Tired...

Sorry for the slacking not posting this week, but NaBloPoMo always wears me out! After awhile blogging goes from therapy to being a pain in the ass and by the end of the month, I'm exhausted. I do have topics rolling around but I also have projects to grade so it may be awhile before I get to them. But I promise I'll post more so keep reading!

On the homefront, we've learned that 40% of the home sales in Kent County Michigan were short sales last month. Fabulous. Ours will be next. Net loss somewhere in the 30 thousand dollar range - and that is real cash folks not accounting losses. It could be more depending on how short we actually sell it. Thirty grand is the minimum.

In other news, the party I thought no one would come to didn't disappoint so we canceled it. Why plan it at all if no one's attending? Yeah, that's what we thought. I'm pretty much over the party planning. We invite people who don't come and we never get invited anywhere in return. Time to accept that we're assholes that people don't want to spend time with and drive on. That's what I'm doing. Peace.

Sleepy

I've had the worst bout of insomnia last night! Woke up at 12:45 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep. That has made me too tired to blog today. Fuck NaBloPoMo! Two more days and I'm done!

This is what you get for "Prompt"ing me!

I'm not sure why, but I have access to an aspiring writer's forum. I think it goes without saying that unless you want an article about using Linkin Park to teach Supply Chain Management, I'm not ever getting paid to write anything. But I belong to this forum anyway and here was December's prompt:

Prompt #2: Your family isn't cooperating with your writing career, so you've decided to go on strike. Write a list of demands that must be met in order for you to return to your chores and household responsibilities. (Don't forget to make a concession or two to speed up the negotiation process.)

My reply:
This is what it will take for me to resume my role as Queen of my House:

1. [Shrek] must renounce the New York Yankees and swear Fealty to the Redskins as well as the Pack.

2. Sinistrum (a Die Hard Conservative) must vote Democrat in the 2008 election (I'll grant a waiver if that means voting for Hillary).

3. A new Mercedes a day for a year.

4. A good check deposited into my account (that would be certified funds in Euros) for an amount equivalent to the U.S. National Debt.

Take that!

I am conceding, of course, that my son can still be loyal to the Packers.

If you're curious about how "In the End" becomes a supply chain lesson, drop a comment and I'll 'splain everything.

This could have been such a great post.

I, for one of thousands, will be very glad when NaBloPoMo is finished. The pressure! The pressure to write something worth your reading every single day has been horrendous.

I mean, do you really care that last night I had the strangest dream of my adult life? I like to call it a "heartburn dream" because I think certain foods make your brain do weird things. This particular dream involved the Sarge and I living in an old farm house. We pulled out the stove to clean and found a whole dead fish behind it. I mean a whole. dead. fish. Head on, scales, everything. Well this fish turned into a real live crocodile and started heading my way. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the dream ends (although I do remember a broom handle) because I woke up. Damn.

Yet Another Gratuitous Pasta Picture

This pasta making is so fun! Today we did spaghetti.

In other news, we've sent the Evites for the party I think no one will attend, well except that one of the nicest, most genuine people I know is coming and bringing her hubby and her mommy. Not only that, she's offered to make us a cake and her cakes are fabulous. She makes cakes like this:



The picture doesn't do it justice. This cake was in honor of Bratticus' graduation and based on the book Good Omens by two of Brat's favorite (or is it favourite, Tal?) authors: Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. I digress...

This phenomenal woman has offered up a cake for us as well. Isn't that awesome? I'm going to have to pick her brain for what type of cake would be appropriate for the event. Any ideas?

I could use some menu ideas as well. Because the reaffirmation of our vows is at 4:00 p.m., we're almost obligated to do dinner afterwards. Could I still do tapas or some kind of finger food? It would be so much simpler!? And the propensity of most on our guest list to either RSVP "yes" and not show up or not RSVP and show up anyway, there could be 20 people or sixty people. I think small plates are best, but how do I do that well with no budget? Yeah, please re-visit all of my lamentations on brokedom. They still definitely apply. Anyhoo, ideas? Thanks!

What Food Nerds Do For Fun...

We have a day off together - the first in forever and one of the last for awhile - and play with our mixer. Last spring, before the world imploded, we splurged with our tax refund on a Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer and each selected an accessory. Sarge picked a meat grinder (and I threw a sausage stuffer in with it when I placed the order) and I picked a pasta maker. I used to have one of those hand crank jobs and got rid of it because it was kind of a pain in the ass. This baby makes it a whole lot easier and the outcome is, may I say? Delicious.

