It's my birthday!

You still have five more hours to wish me happy birthday.
Then you are too late!

Darn it!

I'm going to make this brief 'cause I've got to get some sleep.
Here is a good one for you-
Goldie sucked on my *new* cell phone, yes the phone that replaced the one that slid into Clay's cup of coffee, and RUINED it. I had to buy a new phone tonight because she absolutely soaked it and it will not even turn on. (On the bright side the new phone is a really beautiful red one!)
Dumb me for letting her play with it.

I have the following link in my favorites so I know what to do should there be a next time.
http://www.wikihow.com/Save-a-Wet-Cell-Phone

Who knew that leaving your phone in dry rice would help to absorb the moisture?

Another one for you, dad.

I just ordered a very cool t-shirt that says Obama Mama.
The money goes to his campaign and I feel good about it.

http://store.barackobama.com/Shirts_s/111.htm

P.S.

We didn't win the lottery.

Stuff

My mom calls me this afternoon from the parking lot of McDonalds in Bellevue. (My mom and dad go there most days for lunch when they are not at Taco Time or Chipolte.)
Her voice sounded odd and she said, "We've run into some trouble and I'm not sure we'll be able to watch the kids tonight". (My friend Heather from Guido's pizza fame was in town and we were headed over to Cafe Lago with our old boss Robin. Robin's brother-in-law and sister-in-law own Cafe Lago so she's really fun to dine with as she knows the menu intimately. Plus, it is just so fun to be with Robin and Heather.)
Nonetheless, my mom has run into some trouble.
The trouble, according to my mom, was that a car, as she put it, ran over their car and was parked on their hood. Huh? "Mom", I asked her "is the car literally sitting on your hood"? She tells me yes and I'm pretty interested in how it all went down. The story is actually very sad and involves a lady in her late 70's so I'll spare you all that and focus on the good and funny parts which include that no one was injured (they were inside eating their McNuggets), my dad told the lady it wasn't a big deal (which is a big fat whopper of a lie 'cause it was his brand spankin' new 2008 Cadillac but he wanted to make her feel better.)
The fire dept came, people watched and took pictures and my dad told me tonight that for sure the pictures would turn up on "the blog". He doesn't know I have a blog 'cause I want to make fun of him without him knowing but sure enough, the pictures are on "the internet blog". This is for you dad. I'm proud of you for being so darn nice.

Sunday dinner

As usual we had Sunday dinner with the Jefferson's next door. Nancy made the world's best chicken. The proof is that Goldie has been walking around for the last hour gnawing on chicken bones. Below Nancy describes the meal and how it was prepared.

"Delicious impromptu dinner, although not that impromptu as there was time enough to marinate the chicken."

Follow these directions and you'll thank me in the morning. (Robin, not that crazy lady named Nancy.)

One 4 lb. best of fryer (she used that cheap shitty brand Draper Farms which normally sucks)
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoons grated ginger
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon coriander
3-5 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons minced parsley
1 squirt of siracha sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh black pepper

Make into a paste and spread on chicken. Let sit for 2 hours and grill on high until brown, turn heat down and cover and cook until done. (on the bbq, folks)

We also made salmon cakes with leftover salmon and mashed potatoes and a yummy berry free form tart (or gallette but I'm not sure how to spell galette) Actually, Nancy is back on The South Beach so the tart was an extra special treat. I just had to get the mention in that she is dieting again and I hate it when she diets. My life suffers.

This meal was gooooooooooood. (not God, good.)
End of post, back to drinking wine on the porch.

Ether!

I had a dream last night that I was back living in Vienna but only with Goldie.
No Clay and no George. Goldie was colicky so I took her to the pharmacy to help "heal" her and the pharmacist recommended ether. He suggested soaking a cloth in it and putting it over her mouth. So, of course I followed his good advice knocking her out and going about my merry way.
How crazy is that? Goldie has never been colicky and is actually a really good baby! (that probably isn't the ridiculous part of the dream but one of elements that stuck me, of course.)
Which leads me to my next question- have you ever seen the Curious George book when George gets hold of the bottle of ether and passes out? This was clearly written years ago and would never fly now. It is so funny yet disturbing. Just like my dream.

Spiderman, spiderman!

Tonight George wore his new Spiderman cape and made mischief of one kind or another. (If we had a dog I'm sure he would have chased him down the stairs while holding a fork.)
He absolutely needed a cape so we cut up an old t-shirt that belonged to my nephew Max and reconfigured it. He wore it to the park, he wore it to a Thai restaurant and he wore it and played super heroes with Liam next door.
He played so hard but why in the heck isn't he tired? It is 9pm and I'm exhausted.

We've been so busy (gambling)!

