WWTK--Getting with the Random

Mamarazzi is asking the questions this week:

1. What are your top 3 blogging tips for other bloggers?  Comment, comment, comment.  Really, the more you get out there, the more you interact, the better your blog will be read.  Join a few link parties and comment on those.  Be present and courteous.
2. What book have you read lately that you would recommend?  Oh, I read so much.  Which one to chose? I'd have to recommend Nora Roberts The Next Always.
3. What is a physical feature you have been complimented on?  I've gotten the general you look nice compliments, but specific compliments?  Nick has complimented my tush.  He likes it.
4. What color is your toothbrush?  It's an electric one so white and green.
5. What question would you like to add to a future WWTK?

• What was your "Oh no, I'm turning into my mom" moment?
• What is your quirkiest habit?
• Favorite 80s movie?
• Name one thing you'd like to tell your ten year ago self.
• Who is your favorite celebrity?
• Have you ever had or thrown a surprise party?
• When was the last time you tried something new?
• Name the last thing you fixed.
• Do you prefer to read the book or see the movie?
• What is you favorite cure for cabin fever?

And those are my questions.  What can I say?  I've been participating in question link parties for over two years now.  I gots lots of resources to pull from.

Now go link with Mamarazzi and Crazymama for more question answering fun.

Random swap stuff!!

Tuesday again.  It kind of snuck up on me this week.  But since it's Tuesday, it's time to get my random on.

• And so the potty training continues.  We have had some successes.  We have had a lot more failures.  Well, maybe not failures.  Accidents, messes, frustration, anger, mixed with thrills, treats, and down right joy.  It's all part of the process.  I just wish the process would go faster.
• Turbo has had some focus issues in school.  He can do the work, but staying on task is difficult for him.  He is very much the Ohh, Shiny! kind of kid.  We are going to start working with him more on staying on task and paying attention. We will continue to work with the school and see if we can figure out how to help him.
• Nick saw the chiropractor yesterday.  He will go see him again today.  With any luck he will be able to turn his head again soon.
• And since I've put out all our miseries (well all the complaints anyway) how about something a bit more light hearted.  A week or so ago Bruiser came up stairs from the basement, where Turbo was playing video games and was trying to tell us something.   He kept saying what sounded like "turbo something something on the furr."  he said this garbled sentence about five times and we had no idea what he meant.  I finally asked him to describe what he was trying to tell us.  He said "There's poop on the floor downstairs!"  And we finally figured out he was trying to tell us that the cat had thrown up on the floor. Yes, he is still speaking a dialect of baby swahili.
• And now for the swap goodies from Beth.  She got me some great stuff.

The note that came with it all.

Lovely wrapped goodies.

All the loot.

• She sent: Chocolate, note pads, mints, a magnet, lens cleaning cloth, recipe cards, bath fizzy, candle, refrigerator note pad, a couple of little boxes that look like candy, bubbles for the boys, and a bookmark.  I love it all.  Bruiser has laid claim to the bubbles already.  Really awesome stuff, thank you so much Beth!

Now if you stuck it out to the end go see Stacy for more random thoughts.

And go see the lovely ladies who host Talk To Us Tuesday and were the creative minds behind the Seriously Impulsive Swap:  Shawn and Impulsive.

What Weekend?

I can't call this last weekend relaxing.  We didn't do a lot, but we did do a lot.  Want me to explain?  Sure you do.  Heck, I need to explain that one.
Friday night Turbo went over to the grandparents to spend the night.  Nick and I ate late and generally relaxed after Bruiser went to bed.  It was nice.
Saturday morning Nick went skiing with friends while I went grocery shopping.  Bruiser went to the grandparents while we did this.  I picked up the boys later and Nick came home rather tired from his ski.  I sorted the laundry (the silly stuff was oh so pouty, claimed I'd neglected it something terrible.  It exaggerates horribly.  It's only been two weeks since we danced last.  But I showed it.  Got all of it done, even the towels.)
In the afternoon, Nick went to a friends house to help him brew his first batch of beer.  Saturday night we watched movies and generally had small boys attempt to drive me nuts.  Boys are noisy when they play.
Sunday was mostly just finishing up the laundry dance and brewing up our own small batch of beer.  In the afternoon we went to a friends house to watch a movies and Nick did something to his neck.  Something not so good as he can't actually turn his head right now.  Made last evening a bit difficult on him.
So, to sum up, we did stuff, and didn't do stuff, and overall I blinked and there went the weekend.  I really need to stop blinking, I miss so much that way.  It sounds like we were busy all weekend, but I feel like all I have to show for it is clean laundry.  I think cabin fever has started to set in. Anyone got any sure fire cures that don't involve going outside?
Hope your weekend was better to you than mine was.

