Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Bad Wife

Tonight my hubby is appearing as Fat Elvis in a rockoff against Young Elvis. I feel like a BAD WIFE for not being there, but he understands that sometimes you have to be a BAD SPOUSE to be a good parent.


Elvis is leaving the building.


I'm hoping to get some donated on-stage photos/video soon! And I'm anxious to get our pre-Elvis life back. Wish him luck!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

the asshole in the suv

This is a story that doesn't show us at our best, but I just can't get over it!!

Yesterday the fan in our car broke, it was fine if we were chugging right along but if we had to make frequent stops then the engine would heat up.

We were heading 1.5 hours north on the interstate, we had to get to a function and didn't foresee any issues with the fan as there were minimal stops involved. On the interstate there was an accident and cars were bumper-to-bumper. We started out being 1 mile away from the nearest exit, 1/2 mile later the needle started showing us that the engine was getting hot. Ugh! We were pretty tense.

We were at a standstill, we didn't know what to do. We could either pull into the breakdown lane and sit there, or we could pull into the breakdown lane and zip up 1/2 mile to the exit so that the fan could cool the car down. We chose the latter.

This is not something we would ever normally do! Ever! But it was an emergency situation, we put the hazards on and started to book it, until we got stopped by this SUV who was half in the lane, half in our way. We were like 'What's this person doing?' We tried yelling that we were overheating and that we needed to get by, but that didn't work. Behind us in the breakdown lane came a state utilty vehicle and my heart was in my throat because I didn't know what we were going to do until it just hopped on the terrain and zipped right past us. As it did, the SUV got out of the way and we were like "YES!" until it got right back in front of us again. We didn't get it. What was this person doing??? We started to think that they were playing Deputy of the Road not letting us pass while our car was seriously heating up! Stress!

Not long after that a college kid in a late model sedan pulled entirely around us onto the bank and then zipped back onto the pavement and up to the exit. We could see the SUV driver flash a ticked off "See-ya!" wave so then we KNEW that this person was just trying to keep us back, to "maintain order and fairness" in the traffic. But the fact is, this person just assumed we were trying to cut and it makes me so mad!!!!! We had a legitimate emergency situation, what if I was having a baby or a heart attack or something or an injured toddler. !!!!!!! So after seeing the non-4wd car pull entirely around us my DH got the confidence to pull around the SUV so we could get our car into safety.

I guess the moral of the story is to make sure your engine fan works properly, but the second moral is BUTT OUT!!! IT'S NOT YOUR PERSONAL INTERSTATE AND YOU DON'T ALWAYS KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE CAR WITH ITS HAZARD LIGHTS ON. Ughhh....I'm still so mad!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Fair-ly Exhausted

...so please enjoy a brief photo montage of our trip to The Common Ground Fair 2009.


Jimmy kept stopping in the middle of the walkways, to play with sand.


See.


Mmmm...Mumma eats an Eggplant and Hummus sandwich. Daddy got a $10 crab roll that had about 30 crabs in it...great value!


Three words: Jimmy Luvs Hay






Someone who loves hay spots his daddy at sound check.


Boids! We never saw baby peepers. =(






This bird looked like a cat.


Poodle.




"You found yourself a fort, little man," said the hippie at the counter.


The Mallett Brothers Band perform.


Jimmy dances


Recycled trains carry fairgoers to and fro the fair. We didn't go this route, we took the folkstar entrance.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Tomorrow = Family Road Trip! Peep!

Both Hubby and I dislike driving, we don't trust other drivers or other cars or earth's animals or poor counties' roads or God's acts, et ceteralious, so going 1.5 hours north for a fair is a fairly big deal for us. Tomorrow we are driving from Portland to Unity for The Common Ground Fair.




The Common Ground Fair is held annually on the 3rd weekend after Labor Day and is pretty hippy-dippy (they ask attendees to leave the disposable diapers at home) and those looking for deep-fried CRAP are s.o.l. This fair food is all fresh and organic, you have to walk about a mile through the woods to reach the fairgrounds from the parking field, and Smokey's Greater Shows is NOT invited...a point of distinction as Wally and I trust traveling fair rides almost as much as we trust New Hampshire drivers (sorry NH drivers...but we never know what you're gonna do! Live free, die, or just run the other way!!) There are presentations on sustainable living and tables of crafts and expos dedicated to alternative medicine, alternative energy, and alternative alternatives in general.

