Aeryun's Thoughts...

Is on hold thanks to Ida. I've been doing laundry all damn day trying to get ready for an evac that they should have already announced, yet haven't. The Hurricane tracker still has the damned thing landing in Pensecola (which is less than 45 min from where I am) on Tuesday around 7am. And the idiot comander seems like he's going to give us less than 24 hours to get out of here. I think we had a good 2 days notice for Ivan. @@ You'd think they'd have learned something after what happened at Keesler. So, yeah, I'm not happy one bit.

My calendar sasys it is. I'm 30 weeks pregnant, so that says it is. But I'm getting ready for a Hurricane evac...that's not so November. Hurricanes SUCK!

So, I joined up for Wrisomifu. :D

A little over a month ago, my husband asked if I could make a baked pasta dish with seafood. So, I thought about it and after several tossed out ideas, this is what I came up with.


Mini Penne
.40 lb of both bay scallops and Shrimp (peel shrimp and cut into scallop size pieces) (the weight is a little weird because I asked for a large handful at the counter.)
8 oz of lump crab meat
1 lobster tail (removed from shell and cut into scallop sized pieces)
1/4 C heavy cream
2 1/2 C milk
2T butter and 2T margarine
4T flour
3 large garlic cloves (minced)
Parmesan and pecorino romano cheeses (grated)
Fresh mozzarella (Cubed)
Finely shredded mozzarella


As my favorite person on Food Network, Alton Brown, would say, "Preparation is your friend." Make sure you have everything cut up and ready before you start. I had to throw out one roux because I didn't. *hangs head in shame*

Preheat oven to 375 F. Boil water, cook pasta, drain and set aside. Melt butter and margarine over low heat, and add flour. You want a very pale roux here, so do not overcook or walk away. Add garlic once the roux is just starting to change color. Stir in milk and whisk continuously until the mixture boils. Add a handful each of parm and romano cheeses, whisk until fully incorporated. Add in scallops, shrimp, and lobster and remove from heat. Pour into a large mixing bowl, add mozzarella cubes and lump crab meat, and mix lightly. Add most of the pasta. (you can add it all, but I like a saucier mix, so I didn't.) Mix lightly until combined, and pour into a 13 x 9 glass baking dish. Top with shredded mozzarella, parm, and romano cheeses. Bake until cheese is just starting to brown, and serve.

Jeff's only complaint was, the garlic wasn't pronounced enough. So, next time I'll be making it with more garlic. I liked it as it is.

Who needs them.

I swear. I fix them nummy foods like: orange and pineapple braised salmon, pan seared scallops, slow cooked ribs, all day pot roast, lasagna...and they have the audacity to complain because I refuse to fix Hamburger Helper. Really, who needs them? :P

LOL

As it seems like the soap opera that has taken over my life isn't going to end any time soon, I'd like to post about something happier.

So, how would I go about finding safe dishes to try if I wanted to try something like Indiana (I'm guna leave it, cause it's so funny. But this should be Indian food. What can I say, I'm from Indiana. LOL) or Thai food? I love Chinese and Japanese, but I have a baby mouth and can't really handle spicy foods. Mild salsa has been known to be too hot for me. Yes, pathetic, I know. :)

So, any suggestions out there?

Hugs to all!

A phone on vibrate turns into a cat toy.

Well, my husband Jeff recently had those wonderful allergy test pokes done, and he came back 4++ for cats. So, my kitty had to go byebye. :( She'll be happier, she never liked it here. Too many kids wanting to hold her all the time. But, I'm not happier. Hopefully, in a few years, we will either have a house where I can have one room as a cat room, or it will be big enough to disperse the cat dander enough so he's not as miserable. That's what I'm hoping at least. *goes off to cry some more*

I have internets again! Stupid storm last Thursday decided that the switch thingy outside needed a touch of lightning. Took out our phoneline, modem, router, and our downstairs TV. Of course, the phone people didn't get to us until the 4th, (When they were no doubt getting double time), so we had no way of getting a replacement modem until today. Then find out our router was fried too. (Although, I was pretty sure it was toast, since it was sparking all pretty blue sparks when it was hit Thursday. Jeff didn't want to listen to me though. I know hair, not computers. I haven't said I told you so...Yet. ^.^)

Anyways, YAY! I'm back! OMG, I knew I was addicted to the internets. I just had no idea how badly I am addicted. Happily addicted, I might add. :D

I hope everyone in the US had a good Fourth! We went to a local public fireworks display, and even better we weren't stuck in traffic for 3 hours like last year. We planned better this year! :D

Tadpole news for anyone who is following. My last appointment was wonderful. Got to see the little one bouncing around in there. And yes, it was litteraly boucing. I am going tomorrow for the first of the testing to make sure there are no genetic problems. I believe it's just a blood test and a high tech ultra-sound.

