So much for plans.
I had Friday off, and had this great plan to get the graves done then…
HOWEVER. See, there’s this little teeny tiny problem that comes with 600+ people stomping across your yard in a set path every year. That path tends to…stick around. Not as green, not as dense, etc. However, we had good results last year with a fertilizing schedule, so we’re copying it this year, and that dictated that I needed to fertilize Friday.
So, mowing, trimming, fertilizing, and watering took up the morning, and into the evening. With the water going, that rendered the lawn off limits for a workspace, that left the driveway. And, with watching the kids, by the time I was free, it left little light. So, 2 grave caps got the next step. That’s where we left off. Not all 7, like I had hoped.
Saturday, I had planned to make skulls all day. Well, Emily just HAD to go and tell me about the super duper sale over at Old Navy Saturday morning. Kids pants for $7. Thus I found myself standing outside the local Old Navy 20 people back in a 200+ person line. I will have MUCH more to comment on the big sale shopping later in the year, but suffice it to say, Kyle had 3 new pairs of Jeans (stupid 3 per customer limit) within a minute of opening, I was back in the store for Alec in under 5 minutes, but EVERYTHING in the boy’s section had sold out. This store had virtually no selection there to begin with.
THEN we had to pick up Indy from the vet, after being neutered and de-clawed. There, they sprang upon me the fact that, oh, by the way, he’s going to need a special cat sand for the next few days. Didn’t they go over that with you? Uh, no.
So, drop him off at home, confiscate the cat sand, replace it with newspaper, grab Talia so Jen can get some sleep, head BACK out the door to the pet store for special cat sand.
‘Course, Talia has to go and fall asleep on the way home, destroying her normal nap schedule. Get home, get the cat sand in, feed the kids, hey, guess what. We need to get to the grocery store because we’re out of everything. And, I had forgotten about the special um…”salad” I was going to make for a pot luck.
So, with Talia’s schedule shot, it’s 4PM before she wakes up, get to the store, and come away with enough to get us through to the major shopping day, and the ingredients for ‘salad’.
This does bring me to another unorthodox cooking tip. Ever had trouble slicing tomatoes?
A few tricks I invented while working at Burger King, and having to manually slice ALL the tomatoes every day. 1st, tomatoes cut MUCH MUCH BETTER when chilled. So, since you gotta wash em anyway, do so in ice water.
Next, the hell with what the cooking books tell you…USE THE BREAD KNIFE. Makes nice, even thin slices, no troubles.
So, an easy “salad” to bring to your next pot luck. Slice some tomatoes, slice some mozzerella, alternate the two, and cover the whole thing with italian dressing. (green onions, thyme, parsley, etc optional too) Let sit overnight.
Needless to say, by the time this was all done, I had given up on the skulls. And instead settled in to watch The Ruins. Having read NOTHING on it previously, only knowing about the Mayan ruins holding something evil, I was interested.
Spoiler Alert:
However, as far as man eating vines capable of aparant intelligence and communication go, Audrey II is far more frightening and entertaining. Yes, the musical comedy version is more frightening. The Ruins had potential, and squandered it away by serving up a whole lotta cliche material and not exploring some of the more unique features, then neutering the ending. Much better “alternate ending”.