If you know me, you know I’m a cake snob. Box mixes are okay, but homemade cakes are my true love. Cake cooked in the microwave, though? I admit, in the past I’ve been seduced by the promise of piping-hot cakey goodness in only a few minutes, or the cuteness of one serving of cake in a coffee mug (and no mixing bowls to wash).

Yet every microwave-cake recipe I had ever tried was a disappointment. My usual response to those recipes now is, Rubbery, unevenly-cooked cake that doesn’t really satisfy any craving? Bleah, no thank you. I’m glad I tried this recipe from Prudent Baby, because I was very pleasantly surprised by how tasty it is. And it’s easy! I’ve made it about five times, tweaking the recipe to suit my tastes, and everyone who has tried it has loved it.

Soften a tablespoon of butter in each mug, 10-15 seconds in the microwave on medium power. You want the butter soft but not melted. (The mug[s] you use can be large or small, it doesn’t really matter. If you use a smallish mug, the finished cake will puff out over the top a little, which is fine.)

Add two tablespoons of sugar and stir till it’s fluffy and creamy.

Pour a little bit of vanilla into each mug. I just eyeballed it, but if you want you could measure out 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla.

This step is optional. If you don’t mind a crumbly cake (or you can’t eat eggs) you can skip it. If you want a chewier, more, uh, cake-like cake then mix in about half an egg per mug. The first time I made these, I happened to have egg yolks in the fridge left over from making an angel food cake, so I just used one yolk per mug. You could also break an egg into a bowl and lightly beat it, then use half of that. Or you could even use a whole egg, if you want. It will just make for a rather dense, eggy cake which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Add two tablespoons of vanilla or plain yogurt (or sour cream, or even sour milk or buttermilk in a pinch) to your mug and stir well.

Mix in 1/4 cup of flour, 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder, a sprinkle of cinnamon and a pinch of salt.

Now for the best part: the streusel topping! In another bowl, for each mug mix together 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Cut 1 tablespoon of cold butter into small bits and add that to the bowl, then use your fingers to rub and smoosh the butter into the flour mixture till it’s well combined. Sprinkle that over the top of the cake batter in the mug.

Stick your mug into the microwave and cook on high for 1 minute, and in additional 10-second increments as needed. In my microwave, one mug of cake is done in 1 minute 20 seconds, and two mugs of cake take about 2 minutes 30 seconds.

Ta-daa! Coffee cake in a mug, in less than ten minutes. Just be sure to let it cool a bit before you eat it. Serve with pickled eggs and pretzels for an excellent late-night supper.

Microwaved Coffee Cake in a Mug
serves 1

• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• optional: 1 egg, lightly beaten (or 1 egg yolk or 1 egg white)
• 2 Tbsp vanilla or plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• sprinkle of cinnamon
• pinch of salt

Streusel Topping:

• 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp butter

1. In a large or small mug, soften (not melt) butter in microwave for 10-15 seconds on medium.
2. Add sugar and mix till creamy and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla.
4. Stir in the yogurt.
5. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Mix well.
6. Make the streusel topping: mix flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Add cut-up butter and rub into flour mixture till well-combined.
7. Sprinkle topping over batter in mug.
8. Cook in microwave on high power for one minute, plus additional 10-second increments as necessary. When the cake looks mostly dry, it’s done. Let it sit for a minute to finish cooking.

Annalie drew these teeny portraits of our family on something, and I knew immediately I would use them for return-address labels on our Christmas cards. She draws stuff like this all the time that surprises and delights me. It’s fairly awesome.

You know what else is fairly awesome? You guys are. Thank you for sticking with me and continuing to read through the past year of baby-induced blog neglect; supporting me and saying kind things when I am frustrated or troubled; cheering me up with your funny stories when I need to laugh; and just generally being some of the nicest people on the internets. I wish each and every one of you a happy, healthy new year full of good things. May 2012 be the year you learn to tango, go on your dream vacation, see your kids succeed wildly, eat more vegetables, own your beauty, read life-changing books, find a new favorite drink, or whatever it is you think about when you wish upon a star.

View large.

p.s. New-old banner, by Brenda as always.

The main reason I blog is because Brenda told me to.

