I got my flu shot!

At the GROCERY STORE!!

I guess I'm a tiny bit of a snob regarding such things.

I mean, I admire anyone who wants a flu shot, but through our insurance and doctor, they are FREE, and being broad minded as I am, I assume everyone elses is, too! Now, there are people without insurance, and the corner drug store and grocery flu shots are great for those who can't pay a doctor, or whatever.

But I reserve my plump upper arm muscle for my doctor. Actually, his nurse. She administers the shots, not him.

Anystickofaneedle, I was in Schnucks. The one with the awesome wine tastings in their deli department, and the one that son #1 was fired from in the first 10 days of his employment?

The nice nurse lady was standing right in the entryway of the store. I asked how much flu shots were, because I'd been putting off my nurse visit, and was curious. They were $24.99. Well forget that shit! I'll call the doctor TOMORROW and get one before Nov. 1. For FREE. Free to me, that is.

Then she pipes up and lists a few insurance plans that do not require you to pay ANYTHING upfront.....even at the GROCERY! My insurance plan was one of them! So, Internets, I cheated on my nurse. I filled out the paperwork, signed my name, and let some STRANGE nurse grab my plump upper arm and stick me. In front of the service desk and any customer that happened in. I got my band aid, went about my shopping, and I feel so......PROTECTED!

I am sorry for pitying any of you who use grocery store or corner drug store flu shot clinics. Who knew it was so convenient to get a shot, and buy some asparagus, shallot and cheese for a Quiche....all within a few minutes? Seriously....WHO KNEW??

So, here I am. Toasting up bread cubes and carmelizing onions for French Onion Soup. Tyler Florence says in his recipe that it only takes 25 minutes to carmelize onions, and he's full of HOO HAAAAA. It takes FFFOOOORRRRREEEEVVVVFVEEEERRRRR!

But, his recipe is the best, and we love it. I toast bread cubes, because I'm a carb addict that puts mostly bread and cheese in her bowl, topped with some broth an onions.....OMG...it's good. And the best part? I don't use leftover wine as he suggests. I buy a bottle FOR the soup, and the leftover wine then becomes MINE....WITH DINNER!!

Oh, and you guys.....the little girl that was murdered recently in our little community? It's so sad. The town is overrun with rumors....and everyone is ready to hang the girl that is a suspect. If guilty, she obviously need to be punished, in the proper way, meted out by the justice system. Her family isn't getting support and funds set up for it. It sad for TWO families. Not to diminish the girl who died.....her family must be suffering greatly, but people don't think about what if this was THEIR kid that killed....alledgedly killed. Or their Niece......or grandchild.

No doubt it's tragic. The family with the loss must be in unspeakable pain. I can't imagine. But stop lynching the other family.....they must be in pain, too. How awful to know that your child/grandchild/neighbor could have done such a horrific thing.

People are absolutely RABID for information....they want to BLAME so bad, that they can't see that this girl deserves justice........her punishment will arrive if found guilty. The town need not worry.

Well, I'm off to babysit my carmelizing onions, and toasting bread.

Toodles for now.

Football is over......sort of.....(now edited)

Well the boys played their last JV game last night. Son #2 got a little more play time than he has been of late. It was a grass field, and it was very misty (rain earlier in the day) and cold. I'll be truthful...it was far less cold than I expected it to be. It was still cold, though.

Anyway, son # 2 MADE A TOUCHDOWN!!

it was so awesome!

go here to see a pic of the muddy boy {#41)!!


I'm looking forward to a quiet night at HOME tonight!

**edited** Hey, I never explained the 'sort of' in football being over is.......duh.....

He still dresses out for varsity home games----they are playing district games now, and depending on the powers that be, he may dress out for the away game that is in a town just 30 min away, and any home games we have left. He gets very little play time in varsity, BUT he has made a play here and there.

And THEN if we make it past all the big bad teams, then we go to finals, then the hopeful event of the STATE CHAMPIONSHIP......so, football isn't totally over, but it's over for the JV squad.

Okay, I feel better for clarifying.

Toodles for now!

Football Monday Night

Well, we are off to the St. Louis area (O'Fallon, I believe) for a JV football game.

It will be cold and wet. COLD AND WET. I'll be going to wal-mart to buy my yearly stash of gloves, rain poncho and ear coverings of some sort. I am certain I have multiples of these items already at home, but, since I am disorganized AND a slob, I have no earthly clue where they may be. And if I did find them, chances are they are in a dank corner of a closet which never gets cleaned, and since animal hair blows to the edges of hardwood, they would be COVERED in animal hair and dust.

It's just easier to buy new stuff. Really.

I will leave work at noon, hightail it to wal mart or k-mart, and make my purchases, and go home and bundle up like the Michelen man, and go.

