Am I just expecting too much?

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. I took the cart for my weekly lunch with Neville's mom. Just the usual chatter about our boys and their struggles to perform well in school, and socialize with their peers appropriately. I'm worried about how Stinky and his friends talk to each other. They use derogatory names. Calling each other idiot, fag, or asshole. I don't like it. I'm sure I maybe hypersensitive to it. And lord knows I get frustrated and call Goof 'asshole' under my breath daily. I just wonder is this a trend that will pass or is it something that males just do? It's a problem because Neville is hyper sensitive to being called names. As it is we had an incident last week where one of the neighbor girls called him "Alfalfa" and he took offense to that. She also hit him in the rear with a crochet mallet after he got her wet with a water balloon. Not the best toy to play with when it's 40*f outside. He yelled and threatened to beat her face in. Stinky stopped him, and we took him home as he was not willing to calm down. Obviously Neville does not take well to being called anything other than his name.

I had Stinky mow the front lawn on Monday, and yesterday he had to blow all the debris off the lawn and easement. As an extra incentive I offered to take him and a friend to get ice cream when he was done. He did a very good job on the front, and he chose Big Red to bring along. Well that's all fine and dandy. We waited an hour for him to finish his math homework and he came over. The drive over was fine, but my issue with Big Red, is that he has no social manners. He chose the biggest size ice cream. Well that was fine. This boy is 6'3 and well over 200lbs. He's got a big appetite. What bothered me was that he did not thank me, until we got back to the house and I said, "You are welcome." Then he remembered his manners. Now I understand there is give and take with the boys. I just want some basic gratitude. I could have just told Stinky, I'll take you out for ice cream, just the two of us, take it or leave it. But I wanted him to have fun with his friends. I realize that Big Red spends a lot of time in his head. Reading or playing video games, but some social graces are required. I don't expect him to thank me daily for the ride to school in the morning. It's what I willingly took on, but did I really? Am I expecting too much from Stinky's friends? I would like to believe that Stinky is polite to his friends parents. I know that he can be very shy upon imposing on them for food and such. He has admitted that if he is spending the night at someone's house, he would ask his friend if he's truly hungry, about something to snack on. I hope he's not opening their refrigerator without permission. Some people don't have a problem with that. I'm a bit more uptight I think about that. Perhaps it's just living with Stinky and Goof. They are constantly opening the fridge and looking in. Or Stinky will hang off the doors. That drives me nuts. I don't know what they are expecting when they open the doors not less than 3 minutes after the last viewing. Did something magically appear or disappear in there? I've watched the new neighbor girl in our house. She's polite, she asks me or Stinky for something to drink, or when I opened the fridge in her view she asked if she could have some grapes. Perfectly reasonable and polite. Perhaps it's just a boy thing, and I need to relax. I'm hoping the manners will get better as Stinky expands and acquires more friends next year, and in high school, but I won't hold my breath. It's only 5 more years of this.

Perhaps I'm hyper sensitive after mom's experience with Egg's friend Bob. Bob stayed at my parents home one Winter break while in college. Bob ate like a pig and forgot to think of others during the dinner. Then a few days later, the house was full of leftovers and mom was on the sofa reading a book. Bob came into the kitchen and looked in the fridge and he asked mom to make him breakfast. Huh? The fridge is full, and mom said there were plenty of leftovers, so that was a hint. She's not cooking up eggs and bacon, not when there's plenty of stuff. Yea, it might not be what you expect for breakfast, but come on, there's side dishes, and plenty of chicken, and meat that just need reheating. Now after Bob left he asked Egg, what would mom like as a thank you gift. The gift was appreciated, but we still joke about Bob to this day and that was 10 years ago.

I don't want Stinky to leave an impression like that. And so far Big Red has left that impression on me. Neville he earned an incredulous memory with his words on Stinky's birthday. Me, if I was offered prime cuts of meat, I would not look at the host and ask for something else to eat. He was given advance warning of our dinner menu. Perhaps when he grows up and acquires a palate outside of school cafeteria food, we can tease him about that. For now, I will be extra cautious and change the day he comes over when we plan to have a more costly dinner.

Feburary is a cold and boring

Well I take that back, we had a nice break from bone chilling cold last week. Sunny days, opened the windows and aired out the house. I can't wait for a constant supply of warmer days.

Hmmm, Goof says I have mastered the art of meat loaf. He's happy with it, and wouldn't change a thing about it. Hey not bad for almost 14 years of marriage. I can finally make white man comfort food. He said the same thing about the beef stew last night too.

The night of the rotisserie chicken, I peeked out the front windows and saw the new neighbors out playing. So Goof helped me drag Stinky out with me and we delivered some peanut butter cookies. The new neighbors had bought the house before Christmas, but since it had been a rental, and the prior renters were very crowded and hillbilly trash, they had really damaged the interior. It also happened to be a foreclosure home, so they got a good price for it. The adults were very nice and they showed me the inside of their home. Obviously it deserves recognition as the interior is beautiful. I'm jealous because the house was built not too long ago, so the stuff I don't like about my house aren't in theirs. They have bigger bathrooms, and closets than I have.

