Small Town VA

To get to and from my mom's in Virginia, I had to take the train to Staunton, Virginia.

I'd never actually stopped in Staunton before, which sits at the base of the Shenandoah Mountains near the crossroads of two major interstates. I walked around for a few minutes before the train came to take me back to the big city.

It was cute.




And here is the view from the Fonzie apartment that I stay in when I'm down south. It's much nicer when there are leaves.

Lake House

My mother and her husband scored a beautiful investment property on a lake.

You can see why they bought it. They got it for a great price due to some foreclosure-type situation that I don't totally understand.



But here's the funny thing... while the house is perfectly situated, an hour or so from DC, and has great picture windows, fireplaces, lots of room, and a great room with a peaked ceiling, it was oddly decorated. They'd gotten rid of the pink walls by the time I'd gotten there, but some of the fixtures and rose wallpaper are still in place.











You know how when you first get a house, you plan to make all kinds of changes, and some get made and some don't? I wonder what will end up staying.

Lifelike Reproductions!

"Where are we?"

I was sitting in the back seat of my mother's car on Thanksgiving Day. We'd had a nice dinner the night before and had checked out a property she was thinking of buying, about an hour north of where she lives now. My mother was driving and her husband was in the passenger seat.

"You'll know in a minute," she said, smirking. She was up to something.

I thought a minute and then declared my guess.

"... Dinosaurland?"

Yes!

Of course Dinosaurland is closed on Thanksgiving, but that didn't stop us from pulling over and taking photos in the parking lot.

Here's my Picasa gallery of Dinosaurland photos.

On Holiday

I'm in what I call the Fonzie apartment, above my mother's garage in rural Virginia. Fonzie as in the seventies sitcom "Happy Days." Fonzie lived over the Cunningham's garage.

I took a seven-hour ride on the Amtrak yesterday to get here. The trip was painless enough but I was really ready to get off that train by the end of the journey.

Having my own digs while visiting others makes the whole experience so much easier. And it really is a holiday for me, with nothing to do but read scripts for work and eat when told to.

Here's me, Mom, and Aunt Peggy eating-on-demand last night at the Wayside Inn in Middletown, VA. I swiped the photo off of Mom's blog.

Sunday Photos

I bought these handmade stork scissors in Uzbekistan in 2001. And promptly forgot about them until yesterday.







These two supermarket bags are part of my book-designer-bribery-scheme. He doesn't really need to be bribed. I just like to make bags.



I met Stuart and Liz yesterday in Carroll Gardens. We ended up at a wine bar eating fondue. My lactose-intolerance has let up over the years but I still sipped only cranberry juice.

New Toy

I got it. I got the Lumix ZS3 so that I can shoot HD video and take photos with the same camera.

I'll have to test it out soon. I apologize for what I'm going to put you through.

Fun with Google Images

Here's what Google Images turned up during a moment of procrastination. I'm sure there was more to the sentence if I'd clicked on it, but I liked the shortened version.

Because Cakes Move...

Marc shot this Bundt Day documentary to show me the HD video quality of his ZS3 point-and-shoot.

I ordered one this morning. A ZS3, not a Bundt. I have enough Bundts.

A-Bundt-ant Table

The second-annual Bundt open house was a huge success. Possibly the most important event on this side of the Hudson since last year's Bundt celebration, which was at Denise's and involved a castle-cake.

How it "panned" out:

The Neopolitan had too much flour and was too dry. This was the last cake I baked, so I think I was too tired and impatient by then. The flour can't just be scooped out. It has to be stirred or sifted, to have air add to it. But this cake looked dramatic, with a swirled chocolate, vanilla, strawberry filling.

The mix Tunnel of Fudge was pathetic next to the scratch Tunnel of Fudge. And there was no tunnel. Don't bother.

Gypsy's yam cake was a huge success. And not just with Gypsy (who is a dog). All the people like the dog's cake too. I can attest to the odd and nice taste of making special cakes with yam. Moist! It had a pumpkin-y taste to it.

The pecan bourbon was delicious.

But the real star has to be the scratch Tunnel of Fudge. The center is a combination of chocolate, My T Fine pudding, and milk. And how amazing... it worked! There was a genuine tunnel inside the cake.

Happy National Bundt Pan Day

November 15th is National Bundt Pan Day! Remember that post offices and banks are closed.

I am baking several Bundt cakes and will be serving them at 4 p.m. If you live in the tri-state area and feel like helping review my variety of Bundt cakes, which includes Tunnel of Fudge (mix), Tunnel of Fudge (scratch), Yam Dog, Pecan Bourbon, Neopolitan, and Gary's Leach's Birthday Bundt as recommended by Susan D-L, please stop by. You'll have to e-mail me for my address. Or look in the phone book.