Running Gag

noun: a joke/gag that is repeated many times in slightly different ways

I don’t know if this is a normal thing for most families, but around here we have a proclivity for running gags. We will have a totally random topic or word or song pop up in our conversations and then for some reason we just keep working it in…over, and over, and over. Ask Nathan about pants. That one’s been rolling around for almost ten years now. Anyway, revisiting the gags usually ends up being funny or at least making Malia roll her eyes so hard that she can see her brain. Earlier this year, the DARE song was the gag. Drugs and that catchy tune from our kids’ 5th grade participation in the DARE program just came up far more frequently than was probably good for us. But it was funny. And so, it kept happening. After a while we aged out of that gag, and something else took its place. 

For some reason, cannibalism has been an on again/off again joke topic throughout this year. I think Malia started it with a random comment in the group chat my kids have established with their cousins on Kevin’s side of the family. But as I’m not actually in that group chat, I’m not certain. Nevertheless, cannibalism is a topic that has popped into our joke/random comment repertoire fairly frequently of late. And that led me to select this year’s Halloween dinner: man-burgers. And while this evening’s repast did not have the visual impact of some I’ve created in previous years, it did hit that running gag. And it was tasty. And simple to prepare. And honestly, I needed that this week.

As for costuming this year, Malia and two of her bestest friends planned a group costume. Malia was Eeyore with her friends dressed up as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. Malia sent me a text from school this morning telling me that one of her teachers had the exact same costume as she did. At least she was amused and not utterly humiliated. Because as a middle schooler, it could go either way. This evening, she is off at a friend’s house for a Halloween party, still in costume, of course. 

Nathan hasn’t really dressed up for Halloween for years, but this year he decided that he wanted to join the festivities. He dressed up as Steve from Blues Clues, a kids’ t.v. show that was popular when he was part of the preschool demographic. He was super excited about it and watched an entire episode of Blues Clues to get into character. And then he made a short Blues Clues inspired video for us rather than just sending a picture. With Blue and his handy dandy notebook in hand, he headed off to work and school with some of his notes for one of his jobs written in his notebook. With a giant crayon, of course. 😂 And he turned heads all day. Everyone in his generation is familiar with Blues Clues and even as he was walking back to his apartment this afternoon, he could see heads turn in recognition as the cars drove by. 

Halloween has become a much slower holiday in our entire neighborhood, not just our house. Families have grown up, just like ours, and it seems like there are fewer and fewer kids knocking on the door every year. We still make sure to keep some candy on hand for those that come, but we make sure to buy stuff we like so that it will actually get eaten eventually when the doorbell only rings a dozen times.

As usual, I already have ideas of fun foods I want to create next year. But as for next week, we begin making pies!

Muppet Killer

Having Halloween fall on a Friday is always fun. Because not only is there no school tomorrow and no need to drag sugar coma inflicted children out of bed in order to get them to school (although we really don’t need to do that anymore, which is nice), but it is pancake day! And having time for Halloween pancakes on actual Halloween is great! So, I had a pancake plan, a plan that involved lychee and blueberry eyeballs casually dropped on top of some lime green pancakes all draped with a bloody lychee syrup. It was a good plan, a tasty one, but there was a very unfortunate, and completely unexpected, outcome. When I assembled my first pancake stack, it looked exactly like Kermit the frog. Except bloody. 🤦

Killing Kermit was not exactly on my to-do list for today, but sometimes our days don’t go as expected. 🤣

Boo-tifully Simple

In my fun food endeavors, sometimes things can get pretty complicated. Making normal foods look super cute can often mean extra time in prepping, preparing, and presenting. On the other hand, sometimes simple efforts can have very positive results. Today’s Halloween themed dessert falls into the latter category. A package of frozen puff pastry, a can of cherry pie filling, and a cookie cutter were the main components of today’s creation. Add in a simple powdered sugar glaze and a purchased tube of black piping gel and a sweet little treat was born. And honestly, who doesn’t like a nice cherry turnover?

Are You My Mummy?

Like pancakes, sugar cookies are a blank canvas with an infinite number of possibilities. I don’t utilize them as often as I do pancakes, but sometimes I just crave a good sugar cookie. Add a simple Halloween themed twist, and dessert is served. An added bonus? When arms or legs break off due to super soft dough or ineptitude (yes, sometimes I just muck things up) or someone ends up with only one eye (I was rushing because I was really supposed to be cooking dinner rather than decorating sugar cookies), there is no need to worry. Sometimes mummies just lose parts. It’s all part of the deal. So those little baking mishaps add a charming Halloweeny twist. And whether whole or maimed, they taste good. 

Merry…Fall?

Last Christmas Nathan jumped on the whole experience gift train and gifted Kevin, Malia, and I with a trip to Color Me Mine. He went back to school after Christmas break and was out of town with friends for his spring break. Once his semester was over, we were neck deep in getting a missionary out the door and planning a wedding. About five minutes after the wedding, school started again. And so, though it had not been the intention, we found the calendar rapidly creeping towards Christmas once again and had yet to redeem last Christmas’ gift. Nathan only had one day for fall break this year, but he didn’t have any plans, so he drove down and helped us make applesauce last Friday. And on Saturday, we finally made it to Color Me Mine!