Stinky likes the new girl. She's the same age, and grade as he. They hung out a bit since meeting each other. She's a cutie, and I think Stinky is smitten. She's finishing up the school year at the other middle school, so next term she'll go to our school. I offered to carpool her next year also. Stinky is looking forward to that.

Friday night I decided I wanted a beef tenderloin for dinner. It was a lovely piece of meat and I cooked it right, but there was too much of a pepper crust for the family to enjoy. Next time, I'll go for an herb crusted roast instead.

I also pushed the golf cart to the limit Friday. I'm not sure what is wrong with the cart, but it died. I had to call one of the local shops to tow it back to their shop and have some maintenance done on it. Perhaps it's just batteries, or it could be our charger too. I don't know. Goof wasn't too happy about it, but what could we do? I will find out what's wrong with it on Tuesday. They haven't started the service yet.

Stinky met the new girls staying at Enabler's house. We aren't sure the relation to her, or why Fred and Barney left. They seem nice, and don't care for Fred and Barney. We also found out that Barney tried to set our shed on fire. We weren't sure what he was doing over there, by the video feed, but we got confirmation what he wanted to do because of the girls. That boy has issues, and I'm glad he's gone.

Now it looks like Dramaqueen only has one friend to play with, and bolster his courage. He's left Stinky alone, and I'm glad of it. Goof is still laughing. He loves looking out the window and seeing the Christmas decorations up at Babymama's house. You can't call them winter decorations when Santa Claus is waving at everyone on the front door. The snowman leaning on the front step might pass, but the stocking hanging on the inside of the sidelight needs to be put away too. I keep trying to think of possible excuses she might leave them up so late. Epiphany if she's a devout Catholic, which would mean she would take the stuff down on the 7th. Nope, still up and she's not devout, remember 4 kids, 2 men, 12 years, unmarried. For Mardi Gras? Well she's not New Orleans society, and the decorations are not purple green and gold. So well nope not that either. Goof thinks the decorations will be up until March 1st. It certainly looks like it. Now if she keeps it up until Easter, I will be giggling for a long time, as that confirms my opinion that she's so lazy she's calling it winter decorations.

Last week was my battle with cable. Our HD dvr had been turning itself off on us for about 2 weeks. So I called and asked them to come out and check it possibly exchanging it for another. Well the technician did that, and installed another digital converter for the living room tv. A couple of things happened. The HD tv started to hum and buzz. We couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. And in our search for answers we turned off the digital converter in the living room and that one stopped working too. After several service calls, and technicians trying to figure out what was wrong, we got a new HD dvr swap, new cable wiring installed, and component wires. Finally no buzzing or humming, and the digital box in the living room is working fine. My goodness what a hassle.

Stinky is on Winter break for this week. Seriously, what is up with that? I'm still getting use to this. A break barely one month after Christmas break, then Easter break will come in another month! Then school for another month then they are out.

A week of warm weather!

This week we have a break from chilly 30-40*F days. I'm looking forward to it. We may have an early spring or not. One thing I'm concerned about is the chance of severe thunderstorms. Yesterday was lovely and we decided to splurge and frill some steaks and shrimp outside. We also ate on the patio too. One thing I know for certain; use the costco folding table and not the narrow table. Three people and a big platter makes for a small eating area. It was very nice eating outside after being inside for the last 3 months. I think one of my far off plans this year is to buy some outdoor dining furniture this fall. A nice small table and some chairs. The patio isn't that big, but it's nice to eat outside. When yellow season is over, I plan to powerwash and sand down the adirondack chairs and repaint them. They were primed, but not painted with an outdoor sealing paint.
So for dinner we had porterhouse and tbone steaks that I got on sale at Publix, some monster shrimp, green beans, and I decided to try making a blooming onion. It sort of worked. I didn't flour and separate the onion enough, so the batter didn't separate the petals enough. This will take some more work to get it right. Tonight to continue on with the warm weather enjoyment, I'm making a rotisserie chicken on the grill, and pulling out the the costco table for more room on the eating area.

Argh, head cold!

I came down with a head cold, or perhaps mild case of the flu on Tuesday. I just felt really crappy, and Goof noticed that I had a fever that night. So Wednesday I curled up and slept most of the day, same with yesterday. I'm feeling human today.
I'm still freezing, and we might get some flurries on Tuesday. Snow! While it's all lovely when you have very little, it's pretty bad up North. Glad I'm not there. I'm not happy with cold weather for long periods of time.

