As you know I am addicted to reading blogs. Blogs that interest me either keep me in touch with friends that have moved, make me laugh a lot, or are just plain interesting. A blog I have enjoyed lately is http://jpmeehan.blogspot.com/ Adventures in Self Reliance. I don't laugh easily and often times I find myself chuckling out loud at my computer reading about her kids' antics. I also love that she is disciplined enough to write regularly and to have special "features." I love her feature "Overheard" just listing funny things she's overheard during the day. If you are a mom, this is definitely worth your read and bound to make you laugh.
It prompted me to start writing down amusing things I have heard my kids say either to me or to each other. My attempt will not be nearly as consistent or as funny as hers, and I questioned even publishing it. But, I am publishing today because it is hump day during the summer and you may just need a reason to make it through the rest of the week. For a more extensive laugh to get you through - check out Adventures in Self Reliance's latest "Overheard" - you won't be disappointed that you did.
Here goes my attempt and hope it helps! (And hubby made this list too because he often makes me laugh out loud.)
Easter Sunday - S. to her sister, C. regarding a black jelly bean, "Do not eat that one. That is the basil one."
C. (with a pensive look on her face) - "But, I like basil. How come the black ones taste so yucky?"
S. (because she is older therefore wiser) - "Because we only like basil on pasta, not in candy."
M. at dinner - "Mom, remember that kid I told you about, Joshua?"
Me - "Mmm-hmm."
M. - "He had surgery."
Me - "Surgery??? For what???"
M. - "He had his dependence taken out."
Me - "His dependence?" (Thinking - Wow, that's gotta hurt.)
M. - "Well, it sounds like dependence, but it's in your body."
Me - "Ah. I think that would be his appendix."
M. - "Yeah! That's the one."
S- Mom, I cannot be in that small spot because I am acrobatic.
Me - Acrobatic?
S - Does that mean you can't get in small spaces?
Me - No....that would be CLAUSTROPHOBIC.
M. - Mom, you know my Superheroes game on my DSI?
Me - Yes.
M. - Well, you know how one of the super powers is the guy can gravitate?
Me - (Thinking about gravitate.)
M. - Like he gets higher and higher and you can go under him?
Me - Ah. Do you mean levitate?
M. - YES!
Hubby - Oops. Instead of Linkedin I typed Kinkedin.
Me - Wow. You are coming up with a whole new type of social networking, eh?
Hubby - Naw. From what I'm seeing, that one's already covered.
Me - Nice.
Happy Hump Day!
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
I'm not a food critic, but I play one on my blog.
What's up? Paesanos, that's what. http://www.paesanosriverwalk.com/ It was "date afternoon" the other day (Git your mind outta the gutter, people - I'm talkin' straight up LUNCH.) and hubby had a coupon given to him by a generous patient for Paesanos. If you are not local, Paesanos has a history in our lovely city. For years there was one location and that was on McCullough (I think. Unfortunately the original location could not be confirmed by our waiter nor could the reason why the owners left that location). I had gone there a few times back in my college days and I only remembered that..........I loved it. E. had never been there. So, we decided to make it a lunch date to avoid waiting and crowds (two things that as we age we really can tolerate less and less).
Score on those first two counts. We arrived at the riverwalk location a little past the noon hour on a Saturday to find the restaurant about a third full. It was about 8000 degrees outside so we opted for indoor dining. We were seated immediately, greeted, had our drink orders taken, and brought some really fragrant, spiced bread. It was similar to what you get at Macaroni's, but had more texture to the actual bread and did not taste processed to death. Did I like it? Let's just say, I restrained myself by not eating the entire loaf.
We ordered Parmesan Crusted Artichoke Hearts for our appetizer. Are you drooling? If not, you should be. If you have ever read my restaurant "reviews" you know that I fall hard for every artichoke I meet. These things were delish. Although I am no professional, I will try my best to describe them. They were artichoke hearts crusted (not heavy) in some sort of breading. I almost want to say that they might have been marinated in something yummy before being breaded. Regardless, the texture was heaven. It was slightly crunchy yet thin on the outside and tender heart on the inside. But, the sauce is really what made the dish. It was some sort of creamy, basil-y, white/green sauce. Covered with grated Parmesan. Not only super yummo, but so pretty. How's that for amateur? I was sorry I had ordered an actual entree after tasting these babies. And you know I have a HUGE appetite.
