Thursday, June 11, 2009

Let it be known that Wegmans Fajita Marinade is the best on the planet.

Actually, just about anything from Wegmans is top notch. Other items we recommend:

Lemon & Garlic Marinade - this is what we use for our cedar plank salmon, but it’s also good with chicken.

There’s a tarragon vinaigrette that we use for chicken, but I’m not seeing the bottle we use. This may be it, but I can’t guarantee it.

They have two BBQ sauces that we like when we don’t make our own. Memphis style and Kansas City style.

Finally, let me recommend the Caramelized Onion & Bacon Dressing. Beau bought this when they seemed to be out of ranch dressing. It’s delish.

If you don’t have a Wegmans, I’m so sorry. You’re missing out on the best grocery store EVER.

Gran Torino - loved it, although curmudgeonly Clint Eastwood’s character was tough to listen to at times. 4 stars out of 5.

Did you see the story about a 2 year old girl who scored the same IQ as Stephen Hawking? The article doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but when I read it my thoughts were along the lines of, “So? Jesse does all that, too.” Not that I’m saying that he’s a genius - he is smart for his age, but I’m reserving the genius label until he’s in school and it can be better assessed. She’s probably just a super inquisitive little girl with parents who encourage her curiosity.

I was wasting time on Facebook yesterday and noticed on a friend’s page that she was friends with a mutual friend from junior high school days. So I Friend Requested him and this morning I had a message asking me to remind him who I am. I’m awaiting his response. I admit to feeling a bit hurt that he didn’t remember me, although it’s ridiculous to feel that way - it has been almost 30 years since we last had meaningful contact with each other and he lives in a tiny Navy town whose population changes annually in a significant manner.

I’ve started Tweeting a bit, although I still don’t quite get that one so much. It’s harder to follow conversations.

That said, I am following on Twitter a TV reviewer that my sister told me about. He’s rewatching Band of Brothers and reviewing it on his blog.  That is my all-time favorite TV miniseries, so to know that there others who love it as much is cool. And reading his thoughts on each episode is fascinating - his thoughts match mine almost exactly, but every once in a while he notes something that I missed or didn’t see the same way.

[ADDED LATER]: I’ve been meaning to post a BoB-related thing from work. We have a manager who reminds me of Lt Dike. He’s the useless officer from the Battle of the Bulge episodes who was always heading off the line to “check in” but he was really just trying to protect himself. Anyway, this manager totally reminds me of Dike - he comes across as gung ho, but when push comes to shove he steps out of it with regularity.

Beau’s mother is coming to visit and we’re looking forward to that. She arrives just in time for Father’s Day, which also happens to be the weekend of baby dedications at our church. We’re so happy that she’ll be here to share that day with us. After church on that Sunday morning, we’ll take the Dads (mine and Beau) out for brunch and then it’ll be an afternoon of naps.

And that’s about it for now.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

We’ve turned into movie watchers for the summer since the regular TV season is over. We’re making the most of our Netflix account, but I added an account with Redbox this week when Taken was still showing as Very Long Wait with Netflix. I was tired of waiting.

So here’s what our DVD player has handled recently:

Defiance - I posted about the Bielski brothers three years ago (!?) after Beau and I saw a documentary about them on the History channel. The story is amazing and the movie version is pretty good. What I most enjoyed from the DVD was the extras with the children and grandchildren of the brothers. Fascinating and inspiring, it was also well acted. 4 stars out of 5.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed - Ben Stein took on conventional science by asking who created the universe. And then he found other scientists asking the same questions who have run into a bit of trouble as a result. Illuminating, exasperating, and hilarious. He makes what should be pedantic most entertaining. 5 stars out of 5.

New in Town - I got this one from Redbox yesterday and watched it while nursing Molly Ann in the afternoon. It was completely predictable and annoying with the cliched regional stereotypes, but it helped pass the time and was cute enough. 2.5 stars out of 5.

Taken - pretty good, but I was distracted the whole time by the thought of Liam Neeson’s recent heartbreak. Worth the long wait? I’m not sure, but I’ll give it 3 stars out of 5.

Next up: Gran Torino, which I got from Redbox this morning when I returned the other two.

Monday, June 08, 2009

A family moved into the townhouse next to ours. Previously, a nice hispanic family lived there - however, I had two complaints about them: 1) they played their music way too loud at all hours of the day/night and 2) it was like Cinco de Mayo every weekend with their huge family gatherings.

