Pure evil

I was going to do thirteen things about my cats, but I decided to keep annoying Kat instead. I give you the thirteen worst songs/jingles to have stuck in your head (in no particular order):

1. "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family....." Barney Theme Song
2. The Macarena
3. Mmmm Bop
4. "Clap On (clap clap) Clap Off (clap clap) Clap On Clap Off. THE CLAPPER!!"
5. "Dibee dobee de dooo....Three's Company too!!"
6. Anything from a hair band, especially "Here I Go Again On My Own"
7. Any Christmas song either a month before or a month after the actual holiday (especially "Gramma Got Run Over by a Reindeer").
8. The Hustle - "do do do do do do do do do do do do....do the hustle!" Really any song that involves a long whistling section, see "Walk Like an Egyptian" and others.
   
9. Patrick Swayze singing that annoying song in a horrible British accent to Whoopi Goldberg in "Ghost" to get her to talk to him. "I'm Henry the VIII I am I am....." something. Really anything sung by Patrick Swayze under any circumstance.
   
10. That horrible Spice Girls song "Tell you what I want what I really really want...." Shudder.
11. "Whoooooooooooooooooooooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS! Absorbent and yellow and porous is he. SPONGE BOB SQUARE PANTS! If nautical nonsense be something you wish, then drop on the deck and flop like a fish. SPONGE BOG SQUARE PANTS. SPONGE BOG SQUARE PANTS. SPONGE BOG SQUARE PANTS. SPONGE BOG SQUARE PANTS."
12. Getting just PART of a song repeating endlessly in your head. I love Johnny Cash, but one day I had JUST the chorus of "Ring of Fire" going through my head over and over and I almost stuck a pen in my eye just for some variation. Jeff almost went home sick from work one day because he had just the "Oh Baby Baby" part of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears going through his head.
13. The time-is-running-out-so-write-down-your-answer thingy from Jeopardy. This is especially annoying to hear when someone thinks they are being really cute and hums this to you while you try to do something. This may be grounds for justifiable gross bodily injury.
    

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Stealing ideas again

Julie mentioned that she has a ton of nicknames for her kids. We do that too - in fact, so does most of my extended family....I'm not sure why. Anyway, here are the boys' nicknames (they also both get called "You With The Face" when I'm distracted, upset, or in a hurry):

Dylan -

• Fred (this comes from "Are you ready, Freddy?")
• Toon
• Tuner
• Bud
• Boon
• T
• Dynan (the way Noah used to say his name)
• Buther (the way Noah says brother)

Noah -

• Duck or Duck Butt
• The Bombie Kid
• Faces
• Fusses
• Loves & Small
• Ohwn-ces (this one is hard to spell)
• Bubby
• Smalls
• Shorts or Shorty

Now that I see this list I'm kind of surprised that they even acknowledge their real names. Here are the newborn/hospital shots for each of them - Him With The Face on the left, The Other Him With The Face on the right ;)

Random photos

I wrote like a nut yesterday, so today will be random old photos day. (Sorry Julie - I didn't have enough to keep the tree theme going!)

This is a picture that Dylan took of a double rainbow reflected in the river. This is also the view from my parents house. It's so beautiful up there.

This is a picture I took at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens. If you ever get to St. Louis, pay a visit to the Botanical Gardens - everything there is so beautiful. And like most tourist attractions in St. Louis, it's very cheap to visit.

Dylan was shooting hoops and....missed! But it made for a great picture.

The scariest slide in the world. Just kidding! Underneath the St. Louis Arch.

We've been suffering a drought in South Dakota for years. Here's proof. About 20 or so years ago, my dad built a dock right below our house. His dock, which sometimes used to be UNDER the water, is now hundreds of feet from the waterline. You can't even really see the dock in this picture, but the sad thing is still there. Dylan learned in school that central South Dakota has been under drought conditions for so long that this area can be properly classified as a desert.

Complete Geek

Ok. This will be the last "Lost" post....for a while. I stumbled upon this site - Lost is a Game - and have found the theory pretty interesting. The guy argues that really this is all a big, elaborate two player game of some sort. Interesting, but I don't buy it. Mostly I really just enjoy the show. The acting is great, the production values are as good as a movie, the storyline is compelling, etc. I haven't given too much thought to "what it all means" or "what's the big explanation." That'll work itself out. We'll get there.

But after reading through the Lost is a Game site, I decided to do some thinking about the what it IS all about. Here comes my theory and I'm sticking to it. When the show is all over and I am proved fantastically right, I will direct you all to this post. If I'm wrong, I'll go back into Blogger dashboard and delete it. So here we go:

There are MANY references to Stephen King and his works in Lost. And apparently he's a big fan of the show. That's neither here nor there. Anyway, I am also a big Stephen King fan as well as a Lost fan. One recurring theme in many of King's works is the idea of many different universes all existing simultaneously, but slightly differently. So maybe in a parallel world I'm carving this blog post into stone or using a pen made out of a quill instead of typing on a computer. The whole Dark Tower series deals with different worlds as do the books The Talisman, Black House, Insomnia, and Hearts In Atlantis (just to name a few). For some reason King thinks this idea is compelling. He also writes about "thin" places in the world - places where it's easier to slip from world to world.

So - my theory is that the plane slipped through some kind of time rip or thin spot and all these people are existing in a parallel universe. Why or do they get back or whatever - I don't know...the story will answer those questions. This theory certainly explains how the people on the island are told by a woman that parachutes in that their plane was found and everyone was dead. In that universe they ARE dead, in this one they're not. It also explains how no one can find the island - because it doesn't really exist in our world. The discussion with my husband that prompted all this was much longer - I don't want to go into the whole thing. My theory doesn't answer everything, but I think it's way better than it's all a game, it's all a dream, it's just purgatory, etc. Here's one last point. The two main male characters on Lost are "Jack" and "Sawyer." One of (if not THE) the earliest King books that deals with different worlds and traveling through them is The Talisman. The hero of The Talisman (and, later, of Black House) is a boy named Jack Sawyer.

*cue eerie coincidence music*

Weekly Winners 01.13.08

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

As some of you have read, I just got a new digital camera. I'm still playing with it and have not figured out all the settings. One thing that seems to be really hard to do is take a close-up picture of something. (The last picture in this set is kind of blurry for that reason). I guess it will just take more practice.

Noah was walking around with his gloves on his feet. When I asked him why he told me, "I want to be like Curious George." I thought this was pretty clever.




This is my face in one of those things. I look like Mick Jagger with sunglasses on. Oh well. Start me up.

Being an older brother is back-breaking work.

Does any toy for a child need to be able to bend this way???

Deep Thoughts

"The true unity of Mobius transformations is revealed by moving into the next dimension."



