back up

There is a moral to this post and it is this: back up your harddrive.

A week ago Sunday, The Recruiter tried to turn on the laptop but instead got error messages: "operating system not found"; "cable disconnected". Curious...and rather concerning. Just over a week went by before we were able to get my brother-in-law over to see if he could sort out the trouble. After some trial and error and the insertion of various discs, he deduced the problem: our harddrive is dead.

Our harddrive with every picture of Peanut on it.  Our harddrive with every picture of Bubby on it. Our harddrive with hours of downloaded music on it. Inaccessible, possibly permanently.

We're currently operating without a harddrive using a boot disc my BIL left with us so at least we're able to access the internet until we hook ourselves up with a new and functional harddrive. We're trying to stay hopeful that a recovery service can retrieve the files on the drive, but I'm trying to be realistic. They may find nothing. After I accidentally destroyed our last laptop, and then again after the fire, The Recruiter and I talked about getting a back up system started but failed to do so. I am absolutely sick at the thought of what we may have lost as a result of our forgetfulness.

So there won't be any new photos on the blog until we have a harddrive again and can load images from the camera. You'll just have to trust that the girls remain adorable.

Now go back up all your files!

friday evening, flaked out

A little dread-love and my very sleepy baby.

asparagus season

It's the beginning of farmer's market season in Ottawa, so we took a little family walk to the Byward Market last Friday to get some locally grown veggies. We got rhubarb and made these muffins - delicious! - and three big bundles of asparagus. Some of the spears went into savoury onion and asparagus muffins, and the rest were eaten alongside some mahi mahi.

Summer Asparagus Salad

2 bundles fresh asparagus, washed and trimmed
1tsp dijon mustard
2tsp orange juice
1 clove garlic, pressed (or 1/2tsp garlic powder if you are incredibly lazy, as I was)
2tsp brown sugar or honey
EVOO
dash of salt
large bowl of ice water

1. Place mustard, orange juice, garlic and sugar or honey in a small bowl and whisk together. Slowly drizzle in EVOO, whisking constantly until the dressing has entirely emulsified and become thicker and slightly creamy. Taste. Add salt if necessary.
2. In a medium pot of boiling water, blanche asparagus for approximately 2 minutes. Immediately plunge asparagus into bowl of ice water.
3. With asparagus still cooling, plate rest of meal. Place cooled asparagus on plate and spoon dressing over top.

I didn't think to take a picture, so here's a picture of Bubby from yesterday afternoon:



Aparagus?? ASPARAGUS??!!