christmas, part 2....

Santa must have thought that Caleb was spending Christmas at my house because there were some presents left for him. Mary and I drove up to Temple on Saturday and met Carrie and Caleb at an Olive Garden for dinner and present opening. I hope the staff didn't mind.

The toy of choice this year was anything associated with Power Rangers. The toys that I delivered were of the Lego variety. Santa can never seem to get it right.

Caleb is coming to Austin on January 8 to spend a 3 day weekend at Grampy's house. We both are very excited - and nervous. I hope he doesn't wear me out.

merry christmas...

It's been a nice Christmas. Coffee, blueberry muffins, presents, and a movie marathon. So far it's been A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life and Breakfast at Tiffany's. It was my first time to see a Breakfast at Tiffany's. Yikes - what a good movie. Ham dinner is scheduled for 5:30pm. I think I'll top off the day with a healthy helping of egg nog. Cheers....

class dismissed....

Last day. School is over. That was a fast 9 months. We started with 18 back in April and ended up with 11 in our class. They were a good bunch of kids - it was a good experience.

We didn't get a yearbook so we all signed each others coats.

wake up call....

Today was the last of our weeklong practical tests. I was feeling pretty good about myself but the week was a reality check. I had an issue with practically every item. The items for today were the closest thing to meeting expectations so I've included a picture. Blueberry muffins, crepes suzette, cream puffs and a baguette. During the week, I had horrible macaroons, eclairs, and creme brulee. I had marginal opera petit fours, napoleans, fruit tarts, focaccia, birthday cake and apple charlotte. Practice, practice...

17 but who's counting...

I ran in the Dallas White Rock Marathon on Sunday. I went up with a running buddy on Saturday morning, we ran it on Sunday morning and drove back immediately after the run. It made for a quick trip. It is my favorite marathon course. The crowds in Dallas are fun. They are also large. The weather was perfect and I finished, which is always my ultimate goal.

I stayed at the Hyatt and my room was on the 16th floor with a view of the book depository and the grassy knoll. I've seen that Zapruder film so many times, it was weird seeing cars drive down the road that Kennedy drove down. Spooky.

It was the 4th time that I've run this marathon and it's my 17th marathon. I'm thinking 20 would be a good number to stop at.

oh honey...oh sugar sugar....

This is effectively the end of class for me. Next week is five days of practical tests. We get assigned 3 mystery items per day to whip up. Who remembers how to make a baguette or a macaroon? That was months ago. It should be interesting.

Our final project fell in the "this isn't all that practical but it's kind of a cool skill to know" category. Sugar sculptures only have showpiece value. You can eat a chocolate sculpture. Sugar sculptures are actually made with isomalt which is a sugar derivative. You don't eat it unless you want to spend the next day in the bathroom.

We were supposed to come up with a theme but I just took some of the components and did an abstract showpiece. There is blown sugar (the spheres), poured sugar (the disks), pulled sugar (ribbon), rock sugar (that white rock) and net sugar (the bubbly sheet in the background).

It was pretty challenging. I don't see a future in sugar sculptures for me.

ho ho ho...

I ran with a buddy in northwest Austin on Tuesday morning and he had this big Santa in his front yard. He turns back and forth slightly and he waves with his right hand. It's kind of freaky.

Even though it was cold and rainy at the end of the run, I had to have my picture taken with him. Maybe I should print some pictures and include it in my Christmas card this year.

Happy Holiday's

a winter chocolateland....

The project for the week was a chocolate centerpiece. We had a little more than two days to make it. It had to be 100% chocolate and it had to have a Christmas theme. It had to be 10" wide and about 18 inches tall.

Mine turned out a little rough around the edges but I'm happy with it. The tree is kind of festive. If you use your imagination, those rectangles with the snowflakes are my representation of windows looking out on a winter storm. The original plan was to have a solid wall with a window. I went with the subtle approach. I realize that art doesn't need to be explained but the more I look at it, the more it looks liked a painters easel. Yikes

I'm not sure what those flowers in the flower pots are but I wasn't about to have a blank windowsill.

Happy Holidays.....

run, forrest, run.....

I've had interweb problems the past few days so there hasn't been any blog posting going on. It was fixed tonight. Yay....

I ran my favorite half marathon this morning. I've lost track of how many I've done but it's been many years in a row. The course runs around a small lake outside of Austin. It is always held in the early part of December and the weather has ranged from relatively warm to ice storms. Today was a foggy day with 40 degrees and a light rain. Perfect.

Central Texas is flat but the country roads around this lake are very hilly. I survived and it was good warm up for the White Rock marathon in Dallas next weekend.