Injuries I Don't Want to Have to Explain to a Doctor

I dropped a jar of banana peppers on my toes. After recovering from the wooziness I experienced from the pain, I iced my toes with some frozen corn and I think all is well. Though my middle toe is multi-color and unusually lumpy.

My First Sonic Experience

Our area has recently been bombarded with commercials for Sonic, but their aren't really any Sonic's in the area (at least not yet). So being the sheep of commercialism that we are, when Amanda and I had to go when we were at the outlets Saturday in Lancaster and saw one just across the street. (on a side note, I then went to King of Prussia with my cousin Molly the following day...too...much...shopping...must...stop...now) I was a little nervous because of the whole drive in format. How do I order? How do I pay? But everything turned out fine. There was a little awkwardness when the condiment boy and I both went for a mint at the same time (what a degrading job that is! you can't even deliver burgers, you're reduced to ketchup, salt, napkins and honey mustard.) The Caramel Java Chiller was yummy and the tots were tot-a-licious (I just made that word up). So if you have a chance to try Sonic, have no fear and go for it!

Help Sponsor My Walk

Ok, so I've already posted about how I'm doing a 60 mile walk for breast cancer. I'm still not sure how I'm going to do this because after my 12 mile training walk, I thought my feet were going to fall off. Well, now is the time for me to start begging for sponsors. For your sponsorship you will receive months of posts regarding the ridiculousness of my training regime not to mention the detail of the three day walk you can look forward to in October. To help me reach my $2200 goal, you can either click on the ugly box ad that I've added to my sidebar or go to this link. Thanks in advance.

Easter With a Twist

Tonight I went to Easter Dinner at my cousin Heidi's house. Dinner was supposed to eat at 6 but really we didn't eat until 7. Then after dinner was the egg hunt...in the dark...with flashlights. I have to admit when I first heard this idea I was a little jealous that I was no longer in the egg hunting age bracket. I was in charge of hiding eggs for two of the older kids, so I did my best to make them a little difficult. There were six kids total and each had 15 eggs in their color to find (plus one "money egg" that was rainbow colored and had $5 in it). The egg hunt was fine and dandy for the first half hour or so and then it gets a little tougher and then it really sucks when you're down to three kids who each need one egg. You're trying to retrace all your steps. "did you find the one by the pool?" "yep" "Did you find the one in the bush?" "yep" "Did you find some over by the rocks?" "Yep" "How many?" "A couple. How many did you hide there?" "Two or three." And its even tougher when you were hiding for two kids and randomly just sticking eggs places because then you can't remembers which kids you put where. I put like four in the area with the rocks, but were they all for the same kid or 3 and 1 or 2 and 2. I had no idea. It was dark and I was cold and wasn't paying any attention to what color I was putting under rocks. So there are still 4 plastic eggs out in her yard somewhere that they are hoping to find in the daylight.

How I Pretend to Save the World

Back in January, I started getting Body and Soul Magazine, one of Martha Stewart's cogs in her plan to control the universe. Anyway, I really like it and every month after I read it I resolve to take my own bag to the grocery store, eat more leafy greens and practice some deep breathing (or various other ways to improve myself and my world). This usually last for about a week until I forget, go back to my old way of living and then when I get next month's mag it starts all over again. This month there was actually something really good and really easy to do. It's a way to opt out of catalogs that you don't want to receive. Now I love catalog browsing as much as the next person (bring on the billion Victoria's secrets and Pottery Barns), but I get catalogs full of men's clothing that don't apply to me at all. So go to this link and put an end to all the wasted catalogs you are receiving. Now the bad part about this is that you have to actually know the names of those catalogs. That was hard for me because I usually just pitch the ones that I don't want. I'll have to start paying attention to them though.

Ingredients for the Perfect St. Patrick's Day Party

My uncle held a St. Patrick's Day Party, which turned out to be pretty good.

