Are You Up To The Challenge?

My friend Monica just started a fantastic website, sure to become your new pastime:

http://www.ingredientchallenge.com/

Each week on Ingredient Challenge, Monica presents a particular food. The first week, it was limes. This week, it's summer squash. Next week? You'll have to tune in! Cook something delicious with the ingredient, and post the recipe. You may even win a prize!

Uncle E Comes to Cincinnati!

My brother Spencer came to visit Cincinnati recently, and we had a grand time. He was making the tour of nieces - you can check out The Bowler blog for pics of him in D.C. Our favorite spots were the Reds v. Red Sox game and the famed Cincinnati Zoo. Thanks, Uncle Spence, for coming to play!

Shame, Shame, Shame

Okay, now it's June 1 and we're coming up on six months since the last blog update. Shameful. And not for lack of news! Life has been pretty busy this year so far, so I think this blog will be just a quick catch-up with associated pictures.



In the travel log:

We went to Salt Lake at the end of January for Grandpa Hinckley's funeral. We miss him more than words can express, but are glad that he and Grandma are together. The week was filled with peace and wonderful experiences.

In April, we flew to Phoenix for a friend's wedding - Rob's first time in my hometown! We had so much fun visiting family and friends, and enjoying the desert. There's simply nothing like it. The wedding was beautiful, and we had a great time. We swam in Uncle Tom and Aunt Sylvia's pool. We wandered Tortilla Flat and took a boat ride through breathtaking Canyon Lake in the Superstitions. We visited all the Arizona Hansen cousins and got to give them big hugs and have lots of catch up chatting.



We drove past our old house in Scottsdale. We wandered Old Town Scottsdale. We had a magical time!





Memorial Day weekend took us to Red River Gorge in Kentucky with Jared and Dani Jensen, and Matt and Camie Christensen. Altogether, we had 4 two-year-olds and big sister Lydia Christensen (age 5). Ellie was very taken with Jacob and Claire Jensen and Lydia and Clayton Christensen, and she popped out of bed each morning saying, "Want play kiddos!" We hiked Natural Bridge and a few other gorgeous trails, took the canoe and paddleboat around the lake, played games on the deck of the cabin, and roasted s'mores by the campfire.









This week, we got to play with Grammie and Pops Hinckley right here in Middle America! The day they arrived, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. like it was Christmas morning. We did all kinds of important Cincinnati things: Montgomery Inn pulled pork and Graeter's black raspberry chip ice cream, Harriet Beecher Stowe house, Joseph Beth Booksellers (one of the great independent booksellers), Greenacres Farm (a pilgrimage for any sustainable agriculture fan), the zoo, Germano's Italian Restaurant, and the Loveland Bike Trail. Ellie cried and cried at the airport when we had to say good-bye - it was a pretty pitiful sight! It was so, so fun to have them here. We talked non-stop the whole time, and it still didn't feel like we talked enough!








I think that completes the travel log. Other life news? teamLesan has a baby boy arriving at the end of September! The day we found out, Rob ate a double bacon barbecue cheeseburger from Cheesecake Factory in celebration. We're not sure that Ellie entirely understands what is about to happen, but she is kind enough to offer sips of milk and fruit leather to my tummy, saying "Want share baby."

Well, I won't make an absolute promise to shorten the delay between blog entries. As Mary Poppins says, "That's a pie crust promise: easily made, easily broken." But I do hope to not engage in shameful blog neglect in the near future.

PS: The iMac is everything it's cracked up to be, and Rob has talked me into buying him a MacBook for his birthday in August. We'll never be PC people again!

"And if you rub it, it will grant you three iWishes"

Well, it happens to everyone at least once.  You come downstairs and sleepily turn on your computer while getting breakfast.  Suddenly and without warning, you find a scary "I refuse to boot up" screen and realize that the worst has occurred - the hard drive has crashed.  If you're like us, you are wholly unprepared in this worst of moments.  You haven't backed up your documents, pictures or music in two years.  A sick feeling begins in your stomach.

In my case, I immediately called my computer-genius and ever calm husband, who was already at work.  Help!  Well, evening came, and Rob started attempting the great repair.  To no avail.  So many parts of the hard drive had crashed, along with other important computer components, that my laptop was unsalvageable.  Along with aforementioned precious files.  We took a deep breath.  I tried to hold back the tears.

