Notes from the ‘Chop

Last weekend my mom’s side of the family got together for the fourth annual Sullivan reunion in Alvord, Iowa. It seems there are fewer farm kitties and less card playing with each year that passes, but we still manage to have a very good time.

It was Hannie’s first road trip! She slept most of the way, and then got antsy towards the end. I totally understand.

My mom swears that Hannie’s pinky is crooked, like the rest of the Sullivans’. So we all looked at each other’s pinkies.

Michael had collected many dead tree branches from around the farm, and Dad and Bryan cut them up for the fire.

Mom and I drove the golf cart to visit some other relatives. Peace, homies.

Jenny and Jeremy found the scientific way to health, beauty and relaxation hidden in the old house. (Only part of the box, and that’s a-okay.)

My mom and her family lived in this house when she was in high school. She tells me that she came home from school one day and Grandma and Grandpa had moved into the other house (the house they currently live in), so I guess they got all new everything because they certainly left a lot of stuff in the old house. Slowly Grandpa is dismantling the old house, but there are still many moldy treasures to discover.

Seriously. Some of this stuff would be so awesome if it wasn’t all disgusting.

Jamie groomed a couple Shih Tzus, Diego and Puddy.

Kim was attacked by the snipe! Karyn has a better photo.

Did I mention that I brought hula hoops? Oh, yeah.

Jenny was the reigning champ.

TOO MANY PHOTOS! Okay, just a few more.

We were joined by neighbors and extended family for awesome food from Dad and fireworks Saturday afternoon/night.

I’ll link here to the photos of Sullivan generations that I took for Karyn: ladies – ladies with Grandpa – mixed – and re-mixed

This one is cute because Grandma and Hannie are smilin’ at each other.

I also brought glow sticks, which were way more awesome than sparklers.

Bryan picked out some really awesome fireworks this year, but I only took one photo.

There are many more photos on Flickr, of course.

Next year is #5! Jamie and I are planning to bring commemorative t-shirts.

Last Tuesday, the 23rd, I joined all of my neighbors from Northeast Minneapolis (and surrounding suburbs) on Central Avenue to watch the annual Celebrate Northeast Parade.

Orange you glad I didn’t say banana?

It’s the little things.

Shucks! We missed Tater Daze in Brooklyn Park! Maybe next year…

Miss Hotdish is a royalty title that all Minnesotans could envy, don’tcha know?

What do rugby and hard cider have in common?

We saw 4 different groups of Shriners. These were not the cool ones.

Nerdy and uncomfortable-looking…

… but talented!

I’ve seen this guy’s friends before…

CARdinal… Get it?

I’m still giggling at my previous caption, just so you know.

I think know I need a Northeast Minneapolis flag.

These were some pretty cool kids. But the coolest is that kid with the pseudo eye patch—one of the lenses is missing from his sunglasses.

Instead of the parade ending with horses, it ended with clowns. Weird.

This gnome’s for Karyn.

Kristi’s printer was misbehaving on Sunday night, so I used the opportunity to finally get my printer/scanner set up in my “office” (aka the room of tiny piles). So now I can finally share our lovely time in the (free!) photo booth at Rock the Garden!

Maybe I don’t visit enough photo booths, but I loved that this one had a digital “preview” screen, but also printed the “classic” strip of four photos. This format is easier to hang on the fridge.

Thanks to Heidi:

• Canned Sweet Corn, drained (I used one can.)
• Canned Black Beans, rinsed and drained (I used one can.)
• Avocado, chopped (I used one.)
• Cilantro, chopped (I used one bunch.)
• Garlic Cloves, chopped (I used one head.)
• Jalapenos (as many as you want for as spicy as you want), seeds and veins removed and diced small (I used two.)
• Tabasco Sauce
• Lime Juice
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper (I actually didn’t use either of these—it was seasoned perfectly with everything else!)

Mix to taste—personal preference!

Thanks to Rachel Ray:

White Bean and Barley Risotto

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 2-1/2 cups beef broth
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• One 15-ounce can small white beans
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent, about 6 minutes.
2. Stir in the broth and barley and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer until the barley is tender, 30 to 40 minutes.
3. Stir in the white beans and simmer for 5 minutes. Season with pepper, stir in the parsley and serve.

And thanks to Karyn and Bryan for shiny, new-to-me pots and pans!

I knew my Mac at work was older, but in the year that I’ve been using it I thought it was a Mac Pro. Today I actually looked at it and found that it’s a PowerMac G5 (these machines were discontinued in 2006), which means it doesn’t have an Intel processor. This is a huge bummer for me, because I had made requests to get it all upgraded and snazzy—I went from Tiger (Mac OS 10.4) to Leopard (Mac OS 10.5), and I was in the process of getting Parallels Desktop installed so I could run Windows on my Mac (which would mean that I wouldn’t need my Dell laptop).

Last Friday my coworker, David, received a monitor upgrade that he had requested (from a 19″ widescreen to a 24″ widescreen), so I hooked up his extra monitor to my Mac and had two big monitors (my orginal monitor is a 20″ widescreen). I was all excited for Parallels to be installed this week—I could keep Mac in one window, and Windows in the other.

After my initial disappoint with my non-Intel Mac, I thought I could at least hook up the second monitor to the Dell laptop to improve that situation… but then I realized that I would need another keyboard, which would only add to the clutter on my desk. I want to save space, not eliminate it!

This is all just so disappointing. Though it will still be nice to have two monitors for most of my projects, now I’m just feeling awfully self-conscious about people walking by, seeing all of my monitors, and wondering why I need so many. Is it overkill? We’ll see.