Hi! We're just BEGGING to go to the Humane Society!

In the past twenty-four hours, these simply adorable dogs have jumped on my chair to spend the night (off which I spent ten minutes vacuuming their hair yesterday) with muddy feet, then somehow gotten into my bedroom and strewed and/or ate the entire contents of the trash can, shredding the bag as an added middle-finger to me, and finally, stole my tomatoes out of my grocery bag and started eating them.

They're awful and spoiled and I don't know what to do with them. Please, somebody tell me. I don't have time to watch The Dog Whisperer DVDs either.

No, I'd never really get rid of them, because I do love them, but they're making me afraid to ever have children.

Maybe I should ask them to consider what the Berenstain Bears would do.

Overheard at the Post Office: Morality Edition

Unsmiling father to four-year-old daughter, who had just whispered to him that she'd broken a plastic display piece, in a thick foreign accent:

"And what do we do? What would the Berenstain Bears do?"

(And I seriously doubt that this incident will be as funny in print.)

I'm Moving!

Part of me anyway, the recipes part. For a while I've thought that the recipes were cluttering up the place around here, and I'd like to have them better organized anyway as my collection grows.

So...introducing my NEW all-cooking blog, My Little Black Cookbook! I hope you will find something you like there. I will be adding more recipes shortly, including this afternoon's Creamy Potato Soup.

Time to get ready for Thanksgiving dinner. I hope everyone's having something good to eat today!

Thanksgiving Nostalgia

I'm spending Thanksgiving here in Round Rock this year with my friend Stephanie's family. I wish I could see my family too, but saw them two weeks ago when Mason was born, and so I decided I'll wait till Christmas to make the long trip home again.

For some unknown reason, I feel the urge to go shopping tomorrow. I've only gone to Black Friday once, about ten years ago with my uncle, and we stayed about five minutes before heading home empty-handed because to hell with that nonsense. But... I think there might be some things out there that I do not need, but am willing to pull an all-nighter to acquire.

At any rate, I hope you will all have a great Thanksgiving. Here's a fond Thanksgiving memory for you: Sarah Palin, in outer space as usual, as a turkey gets deli-sliced behind her.


I remind you that this person was dangerously close to being a member of our government's executive branch.

News to Me!

Ever hear a song, and for whatever reason, you think it's an old song, when it is actually new? I experienced this phenomenon previously with "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree", and now with the song "Walking on a Dream" by Australian duo Empire of the Sun. I could have sworn that it came from the soft rock mecca of my childhood, the 80s, but no. This year. I realized this only today.

Knowing this, and spotting many resemblances, I have now concluded that they're a Flight of the Conchords rip-off, but that won't stop me from downloading the song, because I've heard it a few times today and it's in my head.

*Watch the video here, they don't let you embed.

Wow, I wonder why I thought they were an 80s band?

Overheard in the Classroom: Space Edition

"Do you know what the fifty-oneth planet is?"

My work is cut out for me.

I Almost Did This With My Birthday Cake That My Mom Made Me...

...but my sister and brother-in-law ate it all before I could.

Say Hello to My Little Friend

This birthday weekend has been a big winner! Starting on Thursday (which was my actual birthday), I got lots of love from my students and coworkers, with a cookie cake at lunch and brownies at the end of the day. The kids also decided to turn off the lights, hide, and yell surprise every time I left the room. They were very sweet and it never did get old or less funny.

Next up was birthday dinner with Anthony, not at Chick-Fil-A as I had been repeatedly promised, but at an Italian bistro named Cipollina. Unfortunately for Anthony, I was a little distracted because I was waiting on a call from my brother-in-law...

My little baby sister Amy told me early Thursday morning that she was having stronger and more frequent contractions, but she didn't seem too convinced until about 7 p.m., when they suddenly started coming about two minutes apart. She told me to wait till the doctor checked her, and sure enough, Cody called me just after we left Cipollina to tell me that she had dilated to a 5 and it was "definitely going to be now".

So I left Austin at 10 p.m. and arrived in Beaumont just after 2 a.m. He tried his best to make it on my birthday, but because he takes after Auntie Amber, he was a little bit late. I totally understood! Anyway, he did wait for me to arrive, and was born at 2:42 a.m., weighing 7 pounds, 2 ounces, and measuring 19.5" long. Amy and Mason Brooks are both doing great, and will be discharged from the hospital any minute now!

Click to enlarge. (Then right click to make it your desktop wallpaper...you know you want to!)

Carrie Prejean, You're Awesome.

Why can't this woman go away? If I've ever seen anyone who could benefit more from a good balled fist to the face, I don't remember when. Here's why:

1. She's an über-hypocrite. You disagree with gay marriage, fine. That's your opinion. But that moral high road that you claim to be taking becomes mighty inconvenient when your SEX TAPE comes out. Oops.

When you're even more insufferable than Elisabeth Hasselbeck, then we've got a problem.

2. She's smarmy as all get-out. It would take a squeegee to wipe that ever-present smirk off her face. Check out her amazing interview on Larry "Inappropriate" King Live here, in which she unclips her mike and refuses to speak for the last part of the interview. This is after she refers to Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin as "brilliant".

3. She owes the Miss California pageant a chunk of change for those boobs they bought her before she made an ass of herself and got "dethroned" (love using that word in reference to beauty pageants) for contract violations.

Halloween Happened.

And I didn't get one single picture of my sweet red boots. Here's a picture of me in my go-go dancer dress though, and luckily, the earrings are mine to keep!

In related news, my pumpkin did in fact win first place at Applebee's, thank you very much! I got a $25 GC and the kids all got a free kids' meal. Holla! Now start sucking up to me and maybe I'll take you for a fancy meal where we eat good in the neighborhood.