Goof made a request for dinner tonight. Meatloaf it will be. Glad to know that he likes my meatloaf. It's nice to know that the family likes certain things, and willing to eat it often enough. It's not chicken, but ground beef. It's hard enough trying to figure out what to make for the family without putting them off with constant repeats. Especially as most of the populace is also on a budget. Food costs are still high, unemployment is scary enough as it is.

Interesting note. It seems Fred and Barney have moved out. Stinky informed me on Monday that Fred has left the school. One of his friends told Stinky that he's moved to another county. Where we aren't sure. What this means is that dramaqueen doesn't have anyone to draw his courage from. We've noticed that he's leaving Stinky alone, not harassing him on the bus, or making eye contact. This has been going on even before Fred moved away. Which is a nice relief. Goof still wants Kiosk man to lose his job. It's hard to have feelings of human decency, when your neighbor wishes bad things to happen to your child. So we don't bear grudges against their kids, but we certainly hope something bad happens to the adults. Goof had thought kiosk man lost his job as he was home all of last week, and we heard that his company laid off 8,0000 employees. I tend to think that he's got another part time job. Or his hours were cut down tremendously. Goof has been making fun of Babymama's Christmas decorations. They are still up. He doesn't believe she will come out of her house for public viewing anytime soon. The emails he sent did their job cutting down her self esteem. That maybe true, I personally don't care.

December was pretty quiet

After Thanksgiving we just wanted a quiet Christmas. We put up the tree and the door wreath, and pretty much relaxed. Stinky made out as usual. We got him some gifts he likes, and I was able to get some pretty nice sweaters, shirt and tie for Goof. He got me a pretty big gift. A set of Global knives, and an 11 slot steel block. Now I have a Sankuto, 7" chef, 5" chef, carving, parer, and peeling knives. Of course I also have a pretty cool water sharpener that Egg got me too. I'm to spend the next few months figuring out if I need any more knives. I think I might want a cleaver. Haven't decided yet. Funny note, I only have one veggie peeler. I never thought about getting another as it's usually just one person peeling. Well during the Thanksgiving prep, I realized that I do need a spare just in case there are others willing to help out. I saw a pretty cute and innovative peeler at Target, so maybe I'll pick that up someday. My cutting boards also made an impression on the fellow cooks. I picked them up at Walmart. They are white 17" boards with Microban in them, but the best part, is that the width ends of the boards have black rubberized edges. What's great about these boards is that they don't slip and slide on the counter. I forgot about that extra advantage until Egg's wife asked about a towel under the board to prevent slipping. I just told her, I never use a towel with those boards, and sure enough she was pleased to find that she didn't need it. Mom says she wants a few of these boards too. Everyone was pretty impressed with my kitchen towel supply. Well, I have 24 at all times folded and placed around the work areas. The sink has a nice little plastic box they sit in. I think I need to pick up two more, one by the knives, and the other to be placed by the stove next to the utensils.

For Christmas dinner the guys wanted a ham, even though I had picked up two really nice rib roasts. So ham it was. It was good, and I cut the ham down and froze some of it for later use. New Year's dinner was the rib roast, and I had decided to do a low heat roast. Oh man it was so good. I made it in my cast iron pan. Seared all the sides of the roast, stuck garlic slivers inside, and coated the outside with salt and black pepper. Made garlic mashed potatoes, green beans, yams, bread, and broccoli. I have not made the fancy mac n cheese this holiday.

I'm still addicted to Mobwars. In fact I am getting up there in the ranks. Well not really, but I am doing well enough in the game, and holding my own. While playing this game and being involved with the game discussion forum, I got into a bit of trouble. There was someone who posted they were being picked on, and to make it worse, a guy was picking on this player, a woman! Oh my, that got me mad at the player. That's rather backwards. So I had responded to her post and I had the other player's character killed. Well not more than 24 hours later, the truth came out, the woman had been attacking the wife of the aggressor, and he was retaliating for his wife. Then many players who had helped the woman out were upset. I was able to get the woman's player info and I killed her character twice. I also wrote in the thread that I might want to kill her again for playing damsel in distress. She got offended with me because I wrote that. She then continued her reply of how I was an unhappy overweight white woman, who sat around eating dream pops. She was a healthy attractive woman who only ate organic, not a computer geek, and had 'fine ass husband' and son. She was going out to celebrate NYE in downtown Chicago. I think she outed herself by the words 'fine ass husband' She came across as immature, and shallow. I read the topic and responded back, that I didn't care what her opinion of me was, only that she learn how to play the game better, and politely, and when she was a stronger player she could come back and attack me if she wanted. This was not the response she wanted. She wanted mudslinging from me, and I didn't give it to her. A lot of negative weight and food insults were slung at me. I think she's got an issue with food and weight. So anyways, this woman was banned from the forum. She came back under another name and continued the harassment in forms of private messages and responses in the forum topics. Again the admin of the board removed her. So that was that. Oh then there was a mini war in the game. One group that I belong to were taking down another group. This lasted a few days, and it was a lot of fun. After a week it was over, and I remembered the woman and her insults, so for a few days, I would go and kill her character every other day or so. Well she waited until she was allowed back into the forum and she started it again. This time she was making vulgar attacks against me. Again the admin were chasing her around deleting messages and removed her again from the board. So she started to send messages to my facebook account. I copied the rude messages she sent me from the board and I reported her account on the basis of harassment. Since she's lost those avenues of harassing me, she started to punch my character whenever she was online. By the time I realized it, her character was dead. Well I finally got irritated. I camped out on her character's page, and every time she was online and her character was alive, I attacked it. This went over 100 times. I was frustrated with it all. Also there were other players who were getting the same treatment by her. So this has been the latest dramas in my day. Yea, I know, sad isn't it. It's too cold to do much outside, and this keeps me busy at home. Like housework is just so darn addictive.

