Some photos

It was the last day of my in-law’s visit yesterday.  We went down to the Big City to get some Art and Culture.  I managed to get some good photos.  Here they are

Faux Thanksgiving

As I mentioned yesterday my in-laws are in town this weekend for Thanksgiving.  Yes, I know Thanksgiving is not for at least a couple more weeks, but the plans around here got kind of FUBAR’ed and we thought Tom was maybe going to be in China for Thanksgiving, and since nobody else wanted to go to China for Thanksgiving we decided to have it early.  It was fun, but kind of strange because I didn’t have a chance to read several hundred magazines about how to have the Best Thanksgiving Ever.  I just had to wing it.

 

This is not our turkey

 

 

Here are some random thoughts:

The turkey cooked faster than I thought it would.  I don’t know why this surprised me, it seems to happen every year.  This is always worrying, and it leads to subjecting the poor turkey to a lot of poking and probing with the meat thermometer to make sure it really is done.  I always worry that I am about to poison everybody.  It adds a nice note of uncertainty to the festivities.

I love my roasting pan.  I think it is everything the Food Network says a roasting pan should not be.  It is lightweight, it has that black speckly enamel on it, and I got it at Wal Mart ages ago for about ten dollars.  Every turkey or roast I have ever made in that thing has been perfect.  If Wal Mart still had them I would buy more, just in case anything ever happens to this one.

I did not make my dressing in the crock-pot this time.  I just put it in casserole dish and baked it after I took the turkey out of the oven.  I never stuff the turkey, not because I am worried about food poisoning, but because I have discovered that if you do not stuff the bird you get way more gravy, and I am all about gravy.  So no stuffing in the turkey.  It was fine cooked in the casserole dish, but I like it much better if you do it in the crock-pot.  I will have to remember that.

Pumpkin pie really is the best food.  A dessert that’s good for you because it’s made of yellow vegetables.  What’s not to like about that?  I love pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bread.  I am in search of a recipe for pumpkin soup.  These recipes are easy to find but the first ingredient always seems to be:  a pumpkin of a certain size.  No.  This is not what I want.  I want the first ingredient to be a can of pumpkin.  I do not have the time or the inclination to roast and puree my own.

Now if only I had some Magic Cookie Bars.

Domo (domo) Domo (domo)

 

The children are very fond of Domo, a funny fake monster plush toy they sell at Target.  We suspect his origins may be Japanese, but we really don’t know

They each have two.  One of the C-man’s Domos is MIA at the moment, but we know he is Around Here Somewhere.

 

Anyway, apparently the Domos are very fond of Halloween, and got into quite a bit of mischief after eating too much candy.

 

Dracula Domo flies a helicopter

Devil Domo goes for a spin

 

Must...get...more...candy...

A little help...

I wonder what it’s like to have normal children.

Halloween photos

As promised, here are the photos from the party and Halloween night.

We had a great time.  Halloween was a little chilly, but one house in the neighborhood was giving candy to the kids and “warmers” to the grown-ups.  You had your choice of red, white or distilled.  I went with red, it made the evening more fun.  Especially as all the grown-ups with “warmers” would lift their go-cup in passing and give a little knowing smirk.  Lovely.

Now I have to figure out what to do with all this extra candy.  I should have Tom take some to the secretaries at work, and take some to the secretaries at the elementary school, but I will probably just eat it.

Pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins

As promised, here are photos of the children and their pumpkins.

We bought one of those pumpkin carving kits, and the Princess used one of those stencils.  Unfortunately both of the saws that came with the kit broke long before she was finished.  But we happen to have two pumpkin carving knives purchased from Pampered Chef years ago, and she managed to muddle through with that.

We think the pumpkin monster kind of looks like Domo.  What do you think?

The C-man went with a more traditional approach, and drew his design onto the pumpkin with a marker before he started hacking away.  It’s a werewolf.

And here is my pumpkin.  It has been de-gooped but it is still blank.  And it will probably remain so.  I don’t know what kind of medication I was taking that made me think I would have time to carve a pumpkin.  Anyway, doesn’t it look fabulous?

And on a side note, I have informed the children that this is the last year I will be de-gooping pumpkins free of charge.  Next year they can do it themselves.

Hooray for Hollywood

The princess has a friend, who shall henceforth be known as B.  B likes to make movies in his spare time.  He invites his friends over and they make a movie.  The Princess was invited to one of these movie parties last spring and they made a 4-minute movie based on one of those role-playing murder mystery games.

On Saturday his family had a film festival to premier that movie and three others.  B had made one of those others, the other two were by his friend and neighbor.

We were invited to the premier, and so off we went.

This family really knows how to throw a party.  There was a red carpet.  There was swanky Hollywood music playing as you walked up the red carpet to the front door.  There was champagne; there were tables with movie themed table decorations.  There were snacks.  There was a whole crock-pot full of Little Smokies in barbeque sauce.  I love Little Smokies in barbeque sauce.

