"Snowed in"

There is something magical about having a white Christmas here in New York City. It's picture perfect and if you're like me, it makes singing Christmas carols that much more fun. Well, we had our first big snowfall of the winter season and almost in time for Christmas. (We got a whopping 12 inches, more in other parts of the NYC and about 25 inches in parts of Long Island. Our local Church leaders even canceled services yesterday.) Just six days later and we well and truly would have had our white Christmas!

Okay, I must admit that for those who have to trek out in the snow and use public transportation it is a hassle, not to mention a real pain when home and business owners don't shovel and salt the streets as they should. Likewise, for those of us who own cars, the snow is a quite a nuisance.

Just this morning a lady from down our street, who had parked her car right on the corner of our busy intersection, was seen complaining to two police officers. I thought, "Really? Are your serious?!" Maybe she was complaining about all the hard snow around her car. (It had almost turned into ice from the low temperatures overnight.) Maybe she got a big fat ticket because it was 10am on Monday and she was still parked by a sign that reads no parking from 7am to 4pm on school days. I don't know. I saw the lady and the police officers pointing at each other and the snow by her car. A short time later, they walked away shaking their heads. Then, of course, the lady and her son went to work to "dig out" their car. Less than an hour later, she drove away.


This scene made me remember our big snowfall of winter 2002. So, I dug up these these couple of photos that I took from my bedroom window in my apartment in Queens -while it was still snowing!

THIS is what I call, being "snowed in" and quite literally digging your car out!

You see, the trick to making your life easier in a scenario like this one is to go out periodically during the snowfall to brush and shovel the snow off and away from your car, that way when it finally stops snowing, you don't have the daunting task of the massive snow removal, (I like to compare it to raking the leaves in Autumn), that is, of course, if you are one of those people who needs to have a snow-free car for a quick getaway. Otherwise, I would opt to just stay in and sleep, eat and have some quality uninterrupted family time.

Was my car one of the unfortunate cars deeply buried in that snow? My car was parked in a climate-controlled, indoor parking garage around the corner from my building. HA! I was so pleased that I didn't have to deal with the whole situation, that I sang: "...Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!..." that whole weekend.

So, where is my car now? It is parked outside on our street, "buried" in our pre-Christmas snow of 2009.

Maybe it's time to buy a shovel? Maybe we will get one as a Christmas present? (Hint! Hint!)

Happy (Toasty) Feet

He woke up this morning, put his slippers on and said, "Take a picture, mama." Only too happy to oblige, that is exactly what I did. Well, at least his feet were nice and toasty while we had breakfast.

(Wearing his footed PJs and a pair of slippers knitted by "Welita")

(Sigh!)

Now, if only he would wake up and say, "I want breakfast, mama!" instead of "I want 'ticas, mama!" (translation: a "drink" from mama). Thanks to advice from a friend, we are now down to twice a day. Cross your fingers for me! It would make mama very happy indeed.

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner in the tinest kitchen in America

Well, I don't know if ours is really the tiniest kitchen in America, but it sure felt like it on Thursday when I cooked our Thanksgiving meal. I do not exaggerate when I say that I deserve nothing short of a medal for cooking something as huge as a Thanksgiving dinner in a kitchen that measures all of 8 x 4 feet with a counter space that measures all of 10 x 12 inches (pretty much the size of my chopping board).

This is not by any means a step-by-step process with exact measurements and all, but this sort of gives you an idea of what went on in my tiny kitchen on Thanksgiving Day. I took a couple of short cuts here and there, basically to keep my sanity and stress level low. Mind you, I could have done a lot of preparation the day before, but I just wasn't up to it. Anyway, here you go!





The turkey:
We decided to go all out and get an organic turkey (not cheap), weighing a hefty 14 pounds to make sure we had lots of delicious leftovers. We bought it on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving so that I didn't have to deal with the hassle of thawing it out. I pulled the turkey out of the refrigerator very early Thanksgiving Day morning to marinade it. I pulled out the giblets, set them aside, and gave the bird a really good rinse, inside and out, with plain water. I marinaded it in the baking pan, inside and out, with sea salt (gray salt), black pepper and sofrito. I slipped many pats of unsalted butter under the breast, covered it with tin foil, and then put the turkey back into the refrigerator for a couple of hours. According to the experts, to avoid bacteria, it is not a good idea to marinade the turkey overnight, unless you are going to soak it in a brine (which is mostly made of salt). If you do decide to soak it in a brine, the turkey will be flavorful, but the drippings will be too salty and not a good base for the gravy.

