November, 2008

On News Channel 7: Gobble gobble

First off: News Anchor Hair. Think Katie Couric… or any of these blond News Sista’s.

la jasbaz de la caotica

Not the greatest shot in the world, but the closest I could come up with yesterday. I don’t know if you all are aware but almost-two year olds move around a LOT. And our living room isn’t exactly flooded with light so I have a ton of pictures with blurry kidlet. Alas!

Thanksgiving was good and enjoyable for a day where I spent all day working. Seriously, Andy and I stayed up the night before until 12:30 in the am doing dishes and putting the house together (well, Andy stayed up until 4am doing all the dishes but I am not so dedicated). And then we got up at ten am yesterday to start cooking and prepping and putting the house back together because our own little Tasmanian Jasbaz decided to undo all the work of the night before while I was trying to catch winks on the sofa. It’s a tricky business sleeping in when your partner stayed up later than you and can use that as an excuse to keep you from dreamland. Drat!

But we got everything cooked on time and even had dinner a bit early, although we let my Grandma cook the bird because we are so friendly about sharing the cooking.

I do have some bad news though: brownies the world over must not like me anymore because I’ve now burned two batches in less than a week. WTF? I’d blame the stove but everything else I cooked in the stove yesterday turned out just fine. The only thing that burned where the brownies! Son-of-a…

Still, I had another of those fuck-it moments and made a double batch of fudge, and poured half of the fudge over the slightly dry brownies hoping that some magic would occur and we’d have deliciously moist brownies. Delusion, I has it. But when I went to cut into them after dinner, I had to do some sawing and then I was just like, “Guys, I’ve ruined another batch of brownies. Fudge, anyone?” to which everyone was excited about. If all else fails, apply the same method you use for your toddler, distract DISTRACT distract. But with grownups, leave the shiny aluminum foil alone and head straight for the chocolate.

And this being our first year of hosting a Thanksgiving, I have no idea how the hosts are supposed to have energy and entertain everyone, provide conversation and all that. I was definitely tired and focused on eating my food, not to mention a little cranky about ruining some brownies. Heh. Oh well. It was a pleasantly disfunctional Thanksgiving.

I think the best part was that I had the radio on and the Alice’s Restaurant song came on, which Andy’s dad had me the turn volume up, so for 15 minutes Arlo Guthrie was chatting about some envelope being under a garbage bag, while the dad-in-law yacked about the song’s hilarity, Andy’s sister complained about whether this was actually music, my grandma talked about how she didn’t really know about that scene in the sixties, and the divorced mother-in-law tried to keep from slitting the dad-in-laws throat so that he’d stop talking. Meanwhile Jas was busy rubbing as much stuffing into her hair as possible and Andy and I were consuming all the turkey and gravy in sight. Priorities.

Still, it was a pleasant time. And I think we’ll have it at our house again next year if only because that means we automatically get all the leftovers.



Enjoy yourselves!

Have a happy thanksgiving!

a & j

I plan on trying to sleep in. And then cooking. And then eating. It shall be very eventful.



