Driftwood --- Trash --- CDs (???)

Pam, Lynda and I stopped by the tidal basin in DC today to see the cherry blossoms. The festival opened yesterday. The city event planners, in their ultimate wisdom decided to direct traffic for parking away from the event and down Ohio Ave SW, toward Hains Point, which is where we parked.

It was a short walk up to the tidal basin and Pam and I decided to walk down near the water (the Potomac River, for those of you who are asking). A couple of weeks ago this section of the waterfront was underwater due to the massive amounts of rain we got coupled with all the melting snow up north.

Anyway ... there was a lot of debris left from the flooding, much of which was driftwood and trash. Then Pam spotted this thing that looked like a day planner and, me being a scavenger, I thought I would take a look. To my surprise it was not a day planner at all, but a case of CDs. So I thought to myself: These should be salvageable ... All I would have to do is wash them off and then they should play just fine. I have yet to try it but it's worth a try. Right?

Then I started thinking some more:
+ How did these CDs come to be in a flood?
+ Did the flood rip them out of someone's hand?
+ Maybe someone threw them in to the flood, maybe to see if they would float.
+ Maybe they came from a house that was flooded up river.

Kinda weird really.

I love Chick-Fil-A!

In case there wasn't enough to love about Chick-Fil-A, I tried their breakfast today. I got the bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit and it was amazing! First of all, it was gigantic - think three times the size of the same item at Mickey D's. And so tasty - the eggs were *real* and substantial, the biscuit itself was so soft and buttery that that alone probably would have been enough for me to eat. So anyway, big plug for Chick-Fil-A if you have one near you. If I had had my camera with me I would have taken a photo but alas, it was not the case.

My niece - Anna

Can you see that little face in the window? It's saying, stop taking pictures of the men on the porch (Van on the left and David on the right) and come inside and play with me! How adorable! And I did quickly stop taking pictures and went inside to play.

My latest hobby is baking bread from scratch - no breadmaker. I've been enjoying making recipes out of two great cookbooks using the no-knead method. Well, I've never considered myself a good baker because unlike cooking usually you have to follow a recipe to the letter or the baking won't turn out right. But I just couldn't stand it so I modified a recipe and this loaf was the result. I think it's delicious. It's the soft white bread recipe (has some butter and sugar in the dough) but I substituted one cup of oat bran for one cup of the flour. I also added in a few teaspoons of vital wheat gluten that is supposed to make home-made bread fluffier and last longer on the shelf. Oh, yeah, and I also sprinkled cinnamon sugar on the top. Now that I've had success with modification I will be assuredly trying more concoctions with my bread. I'm really enjoying the bread making process but two people can only eat so much bread so I can't make as much as I'd like as often as I'd like. I've already taken several loafs to work and given one to a neighbor.

Hello World

Yeah ... I know ... the title is kinda geeky. But what else should I title it? It is the first post after all.