First day

of the SECOND week of first grade.
Everyone takes pictures on the first day of school.  We find this to be very cliche and overdone.
(Really, I thought we were going to miss the bus, so I completely forgot.)

But these pictures are better than those would've been, anyway.  Because, you see, in these pictures Maggie has her new back to school boots on!

The Farmer took her and Angus to town one rainy day to get new boots, and he informed me that she and the sales lady chose these together.  If I could somehow shrink my feet down, I'd sure wear 'em.  They did a great job, even getting the square toed style! 

So for all the grammies that are frothing at the mouth for new kid pictures....

Behold, the boots....

So far, we haven't really heard a lot about her days. 

I talked to her teacher a couple days ago and she told me this story:

Maggie had been given a project to do that she was sort of dragging her feet on. 

Finally, she said, "This isn't my idea."  No kidding.

Her teacher said, "Well, you still have to do it."  

 "But it isn't my idea!" 

 "No, it's MY idea. Now do it."

I think probably quite a few things at school are not her idea.

Pray for her teacher.

Who-o-o-o-o-o are you?

(Go ahead, everyone....finish the song, then read.)


I just found the "Stats" page on my dashboard!
And it's crazy.

(Don't worry, all you secret readers....it doesn't pinpoint where you're from or anything like that.  You can still read anonymously and no one will know.  My friend Anne calls it "lurking".  That sounds so....creepy, to me! I like to think of it as people who are reading the Chronicles like the local paper.  That's not lurking, is it?)

Anyway, the page shows me what posts are read the most, what country the visitors are from and what time of day they're checking the Chronicles.  And the stats show that with the exception of a couple lost souls from Malaysia and Japan, everyone is from the U.S. or Canada (Hi, Wendy!),  that they like reading the dumbest posts about our vacation, and everyone looks during the day. 

This is going to sound very atypical of my personality, but I find statistics fascinating, human behavior fascinating.  I told a friend of mine a couple weeks ago that I think marketing is really interesting because you analyze trends, try to predict what people will do or want, look at what worked and what didn't....

I'm not going to try all that here at the Chronicles.  But it's fun for me to know a little more about my readers.  After all, I bare my soul telling you about killing flies, hole-y underwear, cows and other nonsense.  It's only fair that I know 99.9999999% of you are reading from the North American continent.

I've had people come up to me on the street, saying "I read your blog! Now, about the flies..."  One of my friends on FB is reading, bless her heart, and said she looks here for her daily lift.  (Kara, remind me to introduce you to the brilliance that is coffee...) One of my friends informed me yesterday that it had been a full work-week since I'd put up a post and would I please get on that? 

There's going to be a lot of disappointment that this is the post to end the drought...

Bachelor Food

I think it's so interesting what people eat when they are completely alone....especially when they are usually surrounded by family.  Mothers are particularly intriguing, because most of the time they prepare meals based on good nutrition, family likes/dislikes, budget and time, among a myriad of other factors. 

A few years ago, I met Mike W.'s wife at a MASBO summer conference and found out she'd had all week to herself, since he'd been at a conference and the grandkids were at their grandparents' house.  "Oh," I exclaimed, "Have you been eating cheesecake for breakfast every morning?!" 

Bless her heart, she replied with great patience and a smile, "No.  Broccoli salad." 

I didn't get it either.

But for her, it was perfect.
 I found out moments later that vegetables are sort of an obsession with her.  (I'm sure the look on my face was one of horror.)

Wayland took the kids to Miles City this morning to get them new shoes and just to get out of the house, because it rained.  A lot.  And I had the opportunity to get tons of school work done!
(I AM getting it done, but just had to write this...)

About 20 minutes ago, I realized I was hungry, having had 4 peanut butter cookies and three cups of coffee for breakfast.  And it flashed through my head that I could have bachelor food! Anything I wanted!

Some women opt for ice cream directly from the carton.
Some women bake bread from scratch and flour they ground themselves that morning.
Some women eat vegetables, with vegetable garnishes.
Some women grab a bag of chips and a glass of tea, then polish it off with a box of chocolates.

Here's what I ended up with:

Jalepeno cheddar bread (chewy, artisan European stuff) that was toasted and lightly buttered, then topped with (sit down for this) what I estimate to be nearly 1/3 of a package of bacon crisply fried, one entire garden tomato cut into three thick slices, and a good goudge of spinach leaves.  And a pomegranate lime Italian soda on ice. 

