Is it naptime yet?

We've been going, going, going for several weeks now. Lots of good stuff -- but even lots of good stuff is exhausting. In the past few weeks:

* Ken's softball tournament in Washington was the 2nd weekend of June. It poured the entire time. I mean POURED. Yuck. I went for a few of his games after I picked up 700 lbs of basalt to build a garden border. I am still in the process of building it.

* Had another Top Chef showdown. A potato battle. I wasn't in it, I just ate. Among the dishes were: scalloped potatoes with a truffle oil (my #1 dish), a red thai curry with udon noodles, a grilled skirt steak with mashed potatoes and chimichurri sauce, 3 kinds of kabobs: a potato chicken, an apricot potato chicken and a red potato/shrimp/mango, and lastly, a sweet potato phyllo dish that was excellent. It was a close competition with just one point separating the two.

* Dodgeball every monday night

* Ken's men's softball league every tuesday night

* Ken's co-ed softball league every sunday night

* Tom and Amy visited from San Francisco for the weekend of June 15/17th

* Last weekend was my 30th birthday; we went camping at Olallie Lake (south of Mt. Hood, about 10 miles north of Mt. Jefferson). We were going to go to Horseshoe Lake, but there was still snow on the ground. Yes, it is June. I made eggs benedict for breakfast on my birthday with mimosas and bloody marys. One of my best camp breakfasts, if I do say so myself. Turns out it's easier to make than one would think. I even cured and smoked my own canadian bacon. That was exciting. In all, we had a great time but camping is always exhausting.

* For said camping trip, I was looking for a breakfast idea that I could make ahead... something like a coffee cake (so I could sleep in a bit and not feel guilty about the hungry early risers). I ended up finding my favorite recipe for coffee cake yet. A nice change from the cinnamon varieties that are everywhere. I made it Thursday night and it was awesome (and demolished) when we cut into it on Saturday:

Cherry Almond Coffee Cake
White Rose Inn, Emporia, KS; Bon Appétit, November
1995; Serves 12

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream

1/2 21-ounce can cherry pie filling (I used some cherry jam with whole cherries)
1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds (about 2 ounces) (didn't add due to friend's allergies)

Streusel topping: 1/4 cup butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour. Mix together and crumble on top.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 10-inch-diameter springform pan. Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light. Add eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract and beat well. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Mix half of dry ingredients into butter mixture. Mix in sour cream, then remaining dry ingredients. Pour 2/3 of batter (about 2 cups) into prepared pan. Drop pie filling by tablespoons evenly over batter. Drop remaining batter by spoonfuls over pie filling. Using back of spoon, carefully spread batter over filling. Sprinkle with almonds. Bake until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Cool in pan on rack. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover with foil and store at room temperature.) Cut around sides of pan. Remove pan.

* We ordered and received new siding for the garage (we have yet to install it; Ken took off the old stuff last night. The old usable stuff will be donated to the Rebuilding Center.)

* We are struggling to hold everything together in our lives. They're putting up the fence between our house and the lot next door this weekend. That means we have to install the siding pronto. We also are building 7 ft high tomato cages since that's how big our tomatoes got last year before they toppled over the measly old 4' cages. Only we've been swamped and have only finished 5 of 15. The tomatoes continue to grow. It will be a photo finish to see if we can get the cages in the ground in time before the plants get too big.

* Karl arrives tonight from Tucson.

* Driving to Seattle tomorrow for the potlatch tournament (ultimate frisbee). We'll be camping on the fields -- along with the 1000 or so other people that will be attending. Taryn organized the team. Chuck and Dana are meeting us all there (although I got a call this morning saying they may not make it because rain cancelled most flights out of NYC. They slept in the airport last night - yuck. The first "guarateed" flight leaves July 1. They were on standby as of this morning and if they didn't get it, they were bailing on their trip. I don't blame them. I haven't heard from them since.... does that mean that they are in the air?).

* June 20th was Ken's mom's birthday. Yesterday was my parents' 37th anniversary. And Taryn's 31st birthday. Tomorrow is my mom's birthday. Congratulations to all.

* Also congratulations to Rob and Jana -- I just heard that they are expecting their second child.


I think that's about it. At least I hope that's it. I can hardly keep track of everything. My only saving grace is that Ken is feeling the same way. It's nice that even though we're stretched so thin, we are still on the same page. That's a great feeling. Hope you're all doing well. Lots of love, Lisa