What Do Snowmen Do at Night?

I think the more important question is, what kind of people do this to snowmen at night?!?!

The Microwave That Wouldn’t Die

I bought a microwave when I moved out of my parents’ house for the first time approximately 10 years ago. It was a small, cheapo microwave I bought at Kmart (if I remember correctly). That microwave carried over into my marriage to Melanie, our moving across the country to Atlanta, and all the way to Tallahassee. Not a bad $40 investment (again, if I remember correctly). Well, as of two weeks ago, that microwave is no more. It’s not that it stopped working. It’s that it stopped working correctly—in that it wouldn’t stop working.

Lest your brain explode as this mystery, I’ll explain. But I’m going to go back further than is necessary, because otherwise this blog post will be pointlessly short. For months now, our microwave has shown signs of old age—dementia, a lack of self-control, etc. Once in a rare while, it would flash inside. Not so often that we felt our lives were in danger, but enough to know something wasn’t right. More commonly, the microwave would make sickly noises. The usual microwave hum would sometimes be replaced by a fairly aggressive growl, as if the microwave were trying to achieve liftoff. Neither of these problems was consistent, so Melanie and I never did much more than say, “We really should be getting a new microwave soon.” That’s about as much motivation as the faltering microwave could muster in us.

Then two weeks ago happened. I put a mug of water in the microwave to make hot chocolate. I set it for 90 seconds. 90 seconds came and went. The microwave beeped to signal me that the time had elapsed. But the microwave kept going. It didn’t stop. I pushed the “cancel” button. The microwave continued to radioactivate my water. I didn’t dare open the door in an attempt to stop the microwave, because what if it didn’t work and the machine kept pumping microwaves into the air? I didn’t want to microwave myself! So, I reached back and unplugged the appliance. It stopped. Phew! I took out my hot water and made hot chocolate.

I told Melanie what had happened. I wanted to warn her, in case she plugged it back in and tried using it and it once again didn’t stop. We weren’t sure we should even bother trying it again, but Melanie eventually decided she would. But the moment she plugged the microwave back in, it resumed its microwaving activities. The fact that it had been unplugged for quite some time didn’t matter. It immediately turned on.

Well, that settled that.

Melanie and I actually survived a week-and-a-half or so without a microwave. Did you know you can reheat things in a conventional oven? It’s true! For me, it was the leftovers from our second Thanksgiving that prompted a quick correction to our microwave-less situation. Although we went a couple of days reheating turkey, mashed potatoes, etc. in the oven, doing so made us realize how much we’d missed the luxuries of modern technology. (Because, you know, conventional ovens aren’t modern technology! Pssh!)

Our new microwave looks nice, but it is huge in comparison to our old one. It takes up significantly more countertop space, which is not good for our tiny kitchen. Fortunately, I’m pleased with the microwave otherwise. I’ve only used it a couple of times, but still. When we reheated our last plate of Thanksgiving leftovers using the microwave’s “sensor reheat” feature, which automatically determines how long to heat your food by detecting the presence of steam, the results were impressive. The turkey didn’t get dried out, and yet a thick blob of mashed potatoes was hot to the center. All of this without our having to stop and stir or blend or rotate or what have you. The sensor reheat didn’t work as well for warming up pecan pie, but common sense probably should’ve told us that. If your pecan pie is giving off a lot of steam, it’s going to be pretty damn hot. Way hotter than you need to get some vanilla ice cream melting on top.

To conclude, here are some photos, but of course.

Creegan was rather excited about the new toy. He insisted on being in some photos too.

The end.

Thanks Again!

Well, I wasn’t kidding when I wrote in my previous blog entry that Melanie and I were considering doing our own, second Thanksgiving. We did just that, and boy oh boy, am I glad we did. The food was amazing. Seriously, some of the best Thanksgiving food I’ve ever eaten. But I’ll come back to that. First, let me start with Saturday night. On Saturday night, the kids built gingerbread houses. This was a tradition in Melanie’s household as a child, and she has carried it on as an annual tradition in our home as part of the Christmas season. The boys all made their own gingerbread houses, as you can see here:

Eddie’s house.

Peter’s house, in its early stages.

Peter’s house, a bit more deocorated.

