The boys' music video from tech camp. They won Best Video :)

Enjoy!

Roasted Peach... Salsa? Chutney?

I wanted something different to go along with a pork tenderloin I'm making for dinner tonight.  I figured the leftover shriveled farm share peaches would be perfect. Until they were missing from the fridge!  So off I went to buy some "Late Season Tree Ripe Peaches" at the grocery store.  Of course, they were under ripe, but I figured since I was cooking them, it really didn't matter.

This is one of my favorite combinations, sweet and savory.  You can lower the savory by using sweet onions or omitting both the onions and the white pepper.

The only problem I have is what to call this? A salsa, chutney, fresh jam?  Let me know if you have any suggestions!  For now, it is...

Balsamic Roasted Peaches

4 Peaches, cubed (leave the skin on, its just easier)
1/2 onion, diced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil (or neutral oil if you want something sweeter)
1 tsp brown sugar
pinch salt
pinch ground white pepper

Preheat oven to 450
Combine oil, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.  Put peaches and onions in a bowl and add dressing.  Mix until everything is evenly coated.
Place peaches on a lined baking sheet, taking care not to add any excess dressing
Roast for 40-45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes


Serve the sweet and savory version with pork, chicken or fish.

If you made the sweet only version, serve over vanilla ice cream, angel food cake or pound cake.  Or use for a filling in a cake (dice the peaches instead of cubing them, and you may want to stir them every 10 minutes, they may only take 30 minutes to cook)

Well, Google and my phone are arguing again.  There will be a photo here eventually!

Emotional Fallout from a Mommy and Me Pedicure

I know I don't post over here much, but this isn't really a running related post, so I thought I'd put it over here instead of on Not Just A Half.  But this is definitely something I need to get off my chest.

For the past 2 summers, I've taken my youngest to get a pedicure.  It's kind of our end of summer hurrah.  B is 6 this year.  We go to the salon in the mall which has a kiddie size pedicure chair, complete with a fuzzy bear head on the back of the chair, so it looks like a giant stuff animal.  B loves the pampering and the awesome colored toes! This year, the toes were painted a brilliant blue with sparkles.  It's a great hour of "Mommy and Me" time, without my husband or my oldest.  We chat about important things, including summer camp, what we think first grade will be like, the best part of vacation, anything that pops into B's head.  It's a great time and we both love it and look forward to it.

This year, two days after the pedicure, B comes home from camp and tells me the some of the kids were laughing, because they said his toes were "girly".  Yep, B is Brian, a 6 year old boy, who plays flag football, loves video games, and is in Cub Scouts. And he loves getting pedicures, having his toes painted any shade of blue and has been begging me to take him to get a "finger-cure" (aka manicure).

After a nice conversation, I think I got most of the story out of him.  On Monday, a bunch of boys and one girl were laughing at his toes during Water World. One of the counselors noticed and told the kids to knock it off.  Then, on Tuesday, one of the boys was trying to take off Brian's sneakers, and a counselor told him to knock it off.  The boy said it was a game, then proceed to try to take another kid's sneakers off.  To me, it sounded like he was trying to get Brian's sneaker off to look at his toes, and then covered it by going after another kid.

Brian never got upset, he was more annoyed than anything.  He wanted to change from sparkly blue to a robin's egg blue, because, although he never directly said this, I think he felt it was the sparkles that made the kids decide his toes were girly.  Brian didn't view "girly" as bad, just as "not him" (in his words "I'm a boy, my toes are boys").  We talked.  His main concern was not to be laughed at again.  We found a pair of swim shoes for the next day.  He was thrilled because now he didn't "need" to take his polish off.  I told him I was very, very proud of him and I cried myself to sleep that night.

There's two things that just stab my heart about this.  The obvious one is that MY kid was picked on.  I am proud of how he handled it, but I wish didn't have to happen.  That's the other one, that it happened.  That in the enlightened state of Massachusetts, children are still taught that girls wear nail polish and boys don't.  That "girly" has a negative connotation.


If you look around, you see programs to encourage girls and women to break into typically male dominated fields and activities.  Groups such as Society of Women Engineers, Engineer Girl, Girls on the Run... and of course, the women centric races, such as Zooma (where I'm an ambassador for the Cape Cod race this year), which promote a non-competitive spirit.  I think it's wonderful that these organizations are giving women a safe place to grow, and be themselves, but have you stopped to think about the other side of the coin?  Where are the organizations trying to encourage men and boys to break into female dominated fields? (I'm going to guess that it's because "the pay isn't good in those fields" but that's a discussion for another day). Why don't we teach boys how to be less competitive instead of excluding men to allow women to be non-competitive?

If we truly want to have a society, where men and women are viewed as equals, we can't just encourage half of society to break through the barriers.  We have to educate the whole society to allow the barriers to be removed.  I know that there will be two boys on this planet that will help remove the barriers, but I would love to hear from parents of other boys who will help.  I need to know you're out there too.

Banana Glazed Pork

I started this post the other night, but it took me a while to get the photo imported (love the new auto-import function between phones and google+! Made it so much easier!).  Anyway, dinner from Tuesday, on Saturday!

Not So Kid-Approved Dinner

We have the Cooking Light Kids-Approved cookbook.  Everyone once in a while, my kids will pick a recipe and we'll make it.  Tonight, the 7 year old decided we were making Pasta with Winter Squash.  I didn't quite have everything, so I modified it a bit.  But, it didn't matter, the 7 year old took a big bite and started crying.  He did not like it at all.

Pasta with Winter Squash Sauce

1 acorn squash

2 tbsp butter

1 clove garlic

1 tsp dried sage

1/2 cup walnuts 

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp brown sugar

black pepper

1/2 lb pasta (not spaghetti, go with ziti or rotini)

Cut squash in half, seed and place in a microwave dish cut side down. Add 1/4" of water and microwave 8-12 minutes or until cooked and soft.

Peel, diced then mash squash until smooth. Set aside

Place walnuts in a fry pan and toast over medium heat until fragrant. Take off heat and set aside.

Melt butter in another pan and saute garlic until golden brown. Add sage, stir until butter turns slightly golden.

Add butter mixture to squash and mix well.

Cook pasta according to directions. Mix hot, drained pasta with squash mixture.  It will take a minute for everything to incorporate.  Add walnuts and mix to combine.

