chico bags

I know the print is small, but when I click on the image, I get a larger image. This is what came with my Chico Bags (front and back of one piece of recycled (?) paper). Just thought I'd share.

pic!

Rejoice! Life is fab when Mamma let's me dress myself!

there's no place like it

I got in last night at around midnight. I walked in to find Cardo curled up, asleep, in the oversized chair in the living room, tv on, light on, glasses on, phone by his head. I checked Pic and found her half hanging out of bed, little legs and butt exposed in the light she left on when she was finished playing for the night. I scooped the bottom of her body back into the bed and covered her with her blankets.

Under my pillow, I found a welcome home card from Papyrus (great, great cards). Cardo had missed me while I was gone, had told me the house felt empty without me although I was only gone for three days.

I missed my little family, also, and I’m glad to be home.

and all of my 'sunday' clothes are packed

put on your sunday clothes

because i may never sleep again

steam heat

...and again

I dance myself to sleep

Because I'm not sleeping anyway.

the odd couple

La La La

i know i'm tired, but people are weird

I pulled some reviews from a Semi-Homemade cake recipe I watched Sandra Lee make today on Food Network. Just thought I'd share.

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Delicious! [5 stars]
06/04/2006 at 01:34pm
User: AMY from Dover, TN User Rating:
I just made this cake and mousse, we didn't even let it cool completely before we tried it. It is wonderful! I was able to get almost all of the ingredients as they are recommended with the exception of the plain fat free yogurt (I didn't want a huge container of it waiting around for me to find something else to do with it) so I used a 6 oz. container of light vanilla yogurt instead. And I used sugar free pudding and extra creamy cool-whip in the mousse. The cake is not heavy but it is very moist. I think that next time I'll give the shredded zuccini a little bit of a chop to keep it from being so coarse and visible to the food pickers in my family, you know the ones, they use their fork to pull out pieces of whatever they are eating and asking you to identify them. But as far as taste and texture goes this cake and mousse are winners! I don't know what Bozo thinks they can review a recipe without trying it first or criticize the author of a recipe just out of hand but I have a new ingredient for you....a raspberry! I'll bet your cooking reflects your personality, no taste!

ATTENTION Amy from Dover, TN [1 star]
06/04/2006 at 03:06pm
User: Anonymous User Rating:
"Please note the recipe reviews are offered as a free service to registered members. They are not message boards. Personal conversations and abuse of chefs, hosts, or other reviewers will not be tolerated." --- I sincerely hope that not all of Sandra's fans are as rude and bigoted as you AMY. I hope Sandra starts making better recipes so maybe she can get a better type of fan to worship her. She deserves it. After reading your offensive review, I have decided NOT to make this cake. In fact I am boycotting ALL Semi-Homemade recipes until Sandra does something about the horrible reviews with 5 stars that were ONLY written as a vehicle to spread HATE. BOZO!!!



Superb cake
08/23/2006 at 04:30pm
User: Anonymous User Rating:
I surprised my husband and wife by making them this delightful cake. It really delivered: moist and tender and oh, so choclatey. Since they don't like zucinni, I used storebought cucumber-feta salad.

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Oh, and I shared this before elsewhere, but here it is again. Click on "see all reviews." (I finally refound where I found it in the first place...Sweetney. Sweetney linked to it almost four years ago and people are still reviewing this recipe.)

we eat...again

Pic and I both took pictures of our dinners tonight...it's catching.

Pic ate her leftover chicken and the pasta with vegetable puree mixed in. Cardo and I had Trader Joe's Chicken Pomodoro and blender cauliflower with carrots (I needed to use up the vegetables in the refrigerator). We all had House of Bread oatmeal bread. (Isn't the bright orange cauliflower/carrot just electrifying?)































Because I'll be packing up the kitchen tomorrow, I told Cardo I'm only leaving out two pots and we'll be eating plenty of oatmeal, cream of wheat, rice and beans and risi e bisi until we are moved in to the apartment.

jc penney company

how would we look without zippers

the big purge

Here are some of the things I've decided I can do without bringing to our new residence. I'm still not sure if I'll be able to live without them.
My senior year ID. One of my first library cards. The first passcard holder I got when I came to school here (and that I painted with nailpolish).

