Weight Maven

Wonkette on Jenna’s forthcoming wedding:

Will Jenna Bush’s shotgun wedding to dead-eyed former Rove staffer and Bush clan-approved groom Henry “Hank” Hager “the Horrible” take place at the White House? The New York Times pondered this incredibly important question yesterday, pointing out that the last time there was a White House wedding, 36 years ago, the father of the bride was a corrupt old bastard, the nation was in locked into an unwinnable war, and everyone involved eventually resigned in disgrace.

Snicker.

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One of my aunts celebrated a mid-70s birthday while we were at the beach. I just received a thank-you card (my sister and I picked up a little something for her), and in it, she enclosed the following:

It’s curious that a Google search for much to Zarqawi’s surprise turns up just 10 hits, while my aunt, a 70-something nun who lives outside of Columbus, Ohio, managed to find it and pass it along.

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Hmmm, as it turns out, blogging life at the beach tends to be less exciting as time goes on. There’s just so much of “beach, eat, drink, sleep” you can write about. So here are just a couple of indoor highlights.

Grandma Jane’s son Steven’s family do puzzles. Lots of puzzles. So they brought this 3 foot long puzzle of the NYC skyline to vacation. Here’s the pic of the last pieces being placed. I actually made a good contribution to this, including an early morning stint where I was feeling a bit like a puzzle rain man!

My nieces Beverly, Christine, and I played a few hands of Rummy 500. This was the last hand… Beverly creamed us.

Finally, I don’t have a pic of the final indoor highlight of the last few days, but I should have! Steven (who is technically my step-brother, but when your parents-his mom, my dad-marry in their 60s, it’s not exactly the Brady Bunch) brought some entertainment for the adults in the form of apple pie shots. Ours involved two pourers and one drinker: the drinker sat in a chair with his or her head tilted way back and mouth wide open, while the pourers alternated small amounts of apple juice, rum, cinnamon, and a squirt of whipped cream out of a can.

The funny thing was that the last instruction was for the drinker to mix all the ingredients in his or her mouth before drinking, as the taste is meant to really evoke apple pie (which it does if they don’t kill you with too much rum). Interestingly, most of the adults in our group tended to mix the ingredients by shaking their whole heads rather than just swishing (like with mouthwash). Go figure!

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I thought of Kathleen when taking the shot above. I wouldn’t normally have taken a picture like this (big whoop…a sarong drying in the sun), but I’ve been inspired by some of the shots she’s been taking. Like this one: the subject is a bit ho-hum, but the perspective makes it really interesting.

Anyways, Grandma Jane’s sarong isn’t quite up to par, but that’s what I was thinking as I snapped it!

Vacation continues to be great. Yesterday, my sister Jeanne and I were on the hook to cook dinner (we all take turns) for 17. Our choice? Easy pulled chicken barbecue, pasta salad, green salad, and for dessert, these yummy fruit parfaits we made with pound cake, berries, and whipped cream. Fortunately, the reviews were good.

Phew…a lot of pressure off. Until Sunday or Monday, when it will be my turn again, but without my sister (but also fewer folks, like 12). I think I’m making lasagna rollups stuffed with crab and shrimp.

I really like cooking in a great big kitchen!

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It’s day four, and I finally solved the wireless problem. The router was coming up on my laptop, but no DNS. Today I went on a hunt for it, and it turns out that while the router was on, the modem connected to the DSL was not. Oops!

But all better now. No more having to wait for someone else’s public access to come on.

And it’s interesting how useful a laptop is at the beach. One houseguest found out they didn’t have to drive back to Richmond for their daughter’s volleyball tryouts (can go next week); another used it to Google a lasagna recipe for dinner tonight.

Ah, modern technology!

My sister and the twins are coming down tomorrow, and I can’t wait. It’ll be a blast having them here.

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