As it is fall, the Halloween and Christmas pieces are in stock, so Kevin and I opted for something Halloweeny. Kevin chose a sorcerer’s hat, and I painted a cute jack-o-lantern. Nathan opted for a super cute dinosaur mug, and Malia selected a roller skate. Apparently, Benson Boone has a music video in which he roller blades (I only know this because Google tells me so) and so her selection was in honor of her recent attendance at his American Heart Tour concert. She painted her skate red, white and blue, and paid a bit of homage to Boone by adding his initials to the back. It was super fun to sit for an afternoon and create a little something fun.

Once we finished painting, we headed over to Tsunami for dinner. We haven’t been since before Matthew left on his mission and we were all missing it a bit. And the funny thing is, all his allergy info is linked to Kevin’s account so even though Matthew was not there and we had a server we have never worked with before, she came to the table and immediately began to address the allergy needs. Which is why we love the staff at Tsunami! They are super fantastic! And another of the servers that we have worked with multiple times, asked where Matthew was and how he is doing. 😊

For those who have never been, ceramics painted at Color Me Mine get glazed and fired before you take them home, so there is a bit of a wait. Ours was actually a pretty quick one as our things were ready today, four or five days ahead of schedule. They all came out looking great! And it makes me want to go back soon and choose something Christmasy…

If I Only Had a Brain

Most of the time my creative food endeavors turn out pretty well. But once in a while the results are a bit lackluster and today was one of those days. I’m taking full advantage of the opportunity to make all the dairy-ful desserts I can while Matthew is not here, so today was a no bake mini cheesecake kind of a day. And the Halloweeny twist was supposed to be a bloody brain resting oh so casually on top. But for some reason my brains did not turn out like the recipe said they would. Not only did they not set up in the predicted 1-2 hours, it took a full 24 hours in the freezer for me to be able to even pop them out of the molds. And even then, they did not have the definition of the ones in the picture that accompanied the recipe. But they were far and away better than the 1–2-hour brains. Those ones looked just like a brain would post zombie attack. But the blood portion looked better when it was fresher and not so great later on. Although to be honest, the effect was middling at any time. I’ve made far more convincing edible blood on other occasions. So, I guess it was kind of a no-win situation.

Nevertheless, they tasted delightful. Lemon cheesecake topped with raspberry sauce is always a winner. And next week’s treat has a higher probability of being more aesthetically pleasing, so hopefully I won’t come away feeling a bit disgruntled like I am today. But despite the letdown of a less than stellar visual impact, cheesecake cures many ills. Which means that mediocre jelly blood aside, we all enjoyed sampling this evening’s treat.

2 hour brain

24 hour brain

This is What We Did This Weekend

The Mustache is In the Building!

Benson Boone is a current rising star in pop music. He has ties to Utah, makes it his home right now, and as such has a huge following here. He is wildly popular all over the world just now, but he is especially beloved in our neck of the woods. Malia discovered his music last year just as he was breaking into the big time and has been a fan ever since. He had several concerts here last year, and although Malia really wanted to go, we weren’t able to get tickets. So, when Boone announced his latest concert tour, tickets to the show were the prize to be won. And let me tell you, it feels like we won a prize by actually getting tickets. Let me explain why.

As previously mentioned, Malia missed out on two Boone concerts last year. She really, really wanted to get to one and she hadn’t asked for anything else all year, so Kevin and I felt like it was really important to make this experience happen for her. We told her that was the plan, and she was completely fine with it being her birthday present. I signed up for the Benson Boone email list and everything so that I would be able to get tickets during the pre-sale instead of waiting until they went on sale to the general public. At the appointed hour, I was sitting at the computer, all logged in to the appropriate account, with all my payment info saved in advance in order to expedite the purchasing process. And as the clock ticked down to the moment the sale went live, I was ready to go. At least I thought so.

I have purchased tickets for high demand concerts and theater productions in the past. I have experienced the “click it or lose it” situations where you have to commit to a seat quickly, getting your selections into your cart before being given a 5-10 minute window to complete your purchase before the tickets are re-released to other customers. There have been some pretty tense ones, times when it was a bit tricky to get what we wanted in the right price range, needing to juggle between different performance dates and times in order to get them into the cart. With the purchase window counting down in big numbers at the top of the screen, even the shorter of the grace periods could be stressful as I worked to complete the purchase process and seal the deal. 

But none of those other experiences compared in any way to the insanity of attempting to purchase tickets to the Benson Boone concert. Due to his popularity here and what I can only assume is fondness for the area, he added a second show, so I had two nights to pick from. Either date worked for us so it was all about which one we could get tickets to. Like I said, I had saved my payment info in advance to speed up the whole process, but I was completely flabbergasted by how crazy fast the sale went.

