Tiny Cake

Shabbos was short but fun. Freddie and The Munchkin stayed in the sunhouse for shabbos and the Nemdy's walked over for both of the meals.

Dinner was festive, we had latkas with our roast and enjoyed a nice wine that a neighbor had brought over. The wine was supposedly very fancy, it smelled of oak and tasted like raisins (with some prunes thrown in for good measure). I didn't particularly enjoy it but my father seemed to think that it was "very nice".

Somebody got into the moose before it was served (some parties claim that it was me but I'm maintaining the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing..) and the tiny cake that Lori brought was a big hit.

Timmy tried a new tea for desert, Lori sniffed the outside and said that it smelled nice. We spent the next few minutes passing it around so that everyone could get a whiff. As it was being passed around someone asked the question that we were all thinking "Why am I sniffing a teabag wrapper?". There was some mumbling shrugging  from the side of the table where the tea bag had originated and and then everyone resumed their cake eating with much enthusiasm.

Lunch was nice, we decided to have chalavie and had ice cream Sundays Saturdays for dessert.
I spent most of the afternoon hiding in my room reading my book. When I went back down to join the party I saw that it was snack time.

The Crazy Lady wanted to share some snacks with Buzzy but Oscar was determined to show Buzzy that "sharing is caring". The Crazy Lady tried in vain to keep the dog from eating the snacks but clearly underestimated his unwavering sense of determination.

She eventually managed to keep all parties happy by putting some of the snacks on the couch for Buzzy to eat while feeding some snacks to Oscar as far away from the couch as possible. Satisfied from his snack, Oscar went off in search of a quiet place to sleep. The rest of the afternoon passed by quickly and suddenly it was time to say havdalah.

It's the fourth night of chanukah and I can already smell the obligatory latkas being made.
Excuse me while I see to it that some of them mysteriously disappear.....

Thanksgivanukah

Last night was Thanksgivanukkah. Lorbles hosted a BIG fambily dinner complete with a 7 kilo turkey.

She made cool seating cards too!

In addition to celebrating turkey day and chanukah, we also celebrated my grandparents 54th anniversary!

Happy Anniversary!!!!!

There was lots of food to go around and we all gorged ourselves on turkey. After we ate we tried to get some nice family pictures. Some of the family members where a little on the uncooperative side...

Others were more willing to comply with my requests.

All in all, I'd say that it was a major success! I hope everyone had an awesome thanksgiving and has a great shabbos chanukah!!!!

How To Con Your Friends And Influence People.

My brother Frank conned his friend (let's call him Joe) into giving him an undisclosed amount of money and a new set of speakers.
Joe had somehow broken his fathers speakers (which he wasn't supposed to be using) and didn't want him to find out. Luckily for him, Frank knew just what to do.
Frank just so happened to have the same speakers and offered to sell them to Joe for the amount that he had originally paid for them.
Joe was overjoyed at the prospect of not being grounded for life and agreed to the deal. Since the other speakers weren't working anyways,  Joe told Frank that he was welcome to take them as a token of his appreciation.
Frank brought them home and asked The Mad Man if he thought that the speakers could be salvaged.
The Mad Man took a look and said that he would do his best to bring them back to life.

                                     

Wires were striped and the soldering iron was brought out. We waited in anticipation while The Mad Man worked his magic.

After what seemed like an eternity, it was time to test the speakers. Frank plugged his ipod in and pushed the power button. Everybody smiled as music filled the room. 

And that my friends is the story of how my little brother conned his friend and got himself some extra cash and a new speaker system.  

Rice Head

Shabbos was nice, as per usual. Lori&co joined us for lunch, much eating and merrymaking ensued. Buzzy wanted to go to the park so we said goodbye to them and sent them on their way. I read my book until shabbos came to an end.

Yesterday morning was a little hectic but the rest of the day was quiet. I did a lot of staring at my computer and pretending to study studying and tried my hardest to drive The Crazy Lady insane.

Garfield always hated Mondays but I beg to differ. 

Z has school on Monday nights so I get to hang out with Lorbles and The Buzzinator. Our evenings usually consist of various exciting activities such as, frolicking in the park, eating delicious food, spontaneous shenanigans and watching Gilmore Girls. 

Last week we sailed the seven seas on S.S. Buzz. 

Today we decided to stay on land. We made some Buzz Bucks and I got a tour of the apartment with Buzzy's Joy Rides. I also got a complimentary hairdo from Buzzy's new salon. It's a little more "relaxed" than I normally wear it but it looks nice and the service at the salon was great. 

The peas and tomatoes that I planted a couple of weeks ago have started to grow like crazy. The peas seem to be getting a little too friendly with their neighbors, I think it may be time for me to intervene. 

Maybe stake a few of the rowdier ones..... It's all about sending a message.

The Story Of How I Didn't Eat An Entire Recipe Of Waffles For Breakfast.

This morning I woke up on the early side. I went downstairs for some breakfast and noticed that the house seemed awfully quiet (aside from Mr. Cat flinging things off of the counters). I looked out the window and noticed that the car was gone. After a quick look around, I determined that I was alone in the house.

The kitchen was on the messy side so I decided to straighten up a little. After washing (almost) all the dishes and loading the dishwasher, I felt like I deserved a treat.

It seemed too early for ice cream and pancakes just didn't feel right. After a lot of thought and consideration, it came to me. Waffles. Not just any waffles, chocolate chip waffles.

