I Paid for Services from a Woman on Craigslist

This Thanksgiving is gonna be uh-mazing.

3 years ago on this holiday LT Fromage asked my dad if he could marry me (Yeah, he’s totally such a gentleman! I’m a lucky lady, I know). I was uber nervous about that day, not because I knew he was gonna pop the question (to my dad… not me, yet. He waited until Christmas, but I’ll save that story for next month!) but because it was the first time we were introducing our parents to each other.

I had nightmares for months prior (I kid you not) about them hating each other. Most mornings I woke up when they started screaming at one another in the front yard.

That didn’t happen. Phew.

Actually, our folks loved each other!

I think we’re a pretty lucky couple. It’s hard enough to find someone you love enough to marry, a plus if you like their family, and even better if they like yours too. But for your original family and the new addition to get on so well… Well, that pretty much rocks. Jealous much? \

Sadly, our families like each other maybe a little too much.

This year LT Fromage and I are staying in the Little Apple for Turkey Day, so we planned to host one side of the family. Yes, only one side.

When it’s just LT Fromage and I in the house, it seems like a mansion with its 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. If we throw in 4 parents, 4 siblings and a brother-in-law, plus their combined 3 dogs, well, the space would close in quickly. I’m not even sure we’d have enough hot water for everyone to shower on a daily basis. We couldn’t possibly invite them all, and in small print include “Daily shower not guaranteed”. So we didn’t. We picked the side that hadn’t yet been out to visit, and asked them to keep their travel plans quiet, which they did, but then this conversation happened.

Family 1: “So we were thinking, since the kids aren’t coming back for Thanksgiving, we should get together anyway! Would you guys join us?”

Family 2: “Uhm. Thank you so much! That sounds wonderful! I’m actually not sure what we’re doing quite yet… Can I confirm later this week?”

Family 2 to Fromages: “What do we tell them?!?”

What did we do? The only thing we could do, we invited everyone. All 9 of them (minus the dogs, we had to draw the line somewhere).

Of course, being fairly newlywed with no kids, we haven’t accumulated enough place settings, utensils or cookware for this situation. Solution: BYOP – Bring your own place setting. And forget sitting at the table, because it only seats 4. Hello, living room furniture! May you survive this day wearing no cranberry sauce.

This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for my 2 families. 9 people who are stellar enough to come out early to help cook, bringing pots and pans and their own dishes and not their dogs. Above all, to be laid back enough to make this week a whole lot of fun instead of a headache.

(PS: Who wouldn’t stress about cleaning the house with all those people coming? I did myself a favor and hired a housekeeper. Best $67 I’ve ever spent on services provided by a woman I found on craigslist… Wait… That sounded really wrong…)

Winnie or Drew?

So yesterday, Drew (one of the local morning show hosts on the local radio station, another one of my “friends”) described the upcoming weather as, “blustery”. A word I’m fairly certain I haven’t heard said by anyone but Winnie the Pooh.

According to Drew, “blustery” apparently means “rain overnight, rain the in the morning, and snow in the afternoon.” I couldn’t reach the bear for his input from on the meaning of this cutesy word. (However, upon google image searching "whinnie the pooh blustery" this was what came up. Enjoy.)

Well, Fall, it’s been fun. Thanks for hanging around so long (no sarcasm intended here, we really did enjoy a spectacularly long fall season this year!). I enjoyed the lunches in the park, walks in the evenings and your slight chill when the window was left open at night. Thanks for the beautiful colors; however, if you could refrain from dropping those leaves all over the yard next year, I’d appreciate it. They look much better on the trees and they’re a pain in the @$$ to rake up. But that’s my only criticism.

Dear Winter, eff you. No matter how cute you try and make yourself by hiding behind charming descriptions like blustery, you still suck. Thanks to you, I’m frightened to open the heating bill, the dogs track mud all over the house and I’m soon going to be reacquainted with my ice scraper. Get lost, winter. No one likes you.

PS: I thought I’d put the snow to good use last year and let it hide all of those pesky leaves under it. Great idea from about November until March. Then I had to rake up soggy leaves. Turns out that was a bad idea. …..

