4 Year Old Needs Witness Protection Program

Oh my gosh! Katie, my just turned 4 year old found some silly putty, opened it and then proceeded to stick it on the surface of her brothers' drum set that goes with their Rock Band Wii game! Luckily her brothers are still at school or else her life could have been in danger. Isn't it amazing as I had just finished telling her, "Don't stick the silly putty on your clothes or carpet." Obviously, I did not mention drum sets for Wii games. So I tried getting it off with my fingers and it was really stuck on. I checked on-line for silly putty removal tips. I tried putting an ice pack on the putty to try to harden it and then scrape it off. Not so successful. Then I tried using rubbing alcohol. However, I couldn't find any cotton balls, so I put rubbing alcohol on a super maxi feminine pad and then applied it to the drum surface. It worked! So, Katie is still alive and I will hope that the drum set will still work! So long for now! Another adventure in the life of the Midlife Mocha Mama.

"Meat" in the Parking lot

A couple of weeks before Christmas I went to pick my boys up from school. My middle child was wanting me to go to a coffee shop for an after school treat. Usually I would give in to this, but most likely I'd had a couple of coffees already. (Sorry going from memory here! My guess is I probably had a couple of coffees or I would have stopped.) So after much misery in the "Mom Van" I decided to give in and head to my local drive through. Problem...machine broken down! So I went against my best judgement and headed to Starbucks inside the local Safeway. My daughter was asleep and I once again went against better judgement and left the kids in the van and ran in and placed their drink order. Then I ran back out and waited with them in the van and then ran back in. Here comes the detour. I happened to notice a small refrigerated truck that said "Iowa Steaks". Something pulled at me to inquire with the two young steak guys as I am an Iowa girl...born and raised. I had never heard of "Iowa Steaks", at least not heard of the kind that are sold out of the back of a truck! So I inquired and found 2 lost Iowa Steak delivery guys smelling a possible sale in me! One guy started his sales pitch. I realized I needed to get back into Starbucks and more importantly get back to my kids. I was parked about 3 cars away. I excused myself, ran in, got the kids' drinks, and checked in with them and for some reason headed back to the steak truck. Next thing I know the guy is pulling a huge box of meat out of the back of the truck and putting steaks out for me to see. I'm learning that one cannot just buy a couple of steaks for dinner, but must buy a $400 box of meat! I'm such a rookie! I kept trying to leave. The sales pitch began..."today only...I'll let you have this entire box for $2o0." I try to leave again as I know my husband will absolutely blow a gasket over a huge $200 box of meat! If not mentioned earlier, he's a healthy nut...not much of a red meat kind of guy. Finally the price is down to $150...at this point I'm actually considering it! It was a lot of meat and apparently has a connection to the famous "Omaha Steak" company. Then an older lady comes out of nowhere just going postal! The steak guys were parked in a handicapped parking spot. Postal starts yelling at the steak guys for being in a handicapped spot. They said they would move right away and were only there getting directions. She insisted that they were conducting business in the Safeway parking lot in a handicapped spot and if they didn't move immediately she would call 911. She was serious. She was correct. They should not have been there, but the postal manner she went about it was just ridiculous. I exited stage left without my drastically reduced meat. Moral of the story...dont' buy meat in a parking lot from two Iowa Steak guys that really don't look like good Iowa boys.