We've had a ton of guests the last week and our last visitor leaves tomorrow. Yes, I'll be back to posting about all the dumb stuff that I think is funny very soon.
To satisfy your desires I'll give you three readers a little update on our day and tell about the lucky pennies our family found today. George found two at the swimming pool, I found one while walking on Broadway and Clay found one walking outside our house. And, if that wasn't enough someone handed Clay a penny out of the blue tonight not knowing about all these pennies. (No, it wasn't change for something he purchased, it was Ashley's mom from next door saying that he needed it to pay for the new house.) All this good luck was making me itch so I made my dad immediately drive George and I to 7-11. (Sharon and Hans were over for a short visit, not to take me to 7-11 at 9pm.) I bought ten lotto tickets, with Clay's cashola, and my dad bought nine with his retirement money. I also talked him into buying a scratch ticket and he won five bucks on the spot. (George cried when we had to give the scratch ticket back to claim our prize.) This was George's first trip to 7-11 and his first experience with gambling. It was very educational. He drank two coffee creamers, looked at the chips and admired the Slurpee machines. Damn- I should have showed him the nacho cheese and explained how cheese can also come in a liquid form. I promised we could go there again soon, maybe even tomorrow when we have to collect our millions. (Insert pinky in corner of mouth and laugh a wicked laugh.)

Please?

Clay's a good dad, that's for certain. He makes mean scrambled eggs, lays bricks with ease, and puts George to bed nightly. If forced to criticize I'd say that dressing Goldie wasn't one of his strengths. This morning he put her in clean jeans and a clean long sleeve t-shirt (it is supposed to be 75 degrees today!) with a dirty onesie and dirty socks that she wore the previous day. Sometimes he puts her dresses on backward or with a pair of pants. A few times pajama tops as real tops. I'm thankful that he dresses her, changes her diapers and is loving so most of the time I'm silent. But come on, at least give the kid some clean socks!

The big move

We are hoping to move in (chuckle-chuckle) the next 4 to 6 weeks.
I'm not convinced we'll have a kitchen by then so I am planning on doing most of our cooking on the bbq. (Thanks Diana for the great idea!)
Doesn't this recipe sound so good?
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/grilled-pizza-recipe.html
Any person to leave a comment could possibly win dinner at our house and a chance to eat bbq pizza.
(My friend Debbie at www.Deliciousbaby.com is giving away an ergo carrier and has over 200 comments on her blog. I gotta keep up. I'm asking for just three comments total. Come on reader(s), you can do it!)

Update at 12:12pm- this post has been up for one hour now and not one comment has been logged. Either no one reads this blog or the prize isn't good enough. I'll throw in a pair of Clay's underpants as well. Is that a more attractive offer?

Hey Mommy

"Hey Mommy, look at this. It looks like a clam."
Says George Martin as he puts something small and brown into my hand.
I think it looks like something else so of course I smell it.
It is something else. It is cat poop.
Thanks G.

Beach!

Goldie can now say beach. It seems that she loves four things, in this order.
1. George
2. Shoes
3. Beach
4. and swings (she says wee)

Here are some pictures from the 4th on Camano Island.

My favorite word

Entry by George Martin, age 3

Do you know my favorite word?
Swim trunks.
An elephant has a trunk.
Isn't that funny?

Babies having babies

When I was in first grade my best friend Katie Brennen (Katie if you happen to Google your name and see this I'd love to catch up!) and I got into her dad's shaving cream and had an absolute ball coating her fence, our hands and her cat Puffy. This lasted until her mom came outside and took the shaving cream away and reprimanded us. She was so angry and I never really understood why. Puffy seemed to like it.
That is why when Goldie was sleeping last week I proposed that George and I take out daddy's shaving cream and play! (I purchased 8 large cans of the stuff at Costco for pennies and figured that if Clay came home and we got in trouble there'd at least be seven more cans for him and he tends to use an electric razor so he'd be okay for the next 18 years.) We first started inside. I put Saran wrap onto a cookie sheet and neatly George dipped his pinky into the lather. After about thirty seconds he was making a mess and we moved into the backyard where clothing was removed (not mine) and George wanted to hold the can, spray the cream and make a mess.
After over an hour in the backyard with "the cream", George delighted in his typical bathing routine which takes place in Tupperware (see post entitled Our Week in Review) and made an even greater mess cleaning himself.
And, Clay came home and we didn't even get grounded, or anything.

Conversation at breakfast this morning

George- "Do you know where I've worked for so many years."
Me- "No, where?"
George- "At high school."
Me- "Interesting."
George- "Do you know where I've worked for this many years (holding up five fingers)?"
Me- "High school?"
George- "No, Microsoft. Is Fuel Coffee shop Microsoft?"

Conclsion- George thinks his daddy works at coffee shops.