Love this picture

Alex got his first Build-A-Bear animal today (he chose the black Lab dog so he could also get the matching puppy that magnetically sticks in its mouth). This shot is from when he was very seriously brushing the puppy after having it stuffed by the employee at the store. It just seemed to me to be a great shot showing how he's turning into such a big boy.

And still a sweet boy. As we were in bed reading tonight he had both the new dog and the little puppy in there with us. Build-A-Bear has you pick out a little satin heart that you kiss before you place it in your animal when it is about to be stuffed and sewn up. Alex told me that at the store they had already stuffed the little puppy (you just pick that accessory off the shelf) and that they had put a tiny little heart into it like the one he put in his big dog. And when I told him we could continue playing Superhero Family tomorrow morning (a whole other story), he said "No, I just want to play dogs."

(shudder)

Jim was in Buffalo last night, staying at the Best Western (which is apparently a pretty nice hotel). When he checked in he found out the hotel was full so they upgraded him to the jacuzzi room. The jacuzzi room that has a big whirlpool a couple feet from the king size bed, all surrounded with mirrors. He assured me he wouldn't step foot in that human crock pot. Ick.

A little kitchen tip

So I wanted to post this kitchen tip a while back, but Jim thought that was a weird thing to blog about. When I mentioned it to Kim, she thought it was an awesome idea, but I still never got around to it. But I used the technique the other night, I realized I wanted to share it even if it only helps one person out of the handful who read my blog.

In order to be as economical as possible at the grocery store, I frequently purchase "family packs" of meat when on sale (usually chicken breasts). I repackage it into handy one pound portions in freezer ziploc bags. And when you freeze meat (or anything, really), the more air you get out of the package the better. I'd read once about using short pieces of drinking straw and literally sucking the air out of the bag, but sucking up raw chicken air really grossed me out.

So I find this tip in a magazine (and unfortunately I can't remember exactly which one it was in) where you can zip your bag up, leaving about a one inch opening. Then you submerge your bag in a bowl of water up to the opened bit. The pressure of the water pushes the remaining air out of the bag. And so when you close it the rest of the way and pull the bag out of the water, it looks almost like you vacuum-packed the darn thing.

Just make sure and do your writing on your bag BEFORE putting it in the water.

So there's my tip. And may you never have to suck up raw chicken air again.

HA HA HA HA!!!!

NOTE: I've now reposted it from NBC since it was pulled down pretty quick off YouTube. Hopefully this will work.

Let's see how long this remains on YouTube before the network yanks it down.



Tina Fey rocks!

Another update

Everything is almost done on the house. New carpet was installed yesterday. The workers will be back tomorrow morning to get the last little things finished. So now I've just got cleaning and putting everything back in place on my agenda for the next couple days.

LOTS of cleaning.

And lots of laundry. I'm so happy to have my laundry room back again, even though it has only been a few days. I didn't realize how much I actually used it during the week.

Update

We almost have our downstairs back. Just need to finish up a few things here and there. The workers have now moved up to the office (halfway done) and the laundry room (just started) and the sleeping porch (also about halfway done). That plus two walls of the master bedroom should have them done either Friday or Saturday. The house is beginning to look amazing - just in time for someone else to enjoy it.

I'm ready to get that downstairs back. Poor Grace had to eat breakfast on the stairs this morning because of the slight rain outside. And I've had the kids in three rooms for the past couple days - most of the time being spent in my room since there is a TV in there.

On another note, this has got to be one of the most non-intentionally hilarious videos of the 80s. Poor Billy Squire - I bet he cringes when he sees it now.