Vampire Sass

Valentine's Day

2008-02-18T18:33:00.005-05:00

Valentine's Day can have a pretty bad rap. Forced romance can really go horribly wrong. But I do like the idea behind it, and done with the right attitude, it can be a lot of fun. We don't put pressure on each other to spend a lot of money and have a picture perfect evening. We do what we can, and mostly just enjoy putting aside a day to just focus on the two of us. The past few years Anthony and I have had a pretty low key Valentine's Day. We were either busy, or didn't have a lot of extra money to spend. Last year we had just moved into the house so we didn't exchange gifts, just had sushi for dinner and relaxed. It was wonderful.

This year I had time to put up a few Valentine's Day decorations around the house. My cousin and my mom found some old pink and red ornaments while they were cleaning out grandma's house, so I found some branches and hung the ornaments up, and kept out my red glassware. I got a few red candle holders and put the rest of the ornaments into a vase. Very simple, but it turned out well I think.

I got Anthony a really nice button down shirt, some white tulips, his favorite cologne, and I made homemade chocolate covered cherries. I found an amazing little copper colored embossed "leather" box to put the candy in at Target. And a monkey. A little tiny stuffed monkey. Because every year for every birthday/holiday/gift giving occasion, he asked what I got him. And every year, I tell him "a monkey". So this year, it was true.

And he seriously went all out for me this year, which I wasn't expecting at all. He got up at his normal time and pretended to go into work. But he actually spent the whole day getting things ready. I came home to curtains in the living room (something we've been looking for forever), 200 tealight candles lit, a fireplace screen saver on the tv, three dozen sweetheart roses, a sushi dinner arranged on the coffee table, and an mp3 player.

I try to keep the smushy romantic stuff to a dull roar on here, but I have to gush about it this year. The flowers and mp3 were amazing, but the amount of time he put into planning and setting it up was what blew me away. Especially because he gets so much enjoyment out of the surprise. I have to say, I seriously love that guy.

Two Down...

2008-01-19T14:39:00.000-05:00

I read too quickly. To quote the title character in the show "Monk", "it's a gift...and a curse".

There are never enough books available. I am always running out. And there are only so many times I can re-read them. If I were ever forced to pick my two favorites, I would probably have to choose Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I've probably read each of them a dozen times. I have stacks and stacks of books, and most I’ve read at least twice. By the time I hit middle school, I’d read almost every book in the children and young adult sections of the library. And it was an amazing library. Not a two-bit, half-staffed library with three quarters of the shelves empty. There were fantastic librarians who kept the shelves full of books. I still managed to wipe it out. I moved on to the adult section and had worked my way through a decent portion of it by the time I graduated from high school. I will admit there is a library that defeated me. The one on MSU’s campus was too big for me to really make a dent in. Then again, there were an awful lot of books that I had no interest in reading. I’ll skip the "The History of Microeconomics" thankyouverymuch. (snore) And no, I have no idea if a book by that name even exists. Although I do know that anything by that title would NOT be my first choice for an enjoyable read. I did some serious work on their Fiction section though.

I didn’t feel like I’d actually settled into living in Lansing until I had my library card. But the problem is, half of the time when I go to the library, I forget what books I’d planned to borrow. I finally have a system. When I hear someone talk about a book, read a review online, or see one that looks particularly interesting somewhere, I write it down. I know, novel concept. Pardon the pun. It shouldn’t have taken me 25 years to come up with it. It is working really well though. Of course, it didn’t take long for that list to grow to immense proportions, but I’m pretty confident that I can handle it. Library here I come. I don’t buy books very often. I don’t really have the budget to keep up with my list. Plus, I’d rather not have every single square inch of the house piled with books. We still have to come up with a system to organize the ones I do have. My dad is making us an incredible bookcase, but we’ve been slow about picking out the stain for it, and he can’t finish it until we do. Oops. Note to self: Go to Menards to pick one out. SOON.

Digging through a box of books in the office the other day I found two books that I’d never read before. They were obviously used, although not in bad shape. I have no idea where they came from. I didn’t buy them and Anthony didn’t either. Very odd. It’s possible they came from my grandma’s house, although I don’t remember picking them up. I do remember getting a hardcover three volume set of The Count of Monte Cristo, a Nancy Drew book, and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency from her house. I’m not one to turn down free books, but it’s very confusing. If we have a ghost, I’m glad it brings books instead of chasing us out of the house…but seriously. Weird. The books were E for Evidence by Sue Grafton, and The Devil’s Waltz by Jonathan Kellerman. Both good books, although not great.

Thanks to a very generous gift card I got for birthday/Christmas, I did order a couple of books from Borders. They were two I knew I was going to enjoy. One was The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Margaret Atwood. Since Margaret Atwood is one of my absolute favorite writers, I knew I’d love her most recent book. It’s the story of the Odyssey from Penelope’s perspective. What she did with her life while he was gone for ten years and how she fended off the hoards of suitors after her.

The other was The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic. When a 120-year-old New York mental hospital was closed, they found hundreds of suitcases that belonged to the patients at the hospital. They did research to find out more about the people that the suitcases had belonged to. The book tells the stories of 25 of those patients who lived there. I read a review of the book online which lead to a website with more information about the book, the people’s stories were fascinating, and I am really excited to read it.

Two down, 7,492 books to go.

Holy Freaking Fantastic!

2008-01-17T18:04:00.000-05:00

I GOT THE FULL TIME POSITION! As of the beginning of February I will be working M-F 9:00-4:30. No more crazy all over the place schedule, no more early and late shifts, and no weekend shifts. Well, unless I want them. I can pick up an extra weekend shift every so often, since I'm technically working 72 hours and not a full 80. But if I don't want to, I don't have to. I love it.

Also, Anthony is coming back tonight. He's been gone for 8 days, and there was a possibility he'd be gone for another week. But he called to say he'd be home tonight around 11:30. Today is a seriously good day.

Conversion

2008-01-16T18:49:00.000-05:00

It's official, I'm converting.

I used to be a Brussels Sprouts hater, but after dinner tonight I have totally changed my mind. I've been determined to get over hating them. It always seemed like they had potential, but every time I had them I was disappointed. A lot of the time they were bitter. And even dripping with butter or cheese sauce, they just didn't impress me. Broccoli is a much better vehicle for cheese and butter.

I'd heard good things about roasting them, so I tried them roasted with balsamic vinegar, pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. (drools) They were amazing.

Facebook

2008-01-14T13:31:00.000-05:00

I finally gave into peer pressure and joined Facebook. Are you all happy now?

Photography

2008-01-14T12:54:00.000-05:00

I haven't had much time for photography lately, but here are a few that turned out well.

The foot of a table, with flash, and without.

Frost on the windows of the front porch.

I think this last one is my favorite.

Random Sillyness

2007-12-19T10:49:00.000-05:00

1. EVER BEEN GIVEN AN ENGAGEMENT Ring?
Yep, by some kid in elementary school. I turned him down and gave it back.

2. LONGEST RELATIONSHIP?
3.5 years (the one I'm in now).

3. LAST GIFT YOU RECEIVED?
A green quartz and diamond necklace from Anthony for my birthday (yesterday).

4. EVER DROPPED A CELL PHONE?
All the time, luckily mine seems to be indestructible, I've never had a problem with it.

5. WHEN'S THE LAST TIME YOU WORKED OUT?
Unfortunately several weeks ago, I'm recovering from some sort of bronchitis thing, and it's not a good idea to work out with gunk in your lungs.

6. THING(S) YOU SPEND A LOT OF MONEY ON?
I have a feeling my definition of a lot is much smaller than most people's, but clothing, decorative stuff for the house, and BPAL perfume.

7. LAST FOOD YOU ATE?
Leftover Apple Baked French Toast.

8. FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX?
Probably height if I'm being totally honest.

9. ONE FAVORITE SONG?
Yeesh, that's a difficult one, it really depends on my mood. "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley kills me every time I hear it though. It's a song I feel instead of hear.

10. WHERE DO YOU LIVE?
Lansing, MI

11. HIGH SCHOOL YOU ATTENDED:
Hartland

12. CELL PHONE SERVICE PROVIDER:
Alltel

13. FAVORITE MALL STORE:
It's pretty rare that I shop at the mall...uhm, probably Schulers, the book store.

14. LONGEST JOB YOU HAD:
Working at a Meat Market/Deli. I worked there for 2 summers and 5 Christmases, so a total of 8 months or so.

15. DO YOU OWN A PAIR OF DICE?
Yup.

16. DO YOU PRANK CALL PEOPLE?:
Nope.

17. LAST WEDDING YOU ATTENDED:
Erin and Kyle's maybe?

18. FIRST FRIEND YOU'D CALL IF YOU WON THE LOTTERY:
Erin, but only if I won enough to buy Johnny Depp. Otherwise, I'd probably be boring and invest most of it.

19. LAST TIME YOU SAW YOUR BEST FRIEND:
Unfortunately, at my grandma's funeral and I'll see her tomorrow at her grandpa's funeral. This has not been a good year for grandparents.

20. FAVORITE FAST FOOD RESTAURANT:
Probably the pizza place that's about 3 minutes away. It's good, cheap pizza. And they also deliver macaroni and cheese and ice cream sundaes.

21. BIGGEST LIE YOU HAVE EVER HEARD:
Probably something coming out of our current president's mouth.

23. WHERE'S YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO EAT WITH FRIENDS?
Usually their house or my house. We like to get together to cook.

24. CAN YOU COOK?
Yup, I love it.

25. WHAT CAR DO YOU DRIVE?:
One that's new to me, I just bought my mom's '04 Honda Civic.

26. BEST KISSER:
Hmm, me.

27. LAST TIME YOU CRIED?:
A couple of days ago, it's been kind of a crummy holiday.

28. MOST DISLIKED FOODS:
Brussels Sprouts and Bell Peppers. Bell Peppers overwhelm the flavor of dishes, so I only like them in very small amounts. And I'm working on liking Brussels Sprouts, I found a recipe for them roasted with apples and bacon which sounds promising.

29. THING YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOURSELF:
Creativity, loyalty, openmindedness.

30. THING YOU DISLIKE MOST ABOUT YOURSELF:
The fact that disappointments really get to me and sometimes hold me back.

32. LONGEST SHIFT YOU HAVE WORKED AT A JOB?:
Probably 12-13 hours, working at the deli/meat market right before Christmas.

33. FAVORITE MOVIE?
Arrgh, I hate questions like that...The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is pretty high up there.

34. CAN YOU SING?
Yup. I used to take lessons. Now I just sing in the car.

35. LAST CONCERT ATTENDED?
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....probably one of the symphonies Anthony and I went to a few years ago.

36. LAST KISS?
This morning when Anthony left for work.

37. LAST MOVIE RENTED:
"Mr. Brooks" and "1408". Both were surprisingly good.

38.ONE THING YOU NEVER LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT:
Contacts or eyeglasses...anything else is negotiable...but without those I'll never find my way BACK.