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

You can have this as a main dish, or as a side dish with a meat.  Unless your kids already like winter squash's flavor and texture, this may not be a big hit with the little ones, but my meat eater hubby even enjoyed it!

But... you're doing it WRONG! Spaghetti Carbonara

There are a few dishes that everyone remembers from their childhood that should be made *just* so.  Making it wrong isn't a "difference of taste", it borders on sacrilegious.  Growing up with Southern Italian roots, for me, this food is Spaghetti Carbonara.

The American version contains cream.  While that is a tasty dish (cream AND bacon!) it is NOT Carbonara.  If anything, it's Alfredo with Bacon.  Then today, I saw a recipe called "Gluten Free Carbonara".  I'm thrilled there's a recipe for those who are gluten free (hint: just sub out gluten free pasta), but please don't follow the directions of putting eggs in hot pasta water!  It made a thicken eggy soupy-saucey thing, not Carbonara.

Now, I'm not saying that MY recipe is the ONLY version of Carbonara. I'm sure my inclusion of onions will raise a debate in purist circles.  But it's the method more than the flavors I'm concerned about.  True Carbonara is pasta tossed in some sort of cooked cured pork, beaten eggs and cheese.  In the good ol' days, the heat from the pasta would just barely solidify the egg (think poached), but now, the eggs are cooked a bit more for safety reasons.  I tend to cook my eggs until they're just not runny.  The residual heat will bring them to solid but not dry.

And now, my family's Spaghetti Carbonara:

1 lb Spaghetti
1/2-1 lb bacon, or pancetta if you're feeling fancy, diced (note: you can use veggie bacon, just add oil to the pan when you cook it)
1 onion, diced (optional)
1 cup peas, cooked (optional, I barely add them, but it is an easy way to get veggies in you!)
3 eggs
1/2 cup good hard cheese (parmesan, Romano, etc), grated
A good amount of Black Pepper (we don't measure the pepper, just keep grinding until the egg mixture has lots of black specks in it)

In a large frying pan, cook the bacon until crispy.  Remove the bacon from the pan and let it drain
Make sure you have about 2 tbsp of fat/oil in the pan.  Take away bacon fat or add olive oil as needed
Saute onion over medium low heat until tender, but not browned
Remove the pan from the heat, and add the cooked bacon and peas, if you're using them
Whisk eggs and combine with cheese and black pepper
Cook the spaghetti according to the box's direction to your preferred doneness
Drain the spaghetti and put in the pan with the bacon
Turn on the heat to medium and add the egg mixture.  Constantly mix the spaghetti (I find using tongs is the easiest) until the eggs are just cooked through.  Use your own preference on "doneness".
Remove from heat.
Serve with extra cheese and black pepper.

Almost Instant Black Bean Soup

Yep, it's New Year's Eve. We're not doing anything special, heck, we're old and have kids.  I'm making fajitas and since it's all of 28 degrees and there's 8 inches of snow on the ground from a few days ago, I wanted black bean soup.  I popped on google and mashed together a few recipes. I'm writing it all down, so I don't forget! This was almost too easy to be true! and it way tastier than Panera's soup (and I really like Panera's!)

2 cans (16 oz) black beans, rinsed
1/3 cup of white wine (that last little half glass that I couldn't drink without getting stink-eye from the Hubby)
2 tsp to 1.5 tbsp Cumin (depending on your preferences)
Dash to 1/2 tsp Chili Powder (again, depending on your preferences)
2 tsp Molasses (if you use more cumin, you may want more molasses, aim for the same amount or slightly less Molasses than Cumin)
1 tsp Lime juice (more if the soup is too sweet)
2 cloves garlic minced
Salt and water or broth

Saute the garlic in a pot and added the wine when the garlic is fragrant.

Add about half of the beans and some water (or broth) to make it thin enough so you can use your immersion blender.  Whip it up until it's pretty smooth. Add water/broth to keep it the right consistency.

Add the rest of the beans, and the seasonings.  Puree some more if you want less whole beans. I ended up with about 1/4 of the beans left whole.

Simmer, covered on low for at least 15 minutes.  Add water/broth if it's too thick. Salt if needed.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream (or not, if you want to do the vegan thing)

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I honestly think it's the sweet and sour of the molasses and lime juice that makes this soup.  Part of me wants to totally puree it, so I don't have the protein flavor center of the beans.  I did go with the lower end of the measurements, I'm not in the mood for super spicy tonight, but I could see it working with the bigger flavor punch.

*****
Edited to add: Ok, I pureed the whole thing. You'll need to up the seasonings. I added another tsp of lime juice, molasses and a 1/2 tsp of cumin. Plus almost a cup of water. and salt.  So, everything :)

Best Whole Wheat Pancakes

It's getting close to fall, which means apples are in season, and harvest beers are available.  My favorite comfort food is pancakes with home made skillet apples and a Wachusset Harvest Beer.  The pancakes are based on The Best Recipe by America's Test Kitchen.

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup buttermilk plus 1/4 cup milk OR 3/4 cup milk with 1 tbsp lemon juice added
1 egg, separated
2 tbsp butter, melted and cooled slightly

Combine dry ingredients.
Whisk egg white until frothy, then whisk into milk mixture
Combine butter and egg yolk, the add to milk mixture
Dump wet into dry.
Cook on griddle about 3 min per side.

Skillet apples
Per person
1 apple
2-3 tsp butter
pinch salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2-3 tsp brown sugar

Peel, core and slice apple
Melt butter skillet and add apples, salt and cinnamon.
Cook until soft.
Add brown sugar, toss to coat. If too dry add apple cider, juice or water
Pour over pancakes

Insanely Easy Wreath

It's may and the boys wanted me to keep the Christmas wreath up because it makes the house look pretty. I complied, but have you ever seen a 6 month old evergreen wreath? It's not evergreen, that's for sure! I finally found some spare time and hit the crafts store. For a whopping $15, I bought 3 spools of 1.5" ribbon and a foam wreath form. Wrap ribbon around wreath, tack with a touch of hot glue, make hanging loop with more ribbon and DONE! Plus, it's manly enough that my husband likes it too!

