I've been baking....

So, it's been a whole year since I made any of the recipes from Great Grandma's book, but finally I have made more! I made the Lace Cookies, Brown Sugar Cookies and King's Cake a couple weeks ago, and today I made the Special K Cookies and the Date Nut Pudding...

RJ gave the Lace Cookies a big thumbs up, and the Date Nut Pudding is very yummy!! The pudding recipe is incomplete, it doesn't say it, but it needs to be baked at 350 for about 40 minutes.... It makes it's own sauce, very very good!!!

The Brown Sugar cookies need something, like frosting!! I mixed up a butterscotch cheeseball to have with those that was perfect, just what they needed!!

The new screen

Here are the pics of the screen, the blue one is when I put the battery in after installing it. The other one is after RJ had it.

Steve, I knew you'd think it was funny, I told him you'd be proud when he did it!

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Class at work

I finally caught the Education Nurse about the Brain Injury Specialist class, and not only will they pay for it, but they run study groups for it also! I talked to the Director of the Rehab & Specialty Care (the section I work in) on Thursday, they were starting the study group that night, and if I get the paperwork in right away I can take the test April 30th (the next one is in Sept). She brought the application back down to me, and told me she'd need a resume too.

I filled out my application and printed off a resume last night, and turned everything in today for the Unit Manager to sign off on. I can't make the study sessions because they're 4-5pm on Thursdays, and I have class from 5:30-7 on Thursdays, in K-Zoo. The director told me I don't have to go to the study groups, they just offer them. Well, today when I turned in the app, one of the nurses said she wanted to take it too, but she couldn't make the groups either. She said "hey, why don't we study together?" Okay, heck yes! The nurse is Maria, but not the Maria that drives me crazy, so yes I'd like to study with her. She took the exam once before but missed passing by two points. I figure she'll know what kind of questions they ask so we'll know where to focus...

WooHoo!! The class is $350, the book is another $40, and I don't have to foot the bill!!!

New Screen

I picked up my new screen from the Post Office on Tuesday, and Nate and I worked on installing it that evening while RJ and Grandpa went to the basketball game... It went very well, but we had to rig up a couple parts because the replacement screen didn't have exactly the same connectors. The old screen had a short bar of circuitry screwed to the bottom edge of the screen, and the new screen didn't have screw holes there. That's attached with medical tape now. Seemed appropriate to fix a broken screen ;-) The old connector had levered clips on the outside edges, and the new one had solder at those points, making it impossible to fit together. I ended up breaking off the clips, the connector slid right in and then we were ready to screw everything back into place.

I put in 4 of the 8 screws that hold the screen in place, then put the battery back in the computer and powered it up. I must say that I had my fingers crossed that it would work fine, and yes it did. The new screen is beautiful, I went with the glossy and love it! The colors seem brighter than with the old screen. On Wednesday night I turned on my computer and had this shattered image. I was in shock, wondering what the heck happened and what had I done wrong that took this long to create problems? The screen showed lots of cracks, areas of thin color stripes, and some black areas. I was thinking I'd just totally wasted $110! Then I looked at RJ, and got suspicious. I asked "Did you change my desktop background?" He starts laughing. The little shit changed the background to a picture of a broken screen, hid all my icons and the task bar, then waited patiently for me to use my computer. Brat! Since I could now breathe again, I took a pic of it (I'll post it later, from my phone). I also decided to let him survive another few days at least.

So, the short story is that Nate and I installed the screen without any problems, and I love it! It's nice to see the toolbars again!

Screen

Well, I got my taxes back, and my screen has gotten so bad I can't read half of the menu bar, so I ordered my new screen tonight.

I chose the glossy, I like how much easier it is to clean, and how nice it looks. Since I don't sit in the sun with it too much, it shouldn't be a problem at all.

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Happy Valentine's Day!!

Well, the boys are with their dad this weekend, so I didn't get to spend the day with them, but since I felt really crappy in the middle of the day, I was kind of glad they weren't here. I didn't feel guilty taking a nap to get rid of my headache :-) I've been getting sinus headaches off and on all week, and have been taking cold medicine every morning so I could function at work. I feel better this evening, but I know I'm not over it yet.

