Where is it???

I looked and I looked. I knew I had bought it. I knew I had unpacked it. I remember putting it on the counter . . . but that's where the memory fades. Where is it?

It was right before Thanksgiving, I wanted Honey Butter. I was going to make butter and add honey (which I suppose is why it is called honey butter). But I could NOT find the honey. I bought it weeks ago. But . . . hmmmm. Where is it? I could not find it. Oh well.

Then after Thanksgiving I happen upon it. In the bathroom, under the sink . . . with all the shampoo. Larry thought it was shampoo.

LOL. . . it does look like shampoo. But it tastes a lot better.

Black Friday

OK, they may or may not know it was Thanksgiving. But at least the holidays ads explain After Thanksgiving Sales to them . . . go spend money on Friday! Black Friday sounds like such a downer, I think they should have explained WHY it's called Black Friday. And it's not because after shopping all day starting at 4 am until midnight, Americans moods are dark and grumpy.

PS-the roof guy really knew it was American Thanksgiving. :)

Is it going to be one of "those" days?

Ahhh, it's Thanksgiving. Turkey, etc. Yum.

Up I jump early this morning. Normally, I NEVER come downstairs without dressing. But today, I threw on some jeans, brushed my hair and came down in my nightgown (which is basically a long tee shirt). I wanted to get everything going, clean up the house a bit and then take a long hot shower. I always feel so greasy after man handling a turkey.

All was finished, I sat down to blog before my shower. Type, type, blog, blog. I had just finished and was about ready to hit the button to post it. I look up and I see someone coming up the drive. ohhhhhhhhhh. He comes to the kitchen door and rings the doorbell. ohhhhh noooooo.

I jump up-oh, man, I can't answer the door in my nightgown-even with jeans on. I do a quick tuck and throw on my leather coat. I button it for good measure.

I open the door . . . it's the Sears man coming to look at the roof. He wants to come inside to look at the damage. I am standing there . . . in a black nightgown with yellow tea cups and red cherries, old jeans, no makeup, no shoes, no socks, and maybe unbrushed teeth. Ahhh, I was a beautiful sight. (and just so you know, I did have on ONE fuzzy sock but the other one wasn't to be found this morning thanks to the kitten-but I took it off quickly before I opened the door).

OOOhhh, sure, not a problem, come on in. Into my kitchen that smells of onions cause the turkey hasn't started to send its wonderful aroma out yet. Yeah, come on in. Sighhhh.

Yeah, the roof needs to be replaced. He leaves. I look at myself in the mirror. Yes, I look as bad as I thought I did. Ok, fine. I think about it for a while. Oh, babe, let it go-your sexy babe days are long behind ya! Off to a nice hot shower. I am now bathed, dressed (with matching socks even), a little makeup and brushed teeth. Aren't you proud of me?

Hey, don't they know it's Thanksgiving?!?

Happy Thanksgiving EveryOne!

As I cook, cook, clean, clean, bake, cook and clean some more, I wanted to take a break and say Happy Thanksgiving (American Style) to all our friends and family! Each of you is a blessing in our life . . . thanks.

This is the second Thanksgiving we have celebrated this year. And with the cost of turkeys, it's not a holiday I take lightly. My big ol' Butterball is in the oven and waiting for dinner time (which will be whenever Larry comes home). I have so much under control. Soooo proud of myself. Turkey? check. Stuffing? check. One token veggie? check. Potatoes, etc. ? check. Pie and fresh whipped cream? check. Fresh cranberry sauce? check. The list goes on. I started last night so I could get all finished.

The cranberry sauce, pie and whipped cream are finished. I placed the pie on the dining room table to cool last night . . . and well, forgot it. So this morning I hear #1 say: "Mom? Why is there a thumb print in the pie?" Uh oh. We are past the thumb prints in the pie stage in our lives. I thought we were . . . I go look at the pie.

Ummmm, #2? I don't think that is a thumb print.

Sigghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Even though he knows better. He really does. I do believe the youngest furry "child" in our house had a little taste of pumpkin. Do you think hubby will notice?

