goodbye september...hello song i love

October is my favorite month. Autumn is my favorite season. Works out quite nicely, eh? I agree.

Okay, for your listening enjoyment. I've been singing bits of this song to myself a lot lately and it should be stuck in your heads too. Prego.

open letter

Dearest Poke,

“I wish.” “I wish I had the words.” “I wish I had the answers.” “I wish I had assurances.” “I wish I was there with you, in person, to hold your hand, to lend my shoulder, twenty-four hours a day.”

These words are so full of sympathy, of caring and love, but they feel so useless. I think that, even as we say them, our full hearts behind them, we know that they aren’t even a bandaid to cover up the hurt.

I want to offer hope, and I do have hope. I want to offer assurances, but I don’t have many. I know that you will cherish and love absolutely your child or your children, when the time comes and in whatever way that happens.

The best I can do is to assure you that I’m here. You may not want to call on me because I don’t have the answers, but know that you can, whenever. If writing is easier or better and you just want the emotions to pour out of you through your words and you want to send those words far, far away, send them to me.

I may not have expressed myself perfectly here, but sometimes I just don’t have the words. I hope that I haven’t caused any more hurt. Please let me know what you want, what you need, even if that is space to just deal.

I’m here.

duck

technical question

Okay, for those of you who use RSS feed readers...which do you use? Which would you recommend? I know next to nothing about this, but I want to add the feature here and I'm just curious.

i should be sleeping...

or reading, or something other than this. Ah, well.

The other day, both Cardo and I were freaking exhausted (he's been encroaching on my mornings sleeping in) and Pic was entertaining herself for a bit. When I finally roused myself from my almost-sleep, I noticed that she had chocolate on her face. Cardo hadn't noticed this at all (even though I asked him four times, "Does she have chocolate on her face?"). So, we asked her, "Have you been eating the chocolate chips?" She replied in the affirmative. When we asked her how many chocolate chips she had eaten, she paused and then replied, "Enough."

impromptu trip

We were moping around the good ol' apartment this morning when I suggested we head over to Roseville. I have this wanderlust or something and I want to hit the freaking road already. Soon enough, it'll be snowy and it'll take us seven hours to make a three-hour trip (ah, the joys of our spur-of-the-moment trip last winter break).

I was hoping to pick up a pair of Keens at the Nordstrom at the Galleria at Roseville (there's more to the name, but we're not that acquainted and I can't remember the rest), but, well, no kicks. We did stroll a bit in the crowded mall. Then, we headed over to Mimi's (where I ate good pasta that I could easily make at home and, I hope, I soon will and some not so great dessert that I had high hopes for...ah, well) and finally to REI where we bought nothing.

On the drive home, as we neared the border, I kind of yelled out, "We're getting closer to home!" (sometimes I'm unnecessarily loud) and the following song popped into my head. I tried to buy the album recently at Recycled Records, but no tunes.




When I got home, sweet coupons, I saw that Nubius Organics is having a sale on reusable water bottles and I found some really groovy ones (hey, why not groovy, what with GFR and all?).

nice and age appropriate

This is from the children's menu at a local restaurant. (Also, notice that Pic methodically colored the entire space. We have yet to explain mazes to her, but this one's stellar for when we get to that point.)

ugh

I'm sick again. I thought because I was so kind in keeping my illness to myself a few weeks ago, Cardo and Pic might just keep their illness to themselves this time around. Alas and alack, it was not meant to be. And, anyway, who am I kidding? I have a three-year-old. Of course she'd like to cough in my face and share her cold with me. So, for the next few days, I'll be feasting on tea and echinacea. Mmm.

This is not a good time to be sick, either -- as if there ever is such a time. I gave my students Friday to meet with their groups and I cannot give them any other time outside the classroom right now. Next week is all planned. I'm just thinking, "please, please just let me get through this week. Thanks."