39. FAVORITE vacation spot:
France was amazing, but I also really love Mackinac Island, and Nova Scotia.

43. LAPTOP OR DESKTOP COMPUTER?:
Both! That's what happens when you date a computer geek.

44. FAVORITE COMEDIAN?:
Eddie Izzard. Because men in dresses and high heels always win.

45. DO YOU SMOKE?
Nope.

46. SLEEP WITH OR WITHOUT CLOTHES?
Without.

47. WHO SLEEPS WITH YOU EVERY NIGHT?:
Anthony, and our cats Mercury and Ra.

48. DO LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIPS WORK?:
Sometimes. I have a hard time with them though.

49. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BEEN PULLED OVER BY THE POLICE?
Twice

50. PANCAKES OR FRENCH TOAST?
French toast or Gingerbread pancakes.

51. DO YOU LIKE COFFEE?:
Yep. I'm a big snob about it though. I really prefer to make it in a French Press.

52. HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS?
in a basket. Also known as Toad in a Hole, or an egg cracked into a piece of toast and fried inside of it.

53. DO YOU BELIEVE IN ASTROLOGY?:
I think the general descriptions of signs are often surprisingly accurate. The ones in newspapers and magazines are a joke.

54. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?:
My parents, they called to wish me a Happy Birthday.

55. LAST PERSON ON YOUR MISSED CALL LIST?:
My parents. They called and sang me Happy Birthday on my voice mail. Then I called them back.

56. WHAT WAS THE LAST TEXT MESSAGE YOU RECIEVED?:
Hmm, probably from my friend Josh. He was driving cross country by himself and wanted to talk to someone to stay awake.

58. NUMBER OF PILLOWS?:
At least two. One under my head and the other to snuggle.

59. WHAT ARE YOU WEARING RIGHT NOW?:
Yoga pants and a long sleeve shirt, Christmas socks.

60. PICK A LYRIC, ANY LYRIC:
"Well I’m not paralyzed
But, I seem to be struck by you
I want to make you move
Because you’re standing still
If your body matches
What your eyes can do
You’ll probably move right through
Me on my way to you..." Paralyzer by Finger Eleven

61. WHAT KIND OF JELLY DO YOU LIKE ON YOUR PB & J?:
Raspberry.

62. CAN YOU PLAY POOL?:
Not well.

63. CAN YOU SWIM?
Yep, I was in the lake before I could walk. I've physically been dragged out because I wouldn't leave the water.

64. FAVORITE ICE CREAM?:
Mayan Chocolate Haagen Dazs (chocolate with cinnamon). Or Pumpkin Spice from the Dairy Store.

65. DO YOU LIKE MAPS?
Yep, although I'm more enamored with what they look like than actually using them. I have a good natural sense of direction.

66. TELL ME A RANDOM FACT ABOUT YOURSELF:
I have a 3 inch scar across my knee from when I cut it open as a child.

68. EVER ATTEND A THEME PARTY:
Yup...though nobody told us that they'd changed the theme from "lingerie" to just plain ol' pjs...so we were definitely the most risque-ly dressed of the bunch.

69. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SEASON:
Fall, absolutely. Although I also really love the few weeks transitioning between the seasons.

70. LAST TIME YOU LAUGHED AT SOMETHING STUPID?
...well I checked "I can has cheezeburger?" a little bit ago.

71. WHAT TIME DID YOU WAKE UP THIS MORNING ?
10am. I've been sick and I'm trying to get as much rest as possible.

72. BEST THING ABOUT WINTER?:
The snow makes everything seems quiet and still. Also, it's my birthday!

73. LAST TIME A COP GAVE YOU A TICKET?:
6-7 years ago?

75. NAME OF YOUR FIRST PET?:
Chelsea, a very bitchy tiger striped cat.

76. DO YOU THINK PIRATES ARE COOL OR OVERRATED?:
Mmmm...Johnny.

77. WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS WEEKEND??
Working.

78. BIRTHDATE:
December 18.

79. WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE:
Some kind of therapist.

85. ARE YOU ON A LAPTOP?:
Yep.

87. ARE YOU SMILING?:
More like smirking.

89. DO YOU MISS SOMEONE RIGHT NOW:
Yeah.

90. IF YOU COULD GO ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD YOU GO?:
To every country in Europe.

92. ARE YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL?:
Thank god, no.

93. DO YOU HAVE A CRUSH?:
Yep. I'm pretty enamored with my cats.

94. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE NAME?
Mine actually. Or Maggie. Both derivatives of Margaret.

95. WHAT COLOR IS YOUR BATHING SUIT?:
Um, one is black and the other is black with red cherries all over. Both are vintage-y looking.

96. DOES YOUR SCHOOL START IN AUGUST?:
I'm not in school right now.

97. DID YOU GO ON VACATION LAST MONTH?:
Unfortunately not. Anthony's gone all the time for work and my schedule is all over the place. I'm not sure we're together long enough to go anywhere.

98. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON A CRUISE?:
Nope. Not really interested in one either, unless it were a really small ship around the Greek Isles.

99. DO YOU HAVE A SISTER?
Nope, I'm an only child.

100. ARE YOU UPSTAIRS?:
Nope. I'm in the living room of the house we live in.

101. ARE YOU IN LOVE?:
Yes.

102. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN THE HOSPITAL?
Well, I work in one...so I'm in a hospital 5 days every week. As a patient, yes. The last time was a couple of years ago.

103. DO YOU WISH YOU COULD SEE ANYONE PARTICULAR RIGHT NOW?
Yes. But we've lost contact.

104. WHAT JEWELRY ARE YOU WEARING?
None at the moment, I just got up.

105. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO AFTER THIS SURVEY?
Get something to eat, put in a load of laundry and get ready for work.

Getting Ready for Christmas

2007-12-18T11:54:00.000-05:00

I never really got a chance to say much about getting ready for Christmas this year. It was unbelievably hectic. Anthony was out of town for work a lot, so I did most of it myself. We did get the tree together, and decorate it. My parents plant blue spruce every year, and we have a gorgeous live tree. Unfortunately the trees are in kind of awkward heights right now, either a bit too big, or too small. In a few years they're be perfect again. But for now we're cutting slightly large trees, and ones that are growing a little too close to the others. So we ended up with a seriously funky looking tree this year.

That's the tree pre-pruned. Normally we just leave it alone, a few crazy branches don't bother me. But it was a little too bizarre this year to do it. So a few well placed snips and it at least doesn't look like it's trying to take over the living room.

It still has a few bare spots, but altogether it was pretty nice. We bought LED lights, since we needed to replace our old lights anyway, but we definitely got the wrong ones. They're the larger bulb, and didn't give our tree the normal magical glow. Luckily, they're indoor/outdoor, so next year they'll go outside, and we'll get the nice small bulb LEDs.

People sent a lot of Christmas cards this year, and we finally found a good way to hang them. Although by Christmas Day we had cards propped up on the dining room window sill that the cats kept knocking over. We may have to hang a second ribbon next year.

Here is the table set for the brunch that never happened. Every year about two weeks before Christmas I have people over. It's usually a dinner to celebrate my birthday. This year, I decided to try brunch. Sadly, the night before we got NINE inches of snow, and no one could make it. So, we dragged in a couple of neighbors, and ate a lot of frittata for the next week. Hopefully next year the weather will be a little more cooperative.

On the dining room bar I added some fresh spruce branches and candles. It looked gorgeous when I lit them, but it was a little nerve wracking to have flames in the middle of dry tree branches.

For the most part I kept things simple in the rest of the living room, a few pine cones added to the candles on the coffee table looked nice.

Unfortunately we couldn't keep most of the Christmas gifts under the tree. The cats thought the curling ribbon was delicious, and spent most of their time trying to chew on it.

One decoration that I put up didn't really fit. I put up a Nativity set. I'm not Christian. I know this is where most of you stop and scratch your head. It was my grandma's Nativity set, and no one else in the family wanted it. It's at least 60 years old, probably more like 80, and I hated the thought of seeing it tossed out. I remember playing with it as a kid. I'd sit on the floor in her living room and arrange and re-arrange the figures in it. She never minded me playing with it, and let me fix it until it looked JUST right to me. I don't think I'll put it up every year. But for the first Christmas without her, I couldn't stand to have it shoved away in a box.

And finally, here are our artistically posed Holiday cats.

How I Learned to Love Lansing Part Two

2007-11-21T22:46:00.000-05:00

Lansing is also taking some serious steps to revitalize the downtown. A year or two ago it was more like a ghost town. Friday night at 5pm everyone would clear out. There was nothing that stayed open on the weekends except for a pizza place, and a club that never had very many patrons. But it's starting to pick up. There's some nicer restaurants that stay open late. The club seems to have picked up a bit. There are people living in the lofts that were recently built, and one Saturday night when I drove by on my way home from work there were cars lining the streets. It's still not a city like Chicago or Ann Arbor, but it's not a ghost town either. They've been working on rehabbing some of the buildings downtown too. Mostly to spruce them up, new paint, a new facade, better signs. It really has made a difference. They also repaved Michigan Avenue and re-did the sidewalks when they separated the sewer and storm drains this summer. It looks so much better. They also changed the traffice flow at Michigan and Washington with a really well done traffic circle. It not only looks nice, it seems to flow well.

They are in the process of building new condos across from the ballpark, with stores on the lower level, and three stories of condos to be bought or rented. The building looks fantastic and the prices are fairly reasonable. They might not work for a struggling family of 4, but for a young professional couple, it's well within their means. Which is actually who they are marketing them at. Younger people with good jobs who have money to spend downtown. In the past few months there has been some huge news about upcoming development.

I'm not always a fan of developers. In the area my parents live in, they're running rampant and destroying the natural areas. But Lansing needs development. It needs to take the areas downtown and make the population more dense. It's a way to stop the urban sprawl. I'm not sure that every development that's been proposed is necessarily the best choice. But for the most part they do seem to be well thought out designs and plans that will help bring Lansing back to life. There is talk of a bandshell built along the river to hosts concerts and the annual Common Ground Music Festival. The hospital I work at is undergoing a huge renovation project to be opened in stages over the next several years.

One of the plans recently announced was for a major rehab of the old power plant building, to be turned into office space for a major insurance company, which would bring tons of people to the downtown area. There's even talk of a cafe on the river as part of the building. All along the river there is talk of development, but in a good way. To encourage people to walk along the river for shopping and entertainment. There's a proposal for a huge development along the river with underground parking, retail space and residential living. It would also have a new city market, which there is a lot of debate over. I'm rarely in favor of tearing down historic buildings and putting up new ones, but in this case it seems like it might be a good idea. The market isn't doing well, and from everything I read it's in very bad shape. A new market closer to the river and new residential areas seems like it could bring in new customers and vendors and really revitalize it.

There's also talk of another development by the ballpark for retail and residential space that looks promising. The one that excites me the most is just south of the new condos going in. It's a plan for an environmentally friendly building with apartments and condos. It would have a green roof, environmentally friendly building materials and a new path the the river trail to help encourage people to walk to the downtown/riverfront area.

