Smells Like A Great Job to Me!

Brian has talked about passing the Cadbury chocolate factory. Today I got to see it and the Research & Development building is right on the main road. I know they need me. I will have to submit my resume this week. Maybe two actually. One as a mechanical engineer to help with assembly line and manufacturing issues based on my university degree. The other of course would be as a taste tester. A position for which I also feel qualified. I've eaten a whole lot of chocolate in my days.

I rolled down the window and Brian slowed down for me to take a picture and was hit with the strong aroma of cocoa. Isn't that just to fantastic? I had a life dream to visit Hershey, Pennsylvania so we did a fast weekend road trip up there the week before Jacob was born and you could just smell the sweet chocolate scent all along main street. That Cadbury cocoa smell brought back some great memories today.

Happy Random Thoughts

I've been waiting and waiting but I'm pretty sure it's just not going to happen. What sucks about summer? Burning your kids legs while you try to buckle them into the car seat and having the other kids pass out from heat stroke in the back of the car because it's been baking in the sun for a few hours while you were in a store somewhere. I know exactly how bad it hurts. Makes a grown person wanna cry to be scalded by searing hot metal on their inner thigh. We never have scalding hot seat belts here. Considering the heat and humidity never quit here, I think it's pretty darn amazing! Realize we've parked in parking lots in full sun for the last six years - including having a parking lot at our own darn house instead of a garage or carport, I'm a very happy momma now. The ONLY relief in the entire state of Virginia was the basement parking at Wegmans and you better believe I used it every time. In Singapore there is no such thing as parking in the sun. This densely populated metropolis is all about high rises and parking garages. Even the kids school is four stories tall and a parking garage. In fact I've gone entire days in this country without exposing my head to the elements at all, neither sun or rain. There are perks to life here and I'm going to enjoy not burning my kids when I strap them into their car seats every time I do it this summer. I just hope they can all do their own belts and we're done with five point harness seats by the time we move home in three years. So for today, I give three cheers for parking garages any and everywhere in this tiny, delightful island country.

Food for Thought

Some things make me nuts. Raw meat is one of them. Everyone knows you must cook meat to the proper temperature to avoid getting violently ill. I dutifully hand wash the knife and cutting board I cut up raw chicken with and try to avoid cross contamination when I touch raw meat by washing my hands before I move on to the next task. This brings up my question of the day - At what point in the cooking cycle does the meat become cooked enough? Assume you have your raw chicken thaw on a plate in the fridge. You use tongs to pick them up and put it on the skillet or grill. Now it's time to check how the cooking is going. What do you use? The raw tongs? Get new ones? Chicken needs more time on that side. Checking the second time which tongs are you using? Give it two more minutes. Time to flip them over. Which tongs? Do you have to keep track of which side of the tongs stays on the cooked side and which side is allowed to touch the raw side? Now we cook the other side, but one side is raw, one side is cooked. Which tongs? Check it. Check it. Check it again. Chicken is grilled to prefection. How many sets of tongs have you now gone through? Do you get a brand new set to use to remove it from the grill? Just a question. It is about as frusterating as trying to wash my hair. The directions say, "Wash. Rinse. Repeat."

I Can't That Night, I'm Washing My Hair

We're supposed to go to a family party tonight. It starts at 7:30 pm. That's bedtime. I'm doing what I can to set the kids up for success, but I don't know how this will go over in the end. I've been considering changing our plans and claiming that I have to wash my hair tonight. My other out is that I can't miss the National Spelling Bee on TV tonight. Really it is. And you wouldn't want to miss that. Do they broadcast the National Spelling Bee anywhere else? I don't ever remember that anywhere else. Maybe it's a DC thing. I'm hoping tonight works out and is loads of fun, but I'm bringing extra binkies just in case.

Family Planning

Brian wants four kids. I want three. I'll mail five bucks to the person that correctly guesses why before the end of the week.... Leave us a comment. Guessing closes Saturday at midnight.

