7/29/07 - Happy Birthday Dad!! Is he a cutie patootie or what!
Anyway . . .
My oldest brother, Philip (Hi, Phil!) flew in from California Friday for a little vacation. Well, at least that’s what HE thought it was going to be! However, Sunday was my Dad’s 83rd birthday, and we were having a family birthday party at our house. That meant that no one in the house was exempt from work detail in getting ready for the party.
We had a good old Slovak birthday party with some old favorites that none of us get too often. We had Dad’s choice of Mom’s home made chicken and beef soup. I didn’t make home made noodles to go with the soup, but I did find some nice fine cut soup noodles, just the kind he likes. It was close enough.
Then we had halupki. That’s Slovak for stuffed cabbage, pigs in a blanket, what ever else you want to call them. I called them delicious! Mary Jane was nice enough to provide the creamed peas. Y’all know that’s not one of MY favorite things being made from peas and all, but it always used to be a favorite of Dad’s to go along with the halupki. Judging from the amount he ate, I’d say they were winners! To round off the dinner, we had desert. For the birthday boy, of course his favorite chocolate cake with Mom’s chocolate frosting and for the rest of us, two big batches of Chex party mix! Yeah, we were all gonna be fat and happy for this party!
Thinking back now as I’m writing this, it hits me just how truly lucky I am to have the family that I do. We have our fair share of arguments, but who doesn’t. But I don’t care how much we argue, you get any number of us together in the same room and it’s going to be fun! As brother Michael likes to say, “Our family puts the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional”!
Like I said, Philip thought he was going to be on vacation. After meeting up Friday night for dinner with Michael and Mary Jane, the first course of business was grocery shopping. Hey, I don’t like to do it either, so poor Ron and Philip got to join in my misery and we all went shopping. Come to think of it, Michael and Mary Jane joined in the fun as well! As true members of our family, we all took turns in the bathroom at Giant Eagle, but aside from that little bit of too much information, shopping was an experience. I did break into song, both loudly and badly, but that was towards the end of the excursion so it wasn’t too hard on our fellow shoppers. We didn’t get kicked out, so it couldn’t have been too bad.
Shopping done, it was relaxing at home for the rest of the night.
Saturday was work day. Again, Philip thought he was on vacation until I told him to scrub up; he was stuffing five pounds of hamburger into five heads of cabbage! Michael picked the perfect time to stop over (He had to bring a cooking pot I needed to borrow!) and he jumped in with us. The three of us, between tasting the raw halupki for quality control, trimmed and stuffed all that cabbage. And, worthy of making my Mom proud of her kids, after the dishes were done, we took a little break. For those not in the family, that means a rousing game of three handed Pinochle! One of these days, I really have to teach Ron that game!
It took awhile, but my brothers finally let me win the Pinochle game.
Sunday, Jim was willing to take the day off of work and make the trip with Dad to come to Ohio for the party. Dad started off his day a little rough, as he didn’t want Jim to wake him up for the trip. But once he got into the mix of the rest of us, I think he really perked up and ended up having a great time. This was the first time in a long time I’ve seen Dad eat so well. He ate and he ate and then he asked if it was time for dinner so he could eat some more! It was good to see him like that. The best part was that my Dad turned down a nap so he could stay at the table with us and just be part of the story telling. You have to understand that my Dad would rather nap than do anything. And for him to say no to that, it was awesome! It was a great time that was complete with great food.
Monday, I took the day off of work and I putzed around with Philip and Ron. We weren’t in a hurry to do anything or go anywhere, but we did run to the mall to get Philip’s glasses fixed, then we had a nice lunch at Jackalope’s, sitting outside looking out over the marina. We closed out the afternoon doing a few touristy things around town.
As most of the people in my family are serious game players, no day would be complete without some game time, so Philip and I even got in some cribbage! If I’m not mistaken (and I rarely am when it comes to winning!) I am up six games to three. Go me!
Since all of that Chex party mix ended up being consumed, Philip asked if I’d make one more batch. He even offered to pay for the ingredients. What the heck, I love it as much as he does, so I told him that by the time he got back from spending a few days in Erie with brother Jim, I’d have it cooked up.
