All I want for Christmas.....is you

Snowy Chicago we are here!

We arrived on an easy flight. It kept seeming like we were going to be delayed but we were not. Thanks to Sara and her email coupon that she mailed me we parked at Sea-Tac with one day for free. We took an easy shuttle to the terminal and bing bang boom we were on the plane. We thought briefly about the offer of giving up our seats for a night in a hotel and a first-class flight the next day, however with weather coming we didn't take the offer. I took two dramamine (for the first time) and was asleep before the flight took off. It was incredible! We landed in snowy Chicago and were picked up quickly in the new Jetta Sportwagen (yes wagen not wagon...Germans!). Tom drove it was quite a smooth and powerful drive. Not to mention the 40 mpg we were getting.

We ate some cheese and Tom went to play floor hockey on ice. Not ice hockey. You wear sneakers but you play with plastic hockey sticks like it is floor hockey. This is year two of it and it is quite amusing to watch. I did not watch because I was still half comotose from the dramamine. Eventually I took myself to sleep and snuggled briefly with Poppy (who is not supposed to be on a bed).

Today we slept LATE. I miss Harper but sleeping until 10:30am is unbelievable. We then went out to breakfast at M Henry - a fantastic breakfast place on Clark. Liane and I shared the special raspberry/rhubarb with vanilla mascerpone french toast. It was delish. Tom's special fried egg sandwich with bacon and blue cheese did look awesome though. Tom and I did some secret Christmas shopping and then we resumed our eating of cheese. Ashley took the train up for dinner and we ate some yummy pork tenderloin (yes I dipped mine in A-1). After dinner we went up to Jess' closet to see what we could find. Wonderfully enough I found an early version of the Snuggie or Slanket (or skanket I like to call it). It is BRIGHT RED and from Lands End and since I have put it on I have not taken it off. I do have to shuffle a bit to walk normally, but let me tell you - this is the most amazing Oompa-Loompa outfit I have ever worn. I am cozy and warm and while my butt might sag to the ground, and I might look like a munchkin who just turned 4 years old, I am HAPPY in this thing. When I feel comfortable enough I will post a picture.

And that is my update. We have not decorated cookies yet, but I am not feeling my normal cookie decorating vigor. I am sore and achey and still sick from Thanksgiving. I don't know what is wrong with me other than what the ENT doctor said which was, "Your nose is incredibly swollen." I am now squirting salt water up my nose and it is NOT pleasant. I am hoping it will one day make my sore throats go away, but I am not really that hopeful.

In other random news I am also trying to win $500 from a Chicago based t-shirt website by submitting slogans. So far I have "Slankets are Skanky" and "Java for Jews". I think maybe "Jews for Java" would have made more sense. Oh wait and "Dogs are for kissing." Any ideas???

Happy Holidays!

Kids say and do funny stuff

On my drive to work this morning I was thinking of funny things my kids have said and/or done lately. Then I got some hilarious birthday presents today, so this post is just PERFECT.

Yesterday one student said, "Ms. Amy! Do you know why I took so long in the bathroom???? I had diahrrea." When I asked him if he was ok he started giggling and smiling and saying that he felt fantastic now that he had succeeded in the bathroom. Oh boys!

A few weeks ago we were making math board games (after playing a fun one...the kids wanted to design their own). One girl said, "Well one square will say what is apple plus orange." I asked how they would know what those numbers were. She thought and said, "If they don't know...then too bad for them!" Not sure how that game would work! Later she made a special card that did indeed tell what numbers apple and orange were - but I still don't understand the game.

A joke of the day was, "Why do hummingbirds hum?" One child just wrote, "Gum." When I asked her what that answer meant she said, "Well gum rhymes with hum." Later she came up with the idea that if you have gum in your mouth you can't sing, you must hum....but I think that was after people were like, "HUH??? What does gum mean?"

I had one student (the diarrhea one) who came up to me at recess with string - my kids are obsessed with making string figures. He was making something that looked like scissors. Then he said, "I am going to snip my penis." He kept saying it until I told him that we just couldn't talk about that at school. Was that a good enough response? Probably not.

We did a unit on communities and rights and responsibilities. For an activity where you made up a planet and made laws for the planet one kids planet was "Pee and Poop" and a law was that you had to "pee at least every hour." No matter how many times I tried to get him to see that it was silly he kept insisting that it was healthy and a rule for our safety.

I almost (like 99%) convinced a student in the other second grade room that I was turning 92 and had received extensive surgery over the years to maintain such a youthful look. I won him over by saying, "Well how else could I know so much?" He was baffled and then I overheard him saying "No she is not turning 28. Don't tell anyone, but she has had a lot of surgery to look young, but she is really in her 90's I think."

