Melanie Phillips: Israel's supporters better wake up!

Melanie Phillips: Israel's supporters better wake up!

All Together Again

Saturday we went to pick up Amanda after we went to the "Big Bowl" restaurant at the Galleria.  I used some new chop sticks but they didn't work very well.  (Too round)  Ironically I bought them because the ones from the restaurant were too flat and hard to hold. 

I went to Pottery Barn while we waited for a seat.  I love that store.  It just smells so dang good.  Lots of snobbier types, but that's ok.  We're all just trying to get by.  We all wear our silly defense-outfits.  It helps to think of people as a bunch of little kids on the playground in their Halloween costumes, then it's easier to feel kindly toward them.  I suppose that's how we probably are in the big scheme of things - a bunch of kids running around with our clubs to join and made up rules.  "All the world's a stage..."  Well said William.  That was William, right?  LOL

So anway, Amanda's back home for a few days.  That's fun.  Yesterday, we went to Granite City where we all got the Sunday brunch. There were the best cheesy hashbrown type things I think I've ever had. Even the bacon was good. We will definitely be back. http://www.gcfb.net/locations_MN_MapleGrove.aspx


We all watched the Golden Globes on Sunday.  God I can't stand Johnny Depp.  Or that buddy of his Helena Bonham Carter.  It seems as though she's always trying to prove something.  Have you ever noticed how J. Depp always either dates, marries, or hangs out with women who look remarkably like him?  lol  Kate Moss, Winona Ryder, Vanessa Paradis, Carter, who else?...I know there are more.  Oh well, to each their own. 

Today Eric was home.  I love when the kids have days off from school.  I'm so lucky that I can be home with them.  Big sacrifices to do so, but it's days like these when it really pays off.  I used to be latch key kid.  NOT good. 

E's been playing "Smoke on the Water" on his violin.  lol  Interesting.  This Thursday he starts up his guitar class again.  I'm so glad there's something he's interested in along with soccer. 

We're off to play some more games...Tri-Ominoes this time.  Here are some pics for your amusement, thanks for stopping by!



Amanda and the genesis of Broccoli Casserole (pic and recipe later).  Stand up straight Amanda.




A favorite passtime in the winter here...roasting marshmallow indoors.




Fire eater.




Part two of Broccoli Casserole-the cheese!  mmmmm



Post HOMEP Two

So this weekend was fun.  I bought DH some tix to A Brave New Workshop, which neither of us had been to, to see a show about Christmas.  It was hilarious!  There were a bunch of short skits/songs about different predicaments we find ourselves in during Christmas/winter.  We're thinking of taking our son, he'd get a huge kick out of it.  http://www.bravenewworkshop.com/  Check it out. 

It was fun to be out on a Saturday night in uptown.  I wish it had been nicer out, we could've stayed longer.  I'm older now though, I just wanted to get home and knit some more on new blanket for son.  Yep, it's another (fifth) Multi Strand Afghan from Paton's.  I made both kids one June of 09 and they loved them, but they're not machine washable. I'm a firm believer in machine washable blankets.  Otherwise you have to be careful with them.  Who wants to be careful with blankets?  This one is done with four strands held tog. on size 19's.  Two strands of Homespun in "Chili" and 2 strands of Simply Soft in "Autumn Red".  I got the Homespun on clearance for $2.49/skein!  Awesome deal.  That's at least 60% off I think.  It is getting a little boring to knit, so I'll take my time with it & save it for when I'm talking or watching a movie. 

Yesterday I used one of my three 50% coupons at Michael's for another 36" size 13 needle.  I'm very happy to welcome my new knitting compadre into my home.  lol  Now I can do several blankets at the same time.  My next one will be an off-white one in a basket weave, held double.  The pattern calls for size 17's but I'm using 13's.  It wouldn't be thick enough on 17s.  I did one like this for my sister last year for her bday. As it got further along, it kept my lap nice

and warm and it was relatively soft.


Update on the blanket...four days into it.



Okay, so then on Sunday hubby and I went to a brunch at 8am!  I didn't think it was possible to get him going that soon but that's the allure of all-you-can-eat to this man. 





Believe it or not, one can descend into heaven...dog heaven. :-)

After we picked son up from friend's bday party sleepover, we headed to St. Paul's Rivercentre for the annual Land o' Lakes dog show.  It was the last day so I didn't know if we'd see our faves.  Boy did we pick the right day!  All three of our favorite dogs plus the Goldens were there.  It was doggie heaven.  We saw Pembroke Welsh Corgis, Samoyeds, and a couple Papillons.  The handlers were all so nice and patient.  Even while they were getting the animals ready for the ring, they'd talk with us and let us pet the dogs.  Thanks all! 



Gorgeous pic of Sam.  This has been my fave breed since I was a little girl.  My heart feels as though it leaves my body when I see these guys!