I then put the turkey in a super hot oven 500F for about twenty minutes or so. Experts recommend this to kill any bacteria. They say turkeys are prone to bacteria if not handled correctly. Then I reduced the temperature to 375F (for x amount of hours, depending on the weight of the turkey).

Turkey stock:
I cooked the giblets with a couple of bay leaves and a bit of sofrito. I used this broth to "baste" the turkey. Actually, I poured a large amount of that broth on the bottom of the baking pan and then placed the turkey on a rack inside the baking pan. The bird never really gets a wet bottom. I do this because my oven is tiny and I have to set the shelf pretty low in order to fit the pan in the oven without the turkey touching the top of the oven. I don't want the turkey drippings to burn in the pan.
Uses:
- The leftover broth was refrigerated for turkey soup the next day.
- Some was used to thin out the drippings in the pan for gravy.
- I also use some of it to prepare the stuffing. I used it instead of the plain water that was called for in the instructions on the package.

The Side Dishes
Stuffing:
I cooked four sweet Italian sausages with a little bit of water. After about a half an hour or so, I took the lid off to let the water evaporate and let the sausages brown. When they cooked through, I sliced them and set them aside. I softened about a half a cup or more of chopped, pitted dates in a skillet with water (or turkey stock from the giblets I had cooked earlier) for about 2 minutes and then set them aside (including liquid). I prepared about a half a package of Arnold's seasoned stuffing per the instructions (you can use turkey stock instead of water). When done, I added in the sausages, softened dates, about a half a cup of golden raisins, and about a half a cup or more of chopped, previously roasted, chestuts (or toasted pecans, walnuts or pignoli nuts). Placed all ingredients in a covered baking dish and just reheated it after I pulled the turkey out of the oven. (According to most chefs on the cooking channel, you are supposed to lightly toast the nuts in a dry pan "to help them release their essential oils", though I can't really tell the difference when I skip that step entirely. Also, they say stuffing the turkey takes longer for the turkey to cook and then you end up with a dry breast.)

Spanish rice (of course):
On the menu was also "arroz con gandules" (i.e. rice with green pigeon peas which my mother made with brown rice this year instead of white). She warmed up the sofrito in some olive oil and ghee (clarified butter), optional. She then added the (white or brown) rice and the "gandules", gave it all a good stir until you started to hear a "sizzling" sound coming from the rice (less than a minute). She then poured the water, added salt to taste, and let it boil until water started to evaporate, reduced the heat and covered with lid.

Mashed potatoes:
I made some mashed potatoes in case Liam would want it, but he chose rice instead. Anyway, I am aware that everyone knows how to make mashed potatoes, but here is how I made them: I scrubbed and cut the Russet potatoes in quarters and cooked them in just enough chicken stock. (Sometimes I also throw a sweet potato in with the regular potatoes, but I totally forgot to do it this time.) When potatoes were cooked through, I poured the liquid out into a large measuring cup and set it aside. I transferred the potatoes to a large mixing bowl. I carefully pulled the potatoes out with a fork and peeled the skin off* with a paring knife. The skins surprisingly come off quite easily. I then transferred the potatoes back to the pot. I added a little bit of salt and pepper to taste, the liquid (chicken stock) that I had set aside, a couple of pats of unsalted butter, a splash of cream (optional), and then mashed it with a regular potato masher until nice and creamy.
*I cooked the potatoes with the skin and then peeled it off since most of the nutrients are found just under the skin. Sometimes I will just mash them up with the skins.

Green beans:
I kept them really simple. I just steamed the green beans until tender, added salt and pepper to taste, a dash of granulated garlic, and a pat of butter.

Salad:
A no brainer- it was just a prewashed salad mix that is sold in a bag which I topped with tomato and avocado slices with a fruity vinaigrette as a dressing (ideally) or in our case that day, your choice of three bottled salad dressings.

