As I would have said in high school...RANDOM!

I have several small and random things to add to the blogosphere today. They are probably unrelated and not very coherent, but that's how I roll when I was up YET AGAIN last night in the middle of the night for reasons The Boy has yet to disclose to us, his exhausted parents.

First: I took away word verification from the comments, so now you should be able to comment with greater ease. I have been hearing from several people that they commented, or tried to comment, here, but could never see their comments, and I certainly never got their comments. So we're going to try it this way. I had the verification on because I was getting spam, but you know what? I have to approve every comment before it appears anyway, so if I get spam, I'll just reject it. SO THERE, SPAMALOT! Now please, comment away.

Also, what I had for lunch today:

COWBOY CAVIAR! This is just one of my all-time favorites, and SO easy to make, but I always forget about it. In fact, I've been meaning to make it for about a week now and just got around to it this morning, so my cilantro just barely made it. Actually, I had to throw some of it out, or else it would be much greener...I love me some cilantro!

I got this recipe from my wonderful mother-in-law and it is really simple, as I mentioned. I was going to post the recipe since so many people have asked me for it, but when I went to make it today, I couldn't find it! So I fudged a little...it still turned out really well. I also found out that if you Google "cowboy caviar" you can find about a million different versions of this delicious treat. Here's the one closest to what I actually did:

RecipeZaar Cowboy Caviar Isn't that a fun name?

Anyway, I used regular red wine vinegar, less olive oil, double the cumin, and no avocado. And I only had grape tomatoes, so I just cut those up, which turned out really well. I'll post the REAL recipe if I ever find it, but in the meantime, I'd just like to add that you can have this on top of your salads like a salsa, eat it with tortilla chips, rolled up in a tortilla, in a pita (obviously) or just with a spoon, or any other way you like it! It is yum yum yummy, hot, room temperature, or cold as well.

Now for a nod to the artless segue. Remember when I mentioned some family came up to help us clean house and get over our month-long illnesses? That would be my Uncle Robert and cousin Kyle. But did we mention that Kyle is known as The Baby Whisperer? I don't think he's ever met a baby that he couldn't charm in under five minutes. This picture was taken literally about 10 minutes after Robert and Kyle walked in the door:


James just grabbed some toys and books and ran over to his lap and said, "UP!" And if you know James, you know that he tends to be cautious and observe the situation for quite some time before choosing to trust a new person or a person he has not been around much...but not with Kyle! He jumped right in and they had a blast.

Kyle also mentioned that he might come to Raleigh for college...so I'm thinking he should graduate a year early so we will be in town at the same time and he can be our personal Baby Whisperer. Otherwise, he'll probably arrive in town right about the time that Ben graduates. BOO!

In other news, there is an author of some parenting books who calls herself the Baby Whisperer, but that is a Wicked Lie and you must stay away from her at all costs. Seriously. James wouldn't touch her with a ten-foot pole, and rightly so.

Tomorrow I have both Ty-Ty and Zachary...and Friday we have Ty-Ty again...so I probably won't be back until the weekend. See you later, alligators!