Making Macarons!

Saturday Maria and I, along with some help from Aubrey (Maria’s Niece) attempted to make Parisian Macarons. These Macaroons are Maria’s favorite food. If she could she would eat them exclusively with out any other food, just different types of Macaroons. She says “They are a little peace of heaven that melt in your mouth!!” I really wanted to try to make them because I have heard all this talk about how hard they are to make. I felt like, lets master these Macaroons. We may not get them right the first time but we will be on our way to learning how to re-create these little pieces of heaven on earth. On Friday Maria and I had done our fair share of research on the great information highway, the World Wide Web, plus received some very helpful tips from Whitney, whom Maria hooked on these Macaroons on our trip to San Francisco. (Sorry Whitney)

We had learned there are two important steps to creating them. The first step is, well maybe you should figure out these steps. If you really want to know you can call me and bribe me with something very expensive. Because heaven is expensive and if you want a piece of that you are going to have to pay. So remember what money can buy!

As we made our attempt to make Macaroons we thought we had totally blown it after we had piped them out on to the cookie sheets and then they ran out like really thin flat pancakes. Talk about frustrated, all that work for nothing! I was egar to try again on a future date, Maria was so frustrated she never wanted to atempt them again. We then set them on the counter for awhile considering not to bake them at all but we did, and Waaa-laaa. We were pleasantly surprised. They weren’t perfect but they turned out very good for a first time effort. They tasted pretty good but not nearly as good as the famous Miette Bakery’s in San Francisco. So here is how they turned out. Aurbrey was our helper in the kitchen as she ate her CHEF BOY-AR-DEE. It looks like it must have been good!

We're Engaged!

Maria and I are engaged! We went to San Francisco this last weekend and I asked Maria to Marry me. What a great trip we had with everyone. Thanks to everyone who showed us a great time. We love you all and are excited to hopefully see everyone at our wedding on June 14th!

Yup, That's me entering an expert only area on ski's for the first time in 9 years.



I have been snowboarding for the past 8 years plus minus a couple of seasons due to a stupid door locking device falling and basically breaking my neck. I decided to try the skis out again this year. I had a blast I still love the board but Alta is a skier only resort and it was fun to see some new terrain. While I did make a few passes down some black diamond runs I spent most of the time catching up on lost skills from years ago. No matter what way you do it on one or two planks it is very worth while to be up in this country.

COPS!

Are “COPS” Good or Bad? I have some major issues with “COPS” I believe it much deeper than the “COPS” themselves. Maybe I have had to many run-ins with “Bad COPS”, but far too many people have similar horror stories. When law enforcement agencies have a motto to protect and serve I believe they should try to stick to that statement. Far too often it seems “COPS” are just tax collectors, on steroids along with the rage, for their local towns and or cities. Like Nottingham, sometimes I feel like I should be like Robin hood and try to push some legislation regulating these issues. I am not an anarchist at all. I believe we need law enforcement and protection from those whose seek to inflict their ill will on others. However, what needs to be done to keep local governments in check from pillaging their people? I don’t know. I could write about this for days with all my ideas. Recently when there was an insanely drunk man in the Bank I work at making obscene comments and threats it took the “COPS” 40 min. to get here and the man was long gone. A few days ago a homeless man wrote a bad check and 6 “COPS” were here in the blink of an eye. Below are the pictures of the “COPS” they were reading our bank magazines playing video games on their phones and one female “COP” was berating the Perpetrator and seemed more uneducated and unrealistic than the perpetrator. Let me know your thoughts.