I can't believe my luck today. Rootietoot made my shopping list for me. And a menu... for a WHOLE MONTH. Ok so a few things I'll have to scratch off the list because I am not near as culinarily refined as she is or my family won't eat it, or bill's diet doesn't allow for it.

A rudimentary list of menus:
Chicken:
w/ rice or stuffing
Grilled w/ lemon
Roasted w/ herbs or spices
Thai curry
Satay
Tacos
Parmesan w/ pasta
Laab gai

Beef:
Grilled steak/London broil
Hamburger steaks
Shish k bobs
Tacos
Pot roast
Roast beef w/popovers
Hamburgers w/trimmings

Stew/casseroles:
Spaghetti
Vegetable soup
Chili
Pintos and ham
Potato soup
Clam chowder
Chicken pot pie
Hashbrown casserole w/ ham
White chicken chili

Fish:
Tacos
Baked/Creole
Ranch baked tilapia (recipe)

Pork:
Roast
Grilled tenderloin
Chops

Vegetarian:
Vegetable soup
Potato soup

Side dishes
Grains:
Quinoa pilaf
Barley w/ mushrooms
Red rice pilaf
Brown rice

Vege:
Broccoli: salad, steamed, mixed
Cabbage: slaw, sautéed
Green beans: steamed, brown butter w/ almonds
Mixed vegs : snow peas, carrots, broccoli, squash
Baked sweet potatoes
Roasted winter roots
Baked potatoes
Sweet potatoes and apples

Groceries (2 weeks worth, except produce and milk-1 weeks worth)

Produce:
Green onions garlic parsley spinach broccoli soup vegs tomatoes lettuce

Meat:
Hamburgerx3 pot roast Tilapia chicken breasts bacon ham hock

Dried:
Pasta for soup flour cornbread mix ranch dressing powder taco shells-(10) salsa
Brown rice brown gravy mix ramen noodles

Canned:
Tomatoes for sauce x2 chicken broth x 6 beef broth x4 pickles green chilies hash cranberry juice

Frozen:
Tiny Italian meatballs vegetables-butter peas, etc grapefruit juice

Bread:
Wheat loaf hamburger buns

Dairy:
Cream milk eggs vanilla yogurt butter fiesta cheese

See my whole thing with cooking isn't that I can't... or don't know how... it's that I hate planning for it. I hate thinking up what to eat and what to buy and BLEH BLEH BLEH. Tell me what you want and I'll cook it. Within reason. You saw how much I scratched off that list...

So by sifting through someone else's list I can get a handle on what I might cook for the next little while. I'm not eating right again. Which is why we started eating out to begin with, I would eat a "fuller" meal and I would actually eat, if only once a day. Problem is, I've found out ways to work around that now. I've been going to most local places long enough they'll make me portions or take requests that they wouldn't normally take, defeating my purpose. So now I'll have to force myself at eat at home for a while.

Power? No Power?

We've pretty much been without power since 2am this morning. Oh sure we've had periods of power, just enough to keep the stuff in my fridge from being tomorrows compost.

So what's a girl to do when the power once again goes out at 3pm? Well first off, mama didn't raise no fool, so I pulled out and washed the dust off my kerosene lanterns. Luckily for us I can say they are dusty, we are lucky in the fact that we are rarely without power. We set them up in cat safe areas and went off in search of matches and marshmallows. Oh and dinner. Because while I did have hubby dearest find the Coleman stove he didn't think I actually meant to use it I'm sure. Besides, you never know when I might get cold enough to use it as an impromptu camp fire.

So G and I got home from dinner and errands. We set up the S'more maker my mom set home to us that someone gave her. Think on this for a moment. My mother lives where there is never any power, she heats her house with wood stoves and fireplaces, and someone gifted her a S'more maker. It's a neat little deal. Little cast iron pot with a little grill that you put a sterno under, little pokers with wooden handles for toasting your marshmallows, a whole little set of ceramic dishes to put your gram crackers, chocolate bars, and marshmallows in, and a lazy susan for everything to live on. So after we got home and lit the lanterns, G and I broke out the S'more maker and all the goodies. We sat for an hour or so toasting marshmallows on the living room floor. Neither of us are hot on the "whole" s'more idea. Neither of us like chocolate, but we had a ball marshmallow fighting and lighting each others marshmallows on fire. Nothing says fun like flaming balls of sugar. Especially with a 12 week old ball of fire running through the middle of it all. I'm pretty sure she'll need another bath tomorrow. I think she caught the bottom of a marshmallow or two on her back. I know that damn retractable leash almost caused a heart attack or two.

