food notes

There are just a couple of things I'll impart here.

First is an issue I suppose I should address. More than one person has asked me, concerned, if the pictures of my food depicts all I eat. Sometimes the portions seem small. Some assume that I'm showing pictures of Pic's food. For those of you who have seen me recently, you know that I'm certainly not lacking in caloric intake. I just don't like my different food items to touch one another. I like to prepare a nice, neat plate. However, most of the time, I eat more than is pictured, while still trying to watch my typical American, humungous serving sizes. When you actually look at serving sizes on packages of food or pay attention to serving sizes of foods such as proteins, fruits, vegetables and grains, we tend to eat incredibly more than we "should." If I stick strictly to serving sizes, I'm usually hungry. Sometimes I'll way overcompensate and eat a disgusting amount of food (especially if it's already unhealthy to begin with). Over the years, I've been able to adjust my mindset toward food, and I continue to work on this. If only I could just now convince myself to eat more fruits and vegetables instead of eating various unhealthy treats throughout the day...

Another food-related note: My body is not yet adjusting well to this semester. I know that I'm only three days in, but there are only twenty total days. I'm not a morning person, so I'm still not getting enough sleep before I have to pop out of bed and ready myself for my day. Also, my food intake is somewhat off. I've been eating breakfast, but I'm starving by the time I get home. Today, I fell asleep for a good while, after I got home and I woke up starving. I had to pick up Pic and then I took her to the pool. After that, I continued in my efforts to secure the title of World's Best Mamma, and I just heated canned food on the stove for dinner (no pictures, it wasn't worthy). Pic had left-over chicken. We both had cannellini and Trader Joe's no-salt-added corn. (I really like this canned corn. The niblets (sweet niblets!) are crunchy, not gummy like some canned corn.) I had been thinking to stop at the grocery store and pick up some fresh vegetables, but I was (and am) just too exhausted. Over the next few days, we'll be very busy, anyway, and I don't want any more fresh food rotting in my fridge*. After Pic goes to bed in a few minutes here, I'll probably make myself a very boring salad of mesclun and dressing...maybe some tuna depending on my laziness level.

* It has always seemed strange to me that when we abbreviate 'refrigerator,' we throw in the 'd': fridge. Why do we do that?

my first (and possibly last) 101 in 1001

Oh my good freaking gracious, people. I haven't posted in the last few days because I've been obsessing over this list Poke posted. I am also a fan of lists, so I thought, "Sure, what the crud, let's make a list, why don't we?" Do any of you (aside from Poke) know how excruciatingly hard it is to come up with 101 things you want to do. Apparently I am weakly-ambitioned. I ended up prowling* others' lists for ideas. If you peruse others' lists, you'll see many similarities on mine, 'cause I'm a thief.

So, here're the rules and stuff. Don't count on seeing a listy like this from my anytime again in this lifetime.

The Mission [should you choose to accept...and just like Inspector Gadget, I did...now where's Penny?]: Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria: Tasks must be specific with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching [and, yes, for me spending money on things is stretching, so lay off of my "purchases" section]

Why 1001 Days?: 1001 days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organization and timing some tasks such as overseas trips [or over-the-border trips] or outdoor activities.

This is where Poke believes the list originated. There are many other lists here to should you choose to create your own and need pilfering grounds.


Start Date: Tuesday 15 July 2008
Finish Date: Tuesday 12 April 2011

Entertainment/Relaxation/Health:
1. complete the Yoga Basics class [9/08]
2. purge my two file drawers at work [8/25/08]
3. stick to a 3-days-a-week Pilates routine for a month [12/28/08-1/31/09]
4. meditate or do breathing exercises three times a week for one month
5. give a great deal of thought to the idea of ever creating one of these lists again
6. purge my files of old bills/receipts and other random junk
7. find a new artist's music to enjoy and buy the album
8. put course work (taking and teaching) in separate binders
9. catalogue 100 more of Pic's books
10. catalogue 100 more of my own books
11. see a show at the Pioneer Center [2/27/10, Avenue Q]
12. see a show at Bruka
13. plan and go on a "ladies' day" with Pic
14. find a new blog to absolutely love [cake wrecks, among others]
15. have my hair styled for no special reason (yes, I'm incapable of styling my own hair...and, yes, I was still a girl last I checked)
16. go ice skating
17. do a Stella run at Tahoe
18. have friends over for dinner [several times]
19. get a skin cancer check
20. go to dentist (I feel my anxiety rising already) for two cleanings a year
21. take a community education class for fun
22. attend a reading at Sundance
23. take a relaxing bath once a month [7,8,9,10,11,12/08 and 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12/09 and 1,2/10 so far...i'm good at being lazy]
24. purge my closet of formal gowns I'll never wear again (anyone need a wedding dress?)...take most to a prom closet (probably not the aforementioned wedding gown)
25. see the Sex and the City movie [10/08]
26. purge my drawers of holey socks and underwear (they drive Cardo crazy and I'm not all that fond of them myself)