Things I’ve Been Doing Instead of Blogging

Visited the national WWI museum in Kansas City, which wasn’t as freakin’ awesome as I expected, but was still pretty alright. Best part was the tower where you could see, like, all of the city (D@MN, I really wish I could upload pictures from the digital camera…). Worst part was the tank selection, they only had one and it was a stupid French tank. I like German tanks best, followed by American. French and Russian don’t do much for me…

Ate at the Brick in Kansas City. My new life goal is to eat at as many places featured on Food Network as I can. Great goal, right? Big dreams. Anyway, we’d originally planned to check out Swagger, since the menu looked good (and the huge beer selection was also a factor…!) and it was on Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives. Friday night we were watching Food Network and Guy was at the Brick in Kansas City! Pretty much a sign from the Food God’s, so we went there instead and it was dee-lish. We had a few beers and some fried mushrooms with horseradish dipping sauce, then selections featured on the show: LT Fromage ordered the meatloaf sandwich and sweet potato fries (I’m pretty sure both of us would kill for sweet potato fries, they are that amazing, folks). I got a brie and granny smith apple sandwich. Sounds like a weird combo, but on rye bread with apple butter… uhm, probably the best thing I’ve eaten in a while (besides my true love, green curry, of course!). I also got the sweet potato fries, of course, with sides of mayo and their special chipotle catsup, which was as yummy as Guy said it would be.

Already finished season 6 of The Office. Some episodes were less than stellar, but near the end they hit their stride again and brought it with some awesome moments. I gotta call Pam out though, she’s sort of turned into a bee-ach this season. What’s up with that?

On Sunday LT Fromage and I went shooting, I decided I need my own gun. A girly gun. Because I don’t know what his is exactly but I have a hard time holding on to it because it’s massive. When I accidently shot straight into the ground about a foot in front of my target I concluded that a smaller, lighter gun that I can hold on to might work out better for me. Also, I want it to be pink. LT Fromage is doing some research because the pink one I picked out is only a .22 and apparently wouldn’t have much more effect on an intruder than a can of pepper spray.

We finally got the computer back and everything on the hard drive was lost. Eff. Mostly it’s pictures we’re bummed about – 3 years worth, including ones from our honey moon. Sigh. LT Fromage got us a service that backs up everything now. We learned that lesson the hard way. On the bright side, for the last year I’ve griped about not being able to upload pictures from the digital camera (we… or maybe I… lost the connector cable thing) but at least we’ve still got the last 12 months of pictures saved on there.

And finally, we’re now entering week 3 of fall here in the Little Apple, which apparently, is about 2.5 weeks longer than the typical fall folks here are used to. We got apple and cherry ciders this weekend and made some more beer cheese soup, in the evenings we take the dogs for a walk and “smell fall” and I look in peoples’ windows (I can’t be the only one who loves looking in windows… from the street I mean. I’m not getting all up in their flower beds or something!). I wish it would stay fall forever, or at least fade into something besides winter because I hate scraping ice off the windshield and single digit temps.

Reasons to be Happy

At Work

1. The vending machine is finally fixed, which means 75 cents will once again buy me a bag of F4 (Which happens to be Quaker Snack Mix Baked Cheddar - so so yummy).

2. With Halloween coming up and the good candy on sale, we now have Milk Duds mini boxes in the candy dish. Well, we HAD them in the candy dish. Until I ate them.

3. Someone brought chocolate frosted donuts to work this morning, which, if you ask me, is a fantastic way to start the morning.

4. Someone else brought cider mix for the break room. Uhm, yeah, my co workers are pretty alright.

5. I brought a yummy can of broccoli cheese soup for lunch and the weather is still soooo nice I ate outside in the park again. (Although, it was tricky driving to the park with a hot bowl of soup in my lap…)

At Home

1. LT Fromage finally returns from the range today; I haven’t seen him since Monday!

2. There’s fresh bread in the bread machine, next to a crock pot of stew, waiting on the counter for supper tonight. I’m also totally making beer cheese soup. Yummmm....

3. I had a dream last night that The Office season 6 was finally available on Netflix (why does it take so long for things to be on Netflix?!), so I checked today and IT TOTALLY IS THERE! We’ve got a serious date with Jim, Pam, Michael and Dwight tonight!

4. Saturday morning breakfast of apple stuffed French toast has been on my mind all week… In a few hours, it will be on my plate!

5. The weather is supposed to be perfect this weekend and enjoying some outside time with the dogs at the park may be in our Sunday plans.

Happy Friday!

