The DieDie Blog

A random Lawn Gnome has appeared!

Quickly! The person to leave me the best caption comment for this photo gets a batch of my delicious Herbie Sausage Rolls.

Good Luck!

What’s for dinner? Why DieDie’s pork chops, steamed broccoli and home made cheese sauce that’s what! Tonight I’m going to walk you through one of my regular dinner selections. It’s a combination of my own experiments and a recipe I found online. So without further a do lets dive right into this simple tasty recipe from my kitchen to yours.

We’ll take this one step at a time. First up pork chops.

Pork Chops

Ingredients:
2 Thick Cut Porks Chops
Olive Oil
Pepper
Sazon Seasoning (1 packet)
Garlic Seasoning
Adobo Seasoning

Take the pork chops and cut off the fat. Be sure to have the pork chops on a chopping board or plate as the sazon can sometimes stain things. Then proceed to rub the sazon, garlic, adobo, and pepper into first one side of the pork chops and then the other. You should get a nice red color from the sazon. In a pan, add the olive oil and heat to a simmer. Next, place the nicely seasoned pork chops into the oil CAREFULLY! It should take about 20 minutes, flipping occasionally to let the seasoning cook into both sides of the chop.

Now take some broccoli and place it in a metal strainer. Set up a pot half filled with water and heat til boiling. Place the strainer over the water and let it steam cook. Placing a sauce pan lid over the broccoli helps to speed up the process.

While that’s cooking, lets get the cheese sauce together. This recipe is delicious and quick to make. I found the recipe on about.com by Diana Rattray, so please give props to the original posted here.

Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black or white pepper
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar or smoky flavor Cheddar cheese

First we’re going to melt the butter; then remove from heat. Stir in the flour, salt, and pepper. Gradually add in the milk, stirring until it’s well mixed. Make sure you stir the mixture constantly over low heat until it’s nicely thickened and smooth. Then cook it for an additional 5 minutes. Add in the grated cheese and stir until smooth and well blended. Viola! We have awesome cheese sauce to go along with our steamed broccoli and gorgeous pork chops!

Enjoy!

As I look around my toy infested living room, I realize that I’ve neglected to post any baby stuff recently. So let’s dive right in to the amazing and awesome developments.

As of the 20th our little one is now 6 months old. Throughout these few months she’s undergone some tremendous changes. First up on the list is her vocabulary. At first it was strewn with random “mmm’s” which then moved on to “mom’s” much to my smug delight. But it was like a waterfall had been unleashed. Soon we were barraged with strange pterodactyl like screeches, bababa’s and just recently the dada’s. She’s pretty much gone through a good chunk of the alphabet and I’m sure that was helped by our daily singing of the ABC’s to her. Now with the onslaught of words has come a few responses. Or at least we assume that’s what they are. There have been a couple of instances where I’ve asked Amelia to say hi to someone either on the phone or in person and have actually gotten something that sounded remarkably like a “hi”. Even just tonight while Dustin was given her a bath I heard him say something about her duck and quite distinctly heard a “duck” back from Amelia. It’s friggen awesome! I’m pretty giddy at the thought of being able to communicate with her soon, even though I know it’s still a ways off.

The next item on our update list is the emergence of two very white, very sharp teeth. After months of letting her chew on our fingers and hands it was instantly brought to a halt with the introduction of pain as she chomped merrily on flesh. I think not little girl! Boy am I glad I’m not breast feeding anymore. The mere thought makes my eyes widen with fear.

But of course, with the development of these two bottom lurkers comes the cranky times. She’s been pretty amazing with dealing with it, but when no amount of food, sleep, or chomping toys can albeit her crankiness we pull out the Tylenol. I’m not really a big fan of pulling out the drugs to deal with things, but if we’ve tried all other methods and she’s still not getting any relief and I know I have a remedy just sitting in the reserves, damn straight I’m gonna use it. Once she’s had a dose everything goes back to normal.

So now that we have teeth of course we need to introduce food! This I am really excited about. Milk’s all well and good, but there’s a world of culinary delights out there just waiting for eager taste buds to try. And I want to present as many as I can to her. Her first food was a baby carrot. It was not mushed up but just straight from the packet. Our reasoning? Clearly it helps with her gums and teething. From there I moved on to mushed carrots in a store bought jar. With her first spoon full she quickly thrust it out with her tongue and made the sourest of expressions. I laughed and thought oh how cute! Until I tried the mixture myself… YUCK!

After having sweet baby carrots and then trying this muck I could understand why she thrust it out of her mouth so quickly. It was then that I decided to make my own baby food for her. I got some carrots and used my nice new blender and attempted to mush it up. Large chunks whizzed around the glass, clearly not the mushy texture I was hoping for. You’d think that making your own food wouldn’t be that bad, but alas I had no real experience with making smoothie type stuff. I eventually figured it out with adding some water. The blender whizzed happily to life and then I had the orangey mush I had hoped for. Except the taste was very watered down much like the store bought variety. I had a plan! Sugar! I added a small amount and brought it back up to a carroty taste.

