Friday, May 30, 2008

Still having fun. Hot, sweaty, sunburned fun. Because it is HOT.

Day 2: Epcot. Beyond a lot of walking, I can’t remember what we did at Epcot. We ate lunch at the Rose & Crown Pub in England. I know that the kids enjoyed the Nemo place. Marmie and I took all three kids to Turtle Talk with Crush, which was an interactive thing where Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo chatted with the kiddos. It was very cute and Jesse enjoyed it.

The best part for me was at Liberty Square - for the Memorial Day holiday they had singers in the rotunda at The American Experience. Jesse was enthralled with the singing. Then he paid close attention to the movie/animatronic presentation inside the theater. At several points after a moving oratory he said “A-men” in his drawn out way. This happened about 5-6 times and it was way too cute. I was worried he would be bored, but he watched the whole thing.

We left in the late afternoon and then Beau and I decided to take Marmie and Pop up on their offer to watch Jesse for the evening so we went back for a dinner date. We could only get reservations at the San Angel Inn in Mexico, but dinner was delicious. We then walked around for about an hour before heading back home.

Day 3: Chill Out Day. A few of us did go back to Epcot to ride the rides we were not able to get to the previous day - Mission Space and Test Track. I only rode the Test Track ride. I definitely have an inner ear balance problem that makes me more prone to motion sickness. I think that’s why my morning sickness was so bad, actually. So I opted not to do the Mission Space ride.

The rest of the day was a whole lot of nothing. We took a long nap in the afternoon and then took Jesse to the pool for his first swim. I took pictures of him floating with Beau. He didn’t like it at first, but seemed to not hate it after a while. Beau took him back to the pool last night and said he did about the same.

Day 4: Magic Kingdom. Mecca for kids. This was a fun, long day. Jesse enjoyed the Winnie the Pooh ride and It’s a Small World, although he did fall asleep half way through Small World. I know - imagine that. He enjoyed the parade, waving at the characters as they rode past. I can’t remember what else we did. Jesse spent a while with Marmie and Pop so that Beau and I could ride Space Mountain together.

Day 5: Hollywood Studios. We rode Tower of Terror and the Rockin’ Rollercoaster first thing. While we did that, Marmie and Jesse went with the Cooties to the Beauty and Beast show. From there we went to an early lunch at the 50s Prime Time Diner. The payoff for the whole week was at Playhouse Disney. I was hoping Jesse would enjoy that show since it featured most of the shows he knows from Disney Channel - Tigger and Friends, Little Einsteins, Mickey’s Playhouse. He loved it - was on his feet most of the time - stamping and swinging and clapping his hands.

Jesse has been great - he’s such a good kid. Rare moments of crying. He’s napped pretty well in the Ergo or the stroller. Eating well. Playing well with his cousins. Sleeping hard each night and waking up at his normal time ready for the day.

Today we head back to Magic Kingdom for a character breakfast at Cinderella’s Castle. Then we’ll do the things we missed the other day and then finish the afternoon with tea at the Grand Floridian.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

We’re officially having fun.

Day one started early with the final packing before we hit the road. We left on time and made pretty good time getting to the Cooties’ home on Friday. Jesse did great during a long, boring car ride.

Day two started early with repacking of cars to get all of our crap into the two cars. We managed to get everything except for the stroller and a small bin of toys/books/DVDs into my mother’s Highlander. The two orphans went into the Cooties’ van. We decided not to caravan since we figured that would slow us down needlessly. So the Highlander, with Pop, Beau, Jesse and I, hit the road first. The van caught up with us at lunch and then they moved ahead when we had to make a diaper change later in the afternoon. We got to the timeshare in the late afternoon and after checking in and getting all of our stuff inside, Marmie, Denis, and I went to the local Publix to grocery shop.

People, you have not seen the sheer quantity of people at a grocery store until you go to the local store next to the timeshare on the day that everyone checks in. It’s worse than Christmas. That we’re here on a holiday weekend didn’t help. So we spent 90 minutes buying our stuff for the week. And then bought dinner at Quiznos. And then we crashed for the night. Oh, Jesse did very well on that leg of the trip, too.