Glorious books:
27. teach Pic to read (then, she can read to me for a change) [it'll be a while before she's reading me Harry Potter, though]
28. update address book
29. subscribe to Self [sometime in 2009, i think...i'm still getting it]
30. read more new-to-me books from the list of shame
31. finish reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
32. catch up on reading State of Grace [8/13/08]
33. read Tao-te-Ching (in English)

Glorious food:
34. make fruit soup
35. bake challah
36. make pumpkin pancakes with cranberry-topping
37. make strawberry pie
38. begin a loose-leaf tea collection [sometime in 2009, only early grey so far, but it's oh-so-good]
39. keep Italian parsley alive in my own little kitchen
40. make salad dressing that isn't honey mustard and that isn't disgusting
41. join a CSA
42. make homemade ice cream [must make more, minus the scrambled eggs]
43. make enough meals to freeze to fill the outside freezer
44. eat at three local restaurants I have yet to experience [Red's Old 395 Grill...yes, Carson is local, 7/20/08; Stonehouse Cafe, 7/23/08; Dish Cafe 10/08]

Other:
45. actually send gifts I purchase for others
46. move into an appealing one-story dwelling [12/08]
47. take a day to actually celebrate an anniversary with Cardo [we should do that more often]
48. do a sh1ft.org photographic project (how did you find this Poke?)
49. get my hair cut [cut own hair on...7/28/08 I believe. Would still like to have more cut off.]
50. complete a NaBloPoMo [11/08]
51. begin Solstice and Equinox traditions to celebrate with Pic
52. go to an adult bookstore (do they really sell books there?)
53. dress up for Halloween
54. organize our emergency supplies
55. write will
56. actually write down our list of dream-home requirements
57. open a 529 for Pic
58. send at least one tangible piece of correspondence once a month for a year [1/09]
59. donate blood
60. choose one charity to donate a bit of money to ("a bit" because I'm not exactly rolling in much other than stress and books)
61. find a theme song
62. actually print out pictures and fill in the photo albums
63. change my name on my driver's license (I know, I know, it's just a hyphen, but it's not mine) [attempted, but NV automatically adds the hyphen, didn't cause any passport problems anyhow]
64. renew my vows...in a low-key ceremony-type-thing that we plan for us, not others
65. frame my Ben Jonson page
66. buy a bus pass and use it [8/27/08]
67. vote for president (and, if I could control this: have the person I vote for actually become president) [10/29/08...and, yea! hello future son-in-law]
68. try a shampoo bar [Blue House Soaps, love it!]
69. apply to three PhD programs
70. pay off both credit cards completely [10/ and 12/08]
71. finish entering watermark information into spreadsheet [forty years later]
72. apply for master's program at King's College [um, yeah...]

Purchases:
73. Alabama Stitch Book
74. How to Cook Everything [10/08]
75. a wonderful, though expensive, pair of Keens of to replace other shoes [perhaps 9/08]
76. new earrings (and actually wear them) [thanks for the graduation gift, Mom!]
77. three new work outfits (clothing made of natural fibers/materials)

Skills:
78. leggere e capire un libro in italiano
79. leer y entender un libro en español
80. take a sewing class
81. make one Simplicity clothing item for myself
82. make one Simplicity clothing item for Pic
83. learn the names and locations of every country in the world (now, if only these things were static)
84. make a quilt
85. learn to (apartment) compost (as I have no backyard)
86. go climbing [8/2/08]
87. make skirt using Alabama Stitch Book

Travel:
88. go to Apple Hill for autumn foods [10/08]
89. go to the ocean (pick an ocean, any ocean) [1/08...the peaceful one]
90. take a day-trip on a random day off [10/08 trip to Roseville]
91. visit another country [must do more, under less stress, and with family]
92. actually really got to HSB
93. attend Strawberry Festival
94. attend a Nevada Day parade
95. visit Oregon
96. go on a Kit Carson Trail Ghost Walk
97. go camping outside and make some freaking s'mores [thanks, Coach J!]
98. take a train ride
99. hike/walk the trail in Tahoe City
100. attend my 10-year high school reunion [well, this isn't going to happen, unless I do a bit of time travel]
101. go geocaching

* Does Grease 2 come to anyone else's mind when they hear the word "prowlin'"?



