Ridiculously Simple? I think not

What do you think of when you see this picture:

A. Children's Book (1)
B. Cartoon from a newspaper
C. Mr. MedSchool's latest art work

Answer:

None of the above.

It's Mr. MedSchool's Microbiology book. Seriously (2).   Although it has a whimsical and charming cover, it also makes false claims.  Even after skimming intensely studying this book, Microbology is still not ridiculously easy.  It's not even remotely easy.  In fact, it's still hard.

Cute pictures do not make up for false claims.

1.  Don't worry I haven't let the Sam's ad go to my head
2. Come on.  Mr. MedSchool's artwork is much better than this...

Sam's Club is Conspiring Against Me

So it's school time again, which means back-to-school shopping.  Unfortunately no new school clothes for me, just school supplies.  So I begin to scour the newspaper ads for sales on paper, pens, binders and the usual.

Unfortunately, in my search, I received this wonderful ad sent to me in the mail:

So what worried me was not that I forgot to pick up cereal or paper towels but that top headline: "Mom's back-to-school stock-up."

I understand how this marketing works.  They purchase lists of people in certain areas of certain ages. Apparently, I now fall into the "mom" age, and not just 'I had a baby last month' age but 'my child is old enough to be in school' age.  Great!  Not only is my mother continually pushing for a grandchild but apparently Sam's Club is too.  Super .. Here's to another school year.

Peanut Butter Amazingness

I think that peanut butter and chocolate are perhaps the best combination ever created and will eat anything constructed of this concoction.  Every summer my mother makes a peanut butter pie, which is to die for.  Unfortunately this summer, we didn't get to see my parents, and I missed out on the pie experience.  Due to this misfortune, I decided to try my hand at this pie with a few twists of my own.

The result was glorious, an amazingly peanut butter and chocolate explosion.

 Reeses peanut butter cups, chocolate and peanuts mmmm...

Yum .. Here's the secret to the deliciousness:

Peanut Butter Amazingness

• 2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream 
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 large Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
• 1 12 oz bag of miniature Reeses (chopped)
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts
• Chocolate sauce

Mix graham cracker crumbs and melted butter until moist.  Press into bottom of 8" spring form pan (lined with parchment) to form a crust. Stick 8 whole Reeses Cups facing outward onto the sides of the spring form plan.

Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar and peanut butter until combined.  Whip cream with 2 tbsp of sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.  Fold whipped cream into peanut butter mixture, until smooth.   Fold in half of the bag of chopped miniature Reeses.  Pour mixture on top of graham crust.  Top with remaining chopped Reeses and peanuts.  Then drizzle chocolate sauce on top.

But don't enjoy yet.. you need to freeze it for at least 2 hours.  It can be hard but you can resist.  I have faith in you.

Adventures in Hammering

So it has been just under 4 weeks of Project Bathroom and have now a a floor, walls, paint and a sink.  To advance our project, Mr. MedSchool enlisted my help the other evening.  However, that's not how the evening began.

After a particularly long day at work, I arrived home around 7pm to find Mr. MedSchool had already begun dinner (salmon with grilled asparagus (1)). After a wonderful dinner and a few glasses of wine, I sit in my big, comfy chair to relax for the evening.  However, my relaxation was abruptly interrupted when Mr. MedSchool asked if I could help him for a few minutes on the bathroom.  Being the loving (but definitely not handy) wife, I agreed.

So I walk into the bathroom and Mr. MedSchool hands me a hammer and asks me to tack up some wall covering.  Sure, I can do this.  I mean I have hammered things before ... at some point in my life .. I guess.

Turns out that hammering heavy duty nails into studs is a little different than hammering a nail into a wall for a picture .. particularly after you've had 2 glasses of wine (2).  I take the first swing and nail (3) my thumb.

Hammer: 1
Mrs. MedSchool: 0

After a dramatic pause, I continue with the hammering.  Unfortunately, I am finding it difficult to hit the nails straight into the studs (4).  Mr. MedSchool tries to help me by holding the nails but that was a bad idea (5).

Hammer: 2
Mr. MedSchool: 0

After 2 hours of fighting with the hammer, about 20 bent nails and 2 sore thumbs, we finally got all of the wall covering up and were off to bed.  However, I did learn a valuable lesson from this little adventure. Anytime I believe that Mr. MedSchool wants me to help with a task, I should start drinking and then he'll think twice about how helpful I'll actually be.


