Holy Honey Ham that's Hot!

2012 and I are not getting off on the right foot. Branden and I went grocery shopping yesterday and were happy to find that all of the big Christmas hams were 1/2 off! We bought a 3kg smoked ham with every intent of cooking it up, eating some for dinner and then having lots of yummy ham leftovers. Lunch meat is so expensive so we were looking forward to real ham sandwiches at a fraction of the price!

We have discovered the best way to cook ham is by first boiling it in Coke and then baking it with a brown sugar glaze. Since it was a smoked ham and I didn't have time to soak it in cold water overnight to get rid of the excess salt, I did the quick version by putting it in a pot of cold water and bringing it to the boil while scraping off any gunk off the top. Once it's to the boil, then I can take it out and start boiling it in Coke with a chopped onion (we used 2 small red onions) and some peppercorns. Since it was a big ham, we boiled it for an hour and half. We boiled it in the biggest pot we had but it still stuck out the top of the liquid a little bit so halfway through the boiling process, I had to flip the ham. I had a big plastic stirring spoon that I had been using, so I used that to try and shift the ham.

My big spoon managed to slip off of the ham, shooting a large spoonful of boiling Coke right down my shirt and onto my left "chest area"! I ran to the bathroom, threw my burning top off, and put a room temp damp towel on my burning area. I've heard not to put cold water on a burn so that's why I did just room temp water. Then I put some antiseptic stuff we have that is supposed to be good for burns, and then some plain lotion. Amongst all the pain of a burned boob, Branden and I were still managing to laugh about all of this. I always seem to hurt myself in the strangest ways!

Later, after our tasty ham meal, I was in an odd funk where anything Branden said or did would just irritate me to no end. I have found that the easiest ways to deal with these funks is to just be open about them and tell Branden outright that I'm in an odd bad mood. After announcing my pissy predicament, he said something sarcastically that caused me to laugh and then 'attack' him for irritating 'the monster' (aka me). My attack came in the form of tickling his ribs, but in his attempt to block being tickled, my wrist collided with his hand, pushing my palm inwards, and making loud popping sounds. Some tears later, I decided that 2012 is not very nice and I hope it get's it's Mayan come-up-ins!

Poor Branden felt so bad but it wasn't his fault. My wrist is a bit sore today and I've got some interesting red marks on my chest, but thankfully the pain is gone. I am looking forward to some ham leftovers, as I will be making tomato salad with it for lunch today and then chicken and ham casserole for dinner tonight. Mmmmm, I love ham.

Ok, maybe I don't love ham as much as these guys...

So how was your start to 2012??

My car's other job was a honey bucket

For those of you who don't know, I don't have a valid driver's license anymore and we haven't owned a car since we left the States 2.5 years ago. Sometimes I miss not having the freedom to jump into my car, turn the radio on, find a nice long country road, and drive my thoughts away...then I remember that I'm in Ireland where the petrol is about the equivalent of $8 a gallon and the roads here are terrifying since they seem more designed for micro machines and are curvy with no hedge control so every corner is a blind corner. Oh yeah, and they drive on the wrong side of the road. Another way for me to not miss driving is to go back into my archives and read stories about my past car woes. This was written back in 2005 and was when I was driving a 1990 Honda CRX. It was a fun car but then it started developing some problems...

The other night I got in my car and smelled gas...like fart gas!  It was beyond sickening and then I remembered that this has happened before. Last year in the fall, it rained consistently for a few days.  You're probably thinking that I should be used to this considering I live in the Pacific Northwest, right?!  Actually where I live, it really doesn't rain that much, so constant rain for days is out of the norm.  Anyway, when this happened last year, I distinctly remember wondering if someone pooped in my car...for some reason there is a dormant poo smell that 'comes alive' when it rains a lot! It has been raining a lot...to say the least...so my car is dominated by the scent of crap! I get in the car and almost expect to turn around and see some balding hobo, in just a greasy wife beater and boxers, eating a KFC bucket of chicken, smiling happily as he just cuts em loose in my car! 

Considering that I have no backseat, this is not possible...surprise, surprise! I've also considered leaving a hidden camera in my car to see if bums are breaking in to use it as an outhouse...Yeah, I drive a 1990 Honda Honey Bucket! I have a wonderful air fresener in the car but it only works when you turn the vents on, so the poo smell lurks until I can get the heater warm enough to turn it on!  Moral of the story:  I NEED A NEW CAR!!! 

Note to readers: Chrissy and I named the 'hobo' Chuck even though we discovered that I just had a leak in my back hatch that was making the carpet wet which apparently makes it smell like poo...it was more fun to blame it on Chuck though!

Also, go visit Melynda at Crazy World today! She is featuring two fabulous bloggers today...and I may just be one of them! Well, I'm way late for the 12hr long Lord of the Rings marathon (but it's ok because I hate the first film and have seen the second one a million times) so I'll be catching up on all of your blogs tomorrow! Happy Friday!

