1. What did you do in 2011 that you had never done before?
I participated in an organized biking event (the Austin Livestrong Challenge). We rode 65 miles through the rolling hill country of Texas.
2. Do you keep New Year's resolutions and will you make more for next year?
I stopped making New Year's resolutions because you have to want to change, you can't just say "ah it's a new year, I need to change". well, I mean I guess you could, but it just seems odd. As Yoda said, "Do or do not, there is no try."
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes - my sister-in-law had her third child in late October. Shawn's cousin, Heather, gave birth to her first kid around the same time. AND Shawn's other cousin, Val, gave birth to her second kid in June, I think... Also, my friend's wife had a baby at the end of May.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no
5. What countries did you visit?
None. We be boring.
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you didn't get in 2011?
a calm year, cat-wise. So perhaps no trips to the e-vet?
7. What dates from 2011 will be etched in your memory and why?
May 29, June 13 and December 15 - Mah boobs. The 29th being when I found the lump, the 13th being when I got the biopsy proving that it was benign, and the 15th because it was my 6-month follow-up (in which the lump has doubled in size, thus meaning I get to have surgery in early 2012. yay).
8. What is your biggest achievement of the year?
Not being bitten by a rattlesnake while in Washington State.
9. What was your biggest failure?
Not realizing I was walking over a rattlesnake while in Washington.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Yes - I'm going to consider the lump as an illness.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My cat's life...well, both of them, really...
12. Whose behavior merited recognition?
My bosses, my husband.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Those involved with the Penn State Scandal.
14. Where did most of your money go?
The money that I actually spent? It was spent on the cats. sigh...
15. What did you get really excited about?
Going to an Indian wedding in Washington.
16. What song will always remind you of 2011?
I don't know...Phoenix's Listomania?
17. Compared to this time last year, are you a) happier or sadder, b) thinner or fatter, c) richer or poorer?
Same, fatter by 2 pounds, and probably richer.
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
vacations, and exercising.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
it's probably tied between less internet surfing and less watching TV.
20. How will you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve will be with my family (they're currently on their way here - Yay!!), and Christmas day will be with Shawn's family. Boxing Day will be with Shawn's extended family.
21. Did you fall in love in 2011?
I've been in love for a while now, so other than falling in love with TV shows, no.
22. What was your favorite TV program?
I do like Once Upon a Time, But Misfits will probably the one I remember as being in 2011.
23. What was the best book you read?
Altar of Eden by James Rollins, probably... Especially since I re-read a bunch of my other books.
24. What was your greatest musical discovery?
"Where soul meets body" by Death Cab for Cutie. Even though, of course, that song came out in 2005...
25. What did you want and get?
To travel to a new state (Washington)
26. What did you want and not get?
To go to Olympic National Park. Also, to go to Vancouver with the husband for his conference (which was over our anniversary), but alas, I was at my own conference in Maryland. That's right, we spent our anniversary in different countries and couldn't even call each other.
27. What was your favorite film of 2011?
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 I would surmise...we don't get out much...
28. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I had a party for the first time in many, many years. I turned 30.
29. What one thing would have made your year immensely more satisfying?
Not having a lump...
30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2011?
plain tee shirts and jeans.
31. What kept you sane?
my family and my friends.
32. What political issues stirred you the most?
Bachmann just scares the shit out of me...
33. Who did you miss?
my family and friends who don't live close by.
34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2011?
Feel your ta-tas.
35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
Not really a song, but I love the HEB commercial where the little kids are all dressed for the thanksgiving pageant and there's a line in there about the cousin's bringing the tamales, "a delicioso treat" as the third tamale kid trips and takes a header into the stage. It's awesome.
Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nostalgia. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, January 06, 2011
The Tradition: Cinnamon Rolls
Growing up, my mom made cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning. We'd eat cinnamon rolls with an orange on appropriately festive paper plates and then we'd go look at all the goodies that Santa left us in our stockings. (Ah yes, I remember the year that Dad got a bag of coal. That was a fun year.) Mom originally started out making cinnamon rolls by scratch using a recipe from my great-aunt (dad's side). By the time we were older (in middle school), she found Rhode's Cinnamon Rolls in the freezer section of the grocery store and after we all agreed that they were just as good as the home made ones, she never went back.
For the past 5 years, I've dutifully made cinnamon rolls for Christmas day (and yes, I've made home made ones, pillsbury ones, and rhodes ones at various times - and mostly depending on when I went to the grocery store, if I had any yeast, and how quickly I wanted to make the rolls).
This year, for December Food Month (which is what I've affectionately named the tradition at work where someone brings in some food item to share for one day during December - the goal is to have at least one person signed up for every work day during December. Thus obviously turning us all into gluttons; who, on the first work day of the new year, walk down to the break room in a zombie-like fashion hoping and praying that someone was nice and brought in left over Christmas candy), one of the co-workers brought in home made cinnamon rolls. HOME MADE CINNAMON ROLLS, PEOPLE!! She used Ree Drummond's recipe which can be obtained through her website: The Pioneer Woman. The cinnamon rolls were Delicious and I single-handedly ate half a pan (so like 5 or something). I do not feel bad about this because she brought in 6 pans, and I waited until after lunch to have the 3rd, and until the day after to eat the other two. I was just being helpful and trying to make sure that we did not end up with an ant problem. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that cinnamon rolls are quite possibly my second favorite food in the world.
When I figured out that the recipe was easily available, I decided that I would make them instead of any of my other methods. Below is a pictorial process of the making of the cinnamon rolls.
Step 1: obtain all of the ingredients below. Including the foil throw away pans--the full recipe makes 6 of the square pans, 7 or so of the rounds.
Step 4: mix half the flour with the milk, yeast and sugar.
Step 5: Let rise.
Step 6: While dough is rising, make yourself useful and butter down those cinnamon roll pans.
Step 9: Turn out dough on well floured surface and form into a rough rectangular shape.
Step 10: Roll out into large rectangle. I rolled it too thin though, so you definitely want to go a little thicker than I did...maybe about 1/4" to 1/2" thick.
Step 13: Sprinkle well with cinnamon. Very well.
Step 15: Cut in 3/4" to 1" rounds and place in buttered pans.
Step 16: Find an appropriately festive towel, cover the rolls and let rise. I only did a half batch and managed to get 4 full pans out of the deal (as I said, I rolled the rolls too thin, and then I also cut them a bit on the skinny side)
Step 18: While the rolls are baking, break out your coffee maker and make the glaze. This is the third time it has been pulled out of the cupboard. Hot diggidy! The other times it has been pulled out are for French Onion Soup Night and during March when the Inlaws came to visit. We do not drink coffee, and Shawn told me I was a dum-dum for making frosting with coffee in it--I couldn't taste the coffee at all in Andrea's rolls, but apparently using a Dark French Roast with the setting on the coffee pot set to "Strong" is not the best option for those of us who do not like coffee flavored things.
Step 20: Glaze your finished cinnamon rolls making sure to get as much into the nooks and crannies as possible. Step 21 is to enjoy them, but step 22 is to listen to your husband complain about how the rolls taste like coffee.
For the past 5 years, I've dutifully made cinnamon rolls for Christmas day (and yes, I've made home made ones, pillsbury ones, and rhodes ones at various times - and mostly depending on when I went to the grocery store, if I had any yeast, and how quickly I wanted to make the rolls).
This year, for December Food Month (which is what I've affectionately named the tradition at work where someone brings in some food item to share for one day during December - the goal is to have at least one person signed up for every work day during December. Thus obviously turning us all into gluttons; who, on the first work day of the new year, walk down to the break room in a zombie-like fashion hoping and praying that someone was nice and brought in left over Christmas candy), one of the co-workers brought in home made cinnamon rolls. HOME MADE CINNAMON ROLLS, PEOPLE!! She used Ree Drummond's recipe which can be obtained through her website: The Pioneer Woman. The cinnamon rolls were Delicious and I single-handedly ate half a pan (so like 5 or something). I do not feel bad about this because she brought in 6 pans, and I waited until after lunch to have the 3rd, and until the day after to eat the other two. I was just being helpful and trying to make sure that we did not end up with an ant problem. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that cinnamon rolls are quite possibly my second favorite food in the world.
When I figured out that the recipe was easily available, I decided that I would make them instead of any of my other methods. Below is a pictorial process of the making of the cinnamon rolls.
Step 1: obtain all of the ingredients below. Including the foil throw away pans--the full recipe makes 6 of the square pans, 7 or so of the rounds.
Step 4: mix half the flour with the milk, yeast and sugar.
