Thursday Thoughts: Mine are not together yet, but carry on.

1. I usually start the new year with my poop in a pile ready to get down to business. As discussed yesterday, in the opening week of this year my poop is more like a Jackson Pollock painting. I've been holding my planner in a kung fu grip so I can get my shit together before vacation in a few weeks.

Via 

2. Last weekend we went to the shore to take pics of the house so we could list it on VRBO. If you know someone who's looking to rent in the southern Jersey Shore region, specifically in Ocean City, please share the link with them. Thank you! Outtake: MFD also decided to winterize it...and turned the water off before he told me he was winterizing it. Then as soon as I found out the water was off, I had to go to the bathroom because that is always the way.

3. Countdown to Africa: 12 days. This week I got a typhoid shot and picked up my prescription for malaria and cipro. And fought with MFD about if we needed a yellow fever shot or not. He says no, I say why not. So if all you see from Africa is photos of us being detained in the airport, you know who to blame. Just kidding, the CDC agrees with him. People who have survived 14 hour flights - please share your tips! And drinking booze and taking pills don't count. If you have noise cancelling headphones that didn't cost an arm and a leg, hook a sister up with a link please.

4. Did I tell you guys I got a bluetooth type device that is going to tell me where my keys are every time I lose them? Stay tuned to see if this works. I really need it to work based on all the key fuckery that I subject myself to.

5. Just a reminder as we start a new year:

6. So I broke my gel nails on vacation only rule and got them over Christmas. Now I want to take them off and I have to do it at home so I'm avoiding it. People who remove at home, any tips?

7. I finished Making a Murderer this week. I have some opinions about innocence in regards to these two subjects of the docuseries, but most of the takeaway for me was about fair trials and preconceived notions we might go in with, regardless of our role in the system (judge, law enforcement, lawyer, accused, juror). What an eye opener about the legal system and what people are up against - especially uneducated people. One of the many lawyers said something in the last episode that has really stuck with me about how you think the system works until it works against you or someone in your family, and then you really see the cracks. And that it could happen to any of us. I'd like to share more thoughts but I don't want to ruin it. Watch it with an open mind!

8. The next Show Us Your Books is on Tuesday. I had a little over two weeks of meh reads - I bounced back and forth between a few books that were not really lighting a fire under my ass. I picked it up this week with Black-Eyed Susans. We also have a new button if you're interested, and you can get it on the right sidebar.

9. Blah blah I know. Look, us looking gross with our dogs over the holiday slow time:

10. I'm putting my money where my mouth is in regards to raising money and awareness for homeless youth, one of the most under-served age groups in the homeless population. On March 18 I'll be joining friends for Covenant House's Sleep Out to Support Homeless Youth. I'll be sleeping outside to raise awareness and money for homeless kids - homeless teens on their own often slip through the cracks with few places to turn - they are the most under-served group in the homeless population. Covenant House is the largest privately-funded agency providing food, shelter, immediate crisis care, and essential services to homeless youth in 27 cities in North America.They strive to move each young person forward down a path to an independent adulthood, free from the risk of future homelessness. I need to raise $1,000 for these kids by February 19. Thanks to the generosity of my people, I am within $200 of that goal. Any small amount helps. If you can donate, please click here. p.s. did you know you can age out of participating in this? You can. I'm in the last year of eligibility with my old ass. Thanks to Catie & Joe for opening my eyes to this opportunity and for the invite to join their team!

11. Ecard of the week: 

Thirty ninth inning stretch

I've been feeling a little lost the past few weeks. I can probably count on the number of times I've felt like that in the past 10 years, it's really not a mood or thing I encounter with even yearly regularity.

I have a lot of balls in the air right now but I'm not behind on anything (except emails, who's with me?), so I've been trying to figure out why I was feeling off my game. Is it just the holiday haze? Do I already have the winter blues which are like the Sunday night blues but for longer and slightly less intense? No to both of those things.

Then I got it. This year I'm going to do a lot of things that make me stretch. I'm going to stretch my comfort levels, my wallet, my need to control what's controllable, and my ability to manage and organize life and the rapidly moving pieces of it.

Some of these things are happening now and some are quickly approaching. When I'm faced with change or overwhelmed,  it takes me a while to acclimate. Like driving a new car for the first time: I have to figure out where all the switches are and make sure the mirrors are in the right position for me so I don't crash and injure myself or anyone else.

This has no real purpose except to say that I usually kick off the year with guns blazing, and that I didn't this time. I want to acknowledge that and the fact that I'm okay with it. And to say if you didn't start this week off all hot to trot for the year, you're not alone. I know I'm going to kill it in 2016 and you totally are too, even if we entered it by the side door.

Get your hot crab dip here

The first week of a new year - what a perfect time to share a fatty delicious appetizer, am I right?