Oh, well. All the stores are open today. So while the turkey is cooking away, I will be shopping for pumpkin pie fixens. I really need the second oven right about now. And I am thankful that I put the whipped cream and cranberries up last night.

Where are MY gloves when I need them?

AAAAAhhhhh, winter is right around the corner. Hey, it was here and left and will arrive again in a couple days. Snowy and cold days are something we learn to deal with in the cold north. But even in St. Louis, we had our snow. When the boys were small, it used to drive me crazy when they would lose mittens and gloves. I would buy the cute ones, only to be left with a handful of onesies. Plus, if we had a snow, the neighborhood children would come to our hill to play. Once the snow was gone, I would harvest the onesie gloves left behind. On the table in the back. Once in a while, someone would claim one, but normally, the leftbehinds were forgotten.

Plus, all these children would appear in my back yard with NO gloves. Cold and shivering, hands a pretty shade of blue or white. I would tell them to go home to get gloves . . . but it was a lost cause. Finally, a fellow mother and I hit on a great idea. Buy a ton of the black stretchy gloves when they go on sale, and save them for the next winter.

I was ready for the kids. If they didn't have gloves or lost one, out would come my 25 cents black one size fits all gloves. I was the glove house. They were all the same, so no mismatches. As the boys grew, slowly we didn't need those gloves anymore.

But, NOW, they have to learn to wear gloves again . . . all the time. It's hard to keep them straight. I guess if we had grown up in the cold all the time, it would be second nature. But, we just don't remember our gloves. So, I decided to get organized. I got a shoe organizer, and put a bunch of black gloves (bigger than the ones when the kids were little LOL), hats, mittens, our real gloves, scarves, etc. Take them off, and put them in a pocket.

So far, it's working. At least I know where gloves are in the house!

The Sky is Falling, the sky is falling!

Ohhh man. Last night I was clicking away on my computer. Yeah, I stay up late. Every once in a while I would hear a noise. At first I thought it was a drip outside. The snow was melting. Then I thought maybe #2 was tapping every once in a while. It didn't happen often and not on a regular tap tap tap.




Finally, I decide to go up and discuss with # 2 about tapping on the floor (I have this "thing" about the hardwood floors in the house- be VERY nice to them!-hhmm, actually, I think I have driven my family totally nuts over my stressing over the floors-another story, one day).

As I stood at the top of the stairs, I hear a tap. It's NOT coming from #2's room. It's coming from the loft. I stand there and look around. No cat, no kitten . . . then it happened. A big drip hit the rug. TAP. OHHHHHHHHHH myyyyyy. Not a nice sound. The rug is making that tap sound cause it's WET. I look up and yes, the ceiling is dripping.

Oh darn. It's late, Larry is asleep. I take a towel and blot the carpet and grab a bucket. Then I began to feel the carpet. Ohhhhh darn. It's really wet. I know I have to get it off the wood floor and clean up the wood. So, I grab #2 (I will pretend he was asleep but we all know he wasn't) and off we go to moving furniture, then rolling up the carpet. I clean up the wet floor (no damage-I am pretty sure the drip had just started). #2 looks at me and says, "I hope the carpet doesn't mildew". When do kids grow up and think these things?

I took a couple pictures and sent an email to the owners. I bet they enjoyed waking up to that email. They are having a roofer come out and check the roof. It's a good thing the weather is a bit warm, as they may be able to get it done before winter strikes.





So my little loft is decorated a little differently. I have the chairs back in the room, a bucket and a half rolled up carpet. Maybe I will start a trend.

Vicky Cooks . . . or at least she tries

Scalloped potatoes. A basic easy dish. I thought I would take a picture before it was destroyed by hungry men (and one lady).

I used to take great pictures, I used to have a great camera. So, I was looking at all the food pictures on the food blogs I have been browsing. Those loook great. Most just put the food in natural light and click click click. Not a lot of natural light today unless you count the light reflecting off the falling snow. But I tried. No flash, just natural light.

Here is the recipe:

Potatoes, cheese, onions, milk. Have fun! :)

(Hey I never said I was a food blogger!)

