Pioneer Woman's Chocolate Pie

Pioneer Woman had posted this recipe for a chocolate pie right before Valentine's Day, and I had briefly pointed out her latest posting, but didn't get around to actually trying the pie until tonight.

I'm improving from my bout with the flu, and had enough energy to catch up on chores (laundry, vacuuming, general straightening of the house). I made arrangements to start my 2-weeks tour on Tuesday instead of Monday, which bought me another day to pack and prepare some meals for the boys in my absence.

I came across a spare ball of pie dough from when I was planning to make two quiches for my Stampin' Up party last Thursday. Since turnout was pretty small, I opted to just make one quiche. So I blind-baked the pie crust and went forth to make the PW Chocolate Pie filling. I took PW's advice and used the raw eggs, blending each one for 4-5 minutes before adding the next.

From 2008 02 24 PW...

From 2008 02 24 PW...

From 2008 02 24 PW...

This was a resounding success! Using pure baking chocolate with sugar made such a RICH chocolate flavor. I couldn't even finish my sliver-of-a-piece...it was most delicious, so rich.

Spring Splendor!

"Wait just one doggone minute! It's mid-February! Spring isn't for another month!"

(At least, that's what the Groundhog said!)

Well, someone needs to tell my flowers about that, since my crocuses and daffodils are opening up, just like all over the rest of central North Carolina. Seriously confused, they are.

I didn't mind the pretty pictures I was able to take, nonetheless. These were from Monday. Click on the photos to access the entire album. Enjoy!

From 2008 02 18 Da...

From 2008 02 18 Da...

This Stuff is WONDERFUL!

Today was slightly improved from yesterday, but I have to tell you about these awesome tissues I found at Walgreens! Puff's Plus with Vick's Vapo-rub. To quote Tony the Tiger: "They're GRRRRREAT!"

My runny nose kicked in today, and my regular BJ's-brand tissues, which work well for occasional nose-blowing, started ripping up my nose. So I went to Walgreen's for some more Nyquil and decided to pick up some Puff's Plus -- you know, the kind with the lotion.

I got a box of Puff's Plus, but also saw these ones infused with Vick's Vaporub. They're so nice!

So there's my pitch -- no, Vick's isn't giving me any money for this. Neither is whatever company owns Puff's....ah yes, Proctor and Gamble. I remember that man-in-the-moon on the back of my parents' bottle of "Prell" shampoo.

A General Malaise

For the first time ever, I think I might have caught the flu from the flu shot I received last week at the Air Force base. I can't remember the last time I had the flu, if ever! It showed up with a vengeance yesterday afternoon. The aches, fatigue and general "blahness" is a real damper on my day-to-day life. Luckily I don't have too much going on between now and Sunday, but I hope I'm well enough Sunday evening to make the drive to Sumter, SC for my "two-weeks-per-year" Annual Tour.

Dave's been an angel -- he's taken the lead with the kids and has given me a chance to get as much rest as possible. I think he understands that I need to be well for work for the next two weeks. He's awesome!

The good news is that I've been able to lounge around on the couch eating bon bons...okay, no, I'm kidding. I've been able to rest and work on a crochet project, which doesn't take too much brain power.

Other good news is that Timmy seems well, and Jake has a runny nose, but no other signs. I've been chasing them around the house with the ear thermometer about every 2 hours just to be sure.

Dave had a commitment at work at lunchtime, so I'm staying home with Timmy, and with enough medication (in me, not him) it hasn't been had. Timmy's been very good, coloring, painting and now he's sitting nicely watching "Cars" and working on puzzles.

My Baby is Growing Up!

My baby boy is growing up. Today, in the middle of a very very difficult morning of trying to run a billion errands with both boys, Jake matter-of-factly told me that one of his lower teeth has been loose for a few days.

We were in the van at the time, where Jake sits in the "way back" (3rd row) so I wasn't able to check until we got home.

But I did check...lo and behold, one of his lower teeth is indeed loose!

I didn't expect it to happen this soon, his first tooth appeared on April Fool's Day 2003, he was 6 1/2 months. I think that's an average time for the first tooth, so I expected his first tooth more around age 6. He's currently just shy of 5 1/2.

From Ground Contro...

Feeling the Pain...

I'm not going to say too much about this, since I'm just a weather weenie in the Reserves, but I have been noticing the USAF getting a lot of press about how we're suffering manpower cuts and cannibalization of aircraft to keep our missions viable in the Global War on Terror, while the Army and Marine Corps are being funded to increase their ranks by thousands.