Round 2 with the carrots. My homemade concoction worked better. She still pulled faces and got most of it on her face, hands and bib, but she did eat it as well. From here we’ve tried peas though not as successful yet and applesauce. The applesauce is store bought, but it’s a lot better than the carrots. We just had that today and managed to devour half the jar. She’s still a bit rusty with the swallowing, though I know that will come in time and with a lot more practice. It’s still pretty impressive to me.

Lastly, we have movement. This girl can move like there’s no tomorrow. Take your eyes off her for a second and she’s half way across the room. She still hasn’t quite got the concept of crawling, but that doesn’t stop her in the least. She’s moved on from her caterpillar crawl and has learned to prop herself up on both hands and knees. She’s almost got the mechanism down for moving one knee then a hand then the other knee. What usually happens though is that she’ll elevate off her knees and try to move forward with her feet. It works fairly well too. Currently, we have to watch her as she’s trying to pull herself up on everything and walk. That would be our fault too. For a while now, our munchkin has been wanting to stand so we’ve put her on the ground and supported her with nothing but our fingers for balance. Amelia’s learned how to mimic us and put one foot in front of the other and walk. So much so that when she’s excited she’ll run to whomever she wants to see, giving the person supporting her a nice little burst of hunched over walking.

So that’s what’s been going on in baby world in a nutshell. Enjoy the little photo album of cuteness.

Send Large Files Christmas Gifts

Til next week!

This past Friday I attended our local gym’s Zumba class. I’d been looking forward to this day all week and had even managed to con one of my friends from work into joining me. So as Julie and I stepped into the very purple club with our very purple clothes on (apparently it was just a purple day) we were both giddy as school kids. After a brief stop off at the front desk to pay for our punch cards we were given a brief tour of the Women’s Fitness Company and shown the room for the Zumba class.

It was dark much like a club would be and lit by a foreign ambiance, also very club like. With the promise of burning calories to some awesome dance moves, we quickly shed our purple attire and got dressed in our Zumba outfits. Julie’s was far more appropriate than my very loose shirt and pants, but as I’m the fat one and she the skinny one, I felt no shame in my choice. I was after all there to shed the weight anyhow. We stepped back into the room and it was already going. A woman stood up front on a raised platform and the Latin beats blared out across the room.

The room itself was pretty full and finding a suitable place to gyrate took a minute of adjusting, especially when the arms began to flail about. But soon we were frantically trying to mimic the movements of the lady in front of us. It was clear right from the start that this was not the beginners class or at least most of these people were pretty quick to catch on. There was no audible lead, it was merely monkey see, monkey do. And while that’s all well and good, it took me more than a few tries to get some of the moves down. Luckily, there was a lot of repeating so if the first 2 or 3 times didn’t click the 7th one would.

Before I knew it, I was tired. My legs were bitching at me in the most sordid of ways, exclaiming that they thought they’d been retired. And the rude awakening of jumping around without stretching was a breech of contract. Never the less, I huffed and puffed on. Was I having fun? Hell yeah I was! So while I was sweating up a storm and quickly tiring my rarely used muscles out, I was still enjoying myself. That was the point after all. Get a good work out without the bore of actual exercising.

After about 30 minutes I was dying, so I ducked out of the room and to the most beautiful thing in the world: a water fountain. Slurping up the delicious wetness, I remembered that I hated the taste of water. So back in the room I went. Song after song went by with Latin dance moves, tribal dance moves, semi street moves! It was awesome! Until I saw my jiggly dancing butt in the mirror. I’ve always despised that about gyms. Sure when I’m beautiful I’ll enjoy it, but not when I’ve got belly fat flopping all over the place. Luckily, there were people in front of me and a simple half step slide cured me of that for the rest of the class.

I wish I could tell you in depth what moves or dances we did, but I can’t. I don’t know the names of them and I can vaguely recall some if you’d like me to jiggle it out for you. Honestly, if you’re really intrigued I recommend you go try it out. It is fun for those of you that would like to work out in a dance club type setting. The moves weren’t too hard, but it was the pace and the constancy that made me sweat and then later on hurt. But, it was nothing a nice hot shower couldn’t cure. So Zumba, you I like. I’ll be jiggling and wiggling again this Friday.

This past weekend Carly and I attended a mini wedding expo. Apparently it’s a prelude to the much bigger one coming on the 23rd. Thank goodness I say to that as the one we attended was.. well very mini. It was held at one of the local hotels here and had just enough booths to get you wondering. But not enough to actually plan anything.

The first booth we ran across was of course the gym one. Get yourself into shape so you don’t look like a fat ass at your wedding! Yeah, I gotta agree with that. After packing on the pounds it was definitely something of interest to me, but not something I wanted to dive right into and investigate. I mean I was there for the wedding stuff after all! So we by pass the fitness guru’s and dive headfirst into the frenzy. What are we greeted with first? Why cake of course! There were little slices of every cake to choose from, but we held out. There was still so much to see and the runway show had already started.

