Apps and Apps: Fly on the Wall

  

 Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 3 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know I talk all the time about the frustrations I go through with auto correct, here's my latest:

PurDude loves sriracha, puts it on almost everything. There has, however, been a severe sriracha shortage for some time now. I saw that a local store, still out of the Huy Fong, had some sriracha made by tabasco. I thought it sounded promising, after all, tabasco does make hot sauce. So I thought maybe I'd buy some for the next time PurDude is home.

When he texted me that morning, I texted back:

Me: Have you found any sriracha lately? I found some from tabasco I thought we might try.

PurDude: I actually did find some at a drug store chain.

Me: What do you think of me getting the tabasco for you?

PurDude: I'm really not much of a smoker.

Huh? What the hell was that kid talking about? So I looked at my text. Yup, thanks to autocorrect, I just offered to buy my kid tobacco to put on his dinner.

 

 

I walk around barefoot, pretty much as often as I can. Especially in the warmer weather, but often even in the winter if I'm just doing stuff around the house.

Might not be what you do, but at least there's some logic, right?

Hubs wears socks year round, even in the summer when he's just in the house. On a hot summer day, even a warm day early in fall, he wears socks in the house, then takes them off to put his shoes on and go mow the lawn.

Can you explain that to me? Because he can't. Not in a way that makes sense, anyway.

 

 

I had just come back from an initial appointment with a new doctor.

 

Hubs: How'd it go?
Me: I think I need a new doctor.

Hubs: That was a new doctor.

Me: I know, but she didn't like my suggestion.

Hubs: What suggestion?
Me: The one I made when I first saw her.

Hubs: And what was that?

Me: That maybe she should finish high school before I let her examine me.

Hubs (sighing): Yeah, I think you need a new doctor.

 

 

 

 

I had a birthday this month. Hubs went out and got me Dunkin Munchkins to have with my coffee. I love them but rarely have them.

 

Hubs (coming in the house): I got you some Dunkin Munchkins to start your day today.

Me (watching him open the box and start taking out donut hole after donut hole): What are you doing?

Hubs: Having some donuts.

Me: I thought those were for me.

Hubs: You're sharing.

 

 

We were in line waiting for our flu shot when we realized the woman in front of us is someone we hadn't seen in a long time. While we waited, we chatted and caught up on what was going on with our kids. Turns out, one of hers lives not far from PurDude. 

 

Her: So what does PurDude do in Boulder?
Me: He works for PST, a subsidiary of Union Pacific.

Her: Oh, what does he do?
Me: He's a computer programmer. Basically he develops apps.

Her: Appetizers?
Me: Ummm . . . no . . . that's me.

 

Mini Seafood Cups

College Boy was in the kitchen, wearing just a pair of pants, eating breakfast before getting in the shower. I was sitting on the couch drinking my coffee.

College Boy: Can you turn on the news?
Me (turning it on): Sure.

College Boy: Can you turn it up?
Me: I'll turn it up a bit, but I don't want my ears to bleed.

A few minutes later, he was eating and I decided to go shower. 

College Boy: Now that you're leaving, turn up the volume.

Me (thinking a "please" would be nice): Do you want to finish that sentence?
College Boy: Or else.

Well, I guess that's another way to go.

 

 

 

I turned up the volume for him, walked into the kitchen to put my mug in the dishwasher:

College Boy: A fly just landed on my back.

Me: What?
College Boy: There was a fly buzzing around the kitchen and I just felt him land on my back.

I look, and there is a fly on his back. I grab the fly swatter, raise it above my head and start walking towards him.

College Boy: Don't you dare touch that disgusting fly swatter to my bare skin.

Me: Do you want to finish that sentence?
College Boy: Or else!

Just for the record, I was never going to hit him with that fly swatter, but oh, the look on his face. Priceless. 

 

Unlike most people, I don't do everything on my cell. I use a laptop, it works best for the amount of blog writing I do, as well as for editing pics and making graphics.

 

Lately, some of my laptop keys don't consistently make a connection. It's spotty, sometimes I can type normally, other times, I have so much trouble I end up finding, when I edit, that letters have been left out of words. 

 

I do edit when I write blog posts, but when I'm answering people in the thread of my FB posts, I generally don't, just type up my answer and move on.

