I love meat!

Ok, so I am an unabashed carnivore! I love meat! I guess I should say I'm an omnivore, but, carne is what I really love. It doesn't matter what kind of meat, as long as it hasn't been overly processed (ie hot dogs, SPAM, and the like). Pork, poultry, beef, fish, lamb, bring it on! The reason I am feeling so "at one" with meat right now is that I spent the evening at Tucanos--a Brazilian restaurant/grill, where they bring skewered meat, hot off the grill to each table and carve the piece of your choice. It is fantastic! I recommend this fine eating establishment to any and all fellow carnivores!)

On a somewhat-unrelated tangent--a few weeks ago there was an interesting PETA demonstration here in Provo. Apparently they were trying to prove that vegetarians make better lovers. Of course they chose a day that was absolutely freezing...so bye bye skimpy clothes and "hot make out session", hello frozen people! Unfortunately, I missed it (shucks.) But here is the story and some pix! I laughed so hard.

Dr. Who revisited

For those of you wondering about Dr. Who, here are some interesting facts and bits of trivia about both the new series and the classic BBC series.
I watched the first two SciFi episodes. I wasn't too excited...I thought I would like them better. I am giving it a second (actually third, I guess) go since I'm kind of watching the third episode now. I have to admit that the stories are getting better. Episode 1 was rather light on a story line. No, that's wrong, it had a story line, it was just dumb. And the special effects were anything but special. But like I said, #2 was definitely better and #3 is looking to be another improvement.
Here's a quote I like, though:"Nonsense! The dead don't die on a schedule!" (of course with the British pronuciation.)
For now, I'll say the jury is still out on the new series.

I was going to answer all the questions in a comment, but it just kept getting longer and longer so here goes:

Mimi was casted. She had a supracondylar fracture with effusion...translated that means she broke her arm right above her elbow and it bled internally a little. She was casted for 3 1/2 weeks...and is very quick to let me know how much she hated her cast.

Sweetsa-pizza puked. She has only recently started eating Cheerios, and unfortunately forgets to gum them thouroughly, or at least slobber them into submission before trying to swallow them. So she chokes sometimes. Yesterday she up-chucked, and I discovered that breastmilk throw-up is still pretty nasty.

Yes, I let the kids catch me, after Mimi complained that that was my job, to let them catch me. Mimi is much more outcome-oriented than Buddy, who just takes joy in the process.

The canoe was wooden...Dani, that is a reference to VeggieTales (Song of the Cebu (sp?) from Silly Songs with Larry).

The cops still haven't called back. Apparently a neighbor reported a prowler around my house earlier today. I was trying to get some details, as I was not home at the time all this went down. I was also trying to find out if the car they reported as being the "prowler's" was actually our tenant's car. I have been going back and forth between thinking, "It's just our renter", and "Some punk was prowling around my yard!", since my friend told me about the whole situation!

And last but not least, the pool was at the clubhouse where Sweetsa-pizza was blessed...belongs to Darin's condo neighborhood. I don't think you have to worry about being attacked by nasty dead skin cells.

Yeah, it's been a pretty fun week, but at least there was no surgery involved this time!

The things I know

This has been a very instructive week. Here are some of the things I have learned:

1. Swedish pancakes really do need the flour that the recipe calls for, in order to cook up the way you want (and expect them) to cook.

2. An arm that's been in a cast is stinky, dry, and skinny when it gets out of the cast. And it needs LOTS of lotion.

3. The police don't respond very quickly (within 24 hours) to phone calls that are not immediate emergencies.

4. You can still manage a pretty good tax refund, even if your employer only withheld $2.00 in taxes this year!

5. An arm that has been in a cast for a while (3.5 weeks) is pretty stiff and sore, and can't be moved...until it's time to go swimming!

6. A swimming pool is a great place to get rid of all that nasty dead/dry skin from the uncasted arm.

7. A computer DOES know when you absolutely need it to work, and chooses that moment to malfunction!

8. Kids love to play chase, especially when their quarry is Mom.

9. Just when you think Spring is here, it will snow...more than it has the entire year!

10. Cheerios can make a child choke...and throw up (yuck!). They are also VERY fun to flick around the kitchen (with sound effects).

