A belated tribute to my mom

in honor of mothers day, i am eating a piece of peanut butter pie for brunch. how does that honor my mother? because she loves making things out of chocolate and peanut butter. because this pie is awesome and so is she. and because when we were little sugar cereals and pop tarts were off limits but pie? pie for breakfast was totally fair game. if you want a kick-ass breakfast yourself. try this. . .

1. Buy a chocolate cookie pre-made pie shell (or make your own if you have the time). I prefer the Oreo brand crust.

2. Put a cup of peanut butter, 8 oz of cream cheese, 1 Tbl of softened butter, 1 tsp of vanilla and 1 cup of sugar in a mixing bowl. Mix that sucker til it's smooth.

3. Put a cup of whipping cream in a bowl and whip it good - til it's the texture of whipped cream. (i know there are a lot of stages - for this i like to whip it til its almost stiff).

4. Fold together the whipped cream and peanut butter mixture and put it in the pie shell.

5. Take it to a special dinner and let everyone tell you how amazing it is.

6. Eat it for breakfast the next day.

happy mothers day everyone.

i love my dog

i just needed to update my readers on a couple things:

1. i love my dog. i decided this last thursday. i no longer want to send him back with my parents when they come visit in two weeks (see #3) or see if my neighbors want to keep him. i want to keep him and love him forever. i even like being a dog owner. it was very much worth the two weeks of 'adjusting' besides, look at this:

2. j and i have had a LOT of school work. and regular work. it turns out that no matter how many assignments i have to turn in, people still need their lattes.

3. my parents are coming in 2 weeks!!! stl - get ready for janice and jay. it will be awesome.

and that's it for now. we've been so swamped with school and work that we're living in squalor and eating pbjs and hot dogs for an absurd number of meals. so, yeah, this often neglected blog is the least of my worries. still, there is much to be thankful for. more on those things next time.

we call him chewie (or dog man behind his back)

how could you resist this face? clearly, j and i couldn't. so we brought him home and are now officially dog owners. at least, that's what the paper work says. no, seriously - he's our dog as of about 36 hours ago. he's a one year old mutt that i found at a PetSmart adoption center. he came from a shelter a couple hours away. until tonight we had never heard him whine. we still haven't heard him bark. he has yet to use the bathroom indoors and isn't loving his food (even though its the same kind his foster mom gave him. i asked). he has been pretty laid back, but progressively coming out of his shell. he prefers people to toys and the sofa to the floor. we're trying to break him of the second one. he loves welcoming people to our home and spends most of his time sleeping on the rug. oh, and shedding? he doesn't. pretty great dog, huh? how am i liking being a dog owner?

i have mixed feelings.

having someone SO excited to see me when i get home has been fun. having a cute little animal laying on the carpet has been pretty cool. plus, he's about the EASIEST dog you could ask for. no complaining there. here's the thing (and i might be admitting a bit of psychosis): i don't like having someone else to care for 24/7. we all know that i can barely look out for myself. i had it down enough that the good Lord saw fit to give me a husband. that has been fantastic - but he won't pee on the carpet if i leave him alone too long. and now it feels like there is one more being in the world that i have to worry about. i don't know if i like it. i mean, i just want him to be really happy, ok? then again, it's only been a little more than a day - so i'll get back to you on this. maybe it just takes some getting used to. he is really really cute. need another example? here ya go.

good thing we didn't go straight to having kids, huh?

why i can't make a machine gun sound with my mouth

"Researchers wired a playground for sound. They found that all the sounds coming from girls were recognizable words. Only 69 percent of the sounds made by boys were understandable words. The remaining were either one-syllable sounds like ub or mmm or sound effects like Varoooom! Yaaaaah! Zooooooooom!"

-Marlene LeFever in Learning Styles