1. Handy man, doctor and a good cook, what more could a girl ask for? 
2. Good choice on food Mr. MedSchool but bad call on the wine 
3. No pun intended
4. Or hit the nail at all for that matter
5. That's what he gets for intoxicating me and then asking me to work ... 

Renovation Continuation

Good News: No mold!

Bad News:  The cost of the new floor was an extra $400  (for two hours of work) (1)

Worse News: It's been two weeks (2) and my bathroom still looks like this:

To make matters worse, I loose my workhorse husband to school starting next week.  So we have approximately 3 workdays to get tile up and toilet in (3).  This plan has one fatal flaw.  In order to get everything done ... I have to help.

We'll see how that goes.

1.  After hearing this information, Mr. MedSchool thought for a hot minute that he might try another career.  After a swift kick in the pants, this decision was changed. 
2. On a one week project, mind you 
3. Yeah there's actually a lot more to it than that but I'm a sucker for alliterations 

Baby Jeans

So I am sure that many of you have seen the new Huggies commercial for the designer diapers.    At first, I thought that these were a joke but then I found this at the store.

Although many people have berated this product because seriously, why do you need denim diapers?  I think that it is awesome!  I mean parents are so busy now a days that, skipping a step of putting on clothes just makes things easier and they look so darn cute!

 

Beating the Heat

Living in the South, I have had my share of steamy summers.  It is normal for the highs to be in the 90s.  However, this summer has been particularly brutal.  After 4 days of 100+ heat, it was time to make ice cream!  Fortunately we have an ice cream maker (1).

Mr. MedSchool and I aren't happy with just plain vanilla.  We like to give our ice cream a little something extra.  One of our favorite ice cream shops in Big City South use to make all sorts of crazy ice cream flavors like animal cracker, candy corn and (our favorite) red velvet cake!  One day we decided, we can make that. So we made vanilla ice cream in our ice cream maker and crumbled red velvet cake in it.  Then we swirled cream cheese frosting in it (2) and voila!

Perfection!  The recipe is below so buy yourself an ice cream maker, buy some premade red velvet cake (3) and frosting and get started!

Ice Cream
 Mix 1/2 Gallon of Half and Half
         1 pt of heavy cream
         1 1/2 cups of sugar
         1 tsp of salt
         1 tbsp vanilla
 in ice cream maker canister and begin to make ice cream (4). When the ice cream begins to get solid (15 to 20 minutes), mix in 2 to 3 slices of red velvet cake (roughly chopped).  Then continue to let the ice cream maker do its thing.   One the ice cream maker stops, put half of ice cream in a tuber ware dish.  Then spoon dollops of cream cheese icing onto ice cream.  Cover with the remaining ice cream.  Then spoon more cream cheese icing onto the ice cream.  Swirl with knife and either freeze or eat!

Enjoy!  

1.  Standard wedding gift for Southerners
2. Clutch 
3. Or make it, if you are adventurous  
4. You will also need ice cream salt and ice to do this. Note if you have never made ice cream ... look it up online first.

Restroom Renovation

One Week... that was all it was suppose to take.  Now that Mr. MedSchool has been out of the classroom for a significant amount of time, he is getting antsy to start a new project.  Thus he came up with the brilliant idea to destroy renovate our bathroom.  He guestimated estimated that everything would take 1 week (1).

This started out innocently with a few trips to Home Depot to look at tile and toilets (2).  Then words like "sledge hammer" and "demolition" started to be thrown around.  Finally D Day (3)  came around, and I went to work, leaving Mr. MedSchool to work.   By the time I came home our bathroom looked like this:

So as you can see the demolition was going well.  ... I mean we have no walls ... literally.  It took Mr. MedSchool another few days to tear down all of the tile (4), leaving a lovely thin layer of dust throughout the house that won't go away no matter how many times I dust.  However, the greatest surprise came with Mr. MedSchool pulled up our shower floor.  It seemed that the floor underneath was somewhat non existent.  The wood underneath the tile had basically rotted, meaning it too has to be replaced.  On another awesome note, rotted wood means a good chance of mold (5). So basically we cannot do anything until the plumber comes on Tuesday, making this short one week project turn into an involved three week project.

