Honeybun's condition

On Saturday, Honeybun wasn't feeling very well. She began having convulsions. Sunday, we let her rest all day. Monday, we took her to the doctor. The prognosis wasn't good - she needed a distributor transplant right away. Luckily, they put her at the top of the list and the surgery was scheduled for this morning. Honeybun is doing much better. She was released from the hospital this afternoon, and is now resting and asking for a shower - she said she wants to look her very best when she picks up Mena and Miguel from the airport next week.


(She also has a new accessory - a front license plate. They are not required in Arizona, but she has been pulled over here for not having one.)

Reduce.

Sometimes, I think about our consumption and what we can do to make less of a "footprint," to use a popular buzzword.
For years, I've used reusable fabric bags to do my shopping. (One of my pet peeves is when cashiers automatically put my purchased items in a bag when I only have one or two things instead of asking me first if I need a bag.) Most of the bags I used I received as schwag at conferences I've attended. When reusable shopping bags popped up in mass quantities in every store, it seemed good ... and bad - like an interest in reducing waste prompted an increase in consumerism, and I wondered if it was counterintuitive.
Sometimes I forget to use my bags, or I don't have enough of them. For the most part, we reuse or recycle any plastic bags we bring home. We recycle lots of things, actually, even though our apartment complex has no recycling receptacle. But we could do better.
We take lunches in Tupperware containers - perhaps plastic is not the ideal option, but better than throwing away plastic baggies every day.
I have several travel coffee mugs, which I use when I make coffee at home, but I never think to take them with me to the coffee shop. I always wonder why Starbucks sells its iced drinks in recyclable plastic cups, but offers no separate bins for recyclables. (Also, didn't Starbucks years ago used to serve your drinks and pastry on plates and in ceramic mugs if you weren't taking them to go - or am I thinking of another place?)
I've cut way back on drinking bottled water. (We use a Brita water filter at home). When I do grab a bottle of water, I usually reuse the bottle a couple times - and then recycle it. But as a whole, Americans use way too much bottled water and I know I contribute to the problem.
The point of all this rambling is, I often think about ways I can do better, but I haven't taken as many steps to accomplish that as I could or should.
I stumbled upon a blog this week where a woman is attempting to go "A Week Without Plastic." It seems extreme - but it's an interesting look at how much plastic we use each day. (Also, love the idea for their "Week Without" series and may copy it one day here.) She's so far written about the first day, and the questions she raises are interesting and hopefully will inspire me to try a little harder. Check out the background here and the day one post here.
Have you made changes to reduce your waste? What are some simple things to cut out or change, and what is just too difficult to change?

On the Lake

It was a long weekend. Saturday night was Artown's closing night with the Funk Brothers, and I also helped friends do some work in Truckee Saturday and Sunday. By the end of it, we were tired. And hot. Hot and tired. We drove to the lake. We laid down our towels and we listened, and we looked.

Looked at the Lake ...

Looked at the Sky ...

Looked at the Trees.

And I thought, how lucky are we to live where we live. How lucky to live in such close proximity to such beauty. How lucky to have good friends to lay by the lake with at the end of a long weekend.

Our first Blogaversary!

In honor of our blog being one year old today, and Thursday being National Cheesecake Day, and my receiving the new Martha Stewart Cupcake book for my birthday, I decided to whip up these little treats last night. I wish I could have all of our lovely readers over for dessert, but since I can't I will share with you the recipe. Fun fact - this is our 158th post! It really has been fun writing this blog and we wouldn't enjoy it as much if we didn't have anyone to share it with :) Now, on to the recipe ...

Martha Stewart's Cookies and Cream Cheesecakes

Ingredients:

42 cream-filled chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, 30 left whole and 12 coarsely chopped

2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

1 cup sour cream

pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Place 1 whole cookie in the bottom of each lined cup.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream cheese until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Gradually add sugar, and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla.

3. Drizzle in eggs, a bit at a time, beating to combine and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in sour cream and salt. Stir in chopped cookies by hand.

4. Divide batter evenly among cookie-filled cups, filling each almost to the top. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely. Refrigerate (in tins) at least 4 hours (or up to overnight). Remove from tins just before serving.

(Note: I cut the recipe in half and it made 17 cupcakes. Also, keep an eye on them near the end - 22 minutes was too long for mine.)

An interesting day

Yesterday, I got up and was getting ready for work when I saw a text from Andrea that she would be flying into Reno and her dad was picking her up to go to Elko, but could we have lunch. So, Chris and I headed down to Deli Towne around noontime to have lunch with Dre, her dad and stepmom, plus Jeremy's mom and nephew. (If you don't know, Deli Towne is a sandwich shop inside of a gas station. I was skeptical the first time Dre and I went there last fall, but they are some bomb sandwiches. Smokey cheddar. Dutch crust bread. Mmmm.) Anyway, we had a quick but nice visit with the Paris-Nevins and then I went back to the office for a bit and on to Artown.

