Pepper Water

 

Happy Birthday to my niece!
Opposites and word pairs are a funny thing because not all words go the way you think they should. I did not overhear this conversation among children but I have been around enough kids to realize it probably has happened, and probably not with small children - I could see college students having this discourse. I'm trying to think of the implications of pepper water - hopefully it doesn't have waterfalls because that'd make pepper spray and wow that's how it occurs in the wild! 

Explanation: Saltwater and freshwater are opposites. Salt and Pepper are a classic pair. 

Text:
A: What is the opposite of saltwater?
B: Pepper water!
C: *face palm*

Work With Me, Toddler

Happy almost Birthday to my brother-in-law!
My toddler, like probably all children, is not always in a cooperative mood. She has recently decided that pajama time is silly time where she rolls and runs around in her diaper trying her hardest to stay away from the parent with the pjs. She is super adorable and giggling the whole time, so we can't really get mad. Also this works to tire her out rather than rile her up, so that's a win. 

Text:
L: Darling, can you work with me here?
L2: Nah nah nah nah nah
L: Of course, silly me.

Train on Oregano

 

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law and our nephew!
We've reached the end of the Christmas vacation comics! It was a wild ride to get back from CT because that was when Southwest had their issue and cancelled all their flights and they gave us a four-day delay in getting home and we said NOPE and took the train. The train is nice with having plenty of space for the toddler to move about (she loved walked up and down the aisles waving at everybody) but it was a little stressful to find seats next to each other since the carriages were rather full of people who had their SW flights cancelled. But people are kind! We had people move for us so we could have two seats together and that was super nice. 

Explanation: Time and thyme sound the same. Thyme and oregano are both herbs. 

Text:
M: Is the train running on time?
L: No, oregano!

Hot Chips

 

Happy Birthday to my father-in-law!

I'm almost done with my comics from my Christmas trip to visit my parents. Such good comic material when families gather together. Bleh having food intolerances is annoying but once you figure out what makes you feel bad it is nice to be able to avoid that feeling. And I do like chips so just eating them is fine rather than adding the extras on top. Potato chips are superior to corn chips, but both are salty and crunchy and that's nice. 

Text:
L: I'm making nachos, but I can leave the cheese and spicy off some for you.
L2: ... I don't want hot chips.

Grown Up Goldfish

 

I usually get Goldfish for my child since she likes them and Costco carries them, but when I was up at my parents for Christmas they had Cheez-Its and I realized they're kind of the same thing, just more boringly shaped. Such squares. Also, my toddler can sort of say "fish" and calls both Goldfish snacks and also actual fish in her 100 First Words book by the same word, and I'm not sure how she's picturing that - like does she think the cracker snack is an actual fish, or does she think the actual fish are cracker snacks? She really enjoyed going to the local Aquarium recently - was loving all the huge tanks and the fishes moving about in them. We got to see an unofficial dolphin show because they officially cancelled the performances but the dolphins still did their tricks at feeding time and we happened to be there for that. Then we realized it was our feeding time and wow the prices in there were classic Amusement Park pricing so we headed out and about to find a quick lunch. 

Text:
L: Cheez-ItsⓇ are just GoldfishⓇ that gave up on their dreams.

L2: *munching happily*

Stinking Dollars

 

Happy early Birthday to my brother!
Now I'm thinking of a scene where there's a mob boss type person telling a lackey to launder the money and then that guy just.... takes the suitcase of money and tosses it all into a machine at the local laundry mat. He returns with the bills all haphazardly stuffed back in the suitcase, still warm from the dryer. While waiting for the lackey to return, the boss is talking about how long it should take for the lackey to go to enough businesses to buy then sell items only to be surprised by said lackey with his suitcase full of warm money after a 30min wash and 45min dry. Now I'm thinking of a comic about this...

Text:
A: It costs three hundred stinking dollars?!?
L: If your money is stinking, maybe try laundering it. 

Sibling Ramblings

 

A slight continuation of the last comic, more of me and my brother after a tasty meal by our mom. The garlic sauce was great, but it was called garlic juice by someone then this spiral sort of happened. But from the previous comic, I now know that garlic soda is a thing in Switzerland. But now I need to look up if pasta soda is a thing, because that list of weird soda flavors has me questioning every ridiculous flavor as possibly being real. Ah, all the Google results are talking about baking soda in pasta, and that's not what I'm going for here. 

Text:
Title: Siblings
L: Garlic sauce.
L2: Garlic juice!
L: Pasta juice? 
L2: SodaStream that - carbonate those carbs!

Onion Soda

 

If ginger, which is a root, can be a soda (ale, which is basically synonymous with beer) then why not pick another root, onion, to be a soda? Does that mean that root beer is syntactically the same thing as ginger ale? And any root (potato, for example) could be SodaStreamed and called root beer? Things to ponder...

