I'm Swamped!

I'm swamped too.

• I've got my parents' 50^th Wedding Anniversary Party to plan
• My last Precept lesson of the year to plan
• We have literally no FRESH food in the house, only our zombie apocolypse stuff. Need groceries.
• Nobody has clean clothes. Laundry must be done!
• I've got a list of phone calls the length of Rapunzel's hair to make
• And I haven't slept well in two weeks...so I need to go to the doctor

That whole part in the video of get some rest, if you haven't got your health...I say POO! I'm trying...

~Tina, frantic, but still alive

Black Friday Compromise

I want to clear up a few points regarding my Black Friday rant.  I think I got so rant-y that I wasn't clear.

∫ I am not against stores opening early and giving good deals. JUST DON'T OPEN ON THANKSGIVING. To me this means you open on Friday morning, and not butt-crack-of-dawn early either, because then you're just depriving people of sleep. 5 am to me seems reasonably (foolishly...) early enough. That way the bargain hunters can get a modest amount of sleep, get up around 4am, throw their clothes on and go battle the hordes, should they choose.  Besides, whatever time you say you're opening, they'll be there.  Why make it so early?  It's not going to deter anyone determined enough to take part in this craziness.  (That was foreshadowing.)

∫ I am not against the ads. Just give them to me in the Thanksgiving paper like you used to.  I just think having pre-Black Friday deals the entire week before Thanksgiving (my favorite day of the year as you may have heard) takes away from the specialness of THE day we are meant to be celebrating. It's like having all the Christmas decorations up in the store before Halloween. I hate that too.

∫ Any questions? And Mr. Briane Pagel, I'm eagerly awaiting your “respectfully disagree” rebuttal. Very eagerly. BRING IT ON!

∫∫∫∫∫

All that said, you can't keep The Engineer away from a tool which is 1/3 the regular price AND needed for the dreadful bathroom project, AND he has declared as his Christmas present from me. (That's how we do it – I got new Vibram Five Finger Shoes because I, of all hideous outcomes, LOST MINE somewhere. I hate losing things. Seems so...unintelligent.) 

Anyway, of course this is a doorbuster Black Friday special and I sit down to “calmly discuss” my objections to his adventure. He (actually) calmly points out that:

∫ Home Depot opens at 5. (Ok, that's OK, I can go with that IF:

∫ They weren't open on Thanksgiving. Which they weren't (thank you Home Depot, you are now my favorite Home Depot-ish store).

So they rise (early), go, and conquer. And also scored packs of 24 AA batteries for $4 per pack. Yeah for my conquerors!  Yes, this probably makes me a hypocrite.  It wouldn't be the first time...

∫∫∫∫∫

There's also a bonus to this story. When I get up, OYT is already up, and I ask him to make me breakfast.

We call this omelet with a piece of bread squished into it. Maybe I'll write another piece about cooking...another day. We have a second Thanksgiving dinner to go to with The Advocate's extended family. 25 people. My kind of party!

I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday. See you Monday!

~Tina

He is Good!

(photo credit wikipedia commons)

Psalm 106:1

Praise the Lord! Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for his lovingkindness is everlasting. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all my wonderful friends in this community.  I'm grateful for each one of you. 

~Tina

Random Act of Kindness

I am happy to report that there are still nice people out there who do random acts of kindness for others. It's a good thing, because I needed this R.A.O.K because as it turns out, someone had done a random act of vandalism on my car.

I'm in line a l o n g time before I even get into the test bay at Air Care Colorado, our state run emissions testing station. I'm ushered politely into the tunnel-o-more-waiting. Almost immediately the polite young man who processed me comes to me and says,

“You do know you don't have a gas cap, right?”

“Yeah, I know. It broke off a long time ago and I've never replaced it.”

“No, ma'am. I'm not talking about the door. I mean gas CAP.”

I lose it. I've had a pretty stressful ten days, I know they test the gas cap for leakage, I've been to emissions testing three times in the fall already with The Transporter's car which failed (among other tests) the gas cap test. 

I imagine myself going home, cannibalizing one of our other Volvos, and then remember that the gas cap which passed is on The Tranporter's car. Which is in Boulder, with The Engineer, at work, because we're waiting for his car parts to arrive and the weather to thaw so he can fix his. (When you drive old cars, always have a spare...) And of course I have no idea where mine is.

