Happy Hag

Son has a friend for an overnight & husband brought home cheesesteaks and wings from the store for their dinner, bless him. (I only ate three small wings, BTW.) So, that leaves me and a tuna steak I bought yesterday. I’ve heard they dye those things red, but my mouth is watering for it anyway. Atop some baby lettuce greens with some Wasabi sauce=yum! I’m going to try cooking it on my George Foreman grill.

Riding was good today, my friends. Instructor handed me a crop and just knowing I had it in my hand cured all the ills of my horse. He did everything I asked, with gusto. Instructor asked me if I would be interested in leasing the horse at $250 a month ~ a $50 reduction on what she usually asks. With winter closing in, she has less riders, but the same feed bill. I’m thinking…

Tonight is pie baking night. Did my crusts earlier today. I’ll also do the sweet potatoes. Better stop drinking my wine now, (there-just emptied my glass) especially since I didn’t eat much today and its going right to my little old noggin. 

Tuna here I come!

Filed under: General on November 26th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

Dear MIL is hosting Thanksgiving, bless her heart. I’m bringing an appetizer, the pies and Challah bread (I know it’s considered more of an Easter bread, but it’s so darn good, I’m making it anyway). I’m also going to make for the first time… Ta-Da! Sweet Potato Casserole. I bought three pounds of yams today ~ they look like poops to me. It’s those tapered ends… I should bring a whole one and slip it in the potty and see what ensues.

Anyhoo, found a recipe that calls for a pecan/brown sugar/butter/flour crusty topping, instead of the marshmallow topping I grew up on. It’s probably a waste of time and expensive nuts. What kid do you know who will willingly eat nuts? Screw ‘em, I’m making it anyway!

After the above decadent food meanderings, I must say that I am back to almost faithfully writing down all that I eat and trying to drink more water and take my vitamins. It really helps that Clementines (those teeny little orange-like fruits) are back in the market. They are so easy to peel, juicy and satisfying. I’ve been bringing a handful into work with me and snacking on them instead of all the naughtiness that surrounds me.

I have a riding lesson tomorrow and think I may stop them until Spring mostly because of the cold weather and a little bit because I don’t really like the horse I’ve been settled on. I don’t want to hurt the owner/instructor’s feelings by telling her this. He is a cantankerous beastie who will baulk and buck~not a pleasure. At first I told myself that it was good I had a more challenging horse, but then I thought, hey all I want to do is ride, not Master The Difficult Horse. I’m too old to fall off over something stupid as the horse deciding he doesn’t want to go to the left anymore. In my mind, a “fair fall” would be if he was spooked and I wasn’t alert for it. I’m secretly tempted to bring a crop and give him a good whack on his butt… That is akin in my mind to whacking another Mom’s kid. But I can think it.

Hope all you chickies are gettin’ er done, as far as holiday preps, food strategies and squeezing in exercise. Good luck to us all!

Here’s what I made last year. Pumpkin Pie and Oreo Cheesecake…

Filed under: General on November 25th, 2008 | 7 Comments »

Dog is hang-dog because we got his invisible fence fixed today. I tried to explain to him that we like our pets three dimensional, not flat (from the road). This means to take him on walks out in the woods, I will have to turn fence off, put him in the car and drive ten feet over The Line and then let him out. Here is a picture of an invisible fence:

Bless his heart, Husband is forever thinking of new items to add to our store menu. His latest one is fancy “home-made” sodas, so today, our very own soda making machine arrived at the house. It’s a home version, not a restaurant quality one ~ just to see if it’s good enough to warrant actually getting a industrial model for the store. It consists of a cylinder of CO2 screwed in the back and a liter bottle filled with water on the front. Press the button and the water is infused with CO2, then you add the syrup and GENTLY shake. I had comedic Three Stooges-type visions which fortunately did not play out.

Son was thrilled. The three of us gathered ’round the contraption and fizzed up a couple of liters. It’s just “okay”. We’ll all be burping and farting for the rest of the night, I reckon. I’m stickin’ to my red wine. (Hummm… wonder if I can carbonate it?) We did all have salad tonight: one mark on the plus side.

Lately, in the interest of science and profits, ahem, I have been testing Sicilian pizza (really good ~ we put it on new menu), new hoagie and steak rolls (again, really good ~ we will be using them), and today, soda. :0 My waist line doth protest! Another danger is Food Shows, where venders show their latest offerings. We only hit about one or two of these a year, but they are soooo interesting to a foodie like me. Everything from appetizers, soups and breads to meats, seafood and deserts. As you walk in the door of the venue, you are given a large handled bag and everyone wants to fill it. I took our son once and his eyes almost popped out of his head. He was my chief sampler.

Hope you all haz a fizzy night!

