I'm Sorry Mommy!

I've been having a little problem with my ear for the past couple of weeks. Nothing serious: ear pain, crackling, inability to "pop" on command. I thought I should have it checked before flying this week so I visited with the kind folks at my local Urgent Care. After reviewing the symptoms with the nice lady doctor she promptly took her magic ear looky-inny-scope and checked my left ear. Not the ear I'm having problems with. Off to a bad start, I'm thinking. No, she said, I want to look at an ear that isn't giving you problems first. Good plan, I thought. She then looked in my right ear. For a while. She leaned back with her serious doctor face.

Dr: "Do you have pets?"
Me: "Yes." And in that fraction of a moment I frantically tried to figure out how I was going to tell Kathryn and Jon that we have to get rid of them all because I assumed she was going to tell me I'd developed some horrible allergy to all of them - just by looking in my ear.
Dr: "Are any of them black?"
Me: "Yes" I say - now thinking it's a trick question and she's actually just looking at my white t-shirt which has black fur on it and the animals MAY just have a chance at life but that I may be dead.
Dr: "That's what I thought!"
Me: "What?!"
Dr: "You have a two pieces of animal hair sitting right on the membrane of your ear drum."
Me: "I'm sorry - did you just tell me I have a hairball?"

"Maybe it's from the orange kitty Mom?"

Counting Down

No matter how you count it, we leave for Florida, our much-loved Sanibel Island getaway, on Thursday for 8 days. Jon and Kathryn count-down the full days here in Minnesota. Therefore, their countdown calendar always looks so optimistic.

I always think of how much there is to do and how many days, full or partial, I have to get it all done. So, I say there are three days until we leave. I'm always one to throw a wet blanket on the fun! Others I know would count the number of "sleeps" until we leave: 2 sleeps.

No matter how you count it, we leave for Florida on Thursday!

Papa's Party

Being the chronic over-committer that I am, I willingly agreed to host Jon's dad's birthday dinner on the same day as the school's Spring Basketball Banquet for 200 for which I was also responsible. Granted, a dinner for 5 is much easier but I was still in need of all the help I could muster. Many hands you know ...

Jon grabbed some balloons after the banquet to make our party atmosphere more festive. (It's OK - we donated the balloons so we didn't technically "steal" them!)

I needed a dessert with things I had in the pantry (Thank you, Carole!) We made a few modifications; we don't like nuts so we added Heath Crunch Chips and Butterscotch Chips - um, YUM!

And the assistant was happy to have a function that allowed her to nibble at the fixings. For the record, kitties DO like coconut almost in an Al Pacino / Scarface kinda way! Sorry no photo but I'm sure your imagination is doing just fine.

Jon, pretty much knowing that all the buttons were being pushed this past weekend, came to the rescue on Saturday night by doing all the things that needed to be done for a recipe that requires overnight marinating. Our family favorite, Chicken Marbella, was ready to just pop into the oven and go Sunday afternoon.

Sounds like a lot of fuss for just one guy on his 79th birthday doesn't it. But he's worth it and looks to me like he's pretty darn happy about it too.

Happy Birthday Papa Jim!

On Her Own

Things have been SO very busy the past two weeks. And while I like to try and leave something for dinner for the other members of the family, some days it just doesn't come together. Last week I had to bring in the junior chef. With nothing but the briefest of suggestions and the ingredients, she took off.
It never occurred to me to find her a cookbook - what Italian cookbook wouldn't have a basic Alfredo sauce in it? But she found it on her own and and made Three Cheese Tortellini Alfredo for dinner all on her own.
According to dad, it was perfect! I didn't need to eat it to know that!

Family Time

Who says families don't take time to sit down and have dinner together anymore?

Jon moved the bird feeders to just outside my kitchen window this past weekend. I've spent quite a bit of time watching these two snack, bicker, and flap in the snow today. Yes. It is snowing today. That is all I'm saying about that. These two are the only ones around right now. Or, I guess there could be several "couples" that just come when no other "couples" are around. But I like my story better. This is their favorite restaurant. They love the scenery and the coziness; this is "their" feeder.

Of course, I'm not the only one who likes to watch them. I know it's hard to spot her in the wilderness that is the sink corner, but Sammy has also developed a love of birdwatching over the last few days. This does not bode well for birds or window screens.

Ruuuuuuuuun! Flyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

So Far Away

It's really sad when such good people live so far away. Take the very lovely and wonderful Mrs. Pao for instance. A request for a magazine only available in the UK was made. Now, I thought I was asking for kind of a lot. Leave your comfortable home (or office); go to a yarn store (OK - not a stretch); lay out the UK kind of cash for 2 copies (one for me, one for Guinifer) of said magazine; send them to me - in the United States.
What a girl. She came through. Here is the magazine.
Here is the sweater Guinifer and I want to make. So badly in fact that we put poor Mrs. Pao through all that stuff outlined above. Purty ain't it? But then she has to go and do all this extra stuff - like pack the box full of stuff that's really great and special and thoughtful and turns out, perfect for two people to share!

Like the dark chocolate candy - Guinifer got it.

And the Mag Bags: I took the colored one, Guinifer took the Toile bag. Perfect because I always want to color in Toile every time I see it.

Guinifer doesn't like tea. I got to keep all this cool stuff.

The white chocolate dipped mangoes with lime and chili pepper - Guinifer claimed those. She has boys. But the cat toy on top......

"Mom, pah-leeeeeeze don't tell Tig we got a new toy. I want this one all to myself!"

There was another cat toy - a painted ping-pong ball, but Sammy lost that about 5 minutes after opening the box.

Yes, it's sad when wonderful people live so far away. But then if they lived close, you'd never have the opportunity to get cool packages from them. Or to brainstorm even cooler return packages FOR them. Thanks Sam! We loved EVERYTHING!

Stimulating

Guess what momma got this weekend?

Jon, being VERY brand loyal (every once in a while, just for grins, we play count the SONY A/V components) having done due diligence upon the expiration of the lease on momma's former car (of the same make and model) took the family to the car store. And then momma, being the spoiled baby that she is, got to bring this home.

There was great debate as to the interior color. Black or beige? The old interior was beige and showed every dirty paw print on both the seat and carpet. Plus, every spill of a kid-nature. So, black then. Today however, when Holli and I exited the car after the morning trek to school, I discovered the fatal flaw in this decision. Anyone??

So - we stimulated the economy this weekend. And by the way - the car store was packed with people. Go figure!

Better Endings

When your day begins on a really crappy note - moderating your book club and having the only strong, and negative, opinion about a controversial book and feeling forced to defend said opinion - it's best to have lunch plans with people will just love you for your knitting.
Like Guinifer, working on her gozillionth pair of socks.

And Amy, knitting up a "cast cozy" for her injured pinky.

And the Mysterious Miss T, who was also working on a sock but hiding behind something else mysterious. I guess that's the nature of the name.

They erased all memories of the morning while we spent a a lovely few hours knitting, lunching, discussing TV shows and our knitting. And while we showed our digital readers off - no one talked about books. It was probably for the best. Because I was correct in my opinion of said book and I had facts to back me up too! Damn it!