Entropy Girl sick, this time with something called Roseola, a viral illness common in children under two years of age (although I have no memory of the Boy Wonder ever having suffered it). Many of the internet resources on the subject point out the afflicted babes may be "irritable". It is to laugh - Entropy Girl has been hell on wheels and "irritable" would be a day of wine, roses and sunshine, a full college scholarship, a self-cleaning cat box that actually works and takes the collected refuse down to the curb all by itself, a Maybach without payments and with a free unlimited gas card. In other words, a much higher plane then where we currently find ourselves.

Which is a shame, because I have so much to share. In addition to the applesauce and jam posts, this week begins preparations for the Boy Wonder's birthday party. I have a castle cake to bake and decorate, a menu to plan (discouraging the birthday boy from an all-pork meal), shield-shaped cookies to cut and ice and party boxes to assemble.

Try and hang in with me if you can. Not only have I located the camera's memory card, but I also know where our little external storage thingie is so I can get the pics loaded quicker. So if/when the fog of illness finally leaves our little corner of the internet for good I'll be chock-full of good times and fun stuff.

O.K. First I was sick, then the Boy Wonder was sick. Then I was sick again. And then we went to Philadelphia. And then Brainiac was sick. This week it's been Entropy Girl's turn. Really, September has not been the bang-up month for which we hoped. Tonight brought renewed appetite to Entropy Girl which is a good sign. If all is well tomorrow and/or this weekend I will be more than thrilled to tell you about the latest batch of cranberry chutney and this year's applesauce production. Based on the last two weeks, though, that's a mighty big if!

I have (mostly) written and deleted maybe a score of posts about Katrina. But I just can't, not yet. Too many friends, friends-of-friends, relatives-of-friends not yet accounted for. Too many mamas searching for their babies, and for every one my heart shatters into a million pieces. Too many mamas who wonder how and what their babies will eat. So much loss, it cannot be taken in.

Red Cross

Oxfam America

Les vrais paradis sont les paradis qu'on a perdus. (Proust)

Been very Ma Ingalls here lately, what with the tomato canning, jam making, bread baking, pesto grinding. What? Ma Ingall's never made pesto?

The jam making was a bit of an experiment. I had a bit of each blackberries and blueberries but not enough of either to make a full batch so I mixed them together and went along on my merry jam-making way. I used a commercial pectin for this which included directions for a mixed-berry jam, but they included strawberries which I did not have and was not about to buy. So we'll see how it turns out. Pre-set it tasted great and the set up seems to be fine, a little firmer than I usually like which is what you get with commercial pectin but I can live with out. If the jam is yummy I'll post the procedure because I think that would be a great thing to remember for those inevitable times when one has a bit of this fruit and a bit of the other.

An old friend of ours used to put his leftover berries into one of those water cooler jugs, emptied and upended and topped with an airlock. Every addition was sprinkled with a bit of sugar and closed up again. After some time - I don't remember how long - the berries disintigrated into the most delicious and potent liquor. I drank the concoction neat, but he - being of hardier Polish stock - cut his with vodka. One day after we left his house he gave me an old Grolsch bottle full of the stuff and I felt as if he had given me jewels. Someday, I think, someday I will make some of this and share it with all my friends. Someday has not yet come and another berry season as come and gone. Ah, well. There's always next year.