Where were you? (Scott's written excuse for not blogging)

This might just bore the shit out of most of you, how ever the below list is a portion of a much larger document I created in an attempt to reign in and organize a very large meal served at our home on Thanksgiving. The original document also covered the entire weeks worth of meals and events surrounding the last weeks holiday, during which time we were blessed with multiple house guests from three separate states in our home. I recapped the menu, as a just in case I decide to do this foolish sort of shit again.

Hors d'oeuvres

Cut fresh veggies and dip: Good, half the plate eaten.

Everything Nuts: Excellent!!!! Burned first attempt but wow they were really good!

Almond, Cashew, Cranberry mix: Forgot to serve.

Cheese and Crackers: Cheese selection needed to be wider, we served Cheddar, Swiss, Parmesan, and Smoked Cheddar. A Baked Brie would have been great along with more Spreadable Cheese.

Smoked Salmon: One slice of quality fish was the perfect quantity!

Crab Salad wraps: Well liked well received, made 5 times to much.

Dinner

Salad- served buffet style (build your own): No one touched it, likely due to the fact that dinner and Hors d'oeuvres were served only about 40 minutes apart.

Fresh Tangerines: Looked great, bought to many.

Fish (Grilled) Talapia: Two large pieces were perfect, Prepared on the grill yum.

Turkey: 17.5 pound bird for 16 people just a little too much, maybe 15 would have been perfect.

Corn Bread: Excellent! Pre-Mix from Trader Joes.

Mashed Potato's: Perfect Potatoes from Mom's garden.

Sweet Potato's: Good, however it looked weird and few ate them, made a double batch and was twice to much. This dish did however become more tasty as left-overs. Next time make two days prior to meal.

Rolls: Average, store bought pre-maid none left over.

Wild Rice Salad: Very Good, Batch was twice the size it should have been.

Standard stuffing: Had very little left over!!! Seems we had a lot of stuffing lovers at our dinner table.

Grandma Hill's Famous Stuffing: Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!!

Corn (from Mom’s Farm): Yum!

Carrots (from Mom’s Farm): Did not show up.

Swiss Chard casserole (from Mom’s Farm): Only a few of us ate it :(

Cranberry Sauce: !!!!!! Holy shit these were really good!!!!!! Berries soaked in lots of sugar and brandy. YUM!

Hot Cider: Finished most of it!!! Trader Joes Spiced Cider.

Wine (Harbor Red): Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!!

Wine (white?): Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!!

Vanilla Ice cream: Did well!

Pumpkin Pie: Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!! Nothing special, From Jewel Bake shop.

Apple Pie: never happened.

Strawberry Rhubarb: Half of one pie eaten, Grand Travers Pie Company.

Black Berry Pie: One quarter eaten, Grand Travers Pie Company.

Pumpkin Spice Cake: Two slices eaten… by me Pre-Mix From Trader Joes.

Banana Bread: Four slices eaten Pre-Mix From Trader Joes.

Cookies: Gone!!!!! Big favorite!!! Could have bought twice as much. Frosted Sugar Cookies (jewel), and Chocolate Chip Cookies from Josephs.

Turtle Pumpkin Pie (from Mom’s Farm): miss-fire died in transit.

For the Kids

Mac and Cheese: Never happened Colin Ate a box worth of wheat thins before dinner and more sweets after than any of our 17 other guests for desert.

Life and its going ons.

---My life as of late, has been terribly boring. My daughter is doing well and is a ball of almost constant fire, which at times, is NOT a good thing. The early heat waves we have been having here have been making me ultra crabby, Iv realized Im not a fan of the heat at all anymore. I much prefer fall over any season at this point.

I havent been following too much of the news as of late either. I have been trying to keep up on all t his immigration law b.s. and I just havent been able to. The last I heard we were gonna give legal status to like 12 million illegals already here. Thats just swell.

Whats been going on in other Offmens lives? Scott, hows the house selling going? PJB, hows the bike business looking? Mr. Martin, what have you been up to? Mark, where have you been, havent seen you on here in ages.....

Thats about it boys, just wanted to say hello and that I miss all your words. Lets take a few mins. out of our busy lives and get some bloggin' done! =) ---

Wheres all the news?

---AM Temp. 52
Skies. Cloudy

Man, Im trying really hard to keep the blog updated with some decent news stories so we have something to comment on, but there has been NO good news over the past few days. Ive looked and looked. The story about the British sailors has been all over the place, but thats kinda boring. For once, that is something we need to stay out of...its NOT our problem, leave it up to the damn Brits.

Its been damp, humid and rainy here the past couple of days which kinda sucks, but its that time of year where there is a lot of rain in the region, spring will do that, duh.

