A Blue State of Mind

"The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams." Oprah

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I spent 48 years caring about what people thought of me. I'm not spending the rest of my life caring about that anymore!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

My Weekend's Too Short

I'm hitting the mattress early tonight. I'm just worn out.


These last two nights I was unable to sleep well because I had two sets of hands and two sets of feet probing, kicking, rubbing, poking, banging, sliding, crawling and hitting me. Now some of you may think this is a good thing, and it would if it were Dave Baptista but no, it was Mooka and Butterfly sleeping over this weekend. Mooka usually sleeps w/his aunt Niece but Friday night he insisted on sharing my bed w/me and his two year old sister Butterfly.

Both of these kids sleep like miniature horses and they both SNORE!! Loudly!! Having them in bed w/me also meant my not being able to open the window to see the moon and cool down my room. I didn't want them to get chilled after their showers so I had to make do in my hot room and pray I didn't roll over the little girl and smother her.

All in all it was a great weekend. I got a lot of nothing done, but I did walk around the Biltmore Fashion Mall in some of the prettiest weather God ever sent to Phoenix. I try not to be so sedentary when the kids are here and they incent me to get up and move. Plus, it's hard focusing on troubles when kids are around; they don't care about your troubles, they want to eat cereal, watch Saturday morning cartoons, tear up the front room, drip afore-mentioned cereal from table to sink, fight about who had a particular toy first and bring you joy and laughter.

I did do something unique this weekend: Saturday morning I wanted to actually cook for the kids. I can count on one hand minus three fingers the number of times I've cooked for the kids. I'm not a great cook. I'm not a good cook. I can just pass making a decent peanut butter sandwich. My sister's one of the greatest cooks I've ever eaten from (or met) so she's responsible for the kids' nourishment. But this Saturday, I wanted to cook and like all well laid plans....

My first mistake was allowing Ma (Butterfly) to ride her tricycle outside while I was cooking bacon. Now I know that the hotter the skillet, the crispier the bacon so I had my four or five strips there and it was cooking nicely. I noticed the kids coughing a bit but thought nothing of it until Mooka asked if we could open a window or door. "What for?" I asked. It was still chilly outside. "It's a lot of smoke in here." he replied, swatting at the smoke like a true swordsman.

Ok, I conceded. Let's open the door so the smoke alarms don't go off and wake Wooka. I'm still watching the bacon and it's crinkling up nicely but now with the door open, Ma's quest to ride her trike is overwhelming her so I dress her for the cold. In the meantime, Mooka's coughing reminds me of the bacon on the stove. It was some of the best bacon I'd ever made in my life. Crsipy. Brown. I should have taken pictures. But there is a lot of smoke in the house so I turn off the skillet to watch Ma on the trike

As I'm sitting out on the porch I notice smoke filtering out the door and I think to myself, "That's odd. There must have been more smoke than I realized." By this time more smoke is coming out of the house and two of the smoke detectors are blaring. I go back in the kitchen and discover I hadn't turned off the fire under the skillet and it's smoking like Jackie Gleason after surgery.

Of course all the noise brings Wooka up to see what's going on. After proudly showing off my bacon and discounting the burning skillet as a one off situation, she decides we'd all be better off if she goes and brings back breakfast. Hey. I tried.

Well, that's it for my weekend. Monday looms bright and promising.
The Cardinals have made it to the NFC Conference game against the Eagles. I sure wish it were the Cowboys but that's okay. It could be worse. I mean, I could be a Titans fan right?

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6 Comments:

Blogger dr sardonicus said...

Yeah, you could be a Titans fan. :(

I'm glad to see the Cardinals make the NFC championship game, though. I've always liked Kurt Warner. I fondly remember some pretty good Cardinals teams from when they were in St. Louis in the 70's - guys like Jim Hart, Mel Gray, and Terry Metcalf. That may have been before your time.

And then you want to talk about me burning my front porch with my grill! I've never tried to burn my house down frying bacon!

January 12, 2009 12:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dr.S-if I knew you were sensitive about the Titans I would have started teasing a long time ago:-)

That bacon comment? When you come to Phoenix, I'm cooking dinner especially for you dude!

January 12, 2009 6:48 AM  
Blogger Jeni said...

I am shocked, truly shocked, to hear you say that you are not a good cook! The way you have talked about some of the foods you and your family have for various holidays, I had you pegged as the Julia Child of Soul Food or some other equally impressive cooking guru!
Bacon is not good though unless it is fried to a deep, dark crisp state! Apparently your stove decided to let you know that you hadn't fulfilled all that was necessary to cook the bacon just right!
And, since you mentioned cooking breakfast, ever fix oatmeal with butter and brown sugar? Yummy, yummy! Mandy and I both love to make that now and then for a cooked breakfast. Maya -sometimes she'll eat it, sometimes now. Fickle little female ya know. One day last week she asked for the oatmeal for breakfast, caught me in a good mood and I fixed some for us and then, she decided she didn't want it after all. Left me to eat all four servings I had made, all by myself. And then I wonder why I'm still gaining weight. Sheesh. Such a rocket scientist I am not. But it was good anyway.

January 12, 2009 10:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yep, the only thing I can do well is order from a menu although I do give my heart and soul when trying new recipes.

I absolutely LOVE oatmeal, butter and brown sugar, have ever since I was a little girl thinking I was eating porridge. But I love grits best.

My niece Butterfly does just like Maya, requests then won't eat it after I've poured it:-) Oh well, gotta love 'em.

And thank you for not making comments about my burning down the kitchen.

January 12, 2009 11:45 AM  
Blogger fermicat said...

Glad to hear the kids brightened up your weekend, rather than a house fire!! I'm an OK cook, but not very efficient with chopping the ingredients or getting things to all be done at the same time. Plus, PDM is a "back seat cook" and that gets annoying sometimes.

Crispy bacon is the bomb!

January 13, 2009 6:28 PM  
Blogger Dianne said...

heck! I'm a Jets fan!! lol

my niece used to sleep in my bed when she stayed over - I called her scissor elbows :)

January 14, 2009 9:28 AM  

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