NERDY WORDY: DAY TWO

Oh, I love this blog!! Once again, you all came through with wit and wisdom that actually makes me regret ignoring this renewable source of constant entertainment for the last few weeks. Lesson learned. (hopefully).

Now that another YCSMIHK's blog contest is in play, I am back to making the quickest, easiest dinners possible for my family, so that I can get a post up by 7ish...Tonight's masterpiece: Mexican Dip--feel free to steal this easy, peasy meal--This dish actually started out as a legit meal that involved the oven and real ingredients, but as I had more kids and less time, I started cutting every corner and distilled it to it's simplest form.  The upside of this dish is that half of my kids actually like it, and 2 more will eat it. Jackpot...If I can feed five out of six McKeon kids with one meal, it's in the permanent rotation. Moreover, it's one of those meals that can change depending on what ingredients you have (or usually in my case--don't have) in the house. Here is the "recipe" (read this with a sarcastic tone in your head):  Brown up some ground beef or ground turkey in a big skillet. Throw in some salsa and/or canned tomatoes with those Mexican spices (whatever is in the pantry) or if you are one of those people with fresh vegetables at your house, throw in tomatoes, onions, peppers (like I've got time to cut that shit up...I just toss in some Chi-Chi's medium salsa, which I buy by the gallon). Sometimes I add some frozen corn...sometimes I don't. Heat it up, top with some cheese (any kind is fine, trust me, I once threw in a big hunk of Havarti with dill because that's all I had...no one complained). Serve with taco shells, tostito chips, and any extra "toppings" you may have like sour cream, black beans, extra cheese, avocados.... Make some Mexican rice from a box and you look like the fricking Frito bandito or Jose Cuervo (I don't know the name of any Mexican chefs, but you get the point) Seriously, this meal takes like two minutes and only dirties a few dishes...Your welcome.

Now for the results of yesterday's Nerdy Wordy Challenge:  First of all, I commend each and everyone of you for your efforts. Way to go. Next, you all need to get your friends, family, brokers, parole officers, whatever to weigh in because I cannot make these tough judgment calls on who's entry is the best on my own....Please, for all of our sakes, get some friends to talk up your entries. Please, I'm begging you. I assure you that I am easily swayed. A few positive comments on the blog and you can be a winner...So, because I am a big, vacillating wuss...(they all sounded good to me) I called in an expert to judge today's entries. My sister Wendy---she may not be able to pick light fixtures or paint colors, but she sure has a ton of opinions regarding pangrams (thank you, Kim Pechous, for that little tidbit....I honestly did not know that these little gems had a name) Wendy will now be part of a panel of guest judges that I will be relying on for advice. My expert/sister told me that I am not "objective" enough and am judging too much on content and humor and not enough on quality of entry....She's probably right...(and she has that summer house, so I will totally  let her boss me around--it's summer and I want an invite...) I also had young Nate McKeon peruse the entries. He weighed in as well...Bottom line here: if you don't like the results of tonight's judging...Don't blame me.

No, seriously, all the entries were good. Actually, some were too good. Wendy did a little checking and found some of your sentences on the world wide web. She is not as lenient with the whole "cheating" thing as I am. She truly values "original work" (darn teacher training) and that became a big issue with her in regard to tonight's winners...Also, she was a big fan of brevity and sentences that made sense. I am a big fan of the ones that made me laugh. So, we hit some compromises. Here are the results:

First, the quantity points:
John: 7, Tricia 3, Sue 4, Brenna/Kim 7, Jamarcus 2, Judy 2, Brian (or is it Sara again?), Stacy, JoeL, and Kristi 1 point.

