What day is it today ...?

So in last week's post you may recall me mentioning that every day here was seemingly a 'National something or other day', which got me wondering who on earth thinks these things up? and whether there is a list somewhere?  So this week, intrigued, I set about doing some further research on the subject (clearly I have way too much time on my hands) and discovered that not only is there a list, but a whole calendar and there is indeed one (or in most cases several) for every single day of the year, as well as themes for each month!  What fun!!  Oh soz, think I turned into Miranda's mother for a minute there ...  

Many are completely ridiculous of course and caused me to guffaw with hysterical laughter, such as Wave all your fingers at your Neighbor day ... as oppose to what? just the middle one? giving them the usual V sign? and Dump your Significant Jerk day ... must look out for them all hanging out by the recycling bins.  Lol.  I was particularly gutted to discover I had also missed World Play Your Ukulele Day earlier this month too.  Oh no! Don't tell me that passed you by as well?  *sighs* Wednesday 10th February must have been a particular depressing day as all there was to look forward to was Umbrella Day and Plimsoll Day.  For some reason I have a mental picture of a pair of cheesey grey plimsolls left on the back step, sitting in a sad puddle of rainwater (yes, sometimes it's scary being me ...).  On the other hand, the day before looked to be most interesting as it was Extraterrestrial Culture Day ... Whaaaaaa?!  Wonder if they got them to run seminars? ... maybe 'A Year on Tattooine' or 'A Day in the Life of a Wookie'?  Good grief.  

Some are of course food and drink related - frozen yoghurt day, National deviled egg day (yes, really).   Some though are designed to raise awareness - World Braille Day, ADD Awareness Day ... what was I talking about?  Oh yes...  (sorry, couldn't resist), and some have a philanthropic element which despite being for the most part rather cheesey, if only a small percentage of the population observed it would certainly brighten the day for many people - Stop Bullying day, Make a Difference Day and Be Humble Day, for which the founder is ironically listed as 'unknown', LOL.

Anyway, I thought it would be rather fun to see how many of these I could achieve in a week.  Want to know how I did? Read on  ....

The month of February is apparently ... Library Lovers month, North American Inclusion month, Heart month, Cherry month, Hot Breakfast month, Breast Feeding month ...sorry what?!  there's only so far I am prepared to go  .... oh wait ... stand down people ... I misread that ... it's actually Bird Feeding month (phew), Bake for Family Fun month. 

Phew, well, so far this month I have visited the local library to take back the book Youngest got out for his Science project ... tick.  (In case you were wondering it was "In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette"  from which the most interesting fact apparently relates to the origin of that good old British exclamation  "Gordon Bennett!" *tuts and rolls eyes*).  We have filled up the hummingbird feeder in the garden (that was a royal 'we' obviously ... ahem ... Thanks Mr B!) ... tick.   I have eaten several hot breakfasts at our regular Sunday brunch venue ... tick and baked a gigantic carrot cake which Mr B had great fun eating ... tick.  Well, this all seems straightforward enough.  Now on to this week ...

Sunday 21st

Single Task Day - "Research has shown that multitasking is really inefficient.... dilutes focus, introduces delays and makes things take longer to complete ... Make a list in order of priority ... One task at a time ... ignore everything else until you finish it."  Well that's bobbins for a start! Clearly written by a man.  That may well be true for them but everybody knows that we women are brilliant at multitasking and ...oh crap! ..... Sorry, dinner was burning ...

Sticky Bun Day - "another Cinnamon roll?" ... Oh go on then, after all it is in the interest of research.

International Mother Language Day -  in the words of Nelson Mandela "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."  Yes quite. Good job I am multilingual .... being fluent in both 'Barlow' (otherwise we would never be able to work out what he was on about ... ticket boo) and 'Bullsh*t' (handy for most other males I meet these days ...)

Mon 22nd:

World Thinking Day - originated from Girl Guides/Girl Scouts idea.  Each year a country is selected and they learn about it's culture and general living conditions as well as each giving a 1p donation in support of projects that aid their fellow Guides/Scouts from member countries in need. Ahhh, what a lovely idea.  I like this one. 

Be Humble Day - CS Lewis once said " True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less." A perfect quote for Be Humble day.  Anyway ... back to me 

National Cook a Sweet Potato Day - sorry what?  Well clearly that's not happening ... bleugh!