Gravy:
After the turkey was done, I pulled the pan out of the oven and let the turkey rest for about fifteen minutes or so. Experts recommend that you allow any roasted meat or fowl to rest before carving it to avoid losing all the juices. (At this point, since I do not have a double oven (ha!), I do not turn the oven off, but instead place the baking dish with the stuffing mixture to warm up.) Before transferring the uncarved turkey to the platter, I lightly brushed the nice brown skin with some of the pan drippings. Then, I went to work on the gravy. I thinned out the pan drippings with some turkey stock (from the giblets I had cooked earlier) and a splash of wine. I then poured the pan drippings through a sieve into a small sauce pot to wait for the thickening agent. In a glass measuring cup I placed some cornstarch in some water and stirred it well until any lumps were dissolved. Then, I poured the mixture into the saucepan and stirred it until the wine was cooked thoroughly and until it started thickening, and well, looking like gravy.

Cranberry sauce:
I hear this is very easy to make, but I opted to just buy a can from the organic supermarket.

Dessert:
Ideally the traditional pies and other baked goodies are prepared the day before, but since I can't bake to save my life, we decided to have my long overdue birthday cake from my favorite bakery (that did our wedding cake) as dessert with a scoop of ice cream. Yeah!

After dinner, of course, comes the daunting task of dealing with the leftovers (sigh). So, I grabbed the bull by the horns, as they say, and went to work. I pulled all the meat from the bones and froze some of it for soups. The remainder of the meat was placed in a glass food storage container in the refrigerator, and the bones were used to make stock for soup.

I am not sure that I will ever make a meal this large in a kitchen this small ever again, but you know what they say, "never say never." Besides, in the end, it doesn't matter what you serve up on Thanksgiving Day, whether it be a traditional turkey dinner or a quick pasta dish. It does matter in the end that you remember to give thanks for all your blessings, beginning with two of the most important- your family and your health. Wait a second, we do this every day anyway!

Liam? He was thankful that he could wear his Star Wars costume to dinner.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

...well, actually not a long time ago and not that far away either.....this little family of three went to the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island to attend Star Wars in Concert.

Liam starring as young Anakin Skywalker (with a chocolate-covered face)

There was no way we were not going to this event. Only a serious fan would go to a concert to listen to the best of the musical scores of all six Star Wars movies (originally composed by the great John Williams), performed by the 86-piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Choir, while viewing a mix of clips from all six movies in perfect synchronization, and with a bonus laser light show. It was quite the production. To further remove any doubt as to what kind of fans we are, we even went as far as dressing up our toddler as a young Anakin Skywalker with a costume that his daddy picked up for him last Halloween, accessorized, of course, with a lightsaber that his mama got for him.

This very same lightsaber was wielded around by our little Liam (hoisted up on daddy's shoulders) as we tried to make our way through the pressing crowds. Anybody would have been annoyed to be on the receiving end of one of his jabs, but not any of the Star Wars fanatics we encountered. They thought it was all too precious to see our little Liam as the spitting image of little Anakin. I even spotted a few people taking pictures of our young "Padawan". Most of the crowd sported Star Wars t-shirts while others donned a full Star Wars-themed costume.

Oh, and did I mention we had floor seats?!, Uh huh, yeah, and right by the aisle, too, because aisle seats are a must if you have to drag your wiggly toddler to any kind of theatrical event. Yes, it is safe to say we are real Star Wars fans.

When the lights quickly dimmed, we knew we were all going to experience the best in sound when the THX trailer burst out from their high tech sound systems. It was quickly followed by the Twentieth Century Fox march theme. Then came the Star Wars opening theme with these famous words displayed on the largest LED screen, standing three stories high, that has ever toured:

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."

These unmistakable words were met with nearly deafening cheers, applause, accompanied by loud whistling (mostly coming from my husband) and the squeals of delight and non-stop applause from our two and a half year old son who at this point was standing on his seat. The voice of James Earl Jones greeted us and introduced us to the narrator, Mr. C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels.

It was interesting to see the different reactions of the audience. There were some humorous moments, mostly by the narrator whom at times flashed a gold vest whenever he went into C-3PO mode. At one point during Anthony Daniel's narration, an audience member near us let out the perfect wookiee growl after the mention of Chewbacca's name. For most of the time though, it almost felt like we were all at a rock concert. For my husband, who had seen the original Star Wars movie all of 15 times the week it premiered in Australia, twice on opening day, it was practically a dream come true. It was a spectacular show and worth every penny to see the expressions on both my boys, one of them who was teary-eyed. Guess who?

