Soccer Sunday

Archive for May 17th, 2010

I Has A Hotdog

Posted by Heather Manning On May - 17 - 2010

Ihasahotdog I Has a Hotdog: What Your Dog Is Really Thinking by Professor Happycat

I HAS A BWAIN!!!!
An you thawt we dint! Now Professor Happycat tells you what’s in it and, from I HAS A HOTDOG.com and beyond, lets over 200 LOLdogs loose on the world, all barking the truth about kibble, toys, and bad kitties. This collection of favorites and never-before-seen photos will have you barking for more!
For all you hoomins, a LOLdog is a kay-nine picture with a funny, misspelled caption.

You’ve seen the cat pictures right? I Can Haz A Cheezburger. I didn’t realize there was a site for dogs too! I Has A Hotdog. Now there is a book. The kids and I have cracked up over and over again at the pictures in this book. We’ve also done a lot of awwwww! How cute! for some of the pictures. How can you not? Any animal lover is going to adore the pictures in this book and anyone who enjoys the two sites I linked above will crack up at the captions. I don’t really have a lot more to say other than, too funny! We keep pulling it out and going through it. It’s just a lot of fun with a lot of really really cute pictures!

Grab I Has a Hotdog: What Your Dog Is Really Thinking on Amazon

Thank you to the Hatchette Book Group for sending me the copy of I Has a Hotdog: What Your Dog Is Really Thinking! Too cute!

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Book Reviews

Dear Bob, Dear Betty

Posted by Heather Manning On May - 17 - 2010

dearbobandbetty Dear Bob, Dear Betty: Love and Marriage During the Great Depression by Elizabeth Catherine Wright

In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, two young people meet and fall in love. Llewellyn Wright (Bob), Frank Lloyd Wright’s youngest child, whose adolescence was marked by the public scandals surrounding his father’s private life, is struggling to begin a private law practice in Chicago. Elizabeth Kehler (Betty), daughter of a Chicago artist who abandoned the family when she was still in the womb, is working as an intake counselor at the Milwaukee Vocational School. Their fervent correspondence over a 10-month courtship period is witty, sassy and poignant, as they grapple with their passionate feelings and try to create a financially stable marriage in the midst of the 20th century’s most serious economic crisis. The couple’s daughter, a scholar of French literature, has written an Introduction telling their story before and after the courtship. 35 illustrations, extensive footnotes and an Index illuminate the family and social history behind the letters.

I was really excited about getting to review this book. I adore a good love story. I’ll be honest though, I opened it, got into the first few pages and thought, I am never going to finish this. The biographical information behind Bob and Betty was kind of dry and just wasn’t something that made me crave more. But, that being said, let me come back to the beginning of the book in a bit.

Once I got into the letters, I was hooked. Both Bob and Betty have this dry, sarcastic little bit of humor in them that comes out here and there. I loved it. I think we all have a bit of a voyeur in us. Whether it be driving by the scene of an accident really slow or witnessing an engagement before us as we sit enthralled, waiting for the answer. This is like the second example. Watching Bob and Betty’s romance unfold through their letters was so neat. Elizabeth Catherine Wright put a lot of work into the details behind her parents’ letters. She researched libraries, newspapers, so many sources, and they are all footnoted throughout the book. We even get to see scanned copies of some of the letters and envelopes.

Betty lived in Milwaukee and Bob lived in Chicago. Theirs was a long distance romance. Bob was determined to have money in the bank when they got married. During the Great Depression, that was next to impossible. I read how Betty would get excited when the government would release funds for the state employees to be paid. She would have money on hand. Can you imagine, working, and working, and working some more and not knowing when you would get paid for your hard work?

They both have this wonderful sense of humor that comes through when they are teasingly chiding each other. I loved those parts best.

Back to the beginning, once I read the whole book and knew all about Bob and Betty, the information at the beginning became more important to me. I went back and reread it, including all the footnotes, which I had skipped over in the beginning, and had an ah-ha moment.

It was fabulous. A beautiful love story throughout the letters, but I kind of felt bad for Betty when I reread the biographical information at the beginning to remember that during the marriage, Bob wasn’t as attentive as he was during their courtship.

Bob and Betty are no longer with us, but their story lives on in this book. I think that their daughter did a fabulous job compiling the letters and all of the historical references to go with it for the readers. I really enjoyed it!

Check Out Dear Bob, Dear Betty On Amazon

Thank you to AME, INC. for providing me with a copy of Dear Bob, Dear Betty: Love and Marriage During the Great Depression . It was a lovely story that I think I will find myself rereading.

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Book Reviews

Birdie Bread

Posted by Heather Manning On May - 17 - 2010

Oh yes I did. Bird people won’t laugh at me, but the rest of y’all probably will.

During my research on my parakeets, I’ve learned that just like my children need a well-balanced diet, my birds do too. I’ve been offering them chopped veggies and fruits, but alas, they turn their beaks up at it. I know that a diet of all seed isn’t healthy for them, so how do you get birds that seem to not be too adventuresome in the food department to try new things?