Also, I think this is an excellent example of why I should not ever get a SodaStream. I feel like carrot soda could be marketed to health nuts. Now I want to look up if carrot soda is a thing. The closest thing I could find is carrot cake soda, which is still quite odd but not in the health food category. WHAT THIS IS WEIRDER: both onion and garlic sodas are a thing per this article. Wait, now my comic is about an already made product... I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Text:
L: You've heard of ginger ale, now get ready for:
L2: Onion soda.
L: If you can liquidize it, you can carbonate it!
M: *facepalm* 

Cooking Disturbed

 

Happy Birthday to my niece!
This is a continuation from last week's comic. And now, I really want to write a recipe where this is a step. I mean, if "cook undisturbed" is valid, then the opposite should be, too! And who doesn't want a little disturbance - never mind, disturbances in the kitchen usually means something gets burnt due to chasing after a toddler or trying to clean up a mess or whatnot.  

Text:
L: So that needs to cook undisturbed for 3 minutes, then add this and cook disturbed for 1-2 minutes.
M: I'm pretty sure the recipe says "stir frequently" for that last part.

Settle the Child

 

This came up because my family likes to play table top games in the evening (usually card but sometimes board). My Mark didn't get this on first read but then it connected, which means I probably need an explanation. To "settle" a child is to help them calm down, usually for a nap or bedtime but sometimes just to calm down from a freak-out. "Settlers of Catan," often abbreviated "Settlers," is a board game where you gain resources by trading or luck of the dice in order to build your settlement. Some of those resources are sheep and wheat (also ore, wood, and brick). Fun fact, the first time I played Settlers was at a year-end vacation (at Word of Life) and the deck was partially in German for some reason but the pictures were clear what they meant. 

Text:
M: Can I help you settle the toddler?
L: She needs two sheep and a wheat.
L2: *crying*

Grandma's House

 I admit, I will eat so much more dairy at my Grandma's house than my usual (very low) amount because her desserts are just too amazing to pass up! Her éclair cake is delicious and her ice cream cakes are the best and cannoli and so many amazing treats... I do pack a whole sheet of Lactaid pills when we go up to visit. It's just smart. I know my weakness. 

Explanation: I am lactose intolerant but this developed during my college years so I know how amazing dairy tastes but now it is a forbidden food. I make allowances for childhood favorites (basically everything my Grandma makes) by taking Lactaid pills, which usual provide what my body needs to process dairy (but not always, for some reason, so it's a tossup if I'll feel ill afterwards). 

Text:
L: We're going to Grandma's, you know what that means! *holding a sheet of Lactaid pills* 

Cooking Undisturbed

 It sounds better to say "stir frequently" rather than "cook disturbed" but now I want to insert that into a recipe somehow. I'm also realized there could be a comic about a mom telling her toddler to leave because the recipe says "cook undisturbed" and that means no children clamoring for attention. 

Text:
L1: Cook undisturbed for five minutes.
L2: Nothing in this house is undisturbed.

Flights Impacted

 Was anyone else impacted by the Southwest Airlines mess? Thankfully we were staying with family and also we were able to flip our tickets to the train (that's in a later comic) so we were by no means stranded. But we were suppose to fly out on a Wednesday and they said how about Sunday? However my amazing husband was able to get us train tickets right away and that worked out (praise the Lord we even found seats next to each other in the carriages very full with multitudes of other people were in the same proverbial boat which was actually a train instead of an airplane). 

Whenever I hear the word "impacted" I think of wisdom teeth. Impaction is just not good, especially when it requires surgery. 

Text:
M: Southwest says our travel has been impacted by their issues.
L: How badly?
M: Like wisdom teeth.

Mala-Chai

 

Is it flowing with milk and honey? Do all Biblical cafés overdo the milk and honey? I am trying to think of the name of the restaurant in The Bible Museum but I'm gonna double-check via Google to say YES it is Milk + Honey Café. Oh, the restaurant way upstairs is called Manna but their café is by the entry and is open to all. I think I have only gone to the restaurant and not the café but I could be wrong. I'm heading back to the museum this month because !!! they are putting on a production of The Horse and His Boy and I'm excited to see how they do it. I recently listened to the whole Narnia series via audiobooks mainly on vacation drives over last summer but finished up the last few on my own at home with my toddler bopping about. 

Back to the comic - my pastor recently finished a sermon series going through Malachi and this comic sprang to mind. Tea was on my mind, as it tends to be. "Chai" is a common spicy tea blend made to be served with milk, and I was thinking about the name "Malachi" and how I once heard a kid pronounce it like "ma-LA-chee" then I thought "chai" and the comic happened.

Text:
A: What's your favorite tea at this Biblical café? 
B: The Mala-Chai.

Stage Isn't Set

 

My pastor was explaining a passage and said that the first few verses were setting the stage for the three-part sermon and this comic sprang to mind.  Jello can take a while to set - I have no clue how long a whole stage floor would take (obviously it would depend on the size of the stage and the temperature of the room - it would need to be fairly chilly). 

Text:
A: You covered the entire floor in JELLO?!?!?!
S: Don't go out there! The stage isn't ... set. :)