College football, Yay or Nay?

Are you a fan of the game?

I love college football, which could be a HUGE understatement. Mr. P and I talk about it, I talk to my students about it, I talk to my friends about it, I even talk to my parents and my nephew about it. But what I love most about college football is MY college football team.

(If you don't know where I live/where I am from (and care to know, I should add) my team won the.national.champion$hip game this past January.)

One of the "rules" of college football, especially, SEC football, is that not only do you support your team with fervor, you OPPOSE your rivals just as heartily. As luck with have it, our two biggest rivals (or the teams I LOVE to HATE the most (the teams, not the kids on the teams, I get they are kids)) are playing in "THE GAME" tonight.

Puts me in a dilemma: Should I be less unhappy if team (A) wins? That would potentially put them undefeated when they visit us in November giving us the opportunity to derail their national title hopes our own selves? BUT, if they win the title, that gives it to our state 3 times in a row...OR should I be less unhappy if team (L) wins? Team (A), well, IS JUST Team (A).

Either way it should be a hell of a game....(YAY College ball!!!!)

5 days!

I have managed to string together 5 days of exercise (2 outdoor runs, 2 personal training sessions, 60 minutes of elliptical, bike and treadmill) at the same time I counted points (WW) and actually stayed on target all 5 days.

I have also written and submitted a research proposal for '12 summer funding (no teaching), and have nearly finished the work for my Fall classes, except grading.

I have gotten permission (and funding) to go to AUSTRALIA in June. I was asked to teach part of an MBA course this Spring which I'm pretty excited about.

I saw this tree which stuns me with how absolutely in love with the colors I am...stellar 5 days!

I really have no good topics

yeah, I don't really have much to say, but we are watching the Aggie-OU game...hold on....

WHOOP.

We just scored. Aggies just scored on OU. again.

Gig 'Em.

Reveille is awesome, and according to Mr. P, she is the prettiest mascot ever.

(FYI, Auburn already won today. 10-0.)

I will be deep and thoughtful and wonderful tomorrow. All I got today is football. WHOOP.

Wordless Wednesday, but with words

I am going to try the every other day approach so I don't completely scare everyone off. Yesterday I shared with how I am kind of dead inside, SO today I will share some pictures I have taken with my phone over the last couple of weeks.

First, the Poltergeist doppelganger lady that was spotted at our favorite pizza place.

Next, a claw game where you can pay $2.00 to grab a lobster that you can then have cooked for free. Penny was not amused by this.

We went to Orange Beach, Alabama and this was the view I had on my morning walk. It really helped get me centered so I could get to dead inside as opposed to raging to the point of boiling my innards. (oh, is that still a bit dark?....okay, I will try to lighten up.)

Ahh, pretty....

Mr. P thought this guy was SO cool, so we had to have his picture taken with this guy. (9-0, baby. Football has been FUN this year.)

At the same restaurant with the claw game, this tiny guy was hiding out by the trash can. (It is a tiny crab.) In deference to the bizarre issues with shellfish, we stuck to burgers and fries.

Since our move, we walk downtown for pizza/beers, work, yogurt, what have you a couple nights a week. We pass this tree everytime and we always wonder...."What the...."

Have you seen anything interesting lately?

OH, and Sabra Supremely Spicy Hummus and pretzels? ADDICTING....so I call bullshit on TEN servings in the container. I think it is more like 2.

Let's have a patio garden party!

The weekend weather was perfect to do outdoor work, so that is just what we did!

In July, I asked Mr. P for a raised bed garden plot as my birthday gift. My family pitched in, and yesterday it was realized. I love it so much that I get up from what I am doing and just go marvel at how it is exactly what I hoped it would be. The bed is fully planted with fall crops, and while it may not yield much, I get such a kick out of how a tiny flower with bees and butterflies fluttering about will all OF A SUDDEN be a tiny baby pepper or cucumber or eggplant.

My summer crops were a bit weird. Peppers? OH YES. Cucumbers? ehh...a few weird ones. Strawberries? 4. BUT OH MY berries, the absolute sweetest tastiest berries ever. And the strawberry plants that I thought were dead are coming back. Squash? Nada. NOT ONE. Ichiban eggplant? Scarce until the weather broke, and now that the temps are below 90 I have already eaten 4, harvested a grocery store size one today, and have 4 or 5 more growing. Apparently the eggplant do not love the Alabama heat like the peppers do. Melons? EPIC FAIL. Tomatoes? Grape, yes, and again, once the weather broke I now have maybe 45 blossoms, but not one regular size tomato all summer long.

