Maybe you already knew this, but fall is apple season. Yesterday we attended a festival at a local farm that grows 40 apple varieties. Annika took in the farm animals and the hay maze.

Jonathan and Jenelle took home five varieties of apples.  They weren’t as shiny as the ones in the supermarket, but they tasted better.  The next day, Jonathan and Jenelle filled the cups of a muffin pan with 11 pie fillings made of the different apples. The results of this important research: a Spitzenberg or Spitzenberg-Gravenstein mixture made the tastiest filling.

This past weekend Jenelle and Jonathan held a Japanese chocolate tasting party.  In other words, they purchased four tasty chocolate bars and, after sampling a bit of each, composed haiku poems which reflected each chocolate.  Here’s one poem that describes a bar of Chocolove Rasberries with Dark Chocolate:

raspberries from the

valley tango with cacao

in a dark jungle

Look for the forthcoming anthology, A Thousand Chocolate Bars and a Smoothie.

We recently had a chat with Annika regarding important matters like contributing to the team, the cost of a college education, the nation’s unfunded entitlement liabilities, etc. As a result, Annika has begun doing chores around the house, including unloading the dishwasher. We hope to get her working in the yard next.

We recently celebrated Jenelle’s birthday. Thank you to everyone who so kindly thought of her.  We had a picnic in a local park. Instead of a cake, Jenelle requested a Brownie Puddle.  As you can see from the picture below, this was no mere brownie — it was a circular celebration of chocolate, with little pools of ganache dotting its surface. With some whipped cream on top, it was very delicious, and very rich.  So rich, actually, that it was hard to eat more than one piece. But, the cookbook says that it freezes well, so we’re saving some puddle parts for another time. The next time you’re in town, ask for a slice of brownie puddle.

Some people (i.e., grandparents) have requested high-resolution photos of Annika.  High-resolution versions of the photos currently posted on the family website can be found here.

Annika arrived this week.  Here are some pictures of her.

Okay, maybe “lost” is a little melodramatic.  These pictures are made from multiple photos, and some of the individual snapshots have been sitting in Jonathan’s picture collection for years.  Years ago, he started taking several pictures from a mountain top or other scenic viewpoint and telling himself that he’d stitch them together in Photoshop later on.  (He soon learned that this can take many hours.)

Recently, Jonathan bought some software that does much of the work automatically, so now seems like a good time to dust off these big pictures.

A broadband internet connection is recommended.

Have you seen the cover of the March 2007 issue of the Ensign? The relief sculpture was the work of Avard Fairbanks, who happens to be Jenelle’s great uncle. Avard created a number of sculptures commemorating events and people from Church and American history. He was also the creator of the Dodge Ram hood ornament.

Jenelle will be happy to autograph copies of the Ensign at our next family gathering (using her maiden name, of course). Ask her to explain how Avard was supposed to be named after a famous artist, but it didn’t work out that way.

As you may know, Jonathan lost his ring mysteriously last May. Authorities suspect that the ring disappeared while he was doing yard work, and that the ring now lies at the bottom of a compost pile somewhere — or worse. (Not that we know of much that can be worse than that.) So, after considerable consideration, Jonathan ordered a new ring that arrived last week.

The new ring is neither gold, nor silver, nor platinum, but tungsten carbide! It has the twin virtues of being both very hard and inexpensive. It scratches only under extreme conditions, and is the metal of choice for items such as drill bits and saw blades. Could there be manlier metal than this?

Jonathan is happy with his purchase. Jenelle is likewise glad to have something to keep the other women away from her man.

We’ve finally posted some of the 2200+ pictures we took on our trip to Antarctica.  Both long (almost 200) and short (20) versions are available.