 

This is William the Corgi.  Beyond cute and sweet.  Son loves this breed.



In a sea of clouds, two smiling faces.  So cute.



Tri Colored Corgi -E's favorite.  Sweet expression.




Mid-yawn



Fluffy butt

I believe this is when Elfie Shea of Elfenbein Samoyeds won.  LOL-well, her entrant.  She's the front.  I love their kennel!  The one on the end is Mickey (the dog).  I met him later.





This one was so serious and concerned w/owner's approval.  She just couldn't stop sniffing things on the ground and the like.  She stole my heart.  I'm easily distracted and a bit of a rebel too.



After all the dog love, we were going to head home, but I love St. Paul so I did a bit of whining and we drove around a bit to think of a place to go for dinner.  Luckily I'd just met a woman (Cynthia) at Border's last month who likes to talk to strangers as much as I do.  We got talking about St. Paul and she said I have to try Cecil's.  Miracle of miracles I actually remembered the name of the place and the location - if roughly.  We found it, and it was fabuloso.  Seriously, I almost cried when I took my first bite of the lovely Shayna sandwich.  (Shayna means lovely in Hebrew.  ha ha)  Sidenote: Eric's taken to calling a play on words a "mom".  So, I just pulled a mom with the Shayna comment.  chuckle



My lovely lovely.  (Shayna)  And Curt wrestling with some cheese.

We had a really good time there and the service was very friendly and surprisingly fast.  Plus I had an orange Fanta.  It all reminded so much of my youth, even though I'd never been to a deli before.  My grandma always seemed to have orange Crush in her fridge.  That's where I learned the hard, "I'm out of air" way to drink from a pop bottle.  I digress. 

Guys being silly.

Check out the cool stamp of a doggie paw print we all got on our hand!  (At least it came off easily.) 



Getting situated.  Doesn't this place just look so old school?  I love it.

 There was a wonderful, simple dessert I bought at the front in the store.  It was actually in the bakery case.  It's called an Apricot Hamentashin.  Don't try to pronounce it funkily.  It's just like it looks, accent on the two a's.  They're pronounced as the "a" in 'father'.  I'm only letting you know, because when I ordered the 'apricot thing' the guy behind the counter said I have to try to pronounce it, and I failed.  LOL 

Anyway, we had a great time that day.  Which brings us to yesterday, Monday.  It was Daisy Mae's day at the spa.  lol  I took her to Petsmart and they (Brenna) did a wonderful job.  She put bows behind her ears.  It was so funny and cute.  I couldn't get a good picture of it though.



Daisy after spa day



Well, I'm done posting for today.  I'm trying to figure out a way to complain to someone at Ravelry about some very childish practices on some of the groups.  Some are lying about some things I said (didn't say) and picking and choosing whom they'll demand follow their rules and what not.  ICK!  I'm having a hard time not loathing liberals.  And I am one!  (Slowly changing though.)  Well, I surely won't vote Dem ever again.  That's a whole other topic.  Adios!

Christmas, New Year and Then Some

Hidee ho.  It's been a while.  Christmas was good/bad.  Bad because dd was gone in Chicago.  Good because everyone's well and got what they wanted and then some.  :-)  I finally got a Cricut machine (or as I think of it, a Title-making machine).  I also got 4 cartridges.  LOVE IT.   Hubby bought all of it.  Nice job.  I also got an electric yarn winder!  DH was feeling generous.  Of course he doesn't know to shop with Joann's coupons in tow, so he paid full price for the ball winder.  We remedied that a couple days later.  We returned ds's Xbox game too, thinking we'd get it for $7 less at Costco.  Turns out, there was some instant coupon for $13 off the reg. price, so we saved $20!!  Plus the $36 we saved when we returned the ball winder and bought one with a 40% coupon.  I'm only mentioning this because this kind of money savings is an extra gift all its own!  I love saving money on things we were going to buy anyway.  Weee Heee! 

DS rec'd a DVD of a TV series he loves from his aunt and two CDs of bands that kids my age got as gifts 30 yrs. ago!  It's so weird to see some of the same stuff under the tree, only now I'm the adult.  If my mom were alive she'd get a big kick out of that and call me old.  ha ha

DS bought himself a Santa hat at school to wear (the money went toward some charity-nice one son :-) and when he was done with it, it wound up on our dog Daisy.  She laid there for a good 20 minutes wearing it.

I made some cut out cookies this year along with the Corn Flake wreaths but that's all.  Didn't do the regular amt. of sweets.  I attempted Kringler, but it didn't work out this year.  BIG bummer, that stuff is good. 

I loved having the tree up this year.  So much so, that it's still up on the 5th of January!  It's a tradition for me and mine to have it down before the new year.  I like to start the new year off clean and simple.  This year, we kept it up for dd to get home and open her presents. 

