Pink Polka Dot Thoughts

Truth No. 2

When my daughter was little, we always had music in the car. Of course it was Disney, Sesame Street or the one that made my head hurt, Kid Songs. At some point, she discovered The Dixie Chicks. I remember listening to one of their CDs for the entire 1000 miles of a car trip.

She absolutely LOVED The Dixie Chicks. She could pick out the different instruments. The song above was her favorite on their HOME CD. She used to say "Mom, play the Fiddle Song again!" We'd listen to it over and over. She sang the songs so loudly and proudly. At the time, it was hard to get her to talk to most people, but ask her to sing a Dixie Chicks song and she was right there!

I've been a teeny bit stressed the past several days. Today, I put on my iPod and I blasted this CD. Somehow listening and singing these songs made me feel a ton better. I sure wish they'd make a new CD! I need it for stress reduction!

Labels: Dixie Chicks, music

Another wacky dream

I had a weird dream last night. I'm not sure where it came from or why I'd dream such a thing, but that's why I have a blog--to share the weird things that happen to me!

My dream was weird because it was one of those totally unreal dreams that would never happen, but as you're dreaming and even when you think about it, it totally COULD happen. Ever have those? Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, I was at some sort of a military training camp. I think I was supposed to be in boot camp, but Hillary Clinton was there and every time some hard task came up, she would tell my commanding officer that she needed me for something. I got to race around with her. We cracked jokes and just had a good time. I also recall that Chelsea was there. On one of the times I took off with Hillary, we were supposed to do some skydiving, but I chickened out.

For some reason, I remember this "camp" was supposed to be a week and I finally made it to the last day and survived. Then we had this "elimination" round thing like on American Idol. All I remember is standing there sweating it out before I woke up. So, I enver found out if I was a good soldier or not!

I'm sure this dream has some kind of crazy meaning...

Labels: dreams

Roman Style Chicken - YUM

Giada is one of my favorites on The Food Network. Like I mentioned before, I've been watching a lot of The Food Network while I've been recuperating. I watched Giada make this Roman Style Chicken a few weeks ago and had to try it out. So, that was our dinner tonight and while mine didn't look quite as pretty as Giada's(above pic) it looked pretty darn good. The only thing I left out were the capers.

The family seemed to like it too, but I think when I make it again, I'll use chicken breasts. Tonight, I only used thighs and I also left the skin on thinking it would give more flavor, but it also added some grease to the sauce. Otherwise, it was yummy.

I made a salad and some yummy roasted new potatoes to go with it. I tossed the potatoes in a little olive oil, garlic, oregano and parmesan cheese. YUM! This one is definitely a keeper.

This one is best to let simmer a while or cook and reheat the next day. The chicken was falling off the bone tender!

Labels: cooking, recipes

She's Got the Look

Have you been watching this show? "She's Got the Look" is airing on TVLand. Never have I watched so much TV as I have the past few months--especially not reality TV. Somewhere along the way though, I got hooked on this one. What helps is that TVLand repeats the same episode over and over and over at various times of the day and night.

Anyway, for those of you who are hooked like me, you have to watch the video above. If you had any doubts about the cuckoo-ness that was Laurie, this should help you out!

Labels: tv shows

God Don't Like Ugly

If you're from the South, you know that saying. Even if you aren't, you've probably heard it. It means that God doesn't like people who act ugly. It has nothing to do with a person's looks because you probably also know "pretty is as pretty does" which means if you act nice, you are beautiful.

I love those old sayings and I grew up on them, but someone the other day said "God don't like ugly" and it really rang true. Doing mean things to people doesn't get you anywhere. Why are some people like that? They're intent on bringing down others and causing conflict wherever theygo.

What's the point? I try not to dwell, but sometimes I wonder why they revel so much in drama. Of course the ones who claim to hate the drama and the junior high games are the ones most wrapped up in it. It's never ending for some it seems.

It ended for me a long time ago. I can't help it though. Once in a while I get sucked into it and I hate it. Like my old southern friend said to me "God don't like ugly."  I'm trying hard to remember that someday, the payback will come. I'll just remember "pretty is as pretty does" too and keep on going...

Labels: southern

Smacking and Sleeping

Apparently narcotics and me do not mix.

I've had a steady dose of percoset and lortabs over the past 6 weeks or so because I could not have survived without them, but I also tried to only take them if absolutely necessary. Why?

Well, I didn't like the night sweats. Percoset made my face look flushed. They made me drowsy, and both of them caused me to have weird dreams. They were even weirder than normal.

Oddly, the most vivid of my weird dreams involved Mr. Polka Dot. In both dreams, I was very angry with him. (Maybe subconsciously I blamed my pain on him? LOL I don't know!) The first one, I woke up angry with him because of something he did in my dream. What did he do? He switched our ISPs to one that was not very reliable. He did it without asking me. How dare he?

