Chrismukkah

We ventured downtown last night to see the annual tree lighting and to celebrate the opening of the ice skating rink. The line to rent skates was approximately 800 hours long so we decided to skip the ice skating but we did get to go on a free horse and carriage ride. We enjoyed some hot chocolate as well as some people watching. Events like this always bring out the weirdest people. The evening was topped off with our subway ride home. We were joined by some very interesting people who were very very high on acid/mushrooms/who knows what. The girl couldn't stop what I'm assuming was giggling and this other fellow couldn't stop fake punching his friend. Good thing they were only on the subway for two stops.

I didn't know Fila was ghetto

For James's birthday I bought him a new pair of sweat pants, since the ones he wears now are from Hollister and are about 5 years old. So you can imagine how dirty and raggedy they are. I went to Kohl's because I figured they would have a good selection, not to mention I had $10 in Kohl's cash from Black Friday. They had a couple different brands such as Nike, Adidas and Fila. But Fila was the only one that would be keeping up with the "sweat pant" theme. I was all proud of myself for thinking of such a good present, but when I came home and gave him his present, James informed me Fila is "ghetto". How am I supposed to know this? What makes them ghetto? They are just sweat pants.

We have a "handyman" on our hands, folks

I purchased a new mirror for our downstairs bathroom off Craigslist for $15. It was a steal. I got it home and realized that I couldn't hang it on the current wall holders because it would sit on top of my light fixture. So I asked James to use his "skills" and take out the old wall holders and put them in a new position for the new mirror. It was touch and go but he eventually got it to work. Nice job Handy Jammy.

He did refer to himself as James "The Tool Man" Lewis.

Pumpkin is my weakness

I love pumpkin. I love pumpkin coffee, pumpkin liquor, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin. Mmmmm pumpkin. If you love pumpkin as much as I do, try out these Weight Watchers Pumpkin Waffles. They are only 4 points for every "1/2 waffle". They did not include a picture on their website so I took one of my own. If that doesn't shout deliciousness, then I don't know what does.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp table salt

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 lrg egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup canned pumpkin

1 1/4 c buttermilk

cooking spray

Instructions:

*Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup, level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder and next four ingredients in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk

*Combine egg, brown sugar, oil, pumpkin and buttermilk in a bowl; stir with a whisk until blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture and stir until well combined.

*Coat a waffle iron with cooking spray, preheat. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter per waffle onto hot waffle iron, spreading batter to edges. Cook 5-7 minutes or until steaming stops; repeat with remaining batter.

*Yield: 5 servings (serving size: 2 waffles)

(Notes: I don't use buttermilk, I use fat free milk. I usually double the recipe so I can use an entire can of pumpkin and freeze the rest of them to have later in the week. I usually just pop them in the toaster to un-thaw them.)

A Kick-Off

James, Jimmy and Carter were have a Kick-Off contest on Sunday during the Bills game. Yes, the game was that bad that they resorted to challenging each other to a Kick-Off. It then lead to them just kicking each other. Exciting times at 24 Lemon Tree.

My Utah Men

Road Trip to Lime Lake

James's grandparents used to have a cottage on a small lake about an hour outside of Buffalo. They sold it about 15 years ago and James hasn't been there since. So last Saturday, when it was 65 degrees, practically a heat wave, we decided to take a drive down there. We took Tank, which turned out to be a bad idea. He usually falls asleep after about 15 minutes in the car, but he was awake THE WHOLE TIME.

We stopped at this restaurant called Earl's, where we drank out of Mason Jars and the meals did not come with fries. Yep, I ordered a chicken sandwich thinking I'd have fries, maybe chips with my sandwich. I had neither, nor did I have any mayo or ketchup on my sandwich. It was an odd place to say the least. But we did see Earl himself. He was inhaling a sandwich at the counter as we were leaving. We knew it was him by his overalls and white handlebar sideburns. It was like a page out of the website peopleofwalmart.com. We finally made it to Lime Lake and drove down near the cottage on the lake. I'm not sure what James thought we'd be doing, such as knocking on the door and asking to see inside the cottage now, which we would not have done, but he was disappointed no one was home. So instead we went and parked by Bob's Ice Cream and creeped around the parking lot for awhile.

He was back and forth between the front and back seat.

Lime Lake

Such a cutie

Trying to do a self portrait.

He was being such a jerk.

A real man fixes things

James was using a straw the other day that had a hole in it. Instead of just getting a new one out of the package, he decided to "be a man and fix something". So he got out some electrical tape and "fixed" the straw. He was so proud of himself. Now if he can just learn how to use some power tools, measuring tape and possibly a hammer, we'd be all set.

Wow, these ladies are awesome!

A couple days ago my friend Ashley became a fan of Becky Higgins on Facebook. I recalled hearing that name before so I clicked on the fan page on Facebook and I saw her face and realized she was an editor for Creating Keepsakes, a scrapbooking magazine. Since I'm practically obsessed with scrapbooking I became a fan as well. As I was perusing her website, I stumbled upon another website called Bakerella. This woman makes fantasticly delicious looking desserts. I'm attempting to make the Snickerdoodle Duo for Thanksgiving dessert. After looking at Miss Bakerella's website I found this other website Smitten Kitchen (It's a play on words, you know Smitten Kitten...) I'm tempted to make the Chicken Meatballs for our Sunday dinner to go along with our veggie lasagna, because according to James, dinner isn't dinner unless we have meat. Obviously he will have a BF (bitch fit) if I don't include some sort of meat so I think this will be a good addition to dinner. I just wish I was this clever/talented/creative to have ideas and websites such as these ladies.

Tank does not enjoy being a pumpkin

To me, this face says "Get this damn thing off of me". Nope, I just kept taking pictures.

This face is worse. It says "I'm going to kill you"

This was at the Great Pumpkin Farm. I'd like to believe it was the same one used in the movie Big.

So happy to have his picture taken. My pumpkins. I love finding ones with weird stems. James says the small one looks like Tank. Googly eyes and a snagle tooth.