All posts by NerdMom
The Simple Joys
For those of you who read my Making Money Keeping Money, you saw my post about last weekend’s Free Comic Book Day. Well, the whole NerdFamily went out and I think we did pretty well! Since this is aimed at getting kids to read, you don’t see a lot of the new more mature comic lines but that was fine with us. Our kids had a ball! They even got to see Darth Vadar and some Storm Troopers there! Of course NerdPud wouldn’t say anything to Darth but smiled and stared. Gotta love it!
Meal Plan Monday
We are heading into a fun crazy week! We are spending Monday at Legoland!!!! Who wouldn’t love that? But that means meals may be a bit extra crazy. So let us jump in!
Monday: In Legoland!
Tuesday: Sandwiches, chips (coming home that day;)
Wednesday: Pasta Carbonara Florentine
Thursday: Hamburger Helpers for the kids
Friday: Enchiladas, Beans and Rice
Possible Car Bomb at Times Square?
According to a piece on The New York Times site there was a possible car bomb at New York Times.
“It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.
The device, he said, contained “explosive elements” that included “propane tanks, some kind of powder, gasoline and a timing device.”
“This is very much an active investigation,” he said.
While the final investigation isn’t done yet, either way this isn’t good. I can’t think of any reasonable explanation for a car with wrong plates, explosives and the like to be in Times Square. So I guess the question I am waiting to see answered is how we all will respond.
(HT: AllahPundit)
En Mi Casa by Sing-A-Lingo
Who doesn’t want their child to learn a new language? I know that I want my children to develop that part of their brain that is tied to foreign language. And nothing seems to help stuff stick in my children’s heads like music. So I was excited to receive a copy of En Mi Casa from Sing-a-Lingo.
En Mi Casa is all in Spanish. The cd case has all the words listed in both English and Spanish. The music is super catchy and my kids, who had never heard Spanish and didn’t have the words in front of them, loved it!
A problem we did have was since I hadn’t made copies of the words (and not all my kids could read) only 1 kid could really work on learning the words. I think that we are going to order the same cd in English so my kids could learn all the words in English first. That was my only problem with the cd. But if we had already been working on Spanish I would just make sure that their vocabulary words matched up with each song.
I think that Sing-a-Lingo has a great program going here! I enjoyed the music and it helped refresh my Spanish from high school. If you or someone you know is learning Spanish I highly recommend En Mi Casa!
(This post was written as part of a program for Family Review Network and Sing-A-Lingo,
who provided the CD for this review)
The Final Champs
We are getting the final 2 chefs to move on! This week we have Jodie Adams, Rick Tramonto (whom I believe was on Top Chef when they were in Chicago), Maria Hines, Debbie Gold and Susur Lee.
We are kicking into the quickfire with the legendary fruit plate challenge. The winner automatically moves on to the winner’s round. I think with Susur Asian background that he will have the knife skills to impress. Jodie seemed to go well. Debbie’s was looked at as simple. I never am quite sure what they want in a fruit plate. Rick’s plate looked pretty but basically just fruit presented plain. Susur seemed to get slammed for not having a focus. He only got 2 1/2 stars. Jodie won with 4 starts so she went straight to the champion’s round. She still got to compete in the elimination challenge to earn money for her charity.
Their elimination challenge was to modernize the family meal. They are going to server it to the cast and crew Modern Family. They get 4 hours in their kitchen to prep before they have to go to the lot. I did not realize that Rick Tramonto is Gale Gand’s ex-husband. Hmm. He is making something with sausage. Debbie is modernizing the pork chops and applesauce with pork belly. Maria is doing a salmon dish. Susur is still fuming over his loss. He is doing a curry chicken and a vegetarian dish. Jodie made a braised chicken thigh.
Maria’s salmon seems to have gone over very well. Susur’s dish goes over well but… it is a bit exotic. Rick’s truffled escarole soup sounds really good. It seems to be the most traditional but not very modern. Jodie’s wasn’t a huge crowd pleaser. It was heavy and muddled. Debbie’s looked pretty but an apple butter with slaw is a bit sweet.
Rick got called on his dish. That the truffle oil didn’t make it modern. Susur said he had toned down the heat. Which everyone else seemed to be shocked at. Debbie succeeded in making it modern but it was too sweet. Maria’s dish seemed to be good. But Jodie admitted her dish was a little salty.
In the end Susur won! But Maria got really close!
Turn About is Fair Play
The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association has been sued for discrimination. In the Bay Area there were 3 bisexual players that were disqualified after a 2008 championship game as being “nongay”. Now what the article doesn’t specify is if they won the game or not;).
I don’t care who you want to let play in your league but I do find the whole thing a little funny.
Thanks Nick for the chuckle;)!
Local Flavor
Just a little feature from some local boys. This corner is very close to my house. I just wish they would have tried all the Chinese food so I could get their opinions;).
WFMW: Packing Lists
They say the best tips come from where you currently are in life and I hope that is true because that is where I get my tip for this week. We are leaving for a 3 day trip to LegoLand and this will be our first official family vacation. Now of course we have gone places before but this is our first vacation! But as anyone can guess, traveling with 4 kids is always an exercise in chaos!
One of the things we have done for years is to do a pack list! You simply sit down and list everything that you will need. With a trip this size I am planning on doing it on the computer with categories but it is not a necessity. My process is to sit down and write down every possible thing I can think of. Then I tend to carry it around, put it next to my , etc so I can jot down anything that comes to mind.
This time we are taking a larger trip so I am going to put it on the computer with categories. Then you can give each child a pack list and have specific ones for specific rooms (like snacks and food).
1 thing I highly recommend… Once you write out your list with every little thing you want to have I recommend that you go through it with a merciless, editing hand. Do you really need 7 sets of clothes for your kids when you are going somewhere with a washer and dryer? Are you really going to get the time to read 5 books? While it sounds great to have every convenience of home it isn’t great to unload it and pack it back up. Not to mention chasing it and trying not to lose it. So keep it as simple as possible!
A little planning can go a long way on your packing. Then you don’t have to constantly say to yourself or your husband (wife), “Remember to pack”, or worse, “Did you pack?”
Have a great travel season!
(Part of WFMW)
Benefits of a Jungle
One of my kiddos came up to NerdDad with a little fuzzy bundle in his hands. At first NerdDad didn’t realized that it was a brand new (and we mean brand new) kitten. Apparently a neighborhood cat was in the wilds of our side yard having her babies. While we are not cat people, it just melted our heart. The mom was so skitish that she kept running off and leaving her babies. By the next day they were all gone but before they left the saucer of milk NerdDad set out was licked clean.