[Edit: Accomplished tasks will be dark blue because I can't figure out how to cross them off. Works in progress will be in light blue.]

sleep, or something like it

Ugh, people. I apologize for the complete downer of a post I last posted. I don't mean to spread my negativity, I just write to purge. (Also, no, I haven't suddenly been whisked back to the '60s or '70s...I just feel badly about putting bad vibes "out there," which is why I only share a little here.) I've had a tiny bit of rest, after falling asleep at five yesterday morning (I finally closed my book, switched off the light and tried some breathing exercises and it worked) and I'm starting to pick up the pieces here.

Anyhow, I'm posting here something that originated a couple of years ago on another blog (possibly even somewhere else). I read it on Poke's blog, and I'm just spreading the word.

For anyone who has experienced infertility or who is currently experiencing infertility. For anyone who has suffered through pregnancy loss. For those who have conceived naturally, utilized treatments, adopted, used third-party reproduction, or chose to live child-free: a movement.

It all began when Paz lamented that there should be a secret handshake for those who have experienced or are currently experiencing infertility. She was finally pregnant after multiple miscarriages and she wanted infertile women to know when looking at her pregnant belly that she was one of them still--in heart and mind. She was open to questions and to passing along any information she had obtained along the way.This led to a lengthy discussion about a signal we could give one another as well as a tangible object that would invite questions and subsequently discussion about infertility. The conversation jumped from idea to idea--a pomegranate-shaped charm, a Livestrong-esque bracelet--until it finally settled on a simple thread.

With the idea being that it was an item that was easy to obtain no matter where you lived. It posed a minimal cost. It could be ornamented or braided any way the wearer chose. It could be sent through the mail. It was simple. It was discreet. We picked the embroidery floss #814 because it was the colour of pomegranates. Which was one of the fertility symbols considered along the way.

Royalyne stepped forward and got the ball rolling with a write up that we tweaked until it became this statement:

Pomegranates, a longstanding symbol of fertility, serve as a strong analogy to those suffering through infertility. Though each pomegranate skin is unique in colour and texture, the seeds inside are remarkably similar from fruit to fruit. Though our diagnosis is unique—endometriosis, low sperm count, luteal phase defect, or causes unknown—the emotions, those seeds on the inside, are the same from person to person. Infertility creates frustration, anger, depression, guilt, and loneliness. Compounding these emotions is the shame that drives people suffering from infertility to retreat into silence.

In addition, the seeds represent the multitude of ways one can build their family: natural conception, treatments, adoption, third-party reproduction, or even choosing to live child-free.The pomegranate thread holds a two-fold purpose: to identify and create community between those experiencing infertility as well as create a starting point for a conversation. Women pregnant through A.R.T., families created through adoption, or couples trying to conceive during infertility can wear the thread, identifying themselves to others in this silent community. At the same time, the string serves as a gateway to conversations about infertility when people inquire about its purpose. These conversations are imperative if we are ever to remove the social stigma attached to infertility.Tie on the thread because you’re not alone. Wear to make aware.

Join us in starting this conversation about infertility by purchasing this pomegranate-coloured thread (#814 by DMC) at any craft, knitting, or variety store such as Walmart or Target. Tie it on your right wrist. Notice it on others.

Finally, the '70s comment reminded me of something. Last night, we stopped at Jack's (I think) in Bishop for dinner. I loved the place. The food was simple and good and the people who worked there were welcoming. I tried strawberry-rhubarb pie for the first time and, believe you me, Cardo and Pic were lucky I shared. Anyway, Cardo had a porkchop and applesauce with his dinner. He totally didn't get, though, why I was giggling uncontrollably and repeating "porkchopsh and appleshaush."

settling

From a website of writing prompts, I came across this:

"July 12 
Today is “Paper Bag Day.” It marks the day that the paper bag manufacturing machine was patented. If you were given a paper bag, what you put in the bag and why?"

Into my giant paper bag (I’d need a giant one), I’d put the anxiety, the doubt, the depression. I’d toss in the insomnia. The clutter would follow. The inhibitions. The over-analyzing.

Tonight (this morning, actually), all of these are rampant, swirling around in my head so quickly I feel nauseated.

We just returned from vacation. On this trip, I heard Cardo tell someone, my aunt, I think, that we’ve decided to settle down here. Only, did we? We talked about it. I fantasize about it. Settling down here, though, feels more like settling. It feels like copping out, giving up, shutting down.

“If we stay, what will I do? Will I stay home with Pic?” I asked him on the drive home.

“You could find a job,” he answers. “Whatever you want to do. It’s up to you.”

I couldn’t even imagine a life without moving on. Actually, I could and I have, just not a complete life. What would I do? What would I be? Who would I be?

I try to imagine how we would manage with me gone for the better part of three years and I can’t. I try to imagine how we would manage with me taking Pic with me to work on my PhD for the better part of three years (racing through and attempting to write a dissertation away from my school) and all I see for her is upheaval. I know he’ll come with me wherever I go, but I also know that the idea of being able to settle down here is so appealing to him. He sees how tired, how worn, I am and he wants us to stay and he wants me to rest. I don’t know that I’m capable.