Turkey month

November was a crazy month. We had Egg, his wife, her parents and brother, plus my parents. A full house. Mom and Dad were okay, well Mom was. Dad was like a bored kid. He wanted to wander around town, or to go to Ranch 99 up north. He wanted to see Atlanta's Chinatown. Had to break the bad news, there isn't one. Poor goof had no idea what to expect. Dad clogged up the downstairs toilet, really bad. Then Egg came two days before Thanksgiving, and he brought us gifts! I got a Global Sankuto! Oh man that is a lovely knife. So we had fun with that. The in laws showed up the night before Thanksgiving, and that was fun. Very nice people. We had a huge spread. The roast turkey, steaks, mashed potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts, green bean casserole, roasted mushrooms, cranberry sauce, candied yams, and several pies. We had regular pumpkin, double layer pumpkin cheesecake, smores pie, and a blueberry pie. It was one heck of a spread. We had the dining table extended, and another folding table, it went from the dining room into the living room. I had the linens, and nice china set out. It was a really good feast.
The next day, we took a walk around the lake, well Egg's inlaws and I did, we put in 5 miles, they love the cart paths, and the abundance of carts and it's use on city paths and roads. Egg, dad, and his brother in law only made it to the boat dock. They only had 3 miles in them. As it was Egg was jokingly calling for a taxi on the path. We came back and had turkey sandwiches, and I started dinner. Dad had gone a bit nutty at Costco and wanted ribs, raw and cooked. So I pulled out my cookbooks, and found a recipe I had printed years ago. It was for baked ribs, marinated in a spicy sweet sauce. We also had fried rice, which mom made, and veggies, and left over steak. I still couldn't see the back of my fridge. Heck, I managed to empty out the coolers I had on the deck. The inlaws left that night, but as a lovely surprise, Egg managed to plug up Stinky's toilet also. Of course Goof had to clean that up.

Mom and dad stayed for a week. When they left it was bitter sweet. Mom loved the quilt I made her, but dad used it while he was here. Stinky started wrestling practice. He was totally loving it. He won his first match too. I was so proud of him, yet I was scared to watch. It's hard watching your kid getting his face rubbed into the mat.

Boy was I glad it was all over. We had mom and dad sleeping in Stinky's room. Goof had repainted the office and moved his desk for an air mattress for Egg and his wife to sleep in, I had moved stuff around in the guest room, and had a big queen air mattress, and the foam mattress for the the in laws, and Stinky slept on the sofa. He didn't want to sleep with my parents. Next year, I think I'll make Stinky give up his room again, and have the inlaws take his room, heck I can make Egg and his wife sleep in that room and still have room.

I wanted to make some aprons as hostess gifts for the ladies, but I didn't get that done in time. Should have started that sooner, of course it didn't help that I am still addicted to mob wars.

A year in food, but....

I'm still following a lot of food blogs. I would love to try something similar to Carol of French Laundry at Home, but I deal with two males, who aren't so understanding or experimental.

By the way I still hate Babymama and her brood. The other day I was looking out my front window, thinking about the loose screen, and how I had so much difficulty the last time putting it back in. I saw Fred outside picking at the dead tree that was mutilated by Babymama's brother. He saw me, and I watched him for a bit. He ran into Babymama's garage. I walked away from the window and did my thing. When I came back downstairs and stood by the banister putting on my shoes I looked out my windows and found Dramaqueen watching me! Lately we've noticed that Dramaqueen is blatantly staring at us. No shameful embarassed 'you caught me being rude' expressions. Full on confrontational stares. So I watched him. He went into his garage and came back out with Babymama. She stared at me, and he in her presence gave me both barrels! Way to go Babymama. Double standards strike again. Peeping into my home, and flagrant rude behavior from your bastard spawn. After I walked away, Asshole noticed that Babymama walked over to her mailbox, and tried to hide behind her neglected bushes and stare into the house again. He laughed as if she believed we would assume she was a friggin huge as coral flower in the midst of that bush. Only the main body of her SUV would cover that bulk. Oh hell if she was wearing my outfit of matching white sweatsuit, she would have passed as the Stay-Puft marshmallow man from Ghostbuster. I told Neville's mom about this incident yesterday. She asked if I gave them a showing. Good lord, I don't have much to flash. Then again it would be well within my rights. From what we know about Babymama, she would have called the police on me. Then it would be funny, what was the reason behind the call? She flashed my son. Was it outside the home? No. Was it in public view of the street? No, she was 20 ft away from the window standing by her banister. And you and your son were standing where? By my open garage behind my babydaddy's truck. Well ma'am, you are committing an act of illegal voyeurism. Your neighbor could file a complaint against you and your son for being a 'peeping tom' Please refrain from looking in her front windows.

