Why so rude-y with the sassy attitude-y?

Evangelina's a teenager now -- a female teenager to boot -- so needless to say, I often don't "get" her.

Recently after a long day before dinnertime, I couldn't have one word with her without some sarcastic negative remark from her mouth. Thankfully, dinner was a much more pleasant experience together, so later in private I asked her what the heck had happened with her drastic changes in countenance. 

Hinting that she had been painfully ravenous earlier, she asserted, "Mina the foodie is no longer moody!"

Mentholatum Chicken?

Lately, starting with a visit to Z&Y Zagat and Michelin rated Sichuan restaurant in San Francisco, our family has been on somewhat of a spicy Chinese food kick. This has required some adjustment in our originally anti-spice daughter. 

The other day on the way home from dinner which was prematurely ended by her running out of her bottled drink, E declared, "I feel like I have /ca-ca/ (Tiger Balm or any of its menthol/Eucalyptus oil knockoffs) all over my face."