Are you addicted to your Blackberry?

I was up really early today and watching the news. I saw the piece of the interview with Obama about how he really wants to keep his Blackberry because he is so used to it keeping him connected. Can you relate? I certainly can.

I have a T-Mobile Dash smart phone and I get every pennies worth out of it. I check my 5 or 6 email addresses several times a day and I use it to get on the Internet when I need to know something right then and there. I now also take advantage of the modem use and connect it to my laptop when needed.

I can't even imagine actually just having a phone anymore. Imagine what life would be if I had an iPhone? I may never look up! :)

Did I miss something? Was Obama already sworn in?

I rarely use my blog for political rants but something has been bothering me and I need to get it out. Has Obama been sworn in yet? Is he an active president? He sure is acting like it.

I just read an article that stated he "blessed the Bush administration's bailout of the financial industry." Well that was very nice of him. I understand the country is in a major amount of despair but every time I see a new headline about Mr. Obama he is already acting as if he is the Commander in Chief.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a big fan (anymore) of President Bush and no, I didn't really support McCain or Obama either. But I think out of respect he should back off just a little and perhaps concentrate more on what he will do instead of what he is going to do now as president.

I understand a lot of people will disagree with me but please be respectful, this is my blog and a great place for me to vent. :)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! AMAZON.COM MAKES SUPER MOM FEEL SUPER AGAIN!

Amazon.com does it again! They addressed the problem of Super Mom's and Dad's not feeling Super. This applies to all people as well of course. They now package some items such as electronics and toys in an Amazon Frustration-Free Package, a recyclable box that is easy to open and comes without excess packaging materials such as hard plastic clamshell cases, plastic bindings, and wire ties.

So why can't manufacturers follow suit? Hopefully they will. This type of packaging is not only better for our hands and ego's but very good for the environment as well.

So there you have it. A company that addressed the problem of my Kryptonite.

TGIF

It's Friday! WHOO-HOO! This week has been a very short one. It went by so fast. And I can't even believe it's almost Thanksgiving and then Hanukkah and Christmas.

I haven't been blogging so much lately because I really don't have anything interesting to say. The days have been so much around getting Hey, That's Gourmet up and running that I haven't really thought about much else. We have advertising on Google and Yahoo now. If you search through many different words such as Brownies, Browniepop, truffles, even football you may see out little ad come up.

Dave still works at AAA and his and everyone else in customer service that is "technically" part-time actually can only get part-time hours until whenever. Dave's supervisor said he just needs to hang in there and it'll change back to where he can work 40 hours a week even thought he's a part-timer. So he's been doing just that. Also about Dave, his shoulder is getting better through physical therapy. I don't want to mention his seizures because I don't want to jinx him.

Jonathan has been great too! He reads really well now and will read a chapter book over one with a bunch of pictures. He is also still a stellar speller. But an angel he is not. He received a detention 2 weeks ago for throwing an eraser at a classmate during reading time. He said the child irritated him pretty bad before class and he was still mad at him but he still should not have thrown that eraser. He learned from it so I guess the detention was fine. But on the other hand he has never done anything like that and I would have appreciated the teacher just giving him a verbal warning. Nobody should get detention on a first offense.

Tomorrow we are participating in another boutique selling our chocolates and sadly it's the last one we are scheduled for. I was hoping to find another one before Christmas. If anyone knows of a boutique still accepting vendors on any weekend day except December 13th please let me know. I would love to be able to have one more chance before Christmas.

To my sister, I hope the conference goes well and you get to relax soon.

For all of you that have a blog that I read I will be sure to read them today. Sorry I've been so bad about that. It's just been CRAZY!

Have a great Friday!

My Kryptonite

Jonathan looks to me as some sort of Super Hero for the most part. I kiss his boo-boos,resolve his problems, feed him, reward him and so on. But I found out that even me who Jonathan considers to be the most super of all super moms has a weakness, a kryptonite. Plastic packaging is my krptonite.

