Welcome
to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 4 bloggers are inviting
you to catch a glimpse of what you’d see if you were a fly on the wall
in our homes. Come on in and buzz around my house. At the end of my post
you’ll find links to this month’s other participants’ posts.
I'm still not going into stores and have resigned myself to relying on picking up my groceries. There's good news and bad news, of course. If they're out of an ingredient and don't have an acceptable substitute, it comes off my bill, budget good news. But if I can't come up with a creative substitute on my own, I can't make the recipe I'd needed that ingredient for.
Hubs does the pick up, and a few weeks ago he brought the groceries in, smiling. It's not often a chore he enjoys.
Me: You're happy.
Hubs: I'm looking younger.
Me: Huh?
Hubs: Last week we got a bottle of wine, and they just put it in with our groceries.
Me: And?
Hubs: This week we got beer and they carded me before they'd put it in the car.
Me: Hold on to that feeling, it could be fleeting.
Hubs: Why?
Me: How are you gonna feel if they don't card you again next week?
While PurDude was home, I made sure to have him do all the online and blog stuff I don't know how to do. I had come to depend on him for that kind of thing, and it got really difficult for me when he moved away. When I get him home, I have to make the most of it.
And sometimes things come up while he's here. Which is perfect timing as far as I'm concerned. Even if I do have to endure eye rolls. Like this conversation:
Me: My IPad is runny really really slowly.
PurDude: Let me look at it.
PurDude looks at the IPad for a few minutes, then hands it back to me. I click on an app and can see that it's much faster.
Me: It's working. What did you do?
PurDude (rolling his eyes): I closed the 700 apps you had open.
Me: Oh. I thought they closed when I clicked out of them.
PurDude: You didn't know you had to close the apps? How long have they all been open?
Me: I'm guessing since the last time you were home. So . . . about a year.
And about that time I was treated to a second eye roll. All in about a 10 second span. Am I good or what?
I was watching one of my true murder shows after dinner one night when PurDude came down the stairs. He sat down to see what I was watching. It was towards the end of the show and the police were interviewing the killer. When asked why she killed her friend's husband, she said it was because her friend had asked her to.
Me: If someone asks you to kill someone, say "no."
PurDude: But what if they ask nicely?
Me: I'm still gonna go with you saying "no."
PurDude had talked about staying just through Thanksgiving but I, of course, had other plans. He should stay through his birthday at least, right? That would keep him here through most of March. Just as, you know, a little insurance policy, this conversation may have happened:
Me: Take PurDude down to the man cave and put on a football game, really loud.
Hubs: Should I ask why?
Me: Do you think you'd want to know?
Hubs: No, but I'll be brave and ask anyway. Why?
Me: I want to be sure he stays longer than he'd planned.
Hubs: How is watching a football game with me in the basement going to make that happen?
Me: While you're down there, I'm going out to the garage to take the battery out of his car.
Some husbands are so kind and thoughtful. Others, well, they weren't raised that way and some just haven't quite gotten the whole way there.
I was making dinner on the grill and, of course, it got cold and rainy. I had lit the grill and was about to go out and put the chicken on to cook. My husband had come into the kitchen and saw me holding the platter of chicken headed out to the porch.
So, you know what he did?
Yup, he ran over and held the door open for me.
Bacon Wrapped Chicken in Pineapple Barbecue Sauce
Me: Oh, gross, that's disgusting. I'd never buy that.
Hubs: What is?
Me: This jam I'm looking at on the grocery store website.
Hubs: What is it?
Me: Fig and Lemon Jam.
Hubs: That actually sounds really good. Maybe we should try it.
Me: I don't think so, look at the ingredients:
Hubs: Orange pee? Yeah, that's a hard pass.
Still on the website and once again I'm perplexed by what I see.
Me: Do you think Betty Crocker puts gold in their chocolate frosting? Or maybe caviar? Truffles?
Hubs: What are you talking about now?
Me: I'm still on the website, how much do you think a 13 oz can of chocolate frosting costs?
Hubs: You know me, no idea.
Me: Well, the Hershey's one is $1.50.
Hubs: Well, since you're asking if they put gold in theirs, I'm guessing maybe theirs is $3.00.
Me: No. Look at this:
Hubs: Yeah, I'm guessing there's gold, caviar AND truffles in there. But don't buy it.
PurDude, Hubs and I had been watching the first game of a basketball challenge. Purdue had won the first game, so they'd be playing a game in the next round the next day.
Me: What time do they play tomorrow?
Hubs: I don't know.
PurDude: I don't either.
Me: I'll check online. The ESPN website will have the schedule.
I go to the ESPN website, and navigate over to the NCAAM page, then click on "schedule."
PurDude: What did you find?
Me: I don't understand, I can't find anything on this schedule for tomorrow. I don't even recognize any of these names.
PurDude looks over at my laptop and rolls his eyes.
Me: Are you rolling your eyes at me?
PurDude: Do you think there's a school called Cage Warriors?
Me: No. I told you I didn't recognize any school names.
PurDude: That's because you're on the ESPN schedule page for the MMA.
Me: Oh, the wrong page, that explains a lot.
This time I think I actually heard him roll his eyes.
For that first Purdue tournament game, some of our cable boxes were malfunctioning and we could only get the channel showing the tournament on one television. The next morning, Thanksgiving Day, the other TV stopped getting it too. If we couldn't get it to work, we couldn't watch any of the tournament all weekend long.
We called our cable company and all the tech could tell us on the phone is that he had no idea what was happening, but he could schedule a technician to come out sometime next week. I was furious.
PurDude woke up and we told him the situation.
PurDude: We'll just have to go watch at my house.
Me: That's an 8 hour drive from here.
PurDude: And what's your point?
PS: This is why I love social media. I tagged the company in a tweet saying they'd ruined a lot of our family time over Thanksgiving weekend. They responded and over the next half hour we communicated back and forth via DM. Eventually she gave us something we could try and it worked.
Getting old sucks, example # 743:
With
all of these hungry men in the house, I'd go to bed with a full fridge
and pantry and wake up to pretty much nothing. So I had to start hiding
things that could possibly be eaten as a snack, but that I needed as
ingredients for a recipe.
Problem is, with some of the items, I just can't remember where I hid them.
And
although I'm aggravated with myself, I keep picturing, some years in
the future when we sell the house and move, finding these little hidden
gems and thinking "ah, of course, that's where I hid that can of cashews
back in 2020."
Go Mama O.
Bacon Wrapped Chicken in Pineapple Barbecue Sauce
©www.BakingInATornado.com
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
1 (12 oz) package of center cut bacon
about 1 1/3# thin sliced chicken
garlic powder
1 cup barbecue sauce
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup crushed pineapple (not drained)
1/3 cup frozen chopped onion
Directions:
*Grease an 8 X 11 baking dish.
*Par cook the bacon. I cook 1/2 of the package at a time for about 3 minutes in the microwave. Set aside.
*Cut
the chicken into the same number of pieces as slices of bacon that you
have. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with garlic powder.
*Roll each piece of chicken in a slice of bacon, secure with a toothpick and arrange in the baking dish.
*Mix
together the barbecue sauce, maple syrup, pineapple (and juice), and
onion. Pour over the chicken and cover with heavy foil.
*NOTE: you
can cook now or refrigerate for up to a day to cook later. If cooking
later, take out of the refrigerator one hour before cooking.
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken in the oven, covered with the tin foil, and bake for 1 1/2 hours.