Harpoon Brewery or Beer at 11:30 am

Dad came up to spend Christmas with Dave and I this year.  So we thought the perfect thing to do would be head to the Harpoon Brewery in Boston and take the tour.  If you remember, Dave and I visited the Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, VT, and took the tour, which resulted in a lot of beer consumption, specifically because another woman on the tour didn't like the beer and kept giving her portion to Dave.

Well, the Boston tour was equally fun.  It happened to be Ugly Sweater Day, so most of the tour guises were dressed in hideous Christmas sweaters which was of course, amazing.  The fun thing about the Harpoon Brewery in Boston is that because of Prohibition, the Harpoon brewery license is noted as 001, the oldest continuously operating brewery in the state of Massachusetts. 

The tour starts with a tasting, this time of their Rye IPA.  Then we got to taste the IPA straight off the line, unfiltered and very cold.  Then later another taste of the filtered IPA for a comparison and finally a free for all at the tasting taps.  I tried the Harpoon Dark, the Raspberry UFO and the UFO White.  Dave tried some of the more dark and unique offerings, and both Dad and Dave tried the Apple Pie, which is the combination of the Winter Warmer and their Apple Cider.  It legitimately tastes like apple pie in a glass.  So we bought a six pack of each of those to enjoy with Christmas dinner (since I didn't make apple pie for dessert, it seemed appropriate. 

Then we had to get lunch, cause we were getting a little tipsy before 1 pm.

My Biggest Fan

This one is hard and you know how much I like to keep this blog my happy place.  But life isn't always happy and often the hard moments are what make you the person you are, make you stronger, and make you appreciate all the happiness that comes along.

On January 18th, I lost my biggest fan, my Mom.  I didn't share here (again, a happy place) but she'd been battling pancreatic cancer for over a year.  She fought hard and basically told the cancer and her body to knock it off cause she was too busy and had too much to do for this illness to inconvenience her.  And for about a year that worked. In October she had a complication that required surgery and therapies that took a lot out of her.  But her mission was to take the family to Disney World for Christmas and she refused to let the disease (or her doctors) stop her.  And we have amazing memories as a result of her grit and determination to not let this illness stop her from living life to the fullest.  Following Christmas she let the doctors get back to work on her and continued to push through her therapies and tried to get stronger.  Unfortunately God had other plans and needed her in his choir of angels sooner than we thought. 

It's been a sad couple of weeks and my heart aches in the spot that she filled.  Being with friends and family was true comfort because it showed me how many lives she touched and how much love she gave and received.  My family truly has no words for the kindness, generosity and overwhelming outpouring of condolences we received.  While I suspect I'll never truly get over this loss, the love from everyone around me, my closest friends, my wonderful family, even acquaintances who surprised me with their kind words because they lost a parent, have helped ease the pain.

Mom truly was my biggest fan.  She encouraged me from a very young age when I wanted to be a writer.  She'd read my stories, was my constant editor, and wanted me to explore this passion.  Growing up, money was tight but I remember in middle school when I begged to apply for an exclusive writing camp at the University of Pittsburgh.  She agreed and when I was accepted, I was thrilled and she was proud of me.  To this day, I'm not sure how she found the tuition money, but that summer I developed my skills and Mom couldn't wait to read it all.  And I looked forward to showing her the fruits of my labor and her sacrifice.

Mom was proud of this blog too.  She emailed the link to all her friends and even printed out entries to share with my Dad and Grandma so they could enjoy my stories and musings (and poke fun at Dave about the mice in the attic.  It'd be easy to walk away from this blog because I would often think of her when writing these entries--wondering if she'd laugh at my jokes the way I wanted her to or hoping she'd forgive me for not telling her a particular story when we spoke on the phone because I wanted to get it just right for the blog--and frankly it's painful knowing she won't read these and call me to talk about the stories anymore.  But if I walked away, what would that mean for her memory and all the support and encouragement she gave me?

No words can express the pain I feel, but neither are there any words for the love my mother's given me.  And I hope I continue to make her proud as she watches over me and reads this blog, laughing and smiling.

