morning surprises

Baby and I went outside to play and mail a movie back to Netflix this morning. On our way back we stopped to look at the flowers. Baby loves the flowers. Apparently she loves baby snakes, too! We found this little guy dining on roley-poleys under the stella de oros.

I really wanted to get one of Baby holding it up by its tail, but every time we tried to pose her it kept curling up around her hand. The Hater was on "keep-it-out-of-her-mouth" duty, and I couldn't snap the picture and keep it from getting her at the same time. So this is the best we could do for the pose of baby's first snake encounter.

bee-boo

I'm not exactly sure where it came from, but Baby is convinced that her belly button is called her "bee-boo". It's about the most adorable thing ever.

Way more adorable than her trying to find Mommy's bee-boo when Mommy is trying to put together supper.

She's been a little bit pitiful the last couple of weeks because she's trying to cut some molars. Her poor little gums just look pregnant, both lower and both upper. That paired with a toddler who obviously likes to get her way, it's been loud and screamy in our house.

I'm excited because Angry Dissenter is coming to our house tonight. He's en route even now... but unfortunately his GPS told him to gee when he should have haw'd and he's now added about 45 extra minutes to his trip. What's worse, he was about 7 miles from our house when the GPS led him astray.

Baby is still going down for the night at 6:30, so The Hater and I sit in a pleasantly air conditioned house waiting for AD to come. He has to fly back to Vegas tomorrow afternoon, so it'll be a quick trip. I'm taking off tomorrow to play. I'm looking forward to the visit and the long weekend.

spudatious

We happend upon extra potatoes in the pantry today and decided to have an adventure with a recipe I'd been emailed this week. And, to my pleasure, it turned out really well!

Here's the original recipe I was emailed: (thanks Jane!)

Microwave Potato Chips

4 Large Potatoes (Russet, Yellow Gold, White or Red) washed well with skin on

Slice as thin as possible 1/16" "paper thin"

Place Potatoe slices in a bowl, sprinkle with salt, cover with iced cold water-let stand 10 minutes

Remove in batches-onto a paper towel and pat dry.

Sprinkle with your choice of herbs or spices.

Lay on microwave bacon tray in thin single layer. (spray tray with oil the first time)

If don't have bacon tray cover plate with parchment paper so they won't stick

Microwave on High 5-5 1/2 minutes till they curl slightly and turn light brown.

Note: the second and third batch may take less time to cook

We were skeptical, but they were wonderful!! I used one red petite potato and sliced it into about 11 pieces. I sprayed the bacon dish with butter flavored pam and sprinkled kosher salt onto the slices. They only needed to cook for about 2 1/2 minutes.

They were so good that we were just plain shocked.

I have found a new favorite chip!!

Now, my visions for the future include soaking them in water and vinegar and seeing if we can come up with some salt and vinegar chips. Also I have plans for some that are seasoned with olive oil and rosemary. The Hater has a vision for some with red pepper or BBQ. This will be an easy snack in our future; I'm pumped for a non-fried chip option that doesn't taste like air.

Baby liked them, too, and ate them as fast as we did. She's had corn chips before, but not a potato chip, per se. She was eager to mmmmm... and such was the beginning of her fall into worse food choices.

long week

I thought that last week felt incredibly long, even though it was a short work week.

But this week has been crazy long, too.

I've had two consecutive late nights at work followed by early mornings the next day. This morning I could hardly keep my eyes open during the 7am meeting. At the noon meeting there was less lighting with more monotone and I was struggling the whole hour to remain conscious.

Meanwhile, baby's new tricks include closing doors. She used to stand until I had the door open to walk through, but not before my hand goes to the doorknob she's trying to push the door open. Then once through she pushes me out of the way so she can close the door. Her favorite is to close the door, and she doesn't care if someone is in the room with her or not. In fact I think it's better if she's alone because then she gets really excited when I open the door to look for her, but only momentarily because then she pushes the door closed to start over again. Playing with opening and closing the door and pretending to look for her can keep her entertained for 20-25 minutes.

And I can really only stand to read "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" once or twice a day. Any more than that I have to hide the book.

It's about time for me to do a couple of crossword puzzles and call it a night. I hope the rest of the week goes faster than the first of the week went.

case (finally) closed

Remember the hail storm we had a month or so back? The roof fiasco? The check drama?

Well, the next chapter of the story is about the gutters.

The insurance adjuster said we needed new gutters. The roof people told us they'd do it. When they finished the roof we paid them and they said the gutter people with whom they contract would be here in a few days.

tra-la-tra-la

A couple of weeks later we still didn't have any gutters.

The Hater called them and left a message.

The next week I called and left a message. They called The Hater back to let him know they were working on it.

Last week I called and insisted on speaking with someone about why we had contracted and paid for gutters, yet we still had no gutters. I spoke with Brandon. He said that if they would be there in the next few days. I asked him to call me back and let me know when he knew a more definite time.

Nobody ever called.
What's more, nobody ever came to do the gutters.

I called again this week and asked to speak with Brandon's supervisor. Neither were there, so I left a message. I told them my name and cell number and that I was very disappointed that we paid for a contracted service and they had not even returned my calls and that I expected to her back from them by the end of the business day. About an hour later they called The Hater back.

The Hater.

I called them, left my number, and they called The Hater back.

Before this point I was gagged, but now I was mad. Not only do I consider this poor business, but I think it's tacky as all get out.

So they sang a sob story to The Hater about how there was another client who was complaining about their lack of gutters, too. That the guys they usually use weren't doing a very good job right now. And that if we didn't get them done in the next few days to call and let them know.

I imagine that they were also telling him that he needed to keep his wife in check, but he assures me that they did no such thing.

I was planning to call back on Monday. I had it all planned out in my head exactly what I was going to tell Brandon, but it was a moot point because when we came back to the house from playing at the mall the gutter people were finishing up.

Thank goodness this chapter in our life is over.

We'll Be The Light

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!

If you like butter on your cornbread...

If you like sweet in your tea...

If you like a little soul in your rock and roll...

Then you're going to love The Dirty Guv'nahs. Period.

The new Dirty Guv'nahs cd (Youth Is In Our Blood) comes out July 20th! I can't wait to hear the new songs, and Baby can hardly wait to dance in circles when we play it. She's a big fan, too.

inlaws

It's been a long, long, long, long weekend...