Christmas joy!

Well, my baking is finished for another year. It was, as always, a ton of fun. For the first time, I tried making peanut butter fudge. I found a couple of recipes online and tried one but it didn't work. So, much to my sorrow, I threw out fudge and tried a recipe of my own. I've always had good luck with the fudge recipe on the back of the marshmallow creme jar so I made that but inside of putting in chocolate, I threw in a bunch of peanut butter. And it worked!

Matt and I already had our Christmas together. I wanted an MP3 player, which I received and Matt, for fun, received a variety of food items. Rice vinegar, hoisin sauce, havarti cheese, and anything else unusual that I could find at our grocery store. Matt's grandfather always liked Limburger cheese and every time we go to the store, Matt smells the cheese, which, by the way, smells like old, dirty socks. Very old dirty socks. So for fun, I picked up a package of Limburger and hid it in the bottom of our refrigerator (behind the oranges, where I knew he wouldn't look because he doesn't like oranges). For the past couple of days, Matt has been commenting on the odd smell in our refrigerator and in our kitchen. "What is that smell?" he's been asking. And I knew the entire time: it was the hidden stinky cheese.
Two days ago we tried the cheese. Opening it slowly and taking brave whiffs of smelly cheese, I watched as Matt tried the first sample. He didn't show any reaction on his face and once he had finished swallowing, he stated, "Ok, that's gross." Then it was my turn. I took a piece of cheese and placed it on a cracker. Being careful not to inhale with the cheese near my nose, I quickly shoved the entire cracker in my mouth and chewed as quickly as I could without choking. FYI: Limburger tastes like it smells. We had been hopeful that maybe it would magically taste like something else. But it doesn't. I quickly chased it with a piece of chocolate, which took the taste right out of my mouth. But not from my memory.
So we tried Limburger. And now there is an extra addition to our garbage for this week.

For Christmas, my mother in law gave us a laser pointer for the cats. It projects a red dot on the floor and the cats go NUTS!!!! Gus runs in circles, chasing this dot that somehow always stays right in front of him (unless something gets in the way, like a chair) He will do figure-8's, a kitty obstacle course around the living room, or just straight circles (he prefers going clockwise). Mac will chase it for awhile but Gus would go all night if we let him. It's great because it's a toy that he can't knock under the couch AND it's hilarious to watch him. What a great toy!

We're headed back to Indiana tomorrow, assuming that the latest snow storm we're expecting doesn't hit us too bad. We already have over a foot of snow on the ground and they're calling for another 6 inches tonight. I'm already running out of places to stack snow when I shovel but this is great weather! I just love winter!

I hope that everyone has a fantastic Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!!!!!

I love the holidays!!

I hope that everyone enjoyed that post from Matt. Just a few caveats: we wouldn't really eat the cats. I think that joke started as a comment (probably from me) about their behavior and the consequences if it didn't improve. Also, the drier doesn't shrink any of my clothes, only Matt's and only in the waistband, no where else. It's a puzzle....

Finals are finally done! Yay! I had forgotten the joy of the academic calender! Yay for Christmas breaks! I know I've been MIA for a while but this past week I had: 3 tests, 2 papers, and my application for student teaching due so needless to say, I'm happy the week is over! Now I can look forward to Christmas baking, wrapping, and cards and I have more time to work on them than I've had in the past with a couple of days off. Yay! I'm gonna destroy the kitchen with Christmas baking!!!! I'm looking forward to it. This year's cookie list:

Doods
Fudge
Butter cutouts (like sugar cookies only yummier)
truffles
sugar free meringues
spritz/cookie press cookies
TBA

Oh, I can't wait!! My only problem is that I'm a dough eater/spoon licker/professional bowl cleaner (which totally grosses Matt out and makes him question my sanity and potential for developing salmonella) (and that's fine with me because then I get more dough!). Well, it's ok to lick the spoon for one batch of cookies, but with that amount of baking, I just might go into a sugar coma. So I've developed a solution: chew gum while baking. No one wants to have wintergreen gum AND fudge in their mouth at the same time! Ha! I outwitted myself! (having just finished Abnormal Psychology, part of me really wants to dissect that statement, but I'll leave it alone)

For part of my student teaching application, the director of clinical services commented that schools google potential students to see what comes up. So I thought I would google myself and some pretty normal things came up: this blog, my facebook page, some articles I've been quoted in (yes, I'm famous), and other community related items. Then, on the next page of "Merrilee Lee" finds was:
Merrilee Lee, Utah, convicted in 2000 of manufacturing meth.

Crap.

