Chocolate

I have a confession to make. I have a new addiction. It's not Bejeweled Blitz or Facebook, (though some in my family may argue otherwise).

I can't stop buying chocolate chips! I currently have eight (8!) unopened bags in my pantry, and that doesn't count the four opened bags I have in there as well. (Or the two bars of bittersweet baking chocolate.)


I can't help it. I love to bake with them, and when the good quality ones go on sale, I stock up. I have nothing against the store brands, in fact I'll purchase them when nothing else is on sale or they are on sale for a great price. But when Nestle's, Hershey's and my all time favorite, Ghirardelli's go on sale, I can't seem to help myself.

In my defense, they are not all semi-sweet. Some are dark chocolate or bittersweet, some are mini's, and one is even white chocolate. And let's face it, this time of year every store puts the name brand chips on sale. And, the manufacturers have all put out coupons, making the savings even greater. So I have lots of chocolate chips at the ready for all kinds of baked goodies. Now the question is, what do I bake first?

College Fun

When I was several years younger, I attended John Carroll University. I am a proud graduate and alumni of many years and have lots of fond memories of the old alma mater.

One of the fixtures on the campus is what many students referred to as the "big head." It is a statue of our school's namesake, Archbishop John Carroll.

This is what it normally looks like:


However, apparently several of the students took advantage of all the snow in Cleveland right now and had some fun with the statue before leaving on Spring Break. Archbishop John Carroll currently looks like this:


I love it!

Saving A Life

When I went out to mow the grass this morning (all my kids are in school now!) there was a big (and I mean BIG!) and fat (and I mean FAT) worm on the garage floor right by the door. I was immediately grossed out (not a worm person).

I wasn't sure what to do because this was right where I needed to roll out the lawn mower. Then I noticed it wiggling and trying to move. As the floor was dry, this was quite difficult for the little fella.

I was in a quandary. Either I run the fat thing over and it is then squished on my floor and I have to somehow remove it, or I move my van so I can roll the mower out without having to come near the wormie, or I move it before I get the mower out and maybe save the little thing's life. I realized that whether he lived or died, I'd still have to move him off the floor. So, I chose the third option.

I carefully slid a garden trowel underneath the wiggling part of his body and used a garden rake to pick up the back side of his body so he was entirely on the trowel. I quickly ran to a puddle in the dirt next to our garage and deposited him into it.

He didn't move. I thought maybe I drowned him. I'm not kidding. I was actually worried about the little bugger, despite the fact that I DID NOT want to pick him up. I stayed and watched a few seconds for signs of movement. After not seeing any, I decided to go mow the grass.

After finishing the front yard, I looked in the puddle again, and it still appeared that he was dead. No movement at all and still in the same blob as when I'd dropped him in. I went to mow the back yard.

When I was finished I was amazed. There was the worm's body moving and wiggling and heading out of the puddle into the dirt. I saved him. Me! I saved the worm.

The moral I took away from all this: Don't leave your garage door open while it is raining, dumb worms will crawl inside and then I'll have to remove them alive or dead. Eeeewww!

Seriously Annoying

So I stopped at McDonald's this afternoon to take advantage of their free mocha Monday promotion. It is only going on for one more Monday after today and I have not yet had the opportunity to get myself one. I had to pick Ian up from a park district class and happened to be going right by a McDonald's so decided I'd try one.

Unfortunately the stupid restaurant's machine was broken. Normally this wouldn't bother me. Things happen, right? Yes they do. However, this McDonald's sports a huge tie up poster on the side of the building proclaiming free mocha Mondays. There is a drive up sign before the spot where I place an order begging me to try either an 8 oz. hot or 7 oz. iced mocha.

But the straw that broke the camel's back? When I pull up to order the gal on the other side of the machine asks me, "Would you like to try our new iced mocha?" I enthusiastically reply, "Actually, yes I do!" To which the response is, "I'm sorry. Our machine is broken right now."

What? It's broken? Then why the hell did you offer me an iced mocha before I had even uttered one word? They obviously hoped that was not what I wanted, but still offered it to me. Ridiculous!

I just want to say to all of the men who stop at the adult bookstore on Route 30, this is NOT a good place to get your wife a Mother's Day gift!

(Seriously, it looks like the parking lot for that place is always full!)

The Number 11 on March 11th

The number 11 isn't looking so good this morning on March 11. When I started up my computer to check my e-mail, this is what greeted me on my My Yahoo homepage:


Not the best representation of the number 11. But don't worry, I'll be posting something later that is sure to make 11 a happy number again.

Brrrrrrr!

I live in the Chicago area. It's wintertime. Therefore, it's cold. Even though I have lived here since 2000, and I would always wear a hat when building snowmen with the kids or sledding, I have not always been a hat wearer. Ear muffs, yes. Hats, no.