We crowded around to the edge of the stage and watched in hopeful fascination of the dresses. But alas, neither of us were too impressed. There were flamboyant dresses which resembled albino peacocks to short Sunday dresses for the more casual or boring. Nothing even remotely had a splash of color beyond a different shade of white. Bleh! So the wedding dresses were a bust but there were a couple of bridesmaid dresses that weren’t too bad. Either way we stopped watching about half way through and started to check out the booths around us.

We had a couple of photo booths, David’s Bridal, Avon, and a sound system booth right by us. We headed out of that aisle after signing up for a chance to win some free stuff and looped around to the middle aisle. Here there was another photo/video booth, make up booth, and an insurance booth. We stopped here as a we were now directly in front of the runway, and decided to watch the last of the show. Still nothing of worthwhile mentioning presented itself and Carly and I both were disappointed in the lack of styles for our personal tastes.

Then the announcer introduced the girls from the Women’s Fitness Company. They were going to demonstrate Zumba to us. The music cranked up to a hip hop latin beat and the girls wasted no time jumping into the thick of it. I was enthralled. It was a cross between a hip hop dance video and a street dance. I liked it. Carly frowned at the popping ladies clearly unimpressed and stated that only people that liked Dancing with the Stars or those dance movies would like this. I of course grinned at her and let her know I liked those things and I did enjoy this Zumba routine I was baring witness too. After the demonstration ended we wandered around the last aisle of booths. Still nothing spectacular. We did see a few unique cake toppers though, but everything else was far too girly for our tastes.

So with our bag full of flyers and business cards we slipped out of the ballroom and I made a bee line for the WFC booth. Zumba had definitely caught my attention and I wanted to get as much information on it as I possibly could. While there we also signed up for a drawing for a free year membership with spa/massage benefits. Hey you never know right? While I didn’t sign up right then and there I do have a date with a Zumba class this Friday with them. I’m looking forward to it.

Having been disappointed with the not so impressive wedding expo Carly and I decided to head over to a shop in Phoenix that has Alfred Angelo dresses. Both of us have our sights set on that particular makers style. But before we entered, Carly had a tale of caution for me. The online reviews for this place stated that the owner was a complete bitch. A very bossy, her way, rude type of lady. So armed with that knowledge we braved the ice waters of the bridal store.

This shop was overflowing with bridal gowns. From every style to designer, this lady had it stacked! I was impressed with the sheer amount of wedding gowns that overflowed from the racks. You couldn’t move around without pushing aside a gown of some sort. We had hope of finding our dresses here and so we dove in to begin our search. About half way through out pops this elderly lady in a bright red jacket. She looked harmless enough, that was until she opened her mouth. She asked us if she could show us anything and we explained that we were just looking and that our wedding dates were still a bit out there. This lady’s response? Well I’ll tell you right now, your just wasting your time. Whoa! Seriously? Did I just hear this old codger right? Yes I did. Clearly she didn’t want us in her shop unless we were ready to buy, as getting an idea for your dress is not the way to go. We were probably wasting her time, oh the nerve of us brides.

Obviously, I was put off but Carly decided to hear her out and we did end up getting a nice tour of the store and where to find gowns of certain material. So the old bitty did do something nice there. We looked around and then low and behold stumbled across Carly’s dream dress. It was the one she’d seen online and the instant she saw it in person she knew it was the one for her. I tried to convince her to try it on, but to no avail and I can’t blame her in that store. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the dress I’d picked out online but that didn’t matter. We’d at least found one of them. The old lady came up and commented on what a beautiful dress it was and here I had began to hold out some hope that maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.

She then asked me when my wedding date was and I explained that I was going to wait a couple years so that our 5 month old daughter could participate. “Oh you don’t want to wait that long.” She replied. I protested that I was going to be with the man for the rest of my life so a few years wasn’t anything to worry about. It was then that the old lady disappeared and the wicked witch of the west returned. Out from her mouth spewed forth words that I could only guess were fueled from past failed marriages.”That’s only if the marriage vows hold up.” Ok, you work in a bridal shop, where hopeful women come to you for the ultimate dress. And this is the attitude you have? Clearly you don’t want our business. We left shortly after.

Now, I don’t care that she’s the most stocked bridal shop in Southern Oregon, with treatment like that I’m not going to be buying jack shit from her. Plus with all the negative comments on her site I’m wondering how in the world she stays in business. If anyone opens up a shop in competition and is welcoming and more relaxed they’d make a killing and run that old bag of pretentious crap right out of the valley. I wonder if it’s the fact that she’s the biggest store around Medford that made her that way or if that’s just how she is? Hmmm. Either way, if your to the point of getting fed up with brides then get the hell out of the business and hand it over to those cheerful bubbly sort. Don’t piss off the customers that actually have the cash to buy the expensive dresses from you just because you think you know what’s best.

