My kids may or may not have spent the weekend on the island from Lord of The Flies - 06.13.2009

Dearest Father,

I thought that we had established a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in regards to what you do with my children while baby-sitting. Going forward, I am going to have to ask you to refrain from sending picture to my cell phone while you are baby-sitting. I would rather hear about the events after the fact, rather than seeing updates as things unfold.


Quite frankly, pictures like this freak me the fuck out. Apparently you've taken my kids to the Lord of the Flies island and Ian has emerged as the leader of the pack of unruly, self-governing boys. And what's on his face? Oh, it's clown paint? Why does he have clown paint on his face? Oh, because he thought that would be cool.


How exactly does this happen? You just happen to have a full clown costume, wig, and face paint at your house? Of course you do. So logically, you dressed my child as John Wayne Gacy? Of course you did.

But it gets even better! Here's the part where you taught the kids to play with fire! Oh, but you taught them to play fire in a responsible manner!


If anyone should NEVER be taught how to build a fire, it's Ian. I will; however, congratulate you on getting him to eat a hot dog. That is truly shocking and a feat that I've never been able to accomplish.


I actually love this picture. Ian is doing a goofy dance while perched on a rock. But I suspect that this resulted in you asking him if he was a homosexual when he was done dancing. Because of course, you think that only gay men dance.

Thank you for taking good care of our kids while Tony and I went to dinner and say a movie. I very much appreciate it!

Regards,
Your daughter - Michelle

*Seriously - the kids had a great time and were well cared for the entire time*

This Is Not Going To End Well For Me - 6.15.2009

Clearly, I've lost my mind. I took the kids to Play It Again Sports today to buy a few tennis rackets. Ian opted not to purchase a tennis racquet and instead asked to buy a pair of boxing gloves. As the adult in this situation, I should have put my foot down and told him "no". But I didn't do that. I got him the gloves and two punching mitts. I am 100% certain that tomorrow I will have a picture to post of the black eye that Ian will be giving me later today.




Then we went to BW3.




Connor's a little punk.



And so is Ian.




And it probably wasn't a good idea for me to order the Wild sauce. It made my nose run while I was eating and my stomach starting burning shortly thereafter.

Kickin It Old School with Nachos - 05.11.2009 and 05.12.2009

I'm not a food snob. I will always hold boxed mac & cheese, Ramen noodles, and microwaved nachos near and dear to my heart.



Here are some tortilla chips topped with sharp cheddar and monterey jack cheeses and zapped in the microwave for 20 seconds.



At some point on Thursday, I went down in to the basement for about 45 minutes and left Ian to his own devices upstairs. When I came upstairs, Ian had constructed this tower made of dvds, books, a tissue box, and drink coasters.


He was visibly upset that tower wasn't tall enough and that the structure wouldn't work for the movie that he was filming. After a couple minutes of quizzing Ian as to exactly what the hell he was trying to accomplish, I finally figured out that he was trying to build a stand that was table height to set the video camera on. Apparently, he wanted to pretend that he was filming a movie with his table full of LEGO toys.




Connor had cheese and crackers for a snack yesterday. He opted to stack all 5 crackers and slices of cheese together and consume them sandwich style.




Here's my breakfast from this morning. I really was craving breakfast so I made some hashbrowns, two eggs over easy, and turkey sausage. The meal was good, but it's always better to go out to breakfast and save the time it takes to cook it all yourself and cleanup the dishes and the kitchen.

Stuff We Ate Earlier This Week

I am pretty sure that these pictures are from Monday, but I won't swear to it.

First up, lunch with the kids at Skyline. Connor the attitude of a teenage girl lately and he can be quite unpleasant when we are out in public. Ian started taking pictures at Skyline and Connor went in to full drama mode.

Connor really is a cute kid, not that you can tell it from this picture. He was embarrassed that I wanted to take his picture. "Mom, what if someone sees you taking my picture? Ugh, you are so embarrassing to be with!" He ordered a regular 3 Way and 2 buns with chili and cheese.

Here's my food - the Deluxe Black Bean Burrito minus the sour cream and olives but with a shit ton of hot sauce.


As we paid the bill, the kids each grabbed a Spongebob ice cream treat from the cooler near the register. Connor needs to get some more adult teeth soon to even out the giagantor front teeth that he has. Click on the picture, you'll see what I mean.


On to dinner - my sister and her husband came over and we got takeout from Grand China. I switched it up and got General Tso's chicken - made extra spicy. It was pretty good.



David got sweet & sour chicken with crab rangoon and Stacey had the garlic chicken with an egg roll. Connor ate frosting directly out of the package for dinner.