Hugs to all!
Aery

My Blackberry is saved! Three days in a ziplock bag filled with uncooked rice, and my ass is no longer on the chopping block. *hangs head* What can I say, I can't keep shit from my husband. I think I lasted all over 20 min after posting that entry before I fessed up.

But YAY! I no have to go to Verizon and blame the kids. :D

*Big Hugs* to Torino10154!

Yeah, don't put your Blackberry on top of a glass full of tea, then move the table and make said Blackberry fall into said glass of tea. He hasn't found out...yet. Hopefully I can dry the damned thing and all will be well. If not, well, we got the insurnace... I can't believe I did that. *headdesk*

My almost six year old has been stuffing food under his for who knows how long. I always wondered why the dog spent so much time under the table after dinner. UGH! It doesn't help that Jeff has been laughing his head off behind the boy. I at least leave the room when I need to laugh. :D

I should be in bed, but I just had to post. The big day is tomorrow, then two weeks of taking it easy. Well about ten days actually, then I have THE blood test. Which hopefully is positive! Because of the ten day rest period, we went to the Acropolis today. Beautiful. I didn't know ruins could be so wonderful! I got lots of pictures, well, lots for me that is. I plan on uploading them tomorrow, since I'll pretty much not be doing much once I'm home. Our appointment is 1 PM local time, and Athens is 8 hours ahead of US CST. So, hopefully around 3 PM I'll be back and doing the picture thing. Hugs to all! Aery

Cheeky little birds!! Very cheeky, brave too. LOL

From the past few days, I've had this one pigeon visit me. I know it's the same pigeon, cause it's got a feather out of wack that sicks out. Well, I've been feeding it the last bite of bread from my sandwhich at lunch. But today, I had the last piece of bread from a loaf that was hard as a rock, so I broke it up and tossed a small piece out at a time. I went to check up on my dinner, and when I came back in, the cheeky little thing had brought a friend into the appartment! That's not all he did. While I was sitting at the laptop eating my potato leek soup, Cheeky walks right past me and into the next room. He flew out quickly when I went to get up, but sheesh. I've never lived in an area that had a lot of pigeons, are they all like this? I know our Seaguls will dive bomb you on the beach if your eating something they want, but they don't come near our house.

Well, I hope this has given everyone a laugh! I know it did my IM and myself. :D

Well, I'm a bit behind. We had my scan Friday. At day Ten, my lining was already at 4 mm, but there was no follicle growing, yet. We go back tomorrow for another scan and will hopefully see a follicle growing. My cycle is a little longer than average, ranging between 29 days (very rarely, like one month a year), to 34 days. With my hitting 32 days more often than not.

I will update again after tomorrow. Today is a Holiday here, Clean Monday. We are going to go watch the festivities.

As always I hope everyone is doing well. If you ever have any questions, feel free to ask. The worst that will happen, is me saying I can't or won't answer. :D

Hugs,

Aery

Was today. It went ok. Kind of reminded me of a doctors visit in the states. We waited an hour and a half and were done in 15 min. We were pretty much just told to come back Friday for an Ultrasound so we could see how close I was to ovulation. I'm very happy that I am not having to use hormones this time. I'm even happier that this doctor uses ultrasound instead of blood work to determine when I am ready. One batch of blood work was enough, I hate having to put people through trying to draw blood from me.

As for how things are going other than the Surrogacy, I'm going to hug my water heater when I get home! I never knew what other countries had to deal with in the hot water department, and I didn't know I was taking mine for granted. I got a nice education on Electric Showers, which boggled my mind. Electricity and water just doesn't mix, yet they have showers that are directly heated by electricity...and not like an electric water heater. Just plain weird!

I spent all day yesterday without a stable net connection. Was not happy. I was supposed to be relaxing and vegging out and couldn't. I also managed to create a Sugar Volcano. (I HATE electric stoves!) That was fun to clean up. @@ Oh, and I also blew all the fusses last night trying to boil water. Yesterday just was not a good day for me. I dislike the dark on the best of days, but in the dark, alone, in a weird house...yeah I was pretty freaked. No wonder I didn't sleep well last night.

