Night Terrors

Why is it things always seem so much worse in the middle of the night? That pain that was just a nuisance during the day becomes the grim reaper looming over you by your bedside at three AM.

or.......maybe it's just me. :-/

Throwback Thursday

My favorite uncle. 

(I had such a crush on him when I was a teenager!) 

Wordless Wednesday

Kitchen Hack

I’m sure you’ve heard of ‘kitchen hacks’. Little tips, tricks and shortcuts to make life easier. Most of the time I find they’re not really all that useful or good.

BUT, the other day as I was browsing (aka falling into the abyss that is) Facebook, I came across this little tidbit.

CUP OF CHEESECAKE

Mix 2 oz cream cheese, 2 tbsp sour cream, 1 egg, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 2-4 tbsp sugar in a cup. Microwave for 90 seconds, stopping to stir every 30 seconds.

Then, let it chill until the right consistency.

I added this part……

If you want to add Graham crackers for crust: crush up one or two graham crackers add some melted butter to ‘hold’ them together. Spoon into a separate cup and pour the microwaved ingredients on top to chill.

I don’t even like cheesecake for the most part. But being the good little wife that I am I thought I’d give it a try for Husband’s sake. And because I’m just too damn lazy to make an actual cheesecake even though it’s his favorite dessert. Cuz that’s the kind of girl I am…..always giving (snort!)

OMG!!!! 

It is DELICIOUS!

I doubled the recipe thinking Husband would have a treat for two nights. Then I had a taste as he was enjoying it and I went straight to the fridge and scarfed down the second one! 

I did ‘tweak’ the recipe a bit. I added more lemon juice because we like things tart. 

And we find this recipe is enough for two servings. It is VERY rich.

I strongly suggest you give it a try. Even if you don’t like traditional cheesecake. 

Excuse the lousy pictures but I was so excited to share this with you I just snapped a few quick pics! 

{ignore the condensation droplets.......I don't know why that happened. It was only in Husbands's cup.....}

Punny Monday

I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. It's impossible to put down.

My Brain Likes to F**k with Me

My brain likes to play a little game with me. It goes like this. At any time of the day or night it likes to play a song in my head.

On a loop.

A never ending loop….

And as the song is playing my brain says to me: “Your job, Robin, should you decide to accept it, is to name that tune aaaaaaaand where it comes from.”

Now my job is to figure out….. is it from a movie? What is the title of the movie? Or is it a song from my youth?  Who sings it? And why is my brain choosing to play THAT particular song NOW. Did I hear it on TV recently? Was it on the radio? Did I hear it in a store and subliminally save it? (These latter questions, I admit, are self imposed. All my brain wants is the name of the song.)

So there I was in the shower, minding my own business, innocently lathering my hair when….

♫♪♫♪♪♫Go home, go home, go home with bonnie Jean! Go home, go home IIIIIIIII'll go home with bonnie Jean!♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

Sometimes digging into my data banks and retrieving the information is easier than at other times. Sometimes the answer pops into my head as if by magic. But what gets me going is the WHY. 

WHY is this particular song bubbling to the surface NOW????

I have a theory…. (don’t I always???)

I think the information in our brains is like a big ball of string wound around and around itself. Over time the places that touch become less rigid, more ‘mushy’. The barriers break down and the pieces start to meld into one another and the data becomes corrupted and joined together. The sequencing gets confused.

So if I saw a movie in my youth and suddenly a song from that movie pops into my head (lo these many years later….) 
Voilà!

There you have it!

This theory explains soooo much!

At least about MY brain, I don’t know about YOURS…..

Throwback Thursday

My maternal Grandmother and Great Grandmother

Wordless Wednesday

Executive Duties

My father’s business duties at one time required him to come up with descriptive color names for the carpets his company manufactured. 

He would sit at the dinner table and brainstorm names, and we would all laugh at some of the silly ones he came up with. 

Our favorite was ‘Nipple Pink’!

We thought it was perfect but for some reason the company didn’t approve it.

No sense of humor........

Punny Monday

The roundest knight at king Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference.

Another Year

Wow! Where DOES the time go? Celebrating 34 (legal) years together. (40 if you count the ‘living in sin’ years!)

Our official wedding portrait. 

Really, it IS! 

Throwback Thursday

c. 1977

Wordless Wednesday

Another (less than perfect) Sketch

Punny Monday

Police were called to a daycare where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.

For Mother’s Day: In Honor of My Mother

AKA: Newsflash People: EVERYBODY’S Faking It

My mother always amazed me.

A young eighteen year old girl from a small town in upstate New York moves to the most cosmopolitan city in the world and fits right in!

She was intelligent, pretty, stylish, sophisticated and smart (which is totally different than being intelligent, by the way.)

Clued in, on the ball, in the know, self assured.

She was always so certain about everything. Never faltered, never wavered.

I, on the other hand, have moments of grandiose self doubt.

I have many (many) moments of uncertainty.

When I was young it was….was I pretty enough…..thin enough….smart enough…..was I talented…….did I stand up to my friends scrutiny……and on and on and on……

As I got older some of the doubts faded away but were replaced by others.

For instance: a few days after Son1 and I came home from the hospital Husband found me sobbing uncontrollably on the couch, wailing “I don’t know HOW to be a Mommy!” (Poor Husband was completely unglued at the sight of me crying……I almost never cry (at movies yes, but not much in real life.)

I just KNEW I’d never be as good a mother to my son as my mother was to me and BigBrother.

I had doubts.

BIG doubts, humongous doubts.

How did she do it? How was she always so sure?

I asked her one day when I was once again riddled with self doubt.

She said….she faked it!

Seriously? THAT”S your answer?

Yup, she said, you act like you know what you’re doing until you find that you DO know. And, by the way, newsflash: everyone else is doing the exact same thing!

So the next time you’re feeling self conscious and doubting yourself just remember, we’re ALL in the same boat and I’m just as unsure as you are!

(Even at MY age!)

Thanks Mom! ♥

Throwback Thursday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANDSOME!

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday

You Know You’re Old When……

You find yourself dining here……..(although the ribs were pretty good!) And I can't say my first choice was much better....I was jonesing for a Coney Island hot dog but they were closed!

Punny Monday

Did you hear about the guy whose whole left side was cut off? 
He's all right now.

............Ba Dum Tssh.............

Sketchus Interruptus

The phone rang as I was sketching and I’ve decided not to finish this, so I’m calling it ‘Sketchus Interruptus’.  

The funny thing about these last few sketches.......

I’ve always enjoyed the ‘doing’ but also agonized over the finished product.

Now I no longer care how they turn out.

I like the wonky, out of kilter, totally lacking correct perspective with errant lines that sometimes go nowhere.

If I sketch on paper I use pen.

Even if I use pencil for the 'smudge factor' I don’t erase mistakes.

Ah, self acceptance, it’s a good thing!

And it makes me laugh.