Oh, I got sidetracked talking about the summer garden, when my point was to show you my fall garden party area. (I likely will not have a garden party, but I love sitting outside reading magazines in the sunny breezy gorgeous weather we have been having...and I call that my garden party.)

BEFORE: (now before you get oh so judgy about the hideousness of my yard, remember this is a rental!)

Way down at the bottom of the hill is Mr. P whacking weeds!

and NOW: TA DA!!

And the piece de resistace:

A different vantage point:

My summer garden...the frame thing is what Mr. P built so I could have all my plants at the apartment, and I still like it so I still have it.

It is kinda weird that we have all this set up in the front yard, but my back yard is all tree roots and shade. The "deck" and chairs were out back, but Friday night Mr. P and I sat out there with a beer, but Joe (the dog) kept wanting to be out front. We admitted we like out front better too...so we just said, "WhatEV" and put the garden party in the front yard because that is how we roll up in here.

I really love it, but now looking at the pictures---I am wondering if it is more really weird than kinda weird....

SEVEN!

Yesterday afternoon I got so freaking pissed slightly annoyed at Mr. P's general crabbiness. I decided that I needed a little break from him and the house and where just one year ago I would have grabbed my book and gone to Moe's for nachos to give us time to chill the fuck out, I threw on my running gear and went for a little, teensie, tiny SEVEN mile run. During the first mile I was sure that a kickass divorce lawyer was surely the answer to our problems as Mr. P snapped at me for a Diet Coke can sitting by the sink instead of being in the recycling (and the can wasn't.even.mine and I had spent all morning doing all.his.laundry) and because we, wait for it, didn't even have an egg. But, after a few miles, I decided maybe just cutting him a little bit of slack because we did have a bunch of family stuff this week, his work is very stressful right now and he is really trying to cut back on smoking was probably a better idea.


When I returned , Mr. P and I made nice and then he went and gathered some Panera for dinner. Then we watched Four Christmases. Funny thing is that Dad and the girlfriend watched it Saturday night and said it was pretty bad and that it was just.too.weird. Ironically one of the Christmases is where the dude's MOM is with his friend from HIGH SCHOOL and of course, the dude is highly freaked.out. Mr. P and I just looked at each other and laughed...because right before they left yesterday (Dad and the girlfriend) they told me anytime that I thought our family was bad, I should watch this because it was WAY worse, and really? Seemed sort of exactly the same to me.


With the GINOURMOUS run yesterday, I elected to just do a 30 minute walk this morning at the break of dawn, and then I weighed in. EXACTLY the same as last week which I consider to be pretty victorious. So that means I am sitting at a Fat Test score of 84.53%.

I attribute much of that to the running of 12.5 miles over the last two days, because I really, truly did not watch what I ate at.all. Then this morning I was a bit rushed and ate Chick Fil A for breakfast instead of my yogurt, fruit, cereal combo. A biscuit and hash browns. SEVENTEEN POINTS. what the hell???? But I did journal it, and will eat a sensible lunch and dinner and try to get my exact same ass back in gear because getting to 80% in a month, this particular month, is going to actually require me to work.at.it.

a few Thanksgiving pictures

I have spent the ENTIRE day in my pajamas on my chaise with my laptop watching the Colts play the Texans (NFL). I have caught up on my farm, my blog reading, and even a little workity work. I am feeling very content and lazy and good.

I thought I might share a few photos from Thanksgiving...

I am celebrating Penny scoring a touchdown for the girls. I am NOT on the sidelines, I was a receiver in a spread offense! We play a sport every Thanksgiving afternoon, and it is always boys versus girls. It worked out much better for us when CK2 was a munchkin. Now that he is giant, not so great. If you look you can see tiny Eli too! The game ended in a tie.

After dinner my guts hurt so much from eating so MUCH FOOD (we had turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, baked acorn squash, roasted veggies, green bean casserole, sausage balls, mini pigs in blankets, blueberry salad, deviled eggs, coleslaw, and gravy) that I decided to lay on the floor and play with Eli. First we did Lincoln Logs then he wanted to draw. We made hand turkeys, and I am getting quite a bit of guidance on how mine should be.