:: The End ::

Just kidding. But this post almost could be that short. The main reason I finally started a blog, three years after abandoning the personal website I’d lovingly hand-coded from 1997 to 2004, was because Brenda kept telling me I should do it. She told me that I’m such a writer, and I take good photos, and I should just do it because I would be good at it and have a blast.

I already read and regularly commented on a few blogs, and had been part of the 7 Days community on Flickr for a while, so I knew that it would probably be fun, but I still hesitated, worried that non-internetty friends and relatives wouldn’t understand why I wanted to dedicate a website to talking about my life, that they would see it as a weird, navel-gazing kind of thing to do. I hemmed and hawed for months before I finally took the plunge (assisted by Heather and Jessica‘s excellent tutorials about how to ditch my blogging training wheels) with three posts about making my friends Erin and Rocco’s wedding cakes.

Once I’d started, I wondered why I’d been dragging my feet. Brenda was right; blogging was super fun, and useful! I could post photos and write about what we were up to for my and Troy’s parents, and all the friends and family we lived far away from thanks to the Navy. I could record moments and crafts and recipes I wanted to remember for future reference. I could ask questions and my readers would respond with advice, funny stories, recommendations.

But the best part of being a blogger is how many good friends I’ve made because of my blog. Comments led to emails, to hilarious late-night IM sessions, to in-person meet-ups, to exchanging Christmas cards and care packages, to stopping on road trips for a quick meal of Chinese with old friends I was meeting for the first time. Because of blogging, I have a friend like a sister who will help me unpack my house when I move and come stay with me for three weeks when I’m about to have a baby; and there is a woman in Australia whom I count as one of my best friends, on any continent. Because I blog, I have friends all over the world whom I otherwise never would have met or even known existed.

For a long time, it was seen as slightly shady and downright weird to admit that you had met a friend or significant other online. But as Brenda says (she says lots of good things, which is probably why she’s such a good blogger herself), the internet is better than homeroom. It actually makes more sense to meet friends online in communities you’re both into (blogs, Flickr, Star Trek forums, whatever) than to befriend people who just happen to be sitting next to you in your 3rd-period history class. The internet acts as a filter and leads you to the people who share common traits and values and interests with you. I’ve always had to laugh when I read news articles about the concern that people spending so much time online will lead to them not knowing how to interact with the real world. For me, the internet—including my blog—has been an amazing portal to the real world and some wonderful people.

I’m taking part in a blogging group called Reverb Broads that will be suggesting daily blogging prompts this December. I won’t do it every day, but I’ll be using them occasionally throughout the month as they tickle my fancy. If you want to join in, feel free! Go here or here to learn more.

I realized, after I did that last post about the newly-listed items in my Etsy shop (several of which have already been purchased, thank you very much!), that I have not blogged about pottery I’ve painted for a long time. The last post I could find that had more than a fleeting mention of dottery in it was way back in April! So let me catch you up, if you’re interested.

The little blue ‘be happy’ bowl up there is one that I painted for no particular reason or recipient. I ended up sending it to Leah as an apology for taking so long to send her my half of our flip-flop swap.

I painted this bowl for my friend Laura, with a slightly inaccurate Big Bang Theory quote on it. I don’t have a picture of it fired because Laura picked it up from the pottery shop when it was done.

The things I do for my friends. Kassie was inspired to ask me to paint this for her after reading about the “first: kindness; then: F*** AUTHORITY” mug I painted for Elaine. And because I love her, I did it. I’ll even admit it was kinda fun. But I don’t plan on painting another one. This was a limited edition mug. I don’t have a picture of this one fired either. (You can read Kassie’s hilarious account of watching me paint it here.)

She looks so innocent, doesn’t she? Not like a person who would ever ask a friend to paint a lovely dottery mug with her five favorite curse words on it.

I painted this geek dottery mug as a gift for the lovely Bex. It has two Firefly/Serenity quotes on it: “a little whimsical in the brainpan,” said by Mal in reference to the mentally-unstable River Tam; and, “Also, I can kill you with my brain,” a line said by a very calm River to a very spooked Jayne. The moral here is, never assume that just because someone’s whimsical that she is not also deadly when the situation calls for it.

I had a lot of fun painting this mug, particularly the little whimsical bits.

These annoying smudges are not fun, however. I took photos of this mug with my phone before it was fired, so I know these smudges weren’t there when I finished painting it. That means someone at the pottery studio wasn’t handling my pieces carefully. I’ve had this happen to at least three or four pieces I’ve painted at that studio. Rather disappointing because it’s only 10 minutes from my house.

