What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?

My sons have recently become obsessed with Klondike bars. So we're constantly joking about "what would you do?" Maybe that's why they've been so helpful to me lately!

The really good news is you can get a $1.00 off coupon here: https://ssl.unilever.com/whatsupwiththebox.com/box/default.aspx

I'm not getting anything to plug Klondike bars, I'm just sharing the latest obsession in our house!

An Awwww Moment

I was going through old photos, looking for pictures of certain colors...

And I found an Awwww Moment from June, 2004. 5+ years flew by in an instant.

Do you think I'll ever get a picture of this again?

So I ask you kindly to put an Awwww Moment on YOUR blog! And please let me know so I can Awwww right back at you!

I Bought a Box of Meat

Yes, I admit it. I was suckered in by a man who rang my doorbell. Was I interested in buying some meat? Some of his customers were unavailable and he did not want to haul the meat back to Santa Ana for restocking. I knew it was a sales come-on, but when he opened the box and showed me the lovely steaks, and in his Russian accent offered a box of seafood for no extra charge...yes, I caved in.

Imagine my panic with the refrigerator situation. But fortunately the freezer was not affected and kept my lovely meat safe.

We've had, in no particular order: Coquilles St. Jacques* (scallops), Shrimp Chowder*, Surf-n-Turf (crabcakes and sirloin), NY strip steaks, bacon wrapped filets, and stuffed flounder. And a bunch of hamburgers.

*These required actual recipes!!!

I'm just loving this not-have-to-go-shopping thing. And the men are loving the food.

So? Did I overpay a little? Maybe. Is everyone well fed and happy? Yes. Net result: priceless.

Mwa-ha-ha!

Made you look!

This is what Ernest looked like when he came home Sunday night. He had been playing the evil cowboy villain, Bad Bart.

Channeling a little Gene Wilder, maybe? But Ernest has better hair.

Fixed

The fridge is fixed. And only $106! That's almost not worth haggling over with the warranty people.

I wonder what my spoiled food cost will be. The yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese and lunchmeat are toast, so to speak. Fortunately I stuck the milk and eggs in Erik's tiny refrigerator--had to take the shelves out! The produce is wilted but edible.

What about the condiments, I ask you? Are the 4 jars of pickles (kosher dills, sweet gherkins, bread & butter pickles, sweet pickle relish -- you can't have too many pickles in my opinion) still edible? Or the 5 jars of mustard (dijon, yellow, Jack Daniels, Cajun, Sweet'n'hot -- ditto)? 4 jars of jelly? Capers, grape leaves, horseradish, and red curry paste? Syrup, teriyaki sauce, lemon juice, lime juice. 4 kinds of salad dressing. Barbecue sauce, tahini, chocolate syrup. Marinated dried tomatos, kalamata olives, and maraschino cherries. And how could I forget the ketchup and bacon bits????

In other good news, the computer is working too. After spending a long time lying on the floor wiggling and jiggling wires, I found the culprit to be the plug plugged into the plug strip. Maybe we jarred it loose while pulling and pushing on the refrigerator.

What else will break? Things come in threes! Oh, wait! The first thing already happened. Last week Ernest was trying to get the blender off the top of the refrigerator...and knocked down the lemon juicer...which smashed my butter dish. Thank goodness for Replacements.com.

Blue

This is for the Blue photo challenge at the Women's Colony.


I'm happy I had put my favorite blue photo in another post, so I was able to copy it out of blogger. Because the computer with all my pictures on it will NOT TURN ON. And I've also had trouble with the refrigerator again (that's 2 prior links!). What the heck is going on here? It's making me feel blue!

And that reminds me of this...my kids overplayed this 10 years ago. I'm so much happier listening to the music they currently like!

Catching Up

My poor little neglected blog. I didn't feel much like doing anything while I was sick (except watching streaming video to catch up on so many TV shows that I've missed). I didn't even feel like reading, let alone writing.

Since I've felt better, I've been catching up on my massive stack of library books. It's towering at 8 books right now, and two more holds just came in to the library. I blasted through The Lost Symbol yesterday.

In other news, Ernest was jonesing for a fire after stacking all that firewood a few weeks ago. So here it is, the first fire of the season courtesy of Ernest.

Glad This Week is Over

I noticed some familiar cities on the feedjit -- I think my friends and relatives are checking on me. No news is good news, folks.

The Handy Husband has been gone just about as long as I've been sick. He's leaving Singapore Saturday morning at 7 (around 4 pm Friday for us) and is due in L.A. Saturday morning at 11 a.m. Just a few hours earlier and he would time warp himself! (Wait, he kind of is -- he's leaving Tokyo at 5 p.m. Saturday!)

Me, myself, I? Have been sick. 6 days of a fever and its sidekicks, pain and suffering chills and aches, plus a gnarly phlegm-filled cough. The doctor's office never did say what I had, so it must not be the bad flu, although they did make me wear a mask. Probably a reaction to the flu shot, plus a respiratory virus. Today I had a fever-free day, which helped a lot, but I am still coughing like a bad engine (if you can come up with a better simile, I'll thank you!) and have very little appetite. Here's to losing 3 pounds the hard way.

