Defeated

Mila, she who laughs in the face of "No" and then double-downs and does that thing more, has decided that if she says something enough times, it will become fact. It's not my ice cream, it's hers. She doesn't have to wear shoes because of course she doesn't have to wear shoes. There are tons and tons of examples.

And, hey, the television? That's hers. She controls it.

The interesting part about this little power struggle is that every time she pushes the issue, I turn the television off. You can demand that I turn on "Elmo Street," but if you do it too many times, nobody gets to watch anything. Yet, Mila perseveres.

While "Elmo Street" is often Mila's go-to request, more recently she has adopted a movie as her thing. Puss in Boots, to be exact. Except, she calls it "Kitty in Boots." I've figured out that she's calling it that because Kitty Soft Paws is her favorite, but she knows the word "boots" is in the name, so she mashed things up until she liked them best.

Anyway, Mila has been asking to watch "Kitty in Boots" a lot lately. Well, she asks once. The conversation tends to go more like this:

Mila: "I watch Kitty in Boots, please?" It is asked as a question.

Me: "No, thank you."

Mila: "Do you want to watch Kitty in Boots?"

Me: "No, thank you."

Mila: "We watch Kitty in Boots." It's not a question anymore.

Me: "No, thank you." (I'm consistent. It's a fact.)

Mila: "OK, we watch Kitty in Boots now." And then she grabs the remote and tries to use the voice recognition thing to change the channel to Kitty in Boots. By the way, I think Kitty in Boots might be a real thing that shows on the channels that were scrambled back when I was a kid. It's not a kid-friendly as Puss in Boots. Ahem.

The whole exchange takes a minute or two because there are pauses and some moments of silence, which means that my old brain tends to forget how the whole conversation started. I go from absolute resolution that there will be no Kitty in Boots to Mila nearly convincing me that I've asked her which movie she wants to watch and her happily answering.

Which, whatever. So what if I have been brainwashed by a 2-year old.

Alexis Would Have Talked His Ear Off

Apparently there was some sort of football game on Saturday? And it was a big deal? At least it seemed that way based on the fact that all of Pittsburgh congregated at Heinz Field to cheer on their team.

Which ... ::yawn::

Sorry, I care about a lot of things that don't really matter, but college football is not one of them. The Penn State vs Pitt banter is about as meaningful to me as a box of rocks. It's cool that other people care; I just have other stuff that I choose to focus on.

Alexis, on the other hand, cares deeply. It took her going to one Pitt game to pledge her allegiance. While she's never been to a Penn State game to find some balance, I'm not sure that it matters. She's in. All the way.

Driving her further down the rabbit hole to Pitt love is that fact that Alexis' teacher is a Penn State fan. While she's normally more of a "whatever makes teacher happy" kind of kid, every once in a while she chooses to be contrarian. In this case, she's so far into the BOO PENN STATE madness that she knows a bunch of Pitt player names and legit cares about the outcome of every game.

Whatevs. She's happy.

So when I said we had to run errands Saturday, Alexis flipped out. She wanted to sit in front of a TV and cheer for Pitt. That was fine and dandy, but the errands really needed to get done. Our attempt at a compromise came together at a wooden table while we were gathered around french toast and pancakes and such.

It was after 12:00. The game was underway, and we were in a restaurant enjoying some breakfast for lunch. There were TVs all over the place, but not a one was showing the Pitt game. One thing led to another and finally I said I would ask the server to turn on the game. I couldn't deal with another minute of listening to Alexis complain.

Alas, our server returned to check on us. As he confirmed that everyone had enough to drink, I asked him if the TV could be turned to the Pitt game. Unfortunately, it was on ESPN and the restaurant didn't have it and blah, blah, blah.

No Pitt game for Alexis.

Alexis didn't catch what happened next because she was mad I had made her leave the house, but I caught it. And -OH- how I laughed. The server returned with something or other and then turned to the husband and started talking about the game. They talked for a few minutes, despite the fact that the husband cares about Pitt football about as much as Mila does. That's to say, not at all. He doesn't actively cheer for or against them. He just doesn't care. He's a Hoosier, after all.

So Alexis was the one who wanted to see the game.

I was the one who asked to have it turned on.

And yet the server chatted about the game to the person at the table who cared the least.

You gotta love the little sexist things that happen in our daily lives. They're hysterical, really.

Zucchini Risotto

Hey ho, off to use more zucchini I go. Somehow this has turned into the year where it just won't stop. I'm giving away zucchini to anyone who makes eye contact, and yet there's still so much in my kitchen. Thus, Zucchini Risotto had to be a thing.

This is a twist on my old tried and true Parmesan Risotto recipe. I'm not going to say that I ended up liking the zucchini version better, but I will admit that it's close. REALLY close.

Zucchini Risotto

4 tablespoons butter
1 small white onion, finely shopped (I threw it in a food processor. Cheaters sometimes do win.)
1 cup arborio rice
1 32-oz box vegetable broth
1/2 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 small zucchini, finely sliced (I used a mandolin slicer.)

1. You're going to need to pans for this -- a large skillet and a sauce pan. Toss the butter in the skillet to start and melt it over medium-high heat.

2. While the butter is melting, throw the vegetable broth, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme, basil, and pepper in the skillet and turn the heat on medium-high as well.

3. Is the butter melted yet? Great. Add the onion and lightly sauté it until it begins to turn clear (2-3 minutes). Then add the rice and stir. Sauté for 2-3 minutes or until the rice begins to look clear as well.

4. Now for the fun part. Add 1/2 cup of the broth while stirring. Keep stirring until the liquid disappears and then add another 1/2 cup of broth. Keep doing that until you run out of broth, stirring the whole time.

5. Once you've added all of the liquid, add the parmesan and stir well. Then add the zucchini and stir well again. By now you should have a super creamy rice. Turn off the heat and let it sit for a few minutes to allow the zucchini to soften just right.

6. Why is risotto so delicious? Step 6 is to figure out the answer and explain it to me. Please.