Superman

My dad is my version of Superman.

Among all the things he's done, he has kept this car running for over 6 years -

There have been moments when I thought the fix was too big,

But he made it work again.

My dad works (sometimes too) hard, he loves me, spoils me rotten, and a girl can't ask for more.

Happy Father's Day!

Drunk Gnome

The family gnome is celebrating the new year early by drinking up the remaining brandy from the brandy snaps. :)

It used to be Bah-Humbug!

The holidays from high school on were a funk inducing time of year for me.  

BAH-HUMBUG!

Senior year I was living in a quad and one of my new roommates, Liz, was a holiday NUT.  :)

This was our little tree that she insisted we set up in early November and each roommate had to help put on the ornaments.  It was really heart warming.  I will probably never be as enthusiastic about Christmas as Liz, but I think that year my Bah-Humbug! attitude started to fade.

Yesterday was Christmas decorating day.  I haven't been home to help out with decorating since I started college and I forgot what it was like to have a family decorating day.  There was a parade of boxes from upstairs to the living room where decorations spewed onto every corner of the first floor.  Lil Sis plopped one santa hat on dad and donned the other.  With the Wheel of Fortune and then the Big Bang Theory in the background we set up and trimmed the tree.

While Lil Sis was decorating the rest of the downstairs I checked all of the outdoor lights to make sure they worked.  One string was only half lit and if I jiggled it they worked.  I was going through the bulbs, one by one, to see if I could find the loose one and...

ZAP!

Holy crap! An entire casing was missing, which exposed bare wires.  I managed to brush it with my arm, completing the circuit.  There may have been some swearing, but there was more laughing - it scared the crap out of me, but didn't really hurt too badly.  :)

Despite being electrocuted, being surrounded by family while decorating the house has made a Bah-Humbug! this season irrelevant.

Break out the Christmas music, the electricity made my heart grow three sizes!

Food Coma

There were only 10 people at Thanksgiving this year...they went a bit overboard on the pies. :)  

Top Row L-R: Apple, Deep dish Apple, Pumpkin Cheesecake. 
2nd row: Raspberry, Bomb Shelter Peach, Raspberry. 
3rd row: Pumpkin Cheesecake, Cherry, Pumpkin, Oatmeal Pecan. 
Bottom row: Cherry, Oatmeal Pecan, Pumpkin.


We all ate too much Thanksgiving food and then too much pie. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Food

I am thankful for Thanksgiving food!

Thanksgiving spread.

Every year there is a major cooking fest and my aunt and uncle's house.  My uncle's stuffing is to die for. :)

Then there are the pies.  There are usually at least 5 different kinds of pie.  In the past we've had (some pictured): pumpkin pie, apple pie, cherry pie, pumpkin cheesecake pie, berry cheesecake pie, pecan pie, oatmeal pecan pie, chocolate irish cream cheesecake pie, and more.

Butter Pecan Pumpkin Pie and a Cherry Pie

Slice of the Berry Cheesecake Pie topped with whipped cream and raspberries

 I can't wait to see what the guys come up with this year. :)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

The Berry Cheesecake Pie went fast.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie - my cousins' favorite.

Slice of the Butter Pecan Pumpkin Pie.

Crohn's Conundrum

I just got back from the hospital.  My Lil Sis has Crohn's.  Usually she can keep flare ups under control, but a couple of weeks ago she got a cold.  The medicine she takes to treat the Crohn's suppresses her immune system making her more susceptible.  Once the cold took hold it wouldn't let go.  She couldn't keep anything in and after a few days she developed chest pains.  Today we went to the clinic to see her doctor and after checking her symptoms he sent her to the ER.  She's had an EKG, an Xray, and a CT so far.  They've rehydrated her and given her steroids.

I thought that Crohn's was more manageable than this.  I knew that she went to the ER about a year ago, but according to the nurses Crohn's patients will have multiple ER visits in their lifetime.  I've got to say Lil Sis is pretty strong dealing with the seesaw of symptoms in addition to college life and work.  Hopefully Lil Sis will be able to come home tomorrow.    

Talking Animals and Objects

I think some geek characteristics are genetically passed down, or are maybe just meme, but it has been pointed out to me that my family and I are weird.

This comment came from Cleo after seeing the Christmas letter Mum sent out my sophomore year of college...the letter was from the dog. To me this was nothing new.  On the rare occasion that a Christmas letter gets sent out it is often written by a family pet - the dog (Chubbie, now deceased, RIP), any number of the cats, the hamster, and even maybe the fish.  In any of these letters there is bound to be a comment on how hard it is to type with paws/fins.

I don't know when this all began.  It's been the way we are since I can remember.  An example I gave Cleo, which gave further support to her statement, was of the spider.  When I was in high school my brother gave Mum a computer, a desktop with the huge tower and monitor.  The tower became the home of a relatively large, quarter sized (with legs), spider. (Okay, thats not that big, but we're not a huge fan of spiders).  The spider stayed around long enough that he was dubbed Mr. Long Leggedy Beasty.  Now, by this time Mum had started a journal on Open Diary.  It was her new past time, writing amusing anecdotes about her family.  After dubbing the spider Long Leggedy Beasty he got an Open Diary (OD) as well.  He wrote about jumping out at Mum, scaring the teenager (me), and life in general on the computer desk.  Mum then started a Teen Leggedy Beasty OD and I helped keep that one updated for a year or so.

I know this behavior isn't special to my family, several animals have twitter accounts: most notably the Egyptian Cobra that escaped from the Bronx zoo.

Our newest family endeavor is the Travelocity Gnome.  He goes with us and other people on vacations, helps around the house and outside - wherever he goes, we take his picture.  He has his own Facebook page.

We are weird in many ways, but this one jumped to mind today.

French Press

... and other thoughts.  Okay, I'm definitely procrastinating.  I have a meeting with my advisor in an hour and my head is still in the weekend.  This usually happens on Monday mornings.  By this afternoon I should be in high gear.  This usually happens after a good jolt of coffee. :)

Over the weekend I went home to visit the family.  My brother was up, which only happens every so often, so I figured I'd better get myself down there.   He brought with him a french press that he never uses.  The one I have is like the one pictured.  The one he gave me is for two people at least.  I filled up my travel coffee mug and half of my Mad Hatter mug with it.  Needless to say I will have a good coffee buzz later today.

Every time we come home my parents bring out the fatted calf and fill us with so much food I'm ready to burst.

That prime rib was sooooooo good and I adore sauteed mushrooms and onions.  I overload on beef when I'm home - I eat very little meat here because of preparation time.

Over the weekend I also graded papers and I came upon this great answer:

 Now, I couldn't give any points for this answer, but I still love a good turtle drawing. :-D  They had the questions for this exam two weeks in advance...so I'm not sure how this one slipped by - must have been a brain fart.

Even though my family can drive me nuts I really do love them.  This weekend was great because both of my siblings were there - it balanced the dynamics out.  I really like when all five of us are crowded in the living room to watch a movie - especially with mom because she's usually sleeping during the day so that she can work at night.  My dad was flipping through the channels after the movie and said "Oh look, its Rock Mountain Horror Picture Show".  My brother and I just lost it.  Can you picture the Rocky Horror Picture Show in hillbilly style? We laughed so hard we cried.

Just picturing the Time Warp or Sweet Transvestite in a country twang had me laughing so much I was gasping for breath.  I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time.  My youngest sister hasn't seen it, so she didn't get it - but eventually she'll probably grow out of the conservative vein she's in.  I know when I was younger I wished I was an only child - now I'm glad that I'm not. :)

Okay, I really should get prepped for my meeting.

As the university store clerk said, "Happy Monday!"