Snow, kitten and a Turkey

It's Official . . . it's really snowing. Our first snow a couple weeks ago was more of slush and not really snow. This is snow.

I was walking through the house turning off lights before hitting the ol' bed (yeah, midnight, and no, no one turns off lights except me it appears). I happen to look outside the window and noticed everything was white. Cool-let's take a picture.

1: Hmmmm-I don't think no flash far away from the window worked. The window shows but not the outside. Let's try closeer . . .all I can see is black (but I can see some of the image when I open it in photoshop).

2: Let's put the camera realllllllly close and use the flash (I knew that wasn't going to work but wanted to try . . . hey, it's snowing outside and I don't have shoes on . . . let's try to least painful way first). Nope, didn't really work, but a little . . . maybe.

3. Open the back door, hang the camera out around the door and take a picture. See the kitten run out into the snow, jump out and say NO and grab him as he runs out into the darkness. Luckily for him, I got part of him . . . his tail. Too bad for me, I am barefoot. Snow is cold on bare feet in case you were interested.

Kitten is in the house, feet are warming up and here is my blog.

PS=Yeah, I spent $50 on a Butterball today. The manchildren want Turkey on Thursday. The Man wants Turkey on Thursday. The Lady hates shelling out that kind of money on a turkey. It makes her feel like, a, well, a turkey!

It's Cold, time for cooking something warm!

Honestly, I had no idea how many blogs there were out there. It's mind boggling. Well, my mind is easily boggled, but there are millions out there. Last night, I decided to really READ blogs. Now, I know, a lot of YOU don't read blogs (Sheila looks at the pictures which is why I added the stew picture . . . just for her). Anyway, one thing led to another as it tends to do when its late and you are clicking randomly on links of links of links. I started hitting on cooking blogs. These are very classy blogs. They really are web sites and not blogs. Anyway, what cool cooking blogs there are out there! These people cook, take pictures and then post them for us uncooky types to view, try and enjoy.

I found this site and the stew caught my eye. This is where I found how to make butter (which still amazes me that I made). I am going to try this recipe but without the celeriac root. While I found it in the grocery store, it didn't have the leaves. Ugly thing, actually. Not that most roots are all that beautiful. But, I felt it just may be too much for the men to handle. But the rest is perfect . . . meat, potatoes, beef broth, beer . . . and a few veggies thrown in. Besides, it's cold outside, perfect stew weather.

Speaking of weather, it was 17 degrees F outside today when we put up lights-with the wind chill it felt like 1 degrees F. To me, it felt like a good day to stay inside. But we got a tree decorated, a few lights on the house. It looks Christmassy. A bit early, but it's done. Yeah!

Invasion of the body snatchers!

Someone has snatched Vicky and replaced her with some sort of Domestic Goddess. No kidding! Well, maybe not a goddess. And not all that domestic either.

Ok, I have to admit, I have gone over the edge. I have jumped into the new exciting world of cooking. I mean, we all cook. But, I think I took a huge step.

What step, you ask? I made butter. Yeah, like the real yellow stuff you put on toast. Why, you ask? I have no idea. But it was really cool to start with white cream and end up with yellow butter.

I wonder what my next step will be . . . butcher a cow? pickle some pigs feet? make the men eat a veggie only dinner (oh, yeah, I tried that already and it failed miserably).

Check back to see what I do next-or if the men in the house take my kitchen equipment away and lock me up.

Because, we know, it's all about ME

Sometimes, it is all about me. Not often. But, let's be honest, we have to remember who counts. ME, ME, ME. Well, ok-enough of the ego.



Off to shop today. A bit cold, a bit windy but not like yesterday. Yesterday. I took Larry's car with the new tires and new license plate to go grocery shopping. Cold and windy. Really windy. I noticed he was low on gas and decided to surprise him with a full tank. How sweet, don't you think? I filled it up in the cold wind-thinking to myself . . . this is the time for the terrorist hat thing that Sheila hates so much. All done and I get inside -the car is dead. Dead, dead. Sigh. The battery is dead and I guess I didn't drive far enough to recharge it. Well, I know I didn't drive far enough.



