I and my son did two things I've never done before. We honey brined the turkey and we made real mashed potatoes. Both were delicious. I got a bit frustrated because the turkey refused to get done but I think I underestimated the size of the bird and thought it would be done sooner than it was. In any case, it was juicy and tasty. I'll probably prepare it the same way again at Christmas.

The potatoes...I grabbed Yukon Golds because they taste lovely as potato chips and I figured they'd make nice mashed potatoes. And they did. Slightly sweet and yellow. As I said, I've never made mashed potatoes before though I understand the process. So really I didn't make a huge mess of it and they tasted great.

I also made buttermilk biscuits and I think we've finally figured out the proper proportion of baking power so that they still rise nicely but don't have a bitter aftertaste. Still need a bit more salt. In any case, they were quite tasty too and especially when dipped in gravy.

Now we have a ton of turkey left over and I'm thinking I'll make turkey soup.

Oh, and I set off the smoke detector. The drippings burned on the bottom of the oven and smoked. :P

We watched Pirates of the Caribbean while waiting and once again, I realize how much I like that movie.

Anyway, now it's time to let the meal settle and think about desert. Pumpkin cookies because nobody eats pie around here.

Thanksgiving all my friends in the USA. Mmmmm, turkey.

A quick update. Son is doing well. His fingers are healing and he's wearing band aids now instead of a huge dressing. He's concerned that the tip of middle finger is still numb. Since he has so much bruising and swelling around the areas where the nerve blocks were done, I'm supposing he has a lot of nerve irritation and that it'll be a while before the feeling comes back. That's my hope, anyway. I don't think the cut was so deep it cut the nerve. He still has pressure feeling on it and he poked it with a sharp object and could feel that so it's just the light brushing across the end of his finger that he's not feeling. Sigh. Anyway, stitches out on Tuesday.

Oh, heh, first day back to school, he comes out and shows me his pinky finger on that hand. It's swollen and bruised. He decided that he could play basketball and used that hand to block the ball. Twice. He says it doesn't hurt. *shakes head* Boys...

Had an exciting morning yesterday. A little background. My son is learning to cook. He's very good at if a bit sloppy and careless, the usual stuff, not reading recipes properly, getting measurements wrong, spilling stuff everywhere. Generally, though, he has a healthy respect for sharp objects. We have a very sharp object, a mandolin for cutting potatoes and other things. I make mean homemade potato chips because of it.

Anyway, he went to make his hashbrown potatoes and I suddenly hear horrible screaming. Before I can get off my aft, he's running into the living room flinging blood everywhere. He's cut his fingers. I grab him and rush him back to the kitchen to rinse his hand so I can see. Now, he screaming and jumping all over the place. I have blood everywhere. I rinse his hand and blood is gushing out of his fingertips. He's cut himself, really cut himself. I grab the nearest cloth which is a not so clean dishtowel and wrap his hand, holding it with all my strength. It's painful, he's crying, I'm shouting at hubby that we have to get him to the ER. None of us are dressed. I'm not going in my pajamas. Son is barefoot. I mention stitches and he totally freaks and I'm now trying to calm him down enough that we can get shoes on him and he can hold his hand so I can get dressed. Daughter whines and complains but cleans up the living room floor and arranges for a ride to her fund raiser.

Half an hour later, we're in the ER. Saturday morning is a quiet time and he is being checked in immediately. Yes, he needs stitches, yes, he gets hysterical again. But he does very well and holds still while they numb his hand, is able to tell the dr that his index finger isn't numbing up and tolerates the multiple shots to finally get it numb enough to work on. An hour and a half later he has 11 stitches in three fingers and a huge dressing on his hand.

About half way through the stitches, my adrenalin disappears, my lack of breakfast and coffee makes itself known and I'm suddenly feeling faint. Yeah, mom nearly faceplanted in the emergency room, but I got a chair and was able to sit before it happened.

Anyway, he's doing fine. Less pain today than yesterday. No school tomorrow until we can get the dressing removed. A little whining about wanting two hands.

On another note, daughter and I are probably going to NYC in February for the Utada Hikaru concert. We got tickets but that still doesn't mean we'll be going. Lots of factors need to be considered like transportation there and hotel and missing school. Further news will be coming.

