Out w/ the mucus plug... In w/ the Clan Macgregor

Well, today Maggie lost her Mucus plug. I guess in laymans terms, we can refer to it as a "baby seal".... So when it's almost baby time, the seal gets 86'd so the baby can bust out onto the scene. Knowing that since the baby seal has been broken, and we probably have a week or less 'till the big show, I decided to purchase the ceremonial bottle of Clan Macgregor for Gigi. This way it's in house upon her arrival & we don't have to go out & get it, or worse it's late & the store is closed.... My babuh laughed at me & said "you love it when Gigi's here cuz you have someone to have cocktails with & you get all of Gigi's undivided attention"... I laughed, then agreed she was right.. and we had a good chuckle over it.... Of course I realize that this isn't the typical Gigi visit, but the Gigi visits are anything but typical... I'm sure good times will be had by all welcoming the next generation of the Paul clan into the world. I know that my babuh is ready to have her body back, & we both can't wait to meet our child! It's way cooler not knowing what we're having... It's kinda like gambling, the whole not knowing thing, It could go either way. It gives me a rush!

Coffee is Lord!

Well, today is my super early day. In fact, it's super early right now!! I got my arse outta bed at 4:10 in the morning!! When you get up that early, you realize the true value of coffee! Nothing better than grabbing that first cup. In fact just smelling the aroma wafting down the hall from the Mr. Coffee (we use the timer feature) is the first phase of coffee's ability to awaken. By the time I get half way done with the first cup, I feel better!

The great thing about coffee is the wide variety of tastes & flavors available out there. They have a taste for every palate out there. I like just about all of 'em. Cappuccino, Latte, espresso, folgers... whatever, GIVE IT TO ME!!

Is there anything better than dessert with coffee?? Without coffee, what would we call coffee cake? Cookies, cakes, pie, pastries.... all go with your favorite brew!

I like a cup of coffee when I'm in the car!! It just feels right!! Or a cup of coffee when it's cool outside, & the steam is dancing off the cup.... OH MY!!

I think I just convinced myself to get another cup!

PEACE!

bubuh-palooza

We are coming down the home stretch... Soon we'll be..........................PARENTS!!!! that is deserved of a Joey Lawrence "wow!"..... I think all the baby clothes have been "drefted", we gotta crib coming Monday & we bought a "glider" (no, not a plane) chair for like $50... I'm prepairing the studs for the new drywall upstairs. Yanking out all the old nails & snit. It's tough work after dealing with loser plumbers all day!! I'd like to be able to tell yous more, but I'm speechless..... so on that note.. I'm out!

PEACE!

Thank You Dear Jesus!!!

"Thank You Dear Jesus!!"... This phrase is what my babuh says after every situation in where we triumph.... So today I uttered this very phrase after I proclaimed the bathroom renovation done!! Like George W. on the aircraft carrier, I gave the proverbial "mission accomplished"! New walls, new paint, new molding, new terlet, new vanity, new sink, new faucet (pronounced fawwwuhset in NJ) new mirror, new lights, new tank topper cabinet, new terlet paper holder, new shower curtain..... New f*ckin' everything!!! This was one of the toughest renovations yet.... It really pushed my tallents of construction to the limits! I'm so psyched that I never.... ever have to do anymore construction in this room! Like our grandparents celebrated the end of World War 2, we are celebrating the end of the bathroom project! With the end of a project, comes the begining of a new project... Now we are gearing up for the last phase of indoor remodeling on Pauloff Farms.. The dreaded stairway/hallway project... & we only have 3 weeks to get it done!!

Other than house work & shopping for the Lil Bubbuh we purchased a new computer & printer. It's all wireless & snit.. real cool!

Hope yous all had a good memorial day weekend!

Peeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaacccccceeeeeee!!!!! (I expect raving!!)

Cheese

First things first.... sorry my posts have been few and far between lately... I've been busy like that yo! Now on to the post.....



Have yous ever noticed that everything is better with cheese... Think about it... a Pizza with no cheese is just a pita with sauce on it... a cheesedoodle less cheese is just, well a doodle! Add some cheese to a burger & it's just better... I can give you many examples of how much cheese rules.. Heck, it's a source of state pride in Wisconsin. I've only been in Wisconsin once, and let me tell you.... They be lovin' their cheese!! We went to Mars Cheese Castle. It's like THE cheese shop... Everything cheese.... They even have this powdered seasoning called "cheesoning" All cheese, all the time! What I'm really gettin at is this..... I loves me some cheese!