Tony Likes Attention - 06.06.2009

Tony loves the attention that he's been getting on my blog, and if he tells you otherwise, he's lying. On Saturday we went to Barley's for a late lunch and he and the kids spent most of the time showing off for the camera.

Tony was delighted to discover that Scottish Ale is now served in a pitcher!




Next up, ale washed onion strings.




Then Ian decided to make his "cute" face for me.




Food - Shockingly, Ian had chicken fingers.





Tony had the Barley Burger.




Connor had grilled wings with medium sauce. Connor arrived at this decision after much debate and several minor fits when he found out the the wings would be served grilled and not fried.

I had a turkey reuben with perogies on the side.

Connor Versus Baked Potatoes with Cheese - 06.04.2009

Connor loves baked potatoes with cheese from Wendy's. Usually he eats two potatoes plus a 5 piece order of chicken nuggets. Yesterday he decided to forgo the nuggets and have 3 baked potatoes. I didn't think that there was a chance in hell of him finishing all 3.



The challenge begins!


One potato down, two to go!


Two down, one left!


And the winner is... Connor!

What important lesson have I learned from this challenge? I've learned that at this rate I had better start saving my money now because Connor is going to eat us out of house and home when he's a teenager.

Ian's Recipe for the Perfect Burrito

Ian would like to share with all of the internets his recipe for a perfect burrito.



Step 1, take a soft taco sized flour tortilla out of the package.

Step 2, microwave the tortilla for 15 seconds.



Step 3, fill the tortilla with NOTHING and fold it like a burrito.



Step 4, lay down on the couch to enjoy your "burrito of nothing" and watch Spongebob Squarepants.

Connor's 8th Birthday Dinner and Other Stuff That I Forgot to Post

The kids always get to choose whatever dinner they want on their birthdays. For Connor's 8th birthday, he picked Papa John's for his party and Skyline for his actual birth date.



Ian began his meal with a Spongebob ice cream treat from the cooler.




He then moved on to his mad science experiments. It started off with him crushing oyster crackers and added pepper and him politely asking everyone to try his "recipe". I obliged him. It wasn't that bad.



Then Ian started to get fancy. He took a little chili off of Connor's plate and some cheese from mine and added that to the cracker and pepper mix. This is where I had to draw the line and refuse to try his new "recipe".



We eat a lot of pizza. Here's some pizza from Jet's. Tony loves this stuff. It's not anywhere as good as a mom & pop type of place (Iacono's, Dantes, etc.) but it's good considering that it's from a chain.



Every few months I decide to make lasagna, mostly because of a grudge that I have with myself. My mom makes kickass lasagna and mine always turns out just okay, at best. Somehow I manage to dry it out during the baking process no matter how much sauce that I start with. This was no exception.



Tony was off of work last week and asked me to get him up a Big n' Tasty from McDonald's on my way home from picking Ian up from school. I can't even think the words "Big n' Tasty" without giggling a little. I don't know why, but it just cracks me up that Tony requested this sandwich.


This is a chicken pita from My Big Fat Greek Kuzina. Tony and I ate there a couple of weekends ago after David's 30th birthday party. I'm not going to lie to you, I was already pretty drunk when got to the restaurant (and by pretty drunk, I actually mean very drunk). I don't really remember whether this was good or not but it looks yummy.

9th Anniverary Dinner - 05.30.2009

Tony and I went out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate 9 years of wedded bliss. Funny, it doesn't feel like we've been married for 9 years... It feels more like 20... (I kid, I kid!)

We couldn't decide where to go but we wanted to sit outside and eat. We drove around the Short North area for a while and decided to try Marcella's.




We were seated pretty quickly and got a great table right by the sidewalk - perfect for people watching!

The ambiance at Marcella's was great and the food was good. The only downside was our douchebag waiter. I can understand that the place was packed and they may have been short staffed, but that doesn't excuse his shitty attitude.




We started off with a cheese and meat plate. I would love to describe the dipping sauces that came with the cheeses but I can't because our asshat waiter dumped the plate on our table and scurried off before telling us what they were.




About 10 hours after we sat down, and long after the cheese plate arrived, we finally got our wine.




No matter what Italian restaurant we go to, Tony always orders a Caesar salad and chicken parmesan. He will not stray from this standard order. I swear that if we ever travel to Italy that he will order chicken parm everywhere we go. I should also mention that Tony's Caesar salad had 4 white anchovies on top. Upon seeing the little fishes, Tony immediately pushed his plate towards me and ask that I remove them and place them out of his eyesite.




I couldn't decide what to get and wasn't too excited about anything on the menu, so I got the daily special. It was a saffron risotto with shrimp, sausage, and vegetables. Risotto is pretty easy to screw up and if it's not served very fresh and streaming hot, it's ruined. I pleasantly surprised by how well prepared this dish was.