Anyway, the new family consists of two parents and four children. The two older boys are 8 and 7 years old and then there’s a 2 year old girl and a 7 month old boy. What’s great is that the two older boys, whom I shall call J8 and J7 (both of their names start with J so I’ll identify them by their initial and age), come over to get Jesse to play with them. At first I thought it was odd that they would want to play with a 2 year old, but they’re really more interested in his wagon and soccer ball and various other toys that make it to the outdoors.

The pluses to this are that he has friends to play with and it’s helping his verbal skills. I noticed almost right away that his sentences were becoming longer and more intelligible. And he gets excited to go play with them, although usually he’s just running around while they play with his stuff. He seems happy enough with that at this point though.

The big minus that I saw last night while I was out on the deck watching them is that he follows the leader. J8 was climbing up to our deck on the outside of the banister. Jesse immediately started to climb up that way, too, until I put the kibosh on that. J8 then decided to leap up to the landing, climbing like a monkey over the rail. Jesse, of course, is way too short to be able to do that, but he was standing there trying to figure out how to do it.

In any case, we like our new neighbors and their kids and I have a feeling that we’ll be getting to know them all much better as the summer progresses and our boys play together.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

On this date 65 years ago, thousands of young men in the Allied forces traveled across rough seas to the shores of Normandy, France. Their goal? To push back Hitler’s army in order to prevent the invasion of Great Britain.

Thousands died on the beaches of Normandy. Paratroopers and glider pilots died behind the lines as well. But they prevailed and the tide was turned in that horrible war on that Day of Days.

Thanks, veterans. We remember and will never forget.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Is there a difference between the two? Not that I could tell. Seems to me that except for the manufacturer and packaging, Baked Lays and Pringles are the exact same product.

So then, Which is Better?

I vote Pringles because of the cool tube packaging alone.

Warning: The following post includes discussion on The Food Source™.

I’m not sure how permanent this is, but now that I’m back at work and Molly Ann is requiring middle of the night feedings again, I go to bed much earlier. So it looks like this:

6:30pm or so - arrive home from work
7:00pm or so - squat and gobble (eat dinner)
7:30pm or so - nurse Molly Ann
8:30pm or so - go say goodnight to Jesse
9:00pm or so - head to bed with Molly Ann for a nap/cuddle
10:15pm or so - Beau wakes up MA and me for the bedtime snack nursing
11:00pm or so - drift off to sleep, holding MA

For now, the family bed is working and I’m not inclined to change that. Beau said she’s sleeping in the pack-n-play pretty well during the day (although he is wearing her a lot, too) and she napped well in the bassinet this morning after her early feeding. She was waking up in the 2-3am range for almost a week, but slept until 4am this morning. It made squeezing in a nursing session before I left for work a challenge, but we managed and she ate well enough. I’m interested to see if that overnight sleep stretches to longer again - that would be nice and I’d get a couple of hours in the evening to watch a movie or something.

As for The Food Source™, things are going very well on that front. She nurses well, even with the regular introduction of the bottle. And I’m pumping plenty of milk while I’m at work for the following day - I’m averaging nearly 11 oz of pumped milk total each day. It’s such a marked difference from my experience with Jesse where I was lucky to get 5-6 oz of milk total. So with that much bottled milk and 3-4 nursing sessions each day, she’s well fed. I’m thinking her weight gain at her next appointment will be better, too.

Anyway, things are smoothing into a routine now that I’m back at work. I’ll enjoy my weekend without the pump since I’ll be at home from Friday to Monday to nurse Molly Ann. And then we’ll start that all over again next week.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Wow, that post title will get the Googlers, huh? I changed the post title to something less flip and random.

From Beau’s Sis came this nugget, as verified on Snopes.com:

Irena Sendler - who recently died at 98 years of age, was a 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee

During WWII, Irena was given permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a plumbing/sewer specialist.

She had an ulterior motive. Being German, Irena knew what the Nazi plan was for Jews. Irena smuggled out infants in the bottom of a tool box she carried in the back of her truck.  She used a burlap sack for bigger children.

She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.  The soldiers wanted nothing to do with her dog.  The barking covered noises of the infants and children.