But I think my favorite activity is visiting the animals, particularly the baby chickies. It was on the ride home from one year's trip to the CGF that I cornered my staunch "Never Gonna Have Kids" hubby into changing his mind. Until then it was a bit of an ISSUE and I wasn't at all sure of any outcome...I was intimidated by the whole situation, it was very difficult for me to address, my best friend had just become pregnant with her first and it was time for me to air my increasing feelings about becoming a family. I ended up using the fair's baby chickies as a euphemism to avoid uttering the grief-potent "impregnate me." I was putting my heart on the line, so imagine its glee when he side-glanced at me, flexed his jaw back and forth, held up an index finger and pumped his arm to the beat of each word of "JUST ONE." Within moments his jaw relaxed into a smile and series of chirps and "peep, peep, peeps!" came out. By the following year's fair I was pregnant, our family has become the most important aspect of our lives and to this day we smile when we come across stuffed or real chicks and we refer to Jimmy as our Peep Peep Peep! And it didn't hurt that the Poster/Newspaper Cover Art for that year's fair matched our theme.

Yet as wonderful our little Peep is, he can get a little antsy after too many waking moments in the car so I bought this mega-active Melissa and Doug Latches Board:



And this Thomas Crayon Roll from Etsy.com:



I think these along with juice, animal crackers, and a decent nap should do the trick.

And last but not least, this year's trip will be charmed with something new--Wally will be PERFORMING with David Mallett/The Mallett Brothers Band at the fairground's Amphitheater. It will be the first time Jimmy sees his daddy playing on stage in front of an audience, we are so excited!!!




Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Ever notice that...

...raw broccoli is a complete chore,


but cooked broccoli is CANDY. Sheer CANDY even when it's just steamed. Not that I'm complaining, but how does this happen?

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

36.5 Candles

Tomorrow a coworker turns 50. Everyone is bringing in foodstuffs and decorations and goodcheer, the works.

I'm bringing in mini-quiches...




...and a smile even though no one cares or will acknowledge the fact that tomorrow also happens to be my 36.5th birthday. No, it's OK, I realize some people's birthdays are more "important" than others. I'm not bitter. Some parties just prefer to be non-inclusive, right. No universal healthcare, right...pass the fudge, right.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Food Field Trip: Kon Asian Bistro

One shan't write a blog in this town without an inexplicable post about inaugural trips to Kon Asian Bistro. My turn, my turn! I wanted to find out why this weird place was the belle of the GWI/RoadRunner ball so I chose it for our Paid In Full celebratory meal.

As we say in Maine, I was stahvin' on Saturday so we piled in the car when I got home from work and we dug a hole to the other end of Brighton Ave.


Exit 8-y


Valle's Redux


Budda-Swank!

The club lighting indoors made me sorry we hadn't waited until after dark to enjoy the seriously tricked-out interior. We were seated and then I chased after Jimmy as our request for a highchair was ignored. This left me no time to look at the menu but that was OK because I knew what I wanted, until the waitress advised me they didn't serve Lo Mein ??!? so I ended up ordering a Veggie Pad Thai, a booster seat, and a Kirin Draft. "Oh, sorry, we don't have draft beer yet." Argg!!! Kirin in a bottle it was.





When the waitress came back with Jimmy's booster and my Kirin we learned that the urchin that Wally ordered was also unavailable. Insert italicized question marks and exclamation points?!!?

They did have eel.




And jerry-rigged chopsticks for kids.




My Pad Thai got nicely tasty with some soy sauce.




And Jimmy enjoyed the rice from Wally's duck.



But Wally thought his duck was going to appear more assembled like a duck, and less disassembly (he prefers to eat meat off the bone.)



There were a few bumps in the road however things definitely were tasty and despite our suspicion that many of our fellow patrons were employees of the Adult Donut Shop down the street, we considered this location to be much kid-friendlier than some of the better places in town AND Kon has the added benefit of not being anywheres near the mall. We rarely go out to eat so only time will tell if we give another look-see at Kon's uniquely luxurious and lowgrade bistro...or if I get konned into patronizing other weird businesses just because I wanted to see what the bloggy fuss was about.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Every New Beginning Is Some Other Beginning's End, In a Good Way

I took this photo yesterday, before I sent VW Credit our final payment, before I own'dr!




Sure, there's still some more paperwork to be had before the screws recognize that sheezal'rs, and perhaps Lady Cabrio could use some tidying-up and a fourth hubcap, but STILL!!! I feel so accomplished. I remember getting that payment coupon book as a newlywed back in 2004 and my stomach sinking when I saw the final payment date of SEPTEMBER 2009. I remember flipping through the book wondering where I'd be at certain points in the future...but the book's now shut, here we are at September 2009.

In these 5 years we've moved from Salem Street to the house that we bought in Libbytown. Our kitty head/face count has remained the same and we even gained a new human head/face to boot. A small VW convertible is hardly what anyone would call a family car, and I've even walked into dealerships with hopes of trading in for something bigger, but as the 20-something saleskid pressured me ("well you're not going to keep the car, are you???") something jarred loose in my head..."payment-free after SEPTEMBER 2009" was certainly the best deal in town. Releasing our li'l unit from this monthly obligation makes our 4-seat, 5-speed, 2-door convertible more of a family car than any Odyssey payment could ever hope to be!



