Earlier this week a certain naughty kitty decided he didn't like my puzzle and took apart half of it. I put tin foil across to stop him from doing it again. I heard cats don't like tin foil. Is that actually true or just a rumor?  Brooke cleaned our upstairs closet and found two Chia Pets. Neither one of them are Chia Obama , though Homer does look awfully presidential in this pose. They haven't been growing so she created some makeshift greenhouses. My pops came back to pick up my mom and help me with my 1920's toilet. A week later and no leaks. Looks like we did a good job. This gave me an excuse to try out my Christmas present from my in-laws.    Then we headed to the Mall of America. I'm pretty sure we are the only ones we know that actually shop here. I worked here at a spin-off store of Forever 21 when I first moved to Minnesota.  I feel no shame for shopping at this monstrosity. It often has the best sales rack of any...

As soon as I got up I took poolish, a yeasty bread starter, out of the fridge, only to realize I didn't have all the ingredients. My mom and pops had arrived late on Saturday night. Here's my dad drinking his obligatory McDonald's coffee. He soon headed home. He was just dropping my mom off for a concert she was going to on Thursday. Brooke's been trudging away at the puzzle. After buying this puzzle, I realized I don't really like puzzles. When we got this Scott was like, I don't think this will be that hard. Once he saw how big it was he quit. I only find like 2 pieces an hour. This probably won't get finished until summer.  I'm sure you know what she's eating. Scott worked on this weeks bread. Greek Celebration. I should have mentioned earlier, but my goal for this year is to make every bread recipe in my book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice. This book was actually used as a text book for my bread class in Culin...

I headed out of town to meet up with Scott's sister (and my sister-in-law) for wedding type related things in Chicago. We just have one car so I took the Greyhound down to Illinois. I hadn't been to Chicago in years, I was pretty excited to be going.   The trip takes one quick stop at a McDonalds. I ran over to the nearest gas station and chose a different option for lunch.  That night I stayed with Katie's friend Allison and this pretty little miss. They drove an hour just to pick me up from the bus stop. What nice ladies.  Katie is having pies instead of cake for her wedding dessert. We met up at Hoosier Mama Pie Company for breakfast and tastings the next morning.  The pies were delicious and are made from scratch every morning. Funny face, Brooke! Their store is so tiny and so adorable. There were like 12 people working in the back no one was running into one another. We got a hotel at the Residence...