if she is queen I am at the very least a princess

a meme from the self-descibed Queen of Quirks at My Crazy Little Mixed Up World
time for some rules -
1. link to the person you tagged you
2. mention rules
3. tell 6 quirky yet unspectacular details about self
4. tag others
5. let others know they are tagged
this one is a hard one only 6? and 6 that I am actually willing to share on the innerweb?

1. I have to get a shower every morning even if I took I shower the night before I just do not feel awake or clean without one. Coffee soon follows.

2. I am very particular about how the dishwasher should be loaded, yes after D has helped I have been known to empty and re-load the machine

3. quirk or medical mystery? I get the hiccoughs a lot

4. onions bear with me on this one I like the flavor they give food, I like onion rings, I like onions in all manner of Asian cuisines but I do not like onions. Won't eat them in Mexican food, casseroles, on my burger or in or on anything

5. Music in the car, I will generally turn off the radio when making a left turn or in heavy traffic. Both car wrecks I've been in were making left turns and for some reason the radio being on sticks out in my head strongly. And anytime the Rolling Stones have a song come on I will turn them off due to near miss in the car 15 years ago while one of their songs was playing.

6. I will make the bed at night before climbing into it-one of D's quirks would be his inability to make the bed in the mornings. He is an army brat and his father would do the whole bounce the quarter on the bed in the morning so David & his brother(JJ) were scarred for life and can now not make their beds.

again not going to tag anyone join in if you dare!

I don't even like him anymore

cousin Z is back in town briefly before he & JJ(BIL) head to Florida next week. And C could not care less "I don't care" and "I don't want to see him anyway". But for someone he doesn't like he wants to see him real bad. Yesterday after tae kwan do he wanted to drop by Mee-Maw's just to say hello. We did not it was school night, dinner needed making etc. This morning with the info that Z would be helping David around the house this today I go the request to pick him up early from daycare you know so he could help too...Z being here played no part in his decision. Picked him up and did I think Z would still be at the house? He'll suffer and hang out over at Mee-Maw's for dinner this evening and quite frankly I am going to bring extra clothes just in case of sleepover.

friday foodie meme

courtesy of house of flying monkeys just your basic list
A. list of 100 items
B. bold items you have tried
C. cross out items you wouldn't consider eating
I can never get people I tag to do these so if you're reading and want to play along and have a hour to waste join the party!

1. Venison
2. Nettle Tea
3. Heuvos Rancheros
4. Steak Tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black Pudding
7. Cheese Fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba Ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J Sandwich
14. Aloo Gobi
15. hot dog from street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black Truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed Pork Buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. heirloom tomatoes
22. fresh wild berries
23. foie gras
24. rice & beans
25. brawn or head cheese
26. raw Scotch bonnet pepper
27. dulce de leche
28. oysters
29. baklava
30. bagna cauda
31. wasabi peas
32. clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. salted lassi
34. sauerkraut
35. root beer float
36. cognac with a fat cigar
37. clotted cream tea
38. vodka jello
39. gumbo
40. oxtail
41. curried goat
42. whole insects
43. phaal
44. goat's milk
45. malt whiskey from a bottle over $120
46. fugu
47. chicken tikka masala
48. eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed donut
50. sea urchin
51. prickly pear I've had jelly made form it so I will count it
52. umeboshi
53. abalone
54. paneer
55. Mickey D's Big Mac Meal nope don't like big mac's
56. spaeztle
57. dirty gin martini
58. beer above 8% ABV
59. poutine
60. carob chips
61. s'mores
62. sweetbreads
63. kaolin
64. currywurst
65. durian
66. frog's legs
67. beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. haggis
69. fried plantain
70. chitterlings or andouille
71. gazpacho
72. caviar & blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. gjestost or brunost
75. roadkill
76. baijiu
77. hostess fruit pie
78. snail
79. lapsang souchong
80. bellini
81. tom yum
82. eggs benedict
83. pocky
84. tasting menu at 3 Star Michelin restuarant
85. Kobe Beef
86. hare
87. goulash
88. flowers
89. horse
90. crillo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft Shell Crab
93. Rose Harissa
94. Catfish
95. mole poblano
96. bagel & lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. polenta
99. Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee
100. snake

got caught cheating

yes indeed on my doctor no less! I was sick just before vacation and went to the minute clinic at CVS no big deal or so I thought..
I was going through some mail that came while we were away so much of it it the junk variety except for a letter from my doctor chastising me for having gone to the minute clinic and didn't I know there were 3 local clinics that are approved by the office because they are all part a larger medical group that is affiliated with one of the local hospitals and they have all of my medical information...
I may be Irish Catholic but this is one guilt trip I am not buying into folks!