Check back next week for Adventures in Mold!  


1. Yeah I didn't buy that for a minute  
2. Who knew there were so many toilet options
3. Demolition Day 
4.  That's three days out of the week, only 4 more to go
5. It just keeps getting better!  

Adventures in Flying

I had a travel adventure yesterday.  After being in meetings for work over the last two days (1), I was headed back to Small Town South.  My travel began as I arrived at the airport early and was able to snag a spot on the flight out before mine.  Success! (2)   Then we find out that this flight is delayed 1 hour due to bad weather in a connecting city … Okay not a huge deal, we are still taking off before my original flight. 

So I board, happy that I am travel savvy enough to successfully catch an early flight out and win the race to get my luggage on before all of the overhead bins are full (3).  Success #2!   Once about 1/3 of the plane boards, we notice that no one else is getting on … great. Then the voice on the overhead informs us that we will again be delayed for 2 hours.  We have the choice to stay on the aircraft, or get off.  Seeing as that I have my dinner, computer, magazines and sky mall (4), I sprawl out on my row of seats and began to take a quick cat nap.

After about an hour and a half, they begin to reboard the plane.  Everyone gets on fairly quickly but the flight door remains open … After 20 minutes everyone in their seats, we are alerted by the pilot that the flight is again delayed.  45 minutes pass. We are ready to push back from the gate … finally.  We slowly … slowly make our way down the tarmac.  We are going at a snail’s pass, barely moving.  Actually wait, we aren’t moving at all.  Just as I begin to think that the pilot is stalling for the inevitable, he comes over the speakers, “We’re sorry to inform you that they have stopped all flights in and out of the airport (again), and frankly we don’t know when we will get in the air.” (5)

After an hour or so, the people around me begin to plot mutiny.  “What’s the new law on how long you can hold passengers on a plane?"  "It's like they've got us as prisoners in here."  "Seriously they aren't going to even give us water and snacks?" (6)  Finally we get the go ahead to take off at 11:30 - 4.5 hours after our scheduled takeoff and 40 minutes after the last connecting flight to Small Town South left the big city airport.  

We wearily arrive at 1:30am. Noting that there are in fact no flights out for the rest of the night (7), I blow past passengers bedding down for the night and the Delta counter, where there are 2 Delta employees and about 100 tired, angry customers.  I am only a few hours drive away from Small Town South so I head towards the rental car area.  After visiting every rental car counter, I find there are no cars left (8).  With no flight, no car, and no bed - desperation sets in.   It's 2am and I begin to call people I know in the city.  Call one -answer. Call two - no answer (9), etc. I begin to come to terms with the fact that I will be up all night guarding my belongings from the creepy airport people who are wandering around, eying everyone's luggage. Then I get a text back from Call # 1 "Did you mean to call me?"  I immediately call back and beg my new heroine to pick me up at the airport and let me sleep on her on her futon for a few hours.  

By the grace of God, she agreed and by 3 am, I was snuggled in her futon. 3.5 hours later, I was up again. Ready to catch my rescheduled flight at 8:30am.  The most wonderful friend ever's husband dropped me off at the train station on the way to his work that I could get to the airport (T - 1 hour 25 minutes to flight).  Unfortunately, I greatly underestimated the time.  What I thought would take 30 minutes was more like 50 minutes (T - 35 minutes).  Once I got to the airport, I realized that everyone that didn't get out last night was trying to get through security that morning, at one time (T - 30 minutes). (10) I get through security with no issues and knock over a poor older lady getting on the train to the terminal (11) (T - 10 minutes).  I hop off at the terminal and began to run. Only 30 gates stand between me and my flight (12).  I run up to the counter to find that my flight is again delayed (13).  

To wrap things up after a minor mechanical issue, which turned into major mechanical issue (14), we switched planes. It's now 2 hours after we were suppose to take off, and we have a new gate, a new plane but not a new take off time.  In fact we don't have a take off time at all.  Apparently the flight attendant is injured and they are having trouble finding another.  Now, I know I don't work in this industry but don't you think that you could find an extra flight attendant in say .. an airport?