Confessions for Friday

And here are the confessions:

• I am living with a self declared player.
• Bruiser told us he was a player on Monday.
• Then he qualified it by telling us he is a computer game player.
• Nick and I busted up at that one.
• I had a moment Wednesday night.
• A sort of scary moment.
• The microwave tried to scare me to death.
• It sparked, zapped and flamed out.
• The mysterious blue smoke was let out and it died.
• I was right next to it when it happened.
• I screamed and startled Nick.
• I now have a shiny new microwave.
• Maybe now I can cook popcorn without burning half the bag and leaving the other half unpopped.
• I'm tired.
• Sleep isn't all it's cracked up to be recently.
• I really wish it would start playing nice.
• I'm so happy it's Friday.
• This has been the longest short week I've ever had.
• But now it Friday and I just have to get to going home time at work.

And that is what I'm confessing this week.  Go see Mamarazzi for more confessions.  You'll be glad you did.

Spin Cycle--Let's Go To The Movies

The Movies are the topic this week for the Spin Cycle.  Just about any way you want to go about the movies.  I like movies, comedies, some dramas, some sci-fi, action/adventure, family movies, I like a bit of just about everything.
One glaring exception is horror movies.  I just can't watch horror.  I can read it, but not watch it.  I think movies should be entertaining.  Since I don't find nightmares entertaining, I don't watch horror movies.  In fact, I once spent two and half hours reading a book in the bathroom so I didn't have to watch a horror movie.  Nick had rented one with some friends of his. (It was a very small apartment and the bathroom was the only room that had a door that closed in the apartment.)
I like old movies, the result of a stepfather who was in his 60s when he married my mother.  He introduced us to some of the really fun oldies--The Thin Man movies, Topper movies, lots of stuff from the 30s and 40s.  Really good movies.  I now have a good appreciation for black and white movies.

The one thing I'm not wildly keen on is actually going to the movie theater.  It's so expensive, you have to have cash, the seats aren't that comfortable (at least at the theater we have here) and I always freeze my feet off no matter what time of year we go.  And since we have had little boys at home that require a babysitter and other coordination, we just usually wait fir pay per view or rental.  In lots of ways seeing movies at home is lots easier--you can pause it for snack and bathroom breaks (or the small child well timed interruption) and watch it more than once so you catch the things you miss the first time through.
What I really like about movies these days is all the extras they put on the DVDs.  I'm a total sucker for the behind the scenes, how the magic was made stuff.  I was never happier than to see the special editions of The Lord of the Rings with discs and discs of extras.  When I found the first one on the Shrek DVD I was hooked.  I do tend to want to choose the special edition of DVDs so I can get the extras.
So this has been a bit of a mish mash of a post.  Movies make life more fun, they pass the time, make trips more interesting and entertain and at times educate us.
Now go see Gretchen and link up your own take on the Movies.

WWTK--Pampering ME

And here we go with questions from the lovely Crazymama:

1. What is your go to color if you paint your nails?  Do your toes and fingers match?  I don't paint my nails, they are so thin and flexible that polish just chips right off them.  I paint my toes and the color depends on my mood when I look at the colors available from my stash.  And I only paint them in the summer when I'm wearing flip flops and sandals.
2. Have you ever gone for a mani/pedi?  How often do you go?  I spent about two years getting acrylic nails done before I had Turbo.  Then I gave up on it.  I have had one professional pedi.  Some day I'd like to do it again.
3. Do you color your hair? Do you have a salon do it or do you do it yourself?  I have had my hair colored once professionally.  I have done an at home demi permanent color twice.  I a bit chicken to do anything permanent to it.  I do have it permed professionally once a year though.
4. Facials...have you ever had one?  Nope.
5. Would you or have you ever done botox?  Nope.
6. Beauty knows no pain, do you believe in waxing, electrolysis, eyelash extensions, anti-aging creams, micro-dermabrasions, peels, botox?  I wax my legs at home, but only my legs.  Not brave enough to try waxing anything more sensitive.  As for the rest, I don't really do any of them and probably won't, but that does not mean other people shouldn't.  What ever makes you happy.

