Fat Tuesday

{Incidentally, I love how Skulduggery Pleasant is peeking out between the scissors like he's up to something.}

Thing One took me to chemo #9 yesterday and we celebrated Fat Tuesday by getting FAT. We went to Olive Garden afterwards, ordered lasagna and unlimited soup and salad, and let's just say...

Do you remember what it looks like when Cookie Monster devours food? That was me. I practially inhaled my first bowl of chicken gnocchi soup and my first plate of salad. Then I polished off Thing One's unfinished soup and had another plate of salad whilst somebody dug through lasagna and snarfed down breadsticks. Our excellent and patient waiter then brought me a bowl of the Zuppa Toscana with Italian sausage, potatoes, and kale.

Kale.

Now, I LOVE lettuce. But kale is a different level for me. So I tried a spoonful. And then I tried a spoonful with kale in it. And THEN I inhaled the rest of the bowl, like my body had just discovered raw materials for the first time. I would have had a vat of it if I wasn't already so full. It was amazing! I've even hunted down a copycat recipe! 

Nobody is more shocked than I am.

Our waiter, pleased, asked if we'd like dessert, which was a no-brainer as they'd left the photo of the Black Tie Chocolate Cake on the table the entire time. We split it and then just about split our pants. So. Full. Of. Deliciousness.

We came home with lasagna, breadsticks, and a small bit of salad. Definitely fatter. #WeDidItRight

Glad my weigh in on the rhino scale was BEFORE lunch...

 

You can tell we like to eat!

Since I know better than to advertise when Dada is out of town and I'm holding down the fort, these all waited awhile to get posted. He spent almost two weeks in Bogota, Colombia as March turned to April. A handful of his coworkers went with him, one a native of Bogota with family there. Therefore, Dada got taken to great places to eat!

Sweet Angela, whom I'd gotten to meet when we went together before, sent two adorable tiny mugs and saucers, and coffee flavored chewy candies which are excellent, home with Dada. I squealed in delight, of course, and have been using them every day. Un mug petit!

Breakfast at his hotel. I asked what was in the mug because it looked like potatoes. He said, "soup." I asked what was in it and he said, "soupy stuff." Sorry folks, I got nothin'! 

Angela and her brother Alejo, some of our wonderful family in South America!

Bernardo's lovely mom, Yvonne, had the guys over after they'd been stuffed by his inlaws' side of the family. Never too full for dessert!

Dinner some different night. I made the mistake of asking what the squiggles were and was informed, "calamari, and it was delicious!" Guess there's really not a lot of things they could have been had I thought about it...

Shopping for souvenirs. Trying to gauge sizes for the kids.

I have no idea what Mike Wizowski is doing in Bogota, but I'm glad Dada got a picture of him!

The above chandelier is in a salt mine! Isn't that incredible!?

Sweet breads at Yvonne's

Liam likes my new tiny mugs. Apparently they're not going to work well for warming his huge hands.

And the treats he brought back! Those Copelia cookies are amazing. Imagine a stroopwaffel had a kid with a Girl Scout Samoa cookie and that's pretty close to how delicious they are. I'm having a hard time showing restraint! 

And he brought me back the tub of dulce de leche, yum! Now all I need is some vanilla ice cream to dump drizzle it onto.

Thanks to those of you who prayed for traveling mercies for him. Other than a delay in Atlanta on the way home, everything else went very well! He made it home at about ten to four in the morning on Friday so we were all glad for a weekend to catch up on some rest!

 

Autumn roundup

What've we been up to during the radio silence?

This kid turned 15, but that's another post altogether.

The garden went completely nuts with tomatoes so I had to make soup, many times. And since I save chicken bones in the freezer until they threaten to take over, I had the opportunity to make bone broth. 

I also found a red lentil dal recipe with zucchini that turned out amaaaaazing and I can't wait to make it again! Even Zita approved, so that's high praise, hehe.

Yes, we are Those People who've been caring for a sourdough starter throughout the pandemic, and can I just tell you that sourdough pancakes are wonderful?! The boys declared them, "too eggy" and refuse to eat them. Dada is back on a low carb diet, so guess who reaps the rewards of yumminess!? Helloooooo elastic waistbands.

In order to combat the expanding waistline, especially as all I see when I look down is belly because m'boobs are gone, I've been doing a fair amount of indoor cycling, yoga, and, ta-da, I bought running shoes! I know, right? You're all gasping in disbelief. Well, you better sit down for real, because I've actually run four times. Two of those times were by myself! We won't talk about my time or how I plot my route so that someone will find me in case I die, but I'm proud of myself. I am definitely a fair weather runner, though, so who knows if there will be anymore 2020 runs as it is now almost 9:30 in the morning and only 31 degrees. Not happenin'.

