Living in America... visitors welcome

[SuperBunny]

East Coast
MaNanny - Boston
Twinmommytobe - Boston
MuminCT - CT
Greatgooglymoogly - NY State
Yesthereare4ofthem - NY State
Brooklynmom - NYC
alarkaspree - NYC
MKG - New Jersey
Mummimamma - PA
Poetmum - PA
Twirl - MD

South
Earlybird - TN
jabberwocky - AR
Sunchowder - Florida
Marls001 - Bentonville, AR
Tinpot - NC
MadameDeathStare- AL

Midwest
SuperBunny- Chicago
Dodgykeeper - Dayton, OH
Chocchipcookie - Ohio
MonkeyLover
KickAssAngel - Ann Arbor, MI
MumofFivemeanschaos

Rockies
Alipiggie - Boulder, CO
Ribena

Northwest
AnnieLaurie - Seattle, WA
Dooneygirl - Oregon City, OR

California
SittingBull - nr San Francisco
Califrau - Milpitas
loopsngeorge - Brentwood, LA
Syd - Manhattan Beach, LA
SofiaAmes - LA
LATyke - Redondo Beach
CarmenSanDiego - San Diego

Texas
Texan - Dallas
Tiggyhop - Houston
Vixie78 - Houston
BananaPudding - Austin
Cosmicdust - East Texas

Canada
Hellish - Ottawa
Shouldlistenedtomymum - Hamilton
Nooka - BC
Jacksmama - Langley

Exotic Islands
Anorak - Bermuda
cp - Trinidad
Barefeete - BVI

Brazil
Albert

I love the word spiffy. It is one of my favorites.

I love canned pumpkin. I go to the place that isn't Costco but does industrial sized things and you have to pay cash and get giant thingies of canned pumpkin, because we put them in everything.

I DO do health by stealth. I forgot. I make a polenta lasagna out of those polenta rounds, and I call it polenta cookie lasagna.

I am really lame. I got my birthday present today (early). I had our ducts cleaned.

how absolutely spiffing!

That was your birthday present?

What else do you put pumpkin in. I am probably more stealthy than I first thought but more for my benefit - I am pickier than DS

Please tell me more about polenta lasagna. I cannot cook polenta.

aaaand, we're talking about food ... again.

I also asked for a pair of black pants. He chose the ducts. I know it is beyond lame, but I hate how dusty my house has been since we moved here. And I've had a pop can and several pieces of paper come up through the vents over the years. I notice that the kids cough a lot when the heat comes on and they're sick, and wonder if it makes Colin's croup worse. The guy said that there is a way to somehow reverse the air flow and have the furnace suck in air from the house when the furnace is installed, and he wonders if the contractors accidentally did that when they built the house, because he found sheet rock dust and particles in the furnace, and that is the only way he can think they would get there. He said it was in the blower, and that was circulating it around the house. Hopefully it helps. You wouldn't believe the crap he pulled out of the vents.

Pancakes mostly. My two are pancake freaks. And tomato sauce like you. And most baked goods that aren't dessert. And some that are dessert. I figure the extra fiber helps.

Polenta lasanga you use those tubes and don't have to worry about cooking it.

Have something else better to talk about, Kickass?

Always food Kickass, always

Cripes, Dooney - hope it helps. Recipe looks good, ta.

So, Kickass, um... how's the weather?

lovely, thanks.

planning a bbq tomorrow as meant to be in the 70s. yeah!!

(see, food & weather in one sentence - perfection)

It was in the high 40's here yesterday. Low 60's today, and supposed to be 80 on Sunday here.

Oh, I know. There were swarms and swarms of flies here outside today, we had to go inside when we went out to play. I learned today that flies have sex, because there were flies all over our house all doing the same thing, which looked like they were having sex, and so I had to Google it. There had to be thousands just in the area around our house. My friend had the same thing at her DD's school about 3 miles away. They were here all afternoon, but thankfully are gone.

V good Kickass. 70s here today and tomorrow, hooray! Cold again on Sunday though.

Interesting flies, Dooney.

Um, food. And weather. Other than that, I got nothing.

Sorry I've been a bit AWOL. computer problems at home, traveling with work, wishing I could clone myself for a bit

Haven't been able to try out Sneaky Chef yet but I'm planning on doing the PB & J muffins on Sunday.

dooney, we had one of those special filters at our house in TN and the air was soooo much better. We're going to get one installed at our current house soon as the dcs have been coughing at night with all the pollen.

