Monday, December 20, 2010

Quite possibly the stupidest facebook status I've seen for a long time


Other than the one that insinuated that my kids were half breeds and anchor babies.
"Serious London? 6 inches of snow and the whole country is shut down. Nobody can get in or out of London. Brian and Liz are stuck there until Christmas Eve. No trains, no buses, no rental cars. Ridiculous. It happens to be winter all over the world people. Get a clue. God bless America! (And let us know if you have any transportation connections in London!)"
This is by the same woman I complained about a few years ago who didn't seem to understand how custom sewing seemed to work. Problems I have with this statement:

1) Europe is being hit with the STORM OF THE CENTURY. Meaning there hasn't been a storm this bad since before the Titanic sank. So London is supposed to buy a bunch of snow removal equipment that 99% of the time they won't use?

2) She seems to conveniently forget that it was just last week that the Salt Lake City airport was snowed in and no planes were going anywhere and people were being delayed 24 hours +.

3) When pointed out to her that snow plow patents are held here in the US for right-handed driving, and that if England bought snowplows, they were merely push the snow into the middle of the road, not really solving the problem. She responds that this is more proof of "how screwed up their country is." It has never occurred to this person that the reason they have traffic on the left side of the road dates back to Roman times when horseback riders on country roads would hold the reins in their left hand, leaving their right hand free to fight with their sword if necessary. Traffic on the left side of the road has been an English law since 1756, which is...I dunno...35 years before the US was even a country.

4) It is only winter in the Northern Hemisphere. For the Southern Hemisphere right now, it's a nice summery climate. Not only that, by snow only covers 45% of the land mass of the Northern Hemisphere, which is only 40% landmass anyway, so snow only falls in 20% of the Northern Hemisphere. So it seems like most people don't have to "get a clue" because, well, it just doesn't happen.

5) Parts of the US shut down too. My sister in law blogged about how the school district canceled school on the mere THREAT of snow. The streets in Seattle can't be plowed because they have mental dots on the road that hit the snow plow, so they just pack the snow down and enjoy a game of car hockey.

6) This is my favourite part: What does America even have anything to do with it? I know that this is a difficult concept for people around here to grasp, but hyper-patriotic statements don't take place of logical arguments. Saying God bless America is nice and all, but since it doesn't pertain to the argument at hand, let's just leave it out, 'k?

Besides, England gives us great comedies like this (warning contains language and hilarity):

Friday, December 17, 2010

I got this today.



It's freaking awesome. See ya, AT&T and crappy Mythic.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

The list that never gets an shorter

Sewing projects to finish:

Liam's blanket
Alana's blanket
Gwyn's present (5 months late-Sorry Gwyn!)
Sam's jacket (also 5 months late-eep!)
Red patchwork dress

To do:

Justin's vest
Alana's crib covers
Open cardi
Jason's Regency costume


Projects that I keep meaning to do and probably never will:

Alana's crib bumpers 
Blue dress
Red dress

Busyness and Christmas Crack

Sorry for the non-posting. I've been unbelievably busy. I have:

-Survived the Thanksgiving housecleaning, shopping, cooking, eating and leftovers. Thankfully (HA!), Justin's wicked stepsister decided not to come, making dinner actually a pleasant experience.
-Survived shopping and decorating for the ward Christmas Breakfast (I was on the activities committee) and made 8 dozen caramel pecan rolls (recipe is on the sidebar).
-Crocheted 5 hats for Justin's cousin (she's in the oncology ward), 1 for Alana and 1 for me.
-Finished Mindy's scarf (can I get a picture of that? I forgot to get one before I posted it)
-Knitted scarves for Liam and Alana. Alana loves her and Liam hates his.
-Finished Christmas shopping for all my siblings and their brood. Thank goodness for Costco.
-Half finished Christmas shopping for Justin and the kids.

So on to the fun stuff. I've heard of this recipe and I needed a quick treat for an event, so decided to give it a shot. It's great because it uses stuff most people keep in their pantry. I used a half sheet pan, so it ended up being a little thinner. I'd do it in a regular cookie sheet or double the recipe. It's called Christmas Crack for two reasons. One is that you "crack" it like toffee and the other is that it's very addictive like, well, crack.

Christmas Crack


About 1 sleeve saltine crackers
1 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar (dark brown apparently does make a lot of difference, we made it with light brown and it was still good)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped pecans


1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C)


2) Line cookie sheet with aluminum foil and line saltine crackers in single layer


3) In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes (Do not stir). Immediately pour over saltines and spread t cover crackers completely.


4) Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts. Cool completely and break into pieces. (We threw it into the freezer to cool it down faster. Took about an hour)

Other ideas I had for variations:

-Substitute saltines with 2 cups crushed pretzels mixed with 1 cup melted butter.
-Melt the chocolate in advance and mix a some creamy peanut butter in.
-Use butterscotch chips instead of or in addition to the semi sweet
-Use mint chocolate chips
-Substitute peanuts, cashews, almonds, etc for the nuts.