Now go see the lovely ladies hosting this shindig:  Mamarazzi, Crazymama, and Queso.

Random Randomness

It's Tuesday and it's time to random it up in this place.  Of course, it tends toward the random around here anyway.

• Sigh.  I was not able to get out of town yesterday to go shopping with my mom and get pictures of the boys.  It snowed and all the roads out of town were closed.  Just shows what I get for making plans.  
• There is more snow on the forecast for tomorrow night too.  No snow for the entire month of January and now we don't go four days without snow.  Not that I'm really complaining.  Better now than in April and May.  Or even June (which is totally not unheard of around here.)
• I have my package for Beth all ready to go and will be mailing it after work today--good thing I get off at 3:30 so I can get to the post office.  I only need to get one more thing.  
• Bruiser has an imaginary friend.  A monster who has a pet dog.  He told us about him and showed him around the house yesterday.  I like the imaginary friends--they are so quiet.
• I kind of hate my hair right now.  It's in a growing out stage and just doesn't want to do anything.  All I can do is wait it out.  Stupid hair.
• My fingernails are really thin.  Because of this they flex and bend really easily.  I don't paint them because the polish never lasts past a day.  I really liked having acrylic nails, but those cost so much.  So I go with the natural look.  At least since I had Bruiser, they grow well and tend to look nice.

Well that about covers my random for this week.  Go see Stacy for more random posts.

And go share your thought with Shawn and Impulsive for Talk To Us Tuesday.

Brewing, Bread and Haircuts

Well, we had a relatively quiet weekend around the Jones household.  Wouldn't be hard for anyone to keep up with us.
Friday night Nick headed to Ft. Collins to get more brewing supplies.  We had gone a whole week without having any beer brewing.  It was time to get the big batch going again.  Nick got the makings for a batch of Irish Red.  It should be quite drinkable by St. Patricks Day.  This batch had grains to steep to add flavor.
We saved the spent grains(the used grains) and I then made bread on Sunday.  It was very tasty adn we didn't just through out the spent grains.  Look at us being all recycly and stuff.
On Saturday I took both boys for haircuts.  It was Bruiser's first professional haircut.  He was a champ.  Did everything the nice haircutter told him to and got a sucker at the end.

Before, messy face and all

After, all little boy looking.

Not really happy about the before picture.

Turbo's after.  Goofy expression comes standard.

And today I'm headed to Ft. Collins with my mother to get pictures of the boys.  I also get to do a bit of shopping with her too.  Kind of looking forward to it, weather permitting.

Confession

Tine to confess

• Some how the conversation got around to nipples on Tuesday.  
• Mommy's are bigger than the guys.  
• Everyone has two.  
• Conclusions reached during the conversation.
• Much giggling on everyone's part happened.
• I definitely live with almost too many guys.
• The mom look still works.
• I can stop Turbo cold with just a look.
• It's a skill.
• We really like the Big Bang Theory theme.

• And then there's the Soft Kitty song.  
• I've actually sang it to Bruiser to get him to settle down to sleep.
• Sad but true.
• I have never done karoke.
• Not sure I would want to.
• Unless several TABs were involved.
• However I love to sing in the car along with the radio.

Now since it'f Friday and that is a very good thing, go confess with Mamarazzi and be all ready to go for the weekend.