My art was Thankstastic!

After resting for quite awhile we were ready for some dessert. We had trifle, bread pudding, blackberry cobbler and pumpkin pie. Here is an overhead view of my trifle. Angel food cake, berries, sugar-free fat free banana and vanilla puddings whipped with a bit of Fat Free Cool Whip, bananas, and the thing that pulled it all together? JAM. Sugar free blackberry jam and red rasberry preserves. On Thanksgiving I had one bite of dessert, I was just TOO full. I did manage a serving (or 5) of trifle yesterday. I have one bowl left for this evening.

I haven't stepped on the scale to determine the damage done, but just in the nick of time, another race week is upon us. We are doing a 10K this Saturday for Toys for Toys so we will be on our best healthy behavior all week!

Complete sign of MATURITY

I am talking about the kind of maturity that you say like this:

MATOUR

Not the kind of maturity that you say like this:

MATCHUR

Mr. P and the College Kid got into a discussion on whether the snake I saw last week was a rattle snake or a rat snake while we were at family dinner last night. In a stand of supremacy, the College Kid went out to the car and got her notebook for the critter class she is taking (all things reptilian and amphibious I want to say) to demonstrate her classification and naming prowess. After her asking me a few questions about that snake's head where I might have made up the answers she admitted it might be a rat snake (she was on the side of rattler) and decided to go play with Eli in the kid's play area of the restaurant.


While she was gone I grabbed her notebook and we added stickers and other commentary to her notes. For example, Penny wrote "I HEART PBI" which stands for some sort of breeding, but I don't remember what the P or I stands for now. Teddy wrote "I heart NEWTS" in SororityGirl16 font. Mom had some stickers with snakes that we added to her notes. But the piece de resistance that had me laughing SO hard that I cried and then my throat got all phlegmy and thick?

Which if you don't know what it is, it is Mr. P's rendition of the SNL skit baby hands lady which comes up in many a family meeting...see the tiny hands on the star stickers????

Like I said, we are MATOUR.

It's a miracle!

Tonight is another edition of 'Dinner and a Show'. We will be attending the community theater production of "Miracle Worker", which for those of you who aren't up on your Alabamians, it is the story of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

But we aren't that interested in Helen Keller or Anne Sullivan...we are attending because we adore JAMES Keller. Why, oh, why do we have our hearts set on James? ahhh, because CK2 is playing James!! This is his first "adult" theater experience, I am really excited to see it even though I am not convinced that it is a story I am that interested in...I know, right? I kinda suck. We also get to feel very fancy and go to the window and get our comped tickets...all the stars get those and can "leave them at the window". Awesome.

On the subject of CK2 I had to play the pissed off mom card on him yesterday...I read a letter from his Dean that CK2 had not written a thank you for his scholarship, and the Dean had asked him 3 times already. I was NOT pleased. And CK2 got a text, voicemail and FB message instructing him to write.the.damn.letter. Dude, it is a $2,000 letter...just write the fucking thing already.


I wholeheartedly agree that my ingrate child should definitely thank the person who provided him that scholarship and also should have done it when the Dean first requested him to do so (hence the angry mother voice mail)...but the letter? I think it was completely inappropriate in verbiage and tone. I don't believe that that a Dean should ever threaten a kid "...if you intend to keep your scholarship", or write things like, "if I were the benefactor I would question why someone was so ungrateful and question whether you were a wise investment. Certainly there are other students who would be much more grateful ."

Maybe that is why there is a search for a new Dean in that school.

OR, am I just being one of "those" Mom's ?

the LONGest run

When I first starting training for the 10K that is.this.Saturday, I remember reading through the training schedule and getting a tiny bit LOT freaked out.

I wasn't sure I would stick with the training schedule, I might hurt myself, I just wasn't completely confident that while still obese (from a BMI standpoint) that my poor old lady body would handle it. But today was that Tuesday that I have been anticipating for weeks and weeks.

I got all water belted up (it was 75 degrees here today), put my phone and even some PowerBar goo in my belt at Mr. P's insistence (because he is at work and gets nervous that on my very deserted run I could keel right over). I felt both dorky and strong setting out. The first 1/4 mile was really, really hard for some reason. But then I got to Right Round by Flo Rida and things fell into place.