OMG We Went to Disney World!

I've been recovering from awesomeness (or Disney Magic), that's why this post is delayed.  Or it's what I'm telling myself.

We had an awesome time in Orlando with my family.  On Christmas Day, Dave and I flew into Charlotte, rented a car and headed to my sister's house to meet her family and my parents.  We had some food, packed up the cars and then headed out on the first leg of our trip.  We stopped in Georgia and spent the night.  We were a little punchy from the holiday, the travel and the rain we drove through.  The kids in particular were a bit crazy.

The next morning we geared back up and hit the road again.  The drive wasn't bad but our GPS decided that after 5 years functioning mostly in the Northeast it couldn't handle being that close to the equator and kept losing satellite signal. For like 10-30 minutes at a time.  Luckily we were following Nate and Amy and had printed directions so we never got lost (except for that one time that Amy told us to take the wrong exit but technically we weren't lost, just wrong).

Can we talk for a second about traffic in Orlando?  Nate, growing up in Florida, had always mentioned Florida drivers but I never really understood what that meant. OH MY GOD THEY"RE CRAZY!  The sheer magnitude of traffic was nuts, no matter what time of day (I do realize that we were there at the busiest time of the year) but the blatant disregard for other drivers and/or basic traffic laws was insane.  At one point we watched several cars--at different points on the highway--cross the grassy median to get on the highway in the opposite direction because they didn't want to drive all the way to the exit.  Dave even mentioned he was surprised no one tried to go through the guardrails to do it.  Then we rolled up on an accident where someone crashed into the guardrail.  We can only assume they were trying to go over it and go in the other direction.

Despite the crazy drivers, we got to our rental and it was amazing.  Seriously, if you ever travel to Orlando and want to stay off the Disney properties, visit Florida Sun Vacation Homes (thanks Felise and Nick for the recommendation!)  We had everything we needed, including 5 bedrooms (with en suite baths), a kitchen, private pool, game room, everything.  This made it easy for us to eat breakfast at the house each morning and pack snacks for the parks.

Our first day was at Epcot and it was awesome. Though it did rain at one point, I must admit my Eagle Scout came through for me.  A week or so before, Dave bought ponchos for us and packed them in our bags so we wouldn't have to run around to a gift shop in the parks if the clouds let loose.  So while we were drinking our way through the countries (me on my second margarita and Dave on his third beer) (at maybe 1 or 1:30 pm), it started to sprinkle and then come down a little heavier.  Dave suggested we stop and put on our ponchos.  So we huddled under a tree while one of us held the alcohol, the other put on a poncho.  By the time we were adequately covered it started to pour.  Like a serious storm.  Happy little campers with out ponchos and drinks, we started to make our way towards the UK which was where the rest of my family was hunkering down from the rain.  On our way I looked up and we were just about the only people a) not squeezed under some sort of roof and b) not running like mad to get to a roof and squeeze under it.  We made our way to the pub and peered in the window where we spied Nate. He was getting a beer at the bar and when he saw Dave he pointed to his beer, basically asking Dave if he needed one.  Dave pointed to his and we took a seat at the outdoor chairs since we were protected from getting too drenched.  The rain stopped after about 20 minutes or so and we gathered up the rest of our crew.

Yeah, Amy, JR & I all in the phone booth.  Sibling Love.

Donde esta Donald?

We ate at Via Napoli in Italy and it was phenomenal.  We'd gotten reservations for the Candlelight Processional so they treated us right and made sure we enjoyed ourselves and got out on time for the show without feeling rushed.

After the show, some people headed back to the house (the rain had brought with it some cold and though most of us had sweatshirts, we weren't really prepared for the drop in temperature).  The rest of us (Nate, JR, Dave, Elyse, Aidan and I) did a few rides, including the Test Track which was really cool.  They take you through a simulation of car safety tests and then spit you out on a track at about 65 miles per hour.  It was awesome, although I did lose my voice (don't worry, I found it...10 days later) from the screaming.  I love this picture because Elyse's face is more of disgust or "Ew, what's that smell?" than fear.

