Hi!

Hey Everyone!
My computer was infested with male porn, and no i did not go to any sites... so i couldnt get on my computer because it was being fixed. Finally after many attempts to free the computer of gay men, we went to the last resort and re-configured the whole network so now i have a new, and hopefully pornless computer! The point of this was to say i would be reading posts! :)
Love Sophie

The Fisher Face?

PRF Christmas 2003, not sure who took the photo!

This is what I'm talkin' about. Do John (scroll down) and Dad look alike or what?

Two bad I can't figure out how to get the two photos side-by-side... I'll work on that.

We're Home

I just posted two photos; John and Jan and Wendi with daughters, Brook and Laurie. forgive me if I didn't spell Brook and Laurie correctly. We left Modesto Thursday morning and drove over Tioga Pass in Yosemite and down the other side of the Sierras to Lone Pine. It was a beautiful drive. I'll post a couple of pictures of the "High Country" later. We picked a place in Lone Pine to have hamburgers for dinner only to find we had misread the resturant list and were in what is probably Lone Pine's best eatery. We both had great steaks. The resturant is called the "Merry Go Round". We recommend it to all who stop in Lone Pine. On Friday, we were going to drive through Death Valley, over to Pahrump, NV and on down to Bullhead City, AZ. We found that the main hiway out of Death Valley to Pahrump was closed for an indeterminate length of time due to flood damage. So, we drove down 395 and cut over to Barstow and took I40 to get to Bullhead City. Yesterday we drove home via Kingman, Wickenberg and Phoenix. We had a great trip but are glad to be home. Love to all.

Brook, Wendi and Laurie

John and Jan

More Fishers in the Net!

We've caught John and Jan now! John (that's Uncle John to me and uh... Great Uncle John to my kids (wait... is that right?) but I don't think we need to stand on ceremony. Anyway, John says:

"Hi all. Just ole Uncle John from Modesto. Thought i would try and see if i could figure out how to use this so i can connect a little with all the neices and nephews i have not had the opportunity to meet and see. Loved having Reed and MA here for a few days... Hoping in the near future to be traveling the US and get to see everyone. Anyway, Thanks Ann for inviting Jan and I to your Blog... hoping to keep in touch more this way...Bye bye for now....John"

It's terrible that my kids have never met you two (well, I suppose Ben has, but he was a baby). I'll try to post some photos soon, and I hope you will too.

Now we need to get Mary... and Kate and Meiggs... and Wendi... and...Lisa (invite pending but she refuses to do anything about it. Exert pressure, Misty and Andi, relentless teasing and humiliation. Whatever it takes).

Around Modesto and Oakdale

Hi Family - We're in Modesto, seeing John, Jan and family and MA's childhood friend Elyse. We went driving around the familiar haunts yesterday. The picture below is of what was a popular trysting place 50 years ago. It's up near Knight's Ferry on the Hiway from Oakdale up to Sonora, Pinecrest and over to Yosemite. Ann and Lisa have been on this Hiway many times. One might say Lovers Leap is where it all began. It was the location of our first kiss. Romantic, huh. We're going to leave tomorrow. We're planning to go over Tioga Pass and down the back side of the Sierras. Love to all.

First Kiss Many Years Ago

Lovers Leap on Hiway from Oakdale to Yosemite

Rainy Days

Hey Guys!
Here in New York it is pretty rainy and grey but i guess thats life. My unicycling club is meeting today and there is going to be a spanish film crew there. Unfortunatly, I can't go but it sounds like a lot of fun that they get to be on T.V. Who knows... maybe I will even see them on moms telivision since weird spanish channels are the only ones we get...
Love to all, Sophie

More Travels

Thursday we drove up the coast from San Francisco to Fort Bragg. Nice seacoast. Washed clothes, got car washed and had a nice fish and chips dinner at a micro-brewery. Friday we drove down through the Sonoma/Napa wine country and on to Concord to spend the night with Paula. Traffic got bad after Napa, but I, more or less, kept my cool. Then today we drove through delta to Stockton and on up through Oakdale and Sonora to Twain Harte. We're in a real neat Bed and Breakfast. Monday we'll go back down to Modesto and Oakdale.

Love to all, Grandpa

Neat B&B

Our B&B in Twain Harte above Sonora, CA

What Winery Do You Want to Visit?

In the Sonoma/Napa Valley Wine Country Driving by Familiar Vineyards.

Ivan the Terrible

Ivan as seen from the Space Station

Okay, this isn't really family-related, but I think this is an amazing photograph. You can see it at high-resolution here. Another good site is Earth Observatory, with some very cool images.