That’s my piece for tonight. Ranting is done and I’m looking forward to some ZUMBA!

DieDie's Engagement Ring

My New Year’s Eve was slightly different from previous years. I did have it in my mind to describe the awesome party, the toasts, or whatever random acts our friends got in to. Instead I ended up experiencing one of those once in a lifetime events that made the whole world shine just that much brighter.

On New Year’s Eve, we had Amelia dropped off at our friends house so we could have a couple of hours to ourselves. Our plans were to have dinner and then to head back to get Amelia. Dustin had also just gotten a package in the mail which was my final Christmas present so I would receive it at dinner. After we had dropped Amelia off we went on our way and Dustin said he needed to make a stop first. While driving he handed me a book to read as the first part of my present. It was a custom made book he had created of our memories together throughout the last year. I started to tear up the moment I began reading it.

I read through almost half the book when we arrived at our location. It wasn’t the sushi restaurant though, it was a spot on the mountain behind our house that overlooks the city. It looked amazing at night with all the twinkling lights. Dustin paused my reading and said he wanted to give me a hug. So we hopped out of the car and hugged each other. I had completely forgotten that he’d said this was the “first” part of my present. He took the book from me and flipped to the last page to read aloud a speech written on it. Dropping to one knee and pulling out the ring, this is what he said:

“The event that will go down in our life on this day is when I got down on one knee to spill my heart to you. I couldn’t help but fall in love with you when I finish my speech I asked if you would honor me and become my wife. Diane will you marry me?”

With tears in my eyes I said yes, I will.

It was truly a perfect moment in my life. I dare say The perfect moment. So I welcomed 2010 in with teary eyes, the love of my life, and a huge rock on my finger. 2010, you friggen rock!

Welcome back to this retelling of our Christmas vacation. We’re now on day 4 Christmas Eve. During our time of trying to get friends to hang out with us the night before we had arranged to hang out with my friend Ellen after she got out of work at 1pm. So we were all pretty excited for this day.

Our morning started out fairly well. I made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich for both myself and Dustin. Very tasty but unfortunately we had ham almost everyday so it was beginning to get a bit repetitive. My family had somehow ended up with 4 hams so clearly we had to pitch in and try to eat as much as we possibly could. Good thing we don’t eat ham often.

Amelia spent some quality time with my Mum and Dad. She was being completely adorable with them. Talking, walking, jumping around like crazy it was awesome! They seemed to be enjoying her as well. My Dad constantly had this smile on his face when he was holding her which in turn made me smile. My mother even had some memorable moments with her too, making her laugh and run to her. About the only person in the house that didn’t take to Amelia was my sister. Every time my daughter made a noise even if she was happy my sister would instantly grab her head in frustration. Or if Amelia would drool my sister would immediately tell us in a worried tone so that we could avoid getting it on us. But she’s a baby… that’s what babies do. We had to constantly tell Jackie this but it didn’t help. Anything my daughter did would either frustrate or annoy the crap out of Jackie. I guess that’s 14 year old’s for ya.

Eventually it rolled around to the time that Ellen would be coming to get us. So we bundled up Amelia and ourselves and headed out. She took us to a restaurant called Fuddruckers. I hadn’t been there before but Dustin and Ellen had so they were excited to go. We arrived and partook of the awesome food they served. Huge burgers, potato wedges smothered in cheese, and of course a strawberry shake. I was in Heaven! After that we headed over to the closest mall and had a blast.

Let me back track to the week before we came out to Milwaukee. I was at our Medford mall checking out sweaters and figured I’d stop in Victoria’s Secret to scope out some new bras. It was there that I was introduced to what they called the Miraculous Bra. It was a monstrosity. I’m fairly big chested and that thing made me look like Dolly Parton. I didn’t even bother hooking it up in the back. So now fast forward to the mall in Milwaukee. Both Ellen and Dustin insisted that I show them what it looked like with it on. Thank god no one got a picture though. I put it on and showed them with my shirt back on of course. Instantly we were all laughing at how ridiculous it was. My boobs were seriously a good foot out from my chest. Of course the sales lady had to tell me how she could see a visible change to my posture… well yeah, you’re too distracted by boobs to notice anyone slouching.

After our trounce in the ladies store we took a seat in the food court and decided our next move. It was roughly 4pm and the idea of Candy Cane Lane again came to mind. Wouldn’t you know Ellen was all for it! We looked it up and realized that it started at 6pm, but as we walked the drizzling parking lot to her car we noticed it was already getting dark. So I proposed we go there anyway since obviously you can’t shut down streets where people actually live. It turned out to be a good idea. The houses were already lit up and we got to see many houses decked out in their Christmas attire. Dustin was wowed and I was having a blast hanging out with my friend. Amelia was passed out, which was a huge blessing. Since not being at home meant she wasn’t getting as much sleep as normal.

