Carmela's

Today, we had the whole family together in one place (I might explain why later.. keep watching) and when we were done doing that thing I'm not ready to tell you about yet, we all decided to go to this new ice cream place that just opened up nearby. All of you SoCal readers take note! So LW, GG, The Tweedles, The Hubs and myself all drove on down.

The place is called Carmela's Ice Cream.   It's a small shop, certainly not a national chain like Baskin Robbins so I wasn't sure what to expect.  We walked into this cute little shop and the first thing I notice is a big chalk board on one wall listing the ice cream flavors.  Pretty straight forward right?  It's an ice cream shop after all.  It was the names on the board that threw me.

Salted Caramel
Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean
Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nib
Mint with Cacao Nib
Cucumber Sorbet
Cardamom

Cardamom?  Really?  Cucumber? Huh?  And what the heck is a Cacao (pronounced kuh-kah-oh) Nib??  We aren't in Baskin Robbins anymore people.  Toto.. where's Auntie Em?  Anyone else see those ruby slippers?  Glenda? Is that you?  I was immediately intrigued and I'm not afraid to admit it, a little nervous.  I think the really nice guy behind the counter could see my trepidation and readily offered up taster spoons of whatever we wanted.

First up, The Hubs got a taster of the Dark Chocolate with Cacao Nibs.  Cacao Nibs are peeled and crushed cacao beans and taste chocolatey/nutty.  They're super yummy, so don't let the name throw you off.  I tasted a bit off of his spoon and was in dark chocolatey heaven.  The nibs even crunched a bit giving it a fun texture. The Hubs immediately announced he would take THREE scoops of the Dark Chocolate.

This photo stolen from Carmela's website.  Please don't sue me!  I forgot to take photos, I was too busy eating it!

LW got a sample of the Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean.  I tasted a bit off of her spoon and was transformed into a creamy heaven.  It tasted similar to a regular vanilla bean ice cream, but had a warmer flavor mixed in from the brown sugar.  The Hubs then announced he would take THREE scoops of the Dark Chocolate. 

GG then got a sample of the Mint with Cacao Nibs.  Surprisingly, this wasn't green like you would imagine most mint ice creams are.  It was a lovely white with dark nib bits mixed in.  I snagged a taste of this too (are we sensing a trend here?) and wow.  The mint and mix of the chocolatey tasting Cacao Nibs was subtle.  It felt very fresh and light.  Can ice cream feel fresh and light? Why yes, yes it can! The Hubs announced again he would take THREE scoops of the Dark Chocolate.

And finally, I got my very own taster spoon of the salted caramel and I melted away into bliss.  Forget all those chocolatey, minty and vanilla-y heavens, salted caramel is as dreamy as the name implies.  

Another stolen image.  The front is the mint, behind that is the dark chocolate again and behind that I believe is the salted caramel.  YUM!  Again, please don't sue me.

The Hubs, making sure we were done with samples, announced again that he wanted THREE scoops of the Dark Chocolate with Cacoa Nibs.  LW went with the Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean (along with both of The Tweedles).  GG and I both followed the hubs down the Dark Chocolate route but with fewer scoops. All of the ice creams are made using farmer's market produce and clover organic milk on site.  They come in these cute cups (or cones but we got cups) that look like they're probably biodegradable. 

And then, before we left, GG asked for a quick sampling of the Cardamom.  And well, since I had already tried all the others, I tried that one too.  WOW! That's all I have to say.  That, and I announced I would get Cardamom next time!  Then right before we were about to leave, the very nice man behind the counter told us that tomorrow they were going to have Strawberry Buttermilk flavor.  Apparently, every few days they like to mix things up and swap out flavors.  So now I might have to get Cardamom AND Strawberry Buttermilk tomorrow.

I feel like I might not be losing weight any time soon.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

ps.  This is not a paid advertisement.  The only person on their staff that knows me is the very nice man behind the counter who probably only remembers me as the weirdo blond lady who kept stealing her family's taster spoons and drooling.  I just found this place to be too cute and too yummy not to share.  You can check out their website here: http://carmelaicecream.com/

Blue Ocean.. Blue Sky

Yesterday, morning, we got up before the sun, packed up ourselves and dropped The Tweedles off at their Nanny's house to head down to San Diego.  We arrived down there to find it sunny and almost 70 degrees.  We met up with our friends who agreed to take us out on their sailboat.