cost of things

yes gas prices are high. D & I tend to play musical cars in the summer & he usually takes care of getting gas so luckily I can go weeks will out having to fill up either car. Happily I might add it is painful watching how much it all costs. But have I stopped driving or for that matter even cut back on my driving? no what is it that I can cut out? going to work? school? the grocery store? taking kid to ccd? baseball? tae kwan do? None of it can be dropped. I do try to combine trips and at the behemoth of Turkey Creek park in a central location and walk although generally speaking quite honestly I only go to one store ok yes it's Target(I can't help myself I'm addicted).
Where it seems to hurt us the most is at the grocery store. Prices have gone up and it seems like we are spending double what we were even at the beginning of the year. Of course the fact that the boy is eating us out of house and home doesn't help matters. I do what I can to cut costs-coupon shop, check the weekly fliers but it's just expensive these days! I know I said this last summer but I really want to do a garden well I suppose next year at this point. It's not cheap to eat healthily but we are trying!

first day recap

so it was a good first day although the new teacher "she's strict" C did not have too much specific about how strict it mostly involved the disciplinary actions "if you pull a red card you not only lose 2 days of recess you have to go to the Principal's office and write your own note home" Tragic in the life of an 8 years old I reminded C that he should just not get a red card problem solved. He did have a smidge of math homework(it took him maybe all of five minutes) which was not done at daycare so no television after dinner for the boy and I told him punishments for not starting homework at daycare would get increasingly more severe. We have so much going on during the week and it is such an adjustment for him to have homework at all but I think got the point across to him yesterday, guess we'll find out this afternoon. Then there was the personal quandary to I check his homework? I went with no yesterday It was only 1 sheet he did not ask for help and quite frankly I did 3 grade once and I am not doing the work a second time plus my own class starts in 2 weeks and I 'm sure I will have plenty of my own homework. Any other mothers have an opinion on the homework helping issue?
Then we had the little get to know you project-hobby, something you like, family and so on and so forth. And the realization that the last photo of the 3 of us portrait or candid is from Christmas 4 years ago no really 4 years. And then I had a fight with D over that except he was in another room and completely oblivious to my rants about him-anyone else have 1 sided arguments? By the time I ran into him in the hallway argument in my head resolved and I told him we were going to have a family portrait done in the next few weeks. C needs a haircut so I am thinking next weekend will be perfect so I am just going to schedule something.

first day of school

his first at the Intermediate School no less! I reminded him about 10 dozen times to stay on the bus when they got to the Primary School and as I have not gotten a frantic phone call I am assuming he remembered-he does have friends on the bus so it really wasn't a huge concern. C complained of a sore throat off & on yesterday and had an ever so slight fever but a shot of tylenol & early bed time he was right as rain this morning. D reminded me the boy had the same sort of minor illness after the day camp sleepover last year so just need to file that info away for next year and tylenol him before the sleepover perhaps. Surprisingly he got right up this morning still stumbling a bit but he stumbled into the kitchen fully dressed and raring to go. I even made sausage & eggs for my baby-biscuits too although they were the microwave kind. His fancy new wrestling backpack has not arrived yet so I loaned him mine for the time being and his Yankees lunchbox was bursting at the seams with food for a growing boy. The bus did come at the correct time, there was some concern because I could not get the information to come up on the school website yesterday or this morning but 6.49 and it was there. One of the girls going into 4th grade informed C his teacher was hard & mean so I can't wait to hear his take on things. I am however sure it will be fine he is mostly a really good kid & a good student.
and I didn't even cry we all know what an absolute sentimental sap I am about this stuff so I was proud of myself-welled up a little but no real tears this year!

I'm not lost I just don't know where I am

famous last words of my mother on more than one occasion. The woman has a great sense of direction and always has a plethora of maps at her disposal in fact the first time my parents came for a visit first thing we did was run to get her local maps so she could navigate her way around town. Dad not so much with the sense of direction and he in fact got a Garmin for Christmas last year, we made fun but he uses it frequently and it did come in handy for the zoo trip even if it did send us to the employee parking lot. D asked if I wanted one & quite frankly I don't really need one my travels are pretty routine and for road trips an atlas is always in the car plus google directions have thus far worked well enough for me. Yesterday had me wanting one though-I was going to the actual house of The House of Flying Monkeys so Friday I printed up google directions originating at my own house(no monkeys just a crazy pug here). As I was about to leave it dawned on me that directions from my work might provide a different route so I looked them up and wrote them on the back of my paper. Arrived using original directions with no problems it was however daylight when I arrived. Leaving later at night in the dark was problematic for some reason I got all sorts of turned around-I know follow the directions backwards for some reason it did not connect for me. Luckily I had the alternate directions with me and before I drove all over creation and wound up in Gatlinburg or worse used up a tank of gas I found a road I could use rather quickly and found my way to Chapman Hwy and from there well hell even the car knows they way from there!