Oh....and the little girl that was missing last week? Her body was found Friday afternoon, shortly after I blogged about it. I am so sorry for her family. There are oodles of rumors about her demise, but the authorities are mum.......with the exception that the suspect is a 15 year old. Rumor has it that it's the 15 yr old sister of the playmate she'd been playing with that afternoon.

I can't help but feel for the suspect's family as well. I can't even imagine son #1 (who is just recently 16) being involved in something like this. This family will be ostrascized and forever known for this. I mean punishment is in order for the perpetrator, and everything, but two families are suffering greatly today, and it makes me sad.

I don't have much more to talk about........

Happy Monday!

A lesson in bad decision making

So, this morning the alarm went off. As I do every single work morning, I avoided getting up. I told Mr. P that I wanted to ‘sleep a little longer’. He asked me how long, and I replied “oh, I don’t know”……thinking to myself just a few more minutes. Soon, I heard Son #2 banging around the house, and realized if he was up, then I most certainly needed to get moving. I looked at a clock and realized it was a FULL HOUR since I’d proclaimed I wanted to sleep. I was supposed to be at work ONE MINUTE from the time I looked at the clock. Oopsie.

Lesson learned: No decision making while half asleep.

So, what have you all been up to this last week? Honestly, I can say nothing exciting has been going on around here. Nothing at all.

I ended up last night glued to VH1’s top 100 hits of the 80’s. I knew I shouldn’t have turned the channel. I knew once I saw the awesome clothes and hair and music that my genre had to offer, I’d be hooked, but I did it anyway. Hook, Line and Sinker….I sat there all evening watching the highlights of the 80’s. I kept texting my high school friend, and Teenie with squeals and exclamation over things like DURAN DURAN…….and omg….OMFG….Prince. AC/DC and Def Leppard……..when the drummer guy was in a car accident and lost his arm….BUT HE STILL DRUMMED? Swoon.

The biggest 80’s surprise for me is that I love Guns-n- Roses. Who knew? In the 80’s, I proclaimed my dislike of them, but wondered how Axl Rose was such a good freaking singer…….even in the stupor of my youth, I could hear that the man could actually SING if he didn’t scream………..but now in my 40’s, I’m nostalgic for my era, and suddenly Guns-n- Roses are awesome! The ringtone for my kids calls is ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine”………

Oh, and what about “You Spin Me”…back in the 80’s it was just a cool dance song…….now some dude has re-made it into a song about a sex act. No…..don’t explain to me if that was the meaning back then too….because I don’t want to know…….I prefer to think it was an awesome, catchy tune that we all could dance to.

Oh, and what about Wham? They were so CUTE! And once again….DURAN DURAN……and the baddest bad ass of the 80’s? PRINCE. I totally ‘HEART’ Prince. I never cared about his name changes, his anger at his label, or him converting to a Jehovah’s Witness……he’s a BADASS, and always will be.

So, there. It ought to prove that I have been doing NOTHING for days. Nothing but sitting in front of the Tee Vee—watching VH1, and squealing to my friends.

Oh……and locally, there is a 9 year old girl missing. She’s been missing since Wednesday evening. She was walking home from a friend’s house, and never made it home. Please keep this family in your thoughts…….I can’t imagine what they must be dealing with right now.

Toodles for now….Happy Friday!

Pickles!!

Oh, hey, Y'all!!

Sorry, I've been unmotivated to type of late. But, excuses aside, I am BACK, and happy to be here!!

So, this weekend was a LLOOONNGGG weekend. I was off Monday, for Columbus day. Woo HOO!!!! How cool is that? Mr. P and I cooked a BIG dinner on Sunday and canned some Pickled Green Tomatoes! YES....CANNED!! Can you imagine? I've neer canned anything in my LIFE!! I've 'put up' veggies in baggies to freeze, but never 'put up' as in CANNED.

I hope we don't get the botulism.

Anywho.....my beloved Aunt Jessie used to pickle green tomatoes. My dad LOVED them. She always sent quarts home with us, and as a kid, I remember loving them. She put a hot pepper in them, and like all peppers, some are unpredictable, so some jars were SCREAMING hot and others just right. I couldn't eat the real hot ones, but I always loved the spicy, sour taste of the tomatoes.

I went to the internet and looked for recipes, and didn't have to look far to find one that held the ingredients that I remember being in Aunt Jessie's jars. Pickling spice, dill, garlic and a hot pepper. Of course, the pickling brine is just pickling salt, water and vinegar.

So we sterilized the jars, filled them with the tomatoes, onion, garlic, spices and poured the hot brine over them. We let them sit now for 2 weeks to see how they taste. I can't WAIT!!!