I'm hugely excited about these projects. There hasn't been this much going on in Lansing for YEARS. There hasn't even been this much talk about anything possibly happening. If even half of them happen, it could have a major positive impact on Lansing. If they all happen Lansing might actually become a living breathing city in the next 5 years. It has so much potential and it's really nice to see that some people are taking steps to actually make it happen.

How I Learned to Love Lansing

2007-11-16T16:52:00.000-05:00

I've done my share of complaining about Lansing. But I'm starting to feel like I really belong here. Part of it is because Anthony owns the house. We know we're going to stay there for at least a few more years. And we're both very happy with the house, we love our neighbors and every time we turn into the neighborhood we both do this little happy sigh and relax. I swear my tension level drops about 20% when I pull into the driveway. And now that I have a job I feel more invested in the community. Especially working at the hospital which in a lot of ways is the center of the community.

Part of it is also because we've found some really wonderful things here. Horrock's, the market where we buy our fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products. Fresh local products for a great price make it so much easier to eat well. We also found several amazing places to eat out.

One of our favorites is Restaurant Mediteran. It's downtown so it's within a 15 minute walk or so, and a 5 minute drive. The man who owns the place runs it with his wife, she does a lot of the cooking, while he does the serving. The food is an interesting mix of Middle European dishes. The food is so fresh and the salads are always just a little bit different. Whatever fruits and vegetables are in season they incorporate into the dishes. There's an amazing salad I've gotten a few times that at first glance seems like a Cobb salad, but is actually far more interesting. One of our favorite dishes is pork medallions with a mushroom sauce over spaetzle. Probably not the healthiest dinner, but the taste is unbelievable. And at least I know what's in it. No mystery gravy made mostly out of unnatural ingredients. The owner is fabulous, after dinner he always brings us dessert. He picks out something from the refrigerated case to surprise us, and never charges for the desserts. One time it was tiramisu, another time a strawberry rhubarb pie. We leave huge tips and always come back again, so his strategy is definitely working. Although he never seems to do it just because he wants us to come back. In fact, he really seems to just enjoy how much we love the dessert.

Anthor place we love is Ukai, a really fabulous sushi place in Okemos. They just recently opened a second restaurant called Ukai Two on our side of Lansing, so that's on our list of places to go. In fact, I may request dinner there for my birthday. We celebrated my birthday and our anniversary at Ukai last year, but now that the new place is open I think we may give it a try. All of the reviews so far are really positive so I don't think we'll be disappointed.

There's also the most fabulous pet store ever. Preuss Pets is in Old Town (a really neat area on the North side of Lansing). They had been in this part for years, but in the Okemos/Haslett area. A couple of years ago they moved to Old Town and it's incredible. More fish than even Anthony would know what to do with, a huge mural on the outside of the building, a man made river that runs through it, rabbits, birds, cats, reptiles, rodents, etc. The animals are well taken care of, the people who work there are friendly and knowledgeable and its just a fun place to be. More like a zoo and aquarium than a pet store.

Tonight there is a really fun sounding celebration downtown called Silver Bells in the City. There's a light parade, lighting of a huge Christmas tree in front of the capitol, fireworks, cider and doughnuts, and shops stay open late. It's apparently been going on for years although I hadn't heard about it until this year. I'm debating if I should go or not. Anthony is up north camping with friends and it just isn't quite the same to go by myself. I don't mind going places by myself, but it would have been nice if we could have gone together. We're close enough to downtown that I could walk from the house, but it isn't really safe enough for me to go by myself. As much as I hate to be limited just because I'm a girl by myself, I have to be reasonable. And not put myself in positions where I could get mugged and/or worse. I could drive to the library and then take the bus to right in front of the capitol. But I'm not sure if I'm motivated enough to go by myself. Hmm. Maybe I'll see if the neighbors want to go.

I also found a really great website the other day for the various Art and Cultural Venus in the area. There were a lot of places I'd never heard of, and I want to try to get to more events in the next year. There are even plays and concerts with free admission, so I can't use lack of money as an excuse. I'd like to try going to something once a month. Maybe Anthony and I have a "date night" (cheesy as that sounds) once a month and go to a museum, or a concert or play or to the planetarium. I've complained that there isn't enough to do in Lansing but I haven't been taking advantage of everything it has to offer either.

Cider Pressing

2007-11-15T17:40:00.000-05:00

I didn't get a chance to post this earlier. But in October Anthony and I went Up North to press cider with Trevor's family. Trevor is one of Anthony's closest friends and every year his family gets together on his grandparents' farm to press cider. Anthony went for several years before we were dating, and we went to together for two years. It's several hours north of here and the drive is incredible. Even along the highway it's fairly rural and the trees were just beginning to really turn. It was overcast and the colors were so vibrant.

When we got there we had a huge Thanksgiving type dinner and then headed outside to do the pressing. Trevor's grandpa lives near many apple orchards and gets the apples from the owners. First the apples are dumped into a huge barrel of water to rinse them clean.

Then they're thrown into a grinder the breaks them up into a chunky pulp. Here's is Trevor's grandpa sorting the apples and throwing them into the grinder.

The bucket of pulp is dumped into a cloth lined press and then a heavy weight is placed on top. The press is hand cranked and we all took turns cranking. It's a two person job to work the press, one person to crank, another to keep it from sliding across the ground. This is Anthony and Trevor's dad working the press.

The cider pours out a spout into a 5 gallon pail. When the pail is full, it's strained again and then poured into gallon and half gallon jugs.

Here is the work of of about 10-15 people. Seventy or eighty gallons of cider.

Here is one very happy dog. There were four of them running around being adorable, but this one was my favorite. While people rinsed out jugs and buckets with the hose he ran around and around begging to be sprayed with the hose. When he was, he'd leap up into the air and wag his tail like a lunatic.
And a final photo. One of the gorgeous apples we used in the cider. There were 4-5 different varieties of apples and it made for fantastic tasting cider.

We brought home 12 gallons of cider, and gave away a gallon to several of our neighbors, to my parents, and to drink when Erin and Kyle and Suzette and Darren and Anthony and got together for our October dinner. We froze 3 partially full gallon jugs and drank the rest. We're going to ration the frozen cider. Maybe pull a gallon out at Thanksgiving and wait a while for the other two. We gorge on it the first few weeks we have cider and then are so sad when we realize we're almost down to the last few jugs. If only we could have gallons of it stashed away to last a whole year.

Good News!

2007-11-15T17:24:00.001-05:00

The last few weeks have been pretty depressing. But it hasn't been all bad. I got offered a part time position at my job. It's a huge step up from the per diem position I had before. I was guaranteed to be scheduled 8 hours every two weeks, and had no benefits when I was per diem. Granted, I was getting more like 40 hours every two weeks, which was enough to pay the bills.

But a part time position guarantees me 32 hours every two weeks (I've been told I'll get more like 60-70) so I should be able to start some savings. Most importantly I now have benefits. Well, health insurance starts in December, and Vision and Dental in March. So not quite right now, but soon. It's such a huge relief. Without insurance I felt like I was taking a huge risk every time I got up in the morning or left the house. I now have a 10,000 dollar life insurance policy (so if I die mysteriously anytime soon, my parents may be to blame, since they'd be the beneficiary). I'll get my prescriptions for a MUCH better price. I could get tuition reimbursement for classes I took (granted, not all would qualify, but some probably would).

And it's good to know that my manager is really happy with me, and that it's all going well. I enjoy my work, I like the people I work with. Basically I'm just really really happy to be working.

Gifts

2007-11-09T00:19:00.001-05:00

The day after the funeral and the looting of my grandma's stuff, my mom and the half of the family that we're currently getting along with went back to my grandma's house. We went to take care of the perishable items in the house. Technically it wasn't our responsibility. We aren't the trustees of the estate. But none of us wanted things to go to waste or for there to be a mess in her house. That seemed disrespectful of my grandma. And whatever issues we all have with the way she acted toward us, we weren't going to let her house be trashed. We sorted through the refrigerator, the two HUGE chest freezers in the basement that hadn't been cleaned out in years, and the cupboards. Anything still good was divided up and Anthony and I took home 3 huge bags and a cooler full of food. There was as much for every other person to take home as well. The old food in the freezer was taken out of bags and containers and buried. We tried to throw as little in the trash as possible.

The night before, as people were leaving, my uncle told my mom to "take whatever you want". So we did. We barely scratched the surface of what my grandma had in her house. She wasn't a true hoarder, she kept the house neat and clean. But she did have an astonishing amount of stuff. I'm sure part of it was that she grew up during the depression. And that she was living in the house she had physically been born in. She never moved. In 85 years she only lived in that one house. So it had never been thoroughly cleaned out. The attic is jam packed, and every room has things tucked into every bit of storage and nook and cranny. But we sorted through a bit of it looking for some of the most important things to us.

It was hard. In some ways I felt like I was no better than the members of the family that I've been complaining about. But if my mom and my aunt had been in charge, we would have waited weeks or months to touch anything but the perishables and mail. We would have sat down as a group, made a list of items that were important to us, and then compared them. Found a way to compromise on the things that more than one person wanted. It's what my dad's family did when his mother died. It was civilized, and everyone worked together and there were no hurt feelings. But it was too late for that. The ransacking had begun. My uncle doesn't seem to be interested in the sentimental side of all of this. He just wants to get the house cleared out and sold and we were afraid that if we waited, we'd never see the things again. So we sorted through her possessions, and found what matters to us.

There were a couple things that were important to me. I wanted the Dominoes set my grandma and I used to play. A teacup I used to use, some old hats of hers, a scarf I had knitted her. Her library card. Altogether worth less than 50 dollars. And there were other things I chose too. Even though they don't have as much sentimental value, they are lovely and I will use them and treasure them, and have a deeper connection to my family because of them. There is a beautiful old glass fronted bookcase, a black bed and dresser set. A little bit of her costume jewelry. An old white pitcher and bowl set. A few books, several pens with her name on it, a cast iron skillet, two wooden cutting boards (one that my dad made for her) and some serving dishes.

I also took her recipe cards and books. I am going to scan them and type up the recipes. I want to put them on a CD and give them to everyone else in the family. I'll even send the CDs to the other half of the family. Even if we aren't speaking. Even if the worst happens and I never see them again. I still love them, and I don't want to keep something as important as family recipes from them out of spite. That's immature and I'm better than that. They may have hurt me, but I refuse to stoop to their level.

Acceptance

2007-11-08T23:22:00.000-05:00

I still have no idea if there will be a way to heal the split in our family, and it will take a long time to come to terms with the issues I have with my grandma. But I have found a way to deal with some of it. In a lot of ways, my grandma died along with my grandpa. She was never the same afterwards. The grandmother that I grew up with was gone.

