Marathon Madness

Well, they did it!  My wife, Lisa, and my daughter, Grace, both ran a marathon this morning and finished well.  They have been training for months and working hard to get into shape so that they could run this together.  There have been many obstacles, and they have met them head on and did not give up.  It seems somehow funny that I am here in Oregon eating cream puffs, but there you have it.  What is even stranger is that my roommate came home from work at lunch all fired up about going to the sheriff's office to pay for his concealed weapon permit.  He took the handgun safety class last night.  I just wondered for a moment what a deli clerk needed with a concealed weapon.  Go figure. 

Tonight I went to dinner with the Sauter's and Bob grilled a burger that would put any burger joint to shame.  We had a lovely visit and I learned more about the cattle operations on his ranch.  They have been wonderful to me while I have been here in Bend.  It has been great to renew this acquaintance and I am blessed to know them.  The Sauters were an important influence on me as I was growing up in California.  Here is Bob working his magic on the grill.

Of course, I had to have one food moment today.  I made fresh Italian plum sauce to put over ice cream for dessert tonight with some of the palmiers from last week that were in the freezer.  It was quite tasty.  I am looking forward to the Sabbath Day tomorrow.   We will have dinner as a house at 3 pm.  I am cooking and may have to whip up some dessert for the roomies, but I will have to use all-purpose flour....oh well.

Here are a couple of views of the terrain that I traveled through in Oregon on the way here.

 

It is beautiful country, and I have one more week of baking immersion before I will be back home with my family, whom I miss.