I'm sure this is all very important in a mathy way, but I like it because it's kinda trippy. Dude.

Zzzzzleepy

Yet another cool idea stolen from Lotus

The work week is done.
It's time for some fun - though I'd
rather snooze away.

Let's Get Physical

Are you going to have that song in your head all day now? Sorry. (She said, evilly.)

***Interruption...I'm watching Paula Dean....I don't know what she's making but I heard her say "mix together two sticks of butter and 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar"...LOL....Calories and Fat Be Damned!!!....I love her***

OK, back to the topic. My Thursday Thirteen is going to about what I've learned since pinwheeling down my stairs. I choose this topic in honor of my physical therapy appointment today. Here we go:

1. Slow down. None of this would have happened if I could have just chilled out a little bit.

2. I can really shriek.

3. ER doctors have no sense of humor. I'm all whacked out on Vicodin and the guy is looking at my leg. I say, "Wow I would have shaved my legs if I knew this was going to happen." I thought it was a really good sign that I could make a funny in the midst of my crisis, but he just got this indignant look on his face and said, "We don't really care about that." Duh you moron - it was an attempt at levity....join in. Although this may be what prompted him to ask if I had been drinking. ahahaha. I wasn't, by the way.

4. A grown man, teenage boy, and 4 year old boy are totally goofy in their attempts to care for the injured and run the household. Goofy, but really sweet.

5. I can really act like an idiot if given enough Vicodin. My kids have never seen me even slightly tipsy and Dylan thought it was beyond funny how goofy I was acting. I may never live this down.

6. I really, truly hate crutches.

7. Telling people over and over that tripped over your own clumsy self and fell down the steps really gets tiresome. Next time I'll tell a different story to everyone who asks.

8. All the people at my work are really nice and accommodating. This could have been a nightmare with a different group of co-workers, but everyone was really great.

9. I really have no idea how the human body works. Learning about the parts of the knee was really interesting....although I wish I had come by my knowledge in a totally different way.

10. No one believes me when I say that anesthesia makes me REALLY REALLY REALLY sick. Every surgery I've ever had has been made 10 times worse by the entire evening of sick that follows.

11. Even at my great age, my mom will still wade in with fists swinging to get her baby girl what she wants. (I was done getting sick and wanted some broth - they said no - my mom did her mom magic - I got my broth.)

12. Physical therapy is really hard. I want to hate the therapist, but I do believe all these things will help me get back to normal (ha) as soon as possible. But it is hard.

13. I have more respect than you can imagine for people who have to live with physical disabilities everyday. There is an end to this for me, but some people live this every day. Their courage and perseverance must be astonishing.

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Lost

Really. I've been totally sucked back into "Lost." I'm not a huge TV watcher, but I LOVE this show. I got the first season on DVD for Christmas. I already watched it and all the extra stuff and am now working my way through Season 2 (rented). I REALLY REALLY REALLY want to buy the next seasons, but can't seem to justify doing it. (Although I DID save all that money my quitting smoking....hmmmmm.....*sigh*...nah.)

Anyway, now that I've bored all the INSANE non-"Lost" fans to tears, let me put up a photo for you. I really like the idea of Weekly Winners, but those are new photos. I think one of the best things about photos are to re-visit old ones just for fun. I'll be putting up old photos with a short blurb or caption from time to time (mostly likely when I can't think of anything else to write about). Enjoy.

"It looks so bad, but it tastes so good."

Quick lunch bloggin'

WINTER TORNADOES. Oh my dear good grief. I thought I was SAFE from November to March. Apparently freakin' NOT. (P.S. I want no "but I like storms" comments....the hell with you...you're crazy...no one likes these....hush up...;)

Does one count? Four health changes to let you live long enough to lose all your teeth and wear a diaper. Yippee.

Boy Scout Thwarts Assassination Attempt.

**Note to self: sign Noah up for Boy Scouts and parade him around important people**

Yeah - the St. Louis area just had WAAAAY too much swearing. That's why I left. WTH??? Can't smoke in bars, can't swear in bars, pretty soon you won't be able to DRINK in bars. You'll just have to sit there with a leaf of lettuce, a non-fiction book on the evils of eating animal flesh, and a glass of water. Woohoo. That's LIVIN'!!!!!

Link to a link

Maggie posted a recipe for and picture of Dirty Shrimp in Butter-Beer Sauce. I made this tonight. I'm going to give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars, only because it was a little too hot for me, WAY too hot for Jeff, and Dylan thought it was perfect (Noah got Spaghetti-O's after I took one bite.) I like spicy hot food, but this was almost too much for me. 1 tsp of cayenne pepper is about 3/4 tsp too much for my wimpy taste buds. I did think the recipe was tasty and I will make it again - I think I will just tone down the heat. Dylan can always add more to his. Thanks for the recipe Maggie. We're making the chicken thing tomorrow. (I'm stalking her....shhhhhh.)

I posted a chicken recipe and promised to put up a picture with Weekly Winners. I didn't forget to do it, I just need more practice with the new camera. I think the flash setting was wrong because the picture looked as if we used some sort of nuclear cooking method. I didn't want to turn anyone off from it. Chernobyl Chicken with Three Mile Island Salad just doesn't seem all that good. But it really was. I swear.

Brilliant

My husband is creating his own blog on here and was asking me how to add a links list. In my own special genius way I managed to delete my own list in process of showing him how to do it.

BRILLIANT.

I put back up what I could remember, but if you want to be added leave me a comment and I will do it. (Or else I'll manage to delete my entire blog, put out an eye, blow up the microwave, and shave a cat.....something.)

Weekly Winners 01.06.08

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

Reason 416,348,874 why I'm glad I'm not a guy: hairy legs.

This thing was not all droopy like this when we bought it. The fronds stood up more and didn't bend over. It takes a special kind of evil to kill a fake plant.



Cat 'n' mouse.



Maybe he's too young for Merlot.

(Pssst....it's JUICE for all of you who were getting ready to call DCFS.)



I hate toddlers.



I hate teenagers.



And they're mouthy too.




See you next week.

Fill in the blank

I've stolen post ideas from everyone and still can't think of my own thing to write. YOU be creative here.



"If I opened my front door and saw this standing there, I would ________________"

Shameless Copycat

I just cannot seem
to think up good blog topics
myself. Copycat.

When I did my 2007 blog year in review post a few days ago, I noticed that my blog has really undergone a turnaround. I used to blog much more about news and other things external to me. But for at least the last half of 2007, my blog really became more about me. I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with that - it must be that I'm way more interesting than the news. (hahaha) Just an observation - I don't know that I'm going to change anything.

Anyway, here's what I made for dinner last night. It was fantastic. I'll put up a picture with weekly winners.