Spin Cycle--Red Face and All

So the diabolical Gretchen assigned embarrassing moments as the topic this week.  I was stymied for a while.  I have moments that have made my face red, but I have very effectively blocked the memory of those moments from my mind.  I wasn't sure if I could remember any that were good enough to share.  But then I remembered how I figured out I needed to shave my armpits and legs.
I was, how shall i put this?  Socially ignorant, backwards, inept, yeah let's go with inept when I was a teenager.  What seemed to come naturally to most girls, just sailed over my head.  In the eighth grade several girls had started shaving, as evidenced by the nasty cut they sported in gym class.  I watched and wondered if I needed to start shaving.  I asked my mom about shaving my legs, because I had not really thought about my armpits.  She checked my legs and said I could wait for a while longer before starting.  In hind sight (which is always better than the sight you have during) I should have asked about my armpits.
Fast forward to the beginning of my freshman year.  I went out for the swim team.  The older girls on the team, I think hoping to clue me in without coming right out and saying shave, would talk loudly about shaving, getting out the lawnmower, smoothing up the old legs, things like that.  It took me a couple of weeks, but I finally clued in.  I was embarrassed, but knew I had to do something.  So I very sneakily stole a razor form my mom's disposable stash--single blade Bics--and taught myself how to shave both legs and armpits.
Amazingly enough, I never had the nasty cuts the other girls had, oh there was the nick here and there, but not those gouges that I remember seeing.
I blame my mom for this red face really.  And it's just another reason why I was very happy to have boys and not girls.  I had such a tough time growing up, the last thing I wanted to do was try to guide a girl through the same difficult waters.
Go see Gretchen for other red face stories.  I know some of them are better than mine.

WWTK--Love is in the Air

Time to play along with Mamarazzi, Crazymama and Queso for another edition of We Want To Know.  This week it's all about love and Valentine's Day.

1. How was your Valentine's Day?  Pretty mellow.  We went out for lunch and I got Nick a card, but that was about it, or so I thought.  When I got home Nick and the boys had made me a card with conversation hearts.  So I got a card and candy and lunch.  Not bad for a Valentine's Day.
2. What is your favorite flower? Did your honey get them for you?  I like roses and carnations.  Nope, no flowers here.  They just end up dying anyway.  Yeah, not a romantic at heart here.
3. Was Valentine's Day a big deal when your were a kid?  No, not really.  I did the card thing at school until 5th grade then it really became a day that emphasized that I was not too popular.  Being a teenager and not having a boyfriend makes Valentine's Day a hated day really.
4. Did you put up any Valentine's day decoration's?  Nope.  I'm doing good to get Christmas decorations up.  I just don't do Valentine's decorations.  Or just about any other holiday, except for Halloween.  I'm doing good to keep the house clean.   Decorating for holidays just doesn't happen.
5. Do you have any Valentine's Day traditions?  Not really.  My mom gets a gift for the boys, but we don't do anything special.  The anniversary of Nick and my first date is the end of February.  We tend to celebrate that instead of doing Valentine's day all crazy.  Nineteen years the end of this month.  Not bad for college sweethearts. (Yeah I'm proud of that one.)

So go join up and answer the questions for yourself.  The ladies hosting would love to see you.

Random Randomness

time to throw all the random thought floating around in your head together and call it a post.  It's one of the things that Tuesday is good for.

• I made granola last night.  It's not hard and tastes so much better than the store bought stuff.  The store bought stuff gets so sweet.  I'm much happier making it, even if it does take some time.
• Full Metal Jousting.  I saw this on History Channel last night.  I did not watch any more than the opening credits.  It looks ridiculous.   Really?  Full Metal Jousting?
• Nick got hit by a minor bug yesterday and stayed home.  He got to chase Bruiser around and do the lunch negotiation, nap decree, and potty policing.  Lucky him.
• On the potty front, things are going slowly.  Sometimes Bruiser gets it and sometimes he doesn't.  He keeps saying he doesn't want to be a big kid.  It is an uphill battle with him.
• Exactly how do you explain to an 8 year old that giving away his toys is not the best thing to do?  Turbo has a friend that is a year older than he is.  This friend keeps trying to get Turbo to "loan" him some of Turbo's cooler toys.  Not the best way to share.  I can see those toys never coming back.  We have stopped that from happening so far.  And had a talk with him about how it's maybe not the best idea.  I just hope some of it sank in.
• Valentine's Day.  Isn't is funny how after you have kids, Valentines day becomes more about getting them the cards and treats for school than doing romantic things with your significant other?  I managed to get Nick a cards and we are heading out to lunch, I know not where, but that's about it.  There's just not time to do all things romantic.  It's never been a day that really goes all romantic anyway.  We just aren't good at romance.  One Valentine's day we hit every restaurant in town and they were of course all full.  I think we ended up eating at home because it was just nuts out there.  So yeah, Happy Valentine's day and I hope it meets all your romantic dreams.  Or something like that.