End of an ERA

Well - we went to the Mandarin tonight. Almost no one there; maybe three or four other tables. We ordered Sizzling Rice Soup to start. Instead of a bowl of soup with super hot rice that sizzled and steamed when it was dropped in the bowl, we got two serving bowls and the server dropped two little dabs of medium hot rice that kind of fizzled into the soup. It tasted good, but something was lost. We had two dishes; abalone with shitaki mushrooms and walnut prawns. they were good but nothing exceptional. The lettuce wrap is made with chicken rather than squab (we didn't have it). So, a message to the next generation after us; the food at the Mandarin is still good, but don't expect what we used to enjoy. It's tough when you find you have outlived an institution. But, the alternative is unacceptable.

love to all.............

Embarrassing Lisa into joining...

For heaven's sake, could someone (I think that's you, Misty and Andi) please work on Lisa? She could be telling us about the work she's doing on her studio! She could be giving us decorative painting tips! She needs to be here!

Chocolate Bag and more

Hi all,

Our SF trip is great - it is hot here (over 80). Ann, we tried your restaurant last night and had the chocolate bag filled with mousse, etc. for two. We agree - it was great. Going to the Mandarin tonight.

Our first dinner (or lack there 0f was a riot. We decided to eat in the hotel as we had a long day only to find it was closed on Monday. We walked to a Chinese place the hotel sent us to - the only other people there were two hookers. Couple other people walked in and got served. We had soup and waited and waited and finally got up and left.

The Hotel is neat - only 2 blocks from the old Day's Inn!

Love to all,

Mom

Commenting

You've probably noticed that you have to sign in with a user name and password to leave comments to posts. Commenting has been restricted to Blog members only to prevent "helpful and constructive criticism" (such as, damn, you were an ugly little kid!) from people we don't know and don't care about.

If you're family or a family friend viewing this Blog but not yet a member I apologize for the restriction. You can always let one of us know you're interested--your request will forwarded to me by whomever you speak to.

Hey Hey!

Thanks for inviting me Mom.

It's great to see news from all corners of the family here, and to hear about your upcoming plans to visit New York. Please don't leave me out!

I've been taking it easy in the city and just got back from a week off of work. A whole week of relaxation during which I basically slept and sat around. It was exactly what I needed.

Hope you are all well.

Ben

New blogger

Thanks for including me! I'm still trying to figure it out---if you send it to my Mom give her EXPLICIT instructions---she's technically challenged. Just got back from a trip out west and am back to work. BORED...as you can tell. I miss you all---Mom, Andi and I are trying to find time to meet in NY. We'll keep you posted. love, xoxox

A fellow "parasailing" in the surf near Half Moon Bay.

We're Off On Our Trip

Hello everybody. this is the fourth day of our two week trip and we just got into San Francisco. We were in Monterey/Carmel the last two days. Had dinner at the Sardine Factory. MA looked great and I was one of three or four men in a sport coat (all of us were middle aged or older). Got a fair number of good photos. I'll post one or two later. Today we drove up to Santa Cruz and around in the Santa Cruz mountains before coming on up the coast to SF. Ann, we're in the Carleton and it's nice. We're trying to decide where to eat tonight. Maybe we'll try a seafood place on Hyde Street. Enuf for now. More later. Love to all.

Hummingbirds

Hi All - I just put a photo of a hummingbird on the BLOG. I mean't to write something with the photo but messed-up and published it before I could wite about it. We live under one of migrating bird flyways and there is an old (two whole years older than me) gentleman who lives about 25 miles south of us and feeds the hummingbirds. During the peak season (which is just finishing) he has about 150 feeders out and feeds 10,000 to 15,000 birds a day. He goes through about 1500 pounds of sugar a year. It's great fun to go down and watch them. We have around a dozen hummers that fight over our two feeders during the season. One or two hang around during the winter. If you look carefully at the photo you'll see the bees like sugar water also. Love to all.

Hungary Hummingbird

If You think MA's Graduation Picture was Good.

This is MaryAnne 10 Years after HS Graduation

Back

I am back from Umas and had an okay time. i got to water ski and am very excited about that. Noras at volley ball camp now, and she is doing a lot of work out i hear.
sophie

Finally finished!

Sunflower, by Beth Russell

It took me about 9 months to finish this thing off. I first saw these kits in London while Jack and I were taking a break over Thanksgiving last year. I fell in love with them but didn't buy one. I should have, because I became obsessed and ended up ordering two (there is a companion to this one I have yet to start working on) by mail. Some of you will remember me working on it at Lisa's house last Christmas.

Why me

I hate computers - especially this one which seems to have severe mental problems!

Memo

Just so everyone knows... as the only administrator for this Blog (for now) I also have the ability to edit all contributions. For the mostpart I will leave them as they appear, typos and all. However, I have decided to go back and add "Recipe:" to the beginning of "Easy Heat" and "Samosas aint losas!" to make them easier to find as they disappear into the archives. At some point I will work on a way to link to all recipes (and other categories we may come up with) from the main page. It's possible to do so now, but the list would get very long over time and I need to think about how to pre-emptively solve that problem for a while.

