This Week’s Random List

• When I got to work yesterday there was a woman getting out of her new Porsche and the alarm was going off and she seemed quite flustered. Does it make me a bad person because it amused me greatly that she was having a problem with it? To my credit I did not roll my eyes when she commented that she thought she was going to have to call her husband to help her with the car (the alarm turned off when she pushed the panic button her in key fob). She was on her way to go work out and turns out she is also one of the noisy worker-outers. [Her, I’m totally judging.]
• Liam has to do a small research project for school. Pick an animal, report on what you already know about it, think of questions you have and research answers and creatively represent that animal. He picked sharks and last night we made his model and I had to restrain myself to keep from overly helping with it and fixing mistakes. Homework is going to be a painful endeavor – I need to resist my fixer tendencies.
• Amazon has a new slew of $5 MP3 albums – I downloaded The Fray’s new album, “Scars and Stories” but I’d also recommend Amos Lee’s “Last Days at the Lodge”
• I’m sort of loving the new show, Scandal, though I can’t decide for sure because well, the main character is sort of unbelievable but I like the rest of the cast and I’m eager to learn more about the secrets they have so I guess that’s a good sign. Plus Joshua Malina is in it and I LOVE him from The West Wing and In Plain Sight.
• Liam’s been using the phrase, “Let’s stick with that” often in his chattering… it amuses me. He’s like a mini-politician trying to make his point.
• Jack apparently thinks I know everything, including the lyrics to songs I’ve never heard. He was singing a song he learned at daycare the other day and stopped and asked me, “How does the rest go?” I had to clue but that didn’t satisfy him and he kept yelling at me to keep singing the rest of the song. I could have tried to make something up but he actually knows the song and would have yelled at me that it wasn’t right (we’ve tried this before). Alas.
• There are only two more MOPS meetings for the year (today and in two weeks) and that makes me sad. It’s been a great year! I’ve only got two more left so I best enjoy them as much as I can!
• Here’s a quick recipe for healthy soup that makes a ton. I’m not doing a whole post on this because I didn’t take pictures – you can make it all in a large Dutch oven or brown the meat and then put everything in a slow cooker on low for the day.
  Turkey Taco Chili: Brown 1 pound ground turkey, add 1/4 c. taco seasoning and cook until meat is cooked through. Add: 1 large bottle or can of V8; two cans black beans, 2 cans corn, 1 jar salsa. Serve with sour cream and shredded cheese. Enjoy.
• I need to get back on the exercise bandwagon
• I also need a sugar/carb detox
• My great-nephew turned 3 yesterday – I just love that I have a great-nephew and I’m not even 35 – and I love that Max! He has the cutest dimples and best smiles. Someday he and Jack are going to be marvelous buddies!
• I have an iTunes playlist called “depressing music” and it makes me laugh every time I put a song in there, like I’m prepping for some future cryfest.
• Do you ever tell a little white lie just not have an awkward conversation? We went out with friends on Saturday night for our anniversary and I offhandedly mentioned to the server that it was our anniversary, meaning more that we were celebrating our anniversary but she said, “Oh, it’s my birthday, too!” And rather than correct her and say that actually, our actual anniversary was on Monday, I just let it slide (I’m quite surprise that Simon let it slide because he’s a stickler for truthiness). But later she also commented about “April 28th being the best day…” and I just had to smile and nod, even though April 28th doesn’t really mean anything special to me. Whoops. I felt a little bad (which I think totally makes up for my feeling of happiness when Little Miss Porsche had car alarm troubles)
• I really want to make fresh mozzarella sometime – we had it on our salads on Saturday night and I could just eat that always and be happy. But I feel like it would be fun to know how to make – I’ve watched someone make it before and it didn’t seem too hard if you have the ingredients. Though I wonder if touching the curds would gross me out – probably.
• My SIL Lynn, posted the photo below on my Facebook wall and I thought, “What baby is Liam holding?”

But that’s not Liam, it’s my nephew, Andrew, holding my other nephew, Mitch, way back in the 90s (so very long ago). Apparently Liam does take after my family, just not me as much as my nephew (see below of Andrew and Liam last fall – at least we can see that Liam will still be handsome when he grows up).

And to complete the circle, Liam and Mitch from two summers ago… my how they grow. Mitch is graduating from high school this year and then there is a 13-year gap to the next grandkid (Liam).