Sprout's Baby Shower

So, it looks like I never actually posted this (oops!).  Here it is, finally!
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Well, my baby sister is due in June (May... depending on who you ask!) and we had her baby shower this past weekend [April, it was in APRIL. Again, sorry for the delay]. Of course, I forgot the camera, so the pictures are all after she arrived. Which means my grand scheme of perfectly documenting all of the decorations failed to a large degree. But, between my dad, my cousin, and my (slightly drunken) photography, with a word file or 2, we should be able to recreate the grand event here :)

My mom and I co-hosted at her house. Since Dana and Mark don't know the sex of the baby, they've been calling the baby Sprout. When Mark asked to be at the shower, my mom and I were thinking of a good theme and one of us said "It's all about Sprout". It rhymed too perfectly and we immediately went with a Dr. Seuss theme. It started with the invitations. They're the Dr. Seuss New Fish line available here, and pretty much all over the internet. I wrote the poem inside (see below, it even rhymes!), and just glued it in with a glue stick.

The Katroo New Baby Asso-see-eye-ation

Would like to invite you to a

New Baby Celebration

Join Dana and Mark for a day all about

Welcoming a new little baby nicknamed “Sprout”

Boy or a Girl? Do we buy Blue or Pink?

We don’t know, they won’t say. Doesn’t matter,

I think.

Come to the Shower on April 14^th at 1

For snacks, lots of baby things

and of course, some fun!

Directions to the party are included,

so you don’t have to fuss

And the couple is registered at Babies R Us

Please RSVP by April Fools Day

To let us know if you can come to play!

The food was all "renamed" as well. Of course, that meant name tags. That was easy enough, just print them out, laminate and put in a mini-binder clip. We had Yots in Pots (Greek Meatballs) with Oobleck (Tzaziki), Quick Trick Chick Stack (Baked Chicken Cutlets, yep they were stacked), Grickle Grass (fresh veggies) with McElligot's Pool (Ranch dressing... check out the octopus living in the pool!), Green Eggs and S'ham (broccoli and mushroom quiche). For dessert, we had Truffula Fruits (fruit salad), Hop On Pop-Corn (Popcorn), Sneetch Stars (cookies) and Green Eggs and Ham candies. The candies were the biggest hit! Of course, we had the multi-color goldfish and Swedish fish scattered around too.  My favorite was Yink's Pink Ink Drink aka my mom's rum punch!  

McElligot's Pool with Pepper Octopus, and Grickle Grass Veggies in the background

Green Eggs and Ham Candies and the Truffula Bouquet 

The entrees: Quick Trick Chick Stack, Grinich Spinach Squares and Green Eggs and S'ham

The Mom and Dad to be were willing to play along! Thank goodness, since me, my parents and my boys were all sporting our Things 1-5 shirts [The only photo of me is on Facebook.  Once I figure out how to get it here, I will]. I made a Star Belly Sneetch Shirt for Dana and Mark had his Cat in the Hat hat.

Thing 3 and 4, ready for the party!

We had paper hats for the guests. And even Dad was Thing 5.

Mom and Dad, or a Truffula topped Sneetch and The Cat in the Hat

The one thing that wasn't Dr. Seuss-y was the cake, they just didn't have it. Pretend there's a cake photo here, I need to get it off Facebook.  It was really cute, it was a baby in a garden.

Of course, it wasn't complete without gifts! Dr. Seuss gifts too:

 Yep, that's a new fish onsie! 

I didn't get a picture of it, but we all signed the back of the shirt using fabric pens, and Dana wore it a few times since the shower.  It's a great keepsake and I'm hoping it'll go in the baby box at some point. 

And I want credit for getting the blog updated BEFORE my niece-phew is born :)

I'm a Princess, and this is my tiara!

Feb 17, 2011, I started running Couch to 5K for the second time ever and ran about 1.3 miles (ok, it was probably closer to 2 mile!). On Feb 26, 2012, I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon. I wrote this in the week after the race, using a bunch of other blogs as memory triggers. I'll be honest, finishing this entry made me cry. Like the Disney vacation post, pictures will follow soon! (or check facebook, they're all over there!)

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Princess race recap

I was way too nervous about getting up on time, so I was up at 11, 12 something, 1 something, then up for good by 2. The alarm went off 3, and then Todd's backup phone alarm at 3:15. I was up and dressed by around 3:30. I had a full change of clothes for the day, including sweatshirt, two containers of milk, and 3 gatorade bars, and put on my throw away sweatshirt.

They weren't kidding when they said it was a 20 minute walk from the buses to the corrals. First, we walked passed the finish line to the family reunion area. That's when I had breakfast. Then we moved through bag check, and I stuffed the extra milk and bars in my pockets. I hit the portapotties, and milled about.

On the walk to the corals, I chatted with a bunch of college kids doing the race, including a few guys. One was wearing a pink boa, and his friends were trying to convince him that one of the women was going to accuse him of making fun of the race and rip the boa off him. I lost them in the crowded when they stopped to take pictures on the old tram that was parted out back. We saw him in Epcot that afternoon, and the boa survived :) I then talked to a woman in corral A. She was injured and just as surprised at her placement as I was. She comes down to Disney every vacation to help her son's asthma, and decided to try the half. She injured something (ankle, knee?) and was having surgery after the race. Once we got into the corrals, I tried to escape to go to the bathroom again. The nearest one was in corral F or G and since they didn't want anyone jumping up in corrals, I couldn't get back there. I tried chalking it up to nervousness, since I also was queasy. Very queasy. And cold. My legs were shivering by the time we started.

Finally, Bibbitty boppity boo and we were off. It took me a bit to get my speed up, probably due to the chills, but it's better than coming out too fast. I got up to speed and realized I really did need to go. No problem, I knew there were plenty of bathrooms along the way. Honestly, I can't remember the sequence, everything is a little fuzzy. I remember seeing the pirate ship and taking pictures, I remember the woman lying in the middle of the road with a yellow jacketed volunteer diverting traffic around here, and about a half dozen runners with her. I heard her angry, injured voice yell "I don't know!" which I'm sure was in response to "how did you fall" being asked for the umpteenth time. Apparently, she broke her shoulder and upper arm in the fall. I remember seeing the 6 portapotties and short lines which didn't move at all. Then seeing a woman race past me from shrubs. I didn't want to lose too much time and the shrubs were pretty dense! Then I was back in the race, keeping my 11 ish min/ mile pace.