Walking the Dog Day - sadly not applicable ...phew

National Margarita Day - now that's more like it.  Cheers!  *hic*  

Tue 23rd:

International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day (I kid you not) - Ethan and I sat and looked at this dog biscuit for 2 hours, marvelling at its majestic beauty and discussing the merits of bone shaped versus square biscuits ... etc. etc.

Play Tennis Day - obviously that was a non starter

Curling is Cool Day - ditto ... but seriously?

Banana Bread Day - now this one I would have happily joined in with but we didn't have any bananas and I couldn't go out because the cleaners were coming .... anyway, first world problems and all that ... moving on

Wed 24th:

Inconvenience Yourself Day - well, Mr B was away again this week so I had to do dishes AND make my own coffee which was pretty damn inconvenient, I can tell you.

Tortilla Chip Day - that's pretty much every day in this house.  Well what else are we going to eat with our margaritas?

Thu 25th:

Chili Day - kaboom! (maybe a tad less chilli next time)

Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day - nailed it like a boss

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day - don't anyone dare even try ...

Clam Chowder Day - more like clam chunder.  Ugh!

Fri 26th:

For Pete's Sake Day - apparently you are to substitute an offensive word or phrase with something 'more acceptable in society'.  Lol!  I said 'for Pete's sake!" a lot today ...

Personal Chef Day - out for our usual Friday night happy hour and dinner so the 'Chez Barlow' personal chef got the night off.

Pistachio Day - ice cream ... one of my favorites!

Tell a Fairy Tale Day - as my fairy godmother once said to me ...

Sat 27th: 

Strawberry Day - not sure why they have picked a date in February for National strawberry day but still ... luckily for us here in Arizona they are already in abundance.  Yum!

Kahlua Day - oh damn ... we're right out of that

World Sword Swallowers Day - Ethan "don't tell Phil that ..." his nickname for his Dad, aka Phil Dunphy from Modern Family "... or it will be National Funeral Day"

Polar Bear Day - this is Snowy, Ethan's beloved polar bear who was bought as a christmas present by a friend for 'the bump'  3 months before he was born (Kath, would you still recognize him?!) and has been by his side ever since but sadly is now looking a little worse for wear :(  He still comes on every holiday to this day (although he now stays carefully secreted at the bottom of his rucksack).

and finally, my particular favorite ...

Open That Bottle Night - don't think you even need to ask whether I managed this one ... 

Well, what a fun week and I did actually learn a thing or two into the bargain.  If you want to check some of these out for yourself and find out what's in store for next month ... oh hello ... it's only Craft Month!  Get in!  I have included a link to the website here ... Daysoftheyear.com

(Apparently March is also Cheerleader Safety Month, so go careful out there girls!)

TTFN

Bev x

My Funny Valentine ... !

Hello again, has it been another week already?! Well, I'll be jiggered! (as my Grandad would have said)

Not much going on at Barlow Towers this week, but don't believe I harped on about the Valentine's Day celebrations last weekend did I?  Well, let me enlighten you.

It appears that Valentine's Day is another 'thing' here (frankly what isn't?  We've had 'donut day' and 'National drink wine day' recently so nothing surprises me any more).  Unlike us Brits who tend to hold true to the original concept of only sending declarations of undying love to sweethearts and soul mates, here in the good old U.S of A it appears that it is also 'a thing' to send cards to your friends and family on Valentine's Day as well.  (Another money spinner for Hallmark no doubt).  It is especially popular amongst kids apparently, many of whom (especially the younger ones) seem to exchange cards and treats with all their classmates too (or rather another thing to add to mum and dad's to do list).  At Ethan's school, bearing in mind they are all Middle/High schoolers and thus far too cool for that, they ran a 'candygram' service where you could purchase a treat for your friends and have it delivered to them in class during the course of the day.  Not embarrassing at all. I asked The Tween if he was planning on sending any ... "Pffft, noooo!" ... or whether he thought he might receive any ... "I would rather die".  He did inform us though, much to our amusement, that one of the boys in his class had arranged to send one to himself ..'To Andrew, from me," ... which I thought was quite enterprising (and a good way of delivering yourself a snack during a boring science lesson).  