Day three, today, was a trip to Animal Kingdom. I had never been there so I was excited. We had a good start to the morning - everyone was ready to go when I went to change Jesse’s diaper before we got in to the cars. What I found was explosive poop that required a bath. So he was nice and clean for the day of sweat and sunscreen. It’s hot. I believe this is the first I’ve mentioned that fact, but it will not be the last.

Did I mention that it’s HOT? Gah.

So we had a good day at Animal Kingdom - Jesse’s only meltdown point was a lunch. He was tired and completely on sensory overload. Having lunch at the Rainforest Cafe didn’t help. So he didn’t eat much lunch and was generally unhappy. But we managed to eat ourselves and keep him calm enough in the meantime. It was after lunch that I decided to wear him in the Ergo, borrowed from the Sleepys. It took some figuring, but we got him loaded on my hip and while it was very hot, it was a pretty comfortable carrier. He quickly dozed off for about an hour and then woke up happy and ready for the rest of the day.

Got home and it was my night to cook. I had opted not to crock pot today’s dinner since it would have overcooked completely. So I made that green curry chicken from our dinner with the Sleepys. Even my finicky nephew liked that chicken. And Jesse scarfed it down, too. After dinner, I bathed him and put him to bed and then I took a shower myself. As soon as I complete this post I’m headed for bed, too.

Tomorrow: Epcot.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

I found SCC’s website where they set up a memorial blog for Maria. A note from his manager:

Your prayers are needed for all in the Chapman family. This is a family who has so generously loved and given to so many. Just hours before this close knit family was celebrating the engagement of the oldest daughter Emily Chapman, and were just hours away from a graduation party marking Caleb Chapman’s completion of high school. Now, they are preparing to bury a child who blew out 5 candles on a birthday cake less than 10 days ago. These words are unthinkable to type. And yet we trust in a God who was not surprised by this and because of Jesus I am certain through faith in Him we will see Maria again. - Jim Houser (Manager)

Included is a cute video of SCC with Maria, who is adorable.

Imho, Robert Downey, Jr. was the funniest part of the following, mostly because I wouldn’t have expected him to do it and also because he wasn’t hamming it up like the other two.

I thought it was pretty amazing that George Michael was on American Idol last night. I love the song he sang, but the whole time I kept thinking that Carrie Underwood’s cover of it on the Idol Gives Back show was way better. You be the judge.

George Michael:

Carrie Underwood:

Good finale last night. I am happy that David Cook won. 

Yesterday was a crazy day that started at 4:30am or so and ended after the American Idol finale. Yes, I stayed up to watch the end, good thing too since my DVR cut off the last few minutes because the show ran over time. I’m very pleased with the winner.

Anyway, I managed to get to work early despite cooking and schlepping three crock pots of food in for the farewell luncheon. That went very well - everyone ate everything. For once we had very little leftovers.

It seemed that my tasks for the day kept increasing as time passed. Just when I thought I was doing well to plow through everything that needed doing before I left for vacation, some new fire would pop up. Then add in a one hour conversation with UO2 and that meant that I didn’t even leave the office until 6pm. Fortunately, Merry called to say she could not babysit, so I got home in time for Beau to leave for small group. I stayed home with Jesse, which was just fine.

The one hour conversation with UO2 was good and much needed. We were able to clear the air and as we talked I was convicted that I had been very unfair to her, with high expectations that she could not hope to meet. (Amazing One did that job for about 10 years. UO2 has been in that job 18 months. There’s no comparison, really, and it was completely unfair for me to expect AO level work and knowledge in 18 months.) I apologized and asked how I could help her and we agreed that I would take one one more part of the medical billing processing. My boss was not happy to hear that when I told him - she needs to learn how to do it and I agree. However, by taking it on it means I’ll be able to get the bills paid faster, which is my goal. So we hugged and made up and that weight is lifted off of me.

Today I’ll work at home (there were not enough hours in the day yesterday to get it all done) in between laundry and packing. We have decided to try to take Annie to the kennel today, so I need to call them this morning. It’ll be nice to not have to deal with her tomorrow AM when we’re trying to get on the road early.

I saw this on the FoxNews crawl when I first turned on the TV this morning. Such sad, horrible news for the Steven Curtis Chapman family. Pray for them all.

Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday evening after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV driven by her teenage brother, she said. Police did not give the driver’s name.

The teen was driving a Toyota Land Cruiser down the driveway of the rural home about 5:30 p.m. and several children were playing in the area, McPherson said. He did not see Maria in the driveway before the vehicle struck her, she said.

“It appears to be a terrible accident,’’ McPherson said.

No charges are expected, she said. The accident was witnessed by two other children; the entire family was home at the time, McPherson said.

Such grief…

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A friend of mine needs prayer. She is not a person of faith at all - she’s actually hostile to the Christian faith because of her childhood experience. It’s all too common and sad, but she is gracious to accept prayers on her behalf when I offer them.

Anyway, about two months ago her husband was having localized pain. After a couple of weeks with no relief he went to the doctor. The doctor discovered a lump that concerned him so he referred him to a specialist at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. They determined that the lump was a tumor requiring surgery to remove it, which they did within a day or two of diagnosis. Then he spent several weeks recovering at home and seemed to be doing well when pain returned to the area.

His doctors found another mass that concerned them enough that they moved up the surgery that they scheduled for this Friday to last Thursday. (Did you get that? It’s confusing, I know). He had surgery last week, but the prognosis is not good this time. He requires further surgery to remove body parts and even then they’re not hopeful of the outcome.

I have not talked to my friend directly, but should see her tomorrow. I am sad that I’m going away just now because I would like to be here to be of help if she needs it. But one way I know I can help is to pray for them. So I ask you to pray for them as well.

Pray for healing. Pray for wisdom. Pray for peace and comfort. Above all, pray that they would see God in the face of their despair. Thanks for praying.

[UPDATE 5/21]: Just talked with my friend. He has a rare form of cancer. What they were told is that the doctors will do all they can to treat his symptoms and fight, but that they have yet to have a case resulting in a cure. He will undergo a combination of radiation and chemo - he has a team of oncologists who plan to meet to discuss how this will occur and how to start. For now he is recovering from the latest surgery at home.

Their two sons were prepared for this news, so they are handling it pretty well considering. They are adults, by the way - in their mid-20s. My friend is devastated, but determined to do whatever it takes to help her husband fight and live as long as possible.

Dinner with the Sleepys was fun last night. Baby Josh is a sweetie and getting so big. Jesse slept through dinner, which was good. Then he woke up and amused us while he ate his dinner. And then we chilled out while Jesse roamed the living room, had a wonderful dessert of peanut butter brownies and coffee, and enjoyed good conversation.

Our dinner was very good - I think we all agreed that the chicken was delicious. It’s always a gamble to make something new for company, but as I told Beth, sometimes you read a recipe and you just know it’s going to be good. The Chicken with Green Curry Sauce is a winner. Since it is not my own recipe, I’ll let you go to the link to print it out for your own collection. I highly recommend it.

One thing I did that I think made it better than it might have been otherwise - I mixed the coconut milk, chilies, and spices together in the morning and put it in the frig to let the flavors meld before cooking. Also, I didn’t have cilantro on hand, so we didn’t have that garnish, but apart from the visual I don’t think it mattered. I’m not a fan of cilantro anyway. Next time I may use the hot madras curry powder that we have instead of the regular curry powder - or maybe half of each.

I made plain couscous and cooked plain old frozen peas. Beth asked what I did to the peas because she normally doesn’t like peas. I seasoned them when I put them in the pot and just covered them with water. Let the water come to a boil and then turned off the heat to let them finish cooking. I did spritz them with Smart Balance spray before serving. That’s it.

Beau went out to an Indian grocery to buy three kinds of flatbread - Nan, Chapati, and some other kind that I can’t remember the name. I am going to try to make my own next time though, since I found Manjula‘s YouTube tutorials. She’s awesome and makes it look super easy.

So today’s cooking tasks are underway in the crock pot, starting with the pulled chicken. Since I started with an entire bag of frozen chicken breasts, I am positive that it will take the full 8 hours (or more) to get it cooked fully. I’ll get home in time to shred it and then I’ll work on the other dishes for tomorrow’s luncheon.

Monday, May 19, 2008

It’s going to be a crazy week.

Today: Work at home. The Sleepy Family comes to dinner - we will be having this chicken curry dish with couscous and peas. I’m sending Beau out for either naan, puri, or roti to go with it all. sleepybeth is bringing dessert, which I’m sure will be awesome. Somehow manage to finish the laundry. Beau will finish the house cleaning and take care of Jesse.

Tuesday: Work at the office. The evening will be spent cooking for a farewell luncheon in my office on Wednesday. The theme is BBQ, so I’m on the hook for pulled chicken, my regular hash brown potato casserole, and baked beans. All shall be crock potted, which is awesome. I think I’ll actually cook the chicken during the day in the crock pot and then pull it in the evening when I get home. To be reheated the following day in the crock pot.

Wednesday: Farewell luncheon at the office. Jesse’s day at Marmie’s. Small group in the evening - must remember to take the bag of clothes and the house key to NH (she is cat checking while we’re away).

Thursday: Pack. I’m sure that will involve last minute laundry, too.

Friday: Annie to kennel in the early AM. Marmie and Pop will meet us at our house to pack their SUV with some of our gear. We’ll load the stuff to go into the Cootie van into our trunk. Hit the road for South Carolina and the beginning of our Grand Disney Adventure.

I will have my laptop on the trip, so there will be the occasional post while we’re away.

Via Dad via email comes this amusing article about the invasion of the Oreo cookie to the UK. The money quote for me:

Some Britons might think the Oreo is strange-looking at first. But she’s confident that they will fall for the Oreo and what she calls the “child-like, delightful ritual” of licking the cream and dipping it in milk.

Others disagree. One tabloid newspaper has attacked those “Yanks” who are trying to “snatch the biscuit from our mouths and replace [it] with a tackier piece of inferior confectionary.” Another described the Oreo as “an imperial juggernaut of a biscuit backed by one of the world’s biggest food companies.”

Emphasis mine. That is too funny - like we’re trying to invade Britain by first taking over their cookie dominance. I’m sorry, the Oreo beats out McVities any day.

He describes British biscuits as “thoroughbreds” specially designed – in a Darwinian process of the survival of the dippiest – over generations to suit British tastes. For example, he notes, “Our love of tea-dipping has influenced the selection of flour and the temperature at which biscuits are baked. Our biscuits are built for dunking.”

Yet the Oreo, because of its high-sugar content, is “woeful” when it comes to being dunked in tea, he says. “In my experience, it dissolves. It’s not a survivor in tea terms like the British biscuit is.”

Oreos are designed exclusively for milk dunking, dude. Milk!

Still, Faizaan Sackett, a recruitment consultant, has found himself “raging” at Oreo ads on buses, seeing them as part of “the American invasion of snacks.

“Before we know it, the next generation of kids will not know the word biscuit at all,” he grumbles. “Whether it’s fast food, TV chat-shows, or cookies, we must resist all that is American for the sake of our own souls.”

Yeah, because we’re evil that way - soul sucking Americans with our dangerous cookies.

There are comments attached to the article. The funniest thing I’ve seen in the PC wars is the following:

Seems to me I last had Oreos about thirty years ago. The commercials show people dunking them. I never bothered (graham #### are better dunked). To each their own. I’d take no offense if the Brits don’t take a shine to it. And, frankly, I wonder why Nabisco is bothering. Some things don’t translate well into other cultures. I don’t do Oreos any more. I’d rather bake a batch of butterscotch oatmeal cookies than buy pre-packaged stuff.
fatesrider 2:51 AM

Apparently, the PC-bot could not discern that “cracker” in this instance was not a racial slur, but in fact tied to the preceding word “graham.” Somehow it strikes me as sad that an online newspaper is censoring reader comments like that.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I put The Ultimate Gift on the queue based on the recommendation of Netflix. You know how you rent movies and then they recommend other movies based on your rental patterns? This is one of those recommendations.

Jason thought his inheritance was going to be the gift of money and lots of it. Was he ever in for a big surprise. Based on the best-selling book “The Ultimate Gift” by Jim Stovall, the story sends trust fund baby Jason Stevens on an improbable journey of discovery, having to answer the ultimate question: “What is the relationship between wealth and happiness?”

