Shut down

Ok, I guess the blog is officially back...two posts in ten days. I'm on a roll.

Thanks for all of your prayers for Nate.  He needs them and accepts them gratefully.  Quick update: He is on a new drug, methotrexate that may help.  Fingers crossed.  And I am making an appointment at the Mayo Clinic for fall break.  Fingers double crossed.

New topic--so, the government has shut down.  What a coincidence! So have I.  I'm not making any political stand or statement, I'm just kind of tired and really want to spend some time reading my nook and eating some candy.  --And frankly, I'm pretty sure that's what Congress is doing right now, too, and I don't blame them.  Candy is pretty sweet.

Total ADD aside (you all really missed these brief interruptions, didn't you?) Speaking of candy, I have discovered a new candy company called sugarfina--(I'm sure all you west coast hipsters have been eating this candy for years...but here in the Midwest, this is breaking news, ok??) www.sugarfina.com  Sugarfina  is really, really, really good AND the boxes the candy comes in are beautiful--almost too beautiful to eat the candy, but not quite.  I managed to devour pretty much the entire summer sampler box in about an hour.  They also have cocktail candies (champagne gummi bears? yes, please) and a tasting menu--these little packages of candy heaven make the perfect gift (and somebody I know has a birthday coming up this month). Isn't it nice to know that even after having been out of commission for almost two years, I still have your backs in regard to up and coming food, clothing and house wares products? Why, yes, yes it is...

And I'm not kidding when I said that I've shut down.  (just for a day or two) I've had some seriously busy months--(Ecuador, Nate, some consulting gigs, ND home football games--ok, that doesn't sound that busy, but consider the source), and these back to back tailgates really take their toll. Sorry, another aside--Sweet Jesus, this ADD is annoying, isn't it? I can barely get a word in edgewise with my own self...Any how, we have had two of the most awesome tailgates these past two weekends.  The weather was perfect, the food was great and we have finally seemed to work the kinks out of the whole system. (It helps that Dave McKeon has cut way back on his long island consumption, especially with Jack McKeon in London for the semester--I can't get those flags down by myself) The Michigan State tailgate was the always popular Italian sausage, hot beef, meat ball bomber extravaganza, chased with McKeon cupcakes and 25 gallons of Long Island Iced Teas.  We were out of iced teas by 2pm  and there wasn't a morsel of meatball to be found by 2:30. While waiting for the reinforcements to arrive (thank you, Mike McTernan) We actually had to  borrow some beers from our elderly tailgating neighbors who were in equal parts fascinated and horrified by our tailgating extravaganza--there were a few dodgy selections on Chris McKeon's play list....however, when the super, super nice 75 year old wife brought me over a chocolate shot and the coolest homemade Notre Dame necklace, I knew we had won them over. We sealed the deal when we called her over to get her photo taken with some of the Notre Dame basketball team who attended our tailgate as well. Memories made--new tailgating besties. And speaking of besties (I honest to God must be the most easily distracted person alive...I also saw my old college roommate who I haven't seen in decades.  We both look the exact same, but way cuter--how nice is that? Seriously, these tailgates are a total happening.

Similarly (though Notre Dame lost) the Oklahoma tailgate was top shelf.  Not only was it fajita week, (possibly the second best week of the tailgate year, topped only by soup week) which was outstanding, but we had a cavalcade of stars stopping by.  Several of my lovely, youthful and very fun undergrad friends met up and joined the tailgate fun, and then the hits just kept on coming--people from our Ecuador trip, so, so fun and nice--Google John, Mark and Amy, Nancy, Dakota, JR, Sarah--people from Kenosha (admit it, we scared a few of you), people from Oklahoma, (cheers for the Goreson family and friends--and thanks for the cooler), people from Montana--Mariani Family, you are welcome back anytime.  I like your dance moves and thanks for the Jack,-- and many, many other students, friends, family, family friends, friends of friends, and friends of family...and I'm sure a few strangers, but that's fine, too (even you, big guy with the pony keg who was trying to claim the communal Joyce Lot garbage can as your own)  I tried to take some photos from the past two weeks, but somehow I just keep getting pictures of Chris, Kim and friends of Chris and Kim--wtf?

Here they are in all their tailgate glory:

   

So now that the tailgate fervor has died down,  I am furloughing my own self, and I am totally ok with it. Honestly, my shut down has nothing to do with the government--("Mom, tell the government to stop copying me. This shut down thing was my idea") . I've been easing toward a shut down for quite some time...However, unlike the federal government, no one is going without while I take a little time off. And because I see this blog as an essential service, I am keeping it going even during the shut down. You're welcome. For those of you who were paying close attention over the past few months, admit it--you saw this shut down coming. 

1. I am down to one and a half kids --(Pete is never home, as he is the lynch pin in the Andrea empire, and works there six days a week, mopping the floors, taking out the trash, emptying the grease traps--I'm pretty sure Steve Jobs started out  this way) which is a total micro family. I can manage that in my sleep--Shut down.    

2. I've outsourced all of our basic nutrition needs to Infusino's (official caterer of the McKeon tailgates--seriously, they have changed my life). Pete, Posey and I live on random unopened bags of left over tailgate snacks and Manorexic Dave just keeps shoveling in the protein--Shut down. 

3. Summer is over, it went too quickly so I am shutting down in protest. 

4. Notre Dame lost their first home game in over a year--Not shocking but still Shut down worthy. And they bitched up the whole singing the Alma Mater thing, so a total shut down. 