So, I call home. No answer. Not a big surprise since Larry is washing the upstairs windows (outside) for me. The kids never answer the phone. I call #2 on his cell. He actually answers. He gets Larry and Larry comes to rescue me. Off we go to get a battery (he sort of knew this day was coming but that's another story).



So, where does the "ME" part come into this story? I finally went shopping today, and as I walked by the candy-I thought-HEY, I deserve this. (We are NOT going to discuss the fact that Larry was washing windows and cleaning gutters in the wind yesterday . . . remember this is all about ME). Then as I checked out, I noticed a magazine I used to love in the states. I don't have any delivered anymore. I like it but man, magazines are expensive (don't you think?). I pondered (for about 3 seconds) and picked it up. Hey, I deserve this-I was cold yesterday, I got gas in the cold-I, umm, well, whatever . . . I got the magazine.



Now all I need is a hot bubble bath, with fake candles flickering on the edge (remember, I am not a real candle person). Yep, I am going to do the bubble bath thing tonight. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

and SuperLarryMan does it again!

Wow, this time it went so smoothly (well, smoothly for dealing with paperwork hell, that is). The mechanic that worked on the van, suggested we use a different inspection site, since he has had a lot of trouble with the one we used for the van (remember the tears, them not knowing the van was 4 wheel drive, etc). So, off Larry goes (like a speeding bullet) to have the Santa Fee inspected. It passed! Then he got winter tires and rims for the Santa Fee. Wow ! Wow, Wow!

The only little hiccup was when he went to get the license plate (you didn't expect it to really go smoothly, did you?). I didn't go with him but the car is in both of our names. The clerk asked if I was there (no) but it was ok if Larry had a picture ID of mine. He did, and out comes my passport. OH, great they say . . . now, we need another one. Sigghhhh. So, home comes Larry. It was late, so he had to wait a day to go back. Back he goes with my Drivers License, passport, paperwork for the car, etc. He gets there, and they say . . . well, we need a proxy (a letter saying Larry can sign for me-and I DID offer to go with him but . . .). The supervisor in charge said, you don't need a proxy-well, maybe you do, but I don't think you do. Hmm, call the main office. Wait, wait, wait. Finally, the main office says, nope, two IDs are fine. At this point, they try to charge tax (again) and Larry had to remind them (again) that this is an imported vehicle (even though it says it on ALL of the paperwork).

Finally . . . he gets the plate. He never lost his cool. He stayed on task and got it done.

Honestly, he is my hero.

(and the little comment that he really wanted to try out his new winter tires will be overlooked . . . cause you know what has to be on the road to try out the tires. Yep, snow and ice. Because he is my hero, I will ignore that.)

Lost and Found

I check the Lost and Found on Craigs list occasionally. Maybe someone will post something about Missy (I know, I know, but I have to look). Plus I found a pair of glasses in Canadian Tire parking lot the other day (I turned them in to the customer service desk). They were bifocals and glasses are very very very EXPENSIVE up here. (Think more than twice the price). So, I was checking to see if someone lost glasses, found a cat, etc.

Anyway, one of the ads caught my eye. The title was Lost my mind. Hmmm . . . I wonder what that is all about. What can I say-I like humor like this.

I seem to have lost my mind, or at least my peace of mind.

*responds well to bright colors, sparkley things, art

*last seen wandering with a migraine.

*if migraine is still present, return only if heavily sedated or highly medicated thank you kindly

How Sweet is that?

Sometimes its the little things that bring a little happiness to your life. You think to yourself: "How sweet is that?" Just a few sweet moments . . .

#1 made himself a great breakfast sandwich. Big, good, yummy. I said-wow, that smells great! He cut the sandwich in half and gave it to me. How sweet is that?!?

KC brought me a chipmunk. Ummm . . . how sweet is that? At least it was dead and outside.

Larry makes dinner, goes shopping and brings me brownies. Ahhhhh, how sweet is that!

#2 did the dishes, didn't complain. AND raked some leaves. Wow, how sweet is that!