I have incredible memories of her from when I was younger. We played Scrabble and Dominoes, we read books, she made me snacks when I got off the school bus and spent a few hours at her house after school. We had a "snowball" fight in July using the blossoms off of the snowball bush growing near the house. My grandma, my mom and I picked strawberries, cherries, raspberries and blueberries together every year. We decorated the Christmas tree together. Our whole family would get together at her house for homemade pizza. We'd play Pokeno for the pennies she had in a tin, returning them back to the tin when we were done, so we could play another time. We all played the game Pit, screaming to trade cards until my grandpa would get up and shut the door between the kitchen and living room. She and I drank lemon tea at the kitchen table and I felt so grown up. I helped her with her physical therapy after her knee surgery. And I'll never be able to smell Oil of Olay lotion without remembering hugging her and feeling her soft skin against my cheek and smelling the lotion. I love that woman with all of my heart.

But she disappeared when my grandpa died. And the memories I have of her after that are much fewer and farther between. Some people might say I'm being ridiculous to do this, but I've made a choice. I'm going to remember the grandmother I had growing up. It won't do me any good to dwell on the bad things that came later. It won't fix it, and it'll just make me miserable. I'm not in denial, I know she had her faults. But if I can remember the good things I'll be able to find some peace.

Anger

2007-11-06T11:08:00.000-05:00

Maybe I'm just too optimistic, or naive, but I truthfully thought that things would go well after the funeral. It's a very long complicated backstory, and one that I don't completely understand, but there has been a huge dramatic argument going on in the family for years. Despite the fact that to everyone outside the family my grandma seemed to be an amazing woman who was nearly a saint, she had her flaws too. And unfortunately, there were some pretty serious ones. She truly believed that her children and grandchildren should go along with whatever she wanted, without any argument. That isn't feasible, and it isn't fair, but it was what she expected. And it got much worse after my Papa (my grandfather) died. She expected her 4 children to do what she wanted, without question, and often without her ever asking for it. She expected them to read her mind. If you know me, then you know I'm not comfortable with people being passive-aggressive, and that I won't blindly do what someone wants me to, if I disagree I speak up about it when I can. My mom, her older sister and my two eldest cousins are that way too.

My other aunt and uncle, and their spouses and children were more willing to go along with what my grandma wanted, and so she loved them more. I know what you'll say, that of course she loved us too, and that she wouldn't have loved her children and grandchildren unequally. And yes, she did love us, but she didn't treat us the same way. And if you love people, you don't treat them badly, or at least you shouldn't. Until she died I wasn't really sure how she felt about me. I wasn't part of most of this, I was away at school, and dealing with everything going on in my own life. But mom lived close and she had to bear the brunt of it. Not only did my grandma hurt my mom very deeply, but she and my eldest aunt were taken off of the will as being executors of her estate in favor of my other aunt and uncle. Which brings me to the biggest part of the drama that we had to deal with this weekend. My grandma had written a notebook with a page for each member of the family, listing which of her possessions should be left to them.

None of them were particularly valuable items. Mostly sentimental. We were all included in the notebook, and there were wonderful and special things for all of us. Apparently she also made a second notebook more recently. There were some major differences between the two. In fact, in the second I was left out. There was a page with my name on it, but it was otherwise blank. It took me a minute to realize what that meant. My brain couldn't wrap itself around the idea that my grandma had intentionally slighted me. I knew she and my mom had problems, but she had always been very sweet to me. I didn't know that while she told me she loved me, she also somehow thought I wasn't worth leaving anything to. I don't care about the monetary value of any of it. I just wanted something small to remember her by. And to know that she cared that I remembered her.

The evening just got worse from then on. Instead of giving it all some time, and talking to each other about what grandma had left them, my aunt and uncle and their children proceeded to ransack the house. Not only did they immediately take the things that my grandma left them they took other things. They didn't ask the rest of us if we wanted anything they were taking. And we sat there in shock. It was looting, pure and simple. Maybe a little more polite, because they didn't break things and trash the house. But they rooted around in her things, took what they wanted, and left. It was one of the most heartbreakingly sad things I've ever seen. I sat there and watched our family split in two, and I don't know if it can ever be repaired.

Grieving

2007-11-05T09:40:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I got a call saying that my grandma was in the hospital and that she was very very ill. I'd known the moment was coming, although it happened sooner than I expected. She was diagnosed with a heart condition several years ago but decided not to have the surgery that would fix it. At 85, there was a chance that she wouldn't survive the surgery, but the doctor gave her a 95% chance of survival, which was extraordinarily high for someone of any age. I'm sure there were a lot of reasons why she chose not to, although I think that it was mostly because she was lonely. My grandpa died 12 years ago, and it was very very hard on her. What made me the most sad was that she refused to discuss it with the family, or be upfront about it.

She had a little over a year of good health, but we all started to notice some problems in the last few months. Labor Day weekend she looked tired and her circulation was bad. But she had been quite active until last Saturday. My parents took her into the hospital at 9pm on Saturday night because she was short of breath, and she died just before 3am Sunday morning. I wasn't able to get to the hospital until after she was dead, but I had a chance to say goodbye, and to mourn with my family. We stayed with her until one of my aunts could get there at 6am, and then spent the night at my parents' house.

The week has been a blur, fitting in work and normal things around the house. The visitation at the funeral home was Thursday evening, and the funeral was Friday morning. They were both very nice. It was one of the happiest visitations I've ever seen. Not that she was dead, but that had lived a long life, that she had died with family there and without suffering. Everyone reminisced and enjoyed being together. It was full of people talking and hugging and even laughing. And as several people there said "she would have loved it." She would have been right in the middle of it, meeting new people and happy to see the people she knew. And

The funeral was officiated by the current priest at her church, and a former priest that she was very close to. It was in a small church, packed full of people who cared about her. The weather was gorgeous for the burial, and at her request there were balloons released by the little kids in the family, and bubbles blown. It was a nice way to say goodbye. There was also a dinner at her house later, and although it was strange to be at her house without her there, it was also a nice way to remember her.

Hotness

2007-09-12T18:57:00.001-05:00

In celebration of my new job which comes with a paycheck (a wild and foreign concept) I got a haircut. I was long overdue. Between the move, and the lack of paycheck and such, I hadn't had my hair trimmed since December.

I went in today and said "fix it." And she did. It's fabulous and I feel very hot.

And yes, the photo is all "artsy and shit" (thank you Erin). But it's very difficult to do self-portraits with my camera and not have them look like they were taken by a MySpace wanna-be. I'll have someone else take a few photos this weekend, and eventually I'll get around to learning how to use the timer feature on my camera.

Busted

2007-08-21T22:36:00.000-05:00

I'm busted. I went to get a book out one of the boxes in the office today. The books I wanted were in the bottom box of course. I picked up the top box, and went to set it down on the floor. It started to slip out of my hands and instead of letting it go, I lunged forward and something in my lower back went funky. I could barely get out of the room, and I only made it as far as the hallway. I laid down on the floor for almost a half hour in pain. I've twisted things, and strained my muscles before, but this was by far some of the worst pain I've ever had. Eventually I made it down to the living room, and laid down on there floor there for a while. Every time I got up I got dizzy and lightheaded.

I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to make it to work. There's no way I wanted to call in on my third day on the job, but driving while in pain and almost passing out didn't seem like a great idea either. After almost an hour I was able to get up and take some medication. I took a hot bath and tried to relax it as much as possible. It was enough to get dressed and go to work. And amazingly work wasn't too bad. It's still horribly painful, but I'm relaxing on the couch with a hot pack for a few hours before bed. It's just the left side of my lower back. And it feels like when my lower back is tight and it needs to crack...but sharper. That moment just before the muscles relax and the pain goes away. But this won't go away. If it's still really bad tomorrow I'll see if my mom will pay for me to go to a chiropractor, just to make sure that I didn't do any actual damage. I don't think I did, I think I just strained it, but I'd like to make sure.

New Job

2007-08-17T18:17:00.000-05:00

Today was my first day at the new job. It went really well. It was a nice short day too, which was probably good. Since I haven't exactly had a regular schedule in the year I've been looking for jobs, jumping right into an 8-5, 40 hour a week job would have been a huge shock. I worked 3.5 hours today, and I work 6.5 hours tomorrow. And then I get Sunday off. I got my schedule for the first week, and I'll have 40 hours, so I am ridiculously relieved. It sounds like they are short staffed and really need people with a flexible schedule to fill in. And since my schedule is completely open right now, I shouldn't have any trouble getting a decent number of hours.

Unfortunately I won't get to dress quite as nicely as I hoped. It looks like I'll be wearing black pants/khakis and either a sage green polo shirt or a pale yellow cardigan sweater set. So yes. I will be dressing like a 70 year old woman who shops at Land's End. Compared to wearing my grossest jeans and an XXL hunter green polo shirt with a picture of a cow on the back like I had to wear at my last job...it's a definite improvement. And I no longer will be up to my elbows in raw ground beef. Sitting at a desk answering phones and giving directions is pretty much a dream come true.

Waiting for October

2007-08-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that it's supposed to be 90 degrees and humid today, or maybe because of it, I've been dreaming of fall. I'm a jeans and sweater kind of girl, forget the shorts and tank tops. I'd rather be taking a walk through the woods than sunbathing. I prefer hot spiced cider to ice cold lemonade. If something is pumpkin spice flavored, I'll buy it, no matter what it is. Granola bars, body butter, cat litter...I don't care. Sadly, they have yet to invent pumpkin spice scented litter, but it has to be more appetizing than the floral scent they usually use.

I've been collecting fall recipes. Cider Braised Pork Chops, Roasted Squash with Sage, Pumpkin Spice Bread. I want tweed skirts and cable knit sweaters. I bought a rusty orange suede and brown leather purse in June. I want to knit chunky warm scarves. Sip orange spice tea and curl up under a heavy blanket while I read. I want pumpkins on my front steps and gusting winds. Crisp, dry cold air and the scent of leaves. I want to enjoy spending time in the kitchen. Sprinkle nutmeg and cinnamon and swirl it through deep orange batter. I want to lean up against the warm stove and relax. I want a giant steaming bowl of squash soup with crusty rustic bread to dip into it. I want cider and doughnuts. I want to pick crisp apples off of the trees and make pots of chunky applesauce.

I want to wear my fall perfumes. I want Jack, "The scent of warm, glowing jack o'lanterns on a warm autumn night: true Halloween pumpkin, spiced with nutmeg, glowing peach and murky clove.". I want to smother myself in The Hesperides, "Their perfume is that of sturdy oak bark, dew-kissed leaves, twilight mist and crisp apple.". I want to light candles and listen to the very mellow and dark band Morphine while it drizzles rain outside.

Take your blue skies and fluffy clouds, and bring me heavy grey skies and bright colored leaves.

What I'm Reading...Books

2007-08-10T10:02:00.001-05:00

I've still been reading a lot. I finished A Clash of Kings and tore through A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows. In the process I forgot that he hadn't finished the rest of them yet, and nearly cried when I found out that I was going to have to wait to keep reading. I'm not very patient, especially when it comes to books. I want more books...and I want them NOW. Obviously, the four I have read are very good, and very interesting. I won't say much more than that until I finish the series.