During the intermission, I walked with Liam a couple of yards up to the front to get a better view of some of the instruments. Then, he spotted some boys with illuminated lightsabers clear across the coliseum floor, so we maneuvered our way over there as fast as we could. As soon as Liam could make a clean break, he just ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, to join them in their "battle". So much fun!

After the show ended, we were dismissed with the Star Wars blessing of "May the force be with you." We made our way to view the exhibits that were positioned all around the coliseum, but the crowds made it nearly impossible to view them all. My husband, though, did not seem bothered since we had already seen a much larger and more detailed exhibit at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney when we were in Australia visiting his parents almost a year ago last December.

Here are some pictures* of our Star Wars-filled afternoon:

Having his fill of popcorn and cherry water (brought from home!)

Careful of the lightsaber-wielding Padawan!

It's C-3PO !!

"A guy can only be called 'Annie' so many times before he snaps!"
(Doesn't little Liam look a lot like this child actor, Jake Lloyd? -That hair!)

Having a little lightsaber fun during the intermission

I think Liam would rather go back to the children playing with the lightsabers. (A little smoke for the ambiance)

The grand finale!

Close-ups of the orchestra

Dirk Brosse, conductor extraordinaire

Our little Anakin checking out Yoda

Daddy is sporting a very cool t-shirt with Boba Fett's helmut made entirely of musical notes.

Liam was probably thinking, as we all were, "Dude, aren't you a little old to be doing this?"

So much Star Wars fun! Still curious about this spectacular event? Read about it here and take a look at this clip!


*My husband has some great shots, so when I do find them, I will include them later in this post.

"ice cripees"

On Sunday, before Liam's sickness kicked into full gear and while spirits were still high, I decided it would be a good time to grant a wish for my little boy. We have on occasion seen a commercial on tv of children making treats out of breakfast cereal. You get the picture. Liam would always say, "buy some, mama." So, I bought the ingredients one day without letting him know. When I pulled out the box of cereal on Sunday afternoon, he grabbed it and did a little dance in sheer delight at the prospect of making a treat like the "ninos in the tv"*. So, Liam and I, for the first time in our lives, made Rice Krispie Treats. Yawn if you will, but it was a first for the two of us. More importantly, we had a fun and memorable time.


Don't you worry, my boy. Mama will soon overcome her fear of baking and make lots of scrumptious treats for you and daddy to devour. Maybe all mama needs is a bigger kitchen?

*ninos=children
The second n in ninos has a "tilde" (you know, the squiggly line on top of the n) , but I can't seem to figure out how to do any of the Spanish accents on this laptop.

Martha meets Martha

Today I met Martha Stewart!

I received this e-mail advertising the grand opening of Michael's in Manhattan. I purchased her Encyclopedia of Crafts (on sale at Costco) a few months ago and thought it would be a great idea to go and have Her Majesty sign it. Since I had never been to a book signing, I didn't know what to expect (so I didn't have the heart to drag anyone else along). I drove to Manhattan, miraculously found free parking (only a block away), and quickly headed toward the store.

I thought there would be a super long line, but on the contrary. Just an hour before the book signing I saw only about 40 people or so, maybe a little more. I made my way toward the back of the line with Liam securely strapped in his stroller and hoped that the hour would pass quickly.

To my surprise I was immediately escorted to a newly formed "mommies-with-babies-in-strollers" line with me as the first customer on the line!! YES!! I could hardly contain my excitement.
So, there we were, Liam and I waiting for Martha Stewart to walk by and take her seat at the table set up right in front of the press. Thankfully, the hour surprisingly passed quickly, of course, with the aid of a wide selection of snacks, drinks and small quiet toys that I packed for my wiggly toddler.

Then, she walked by with a small entourage. She looked like she was actually more interested in "shopping" and the store displays rather than in the book signing. I pointed her out to Liam, who was already familiar with her face from having seen her show on TV with me. All I got from him was a sort of half smile with a glazed stare.


She walked over to the table right in front of the press and after a few photos of her holding up the books she is currently promoting (Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts and her latest cookbook, Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home) I was called up first!! Yay!!