Nothing makes me feel more weak then the packaging that toys, electronics and pretty much everything comes in. Jonathan asks me, Mommy can you open my toy so I can play with it in the car? So there I am with my keys trying to make some sort of tear without cutting myself. Sometimes I just have to say No J, I can't and he just has to deal with it until I can get to the scissors. Scissors by the way doesn't always cut the packages either. But eventually the Kryptonite is depleted and I get to the prize and win and then again I feel Super.

Where did the time go?

I swear it was just Jonathan's 6th birthday and I was at Mile Square Park in the dark cleaning up after a full day of fun. I swear it was just Halloween when I was getting Jonathan dressed as a chef. I swear it was just Thanksgiving where I decided to cut corners and get a turkey dinner from Mimi's then throw it out because it was gross so I roasted a turkey anyway. I swear it was just Hanukkah and Christmas and there was that sweet feeling of neighborly love in the air. I swear it was just New Year's and I fell asleep at 9pm.

Well now it's Jonathan's 7th birthday on October 23rd and all of the above follows so quickly. Why does it feel like every special occasion happened just the month before instead of a whole year ago? Why do I feel like I want to just stop time and stare into the day I am in, instead of letting it pass by like we are in warp speed.

My dad is looking for an apartment that is large enough that we will be able to go and visit. My dad lives in New York so it's not like we can go every weekend. But I can't tell you how much I would love to be able to go at least twice a year. But there is the problem of time and that money stuff but I hope to make it at least once a year.

This is a new year in the Jewish Calendar so I will use that as my benchmark. I am going to start really looking around. Taking in the days ahead. Make Jonathan's 7th last as loooooong as I can. In July I turn 40. Ya, can you believe it? Anyway, it will not be a time of days forgotten. I will make this year sweet, memorable and worth the time to live.

Albert Einstein said "I never think of the future, it comes soon enough"

Time for the chickendance!

Yes it may be time for that fun lovin festival Octoberfest at Old World Village down the street but that's not what I'm writing about here. My chickendance is for the roasted chicken I made for dinner tonight. (My sister is about to roll her eyes as I get to the details)

You may think it's just a roasted chicken, so what. But it wasn't. It was a 5 pound roaster that cooked in an hour and 20 minutes. That is so great for a mom that comes home on a work day at 6:00pm. If I were to make this in the oven it would take 30-40 minutes more time. That is precious time, dontcha know.

The other day a very large and heavy box arrived with a note that said, Love Dad. It was my NuWave oven. My dad has had one for a while now and loves it. I am a believer!

The first thing I cooked in this thing was a rather inexpensive london broil. With my dad's advice I didn't use salt or pepper to season. Instead I bought some Lawry's meat tenderizer without MSG and sprinkled some on the steak. In about 25 minutes I had an amazing dinner to serve my very hungry family. Added steamed frozen veggies from the micro of course.

For Jonathan it's tourture. He loves steak and watching it cook was not only entertaining but had to give him a lesson with patients.

As mentioned, tonight was the 5 pound roasted chicken. Seasoned with some lemon and garlic, salt and paprika I put my new centerpiece of the kitchen to work.

My mother lives with us and she is very weird about her chicken. She really doesn't like what the crockpot does to it. So we either buy a roasted chicken on the way home from work at a market or we have to make it at home. Well I have to tell you that at 99 cents a pound for twice the chicken, I would always rather roast it myself. Plus I have control of seasonings my family likes and no added oils when I make it at home.

So I seasoned the chicken and placed it in the NuWave oven. Set the timer to 40 minutes. When the timer went off I had to turn the chicken over. That's right...I had to turn the chicken over. I have to say that this is not easy and I need to figure out an clever way to do this. Once I I flipped it I set the timer to another 40 minutes. By this time Jonathan was saying "oh mommy it looks so good!" And it really did.

When the 5 pound chicken was ready it was only 80 minutes later. I MADE ROAST CHICKEN ON A WEEK NIGHT! Really it was perfect! Perfect, golden and juicy.

So what's on the menu tomorrow? Chicken tacos probably because there is so much leftover and did I mention it was SO GOOD!?!

Thanks again daddy!