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic, minced
7 oz fresh baby spinach
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp white wine
1 tsp lemon juice
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts - butterflied and pounded to 1/4 inch thickness
6 slices bacon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Saute garlic and spinach in olive oil until spinach is wilted.
Combine cheeses, spices, and liquids with spinach and garlic.
Distribute evenly among breasts.
Roll up breasts like a burrito.
Wrap bacon around breasts, crossing in the middle, secure with toothpicks.
Place stuffed chicken on a wire rack in a 13x9 pan.
Bake for 45 - 60 minutes until bacon is crispy and chicken is cooked through.

This worked out really well, but I might make some changes. I will substitute mascarpone for cream cheese....or maybe ricotta. I will also wilt fresh basil with the spinach - I didn't do it because I was out of fresh. I might also try substituting balsamic vinegar for the lemon juice. Adding diced mushrooms might be yummy too. Really I think you could use any ingredients in the filling. I just tried to use up some things I had on hand. Pictures Sunday.

Copycat

I guess quite a few people do something called Thursday Thirteen. (Do comments like that just make me scream newbie in an embarrassing way?) Here are thirteen reasons why I'm glad I quit smoking:

1. I have a cold right now and it's barely doing anything to me. I do little tiny coughs and then they go away. This is so unusual for me.

2. Money. Those poisonous little suckers are SPENDY!

3 & 4. Dylan and Noah.

5. Smell - me and my house and my clothes and my kids and my cats and my car don't stink anymore. Well - we don't stink like smoke anyway.

6. Freedom - it's nice to be able to pick up and go without worrying about "Do I have my cigarettes? Does this lighter work? Can I smoke when I get there? How many chances will I get for a smoke break?"

7. Winter - it's freakin' cold in South Dakota....standing outside to smoke is INSANE.

8. Food - tastes WAY better. This will likely not help my diet.

9. Did I mention MONEY??? No more smoker penalty on my health insurance.

10. Singing - I did a whole post about how I can take big deep breaths and sing loud and long. This is not necessarily a benefit to people who have to hear me sing.

11. Stairs. hahahahah. Ok. I can't walk stairs. But that's because I'm CLUMSY, not because my lungs were screaming and I had to stop half-way.

12. Did I mention Dylan and Noah?

13. Nee-ner-nee-ner. No one thought I could actually do it. Here's a great big *********** to those people. I can do ANYTHING!




Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants



How original

Gee - I think I'm the only person who has decided to blog about needing to lose weight. I know none of you have read about this on any other blogs.

I really do hate the way I look. That picture off to the left is about 7 years old - and I was chunky then. Pop and sweets and I don't do a damn thing physical. That's why I'm like this. I've eliminated the cigarettes so now it's time to eliminate the junk in my diet. What's the point of getting rid of the #1 preventable killer if I'm still doing the #2 preventable killer. Or have they swapped by now?

This is going to be really hard. I love food. I LOVE LOVE LOVE sweets and pop. Pasta is my best friend.
*beginning to sniffle*
So far I have quit the pop. That stuff is just pure garbage. If I MUST have a pop I have to drink Diet.
*beginning to tear up*
My main goal right now is to eliminate the pop and to cut WAAAAAAAAAY back on the sweets. Pasta and other carb evils will be limited to a small portion of one meal a day.
*doing that little chest-hitch/hiccup thing that little kids do right before or after a huge melt down*
My physical therapy for my knee injury starts on Friday so I am now on doctor-mandated exercise. I obviously can't do anything too strenuous right now, but that will increase as I heal up.
*shoulders shaking*

Do any of you feel like I do? Here's some help. Notice all the packaged crap the American family has. Do some simple math and figure out how many WEEKS you could feed the last family on what the American family spends. Look at all the fresh fruits and vegetables some cultures eat. Look how much feeds X number of people from picture to picture. I have NOTHING to cry about.

Ok the pictures quit working - I don't know why. Click the links.

The book is Hungry Planet: what the world eats. by Peter menzel.

http://www.menzelphoto.com/hungryplanet/

Here are some more links about this work (that actually give credit to the ones due):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5005952

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1645016,00.html

Blogging 2007 Style

I was clicking around and stumbled on Karla's blog. She did an interesting thing for her year in review, which was to link to one previous post from each month of 2007. I think it's fun to go back and read through old posts to see where you were and what was important back then.

Before I list my posts, let me say this - 2007 was kind of a hard year for my family. We had some good ups, but we also had a lot of shocking downs. Many of these I have not blogged about because they were really too personal to other people to mention to the world. Also, I think I kind of used blogging about silly news stories and my crazy kids as kind of way to keep sane in the midst of all our crises. If you can't find something to laugh about and make you happy - well what's the point??? Suffice it to say that we all fervently hope that 2008 will be really uneventful.

Enough of that. Here's my list:

January - "A Great Big Long Rant"
Me ranting?? No way!! This is about a documentary I saw about the MPAA - the people who stick PG or R on movies.

February - "Carbon Neutral, But Chock Full O'Methane"
Surprise, surprise - another rant. If you're super-green you'll hate this one. Go plant a tree instead of reading this.

March - "Tasina Appleseed....or how I learned to hug a tree"
Ha ha! This post is the culmination of an argument that began with the February post. I had a mostly fun/kinda serious back-and-forth going with my aunt (via MySpace) and this was my last word on the subject.

April - "Strange News, Good News, and Really Weird Views."
I must be doing something wrong when I link to news articles because all these links are broken? Or is it that they (the news folk) only keep them active for so long? Anyway, I mostly put this one up because it's one of the few times I blogged about Jeff (hubby) - just skip down to the parts about him.

May - "Um"
The picture still cracks me up - click to see.

June - "Beautiful Video"
Wow only 5 posts in June. Bad blogger.

July - "Chantix - Day 1" and "Chantix - Day 8"
I'm including two here just so you can see how far I've come now. I don't even really think about smoking all that much anymore. The smell of smoke on people just makes me want to gag too. Wow. I can't believe this was just back in July.

August - "Sing!!!!"
This is about 3 weeks smoke-free and was a happy side-effect of quitting.

September - "One last post"
Another rant. I'm starting to feel like kind of a brat.

October - "Never a dull moment"
Tasina - 0, Stairs - 1

November - "Hey Ya!"
What really happened with the stairs.

December - "Nice try though"
Sigh - another tantrum. I guess I know what my resolution should be for this year.......NOT.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!!!

