The Week In Cookies... or something.

It's been a week since my last post. I'm busy enough during the day that I don't have words by the time I get around to the computer.

Yesterday, my dad bought my birthday present. Dude needs a calendar; my birthday is in September. Maybe that's what I should have gotten him for Christmas.

I am so tired. Getting ready for Christmas is exhausting. I'm making cookies and other baked goods for my friends. If God can't make me thin, I'll make my friends fat, and all that jazz.

I made Oreo Bonbons today.

Tomorrow (well, technically today, it's after midnight) I'm going to my office to turn in my keys. I will no longer be the service-learning coordinator. You have no idea how happy this makes me. I love the title, but I HATE the job.

Tomorrow, I have to have lunch with TheWeasel. I'm not looking forward to that.

Tomorrow, it is also my goal to clean out the rest of the stuff that's still in the van from when we moved. Then hopefully it'll get better gas mileage for the TRIP TO MY PARENTS' HOUSE!!!!! this week. And we'll have room to bring back the bar-stools from my parents' basement. I can't wait to have seats to eat at instead of the floor or the couch all the time.

Tuesday, Andy and I are making Stained Glass Cookies(I use the site she links back to, but it's not loading right now), Snickerdoodles for Jamie, Cake Pops a la Bakerella, and Nutella Turnovers. Hopefully all that stuff will work out. I added food coloring and thinned the almond bark on the Oreo Bonbons so they look kind of different than usual. They still taste great though. I hope everything works out and people like them.

OK, I should post this and wrap up and go to bed.

--Oh! And I made a stocking for Punk. And Andy's aunt made him 2 scarves and they should be in the mail! Punk likes scarves. He drags mine around the house. I'm excited.

Chad Ora Howard-- May 25, 1979-December 13, 1995

There are some things you never think you’ll have to say.  And then there are things you say so often you’re surprised when someone hasn’t heard them. 

When I was 9 years old, in fourth grade, I got the flu on a Sunday morning.  So I stayed home from church.  Monday I felt better but my parents kept me home to make sure I was ok.  Tuesday I relapsed and was sick all morning but better in the afternoon.  When my brother got home from school, (he was a high school junior) I had been cooped up in the house so long, I wanted to play.  He suggested Legos.  I refused.  I wanted Barbies.  We got in a fight and he told me that Mari, his girlfriend in Montana, played Legos, and that was why she was so smart.  That, of course, infuriated me, so I yelled that I hated him and went back to my room. 

After supper I was so bored and stir-crazy, I was willing to apologize, and even to play Legos.  So I went to my brother’s room downstairs.  The door was locked.  I told him I was sorry through the door and that, if he still wanted, I would play Legos.  No reply.  So I went upstairs and told my dad.  He told me to tell Chad that “he said” to open the door. 

No reply.

So I went back upstairs and told him that.  He told me to tell Chad that if he didn’t open the door, he would have to do dishes, the most dreaded chore in our house.   I went back down. 

No reply.

At that point, I had had enough.  I didn’t want to tell anyone, but I still wasn’t feeling 100% well and all the running up and down the stairs was making me feel sick again.  So I sat on the couch and read the comics from the Sunday newspaper.  If Chad didn’t want to play that badly, then he wouldn’t be any fun to play with anyway. 

The next morning, I still wasn’t feeling very well, but I had decided I WAS GOING to school.  I got up at my normal time, got dressed and wandered out to the kitchen to eat the breakfast my father had prepared for me ahead of time.  As I was eating my soggy Cocoa Pebbles, my father remarked that Chad hadn’t come up from his room yet.  Normally he beat me to the kitchen table.  He was always upstairs by 7:15 at the latest. 

So my dad went downstairs to make sure Chad was up.  His door was still locked.  He usually slept with the door closed, but not locked.  My dad yelled up at my mom to get the spare key to Chad’s room.  My mom got the key, I handed it to my dad when he came up and he told me I should go wash my hands, I don’t know why.  So I went to wash my hands and heard my dad yell up at my mom to call an ambulance. 

After washing my hands, I went to the stack of folded laundry in the living room, looking for a towel.  As  I was leaving the living room my mom was entering and I remember dancing around in a Chip and Dale style dance, arms straight out, half hugging, no touching except the hands on each others’ shoulders.  Then she sent me to my room and told me Ken and Dee, the neighbors down the road, were gonna come get me for a while. 