Sorry friends. If you're looking for some green recipes to support your be healthier resolutions, this is not the place to be today. I've been meaning to share this here for years, because every time I share a recipe from my file for safe keeping on this blog, I am one step closer to getting rid of that file. And I love to get rid of shit.

Since I just made this little ditty on New Year's Eve, the unfortunate time to share this is today. Look, I'm quite fluffy myself right now and should be on a greens and chicken only diet...but I have leftovers. So I won't be. Plus I'm sure you have some events to go to or movie nights to have by yourself in January that you might need a hot fatty app for, no?

This is how I make my hot crab dip:

Ingredients
8 oz softened Philly cream cheese
1/2C Hellman's mayo
1C shredded sharp cheddar white cheese
16 oz can premium crabmeat - jumbo lump or claw meat are both good
1/2 TBS minced onion
1 bunch of green onions, chopped
1TBS fresh lemon juice
1TSP hot sauce
1/4TSP dry mustard
1TSP W sauce
Many shakes of Old Bay
paprika for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all ingredients together. Spray pie plate with nonstick stuff and transfer. Garnish with a little more shredded cheese and a few sprinkles of paprika. Bake in preheated oven 30 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly.

Serve with crackers, tostitos, veggies, or eat with a spoon and enjoy!

p.s. happy birthday to my father-in-law today!

And p.p.s the first Show Us Your Books of 2016 is a week from today!

TWTW - the one with New Year

Raise your hand if you didn't make it until midnight on New Year's Eve...my hand is raised. I did take Gus to acupuncture earlier in the day, MFD and I were unintentional samesies dressers, and Debbie came over for crab dip and other apps and a super easy ice cream sandwich.

Good thing I made the traditional pork & sauerkraut New Year's meal on New Year's eve because as I was settling in with my coffee to make mashed potatoes on New Year's morning, I got a call from MFD that he needed me to bring his sax to the clubhouse. It's not Mummers Day unless he forgets something that requires me to leave the house in pajamas. And then he came back home looking for something else. I felt anxiety and I'm not even a mummer. LOL

Peters and I met Jenn & Kit Kat at the train station...then I had to get off at 30th Street to pee. So, need to pee before the parade and I wore a coat that wasn't warm enough. Amateur hour. No matter, Peters and I hopped a cab down Market Street to see Frank at Fralinger and take a look see at the street scenes before heading to see Ferko.

We watched Ferko run through a few times.

Then we made our way to the stands where we encountered a hipster in an awesome suit and a marshall with a man bun. We were sitting in the back, which is where you can see the marshalls sweat it seemingly more than the performers sometimes. Many things go into a show, not just what you see in the front!

Lots of chicanery on the train home, a stop at Three Monkeys, then Jenn picked me up and we headed down to Ferko. I was very pleased with the parade through the neighborhood after it was announced that Ferko won second prize. Congrats to South Philly on first prize! Plus time with my favorites before I started whining to go home. Old ladies cannot drink beer all day. Trust.

I loved Ferko this year, especially the music. Here is aYouTube clip of it below if you're interested.

I meant to do a great many things Saturday including driving down to the shore, but when I woke up I didn't want to do much aside from watch Making a Murderer and order food. Luckily MFD and I blurted out to each other immediately that we didn't want to go to the shore as planned which alleviated either one of us from feeling like a ruiner. We stayed home and he went to make his Mum rounds at night. After we watched the parade again, of course.

Sunday it was time to pay the piper. We were on the road to the shore by 9:30. We took photos to put it up on VRBO and winterized it. We stopped at the beach to see the ocean and on the way home we made a huge list of things that need to be done in the spring. Well, not on the way home. On the way to a showing appointment. I was driving Miss Daisy all over NJ and got home a few hours later than planned.

I had grand plans of things to do at home, but I was exhausted. So I made mashed potatoes to accompany the leftover pork, made scrambled eggs and poop soup for the dogs, and egg muffins for breakfast for me this week. Lunches are salads (buying from Wawa) and dinners are leftovers and spaghetti squash with olive oil, black olives, grape tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella. I'll make that today or Tuesday.

Speaking of dogs...

And of course, the best thing about January - the return of Downton Abbey.

I hope you started 2016 off on a good foot! I'm looking to settle into it this week. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed...time to stop thinking and just breathe and make some to do lists.

My BFF Laura celebrated her birthday yesterday, and my aunt Sue celebrates hers today. Happy Happy!

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

I'm looking forward to your mistakes.

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're Doing Something.

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made before. Don't freeze, don't stop, don't worry that it isn't good enough, or it isn't perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you're scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.” 
― Neil Gaiman

Happy New Year! Let's do this, 2016.

For information on the Philadelphia Mummers, check out my post from yesterday. I hope you tune in to the live stream for a taste of a uniquely Philadelphia tradition if you're not in the area! Access the live feed of the parade here.