Irena managed to smuggle out and save 2500 infants and children, before she was caught!  The Nazi’s broke both her legs and arms, and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record in a jar buried under a tree in her back yard of all the children she smuggled out.
After the war, she tried to locate all parents that may have survived to reunite families, but most had been gassed. The children she could not reunite were placed with foster families or adopted.

Irena was nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Al Gore won for a slide show on Global Warming.

Go read the Snopes account, which goes into more detail about Sendler and the Nobel Prize issue. There is also The Irena Sendler Project website, too.

I’m debating putting in for another new job opening that would mean a promotion for me. This time its with a group whose location is much closer to home, which would mean my commute would be cut in half. However, I asked the POC for the job announcement about the location and she could not confirm whether or not the job would be at that location or at our HQ. She said the manager for that position wanted both locations listed just in case it ends up at one or the other. HQ would mean a longer commute.

*sigh*

The job isn’t finance heavy. Instead its more of an analysis position with some procurement and budgeting thrown in. So I’m really on the fence about applying. I’d have to do some serious tweaking of the resume to make it fit - I have the skills, but they aren’t as recent as the finance stuff. I don’t know that I want to take the time away from my regular tasks to do that since I have a heavy desk work at the moment.

What to do…

Monday, June 01, 2009

I’m back at work. I started missing my family when I was in the shower this morning.

When I left Beau was wearing Molly Ann in the mei-tai and Jesse was getting ready to eat breakfast and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Wouldn’t this be hilarious on Molly Ann?

They also have one with this.

SquirtShirts.com is my new favorite online store.

Friday, May 29, 2009

I watched Twilight while Beau was at his small group last night. I have a two word review…

Don’t. Bother.

It was terrible - bad acting, bad make-up, bad special effects. The book adaptation was pretty faithful, but that’s not enough to make it even marginal.

1 star out of 5.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

My maternity leave is ending on Monday so we’re trying to watch movies before I head back to work and things get nutso for a while.

Bedtime Stories: I took this one to the beach and the kids did watch it, but I did not get to for some reason. I think Pop watched it with them. Anyway, it was cute. 2.5 stars out of 5.

Last Chance Harvey: Also taken to the beach but not watched. The first few evenings of TV watching were tied up with finales of 24, American Idol, and hockey (for my Dad). I don’t know why movies weren’t watched later in the week. OBE, I guess.

Also cute, I found Harvey and Kate to be charming. There was one scene where Dustin Hoffman as Harvey made me cry. I’m a sap anyway, but he got me, and I’m pretty sure I’m well over the post-partum hormonal crying stage. Emma Thompson is one of those actresses who is good no matter what she does. 3 stars out of 5.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Molly Ann went to the doctor today. Don’t limit yourself to that post, there are other updates as well, for those who are interested.

I found this great, simple recipe for quick chicken and pasta. I tried it last night - it is quick, simple, and tasty. I’m trying to figure out how to convert it to a slow cooker recipe without overcooking the pasta.

Pesto Chicken and Pasta
Serves 4

3-4 lbs chicken thighs
1 jar pesto
1 lb pasta

Notes before you start cooking:

1. I had bone-in thighs with skin on. The skin created a lot of excess fat in the pan. If you prefer less fat, remove the skin. If you prefer no bones, buy boneless thighs or try using breasts, just know that breasts may dry out quickly.

2. The garlic and water content in the pesto will cause the oil in the pan to splatter. Have a cover or spatter guard handy.

3. I used elbow pasta because that’s what we had in the pantry. But any pasta will work, of course.

Instructions:

1. Heat a large skillet on a medium setting. Drizzle 1-2 Tbsp olive oil into the skillet to warm.

Start a pot of water to boiling for the pasta.

2. Spread pesto over the skin side of the thighs. Then place them pesto/skin side down into the hot skillet. Spread pesto over the top side of the thighs while they are cooking.

3. After about 5 minutes, turn the thighs over and continue cooking for at least 15-20 minutes more. Make sure your largest pieces get completely cooked through.

When you turn the chicken, the pot of water should be nearly ready for the pasta to be added.

4. When the pasta is cooked to al dente, drain the water and add any leftover pesto. Fold the pasta and pesto until all of it is well covered.

Serve with crusty rolls or garlic bread and a nice salad.

We found the chicken to have great flavor and paired well with the pasta although if pesto is not your favorite it may be too pesto-y as a meal.