Swimming diary

I have been swimming laps at the pool near our house on and off over the past 10 years or so. I was on and off for years, until this last summer when I got injured running. I've been pretty regular at the pool since then.

The people at the pool fascinate me. Astonishingly, a few of the people I see there each morning are the same people who were swimming 10 years ago. Some come to swim, some come to socialize. Most of the people I see there now are new, or are sporadic, or come once and I never see them again.

Swimming for 45 minutes gives you a lot of quiet time to think and to notice the people swimming. I have learned a few things.

1. No matter what, you just have to admire anybody who gets up early and puts on a swimsuit, no matter what their swimming technique or length of workout.

2. Some people go to the pool to swim--others go to socialize while wearing swimwear.

3. To burn calories swimming, you've really got to bust your butt.

4. The group of old women who "swim" every morning and then go out to breakfast never get thinner.

5. 99% of the men who wear speedos should not do so. Have they not heard of jammers? So much more appropriate and easier on the eyes for the onlookers.

6. The creepy guy hanging out pretending to swim laps is looking for a guy to go hot tubbing with.......

7. Be polite, because the lady showering next to you might just end up in front of you in line when you go to the grocery store after you leave the pool. Or the man in the lane next to you might be your son's school teacher.

8. Sometimes, you might end up standing naked next to your child's friend from high school in the locker room.....awkward........

9. If the lanes are full, the slowest swimmer will always choose to jump into my lane.

10. Don't smile or try to be nice to the lady in the far right lane. She will try to incenerate you with her eyeballs.

11. Running 20 yards through freezing cold air in a swimsuit to get to the domed outdoor pool is one way to make the water seem not so cold when you jump in.

There are a few odd people, such as:

A mustached man who comes right at 5:35 and swims for 10 minutes. Then there is a woman who arrives separately and gets in the lane right next to him at about 5:45. They face each other and hang onto the wall and talk for 30 minutes. Then he swims for about 10 minutes and leaves. She leaves soon after. It's weird. And creepy. Why would anyone get out of bed that early in the morning to go hang out it a cold pool and talk? Isn't the hot tub more appropriate venue for that?

The stretchers. Stretchy and Purple Speedo. That's what I call them. Stretchy swims 3 lengths of the pool, climbs out on the far side and does stretches in his speedo for 20 minutes, then jumps back in the pool and swims the length back, climbs out and stretches again for about 5 minutes. He's thin, but it's a little disturbing to watch somebody stretch in a speedo. Purple speedo is an older guy, not really thin, who wears a purple speedo. He also likes to stretch before he swims. These guys both stare at me when I swim. I think they think I'm a freak because I spend the whole time actually swimming. I'm swimming when they arrive, and I'm still swimming when they leave.

I go to the pool to swim. And to people-watch. I don't really talk to anybody, and I don't stretch. I swim, I shower, I get dressed and I leave.

O Tannenbaum!

You've all see "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." That was us today. Except we had a saw.

Today we made our annual pilgrimage to Martin's U-Cut Christmas Trees. The first several years in our house, we got sort of a normal-ish sized tree--you know, 9-10 feet tall. It fit in our stand, it fit our tree skirt, and it fit on top of the van. Last year, we ventured into the realm of tall trees. We learned, quite unexpectedly, that a 16-foot tall tree doesn't stand upright in a normal tree stand. We actually had to strap the tree to the stair banisters on two sides to get it to stay up.

This year, a 16-ft tall tree wasn't going to do it for us. We have a 19-foot tall room, and, by-golly, we were going to get a 19-foot tall tree.

We searched the tree farm for a really tall tree. We even brought along a measuring tape to make sure that our selected tree would not be too tall. It turns out that the tree we cut down was 26 feet tall. We took off 4 feet from the bottom and about 3 feet from the top, and ended up with the absolute perfect tree for our room.

Now, finding the perfect tree isn't the problem. The problem is getting the tree home on the minivan. That didn't stop Mark. He payed attention at Boy Scouts, and he is an expert at lashing things to the top of cars. Getting a 20-foot tall tree home on top of a minivan might intimidate some people, but not Mark. No matter how many crazy looks and rude comments we got, he wasn't phased at all. We made it all 12 miles home without a problem--luckily it was all back country roads where hicks can do stuff like strap a 20-foot tree on top of a tiny car and not get pulled over.

We got the tree home and into its stand. This year we were prepared with Bowling's Last Stand, hefty enough to keep a 25-foot tree upright. It worked like a charm, and we were able to center the tree on the window instead of having to stick it in the corner to anchor it to the staircase this year. A little trim on top and bottom gave us a 18 1/2 foot tree--with just enough room for a star on top.

How does one decorate a 19-foot tall tree? Well, with a 16-foot A-frame ladder, of course. We bought this giant ladder when we painted that big room a couple of years ago, and it has come in handy a few times. We just parked it right up next to the tree, with the 8-foot ladder on the other side, and it made lighting the tree a snap. Well, almost.