I thought she was very friendly. She seemed genuinely grateful that I was there and that I had purchased one of her books. I'm sure I said a few things like, "I'm a big fan...I love your show...Thanks for all you do...Thanks for signing my book..." But I was so star struck that I can hardly remember the small chat except to say that she was very friendly and it is true that the TV cameras add ten pounds (i.e. this woman is definitely not overweight). She said Liam was adorable, once again Liam had that same sort of half smile with a glazed stare, and then she thanked us for coming all the way out from Brooklyn.

(While he enjoyed his little project, he was a little put off by all the glitter stuck to his hands)

After she signed my book, we were walked directly to a crafts table set up with a few of her crafts from her collection. I helped Liam decorate a miniature pumpkin with glitter, helped him make a card with some fancy hole punchers, write his name with a glue "pen" and then sprinkled glitter on it. I knew from the get go that it would be terribly messy, but it was a fun and happy moment.

On her way out, she smiled as she recognized us and walked right up to Liam (still in his stroller) and said, "You guys are still here! Wow! Just look at you all covered in glitter!" to which I responded, "Oh yes, and he might have eaten some, too." She laughed heartily, said good bye, and walked away.

Finally free from the stroller, this is his happy face on our way out of Michael's, resembling mine after meeting Martha!

We had so much fun! Everything went smoothly, and well, in a word, it was all just- (as Martha Stewart herself would say) perfect.

Fall fun outdoors: apple picking and a movie

Last Saturday, the we went apple picking, a first for us all, to the Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery in Orange County up in the Hudson Valley. It is, first and foremost a winery where everyone was eating, drinking and, well, being merry (live band), but it also has a beautiful apple and pear orchard. We grabbed a bag and headed immediately towards the apple orchard where we could be merry all on our own.

Apple-picking season here begins in early September and lasts in some places up to early November. We made it just in time to pick Jonagolds, Mutsus, Cameos and Red Delicious. We all got a chance to pick and marvel at the deliciousness of freshly picked fruit. Liam surprised us by eating almost all of an enormous Jonagold apple the size of a grapefruit. Bill got the shots he wanted as the sun was setting. And I did most of the picking and got to lug around the heavy bag of apples all around the orchard. Yay.

And if that experience wasn't just the best, we left there and drove some more to the famous Warwick Drive-in Movie Theater nearby. Once again, it was a first for us all. We saw UP and munched on all sorts of movie theater goodies. Liam loved the movie and his first experience at a wide assortment of junk food both equally. He kept saying between mouthfuls, "I'm driving!" and "BluRay" as he pointed to the big screen. (BluRay?? We don't even own a flat screen TV and only get to see the occasional BluRay on Bill's laptop.) As predicted, he conked out before the movie ended. Despite our having to juggle the messy junk food and the wiggly two-year old up in the front seat of our compact car, and of course the constant wiping down of the foggy window, who knew a drive-in movie theater could be so much fun?

We can't wait to do it all again. What a beautiful day and evening with my boys!

While the paint dried, we.....

.....sang out in the hallway (good acoustics), hung out at our spacious neighbor's apartment for a while, had a sleepover at "Welita's house" where we are usually treated like royalty, and we saw something that we rarely see around NYC.


Last week while we had our bedroom painted, we had our own little fun out in the hallway of the building. Liam is seen in this video clip "singing" the Sesame Street theme song (what else?). He sometimes goes up an octave every time he starts to sing it again, but he didn't do it for us this time. Not visibly seen is a little Sesame Street guitar (your standard variety noise-maker that requires batteries) that he pretends to play as he sings. (Honestly, that boy is enough to make anyone dizzy sometimes.)

Later that evening, we drove to my mother's apartment in Queens who graciously offered to put us up for the night. I had forgotten just how good I used to sleep there. We all slept like the dead! Note to self: I definitely need to get us a duvet, maybe one for little Liam, too. In the morning, I went to get us a small assortment of Colombian cheesy breads for breakfast to go with the Colombian hot chocolate. On my way back, I spotted two mounted police officers, a rare sight indeed! I thought, "huh, there's something you don't see every day." When I saw them making a turn to go down the block where my mother lives, I immediately called my husband to get Liam to the window so he could see the "horsies". I then decided that I wanted to get a photo, so I start running after them. They obliged, I took the photo and went upstairs. I was greeted at the door by my sweet baby boy and my darling husband laughing his head off. He told me that he saw the mounted police and thought it was pretty cool, but then he saw me running down the block after them and he thought that was just hilarious. He figured that I wanted a photo for the blog, so here it is, New York's finest!