The next day we hit up Magic Kingdom.  It was crowded and crazy but totally awesome.

We spent a lot of time in Tomorrowland (hello, Space Mountain!) but also did the Jungle Book Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean (ZOMG I love Pirates!  And can we talk about how much Johnny Depp really does look like Jack Sparrow?  I mean, the ride came first, so they really did an awesome job finding someone to play Jack that looks so much like the original.)  But back to Jungle Book Cruise--our tour guide was hilarious--Trevor? Tristan?  Funny guy (plus we got the best seats since we got to board first).  Abi was a hoot--when Trevor/Tristan told her to duck so the pygmies wouldn't spear her, she seriously ducked!

We paused during the day to have dinner at Chef Mickey, which was great.  We celebrated my parents' anniversary (40 years this April), which included dancing from the characters and a cute plate of cupcakes.  The kids loved getting the character's autographs and it made for an easy way to get pictures (rather than standing in line for 20 minutes like I did for Pooh Bear and Tigger).

This was the only full costumed character Abi would even get near.  She was ok with Mulan and looking at all the characters, but the animals were a little big and intimidating.  Since Pluto was being goofy, she was too tickled to be afraid.

My parents had enough after two days of parks so they took a break on the third day while Amy, Nate, Dave, Aidan, Abi and I went to Hollywood Studios.  JR, Jen and Elyse went to Dade City Wild things where they got to play with a leopard cub.

Hollywood Studios was fun--you can do the whole park in a day (or less).  Because we got there early, we received special FastPasses for the stunt show, which was pretty cool.  We rode the Star Tours ride which was a lot of fun, especially because Aidan (and by proxy Abi) is into Star Wars pretty good as a result of the Clone Wars cartoon.  Aidan did Jedi training, we watched the Indian Jones stunt show, did the back lot tour (although the sound system was busted so while we rode the tour, we didn't really get any information), saw the Muppet 3-D movie and ended the night with a ride on the Rockin Roller Coaster. It was fantastic.  Aidan was fine while we were standing in line, but just when we could actually see the coaster (it's indoors) and watch it go from zero to 60 right next to us, he started to get increasingly terrified.  And if I'm being honest, so was I.  My heart was pounding and I was getting anxious because I don't love roller coasters, but I always go on them.  But this one was fantastic.  I actually think it could have been longer.  And when we came to a stop, the first thing I heard from Aidan behind me was, "That was AWESOME!  Let's do it again!" (And if it hadn't been an 80 minute wait in line, we probably would have.)

Aren't you a little old to be getting your picture taken with characters?

The last day, JR, Jen and Elyse hit up Sea World before flying out, while Amy, Nate and the kids went to Animal Kingdom, followed by Downtown Disney.
 

We stayed back with Mom and Dad and relaxed since we'd be driving all the way back to Charlotte the next day.  We had a chance to hang out, play cards and then the four of us caught up with my uncle Chuck and his wife Lori for dinner, which was nice.

The next day we got up early and hit the rode to get back to Charlotte for New Year's Eve.  Exhausted, no one stayed up to watch the ball drop.  Apparently there were fireworks in the neighborhood but I didn't hear them given my Disney-induced sleep coma.  In the morning, Dave and I headed out to the airport and flew home.

It was an amazing trip and I'm so glad we got to do it as a family.  I would love to visit Disney again (maybe in a less crowded time), but nothing would top this particular trip.

Oh yeah, that happened

It's been busy what with the holidays and all, so we've been in the swing of things with people to see and place to go.  Here's what's happened in the last week or so.