That's not me! I've never been to Utah, let alone manufactured meth. AND, there's two of us in the world! One "Merrilee Lee" was not enough??!?? The only good thing is that she was 34 in 2000 when convicted and I was in college in 2000. For the first time. And, I wasn't Merrilee Lee then! Yay, I have an alibi!! So any of you who knew me in 2000, knew of my whereabouts and the fact that I'm not a crook, I mean, jailbird, I just might need to call on you as character witnesses!!!!

Anyhow, now that school is done, expect more posts from me soon!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you are reading this entry in the “Blog-O-Mer” then my plan to hack in, infiltrate....I mean.....post a lovely note about my wife has succeeded! Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the massive amounts of blessings each of us have. I am thankful to be able to share a few thoughts with you. Without further whatever……….I present to you, my 2008 version of “Life with Wife”.

1. Merrilee Lee – Kismit?

2. Our mall in Dubuque was basically off limits. So much retail fluff in there – gives my lovely wife a headache. Big-box, mainstream, mass-consumption, parking problems……..”Honey, I heard that the Dubuque Humane Society has a store in there now, can we go see the kitties?” We now have one mandatory stop every time we are in Dubuque!

3. We have cable for two reasons: Ghost Hunters & British accents. I tend to migrate more to Chicago sports. A television in the Man-cave has been provided for this purpose.

4. You may have seen the ads on TV about the Dannon yogurt that has magical ingredients (bacteria) that is healthier for your digestive system than other yogurts (and more expensive). I was eating that yogurt for a bit of time until Mer convinced me that it is a “Yogurt Marketing Ploy.” I now eat Yoplait…………………it tastes better.

5. 5-POUND TATER TOT CASSEROLES!!!!!!!!!!! YES!!!

6. While we’re on the food issue (amazing that I went there) I have a few more insights. Mer tells me that all my memories revolve around food; where I ate, what I ate…..This just isn’t true…I can remember our first date…..we both wore green tops and jeans on the bottoms, we sat in a booth next to an old picture on the wall, she told me what year the picture was taken and the style of house the people stood in front of. We started our date in Illinois, drove to Wisconsin and then Iowa – our first date – a tri-state date. We had a wonderful time together – I found her wit to be challenging and lovely. She of course pursued me from the beginning, constantly hounding me with calls and love letters. I never once flirted with her – I simply told her in my banker-boy wit “I will attend an evening of conversation with you”. By the way, I had a ham steak (nice and salty pork)!

7. This year she finally did it. Mer got me hooked on canning. She was proud of that accomplishment. She also found an old silver quarter in the change at the museum!

8. We have two wonderful, darling (these are not my words) cats. She has taught me how to personify these cats in all situations. It is like a living cartoon. We love them and they know that. And they know who is in charge. We have made it clear to them that, if their behavior worsens and/or economic times warrant, that they could be a stew-kitty and a roaster-kitty. And they know the difference! We would never eat the cats (or would we mwaa-ha-hah-ha) but we do know that the indoor plants love the spray bottle and the cats hate it. We also know that if it were not for our cats, the couch and rugs would float away from gravity. They have taught us that the soles of our shoes need to be massaged quite regularly for the best comfort and that in every good cat fight (and our cats belong to the UFC – ultimate fighting cats) there is always time for a 2 minute self cleaning break.

9. Did you know that knitting attracts cats? I learned that from my wife.

10. We have a faulty dryer. It shrinks the waist in all my pants. It has forced me to buy expand-a-pants with the comforting stretch band. This has nothing to do with my love of all things dairy and my annual winter hibernation. It has to do with the faulty dryer. My lovely Merrilee agrees with a “Yes Honey”. We both know that ultimately it is Gus’ fault. Gus is the roaster kitty. He takes the blame for many things like global warming, why Saturday Night Live is horrible and of course, FAULTY DAMN DRYERS (sorry for the strong language).

11. My wife is amazing and I am about to tell you why. If you come home from the grocery store with 8 full bags, two gallons of water and a gallon of milk, how many trips from your car to your kitchen would you make? I believe this average would be 3-4 trips. For me it would be at least 4 trips. For Mer, 1 TRIP! She takes pride in this ability to carry ¼ of Wal-mart from the trunk, up the stairs, past two semi-conscience cats to the kitchen. I ask to help…..”No, Honey, I’ve got it”. I am convinced my wife can dead lift the equivalent of 474 large cans of Campbell’s soup (which I don’t like – try Progresso!).