Brenda had asked me to paint her a round dottery mug a while back, when her cool blue coral mug broke and she missed having a round mug. When I was in California and Brenda had the summer fiesta in our honor, she said that she needed to remember how much fun it is for her when she throws parties. So I painted her this mug as a reminder to be festive.

A little ‘be happy’ dottery vase I painted for Madge, at her request.

This cunning mug was a custom order for my Etsy shop, a dotty mug with Jayne Cobb’s hat on the front and a Firefly quote on the back. I was a bit nervous about painting the hat, but I think it turned out pretty well.

“Dear Diary, Today I was pompous and my sister was crazy…it was the best day ever.”

Shiny.

Annalie painted this Azurill plate the same day that I painted Katie’s NO WHINING sign. She pored over her Pokemon book, and picked the cutest one she thought she could paint. This was almost a disaster because she accidentally spilled a big blotch of black paint on the right ear and was very upset. I convinced her to leave the plate overnight and let it dry, and we’d come back the next day to fix it. We scraped the mistake off, and fixed the blue and pink, and now you can’t even tell the black blotch was there.

Remember those ‘internet friends FTW!’ mugs that Rainbow and I painted while I was in Omaha? Bad news.

It got broken during shipping. I was fairly bummed about this. I really liked those colors, and now Rainbow’s mug will be lonely.

I couldn’t even superglue it together and use it to hold pens, because there was a big ol’ U-shaped crack all across one side. Of all the mugs and bowls and things I’ve shipped, this is the first one I’m aware of that has broken. So it’s possible there was some flaw in the bisque that made it more prone to breaking.

At least I still have the memories. And an excuse to drag Rainbow to paint pottery with me again next time I’m in Omaha.

I actually got to paint pottery twice when we were in Omaha. The second time, I went with my mom, my girls, and Aurora. We did a handprint plate for my my mom with all three of her granddaughters’ handprints on it.

My mom wasn’t planning for Aurora to paint anything, but when she saw Annalie gathering paint and brushes, she said, “I paint? I paint too?” I helped her pick a plate and paint colors, and she painted the heck out of that plate.

Elliora didn’t paint. She hung out in the stroller, played with my mom’s keys.

She had her first lollipop, which she kept rubbing on her hair, then putting back in her mouth with an “Mmmmm!” Crazy baby.

Annalie fingerpainted this butter dish for my parents. I wrote the word ‘Butter’ on it just in case they couldn’t remember what they were supposed to use it for. (This is a photo of it unfired; my mom didn’t get to pick it up till after we left.)

Annalie also painted this plate for me, using my favorite colors. Isn’t she sweet?

Elliora did paint this plate, sort of. I helped her put handprints all over it one day when we were at our favorite pottery studio in Maryland. I think it turned out kinda cute, no?

I think it’s pretty clear that I do what I love, or this post wouldn’t have been nearly this long.

Did you know that today is Small Business Saturday? I figured that would be the perfect time to finally get around to updating my Etsy shop with all those pottery pieces I’ve been meaning to list for ages, starting with the funky square dottery dish up there.

Most of the rest of these are from the Geek Dottery collection, starting with a Princess Bride quote mug. I painted this on a day when I needed to remind myself that sometimes, life is pain, and anyone who says differently is selling something.

“Castle” quote dottery mug. Painted with one of my favorite quotes from the TV show Castle, starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic: “If you don’t believe in even the possibility of magic, you’ll never ever find it.”

Jayne Cobb—the sarcastic, uncouth, thuggish mercenary—is, against all reason, probably my favorite character from Firefly and Serenity. I think that’s mostly because of the fantastic job Adam Baldwin does of creating a character who’s loveable and possibly treacherous all at the same time. Some of my favorite Jayne quotes are on this Jayne Cobb Firefly/Serenity mug: “Time for some thrilling heroics,” “Shiny. Let’s be bad guys,” and “Pretty cunning, don’tcha think?”

Any Browncoat’d be proud to own this Firefly/Serenity mug painted with two of the ‘Verse’s best lines: Mal’s “I aim to misbehave,” and Jayne’s “Shiny. Let’s be bad guys.”