That was my plan for last night. It wasn’t a good night.
It was late when I was working with the party mix. You end up pouring melted butter, with seasonings, over about four boxes of cereal. Then you bake it on low to bake the butter in. You bake it about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, mixing every twenty minutes or so. When it looks almost all the way dry, I turn off the oven and just let the pan of mix stay in the oven. The heat from the oven cooks the rest of that butter in. I guess I was more tired last night than I thought. I mixed it for the last time, put it back in the oven, and went upstairs to bed.
This morning, Ron was actually the first one downstairs to put on coffee. He yells up the steps at me asking if I meant to leave the oven on all night! NO! Oh crap. It’s not a cheap snack to make to begin with and the thought of burning an entire batch just really made me mad at myself. Sure enough, the butter was baked in, but so was the burnt taste. Maybe I’ll throw all that out to the birds instead of in the garbage. I hate throwing that much food away, but it really is inedible. I am lucky I didn’t burn the house down.
As a side note, I usually really look forward to Philip’s visits. Mainly because he is the best snorer I know. Whenever Philip visits, I get the BEST sleep. I keep telling Ron he has to work on his snoring but so far, he’s still a rank amateur. Philip however, used to be a professional! He could shake the rafters on the neighbor’s house with his snoring! Not this time. In order to hear him snoring, I have to plaster my ear against his door and maybe I’ll hear it a little bit. Grrr. I should be able to hear him in the basement! He has so lost some status in my eyes over this. That was truly one of the greatest perks of having Philip visit. I don’t know what he’s doing differently, but he needs to stop it! I was looking forward to the snoring filling the house!
The only thing missing this weekend was our sister Cathie. She couldn’t make it in from California for Dad’s birthday but she is coming for a visit in the beginning of September! She’s no stranger to working at my house when she comes to visit, so she made me promise that I won’t make her help me with Roshki again (Slovak for nut horns) before she’d buy her plane ticket! Geez, some guests! The good news is that we get to party all over again in September when Cathie comes to visit, minus the Roshki. The bad news is that we really did miss you this weekend. But, not to worry, Sissy! We all talked about you a LOT!
Good times!
We had a good old Slovak birthday party with some old favorites that none of us get too often. We had Dad’s choice of Mom’s home made chicken and beef soup. I didn’t make home made noodles to go with the soup, but I did find some nice fine cut soup noodles, just the kind he likes. It was close enough.
Then we had halupki. That’s Slovak for stuffed cabbage, pigs in a blanket, what ever else you want to call them. I called them delicious! Mary Jane was nice enough to provide the creamed peas. Y’all know that’s not one of MY favorite things being made from peas and all, but it always used to be a favorite of Dad’s to go along with the halupki. Judging from the amount he ate, I’d say they were winners! To round off the dinner, we had desert. For the birthday boy, of course his favorite chocolate cake with Mom’s chocolate frosting and for the rest of us, two big batches of Chex party mix! Yeah, we were all gonna be fat and happy for this party!
Thinking back now as I’m writing this, it hits me just how truly lucky I am to have the family that I do. We have our fair share of arguments, but who doesn’t. But I don’t care how much we argue, you get any number of us together in the same room and it’s going to be fun! As brother Michael likes to say, “Our family puts the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional”!
Like I said, Philip thought he was going to be on vacation. After meeting up Friday night for dinner with Michael and Mary Jane, the first course of business was grocery shopping. Hey, I don’t like to do it either, so poor Ron and Philip got to join in my misery and we all went shopping. Come to think of it, Michael and Mary Jane joined in the fun as well! As true members of our family, we all took turns in the bathroom at Giant Eagle, but aside from that little bit of too much information, shopping was an experience. I did break into song, both loudly and badly, but that was towards the end of the excursion so it wasn’t too hard on our fellow shoppers. We didn’t get kicked out, so it couldn’t have been too bad.
Shopping done, it was relaxing at home for the rest of the night.