I also got several books at a garage sale for 10 cents each. They were in good condition and part of my favorite series. There are a series of books by Laurie R. King, she is a really good writer, and I always enjoy her books. I love historical fiction, and especially historical mysteries. But it can sort of be a dangerous genre. There are many terrible historical mysteries. Either they're poorly written, or they are romance novels in disguise. Masquerading as legitimate fiction. Now don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against people who read romance novels, but let's be honest here, they're basically erotica. I understand that not everyone is comfortable admitting they enjoy reading about sex, but frankly I'd be more embarrassed to be out in public with a book that has a woman in a low cut bodice being mauled by a bare chested pirate than a genuine piece of erotic fiction. But that's just me. I've certainly read them, and some of them are pretty darn entertaining. But it's usually because I can't stop laughing at how cheesy they are. Like I said, no insult to people who read them, my 85 year old grandma certainly does.

Ahem. To veer wildly back on topic after my tangent there...the books by Laurie R. King are very good historical mysteries. I have read all of her Mary Russell series. The basic premise is that Sherlock Holmes has retired to the countryside of England, and he meets a young woman named Mary who he ends up taking on as an apprentice, and then a partner and eventually marries. That basic plot has some serious possibilities for hokeyness. But she's such a good writer it never falls into that. It's very believable. Mary is an intellectual match for Holmes and she bullies him into giving up the Victorian ideas that women are inferior. She's (gasp) an early feminist. The books I enjoy most usually have very strong female characters, and she's one of the best. I've read all eight of the books that are out, and when I got the books at the garage sale, they were books 1, 2, and 4. I think I now have the complete series. The first is The Beekeeper's Apprentice, the second is A Monstrous Regiment of Women, and the fourth is The Moor. I hope she comes out with a new one soon. Again with me being impatient. Definitely a series I would recommend, especially if you like mysteries.

I also read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, of course. I truly do love the books. I did my best to ignore them when they first came out. Anything so wildly popular seemed like it had to be absolute crap. But I finally gave in and read the first one, and I've been hooked ever since. I won't say anything that's a spoiler, just that I very much enjoyed the book. There was a small part I was disappointed by and that I am sad that the series is over. I actually hadn't planned on reading the book immediately. We never got around to pre-ordering, and we figured it would be impossible to get so we figured we'd wait. The Saturday after it came out we were at the grocery store and I noticed it on top of the U-Scan checkout. AND it was on sale for 40% percent off. So we grabbed it. Anthony mentioned that he'd be taking it with him when he left on his work trip that Monday, so I had to read it right away. I read for two hours the first night, and three the next morning. Yes. It took me 5 hours to read a 750 page book. Yes. I am a freak of nature. And that's why you love me, right?

Surprise!...I'm not dead!

2007-08-09T15:13:00.000-05:00

I haven't even been that busy. We haven't done much on the house thanks to the insane heatwave. We did make a trip to Kentucky for a weekend to visit Anthony's brother, which was fun, if a bit of a whirlwind. Other than that, I've been working my butt off to find a job. And guess what? I got one! I'm not so sure that it was because of anything I did in particular, I think it was just a matter of luck. But I'll take whatever I can get.

I applied for a ridiculously large number of jobs at the local hospital a few weeks ago, and got called for an interview last Friday. I had the first interview Monday, and a second Wednesday and got the actual job offer call today. I am so ridiculously excited. Which is sort of pathetic. It's not exactly my dream job, AND I am guaranteed very few hours, but it's a job. And after almost a full year of searching, I don't care. It's basically for a position at the Information desk. It's a per diem position, so not even part time, I'm only guaranteed 8 hours of work every two weeks. But pay is 9.50/hour (and a 2% raise in November, and then raises twice yearly) which was way more than I expected. And the woman I interviewed with said that there are usually quite a few options to pick up more hours, and that I'd be eligible for any part time or full time positions as they open up. And in 6 months, eligible for other open positions at the hospital. It's a good opportunity to get my foot in the door, which would be huge.

So I'm thrilled. It's an enormous amount of stress gone, which has been really rough to deal with this past year. I feel like I'm no longer stuck in neutral and that I'm going somewhere. And being a productive member of society, and such. Hooray!!!!! Plus, I get to actually dress nicely and sit at a desk and work, which is wonderful. I was dreading having to resort to working at a fast food place. Which is a terrifying thought.

Another fabulous thing is that I just sold 20 of my photo greeting cards. There is a girl I know online who makes custom gift baskets, and she bought the cards for those. Which is unbelievably exciting, because not only do I get the money she paid me for them. But if they do well, she'll buy more. And I'll print my email address and web address on them, so if people like them, they can buy more. Speaking of web addresses. I'm starting to work on my website again. I really want to get it put together, and get business cards printed so I can actually sell my work, and try to get some photography gigs. It's not really feasible as a full time thing now, but in addition to the job at the hospital, it would be perfect. Wish me luck! It looks like things are headed in a really great direction for me, and it's such a good feeling.

R.I.P. Captain Jack

2007-05-29T15:29:00.001-05:00

I wish I had written that title to talk about the final Pirates of the Carribean movie coming out. On Friday night, Anthony and I had to rush my rabbit, Captain Jack to the emergency vet clinic to be put to sleep. He's been sick on and off for months now with some sort of weird digestive issue. But it looked like he was finally cured. We switched brands of hay, and about a week and a half ago he stopped eating much of it. He lost quite a bit of weight in a short time, and so I switched back to the normal hay, and he seemed to be doing better. He was still really thin, and a little weak, but he was eating tons of hay and seemed happy. Friday morning we debated if we should take him to the vet anyway, just to make sure he was doing alright, but I decided to wait a few days. We left for the day and when we got back late Friday evening, he was passed out on his side nearly unconscious and he had lost all control of his digestive track.

We called our vet's office and got the number for an emergency clinic and rushed him there with me sobbing and clutching his carrier the whole way. The guy working there was a complete ASS, and had absolutely no sympathy. While I'm sure our vet would have told us basically the same thing, that it would be prohibitively expensive to find out what was wrong with him, and that it might still be incurable, and that in the meantime he would be suffering. But he would have told us politely, and been very sympathetic and caring. The guy we went to was horrible, he never said he was sorry, and he was very brusque about everything.

We decided that Jack needed to be put to sleep so we spent a little while saying goodbye to him. He was at least alert enough to respond to us, so I know he heard what we were saying and could feel us petting him. Because Jack was so sick they had to use a gas anesthetic, so we couldn't go in with him. I hated the thought of him having to die alone in a room with that horrible man, but there was nothing I could do.

We took him home, and let Squirrel see him, and say goodbye. We also let the cats say goodbye. We buried him in the backyard at the base of the lilac tree that we just planted. Anthony had to explain to the neighbors what we were doing, since they were out and looking somewhat suspicious about him digging a grave while I held a tiny bundle wrapped in a towel while I cried.

I've spent the past few days a complete mess. I'm trying not to feel guilty, and it isn't really working at all. He was only 3 and he should have lived for at least another 5-8 years. I feel like there is so much more that I could have done for him. If nothing else I wish we had taken him in Friday morning, because at least that way our vet could have put him to sleep, which would have been much much better. I've been through every stage of grief in no particular order, and currently I'm stuck at bargaining, "I'll go through the hell of last year just to have him back." And wishing that it was Squirrel instead of Jack that was gone. I love her, and she is a very sweet bunny. But Jack had so much personality. He was my baby bunny and while he was a complete pain in the ass, he was also a never ending source of amusement.

Goodbye Jack. I will miss you and your whiskery little bunny nose. I love you buddy.

Pissed Off

2007-05-20T15:26:00.000-05:00

Well, my very good weekend took a turn for the worse. Anthony's dad is giving him a small rowboat with an outboard motor. Anthony looked in the area for a hitch to put on the Civic to haul it on a trailer when we were visiting them last weekend. Of course there were none to be had, so he ordered one from an auto parts store and it was supposed to be delivered to our house. He got a call the other day saying that there was a mistake and it had been delivered to the store. Very annoying. He's out of town for a work trip, so I went to get it today.

A guy there carried it out to the car for me, and gouged a chunk out of the bumper. It's a three year old car with almost zero scratches, so I was really annoyed. I went back in and talked to the manager about it. She wrote up a statement about what happened, and gave me a card for a body shop to get an estimate. Then she tried to tell me that they couldn't guarantee that they'd pay for it all but they'd pay for at least part of it. If it had been my car, I would have brought down my wrath and told her that they WOULD be paying for all of it, and that if they didn't we would get a lawyer involved and we certainly wouldn't be shopping at the store again. But since it's Anthony's car, I figured I would let him take care of it.

He's ferocious about negotiating and I've never seen a manager or anyone he's had to deal with not back down and do exactly what he asked for, so I'm not too concerned that it won't get taken care of. It's just ridiculously frustrating that we have to deal with it. If they had shipped it like they were supposed to, none of this would have happened.

Invisible Friends

2007-05-20T13:32:00.000-05:00

For a few years I've been a member of an online forum. It's an unbelievably wonderful group of people. Most forums I've checked out are a complete mess. People are snarky and immature and feel the need to lash out at random people for no apparent reason. Not to mention the complete and utter lack of organization by the moderators with duplicate posting and no coherence to the threads. Obviously, I haven't checked out every forum on the internet, I am sure there thousands out there, and some of those are probably wonderful. But from what I've seen, the average one isn't really my thing.

I was completely blown away when I ran across this one. It's well moderated, everyone is expected to be polite, and if they aren't, they're nicely asked to rephrase what they said, or to find another site to join. But they're welcome to express differing opinions, and there are a lot of interesting debates. They just don't spiral into bitchy personal attacks and pointless name calling. Plus, everyone is very intelligent and interesting and manages to write in complete sentences and use proper grammar. Imagine that. You'll notice I'm not mentioning the name of the community. It's because I am a selfish bitch and want to keep it to myself. It's really wonderful to have something I can have as my very own. Well, me and a thousand other people who are members...But it's something totally separate from all of the other people in my life. There is a core group of people who are on pretty much all the time and very involved with the site. In two and a half years of being a member, I'm one of those. After real life friends like Erin, they're the first people I go to with a question, or a problem or to tell about my day. They were there for my during the hell of last summer, and sent me an amazing care package with chocolate, and bath stuff, and gift cards, and a zester and a teapot. There were wonderful cards and letters and so much support and love. It seems impossible that people who have never met in person could become so close. But despite the odds, they've become some of my closest friends.

Yesterday afternoon I got together with four of them to meet, and have lunch. They're all in the Michigan area, and we spent a whole afternoon relaxing on a deck talking. I got there at 3:30 and left at 2am. It was an instant success and they were people it seemed like I had known for years. Which I suppose is technically true that I have, but I never expected it to translate so easily from internet life, to real life. We clicked immediately and it was such an amazing feeling to be a part of it. I am just so incredibly glad I found the group and that I had the opportunity to join it. It isn't always easy to meet people in the area who are smart, and interesting and into a lot of the same things I am. I know I'm being all mushy and sappy, but I can't say enough about how wonderful all of these people are, and hope thrilled I am to be part of the community.

Why?

2007-05-17T22:23:00.000-05:00

Because when someone asked me what I did tonight I wanted to be able to say "balanced on a deck railing while trying to unhook a 200 pound flower pot at 11:30 at night."

