International Festivities

Chet and I have always loved international stuff. I mean, we went to Ecuador on our honeymoon. One year, for my birthday/Christmas present, Chet took me to New York City for a week and my favorite memories are of the great food we ate there. One night we had Japanese, one night Ethiopian, and one night Korean food. What can I say? I really like food.

Anyway, today there was an international festival at a park near our house , so we hopped on over to check it out. We got to see some African Tribal Dancers, some Palestinian dancers, and kung fu guys.

Plus, there was all this food. Tons. Booth after booth of every kind of international food around. Like Cuban and Afghan and Greek and Senegalese and Polish. And tons more. I was a bit lame-o and went with Greek food. Not the most exotic choice. But ever since someone at book club mentioned eating a gyro that is all I have wanted. My husband on the other hand, picked out an Ethopian meal. Very tasty. There was this bread-like stuff called injera that you dip in a bunch of sauces (we had a cabbage and potato sauce and some kind of curry sauce). And the guy at the Afghan booth was giving away samples of persian eggplant burani.

And since we love to eat international food, it was awesome to sort of try before you buy.

So far we haven't been brave enough to spend our date money on an ethnic restaurant that we weren't sure about. But now that we know the Afghan and especially the Ethiopian restaurants are pretty kick-A, I think we'll go for it.

Hardy Har Har

We've got this joke book that used to be my mom's when she was little. I've been reading it to Sharks, and he is not into it at all, but it cracks me up. He sat there so nicely while I read page after page to him, and then finally he was like, "Mommy! New book, please."

Well, fine.

The jokes are so bad they aren't even worth a groan, but that is just why I love them. I mean, it actually has the "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke.

I have found a few gems, though. Like:

What is the difference between a skunk and a bottle of milk?
If you don't know, I'd never send you to buy a bottle of milk.

P.S. This little fellow had a birthday

And I forgot to mention it.

(Second child, clearly.)

"I'm gonna go down the slide fastly!"

12 weeks...

...and food tastes good again.

Chet and I even went out for happy hour sushi last night - pretty much the only way we feel like we're getting our money's worth when we get sushi. We kinda just stumbled upon this little restaurant on our quest to find a place to eat. And it turned out to be wonderful.

I'm sorry, but this is just funny

First thing I see when I log onto Facebook is this ad that says:

Reliable Birth Control.

A little too late for that, Facebook. But thanks for trying.

I think he kinda looks like a zombie...

...but Sharks keeps singing, "What shall we do with the munkin Deedo, what shall we do with the munkin Deedo, what shall we do with the munkin Deedo? Er-lie in the morning."

(He may have a word or two confused, but you can guess what else we've been comparing Deeds to.)

Either way, I am thrilled that he is walking. Actually, both boys started walking at about the same time - a few weeks after their first birthday, so we were ready and waiting for it. Deedo is doing great (though still a bit wobbly) AND it slows him down, which is a big plus.

Sometimes bulbous heads freak me out too

Sharks has been sick this week, so we've spent some time each day resting and watching harmless dvds. So I thought.

Apparently Humpty Dumpty seriously worried him. I mean, Sharks woke up from his nap screaming, “I don’t like Humpty Dumpty, I don’t like Humpty Dumpty!!” He actually asked me to turn off the whole Wiggles dvd after the giant egg fell off the wall.

And ok, so it was the Wiggles. That just might be enough to freak anyone out. (Even though I kinda secretly wish I could spend my days dressing fantastically and singing inane children's songs from the top of my lungs. With a goofy smile plastered on my face - mustn't forget that.)

And please, let's not even get into Sir Topham Hatt. A whole 'nother freak out ensued after we attempted to watch Percy Takes A Plunge.




So, it would appear that Sharks is afraid of large heads. (Though let's be honest, that would mean looking in the mirror would be an absolute no-no for him.)

The best part is, we love to joke about Sharks' 90th percentile head. We even thought he looked a bit like fellow big head, John McCain, way back when.

Like a mojito without the good stuff

I love sweet tea, but since the caffeine and sugar aren't the greatest for me right now, I came up with this amazing new tea.

I used 4 teabags of Stash Moroccan Mint Green Tea and 2 teabags of Tazo China Green Tips in about 6 cups of water, maybe a little more. (Shucks, I don't know, I was winging it.)

After I brought it to a boil, I turned off the heat and let it steep for maybe 20 minutes.

Then I added 1 cup of sugar and let it cool. It was pretty sweet, but I added more water later.

After it cooled, I poured it into a gallon pitcher and filled it almost all the way up with water. (I kept tasting it along the way til I got it how I liked it.)

Now the most important part: I squeezed every last little bit of juice out of 4 limes and added it straight to the tea. I like to leave 4 lime halves in the tea, mostly for looks.

And that's it. Super refreshing and delicious.

Mojito-licious, if you will.

I lied and I apologize

A long time ago I promised you that I would read books and write reviews. That has simply not happened. Well, the reading has, just not the reviews. And I haven't updated my "books read" list for a loooong time.

Since I last updated my list, I have read pretty much every John Grisham novel (don't judge - my husband's in law school and I'm trying to get inside knowlege), and a bunch of other stuff, like The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (I actually did write a review on that and will post it soon), Gap Creek (mentioned that here), and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (sounded kinda teenagey so I was a bit skeptical - though who am I to turn my nose at teenagey books, since I read all four in the Twilight series - but it was a fun read and not at all juvenile and is actually an HBO show now.)

I'm not gonna promise more frequent reviews. But if you've read anything good recently, I'd love your recommendations.

Finally, something appetizing

Of course, right after I mention not wanting to eat or cook, I stumbled upon this recipe. And it looked great and didn't make me nauseous.

So, we hopped on over to Trader Joe's (which happens to be Sharks' favorite place - the mini grocery carts, free balloons, and the jelly beans I let him buy on the way out just might be the reason) and bought the ingredients and made this for dinner tonight.

Well worth the effort. Plus I am pretty sure it is the only way I'll be getting any wine for the next little bit.

I've got it this time

So. Never really had morning sickness when I was pregnant with the boys. Actually, I didn't find out I was pregnant with Deedo until I was 13 weeks. (Yes, I am that oblivious.) So I always felt like I was missing out on an important right of passage.

But now I can comiserate. I'm not gonna be all dramatic and say I have bad morning sickness. It's just definitely present all. the. time. Food doesn't even sound good. (Never thought you'd hear me say that.)

Hence the lack of blogging recently.

But, lest I disappoint you with this lame post, here are two embarrassing stories to hold you over until the next time I make it to the computer.

Story #1: I was driving to my parents' house to pick up the boys when this Taylor Swift song came on the radio. And I cried at the part where he asks her to marry him. Hello, hormones.

Story #2: I was driving home from my parents' house in Chet's car. I should add that his car has no A/C and it was over 90 degrees that day. Argh. Right as I pulled onto the highway, a truck that was transporting pigs passed right by me. Have you ever driven past one of those trucks? Try not to, please. So revolting. The smell was enough to knock me over, pregnant or not, but seeing as I am pregnant and all, I started gagging. Rolling up the windows did nothing but trap the stinking pig smell in the car with me. I ended up pulling over to lose it on the side of the road instead of in Chet's car. Oh. my. humiliating.

Aren't you glad I shared that with you?