our first ER visit

It was actually kind of anticlimactic in a way. All the horror stories you've ever heard about ERs... the long waits, the screaming, the germs, the long waits... somehow we missed all that. Well, except for the germs. I think we were the only healthy people in the waiting room; here's hoping that we don't come down with whatever everyone else had.

The kids were goofing around after bath time tonight and Michael accidentally pulled Elanor off her feet... backwards. Onto the tile floor. On her head. The thud resounded around the house. Naturally, she cried. It was only after cuddling her for five minutes that I realized that she and I were sporting quite a bit of a bloodstain. She definitely had an impressive gash; although it wasn't bleeding much, it was still bleeding and looked like it needed some kind of intervention to close.

So, Elanor and I hit the ER. The wait was pretty short and since she wasn't showing any signs of concussion, we were shunted to the "express care" area, where she was the only patient. The doc quickly determined that she would need staples (lovely) and called in two nurses to help hold her down while he shot her up with the local.

The child barely flinched. She is awesome.

Four staples and we were on our way home. She was in bed just over two hours after the fall. Is that some kind of world record or what? Her hair is matted and pink, but she still rocks my world.

80-proof pie crust

So I love to cook for Thanksgiving. After these ten years together, Robin and I have cobbled together a menu of Cornett favorites that we just cannot wait to make. This year I added in a new one: Dutch Apple Pie (the recipe is from Cooks - a magazine that basically taught me everything I know). But there was a twist. A few days before Thanksgiving I ran across a Cook's recipe for fool-proof pie crust - and having several bad experiences with pie crust behind me, I gave it a shot. It called for using 1/4 cup cold water mixed with 1/4 cup cold vodka as a replacement for the miserly 4-6 Tbs of water used in most crust recipes. Why? Because the 40% alcohol content of vodka lets you increase the liquid but not increase the water (which bonds with the flour to make the sticky tough gluten that can curse a dough ). So you get plenty of liquid to make a really soft, stretchy, pliable dough - but one that cooks up very tender, flaky, and un-boozy (because all the alcohol cooks off in the baking). I had to try it. So after calling a friend to locate our nearest liquor store on Wednesday, I made the dough. It looked weird, felt weird, and I was sure I was wrong ... but the result was amazing. And the pie - it was so good I ate it for breakfast the next day and the next day. Now I just have a really nice bottle of vodka in the frig waiting for its next use ... can you say penne alla vodka?

this is really where we live

Honestly, sometimes I am still really boggled by where we live. I mean, it's beautiful. Wow. It looks like vacation. I remember being startled in the shower every morning because I would look out of the window and see a palm tree. Seriously, who has a palm tree in their backyard? I do! And two more out front!

And the beach is just a short drive away. As a matter of fact, I'm getting ready to go there now to shoot a family. Who also is probably coping with disbelief about living in vacation.

Andy's mom came for a great little visit this past week. We had a blast with her, as usual, and now that the kids are older, there is no breaking in period (remember those fun days, Mom?). We took her out to Fort Myers Beach one day to see the results of the sandcastle sculpture contest (sorry for no scale, but these are all bigger than I am) and then to Barefoot for a morning of play. The Barefoot pictures are actually first because Blogger and I apparently have differing notions of how to work with pictures and I actually don't have time to argue the point right now. But enjoy.

two drivers, two cars

I'd like to start this post by saying that we really enjoyed having only one vehicle out in Pasadena. We very rarely had conflicts with who needed the car on any given day. Of course, Andy was able to walk to class and spent a bit of time studying (also on campus). And we lived mere blocks away from the nearest heaven, I mean Starbucks. And Target. And good restaurants. And shopping. Noah's Bagels was too far to walk, but it was an easy bike ride on a Saturday morning. Owning one car made perfect sense (not to mention the fact that we had nowhere to park a second car).

Unfortunately, back home, it doesn't make so much sense. Andy has a totally variable schedule and even I am getting into the act with trying to schedule shoots around silly things like good light. And there aren't a lot of places within walking distance (although we anticipate riding bikes to First Watch when the new one opens!). So we decided that it was time to get a new vehicle. What kind of vehicle was the subject of much debate and contemplation. In the end, we decided to get something subtle and inconspicuous.

