On a 3 day Gender Bender

This says it all right now.

His past 3 days: Leisurely drive to the Keys on his motorcycle with friends. Shenanigans and hijinks for 2 days and 2 nights. Leisurely drive home from Keys. Go to work. Play 9 holes of golf at friend's country club.

Her past 3 days: Babysit toddler with premature terrible 2's syndrome. For 2 days straight. Laundry. Lots. Household errands including: garbage set out and retrieval, pick up paint for touch ups in family room, replace special halogen light bulbs that take much more than just a turn of the base into the socket. More laundry. Grocery shopping and homemade soup making. Two classes worth of case analysis, quiz studying and discussion contributions. Answering questions from him like "whats the matter with you?" and this classic jewel: "so, did you enjoy your time alone while I was away?"

OCD Me

Ok- I admit it---today's blog title really means "Organized Children Delight Me". Because I was a compulsively organized child that grew into an unorganized young adult that morphed into a compulsively organized mature adult. During the years I was disorganized, I longed to not be. I ached to come full circle and be my "real" self...complete with drawer dividers, a label maker I actually use and matching hangers all with hooks facing the same way on the rod. AHHHH it feels so good.

One of my favorite websites to visit is called Found and every day they post a note or letter or other paper item that someone has found somewhere (in other words, something that some poor unorganized soul has lost) ...I love this one as I remember doing an almost exact time schedule/checklist when I was about 10 years old. I love how this checklist is broken down in less than 10 minute blocks----8 minutes to feed the cats (each time) and 8 minutes to call Alason. I even love the contingency plan here---the maybe eat for 1 hour and the maybe computer time. Notice though that nothing got checked off as "done" after going to Dad's from 8:50 to 9:30 ! Hope they at least remembered to feed the cats by 5:08.

Oven Roasted Asparagus

One of the best things about Spring is the pencil-thin asparagus readily available. I love asparagus grilled, but it is difficult to do because of its shape--and the very thin stalks make it even harder to keep from falling through the grill or grill pans. Here's a very quick and easy way to cook delicious young asparagus---and clean up is a snap.

From the Pantry

Serves 2-3 people that really like asaparagus!

1 pound fresh asparagus- the thinner the better

1/4-1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp garlic powder

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Cut asparagus spears at natural breaking point and discard bottom part of stem.

Place tips in a gallon size zip lock bag. Add olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste. Using a zip lock is so much easier than trying to do this in a bowl. Zip up bag and as my grandmother used to say, "moosh-el" it all up--coating the asparagus with oil and the spices.

Dump asparagus on to the foil lined cookie sheet--letting oil drip out, too. Arrange in a single layer and put in oven for 12-13 minutes. Sprinkle with grey salt before serving or with lemon zest. This is delicious!

Fluke of Nature

I love whales. I have had the good fortune of seeing several types of whales in their natural habitat doing what whales do, naturally. I have seen Humpbacks, Orcas and little Minke whales in Alaska and down the Pacific coast. One of the most fascinating things I have seen Humpbacks do is something called "bubble-netting". This is a feeding behavior that takes the coordinated work of at least two whales. They dive and round up schools of fish in their exhaled bubbles---casting a "net" of bubbles. They then plow through the netted fish and have a feast as the water rushes through their baleen. Sort of like some folks I have seen in the buffet line at Sizzlers.

No No No

Wudgie knows what the doggie says, the kitty, birdie, cow and baby, too....and what the Mommy says...NO NO NO...complete with vehement head shake. She knows the song has a good beat and you can dance to it, too.

When my brothers and I were little, my mother had a very silly alphabetty-rhyme song she would to sing to us. It went like this:

ABCD Goldfish?
LMNO Goldfish!
SAR

Translates to:

Baby see the goldfish?
There arent any goldfish!
Yes, there are.

Mug Shots

File this under totally mostly useless things to make that will probably never be used. I just love these mug cozies. In fact, I was so excited today to see my favorite mug cozy pattern of all offered FREE at the Knitting Daily website. But only for the next 30 days- so rush on over there. Want to know how obsessed I am with making this and how thrilled I was to see this offered for free today? Sure you do. A few months ago I was so intent on knitting this garter stitch wonder that I tracked down the designer. I cyber-stalked emailed her incessantly once, begging for the pattern. She was so adamant kind in her response. She explained to me that she had sold the pattern to Interweave (parent company of the Knitting Daily site) and they had printed it in their holiday issue. There are no more holiday issues to be had. As much as she wanted to, she could not offer the pattern to anyone and Interweave would not reprint. Until now! Yay!

Here's another beautiful mug cozy with pattern offered for sale here.

And another photo of a clever sleeve to slip on your favorite 'bucks beverage.

Nap Time

After I get past the magnitude of the horror that took place from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius some 2088 years ago, I look at this photo I took at the ruins of Pompeii and just want to slip a comfortable pillow under his neck. For his stone nap.

When my brother was a tot, he would protest nap time by telling my mother that he didn't want to take a schluffy. While we aren't really sure where this schluffy word came from, we think it is a derivative of the German word for sleep...Schlaf.

I love a good schluffy. The Mr. is a master schluffer. The Wudgie has a hard time with schluffinating on weekends but that doesn't stop her mother from trying to put her down for a regular, scheduled schluff. Ironically, by all reports the Wudgie excels at schluffing at school.

My favorite schluff equipment? This buckwheat filled organic cotton pillow.

Gute Nacht.....Sweet Schluffies to you