Dusty: niiiiiice work on them hab cookies! They look a little more polished than our rustic batch, but with the same cool little orange hab pieces sticking out of the top and sides! mudman: you'll definitely get more heat if you put in more habs. It's hard to say why your cookies aren't very hot. Could be the habs (mild plant, or hot plant but a mild batch of habs after a rainstorm - mine do that), or the mix of ingredients, or your heat tolerance, etc. I've found it's just kind of a crap shoot. That's why I usually just put 5 habs, 3 with seeds/ribs removed, into almost any mid-sized recipe like these cookies - there's a randomness factor involved with the heat, so I figure that quantity provides an average, everyday hot-but-tolerable heat level that can then be tweaked as needed. The butter and sugar in this recipe definitely absorbs and disperses some of the heat, but still, it shouldn't be mild with 4 habs w/ seeds and ribs. Maybe try 5 or 6 next time. I should note that the tapenade has a higher perceived heat level than the cookies, so if you're trying to make something brutal and cruel, that might be something else to try ;) Also, have you tried a raw hab off your plant to verify the heat level? Sometimes they come off the plant milder, due to weather. good luck!

What a great idea! Conway sneaks into his kennel once in a while too. Usually if we have too many people/kids over and he gets tired. Or if it's bath time. He crawls into the very back of the kennel and makes himself as small as possible, in the hopes we won't see him. LOL

She is adorable!! I have been reading a blog called Gaijin Mama, an American woman married to a Japanese man and I am wondering if your son is expected to work the long hours most Japanese men do and expected to go out with the crowd after work, or does he keep "American" hours? It is interesting reading her site. She has 8 or 9 y.o. twins and the girl twin is deaf and has cerebal palsy.

What a nice picture Carol. Every time I see a new picture of Jake I wonder where the time went. Wasn't he just a pretty baby yesterday??? Anne