The sandwich was (not exaggerating) about 5 inches tall.  I had to apply some serious pressure to flatten it enough to bite into it.  Which, as it turns out, was the perfect move because it caused the tomato to flood the toast with glorious juice.  The only thing that might have improved it would've been homemade mayonnaise, but who wants to mess around with that? (I have to admit, I didn't think of it in time...)

Now, you should know....BLTs are miserable creations for most moms. By the time they get around to building their own, after constructing them for the rest of the family, it's usually two toasted heels of the bread loaf, 1/2 slice of bacon that someone thoughtfully saved for the dog, and a lot of lettuce.  That's why this seemed so decadent.  I didn't have to share the bacon with anyone.  (The dog still doesn't know....I shut her in the bedroom, where she's having bacon dreams from the smells in the kitchen seeping under the door...yipping in her sleep and jerky feet.)

And the pomegranate lime Italian soda just makes me feel silly. I mean...who drinks that sort of thing in the middle of the day, alone? Isn't it a company beverage?  How edgy...not to simply have a glass of water or milk....

What do you eat for bachelor food?

(Sara H., I'm expecting great things!)

C.U.P.S. or "How to revive sanity with a scone..."

For those who are new to the Chronicles, C.U.P.S. is an informal playgroup that a couple of us threw together when we were taking kids to preschool and had a couple hours to kill in Jordan.  The acronym stands for Coffee Under Pretense of School, and it has saved our lives more than once. 

This is the first official meeting of 2010, and let me tell you....we couldn't load the cars fast enough to get there! Tires squealing, dust flying, kids' hair blown back....and that was just getting out of the yard. 

Traci generously hosted, and for a couple days now has been hinting at some double chocolate scones.  (Yes, you can have the recipe! In a minute...)

We have a new member...Marisa....and I'm not sure the woman will ever be the same after this morning....

Here's why:

Death By Chocolate Scones, hot from the oven.

These are the richest, most chocolate scones you'll ever encounter.

Traci apologized for not having the chocolate ganache to melt over them....

Yeah.  They were missing something, alright...

Cinnamon whipped cream, to balance out the richness of all that cocoa!

There was a goodly amount of cinnamon whipped cream, thank goodness.

As previously mentioned, this was Marisa's first C.U.P.S. meeting, so when I handed her a cup of strong, hot coffee and a spoon after we'd eaten the scones (round 1), she looked mystified.  What was she supposed to do with a spoon?

I laughed and demonstrated that it's customary (in fact, required) for C.U.P.S. members to take a honking big dollop of the whipped cream and stir it into their coffee.

Her face lit up and she put a little whipped cream in her cup.

More.

Well, okay....if you INSIST...

We do.

And if you drink the coffee down, making more room in the cup, you really should add more whipped cream.  It would be rude not to.

(You really should've seen the look on her face.  It was priceless!)

Anne brought Peet's Coffee for us!

Don't tell her husband.

It's from his special stash, I think.  A small price to pay for his wife's sanity, wouldn't you say?

This is Everett and he's my boy, now.

The reason he's my boy now is because I was able to intercept a dry old saltine cracker that was handed to him, cover it with the previously exalted whipped cream, and present it to his pudgy little hand.

At first, he was unsure.  It felt sorta funny.

Then he put it carefully to his lips and got the very same look of rapture that his mom had shown us over the whipped cream in her coffee! The EXACT same look!

We couldn't stop laughing! Especially because he kept looking at his mom, waiting for her to take it away.

He couldn't stop with just one.

Moments later, after Gwennie had been dragged from the chocolate scone and Everett from the whipped cream, they joined Ari for......goldfish. A bit of a letdown, but they still made a party of it.

Ari started pulverizing the goldfish moments after this picture was taken, much to her mother's dismay...

Looking for the whipped cream to dip the goldfish in....

There's a lot of ambition in this picture....

(The only one without one of them in motion and blurry.)

Aren't they dolls?

Kissing cheeks; that's what these girls sport.

The "big kids" busily coloring.

It's so funny to have Angus and Allie be considered the big kids!

They were very serious about it, though.

Discussions about jewelry,

guns,

and the mysteries of those creatures we call husbands.

We didn't come up with a lot of profound ideas, but sanity was restored to our little group. 

Group pictures are SO hard to get!

Say, "Cream!"

Death By Chocolate Scones

(makes 12, serves 4)

9 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 cup sugar

2 2/3 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 T cold butter (NOT margarine)

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Using a food processor, chop half the chocolate chips up into small pieces.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients, then add to the chopped chocolate.

Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in the cold butter.  When the mixture resembles cornmeal, add in the rest of the unchopped chocolate chips. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and the milk.

Slowly add the milk mix to the dry ingredients and stir to combine until evenly moist.

Turn out onto an ungreased baking sheet and pat into a circle about 1/2 inch thick, and score dough evenly into 12 sections.

Bake 12-15 minutes.

Cinnamon Whipped Cream

(For coffee and, if there's any left over, the scones...)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup (adjust if you wish...this is not set in stone) powdered sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Toss together in large mixing bowl and beat with mixer until good peaks form. Do not overbeat or you'll have cinnamon butter, which is still glorious for the scones but less so for the coffee.

Vacationing in Anaconda

I didn't take many pictures on vacation, which is odd, considering I take pictures at home of things like little hands mounding crumbs on the counter or the dog in repose. But I was too busy participating, I guess.  That and it was impossible to haul a Canon of that size to the pool!

So you get a few snapshots.
Here you go:

The Sweet Palace in Phillipsburg, Motana....28 different varieties of fudge shown here, 21 varieties of hand made caramels that you DON'T see here, because they are in my take-home bag.  Oh, I left a couple...caramels, not varieties.

If you are little and blonde, with sweet blue eyes, you get samples of the fudge. Generous samples. If you are tall and blondish-brown, with baggy hazel eyes that show the miles, you have to pay for the "generous sample."

Walls lined with every type of candy you can imagine! This is the sugar-free wall....if you can imagine.

Look at the face on the boy! He's got a generous free sample of fudge and he cannot believe his good fortune!

Phillipsburg has the most amazing school playground I've ever seen in my life.  Ever. It's constructed like a little mining town! The Farmer and I stood there with our mouths open, but the kids wasted no time in tearing in...

Look at this!  And the white bulk you see behind the storefronts is a mountain climbing wall, painted beautifully. 

Checking on the design and construction, gears rolling....

This is the kind of detail I'm talking about.  Isn't that amazing?

Even a mine shaft to slide down.

The next few pictures are for Rosie O. 

After about 7 minutes on the playground, Maggie had to go to the bathroom.  Instead of loading up and driving BACK into town, I told her we'd look in the school, which happens to be a magnificent building that I wanted to snoop around anyway. 

I couldn't get a good picture of the whole building, so here's a picture of a picture.

I haven't done the research as to when it was built, but oh my! what a gorgeous place to go to school.  Maggie wanted to stay and go to school there, and I made friends with the new secretary, just in case they needed someone to help in the office.  We'd have lived in that school.

It's hard to get the architectural detail, but look at the curved entry from the stairwell.  And all the wainscot.  And the hardwood floors a-gleaming.  *sigh*

Actual little wood stove, in the corner of the foyer.  Can you believe that?!

Love it. 

Scrollwork on the outside.

If you go back and look at the first picture, you'll see it's the same.

And funky little grates, hung randomly. 

Had to leave Phillipsburg, finally, and drove back to Anaconda via the Pintler Scenic Route.

(Every path is a scenic route in western Montana.)

The Farmer is hanging on to the barnacles, tightly. 

I took my shoes off, so I had grip with my toes, if you can believe that!

I'm always amazed at how trees will grow in the most inhospitable places on their own, and die in nice cultivated soil.....

The car on the road gives perspective to the rocks all around us.

I got a dizzy sort of feeling with the angles of the rocks.

We stopped at Georgetown Lake, to stretch our legs and puddle around in the water.

The fish were rising like everything, to my despair.  I had 6 new flies in the car, but no pole. *SOB*

It was still beautiful.

This was so intriguing to me....tiny minnow shadows! That's what the black things are...you can barely make out the little greyish brown fish.

Looking for flotsam and jetsam and creepycrawlies to take home in a water bottle.

I think they found something....

A leach! We didn't bring him home.

A "she-shell"! We DID tote that back across the beautiful state of Montana.

When we got back to the condo, we inspected the loot.

$75 worth of candy!

That's horrific, really, but as the Farmer kept pointing out, some of it we bought to share.

(Yeah...the sugar-free stuff....)

Slurp...

and Crunch.

Eating pizza with our friends, the Bray family. Shannon and the kids came to swim with us on the last night, and we had a GREAT time.  But by the time we got to pizza, everyone was so frazzled!

No pictures of Museum of the Rockies or the Lewis and Clark caverns, but I'll tell you more in another post. 

Did you make it?

Poor brave soul!

That was a LONG photo essay....