Yea, I still think my husband's name should be changed legally to Asshole. He's getting on my last nerves. I think I need more sleep, and to glue his mouth shut.

I think I got enough sleep

Last night I fell asleep before the 11'oclock news ended. I woke up about 6am. What happened? I took a 25mg Benedryl, and I thought I would wake up at 7:30 or even as late at 8:30am. What did I get? Maybe 7 hours of sleep. Ugh. I need 8 to feel really good. I'm still working on my quilt. It's rather time consuming getting these squares and triangles cut and sewn properly. Then the tedious chore of ironing them flat. Seems crazy that I have the AC on and I'm using a hot steam iron at the same time. My friend has been helping me with colors and patterns of fabric for the quilts. She's willing to help out as much as she can, but she's definitely not sewing. I'm glad she's helping me with paying for a few of the fabrics as this is not a cheap project. The amount of fabric I'm using and putting together is quite large. Total materials needed isn't so much, not for a lap quilt, but it's the number of different fabrics we are using that adds up. I need about 34 different fabrics, some in yards, some in little squares. So the prices can be as little as a quarter yard for 99 cents up to $12 for 5 yards of solid sashing and border material. Granted most of the fabrics were purchased on sale. Lord knows if I had to pay full price I would not be so willing to try this quilt pattern. After this one, I will need different color fabrics for another quilt, then it will be a hodge podge of colors and prints for the third project. It's funny the quilt book I got is called Quilts from the Heart- Quick projects for generous giving. So what is quick? A simple 4 square block quilt? Well that takes me up to a week. This one, will be a two or three week quilt at least and that's if I devote my time solely to quilting. Forget the rest of the family and house chores. It's a good thing I had made a smoked pork loin for dinner early in the week. It was a nice sized tenderloin and we ate almost half of it in two days. We still have some left. I think the next time I make a tender loin I will cut it in half. It's just too much for the family, and everyone gets bored with it after 2 nights in a row. I'm hoping next week I can make a coconut shrimp recipe. Looked really yummy in the photos and well no one is gonna turn down shrimp. Especially if it's already peeled and deveined. Goof has a thing about the legs and head. That's what happens when you grow up with a suburban grocery store mentality. All things must be cleaned and packaged in Styrofoam. We've teased his mother about this. She likes to tell us she can cook pancakes over a camp fire. Yea, but if she wants meat, she will have to hike to a grocery store to buy hamburger packaged. I know how to clean a fish. I may have trouble getting the fire to the right temp, but I think I can handle dressing a fresh killed chicken. Definitely any seafood. I think I would need some help with wild game. If given the opportunity, I'm willing to try.

Wohoo! Is this 3 or 4?

Heard the rumblings of a lawn mower outside. I didn't get to see the jiggling saddle bags from Babymama. Kioskman took over the task this time. Temps are gonna be in the 90's, and they have their mower on the the lowest level. The grass will burn, and die. Hmmm, some point you gotta realize that a lawn grass is better than haphazard lengths of weed grass and it's seed heads.

Still can't think kindly of them, so I'm snickering as I see Kioskman has been home for at least 4 days. Nothing to it huh? Sales huh? Yea, we just came back from a mid week trip to SC. Goof had to conduct interviews for a new project he's undertaking. Stinky and I spent the time in the Hampton pool. The wifi in the hotel was rather weak. Had a fantastic seafood dinner at the Blue Marlin in Columbia. We had Chilean Sea Bass. Yea, yea I know it's not a sustainable harvest and it's being over fished. We caved. But I did pay double for wild harvested Florida pink jumbo shrimp, and wild caught sea scallops this past weekend. I don't know if the scallops were dry frozen though. I've got a few recipes I've been looking over to try.

Wish me luck, tonight I'm slow cooking dry rubbed St Louis ribs for dinner. If it doesn't work out that's alright, I also picked up some T bones for later in the week. Grilling is great when it's hot, forget turning on the oven. Though, I may have to for the southern grown peaches(it ain't from GA, probably FL. I may grill these with brown sugar and a bit of lemon juice on the grill. Otherwise, it's fruit crisp/cobbler time! I got some Ranier cherries calling me too.

