An Early Spring, Badger Brew, and Buffalo Cauliflower

Now that I've paused from stuffing my face with fun Super Bowl food (Go Ravens. Except Ray Lewis, who can suck it), I will recap our weekend festivities.

First, we took time out from our weekly Saturday morning scramble to check in with the Groundhog. Did you know there are TWO official groundhogs? I did not, until yesterday. But there are, apparently, and both Punxsutawny Phil and Staten Island Chuck seem to agree that there will NOT be 6 more weeks of winter. Do we attribute that to lack of a shadow, or global warming? Don't know, don't care - it's been cold enough around here that I'm happy either way! Though I must say that I'm probably not the only one who would welcome an early spring - my poor daffodils have been quite confused by the whole oscillation between ridiculously warm and ridiculously cold, and I think I can see the new green shoots they recently put up actually shivering. It's sad.

Saturday we readied ourselves for a party in honor of the Grand Opening of the Badger Brewery, aka the inaguaral showing off of M.'s home brew skills, aka an excuse to have friends over and drink beer. I made lots of food, we tidied up the house, and Lucy put on a party dress. I went a wee bit overboard with some of the smaller details - sort of ran with a whole "theme," as you'll see in a moment. I got sucked into the Pinterest-inspired madness of Baker's Twine (it's just so damn cute), and tried my hand at DIY cake stands with near disastrous results. Let's just say that I very nearly spray painted a significant portion of our dining room and outside deck with red spray paint. I ended up with two functional, cheap, and cute (if you don't look to closely) cake stands, but I'm not sure the trade-offs were worth it. DIY projects are much easier when it's not 16 degrees and dark outside... Anyway, on to the photos:

The moniker "Badger Brewery" is inspired by M.'s alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, and the school colors are red and white. Home brewed beer is bottled into plain brown bottles, so to dress them up a little and give us the option of keeping track of the type of beer in a given bottle once we have more than one made, I ordered some custom hang tags from My Own Labels:

The tags (tied on with red and white baker's twine) say "EST. 2013" on the first line and "BADGER" below. Kind of cute, right? Plus, they are reusable, so I think of this as more of an investment than a frivolous party detail ;-) (I don't, really).

Then I got even more rididulous, and ordered matching napkins and coasters from For Your Party:

I covered the tables with brown Kraft paper and decorated with red, white, and yellow flowers in mason jars and beer bottles:

Again with the baker's twine. I'm hooked.

For drinks, we had M.'s beer (of course), some wine that went pretty much untouched, sparkling water, and juice boxes for the kids. The party began at around 5, so we had a pretty hearty spread - Crockpot BBQ chicken with rolls and coleslaw, mini hot dogs in mini buns for the kids, spinach balls (Nat! I used your recipe!), little spinach and artichoke tortilla crisp appetizers from Wegmans, cream cheese and hot pepper jelly (Stonewall Kitchens) with crackers, homemade soft pretzels, and fruit.

And finally, hiding in the back there on the fateful cake stands, were two types of cupcakes: Chocolate Guinness cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and Blue Moon cupcakes. Yes - beer flavored cupcakes. I changed the recipes a little bit by leaving out the beer that was called for in the frosting - even though it was only a small amount, it seemed unwise to feed that to kids :-). I didn't worry about the beer in the cake mix, since the alcohol gets cooked out. They were awesome. I've eaten too many:

 

The party was lots of fun, and I got a chance to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen in a while. The kids (there were 10 including ours) all got along pretty well, and happily made a mess of our basement level. Which was MORE than fine with me, as it meant they were relatively occupied. M. and I crashed soon after the last guests left, as Lucy had deemed it necessary to wake us up about 6 times the night before.  She then repeated the feat on Saturday night, too, so M. and I spent a lot of today absolutely exhausted. Turns out she has a cold, and as of tonight, possibly an ear infection, too. We may be making a trip to the doctor's office tomorrow...

Exhaustion aside, we rallied enough to follow the American tradition of eating food and watching the Super Bowl tonight. I fed the kids leftovers from last night's party, and M. and I scarfed an entire plate of something I've been wanting to try - Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower Bites. I'm a fan of the buffalo flavor, something I discovered long after I stopped eating meat when I happened to try the delight that is Buffalo Shrimp on a vacation in Florida. M. is a wing fan, but rarely orders any since he's always the only one that eats them. I've been seeing various recipes for Buffalo Cauliflower on the web, and finally got around to trying one. I used the one from Skinnytaste, and it was fan-freaking-tastic. I ate so much of it that I'm going to poop fire tomorrow. You've been warned.

