Funny Photo Freitag (Friday)

We got an email from a friend called "Five Minute Chocolate Cake in a Mug"...it was a microwave recipe. Because E is so chocolate driven, I figured it would make a nice after dinner project. Well, the results were a little, um, strange, but she ate quite a bit of it! I thought it was a little chewy, and not in a good way. In my opinion, the picture says a lot about the quality of the product.

Check out other funny photos here!

Baby Greed

On the day before Easter, I invited a few tots over for an Easter egg hunt. Following my family's example, I color coded the eggs, so that each kid would have the exact same number in their basket at the end. I was tying to avoid the free-for-all, knock-em-down, greedy run for the money type hunt...the kind I participated in when I was about 4 years old.

I don't remember much, but Mom brought me to a shopping center of some kind, and there was a fenced off area in the parking lot. On the word 'go,' about a million other kids and I went a'running, with big dreams and baskets in hand. I remember seeing a little stuffed bunny, or some such thing, way far away. I ran past countless eggs to get there, only to lose it to a faster kid. I'm not sure whether my memory is accurate, but I believe I left with an empty basket.

I don't think I'll ever bring my kids to a 'survival of the fittest' egg hunt, at least not until they're old enough to process the competitive nature of the event. The capitol (in downtown Lansing) has a hunt on the lawn every year, and I read about it in the paper last week. One little girl left the hunt with just one egg, and her quote was, "Well, I guess it's better than none!" Sorry, little honey, I feel your pain. Next year you're invited to our house. We'll make sure you feel like a winner!

How Do You Spell Success? B-A-C-O-N

I have been trying to give blood since March 19, my sister's birthday. That day, my friend T met me at the Red Cross...she gave a pint, I gave a drop. I failed the iron test. This was not unexpected, because I had been borderline before. But darn it, I was taking a multi-vitamin with iron EVERY DAY for weeks leading up to this appointment. Needless to say, this was a big disappointment. I called M and asked him to meet me at Red Lobster, so I could load up on iron rich foods and try again the next day.

A big steak, five yummy shrimps, and a good night's sleep later, I went back for another try. Again, failure. Matter of fact, my iron level was even lower than it had been the day before! Fine. So home I went, to dig out the heavyweight iron pills that the doctor prescribed me after I had E. For a week and a half, I took them religiously...now mind you, these have, like, a hundred times more iron than the daily recommended dose.

I waltzed back into the Red Cross with confidence, but no luck. All of those pills had barely made any difference at all. I was close, but not close enough. This time the nurse not only gave me the list of iron rich foods, but she hand-wrote a note at the bottom of the sheet..."Wendy's bacon double cheeseburger with a side of chili. Eat for lunch the day of your next appointment."

So yesterday when I saw that there was a blood drive on campus, I went immediately to the cafeteria. Alas, I was too early for the hamburgers...so I settled on the next best thing. A make-your-own omelet with LOTS of bacon. Funny thing is, I didn't ask for extra bacon...the woman behind the counter just kept piling it on! When one container was empty, she even reached for some extra pieces out of the buffet! Maybe I looked pale. Then I grabbed an orange juice, because Vitamin C is supposed to help iron absorption.

After giving it a little time to work, I went over to the blood drive and BINGO! I passed with flying colors! I walked out a half hour later with my little "I gave blood today" sticker, and a date...56 days from now, on June 1, I can do it again. And this time I'm STARTING with bacon.