I run away from my house for 3.13 miles, then turn around and chug back. At about a mile out I have to go around a fence that keeps my neighborhood separate from a new development. I gave my future self an imaginary high five, well not really an imaginary high five, I did the motion, but my future self wouldn't return it until about 4 miles later. (yeah, I do that type of thing a lot.)

At the turn around I decided to try the goo:

It was gooey and warm and SWEET and kind of grossed me out. BUT I will admit that my 5th mile was about a minute faster than my other miles, so I think maybe there is something to 'refueling'.

On the way OUT, I saw this guy and was scared of him and excited that I had my phone so I could take his picture, but then I did run in the dead center of the road because there were a bunch of leaves and I didn't want to run into/onto any of his buddies.


With about a mile to go, I high fived my past self at the crossing

and then finished up at 1 hour 26 minutes. I felt amazing. I did it. I completely jogged a 10K on a hilly, hilly course. I felt stoked for Saturday. So stoked I pulled out my confirmation card and in the teensy tinsy print, "The Jolly Buggy will set out after 90 minutes to pick up any slow ass motherfuckers so the rest of us can go home."

Okay, no, it didn't really say it quite that way, but I didn't know there was a time limit, and even though I came in under it today, it makes me much more anxious than I wanted to be...remember the training promise that I would be confident now? Not as much, but I am going to 'taper' and 'carb load' and 'hydrate' so that I do NOT have to get on any mother fucking trolley this Saturday. Mark my words.

I kinda knew, but they yet again confirmed...

My kids are awesome people. They are smart, funny, and beyond sweet to their 3-year old cousin. The way they treat him makes me feel like I did a decent job as a parent, something I question quite often, because I know that Mr. P and I butchered a LOT of things.

Eli (Penny's son) wanted to be Blue for Halloween (from Blue's Clues), so we jumped on board and will have Blue, Magenta, Steve, Mr. Salt, Mrs. Pepper, Paprika and Mailbox. We MADE all the costumes. MADE them. Just wait until you see the pictures...we are going to be awesome.

Anyway, College Kid, Penny and my mom came over for a bit this afternoon and we finished up the "shakers", and then I logged into Facebook for some quick farming, and I came across this video:



This is my 18 year old, college freshman, making his Mailbox costume so that he could participate in family trick or treating this evening. In public. Downtown. College Kid will be there too in all her Paprika splendor.

I wouldn't have done this for my cousins. I barely would have done it for my kids. But here are my kids freely and happily doing it for their cousin.

Yup, Mr. P and I did something right, even if it were purely genetic and/or accidental!

Happy Halloween!

*alert* I figured IT out *alert*

Okay, so, if you are on WeightWatchers and you track your points, and stay within your points and exercise...guess what happens?

You lose weight! For the first time in, I don't know, EVER how long, I tracked and stayed within my points, and ta da...lost 2 lbs this week!

It certainly doesn't hurt that I am earning boocoodles of Activity Points, as my 10K training has me jogging 5+ miles twice per week (which earns me about 10 activity points a shot as I am SUPER SLOW), and then a couple of short runs (HA HA, I now consider 2-3 miles SHORT) that get me from 3-5 points each. I am now less than 2 weeks from 10K day (November 7), and if nothing breaks, strains or sprains I am confident I will be able to jog the entire distance. WHOOP.

Yesterday the entire family headed out to the Pumpkin farm (it was such a fun day I am not going to dwell on the fact that my mom wore Halloween socks under WEDGE HEELS on a day out to the farm) and it was FUN.

We did a corn maze (where we called bullshit on Penny getting a kid to mark her paper instead of finding her own clues though she claims ingeniousness), jumped in a jumpy house, petted baby cows, took a million pictures,played in big boxes of corn (a la sandboxes), took a hayride to pick out a pumpkin, got dragged behind a tractor in barrels on wheels that were decorated like cows, climbed on hay bales, tried to hula hoop and raced rubber ducks.

Note the purple? Those were all things I was willing AND able to do this year, that I wasn't even willing to TRY last year. It was the first time in awhile that I really felt like this healthy, healthy, healthy journey has definite rewards (last time, was the first boating of the year when I could easily climb up the boat ladder from the water)...yes, better clothes are great. compliments are great.