This morning I went to Harding's to get ground beef, I promised Nate I'd make chili again this weekend. He was very upset Monday because we were out of the leftovers from the last batch, and I promised him I'd make more. He won't eat spaghetti sauce with meat in it, but he loves my chili (bean-free). Go figure!! They both love it, and I do to, so you bet I'll make it! Anyway, Harding's had awesome meat sales again, I got 7 lbs of ground beef (3 for chili, 4 to split and freeze) at $1.78/lb. I also bought a family pack of pork steaks for $10, there were 8 HUGE steaks in it. I split and froze some of them, and kept two out to grill for dinners.

When I got home I was starting to feel crappy, so I didn't call Mom & Dad and invite them for dinner, there was no way I wanted to cook! Well, after my nap later on, I felt better. I uncovered the grill, threw the pork steaks on, then called Mom & Dad and asked them if they had eaten or had dinner plans... Well, Mom feels like crap too, so no, they didn't, and yes, they would come for dinner. I put chicken on the grill for Mom (no way she's eating pork, I know better), and made some stuffing. Mom and Dad came over with a potato to nuke for Dad (he doesn't like stuffing). We had a very nice Valentine's dinner and finished it off with strawberries over angel food cake (Harding's had good looking strawberries on sale this morning too) and coffee.

Now I'm sitting here watching "The Princess Bride" to finish off my Valentine's Day. The only better movie might be "George of the Jungle", but this one's good too!!

A year ago today I was at work in the morning and evening, so this year's much better. At least this year somebody said "Happy Valentine's Day!" to me too!!

Car show

Nate and I went to the car show today, while RJ and Ron were at the Klondike derby. Nate found his favorite car, and we saw one that's 1.5 million.

We had a lot of fun, and saw some cool concept cars too.

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Disaster!

Okay, this is bad, but I guess it doesn't really qualify as a disaster. Somehow, sometime this morning, my laptop got stepped on, rocked on or othewise squished and the screen is now cracked. Not the actual face of it that I can touch, but inside, in the upper left corner. At least it's not dead center, I guess.

I have NO idea if this is safe to use for a while as-is, and if not that could have been a total disaster. Except for the fact that I have a big flat-panel monitor that I wasn't using. I had it listed for sale, as a matter of fact! Thank heavens it hadn't sold yet, now I have it hooked up to the laptop, and am using that monitor instead of the laptop screen.

I had it before while I was doing the recipe book, when everything was set up at a desk that was convenient to use. I could spread my files across two screens and actually see what I was doing, and it was very nice. Now it's making a great main screen, but seriously cuts down on the portability of the laptop!

Luckily, or not so luckily, I am not carrying my laptop with me for use at work and school, so this isn't such a big deal. It's unlucky because I haven't been putting it away as well as I used to. Of course, not worrying about what viruses Ron might accidentally download onto it made me a little lax with it too. It has been on the floor, propped on edge against the couch, on a table, sitting on the couch/chair... Where ever RJ or I leave it when we are done using it.

I have found replacement screens for it, ranging from $109-$245, uninstalled. Now to save up a bit and get the screen, then I'll be on a roll again. I just have to decide if I want the original matte screen, or if I want to change to a glossy.... I'm seriously thinking glossy because it would be easier to clean. One of the sites has instructions on how to replace thescreen, so then it becomes "how brave am I?" I'll let you know.

Our favorite "family gift"

Steve and Lynn gave us a Meijer gift card as part of Christmas, and I bought a blender and Tang with part of it. Just to make Tang shakes, I rarely ever blend anything else!

Nate has made a shake almost every day this past week, and he's almost got the recipe memorized! I also bought an electric can opener, I didn't have one of those either. Nate really likes that too, he thinks it's cool that it does all the work and he doesn't have to do anything. He HAS used one before, so I really don't know why this is so cool and unique to him, but if it gets him to open cans and help cook, it works for me!

We also got poppers for New Year's Eve at Pottery Barn (those went over very well also) and half a dozen Christmas ornaments at half off. I think we'll take the rest of that gift card to Williams-Sonoma and shop there with it.... We'll see :-)

Tang Shakes
2 Tbsp Tang drink mix
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup Water
1/4 cup Milk
Ice (12 or more cubes, should be a thick slushy when done)
Toss everything in the blender and let 'er rip!


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