Disappearing Chocolate

Disclosure: No one paid me to say this or gave me anything free. I just like this stuff and wanted to share my thoughts. 

Late last year ago I read (maybe on Angry Chicken, yes at her site) a post about a line of flavored chocolates, one of which features tortillas, lime and salt. This is so up my alley, and (after the usual delay and dithering) I ran out to find some. I bought 6 bars, 3 for my sister and her husband, and 3 for my (other) brother-in-law and his gal. I wrapped up and mailed three bars in time for them to get to Karen and Anthony while they were on the east coast at the holidays.

Photo originally from the Meadow's website

you can buy this chocolate through them

In the mean time, one of the bars of chocolate I'd saved for Dylan and Melissa's stockings went AWOL. No one copped to knowing where it went. Chris hadn't taken it, nor had the nanny. Ada probably wouldn't have liked it, and if she'd taken it I would have found some evidence. (she isn't the best at hiding candy wrappers and they tend to pop up around the house) So I took the two remaining bars and gave them away at Christmas, but I was annoyed that I'd lost one of these bars.

Then I asked Karen about the chocolate I'd sent to her and Anthony. They never got them, much to my disappointment. I was a little worried that these chocolates were cursed, delectable yet uneatable!

When Karen and Anthony visited in February, we stopped by the Meadow and I bought several more bars. We enjoyed tasting them, and eating the tortilla/lime/salt one inspired Anthony to suggest that I make a fondue on this theme. (At the time I'd been planning a fondue for a neighbor-dinner) I followed through, to the rave reviews of my dinner companions. A chocolate fondue into which we dipped chips, followed by a spritz of lime juice and a sprinkle of salt - it was delicious. Even better, it fit the evening's Mexican theme (which featured posole and Mexican chicken soup).

In March Karen sent me an email saying that the chocolate had arrived at her mother-in-law's house.  MARCH. Her mother-in-law ate them, which worked out well as she was working on Karen and Anthony's taxes at the time. Nothing like a little sugar-based motivation to get you hunting for tax credits.

After eating the chocolate with Karen and Anthony and more recently buying and consuming a bar for myself, I think the curse may be broken. I hope so at least, because I just bought a couple of bars to send to some friends in Chicago. I hope the postal service is more on top of things this time.

Action Figures Meant For My Sister

For Bronte fans:

The Winner Is...

According to the trusty random number generator: 1 (Stephanie! and her son Milo who favors naked mole rats)

Thanks for commenting. I was thrilled to hear about your animals. (Really, I love that kind of thing.)
And thanks to the giveaway sponsor for the growth chart.

Giveaway - growth chart

I recently got a very polite message from a promo person at All Children's Furniture (as the name implies, they sell kids beds and related stuff). She asked if I wanted to give something away to one of my readers. Lucky for you, I do want to give something away to a reader. Or to be perfectly honest, I want to help other people give something away.

The "something" in this case is a cute wooden growth chart:




If you'd like to win this growth chart from allchildren'sfurniture.com, just leave me a comment telling me your favorite animal. You can tell me your kid's favorite too, but since hearing about this, I am obsessed with what is a "good animal."

In a week I will pick a winner with the help of my trusty random number generator. (this giveaway is limited to U.S. and Canadian readers, as that is where this item can be shipped)

If  you left a comment over at my other blog, I am counting those comments too!

I love it, I hate it, I can't get it out of my head

When Ada was a baby, I ended up at Stefania's house. She was getting ready to sell her house, and had put out a call to Portland mamas to come get toys and other items that she didn't want to box up and drag down to the Bay Area. Aarin and I stopped by and I took home a few toys, including this table:

LeapFrog LeapStart Learning Table

Until I brought it home, Ada had not had any music-and-lights toys. I was not-so-secretly hoping she'd hate it. Of course she loved it. She loved it so much that I kept it around even as all the little insidious tunes dug themselves deep into my brain. For months I would find myself humming the little tunes and cursing LeapFrog.

When Ada had finally moved on to other toys, I happily gave the table away to a friend with a younger child. Slowly the music released its grip on my brain. And then, last week my pal Susie showed up with a trunk full of toys. I saw the table and knew I had to bring it inside for Ian and Mira. Of course they loved it. They knelt in front of it and banged on the pieces, happy to make all kinds of noises come out. Within a couple of days, Mira was standing up at the table and even beginning to cruise a bit. I'm not saying that she wouldn't have started doing that this week anyway, but she is clearly having so much fun with the table.

I am just hoping that one day my brain will recover from the tunes. Sure it will, eventually.

Disclaimer: no one paid me to write this, I just felt like doing it.