Toby the Meerkat

What a beautiful fall day it is here! I hope everyone is enjoying this same weather, wherever you may be.

I had a crisp apple for lunch today in the park, a squirrel and a yellow butterfly for company. A wasp came by, but luckily he didn’t stay long. It’s so nice to enjoy some time outside with a good book (see the side bar for what I’m reading now), even if it is just an hour.

LT Fromage is away (again, as we’ve come to be used to, thankfully it’s only 3 days this time) so tonight will be nothing more than frozen pizza while I watch a few hours of Teen Mom, but I’m looking forward to cooking later this week. I’ve enjoyed our recent trips, but have been looking forward to eating at home again. Last night I was dreaming of the big, fluffy pieces of stuffed French toast I’ll make on Saturday (If you’ve never had stuffed French toast, it’s a must try!). I can’t wait for this weekend, to make beer cheese or maybe broccoli cheese soup and sourdough bread (with the help of my handy bread maker, since baking is not my strong point!), beef stew and bourbon peach cobbler. Soon, I’ll be able to pick up fresh apple and cherry ciders on my way home from work, I can’t wait!

Besides the fall weather and yummy warm foods, a few other things that I’ve been enjoying…

Arrested Development. Have I mentioned before that Netflix + a bluray player = awesome? It does. We just started season 2 and I think it’s tied with the Office for best show ever (Oh yeah, and Teen Mom).

Sweet potato fries dipped in mayonnaise and BLTs with baby spinach (with “fakin’ bacon” on mine, of course!). I don’t know how we both forgot about BLTs, but neither of us had thought of them in years until recently, now, we eat them on Sunday afternoons, yum.

Green curry. Yup, I’m still pretty much obsessed. We tried a place in Kansas City that got great reviews, but I still say nobody beats our little place here in The Little Apple. I think before LT Fromage accepts orders to another post, we’ll have to scout out the Thai restaurants before making any decisions… At least I finally know how to make it at home.

Our cats, Garrett and Toby. Gary already knows sit, speak and roll over so we’re working on beg. Toby can stand up like a little meerkat and it’s one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen, his balance is unbelievable. Next we’ll take on speak.

(They could be brothers! Tobes even has the same stripes)

“Smoke A Little Smoke” by Eric Church, “Walking Away” with Zak Brown Band featuring Allen Jackson and Deirks Bentley’s entire new album “Up on the Ridge”; also, “If I Die Young” by Band Perry and “Just By Being You” from Steel Magnolia.

Klondike Bars. Like BLTs, another long forgotten treat. The perfect dessert.

Lamebook.com, regretsy.com, awkwardfamilyphotos.com and awkwardfamilypetphotos.com.

Enjoy the fall weather, before winter sneaks up on us! And make some stuffed French toast this weekend, you won’t be sorry!

My Favorite Things About Fall

Cooking in the crock pot – I love coming home to a hot supper, even better if I also used the bread machine that day. Warm, already prepared food and fresh bread… That’s a winner!

Cherry Cider. There’s a great local place that sells the yummiest cherry cider, a splash of rum makes it even better on cool nights.

Sweaters. I love warm, fuzzy sweaters, open sweaters and cardigans over colorful t-shirts, hoodies and even old sweat shirts.

Scarves, gloves and socks. My feet have been in sandals all summer, my hands and neck uncovered, I can’t wait to wrap them up in warm cozy things!

Sweatpants. I’m such a bum. I love my sweat pants and “lounging clothes”.

Changing leaves and sunflowers blooming. Set aside your perception of Kansas, because we’re in a heavenly spot with hills and trees; a nice surprise in a flat, Midwestern state.

Hayfields. Something about a hay field with big round bales just makes me catch my breath. I don’t know why.

Orange, brown and yellow fall colors. Nuff said.

Deep layers of blankets on the bed, sleeping with the windows open so that the house is cool and crisp and I’m toasty warm while I sleep.

Drinking hot tea before bed. I think the absolute best way to fall asleep is cuddled up with LT Fromage under a down comforter reading a good book and drinking a warm mug of Sleepy Time with some half and half… zzzz….(Try the new vanilla version of Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time tea if you get a chance!)

Breaking out the space heater. We’ve got a tall, oscillating space heater that brings the bathroom to a toasty 92 degrees so that stepping out of the shower in the morning feels oh so nice.

I love you fall. Please stay forever.