The one word that comes to mind for this movie is schmaltz. But it works in its schmaltziness. We both liked the movie and for me it was a four Kleenex cryfest.

It is rated PG and safe for younger kids, although there is one series of scenes that might be a little too dramatic and scary for kids under about 10-12. And it may be over their heads.

For all of its over-sentimentality, I still give it 4 stars out of 5.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Click the link for the original attempt at making my mother’s no fail mushroom chicken recipe without cream of mushroom soup. It involved making my own version of a creamy mushroom soup that was slightly more labor intensive than I’d like for everyday cooking. It’s why I haven’t replicated it in more than a year despite awesome results.

So imagine my delight at finding a crock pot cream of mushroom soup recipe. Super easy and I don’t have to slave over a hot stove. I made it last week (a half recipe since I only had about a pound of mushroom on hand - they had been sliced and frozen - I put the block of frozen ‘shrooms in the pot at the start) with the following differences:

1. I added splash of Worcestershire sauce. I don’t know why, except that the smell of it demanded the additional ingredient.
2. I used rice milk instead of cow’s milk, natch.
3. I added a flour/water slurry to the soup to thicken it slightly prior to pureeing with my stick blender.

I split the soup into two batches in my vacuum sealed quart bags. One went into the frig, the other went into the freezer.

I finally got around to making the mushroom chicken today. So I took a whole package of mostly thawed chicken thighs (11 thighs), seasoned them all with Poultry Magic, then put them into the pot. A quick snip with scissors opened a corner of the soup bag and I poured that all over the chicken. Set the pot on Low for 8 hours. We’re about 3 hours from done time and it smells delicious.

My church is one of the satellite sites for the Willow Creek Leadership Summit every summer. Having attended two of those summits at Willow Creek, I can attest that they are great and I highly recommend them.

However, they are entirely mock-able as shown here.

Hilarious. I love the quote from Ike.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

They say it takes someone about one full year to learn a new job fully, right? Apparently, it can take more like two full years and even that’s doubtful for Useless One #2.

Today’s dispute involved the date stamp, which is broken. So we’re using an old date stamp that only goes to 2007. That means we have to hand write an 8 over the 7. A slight hassle, but no big deal. Unless you are UO2.

She let me know that she received the latest packet of medical invoices, but still doesn’t know exactly what she’s supposed to do with them at this stage of the process. Amazing One is out again and not available to coach. So I told her what I get and we figured out what she’s supposed to do. And then I reminded her that the invoice pages from the contractor all need to be date stamped.

UO2: AO didn’t tell me that I had to do that.

Me: Yes, I realize that. I had to remind her about it all the time, too. But they need to be date stamped.

UO2: I don’t have the time to write all those 8s on each invoice. *more whining about how busy she is - blah, blah, blah* I’m not going to do it.

Me: We’re all busy. They need to be stamped. Please, just do it.  *in my head, I’m thinking “just do it and quit wasting your valuable time arguing about it"*

UO2 storms out of my office and straight into my boss’s office. I get up and follow her, to hear her explaining how busy she is and that she doesn’t have time to date stamp these so she isn’t going to do it.

Angels started singing. He backed me up without hesitation, “We got dinged in the audit because these weren’t getting date stamped. You have to date stamp them.”

And then they angels stopped singing because he walked her over to the date stamp to show her how to do it? What? She knows how to date stamp. Stop holding her lazy hand!

Although, part of me thinks he took her over there to have a quiet word where I couldn’t here him? Who knows.

Then the angels started singing again because he then came back to my office and apologized for getting me in the middle of that.

I looked at him like he’s crazy because, “You didn’t get me in the middle of it. And there’s no need for you to apologize.”

It’s time for UO2 and I to have a heart to heart behind closed doors. It has gotten to the point where we cannot have a rational work-related conversation about anything. It’s got to stop. I told my boss that I plan to have this conversation with her next week and he asked if I wanted him there. I declined his presence on the grounds that she and I have to try to work it out first. If I feel that she is still combative then I’ll drag management into it and I’ll ask to include the new Chief. Won’t he love that?

*sigh*

I’m going home now.