Word to Brian's Mother

Whose kid is this?

O has been really funny since we got home today. But, I just sat him down with some juice and a snack he went crazy loco in the head. I gave him some dried blueberries (a superfood you know) and dried cranberries. He had asked for cookies, but we just have those a few times a week and we've already had several. Plus these berries are pure sugar. So I am feeling kind of bad, because I want to give him cookies every minute of every day because he's a kid and that is what being a kid is all about. And really good cookies too. With lots of butter and icing topped with sugar. But he can't have those kinds of cookies (on account of the devil allergies). I have cookies that he can have which he seems to really enjoy. But I also think of how healthy he is eating and I don't want all my hard work to go down the drain and give him empty calories everyday. Wow, but I digress a bit...and we won't discuss the cinnamon toast that I had for a snack...So he's just about done with his snack and he starts chanting something. And I'm trying to hear what it is. And then it dawns on me. He is chanting "vegetables! vegetables!" What the f? Seriously, who chants because they WANT vegetables. That would be my kid. I'm so glad that he likes vegetables. I don't know what I would do if he didn't. He's a good kid. I hope he doesn't find out that vegetables are good for him... Sheesh - again with the spellcheck! Looks like blogger is going to be on the receiving end of one strongly worded letter...

Straight up middle finger to the Bizzle

Let me begin by saying I realize you all (all two of you) are probably really sick of hearing me talk about my adventures in iced tea. But I am going to have to retract my previous post about mastering it. Blame it on tea-overdosed taste buds, or a caffeine hallucination, but I still can't match the bizzle. Even the very next day, the tea tasted a bit different. And let me be clear, none of the tea has tasted bad. It just isn't the same as they make it at the bizzle. T Diddy schooled me on the fact that the bizzle using thrice filtered water. For not only their drinks, but also their ice. You heard me. 3 times filtered. How on earth are we supposed to duplicate that at home. The best I could do was to use filtered bottled water. But do you know where that water came from? What I'm about to tell you will give you an idea of the importance I am placing on perfecting the tea. The water came out of our emergency supply kit. And it has yet to be replaced. And there is one more jug of it down there that I am about to take as I need to dilute my newest batch. Oliver is covered. I have his stuff separate from ours and I know for a fact that we have plenty for him. But B and I will have to probably drink our own pee to stay hydrated. Wish me luck. My newest batch should hopefully have cooled enough for me to try. If this doesn't work we have to move on to T Diddy's two new iced tea makers to see if they can make the difference. Wish me luck. *Again with the spellcheck? What is this? Some kind of free service for people to use? At least it hopefully let me upload a picture of O. Please notice his middle finger which I chose in honor of my post title. But he's just a baby, he doesn't even know what he is doing is wrong. Please don't judge him and his lack of manners from this photo. He says please and thank you a lot.

Not so super tuesday

How can it be called "Super Tuesday" if the only thing to watch on tv is Biggest Loser? Okay, One Tree Hill was also on, but I just never got in to that show. And the fact that K-Fed had/has a recurring role...need I say more. I hope that today is not "Wonderful Wednesday" so that all the normal shows are back on. I just really hate when politics creeps in to my life. I try really hard to be apathetic to everything and opinionless. Really, it leaves expectations really low which is a good thing in a president. Quite frankly I enjoy the Bush family. They have certainly entertained with daughters using fake id's to drink the Texas and made up words such as "strategery." If I had held him up on a pedistal, those things may have irritated me. When in fact it only made my heart grow fonder. I will maintain low standards for whoever takes office - crap we have a really long time of all this baby kissing and hand shaking until the actual elections - and imagine that they eat Chipotle just like me. Just stop f-ing with my tv shows. Note to reader (and I say reader because I think my mother in law is the only person who reads this): it would not let me use spellcheck so if there are any errors, I apologize.

Dwell has arrived!

It is here!!!! I saw the ad for Target this morning and saw it. They are selling Dwell Studio now!! I know that I am not having another baby or anything right now and need absolutely none of the items, but I just love them. The cribs and other furniture are exactly what I wanted when we had O but they were like $800 at the cheapest. And while I still love the bedding my mom bought us the best, I would have happily settled for one of the new Target designs. Is this weird for me to be almost as excited about the new baby stuff as I am about iced tea? Okay, now I can go finish reading the rest of the ad. Hmmm, I wonder what is in the dollar section this week!!!!!!!

Mission: Accomplished

If I die tonight it will be because my heart exploded from happiness. And there will Iced Tea everywhere. From my previous post you will know that I was not satisfied with my first attempt at duplicating the Bizzle Black Iced Tea, Unsweetened. My second attempt was even worse. I decided to not dilute the concentrate ahead of time, but just put it in the fridge and dilute by the cup each morning. Here's the thing. If you don't dilute the tea before refrigeration, it clouds. But not only does it cloud to a sort of rusty nails soaking in milk for days kind of color, it tastes close to something like that too. But given that I'm somewhat dim when it comes to all things kitchen related, I thought, wow, this is, like, SUPER concentrated. So I added a bit more water and off to work I went. a row. That morning, my heart started racing on account of the concentratedness of the tea. And I decided that the horrible taste didn't go away enough even as the ice melted and threw the batch out. Well, the taste and the insane mold that had started to grow on the top of the pitcher after only a day in the fridge. But tonight, T Diddy came over. And after hours of boiling and steeping and blind taste tests instituted by my husband, BG, we did it. We conquered the tea. After hours of them looking at me as if I was stark raving mad, and conducting wine-like tastings complete with swishing and swirling, we did it. With the help of reading the 77 reviews of the product on cooking.com, we found what sounded like a reasonable recipe and followed it to the tea (ha get it!). I almost started crying when I tasted the finished product. Pure heaven. I will not be able to sleep tonight because of the caffeine intake and am so full of liquid that I feel refreshed all over again every time I burp - ohhh snap, I should have warned the squeamish before that part. But it has all been worth it to know that I can save about 7 cents per ounce...well, factor in the 3 tea bags wasted during testing and that figures out to a savings of about 1/2 cent...but we won't dwell. I will be up first thing in the morning to ready my glass of tea. And if you see me on Sunday and I have a helmet on with those tubes leading to my mouth, it won't be filled with beer. It is not letting me post any photos for some reason, but T Diddy, there will be a special message up on here for you soon. Stay tuned!