In other non-news, I had a horrible dream two nights ago (and last night also, but I'll only share one, and, you're welcome). I had a dream that I was pregnant (bad enough) with quadruplets! The freaking horror. Whoever is in charge of doling out dreams, I have one thing to say to you, "Not funny."

lunch

The other day, I made mushroom barley soup because it felt autumny (or wintery, but we're not there yet...hold off on those freaking Christmas items, please). I got the recipe from How to Cook Everything. I so need to get around to buying this book.

I made a few changes to the recipe -- some intentionally, others not. I'm not a fan of onions, so I skipped those. I added garlic. I forgot to even buy parsnip, so, um, oops. I added celery. Safeway didn't have dried porcini mushrooms, so I used what they had. For the fresh mushrooms, I used what Safeway had on sale. I used parsley and oregano. I forgot to add salt and pepper (a common omission on my part). Cardo said that the soup definitely needed the spices.

So, today, after having forgotten both my sweater and my purse at home (must get more sleep...or new brain), I couldn't buy anything out to eat. Thanks be for that, because I need to eat what's in my refrigerator. I walked in and oiled, salted and peppered some asparagus and shoved that into the oven (on a cookie sheet). Then, I ladled some soup into a saucepan and started heating it up. I made the huge mistake of seasoning my soup without first tasting it, though (why?) and I ended up adding enough pepper to burn my lips, tongue and throat.

The asparagus was freaking great. The soup was very earthy (that's what everyone I've heard says about mushrooms). I think I'd rather have it as dinner than as lunch. The broth is really good, the mushroom flavor permeating the soup water. I'll try this again, probably tomorrow night, with tons less pepper.

ah...dreams

Yesterday, in a search for disallowed curtains for the apartment, we stopped by Mervyn's. We had already gone to Savers (no luck) and Goodwill (we got one set of curtains and three sets of cloth napkins). We didn't end up getting any curtains from Mervyn's, but Pic was allowed to choose one toy (Cardo's idea). I browsed purses and Cardo and Pic went to check out the toys. Pic came running up to me with her new Barbie...ugh. Cardo said that she could have the (somewhat weird-looking) Barbie, though, so she's now Pic's. Pic has named her Cinderella...again, ugh.

Anyhow, Pic has an Ariel Barbie-doll that that used to belong to me (hey, I might not be a fan now, but I was something of a fan when I was younger...of both Barbie and that little mermaid). Last night, Ariel and Cinderella got married on the coffee table. Today, Pic gave us an update.

"Cinderella and Ariel got married and lived happily ever after. Then they had green beans!"

today in five fragments

am tired

am happy that friends have moved into town

am going to hell in an ice cream cart

love kinsey millhone

socrates is an ass [okay so this last one owns both a subject and predicate...i still believe it's true]

new podcast stuff

Okay, so I'm barely literate in digital-type stuff (hence me using a prefab blog here), but I think I like the idea of podcasts (why are they called that?).

Some time ago, I downloaded the Grammar Girl podcasts (or, I tried to, but I only ever got one episode figured out...I might have downloaded some more tonight, but perhaps not).

As I was flipping through the new Self, though, they mention a couple of other free podcasts that sounded good to me. One is The Onion Radio News and the other is Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! which I just started listening to and enjoying on NPR. So, I downloaded both of these and we'll see if I can listen to more than just one or if I'll get stuck again and forget about these until several months from now.

two misses and a hit

Okay, sorry I've been quiet. I might not have been, though. I can't remember when I last posted, and, because I'm typing at the moment, I'm not going to check when my last post was. (I'd better get out of this on-again off-again thing with this here blog because NaBloPoMo is coming up in about six weeks).

So...food. Yep, sounds good. Recently I made a super-easy dinner (and super-out-of-season): acorn squash. I cut the squash in half, scooped out the seeds and added some butter, colby cheese (it was on sale and cheddar wasn't) and, of course, garlic and popped the halves into the oven (at some temperature...400, maybe? 425? details, details). The squash was in the oven for an hour and that's what we ate for dinner. Yes, we should have had something to go with it, but we ended up snacking a bit before the squash was ready. I'll make this again soon because I was so sleep-deprived when I made it that I forgot to add the tarragon. Oops.