After a good hour of pretty lights we headed over to Ellen’s house for a brief visit with her Mum and brother. Then it was back on the road and back to my parents house. We got there said our goodbyes and checked out what the family was up to. They were fixing dinner and asked if we wanted anything, to which I was still pretty full from lunch so told them to go ahead without us. This time though they stayed within sight. It was already getting into the late evening so Jackie had decided she’d go to bed early. She wanted to be up early for Christmas and who could blame her! Tomorrow would be an exciting day. The rest of us, however, had other plans. My mother, father, Dustin, Amelia and I all stayed up to watch a British comedy series about some priests. It was hilarious! 3 of us decided to start drinking while Dustin watched Amelia. Eventually, she went to sleep and we finished the DVD. Next my parents put in McClintock. And before we knew it, it was 1am in the morning.

So needless to say we didn’t quite wake up as early as we had intended on Christmas. We did get up at 8am though before my parents. Jackie was already waiting for us down in the living room having been up since 6:30am. We asked her when she wanted to wake up my parents and she was generous enough to give them til 9am. They actually ended up waking by themselves. I was excited as not only was it Christmas but it was also time for breakfast which consisted of Herbie Sausage Rolls. Delicious! After we had everyone awake and primed for presents, Jackie and I set about dividing up the stash under the tree. A good chunk of it was hers, no surprise there. We had to hurry up and get through as many of the presents as we could. We had a webcam appointment at 10:30am with my family in England. Present upon present was opened and we all scored some really nice gifts. Even Dustin got a fancy new watch from my family, much to my surprise. It was, however, fast approaching 10:30 and we still had a lot of English presents to go through. So we skipped over the domestic ones and just focused solely on them. Piles full of chocolate and clothes later we had succeeded!

The webcam was an awesome way for everyone to see each other. My Uncle, Aunt, and Grandmother were all introduced to Dustin and Amelia. And of course he to them. We all had a turn talking to them and seeing them in real time while trying to dart around and get everyone in the picture. Though my grandmother needed a little help with the phone as she was at first talking into the wrong end.

We usually have our Christmas dinner in the afternoon so my mother set about getting everything ready. Before we knew it we had an awesome table of turkey, ham, roast potatoes, peas and carrots, and stuffing ready to devour! It was awesome! My mother had cooked the turkey in a slow cooker and it had come out perfect! Next to our plates we had an English tradition of crackers. Amelia was being passed back and forth between Dustin and I so we could eat food at the table. Amelia had taken a liking to the shiny paper the crackers were wrapped in and proceeded to attempt to eat one side. We interrupted her and gave her a piece of carrot to munch on. She loved it! But unfortunately if disgusted my sister so much that she refused to eat her own carrots. Teenagers I swear! So after we had eaten our food we pulled our crackers and played with the toys. A pretty good Christmas dinner if I do say so myself.

We wrapped that up in time for one of my Dad’s friends to come over. He got to meet Amelia and Dustin and catch up on events with my family. He was also kind enough to give us a ride over to my best friends house. After a good 20 minutes of getting lost, apparently I had forgotten how to get there, we found where we were supposed to go and arrived at Joe’s house. Now Joe and Dustin’s friend Matt have the same timber voice and both also have bushy chin beards. Amelia is afraid of Matt and wouldn’t ya know she was afraid of Joe as well. It took her a bit to warm up to him and as we sat on the couch she kept casting curious yet pouty looks at him. It was pretty cute. Eventually she warmed up to him. We had a good time together. Went out to eat played a game called Munckin. It was almost like old times. We had to leave though as it started snowing and I didn’t want to have my Mum come out to get us in a storm. Luckily, the snow wasn’t too bad and she didn’t have any trouble getting to us and then heading home.

Once home, Dad was watching one of the DVD’s I’d gotten him for Christmas and Jackie was playing on her laptop. Once we settled in from being out and about I suggested we set up the Wii and show them how to play. My suggestion went ignored. Ah well, I thought. I still have tomorrow before we head out to the airport. So I decided to start taking things up to our room to pack. We had a lot of presents to try and squeeze into our suitcases. Unfortunately, it turned out that we didn’t have enough room for everything. So my Mum and Dad were awesome enough to suggest that they could ship it to us. That worked out rather well considering the two presents I had shipped to their house for Dustin hadn’t arrived yet. The night wound down and we retired to bed.