I put on an apron, hunted down the recipe and got to work. Rice and barley flour dusted the counter tops and some of the batter mysteriously ended up on the wall. It was time to get out the waffle iron.
The hardest part about making waffles is trying to figure out exactly how much batter needs to go into the iron to ensure the perfect waffles. I put too little in the first batch but by the third batch I had discovered the secret.

Beautifully crisped waffles lay stacked on their plate, just waiting to be eaten. I was finishing up the last batch when I was struck by a genius idea, I should eat ALL of them. There would be no
witnesses, no one would ever know.

Pleased by my ingenuity, I picked out the chocolatiest waffles and got to work. I was finishing off my third waffle when I began to feel a little sick. I looked at the waffles sitting on the counter and realized that my plan might not have been quite as genius as I had originally thought.

I decided to call on some friends for advice. "Is eating an entire recipe of waffles for breakfast a good idea?" the general consensus was "No". I decided to heed the wise words of my friends and put my waffle back onto the plate.

I looked around at the shambles of the once clean kitchen. The waffle iron had dripped a little after I had overfilled it with batter and one of the cats had rolled around on the counter top and was now coated in a light layer of flour. I straightened the kitchen up and chased the cat around with a dishtowel in an effort to clean up my mess.

The counters were clean and the cat was hiding in the couch. I put the waffles into the microwave and stuck some sticky notes on the door to let my parents know that they should eat them.
After a quick survey around the kitchen I gave myself a pat on the back for a job well done and returned to my tower.

"Toss The Body Into The River"

Shabbos starts pretty early nowadays. After a delicious dinner we decided to play some games until it was time for bed. The Mad Man fell asleep on the couch with a newspaper on his face so The Crazy Lady, Frank, The Dibble and I had fun without him. 

We started off with a couple of rounds of bananagrams and then had a cut throat game of settlers. It's hard to say who won bananagrams as there were many disputes over which rules are the "real" rules. We would have read the original instructions to solve the problem but they were slightly unintelligible after years of abuse.  

By the time we were done settling the land of catan we were all pretty tired. Frank was crowned as the victor of settlers and then we headed to bed.

After lunch I walked over to Lori's to see what was going on over there. They had a guest over and we all sat around and ate deserts until shabbos came to an end.

After havdala Lori waxed my armpits in the living room while Buzz stared on in horror. We scavenged in the fridge for leftovers and then Lori drove me home after we dropped Sarah Leah off at what we hoped was the right bus stop.

Sunday was very quiet, I studied a bunch and did some laundry. I also tried to make some granola but had trouble remembering the exact quantities that I normally add. Going to get the recipe off my computer seemed like the best idea but in my infinite wisdom, I decided to "wing it". I added varied amounts of most of the ingredients while (accidentally) omitting others. It was a feisty batch that seemed determined to defeat me, but I showed it who's boss when I flung part of the contents of the tray onto the bottom of the oven. 

Surprisingly, the granola tastes pretty good and is strangely addictive....

Monday was dark and gloomy. I studied for a bit and then got sucked into the xbox void for a good couple of hours. Z had class so I went to hang out with Lori and Buzz. We sailed the seven seas and played with photo booth while we waited for dinner to cook.

Dinner was delicious and I made some cookies for desert. It was bedtime for the Buzzinator so we got him in his jammies and tried to convince him to brush his teeth. 

After he fell asleep it was time for some Gilmore Girls. We watched two episodes and then Z drove me home.

 

Today was a very lazy day. Lori and Buzzy came to hang out while Z ran some errands in Jerusalem. I ended up spending most of my day playing Assassins Creed II. The game is weirdly addicting and although I knew I should stop playing and go study, I couldn't tear myself away. Frank and The Dibble came home from school and were surprised to see how far I had gotten. I was stuck on a tricky part and my darling brothers had many words of wisdom to share with me. I eventually got tired of hearing them chide my every move and surrendered the controller into their waiting hands. Everyone took turns leaping through the air and dangling off of the chandeliers until Frank managed to get to the top. 

My hands began to get cramped from holding onto the controller and my eyes hurt from staring at the screen. I decided to call it quits and handed the controller over to The Dibble so that he could play some Halo.

After dinner we took a girls trip up to the rama and got some new books to read.

I'm not sure what the plan is for tomorrow but I'm hoping that I'll resist the urge to assassinate more people. 

Extra Credit

This morning started out like any other, I woke up, got dressed and went downstairs to make some breakfast. I was standing in the kitchen making hash browns when The Mad Man walked in and said "oh yes, I remember what we did last night. We tried sticking balloons onto the cat!".

I was the only other person around and he didn't appear to be addressing me with his statement. I stood by the stove, spatula in hand, with a bewildered expression on my face. I watched as he found his cup of coffee and wandered down the stairs as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. 

I stood there watching the stairs, wondering if he would come back up to elaborate. He didn't. 

The potatoes started to burn and I turned my attention back to making my breakfast. 

A while later The Crazy Lady came down, I asked her if she knew why my father had spent the night "sticking balloons onto the cat". 

She laughed and told me that The Dibbles science teacher had offered to give him extra credit if he brought in a picture of a balloon stuck to a cat using static electricity. The cats had been less than pleased with the assignment and were extremely unwilling to cooperate.

After multiple attempts, it was determined that they would have better luck using a dead cat. Fortunately, we didn't have any on hand so they were forced to admit defeat. 

My breakfast was delicious, despite the slightly burnt potatoes. The rest of my day has been pretty normal, lots of cooking (and tasting) and other pre-shabbos stuff.

Have a great shabbos!