What do you think?

ebenezer

So, for whatever reason, I really just don't love Halloween. It's not a religious thing or anything like that... maybe it's the sugar? Anyway, to this date, I have always made my kids dress up for Halloween in hand me down costumes or odds and ends from their dress up box. How scarring. This year, though, with Halloween being on a Wednesday, they were at church for the event, with a parade and fun and games. I joined in the excitement and agreed to purchase actual costumes for the event. They were thrilled. This year, we sported Jack Sparrow, Lucy Pevensie, and the White Witch (because Elanor likes the bad guys).

tips on setting up a new computer

I'm feeling compelled to write this because I've been asked for help setting up new systems (or protecting old systems too) several times within recent memory. For those of you who are not as geeky as I am, meaning you don't visit websites that are even vaguely geeky or techy, here is Robin's quick tutorial on basic PC things to know. If you want more in depth info, I guess you can email me, but if you really want to know something good, then email my brother instead.

antivirus software: don't have it? Then please don't tell me because I don't want to know. I probably don't want to get emails from you either. Don't tell me you don't want to spend money on it because seriously, in this day and age that's not an excuse. If you keep an eye out you can always get a good program for free (after rebates)! If you don't even want to do that, there are free (before rebates) options as well. Here are the absolute and total freebies:

• avast!
• AVG

I'm currently using avast! on my desktop because my free after rebates program of choice (Kaspersky) doesn't like it. I don't know why. One caveat, though: the free programs may not let you schedule regular scans, so you may have to remember to run full system scans yourself. Once a week is good, but I'll forgive you if it's only once a month. FWIW, I no longer use Norton because it didn't play nice with Vista and it really does use more than its fair share of computer resources. I'm greedy that way.

spyware: If you have Vista, Microsoft's Windows Defender is already installed. If you are running XP, I would recommend downloading it. Does it do much? Honestly, mine has never caught anything (then again, I am a careful surfer). But WD is meek and inoffensive and FREE, so why not? One great thing about it is the Software Explorer, which allows you to turn off various unnecessary startup programs (like Adobe Reader, iTunes, Quicktime, etc.). You will want to run the Software Explorer after you have installed all your main programs, because every time one of these guys thinks it's important enough to run at startup, it will do that when you install it. That means that when you do your weekly update of iTunes (c'mon, Apple), you will have to go back in and disable it again. And again.

Another great freebie in this category is Lavasoft's AdAware. It doesn't offer realtime protection unless you pay for it, but the scans are thorough and delete anything remotely spyware-ish. Even tracking cookies. I love it for that alone.

browsing: Are you using Firefox yet? If you're not, you should be. I only use IE for going to Microsoft's site, running Microsoft Update, and uploading pictures to Shutterfly (their plugin does not work with FF). FF is more secure than IE, plus it has great addons available which are worth their weight in gold. I don't even use very many but they are enough to make me never go back:

• AdBlock Plus. Once you install this, all the ads you hate to see on your favorite sites will become mere white space. Could anything be better? If the AdBlock filter doesn't catch an ad, right click on it and add it to your list. Some sites (cars.com) don't play well with this plugin but they are few and far between from what I've seen.
• Customize Google. For you gmailers.
• FireFTP. If you need to FTP stuff and want a free FTP client.
• McAfee SiteAdvisor. This one is critical and works for both IE and FF. Install it, and you have an automatic Jiminy Cricket supervising your searches. Install it and then search for something like "free Photoshop" or "free wallpaper" and see what happens (green means safe, yellow means "be careful", and red means DANGER. Kind of like a stoplight. Easy!).

office: are you too cheap to pay for Microsoft Office? But still want to play nice with people who do? Then try OpenOffice. It's free and it's compatible with Microsoft's version. When you get a new computer, even if you install MS Office, make sure you uninstall the MS Office Activation Wizard, the trial, etc. The AW goes first--as I recall it won't come off if Office is off first. And who wants two copies of Office taking up space? I'd take off Works, too, because why use a program that's not compatible with your friends'?

all purpose setup: I have not used this one for myself, and the author takes no responsibility for any damage done to your computer, but this is for those systems that are fresh out of the box. Do you, like me, really hate that your new computer comes with all kinds of junk/trial software that you don't actually want? The PC Decrapifier (yes, that's its actual name) checks what's on the system and will uninstall the junk for you. You still have control over what goes and stays but I'm sure it helps you to sort the good from the bad.

Well, those are the highlights... if you were to call me for help setting up your new computer, this is what I would tell you to work on, although you would have to look up the links for yourself. It's not a comprehensive list by any means, and I can't take responsibility for blowing up your computer (meaning follow my advice at your own risk). If I think of something else, I'll let you know.

add this to your list

All right, I did it. I knew that you didn't have enough blogs to read, so I thought I would add one more for your edification. But since you all carefully followed my instructions from my last post and have started using Google Reader (or something similar, although I take no responsibility for any mishaps you have in setting up something that's not Google Reader), I figure adding one more piddly blog from myself will not take you any time at all.

You can find it here. It's part of my photography site and will mainly have pictures of people you may not know. I won't even promise to be super diligent about updating it, so sorry. Mainly, I just wanted to see if I could do it.