 

So that's my excuse. Now the story:
 

I run a daily (Monday through Friday) Baking In A Tornado food based Wordle game. Each day I post a link to the puzzle and people go, play, then come back and post their results for me to see how they did. I then respond.

 

One day, someone had guessed my word in 2 tries. Most of the others had taken 3 tries or more. She posted her results with the comment "best score on this thread!" To which I responded, "yes, so far today." 

 

FB notified me later that she had responded to my comment. When I looked, her response was "???"

 

Unsure of what she was questioning, I looked at what I'd said to her. Apparently, not only was the space between the last two words gone, but so was the "oday."

 

So what I'd actually said to her was "yes, so fart."

 

And now I'll be editing all of my comments on FB too.

 

 

Me: We're having a bit of a weird dinner.

Hubs: What do you mean?

Well, I had some chicken left from the other night when we had roasted chicken so I thought I'm make sandwiches.

Hubs: OK.

Me: And I'm trying out a new appetizer recipe, so I thought we'd have those and some fresh fruit with our sandwiches.

Hubs: Sounds good.

 

Later, we sat down to dinner. I waited for him to try the appetizers to see what he thought.

 

Hubs: They're good!

Me: Why do you sound surprised?

Hubs: No, I said they're good?

Me: Are you asking me?

Hubs: No! I like them! They're good!

Me: There you go . . . 

Hubs: Is it safe to eat my dinner now?
Me: Are you asking me?

Hubs: Yes, just, you know, checking.

 

 

I was texting with PurDude, who often goes on trips with his friends from high school. Since he knows few people in Boulder, I love that he does this. But around the holiday season, he usually comes home.

PurDude: My friends and I are going to San Fransisco next month.

I started to panic, he usually comes here in the middle of November and stays through most of December.

Me: Sounds like fun. When are you going? I was hoping you were planning to come here next month.

PurDude. We're going the first week of November. I'd be open to coming home for Thanksgiving, but I haven't received an invite yet.

Invite?

Me: Seriously? This is your home. OK, fine. You're invited to visit from the 2nd week in November until forever. RSVP at your convenience. Today is good . . .

 

 

 

Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:

Menopausal Mother 

The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver

Mini Seafood Cups

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients: 

1 TBSP butter

8 oz bay scallops

salt and pepper

1 cup extra small shrimp, peeled, deveined, tail off

4 TBSP Alouette garlic and herb cheese

1 tsp lemon juice

8 Ritz crackers, crushed, divided

24 wonton wrappers

Directions:
*Melt the butter in a saute pan over medium heat.

*Pat the shrimp and scallops dry, cut them in half and add to the pan, cook and stir until cooked, the shrimp will be pink and the scallops will be white and no longer opaque. Remove from heat and drain well.

*Whisk together the cheese and lemon juice. Add the seafood and mix well. Add half of the crushed crackers and mix again. Set aside.

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

*Grease 24 mini muffin wells with non stick spray. Press the center of each wonton shell into each of the wells. Divide the seafood mixture into the center of each wonton wrapper. Top with the remaining crushed crackers.

*Bake for 10 minutes.

 

Hair Dryer Legality: Fly on the Wall

 

 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.

Hubs walks into our office, I'm sitting in the recliner looking quizically at my Kindle.

 

Me: I think my Kindle is punking me.

Hubs: Huh?

Me: This morning when I started reading, it said I had an hour and a half left to this book.

Hubs: OK?

Me: I read for almost an hour, went to fold the laundry, came back, opened my Kindle and it says I have an hour and 15 minutes left to this book.

Hubs: The Kindle can't punk you.

Me: What then?
Hubs: The book is probably just getting longer.

 

 

 

What if I were to show you this picture and tell you that nobody admits to taking bite of dessert and leaving it on the serving plate? I bet you'd say something like "that's what happens when you live with kids." 

That's what I would have said a few years ago too, and with a laugh.

 

What would I say now? 

Well, right now I live with only adults . . .

 

 

Sometimes I really do worry about that man:

 

Hubs: I need to go out and buy a hair dryer, mine just stopped working.

Me: Just take mine, we have the exact same kind.

Hubs: But you need yours.

Me (rolling my eyes, just a bit): First of all, I haven't dried my hair in two years, thanks for noticing the mass of curls. And second, although it could well be coming, the Supreme Court has not yet outlawed two people using the same hair dryer.

