Last night for dinner I made a Chicken Cordon Bleu baked sandwich thing....it was one of those Pillsbury Bake-Off recipes, IIRC. 

Just once I wish the dishes I turn out would bear some resemblence to those in the photos!  This time it was the French loaf what did me in.  The instructions blithely said to take the dough from a can of Pillsbury French bread loaf and press it into a 14"x12" rectangle.

The 14" part was easy enough...that's about as long as the stuff is when removed from the package.  But try as I might, there was no way in Hades I was getting the 12" part.  It had more spring than silly putty, did that dough.  Pat...pull...press...it mattered not; the rectangle was too thick at the edges and thin to the point of tearing in the middle.  Talk about an exercise in frustration!  Finally got it to maybe 6" and let it go at that.

Is there a trick to pressing those loaves out to such a wide rectangle? 

It doesn't require registration, so click to read the follow-up article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the Waybourns a year later: Band of Brothers

For those who weren't reading here when the Waybourn Trio (Dan arrived over a year earlier) came home, here's a blast from the past. 

And here's the original story (Heather, you didn't see this):  A Series of Fortunate Events  

Happy birthday to Zhenya, a couple of days early!  He's the "15 year old boy" referred to below, as y'all may have guessed.  Tonight was his party, which included the Grogans, to Dmitry's and our pleasure.   Also pleased little Lucas, judging by his interest in Olga:

Lucas also took notice of Dmitry when the opportunity presented itself:

They had a spiffy time catching up, as they've not been together since the summer:

If it's not Alex upending Hannah, it's Zhenya doing the same to Lucas!  What is it about little ones that causes guys to want to immediately turn 'em upside down? 

Here's the birthday honorée lighting the candles on his birthday cake....a cake he, himself, baked BTW.  Isn't that something?  We can't get Dmitry to heat up a hot dog and Zhenya's baking cakes. 

The same fascination was shown by the boys with hanging on to the top of the doorway.  Never did see either Elveera or Olga do it. Must be a guy thang:

Here's Zhenya with the gift from his brothers, though I never discovered exactly what it is:

And one of my favorites.....Elveera holding Lucas:

Elveera chortled gleefully as she informed me on Wednesday her six month probationary period is over and she receives her full-fledged driver's license!

In the immortal words of Gib in "True Lies":

"You may want to TAKE COVER!!!!"

Hehehehe!  J/k, Elveera. 

Have you ever given much consideration to how many greeting cards are out there?

Thosands, that's how many. 

And from what I could tell from scouring Target and Kay's Hallmark, maybe three of those are suitable for a boy turning 15 years old.  Finally found ONE of them at Kay's.

Most are either geared toward either "over the hill" jokes, or vulgarity.  Or else are for young children.  Or relatives.

But an amusing card one can hand to a 15 year old boy?

Fuggedaboutit. 

Edit:  A friend of mine (whom I need to meet IRL the next time we go to Memphis!) emailed me to point out the reason I'd such a difficult time locating cards suitable for a teenage boy is because I neglected to find a store carrying American Greetings cards.  Right he is!  That was an oversight on my part, and one I'll be sure to rectify the next time.

And with the Waybourn boys, the "next time" is never too far off. 

Tell you what, the wine buyer at Target got ambitious:

If I were after a $50 bottle of champagne, Target is probably not where I'd go; what's more, it was sitting on one of the end caps at a check-out lane.

A Snickers bar is an impulse purchase.  Batteries are an impulse purchase.

$50 champagne?  I don't think so. 

Mercy Maud!  Not only is Charles not permitted to dress in civvies during the two-year training program, but he's not permitted to drive. 

He passed his IFA (well, something like that) this morning, which is
the physical fitness test, so now he's waiting on a spot to open up in
the nuke program.  It might be as late as April before he ships
out, but he's hoping it'll be February instead.  Turns out the
Chief of this zone (presumably covering multiple recruiting stations)
has placed him at the #1 spot on the national waiting list.  

Tell you what...he'll have to mind his P's and Q's while in that program!  Apparently any misdeed at all is sufficient to be removed, including receiving a traffic ticket.  

When do they pack it in?  The Super Bowl half-time show is
featuring the Rolling Stones, the youngest of whom is 58 years old; the
combined ages of the four Stones is 246, according to a BBC article.

OTOH, the article also reports:  "Last year the Rolling Stones broke their own 11-year-old
record by selling tickets worth $162m (£94m), playing 42 performances
before 1.2 million people."

Are they gonna be on stage struttin' their stuff when they're
75?   I must confess it'd be quaint to hear them sing "Time
Is On My Side" (they wish!), "Jumping Jack Flash", and "I Can't Get No
Satisfaction."

Well.  It's time to take down the Texas Tech flags and put up the
Navy flag, as Charles is following Alex and his friend, Joseph, into
that branch of our military.

He just returned from two nights and days spent taking tests and
physicals, with the result he is being offered the opportunity to enter
the nuclear engineering program, which would be a six-year
commitment.  Right now he's leaning that way, and I think it'd be
an excellent choice for him.

Of course, Charles' most crucial long-term goal is to outrank Alex. 

Oy vey!  Looks like another trip to Illinois is coming up. 

....check out the Google cheat sheet. 

I didn't know all that!