Question, why is your brain turned off?

Can you turn your brain on and off?

This has been on my mind lately. I have lived my whole life around boys. I have 4 brothers. I have like 20 first cousins all of which are boys except a mere 6 who are girl, and they are all quite a bit younger than me. I've been dealing with them my whole life and I cannot wrap my brain around this question. Let me start with some examples relating to my question.

Sometimes I say things without thinking... ok I do it a lot. Like the time I told my Dad to "get it through his tiny little brain." I can't remember why I said it, only that he was annoying me and it just came out. It only made things worse when he started uncontrollably laughing at my statement and exasperation.

So last week we were down visiting my family. Our family dinners are, to put it lightly unreasonably preposterous. Why? you may be thinking? I have 4 brothers and all of us are very opinionated, not to mention all filled with dry humor, thanks to my dad. So we all talk at the same time and it's hilarious if you just sit back and try to figure out what is going on. As my mom says you are all driving me crazy, talk one at a time and listen to what the others are saying. Anyway so we are trying to do "best and worst" this tradition my family has done since the beginning of time. We go around and say our best and worst things of the day or week. It's very enlightening, especially when one of my brothers tries to say his best is dinner and he doesn't have a worst. The things they come up with sometimes... But my mom loves it so we do it. So during one of these sessions my dad was asking one of my brothers to do something and of course he was just off in the never neverland of his brain... So i yelled "Marcus. brain. turn it on." Of course my dad is in hysterics at my comment yet again.

Living with boys my whole life you would think that I would have figured out this little problem and come to terms with it. It still bewilders me that you can be thinking nothing. It makes not a bit of sense to me. I love you boys but seriously. BRAINS. TURN THEM ON!

Ode to my green metal straw

Dolefulness knows not my sorrow
I have lost my lovely green straw
happy you can and will not find me,
for i know not the place it went.

Thus my poor aching heart bellows
screaming remorse, for without
this green sleekly made metal straw
my beverage cant be complete.

Frigid paradisaical bliss.
Found at every touch of lip
coming in contact with my dear
carefully crafted slurping device.....


straw... i will find you someday

-assilem

Risky and unexpected undertakings in the night

Ok so I cannot stop laughing, my gosh... i don't know why this is so funny but I'm at work pretty much peeing my pants with laughter... Before I tell you why, I want to preface some of my previous adventures in my sleep. When I was about 10 years old I slept walked into my parents bathroom in the middle of the night, pulled out what i must have thought was a cup and took a ginormous swig. I wandered back to my room across the hall and got back in bed. I woke up moments later to my mom calling me from her room and an awful taste in my mouth. ick. the thought of it still makes me sick 12 years later. Luckily my mom had sensed something weird was going on (moms are quite good at that) Without knowing it I had taken a Giant swig of Caladril (or calamine lotion, its that disgusting pink liquid that your mom puts on bites and stings so that you wont itch them. serious go smell it and then feel bad for me. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted. My mom freaked out once she found out what I had drank, and called poison control. As she is on the phone i felt it coming.. I ran to the bathroom and started to throw up. more times then i care to remember. Meanwhile the poison control person is telling my mom that i will probably throw up but I will be fine.. ya thanks lady. Anywho so what seemed like hours later (probably less than one in all actuality) I'm still throwing up and i'm so dehydrated that I have to be taken to the hospital and given an IV (my first ever) gee.. I have not thrown up since that day, and the smell of caladril lotion is the only thing that has made me even come close to throwing up again...Needless to say I thought my sleep walking days had ended after that nightmarish event until a week or two ago. I woke up early in the morning with a half eaten squished piece of bread in my hand. I think my body had sensed that I had low blood sugar (yes I am a diabetic in case you didn't know) and I had got up to take care of the problem.. in my sleep. Steve came in a few minutes later and was in hysteria when I told him what happened... So onto the events of last night... in the middle of the night I woke up mid head butt... Yes. I seriously must have sat up and headbutted Steve.. in my sleep... I have no idea how that happened or what made me do it. All I know is that it hurt. bad. At least it was the back of my head that got the blow, poor Steve got the smack down right to his frontal noggin (aka eyebrow) we both just went back to sleep. Now Steve is pretty used to me throwing elbows and such in the middle of the night (sorry hun) but when I told him what really had happened we were both in hysterics this time.. and I seriously cannot stop laughing!

So like I've said before i LOVE to bake! I love finding recipes and making pretty desserts! So here is the latest! these are mint cookies... kinda like thin mints! They are pretty rich! Here's the recipe! Give it a try!

Makes 3 dozen

• FOR THE COOKIES
• 1 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature  
• Confectioners' sugar, for work surface
• FOR THE GANACHE
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped
• 3/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
• FOR THE GLAZE
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped

Directions

1. Make cookies: Whisk together cocoa powder and flour in a bowl. Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in egg until well blended. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough in half, and shape each half into a disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour (or overnight).
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Transfer dough to a work surface lightly dusted with confectioners' sugar. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut out cookies using a 2-inch round cookie cutter; space 1/2 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Repeat with remaining scraps of dough. Bake cookies until firm, rotating sheets halfway through, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.
3. Meanwhile, make ganache: Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chocolate. Cook, stirring constantly until chocolate is smooth. Stir in peppermint extract. Let cool slightly, 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Spoon 1 teaspoon ganache onto the bottom of 1 cookie; sandwich with another cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies and ganache. Refrigerate until firm, about 10 minutes.
5. Make glaze: Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring constantly. Let cool slightly. Dip one flat side of each sandwich into melted chocolate to coat; gently shake off excess. Place sandwiches, chocolate sides up, on wire racks set over baking sheets. Refrigerate until set, about 15 minutes. Cookies can be refrigerated in a single layer in airtight containers up to 2 days.
6. I added sprinkles for fun ;)

 -assilem

a totally random assortment of events of late...

So a few things to mention... the pic above is one random night steve and I decided to dye our hear for fun haha nothing crazy just a tad darker brown.. I thought the bags on our heads were reason for a photo... haha 

 

So this pic is the injury I acquired from an x-acto knife... hurt so bad... cut a huge chunk out of my finger... it hurt... bad... I'm a klutz... that's all there is to it

 

So I was complaining about not having shoes one day and my mom laughed and said ok ill buy you a pair of shoes for every pair you throw out.. I couldn't believe how hard it was to throw out shoes i don't even wear... i have attachment issues i guess.. so here they are... the poor unwanted shoes...

 

Steve and I made some homemade dry ice Rootbeer for one of my classes. It was so yummy! I had to go buy a dowel (which as you can see was way too long) to stir the rootbeer and make sure the dry ice didn't stick to the bottom.