Father's Day at the Piccini house...

Had a lovely Father's Day here at the Piccini house... 

Invited the fam to our humble mobile home for a barbeque (would you believe that we fit 15 people in this little place?  We do... but then 7 of those are little people! LOL).  We all came together to celebrate the 4 fathers (not forefathers!) in the family...

- Rick (my honey)

- Ray (Rick's dad)

- Jim (Rick's sister's husband)

- Richard (Rick's OTHER sister's husband, and the newest daddy in the fam!)

This is Richard & Rick manning the barbeque, hamburgers & hot dogs, not to mention all the other yummy food we got to eat!

After lunch/dinner (what do you call it when you eat at 4??),  some of us headed over to the park.  Rick, Amanda (his little sister) and CJ (our nephew) played a rousing round of 'horsie riders until tomorrow' LOL  (Started out as 'horse', went too fast!)  During this time we had a nice downpour, LOUD thunder overhead and when it was over, the humidity was heinous :o)   Thank goodness we lived near the ocean previously, it didn't bug Rick & I at all!!

Here's my honey shooting a basket under the cover of some gnarly grey clouds... see the rainbow though??

Amanda just made a great shot... and celebrating :o)  Notice, the ground is wet, but the sun is now shining!

Amanda, CJ & Rick

While the big kids were playing basketball, the little kids played at the playground (l to r... Kiera on jungle gym, Abi, Emmie, Zach in yellow & Andrew).  The girls are mine, the boys are my nephews (and CJ's brothers!)

Once the rain was gone (we also had rain while the sun was shining... very odd!), Rick's dad, BIL & nephew came to join in the basketball game... just plain ol' "horse" this time. :o)

After about 2 hours of taking pictures (over 300 pictures of basketball!!!!), I headed home to hang with my MIL & SIL and my newest niece, Gianna.  Here she is laughing at her mama!

The evening wound to a close, most of the family headed back to their own abodes but Amanda stuck around to give Abigael a haircut...

Here is Abigael BEFORE her hair cut :o)

And here she is AFTER :o)  You can't tell from the before picture, but her bangs were to her nose LOL  The shorter 'do brings out the crazy curls on this kid's head! :o)
      

I hope you and yours had a wonderful Father's Day!!!

Can you bake a cherry pie? I can! :o)

When I was little, I LOVED the Puff the Magic Dragon movie... 

Here is a link to the WHOLE movie!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3476801002597020377

But one of my favorite parts is when Jackie Draper meets Very Long John Black and Blueberry Kid... 

Jackie: Can you bake a cherry pie, Very Long, Very Long, can you bake a cherry pie, Very Long John?  

Very Long John: I can bake a cherry pie quick as a cat can wink its eye, pumpkin, peach and half a dozen others.

Jackie: I don't believe you!  

Very Long John: You don't believe me?!  

Jackie: You're a pretty good pirate, but a baker?  Never.

I've never made a cherry pie.  Heck, the only fruit pie I've ever made is apple!  But I baked some peanut butter oatmeal cookies and sent them to work with Rick, and his co-workers requested a cherry pie.  I'm totally game because I LOVE to bake... my biggest wish/dream is to be able to bake and sell my baked goods for a living (but having no formal training, I'm thinking thats not going to happen!) :o)

I accepted the cherry pie challenge, and I even made the crust... which turned out to be a great idea because I got to buy a food processor! :o)  I used to cut butter in by hand, which is all fine and good, but with 3 kids clamoring for my attention, time is of the essence and all that! LOL  I did cheat though, I used pie filling.  I just didn't feel like pitting a ton of cherries, I could see that being even more time consuming that squeezing all those Key Limes! :o)  Doesn't this look yummy?

Then Rick thought it would be a great idea to do a lattice top... uh, I've never done one of those either! :o)  But I'm game for anything... here is the result, not beautiful, but it looks homemade! :o)

Here is the finished result... it smelled DIVINE!