Our Planner

For those of you who don't know Mimi, she is a planner. She is constantly making plans for today, tomorrow, next month, summer, October (her birthday month), and even for when she is an adult. Today I let her talk to her cousin on the phone. As I walked back into the room, I heard her say: "In the spring, you and E-beth (another cousin) will come to to the museum with me. Will you think about that and tell me what you think? "

She is often the one who says "Let's play pirates, and then we'll have a snack, maybe we can have apples and peanut butter (her current favorite), and then we can play Mommy and Daddy (aka House)."

She has already planned who she is going to marry (Adam), the names and genders of her first three children(girl-Sweetsa-pizza, girl-Mimi, boy-Buddy...sound familiar at all?), and her occupation (doctor).

I have to admit that because of her I have become more of a planner...out of self defense! There was a period of time where she would ask every night as part of her bedtime routine, "What is the plan for tomorrow?" If I didn't have an answer, she would start giving me suggestions, some doable (we are going to the park tomorrow, Mommy) some not so workable (we are going to Arizona to visit Aunah!).

I don't mind her being such a planner, except when she starts planning for the family...i.e. family planning. She has informed me several times that we will be having two more boys and two more girls !!! And then she starts announcing her plans for the family as if they are in fact occuring (in December she announced at dinnner in Spanish Fork that we would be having a baby in October....NOT true, by the way!)

If I had ...

Many times I have thought, If I had a dishwasherI do this with my time...I'd have a sparkling clean house, bathed children with always combed hair; we'd play outside more, I'd start reading again; the walls and baseboards would get washed occaisionally; the filing would not pile up so much, windows would get washed, curtains woud get made (I've had the fabric for 2 years), the weeds would get cleared out of the flower beds, the other outside work (lead abatement) would get done...and the list goes on ad infinitum.

So... now I have a dishwasher(and there was much rejoicing!) And I freely, although somewhat abashedly, admit that I don't think that any of those things has occurred/been accomplished since we got the dishwasher (except bathing the kids and combing their hair, that is). Granted, it's only been two weeks since we got it, and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! But it didn't create as much time in my schedule as I imagined it would.

Ah well, I am really enjoying the dishwasher, and hope that someday I'll get to that list.

Now listen here!

This is what I wish I looked like when I tell people what to do.

He means business, doesn't he!?
This is Buddy in his no-nonsense, I'm down to playing mode...
no messing around, no time for anything but serious trucks and tools.
He got the drill for Christmas.
He had opened it and maybe five minutes had passed
before he had the drill in his mouth going at his teeth!
Just a precursor for things to come, I guess.

Dr. Who?

Ok, I admit it: We are huge fans of the Sci Fi channel series Stargate SG1 and Stargate Atlantis. We're probably not as hard core as Daddy-Omega, seeing as we don't tape every episode. But we sure count on those tapes if we happen to miss a week!
Anyway, last night during one of the commercial breaks they started advertising a new series. Not Stargate related, but something I at least enjoyed in the past: Dr. Who! They will be starting it March 17th. It brought back a rush of memories of watching it together as a family. I just hope that it is good, and I'm not getting my hopes up just to be crushed later on!
Does anyone know what color the tartis was in the PBS series?

Ode to Toilet Paper

I've never really thought much about toilet paper (except of course to lament how much women tend to go through...that was back in my custodial days.) It's there, you use it, it's gone. End of story, right? Not in my household!

I have a little TP fairy who likes to leave piles of it around the house. Sometimes big piles (3/4 of the brand new roll on the bathroom floor), but sometimes little piles...of shredded TP, and these can be anywhere in the house and tend to migrate. Then there are the white quilted paths that lead to various places. I know that much of this can be explained by a certain two year old's excitement at seeing things move/unroll, but it is a bit disconcerting to find Sweetsa-pizza holding a wad of it , and trying to shove it (and her whole fist) into her mouth. Mimi has even used it as streamers for dancing (I wish I had a picture of that!) But the funniest by far was not even at my house. I caught Buddy (literally) as he was running out of the bathroom at PowerGlide, with half the roll of TP streaming behind him.

B: "Buddy, STOP! Put it back, please!"
Buddy: "It's my finish line, Mommy!"
B: "It's not a finish line, Buddy, it's toilet paper!"

At this point I just had to laugh, becuase how many times are you going to say that in your life?