I sat in my room, waiting.  I didn’t know what was going on; I just sort of felt empty inside.  I sat on the floor next to my bed and tried to play paper dolls, but I didn’t have any interest in them. 

Ken and Dee arrived in what probably was record time, and I left before the ambulance came.  I spent the day at Ken and Dee’s doing various things, making paper crafts, playing with dolls, the usual.  No one told me anything until around 3pm. Ken came home, from the hospital, I presume, and told me that Chad had gone to heaven.  I didn’t really listen.  I thought he must have been confused or something.  I don’t know.   I just went on going what I was doing.  I stayed until supper time.  My parents’ actually got home and came to get my while I was having supper with Ken and Dee.  All the adults decided that Ken could just bring me home after I had eaten. 

When I got home, my mother was looking in the fridge.  I asked her how Chad was.  She said he was much better.  Not getting the answer I was looking for, I found my father in the dark, looking out the picture window in the living room.  I asked him how Chad was.  He looked down at me and asked hadn’t Ken said anything to me?  Chad died.  I didn’t know what to do.  Ken had to be wrong.  Where was my big brother?  I don’t remember anything else from that night except that there were more presents under the Christmas tree, without tags and I asked who they were for and my parents said me; who else could they be for? 

The one where I talk about Bawls.

My brother-in-law, Dan, has been collecting energy drink cans since he was in junior high.  He was way ahead of the energy drink trend.  He's tried at least 100 different types of energy drinks.

The last time Andy and I went to his parents' house, Dan and his friends introduced us to G33K B33R.  G33K B33R is a caffeinated root beer made by Bawls.  As Andy puts it, it's "a unique taste that is pretty much the essence delicious."

According to the Bawls website, G33K B33R is "the first-ever high caffeine root beer, spiked with guarana! G33K B33R has a smooth, refreshing root beer taste with enough caffeine to make it as strong as a cup of coffee. It’s the perfect drink for any gamer, techie, student or root beer fan in need of a tasty Bounce!"

This all sounds amazing right?  Except for the part where the universe likes to screw with us.  When we first discovered G33K B33R, Andy and I searched all over town.  We could barely find any Bawls at all. (what's a girl to do without Bawls?!?!)  In the last month as we've looked for G33K B33R, we've noticed steadily declining availability of Bawls.  We used to be able to find it at Target, then they stopped carrying it... Our favorite Casey's stopped carrying it...

Last week we finally found some G33K B33R at a Casey's. We bought their last 4 cans of Bawls....and they informed us they were probably not getting any more Bawls, especially G33K B33R.  Are you kidding me?!?!? 

After tweeting my dismay, BAWLSGuarana replied that I should look at Kum&Gos in the city. Rabble Rabble Rabble.  Like I haven't spent enough time looking for gas stations.

So I present to you, The Quest For BAWLS.  Andy has made a custom Google map to go on the side of my blog to map out where we find Bawls. Wish us luck.  Cuz every girl needs some Bawls. 

Works in Progress

Hello all.

I haven't forgot about you, don't worry.  I think of you everyday.  I'm currently in the process of writing a few posts for your enjoyment.  They just aren't flowing quite the way I would like.

Here's glimpse of what I'm working on:

~A week or so ago, one of my favorite blogs Toy With Me, ran a giveaway for a Jimmy Jane AFTERGLOW Massage Oil Candle.  In order to win, readers had to leave a comment with the strangest place they've ever had sex.  I won.  My situation wasn't so much a weird place as a weird twist.  Let's just say, sheep were involved.  But not the way you might think.

~My dad went downstairs to make sure Chad was up.  His door was still locked.  He usually slept with the door closed, but not locked.  My dad yelled up at my mom to get the spare key to Chad's room.  My mom got the key, I handed it to my dad when he came up and he told me I should go wash my hands, I don't know why.  So I went to wash my hands and heard my dad yell up at my mom to call an ambulance.


~I'm writing a new bio/'about me' section for this blog and for twitter, but I don't have an excerpt of that ready.  I guess I have a post about me at the beginning of all of this, but who is really going to go back through the entire blog to find out who I am??   

Andy and I are also working on a blogroll and a new header to brighten it up around here.  I think there's something else that we're working on that I'm forgetting to mention, but it's 3 am and I'm watching House, MD. I'm probably missing more than I realize, haha.  Oh, and a new icon for my twitter feed over there on the right.  Yeah.  I think that's at least most of what's in the works. 