Sheila sent me labels AND Hershey's Nuggets-now-really, how sweet is that?

Friends email and say hi, just to say hi. How sweet is that! I love it.

And finally, Caesar let me sleep in today. And then meowed for an hour once I got up. How sweet is that!

Kitty Update

Kitty Update:
Caesar is a little over 4 months old.
Weighs a bit more than 7 lbs (that's as close as I will go in converting metric)
Loves to run and play.
Wants to go outside DESPERATELY
Occasionally wakes us up by putting his face up your nose or in your mouth (about that time you hear Larry say "Don't start, Cat!")
Sleeps with the boys when a door is left open (he does the same nose/mouth thing to them too).
Loves his little wheel with the ping pong ball that goes around. Loveeeeeees it!
Bugs KC until KC goes outside or sits on him.
And purrs and cuddles and plays and hisses and jumps and pants (yeah, like a dog) and nibbles.
Guess its official . . . he is a kitten.

Sarcasm . . . another word for communication with teenagers.

Recently, ManChild #2 and I went to Loblaws. Funny name for a grocery store. It's big, has lots and lots of cool stuff besides food. Has a bakery, etc. (Think big Dierburgs-not the cute local one I loved so much but a regular sized Dierburgs).

I am sort of mean, I make #2 go with me occasionally to the grocery store. His job is to put the soda cans in the rebate/recycling machine . . . one can at a time. Just to let you know how often we do this, the last time we got over $6 and each can is worth 5 cents. Ok, folks-it's math time.

After #2 finished with the cans, he found me in the check out line. I always look around and try to pay attention to details in check out lanes. It helps in figuring out little things. I noticed the people in front of me were using the reusable bags from that store (yeah, again like Dierburgs), and decided I should try to be a little more "green". I asked where to get the bags and bought three. I spent $3 on the bags. Cool-and we used them that day.

We got home and #2 looked at me and said-"Good Job, Mom". Now, we all know what that means . . . I did something totally stupid. What? You paid for something that is totally free-grocery bags. But, but . . . I am "green" and doing my part for (insert whatever you want here because we know he has tuned me out after the second but). Sigh-I try.

Whooo Hoooo . . . My Hero

Guess what?!?

Yeah!

Larry got the license plate for the van. He had to call Ottawa and get directions to give to the customs folks here (downtown) and then goes downtown in the middle of the day. Once he got there, they said, oh-you don't need this form. Yeah, right. We can't get the tag without it. After thinking a while, getting her supervisor and conferencing . . . they gave Larry the paperwork that we didn't need but had to have. Then he drove straight to the license place and got the tag. At which time, the guy said, that will be $2400. Ummm, we are importing the car-not buying it. Hmmmm-oh, my mistake. Sigghhhhhhhh.

Wednesday Whines and Winners!

Wow, got a few responses to my last couple blogs.


Let's see. I need to encourage the fox to stay because he eats spiders. Dawn sent me a link about foxes. If you read it, NOT ONE word about foxes eating spiders. But good try. I am pretty sure Mr. Fox has visited our yard before since he was very comfortable. And we do have a supply of Chipmunks for dinner. And some varmint buried something in the middle of my new baby grass last week. Maybe a mid winter snack? And we will encourage the fox to visit . . . ummm, just how do you encourage a fox to visit? Ohhh here foxy foxy foxy-come visit-don't eat my cats, don't dig in the yard, but feel free to munch on the local rodents and spiders?

Sheila HATES my terrorist hat. Gee, I don't see the problem. LOL She suggested a hat/scarf combination. I suggested she send me one. She suggested the I need to get out and find one. I suggested she send me one. She suggested it was expensive to ship. I suggested that it wasn't all that expensive since it would be light knitted thing. I am pretty sure it ended with NO knitted hat/scarf thing being shipped to me. Oh, well, I tried.


Lots liked the old wedding pics. It was fun looking at them. Just think, next year is the big 3 0!

Now, to the Wednesday Whines and Winners!