Some People Are Just Cool

Anyone called Audrey lately? Their answering machine message gets me everytime. I'm always caught off guard and for a second I'm not sure if I'm loosing my mind, called the wrong number or what, but something is always familiar about the situation. By the time the beep comes to leave the message I don't know that they understand me because I'm laughing. I don't remember what it says exactly, but it sounds like you've called some business and the message is automated. It tells you that you are number 9,453 in the call que but someone will be with you in the order the calls were received or something like that. Love it. I need to call her more often.

Two Comments on the Olympics - Sort Of

#1 With the change from analog to digital broadcast signals for the television we got a few new "bonus" channels. One of them is all Olympics all the time. Sort of a waste of airwave space if you ask me, but you didn't ask, so oh well. Sometime back months and months ago while flipping channels I found the sport for me. Skeleton. You know. Where you run for all you are worth in a skin tight outfit and a monster sized helmet then jump on a tiny little sled with razor sharp blades to plummet yourself down an icy shoot of death. I don't sound excited you say? Okay. Maybe not but still, it just might be my sport anyway. If you get a chance, watch the skeleton this year at the winter olympics broadcasts. Those people have some wobbly, jiggly butts. Yep. They fly down those icy tracks with their backsides wiggling all over the place and the camera crew catching it on tape, broadcasting the live image all over the world. I think I could fit in with this crowd. I have just the right kind of back side for it. As do 98% of all Americans, so I may have some stiff competition when you people catch on like I have. #2 The Luge. I lived in Salt Lake City before the Winter Olympics there in 2002. In fact, Brian and I could have graduated college and left two months before the games, but strategically took a longer path to graduation so as to allow ourselves to be present during the games. We both volunteered and had an amazing experience, but I digress from the point of this post. In the pre-Olympic times, there was lots of road construction. I mean LOTS. The entire state of Utah was redone I'm pretty sure. They turned the freeways which now in some places are six lanes wide into two lanes just barely wide enough for a Ford Focus to drive safely and then told diesel trucks to go right ahead and use the roads. They lined the two lanes with concrete barricades for ten mile stretches with no emergency lane or anything. It was T-I-G-H-T. I lovingly referred to I-15 and I-80 as the Luge. I felt it took the white knuckle skills of an Olympic athlete to drive every day. I hated it. This lasted for, what, about five years? It was terrible. I actually remember seeing on the nightly news the announcement that overnight this massive project would begin. The next morning drive was bad. And it kept right on being bad for five years. With all the wild snow storms and deep piles on the sides of the roads here in February that brought the Nations' Capitol to a screeching hault I have to say I felt like I was right back into the Salt Lake Luge event right here in Virginia. The snow piles were in some places over ten feet tall by the time the plows had moved all the snow to the side of the road. When you came to a stop light you had darn well better stop and wait for the green light because there was NO WAY you knew what was coming up the street. The roads were super tight and in places cars had to wait to drive past each other on the roads. Both sides of the road were lined with a vertical wall taller than the roof of my car. Did I mention I LOVE my 4 wheel drive truck? It felt like the luge in the little car. That's all I have to say about the Olympics. Haven't watched a single event. I used to care. Not sure what happened. Anyway, I'm off to find a local skeleton team to join? Anyone in?

School Graffiti

Sucks to think you spelled your graffiti wrong on the school wall when you thought you were so awsome...errr...awesome. Oops!