 Went to see Fame.  I loved the original, watched the tv series every week.  Even got to meet most of the performers at a press party in 1982.  I have to say, that the new version just doesn't make it.  It's a boring, bland, sanitized, prettified Disneyesque version that made daughter cry out when Sophomore Year appeared "It's only Sophomore year? Hurry up and end, please." The original was well-performed, with catchy music and a hard edge.  This version just failed.  The dancing was bad--the pretty blonde lacked presence and technique, the music wasn't bad, just unmemorable, the drama classes were trite.  All the sex, language and character development was missing.  It wasn't completely stupid like more current dance and musical movies are but only because it had good source material.  Yeah, give this one a miss.

 And got a Twitter account  (too keep track of my daughter... Not really but it sounds like a good reason) because I told purajo  I'd get one if she got one and she did, so I did.  So you can friend me at http://twitter.com/mommimus_prime . 

 Congratulations and Best Wishes to huntingospray

May you have many, many years of happiness.

And because it has nothing to do with you getting married but you should get some kind of gifty fic type thing, Part 2 of the story begun in my previous post.

( Trace was fuming... )

 

 

 

Happy Birthday, purajo .

And it's not even late... well, it's late for you but not for me. ;)

Title: Training
Characters: Trace, Nocturne, ((My OCs)) Ari, Adi, Aki. ((Jo's OCs))


( It was a training mission... )

 

 

I have so much  more respect for carpet layers now.  After only 3 days of yanking up carpet, I'm so sore I can barely move.  The carpet is actually not that hard to get up, it's the hundreds of staples and the tack boards that are giving me all the exercise.  So far, though, it's been worth it, the floor underneath looks good and the stinky carpet is slowly disappearing.  Eventually, I hope to have it all removed.   

Emma is in her last week of camp and is ready to come home.  She's tired and sore and just wants to take some time off.  Funny thing, she got accepted into her high school's dance program but she never auditioned and can't do it anyway.  The teacher knows her well so I assume that's why she got in without the required audition.  In any case, she'll be home Saturday night probably, not sure of the plans since her room mate's mom is bringing them home.

Quinn took a week of archery class and really enjoyed it.  We went out and did more target practice over the weekend and he started to show a lot of improvement.  We're looking into joining one of the traditional archery clubs in the area.  

 Did the vacation thing.  It was quite a lot of fun.  Some hot weather, some really pleasant weather.  Met Vixen's Shadow and Okami Chan and had good, good meals with both.  Managed to see Jetfire on the morning we were leaving DC.  It was only about 5 minutes from our hotel and the best museum ever.  Never been to the annex before and it was worth the late start.  We were planning only an hour there and spent more than 2.  

On the way back to Erie we stopped in Carlisle and said hello to Emma.  She looked tired but seemed to be having a good time.  Working hard, learning a lot.

However, it seems that Novel H1N1 has hit the school.  One confirmed case in the other dorm which probably means everyone has been exposed.  No word on what is going on except what Emma reports through text messages.  I suspect I'll be driving back there to get her if there's a big outbreak and they close the school.  They have been taking precautions, cleaning the classrooms between classes, disinfecting the barres, hand washing, all the good stuff but it's probably too little too late. Ah, well.  Only thing I could tell was to go to the nurse at the first signs of symptoms.  She has asthma and most illnesses go right to her chest.

Anyway, I really need to get to work on my projects.  Painting and carpet.  Ugh.  Enough for today.  

Okie dokie. Got our vacation plans pretty well set for next week. Going to spend a day and a half in Washington, DC. Driving from Harrisburg on Monday and leaving Wednesday morning. Then going to Williamsburg for a day and then to Philly until Saturday morning. Anybody in any of those areas interested in a meet up?

Only going to Harrisburg because of screwed up dates involving daughter's dance camp and I bought tickets to see Transformers in IMax. So yeah, not going to waste that money though neither son nor I are especially excited now to see it again. Oh, well.

No, wasn't that impressed with the movie. It was... okay. I tend to agree with most of what everybody is saying plus I have the added bonus of not liking ANYTHING that Bay has done so... yeah, anyway...

