This Right Here

07 Mar 2012 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Uncategorized

This is why I hate novocain. The numbness up the side of my head. The pins & needles, cold & tingly feeling. The drooling and accidental spurting of tea down my shirt. I would rather all my cavities be drilled without, than put up with this. So, for cavities — no novocain. Really. This has been the way i’ve had it done since I was a kid. I have a hard time with the idea of getting a needle stuck in my gums. Have you ever accidentally poked yourself in the gums with a broken Dorito? Yeah that. Dealing with a few brief moments of pain on my tooth is way better than several hours of this nonsense. Today, however, I have a deeply cracked tooth which necessitates a crown. And for that I will put up with this novocain stuff, but I am not enjoying it one bit.

Did I mention the headaches as it wears off? Yeah, yuck.

Roses are #

15 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Uncategorized

Roses are red. My new earrings are violet.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Legos and dinner and Birthdays, Oh My!

07 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Foodie, Games, Mom Stuff

Just a note on two things.

Saying “Carcassonne” can sound a lot like “Carpet Zone.” When explaining the game, Carcassonne, to one of my daughter’s friends, she misheard the name of the game. I can see how it might work that way especially with background noise, but no we’re not talking about a game that has something to do with flooring.

Sharing dessert instantly lowers calorie count per serving.

Acai Matetini from Teavana

04 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Foodie, Herbal, Mate, Tea

Crisp, tart, sweet taste. Hot or iced, I really like this one. Even though the ingredient list is a mile long, the flavor isn’t at all muddy. Clean and refreshing, it reminds me of a hibiscus and rosehip herbal tisane I got from the local German Deli years ago. But this one is even nicer as it’s well balanced with a veritable fruit salad of berries, citrus, apples, and pineapple along with a hint of minty cool finish. Think minty-garnish-on-a-fruit-salad not full-on minty flavor like a Mojito. While Acai Matetini is a listed as a mate, I don’t really taste any mate and I’m hard pressed to find even pieces of mate in with the beautiful, large chunks of fruit. They ARE there, though. I *think* I felt a little pick-me-up from the mate, but it could have just been the tart flavor inspiring my taste buds to provide that little burst of energy. I actually found a second steeping was not bad. It is different — not as tart and bright, but still pleasantly fruity. I blended it with a couple of oolongs so far and it held up nicely. Yummy!

http://steepster.com/teas/teavana/22558-acai-matetini-mate-tea?post=96507

Toasted Nut Brûlée Oolong Tea

19 Dec 2011 6 Comments

by alightningbug in Herbal, Oolong Tags:

I was checking out Teavana’s latest offerings when Toasted Nut Brûlée Oolong got my attention. It isn’t a new tea, but it is one I’d wanted to try but never did.

After the yummy sounding name, the aroma is what attracted me enough to make a purchase. It smells of an amazing lightly spiced nutty praline or beautifully caramelized brûlée with cinnamon.

The taste is a sweet comfort food in a cup. We’re talkin’ warm oatmeal cookie with raisins and a few chopped nuts. There are no raisins in it, but the ample amounts of dried apples, candied pineapple and papaya meld for a bounty of dried fruit flavor. I was kind of sad to find so much less nutty flavor in the brew than there is nutty smell. But the cinnamon & spice comes through nicely much as it would in an oatmeal cookie or a freshly baked rock cake. So, truly, if you love oatmeal cookies, but don’t care for the calories then pull up a chair and I’ll get you a plate er cup. With a little sugar or honey along with the tea’s own natural sweetness you can almost feel the chewy goodness of a few raisins getting stuck in your teeth and the light, sweet crunch of a nut or two. Not an everyday cup for me, but with a book on a chilly day — yum!

Of note, i love that it contains oolong, but oolong is only a small portion of the total mix and I notice virtually no oolong fragrance or flavor. Rooibos is in there too and if I close my eyes I think it adds a smooth cookie dough like sweetness. Hopefully a few health benefits from the mix.

Cleaning through old stuff and I found …

03 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, Uncategorized

I found I had a box of The Matrix action figures that I’d forgotten about. They’re pretty cool! And I’m trying to figure out if I should take them out of their original packaging and set them up or just leave them for now. I’ll probably leave them for now. I also found my Darth Vader head filled full of original Star Wars action figures. (So THAT’s where I put them.)