And no more signing off on 60+ month car loans, ever!!!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Brötli Crüe

Today's 5 o'clock snack was pretty glam rock, it was inspired by food blogging found here and this luscious photo.

I found these images at 9am and by 9:12 I was cupboard-shopping for our own Brötli, or Euro-aspic'd open-faced sandwiches. I wanted something we both could enjoy so I settled on a Brötli Tüna with something a little something extra that we once picked up at a wildly interesting visit to Simply Scandinavian Foods.



The GAFFELBITER i dillsaus was an eensy OMG hurl but the rest was reported by us to be "fun", "unexpected", "horrendously delightful", and "would be better with tougher bread."






I loved them and will be making them again, apparently with tougher bread.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Backyard Backscratch

I like how cats + people have it all figured out. If we feed them, keep them warm, they'll kill rodents for us. I scratch your fur, you *whoosh* scratch me if I don't let you out when you want.

Out of 4 cats, Stephanie is our only killer. She's the only girl, we call her The Huntress, she loves to hunt small rats, big mice, or tiny baby hairless ones, she doesn't care. She leaves them outside our back door and usually when we catch a fresh one we can't help but notice that it's still breathing, or screaming. She's not shy about fatally wounding creatures, and then leaving them with something to think about. Ugh.

Lately the mice have been absent or disappearing from the back porch, I wasn't quite sure what was going until the other day Wally came whisker-to-whisker with a porch possum, we recon this possum is the culprit in the case of the invisible mice, and that our little back-scratch circle is complete. We feed Stephie, she maims mice, the possum sweeps away the mess. Yaaay! However, as much as I like this cycle, I do feel a little guilty that it SUCKS REALLY BAD for the mouse.

Wow. Cute. Easy-ish. Wow.

I'm just posting this so I don't forget about it. Outrageously cute idea even for those of us who aren't that crafty (though, it might be a lot easier if I actually owned a sewing machine.)








felt cafe: wee easy stuffed animals project, fabric crayons

Thanks for the idea, Liz!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Big Brother Buffet

In 20 minutes starts the Superbowl of reality tv: The Big Brother 11 Finale. We are on Team Anyone But Natalie (I assume this is a very large team), and I decided to surprise Wally with a surprise buffet.


Click photo for detail!


I call it the Zen Chen Spread, I've been racing the clock for hours putting it together (mostly out of items we already had, thank you stockpiling!) at the same time doing laundry, keeping Jimmy happy, fed, and dryly diapered, keeping his hands out of it while I upload this post, and now I'm getting a little nervous that Wally won't make it home in time for kickoff. Ah well...all the more for me?

Go Kevin! Or Jordan!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Triumphant Weather for a Visitor

Today at the credit union Jimmy and I found ourselves nose-to-nose with an Old Port visitor.


Red circle on the left, prow. On the right, credit union.


From the front.


The Carnival Triumph!

These ships are a pretty impressive figures, all docked in our little town. It was perfect weather today and if you look closely, you can see it peeking from behind a few buildings.



And from behind the Wyland Whale Wall.



And look! Last year I wrote about WMTW's Jackie Couture, that's her below!



All in all, pretty neat! Portland's 2009 Berthing Schedule can be found here.

Friday, September 11, 2009

I Heart Hubby

...because he cobbler'd a megaloved multiweathered pseudocroc back into wearable condition, saving us 7 bucks and further making it possible to convert these shoes into another summer. (I was ready to throw them out...unresourceful moi!)



That, and good lawd he gave me this:



Little things add up to GREAT BIG THINGS!

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Brown Bargains

2 cords of hardwood was dumped on our driveway today.





This firewood will join 3 seasoned cords that we already have stacked out there, so we're figuring this means Winter Heat 2009-2010 is now paid in full!!!





Considering the woodstove season here is October-April, we're pretty psyched.


Other brown budget items we came across today...

Hand-me-down brown corduroys courtesy of my friend Celia and her 3.5 year old. Thanks Celia and Max!



A pound of coffee beans from the weird "Gourmet Food" aisle from Marshall's. Kooky location, great'n'tasty bargain.



Love is the drug for me, so it's free to get HIGH from looking into these velvety doe eyes every day. I'm the luckiest mom in the world!




Medium brown box hair dye that I got on sale for $2.99.




Alas, enough celebrating our warm winter and brown bargains...as Wally's been telling me all summer, this firewood isn't going to stack itself!



Happy Thursday!