Now go see Stacy and rebel on for Random thoughts Tuesday.

And also link up with Talk To Us Tuesday with Shawn and Impulsive.

Well That Was a Weekend

So, this last weekend was a very interesting mixed bag of activities.
Friday night Nick headed over to join friends so he could wax his skis.  Beer and a bottle of Schnapps were involved.  He was about 2.5 sheets to the wind when he came home.  Turbo had a sleep walking incident Friday night or maybe Saturday morning.  It made for an interesting night.
Saturday Nick got a wild hair and we bought a new TV for the basement, moved the TV we had downstairs upstairs and the TV we had there over to his parents house.  They were watching a small TV in the living room that only had a cable hookup.  No way to watch a DVD or anything else.  They were so happy to get the newer, larger TV.  We had to get a new TV stand for upstairs as the one we had would not fit the TV we moved up there.

The new TV stand.

I then went to pick up the boys while Nick continued to move stuff around and get it settled.  As he was doing this the slightly crazy neighbors came up to the front porch.  She said they were selling Girl scout cookies but neglected to mention that both girls were selling individually until after Nick had said he would buy one box of cookies.  Talk about getting ambushed.  We are thinking about hiding the next time they try to hit us up.  I have nothing against Girl Scout cookies, I just don't like getting roped into buying more than
I want to, especially from those girls.
I managed to hurt my shoulder while moving furniture around, but did get all the clothes washed, dried, folded and put away.  I even got the towels done.  The laundry is not pouting, right now.
I did get out shopping, but had to go by myself as my friend had to work unexpectedly.  I found some great stuff anyway.
So it was an interesting weekend.  Oh, and I got my swap partner for Mamarazzi's Favorite Things Swap.  Allstarme of Incognitus Scriptor is a wonderful blogger who has a lot in common with me--two boys, works at a university, likes to read.  This match was meant to be.  This is going to be fun!
And as a send off today you get to see Bruiser in his latest obsession.

Bruiser the Cowboy.

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Confessing Everything?

Well maybe not everything, a girl has to have her secrets, but I will confess a few things.  After all it is Friday and time to head into the weekend without it all hanging over my head.

• We are supposed to get snow today and this weekend.
• I'm happy we are getting snow.
• But it could have waited until late tonight to come.
• Nick really wants to get more brewing supplies.
• The store is over an hour's drive away.
• We had made arrangements for friends to watch the boys and everything.
• Now we may be stuck in town.
• The joys of living where the weather can shut down the roads.
• I have laundry to take for a whirl this weekend.
• It gets so pouty when I don't pay attention to it.
• I am going to hit the local consignment store this weekend with a friend.
• New to me clothes.  
• It's definitely time.
• Valentines is creeping up.
• We aren't doing much--life has sort of gotten in the way.
• And it's a Tuesday.
• How romantic is Tuesday?
• Only slightly more romantic than Monday.
• I need to clean the bathrooms again.
• I need to make chocolate chip cookies.
• The boys need them.
• Really, they do.
• I've regularly doing ab exercises.
• It's not really getting any more fun than the first time I did them.
• I giggle like a 12 year old when I hear the new country radio station in our town say it's name.
• It's Buckin' Country 92.3.
• Say it out loud and see if you don't giggle too.
• They also have an afternoon show on and they encourage all us buckers to be sure to listen in.

Go see Mamarazzi for more confessions.