After everyone arrived, and had some champagne (or sparkling cider for the under 21 set) and Little Smokies they played the movies.  And they were all so good!  I was very proud of our Princess.  After the movies there were awards!  Everybody got one.  The Princess won the award for Best Rising Star.  And here it is:

I would like to thank the Academy

An orthodonture update

Guess who only has to wear his retainer at night now?

Guess who has been chewing gum nonstop since we got back from the orthodontist?

Guess who can finally have hot lunch at school since he won’t have to figure out where to put his retainer case without his handy lunchbox?

The C-man, that’s who!

Yes, it’s true after only two months of near constant retainer wearing the C-man has been given the all clear to stop wearing it during the day.  I think that has to be some kind of record.

I swear the C-man is an orthodontist’s dream patient.  He wore that thing all the time.  I am so proud of him.

He’s so funny.  In the car on the way home he told me he might still wear it for an hour or two during the day on weekends “so I can have some quality time with my retainer”.  What the-?

The royal ear-piercing part two

Well, I took The Princess back to the tattoo parlor today (whoo, you don’t hear that sentence every day) to get her starter rings taken out.  It’s hard to believe it has been six weeks already since our first trip to the tattoo parlor, but the calendar assures me that it is so.

We had to go back to have the rings taken out because the guy who put them in used pliers to secure them.  There was no way I was trying that at home.

As promised (on Facebook) here are a couple photos of The Princess with her new earrings.

extreme close-up

Meanwhile, the C-man examined all the tattoo art and has come up with even bigger plans for his 18th birthday.

Key lime pie – some assembly required

This is not our pie

Tom and The Princess are making a Key Lime Pie.  My mother in law made one while everybody was in Virginia and apparently Princess O took one bite and said, “Where has this pie been all my life?”  Tom promised they would make another one sometime.  And apparently that sometime is today.

First they found their inner hunter-gatherers and went to the grocery store.  Now they are baking the pie and listening to Miley Cyrus.

have already procured the zester (lime zest) and the egg separator (egg yolks) for them. Now I am waiting for them to ask where to find the sugar (bottom shelf, under the crock pot), and the confectioner’s sugar (same place).

Tom has just come out and informed me that we only have salted butter and no unsalted butter.  I reassured him that either one works fine.  Right before he came out here I was going to predict that his next question would be “where is the pie pan”.  And I was right.  That was his next question after the butter situation was sorted out (cabinet under the microwave, in the back).

Other than offering my mad utensil locating skills, I have nothing at all to do with this little adventure.  I cannot wait to see how this turns out.

Minneapolis ho!

Last weekend, The Princess and I hitched up the wagon and headed up to Minneapolis to lay in supplies.  Or, as the children call it, “Mindianapolis”.

What we really needed, of course, was a long girly weekend of doing girly things.  And that is exactly what we did.

We left Saturday morning, and got to the Mall of America in time for a late lunch.  I was letting her call all the shots so we went to McDonalds.  Oh the horror.  Actually, I really, really like McDonalds.  We sat in the food court and watched all the rides in the amusement park inside the mall.  It’s just like Old Chicago.  Does anybody out there remember the Old Chicago mall?  This one is much, much bigger.  We commented on how horrible all the rides looked and discussed at length how happy we were that we were not required to ride them.

After lunch we had serious shopping to do.  First up:  the Lindt chocolate store.  We admired the chocolate fountain and bought some candies to eat later.  Old Navy was our next destination and the Princess scored big with new jeans AND a new jacket.  Excellent.

The day continued in this fashion.  Shopping, then eating, then shopping some more.  We went to a lot of jewelry stores because the Princess needs earrings to replace her starter hoops.  She really, really liked going to jewelry stores.  Every time we left one she said “mom they were so nice in there”.  She does love a little attention.

The last stop of the day was the Lego store.  I did some Secret Christmas Shopping for my nephews, picked out presents for the C-man and a Tub o’ Lego’s for Tom and the best thing of all, some Ferrari Lego’s for me.  They are so cool.  I can’t wait to put them together.  That will probably be tomorrow’s post.

Once we were all shopped out we went back to the hotel for a swim and a dip in the hot tub.  Ahhh.  More food was next on the agenda.  This girl can really eat.  After dinner I let her watch Twilight and then we went to bed.

Sunday morning we had another swim and ate breakfast in the hotel lobby.  Princess O and the C-man both LOVE eating breakfast in the lobby.  I don’t know why.  I’m not sure they do either.

We went to Ikea Sunday morning.  I love Ikea.  So does the Princess.  We both like walking through all the little room displays they set up.  We opted out of the Swedish Meatballs though.  Instead we went back to the Mall for lunch (McDonalds again) and another walk around before heading home.

We really had a great time.