This photo was actually taken a few weeks ago when we were down there for another reason so GG's friend wasn't with us on this trip.

But GG was.  She spent almost the entire trip on the front of the boat lounging around in her purple with white polka dot bikini listening to her ipod, reading her Cosmo magazine and generally ignoring the old folks us.  Not a bad way to spend the Saturday after finals if you ask me.

Our Captain for the day was Tamlin.  He might be in the middle of saying something here, or maybe he was making a smoochie face for the camera.  It's hard to tell with Tamlin.

His lovely wife J joined us as well.  As you can see from the way she's dressed, that although it was sunny and almost 70, with the wind out on the ocean, it was a bit cold.  I personally had three layers including a jacket on, plus I huddled under a blanket most of the trip.  I only brought my hands out to snap these few photos and to drink my chick beer.  Yes, I drink chick beer.

The Hubs also came along and was looking pretty good.  Hey there handsome.  Wanna get married and have babies with me?

We got to see a few of these, which I thought was pretty cool.  They have a light on top, and some of them make little noises to warn boats they're there.

We saw a lot of these.  J named this one Oliver and when The Hubs threw out a chip for him to eat, suddenly about 10 more descended on us.  It was crazy scary like the movie The Birds.  Have you seen that movie?  You should.  Scary.

We saw lots of little sail boats like Tamlin's, but we also saw some beautiful Yachts like this one.  The Hubs called dibs on this for when we win the lotto.  Quite frankly, that's the only way we'd ever be able to afford one of these lovely boats.

We also happened to see this beauty while we were out.  Reminds me of what the ocean must have looked like way back in the day.  We think this might have The America - a replica of first vessel that won the famous America's Cup.  This sails tours as part of the San Diego Maritime Museum.

We mostly sailed out by Loma Point.  This is Loma Point.  It's pretty no?  I wouldn't mind living out there on the edge of nowhere.  Until the hurricanes come.  Or a tsunami.  Or an earthquake that drops the point into the ocean like Atlantis. Then I'd prefer to be in Austin. 

Coincidentally, we were right near a Naval Base too, so we got to see a few of these flying around.  The Hubs took these shots and tells me this is a Black Hawk.  We also saw a submarine under repairs, and some Marine Corp Harriers,  E23 HawkEyes, and P3 Orions.  But that's just a bunch of boy stuff. 

Next time we come back I really want to go on the San Diego Maritime Museum tour of The HMS Surprise. Now THAT is a sailboat.  No offense Tamlin.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Mayberry Ain't Got Nothin' On Us

While we were visiting at the farm, The Tweedles got to go fishing for the very first time.  Now, please, bear in mind that they are only 5 and 3, so no, they didn't catch anything.  In fact, I think we spent more time getting them set up, than they did actually fishing.  But it was a fun experience none the less.

On the afternoon of our last day, we put off nap time and gathered the kids up to go down to the Big Pond to fish.

Let me say here right up front, I do not fish.  That's not to say when I was younger spending summers at the farm, that I did not fish.  I did.  But I don't recall ever catching anything and frankly, sitting quietly waiting for the fish to bite was outside of my capabilities when I was young.  A teacher might refer to me as "Energetic" but lets face facts, I was High-Strung. Of course, I'll deny that if anyone asks. But fishing is a farm experience I didn't want The Tweedles to miss out on, so The Hubs was awesome enough to show them how it's done so I could play with my camera catch it all for posterity.

The first thing The Hubs did after getting each of The Tweedles a pole, was realize that if they sat on the dock (which my wonderful and amazing Uncle K built when my brother and his family was visiting so they could fish) they'd lose their boots in the pond.  So, off came the boots!

Then he got a fishing pole with a bobber for each of the kids and set them up to fish.

Bunny first, because she's the oldest, most annoying and has no patience to be second.  High-strung people, I have no idea where she gets it from.

Bug dutifully held his fishing pole for a good 5 minutes.  We were so proud.