Now, the quality points--because Wendy, Nate and I  (ok, mostly Wendy and I) couldn't agree on the top three, we decided to go to the top five entries, awarding 50 points to the best entry, 40 to the next best, 30 and so on. More points, more fun, more chances to win.
Number 5 on tonight's best of is Suechi's entry about the "ten day time zapper". Nice job, Sue. It's pertinent, timely, includes all the necessary letters and is not a total run on sentence. 10 big points for you, plus your 4 quantity points gives you a nice total of 14 points for today. Well done.
Number 4 on tonight's "best of" list is JoeLakens entry about "being shamed into a quiz" and mentioning an "ex-wife Julie". This was one of my big favorites. Wendy ranked it high as well, and would have put it even higher if  Joe's wife's real name was Julie. Nice work, Joe. great to have you in the contest. 21 points for you tonight. Keep up the good work.
Number 3 (and Wendy and I almost came to blows over this one...) is Kristi's entry. Wendy thought it was too long. I had to give it major points for dead on accuracy. I was laughing so hard I almost cried. ---
----Big Aside:  Dave McKeon is just realizing the personal magnitude for him of me being gone for four weeks. I must admit, when I applied for this MNA program, I thought that it would be sort of Kumbayaish, where we sit around and discuss esoteric nonprofit stuff and I could kind of sneak home a lot.  Then I got my schedule and we have class SIX DAYS A WEEK!! And I heard from a woman who is a year ahead of me in the program that it's kind of major and there is a ton of group projects that get done on the weekends. Then, she told me that everyone who is in the program lives in the dorms because they study together...all the time. (I am WAY too old for this) So, I signed up for on campus housing and am living in a dorm....(yeah, this could be a huge mistake, but I didn't want to be labeled as the "high maintenance bitchy one who's too good to live in a dorm"....at least not right away) The good news is I don't have a roommate, the bad news is I have to share a bathroom....Also, I will only be able to come home on Saturday nights and have to be back by early Monday morning.  When Dave heard this, he kind of panicked. Needless to say, he has booked rooms at the Morris Inn for several nights this summer. He was really banking on that whole "sleeping with a coed" thing.  That's why Kristi's entry is so timely...and so funny...at least to me.  Thirty one points for you, Kristi. Way to go.
Number Two: Stacy Spracklin's "zipping the junk" entry. Again, it made me laugh a ton, and Wendy loved the brevity. This was classic Stacy. One fine entry and she nails it. I guess somebody is gunning for a matching set of jewelry. You are off to a fine, fine start. Congrats and enjoy those 41 big points.
And finally, the Number One Entry of the day, a consensus pick of all three judges: Judy Pulera's Arnold Schwarznegger entry.  In all honesty, Judy, both of your entry were super...timely, relevant, logical, brief and funny. Actually, they were so good that Wendy made me google the Arnold one to make sure that it was not stolen off of the internet.  I did try to explain to her that there is probably not a huge demand for Arnold Schwarznegger pangrams, but she wanted to be sure.....I had no doubt. Excellent work, as always, by Judy Pulera.  Why am I not surprised? A whopping 52 points for you. Way to get out of the blocks fast...

So, once again, people, we have ourselves a contest. This was a great first day, but there are nine more challenges to go. And remember, you can score on quantity AND quality. AND get your posses to chat up your entries. The pressure of being a judge will soon be getting to Wendy, too. Let's get a few more voices in the mix....

Now, here is today's challenge: Write a haiku (or twenty) about a disgraced politician (or twenty). (I actually thought this challenge up before Judy's pangram,....I really did) For those of you who forget, a haiku is that little Japanese poem that has three lines. The first and last lines contain five syllables, the middle line has seven. That's it. For example:
Oh, Mister Spitzer
Eighty Grand on prostitutes
Now on CNN?

You all get it and I am sure you can do better than that hackish example above. There are so many disgraced politicians to choose from....and because tomorrow is Saturday, (no questions will be posted tomorrow), you have until 5pm Sunday to post up all of your entries. C'mon, John, Tricia needs that necklace to get her through the summer....It's still anybody's ball game.

Special aside to Tricia: Sure, come join me in my dorm room....I could use the company, as I know that I will alienate my classmates with my poor attitude and cynical outlook. Also, maybe you will know how to do my homework, or how to work in a group with others....I fear these may be difficult for me....BECAUSE I STILL HAVEN'T BOUGHT MY BOOKS YET... or turned in my health form. Really, does anyone have shot records from their childhood? I know I don't.

Today's Top Ten:

1. www.missingmoney.com --I actually found over 3 grand that we left in an escrow account from when we lived in Cleveland (obviously we couldn't get out of there fast enough). No lie. And it's super easy to do... This covers a tiny portion of my tuition and a few incidentals...(shoes, tutoring)
2. Godiva's salted caramel candy bars--these are incredibly good. (Have you all figured out that I have given up on the no carb diet?? Dave "Spartan" McKeon is still fighting the good fight and has lost 25 pounds...I am not happy about it, because now I'm the fatty in our relationship and I don't like it...)
3. The Nook--just bought a color nook. AND nook insurance.  It's pretty sweet, but I'm trying not to get too attached as you know that this nook will meet a similar fate to the kindle...
4. Benadryl--I really did get sun poisoning and benadryl works wonders to control the ugly rash...and seems to take the edge off of the day...This may be just what you are looking for, Tricia...
5. Brooks Brothers cashmere/silk cardigan sweaters--these are on sale and are worth every single penny.--really, really soft 
6.  Filson belts--these are total classics--check them out at filson.com 
7. That New Updated Preppy Handbook-- I know that it has been out for a while, but I picked up the Brooks Brothers addition when I was in there a few weeks ago and it totally cracked me up. Hit a little too close to home at times, but a very funny read. 
8.  JCrew's women's linen and cotton cropped pants--a versatile pant for the summer and comes in great colors
9. Judge Wendy
10. Pangrams--who knew how much fun they could be? Who knew they had an actual name??

That's all for today,  Please go get your haikus on and try to please Judge Wendy--she's a bit of a stickler, so form counts.