So she did one really STUPID funny thing today and one really funny one with her and the cat which I tried to catch on the camera but it was too dark in here.
So the stupid thing.... or maybe we could call this educational? She learned where Mickey pees from today. While he was peeing. Can you say instant bathtime?
Funny funny funny. Her retractable leash is one of the corded ones, so there is about 18" of flat band leash, then a plastic connector, then 16' of cord. Since she's not fully potty trained, and it was darker than hell in here tonight, she had to stay on her leash. Which meant that made for a great cat toy, for those cats that were venturing out. My animals in general hole up during any form of storm, I rarely see anyone unless they are hiding under my covers at night. My cat, Legs, was out and about. He thought the leach was great fun, which meant he was chasing the puppy all over the living room, which she thought was great fun, so she was chasing the cat. Can you see how this was fun with a lit sterno and flaming balls of sugar involved?
At one point, the cat has caught the leash and is sitting there with it in his mouth, the great prize that it is. The puppy turns around, grabs the leash about 12" from the cat, growls and starts yanking for all she's worth. The cat doesn't even flinch, he didn't let go either, nor did he knock her across the living room.

And I couldn't get my camera in time. Dammit dammit dammit.

"Please remove the brown thing from my head. I already promised not to eat her." This picture was taken after she fell off his head. She had been laying with her head and paws laid right between his ears, flat down on top of his head. Poor baby Mickey.

"How did I get in here and how do I get out?"

"Maybe I like the box a little. But don't tell anyone. You're taking a picture aren't you?"

"I growl at you. I growl at.... are you laughing at me?"

"Who you laughin' at, camera face."

That is a dearfoam slipper box. To give you an idea of her size. She likes to get in there and spin around on her side and then roll over on her back and stick all four feet out the hole and growl.

At one point while my mom was staying here this last weekend she says from the kitchen;
"Amy get in here and tell me what the hell your puppy is doing?"
I jet into the kitchen because she's a puppy and who the hell knows what she'll be eating doing NOW.
I find her in the water dish, which was empty, curled around in it, with her back against the side, pushing herself around and around in circles, growling. Then she'd stand up, dig, growl, and put her head down and push her head around the bowl for a few turns before flipping her whole body into the bowl and pushing around for a while.
"I have no idea. I really have NO idea."
My mother says "Think she's thirsty?"

My back is tired, I should take advil, I'm too tired to care.

Today was spend at the hospital. Again. We like it there apparently. To mix it up a little we tried out a new hospital for fun. It sucked. The crazy dude waiting for his wife to get out of surgery made for a little light fun. While we all scrambled to stay as far away from him as humanly possible in a waiting room.

Hey, you can't be too careful at a hospital, there is lots to catch there, and I didn't want to come home with a serious case of crazy.

Our friends daughter, who calls me Mom (I am too young to have a teenager who can drive thankyouverymuch), had some surgery today. While we hauled her ass out of there fairly quick it didn't stop her mom from having a couple breakdowns. Not me. I'm almost too cool in times like that. Looking for sympathy, I may not be the one you want to call. I can't blame her mom, this wasn't minor but went very well and very quick. It was just VERY early. I'm glad I wasn't them. We could roll in at surgery time and do the wait game. They had to have her there at 5:30 in the MORNING.

So all is well. The puppy was an angel with all her wait in the car time. Right now she is curled up on her pink baby blanket taking a nap. She's sleeping through the night now too. WOO HOO.

In lieu of a real post I'll leave you with these photos. I'll bet I won't see anyone until next year.

We are tempting fate by running the heater today. We're all sick to death of being cold and while we have a heater "ordered" we're not sure when it can/will be delivered let alone installed. Bill and I played with the heater some more and seem to maybe have worked out the "mix" and don't smell the gas as badly, either that or we're used to the smell.

On to the pictures.

Micky's favorite place to sleep. On my pillows.


Hey mom, could you pull up the covers. And hey, fix the heater.

Now his naps look a little like this:

Micky has always been our small dog. Weighting in at a whopping 64# but only being 14" tall.
"It's touching me. No. Really. It. IS. Touching. ME. Remove it from my ass."

And finally, my babies.

Merry Christmas my christmas celebrating friends.
Happy Hanukkah to my hanukkah celebrating friends.

We survived the visit from the BIL and his girlfriend. Wheels are turning there that we can't speak about right now to protect those involved. My application for sainthood is in the mail. No need to say more there.

The MIL called to wish Bill a merry christmas then hung up on him. Nice huh?

We are gearing up to celebrate our christmas next week. A nice fun family affair with no stress following a day of family shopping.

Happy New year!

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