So this year, in the spirit of embracing our new culture, I made a card and a little chocolate gift box for Youngest and left it outside his bedroom door last Sunday, which I think he was secretly pleased to receive (well ok, maybe just the chocolates ... I'm sure the card made him cringe) as well as the usual one for Mr B.

After a late family brunch at one of our favourite breakfast haunts, (Butterfield's on Shea and Scottsdale Road if you're ever in the area ... amazing) Mr B and I headed off for our Valentine's Day treat ... to see the Dancing with the Stars Live, leaving the Tween at home, much to his relief.  Despite his protestations to the contrary, I am still not entirely comfortable leaving him home alone late in the evenings as yet and so Mr B had wisely opted for tickets for the early show.  In case you're not a fan, Dancing with the Stars is the US version of Strictly Come Dancing (complete with judges Len and Bruno, but thankfully not Craig, who would probably get lynched) and every bit as good, although usually far too much 'messing about' for Len! Lol.

Despite being one of only a few men in the audience (which seemed to be largely made up of middle aged women, funny that), Mr B didn't seem to mind, enjoying the scantily clad female dancers immensely (whilst also trying to commit the guy's routines to memory to practice later!).  It was every bit as good as I had imagined and a fabulous Valentine's present. 

One of the things I think I love most about living in Arizona are the stunning sunsets, especially at this time of year when they seem to be particularly spectacular, and never tire of marvelling at them - no two are ever the same.  Last Sunday proved to be no exception and on our drive home we were witness to another beauty.  My shots were not the best as they were taken out of the car window as we were speeding along the freeway, but hopefully you can get a flavour ...

Finally, to conclude the Valentine's theme this week, I made myself a little piece of art this week from a few bits of rolled up paper, a vinyl letter I cut on my electronic die cutting machine and a box frame.  I was really pleased with how it turned out - and may have a new addiction!

Thanks for dropping in and hope you all have a good week!

TTFN

Bev x

Some Mother's do 'ave 'em ...!

Hi all!

I know my UK readers who have been experiencing weeks of wind and rain will not want to hear this but here in Scottsdale we are having a bit of a heatwave at the moment.  Temperatures have been in the mid 80s all week, some 15 degrees warmer than the average for this time of year, and are set to continue all of next week too!  I can't tell you what a difference it makes waking up to clear blue skies and sunshine day after day and being able to sit outside in the evenings with a drink and not freezing to death (even at the height of most UK summers I recall having to resort to a thick woolly cardigan at the very least)!  Having spent 53 winters in the UK though, I know how dark and dreary February can be, so I feel your pain my friends, I really do.  Hang in there though - only another couple of weeks until March and then Spring will be on its way.   But in the meantime .... Yay me!  :D

This week Youngest's English class were all required to give a presentation at school.  

"What's the subject?" I asked him, imagining some synopsis of a book they had been reading or key character analysis etc.  Apparently not.

"Well, we're doing it in pairs and we all have different grammar related topics.  Ours is on Italicising and Underlining.  It has to be 8 minutes with slides, examples and a quiz".  

Ugh.  Good luck with that.  Well let's just hope his English teacher is not a reader of my blog as both are scattered randomly throughout my ramblings, and in all probability totally inappropriately. (I did ask Ethan to describe to me when each should be used ... just to validate his understanding of course *coughs* ... but think I must have dozed off).

 On Tuesday afternoon (2 days before the presentation) he came home from school and asked "Do you think that suit I wore for Simon's wedding will still fit me?"

"I don't know.  That was well over a year ago so probably not.  Why?" 

"Well, Dr Spencer said we had to wear a suit if we had one, or smart business dress".  

Oh did he now.  Thanks for that. Remind me to poke him in the eye next time I see him.

So, amid much muttering and cursing (bearing in mind that this was the same teacher whom you may recall had previously rejected one of Ethan's homework submissions because it was in an incorrect format, i.e. printed on A4 paper instead of US Letter .... Yup ...) said suit was retrieved from the back of the wardrobe (closet) and tried on accordingly.  Amazingly it still fitted!  This was due in no small part to  that 'Mum trick' of buying everything a size too big ... what do you mean it feels massive? as hands are barely visible at ends of sleeves.  Rubbish! It looks absolutely fine ... and also the fact that Youngest seems to be the only member of the family who has actually lost weight since we moved here, growing taller and skinnier (from the waist up only apparently as bizarrely the trousers were still the right length but now too big around the waist! How does that work?) 

