So here is the question, what type of food truck would you like to see outside your home or office in Baltimore?

Let me know!

Yesterday I received my baby fix. We were at my cousin Megan’s house and their friend had his baby over. She was just 2 months old and at that stage where she isn’t too picky about who holds her. It’s funny how babies have the ability to make you feel like a monster pariah-WHAT?! YOU WON’T LET ME, A STRANGER, HOLD YOU!? JERK! I don’t know why baby rejection makes people feel so bad, it just does. But thankfully, this baby loved me and that of course, made me feel great. This baby loves me, ME! ME! ME! ME!

(I’m self-banned from touching babies-this is what they do to me)

I had started to read this article that afternoon, but only hopped onto page three before we left. So while I held, coddled and cooed stranger baby into loving me, I couldn’t help but think about it. Additionally, since I had only reached page three I didn’t have (ha) the full story.

I thought about how of course she was great at 2 months… but what about the future? I’m so empathetic I cry at hallmark commercials, I can’t even watch war movies because they affect me for days. How on earth will I be able to relate to my child’s successes and failure without losing my mind?

After reading the last page I think the takeaway is this (from Tom Gilovich)”Should you value moment-to-moment happiness more than retrospective evaluations of your life?” This is important, because as a parent it appears that your moment to moment happiness is lessened by children, but that your retrospective evaluations of your life are pretty great.

As someone who literally went from saying “I like other people’s kids, but am unsure about having my own” to “ooooo! Baby! ME HOLD BABY?!” I’m just not sure what my answer is in regards to children. When you have children, you give up so much for them. I wonder if I will ever feel it is the right time. Will we ever have “enough” money? Will I ever lose “enough” weight to become pregnant?

Not to mention, deciding which country to raise children in. Talk about a big decision! Hypothetically speaking, say we decide which country to have them in, are we tied to our familial geographical locations? Can we raise our nonexistent kids on our own, without familial help? Would we even want to? My cousins, aunts, uncles and certainly grandparents were a large part of my upbringing. I can’t imagine life without them. Will our kids have to? Will they know the close ties that cousins can provide?

When it comes to kids, there are too many questions and not enough answers.

ps. Sorry this post is old, but I am clearing out my drafts!

In case Nick or I disappear you know where to look.

Especially chickens.

Especially chickens that you just gave your jam making scraps to. They are too excited to pose.

Except for Rhoda.

Because she’s a natural chicken model.

First up? A calendar modified from YHL’s template (thanks to Mrs. Bunny for modifying it for me)! Sadly, it was a struggle to come up with 12 quotes that would fit/look nice/have meaning. At first I had 12 quotes all from Superbad (long story) but figured while funny it wouldn’t be a very romantic gift. I sourced from our favorite movies, past emails and ceremony music for the final quotes.

(YHL version)

Mr. D is into typography, design and he has a penchant for vintage design so when the travel book store near my office closed for business I popped in to say goodbye and to peek around. I found this deserted lonely transit map book and snapped it up!

(clearly from Amazon)

The last paper related gift is the book of..um… childish adult drawings from the movie Superbad (again, long story).

(Amazon)

So perhaps only 1/3 of these gifts will work for your first anniversary. I had also considered framing maps of our hometowns… but I had a really difficult time finding Mr.D’s village on a map that made sense. What are your favorite paper related gifts?

Today for Baltimore there is a Groupon for our rehearsal dinner restaurant! Whoo hoo!

You can chow down on Fish n Chips, Kobe Burgers and lobster mac n cheese. mmmmmm. Oh and the cake. Get the cake. It’s chocolate cake, real whipped cream, praline, and ganache. yes.

So, purchase the groupon, visit the restaurant and chow down!

My personal favroite part of this is the list of items and actions they are hoping to restrict. I did not however, see pitchfork listed-so expect to see many of those.

Prohibited Items
DO NOT BRING ANY SORT OF WEAPON, INCLUDING A POCKET KNIFE

• Tents/canopies/structures
• Glass containers
• Alcoholic beverages
• Firearms (real or simulated)
• Ammunition
• Explosives or incendiary devices of any kind (including fireworks)
• Knives, blades, or sharp objects of any length
• No staking of grounds
• No digging or trenching
• No attachments to existing landscaping
• No firearms or explosive devices, no open fires

It’s good they included this though, because I was planning on digging a trench.

I hope these Tea Baggers asking for representation will head on over and demonstrate with DC vote for those who ACTUALLY don’t have voting power.  I’ll be out of town with first anniversary festivities partially celebrating, partially avoiding the crazies after my last visit to a Tea Bagger rally.

My friend Kristen and I have been inspired to try canning as a way of preserving our summer bounty. But, since it never seems to workout that enough of a bounty is ripe at one time we sought out other people’s fruits to can. First stop? Olney Farmer’s Market. When I mentioned to a sweet vendor that we were canning, she directed me over to the “seconds” area-where peaches with issues and bruises were half price!

Afterwards we headed over to Blueberry Gardens (near Olney/Spencerville) to hand pick our own. For the privilege of picking our own, we paid $8 per quart. It was fun to figure out which blueberries were the ripest (one for me, one for my basket…) and chat as we picked through the bushes. Neither Kristen or I have had much success with growing blueberries, so I’m glad we went to the professionals.

We may have picked too many…

Our utensils? Ball Canning accessories - not necessary, but very helpful! A large pot, jars, and a creatively fashioned “rack” out of aluminum foil to prevent the glass from sitting directly on the bottom of the pot. I can really see how having a proper rack to pull the jars out would be easier.

We got started on our jam making using a recipe for Natural Summer Fruit Jam from the Ball cookbook. We decided to go with the “less sugar” kind which uses apples to increase volume and decrease added sugar. Creation the apple sauce was easy… until we needed to push it through a sieve. Not so easy and very time consuming.

We still ended up using 2 cups of sugar for the blueberries and a whopping 5.5 cups for the peaches!

The book says to get the jam to 220 Fahrenheit- but we just couldn’t get it there. What I later learned from Food in Jars is that our jam would have a difficult time reaching that temperature with the reduced sugar. We over reduced the blueberry jam to a super duper thick amount that ended up only filling 2 jars and a little bowl. This batch should have filled 5 jars. The blueberry jam was so good though, that we reduced ourselves to eating it by the spoonful.

We instead used the gel test method for the peach jam-way more successful.

Our Jam canning was a complete success-save for one lid that didn’t properly seal right away. We tested the seals too quickly post cool down, and accidentally popped one off. We probably should have left the jars alone for longer to give it a chance to seal-but we were so excited!

But that’s okay-because that is the jam I’m eating today!

ETA: Live near DC and interested in canning? Common Good City Farm is offering a canning workshop on September 11th. Check it out!

Tocky

($79) Clocky is jealous of his hipper, more annoying younger brother.

Alternate: Because there aren’t enough rolling, beeping things about the morning.

Alternate: Alarm clocks that escape, and only snooze once? The horror!

Book Book

($79) Now that we’ve replaced books with laptops, it’s nice to make laptops look like books again.

Bottle Opening Ring (BeerRing)

($20) You look like the type of person that needs to open bottles ‘on the go’

Have you found any great goods lately?

Hello, I see that you might be offering dream jobs… could you let me know what types of dream jobs are available? Additionally could you let me know if these dream jobs come with specific location requirements? Thank you!

yours, Christiana

To be fair.. this was the listing and I couldn’t find further information about available positions with Staircase Ventures. ce la vie!