Step 5: Let rise.
Step 6: While dough is rising, make yourself useful and butter down those cinnamon roll pans.
Step 9: Turn out dough on well floured surface and form into a rough rectangular shape.
Step 10: Roll out into large rectangle. I rolled it too thin though, so you definitely want to go a little thicker than I did...maybe about 1/4" to 1/2" thick.
Step 13: Sprinkle well with cinnamon. Very well.
Step 15: Cut in 3/4" to 1" rounds and place in buttered pans.
Step 16: Find an appropriately festive towel, cover the rolls and let rise. I only did a half batch and managed to get 4 full pans out of the deal (as I said, I rolled the rolls too thin, and then I also cut them a bit on the skinny side)
Step 18: While the rolls are baking, break out your coffee maker and make the glaze. This is the third time it has been pulled out of the cupboard. Hot diggidy! The other times it has been pulled out are for French Onion Soup Night and during March when the Inlaws came to visit. We do not drink coffee, and Shawn told me I was a dum-dum for making frosting with coffee in it--I couldn't taste the coffee at all in Andrea's rolls, but apparently using a Dark French Roast with the setting on the coffee pot set to "Strong" is not the best option for those of us who do not like coffee flavored things.
Step 20: Glaze your finished cinnamon rolls making sure to get as much into the nooks and crannies as possible. Step 21 is to enjoy them, but step 22 is to listen to your husband complain about how the rolls taste like coffee.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
TRADITION!!
In my family, especially around Christmas-time, you inevitably will yell "TRADITION!" at some point. Sometimes, this exclamation comes while in your underwear, and at others, it comes while opening gifts. In my case (this year) it has come with the revelation to Shawn that I will be baking cinnamon rolls.
Traditionally, my family had lasagna on Christmas Eve, opened all the Christmas gifts from each other, went to midnight mass, came home to find our gift from Santa, went to bed, woke up, ate cinnamon rolls, "opened" stockings. The rest of Christmas is open to either playing with your new gifts, or, as my sister and I got older and had boyfriends, it meant that we could spend the rest of the day with them and their families.
So, yes, cinnamon rolls. Of course, this means I need to go get all the stuff to make them (okay, not ALL the stuff - just the milk, butter, stuff to make the glaze, and a bunch of those square throw-away pans).
Now then, if you want to follow along, you can find the recipe I'll be using over at Ree Drummond's site: Pioneer Woman
Traditionally, my family had lasagna on Christmas Eve, opened all the Christmas gifts from each other, went to midnight mass, came home to find our gift from Santa, went to bed, woke up, ate cinnamon rolls, "opened" stockings. The rest of Christmas is open to either playing with your new gifts, or, as my sister and I got older and had boyfriends, it meant that we could spend the rest of the day with them and their families.
So, yes, cinnamon rolls. Of course, this means I need to go get all the stuff to make them (okay, not ALL the stuff - just the milk, butter, stuff to make the glaze, and a bunch of those square throw-away pans).
Now then, if you want to follow along, you can find the recipe I'll be using over at Ree Drummond's site: Pioneer Woman
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Nostalgia Sunday: Halloween Edition
As it is Halloween, and it is a Sunday, I figure a Halloween Edition of Nostalgia Sunday is in order. However, since there are so many preshus memrys, I am doing a bulleted thing instead of coherent paragraphs (oh who am I kidding, this is hardly ever 'coherent')
-My mom had the habit of making our costumes, this meant that a) we had to help out, and b) we had to fit them over our winter coats (okay not really, but it did help a bunch if we left extra room to wear sweatshirts and sweat pants underneath). One year we got some 'cut and sew' costumes that had glow in the dark piping. I was a witch, and Dani was Be-bop the robot. We'd go to the houses and Dani would say "Doop, beep, bop, eep! That means Trick-or-Treat in robot!"
-I don't ever remember truly going as a princess, but I think I went as an Indian (feathers, not dots) Princess when I was in third grade. And in 6th I was a Harem girl, which most people took to mean Jasmine from Aladin since that movie had come out fairly recently.
-Mom always made apple dumplings in the fall, and since it doesn't get cold down here until Christmas, it doesn't feel like fall, so I force myself to make apple dumplings on Halloween for preparation.
-My dad always decorated the front yard by raking all the leaves into a big pile under the tree, he'd then take an old pair of pants (usually Dani's), stuff them full of leaves and position them under the leaf stack like there is a dead little kid under the leaves (yes, they always told us the kid was supposed to be "sleeping"), the look would be completed by using Dani's old tennis shoes so you couldn't tell the pants were actually stuffed. Supposedly, one year the cops came to the house because someone had called it in saying that we had a dead kid in our yard. Of course, this all happened after Dani and I went to bed, so I question the validity of this claim.
-And finally, for YEARS I wasn't allowed to eat candy on Halloween night, all because of one measly sweet tart and an unfortunate event that happened later that night.
-My mom had the habit of making our costumes, this meant that a) we had to help out, and b) we had to fit them over our winter coats (okay not really, but it did help a bunch if we left extra room to wear sweatshirts and sweat pants underneath). One year we got some 'cut and sew' costumes that had glow in the dark piping. I was a witch, and Dani was Be-bop the robot. We'd go to the houses and Dani would say "Doop, beep, bop, eep! That means Trick-or-Treat in robot!"
-I don't ever remember truly going as a princess, but I think I went as an Indian (feathers, not dots) Princess when I was in third grade. And in 6th I was a Harem girl, which most people took to mean Jasmine from Aladin since that movie had come out fairly recently.
-Mom always made apple dumplings in the fall, and since it doesn't get cold down here until Christmas, it doesn't feel like fall, so I force myself to make apple dumplings on Halloween for preparation.
-My dad always decorated the front yard by raking all the leaves into a big pile under the tree, he'd then take an old pair of pants (usually Dani's), stuff them full of leaves and position them under the leaf stack like there is a dead little kid under the leaves (yes, they always told us the kid was supposed to be "sleeping"), the look would be completed by using Dani's old tennis shoes so you couldn't tell the pants were actually stuffed. Supposedly, one year the cops came to the house because someone had called it in saying that we had a dead kid in our yard. Of course, this all happened after Dani and I went to bed, so I question the validity of this claim.
-And finally, for YEARS I wasn't allowed to eat candy on Halloween night, all because of one measly sweet tart and an unfortunate event that happened later that night.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Bread
In Cow News, our beef is bing picked up as we speak. The prices ended up being very good. I think it's closer to $6.18/lb
But I digress.
A few weekends ago, Shawn attempted to make bread. If you know Shawn, then you know that he is a rule follower. A recipe is needed for things and you must follow the recipe. If there is no recipe then it is the end of the world, or at the very least it means that I must be the one cooking because I view recipes more as guidelines. Especially when it comes to bread items.
I view bread recipes as guidelines mostly because of my great-grandma's roll recipe. It's a recipe that she would use to make dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. The problem with this recipe, however, is that it makes a very soft dough. A dough that does not lend itself to being rolled out very well. Which means that more flour is added just to get it to not stick to the rolling pin. This can be up to 2 cups of flour. But of course no one ever wrote out the actual amount to be added when making cinnamon rolls, just a note that the cinnamon rolls would use more flour. Shawn, however, cannot do this whole "well, I'll just add more until it doesn't stick" thing. If the recipe says let rise one hour or until double in size, that means one hour; no more, no less. The recipe says knead for 5 minutes or until elastic and tacky. That means knead for 5 minutes, not 6, not 4, but 5. He is also very precise in his measurements whereas I am not. I will use the same measuring cup for everything, and the same measuring spoon (hey man, some of my greatest foods came from mistakes--the chocolate chip cookies I made all the time in high school had 3 times the amount of vanilla in them than they were supposed to).
3 weekends ago when he attempted to make a whole wheat loaf of bread, the recipe from our KitchenAid Stand Mixer book o recipes, it didn't go so well (not that it was an epic fail either). He only broke with the recipe in one spot. the spot where it said to bake for 40 minutes. He broke with the recipe because the top was getting EXTREMELY done (read just shy of burnt).
When we tried the bread, it was okay, not the greatest, but not too bad either. the crust was very brown and thick, the bread itself was dense and I thought a little on the dry side. But Shawn dutifully used it for his sandwich bread for the week until the last two slices went moldy. It is apparently quite common for all whole wheat loaves to be very dense, and is the reason why most whole wheat bread recipes are actually half All Purpose flour.