• Dave had a birthday party. It was fun and everyone showed up (except Ben because he forgot).  I made awesome cupcakes because I finally "applied myself" so Cindy can shut it. :)
• Dave's party was great until Mia made everyone leave because she kept farting and her butt smells like rotten eggs rolled in moldy bologna when she really gets going.
• I told you about Mia's meet and greet.  So we still have her.  Santa may or may not have gotten her extra gifts because of it.
• Dave had a birthday. He's old.
• Dave's cousin Mike and his wife Donna came to visit us on Friday.  We hung out for a bit, they spoiled Mia by letting her lick and give them kisses.  Then we went to Madaline and Ernie's house for dinner and had a simple Christmas evening with them.
• We took Mike and Donna to Nashoba Valley Winery at 10 am where we made them do the tasting before they picked which wines they wanted to buy.  In our defense, Donna was the one that suggested going there in the first place.  Note: Dave and I did not do the tasting, in part because we could still taste our toothpaste.
• Mike and Donna headed out to her sister's for a party, so we went to my aunt and uncle's house for their holiday party.  We were thoroughly entertained by a former Pan-Am pilot who had some pretty amazing stories.
• For Bud and Sandy's party, I made this appetizer because it was simple, cute, and I had all the ingredients.  One of the guests actually paraded it around the room before anyone was allowed to eat it so everyone could see how cute it was.  Then she let people eat and by the time it made its way back to the buffet, only one-third was left.  Hilarious.  Who knew?
• The Baltimore Ravens lost.  

I think that sums it up.  This week will most likely be the LONGEST.WEEK.EVER. and not just because Christmas is nearly upon us, but because WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!  On Christmas Day, Dave and I are flying to Charlotte where we'll meet my parents and my sister and her family.  We'll drive part way to Orlando on Sunday and then the rest of the way on Monday.  We'll meet my brother and his family in Orlando and spend a week with the Mouse (and friends).  It'll be awesome. I'm anticipating lots of blog fodder, if not from my family then from random people at the parks.  

Cleaning Out

I don't usually make fun of my parents here, but this one was just asking to be blogged about.  And it'll probably be another week until my mom notices this post, so by then it will be far too late.

This past weekend, my sister, Amy, and her family were visiting my parents.  As usually happens when my sister and I visit our parents, she found herself cleaning out their fridge as they tend to not pay attention not care forget about what's in there.  Since Dave and I will be visiting them this weekend, Amy felt compelled to tell me about her findings. The following is our text conversation:

Amy: I'm throwing out cream cheese with a June 6 2010 expiration date from mom's fridge.  You are welcome.

Me: You are a saint.

Amy: What about sweet hot mustard with a date of 9/10/06?  Seriously?  How could that have slipped by us in the past?

Me: That's exactly what I was going to say.  We just did this in January.

Amy: So it has been in the pantry for 5 years?

Me: I don't know which is worse.

Amy: This is all one piece of candy.  Even stuck to the sides of the tin.

Me: Bwahahahahaha.  Thank you.  For real.  Do you think she'd be mad if I blogged about this? ;)

Amy: She has no idea I have done this.  I think it's pretty funny.

Me: So would J.R.  And since she won't have wireless until we get there, it will be a while until she notices.

Amy: Heeheehee...the candies are Harry and David; she can't throw them away.

Me: Yup, that'd be it.  Ooh, what about the rock candy on the window ledge above the island?  Did we toss that yet?

Amy: Dad is in the kitchen right now. I'll check. There's also a tin of Christmas cookies still unopened.  Plastic seal still on it even.

Me: Those may have come from Grandma.  Which means Mom had a chance to toss them but didn't.

Several hours later, I got this update.

Amy: Rock candy is gone.

We tease because we love.  Besides, what else would we talk about if we couldn't poke fun at our mom?  Love you, Mom!

Bouncy

Last week Dave and I went to North Carolina. It was so much fun.  My sister lives there with her family (we stayed with them) and my uncle and his family live there too.  My parents also joined us, since my cousin Angela graduated high school.  We're the kind of family that travels for a party.  And yummy cake.

We also got a chance to visit our friends Kate, Andy, Brandi and Seth, which was a lot of fun.  We got to meet Kate and Andy's baby, Chad, who is super adorable.  I wish we'd had a chance to spend more time with them, but alas.

