Easter Peeps Are So 'New Testament'

Check out these Passover Peeps instead!



I made good on my promise to make Homemade Peeps (complete with presumption that they wouldn't turn out looking like these) but when it came to form and decorate the only suitably sized cookie cutters I had were Jewish ones. And still, they are only as good as my handiwork so if you can't tell they are Dreidels and Stars of David, how Eastery! But I did skip the Menorah one, so mazel tov!

Other happenings:



Hubby builds a Death Ray, I mean Digital Antenna and shoots rays of death at my beloved television habits! Now our current reception consists of:

NBC
CBS (sorta, it often pixelates which is nothing new since the stupid DTV conversion)
MyNetworkTV
CW

So, the PBS we recently acquired is back gone, and there's no ABC, which throws out 5 years of solid tv loyalty, but who's counting. Farewell brain-buildy PBS news, make way for Judge Joey and Tyra Banks, I guess.



My marshmallow experience. I couldn't believe how easy marshmallow is to make, I already had most of the ingredients except I traded corn syrup for the organic rice syrup I got for some other recipe I never made. I felt very professional using a candy thermometer and everything went great until: spreading the mixture into the pan. It was then that Hubby announced the only difference between my marshmallow mixture and Napalm is...is....is.................ok, I think I was too busy being mad at his unsupportive comment to listen to the rest of his comparison, but do know---it was really tough to spread!

And this morning I spent 3 hours in this wet line for these:



Wheeeee! I'm glad they got rid of the pipe bombs directly across the street before he got here!

Basket Innerds

Just a few items that Jimmy can expect to find this Sunday morning...



Melissa & Doug Fold and Go Mini Barn. Moo!



Princess and the Frog--might be a little bit more for Mommy, but Jimmy really likes the Princess movies, too. =D




Self Explanatory



I'm thinking of making these Homemade Peeps, but pretty sure they wouldn't look as good as the ones in this photo.




Ooops, these socks are for Daddy's basket. But as I was searching for sock photos, I couldn't help notice these:



Have you ever seen anything cuter? Sigh... Another lifetime, I guess..! Happy Almost Easter!

Promotia

Click the band photo to hear
my baby-daddy's music.







Please, do it for the children!

Why Heat It Up...

...when you can just EAT it up!



This is what I found when I came out of the bathroom from drawing Jimmy's tubby. Normally he loves taking baths, but it appears he had other events in mind!

What Kicks a Domino's Dotted Ivory Tile?

...a Little Caesars Hot-n-Ready pizza! I found out today. Domino's may have that cool (newsworthy?), probably fake pizza tracker and a crust that makes your stomach ask "Is this even food?" but I'm happy to report that Little Caesars with its edible product, rules. I know so because my father was nice enough to extend my birthday just an ickle bit longer by treating us to lunch and to some other birthday gifts, Thanks Dad and Joan!

Hail! Hail!


Fail! Fail!

*I also learned that the Dominos box is encrypted with lots of occult symbolism, as are many other corporate logos, it's true, I learned it from This Guy.

Birthday Fun

Yesterday my brother stopped by in the rain to drop off a surprise homemade birthday chocolate cake from my sil.







It was divine!

Señor Princess very much enjoyed it.

No Late Nights To Start My Late 30s

It's my birthday! I spent much of the day growing progressively ill and am now swirling into Nyquilalaland, will share more tomorrow. =D

Getting Closer...

It's March 22, this afternoon I happily ushered my birthday-shopping hubby out the door and then caught Jimmy stealing a little sniff of birthday flowers.



Once Wally came home he gave me an excellent present: A Nap! Since we had dinner plans I asked him to not let me sleep past 5:30. At 5:30 I woke up to one of the best sounds created on earth:


Ladies and Gentlemen, The Incomparable Spandau Ballet

Does my hubby know me or what. Watching the video led into many smatterings by yours truly about Tony Hadley's handsomeness, but I had to eat my words when I met my dinner dates:




Handsome!

We were headed for Newick's Lobster House, where you can eat for free on your birthday.