That or because Michigan and Mother Nature are having a bit of an argument and she decided we needed frost. In May. Bitch.

Reason Number 4,692...

2007-05-16T08:20:00.000-05:00

I spent last week babysitting two little guys. My cousin and her husband had to go out of town for work. Amy was in Detroit, and Michael was in Mexico. I got to their house Sunday evening. We had dinner and then Amy left. Michael left at the ungodly hour of 2:30 AM. My job for the week was to get up at 7 and get the boys ready for the day. Benjamin is 6, so he goes off to school. And Jonathon is 2, so I spent the day taking care of him. And then when Benjamin is home from school, make dinner, and get them ready for bed. They're really well behaved but it was still exhausting.

If I'd ever questioned it before, I'm even more sure I'm not cut out to be a Mother. I'm just not willing to give up that much of my time. Along with 4,691 other reasons of course.

But we did have a fun week. They're smart and funny kids and I didn't really have any discipline problems. I had to come up with a few creative ideas for sharing Legos, but once that was figured out, it went really well. They both made me laugh quite a few times. I was pushing the two year old on his swingset and he said "push me up into the sky!" I think that's the best thing I've ever heard. I remember thinking that when I was little. That if someone just pushed me high enough I'd be able to fly.

Also, when he was eating lunch one day he was so tired he kept nodding off. He'd eat a bite and chew very slowly and his head would droop and he'd jerk himself awake long enough to take another bite. He looked like a little tiny drunk the way he was weaving around. After he finished lunch he slowly walked to the ottoman and passed out draped over the ottoman with his feet still on the floor. So cute. I laid him down on the couch and he slept for two full hours.

We spent a lot of time playing with Legos, and trains and plastic food. The two boys "cooked" me dinner over and over with their plastic food sets. All in all it was a good week, but I was glad to get home. If I never watch "Bob the Builder" again, I will be intensely grateful.

Public Service Announcements

2007-05-04T17:48:00.000-05:00

I hate to be a pain, but I have two subjects I'm feeling very passionate about right now. Cats and string, and rental insurance.

Mercury has been sick for almost a month and a half. It started with her repeatedly throwing up a clear foamy liquid. We made many trips to the vet, and blood tests and x-rays couldn't prove what was wrong. We brought her home and she seemed to be doing much better. All of a sudden she stopped eating, lost a lot of weight and was very lethargic. This weekend we tried feeding her moist food in a syringe, and she kept down the first amount we gave her, but threw up the second. She also threw up several feet of thread. So on Monday we took her to the vet, and they kept her overnight. She had lost over 1/3 of her body weight. She went in for surgery Tuesday morning. It was very very bad. The vet ending up finding another 5-6 feet of thread. He said if she had been a dog, or an old cat, she wouldn't have survived. She woke up slowly from the surgery because it was a very long surgery. But she started to respond really well. We visited her for an hour or so every night this week. Every time we saw her we were amazed by how much better she was doing. I brought her home this morning and she's eating and mewing a lot and enjoying the sunshine on the porch. So, please, check out your house. Find any sort of string or thread or anything of that sort that you cat could get into. Do NOT let them play with it. Even if they've never acted interested in anything string-like at all...it's not worth the possibility of losing them, or the 2,000 dollars we spent to get her well.

My other rant involves money too. I picked Mercury up at the vet clinic this morning. I was almost home when I noticed a police car blocking off the street, and smoke. From where I was at, it could EASILY have been our house. Of course I am freaked out and starting to have a panic attack. It's several weeks shy of when the apartment burned down last year, so of course I was terrified that it's ours. I tried to stay as calm as I could and drove a street over and pulled over to the side. From there I could see that it was the house across the street and two over. But the entire block was taped off. I talked to two nice policemen who said there was no problem with me walking through and that I was welcome to stay parked in the no parking zone. That they most certainly wouldn't give me a ticket.

So I hurried Mercury through, cause I know the noise and smoke are extra stress she didn't need. I went to put my key in the door and broke down sobbing. But I got her in, and situated her in the bedroom with food and water and her bed, and clean litter. And then proceeded to have a panic attack. I am alright now though. One of my best friends, Katie, brought me lunch (including a giant chocolate chip cookie which I totally needed) and we hung out for a while. It was a huge help.

The fire was caused by faulty (meaning old) wiring. Everyone got out okay, but the critters they had didn't make it :( So sad. The neighbor's house has some melted siding and broken windows, but other than that it's ok. The house that burned down had two families in it (it was a duplex) and they lost EVERYTHING. Neither of them had any insurance though. The house is torn down already because it was so damaged, and such a safety concern. If we hadn't just had to spend so much to get Mercury well, we would help out, but there's no way we can afford it. I'd really like to, but it just isn't possible right now.

Here's my public announcement... GET RENTAL INSURANCE!!!!!!! It is NOT worth risking losing everything. It is worth giving up 10-15 dollars of your spending money to get insured. It literally doesn't cost any more than that. Anthony paid 10 dollars for 40,000 dollars worth of coverage in conjunction with his auto insurance. Give up coffeehouse lattes or a magazine subscription. It's worth it to know you're covered. I am a total pain in the ass about this, but there is absolutely zero reason for anyone to go without rental insurance. Even if you're on an incredibly tight budget already.

So, keep your cats away from string and make sure you're fully insured. They're both way more important than hopefully you'll ever realize. If you never have to use the insurance, or get surgery for your cat, then you are a lucky person. But if you don't have it, or your cat eats the string, you'll realize how important it was.

Surprise!

2007-04-28T08:58:00.000-05:00

As per usual, Lansing is hiding all of the cool stuff. There's a market we've driven by numerous times, but we never went in. From the outside it looks fairly small, and like a green house with a farmer's market attached. It looked interesting, but not like a place where we'd actually be able to shop for groceries on a regular basis. Well...we were wrong. Someone Anthony works with mentioned it so we decided to check it out last night. I was completely blown away, it totally made grocery shopping on a Friday night worthwhile. It was incredible.

I know a lot of people find fault with Whole Foods, but I'd kill to have one in this area. I'm lucky to have a mom who goes on a semi-regular basis and brings me things from there. It's hard to compete with the quality of their fish, and they charge MUCH less for certain products. Rip on them for their prices all you want, but when you go to buy Canola Mayonnaise, are you going to spend 3 dollars on their large jar or 4.50 for the small jar at a store up here? In this area, the only health food options are whatever Meijer happens to carry, which admittedly, is getting more numerous. Or the unbelievably over-priced things at the actual health food stores. It's a struggle to eat healthy balanced meals and not spend a ridiculously large amount of money.

Horrocks to the rescue! They're a gourmet market with incredibly good prices. Every two weeks I make up a menu and we shop for the two weeks of groceries. Typically, we spend about 125-150 dollars. That does include things like toothpaste, and paper towel, and litter for the rabbits and cats. But the majority of that is spent on food. Last night, we spent 44 dollars at Horrocks. Granted, that wasn't for everything, but we got all of our produce, some of our meats (we already had some in the freezer), dairy, and a few splurges. We got really incredible gourmet salami, and marinated feta with olives. Their prices are high on canned goods, so we went to Meijer for those. At Meijer we spent almost an equal amount on canned beans and tomatoes, whole grain pasta, a few frozen veggies, whole grain bread, rice, couscous and spices . Our new shopping plan is to stock up once a month at Save a Lot on all of our canned goods. They're significantly cheaper than Meijer, and the quality is comparable. We'll go to Meijer for the few things we can't get there, like whole grain bread and pasta, toiletries, litter, etc. And all of our fresh food we'll buy at Horrocks. I'm betting we can keep our bi-weekly grocery bill (including what we get at Save a Lot) under 100 dollars, and closer to 80.

Plus, I feel much better supporting a local, independent store as much as possible. As we left Horrocks and put our bags in the trunk of the car, we found a five dollar bill on the ground and no one around to claim it. Clearly a sign that buying healthy local food is the way to go.

Menu Reviews 2

2007-04-27T15:48:00.000-05:00

Pita Sandwiches – These were so simple to make and so delicious. Whole wheat pitas stuffed with lemon hummus, sliced cucumbers, sliced tomatoes and feta. I usually buy the pre-crumbled feta. It’s a good price, convenient and quite salty. The store was out, so I got French sheep’s milk Feta. It’s much less salty, and strong but in a different way. I will have to figure out what to do with the rest of it, besides crumbling it up in my salads. Anthony added sliced green olives to his pitas, but I usually prefer black olives to green so I decided to go without them. We the sandwiches with tomato soup (canned) which made the meal really nice and filling without being heavy. We’ll definitely make the pitas again.

Sweet Potato Soup with Miso and Ginger – A really unusual tasting soup. Most sweet potato soups taste very fall-ish, but this is a nice soup for any time of year. We had it with whole grain bread, but it would have been even better with a crusty whole grain baguette. I used ground ginger instead of fresh, because the ginger root had gone bad. Next time, I will try it with the fresh and I will replace half of the chicken stock with water to cut down on the salt. Definitely worth making again.

Spicy Ginger Pork in Lettuce Cups – I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a while and I am glad I finally did. It was simple to make, healthy and really delicious. Next time I would add a little bit more ginger and crushed red pepper. I might try a different type of lettuce, the Boston lettuce had a tendency to rip easily, and something a little sturdier might have been easier to eat. I really liked the contrast between the warm spicy pork and cool lettuce. Sometimes I don’t like the flavor of celery, I feel like it overwhelms a dish, but this was the perfect amount and the celery and water chestnuts add a really nice crunch. It was also really good cold as a leftover the next day.

Toad in a Hole – Despite the numerous references to it, and the fact that it always looked good, we’d never gotten around to making these. On the spur of the moment, we both decided they sounded good, so we made them for breakfast. They were very quick, and simple. The whole grain bread tasted good and was nice and sturdy. We experimented with a few different sized holes in the bread, and the ones made by the small juice glasses seemed to work the best. Anthony left it nice and runny in the center. Salt and pepper added a lot to the taste of the egg, and it was best when it was added before the egg started to cook. Anthony had his with passion fruit jam which he really liked, and I had mine plain. We’ll definitely make these again and I’m sure we’ll try it with different jams and maple syrup.

Maple Roasted Chicken Thighs and Sweet Potatoes – This was such a simple recipe. It took about 35 minutes to cook, but the prep was incredibly simple. Some chicken thighs, sliced onion and chopped carrots and sweet potatoes. A little salt and pepper and maple syrup on top. It’s a small amount of maple syrup but it adds a lot of flavor. Next time I would add a little oil in the bottom of the roasting pan to keep the veggies from sticking, and I would turn down the temperature from 450 to 425 or so. It took less time than the recipe called for to cook and I think they would have cooked a little more evenly at a lower temperature. I will definitely make this recipe again.

