Prized Brownies

The last couple of weeks have brought some lovely surprises. Firstly, a prize which has been languishing in my bag, unsure of quite where to go. Today I rather surprised myself as I was actually able to physically put my prize from Vanessa on this posting. For well over a week I have struggled, along with the most excellent blogger, Granny P, to place this shiny gift tidily in the sidebar. The fact that Granny was unable to post her award has given me great solace as I've seen her sidebar, and it's a damn sight prettier than mine. I have never quite got the hang of anything in the sidebar so have been forced to lug my prize around in my purse all week...not missing any chance to whip it out and explain to friends and strangers alike, Oh, I won a prize, did you know? How lovely for you, Dotty, they all exclaim in patronizingly soft voices. Hmpff, I thought. How could they know what a honor this is. They don't know Vanessa. Vanessa's written a real book, a proper book, and I've got it on order from the UK. Only three left (or so Amazon.co.uk) told me. I'd tried to order this book when it was first published and ran into obstacles. This time it was easier, but I still got the run-around with the first order. Could it be because I'm in the States? I think the US dollar is losing its allure. It sure as hell is losing its value.



And then the equally wonderful Gwendomama tagged me for a meme with a promise of her own special brownies if I cooperated. While I had never eaten her sweet confections before, I've been following her blog for a couple of years and what that woman can't bake isn't worth eating. And so I meme'd for brownies and then they arrived, along with handmade Japanese stationery AND a custom-crafted Dotty Nana necklace. Here's evidence of the meme loot sent my way. Life should be easy now that I have my MacBook Pro...but I'm struggling to get pictures into my blog. The only way it is working for me at this point is to insert a photo from my Flickr file directly to my blog...each picture becomes it's own blog entry (nutz I know) and then I copy and paste that picture into my current blog posting, finally deleting the post the picture was sent to. I'm sure you're yawning by now, but if you know what I'm doing wrong, I'd love to know. I know it's me, not the computer and my limitations (in many endeavors) continue to bug me. Betsy, who's now in Portland, told me only today that anyone can just go to the Apple store for free lessons. Next week that's where I'll be.




The jewels posed on a plate



The jewels posed 'round my neck

Icing scraped from the wrapping...yes, they are that good. 72% pure cacao, the baker assures me...pure heaven.

See that sweet, little blue plastic pig? He's filled with French salt. Instructions were to sprinkle a little on top of the chocolate before eating. We obliged and it was a fantastic combination.