Moving

Dear Internet,

I've moved: http://missniwanda.tumblr.com/

I've heard that tumblr is pretty awesome, so please take the plunge with me and follow me on Tumblr. Hopefully if I can figure out some of those allegedly awesome features, and Monkey Brain will be even bigger and better than before!

Thanks for reading these last months, and I hope that I'll continue to earn your readership as well as expand. As my friend Buzz Lightyear always says, "To Infinity and Beyoooond!"

Sincerely,

Monkey Brain

Monkey Brain

You know how when a baby is born in the movies, the first thing the parents check is that there are 10 fingers/toes? Well I didn't do that with either of my boys.

I just checked, and don't worry, they're all there.

Phew!

Manners

Cody's new trick? Spitting up breastmilk.

Through his nose.

Now really, is this any way to pay your compliments to the chef? Sadly for him, I think it hurts inside his nose, based on his current wailing, grunting and sweating.

This reminds me of my relative who at one time used his flatulance as a weapon of mass destruction/party trick. And like some weapons can, it backfired, resulting in the famous phrase: "Ohh, I think I tore something."

Thin Mintgate 2000

I took a couple of years off college, and when I returned to finish my Bachelors degree, I lived off campus with 2 roommates, E & V, across the street from the Porter Square T stop in Cambridge, MA.

One summer, V sublet her room to a young woman whose name is lost on me, so I'll just call her Jane. Jane was very young and didn't appear to have much experience living with others, as noted by her lack of toilet paper buying, and more egregiously, she ate E's Thin Mints, which were in the freezer. Now people, what makes GSCs so special is that they are ONLY available for a short period every spring, and as mentioned, this was SUMMER.

Thin Mintgate put E over the edge and she chastised Jane for her social faux pas. Luckily, Jane redeemed herself by purchasing a Costco sized pack of TP and finding Thin Mints on the internet.

Don’t worry folks, I’ll be sure to raise my boys to ALWAYS respect other people’s Girl Scout Cookies.

Hey, that sounds kinda dirty.

The problem with dvr

Well, for the most part, there is no problem, no problem what. so. ever. I mean, just last Sunday I was lovin' my Tivo as we rewound the moment when the crazy redhead charged the stage to Kanye the best documentary short acceptance speech. I mean, without Tivo, we would not have been able to see that OMG, they were RACING to the stage!! (Well, there's always Youtube, but you get my drift)

Sometimes however, you get backed up and so the water cooler moments lose their relevance. For example, tonight while we are watching one of the funniest hosts ever, Zach Galiafanakis, all I want to do is talk to someone around the watercooler about how funny he is and relive the moment when he says, "We've got a great show tonight; Hoobastank is here. . .no? Oh! Who is it?" And I'm all, Hoobastank?! This is a man after my own heart. I mean, on my celebrity crush list, homeless professor looking Zach just may have sailed past Jason Segel and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Alas, this episode is a week old, so my watercooler moment is gone. This is kind of like one of my favorite movies, Kicking and Screaming. Olivia D'Abo's character, Jane, keeps saying things like, "Oh hey, I thought of a comeback for that comment you made in class two weeks ago. . ." Yeah, it's kind of like that.

Internet? Thanks for being my watercooler.

Monkey Cook: Spinach, Feta, and Olive Pasta

When I was pregnant with Jacob, I had major cravings for olive tapendade. Kind of strange since I've always hated olives, but that's pregnancy for you! This time around, in anticipation of future cravings, I purchased a few jars of olive tapenade last summer. Wouldn't you know it, I had no such cravings, and still have these jars of olive tapenade in my pantry, mocking me. So I've been trying to think of how to incorporate it into some meals, and here's what I came up with:

Spinach, Feta, and Olive Pasta

3 cups short cut pasta (I used penne rigate)
1 onion, halved and sliced into half moons
1-2 T olive oil
1 pinch salt
6 cups spinach (you could also use frozen spinach)
½ c. olive tapenade (I chose Trader Joe’s jarred tapenade, but you could use any tapenade. Once April comes around I'll be getting my tapenade from my local farmer's market)
3 oz feta, crumbled

1. Put a pot of water to boil for the pasta. When the water boils, salt it and cook the pasta to al dente, 8-10 minutes. Drain the pasta and reserve about 1-2 c of the starchy cooking water

2. While the pasta water is cooking, saute the onions on a dry skillet on medium heat until soft, 5-10 minutes. Add 1-2 T olive oil and a pinch of salt, continue cooking, stirring frequently, until onions are very soft and caramelized, about 15-20 minutes total.

3. Add the spinach in batches, stirring in some of the starchy cooking water to wilt.

4. Add in the olive tapenade and a little more starchy cooking water. You don't want it to be too watery, so add the water in 1/4 to 1/2 c increments.
5. Add in the pasta and cheese, stirring frequently. Serve immediately or store in the fridge for later.

The nice part of this dish is that you get all your food groups in one bowl (6 cups of spinach!), but if you are more hungry, feel free to add a green salad or some bread w/olive oil to beef it up.

Wine Note: I served it with Zinfandel, but I think a sweeter white wine (like a Riesling) would work better to temper the saltiness of the tapenade and feta.

Cooking Time: about 30 min

Serves 2 (although one of those two is breastfeeding, so this may serve more)

The junior cheeseburger, and other distortions of the media

When I was pregnant with Jacob, Josh had a vision of our future, and it went something like this:

We’d be at a restaurant, sometime in the future with young Jacob in tow. When it came time to order, Josh would say something like, “And for the little one here, we’ll have the junior cheeseburger.”

His vision hasn’t turned out quite the way we planned, seeing as we are raising a child that is no shrinking violet. Not sure how that happened when the simple act of making a phone call to a stranger makes my palms sweat.

Anyhoo.

When we eat out these days, it is for breakfast, and it usually goes something like this:

Server: Good morning, would you like something to dr---
Jacob: Mickey Mouse pancake pease!!

Even the one time we went out for lunch in the last six months, Jacob kept saying “Handeburg? Handeburg?”(Hamburger) like Rain Man while the flustered server tried to list off the specials, until we translated his order.

Anyway, somehow this vision has morphed in such a way that I now call Cody “The Junior Cheeseburger,” as in “Can you take the junior cheeseburger for a diaper change?”

My brain does this sometimes, just totally distorts stuff where I start with an idea and end up with a random nickname for our son. Like when I used to tell the story about how my father was accidentally shot by one of his friends at an eighth grade dance. Nine months later Dad was hit by a car, and the driver happened to be the priest of the boy who had shot him. Only when I tell the story, it goes something like this: My dad was shot by his friend, who was so upset that he called his priest, who then came to the dance and ran over my dad.

When I do this, Josh says, “Yeah, the media can distort things sometimes.” Basically my brain is like The National Enquirer. And while this was once kind of embarrassing, The National Enquirer is now up for a Pulitzer, so boo-yah!