Spin Cycle--The Honeymoon

In honor of the season of love that is this time of year, Gretchen has asked about honeymoons.  The time after the craziness of the wedding is over and the fun begins.
Nick and I had a very low key wedding, but Nick planned and did the honeymoon right.  Well, mostly, but we won't mention the time share talk we got roped into, or the one we ditched out on.
Our honeymoon began the Monday after our wedding.  We headed to Denver and boarded the plane for Atlanta and then Florida.  After a minor delay (of 5 hours in Atlanta due to mechanical difficulties with the plane) we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale.  We got roped into the previously mentioned time share thing (you have to admire them, they've figured out how to sell the same thing to 52 different people) we finally got to the beach.  Sand and salt water.  And warmth. It was wonderful, but the next morning we had to pack up and head to a cruise ship for the trip out to Grand Bahama Island and the resort we were staying at there for 2 nights and three days.
We were two very untraveled people at the time and were quite surprised at the aggressive people who wanted tips for everything and anything.  It was a relief to get to our resort and be told that tipping was included in the hotel rate.  I must say an all inclusive resort is the way to go.  There is incriminating video of me quite three sheets to the wind on the very excellent rum that flowed freely, but as it is still analog, I can't post it here.

Young and in love.

Loved snorkling.

Fun with an underwater camera

Grand Bahama Island.

Enjoying the sun

We had a few glorious days on the beach to relax and just be together.   Then it was back to Florida and off to Orlando and Disney World.  We spent three days exploring just about all Disney had to offer, with the exception of Downtown Disney and the night life offered there.  We weren't much for clubbing(still aren't). Then we went back to Ft. Lauderdale to board our plane and head home.  Back to the real world and Nick working out of town.

Time in Disney

Tan and young and having fun.

You get scrapbooked pictures because that's what I did with all our honeymoon photos.  WE really had a wonderful time and it was a great way to start our married life--even if we had been together for 5 years by the time we got married.
Now go see Gretchen for more honeymoon spins.

WWTK--Dinner Plans?

Time to avoid those things you really should be doing and join in the fun of We Want To Know Wednesday.
Mamarazzi is asking the questions this week:

1. What is for dinner tonight (bonus for sharing the recipe)?  I'm thinking tacos.  Or maybe chicken or steak salads.  Kinda depends on what we feel like when we get home and what will thaw out quickly.  Sorry no recipe for either--Tacos are pretty self explanatory and the salad, well just cook or grill a chicken breast or steak and slice it up and put it on top of your favorite green salad.  Easy peasy.
2. Share something you are looking forward to.  We have nothing really big on the horizon.  We have tentative plans to take the boys to Denver for a visit to the zoo and aquarium, but those plans are still very nebulous.  It's just a hard time of year to plan anything because the weather does not always cooperate.  I am looking forward to going camping this summer, but that's a long way away.
3. What are your thoughts on re-gifting?  I have nothing against it if you do it carefully.  This means making sure nothing is left in/on the gift that shows it was a gift already.  And you have to make sure the person you are giving it to has little or no contact with the person you got it from.  The uniqueness of the gift also comes into play.  One of a kind gifts are harder to regift than say, an extra toaster or Ipod.
4. How often do you rearrange your furniture?  The living room furniture gets rearranged about every six months or so.  Just to shake it up a bit.  Also to uncover the heat vents in the winter.
5. Share a picture from your cellphone or camera.  One of the most recent pictures I have is of Bruiser riding the "range".

Howdy Ma'am!

Go see Mamarazzi, Crazymama and Queso for more WWTK Wednesday fun.

Random Talkin'

Time to random up the place again, cause it's Tuesday and all.

• I have a small confession.  I really don't get Pinterest.  I have an account, but have yet to really get the bug to pin stuff.  Maybe this is a good thing.  We get enough ideas from watching home improvement shows, I have enough cook books, and I don't craft.  I don't really need to find tons of other ideas that we won't do.  Still, everyone talks about how much they like to pin and the ideas they get from cruising Pinterest.  I wanna be cool to, but it eludes me again.
• I realized something about little girls this weekend.  Given fully clothed Barbies, they will immediately strip them.  And leave them that way.  I have several left over from when I was a kid and got them out for the one girl who was here Saturday.  Within 10 minutes she had stripped them all and moved on to another activity
• I've been trying to have something for breakfast each morning--key word trying--but I'm not a big breakfast fan.  I don't like cereal with milk, making eggs takes to much time (and I'm not that fond of them anyway), we don't keep things like cinnamon rolls around, and I'm not organized enough to make smoothies.  Breakfast sort of sucks.
• The groundhog was right.  Winter is back here.  We have snow and cold temperatures again.  January was a weird, drab, dry, windy month, and warm for us.   I think that made the month seem longer.
• We need to get back to the store in Ft. Collins for more brewing supplies for Nick.  We may go this weekend.  Yippee, a trip out of town again!
• I have joined a couple of swaps this month--The Seriously Impulsive Swap and Mamarazzi's Favorite Things Swap.  I'm looking forward to sending and getting great things.