So, how do they look? As you can see, we also canned some red tomatoes. Perfectly's dad thinks they will be mushy. They are small roma tomatoes, so they are quite firm and meaty, so we'll see what the brine does to them.

We also pickled a jar of hot red peppers. Mr. P loves the hot. I can't do lots of hot stuff....but I like things with a mild kick.

I'm excited, people. I can't wait to see if I was as successful as Jessie.

Toodles for now!!

Boy Howdy, it was cold last weekend!

I guess cold is subjective. I am cold natured. I don’t enjoy the cold. However, I also detest the heat. I’m a fickle girl, as you’ve been able to see over the last 2 years (can you believe it’s been 2 YEARS since I started this??)

We went to the Olde Tyme Apple Festival last weekend in Versailles, MO. According to my frienemy, Google, Versailles, Mo. has a population of around 2700 individuals. I’m assuming this is in Versailles proper. The apple festival is purported to be the largest one day festival in Missouri. This little community of 2700 people expected 30,000 ATTENDEES at this festival. I think ALL of them, and their dogs were trying to make our rounds as DIFFICULT as possible. People are idiotic…wandering around with a smoked turkey leg dangling from their maw, pointing out the latest in crocheted Kleenex boxes, or wood carved name signs, completely oblivious to me, Mr. P and Perfectly’s dad trying to bob and weave through the crowd.

I was looking for this or these. That was it. I am sure the Sisters Café wasn’t at the Apple Festival, but there’s a cart that roasts up pecans and almonds that look like these right on the spot and sells them in wax cones….twisted shut at the top. They are hot and DELICIOUS!!

Anyway, the people pushing their baby strollers, carrying dogs and bunnies, and dentally challenged people eating an above mentioned turkey leg, were wandering, stopping on a dime, and weaving back and forth making my mission of finding the two things I wanted to see nearly IMPOSSIBLE. Yes, I saw a toothless, whiskered man gumming a HUGE turkey leg. I still am unsure if I am amazed or concerned.

Anyway, here is what the Olde Tyme Apple Festival looks like on a cool, cloudy fall day in October.


Me and my Daddi-o








The SAME day, Homecoming 2009 took place, and Son #2 and his cutie pie girlfriend went off to dinner, and dancing. Ah....remember those days?





Come on, Y'all....you know he's adorable! And so is she!!

It's been pouring all day, so it's been soggy, and cold. This weekend is the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival...it's a two day deal, so I can't wait to see what's going on there!!

Toodles for now!

The Manly Look

Internets, I am a slob. I’m a poor housekeeper, and I love NOTHING more than a baggy pair of sweats and tee-shirts from 1997. Chock full of dinginess and holes. To me, this is comfort. Loose, who cares if it gets mangled type clothing. I go to the grocery looking like a refugee, and I DON’T CARE. Well, I care…I always shower and try to tame the frizz that is my hair, but I often toodle around town sans makeup and in my loosest closthes

Over the years, I’ve curbed my enthusiasm for oversized clothing. Teenie has coached me that despite the fact that I am heavy, I should accentuate the features I do have, and not hide them under baggy clothing.

A couple of weeks ago, I went off the wagon. I bought a 2X tee shirt to wear at my son’s football games. It’s a school sports shirt, and it was CHEAP. I had a choice of the 1X that fits, or the 2X that swims. I folded and took the 2x. I don’t know why, Internets…the sleeves come clear to my elbows, and the armpits hang loose. The boobs are filled out, but the body of the shirt sits widely over my belly and hips and down to mid thigh.

Today is a special day at work. It’s a theme day. Some sort of Sports day where we get to wear tee shirts in support of our favorite team---professional, college or high school (GO JAYS!!), and JEANS!! So I wore the oversized number. Today I have no evidence of a waist.

AND I got suckered into buying a football sports bracelet (look at #7641--that is the bracelet!!) with Son #2’s photo in 2 charms, and the JC high school logo in a third charm. It wasn’t what I thought it would be. I squealed at the cursory glance at the photocopied flyer (what you saw is not what I saw) sent out for the $30 bracelets, and immediately put my order in. I love bracelets. I love Son #2….WHAT COULD BE BETTER? I assumed it would be a dangly charm type bracelet. I was wrong. It’s more of a flat, stretchy charm bracelet. With 2 rows of beads, some football beads and 3 HUMONGOUS square charms holding the photos and logo. Heather, my niece thinks it looks similar to a man’s watch. I concur. Especially on my non dainty wrist.

So, today, I’m sporting the manly look on the job. But, at least I’m comfy, and supporting my high school team! It’s homecoming week anyway, and the parade is tonight, so I ought to fit right in with the town.
Go Jays—son #2’s Momma supports!!