This counts as the first miss. I liked this, but Pic didn't even touch it (I was too tired to give a crap...I'll be accepting my Wonder-Mamma award any day now). Cardo ate it, but he actually preferred the sweet acorn squash to the savory! (That deserves such punctuation because Cardo almost never prefers sweet to savory. I can't remember any other instances of this, i'fac.) When I make this again, one half will be made with maple syrup and brown sugar and the other will be made like the one described above with the freaking tarragon added.





















The second miss is the pasta thing Pic and I made the other day. We had a box of Earth's Best organic alphabet pasta and Pic had pulled it out. We cooked that up, making our characteristic enormous amount of pasta. I made a cheese sauce and learned that I don't really know how to make a cheese sauce. I tried to make a roux, but I've never made one without having pan drippings as a base (I've only ever used a roux before to make gravy). Then, I added milk. When it began to bubble, I added shredded cheese. The sauce wasn't thickening very well, so I added more flour. As I was doing this, I knew that this was the wrong thing to do, but I didn't have any Wondra (nor do I know what is actually in Wondra) and I didn't know what else to do. The "cheese sauce" (those quotation marks are not misplaced) was grainy. And, when I told Cardo the ingredients, he responded, "Oh, there's supposed to be cheese in this?" Yeah, good job, v. Anyhow, I added frozen peas and a can of tuna to the mix of pasta and cheese sauce. I thought this was very bland, but decent. Cardo said he liked it. It was much better, though I'm not sure why, the second day. Pic, Baby K and I ate this for dinner and Pic finished her entire dinner (and the heavens broke open and rained down milk and honey...or something else equally unlikely and unnatural). Baby K ate a good deal of it, but he had more fun spearing his fruit with a fork and then feeding his fruit to himself.





















Finally, the hit. Yesterday, I hauled out How to Cook Everything (alas, not mine, but the library's) and flipped to "cream scones." Bittman's are the classic currant scones made with AP flour. He notes that up to half of the flour can be replaced with whole wheat so I did that. Instead of currants, I used dried cherries. And, I added dark chocolate chips. These were freaking easy to make (although it took quite a while because Pic was lending her skills) and super-quick to bake. Cardo and I both like these. Pic just mined the chocolate out of hers and set the rest aside. Ah, well. Try, try again, right?

I wanted to make tons of scones, but I figured I'd better only make one batch so I could decide whether I even liked them. Next time, I'll make more of this same kind and I'll also make some savory scones. For whatever reason, I want to make ham and cheese scones, maybe with green onions, although this combination doesn't sound all that hot to me. I'm not a huge fan of hot ham and cheese. Oh, and the next time I make these, I'll not add all three eggs to the batter, but reserve one for brushing over the top like the recipe instructs. Again, oops.

literary musings

(You'll have your doubts about that title in a moment here.)

Like Coach J, I need to read something non-academic before I head off to Dreamland. Lately, I've been reading the Kinsey Millhone mysteries (nothing too lofty for me, mind you).

I am somewhat in love with Grafton's writing...only more than somewhat. I want to underline and collect some of her lines, storing them away in a happiness box for when I'm feeling the blues (or the mean reds).

Here's one I recently came across and it made me giggle aloud:

"As it is, we could not call mine a beautiful puss, but it does the job well enough, distinguishing the front of my head from the back." -- from "F" Is for Fugitive.


-------

This is transcribed from a napkin I jotted it down on earlier while I was waiting around to conduct workshop conferences.

the many (rambling) woes...

This weekend, I was a miserable person. I don’t know why, but I was feeling petulant and self-centered. I was having a weekend-long pity party, which wasn’t really fair, but there it is.

We had been invited to climb on Saturday, but we didn’t have anyone to watch Pic, so I said I’d stay home with her so Cardo could climb. Just after firming up plans, one of Cardo’s employees texted (yes, texted) him to let him know that she was sick and wouldn’t be coming in to work Saturday. Cardo called everyone else, but ended up having to give up his day off.

