Road Trip!

600 miles. 9 hours. 4 bathroom stops (all because a certain mom drank too much Diet Coke and was the weak link of the group.)

We made it. We are here safe and sound. I think the trip went so smoothly for several reasons.
1. Classic Rewind on Sirius. JJ wasn't a fan of paying for radio, but I was a whiny baby about it after I got used to it during our free 3-month trial period. There was much drumming on the steering wheel. Drumming makes my husband happy.
2. I drove quite a bit while JJ had to do some conference calls. This prevented me from doing my standard "dramatic reading of road signs" and "random questions that can't be answered."
3. New (used) car's inaugural road trip made it all the more exciting.

We got here and had our traditional dinner at Gino's. I had my pierogie pizza. How can you go wrong with mashed potatoes, onion and cheese on a pizza crust.

During dinner I had a strange thing happen to me. I told the waitress that you couldn't get pierogie pizza back in Illinois. Se looked at me and said, "I was going to ask you where you were from because of your accent."

Accent?

For real? I chuckled to myself and decided that I totally deserved that one as I am always trying to decide where people are from based on their accents.

But back to that accent. What does a Central Illinois accent sound like to the rest of the world?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Chester's First Hair Cut

Remember Chester?



The cat of very little brain?



The one who once tried to play with a candle and got wax all over the place, including on her own face?

Yeah, her.

She's sweet.  She's cute.  She has a lot of fur and a really puffy tail.



This evening, my kids have friends over and Boo and her friend were busy at work, creating all kinds of things out of duct tape.  We were all down in the basement and Chester had been resting quietly, but decided she needed to investigate the closet as soon as she heard me open the door.  I ruined her evening by closing the door before she could get lost deep in the depths, so she had to find something else interesting.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her suddenly take off and noticed something white attached to her tail.  It took a split second for me to survey the scene, process and realize that she had gotten duct tape stuck to her tail.

Crap.

She came flying back into the room and performed a quick STOP, DROP and ROLL to dislodge the offending tape.  Of course, that only made it worse.  She ran a few steps, stopped and tried licking it off.  When that failed, she just took off in a panicked sprint as if she was going to run so fast, it would just fall off.

Knowing the situation was dire, I sent the kids to corner her before she made it any worse.

(I laughed a lot too.)

I knew there was no way were were going to rid her of her duct tape demons without scissors.  And I hoped that it wasn't going to require trimmers.

It's a good thing the dumb cat is so docile.  Between KJ, Boo and I, we managed to hold her still and cut the duct tape out of her tail without anyone bleeding.



I hope she's learned her lesson, but I am not going to hold my breath.

Day Two

Day two started out with a bang, quite literally.  I got the kids to bed, tucked myself into my too-big bed and promptly fell asleep to the sound of the wind whipping around my house, whistling through my windows and banging the front porch swing against the house.  Since I am an Olympic-caliber sleeper, it didn't bother me much.  Remember, I slept though a tornado once.
My dear daughter doesn't have the sleep-stamina that I have and woke me up from a dead sleep about 1:00 with terror in her voice.  She wanted to know if I had heard that loud noise.  Um, obviously, "No."
"It was so loud it shook" her bed.
Nope, didn't hear a thing.
But, since I am a single parent for the next ten days, I got up to investigate.  (Note to self, be more grateful for the times that JJ does this.)  I looked out the window and noticed that the garbage can had been blown over.  Obviously that must have been the noise.
As much as I wanted to leave the stupid thing where it was, I put on my sweatshirt and shoes and trudged down the driveway and dragged the garbage can and recycling bin back into the garage.  Did I mention that the wind was gusting to 50 mph, it was after 1:00 am and I was only half-awake?
I got back in the house and Boo was still a little shaken.  She wasn't convinced that the garbage can had made the noise that had shaken her bed.  She asked if I had checked the mailbox. (The reason that our mailbox is on a temporary stand is a long story, but no, I hadn't checked the mailbox.)  And of course, she was right.  The wind had blown the mailbox right over.  The mailbox that is (was) solidly attached to some 4x4 posts.  The heavy heavy mailbox and temporary stand.
I left it where it was.
I didn't need it being blown over and shaking her bed again. 



I got up this morning, stood it up and tied it to the porch railing.  I couldn't find the bungee cords, or I would have used them.  I think that bungee-corded mailboxes that are barely attached to temporary posts just scream "high class" don't you?

My twine looks less solid and more like a spider web, but it didn't fall over again, so we'll call that a victory for Shannon. Yay me!
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.  And I am grateful for that.

Day One

This crappy rainy weather is doing nothing to improve my mood.  Took Jables to the airport today for the first of 10 flights he has in the next 11 days:  home, Chicago, Tokyo, Manila, Cebu, back to Manila, Beijing, Dalian, Tokyo, Chicago, home.

Yes, I was bummed.  I actually like him.  And I don’t mean the typical, “I love you but I don’t like you.”  I like him and I hate being away from him.  (Gag, barf, puke, I know.)  I was a little weepy as I pulled away, which was super-helpful as I drove through the steady rain.  I was nearly home when I got a call from a strange number.  I decided I had better answer it and it was Jables.  He had left his phone in my car.  I think he just wanted another kiss.  ;)

I got to turn around and drive back to the airport.  Yay!  I gave Jables his phone, got another kiss and drove home where I managed to accomplish these things: 

1.        Made the kids a warm and nutritious breakfast of toaster waffles and Flintstones chewables.

2.       Took a nap.

3.       Dragged the kids to the grocery store and bought them a nutritious meal of Wal-Mart popcorn chicken and potato wedges.  It was a throw-back to the old days when I used to bribe them with that meal.

