An Ode to Team Fortress 2

Uh...TF2?  You were working yesterday...
and all of last week
though now you quit
while to game, I seek
not on the xBox or fancy Wii
I just want to play on my PC
but the game keeps on crashing
I'm lacking some script
there is no bright flashing
my screen's like a crypt
"Oh, Team Fortress 2!"
I worry and shout
"Is there nothing you can do
to help a girl out?"
And so I sit staring
at my blue screen
with only Facebook and blogging and such
and I know it sound mean
but, guys, the game it isn't a crutch
I just want to play
my eyes all a-gleam
so much for today
thanks SO MUCH, Steam

I have been busy...

...and so, I haven't had a chance to write as often as I like.  Finals came and went, along with several birthdays.  I have dabbled in vlogging a little bit, y'know, to test the waters.   I didn't do as well in school as I normally do, but I'd rather not go through the terrifying experience of reliving THAT.  Let's just say I'm retaking history this summer and I'll be glad when I'm done with that.  There's been some movies I'd like to review and books I'd like to recommend.  I'm not sure when I will update next, but I hope to do so soon.

-AG

My Family is Made of Word Salad

So I was making a glass of lemonade.
Jax was passing through near the kitchen and so I sought a second opinion.
"Hey, Jax!  Tell me what you think of this!"
 "I don't think." is his genius reply.
"Ok, How about you tell me how it tastes?" I implore.
A shrug, "OK."
He takes the lemonade from me and proceeds to...
...suck on the chopstick I was using to stir it with....
?
"Jax, that's not...a...straw..."I manage through my laughter "...that's...that's a.....chopstick!"
 I double over, spewing laughter.

So, I walk into the room where Ammamay's sitting on the couch.
"Momma, Jax sucked on my chopstick."
I can barely stifle my giggles.
She looks up at me, completely straight-faced, and asks me, "What was it doing on the floor?"


It's moments like this that make life worth living, isn't it?

Yours,
AG

Top O' the Mornin'

     Well, as the flag hanging out in front of the porch of The Homestead so boldly pronounces to the world, I am "LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE IRISH".  That's right, folks! AG, the crazed Italian chick posting all over the interwebs, is also Irish. 
     So, St. Patty's Day has always been a bit of a big deal 'round these parts.  You go to bed in Green Clothing the night before, unless you'd like to be awakened(quite rudely, shall I add) by a pinch.  Green through the day and Green when you go to bed that night.
     I went to bed with a green shirt on and some red sock-monkey(think Nick&Nora*) PJ's(the monkeys have green scarves).   I stumble out of my room and slump onto the couch next to Emboo.  I'm still not quite awake yet.  She leans over** and pinches me. 

No joke.

She pinched me.  

      This.

               Means.

                          WAR.

     I pinch back.
....and get a very startled look from her "oh-so-innocent" face.  Her head whips back to shoot a questioning look at Jax.  "She's wearing green, Emboo."
"No, she's not," comes the "victim"
"Yes, she is," I return, holding out my shirt for inspection.   It turns out that it actually is green.
     Nami was even wearing a kelly green bow and bright green socks.***

Ok, enough of this.
To Business.
To FOOD.
To this.

      It is Shepherd's Pie and it is delicious.  We substituted corn for the peas(they were gonna make me go out and buy peas.  In the rain.  Besides, I secretly wanted to use the corn in it.  I love corn. MWAHAHAHAHAAA.)
     The irony of the situation is, we had to eat this as a substitute to Corned Beef and Cabbage due to corned beef and cabbage being too expensive.  You may not know this, but Corned Beef and Cabbage started out as a luxury, but Irish consumption in the USA shot through the roof.  Because it was cheaper here.  Psha!
       Also, to breakfast!  Ammamay made bacon and eggs and hashed-brown potatoes with onions.  YUM~!
     After a long, lovely day, we watched THOR.  *ADJUSTS GLASSES* I'm more of a DC girl, myself, but I can honestly say that I liked it, Marvel and all.****
Happy St. Patty's day and may the Luck of the Irish be with you and yours.

*It has a jacket, which I had worn over my green shirt(although, it had green in it and wasn't exactly blocking my solid-green t-shirt)

**She's all decked out, man.  She's got a Green necklace(with shamrocks on it), an "Irish"(think "Leprechaun and Pot O' Gold") pony-tailor, an all-green shirt and Green-and-Black "Got Luck?" socks.