Also, I'm looking at photo blogs right now--I'd like to create one we all belong to so that we can link to collections of prints. This blog is great for uploading a single photo, but awkward for displaying an entire collection, such as Christmas, or my recent trip from Oregon to San Francisco. Any of you wanting to learn how to upload single photos (or any image) to the blog should give me a call--I'll walk you through using Hello. It's easy, once you get the hang of it.

Finally, you can also include links to other websites in your posts. If you don't know how, let me know.

To the Country!

I am going to the country with my friend so internet may not be in reach. If it is, i will check in as much as possible to spill a little about whats going on in the country. Whoooh i get to water ski! Zoom Zoom Zoom if you see me on T.V. cus I'm so good, tape me.
xoxoxo
sophie

Recipe: Samosas ain't losas!

1 1/2 hours to prepare
25 mins to prepare

Samosas are filled with spicy potatoes and peas. Mmmmmm...

The dough:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup yogurt
extra flour as needed

1)place flour in medium bowl. Mix in salt.
2)Make well in center, add yogurt. Mix 1st w/ spoon and then with hand.
3)Add extra flour as needed to keep dough from being sticky. Knead for 5 mins. Cover tightly and put in fridge till u are ready to assemble the pastries.

The filling:
2 large potatoes
1 tbs. butter
1 cup finly minced onion
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs. freshly graded ginger (bit of advice, DO NOT USE POWDERED GINGER! TOO STRONG!)
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 tsp. dried corriander
3/4ths tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups uncooked green peas (frozen, thawed = fine)
2 tbs. lemon juice cayenne, to taste

1) peel potatoes and chop into 1 inch peices. put in sauce-pan, cover w/ water, boil untill very soft. drain and put in medium bowl. mash and set aside.
2)melt butter in heavy skillet. add onion, garlic, ginger, mustard seeds, coriander, and salt. Saute' over medium heat till onions are quite soft. add to mashed potato along with remaining ingrediants. Mix but dont smash peas. cool for 15 mins before filling the pastries.

To assemble and bake:
1) Preheat over to 425F. generously oil a baking sheet.
2) have sm. container of flour, a fork, sm. bowl of water and a pastry brush at hand. Flour clean surface and rool one inch balls of dough in 5 inch cirlces, using rolling pin, not a barbie dolls head.
3) Place aprox. 1 1/2 tbs. filling in center of each circle and fold over like a turnover. brush inside edges with a little water. fold edges to make a hem. Crimp edges firmly with a fork ( the amusing part)
NOTE: IF STORING SAMOSAS TO BAKE LATER (sry caps) place them on a heavily floured plate of tray, dust tops with more flour and cover tightly. store in fridge untill baking time.
4)To bake: put Samosas on baking sheet ( the one u oiled idiot). brush tops w/ oil. bake 15 mins at 425F, THEN REDUCE HEAT TO 375F and bake for ten more minutes. turn the samosas over when u turn the oven down for more crispiness.
5) serve within 15 minutes of baking!

Buon Appetito!

Axis of eve

I went to the protest on Sunday and we met up with the Eves there selling underware, boxers and shirts. in the mood of a full protest i bought a pair of underware "weapond of mass seduction" and wore it over my pants. i got a lot of looks then, and a couple of comments upon the lines of " Your protesting Bush AND ur doing a great job going against his family values. Great going". After i left the march, i took the panties off immediatly. It was very fun. The march was really inspiring and the amount of people there was great.

Can Old dogs Learn New Tricks?

Hope this works. I got invited by daughter Ann to join this Web Log. At over three score years, things that my grand kids take for granted sort of baffle me at times. But, it looks like a great way for the extended family to keep in touch. After I get a little more conversant with the concept I'll try to get the family matriarch into it. Only thing, her computer hates her and tries to defy me. I'm getting closer and closer to getting her a Mac. I'd get one myself if it weren't for the fact that many (most) 0f the technical software firms no longer write for the Mac. Anyway, hello all.

confidence for the right school

today my tutor is coming, in 15 minutes to help me with those tricks that "get you the points" and how to "handle the time". i am a little nervous because with a tutor, although it takes away a level of stress, it adds a deeper one. now i worry, what if i don't get in and being tutored was all for nothing. hopefully nancy will be happy and reconize i have worked pretty hard. hopefully i will do well and get in. but it is a big step and i know its going to be hard. i am not going to hide that. so ill work my best and see what happens. so here goes! Math mania comin my way.

Hello

Well, just saying i joined this new blog, "FisherCatch". Seems like a good name and a pretty cool place.