Our salads came while we were still ooing and ahing over these artichokes and I must say the salad was my one true regret of the afternoon. I opted for a Caesar salad (boring) while E. opted for the house salad with tomato, olives, and feta. My recommendation - go for what E. ordered if you are ordering a salad. He raved about it. Green olives on salad? Oh, yeah. I could go for that. As I listened to E. rave about his salad the entire time I was eating mine I could only think, "Why? Why did I order Caesar???" Really the only Caesar salad I have ever eaten that was worth it's weight was at Silo http://siloelevatedcuisine.com/. But, that's before I was a pseudo restaurant blogger, so I will have to revisit Silo and blog about that later.
I do not regret my entree. I went with classic Shrimp Paesano which I have had before, and I was not sorry. It was just like I remember it....only better. I'm sorry I cannot describe it. You will just have to eat it yourself. It's delish. Shrimp lightly breaded and yummy, lemony, buttery, garlicky, fresh pasta-y, and enough to eat the next day (or later the same day if you can't resist). E. got chicken fettuccine. I refused to taste his because I do not condone ordering chicken fettuccine in any Italian restaurant (sorry, E.). For the record, he said it was some of the best he's had.
Dessert? Well, here's a shocker. I didn't order any. Boo. Did I say I had one regret? I have two. I so wish I had ordered the chocolate turtle? cake. I think the waiter said "turtle." I have a tendency to stop listening once I hear the word "chocolate."
Prices - about right. Service - friendly, attentive, quick.
So, to sum up: Eat at Paesanos as soon as you can. Your tummy will thank you.
Score on those first two counts. We arrived at the riverwalk location a little past the noon hour on a Saturday to find the restaurant about a third full. It was about 8000 degrees outside so we opted for indoor dining. We were seated immediately, greeted, had our drink orders taken, and brought some really fragrant, spiced bread. It was similar to what you get at Macaroni's, but had more texture to the actual bread and did not taste processed to death. Did I like it? Let's just say, I restrained myself by not eating the entire loaf.
We ordered Parmesan Crusted Artichoke Hearts for our appetizer. Are you drooling? If not, you should be. If you have ever read my restaurant "reviews" you know that I fall hard for every artichoke I meet. These things were delish. Although I am no professional, I will try my best to describe them. They were artichoke hearts crusted (not heavy) in some sort of breading. I almost want to say that they might have been marinated in something yummy before being breaded. Regardless, the texture was heaven. It was slightly crunchy yet thin on the outside and tender heart on the inside. But, the sauce is really what made the dish. It was some sort of creamy, basil-y, white/green sauce. Covered with grated Parmesan. Not only super yummo, but so pretty. How's that for amateur? I was sorry I had ordered an actual entree after tasting these babies. And you know I have a HUGE appetite.
Our salads came while we were still ooing and ahing over these artichokes and I must say the salad was my one true regret of the afternoon. I opted for a Caesar salad (boring) while E. opted for the house salad with tomato, olives, and feta. My recommendation - go for what E. ordered if you are ordering a salad. He raved about it. Green olives on salad? Oh, yeah. I could go for that. As I listened to E. rave about his salad the entire time I was eating mine I could only think, "Why? Why did I order Caesar???" Really the only Caesar salad I have ever eaten that was worth it's weight was at Silo http://siloelevatedcuisine.com/. But, that's before I was a pseudo restaurant blogger, so I will have to revisit Silo and blog about that later.
I do not regret my entree. I went with classic Shrimp Paesano which I have had before, and I was not sorry. It was just like I remember it....only better. I'm sorry I cannot describe it. You will just have to eat it yourself. It's delish. Shrimp lightly breaded and yummy, lemony, buttery, garlicky, fresh pasta-y, and enough to eat the next day (or later the same day if you can't resist). E. got chicken fettuccine. I refused to taste his because I do not condone ordering chicken fettuccine in any Italian restaurant (sorry, E.). For the record, he said it was some of the best he's had.
Dessert? Well, here's a shocker. I didn't order any. Boo. Did I say I had one regret? I have two. I so wish I had ordered the chocolate turtle? cake. I think the waiter said "turtle." I have a tendency to stop listening once I hear the word "chocolate."
Prices - about right. Service - friendly, attentive, quick.
So, to sum up: Eat at Paesanos as soon as you can. Your tummy will thank you.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Technology: A Cautionary Tale
So, it's Father's Day 2011 and it's been, oh about...a-long-time since I've blogged and there are about 2000 other things I could write about. BUT, I thought since I haven't written in a while, I would bring you a cautionary technology tale. A kind of Public Service Announcement. Consider it a Father's Day gift. Or if you are not a father - just consider it my gift to you (I know, I know. I am always thinking of others).
