tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68464134675725215972011-10-09T21:47:55.611-04:00Raising money to cure polycystic kidney diseaseRuthWellsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger381100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-12476577286931522072007-10-31T16:31:00.000-04:002007-10-31T16:48:19.758-04:00

and the season is winding down on Cookies for a Cure. This was conceived as a fundraising blog, a motivation and tracking tool for me, and it has been a blast. But as I retire (again) from fundraising, it feels like Cookies for a Cure has run its course.However! I discovered something surprising over the last few months. I found that I like blogs, I like a lot of bloggers, and I like blogging

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-37402352411749609502007-10-31T10:49:00.001-04:002007-10-31T10:51:16.235-04:00

I'm sorely tempted to hand out cherry tomatoes to the trick-or-treaters.

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-2158223863419990602007-10-30T17:27:00.000-04:002007-10-31T16:48:45.725-04:00

By rights the mayhem of actually getting ready for the Cabaret should have put me into a coma, but adrenaline's a funny thing. We had about one hour at home to shove food into the kids, shower, and dress before returning to the Players Club, and we made it with time to spare.(This is where I brag about how smart I was to have dragged Michael over the bridge from New Jersey very early in our

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-39426711381127338022007-10-29T09:35:00.000-04:002007-10-29T09:50:39.749-04:00

Pop quiz: what is the least welcome on a Monday morning?a) Waking up to house temps of 62* due to a wonky furnace thermostatb) Arriving at your office and promptly spilling your cup of tea all over your deskc) Feeling the beginning of a urinary tract infection coming ond) All of the above.Happy Monday, all -- I hope you're off to a better start than me this morning!

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-90789071963271277252007-10-18T13:11:00.000-04:002007-10-18T13:14:06.917-04:00

It's health care open enrollment time at Michael's Big Corporate Job, and they have ditched all of their no-deductible plans in favor of weird deductible/health savings plan/consumer driven hybrid nonsense. I've been reading the material for over an hour and I still don't know how much it's likely to cost us to insure Michael and the kids for 2008.Hold me.

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-14732667333140812492007-10-17T17:46:00.000-04:002007-10-17T17:47:17.537-04:00

Michael and his ladies. Teddie is on the right; Donna is on the left. Donna and Michael have played a married couple on stage many many times. I wish I had her legs.**************************It's been over a month since the cabaret. How on earth have I been spending my time?....I went to a liver doctorand had some blood work doneand it was all fine (so we don't know why I'm slightly

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-65585240300525925042007-10-09T19:17:00.000-04:002007-10-09T19:22:29.142-04:00

Further proof of global warming -- look what came out of my garden tonight. Dudes, it's OCTOBER.I'm making tomato bisque tonight. It's a poor substitute for The Clooney, but I'm still waiting to hear back from our babysitter and a girl must take comfort where she can.

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-67372453424413913902007-10-05T14:06:00.000-04:002007-10-05T14:08:33.189-04:00

Me likey.Me need babysitter.

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-75892887621045988382007-10-01T13:31:00.000-04:002007-10-01T13:31:43.300-04:00

My older brother's birthday is September 1, and as has become something of a custom, we twinned in a family celebration with a Labor Day weekend get-together. Baking is a must, of course, and I was keen to try the Many-Layered Lemon Cake from the Olive's Dessert Table by Paige Retus. My dear friend Wolvie speaks very highly of this cake, which is good enough for me (and should be good enough

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-47845370725527104662007-09-22T16:02:00.000-04:002007-09-22T16:18:28.251-04:00

I am so far behind I may never catch up, and @#$%^&* Blogger just ate my text for this stinkin' post! I am shouting very naughty words at the top of my voice, which is not very loud because I'm recovering from a cold. There is no justice. Also, ouch.Week Eight was a very long time ago. I over baked most egregiously, apparently afraid I'd run out of stuff (who remembers?). We had Cinnamon Squares

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-25425010086152464852007-09-21T14:14:00.000-04:002007-09-30T10:13:48.374-04:00

Mildred MammanoMarch 1918 - September 2007

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-83081985815129028562007-09-12T19:14:00.000-04:002007-09-28T09:51:49.174-04:00

This is just a quickie, as I am out of town for a few days (in Chicago! Studying pastry with Chef Norman Love at the French Pastry School! Yes, taking lots of pictures! Yes, it's incredible and I never want to come home again!) and my #$%^&* hotel's internet has worked correctly approximately 5 minutes out of the 2 days I've been here, so I'm at the moment paying for internet access at a

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-73815574337739824852007-09-07T09:26:00.000-04:002007-09-07T11:51:27.313-04:00

We have broken the $5,000 mark this week! Woo-hoo!Aaaaaand our fundraising cabaret performance is tomorrow. (How did that sneak up on us?) Michael has assembled a small but crackerjack group of performers (including our little munchkins) and an eclectic song list, and I have a feeling I'll be in a puddle of tears by the end of the evening. We've had some decent press for the cabaret in local

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-1764412970258852072007-09-05T16:56:00.000-04:002007-09-05T17:18:06.318-04:00