But jumping in that jumpy house yesterday? That feeling was indescribable. I sit here smiling just thinking about it.

Saturdays as they were meant to be...

I am LOVING today.

Mr. P and I got up early and completed a 5K trail run. I have never really done a trail run, let alone a timed trail run. It was fun, but sort of sad because I didn't get to enjoy any of the scenery, I could only look down, look down, look down and try not to trip over tree roots or roll my ankles on rocks. I had to grin because as I came around the final corner I could see Mr. P checking me out for dirt...he admitted it awhile later. My time was a little over 42 minutes, and I was sort of disappointed because I thought I might beat my old time, but then Mr. P told me he was 5 minutes off his normal pace, so that made me feel a bit better.

Then we went to the grocery store to pick up fresh jalapenos for the TRIPLE batch of chili we just made...it took 2 hours just to get it to simmer, but it is SO SO SO worth it in the end. It is NOT point friendly, but considering this is the first Saturday in probably 6 months that I still have weeklies, plus all my activity points, I don't.even.care.

We also went and picked up supplies for our Halloween costumes, Mr. P and I are going to try to replicate these dudes (we have purchased hula hoops, clear shower curtains, duct tape and silver spray paint):

I just popped in some jalapeno-cheese corn bread and have caught up on some farming while we snuggle on the couch and watch football. I think after some chili and corn bread I will be having a nap, then out tonight with friends to watch our game.

THEN, if that wasn't good enough, last night we had dinner with the family, then browsed the mall a bit where I got Mr. P this ornament

and then we went on a movie date to Couples Retreat. Plus, tomorrow, we are going to the same pumpkin farm as last year and then working on pumpkins and costumes tomorrow afternoon. (I think I might spray paint my pumpkin silver.)

Interestingly (to me) when I was looking back for the post about the pumpkin farm from last year, I read the few posts around it, and I made chili the same weekend. We are definitely suckers for tradition!

What a weekend!

Our weekend was jammed packed...


FRIDAY:

• I signed up to be on our college's Relay for Life team. One of my colleagues lost her ex-husband to pancreatic cancer a few months ago, and another colleague is fighting colon cancer with every breath he has. I need to do more things were my perspective focuses on all the things that is RIGHT with my life.
• Mr. P and I got our pictures taken at CVS and then went to the courthouse to apply for new PASSPORTS! We decided to take the kiddos on a fun trip, but I can't say anymore about that. Mr. P swore me to secrecy.
• We did a little shopping for said trip, and I got two dresses from a DEPARTMENT STORE. Yup, you read that right. It was awesome. I tried the dresses on this morning and they fit right now, but should look great at trip time.
• Mr. P took me to see Whip It. When we were leaving Mr. P said, 'ehh, I liked it but won't have to own it'. Not me. It is a re-watch for me mos def. Due to my angsty angsty self, I fell in love with the song during the final credits. It took me most of Friday evening, but I found it (not on the soundtrack). It is 28 by Lorene. I can't find it anywhere to post for you, but I did find her MySpace page.

SATURDAY:

• Set an alarm for Saturday morning to get in a nice 5 miler in the crisp morning air. Really cool part? I actually got up when the alarm went off and went on a GREAT run. Mr. P did too.
• Mr. P and I picked up Eli and took him to an event at the local forest preserve. Creepy Crawlies. Eli LOVED it and showed no fear, except with the Hissing Roaches. Smart boy.
• Took a lunch break because Mr. P and I were going to keep Eli overnight on Saturday so Penny and Teddy could attend Penny's 15th reunion. Went to a new Italian restaurant and I skipped all the parmigiana, and went for a veggie pasta in a wine sauce. It was delish.
• After Eli's rest, we took him to the playground where he proceeded to get a split lip, and I had a stroke. Took him to Target to play with all the toys, got him a DVD and a football, then took him out for dinner and let him watch his DVD. Took him home, got him bathed and in bed and then watched our football game. 5-0. Awesome.

SUNDAY:

• Fed Eli breakfast and went on another run. I meant to do 2 miles, but ended up going 3.5 miles instead. About halfway through I rolled my ankle, and while I was able to keep going, it has been throbbing ever since. I have iced it and kept it up. I will be devastated if my training gets interrupted.
• Penny and Teddy arrived home, and Mr. P and I took the opportunity to go meet some friends to watch some NFL.
• Came home to a house with NO POWER. Lit a bunch of candles, got settled in, and the lights came on...and which time Mr. P made me a dinner of grilled cheese and vegetable soup. mmmmm.