They really do up the route with pomp and circumstance. On the way to the Magic Kingdom, I remember seeing the pirate ship, a hot air balloon, stilt walkers, the "heroes" from all the movies with "I need a hero" blasting. The first 5 miles went surprisingly quickly. At mile 4, a cute little old lady in a wheel chair yelled "run Snow White" as I passed her. She was so cute! Before I knew it, we were going through the "toll booth" entrance to the magic kingdom and then, next thing I know, I'm running down Main Street! We zigged around to tomorrow land, behind the carousel and then you could see the castle. It got difficult, as everyone stopped to take photos. As I got closer, I could see the trumpeters above the arch. I didn't know if I should stop or run faster, it was exciting! Of course, my nose was runny, and in the video, you can see me wipe my nose coming out of the castle. Typical! We ran through frontierland, and I saw Jessie going on break, then, it was back out to the highway.

At this point, you know that it's 6 miles until the next park, and The On Ramp is still ahead, so it gets tough. At the half way point, the blast a power song, which you can hear for almost a mile. This year, it was Kelly Clarkson's "What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger". Right as the chorus started, another girl and I started signing. It was the weakest, squeakiest, worse rendition I've ever heard. We made eye contact, blushed and stopped singing, which was probably best for everyone involved. Then the Prince Charmings were on the side of the road. Three or four guys in tuxes, holding pillows with shoes (I saw a flip flop, a sneaker and a pump) asking the runners to try on the shoes so they could find a wife. That made me laugh. They also had a fire truck (yeah, firefighters just don't do it for me... Dad was a firefighter...) and the cliff shots (I brought my honey stingers, way tastier!).

Then, Mile 10 and The On Ramp. In a car, they look harmless enough, but running up on is a whole other ball of wax! It's a nice flat course, only 69 ft rise, and the bulk of it is here. Plus, the road is angled. Half way up, Sarge from Toy Story was there, shouting "you can do it, soldier!" through his megaphone. I have to say, the sliding sideways made the hill even worse. But once you get to the top, you can see Epcot! But there's still a whole 5 K ahead of you, so the joy is a little short lived. As I ran over the 15K mat, I turned to the woman next to me, and said "We can do a 5K, right?" and she just laughed and said "I hope so!".

We went passed all of the displays we saw at the beginning. When we went past the balloon, they were playing very mellow music. I desperately needed some motivation, so I started talking to myself (come on, everyone talks to themselves when they run!). This I can remember clearly. I said/thought "come on, you're posting your times on Facebook, and you're family and friends are watching. What would they say right now?" before I even finished that thought, I heard my mom's voice yelling "Go, Nicoleeeeeeeee!!!!!". Needless to say, that was enough to keep me from walking past the mellow balloon.

Right before mile 12, there were the villainesses and a band playing Disco Inferno. I thought I was kind of mean, since ever time they said "burn, baby, burn" all I could think of was my legs burning. But we were running down hill, so it wasn't all bad. At Epcot was right past them. Running into Epcot was amazing. There was a woman in a ECV holding a sign that read "I'm a perfect stranger and I'm proud of you". I managed to not cry right then. I then saw the Mile 12 marker and yelled "holy shit, we're actually going to do this!" and got 2 or 3 very excited "I know!" in response.

When you get into Epcot, there are people everyone, and they're all yelling "almost there!" They're all lying. It's a full mile to get through Epcot. I sped up too soon and walked through the middle of Epcot. I got a high five from a Vietnam vet who called me honey as I was running out of Epcot. Then you see the families. People were around 6 deep, cheering, looking for people they know, yelling out princess names. I was looking for my guys, but didn't think I'd find them. Then, you make a right turn, and the choir is there. Still managed not to cry. Then the route straightened out and there it is: the finish line, the spectator stand, the announcer yelling out names, Donald Duck and the clock. 2:30- something. I couldn't tell you what it was. I just ran and tried not to cry. Apparently, I threw an arm up in the air when I finished (thank god for the photos and videos). As soon as I walked off the mat, I just lost it and cried. Justin was there, and I got a hug and sobbed on the poor kid.

I cried because I just ran 13.1 miles in 2:34, when 53 weeks before my average run was around 2 miles in 30 plus minutes. I ran 13.1 miles 2 months after hitting a wall at 8 miles and calling for a ride home. I ran 13.1 miles when I can still remember days that climbing stairs or running to a meeting would leave me breathless and overheated.

I got through to the family reunion area, dried my tears and looked for my guys. They were stuck on the bus and missed seeing me finish. I called my mom, but she was out and I didn't think to call her cell. But it didn't matter. My guys found me and I got my hugs. My mom and dad called me and was (and still is) thrilled and proud of me.

Disney Vacation 2012

Ok, I don't have any photos in yet, but I wanted to at least get the up before it was too out of date. Photos to follow!
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Day 1
Well, not only did we survive the trip to Florida, but the boys did great. No crying, arguments or meltdowns from 6 am till bed at 8:15. We got to the airport over 2 hrs early, which was significantly better than the family in line at security behind us. They showed up at 8 for an 8 am flight. They had 6 minutes to get through security. Surprisingly, they made it!
The boys were great waiting, on the flight and even using the bathroom on the flight. Pete's ears bugged him a bit during landing, but the iPad kept them occupied. The ride to the hotel was quick, and once we checked in we had a nice afternoon.

We can see the main Savannah from our room, and saw giraffe, zebra, cattle, red hog, and various deer already. Before we checked in we had snacks in the lounge for tea time (clotted cream on scones!) then checked in before pool time including a nice little slide. Then more snacks! (Todd ate goat cheese and sun dried tomato hummus, I enjoyed African stuffed bread and the boys tried corn cakes but weren't impressed). We wandered around and roasted marshmallows while watching the flamingos, played on the playground, where Pete managed to get stuck on the twirly fire pole. We wandered around until dinner, where Pete ate four chicken legs, 3 mini corn breads, 3 strawberries, 2 penne pastas, and 2 cinnamon chocolate mousse petite fours. Brian only had 2 chicken legs, but managed to keep pace with the corn bread and desserts (brownies instead), and a small pile of strawberries. There were different kinds of African polenta, my favorite was with spinach. The peanut soup was spicy and peanuty. Overall, a tasty dinner.
Then, we went to the night vision, and saw some small and large deer with night vision goggles. Super cool! It's now 826, everyone's asleep, and the alarm is set for 630 to hit the magic kingdom.