[Edited 5/19/08: I removed the image. I wasn't quite comfortable with my whole name spelled out on my ID. It might not make sense, but there you have it.]

belief-o-matic

I just love how that sounds like a 1950s kitchen appliance.

Anyway, according to my answers for this, here are my top five belief matches:

1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (91%)
3. New Age (90%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (83%)
5. Liberal Quakers (80%)

I don't really know what most of these entail, but there are handy little links on the results page to give a basic rundown.

thirsty

I woke up this morning to Pic asking me, over and over again, "I have sixteen lemonades, Mamma? I have sixteen lemonades, Mamma?" I'm never very coherent when I wake up (and I'm only partially so on most other occasions), so it took me a while to figure out what it was she wanted. It turns out, she wanted sixteen M&Ms (which she usually pronounces neminems or K&Rs when she's searching for whatever letters represent those little colorful circles).

Last week, we introduced Pic to M&Ms and she fell instantly and deeply in love. Usually she'll ask for four or five neminems and Cardo will give her four or five, whichever she specified. She gets upset because, clearly, that is not enough neminems for a growing toddler. She'll use her fingers to count out four and then she'll demand, "No! I want four neminems!" This is pretty amusing to Cardo. Eventually, he'll dole out more for her and she'll count until she has a good little coating of the bottom of her cup.

She'd like more neminems right now, but she still has eat something healthy. She's made it very clear to me with lots of whining and loud noises that she'd really prefer to eat neminems without having eaten anything healthy. Too bad, poor Pic.

a recent spontaneous trip to escape the shaking

or something and stuff

Just a few things here.

This is why I write and read blogs. There's definitely something cathartic, for me, about writing. I keep a journal (I've been keeping it, in a series of books, on and off for sixteen years now), I write here, I write letters to Pic, I recently even wrote a letter to Cardo when I just couldn't force my vocal cords to speak the words that needed to be spoken. There's also something incredibly helpful to me in reading others' writing, relating to others even if I don't know these people personally. For a very long time, being a mother was a very isolating experience for me (because I made it so, I get this, but...) and feeling a connection with other moms has been so relieving/therapeutic/something great. It's definitely telling that eighteen of the blogs I have bookmarked could be categorized "mommy blogs" (although I'm unsure of how these women would categorize their blogs or if they'd even categorize them at all).

And now for something(s) completely different.

What is with the overwhelming amount of packaging that most crap is wrapped in? A couple of years ago, we actually went to Toys R Us (I loathe Toys R Us, have for quite some time, and the two ventures we made there early in Pic's life will, I hope, be the only ones) and bought Pic a Cabbage Patch Doll. When I was young, I loved these dolls. I'm kind of over it right now, but we have had this doll sitting around in this box for two years now and I thought it was time to release her to Pic's sometimes-gentle hands. It took me almost ten minutes to get her out of the freaking box. Her name is Katie Nina, although Pic can "officially" change it one day if she wants (I'm rooting for Ignacia, so we can call her Nacha...I've killed the name Ignacio by feminizing it, but too bad). We tried for a doll that resembled Pic as much as possible, darker hair, eyes and skin. (Of course, this baby has twelve times more hair than Pic actually does.)
















And.

I'm rereading Bridget Jones's Diary and I can't figure out why. I didn't remember that I didn't like it all that much the first time I read it and now that I've begun, I feel compelled to finish it again. I hate that she (Bridget) believes that weighing anything over 120 pounds makes her a huge, blobby monster. It frustrates me because it's ridiculous...and because I can completely relate to feeling that same kind of thing about myself and I don't like that about me. So, people, I need book recommendation for the summer please. Books to accompany my comps reading list, that is.

So.

Now, I'm going to go watch the rest of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and eat lemon poppyseed bread (from House of Bread, of course).

off we go

We are moving, yes, again. And I’m suddenly tired. I love to move and Poke used to joke with me that I would have to marry a military man because we’d always be on the move then (and because I’d never be a military woman…thank you other people for stepping up where I won’t).

