Do You Know What "Ersatz" Means?

D.P. begged me to make an "oldie but goodie" for dinner--Cheesy Meatballs.

Being as we have had spaghetti and meatballs twice already in the past five days, I really wasn't up to rolling another batch of balls. Instead, I mixed the yummy ingredients squished the meat into a 9x13 pan. Then I simply cut the meat block into 1" squares (Meat squares instead of meat balls.!) before baking in the oven.

Now for a side dish...oh! I've used all the spaghetti noodles but I have rotini. I'll change it up by adding only butter and parm.

D.P. sat down for dinner and stared at his plate. "Nice ersatz Italian dinner Mom." he says.

Where'd he find his vocabulary!

Curious George

D.A. loves to mix paint on Curious George's PBS for Kids web page.

http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/mix_and_paint/mix_and_paint.html

Yesterday, she painted all of the pictures while Dad and I met with a contractor about my ceiling. She was proud of her work but did not want to interupt the meeting so she simply shut the laptop to preserve her work until she could share.

Well...a lighting storm quickly approached in the meantime and D.P. responsibly unplugged all technology (including the laptop D.A. was working on).

In true D.A. style, she did not remember her art until this morning. She woke up only to discover the laptop was off and immediately broke down in tears. She revealed why she was crying so hard. I suggested starting over. Not acceptable. I suggested creating a new piece and printing in. Not acceptable.

Running out of ideas, I asked what she would suggest to which she quickly replied "Give me $10?".

&*%@!(