I probably should have just made the chocolate cake FIRST, instead of trying the fancier cake, based on the response I got. Everyone (or at least everyone who likes chocolate and cake) seems to like that cake. (It IS a good recipe - not too fiddly, nice crumb, nice texture, and the resulting cake isn't overly sweet).

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Grace, thanks for the article link! That's what I was talking about. I think it's interesting how they are combing through old maps (and doing what we GISers call "ground truthing" - going out and looking at the site to see if what's on the map is actually there). And it's an unusual use of GIS.

That said, I'm not sure how I'd feel if I owned property with one of these "ghost roads" on it. I'd be uncomfortable if it were my homesite, thinking the state could come through and decide that I'd have to cede a portion of my property close to my house for a road.

And I do think it again brings up the issue of "what is civility? How do we manage to live together?" I keep thinking about that hay farmer and his comment about how 90% of the people who came through his land, he was perfectly happy to give the right of way to, but that there were a few who made him re-think that choice because they behaved badly.

I think that's one of the big challenges we face as a society. I don't know if the "special snowflake" problem (people acting as if they are the only ones that matter and doing things that abuse the hospitality of others) is an increasing problem or if we are just becoming more sensitive to it.

Oh, and Charles - I think is is a White Owl cigars ad. Now that I think about it, I believe one of my grandfathers used to occasionally smoke White Owls.

I should just go out some day and take some photos in my town; there is some interesting stuff to look at and right now when a lot of the ornamental trees are flowering there are some pretty plants, too.

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One thing I did this past weekend was decorate my mantel.



I found a couple more pieces of "cottage ware" at an antique shop in McKinney (it's a newer shop called "Heirlooms" and I'm happy to see that it has kind of taken up the mantle of the dear departed Antique Collection in terms of what it carries and the style of how it's displayed).

I like this stuff. I suppose there's more of it out there - I'd be willing to bet there's at least a teapot in this style.

And I suppose, because once you have more than two of anything, you're a collector, I will probably now start looking for more of this stuff. But it does make me happy; it's just so cute.



I also put up a few Easter things. Decorating for Easter is something I've never really done; it seems to me that if you observe Lent (which I do, in kind of a half-hearted way), you don't put stuff about Easter up until the day of - and by then, it's kind of a lot of effort for a short time. But I decided to, this year.

The big bunny in the middle is from a Wee Wonderfuls free pattern; he was made using scraps my mom had saved from a dress or top I had when I was a little girl, so the fabric is (I guess) "vintage" (more than 35 years old - I probably would have been about 4 - counts as "vintage" now, I think.)

The "chocolate" rabbit is actually resin but it looks and feels very much like the real thing. And the fuzzy chick was so cute that I had to buy it - that's what made me want to do an Easter mantel.

(The sparkly eggs are covered with German glass glitter. Now that I think of it, it probably would have been cheaper to buy the foil-wrapped chocolate ones. But leaving them out might have attracted ants.)