The Olympics begin tomorrow (or-tonight for us, because Calib has to close tomorrow), so I figured I'd get the blog all caught up before then. That, and I'm trying to put off going out to mow the lawn. But maybe I shouldn't complain about that so much. The high here is like 84 today (!!!) while up north they're getting dumped on with FEET of snow.
Speaking of which, my mom was supposed to be visiting right now. But, she had to cancel her flight yet again. Between cases still being high here (they are going down- so in a couple weeks we should be good), a funeral she needed to attend, and the winter storm, she figured it was just better to reschedule. So, she might be coming in March. We'll see.
Meanwhile, Asa and I have been doing some running around for the Olympic stuff here. They don't just run themselves, people. Also, I'm going all out for these. It's got to be the last time I can get everyone on board to do them, so we're doing the games, and the food, and everything. But, that means we go to a ton of stores for supplies. Fun fact: we went to Total Wine and More for country drinks! That's right, I've been doing this so long, I've got a kid who can drink country beer with us!
And since we were over that way, we went out to lunch. We have this new fun combo where we go to Aussie Grill for cheese fries and pair it with a Blaze pizza.
It was cold that day though. While we have had a couple nice days strung together, it was really cold here for awhile. I was not a fan.
Since we were right next door to Calib's Chipotle, we sent him a picture of us there.
When we got home, Dipper was most excited we'd collected a box at Aldi. (We forgot to put out the recyclables on Wednesday and needed something for overflow. Dipper's been hanging out with the dogs a lot since we lost Maybel. It's weird, she didn't even like him, but you can tell he misses her.
Hayden and I finished up seven people for our Black History Project in January. I'm trying to get 100 done in a year, but I'll have to pick up the pace to make it, and the Olympics won't help. Still, it's going well. This week we did Ona Judge. Ona was enslaved by George Washington. She escaped and lived to tell her story. I did a really good job writing her story, I thought. I explained all about her life, before revealing that George Washington was the man who enslaved her.
I've also been working on improving the boys skis from last Winter Olympics. And yes, I kept these things for four years. The flip flops didn't work so great though, they top of most of them popped out at one point or another. And, they really needed sanded down. Actually, they needed sanded down four years ago, but I didn't have a sander then.
I tried to make duct tape foot holds, but Hayden said those were a little rough on the ankles.
You'll see the finished project eventually, but I ended up using construction adhesive and duct tape to attach old tennis shoes to the skis, and I think that's going to work out.
But, I also personalized them. I made some stencils on my cricut, and then spray painted them. It could have been a little cleaner if I used mod podge and paint, but this was quick, and I think it came out pretty good.
Speaking of my Cricut, I've been making all kinds of things- it kind of takes over the kitchen on the weekend. This weekend I even had out my sewing machine too. As soon as a kid moves out, I'm converting one of their rooms to a craft room for sure.
Anyway, when Asa and I were gathering Olympic supplies we came across this glass at the Dollar Store (or rather, the $1.25 store now- boo!), and he asked if I could make him a Diamond Dogs cup from Ted Lasso. Easy Peasy.
I also re-labeled some of our spice jars and got rid of the stuff we don't use, replacing it with stuff we do use.
I've been making stuff for the Olympics, and (Spoiler alert!) the Snackadium for the Super Bowl. But, I also made Calib a special shirt for Championship Sunday.
Backstory: Calib doesn't *love* Jimmy Garoppolo, the 49ers quarterback. At one point he just needed someone his fantasy team to score like 3 points, and they couldn't even get that, thanks to Jimmy Garoppolo having a really bad day. So, Calib renamed his fantasy team to...
I'm hoping the Bucs don't end up with Jimmy G now that Tom Brady actually retired. Calib will lose it. But, on the upside, with Brady retiring, we might be able to afford tickets to the games again!
While my sewing machine was out, I added some material to Porkchop's Thunder Jacket so it would fit him.
