Cupcakes As Art

My daughter Mary created this lovely "Starry Night" from 2 dozen cupcakes. The

how-to came from this fun (but probably fattening) book:

How cute is that?



Her ten year old brother, Sam, was inspired to paint this today. Interestingly, they both made their creations while I was out of
the house. Hmm, should this be telling me something?

The Perilous Peach Pit

I love ripe, juicy, fresh peaches. The juice-running down-your-arm variety.

Slicing through one this afternoon, I actually cut through the pit, too.

Here's what the inside of the pit looked like.

Hey, how'd that almond get in the middle of a peach pit?" Did you know that peaches and almonds are related, and that there is a small bitter almond in the middle of a peach pit? Did

you also know that said bitter almonds contain cyanide? I didn't know this when I put the nut in my mouth, but the bitterness did make me spit it out, fortunately. Unfortunately, I had swallowed a small amount. I freaked out just a little bit upon reading the bit about the cyanide

on the internet. Then, just to demonstrate how neurotic I am, I called the poison control number.

The lady told me (pretty casually, I thought, while I was panicking) the small amount I had

eaten wouldn't have any effect. The experience shook me up, but we all learned something

new about peaches. I'll never look at a peach pit the same way again.

Cup Stacking

Okay, it's not official cup stacking, but I never cease to be amazed at the cool ideas kids can come up with. Besides, it kept 'em busy for about 20 minutes!

Fun Cleaning

Cleaning up the yard (especially the slide) can be fun! This was Paul's idea.



I was grateful for the 20 minutes of cooperative activity this provided. Plus, of course, the

clean slide.

We loved this classic diner we stopped at in Goshen, IN on our recent Garden Tour, the

South Side Soda Shop.

We saw this logo:

on the front door, and thought it was just their endorsement of the Food Network.
But it turns out that our favorite Food Network host, Guy Fieri, taped a segment there for

his show, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, a couple of years ago. We didn't get the Food Network

back then, so we missed the episode, but now it's one of our favorite shows. Here's the video:

I've got a thing for soda shops. I wish someone would organize a tour of those!

I didn't actually get any ice cream because we were so hungry, we just needed some hot food. The cheeseburger and fries were
great, and I took a trip back to the lunch counters of my childhood by drinking a cherry phosphate.
Check out my daughter's account of the trip, but please overlook her grammar. I think she does it on purpose.