I know the blogging has been light this week, but I’ve been sick, y’all.  Nothing terrible–not this, my doctor says–but enough to set me out for a few days.   And now, of course, I’m much behind with work and things. 

I didn’t know until I was married that some people can sleep well when they are sick, which makes me jealous.  I am not one of these people (I may have already blogged about this, but I’m too lazy to check).  When Chris gets sick, he sleeps for 12-15 hours and wakes up practically good as new.  When I get sick, I am restless and unable to sleep well.  I count it a good sick day if I manage to doze in front of bad daytime television.  Thank goodness for a couple of prior episodes I’d recorded of Oprah (Oprah goes back to the Sixties! ).  Sadly, I missed the episode where she went to The State Fair of Texas, and as seen on The Soup last week, apparently enjoyed the Corny Dogs at the State Fair a little more than perhaps was safe for television.

How exciting to report that this past Saturday I got to watch my Huskers play in person down in Waco (the Baylor Bears).  We went four years ago, and it was much fun, except the traffic on the way there was a nightmare.  This year we got some inside scoop on how to avoid all that traffic and arrived so early we found ourselves parking nice and close and…near the North Texas Nebraskan headquarters!

Then we came upon this random Herbie-esque Husker, and I just had to take my picture with him (though I was shy, so technically Chris asked him).

The Husker goodness was everywhere–many from Husker Nation filled the Baylor stands, and we actually played a good first half and held them enough in the second to win the game 20-10. 

I’m so glad I live in a place where I can make it to the occasional away Husker game.  GO BIG RED!

Well, I feel a bit like a broken record this month, but here we go.

Best Movie:

I’m not going to lie; these movie really aren’t ranked that high, but they’re the only movies I saw this month and they were better than I was expecting, so I’m counting them.  The first was The Invention of Lying, and I only went to see it because whenever I see Ricky Gervais on TV, I laugh, and yet every movie trailer I’ve seen of his, except this one, was disappointing.  This was more clever than I thought it would be, and darn if he just doesn’t make me laugh, that one.

We also rented Forgetting Sarah Marshall after I heard Jason Segal on Fresh Air, and it was funny!  Worth the rental, indeed.

And, ahem, I’m going to go to the Michael Jackson movie, but I haven’t yet.

Best TV:

Glee makes me so happy.  I know I keep writing about it, but it does.  It pained me that it wasn’t on this week because of the World Series (the Yankees–gah).   The writing makes me happy, and the musical numbers make me happy.  If you’ve never seen it, here’s a pre-series trailer (you can catch full episodes online!).

 And here’s a musical number:

(Embarrassing sidenote:  For 20 years, when hearing Young MC sing “Bust a Move,” I thought the line was, “In the summer morning you’ll be the best man.”  Not until hearing the Glee version did I hear it the correct way, a way that makes SO much more sense:  “In the ceremony you’ll be the best man.”)

Best Festive Activity:

I’ve enjoyed much Halloween goodness, as you learned on Halloweek, but last night it was capped off by carving pumpkins and watching The Great Pumpkin while munching on baked and salted pumpkin seeds.  That’s a lovely cap to Halloweek.

Boo!  Have a wonderful Halloween, everyone!

I love costume parties.  It’s a bit more difficult in the busy school month of October to really put the time into a good costume as I’d like, but I’ll still do what I can and am of the belief that a costume need only be suggestive, not perfection.  This last weekend we were invited to a party with costumes required–delightful.  We decided to appear as Bret Michaels (Poison, Rock of Love) and one of his Rock of Love groupies:

Two years ago we went to the same party dressed as our recent fave SNL skit:

When Michael still lived here in TX, we threw what I think was a fab costume party where we dressed from Gilligan’s Island (Ginger dress courtesy of Erin):

Hope you enjoyed Halloweek and have a great Halloween!

Thanks to the ever-so-thoughtful Nancy, I was able to put together a lovely little Halloween package for my niece and nephew.  Nancy picked up some Halloween fabric for making these cute pillowcases for her grandkids and then some extra for me.  How cute are these?

And, with assistance from Nancy, I made them!  Then I packed a few little bags of candy (I say “a few” because my brother also told me which candy he’d enjoy getting in the care package) and sent it all on up to the cute little ones (who, rumor has it, will be Hannah Montana and Thomas the Train for Halloween–that is if my nephew wears his costume; last year he refused to don his Batman costume so my brother introduced him as Bruce Wayne). 