At our house, we use the phrase "w/ cheese" to describe how much we like, or how strongly we feel about something! I love my babuh!!! With Cheese!!



So My babuh (whom I love w/ cheese) is done w/ work 'till after the baby. So today she went through all the baby stuff, returned some stuff, exchanged some, bought some new stuff.... Went to get the crib & then disaster struck. The crib we picked out got recalled for a "product investigation". Now we are kinda uncomfortable getting this model crib. There was obviosly an "incident".... We are totally bummed, we really liked the way that one looked... Oh well, back to crib shoppin' again!

Have yous guys noticed the gas price this week!! It really went up!! It was $3.63 yesterday & is now $3.79..... I'm totally bummin!!!!!! gotta get a fuel cell car!!!!!

Peace out yo!

The Shower

Well, today was the day... the apex of pre baby revelry..... today was the baby shower. I actually recieved an invite to eat at the shower, as there were some last minute cancelations & the plate was paid for. so I got there as the appetizers wound down. It was good to see all the friends & family (most of whom I forgot I was related to). My mood was initialy a bit on edge as I had to rush & finish up my weekend construction (Started raining in my outdoor saw area), shower, shave & get to the shower. After a few red wines (juices of life), I was in the celebratory mood! I even stayed for the first game, a sort of scratch off baby lottery. At that point, it was time for me to hit the road.... I think everyone had a good time, & the food was good... We got a bunch of baby stuff... I mean our house is like a warehouse of baby supplies!! you name it, we got it! Even got some awesome cupcakes!! Now I'm here watching the Muts beat up on my Yanks... If you have kids, & you wanna teach them how to play baseball, show them the Yankees & tell them not to play like they do!

We passed around the picture of our baby, the one w/ the lips... Everyone gotta laugh... My moms said her brother (who died before I was born) had big baby lips.... Maybe it's genetic!

Roloff Poll

Since I really haven't had any cool experiences to blog about this week.... And since we just watched some of the Roloffs, I decided to poll yous, the fans on who the best non Roloff family member on the show is.... Is it Mike, the quiet guy who got thrashed by the tribochet?? Or is it Sven, the gruff artist guy?? who could it be??

wang

Man.... I've been working like a slave this week.... Had a sales manager to keep occupied, & he LOVES his job, so we worked far too many hours... Because he LOVES his job.... At least he bought lunch... Now tomorrow I have to assist in an all day boiler class...

So, we gotta new netflix.. The pro athletic jumpsuit Aflec bros. movie "Gone baby gone"... Just at the apex of the movie the disc skips... done... had to go to Blockbuster so we could finish it...

unbelievable...

oh yeah... uh huh...

It took my Dad 17 1/2 hours to get home from chicago on Friday... See his flight got cancelled & then delays started piling... He shoulda rented a car... He woulda been home in 12 hours....

The bathroom renovation here at Pauloff Farms is finally winding down. I'm done w/ the sanding & got all the walls primed & the cieling painted. Now we have to select a color, paint the walls, get a vanity, do the trim & molding, install the terlet & it's all done!! Then Phase II of the Pauloff Farms upstairs renovation will begin. It involves using planks as scafolding over the stairs, so we can sheetrock & spackle... Then we have to sawzall some miss-constructed beams in the wall & fix them the right way. Matt Roloff will be proud of us...

Saturdays work marathon started at like 6:30 AM and went to 3:30PM. Then we took a nap, slept-watch the first 6 innings of the Yankee game, went to the store ( where I had a mini-meltdown over the price of seltzer.... See the sale price was displayed @ $2.95 per case... They charged us $8 per case?? If it wasn't for Maggies cool head we wouldn't have gotten the seltzer..) & started cooking for Moms day.

Sunday we had Moms day brunch at Pauloff Farms. We had homemade ravioli, fritatta w/ ham, home fries, muffin tops, corn bread, bagels, smoked salmon.... I'm still full!!! It was nice to have a day off from working on the house! I'm definately going fishing sometime soon, I gotta get out there!