1) Irish Food: The menu for the evening included Irish Soda Bread, Corned Beef, Cabbage and Mashed Potatoes. (There was also rye bread, swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Thousand Island Dressing for anyone that wanted to make a Reuben)

2) Irish Drink: Bailey's, Harp, and Guinness were all readily available. As well as limeade for the kids (hey, its green). I, however, chose to drink a Blue Hawaiian wine cooler. I was told that if I mixed it with orange juice it would make a "Green Leprechaun" but I didn't.

3) Ridiculous Irish Themed Desserts

I think a giant cake decorated like the Irish flag counts. (Side note: my cousin's birthday is on St. Patrick's Day). Each section of the flag was a different flavor. The flavors were lemon, mint chocolate chip, and butter pecan. I'm not sure that was a good idea. Other Irish themed desserts were green mint fudge (with '69 food coloring in it), and two different types of shamrock shaped cookies. Actually the cookies my grandma made were clubs (as in hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs), but she thought they were shamrocks.

4) Festive Irish Decorations. I didn't take a picture, so you'll just have to take my word on it.

5) Odd green Irish apparel.

I rest my case.

6) Traditional Irish names. My cousin's name is Patrick McMinn.

7) Bloodshed. Ok, so we didn't get this but we were darn close when my ex-con cousin and my aunt began to state their case on why OJ Simpson is completely innocent (apparently their belief is that his son did it) and my other cousin and his wife told them that they were morons. But my grandmother broke it up because it could actually escalate to physical violence.

8) Irish music. There wasn't this either. At least, I don't think there was. Not that we could've heard it above the screaming kids (and adults). We did have on some special Foods of Ireland program on the Food Network (at least until the Big East Championship game came on).

All in all it was a pretty good party. My mom even brought crafts for the kids to do, so that each kid could make their own shamrock pin. (Is that what I have to look forward to in 25 years?)

The Green Fudge

For the second consecutive year, I've made green mint fudge for St. Patrick's day. I'm taking it to my uncle's St. Patrick's day party tonight. I took all the ingredients (sans butter and sugar because I knew there was already some there) over to my grandmother's house yesterday, so that I could spend more quality bonding time with my mom. My mom suggested to use my grandmother's green food coloring rather than waste my own because "she's had it a long time." She proceeds to pull out a glass McCormick bottle of green food coloring. I make some smart ass remark like "wow, it looks like its from the 70's." Upon further inspection, we discover that the bottle is dated 12/69. Guess she did have it for a long time.

Back Away From the Dishes!

My mom is in town. Yesterday, she came to pick me up to go to lunch, but we couldn't leave my apartment yet because the cable guy was here and while there isn't really much to steal in my apartment I didn't feel like "just lock up when you're done" was an option. So we waited and watched some TV. At which point, my mom turned to me at says "Can I put away your laundry for you?" To which I answer (as any self respecting adult would) "No, you are absolutely not allowed to clean anything while you are here." Cable guy gets done, we go to lunch and then come back and watch a movie on HBO. She leaves and only then do I discover that somehow covertly she cleaned my bathroom sink. I don't know how. I don't know when. But she did.

Are Babies Ever Born on Their Due Date?

Seriously. My coworker, Charlene, went into labor yesterday. She's due on March 21st. Just a little early. So I am a little STRESSED because my work basically doubled overnight. I think that since a baby has yet to be actually born my supervisor is in complete denial and still thinks there's a chance Charlene will be able to work this event on Saturday. Hello? Can we get a clue?

Thanks, That's Really Helpful

Today at the Princess for a Day event that I was working, a girl's crown fell off her tooth during snack time. Of course, there was a load of tears because she was only 6 and in all honesty, there would be a load of tears if a crown fell off my tooth and I'm 27. So we called her mom to come pick her up because girl crying for longer than 1 minute = parents turn to deal with it. The girl was sitting on my lap and I was trying to comfort her while also explaining to the other kids what a crown is and why this was different than losing a tooth. It was taking her mom a really long time to come. The girl turned to me and between sobs said "are you sure my mom is coming?" and I did my best to assure her that her mom would be there any moment. The girl beside her turns to us and says "maybe your mom lied to you to make you spend the night here." Of course that led to another onslaught of crying. Thanks little girl. We could've done without that little commentary. Though it does make me wonder if she was speaking from experience.