Celebrity Connections and Cakewreck Wreckage

No secrets. I'm a Wreckie. If you don't read this blog http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/, you need to. If you want to laugh so hard you can't read through the tears in your eyes, read this blog http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/. My friend Bill, err, I mean Burton has been featured a few times now. He's AWESOME. To be truthful, unless you are a wreckie yourself you likely won't appreciate his most recent creation. But these are impressive. Bride of Frankenstein. Banana Slippage. Burton's website. Tonight I read the comments left by people all across the country. He has a serious fan club growing. There were tons of people praising his work, ladies asking if he was single and even a marriage proposal. Jenn at Cake Wrecks published a book with tons of new wreckage. Bill and his wife, Jeannie, and I have been dedicated wreckies for a long time now. We were supposed to go on a double date for my birthday to her book signing, but it got cancelled. On the new date Brian was out of town on business. They generously offered up their kids to babysit mine and off we went with one of his latest creations in hand (Lenin in a hot dog bun riding a poo wave - a combination of multiple wrecks over time). Even being the third wheel on their date I had a blast. Kind of fun to be driven by a celebrity and have to wait around for him to network. Except that Jacob was a disaster and screamed for almost 4 straight hours - not sure they will ever be willing to babysit again. It was bad. Really, really bad. Someday we'll have to do a real double date where Brian can come. They are some of the funnest people I've met here in Virginia!

700

This is my 700th post. Seems that I ought to have something profound to say. Thought about it for three days. Nothing. Same thing happened when I passed 100, 250 and 500. Nothing. Brian said I could make a list of my favorite 700 words. That would take forever. So lacking some great idea, we'll just say that after 700 posts in about 18 months of blogging, I must be addicted. I'll leave you to do the math on that one. Anyway, I haven't been able to find a hobby I could stick with since we got married 10 years ago. Don't think I didn't spend oodles of cash on scrapbooking paraphernalia trying to make that work, take classes in cake decorating and wish and dream about doing other expensive things, but nothing ever stuck. I guess blogging must be my hobby. Here there is the list I can come up with. Sorry it doesn't have 700 bullet points. I do enjoy a good math problem though, so consider it 7 x 10 to the seventh power. That at least equals 700.*(see note) Why I love blogging:

1. The price tag is right up my alley. Free.
2. I can do it at 2 am in my pajamas when I can't sleep.
3. No mess to clean up or junk strewn all over my dining room table from it.
4. Grandma and Grandpa love hear stories about the kids since they only see them once a year.
5. The only way I know to "use" all the pictures we take of the kids.
6. Practice my writing while documenting the story of our family. Someday this will all be a real treasure to our kids to read (or maybe it's just ammo for their future spouses to ridicule them).
7. Seriously it's my therapist. I can say whatever. Let it all out. Think through my thoughts and feelings outside myself and get perspective. So yeah. Daily therapy sessions so a wonder for my soul and sanity.

*Thank you Generation Z. You are correct sir. Even though at one time I boasted the title of mechanical engineer, I have long felt firm in my conviction that my brain has since turned to mush. A near useless gelatinous substance that resides in my huge melon that is no longer capable of holding onto information any more complex than where the pink crocs were last discarded or how many minutes are left in an episode of the current cartoon. My error in math has proven the point! 7 x 10 to the seventh power does not equal 700. It is 70,000,000. Thanks for the comment, made me laugh at myself at least. Wonder if anyone else caught it. For the record though, had I written it out in number form 7 x 10^7 rather than text I think I would have caught it.

Baby Names

If we ever have another kid, (not likely unless and until Jacob stops screaming all day long) I've decided that I have a new requirement for picking the name. It must be the top option on my blog category listing for it's respective letter. It is just really convenient when I "file" them by tags that "Ben" "Maddie" and "Jacob" come up first. For instance if I push "M" Maddie is the first option. If I want to file under "Brian" I must type all the way to the I in his name to find him. Otherwise I might end up with it filed under Ben, Birthday, Blessings, Blogging or Bragging. See how rough life can be sometimes. I am thinking this is a pretty important rule to stick to as we choose names if that ever becomes and issue again. That is a problem because we really like "Courtney" which falls below cake decorating, camp, canning, cherry blossoms, christmas, church, cleaning, clothes, computer, consignment, cooking, couponing and finally...courtney. Our boy choice isn't quite as bad, Joshua. Jacob is the only other "J" right now. I suppose I could consider typing two letters without too much whining. Gonna have to talk to Brian and either choose a new name or get my tubes tied. UPDATE: No, this is not an announcement! More than one person has asked now. What, do you think I'm nuts? I already can't get over that I have three kids five and under. Suppose it could be "worse," right Cath? Five kids under four (almost)?? Wink, wink. We're not all as amazing as the Arveseths.

