Finally Some Saffron

At long last, we cooked with saffron. I think it was more than a year ago that one of us brought up the spice and its mysterious price tag. Tho it's best utilized is desserts and such we incorporated it as part of a Moroccan chicken dish, layered delicately over a basmati of course. Oh pretension. It was delectable. Slightly sweet, sorta spicy and oddly umami. All I know is I'm glad there's leftovers.




Yuula was not as impressed of course. She can't appreciate it for another day or so. I don't know how that all works. But I do know that the occasion called for a robust Malbec.



We ate while we watched The Kids Are Alright. Great movie. Makes me wanna be part of a lesbian couple. That or a sperm donor. I know, kinda strange. Good film, good dinner, even if the finished product looks a little radioactive.



What's going one there?

She's The Jinx All Along

Good game Sunday. The team we wanted to win did. Figured out the secret weapon. Laura is a jinx. Whatever team she roots for loses. So she was Steelers all the way. Big development of the night is I didn't stuff myself full of nasty food that would make me feel like puking all the way home. I did polish off the chipotle Doritos but, it's the end of the season. I probably won't see another bag of those til baseball opening day. Oh dreaded opening day.

Grandma & Grandpa were in Heaven, wrestling over who would hold who when. They each got their required monthly amount of hold time, but I know we need to make plans for a full day of baby exposure.

Girl With The Plastic Heart

I don't think the Build-A-Bear people saw us coming.

Carwash Gives Whiplash

On a whim, we made the futile effort to wash the van Sunday, it being new and salt being so abundant and all. Plus who doesn't love going thru those giant bristle brushes and getting squeaky clean.



I'll tell ya who. Yuula. She was asleep when we hit the conveyor, and the slapping of wet fabric woke her up rather rudely I'm guessing. We're such bad parents.



She was fine actually and if anything it drew her attention to the two sunroofs directly above her head of which she frantically shifted focus between for the remainder of the ride. Girl gonna give herself whiplash.

scitter scatter

It's been a crazy day today. Starting with the van this morning...but boy oh boy- that sure has screwed with my day. I came into work late thus having to deal with the wrath of Marge...that's right she's back. She made me very aware of the fact that there is no ice down here. She then proceeded to tell me I should have used kitty litter and when I replied "where am I supposed to get kitty litter from" she looked at me dumbfounded and for once had no response. I suppose no response is better than a stupid one right? She is quite an amazing lady that one. I have been trying to avoid management today. We had our weekly meeting today. I was told that a customer complained about the Saturday night manager on the website survey. They said I was rude and looked like I didn't want to be there. It was left at 6:49 pm barely 4 hours into my shift and they were right about me not wanting to be here. That's probably not a good thing considering we have our yearly reviews on the 15th of this month....I have to do my self review tomorrow...on my day off.
Monday is a day of stupid projects and trying to clean up the store from the weekend crowds. It's a vicious cycle of which I want out. I have been hiding out in my clearance aisle trying to look busy waiting for Marge to leave, once she leaves then I can leave. I wouldn't dare leave before her, that would be a "career ruiner". So here I sit waiting. It's been a long day. Those scatter rugs have been watching me all day. I don't want to pick them up its too much work and they just get messed up 5 minutes later. These people are animals.

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Look Ma, Two Hands!

Oh what a glorious day this is! Yuula, enraptured with excitement over her bottled lunch, reached out with both hands and took hold of her milky destiny. After a little aiming assistance she proceeded to drown herself in deliciousness without missing a moment of CSI:NY, giving me enough time to reach and grab my phone and snap a blurry photo. Tomorrow we will try chopsticks.

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Close Call If Not For Rainbow Rock

AYE! What a morning already and it's 6:38. Laura got out to leave for work a little before 6, at which point we spent the next half hour trying to shimmy the van out of the driveway from the ice grips that formed in just the 5 hours since we pulled in last night. It's hard to push a vehicle with your feet consistently slipping out from under you. After dumping salt around the tires and heave-hoing it for what seemd 6 hours, we conceded defeat. Laura came back in and was in bed before i could get my boots off, which were now full of snow. I should've put socks on.

