Peter Lik, Tomas Mangelsen, Bobby Wheat

Yesterday we went to the new Tivoli Village shopping center in LV, which has a limited number of businesses open right now.  It's such a promising sign for Las Vegas to have something new opening for a change (as one of my favorite stores, EQ3 prepares to close).  I didn't have my camera, but they have some cool artificial flowering trees there and a nice little playground that C enjoyed.  I'm looking forward to the opening of Kidville (does anyone know how much the classes cost?).  Hopefully it'll be a better alternative for us than Gymboree. 

Tivoli Village is also home to Bobby Wheat Photography, which is reminiscent of Peter Lik and Thomas Mangelsen (a Nebraskan, by the way).   LOVE.

Bobby Wheat

Peter Lik

Thomas Mangelsen

Vitame Vas, Kolache

The area I'm from in Nebraska has a fairly large Czech and Bohemian population (it's not far from a region known as the Bohemian Alps), my dad's family among them.  After several generations in America, most of the culture brought over by my ancestors seems to have drained out.  Apparently my grandparents were fluent in Czech, although I never heard more than a few random phrases.  The one area where our heritage has paled to a lesser degree, though, was the food:  duck and dumplings, sauerkraut, rohliky, and - most importantly - kolaches.  Now I like to bake, but I've never taken on the kolach challenge.  My mom (who is exactly 0% Czech, incidently) makes decent kolaches - great even in certain circles - but they are just different than those made by my 100% Czech grandma and aunts.  Currently I'm exposing my BB and C to none of my heritage, and I want that to change.  Through food.  So here it is.  The Kolach Challenge, which if successful will be followed by the Rohliky Challenge.  Let me preemptively apologize to my family.  I will do my best, but no one is as good as Grandma was.  Followed closely by Aunts E and R (ladies, do you want to fly out to LV for a lesson??  Bring samples.).  So here goes. I promise to update regardless of the outcome.

Image from Pietz's Kuchen Kitchen
I'm sure these are delicious, but the dough to filling ratio is off.  ;)

 Prosím , ať kolaches dopadlo tak lahodně .

Bringing the Outdoors In

I lived in Omaha for several years, and among my favorite places were the Lauritzen Gardens and Fontenelle Forest.  Here in Las Vegas we have the Springs Preserve, which I suppose is okay - it has some nice educational displays inside and several great events, but a sort of sad garden.  We just don't have "lushness" here and though I'm sure the Springs Preserve people do all they can, the heat is just too much to overcome to create a really fabulous garden.  What's the cure?  Well, travel.  Aside from that, these:


Bonsai Forest Kit from Branch Home



Wee Cow Grazing on Moss from Etsy seller weegreenspot





Pillows from Etsy seller KainKain

 



First Flight, Easy Peasy. Second Flight....

Were you on a flight from Omaha to Las Vegas Tuesday afternoon with a frantically crying baby?  Oh, me too.  I was sitting quite close to him actually.  Under him.  I worried so much about the airport, flight in, and drive to my home town (C's first flight) that when it went flawlessly I let down my guard.  Then came the return flight.  Trouble from step one.  We had fussiness in security, a leaky diaper while waiting to board, mild crying in line to board, a brief intermission wherein I thought we might have a nice nap, then we had all out hysterics for 42 hours.  I guess it must've really been 15 minutes, and perhaps "hysterics" is a bit of an exaggeration, but if you were there you'd agree that the flight was looking like torture at that point.  Then, after multiple rounds of the abc song (Tilly and the Wall!), Walk Like a Man, and Three Little Fishies, he calmed down enough to feed.  Then - blissful napping.  I can't blame the poor fella.  He came down with a cold in Nebraska (could have something to do with the throngs of people grabbing him for four days) and was out of sorts. I will never think mean thoughts when I get in the security line behind a family with multiple kids and bags again.  Probably. 

You Are My Sunshine (July 18-July 24, 2010)

Spring and summer bring some crazy storms to Nebraska.  Aside from the tornadoes, hail, and crazy wind, I really miss them.  There's something about a thunderstorm and the cooling rain that comes with it that I long for.  The air smells so clean and fresh...

These pictures remind me of home.  I can almost smell this one:

(Taken by Brian Thalken)