Thursday to Tuesday

Yeah I know, I have a great deal to cover (I almost typed "a lot" but that was the pet peeve of my sophmore English teacher and she has almost trained that tendency out of me--saying "a lot" means an empty plot of ground, not "a great deal." :-)) having been away for so long. Sorry about that, again I thought of things to blog but put them off. *shrugs* Don't expect one of my 3,000+ word posts, but it should't me a micro one either.

Okay, let us go back to Thursday and the Back Porch, :-).


::Chili Cheese Nachos::
Onesome: Chili-- Okay, chili with beans or chili without beans? ...and how hot? ...and do you make your own? (recipes are accepted ) Okay, well I don't technically make my own chili as I've never yet done it. But the ones that I like come with beans, quite a few beans, though I prefer fewer vegetables, or at least fewer whole vegetables (pureed/finly minced is best).

Twosome: Cheese-- ...and with cheese on top? ..or is that an abomination? ...and while we're at it: hamburgers or cheese burgers? Oh, I could go on and on and on... Of course you put cheese on top, grated cheddar or colby jack. Ah, definately a cheese burger. Thee best is a homemade patty (large--larger than pathetic tiny fast food patties) cooked over a charcoal or wood flame and covered with melted colby jack cheese (no fake cheese here! *shudders at the thought*) and bacon. Then you put the hot patty (or two) on a large homemade cornmeal roll slathered in mayonnaise and cover the burger with ketchup. Mmmmm...perfect. Add sides of homemade (the only really good food, duh!) potato salad and fresh sweet corn on the cob along with a tall (refillable) cold glass of milk and you're set! :-)

Threesome: Nachos-- Now the serious one for the southwesterners (and others of distinction ): What's on your nachos? Cheese? Seven layers of fun stuff? What's a nacho? Hmmm... We're going to have to do recipes for sure this Winter! Proper nachos have a base of Mission tortilla chips (they're the best I've had at home--i.e. outside of a restaurant) or strips and topped with grated cheese. Then you add clumps of refried beans--that is it. Put it all in the oven until the cheese is nicely melted and the beans warmed up. Those are nachos, no nasty vegetables there. That reminds me, the only good vegetable is a dead vegetable (corn, broccoli, and peas don't count here) not on my plate--unless it is Veggie Tales which of course should not be on my plate.


Okay, that was Thursday, now let us go on to Friday. The week before I had gotten comp tickets for some museum visits. I took two nerfs to the museum on Thursday and we went through Space, Children's, and the Omnimax. Additionally, forgetting that Friday was a Free Friday (the three museums, but not the special exhibits and Omnimax, are free from four to eight--the museum normally closes at five--so we stay open late too) I had procured a ticket for the eight "Classic Omnimax" (where they show old IMAX movies, a different one each month on Fridays) for one of my nephews. I had asked my sister if she would be able to bring my nephew down for a bit during Free Friday and then bring him down to the exhibit so I could leave a bit early and catch the movie with him. She said that she would considere it, so when I had a chance at work I decided to call home to find out if it was going to happen.

One of the older nephews answered the phone with a dire tale that my neice had knocked off the free weights in the weight room area of the basement, injuring her foot and my sister's foot--they were both in urgent care. I wasn't sure what was going on, but after I talked to my supervisor and he suggested that I go home (my brother-in-law was on a trip at the time) I decided to leave. Soon after I got home my sister returned and I got the whole story. When she heard my neice scream/cry out she was in the bathroom about ten feet away. Of course her maternal instinct took over and she raced out to my neice--knowing where she was she figured out what had happened before she saw it. After she got my neice calmed down (they later figured out that no bones were broken and in fact her brace is gone now and she is walking normally) my sister noticed that her foot was hurting. She figured out later that she must have banged her foot into something as she ran over--breaking one toe and bruising the foot. Here is a picture from a day later:

It looks beautiful, don't it? :-) I was able to help out by fixing dinner for the kids while my sister and the injured neice stayed downstairs. I've been having fun talking to my crippled or invalid sister and teasing her that she can't do anything to me since I can definately outrun her now. :-)

My, my, but the time does fly. Friday is done and gone and we must move on to Monday and Unconscious Mutterings!

1. Fan:: blades
   
2. Scum:: sucking bottom feeder (what is the difference between a catfish and a lawyer? One is a scum sucking bottom feeder, the other is just a fish)
   
3. Lily:: of the Valley
   
4. Humid:: hot (I'll take slightly humid Southern California coastal (i.e. Orange County) heat over dry desert heat (Tucson, Arizona) or the humid Southern US)
   
5. Ghetto:: gecko (the car insurance ads by geico, I love them!)
   
6. Remember me?:: when you pass away (I'm not sure where that one came from...*scratches head*
   
7. Polished:: stones--I have a somewhat sizeable collection, one entire box in my storage unit has stones and bits of wood in it
   
8. Compose:: a letter
   
9. Squish:: 60 (for some obscure reason my second oldest Kentucky nephew uses the name squish60 as his internet alias)
   
10. Future:: Back to the (I watched these movies for the first time this year and really enjoyed them)

*shrugs* Enough of Monday. Now the moment that you've been waiting for, oh and an explanation of the topmost image. I promise they're related. Today I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience (well I hope not, but I have no idea when it might be repeated). Occasionally (only three times this summer were scheduled--and one was cancelled and one rescheduled indefinately--ours is the only one in the US so far to go through) the astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station talk to school children on the ground and answer their questions. One such event happened at the museum today (well it is yesterday now since it is Wednesday very early morning as I type this, but oh well, ;-))!! :-) I got to see video of the crew in the front of the room (it was somewhat low-quality video, somewhat akin to internet video--but this wasn't really surprising when I thought about it--things are only crystal clear in movies, ;-)), hear the kids a few feet in front of me ask questions, and then hear and see either the American astronaut or the Russian cosmonaut answer their questions. It was so awesome to see them (such as when the American answered a food question by pulling out a can of chicken and a lemon and letting them float in front of him) and hear them. I didn't get to speak to them directly, but it was almost as good. :-) It was awesome!!! I'm sure it was probably as close as I'll get to space in a long time. Hmm... I still can't believe I got to see this.

Well that is all for now, I'll sign off now.