Some Old Friends

I was lucky enough to reconnect with Larry Ray Smith, one of my roommates from USNA, and John Wagonner, another friend from the Academy. We had the opportunity to throw back a few beers and smoke a few cigars. I'm always amazed at how far we've all come. Larry just started working on his Master's up at NPS and Wags is biding his time for deployment number 10 (?) with the teams. I value the moments I have with good friends. It's always good to reconnect.

"A better part of one's life consists of his friendships." ~Abraham Lincoln

Peppers

The Boys

I finally got around to taking some pictures of the dogs that weren't taken on my phone. Enjoy them; it is rare to find Otto and Hammie so close together. Otto is still a little leery of the little monster who is desperately trying to make friends with him.

-Tina

A New Addition

Tina's 30th birthday present joined us a little early. Introducing Hamish Argyle MacDogall. Yes. . . That's his name. . .

~Josh

My Very Own Bread Recipe

Well, I've been making bread for some time; partly to eat, but mostly to relieve stress. Tina and I end up eating most of it, feeding Otto some (he loves bread like no dog should), and, more often than not, throwing a little bit away. All of those efforts, both successful and, well, not so successful, led me to have a go at it without any books; only a sense of what I wanted. Making bread, the creation of something very solid and tangible from powder and oil and water (and a little magical thing called yeast) is one of the things that I enjoy most as a hobby. So, with the ingredients in the cupboard and an idea of what I wanted, I settled down in our small kitchen and made two batches. The results are pictured below.

The first batch I did as an un-scored boule and the second batch a long loaf, baguette of sorts. We dug into the first loaf (pancetta and meunster paninis with recently harvested heirloom tomatoes) and will break the baguette tomorrow when Brian and Tisha come over for Tina's Bastille Day French meal. I'll let you know how it works out.

For Andre: I use a Canon Digital Rebel XT (http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=215&modelid=11209) with a 50mm (1:1.8) single focal length EOS lens. I won't tell you how I do the lighting. . .

~Josh

Martinis on the Sixth Floor

Foodie Photos

Tina and I do a lot of cooking and I've been taking a lot of photos of preps and final products lately. Tina was going to put up a post, but didn't have the time, so I'll just throw some of the photos up instead. You can try to figure out what we had.

~Josh