M. already has a second beer fermenting as we speak - I'll need to think of some way to top myself when we crack in to that one. Whatever I do, I'm sure there will be baker's twine involved.

Weather and Birthdays and Cereal

So, it's snowing. And I'd be OK with this, but I am still traumatized by last winter's storms. Thus, I am alarmed at how often the lights have flickered tonight. I don't think I can survive another winter night without power, at least not in a house with drafty windows and an inconveniently-positioned fireplace (in the cold, cold basement, in case you were wondering).

OK, wait - just had an interruption that involved the power going out completely, me scurrying around to turn on a flashlight and find M.'s phone with the electric company's number in it, the power coming BACK on (phew!?), and me continuing to scurrying around to light some "just-in-case" candles and hoard all the others I could find onto the dining room table. Every single digit of my body is crossed that the power STAYS ON. And the internet, of course.

I don't really have anything of importance to say here. In fact, I'm not really sure what this blog post is supposed to be about.

It could, I suppose, be about how I forgot it was M.'s birthday, sort of. I mean, I knew it was GOING to be his birthday. I remarked on it several times over the last couple of weeks, usually to remind him that he was in no way to expect a birthday present this year because he was generously gifted at Christmas (I bought him a Kindle, and fleece pants that he coveted, and a Chevrolet T-shirt in honor of our new car as a joke-y gift, and immediately after Christmas I bought him a very nice lighted case for his Kindle. For a couple who usually agrees to give each other stocking stuffers with a $50 limit, it was a spendy holiday). But then, on his actual birthDAY, I forgot. At least at first. I made it all the way to work before my Outlook calendar reminded me that it was, indeed January 25th. And it dawned on me that I was a loser who had forgotten to even wish her husband a happy birthday.

OK, I interrupt this blog post for a status update. Power just blinked off (off-off, not just a brown out - must go resume the dishwasher as I should really have clean dishes if I am to be stranded without power. And wine. Must go open wine bottle) and came back on again. Internet did not go out this time.

Aaaand, I'm back. Wine glass is filled and I've bumped the thermostat up to 75 to try to store up some nice hot air while I can. If the power doesn't actually go out, I may roast in my bed tonight.

So, back to the birthday. The worst part is that not only had I forgotten in the haze of the morning rush that it was M.'s birthday, but I had also forgotten to prepare the kids for the event. They had no idea it was Daddy's birthday, we had fashioned no cards, made no crafty-ish birthday presents, baked no cakes. I was striking out everywhere. I have no real defense, except that every year I feel the same challenge, and that is the challenge of battling "Christmas shopping fatigue" that leaves me lacking energy and ideas to plan for anything gift-related during the month of January. Some years I do better than others. No need to suggest that I shop early, and buy an extra gift or two for M. during the pre-Christmas shopping season. I am always so behind on my Christmas shopping and my Christmas gift ideas that this would just add more holiday stress than I can handle. I KNOW.

I did the best I could to make it up to M. I left him a "Happy Birthday" song voicemail (in which I changed to words a bit to point out what a moron I was), ran out at my lunch hour to buy a plain frosted cake and two cards (one from me - humorous - and one from the kids - cute), decorated the cake with the kids, taught Lucy to say "Birthday Daddy!", did the cake/candles/singing thing, had us order take out of M.'s choosing for an adult-only dinner once the kids went to bed, and, ahem, did other wifely things, if you know what I mean (and I'm sure you do). I think in the long run I made it up to him, but I still feel like a donkey's hiney.

He's 35, by the way, in case you wanted to know. Or as he likes to put it, he can now round up to 40.

Alternatively, this blog post could be about cereal. Remember back near the top, where I let on that I don't really know what to write about and am still deciding? And then I wrote a lot about the weather and M.'s birthday? Perhaps cereal is a better topic. Because I must say that I have more than a minor crush on Honey Bunches of Oats, which may well be the best cereal EVER invented. It is the one breakfast item that gives bagels a run for their money in my eyes as "favorite breakfast food" category (though bagels still have the edge overall). Oh, if only it was like celery, and I could burn more calories by the act of eating it than actually contains! The only drawback to it is that it is not easily eaten dry, and thus you really need a bowl with milk or yogurt and a spoon to delight in it (I prefer milk, just so you know). I seriously heart HBOO. When I was a kid, I had a thing for Cap'n Crunch, mostly because my mom would never let me have it, I presume because it is entirely unhealthy (and yet we always had Apple Jacks and Fruit Loops on hand so I'm not really sure I understand the rationale there). Now, as an adult, I appreciate a cereal that is only slightly sweetened, with a nice variety of textures (flaky flakes! crunch bunches of oats! Sometimes, when I buy the blue box, even slivers of almonds! A veritable cornucopia in my mouth!). The thought of Cap'n Crunch actually turns my stomach a bit. How about you - what's your favorite cereal, then and now?