Here's the set-up in my house. Basically it's Dueling Computers. No, we are not techies. No, we do not grow money on trees and thereby buy all the technology we want. We have one fairly old laptop that is "mine," one brand spankin' new Toshiba laptop that is "sometimes mine," one dEEOInosaur from the ice age when computers actually looked like TV's (Remember large, fat TVs? No? Well, then you are too young to be reading my blog.) - that one is the "kids," and one of hubby's "work laptops" that only runs Very Important Work Programs That Are Useless to the Average American. Any given day or night you can find the kids playing games on the dinosaur and whining incessantly about no sound, it moves too slow to shoot anything, why can't they have a real computer, blah, blah, blah, me "working" on my old laptop, and hubby fooling around with his work laptop (presumably doing actual work), and also doing Very Important Stuff on the Toshiba.
I think a timeline would be helpful and since I have lost all track of time, I am just going to make-up a timeline. One night, let's call it Tuesday night, when hubby and I were feeling particularly technologically savvy, we decided to load all of our External Hard drive Very Important Information onto the Toshiba. We did it! It was a team effort, but we were successful (as evidenced by then having to open every file on the Toshiba and comment about how it all looked correct and normal). Mission Accomplished. We felt like pros.
Wednesday night hubby was doing work on his work laptop and fooling around on the Toshiba when a sound came out of his mouth that I can only describe as horror and amazement? If it had been a word the word would have been EEGADS. I mumbled, "Huh?" from my laptop. He quickly told me that ALL our files we had loaded just the night before onto the Toshiba were gone, lost, vanished. I did nothing. I did not comment or react because I was absolutely sure that he was nuts and/or was not looking in the correct place on the computer. So this type of conversation ensued for about 10 minutes:
Him: BABE!!! Everything is GONE! How can this be???
Me: Hmm.
Him: Jeez!!! Aren't you freaking out??? Don't you care???
Me: That's weird. For sure.
Him: Holy CRAP (not his EXACT words)!!! I freaking HATE COMPUTERS! What is the deal??? How can this be???
Me: So are you sure they are gone?
Him: Sheesh. ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME??? What the heck is wrong here??? Didn't we just load this crap yesterday???
Me: Hmm.
Now, after this continued for 10 minutes I decided to get up and walk the two feet across the table to examine the computer with him. THEN the conversation went a little like THIS:
Me: %$HS#!!! What the heck??? Where the heck are all the files???
Him: I don't freaking know!!! What the heck is going on here???
Me: It's like we are in some sort of altered universe.
Him: What should I do???
Me: I don't know. Shut the whole thing down and REBOOT. This is freaking crazy. What the heck could have happened???
Him: Okay. Let's THINK, babe. Let's shut down. Maybe something mysterious and weird has happened that we wouldn't understand. Shutting down.
Me: Do it.
Silence.
More silence.
Him: (Very quietly.) Oh, um babe. It's the wrong computer. This is my WORK computer. The files are on the Toshiba. We loaded the files on the Toshiba. We've been looking on my work laptop.
Me: You are kidding, right?
Him: (Very quietly again.) No, not kidding.
Doh!
After we got over the shock of our Very Important Files not disappearing into thin air, we had a good belly laugh. As I am sure you are laughing at us now. As you know, I have no pride. So, I am not ashamed to tell you that THE VERY SAME THING happened about one week later. Of course, we realized quicker (after only about 6 minutes) that hubby was looking at the wrong computer.
Moral of the Story: If you are not a techie and you are experiencing technological difficulties run through your list of helpful troubleshooting questions. Is the computer plugged in? Is the computer on? And ADD to the list, IS THE COMPUTER YOURS?
Happy Father's Day!
Here's the set-up in my house. Basically it's Dueling Computers. No, we are not techies. No, we do not grow money on trees and thereby buy all the technology we want. We have one fairly old laptop that is "mine," one brand spankin' new Toshiba laptop that is "sometimes mine," one dEEOInosaur from the ice age when computers actually looked like TV's (Remember large, fat TVs? No? Well, then you are too young to be reading my blog.) - that one is the "kids," and one of hubby's "work laptops" that only runs Very Important Work Programs That Are Useless to the Average American. Any given day or night you can find the kids playing games on the dinosaur and whining incessantly about no sound, it moves too slow to shoot anything, why can't they have a real computer, blah, blah, blah, me "working" on my old laptop, and hubby fooling around with his work laptop (presumably doing actual work), and also doing Very Important Stuff on the Toshiba.
I think a timeline would be helpful and since I have lost all track of time, I am just going to make-up a timeline. One night, let's call it Tuesday night, when hubby and I were feeling particularly technologically savvy, we decided to load all of our External Hard drive Very Important Information onto the Toshiba. We did it! It was a team effort, but we were successful (as evidenced by then having to open every file on the Toshiba and comment about how it all looked correct and normal). Mission Accomplished. We felt like pros.