After he got off work, we all went for a walk as a family. I had made dinner, so we ate first. It’s almost autumn (my very, very favorite season), so daylight hours are becoming limited (not a lot, but somewhat). We only made it to one park and then for a walk.

Sunday, Cardo was out of the apartment and off to climb before I was even really awake. Pic and I cleaned, hung out a bit, took a walk (I successfully navigated our way to a park we’ve only been to once, I believe). At two-thirty, Cardo said he was heading back to our friends’ place. At three-thirty or so, he called to say he was leaving there. It’d be about an hour until he got home. Then, we’d eat and he had to go in to close last night.

[flashback here...wiggle your fingers and say "doo-dle-oodle-oo" repeatedy]

Three months after Pic was born, after I graduated, I decided that I was going to stay home with her for a year. The days were preternaturally long. Once it hit about two in the afternoon, I started couting down the hours and then the minutes until Cardo got home. Pic and I were not good constant companions – not because she’s a difficult baby, but because we were both so bored and deprived of other human contact. I was so tired that summer that I had hit something like zombie-state. I was still breastfeeding and Pic was still not sleeping through the night. She’d wake up at six or six-thirty every morning, I’d feed her and then we’d go for a walk. Every day. Then, we’d come home and kind of sit (there isn’t much actual playing with a three-month-old…by the end of that summer, though, she was becoming mobile and beginning to really play). We’d have lunch and I’d get her to nap, I’d do dishes and pick up. Sometimes, I’d nap with her. We lived in some horrible solitude. Because I was breastfeeding all of the freaking time, we always had the blinds drawn. We lived in a cave, a horrible, isolated cave.

Anyhow, this is how I was beginning to feel again this weekend. I know that this is ridiculous. It was only one weekend, but I again felt friendless and isolated. Mind you, I didn’t do much to remedy this. I always fall back on the position that everyone else is probably busy and can’t take time out to amuse me. This is probably true most of the time, but I hate that I devalue myself so much, so often.

So, the weekend is over. I’m back to the the weekly drone. I feel like I’m a part of something again. My pity party is (mostly) over.

I started writing this on Monday. I’m not revising, so I apologize if this is a mess and too rambly.

Things haven’t really started to look that much rosier. Cardo had to work an open-to-close Monday, it turned out. Also, he just returned home from work after closing on what was his day off (after working his last day off). I think he has the rest of the week figured out.

I am just hoping that these issues won’t be so prominent next semester, my last here (please, please, please). I’ll be an even more selfish and petulant person next semester. Expect the grumpy, barely-holding-it-together me next semester. For now, let us just hope that I can continue to be in a weird state of calm/denial/something.

plastic

Pic has a collection of pre-owned (gotta love the spin, no? I thought not) My Little Ponies. None of these were at one time mine, although I did, for whatever insane reason, like this show when I was little.

Anyhow, Pic was introducing them to me a few minutes ago. One, a giant pegasus, who I suspect is not really an MLP, has been named Sissy. The others all have names including the 'a-as-in-father' sound and some combination of 'f,' 'd' or 'm.' As a few of the ponies were introducing themselves to me, they'd give me another bit of information about themselves.

"My name is Fadah, and I don't have an owie," one told me.

My favorite, though: "My name is Damah, and I don't breathe."

my newest scheme

My newest life plan (this is something that changes very often, people) is to move to the nor'eastern part of this country. I'll go to school there, get yet another degree and then I'll magically know what I'm doing next. (This whole plan does not preclude me applying to/being accepted to/scrounging up the money for/going to England for a year.)

I'll live in a small town where Pic and I won't be the only people out for a walk the majority of the time. I'll live close to a cute park and a nice public library. I'll be able to see mountains. I'll have friends.

I won't be so filled with doubt and uncertainty.