Some people on a bird board that I visit suggested birdie bread. Birdie Bread? For my parakeets? Why not?

I looked through a bunch of recipes for ingredients. Then went with what I have at home.

2 cups unbleached flour
2 cups cornmeal
2 whole eggs
1 jar of size 3 baby food chicken dinner
1 1/2 c of organic apple juice (though I thought about using water, and wished I had veggie juice)
a used a normal size bowl and filled it about 1/2 way full of whole broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots – they were frozen, defrosted those, and threw them in.
I don’t know how much seed I put in, it was the tail end of a bag, not a lot, probably 1/4 cup
1/4 cup oil
1/4 tsp baking soda
I blended that all up with my mixer

Put it in a casserole dish and cooked at 350 for 35 minutes (Tried 30, it wasn’t quite done.)

My birdie bread – kind of looks good, if I didn’t know it had bird seed and baby food and egg shell in it. I will leave it to my birds to try it.

I put some in their dishes in the cage and a whole bunch in the freezer in a bag marked birdie bread. Hopefully no one here will try to eat it.

Alyce is concerned that Christiano might try to eat it, she suggested we make some people bread. I think we’ll get some made in a little bit.

Mom, you can stop laughing at me now.

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My Life, My Recipes

Soccer Sunday

Posted by Heather Manning On May - 17 - 2010

Cuz you know the weekend for us revolves around soccer in late April, May, and early June, plus August and September. Before I go into pictures, can I just share the drive up there?

I’ve been to Ankeny 3 seasons in a row. Every season I’m late because I get lost. I am telling you, I have directional dyslexia. Dear Abby says it’s true. I can get around my own town and that’s about it. For everything else I need my GPS. Before GPS I was a mess. I’d call my mom, dad, brother in law in tears because once again, I was lost and had no clue how to get out of where ever I was. I can’t tell you which direction is north, or south, east, or west for that matter. I try. I really do, but I just can’t do it. People in my family know not to give me directions such as go north, turn west. They know it has to be left or right at this street.

I said yesterday, I’m going to leave early. I’m going to plug it into my GPS and I will get there in time for warm up. Didn’t leave early. No one was cooperating. I still left with time to make it to warm up. Jordan went to show me something on my GPS when we were about 3/4 of the way there. Then my GPS tells me to get off the interstate. Go left here, go right here, I’m cruising along until Jordan said, mom we’re going back home. He showed me that our address was now showing on the GPS. Somehow he changed it when he touched the screen. I get my panic attack feeling in my chest that happens when I know I’m going to be lost. Stopped the car. Replugged in the address. Turn left, turn right, make a u-turn. I was so confused. I had to keep talking myself out of panicking. Seriously, if there is one thing that will send me into a full fledged panic attack, it is being lost. When I go somewhere new, I plug it in, not only to my GPS, but to my Sprint Navigation on my phone also. This wasn’t new to me though. I should have been fine with just the one. I finally get us turned around and going the right way, but now we are going to be late to the game.

Jordan tried to cheer me up when we pulled up next to a cop at a stop light. Mom, he’s a big cop. He must eat too many donuts. Jordan, that is uncalled for. You don’t talk about police officers that way. But mom, he’s really eating a donut. Pink frosting with sprinkles. I just started rolling.

We got to the game 10 minutes late. Not just late for warm up, but for the game. I stink.

Sigh

Jordan had a great game though and it was incredibly exciting. They were up 1 until the very end, the other team scored, tied. Tyler took the ball up field, scored another goal. Ahead by one. They brought the ball back, scored another one. Tied. Dawson took the ball up field, scored another one. There had to have been 30 seconds left when they brought the ball back down and tied the game. All of us moms were up screaming for our team. It was so much fun. Until Alyce started irritating Christiano on purpose. And such is the life of a 3 year old.

Here’s some pics from yesterday –

What Nano does when you say, picture?

My girls, Kat is either really into the game or she’s giving me the same look Pato was giving me in yesterday’s pictures.

Jordan’s in the glasses. Like his hair? He wanted me to put the extra hair color in his hair after I colored mine, as always. Why his turns out the red on the box and mine turns out so dark, I’ll never know.

Stopping to pose for me before throwing the ball in. Priorities people.

He’s probably hollering that he’s open.

Notice he’s not playing goalie? He’s good at it, but he told the coach he wanted to try other positions so the last few weeks he’s been playing defender, in the back, and he’s been playing half also. Yesterday he played half. I’m actually liking it. I always HATED playing half because you’re up and down the field helping the forwards and the defenders. It’s not an easy position to play. But he’s really booking it out there when he’s playing half. I think it’s a good spot for him to be.

And I’ll leave you with a little gem from Alyce this morning.

Christiano – Sneezing

Alyce – Mom, Christiano just had a nose cough!

Have a great day!

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