Here is a series of unrelated stories and pictures. Enjoy.
Farming
Newt is not the only one getting a farm education.
Though admittedly, most days I sit on a porch rocker and read a book. That’s farm work too, right? If it isn’t then what are the rockers there for?
Our Harry Potter Dinner
Thanks to some reader suggestions on my facebook page, I picked up The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook
This is a great recipe book.* Though it is intended for kids a themed cookbook, it is not along the lines of: open this cake mix, stir in a can of frosting, sprinkle with gummy worms and eat with your fingers. Look Mom, I made a recipe! Instead, most of the recipes were for real food, with real ingredients. (Even haggis, but don’t hold that against it.)
I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, but did not choose a singe recipe for our Harry Potter themed dinner. I’m funny that way. Instead, I went with a loose interpretation of Bangers and Mash (chicken-apple sausage and cheesy mashed potatoes) with English peas and chocolate lava “cauldron” cakes.
recipe and photo credit
I served them with unsweetened raw cream over the top. Four days later and I’m still thinking about those little cakes…
*Looks like amazon has a free special summertime edition of the Harry Potter Cookbook 
Hint: If you don’t have kindle, you can download the software for reading on your pc. I just did. I think I’ll have to try making the Triple Power Icy Lemon Pops.
Speaking of Harry Potter
I can’t tell you how exciting it can be to get a photo of perfect strangers in your inbox.
See those adorable kids? And their awesome t-shirts? Their mom, Trista, saw my design and tutorial here last week and whipped out those shirts. I love the white on black.
My friend, Laura, also made a pair. She came over and worked some freezer paper magic while I was making our Potter dinner.
Laura came to my house to make her tees because I still had all the materials out from earlier in the day when I made one for Newt’s friend. Here are the three of us in line for the movie.
Newt’s friend brought Harry. Walt kept drawing dirty looks from other moviegoers by loudly referring to him as Henry.
On the way out, I carried him, and enjoyed “accidentally” freaking people out by making him sneak up behind them.
We really liked the movie, but still managed to find a lot ways that “it was not like the book” to complain about, so that was fun too.
Oh look, a piglet.
Never trust a ride called The Scream Machine
Remember how Newt felt about the 4th of July Ferris wheel? I was looking through old pictures today and think I may have discovered a pattern.
photo taken July 4th, 2008
And Finally, Sleepy Shasta
I have nothing to say about these except awwwhhhh…
Have anything randomly floating around that you’d like to share?