12. I know my wife loves me. She lets me run a boarding house for homeless post-holiday Poinsettias. She also didn’t get upset when I planted part of a fallen tree next to our garage. It was from a tree at my parent’s farm that I wanted to re-root and save. She said it would die. I didn’t give up hope. Next to the tree, many pumpkin vines started to sprout. I threw out a bunch of pumpkins there last year. Mer always tells me that the best pumpkins are “Sh-t pumpkins”. Long story short, the tree died, for good this time. But all was not lost. That lil’ baby was the best pumpkin trellis ever!

13. The Sunday Nap. The world would be a better place if we all did the “Sunday Nap”. Mer does it. In fact, she has perfected it. I think she should write further about the wonder that is the “Sunday Nap”. She will show you the way. The cats apply this principal to the remaining 6 days of the week. For me, it is simple….either stay quiet or join the Sunday Nap Movement!

May you all have a happy turkey-induced nap this Thursday! Happy Thanksgiving

Mr. Lee

Another grey day

Apparently, Wisconsin is trying to be England with grey days full of little spits of rain. What's odd is that the sun will be shining in Illinois when I leave but by the time I get to Wisconsion, it's gone and we have grey clouds covering the sky. Unfortunately, days like that make me want to 1. go back to bed and wait for the sun 2. drink tremendous amounts of tea 3. eat scones in companion with the tea 4. read long British stories involving a wealthy wayward duke, a poor but beautiful woman, and a traumatic event that throws them together. Basically, anything by Jane Austen or a Bronte sister. Please notice that none of the things on my list actually involve anything that I have to get done today or should finish today. Oh well.

Tonight I have an appreciation dinner for one of my tutoring opportunities. I'm helping a very nice lady who's about my age study for her TOEFL test, which is the test that foreign born/non-native English speakers must take to enter grad school. She is looking at attending grad school to study ESL. She's originally from Columbia and speaks/writes/reads English very well but sometimes the little detail rules are difficult (as they can be for native speakers!!). Last night we were working on the difference between "effect" and "affect." I told her that's tough for me too! I get them mixed up all the time. She's a little nervous, I think, but working on being prepared. I hope it works out for her because it would be a great opportunity for her. Anyhow, the organization that hosts the tutoring is having a dinner at a local restaurant tonight. I really enjoy working with my friend and I'm hoping that my schedule will work out so that even though I need XX amount of hours of tutoring, I can keep helping her at least through her test. I think it would be cruel to stop tutoring just because my goal is achieved when her goal isn't yet.

I registered for classes this week and it looks as though I will be able to do my student teaching next fall. So in and out in a year and a half. Then it's onto finding a real job. This stresses me out quite a bit but as Matt reminds me: there are more teaching jobs in the world than there are museum jobs and if I found a museum job, then I will find a teaching job too! I appreciate his support but I'll feel better when I actually find a teaching job that doesn't include coaching football. However, by the time I finish, I will be able to teach: US history, World History, Government & Current Events, Economics, Psychology, and Geography. Surely, someone will want to hire me, right?

OK, faithful blog readers, I have a request to help me (sorry for being selfish!):
What was your favorite part about studying social studies in school and why?

Funny things seen around town

First of all, canning season is done!! Yay!!!!!! It's officially done when I put away the water-bather pot (I'm sure this has a technical name for it but I prefer my use-descriptive one instead), I stop searching for Sure-Jell rather than any other lesser pectin, stop buying salt and sugar in abnormal quantities, and replace the tongs and jar lifters back into the drawer. I have no idea how much we canned this year but I'm pretty certain that we could live the rest of the winter on our applesauce, pear sauce, pickled beets, spaghetti sauce, and various jellies, although we would probably end up with some type of protein deficiency BUT we would be scurvy-free! Yay for no scurvy!!

We had been freezing our tomatoes as they came ripe so we could "can them at a later date" which made perfect sense every time you popped a tomato into the freezer but after a while, our freezer was only tomatoes and we had no room for ice cream (a true tragedy if you ask me!) So last weekend was "Can or Bust" weekend. Matt and I canned 5 quarts and 3 pints of spaghetti sauce which we cooked down in our Nesco cooker because we don't have enough large stock pots to cook down that much sauce (no one has enough stock pots unless you have an institutional kitchen with 30 gallon pots). We also made 16 jars of beet jelly. We could have made more. I had enough juice for one more batch but I was out of sugar, pectin, and jars. I only had jello and juice. SO, I made the hard decision and dumped the juice down the drain. Still, we have plenty of jelly! But now our freezer is ours again complete with pumpkin ice cream (very yummy!) and now when you open the freezer, frozen tomatoes don't come flying out at you like little frozen Ninja balls of death fruit.

