Cleaning

So the other day we were looking for my chainmail armor for the Dance With Dragons midnight release (which we didn't find :( ), and in doing so realized that our closet was a huge mess. There was basically nowhere to put your feet without stepping on stuff. We dragged everything out, went through boxes we haven't gone through literally since we got married and moved here. Even found wedding gifts we'd forgotten about.

Naturally, we figured that since we were renting a steam cleaner to clean the closet, we should also take the opportunity to clean the bedroom floor (only other carpet in the house).

Currently the bathrooms are full of dresser drawers, most of the parts to the bed are in the kitchen, and the dressers are in the living room. The bedroom floor is still wet, so putting that stuff away is going to have to wait until we get back from PC.

I do feel accomplished though. We just finished putting everything back in the closet after going through and discarding/donating most of it, and every container is labeled. We can actually walk inside and go through our overflow books without breaking bones crawling over boxes!

The s'more cookies are all eaten... by me. Oh well, at least I didn't eat them all in one day. =P

Scary Sickness is Scary

So, we spent the weekend with my parents for Father's Day. Hung out with them and the in-laws quite a bit. Thankfully, I think everyone enjoyed the s'more cookies. They were awesome, imo. =P I have a couple dozen leftover cookies in the freezer. It was nice getting to hang out and eat cookies with the family.

My little brother just got back from a Boy Scout thing in south Florida, and joy of joys, two of the Boy Scouts got sick while there. Naturally, David comes back home, only to discover that he probably has the same thing the two other boys did. MRSA. Yep, the acronym of scary documentary/news story fame, the bane of hospitals (not this time, they don't know where it came from but none of them have been near a hospital). O_O

Mom (a doc) doesn't seem to think it is a big deal, and he is already getting treated for it, but it is still enough to scare a person a little bit.

Microwave Brownie in a Mug

Oh my gosh, I had heard of similar recipes before (cake in a mug, etc.), but never actually tried one. Then I came across this recipe a few weeks back, and have had it several times a week since then. It's completely addicting. I don't use the coffee (because I hate coffee), and I replace unsweetened cocoa powder with dark cocoa powder. I've added milk chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, peanut butter, nutella, etc. All were good.

But I just found one add in that was GREAT. I'm baking s'more cookies for Father's Day, but that means that we have leftover graham crackers and mini marshmallows. I replaced a little bit of the flour in my microwave brownie with crushed graham crackers and added marshmallows. *swoon*

I Like the Lot... A Lot ;)

There is a 10 acre, if I remember correctly, that is, plot of land that my grandmother bought way way way back in the day, intending originally to build a home on it. They ended up traveling the world instead of building a house, so "the lot" ended up as a cool play area for my dad and his sisters.

It is still undeveloped (though not for lack of trying on the part of wannabe-buyers/developers!), and is covered with trees and underbrush. There is a path leading down to a large clearing with a gigantic old oak tree in the middle. There used to be a path down to the Lake Jackson, but it is badly overgrown. Dad goes out every 6-12 months and clears the path and clearing, but it is a TON of work and he lives two hours away.

Late last year the dogs were attacked by a swarm of hornets at the lot. I think Indy ran a little too close to a hidden nest while fetching tennis balls, because there were one or two buzzing around and them BAM A HUNDRED HORNETS FLYING STRAIGHT AT THEM. We had to pull the hornets out of their fur, because they tangled themselves deep in their fur (especially on Diocese). Diocese, being Diocese, almost immediately set to pulling hornets out of his and Indy's fur with his teeth. Every time he grabbed one off of Indy, Indy would be like "what the heck, you too? I'm already under attack by these weird things, and now you are biting me?" and bite D. Looking back, it was somewhat funny, but at the time (and for the next few, itchy days) it was scary.

Anyway, we hadn't been out to the lot with the dogs since then, because we haven't been able to find the hornet's nest to destroy. Dad cleared some, but he has been awfully busy fixing/replacing appliances for his mom lately (her dishwasher, stove, and oven all died within a few months of each other). Still, we decided to give it a shot and brought towels and bug spray, just in case.

The dogs had a blast going out there again. They really need to be able to just flat out run sometimes. Especially Indy. We can throw the ball in the back yard, but the back yard is really small for a good run.

I have to mention, it was very hard convincing Kevin to go out to the lot (and I don't like going by myself).

So, we finally got back out to the lot.