 

OK, so I was rolling my eyes more than just a little bit. But really . . .

 

But then, sometimes he worries about me:

I came down from the shower, did a few things I needed to do and went to sit down at the kitchen counter. Hubs comes over and he's standing there with a funny look on his face.

 

Hubs: You feeling OK?
Me: Yeah, why?

Hubs: Well, you just put your clothes in the trash and your Qtip in the washing machine.

Me: I meant to do that.

What else could I say?

 

Hubs was going to stop at the store to pick up just a few things. As I've said many times before, whenever he goes to the store, he ends up calling me at least 5 times to answer questions, or verbally walk him through the aisles.

 

As I was sitting there waiting for the 4th call, he walked into the house. Not a good sign.

 

Me (inspecting what's in the bags): Wait! You have to go back.

Hubs: Why?

Me: You only called me 3 times.

Hubs (reaching for his cell and calling my cell): Oh, OK, I'll just call you a few times from here. 

 

And he did.

 

Peach Upside Down Cake

 

When I actually get down to creating a recipe depends on a lot of things, when it's all come together in my head, when I have all the ingredients, when the lighting is right for an attempt at the least crappy picture, then I just go for a first attempt, followed by taste testing for any adjustments.

 

Me: Want to try a cocktail?

Hubs: It's 10:30 in the morning.

Me: And?

 

 

 

Hubs and I were watching the Red Sox when one of the players got hit by the ball and had to leave the game.

Hubs: I hope he's OK, we need all of our best players healthy.

Me: I know, hopefully he'll be able to return for tomorrow's game.

Just then, the announcer gave an update, the player has a contusion on his right hand.

Hubs: What was that they say he has?

Me: A boo-boo.

 

College Boy came into the kitchen as I was trying to get the top off of the soda bottle. Seeing me struggling, he took it and opened it.

 

College Boy: I hear that's a sign that you're getting old, when you can get the tops off of bottles.

Me: No, I'm not getting old, they're just putting them on tighter.

College Boy (sarcastically): Yeah, that's it. 

Later . . .

Me: I guess I am getting old after all.

College Boy: Because you couldn't get the top off of the soda bottle?
Me: No, because I couldn't get it back on.

 

 

 

I get a whole lot of junk mail for the boys, unfortunately, most of it is cigarette enticements. Recently I got a different one for PurDude, and just had to text him a picture.

 

 

 

Me: Sam's Club is offering you diapers. Guess the mom's the last to know, I didn't even realize you were having a problem.

Yeah, I may need to get a life.

 

 

 

 

Hubs walks in the house and hands me a lottery ticket.

Hubs: I bought you a ticket, the jackpot is up to 700 million.

Me: Oh, that's going to be a hard choice if I win.

Hubs: Hard choice?
Me: Yes, should I use it to buy groceries for the week? Or a tank of gas?

 

 

Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:

Menopausal Mother 

The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver

Go Mama O. 

 

Peach Upside Down Cake

                                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients: 

2 peaches

3 TBSP butter

6 TBSP brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup chopped pecans

1 tsp flour 

1/3 cup peach preserves

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 box yellow cake mix

1 box (3 oz) peach jello mix

4 eggs

1 cup water

1/2 cup oil

Directions:
*Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bundt pan.

*Slice the peaches, discard the pit.

*Melt the butter, mix in the brown sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon, and pour evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan. Arrange the peach slices all around the bottom of the pan to cover the entire bottom. Press them gently into the butter mixture.

*Whisk together the preserves and remaining cinnamon. Set aside.

*In a large bowl, whisk the cake mix and the jello mix together. Add the eggs, water, and oil. Beat for 2 minutes.

*Toss the pecans with the flour and fold into the batter.

*Pour about half of the cake batter over the peaches in the bundt pan. Using a toothpick, swirl the preserves around just the top of the batter. Top with the remaining batter.

*Bake for 35 - 40 minutes, until the center springs back to the touch.

*Allow to sit in the bundt pan for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges, then flip over onto a serving plate but do not remove the pan. Allow to sit for another 10 minutes before carefully removing the pan and allowing the cake to cool.

Good Gravy and Ghost Pepper Chips: Fly on the Wall

 

 Welcome to a monthly Fly on the Wall group post. Today 3 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.

