got it

I finally got my phone and you tube to talk to each other.

yes, my kid runs into the water with jeans on.   She's just that special.

cheating

I have an adorable video of Baby Girl to upload, but my phone and youtube are in a fight right now and until I can figure out the root of their issues and help them work through it,  I can't upload it.   I also don't have any more time to act as therapist right now,  so you'll have to make do with this list.   If you are younger than 30ish it may not mean as much to you,  but I was dying.   Especially with the first one.  11 years??




You are old.  You're welcome for reminding you. 

it's been awhile

Because it's been a long time since I've mentioned the Gilmore Girls and because this is possible the best scene from the entire series,  here we go.

Also,  if you don't at least tear up while watching this,  I highly suggest watching the entire series from start to finish again.  At least all the Lorelai story lines.   If you really can't bring yourself to watch Rory/Dean/Jess/Dean/Logan again,  I understand.

But make sure you don't skip Luke.  Or Miss Patty.   Or Andrew.  Or Sookie (as if).  Or Babette.   Or Lulu.  Or Taylor.   Or Paris (again, as if).

Childhood

Baby Girl's life is changing in approximately 56 days. She doesn't know it yet. She knows her baby brother will be joining us soon and she's okay with him sleeping in her old crib. She has no idea her life will never be the same, and honestly I'm not looking forward to her figuring that out.

She was playing with her cousins yesterday, some game that had no rules or guidelines. I'm not sure the three of them were even playing the same game.

In a year or so the Little Guy will be toddling along too, trying to keep up with the big kids.

Poor kid. He'll always be the youngest, always trying to keep up with the big kids. But I bet he'll be a little but spoiled because if it!

memories

I follow my Alma Mater on Twitter.   Random aside - How does one get the job of being in charge of social media for an institution?  Because I could totes update the Facebook, twitter,  instagram, foursquare (I don't really know what foursquare is, but I'm sure I could figure it out...) as my full time job.

Anyway,  I follow Saint A's on Twitter.   Last night was the last day on campus for most of the current Anselmians as finals end today.   The tweet went out asking alumni what they had done on their last night on campus.   I thought back to that night 9 years ago (NINE.YEARS.AGO) and tried to remember.   Oddly enough for that motley crew of college friends,  we didn't sit around all night and play asshole trivial pursuit.  We all piled into cars,  drove over an hour away to Hampton Beach and watched the sun come up.   I have no idea WHY we did this (clearly none of us had finals on the last day),  but we did.  I don't know why we did most of the things we did in college,  but I think that's half of the point of going to college.   I don't know why we thought film canisters (remember film?) were receptacles for beverages,  why walking in the o-zone at night was a good idea,  why on earth we ever drank fuzzy navels,  why any of us thought a liberal arts degree would help us in any way,  or why I didn't travel more when I had the chance.   I wouldn't go back and do it again,  but if I could choose a few random days and nights here and there... 

Now I need a moment to process the fact that I could have gone to college two times over plus an extra year thrown in there in the time that has passed since graduation! 

In case anyone was wondering,  we still have not caught Mickey.   In fact,  he is mocking us by walking around the glue traps and eating the peanut butter off the snap traps without setting them off.  Jerk.

* Possible spoiler alert for Mad Men * does anyone know why Don hit the elevator button and then when the door opened he stuck his head in the door and saw that there was just a big hole with no elevator car there?  I really did not understand the point of that scene.   Then again,  most of Mad Men goes over my head.   And I'm undecided on whether or not I liked Rory Gilmore  Alexis Bledel's character.

On the way home tonight I thought about having pork chops and broccoli for dinner and I kind of wanted to drive my car into oncoming traffic.  Normally we roast fresh broccoli with some lemon and garlic,  maybe some soy sauce.  It's good,  but it's literally the only way we ever cook fresh broccoli.   I knew there had to be another way to cook it, and I had to find it because I was going to lose my mind if I had to eat roasted broccoli again.  Neither one of us enjoys broccoli that's even the slightest bit soggy (steamed broccoli would have made me actually drive into oncoming traffic,  not just kind of want to) so I was on a mission to save my dinner.  And my sanity.

With the help of Google and Allrecipes.com,  I did find a pretty good recipe - basic,  yes,  but it left me with non soggy broccoli that wasn't roasted with lemon and garlic.    Which was pretty important tonight since we didn't have any lemon.

My culinary skills are lacking when it comes to fresh vegetables.  I can roast,  I can steam (though I really don't like any steamed veggies, they get mushy and then I gag), and I can cut them up and eat them with lots of sour cream dip.   But apparently the latter isn't the "healthy" option.   I'm excited to have another way to cook broccoli.    Next up - fresh brussel sprouts!  We current only have brussel sprouts if they are frozen and microwavable,  but fresh vegetables are just so much better that I really need to figure out how to cook them.