I’ve always had this urge to move and move and move again. At the same time, though, I want to settle down. I want to buy a house where we will stay forever and where Pic will grow up. Cardo and I daydream about what our house will be like, but I’m beginning to think that we’ll never get there. First off, I have to make more than $20 a year. Second, we have to be settled and I won’t be ready for that for another six years, at least. I want to be able to race through my PhD, but I know that I can’t. I think I might have finally learned that I need to not take on so much because I just can’t do it. This semester was a big huge screaming day-glo neon sign telling me that. So, I’ll take it easy(ish) on myself and get through my PhD eventually and then we can think about settling down, because by then I should be making $30 a year.

In the meantime, we are gradually beginning to pack up again. The house is a wreck and I can’t be a calm person when it’s like this. There are bags of give-away, recycle, trash. There are boxes I’ve just packed. There are boxes that haven’t been unpacked in the last two moves. When we move, I will be in my eighth residence in nine years.

In the meantime, this just might swallow me (and this is just the office):

thinking feminine thoughts

I haven't even gotten through all of this yet, but I had to share it.

I just love reading that I was 'designed' to become a wife.

Oh, and I love that my reproductive organs "constitute a sacred legacy." No wonder people keep trying to tell me that I can't stop at one kid.

Indian Thriller

Indian Thriller



Thanks dooce

the wounded pie, demystified

I apologize for the lag between my posting of that picture and this explanation. I've been...

Anyway, one day last week, one of the hazy ones I don't remember so well, but I think it was Friday, I got a call from one of the teachers at Pic's school.

"I just wanted to call you and let you know that Pic had an accident on the playground today. She fell off of the slide, about two feet from the bottom -- she flipped off. She scraped her forehead and her cheek. She's fine and we've been watching to make sure she isn't acting strangely. She's fine...she just doesn't look like she did when you dropped her off."

Cardo picked her up from school that day, because I've been a pretty useless person lately, and by the time she got home, Pic was already so over her scrape that she didn't even rush to show me. Cardo had to coax her into the bedroom to let me ogle the gigantic scab so close to her eye. I'm sure her forehead isn't pretty, either, but the teachers put a waterproof bandage on it and I'm sure that it'll be weeks before we are able to remove it and see what's growing under there.

So, Pic's fine. She's three and kids live through these accidents all of the time and she isn't even concerned about this one (I think it's mainly because she can't see it).

Thanks to everyone for your concern. I'm just happy we weren't planning pictures.

happy belated birthday cardo

endless caruso one-liners

This probably needs explanation. Neither Cardo nor I like this show, but Cardo loathes this character (I'm not sure how he feels about Caruso in general, but he'll probably never be a fan).

I didn't even make it through two minutes of this.

Guess where I came across this link?

wired

Because I have coffee pulsating through my body. My body which is exhausted and on the verge of collapse after a semester-long all-nighter.

espresso art


I found this at dooce also. (I've probably not divulged this to all of you, but when I start reading a new blog, I have to start from the beginning, or as much of the beginning as I have access too. I know, it's tedious, but I feel compelled to do it, and, y'know, pick your battles and whatnot.)

because I have 15 more pages to write and zero attention span

music for one apartment and six drummers

I got this link from dooce. I just have to say, I wouldn't want to be the guy with the perfume who then was in charge of the toilet brush.

yes, we have been eating

Here are some recent dinner items I've put together. The first, I made tonight. Annie's shells and cheese to which I added yam and spinach puree. (You might not be able to tell, but the pasta has a green tint to it.) The second, I've made a couple of times in the last week or so. It's marinated bean salad with orzo. Yes, I'm a genius! Okay, so really, I made this because the Fearless Flyer gods suggested it. I did add the diced tomato and chopped basil all on my own, though. I have enough of this prepared to get me through the next several days, because that's how I make pasta apparently.

a little slice of wounded Pie

the wind-down

I am about to go upstairs and sit pretty much alone in my classroom for two hours. I guess I'm going to sit there, read children's literature and either listen to music or watch Into the Woods. I didn't bring any of my research with me because I'm already carrying enough stuff around with me and I wasn't exactly planning well this morning. I guess that's what happens when you take a three-hour nap during the day and then stay up all night long. I had slept for almost an hour when Cardo came out to the living room, where I had finally fallen asleep, and let me know that he was leaving for work.