Oh, and I'll meet Dolly Parton. Not necessarily in the northeast, but I've been hooked on listening to the eleven or so songs I have by her lately.

Ah, I can hardly wait. I also think that I've been watching too much Murder, She Wrote lately. Whenever I watch that, I idealize small New England towns.

Oh, oh, though, if I was in the area, I could track down and meet Catherine Newman, also...my very favorite blogger in all of the world.

plannin' and dreamin'

Okay, so I actually despise that song, but the words worked for the title. Anyhow...

We saw dearly beloved Auntie C and Uncle A tonight. We invited them out for dinner as a thank you for watching Pic for us recently. Also, we just wanted to see them.

While we ate, we made plans to head out to Apple Hill sometime in the coming weeks. I asked C if they were thinking of going and she said definitely. Meanwhile, both A and Cardo were nodding their heads, indicating, "Yes...we're going...we've had this discussion about thirty-five times already." Apparently C and I have both been pestering our sig ots ("significant others" for those of you who don't live in my head...please, no philosophical discussions, thank you) about an autumn trip over there.

Have I mentioned autumn is my favorite season? Well, it is.

We're also thinking of taking Pic to a pumpkin patch this autumn. I hope they have one out at Bartley Ranch. And, somewhere close to Halloween/Nevada Day, we'll take her out to the children's museum in Carson and then, as is our annual tradition, for a walk or drive to look at the houses all gussied up for Halloween.

In other news (it's news if it doesn't apply to me), Pic has her first black eye. While she was rolling up her "nap nap" (this is how she refers to her nap mat and I'll be sad the day she starts saying nap mat instead), another kid accidentally kicked her in the face. She also fell on the playground and has a bandaid on her arm. Then, as we were walking to the restaurant for dinner tonight (it's close enough for us to walk there...score!), she tripped on the curb and bumped her head on the ground. Poor little Pixie Pie. She had a rough day. Now, we'll have a long night of checking on her to make sure she's okay as she sleeps.

Speaking of sleep, I'm exhausted. And, yes, it's only a quarter to ten. I'm getting old in my old age (Pic told us tonight, "When I was three, I was three...years old."). I think I'll go lay down now. Maybe.

-----------------------------------------

I'm baaack. Let me add one more thing. I was just checking some quotes of the day site. Here's the first one:

Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. -- anonymous

So gag-inducing. However, also appropriate as Cardo is watching Man vs Wild right now. Bear Grylls is probably about to eat something equally disgusting in a few minutes here.

It also makes me think of that part of Encino Man when Link takes a bite of an obviously fake frog that would have been his dissection project. Ah, Brendan Fraser. And Sean Astin. Two out of five ain't bad.

balloon races '08

food, both good and bad

Yes, even after I wrote that raaaambling post earlier, I have more to spew at you. Yesterday, I checked out How to Cook Everything at the library. I’m excited about this book. Now I really want to buy it. I was just flipping through it (at 2:30 this morning) and I was tempted to get up and make some sweet and some savory scones (or skunks, as Cardo calls them). Mmm. Okay, I’m definitely thinking about food now. Big surprise.

By the way, dinner was kind of gross, actually. I don't recommend the Trader Joe's chicken piccata stuff. I'm sure this is a 'duh' moment. I could have made something on my own that would have tasted so much better...probably. I'll post both tonight's dinner (for which I made blender cauliflower with broccoli and carrot blended in) and dinner from a few nights ago. It was another TJ's dinner. I had a momentary urge to buy all of the available prepared chicken dinners in that section of the store and I, for whatever reason, couldn't resist. I think I'll be able to next time.

i know it's not nanowrimo...

...but here're my 1500 words anyway. Sorry about this.

So, yes, about this weekend.