I found the onesie my daughter was wearing when she first learned to crawl. It has been so long since she was so small and yet it seems like just yesterday. Sigh. In her case she’d been mobile long before she could crawl by rolling virtually EVERYWHERE. Her only snag was that she would get stuck in corners and that would made her scream. So she didn’t crawl particularly early because she was already fairly mobile via roll power. But I vividly remember her learning to crawl as she had to navigate through a door to get to a bright yellow Tupperware toy. Rolling through doorways was a little tricky too. Ah, the power of necessity. She rocked! (Literally.) And, finally, she crawled. We cheered loudly! Is there anything better for a parent? On the planet? Her crawling quickly transitioned to walking at about 10 months old. Crawling so quickly passé. And low to the floor. All the big people walk! Cute. Smart. Coordinated girl. Getting everywhere possible. Nothing would stop her. Our floodline of child-proof zone moved higher. And I don’t really think that’s ever stopped.

Also found today — our cat’s, perhaps, all time favorite toy. It’s a piece of denim tied to a sturdy string which is then tied to a wee section of fishing pole. Our beefy, handsome kitty is a rescued cat and his original foster family sent him to us with this little toy. He loves it! I handed it to my daughter and said, “here, you might like this. It’s a cat toy.” As she LOVES our kitties. She quickly played. Our cat, Fletcher, played and there was much joy. For Fletcher it was much like finding an old toy from one’s childhood. (That feeling alone is why my Dearth Vader Head full o’ action figures is so … ) Fletchie played and played and played. He’s had more kitten play in him in the past hour than he’s probably had in the past 8+ years combined. (Maybe.) Truly, there’s a look in his eyes like a crazed teen. Oh, to be young.

Happy Thanksgiving!

24 Nov 2011 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Uncategorized

Lots to be thankful for …

Righty tighty, lefty loosey. Oh and summer’s almost over.

12 Sep 2011 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Uncategorized

I have a hard time remembering which way to turn a screw in order to tighten or loosen it (depending on my particular goals at the time). I am not sure why most folks find the saying, “righty tighty, lefty loosy,” to be such a big help because it depends entirely upon one’s starting point on the circle that is the head of a screw. If you start at the top, you might indeed tighten by turning to the right, but if you start at the bottom, you’ll tighten by turning to the left. Why would you ever start at the bottom, don’t people always start at the top? Well, no. I for one like to get to the bottom of things, so I may just as easily start at the bottom as top. And if using a screw driver to get into tight places, I am MUCH more likely to have the handle pointing out towards me which means, again, starting at the bottom an “turning left” to tighten.

I have a much easier time remembering “clock to lock” to tighten screws. Starting top or bottom clockwise is still clockwise. It came in handy after the August 23rd earthquake we experienced in northern Virginia. I wanted to make sure the pipes were tight (I’d found they’ed worked their way loose once before.)

Dear Haagen-Dazs

08 Sep 2011 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Foodie Tags: , , ,

I would like to know if it’s wrong to consider your Bananas Foster ice cream to be breakfast food. I like bananas and milk on my breakfast cereal. Brown sugar and cinnamon can be yummy too. And your Bananas Foster ice cream has all of those. So if I sprinkle some cereal on top, it is then officially breakfast food or can it work as breakfast food without the cereal?

Also, I’ve noticed Bananas Foster is a Limited Edition flavor, what exactly do you mean by that? How limited? Why would you limit my breakfast foods? Can you not limit it for a long time, please? We all like it. I know we could always choose Banana Split ice cream instead, but that one has other stuff including chocolate syrup which I have a harder time categorizing as breakfast food.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Deb K.

Camp Firefly

02 Aug 2011 Leave a comment

by alightningbug in Mom Stuff, School

We survived day 1 of Camp Firefly. I say “we” because I sort of have my daughter double booked this week with Karate Camp during the day (I work) and a Girl Scout “day” camp in the evening because we’ve heard lots of good things about how much fun it is and I thought it might add to the summer fun experience. But this means we have back to back camps to the point where I don’t even know how we’re going to eat dinner all week. Perhaps I could be on to a new diet fad. No, actually, we *will* eat, but it may be less than standard dinner on several levels.

On another note, we’re just past the halfway mark for summer break. Don’t know where the summer is going. But even more shockingly I have friends whose children are already back in school! Yowsa!

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