Tamara said I had to make the key lime pie and I had to do it with real limes. Looking for anything that would make the job easier, I decided to use DrinkJack’s method and put them all through the garlic press.

I used to only get about 1/2 cup of real juice using the old manual juicer. Now I can get almost a cup, but I needed a cup so I did augment with a little of the bottled stuff – sorry, Tamara. And thanks for the tip, DrinkJack. Right tool for the job.
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I was dropping Scytheboy off and there was this very leggy 8th grade girl getting out of the SUV in front of us.

Me:

Could her skirt BE any shorter?

Him:

Uh…yeah.

Why is it that guys, even young guys, think skirts could always be shorter?

Tommy spent most of the day in the hot Texas sun digging trenches in the back yard as he attempted to fix the sprinkler system. He’s in bed right now nursing a massive headache and sundry aches and pains that were the result of said hard labor in the yard. And, he’s not finished so he’ll be spending the next couple days fixing leaks and reworking the sprinklers…headache or no headache.

So…do you think he deserves a reward pie? If you think he deserves a reward pie…which one should I make? Key Lime (his favorite) or Apple? He likes both….I’m partial to apple. And, If I make it tomorrow he’ll have until Friday at lunch time to polish it off. Thoughts? Reward pie or no reward pie?

Why in the world do grocers feel the need to package chicken in such ginormous quantities? Clearly these people rarely, if ever, cook. Most recipes call for 1 lb. of boneless skinless chicken breasts or tenders – not 1.57, 1.82, or worse even….2.53 lbs. I looked forever, and had to finally settle for a 1.23 lb. package of chicken breasts.

Geez, It’s stressful enough going to the store with all the screaming children and extremely slow seniors during the day without having to do math to determine how much chicken to freeze and how much to use. Seriously…..don’t you think?

Last year as part of their “Support our Troops” program at school, Scytheboy wrote a letter to “any soldier” stationed on the front lines in the War on Terror. It took a few weeks, but he did get a reply over the summer.

As of June, Scytheboy’s soldier was stationed somewhere north of Baghdad. He is a crew chief on an Apache helicopter. I won’t give you his name, rank or unit to protect his identity.

With all the ink the war protesters/pacifists have been getting lately from the mainstream media, I feel it’s necessary to share with you part of our soldier’s letter. His thoughts reflect the tenacity and dedication the troops on the front line still have in the face of constant danger, and I think this letter written from the front lines is more indicative of how the troops fighting this war for ALL of us (including the protesters) feel about where they are and what they’re doing. Also, his closing thoughts to our son reflect the goodness and leadership of our military members everywhere.

“…..Believe me when I say that we here were happy to receive your letter. By we I mean the “(unit nickname here)”. This is our unit’s call sign. We are a flight company. Which means we spend a lot of time in the air flying over Iraq. We keep long work hours. But it is for a good cause. For the very most part the people of Iraq are really grateful……….Well….it’s back to work for me. Again, I truly appreciated your letter. And for the time you took to write it. Take care of yourself and always do your best in school.”

Scytheboy will be writing a letter back to his soldier, and I am also including some much needed items in a care package for him in the event his unit is still stationed in Iraq. If you would like to send your own care package and/or letter to the front, you can find more information here.

I’ll post again on this if we hear back from our soldier. In the mean time, we’ll pray for his safety and for the safety of all our troops stationed in harm’s way protecting us here at home.

Hey, I couldn’t think of 100 so here’s 50.

1. I was born in Wisconsin
2. I have one brother and two sisters
3. My brother and sisters have 13 kids between them
4. Eight of my nieces and nephews are my brother’s kids – yes, eight
5. I’ve lived in six states
6. I’ve lived in four Texas cities
7. I survived five years in Utah
8. I’ve had jobs in four states
9. Illinois and Florida are the only states I’ve lived in that I never worked in
10. I have an English degree from the University of Texas
11. I started working when I was 15
12. I worked for 22 years
13. I once worked for the United States Air Force as an accountant
14. I worked professionally for several years in hi-tech marketing and public relations
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With the hurricane side-effect weather on its way, we stayed in tonight and played chess, Monopoly and Star Wars Epic Duels.

Um….do you know what happens when you are a competitive person? You breed a competitive person. With Tommy (a.k.a. “the referee”) gone, playing games with each other can be, shall we say – challenging. We have retreated to our separate corners now. Enough said.

So Tommy’s gone on his way back to Buenos Aires while I spent all day putting the house back in order as it was the first day I felt completely cured of jet lag. Boy, was I JET-LAGGEDD!!!

Anyway….Scytheboy and I decided to have movie night so we got our popcorn ready and sat down to watch “50 First Dates”. As the movie progressed, I began to realize (quickly) that although the movie is PG-13 there were a number of references I would have preferred not to explain.

About 2/3 of the movie was over, and there was this scene where Adam Sandler notices his friend the walrus has a number of lady friends and cautions him to use condoms. Here is what Scytheboy said:

So apparently he’s having relations with all the other walruses. Ewwww!.

Clearly I didn’t have a thing to worry about in the way of explaining all the questionable references. They sure do grow up fast, don’t they?

I saw a story today talking about how the CDC funded a study to see how close fast food chains are locating their restaurants to schools, and how many there are.

Okay, so here’s my take on the whole thing. Yes, kids are getting fatter. Yes, fast food is more accessible to them than ever. Yes, fast food is usually bad for you. But who’s really at fault here for our fat kids?

Just my opinion, but at the end of the day I think parents need to take responsibility for their kids’ nutritional habits. What they eat at home will be reflected in the choices they make when they’re not at home. I think the only exception to this is the free school lunch program. There, the government should be responsible for giving the kids food that is of nutritional value and will get them through the day as in many cases it will be the only meal the kids get that day.

I can’t fault the chains for locating their businesses where they know they will make sales. That’s the American way. Am I thrilled about it? Probably not. Will I worry that Scytheboy will eat fast food each and every day? Maybe. But that’s something we need to be dealing with at home. In a free society I cannot expect the government to regulate what businesses sell and where they sell it if it’s in an area zoned for businesses. That’s completely ridiculous.

What’s also completely ridiculous? The fact that some of my tax money went to pay for a study like this. Will it solve any problems? No. All it will serve to do is give parents other people and circumstances to blame for their fat kids.

To those people that blame fast food chains for their own or their children’s weight problems I say only this: at some point you need to take responsibility for what you put in your own mouth and for what your kids are eating.

I was cooking dinner last night, and all of a sudden I heard:

Mmmmmm. I better loosen my belt for this.

It was Scytheboy, and when I looked over he was indeed loosening his belt. I replied:

Why?

He answered:

Because I know I’m gonna be eating a lot of that stuff. When’s it gonna be ready?

Boys have their own way of telling their Moms they like their cooking, don’t they? It’s so good to know he thinks my dinners are “loosen your belt-worthy”.