This last weekend, I decided to make dinner rolls. Originally I was going to make the dill rolls from The Spiteful Chef (which, by the way, there's a very similar recipe in the Colorful Colorado cookbook), but the Black Swallowtail Caterpillars changed my plans so instead I opted to do Great Grandma's Rolls.
First I substituted Whole Wheat Flour for half of the All Purpose Flour, second I put the dough in a bowl to rise and then went and did stuff out of the house for an hour or two and then came back and kneaded the dough (the original recipe calls for rising overnight), broke it into largish balls, and let them sit on the cookie sheets until Shawn was ready to start grilling the chicken (about 20 minutes). I also had to cook them about 2 minutes longer than was written in the recipe (probably because of the largeness of the rolls). I made roughly 16 rolls instead of the 24-30 the recipe is supposed to make. I did this intentionally as I figured that they'd make good rolls to turn into sandwich rolls. Shawn, however, was a little disappointed I didn't make them slightly larger since then they would have been hamburger bun sized. But now I know--tennis ball = hamburger bun.
They were probably some of the best rolls I've ever had. Shawn made me promptly freeze 8 of them lest they go bad. I have a feeling that it's good that I made the rolls and that they turned out so well, otherwise I think Shawn might have given up on homemade bread (I have told him time and time again that bread is one of those things that you just have to keep trying to make it because it will take a dozen attempts before you get good at it).
Another month or two of bread making and we might just have the hang of it...then we can move on to making homemade pasta.
But I digress.
A few weekends ago, Shawn attempted to make bread. If you know Shawn, then you know that he is a rule follower. A recipe is needed for things and you must follow the recipe. If there is no recipe then it is the end of the world, or at the very least it means that I must be the one cooking because I view recipes more as guidelines. Especially when it comes to bread items.
I view bread recipes as guidelines mostly because of my great-grandma's roll recipe. It's a recipe that she would use to make dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. The problem with this recipe, however, is that it makes a very soft dough. A dough that does not lend itself to being rolled out very well. Which means that more flour is added just to get it to not stick to the rolling pin. This can be up to 2 cups of flour. But of course no one ever wrote out the actual amount to be added when making cinnamon rolls, just a note that the cinnamon rolls would use more flour. Shawn, however, cannot do this whole "well, I'll just add more until it doesn't stick" thing. If the recipe says let rise one hour or until double in size, that means one hour; no more, no less. The recipe says knead for 5 minutes or until elastic and tacky. That means knead for 5 minutes, not 6, not 4, but 5. He is also very precise in his measurements whereas I am not. I will use the same measuring cup for everything, and the same measuring spoon (hey man, some of my greatest foods came from mistakes--the chocolate chip cookies I made all the time in high school had 3 times the amount of vanilla in them than they were supposed to).
3 weekends ago when he attempted to make a whole wheat loaf of bread, the recipe from our KitchenAid Stand Mixer book o recipes, it didn't go so well (not that it was an epic fail either). He only broke with the recipe in one spot. the spot where it said to bake for 40 minutes. He broke with the recipe because the top was getting EXTREMELY done (read just shy of burnt).
When we tried the bread, it was okay, not the greatest, but not too bad either. the crust was very brown and thick, the bread itself was dense and I thought a little on the dry side. But Shawn dutifully used it for his sandwich bread for the week until the last two slices went moldy. It is apparently quite common for all whole wheat loaves to be very dense, and is the reason why most whole wheat bread recipes are actually half All Purpose flour.
This last weekend, I decided to make dinner rolls. Originally I was going to make the dill rolls from The Spiteful Chef (which, by the way, there's a very similar recipe in the Colorful Colorado cookbook), but the Black Swallowtail Caterpillars changed my plans so instead I opted to do Great Grandma's Rolls.
First I substituted Whole Wheat Flour for half of the All Purpose Flour, second I put the dough in a bowl to rise and then went and did stuff out of the house for an hour or two and then came back and kneaded the dough (the original recipe calls for rising overnight), broke it into largish balls, and let them sit on the cookie sheets until Shawn was ready to start grilling the chicken (about 20 minutes). I also had to cook them about 2 minutes longer than was written in the recipe (probably because of the largeness of the rolls). I made roughly 16 rolls instead of the 24-30 the recipe is supposed to make. I did this intentionally as I figured that they'd make good rolls to turn into sandwich rolls. Shawn, however, was a little disappointed I didn't make them slightly larger since then they would have been hamburger bun sized. But now I know--tennis ball = hamburger bun.
They were probably some of the best rolls I've ever had. Shawn made me promptly freeze 8 of them lest they go bad. I have a feeling that it's good that I made the rolls and that they turned out so well, otherwise I think Shawn might have given up on homemade bread (I have told him time and time again that bread is one of those things that you just have to keep trying to make it because it will take a dozen attempts before you get good at it).
Another month or two of bread making and we might just have the hang of it...then we can move on to making homemade pasta.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Moving
Picture of Bob and Elsie in front of their old house. Taken minutes before pulling out for the long trip down to Texas.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Nostalgia Sunday: Falling
I noticed the other day that Snarkymommy hadn't been going through my rotation list meaning that either Amy hadn't been blogging or that her website had changed thus making my feed null and void. I checked out her site, and sure enough it had changed from www. to no www.
As I was catching up on her posts, she had one where her daughter fell down the stairs. And I started laughing. Not because her daughter fell down the stairs, but because it reminded me of my my sister fell down the stairs. And that story is as follows:
My grandparents used to own a cabin in the Colorado mountains. Since they both worked full time jobs, it meant that the only time anyone was at the cabin was MAYBE on the weekends. As such it meant that it was pretty open to having lots of people over when no one else was planning on using it. This usually translated to having extended family over, or my dad would take his coworkers, my parent's marriage encounter group would have a get-away, my uncle's minister friends would have a retreat, etc., etc.
During one of the marriage encounter get aways, someone (and I'm going to blame one of the boys for this), had the brilliant idea of sliding down the stairs on sleeping bags. Still bumpy, but the sleeping bag made it so you continued to slide the whole way. This was shortly upgraded to the twin air mattress. As you can imagine, this was great fun for a bunch of kids to do--toboggan down some carpeted stairs until the wall at the bottom stopped you. The boys and girls were greatly enthralled with this while the adults were all sitting outside on the deck and communing with nature or some shit.
After a while, it became boring to sit on the air mattress and go down the stairs (luge style), and shortly one of the boys decided to go head first (skeleton style). At some point, I started going down head first (great fun!), and started trying to talk my sister into doing it because it was SO much more fun than going down on your butt. She finally agreed to go head first, but only if I went with her at the same time. Since we were both like 5 or 6, it wasn't difficult to fit on a twin mattress. And so we prepped at the top of the stairs, hanging over the edge, getting ready to go. When I gave the word, the boys pushed and Dani and I started down the stairs.
I remember going down a couple of steps and feeling like something caught so I put my hands out and stopped us completely.
Only Dani didn't do the same thing.
Dani slid off the front of the air mattress and then tumbled down the rest of the stairs.
Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump. All the way to the bottom where she probably landed on her head and her butt hit the log wall.
HiLARious. At least to the rest of us kids.
[aside] Kinda like the time when Shawn and I went backpacking and he twisted his ankle and fell down right after I told him not to twist his ankle, and so I could not stop laughing. [\aside]
We were told, in short order, to stop going down the stairs like that because someone was going to get seriously hurt. So instead we went outside to play with the bows and arrows my grandpa had made for us from aspen seedlings...much safer, I'm sure.
As I was catching up on her posts, she had one where her daughter fell down the stairs. And I started laughing. Not because her daughter fell down the stairs, but because it reminded me of my my sister fell down the stairs. And that story is as follows:
My grandparents used to own a cabin in the Colorado mountains. Since they both worked full time jobs, it meant that the only time anyone was at the cabin was MAYBE on the weekends. As such it meant that it was pretty open to having lots of people over when no one else was planning on using it. This usually translated to having extended family over, or my dad would take his coworkers, my parent's marriage encounter group would have a get-away, my uncle's minister friends would have a retreat, etc., etc.
During one of the marriage encounter get aways, someone (and I'm going to blame one of the boys for this), had the brilliant idea of sliding down the stairs on sleeping bags. Still bumpy, but the sleeping bag made it so you continued to slide the whole way. This was shortly upgraded to the twin air mattress. As you can imagine, this was great fun for a bunch of kids to do--toboggan down some carpeted stairs until the wall at the bottom stopped you. The boys and girls were greatly enthralled with this while the adults were all sitting outside on the deck and communing with nature or some shit.
