Stephen Colbert takes over the Smithsonian

I was in Washington, DC the first week of January... two weeks before the inauguration of President Obama. The crowds were non-existent, and we flitted around the city, except for the buffer of street closings around the Hay-Adams Hotel where the Obama family was staying. We went to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History which was recently reopened after a major renovation. The new exhibit for the star spangled banner is the first exhibit when you walk in the door, and that exhibit is far better than it was in the pre-renovation museum. Another new addition is Julia Child's kitchen, and I could have spent at least an hour in there watching the videos of her and inspecting every detail of her entire kitchen from Cambridge, MA, that was dismantled and reassembled in the museum.

Three renovated exhibits were disappointing. The fashions of the first ladies used to be in the basement, and it's now on the main floor, but the new exhibit space feels smaller than the old one, and they do not have all of the fashions I know they have in their possession on display. The display of the lunch counter from the Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC where the sit-in occurred in 1960 is poorly done. You can see a picture of the counter in the original Woolworth's, and you can see four seats from the lunch counter, but the display does little to help people appreciate the significance of the counter or the broader context of the civil rights movement. Finally, you can no longer see the Fonz's leather jacket --- it's not on display! The museum still has an "American Memories" exhibit, which displays the Americana memorabilia including Kermit the Frog and Dorothy's slippers from the Wizard of Oz. A huge painting of Stephen Colbert (the one he used to have on his set) hangs to greet people walking into the "American Memories" exhibit. I just can't count Stephen Colbert as a "memory" when he's still on TV! In 20 years, maybe... but right now, he's not a memory. Bring back the Fonz.

the weather outside is frightful.

We are in the middle of a blizzard in South Dakota. We got the call from the school at 7:30 pm, telling us that school is cancelled tomorrow. Today (Sunday) was definitely a snow day, too. We only made it outside to shovel one side of the driveway so that we can hopefully get out of the house tomorrow. It's 20 below zero and the wind is swirling the snow in all directions. We had a cookie baking afternoon. Thought I'd share my favorite no-fail fudge recipe with you. I have an awesome toffee recipe too, but it fails a good bit before you learn to get it right (or maybe it's just that I failed multiple times). This fudge recipe though, is fail-safe, and I like to buy the cute take out containers that you can find now at craft stores and hand out fudge as gifts to neighbors and friends.

Fudge:
Butter a 9x13 inch pan lightly, place parchment paper inside (should hang over two sides), and lightly butter the parchment paper.
Bring to a boil: 4 1/2 cups white sugar and one can of evaporated milk.
Boil for 8 minutes, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and add: 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup of milk chocolate chips, 1 cup of butter, and 3 tsp vanilla. Stir until all is melted (I do this in my stand mixer and add the sugar/milk to these ingredients). Then, stir in 3 cups broken up walnuts (optional).
Refridgerate overnight. Loosen the sides around the parchment paper with a knife, and then lift out the paper with fudge inside and cut to desired size.

time flies

Kelly and I won't win any blogging awards any time soon - we haven't blogged since September! Sorry! We are here, alive, and well. maggie delaney has had an incredibly busy fall. A tinge of insanity on all fronts, but the good kind, not the bad. I can honestly say this is the first Saturday I remember since September where I've actually sat on my couch, watched tv, and had time to blog. We are watching the American Girl Samantha movie on tv, and I just needed to tell you all that I'm a bit sad AG is retiring Samantha and Nellie this year. One of my friends thinks that AG will retire the historical dolls and bring them out of the vault every seven years - like Disney does with movies. I just hope Samantha and Nellie are not gone for good.

Fear Itself

Geoff Williams of Entrepreneur.com, the online magazine, recently wrote an article about entrepreneurial fear.  Our maggie delaney Country Living Pitch-Your-Product experience is highlighted.  I can hardly believe that our CL mention was a year ago.  All we really had to fear was fear itself!   

Not to change the subject, but how good does that cover turkey look?  I hope my vegetarian sister isn't reading this.

the girl effect

I was reading about Product (RED) today, and I ended up reading their blog, and I happened upon this video produced by the Girl Effect:

As a geographer in my other career, I like the video a lot, but they didn't really think through the implications of the cow... environmental, especially.

My Guilty Pleasure

I may need support from you other moms out there, but I have a new secret favorite television show. . . The Wonder Pets.

I had to present an all day, 8 hour seminar in Texas in July, and the next day, I flew home. I wasn on the plane, and I needed a mental release from the stress of the previous day. I grabbed my iPod and watched the Wonder Pets save the baby dolphin in Hawaii ("Aloha, Hawaii." "Oohh. It's very tropical.") -- it was an episode I put on my iPod for Henry to watch when we flew to Florida last spring.

I could seriously watch this show for hours. I love the little song ("The phone, the phone is ringing!" - wouldn't that be a great ringtone?). I love the tin can phone system at the beginning. I've been analyzing this guilty pleasure and trying to come to peace with it, and I've decided I like the show so much because it's secretly the peaceful world in which I would like to live - where in some Polyannaish way we could all take care of each other and appreciate each species (okay, person) in existence. But, what makes the Wonder Pets world so great is not just the Team Work... it's also that every animal is cheerful, polite to each other, has each other's best interest in mind, and every problem has a simple solution if we just think about it and work together. I'm old enough and cynical enough to know we cannot live in a world like this. But, I find a great mental release in imagining the Wonder Pets world.

"The dresses turned out beautiful!"

I LOVE EMAIL! Sometimes I forget how great it is because it is such a part of our everyday reality. Melissa sent Erin and I a great email with the subject, "The dresses turned out beautiful!" and included pictures of their girls in maggie delaney. It made my day! The girls had birthdays in July, and she ordered coordinating dresses for them. The one year old is wearing daisy pink, kaleidoscope pink, candy cane pink, and the four year old is in daisy pink, kaleidoscope and Molly. Don't you just love the helmet and elbow pads with the dress?