After another hour, they find a flight attendant and board the team.  A short hour long flight and I am home, exactly 12 hours after I was suppose to be.  On this flight adventure, I did learn a few things though:

1. Know people in every major city that are liable to be awake or answer their phones at odd hours  
2. Be prepared to buy that person a large, expensive bottle of wine
3. Don't be afraid to knock over old people to make your flight
4. Heels are a horrible idea for an airport, always pack sandals
5. Get a good nights sleep before you fly anywhere because you never know when you may have to stay up all night to guard your luggage from creepers in an airport 

1. Which went well, thank you for asking

2. Foreshadowing 

3. Mr. MedSchool does not understand the importance of being on the plane first but after having my carry on checked on too many times b/c of too much luggage in the overhead bins , I am ruthless..

4. Cubicle missile launcher pg 86 … awesome!

5. Yeah, I’m not kidding, he said that.  Great now we have a pissed pilot too

6. PS Lady, if you ask the flight attendants nicely, they will give you water, just not booze - they aren't allowed to give that out if the plane is stopped on the tarmac - major bummer

7. Unless I had a ticket to Seoul, Korea

8.  Except for the 100 that I can clearly see in the parking lot across from the counter

9. Not that this is surprising because it is 2am and we aren't as young as we use to be

10. Printed boarding pass the night before I left the airport to skip the ticket counter - Did I say savvy traveler? 

11. Take no prisoners ... make the flight

12. Yeah, may not seem like a lot but when you are dodging 7 and 70 year olds, it takes its toll 

13.  Not happening again .. no more delays ... argh....

14. Big oops by the Delta Mechanics team

It's A MedSchool Summer

So Summer is in full swing around here and the soon to be second years (and significant others) are celebrating their last summer of freedom.  As I discovered from my third year wife friend, it's all down hill from here.  At this time next year Mr. MedSchool will be held up in our guest bedroom "office" studying for The Boards (1).  Then after the boards ... rotations start.  Mr. MedSchool could end up anywhere in the state for rotations and where terms like "on call" become a realty.  Awesome.

However, this summer is different.  With the no studying, all nighters or anatomy labs, the soon to be second years are taking advantage of the free time.  Although several of our friends are taking this time to travel the world (2), lots of us are left in Small Town South to enjoy the summer which is not at all short of events.  In fact their is an event every night of the week.  Here's our normal week:

Monday:  Mexican Night
Tuesday: Bowling (All you can bowl for $5) (3)
Wednesday: Trivia (4)  
Thursday: Minor League Baseball - $1 beers
Friday: "Going Out" (5)
Saturday: Cooking out
Sunday: Church and Rest

We only have one more month of glory left before we are back to the grind.

1. Ba Bu Bummmmm (ominous chimes)
2. Just a tad jealous
3. We basically have the place to our selves if it weren't for the hormoned crazed teens ... seriously go to your 1998 Civic if you want to make out ... no one at the bowling alley wants to see that ...except for the creepy child molester guy in the corner
4. Unfortunately, we are not good, seeing as that none of the questions are on Anatomy of the Human Body, pharmacology, biochem or fashion (yeah the last one is me)
5. If you can call our 2 decent bars that 

Getting Handy

So on our day off from the 4th, we decided to get a little crafty.  We recently bought a beautiful new dining room set (1).  The wood was in good condition. However the flowered cushions (2), looked horrible a tad bit dated.  Mr. MedSchool, the Handyman himself, decided, we could fix these ourselves (3).

So we trek to Hobby Lobby to pick out new cushion fabric, sans flowers.  Once we arrive home Mr. Medschool pulls out the tool kit and begins to take the chair apart (4).

First we unscrewed the base from the seats

Then we took the old fabric off of the cushion and bottom board and wrapped them in the new fabric.  Then we took our handy dandy staple gun (5), and stapled the fabric to the bottom board.

Soon Voila, a beautiful new chair (6).

Now only 5 more to do.



1. Thank God for Craig's List
2. What great style we had in 1995
3. And I begin looking on Craig's List for more chairs b/c the chances of us having chairs with cushions after this event is over is slim
4. It's okay, I found a set of 4 on Craig's List already ...
5. Because it wouldn't be a project, if we didn't have to buy a new tool
6. And 0 broken chair legs

I'm A Real Doctor Now

So I got a text message the other day that read, “I just got my medical kit.  It is awesome. I feel like a real doctor now.” 