Ok this is from a student in Chicago and might be Tom's favorite story to tell - so sorry if you've already heard it. I had one student in my class who was a lighter skinned guy. I had another student with a lisp. I overheard them one day and the light skinned (or light skinded if you want to sound like my students) boy was saying something. The one with the lisp replied, "Is your momma always white?" (I knew that he was trying to say, "Is your momma always right" but it came out all wrong). I was about to jump in and explain the lisp when the other boy said, "NO!! She's mixed. Sometimes she's white and sometimes she's black." Amazing and priceless I tell you.

And when I taught the midwest states. I wanted to see what they already knew, so I just started with a map and the abbreviations. They were convinced that IA was Iraq. I even asked, "Are we at war with our next door neighbor state?" One boy said, "Sure. My aunt is in Iraq and she calls me, so it must be close." They thought MI was Miami. Then they told me that WI made no sense because it was "Westconsin" and was not a different state, it was part of Illinois (which they pronounced Illinoise). I asked them if they had been out of the state before and they said, "No, just to the Dells." (Which for those of you non midwesterners is in none other than apparently the suburb of Westconsin - Chicago.

When asked if she swam in Lake Michigan one of my students nearly screamed and said, "No way, my daddy said there are sharks in there."

I asked them if they had ever been treated differently because of the color of their skin. We were doing an activity with a Faith Ringgold book. They looked at me confused and asked if the fact that their parents wouldn't let them come in the corner store because they would ask for candy counted. It was quite cute.

Maybe even cuter was the idea that I was "mixed" and not white, but at the same time they totally knew I was white. When I would ask them they would say I was mixed because my hair was curly. But once we were watching some stupid Goosebumps video in the library and there were white main characters. The white girl got scared and screamed and they were like, "Aw white girls always scream.... no offense Ms. Alloy" to which I responded, "Well aren't I mixed." That got some laughs.

Ok that's all for now. I will compile more and make a second listing one day.

One more. The diarrhea/penis snipping student also was the one who when we were brainstorming long e words yelled out PENIS!! When I didn't respond he said, "PENIS.....and PEE." For short i words he yelled out "PENIS" (again). For the "oo" sound he said, "POOP."

Bagels Part Deux

So one of my favorite friends - Sara d came to visit (yes that's d with a lowercase on purpose!!!) this weekend. It was awesome. We chatted late into the evening Friday and then slept late on Saturday (if you don't count that I let Harper out at 4:30am). We drove into Ballard and walked around - did a little shopping at Buffalo Exchange - love that place. I tried on about 5 pairs of skinny jeans and hated them all. The best was the pair that were actually stuck ON my feet. I mean how was I supposed to get them on? And I love that they are about 8 inches too long. One day I will find my long lost skinny jeans. After our Ballard hang out (we ate lunch and met up with a friend of Sara's from L.A. who recently moved here) we made the dough for the BAGELS!!! Then we ran to the PCC to get stuff for "everything" topping. I might have stared at the container of Wheat Gluten for 5 minutes before I realized that even though it was calling itself "Wheat Gluten Flour" it was indeed just vital wheat gluten. We rushed home and primped for our night out and then we rolled the dough into bagel looking shapes.

While Tom was busy watching the Bulls lose to the Celtics - and yes he did BET against the Bulls. He won, but what kind of team spirit is that, we headed to the Park Pub down the street from our house. Lots of people from work and other friends met us out for a low-key and fun b-day celebration. I got some amazing Burts Bees stuff (love it - already using the lip balm and the hand salve), some wine, and a dozen amazing cupcakes. Possibly the best "gift" is knowing that Clark and Megan put a deposit down on a puppy that they will receive on New Years Eve. Now everyone obviously knows where I will be New Years Eve! I will be snuggling and talking baby talk to the puppy while Harper totally ignores it and pretends it does not exist. At least he won't chase it like it's a squirrel or cat.

So after beers and juice-like cider we came home. This morning Sara and I walked all the way up Phinney/Greenwood to 85th. I bought Harper an amazing red jacket for when we go snowshoeing as well as some "healing salve" (that I probably could have bought for humans at Walgreens for 1/5 of the price) for his super dry skin. The poor dog has little scabs where he scratches so much. Next on the agenda of insane spending of money - a humidifier. After our epic walk we went to the Ballard Farmer's Market and strolled around. We tasted a bit and then we treated ourselves (or so we thought) to some hot dogs. I got a regular hot dog and Sara got a chicken basil sausage. Seriously within 15 minutes of eating them we both felt strangely nauseous. Not sure what was up??? Maybe it was the funky tea that we tasted? But that can't be because we bought the hippie tea and drank it later with no nauseating feeling.