I felt unwell on Friday and came home and took a three-hour nap. I know, that’s not really a nap, especially when there are nights (like last night) when three hours is about all of the sleep I get. I then stayed up late, because of this nap and got very little sleep before it was time to get up and head out for the hot air balloon races. We were a bit late…I kept trying to tell Cardo that we had left earlier last year, but oh well. On Friday, we went to Costco to buy some fruit and bread for the next morning’s breakfast. We got strawberries and these coffeecake things. On the way to the park, we stopped by 7-11 to get hot chocolate and coffee. I don’t know how I manage this, but I always forget that hot chocolate usually sounds better than it tastes. This hot chocolate did not restore my faith in the beverage.

We took my car specifically so that we would have the stroller and could pile all of our stuff in it (Pic probably would nothave wanted to sit in it). When we arrived, though, Cardo opened the trunk and…no stroller. It was back home, snug in the “secret” closet under the stairs (shorlty after we moved in, a kid came over one day to reveal to me the secret closet we had under our stairs; he was very taken with it). Ah, well. We lugged all of our stuff: insulated food bag and two sleeping bags up the hill. We mostly took turns holding Pic because we were so late for the opening events.

We ended up missing the Glow Show (ah…) but we did see the Dawn Patrol. The sun rose and the sky lightened quickly. The bald eagle balloon (or the hawk as one woman described him…I think of him as male) floated up into the sky, displaying the flag. Someone (Miss Nevada, maybe) sang the national anthem. I thought she sang it very well. (Someone explain why it’s such a hard song to sing. I feel somehow unpatriotic when I sing it on my own, like I’m killing a little bit of the US every time I do.)

We saw the Wells Fargo bees, Lilly and Joe and some balloons we didn’t see last year. There weren’t any strawberry balloons which made me a bit sad. We were, however, introduced to the Curves balloon. There was much announcer-talk of the Curves balloon. Finally, when most of the other balloons had raced off to drop their bean bags on some X or something, the “kiddie” balloon was inflated – it was a clownfish. Pic was very excited about “Nemo!” as she called it. (I’m sure there were plenty of other kids there also attributing this name to this fish. I’ve still never seen the movie, but Pic has seen it during movie day at school.) Pic and Cardo trekked over so Pic could get a picture next to Nemo. I feel a bit sad that I can’t offer more to her than a picture next to the balloon, but I get sad for weird reasons.

At four o’clock Saturday morning, I found my phone and realized that I had a message from Ms A – a return call from my Friday evening call. She had told me when she and Mr J were planning on heading out from their place for their Saturday climb. I waited until eight-thirty to call her back, telling her we wouldn’t be able to make the climb due to balloon race stuff. When I told Cardo, however, where Ms A and Mr J were going to climb, he insisted that we go out and find them after the races.

We drove out to Carson and ate at Heidi’s. Well, we tried. I’m sure they’ll never invite us there again. Pic had fallen asleep in the car and was feeling very sensitive or cranky-as-all-get-out when she woke up. She wanted saltines, but she had to wait. She cried for a good long time. She was sitting next to Cardo, who was becoming increasingly close to losing it. I kept telling him to give her to me so that I could take her outside, but he kept refusing because, he said, that would just make her cry harder. I really didn’t care at that point. I’m sure that several people at the surrounding tables were plotting our demise by flatware. Finally, I took Pic outside where she screeched like a banshee. “Yes, people, I’m torturing the child here on the side of the road,” I felt like saying to all of the passers-by. She finally calmed down and we went back inside. The server had asked us at one point if we wanted some ice cream for her, to calm her down (see…we should have taken her out earlier), and it was all I could do to simply say, “No, thank you.” Really? Give this hysterical mess some ice cream? Maybe she thought something else was going on, but I don’t think that my tantrum-throwing child deserved ice cream. However, now that I think about it, she was probably just trying to shut Pic up so her other patrons could eat comfortably. We left a more than 20% tip for the server. It’ll be a long time before we go back, if we ever do.

We drove out and spotted A and J’s truck pulled over to the side of the road. We parked behind them and crossed the rock face where A was leading a climb (or something…I can’t remember now). Pic absolutely loved being out, climbing on the rocks. (we don’t yet have a harness for her. We looked at REI on Friday night, but they didn’t have one quite small enough for her. The smallest they had was for a child 35-100 pounds…I have no idea why there’s such a discrepancy in weight there.) I don’t think she was too much or getting in the way. She kept telling us, “We need to get me a harness.” We will, baby.