Filed under: General on November 24th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

I set off down the wooded path and I heard a rustling: look up to see our dog who had crossed over his invisible fence boundary and was joining me. Monday I must call fence people to come and fix the break. In the meantime, Shadow and I ventured far afield. Funny how all my fears are allied by having the mutt with me. We were out for a good two hours, and I followed a trail I had never been on before. Saw not a soul, unless chipmunks and crows count. Here’s what we saw…

This is what would be our equivalent of the local post office. Lots of tracks, and the mutt was quite interested in checking out the messages left.

Below is a coyote track. They are diamond-shaped, as opposed to the rounder shape of foxes and dogs. Also, their two front toenail marks are visible, whereas with dogs and foxes all the toenails usually show.

Huge boulders litter the area from the last glacial push. There’s Shadow to the right…

We’ll happen across these tumbled down old stone walls here and there throughout our walk. Hard to imagine someone having the time to make these a hundred years ago, and why? In the middle of the woods, far from the madding crowd, as it were. Guess boundaries were important to folks?

Dog is, well, dog-tired and I feel great, with a good walk under my belt. Perfect for what ails ya.

Filed under: General on November 23rd, 2008 | 4 Comments »

On the mornings you can sleep in, you wake up way easier than the mornings the alarm is set?

My eyes popped open at 5:30am. I tried to go back to sleep, but gave up and got up. This is a sign of old age, I just know it! My grandparents lived in an inlaw-suite attached to our house when I was growing up. Every once in a while, I would wake up early and see their lights on at 4:30 in the morning, My grandpop would be doing something important, like washing a dish or rearranging a shelf. 

Yesterday was one of those crazy days at work. It seemed there was a gremlin afoot! We were busy and a few kitchen orders got lost, deliveries to our customers ran late ~ all in all a frustrating day, and not at all the norm, thank the Lord, or we would be out of business. Days like that make me realize what a crack team we really do have working for us, because screwed up days are thankfully so rare. Most of the customers went with the flow, but it was embarrassing for me.

I start with determination every morning to eat properly and it tapers off by mid afternoon. I am having the hardest time getting back on program. Waitressing is the only exercise I’ve been getting ~ I won’t count riding because it’s only once weekly. On a bright note, we did eat a bag of salad greens before it turned to mush! Son is in between sports which means I can make “hearty” dinners every night. I think I’ll cut out the bread, for starters. Unfortunately, I discovered Pillsbury makes a pretty darn good frozen dinner roll. I started buying them mainly for one of son’s friends who is over for dinner often and really only eats bread. He’s a wiry kid who won’t eat salad or veggies and doesn’t know how to cut up a bone-in baked chicken breast, as he was raised on nuggets, I suspect. I want to grab the knife and fork out of his hand and say, “HERE! Let me cut that up for you”, but I don’t want to embarrass him so I watch him struggle from the corner of my eye. “Have another roll”, I say instead.

And for todays funny kitteh pixtur:

Hope you all haz a gud weekend!

Filed under: General on November 22nd, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Was delighted to attend a few of son’s classes. I especially like his Language Arts class. The seventh grade L.A. classes are divided into three groups: Advanced, Average and Slower than average (I’m sure they have different labels for them than mine!). Son is in advanced, and his class is using a new curriculum this year: instead of the whole class reading the same book, the kids have a choice of one of four books. Each book then has a group of 4-5 students who take turns reading it aloud in their group, then discussing it chapter by chapter.  It’s very dynamic and far cry from my classes of (gulp) thirty-seven years ago when the whole class read the same book, quietly to themselves. I was a voracious reader and would secretly read far ahead, then be bored, as the class only moved as fast as the slowest reader. So, these kids get a choice and work together swapping ideas back and forth. The class sped by.

Next was French, taught by a wee fireball of a woman with a passion for teaching French and has a great relationship with her students. I was totally lost as c’est’s and la’s flew over my head. It was Greek to me.

In the French class, there was another teacher working quietly at a desk in the back of the room, where son and I were sitting. She was “hot” ~ slender and shapely, dressed in a cute black and white hounds tooth jumper with black hose and high-heeled black boots. In other words, every school boys fantasy. About two or three times she got up from her seat and crossed in front of us to go to another table and I watched my son’s eyes scan her top to bottom and back up again. I don’t even think he was aware he was “checking her out” and would probably be horrified if I brought it up.

I skipped out before lunch ~ the siren call of Coldwater Creek was calling. It was a disappointing shopping trip though, as they did not have several of the items I had been coveting from their catalog. “We can order it for you” just doesn’t do it for me. I did get two shirts: a red suede-look zip front shirt (that I really wanted in the chamois color) and a pretty black velvet cami to wear under a few things. I’m disgruntled that I have gained a little weight and no longer slip into all of their mediums, yet the large are a tad too big. Hummm… eat my way up or diet my way down?

got this  and this in red.

(Patty, I envisioned you shopping by my side~ they had some pretty jackets, but they didn’t look good on me.) 

A bad day shopping beats a good day at work, though!

Filed under: General on November 20th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Yep, a wee blanket of snow quietly appeared over night.