On Christmas Eve, ds, dh and I were at the table working out some brain teasers together and I got an itch to string cranberries and popcorn together.  (I've never done that before.)  It turns out that our darling little boy ate the last of the kettle corn so I used Kix cereal instead.  lol  I have to say it was FUN!  I only poked myself once (to the freaking bone) with the needle and it's still up on our tree.  In the pic it's just above the soccer ball heading upward.  My sister suggested I throw it out on Oakie, our Oak tree when we're done with it so the birds can chow.  Hopefully, after all this cold, there are still some bird friends left.  That's another subject.  Namely, "Why the Hell Are We Living in Mn?"  ha ha



We also went to church on Christmas Eve.   After we had communion we all got candles and lit them.  It was so warm and very cozy in there. 

I bought hubby some tickets to a show at the Brave New Workshop.  It's called Brett Favre: the Second Coming.  Supposed to be funny.  Hope so.  It's this weekend.  I love getting or giving tickets to shows.  I read once that it's best to give children experiences instead of things.  I love that.  I think it's true for all people.  (Especially when we have no room for the things we already have-right?) 

Yesterday dd and I went scrapping at Archivers.  I got a big hug from Mary-Jo, who works there.  Hadn't seen her in a long time.  Very nice to get hugged.  I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped.  Only four pages and one was a dbl. layout.  Nothing fancy, but it's good to have them done:

As you can see, I'm not very adept at arranging pictures on this blog yet.

This morning was great.  I'd gotten a lot of sleep and was rarin' to go.  I came downstairs, made brownies, my son his lunch and put all the clean dishes away, dirty ones in the d/w and then washed by hand the high maintenance ones.  :-)  Made son bacon and french toast for breakfast, got him to school and stopped by Cub and bought things for three dinners, got the cats fed and watered and threw them out for a few hours since it's warmer now and cleaned the bathroom.  I also ate a bowl of baked oatmeal.  (I'll throw the recipe up at the end.)  I adore mornings like these when I have enough energy to do what I need.  It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it sure is.  (sadly.  lol) 

Today the plan is to grout the tile in the upstairs bathroom.



My mom's plant from 10 yrs. ago and Norbert the Duck.



Listello and Mirror surround-ungrouted



I gave my plant in there a haircut and washed its leaves a few days ago and that's all it took to get me wanting to finish the rest of the bathroom.   I still have to get the surface mildew off the top of the wall surrounding the shower (where the wallpaper backing didn't get off completely) and then skim-coat it and repaint it.  NOT looking forward to that.  It's been sitting there with no paint ever since we removed the wallpaper four yrs. ago.  This past year is when the nasty black crap started creeping in. 

Well-first things first.  I'm going to grout the listello and mirror surround stone.  Finally.  Yes, it's been four yrs. waiting for myself to do that too.  I'm such a procrastinator when I don't know how to do something.  lol  Not cool - must change.  (BTW: Pretend not to notice the double chin in the mirror. lol)

 

It feels sooo good when I finish things on time.  Ok, on to another subject. 

 

We found out that we have to ante up $1500 for a new street in front of our house that we don't need!  There's nothing wrong with it, but they just want to keep their contract people happy I think.  I'm slightly pissed about this.  Sorry for the harsh language.  I just hope they take into consideration all the extra traffic due to the soccer park adjacent.  We shouldn't get stuck paying for that I don't think.  On the other hand, we did know that it was there when we moved there.  Hmmm.  Either way we're out $1500!  Booo!

 

I think I'll get going now.  Off to Home Depot to pick up the grout. Oh--I forgot to mention that I painted my awful boring wall too.  The color is called "Scorched" and it's a warm rusty orange.  DH hung the beautiful pic of couples walking in Paris too.  Love it.  Now I just need to put on my new comforter and I'll throw some pics of that up too. 

 

OK--NOW off to Home Depot. :-)  Thanks for stopping by!  Stay warm or be grateful that you are-if you are.  And watch out for those damned crocs in Australia! 

 

Here's the recipe for Michigan Baked Oatmeal, which I found I know not where, but it's from a B&B in...you guessed it...the great state of Michigan!  lol  This is one of my favorite things to gnosh on. 

 

1st- because I used to forget- spray a non-stick spray into a 3 qt. casserole dish or a 9X9. 

 

Then in a separate bowl mix together: 2 c. rolled oats, 4 c. milk, 1/2 c. dried cherries, 1/4-1/2 c. slivered almonds, 1/2 t. almond flavoring, 1/4 c. brown sugar and a washed and grated (peel and all) red delicious apple.  I like to add about 1/2 t. salt too.  Pour into casserole, cover and bake at 400 deg. F for 30-40 min. or 'til bubbling. 

 

Serve with a teaspoon or so of white sugar and some apple cider.  Sooohoho GOOD!  This reheats excellently.  Happy eating!