After a while, it became boring to sit on the air mattress and go down the stairs (luge style), and shortly one of the boys decided to go head first (skeleton style). At some point, I started going down head first (great fun!), and started trying to talk my sister into doing it because it was SO much more fun than going down on your butt. She finally agreed to go head first, but only if I went with her at the same time. Since we were both like 5 or 6, it wasn't difficult to fit on a twin mattress. And so we prepped at the top of the stairs, hanging over the edge, getting ready to go. When I gave the word, the boys pushed and Dani and I started down the stairs.
I remember going down a couple of steps and feeling like something caught so I put my hands out and stopped us completely.
Only Dani didn't do the same thing.
Dani slid off the front of the air mattress and then tumbled down the rest of the stairs.
Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump. All the way to the bottom where she probably landed on her head and her butt hit the log wall.
HiLARious. At least to the rest of us kids.
[aside] Kinda like the time when Shawn and I went backpacking and he twisted his ankle and fell down right after I told him not to twist his ankle, and so I could not stop laughing. [\aside]
We were told, in short order, to stop going down the stairs like that because someone was going to get seriously hurt. So instead we went outside to play with the bows and arrows my grandpa had made for us from aspen seedlings...much safer, I'm sure.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Hangin' with my Peeps
Does anyone else remember when you could only get these in 1) Neon Yellow and 2) in Chick form?
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Nostalgia: With a Twist
So, based off of that title, how many of you believe this will be a post about twister? all of you? well, you'd be wrong. WRONG!
No, what I will ruminate on tonight will be about habits when on vacation. Are you more of a lay low and enjoy room service type of person? or how about the need to see everything in this town to the point where I have everything planned down to the minute of what we will do type of person? Or maybe even the Eh, we'll figure it out when we get there type?
I fall somewhere between person B and person C. Shawn is more of a person A and C. And he won't even order room service. It's just more that he never wants to do the touristy thing. He finds it...what's the word?..Touristy.
Anyhow, I digress from the real point of this. Things you do while on vacation (sounds like a Family Feud theme doesn't it?).
Growing up, my mom would have these lists of things to complete every time we went on vacation. My dad had lists of every historical thing we were going to see (which is why our trip through Texas took longer than expected--he did not expect Historical markers every 10 miles), and my mom had lists of both things we were going to see/do and things that SHE had to see/do/eat. So like when we were in the south, she had to get her picture taken with a Magnolia tree, eat grits, and buy a doll dressed as Mamie from Gone with the Wind. Though to be fair, my dad will get in on the food thing...to some extent (a la when in New Orleans, you have to eat at Arnaud's and Cafe du Monde). But my mom seems to take it to extremes. Like she wanted to drink a mint julep when we were in New Orleans, and I'm sure if she could have figured a way to sit on a balcony with wrought iron at the same time, she would have. Ultimately, she ended up having a hurricane instead of a julep because she didn't realize that a julep is whiskey with muddled mint while I think a hurricane has delicious, delicious rum instead.
Somewhere along the line she stopped buying knick-knacky things and instead started buying Christmas Tree ornaments to commemorate the trip. And this is what has stayed with me. When I got older (college), she started buying Christmas Tree ornaments for me and my sister on each of our family trips. This made some sense since my sister and I each got an ornament from our aunt every year with the theory that by the time we moved out, we'd at least have 22 ornaments of our own to decorate a tree. And so, when I moved out, I continued buying ornaments on our vacations. In some cases, I've had to turn some very non-ornament things into ornaments (like the keychain from Las Vegas), but there is an ornament on the tree from every vacation. At some point after getting married, I also decided that I'd like to have a shirt from each vacation...which of course was busted in the first east coast vacation because I forgot my strapless bra at home and had to buy a freaking expensive one in Manchester, Vermont, so I have three shirts and one bra. I would normally have also started Shawn on this, but he says buying shirts is stupid. I don't know why he says that as he wears shirts he had when he was in high school which are threadbare, but whatever.
So, do any of you have things that you just HAVE to do or buy while on vacation?
No, what I will ruminate on tonight will be about habits when on vacation. Are you more of a lay low and enjoy room service type of person? or how about the need to see everything in this town to the point where I have everything planned down to the minute of what we will do type of person? Or maybe even the Eh, we'll figure it out when we get there type?
I fall somewhere between person B and person C. Shawn is more of a person A and C. And he won't even order room service. It's just more that he never wants to do the touristy thing. He finds it...what's the word?..Touristy.
Anyhow, I digress from the real point of this. Things you do while on vacation (sounds like a Family Feud theme doesn't it?).
Growing up, my mom would have these lists of things to complete every time we went on vacation. My dad had lists of every historical thing we were going to see (which is why our trip through Texas took longer than expected--he did not expect Historical markers every 10 miles), and my mom had lists of both things we were going to see/do and things that SHE had to see/do/eat. So like when we were in the south, she had to get her picture taken with a Magnolia tree, eat grits, and buy a doll dressed as Mamie from Gone with the Wind. Though to be fair, my dad will get in on the food thing...to some extent (a la when in New Orleans, you have to eat at Arnaud's and Cafe du Monde). But my mom seems to take it to extremes. Like she wanted to drink a mint julep when we were in New Orleans, and I'm sure if she could have figured a way to sit on a balcony with wrought iron at the same time, she would have. Ultimately, she ended up having a hurricane instead of a julep because she didn't realize that a julep is whiskey with muddled mint while I think a hurricane has delicious, delicious rum instead.
Somewhere along the line she stopped buying knick-knacky things and instead started buying Christmas Tree ornaments to commemorate the trip. And this is what has stayed with me. When I got older (college), she started buying Christmas Tree ornaments for me and my sister on each of our family trips. This made some sense since my sister and I each got an ornament from our aunt every year with the theory that by the time we moved out, we'd at least have 22 ornaments of our own to decorate a tree. And so, when I moved out, I continued buying ornaments on our vacations. In some cases, I've had to turn some very non-ornament things into ornaments (like the keychain from Las Vegas), but there is an ornament on the tree from every vacation. At some point after getting married, I also decided that I'd like to have a shirt from each vacation...which of course was busted in the first east coast vacation because I forgot my strapless bra at home and had to buy a freaking expensive one in Manchester, Vermont, so I have three shirts and one bra. I would normally have also started Shawn on this, but he says buying shirts is stupid. I don't know why he says that as he wears shirts he had when he was in high school which are threadbare, but whatever.
So, do any of you have things that you just HAVE to do or buy while on vacation?
Monday, February 15, 2010
Valentimes
Since Shawn and I are homebodies and he is anything but romantic (yeah, I dont know how this worked out--all through high school he gave all of his girlfriends flowers all the time, then we start dating in college, and I can count on one hand how many times he's given me flowers, gah), we decided that instead of going out on Valentines, we'd cook a nice meal at home.
Now then, I'm no slouch in the kitchen, oh sure, I can be lazy, but when the occasion calls for it, I can prove that I know my way around ingredients. Back in the day, my dad, sister and I would create a 4 or 5 course meal for my mom once a year. It required planning, team work and preparation. And we only had one day to do it since the whole goal was to surprise my mom on when we were doing it (by the time we were in college though, it was pretty obvious that it would be done sometime after New Year's but before we went back to school since that was the only time that we'd all be home together with nothing to do). Usually my dad would choose the Appetizer and Soup course, I'd choose the salad, and my sister and dad would choose dessert and we'd all throw in our ideas for the main course and what sides. The only rule seemed to be that everything had to be made by us, and other than dessert it had to come from some cook book, and we couldn't repeat recipes year to year. Except for the soup. Because it was the Colorado Cache French Onion Soup. After I started dating Shawn, I was invited to dinner with his parents one night but I couldn't make it because it conflicted with our 5 course meal night. When I told my now Mom-in-law about this, she sighed and said that her kids would never do that for her (which, well duh, Christina had already moved out and Shawn is somewhat hopeless in the kitchen especially when it comes to making more than a main dish with sides). So that year, I did a 5-course meal for Shawn's parents too. Of course, because there was really only Shawn and me and I felt bad about making him do work since he didn't really care, I did tone it down--slow cooker main course, chocolate chip cookies and ice cream for dessert, French Onion Soup for the soup course, my go-to salad, and the Texas Razzpotle dip for the app.
Anyhoo, since moving to Texas, I have tried to continue doing some nice meal thing every year. So far, it has normally ended up being on Veteran's Day since I had that day off and Shawn didn't. This year I had already pre-decided not to do a nice meal (which was a good thing since I ended up babysitting Ma-belle while her baby brother was born). Instead I figured I'd once again, make Shawn help and we'd do a nice meal on MLK day or President's day.