A mariachi band was playing as part of the World Music Series, and when I got a break after intermission I decided to shoot some video. Imagine my excitement when they played the Devil Went Down to Georgia!

I played with the video when I got home and waited for Chris to finish working. Around midnight, he called and asked if I was still up and had I looked at the paper's web site. Yes and no. He said there was a lot of smoke and to come outside and look. A huge plume was visible in south Reno and it was glowing. I called the newsroom (which had already sent a reporter), grabbed my camera, and we were on our way. At none of the road closures could the police tell us where media staging was, but some nice policemen let us park at the base of an on ramp and walk up it to shoot (Chris took some stills while I shot video.) But then some other law enforcers saw us and didn't like it, so one of the other guys came and picked us up and gave us a ride back to our car in the back of his policecar. The seats were hard, and Chris laughed at me when I tried to open my own door to get out. Glad it was a short ride! After that, we found the media staging area, shot some more, and finally got to sleep around 3:30 this morning. (Here is the link to the fire video).

This isn't the first time Chris and I have gone out together for breaking news at midnight - last year we were called in when there was a big earthquake. I like being out with Chris on late assignments - it makes me feel better to have him there, and I think we're a good team. I just asked him what we'll do when we have kids and there is breaking news at night ... will they tag along and be junior reporters? He said I might have to go by myself. I like my idea better.

Old school

Remember when I told you that last week I hung out with my great aunt Ruth and we went through some old pictures? It was a treasure trove, I tell you - and we only got halfway through one bag! That is me and Aunt Ruth up above, from a long time ago. Aunt Ruth was married to my grandmother's brother, and we have always been very close - from the time my sister and I were born. She is just a sweetheart and she has the best laugh you've ever heard. Here are some of the other great pictures she let me borrow ...

In the middle, my great-great grandmother with her youngest son Paul and his wife.

My grandma is in the back row, second from the left (my mom says I look like her!). Aunt Ruth is standing on the far right. Kneeling is my grandma's sister Geneie, and sitting with the kids is Geneie's husband Leonard.

These are my great-grandparents, Milo and Jessy Nelson. (BTW, don't you love the name Milo? If we ever have a son, that's what I'd like to name him ... still working on convincing Chris, though!) I also have a cropped version of this picture, but I thought this one was pretty rad because it shows the date (July 1971) and the bonus wallet photo that came with the print.

My great grandparents

My great grandpa's re-election flier. I scanned all sides of it - it isn't much bigger than a business card and folds open. What a great little piece of family history!

I love these pictures because I never met my great-grandparents and my grandparents (on my mom's side) passed away when I was fairly young. Going through these photos with Aunt Ruth helps me feel a little more connected to family members that I wish I'd been able to know better.

Do you have any old family photos? How do you save and/or display them?

The long and the short of it

So, I'm back home after a long, exhausting and awesome vacation. If you didn't know, Chris and I left together for San Diego last week and on Monday Chris came home but I stayed for a few extra days to visit some more people. Here are some of the highlights of our trip since the last update:

We visited my little cousin Georgie. Chris helped him down the slip 'n slide and his mom Lauren showed me some new jewelry tricks I'm excited to try out.

We got to spend some time with Laura and Ernesto last week. Here, we're having dinner Friday night near Ernesto's place in San Diego. The following night we went to the Padres game with a couple more of Ernesto's friends.

Sunday night we headed back up to L.A. We had a nice lunch with my Dad and Deb and later Chris and I had an anniversary dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and went for a walk on the beach.

On Monday, Chris went home and when Becky (my good friend and college roommate) got off work, she and I goofed off around Hollywood and paid our respects to MJ ... well, his star, at least.

Deb and I hung out Tuesday morning and paid a visit to Starbucks for some free pastries. In the afternoon, I visited my great aunt Ruth who is just the best. We went through some awesome old pictures (going back to my great-great grandmother!) and I was sad when it was time to leave. Later that night, my Dad and I went to see the Dodger game! We had a really great time.

On Wednesday, I headed up to the valley to have breakfast with my friend Lindsey from high school, and then continued on to Ventura County to visit Andrea, who had moved there exactly one week earlier. Dre surprised me with a pretty and yummy birthday cake!

We also had gelato! (And, yes, I am terrified of getting on the scale after this trip). While there, we had a chat with a former Nevada State Treasurer who graduated from UNR in 1951.

We also went into an antique store where I coveted these jars of vintage buttons, but decided if I couldn't buy them all, I wasn't going to buy any.

I got to spend the whole day Thursday with Jen, Jim and Juliette! Doesn't she just get more precious every day? I miss her already!

Friday, Jen, Juliette and I spent a lot of our day at a charity event for Cystic Fibrosis. In the evening, Becky was there, too!

And, of course, Dad and Deb were there as well.

Jen was honored for her work with CF. Always generous, caring and willing to help anyone, Jen is very deserving of the award and I'm very proud of her!

Now I'm home, unpacking, organizing, and feeling very loved and very spoiled and very blessed after such a wonderful couple of weeks. Now the countdown to my sister and Miguel's visit in less than three weeks!!!