It was a fantastic weekend filled with all the stuff we love the most! Hope your weekend rocked as well.

OH, I weighed in today, no loss. no gain. But, things are 'shifting' around. Yesterday I was about to go on my run and Mr. P said, "WOW, your legs are getting skinny". AND AND, I just got my teaching evaluations from the summer and they were great. My boss alluded to the outside letters he got for me and where he can't tell me anything, he gave me a big grin. Maybe, just maybe, I will survive all this.

:)

I think his hair is in the trash

One of the great things about Penny et al. moving to Alabama is our new founded family dinner night each and every Wednesday evening. Penny, Teddy, Eli, CK, CK2, Mr. P and I gather and go out to eat at one particular spot that we used to take CK and CK2 for dinner when they were just a year or two older than Eli is now. Tonight, as usual, Eli was the star of dinner, even though it was slightly at Mr. P's expense.

Eli was sitting in between CK and Teddy, and in the midst of coloring, this conversation took place:

Eli: MR. P., where is your hair?
(Mr. P is not bald per se, but does wear his do "high and tight" if it were.)
Penny: Eli, where do you think his hair is?
Eli: In the trash.

Then we all died from laughing right there at the restaurant. Well, except Mr. P and he took his sweet time reviving us. OH, and then we got laughing really hard just TALKING about this clip:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, today's the day. The day I hopefully do not give my family food poisoning. The turkey is stuffed and roasting. (I had a little bit of stuffing for breakfast...tied with mashed potatoes, stuffing may be my favorite part of the meal.)

I also had a, "duh" moment this morning. There is a reason you are supposed to cook your desserts yesterday...once my turkey is in the oven, no room for anything else. So, um, when I am I supposed to bake the cheesecake? I think I decided that I will bake that while we are eating...

So, just for fun, I clicked on the Thanksgiving countdown, kind of hoping there would be a checklist for the day...my biggest issue when I cook is getting everything done at the same time. The tip was, Don't forget to be thankful. Oh yeah.

I am thankful (not always in this order):

-for my family, my band of 7 (Mr. P, kiddos, Steamboat, Steamboat's parents).

-that while the economy fucked up my ideas of what I wanted Christmas to be like this year (traveling to my sister's), that is really the extent to which it will affect us.

-for stuffing and mashed potatos.

I hope everyone has, or had a wonderful day. I leave you with this Thanksgiving, oh so, many years ago when I made everyone either make a Native American, or Pilgrim outfit...

What vegetables, exactly?

So today's preparation tip is to bake the desserts for tomorrow, and cut up all the vegetables. mmm. I ask again, what vegetables exactly?

So I think I will skip that part, and get to work on my desserts...pumpkin gingerbread trifle and pumpkin cheesecake. I will keep you posted...

Okay, so far I have washed the trifle dish that my sister gave me several Christmases ago and I bought a spring pan, which I had to google to see exactly what it was. These desserts should be AWESOME.

First update: I have baked the gingerbread and COOKED the pudding for the trifle.

When cooking the pudding I made a comment to Mr. P that it seemed strange to cook the pudding. He looked at me in utter surprise, "You don't normally cook the pudding?" Which is weird..one, we are not big pudding eaters, and two, NO, why would you cook pudding for just normal consumption? Also, note the plastic wrap on the surface of the pudding...that is going to make it creamier.

Okay, well I am worn out from all the cooking, so we are going to go eat Mexican food, maybe go see Four Christmases, and buy a Thanksgiving tablecloth and fruits, nuts, and candles for the table....you know, so it looks pretty for all the food.

Update 2: We end up getting ditched for Four Christmases by the children, so we took our time and browsed numerous stores to the point I am now exhausted. But, at least when we got home, I got my first FAIL out of the way.

I didn't fully bake one pan of gingerbread. And, when I was making my whipped cream, I ran out of vanilla, so I didn't fully finish putting the trifle together. Here is where we are now:

Not exactly:

We'll see how it tastes tomorrow. Honestly, now I am not sure why I even thought I would like it. I like gingersnaps, but not gingerbread, and I like pumpkin fluff (from weight watchers), but not pumpkin pie. At least I used the trifle bowl.