5.Notre Dame is heading to Dallas to get their asses kicked by ASU (who are we kidding? Tommy Rees is a place holder at best and a fumbling, interception throwing opportunist at worst).  Serious shut down. 

6. I finished a big project I was working on for a very nice, very savvy Catholic school on the north shore (I know, I don't know why they needed me, but I'm happy to work with them and send out an invoice) Lots of night hours, so I need to shut it down. 

7. I got in a rather heated "discussion" via text with Nate's rheumatologist--(you know she is so regretting giving me her cell phone number) not one of my best moments, but not one of her best either-she texted me first-so I guess it's a push. Needless to say, she was not the doctor of choice to call Mayo to confirm Nate's need for an appointment.  Time for me to shut it down. 

8. I ate an entire box of gluten free fake oreos--what the hell is that all about? There are real cookies out there to eat. I don't even like regular oreos--gluten free??  I need to so shut that shit down right  now. 

9. Our holding tank got clogged and started backing up into the downstairs showers...I am not kidding and this little episode will warrant its own post because it was very, very close to being a literal shit storm.  At one point I am hyperventilating in our basement while the crabby old plumber (the same one who had to fish that goddamn cell phone out of the toilet a few summers ago, so you kind of can't blame him for being less than enthusiastic about McKeon plumbing issues--kind of tough to live that one down) kept asking me what he was supposed to do with all the water that would come flooding into my basement if he had to open some big valve to fix the problem and I finally say hysterically in his face "I don't know!  I am not the plumber. You are. That is why I called you..." Serious need to shut every piece of that mess down. 

10. I let Pete take Chillen as his confirmation name--totally true. Pete got confirmed a few weeks ago and he chose the name "Chillen"  It's a real live saint.  Look it up--by googling "oddest confirmation names..." And I was totally fine with it. Even Chris was somewhat appalled at the name choice, actually calling me out saying: "You are seriously letting Pete take the name Chillen? You would never put up with that sort of nonsense back in the day."  To which I replied: "Yes and Yes".  The bishop also had a little something to say, asking in his special holy way: "Who/what the hell is Chillen?"--and Pete explained that Chillen was (supposedly) the only Irish priest who was offered the papacy which he turned down, citing his inadequacies...perfect pick, Pete. An underachieving Irish man...sign us up and shut us down. 

Here is a picture of young Chillen on his special day. FYI he is with my friend Brian, who kept trying to convince the Bishop that Pete's name was actually Killian, but Pete was having none of that, insisting he be called Chillen.  And for some reason, this kept making me laugh... a lot...So, yes, I guess it is time for me to shut down. 

You know the Bishop just wanted to hit Chillen with his big cane. So did I. I kind of want one of those big canes now. 

Despite being shut down, I still found time for today's Top Ten

1. sugarfina--like you didn't see that one coming

2. Empty Mansions--a terrific book about that recluse/copper heiress who died in 2011 at 105 and had all those houses she didn't live in.  I LOVE a good heiress/recluse/ hoarder/crazy rich person story--and this book is one of the best.  It's no Grey Gardens (the one with Big Edie and Little Edie,--the documentary from the '70s is so, so great) , but it's pretty damn good. 

3. Moxie--the word game that I play all day on my phone. I am addicted and I have all the high scores because I think I am the only person in the Western Hemisphere playing this game. 

4. Infusinos--I don't know how they do it, but they can actually make tailgate food cheaper than I can. (except for fajita week--Dave McKeon to me when 16 pans of fajita meat got dropped off last Friday, and he saw that the food cost more than his first car: "Did it ever cross your mind to ASK just how much this food was going to cost?" Me: "No") And they deliver. And they are super nice. And the food is really good. However, I think we will be back to meatball day real soon. 

5.Nick Offerman--I love him very much and if he ever dumps Megan Mullally, I am making a serious run at him (and he is from Minooka, IL, so you know he's good people--and he probably wouldn't flinch at the cost of fajita week--Hell, he'd probably make the fajitas on a grill he built himself). 

6. The black Burberry cape that I have pre-orderd for Posey's fall wardrobe.  I held off as long as I could, but man, it's a real nice cape. And it better show up soon as I am somewhat puzzled by the whole pre-order thing and fear that it is some how a cape bait and switch. 

7. Kim Pechous and John Heinzman--for always being so nice and understanding AND even more importantly, for commenting on the blog.  Please, let's not forget that while the Facebook comments are nice, commenting on the blog gets hits and will somehow translate into glory for me.  

8. Sparkling Ice--these are amazing, fizzy little drinks with zero calories and vitamins and antioxidants.  I am loving them, as I am trying (and failing miserably) to get the Diet Coke monkey off my back. I am up to about a dozen cans a day, and it's just not good. 

9. SaksFashion Fix--this is the best deal on the internet, bar none.  It's discounted designer stuff from Saks and sometimes the deals are mind-blowing.  There is a camel hair coat with a fur color in a size two just begging for some one to buy it. 

10. Joey Matteucci--The nicest, calmest, neatest, best plumber ever.  (In the midst of my plumbing crisis, the crabby one called Joe for back up) Joe saved me and all I hold dear, by actually climbing down into our holding tank and taking care of the problem.  I will spare you the details, but needless to say, Joey holds a very special place in my heart. 

Enjoy the blog--look for more to come.