When I got married, we of course, had a wish list of items we wanted as gifts. On that list was an enamel set of pans that have gone the way of the west. My mother didn’t cook all that much at home so I had no idea about quality cookware. She had Revere pans, and I knew I didn’t want to spend time polishing the copper pan bottoms like my grandfather always had, and yet did not want the ugly dirty copper bottoms on my moms pans. My grandfather would do the dishes, he needed to keep his hands soft as he was a woodworker, he would explain. It helped him feel the grain of the wood better. Each day, when we were visiting, he would do all the dishes saving the pans for last. Grab his little jar of Sparkle copper cleaner and scrub away. It was messy! His hands would be covered in greenish, blackish glop but the pans would show off his hard work with sparkling copper bottoms. I had know idea our pans at home were the same pans as grandma and grandpa’s. I didn’t learn the ones at home could look like theirs until I was nearly ready to leave home myself. And, getting them in bright copper condition again was a huge chore.

The sun sets on another year here at Earthbound Chronicles. Ah. I am so excited about the ending of 2010 and the beginning of an all new year. What a year it has been! 2010, if tallied, would having all of you sending me sympathy cards and trying to talk me off the ledge. It was that bad. I will not elucidate it all, no dear reader, I will save you from the dystopia. Suffice it to say that everything that could go wrong in a person’s life, save death of a loved, has happened this year.

Months ago I read an interesting tweet. It was from @CampBlogaway about a camp being held in the SanBernardino mountains just for food bloggers. I knew immediately I wanted to go. The price was right, the location divine, and the list of presenters was impressive. So I put myself on the list of interested parties and waited for additional information. Finally the email came noting that I had indeed signed up and would be receiving information about payment and all the other information I needed to attend. Whoopee!

Only one slight glitch with all of this though. It was being held on the weekend of May 14-16. Uh-oh. You see that’s an important weekend for me and my beloved. May 15th just happens to be the 35th anniversary of our wedding. Yes, there are still people out there who actually stay married and in love all those years! As I told the husband that I wanted to go to this camp, yet it was on our weekend, he sighed a little and said “you have to go”. Gotta love that man of mine. So I sent in my paperwork and began dreaming of two and a half days in the mountains above the smog of SoCal.

As I began dreaming about meeting everyone and getting to know a few bloggers I’ve only read on the internet. How fun! And, how exciting is it to get some firsthand knowledge about making a better blog experience for me and my readers.