Well, I'm off to begin wrapping up this semester so that I can become a useless lump for several days next week before I jump back in...

a little slice of Pie

the child will not sleep

It's 11:34 at night and Pic is still awake. After Cardo got home from work, we walked to Beach Hut Deli and had dinner and then had ice cream at Coldstone. So...either the sandwich-maker put a little something special in her sandwich or the ice cream-maker put a little something special in her strawberry ice cream with white "chocolate" chips.

Right now, she's in her room, repeating "I can't find my bra-ce-wet." (This is how she pronounces "bracelet".) Then she told Cardo, "Papi, find my bra-ce-wet right now!" He responded, from the hallway, on the other side of the closed door, with "Go. To. Sleep." To which she responded, "I'm happy to see you Papi. Don't be nice to me."

Maybe her cold has gone to her brain.

(I so need to be writing school papers, but this is incomprehensibly hilarious to me right now.)

random rambling

Just a few things today:

I had coffee today...never a good idea, but I just couldn't stop myself, obviously. Now, Pic is resting and I'm daydreaming of resting, fretting over papers due and catching up on blogs.

Pic is sick. :( She started getting sick a few days ago(she started talking in that wonderfully husky voice that's oddly entrancing and I knew we were in trouble). She woke up this morning coughing, sneezing and snotty. She was disappointed that we wouldn't be meeting with our regular Tuesday morning crowd and has been fantasizing about future picnics (or 'picmics' as she calls them) all day. When Cardo finally rolled out of bed this morning, I whined to him, "I'm sick...." His response, "This is not a good week for you to be sick." Yeah, thanks.

I receieved a ULINE catalogue in the mail today. "What's ULINE?" you ask. Well, they're shipping supply specialists. And why wouldn't they send me a catalogue? Just in time for me to order supplies to ship myself off to a very remote place.

I've drawn a somewhat crappy hand from the universe these last few weeks and the end of this semester has been the toughest one I've almost survived. At some point, I'll probably want to just sit in the presence of others and remember what it feels like to be a normal(ish) human, but for a bit, I'm mortaring myself into my familiar solitary space. Please don't take it personally -- it's just a defense mechanism so that I can make it through the next six days and emerge a somewhat sane person.

8 days to go...

Three words to sum up my state-of-mind right now (or they would describe my state-of-mind if I felt I still possessed a mind): End. Of. Semester.

I'm taking a break from my painstakingly-slow writing to address some other stuff...so, on to other things.

I've been tagged! I'm to write six quirky things about me, so I'll quickly jot those down here:

1. I like to paint my fingernails and toenails two shades, alternating the colors (many of you have seen evidence of this).
2. I count stairs (they're 43 from the main quad to Palmer Engineering, 49 from Evans to Morrill Hall, 42 from the lower quad to the Old Ed building...you get the picture).
3. I don't like most of my foods to touch and I like to finish eating one item on my plate before I begin eating another.
4. I catalogue my books and Pic's books (and we both have "From the library of..." stamps).
5. I put my playing cards and crayons away "in order."
6. I read almost all of my school reading aloud (this semester, Pic has been treated to The Faerie Queene, Gerusalemme Liberata, Orlando Furioso and plenty of secondary reading on these works).

Okay, so here are the rules:

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you. [I was tagged by Lori at Serendipity and Rain.]

2. Mention the rules on your blog. [Here they are.]

3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours. [See above.]

4. Tag 6 bloggers and link them. [I'll get to the tags when I have the time to figure them all out.]


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In the meantime, I just clicked on the OED's "At a loss for words?" button and the random word I got was "spheral." The first things that came to mind were Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. They are definitely spheral, and freaky as all get-out. I am not a fan of Disney's Alice in Wonderland because it creeps me out and these two characters are a large part of that. (Then, there's always that picture of the long-necked Alice in the book...also creeps me out.)