I cooked for the first time since 1987

Last night I made potato soup. Now that the Big Orange Baby steals all my food from me, the Big Orange desires to eat certain things. Normally, I just make Ali cook for me but I refuse to make her cook me things she can't eat. Every time I cook, Dave says it is the first time. This is not all the way true. While we could probably count the number of times I have cooked something since we have been together on one hand, it is not the first. Liz suggested we make a list of every time so when he says that we can refer to the list and prove him wrong. Emily noted, "you have a blog". So here is the list of everything I have ever cooked since I have known Dave. It is short.

1. Tuna noodle casserole. I don't remember what year. Maybe 2004ish
2. For Ali's birthday I had to make an "audition" chocolate torte a week before the actual event so she could make sure I wasn't incompetent.
3. The actual birthday chocolate torte.
4. Liz and I made pumpkin spice cookies. Liz mostly made this while I bossed her around which is how we work in the kitchen probably much to her dismay.
5. Liz and I make sweet potato wedges for every holiday meal. That is our only job before. She actually makes them by herself for all the Ohio meals because I am not at her house. I would help her if she wanted me to though. I do the dishes afterwards.
6. Chicken and noodles because we moved to NC and can't go to Nancy's Diner on Thursdays and I feel really bad about that. I never made it again even though I really should because it was actually pretty good. I even had to merge together a few recipes which is a huge feat for me.
7. Once I tried to make buckwheat noodles so Ali could have Yaki Soba. Big disaster. All of it went in the trash because it was so gross. I really shouldn't mention this. But it is the effort that truly counts.
8. Potato soup. Everyone who ate it said it was good. Liz and I rock. So there. We also made boston creme pie but that was from a box and so it doesn't count.

Look at that Dave, I made it onto two hands.

My house is better than your house...

Because we have a pool and a basketball court now.



This is our old house. Notice the front door has moved. The bricks are gone and the side deck is fenced in. I don't see the point of fencing in the deck. That's just like inside but colder.












See the pool where the garden used to be? I could have gotten into skimming the pool way better than weeding the garden. Also, you can't tell but they have a full basketball court that is paved and everything. The Serbonich's let all the trees grow so they have a very tidy forest next to them and the small trees that were there when we were little are now very big like the one behind the pool.

Here is the Stewart's old house. Their neighborhood is now pretty fancy. I don't remember them having that front porch but what do I know. I do remember there was a tire swing somewhere and we got lost in the very small patch of woods behind their house. Notice the stump of the tree that attracted the lightning that almost killed Ann.

Stewart's from the side view. Ali remembers that shed very clearly. I do not. I also couldn't find the pond she kept telling me was there. I could see the Davis' house from the front yard.

Do not play in the danger shed!!!! You will get in big trouble!!!

The shed that would not die. Looks exactly the same as when we lived there 20+ years ago.

This is where some of us went to elementary school. Albany Elementary is now Albany Consolidated School. I don't know what that means considering they have an all encompassing complex built on and around the old high school.

I did Kindergarten and 4th grade in these trailers. They may look less appealing but they had AC and private bathrooms.

ere is the playground that was built while we attended school there. To us it was state of the art. Then we moved to NH and had a 50 ft slide. This, not so great anymore.

Here is the general store where we bought tons of bubble gum and swedish fish. Even though it is now a pizza place/video store/tanning salon, it still makes my jaw hurt a little at the memory of 10 pieces of bubble gum in my mouth.

The middle section of this used to be the high school. It also used to look different. Now it is a giant complex that strethces on much beyond this picture and houses the entire district with the exception of Albany Consolidated School which houses a mystery.

Dinner Bells

Somebody stole Dave's identy and bought lots of incriminating crap. They somehow got his debit card number (he still has his card and we have never ever used it online) and bought a plane ticket, $1,100 of gift cards to Bed Bath and Beyond, paid their cell phone bill and had some phone sex. I called Bank of America and I must say they responed very efficiently. They had already reversed half of the transactions and they are crediting the remainder next business day. I, being the investigative type of person, decided to call all the places they bought stuff. It turns out that all the companies were already on to me when I called and refused to give me information for fear that I might try to handle the thief myself. I wouldn't have. I would have given the information to the police. The real reason I wanted to find out who it was is that I have seen those lovely commercials on identity theft where the identity thieves appear to be talking through the person that has the accounts. If I am to force Dave to do an impression I think I should know a little about the person that stole his identity. All the companies did say however that they weren't very smart about what they did and will easily be caught. Buying a plane ticket was really stupid. So was paying their cell phone bill for an existing account. Plus, now we all know how pervy he/she is for buying phone sex.

Dinner Bells

An haiku reaction to the gross invasion of privacy by my sister...

don't get in my blog
you are not the boss of me
i can harm your cat

What is Dinner Bell?

This is a dinner bell. -->

<-- This is also a dinner bell.