School is going well. I found out that if I take a full load next semester (which I was planning on doing) and some summer classes (what else would I have to do in the summer), I can student teach next fall and then start job hunting/subbing more full time. Most of my classes are fairly easy but a couple (microeconomics) make me want to pull my hair out. But I just have to get through them and I will. (This philosophy comes with age, experience, and grad school, in my opinion. I would not have felt this way in Mer's undergrad experience, part 1, the saga begins)

Ok, for the true nature of this post:

Three funny signs seen this week:
Sign on a quik-lube place "Stop here for your tranny flush"
At a health foods place "Colon cleanse, yay!"
"O-B-A-M-A" spelled out on the sides of hay bales (true sign of living in the country, when you campaign for president using hay)

Matt

Today is Matt's 30th birthday and in honor of that momentous occasion, I'm going to list my top 30 favorite things about Matt:



30. His green thumb and love of plants.

29. His willingness to water said plants every night.

28. His handiness with a drill.

27. His ability to play the drums and actually make it sound like music.

26. He took me to my first blues concerts: Buddy Guy and B.B. King. Now what?

25. Playing "drums" in the car on the dashboard.

24. His growing historical and architectural snobbiness. (Wonder where he picked that up??)

23. Cooking supper and often having it on the table when I walk in. Can we say role-reversal?

22. His joy of grocery shopping.

21. His "Uh-Oh" sound. Very funny and a clear sign that something bad happened.

20. Constantly losing his cell phone.

19. His patience with all things kitty and Mer-related.

18. Grilling in an old green apron.

17. Accepting that I'm old fashioned and like to sew, knit, and can food.

16. He lets me take Sunday naps and doesn't complain. ( He learned that no Sunday nap makes for a cranky Mer!!)

15. Dancing in the living room. Alone.

14. He can often only remember places or events through food. He likes food, what's wrong with that?

13. His acceptance and eventual love for indoor cats. Even two cats!

12. The look on his face when he is struggling to wake up in the morning.

11. His hands, very distinguished.

10. His chuckle.

9. His enjoyment of life and acceptance of what he can't change.

8. His desire to live simply and close to nature.

7. His love for his family and mine.

6. His honesty.

5. The fact that he wants to help people, and not just because he thinks he should help.

4. When he smiles, it lights up his entire face.

3. His warm, friendly eyes, the first thing I noticed about him.

2. Matt's open, trusting heart.

1. His love of God and desire to share that love with everyone.

I'm still here, I promise

Hello intrepid blog readers,

I'm still in the land of the living and blogging. Life has just gotten incredibly crazy the past couple of weeks. I'm back in college and so far my classes are going fine. And I'm not the oldest one in any of my classes! Yay!!!! I am, however, I think the only female social studies major. All the others are guys with coaching tendencies.... More on that later.

It took a little bit to get back into the swing of college life/homework. It was much easier when I only had an apartment to take care of. But Matt is, as usual, a big help and the kitties are getting used to being more self-sufficient by holding things down for us like couches, rugs, beds, windowsills, etc.

For two of my classes, I have to do Service Learning, which is a technical description of volunteering. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I help in a special needs classroom with two fun students. Dillion, who needs help with his math, and Tiffany, who needs English help. They are fun and a challenge, Dillion more so than Tiffany. But working with them completely makes my day every time. And it reminds me of why I am doing this. Watching them learn and realizing that I am helping them to do that makes me so happy in a way that really nothing else does. On Thursdays I volunteer at a center that helps immigrants learn English and study for their citizenship tests. I helped a lady named Alexandria who grew up in Columbia. She has very good English and just needs to practice conversation. Total piece of cake!

Otherwise, life is good. Matt and I have been canning like fools. Our motto: Yes, we can!
We've canned: apple sauce, apple butter, pear sauce, pear butter, tomato sauce, pickled beets, & apple/pear jelly. We still have tomatoes and beet jelly to go. Then canning season is done, we can enjoy the "fruits" of our labor, and put away the large kettles and spare jars. And I can mop the kitchen floor, which hasn't happened since canning season started because, why? We're just going to get more dirt on it.

So life is good. Busy but good. I still have pictures to post but we now have dial-up at home which takes forever so sometime I'll have to post them from school.

A funny: My abnormal psychology professor said on the first day of class that after this semester, we will not be able to diagnosis anyone, not our parents, boyfriends, roommates or cats. But I've been using Gus as a test subject and I think that he is either OCD, ADHD, or schizophrenic. Or maybe just plain crazy.