Redneck supplies

We went on a little weekend trip to Montgomery, Alabama. We thought parts of Georgia were country and redneck hillbilly hick. Well Alabama is another story. On the way back we stopped off at Shelton's to get some redneck supplies (fireworks) I couldn't understand the clerk. His accent was such that I didn't catch him the first time he told us, we got free fireworks with the amount we spent. Goof laughed at me. His comment, they talk too damned slow for him. We think faster than they speak, which means they must really think slow?

OMG the food. Had lunch at a cafe called Country Pride. The salad bar consisted of cut iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, chopped egg, red onions, and pickles. That was it in the veggie selection. No mushrooms, peas, carrots, or bell peppers even. There were lots of cold salads, potato, egg, tuna? Ewww! Scariest part? Alabama's state color must be rust. I'll leave you to ponder that.

slightly sick kid

Stinky is home today feeling rather poorly. We hope it's a mild cold, and not what Goof has. Poor Goof came home last week miserable. No fever, but headache, sore throat, tightness in the chest, aches and pains. At one point he thought he had walking pneumonia. I think he's neurotic when he's sick, and exaggerates (hey it's ingrained from his mother, she thinks she has every emotional problem there is.) But he was sick and miserable. He's been sleeping a lot, and really whiny at night. Last week he was shivering and sweating in bed. I had to leave and sleep in the sewing room because of all the whining and groaning he was doing, and the bed was getting really damp. No he didn't pee the bed. This lasted 2 days. When he finally stopped having night sweats, I thoroughly washed and disinfected the bedroom.

Unfortunately Stinky is the new victim. He complained of a headache last night, and sore throat. This morning he still had his headache, and chest tightness, but no fever. He's been upstairs most of the day being bored, reading, and drinking fluids. One good thing we've acquired from this. He now likes apple butter again. He specifically asked for toast with it on. Well if your throat is scratchy, nothing like a piece of toast with butter, and fruit spread feels better. Unless it's Goof, then it's buttered toast torn in pieces, mixed with runny eggs sprinkled with salt and pepper. That's a hangover breakfast if you ask me.

I made a rich chicken stock last week to help Goof out, and I've made more today since Stinky has eaten most of it today. If he feels better tonight, perhaps he will eat pot roast otherwise more soup for him.

Oh, of course this blog is a rant about white trash neighbors, a little summary of the week so far. Stinky found out on Monday they found the intact bitch, and he got in over his head and said something he shouldn't have. He warned the girl to keep her dog off our property or he would kick the dog. Obviously he shouldn't kick the dog, but as he told her, the dog is on his property and barking at him. The girl got very defensive about it. Well of course she should. I'm sure she realizes something is not right. The true way to take care of this issue would have been for Stinky to remind her that it is the city code that prevents dogs from wandering loose about the neighborhood. If she was upset, then she would ask the city to change it's laws. We still haven't delivered the letter yet. So far, I have noticed the dogs out when they have the garage door open, and are wandering about the property. They are doing the bare minimum about control over the dogs.

Another thing I have seen is Whinis hanging out with the children. I'm sure he's gone in their home, and if necessary used the need to shit excuse to get in. Goof finds it rather funny and sad at the same time. Not my place to say, as long as they try and change their habits to proper law abiding citizens.

Speaking of law abiding citizens. I am a legal Georgia resident finally. I switched my license over. Talk about hanging on to the past. How can one face the future in their new home state if they don't give up their old license. Well hell, I gave up one crappy picture for another. Now I'm legal for 10 years. Honestly, why if given the choice of $20 for 5 years, or $35 for 10 years do people choose the shorter duration for their license? Now I understand the younger set, who live in apts or in college. No one wants to have a license with their parents' address on it still, when they are 28. Unless they still live at home. But if you are a home owner, and not planning on moving any time soon, why not? Goof thinks it's an issue of money, that extra $15 goes towards increased fuel costs. He's probably right. No excuse for my brother, he's still got a CA license and he's lived in Manhattan for 7 years. He says it's because he doesn't own a car. Well he's driving a rental paid by his company so what now?

So one of the first things I did as a GA licensed driver was to head over to Trader Joe's. Pretty sad huh? Well I was craving yellow curried chicken over rice. Where do I find good curry sauce? Why Trader Joe's of course. Plus I really love their Greek style yogurt. I am actually planning on making my own Greek yogurt as it is pretty simple. Strain plain yogurt of all extra fluid and get Greek yogurt. How hard can it be? I washed and sterilized the coffee strainer we don't use, and I'm planning on using that to hold the yogurt. After 24 hours, I should have some nice thick yummy yogurt to sprinkle berries and drizzle honey over.