I sat down on the computer to get to work, a little ticked and cold, and turned on some background music only to find that the hard drives booted up in the wrong ports and my iTunes was jumbled. Ticked became annoyed. I reached down to take a frustrated sip of my tea and it was ice cold. Annoyed became pissed.

I started to shut down the computer so I could reboot the drives when this photo came up on my background slideshow....

I started laughing so hard I cried. That seems like a lifetime ago. We know her so much better now. She's changed so much but that's still her. Then I cried for real. Morning back on track. Yuula saves the day. It could be so much worse. I could be Christina Aguilera this morning.

Rub It On Your Feet, Make Sure It's Sweet

This is another one of those moments in my life that five years ago I would never have imagined I'd be experiencing. But life goes on and I'm at a Build-A-Bear stuffing and fluffing and dressing a shaggy dog in dungaree and a hoody. Adorable. I'm gonna need to eat extra greasy food tonight to compensate.

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Everything Is Ice-fied

This is our road. Who's the saint of safe travels?

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Das Automatische

We gotta get an automatic starter. And and awesome Darth Vader helmet!

Go Yellow Team

Ahh what a lovely stadium we'll all be watching today. Satan always has the loveliest of homes. And the two teams equally deserving to be in the big game, I can't decide who I want to lose.

Yes I can.

After weeks of rhinos and chinchillas and platypi predicting the outcome of the game, I give you my official prediction, which is neither an educated guess, a diluted gut reaction or a well-thought out decision based on stats, but more what I can come up with as I type these words right here....

Green Bay 24
Pittsburgh 23
Black Eyed Peas 17

That's right! Packers by 1. Put your money down.

To be honest I'm more excited about the chip dip and the commercials than anything else. Bring the sweat Fergie!

Scagging On Our Whimsy

Yuula started reading yesterday. Her first book is called 'Color and Pattern' by Ron L. Hubbard. Six glorious pages of different patterns each with a different color. You got green polka dot, orange stripe, blue circle, yellow square, and as an M. Night Shyamalan style twist at the end you have purple monkey. Monkey is now a shape. She read it 46 times yesterday. I know this because when she's done she throws it on the ground and cries until someone comes over and picks it up and hands it back to her. That someone is me.


She has trouble turning the pages without using her monkey feet. I'm gonna see how many times I can say the word monkey.

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I took some photos of the world last night from our bedroom window. I thought it looked spooky. It didn't come out as spooky as it looked with real eyes. I looked out the window flashing light into the yard as a huge chunk of snow had melted enough to slide off the roof making an awful scraping noise. I ran and climbed under the covers like a scared little monkey. Just know that I was unnerved.



Add to that the mysterious emergency vehicle monkeys that passed thru the neighborhood just a bit ago. Their sirens and lights were going but they were driving about 5 miles per hour. Are you in a hurry or not. You're sending mixed signals. I stuck my head outside to see if I could smell smoke, but ended up fooling the cats into thinking it was time to eat. I asked Laura, because she had shoes on. Here's another creepy photo.



On our way to NJ today, in about an hour. Gotta go rustle up the monkeys who are asleep encrusted in their own combined drool no doubt. A floorboard just creaked. They heard me.

Monkey.

Playtime, Indifference & The Letter S

When Mother is home from work she plays dress-up. But Mommy has left for the evening so it's time to catch up on her rest, no matter where she ends up.



Super Bowl tomorrow. Going into NJ to my brothers. Maybe my parents. Guess we'll call on the way down to see. As long as there's chip and dip and a cushy cushion I am good to go. And I have abstained about making rude comments about Favre this whole time, but I saw this today and teared up a little.



Back to cataloging. I got thru 'S'. A huge accomplishment. It's all downhill from here.