The last day of our trip came about and after breakfast I decided to ask again if they wanted to hook up the Wii. My mother responded with a no and stated that they would be able to figure it out. Wow… really? This is the last day here and some good ole family fun might have been a nice way to end it. Or even show that getting something they wanted was actually appreciated in anyway. Instead I’m barraged with how much better her gift was for Dad. I didn’t know that Christmas was a competition. I thought it was about the awesome family time and the look on people’s faces when they open their gifts. Not so much about the constant bragging. Not to mention Dustin told me later on about something Jackie had said to Jerry, Dad’s friend that stopped over. I had asked my Mum what she wanted for Christmas a month back and she’d stated she needed a new eco watch. Apparently she had told the same thing to my Dad and Jackie so we both ended up getting her an eco watch for Christmas. They looked completely different though so at least she has options for different occasions if she wanted. So, Mum had been telling Jerry that she had gotten two, and Jackie piped up saying that of course they knew which one she’d wear in a matter of fact tone. To me that sounds like she was saying hers was better. Again with the competition? I don’t know about you, but that stuff really really pisses me off. It’s not a damn competition. And how friggen rude is that? Ugh!

So after being rejected again for the umptenth time to do anything with my family barring watching TV and playing cards, I headed up to make sure we had everything packed and ready to go. The ride to the airport was pretty much quiet. We said our goodbyes and headed out to catch our flight.

When we got back to Portland we ended up having breakfast over at the Halls the next morning. Dustin began to relay some of the things that had happened from his point of view. So pretty much the same version as you see here. I looked on over his family and extended family and felt a surge of emotion. Having experienced the disjointed life that is now my parents world, it hurts to know that it’s not what I want in a family. I used to remember when I was little that we’d go over to other people’s houses, we’d do things, and have fun. I’m not sure when that all changed. When they became so reclusive. I do know that I like having a big family. I like having get togethers. I like constantly doing something or having something going on in my life. And to watch the people around me doing just that and smiling and joking and not being so self absorbed I had to choke back a few tears. That’s what I wanted to experience with my family.

Yes I had some good times. I also had some bad times too. But it can’t be said that the effort was not made. At least once a day we’d ask if anything was going on or if we could all play a game. Anything to get them involved with us. And it would always be the same response prompting us to find friends to hang out with. It’s kinda funny in a sad way. I remember telling my mother I was pregnant and Dustin was the father which sparked her angry notion that she had no idea who Dustin was, even though I’d been talking about him for the past few months. Yet here they had the opportunity to get to know him better and only one person asked anything about him and that was Jerry. The one time that he was left alone with my mother he tried to tell her things about himself but they were just brushed aside with her story about her job. Ah well, least he tried right?

I don’t really know what I was expecting. I’m glad they got along so well with my daughter. I’m hoping that they can come out here next time. As I’m not a fan of Milwaukee and I really really don’t want to go back. They say it’s easier for us to get out to them what with them trying to juggle time off at their jobs. But honestly it isn’t. We both work in the same department and it was a miracle we could get the time off together. Plus a baby on airplanes is never really an easy thing to deal with. Oh Amelia was such a great kid and could have been a lot worse, but it’s not just her, it’s all the gear we have to carry along as well. I hope they come out so I can show them how beautiful it is out here. But I honestly don’t hold out much hope.

This year I decided to go to my parents house for Christmas. With the birth of my daughter I figured it would be an awesome way for them to meet her and her father for the first time. I was pretty stoked about it. I hadn’t seen them for 2 years ever since I left Milwaukee, Wisconsin to come to Oregon. “How was it?” You ask with good Christmas cheer…. “BAH! HUMBUG!” I reply with utter disdain. It was incredibly awkward. And that’s putting it mildly. Let me of course start at the beginning.

We arrived after two plane flights in the cold frigid city of Milwaukee at roughly 11pm. My family was waiting for us at the terminal and consisted of my mother, father and 14 year old sister. We hugged clearly happy to see each other and I introduced them to Dustin and Amelia. So far pretty straight forward. They had taken two cars to get us so that we’d have room enough for 2 large suitcases and a stroller. Dustin, Amelia and I also ended up being split between the cars. Dustin with my Dad, me and Amelia with my mother and sister. We all made it way out to their house in Racine, unloaded the car and proceeded to settle in for the night.

It was 12am central time. But being from Oregon we were still 2 hours behind and still wide awake. After we got Amelia settled I asked my mother for the password to her wireless network so I could hop online, check my email and get some entertainment while Dustin and I were up. My mothers response was that it was a secure network and we could wait til the morning to check our email. I wasn’t quite sure what the point of telling us it was a secure network was all about. Plus it was way that she said it that bothered me the most. It was spoken in a condescending sort of tone. What could we have possibly done to her “secure network” that would compromise it? This would be the first of many infuriating situations. We ended up just going to bed.

The next day was the official hang out with the family time. I had mentioned going to Candy Cane Lane which is an awesome set of about 5 streets that get together and put up amazing Christmas displays. It’s all done for charity so you can donate or not, your choice. I thought it would be a nice way for the family to do something together and also show Dustin a little of Milwaukee. My suggestion was greeted with groans and ho hums. No one wanted to leave the sanctuary of their home. I was disappointed but not deterred. I had some time set up with my friend Swampy to hang out with him. So he came by and we were able to get out of the house for a bit. He took us to George Webbs and I got to introduce Dustin to their good cheap food. Swampy was also nice enough to let us stop at the store to pick up the last Christmas gift I had for my family, a Wii. After that we took a tour of the city, ran by the lake front and explored the super rich houses around it.