Bunny watched The Hubs cast and reel a few times and wanted to do it herself.  The Hubs being the absolutely amazing father he is, sat down and taught her how to cast.  He has way more patience than I do.  It's why I married him.  I needed someone to balance me out.  But I'll deny that if asked.

She didn't do so bad either!

And for a while there, they all fished in happy harmony.

Can I just stop here a second and tell you how much I love this photo.  There's just something about Bunny and The Hubs fishing together that really chokes me up and gets me all misty.  And her one pant leg rolled up just a little, and in her stocking feet.  I don't know why, but this one sure gets me.

Of course, then one gets me too.

And this one.

Are you sure we can't move to Texas Hubs?  Hello?  Are you listening? 
These photos always make me start whistling the theme song to The Andy Griffth show and I get a clear visual of Opie walking barefoot on a dirt road with his fishing pole over his shoulder.

Opie's got nothing on my Bug though.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy

One of the truly unique things about living out in the middle of nowhere, is that even before you get your license, heck even before you turn 16, you can drive.  Four years ago, when we took the family to the farm for Christmas, this was a huge deal for GG.  This year, even though she was 16, she still didn't have her license and it was still a big deal.  One of the very first things my wonderful and fun Uncle (who will henceforth be called Uncle K because calling him just Uncle seemed weird to me) did, was put GG on a tractor. 

It wasn't unusual to see this coming at you as you wandered through one of the fields.

It was a little unusual to see Uncle K hot-doggin' it on the tractor forks as GG brought the tractor down to the field.  Brave man my Uncle K.  He came along to give some instructions so that GG could do some work for him, all in the guise of "fun".  Man that Uncle K is slick!  He's like Tom Sawyer, I tell you!  Must be something those country boys learn early on.

His instructions were simple.  Bring the tractor into this little corral area where he was storing some hay bales, pick one up, and move it out for the cows.

Sounds easy enough.

Except for one thing.  In all of her driving lessons with The Hubs, they never covered reverse.  If you blow up this image (just click on it to see the larger version) you'll see that she backed up the tractor forks right into the wire gate there. 

Now let me tell you another thing about my Uncle K, he is the most patient, calm man I know.  I don't think I've EVER seen him lose his temper.  Not once.  So after letting her back up and pull forward and back up and pull forward and back into the gate, pull forward, back up so the tree limbs attacked her and pull forward again and we'd all had a really good laugh, he walked up and gave her some friendly and calm instructions.

He even told her what a great job she was doing - especially for someone who hadn't ever done it before - and finally got her backed up to where she was suppose to be.

A few more pointers later, and she backed right up to the bale and got it on the fork and in the air!  Not to shabby for a girl who hasn't even taken drivers ed yet!  I think we have a video of this, I'll try to get my hands on it.  If I do manage to post it, please ignore the laughing people in the background!

Seriously... Thoughts?

And That's No Bull!

A few times Uncle came to take us out to feed the cows, LW decided to come with us.  Now, if you know LW, you know she has to do things her own way - the path less traveled - the hard way.

She apparently decided that she didn't need no stinkin' feeding trough.  She decided she was going to hand feed the bull.  Of course, she didn't realize at first that this whole feeding thing works much better if you actually have food.  Sorry Mr. Bull, she's really a blond.

Ahh, there now, that's better.

See Mr. Bull checking to make sure she has food.  Fool him once shame on you.. fool him twice.. well, he's no fool.  But just to be on the safe side, he decides to check her out first.  Apparently, if you're a bull, you can tell a lot about a person with a few sniffs.

After this high-level background check, he decides to go in for the kill food.

And then he slips her the tongue - the sly dog.. er.. bull.

Then a little tongue turns into a full fledged tongue grope.

This gives a whole new visual to the term "tongue lashing".

But honestly, it's the big line of drool that really made this an experience to remember.. and that's no bull!  Sorry! I couldn't help myself!

Seriously.. Thoughts?

Cow Feedin'

My Uncle, who is not retired and has a very nice full time job with the local school district, took us out almost every day to give his cows feed pellets.  He keeps a small herd these days just for fun.  This herd is considerably smaller than what my Grandfather used to have on the property back in the day.  But like I said, he isn't trying to make a living off of these animals, he just really enjoys them.  And so do we Uncle.. so do we!

