A lot of updating...

Holy hell! Was my last post really on September 30th? WOW. Well, my only excuse is that I've been madly cooking and blogging over at Scraping the Skillet. I do have a lot of things to update y'all on, though. Really, there should have been a bunch of posts between September and now...here's a brief recap of what's been going on:

NINI AND ADAM GOT MARRIED! Yes, my little sister is married! I have a bunch of photos posted on Flickr, but here's one to get you started...

I was back in Chicago for a glorious 10 days around her wedding. It was great to spend time with family and friends - we don't get to see them enough! Highlights? Bocce ball in Merrimack Park. Glorious fall leaves. TO DIE FOR Italian food (by an Irish chef, no less). Oh yeah, and the wedding. That was pretty awesome too ;)

2. I took a new job. Actually, I did this before the wedding by a few months. It just didn't seem top of the list. It's not an exciting or challenging job, but it is flexible and the people are nice. Now you know why I've been flakier than usual about returning e-mails, etc. Job + Food Blog = crazy busy.

3. Dylan and I have made a new resolution to go hiking more often. I mean, we live 5 minutes from a National Park but we haven't hit the trail in over a year? Crazy. The first hike was The Bellota trail up on Mt. Lemmon. Gorgeous scenery and a relatively easy hike. Amazing views after just a short hike to the ridge. Here we are:


This weekend we hiked up and around Sabino Canyon. It was also beautiful and we got to see lots of cool stuff, like a desert box turtle and a desert kitty cave. Check Flickr for pictures soon (D took the camera with him to Miami).

4. Speaking of Miami, the Canyon Ranch Miami project that D has been working on since we moved here is opening! He's there now for the soft soft opening. I was starting to wonder if this would ever happen!

5. Caleb has been battling some peeing issues. He's gotten all blocked up twice and had to spend the night at the Vet (he relapsed after the first drain). To help him manage better in the future we have officially put him on the Weekly World News Juice Diet. Mrow.

That's all the news that's fit to print.

I'll leave you with this thought:

Politics 2008

I have one burning desire when it comes to politics. I want everyone to have access to the same truthful information. Big wish, I know. Especially with all the media spin in present times. If I was an undecided voter, I'm not sure what I would make of all the TV ads and pundit analysis.

I would like to believe that I wouldn't be swayed by the half-truths and straight-out lies that are all over the TV screen and the internet. But, if I didn't have access to the truth, how would I know? How could I ever make an informed, not emotional, choice in the voting booth?

Rather than preaching my personal beliefs on this election process I'm going to share one website with you. One site that is useful to ALL Americans, whether they are decided or not, conservative or liberal, red, blue, purple or green.

The website is FactCheck.org.

Please, for the love of this country, visit this site weekly (or subscribe via RSS!). These folks are doing a valiant job of exposing truth in these political times. Thank goodness.

Sad news from Pakistan...

This article covers the murder via bullets and suicide bomb of Bhutto, one of the top contenders in the upcoming election. Apparently, they had requested increased security for her but the government (Musharraf ignored the request).

I'm sure everyone will hear about this on the news. It is especially sad because the US Government is condemming the violent attack, etc. - even though they took their time commenting/taking action when Musharraf first declared a state of emergency in Pakistan. Even now, the US government's only "reason" to be concerned is that our al-Qaida friends might be hiding in northern Pakistan. At least, it's a good opportunity for the Bush administration to remind us that they are still out there and we are still in danger.

sigh.