Weeping Meatloaf

I hate meatloaf. It's just never really impressed me in any way. But I was watching Good Eats with Alton Brown and he did a meatloaf that I thought looked really good. (Maggie calls the food shows "food porn" which never fails to crack me up.) The basic premise of Alton's meatloaf is that you don't cook it in the loaf pan - you turn it out on a cookie sheet so that you have more surface area for the yummy glaze. This seemed to make all kinds of sense to me and I think it is valid logic. The problem is that the REST of the recipe was kinda yucky. I have named this recipe Weeping Meatloaf (and I hope Mr. Brown doesn't sue me) for three reasons.

1. 1/2 onion and 1/2 a red bell pepper go into this thing. My eyes were just streaming tears.
2. When it finally came out of the oven, there was a pool of really nasty looking grease weeping out of it and pooling around the base. Not yummy.
3. Spending this much time, effort, money on new gadgets, and tears on this thing makes me cry even more.

Furthermore, I found the recipe to be annoying. I'm not the world's most precise cook - I usually just throw things together. But if I give a recipe to someone else, I try to figure out measurements that will be meaningful to the other person. Weeping Meatloaf calls for really imprecise things like 1/2 onion (size? color?), 1 carrot, 1/2 red bell pepper, 3 cloves garlic, dash of this, dash of that, etc. Not super helpful.

In any event, this thing wound up tasting like a big greasy baked vaguely loaf shaped lump of taco meat. Whoopee.

Here's the link in case you have to serve a meal to people you don't really like.

Weekly Winners 12.30.07

Idea, organization, and all-around coolness the brainchild of Lotus.

I'm so new to this. Please click pictures to view fuller. If you have any tips on how to put these on here in a more interesting way (MAGGIE HELP ME), please let me know.

LOLCAT

LOLKID

I'm really going to regret this at bedtime.

This is so naughty that it makes me want to hyperventilate.

I'm peenching ur head.

GASP for real

I think I just hyperventilated.

Really.

Dylan was vacuuming the living room (because of the styrofoam - pictures tomorrow) and Noah threw a sock at him. Dylan then accidentally vacuumed up the sock. This alone was funny but when you add in the look of horror and panic on Dylan's face when he saw the sock spinning around in the little collection basket thingy it became unbelievably freakin' hilarious. I started laughing....this gets so confused....I like blacked out for a second or two....and then my hands and face were all tingly....and my head felt like it was shaking back and forth but it actually wasn't.....then I felt all dizzy. A couple minutes later I felt perfectly fine.

Weird. Dylan says that kind of in the middle of laughing I took this huge, deep breath before the weirdness happened. Maybe I'm making too big a deal of this but it just felt so weird. I'm assuming I didn't do something really scary like have a quasi cerebral hemorrhage or a mini-stroke.

If you've ever hyperventilated (or had a quasi cerebral hemorrhage or mini-stroke) and any of this sounds familiar, please let me know. No more crazy laughing for me for a while. I think I'll be morose for the rest of the weekend. :-\

GASP

Just got my bill from the ambulance company. I'm really glad the billing department is not running the dispatch department - this accident happened two months ago. Here's the breakdown:

BLS Emergency - $369.36 I have no idea what "BLS" is. Maybe...."Blubbering Lug Slipped?" Does this charge differ based on emergency? Is this the "clumsy fool Aunt Bunny-ed down the steps" charge. (10,000 bonus points if you get the Aunt Bunny reference.) Is there a "moronic idiot with a power drill" emergency charge that costs more?

BLS Mileage - $9.17. The hospital is, at most, 3 miles from my house. I guess they're figuring about $3.00/gallon for gas?? Who knows?

Decontamination - $39.87. WTH???? No one sprayed me with Lysol or Clorox that I can remember. I know my basement steps needed to be vacuumed, but I don't think I needed to be decontaminated after touching them. Sheesh.

BLS Pers Care Supply - $20.48. Again, no clue. "Personal Care Supply"???? No one gave me Kleenex or wet wipes. Maybe this is for the gloves that the paramedic had to wear to protect herself from my contaminated filth.

BLS Disposable Sup - $0.00. Ok, no argument from me on this one. I'll pay it.

Pulse Ox Probe - $37.55. This is either that thing they stick on your finger to measure your blood oxygen or someone made a side trip to perform veterinary services on a farm animal and are trying to pass the charges off on me.

All I can say is I LOVE AFLAC. I submitted this bill to my AFLAC rep today and it takes less than a week (generally) to get a check from them. Quack quack. I'm sold on them for life.

Finally, some pictures!!

Happy Brothers
Perfect Christmas Portrait
Lying to Santa
That's way too much flash lady!
Bye bye ghetto camera

Tagged!

I'm such a newbie at this. I only learned what a meme was like a month or so ago. Well I have now been tagged so here it goes:

Name Game Meme

Tagged by: Lotus

Using the first letter of your name, answer these questions. They have to be real answers, nothing made up, and you can’t use your own name as an answer.

1. Famous singer: Tony Bennett

2. Four letter word: Tail

3. Street: Tenth

4. Color: Taupe

5. Gifts/presents: Tableware

6. Vehicle: Toyota

7. Things in a souvenir shop: T-shirts

8. Boy name: Tim

9. Girl name: Tina

10. Movie title: Tango & Cash

11. Drink: Tea

12. Occupation: Teacher

13. Celebrity: Tom Cruise

14. Magazine: Time

15. U.S. city: Tallahassee

16. Pro sports: Tennis

17. Fruit: Tangerine

18. Reason for being late for work: Taking a nap

19. Something you throw away: Trash

20. Something you shout: Tag me with a meme again and I'll kill you!!!

I’m tagging: Julie and Kathleen (I'm not sure how to link to a MySpace blog and she might not want me to anyway.) I'm tagging these two because 1. I'm a dork with not many blog friends and 2. J and K are going to be REALLY hard!! :)

Pictures this weekend - I swear!

Excuses, excuses, and love

Ok. I know I promised Christmas tree pictures. I'm a horrible tease. You certainly won't get them now because we are at my mom's. BUT!!!! I have something like an excuse. I have a cousin that has always been more like a niece to me. I love this girl with all my heart. She was very ill and I was beside myself with worry. I am thrilled to announce that she is now ok AND that I am a proud new great-"aunt" to her gorgeous little boy who was born yesterday. Woohoo! Mom and baby are doing well and I'm going to pester her mercilessly until she brings him home for a visit so that I can plant kisses all over him.

Further happy news - apparently someone heard/read my temper tantrum from a few days ago and magically dropped a $300+ insurance check in my mail. In the interest of good pictures (and, I'm sure, shutting me up), dear sweet hubby went out and bought me a fancy schmancy new digital camera. So I PROMISE that I will put up pictures (nice ones) before the end of the year.

I don't know that I'll post again before Christmas so......

To all the Chantix/Quit Smoking bloggers - I'm so glad we all gave ourselves such a wondeful present this year. Not only did we quit smoking, we also found some of the coolest, funniest, most honest, and most supportive people on-line.

