Nothing specific to report today but Will has assigned me the task of doing an entry so here goes.
Our week of dog-sitting ended yesterday with Sharon’s return from the UK. She had a good trip but was happy to return and Oscar was more than pleased to see her. We took him for an hour-long walk everyday and in the process, discovered a few new “off-piste” treks in our area. Previously, most of our walking was done on trails and dirt roads but while James was here, he introduced us to some paths that wend through our local woods. Oscar much prefers these walks since it gives him a chance to swim in the streams as well as follow the scents of wild animals and if he’s lucky, they lead him to their poo which he likes to sample.
Besides the fresh air and exercise, the walks are beneficial in that they give us a chance to mull over names for Cats A & B. Will is preparing a blog entry with the list of potential names so keep an eye out for that if you’d like to contribute.
Apart from caring for the hound, I’ve been doing a bit of programming this week. I think we’ve mentioned that Sharon has an idea for an internet business so I’ve been working on a proof-of-concept for that. It was a bit difficult getting back into it since I haven’t done any programming in earnest since I left Channel 4 three years ago. Thankfully, I’ve made some progress so it hasn’t all been in vain. Will continues to work on learning new songs for the guitar but I’ll leave that for him to tell you about.
Last night, we had Sharon, Richard and Brigit over for dinner. We made two types of enchiladas – chicken and veggie. The piece-de-resistance was the dessert. We were given a large bag of walnuts so I’ve been trying recipes that use them for the past few weeks. Mostly it’s been stir-fries and risottos so I decided to try to incorporate them into a dessert for a change. I don’t have much experience making cakes but I wanted to try making a carrot cake since it contains the featured ingredient. Thanks to epicurious, I found a recipe for Inside-out Carrot Cake Cookies. It’s the ingredients for carrot cake (carrots, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon) except you make them into cookies and then glue two of them together with a bit of cream cheese/honey frosting. They are to die for.
On the visitor front, David White (Big D) is coming to see us this coming weekend. He’s working in Paris for the next week so will be spending the interim weekend down here. On a related note, Will has made a calendar containing dates of visits and our holidays. Have a peruse if you’re thinking about coming to see us.
C’est tout pour maintenant mes amis.