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Embarassing Moment Mondays!

There are lots of link parties about food. What this world needs is a link party to make you laugh! So I'm going to be hosting "Embarrassing Moment Mondays!" Anyone is welcome to join up, and tell your funniest embarrassing moment. If you don't have a blog, share it in the comments. If you can't think of one, come enjoy anyway!

My only request is that you link back to my blog in your post! You can include my button if you would like:

(insert button here, lol.)


Here's the linky:

Homemade Soda Pop (and a fizzy failure!)

I bet most of you have had homemade root beer. It's pretty easy - get a big pitcher or bucket, add water, sugar, and root beer flavoring. Mix it up really well, then add dry ice. It'll start bubbling, and then gas will start to come out the top. When it's all (or mostly) done bubbling, it's ready!

Well, we had a bunch of dry ice chips from one of our grocery store voyages, but no root beer flavoring. I thought, "If root beer works, why not kool-aid?" So I whipped up a pitcher of strawberry-watermelon, dropped in the dry ice, and bubble, bubble, bubble, ack! It bubbled right over the top. It turns out you shouldn't fill any container more than halfway full before adding the dry ice. Poured some out, tried it again. Success!

But I still had more dry ice. What else could I fizz?

That night for dinner we had delicious fizzy kool-aid, slightly strange fizzy grape juice, and the biggest, fizziest mistake ever:

Fizzy Chocolate Milk.

You know what happens when you give a kida  straw and let them blow bubbles in a glass of kool-aid? Not much. But what happens if you let them blow bubbles in a glass of chocolate milk? The bubbles build up, and don't pop. If the kid keeps blowing, they keep building until the glass overflows with sticky chocolate bubbles.  Well, dry ice is like the kid that Just. Won't. Stop. Bubbles rose up to the top of the quart jar. Bubbles domed over the top. Bubbles, sliding down and covering the countertop. Inspiration! Bubbles, now filling up the sink.

Please kids, don't try this at home.

(pictures and/or video coming shortly.)

Grocery Shopping in the Boonies

It's hard to believe that two years ago today, I was walking home from the grocery store. Walking. I think I loaded up a backpack, and carried a few bags in my hands. It was only two blocks away, so no big deal.

Fast forward to today. 

To get to the grocery store, I have to drive an hour down treacherous mountain roads with sharp switchbacks, dodging ditzy deer, suddenly sideswiping skunks. I feel like a cross between Jeff Gordon (vroom!) and Lewis & Clark. Oh, and the drive down usually includes at least one diaper stop. It's like when baby biddy gets in the car she thinks, "Hmm, I'm bored. What should I do for the next hour? Oh I know, I'll make this car stink like a pig pen in April! That always livens things up. If I'm still bored after that, maybe I'll paint the windows with milk and cheerios."

Since getting to the store is basically a voyage, we try to do it as little as possible. But when we do, we stock up. And I mean, STOCK UP. We fill that cart so full that the wheels won't turn sideways, and if someone walks in front of you there's no stopping in time. *SMASH!* We stock up like the world is ending and this might be the last food we get.

Did you know that most grocery stores (even walmart) will put little chips of dry ice in with your cold items if you request it? That's the only reason we don't leave a trail of ice cream along the road, like a drippy version of Hansel and Gretel. (Extra bonus: sometimes there's still dry ice when you get back to make Homemade Soda Pop!)

It's a good thing we're well versed in tetris, because packing up our little car with all that food is ridiculous."If the flour goes here, then there's no room for the milk, and the milk should be by the chicken so that everything stays cool, and the frozen peas have to go in the cooler, and we'll just put these cookies and chips up by me..." Has anyone ever invented a roof-mountable freezer? Cuz I'd be your first customer.

And then, loaded down like a donkey carrying a sumo wrestler, we slowly chug our way up the mountain. This time I don't feel much like Jeff Gordon, as the unburdened cars whiz past. Slowly, slowly, we make it home, exhausted, and after putting the cold stuff in the fridge and getting the baby out of her carseat, we crash on the couch like a marathon runner. We're done. We made it. Remind me to never do that again!

... At least, not until next month...

Embarassing Moments

Out in the country, people seem to spend more time telling stories. One of my parents' neighbors told this story of one of her more embarrassing moments. I thought it was too funny not to share.

"One day I was at the grocery store, and I met a lady who went to high school with me. She was carrying a baby.  We talked for a while, and then I said,

'Cute baby! He looks just like your husband!'

She held the baby out at arm's length, looked him over with a horrified expression, and said,

'He's my neighbor's!'"

Happy Thursday!

A Little Biddy Goal

To have a blog, you actually have to write stuff. "Well duh," you say, but I bet thousands of blogs are created every day, one or two posts are written (or maybe even none!) and then they are abandoned, left to rot in the landfill of bloggerland. (Incidentally, I'm sure this is why all the good names on blogger are taken.)

Any way, here's my 30-day start a blog challenge!

 If you're like me, you might do several steps in one day. That's okay, just cross them off as you do them. That'll help if you get distracted later in the month and miss a few days.

It's day one for me, and I've already done days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7! Tomorrow I'll do day 6, and my goal is to do all 30 days by September 13th.

Wish me luck! Anyone want to join me?

Exercise in the Boonies

I bet a lot of you out there have a membership to some fancy-schmancy gymnasium. You probably even drive there. Well, out here in the boonies that just isn't an option. The only Jim here would get pretty riled up if everybody started climbing all over him. And my family isn't a farming family who sweats outside all day, so what do we do to stay thinner than our doorways, while still eating ridiculous amounts of butter and white bread?

• Walk to the post office everyday, rain, shine or blizzard (there aren't any mail boxes around here, so everyone has a box at the post office.) It's good exercise, and we get to chat up Sally Mae, the postmaster, and hear all the latest town gossip.
• Chase them dogs and deer outta my garden!
• Do 3 days (sometimes as long as a week!) of yet another "30-day challenge" off of pinterest. I don't think I've ever finished one of those, have you?  I like to rationalize that picking a new one each week helps to vary the routine. Here's my latest one: (I think today is day 5)

In case you're confused, by leg lifts they mean lie on your back, hands under your butt, legs straight, and move your legs up and down. Not that I would ever be confused by that. Nope.

To life, liberty, and the pursuit of not replacing all our doorways with double-wides!