To all the Mom Bloggers - I hope the little brats appreciate all the money we spent. Uh, I mean, I hope you and your families have a nice holiday. It's nice to know I'm not the only mommy quietly going nuts in front of my computer.

To all my other readers and blog friends - thank you for all the comments and gems that made me think, laugh, gasp, and roll my eyes.

Also thanks to everyone who left such nice comments about my knee injury and didn't once tell me to quit complaining, get over it, and learn to walk the dang stairs already.

Ok ok, I'm a jerk

LOL. The Thanksgiving pictures are, indeed, on the laptop. So most of that tantrum from yesterday was for no good reason at all. Of course now the tree pictures are downstairs on the PC. So I think what I'll do is give you a turkey picture and put up the tree pictures later tonight when I finally get downstairs.

Interruption. The doorbell just rang. I received something I ordered from Amazon. Also, someone sent me a package of really nice cheeses. Cheeses are as good as (maybe better than) hot chocolate for making me a happy camper. Thank you from the bottom of my heart cheese sender person.

Here's the turkey...I need to find some crackers and a knife:

Nice try though

Introduction.
So I was all set to be a better blogger. I was going to put up my Thanksgiving pictures, my decorating the tree pictures, and even offer to email any (weirdly) interested parties the pictures of my Franken-knee. I swear I was going to do all these things. But then it all just started to go downhill.

1. Ghetto camera.
I got my digital camera free when I bought my laptop. (Lucky for me or you'd still be looking at bad scans of crappy Polaroids.) Well at some point the digital camera got dropped and the spring loaded battery compartment door broke. This causes the batteries to be loose and the camera won't work. Normal people might buy a new camera. Not El Cheapo. I just slapped a rubberband around it and called it good (nevermind the fact that the rubberband doesn't really hold and I'm going through batteries like a....LOL....all my similes are nasty...forget it). So anyway, I sat down here with ghetto camera, the batteries are dead, and now I'm already cranky about the whole operation. (If you find "ghetto camera" to be racist in some way, just switch it to "rez camera" and back off.)

2. Idiot me.
After I FINALLY get ghetto camera working I realize that I deleted all the pictures from Thanksgiving without downloading them. Moron. Somehow I managed to do this without deleting the Franken-knee pictures. I'm not sure how this happened. But it was almost surely I who did it. Luckily my dad was also taking pictures at Thanksgiving, but those pictures are sitting 50 miles away on his computer instead of RIGHT HERE IN FRONT OF ME THIS INSTANT LIKE I WANT THEM TO BE!!!

Sorry. I didn't even do a tantrum alert.

3. Possible further idiot and most certainly lazy me.
There is a teeny tiny chance that the Thanksgiving pictures DID get downloaded and are, in fact, upstairs on the laptop. I have a Vicodin-hazy memory of Jeff downloading some pictures at my request. Why not go check? Because the laptop is upstairs and I am downstairs. Everyone remembers about me and stairs, right???? Furthermore, Jeff is gone, Noah is sleeping, and Dylan probably isn't speaking to me (for a whole host of other making-Tasina-cranky reasons). I am WAAAAAAY too chicken to try the stairs alone. Plucka-plucka. And I'm also WAAAAAY too pessimistic (at this point) to believe that dragging my lame ass up there will result in there actually being pictures on the laptop. I think that they WILL NOT be there and I will just be more mad....and having to navigate the stairs again.

In conclusion.
I'm very sorry that you came here to my blog expecting maybe a pleasant little snippet or (how hopeful of you) maybe even some pictures and INSTEAD got me having a tantrum and being kind of a brat.

P.S. At least I'm not smoking. That's good.

P.P.S. Remember a couple of posts ago when I was so happy that the $40 monthly smoker fee is coming off my insurance? We found out today that Jeff's insurance (which covers him and the boys) is going up $40 a month. :-/

P.P.P.S. I promise to try very hard to NOT be like this tomorrow.

P.P.P.P.S. Maybe.

P.P.P.P.P.S. What I really need is some hot chocolate. But that's upstairs too. :(

For the mice

Julie thought that maybe glow in the dark cats would be good for mice. But according to this article, I think the mice are going to be just fine.

I was kind of gently reminded that I have been a bad blogger lately. Sorry. I guess NaBloPoMo wore me out.

I have been back to work. I still have some swelling in the evenings, but I'm not using the evil evil cryo cuff anymore. No thanks. I also am having a really weird pain that is very hard to describe, but I'll give it a try. OK - this surgery cannot avoid some amount of nerve damage to the front of the leg. So from right below my knee to my ankle I have numb spots. They are very superficial - it's just the skin that's numb....I can feel pressure. Well anyway, I get this shooting, burning pain that goes up and down the front of my leg. It's pretty bad. Have you ever gotten your hands or your feet REALLY cold? Like just-this-side-of-frostbite cold? And then when you start to warm back up it's unbearably painful? That's what this feels like. It seems to happen only at night. I don't know if it's because I'm in a physically different position (lying down or whatever) or because of the stress on the leg during the day. It's really not fun. Also, today was the last day of the crutches. I have been trying to hobble around the house for the past couple of nights. It's very scary. The whole leg is very weak because it hasn't been used. It's almost like I've forgotten how to walk - I can't remember how to make the motion....I feel like I look stupid too. *sigh*

Sorry - I didn't mean to go off on a long pout. It just seems very weird to me to not have any pain at all in either the area of the original injury or the hamstring (from where the new ligament was harvested). I get a little tiny bit sore in the middle of the knee....but not horrible pain like this nerve thing.

Ok - Jeff just brought me a mug of hot chocolate. I am a happy camper now. Leg schmeg. I have warm chocolate liquid and marshmallows. Woo hoo!!

So many kinds of wrong

Glow-in-the-dark cloned cats (not Kats).

What a horrible thing to do to living creatures. I'm not 100% against cloning - I think there could be real medical reasons to do it. But to make a designer glow-in-the-dark kitty????? No.

We're moving

Cougars. 'Nuff said.

(Ok, Deadwood is a couple hundred miles from here - but it's a SMALL STATE!)

Weekly Non-participant

I see a bunch of my blog friends have been doing something called Weekly Winners. They pick their favorite photos from the last week and post them. It's been neat looking at all the pictures. I go through cycles with my picture taking. Sometimes the camera is glued to my head for weeks on end and at other times I just can't seem to remember to take pictures. Somewhere in the middle is where I am now. I've only been taking pictures of "big" occasions - Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc. Then it takes me forever to remember to get the pics off the camera. (Hey - part of that is due to the injury. All the camera software is on the PC which is downstairs. I've been blogging and doing almost everything from the laptop since the big fall. Furthermore, there are only so many good pictures that one can take from the couch - I've been sitting in this spot for a month and am completely sick of it and the view.) Anyway, I've really been enjoying all your photos and maybe will join the game.....sometime.

