christmas 2010

i hadn't been over to visit nana much beings i had cooties & figured a nursing home was the last place i should go. when i made it over there she was sad & not feeling well. i explained to her why i wasn't visiting but that we would pick her up on christmas day. at first she said ok, but then she said she didn't know if she would feel well enough.

we got up & got the turkey in the oven [yeah, we repeated thanksgiving dinner, i have yet to decide if that means were boring or gluttons]. Z opened his stocking stuffers while we were in the kitchen, little science kit things that he really liked [an electromagnetic something [i's smart! wires & magnets, whatever & the other one was a little crystal growing kit]. once we could all sit in the living room he tore into everything else.

Z got a few new games for the wii, some rockets, a mandatory flashlight & an erector set but the first thing he wanted to play with were those 2 little science kits. so he & i put those together while B put his new grill together. it was a pretty cute moment in time, all of us on the floor in our pj's assembling.

then we went to see nana, she was up & dressed thankfully. i brought her a purple orchid & a picture frame with our christmas card in it beings we weren't sure if she was going to come over or not. she seemed in much better spirits & was happy to come over for another visit. she tore into that turkey leg like it was nobody's business too!

my mom also came over & we all enjoyed the day together. once we ate it was wii time; donkey kong has really changed over the years compared to the old atari 2600 version....Z & I have a good time playing together, although it's torture for B to watch [bc we're so bad].

nana stayed longer this time, it was nice for her to just blend into the dynamic. she did ask "don't you play some music?" though. i know this is completely different environment for her, she used to sitting in the backyard with rancharitas blaring & a cold beer in her hand.

so mom left & we took nana back to her facility, then it was over to the neighbor's for dinner, which was a joke bc we were all still stuffed from lunch & dessert, we tried though!

the play

i forgot to write about this, so i'm just gonna write something quick....
i decided bc we're in the city, where there's culture & that although we're broke, we should go see the nutcracker. for once we actually left the house not late.

only bc the tickets were left on the dining room table.

which of course, wasn't discovered until we were there, parked & walking to the entrance.

thankfully, we were close to home, so it was worth our while to get the tickets & go back, but were still about 1/2 late or so.

Z didn't like it, he wanted to play with my phone & said he'd rather stay home & watch cartoons (FanBoy & ChumChum to be exact). i thought at the very least he would like the music, they had a full orchestra but he wasn't impressed. although later, when he'd hear the music on tv he would tell me the play stole the commercial's music...

B & I enjoyed ourselves, it was a good change of pace & nice way to get in the christmas mood.

sick too

i wasn't surprised about the cub scout/walk/run headache, but the week-long off on was tiresome. once it went away a cough replaced it & since then [weeks later] it still lingers.

Z has also had a cough, but thankfully hasn't gotten sick. at school they had another singing presentation, he sang jingle bell rock & the 12 days of christmas...well, kinda, he's not much of a singer. last year i remember one of the songs was feliz navidad & i heard him saying it the other day but he actually said "novigog". his last day of class was party day, i went in to help with crafts. i helped make a paper mouse with a candy cane tail.

B surprisingly made it through the semester without catching it either, a few days later he did though. he did absolutely fabulous in his classes, i have to say i'm quite impressed with his grades, but he knows going into a nursing program he has to. one night we went to his O.Chem teacher's art studio for a little end of the semester celebration.

Z's craft day & B's party day were the same day, next morning i woke up with cold #2.

more ghetto house chaos

we had already been going back & forth about fridge #2; they said it was leaking, internally, not water but a fluid, but then it stopped, that it was going into a drip pan in the freezer & it was probably 'normal'. we told them to disconnect the water line but never got a response & from 200 miles away we decided to just let it be.

a few days after thanksgiving we get another call from the tenant - yah, this is great! this call was to let us know the water line to one of the toilets was leaking, so we told them to turn it on only when needed & friend R would go over & take a look at it. before R even made it over to check out the line they called again bc there was no electricity in the living room.

GAH!

so then there are a few million phone calls between B, R, the tenants, me & the electrical/plumbing service company bc I scheduled service but then the guys decide to look at it first & i just want everything fixed & i was stuck in the middle of it.