Oh and by the way, Andy and I have been married 8 months today. In honor of neither of us killing each other, I'll leave you with some pictures of the joyous day. 

 

*Stupid new blogger "click and drag" method.  I had a cute, meaningful arrangement for those photos, instead of just all left aligned, and blogger kept reorganizing them and making them look even in click and drag version but not in the previews.  Annoying.  I'll try again later today to fix it, since it seems to be some kind of glitch.  (the photos wouldn't post from flickr either.  I hope this will fix itself......)

Too Early

Today would be Madeline Alice Spohr's 2nd birthday. She was born WAY too early.  She lived wholeheartedly, but she died WAY TOO EARLY. Her bright smile cheered the lives of everyone she knew and hundreds of people who never got to meet her.

Her parents have founded the non-profit organization Friends of Maddie that "supports the families of critically ill babies by easing the transition into NICU life and providing an ally until the end of their child’s hospital stay." (from their website)  They provide Family Support packs to hospitals for the families of babies in the NICU; they help families find lodging while the babies are in the hospital; and they help create a support network for families.
"Not every child’s entry into this world is an easy one, but by supporting Friends of Maddie you can ensure that their families don’t have to go it alone."

Every baby deserves a healthy start. The March of Dimes funds research for the prevention of premature birth and the care of all babies.  There are many ways to support the March of Dimes and Friends of Maddie and help every baby get a healthy beginning.  Check out their websites to see what you can do to help. 

Punk is a Friend of Maddie.  Are you?

 

Dance, Monkey!

It's good to have stooges. This afternoon Andy and I were talking about randoms things while walking out of the mall and Andy happened to mention something *forbidden*. Realizing he'd something I could potentially get mad about, he turned to me and said "You'd kill me, huh?" To which I replied, "Nope, I'd have Punk do it. It's good to have minions."

You might notice some changes here (for those of you reading in a reader, nothing should have changed). I put one of my groupies to work today adding a better comment feature and a twitter feed. I *think* he fixed the Google Analytics, but we'll have to wait until tomorrow to be sure. Hopefully it's fixed and not broken more... I hope you enjoy the changes.

Minions are awesome.

How to lighten your hair, Cunningham-style*

Step one:
Wet hair thoroughly.

Step two:
Get out of the the shower and curse at the coldness of the room.

Step three:
Drip on the cat. This serves 2 purposes. 1. It amuses you and takes your mind off how cold you are. 2. It makes the cat run out of the bathroom by himself instead of you having to pick him up and getting cat fur stuck all over your wet body.

Step four:
Shut the cat out of the bathroom. If you don't, he'll decide the lemon juice you are spraying in your hair smells delicious and will try to lick your hair. He will then, of course, end up scratching you as you try to push him away. Then the lemon juice will drip down your neck and burn like a sonofabitch in that scratch.

Step five:
Spray lemon juice throughout your hair and comb through it with a fairly fine toothed comb. (If you feel it is necessary, be sure to curse any and all tangles that get caught in the comb. Luckily, lemon juice is pretty slippery and doesn't seem to make hair tangle. (maybe that's just cuz I have short, fine hair, but I used to get tangles like crazy, so use your best judgment. Curse if you think it will help.))

Step six:
Walk to the bedroom dripping water and lemon juice down to your towel cuz you didn't wring your hair out (or drip on the cat) enough. Remember to do that more thoroughly next time.

Step seven:
Blow dry your hair thoroughly as the heat is what activates the lemon's acid. Make sure you blow dry the cat a little too. He loves it, I promise......

Step eight:
Wait a few hours to get maximum effect and then shower again. Whether or not you wash your hair can actually be up to you, many people shampoo with lemon to avoid mineral buildup. Either way, be sure to condition since lemon can possibly dry out your hair. This can be combated with olive oil brushed on the roots, but then you run the risk of the cat licking you again.

Step nine:
Either repeat in a few days (don't try it everyday, remember the over-drying!) or say "Fuck it" and just get used to the color your hair is.

Optional Step ten:
Wait for your husband to get home and notice that your hair looks different. If he doesn't, spray lemon juice on him and see if he can sleep through the cat licking his nipples all night.

*Cunningham Style: I don't like chemicals on my head, my brain has enough problems. And I'm cheap... *ahem* economical.