Now to watch Top Chef and go to bed...I have a FULL day ahead of me tomorrow.

The verdict is in...

So, I was looking at my weekend posts, and they weren't very "weekendy". Heavy, dude. So, since this is Monday, I figured I would get down to some important business.

Pummelos are good. The rind is really, really thick, and there is a lot of the white gunk from the peel that you have to strip off even after you peel it. (Man, I really should be a food writer.) The actual fruit meat (yes, that is right, the meat of the fruit is the part you eat), was a really pretty pink, so I took a picture.

This picture makes these pummello sections look kind of like a heart? (Maybe too much Grey's Anatomy this weekend.)

Unlike an orange or tangerine, you don't eat any of the "membrane" so when you are done, you are stuck with a huge pile of pummello trash, and you get kind of messy, so I wouldn't recommend as a fruit for the lunch box, especially if you use lunch to catch up on blog reading (which is what I read was the time for highest blog traffic)...but a fruit to eat while watching television...absolutely.

Oh yeah, what does it taste like? Grapefruit, only not as intense.

While we are on the topic of food, what is going to be on your Thanksgiving table? I am working on my menu. So far I have the basics, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatos, gravy, rolls, corn, green beans, and my twists for this year: pumpkin/gingerbread trifle, pumpkin cheesecake, and homemade cranberry dipping sauce and cranberry jelly. The kid in college asked for a casserole of some sort, preferably including sour cream and/or cream cheese...any ideas?

And one more thing...tomorrow is BlogSecret. The post on this blog will not be mine, mine is going to be on...oh wait. It's a secret!

Pummello, anyone?

So the other night we went out with some friends and had some drinks. As we were heading home, I realized that I NEEDED sugar and shredded cheese, immediately. I had wanted to make the kid some brownies and we had no sugar, and I wanted to have leftover Mexican food for lunch, but needed shredded cheese. I explain the dilemma to Mr. P and he agrees to drop by the grocery store so that I can buy shredded cheese and sugar. However, I did not stick to the list. When tipsy shopping, you should always. stick. to. the. list. If you don't, you end up buying some weird stuff.

I did buy sugar and cheese, but also chocolate milk, a habanero pepper, an asian pear, a pomegranate and a pummelo. Luckily, since I have no idea what a pummelo actually is, their are directions on how to eat it:

So now, after having beverages, I know that I should not: call anyone, text anyone, email, blog, comment on a blog, or shop for produce.

SororityGirl16point

So, now that my sister has found the blog I was trying to think of something funny I could write about that would make her laugh.

When I was younger I like d to write letters in such a way that there are dots at the "points" of each letter. I call it SororityGirl16point. If you were such a girl you know just what I mean, if not, here is a quick illustration:


Anyway, my sister thinks this is EXTREMELY dorky of me. Therefore, I went on a quest to find a font that mimics SororityGirl 16 point so that I could type out a whole post in it...and wait to see her reaction. Unfortunately, that is not going to come to pass...Did you know that you can buy fonts? And actually have to buy some fonts? I did find a font that was close to what I was imagining, but I wasn't sure I wanted to be $53 funny. Free funny is much more my style.

So, I had to take the post in a new direction since I already typed up the first paragraph, did the illustration, took the picture, uploaded, etc. But alas...on my quest, I discovered fonts for all moods and occasions.

On September 19, Talk Like a Pirate Day, you could blog in either

ArrMatey:


Or perhaps TreasureMap:


If you write about dogs, perhaps QuadrupetsDogs (it is kind of hard to read though):


Maybe you live on a farm where there was a bad accident, so ExplodingSheep is more your style:


Or maybe you want to get a guest host spot on CakeWrecks, so you use YearSupplyOfFairyCakes:


Maybe you really like Ellen DeGeneres and want to ShakeThatBooty:


Maybe you are mad at your boyfriend or you are a boy and want to write an X rated blog, JerkOff:


Or perhaps, SuckMyBalls:

But if you want to write Sorority Girl style, it is lamely called Telegram Com:
I would LOVE to abuse my authority as a professor and assign a report and have the requirements be:

Please complete the assignment using SuckMyBalls 12 point, double spaced.