This all started about a month ago when Mr. MedSchool came home and told me that he had to unexpectedly drop $800.  Great, what could have broken (1)? Did we have to fix all the pipes under the house or something? Nope. Mr. MedSchool had to purchase his medical kit.  This kit was full of toys medical tools like an othalmoscope (2), tuning forks (3), reflex hammer (4) and stethoscope (5). 

 Well last week the kit came in and when I arrive home Mr. MedSchool had already given himself a full exam.  He then proceeded to sit on the couch and listen to his heart, his stomach, his head, the TV and me through his stethoscope.  Then hit himself repeatedly with his reflex hammer and laugh after each time.  However he couldn’t look into his own ear or eye (6).  Because of this inability, I became the subject. Don’t fear, my heart sounds find and my reflexes work.  However, I apparently have very black eardrums, and I we’re not sure about my eyes as I cannot keep them open when a bright light is shined in it – particularly when the “doctor” can’t see so he gets as close as he can and takes way too long to look. 

1. And how did you do it?

2. Thing Doctor uses to look in your ears and eyes

3. Tests hearing and stuff like that

4. Like the one that the doctor uses to hit your knee with

5. Yeah, you should totally know that one

6. Although I wouldn’t put it past him to have tried in the mirror. 

You Have to Sign a Waiver for What?

Birthday excitement! We received my nephew's birthday party invitation yesterday.  There was a waiver included.  Like for our safety... we have to sign a waiver ... for the 5 year old's birthday party.  This should be fun.

Disclaimer: We are going rock climbing, hence the waiver.

Yeah you read that right.  5 year old. Rock Climbing.

Hot and Steamy Cards From the Dog

So Valentines is around the corner and Mr. MedSchool and I have our usual tradition planned, nice, quite dinner at home (1).  After just buying a house, doing multiple renovations and purchasing a dining room set (2), Mr. MedSchool and I decided not to get each other anything this year (3).  However, we do have a long standing Card war.  We buy each other cards for every holiday and not mushy, lovey-dovey cards but funny, make-you-laugh-so-hard-you-want-to-cry cards.

Being the procrastinator that I sometimes am (4), I finally went today to get Mr. MedSchool’s Valentine’s Day card.  After wading my way through the wall of people in the greeting card aisle (5).  I looked through the sparse selection left a card with the perfect mix of funny and sweet but keeping with my personality (6). 

While looking through cards, I realized how big the greeting card industry had become.  Where I usually remember there being categories like: Romantic, Funny, For Husband, For Wife, etc., now there are categories like Hot & Steamy, Cards with Sound, For Step Grand Daughter, From the Dog (7).  There were even specific cards for people whose birthday is n valentines, three different versions! Seriously … just buy two cards. I mean it has to suck to have your birthday on another holiday.  How much worse would it be if the one you loved bought you a combo card?

So after picking up my card (and some hair gel), I went to the check out thinking about how commercialized that we had become as a nation.  So, I made sure to grab a bag of Easter candy to console myself on the way home (8).    

1. because we don’t want deal with other people and waiters trying to turn our table on one of the busiest nights of the year. 

2. Craig’s List is the best!

3. Self-administered spending freeze .. perhaps the government could learn something from us

4. Not all the time … just most of it

5. Mostly Men… shocking.

6. Impossible you say? ... oh I found it, I’m good at this game

7. At least there were no Hot & Steamy cards from the dog

8. Seriously, who doesn’t love those Reese’s eggs?

Brownies That Move Mountains

I have found that one of the best ways to thank people is food (1).  Whether it’s thanking some guys for helping you move, a friend for inviting you to a dinner party or a relative whose house you stayed at, food is always to say thank you.

I recently ran across a recipe for brownies from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook (2).  The recipe sounded great but a little intense.  I mean there’s a double boiler involved (3) and multiple types of chocolate (semisweet melted, semisweet chips [4], unsweetened).  However, it is completely worth it.  I add frosting to mine as well a ganache or cream cheese frosting make these even better

Outrageous Brownies

Note: These are baked in a 12 x 18 baking sheet.  You can also use two 12 x 9 baking sheets.