OK that does it for my random this week.  Go link up your random with Stacy at Stacy Uncorked.

And don't forget Shawn and Impulsive and Talk To Us Tuesday.

What a Weekend

OK, so Nick and I survived the weekend.  I say survived because this weekend was very busy.  There was a haircut, cousins for an over night, cooking, Superbowl and general, overall tiredness.
To start with I got a haircut on Friday afternoon.  Turbo rented a game for the Kinect.  Oh, and we all ended up snuggled in bed watching a movie, but nothing wildly exciting.
Saturday dawned cold and way too early.  Nick had beer to bottle and we had the cousins coming over to spend the night.  Nick and I bottled five gallons of Amber Ale--what Nick is calling Leanna Amber--which resulted in seven six packs and three four packs (15 oz bottles).  Nick is thrilled with the results, flat and done with the first ferment, it doesn't taste bad, I'd even go so far as to say it tastes pretty good.  Now it just needs to carbonate.  That evening we did make another batch of beer in the Mr. Beer.
The cousins got here a little after four and the semi controlled chaos ensued.  By 10:00 there were small bodies crashed in front of the movie and I was able to shut things down and go to sleep myself.  Of course they were all up way to early Sunday morning.
I made deviled eggs, Buffalo Chicken dip, a veggie tray and a meat and cheese tray for Superbowl snacking and we headed over to our cousin's house.  It's a great thing that they are good friends of ours.  We settled in and watched what turned out to be a fairly interesting game.  We have no real investment in a team, but we were glad to see the Giants win.
When we got home we shuffled boys off to bed and headed there ourselves.  It was a busy weekend and I think I might need a weekend from my weekend.  I'm really glad that weekends like that don't happen all that often.  But being busy with fun things does make the time pass.
How was your weekend? Did you Superbowl, or did you avoid the whole thing like the plague?

Time to Confess

It's Friday!  Hip, hip, hooray!
OK that might be a bit much, it is still a work day, but--insert giddy giggling--it's Friday.
I confess:

• Friday could not have come quickly enough this week.
• It was one of those weird fast slow weeks.
• The days went by fast, but the week went very slowly.
• I'm really looking forward to the Superbowl.
• Not for the game.
• For the commercials and hanging out with friends.
• And the food.
• There's something so fun about munching on appetizers for the duration of the game.
• I really need a GNO.  
• Missed the one I usually do on Wednesday.
• I love my family, but getting a break from them helps so much.
• I think my wardrobe needs some freshening up.
• I'm really bored with what I have. 
• It's time to go through it and see what needs to go.
• Then it's time to hit the clearance racks and thrift stores again.
• New clothes on the cheap.
• I have joined in on two different swaps.
• I love sending things out and getting things.
• I got a package in the mail yesterday from Shawn of Seriously Shawn.
• I love mail that is not bills!

All wrapped up so nice!

Goodies for me!

Now go see Mamarazzi and see what everyone else is confessing.

And I'm swapping again

Mamarazzi is swapping again and I jumped on the bandwagon.  It's a favorite things swap and I had a lot of fun with this one last year so here I go again.  Now to see who I get for a partner.
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Spin Cycle--Give Me a Story With Dinner