Turns out we only had 400 white lights on green wires. That did about the top 6 feet of the tree, and so I went to Target and bought 8 more. Those made it to about 1/2 way down, and I drove to Walgreens where I bought 8 more strands, and still did not have enough lights. One more trip to Walgreens for 4 more strands of lights, and we were in business. This tree is so shiny.

Last year Mark and I swore an oath that it was the last year of the hobo tree. We have always just put all of our random decorations from whatever on the tree. It made me crazy every year, but that's what we did. For a lot of years, it didn't even matter, because we had so many little kids around that they just un-decorated the tree as fast as we could decorate it. I couldn't find any ornaments I was crazy about (well, any that I was crazy about AND were less than $10 each), so we just bought a few boxes of shatterproof ornaments at Target, and we're good. 150 shiny balls and 2400 sparkling lights. I did let the kids put the "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" ornaments around the tree from the box of hobo ornaments. But that's it. Everything else matches.

The kids had a blast climbing up the ladders and putting the ornaments all over this big daddy tree. Once it was done, we vacuumed, moved the furniture back into the room, and were all amazed at the beauty and brightness of our perfect tree.

Hopefully the stand keeps working its magic and we wake up to find the tree still standing tomorrow. I think it is the prettiest tree I have ever seen.....and definitely the most well-lit.

Vie treu sind deine Blätter!

It's what's for dinner

Our favorite after-Thanksgiving dinner. I posted the recipe last year here. The best soup on earth, and perfect to use up those leftovers.

I have trouble with turkey leftovers. They never taste like the turkey did the first day. I think I had one too many leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches as a kid. And then you get that hard part of the turkey in your sandwich that you can't chew and you have to find a tactful way to spit it out in front of other people.... It's just no good. That's why I like this soup--you cut the turkey into tiny chunks and let it soak up the curry goodness. It completely takes away that "leftover turkey" taste.

I also will be making Split Pea Soup with our leftover ham tonight. I found that if I use yellow split peas rather than green ones, the kids eat it better, and we just call it "ham soup" and they are good with that. The green color can sometimes scare off some kids (like me, who never tasted split pea soup until I was about 30 because the color always creeped me out), but the yellow looks more appealing to the picky ones.

1lb. (strong 2 cups) Peas (Split Green ) 1 Meaty Ham bone (optional) 1 1/2 cups chopped Onion 1 tsp. Sea Salt 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper (Medium Grind) 1/4 tsp. Marjoram 1 Bay Leaf 1 cup diced Celery 1 cup diced Carrots

Sort and rinse split peas prior to cooking, Cover peas with 2 quarts cold water and add ham bone (if desired), onion and seasonings. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer very gently for 1 1/2 hours. Remove bone, cut off meat and dice. Return meat to soup and add vegetables. Cook slowly 30-40 minutes until vegetables are soft. Salt and Pepper to taste. Serves 6-8.

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a super fun day with lots of family. 34 people in one house makes for a lot of happy noise. It also made it so we had plenty of helpers to bring the food, so all I did was cook a turkey and make rolls. I didn't even have to do dishes! I really love to have a house full of family for the holidays. I can't wait for our big Christmas Eve party now.

Now bring on the Christmas decorations.

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Walking in a winter wonderland

Savanna and I went out to enjoy the brisk 17 degree morning with a walk on the trails. We bundled up and put on our boots for an adventure in the backyard. Everything is so beautiful when it is frosty. I especially love how the river runs when it is trying to freeze--not quite water but not yet ice. Not a lot of snow out there, but everything is frozen solid and covered in ice. I'm glad I have a girl who loves weather as much as her nerdy mama does.

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It's the Holiday Season

With the whoop-de-do and hickory dock
And don't forget to hang up your sock
'Cause just exactly at 12 o'clock
He'll be coming down the chimney, down.

Now I just have to decide if I like Bing Crosby's version or Andy Williams's version better. It's a toss-up.

I started listening to Christmas music this week. The dreary days and dark evenings have me in the mood for Christmas. We truly have an astounding collection of Christmas CDs. So much variety, yet somehow it's always the same bunch I turn to every year.

Bing Crosby
Andy Williams
The Carpenters
John Denver (so many options!)
Roger Whittaker
The Osmonds
Neil Diamond (Get over it. I like it anyway. Both albums. I'm thinking about buying his new one that came out last year, too.)
Dan Fogelberg
Frank Sinatra
Aaron Neville
Burl Ives

Julie Andrews

I could go on and on. It just makes me happy. I didn't even get started on instrumental albums or collection CDs.

