Eating Baby Food

Sounds funny, huh? But, I had bought a bunch of food for our granddaughter who is two and a half years old. Some of the prepackaged stuff I can donate to the food pantry at church---in fact, it sounds like they are patting us down for donations on Sunday, so I am armed and ready. But, the clementines, and bananas---and the puffs---I can't resist. Gerber makes these puffs that are supposidly sweet potato, or apple or strawberry banana. But, the ingredients list starts with rice flour, whole wheat flour, wheat starch, sugar, whole grain oat flour, and then---awe, there it is, dried sweet potato puree. Then the phosphates, "natural" flavors, extracts colors, zinc, and not just iron, but electrolytic iron. wow. It tastes great. A light cereal to start the day in a handy container that reminds me of a vase or tall cup. Did they design the container to fit cup holders in our SUVs or for little hands? If a toddler reached inside, he or she would get a handful, and have to dump out the product or get stuck up to his elbow. So, I bet most of this product ends up on the floor of cars. But, it is tasty.

And the reduced fat milk---I have added to this morning's coffee to use it up. It expires today. And I like milk in my coffee. I am pretending that it is just iced milk. We have another baby coming to visit, but baby Karen is only four months old, so I doubt she will be able to help me with the puffs or Gerber grape juice. I just pretended it was an adult beverage---grape juice slushy. Finished off the opened quart last night.

The boxed apple juice will keep. Ben-Ben will probably help me with that.

I got to skype last night with the new Anchorage residents. So good to see them all together, but my, oh, my they needed sleep. They are in temporary furnished quarters---little bit bigger than a one bedroom apartment, but resembling a hotel room with a kitchen. They find out Monday about possible on base housing. That would be too good to be true. Dare we even hope? And if they get on base housing---is there somewhere to rent some furniture until their furniture comes? in a month?

This time change will take some getting used to. I need one of those clocks on the wall set to Anchorage time---like you used to see on newsroom walls. I saw one at Target about a year ago. I should have gotten it then. For example, it is five am here---which is 2am in Anchorage. I think.
So, we woke Abby up at 4am yesterday to get to the airport, which was 1am Anchorage time. Then they flew all day through Seattle, and arrived at 5pm Anchorage time, which is 8pm our time. That poor little girl had been up for way too long. And only a short, short nap, Lauren said, as they were arriving. Andy said she got another micronap on the way to the base. Poor baby. She is going to be so confused as to when to nap, and when to sleep for the night for a while. And when she is tired, it is hard to make decisions. She won't be this mixed up until she has teen overnighters.

Mine is such a hard life. not. After the wedding, I had to plow through bags of frozen grilled salmon. And salmon does not seem to have much roughage. Are we aware that Eskimos are probably constipated? I still have a bag of sliced bread in the freezer which I am slowly consuming as toast. Now, the baby food. I may pawn off one of the bags of oranges on Pedro next door. And I guess I could freeze the bananas---for more slushies or smoothies. Better than the banana bread path as that path involves heating up the house with the oven. When daily temps are one hundred degrees, it just seems silly to use the oven. Even with spotty power outages, I should not have to leave the house being fully provisioned. Resetting the radio clocks, however, is the highlight of my day!

The radio truckers show woke me up this morning with the sad, sad news that our president---the one I did NOT vote for, has called out his dogs to combat the conservative tea parties. Now, if President George W. Bush had encouraged conservatives to disrupt and get violent at liberal protests, he would have been impeached. But, the dims get away with it. I hope the dims are happy with their choice. It is a sad, sad day in America when the president of the United States calls out his dogs to scratch, hit, jump conservatives assembling peacefully. And our brave policemen, distained by this current administration, will be the ones who suffer, as they try to maintain order between conservatives singing GOD BLESS AMERICA, and the shrill, angry rabble sent to attack them.

Also in the news---the Secret Service officers detailed to Carter are revealing what a fake he was. He only carried his luggage when the cameras were rolling. And he appeared to go to work early, but closed the curtains and took a nap. What a fake. Be sure your sins will find you out.

And the Hollywood gushing of the day---Great movies??? Rebellious teenagers? Not what I'd call great movies. Sorry. Call me a party pooper. A movie director/actor died at age 59 of a heart attack walking with his family in New York City.