One of my favorite blog posts of Brenda’s is about how you should always “do what you love.” I love that, so I painted it on a mug.

Happy shopping, in my Etsy shop or any other small business of your choice!

Oh, I also wanted to mention that I recently created a Facebook page for my blog. If you’re into that kind of thing, feel free to like it! (There’s actually a Like Box over there in the sidebar for you to click.)

Have a great weekend, y’all.

You might remember that a few months ago, I did a giveaway of my good friend Brenda‘s first published book, Secret Agent Josephine’s ABC’s.

Spy eyes.

This book is baby-approved! (Photos by Brenda Ponnay)

I mentioned back then that Brenda had two more books she was working on, one about colors and one about numbers. Well, guess what. The spotted cuckoo is flying backwards.

They’re here! ABC’s, Colors, and Numbers! All three books are available on Amazon in paperback or ebook. All three books are full of the whimsical, clever illustrations that are Brenda’s trademark style.

Funny story about the letter U in the ABC’s book. Way back when Brenda was designing the alphabet cards that the ABC’s book is based on, she was trying to decide between unicorn and umbrella for the ‘U’ card, so she asked the nearest 3-year-old which one she liked better. The nearest 3-year-old happened to be Annalie, and she said, “Neither. You should do underwear!”)

3-year-olds: finding underwear hilarious since the dawn of time.

To celebrate the release of the third book, Brenda is doing a virtual book tour, with one stop for each letter of the alphabet. This here blog is the B stop (or one of them, anyway—thanks to a slight mix-up there are two B stops!) in case you hadn’t figured that out already. And as a special treat for you, the super-stealthy followers of the book tour, Brenda is offering you the chance to win a print of the letter B from the ABC’s book! To enter the print giveaway, leave a comment on this post…oh. let’s say, your favorite place that starts with the letter B. Comment before midnight PST on November 30th from anywhere in the world for a chance to win, and keep following the book tour for the rest of the alphabet over the coming weeks for more chances to win. (Stay tuned to my blog for the chance to win a copy of each of the books, too!)

B, I’m so proud of you for all the hard work you did getting these books illustrated and following your dream of being published! You said once on your blog a long time ago that you should do what you love, and you constantly remind me of that in the way you live your life. You complain about your job sometimes just like anyone else, but you do love what you do, and you inspire me and others to follow our passions too. Thank you for that, and for brightening our lives with your artistic talent. Good luck on the rest of your book tour!

October 20: “Pardon me, Mom. I need to take this important call on my markerphone.” This was the beginning of Elliora pretending that many things—hairbrushes, barbies, remote controls, dollhouse furniture—are phones.

October 21: My business cards came from the Buy More!?

October 22: We drove down to North Carolina for our nephew Leo’s 6th birthday party! Annalie had fun playing games in the arcade and loved playing miniature golf for the first time.

Dana took this shot of our family. It’s not perfect—Elliora was overdue for a nap and resisting sleep and quite cranky—but I like it anyway.

Annalie and Leo had a blast playing on the trampoline, as usual.

They also spent some time playing in Leo’s room, making food for all of Leo’s many animals. I love how well they get along. Elliora spent a lot of time blowing her own mind, putting things into and taking things out of a toy hamster ball.

October 24: Hot dog sandwiches and roasted asparagus for lunch. That’s how we roll.

Since Elliora recently started sleeping in her own room, we decided it was time to make it a bit prettier and more functional. I am the rare mom who has never gone crazy designing a nursery when she was pregnant. I think I used to care about stuff like that, but being in the Navy for 16 years, living mostly in rentals, and moving every couple years has made me a lot more indifferent to that kind of thing. Elliora’s room was thrown together with stuff we already owned (dresser, changing table, bookcase) and stuff we bought in a couple of quick trips to IKEA (crib, curtains, rug).

The blue quilt up on the wall is mainly for noise reduction. No one made it for us; my mom bought it somewhere ages ago because it was blue (Annalie’s favorite color) and had stars on it (I like stars). The rocking chair belonged to Troy’s Grandpa Gronberg, who passed away shortly before we got married. Troy’s sister Dana had this chair at her house, but it was in storage, not being used. So she let us borrow it to use in Elliora’s room for a while.