Then we made the bagels. The reason why they are bagels part deux is because while we did not follow the exact Cooks Illustrated recipe, we did add gluten this time. After seeing the dough (it was a totally different consistency) I was sure they would be amazing.

We boiled (30 seconds this time instead of 2 minutes) and baked - 14 minutes, on a pizza stone that was insanely hot. They turned out fantastic.

And that my friends is perfection. The bagel was chewy and crunchy. Salty and oniony and garlicky. AMAZING. The question is, will my Kitchenaid mixer ever work again. Ok it's not broken at all - but it was about to have a heart attack trying to kneed the dough. I suppose 7 cups of flour plus gluten is asking a lot of it.

And so as my parting birthday gift to myself - after dropping Sara off at the airport I decided to get a new phone. I was ready to buy something stupid because I was not prepared for the DROID update. However Tom called as I was walking in and instructed me to get a cool phone. So I got the little HTC Droid with all touch screen. I have no idea how to use it and I forgot to have them transfer my contacts so if you call and I say "hello?????" don't feel offended.

Happy bageling. I will be eating my everything bagels for quite a while. So if anyone is interested in making them, use the old recipe I have linked on here somewhere and then add 3 Tablespoons gluten. Also I am not sure that you need to make any sort of a "sponge". The Cooks Illustrated recipe does not call for a sponge that rises for 2 hours - so I dunno about that part. I would also divide your dough into at LEAST 18 parts. We did 13 the first time and had monster bagels, this time we did 16 and many were still gigantic. So I'd do 18 if possible.

Fee Fi Family

It has been two weekends in a row of FAMILY and I love it.

The house does get a bit filled up (by stinky gas some might say), but it gives me this weird feeling that my family (and Tom's...who I consider my own too) live right around the corner - instead of 9 million miles away.

It was mostly sunny and COLD this weekend. It felt like Chicago except that you could see the mountains and they were way better than corn fields. Friday night we went to dinner at Stumbling Goat - ok but too expensive for the quality of the food. Saturday we ate bagels and lox (I was too lazy to make my own bagels or lox). Tom and dad walked the dog and mom and I went to the Phinney Neighborhood Craft sale. There were some cute things there, but it was not that exciting. Mom bought what I think of as an, "old lady scarf." It's pretty and all, but not for me. We also bought some MINI teeny stamps that had been turned into puzzles. Very random.

For lunch we went to Paseo in Fremont. Holy hell that place is AMAZING. It serves Caribbean sandwiches and they are fantastic. We ate them at this park on West Smith Street in Magnolia. Tom read that it had a great view of Mt. Rainier (which was out....but only sort of out). We drove up there with these delicious smelling sandwiches and started to eat them outside. It was however way too cold to enjoy so we snapped some pictures and then went on our merry way to finish eating inside the house. Here is a pick of us at the top. The first one should show Rainier to the right of us....but for some reason it didn't show up in the picture.

 Not Mt. Rainier, but still a pretty view of the Cascades! BRRRR.

Here is me eating in typical fashion:

We had an "ok" dinner from Gorgeous George's - Greek/Israeli/Middle Eastern food. There was hummus, and there was something else that tasted insanely smokey. Anyone know what it was? It sort of looked like hummus.

Today we ate pancakes and then walked around the Ballard Farmer's Market. We bought almost nothing - how many root vegetables can one person have??? Then we went to buy a mattress and bed. We did not buy a bed frame, but we DID buy a bed. A Simmons Beauty Rest. We tested and tested and tested. Good God how the heck do you really know which one you will like? I think we are going to go for an LL Bean bed frame - what do you think?

And that is that. Now we are all having our asses whooped by my dad in Scrabble. Did you know "aa" is a word - well it is. It has something to do with a volcano. If you knew that then don't play me in Scrabble.

Tomorrow my parents leave. Sad. Can someone out there please convince them to come to Evanston for Christmas? While you are out there convincing them, please convince Tom that at the very least NEXT year we can get a Christmas tree. I have never had one and I want one. You'd think that by listening to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" on the loudest volume possible starting Dec. 1st that Tom would be in the spirit, but he is not! Even my pine-cone hanging decoration thing did not seem to win him over.

So tomorrow means no more Free-lloy family here, but it does mean that we are very very very close to my birthday! So something sad and something happy at the same time.