We're going to put up the tree today. That's picture worthy. I love having the Christmas tree up. It's a pain in the butt with the cats and world's tiniest living room, but it still looks so pretty. It will help the view from the couch immensely!

Noah and I were eating baby carrots yesterday and talking about what different animals eat. Here was his contribution:

"Blueberry dogs eat blueberries and they live in a blueberry world."

Maybe not exactly true, but it makes a wonderful mental image.

Four Months!!!

Four months smoke free is a very important marker for me. After being smoke-free for four months, I get to remove the smoker penalty from my health insurance. I am now saving an extra $40/month on top of the other savings from quitting. Yippee!!

Random

Got the staples out today. Didn't get a chance to save one for Noah. I did, however, get a set of pictures of the inside of my knee. I'm thinking about using the images for our holiday cards this year. They don't really look like anything. I found myself politely nodding at what the doctor was showing me just like you do when someone tries to point things out on an ultrasound picture. I thought about posting the pictures up here, but that seems really grisly.

So I did finish "The Time Traveler's Wife." It was pretty good. A keeper. One I'll likely read again. There are still some free will issues that bother me. I just don't think the wife had many options but to marry the guy. It borders on creepy that he seemed to kind of groom her to be his wife. It got me on a line of thought that could lead to crazy-ville. There seems to be a certain percentage of life that is governed purely by randomness. No matter how many plans you make or how careful you are or what you do, things will happen to you just because. Like....falling down the steps or whatever. How much of the rest of my life is changed because of what happened on those steps? What would be different right this instance if it had never happened? Or....what if Noah was a girl? Would something more fundamental than my floor being covered with Barbies rather than Hot Wheels happen? Or that horrible mall shooting on the news today. Things like that really drive me nuts. What if one of those people decided to go shopping yesterday instead of today? I really can't let myself go down these paths very far. I have to believe that the percentage of our lives that are ruled by chaos is so tiny that the chance of major changes is very small. Maybe that's being completely naive, but if life were HUGELY random, then what would ultimately be the point of planning anything?

There was one other part of the book that bothered me. One of the characters voices the opinion that adopting a child is "cheating" and that they must have a "real" child. The character who says this is otherwise an appealing character - it's not a "bad" character who says/does other "bad" things. I find that viewpoint to be really offensive. Certainly adoption isn't for everyone, but why paint it in such an unflattering light? That attitude makes it seem like the love that adoptive families feel for each other is also not "real" and that it's just a sad substitute for a "real" family. I would hope the author didn't intend to come across this way, but she did.

Swell Time

I tried to go back to work today. By 2:30 my knee had completely ballooned up and hurt like a....thing that hurts bad. I was not a happy camper. I had to come home and elevate it and put the evil cryo cuff back on. I've had many jobs I didn't really like and taken classes that were mind-numbingly boring and would have PAID for a reason to stay home at those times. So now when I have a job I do like, people I like to work with, a ton of stuff to do....of course this happens. I was able to do some stuff from home. It's just frustrating. I even called my mom and had a tantrum over the phone. Bleh.

I have to see the surgeon tomorrow. I wonder if he's going to take out the staples. I have 14 staples covering 3 incisions. Noah has been wildly curious about the staples. He first wanted to know if they hurt (they don't). He then wanted to know if I would have them forever (I'd better not). When I told him that the doctor would take them out he wanted to know if THAT would hurt (I don't think so) and if it would bleed (maybe). I was worried that he would find my leg scary or upsetting - but he's cool with it all. He's mostly curious. I almost wish I could take him with me when I get them out. Is that creepy? (Kat???) Maybe I'll save one for him.

I'm reading a very strange book called "The Time Traveler's Wife." I think I like it. I really like the idea of time travel. This book is kind of messing me up though. The wife of the title meets her husband when she's 6 and he's....I don't know...way older. She keeps meeting him throughout her childhood/teen years. Then they "really" meet when she's 20 and he's 28. But as he gets older he goes back to visit her when she's younger. Ok. Well he would not have done that in the future if he had not met her and married her at 28 right? But SHE would not have loved and married him at 20 if she had not known and loved him since she was 6. Right? I don't know. I'm not sure that it matters ultimately. One thing I do like about the book is that it's about people my age in my time. Does that make sense? The wife character was born in 1971 and grows up liking the same music and movies as me. While there are tons of books in many time periods that I love, it's kind of nice to read something truly contemporary once in a while. Maybe reading "older" books is the only way we ever time travel. Who are we and where are we when we read those?

Quite Possibly the Dumbest Thing I've Ever Read

There are lots and lots of good reasons to try to make a marriage work. There are also many understandable reasons to leave a marriage. People have their own reasons for doing whatever they do. But I honestly cannot imagine a scenario that would go something like this:

"Honey, I'm leaving you - it's over."

"You can't leave me."

"Why not?"

"Because it's bad for the planet."

Give me a break. This makes me want to burn tires again.

Also - I saw that tortoise and hare Chantix commercial tonight. I know it's not the same guy, but the narrator sounds just like the guy from those old 7Up commercials. I kept expecting to hear, "Nevah had it, nevah will."

Stew

Here's a beef stew I made up. I read through a lot of different beef stew recipes and this is my version.

Ingredients

olive oil
beef stew meat
2/3 cup flour
salt & pepper to taste
2 cans beef broth
1 can Italian style diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp thyme
yellow onion (I just cut off a side and put it in like that - didn't dice)
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup diced portobella mushrooms
1 package frozen mixed vegetables (corn, carrots, green beans)
1/2 box rotini

Directions

Heat olive oil in large skillet.
Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a baggie.
Dredge stew meat in flour mixture.
Lightly brown meat in batches.
Remove meat to crock pot/slow cooker.
After all meat is browned, slowly add 1 can beef broth to skillet to make a roux (make sure to scrape up all yummy brown bits), then dump into crock with other can of beef broth.
Add diced tomatoes, red wine, bay leaf, thyme, onion and garlic.
Cook on high for 4 1/2 hours.
45 minutes before serving, add frozen veggies, mushrooms, and rotini.
Continue cooking on high until noodles are tender.
Serve with crusty bread.

This turned out really good. Perfect for a snowy winter day. I might make some changes next time though. I prefer to use beef stock for things like this - broth has so much salt. I might also try different mixed vegetables - maybe carrot/broccoli/cauliflower/water chestnut. Colorful noodles might be fun too - or maybe egg noodles. One nice thing about recipes like this is that you can add/remove things as you like.

