Waxing Nostalgic

remember the good ole days, when your mom or dad would drop you off at the mall for a day of cavorting with your friends, making fun of all the "old" people (which we have now turned into)? or if you were a parent, remember dropping the kids off at the mall and thinking to yourself "finally, a couple hours of peace and quiet"? i remember those days, and the best part about those days was heading to Orange Julius for one of their awesome Orange Julius drinks. Dairy Queen has since taken over the Orange Julius franchise, and there aren't many of the Orange Julius stores around anymore. but if you were ever a fan of the orange julius drink and have been craving one for the past 20+ years, you may want to try one of the recipes below. they are both for an orange julius.

Recipe #1

6 oz frozen concentrate orange juice
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
6 ice cubes (believe it or not, the quantity of ice cubes does matter with this recipe)

combine all ingredients into blender and blend until frothy.
call your mom or dad and have them come pick you up from the mall.
drink up.

Recipe #2

2/3 cup frozen concentrate OJ
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup powdered sugar
6 ice cubes

combine all ingredients into blender and blend until frothy.
go to the payphone to call your friend and tell him that jenny said that mary said that lisa said that betty likes him and wants to go to the dance with him.
drink up.

recipe #1 is much sweeter than recipe #2, but recipe #1 is the way i remember orange julius drinks tasting like.

Baby Pool Winner

and the winner is - believe it or not - me. with a guess of boy, july 18, 7 lbs, 14 oz, i was the closest to 1000 points with 994 (-3 points for the date, -3 points for the weight). this is a tremendous relief because now i can take the $1500 prize and put it in joey's college fund.

i think i'll celebrate by using a coupon for a free pint of ben and jerry's ice cream and indulge for dessert tonight.

actually, that coupon is the prize. i've been entertaining myself, though, picturing some of the reactions to the fake money prize. :)

Baby Pool

i will post the winner of the baby pool shortly (as soon as i have it calculated), but here are everyone's guesses:

Gender Date Lbs Oz

Kim Girl 23-Jul 7 10
Doug Boy 18-Jul 7 14
Pat Flanigan Girl 18-Jul 7 10
Scott Raynor Girl 18-Jul 8 3
Laura Dundas Boy 23-Jul 8 4
Jessica McGondel Boy 22-Jul 9 8
Dad Raynor Boy 18-Jul 8 6
Maggie Dorato Girl 12-Jul 8 10
Mom Raynor Boy 16-Jul 7 8
Bri Ivey Girl 11-Jul 8 2
Nancy Flanigan Girl 14-Jul 8 1
Larry McGondel Girl 19-Jul 9 2
Nate Ivey Girl 18-Jul 7 7
Granny Sandusky Girl 27-Jul 7 11
Amanda Coppola Girl 23-Jul 8 4
Marge Raynor Boy 16-Jul 7 2
Chuck Raynor Girl 12-Jul 7 12

The Introduction

i've always said family should be the most important thing in somebody's life. work, friends, etc always come after family. since i try my best to live by that credo, i thought it would be very hard to charge the family to see pictures of the baby. People magazine wanted to pay a couple million dollars for these pictures, but i'm holding out for more (please don't forward this to anyone at People Mag). to see the pictures, just click on the picture below and it should take you to the web album for viewing.

without further ado, Joseph William Raynor!

Joseph William Raynor

AND...

We have our own room.

The Baby has Arrived

Joseph WIlliam Raynor was born July 21 at 11 pm weighing in at 7 lbs 11 oz and 19.5 inches. Mom and baby are doing well.

Here we go

Kim and i arrived at the hospital at around 5:30 this evening and are ready to push this baby out. kims water brke around 5:30 this morn and since she really wasn't having any contractions all day, the dr told us to head to the hospital so that they could help the process along. kim just got an iv of petosin, which is a drug that apparently helps induce labor. she could be pushing in an hour, or it could be several hours before the pushing begins. what we do know is that they dont have any rooms left for us after the baby is born, so we'll have to stay in our delivery room until one comes available.

next post should be the introduction!

Test mobile blog

This is a test blog from my mobile phone. i want to be sure to give everyone the most up to date info on baby raynor and have set up mobile blogger to be able to do so. check back often over the next few days because it's going to have to happen any day now.

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless LGVX9900 device.

Baby Update

baby raynor is still resting comfortably inside mommy's womb, and it doesn't appear that he/she wants to arrive any time soon. we thought the heat and humidity of the weekend would help move things along, but we were mistaken.

stay tuned...

Missing...

...beautiful, loving, caring wife and mother. been missing now for almost 3 months. she's been replaced by a strange, mood changing alien life form that uses mental telepathy to communicate. i am not familiar with this form of communication and have frequently been caught off guard due to it. she's a master of adding things to a honey-do list that have never even been discussed before, turning a list of 5 to-dos into 10 without blinking an eye. she has an extremely high body temperature, leading to our central ac system to be put on overdrive and me having to go to bed with a down comforter in the middle of july. Extremely quirky, she sometimes bursts out in laughter in the middle of the night, and even occasionally enjoys reading in bed with a spelunker hat on from midnight to 3am. she consistently speaks about the "evil spawn" she is carrying in her belly and often shakes her belly with her hands to wake the "evil spawn."

i'll keep the blog updated if/when there are any kim sightings and will let you know when she comes back. hopefully, it will be very soon!

Mmmmm, Citrus

time for a couple more recipes. these are more of my favorites, especially in the summer.

spiked lemonade:
2 C lemon flavored seltzer or club soda
1/2 C citrus flavored vodka
1/2 C fresh lemon juice
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C triple sec (if you want to get fancy, use grand marnier instead of triple sec)

combine ingredients in a large pitcher. serve over crushed ice.

this lemonade is not recommended to be used for a lemonade stand. i'm pretty sure selling this by the glass without a liquor license could warrant a hefty fine from the authorities.

easy key lime pie:
1 - 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 - 6oz can frozen limeade concentrate
1 cup heavy cream
1 - 6oz graham cracker pie crust

-place the condensed milk, limeade concentrate, and cream in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until fluffy and soft peaks form
-pour the filling into the piecrust and smooth the top
-refrigerate until chilled and loosely set, at least 4 hours (and up to overnight)

sidenote - if you couldn't find a 6oz can of frozen limeade concentrate and had to use half of a 12oz container, use the remaining limeade concentrate to make a half of a pitcher of margaritas (see the margartia recipe at http://bubsraynor.blogspot.com/2008/06/perfect-refreshment.html, and just half the recipe).

Happy 4th

i love the 4th of july - bbq'ing, fireworks, time off - for me, the highlight of the summer, usually (the big highlight for me this year will occur in about 2 weeks, maybe sooner).

remember to get your baby pool guesses in as soon as possible. the info is on sidebar on the right. email guesses to douglasraynor@gmail.com.