I was so good of going through boxes in the garage and putting things to donate in boxes. I set those boxes on one side of the garage. Larry decided it's time to get the garage ready for the van. He took a lot of boxes to the basement. Yep, he took the donation boxes. Sigh. And I can't tell which are the ones I did and which are the ones I need to go through, since I taped up the donation boxes. I guess I should have marked those boxes, but that would have been just too easy. But now, I can go through the boxes in the basement whenever I want, during rain, snow, sleet and ice.

I found the Blackberry Sorbet I so love. But I found it at a store that is under construction. Once I got home, I realized it had been thawed out and refrozen (not all that good). BUT then I went to the same store in a different location and there it was . . . good, fresh, sweet, cold, smooth blackberry sorbet. Let me tell you-it's a aaahhhhhhhhhhhh moment when that spoon hits the mouth!

OH, OH-guess what I found here? My fav of all time chocolate shells. Since Suzan can't search the world and drive by with a treasured box every once in a while (guess its too far for her, besides, I don't have a mailbox to drop the candy in). Love these things. Been eaten em a lot. Even sharing with ManChild #2 (and #1 but he doesn't eat as much chocolate as the youngest male member of the family). Winner: yummy chocolates-whiner: the kid keeps eating them.


I found plain Hershey's chocolate bars. They are packaged different. And taste a little different (Sheila said that Hershey's has changed how they make their chocolate-omg-how could they do that?!?!). I bought a couple. #2 is in the middle of eating my chocolate shells so he hasn't tried the Hershey's bars. Maybe if I hide my shells . . . .

It's warm and sunny. Yesterday, today and tomorrow . . . "Indian Summer". I told the boys it was meant for us to work on the yard! We raked and bagged yesterday until we ran out of bags. I bought more last night. I am sure they will be so happy when I get those out today and suggest (yeah, right . . . suggest! LOL) that we rake some more. BTW, we have bagged over 100 bags of leaves so far.

And finally, just for fun-here is a picture of KC.

Just how cold do you think it will be this winter? In a previous post, I made a comment about not wearing hats. Of course, the very next day I went to the grocery store and the wind was blowing like heck. As I walked the length of the parking lot (not all that far), I decided I needed to reconsider my stance on hats.

It's not that I don't like hats. I like em. Think they are pretty, functional, etc. Larry likes me in hats. My problem with hats is my head. I have a big head (no comments from the peanut gallery on that), plus I tend to lose hats.

My big head makes for finding hats a somewhat difficult task. If it is too small, it hurts. Well, its hurts a lot. If it is too big (yeah, right, like that is going to happen), it will fall off or blow off.

What to do? (Besides stay inside all winter . . . and don't think I haven't considered that option). Not sure . . . but I decided to try for a all over approach. I bought two items for consideration. I showed my #1 Man. He thought I was joking. I mean, he really thought I was joking. I wasn't. Well, maybe with the super heavy one that sort of looks like an underwater terrorist. But I wasn't with the soft black hoodie thing. Not much on fashion but it covers nicely, and pushes down to just cover the neck (think scarf without the hassle). So I have the one below. It's soft, it's big, it doesn't hurt my head and won't blow off. It also won't win any fashion shows. Hey, you can't have it all. I haven't worn it yet. It hasn't been really cold yet. Plus, it is a bit of a jump to put this thing on. You have to really want to be warm to forgo any fashion thoughts.

Fox

Sunday morning with an extra hour to sleep. How nice. Larry was walking by the dining room window and I heard him say "Fox"!

Right by the window was the largest fox I have ever seen (Ok, I haven't seen a lot of foxes but I have seen a few).

By the time we got the camera, the fox had walked to the flower bed away from the back door.

He walked around for quite a bit, until he settled down for a nap.

"Hey, quiet over there, a guy is trying to get some shut-eye here!"

He stayed this way until we went outside. Since we are a family with cats, and this was one very large fox, we thought it was best to encourage him to move on. Besides, we have to rake leaves today. Not sure he would have appreciated that. He slowly got up and left. Wonder why he was out of his den during the day (or do foxes stay in their dens once they grow up?) I think he was a male since he was so big. (and this is from all my experience as a expert fox person LOL)