We came back after being out for several hours and we were feeling pretty good. It was a productive day. Then dinner came around. My mother was cool enough to have some ham, potatoes and vegetables ready for us and set up on the dining room table. Now how Dustin and I usually do dinner situations is one of us eats first while the other hangs with Amelia. Then we switch. I went first this time. As I got into the dining room I notice that there are only 2 plates set. Everyone else has disappeared. This is our first official day here and my family couldn’t even be bothered to have dinner with us. I was hurt. Dustin came in and wondered where everyone had run off to just as my Dad came up from his den in the basement. He asked us why we were sitting in the dark eating dinner. It was how it had been left for us and granted wasn’t completely dark we had a decent lighting from the attached kitchen and I hadn’t thought much of turning on a light. I was more upset about eating alone. So I piped up to my Dad, “Apparently, no one wants to eat with us.” My Dad kindly explained that this is how it always is, Jackie disappears upstairs to watch her favorite tv show and my mother wanted to watch the news.

Ok fine, I get that people have routines. But I don’t think it would have killed them to have dinner with us on the first day. When you have people staying with you, you should give certain considerations to them as well as your own routines. Clearly you aren’t going to be able to do everything the same as you had before. So why not be a friggen family and eat dinner together. BAH!!

So after dinner we twiddled our thumbs and wondered what to do. I decided to go up to my sisters room and see if she wanted to play any games with us. Her response, “No, I can’t. I have to do dishes.” So of course I inquire as to what about afterwards? “Um, I have to check my email. We’ll do something tomorrow.” …Seriously? I haven’t been home in 2 years and you suddenly don’t have time to do anything? Dishes and checking your email is more important? Alright, I’ll take that we’ll do something tomorrow and leave it at that. I was disappointed again. So Dustin, Amelia and I ended up in our room on the internet and playing with stuffed toys. Ah yes, we had gotten permission to use the internet in the morning. Suddenly it was no longer an issue…thank goodness. I don’t know what we would have done without the sweet delicious web.

Day 3. We were stuck in the house ALL day. We couldn’t use my parents cars. So we desperately sort interaction of some kind. To no avail. Finally after failing to find anyone of my friends that could hang out with us, we went downstairs to see what the family was up to. After watching them disappear again in the morning I didn’t have much hope, but I was wrong. My mother and sister were playing a British card game called Black Jack. It’s kinda like Uno but with regular playing cards. So I sat down and joined in. It was pretty fun, Jackie was picking it up fairly quickly but she kept throwing out random phrases that I could only assume came from the tv show she loved to watch. “Ya’ll be breezy!” She’d said. Mum and I were both like.. “what?” So she’d repeat it again. I could only respond with what my generation would probably have translated that into, “You be cool too!” I think Samuel L. Jackson would have been proud though slightly disappointed with the lack of explicit language at the end.

We continued to play with my mother kicking our asses most of the time. But it was pretty fun. Dustin had disappeared downstairs to the den with my Dad and I believe they had a good time too. So Wednesday wasn’t a complete waste. Afterward Dustin, Amelia and I went downstairs to watch the Dark Knight with my Dad. He thought it was pretty good. And so we put in his bootlegged copy of Star Trek. Around this time I noticed Dustin’s wide eyed expression. The walls, you see, were closing in on him.  The movie helped a bit but as all bootlegs are want to do, this one had it’s flaws. It was almost like we were in the Lost show. We would be at a particularly crucial part of the movie and then a static bar would flick across the screen causing the dvd to skip right over the whole rather important story part. This happened from half way into the movie all the way to the very end. It was pretty frustrating to people who’ve seen the movie and know which big pieces were missing. And all the while an excited Dustin would yell, “Oh my gooses! We should just go out and get the real movie right now so you can see what your missing.” Clearly a plea to get out of the house. But it was a fruitless effort, my father was content with his bootleg and would get the movie later. We had at least successfully killed a good 5 hours though.

To wrap up this day that seemed to drag on forever we decided to bundle Amelia up and go for a walk around the neighborhood. Snow was lightly falling and it was chilly, but overall it was a decent night. So I figured I’d ask my sister if she wanted to tag along with us. No and No. Pissed off was I. But we went anyway, even if my family didn’t want to see Candy Cane Lane, we could at least see some of the decorations around the surrounding streets. Upon our journey we realized just how far away we were from anything. It was all suburban houses with a lonely gas station on the main street. Oh joy. Nothing really in walking distance. We did get to see some pretty lights though. And the fresh air was nice. Eventually though we had to make our way back to the house. Our evening ended with internet again.

So thrilling yes?! Yeah exactly. The next couple of days are bitter sweet. They had their ups and downs, but I’m going to leave that for a later post. For tonight I have just gotten home from our grand vacation and I need to get some sleep for work tomorrow. See you guys tomorrow where hopefully I can wrap up this exciting adventure.

