A Valentine's Day card...

A Valentine's Day card...  This was from my dad to my mom, for Valentine's Day in 2003.  I just found it while going through my mom's papers.  I was very surprised to find this – it's not the sort of hand-made card I'd expect my dad to have made.  When I first spotted the cover, with the big, poorly-drawn heart, I figured it was a kid that made it.  Then I started reading what was printed on it (“Especially carried by camel-back to you!”), and at the printing itself, and I realized dad made it.

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  Last night I made some apricot ice cream from a bucket of apricots that our friend Michelle H. (aka “bee’s knees”) gave us.  The photo at right shows the apricots just before I pureed them.  The recipe is simple: I scalded the apricots in boiling water for about 30 seconds, to loosen the skin.  Then we peeled them, and squeezed the pits out – and threw the fruits' flesh into the blender (the photo).  Then I ran the blender for a few minutes to liquefy the fruit.  I should have strained the result to get out any threads and skin remaining, but I forgot that.  Then I added about 3 cups of cream, 1 cup of milk, and sugar to taste (in this case, about 1.5 cups).  The sugar is tricky: frozen ice cream tastes less sweet than the unfrozen mix, so you have to add more sugar than you'd think when tasting the mix.  It's a bit of an art to get it right.  Then I just froze it in our Musso ice cream maker.  This afternoon we each had a nice dish of this for dessert.  Yum!

Early this morning we took a drive up to Hardware Ranch, looking for wildlife.  Other than a good assortment of deer (including a spotted fawn), we didn't see much at all.  We especially didn't see anything in the way of birds.  Weird!  Before we left, the dogs and I enjoyed the pretty sunrise (at right).

Basically all the rest of the day today I've been working on my mom's belongings.  I'm starting to make a dent in the rather large pile of her stuff in my office.  In particular, I've been scanning like mad, followed by shredding.  I'm saving very few of the documents, just those with some special meaning or significance, where a good scan just won't do...