My mom wrote poetry as a college student. After a hiatus of being married, raising kids, entering and then leaving the workforce, selling real estate and managing rental properties, and then being an almost-full-time grandkid babysitter, she got serious about writing poetry again a few years ago. Since then, she has been published in numerous small but prestigious poetry periodicals, including

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-3659938666121791742007-09-04T11:48:00.000-04:002007-09-04T11:49:13.710-04:00

We made good time to the beach on Saturday, got the parrot dropped off just in time before the vet closed, and All Was Well. Dinner out, early to bed, and off to see the ocean on a gray and cloudy Sunday morning. It got windy and cold, which didn't much bother anyone. And then it started to rain.It rained Monday.It rained Tuesday.It rained Wednesday.We had to go home Wednesday night.We managed to

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-3782716003982480252007-09-02T16:44:00.000-04:002007-09-02T16:52:49.226-04:00

I realized this week that the longer I stall, waiting for inspiration, the less inspired this post is likely to be. (Call it Fischer's Law of Inverse Inspiration.) So I resign myself to general lack of inspiration, in hopes of finally getting caught up before the end of the holiday weekend. (Wish me luck -- I still have not pulled the school clothes out of the closets to see what still fits. Ay

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-62572502790902095892007-08-29T16:47:00.001-04:002007-09-02T16:53:17.224-04:00

Greetings! Sorry it's been so quiet here lately -- life has kept me BUSY since our return from the beach, and I often find myself running as fast as I can without moving an inch. Coming back from vacation stinks. But hey -- as of last Saturday, at least I'm not baking on deadline anymore...While I get my cr@p together to post on Weeks Seven and Eight (and the vacation! and the Cabaret, which is

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-85546000310566220362007-08-15T20:01:00.000-04:002007-08-15T17:32:32.472-04:00

Between my travels and Quin's ER visit, the baked offerings for Week Six were, of necessity, on the less ambitious side of the spectrum. In between rotating baking sheets and dialing Michael's cell phone on Friday night, I unfortunately did not have a hand free to take any process pictures, so this week's post will feel a little light.Before leaving town, I had mixed and refrigerated dough for

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-73407686028229485462007-08-13T13:56:00.000-04:002007-08-15T17:29:30.278-04:00

We're leaving town for a few days at the beach on Saturday, right after the cookie sale. So much for never leaving town again, but at least this time I'll have the kids where I can keep an eye on them.Where can I find mesh beach shoes for the kids quickly in August?.......

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-45955973312322275582007-08-13T09:51:00.000-04:002007-08-14T15:22:50.631-04:00

It should have been a restful break from the routine, a quiet few days of early bedtimes and deep breathing. Sitting in a seminar by day, catching up on work by evening. Spending just a little time being calm and still. I had prepped for the Saturday sale earlier in the week by mixing dough and sticking it the fridge, so I would get home Friday evening and spend mere minutes baking off the

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-56225130814968292752007-08-05T20:57:00.000-04:002007-08-07T12:53:56.254-04:00

Week Five was notable for two reasons: the Co-Op's patio was hotter than the surface of the sun, and we got what I refer to (with tongue firmly in cheek) as our first catering gig.[There are only 3 more weeks of the baking project, and I am vacillating wildly between regretful advance-nostalgia and overwhelming relief. For I have loved the baking and the selling and the community of it all,

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-33317418304087019172007-08-02T12:47:00.000-04:002007-08-02T12:48:29.270-04:00

Bob from Team Teddy Bear says it best. Check it out, and get motivated!

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-59289906555130400322007-07-31T16:04:00.000-04:002007-07-31T19:20:10.195-04:00

With all the baking and fundraising and whatnot, my gardening time has been pretty scarce this summer. Luckily, we've had sufficient rain at convenient intervals, and I haven't had to water (much). Therefore, my garden attention has been limited to thrice-weekly tomato picking and once-weekly Swiss chard picking. The (!@*&#) bunnies munched the pole beans a few weeks back (hence no beans to pick)

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-3585018842013493932007-07-29T18:25:00.000-04:002007-07-31T16:04:52.054-04:00

So you remember those photos of my living room from from mid-last-week? That was nothing. Guess what it looked like by 8pm Friday. It started on my cell phone at about 5:15 ("Do you mind if I bring some stuff over this evening? Is it too late?"), continued with messages on the home voice mail and live calls during dinner prep, and finished up with neighbors dropping by en practical mass up

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-87879871627506595762007-07-29T12:10:00.000-04:002007-07-29T12:19:43.608-04:00

I want to take a little time-out post to throw some appreciation to the blogger who inspired me to get writing, though she doesn't know it. Mir at http://www.wouldashoulda.com/ is whip-funny and bitingly smart. And she writes well. She also raised $6,000 for breast cancer research, largely through the power of the internet and her amazing blog.Mir writes about the challenges of raising kids, the

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-45510190569313220592007-07-26T14:32:00.001-04:002007-07-26T21:52:21.920-04:00

If we do not make a zillion billion dollars at Saturday's yard sale, it will not be due to lack of wherewithall.This is what my living room has looked like for the last 2 weeks. Stuff from co-workers, stuff from neighbors, stuff from families of the kids' friends, stuff from my boss, stuff from my own extended family members. Terrific stuff, some of it; junky stuff, some of it. And there is

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-23109418178505395832007-07-23T16:32:00.000-04:002007-07-23T16:40:33.226-04:00

Usually when I bake, I end up with various smallish oven burns on my hands and forearms, due to moving too fast, getting distracted by boys and dog, and the like. I've been baking (what feels like non-stop) for the last 3 weeks and I don't yet have a single oven burn. It's almost as if there is an outside force looking over me and this project ............Do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do!