*** Thanks to Emboo.

****Spiderman, Iron Man and X-Men are my secret, secret exceptions for Marvel.  Ssshhhh!

My Room, or, alternately- That Big Mess Downtairs

     Although the second title is misleading and could be referring to me/myself, the refrigerator, the state of THE Couch, the state of The Kitchen, the DVR line-up, yadda, yadda, yadda. 

See?

     I have a small bit of trouble* keeping my room in good order.  Part of this is my lack of a proper place for things, as I tend to disregard places that other people pick out, or the places I pick are simply too small.  I absolutely adore a tidy living space, but, unfortunately, have issues keeping one up.
  I like for things to be in the proper order, I like to have everything tucked in securely where it belongs.  Also, I enjoy using italics!


     If I'm that much of a neat freak on the inside, how come it's so hard for me to keep up my room properly?
     I spend hours organizing things at the library, whereas my books sit in untidy piles on the ground.  Sad, depressing, "why me?" piles that ensure either the loss of the book, or overlooking of said book whenever it is needed.  The only upside I can see is that the books stay in relatively good condition, so long as The Sibs stay out of my room.
    

My Bed

           





Was

...Moved

      Okay, my bed isn't shaped like that, nor is it facing that silly direction.  My bed has been moved so that my head points toward the wall that houses the window that faces the porch, and my feet point toward my closet.  This was to make room for a series of cubbies that now reside where my headboard used to.  It is situated against the wall so that my bed and the wall keep this table-thing flat, this is where I store my clock-radio that is also an alarm.
  
 More on my love of radios later, though.
Good day to you and all,
AG

 *YES MOM, A SMALL BIT OF TROUBLE.

Another Introductary Post

     NANNAH!!!!!!!!!-My cousin. She's 15.
Risa-My cousin, Cece's Mouse. She is 18.
      Cece-Risa's Bestie/Monkey. She is also 18.
Sisi-Emboo's Bestie/Cousin. She is 11.
     OOIE- RISA'S BOY FRIEND***    
Blondie and Toto=My Besties. They are 15(Blondie)and 16(Toto)
       Emboo and I are both friends with Mina(13). 
J-Roz(10) and T-Rex are buds.

     Mina and JRoz are my boyfriend's Younger Sibs.

Lol-y Boy(16) is My Mad Scientist/Inventor and my boyfriend.  

     "?" There is also an amazingawesometasticfavoloso girl in the library who does tutoring after school.  She has turned me into a Nerdfighter*!  I've known her for about two days(well, four, but I only saw  her on two of them).  For now she will be known as "The Mysterious Awesome One."

      There is more, I swear, I just wanted to begin a reference sheet of sorts.  I doubt it will stop, though.  There are a lot of people who impact my life.  Including my huge Family.

     Family is important to me.  I have a Nuclear Family, sort of.  Ammamay is a RN, but stays at home, while Addyday** is a Firefighter(ya know, supports the fam).  Our family is a bit large for the traditional Nuclear Family.  

     While the traditional Nuclar Family has two children, a boy and a girl, ours has four(however it does still have the same ratio and balance).

     My extended family-yeesh!-I will introduce quite a few of them, but honestly, I don't even know all of them.

*For those of you who don't know what a Nerdfighter is, check out the Vlog Brothers on YouTube.  They are made of Awesomesauce.

**My dad.

***Written by Risa

Why T-Rex Is A Cannoli

#CLEARS THROAT#

This is the story of how T-Rex became a cannoli...


     Ammamay* made Latkes** for breakfast, which ended up causing mayhem amoung all of us young people.  T-rex is worried about trying some new food,  Jax took an extra, effectively stealing Emboo's allotment, which made her get in a frenzy, "MOOOOM, he stole my Latke!  Make him give it back!!!!"(Sheesh! "Now, Mummy, now!" Veruca? Is that really you?)  He ended up giving it back to her, wherein she, in turn, gave it to me. ("It's cold, you have it.  Also, it has sour cream.(she scrunches her face)")  
T-Rex's big, blue eyes grew huge.  "Can I have some, please?"

Hold up.

     ~"Please?"~

He said,  "please"  to me‽ This is serious.