Day 2
We did the magic kingdom. And I mean the whole thing! Except for Tom Sawyers Island, the train and the river boat. We hit adventure land first. Pirate of the Caribbean did not go over well with Brian. At all. The jungle cruise was a surprise hit, but things starting going really well after splash mountain. That's when Brian declared he liked all the rides so far, except the pirates. We finished adventure land and frontierland with barely any lines. Then came "hell alley" between It's a small world and peter pans ride. Stroller parking, skinny walkway and way too many toddlers. We got a fast pass to avoid the 1 hr wait on peter pan and waiting 20 minutes for small world. The boys loved it. Their mouths were hanging open, it was adorable. Somewhere in between we had lunch. The Peter pan ride was not worth an hours wait! Thank goodness for fast pass. Actually, we skipped snow whites scary adventure,since the lines were worse than Peter pan. Pete and I did space mountain together. When we got off, the quote was "I did not like it at all". I was slightly more favorable, but Todd concurred with Pete. Which means we don't have to wait in line for Everest on Thursday! We saw the presidents on presidents day, which totally tickled Pete! Buzz's ride was fun, Todd got double my score (lucky shot on Zurg at the end. Before the last room, I was up by 10K). We bought tons of ride photos and Brian wanted a woody Mickey ears. Which I ended up wearing, much to everyone's enjoyment. Later bed time by an hour tonight, tomorrow might be tougher, but theres extra magic hours for Epcot from 8-9, and after having the longest wait be only 40 minutes, the boys are already spoiled. Pete loves his fast pass!

Day 3
Up early. Really early. Todd woke up around 4 and noticed a sleeping giraffe outside our room. So, what does he do? Take a few photos. Unfortunately, the amount of noise to take a few photos sounds like a small ruckus, so, me, Pete and the giraffe woke up. By 8, the humans had arrived at magic hours at Epcot. Getting in was a bit long, but once we were it, we went to soarin' in the land. Take off was a bit surprising, but we managed to get Pete to open his eyes and we all really enjoyed it. I can understand why the line gets to over 100 minutes. We then hit the gentle green version of mission space. Well, Pete a d Todd did, while Brian and I solved problems with our space team and won the race to mars! I went on mission space after Pete's ringing endorsement of "I don't want to do it again, but you should do it." My car was 4 adult women, on the green side, but it was fun and no barf bags needed. Then we went to the seas with Nemo, which was cute. And the test track, which I think is probably Brian's favorite given his laughter when we hit 60 on the straightaway. Pete, was screaming on all the turns and at the end managed to say "I want to get off this thing!" not exactly a ringing endorsement. We hit captain eo to appease mommy. 3D was cool and the added 4D of alive sneezes was cute. Then we hit Ellen's Energy. Best part was Bill Nye the science guy. Brian was not impressed with the extremely loud dinosaurs. I think this is tied with pirates as his two least favorite rides. Then we went over to La Neuba. The clowns hit Pete's funny bone. His laughter with a bad timing of lemonade from daddy resulted in Pete snarfing the lemonade all over the woman sitting in front of him. Of course, he then had to go to the bathroom with 15 minutes left in the show. We weren't the favorites of our neighbors. The show was amazing, but very teen oriented with two trick bicyclist (one on a dirt bike, one on a street bike) and two jump ropers. I missed the shear feats of strength that the first show I saw had. We had a late dinner at a chip shop in downtown Disney and the boys passed out on the bus ride home. Fortunately, Hollywood studios doesn't open till 9, so maybe we can sleep in.

Day 4
Well, sleeping in is relative. I got up at 630 and went for a 20 minute run. Felt good, but it was hot inside. I hope it's not that bad on Sunday. We did everything we wanted to do n Hollywood studios, which wasn't a whole lot. We went right to toy story and got the fast pass for 1 ish. It broke down first thing but was running fine. Walked over to star tours for a 10 minute wait. Bribed Brian by promising him an ewok doll when we got off. The ride was fun, we went to wookie planet and jar jar binds planet. Only down side was the girl behind Todd threw up. Of course, we hit the gift shop and went crazy. Of course Brian got his ewok doll. Todd caved and got Pete a darth goofy (he almost caved for Mickey obi wan). Then there was Pete's R2D2 ears, Todd's bobba fett shirt and my star wars 77 varsity tee shirt. When geeks go wild... We saw the muppet show, the Pixar parade, lightning McQueen stunt show, Indiana jones stunt show and the toy story ride. The entry to toy story was incredible, it was Andy's room! The game was fun, Todd only beat me by 9K points, but Brian had double Pete's score. We went back to Epcot for dinner at the corral seas. The app was real good, the food was ok. The boys had fun watching the divers and sharks. We hit spaceship earth, since it didn't have a wait then hung out in the lounge for a bit. Early morning tomorrow, safari breakfast, character lunch, then safari dinner.

Day 5
Warning: I'm writing this right after a dinner safari, with 3 different wine pairing...more on that later.
We woke up at the crack of dawn to get ready for the breakfast safari. We took a bus over to animal kingdom, and got to see the "behind the scenes" stuff, like the employee parking lot and borrowable bicycles (since the lot is that far away from the park) and the barns for the animals. Then we got on the ride aka safari and saw pretty much every animal. The rhino was running around, the lion wasn't totally asleep, all in all, it was pretty cool. Then we went for breakfast, which was good, todd loved the banana French toast I liked the peri peri omelet. We hit the Kali river rapids first thing, which was a good idea, until Todd and Pete were aimed down hill and Pete got drenched. He started crying because he thought his "favorite" sweatshirt was ruined. Once we calmed down, we saw Dino-Sue, which thrilled Pete, and the triceratops ride for Brian. Then we went on dinosaur and managed to terrify both boys. The picture is classic, Pete with his eyes closed, Brian with his hands over his ears, Todd hugging Brian and me giving the carnosarius a dirty look. We then went to the bugs movie, which was fun, although the smoke, spiders and grasshopper freaked out Pete and Brian. The "beetles" running in the seat was funny though. The tree of life is pretty cool. We didn't get to see a lot of the animals, since we had the jiko dinner, we left at 2. Spent some time at the pool, which was great once the boys got life jackets. Then, dropped the boys off at simba's cub house (after a bit of confusion regarding 345 vs 430 start time) and we went on safari. The evening one was just around the hotel, and we saw running zebras and a very confused ostrich trying to get out of the way. Huey Lewis the Gnu, a giraffe that didn't notice a truck with a dozen people on board. Then to jiko for the tasting menu. The food was incredible. Fortunately, we got to keep a copy of the menu. The beef crispy rolls, and chicken were both deemed really good by the 2 of us. The 3 wines were great. And the creme brûlée was pretty much like my pumpkin pie (ok, ma's pumpkin pie).

