Aunt Lill

Rest in Peace, our beloved Auntie. The last one of Dad's siblings. We love you and we'll miss you. And we're so glad we got to see you last Monday!

Christmas 2016

Travel peacefully. xoxox

selfless selfie seshes

We're here on the east coast with our peeps! MY peeps! It's been a busy and eventful adventure, with an accompanying merv-esque plethora of photo fodder from which to eek a selection for sharing with y'all. I've decided to focus on the selfie series! Presented with minimal commentary because, you know, it's all still happening!

NYC central park

Castle-y castle

Why's my face crooked?

Sometimes the selfie is imperfect. Like when one's head is  lost in a halo

So we block it with a taller head

Staten Islaaaaaaaaand!

Coldies, but the last ones standing outside

Sometimes one doesn't quite know where to look, even in Times Square

\Nailed it with my crooked eyes in grand central, though

Onward to Connecticut, and \horseshoe selfies at the dawn of my birfday!

Sometimes we pose heroically when making it to the\Packy at 5:58 on a Sunday. In Connecticut.

Onward to \New London, and a fantastical adventure to a big ass castle in the wind

\Dar's dat wind

Look what some folks did with dat wind!

It was amazing. Fantastical.

This is one of my favorites. \Bad coffee, good spot.

Final destination (thus far),  Southport!

Happy Thanksgiving, Selfs!

The Johnsons

Years ago, many members of my family went to a lovely Asian Fusion restaurant near Mom's condo for a celebratory dinner.

We terrorized the place.

I don't know what happened, I don't know what was in the wine, but I do know that at the end of the meal, we all had our napkins on our heads.

Oh, it was celebratory all right.

On Saturday night, many members of my family were dining on a lovely chicken tiki masala dinner the lovely Jacqueline prepared for us, and we were reminiscing about the restaurant, and how we could never go there again.

"We'd have to have an alias," Mistah suggested. "We'd have to say we're the Johnsons." "From Newbrey," added Jacquie.

They'll never recognize us.

And that, my friends, is how this weekend is progressing.

 We're rolling . . .

. . . we're toasting . . .

 . . . we're -- okay, they're -- walking . . .  (And thank you, Mom, for letting me steal all your photos.)

. . . we're feasting . . .

. . . and believe me. That Asian Fusion restaurant had nothing on either Jacquie's tiki delight, or yesterday's Lebanese Birthday Lovefest.

Wait, did somebody say Birthday?

Happy Day to our Darling Littlest! 

(And thanks you two for saving the day with the 5:53 packy run . . . )

Now, let's keep this weekend rolling.

Love,
Ellie Johnson

The Parm

Because we were forced to boycott our favorite local place that usually cooks for us, we had no choice but to take matters into our own hands on Saturday night . . .

. . .  that's right. Mistah and I. Saturday night. Chicken Parm, baby.

Bring it.

First step, bread crumbs. Made out of the bread from our local favorite local place that we were forced to boyc . . . oh wait.

Hey, the bread was in the freezer. What were we going to do, waste it? We're campers; we don't waste food.

. . . plus the bread crumbs came out great.

Next step?

Sauce. Actually, that was my first step, but who's counting?

And then? This may sound astounding but neither Mistah nor I have ever done that dredge-dip-dredge thing . . .

. . . and man is that fun.

Dredge . . .

. . . dip . . .

. . . dredge . . .

. . . repeat . . .

. . . until you have a plateful of raw-yet-coated chickens.

And then? You know what to do . . . 

. . . sauté those bad boys for a minute or two a side, in the olive oil in the cast iron.

. . .  put them in the baking dish . . .

. . .  put way too much mozzarella cheese upon them . . .

. . . and way too much sauce and way too much Parmesan. Because you are you and you are Schleck, and you overcheese and oversauce everything.

You are you! Oversauce away. Overcheese it like you mean it.

Put the conglomeration in . . .

. . . take it out . . .

. . . and marvel at the curly-cue steam coming off of it. I mean, if you could patent those steam curly cues, wouldn't you?

Wait, never mind. Forget that. Do not pursue that; that's my idea.

Anyway. Eschew boring ol' spaghetti for fancy Tagliatelle Nests, plate it up, and . . . 

. . .  Dinnah!

With a spinach salad, natch.

And because we are us, because we are we, sauce drips all over everything, and wrecks the photos . . . and because of that, we love it all the more.

Bon Appétit!

rise up

So I got a standing desk this week! It's very exciting. I feel quite smug and smart and revolutionary. The whole process has been a boost to recent workplace doldrums, because the desk I had in my office was a literal behemoth. LITERAL.

Wait, wtf even is a behemoth?

Please hold......

behold, the Behemoth aka my former desk

Okay, that was distracting. What da? Let's move on. Look at that belly, though! It's like looking in the mirror.

Anyway. In order to rid myself of the Behemoth, I had some decluttering to do. I spent entire days going through really important papers, like parent letters I'd typed out in 1988, back when my signature still had little curly cues on the fringe. I was dogged and relentless. I filled bin after bin with recyclables, and gleefully discarded decades of uselessness. It felt great!

My standing desk arrived on Wednesday as scheduled. I dug through the hastily assembled containers which held items that had passed the brutal screening process to be deemed still necessary, found all of my computer parts, and put my shit back together.

5 minutes later, I logged on and got caught up on the half day I'd been unplugged (the very day we were discussing our thanksgiving menu! rude.), and got busy with my standing up work. Yay!

5 minutes later, I shifted positions.

5 minutes later, I stretched.

5 minute later, I sat down and ordered one of these

Hahahahahah just kidding. Or as Clara would say "jay kay, el oh el".

I did, however, read up a little. I learned that I need some class of anti fatigue mat and a footstool, I should wear good shoes and squeeze my butt cheeks, and I should work up to longer stretches with walks and sits at regular intervals.

It's a brave new world. I'll rise up, in spite of the ache.