R was able to fix the toilet that night - YAHHHHH!!!!

the electrical stuff was afu'd & R waved the white flag suggesting we contact the service company. i was completely thrilled one problem was solved, the only thing was when i called the service company back & left a message no one returned my call. then i called the tenant & he wouldn't call me back either, so then of course i fly off into left field worried that maybe the house burnt down in an electrical fire.

hey.....i wonder what the insurance payout would have been on that?

turns out the tenant went out of town for a long weekend & late monday afternoon i got a call from the service place it was all fixed up & the bill was less than $100 - SWEET! i was worried the whole house was going to have to be re-wired or some other craziness. of course i didn't get the electrician's breakdown so i wrote down whatever the heck he said, repeated it to B, who tried to explain it to me but whatev's, it works, it's up to code, we are done!

oh christmas tree

on fri we picked up Z from school & headed over to get our christmas tree. the plan was to get the tree, decorate it & take pics so we could get a card out you know, before christmas.

there's always the plan & the reality....& they tend to be really different around here....

after the cub scout ride/walk/run thing that headache didn't go away. ok, it kinda did, but then it came back, then away, then back & away for like a week, it was good times! after that i had a cough that wouldn't go away, so i was kinda tired & a little out of it & instead of decorating the tree i decided i needed cookies, chocolate chip ones of course. [you know if anyone else needed those cookies i would have told them to bake them themselves right? but yeah, i needed them]

so decorating happened on saturday. we actually have too many ornaments now & the tree is looking a bit full. we've continued, although we have yet to do it this year, the tradition of buying an ornament every year; it's a lot of fun to see our choices over the years. Z always picks out something really crazy, loud &/or colorful; his ornaments stick out in a crowd.

um, pics didn't happen sat...or sun & then finally i don't know what day it was, but i got my *ss in gear & fixed my hair & face & was all done up ready for picture taking & guess what? we couldn't find the bleeping tripod....& we have 2. we realized we hadn't seen them since the move, so there was no telling where they could be. we looked everywhere we could think of & came up empty handed. we figured the only place they could be was up above the garage, so pics were postponed again.

the next day B looked, but no dice so we tore the house apart again. i finally find one of them & we DID get our pic taken - YAH! we even got the card ordered that night! yeah, so what if it was already mid-dec....

oh & in case you're wondering, no, Z didn't cry for this one.

yeah, i know....

but really, not much has been going on....
i mean other than the usual, it's december, so there's that chaos. we got the tree on friday, yah, got it in the house sat & decorated on sun, talk about pacing ourselves...yes, we did. pics planned for tomorrow night, guess i should start looking at card samples to have a few options ahead of time.

um, Z, well, yeah, the past 2 weeks he's gotten in a lil trouble at school. not much, 2 orange cards previous week, 2 orange & a red last week. actually it was a double red, bc he's good like that. nothing big though, just his usual not listening, not following directions, on his own programs, talking instead of working. so yah, it's not like he's bitten anyone lately....the teacher's agreed he's improved, he's approached normal inappropriate behavior so there's still lots of room for improvement.

we've had troubles here at home with the not listening as well, so with a heavy heart we decided he just was not ready to attend the cub scout whittling project day. B & I spent quite a bit of time picking out the knife, making sure it locked open & had a short blade, but in the end we figured if he couldn't listen to his teacher in class, can you imagine how hard it would be for him to focus with a knife in his hand? with a bunch of other little boys with knives in their hands?

more than likely nothing would happen, but it was a good opportunity to drive home consequences to not listening or paying attention or Z's favorite, when someone says stop it equates to "hurry up & do it NOW"....

i cut back my visits to nana this past week as the week long on/off headache turned into a cough which then turned into a cold, it was fun.

oh & then there's the house, yes, the f-ing house, stuff going on there that keeps me from here. i think it's good now though. i HOPE!

ciabatta this

the other day at the library i found a book "kneadlessly simple", seriously, i had no idea there was such a thing! this is totally what i need! bread sans kneading bc, well, i'm a little over the top, so light kneading does not happen over here, it's all EXTREME KNEADING, which you know, does not make good bread.

so anyways, i didn't want just plain ole bread, i mean, why start simple? that's just not me...
i decided to start with ciabatta, but then it went into a description about how the bread was supposed to be shaped like a slipper or something & i was lost....

so, yeah, i googled "ciabatta bread shaping" or something along those lines & found a video that lined it all out. yes, i did watch it probably 10 times thoughout the bread making process, but hey, guess what?

i made bread!
& it wasn't tuff as nails!
it was edible even!

although i didn't like that it came out kinda flat, but hey, for me & bread, it was good!

i made another loaf a few days later, i added fresh rosemary & a little olive oil & planned to not stretch it out as much the 2nd time around. it didn't work out that way though, i didn't do the saran wrap trick & made a mess, i was happy to not have dough all over the kitchen by the time i was done.

i haven't made anymore bread since then, but i will soon, probably a baguette & when i'm up for it sourdough, my favorite.

new year's resolution starting in december

because i'm a lil late like that....

i'm gonna be a better blogger.

dec 1 i wrote 5 posts for november.
i have 5 more drafts started, i hope to complete within a day or 2.