To Bed Out Of Trouble

Early to bed. Yuula slept a lot today so she'll keep us up no doubt. Laura is sleepy and there is nothing on TV. I think we're watching a movie called House Bunny. I can't figure out the plot. Tonight I ripped open a bag of pellets on the front porch, broke a dresser, smashed a glass candy bowl and popped the lid off the stove, all in like 30 seconds. Then I accidentally deleted a bunch of videos Laura took of Yuula the other day but I don't its a huge catastrophe. Pretty sure they were kinda eventless, preemptive footage in case she did something amazing. So I decided to follow the girls upstairs so I can't do any more harm.

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He's Using Hypnosis

I now love wrestling.



Why has no one thought of this before? Good find Mike.

Is It Black?

Ha!



This movie comes out on April 1st. Joke?

Flying Monkeys Are Best

We can't play with her for too long, because she may explode.

Gimme Your Nickels

I just read that nickels are worth more than what we all thought they were worth. The actual metal value of 5-cent coins, made from a copper-nickel blend, is up to 7 cents. That's 2 cents we're throwing away every time we spend one. So I propose we, all of you who read here, gather up all of our nickels and melt them down in one large pot and split the profits. I need a lot because there's a $10,000 fine for melting down American currency so we'd have to melt down at least 500,000 nickels just to pay the fine, and then we can split the rest. There's 20 billion in circulation so start checking behind your sofa cushions and underneath your carseats. I know my Dad has an old nickel collection. Let's start there. Cough 'em up Pops. It's for the greater good.

The End Result Is Boredom

ICEpocalypse Now!

We've survived the worst of it. Ice falling from the sky can only mean one thing: Another day locked in the house. Of course not everyone believes this is. I saw three cars stuck in the muck right in front of our house. I felt the urge to go out early this man who was spinning his wheels at the intersection of Red Fox & Arrowhead. He didn't exactly seem thankful. More annoyed that he even tried to go anywhere. When he got out, he turned around and headed back home.




The ice gave the snow super strength. Shoveling the walkway was like a dead lifting competition. My arms are sore. And the cats can walk right out on top of the 2 feet of snow without leaving a pawprint. I on the other hand sink in up past my knee.



Laura & Yuula stayed safe inside, switching out her 3 month clothes she's outgrown and just spending some quality time in general. She's working on a crawl and sitting. Good days work.

Here's some more snow & ice.

Live From Icicle Prison

These guys are growing exponentially. Some only about a foot from the ground. By the end of the day we may to come up with some sort of frozen bail money. Hail bail. Ha! sorry

Wireless Technology Killed The Rattle

Yuula's got some new favorite toys. Sophie still makes her laugh when she gallops over her tummy and she never leaves home without her plastic keys (obviously) but a girls gotta broaden her horizons.



Her newest favorites are wireless in nature. Namely the phone and the remote. We have four remotes but she only likes the one for the TV. I think because of the colors. You can't tell because I only have that black & white photo but I'm giving you the opportunity to use your imagination here. I can't do it all people.



At this rate we're going to have to get her a helicopter for her 3rd birthday.

She's also taken an extreme liking to this little foam O. That's what I call it. Foam-O. She gets it in her mouth and goes ballistic. I'm surprised it survived yesterday.



Only problem is she kinda refuses to hold it in her hands while she gnaws on it so naturally it rolls/flings out of her mouth every 7.3 seconds and she, thinking the world has now come to a end, has a conniption fit. Even when the thing only goes as far as her chest or stuck with spit to the top of her head, it is now my duty to retrieve and reinsert. After one day, I hate Foam-O.



She was scooting pretty mightily yesterday as well, in all directions but forward. She's best at backwards. Scooted herself right into the corner. Would've kept going right under the staircase if that darn rocker wasn't there.



Laura is home today. I love these days. Gonna snow a lot. I smell the soup already.

Bad At Foods Fast

Went to McDonald's yesterday for breakfast, something that used to be an almost weekly ritual, their hotcakes are heavenly, and we sucked at it. We could barely finish our food and I dropped a whole deluxe breakfast on the floor before I even got to our table. That would have never happened back in the day. They said having a baby would change things.


They cleaned up the deluxe-ness before I could snap a shot


Anbody want a biscuit?

Disappointing I guess. Their eggs are a little suspect anyhow.