Creegan’s “parking garage.” I kid you not, this was entirely Creegan’s idea. He called it that, he put the car inside, everything. I didn’t know he knew the term “parking garage” in particular, but apparently he does. I don’t know whether this is amazingly cool, or something about which to be terrified. He’s very obsessed with cars, if you haven’t caught on.

With the garage door closed.

Taking the car out for a spin.

We set aside Sunday for our second Thanksgiving. We knew Sunday would be a good day for it because we were all on doctor’s orders to stay away from the general public, due to Creegan’s staph infection (or whatever it is/was). So, we planned and prepped a modest (by Thanksgiving standards) meal that ended up being amazingly delicious. I snapped a photo of my first plate full of food, and I think most it will be easily identifiable. Here it is:

Everything tasted so good. Like, shockingly good. Melanie and I stared at each other in bewilderment, wondering what we had done right. We’ve made mashed potatoes many times in our life. But these potatoes were AWESOME. We’ve made turkey before. But this turkey was FANTASTIC. Melanie made the stuffing, using the same recipe she had used to make stuffing when we went to our first Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago. But the stuffing this time around was about a million times better than it was on Thanksgiving. And the yams … super yum! That was a new recipe for us, which we made with actual sweet potatoes, shredded coconut, and more. A lot of sugar in those things, I’m sure, but probably the best sweet potato / yam dish I’ve ever tasted. Melanie and I have happily eaten all of the above food for three days straight now. It’s always a pleaser.

To conclude, here’s our most recent picture of Creegan. You can still see pink areas around his mouth, but he’s looking immensely better than he was a couple of weeks ago. The medicine seems to be working, thank goodness. Sadly, the colds don’t stop around here. Every time I think I’m getting better, I start to go back downhill. Right now, my throat is dry, sore, and scratchy. The kids are hacking their lungs out and dripping snot all over the place, yet again. It’s been weeks of this, off and on, off and on. It’s tedious. Anyway, here’s Creegan:

The end.

Staph Picks for the Holidays

Sometimes it’s so hard to find time to write a blog post that I feel like giving up on it. Especially when I know I’m pretty much talking to myself. Oh well.

I know Thanksgiving is an old memory by this point in time, but I’m going to write about it anyway. We spent our Thanksgiving with a few others families from our church. We contributed stuffing, a pistachio torte, and a green salad that contained candied nuts, cranberries, and bacon. I had a really good time, and despite my initial sadness that we weren’t doing our own thing (which I had originally anticipated), I felt I had adequately celebrated Thanksgiving. I felt differently a few hours later, when I had that Thanksgiving Day urge to eat a little bit more of everything, late at night. Having gone home, Melanie and I had leftovers only of what we had taken. So, yes, I could eat stuffing, and—spoiler alert!—I did. But it was not very satisfying when what I really wanted was more turkey, more mashed potatoes, etc. Dining on stuffing alone isn’t that exciting, even with really good stuffing. Melanie and I are now considering doing our own Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving 2. We skipped Thanksgiving altogether last year, so I guess we’re entitled to two of them this year. I seriously think we will.

A week prior to Thanksgiving, the boys went to the doctor for a check-up and flu shot. Creegan had some little dots around his mouth that had appeared a couple of nights earlier. The doctor said they were bug bites and not to worry. By Thanksgiving, these bug bites were looking kind of nasty, like big old red blotches on Creegan’s face. But Creegan had been picking at them quite a bit, which we assumed was making them ugly. So, we went to Thanksgiving without any concern. Several days later, we took Creegan back to the doctor because the red spots weren’t going away. We thought maybe Creegan just wasn’t leaving them sufficiently alone, but when the doctor saw them, she now decided they are likely to indicate a staph infection. She told us to keep Creegan away from everyone for a week while making him take antibiotics. Melanie and I—but especially Melanie—felt terrible, as we had had Creegan around other kids several times since these things appeared. However, nobody else has reported any problems, and despite the fact that staph infections are supposed to be highly contagious, neither Melanie nor I, nor Eddie nor Peter, have had any problems. Happily, those marks are now looking immensely better, although forcing medicine down Creegan’s throat twice a day is quite an exercise in patience.

