Tennis

Yesterday for the first time in a long time, I picked up a tennis racket. That's right -- Brian is attempting what has previously been thought of as impossible -- he is trying to teach me tennis. We had our first court time this week and we plan to go again on Saturday, so I'm sure there will be more updates on this front.

Ferrets and their spaces

Yesterday we got a new ferret tent for the ferrets to rest in while in their cage. Specifically, I wanted to get it for Rex, because ferrets are supposed to become less anxious when they have more secure places to hide in their cage. All the ferrets have spent time in their new tent, but Chewbacca seems to really like it. He spent almost all day in it today, including most of playtime. Here he is saying hello:


When outside of their cage, the ferrets also enjoy having secure places to nap. The most common place to find napping ferrets is inside their condo. Here you can see Eve (above) and Rex (below) occupying two of the three condo levels.

Haircut

Last week I got a haircut. I also had them add some darker colors for winter. The difference isn't too extreme, but you can definitely tell in person (it is harder in the photo).

New Recipe

I tried a new recipe this week that I saw on the Food Network, and it was pretty good. I thought some of you readers might also want to try it.

1) Cube an eggplant and place on a baking tray with a bunch of cherry tomatoes, a couple garlic cloves, and a red pepper (cut up into large pieces). Add salt, pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes (350 degrees or so).

2) Cook some pasta, whatever shape you want.

3) Once eggplant is starting to get nice and browned, remove vegis from oven. Place all vegis in a food processor, add some olive oil, and pulse until blended into a fine sauce.

4) Add sauce to drained pasta and stir.

That is the recipe! I also added some ground beef that I browned in a separate pan because I wanted some meat, but it is not necessary. Let me know what you think if you try this recipe.

And a few more pictures

Some pictures

Finally finally I have downloaded all the pictures from December and can post some here. My computer needed a new power supply when I got home, so I needed a little extra time to pull things together.

Strawberries in January?

Well, I am back home now. I was supposed to arrive on Sunday night, but I didn't manage to get back until Monday afternoon. And my luggage didn't arrive until late Tuesday night! But despite the flight troubles, I did get home eventually, which is really the main point in the long run.

Today I was at the grocery store looking at the fruits, and they had strawberries! I was quite surprised to see them so early. These strawberries were grown in Florida. The only reasoning that makes sense to me is that the recent cold temperatures forced the growers to pick the berries earlier than expected to prevent them from dying. Still, it is pretty weird to be eating fresh strawberries in January. I guess it fits with the 75 degree weather we have now though.

A Josiah-eye View

This is Josiah. He is modeling my shoes.


Right after I took this picture, Josiah 'borrowed' my camera to take some pictures himself. Some of the pictures he took are below.

Cross country skiing

Today Mom and I went skiing in the morning. The snow was very pretty on the trees (most of it fell in the last couple days). Here are a few pictures of the snowy woods.