hp's blog

Living with the Clapper

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 11:28:13 -0800

And please note, I mean the Clapper not the Clap. Drake and I have a sort of on-going joke about the Clapper, the device that lets you turn lights on or off by clapping your hands. I don't know why we found this product so funny, but we did. And ...

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Christmas Hat & Scarf

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 08:07:54 -0800

I wanted to get a better picture of this before I shipped it off to my mother-in-law, but I was busy making the pom-pom for the hat right before I needed to get everything wrapped up: The pattern is one I've made before, but I decided the hat, ...

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Photo gift #2: Drake's Dad

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 08:15:18 -0800

I've been trying to organize some of my photos, getting a few of the better shots together in some folders. I came across this photo, which I took in 2004, of Drake's Dad in the old machine shed (which interestingly enough blew down this year and ...

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Photo Gift #1: The Hunters

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:55:48 -0800

(Those with an aversion to hunting may wish to skip this post.) I normally use a very light touch with Photoshop--not doing much more than fixing up scans of old photos, color/contrast correction, and occasionally removing distracting details. Bu...

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Christmas Pyramid

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 18:58:11 -0800

For my parents' first Christmas together, my mother bought a German Christmas Pyramid, even though it was a very big splurge spending-wise at the time. It was an integral part of our family Christmas growing up. This year I was finally able to di...

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A White Christmas in Seattle

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:12:53 -0800

Since 1891, it has only snowed five times on Christmas in Seattle. The last Christmas Day snow was in 1990 (those here will remember that infamous arctic outbreak). Most of the snow fell earlier, but we did manage 0.8" on Christmas. Before that...

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The last package is wrapped...

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 10:07:14 -0800

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Apricot-Cashew "Fruitcake"

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:40:58 -0800

Every Christmas I bake at least two things: Russian Tea Cakes (shown in the photo here) and my Apricot-Cashew "Fruitcake". I put fruitcake in quotes because it's really more of a dense (but very tender) pound cake with dried fruit and nuts. The s...

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Seattle Center Lights

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:21:00 -0800

We live just a few blocks from the Seattle Center, home to the Space Needle (in fact, we have quite a nice view of the Space Needle from our place). One thing we did on my birthday was take a little a walking tour of Christmas lights, walking from...

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Chocolate Toffee Butter Cookies

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 19:46:06 -0800

I am writing this post for my dear sweet cousin Elise, who found (in Boise, Idaho no less) the required toffee chips to make these cookies. She had read a previous post about my fruitless search in Seattle for the toffee chips without chocolate (I...

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