RTT: Heeby Jeebies, Fergie and Jambalaya

I am particularly scattered and uninspired here. I'm afraid that a few...

...are all I'm capable of.

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Our house is a disaster. Two guys named Tony and Hoover showed up today and started work on fixing up our attic, a MUCH needed home improvement. We're not doing anything fancy, just turning it into a usable storage space, but nonetheless, the hallway is covered with plastic and all the furniture is moved around, and they've torn a hole in the ceiling of the hallway, through which musty, warm air is pouring. It's creepy up there too.  They let me poke my head up and look around. Lots of ancient insulation. Seems like the perfect place for mice. Or bats. Or black widows. Eeeeeeeeeeeek. Okay, I'm giving myself the heeby jeebies. Something about that big gaping hole in the ceiling...Tony and Hoover better finish this up quickly. Then I'll only get the heeby jeebies every time I haul out the Christmas decorations.

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Did y'all watch the Super Bowl? Of course I'm not talking about the actual football game, I'm talking about the important stuff - the entertainment and the commercials. It seems like this year was a bit of an anomaly. The football game was actually really excellent, and the rest of it was dreadful. And I mean really dreadful. Christina Aguilera? What the hell was she doing? I'm not even talking about the botched the lyrics. It was just terrible singing. All flash and no substance. Someone told me that there were actually Vegas odds on how long she'd make the National Anthem last, and now I see why. She was all over the place, all those unnecessary runs, warbling on and on. Just sing the song, damn it! And then the Black-Eyed Peas! Egad! I was in a room of friends who were all huge Pea fans, really looking forward to seeing them. But we were left stunned by their pathetic performance! I had a real sense that they had simply never rehearsed. All those white clad folks with the boxes on their heads had probably been rehearsing all week, but the Peas flew in that afternoon and just winged it. Or would that be wung it? And the big surprise guest were...Slash and Usher? Huh? Did anyone care? The only positive I have for the whole thing is that they clearly weren't lip-syncing, as Fergie was off-key for the vast majority of the performance. Bring back the geriatric rockers of yesteryear!

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I have recently identified what would be, for me, the worst job on the planet Earth. On a street near us is a business called Liberty Tax Services. Every day, of late, a man has been standing on the sidewalk in front of the office, wearing a large Statue of Liberty costume, making silly faces and waving a sign that says "Liberty Tax". He is a grown man. It's extremely undignified. I fear that he may have had to explain this get up to his wife, or friends. I sincerely hope that they are paying him very well, but...mmm...doubt it. I realize that for most people, the worst job on the planet Earth would involve something like...scraping roadkill, or cleaning bathrooms in a porn theater. But for me, standing on the street in a Statue of Liberty costume would be utter humiliation. Not sure what this says about me...

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My friend Ronda and I have to teach Jude's Cub Scout den about recycling. It's some sort of requirement thingy, and we seem to have become the parent volunteers. It's our job as Akela. I think we'll bring a bunch of trash, and teach them how to sort it, only all of our bottles and cans are booze. Maybe not appropriate. We'd like to come up with some sort of craft they can make out of old junk - the "reuse" part of the whole "reduce, reuse and recycle" bit. But all the crafts we can think of seem too girly. Turning old tin cans into pencil holders? Really? Does anybody have any great ideas? Please?

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This is pretty damned cute...

 

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I have nothing else to say. I'm going to go stand in the hall and stare up into the hole in the ceiling at the gaping abyss and worry. And then I'm probably going to go in and comfort myself by dishing up another bowl of this really excellent Weight Watchers Jambalaya I made tonight. Here's the recipe so you can too!

Shrimp and Sausage Jambalaya

(7 WW points per 1 1/2 cup serving, for those of you who care)

1 tbsp. butter

1 large onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

6 oz. turkey kielbasa, cut into 1/4 inch slices (I used 8 oz. because that's the way it comes. Sue me.)

1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice

1 (28-oz) can whole peeled tomatoes, broken up

1 (14 1/2) can reduced-sodium, fat-free chicken broth

3/4 tsp. dried thyme

1/4 tsp. cayenne

1 lb. shrimp, peeled and deveined

1. Melt the butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the kielbasa and cook, stirring, 3 minutes longer.

2. Add the rice and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and their liquid, the broth, thyme and cayenne; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the rice is tender, about 30 minutes.

3. Add the shrimp to the mixture and cook until just opaque in the center and all the liquid has been absorbed, 5 to 7 minutes longer. 

Comments

[Amy in Australia]

Just thinking about what may be in our attic creeps me out! I'm impressed you even looked up there! I missed the Super Bowl--it did air here, but in the late morning. I'll have to check it out in you tube, cause now you've got me curious.

[Sprite's Keeper]

While I agree with you on the BEP performance, I was more than happy to let my four year old watch it without fear of sudden floor humping. :-)

[VandyJ]

Turn Milk bottles into bird feeders. Or something like that.
A couple of weeks ago I made a jambalaya. It was way easier than I thought it would be and very yummy. Now I need to get more sausage and make it again. Good stuff.
The hole would creep me out too-spiders, ewww!

[Kendra]

We definitely tuned into the halftime show and I did think the singing was terrible but I thought the show was entertaining.

And we have a Liberty Tax Service and there is always someone jumping around in front of the store. Horribly embarassing.

[The Bug]

Have you seen those airplanes made from beer cans? Or maybe that's just in the south...

I wrote about the Statue of Liberty on my blog today. In a completely different way, but still - the synchronicity!

[Aimee @ In THIS Life]

I recently saw a craft on new-so bags (for library books or helping with grocery shopping) made out of t-shirts. Maybe if each boy brought a tee he's outgrown?

Here's a tutorial for one similar to it - http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/kidscraftsactivitiesblog/2011/01/how-to-make-no-sew-tote-bag-craft-from-recycled-old-t-shirts/ It would probably look less fringy and girly if they turn it inside out after tying the bottom.

[Keely]

Oh, I made that jambalaya tons of times while I was doing WW! It's really good and freezes really well.

Do you have the 4L milk jugs there? You can make really good hanging skeletons out of them. Of course, they make more sense around Hallowe'en, but boys might like them anyway.

[tina erickson]

thanks for the jambalaya recipe <3

[Elizabeth]

You are, as always, hilarious. Today, as I drove about the city, picking up my children and dropping them off, I noticed several of those Liberty Tax folks -- AND a penguin, too.

I wonder how much they make an hour?

[Jenni]

Bird feeders out of milk cartons?