February 26, 2011

Fiesta

Life is crazy. Work (don't even get me started), kids' actvities (last night and today were Chunky's last basketball games of the season), and school (must read several books and write paper on NAFTA in addition to interview my CFO for other short paper and research Warren Buffett (the joys of finance).

I got a bee in my bonnet and am making meatloaf for dinner - with a twist! I merged two recipes for what I hope will be a delicious Fiesta Turkey Loaf. The "fiesta" if for green, yellow and red peppers.

Recipe:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup onion, finely diced
Half each red, yellow and green peppers, finely diced
1/3 cup breadcrumbs
2 Tb seasoning/herbs - I used whatever was on hand
1 tsp dry mustard (a must!)
1 tsp Worstershire
1 egg
Squish of ketchup

Mix and pat into loaf pan previously sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Mix 1/4 cup ketchup, 1 tsp Worstershire*, 1 tsp dry mustard and 2 TB brown sugar and spread on top. Bake approx. 45 mins at 350 degrees.

* I forgot Worstershire in the meat mix tonight, but I recommend as it imparts a "meaty" flavor to less flavorful lean turkey. Hopefully mine will turn out okay without it.

February 23, 2011

New Word Wednesday #6

Bailiwick
[BAY-luh-wik]

–noun
–a person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work

February 21, 2011

9th, White and 2nd

9th place is how Sassy's team did in the President's tournament - out of 98 teams in the regional competition! They had a couple of losses along the way and some games were real nail biters but they did so well. It was a loooooooooooong weekend.

When we arrived at the tournament 7:30 yesterday morning there wasn't a flake in sight. We were greeted by 13" of snow at 7:00pm. It took four people to get us out of the parking lot. It was a white knuckle drive home - lots of ice, poorly plowed roads and falling snow. We drove 25 miles in an hour which would normally take half an hour. I thought it was going to take a lot longer, but there was hardly anyone on the road (hello tournament people, did you not get the memo the state DOT said no unnecesary travel?) and I was able to cruise at 40 mph almost the whole way by following tracks left by a vehicle before me. If you slow down too much, you get stuck and if you go too fast, you spin out. There were accidents left and right - mostly on exit ramps. We had to drop off another player and her mom and we didn't even drive down their street as it wasn't plowed yet. I felt bad leaving them to walk in the snow, but there was no way we would have made it in, let alone out. Sassy had to get out and push me around a corner at an intersection and then she had to run and jump in the car as I kept it going at a slow pace to keep from getting stuck again. When we arrived at our block, we saw that it wasn't plowed either. Sassy, Chunky and Sassy's friend who lives at the end of the block pushed my car all they way down the street and into the driveway as far as we could go. My tires have no tread left and the kids' are all sore.

I got up at 6:00 this morning to snowthrow - still falling snow. This is poor Gil (my car) -


I managed to get my car in the garage but there's already another 4" on the ground now. We'll likely have 18" total by tomorrow morning. Thank goodness hubby just came home from Canada about an hour ago - it's his turn! This is now officially the 2nd snowiest winter on record. I'd like to submit a memo to Mother Nature now - let's not go for 1st, okay?!

February 19, 2011

Blurg

It is 11:00 on Saturday night and I am doing laundry and Finance homework. blurg. I have ten books to read on the North American Free Trade Agreement. blurg. I have a draft presentation due at work Monday and I haven't the foggiest idea what I'm going to put together yet. blurg. We're expecting 7-12" of snow tomorrow (it's already the 5th snowiest winter on record). blurg. Chunky had a basketball game at 12:30 today (they lost) and then we ran 20 miles south to Sassy's volleyball tournament by 2:00 (they won 2, lost 1). The tournament continues at 7:30 tomorrow. In the morning. As in I have to get up 7 hours from now. The tournament will probably last until 5:00pm. blurg. We will likely be driving both ways in a snowstorm. Double blurg.

February 16, 2011

New Word Wednesday #5

I used this word earlier and thought I'd share.