Good Day

About six weeks ago we ran out of rice. Off to the basement I went to refill the cute glass jar we got for our wedding. I set it down to check which bin the rice was in and bumped it from it's perch onto the hard, cold concrete floor. It smashed to smitherines. It was sad. I cried. (okay, maybe not). So for the last month and a half, this has been my solution:

A burlap bag thrown on the floor next to the bookshelf two steps outside of the kitchen. Classy, I know. I've had it on the shopping list and checked every store I've gone into since. They were always too big, too wide, too tall, too expensive. Today I dropped Maddie at preschool then ran into Safeway to get potatoes to feed our dinner guests tonight. SCORE!

They had these perfect $9 Rice Bins on sale for $3.29. Excellent. So good, in fact, I bought two so I can shift stuff around. Now we're set. New bins. New life. The stars continued to align and look what I did to our countertop.

I found it. Pretty, isn't it? I cleaned it! You can even see the reflection of the fruit bowl it's so shiny!

Consolidating and Clean Up Weekend

Consolidating. That's the best way to describe my weekend so far. The fridge was out of control. Since I dropped in at fridge clean out time for both Soderborgs and Pam, we had some (okay, lots) of that stuff you just sort of keep around. You know, stuff that's still good and you don't want to throw out, like ketchup. We had 3 bottles of BBQ sauce, 5 jars of jam, 6 pie crusts, 2 mustards, 2 soy sauce bottles and other similar things hanging out in there. Basically we had no room for real food. Sounds funny to say, but it was liberating to combine the bottles and in twenty short minutes, I had an entire new shelf available. Simple pleasures in my life feed my weird quirks. We also worked on other areas of the house. The bain of my existence is the kitchen counter. It was so out of control. I got it somewhat organized and nabbed all the finance stuff (bills, receipts, statements, and the like) and had it all nicely piled to file in the cabinet. Then someone needed something and then something else and something else and before I knew it the pile was redistributed across the counter. I had better luck tackling the piles in my bedroom, though it doesn't show it. I got through a lot of things and put them away, but didn't consolidate into any fewer bins of junk. All the preschool pictures are printed out for the entire year. They are sorted and organized so I can cut and bag them so we're ready to go next week. I've made a lot of progress this weekend. What's the bonus? It's a holiday weekend so I have one more day!! Now...should I keep cleaning or relax?

Irony or Big Brother?

So I hit publish on my kids t-shirt post and guess what ad popped up on the admin page of the blog..."Customize your own t-shirts for you and your friends"...Proof positive were being watched (and phished at) with everything we do...

Online Bankers and their Magic Checks

Here is the edited message I got when I clicked to see what happened to a payment we needed sent out last week. "Payment check # xxx was sent to Mr. X on 08/11/2009 and delivered on 08/10/2009. Funds were withdrawn from your checking account on 08/12/2009." Interesting. The check was supposed to go out on the 5th. I didn't realize I could request a magic check. The bank claims to have mailed it on the 11th but that it was delivered the 10th, the day before it was sent. Of course since that left me scratching my head, I'm glad they have allowed me the courtesy two days to figure out magic checks before they actually withdraw the funds today, the 12th (which they haven't done). Never mind the check hasn't been cashed yet by the recipient so I'm not sure where the withdrawn funds went to. In fact, Mr. X let us know he hasn't seen a check yet at all, magic or otherwise. This all started last week on the 5th when I had a phone conversation with Brian. I wasn't home near the checkbook at the time and he was at his computer. We needed to send a check to Mr. X and I said I'd get it in the mail when I got home. Brian is a huge fan of online banking and said he would take care of it. He would just submit a request to the minions at the bank to mail it out ASAP. I like online banking well enough, but this bill pay stuff can be a hassle sometimes. So after six days, what did we do? Brian wrote a paper check to Mr. X as we discussed what ever happened to the magic check. Sigh.