Thats all from here. What have you guys been up to? Where are you PJ?---

Captured Sailors

---Am Temp. 55
Skies. Cloudy

So, how serious do you think this is? Does this have the potential to really escalate things between Iran and the west?---

From ABCnews.com

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran says the 15 detained British sailors and marines it is holding are healthy and being treated in a humane fashion.

"They are in completely good health. Rest assured that they have been treated with humanitarian and moral behavior," Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards captured the group Friday, while it was conducting what Britain called an inspection of a merchant vessel near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab, at the northern end of the Persian Gulf.

Hosseini said the one woman in the group had complete privacy. "Definitely all ethics have been observed," he said.

The official declined to say where the marines were being held and repeated that their case was under investigation.

Sick no more

---Am Temp. A balmy 66!!!
Skies. Sunny as can be.

Its amazing to me how fast a child recovers from being ill. It takes us days to feel better and it seems like it took my daughter minutes. One second she was sleeping, seemingly recovering from her illness and the next she wanted to play games and was up looking great!

Kids blow my mind, they really do.---

Sick kid

---AM Temp. 61
Skies. Stormy

My kid is very sick so Ill be watching her all weekend which will be nice, but unfortunately its under bad circumstances. You all have a great weekend.---

Got a smoke?

---Its another beautiful spring morning here. I slept with my window cracked open last night and I wasnt even cold.

Ive always thought of tabacco and alocohol to be more deadly and dangerous then say, marijuana, but Im not sure of its danger factor against other drugs. Meth is a really nasty drug, I have seen what it can do to an individual and a family first hand...I would much rather see a person smoke a cigarette rather than take up a meth habit. Speed is nasty. Heroin is pretty nasty too, I think Id rather drink than do heroin.

Heres a little article on the dangers of alcohol/cigarettes versus other drugs.....

By MARIA CHENG AP Medical Writer

LONDON Mar 23, 2007 (AP)— New "landmark" research finds that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than some illegal drugs like marijuana or Ecstasy and should be classified as such in legal systems, according to a new British study.

In research published Friday in The Lancet magazine, Professor David Nutt of Britain's Bristol University and colleagues proposed a new framework for the classification of harmful substances, based on the actual risks posed to society. Their ranking listed alcohol and tobacco among the top 10 most dangerous substances.

Nutt and colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug's potential for addiction, and the impact on society of drug use. The researchers asked two groups of experts psychiatrists specializing in addiction and legal or police officials with scientific or medical expertise to assign scores to 20 different drugs, including heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy, amphetamines, and LSD.

Spring is here!

---Am Temp. 34
Feels like. 26
Skies. Sunny as can be.

As of 7:07 Central Time tonight, spring officially arrives. Good riddance winter! Thats all I really have to say this AM, not really in a talkative mood, I just wanted to share the spring thing with you guys.---

Goodmorning world.

---AM Temp. 37
Feels like. 32
Skies. Mostly Sunny.

Theres a really bad cam shot of me @ 8 AM this morning. I figure I have a webcam and never use it so I dusted it off this morning for a quick capture of myself. I just love how its all pixeled a distorted, makes me happy I once dropped a hundred bucks on said webcam, really it does. Thats just the way it is with that thing.

How you be on this wonderful Monday morning? More to come later Im sure, I havent looked at news headlines yet.---

The Devil at church.

---Am Temp. 30
Feels like. 20
Skies. Partly Cloudy---

One Sunday morning, everyone in one bright, beautiful, tiny town got up early and went to the local church. Before the services started, the townspeople were sitting in their pews and talking about their lives, their families, etc. Suddenly, Satan appeared at the front of the church. Everyone started screaming and running for the front entrance, trampling each other in a frantic effort to get away from evil incarnate. Soon everyone was evacuated from the church, except for one elderly gentleman who sat calmly in his pew, not moving... seemingly oblivious to the fact that God's ultimate enemy was in his presence. Now this confused Satan a bit, so he walked up to the man and said, "Don't you know who I am?" The man replied, "Yep, sure do." Satan asked, "Aren't you afraid of me?" "Nope, sure ain't," said the man. Satan was a little perturbed at this and queried, "Why aren't you afraid of me?" The man calmly replied, "Been married to your sister for over 48 years." ---Hah, cute one, no? I got a little laugh out of it. Last night I drove past one of the big so-called "Irish pubs" here and man, was it packed. As far as my eye could tell it was all kids, no one over say, 25. I thought to myself that I would definitely end up in a fight if I was in there. They had one big ass white tent set up outside and there were several party buses parked outside right next to it. No thanks.---