Doings in the Sherwood Family

Brandon has been off work for the past three days, so we have gotten some things done. First, and most important, we made pilgrimage to IKEA. Kathleen, we thought, would love IKEA - lots of bright colors, people to see, time with mom and dad. As I have come to discover more and more, however, she is her father's child. She doesn't like leaving the house. At all. We tried to take her to a movie. Once. We tried to take her hiking. For about a mile. We take her to church, but she doesn't have a choice about that one. By the time we got to the kitchens, she had had enough. Unfortunately for her, we had things to purchase, so she took turns on Brandon's shoulders, in his arms, walking on the floor as we held her arms. Cheerios were the only solution.

While she munched, we got the final things to make our apartment home - a bed frame, nightstand, lamp, light fixture for the kitchen, magnetic knife strip, a few other small things, and a toy for Kathleen. She doesn't seem too interested in the toy yet. IKEA is a dangerous place because there are always more things than one anticipated buying that are suddenly very useful and needed. For Brandon's birthday last week, I purchased him Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child. As anyone who cooks knows, the purchase of a new cookbook necessitates the purchase of new cooking equipment. And there they were - exactly what we needed - a souffle dish and cast-iron enameled casserole! Perfect for all of those delicious souffles and creams and stews I am going to make! Well, we had eclairs instead for Liz and Jordan, and our Spanish rice that evening was cooked in a normal pot with a lid.

The joy of IKEA is extended by the joy of furniture assembly. Combined with the ever-curious Kathleen who isn't interested in new toys, it makes for an interesting time. IKEA furniture comes with a 2-pound grab-bag of various and diverse screws, nails, nuts, and other things, all devastatingly fascinating, and at the same time deadly, to a 10-month old. Eventually after she crawled off our mattress headfirst onto the pile of wood that would become our bed frame, she finally got relegated to her Johnny Jump-up. I believe that if we could somehow hook up a generator to the spring, she could power our whole house with her jumping.

As briefly mentioned earlier, yesterday brought Janet Elizabeth Samuelson Jacobson (she would like to have all four names used) and her husband Jordan for a visit. Jordan and JESJ have just finished graudate school in Boston, and are in Utah visiting family before a migration to Cincinatti where Jordan will be continuing schooling, and JESJ will be going with him. We had a nice French blue cheese quiche, that could possibly have one's weekly intake of fat in one or two servings. Following that were the eclairs. But that is why I invited people over to eat - Brandon and I have less leftovers to get fat on, and it's an excuse to eat nutritionally devastating items. Like French food.

So after all of the excitement, Brandon is asleep, Kathleen is asleep, and I'm enjoying silence and anticipation of leftover quiche for dinner.