Segue
[seg-wey]

–noun: any smooth, uninterrupted transition from one thing to another.
–verb (used without object). Example: The conversation segued from travel anecdotes to food.

Not to be confused with the Segway.

February 15, 2011

February 14, 2011

VDay



A card, flowers and cards from each cherub. Bonus points for hubby!

February 12, 2011

New Word Wednesday #4

I know it's Saturday - with everything happening over in Egypt I forgot. This word is in honor of my everything German loving daughter.

Zeit·geist  
–noun, German for “time-spirit”
–general moral, intellectual, and cultural climate of an era
–example: the Zeitgeist of England in the Victorian period included a belief in industrial progress, and the Zeitgeist of the 1980s in the United States was a belief in the power of money and the many ways in which to spend it

February 9, 2011

Fandom Runs Deep

Have you seen the Glee Chevrolet commercial? I may buy a Chevy in 9 months when my current lease is up. Yes, I'm that big of a GleeK!

February 6, 2011

Sassy stylist

Remember how I love playing dress up with Sassy? Well she has been looking at prom dresses for the past month. She bought a magazine and oh Mylanta I was less than impressed with some of the styles popular today. I must be getting old. Also, the models for the dresses look ahem mature and more stylized than I'd like my sweet little high schooler to look. Sassy's magazine is full of dog-eared pages - she wasn't sure which style she liked. I knew she wanted something different than the Masquerade Ball dress and she wanted it to be unique. There are a couple of specialty stores locally that guarantee selling a dress to only one person at the same prom. I had some free time yesterday (read: I should have been doing Finance homework) so we decided to do some pre-shopping. Of all the dresses in her magazine, this was her favorite:


This wasn't my favorite, but I know it's important to try things on as they can look very different on the body from the photo or even from the hanger. Unfortunately the store didn't have this dress in stock. She picked out several others to try on. I questioned this one - didn't think I liked the print or neckline (a bit more revealing than mom prefers) but it was really pretty on her:


It was a contender. Until she started trying on the mermaid style (like first dress above). It's perfect for her body type - a little curvy in all the right places. I pulled a peacock blue strapless fit-and-flare gown that was similar to the mermaid style. It has a corseted back with a modesty panel so you can show as much or as little of the back as you'd like mom likes a compromise. It's classic, elegant and special. I thought the color and fit would be perfect. It was. And to my surprise she loved it.

Introducing Sassy's 2011 prom dress:

It's hanging in Sassy's closet as I write this post!

February 4, 2011

Liar, liar

Chunky has a bad habit. He will lie about most anything. He was allowed to be out of uniform the other day for red, white or blue day. He came upstairs wearing black. I informed him it was red, white or blue day. He said he didn't have anything red, white or blue. I say that I happen to know for a fact he has red, white and blue clothing because 1) I do the laundry and b) I buy his clothes. Hello?! I recommend blue jeans. He says he doesn't have any clean jeans. I remind him of who does the laundry Again, hello?! He's entered a new phase - lying about having his homework done. To his teacher. Not cool. He's grounded from everything (again) so he asked me to play Monopoly with him tonight. I of course obliged, but good Lord above how many games can one play in an evening? He lost every game (poor thing) and he's bored to tears, but I am Monopoly'd out. He's out in the dining room playing himself now. What did children do before TV and electronic games to entertain themselves? Oh my gosh he's coming in here. He wants me to play something else. It would be bad to tell him I'm too drunk to play right? I had to fortify myself with something during the aforementioned endless Monopoly games!

February 3, 2011

New home?

Anyone want to go in with me on this house? We can ALL fit, promise!

February 2, 2011

New Word Wednesday #3

One of my favorite words. Of all time.

kittywampus
- adjective
- disorganized; poorly done; chaotic
- slang form of catawampus

February 1, 2011

Model behavior


We had to force Chunky to do the photo and then they only stopped bickering for 90 seconds, but isn't this a sweet moment?