Bow ties, boy toys and car rides

We had a civil ceremony at Church a couple of weeks ago. Guess who was the MC? No, not really. He just would not walk out the our apartment without that American Idol microphone (courtesy of our friends). I think it looks cool with the velvet suit jacket, white shirt and the bow tie that Sister Lo (my friend's mom) made for him last year. It's the third one she's made for him. The bow tie is always a hit whenever he wears it. He does, however, have a preference for neckties since he wants to look like his daddy, as if he isn't the spitting image of him.

I always thought I would have a daughter so I could spend hours of fun dressing her and so she can play with my doll collection. I certainly had plenty of fun helping to raise my brother's two eldest daughters. Now that I have a beautiful little boy, I am faced with daunting task of researching appropriate boy toys.

For ideas, of course, there is always the internet and the trusted Toys R Us, but we all know how scary that place could be. He is outgrowing some of his toys and others are becoming a little boring to him, so a trip to that store was inevitable. I strapped him in his stroller and bravely made my way to the Lego/Duplo section. Then, hurried off to the Matchbox/Hot Wheels section for a few more cars to add to his little collection.

Having a memory of his trip to Sesame Place

I am happy to say that I could have made it in and out of that store in less than 15 minutes, including checking out, if it weren't for the "car" rides. You know which ones I am talking about; those ones that rip you off of your 50 cents for less than a minute of some kind of really slow movement. Without fail you always manage to bump into one on the street whenever you are really busy running errands. So far, I have been getting away with not putting any coins in them since all he wants to do is sit on them for a while. I shudder to think how much money will be wasted once he discovers how they really work. I am sure there will be tantrums to no end. I guess, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

Oh well, I'm glad I can still have fun dressing him up for Church, holidays, and special occasions, at least, until he lets me.

Flat

A few days ago, I went to move our car (to follow the alternate side of the street regulations) and was sorely disappointed to find a flat tire. I am pretty self sufficient in a lot of ways, but when it comes down to changing a flat tire, I like to leave that to the experts who can do it for free, in less than five minutes, and without an energetic two-year old boy in tow.

As to be expected, Liam was fascinated by the whole process and expressed his deep concern over the "broken tire" on "mama's car". Roadside assistance came within the hour of calling them, they replaced the flat with my spare, and off we went to the tire shop.

It turned out that Liam was right! My three-year old tire was well and truly "broken", as in "cracked" and unrepairable. I would hate to think that I got my tire slashed in the middle of the night in such a nice neighborhood. I was legally parked and there was plenty of room for any exiting car from the driveway behind me. The car in front of me also had plenty of room since he had a driveway in front of him. I have to believe that I had either driven right into an ugly pot hole with a jagged edge or in an attempt to park, rubbed the tire against a jagged piece of curb. The guys at the shop believe it was either one of the two last scenarios. Thankfully, it happened during good weather and not in the dead of winter. What a morning! Oh, how I miss having my car in the indoor car garage I had in Queens! *


* Those were the days, when I paid ridiculously cheap rent and could afford such luxuries! My car looked great: nice and clean, no scuffs, no paint scratches, and no dents!

One lesson I learned the very same day I drove my brand new car out of the dealership lot, is that people are disrespectful of other people's property. It's not hard to believe that I had not made the realization before until just then, considering I was never a homeowner worried about people stepping all over my grassy front yard. Well, no sooner had I parked the car in front of my mother's place when I ran up three flights of stairs to look at it from my mother's bedroom window, only to witness the car in front of mine backing up his car hitting my brand new car several times in his lame attempt to drive out of his spot. It was painful to watch to say the least.

Just a couple of weeks later, a guy in the neighborhood actually told me to get the Mul-T-Lock right away because he had a "friend" who was looking for this same kind of car to steal for parts. What?! I immediately set out to get the Mul-T-Lock installed to secure the transmission gear knob, and then to look for a garage. I found a space available at the indoor car garage in the neighboring building. Only then would I be able to sleep at night!


Since Liam was such a trooper through all of it, we rewarded ourselves to a nice long afternoon at the park. I think it is pretty much our last chance to run around in the park wearing t-shirts. I can't believe summer is almost over!