Pic got to go with Ms A and pee out in the open for the first time. Ms A showed her how not to pee all over her legs (I think) and how to pseudo-air-dry. This must have been almost as fun as earlier when I had taken Pic to the port-a-potty and held her many inches over the seat that someone had pooped on.

Ms A and Mr J did some climbs. Mr J lead his 151st climb, I believe it was (I might need to be set straight on that). Cardo did a couple of climbs. I was hesitant to go, but I finally did (after I snipped my Freddy Kruger claws). The last climb we did, the only one I did, was a chimney. I seriously felt like the Grinch. Not so much like Santa Claus, who doesn’t get stuck, mind you. When I got into the chimney, my body’s first reaction was, “Yeah, right.” My instinct was, “This is so unnatural. There is no way I can even do this. I’ll just stand here for a minute and go back down.” However, I did end up doing the climb, with a lot of encouragement from the company down below. I haven’t been climbing very often, but every time I feel this weird fear or apprehension or anxiety or something. I think, “I can’t do this. I’m going to freeze up here and start bawling and someone is going to have to come up and physically carry (or drag) me down.” I hate this doubt. I hate even more that I constantly voice this doubt. I try not to, but then I hear myself saying to my belayer (Cardo, this time), don’t drop me. Like that’s what he was planning.

Ah, well. It ended up being fun and I’m glad we climbed. I can’t wait to get Pic some equipment and take her.

The rest of Saturday was used for long baths (and breaking the one drain plug we have…oops) and rest. I didn’t get anything school-related accomplished and had to play catch-up yesterday. I hate this catch-up thing. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have two free days. If only sleep and I had a normal, healthy relationship.

Yesterday, I read and read some more. I planned for classes. I took Pic to the library so I could work on this while she played. She’s really pretty good at entertaining herself, although she still wants me to watch her puppet shows or watch her put together puzzles. I love to spend time with her. Sometimes, I just want to take a big long break (for at least a couple of years) and just soak her up.

I was up until the wee hours of the morning, getting everything ready for today. Now, I have four more hours until I can go home, eat some Trader Joe’s chicken dinner thing (either chicken piccata or chicken marsala tonight) with some blender cauliflower (maybe with carrots blended in), and get some freaking rest.

it's only week three

This is only the third week I've been back, and I'm already exhausted. Okay, so there wasn't really a time when I wasn't, some time of rest, but I feel that I should be more well-rested. This is, of course, completely ironic because if I really want to feel more well-rested, I need to get more rest. Duh.

And, this whole sun sleeping in later thing isn't going to work so well for me. When the sun sleeps in, I want to sleep in. This morning, I kept thinking, "It can't be 5:54...there isn't any light outside."

Ah, well.

I'll post an actual post about the weekend (balloons, stalking, grocery shopping) later. For now, I need to mentally prepare myself for my next ten hours here. Also, I need to think about food, because that's what I do...think about food. I just ate some bar thing that tasted like dry cereal stuck together with marshmallow paste (I know, not a real thing). Later, I'll have a depressing sandwich from Port of Subs, probably. Next Monday, I really need to pack my lunch.

today's special: boils

This is part of the receipt I received from Safeway today. I'll keep this important discount information in mind the next time I PUrchase Eligible Sores.

Also, what is up with the capitalization? It looks like a real estate ad.

we should probably just eat at home

Okay, I’m kind of in the middle of finishing my History of Rhetoric reading, but I think a break is appropriate.

We were constantly on the go today. Most of the time, I don’t mind these day, until we come back home and I realize just how many hours it’s been since I’ve been here. Ah, well.