Just found out there is a new Pepsi made with natural sugar!

Jabber, you must report back about the muffins!

Hooray for sugar in Pepsi. Real sugar! Wow!

Is that one of those ionized electric ones that goes in your furnace and traps everything. Sounds great, except for the $2000 price tag.

Colin's sick again. When I helped in his class this week, there was a girl that was green snotting all over the place the entire time. The teacher had to keep getting on her to wash her hands after blowing her nose, and asked her didn't she do that at home. The girl said no, they don't bother washing their hands because they didn't have soap. She's a little smart-mouth, so we thought she was joking, and the teacher said she was sure that they had soap at home, and the girl said that the only place there was soap in the house was in mommy and daddy's bathroom. Eeew. But anyway, he was sick, and he crouped, but it was such a half-assed croup that all I did was give him some turmeric and called it good.

Are children really expected to wash their hands every time they blow their noses in the US? dd would be in and out of the classroom like a yo yo when she has a cold. They did require hand sanitizer as part of the huge bundle of stuff for starting school - would that have been for colds maybe? I thought it was a bit odd (took me age to find too). Seems a bit nuts to me, but then I was brought up with much more of 'a roll around in the dirt and build up your immune system' sort of approach, so all of the obsession with cleanliness passes me by a bit (except for the complete overuse of anti-bacterial products, which reminds me of the ire of the infection control nurses I used to manage).

I can see with a child with a low immune system you would be worried about the chances of your ds picking it up though.

just had a lovely bbq with a load of dh's work mates. ate far too much & MUSt do a load of exercise next week to atone.

do any of you know if you can add vents into the hot air system? our basement just doesn't have enough & i was wondering if now might be a cheap(er) time of year to get it sorted, and perhaps get it all cleaned out.

Yep, it was about $1500 but I swear it was worth every penny. When the guy came in to tell me he was done I already knew b/c 5 minutes before. Us asthmatics are sensitive that way, lol.

Will report on the muffins

They are in his school, nooka. Which I do think is rather excessive. I think both preschools Colin has been in were OTT about hand washing. I know I don't make mine wash every time they blow their nose. But I do think never washing your hands for anything is yuck.

Kickass, don't know if you can, but now is definitely a good time to get it done. When I was calling around to get quotes, I'd (purposefully) would sigh and say I'd call them back, I didn't know if that was too much, and all but one of them would tell me about a special they were running that they "forgot" to tell me about.

I had fun last night. I've found some people I went to school with from 3rd grade to graduation on Facebook. One of them is moving to Chicago, and had a going away party last night. So I went, and it was nice to see them again. Kind of like a mini-reunion, I guess. It was nice not to be the geeky one who had a mom that wouldn't let her associate with them after school, and be the normal one who got to fit in with everyone. A lot of them had to do a double take to figure out who I was, and they said it wasn't because I had changed how I looked so much, as it was I'd changed how I carry myself. That was very nice.

Party sounds very nice, Dooney - how lovely

And BBQ

Party sounds cool - I've not seen anyone from my school since I left - not totally sure I want to either! Of course I am curious, but I'd rather be a fly on the wall really.

Washing hands is important I agree, and a house with no soap odd. I just think those expectations are a bit unlikely, after all children are fairly grubby by nature

Me too, Nooka. FB sort of serves that purpose - I can see a couple of my school friends posting all their drunken night out photos but don't have to socialise with them

Grubby children tend to less sickly imo. When I was tecahing, the children who were left to raom the streets all day and worked on the farm and never had clean clothes were the ones who never got ill. The ones from the new housing estate who never had a hair out of place and always smelled of Persil always had colds, asthma, eczema etc. Although I currently have 2 out of 3 of those...

well, dd DEFINITELY fitted the 'grubby child' description yesterday.

i pretty much expect dirt = happiness up to a certain age. if she's clean & tidy & looks as neat as when i sent her out the door, she's had no fun.

yesterday she was barefoot, smeared in mud/dirt from top to toe, with bubble mixture, cake, tom ketchup, ice cream on various bit, and at one point was walking round with a dead beaver's head, showing it to everyone (we did make her wash after that bit)
she rated 11/10 on the 'dirtometer', i'm sure.

dh (who had a few beers) said hopefully, 'she doesn't need a bath tonight, does she?' ha ha.