Pre-vacation hell

I am in pre-vacation hell.  Whatever can go wrong, has gone wrong and vacation cannot come soon enough. I feel like the effects of the full moon are just hitting me.  Usually they coincide with the actual full moon, but this time, they are a few days behind.  People are weird, work is chaotic, and my computer sucks.

Easter was a really great day.  It was quiet, relaxing and we had a great dinner.  This ham I made was awesome.  Seriously.  If you are not Jewish, you need to try this ham.  I have to give my mother credit for the recipe, but I actually cooked it so I get credit too.  There aren't too many times that I actually cook something that tastes good, so I'm going to milk this as long as possible.

So, you take the ham (not the spiral crap, just a regular shank or butt) and put it in a big pot.  Cover it with water and add two cans of beer, ground mustard, honey or molasses and brown sugar.  We didn't measure any of this, we just put what we thought looked like a good amount in.  Then you put it on to boil.  When it comes to a boil, turn it off and let it sit overnight in the beer/water.  In the morning, take it out and put the ham in a roasting pan, add some of the juice to the bottom of the pan and cover the ham with brown sugar, pineapple, cloves--whatever you like.  Bake for 1-2 hours depending on how big your ham is.

The boiling takes the saltiness out of the ham and the beer gives it a yummy beer flavor.  Beer-flavored ham--can it get any better???  You don't have to bake the ham as long so it doesn't get all dried out and yuk.  It stays moist and yummy.

There were no leftovers.  I ate them all by 9 p.m.

Note to self:  Buy a bigger ham next time.

The kids had an egg hunt--Easter Bunny was pretty busy the night before hiding eggs all over our yard.  He also left a trail to their hidden easter baskets in our house.  Unfortunately, the dog did not keep good on his promise not to eat the trail and thus, the trails all ended at the bottom of the stairs.  I kept waiting for the backlash of the dog eating pretzel M&M's, kit-kats and malted eggs, but I never saw it....  It would have made a nice picture, right Kara?  ;)

I can't reach the ghetto clothesline!

Is there a 5 spot in here?  cheap ass bunny.

Do not be jealous of my kid's fashion sense.  They get that from me.

I did very well with my weekend exercise.  The Y was closed on Friday for Good Friday so everyone could go to church  (yah, right) so there was no swim for me.  I ran 5.25 miles instead.  Saturday the pool was open again so we all went swimming and I got my 2000 yds done.  Sunday, another 5.10 mile run in the morning so I had free reign to eat all the ham I wanted.  oink oink.

I do have to share with you my Monday activities.  Usually on Monday I play tennis at lunch time.  I went to change in my tennis attire only to find that I didn't have a sports bra packed.  ugh.  Yes, I do realize that my boobs are non-existant, however, even tiny boobs bounce when they are free.  So it was either skip tennis or play in my super-duper-padded-make-it-look-like-you-have-a-chest-bra.  I opted to skip. 

So I took the kids swimming again that night before dinner.  What I nice mom I am!  I disguise my own selfish reasons for wanting to go swimming as doing wonderfully, healthful activities with my children.  ha.  My swim was pretty usual except that I really swam my last 500 as fast as I could and I timed it.  500 yds in somewhere between 7:30-8:00 minutes!  That is a fair amount faster than the 10 minutes I did last time I timed myself.  I'm like a freakin' shark!  The seconds were not super accurate because I was looking at a wall clock, but still!  I don't even flip turn.  Maybe I've missed my calling.

How was your Easter?

I know your ham wasn't as good as mine, but did you have a nice meal?

Did your dog eat the Easter candy too?  Any backlash?