 

      This kid is the pickiest of picky.  I mean plain-out choosey.  He has food he likes, and everything else.  A lot of everything else.  

     This is an Italian kid who won't touch Manicotti or Cannelloni.  He won't even eat Spaghetti if it has red sauce on it.




"Sure," I reply as I cut him a half.  
     "I can have half?"(I think I see tears in his eyes.)
     "Absolutely."

I give him the half with no bite in it, and I think he sort of creates a rift in time and space with his joy.
     "Thank you, AG!"
     And I get an actual, real-live hug from my nine-soon-to-be-ten-year-old brother, the Fourth Grader.  And girls have cooties.  I'm overjoyed(also, I have an entire Latke more then the rest of the sibs, so......      Nah, it's the hug.  Probably.)



     While my picky younger brother returns to his seat, Ammamay and I exchange a glance.  

     "Hey!  A food he actually likes!" from Jax.(snarky li'l Eighth Grader.)
We all laugh.  It's true, though.  It's hard to find a food he likes, much less a new one.***

      "He's a funny one," Ammamay puts in, "He won't try spaghetti and red sauce**!  I bet he'd have no problem if he'd just try it." This last part is said slightly more indignantly.  I mean, come on people, she makes the red stuff herself(with occasional help from Prego****).

      I join in, "He's an Italian who won't go near Ravioli**, Manicotti**, Cannelloni**."
      "And he won't touch anything with garlic!" she adds, "Are we sure he's Italian?"

     "I bet he wouldn't try a Cannoli**."


We pause for a beat.


      I crack a smile, "He is a Cannoli."
My comment puts Ammamay into another fit of laughter.

     "He is!" She says through her giggles.

     The blue-eyed T-Rex looks up at us from his plate.  His eyebrows are furrowed and he is very put-off.

     "Mamma, what's a Cannoli?"

     Nooooo!  I try to plead with my eyes, out loud-
     "Don't tell him!" I'm laughing.

     She doesn't heed me and instead concedes to the weaker party,
"It's an Italian dessert."

     "Oh," he says.  He was placated, but his arms remained crossed and his cheeks hadn't quite returned from red, mostly due to "Italian dessert" not being the answer he suspected.


In the end, a delicious breakfast and a funny story and a new name! Ta-da! 





*(my mother, this is how I refer to her, this side-note is for future reference)
**YUM~ 
***(I'm not giving him any credit here.  He's gotten much better.  Still, it usually feels like you have got to pry his jaws open to get him to try anything that he hasn't already tried.)
**** "Prego!" = "Thank you!" in Italian.


Yeah, I capitalize food.  It's respectful. 

Life At The Homestead

     I am the oldest of four chilluns(children, to those of you who don't speak "AspieGrrl").  I have two bouncing baby brothers and one lovely little sister.
     Jax comes in at 14 years old and is an all-around athlete, participating in football, baseball and riding.  He likes photography.
     Emboo is 11, plays soccer/football(depending on where you are) and has dabbled in volleyball. She wants to take up surfing again.  She also rides a dirtbike.
     T-Rex(TSquawk) is the youngest in the bunch pulling a whole 9 years on him.  He rides, plays baseball and football and is very partial to processed foods.


     We have a dog, who goes by the name of Nami and she is a lovely black lab who thinks she weighs five pounds.

     She doesn't.

     She is two years old and has enough energy to match her human counter-part(dog years - psha!  She can outrun any 14 year old I know!).  
Common places to find her include-
-My bed
-Emboo's Bed
-Anywhere in the boy's room
-Out back/in the back(The back yard)
-Crying at closed doors
-Out front(with her leash tied to a post.  This is done to ensure that she doesn't chase any weary traveler and scare them to death with her loving, booming barks and doggie kisses.)
-Following anyone who happens to be walking(especially if they also happen to have food)


Speaking of food, I ~LOVE~ food.  I love to cook food, to smell food, to see food.  I love to hear the fresh snap or crunch  of a bell pepper, the sizzle of sautéing garlic, the pop of bacon.  More than all of this I love to eat food.
Because of this, I will remember to post some recipes when I have time, or when I remember the measurments.


PS-Italians love garlic and T-Rex is a cannoli.  I'll explain later, I promise.


Until then-  
Cheers!