So, other than my family, the things I miss the most are: My huge ass water heater! My stable Internet connection. And My nice soft bed!

I hope everyone is doing well! I shall update again Friday.

Hugs,
Aery

Today went by so quickly!

We went grocery shopping today, and I hate to say it, but I froze up. lol I was just shell shocked had no idea what to get. @@ Bad Aery! I should have known better than to go in without a battle plan, but I didn't. Won't happen again, I've already been looking up recipes. :D

Today was also day three of my cycle, which meant blood tests. I am one of the worst sticks on the planet. There has been the occasional person that has gotten my blood on the first try, but out of four kids worth of testing, as well as your normal yearly stuff, they are few and far between. Today was no exception. Six tries before she finally got blood. The person doing the drawing and my IM were pretty shaken up. Me? I knew what was coming. It's always been like this. I just sit there and let them do what they need to, I don't see the point in getting upset when I know for a fact that when my veins here "Blood work" they run and hide. (And when they don't, they either roll or bust, or both.)

Anyway, we should get the results on Tuesday. I have my first appointment with the Doctor on Monday. So, I'll post afterward to say how that went. :)

No pictures yet. I'm not sure when we are going site-seeing. Frankly, it's been too damned cold for me as it is. I have really been in Florida for too long, it's gotten rid of any winter resistance I had built up over the course of my life in Indiana. LOL But as soon as I get some pics, I will post them.

Hugs to all. I am off to bed, after all it is...damn near 1 am here.

Aery

Ok, first of all...the eight hour time difference SUCKS! It's 11:30am here and my body is all like, why the heck are you awake? But yet I woke up at 8am and couldn't go back to sleep. @@

The journey, for the most part, was excellent. There was one minor hitch in London. Seems my IM (intended mother) read the baggage allowances wrong for my last flight, and I had more than double what was allowed. That got me a very Snooty attitude from the person checking me into the flight. Bad customer service is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Why get pissy with me before you even understand the situation? What is the point? GRRRR! Plus, there is no way in hell, I would have been able to get by on only 44lbs worth of stuff for two months. It was hard enough getting it all down to 80lbs. If you ever are in the position to fly with EasyJet, only do so if you are going a short distance and for a short period of time. Otherwise, their restrictions are ridiculous.

I have decided that I like longer layovers. I wasn't rushed. I was able to relax. I also think it went a long way to making my jet lag better. I have a feeling that it could be much worse than how I'm feeling now. I could do with a mini nap, but that is about it.

I got my next story started. :D It's pretty much just in the planning stages at this point, but it's a start. I really should have fished out one of the many bunnies I had put away in a folder, but this idea took hold and didn't want to let go. Plus, at the time I didn't have access to my computer, which is where the bunny folder is.

I hope everyone else is doing well.

For now at least. I'm hoping that I will have internet access, cause two months without it will kill me. :D Please, PLEASE, don't kill the interwebs, or fandom while I'm gone. I really love our fandom, and even most of the peoples in it! :D

I will post pics as I can. As well as updates on how everything is going.

Hugs to all!

Aery

Cause I think it's either dead, or at the very least in hiding. Seriously, where the hell did it go?

I had a 9 AM appointment to get my hair spiral permed. I arrive 15 min early, like a good customer. I sit there nice and quiet like as I watch time tick by. At 9:15 I hear a phone dialing around the corner, I then hear one side of a very hushed conversation. The manager then comes to me and says: "Your stylist just called, she is just now leaving Pensecola. She had a family emergency, but will be here in 45 min. I'm booked fully, so I can't help you out."

So, I leave a very pissed off person. I'm a hairdresser, I know how to deal with people. What she did, was not it. First of all, you do NOT lie to customers, nor do you treat them as if they are stupid. My daughter recently had back surgery, her doctor and the hospital it was done in are in Pensecola. I know that drive by heart, and there is NO way you can get from there to the salon in 45 min. It is at least an hour drive, and that is pushing it. So, that was lie number 2. (The first one being that the stylist called. She didn't, she was called.) I would have been less pissed if they had told me the truth. That, more than likely, the stylist over slept and was running late. Why treat me like I'm dumb? When I worked in a salon, you didn't treat people like that. I know it's been 6 years, but has customer service really changed THAT much in those few years?

The upside? The place I ended up going to, only charged me $80 for the perm, when I was expecting to pay $120 at least. So that stylist got a nice fat tip! :D

Sorry for the spam. :)

I'm guna be in London for around five hours. What to do for that time?