May 11, 2011 Wedding Cheese (Thanks, Matt!)

You all know that I loved the Royal Wedding and all the pomp and circumstance that went with it. I loved watching it on TV and saying to my empty basement "I've been there! I've seen that! I've walked down that aisle!"

So, when I learned that my buddy, Matt King, would be in the motherland during the week leading up to The Wedding, I put in my order for wedding shit. I mean, wedding memorabilia.

He sent a couple of facebook messages saying that purchases had been made - but there is a lot of distance between Matt purchasing wonderful Wedding mementos and having them in my hot, little hand. (No offense, Matt.)

Yesterday, though, yesterday was like Christmas. Matt's sister came by my office and delivered the goods.

Oh. My. God.
Here's a composite shot of the wonderful, cheesy, just for tourists crap that Matt got for me. As you are feasting your eyes on this bounty, keep in mind that a guy who is totally NOT a tourist in London had to pick up these spoons and stand in line. He had to pay for it and walk out of the store with it, all the while ignoring the eye-rolling and snarky remarks about crazy Americans.

Here's a close up of the 2 collectible spoons. Good picture of the Duchess, but Wills looks like he just had an appointment with his proctologist. That just increases the cheese factor, if you ask me. The higher the cheese factor, the better the stuff.

This is a china thimble. It's made in England out of bone china. None of this Made in China crap for these newly weds. Glad I have this in case I need to darn any socks.

This cup is pretty good, actually. I think Matt used most of his cheese allotment on the spoons and the thimble. On second thought, though, do you know anyone who has memorialized their wedding day by putting their faces on a cup? Maybe that, in and of itself, raises the cheese content.

Although I love, love, love everything Matt gave me, I must admit that I am disappointed that he didn't come through with Cate and Will vomit bags (but he did send me a link so I can buy them myself), Cate and Will face masks (really, I would have worn that joke out pretty fast) or Royal Wedding condoms.

Royal. Wedding. Condoms.

Now, that would have been something to pass on to my grandchildren.

Royal Wedding condoms to go with the glow in the dark condom I've been saving for a special occasion.

Shit. The Royal Wedding could have been the special occasion. Shit.

Thanks, Matt. Love you.

December 31, 2011 I. Did. It. #381

It's done. 2011 is in the record books and I kept a resolution for an entire year. It's with a sense of pride and disbelief that I bring you the year in review.

As of December 31 at 5:30 p.m., "Say Cheese!" has had 4,725 page views. January had 250 and December had 530. The stats show that there are readers in 7 foreign countries - the UK I can explain, but I'm scratching my head about Singapore, Ukraine and Ireland.

Luke and I had 20 meals together which were blog worthy.

Eight former or current KSU students made the cut.

Paul Mintner showed up 8 times. He was off to a great start in February, having 5 mentions in the shortest month of the year, but then either he got busy or got boring. (I'm leaning towards busy, because Paul Mintner will never, ever be boring. Love you, Paul!)

On 11 occasions I talked about politics. In order to be counted in this category, there had to be more than a mere mention of how much I dislike republicans in general and Sam Brownshirt in general.

My dad showed up 10 times by name, about 381 times in spirit!

This year went by so fast but as I read back over my blog, I am pleased that I packed a lot of life and a lot of laughs into the previous 365 days. I am fortunate that I am surrounded by people who love me knowing that what they do in my presence (or in my memory) is fodder for this blog.

I've decided that I am going to make this resolution again for 2012. There are 2 main reasons: 2012 is a leap year which means I will have 1 more day to blather on about and 2012 is a presidential election year which means that the repuglicans will be even more evil than usual. Someone has to write about it. It's not like anyone else will, right?



Thanks to CB and Luke for maintaining their sense of humor; to Steve for giving me the idea in the first place; to Jennifer, LouAnn, Susan, Jimmy, Princess Diane and Krista who read every day; to the letters "W", "T" and "F"; to Paul Mintner for great material; and to the 10 blog "followers" (2 of whom are Paul Mintner!).

It's been fun.

Let's see what kind of crazy shit I can find in 2012!

