Fall baking season began last week. Shannon has been experimenting with recipes from the King Arthur Flour Baking Sheet magazine. Last week, she made cheese bread, pineapple sweet rolls, and blueberry streusel bars. Today, she made Blue-Cheese Bacon Bread. I help. I buy the ingredients that she tells me she needs.

My cousin is getting married in Texas this fall. Bill and I thought we might attend, but I realized yesterday that it means I’d have to wear pantyhose! I haven’t worn pantyhose since my grandmother’s funeral several years ago. That’s one of the benefits of being a California homeschool mom! What is it about weddings and funerals that require pantyhose? For that matter, what is it with pantyhose at all? Who decided that shiny-smooth faux-tan legs are attractive?

The 21st century has been called post-racial and even post-Christian. Why not post-pantyhose? I am tossing the nylons on the fire barrel tonight; who is with me?

Breakfast Buffet at The Grand Wailea Hotel: Can I just load $30 worth of bread pudding onto my plate?

Breakfast Buffet at the Ritz-Carlton: Eggs Benedict, my new reason for living.

Snorkeling trip on the Trilogy: Gooey cinnamon rolls. Friendly, funny, crew. Amazing tropical fish.

Pretending we’re staying at the Four Seasons: Pull up and let the valet take your car. Hang out in the Lobby Lounge. Order an expensive tropical drink. Watch the live entertainment. So this is how the other half lives.

Turtle watching: I can’t figure out what the big deal is…they’re reptiles! But they are so cute!

People watching: Now I have really seen it all. A beach bum picking up a partially used cigarette from the sidewalk. Ick. An 8-month pregnant woman in a string bikini – not on the beach – not at the pool – but in a shop! Don’t they make pregnancy-size beach cover-ups?

Flying first class on air miles: Honey, don’t you have another business trip to take very soon?

Kayaking along the coastline: Easier than I expected. I didn’t tip it over, yay!

Snorkeling with the turtles: Even better than watching from the shore. I want to take one home with me. He can have the pool.

Celebrating 20 years with my sweet hubby: You’re Still the One.

I always wondered why people use personal trainers. I mean, doesn’t everyone in America know that to get in shape you have to:
1. eat less
2. do some cardio at least 3x week, and
3. do some moderate weight training.

So why pay someone to tell you that? Last year I posed that question to a personal trainer who was my walking partner for a couple of months. She answered that it was mostly about accountability. Hmm, for that amount of money I decided I could just be accountable to myself.

Well, guess what? It’s 15 months later and I’m still a slug! So I called Kara and we’re meeting on Monday. Sometimes you just gotta have professional help. I’ll let you know how it goes…

I tried two new recipes yesterday; both turned out yummy.

Southwestern Risotto:

Gingered Blueberry Shortcake:

The Holocaust was such an enormous, almost incomprehensible, evil, that comparisons to other events are impossible. To do so devalues the lives of the 6 million souls who died during the Holocaust.

To make a reasonable comparison, the other event would have to involve the deaths of millions of people. Perhaps the Khmer Rouge (2 million dead) could be compared to the Nazi regime. The Soviet regime under Stalin might have equal standing, as he oversaw the deaths of somewhere between 10 million and 50 million Soviets during collectivization, “purges”, and forced labor.

So let’s talk about George Bush. By what stretch of anybody’s imagination could he be compared to Hitler? EVEN IF (big if) you thought we were trading blood for oil in the Iraq war, how could Bush be similar to the evil dictator who tried to eradicate a whole race of people? It devalues the lives of the 6 million souls whom Hitler killed to compare George Bush to Hitler.

Let’s talk about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. This was a very sad event, and many people lost their rights, their livelihoods, and their property. But I’m not aware of any systematic killings, forced labor, cruel medical experiments, starvation, etc. In a travel article in the most recent Westways (a California Auto Club publication), the author compares visiting a decrepit Japanese internment camp in California to visiting Dachau. How can this be? Are there crematories at this internment camp? I’ve been to Dachau and can attest that just standing on the grounds was a stomach-turning experience. It devalues the lives of the 6 million souls who died in concentration camps to compare internment camps in America to Dachau.

The latest comparison is from our own president. Here’s a quote from Obama’s speech at Buchenwald today: “It’s also important for us, I think, to remember that the perpetrators of such evil were human, as well, and that we have to guard against cruelty in ourselves.”

Really? Do we really need our president to tell all the citizens of the world, “Nazis were people just like me and you. Watch out that you don’t commit genocide!”

Psalm 53:3 says “there is no one who does good, not even one.” (NIV). So from a theological standpoint, Obama is correct. But the club of Dictators-who-killed-millions is a very exclusive one, with few members. To compare each of the billions of people living on this planet with the Nazi regime is, again, to devalue the lives of the 6 million souls whom the Nazis killed.

These comparisons sadden me. I don’t think people who make them, in general, are trying to minimize the murder of millions of Jews. It’s laziness. “I think Bush is evil. Hitler was evil. I’ll say Bush is like Hitler!” Or, “This old internment camp gives me the creeps. Dachau gave me the creeps. I’ll say this camp is like Dachau!” Or, “‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ The Nazis sinned. I’ll say the Nazis were people just like you and me!”

I wish Obama would spend more time talking about combating evil in the world than minimizing it.

I made you a cupcake for Mother’s Day. And Shannon took pictures:

If you want the recipe (they were a lot of trouble, you probably don’t), you can find it on Chockylit’s Cupcake blog. They are German Chocolate Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Glaze. I made the Magnolia recipe which she described in comment 6.

After Bill stopped laughing and photographing this event, he did finally close up the bag and put it in the pantry.

He is risen indeed.

Let’s say an onion costs between 10 and 25 cents, depending on if I got a screamin’ good deal on it.

Let’s say I use 3/4 of said onion and 1/4 of the onion is left over. Its value is between 2 and 6 cents.

Do I use 2 cents worth of saran wrap to save the onion, thus reducing or even eliminating the thrift involved in this “savings”? Or do I toss it straight in the trash?

(note: saving it in a reusable container is not a 3rd option. I do package most items in glass or plastic containers, but don’t really want to put the onion in a permeable container, and a portion of onion shoved into a glass canning jar just seems weird…not that this whole post isn’t weird…)

What say you?