It gives such nice bright colors. Just heard on the radio that Kodak will no longer make Kodachrome film. For some reason that makes me sad. I have tons of slides shot on that film... And there was only one lab that processed it left in the world. That makes me sad too.

On a different note, took daughter to her dance school over the weekend and she had her first full day today. Sounds like things are going well. She loved all her teachers today and is looking forward to tomorrow. I miss here but being able to talk or txt whenever there's a chance really helps. And we're going up there next weekend to see Transformers on IMax so we'll see her and drop off some stuff that she forgot.

They're at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, a lovely old college in the middle of a town that dates back to George Washington. Just a cool place.

Created by Recipe Star

Who woulda guessed?

Anyway, school is out for the summer.  Emma gave her speech and it was good.  Despite the angsting over it and the rewrites and not getting to rehearse, it was a good speech.  Funny and witty and just like her.  I was proud.  She looks beautiful, tall and elegant and her voice was deep and lovely.  Where did that deep voice come from?

Son finished 6th grade and we got his report card today.  He brought all of his 4th quarter grades except social studies up to solid A's.  Social studies, apparently, is wicked and he was happy with the B+ he ended up with.  So his final grades 2 B+s the rest solid As.  Couldn't quite get his overall math grade up to an A but it was close, real close, missed by a point.

So the first week of vacation, I'm figuring it's going to be nice and relaxed but nope.  Emma wants to go to dance class everyday and then do stuff in the afternoon with her friends and I'm the taxi.  We've been driving all over the place.  Quinn and I went to see Up.  What a good movie.  Not so much the plot or the physics but the characters are wonderful.  I cried like a baby through the first part and at several other parts throughout the movie.  I recommend it.  Highly.  Definitely a 5  hanky movie.

Emma's 5 week dance camp is coming up and we'll be taking the week after she starts off for a bit of a vacation.  There's a good chance that we'll be in the DC area during that time.  Anybody in the area up for a meet if we get there?

The other thing I did was order a new iPhone.  I've been waiting for something a bit more exciting than the iPhone 3G and the 3GS looks to be it.  And it's cheaper and more memory and wow, I can hardly wait for it to come.  Oh, and I got our tickets for Transformers 2.  We'll see it here in town on the 24th, first showing and then on the 28th on IMAX in Harrisburg, PA.  Can't wait.  Should be a blast.

And that's it for now.  Just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit though 70 is actually rather nice.  Not beach weather but definitely pleasant.

Because everybody has things to do this morning except me... well, I could clean the bathroom but that would accomplish something and because purajo   insisted that I amuse myself while she goes to look at toys.  I mean, her purpose in life is to keep me amused, how mean is she to go look at ROTF toys? 

She said, write.  I said, I can't.  Nothing comes out after the first line.  She said, write about Kefira. 100 words, that's all.  I said, pfft, sure.  So I did, for her.

Play  

 

( Read more... )

 

 

Last day. Woke up to thunder and lightning and lots and lots of rain. Neat, it waited until after the race. It also cooled off... a lot. Anyway, got up and went online to renew our tickets. Man, so much easier than it use to be where you had to go to the track and stand in line after finding parking. All done and off to breakfast. Ugh, grits again. I hate grits so I had Cheerios. I like Cheerios. And an orange.

Then after a bit of rping it was off to return the rental, but not before daughter called to make noises over the phone and chat a little. After that it was off to the track and some last minute shopping and a look in the museum. It was pouring rain but one sight stopped me dead in my tracks.



Poor Bee.

We bought t-shirts and sweatshirts and a pin and a pen. Quinn got a new DS game. From there we went looking for lunch. The restaurant at the Brickyard Crossing was closed. The hotel part had been torn down since last year, which we knew, and the Clubhouse part was still there but either they no longer had meal service or we missed it. In any case, we decided to try another little restaurant with the kind of food we liked, only it closed at 2 and it was now 2:30. Sigh, so we ended up at McDonalds. We then dropped Brother-in-law off at the bus station and headed back to the hotel. Hubby went off to search for more stuff to buy and Quinn and I hung around the room. After he got back, dinner time.

We leave tomorrow early for the drive back. Not looking forward to it. I hate driving long distances. It leaves me discombobulated for days after.

