Is it November Yet?

SO close!!!

Till tomorrow, I leave you with this:

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

All for now,

Nugget

New Post...

Oh I know you want one. But guess what? This is all you get for now!!! Ha!

November is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo).

You shall be rewarded for your patience with an entire month of daily posts about excruciatingly mundane things.

You have been warned!

Nugget

Team Nugget's Anniversary Gift to You...

To our fellow diners last night, you are welcome.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the founding members of Team Nugget, myself and my Nugget! Four years! Woo-hoo! To celebrate, we planned a nice dinner out at Justus Drugstore, a Restaurant.

It promised to be a tasty evening of wonderful cuisine. Here is the blurb from the website:

"We believe real food raised with painstaking care by local small farm producers, prepared lovingly by skilled artisans served in an ambient beautiful space is an experience everyone should enjoy. If we can’t make it from scratch, we won’t serve it." --Justus Drugstore

Last night's menu included Striped Bass, Braised Pork, Roasted Chicken, Kobe Beef, and Rabbit, all locally raised. Mmm...(I don't even like rabbit and it sounded good!)

So we get there early to take advantage of the "window of opportunity" that is the Little Nugget's tolerance level for fine dining. That entailed lots of snacks and distracting yet quiet toys. It worked well with our dining experience in Denver last spring, so there you go.

Soon into the door we discover that this place isn't too kid friendly, no boosters, but hey, that's OK, it's a sophisticated vibe, and our girl is cool with it. I made some joke about duct tape, but I don't think the woman who seated us had kids, or she would have pissed herself with laughter.

They brought us menus and water, (Little Nugget immediately noticed the straw was absent, apparently she requires straws now, but this wasn't a straw place...she rolled with it though, good girl!) First off, the waiter patiently asked us what our meal plans were for the Little Nugget. Uh, raisins and rice cakes for appetizer, then what ever she'll eat off our plate? He allowed us a few moments with the menu (which as I mentioned had rabbit and stuff, and she realistically would prefer eating play-doh to that stuff, but we were trying really hard to make it work...).

Moments later, with all her snacks quickly disappearing at an alarming rate, our waiter came back over to discuss the menu and gently assert that entrees take some time (as indicated in above statement), all the while, someone was getting fidgettier by the second. Dude, I was getting nervous. None of the toys were working. Not even the stickers. I started having flashbacks to last weekend.

He gave us another "moment" but I noticed he was taking orders from all the other tables, even though they had came in after us. Normally I would have been a little put off, but I think he knew. And we knew. And he knew that we knew that he knew the Little Nugget was not going to make it though the dining service. And for that, we are grateful. And our fellow diners should be too. Because this could have turned out very unpleasant for EVERYone in that ambient space.

We packed it up, and they seemed relieved, and frankly, so were we. But now where to eat? Restaurant dining was out. So we headed over to our local grocery store and loaded up a rotisserie chicken, bottle of chilled champagne and a couple of salads from the salad bar, and snuggled on the couch at home!

It's all good!

All for now,

Nugget

Just Shoot Me Now...

That's how I felt today. Seriously. It was a craptastic suckfest. Twice a year my Dad's side of the family gets together. Aunts and uncles come in from all over the country. Big family, lots of food, lots of catching up.

Today, of all days, Little Nugget had one of those God-forsaken spirited kid meltdowns. Too many people. Too much noise. Too much attention. I so get it, I was that kid 40-some years ago. Sigh. Big families can be overwhelming.

So I spent our brief time there with her clawing her way up my torso, whimpering, crying, wailing to the point of almost choking. I got her calmed down a couple of times, but then something else would set her off, then she couldn't get herself calmed down again. Walks didn't help. Singing her theme song didn't help. Not even the Wonder Pets could help.

To make things better, I had one hell of a headache due to the impending arctic freeze heading our way.

We managed to eat lunch, but not much else. Soon after, it was clear that she just couldn't shake out of it. We left. I didn't even get to say goodbye. I was so upset I lost it before I made it to the car. Luckily Hubby Nugget got to do some visiting, but I didn't even get to talk to my cousins E or C, or my Uncle R!

Of course once we left she was fine.

I really don't have much to say about it other than it sucked. But I'm not going to let it keep us away from get-togethers. That wouldn't make any sense. So just a heads up! We'll be the ones in the corner with the screaming toddler! She'll grow out of it eventually!

It's all good.

Nugget

No Threads Tying Any of this Together into a Unified Theme...

Just some more random thoughts that were too complicated for a tweet, but not substantial enough for a whole post.

Item number 1: This morning Little Nugget asked me to "Take off panties," (all signs point to impending potty training success!) and when I picked her up, I emerged covered in urine that squirted from her squishy pull-ups like an overripe tomato. Her reaction? "It's full." Indeed! Who knew LN would have such a dry sense of humor? Good stuff!

Item number 2: Not content to put away my gardening tools for winter, I decided to make a tiny little "greenhouse" out of my minuscule office window, which frankly gets more sunlight than any window at home. I found tiny little pots at Michaels and planted little sedum and scottish moss starts, so hopefully I will have a nice little group of plants for the garden next year. Pictures are forthcoming, of course. And it makes walking into the office a little happier in the morning.

Item number 3: (Totally hypothetical scenario and in no way represents any known person, fictional or real) Today at work the departmental pestical stopped by and stuck his head in my office, said he was going to make a run for coffee, and would I like him to pick me up something? I'm still stunned. And I fully expect that he's done something to jeopardize my job and is just covering his tracks by pretending to be nice. If this story was about a real person, I'd be SO on to him!

Item number 4: We cannot keep clothes on the Monkey. She's going though a semi-clothed phase. I hope she outgrows it before high school.

Item number 5: Yea! Hubby Nugget just got the heater to come on! Yea! Time to whip up celebratory Manhattans!

All for now,
Nugget

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

No, really just a Bobcat:

Last weekend Hubby Nugget rented that fine piece of heavy equipment, and the backyard carnage began!

It's all part of Team Nugget's plan for Backyard World Domination. Our yard is on a diagonal slope (we live on a hill, duh), so HN wanted to level out the future patio area. In the end, it should be like a sunken fire pit space, with benches built into the side. And fabulous sedum growing out of the rock wall. Can't wait!

Go Nugget!

We (and when I say we, I mean my Nugget) jackhammered the existing useless sidewalk down to the backyard (which really was just an excuse for rain water to seep into the basement), and he filled that in with some more concrete chunks from the demo'd sidewalk in the back, and dirt from the patio is going there as well, to level it out a bit.

Jackson was very helpful:

The Bug, not so much! He's freakishly camera-shy, maybe he thinks it will steal his soul...nah, he's just a scaredy cat!

More scooping action:

Hubby Nugget was having fun!

Behold the future driveway extension! We have a bit more filling to do!

Woo-hoo! More places to plant next spring!!!

All for now,

Nugget