Wednesday night hubby was doing work on his work laptop and fooling around on the Toshiba when a sound came out of his mouth that I can only describe as horror and amazement? If it had been a word the word would have been EEGADS. I mumbled, "Huh?" from my laptop. He quickly told me that ALL our files we had loaded just the night before onto the Toshiba were gone, lost, vanished. I did nothing. I did not comment or react because I was absolutely sure that he was nuts and/or was not looking in the correct place on the computer. So this type of conversation ensued for about 10 minutes:
Him: BABE!!! Everything is GONE! How can this be???
Me: Hmm.
Him: Jeez!!! Aren't you freaking out??? Don't you care???
Me: That's weird. For sure.
Him: Holy CRAP (not his EXACT words)!!! I freaking HATE COMPUTERS! What is the deal??? How can this be???
Me: So are you sure they are gone?
Him: Sheesh. ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME??? What the heck is wrong here??? Didn't we just load this crap yesterday???
Me: Hmm.
Now, after this continued for 10 minutes I decided to get up and walk the two feet across the table to examine the computer with him. THEN the conversation went a little like THIS:
Me: %$HS#!!! What the heck??? Where the heck are all the files???
Him: I don't freaking know!!! What the heck is going on here???
Me: It's like we are in some sort of altered universe.
Him: What should I do???
Me: I don't know. Shut the whole thing down and REBOOT. This is freaking crazy. What the heck could have happened???
Him: Okay. Let's THINK, babe. Let's shut down. Maybe something mysterious and weird has happened that we wouldn't understand. Shutting down.
Me: Do it.
Silence.
More silence.
Him: (Very quietly.) Oh, um babe. It's the wrong computer. This is my WORK computer. The files are on the Toshiba. We loaded the files on the Toshiba. We've been looking on my work laptop.
Me: You are kidding, right?
Him: (Very quietly again.) No, not kidding.
Doh!
After we got over the shock of our Very Important Files not disappearing into thin air, we had a good belly laugh. As I am sure you are laughing at us now. As you know, I have no pride. So, I am not ashamed to tell you that THE VERY SAME THING happened about one week later. Of course, we realized quicker (after only about 6 minutes) that hubby was looking at the wrong computer.
Moral of the Story: If you are not a techie and you are experiencing technological difficulties run through your list of helpful troubleshooting questions. Is the computer plugged in? Is the computer on? And ADD to the list, IS THE COMPUTER YOURS?
Happy Father's Day!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Turn your calendar. Summer's here.
It's SUMMER! Can you believe it? Summer always comes with mixed emotions for me. The good: no more lunches to pack, no more schedule to follow, no more homework to help with, no more bedtime to adhere to, no more teachers to explain to. The bad: my kids are aging before my eyes. The ugly: Me having my midlife crisis and crying in random places that are embarrassing to my four kids and my four kids whining about me crying in weird places. So, I know that's kind of disjointed, but that's why you haven't heard from me in a while. Basically, I've been happy/sad that my kids are successfully growing up and passing to the next grade. (I didn't say I was rationale.)
I desperately want to be happy about summer because I love summer, but I feel a tugging at my heart (or it could just be that midlife crisis thing) knowing that we don't have that much time left. Nuts, huh? The kids are in elementary for heaven's sake. I know. Even as I type it (or think it for that matter) it seems crazy. But it's how I feel. I look at them and I can barely remember when the older three were 3, 2, and 1. And, sadly I don't really want to remember much from those days.
Looking back it seems that I spent much of that time wishing they were older and could do more for themselves because...I was flat-out exhausted. Now, I spend a lot of time being amazed (and just a little sad) about how much they don't need me anymore.
The retrospection has been mostly good. I try to spend more time now enjoying the moments rather than wishing for the future. I am excited for this summer. I am excited to have more time with them (and, yes, you can quote me on that later - like tomorrow - when I am ready to ship them all to summer school). Happy dog days!
I desperately want to be happy about summer because I love summer, but I feel a tugging at my heart (or it could just be that midlife crisis thing) knowing that we don't have that much time left. Nuts, huh? The kids are in elementary for heaven's sake. I know. Even as I type it (or think it for that matter) it seems crazy. But it's how I feel. I look at them and I can barely remember when the older three were 3, 2, and 1. And, sadly I don't really want to remember much from those days.
Looking back it seems that I spent much of that time wishing they were older and could do more for themselves because...I was flat-out exhausted. Now, I spend a lot of time being amazed (and just a little sad) about how much they don't need me anymore.
The retrospection has been mostly good. I try to spend more time now enjoying the moments rather than wishing for the future. I am excited for this summer. I am excited to have more time with them (and, yes, you can quote me on that later - like tomorrow - when I am ready to ship them all to summer school). Happy dog days!
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