Dreams, Moments, Travels
As the many years of Caroline’s long life have gone by she has become a well-rounded person, continuing her education to get a college degree, expanding her horizons with a ton of travel experiences, taking up yoga, even trying belly dancing. She has a few hobbies where she emphasizes quality time, such as crocheting in her off time. This sweater Caroline is crocheting is made of bamboo yarn. I think it will look smashing on her, what do you think?
Nowhere to go, nothing to do, Caroline lounges around in her jim-jams sipping tea relaxing in her bean bag on a lazy Sunday. Only 39 days left until my old lady officially becomes an ‘old lady’. Isn’t she just precious in her Hello Kitty jammies? I love you, Caroline.
Rise and shine sweetness, it’s only 40 days till your 40th birthday. In honor of my beautiful wife’s big four-oh happening on December 12th, I have chosen the best gift yet I have given this most precious woman in my life – I am celebrating her in photographs here for the next 40 days. And so it is that on this early Saturday morning, I awoke my birthday girl Caroline, that’s right everyone, this is what my wife looks like before makeup and all the primping that comes with getting old, like her. Get ready, Caroline, for the greatest birthday gift you are likely ever to receive. Big Hugs, Sweety!!!
Be sure to click the above image to see a larger image and clearer view of the 88 National Park pamphlets we have collected over the past seven years. Caroline and I have actually visited 128 National Parks and Monuments but haven’t always been able to nab one of the brochures; either they were out, or there wasn’t ever one printed. We still have 261 parks and monuments left to visit, which seems to be nearly impossible as trying to get to some of these remote outposts at a rate of nearly nine a year for the next 30 years is a tough nut to crack. Highlights and favorites would include Yellowstone at the top of the list, Glacier, Everglades, Redwoods, Olympic, Grand Teton, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Crater Lake, Chaco Culture, and Carlsbad Caverns.
Starting with 750ml of Vodka and 750ml of Everclear, Caroline peeled approximately 35 lemons she picked in Santa Barbara, California, threw them into a jar with the alcohol, and will now wait a patient 2 months for the mixture to brew. In November she will boil water and sugar to make a syrup, add it to the lemon alcohol mixture minus the zest, and again, let it sit for a while. Just before Christmas and in time for giving away as gifts, Caroline will have made her first batch of the popular Italian liqueur called Limoncello.
A few weeks ago, I wrote of buying the ingredients for making Floating Garden Tea inspired by House of Nanking in San Francisco, California. Well, after one successful attempt it was time to make another batch and brag about it. The original inspiration for the recipe came from a now-defunct blog, but I was thrown a monkey wrench when a lady at a Chinese herbalist suggested I add jujubes or red dates to the mix and cook it all up in a crockpot – which is what I have done here on the second batch. I would have photographed the first batch but I started it late at night and by morning the chrysanthemums were haggard and had sunk to the bottom, but here you can see that as the chrysanthemums, goji berries, rosebuds, and red dates slowly cook, they are simply beautiful. If you’d like to know how to make this, click here, for my original entry.