turn it up

i was driving home from the mall today with the kids in the backseat, flipping the channels on the radio.

i stopped when i came to 'irreplaceable' by beyonce. it's a catchy tune. i like it.

from the back seat kate pipes up, 'ooh mommy! will you please turn this up?'

?

so i turn it up and wait.

next thing i know, she's singing 'you must not know 'bout me, you must not know 'bout me'.

and she knows the lyrics to the song because...?

i laughed. seeing your 4-year-old jamming out in her carseat to a tune that tells a loser guy to get lost is funny.

cooking, day 1

i cooked dinner last night (no, really). i found a recipe for crab cakes in a little cookbook i bought on impulse at the checkout stand at the grocery store. the title is 'summer meals' and it's put out by prevention magazine.

greenhouse crabcakes (they're from some spa called greenhouse spa or something like that)
1 lb crabmeat
1 egg
1 cup finely chopped celery
1 Tbsp fat-free mayonnaise
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1/8 tsp mustard powder
2 Tbsp chopped, fresh chives
1-2 Tbsp unseasoned, dried bread crumbs
3 drops hot-pepper sauce

1. in large bowl, mix all ingredients and form into 8 patties
2. in medium non-stick skillet, heat patties over low heat until brown, 4 to 5 minutes per side.
Makes 8 crabcakes

it wasn't a total disaster; i ended up with 3 edible crab cakes (out of 7). the first one i had to dump because i tried to flip it too early and it fell apart. the next 3 also fell apart and i gave them to the kids and called it 'crab cake surprise' (sound familiar, mom?). jeff and i ate the last three and they were ok. i would have left out the hot sauce and would have used a different kind of breadcrumb (the only ones i had were panko breadcrumbs which apparently are for japanese foods. eh. you win some, you lose some. one of the problems with the meal was that i was so focused on making the crab cakes that i forgot to make any side dishes. jeff came to the rescue with some rice and corn. he also whipped up an impromptu tartar sauce since i forgot to get that as well.

tonight i'm making a recipe i found in my new cooking light magazine (thanks to everyone who recommended it - i'm loving it so far. the pictures are very pretty): grilled flank steak with tomato, avocado and cucumber salad. jeff is doing the grilling so i can blame at least partial failure on him ;)

dog + tar

they're paving the streets by our house and somehow maggie managed to step in some of it. the pads of her feet are covered in tar (and, now, grass and dirt) and i can't get it off. i googled some remedies and nothing is working (shampoo, petroleum jelly).

does ANYONE out there have any idea how to get tar of the pads of a dog's foot? i guess it serves me right for having the house cleaned today, right?

sigh.

kitty kat

kate's preschool class celebrates shabbat every friday. each week a parent is invited to participate and yesterday was my turn. i brought my camera and took photos of the kids. (more photos are posted on my photography blog)

my favorite one (kate, of course):

if only it were this easy

mommy dearest?

jack's 3rd birthday is coming up and we're staring to make plans for a small party (truly small. just a few kids and we're renting the picnic pavilion in the neighborhood. the kids will play on the playground and eat hamburgers and hot dogs. that's it. no clowns, no magicians, no pony rides.) i think kid's birthday parties have gotten SO out of control and i refuse to participate. my kids will probably hate me for it, but i can live with that. they're going to hate me for something, right?

so having just moved, i've realized what a RIDICULOUS amount of toys my kids have. really. ridiculous. the last thing they need is more toys. so i was thinking that i would make a note on jack's party invitations that asked people to bring a new book to be donated instead of bringing a gift for jack.

and then i remembered the scene in 'mommy dearest' where joan crawford makes christina donate all her birthday gifts except one. is asking for book donations instead of gifts just cruel to a 3-year-old?

liars

anyone who has ever told me it's a cinch to install a ceiling fan is a big fat liar. BIG fat liar. grrrrr.

another (belated) birthday

yesterday was my big brother's birthday; number 37. i forgot to call him and now i feel like a heel. sorry, tom!

happy birthday, zach

my nephew, zach, turns three today. happy birthday!

traffic circle hell

the town we just moved to doesn't have many traffic lights; they have traffic circles. they are large, two-lane, easily navigable circles. if you've ever been stuck in the traffic circle hell in DC, then you will laugh at how elementary these traffic circles are. seriously.

but today when i was running out to get dog food at the grocery store, i came across - quite possibly - the stupidest person in howard county. a guy in a black mercedes was IN the traffic circle and he stopped in the middle of it to allow someone else in. in normal circumstances, letting someone into traffic is a really nice gesture. but in a traffic circle? idiotic. there are huge signs at each entrance that say 'yield to traffic'. in other words, wait until there is a break in the circle and THEN enter the circle and go around. the signs do not say 'enter the circle and then pause to let someone else in.'

have you ever seen that visa commercial where everyone is in the cafeteria and things are moving along smoothly because everyone is paying with their visa debit card? and then some doofus pays with cash and everything comes to a screeching halt with trays flying everywhere and people running into each other? yeah, it was like that.

traffic circle hell i tell you.

back where we started

it has been about a year and a half since we've had a baby monitor in our house. in our last house, we got rid of it when jack was about 1 1/2 because our bedroom was close enough to hear him without it and there was no other place in the house where we couldn't hear him (the kid has a set of lungs).

well, we had the big screen set up in the basement this week and jeff and i both realized that if we're watching a movie down there, we won't be able to hear the kids 4 flights up (jeff said the subwoofer to the new system is 2700 watts. apparently that's a lot and is why we can't hear anything else when we're watching a movie. the house literally shakes during action scenes. i think our neighbors like that a lot). so a new baby monitor it is.

today was my first trip to the baby aisle at target in i don't know how long. and this is what i got: