnight, some plant right away...but put it in the dirt and cover with about and inch of dirt.  Within a couple days there is new growth. 

This is a longer piece than what I saw online, but am going to try it...next one I'll cut shorter.

Since mine has been in the fridge for quite a few days, I'm opting to put it in water overnight.

08-Jun-2014 update
I put the celery in the dirt, covered by about an inch, 2 or 3 days ago.  Here's a picture of it today.

It's probably 3 inches tall!  Go celery.  Who would have guessed this was possible.

Quitting Facebook

I hear it's kind of going around in some groups...people quitting facebook.  I find that I waste too much time looking at it when I should be doing something else, or could be doing something more productive. 

I'm going to try posting stuff on my blog, rather than Facebook and see what I think of that for a while.

Now to dejunk the house in preparation for summer.  Hopefully it can stay relatively dejunked and make cleaning take much less time.  I'm pretty good at ignoring the mess, but it does bug me, especially when I come home tired after a busy day of fun summer stuff to a cluttered house. 
 

Momma Robin 2014

The shower basket is once again the platform for a robin nest on the trellis on my front porch.  Today, May 14, I found the first egg.  Now the count begins. 

New Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe last night.  It's a keeper.  Not sure which I like better, this one from DanaMadeIt or Mrs. Fields.  I cut the recipe in half (except for the eggs.  The whole recipe calls for 3 so I used 2.  Still can't figure out how to split an egg in half.)  As half made 4 dozen, and that's more than enough, here's the half recipe.

Dana Made It Chocolate Chip Cookies.
1/2 c Crisco
1/2 c butter
3/4 c sugar
3/4 c brown sugar

mix these together.  I put my Crisco and butter in the microwave to soften as the Crisco was frozen and the butter was straight out of the fridge.  Once combined, add

2 eggs
1 t vanilla.

Beat for 3 full minutes.  Seriously.  Just do it.

Combine in a separate bowl
 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups plus an 1/8cup (I eyeballed this amount) flour.

add 1/2 at a time to the butter/egg mixture.

Then mix in a bag of chocolate chips.

I have a 1 TBSP scooper, so using that this recipe makes 4 dozen cookies (plus enough to nibble dough while baking)

Place 12-15 scoops on an ungreased, regular (not non-stick) cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8-9 minutes till just barely turning golden brown.  (I baked mine for 10 minutes).
Cool slightly on tray prior to transferring to cooling rack.  Make sure your spatula is clean as if it has chocolate/cookie goo on it the cookies will crumble/tear.