Kid Free House to Kid Proof Zone

I'm pretty sure from chatting with old timers in the neighborhood that no children have ever lived in our home. Never. Do you find that as weird as I do? The house is thirty plus years old. You'd think it would have been graced by at least one year of baby spit up, toddler toys or homework at the kitchen table. Anyway, it was a kid free home until the Zufelt Zoo moved in. This means it was set up as a kid free home, not a kid friendly one. The three stories are connected with open air stairs. You know the kind where the carpet is wrapped around a slab of wood and you can drop stuff straight through them down two stories if you aren't careful. This took countless hours to remedy when Maddie was learning to climb stairs. Brian cut a zillion pieces of custom boards to fill in each and every hole, including the triangular one open to the front door area. Before we did it, we almost lost one of the Packard kids. Luckily for us and them, we caught saw him as he was slipping his skinny little body into the hole to hang his body down one story. His big noggin just wouldn't fit through the hole, much to his chagrin. I think he totally would have jumped if he'd have gotten through (he was three years old at the time).

The stair rails are so old that my kids can go right between the vertical metal poles. I know they are 5th percentile kids, but you'd think with 90th percentile heads Ben and Maddie would be to big to fit. I can tell you why they changed the building code on stair rails. I once walked down the stairs to find Ben at 2 1/2 yrs had climbed through the rail to the open side and walked across the rail and was suspended half a story up and darn happy about his "accomplishment" while I shrieked in terror not to let go. We have wire tied baby gates and super tall dog gates to the rails and cut custom boards to fill all the holes so we don't have anyone go overboard. I can only imagine the tragedy and ambulance ride that would result. Attaching standard baby gates to the metal rails was also a feat. In the absence of a router, we borrowed a table saw and Brian ran the boards back and forth and back and forth and back and forth a million times to create a "U" shaped wood piece that could wrap around the pole and was then wire tied around the rails. Then we could drill into the wood and mount our gates. The breakfast nook has carpet under it. Nasty, nasty carpet. I'm sure it wasn't nasty before we moved in. Really. Single adult type people have always owned the house. I really believe it wasn't nasty before I moved in with my little people. But after three and a half years of spilling on that carpet under my kitchen table, I don't even want to try to clean it. It's a lost cause, really it is. Who puts carpet under a kitchen table? Someone without kids. No one else is that dumb. One thing Brian and I always knew was that our house would have to have a circle for the kids to run around. You know so you can run through the kitchen to the hall to the dining room to the living room and back to the kitchen while mom is making dinner and drive her nuts. The circle is essential to a healthy childhood. It's where we as kids went round and round and round doing all sorts of things. We played chasing games, drug our siblings on blankets trying not to whack their heads on the wall corners, rode toy horses and most importantly chased each other in wild, ferocious anger threatening to beat each other to a bloody pulp when we were fighting. All the corners of our circle have paint chips.

My Basement:

Yeah. Our house looks like kids live here now. That pristine beauty is long gone. I think back to the pictures I took of our house when we were house shopping and how amazing it was. An office and a guest room upstairs instead of two kids in one and a crib in the other room? Huge, mondo, big flat panel tv in the basement instead of all our junk and tons of toys. Another generous sized flat panel tv on the main floor with a wet bar and gorgeous furniture instead of carpet stained with carrot spit up and mud from the backyard adventures. Oh the damage we've done in the name of our children. Makes me wonder, would we have ever bought this house if it had looked then like it does now??? Hmmmm.....

