Something You Probably Didn't Know About Me

Something that most people don't know about me is that men with long fingernails freak me out! I can't even look at them. Yuk! Anyway, Todd brought home A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe. It would be a good movie, but he has long fingernails (I am literally shuddering and grimacing just typing this). It is so gross. You might say that it is necessary for some guys, like say guitarists. I say get a pick. Even one long nail gives me the heebie jeebies. Okay, I have to call it quits. I can't stand to stay on this subject any longer.

Turtles?

I was giving my kids a bath and Andrew was ready to get out. While I was dressing him Gabriel decided he had to go to the bathroom. I heard him call, "Mama" and when I got there, there were three poops on the bathroom floor and he was back in the tub. He smiled at me, pointed and said "turtles". Nice! It was both disgusting and hilarious. Todd had a good laugh when I told him.

Chocolate Cake (gluten free)

1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup coconut milk (I used the water and flesh from a fresh young thai coconut)
9 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar (I used maple sugar)
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sifted coconut flour
3/4 tsp baking powder

Melt butter in saucepan, add cocoa powder and coconut milk. Remove from heat and set aside. Mix eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir in cocoa mixture. Combine flour with the baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Pour into a greased 9x9x2 pan. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes. Cool completely and frost.

*This cake is great even without frosting!

*This is a great cupcake recipe too, but make sure you use cupcake papers.

The Shredder

Gabriel a.k.a. "The Shredder" just loves to shred paper, cardboard and plastic. He is not committing random acts of shredding, however. He is tearing the paper (or whatever medium it is) into animals. His most favorite are snakes, alligators, octopuses, lizards, crabs, turtles and fish. He is getting better at creating the various body shapes, but I still have to use my imagination often. Not a bad thing! :)

On a completely different note, I just learned (because of spell checking this post) that the plural for octopus is not actually octopi, which is what I was taught and have always used. So I looked up the plural on the web and it is octopodes; but no one uses it except to argue about what the true plural is. Interesting.... Octopuses is also correct and widely used. It is very surprising what you can learn in just a few minutes from spell checking and web dictionaries.

Itsy Bitsy Spider?

My house has a variety of spiders, most of which I exterminate as soon as I see them. I don' t mind leaving a few VERY small ones in inconspicuous corners to catch flies. However, the big ones have to go. During the winter we usually see some REALLY big spiders. I think they are called Giant House Spiders. They are exactly what the name implies, giant. I refuse to touch them, even though they are not poisonous, so I use a wide mouth jar to catch them. Their leg span is as big around as the wide mouth jar! YUK! They give me the heebie-jeebies. Anyway, two showed up in the last two days and totally freaked me out. They are good though. Todd looked them up last night and they eat Hobo spiders. So I guess I will have to release them to the wild.

Old Mac Dondald

Gabriel loves to sing Old Mac Donald Had a Farm. He chooses that animals when we get to the "and on that farm he had a (fill in the blank)." It is really cute. He sings EIEIOOO (pronouncing it like ooh.) He also likes Itsy Bitsy Spider and helps Andrew with the motions. That is fun to watch. They have a great time. I have seen Andrew do the spider motion on his own too.

Also on a totally different note, Gabriel can do somersaults on his own now.

To Be or Not to Be?

It seems as though my hair cannot make up its mind. I have found several white hairs and being the vain person I am, I always pluck them out. I have found several that are white at the tip, but are dark brown at the root. Today I even found one that starting from the root went brown-white-brown-white. Very interesting! Is it nutrition or hormones or just a bad hair day? I don't know and neither does my hair. To be or not to be? That is the question.

Yummy Halibut Fillets

1 fresh halibut fillet
2 fresh tomatoes
1-2 garlic cloves (minced)
1/4 cup onion (chopped)
3 fresh basil leaves (chopped)
salt and pepper

Immerse whole tomatoes in boiling water until the skins crack. Remove and immerse in cold water. Remove skins and chop coarsely. Place chopped tomatoes and garlic in a sauce pan and simmer for 15min. Add onion and basil and cook until onions are slightly translucent. Lightly oil and heat a skillet or stovetop grill pan. Place halibut fillet in pan and lightly salt and pepper the top side. Laddle the tomatoe sauce over the halibut. Pour 1/2 cup water into skillet and cover. Allow to cook for 15min or until fish is cooked through. Serve with juices from the pan.

Mop From Hell

I have been using a Swiffer WetJet to mop our floors for quite some time now. As you know, Andrew has eczema and I have noticed that his skin becomes scaly and irritated every time I mop, so I decided to get a conventional mop and use vinegar and water.

I bought a "Mr. Clean Heavy Duty Roller Mop with Scrubber." The package says, "Mr. Clean makes it easier to keep things clean. And, with a complete line of easy-to-use tools, cleaning just got easier!" Well, that sounded pretty good, plus it was the only mop Fred Meyers had.

So, I get it home and put it together. Easy; there are only two parts, the mop head and the handle. Then the mopping nightmare began. I dipped the mop in my sink of water and vinegar and under the weight of the water the head popped off. Lame! Then, after reattaching it and dunking it again, I tried to wring it. The head popped off again. Good grief! I resorted to manually wringing the mop head. This was o.k. the first few times, while the water was still clean, but I was not too pleased about sticking my hand into the muddy water. (You should have seen my floors, they were a mess!). Anyway, I digress. I finally start mopping and as you have probably already guessed, the mop head popped off again. Now I am getting mad. In the time it would take me to finish the floors, I have only just begun.

At this point bad thoughts start popping into my head along with some not so nice words. I'll keep them to myself. By the time I was done mopping, a task that took me three times as long as it should have, I had decided that the engineer who designed my mop from hell was probably of the devil. He or she has probably sat in their little cubicle thinking up ways to torture poor souls as myself. They could have invented some complicated mop, but I am pretty sure that they knew the simplest design would achieve maximum pain. I mean, there are only two freaking parts, how hard could it be to make a mop that works?!!! I am sure they are sitting at their desk laughing it up. I don't know if the company knew they were hiring a "cleaning Nazi" at the time or not, but they sure got one. I have decided that the appropriate punishment for their crime is eternal damnation with extremely dirty floors and the the mop I bought. Let them clean for eternity and see how they like it!

Did I mention the mop was made in China? I am sure that had something to do with it too.

Locked Out

Well, Gabriel decided to lock me out of the house today. Todd had just left for work and I went out to move the water hose. When I got back to the house both kids were crying hysterically and the door was locked. I tried to get Gabriel to let me back in. I had seen him just this morning unlock both the dead bolt and the door knob, so I knew he could do it. 10 minutes of trying was enough for me and I walked over to the fruit stand next door and called Todd. Thank goodness he was at his desk! By the time I got back to the house both kids were laughing and playing, but they still wouldn't let me in. Todd got there a few minutes later and the rest, as they say, is history.