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that Jeff actually *made* this - but I made it up and walked him through it. But now he knows how to do and can from now on!!!

Big Dork

Ok - maybe every 13 year old kid in the country knows how to do this, but ** I ** just figured out how to get videos off my phone and on to YouTube. I was going to subject everyone to a little clip of my stitches and gigantic disgusting bruising, but I figured this was WAY cuter.

Snow

We're getting our first snowfall today. It looks really pretty from my perch on the couch. I'm not looking forward to dancing around in it with my crutches, but I'll just have to make do. Actually, by the time I go anywhere on Monday this will probably all be gone. Jeff took Dylan out for his first drive in snow. That's upsetting. I can just HEAR the gray hairs springing out of my head. I guess he did ok - I don't really want to know. We're supposed to get 3 to 5 inches. The first snow is always kind of scary. You have to remember how to drive in it and walk on it and all that. The summer makes it easy to forget.

I was supposed to wait until Monday to take a shower, but I couldn't stand it anymore. My hair felt like it had been dipped in Crisco. I didn't get my incisions wet so I think I'm ok. I think I needed the psychological boost of being clean and dressed and sitting up. Stewing in my own stink was just making me depressed. I feel way better now.

The pain is not nearly as bad as yesterday. In fact, I haven't taken a pill of any kind at all today. It only hurts if I put any pressure on it. It's really hard to explain. And it doesn't hurt anywhere near the knee itself - but down by my ankle. I know that doesn't make any sense - but I think that's where the nerve endings come back to life. My harvested hamstring is a little sore too.

A friend of mine who I know reads this blog from time to time is getting married today. I really wanted to be there for it, but there's just no way.

S - He's a lucky guy and I wish you all the happiness in the world!!!

Wrong

I blogged too soon. The pain today has been almost unbearable. It feels like someone is taking a blowtorch to my leg as it simultaneously splinters into a million pieces. I've got my leg in the motion machine right now. Surprisingly, doing this doesn't hurt. It's only when ** I ** try to move around. It doesn't make any sense to me at all.

The whole day has been so surreal. I actually did some work from my work laptop. I've watched movies. I've wept in agony. I've Twittered. I napped, ate, got sick. Now I'm blogging. I can't believe I've done all this in one day. Being in the movement machine must be like entering a parallel universe. Ha. Happy pills kicking in I think.

I really hate that cryo cuff. It is now making me freezing cold and it's really loud. It's super irritating. I understand I have to use it or else my leg will swell way up. But I hate it.

Getting really sleepy now. Maybe time to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Franken-knee

SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR UPDATE

I made it out of the Dead Zone. Yippee. I'm actually not in all that much pain either. Thank you, Vicodin. The Dr. said that the ACL repair was perfect. The cartilage was not too badly damaged and should heal on its own. I do not have to wear a brace - YAY!!! But I do have to use crutches for two weeks and cannot put any weight on the left knee. This will allow both the cartilage and the hamstring (from where the new ACL was harvested) to heal up.

I have this contraption around my knee. It provides constant cooling to keep swelling down. We put ice and water in the cooler part and it pumps in through the tube to the pad that is strapped around the knee.


I also have this fun machine. This moves my knee for me. I have to do it for 2 hours, rest an hour, 2 more hours, rest and hour....you get it. It doesn't hurt too much - it's not the bending that hurts, but when it gets straightened. It also kind of stinks because I have to be on the floor for this so that it can be flat.

I also have some lovely staples up and down the knee. All in all - I look a mess. But I feel pretty good considering everything. I can't take off the bandages or shower until Monday. YUCKY!!! I'm gonna be a STINK mess by then.

Thanks to all of you who left the nice comments on the last post. It really does help to have people wishing the best.

(P.S. - To all my Chantix buddies: it was sure nice not to be Jonesing for a cigarette on top of all my pain. I'm so glad that's all behind me now.)


FRANKEN-KNEE!!!!

Somewhere my love....

No wonder I love Dr. Zhivago. Turns out that most Native Americans came from Siberia. Neat.

Well it turns out I'm really morbid. All day I've been thinking wretched thoughts about my surgery tomorrow. That's just how I am. My dad once told me that I spend so much time and energy worrying about things that MIGHT happen, that when something actually DOES happen I don't have any resources to deal with it. Meanie. He's right though. I'm a worrier and fretter and a worst case scenario-er. Maybe it's not the most mentally healthy way to be, but think how happy I'll be when I wake up and realize that I did not actually slip into the Dead Zone with Stephen King. If you expect the worst then anything marginally better than worst is fantastic. LOL. What a load of BS huh?

Here's the real issue - I'm a control freak. I don't even like to be the passenger in a car. But I have to just trust these total strangers to knock me unconscious (but keep me alive), put little cameras in my knee and cut things and bolt things and rearrange things (while keeping me alive), sew me all back together, and then WAKE ME UP (preferably with non-scrambled brains).

I'm sure it'll be ok. I'm just a little teeny tiny itsy bitty bit scared. :(

See ya'll on Thursday.

Tee-hee

Someone sent me this joke and I think it's FUNNY!!! Jeff doesn't like it for some weird reason.

South Dakota Women

Three men were sitting together bragging about how they had given their new wives duties.

The first man had married a woman from Minnesota and had told her that she was going to do dishes and house cleaning. It took a couple days, but on the third day he came home to a clean house and dishes washed and put away.

The second man had married a woman from North Dakota. He had given his wife orders that she was to do all the cleaning, dishes, and the cooking. The first day he didn't see any results, but the next day he saw it was better. By the third day, he saw his house was clean, the dishes were done, and there was a huge dinner on the table.

The third man had married a girl from South Dakota. He told her that her duties were to keep the house cleaned, dishes washed, lawn mowed, laundry washed and hot meals on the table for every meal. He said the first day he didn't see anything, the second day he didn't see anything, but by the third day some of the swelling had gone down and he could see a little out of his left eye...enough to fix himself a bite to eat and load the dishwasher.

No E.Q.

Remember like 10 years ago everyone was talking about how the "emotional quotient" was just as important as I.Q.? My E.Q. is nil. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but my mom can back me up on this. We watched this 20/20 or Dateline thing about E.Q. and they said a simple test you can do to your own child (5 is the optimal age) is this: 1) offer them a piece of candy 2) tell them that they can have that one piece right now or if they can wait 5 minutes they can have an additional piece 3) leave the child alone for the 5 minutes - if he eats the candy, bad E.Q. - if he doesn't, good E.Q. Anyway - at the time this was a big news thing, Dylan was 5 years old. My mom and I watched this 20/20 thing and by the time it was over, Dylan was already asleep. I actually wanted to WAKE HIM UP to do this test because *** I *** couldn't wait over night. Too funny.