Kevin and I had talked about a price point before the sale started so I had an idea of what I was looking for, but within just a few seconds of when the sale started, those cheaper tickets were already gone. These tickets were important enough to Malia that I felt like I needed to do whatever I could to get some for her, so with Kev’s support, I started clicking on anything that was available regardless of price or seating location. But just as quickly as I would click on seats and hit “add to cart,”, the sale was moving faster, and a “those tickets are not available” dialogue box would pop up. So, without pausing to think, I’d click something else with the same result. A couple of times I got tickets in my cart and immediately hit the payment button only to have that aggravating “those tickets are not available” message pop up again. That wonderful 5-minute checkout countdown was not a factor for this sale, and it definitely complicated matters! My frustration with the whole experience was quickly growing as I kept frantically clicking add to cart, attempting to check out, and having no luck. At one point I got a text message from the bank saying that there was suspected fraudulent activity on my card and I had to pause to respond to the message letting them know it was actually me. And let me say that was exactly what I didn’t need at that moment! Luckily that issue was resolved quickly and I was able to turn my focus back to the sale.

Less than 10 minutes after the sale started, both shows were completely sold out. That’s 20,000 seats x 2. And I sat there, certain that I had failed in my quest and had to figure out how to tell my teenager that despite my best efforts, her hopes had been crushed once again. Then I opened my email and discovered that I had not one, but two purchase confirmation emails in my inbox. Somehow, in all the melee, I had managed to complete not just one, but two ticket purchases. I had never gotten a purchase confirmation page, so I honestly did not know I had been successful. I opened each email and discovered that not only were the seats good ones, but they were really good ones. And all the seats were ones that had a VIP package including early entrance into the arena, early access to merchandise sales, and a special VIP merch package. I’ll admit that at that point I actually cried with relief. Not only had I survived the craziest online sale I have ever seen, but I’d successfully acquired amazing tickets. And I knew that Malia was going to be thrilled beyond all measure. 

With the tickets successfully purchased, I called Kevin again to let him know how things had worked out. The price tag was much higher than we had planned, and we discussed what to do with the four tickets, two each in two different locations. Originally, our plan had been to buy three tickets-one for Malia, one for a friend who had already been selected and who was also pinning some grand hopes on our ability to purchase tickets, and a parent. When the cheaper tickets disappeared, I switched to searching for seats in twos knowing that our cost was going to be higher than anticipated. So, we talked about keeping the tickets in the more desirable location and selling the other set. We didn’t make any decisions at that point, which was probably good because when we talked things over with Malia after school that afternoon, she had an emotional breakdown at the thought of not being able to attend with a friend. Yes, I know parents are boring, and yes, I knew she had already been discussing the concert with her friend, and as we had five months to figure out what to do, we decided to think about the whole thing for a bit and decide later how to proceed. 

In the end, we decided to keep the tickets, sending Malia and a friend to the better seats and having Kevin use one of the tickets for the less desirable seats to gain entrance as a chaperone. And it ended up being a good thing we wanted more than two seats, because it turns out that those VIP package tickets are not eligible for resale or transfer of any kind. But that also meant that Malia would end up with more than one special merchandise package. And based on the outcome of the ticket buying experience, Malia was absolutely fine with these tickets being both her birthday and Christmas presents for this year. 

After waiting for months and months, the big day finally arrived. The concert was last night. And Malia was so, so, so excited. We’re talking giggly and giddy and all things teenage girlish. Morgan, her Boone buddy and a friend who lives down the street and whose family we have known since both girls were just babies, was equally hyped up. Those expensive VIP perks meant they were in the door at 6:00 p.m., thirty minutes in advance of all the standard ticket holders. It meant the line to purchase Boone merch (a hoodie, of course) was super short. It meant that the girls came home with a nice tour logo emblazoned tote bag, a compact wallet and Chapstick holder with the tour name printed on it, and a deck of cards with Benson Boone’s abs on the back. And since the show didn’t actually start until 8 p.m. and Benson Boone didn’t come on until 9:15, they had plenty of time for the anticipation to hype them up even more. 

Being in the same building as a favorite celebrity can be a heady thing for a teenager, and in all her excitement, Malia shared one of those fabulously funny comments of hers that I love so much. I laughed when Kevin shared it with our family group chat. As they walked the concourse before they could get into the arena, Malia proclaimed, “Benson Boone is in the building. I can feel the mustache…” 🤣

Kevin tells me that the post-concert giddiness was even more impressive than the pre-concert giddiness. Those two girls just giggled all the way home. And even this morning, Malia was still aglow. She was telling me stories and sharing Boone quotes and showing me videos. This is one of those events that she will remember forever. When she is all grown up and has a daughter of her own, she will tell her about the super exciting time she got to see Benson Boone in concert. And her daughter might tease her just a bit, the same way that Malia makes fun of me for my teenage swooning over New Kids on the Block… 😂

As a side note on this whole crazy experience, having two separate fairly large purchases within just a minute or two on an online ticket selling platform certainly explains the security alert for my credit card that happened mid-sale. And while I was extraordinarily frustrated in the moment, it is nice to know that my bank is doing its job. And FYI-Boone ended up adding a third concert here. Not surprisingly, that one sold out as well.