Ingredients:

                  1 pound unsalted butter

                  1 pound plus 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

                  6 ounces unsweetened chocolate

                  6 extra-large eggs

                  3 tablespoons instant coffee granules

                  2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

                  2 1/4 cups sugar

                  1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

                  1 tablespoon baking powder

                  1 teaspoon salt

                  3 cups chopped walnuts (didn’t use these, still good)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter and flour a 12 x 18 x 1-inch baking sheet.

Melt together the butter, 1 pound of chocolate chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly. In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature.

In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chocolate chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup of flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and the brownie dough. Bake for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not overbake!

1. Or beer  

2. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/outrageous-brownies-recipe3/index.html

3. Problem, since my method of melting chocolate involved a microwave.

4. Please use good chocolate!  Like one of the ones that has a percentage of Cacao in it.  Even Kroger has a generic brand, come on  

More Adventures in Homeownership Part 2

Sunday 4:52pm .. final closet doors up!

Next up: paint the back porch … awesome

More Adventures in Homeownership

So we continue our home improvement adventure by putting up more doors in our house (1).  After the last the weekend of the More Tools, More Work Treaty, Mr. MedSchool continued to hold up his end of the deal (more work).  However, the work became very sporadic.  Now I understand that he is in Med School and is not my handiwork houseboy (2), and I don’t want Mr. MedSchool to sacrifice his studies because things need to get done around the house.  However, when our hallway bathroom goes without a door for 2 weeks … I feel like the intense (3) studying habits weren’t prohibiting the door installation. 

On Sunday, Mr. MedSchool took several doors down with the intention of putting them back up that day.  However, the door needed to be cut and it was raining (4).  Mr. MedSchool informed me that he would have them up by Tuesday.  Tuesday passed.  Wednesday Passed. The weekend passed (5). 

It is Saturday and the door is up.  Only 2 more to go… who knows when they will make an appearance in our house.

Reader’s Note: All this being said, my husband is wonderful and does balance Med School and real life extremely well.  He also does tons around the house to help me in addition to all of the handiwork (6). 

1. Yeah ..that’s right we’re still doing that.

2. We’re not into role playing anyways.

3. More like erratic

4. And as we have learned from past experience, Power tools and rain do not mix

5. I will give this one to Mr. Medschool because we actually weren’t home for most of the weekend. 

6. And he cooks and cleans

Party Time

Nieces and Nephews are a special gift.  They give you just enough “kid time” to remind you why you are not ready to have children while also satiating your parents’ need for grandchildren so they are not consistently bug you about having kids.  We have a few nieces and nephews in the family and get together for holidays, family vacations and birthdays. 

Little kid birthdays are the best.  You get to do things like bounce in a bouncy house, go to a petting zoo, swing, fight over presents, play with water guns, (1) etc. I was especially excited about my 5 year old niece’s birthday party this past weekend.  We were meeting then in Big City, South to go Snow Tubing at a local amusement park.  I was pumped! (2)

Unfortunately we got a call shortly before the party was to start telling us that because of the incoming rain, the outdoor Snow Tubing was closed.  Scrambling to find another place, our brother and sister-in-law settled upon one of the most popular spots for children’s birthdays: Chuck E Cheese. 

Now I have been at a Chuck E Cheese in the past.  In fact, we had a college sisterhood event there for my sorority.  Unfortunately a Chuck E Cheese full of 100 20-something girls gossiping and a Chuck E Cheese full of 100 children screaming and running around (3) is not the same.  Not even close.

Mr. MedSchool and I ventured to the party location and sat outside in our car for 15 minutes.  Even though we were on time, we did not want to be the first ones there.  We entered the Chuck E Cheese and made a beeline for the back “Party” area where the family sat (4).  I quickly learned I could stand the “Party” area with the creepy animatronic mouse and incessant playing of children’s songs was easier to handle than the arcade area.  The arcade area was filled with kids running at top speed and screaming.  I was amazed at how parents just let kids run wild throughout the area.  Aren’t they afraid that, I don’t know, that someone will take their kids (5).

So after two hours of screaming, kicking, greasy pizza, creepy animatronics, and a loop of “She’ll be Comin’ ‘round the Mountain,” we realized that our life was still better than the person that has to dress up like Chuck E Cheese and dance and sing everyday.  So onward to our next birthday party.  Our nephew turns 5 next month and his party is rock climbing (6).

