whatever & stuff

• Brooke has an important post that brought tears to my eyes and is very close to my heart. Please read it here and consider making a difference however small it may be.
• There is a wedding here this weekend. Things are crazy around here, so I haven't and won't be around much. Jake's brother is marrying the love of his life, and if I were a boy, she might be the love of my life too. She is everything beautiful and feminine; strong and good; smart and competent

• Happy Birthday, Roger!

• We finished the tile in the mudroom. It was a lot of work! Our awesome friend Captain Rob helped us and now we're old pros. (translation: I watched him do all the hard work, then did a little bit myself. Jake got a little more practice than me, too) I love how it turned out!

• Rachel and I went to Stephenie Meyere's Q/A and book signing out here. It's the second time I've met her and she's incredibly nice and very generous. And pretty, too! We met some very fun people in line (three hours!!) and learned some interesting information. From Stephenie's mouth: Edward and Bella have a very fun and interesting relationship, but there's not enough room to write about the details with all the story lines going on; it gets edited out. Also, She compares an upcoming book (I couldn't figure out if it is Breaking Dawn or Midnight Sun) to Midsummer night's Dream.
• While I was taking a picture of one of my address books, I got a little visitor. He got a scream of surprise from me, and then leaped into the garden.

• The weather is beautiful and the garden looks especially nice for the middle of September in New England. (Thanks to the upcoming wedding, I took special care to water more frequently.)

it's a little too sunny for a realy nice garden picture, but you get the idea...

the vegi garden

• I told Jake to comment about the hammock and let you know about his research, but he's in the throws of wedding prep as well, so I just went out and looked at the brand: pawley's island
• Here's the German Pancake recipe everyone has been asking about:

1 T butter or so

6 to 8 eggs

1 c. flour

1 c. milk

dash of salt

Preheat oven to 375, and put the butter into a 9x13 baking dish and put it into the oven to warm it up and melt the butter while you're preparing the batter. Beat the eggs, flour and milk very well, until a bit foamy. Pour into the pan with melted butter and bake for 20 minutes or so. It will fluff while it's cooking, and you should leave it in until it's brown around the edges. When you take it out, it slowly deflates, so if you're serving others, it is best to present it straight from the oven--it's more dramatic that way:) You can serve it in many ways, the most simple being what is pictured below--butter and syrup. You can go all out with fancy syrups or jellys or fresh fruit and powdered sugar...

ps--as a favor the happy couple have asked me to take thier wedding pictures. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'll wing it--I'm getting nervous! Please send a little prayer out for me that somehow the pictures will capture the beauty of a wedding day! Thanks:) Have a great weekend!