So I was somewhat surprised when Shawn said we should do the fancy meal on Valentine's day. He had a special request--Oso Bucco. I mean it WAS the reason I got a dutch oven for christmas 2 years ago and we still haven't made it. So Oso Bucco it was.
I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Restaurant Favorites cook book. I typed in the shopping list on my phone, we went to the store, and i tried to pull up the list while there. It didn't work because somehow I had been signed out of my gmail account while I was filling out the shopping list so it didn't save it. Yay! buying ingredients I never use from memory! somehow I managed to remember everything. $50 later we come home and put everything away. At 3pm I start dicing. Shawn starts dishes. Just as I'm finishing dicing, Shawn's finished enough dishes so I can start cooking. For the most part, everything goes okay. The only thing i screwed up was the peeling the potato part...as in, I didn't. I don't know why this is the step I always forget. So whatever. non-peeled potato. it isn't like it will end up in the final product anyway (you fish out all the solids at the end of the cooking time and only keep the liquids and meat). The meat and vegetable filled dutch oven goes in the regular oven for 1.5 hours. During which I read my book (Catching Fire), instead of doing something useful, such as prepping the next batch of mirepoix . So the timer goes off and then I have to chop and dice like a madwoman to get everything back on schedule, and CRAP I haven't even thought of when to start the risotto! So Shawn is called in to help (which he was supposed to be doing anyhow). And is set to work smashing all the vegetables through a strainer while I make the stuffing for the Bucco and start the risotto. Ultimately Shawn starts telling me that he can't set the table because everything on it is mine (which is true), so i tell him he has to watch the risotto while I clean the table. Somehow everything manages to actually get done and finished at about the same time (other than I wanted to have some salad with the meal, which we didn't. psh, who needs green vegetables anyway?).
So, we sit down to eat and the risotto is kinda bland and then we bite into the Oso Bucco, and it's one of those things where the first couple bites are delicious...and then the next couple bites are kinda blah...and then by the end you're hoping that you can just finish because it doesn't taste good any more.
Final verdict: I think the whole going from great to 'just get this over with' was just something that was my issue since I think Shawn liked it the whole way through...maybe I had too much sugar, or something just wasn't right for me. But, we both felt that it was way too much work for the pay off. Only funny because Shawn did mashing, and stirring, while I was the one that did all the measuring and dicing and mixing and timing. Shawn even mentioned that the Oso Bucco at Trattoria Lisina was much better (which, at $50 for ingredients, it would have been cheaper to go to Trattoria Lisina), and if we ever tried this again, we would need to add more tomatoes and make the starch mashed potatoes instead of risotto. I think instead we'll go back to the chicken pot pie in the America's Test Kitchen Best Skillet Recipes, or with the Shepherd's pie in the Restaurant book. Both of those recipes also took some time, but it didn't seem to be as much time as this one took (two batches of mirepoix while the shepherd's pie only required one), and we like the flavor of those better.
Now then, I'm no slouch in the kitchen, oh sure, I can be lazy, but when the occasion calls for it, I can prove that I know my way around ingredients. Back in the day, my dad, sister and I would create a 4 or 5 course meal for my mom once a year. It required planning, team work and preparation. And we only had one day to do it since the whole goal was to surprise my mom on when we were doing it (by the time we were in college though, it was pretty obvious that it would be done sometime after New Year's but before we went back to school since that was the only time that we'd all be home together with nothing to do). Usually my dad would choose the Appetizer and Soup course, I'd choose the salad, and my sister and dad would choose dessert and we'd all throw in our ideas for the main course and what sides. The only rule seemed to be that everything had to be made by us, and other than dessert it had to come from some cook book, and we couldn't repeat recipes year to year. Except for the soup. Because it was the Colorado Cache French Onion Soup. After I started dating Shawn, I was invited to dinner with his parents one night but I couldn't make it because it conflicted with our 5 course meal night. When I told my now Mom-in-law about this, she sighed and said that her kids would never do that for her (which, well duh, Christina had already moved out and Shawn is somewhat hopeless in the kitchen especially when it comes to making more than a main dish with sides). So that year, I did a 5-course meal for Shawn's parents too. Of course, because there was really only Shawn and me and I felt bad about making him do work since he didn't really care, I did tone it down--slow cooker main course, chocolate chip cookies and ice cream for dessert, French Onion Soup for the soup course, my go-to salad, and the Texas Razzpotle dip for the app.
Anyhoo, since moving to Texas, I have tried to continue doing some nice meal thing every year. So far, it has normally ended up being on Veteran's Day since I had that day off and Shawn didn't. This year I had already pre-decided not to do a nice meal (which was a good thing since I ended up babysitting Ma-belle while her baby brother was born). Instead I figured I'd once again, make Shawn help and we'd do a nice meal on MLK day or President's day.
So I was somewhat surprised when Shawn said we should do the fancy meal on Valentine's day. He had a special request--Oso Bucco. I mean it WAS the reason I got a dutch oven for christmas 2 years ago and we still haven't made it. So Oso Bucco it was.
I used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Restaurant Favorites cook book. I typed in the shopping list on my phone, we went to the store, and i tried to pull up the list while there. It didn't work because somehow I had been signed out of my gmail account while I was filling out the shopping list so it didn't save it. Yay! buying ingredients I never use from memory! somehow I managed to remember everything. $50 later we come home and put everything away. At 3pm I start dicing. Shawn starts dishes. Just as I'm finishing dicing, Shawn's finished enough dishes so I can start cooking. For the most part, everything goes okay. The only thing i screwed up was the peeling the potato part...as in, I didn't. I don't know why this is the step I always forget. So whatever. non-peeled potato. it isn't like it will end up in the final product anyway (you fish out all the solids at the end of the cooking time and only keep the liquids and meat). The meat and vegetable filled dutch oven goes in the regular oven for 1.5 hours. During which I read my book (Catching Fire), instead of doing something useful, such as prepping the next batch of mirepoix . So the timer goes off and then I have to chop and dice like a madwoman to get everything back on schedule, and CRAP I haven't even thought of when to start the risotto! So Shawn is called in to help (which he was supposed to be doing anyhow). And is set to work smashing all the vegetables through a strainer while I make the stuffing for the Bucco and start the risotto. Ultimately Shawn starts telling me that he can't set the table because everything on it is mine (which is true), so i tell him he has to watch the risotto while I clean the table. Somehow everything manages to actually get done and finished at about the same time (other than I wanted to have some salad with the meal, which we didn't. psh, who needs green vegetables anyway?).
So, we sit down to eat and the risotto is kinda bland and then we bite into the Oso Bucco, and it's one of those things where the first couple bites are delicious...and then the next couple bites are kinda blah...and then by the end you're hoping that you can just finish because it doesn't taste good any more.
Final verdict: I think the whole going from great to 'just get this over with' was just something that was my issue since I think Shawn liked it the whole way through...maybe I had too much sugar, or something just wasn't right for me. But, we both felt that it was way too much work for the pay off. Only funny because Shawn did mashing, and stirring, while I was the one that did all the measuring and dicing and mixing and timing. Shawn even mentioned that the Oso Bucco at Trattoria Lisina was much better (which, at $50 for ingredients, it would have been cheaper to go to Trattoria Lisina), and if we ever tried this again, we would need to add more tomatoes and make the starch mashed potatoes instead of risotto. I think instead we'll go back to the chicken pot pie in the America's Test Kitchen Best Skillet Recipes, or with the Shepherd's pie in the Restaurant book. Both of those recipes also took some time, but it didn't seem to be as much time as this one took (two batches of mirepoix while the shepherd's pie only required one), and we like the flavor of those better.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Nostalgia
I don't know why I thought of it today...
Back in the day (about a month after I.V. adopted us as her peoples), Bob and Elsie (aka the inlaws) came to stay with us. They had decided that rather than stay in Austin all week, they were going to stay with us for a few days, head down to San Antonio for a few, and then come back to stay with us at the end of the week.
Not 15 minutes after they walked out of the house to go down to San Antonio, I.V. very purposefully walked into the guest room (aka drum room). She then very purposefully walked over the bed to the center. And then she very purposefully popped a squat and peed on the bed.
And for whatever reason, I found it hysterical.
Then I spent the rest of the day washing the bedspread and sheets.
Back in the day (about a month after I.V. adopted us as her peoples), Bob and Elsie (aka the inlaws) came to stay with us. They had decided that rather than stay in Austin all week, they were going to stay with us for a few days, head down to San Antonio for a few, and then come back to stay with us at the end of the week.
