One costume down...

one to go.

jonas picked out patterns at wal-mart, and i just finished his "knight" suit of armor. kind of a viking-y knight, but whatever. i'll put a grey hoodie underneath to look like chain metal.


betty's costume still looks like this:

it's a good thing it's cold and rainy today!

edit:

ha! i just looked at the pattern, and i have the horns on backwards. they're supposed to curve up. that would look better, wouldn't it?

shoot, jonas just noticed. "mommy, i need it like his, to stick up and not go down."

grr!

the best cookies i've ever had

go make these right now. but halve the recipe.

go on, scoot.

thanks, liz.


edit: pastry flour = cake flour. Swan's Down, big red box.

...

No more Baby Sudafed

I support this strongly.

No more cold & cough medicines will be marketed for children under 4. This is a good thing. They just don't work, and they're not as safe as you might think.

I've tried them, though, and I ought to know better. I know that in clinical trials they do no better than placebo, but it's so tempting to just try something, anything, when your baby is sick. I understand; I've been there. But it's better to not even have them around, because people assume they're safe and give too much. Or try two or three things, not realizing that some ingredients overlap and give an accidental overdose. Or toddlers get into them on their own.

So I'm glad.

I PASSED!

I passed!!!!!

My step 3 score report came this morning. My score is just above average. It would have been nice to ace it, but I guess that's not too bad for four years of rust.

Snake in the Pantry

You've heard of Snakes on a Plane, but now I bring you....

Snake in the Pantry.

I kid you not.

Sunday night, I was getting ready for a bedtime snack of waffles (I know). I pulled out the waffle iron and then.....gasp:

See it? Look closer:


It was coiled up behind the waffle iron, on the knife sharpener. Scared the pee out of me.

I did what any self-respecting, capable and competent adult woman would do.

"Honey, there's a snake in the pantry. You have to get it out."

Y'all, my husband is a brave man. He really is. But....not so much in the snake department. Justin was, shall we say, a bit apprehensive about fetching the snake for me. My mother-in-law was there, and she also was completely useless. (I love you guys, I really do. Even if you are useless when there's a SNAKE IN THE PANTRY.)

I should clarify. Justin was willing to get the snake, but not in a manner that I was willing to endorse. He was all ready to get the hoe and start chopping, but I put my foot down. I will not, WILL NOT clean up snake blood from all over the inside of my pantry. I WILL NOT have hoe chops and blood stains on my new wood floor.

Hubby was less than enthusiastic about my proposal of BBQ tongs, so I was on my own.

Let me tell you, I got that bad boy. I was already in my bathrobe (see "bedtime" above), so I added boots and the one leather gardening glove that I could find:

(disclaimer: This picture is a reenactment, taken after the fact. Note the carefree laugh.)

I pinned him once with the tongs, but he wiggled out. He then proceeded to crawl all over the pantry, in and out of drawers, eventually settling in the corner behind the crock pot. When Justin pulled out the crock pot (with a ten foot pole), he coiled and hissed at us. Eventually I managed to pin him down with a drawer that I yanked out on his head and grabbed him with two pairs of tongs and threw him in the trash can. He was jumping around in there like crazy, trying to climb out, while I ran across the kitchen with the can, trying not to fall down in my cowboy boots. I kept knocking him back down with the tongs, and yelling "Open the door! Get out of my way! Open the door!" I threw the whole can out the back door, where the kitty Tiger took him down with relish.

Looking back, we probably could have killed it with a hoe without too much bloodshed. Maybe we'll try that next time.

...

de-hunkering

the aftermath of hurricane ike has a strange feeling. we received absolutely no damage; in fact the rain was a benefit. but i have many friends who have no electricity and leaky roofs.

i just saw three black hawk helicopters fly down 290 right out my front door.

on the news i see palettes of FEMA "meal replacement equivalents" being unloaded by guys in camo in familiar areas of houston, near where i used to live. (i'm dying to know if they're any good.)

even my brenham walmart is eerily low on supplies. milk, meat, eggs, water, all completely empty. the parking lot is full of cars and RV's. all of the hotels in our area are full of evacuees.

i just saw an arial view of the energy company headquarters. they had hundreds of trucks. they're bringing crews in from out of state to try to get service back up. i saw several energy trucks going down the highway toward houston this morning. insurance company mobile units, also.

it's always a strange feeling to be on the receiving end of this sort of thing. i'm not receiving any aid or anything, but a city that i love is, and it's weird. i'm used to seeing these images on the news and thinking of them as the other side of the world. but this time they're not. they're close, and familiar.

...

still hunkering

we made it just fine. no flooding or damage in our area. just some wind and rain.

houston is mostly without power. any of my houston friends are welcome to come bunk with us. not that you can read this, i guess.

stay safe.

...