Culinary Misadventures With the Kiddo, Day 3

I was only peripherally involved in today's culinary misadventure since the kiddo is a seasoned veteran at making mac and cheese at the rip old age of 5 and a half. I let him use my "good" Farberware 3-quart sauce pan instead of the crappy old Mirro with the spinning handle, so that was a special treat for him. Plus I still worked in a few lessons about how to really make mac and cheese from a box. For example:

Me (upon observing the boy grabbing his cup from breakfast and starting to pour water into it): Thirsty?
Boy: No, I have to add water.
Me (incredulously): Excuse me? You add water?
Boy: Yeah, Daddy does it.
Me (skeptically but somehow not terribly surprised): He does?
Boy: Yeah, after we add the butter we put in the water.
Me (firmly): Not today and not with me. We actually have milk.

I confronted the husband about the water issue, and he denied it. He said he often prefers not to drain the cooked mac until their bone dry since we rarely have milk. (At least the white variety, for I always have a carton of Quick fat-free in the fridge--and yes, I refuse to call it NesQuick because he'll always be the Quick bunny and it'll always be Nestle Quick to me, by the marinara goodness of the FSM!) Ahh, how things get turned and skewed in the mind of five year olds....

The kiddo is developing quite the stirring skills. His strokes are becoming more fluid and smooth (and if you're not inserting your own off-color humor here, than I'm disappointed in you). He by and large can make mac and cheese like a pro, so he's all set for college. Better send him off now before tuition really gets ridiculous.

The rest of our day was spent (after gym time, of course) sorting a big cannister of change and then counting and wrapping pennies. We managed to bag $11 worth of pennies, and we still have large mounds of quarters, nickels and dimes to tackle tomorrow. The kiddo is sure he'll get to spend all the money we roll and exchange for paper currency, but he's got another thing coming. After all, he wasn't the one who squirreled away all that change over the years.

Speaking of change and money, I now have a job. It's only a temporary gig, mind you, but it's money. I'll be editing the revised and reformatted drug monographs for the U.S. Pharmacopeia, which contracted a third-party firm to code 'em in XML and do the actual revising and whatnot. I get paid by the monograph, and the work looks pretty straightforward. Yes, I will be working from home, setting my own hours and everything. (Yes, I know, that'll spoil me even worse.) I'm just thrilled to be earning money again, even if it is only until early or mid-September.

By the way, fascinating coincidence: One of the last songs on my iPod while I was running (only six miles today--not stretching well Monday and Tuesday have taken their toll) was REO Speedwagon's "Roll With the Changes," my little theme song, if you will, for this latest transition. Was it a sign? Perhaps. Crystal Water's "100% Pure Love" used to work in a similar fashion once upon a time: I'd hear it on the radio and something good always came my way later that day. (I'd go into more detail, but some things are best left private. And yes, I realize that statement is fuel for the perverted imagination, but it wasn't really anything like that.) But I'll just chalk my latest theme's playing on my iPod (the first time for that to happen, actually) and my landing a new (albeit temporary) job as just a happy coincidence.

I'll leave you with the latest Bat-tableau from my spice cabinet. These three showed up in the cabinet in what the husband originally called a family vacation.


Man, don't you hate it when family vacations go awry?


Methinks Batwoman is having way too much fun. Then again, given that grin on Batzarro's face (which is the same one the kiddo wears in one of today's photos, I swear), maybe he's the one having all the fun. Like I always say, you can't keep a good freak down....