I just saw that Merlin Oleson passed away. What the heck is with these deaths?!?

I blame the Obama Administration.

Aims, or anyone else, I remember you mentioning cooking for a month a while back. How do you do that? I start my new job on Monday (and it's payday on Saturday), so I'm contemplating trying to do a ton of cooking this weekend to reduce stress for the next few weeks.

I'm guessing that laying in all out is a first step, but I though maybe you, or anyone else, might have good suggestions/ideas for me.

Basically, I made a menu of things that could be easily accessed for meals. In my first round I made lasagna, chicken pot pie, pot roast, meatloaf, chicken and bean burritos, and spaghetti sauce. I made a shopping list and bought as much in bulk as I could to save $$. I also bought those disposable aluminum pans with covers. From there I kind of did things in order from quickest to longest prep time. Like the pot roasts were the easiest - take a huge ziploc bag and put in it: a seasoned pot roast, 1 lb of baby carrots, 1 can of French Onion soup, 1 can of Golden Mushroom soup, 1/2 a container of beef broth. Zip up the bag and put it in the freezer. I found pot roasts on sale at the local grocery that were buy one, get one and I had coupons for the soups and broth and bags.

It worked out great for us. I need to do it again soon, but I'm not sure when we're moving, so it's hard to do. I might do a smaller cooking this time. In the end I ended up with 4 pot roasts, 4 1/2 sheet lasagnas, 4 1/2 sheet pot pies, 5 gallons of spaghetti sauce, 6 meatloafs, and about 35 chicken and bean burritos which were AWESOME for lunches. Each dish (except the burritos) were enough for 3-4 meals (including lunches)all for about $500.

Happy Birthday, tommy!

Boo to ita's er experience!

Hi nilly!

"Midnight Knitter" Strikes New Jersey Town at Night with Knitted Cozies

The Midnight Knitter what knits at Midnight!

Tree cozies!

gronk! My air mattress has failed epically! I spent a good part of yesterday searching for the leak and put duct tape on any spot that might be weak, and still it deflated over night! I'm going to go out and get a new one because I can't take this anymore!

Hivemind question:

Has anyone ever heard of these people? [link]

I put my resume up at sologig.com hoping to pick up some part time work and this was the first response. I responded but wonder if anyone knows if they are legit or not.

and I think this is my longest post ever!

I just saw that Merlin Oleson passed away.

I totally read that the first two or three times as Merle Oberon, and was mostly boggled that I had gotten so horribly confused and not realized that she wasn't already dead. (As it turned out, I hadn't and she was. Sorry, Merle.)

(Also, sorry, Merlin.)

Bad-ass all-black penguin:

[link]

It's Batpenguin!

Hey, Stephanie, I've only done some minimal stuff, not the on the scale you're talking about, but my friend has done a bunch. I just friended her over on facebook, so if she grabs me back, I'd be happy to hook the two of you up. She does a great job with it.

I blame the Obama Administration.

I was going to say Dick Cheney keeps stealing other peoples life essences to maintain his current form.

Bad-ass all-black penguin

It's Basement Penguin!

That penguin is cool. It also seems to be giving the camera the stinkeye. That can't end well.

I was gonna post this in Cable Drama, but I did not want to interrupt the awesome White Collar ho-yay luv-fest, so I am going to mention here that J and I are going to see the Paley panel on Men of a Certain Age tomorrow night. We love the show and the whole cast will be there along with others. I am VERY excited!