The Fabulous B@ker Blog

The Fabulous B@ker Blog has hit a milestone as we celebrate our SECOND Leap Year. In case you missed it, here is the post from February 29, 2008. Make your extra day a good one - make it count! We're making it count by paying for Cam's last quarter (bill due today). So, let me get this straight: if there was no February 29, which is the bill's due date, does that mean we wouldn't have to pay the bill? Wishful thinking... Speaking of wacky dates, the other day on NPR I heard a piece about George Washington's birthday, and how he was born on February 11, 17 31 but due to a change from the Julian calendar ("Old Style") to the Gregorian calendar ("New Style") in 1752 his birthday became February 22, 17 32 , which he opted to observe. However the nation continues to celebrate his special day on February 11, even though that's the "Old Style" date. Some other fascinating tidbits about the change from the Julian calendar to the Grego...

Annalisse and I took a quick trip up north on Wednesday to Mary's house, where we stayed overnight and went to Massena on Thursday to see Mom. I was long overdue since I had not been up to visit since September. Now that Mom is living with Carol (who is doing an awesome job taking care of her - I am eternally grateful), Mom's house sits empty with regular check-ins by Carol and her companion, Paul. This last trip I decided to take the family photo albums home with me for safe keeping. If I were to choose anything to take out of the house it would be those photo albums. My personal effects are long gone (since I moved out away 1984) so there's really no trace of me left in the house anymore, but I wanted to be sure the albums were kept safe. Sure, it's interesting enough to look at the endless pictures of trips my parents took, parties, picnics, and, of course, THE ZILLION PICTURES of my niece, Nicole (love you, Nic!), but what I was mostly interested in were the old...

Over the last couple of days (and a couple to come) the sky has put on a great show with the the bright crescent moon, Jupiter and Venus clearly in view. While not lined up (last night at least), it's still pretty cool and a great reminder that there is so much more beyond our Earth. The picture at right depicts how it looked to us last night, although the moon was a larger sliver and very bright. According to this article , Mercury should be visible (under the Moon) as well. I'll have to check tonight at dusk to see if I can find it. It's a times like this that I wish I had a telescope.

For some reason I was thinking about the lost art of sewing this week. I think it might be because I was at a street party with my neighbor, Wendy, who is a professional seamstress, and I am simply in awe of the cool things she sews and creates. In particular, we were at a baby shower for our neighbor Stephanie a couple of weeks ago and Wendy  made the mom-to-be a really cute long john onesie sleeper. It might sound like nothing much but when you're used to buying baby clothes from stores it really is a novelty to see something that was actually created by hand . I feel like I can really appreciate this handiwork because I come from a family of seamstresses. My Mémère Moquin (my maternal [thanks for the catch, Aunt Sher] grandmother) was a seamstress who took in sewing to help support the family. She made my mother's wedding dress and many dresses and other articles of clothing while I was growing up. On Sundays when we would visit her we would always be ...

At a debate last fall. Today is my "big boy" Cam's 19th birthday. As I probably say in every year's birthday post, I cannot even fathom how 19 years have gone by so quickly. I'm so proud of him and his bright prospects for the future!! Yesterday my coworkers and I were chatting about how we can remember every detail leading up to the days before and after the births of our kids (in particular, Lynne's daughter Maggie was born the day before Cam, same year). I don't think kids understand how deeply their births affect their mothers, and probably won't understand it until they have children. Every year I relive the days before Cam was born; how he was 2 1/2 weeks early (his original due date being they awesomely numerically cool 3/9/93), the events of the day before (I left work not knowing if I'd be back the next day; Mark had bowling that Wednesday night; my friend Heather called and we chatted for a while), my water breaking at 2am, Mark h...

Tonight a neighbor saw me in Wegmans and mentioned I was on "her list" - that she was going to invite me to play " Bunco " with a group of cardplayers who are invited to play Euchre on occasional weekends. ME! BUNCO! Just like all those stay-at-home moms!  Wow! BUNCO! The game of housewives everywhere! I can't believe it! Okay, I admit it. I don't know how to play Bunco. I think it involves tossing dice and drinking wine. All I know is that in my last neighborhood all the women got together and played Bunco, and I was never invited. It seemed like they had all bonded as stay-at-home moms and I was a bit of an outsider, being one of the only working women in the group. I always wondered what they did all day once their kids were all in school. [One woman I know who is a stay-at-home mom (and whose kids are in school all day) has a home that is a complete mess. I wonder what she does all day when kids are gone?] I fancied writing an undercover ...

Just because we know you've been wondering and wondering how the carpeted stairs and the new stove is doing... The view looking down. Scary! Bottom set of stairs. The Stairs The new stair runner was installed a couple of weeks ago and looks awesome, begging the question: Will Jasper now go down the stairs? The answer is : Yes...finally. Right after the carpet came, he would not only not go downstairs , he also would not go upstairs.  Seriously, has there ever been more of a chickeny dog? We finally convinced him to go up and downstairs, but it took a lot of coaxing and a fair amount of treats. Now, with only a little hesitation at the top landing, he calmly goes step by step down, instead of running and slipping the whole way. Money well spent? The Stove You must remember the story of Silver , the fancy new stove that replaced Goldie, our vintage '70s Harvest Gold stove. What I didn't tell you about Silver was that when it was unwrapped and installed, t...

Same great taste, but less filling. You know when we're in the middle of winter with not much going on when there's nothing newsworthy for the B@ker Blog. Boring, cold winter. You'll be the first to know if anything exciting happens. Check back!

Happy Birthday to my OLDEST sister, Mary, today as she celebrates her 5X birthday. She ordered me not to old post pictures of her. I never was that great at following directions. And there are more where these came from. Many, many more. Voluminous photo albums full. I'll probably be able to keep posting new pictures of her well beyond her 90th birthday.

It's here! My favorite holiday of the year!! Today I'm donning brown from head to toe (my groundhog outfit) and am looking forward to our summer picnic at work. It's a little anti-climactic seeing we've really had no winter to speak of, but the fact remains: THERE IS ONLY SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER! I think I can hold out a little longer.