Jim spent the night with NC-Daughter and her boyfriend last night, and will come home tonight. If he leaves NC early enough, he'll be back in time to make it to his art class (a gift I gave him last Christmas), but he's debating it.
I went to the christening yesterday afternoon (saw lots of neighbors, including the one whose fence you saw in my drug bust photo), and it was so nice to see how my neighbors' various families are growing. I was downright flabbergasted to see some of the first grandchildren who are now beginning to enter their teens. Crazy!
What's everyone up to today?
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"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Argh, still battling this flu, woke up with a headache and took some tylenol flu tablets. I'm staying home all day. The last time I had a flu, it lasted 2 months, so I don't want a repeat of that.
Mike's in NZ now after 32 hours of travel and a sort stop off in Fiji, Suva, I think. He has yet to get himself a cell phone so we have to rely upon text messages, hardly my choice of communication.
Moore, it IS creepy to see how children have grown up when we don't feel any older ourselves, lol. Tempus fugit is all we can say.
Our old house, the one we lived in for 5 years, is on the market again at TWICE the last selling price. The world's going nuts. And Circuit City went belly up over the weekend too. What the heck??
Kae, seriously I wish I could send you like 50 bucks to give to your kids so they can get me shot glasses when they go through all these places. Wow, imagine my round the world collection. Glad to hear he made it to his destination, I bet he is plain old exhausted. How is Nick doing?
Moore I hope Jim makes it home for his class, art sounds like fun. Though I helped Vinnie with his art appreciation class and it was horribly boring. Glad that class is over.
I got an email from Vinnie this morning, so as of now contact with him is essentially cut off. I will get emails while he is at sea but they are extremely sporadic and most of them end up lost. So thus starts the long next quiet few months. I just hope that the boat he is on doesn't have a lot of problems. I also hope he is able to study while he is down there so he can take his Chief's exam.
Today is a pretty dead day at work, I think I need to call the doctor to find out if I am allowed to eat blue cheese. I don't know if they consider it part of the soft cheeses or not. I want to make this buffalo chicken dip for a little get together that I am having on Friday but without the blue cheese its just not the same. So that's about all I have going on. Have a nice little cup of chai tea that I am sipping on. I get an unusual middle of the week break because of Veterans Day tomorrow. Pfizer will be open but since the base is off that means that daycare is closed so I get to stay home with Jo. That will break up the week very nicely.
Shelly, I can't imagine that a little blue cheese dressing would hurt the baby. I think they're talking about soft cheeses (especially imported cheeses) that haven't been pasteurized. But, you've made me hungry now!
KaeEll, I hadn't heard about Circuit City! Somehow, I'm not surprised. The one in our area is a dump. I'm sorry you're still battling the flu. That's a very persistent strain that found you! A-D is recovering from a bug too, and says that everyone out there is sick. I guess it's that season...
Shelly -- don't get anywhere near ANYONE who so much as sneezes!!
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Yeah, battling colds stinks when you are pregnant because there are no cold medicines on my list. And as nasty as it is I am a huge fan of Nyquil because it just knocks you out and then I am almost instantly better. Though I suspect that I am just like how all moms of young kids are. I just don't get sick because I can't. You all know what that is like. I just don't have time to be sick...so I fight it good. And now with Vinnie gone I get the whole bed to myself...
And Moore thats what I thought about the blue cheese too but if I only use whats in the dressing and not actual cheese it should be fine right? The recipe has the alternative to use mozzerella and ranch instead but in order to get that buffalo taste you need the blue cheese...
Shelly, I'll ask Mike to pick you up a shot glass from NZ. I had forgotten your collection. I'll mail it to you when he comes back. He'll be all over eastern Canada next month with his band. I'll ask him to try to pick some up there too for you.
Sorry, but I can't help at all with the blue cheese dilemma. You could make it for your friends and have another one that you can eat, though.
That would be awesome, Vinnie is sending me one from Germany and one I think from Bahrain. Which reminds me, now that he is no longer in that dreadful country I am venturing into another one. Kae I am coming for a visit. Canada sounds much more colorful.
Shelly, to tell you the absolute truth, I would just go ahead and dump a couple of jars of blue cheese dressing into a bowl, and eat what you want of it. You could spoon yourself out as much as possible without chunks, but I'm really certain that I ate blue cheese throughout my three pregnancies, and I had three very large, healthy babies. There's really not enough of the actual cheese to be a problem, I think.
If you're nervous about it, though, just shoot in a call to your OB/GYN. But I really don't think that pasteurized blue cheese salad dressing would be any kind of problem for you to eat.
If you really want to substitute something else for yourself, you could make a buttermilk salad dressing from scratch, or you could combine a little buttermilk with some sour cream to give you the tang of blue cheese. Is feta allowed?
I'm sorry to be ignorant about this, but it wasn't an issue back when I was expecting my kids. I do know that there ARE issues with imported soft cheese, though, because they aren't pasteurized. American cheese are, unless they're some expensive boutique brand. That's not what's in salad dressings though.
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
moore I think you are right about the pasteurized cheese. The list says no soft cheeses. Though it also says no raw cold cuts and I had a breakfast sandwich this morning with ham on it. And I didn't heat it up...The list of no-no's is just ridiculous
Shelly, the ham is probably okay because it's precooked. You should probably avoid things like smoked salmon and prosciutto though because it's uncooked.
Runny-soft imported cheeses would be something else to avoid, but if you're just going by "soft" that would exclude cottage cheese too, and that's not even logical.
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Well that problem is solved. She said she wouldn't overdose on it but that its okay. It really does make the dip taste better. Now I have to go buy a small crock pot...I have been meaning to get one for some time now but with this little party coming up I thought it was the perfect time.