On Monday, we were out and thought we’d stop by a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. However, Monday is, of course, the normal day of rest for restaurants. Pic had to see a man about a horse, and I didn’t want her to have to wait, so we went somewhere closeby. We made a poor choice, though, in stopping in at a chain sandwich shop. This place really depresses me. First of all, there are better places to get sandwiches. Second, the service at the shop we went to is almost always horrible. This visit didn’t prove an exception.

Anyhow, today, we did stop to eat at the Mexican restaurant (after a brief visit to the library where Pic played with the puzzles and I got books about Rosh Hashana and the autumnal equinox). The food was okay, but I ordered chicken nachos, an appetizer, and received enough food for a table of ten. No matter how much I ate, it never looked like I made a dent. Remind me to not order that again.

Our service was not so great. Cardo was pissed. It took a long while for our server to greet us and then she only rushed by a few times to ask, as she was still rushing by, “Is everything okay?” We had to ask someone else for refills on water and for an extra fork. (Why is it that so often, Pic doesn’t receive her own flatware?) I never got a refill on my iced tea. At the end of the meal, she sent someone else out to give us a box for Pic’s food and drop our check for us. We had been planning on ordering flan, but Cardo refused to even ask for it after the check was dropped.

When we got our debit card slip back, Cardo signed it and quickly pushed the check-holder across the table to me. He said he wouldn’t even leave fifteen percent, so he let me do the honors. I left exactly fifteen percent. I have no idea what was going on with our server tonight, but I still felt horrible leaving only fifteen percent (this probably sounds crazy to some, or most, people, but I was a server and I have this weird server guilt or something…I like to tip well). Cardo wanted to make a big deal about what had happened, but I told him that we would want to come back at some point. He said that he’d make sure that we didn’t have the same server. That’s fine with me, but I don’t want all of the servers to hate us and refuse to serve us.

After we payed the check, we decided to walk the thirty or so minutes to somewhere else and order flan. As we walked down, twilight was setting in. The sky was pastel-rainbow hued. It was a comfortable evening. (And, it would have been even better if two separate kids (teens) hadn’t screamed at us from their cars, one calling us whores. Who the frig does that? Hello, freak, we have a three-year-old with us.)

Now, I’m back home. I’m tired. Obviously…I’m sure you’ve noticed that this post is rambly. I need to get back to my book.

This weekend, we have the Glow Show and Dawn Patrol at the hot air balloon races to look forward to (we have to get up at about three-thirty on Saturday morning). Also, we’re planning on climbing on Saturday (Cardo is right now bugging me about that). I think I might fall asleep the second we get back from climbing that afternoon.

just a quickie

Okay, I am doing so many things right now, but I wanted to post a dinner picture.

I have been craving a BLTA, so that's what we ate. Pic and I bought the ingredients (at Trader Joe's...shock me, shock me, shock me...) yesterday after the Savers sale.

We had asparagus with lemon, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. We popped those in the oven while we made the sandwiches. We turned the asparagus over after smoke started seeping from the oven.

For the sandwiches, we used garlic cheese artisan bread, turkey bacon (no nitrates or nitrites added), roma tomatoes, avocado and some spring mix lettuce...or something mix.

It was good.

psa

Okay, I can't stop messing with the blog tonight. Actually, I'm giving in to my blog addiction all over the place. I finally caught up on Gunma-Gal!

I added a new feature to my blog. I read on Blissfully Domestic (suggested by Poke) that bloggers could/should have a top-whatever list new readers can check out to quickly get a feel for the blog. I'd actually like if more people did this. (While I was browsing Blissfully Domestic, I also added yet another blog to my list of blogs to eventually get to.)

Um, what am I doing here? Oh, yes. PSA. For those of you for whom, unlike Rizzo, sloppy seconds are your style*, Savers is having a 50%-off sale today. In about six-and-a-half hours (I need sleep). Pic and I will be there.

*I just wanted to quote that. We do actually buy decent, not sloppy/crappy/unusable, stuff.


[The spell-check on here -- which I only occassionaly use, you might have noticed -- does not recognize "bloggers." Mmkay.]