Not 15 minutes after they walked out of the house to go down to San Antonio, I.V. very purposefully walked into the guest room (aka drum room). She then very purposefully walked over the bed to the center. And then she very purposefully popped a squat and peed on the bed.
And for whatever reason, I found it hysterical.
Then I spent the rest of the day washing the bedspread and sheets.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Nostalgia Sunday: Pre-Christmas Edition
(I would have said "Christmas Edition", but I don't know if the mood will strike to actually get all nostalgic on Christmas day, or eve, so I have to do a qualifier. Thus Pre-Christmas)
There's this radio station that plays Christmas music all the time between December 1st and Christmas. It's got all your favorites--The dogs barking jingle bells, Do you hear what I hear, and Grandma got run over by a reindeer. For whatever reason, even though I rarely hear Frosty the Snowman on the radio, just hearing the other Christmas songs will make me THINK of Frosty the Snowman, and therefore I'll get all nostalgic (shut up, this is how women's minds work--that's why you can ask "How was your day?" and your response will be "Chicken")
Anyhoo, I digress...and to digress a little more, I need to state for the record for all family members: I spent the same amount of money on everyone this year (as I always do), well, to within $5. (Trust me, I have the receipts and spreadsheets to prove it) And so, the reason why it looks like I spent more on person A than on person B is because Old Navy has awesome deals for women's clothes. If you don't like it, take it up with Old Navy.
But, Back to Nostalgia!
When I was a wee lad (I mean lass), Dani and I would inevitably spend one weekend with the grandparents while our parents went and did Christmas shopping and wrapping and what have you. Grandma, being the awesome spitfire dame that she is, would go out and buy a Christmas themed craft (usually paint your own ornaments) for us girls to do, and a roll of cookie dough. On Saturday day, at the cabin, Dani and I would paint our ornaments, and Grandma would crank the Christmas music, bake cookies and sing along with the tunes.
Frosty comes into play because for whatever reason (probably because Frosty was the least known of the Christmas songs I knew) I remember Grandma totally rocking out to it. We'd be sitting there painting away at the breakfast counter, and she'd be baking her cookies and then Frosty would come on and she'd start dancing and tapping her foot and waving the spatula around singing Frosty the Snowman. Heck, I remember there were sometimes when the CD would end and she'd break into another chorus of Frosty just for the heck of it.
ah yes. preshus memrys! Though, this does explain why whenever I work on Christmas themed cookies or crafts I start humming Frosty the Snowman.
There's this radio station that plays Christmas music all the time between December 1st and Christmas. It's got all your favorites--The dogs barking jingle bells, Do you hear what I hear, and Grandma got run over by a reindeer. For whatever reason, even though I rarely hear Frosty the Snowman on the radio, just hearing the other Christmas songs will make me THINK of Frosty the Snowman, and therefore I'll get all nostalgic (shut up, this is how women's minds work--that's why you can ask "How was your day?" and your response will be "Chicken")
Anyhoo, I digress...and to digress a little more, I need to state for the record for all family members: I spent the same amount of money on everyone this year (as I always do), well, to within $5. (Trust me, I have the receipts and spreadsheets to prove it) And so, the reason why it looks like I spent more on person A than on person B is because Old Navy has awesome deals for women's clothes. If you don't like it, take it up with Old Navy.
But, Back to Nostalgia!
When I was a wee lad (I mean lass), Dani and I would inevitably spend one weekend with the grandparents while our parents went and did Christmas shopping and wrapping and what have you. Grandma, being the awesome spitfire dame that she is, would go out and buy a Christmas themed craft (usually paint your own ornaments) for us girls to do, and a roll of cookie dough. On Saturday day, at the cabin, Dani and I would paint our ornaments, and Grandma would crank the Christmas music, bake cookies and sing along with the tunes.
Frosty comes into play because for whatever reason (probably because Frosty was the least known of the Christmas songs I knew) I remember Grandma totally rocking out to it. We'd be sitting there painting away at the breakfast counter, and she'd be baking her cookies and then Frosty would come on and she'd start dancing and tapping her foot and waving the spatula around singing Frosty the Snowman. Heck, I remember there were sometimes when the CD would end and she'd break into another chorus of Frosty just for the heck of it.
ah yes. preshus memrys! Though, this does explain why whenever I work on Christmas themed cookies or crafts I start humming Frosty the Snowman.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Nostalgia: Gummi Bears (TV)
Gummi Bears, the TV show, was a show that I don't think we ever really watched. I don't know why. I just know that the reason it brings back memories is because of Bath Time.
When Dani and I were little (like really little...like probably in the 5-year-old range), mom would always tell us "It's time for your bath! go get ready!" But really, how long does it take for a kid to get nekkid? less than a minute. That's how long.
So, needless to say, we'd be standing there nekkid, waiting for mom to turn on the water in the bathtub, and thus, obviously we needed to entertain ourselves for the 5-10 minutes it took from whenever WE were ready for our bath to when SHE was ready for our bath.
We decided the best entertainment was hopping around the house butt-ass nekkid singing "GUMMI BEARS! GUMMI BEARS!" at the top of our lungs over, and over, and over again. The goal, of course, was to be able to be hopping and screaming/singing for the ENTIRE time it took for mom to get ready. I wonder how many times she just let us do it to get us tuckered out...
As I said, we didn't ever watch the show that frequently (at least, not until later), but we knew the characters. And I was always Sunni. And I think Dani was always Cubbi.
When Dani and I were little (like really little...like probably in the 5-year-old range), mom would always tell us "It's time for your bath! go get ready!" But really, how long does it take for a kid to get nekkid? less than a minute. That's how long.
So, needless to say, we'd be standing there nekkid, waiting for mom to turn on the water in the bathtub, and thus, obviously we needed to entertain ourselves for the 5-10 minutes it took from whenever WE were ready for our bath to when SHE was ready for our bath.
We decided the best entertainment was hopping around the house butt-ass nekkid singing "GUMMI BEARS! GUMMI BEARS!" at the top of our lungs over, and over, and over again. The goal, of course, was to be able to be hopping and screaming/singing for the ENTIRE time it took for mom to get ready. I wonder how many times she just let us do it to get us tuckered out...
As I said, we didn't ever watch the show that frequently (at least, not until later), but we knew the characters. And I was always Sunni. And I think Dani was always Cubbi.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Nostalgia: Fraggle Rock
What do I remember of Fraggle Rock? Absolutely nothing!
No really, I don't remember ANYTHING about the fraggles. Other than the fact that I started playing Super Nintendo Lemmings because the Lemmings reminded me of the fraggles.
No really, I don't remember ANYTHING about the fraggles. Other than the fact that I started playing Super Nintendo Lemmings because the Lemmings reminded me of the fraggles.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Nostalgia: Reading Rainbow
There were very few TV shows we got to watch during class time. In fact, the only one I remember watching in 2nd and 3rd grade was Reading Rainbow.
:::singing::: Take a look, it's in a book, READING RAINBOW.!!!
Oh Geordie. The day I realized that the host of Reading Rainbow (LeVar Burton) was Geordie LeForge, you probably could have knocked me over with a feather. I remember the second thing I thought was "well, how can he see? he needs his little eye guard to see!"
[aside] remember those banana clips? I used to put one over my eyes and then run around the house pretending I was Geordie. And there you have it--when I was 8 I wanted to grow up to be a black man in outer space. [/aside]
We (the class) used to all sit on the floor around the TV, and then Mrs. Chaney would pop in the tape and turn out the lights and we were all transported to a magical land where Geordie could see without his eye guard, kids liked learning things, and above all else, LeVar was the coolest cat around. Don't believe me? just check out this video of LeVar dancing some hiphop back in the day (the sad part? this coreography is better than most of what Doriana does on SYTYCD).
When I was talking about this with my sister the other day, Shawn overheard me and said "But don't take my word for it." Thus proving just how INSTRUMENTAL this show was to all the 3rd grade teachers out there.
hmm, maybe they were on to something...letting the TV teach you things.
:::singing::: Take a look, it's in a book, READING RAINBOW.!!!
Oh Geordie. The day I realized that the host of Reading Rainbow (LeVar Burton) was Geordie LeForge, you probably could have knocked me over with a feather. I remember the second thing I thought was "well, how can he see? he needs his little eye guard to see!"
[aside] remember those banana clips? I used to put one over my eyes and then run around the house pretending I was Geordie. And there you have it--when I was 8 I wanted to grow up to be a black man in outer space. [/aside]
We (the class) used to all sit on the floor around the TV, and then Mrs. Chaney would pop in the tape and turn out the lights and we were all transported to a magical land where Geordie could see without his eye guard, kids liked learning things, and above all else, LeVar was the coolest cat around. Don't believe me? just check out this video of LeVar dancing some hiphop back in the day (the sad part? this coreography is better than most of what Doriana does on SYTYCD).