Here is the recipe,  in case you also are looking for a non-soggy and non-roasting broccoli recipe.  Just so you know,  you do have to blanch the broccoli - but what is more fun than giving some broccoli an ice water bath?   Also,  I think it called for way too much Parmesan cheese,  I only used 2 tablespoons and it was plenty.

Mickey

Yesterday was a long day and we didn't get home until 8:00.   Baby Girl went straight from being asleep in her car seat to being sound asleep in her bed without so much as a momentary wake up while Andrew was bringing her up three flights of stairs.   We had big plans of lying on the couch and watching some more of season 2 of Downton Abbey  (I know I'm behind on DA and this isn't new to most of you,  but really?  Anna and Bates?  Gross.   He's like 30 years older than Anna.   Also, William?  You can totes do better than Daisy.  From the 'just sayin' category)

I went into the kitchen to pour myself a glass of juice and as I was putting my glass down, I found something that shouldn't be there.  

Maybe it's a speck of dirt, maybe it's just dirt, please be dirt PLEASEFORTHELOVEOFALLTHATIS HOLYBEDIRT

Guess what.   It wasn't dirt.    Our very own Mickey the Mouse had left his calling cards ON MY COUNTER.    Gross gross gross.

Andrew also went through a brief period of denial.  He tried to tell me it couldn't possibly be from a mouse because they were too small.   I know that he knew what it was,  so I let him work through that on his own.   Everyone needs a little bit of denial when it comes to field mice in your home.  I know that field mice are little and tiny and probably the least gross kind of of mice there are,  but still.  EW.   He finally submitted to reality when we found that Mr. Mouse had been in the pantry (but luckily only got into one Fiber One Bar!)

So at a little past 8 last night we got to undertake the pleasant task of cleaning out the kitchen and going through every piece/container/box of food that we have.  We found some more tell tale evidence that Mickey had come to visit,  and I'm pretty sure I used an entire spray bottle of Lysol with bleach on every surface in the kitchen.     And for good measure,  an entire bottle of disposable wipes.    But on the plus side, the cold virus that my family cannot shake must be gone from the kitchen after all that bleach!  And our pantry seems much more organized now that we have all of the granola bars,  Fiber One bars, rice, (basically everything that isn't in a hard plastic container already) in new Tupperware boxes!

So I bleached my kitchen for a few hours last night,  how was your Saturday night? 

I had to pick up Baby Girl from school yesterday - a task which is normally Andrew's responsibility.   Because this is not Baby Girl's normal schedule, and girlfriend hates deviating from her normal schedule I was harassed the entire way out of the building.

"Mama, how you pick me up from school?"  (she meant 'why'  instead of 'how'.  For reasons unbeknownst to us, she has confused the two words)
"Where's Daddy?"
"How he has to work late?"
"Can Daddy meet us at home after he goes shopping?"  (she refused to accept the fact that he was working late and insisted that he was shopping)

By the time I got her into the car and buckled up,  I was already sick of the questions.  She didn't like any of the answers I was giving her anyway,  so I told her we would listen to some music.   She would have none of it and kept up the interrogation.   Except after she stopped questioning me on Andrew's whereabouts,  she moved on to some things I had no idea how to answer.  Well, I know the answer, but no clue how to explain it to a two year old. 

"Mama, it's almost dark out."
"well, we still have a few hours of daytime"
this answer earns me a gigantic sigh, as though I clearly do not understand when the sun sets
"Mama, where does the dark go?"
"Um.... well.... it goes to the other side of the world"
"The other side of the world?"
"Yes, when we have sun, they have dark"
insert massive eye roll here,  since I'm obviously the dumbest person in the world. She's not buying the other side of the world answer.
"Mama, what happens to the trees when it's dark time?"
"Nothing sweetie, the trees stay where they are at night"
she glared at me for this one.  Apparently the trees move around at night and I'm supposed to know this? 
"Oh.  Mama,  what happens to the trees when it rains?"
"They drink the rain"
"But Mama, how do they drink their milk?"
"trees don't drink milk, only little girls drink milk"
"Mama, that's SO SILLY!"
again with the massive eye roll

Yes,  it's quite silly that trees don't drink milk.  Also,  I don't think I'm sad that I don't pick up from school every day.  I think I would go insane if I was reminded how stupid I am every day on the ride home.   Andrew claims that they don't have those types of conversations on the way home.  I guess I'm just lucky!

I'm not sad that the Little Guy won't be able to talk for a few years....