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.

Check Under the Bed

Last night when I turned on the light in our bedroom, I saw one leg peeking out from under the bed. One black shoe, one denim pant leg… They looked like LT Fromage’s clothes, but he was following behind me. This could only mean one of two things: there was a dead man’s body shoved under the bed, or there was a live man’s body under the bed, but either way it couldn’t be good.

What it turned out to be was no body under the bed, just the evidence of a messy LT Fromage who had dropped his clothes on the floor before taking a nap. Phew! We had a good laugh about it and later, I tried to hide and replicate the scene and scare LT Fromage; however he could see that I was up to something, suspected my sneaky plan and wasn’t shocked.

It made us remember another time I thought someone was under the bed.

When LT Fromage was in Georgia for a few months he stayed in barracks type housing, so when I flew out for a visit, we booked a hotel. I don’t remember which one we stayed at, but it was a reputable chain so we were both a little put off when we arrived only to find it was, well, not what we were used to. I seem to remember LT Fromage debating returning to his room to bring back his gun for the weekend…

The first night we were there I woke up in the wee hours of the morning needing a diet soda. As I lied there in the dark debating whether I should get up, get dressed, dig out a dollar in change, venture outside and down the stairs to the soda machine, which happened to have only Coke products (gag!), or try and wait the craving out (Ultimately, I did go get the soda. My will power is not that strong) I listened to LT Fromage breathing. We had been doing the long distance thing for a year by then and it was so nice to wake up and hear him next to me. I started to drift back to sleep thinking of what a wonderful life it was, resting next to the man I loved, my dog sleeping next to the bed… Wait? What?

I didn’t bring the dog. 70 pound Satchel did not fly to Georgia with me. Who else was breathing in that room? Unless someone was under the bed.

I pushed lightly on LT Fromage, “wake up… hey…. Wake up!” When he rolled over, eyes barley open, I whispered (very quietly, I didn’t want to let on to the man-under-the-bed that I knew he was there!) “Will you look under the bed?”

LT Fromage was confused. “Why? What’s under the bed?”

If someone was hiding under that bed, I didn’t want them to know that I knew they were there! We needed the element of surprise so I didn’t mention the suspected man-under-the-bed, “Just look! Please!”

LT Fromage rolled over and peeked under the bed. Nothing. “What was that about?” he asked again.

I breathed a sigh of relief and told him I thought I heard someone breathing under there (it must have been a withdrawal symptom from my lack of carbonated beverages). Assured that we were safe, I was ready to go back to sleep, but LT Fromage sat straight up and asked a fair question:

“Wait a minute! You thought someone was under the bed, and you sent me to look without so much as a warning! I was groggy and had no idea what I was getting into! What good was that going to do us?”

I guess when you look at it that way…

So last night, when I saw the leg, I made sure to announce why I needed LT Fromage to hurry in, “Because I’m pretty sure there’s a dead man under the bed!”

Beer Cheese Soup

As requested....

Beer Cheese Soup
(Makes about 4 servings)

Ingredients:

½ white onion, diced
½ stick butter
2 cloves minced garlic
1 can vegetable (or chicken) broth
1 can cream of celery
1 bottle of beer (ale or stout - I used 90 Shilling)
½ large package of Velveeta (about 10 oz)
16 oz of shredded cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1 teaspoon paprika
Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Sautee the diced onions in butter, add the garlic, broth, cream of celery and beer. Cut the Velveeta into chunks and add along with cheddar cheese. Stir until melted then add Worcestershire, liquid smoke, paprika and pepper (all spices are as needed – taste along the way).

Enjoy!!

Live and Let Live

The weekend seemed to get away from us; how is it already Monday again?

The news of Tyler Clementi’s suicide this morning was really saddening. (If you haven’t read about it, he jumped to his death after video of a sexual encounter involving him and another man was said to be circulating). I can imagine the humiliation that would come from finding that your intimate acts were being made public, that would be horrifying enough; but the fact that his choice of partners isn’t yet widely socially accepted, was, I’m sure, too much to handle. What a terrible situation, and a devastating way to handle it.

Although not my personal preference and perhaps not the stance held by my religious or political choices, I don’t have a problem with homosexuality. I believe that man and woman are natural partners, but I also believe that love can happen between any two people, and if it’s not harming anyone else then I don’t see why they should be punished. Maybe it’s not natural, but neither is my hair color. Or Aspartame sweetener (to which I have an addiction!). Birth control isn’t natural, but I make the choices when it comes to when we want to start a family. Why can’t people make choices about who they want to share their lives with? Is it so bad to let a man list his partner as a dependant for health care plans?

It’s such a shame that the preferences of society’s majority weigh so heavily on anyone who doesn’t fit the norm.

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!