Young ‘eye candy’ Shemar Moore…. 

Being stuck inside prompted me to get out my muffin and loaf pans to get in a little baking. I’ve been on strike in the baking department (never Christmas cookies strike though) because I want my kitchen redone so badly and we seem stuck in slow motion getting to it. Now I’ve drawn a floor plan, picked out colors, but Brian is thinking about the money part. It’s a small kitchen, about 10′ x 11′, so it wouldn’t cost an arm and a leg to remodel, right? So anyway, I was bored, had a bunch of brown bananas and saw a recipe in my Everyday Food Magazine for bread, and the rest is baking history! I went on to apple streusel muffins (from a mix) and today I popped in some cranberry orange muffins (also a mix, give me a break). Sean is thrilled with fresh baked goods and eats most of what I make. He’s not fat either. I also made 12 bean soup (yes, 12 bean) today. It was really good. I followed the recipe on the package and added some breakfast ham (the bigger ham pieces were expensive). Brian ate 3 bowls of it. A few hours later he disappeared you-know-where! My grandmom would call it a ‘physic’ or an enema in a pot. : ) Beans are really the ‘joyful fruit’. No need to go on.

Leno just had on a lady who had geese wearing skirts with diapers underneath- her babies. I think they sleep with her and her husband. Not like a warm kitty for sure.

My mom is getting excited about the Philadelphia Flower Show. She didn’t get to go last year as she wasn’t in good shape. I am worried about her this year. I think we should rent a wheel chair. That way, we could push in line. No, mostly to help her enjoy the show more. I said I would go. We would take the train, but the walk from the train to the show isn’t exactly around the corner. I am getting really nervous about it. I may bail at the last minute, but that’s all she talks about. Gee, I hope she doesn’t read this!

You scored 93% Beginner, 80% Intermediate, 87% Advanced, and 77% Expert!
You did so extremely well, even I can’t find a word to describe your excellence! You have the uncommon intelligence necessary to understand things that most people don’t. You have an extensive vocabulary, and you’re not afraid to use it properly! Way to go!

I’m on a mission to look at celebrity blogs. I already have Zach Braff’s listed in the side bar. He’s pretty funny. I hope he keeps up his entries. I also have the Celebrity Baby Blog because of the famous and their offspring. I was looking for a photo of Conan O’Brien’s daughter Neve and they had one of the two of them together. She’s a little Conan! Some of these photos look like an invasion of privacy, but the celebs are in public places, people interested in them so it’s publicity for them in the long run. I checked out Jeff Bridges blog (more of a website) and he was asking someone to stop pretending they were him on his message board. Get a blog Jeff! There is a ‘pretend’ blog I have listed for Bill Clinton. They say it’s fake, but it’s a good fake. Check it out.

Amazing Race 7 began tonight with Rob and ‘Ambuh’ from ‘Survivor’ as contestants. They are in third place. They had help when they got in Peru as someone recognized them from Survivor. That sucked as the guy helped them on a large leg of the race. You’ll love the gay guys, they are hysterical!

On a personal note, Brian was home feeling blah today. He rarely misses work. I am wondering if he’s just exhausted by the daily grind. The snow events have really worn him out, somewhat from the tension. I didn’t do as much as I wanted to do today because he kept laying down, so I had to be quiet. I was picking out things off my eBay table which is piled high. I swear I have listed most of the stuff on it once or twice. I should list it all at low prices to get rid of it. If if doesn’t sell, it’s going to Goodwill. I already have 3 bags to go. eBay is fun, but it’s getting harder to try to figure out what people will buy. I know, they will buy almost anything, but I have way too many books. Time to downsize.

One of my favorite pictures from ‘The Snowy Day’….snow angels of course! 

…I loved that book as a child by Ezra Jack Keats. It was so nicely done and was a hallmark of the time having a little African American boy as the main character (1962 publication). The little boy was Peter who worn the red pointed hood and found amazement in the snow as all small children do.
So we had a little snow last night. It wasn’t a big storm, but we got 1.5″ or so. I have no transportation, so I decided to do a pot roast and make some banana bread to keep me busy. Sean was off and had to read and answer about 9 questions about cloning from articles. That took him about 3 hours (I helped him a bit).
I have a ‘boo-boo’ on my left pinkie finger (I am a lefty) and it is hard to type. I sliced it on my apple peeler that I was using to quickly peel potatoes (you crank it) and my hand slipped.
The banana bread came out nice, though the whole bottom stuck to the pan (I should have used Pam instead of margarine). I found the recipe in the Everyday Food Magazine. That’s a nice little compact recipe magazine.
When I cut my finger, Brian and Sean got me a band-aid and the wound cleaner, but left me to finish dinner. Brian did come back and cut the meat and mash the potatoes later, but I had to clean up everything. I wish my family would be more thoughtful. Sean wouldn’t even clean off the sidewalk with anything but the broom and Brian had to get the snow shovel to finish the job.

Just finished this Bassett Hound pup up a few nights ago. It’s for a charity quilt and I know the child’s grandmom. 

Not only are we waiting on a snow event scheduled to arrive tomorrow evening, we’ve been waiting on my van to get a gasket repair. I think I mentioned it in one of my first posts back in September. So a few weeks ago I called my mechanic brother at work and said “I want my van repaired…. I need peace of mind….I want to visit people over 20 miles away without worrying that the van will break down.” We dropped it off last night. I had quite a list of things for him to check. Then today we waited…and waited. I was about to have a panic attack I waited so long! Finally around 4 my brother called and said it was really leaking anti-freeze and had a heater core problem. He thinks he fixed the ‘hum’ in the tire bearing or whatever. He said I needed to come get it because he was going to ‘do it on the side’ to save us money. I was bummed because I was ready to get it over with and not worry everytime I got behind the wheel. I was worried when Sean drove the van too. We went to church and got Chinese food for dinner and came home. The phone rang when we were eating and it was my brother, but he hates answering machines and wouldn’t leave a message. I waited a bit and called him back. He said he had pulled the front off the van because he wanted to work on it. It’s a big job, so I bet he won’t have it finished anytime soon. He said tomorrow, but I think originally he said 2-3 days.
I guess he wants to please me or get me off his back. He doesn’t get along well with our siblings because of car or money issues. I always tell him up front I will give him the money. We always give him extra too. I really love his kids a bunch. His little girl was upset over her loose tooth-‘the wiggling is driving me crazy’, she said. Went down in the play room where she was sitting alone and told her about when Sean pulled his tooth out while he was in kindergarten (she is too) and it flew out of his hand and went under the piano. He never retrieved it. My niece wanted to know if the tooth fairy came anyway. I said we wrote her a note to explain what happened. I told her to use some dental floss and twist it under the tooth. She contemplated the idea at least but I forgot to ask if she followed through with it..