Lessons learned

Kristin continues baking up a storm. It's really rather frightening.

Here is what she has learned: When doubling the molasses cookies recipe, it is possible to leave out a third of the butter and still turn out an edible cookie. But she doesn't recommend it. (Math never was her strong suit.)

Desperately seeking sugar

Anybody know where in Nashville Kristin can find pretty sugar? The holiday baking has commenced, and she finds herself in need of coarse crystally sugar. Like sea salt, only sugar. Sea sugar?

Waylon and Willie have quickly figured out that the best place to be when Kristin is baking is directly under her feet, the better to gobble up any stray bits of butter that escape the electric mixer. This has already resulted in stepped-on cats. They don't seem to care.

More baking on tap tonight, assuming K can find the sugar. Christian, meanwhile, will probably be hanging out in Second Life. Look for a guy with wings and a mohawk.

Red Red Whine

This woman is really cool. Kristin is convinced they're long-lost identical twin sisters. Check her out:

www.redredwhine.com

Er, and we're back?

Wow. Time does slip away, doesn't it? So here we are in November, and we STILL haven't gotten all the boxes unpacked. We're very close to done, though. Christian has been selling lots and lots of our old books and CDs on eBay and Amazon. Seeing them all go away is surprisingly liberating.

Let's see. Since our last update, we have acquired two new family members. Waylon and Willie are gray-tiger-stripe tabby cats. When they came to us, about a month ago, they were the teeny-tiniest little fuzzy babies you could imagine. Now they're still ridiculously cute, not so much with the teeny-tiny. Truly, we can see them getting bigger by the day. Here they are the night we brought them home:


And here is Waylon, now:



In other news, they've switched Christian's work shift. He now goes in at 6 a.m. and posts breaking news updates to the Web site. This means he gets up at 4:45 a.m. Those of you who know Christian know just how excited he is to be up and about at that ridiculous hour. And when Christian is up at 4:45, the cats are too. And with Christian and the cats all up and about, that means Kristin is awake too.

The good side of all that is, Christian gets off work at 3 p.m. and has his entire afternoon free to do ... whatever he wants. Kristin, meanwhile, gets up and goes running or to Pilates class before work every day. Those of you who know Kristin know how bizarre and alien a concept THAT is. Major lifestyle changes for everybody.

Wedding plans ae moving forward. Hard to believe it's less than six months away. Cakes are ordered, hotel rooms are blocked, conversations are underway with the dressmaker. Still a lot to do and plan, though.

We had dinner with Matt and Emily last night at Eastland Cafe. It used to be Chapel Bistro, but was recently acquired by Willy Thomas, the chef at Park Cafe, which is one of the best restaurants in Nashville. The food did not disappoint, but it was a good thing we were having such a good time talking, because the service was ... well, slow is one word. Glasses tended to sit empty, it took a very long time for us to get to order, etc. The place is still fairly new, and it was 8 p.m. on a Friday, but you just got the sense they were completely overwhelmed. It was all right because we had tons of fun hanging out with Matt and Emily, but if the company had been less scintillating it would have been a problem. Still, the food was first-rate and the wine and beer list was interesting and the space is just beautiful, so we'll definitely give them more chances.

On tap for today, laundry, house cleaning and a long-overdue haircut for Christian. We'll show you how THAT turns out later.