Bubba Update

Here is the latest picture of the "Lil Bubba", or "Bubba in There" as we refer to him/her...
We went this morning to get the baby it's newest photo. The Dr. said everything is going great & the baby is doing great. Check out the picture, the baby is smiling for the camara!!!!! It's got some big Baba-Booey lips!!! "Lil Bubba-Booey" in da heezy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I said "it looks like Baba-Booey!!" & even the Dr. laughed!!! We saw it's lil heart beating & heard it too! It's grown a bunch since I last saw it. Back then it had a ton of room to move around in, now it's gettin' tight in there! Soon the lil bubba-booey will be here! It's hard to make out the picture, but the head is in the top-middle. You can see the eye sockets & nose, then the grinning booey-esque mouth... I expect RAVING comments..... !!!!!

busy...busy...

It's been a busy week... I've been trying to get a few hours in spakling & sanding the upstairs bathroom everday either before or after work. Not being a strong spakler, i've been doing a fair amount of sanding. With all the dust that settles in my hair, I have a pretty good picture of what I'll look like when I get older & go grey. Hopefully I can wrap this project up this weekend, so I can start on the last phase of sheetrocking in the hallway... Then mercifully the interior work will be done & I can start the screen porch demo... I have so many projects going on I'm going to start calling this place "Pauloff Farms".... Regretfully we can't have a tribochet...

We are gonna do Moms Day Brunch at our house... It should be fun & yummy.... It'll be our first "brunch" at our place. I'm kinda excited to cook some breakfast & dinner foods for the same meal... & we are totally gonna get bagels & croissants.... YUMMY!

Cinco de Mayo

I don't know how or why this has become an American holiday, but I'm glad it has! I think the corporate macro tex-mex restaurant chains pushed the agenda & the public ran with it. Offering us a day to celebrate by mindlessly quafing nachos & washing them down w/ margaritas & Corona at a reduced price is a sure way to create an annual festival! Sort of a south of the border St. Patricks Day, if ya know what I mean... It's like a whole day of Happy Hour, which is usually 2-3 hours long... so I don't know where they came up w/ that name, guess they lost some time at the bar! Our passion for anything celebretory even inspired me to ceate our own home-brewed micro version of the corporate holiday at our house last night! Tortilla soup, nachos, guac, bean burritos, all on the menu... oh my! I got a feeling for how much Cinco de Mayo has become a part of the american calender when I went to the supermarket to get the ingredients for our feast. The marketing managers made p.o.p. displays of stacked salsa, chips & refried beans. There were no jalapenos left... none.. not a one! The cilantro stock was almost exhausted & the tortilla supply was following suit. Now here in Jersey we gotta buy beer, wine & booze from a liquor store. Some food stores have liquor stores in them, such as our local store. I walked past it while exiting & was flabber gasted by the number of people buying the booze at 5:00 on a Monday!! I mean 3 registers had lines 6-10 people deep! It looks like this holiday is officially in our party rotation... & I dig it, cuz the corporate think tank was right! I love quafing nachos & margeritas!

Weekend of Weekends...

