My son's artistic photos and other stuff from me

I'll admit that I'm pretty damn slow on the uptake, I just figured out how to load more than one pic at a time on this blog, seeing as it only took me over a year, I'd say that it's not too bad compared to some of my other "light bulb moments" that arrive even decades after the fact.

Anyway, here are a series of pretty unrelated photos for your enjoyment today, I hope you all appreciate the hours of hard work and twisted minds that went into them.

Some of Alex's artistic photos (that he shot before I took the camera away from him):

This was my version of a Crabby Patty - maybe I took this one, I don't remember.

Artistic photo of messy bedroom

Another angle of messy bedroom

The creatures that live under the tv in the messy bedroom

Pencil case

Self portrait on oven door

Messy bathroom

Messier bedroom

Fruit basket

Two shots of the Christmas tree that Alex decorated:

My child has a "more is better" sense of style, he put everything we had onto the poor tree.

More food:

Lasagne al forno - Alex's favorite!

PW's evil cinnamon rolls with raisins added to the dough

Tuna pasta cassarole - out of noodles so I used corkscrew maccaroni

It's Friday and Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! And Happy Friday to everyone else!

Some photos

Monumental traffic jam Wednesday at noon

Neptune Fountain

Piazza Maggiore under the Wednesday am snowfall

Cheesy Heart Scones

March and still no photo

We are all (finally!) pretty well lately, there have been a few "hiccups" with Alex's classmates, apparently we have the "Terrible Four" in class. Last week Alex went to school with a new trolley pull backpack because his old one gave out on the Friday before. The new one lasted less than a day because three of the four brats had fun bending the handle in half by jumping on it like a trampoline. The handle broke off yesterday and cut both me and Alex. Andrea bought a new one yesterday, let's just hope it lasts a bit longer without being vandelised!

Yesterday I made cheesy heart scones for Alex's snack box and also the now-classic (at least in our house) fennel and orange salad. My breath stank of the raw garlic this morning - and probably still does, but the tase of the salad is worth it! I was already pretty stinky from the bbq ribs on Sunday evening, along with the potato gratin (with more garlic). See? I make all these great things and then never think to take pics! It doesn't help that the camera is 1) in a cabinet out of Alex's reach and 2) so out-of-date that it shuts down after every flash picture it takes, and in my house they are ALL flash pics.

It is snowing AGAIN, my goodness it never stops this year, I wish I could get some more decent photos of the snow, but this is itty bitty stuff, it looks more like snodruff than anything. The big stuff is supposed to come tonight and tomorrow

February

Here I am posting again without any photos - I completely forgot to update this blog in the last three months or so.
Can this really be called a blog if there's nothing in it?
Not much to post about, well, there is, more or less. I have another cold, Hubby's sprained finger is better and Alex is practically over his bronchitis. I seem to post nothing but about how sick we are/have been, but this has been a bugger of a winter for us.
My Mom (Hi Mom!) also had some health issues (I'm skirting around the thing here to not put her on the spot) and Michael did a great job of putting in the emergency call and handling the whole thing on his own. Which might be why he goes up to casual acquaintences with Mom in tow and tells them aaaaalllll about the health issues that she had, which, as I said, kinda puts her on the spot, but he does this from a kind heart. Michael is really an OK kind of guy, and I'm really proud of him.
Lessee, what else, oh, Alex reads like a pro now, but hates doing his Italian homework, he much prefers Maths (the kid DID NOT get that from me, anyone who knew me when knows that - actually anyone who knows me at all knows that - I am a Maths Dummy). His maths teacher was almost gushing about how he never had such a good maths student as Alex. When Alex isn't daydreaming in class, that is. Now THAT sounds like me! He definately rubs his English teacher the wrong way, he gets distracted too easily and zones out and that pisses her off, so she's always writing remarks on his workbook "Alex didn't follow the "Numbers Song""; "Alex didn't write the words next to his drawings" and so on. She actually substituted his regular class teacher for a day or two and wrote in RED PEN all over his Italian notebook that he had started the work at 8:30 and at 12:00 STILL hadn't finished and had also copied the whole story instead of just the words that he had circled. Geeze Louise, the rest of his notebook was all "Great Job" and little hearts and things like that. Can you tell I'm a little ticked off at the teacher?

I have been reading the Julie/Julia Project blog lately, damn thing is destroying my eyesight, but is very funny. I really enjoyed the film Julie and Julia.

Oh, I finally got the goose that I was given for a Christmas present out of the freezer. I'll just have to cook the thing in a regular pan instead of with the roasting grill that will let the fat drain to the bottom, oh well. I had to make room in the freezer for the lasagne that I cooked last Sunday anyway. I am also hoping to getting around to making more English muffins this weekend, but it's gonna be hard, on Saturday Alex has a costume birthday party to go to and on Sunday not only did I want to go to Ikea, but also to go vist my best female friend (bff).
We'll just have to see how things pan out.
Maybe I'll even post a few pics.

Gnocchi alla Romana

This was my other experiment for today; gnocchi alla romana!
They don't look like much, but dayum are they good!
As usual, I didn't think to take a picture until I had already served some.
I basically made them for Alex, since he's been eating almost nothing since Saturday evening when he came down with a fever.

Yumm!

English Muffins

Alex is home with a fever, which has dropped today, thank goodness, and since I'm home with him, I decided to finally make English muffins. I think that I printed the recipie back in 2004 or something and never had the guts to try it.

Oh, English muffins, how I've missed you!

Anyway, here are the raw muffins with corn meal:

raw muffins

first batch cooking

first batch ummm "overcooked" on one side

the second and more successful batch.

This recipe makes about 20 very large muffins - I haven't eaten any yet 'cause I've been busy with other things.

Next post!