We'd start out walking behind the house towards the big pond around dusk and the cows would know exactly what we were up to and come a runnin'.  My Uncle has 4 concrete feeding troughs where he dumps feed pellets for the cows in the winter.  This gives them extra nutrients to help get them through the winter months.

They come up all sweet and innocent, but deep down cows are ornery, fickle things.  So we had to be extra careful of The Tweedles to make sure they didn't get kicked by the cows.  Us too for that matter.  Ornery and fickle I say.  Especially bulls.

You eyeballin' me son?  
Who me? Nah.. and that's ma'am to you mister!


My Uncle would put the pellets into little buckets to make it easier for the Tweedles to carry.  He'd hand each of the Tweedles a bucket and they'd go dump the pellets into one of the four concrete troughs.

 

Apparently, once their buckets were emptied, that was some internal Tweedle signal to race back to Uncle to get another bucket.  I'm not sure where they picked up the idea that it was a race, but race they did.

Maybe they just missed Uncle?  Maybe they were afraid of the cows?  Although, it kinda looks like they were fleeing from The Hubs in this photo doesn't it?

Even The Old Guy got into the mix.  Although I don't think he raced.  Maybe he didn't know he was suppose to?  Or maybe he just wanted to let the Tweedles win?  Either way, I never saw him race.  Just wanted that to be clear.  The Old Guy did not race.

Despite all of our antics, the cows enjoyed the meal very much - the pigs!  And I think The Tweedles really enjoyed it too.  Every day around dinner time as soon as Uncle would show up they'd run to him asking if it was time to feed the cows.  I even think secretly the Hubs and The Old Guy had a good time.  I know I did!

You just can't make these kinds of memories in the city people... you just can't.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

To The Farm - The More Things Change...

As previously mentioned, we scheduled our flight in the wee hours of Christmas morning.  We did this in part so the Tweedles would sleep through most of the flight and we hoped, our wait at the airport.  Due to some troubles with our boarding passes, which I won't get into because I'm still angry enough to spit, we almost missed our outgoing 1AM flight despite arriving at the airport 2.5 hours early.  But ultimately, we did make our flight and arrived in Dallas around Noon.  My Dad (here forth known as "The Old Guy"), picked us up at the airport and we made it to the farm a bit before 4PM.  Just in time for Christmas dinner! YUM!

I had to work the whole first week we were there, so I didn't get a chance to mingle with my visiting relatives as much as I would have liked.  This worked out well for the second week though when I was actually on vacation because I got to have a lot of downtime just with the family.

I can't possibly put into words the feeling of comfort, welcoming and warmth I get from being on the farm.  As a child from a family that moved around a lot, the farm was a constant.  I knew no matter where we moved to, the farm would always be there with grandma and grandpa and cows and cousins.  We didn't have game stations, ipods, movies or internet.  Heck, I can remember having a single rotary phone for ages and ages! 

What we did have was cousins, uncles/aunts and my grandparents.  We had our imaginations and board games.  We had fishing and swimming and plain old tramping across the property. We had chickens to chase feed and cows who had the cutest calves.  And we had an old bull we could ride on he was so tame! 

So much has changed around the farm (not just the house) since I was a kid.  This visit we had movies (netflix and dvds), laptops, tablet games (Angry Birds is soooo addictive!), computer games, and tv.  Loads of tv.  But some things didn't change.  My Uncle Keith - who btw, is the best uncle in the whole wide universe and was always the "fun" one when I was a kid - came to visit every day.  He took us all out to feed admittedly, a much smaller herd of cattle.

There was still fishing at the big pond.

There were still cousins to play with - if only for a few days.

And there was plenty of property to tramp across (this view is still only a small part of it but if you look really hard, you can see the house way in the back.)

It's amazing to me how things change, and how much they stay the same.  I still have the same feelings about the farm as when I was a kid.  I still feel happier and more relaxed there than anywhere else, even my own home.  And yet, the place is so changed from when I was a kid.  I can only hope that my kids (ALL of my kids, even the big ones) find at least some measure of the joy from the farm that I have.


Seriously.. Thoughts?