(I hope the boys got enough to eat...they had to do some cooking!)

Goodnight, all. Now where's my codeine-laced cough syrup?

Signs of Fall 2009

Once more, the season changes and it's fall again. Here's some artwork from Frank for a change, done in 3rd grade -- ELEVEN years ago! Funny thing, Ernest did the same picture only 5 years ago and his is faded.



A slight change to my hair color -- less blond and more gold. I'm probably the only one who notices.



This is a shocker -- It was cool enough that Ernest wore a jacket one morning!



And we got our annual pile of firewood. Thank goodness, we had a lot of help to move it!

Flu Shot

Yesterday our school provided flu shots in the nurse's office. So I got a flu shot, because it was so convenient. I don't think I've ever had one. I also haven't had the flu in over 5 years.

I was also starting to come down with a cold -- you know, the usual sore throat and runny nose.

Now, not only do I have the cold and cough, I also have symptoms of a reaction to the flu shot:

From the CDC website. "The viruses in the flu shot are killed (inactivated), so you cannot get the flu from a flu shot. Some minor side effects that could occur are: Soreness, redness, or swelling where the shot was given, fever (low grade), aches." Yep, got all 3.

I'm sending Ernest to pick up take-out for dinner.

Bigfoot Sighting

Driving Ernest home from school the other day, he saw something strange. So we u-turned and drove back to look. There it was, smack in the heart of Smalltown:

Bigfoot!

Yes, Bigfoot. Ernest purposely made the picture blurry because aren't all Bigfoot pictures blurry?

It's actually a little statue in front of the fire station. Those firemen have a sense of humor!


So what's the strangest thing you've seen lately?

Preparations

The Handy Husband is leaving for a business trip to Singapore on Friday. So far his preparations have been to:

1. Enlist Ernest to load lots of music onto Ernest's old iPod which he gave to me the spare iPod. I see stacks of CDs next to the computer: Led Zeppelin, Green Day, Pearl Jam, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Van Halen, John Fogerty, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Aerosmith (the evil bastards still have not refunded our ticket money), and OMG even BRUUUUUUCE.
2. Buy noise-cancelling headphones.
3. Wonder about Singapore money. So I ordered some from Wells Fargo. Cute money -- it's plastic like Australian money! I like the clear windows!

And that's it so far.

My advice?

1. Honey, refill your Xanax prescription.
2. And while you're there, get all your nice shirts cleaned by the hotel laundry!

Ooopsies

I've had a number of frustrations annoyances little things that bugged me oopsies recently.

Last Thursday, Ernest left a message that he needed his sax by 1:30 (on a day he DIDN'T have band). I got home at 1:15, hot and sweaty, to find the message. So I got it to him by 1:25, only to have him say he didn't need it because he had arranged to borrow one. So I lugged it back to the car in a very grumpy mood. (Why didn't he call back to say he didn't need it????).

The next morning, the Handy Husband and I swapped cars, because I planned to take his truck in for an oil change. I remembered to take my personal items (school first aid bag, whistle, hat, spray bottle) out of my car the night before. But I forgot to look in the trunk. After the HH left, I searched for Ernest's lunchbag, and then I remembered...I visualized myself flinging it into the trunk along with the sax while I had my little hissy fit.

At the oil change, the quoted half-hour wait had turned into an hour. I bickered about that, because it was HOT outside. They managed to get it done in the 40 minutes I had to spend at Taco Bell (the nearest air-conditioned space).

At Albertson's that same day, I was scolded for not having my wine bag. Because IT TOO WAS IN THE TRUNK OF MY CAR.

On Sunday, Ernest tripped over a hose and broke a sprinkler pipe at his cousin's house.The HH ran over and shut off the geyser of water and fixed it the next day.

Albertson's was rude again on Wednesday. I wanted a piece of salmon, not all 2.6 pounds of the slab. But they will only cut a piece in half. Half a piece will not cut it with me. I should have shopped at my local-family-owned market, where they actually do provide service. But I had to deposit my paycheck, and the bank branch is in Albertson's. (Note to Self - I could make the deposit and then just leave. Or I could sign up for direct deposit.)

Not only did the meat person thwart me, but the checker rang up items that weren't mine and then blamed me for it. Excuse me, but I put the bar down behind my items! Blame the person behind me, who crowded her stuff too close and pushed some of it past my bar! And after the checker grudgingly voided the wrong items, she ignored my produce, which was still sitting in front of the bar.

And the HH is stressing because he is busy at work (new sales records set this month!), his car parts have not arrived, and he has to go to Singapore next week.

I had a performance appraisal today, but at least THAT went well!!!!! "Mrs. STM is friendly, knows all the children, and always steps in to help." Or something like that.

OK, I'm done now.

But if you have anything you'd like to RANT about, please feel free! My ear and shoulder are both available.