Every family has that one recipe that comes with a story.  Usually about the first time it was made or about the reasons it was made.  I've been with Nick going on 19 years now and This one was hard for me to come up with.  Oh, we have our stories, but they don't tend to revolve around specific recipes.  We have our New Year's tradition of seafood, and for the Superbowl we do appetizers.  I have certain recipes that I make and enjoy, but there aren't stories to go with those.
Hmmm, the Superbowl is coming up.  I could tell you about making what Turbo calls Mom's World Famous Ribs.
the year Bruiser was a year old, we knew we weren't going anywhere for the game.  We had been making appetizers and hanging at home for a couple of years--not big party people us.  I had done lots of different appetizers, but not baby back ribs.  We had invited some friends over to watch the game with us and I wanted to make some good ribs.
I had done pork ribs before, but we usually just put season salt on them and then grilled them.  Well, I wanted to do something a bit different, so I went hunting through my cook books.  In my Better Homes and Gardens Grilling cook book I found the recipe for Chuck Wagon Baby Back Ribs.  It didn't look too complicated and sounded quite good.
I had Nick fire up the grill and I collected ingredients and away we went.  Making these ribs is a two person endeavor--I spice and make the marinade, Nick grilles them.  We had no idea if they would be good, but what we got was something fabulous.  The ribs came off the grill perfectly done, tangy, sweet, spicy, sticky, and wonderful.
Here is the recipe:
Chuck Wagon Baby Baby Ribs
4 to 5 lbs. pork loin back ribs or meaty pork spare ribs
1 recipe Chuck Wagon Rub (to follow)
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup yellow mustard
2 tbsp. bourbon
1 tsp. bottled hot pepper sauce

1.  Trim fat from ribs.  Sprinkle chuck wagon rub evenly over both sides of ribs; rub in with your fingers.  If desired, cut ribs into 2- to 3-rib protions.
2.  For sauce, in a large bowl combine wine, pineapple juice, honey, vinegar, soy sauce, mustard, bourbon and hot pepper sauce.
3.  Place rib portions, bone sides down, in a large roasting pan.  Pour sauce over ribs.  For a charcoal grill arrange medium hot coals around the edge of the grill.  Test for medium heat.  Place uncovered roasting pan on grill rack in center of grill.  Cover; grill for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours or until ribs are tender, spooning sauce over ribs every 20 to 25 minutes.  For a gas grill, preheat grill.  Reduce heat to medium.  Adjust for indirect cooking, except do not use a drip pan.  Place uncovered roasting pan on grill rack directly over where drip pan would be.  Cook ribs as for charcoal grill..

Chuck Wagon Rub
In a  small bowl combine 1 tbsp. black pepper, 2 tsp. kosher salt or sea salt, 2 tsp. chili powder, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. onion powder, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 1 tsp. dries parsley, and 1 tsp. dries oregano, crushed.

Picture from Better Homes and Gardens

Don't those look finger licking good?
There are a couple of things I do to make this easier.  I use a large aluminum pan in the grill.  It makes clean up so much easier.  I do cut the ribs into smaller pieces--more meat to expose to the good stuff, and much easier to manage when turning and basting on the grill.  And we do turn the ribs.  It says not to, but to cook evenly turning the ribs helps.
Well, there you have it.  the recipes that we do all the time with ribs now.  I've even done a pretty good version in the oven when the weather did not cooperate to grill outside and we really wanted ribs.  Give them a shot, they are really good.
Go check out Gretchen at Second Blooming for more tasty spins with a story.

WWTK--Cleaing House

Time once again to procrastinate all the terrible important things I could be doing and join in the fun of We Want To Know.  This week the questions are from Crazymama.

1. Fantasy style--money is no object--if you could pick one type of help: Maid, Nanny, personal chef; which would it be and why?  If money were no object, I'd go for all of them.  If I had to choose just one it would be the maid.  I like spending time with my kids and I like cooking, but cleaning, yeah, not so much.
2. What is your least favorite household chore?  Cleaning the bathrooms.  I live with guys. Enough said.
3. What is your least loathed (or favorite) household task/daily chore?  I can't say I have a favorite.  I don't mind doing dishes and vacuuming.  What I hate is the never ending aspect of it all.  You get it done and not ten minutes later it needs doing all over again.
4. What is your favorite cleaning supply?  Do you have any magic cleaning tips to share with your readers?  Favorite cleaning supply?  Wine.  A TAB(Tasty Adult Beverage) or two makes any job easier. I'm not one to have a magic trick for cleaning.  What I'm looking for is the clean everything cleaner.  Haven't found it yet.
5. What is your usual household chore avoidance activity?  Beside playing along with Mamarzzi, Crazymama and Queso and WWTK?  Going for a drive or having an activity for all the family to do together.  Works like a charm every time.  However the chores are always waiting for me.  Stupid dish cleaning elves and house cleaning fairies have yet to find their way to my house.

Now go link up your answers and let us know about how you feel about the household chores.