Happy Black Friday!

Done shopping? Frankly, and don't take this the wrong way, I think anyone who went shopping today needs a psych evaluation. I tenuously ventured forth to the local outlet of the evil empire for flour, yeast and a handful of other groceries and that was it! Surprisingly, the store was not crowded at all. I asked the cashier if she'd been busy earlier and her reply was sort of surprising. First off because evil empire cashiers can be a bit surly around these parts and second, her reply seemed logical. "People aren't shopping as much this year. They're worried about fuel prices."

Well, that is one thing I am thankful for here. Our utilities are covered by the government so heat is one bill we don't have to worry about here. Of course, we're still heating the monkey on our back and who knows how long that will be an issue, but here, we don't stress about the heat. Nice, because it's cold today.

Another thing I am thankful for is that my hubby doesn't read my blog. If he did, he would know that I must admit he's right once in awhile. In fact, I had to confess that to him this morning. Bummer. I got ready to take the dogs for a walk and he questioned my judgement not wearing a hat (don't own one) or gloves. I replied that it wasn't that cold and went off without them. Five minutes later ( five minutes) and my hands were freezing! Next time I'll know better.

I hope all nine of my loyal readers enjoyed themselves yesterday. We did. Thanks for reading.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cleaned.

Cooked.

Kids came.

Parents came.

Ate.

Played cards. (Euchre, lost)

Tired.

Tomorrow I shall blog better.

Have a wonderful evening.

Blessings,
Moi

Finally! The help I desperately need...

Finding things to write about is a bitch! So I did what most sensible folks do and Googled Blog Prompts. Today's prompt:

Ten Things I'd Like To Learn:
1. Russian. I fully intend to travel to Russia again someday and I hate being dependent on a translator.
2. Spanish. Are you seeing a trend? I'm humbled and a bit embarrassed by this old joke:

"What do you call someone who speaks two languages?"

Bilingual

"What do you call someone who speaks three languages?"

Trilingual

"What do you call someone who speaks one language?"

American.

3. I'll lump the rest of the languages here: Italian, French, Norwegian (because that's my heritage) and whatever others I've an opportunity to try.

4. How to make amazing tapas. Like this place. Oh how I miss you!

5. Ballroom dancing. You know, in case I'm ever invited to the White House.

6. How to throw pots. I have a vision of this type of pottery as relaxing since it likely requires one's entire focus. If you let the stuff that's bothering you into your mind, the pot is messed up. The stress likely snowballs from there. It's part of why I like knitting. You have to focus on the knitting not the stuff that's pissing you off otherwise or your knitting becomes part of the stuff that's pissing you off. Know what I mean?

7. How to not hate balancing my checkbook. My tenure as a personal banker created an intense loathing of this task and it has come back to haunt me more than once. Ugh. But I can't get past how much I hate balancing my checkbook.

8. How to throw a really great party. You know, the kind people that people really feel lucky to come to and can't wait to come again.

9. I'd love to take some cooking classes in general. Cooking is fun for me and it would certainly help with number 4 and number 8 on this list, wouldn't it?

10. How to get my laundry done without actually having to do it. If I have to explain this to you because you don't mind laundry, you should just come over and do mine too and help me reach this goal.


What about you? What ten things would you like to learn?

As Promised...

The Khan brings you holiday cheer! Last Friday at Grandma's house, she gave him several (a dozen?) beanie toys representing Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, including The Island of Misfit Toys. After seeing a commercial for Christmas, His Excellency decided that he'd use them to decorate.

"Mama! We have to decorate for Christmas!"

Here is the result. Enjoy!

Sunday, November 4th?

Today was completely lacking in blog material. Because I teach Sunday School (shut UP Ian!), I had to go and opted to stay for church. I bribed convinced my children to behave so they could have Burger King for lunch because they are just such good boys and then we all came home and had a lovely nap.

I'm sorry. I know this is boring but my washer is still broken and the thought of that growing mountain of laundry downstairs just makes me tired.


And sad.

Happy November!

Yes, kids... I'm caving to the peer pressure and participating in National Blog Post Month. I'm not sure what I'll write about but I guess I'll write every day. For those of you who have blogs - grab a badge at NaBloPoMo and get to work!