Then we made the decision that we'd both been considering all day.  There was no place to go but the Apple store.  So we hopped in the car, pajama-clad Ellie in tow, and headed over to that wondrous place.  A few minutes later, we walked out with an iMac.

I'm trying to properly mourn the loss of my HP laptop.  I am deeply mourning the loss of my files, and send a plea to any and all who might have pictures of us to please email them to hollylesan@gmail.com.

It's hard to properly  mourn the loss of a PC, however, when I'm staring at the shiny iMac in my office.  My mourning is mixed with absolutely giddiness about my new life.  I am a Mac person.  I have long imagined myself part of the artsy, literary, ultra-cool Mac group.  I may spend my days firmly entrenched in the decidedly PC world of law and business, but underneath all that PC exterior is the heart of an artist.  Well, I'm hiding no longer.  And I'm looking forward to many years of photo, movie, and artsy creations.  Deep breath and sigh, and into a brave new world.

Daddy's Little Buckeye

Well, it's game day. Ohio State Buckeyes v. Michigan Wolverines.

If the Bucks win, Rob will post a detailed victory report. If we lose, well, let's not think about that right now.

Kick off is at noon. Go Bucks!

Happy Halloween!

Ellie was a princess, of course. She had a tiara and a wand and a tulle skirt with hot pink bows - a birthday present from the Bowler girls. And, yes, her shirt says "Tiaras Make You Taller." Well, Rob says, whatever works...

Marc and Sarah came over and spent the evening with us. We ordered pizza and answered the constant ring of the door bell. Before it got dark, Ellie wanted to sit on the porch and hand out the candy herself. So of course we did. When trick-or-treating in Loveland closed at 7:30 p.m., we went over to the Strikes house where Monica and Jon were house-sitting. Pratt was an iPod this year. The picture doesn't really give the full view of the costume, which was elaborate and accurate. Then we went over to Nana and Keith's house, of course, to get ooohs and ahhs from them. Ellie twirled her wand and held onto her treat bag the entire time. She even kept her tiara on until we got to Nana's house, when she decided she'd had enough of being taller. It was a late night for a little princess, but too much fun to turn in early!

Anyone feel like applesauce?

Okay, our blog is sorely out of date. Sorry. I've been wanting to write this story for awhile, and have very little idea how to put it into words. I did something recently that I've never done before.

I canned. You know, like our mothers and grandmothers did. With the cooking and stirring and steam-sealing. The Kerr jars and lids. The whole thing.

Our friends the Harwards can a few bushels of apples every fall. You know, just a hundred or more pounds of apples. Nancy has an applesauce machine and a steam-sealer (or whatever it's called that seals the lids to the bottles), and years of expertise. So my friend Monica suggested that we join her this year and get some applesauce in our respective food storages. I signed up for half a bushel, and Ellie and I went over to Nancy's house one rainy afternoon to get to work. Monica brought Pratt, and the two kiddos traded off taking naps in the pack and play, eating, and playing. They did pretty well for the first several hours.

By the time 5:00 hit, we knew the end was nowhere in sight. So we called our husbands and told them to come over for a pizza/applesauce-making party. Once Rob, Michael Harward, and Jon arrived, they joined the applesauce-making extravaganza, which made the whole thing go faster - and re-energized us. We ate delicious Dewey's Pizza (for those of you who have access to this delightful place, I highly recommend the Green Lantern - goat cheese and artichokes on a pizza!) and then got back to work in the kitchen.

By 9:00 p.m., Ellie was absolutely demanding that we take her home. Monica, Jon, Nancy and Michael pressed forward until past 10:00 until the whole project was complete.

Our total? We made 70+ quarts of applesauce from 4 bushels, which we figure totals about 170 pounds of apples. My half bushel of apples made 9 quarts, which I was sure would last us forever. But this week we're polishing off the second quart, and we're going to have to start rationing applesauce.

Next year a bushel? It's possible. Now that I've entered this particular realm of Mormon Motherdom, or Pioneer Womandom, or something, there's no going back. For a complete photo essay on the project, visit Monica's blog (which is NOT Jon's blog - literally): http://www.cherryredmustang.blogspot.com/