LSUgrad03's Profile

Crockpot oatmeal

Yep.... This 1981 baby and her friends had every single one of these toys, except maybe the Omnibot.... But one of my brother's friends probably had one.

My mom got me a Cabbage Patch kid the first year they came out too. She went with a friend, but when she saw the melee, opted out. She picked up a few other things she needed and was waiting on line to check out when the woman in front of her, who had two CPKs, turned and asked if she wanted the second one. It was my first of probably four (two regular and two preemies) CPKs.

Also, the My Little Ponies are definitely back. My 4 and 6-year-old nieces are obsessed!

No, I didn't. I had a random assortment of hand-me-down furniture and no inclination at the time to try remaking something. I was a couple of years out of college before I even refreshed something with spray paint. I've come a long way since then....

I love this trend of purchasing legs to turn a boring block of wood into something mod-inspired... Great job!

I would also look around at the rest of the neighborhood. Asbestos siding is pretty common in my part of town and the people who want to live here don't seem to have a problem buying and selling it. I have cypress siding and kind of wish I had asbestos because I'm sure I wouldn't have just spent $2500 replacing less than a quarter of the cracked and damaged cypress with redwood (on my tiny 1100 sq. foot cottage).

I'd rather have any of the three than the fourth option that I'm currently about nine months away from - the SUBURBS!

It's the worst bits of each option -- dense and lots of traffic, but no walking or biking anywhere since the main roads are all major 65 mph highways or old two-lane country roads that now see ten times the traffic they were designed for (with no shoulders and deep ditches on both sides). Horrible traffic to get to and from work downtown (mid-sized southern city) 20 miles away and not close to any of the things I love, with the exception of my future husband who currently lives in the space. He's promised me it will only be for two years and I've apologized in advance for coming home pissed off by the traffic.

There is a neighborhood I want to move to someday in the next couple of years and it's nearly entirely because of the community (and the houses are the right size and price, generally). But it's a neighborhood of families, where people really do become friends and drink wine as all their kids play in the backyard. It exists and I'm so glad my brother, his wife and three kids live there already. It will just make it better when we finally make it.

Ugh, have you ever tried to shove a three year old's fingers into kid gardening gloves so they can "help" for approximately one third of the time it took to wrestle each finger into place? Not worth it. Do they make gardening mittens?

I live about an hour from Breaux Bridge, where this home is located. It's an adorable little town with great antiquing and a cute little restaurant where you can dance to zydeco bands on Saturday morning. This home is in Acadiana, the land where Catholics from Canada landed after being shipped out by British Protestants. They built homes, married Native Americans and former slaves and made a brilliant, vibrant culture. Please don't judge it until you know more about it.

The entire world may not approve of the history of the deep South, but please try to remember that it is history. There are a lot of people down here who continue to work everyday toward equality and creating opportunity for all people. In fact, the most racist people I've ever met are usually from up North.

And Garden and Gun is an upscale version of Southern Living. I actually stopped subscribing because beautiful pictures of things I couldn't afford ($500 riding boots) were driving me mad.

I try to make sure there is enough variety that everyone in attendance can eat a full meal, even if they can't eat every dish.

At my recent birthday party, we had 10 omnivores and six specialty variety diets:
- gluten-free/dairy-free
- vegetarian
- no red meat, no pork
- allergic to mozzarella, no pork
- allergic to tomatoes
- allergic to cinnamon

The key was a thoughtful menu and descriptive written labels for the food. We did:
- Smoked beef brisket (making sure no tomatoes or gluten in the bbq sauce) and smoked chicken (same bbq sauce) sliders. Gluten free girl could eat just the meat.
- Beet salad (good for all with a dairy-free mayo)
- Mac and cheese (good for all but the gluten-free/dairy-free girl and it made a good main dish for the vegetarian)
- crazy good cream cheese, bacon, cheese dip (the only thing totally wiped out, despite that four guests couldn't eat it)
- Chocolate cake (only the gluten-free/dairy-free guest couldn't have it)
- Gluten-free/dairy-free snickerdoodles (I made this so my gluten-free/dairy-free guest could have more dessert than the dark chocolate squares she usually brings to parties. The only person who couldn't eat them was my allergic to cinnamon guest).

So there wasn't a single dish that everyone could eat, but no one left hungry, even gluten-free/dairy-free girl. She was touched that I labeled everything and that I made a special dessert for her (which was delicious and easy). Also, lots of booze.