Safety!!

All right, I know, it is way more than one day!! Did you know a gun safe is hard to photograph attractively? Kinda boring. And as Kyle pointed out, a little creepy to publish here on the interwebs. Here is the best I could come up with:

So after scoping out the prices around town, Kyle decided on a safe from Sam's Club. He took the pick-up back to town to get it. After getting it all the way home, he discovered it had been returned....the hardware in the home depot bag and all the duct tape securing the packing back on kinda clued us in. Back to Sam's Club he goes for a new one. After finding the manager to load it and while tying it down, he discovered this safe was also a return. Again the manager is paged to the loading bay and this time they removed all the packaging to make sure it was new and all pieces were included. Luckily Kyle insisted on some sort of compensation for the extra gas and 3 hours of his time this had all taken, so we ended up getting about $100 off! After the use of an appliance dolly and some willing volunteers for the heavy lifting (500 lbs. or so!) it is now safely installed in the garage.

Updates

Just an FYI.....the kiddos bus was a little late today. I was wondering why, for an answer I was given a paper (handed out to each kid) informing me there was a lockdown at the school and they would be releasing more info later. After getting home we heard a message left on our answering machine stating it was a bomb threat (!!!!) all the kids were safe and it was investigated by the appropriate authorities. The official press release can be read here. Liam and Abbie do not seem too concerned so the staff must have done a good job keeping calm. Liam was upset to miss his ELP math class and Abbie was tired of being quiet in her classroom. Everything seems to be OK now and as far as I know, school is open tomorrow. Scary, but you can't spend your life hiding inside and life is no more dangerous today than yesterday. In the mean time, Kyle was at Sam's Club trying to buy a gun safe. Something we have been thinking of for a long time and finally just decided to do. It was a long and arduous journey which I will write about tomorrow (with pictures!) Time for bed for me, I hope your afternoon was less eventfull than mine!

Rat-patootie

Have you seen the movie Ratatouille? I am unnecessarily fascinated by the animated people cooking....it is a cute movie and I really identify with the idea that a food or smell can evoke memories. Food is so much more than just fuel to me, it is a creative outlet, a way to love my family and a way to remember times or people. So with a movie for my inspiration I decided to make some ratatouille with fried polenta, we also had some grilled pork chops and foccacia. It was very good, I think I will try a different type of eggplant next time, this one was too big around to make a pretty pattern with the squash, zuccini, and tomato.

100?

I was going to post about Abbie.....I took a break from cleaning the haz-mat site in the garage to attend Abbie's first cross country running race! Unfortunately I forgot the camera, but she had a great time. The kindergarten, first, and second grade kids start in order and run a one kilometer loop. Everybody gets a medal for finishing and Abbie was in the middle of the pack. There are three more races this fall, this one was all the way out at Two Rivers and I think the next one is in Salcha, but there should be two at Birtch Hill. It will be nice not to have a 30 minute drive! Anyways, back to the title, when I logged in, the dashboard counter said 99 posts! Is this really 100?? How cool!

Yuck

This is what we did yesterday:


Our basement/crawlspace had water in it at some point, we are estimating about two inches at the low points. The water is mostly gone now, but it certainly left its mark. We had to junk a lot of stuff and are discovering a lot of mold. Most of the Christmas ornaments will be salvageable because they are glass, but lots of papers are beyond saving. I haven't found anything yet I am distraught over loosing, a few handmade lace ornaments are pretty moldy but it might be possible to get them clean or sucker Mom into making me replacements. It is a big job to get it all clean and re-packed in plastic totes, and we will be making a dump run today. Next up, better drainage for the basement!

Escapees

Just wondering if those of you with babies are missing anything?


The first item is affectionately named "corn poop" the recipe says it is fresh polenta and my Mom says it is creamed corn. I make it by grilling corn on the cob then cutting off the kernels and simmering them with milk and butter before pureeing. It is sweet smoky and good, whatever you call it. But, it does look a little.....funny. On the plate with sausage is the newest batch of beer mustard, the best for most anything you would eat with mustard. I made it last week and it is already half gone! Again, tastes great, looks funny.
(I didn't take a picture of it, but Zara's kraut is funny too, she had purple cabbage to use up so the kraut is a vibrant maroon!)

Grandma's birthday

Family photo taken at Grandma's birthday party, August 17, 2009.