I got a couple of nice shots though….
I have lots of great photos from our trip to Arizona, but for today, I wanted to show you my brother and my new sister. Fortunately, a friend of Jean’s makes a living taking photos of people, not cupcakes, so she took care of setting up poses and little details like that. I would have been all “ok, stand over there and look nice”.
Although some minions would have been nice – we could have sent one over to pick up that beer can on the fireplace, and another to tackle that guy in the background and drag him out of the frame.
More in the days to come – I took about 3000 photos out there, so I should be able to come up with something…
Larry has never flown at all, so he is looking forward to his first flight. If our plane goes down in a spectacular blazing wreck, I apologize in advance to the girls, who will have to break down all those boxes in the spare room, and put them out for the recycling – I tried to get to it, but it looks like I won’t have time. 
I am really hoping the crabapple doesn’t bloom while we are gone, because seeing cactus will not make up for missing that. 
I told my brother we are coming for the wedding, but really I am just using him and Jean as an excuse to go drool over Mr Adams’ work. We are going to Sedona too, but don’t tell them that – they will start to think the wedding is just a side trip for us.
How could I lose track of it? That spring has actually arrived, I mean. Most years, I am so impatient for it to ever get here that it seems like it takes forever. This year, a combination of insane busyness, preoccupation with the new site, preparing for our trip next week, and lingering worry over my knee being in good enough shape to actually get out and do anything, kept me from dwelling on the weather very much. It seems as though I woke up one morning and realized that spring was already here. I can be forgiven somewhat by the fact that spring did seem to arrive early here – notwithstanding the fact we are actually forecast for a bit of snow tonight. Larry’s crocus patch, over the septic tank [is he a romantic, or what?] has long since bloomed, but a patch in the shade garden is just coming into its own now. There is a green haze over the hills, as the leaves are beginning to really come out and all of the spring birds are showing up at the feeders.
I am not sure we can call a vegetable that was harvested last fall sometime “seasonal”. But then as I have noted on previous occasions, seasonal in Upstate NY takes on a different meaning once we get past early December, and the harvest of the last of the brussels sprouts. Though Larry did dig some of our carrots the other day, which our heavy snow cover protected and they were really good, that’s the exception, rather than the rule. And while we have some of the very earliest stuff planted [onions, peas, beets, radishes, a few other things], we don’t expect to see much in the way of edibles from there anytime soon. And to prove that Larry is ever the optimist, he planted a short row of green beans and a hill each of cucumbers and summer squash. For those not from around here – our last frost date is about June 1st. I think I would have to characterize that early a planting as optimism so extreme as to border on insanity, but if they survive, I’ll be happy to eat the cukes.
Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 35 to 40 minutes, turning all of the strips a time or two, to promote even browning. I had though that I would sprinkle them with one of my 
Okay – so done in the oven like this, they did not actually get very crunchy, though I think if you deep fried them they would, and I am sure that would be delicious. We did not miss the crunch at all though – roasting really brought out a deep earthiness and sweetness that more than made up for the fact that I was trying to hold down the amount of oil used. I hope you give this one a try – fantastic!