When I was talking about this with my sister the other day, Shawn overheard me and said "But don't take my word for it." Thus proving just how INSTRUMENTAL this show was to all the 3rd grade teachers out there.
hmm, maybe they were on to something...letting the TV teach you things.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Nostalgia: Scholastic Book Orders
1. I just gotta complain about Blogger for a second. It seriously took me like 5 minutes to sign in. Just ludicrous.
...Now, onto the blissful nostalgia...
Scholastic Book Orders.
I remember those things (albeit not all that well...but I do remember how I looked forward to them). Some parents bribe their kids with candy, or with money...mine bribed me with books. I was allowed to order an extra book if I did well in school. Of course there was always a limit to how many books I could get, so I remember going through each page scanning for books and debating on which ones I wanted more, and which ones I could do without. I even want to say that adding up the cost for all the books was one of my earliest math lessons from my dad.
[aside] I remember one of my earlier reading lessons and I was stuck on the word "Farm" and dad could tell I was having problems with it so he pointed to my arm and said "what's this." "my arm" "what sounds does F make?" "fuh" "put it together." "fuh-arm. FARM!" That was either in kindergarten or right before.[/aside]
I also remember the feel of the ultra thin, rips easier than you could ever imagine paper. That stuff was like double thick tissue paper. And boy was it brightly colored. I remember getting books from the "Goosebumps" series...and also possibly those "Scary Stories" books. I think my favorite book was a book of riddles (I was obsessed with Encyclopedia Brown at the peak of the Scholastic Days, and so I liked trying to solve riddles and problems). I don't remember much from the riddles book, but there were a few gems like "What question can you never answer 'yes' to and be telling the truth?" I think my answer was "Are you dead?" But of course, the book's answer was "Are you asleep?" (psh, I think mine is better...some people talk in their sleep...most people don't talk when they're dead...and if they do, it's the zompocalypse, so you better be on your way anyhow.) Or, What gets wetter the more it dries? A towel! oh, and I remember how proud I was of getting that one without having to look at the answer. In any case, they were all very similar to the riddles for kids found on this website.
However, the book did not have the following: "Which month is worst for trees?"
Give up?
"Sep-TIMBER!"
...Now, onto the blissful nostalgia...
Scholastic Book Orders.
I remember those things (albeit not all that well...but I do remember how I looked forward to them). Some parents bribe their kids with candy, or with money...mine bribed me with books. I was allowed to order an extra book if I did well in school. Of course there was always a limit to how many books I could get, so I remember going through each page scanning for books and debating on which ones I wanted more, and which ones I could do without. I even want to say that adding up the cost for all the books was one of my earliest math lessons from my dad.
[aside] I remember one of my earlier reading lessons and I was stuck on the word "Farm" and dad could tell I was having problems with it so he pointed to my arm and said "what's this." "my arm" "what sounds does F make?" "fuh" "put it together." "fuh-arm. FARM!" That was either in kindergarten or right before.[/aside]
I also remember the feel of the ultra thin, rips easier than you could ever imagine paper. That stuff was like double thick tissue paper. And boy was it brightly colored. I remember getting books from the "Goosebumps" series...and also possibly those "Scary Stories" books. I think my favorite book was a book of riddles (I was obsessed with Encyclopedia Brown at the peak of the Scholastic Days, and so I liked trying to solve riddles and problems). I don't remember much from the riddles book, but there were a few gems like "What question can you never answer 'yes' to and be telling the truth?" I think my answer was "Are you dead?" But of course, the book's answer was "Are you asleep?" (psh, I think mine is better...some people talk in their sleep...most people don't talk when they're dead...and if they do, it's the zompocalypse, so you better be on your way anyhow.) Or, What gets wetter the more it dries? A towel! oh, and I remember how proud I was of getting that one without having to look at the answer. In any case, they were all very similar to the riddles for kids found on this website.
However, the book did not have the following: "Which month is worst for trees?"
Give up?
"Sep-TIMBER!"
Friday, June 13, 2008
Nostalgia Sunday
So many MEMRYS, PRESHUS MEMRYS!
I shall list them for you:
Scholastic Book orders
Reading Rainbow
Fraggle Rock
Gummi Bears (the TV show)
Popples
Glow Worms
My Little Ponies
Shrinky Dinks
Encyclopedia Brown Books
Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Books
And so, over the next weeks I'll blog about these items and we can all relive our childhood memories.
I shall list them for you:
Scholastic Book orders
Reading Rainbow
Fraggle Rock
Gummi Bears (the TV show)
Popples
Glow Worms
My Little Ponies
Shrinky Dinks
Encyclopedia Brown Books
Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Books
And so, over the next weeks I'll blog about these items and we can all relive our childhood memories.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Nostalgia Sunday
Easter Edition.
Easter was a family affair--though not as concrete as Thanksgiving and Christmas--Easter was the one more like "well, if you're not doing anything and you want to come over, you're more than welcome." So, some years we would have people over, some years we would go to someone else's house, and other years we'd just stay home the four of us.
We always had Easter Baskets, and I now when we were little we'd dye eggs, but I don't remember really doing them as we got older--that is I remember the plastic candy filled eggs for a much longer time than the dyed eggs. We would wake up early to find all the plastic Easter eggs 'hidden' around the house--most of the time they were pretty obvious, I even want to say when we were wee-littln's the trail of eggs would lead to our baskets. We rarely ever had Easter egg hunts outside of the house, but that is because Easter is notoriously cold in Colorado. Anyhow, we would find our respective baskets--some years I would find Dani's and then point her in the right direction, other years I'd pretend I hadn't seen her basket. I'm sure she did the same to me--it usually all depended on which of us found a basket first. I don't remember being allowed to eat the candy before church (though I'm sure we were probably allowed one piece). So we'd find our baskets, we'd ooh and aah over them, then we'd get dressed in our invariably new dresses and shoes and then go off to church. We'd come back and immediately take a self portrait picture of all of us sitting on the stairs in our Easter finest. (picture below from when I was in college--Dani couldn't make it home for the holiday--this was one of the years where it was just us)
Then the cooking would start. If we had family coming over we'd usually have spiral cut ham with green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and mashed potatoes...actually, that's about what we would have if the family wasn't coming over too. If we were lucky, someone would make deviled eggs and mom would make the bunny cake (2-9" round cakes where one was cut to look like a bow tie, the extra pieces then get used as the bunny ears). We'd use black jelly beans for eyes, a pink one for the nose, licorice strings for the mouth and whiskers. Jelly beans would be used as polka dots on the bow tie and then mom would sprinkle coconut on the face of the rabbit to look like fur. She wasn't allowed to do the tie or the ears since dad and I hate coconut. (see below...that isn't anyone I know...just the cake is the exact thing we would make)
Ah yes, Easter...makes me want to go make a cake right about now...
Easter was a family affair--though not as concrete as Thanksgiving and Christmas--Easter was the one more like "well, if you're not doing anything and you want to come over, you're more than welcome." So, some years we would have people over, some years we would go to someone else's house, and other years we'd just stay home the four of us.
We always had Easter Baskets, and I now when we were little we'd dye eggs, but I don't remember really doing them as we got older--that is I remember the plastic candy filled eggs for a much longer time than the dyed eggs. We would wake up early to find all the plastic Easter eggs 'hidden' around the house--most of the time they were pretty obvious, I even want to say when we were wee-littln's the trail of eggs would lead to our baskets. We rarely ever had Easter egg hunts outside of the house, but that is because Easter is notoriously cold in Colorado. Anyhow, we would find our respective baskets--some years I would find Dani's and then point her in the right direction, other years I'd pretend I hadn't seen her basket. I'm sure she did the same to me--it usually all depended on which of us found a basket first. I don't remember being allowed to eat the candy before church (though I'm sure we were probably allowed one piece). So we'd find our baskets, we'd ooh and aah over them, then we'd get dressed in our invariably new dresses and shoes and then go off to church. We'd come back and immediately take a self portrait picture of all of us sitting on the stairs in our Easter finest. (picture below from when I was in college--Dani couldn't make it home for the holiday--this was one of the years where it was just us)
Then the cooking would start. If we had family coming over we'd usually have spiral cut ham with green bean casserole, dinner rolls, and mashed potatoes...actually, that's about what we would have if the family wasn't coming over too. If we were lucky, someone would make deviled eggs and mom would make the bunny cake (2-9" round cakes where one was cut to look like a bow tie, the extra pieces then get used as the bunny ears). We'd use black jelly beans for eyes, a pink one for the nose, licorice strings for the mouth and whiskers. Jelly beans would be used as polka dots on the bow tie and then mom would sprinkle coconut on the face of the rabbit to look like fur. She wasn't allowed to do the tie or the ears since dad and I hate coconut. (see below...that isn't anyone I know...just the cake is the exact thing we would make)
Ah yes, Easter...makes me want to go make a cake right about now...
