Today was busy and fun and we got home on the late side, and hungry to boot. It was raining felines and canines, so we dashed into the house, with our purchases in hand. As my children and I observed earlier in the day, it is fun to buy stuff. We hit up no less than three retail establishments, as well as plunking down quite a few tokens at a Family Fun Center where gambling is introduced to children in a fun and safe and completely legal manner. Never before had we had so much entertainment converting a ten dollar bill into two fistfuls of candy by way of little pink reward coupons.

We were at the Family Fun Center because of a birthday party– my daughter’s classmate. So with a bag of tokens and several tickets, the kids got to do the rides and all that. So my ten dollars was a quick and fun way to lose some cash, and it was entirely unnecessary, and that’s probably why it was so darn fun.

Anywho, we topped off that experience with a trip to Best Buy where I bought a little Mp3 player for Carla. It was a reward, or possibly a celebratory gift, depending on how you look at it. She’s nine years old, and this week for the first time in the past six years, has awoken five mornings in a row in a dry bed. She’s had this goal of staying dry five nights in a row for years.

At first, she wanted a trophy for an award for this task. A gold shiny trophy. But that was what she thought up at say, age 5 or 6. Unfortunately, bladder control during the night hours isn’t something that is actually under one’s conscious control. Though toilet training is often accomplished with the help of encouragement in the form of sticker charts and small rewards for trying and making, night time dryness either happens or it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, it’s tough for the kid to make any changes one way or another.

Most kids outgrow their nighttime peeing by around age 9. Nine is how she is  now.  Dare I hope for a sixth, seventh and eighth dry night? Well anyway, she wanted to know earlier today what she’d get if she was dry again tomorrow morning.  I told her, “You get to wake up in a dry clean bed, that’s what.”

I certainly am not about to buy her another. high tech gadget. But I am excited about the thing. You know I’m going to want to borrow it, right? I mean, I have to borrow it so that I can help her load music onto it.  She requested some jazz, some Beatles and some country music.

Jazz, okay. Beatles, sure. Country??? Where the heck did she get that idea?  Certainly not, I told her, when I was hungry and cranky to boot.  But after a good serving of pizza and a cupcake, I was mellower.

“You can listen to any kind of music you want to,” I told her.  ”I just don’t want to hear any country music myself, as that is not what I prefer.  But you are free to listen to any music you want.”

I also bought Annie a super duper soft stuffie dog. She named him Elvis. We then went to the Dollar Store and bought Elvis a dog Halloween costume. Elvis is being a clown for Halloween.

Annie is being a Black Cat. I made her ears this evening, and attached them to a black head band. At the dollar store, I found a dog collar, and bought that for Annie to wear as a cat on Halloween.  She’ll also have a long furry tail, and face paint. Oh the cuteness!

Carla is going to be a vampiress. Originally she was going to be a California Water Witch, and go around with a dowsing stick, or divining rod for finding water. The stick, however, broke. So that killed that plan. No sense trying to tell her that she could easily find another stick to dowse with.  She  just chucked the whole idea out the window, along with the broken stick. Now I have to find her some vampire teeth.  She already has a lovely long black cape with red silk lining.

The Dollar Store also graced us with several fun witches hats, stickers, and other goofy Halloween fun stuff. I look forward to sharing this goofy stuff with the kids at school. Dressing up is so much fun. I think that’s why I love Halloween so much.

Needless to say, all this playing and shopping brought us home hungry. I quickly threw some water on for pasta while I dug around in the fridge to see what could be made quickly.

I found five hamburgers that I’d cooked sometime pretty recently. I found a container of left over broccoli rabe. There was some leftover Chinese food from last night, along with some very dubious older left overs. While the water was heating to make some pasta, I cleaned these things and finally came up with a plan.

Step 1) Snarf the Chinese. YUM! Hey, the cook’s gotta eat, right?

Step 2) Take two big tomatoes from the freezer, and dunk them into the boiling water. Take them out, and peel off the skins. Then squish them a little in a bowl and drain off the water.

Step 3) Chop up the hamburgers. Place them on top of the tomatoes in the bowl.

Step 4) Sprinkle lotsa basil and oregano on top of the meat.  Dice up a little garlic clove and put that over the top of the meat.

Step 5) Microwave the tomato-hamburger-herbs about 2 mins, then stir and repeat on lower setting.

Step 6) Heat the broccoli rabe in the microwave

Step 7) Drain the pasta, butter it, and VOILA! Dinner time!

I served the meat as though it was “meat balls” which is basically what it tasted like. The children and the husband all observed that they weren’t really very ball-like at all.  True, that. But Annie and Drob both really liked them.  Carla wouldn’t touch them, but that’s just how she is. Carb girl.

I love it when leftovers get made into something new. There’s something magical in that, to me.  To take what seemed like an empty fridge and plumb it for goodies, combining things to make it all new again. Fun, and practical.

But what will I be for Halloween? I’m thinking maybe a crocodile.

Oh, HI!

I guess I kind of forgot to blog for the last three months. I don’t know where the summer went, it was gone in a flash.

I can’t possibly catch you all up on what I’ve been up to. So I’m going to just jump back into this, putting together three thoughts and call it a day.

1) It is time for me to consider that I may be just another adult with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.  This disorder, with its truly annoying and inglorious name, sure has a lot of symptoms that fit my personality. It’s always tempting to sit down with a diagnostic book and self-diagnose.  My husband feels strongly that I fit the ADHD mold. I just don’t really want to cop to this. I don’t want to have ANOTHER diagnosis. ANOTHER thing that is wrong with me. But that’s just negativity taking over.

2) It is one hell of a crap ass, cold rainy and miserable day out there. I just want to hide under the covers all day. Alas, that is not likely to happen. But maybe a little tiny half hour nap after lunch wouldn’t hurt anyone?

3) My daughters are really doing great in school this year. I am so proud of them. One of the things that seems to be helping Carla is that she is taking a stimulant to treat her ADHD. It works for her, it seems. If it works for her, would it work for me too?  Meanwhile, though, I’m sticking to coffee. Lots and lots of it.