As a final study break on Sunday night (before it went far into the night) Wade and I had a bonfire! Our backyard has a fire pit that we pile sticks in (the joys of living right outside the perimeter). The pile was finally good sized and there was a fall chill in the air. We went outside with our graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. Madison kept trying to find a few pieces we dropped.
Wade and I decided to make sugar cookies again – yeah! I sent Wade on a hunt for Halloween cookie cutters (he came home with a pumpkin and a ghost) while I studied. Wade’s mom called with her recipe and I took a break to make the dough (which is super yummy too).
Here’s the recipe:
1 cup of butter creamed with 2 cups of sugar. Then add 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt, 4 teaspoons of baking powder. Add 4 cups of flour, one at a time, till the dough is thoroughly mixed. Then add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Let the dough chill in the fridge and take out a small portion at a time to make the cookies. Roll out the dough, with flour, till it is 1/4 to 1/8 inch thick and then bake the cookies at 400 degrees for 8-1o minutes.
Wade and I had fun with the cookies and ended up with a little flour fight. You can see that Madison got caught in the middle.
I was preoccupied with studying so Wade decided to perfect Madison’s playing dead. Here she is learning to stay in the “dead” position till we tell her to get up (or rather till we give her the treat). If you look closely in the background, you’ll see Wade’s Halloween costume. It’s in the early stages, but he’s been working on both mine and his. Mine is definitely low tech and Wade’s is once again “working.” Now the trick will be getting it to D.C in working order.
I spent about 5-6 hours on the phone last night. I tend to be pretty bad about catching up with people using the phone. Thank goodness for email! I normally wait so long to talk to people that I feel like I should really have time when I do call – as in at least an hour. But finding an hour or more to dedicated to a phone call never seems to happen.
I hope we end up living somewhere that has call based calling rates. When I lived in DC, I could pay $10 for a home phone line that gave me unlimited incoming calls and 30 outgoing calls. In Atlanta, the minimum phone bill is around $40. Because of that, Wade and I both just use cell phones. But talking on a cell phone for hours gets uncomfortable.
As luck would have it, I got stuck in some nasty traffic yesterday. I was bored and had plenty of time, so I called everyone I knew. I called Melissa, Rob, Mindy, Matt, Kate, Wade, and Mom. Only Mom answered and she was sick in bed. Before I got home I had connected with Mindy – this was the end of a 2 month game of phone tag. We talked for a couple hours and as we were hanging up, Kate called. I then talked to Kate while she made her hour drive home from class. Then I talked to Wade – he probably got short changed. I was pretty sick of the phone by then.
Ah well, now I feel mostly caught up with my long distance friends!
Babies are so cute. Here is Liza Upshaw in the outfit we gave her. See the little pink bunny on her tummy? I believe she is about 4 weeks old. How sad that I probably won’t get to see her until Christmas time.
I have finally decided that I will never make it through my class if I continue reading books at the rate of a couple a week. There is a used bookstore in Paducah that I love to visit whenever I am home. I am still getting books off of trade-ins (courtesy of my mom moving and cleaning out her library). I tend to find an author I like and read everything they have in print. Most of the time this works out great.
There is always an exception, and that author is Fern Michaels. I read one of her newer books “Late Bloomer” and really enjoyed it. However, most of her older books I don’t like at all. The bad thing about me is once I start something I always try to finish it. I decided now would be a great time to finish up her Vegas trilogy. I can read while I work out or have a few spare minutes, but I definitely won’t be reading when I should be studying. It’s more of a chore to finish these.
My biggest pet peeve is her characters are inconsistent. In one book you have a couple that love each other and all is going great (yes these are romances). In the next book he is off having an affair and she has always known he wasn’t faithful. It seems to me the author should have alluded to that a little earlier instead of making me like the character and then turning him into a jerk, with no warning!
Wade dragged me to the movies tonight. After class all day (8+ hours), I wasn’t up for much but Wade really wanted to get out. He wanted to see the new Wallace and Gromit movie: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I was less than thrilled, but didn’t put up too much of a stink (Wade might argue that one). We were pushing it close (as always) and ended up at one theater a little too late. So we went on to the next one, and Brad joined us. I have to admit the movie wasn’t that bad. It was actually pretty good. Not near as good as “Best of the Best”, but few are! There was a short before the movie that I found hilarious – penguins and polar bears and Christmas time.
We had an infection control specialist come speak to us in my EMT class tonight. This guy has taken some big certification test and works closely with the CDC. During his four hour talk, he had some great stories and explanations.
Why hamburger meat must be fully cooked: I always wondered why restaurants only serve hamburgers fully cooked. I know my mom and several others prefer them a little more rare. However, all restaurants will serve a steak rare. The specialist informed us that the bacteria is found in the exposed part of the meat (the outside). Even a rare steak is cooked on the outside, if not at all on the inside. The problem with hamburger meat is that it is all mixed together so it all must be thoroughly cooked.
To ruin sweat tea for all the true Southerners: The process of making sweat tea, especially when the tea is hot and sugar is added, creates an incubator for bacteria. Most people let the tea cool naturally rather than running it over ice to speed it along. The bacteria thrives in the warm environment with sugar. He also said the bad taste you get when tea has gone bad is when the bacteria has grown enough that you taste the bacteria over the tea and sugar. (This particular topic came up during a Hepatitis A discussion.)
My mom sent us a Halloween goody bag. There was a pumpkin hat, some decorations, and a new collar and glow-in-the-dark bone for Madison. Doesn’t she look snazzy?
I was sitting in my EMT class tonight and realized that I am one of three misfits. As a simple way to break down the group: of 35 students, 32 smoke. We have a break every hour and all 32 of them go to the one designated smoking area on campus. About 30 out of the 35 have no prior college experience. I am also one of the older people in my class. The oldest is a 50 something woman and everyone else seems to be under 21.
I overheard this conversation during a break and thought it was hilarious.
Boy says, “Are you a Christian?”
Girl responds, “Yes”
Boy says, “I think God put you in this class to help me pass.”
Girl says, “I know God put me in this class to finally pass it.” (This is her third try.)
Oh geez!