Well, I don't know if it's because I'm getting older and don't care as much, or if it's just because I hate being cold (always have - I was never one of those teenagers who didn't wear a coat, my mom never had to worry about me not wearing a scarf or gloves), but I have made a big decision about winter this year.

I'm going to wear a hat, one of those winter knit ones that smoosh everything down and cover my ears perfectly. And I'm going to wear it everyday, every time I go out the door. I don't care what my hair looks like when it comes off. I don't care where I'm going. I'm wearing my hat all winter long.

And I'm going to laugh at all the people who own hats but don't wear them. Because that's just stupid. I know, I used to be one of those people.

Eight Percent

I have lived in or visited eight percent of the world countries. The really sad thing about that is all but two (the Bahamas and the USA) were as a child. As an adult I've pretty much gone nowhere.


visited 18 states (8%)
Create your own visited map of The World

Thanks to Irish CoffeeHouse for the links!

Gas Goes Down

As I drove my daughter to craft camp the last two days, I noticed that gas prices have dipped below $4! (Of course we filled the tank up on Sunday, when it was $4.06.) I have had a lot of discussions with people about the gas prices of late. Of course, I don't like high gas prices any more than the next person. And seeing a charge of over $80 just to fill up the tank on my minivan sucks. But I'm so tired of the "oil companies gouging us" argument. I'm sure I'll take a bunch of crap for typing that, but the price of oil has gone up. The oil companies don't control that. They have to buy oil, process it into gasoline, and then resell it to us. Have you checked out the price of gas in other countries? It's scary. Yes, in this time of economic insecurity it sucks that gas (and nearly everything else) is rising in cost. My family has less money for extras (yes, I realize I'm writing this post way too close to the one about where we bought a Wii) and I shop at discount stores and the sales to get the best deals for our tight budget.

But just two weeks ago I was in Ohio visiting family, and gas there was $3.85, after we had paid $4.16 in Illinois to fill the tank up to get there. What's the difference? I am guessing taxes. Why aren't we yelling at our government, local, state and federal for all the taxes they levy on gasoline? Hell, I have heard Wisconsin is putting out ads (though I haven't seen them) suggesting residents of Illinois cross the border to buy their school supplies there because of the lower sales tax. I had never thought about it, but we will be in Delavan the week before school starts. It's not a bad idea, when cutting coupons and saving every penny is a major goal of mine.

Do high gas prices impact my life? Yes. But so does the high price of milk, bread, and cereal. For now, I'm going to be happy that gas is under $4 in my neighborhood, and hope it stays that way.

Wii have a Wii

Ok, not a lot of time to post so I'm going to keep this short.

Last week the kids (all three of them) were in Ohio for the week. They were happy as clams because they were spending the week with my parents and their eight cousins.

I was a happy mom because I had the week off. First week off in nine years. It was a fun week. I had coffee with a girlfriend, had a scrapbooking night with a bunch of ladies and spent my week not having to clean and reclean the downstairs of my house. I decided to get all my hair chopped off on Wednesday, and donated the hair to Locks of Love.

But on Tuesday night, Brendan and I decided to buy a Wii. We've been discussing it, and not having the kids around was the perfect excuse to go out and get one. We only have Wii sports, but for now it's enough. The kids are thrilled (and incredulous that we actually bought a Wii!)

So today Ian downloaded the Nintendo channel and we discovered that he can do DS downloads right from the Wii! He downloaded Wall-E today. It's cool since in the past we had to go to Toys R Us or Gamestop to use that feature of his Nintendo DS. Now right from the comfort of our family room, virtually anytime he wants, he can try a sample of a new game. Pretty nifty, in my opinion.

Now, I just have to figure out how to get the bathrooms clean while still getting in my Wii playing time!

What Was I Thinking?

Why did I vacuum the carpet underneath the kitchen table and then decide to make 4th of July sugar cookies with my kids?

Was This Really Necessary?

Received a package of crap in the mail the other day and this ad was included in it. Now really, is a Mickey Mouse dressed like Elvis really something anyone needs? And what kind of person buys this stuff?


Some of the selling points include:

"Sparkles with over 80 faux jewels" - Ooooooh, faux jewels, just what this needs
"Edition limited to 95 casting days" - Great, only a few people will have one
"Only $19.95" - though I would have to pay sales tax as I live in Illinois, but the lucky collectors who live in North Dakota wouldn't have to
"The first-ever Mickey Elvis figurine from Hamilton" - because this was surely a market that needed to be tapped
"Every dazzling detail is simply 'ear-resistible'" - Couldn't resist a Mickey ear joke

What do you think Nikki, does your Elvis devotion extend to Mickey Mouse? I didn't really think so.