Delicious Coffee Companion? Or Sock of Death!?!?

Note to self: never, never, NEVER pass along baked goods to new neighbors has "welcome to the neighborhood" presents before tasting first.

When we first moved to this house, Tara made us biscotti and hot chocolate and brought it over to us even before we'd fully moved in. It was so nice of her (and she brought the whole family!) and we exchanged phone numbers and that was the beginning of wonderful things! So I told Tara that I was going to do the same for the new girl next door--Kelsey. So I made some cranberry-orange biscotti and took it over to her tonight while it was even still warm. Also we took her some tea. So later in the evening, Martin and I were having some coffee and I thought I'd taste the biscotti, since I'd left a few pieces for us. Oh. My. Gosh. I seriously couldn't bite it. It was a brick. So then Martin tried a different piece, more from the middle. Same problem. I was so embarrassed, I packed up some peanut butter cookies we had and made Martin go over with apologies and give them the cookies instead. When Martin got home (and after we'd regained consciousness after laughing ourselves into comas) we thought the biscotti might make a good protection weapon. He put a piece in a sock and beat the bejeezus out of a 7up can! Oh, the fun we have. I'm not sure this whole baking hobby is really for me.

Today I played music out at the Ivy Tech homecoming. It's been awhile since I've played solo, and it was a good feeling. In the morning the girls and I went to the Farmers Market and saw all our friends and I also played a song there since Joe and Linda were playing and they invited me to play. Joe held Greta, and later on out at Ivy Tech, he was trying to teach Anja to speak Chinese. Funny, since Anja hasn't yet gotten the hang of basic English.

Then tonight was Germanfest down at St. Boniface. We walked down there at 7:00 to help at my brother-in-law's brat booth, but I was very grateful to see that he was filled up with helpers and didn't need us right then. Martin just now went back down to help, but I was glad to be able to come back home because even before we left the house, Anja was more than ready for bed. She was really going nuts. She did have a nap today, but it wasn't a very long one, and she had a big, fun afternoon. And she saw her cousins! Always superfun.

The tentative plan for tomorrow is to go up to the river and make soap for the Feast which is coming up in just a few short weeks! I can hardly believe it. The summer really flew by.

Anja got some dog stickers from Von's, and she stuck them all over her belly.
The girls playing on the floor.
Anja and me up on the climby thing at Tapawingo Park.
Anja has learned the joy of blowing bubbles in her milk!

Greta being pretty.

Anja helping me make bread! Which, by the way, did sound like it is oatmeal bread, based on my last post. This new bread is actually buttermilk bread. There's no oatmeal about it, which is a good thing, since the oatmeal bread I was making was gross. This buttermilk bread, however, is A-MAZE-ING. Okay, it's still not as good as when my mom makes it; which is not as good as when my grandma made it.... but STILL. I'm getting there. And besides, you have to cut me some slack... look at my helper!

I'll make another post sooner than later, and it might end up being a controversial one, but it's about something my neighbor informed me of this evening that I find utterly ridiculous. But I'll leave you hanging with that, heh heh heh.