Saturday, January 28, 2006

Sesame Street Live!!!

We took Ben to his first show tonight. My mom treated us to tickets to see Sesame Street Live. It was really a blast. I didn't know what to expect as this was our first children's show as well. Ben was a little tentative at first...the lights and sounds were a bit overwhelming....but then he warmed up and loved the show. He was pointing at the characters and smiling and I was so happy that he understood what was going on.

It was really dark in the theatre, so my photos are a bit grainy. Here is a shot of the stage before the show.

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All the characters came out and started dancing and singing. Ben loves Elmo, but Ernie is running a close second.

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During intermission, they play a cruel trick on the parents. The lights come up and two people come out carrying a huge bouquet of Elmo balloons for sale.

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Every child in the place went nuts screaming for a balloon. What parent can say no?

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Apparently, not us! You will not believe this. Guess how much a mylar Elmo balloon costs? No...now double it.....

$8 DOLLARS!!!! Can you believe that???? Of course, you find that out once you get in line with your child to get a balloon. What are you going to say when you get up there? NO? I don't think so!!!! Well....we never go out and this was Ben's first big outting....so we got the balloon....oh, and a really overpriced flashy-spinny-light-thingy. What the heck....you are only a child once, right? And Ben adores Sesame Street.

We love you Elmo.

~Chef

Thursday, January 26, 2006

I'm Back.....and Doctor Rant

Hi! I'm back from Palm Springs. I had a great time with my gals chillin pool side. It was about 70 degrees each day. Our house had a spa and heated pool. I really didn't do much sight seeing because I have been to Palm Springs before and I really just wanted to veg by the pool. Hence, I have like NO pictures. Can you believe that? Part of the problem was that one of the gals in our group is a professional photographer and she was snapping away.....I guess I just didn't feel motivated to take pictures when all I did was eat, sleep and swim. Palm Springs is really very beautiful and very different from the East Coast. You are surrounded by mountains/cactus/desert, etc. When I got back to Boston, it was about 30 degrees and we had gotten 6 inches of snow earlier in the day. Big change!

Anyway, I am back and catching up on emails and trying to finish a kit for SP. Today Ben had an appointment at Children's in Boston with their metabolic clinic. His carnitine level was low and they just wanted to check up on him. Turns out it is probably dietary related (since he has such a limited diet) and the problem can be corrected by adding in more meat/cheese.

But I have to rant for a second. Because of Ben's medical issues, we are frequently in Boston for appointments and such. Today I was really fired up because our appointment was for 9 am which means I have to leave Acton at 7 am to make it on time because of the horrendous Boston commute. So, we get up REALLY early to leave by 7 am. I get there and proceed to wait for an hour for the doctor to see us. Now what the hell is that????? He couldn't possibly be backed up already...we were like the first freaking appointment of the day. Anyone in the medical community, please sheds some light on this for me because as a patient, it really pisses me off. I would have loved that extra hour to get Ben up at a more reasonable time and to be able to avoid rush hour. A 10 am appointment would have worked much better for me but NO, I had to be there at 9 am. I just think that doctors don't understand that children with a lot of medicial issues spend a shit load of time at hospitals and appointments and it is really RUDE and inconsiderate to keep us locked up for that long. I waited an hour and then approached someone and complained. The doctor arrived in my room 3 minutes after I complained. I am normally NOT a complainer, but I just thought that an hour was ridiculous. Well...anyway....glad it is over. Thanks for letting me rant!

~Chef

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Tagged

I have been tagged by J-Peb....so here goes!

4 Jobs I have had:
Lifeguard in High School
Waitress in College
HR Manager post College
Mom & Wife (now)

4 Movies I love to watch:
There are way more than 4......
Roxanne - HUGE Steve Martin Fan
Parenthood
When Harry Met Sally
You've Got Mail
Rushmore or Royal Tennenbaums - Also Wes Anderson Fan
Really....I cool go on and on here.....

4 Places I have lived:
Baltimore, MD
San Diego, CA
Charlotte, NC
Cambridge, MA

4 TV Shows I watch:
The Office
Grey's Anatomy
The Daily Show & Colbert Report
The Soup (too funny)

4 Places I have been to on vacation:
Montreal, Canada
Paris, France
Venice, Italy
Block Island, RI

4 Web Sites I visit daily:
2 Peas
Ali Edwards' Blog
Tara Whitney's Blog
MSNBC.com

4 Favorite Foods:
Just 4????? Are you kidding me????
Pizza
Lobster
Pasta
Crabs

4 Favorite Places I would rather be:
Paris
Venice
London
Baltimore

4 Bloggers to tag:
I think everyone has already beent tagged!

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Palm Springs

This Thursday, I am going away for 5 days to Palm Springs, CA. It is our annual girls weekend and this year we decided to rent a house in Palm Springs. It is about 70 degrees there in the daytime which is a huge change from the 24 degrees here in Boston.

The house has an outdoor heated pool and jacuzzi as well as a gorgeous grill and patio. There are going to be 8 of us girls just chillin sans men. I plan on spending just about everyday poolside with a nice mojito buzz by noon.