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Nostalgia Sunday
Welcome to episode two.
Today's episode is about the great American tradition: Drive in Movie-Theaters.
Ah, Drive in Movie Theaters. There was nothing better during the summers of my childhood. There was a Drive In in Cinderella City, about half an hour from our house in Lakewood, and I remember that dad would put the seats down in the back and then we'd drive to Cinderella City (which also housed another great place--Fantastic Nathan's--but that's another entry). The best part about this was that we weren't wearing seat belts, and I made it a game to try to bounce at the right time so when we'd go over bumps in the road, I wouldn't feel it because I'd be in the air. I think I only ever accomplished being in the air while the car went over a bump precisely 1 time.
Of course, going to the drive in requires some prepping. Like you have to make a large bag of popcorn before going since the drive ins don't have silly rules like "no outside food or drink". So, you'd make your popcorn, you'd fill the cooler with sodas (and adult beverages if so inclined), and you'd put the seats down in the back of the van (this, of course, was back when it was a pain in the ass to put the seats down in a van, none of this flip forward into the floor stuff). Of course, had we been older, I'm sure dad wouldn't have put the seats down in the back--the whole point of putting seats down in the back was so Dani and I could go to sleep while watching the movie. Of course, I don't remember mom making through the double feature either...But Dad always did--Gosh Darnit, he paid to see 2 movies and he was GOING to see 2 movies. Him being a night-owl had nothing to do with it, I'm sure.
According to one of the articles I read in our Pedernales Electric magazine said that Drive-ins are making a comeback. As well they should. As I've mentioned before, it's just so fun to go to movies outside during the summer. Besides, I know I'm in the age-group that the drive-ins started disappearing and obviously I have fond memories of it, so why wouldn't I take my (non-existent) kids to it and try to re-live the family bonding experience?
Today's episode is about the great American tradition: Drive in Movie-Theaters.
Ah, Drive in Movie Theaters. There was nothing better during the summers of my childhood. There was a Drive In in Cinderella City, about half an hour from our house in Lakewood, and I remember that dad would put the seats down in the back and then we'd drive to Cinderella City (which also housed another great place--Fantastic Nathan's--but that's another entry). The best part about this was that we weren't wearing seat belts, and I made it a game to try to bounce at the right time so when we'd go over bumps in the road, I wouldn't feel it because I'd be in the air. I think I only ever accomplished being in the air while the car went over a bump precisely 1 time.
Of course, going to the drive in requires some prepping. Like you have to make a large bag of popcorn before going since the drive ins don't have silly rules like "no outside food or drink". So, you'd make your popcorn, you'd fill the cooler with sodas (and adult beverages if so inclined), and you'd put the seats down in the back of the van (this, of course, was back when it was a pain in the ass to put the seats down in a van, none of this flip forward into the floor stuff). Of course, had we been older, I'm sure dad wouldn't have put the seats down in the back--the whole point of putting seats down in the back was so Dani and I could go to sleep while watching the movie. Of course, I don't remember mom making through the double feature either...But Dad always did--Gosh Darnit, he paid to see 2 movies and he was GOING to see 2 movies. Him being a night-owl had nothing to do with it, I'm sure.
According to one of the articles I read in our Pedernales Electric magazine said that Drive-ins are making a comeback. As well they should. As I've mentioned before, it's just so fun to go to movies outside during the summer. Besides, I know I'm in the age-group that the drive-ins started disappearing and obviously I have fond memories of it, so why wouldn't I take my (non-existent) kids to it and try to re-live the family bonding experience?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Nostalgia Sunday: Brought to you by Cadbury
Thank you for joining us for our inaugural episode of NOSTALGIA SUNDAY!
This episode has been brought to you by Cadbury and their delicious, delicious Creme Eggs aka Bunny Eggs.
When I was a wee littl'n my parents never got me these creme eggs. This would probably be because a) I would throw up if I had too much sugar, and b) I thought I didn't like them.
The first bunny egg I remember having was when we did an Easter Egg hunt at Villa Italia Mall in Lakewood, Colorado. I had found the egg, and since I figured I probably didn't like it (and since it was chocolate) I decided to give it to my dad. Who promptly told me that he didn't like it because it was too sweet and I should try it, I just might like it.
So I unwrapped the 'top' of the egg (or the skinny part) and whined that the wrapper was all sticky. I took a tentative bite. I didn't like it. But I didn't hate it either. So I continued to eat it. Then I came to the creme part. I started licking the creme and decided that I really did like the creme.
Then, horror of horrors, I came to the 'yolk'. Now then, I don't eat egg yolks. Back then, it was because I didn't like the taste of the yolk (and that's mostly the reason why I don't eat them now as well), but furthermore, in my kindergarten class, I had learned that the yolk is what turned into the chick. Thus, by association, if I ate the yolk, I was eating an unhatched chick. So, since I had seen the 'bocking' rabbit commercials, I knew these were magical chocolate eggs that came from magical rabbits. I'm sure you can imagine my horror when I came to the 'yolk'. But the creme was so good! So I dutifully ate around the yolk as I did not, under any circumstance, want to eat an unhatched Cadbury Bunny. I remember eating the chocolate egg until the creme was just barely contained, and I had eaten as much of the white creme I could without eating the yellow creme. I don't remember if I decided I actually liked the eggs, or if I was more taken aback that they would use bunny eggs for some sort of crazy delicacy. Because, come on, a rabbit that comes from a chocolate egg and 'bocks'? Who wouldn't want one of those?
I don't remember actually getting Cadbury Creme Eggs in my Easter Basket until a few years later...But I do know I've been getting them ever since that Easter. When I was young, it was only 1 or 2, but as I got older it got to the point where I would get an entire 4-pack to myself. Now that I've moved out of the parents' home, I buy a 4-pack for Shawn and me to split. Too bad they only make these things around Easter.
This episode has been brought to you by Cadbury and their delicious, delicious Creme Eggs aka Bunny Eggs.
When I was a wee littl'n my parents never got me these creme eggs. This would probably be because a) I would throw up if I had too much sugar, and b) I thought I didn't like them.
The first bunny egg I remember having was when we did an Easter Egg hunt at Villa Italia Mall in Lakewood, Colorado. I had found the egg, and since I figured I probably didn't like it (and since it was chocolate) I decided to give it to my dad. Who promptly told me that he didn't like it because it was too sweet and I should try it, I just might like it.
So I unwrapped the 'top' of the egg (or the skinny part) and whined that the wrapper was all sticky. I took a tentative bite. I didn't like it. But I didn't hate it either. So I continued to eat it. Then I came to the creme part. I started licking the creme and decided that I really did like the creme.
Then, horror of horrors, I came to the 'yolk'. Now then, I don't eat egg yolks. Back then, it was because I didn't like the taste of the yolk (and that's mostly the reason why I don't eat them now as well), but furthermore, in my kindergarten class, I had learned that the yolk is what turned into the chick. Thus, by association, if I ate the yolk, I was eating an unhatched chick. So, since I had seen the 'bocking' rabbit commercials, I knew these were magical chocolate eggs that came from magical rabbits. I'm sure you can imagine my horror when I came to the 'yolk'. But the creme was so good! So I dutifully ate around the yolk as I did not, under any circumstance, want to eat an unhatched Cadbury Bunny. I remember eating the chocolate egg until the creme was just barely contained, and I had eaten as much of the white creme I could without eating the yellow creme. I don't remember if I decided I actually liked the eggs, or if I was more taken aback that they would use bunny eggs for some sort of crazy delicacy. Because, come on, a rabbit that comes from a chocolate egg and 'bocks'? Who wouldn't want one of those?
I don't remember actually getting Cadbury Creme Eggs in my Easter Basket until a few years later...But I do know I've been getting them ever since that Easter. When I was young, it was only 1 or 2, but as I got older it got to the point where I would get an entire 4-pack to myself. Now that I've moved out of the parents' home, I buy a 4-pack for Shawn and me to split. Too bad they only make these things around Easter.
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