Tuna Melt – This was a really simple recipe, just a basic tuna fish sandwich with cheddar cheese on top, and then cooked in a pan like a grilled cheese. It was really good comfort food, and quick to make. Worth making again.
Carrot Raisin Salad – Also quick and simple, although next time I might buy pre-shredded carrots instead of grating them myself. The sauce is a little bit of plain yogurt with spices and salt and pepper. The recipe called for cumin, but I added a little bit of cinnamon too. Anthony wasn’t thrilled with the recipe, but I liked it. It was the cumin he disliked, so I might try it with cinnamon (and maybe ginger) next time. I thought it went really well with the tuna melt.

Chinese Pork Noodles – I modified this recipe quite a bit. I had just made a recipe with ground pork, so I substituted small slices of pork chops. Also, it called for Napa cabbage, and I used peapods and peas. I also used soba noodles instead of the spaghetti noodles it called for. It turned out really well. The peapods were a nice texture, the pork was tender and the sauce was really flavorful. I would definitely make it again, with my variations, and the original recipe.

Italian Sloppy Joes – This recipe really came in handy the night I made it. I was really tired and my head hurt and this went together so quickly. I used lean ground beef and drained off all of the fat after I browned it. I added some bottled spaghetti sauce, a few extra herbs and topped buns with it, and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese. I toasted the buns first, and then put them back into a warm oven to melt the cheese. Anthony really liked them and I did too. I don’t normally like “cheater” recipes that use mostly bottled sauces, I prefer to cook from scratch as much as possible. But this was really delicious and simple.

Braised Chicken with Scotch and Chutney - I halved this recipe, and it was just the right amount. I browned chicken thighs, onion and garlic in a little olive oil, and poured in the sauce ingredients, and put the skillet in the oven for a half hour. The chicken was really tender but the sauce was still really thin. I took the chicken out, and put it on a cookie sheet in the warm oven for a few minutes while I reduced the sauce on top of the stove. I topped the chicken with the sauce to serve, and it was incredibly good. It was sweet, and a little spicy and the chicken was almost falling apart tender.
Blue Cheese Greens – I served the chicken with mixed baby greens tossed with peas and green onion and a small amount of blue cheese dressing. I left the greens slightly damp from when it was washed and it helped the dressing coat the greens lightly. It was really delicious and went very well with the chicken.

Barbeque Baby Back Ribs – We didn’t have time to make a homemade barbeque sauce, so we bought Sweet Baby Ray’s, one that we knew would be really good. Anthony cut the ribs into individual pieces, and put it in a crockpot with a bottle of barbeque sauce and cooked it for 6-7 hours. It was almost falling apart when he took them out and caramelized the sauce on the grill. They turned out really well, and were tender, moist and very flavorful.
Rancho Beans – This is one of Anthony’s family recipes. It’s beans, onion, ground beef, sausage, and yellow and Dijon mustards. It cooked all day also, and is very simple. I like it, although I'm not nearly as crazy as he is.
Citrus Green Onion Coleslaw with Walnuts – Anthony wasn’t crazy about this recipe but I was really happy with it. He doesn’t particularly like coleslaw of any type, so it wasn’t a huge surprise. Instead of Napa cabbage I bought pre-shredded broccoli slaw and rainbow slaw (carrots, cabbage and broccoli). I bought two small bags, but it seemed to multiply so I think I will cut the recipe in half next time. The recipe called for shredded cucumber, but I decided against adding it. I used orange zest, plain yogurt, sour cream, apple cider vinegar, a pinch of sugar, and salt and pepper for the dressing. I added green onions, chunks of orange, and walnuts. It was light, fresh and summery tasting and much healthier than traditional coleslaw.

Gardenburgers – We needed a quick meal so we had Sundried Tomato and Basil Gardenburgers. They have a pizza sauce flavor, and go really well with a little bit of mozzarella melted on top. They’re one of my favorite quick, healthy meals. I had leftover coleslaw with it, which actually went better than I expected.

Crockpot Raspberry Chicken – I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a while, and I am glad I did. The sauce is very simple, raspberry jam, yellow mustard and a little soy sauce, but it adds a lot of flavor. I cooked the chicken leg/thigh quarters in the crockpot with the sauce all day and they were incredibly tender. The sauce wasn’t very appetizing looking though, and neither was the chicken, so Anthony put the chicken on the grill for a few minutes and I made up a second batch of the sauce. He basted it on the chicken and it was absolutely fantastic that way. I loved the sauce, and the combined crockpot cooking and grilling was wonderful, but I don’t think I’d ever serve it straight out of the crockpot.
Wild Rice – I served the chicken with wild rice. The flavors went really well together. I added a bit of salt and a small pat of butter to the rice, and it really added depth to the flavor.

Patrick

2007-04-26T09:27:00.000-05:00

This is going to be sort of an odd post, but apparently it's something that's really been bugging me since I've had a couple of dreams about it.

Seven years ago I met Patrick. We dated for a little while and were officially in a serious relationship for eight months. It ended, and not particularily well. But we later got to be friends again. He had a habit of disappearing occasionally, but we reconnected the fall after I met Anthony, and we had dinner and hung out and talked and watched a movie. It was really nice to be able to talk to him and I really thought that we were going to stay in contact. But he disappeared again without a trace. I emailed him a few times, and called, but he never answered the emails and his phone number had been changed. The phone number wasn't so much of a surprise, I've never seen anyone change their phone more often than he did, but it really made me sad. I've been hoping he'll somehow reappear; without any luck.

Last month Anthony and I went to go see Macbeth at MeadowBrook Theater with my parents. On the drive home we stopped to get gas. Anthony went in to get water, and two guys came out and got in a truck. The truck backed up in front of me, and then paused. I stared at the driver, and he stared back at me. It felt like an electric shock and being kicked in the chest. Every tiny part of me KNEW that was Patrick. I sat there, stunned, and DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. I didn't wave, I didn't smile, I didn't get out of the car and run over to the truck. I was completely frozen and I don't know why. All it would have taken was for me to do something, anything...and I would have known. Sure, I would have been a little embarrassed if it hadn't been him, but I would have survived it. And it was at a nice, clean, well-lit gas station with my boyfriend 20 yards away, it would have been safe enough. Instead...I sat there with my mouth open and did nothing. I let the truck drive away and now I'll never know.

And since, I've been dreaming about him. No, get your minds out of the gutter...not that kind of dreaming. Dreams where we have a mutual friend who gets us in contact again, or we somehow stumble across each other. Dreams where I'm smart enough to do something. I had another one last night, and I'll never forget how elated I was. I was so unbelievably happy to be talking to him again, and when I woke up, how disappointed that it wasn't true. I do have one way I could possibly get ahold of him. His sister is rather well known in the fashion industry in New York and an author, and I could contact her. But I only met her once, and since I'm not actually a crazed stalker, I wouldn't ever do it. But it's so tempting.

I'm sure some people think I'm insane. How could I possibly care so much about some random ex from forever ago. Well, I do. It's as simple as that. I care deeply about all of my friends. Call it crazy, or blame it on the fact that I'm an only child. But I would walk through fire for any of my friends. And despite, well everything, Patrick was a friend too. And I can't just stop caring about someone I loved so deeply. This isn't some weird relationship issue I can't get over. Or a longing for a past boyfriend. I don't want to dredge up our past and understand what went wrong. I've already been through that. I don't need the past boyfriend, I need the friend. So if you're out there Patrick, whatever your reasons for disappearing again, don't let them stop you from getting back in contact with me. I miss you.

Kitty Pictures

2007-04-19T19:51:00.000-05:00

Mercury

I thought I'd put up a few new pictures of my adorable kitties. Hopefully I'll be able to take some new ones of the bunnies soon too, now that Jack is feeling better.

What I've Been Reading...Books!

2007-04-17T10:56:00.000-05:00

Since I have the tendency to go through books at an alarming rate, I am always borrowing ones from Erin. Most recently she got me started on the George R.R. Martin series, A Song of Ice and Fire. It was a little mind boggling at first thanks to the 9 million characters. I spent the first 50 pages of the first book, A Game of Thrones, going "wait...who the hell is that??". It doesn't help that each chapter is from a different character's perspective and that there are several characters with similar sounding names.

I was complaining about it to a friend who is also reading the books and said, "you know it would really help if they had some sort of chart or detailed descriptions in the back explaining all of this..." He said, "oh, mine does, but I have a hardcover, maybe the paperback is different.." so I complained some more about the fact that the paperback readers got shafted. Three days later the book happened to fall open to a page near the back that had pages and pages of descriptions of EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IN THE BOOK. Um, yeah.

Note to self: next time, don't just look at the very last page in the book. It might just be the chapter from the next book in the series. But before that, there might be an entire appendix explaining all of the characters just to make you look like an idiot.

I borrowed the first three books from Erin a few months ago, and I am almost done with the second, A Clash of Kings. I don't read nearly as much as I used to, but Monday nights and Saturday mornings have become my reading times. On Monday nights Anthony likes to do this terrible thing to torture me. Something that makes me question why in the hell I ever wanted to date him in the first place. He likes STAR TREK. (shudders) And not even the old cheesy ones with Patrick Stewart, a man who manages to bring a bit of class to even the dorkiness that is Star Trek. Anthony is such a big geek that he watches the new Star Trek. Oh the horror. Since I actually do like him for some strange reason, and throttling him with my bare hands or throwing heavy objects through his large and expensive TV in a Star Trek induced rage aren't really good options...

I escape upstairs to the bedroom to read on the bed and snuggle one of the cats. Or to the bathroom where I draw a nice bubble bath, light a few candles and drink tea while I read. Usually also accompanied by a cat dipping his paws into the water and shaking them off, in order to fling as much water as possible all over the bathroom. The most recent bath also involved Ra climbing onto the few square inches of my chest that weren't submerged in the water and balancing there for no apparent reason. And people wonder why I don't want children. All I have to say is there is no way I am willing to give up my uninterrupted reading and bath time. The cat can always be locked out of the bathroom and left to fend for himself.

On Saturday mornings I get up at my usual time (9am) and come downstairs to curl up on the couch to read for an hour or so while Anthony sleeps in. Once it's finally warm out I will probably go out to the screened in porch, or the deck or the balcony off the bedroom to read. We don't have a single bit of furniture for any of those spaces yet. But I do having a hanging basket chair at my parents' house that will probably go on the porch. Eventually all three places will be nice little retreats for me to read on. I have a vision in my head of the porch with linen curtains billowing in a breeze and the basket chair with a comfy cushion to curl up in while I drink iced tea and listen to the splashing of my fountain. I want to sit on the balcony at a bistro table sipping coffee made in my French Press while I read. I want to lay on a nice fluffy beach towel on the deck reading for a few hours, moving only to stay out of the sun. After all, what self respecting bookworm like myself would be caught dead tanning. I like my pasty whiteness thankyouverymuch. After all, the light reflecting onto the pages from my face make it SO much easier to read...

What I've Been Watching...Movies

2007-04-16T18:31:00.001-05:00

Movies: In the past few weeks we've actually seen quite a few movies. Either rented or on tv.

Munich: I had heard a lot of great things about this movie, but hadn't quite been in the right mood to watch it. I am glad I did though. It was definitely worth it. It was sad, and wonderful at the same time, and nearly impossible to describe. Despite being a Spielberg movie, it didn't really feel like one. It was more simple, and much less showy than I would have expected.