I realized that I didn't have a decent swimsuit (the last one I purchased from Kmart last summer really sucked. Can you say, no support for a 34 D cup?) I just felt dumpy in it. So, I went to Water Water Everywhere today and bought this adorable halter tankini suit. I know, it looks like a tennis outfit, but under that skirt is a swim suit bottom. It is nice coverage for the legs and great support for the gigantor boobs.

Soooooooo looking forward to this trip. And thanks to my darling hubby for taking care of Ben so I can get away!

Still working on the kit for the Shabby Princess site. I am really excited about being a guest designer in the Shoppe. Hopefully, I will also have some new things for the Kitchen when I get back.

~Chef

Monday, January 16, 2006

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I Have A Dream"
by Martin Luther King, Jr.


Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Boo Hoo and Holga Action

Boo Hoo....the Patriots lost. It was totally their fault. Every turnover resulted in points for Denver....so they only have themselves to blame. It is ok though....I think it is time for another team to have a Superbowl title. We have been spoiled here in Boston lately.

On another note, I wanted to post a link to the Holga Action that I used on my "Love of My Life" layout. It makes pictures look like they were taken with a Holga camera. It is a neat effect and fun to play with. This action is from Adobe Stuido Exchange and only works with PS.

Have fun!
~Chef

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Go Pats!!!

 

So, I've got my Blue Moon beer and chicken wings for the game tonight. I am actually surprised that the Pats are still in it. If they don't win, I won't be too disappointed as we have won 3 Superbowls in 4 years (and 1 World Series). So, we are pretty spolied here in Boston. But I am rooting for them nonetheless!

Go Patriots!
~Chef Posted by Picasa

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Maryland, I am proud of you.

Some of you may know that I am originally from Maryland. Grew up in Baltimore City. There are many things to love about Maryland and Baltimore:

Steamed Crabs
Soft Shell Crab Sandwiches
Music
The Harbor
The Orioles
The Ravens
Famous Marylanders

AND THIS

I will never shop there. For many reasons. But at least I can be pleased that Maryland is trying to do something about them.

Peace,
Chef

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Edible Flowers

So, I haven't created a freebie in a long time. I was a little soured on the whole freebie thing because someone was stealing bandwidth from me and most of it came from my freebies page.

But, I jumped on the petals bandwagon last night and couldn't stop playing. Instead of including them in a kit, I decided to give them away as a new freebie. It was really fun drawing the flowers from scratch in Illustrator and then making the petals in Photoshop. I only created two jewels for the center because my son is going to be up soon and I gotta run. So, hop on over to the freebie page to download the Edible Flowers!



Hope you gals like them.

Have fun!
Chef

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Lashes

Did a quick layout of my son's eyelashes. I took this picture of him last night and converted it to black and white. I was struck by his beautiful eyelashes and I remembered a photo I saw on Tara Whitney's blog (I think it was her blog). So...I tried to capture just his lashes in the photo. I used my Canon 85mm prime lense wide open, hence the blur on everything but his lashes. Used my "I Heart U" Kit and Skinny Grunge Border by Shabby Princess on the photo. Font is Allegro.

 

I am really trying to make an effort to scrap more this year so you'll probably see more layouts posted here on my blog.

Thanks for looking!
~Chef Posted by Picasa

Mmmm....Biscotti

 

So, this is what I made this morning. Yummy nutty biscotti! Got the recipe from my MIL over the Christmas holiday. I swear, I ate an entire tin of these things at her house. This is the second batch I have made and they are just delicious.

Biscotti are the easiest cookie to make. These have pistachios and craisins (dried cranberries). Obviously, it is green and red for the holiday theme...but they are great year round and will become a staple in our house. I have a habit of beating a recipe to death. Pistachios aren't the cheapest nut around, but I went to Trader Joe's and they sell a 16 oz bag for the cheapest price. Gotta LOVE Trader Joe's

Well...off to watch a little football. Psyched that the Patriots won last night! GO PATS!

~Chef Posted by Picasa

Saturday, January 07, 2006

GET THE FUNK OUT!

I have been nursing a sore throat since we got back from Christmas vacation (a little over a week). I thought it was clearing up but today it was 10 times worse. Now it hurts like hell and my tongue seems swollen. Oh...and I have the pleasure of coughing up green chunks. So, I guess I am officially infection with some unknown FUNK! Good thing I discovered this on Friday night so that I can suffer through the weekend before I can see my doc on Monday. Why do I always do this? Why do we always get sick on the weekend????? Ugh! I am just hoping that I didn't infect Ben today. I hope it is not strep.

Well....thanks for letting me vent. Off to have a nightcap (Nyquil) and hit the hay.

~Chef

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

The little things...

Such small things make me happy. Ben seems to be turning a corner with his speech. He is vocalizing more and has picked up a couple words more consistently. He really likes to say "open" to open doors or turn on lights. He is recognizing letters and numbers and saying "O", "M", "N", "8"....so random. He spontaneously said "cookie", "over", and "light" this week. We are hoping this is a sign of good things to come. It is hard to get our hopes up.....life with Ben has been a rollercoaster to say the least, but it is hard not to get so excited about the little things he does daily.

So...I decided to create a little "love letter" to Ben. I created this layout using my new "I Heart U" Kit coming soon to the Kitchen. I especially love the oversized chipboard alpha and chipboard hearts. Actually I have created two sets of alphas for this kit. It is mega huge.

 

Love,
Chef Posted by Picasa