Come along for the ride. http://www.sarahpictureaday2012.blogspot.com/

December 30, 2011 101 Uses for Cream Cheese

Luke, CB and I don't have a lot of traditions around here. But, we do have one: snacks on New Year's Day. We all ask for our top 2 or 3 snacks and spend the first day of the new year grazing. It's heaven.

With all the appetizer options in the world you'd think I could come up with some that did not involve cream cheese other dairy based ingredient.

Here's what we're having:

Stuffed jalapenos (cream cheese)
Raspberry Chipotle dip (cream cheese)
Cindy B's Horseradish dip (cream cheese)
Cheese ball (cream cheese)
cheese dip (Velveeta - wait, does that count as a "dairy based ingredient"?)
sausage balls (a family favorite. Who knew sausages had balls?)
Shrimp
some other kind of dip that has sour cream in it
pickle wraps (cream cheese)

I am thinking that cream cheese is the duct tape of snacks.

December 29, 2011 Christmas: Part 2

Remember the Bubble Bread I was making for Luke for Christmas? How the "before" picture looked pretty harmless?

Ummmm, not so much.

Behold the "after" picture.

Note for next year: just because the specified number of frozen dough balls doesn't look like very many, do not, I repeat, do NOT add more. Seriously. Don't do it.

Oh, the Bubble Bread tasted great and the topping was yummy enough to eat with a spoon. But, there was some collateral damage done. The topping (sugar and butter) poured out of the cake pan to the bottom of the oven.

No harm done, I figured. I decided to just auto-clean the oven, which I did.

A little while later, I was talking to Brother on the phone and glanced at the stove. The oven was ON FIRE. There were flames and everything. After doing this Picture a Day nonsense for a year, you'd think I would have grabbed my camera before doing anything else. Alas. I did not.

The oven door was locked shut and I had to figure out a way to get the flames to go out. I decided to turn the stove off and hope for the best. The kitchen was full of smoke and Luke came downstairs to inquire as to the nature of the odors drifting throughout the house. CB was oblivious to all the excitement!

When the oven cooled enough, I picked out 5 large piles of burned lava, threw them away and started the cleaning process all over again.

This time without the flames.

It was more effective but less exciting.

December 29, 2011 Christmas: Part 1

Baby Jesus is in the manger, you know what that means!

Santa came! He filled our stockings so full that he had to put them on the coffee table. I love a full Christmas stocking, don't you?

In addition to filling our stockings, Santa left a bounty of gifts. A bounty, I say!

Luke got some KC Chiefs pants thanks to the combined efforts of me (buying the material) and Aunt Kim (turning the material into something wearable).

As always, Christmas has an aftermath. This year was no different.

December 28, 2011 Christmas Eve

Luke is home so that means our Christmas is tomorrow. Christmas morning means Bubble Bread for breakfast. I knew that so I had all the ingredients on hand. (Incidentally, the 409 in the background is not for the Bubble Bread. It's for the meat balls I made on Saturday.)

The frozen rolls are in the very old bundt cake pan awaiting a marvelous mixture of butter, cinnamon, chopped pecans, brown sugar and.....
butterscotch pudding that is NOT instant. I was so certain of my selection that I bought 3 of these.

Oops. Instant. See that word in really small print? Yeah, well clearly I missed it.

Time to send Luke to the store for the right stuff.

Not like that's ever happened before.

He came through for me, again, and Christmas breakfast will be wonderful! If I remember, there will be a picture, but if we've learned anything over the past year we've learned not to hold our breaths for a picture.

December 27, 2011 Outting with Brother

I love this entrance to Kansas State University. Particularly when there is no traffic (and no students!). I think the Christmas wreathes with their purple bows are so festive.

Brother wanted to wander around the grounds of the new Flint Hills Discovery Center which is nearly finished in Manhattan. He's quite a photographer and, had I been just a bit quicker, this picture would have been of him taking a picture.

But I wasn't and it isn't. It's just of Brother trying to blend in. With his KU hat and red jacket. In Manhattan.

Not gonna happen.