I was feeding Elliora her dinner when she grabbed the fork out of my hand and fed herself. By the end of the meal she was quite good at getting the right end of the fork into her mouth. Now she tends to get a little annoyed if I won’t let her have the fork and feed herself.

October 25: I had to fudge the Elliora-and-Katy photos for 11 months, since we were going to be in Omaha by the time she turned 11 months old and I didn’t want to skip another month.

October 26: While we were in Omaha, the girls and I all shared one small bedroom. It had its disadvantages, but one advantage was that seeing Annalie and Elliora sleeping next to each other every night was adorable.

October 27: Annalie asked for, ate a couple bites of, and then decided she didn’t want a ham roll-up (deli ham rolled up in a tortilla). She handed it to my mom, who was holding Elliora and chatting with me. Elliora grabbed the roll-up when my mom wasn’t paying attention and went to town on it.

October 28: Demonstrating for my mom and brother how the Ergo can be comfortably used to carry toddlers. Aurora thought it was pretty fun.

The geekiness is strong in my family.

Girlies dressed in their Halloween best; Annalie posing with my cousin Ted, who is also my parents’ contractor.

My new favorite photo of Aurora; that’s a whole lotta orange.

WHAT.

Self-portrait with Annalie.

October 29: This was a full day. First, I met Kassie, Rainbow and Katrina to paint pottery. Rainbow wasn’t so sure about painting pottery at first, but she surprised herself by having a lot of fun. I mean, she expected to have fun talking and laughing but I don’t think she expected to enjoy the painting part as much as she did.

It probably helped that she had an idea for what to paint before she even got there. We were talking about how cool it was that we’d reconnected and become friends via the internet, when we were only friendly acquaintances in high school and college. Rainbow suggested we needed matching necklaces, and I said, “How about mugs?” Internet friends, FTW!

After painting, we said good-bye to Rainbow and walked a couple doors down the sidewalk to B&G Tasty Foods. My doctor’s office when I was growing up was in the same strip mall as this diner. I had not been there for at least 25 years. The decor has been updated in a really great way! The food’s still the same (their specialty is the interestingly-named loose meat sandwich) and is, as advertised, quite tasty.

But even if the food hadn’t lived up to the name, I wouldn’t have minded because I got to eat with two of my favorite people.

After Elliora’s afternoon nap, we headed over to Katrina’s house for more fun. Kassie and Joe were there too, and our friends Jeff and Alma and their daughter Isa.

Elliora is apparently the best toy ever. The boys dragged and pushed Elliora around the house for a while on a plastic lid, which she loved.

As far as Annalie was concerned, though, the boys’ pet rats Ginger (above) and Steve were the best thing ever. She was rather sad to hear that we probably won’t ever get any kind of pet rodent as long as we have cats.

And I’m stopping here. I think Halloween weekend is gonna need its own post.

More photos of October and our trip to Omaha are in my Flickr.

P.S. Like the spiffy new banner in honor of Elliora’s 1st birthday at the end of this month? Thanks, Brenda!

1. Elliora playing on the floor of Brenda‘s living room while we worked on party prep for the Summer Fiesta on Saturday evening.

2. Annalie and Noah were playing companionably in his room. I asked them to smile for a picture. Annalie smiled; Noah adopted an expression that made him look as though he feared for his life.

3. Annalie playing in the supercool fountain in Sonja‘s backyard.

4. Brenda was happy to hold Elliora for me while I went to the bathroom after our arrival Friday night, but the poor baby was so very tired I thought she’d probably cry if I handed her off to someone she hadn’t seen since she was five days old. So we distracted her with keys.

5. Even though it had been a year since these four had all been together, they got along like they just saw each other last week. I love that.

6. Brenda’s cat Aqui had her kittens on our first full day here, the day of the fiesta! She had five total, all gray and white. Mama and babies all seem to be doing really well. We look forward to playing with them before we go home.

7. I took a bunch of photos of the girls in their matchy-matchy fiesta dresses, and they were all so hilariously adorable that I had to Flickr them all, even the ones that were nearly identical.

8. Fish and Elliora.

9. Ready, set, go!

10. Oh man. This is hilarious to me (and probably anyone who knows Madge and Fish) on so many levels.

Whack!

12. Madge brought flan. I had a bite just to try it. I thought I didn’t like flan. Turns out, good flan is delicious. Who knew!?