Not enough to raise hopes that school would be delayed. Just one of those early soft whispers of what is to come. DH HATES snow, so I have to subdue my glee. He sees only headaches at work: parking lot plowed, sidewalks cleared, delivery driver woes… 

Son and I see it differently. I see: walks in the woods where I can track animals and see what they have been doing and where they live. Son sees: Snow Day.

This morning at breakfast with son, I fessed up that I wasn’t going to shadow him all day at school. He had the good graces to laugh and said he hoped I’d eat lunch with him…

Filed under: General on November 19th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

(Sing to Simon & Garfunkels Sound of Silence)

Hello oatmeal, my old friend.

I’ve come to eat you once again,

Because my weight was slowly creeping,

Leaving pudge while I was sleeping,

And the vision that was planted in my brain.

Was scary.

Within the bowl of oatmeal.

Blew the dust off a box of oatmeal and had that for breakfast this morning. (The oatmeal, not the dust.) Slowly getting back to healthy habits: easier now that the only candy son has left are the chewy taffy ones that I worry about losing a filling on.

House is nice and quiet. DH ran son to school, as son had to transport his “cell model” in today. His science project, “The Cell”, is a honkin’ big hunk of clay molded over a styrofoam ball, with gummy worms, jimmies and other assorted objects representing all the creepy stuff that makes up a cell. I actually managed to keep my hands off it and let him do it himself. Back in Second Grade, he had an assignment to make a shadow box showing a native american tribe. Boy, was that fun! I got an A on that one. All the projects were on display and you could definitely tell the ones where us moms couldn’t keep our hands off of. There was one with an igloo made out of sugar cubes ~ a feat of engineering beyond even me! Now I restrain myself to merely pointing out spelling errors and grammatical mishaps.

This is National Education Week at our school, and all parents are invited to come to school tomorrow and go to classes with their kids. I did it last year and there was only a hand-full of parents. (Working for husband has its rewards, as I can have off to do these things.) Son’s apprehension is growing… “Mom, you don’t have to stay all day, you know.” followed later by “Mom, you’re NOT going to stay all day, are you?” Let’s see, you mean a thirteen year old boy doesn’t want his mom trailing along with him all day in school, with his peers?

I had not intended to stay all day, as I have an appointment to get my long-neglected locks colored and cut in the afternoon, and I thought I would go to the mall before hand and do some shopping at Coldwater Creek. After seeing his rising panic though, I have asked him if I could sit with him at lunch and what were his classes again for the afternoon? I’ve been suggesting all kinds of outlandish outfits I could wear and sighed that I finally get to see who “Sarah” is and chat with her. Heeee! O the torture.

Two of our employees are pregnant~ both due around the same time. Both young and unmarried. Both in relationships that are relatively new. Sigh. Today, my SIL and BIL, who have tried for years to have a baby, are to be present at their adoptive daughters birth. Funny how life works out. 

Filed under: General on November 18th, 2008 | 7 Comments »

I was scrolling through the “ICanHasCheezeburger” funny kitty site when I saw this captioned picture…

I lovs dis song!

T’was many a year ago when we would go down to South Street (where all the hippies meet) in Philly to watch the 12 o’clock showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. What an event!

I’m in the process of cleaning out a little room upstairs that used to be son’s nursery, so I can move my computer out of the cellar, away from kitty litter boxes, spiders and unsettling little rustlings in the walls. This is so I won’t smoke so darn much, since its the only place I light up. Of course I got side-tracked. Had to look through all son’s adorable bits of art work and school work from his early days. Moved some books back to son’s room and ended up cleaning out his drawers and closets from clothes that no longer fit. As a bonus, I found three brand new pair of UnderArmor underwear son swears he couldn’t find, and had me scratching my head, wondering what he was doing losing underwear at his age. Also a brand new football jersey from WVU that had slipped off its hanger to disappear in the black hole that is son’s closet floor. Fortunately, when it was given to him, it was way too large. It ought to fit perfect now, two years later…

Happy to report I did not find any Playboys ~ not that I was looking.

Did find “Mr. Bean Bear”, a once beloved little stuffed bear that went to bed with son every night for many a year. He went in the “keep” pile. Time warp, indeed!

Hope you all haz a gud weekend!

Filed under: General on November 15th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

(Actually, by the pounding of my sinuses, I can tell)… something wicked this way comes.

Dang! I looked at a national weather map here of the U.S. and see a huge front moving in from the west. Let’s see a show of hands for how many of you are suffering from sinus pressure right now?

I fully understand why ancient tribal people picked up a rock and pounded a hole in their heads to let the evil spirits out. Tried Tylenol Sinus, then later, Sudafed. I even water-boarded myself with my nifty little sinus rinse. Next resort: rock.

Can’t concentrate on tv, book or stimulating spousal conversation, so I thought I would come on and whine a bit. 

that is all.

Filed under: General on November 14th, 2008 | 2 Comments »