Then a few nights ago, he woke me up because I was hitting him. I was literally smacking the hell out of him in my sleep. He asked me WHY and I didn't know--except I remembered that I was trying to wake him up(in my dream) and he wouldn't, so I hit him. I guess that was for real and not just in my dream.

I didn't remember him waking me up until the next night when we were going to bed and I asked if I'd smacked him the night before. He said I had and then he told me I was also screaming at him. Then he began to wonder if I had some subconscious anger toward him.

I don't THINK I do, but I didn't really answer. I think I'll just keep him guessing. I also didn't tell him that vivid dreams are a side effect of the pain pills. I'm going to keep him worrying.

Maybe then I can get by with smacking him when I'm not really sleeping!

Labels: dreams, sleeping

Yummmm! Spaghetti!

While I've been recovering from surgery, I've found myself turning on the Food Network and really watching. I don't like Bobby Flay, and I find myself watching his "Throw-Down" show so I can giggle when he loses. I mean seriously people--do you think Bobby Flay can make Shrimp & Grits as well as a true southerner? I don't think so.

Anyway, the other night, I watched a meatball throw down and I realized how long it had been since I made spaghetti and meatballs from scratch. I mean TOTALLY from scratch and not Ragu sauce and frozen meatballs. I decided that would be my project because those meatballs on the throwdown looked SO darned good!

I realized that I haven't been cooking much lately and I really do love to cook. I've just gotten out of the habit and quite frankly not had time because when you have your own business, it takes all your time--unless you have someone who will do all the work for you so you can do what you like and I don't know anyone that stupid these days! ;-)  I'm determined to do more cooking.

Since I'm still recovering, I couldn't drive myself to the store and get what I needed, so I sent Mr. Polka Dot to the store armed with a list. Then I waited for the phone calls. You see, Mr. Polka Dot is not a good grocery shopper and will call with tons of questions. I was proud of him though because he only called 4 times and the last one was to ask if I wanted him to grab some lunch on his way home.

We had a quick lunch and I took a pain pill before starting on the spaghetti and meatballs. I don't measure when I cook, so I won't share my recipe, but here's a picture:

Ok, no, that's not really a picture I took because I don't have the patience to take pictures of my food. I'm too busy eating it, but mine did look just as yummy! As proof, everyone finished their plates. Yum yum!

My next recipe is one from one of my favorites to watch on The Food Network, Giada. It's a pretty simple recipe because we like our food simple. We're not the type who goes for crazy stuff in our food. We like to be able to pronounce it and know what it is by sight!

Labels: cooking

Sickie Ickies

I've been reluctantly absent from the blogging world lately. Actually, I've been pretty much absent from the world of LIFE lately, but for some reason, I feel I need to explain to all of my 2.6 visitors a day where I've been. Ok, I know there are more of you, but I feel better thinking only a few people read this blog. I had some supposedly "minor" surgery on Friday. I had two procedures done and to be blunt, I have been in tremendous pain ever since. Today was somewhat better, and hopefully things will just KEEP getting better now, but the past several days...OUCH!! My sweet little Cooper hasn't left my side for more than a few minutes at a time(like if someone dangles steak in front of his face!) The first few days I was home, if I yelled for Mr. Polka Dot, Cooper would run to wherever he was and give a little Woof to make sure he heard me. And if he didn't move quickly enough, he'd give his daddy a little nudge. What a smart puppy! I won't go into detail about my surgery here. Maybe later when I feel a little better, but suffice it to say that girl parts are not fun to deal with and it can be painful when they get worked on! And now, I'm drifting off from my bedtime percoset, so goodnight bloggy-pals!

Labels: life, pain

Drama Alert

Pardon me for this brief blog interruption, but it must be said...

Once upon a time, I was a regular on a message forum. I spent a ton of time there, but anyone who knows me, knows that I am not good at being fake or pretending. Eventually, all the drama and message board crap just got to me and so I left.

Yes, that's the condensed version, but I left only to find out that apparently I wasn't allowed to leave without getting permission from many people. Whatever. I left. Not only that, but I haven't looked back.

I stayed away from message boards--aside from my own--after that for a long time because of the problems I'd had. A while back though, I got sucked in on another site. I thought it was for good reasons and even though I had kind of iffy feelings about a few, I thought it was a good "cause" so to speak.

Finally, a lot of things happened and once again, I left.

Funny thing is, I'm apparently not allowed to go away and be left out of their future drama either.

WTF is up with that? Is this some kind of unwritten message board rule that I don't know about? You can check out, but you can never leave? If you leave, we will follow you. Stalk you. Harass you. Bring you up on other message boards?

Geeze. Just leave me alone already. I talk to the people I want to talk to and I'll keep right on doing that.

Get over it.

Labels: drama