The Basement Before Zufelts:

Still the Same After All These Years

Are you one of those people that is constantly changing or do you stay the same forever? Some people have tried every fashionable haircut, with highlights and full dye jobs. They update their wardrobe with current trends and always look fabulous. Then there is me. I tend toward classic styles (at least that is what I tell myself). I don't see the need for more than one pair of black shoes.My current pair is over ten years old and was purchased at a thrift store. Why waste money on clothes that will be out of style and I'll just have to replace them? Seems silly to me. So, I stick to collared polo plain colored shirts, classic t-shirts, simple button up shirts, all in calm colors like navy that will never be "out". The problem with that, is I may never be "out" but I'm also never "in". I haven't ever dyed my hair because I think I wouldn't be me if I wasn't brunette. Really, I think I'd freak out looking out my eyes into another woman's face in the mirror. I have had two hair styles in my life. The ponytail with occasional curl (and I mean very occasionally) and about three years ago I got my first cut that was above my shoulders since I was in third grade. Not much variety here. I don't give myself enough credit or value myself enough to allow me to do fun, cute and cool things like my friends do. I want to, but can't push myself into cuteness. Though, I did have my sister teach me how to put on makeup about a year ago. We went and bought all new stuff (because the one tube of lipstick I had, I kid you not, I bought in seventh grade and haven't used it up yet, that's 18 years ago...shameful). Bad news. I only stuck to it for about two weeks. Now all skill I may have gained is lost again. Sorry Kristie. And yet, I find myself incredibly happy this way. From time to time I feel ugly, fat and frumpy like every other person on the planet, but overall I'm happy. These random strange thoughts came to mind as I looked at our family pictures tonight. Seriously, I look the exact same as I did eons ago. Case and point: When I was 20 years old I got married. I sent out wedding invitations. One went to an old friend who I couldn't find, but his mom was my old seventh grade spanish teacher and was teaching my little brother at the time. I sent it via him to said friend. The response came back from my spanish teacher that I looked EXACTLY the same as I had in seventh grade. Yuck. When I was getting married at 20, I looked like a 12 year old. Well, yes. I basically look the same. When I looked at my picture tonight, I realize, I look like me. Same old me I have always been. Just a few extra pounds around the waist and on the back side now. Still the same after all these years. Both good and bad. Steady. Boring. Safe. Predictable. Constant. Habitual. Solid. Regular. Reliable. I guess you'll recognize me if you see me on the street someday, so don't forget to smile and say hello. Of course, I may not recognize you. Most people are more exciting and change from time to time. And I think that's healthy. I find it interesting that Brian has the same haircut he has had since birth too, except for a 12 month stint when I met him. He grew it back out to the current style for our wedding pictures and there it remains. We are a match made in heaven. Two peas in a pod. As we would say "we're 'posed to be together." Someday we'll be old and decrepid wearing clothes from the seventh grade, happily oblivious to our plight in life knowing we're still "'posed to be together" and forever in love. It's good to be loved for who you are. He's a good man.

Mystery Solved!

Thanks Katy!

Who Are You?

Months ago I put a traffic feed thing-a-majig on my blog. It is always fun to try to figure out who's reading and see how they arrived. One has had me baffled from the start though. Who are you? You are in Phoenix, AZ and usually click through Mike & Katy's blog...I'm stumped.

Good News DC

We just heard on the nightly news that DC (along with several other states) is "on track" to come in with a lower murder rate than last year. Is that not the dumbest news report you've ever heard? It's like saying, "Great job DC! If we just keep killing people at the same rate, then we'll hit our goal!" What the heck kind of "goal" is that? No mention that we are still having murders. That people are still dying and that registers with me as a problem. On a related note, during my former life, when I worked in the refinery for a few years, we were always setting goals. Performance goals, reliability goals, environmental goals, safety goals. It would make Brian nuts to hear our "goals" of "x" number of safety incidents or OSHA recordables i.e. 0.8 injuries per 1000 work hours. Shouldn't the goal always be zero? If we're under our goal in August and run the risk of coming short, do we draw straws and the poor guy that drew the short straw has to go find a way to injure himself? That is just plain retarded. Never the less, a non-zero number is always chosen. And we track that goal through the year...stupidity institutionalized and accepted. So, keep up the good work DC!