Oh speaking of nice light healthy food. I about flipped my lid when I was doing some research yesterday. I was trying to make a food diary for myself and mentioned it to Goof. He suggested a program called Calorie King. He's had it for a few years, and said if I was interested he would give me the access code from his. I downloaded the 7 day trial program, and got to work inputting what I ate in a two day period. That was an eye opener. The program starts out asking simple questions, name, date of birth, height, weight, and age. The usual stuff. It calculates your BMI, then asks what you want to do, lose, maintain, or gain weight. It automatically goes to Lose weight. I can say this for a fact, because my BMI is on the lower scale for me, and it still went to the lose weight function. Now here is where it gets scary. If I were to lose weight, it would put me on a 1200 calorie diet. Maintain weight would give me a 1500 calorie diet. I didn't chose the gain weight option, so I'm assuming the caloric intake would be about 300 calories more.

So, I go through the food options and enter in what I ate on Tuesday. Holy shit! I ate 3419 calories! What did I eat? I'll tell you.
Breakfast;
3 silver dollar pancakes, homemade with 1 Tbs pancake syrup
8 oz coffee with non dairy creamer

Midmorning snack;
4 oz coffee with 1Tbs half & half, 1tsp sugar

Lunch;
large pot of Earl Grey tea with 1Tbs sugar, and 2 oz half & half
1/3 baguette sliced into 1/4 inch rounds with 2Tbs unsalted butter, 2 slices Havarti cheese, 3 radishes sliced, 2 shallots sliced, 3 deli thin slices of smoked honey ham
3 oz Greek yogurt, with 1 oz blueberries, 1 oz mixed berry granola, and 1 1/2 Tbs honey

Midafternoon snack;
1/4 inch round of baguette with unsalted butter, smoked honey ham, and Havarti cheese

Dinner;
6 oz Ocean spray Grapefruit and Tangerine juice
2oz slice of baguette, toasted and rubbed with olive oil and raw garlic clove
4 oz of pasta, tossed with olive oil, garlic, shallots, salt,pepper, and red pepper flakes
1 3/4 inch rib eye steak, broiled with olive oil spray, chopped garlic and shallots
4 spears asparagus, steamed

After dinner snack/dessert;
2 slices of Bosc pear
3 oz Greek yogurt
5 oz granola
1 oz blueberries
1Tbs honey
large pot of Earl Grey tea with 1Tbs sugar, 2 oz of half &half


Geez, I had consumed over 150gms of fat, 151gms of protein, 24gms of fiber, and 375gms of carbs. Pretty darn scary. No more granola for me. That was what threw my fat intake overboard. And here I was thinking I've been eating healthy. Yesterday I didn't eat as much granola, so I didn't go over my calorie limit as much. Gee 2100 calories is better. Of course my fat intake was still double, I had plenty of carbs, but not enough fiber. and just under the protein amount.

I think as the days warm up it won't be as frightening using this system, as I will be exercising more. Not that I exercise so much that it negates the extra calories I consume, but it will help me maintain weight instead of gain it.

should I kick him?

My husband has informed me I season food like a drunk. I don't use enough salt, but I use a heavy hand with the herbs and spices. What punishment should I mete out?

ugly food

In participation of an ugly food contest by http://www.noteatingoutinny.com/ I present this.

I was busy yesterday, laundry and what not. In between loads of laundry and dishes, I wanted to make something specific for dinner. I had been dreaming about this for a while. I made gnocchi.


Well obviously it didn't turn out pretty. I didn't take photos of me making it since it was just me at home, and I really didn't want to deal with potato and flour crusted camera. This was the finished frozen product,


This is what it looks like out of the bag,


I served it with a thyme and sage browned butter. Oh my it smelled yummy. Only problem... they look like caterpillars! Somehow when I was rolling the little pillows of potato and flour on my fork, they elongated. It was roll slightly harder and get caterpillars with the pattern, or light pressure and nothing but wasting time.


But oh, they were so yummy, light and fluffy. I tried to get Stinky to eat one. I told him it was a caterpillar and he truly believed me! Huh? Me? I hate bugs. They creep me out. I stopped leaf blowing the other day because I saw a big shiny black spider on the front porch! Yes it was big. It had no red pattern, shiny and about the size of an adult's thumb! It had a big round abdomen! I saw it turned the blower off, put it away, took a shower and tried to spend the rest of the day in bed after seeing that.

I made this based on a couple of recipes I found on the internet.