4.       Put the groceries away.

5.       Took another nap (There was a cat on my lap.  It was mandatory.)

6.       Shuffled the kids to and from their practices.

7.       Spent 30 minutes on the treadmill.

8.       Made a real dinner:  spaghetti, homemade meatballs and salad.  (Actual green food.) 

9.       Watched part of the Grammy’s and had some ice cream with Magic Shell. 

10.   Cleaned up the kitchen and edited some photos.

11.   Bored you with this post.

I think that today was an all-around victory.  Even KJ fell prey to the cat-napping monster. 

Boo was able to resist and get some crocheting done. She wins for most productive day.

 

Buckeyes!

This one is going to be a quickie.  I just have a few minutes, but this is another recipe worth sharing!
This is yet another treat that I remember fondly from childhood when we would go back to Pennsylvania for Christmas.  Cookies and candies are such a part of celebrations there...but I digress...as usual.

Buckeyes:
Step one:
1/4 pound butter
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 1/2 C. peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
(and a whole lotta love, to quote my friend Tim)

*combine the above (I use my bare hands) and roll into large-marble-sized balls.  Chill 8 hours.


After the balls have chilled, stick a toothpick into each ball.  Then carefully melt the following in a small saucepan:
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 oz. parrafin wax.

Dip the balls in the chocolate/wax mixture and place on waxed paper to cool/solidify.



Then you eat.

I usually AT LEAST double the recipe.  Once, I quadrupled it, but step one was nearly my undoing.

My Soapbox.

Here's what I have learned from Facebook.

1.  No matter which candidate you support, you are either stark, raving mad or a genius.
2.  Each candidate is brilliant or has the IQ of a garden slug.
3.  Each candidate is looking out for your best interests.  Or he intends to ruin the American Dream.

If you can't see that BOTH sides are slinging propaganda and twisting words then you are delusional.

There.  I said it.

I have tried so hard to stay out of this, but I am so freaking tired of it.  Stop feeding the divisiveness with your mindless re-posting of other people's opinions and think for yourselves, people.  Those cute little pictures with snarky little sayings aren't encouraging real dialogue.  They aren't changing anyone's mind.  All they are doing is making YOU feel better about yourself because you feel like you are posting something clever and witty.  And you feel like you belong.

Shut off Facebook.  Shut off FOX and MSNBC and CNN.  Read.  Think.  Form your own opinions.  Stop allowing other people to tell you what you should think.

Trust yourself to be smart enough to think about the issues that are important to you.  And stop judging people who have different opinions.  We all have had different life experiences.  I found this article fascinating...especially the part that we need BOTH types (liberal and conservative) for society to function.

But I am sure that I am in the minority and I am what is wrong with America.

Flour never goes bad, does it?

I've been sick all week and I woke up this morning all ready to be productive.  Well, honestly, I was supposed to go golfing, but it was cold and crappy out, so I decided being productive was a decent alternative.  Also, I have a sitter coming over tonight and I didn't want to scare the poor girl off with the state of my house.

I had some bananas on the counter that were well-beyond edible and I decided that I should make some banana chocolate chip muffins.  They are yummy, my kids will eat them and they make me feel less like a failure for once again NOT eating the bananas.  I have such good intentions, I really do.

I went to the cupboard and got out the sugar and realized I had no flour. 

Never fear!  I knew there was an old bag in the back of the pantry.  And by "in the back," I mean, top shelf, can-barely-reach-it-even-when-standing-on-a-stool.  I climbed up on the stool and reached way up there with my stubby little arms and pulled down the barely-used bag of flour.  I swear, it weighed twenty pounds.  Ok, maybe only ten. 

I took the binder clip off of it and took a look at the expiration date.

Better if used by 05APR09.

Hmmmm.  Better?  As in "Better safe than sorry?" I tossed it.  All ten pounds of it.  I sure hope that garbage bag is as strong at the commercials say it is.

I climbed back up on that stool to see if there was another bag of flour up there.  And of course there was.  I wouldn't be me if I didn't have multiple, almost-used-up bags of all kinds of stuff sitting around.

Check the expiration date:

Better if used by 17May10.

At least it was a year younger than the first bag I dug up.  And there was probably only a cup of flour in the bag, so it wasn't nearly as wasteful.

After that second bag of flour, I just started tossing stuff. I figured if I had years-old flour, most of the other things on that shelf were probably past their expiration date too.  It was kind of cathartic throwing away bottles of sno-cone syrup that I had been squirreling away for the "next" summer. Looking at the flour evidence that "next" summer was probably 2008.

And then I discovered one last, mostly empty, sack of flour.  And I looked at the expiration date.

Better if used by 25Aug04.

Seriously?  My brain shut down for a minute. Wait.  What year is this?  2012.  This expired in 2004.  A little quick math tells me that was oh, approximately EIGHT years ago.  And if it expired eight years ago (still struggling with this) I must have bought it like ten years ago.  That sack of flour is as old as my daughter.

Conclusion:  I should clean out my pantry more often.  

By the way, I am a little ticked off that those Box Tops expired. I bet the school could have used them six years ago.