Day 6
Went back tithe magic kingdom today. It was tough getting the boys out of bed, but we managed. Had to get a fast pass for splash mountain, since it wasn't working when we got there. Saw Tom Sawyers island and Peter told Brian a little about the book. Took the ferry boat and saw the construction on thunder mountain railroad. The construction workers all waved to the boys, it was really cute. Finally got to go through the castle, and danced withe the parade again. This time, the gorilla from Tarzan danced with Pete. We spilt a waffle with nutella and fruit for snack. Then, since it was hot, instead of going to epcot after lunch, we came back to the hotel and hit the pool. We went to kadani village, which has a bigger water slide and played on that all afternoon. Then we went back to Epcot for pasta in the park. The food wasn't great, but I got my picture with snow white and we had the best seats in the park for the fireworks. Before they started, we were harassed by a family of ducks. Brian fell asleep about 15 minutes before the show started and saw the first volley, but that was about it. We had to carry him all the way back to the bus, and to the room.

Day 7
Went to the Mara for breakfast, discovered bobotie is pretty darn tasty. Then over to espn for packet pick up,and the boys race. The line was long, but I got ears, a shirt and hoodie. The boys did great on their race, Pete won by a nose. Then over to animal kingdom to see the animals. Kinda cool, but a little rushed since we had the luau at 5. We did see all the animals and begged jay to get the boys last stamp on the discovery tour without doing the activity. The luau was nice, Pete ate a ton of chicken again and even went on stage to learn a dance. Other than tucker house and jiko, the food hasn't really been much better than pretty good. Oh, and boma's peanut soup. The traditional dance was good, but it was Disney-fied to the point I expect Lilo and stitch to show up. It's not quite 9, Todd is snoring, the boys are asleep and I'm packed for the race. The alarm is set for 3.

Day 8
Didn't get to do this last night... Anyway, I woke up at 2, which was an hour before the alarm. Got up at three with the alarm. At 3:15, Todd's phone when off (aaawwww) and I was downstairs by 3:30. Did the race (more on that later) then hit Epcot for the day. We got the boys all of their Duffy country stamps, and more photos with Duffy, Pooh and Tigger. Went on the Mexico ride again, and Norway. Visited figment, talked with crush the turtle (that was super cool, the talked to the kids. Pete thought it was funny). We also went to the lion king environmental movie and watched Japanese candy making, more of carving, it was impressive. Pete wanted her to make an elephant, but I don't think it was on her list. We went to Canada for an early dinner. The steak and risotto was excellent, the boys loved their chocolate moose, and the maple creme brûlée was out of this world! They even used maple sugar on top. Then we went for a nap, thinking the fireworks at the magic kingdom were at 10. Instead, they were at 8 and we saw them from the bus. Back to the hotel for some tv, a few gifts for the boys since Pete isn't chewing his clothes. This morning, we bought almost all of our left over snacks, and got shirts for ourselves and the boys from the gift shop. At the airport now, with a bunch of women from the race. Everyone is still wearing their medals.

Personalized Crayon Art

More inspiration from pinterest! There have been tons of crayon art floating around, but most of them are just "melted rainbows". They're cute, but the same. I saw one where it was all blue crayons that looked like rain and a couple under an umbrella. That was so sweet (and expensive! $75!). So, I went to Walmart and got 3 small canvases for $3 and two 64 packs of "Cra-Z-Art" crayons for $2 each. And borrowed my hubbies heat gun.

I decided to do the boys names in the melted crayon. Since Pete's home sick, we did his name first. I let him pick out he colors, with the explicit instructions "No black, no brown, it'll look like poop". Since he has the stomach bug, he got that, and we didn't have any issues :)

I printed out his name, and taped it to painters tape, that I had layered on tin foil. I cut out the letters to make the "negative stencils"



I then attempted to peel the foil off the back. I think next time, I'm going to use wax paper, since that wasn't as easy as I hoped. Then, just place the tape on the canvas, hot glue down the crayons (Pete wanted them on the canvas with all of the color names showing).



Then, I fired up the heat gun on low and let her rip! We went back and forth a few times. Depending on how high on the crayon you apply the heat, it cools at different rates, so you see the "dyed canvas" right at the tip, and the chunkier wax near the bottom. After it cooled a bit, I took a sharp edge and traced the letters to separate the wax. I did lose some (like the insides of the "e"), but, all in all, it worked really well. Pete asked me to outline the letters to make them easier to read, so I grabbed and sharpie, and we ended up with this:



Pete said it's awesome! And it gave us something fun to do on a sick day. I just need to make on for my little kiddo, but I'll let him pick out the colors...

Suuuper Caaapes!

Please tell me you read that in the Superman voice-over voice, because that's how it was written!

Anyhoo, about a month ago, I discover Pinterest. It is the most dangerous website on the planet, as it gives you all of this false motivation that you're actually capable of doing crafts, making adorable cupcakes, cooking gourmet meals and dressing impeccably. I've gotten sucked into the cooking, baking and crafting section. I saw a how-to on taking old t-shirts and turning them into capes, and another how-to on stenciling using freezer paper. Since I haven't the foggiest idea what freezer paper is, and I have Glad Press'n Seal (which I HATE for using on food, love for using on non-food things), I figured I'd give this a shot.

I bought 2 cheapy t-shirts at Walmart, since the boys wanted particular colors, removed the sleeves and the front, leaving just the neck hole attached to the back. Instant cape! For safety's sake, I'm going to cut the neck, glue in some velcro, so it's quick release (that's the engineer in me coming out).

To make the stencils, I went on line and found black and white versions of the logos the boys requests. Then, I just covered the logo with the Press'n Seal (from here on out PNS, cause I'm tired of typing Press'n Seal already).



Then, just cut out the logo, keeping the parts that you want to leave UNPAINTED. I know, stencils are backwards. There's a 50% chance you're going to get the negative image of what you were going for. Lie, say it was on purpose!

Now, here's the hard part. Peel the PNSoff the paper. Easy, right? HA! I ended up using the universal solvent: Mom Spit. Just wet the paper a bit, and it'll peel right off the PNS.

Attach the PNS to the shirt, adjusting as needed. With the Superman logo, I reassembled the whole logo on the cape, then attached one PNS at a time in the empty hole. Everything was pretty darn close to even.



Walmart only had spray on fabric paint, so I sprayed then used a foam brush to even it out.



