I Am Older Than My Father

This past weekend, my parents came to visit, which is big deal in itself. The last time they came to visit us was....oh...umm..I think a LONG time ago. Kev and the pups and I have traveled up north many times, however. Anyway, I digress. So to prepare for the weekend, I needed to do a lot of cleaning, dusting, and sprucing up. I know my parents don't particularly care about the tidiness of my home, but I do, so it needed to be nice. But I procrastinate, so most of it was completed the day before. I was up REALLY late scrubbing, dusting, folding, wiping, washing, drying, deodorizing, sweeping, and putting away. Phewww! Exhausting, but worth it.

So the weekend was nice, busy but nice. On Sunday, my parents wanted to go to an antique store down the street. It is their absolute favorite thing to do and if wasn't there, then they would not have come to visit, trust me. So since their car is chock full of random antiques, I suggest taking my car, because we are all going. I didn't think much of it, but I went to go sit in the backseat so Kev could drive and dad could be comfortable in the front. Dad immediately says "No" Uhhhh, what do you mean no? No you're not going? At this point he made himself clear that he was NOT going to sit in the front seat. He insisted on sitting in back seat...with mom. OK fine...squish your big self in the backseat, but I don't want to hear any complaints later! As we pull out of the driveway, dad notes that it's been a long time since he was in a back seat of a car. He then proceeds to say to mom, "Remember that time when we were in the backseat and we thought your dad was coming?" Mom giggles. "WHAT????" I say. At this point Kevin and I become thoroughly disgusted and tell them "No More Talking!!! My ears are bleeding!" My mom responds with..."well, where do you think you came from?" "MAGIC BEANS" I shout. I would much rather prefer to think I grew from magic beans....

Fast forward about 25 minutes when we stop to get gas at the nearby grocery store. Dad is not in a particularly good mood (likely b/c he's not at home watching the golf channel), so mom tries to buy his happiness with 2 extra large Slim Jims. It seems to work. He is quietly enjoying his afternoon snack..sitting in the back seat...being a good boy.

Codpieces

Puerto Ricans eat strange things. I know this from personal experience. Growing up in a mixed Hispanic household, I was subjected to many a culinary puzzle. I mean, what third grader can go to school and say that they had blood sausage last night for dinner....cooked in real pigs blood? Or banana leaves smothered in ketchup? Don't get me wrong, there is lots of great Latin cuisine that I have been exposed to which I will try to prepare every now and then. Last week was a prime example. Kevin wanted Spanish rice for dinner and maybe an appetizer to go along with it. Looking deep in to my (bare) cupboards, I noticed a box of Bacalaitos mix. For those unfamiliar with this delicacy, it is basically ground up codfish which you add water to and then deep fry (because it wouldn't be Latin if it wasn't deep fried). Kevin had never tried this before but was very curious and willing to venture into this new territory. So I began to stir up the mix, add a little baking powder, and throw spoonfuls of it into a pot of boiling grease. They were tremendously fun to cook. It was similar to making funnel cakes...only with fish guts instead. Skilled chefs can get their bacalaitos to look just like the cover of the box. (See below)

However, my bacalaitos tended to resemble people, UFO's, and even a puppy dog! I had to document the codfish dog because it was so impressive. I showed it to Neo and Nala, who immediately began to think it was for them. Sorry guys, but your digestive tracts will thank me later.

Woof Woof! Am I a fish or am I a dog? Let's do a side by side comparison to Neo and Nala...

According to Nala's tongue in this picture, I am a fish...and she definitely wants to eat me!!

Hannah-Barbera

Hurricanes may be a normal part of life for those in places like Louisiana or Florida, but here in Richmond, they are definitely not. A couple weeks ago, hurricane Hannah swung up and unleashed a tiny bit of her fury here in good ol VA. Of course, as my luck would have it, I was scheduled to work on Saturday morning for a few hours, which was right at Hannah's peak. OK, I can deal with that. It didn't look so threatening from inside our building...

So, after work I decided it was the perfect time to go for a swim at the pool. Once there, I began practicing and perfecting my backstroke. As I lay face up in the water (all alone...where is everybody???) I hear the emergency signals from under the water. "How smart!" I think to myself. "This place has underwater speakers in case of emergencies!" Not quite...it turns out the overhead speakers are cranked so loud, I can hear them clearly underwater. Oh fine, Hannah. Ruin my workout why don't you.. So I get out of the water, take a quick shower and head to the car. There are no cars on the road, which is eerie, but also kind of nice! On my way home, I start to hear a loud rushing sound and rain is coming at me from all directions. Hmmm, I think, what's that noise??? Well, as my luck would have it, there is now some sort of funnel cloud thing in the sky on my right. It appears to be coming closer, so I do what any normal person would do in that situation...I grab my camera so I can blog about it.

tunnel cloud thing in the distance....

Tunnel cloud thing getting closer...and louder.

Whoa Nelly!!! It's like right there around the corner, waiting for me. Sorry folks, but at this point, I HAD to put the camera down and focus on driving (or should I say, escaping) Anyway, I made it home safely and managed to avoid a car accident. Thank God because I think there is some sort of law about having more than 3 accidents per year. So Hannah came, Hannah went, and all was well.

Cooking With Coffee Tables

Having half of your kitchen freshly tiled presents the obvious problems. There is no walking on it, cooking in it, or eating from it. So to remedy the problem of dinner a couple nights ago, we needed to create a "makeshift kitchen." All one really needs is a George Foreman grill and a little space. So prior to tiling, Kevin grabbed all necessary supplies for burgers and dogs and brought them upstairs. What a fabulous (and unique) dining experience we had. I think my cheeseburger was probably one of the best I've ever had....despite the fact that it was cooked in our 3rd floor movie room on a coffee table!

There were definitely challenges encountered....there were no sharp knives, for one, and therefore cutting onions and delicious Hanover tomatoes proved near impossible. There was also the issue of crowd control. As you can see from the picture below, we had hungry, jealous, drooly mouths just inches away from our food.

It was a fun experience and I might even consider it again, but after all was said and done, there was only one question that we had......Why the hell did we not think of cooking on the REAL grill? You know, the big one? That cooks faster and makes less mess??? I honestly have no earthly idea why it slipped our mind. I do, however, have a theory. I think Kevin wanted to make this some kind of weird grill challenge.....