On the drive home, I thought about his comment about us deciding to stay here where we have a tiny support network, and all I could think was that I’d be the ultimate failure. I’ll have never tried anything in my life...

list of shame

Okay, so yes, I'm an English Lit major and yes, there are about a billion books that I should have read by now that I have not read. Such is life. I recently decided that I'll just have to accept my somewhat sketchy taste and my incompleteness. I recently read The Road because I should have read it, but I don't feel any better of a person for it. (I forced myself to finish it just before we left for vacation, but I also decided that I'll leave off of the Cormac McCarthy for the rest of this lifetime.) However, I'm also currently reading Eat, Pray, Love and I'm loving it so far. So, this is just a rambling preamble (haha) to a list posted by and borrowed from Poke. I was going to wait until I was rested and coherent, but I wanted to post a booksale notice.

Grassroots books is having a sale this weekend. We might go again if we're not zombie people.

Anyway, here's my list. The bolded ones, I've read. The italicized ones, I've not finished. (Notice that I don't have many that I've begun and not finished. One of my compulsions is finishing books I've started even if I dislike or despise them...see my The Road comment above. (I'll take The Handmaid's Tale any day.) I recently started reading The Secret Garden to Pic and it will take forever until we're finished.) Oh, and according to Poke's blog: The average adult has read only 6 of the following books!


1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (I’ve read a lot of the plays and ALL of the sonnets…thanks to class a year ago)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
37. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
38. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
39. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
40. Animal Farm - George Orwell
41. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
44. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
45. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
46. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
48. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
49. Atonement - Ian McEwan
50. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
51. Dune - Frank Herbert
52. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
53. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
54. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
55. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
57. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
60. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
61. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
62. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
63. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
64. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
65. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
66. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
68. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
69. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
70. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
71. Dracula - Bram Stoker
72. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
73. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
74. Ulysses - James Joyce
75. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
76. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
77. Germinal - Emile Zola
78. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
79. Possession - AS Byatt
80. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
81. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
83. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
85. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
89. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
91. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
92. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
93. Watership Down - Richard Adams
94. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
95. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
96. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
97. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
98. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo



P.S. That this list is only 98 long bothers me. At least it could be 99, which is the number of a very good year.
P.P.S. Who put this list together? Why are some books on here while others are missing?
P.P.P.S. Anyone who knows how to change the text color within a post (other than for links) please let me know. I can't figure it out right now. I'm beyond exhausted. I can barely type this right now. Grazie mille.

off we go...

[Image from Google Image]







We are about to embark on a family vacation. We didn't do this last year, so I'm very much looking forward to this one. I'm only hoping we can afford it. First stop is Apple Hill, then San Francisco and finally down to my hometown for some camping. I'll update on how everything goes after it's all been done.

We were hoping to stop by the Monterey Bay Aquarium again on this trip (we went for a few hours over winter break), but what with the fires and smoke, that's not happening. Anyone know anything interesting to do in Fresno?

Speaking of the smoke, our sky is pretty bad again today. It cleared up a bit for a couple of days, but today we had the acrid smell and smoggy air again (although, I know it's nothing compared to what Californians are experiencing). We still took Pic to the pool a bit today and then we went for a walk to the park. While we were in the pool, I asked Pic if she wanted to bring her inflatable pool toy with us when we go camping. She thought for a moment and asked me, "Is there water at camping?" Sometimes, I think I'll be sad when her English is more "correct." I answered, "Yes, there is a lake." "I don't like the lake," she returned. After I told her the lake was like a humongous swimming pool, though, she seemed much more interested in it.

I'm especially looking forward to camping because s'mores make me ridiculously happy. I've been eating my s'mores with dark chocolate for a while now, but I'm looking forward to another small twist. Dark chocolate, toasted marshmallows and cinnamon graham crackers. Mmm. Must devour s'mores soon.

For the time being, I need to print out my calendar for my summer work, continue to do the laundry and wash the dishes. Fun, fun stuff.

stuff and things

Today is Compliment Your Mirror Day. We're weirdos.

Speaking of weird, ABC Family has an ad now that says "ABC Family celebrates America with Harry Potter." How exactly is that celebrating America? I doubt that the British are really that into celebrating us on tomorrow's holiday.

Today, I found out that four days is the normal length for a period. Now, why haven't I (or my body) ever been informed of this before?

A little bit of Indiana will be coming to Nevada in twenty-fours days!

Finally...lunch. A great big baked potato (didn't potatoes used to be smaller?) with a little bit of butter, a lot of cheese, broccoli and carrot. (Some of the cheese is white and therefore hard to see here.) Mmm. I'm starving now.