Anyway, back to the party.  Angela and her sister Nikki have a trampoline in their backyard.  This might be the only reason that my niece Abi agrees to visit them.  We were there for about 5 hours or so and I'm pretty sure Abi spent at least 3 hours on the trampoline (1 hour was spent doing Just Dance 2--so much fun!--and the other was spent being mad at her mom because she wouldn't let her on the trampoline in the dark).

Abi was bound and determined to figure out how to bounce back up to her feet if she hit the trampoline on her bum. I tried doing it myself and almost broke my neck (sorry, Dave wasn't around to take video of me).  I think it's easier for little ones because they're shorter and have less distance to travel to get into a standing position.  But eventually Abi got it.

(By the way, who knew bouncing on the trampoline was such a good work out?  If it wasn't for the fact that I drank so much water and had to pee, I might have spent 3 hours on that thing.)

A Great Man

It was not my intention to be away for this long.  Last week my grandfather passed, and while he's in a better place and we were prepared given his ailing health, it was still sad.  But since I like this blog to be a happy place, I'm going to focus the happy stories I have of him. (And Grandma, whom you all already know and love.  Think of him as the man behind the legend.)

Grandma and Grandpap were married for 69 years.  Hard to believe, huh?  While I recently learned the story of their first date, one of my favorites is the story of the months and years just following their marriage and how they came to set their life up together.

It was 1942 and Grandpap's mother wasn't real excited about him getting married, so the Monday after their wedding, she signed Grandpap up for the army.  Alas, being World War II and all, Grandpap was called to serve spending much of the war in Panama, protecting the canal and working with radar equipment.

While Grandpap was in the army, Grandma lived with her parents and took care of their new baby.   Later in life, Grandpap would enjoy his beer while playing cards, but while he was a soldier he didn't drink.  This became a competitive advantage during cards because he was able to come away with some reasonable winnings.  Those winnings are part of what he sent home to care for his wife and son.  Grandpap was adamant that Grandma not work and would send the money for expenses.

But Grandma, as we all know, is feisty and ignored his pleas.  She ended up working at the phone company, not telling Grandpap until he was back home.  At that time, calls home from soldiers were prearranged and family were expected to be able to receive the phone call at the designated time.  Unfortunately, Grandma was to be working at the scheduled call time.  She told her manager, after all it was the phone company, and they made arrangements for her to take the call in a private room at the phone company.  Grandpap was none the wiser.

Fast forward to when Grandpap arrived home and learned that his wife had saved every penny he'd sent, amounting to enough money to buy a plot of land and begin building a home.

I love this story because it clearly shows the foundation for how you get to be married for 69 years.  Still newlyweds during a time of war with a new baby, both knew what was best for their family.  Grandpap knew he needed to keep his wits about him and do what he could to send money for his family to be comfortable.  And Grandma knew that if she could keep that money and save, they could build their happily ever after.  And they did.  Seven kids later, grandkids and great grandkids, they had a life full of love, fun and wonderful memories.

I will only remember these wonderful stories because they give me faith that as Dave and I start our own foundation and make our own path, that we will have as much love for each other as they did and always know what's best for us.

Easter Fun

The Easter Bunny came this weekend. 

Actually he came midweek when my mom sent Dave and I a box of Chocolate Covered Oreos (thanks, Mom!).  They barely lasted to the next day.  And Taco was quite upset with us because we forgot how to share.  He did not want to discuss how chocolate is poison to him.

On Saturday night, Dave and I decide to dye Easter eggs and Taco wanted to help.  When he hopped up in my lap, I thought he was shaking uncontrollably, but it turns out his sniffer was just working overtime with the six glasses of vinegar and colored dyes sitting in front of him.  He was pretty interested in what we were doing and hung out with us during the whole process.

You know you're gown up when your egg dyeing glasses are all beer related.

Our egg kit had stickers in addition to the dye.  Taco couldn't figure out how to get them onto the eggs.  I had to explain to him that he didn't have thumbs.