I apologize for crying hysterically over a gas cap (and of course over all the facts of the above paragraph and having to come back and get in line again because I've procrastinated so well that it's the next to the last day to accomplish this, but I don't share that...I'm just telling you why I'm nuts) and explain that it's been a bad week.

“Stay right here.”

He literally slinks off, looks around, and then grabs one of their gas caps and puts it on my car.

“That ought to make your week just a tiny bit better.”

I beam and thank him, drying my eyes.

When the test is over, I notice that there is once again no gas cap. Makes sense. I PASS EMISSIONS. Miracle. As soon as the paperwork guy is done with me he dismisses me.

All of a sudden, I see Mr. Nice Guy sneaking back over, and hear the distinct Volvo click of a tight gas cap. He pats my car like they do at pit stops in Nascar and runs off before I can thank him.

I was shocked. What a totally nice thing to do for this hysterical lady about to just totally lose her marbles. Made my day. Which was a good thing, because when I got to the DMV, and W A I T E D again, one of the other vehicles I was renewing needed proof of insurance, and I didn't have it with me, and my agents office which I called to have them FAX proof was already closed for the holiday...so I get to go back today. On the last business day of the month. Looking forward to it.

~Tina

P.S I can hear you saying, “I bet she just didn't put it on when she last got gas.” No way. It was a freezing day, we'd just had a snowstorm, and without the door covering my cap, it was crusted with snow and ice. I remember when I went to put it back on considering getting my gloves but I hate getting them gas smelling, so I just took one for the team and twisted that cold, icy cap back on. We have had a string of car vandalism in town, all over town, random things. What would they want with my gas cap? Ooohhh...maybe they need it to pass emissions...

Go Away Black Friday and Leave Thanksgiving ALONE!

Can we talk about Thanksgiving and Black Friday and the fact that THE ONE NON-COMMERCIAL, NON-RUINED BY SOCIETY holiday we had left has now been high-jacked by the retail community and is no longer about friends, family, pausing to be grateful, and just enjoying each others company (and of course FOOTBALL) but just a day to quickly shovel in some sustenance before heading out to the stores to be trampled and perhaps killed for the latest and greatest in electronics?

Phew. I need to calm down. That first paragraph was one sentence, but I feel extremely strongly about this. Extremely is probably not strong enough of a word to describe how this pisses me off. I'm incensed. Furious. Disappointed in society. ANGRY. Sad. Melancholy for the “good old days”.

I'm in the mood to boycott any and all stores until spring. (Well, except my boys are growing like weeds and both need new wardrobes. If they stand still long enough, which they don't, they certainly SIT still long enough, but you can't really see someone growing when their quickly expanding feet are tucked under their legs or under a desk, and they're playing video games...but as I was saying before I interrupted myself – you can see them growing before your very eyes, much like aquaponic lettuce, but wow, I need to calm down because:

1. This is starting to be a jumbled mess, and
2. I was talking about Thanksgiving, not my boys...

Thanksgiving is my favorite day of the year. We have a wonderful tradition of celebrating with a cousin on my mother-in-law's side and his entire family. I've know The Engineer's family for 29 Thanksgivings, and it's always been with those cousins. This makes for a table for around 20-25 depending on who has a date, or who is bringing a parent(s) from the other side of the family. Both hostesses love to set an ELABORATE table. I mean, Martha Stewart would take notes. Everyone brings a dish so the labor is divided, and you can always see the TV from the kitchen so you can football it all up and do dishes.

But now, it's all changing. Thanksgiving isn't about family and tradition and gratitude anymore. The ads for Black Friday (did you even know what that meant 7-8 years ago?) started weeks ago. There are pre-Black Friday specials. My mailbox, my inbox, my newspaper are STUFFED with ads.

Many of my friends work in retail and have to be at work as early as 2 pm to get ready for the pre-Black Friday early openings of so many major stores. 2 pm is about when we sit down for our meal. It's not right.

What are we doing people? We're slowly being convinced that being thankful, grateful, and focused on family isn't really that big of a deal. No, the big deal is to be had at the store. Get shopping! Buy something! No one has enough!