My name is Karen and I'm a Fresca addict.

 

Hubs (coming up from the man cave): Today's your lucky day.

Me: Sorry, I've got a headache.

Hubs looks at me, rolls his eyes, shakes his head and goes back downstairs.

I guess he can't take a joke. But then I think I lost out, 'cause I really want to know how it's my lucky day, so I go down to the man cave.

Me: So how is it my lucky day?

We played that "now I'm not telling you" game for a while (don't roll your eyes, you know you do it too), and finally he gives in.

Hubs: I just read that they're coming out with alcoholic fresca.

Me (with my eyes lighting up): Really?
Hubs: Yes. Now you're going to have to be careful when you reach for a fresca.

Me: Not hardly.

That, after all, is the the epitome of a win/win.

 

Hubs asked me to help him with something online (which he does fairly often) one morning while I was pouring my coffee.

Hubs: When you get a minute, can you help me with this order I'm trying to place?
Me: Do you need me right now?
Hubs: No, I'm running out to put gas in my car, how about around lunchtime?

Me: I'll see if I'm done by then.

Hubs: That's in 5 hours, what are you doing, baking?
Me: No.

Hubs: Laundry?
Me: No.

Hubs: Are you writing a blog post?
Me: No.

Hubs: What are you doing that takes half the day?
Me: Well, I've got Wordle, Wordle2, Quordle, my Curdle, Heardle, Nerdle, the second Wordle2 . . . maybe Jewdle, and Lewdle

Hubs: Ha, ha, see you at lunch.

I guess he thinks I'm kidding.

I had made my Potato Crusted Meatloaf. I have to admit that I'm not a meatloaf lover, but this one I do like. Obviously a lot of other people do to, the post has 25,000 page views.

But since I don't love it, I make it for Hubs. I go to all the trouble of mixing up the meatloaf, cooking it, making the mashed potato topping, applying to the hot meatloaf and continuing to cook while I make a mixed vegetable to go with it. The whole process takes a couple of hours. I serve a beef gravy over the meatloaf, but it's the only thing I don't make myself, I buy a name brand gravy.

I call Hubs for dinner and after 2 hours of cooking, I'm excited to see him enjoy the dinner I made him. He looks at the meatloaf and I can see he's happy with dinner. He sits down and starts to eat.

Hubs: The gravy's really good.

You know that old saying "if looks could kill?" Yeah, that. I gave him such a wide eyed dirty look I think my eyes almost popped out of my head. 

 

I grew up with Dunkin' Donuts, pretty much on every corner. Of course, when I moved to the Midwest, there were none here. But eventually the coffee made it into the stores and a few of the shops opened up.

I love their donuts, and especially their little munchkins, but I rarely had them at home, and almost never here. One day recently, Hubs had gone out in the morning and on the way home stopped by a Dunkin' that he saw on the way.

Hubs (walking in the door): I got you something.

Me: What?

Hubs (handing me a box of Dunkin' munchkins): Those donut holes you love, I got a box of assorted.

Me: Wow, thank you. Just for being so nice, you can have one.

Hubs: Laughing, I know you're usually sarcastic, but I'm guessing that this time when you say one, you mean one.

Me: Did you know today is National Women's Day?

Hubs: I didn't know that.

Me: Duh, you're supposed to say "I knew that."

Hubs (laughing): I knew that.

Me: Sorry, you're a day late and a donut short.

 

 

I had made dinner and was trying out a new recipe, Garlic Spirals. College Boy really liked them.

College Boy: You should open a restaurant.

Me (laughing): No way, my food is just everyday family stuff, nothing special.

College Boy: You'd do fine, do you have any idea what kind of crap some of those places serve?
Me: {{blink, blink}}. Did that maybe not come out right?

College Boy (laughing): Maybe . . .

 

 

Garlic Spirals

Something I've been trying to get through to Hubs for years, he finally learned the hard way this month.

 

PurDude like really, really, hot spicy food. In fact, he puts sriracha on pretty much everything. College Boy and I like hot food too (but don't put sriracha on everything). Hubs prefers his spicy food more of a medium hot.

College Boy had brought some ghost pepper chips (yikes) and was telling me he likes the flavor, but can only eat a few at a time. He was handing one to me, chiding me to try it when Hubs walked in the room. He only heard College Boy tell me to try it, but nothing about it.