Race day, except son and I aren't going to the race. Up early though and got some breakfast. Hung around until noon and then off to the theater to see A Night at the Museum. And promptly got confused. Passed the same spot three times (I wasn't lost, I knew exactly where I was, I just couldn't figure out which was I was going. The beltway has always confused me with the directions. I don't know which way north, south, east and west is in Indianapolis despite visiting here once a year for the last 20 years. Anyway, finally figured it out and realized right away that I hadn't copied the directions very well, leaving out a couple of very important details. And the name and addy and phone number of the place I was going. If I'd had those I could've looked up a map on my iPhone as it was, it wasn't showing up on the phone's GPS because I guess it was too new. In any case, we drove around for 40 minutes before I gave up and asked for directions. Arrived in about 5 and watched the movie. We were treated right off to the 3rd Transformers trailer in glorious digital sound on the IMax screen. Woo, I may not like Michael Bay but it looked exciting and the sound made us jump every single time.

The movie itself was cute but not very good overall. The first one was better. It had more heart. This was just an average action film with special effects. Oh, well. Son loved it so, it was worth it.

Made it to the race track. Yay! Boy, it's hot there. My head was roasting. I forgot my hat but remembered the sunscreen, thank Primus. I got tons of pictures of Sideswipe and the other bots and I got to sit in Cliffjumper. Woohoo. The camaro is okay but I wouldn't own one. I wasn't impressed with the interior. Like the little car we rented for the weekend, an Aveo (four door sedan) it's just not a good fit. In the Aveo, to get close enough to the steering wheel to be comfortable my knees hit the dash and anything further back and I was reaching to far with my arms. Such a teeny car too. The Camaro, well, I sat so low I could barely see over the steering wheel but I'm sure there's a seat adjustment somewhere for that problem. Otherwise, eh, the interior was passable but not exceptional. For the money I'm sure it costs it seemed a bit on the cheap side. Yeah, get leather and it'll be nicer. No back seat legroom even though it had seats back there. The front seats were flush against the back seats. I sat in a Corvette a couple of years ago and found that it didn't fit my behind.

Now, I'd love to sit in Mudflap. What a cute car. Skids was cute too but looked pretty much like the Fit, the Versa, and whatever other cars are in that class. Nothing new about it. I like the name, Beat, but eh. ((looking at the blog listing of characters, it says Spark is the model name but you can clearly see in the picture it says Beat.)) I like a bit more funkiness with my design which is why I liked Mudflap so much.

Took lots of photos. Here are the best... http://www.flickr.com/photos/26575175@N08/sets/72157618682917112/

Tomorrow we're doing something a bit different. Instead of the zoo or the Children's Museum which we've pretty much outgrown (Been going since Quinn was a baby) we're going to see Night At the Museum on the IMax theater. Wanted to see Star Trek but it only at one showing at 12:15 AM. Much too late or early. I just hope it doesn't rain on the race.

Here I sit in an Indianapolis hotel out by what use to be the airport with nothing much to do but roleplay and watch Cartoon Network with my son who's not really watching. It's the Clone Wars and dang if it's not a repeat of the only episode I've ever seen. Why does that happen?

Anyway, the best thing to happen was lunch, which actually sucked because it was a Denny's and I loathe Denny's but hubby said look at the pictures I took. Heh, sure, I'll look at your pictures of Classic Indy race cars. I like them, they're pretty and shiny. He says just scroll through. Third picture and I'm squeeing. I'm texting Tirya even though I promised no texting during lunch. I'm bouncing in my seat. Why? Because of this-- http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2437/3554214339_88b810c926_o.jpg

Tomorrow. Going to see them myself, tomorrow. I hope. First time I don't go to the racetrack I miss this. Gahhhh!

At least, I don't have to look at a fat version of myself in the mirror on the wall at the foot of the bed. I've lost nearly 15 lbs and it feels dang good. Nearly to my target weight. Now, I have to not screw up over this weekend with all the tempting junk in the room. Yeah, I ate some Chex Mix. It's good. Tough.

Yum, the flavor just screams Transformers, don't you think? But the twins are adorable. Look at those little door wings.

Edit: They taste quite yummy, by the way.