Being that we are on baby countdown with just a little over a month to go, we are trying to fit in "the last time before the baby comes" for every activity we enjoy. Now everyone knows that we are Atlantic City "Heads". So, it should be now surprise that this weekend we enjoyed our 2nd "last time before the baby comes" Atlantic City trip. Our adventure began around 12:30pm on Friday afternoon. I "worked" (emailed Janie, Casey & Michele while looking busy) a 1/2 day & Maggie took the day off to prepair for our journey. After making a cooler of food, gathering everything & packing Wanda McBetty (yes we name our vehicles) we hit the road around 2:00. Traffic moved fairly well & we arrived in Atlantic City around 4:30. Usually we stay at one of the casinos on the boardwalk. You see, Atlantic City is located on the south side of Absecon Inlet, where the bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean beach is where the boardwalk is, & most of the casino resorts are located there. However, there are 3 casino resorts situated across town on Absecon Inlet in an area known as "The Marina". We choose to stay at Harrahs casino, partially because we've never stayed in the marina area & partially because Harrahs Entertainment owns Ballys, Caesers & the Showboat where we usually stay & we can use any comps we've gotten from those places at Harrahs. Our room was in the new Bayview Tower, on the 6th floor. It was modern, stylish & had a wonderful bathroom with seperate tub & glass shower enclosure. I really enjoy it when the hotel rooms have new, clean & spacious bathrooms. I rate the bathroom on the top of the list when & stay in a hotel. Followed by the Bed, TV (10 points for a flat screen) & couch/chairs, of course.... After relaxing in our room for a while, we ventured into the casino, taking the standard first warm-up lap around the floor to get the lay of the land. We decided that we'd be better off riding the free shuttle to Bally's in order to cash in a free money offer that can only be redeemed over there, & lets face it, we're Ballys people... After waiting 45 min for the shuttle advertised to pick-up/drop-off every 15 min (not complaining) & talking to a drunken lady from NYC (we meet the darndest people!) who was disapointed that the Julio Iglesias show was sold out we made it across town to our familiar stomping grounds. After an hour of action, it was time for another 45 min, 15 min ride (still not complainin) back to Harrahs .. You see, we are young old people & by 9:00 we're shot! So, off to enjoy our comfy bed we went. We like to lay low & relax the night we arrive in AC & hit the floor in the morning when everyone else is passed out or hung over. So we hit the floor at 6:30 in the morning! After a bagel & coffee we explored the Harrahs casino. It's nice, but smaller that the massive expanse that makes up the Bally's/Caesers complex. So we decided around 9:00 it get cleaned up, check out & hit Ballys for the remainder of the day. Pennyville... Thats where we like to play... Located in the "Claridge" section of Ballys. The whole area has 1 cent machines of every variety. I know it sounds silly, a penny machine... but actually a penny = a credit & some of the machines have a max bet of 180 credits. My babuh did exeptionally well, & even hit it for $200 once! We played there until 6:00 at night!! We had to make sure we got it out of our system, cuz we can't make a 3rd "last time before the baby comes" trip!!!!

Sunday we went into NYC with our friend Bekkah to see Michael Pollen get interviewed at the NYTimesCenter "Centerstage". Pollen is a writer for the NYTimes who is known for his informative writings about our food & where it comes from. It was real interesting to be surounded by intellectuals & not the sports/concert crowd I'm accustomed to. I had seen this guy on CSPAN once, & my Babuh & Bekkah have read his book. It was amazing to learn about the process & processing that our food goes through on its journey from the farm to out plate. It's an eye opener & I recommend seeking out Pollen if you'd like to get enlightened on this subject. He's a funny guy too, so you'll get a kick out of his wit... After the "show" we went uptown to "The Hummus Place" for a delish middle-eastern lunch. Grapeleaves w/ mint sauce, "Health Salad", Hummus, Falafel, lemonaid & the most amazing fresh baked pita ever. Amy recommended this place to us, & now I'm recommending it to yous!!

That Damn Shower Rod...

Tonight I was struggling w/ what I was going to blog about... I was on the verge of blogging about the crappy part of Paterson I wandered into (drove past Eastside High School, from the movie Lean on Me... oh my I felt real white!) & then it happened! My blog worthy event!! I was flossing the remnants of dinner (breakfast for dinner, our favorite!) from my teeth & the shower curtain came crashing down... I tried 3 times to put it back, but it had lots its ability to maintain enough tension to stay in place. The only way to save the day was to head out to the Home Depot & get a new one... Not exactly what I wanted to do at 7:15 on a Thursday night when I was already in my sweat pants... But, the shower curtain wasn't gonna fix itself so to the Depot I went. Of course the one thing I needed was located in the furthest reaches of the abyss that is the Home Depot.... At the self checkout I musta looked New Jersey style "thrilled" cuz a staff member asked if I was having a problem. I said no, & that I was just waiting for my reciept. Funny how there was a guy ready to help me, when I didn't need any help... Where is he when I need the f*cking help!!!!!!! That my friends, is typical in the life 'o me.. I got my reciept, went home & hung the shower curtain.. At least we use the shower curtain in the shower.. Some people around here (white trash) use the shower curtains as real honest to goodness window curtains!!! These people are of course the same type of people w/ the old refridgerators & mattresses on their front porches... Gotta love it baby!