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-47447846602566342952007-07-22T18:25:00.000-04:002007-07-23T13:09:14.914-04:00

Yesterday was incredible. Hot on the heels of our newspaper article , we had a boffo day. Every single baked item got sold -- what a thrill! We also went through a full gallon of lemonade and half a gallon of herbal iced tea. (The beverages have been much slower-moving compared to the baked goodies.) My garden is producing tons of zucchini this month, so I decided to make zucchini cupcakes, using

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-83252686609513715292007-07-22T12:02:00.000-04:002007-07-22T12:03:18.758-04:00

Take a look.

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-2849277506100745522007-07-19T20:07:00.000-04:002007-07-19T20:13:59.167-04:00

I just did the math, and between the bake sale and direct gifts through the web site, we've raised over $1000!! I'm beside myself! We're having a yard sale next Saturday as yet another way to boost fundraising, and the article about the whole project will be in tomorrow's local paper. Yowsa! (Fundraising was never this much fun when I did it for a living -- I wonder why that is? ; )Did I

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-29523067303003923432007-07-18T21:41:00.001-04:002007-07-19T20:07:52.299-04:00

I need to pace myself better than I did last week -- I didn't realize how tired I was until I returned home from a few errands on Sunday morning and had to lie down. I slept a lot on Sunday, left work early on Monday to sleep more, and didn't really "snap to" again until Wednesday. By then, Michael had a crazed look in his eye, the clean, unfolded laundry was snarling from its corner*, the dog

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-19191739382484747332007-07-16T10:27:00.000-04:002007-07-16T10:37:10.603-04:00

I'm sorry not to have posted sooner, folks -- I have lots of pix and recipe reviews, but I crashed really hard after the sale on Saturday and am just starting to get the synapses firing again. I'll try to catch up this evening.In brief, we made a bit less money this week -- about $67. There was just less traffic, and I think we're going to see a lot of ups and downs like this. It was great to

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-58859202524714688392007-07-13T14:49:00.002-04:002007-07-13T15:46:36.032-04:00

Well, the article didn't come out today, which means we'll be heading into Day Two of the bake sale with the same (lack of) publicity that we had for Day One. But! The extra week means that we have time to take a good photo to accompany the article. And the weather forecast is 86* and sunny, which is really perfect cookie-buying weather, if you think about it.If all else fails, we're going to

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-80868475830740280822007-07-10T11:41:00.000-04:002007-07-16T10:37:40.748-04:00

I just finished. I was very good -- didn't cry at all until the very end. There is a chance it won't be published until next week (boo), but I'm still hoping for this Friday. Cross your fingers!

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-2234239408060714932007-07-08T20:15:00.000-04:002007-07-16T10:38:20.353-04:00

(You can see me reflected below in the store window -- hee! Shall I pretend to be brilliant and say I planned it that way? Photography is NOT among my gifts.) The weather couldn't have been better, we had our first customers almost immediately, several friends dropped by (including friends of the kids'), and everyone was really nice about listening to me spiel about PKD. (Not surprisingly, at

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-11627649984653284282007-07-06T21:48:00.000-04:002007-07-16T10:43:45.499-04:00

Our fundraising plan grew like Topsy. It started off with a bake sale, which grew into a once-weekly baked goods and lemonade stand in front of our local Co-op (amongst other things). We start tomorrow. PANIC!I spent July 4 mixing cookie batters and rolling out homemade dog biscuits. I cut over 100 dog biscuits with my cute little bone-shaped cutters. My lovely and marvelous friend Maureen gave

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-73186707403776692552007-07-06T21:19:00.000-04:002007-07-16T10:43:04.414-04:00

To raise money for polycystic kidney disease (PKD) research. There are two forms of PKD, both of which are genetic. The rare form, Autosomal Recessive PKD, affects about one in 20,000 individuals and usually causes death in infancy. The more common form, Autosomal Dominant PKD, affects one in 500 individuals and usually causes kidney failure by the time the patient reaches his or her 50s. It is

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6846413467572521597.post-79877879502638342512007-07-04T17:04:00.001-04:002007-07-04T17:30:51.259-04:00

My mother is a Bona Fide writer -- a published poet, no less, and she journals daily, almost obsessively. My grandmother, at the ripe age of *redacted*, is also a published writer, with several essays having appeared in the newsletter of her assisted living community. My dad, an electrical engineer, is a writer of yet another sort; an eminent researcher, he has published multiple papers in his

RuthWellsnoreply@blogger.com2