What you missed

while I wasn't blogging. Here's some family pictures from the past few months.


Murphy, with the big ball of fur called Flash. Flash was groomed on Saturday and no longer is a big ball of fur, sadly. Pic to follow soon of our shorn puppy.



Here's Murphy at his school's fundraising Sportathon. He did more laps than anyone else, 104, IIRC. We were proud.


Murph, the power hitter. Even his coaches are amazed; he can hit righty or lefty, and really HIT. The Pride of the Angels.





Here he is at practice. Usually, he's the catcher, but here he's making the catch at first!


















Dad and Murph playing catch over the duggout fence during an Angels game.


I'd love to post pictures of Eric, and maybe I will, someday; if he stays home long enough to pose. =] He's spending his days hiking in the hills of Ojai. And running Flash on his bike, which is greatly appreciated by all concerned.

So there's the update; we're all happy and mostly healthy and together. Life is Good.

EASTER!

Happy Easter!



Our family did a really fun project for Easter. We dyed eggs with ties! Yes, plain old neckties. Here's the process.

First we got a bag of recycled men's silk ties. We opened up the ties at the seams and removed the linings.






Then you take a raw egg, and roll it, right side of fabric against the egg, roll it TIGHT, a couple of times around, cutting off the excess. Tie a string round each end, TIGHTLY as you dare, without breaking the egg.

Then, wrap that package in a strip of clean white cotton, like an old t-shirt, and tie as before. Both wrappings should be as snug as possible. The egg should also be at room temperature.

Next, place the eggs carefully into a large pot of simmering water, to which a cup of vinegar has been added. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes.

Turn off heat, and remove eggs to cool. We used a cookie rack with a pyrex pan under it to catch the drips.




When cool, carefully untie the packages, or cut the strings, and unroll your artistry!

We did find that dark colors worked better than light, and some don't work at all. YMMV.