 1. Sadly, Mr. MedSchool and his friends do 3 out of 4 of these without being around any children

 2. Come on, it doesn’t snow here much

 3. It was like a swarm of flies, only with very high decibel level

 4. And my father-in-law was complaining about how there were so many TVs and none of them were playing the game.

 5. Note they do have a “stamp system,” and no child is suppose to leave without the adult with the same ink stamp on his or her arm.  However, there is this thing called water … which washes off stamps

 6. Yeah cause that’s not dangerous for adults … much less 5 year olds. 

Sweaty, Smelly and Grunty

So I go to the gym every day, when I feel like it a few times a week, and I have noticed the normal influx of New Year Resolutions gym goers (1).  As the crowd at the gym grows, you start to notice things about people more and more.  You can tell the faithful from the firstimers (2).  There are a few people that have stood out to me most though.

1. Really Sweaty Guy: The other day on a guy hopped onto the elliptical next to me.  After 20 minutes, I noticed that he was really working on up a sweat to the point that it was pouring (3) off of him.  After 45 minutes on the elliptical, Mr. Sweaty McSweaterson was finally done.  There was literally a pool of sweat around the elliptical. Thankfully Really Sweaty Guy did take his towel and mop up the lake of liquid around the machine (4).  
2. Barbie: Barbie comes every Tuesday and Thursday and walks on the treadmill.  You can also smell Barbie before you see her. After hopping on the treadmill next to me last week, I almost hacked up a lung because of her perfume.  Not only does Barbie smell like a Perfumania, but she wears more makeup than any person I have ever seen at 6am (5).
3. Grunty Muscle Man: Every gym has a Mr. Grunty as a regular.  He is the ripped guy (6) that makes awkward and uncomfortable noises that would suggest he is having a hernia.  Mr. Muscle Man is also notoriously bad about dropping weights on the ground after he is finished with them to emphasize how much he was lifting.

 Although these individuals can be distracting, if it weren't for Sweaty, Smelly and Grunty (7), what else would keep me entertained on the stationary bike?

1.  It's okay they only have 2 more weeks until they give up and the ellipticals are all mine again. 
2. Mostly from the extreme panting while walking on the treadmill 
3. No literally pouring in streams
4. Note to self do not use Elliptical #4
5. Except for in Vegas...lots of makeup and for that matter lots of perfume too.
6. Or sometimes a guy that wishes he was ripped
7. Like my own little dwarfs of the gym

But It was On Sale

But It was On Sale: A term that women often use to justify the purchase of an item that will come in handy but is not completely necessary.  Men rarely use this term unless it is pertaining to a grill, TV or in my case, power tools.

Over the past few months, I have found that with new homeownership comes with do-it-yourself projects of all shapes and sizes (1).  Our latest project is hanging doors.  We have approximately 10 doors in our house, and Mr. MedSchool decided that we would paint and hang all of them this weekend in between shopping, hosting friends for dinner, church, studying, and work (2). 

Our door adventure began on Friday afternoon when Mr. MedSchool proudly arrived from an excursion to the Home Depot.  He had in hand a new router, finishing blade, and new drill bits.  He explained to me that even though he had spent a good chunk of change, these were all things that he absolutely needed these things to hang the doors (3).  After spending a few hours setting up a huge mess “workshop,” we began to spend our Friday night painting doors (4).  

We worked until about midnight (5), when it was time to hang the first door.  We got the hinges in place on our newly painted door and drilled everything in place.  Then we closed the door and it stopped.  Over time the house kind of sagged (6), and it seemed that the doorframe was the issue.   There was only one way to fix this issue, buy a new tool for Mr. MedSchool to play work with. 

So the next day we arose early to make another trek to the Home Depot to buy a chisel set.  After routing and painting, I got ready to meet my friend Amy for lunch and a bit of shopping.  After a few hours, I returned to find Mr. MedSchool still working (7).  “I had to spend more money,” Mr. MedSchool informed me.  You see apparently Mr. MedSchool ran out of screws and had to go again to the Home Depot.  While there, an electric sander caught his eye. “I had to buy it you see, it will make my work much faster, and it was on sale.”(8)   

So after hanging approximately 6 doors (9), we wrapped up the weekend about 6 tools richer and a few hundred dollars poorer.  Due to this “investment,” Mr. MedSchool and I have instituted the More Tools, More Work treaty.  This new legislation of our household entails that Mr. MedSchool start a new project for each tool that he buys and that tools must be used in at least 3 times.  Now we just have to see if I can work up a More Clothes, More Cleaning treaty. 