My license says today is my birthday which may explain why I could eat for free on not-my-birthday (and it's not exactly "eat for free" either, it was $10 off my meal, which is better than most restaurants offer so I was happy.)

Jimmy didn't want to sit in his booster.



But he and Daddy got some good drawing in nonetheless.





And then Wally announced that one of my birthday presents was "blue and had numbers on it." Ok. And that I had "already seen it." I was stumped. He normally doesn't like to ruin surprises, but there was a puzzle in front of me that I had to solve. Blue with numbers....blue with numbers... Was it a lottery ticket? No, it wasn't a lottery ticket. Was it the sky? No, not the sky. Was it bigger than a breadbox? No, it wasn't bigger than a breadbox. Was it in the house? It wasn't in the house, it wasn't a racecar, it wasn't Thomas the Tank Engine, it wasn't anything my little rock noggin could fathom. I like to think I'm normally better at puzzles of this sort, but I was coming up blank. I asked what the numbers meant: "They mean you won't get pulled over by the cops." Ah ha. He was right, I had already seen my blue, numbery birthday present, and I like it very much.





And then our meals arrived. Wally had Fried Clams and Calamari:



And I had the Butter, I mean Seafood Medley:



And Jimmy had Mac&Cheese. My meal was so rich with butter I had to stop eating it halfway because it was giving me a headache. But Wally's fried clams were fantastic!

And then it was home for the premiere of my favorite show:



(I know he's at a completely unfair advantage, but Go Evan!)

So, on top of the surprise food day my coworkers threw me on Saturday:





...I am continuing to enjoy Birthday Week 2010, I'm not sure how I got so fortunate!

Happiness Is...

Birthday Week Surprises!!!



Many thanks to my Bros and Sils and Neph for providing the Wamily-F with some much needed cheer and festivities all on account of li'l ol' me and my upcoming BIRTHDAY!!! Lennonian Taco Night and Strawberry Shortcake a la Hubby & Son were divine, and extra special thanks to my fellow Marchy Birthdayer M for her special celebratory touch. And with only 2 more days to my actual birthday, I am already having the best week! Stay tuned for extra reporting, live from Birthdayville, Maine, this is Birthday Girl, over and out.

Could This Be...

...our first Year of Movie Theater Movies??

I'd sure like it to be! But considering Hero of the Rails isn't playing in Maine and the other 3 movies are in 3-D...praubub leenawt. =| Thank goodness for Netflix, uhah.

A Sure Sign of Spring

The frogs are out!


Ribbit

Naw, but seriously, it started with open windows in December, we had the mostest mildest winter ever which has seemingly snowballed into an early spring. I could have used a little more snow this winter, but whoa, globally warm apologies to the polar bears because I could seriously get used to this March spring weather!

Today we even got a couple hours of yardwork in, but my self-congratulatories for our efficiency sort of nosedove when hubby reminded me that we weren't in fact ahead of last year's yardwork because last year we did the responsible thing and raked the yard the previous fall. Oh.

Ribbit.

Roses Are Red...

...Maine 2010-2011 inspection stickers are blue.
I have one on my car, yeehaw!
And it only cost a hundred dollars, or two.



The yearly inspection angst got ampliphoned for having to repair the e-brake for the second year in a row (we don't even use it???) but we're good until 2011, hurrah! Vehicle O'Safety week perseveres!

Happy St. Patty's Day O'Safety

My stupid $10 Jonas Brothers camera effed with most of the photos I took of our wonderful day, but I managed to sort of salvage a shot of Jimmy's new carseat.