Saturday was work day. Again, Philip thought he was on vacation until I told him to scrub up; he was stuffing five pounds of hamburger into five heads of cabbage! Michael picked the perfect time to stop over (He had to bring a cooking pot I needed to borrow!) and he jumped in with us. The three of us, between tasting the raw halupki for quality control, trimmed and stuffed all that cabbage. And, worthy of making my Mom proud of her kids, after the dishes were done, we took a little break. For those not in the family, that means a rousing game of three handed Pinochle! One of these days, I really have to teach Ron that game!
It took awhile, but my brothers finally let me win the Pinochle game.
Sunday, Jim was willing to take the day off of work and make the trip with Dad to come to Ohio for the party. Dad started off his day a little rough, as he didn’t want Jim to wake him up for the trip. But once he got into the mix of the rest of us, I think he really perked up and ended up having a great time. This was the first time in a long time I’ve seen Dad eat so well. He ate and he ate and then he asked if it was time for dinner so he could eat some more! It was good to see him like that. The best part was that my Dad turned down a nap so he could stay at the table with us and just be part of the story telling. You have to understand that my Dad would rather nap than do anything. And for him to say no to that, it was awesome! It was a great time that was complete with great food.
Monday, I took the day off of work and I putzed around with Philip and Ron. We weren’t in a hurry to do anything or go anywhere, but we did run to the mall to get Philip’s glasses fixed, then we had a nice lunch at Jackalope’s, sitting outside looking out over the marina. We closed out the afternoon doing a few touristy things around town.
As most of the people in my family are serious game players, no day would be complete without some game time, so Philip and I even got in some cribbage! If I’m not mistaken (and I rarely am when it comes to winning!) I am up six games to three. Go me!
Since all of that Chex party mix ended up being consumed, Philip asked if I’d make one more batch. He even offered to pay for the ingredients. What the heck, I love it as much as he does, so I told him that by the time he got back from spending a few days in Erie with brother Jim, I’d have it cooked up.
That was my plan for last night. It wasn’t a good night.
It was late when I was working with the party mix. You end up pouring melted butter, with seasonings, over about four boxes of cereal. Then you bake it on low to bake the butter in. You bake it about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, mixing every twenty minutes or so. When it looks almost all the way dry, I turn off the oven and just let the pan of mix stay in the oven. The heat from the oven cooks the rest of that butter in. I guess I was more tired last night than I thought. I mixed it for the last time, put it back in the oven, and went upstairs to bed.
This morning, Ron was actually the first one downstairs to put on coffee. He yells up the steps at me asking if I meant to leave the oven on all night! NO! Oh crap. It’s not a cheap snack to make to begin with and the thought of burning an entire batch just really made me mad at myself. Sure enough, the butter was baked in, but so was the burnt taste. Maybe I’ll throw all that out to the birds instead of in the garbage. I hate throwing that much food away, but it really is inedible. I am lucky I didn’t burn the house down.
As a side note, I usually really look forward to Philip’s visits. Mainly because he is the best snorer I know. Whenever Philip visits, I get the BEST sleep. I keep telling Ron he has to work on his snoring but so far, he’s still a rank amateur. Philip however, used to be a professional! He could shake the rafters on the neighbor’s house with his snoring! Not this time. In order to hear him snoring, I have to plaster my ear against his door and maybe I’ll hear it a little bit. Grrr. I should be able to hear him in the basement! He has so lost some status in my eyes over this. That was truly one of the greatest perks of having Philip visit. I don’t know what he’s doing differently, but he needs to stop it! I was looking forward to the snoring filling the house!
The only thing missing this weekend was our sister Cathie. She couldn’t make it in from California for Dad’s birthday but she is coming for a visit in the beginning of September! She’s no stranger to working at my house when she comes to visit, so she made me promise that I won’t make her help me with Roshki again (Slovak for nut horns) before she’d buy her plane ticket! Geez, some guests! The good news is that we get to party all over again in September when Cathie comes to visit, minus the Roshki. The bad news is that we really did miss you this weekend. But, not to worry, Sissy! We all talked about you a LOT!
Good times!
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