On Sunday morning, though, Dave and I exchanged little Easter baskets with a few treats and let Taco take a look in his basket.  He may or may not be spoiled.

He legitimately needed new toys because last week he destroyed his shamrock. 

He took out every little bit of stuffing and kept going back for more.  The funny part is, he still plays with the deflated shamrock shell. 

Just like any little kid, Taco dove right into his basket before breakfast and ate his entire rawhide stick.  He plucked it out of the basket and took it into his crate.  When he was about two-thirds through, he joined us on the couch.  Once he was through, he went back to his basket.  In one of the eggs was a bacon treat.  He picked up the egg, figured out how to open it and scarfed the bacon before Dave and I even realized what he was doing.  He was decidedly less impressed with the pumpkin cranberry treats I've been trying to give him. 

Taco continued to be spoiled when we went to Dave's parents' house and he found Easter Bunny had left him yogurt covered Milkbones.  After licking off most of the yogurt, he went to town on the Milkbone and then came to me looking for the other one (he's smart--he saw there were two in the package).  He lost interest in that when Dave's dad starting carving the ham.  Taco positioned himself next to the counter and learned that anything that falls on the floor is for him. He also learned that he likes ham. 

Despite our little guy being involved in everything and having everyone he meets wrapped around his finger, he's a good pup.  He has a few applications pending, so we're hopeful that there is a family out there ready for him. 

The most amazing thing is that my Mom, who is the antithesis of a dog (or any animal) person,  has commented on how cute he is in his pictures.  That's pretty impressive, so I figured I'd lay it on thick and share the following:

Cookies and Darts and Cold, Oh My!

I'm a terrible blogger.

I promise to be better.  Even when stupid work and life get in the way of my precious blogging time.

But this is the 100th blog post, so Happy 100, Blog!

Updates:

We had a fabulous time in Pittsburgh.  I have bunch of side stories, but here are the highlights: I totally rocked the bake-off (although Amy did make a good showing).  I made my famous banana bread with a streusel topping, Peanutbutter Bombs as my cookie entry and classic Whoopie Pies.  It was the first time for the Whoopie Pies and they were awesome.  Recipes will begin to be posted in the Cookie Princess blog tomorrow (yup, Kate--that's a promise).

Gooey but delicious

Our Dart Battle Royale was hilarious.  In the past we'd done teams, but this one was really an every man for himself situation.  There were some alliances, but at one point my niece, Elyse, encouraged anarchy.  When little Abi said, "I thought you were on my team," Elyse responded, "There are no teams!"  Hilarious.

Dave & Nate using the "I'll just sit here and shoot whoever I can see" strategy

JR is street, yo

Aidan decided the tree-stand method might be the best attack mode

We even gave my mom a little single shot Derringer-style dart gun.  She had to wait until someone else hit her to reload though.

But the best is the machine gun.  And the fact that my 4-year-old niece took control of that beast immediately.  She couldn't reload it though, so she would hand it to one of the grown-ups (usually Grandpap) and then go around collecting all the ammo.  The gun only held 20 darts, but she would pick up like 50 and bring them all to my dad.  The nice thing about being little was she could go into the battle zone to pick up ammo and rarely got shot.

Power Up

Unloading on Uncle J

Oh, and the Steelers won that weekend.  Also awesome.  Then the Jets beat the Patriots (can't say I'm sad about that).  Then last weekend, the Steelers beat the Jets and now they're going to the Super Bowl.  I'm totally stoked.

Yes we're wearing the same shirt.  No that wasn't planned.  Yes we're awesome.

But then I found out I was living in the arctic.  Seriously, I thought I was going to see penguins outside.  This was the temperature when I went to bed on Sunday night.

And this was when I woke up on Monday morning.

Seriously?  It never got above 0 on Monday.  That's absurd.  So since I really can't complain about the snow (even though we're having storms of 6-10 inches twice a week), I won't hesitate to complain about the cold.  Freakin' cold.  Ug.

Bake Off and Dart Battle

This weekend Dave and I are headed to Pittsburgh to visit my parents.  JR will be there with his daughter and Amy is coming with her family.  It'll be a fun time. 