1. And spending money, do your know how much a door costs?

2. Yeah … we’re pretty popular

3. Just like I absolutely needed the new curtains and rug that I bought which Mr. MedSchool didn’t understand why I would spend money on. 

4. Yeah painting doors on Friday night … we’re really popular

5. Like I said … popular

6. Yeah apparently lots of things sag with age

7. Let the record show that the only thing I bought on this shopping excursion was a $35 hall runner and a $7 belt  (thank you TJ Maxx)

8. It was “On Sale” how many times have I used that line on shoes and it hasn’t worked.

9. Shocking! Something took longer than Mr. MedSchool expected.  

Deceiving Your Children: Chapter 1

As you may have figured out (1), I like to cook, and although, I do get most of my recipes off the internet, I love cookbooks.  There's just something about setting open a cookbook and whipping up a delicious meal to make you feel all warm and domesticky.

This past Christmas I received a different kind of cookbook.  It's called Deceptively Delicious by Jennifer Seinfeld (2).

The main theme of the book is tricking your husband (3) children (4) into eating vegetables by pureeing them into goo and then putting them into everything from from pasta to mac and cheese to brownies.

In short, I have decided that this book is pure genius (5).  If you simply lie don't tell your children that you are hiding things that they find disgusting in their food, they will eat it. Plus, there are great chapter titles like "Changing Habits Through Loving Deception."

Apparently, it is hard work to be deceptive and not get caught.  First most veggies must be steamed or roasted. Then they are pureed in a food processor.  Then you take 1/2 cup portions of each of the purees and put them in ziplock bags to freeze.  Now Mrs. Seinfield assures us that you won't notice the extra 2 -5 minutes it takes to puree and it takes her maid her only about an hour a week to prepare all of these purees.  Dear Mrs. Seinfeld, have your maids you ever roasted a squash (6), then waited for it to cool (7), then scooped out the still steaming flesh into a food processor (8), then processed (9), then portioned into individual bags (10) ?

As I read further about pureeing spinach and cauliflower and beets, the book also suggests that you can puree turkey and chicken for extra protein (11), and there are also fun "Tip" pages on topics such as "How to Say No" (12) or tips for "Dining Out" (13).

In conclusion, this is a great book and a good idea. So anytime now that I want to get my folic acid from my lasagna or beta carotene from my sloppy joes, I will turn to Deceptively Delicious.

1.  If you have actually been paying attention to my posts
2. Yes, like Jerry's wife
3. Well Now you know my motive
4. and now you know my mom's motive for giving me the book
5. and Jennifer is thinking "Who's the more clever Seinfeld now Jerry..huh?"
6. 30 to 40 minutes 
7. 5 to 10 minutes 
8. 3 minutes 
9. 2 to 5 minutes (oh look she got one right)
10. 5 minutes
11.mmm ... liquid dinner
12. Really? You're pureeing vegetables and hiding them in other foods... you are way too late on this tip page to start now
13. Because that will make your kids eat healthier?

Welcome to 2010

It's been so long, and I have missed you all.  So to explain my long blogging absence, the only explanation that I have is that things have been slightly South of crazy.  So just to give you a run down: in the last month and a half we have bought a house, fixed it up, moved in, gone on a 15 hour road trip, been in 5 states, celebrated 2 holidays, and managed not to loose my mind.

So I have learned a few things with our ventures of the past few weeks:

1. I was never meant to be a painter or a carpenter or handiman or any job that requires skill or handiness 
2. If the weather says Heavy Snow, even though you live in the South, they might be telling the truth
3. Man CAN live on peanut butter, poptarts and cereal alone
4. If you tell my mother you want cute scarves for Christmas, she will by you a few, 15 to be exact
5. Swedes can pack, have you ever been to Ikea?
6. DVR WILL change your life
7. Attics = Storage Unit for Husband's Junk

I will expound up these in the coming weeks as well as our great adventures of home ownership.  As for now, I leave you with this thought: No matter how crazy and busy your last year was... always be ready for the next to be a bigger whirl wind.  Happy 2010.