wow, has it really been 9 days since that last post?!?

Life has just gotten a little crazy at work. I was on a (very useful) project management course Monday and Tuesday, barely in my office because of meetings yesterday and finally taking a deep breath today! I don't really get near the computer at home much anymore. I check my email on the Internet from work and then download and delete at home on the weekends.

There are tonnes of pictures on my camera that are just waiting for me to have a spare moment to download them. Sadly, the green line problem seems to still be there, so I need to figure out where to take my camera to get cleaned. Professionally. Because Dearest Mechanic Husband almost gave me a heart attack with what he tried to do to it last night (see this post about the ill-fated ipod). I took some pictures last night that I am really excited about. A., who is really becoming a beautiful girl, rather than a little kid, had her hair done up in a bun with flower barrettes all around it. With my fast 50mm lens I was able to catch the picture indoors at night without a flash. The colors turned out fantastic - oh, I am so happy! Except for that darn green line through every picture that i really need to figure out.

I also discovered an exquisitely simple "recipe" for non-wheat pizza crust. This one comes from a good friend who also can't eat wheat. Her recipe is 1 cup spelt flour, 1 cup milk, 1 Tbsp oil and a pinch of salt. Well, I've already alluded to my inability to follow any recipe, so this is my adaptation which everyone in my little family just loved. Pizza is the one big thing I really missed when I went off of wheat. There's just no substitute.

Simple Pizza Crust
Approx: 1 1/2 cups spelt or other flour.
1 cup milk.
a little salt a little baking soda.
1 Tbsp oil.
mix until it forms a dough. pat onto baking pan. Top with a little olive oil, Italian spices, an garlic powder.
Bake at 350 until cooked.
Top with pizza toppings and bake again until cheeze is gloriously melty. Yes, melty is a word.

Other news: R. (14 months) started taking steps on her own the day before yesterday. It was great fun. We all laughed and played and she teetered around. Until she crashed and thumped her head. She was a little more cautious after that and wasn’t taking steps on her own at all yesterday. She’s also started doing something a little disturbing. You know when babies are going to cry and there’s a pause first and you know the longer the pause the louder the cry will be? Well, R. holds her breath like this until she passes out. She’s only out for a second or two – long enough to take a breath in – then she looks confused, like she’s forgotten why she’s so upset. Apparently this is completely normal, though somewhat disconcerting. It was downright frightening the first time it happened because she was in the bath. She had just figured out how to open the shampoo bottle and had closed it on her thumb. So, I see the deep breath in, go to un-pinch her thumb and she flops face-first into the water. I hauled out really quickly, thank goodness, I don’t know what would have happened if I’d been farther away.

Oh, ya, and it's my birthday today. So far, So good.

Why I wish I had a small(er) camera, and what I love about bento this week. Yes, they're related.

I want to post so many things with pictures but never seem to get to the computer at home anymore to download some. In fact, there's not a day that goes by that I don't wish I had my camera with me. Yesterday it was first to capture the crane rising into the fog with building half torn apart in the foreground. It was such a juxtaposition between magnificent rising into the clouds and broken down-ness that I was intrigued. Progress and destruction. Renewal and decomposition.
Then as we drove home and got to the top of the hill the sky lit up above the mountains in bright pink firey clouds and the town was completely engulfed in billowing white clouds. It was surreal. And we descended down into the clouds and my driving partner commented that now it was night, and I thought that no one down here knows the magic thing going on up above. And soon it became unbelievable even to us that there was anything other than what we were seeing down below.

But this post was supposed to be about bento. I was reading this article (I love the title: finding my balance) yesterday and thinking about the bento lunches I've been packing lately. They're rather a hodgepodge of whatever will fit into the spaces in the box. A yummy hodgepodge, I have to say, and I've been so happy with them, but today I created something that is simpler. My lunch is calming. And I wish I had a picture because describing it is pretty lame. I can't wait for lunchtime, and have been showing everyone at work my geeky bento creation.

Creating bento lunches has been an unexpected joy - I love making them. It satisfies my need for creativity. I hope it doesn't loose that appeal.

Ho Hum. I can't believe I've never posted about photography before. Or at least used the tag. If I had a teeny camera I could tuck it in my pocket and snap pictures at will. And download blog ones at work. But would I ever be happy with that?