What's that?  You remember a bake off challenge posed to my sister and I, instigated by my brother?  Why yes, this would be the opportunity to settle the score.  I'm not sure what we're calling it--Baker Death Match seems a little extreme.  but we will have three rounds (cookies, banana bread and baker's choice dessert).

We decided JR had to come up with judging criteria and a scoring sheet since he started all this.  He responded that he would and the judging would consist of all factors, including bribery.  Lucky for me I had already planned on giving Elyse my old laptop.

I'm so winning this bake off.

Additionally, we have a bit of a Nerf dart gun challenge to settle.  I think we have about 300 rounds of ammo and some sort of Nerf blaster for each of us (my parents included).  We had one of these battles last Christmas (2009).  In November 2010, my dad found more rogue darts around the living room.

This isn't the exact one I have, but it's a rotating canister.
And safety glasses?  Really?

Perhaps we should have the bake off after the Nerf challenge.  Between being hopped up on sugar and the possibility of Amy gunning for me from kicking her butt, I may not survive.

And the answer is yes, the adults absolutely have more fun than the kids.

Bake Off

While my family was visiting over Thanksgiving, my brother decided to start some trouble.  While playing some games after dinner, somehow we got into a conversation about my baking and then it turned to my sister and eventually someone said, "You and Amy should have a bake off."  To which I replied, jokingly, "I would kick Amy's ass in a bake off."

Never one to let something go, and always willing to instigate something that will bring him food, JR took my phone and immediately texted that comment to Amy.  The following is a transcript of the frezied texting exchange.  Allow me to set the scene:  It's 10:00 pm on Thanksgiving night.  I am at home, having enjoyed a great Thanksgiving dinner, playing games with my parents, husband, brother and his girlfriend.  Amy as at her in-laws, having enjoyed a great Thanksgiving dinner, playing games with her in-laws, husband, sister-in-law and her husband, and there are four children under 7 who may or may not be around or awake.

Amy: No way lady...

Me:  oh, it's on...like donkey kong.

Amy: Bring it...

Me: oh it's already brought

Amy: Is that the eggnog talking? 

Amy: Even Ceil can't help you there. (referring to Grandma's "curse" on Amy)

Amy: Name your medium.

Me: um, cookies...bitch :)

Amy: I knew that...can you do anything else? :-P

Me: fine banana bread it is sucka

Amy: Love you!

Amy: That's fine.  But cookies is good too. Really.  It will be tasty.  I bake banana bread, but I don't eat it.

Me: betty crocker is my homegirl


Me: scared much? sounds like you're backpedaling. :)

Amy: Yes I'm scared.  Can you do a cookie from scratch?  no mixes or refrigerated dough allowed. (seriously?  I'm actually offended by this comment.)

Me: oh no you didn't

Amy:  Or...let's go straight to cake.  Paula deen is my bitch

Me: did karen (Amy's mother-in-law) just tell you to tell me that paula deen was your bitch?

Amy: Love ya...mean it!!

Amy: No.  Walter (Amy's father-in-law) actually.  And Shelley (Amy's sister-in-law)

Me: check betty crocker's facebook wall. you'll find the cookie princess featured.  you still wanna rumble? ;)

Amy:  Yeah why not?  Seriously...how much fun & tasty will that be?

Me: i make sara lee look like a hot dog stand with health code violations


Amy: Margaritas much?  Nobody does it like amy!! (Is this not the most random comment in this entire exchange?  How could I not ask her about her alcohol intake?)

Me:  how jack [daniels] have you had tonight?

Amy: "How jack"? You mean how much? Just one so far.  You?

Me: two yuenglings while cooking :)

Amy: Nice!

And that about ended it for the night.  Thirty minutes of texting ending with confirmation that perhaps we should not engage in drunk texting if were not even drunk.  A few days later we were actually talking on the phone and I explained that it all started because JR had sent the first comment.  And then we both admitted to be egged on by the co-conspirators around us who are really just looking for a means of getting to sample a bunch of yummy baked goods. 