Mmmmmm! So it has occurred to me that I have a category I have neglected. The Cooking Category!! So to remedy this I’ve decided to share with you a relatively simple, healthy yet tasty recipe I concocted. The Turkey Quesadilla.

Turkey Quesadilla

Ingredients:
1 lb turkey meat
1 green pepper (diced)
1 red pepper (diced)
1/4 cup of onion (diced)
1 cup cheese (grated)
2 tbsp Salsa (optional)
Chili Powder (season to taste)
Black Pepper (season to taste)
Hot Sauce (season to taste)
Adobo (season to taste)
2 packets Sazon
2 tortillas (flour, wheat, corn whatever your preference)

Brown your turkey meat and toss in the onion. Once the turkey is browned or grayed as turkey meat tends to turn, start to add in your seasoning: chili pepper, black pepper, hot sauce, sazon and adobo. Season to taste. You want to make it spicy enough for your palate. So if you like it relatively spicy add more chili powder, pepper, and hot sauce.

After you’ve got your seasoning the way you like it, toss in the red and green pepper. You want the peppers cooked enough so that they are still crunchy. So no more than a couple of minutes in the pan. Alright the mix is done! Now here comes the tricky bit.

In a separate frying pan place your first tortilla shell. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top enough to cover it, but don’t over do it as you want to save some cheese for your top layer as well. This serves as the gooey tasty glue that will hold your tortillas together when you flip them. Once the cheese is on add your mixture and spread over the tortilla starting in the middle and working your way out. You want to flatten the meat after it’s spread and make sure it’s evenly distributed. Ok you can now add in some salsa but don’t over do it. Spread a light layer over the meat and then seal the deal with cheese and the 2nd tortilla. Turn the heat on low and be sure to monitor the bottom tortilla shell.

I have to use two spatulas here as its pretty heavy at this point. You can check the underside out fairly easily with the spatula and when it’s that nice golden brown color it’s time to flip it over. Insert one spatula on one side and the other on the opposite. It helps if you have a nice wide metal spatula to get under most of the quesadilla. Either way good luck! Flip it and heat up the other side and then bam! Your done. Nice tasty and relatively quick quesadilla. Enjoy!

How to tell a graphic designer their site needs work.

Let me preface this with a disclaimer: This is a humorous post. Don’t get mad as the references I am making are most likely about you. =p

“Check out my awesome site!” Says one graphic designer to another. All a flutter with expectation the second designer takes a look and with a few simple words creates the feud of a century. “What the fuck is that?” Lines are suddenly drawn in the cubical isles. The air crackles with heated glares until finally the graphic designer war begins. “Simple and clean!” Yells the first. “Shiny and futuristic!” Screams the second. And then off in the corner a well meaning but completely clueless designer jumps up and declares, “STAR BURSTS!!!” A hush falls over the combatants and all eyes turn to that lone soul who now quivers with fear. Ah yes, it’s 8am on a Monday morning. Do you know where your designers are?

While not all graphic designer conflicts can be as cool as ours, it does pose that interesting question of how do you tell someone you don’t like their site? Especially if you are both designers? Clearly everyone has their own personal styles and it can be pretty hard to take advice. But it’s also equally hard to give advice and not feel as though you are stepping on everyone’s toes. So here’s a couple of tips I like to use myself.

The Butter Up
Not everything has to be a conflict or an automatic dislike. The site could have a lot of merit but just lack a few key items that might make it pop. The key here is to mention the artists previous designs and why you may have liked them more than this current endeavor. Using the word “spoiled” is also highly recommended. IE: “To be honest, I liked your last site better. It had an amazing wow factor! I guess you’ve just spoiled me with that one.” Instant butter makes everything smooth.

Lets Just Tweak It
The goal of “Lets just tweak it” is to slowly nick-pick away at things until it’s what you wanted it to be in the first place. Sometimes this creates an entirely different end product than the original. This is known as the Behind The Back Tweaksies. Very dangerous if left in the wrong hands. IE: “You know, what if we moved this phrase here and then moved that image over to the left a bit. Good good. Now lets just flip this over here and that right there and bam! Look at that beautiful BMW site.” Original Designer, ” Wait, what? My site was about Narwhals!!”

Friggen Leave It Alone
This is one of the greatest tools yet often the least used. It’s not your design so friggen leave it alone! Sometimes you just have to back off and realize that not everyone can be as awesome as you and therefore must be left to fend for themselves. There are hundreds even thousands of websites out there and chances are there will always be ones that will make you cringe and attempt to suppress the inevitable gag reflex. Chances are also that you probably aren’t looking at one of those, you nick picking, smart mouthed graphic designer nerf herder! Yeah I said it.

So that’s my insider view on how to handle these types of situations. Sometimes you might need some good ole butter, other days you may need the tweaksies, but more than likely you should always use the leave it alone card.