This ridiculous preamble has a point. I had to have a pre-op physical today. It appears that I am healthy enough to cut open. Good to know. But the doctor made me do a chest X-ray and I was really offended. He said that I don't get to erase 20 years of smoking with (almost) 4 months of quitting. Well fine. Jeez. Did it have to be put so bluntly?? I KNOW I haven't erased all that damage, but the way he put it just made me kind of....I don't know....frustrated. I wanted to light a cigarette purely out of spite at that point. And I actually normally like my doctor. Grrr.

Also I was told "good luck" when I said that I wanted to be back at work on Monday. Not that I'm some workaholic nut - but I like my job and the people I work with, I don't have a lot of leave left, and anything I can't get done either piles up on my desk (yuck) or becomes someone else's problem (not fair). I WANT to go back Monday. I want this leg thing to be over....YESTERDAY.

I'm tantrum-ing again. I'll stop. I was talking to a friend who also has an injury and we decided that we're just being big babies. There are people who live with permanent disabilities every single day. At least there IS an end to this for me. I really shouldn't complain. Must be a brown thing. ;)

Brown?? Seeems boring

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Brown

You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.

Take this test >

Boo Blogger

Is anyone else having trouble embedding videos today? I just did the one below with no problems. I wanted to put a new one up. I'll just give you the link here. I thought this was pretty cute.

I know we're all stuffed but I'm going to put up another recipe. We had this for dinner tonight as a break from all that turkey. Served with a cold pasta salad (from a box) and fresh broccoli.
I found this recipe at AllRecipes.com.

Salmon Rosemary Burgers

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 pounds king salmon fillet, skinned and de-boned
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup minced red onion
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS
Prepare the salmon by cutting into strips, cutting the strips crosswise, and chopping the fish until well minced. Be sure to remove any remaining bones.
In a large bowl, mix the minced salmon with bread crumbs, red onion, Dijon mustard, horseradish, and eggs. Season with rosemary, salt, and pepper. Chill at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.
Form the salmon mixture into 8 burger patties. Lightly coat each patty with olive oil.
Place salmon patties on the grill, and cook 4 or 5 minutes on each side.

We make a 1/2 recipe and adjust the ingredients accordingly. I usually use shallots instead of red onion - mostly because I don't ever use red onion for anything else and I always have shallots on hand because I love them. If it occurs to me to get fresh rosemary then we use it, but dried works fine in this too. Don't be scared by the horseradish. I'm no fan of that stuff either - but you do not get a big huge horseradish taste, it's very subtle (but necessary). Also, we always make these in a pan on the stovetop with a little olive oil. I was too nervous that they'd fall apart on the outside grill and get all smashed on the George Foreman grill. The taste great out of the pan - brown up nicely too. Jeff eats his on a bun with lettuce and tomato. I don't like all that bread so I just eat mine with a couple drops of soy sauce.

By the way, the Sweet Potato Casserole recipe I posted a few days ago was a big hit. My parents really preferred it to the gooey sweet marshmallow yam thing.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Can't.....move.....Food.....coma.....taking.....over.................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Gobble

I hope you are all enjoying your Turkey Day!!!

(Actually, I'm wildly jealous at the thought of allllllllll you people eating allllllll that yummy food right now. We're never doing this a day late ever again!!)

Guilty Pleasure

I'm likely the biggest dork in the world, but that's ok. I still get all a-flutter for Adam Ant.

(Yes, I see the weird crotch strap outfit and the make-up. No, it doesn't bother me. Yes, it would bother me on anyone else....HAHAHA. I'm getting a seriously twisted mental image of my dear hubby dressed up like this. hahahahahahahahahahahaha)

Enjoy

Guilty

I didn't want to hike forever at Wal-Mart so I used the handicapped sticker thingy. What if a *real* handicapped person needed the spot? I'm a jerk. I told myself I wasn't going to use it until after the surgery. But Wally World was packed (with all the other idiots who put off their shopping until tonight), and my leg hurt, and I was tired, and I was lazy. What if I've totally messed up my karma and now I really WILL have the brace/crutches for 6 weeks?

Enough about me. I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow. We're not eating until Friday (for a complicated reason), but I hope you all stuff yourselves silly. I've been reading some recipes put up by other bloggers and everything just sounds so yummy. Here's our menu:

Turkey (we use a counter-top roasting oven)
Stuffing (some in the bird and then my dad makes his own giblet stuffing)
Wild Rice Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole
Fresh Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
Fresh Green Beans with Some New Sauce My Mom Discovered
Peanut Butter Pie
And the only reason to make any of this food (except dessert): GRAVY!!!!!

We don't ever do rolls or regular mashed potatoes - there's enough carbs up there already.

Pain/Hope

I hurt my knee...like...more. I was lying on the couch and tried to get up and kind of...did it wrong I guess. I actually yelped and started crying. I even scared Noah. That's always a good thing - scare your own kid. Anyway, I had to take a pain pill last night and it hurt like a @#$%^&*!! today. I can't wait for this to be over.

Despite all the cigs and all the extra weight and some random events like a bum gallbladder, I've always been fairly healthy. At least healthy enough to pretty much do what I want to do when I want to do it (assuming that "what I want to do" doesn't involve looking really good in swimwear!;). Being constricted like this is just horrible. To not even be able to get up when I want or to carry Noah or whatever is just.....offensive. I'm offended by this.

I know I shouldn't whine. I know it could have been worse. But.....*sigh*

I'll stop the pity party now. Let's try to think of something positive. Let's find one small silver lining. Like....maybe since I don't smoke anymore, the surgery won't be as dangerous. Like...I've learned what a great teenager I really have - one who can be a rock when it really isn't his job to do that. Like....my husband is the most non-complaining person I've ever met. Like....the people I work with are all basically really nice, helpful, and understanding. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. Om.

:)

Something to think about

My regular readers and people who *know* me also know that I am not one to promote causes or be a Miss Do-Gooder. But I read this article and I think this is something we could all do this holiday season. We're all planning to pig out this week and that just isn't possible for everyone. We all have something in our pantry that we're not using or could afford to give away. Drop by your local food pantry and drop off some food. You might be giving someone else a good holiday as well.

Food pantries struggling with shortages

My new favorite author is....

....Jacquelyn Mitchard. I've read most of her books. They've all just been kind of ok to me - until tonight when I read this line from The Breakdown Lane:

"I considered camping a sin not for but against nature, a form of primitive subjugation, disguised as recreation, a way for men to beat their chests at the dawning and women to wash the same dishes fifteen times a day, and with sand."

I've never seen a better way to explain to Jeff for the billionth time why I don't want to go camping. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Ms. Mitchard.