Never mind that for every increase in Army capability, you need Air Force airlift to fly them to the fight, Air Force aerial refuelers to gas the airlift, Air Force close-air-support to help the ground troops, and Air Force PERSONNEL to support various facets of their requirements(among those personnel are weather folks -- read the Air Force Magazine article linked with "PERSONNEL" to learn more about the "Battlefield Airmen").

I have no idea who this guy is, but he's doing "Combat Weather" with an Army Aviation unit.

Apparently someone is launching quite the press campaign about it.

As Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I have to say about that."

Ok, Ok, You Win...Quiz at the Bottom of the Post

I put up a poll, and the people spoke.

Well, 8 of you spoke. Might have even been 6, since I voted on each of our computers.

But majority rules, and the ruling is that you liked the original template better. I have been looking for a format that will let me take advantage of the edges of my blog a little better.

Don, I like yours quite a bit, if I could tweak the colors some. Your information extends out to the edges of the screen.

Of course, if I were smarter in HTML, perhaps I could just get into the code, add a second "sidebar" and make the colors whatever I want.

Quick quiz! Name these colors! Just leave a comment with the answers. Maybe I'll cut a portion of my ad earnings as a prize. Just the general hue, like "blue" or "red" or "green":

1.) 0000FF
2.) 00FF00
3.) FF0000
4.) FF6FCF
5.) 6728B2
6.) FFFF00
7.) FFFFFF
8.) 000000

Remind me to post answers tomorrow.

Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes

Hi! This weekend Dave and I have been doing some web rearranging. His Model Railroading website is very very popular among others in the hobby, generating over 1000+ hits per week! Up until recently, another PRR Model RR fan had been graciously hosting Dave's website, but recently some changes to Mr. Britton's servers have made it hard for Dave to keep up remotely.

So this weekend we took the plunge and purchased a domain and hosting capability of our very own. $60 per year through InMotion Hosting. Feel free to visit at your leisure, although most of what you're going to see is already on my blog, and are otherwise links to other websites Dave and I have floating around.

Owning our own domain is pretty nifty, with the ability to put up shopping carts and credit card transaction capabilities, as well as up to 1000 e-mail addresses. For fun, I set up patricia@thevollmerfamily.com but don't bother sending me anything there -- I'll rarely check it. I'm trying to get it to redirect into my AOL account.

Latest Baby Afghan

Hi! After having made several of these blankets, I finally took the time to feature one of them in a photo shoot of its very own!

I just finished it tonight and I can't wait to ship it off to its recipient, Baby Madeline, who lives near St. Louis. She was born on Feb. 11th. Dave and I have been great friends with Madeline's Dad for years (since grad school), and Madeline's Mom is super-cool, too!

Yes, there's a bit of a color changing issue here, I once again fell victim to the dye-lot: if you don't buy all the yarn you need at once, expect color changes!

From 2008 02 17 Ma...

Here's a closeup of the pattern knit into the blankie:

From 2008 02 17 Ma...

Chocoholics, Unite!

Oh my goodness!

I Can't Believe I Lived Here for 2 1/2 Years and Didn't Know About This!

Yesterday Dave and I took a field trip to the Carolina Brewing Company for one of their weekly tours. We had a nice time (without the kids).

Dave did a description of the brewery and nice review of their beers here.

I just can't believe we've been living right up the street from the place all this time and never thought to do this. It's a great free activity for when family or friends come to visit.

Every Saturday afternoon from 1-3pm (perhaps even 4pm) they open up the taps for free "samples", although you're basically getting full pint glasses and you're welcome to get as much as you like. Needless to say, we saw a lot of college kids.

Get there early, though...Dave and I arrived at 1pm exactly and there was a 10-15 minute wait before we made to the taps the first time. And we went straight back to the end of the line after we got our first pint, because we had drained our glasses when we got back to the taps (another 15 minutes). The taps are turned off during the tour portion itself, which is about 1/2 hour around 1:30-2pm.

We bought a set of 5 pint glasses, each of them featuring a different one of their beers. I was really wanting one of their Groundhog Day Imperial Stout glasses (go figure!) and the gentleman said they were out of new ones for me, but if I mingled among the crowd and found someone with one for their free samples, I could provide a clean drinking glass and take the used Groundhog's Day glass. So that's what I did! (I had 1 1/2 beers in me by this time, I had no problem batting my eyelashes at a guy to do it).