He need it too, because it was SO COLD here. Like, worse than it's been since we've lived in this house. Some people were reporting we had our coldest night in a decade. That meant the blanket fort blankets had to come out to cover the plants in the front flower bed.
And front porch plants had to be brought inside.
I also had to pick the last lemon off the tree.
Most of us hate the cold. But, the dogs are also not fans.
We did make it into the 20s. Which just isn't ok. Thank god I sleep next to Asa, that boy is a heater. Otherwise, I never would have survived. Like I said, though, we're back into the 80s, which is just lovely. This weekend we cool back off- but nothing like that again.
And now, what you're here for-- Championship Sunday Pizzas! I actually could not find my NFL Pizza Cookbook I made years ago- anywhere. Luckily, I made it on Shutterfly, so I was able to call it up and get the reciepes from there. It's made me think it's time to make a new one. The old one is missing- and now I've been making these pizzas for so many years (for Championship Sunday and the draft), that we've tweaked them here and there to our liking, so the cookbook could use an update.
I've also taken some short cuts. Instead of making sauces, I tend to buy them- but I try and make them make sense.. You know, the San Fran dessert pizza uses chocolate chips, so I made sure to get Ghirardeli. KC is BBQ, so i got a Kansas City barbeque sauce. Cincinnati is chili, so I used a can of Skyline Chili.
KC is actually a gouda cheese too. But, I couldn't find shredded gouda anywhere. Not Aldi. Not Costco. Not Publix. (oh, and Publix was a total shit show. I saved it till last, figuring I could get my last few ingredients there. When I went on a Saturday I was surrounded by maskless people and empty shelves, and ended up loudly telling Asa "I hate Covid" while standing in the cheese asile. I had a moment.)
But, I did get gouda. I just had to shred it. The pizza, however, came out good.
San Fransisco has a dessert pizza, with a peanut butter and chocolate topping, sprinkled with peanuts and pretzles.
Los Angeles has a Sun Dried Tomato Chicken Pizza that you grill. This was one we hadn't had before, at least in this iteration (the original recipe calls for alfredo for the sauce, but we weren't huge fans).
And of course, Cincinnati has their Chili Pizza. I've made this before with actual homemade chili on top. But, that's a lot of work. I bought the Skyline Chili, and it was fine. But, we decided if we make this one again we should do a Chili 3 way and add Spaghetti.
So there you have it, your 2022 Championship Sunday Pizzas.
Of course, we were sad that the Bucs weren't playing. But, we were rooting for Cincinnati and LA to go to the Superbowl, so we got our wish. It's just fun to see some fresh faces in the Super Bowl.
(The dogs were also very interested in the pizzas).
Yesterday, I ran into Tampa to run some errands. It's very unusual for me to go out by myself these days, but Asa had a meeting, so he didn't want to take the day off, and I didn't want to wait until 2 or 3 to go, so off I went. I sent proof of life pictures to Asa along the way. I hadn't been to Ikea in covid times, so it'd been at least two years!
I picked up a couple of frames for some things, some food for Sweden day, and a nice little plant stand for the back porch. We decided herbs would be easier to get to here. (Don't mind Delano in the corner there- he's just happy it's warm again and he can hang out on the back porch again).
After Ikea, I hopped on the crosstown to swing by Trader Joes for some Olympic food.
And for lunch, I stopped by the new Midtown Complex and got myself some Shake Shack (the first and only one in Tampa).
When I got home, I got to working on some more Olympic stuff.
And Asa made us all General Tso's for dinner.
And of course, it was Groundhog Day, so we had a movie night. (It was also 2/2/22, for the record).
This morning, I hit my 500 day streak on Duolingo, so that's cool.
Tomorrow, we're having Fun Friday, which means Jeopardy and Finer Things Club. We just finished Trevor Noah's Book, Born A Crime.
And now, I'm out of reasons not to go mow the lawn and do the laundry and all of that lame stuff. Hayden has TAB tonight, so we'll go out to Starkey Ranch for that, and then we're holding Opening Ceremonies to do the Olympics ONE> LAST> TIME!
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