As he paraded in front of the mirror preening himself, he announced that he actually looked quite good.  

"It'll be fine as long as I don't take the jacket off."

"What?! You'll roast.  It's going to be 85 degrees!  Why can't you take the jacket off?"

"Well look at it!" he wailed opening it up to reveal the blue and green Paisley lining. "It's like Ariel's palace in there!"

After much hilarity and a quick rendition of Disney's 'Under the Sea' we went off to raid Mr B's wardrobe in search of a suitable tie. 

"How about one of these?" I suggested as I pulled a couple of the more flamboyant options out of the wardrobe.

"Pfffft! NO!"  

" ... one of these then?" I offered as I selected a couple of classic striped numbers

"Ugh, no!"

"What's wrong with those?"

"I'll look like a mini Marcus Barlow and probably walk in saying 'Morning chaps! Tickety-boo!"

That boy kills me, he really does! :D

Finally he selected the plainest most inconspicuous option available, a plain dark grey affair that I think Mr B usually reserves for funerals and such.  He did look very smart though ... 

When I collected him from school on Thursday afternoon he said that it had gone quite well and that they had scored 80 out of 100.  He did observe though that 30 seconds per slide was a REALLY loooooonng time when you were standing in front of everyone and they had underestimated the narrative somewhat.

"What did you do?" I asked "Ad lib for a bit?"

"No, we just stood there awkwardly until the slide changed". Lol.

The other thing that had me in hysterics this week was a visit from Dennis the Menace, our Landlord.  Not that he was trying to be funny intentionally you understand.  Let me explain ...

In our bedroom there are Venetian blinds fitted to each of the windows - you know the sort, those annoying slatted affairs that you have to raise and lower with a knotted cord at one side and which open and close via a pulley at the other.  

Well, the largest one broke and whilst you could raise and lower it (if you had the strength of Charles Atlas) you couldn't open and close it.  I mentioned it to our Landlord some time ago who said he would need Marcus to help him get it down as it was really heavy and if I could let him know next time he was working from home he could take it for repair and hopefully get it back the same day.  Mr B doesn't often work from home, prefering the office environment and the people interaction, but yesterday had to make a visit to the airport to get his Global Entry authorisation approved (which means he won't have to wait in those long immigration lines at the airport any more) so in between was a perfect opportunity.  

Dennis duly arrived just after 8am and proceeded to set up two step ladders at either side of the window. As it was a real struggle to raise it right to the top, he thought halfway would be fine and started to unscrewed the appropriate bits which held it all in place.  He announced he was ready to get it down and so with Dennis at the top of his ladder already, Mr B climbed up his steps to take the weight on the other side.  As I watched with mild amusement from the doorway, I could picture exactly what was going to happen next.  Now Dennis is not a big man, in fact I would go so far as to describe him as short and slightly built.  The ginormous blind was clearly going to be extremely heavy, plus it wasn't concertina-ed right to the top, and as he descended his ladder, instructing Mr B to let him get down first, he realised too late that his arms wouldn't be long enough and as he almost reached the bottom of his ladder, he dropped it and I watched in slow motion as the untethered section clattered down on his head!  

"Oh! Dennis are you ok?" Mr B exclaimed

"Yes, yes ... I'm fine" he blustered clearly embarrassed, whilst I meanwhile was desperately fighting the urge to laugh.

Now on the ground but trapped between his heavy step ladder and the window (clearly not having the foresight to step down in front of the ladder rather than behind it!) he was also clearly stuck.  Mr B, now also on the ground but on the right side of his ladder was just about holding it together and trying to avoid making eye contact with me, now biting my knuckles as tears rolled down my cheeks.

"Erm ... Bev!" Dennis called "do you think you could come and move this ladder please so I can get out?"

Images of Frank Spencer in mac and beret, flashed through my mind as I quickly managed to pull myself together and free him from behind the ladders.  Once they had got it into his car, he drove off to see his 'blind man' promising he would be back with it in a few hours.  I can't wait.

At 4.30pm, just when we were resigning ourselves to having no blind at the window that night, he appeared at the door.  Apparently his 'blind man' only did repairs in-situ (I can't think why) and it had taken him hours to find anybody to repair it but finally he had managed it.