Rick took it to work the next day and its my understanding that it was a hit.  Enough that one of his co-workers asked if I'd make a blueberry pie!  He'll even buy the blueberries for me! :o)  That should be fun!  Rick made sure to save me a piece so I could try it... but he completely forgot that I don't eat cherries LOL  So I took the last 2 pieces over to his mom & sister (since his dad had already had a piece on their drive home from work!).  :o)

Its summer and I'm baking... I must be nuts! :o)  Chocolate chip cookies for him to bring into work next week (with Guittard chocolate, yum!)... and maybe apple pie the next week :o)  And sometime next month, an Oreo cheesecake for Emmie.  Its a good thing Rick takes these things to work with him, otherwise we'd have to roll everywhere! LOL

Christopher Moore

He. Is. Amazing. Really.

Have you read any of his books?  I have, and I need to catch up... its been a little while.

Practical Demonkeeping - where I fell in love!  About Catch, the people-eating demon and his 'master'.  Some funny stuff here!  (Are you aware that Pine Cove, California is loosely based on the Cambria area?  It was!  The Head of the Slug bar?  Camozzi's.)

Coyote Blue - About Trickster, a Native American god, and him getting joy out of screwing with a 'former' reservation dweller :o)  (You know the term 'coyote ugly'?  Moore used it BEFORE the movie!)

Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story - Female vampire finds a guy to do her day-to-day errands, and he falls in love :o)

Island of the Sequined Love Nun - Guy impales his... nether-region on the gearshift of the airplane he is flying/crashing.  OUCH!  Finds traveling buddies in a transvestite and a fruit bat (named Roberto!).

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove - Back in Cambria :o)  Prehistoric lizard lives in the ocean, doc replaces everyone's antidepressants with placebos, lots of horny people.  Fun for everyone! :o)

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - I think the title says it all.  Biff is brought back to life to write a gospel (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John & BIFF? LOL) about Jesus' life... those missing years.  It is incredibly inappropriate, hilariously funny and a very easy read.  I shouldn't love it, but I do!

Fluke (Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings) - A guy wants to know why humpback whales sing.  At one point, while researching, he sees a whale who's tail has BITE ME written on it.  LOL

The Stupidest Angel - Back in Cambria!!  Christmas terror, brought about by a screw up by the Archangel Raziel.  :o)  (There is a 'version 2.0... I don't have it, I probably should... I don't know if there is a difference)

A Dirty Job - Charlie becomes death's 'helper'  :o)  (haven't read it yet... here is the point that I need to start catching up!)

You Suck - Bloodsucking Fiends revisited... Tommy is now a vampire, too.  Now he has to find another 'errand runner'.  I did read this one... yet another hilarious Moore tale!

Fool - Moore's newest release... still have to read it.  King Lear told in Christopher Moore's style :o)  Bound to be full of laughs!  I NEED to get this book! LOL

My mom, when she worked at the Cambria Post Office, used to put mail in P.O. boxes... his was one of them.  She got to know him a little, he signed a couple of my books.  Then he did a book signing for Lamb, and I got to meet him in person!  I would love to hold a conversation with him, I can only imagine he would be hilarious :o)  He signed my copy of Lamb "with mint jelly"... having never eaten lamb, I didn't get it.  I do now... and its funny!  :o)  

He has since moved away from Cambria, well, Ragged Point, in case you were wondering :o)

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I wanted to add... Chris Moore has Twitter... TheAuthorGuy... and he Twittered about Twilight (of which, you already know, I also love).  Here are some things he said...  VERY funny!

-  Twilight: My next vamp book EVERYONE is going to have lip gloss on at all times.

- Twilight: Ah, I get it. Indians and vampires are natural enemies. Like pirates and ninjas.

- Twilight: Bella: I'm sure of three things. Edward was a vampire. I love him. I have no personality.

- Twilight: OMG, it's werewolf/vampire air circus. Crouching Emo, Leaping Indy

- Twilight: On noez, Edward has to suck the venom out. That line NEVER works for me. "No, you have to or I'll change to werewolf!" Nope.