Iced Coffee, Alfredo, and More Dental Drama: ODO 211

Published by Odd Dad Out on August 17, 2021August 17, 2021

Another one of my boys knocked out a couple of his teeth. At least they were baby teeth this time.
My garden is pretty empty other than a mantis that I relocated to my strawberry patch.
And I give you a couple really simple recipes for caramel iced coffee, and my grilled chicken alfredo. (Give me some time and I’ll try to get them written down somewhere.)

I’ve Been Converted(ish) on Caramel Iced Coffee

In the past, I’ve always kind of shit on iced coffee. I’ve never really understood intentionally making your coffee cold. Anyone who knows me even slightly knows that I drink a metric fuck ton of coffee. I actually go through 2 pots of coffee a day on most days. But that’s hot coffee. Even in the summer, I take a 32oz hot coffee with me to work every night in 100+ degree weather.

But, my wife, on the other hand, is all about the iced coffee. To the point that every time I get donuts from our local mom and pop donut shop, I have to go to Dunkin and pick her up a large caramel iced coffee with cream and sugar. The thing is, that shit is expensive.

And so, in all my DIY glory, I set out to see if I could just make it myself. In that quest I learned a few things. First, that stuff is really super simple to make for yourself if you’re willing to give it the appropriate time. Two, like all simple things, it’s more about the method than the ingredients (not that those don’t necessarily matter.) And last, through taste tests and experimenting, I really don’t hate caramel iced coffee. To be fair, I did a lot of tinkering to dial in my recipe to something that both my wife and I would enjoy. But yeah. I don’t hate it.

Formal written recipe pending*

Dental Drama Part Deux

If you recall back to Valentine’s of 2020 child number two knocked out one of his permanent teeth while at my sister’s house. Fast forward to this year and, on the day before his birthday no less, our youngest managed to knock loose two teeth. At least this time they were baby teeth and the permanent teeth were already coming in behind them. He was trying to take his belt off after taekwondo and actually ended up punching himself in the mouth. So, here we are again, having to get ahold of the after hours emergency dentist. And off we go to the emergency dentist to get the teeth taken out so that he doesn’t risk swallowing them in his sleep or something.

Relocating Our Garden Mantis Buddy

During the spring we discovered that we had a tiny little praying mantis living in our cucumber plants. By the end of the season, our little mantis had gotten to a pretty big mantis. Of course, once the season was over and the cucumber bed was stripped down, I completely forgot about that mantis. Jump ahead a few weeks, and I noticed something scurrying around in the grass. What could it be but our cucumber mantis.

Unfortunately, at this point the entire garden was nearly dead and bare before the fall planting season. But, I did have one place in the garden that could use their help. So, after a whole lot of chasing, (I didn’t know that mantises were so damn fast) I successfully relocated our mantis buddy to our strawberry barrel to help us deal with our yellow moth/ caterpillar problem. So far it really seems to have managed that issue spectacularly.

*UPDATE* 10-3-21*

Our mantis buddy has since moved across the yard to the lemon tree, presumably to escape the large population of lizards that reside in the vicinity of the strawberry barrel.