13. I finally met THE Yara . And she’s awesome, duh.

14. Fish, Sonja, and Madge may or may not have been laughing a little more than usual because there was alcohol being consumed. Probably not though. These three are some of the funniest people I know even stone cold sober.

15. Sunset in the Sticks.

16. A blurry but happy photo, taken by Fish. I’m pretty sure the alcohol had nothing to do with the blurriness. I know the happiness was all due to being with good friends.

More photos in the Flickr photoset goin’ back to Cali 2.

Commenter #4, Leta. Congratulations, Leta! Email me your mailing address (bethanyactually at gmail) and I’ll get that book sent to you soon.

Did you know that Brenda has published a book? She has! The first one (she has at least two more planned) is based on the alphabet flash cards that she made a few years ago for Bug, and they’re just as adorable in book form. You can even buy a Kindle edition to keep your kids entertained in the car or while you’re cooking dinner!

I bought a copy of the book for us, of course, and one for my 20-month-old niece just because. My mom reports that Aurora LOVES the book and has wanted to read it approximately 11 billion times since they got it. My brother has been working on teaching her the alphabet and she already knows most of her letters! This book is right up her alley, since she can practically read it herself.

Hearing how much Aurora loves this book made me think, “I should buy this for all the littles I need to give Christmas gifts to this year, and all the babies I know who are being born in the next few months!” Brilliant idea, right? So brilliant that I figured I should share it with you all. You’re welcome!

On another note, I’m so tired of being sick. Everyone in the house has been taking turns with a summer cold, the kind that leaves you listless and stuffed up and coughing. I’ve been fighting The Annoying Cold That Will Not Die (h/t Sonja) for what seems like forever. A few days ago, just as I was starting to feel better, I got a plugged milk duct! Those suckers can turn into mastitis, which I’ve never had but am scared of because I hear it’s quite painful. So I was stressing about that till it (thank God) cleared itself up. And then Monday, just as I was ready to tackle packing for California, I woke up with a fever and chills. What the heck, immune system!?

That is actually quite typical of me. Last year when I was pregnant, I was basically sick for two months with one virus or another. I think my immune system must be easily overwhelmed; once it’s working on one infection, all the other germs say, “Hey, she’s distracted! Quick, slip in while she’s not looking!”

Anyway. I’m feeling better today. I’m taking Emergen-C and drinking tons of fluids, and am trying really, really hard not to go overboard trying to make up for lost time, wearing myself out, and ending up right back where I started. Except for, um, making banana-coconut muffins and doing laundry and loading the dishwasher and sorting clothes to pack. That’s not overboard, right? Sigh. I’m doomed to be sick till September, probably.

But hey, California! Have I mentioned that we’re going to California for two weeks? Just me and the girls, making a cross-country trip to visit friends and family. We already have a ton of fun stuff planned, and my mom is going to be there at the same time as us, visiting her sister in the next town over from Brenda. Poor Troy has to stay home and work. Poor Troy, with the house and the TV and the bed alllll to himself for two weeks. I’m sure he’ll miss us terribly.

Although the travel prep is probably going to kill me, I’m quite looking forward to our actually being there, hanging out with old friends and introducing Elliora to them and my mom’s side of the family. Annalie is beyond excited to stay at Bug’s house.

I’m pretty excited that I’m going to be able to get Brenda to sign my book for me in just a few days. To celebrate that, and Brenda’s first published book, I’m going to give a copy away! Just leave a comment telling me if you’re a list-making, pack-weeks-ahead organized kind of person, or a wait-till-the-last-minute-and-oh-heck-I’ll-pack-my-laundry-they-have-washing-machines-there kind of person. If you actually buy a copy of Secret Agent Josephine’s ABC’s, forward me the Amazon order confirmation (feel free to delete your address first) and I’ll give you four extra entries in the drawing!

I’ll close comments after we arrive in California on Friday afternoon. Good luck!

This post has been brought to you by (1) me finally feeling something like normal for the first time in weeks, and (2) Elliora’s unexpectedly, blessedly long afternoon nap. That long nap was probably due to the fact that Elliora ate almost an entire grilled cheese sandwich (provolone and cheddar, ‘cuz we’re fancy like that) for lunch today, cut up into bite-size pieces and dipped in tomato and roasted red pepper soup. She loved it.

Comments are now closed. I’ll post the winner soon!