And I don't think I'm short-changing Thanksgiving by starting the Christmas music early. I love Thanksgiving, too. I have out my Thanksgiving decorations, and we don't even think about Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving. I love cooking the big dinner, making a billion pies, (making pies makes me happy) and having everyone over on Thanksgiving. Really, it is one of the most fun days of the year. Lots of cousins, lots of noise, and lots of love. But most of all, I love Thanksgiving evening...when we all sit around at watch Muppet Christmas Carol.

I love being a Bradley

Well, by marriage I am a Bradley. But I like to pretend like I always have been one. I spent this last weekend in St. George with Mark's extended family for a girls weekend. It is the highlight of my year. This was the 4th year I've been, and I look forward to it all year long. So much laughing, crafting, cooking, eating, shopping, and not a lot of sleep.

I remember the first time Mark took me to a Bradley party. It was 1992, and it was a joint Grandma and Grandpa birthday party. There were 14 Bradley children, and there are 86 Bradley grandchildren. So much fun. I grew up in a family where my dad had 10 siblings, and I have scores of cousins, too. I remember Mark's aunts and uncles each asking me that night if I was overwhelmed by all the people at the party. It just seemed normal and what a family party should be to me. I knew that night I wanted to belong to this family. And, lucky for me, the next weekend Mark proposed.

Anyway, back to the party. I flew to Las Vegas where Mark's aunt picks me up from the airport each year. We then drive the 2 hours to St. George, survey to food stores at the house, and then make a menu and shopping list and head to the grocery store. By the time we get home and put food away, the Salt Lake peeps start trickling in.

Friday morning started with a trip to the St. George temple, cinnamon bun aebelskivers for breakfast, a trip to Tai Pan, and then we got crafty. I'm talking really crafty. Like 52-yards of felt in 26 colors kind of crafty. The original plan was for each person to make a banner that said "Happy Birthday." What we ended up with was each person having a banner for every single month of the year--and every possible celebration. It was a lot of felt. We all worked assembly-line style, and as the new ideas for additional banners crept up, we just added that to the assembly line as well. The first day, I was overwhelmed by all the possibilities, so I laid low and knitted while the craft explosion began. I made dinner and dessert and breakfast for the next morning while everyone cut and glued miles of felt. 936 square feet of felt. It was insane, and I wasn't ready for it.

Saturday morning I went for a run before everyone was awake, and when I returned, everyone had woken up and was sitting around the table cutting and glueing again. I decided this time that I could use a Happy Birthday banner around our house, so I joined in the fun. I'm not sure what was wrong with me craft-wise Friday, but I got into it Saturday and cut and glued until everyone ran out of ideas. Then, of course, we needed a break after spending 24 straight hours working on the project, so we headed out for a shopping adventure.

Saturday night we had dinner, mint brownies, and then played 3 Favorites. Every person brings 3 of their favorite $5 thing, and then you put your name in a bowl 3 times. The bowl goes around, and each person tell about their favorite thing, and then draws out 3 names who win the 3 things. I left with some bath gels, colorful Sharpie markers and nail polish, and an enormous Symphony chocolate bar I devoured immediately.

We also played Hit or Miss, a really fun game that had us all laughing so hard that we were crying. Really, just try to list as many state capitals east of the Mississippi River as you can in 30 seconds and see what everyone comes up with.

One thing about this party is that nobody wants to miss anything. So we all go everywhere together, and nobody is allowed to go to sleep until everyone goes to sleep, and we don't want anybody to talk about anything, because of this great fear of missing something interesting or funny. So I went to bed late every night. Very, very late. Especially Saturday night. Two of Mark's cousins and I thought it would be awesome to watch our phones and computer clocks go from 1:59 to 1:00 when DST ended. So we stayed up, and I told them (and sang to them) about some very excellent Christmas CDs they were missing out on.

I flew back home Sunday night, and had the bumpiest flight of my life. My plane stopped in San Jose, and the trip there was insanely turbulent. So turbulent people were screaming and barfing, and the pilot made the flight attendants stay in their seats as well. The flight from San Jose home was dreamy, and it was good to be back home again.

Until next year.

Double Chocolate Cookies

This is probably my favorite cookie. I love how chewy it is. As an added bonus, they are particularly pretty cookies, and great for giving away to impress people.

This is Martha Stewart's recipe. But she made one big mistake--these cookies taste MUCH better if you add chopped semi-sweet chunks (or just use chips if you're lazy as I am) instead of the milk chocolate chunks the recipe calls for. I still use the milk chocolate to melt with the butter, but I definitely prefer the cookies with semisweet chunks.

• 
  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 pound good-quality milk chocolate, 4 ounces coarsely chopped and 4 ounces cut into 1/4-inch chunks
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Melt 4 ounces coarsely chopped chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; let cool slightly.
2. Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chunks.
3. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces crack, about 15 minutes (cookies should be soft). Let cool on parchment on wire racks. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.