The Joy of Christmas

And so ends another Christmas season. I was feeling good by Christmas Eve night and when Branden got home from work, we enjoyed a dinner of chicken roulade stuffed with chorizo, red pepper, garlic, and sheep's cheese. For those of you who have never had the amazing wonder that is sheep's cheese, you are missing out! It tastes nothing like goat's cheese (which is good because I loath goat's cheese) and has no gamey flavor at all. It reminds me of a soft parmesan. Anyhoo, with a side of brussel sprouts and honey carrots, we were happy campers. Our house was empty, as all of our housemates went to be with their families, so we took full advantage of the lone house and left our empty coco mugs on the coffee table in the living room over night! (we're so bad!!!)

Christmas morning was great. We slept in and relished in the fact that we had a morning and an entire day to be together. Branden had been working from Wed-Sat so we were very much missing each other by Christmas. There was no tree, no presents to be opened, and no family to laugh with, but it oddly was a wonderful Christmas morning. I suppose it just put the true meaning of Christmas into perspective as we were very grateful that we had each other and that God had taken care of us in this new adventure in Ireland. We had already received a box of goodies from Branden's parents, Chrissy, my sis & bro-in-law,  the laptop, and another box from my parents is still on the way, but the entire week, we had solely been looking forward to just being together for Christmas.

So we took our time, Branden made his famous scrambled eggs, and we just enjoyed every moment we had. At 2:00pm, we headed to our friend's house for Christmas lunch/dinner. We feasted on tons of delicious food, played lots of fun games, and laughed like loons. We had an epic game of pictionary where we drew with dry erase markers on the tiled floor and divided the teams by tipping the dining room table on it's side to block and prevent peeking. It was fabulous!

When we got home, we were able to catch my parents on Skype before they headed over to my grandparent's house for their Christmas dinner. We then Skype'd Branden's parents and got to see his brother too. Then we finally Skype'd my sis and bro-in-law, where our oldest nephew showed us some of his new treasures and the little one entertained us due to his gingerbread sugar high. It was great to finish off Christmas day with family. Even though we couldn't be with them, it was still nice to see their faces and have them be part of our first Irish Christmas.

Yesterday, I felt as if my cold was coming back. I don't think it was, but I think all the fun, chatting, and laughing from Christmas day maybe was a bit much from my previous week of laying low and resting a lot. We took it easy all day, watching TV movies, snuggling under the blankets, and looking at random stuff on Pinterest. I feel better today, I just have lots of 'leftovers' floating around my upper body. Today we will continue to take it easy with our highlight being a run to the store for groceries. Branden goes back to work tomorrow so we are enjoying the rest of our time together while it lasts.

Did everyone else have a lovely Christmas?

*Drool* *Snore* *Dream*

I don't have much time. It will be coming soon and when it does, it will take me completely. I just want to let you all know that I am feeling much better. Branden brought home a cocktail of meds from the big pharmacy in town last night and they are working wonders. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and understand that I probably won't be able to personally wish you it on your own sites today because, it's here...

...The pills Branden brought are fabulouzzzzz.....they just make me really zzzzleeeepy....zzzo I'll be zzzpending the day like a cat....zzzo long and Merry Chrizzztmazzz....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

3 days to get better...

I'd give an update on my condition but I can't type in whine. Basically just re-read yesterday's post but imagine me with much less sleep.

This means I'm cheating on my post today and just sharing an old post from 2005. I used to do shaped posts which were kind of cool looking but super hard to do. I hope you enjoy!

                                           I  like to                                          $

                                     eat candy canes.                                   %

                              I love the peppermint taste;                           $

                       it is so good!  The fruity ones are a

                bit funky but I'll still eat them. The one thing

             that I don't like about       candy  canes is  that

            they can cut the roof         of your mouth so bad

            you may as well be           licking  a razor  blade!

            You think that  it's             just the red  coloring

            that's  starting to              run; but in reality it is

           your blood! Lucky              the peppermint covers

           the taste  of  the                blood but it also burns

          the cut really bad.               The candy cane gets a

           sharp ridge in it                  which  really hurts if a

                                                   taste bud gets stuck in

                                                    it! Then  your tongue            $

                                                   starts bleeding,adding           %

                                                   more bleeding parts in           $

                                                   your mouth.  Still  the

                                                   flavoring  covers that

                                                   yucky blood taste but

                                                   now  it's causing  your

                                                   mouth  to  burn  even

                                                   more!  Nothing  says

                                                   Merry Christmas  like

                                                   a kid  with a  smiling,

                                                   bloody mouth all due

                                                   to that  wonderfully

                                                   great holiday treat:

                                                   The candy cane! Do

                                                    you have any idea               $

                                                      how difficult this                % 

                                                        was to write?                   $

                                                  

*Note: this horrible mouth torture also applies to the countless amounts of throat lozenges I've been consuming. It felt like my satsuma had battery acid in it instead of citric acid this morning and my Irish version of lemon Theraflu (which means it has nothing helpful in it) made my throat even more sore. Well, Branden left me some money so I should probably shower and head to the Pharmacy.