Thanks for listening this far. I'm thankful for you wonderful friends and the community we've built where we can discuss whatever we want. What do you think about this whole mess?

~Tina

P.S Briane Pagel (you must read and follow him, truly) also wrote a piece about how Thanksgiving is disappearing, but for a different reason. (And his debunking of the Pilgrim story in quite a deliciously funny read). Go. Please.

Good Enough For Walmart

You've seen this video, right? If you don't have the 6:45 to laugh your butt off, cringe, and gape in wonder at the wide world of weird out there, then let me sum up. She has taken pictures of actual Walmart shoppers dressed in their...finest attire. Kinda scary actually.

Anyway, here's how I got the sweetest compliment EVER from The Transporter.

I had taken a nap and my new ultra short hair looked a bit weird. I was wearing my uniform: jeans and a t-shirt, Danskos. I was pretty sure the rest was fine, because it better be since that's what I wear. Like all the time.

I was concerned about the hair. I'm still in the experimenting with different looks stage because it's a really GREAT cut and I can do at least 6 different things that look really different. So I decide to ask The Transporter. Teenagers know when their parents are embarrassing.

“Mom, you're going to W A L M A R T. You could wear ANYTHING.”

“But I'm meeting Dad to help him pick out his new glasses. I'm don't want to embarrass him.”

“Mom, you could come to my school and meet all my friends looking like that.”

I think that's the ultimate compliment from a teenager.

What's the best compliment you've gotten?

~Tina

Best Thing I Ever Ate: Comfort Food #2 - Grilled Cheese

This post is the second in a series I'm calling “Best Thing I Ever Ate, after one of my many beloved cooking shows. My first category was comfort food, and I talked about Jenocide's Favorite and gave the recipe. 

When I first started blogging, I wrote an Ode to Grilled Cheese and gave some of my secrets for making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. Since that post, I've figured out an even easier, quicker and MORE delicious way to grill it. What can I say, I like tinkering in the kitchen. So get comfy and pretend you're watching a cooking show ;-)

Welcome to Tina's Best Thing I Ever Ate! Today the category is still comfort food, and the topic is grilled cheese. We are making a simple grilled cheese sandwich to help you beginners get started on the wonderful road of gourmet grilled cheese.

First I will start browning some butter in my pan while I assemble the sandwich. Today I'm using English muffin bread because it's solid and has a slight sourdough taste, which I love. I'm putting on a slice of provolone, which is a cheese similar to Swiss, but with a bit more of bite and tang, and a slightly nuttier profile. It pairs well with this beautiful roast beef I'm adding. Last is another slice of cheese, and we're ready for the microwave. 45 seconds.

Surprised? Microwave? Buttering the pan and not the bread? Let me tell you why. Cold butter is hard to spread (and as you know from watching my show, we only use real butter, none of that syntho-crap that IS easy to spread), and it takes too long to melt the cheese, on medium low, so as not to burn the outside before the inside is melted. If you already melt the inside, and put it in a hot pan with melted butter, you're done in about ¼ of the normal time.

So as you see my butter is now nicely browned. Smells delicious! A chemical change occurs as it browns and the taste is AMAZING. I now place my melted hot sandwich in the pan. Oh, hear that delightful sizzle.

When your pan starts to look like this around the edges, it's probably time to flip your sandwich. 

(yes, it's already flipped...I didn't decide to make a post until I got to this point and then there was no turning back.  This isn't a REAL cooking show...I'm just an amateur!)

(Don't worry, it's supposed to look just like that. It's called browned butter because it's...brown.)

So we're going to flip, as I was saying, but wait! Just hold it on the spatula and throw just a titch (Technical info: a titch is about a ¼ of a pat of butter. I know you've always wondered!) in the pan, it will melt and sizzle and brown instantly. Now flip and cook the other side.

Slice and serve. Ooey, gooey, cheesy, melty goodness with some perfect roast beast. What could be better? We'll see you next time when I share about another delicious “Best Thing I Ever Ate.”

~Tina

P.S If you want to learn more about my grilled cheese making ideas, read that other post. Just cook it this new way. You'll be amazed how fast it is.