Gnocchi

2 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and peeled, and poked within an inch of it's life
1 1/2c all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten

Bake potatoes in 400*F oven for 1 hour. (I cleaned the kitchen during this time)
Remove from oven and let cool at least 15 min (your fingers will thank you)
Split potatoes in half and scoop out insides to a large bowl
Using a masher, smoosh until fine small bits (I read one blog that suggested using a box grater. Well I don't have one, and was worried it wouldn't come out well in the Cuisinart grater)
Add egg and salt into bowl and mix well with wooden spoon.
Add flour 1/2c at a time, mixing well before each addition of flour (if you are lucky you might not need the full amount of flour, if you need more then you are in trouble. The less moisture in the baked potatoes the better)
Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface (hence the Tupperware pastry mat. Damn that ugly tile!)
Knead dough for a few minutes until you get a nice smooth ball, about 3-4 min.
Divide dough into several smaller balls, at least 6 balls
Roll each ball into a long thin rope (go for about 1/4 inch thick)
Using a knife or pastry scraper, spatula, whatever cut the ropes into 3/4 inch pieces.
Now the fun part. Take each little pillow of potato dough and roll it down the backside of a fork. (I used a little tool I picked up at BB&B. Many tined veggie holder. I don't know the name, it saves my fingers!) You should get a nice little indention. If you don't end up with caterpillars, email me and tell me what I did wrong!
Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze for 15 min. Then place in a freezer bag for storage.
To cook, boil salted water in a med pot. Place no more than 10 gnocchi at a time. Stir so they don't stick. They cook in about 3-4 min. When they float, give them another minute then use a slotted spoon to fish them out.

The sage and thyme butter I served them with was easy. I got the idea from Giada DeLaurentiis. The big boobed girl on Food Network. I used a small pot, and browned 1/2 stick of butter. When the butter had a nice light brown color and started to smell really yummy and nutty, I turned off the heat and threw in about a teaspoon of each herb in. That sat about 3-4 min while the gnocchi was cooking. I put the drained gnocchi in the pot swirled it around to coat and then plated it.

So dinner last night was skirt steak with chimichurri sauce, risotto with saffron, sauteed cabbage, and gnocchi. Hmmm, I think I'm pmsing, I've got the carb urges.


I made this to eat after the gnocchi. Yea, chicken and cheese taquitos in a flour tortilla. I don't like corn unless it's fresh made and thinner. The kinda green stuff is the chimichurri sauce, it's made with parsley or cilantro, red onions, paprika, garlic, oil, and red wine vinegar. It was pretty tasty with the skirt steak. Which happens to be left over dinner tonight, but it will be broccoli for the veggie with the risotto. I guess the gnocchi is all for me. Light lunch and all that.

Spinach quiche

This was dinner last night. Something sorta healthy and light. Stinky is mad at me. He liked it, but found out the hard way that he hasn't had enough veggies in his diet. Yea that's what you get when lunch everyday is spaghetti and french fries. His excuse? There aren't enough vegetables that he likes in the salad bar. My opinion? He doesn't want to eat veggies. So he's spending most of today in the toilet. His colon is getting a cleaning.

So lunch and dinner tonight are leftovers.


This is will be my lunch and dinner. A slice of quiche, small salad of organic baby lettuce and herbs, a few Zaxby's wings, and fried mushrooms, and a tall glass of homemade sweet tea.

Stinky is having herbal soup. His safety back up. Nothing like grandma's herbal soup to cure all. Goof is quite happy to have leftovers for dinner. I think it's because I also baked almond cookies for him. He hasn't had those in a while. Honestly it's been too hot to bake. This weekend is a nice respite from 90*F days. I think I'm gonna bake banana bread tonight.

So what did you have for lunch?

Sometimes I wonder if my food choices are strange. Today for lunch, I made myself a plate with sliced radishes, donut peach, havarti and swiss cheese, smoked salmon, a crappy salmon spread and crackers. I'm stuffed. I thought it was a rather pretty lunch plate. Stinky was only interested in the smoked salmon, and peaches. How many average people have this for lunch? It was more of a cheese plate for a dinner party I must admit, but gosh darn it, I really liked it. Well the salmon spread was a guess and not so good of one. Too much dill and it was commercially prepared so you know it had fillers in it. I used to hate cheese growing up. Now I enjoy the different cheeses. Egg and I had a discussion a while back about dad and his strange eating habits. Dad would get a small plate and put slices of american cheese and pepperoni or ham and snack on that. I now remember I served up a similar plate to a study pal of mine when I was in jr high. Kraft sliced swiss with ham and crackers. I'm in the land of pickled okra, so they can't look at me funny can they? I like the challenge of food. What exciting cookies can I make? Living where I do, it's a good drive into Atlanta to try the more upscale dining. Also dragging an almost pre-teen boy around to such places isn't that fun either. His food preferences tend to be upscale though. The boy can go through lobster, salmon, dungeness crab and fish like no tomorrow. None of it fried for him. Food is so individual. What reminds me of home, and comfort do not necessarily mean the same for Goof. When he's feeling poorly, he wants soft set eggs over torn up toast in a big bowl. That sounds like hang over food to me. I hope when Stinky grows up he's going to experience more varieties of food. Until then he's going to be one picky kid with a taste for the indulgences.