13 posts tagged “family stuff”
We go out for breakfast, and the waitress asks what we want. When she gets to my daughter and asks, "What do you want to drink--chocolate milk, white milk..."
"Chocolate milk!" is my daughter's excited reply.
The waitress turns to my wife. "Is that OK, mom?"
Um, unless we want a screaming fit, it must be.
This happens often. I don't expect the world to bend over backwards because we have a kid, but at least keep the choice in our hand, please.
A reply from Mama Guilt, regarding my red beans and rice:
So I went to "Mr guilt" as I do occasionally and apparently not often enough! I just found out you think your red bean recipe is better and it may well be, but it does not have my love in them that I add as I cook them for you so I think you are wrong! I still love you very much and will consider making a batch for you the next time you come home or not, maybe you should make them for me!
So, a few lessons:
- No one will every make your favorite meal as well as your mom
- On the internet, everyone sees everything
- My mom makes great red beans and rice.
Today is the ninth annual Flying Pig Marathon, and it goes a mere three blocks from my house. This year, my brother-in-law finished his first marathon. Given that, my wife, daughter, Eddy and I went down to that corner to cheer him on. Eddy attracted a lot of attention--there were plenty of dogs on the sidelines, but he was the only feline
The reason we were at Union Terminal today was that my wife's dance group, Celtic Rhythm Dancers USA, was having a performance (they will again tomorrow (March 11)). I took some video, and, to get a jump on St. Patrick's Day, thought I would share. These are the best three dances I recorded. Mrs. Guilt wore hard shoes in all of her dances.
First, the opening number (the longest clip, at three and a half minutes):
We were out of every cat supply imaginable--litter, food, and treats. That meant we had to go to the "free zoo," known to most of you as Petsmart. We call it the free zoo, as my daughter gets to see kitties (from a shelter), fish, birds, mice, and other critters. As they welcome pets, she often gets to see dogs. Also, as they welcome cats, we decided to bring Eddy for the ride.
Eddy has always been a great car pet, and did quite well on the ride. Once there, everyone marvelled: a cat on a leash! He did quite well looking at, well, everything. He ran through the cat trees, smelled the food, and looked at the birds.
Birds!
The only time he really did poorly was when another dog (another one looking for a home) started barking at him. Oddly, this dog was named Maggie, like his housemate.
Our daughter was visiting her grandparents for the weekend, so my wife and I had the house to ourselves (well, that plus the cats). We got to sleep in yesterday morning.
Last night we took further advantage of this. My wife and I met at Miami University. One of the university's traditions is to send a Valentine to all of the "Miami Mergers" (as we are known). It's always very unique--a puzzle, a magnet, or, this year, a coupon book ("One Kiss Under the Upham Arch"). It's actually rather cute, and, as the school's colors are red and white, quite appropriate.
Last night, the Alumni Association extended the tradition with a Valentine's Day event at Valley Vineyard, our favorite local winery. It was quite nice. Naturally, they had several of their wines available (though not their mead, which is my favorite). A coworker was there, and we got to sit next to the president of the Cincinnati Chapter. As a bonus, we got to take home a pair of wine glasses.
The winery is just off a bike trial, and that's how I got exposded to it. A friend organizes a ride that goes about 10 miles on the trail, .3 miles to the winery, and we eat pizza and have a glass of wine before going back. However, on weekends, they have a dinner which includes half a bottle of wine, various sides, and desert. The best part is the main entree. You get a steak or a salmon, and get to grill it yourself on their very large barbaque pits. We kept wanting to do this, but never quite making it up. When we saw this event, we decided we should go.
So, at about 7:30 last night in sub-30 degree weather, we were all standing out there grilling steaks and salmon. There was a gentleman from Scotland, wanting to know exactly how this qualifies as Global Warming. We occasionally slipped in an ice patch (really--the wine had nothing to do with it!). My steak got a lot of compliments. Thanks, Alton!
We came home, with stops at Starbucks and Blockbuster on the way. We rented "Little Miss Sunshine," but didn't start it until 11:00. It was a great movie, though we were up until 1:00, another thing we haven't done in a while. In theory, we could do that any weekend, but we'd have to face the consequences in the morning when the two-year-olds are demanding to get up. Only one can be ignored.
Unfortunately, an hour later, there was an outage at work, and I got called. My team has a standing "call me if it is wierd" policy, and this was a wierd one. It took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. As a consequence, all or noticication tools were off-line. I had to make some escalaltions, and make sure it was being addressed. I didn't get back to bed for an hour.
We pick up our daughter today (who, by the sound of it, seems to have had a better weekend than we did).
Who taught you how to cook?
Submitted by Donna.
I'm going to have to go with Alton Brown, and mostly from watching his show. He doesn't just show you how to make something. He shows you technique, and how things fit together. I feel I can apply this to anything I make, be it a recipe from a cookbook, or something I'm concocting in the fly.
I know I helped/got help from my mom here and there. I did get some technique from her, and a few recipes.
On the other hand, we occasionally have miscommunication. I wanted her recipe for red beans and rice. She kept meaning to type it up, and never get to it. One day, I was in Louisiana, and asked her. She got a bag of Camellia brand red beans, looked at the recipe on the bag, and said "this one looks pretty good." She gave me the bag.
So, I was thinking I was blown off. So, I did a meta-analysis of various recipes, and invented my own. I substituted red bell pepper for the traditional green, used turkey sausage (to lower the fat), and came up with something quite good. I even have a variation where I add extra veggies (not to the point of making vegetable soup) for the sake of my daughter (who is cleary a Cajun, even with her mother coming from the Midwest).
I did relate this to my mother, who said, "well, that is the recipe I use." I pointed out that she had just said she didn't use bay leaves, and the Camellia recipe calls for them. I do believe she uses that recipe, but forgot about the bay leaves. She did make a point of helping out when I asked for a gumbo recipe, which turned out very well.
I mentioned we were having some work done on our house. Originally, it was a small repair to a wall in our computer room, and repainting the ceiling in the dining room.
As home improvement projects are want to do, this has expanded. The dining room is under the upstairs bathroom. The place that required the repaint was showing signs of water damage. Tim, our handyman, cut a hole in the ceiling (the drywall would need to be replaced, anyway), to figure out where the problem was. Though the pipes were sound, it looks like one of the boards in the bathroom was incorrectly positions, allowing spilled water to leak. As two-year-olds are want to dump water on the floor (and, again, a bit of water damage), we recognized we would need to replace that board.
After about 10 man-hours, and endless repeats of toddler-placating "Dora the Explorer," we were done. I'm rather pleased with the results.
We need to pick out a color (my rescheduled business trip doesn't help with that). We were thinking of cinder blue, but haven't totally settled on that.
Personally, I'm just glad it managed not to eat the whole weekend.
Bonus points for anyone who can figure out how the title relates...
"Photo: Still have your security blankie? Your teddy bear? Show us a lil' slice of your childhood.
Submitted by cattymcattums.
My Teddy Bear
My Wife's "White Kitty"
My Daughter's "Baby Tiger"
The sad thing is, this is the closest thing we have to a "recent" family portait.
I kinda did this one already...