It's the Graco Nautilus and I've already received a little heat for getting another "babyish" seat rather than a big-boy booster seat---but! I didn't go all willy nilly, I spent months thinking and researching before I decided. I knew I liked the 5-point harness of the Britax Roundabout that he was outgrowing, and I honestly thought I was going to stick with Britax (the Volvo of car$eats) which meant with the size of my car I'd have to get the Marathon which only goes to 65 lbs, which I feared was a short way's to go for $200+. I wasn't interested in shortchanging Jimmy's safety but I needed to be practical. More reading and recommendations led me to the Nautilus and I'm very happy. It's highly rated (carseat nerds love it!), it harnesses 5-pointedly up to 65 lbs and then converts into booster mode for up to 100 lbs, it's comfortable, it fits in my tiny car, and was only $144 from Amazon. Oh, and Jimmy's upholstery is called "Matrix" but the pink version is named "Rachel," what are the odds! So, bring it on, Baby Seatists, I feel that Jimmy and my wallet and my mind are all safe and sound with the Graco Nautilus.

And then we came home to my good homemade Irish pizza and I made a green pie, with Jimmy's help of course.



Hope you had a great St. Patty's Day!!!

Have Insomnia?

If you're having trouble sleeping, consider taking a peek at Jimmy's favorite Youtube series.

Trains Across America



Hasn't failed me once! Zzzzzzz....

Wow, Facebook WORKS!

I've never been to a Trader Joe's, but I've heard great things about them so I was happy to join the Bring Trader Joe's to Portland, Maine!!! page when I first started getting active on Facebook.

It seems as though the good people of the second best rated grocery chain (and the FTC) are watching the chatter of the people:

Local Fans of Trader Joe's May Finally Get Their Wish

Wheeeee! As much as we all love Whole Foods, it sorta was a littttle weird when they gutted out the Wild Oats around the corner just 2 months after opening. But the *best* part is that even though the two buildings are only 1/3 mile apart, the new Trader Joe's location will be so much easier to walk to from my house. I simply can't wait to be a cult follower of TJ Culture. Thanks, Facebook!

News Muse

I've recently picked up PBS reception and had one of those "holy crap" moments when I watched their 6 o'clock news, in 5 minutes I felt like there was a giant mass of noise and junk in my head, and that I put it there by watching network news for so long. Like, if I closed my eyes and thought about what I had learned from 5 solid years of ABC World News, all that came to mind were pharmaceutical commercials.

A few days later, last night I walked away from the tv altogether, I turned it off and turned on the radio--Coast to Coast (without Art Bell) was on and within moments I was filling Jimmy's magnadoodle with tips I didn't want to forget. I looked at the magnadoodle this morning, it said "Beans, Bullets, + Bandaids," that these were the items we needed to stock up on in preparation for 2012.

Oh kaaaaaay, maybe that was a little more extreme, which is probably why I cloud my mind with so much network junk. I guess I'm looking forward to maybe getting smahtah with BBC World News.

And many thanks to Andrea for this funny:


The formula of every news story, gotta love The Onion!

The Topsy Turvy World of the Perfect Schedule

Obviously I'd rather not have to work, but I love that I can provide the fam with bennies and only have to work weekends and that Wally can exercise some good father/son time to avoid any future Cats in the Cradle and the Silver Spoon forlornery, I love it.

One downside though is that I get no PTO (paid time off), or holiday time, which makes me a little sad as Easter approaches, cuz, well, I have to work it. This year I also get to work the hubby's family's favorite annual holiday get-together: the 4th of July, and as my sister-in-law recently called to my attention: CHRISTMAS! 7am to 6pm! My boss who is leaving for another department tells me not to worry, that being told that I'm on the bottom of a very long list of requests for time off doesn't mean a thing. That even though it's a Saturday that doesn't offer the special Christmas-Triple-Time-And-A-Half-And-One-Day-Off-In-The-Following-Year incentive for others to work the holiday, that Jimmy will wake up to a smiling Santa Mommy who will spend the entire day with him, setting up an annual family feast. Ta-not ta-worry! I don't know...I hope she's right!

In the meantime I found some cute Easter Basket deals. A $10 coupon for The Princess and the Frog, I can't wait to see it, and a fun Toy Story/Toy Story 2/Toy Story 3 at the Movies deal from Amazon, can't wait to celebrate the release of Toy Story 2 on my birrrrrthdayyyyy (which I *don't* have to work, hurrah!)

Big Red