Amy: But really, we should do this. I've been thinking about it.  We could have three rounds.  Round one would be a cookie. Round two would be banana bread.  And round three would be a dessert of your choosing.

Me:  You've put a lot of thought into this.

Amy:  I watch too much Top Chef Desserts.

Time and place to be determined, but looks like next time we get together, some lucky judge is going into a diabetic coma.

Nothing Like a Warm Beer

If you couldn't tell from the Keisha vs. Grandma post, my Grandma is pretty hilarious and provides much amusement for those who know her.  She'll laugh at herself and has accepted that at age 87, she can do whatever she wants and get away with it.

So part of me wasn't surprised to find her drinking a warm beer one afternoon.  The other part of me thought she had lost it, since Grandma certainly can appreciate the tastiness of a cold beer.

While Dave and I were in Pittsburgh, we went with my parents to visit my grandparents at their apartment in their assisted living facility.  My dad provides beer for them like he's their dealer.  Except apparently the last time he was there, he hadn't put the entire case in the fridge.  He'd put about half in and then put the rest in the cupboard.

When we arrived, Grandma was happy to see us and excitedly exclaimed, "I'm drinking a warm beer."

At this point we all looked at her with question marks in our eyes.  Come again, now?

Grandma: I didn't feel good earlier, so I decided not to take my meds. Instead I decided to have a warm beer.

Hmm.  Either this was her way of saying the meds were making her feel bad, or she'd lost it.  Either way, we continued with our visit and eventually she convinced both my dad and Dave to have a beer with her.  They certainly couldn't let her drink alone.

After some banter about whether they could have cold beers or if they had to drink warm ones, they got their (cold) beers and then proceeded to drink them out of the can.  For which they were quickly harassed.

Grandma: Out of the can?  Yuck.

Dave: What's wrong with that?

Grandma: It doesn't taste as good.

Somewhere along the line a straw was mentioned, and Grandma thought that was a terrible idea as well.  Clearly the way to enjoy your beer is poured into a glass.  I wonder if the temperature matters.

A little while later, Grandma said, "Huh.  This warm beer is starting to taste pretty good."  Unable to contain himself, Dave said, "That's because you can't remember what a cold one tastes like!"  Which was pretty hilarious.  And because Grandma is funny, she agreed that he might have a point.

And then she questioned why she was drinking a warm beer.

For the record, Grandma hasn't completely lost it.  When I spoke to her on Thanksgiving, I asked her if she was having a warm beer.

Grandma: I'm never going to live that down, am I?

Me: Nope, sorry Grandma.  It'll haunt you for the rest of your days.

Grandma: Eh.  Whatever.

Best Fantasy Match Up EVER

This past weekend, my brother and sister went head to head in fantasy football.  It's a rivalry by definition, but JR pulled out the big guns and it may have been the funniest thing I've even seen in fantasy football.

Backing up, you need to understand that I grew up in a family that played games, especially cards.  Years ago, my sister, Amy, was on a pretty good losing streak and one day my grandmother said to her, "Amy, you're a born loser." (We all think Grandma's pretty funny.  Except Amy.)  Years later, we're playing cards and Amy was doing really well.  Since Grandma wasn't at that family gathering, JR took a small picture of Grandma and put it next to Amy, as though to curse her.  And it works.  Amy went downhill from there, and didn't win the rest of the weekend.

So naturally, when JR called me on Thursday night asking for a picture of Grandma, I burst out laughing.  This is what he put up as his team logo:

But better still, is the logo Amy (AKA Keisha--which is a story for another time) has for her team:

 

For real, for real.  So this is what the match up looked like:

JR's slogan was, "Amy, you are a born loser."  And sure enough, he won by 20 points. I'm not sure which is funnier, the fact that Grandma took on Keisha (and won), or the fact that JR pulled out a decade old Grandma curse to win in fantasy football.

Better still, when I told Grandma JR used her curse on Amy, her response was, "Meh."