Fun fact time

- My eyes change color from brown to green depending on my mood, the temperature, barometric pressure, and their own agenda.
– This will be the second winter we’ve owned our washer and dryer.
– Two winters ago, Andy used to carry our laundry two houses down to do laundry. Through the snow. He did so without complaint. Or help.
– It’s been a year since I put Caitlin to sleep and I still miss her.
– Her urn is on my mantel in the downstairs bedroom.
– I wanted to bury it underneath some white morning glories and moon flowers so that she’d have pretty flowers day and night on her grave site. I just haven’t got a chance to grow them yet.
– Caitlin was the cat who moved out here with me, wore baby dresses, and played chess with me for roughly sixteen years. She was a great cat.
– She was featured in a lot of home made videos of mine, but this is the best.
– On Friday, it will have been two years since the most dramatic night of my existence. Little Jasbaz will be turning two.
– We have a bunch of Carebear books hidden in the top of our closet to give her for her birthday.
– Andy plays in a pool league on Tuesday nights. I surf Youtube looking for Gossip Girl clips on Tuesday nights. And check in on The Legend of the Seeker.
– Andy and I are both APPALLED and DISGUSTED with The Legend of the Seeker. They assraped our favorite series. But we both secretly love to watch it and derail all the problems and book plot shredding.
– Andy has been planning on writing a screenplay on the books and then making a movie. I told him to do it anyway. Die hard fans have to be grouchy about the TV series too.
– I wear scarves all day long to keep my neck warm so that I won’t get sick.
– So far it’s working.
– Those brownies I made on Saturday got burnt because I accidentally turned the temp up to 450 and left them in for ten minutes. I was just trying to bump it up from 300 and turned it too far.
– The last time Andy cleaned the stove, he soaked the knobs to help get the grease off and the sticker cover on our oven knob came off.
– I called several parts dealers online and no one had the sticker or a knob with a similar dial.
– So we’ve been cooking with one of those dangling oven thermometers.
– So when I realized that the brownies were burnt around the edges, I said ‘fuck it’ and mentally made a note to pick out the brownies in the center to eat.
– Spell check always, always saves me from spelling accidentally wrong.
– Our stove was made in the 1950′s and is maroon.
– It always makes me nervous when Andy cooks with the oven because he always tends to forget to turn it off. I’m always turning it off behind him.
– We have two aprons hanging up in our kitchen but neither of us ever wear one while we’re cooking. Or ever really. They just hang out on the hook.
– The last two weeks we’ve been late for church by twenty minutes and turned around to go home because Andy doesn’t want to go in late. Apparently everyone will turn around and look at you weird. He’s been embarrassed before, I’m guessing.
– Last night I watched a video on Youtube with a lady putting on makeup replicating Amy Lee’s look. She had the most adorable Scottish accent. I watched the video just to listen to her talk because it was so amusing.
– I wonder if she’d think my accent is amusing.
– Probably not. I sound like… a typical American. Although I can speak with a Spanish accent if I actively think about it.
– When my dad first bought me the webcam to take out to IL with me (so that we could SEE each other while talking on the phone), he made a few videos and left them on my computer. I uploaded this one because it always sends me into stitches watching it. The others are hilarious too, but this one is the best.
– Andy doesn’t think they are nearly as amusing as I do. So if you don’t, it’s okay.
– It’s a Tuesday, at 2:07pm. And I have run out of things to chat about.
– Time for Runescape.



Good things come to those who wait

I stumbled upon two awesome deals yesterday while I was out shopping. First, I found a Zoo Tycoon complete collection that was selling for $9.98. With Dinosaur Digs and Marine Mania! YUSS! That obviously went into the cart. Then I found The Age of Empires collection with four of the games (sadly not Age of Mythology, but it had all the others) also for $9.98. So I bought that too.

Hurrah.

Now if only I could download them at work… Heh! That is my exciting news of the day.

Also, I played Rockband for the first time this past weekend at a relatives Thanksgiving party. That was fun. I realized that I am not made out to be a drummer because my brain has trouble processing that much at once! But I can play the guitar without too much trouble. It’s just like Dance Dance Revolution except you don’t jump around, you strum.

But I can’t properly process that because I’m still so excited about my super sweet PC game deals! AH! I remember when each game in the set was $40 each and I got a total of 7 games/expansion packs for $20. Crazytalk!



Taking care of my resolutions

I am quickly turning into a chef. Case in point:

I have made fudge successfully on three separate occasions

I made gravy from scratch last night without directions. It was for a recipe (ha! just add water, flour, and beef bouillon cubes to the grease) that Andy’s Gma made when she stayed with us last year, Gravy and Burgers. There probably is a fancy name but I have no idea what it is so that is what I am calling it. And it was marvelous.

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how she told us to make the Chicken and Broccoli dish that she made because it was GLORIOUS! It was straight up amazing.

And I also plan on learning how to make brownies from scratch (just found a one bowl recipe, will have to try it). I already have a can of cocoa powder, eggs, and flour… And butter. I have to have MOST of the ingredients already. I plan on searching a few recipe sites to find the simplest one and giving it a try either tonight or tomorrow night. Then I can make homemade fudge brownies. XD

I always feel so much better about eating junk food if I cook it first. Because then there was learning and effort involved.

I also have figured out how to make a Chocolate Turtle Cake and I already have a can of caramel sitting in my cupboard waiting to join the project. I just have to buy a few things first. Like pecans. And cake mix…

Can you tell that it’s the Holiday season yet?

There is a reason to this madness. Two reasons, actually. The first one being that we’ve been invited to a Thanksgiving potluck dinner on Saturday and I’d like us to bring in a dessert, preferably the fudge brownies. The second reason would be that I plan on giving out food as gifts. Yay, fudge from Erin, happy Christmas! Much, much cheaper than buying random crap to give out that no one will enjoy. My gifts will make you fat! And happy! Temporarily. And give you all the more incentive to start working out again come January 1st when everyone swears off everything that they love for two weeks! Huzzah! Also, the fat will keep you warm in these winter months. Embrace it.