Hubs grabs the chip, laughs and says "I'll take that," as he goes to put it in my mouth.

Me: NO!

Hubs: What, you can't share? He has more.

Me: Don't . . .

 

As I'm in mid sentence, Hubs puts the chip in his mouth and heads downstairs.

 

. . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1

 

Hubs: Aaaargh.

 

After about 1000 years of marriage, I think he's finally figured out that maybe he should listen to me. 

 

 

PurDude and I had been talking about Tom Brady. I had been a big fan while he was with the home team, but thought he should have retired from New England and didn't like his choice to go to Tampa. 

 

I lost all respect for him when his retirement statement did not mention the team that gave him his break, the fans who loved him, or anything else about the first 20 years of his 22 year career.

 

PurDude, like many people, felt that Kraft should and would sign Brady so he could retire as a Pat. I, like many other people, felt that he dissed us all and really hoped that didn't happen.

PurDude: You're delusional if you think Brady dissed the Patriots or the fans.

Me: Could you maybe think of a nicer way to talk to your mom than calling her delusional?

PurDude: Sure. If you think Brady dissed the Patriots or the fans, you've finally lost your grip on reality.

 

OK, guess that's what I get for asking. 

 

 

Hubs: You forgot to remind me to work on the sink this afternoon.

Me (to College Boy): You forgot to remind me to remind dad to work on the sink this afternoon.
College Boy: You never asked me to remind you to remind dad to work on the sink this afternoon.

Me (to Hubs): Well, you forgot to remind College Boy to remind me to remind you to work on the sink this afternoon.
Hubs: Well, PurDude forgot to remind me to remind College Boy to remind you to remind me to work on the sink this afternoon.

Me: So it's PurDude's fault. And he'll never know, 'cause he's 8 hours away and none of us are going to remember to tell him. Genius.

 

I'd been trying different juices for Hubs to have with breakfast. I walked into the kitchen and he had the cereal, milk, and juice out and was grabbing a bowl and a glass.

 

Me: What are you thinking about the different juices I've been trying?
Hubs (pouring juice): I've liked them all, actually.

Me: You must really like this one, though.

Hubs: It's as good as all of the others.

Me: Looks like you like it a lot better than most.

Hubs: Why do you say that?
Me: Because you just poured it into your cereal.

 

 

 

I'm a very light sleeper, the joke is that if the neighbor sneezes in the middle of the night, I'll wake up. Obviously the light sleeping was only enhanced by having kids. Even now, with adult kids, whenever they're in the house, I'm hyper aware of them.

 

Hubs, on the other hand, has been known to sleep through the tornado sirens, and those things are pretty loud.

 

As I age though, I find that I need my sleep more, or maybe I need to make up for not sleeping through the night. Either way, although College Boy was here, I was admittedly only semi awake when I talked to him in the middle of the night.  

 

College Boy (whispering from my doorway): Good night.

Me: What was all that banging coming from the kitchen.

College Boy: I had to kill a man.

Me: OK, sleep well.

 

 

 

Now click on the links below for a peek into some other homes:

Menopausal Mother 

The Diary of an Alzheimer's Caregiver

Garlic Spirals        

                                                       ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Printable Recipe

Ingredients: 

1# frozen bread loaf

4 TBSP butter, divided

1 clove minced garlic

1 tsp garlic powder, divided

Directions:
*Wrap the dough in greased plastic wrap and refrigerate to thaw overnight.

*Grease a 9 X 13 baking pan. Melt 3 TBSP of the butter with the clove of garlic. Set aside.

*Flour your counter, unwrap the dough and roll out to about 10 inches wide to about 24 inches long.

*Pour the melted butter and garlic over the dough. Use a pastry brush to spread the butter to completely cover the dough. Sprinkle with 3/4 tsp garlic powder.

*Roll the dough, using the long side, as tightly as you can, to form about a 24 inch log. Cut into 24 one inch circles. Place them into the prepared pan. 

*Melt the remaining butter and garlic powder. Gently brush onto the tops of the rolls. Cover with plastic wrap and place into a cold oven for about 5 - 7 hours, until they rise. Don't turn the oven on.

*Remove the rolls from the oven, discard the plastic wrap and turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Bake the rolls for 25 minutes.