With no way to artfully wrap up this mess of a post, and my nerves on edge (despite the delicious Layer Cake zinfandel I am sipping, I am considering offering up some sort of sacrifice to the powers that be at Pepco if they just KEEP MY POWER ON), I think I'll just stop here then.

Photographic Evidence

Way behind on my picture-sharing. Sorry, Mimi! I'll start first with some non-blizzard-related photos:

This goofball cracks herself up whenever she wears a hood or a hat.

We celebrated a birthday last month. Not this little girl's - don't worry, she's not growing up that fast!

Not this guy's, either, though he certainly enjoyed the cake.

Yep, M. was the Birthday Boy. Doesn't he look excited to be turning 34?

On to some photos documenting how we've been spending the last week and a half:

Before electricity was a thing of the past and cold misery had set in, M. and Finn braved the outdoors to construct these two delightful fellows. Warmth was restored with hot cocoa, and as a result I bring you...

The Hot Cocoa Unibrow!

Morning 1 without electricity. We are huddled up in the master bedroom, and I am attempting to get the wee ones to eat some sustenance, fairly unsuccessfully.

Hats were the theme of the day, though Finn kept taking his off. Here, the remaining laptop battery power was keeping him enthralled with a Tom and Jerry movie, so the hat stayed put.

A similarly behatted Lucy in good spirits

Desperate for some caffeine, M. brewed us some "cowboy coffee." It was an hour long process that only achieved success once he placed the percolator directly in the flames.

The result was a delightful if smoky brew, which did quite a lot to momentarily brighten my mood and warm my hands.

Boredom started making some of us do wacky things by late afternoon, and M. turned Finn into a...

Mummy! Except Finn kept insisting he looked like a doctor so... maybe not such a good mummy?

This photo is to give some indication of how much snow we got last weekend - it was taken after it stopped snowing on Saturday. We've since added another 10 inches or so on top of that, but it's been too windy and cold to go outside and take a new photo for proof.

I have no pictures taken during the rest of our time without power. Fingers were too stiff to operate the camera, and no one felt much like smiling. This is an "after" photo, showing you two kids very much relieved to be home and warm after our brief hotel stay.

And here is a shot from today, where we are all braving this latest storm with much better spirits because we are warm. And clean. And well-fed. The latter as evidenced by the Nutella grin Finn is sporting.

And finally, I give you two pictures I took of Lucy today, which have nothing to do with all this snow. But they have a lot to do with showing off how stinking cute she is!!:

Well THAT was fun

I pictured a lazy Saturday morning drinking coffee, surfing the internet and allowing my child to watch lots of brain-rotting TV while the snow fell. With a repeat on Sunday morning. Instead, we were awakened several times Friday night by our power flickering on and off before it went out completely at around 1 am. We were also awakened a few times by various children in need (Lucy crying due to her double ear infection, Finn declaring at 2 am that he's awake! awake!). At 5:51 am we dragged our exhausted selves out of bed in pitch darkness to attend to a crabby Lucy, and thus started THE LONGEST DAY EVER. And THE COLDEST DAY EVER. Except for Sunday morning, which was EVEN COLDER.

Power was out for about 40 hours. We hung out all day, mainly in the living room, and did our best to stay occupied and warm. We made the best of it, heating ravioli for the kids' lunches in our basement fireplace (note to self - next house, make sure the fireplace is in the living room and not the cold, dark basement) and even brewing some coffee in a camping percolator (yay for caffeine!). There was enough juice in the laptop battery to let Finn watch one DVD. Somehow, amazingly, Lucy managed to nap twice in her very cold bedroom (she refused to nap anywhere else - the girl is a creature of habit, I guess). And we watched the thermostat drop, intently. By bedtime, it read 55 degrees in the living room.