Due to the dark color of the capes, I used about 4 coats (spray, brush, repeat). I let the paint dry just long enough to wash the brush, and then removed the PNS. Yippee!! It worked!



The details aren't terribly crisp around the edges, but, it came out pretty darn well.



Ok, the bat's ears are barely there, but MY batman is 4. From his point of view, I just made him something that can deflect bullets.

Until relatively recent, I really didn't like coconut. I remember getting Mounds or Almond Joys as a kid for Halloween and being bummed as my mom eagerly devoured them. A few years ago, I think when we were in Hawaii or the Caribbean for vacation, I tried some fresh coconut and really enjoyed it.

Fast forward to a few months ago, when I made triple chocolate cookies for work. A coworker didn't stop by my desk until the afternoon, so he missed them. We chatted, he "complained" and I promised him something special for his birthday. He said "Coconut Cream Pie, November 18" and walked away. Well, that's tomorrow, but since I don't bake on weeknights, I made it on Sunday.

Now, I've NEVER made a coconut cream pie before. Actually, I've never made a cream pie that wasn't boxed pudding and whipped cream (from scratch, at least). So I googled it. Found Martha's recipe, which is the only one with coconut custard (as opposed to vanilla custard with shredded coconut mixed it), but she used whipped cream instead of meringue. Found Alton's Lemon Meringue Pie... left out the Lemon part, used the meringue. Have my mom's amazing "shortbread style" dessert crust, which I HAD to use! Saw Cook's Illustrated "Almond Joy Pie", which had chocolate and almonds mixed in the custard.... hmmm, to fancy, but I can top the meringue with anything I want, right?

The only thing I wish I did was take a photo of the pie, it was gorgeous, if I do say so myself. And it was incredible tasting too! It was creamy and oh man! YUMMY!

So, here's my "Almond Joy Topped Coconut Cream Pie". Its a 3 part recipe: the custard and pie assembly in part 1, the meringue in part 2 (cause its good for different pies!) and the crust in part 3. It seems complicated, but its really not, just follow the order in the main recipe, and it should work out. You can make it all in one day, or spread it out over a few days.

Coconut Cream Pie

Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks, separated
• 3 cups canned unsweetened coconut milk (2 cans)
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar
• 5 tablespoons cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate
• ½ recipe Dessert Pie Crust
• 1 recipe Meringue
• ¼ cup Toasted Coconut
• ¼ cup Sliced Almonds
• ¼ cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out chilled dough to a bit less than 1/4 inch thick. Fit dough into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim crust to a 1/2-inch overhang all around. Fold to make a thicker edge and crimp. Prick dough all over with a fork.

Line pie shell with parchment paper, fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until edges of crust just turn golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove parchment and pie weights. Return crust to oven, and continue baking until golden all over 15 to 20 minutes more. Place pie shell on a wire rack to cool completely.

Melt chocolate, let cool slightly, then coat the inside of the cooled crust with the chocolate. Let sit until chocolate sets up.

In a bowl, lightly whisk egg yolks; set aside. In a saucepan, whisk together coconut milk, granulated sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Bring to a simmer (do not boil), and cook, whisking constantly, 3 to 4 minutes.

Whisk a quarter of hot-milk mixture into egg yolks; whisk in remaining milk mixture. Strain into a clean saucepan, and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until custard is thick and bubbles appear in center, 2 to 3 minutes.

At this point, you can either fill and top the pie, or let the custard cool and assemble the next time. To cool, transfer custard to a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto surface to prevent a skin from forming. Set in ice bath for 30 minutes to chill before putting into fridge for up to 1 day.

Fill crust with coconut custard. Top with meringue, then sprinkle on almonds and toasted coconut. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, until meringue is golden brown. When cooled, sprinkle with mini chips.

Meringue

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• ⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Method

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes

Dessert Pie Crust

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 stick butter
• ½ cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 1 egg
• water or juice to pull dough together
• ½ teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Method

Put flour, sugar, salt and butter in food processor. Pulse until combined and butter is broken into small pieces.

Add egg, pulse until combined.

Add water or juice (i.e. apple cider for fruit pies) or cold water and about a tablespoon at a time, until the dough comes together in a ball.

Remove from food processor and wrap in plastic wrap. Put in fridge for 10-15 minutes before rolling out. Add liquid or flour to adjust consistency as needed. The dough should roll out without sticking to the pin too much.

Stone Age Cell Phones

I work for a 24/7/365 manufacturing company, and I'm one of the "lucky" ones who has to be on call whenever the manufacturing group needs "assistance". Up until this month, The Company has reimbursed us $45/month towards our personal cell phone bill. Which is pretty excellent! I've got an iPhone, cause I'm a total techno-geek. My minutes are pretty much evenly split between calling my mom and getting called by work.

But then "someone" looked at who was getting reimbursed at work, how much they were getting back and who had company issued blackberries and determined there was an "issue". Cell phone reimbursements would stop immediately and everyone below associate director level was going to have to reapply for a phone/blackberry. Cell phones would be issued only if it was mission critical and if you want to move your personal number to the issued phone, The Company would own your cell number by the end of the year.

So, everyone supporting manufacturing submitted their requests. One group got shot down outright. My group, after a 5 month delay, got our high tech Nokia 6301's. As you can see from the photo, it looks like a slide phone... nope, looks like it might flip open to reveal a qwerty keyboard, nope... looks like its a shiny version of the Nokia I bought in 1999... BINGO!

I tried texting, took me 3 minutes to get the word "beer" to appear. Apparently 2337 should be "adds". And it wasn't exactly intuitive how to rotate through the words. (yes, my first text on a work phone was "when are we going for beer").

Anyway, the extended period of time of text, the fact that I can't just magically beam my work contacts to the phone, its not completely customizable and, well, isn't a smart phone has made me realize that, to me, a cell phone is about as useful as a cassette player.

And work thinks a bunch of engineers are going to give up their iPhones and Blackberries for this... that just cracks me up!

Bored in the kitchen

Well, its official, I'm bored in the kitchen.

I've mentioned before that I love to cook. Honestly, I really like all of it, from the shopping, prep work, cooking, eating (ok, not the cleaning up... but who does, really?). But, I work 9+ hours per day, which doesn't include the almost 2 hour (round trip) commute. And I married one of the top 10 pickiest eaters on the planet (no cheese other than mozzarella, no cumin, nothing too spicy, nothing "weird", the definition of which varies on his mood) and we have 2 pre-schoolers, so you can imagine how easy it is to be creative in this house!