We had about four absolutely gorgeous, back up in the 70s, days in a row. I keep lamenting, "why don't we live in a place where the temps are like this all year round?" Dada laughs at me. I can't help myself. It's just so gorgeous and splendid to be able to be outside without the multiple layers that are coming!

Well, of course, this is Ohio, thus we have a screwball day thrown in there, too. 

So we've been up to a little of this, (see Damon?)

which led to a lot of that.

Damon was cajoled into dragging many, many tarp-loads of leaves to the curb with the excuse that he could count that as phys ed minutes for the log he's supposed to be keeping. Our teachers declared that since everyone is spending so much time online, they'd prefer special classes to be outside or otherwise offline. So we've done yard work, yard work, and more yard work. I'd much rather rake leaves than shovel snow, though I know that's coming. Most of our days working out there yielded tarpfuls of crispy, crunchy, light, dry leaves, for which I was thankful. There was still complaining, but less than there would have been otherwise, for sure, by all parties involved!

School has been chugging along with the expected good and bad days. Our district has been remote from the get-go and decided to stay that way for the indefinite future. A certain someone got ahead and then "forgot" to check their to-do list for three days and unsurprisingly ended up behind, someone else has had multiple close calls with due dates for projects that hadn't been thoroughly inspected before the due date and thus causes panic on the part of the parents. I don't know why, as it's not our grades, but I think that's been so deeply ingrained by this point that there's no turning back. Another certain someone is aggravated that nearly identical projects are being assigned for both art classes though one had been described as the end-all-and-be-all of art classes and deliberate scheduling had been taken all four years to get into said class. And so it goes. As Anne of Green Gables mused in a letter to Marilla, "the sun will go on rising and setting whether or not I pass geometry," or something very, very close to that. 

 

Dear me. Deloris better get busy making soup...

*Interesting tidbit: that basket belonged to my Great Grandma Frances and I am now getting to use it in our garden, wahoo!

Plutonium jelly, origami fireballs, and broccoli soup

Since it's Autumn, again, and the heat's on and the fireplace is occupied with cheery flames, and the heavier covers are on the beds, the dry-cracking skin game has also begun around here. My fingertips are so snaggy that I hate to touch anything soft lest I velcro myself to it. Liam's poor lips are already chapped and sore. He about had a fit when we suggested he put on some petroleum jelly, even when we assured him it would sting way less than chapstick. 

"I don't WANT to use plutonium jelly!"

...

Yes. Well. 

After trying it for an overnight or two, his lips are a little better and aren't stinging quite so much. Enough better that he put some on himself yesterday without a knockout-dragout fight. Small victories, people.

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So some of you have snow. SNOW. Unreal. You can keep it.

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Do you know what this is?

That would be what I confiscated from the Damonater. He's been rolling up toilet paper and calling them Origami Fireballs. 

... again.

I have no idea if it's from a book or a show or a friend or what, but he thinks balled up TP is absolutely hilarious and wants to make them for his siblings. 

Please do not submit to the urge to place an order. I will hunt you down.

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I spotted broccoli for 99 cents a head at Aldi a few weeks back. I grabbed three of them, washed them up and froze them once I was back home, and pulled a bag out yesterday to whip up some imitation Panera broccoli cheese soup.

Since Dada is trying to minimize carbs, we substituted almond flour for the regular all-purpose stuff. We also were out of half and half, so the heavy whipping cream went into the pot instead. We figured they'd kind of cancel each other out. 

It didn't quite thicken up as much as I'd hoped for, but the flavor is very good and because we doubled the recipe we even have some for the freezer. It's definitely soup season!

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Dada and Liam sold popcorn for the Boy Scouts this weekend at our local Bass Pro Shop. Fortunately, it was sunny and not as windy as it is today. This coming weekend will be Boy Scout camp, which I know someone is looking forward to. I hope they don't turn into Scoutsicles. 

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Our sweet Nina turned 10 last week and Liam's birthday is rapidly approaching. We'll be bowling, in costumes, so be sure to check back here for a post about that. My money's on those pictures definitely being worth 1,000 words. 

Until then, we'll keep processing apples, slogging through homework, driving to and from karate, and being up to our usual shenanigans. Have a terrific week! And stay toasty!