It started a day early, hanging with Dave’s sister, Sue (a girl’s night!) of hors d’œuvre and a movie (Sweeney Todd) at her house! We also enjoyed a couple small glasses of Southern Tier’s crème brûlée stout…WOW!!! Picked that up my last visit to Jamestown, NY at a brewery tour.

my coworker and I have a habit of flipping the finger at each other as a joke…so I came in to work on Friday and found this on my computer and laughed

That evening, Dave and I made nachos, then went to see the movie, “Emperor”. It was … strange? Not particularly well-acted? I don’t know…Matthew Fox played a WWII general and I kept thinking it was a weird plot line from the TV show “Lost” LOL! Tommy Lee Jones as General MacArthur was…interesting. I think I fell asleep for a bit …

Saturday we had Ralphy and originally our plans were to head to Maine to see if the outline of an old shipwreck was still visible on Long Sands Beach. Unfortunately, Ralphy had a cough, and it was cooooold out so we didn’t want to aggravate the cough.

I took Ralphy to the library, where we looked at books and checked out a couple, then to my work because I forgot my phone charger there. Then home to relax and chill. Dave went out to run some errands and ended up coming home with Popeyes for lunch, lobsters & steamers for dinner and two new movies, Spiderman 3 for Ralphy and Life of Pi for me (I LOVE that movie, although I have to close my eyes during the whole hyena-baboon-zebra scene).

We tried to get Ralphy to touch a lobster but he was having none of it. Still a bit skeptical of it, as you can see:

Sunday I met a friend at the Owl Diner for a St. Patrick’s Day pancake

I snapped this shot on the way out…the cars in the owl’s belly made me think of that song, Rapture, by Blondie.

Meanwhile, Papa and Ralphy enjoyed some guy time:

Since the new band that Dave is in had a gig on St. Patrick’s Day, Ralphy and I headed to McDonald’s Playland (still too chilly to be outside for any length of time)

And then came time to leave…he was not happy

Note the ketchup and apple slices…yes, he dips…yes, he’d probably eat ketchup as a meal.

Early in the morning, I’d put a pork shoulder in the crock pot, poured in a two liter bottle of rootbeer and cooked it on low for 8 hours. The result:

Dave said it was “skrumdiddilyumptuous”

How was your weekend?

Today I saw a picture of something called a wiener melange. It looked like a cafe au lait or a cappuchino, but… wiener? Melange? Ignorant of the German language, a weiner to me is a hot dog (or a you know what). Melange, French in origin, is a mixture or medley.

I looked at the cup in the picture and thought…could that truly be a medley of hotdogs? Juiced? I mean…juicing IS all the rage now…but…*shudder*

So I googled these two words, “wiener melange” and while I was correct on melange, I found a new meaning for wiener! It also means “Viennese”.

Wiener is German for Viennese, but may also refer to:
•A hot dog, from German “Wiener Würstchen”, meaning “Viennese small sausage”
• A slang term for pen!s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_Melange: “…in Vienna, the Melange is 1/2 cup “black coffee” and 1/2 cup creamy milk, completed by milk foam.”

See, it’s possible to learn new things, even at my advanced age!

I took out my big girl camera the other day and shot this pic of Dave and his older son, Keith.

I called it “Up to something, these two” and Dave’s comment on FB was “heh heh heh heh you can tell we were up to something laurencelleish”

And I leave you with this laugh

Ralphy (he’s saying “we’re tickling the eggs”), newly turned 5, with his big boy haircut. His big brother wears his hair that way and Ralphy wanted his hair to look like his brother’s…I mourn the curls, but oh well!

The other day, I was walking down the hallway at work and looked out the window. There was a square cloud! I did a double take, took a closer look and I’ll be damned! It really was a square cloud! Have you ever seen such a thing? Go ahead, click on the picture and take a closer look. Amazing!

Got me thinking about things I was grateful for…things like the chance, and the eye to notice things like this. Grateful to be alive…that my friends and family are healthy and happy…that I found love so late in life…and so much of it!

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to you all. What are you thankful for this day?

Dave and I made the most delicious (if I do say so myself) seafood lasagna for my cousin Maribeth’s birthday celebration this past Saturday!

me, to Maribeth: Is there something I could bring to contribute to the buffet? Something you’re craving especially?

Maribeth: I’m just starting to think things up. I’ll let you know. Talk to Dave and see what he thinks too. Love, MB

me, to Dave: I put this on our calendar…any ideas?

Dave: sea food lasagna. with all the goodies but without tomato sauce kinda like the lobster mac n cheese or stuffed manicotti

me, to MB: Dave suggested a seafood lasagna, or stuffed manicotti [spell check wants to change that to manicurist - cannibal!], using lobster and/or other seafood and a cheese sauce instead of tomato sauce, how does that sound?

MB: Mmmmmmmm! Good!

And then Maribeth googled “seafood lasagna” and found this recipe, which is the one we used, and it was SO good and SO simple!

Give it a try sometime, I PROMISE you will not be disappointed! And if you do…come back and tell me about it. Share a picture, if you like!