"Now we just need to pop it back and I'll be out of your way..."

Oh God.  

This time, whoever had fixed said blind had sensibly secured with tape at various intervals to stop it all unraveling (and hitting somebody on the head).  Both Mr B and Dozey Dennis climbed their respective ladders once more, holding the blind between them and it was soon secured at the window once more.

"Do you have some scissors?" asked Dennis.  "I just need to cut this tape off ..."

I handed him the scissors with a sense of foreboding

"Ha! Better make sure I don't cut through the cord eh?!" he quipped.

Snip.  Yep.  You guessed it ... he had cut straight through the cord that raises and lowers it!  So now we have a blind that opens and closes but doesn't raise and lower.  You couldn't make it up! 

I had to leave the room under the pretence of 'checking on dinner' and Mr B quickly followed mumbling something about just needing to blow his nose, whereupon we both fell about in hysterics, tears rolling down our faces, whilst trying to muffle our laughter by stuffing tea towels in our mouth.

Two minutes later he was hurrying red faced out of the door muttering something about us not really needing to raise the blind anyway as it would be too hot ...

"Hmmmm .... Betty!"

Well, enjoy the rest of the weekend - Mr B and I are off to see the Dancing with the Stars Live show tomorrow for Valentine's Day ... yay! ... and hope to see you next time.

Thanks for dropping in!

TTFN

Bev X

Super Bowl Sunday ...!

Well, it seems the whole of the United States has been struck by football fever this week (not proper football of course ... American football) as Super Bowl Sunday arrives this weekend (our equivalent to the FA Cup Final).  This year's showdown, which marks 50 years of Super Bowl, is between the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers and Mr B is beyond excited as this will be the first year that he has been able to watch it at a reasonable hour (4.30pm for us here in Phoenix), rather than staying up half the night and then propping his eyes open with matchsticks and trying to stay awake at work the next day.  (Those of you that know Mr B will know that he is a complete sports fanatic and would watch tiddlywinks if it was on ...)

Ethan and I couldn't really care less, however I do want to see Coldplay's half time set and I have to confess I am looking forward to the infamous 'Super Bowl commercials' which are a HUGE thing over here (and get almost as much hype as the actual game).  There is much competition amongst the key players for the best ad and big money to be made for those that get it right - the Super Bowl is one of the world's most watched sporting events and last year attracted a record 114.4 million viewers.  Good job too as the cost for a 30 second spot is a whopping $4.5 million!  

As you might expect, drink and snack brands feature heavily ... Coca Cola, Pepsi, Budweiser ... who can forget those iconic Budweiser frogs, or the 'Whassup!' commercial which every Jack the Lad on a night out seemed to think was hilarious for months (if not years) afterwards and quickly became extremely irritating!  They did however redeem themselves somewhat though with last year's cute 'lost puppy' ad ... sniff

One of my all time favourites though has to be Volkswagen's 2011 Darth Vadar ad ...

Game-day food is equally important of course, (with the average American reportedly consuming 5,000 calories during the course of the Super Bowl!) and I think every breakfast tv show this week has had a slot (or several!) on what to make for your Super Bowl party.  Another big thing apparently, but not a popular idea with Mr B who thinks it would be far too distracting, prefering instead to disappear into his own little world ignoring anybody else in the room, jumping out of his seat clutching his head at regular intervals and shouting 'instructions' to the players every 5 minutes.

Popular choices for game-day food include chicken wings, ribs, chilli and nachos, which will be our snack of choice for tomorrow's game.  Not just any old nachos though.  Shredded beef nacho casserole if you don't mind, thanks to this recipe that I recently discovered on Pinterest and which proved to be very popular when I made it a few weeks ago for the Cardinals game (sadly the game turned out to be more disappointing).

Yummy!

For dessert, a special request from Mr B ... carrot cake.  Perhaps not your traditional game-day fare but one of his favourites.  I made one to take to our next door neighbour's birthday party last weekend where Mr B managed to hover by the dessert table and devour two large slices before I had to drag him away sulking!

Probably 5,000 calories right there ...

oooh ... is there any icing left?

Right ... I better go and make sure I have got plenty of alcohol in the fridge for tomorrow to get me through the boring bits in between the adverts ... 

Thanks for dropping by and hope you too have a Super Sunday!

TTFN

Bev x