Now for some of the other fun news from the past two weeks or so. On Saturday, November 23rd, Melanie took Eddie and Peter to see the play version of Beauty and the Beast. Their main babysitter was in the cast, so that made it extra fun for them. (Well, they probably didn’t care that much, but anyway.) On Tuesday the 26th, Melanie and I successfully went on our postponed date to see Catching Fire. AMC were very pleasant to work with in terms of trading my purchased tickets in for another date and time, even though it was after the fact. And the movie was great, too.

The day after Thanksgiving, we took the kids to Wild Adventures. (Yes, with Creegan looking like a mutant.) About halfway to Wild Adventures (which is a couple of hours away), we realized we didn’t have all of our season passes with us. I didn’t want to turn around and drive home to get them, but it gave us some anxiety. I assumed they would be able to look us up on their computer or something, and with your photo being attached to the pass (not to mention other forms of ID), they should easily be able to verify who we are. It worked out, and we got in without much hassle. They even printed brand new cards for all of us, which was unnecessary since we knew where they were at home. Regardless, we spent a few hours there. Creegan braved a family-friendly but not entirely kid-like roller coaster and cried. That was a bummer. I went on Wacky Wheels, a teacup-like ride, and felt slightly nauseated afterward. That happened to me last time, which is strange because I love Tilt-A-Whirl style rides. Maybe there’s something about spinning in smaller circle. Maybe the spinning is more concentrated and thus more bothersome to me. I don’t know. When I was little, my brother cruelly spun me incredibly quickly on a spinning thing at a McDonald’s playground, despite my vehement protests. I puked afterwards. Maybe I’m just conditioned now, and maybe rides like the Tilt-A-Whirl are just different enough not to agitate me. It’s kind of pathetic because Wacky Wheels I aimed at the younger crowd and is one of the most tame rides in the whole park. But it makes me sick.

On Saturday, November 30th, we put up our Christmas Tree. Creegan seems to be quite a fan. I’m not sure how much remembers having one in our home, although he knows what Christmas Trees are. Like any 3-year-old, he has a hard time leaving ornaments on the tree, and he isn’t happy if the tree lights aren’t plugged in all day long. It’s fun to have the tree up, and it’s extra special because the kids truly decorated the tree almost entirely themselves (which shows, in the most delightful way). Melanie even got us some egg nog to help the day feel extra Christmasy. ‘Twas a lot of fun. Here is some photographic evidence of such fun:

The final product.

With some other decorations.  Lovely, eh?

And that’s pretty much that. The end.

School, Snot, Sex, Cinema, Etc., Etc., Etc.

Thanks to Thanksgiving, I’m now enjoying a good, long 9-day weekend. I canceled tomorrow’s class, and the school is closed Wednesday through Friday for the holiday, so that puts me back to school on Monday, December 2nd. Pretty nice. Even crazier, I’ve already given my final lecture of the semester. Of the three remaining class sessions, two are going to be review days, and one is going to be an exam. On review days, I just take questions and go over homework, so there isn’t really any prepping to be done. On exam days, I just stand there and stare. So, aside from grading, I’m done for the semester. Cheers!

I don’t know precisely what I’ll be doing next semester. I won’t be teaching, which means I’ll once again be a TA. That’s kind of a bummer—mainly because it has the potential to be a gigantic bummer if my TA assignment is something awful. I won’t know until the last minute what my TA assignment is going to be, so here’s to hope. There is a class on the philosophy of sex being taught next semester, which I would find very interesting. It’s a topic I’ve thought about researching on my own. (There’s probably a joke to be made here, but I’ll leave it up to the reader.) If I don’t get that, the only other choices I marked as highly preferred (which doesn’t guarantee anything) are critical thinking and logic classes. Those are in line with what I’m already teaching this semester, which would be nice, plus they aren’t likely to require the students to write essays, which will make grading much easier. Grading a crap load of essays is such a drain. At the moment, it sounds truly awful.

To briefly catch up on other things, the collective health of my family has gone downhill since I last wrote. Nobody’s in a terrible state, but I thought we were improving, so I find the downturn disappointing. Throats are sore, a couple of kids had fevers for a day, the stuffy noses persist. Melanie and I had to cancel our date for Friday night, which was sad. We had tickets to Catching Fire and even had a babysitter already lined up, but Friday was a low point for the kiddos, so we canceled everything. Via telephone, the movie theater assured me we can trade our unused tickets for another showing, and the babysitter said she could help us out on Tuesday night if we are feeling better. So, hopefully Tuesday will be our date night. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.