And when we got back in the car to go, my Jeep wouldn't crank. The battery was dead. Had to call my grandmother to come give us a jump.

Since it wasn't hard enough getting Kevin to come out before having that lovely mental association. Oh, and we are still picking ticks off of ourselves several days later.

Burn, Baby, Burn...

When I was growing up, family dinners tended to be eating Chik-fil-a at the dinner table. Occasionally Mom made lasagna, or Dad made spaghetti, but for the most part, we didn't really eat stuff cooked at home (outside of frozen meals). I don't blame my parents, they both worked very long hours at jobs that did not end outside of the 9-5 day (Mom is an OBGYN and Dad was a chaplain). As such, I never really learned how to cook.

Certainly, Mom tried to teach me to cook, but I was not at all interested. =P When Kevin and I married, the only things I knew how to cook were spaghetti and scrambled eggs (and I didn't do them well, to be honest). Kevin wasn't all that great at cooking either.

Thankfully, we both got sick of ramen in a styrofoam cup quickly and decided to learn to cook together. It has been awfully fun most of the time... and just awful other times (like when my marshmallow syrup boiled over and it took MONTHS to get the stove completely clean). We try new recipes several times a month (though we don't really cook with recipes except brand new stuff) and enjoy some Food Network shows (Good Eats is such good geeky fun I never would have expected from a food show). I wouldn't go so far as to say that we are great cooks by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd like to think we are at least "decent".

We try to observe safety rules in the kitchen, but we both do still get burned on a semi-regular basis. Often it is either from steam, splattering fat (which is why we cook bacon in the oven), or handling our cast iron pans. A month or so ago I was lifting my baby (the cast iron frying pan) out of the oven and discovered that oven mitts without silicone are not good for handling super hot pans. Left a nice welt across my palm because I didn't feel the burning until I had been holding the pan for a few seconds, and you don't just drop a cast iron pan. By the way, we donated all of our oven mitts sans silicone to Goodwill, figured we didn't need to have to consider when an oven mitt is good enough when food needs to come out of the oven.

Well, last night Kevin pulled the cast iron grill pan out of the oven and I immediately leaned forward to chuck another dish into the oven. Apparently he didn't turn the handle all the way and I was intent on the food I was carrying, because when I leaned forward I hit my face on the handle of the grill pan. Which was definitely still close to 400 degrees.

Ouch.

The handle left a nice, fat, sizzling burn right next to my lips, so it hurts to smile. Actually, it just plain hurts.

On occasions like this, it is really nice to have a doctor for a mom. I knew how to handle a burn (like I said, I've gotten my fair share), but it is pretty nasty. I gave Mom a call and she contacted a plastic surgeon friend who handles a lot of burn cases. He had me send him a close-up picture and then gave me a call. And to think I was considering spending the money to go to the walk-in clinic here in town.

I feel much better after talking to him. The doctor said to slather it in Neosporin and sun block, and stay out of the sun, period. Most of the burn is just a simple first degree burn, but the worst of it (about the size of the tip of my finger) is a nasty second degree burn. He said if it does scar, it shouldn't be bad, and he has "lasers and such" that can take care of it. Well, lasers make everything better, so I'm not as nervous anymore.

I'm just glad that I didn't manage to burn my eyes or lips or catch my hair on fire or something. And I'm going to be much more careful about hot pans (especially our cast iron) in the future.

Did I mention that this coming Saturday is church directory pictures? And that Mom and Dad tend to get their favorite family picture blown up to hang in the dining room? Time to break out the concealer. =P

Whoa!

This picture of mine made it onto the Consumerist! I just joined their Flickr pool for fun the other day and submitted a few photos. Then to my surprise, one of them actually showed up in a post. Too cool!

Maybe that isn't all that special, but it is a pretty nice thing for me. :) Almost all of my photos (including that one) are taken with my Droid Incredible phone, not with a camera, so it is really cool for me to see one of mine recognized.

Doggy Cake!

It is a little late, but we baked Diocese and Endymion's cake today! It was like a regular cake but without sugar, and with added shredded carrots and chicken baby food. The "frosting" is yogurt, and those are pieces of bacon on top. It may not be very pretty, but I don't think they minded. :)

Diocese devoured his slices basically whole. Endymion was more delicate, as per usual, and licked off all the frosting then bit off a piece and ate it on our bed. We didn't discover this until the cake almost gone. Argh! Oh well. :P