So, when I made the "exotic" meal of pan fried chicken with spicy peach salsa/bbq sauce with barley and acorn squash and apples as the sides, well, I was the only one enjoying it. And there's nothing more depressing than cooking a great meal, and then while I'm thoroughly enjoying it (sometimes, even doing a little happy dance), look around and see glum faces, or get asked for "something else".

So, the big question now, is what do I do about this? Do I resign myself to endless nights of making plain chicken, or do I cook two, or three, or God Forbid, 4 different meals? (Yeah, right!) Or do I make what I want, and have the three of them just stare at it.

Lately, the answer has been to bake. And I bring the leftovers to work, if there are any. And work always seems to enjoy my cooking. But then again, which would you rather have: devil's food cupcakes with peanut butter frosting or acorn squash and apples?

I've been out-baked!

I enjoy baking... hell, I enjoy cooking. Hubby isn't too thrilled with me cooking, as I tend to dirty every dish in the house and destroy the kitchen. But I'm a really good cook, so he deals with the mess.

When I first met Hubby, he could barely boil water. I kid you not, one day he asked me to make him pudding and handed me the box of instant pudding. After I stopped laughing, I asked him to look at the directions and walked out of the kitchen. That was his first foray into the kitchen, and he's been slowly getting better at it.

Earlier in the week, he was craving brownies. He didn't even ask, he just picked up the King Arthur Baking Book and started cooking. An hour later, there were the most incredible, moist, chewy, fudgy brownies covered in vanilla ice cream. I've officially been out baked! I've got to post the recipe, they were THAT good.

Brownies from King Arthur's Flour Baking Companion

6 oz unsweetened baking chocolate

1.5 sticks butter

5 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

2.5 cup sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1 1/3 cup flour

1 1/2 cup chopped nuts, mini marshmallows or mini chips (optional, yeah, right! Todd did pecans)

Pre-heat oven to 375 and grease a 9x13 pan

Melt chocolate and butter together in a sauce pan, let cool slightly

Beat together eggs, vanilla, salt, sugar and corn syrup until light and fluffy (this takes a few minutes)

Stir flour into melted chocolate. Fold chocolate batter into egg batter, stir in nuts/chips

Spread batter in pan and brush top w/ 1 tbsp milk

Bake 35 minutes until top is crisp, but a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out covered in chocolate.

Cool several HOURS (ummm, we waited until they were slightly warm) then cut. Cuts easier with a plastic knife or a metal knife sprayed with Pam.

If you don't have the corn syrup, you can make them without, but they won't be as moist. You can probably add some instant espresso (maybe 1 tbsp) and they would be pretty darn close to the Starbuck espresso brownies.

Back to Blogging, and Reunion

One of The Girls asked if anyone had a blog. I remembered wanting to start one, and figured now would be as good time as any, since I'm in a tizzy over reunion. So I trying thinking of a title for 2 days. TWO whole days, and I'm coming up blank. Then, I figured I'll just pop over to blogger and see if they have blog name suggestions. I log in and up pops my blog. Damn! I created this over a year ago and forgot about it. It's 1 whole entry, but hey, I had a title! and a pretty creative one too, if I do say so myself.

______

So, reunion. My 15th college reunion. I have to admit, I had more fun than I thought I would have, but its probably due to Karaoke at the pool hall. More on that later...

Key info about me and my reunion:

*I went to a small geeky college in a small run-down city.

*I have an incredibly crappy memory for people I haven't seen in 15-20 years.

*I'm really good a smiling and nodding while looking at photos of people I'm supposed to know since I saw them almost every day during college. 15 years ago.

*I hate being the one having to decide what a group of 13 people are doing for dinner at 545, when we have tix for the 7 pm game.

*I am always the one having to decide what a group of 13 people are doing for dinner at 545, when we have tix for the 7 pm game.

My same core group of (geeky) friends showed, plus my BFF flew in from Cali! :) We went to the grand opening of the new football stadium/athletic center (which the school needs, cause geeks are SO athletic!), we hung out at the fair eating junk food and hit the bouncy house for my 2 boys. We went to the student union to buy some shirts, hung out there, got free pizza (yeah! I didn't have to figure out the dinner thing!), then went to the hockey game. Which, turns out, was an exhibition game. No wonder I was able to get tix the same day!

It was so disjointed and unorganized. There wasn't a class get-together, so other than the people we ran into by shear luck (and I was able to read their name tags and see the class year), I only saw people I know. Plus, college campuses aren't exactly toddler/pre-school friendly. Do you know how many times I had to say "No, you can't go play with the big boys?" But, they had fun at the hockey game, so I'm glad my boys came.

Honestly, the highlight of the weekend was hitting the local pool hall at about 10 o'clock Sat night. It was filled with LOCALS. Nice people, but, well, upstate NY locals. Hubby stayed with the boys at the hotel, so I could go out with my classmates/friends. 7 of us wander into the place, we all get drinks (for under $30!), then proceed to take over the jukebox. Then the karaoke started: Survivor, ABBA, Prince, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, George Michael, Tupac (yeah, I'm still not sure how he ended up there, but we were grooving to Tupac). It wasn't Karaoke night. We still had a blast, and I like to think everyone was laughing with us, 'cause everyone WAS laughing.

You haven't lived until you've seen an overweight almost 40 Indian geek sing "Eye of the Tiger". He wasn't half bad either!

The worst part about the weekend? BFF and I might have agreed to organize the 20 year reunion. Then I won't have anyone to bitch to! At least I've got 5 years to worry about it, right?

Photo Collages

I bought myself one of those coffee mugs that you can customize by putting photos or other stuff under the clear exterior.  So I made a cute collage of my baby and stuffed it in there... that was 2.5 years ago.  My baby is now over 3, and he has a little brother.  How do I respond to "Oh, is that a picture of the baby?" Usually with a "um, yeah, that's the big one when he was 6 months old, I should probably update this, huh?"

So right now I'm fighting w/ Word trying to import photos.  Why am I doing this in Word? God knows!  Cause I'm an idiot.  The photo files are huge, Word is bogging down... and the photos I've imported are heavily skewed towards the little guy, which could be because there's more pictures of me w/ my little guy.  

Its amazing how just trying to compile a photo collage can bring on the mommy guilt!