The four of us slept up in the master bedroom, typically the sauna of the house as it's on the top floor, but in this case maybe a degree or two warmer than Fargo in January. The power flickered back on at 8:15 pm for about 5 seconds and then... nothing. All night long. No pleasant sound of the furnace whooshing on, no blinking clocks or beeping fire alarms. We finally caved at 8 am on Sunday (today) and headed for a hotel, after shivering all night long despite 4 blankets. And that was those of us larger people that actually use blankets. Poor Lucy was dressed up in a long sleeved onesie, tights, socks, fleece pajamas and her leg warmers, with 3-4 blankets in her pack n play in an attempt that one of them might actually cover her. Each time we picked her up (of the many, many times she cried last night), her hands were ice cold. It was miserable. When we checked, as we furiously threw things together into bags and M. worked mightily to finish freeing one of our cars (a two day project), the thermostat read 43 degrees. FORTY THREE DEGREES. Inside my house. I'm just flabbergasted. How do homeless people do it? Dude, if I'm ever homeless, I'm going to Miami or some other warm, blizzardless place.

We found a Holiday Inn willing to hold one of its last two rooms for us. Once there, it was like heaven. Heaven. Showers! TV! Hot food! Warm air blowing out of a ventlike apparatus in the corner of the room!

And then, 7 hours later, our power came back on. And we went back home. Perhaps one might say, then, what was the point of going to a hotel? You did not sleep there? Couldn't you have just toughed it out for those 7 hours? No, no we could not have. We were, quite simply, done with living through a chapter of The Long Winter. I argue it was the best 70 bucks we ever spent (see above re: showers, TV, etc). And we didn't even know it would be that cheap. We didn't ask the price when we checked in, the rate could have been $200 and I would STILL say it was worth it.

Next up with be completely restocking our fridge and freezer, which somehow managed to defrost despite the cold temperatures INSIDE the house. Go figure.

Some Are Calling It The Snowpocalypse

So, it's snowing here in the mid-Atlantic. Maybe you've heard.

A couple of the local channels are pre-empting the typical scintillating Friday night programming for continuous Storm Coverage. In case any of my fellow Marylanders were worried, apparently the Ghost Whisperer WILL be aired, sometime around 12:37 am tonight. I know, right, BIG sigh of relief.

FOX is calling it "The Blizzard of 2010." The Weather Channel is calling it "The Winter Powerhouse." M. thinks that one sounds like a sandwich, by the way. CBS is going with a slightly more sly "Super Storm." Because of, you know, the "Super Bowl" being this weekend and all. I'm guessing the weather guy Topper (true name) had something to do with that cutesy play on words.

I'm calling it the "OMFG My Baby Has A Double Ear Infection Storm." Because she does. As we found out after getting increasinly panicky calls from daycare today that went something like this:

Call #1: Daycare (12:00): Um, it's snowing, so we're going to close at 3.
Me: OK, we'll be there around 3.

Call #2: Daycare (1:00): Um, Lucy has a fever of 100.5, and, you know, we're closing at 3, so...
Me: and...well, OK, we're coming soon... and, she's teething, and that's practically a resting temperature for a baby... but I GUESS I can call the doctor's office and see if they suggest seeing her, what with all the snow that is imminent and all. [Thinking: Fuck, fuck, this will be my third time to the pediatricians's office this week, probably another wasted copay. Fuck.]

Call #3: Daycare (2:00): Um, Lucy's fever is 101.5, and she's super fussy.
Me: [Thinkng: Fuck fuck fuck, called Dr.'s office and they are closed. FOREVER. Well, or at least until Monday. Due to the not-yet-here-but-imminent snow. Wimps. Fuck.] Okaaaay, coming to get Lucy now. Was planning to anyway, but will drive with more urgency and recklessness due to panic over need to find a doctor.

That was the end of the calls from daycare, but upon reaching Lucy, M. was informed that she had recently thrown up. And would only nap with someone holding her. And was terribly cranky. So, yes, clearly, this is not just teething. And the doctor's office was CLOSED. Panic.

Off to an urgent care center (love that those places exist) for M. and Lucy, where it took about 3 seconds to determine that Lucy had a double ear infection. And then another hour or so to fill her prescription. As Finn and I camped out at home, watching the snow fall harder and actually start to amount to something, and I worried they would never make it home.

But, it all ends well. Lucy and M. made it home, with antibiotics. A nap, some Motrin, and some dinner did Lucy a world of good, and she went to sleep happy. Finn and M. got a chance to romp around outside in the snow before it got dark, and made two snowmen (will upload pics tomorrow). We have power and heat (for now and hopefully for the future), lots of food, and lots of wine. We have nothing better to do than watch the 20-30 inches we're expected to get fall over the next day or so. Should be a fun blizzard. Or winter powerhouse. Or super storm. Whatever you want to call it.