"Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow"

For all you friends and family snowed in on the East Coast, in the Pittsburgh area or in South Bend, these photos won't mean much to you. But for us Texans whose counties don't have snow plows or salt trucks, it's been a unique day and tomorrow's commute to work should be pretty exciting too. Most of us don't even own a snow shovel or carry an ice scraper in our cars -- but luckily I drive a Subaru and Scott has a 4-wheel drive Honda Ridgeline. It's 9:30 p.m. and the snow is still coming down. At 5 p.m., it measured 7 inches; and at 10:00 p.m., we had 9 1/4 inches, and it's still coming down. Must go find my gloves, hat and boots!

"On a Bicycle Built for Two"

Our neighbors, Mitzi and Richard Cook, were testing out their son's old bicycle built for two. I even got a test drive around the cul de sac. Here's a little video of Mitzi and Richard on the bicycle.

The Steven J. Noto Memorial Flood

In April 2006, my nephew Steve came to visit us and it rained/flooded the entire weekend. This past weekend has been a replay of that weekend. It started raining non-stop on Friday evening and it's still coming down -- and it's just not a nice little sprinkle -- it's a flood. And in honor of Steve, whose birthday just happens to be today, I'm entitling this blog "The Steven J. Noto Memorial Flood." Happy Birthday, kiddo!

Playing with Food

Kelly Noto told me about these cute little "hamburger" dessert items that a friend of hers made for a Fourth of July party. I finally had the opportunity of making some for my neighbor Mitzi's birthday dinner. I did the baking and Scott did the decorating, and we were pleasantly surprised how cute these little hamburgers and fries came out. The hamburger bun was a yellow cupcake (made from a box mix, cut in half); the hamburger was a brownie (made from a box mix and cut in a circle) and the fries were sugar cookies (make from Betty Crocker's bag mix and cut in strips). I also had a chance to try out another dessert recipe that I cut out of the newspaper years ago -- and it was a whole lot easier and a big hit. Glad I bought those martini glasses at the Pier One after-Christmas sale. Here's some photos of the desserts and the birthday honoree.