Down and Out

My computer has been down all week and now I'm heading to Pittsburgh for the weekend for my aunt and uncle' 50th anniversary party.  I hope to be up and running again in the near future.....

Proud Moments

Lest you think I'm getting more co-ordinated over time, here are some of my recent proud moments:

1. The other day I was walking to the table with my breakfast plate in my hand.  I stopped to put something in the trash and my entire breakfast slid off my plate and onto the floor.  Two slices of toast, two slices of cheese, and a Morningstar veggie sausage patty.  It was the Grand Slam of breakfast droppage. 

2.  At the grocery store, I managed to injure myself with an artichoke.  I had two in a plastic bag (Juliana loves them, the little weirdo) in my cart and when I went to pick  up something next to them, one of the pointy ends jabbed right into my finger, drawing blood.  I actually had to squeeze a piece of it out of my skin like you do with a bee sting.  A week later I noticed my finger had a sore spot and sure enough there was a tiny bit of artichoke quill? spine? still left under the skin.  I was able to extract it preventing me from becoming the first person in history to lose a digit via artichoke.

On Sunday I was eating a delightful spinach salad with a lemony dressing.  I took a bite of spinach and the stem shot upwards and jabbed me in the eye.  Lemony dressing in your eye feels just about like you'd expect.

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in a synagogue meeting when my cell phone rang.  I scooped up my purse and attempted to make it unobtrusively out of the room.  Instead, my purse spilled all over the floor as my phone continued to ring.  (Yes, I know there's a way to silence it when it starts ringing, but I can never remember which button that is.)  I'm sure the other synagogue members were most amused by me hissing "JESUS!" as I scrambled to gather up my belongings.

And the piece de resistance occurred on my trip up to Seattle.  Good Lord, this one actually comes with photographic evidence.  But that one will have to wait for another day...

 

Here I Am

I was gone for a long weekend up near Seattle with four of my girlfriends. They come from all over the country and we all met on an AOL pregnancy board when we were pregnant with our now-seven-year olds.  I can't even put into words how much fun I had, how hard I laughed and how much better I feel from having that chance to re-charge my batteries.  I swear, at times I felt like a 13 year old girl at a slumber party.  I promise to post some picture from the trip as soon as I get the chance. 

In the meantime, I had a complaint (I'm looking at you, Jen) that there hadn't been any pics of the kids lately, so here you go.  Juliana had an open house at school today where the parents were invited to come view the first graders' animal research reports.  Here are a few pics from that.

Here she is standing next to her report and the hands-on model of her animal.


Her report was on rabbits.  Here's a close-up of the sock puppet rabbit in its habitat.



Isn't she a doll??  Her outfit went from Springy Cute to Ragamuffin once she added the hairscarf and ratty Converse All-Stars.



I have some pictures of David from his class production of Charlotte's Web, but he's standing right here and is threatening me with death if I post them.  Sweet child, that one...

Mexican Chipotle Brownies

At a Cinco De Mayo party last week, I was introduced to the concept of Mexican Brownies.  Basically they are regular brownies with the addition of cinnamon and chipotle powder.  I'll admit to being wildly skeptical (I don't like ANYthing polluting my chocolate) but to my surprise, they were delicious.  You end up with a brownie with a lot of depth of flavor and instead of it tasting spicy, you are left with a nice warm tingly feeling in your mouth.  David wouldn't go near them (but then again, most toothpastes are "too spicy" for him), but Juliana loved them.

Mexican Chipotle Brownies
1 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground chipotle powder
4 eggs
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325.  Grease and flour a baking pan (you can use 11x7 or 9x13).  In the top of a double boiler, melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate. Stir until smooth and combined then remove from heat. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, and  chipotle powder.  Add the melted chocolate and butter to the flour mixture.  Mix to combine.  Add eggs and vanilla, mixing until smooth.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour mixture into prepared baking pan and bake until center is set, 35-40 minutes.  Makes 24 servings.

LOLCATS

How is it I never knew about lolcats until this minute?  I spent the first few pages at I Can Has Cheezburger? just staring in puzzled amazement.  But it started to get funnier and funnier.  Oh, Internet, what other secret joys are you hiding from me?

Hello, Dolly!

I am currently battling the worst cold known to man or God.  It's especially bad because we are having a stretch of dry, sunny weather which means all of Nature is mocking me on top of everything else.  I do feel slightly better today; not enough to say that I've turned a corner, but perhaps enough to merit rounding a bend.  Juliana had the cold last week and now that I have it I almost wish I'd been nicer to her.  Almost.  It's hard to find a lot of empathy for someone who does everything at such a maddeningly slow pace.  I don't know if she suffered a secret head injury or something, but getting her out the door for school each morning is going to drive me to put Bailey's in my coffee.  Or possibly meth if I could find it in cinnamon hazelnut.

Here's an example.  The other day I asked her to clear her dishes and put them into the dishwasher.  She had a plate and a bowl.  They were on the island which is at the most four steps from the dishwasher.  I kept an eye on the clock.  It took her SEVEN MINUTES to complete this task.  To say she gets distracted is like saying that Luciano Pavarotti gets hungry.  First she flitted over to the calendar to see what was on it.  When there was nothing specific marked for that day, she wanted to scrawl Have Fun on it.  Then back to the island before pivoting over to the bulletin board to check the lunch menu for the week.  She got the bowl into the dishwasher, then headed over to the guinea pig cage where much baby talk ensued.  Then she chose her socks for the day, stopping to sing an operatic ode to her Favorite Socks (You are my Favorite Socks.  I will wear you every day that you are clean.  It doesn't matter if you don't match my outfit.).  Finally she made it back to the island and......oh, Jesus.  I am so sorry.  I just realized that I am writing the blogging equivalent of  Little Billy following the dotted lines in a  Family Circus comic.  Please find it in your hearts to forgive me. 

The Onion

My friend Susan sent me this link and said that reading it brought her back to my hair post.  I thought you all might get a kick of out it as well.

Area Woman's Entire Day Ruined By Bangs