Enjoy the clip for some proper mood music below while I share with you my modest attempt at some Halloween decor in the house (I say modest because I grew up in a home where holiday decor was not, shall we say, subtle).

First, a little something to spruce up the kitchen table (this cute ceramic pumpkin was from my mom, no doubt a hint to get crackin’ on the decor).  (Oh, and Rae–note the napkin holder, and Nancy, note the grinder.)

Next, the dining room decor.  Thank goodness my fiesta friend Aimee alerted me to this Halloween Fiestaware years ago–I think these jack o’ lantern mugs are adorable:

And a cute little scarecrow ($2!) from the pumpkin patch:

 And the finale:  the foyer table:

I love the Lois Lenski book here (a family favorite), and those candle holders were $1 each at Walgreens.  But we call the little pumpkins on the left our oxytocin pumpkins, as they are  too cute for words. All real pumpkins here were also from the pumkin patch.

We haven’t carved our pumpkins yet, but those will go in the front porch to greet the trick or treaters. 

As promised, it’s Halloweek here on the blog.  I’ll begin the week by recapping what we both figured is our first trip to a pumpkin patch.  We went last weekend on a lovely fall day.  This is an inviting greeting to the farm, yes?

Here’s Chris in the pumkin-selection process.  We found two for carving, a small one, and the two cutest minis. 

Then we decided to try the corn maze.  I’m a bit claustrophobic, but I thought, we’re here at a pumpkin patch, I’m sure it’s kid-level.  We found it more advanced than that, to be sure, and were probably roaming in the maze for 15-20 minutes.  But here I was, Nebraska gal, surrounded by corn!  Most delightful.

A most festive time was had.

So last weekend on Myspace I saw a bulletin from my good Myspace friend Neil Diamond announcing a sneak peek of one of his songs appearing on the forthcoming (now this past Wednesday’s) episode of Glee.   I’ve watched this clip more times than I care to admit:  it combines one of my longstanding favorite things (Neil Diamond!) with one of my new favorite things (Glee!).  I love the way this kid invokes Neil–not a cheesy imitation, but just the right inflection–a dash of Diamond, if  you will.

Enjoy this feel good Friday clip–it especially goes out to Lightning Bug!

Today and tomorrow are busier than I forecasted, so I just have a moment here.  But don’t worry…next week is Halloweek on the blog!  And you don’t want to miss that.

In the meantime, I wanted to share something insignificant with you.  I realized yesterday with utter clarity–or what Oprah would call a “lightbulb moment,” that I don’t trust men in mock turtlenecks.  I’ve always known I don’t care for the mocks aesthetically, but the trust idea came to me when I passed someone in the hall (wearing one in cream color, no less) yesterday.  I’m sorry if you are a male reader who has a closet full of mock turtlenecks–not sorry if I offended you, but sorry if you own one or more of these items of clothing. 

Now dickies I’m fine with, just so you know, because theoretically no one should know you’ve donned a dickie; it’s like a little apparel secret. 

Thoughts?

So last week I tried a recipe that’s been in my homemade recipe book forever but have never made.  I was rifling through my recipes and saw it and thought:  this looks so easy that I can’t believe I haven’t made it.  And I was sure the recipe came from Erin.  But she didn’t recognize it.  It wasn’t until the night I actually prepared it that I remembered:  Liz, a great grad school friend, is the person I think this recipe came from.  I hope she’s okay with me sharing it here (I’ve been too lazy to check).  This meal can be made vegetarian style, too.

Without further ado: 

Tortellini Tomato Spinach Soup

1 T olive oil

1/2 c. minced onion

1 clove garlic, minced

4-6 cups chicken or vegetable broth (I used four)

1 (14 oz) can whole tomatoes, crushed through your fingers or coarsely chopped (I just used petite diced and saved one more step)

1 (9 oz) package fresh tortellini or 4 servings dry tortellini (I used the kind you find in the fridge section)

salt and pepper

10 oz fresh or frozen spinach, defrosted and chopped (I had frozen on hand, and it worked great)

1/4 c fresh grated Parmesan

In a 3 quart soup pot, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Saute the onion and garlic, stirring until onions are translucent (that’s if you use a real onion, which of course I didn’t do), about 5-7 minutes.  Add broth and tomatoes, turn heat up to high, and bring to a boil.  Add the tortellini and cook acording to package instructions.  When torellini is almost done, add spinach and taste; adjust seaonsings with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately.  Garnish each serving with a sprinkling of Parmesan.