A second look.

Laurie went in for the anatomical ultrsound for the baby, and all the parts that are supposed to be there are there. This is a very good thing. Its remarkable seeing the heart beat and all the rest of the activity the baby does. I have felt it move myself, but Laurie is feeling it all the time. The ultrasound suggests we're going to have a girl, but we're not discounting the possibility of a boy. We're calling it the "April Fool's Day factor." We're considering names now, including Carol and Emma.

I'd post a picture, but they aren't very interesting. We have a picture of a hand, a foot, and a creepy one of a head-on view, so we'll pass for now.

American Accents.

My brother sent this quiz to me. I wasn't surprised by what the quiz told me as it confirms what I knew from my linguistics class, but it is interesting to see it again.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Walnut cake. Steve's birthday was earlier this week, but we're celebrating it today because its when we could all get together. Laurie is the usual cake maker, and so she asked what kind of cake he'd like. She said something like, "rich heavy cakes aren't really your thing." Steve replied, "A rich heavy cake would be fine." I had the idea to make a dessert from Madeline's, a very good restaurant in Ithaca, called a Viennese Walnut Cake. So, I went looking for recipes.

Walnut cakes are not the easiest thing to find. The Joy of Cooking has a French-style walnut cake with ground walnuts, but not the kind with big pieces of walnut barely held together with cake batter. I found a recipe from the Silver Palate cookbook for apple walnut cake, which I modified and made all walnut. We also cooked it in a Bundt pan, so the cheesecake filling is out, too. But it sure looks good.

Oh, and while we were cooking Bill Clinton called again, along with Mario Cuomo. Wesley Clark called yesterday. Yes, we know Election Day is Tuesday.