Dumped and smothered
I don't know that I've mentioned mom's obsession with baking lately, to the point where she dug out her book of dump cakes--250 different recipes. If you aren't aware, dump cakes are pretty much what they sound like--you dump the items into a container and bake. Little to no stirring is required, and the ingredients tend to be few. Last Sunday, mom decided to make a dump cake, in part because when she'd gone to the store the prior week, she picked up four (!) boxes of cake mix, including banana and pineapple. (Okay, might've been three, as she already had one box in the pantry. But it's not like we need to eat four cakes anytime soon.) This cake was pretty darn simple--take fresh strawberries and line slices up along the bottom of a baking pan. Mix one box of angel food cake mix and one can of crushed pineapple, undrained, and pour over strawberries. Bake and enjoy. Super simple, three ingredients, mom can handle that. And, being angel food cake, it was nice and light. We also had Reddi Wip in the house so that added to it.
We got the paper today and mom saw an article about a local family appearing in a reality show--sMothered, about moms and daughters who are waaay too close. The article mentioned one pair who shower together, and another where the mom licks the daughter to wake her up. (Are we sure this wasn't brought to us by Penthouse Letters?) Anyway, one pair is from Norridge, which is basically our old neighborhood. When mom saw the article, she wanted to check out the show. She was honestly too creeped out by the other mother/daughter pairs to watch the rest of it, and fast-forwarded through much of the show, but any time the local pair was on, she'd watch. I had been upstairs much of the morning and had come down for lunch and stumbled upon mom watching this. Yeah…I guess our relationship could be worse. No, we are not getting mother-daughter boob jobs, thank you. At one point mom caught a street name on a corner, and given how distinctive the house is, for whatever reason, I set about finding it. And, I'm not proud of myself, but I found it. You have to understand that Norridge is similar to the city, with a lot of boxy bungalows lining the streets. This…was not a bungalow. It was ostentatious, to say the least. Now, I looked along the particular street mom mentioned and didn't spot it, even looking a block in either direction in case it was off a cross street. I then realized the street stops and starts up again a few blocks later--and found it. (I should point out that Norridge isn't very big and is one of two suburbs--Harwood Heights is the other--surrounded by the city.) What really surprised me is discovering it's basically a block over from a family friend's house, holy cow. I've actually been right near there, as I attended a wake at the nearby funeral home. Oh goodness. The really weird part was that the house next door to it was blurred out on street view. I'm surprised it wasn't the pair's house (actually the mom's, though the daughter lives nearby), but I suppose if you live next door to a circus, you'd want some privacy, too. There was also a police car parked across the street, which was interesting. Coincidence? Or keeping watch? Hmm. All I know is that dad and I were not entirely thrilled to be subjected to the show, to the point where dad was going to run and get plants. I was like, take me with you! He did not. Wah.
We got the paper today and mom saw an article about a local family appearing in a reality show--sMothered, about moms and daughters who are waaay too close. The article mentioned one pair who shower together, and another where the mom licks the daughter to wake her up. (Are we sure this wasn't brought to us by Penthouse Letters?) Anyway, one pair is from Norridge, which is basically our old neighborhood. When mom saw the article, she wanted to check out the show. She was honestly too creeped out by the other mother/daughter pairs to watch the rest of it, and fast-forwarded through much of the show, but any time the local pair was on, she'd watch. I had been upstairs much of the morning and had come down for lunch and stumbled upon mom watching this. Yeah…I guess our relationship could be worse. No, we are not getting mother-daughter boob jobs, thank you. At one point mom caught a street name on a corner, and given how distinctive the house is, for whatever reason, I set about finding it. And, I'm not proud of myself, but I found it. You have to understand that Norridge is similar to the city, with a lot of boxy bungalows lining the streets. This…was not a bungalow. It was ostentatious, to say the least. Now, I looked along the particular street mom mentioned and didn't spot it, even looking a block in either direction in case it was off a cross street. I then realized the street stops and starts up again a few blocks later--and found it. (I should point out that Norridge isn't very big and is one of two suburbs--Harwood Heights is the other--surrounded by the city.) What really surprised me is discovering it's basically a block over from a family friend's house, holy cow. I've actually been right near there, as I attended a wake at the nearby funeral home. Oh goodness. The really weird part was that the house next door to it was blurred out on street view. I'm surprised it wasn't the pair's house (actually the mom's, though the daughter lives nearby), but I suppose if you live next door to a circus, you'd want some privacy, too. There was also a police car parked across the street, which was interesting. Coincidence? Or keeping watch? Hmm. All I know is that dad and I were not entirely thrilled to be subjected to the show, to the point where dad was going to run and get plants. I was like, take me with you! He did not. Wah.