This guy grilled steaks for us tonight while I hung out on the couch drinking red wine and watching DVR’ed episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. Then we went to watch Gabby sing at a Coffee House, and chased that with a little more red wine and some good conversation.
I love how often I get to categorize my posts as “daily, happy, zack.” That man makes me happy.
Today I had at least 40% of that rock lifted off of my shoulders. I promise I’ll lift the shroud of secrecy soon. Until then, just know that I appreciated your words of encouragement. Thanks.
During October, the nieces, Abbie and Kate, celebrated their 3rd and 2nd birthdays respectively. Sarah1 and Matt decided to throw them a joint party on Halloween, and invited all the girl’s friends to come over in costume for some cupcake-in-a-cone decorating and a hayride. It was a total blast, and I took some pictures of the event.
Party favors hanging out with the cupcakes pre-party.
Abbie and her red-headed friend Brookie munch down on some freshly frosted and sprinkled cupcakes. I especially like that Abbie is tackling the far side of her cone in this picture, and that Brookie is about to curl her fist into a cartoonish “THIS IS THE ULTIMATE POWER” victory pose. They were very excited about the frosting and the sprinkles and the freedom to devour as much of them as humanly possible.
Showing off their hard work for the camera.
These boys, as you can probably tell, are pirates. I tried for the first, oh, 3 hours of the party to get them to give me a pirate-y pose. I couldn’t get them to so much as growl at me, though. Nary a hook was raised in my general direction despite much begging. Finally I realized that their costumes were way more sophisticated than I’d originally understood. They weren’t just any old pirates. More specifically, they were The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. You see? That makes a lot more sense. Looks like a pirate, smells like a pirate, but doesn’t act like a pirate? That’s a Pirate Who Doesn’t Do Anything. Can I get an Amen from the Veggie Tales crowd?
Really, though, the problem was that they had no clue who I was or why I kept asking them to thwack me with a sword or order me to walk the plank. They just thought I was real weird. Right at the end of the party, their mom, this lovely lady with the awesome feather-lashes, came’round and asked me to take a picture of them together. They smiled for her, no problem.
And finally, before I head off to bed for the evening, here’s a picture of Abbie and Brookie’s feet as they stood at the table decorating the cupcakes, and also the floor, with many, many layers of sprinkles.
If you want to see more pictures, there’s some posted on my flickr account, and if you want to see The Most Pictures, I posted all of the shots from the party on my facebook.
My life right now feels like either I’m balancing this rock on my head, or it is CRUSHING ME ALIVE.
One or the other. I can’t decide which.
Right this very moment? Crushing me alive is a twee bit more accurate.
A Conversation While Unloading the Groceries
Zack: You leave your trash in the weirdest places.
Me: <without even looking> That’s not mine.
Zack: Oh yes it is. <laughing> The sink, on the counter, and now in the fridge. You are so weird.
Me: <looks up to see that he’s holding a string cheese wrapper in his hand. aware that I am the only person in our marriage who eats string cheese while staring into the fridge.> Seriously, not me at all.
Zack: <laughing some more> Yes it is.
Me: I would never ever eat a string cheese while staring into the fridge looking for something to eat. That doesn’t sound like me at all. Must have been someone else.
Zack: Then I guess this one isn’t yours, either? <holding up a second string cheese wrapper, wearing the grin of a person who knows he’s won.>
My salsa is ones of Zack’s favorite things to eat. He acts like I’m a genius food magician every time I make it. When ever I mix up a batch, I always make an entire blender full of salsa. Because he eats The Whole Blender full. The WHOLE blender. (OK, partly because I don’t know how to make a half-a-blender, and partly because of Zack’s outlandish salsa consuming abilities. But whatever.)
Secretly, I make the salsa because it’s the only way I can get him to willingly eat vegetables. But that’s not the point.
Today after Zack and I got back from our weekly trip to the grocery store, I pulled out all the ingredients to make the salsa. I also pulled out all the ingredients for about 3 different meals because I was cooking all the food that was going to go bad soon if I didn’t make it into something in a hurry. Zack figured out that I was going to be making salsa, so he hung around the kitchen for longer than usual. When I didn’t start taking immediate strides towards a finished salsa product, Zack started getting anxious. I encouraged him to just go ahead and start the process by chopping up the jalapenos. When he finished with that, I had him drop in the onions. Then the cilantro. Then before we knew it, Zack had made himself his very own blender full of salsa.
As he finished crunching the last bit of salt into the blender, I said, “That’s it. All done.” And he was like, Really? That’s it? And I said, Yeah! You’ve officially made yourself your very first blender-o-salsa! He’s been proud as a peacock ever since, strutting around the house with a bowl of it practically glued to his left hand, dipping chips with the right. He was so happy with his salsaccomplishments that he didn’t even protest when I stole the remote from him and changed the channel from a PBS special on the Hoover Dam to House.
