Ten on Tuesday

1. Rebecca and I are leaving tonight for Tennessee (Ramy will join us soon). Before I leave, I have to go to work, do an eval for worker's comp, score a bunch of tests that I will need in order to write reports from Tennessee, finish packing, straighten up the house so that we don't return to a messy house, eat dinner, be sure we have all our electronics fully charged and packed, give Rebecca a bath, give Snowy his instructions about remembering to fly to TN instead of coming back to CA after he leaves the North Pole tonight, and get to the airport on time for our redeye. Redeye is really an apropos term, as I always arrive in Nashville looking as though I spent the night on a bender instead of traveling, usually because I didn't sleep the night before trying to get everything done before I leave on a trip.


2. Please pray that we have no flight delays, cancellations, re-routings, or other snafoos en route. The forecast for Nashville has a high of 25 degrees today, a low of 20 tonight, and snow showers for tomorrow morning. I've had the distinction of being trapped in Dallas before, and it is an experience I don't really want to repeat. Plus, my mom has to drive from Fayetteville to Nashville to retrieve us. However, if we get stuck, we get stuck. Rebecca and I can kick it in a nice warm hotel somewhere that has room service and wifi.

3. I have decided that we should do away with this whole "white elephant" gift exchange thing. I'm not a party pooper, but it is stressful knowing what to bring and then the whole fighting over and stealing gifts thing is just a bit chaotic. Okay, I realized that I sound like a cranky old lady when I wrote that. At the party on Saturday night, we took two candles that I really wanted for myself. Unfortunately, when it was Ramy's turn to pick, he didn't pick our gift. Our gift was a hit though - it got "stolen" the max amount of times. How competitive (and pathetic) am I that I was pleased about that? We ended up with a glitter picture frame. At least I have a gift for next year's white elephant gift exchange!

4. It's a good thing we're going to Tennessee tonight, because Snowy is running out of places to hide in our house.

5. Is Congress ever going to pass a budget for the fiscal year that is now 1/4 over?

6. On Sunday night, Rebecca and I did some holiday baking. Not candy, cookies, or cakes to give as gifts to people! No, we made homemade dog treats to give to her favorite doggies for Christmas! She was so excited to give Christmas treats to Bandito, Riley, Slinky, Paddington, and Sydney. Rebecca said, "Now they will have a happy Christmas!" Who knew there were so many recipes on the internet for dog treats. Some involved things like grinding chicken liver or "leftover fish parts." Mama nixed those! In case you're wondering, here's the recipe we used:
2 cups flour
1 cup rolled oats
2 Tbsp. wheat germ
1/3 cup peanut butter
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 1/4 cup hot water
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350°. Mix together all ingredients, except egg. Knead dough, then turn out onto a floured surface. Roll to 1/4 inch thickness and cut with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheets. Beat egg with a whisk, then brush egg over surface of dog treats. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Turn off oven and leave the treats for several hours or overnight to harden.

7. If anyone had told me 10 years ago that I would have spent 30 minutes researching dog treat recipes online at midnight on a Saturday night just because my daughter wanted to give gifts to her favorite creatures, I would have thought they were crazy. Instead, I'm crazy.

8. If you're looking to make any last minute personalized gifts, check out Artscow. They've got really good prices on calendars, canvas prints, magnets, ornaments, and a lot of other gifts you can make from your pictures. They give you a ton of credits for "free" stuff you can make when you sign up. However, you still pay shipping on those items, which is significantly higher than you might expect. Essentially, the shipping is the cost of the item, but it's a decent price!

9. Rebecca informed Ramy and me the other night that Saturn is the planet that has rings and Mars is the red planet. She then went on to name all of the other planets in our solar system, except for Uranus. We have no idea when and where she learned about the planets, but I agree with her that Uranus is the one to leave out.

10. Please keep Ramy's Auntie Nellie and Uncle Milo in your prayers. (They're the grandparents of Rebecca's birthday-cousin-twin Hannah and her sister Kirsten who are often featured on this blog). They were in a serious car accident yesterday afternoon in Las Vegas. Auntie Nellie is in critical condition with collapsed lungs, broken ribs, a broken neck, and a lacerated liver. Uncle Milo is in much better condition, but very distraught. They will certainly have a long recovery, and their families will be doing a lot of running back and forth to care for them.