All the King's Men: This was an interesting movie. I'm glad I saw it, and it was good. But I can't exactly say that I enjoyed it. I don't exactly know how to describe how I feel about it, other than it left me with a feeling of "huh...".

The Pursuit of Happyness: I really enjoyed this. Will Smith was incredible, and so was his son. It was well written, and well acted, and one of the few movies that I'd ever describe as being touching. And it was all done without being cheesy. Which is nothing short of miraculous. Movies that get promoted as being heartwarming and uplifting usually bore me to tears and end up being trite and overdone. I was incredibly surprised by how well the story was put together. It was a really worthwhile movie.

Children of Men: I really wanted to enjoy this movie, but I was disappointed. It wasn't bad. And I'm not sorry I saw it, but it seemed like there was so much more they could have done with it. I expected more to the story than what they showed. I wanted more back story about how the infertility began. And for them to take the story further at the end and explain why it suddenly ended. I think I was expecting a story more like 1984 or Brave New World. I expected it to be about government control and how it was overthrown. Maybe if I hadn't gone into it expecting that I would have been less disappointed.

Inside Man: This movie was better than I expected. I was expecting a basic action flick and it was much much more entertaining than that. It was also really funny, which I hadn't thought it would be at all. It was an Ocean's Eleven heist plot twist type movie. Definitely worth seeing, and something I'd actually want to watch again.

Capote: I'd been wanting to see this movie for a while too. It was a very low key serious movie. And fairly straight forward. But it was well made, and interesting to watch. I had read In Cold Blood a few years ago, so that really helped to have more of the backstory. But Anthony had never seen it before and he still enjoyed it.

Quiz

2007-04-15T23:04:00.000-05:00

I don't usually fill out these quizzes, but I was bored...so here goes.

1. Do you still talk to the person you lost your virginity to?
I haven't in a while, but I did for many years after, and I'm sure I will again.

2. Is it harder to be rejected or to reject someone?
To be honest, I'm almost always the one doing the rejecting.

3. What kind of music did you listen to in elementary school?
Well, two of my favorite songs were "Digging in the Dirt" by Peter Gabriel, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.

4. What is the best thing about your current job?
Since my current job is looking for a job...probably that I have very flexible hours and get to play with the cats while I do it.

5. Do you wish cell phone etiquette was a required class?
Oh yes.

6. What's the last thing you drank?
Peach Chai Spice Iced Tea.

7. Have you been on a date in the past week?
If you count Anthony and I vacuuming out the car this afternoon...

8. Where are you going on your next vacation?
I don't really have anything planned, but I hope to go camping this summer.

9. Have you ever thrown up from working out?
Nope.

10. Are most of the friends in your life new or old?
Old. They're all over 85.

11. Have you ever gotten so wasted you didn't know what was going on?
Yes, yes I have.

12. Do you like pulp-y orange juice?
Absolutely, the more pulp the better.

13. Are you touchy feely?
Yes. I like physical contact. Although I don't feel the need to touch strangers or casual acquaintances.

14. Did you cry at your high school graduation?
God no, I just wanted to be gone.

15. Do you prefer the tanning bed or the sun?
Neither. I am reflectively pale and I prefer it that way.

16. What are two of your favorite places to eat?
Ukai (a sushi/Japanese Steakhouse) and Mediterran (a small place with a random mix of middle European dishes)

17. What could you tolerate...someone who snores or a sleep walker?
Snoring bugs the hell out of me so I would much prefer a sleep walker.

18. Do you consider yourself bi-polar?
Nope, just occasionally cranky.

19. What's something your friends make fun of you for?
My nickname. Because apparently I was too dumb to realize that it could also be interpreted as Vampire's Ass.

20. What's your worst personality flaw?
The fact that I let minor setbacks really throw me off. And that sometimes that stops me from getting where I want to be in life.

22. Would you ever parachute off of a plane?
Absolutely, with the right training.

23. Have you ever ridden an elephant?
Nope, but I think it would be awesome.

24. Are you Irish in any way?
Not that I'm aware of.

25. Have you ever ridden in a U-Haul?
Can't say that I have.

26. Do you like to play Scrabble?
Yes. My grandma and I used to play all of the time.

27. Have you ever been to a nude beach?
Not one that was SUPPOSED to be nude. ;)

28. Have you ever drank Jack Daniels?
Yes, although I'm not a fan.

29. Have you ever had sex on the beach?
Yes.

30. What are you saving your money up for right now?
(sighs) what money?

31. What was the last giftcard you received?
Target, in my Easter basket. I love my aunt and cousins.

32. Who do you like right now?
Anyone who will give me a job.

33. Does the number of people a person's slept with affect your opinion of him or her?
Not particularly, although their reasons might.

34. Have you ever gone to a party where you were the only straight person?
No, but I'm not straight...

35. What do you do when you spot a bug in your house?
Usually just ignore it. Or send it outside.

36. What is your favorite Disney movie?
As humiliating as this is, I have to say "Beauty and the Beast"

37. Where were you 1 hour ago?
On the couch drooling over Jonathan Rhys Meyer in "The Tudors".

38. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
Either my parents or Anthony.

39.What was the last thing that really made you smile ?
Probably the most recent idiotic thing the cat was doing.

Menu Reviews

2007-04-12T13:41:00.000-05:00

I haven't done any menu reviews lately, but I thought I would try it out again. I've been planning out menus for about two weeks so we don't have to shop every week. I've been trying to eat healthy as much as possible. I refuse to have baked chicken and brown rice every day for dinner though, so I am eating really healthy breakfasts and lunches and being a little more relaxed about dinner. I still aim for dinners to be under 500 calories, but most of them are more like 300-400. I don't feel deprived at all, and I get to enjoy lots of interesting dinners. As always, if you want a recipe, be sure to leave a comment and I'll get it to you.

Sesame Pork Strips - The pork strips were FANTASTIC. Small strips of pork with a crunchy sesame coating. Cook for a little less time in the future. I served it with honey mustard dipping sauce. It wasn't a quick recipe, but it wasn't terribly time consuming. Definitely make again. We had an impromptu dinner guest, Anthony's friend Trevor, and he really liked them also.
Malaysian Cucumber Salad – I decided not to go with that recipe because it needed time to marinate. I substituted vinegar and sour cream cucumbers. Simple, but it went really well with the pork.

Black Bean, Spinach and Mushroom Burritos – Lots of veggies with a little bit of Monterey Jack cheese and sour cream. Delicious and very healthy. I forgot the enchilada sauce, and I really enjoyed it without. Anthony had seconds and tried it with the sauce, he preferred it that way. But it can easily be made either way. Make again!

Creamy Pesto Fish – Very simple and delicious. Fish baked with a pesto sauce and grape tomatoes. Definitely make again. I don't remember if we served it with rice or quinoa or a salad.

Roast Chicken – I didn't really have a recipe for this I just took a chicken and stuffed it with fresh rosemary and onion. Very delicious.
Squash and Mixed Greens - Basic frozen squash with a little butter and salt and pepper. We had mixed greens with dressing. Both went very well with the roast chicken.

Beef and Broccoli – Delicious. Moderately time consuming, but worth doing. Served on top of brown rice.

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup – I had originally planned on making the soup with wild rice but realized I was out. I changed it to Chicken and Barley Soup. I used the leftover roasted chicken carcass and added frozen mixed vegetables and some fresh ones. Very healthy and delicious.

Bean and Bacon Soup (Computer) – Delicious but really unusual. I was out of canned tomato but it was good without. I will try it with tomato the next time I make it. It's a slightly sweet and spicy soup. I need to reduce the chili powder a small amount and increase amount of bacon though and it will be perfect.

Feta Chicken– Anthony invented this recipe and it was amazing. He sautéed chicken with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, Chinese 5 Spice Powder, cinnamon and basil. Once the chicken was cooked, he deglazed the pan with water. He cooked spaghetti with fresh rosemary. Drained the noodles and added feta and sliced black olives, tossed it, and served it with chicken on top. He sprinkled it with olives and feta and drizzled it with the remaining sauce.

Split Pea Soup with Ham - We had leftover ham and ham bones from Easter. I made a ham stock one day, and then the next day I added the split peas to the boiling ham stock. I let it cook for a few hours. I think next time I'll cook it a little more slowly, because it cooked down more than I'd like. I added carrots near the end, and then the ham. I had plenty to freeze.

Struggling

2007-04-07T09:49:00.000-05:00

I won't go into every last detail about why this has been a horrible week for me. Suffice it to say a chronically sick cat, lack of a job and other factors conspired to cause a minor meltdown. Every so often I have a day where I feel like I can't go on. That every last small thing is adding up to create something more than I can handle. It doesn't happen very often, and I always get through it, but sometimes the day is just too much.

In a lot of ways I feel like everything we dealt with this summer used up the reserves I have. The extra strength to push myself through it and say "I can deal with this." Three months of having to do that EVERY SINGLE DAY wore me out. I'm tired. Deep down in my soul tired. Tired of having to spend every day struggling to make it to the next. Tired of feeling like it was never going to get better. And resentful. Resentful that I was forced to deal with it. It wasn't fair. And that makes me angry. I can handle it when I was the one who screwed up. If I can take responsibility for something, I can move on. If I caused it, I can fix it. But when it feels like the universe is out to get me, there's nothing I can do. I struggle and struggle and get nowhere. I hate feeling useless and ineffectual. Feeling like that for months wears you down

This week was a very similar feeling. Mercury is sick, and there is nothing we can do. The vet has no idea what's wrong, we've tried everything we can, and it isn't working. I've cried so many times looking at her and wishing so desperately that she could just talk. That she could tell me what was wrong so I could fix it. I would do almost anything to get her well, but I don't know how. I'm struggling and struggling to find a job and getting nowhere. My parents have been helping me out but they can't do that forever. I understand that, but at the same time it's very frustrating. I don't want to have to rely on Anthony. I don't want to put that strain on our relationship. I want to be able to take care of myself damn it. But there are no jobs. And I don't know what to do.

I'll keep struggling on, and today it's easier than it was a few days ago. But sometimes I wonder, how long can I keep doing this? How long can I go before I just can't do it anymore? Will there be a point where I just give up?

March

2007-03-29T13:23:00.000-05:00

As per usual, things have been a bit crazy around here. Captain Jack was sick for a while, so I had to make a few trips to the vet for him. And then Mercury decided she needed to do the same. So I made 3 trips to the vet with her. They both seem to be doing better, but it took a lot of time, energy and of course money to get them both back to normal.

We got more work done a few weekends ago. Anthony ran ground wires for all of the outlets in the living room. We had replaced the two prong outlets to three prong, but there was no ground to them. It was a big concern to get that room done as soon as possible since we have 3 lamps, what I like to refer to as the entertainment system of doom (big tv, dvd player, etc...), and a 55 gallon aquarium. I washed windows and cleaned and such while he did that. We also swept the basement out, we re-did some of the plumbing for the sump pump. Whoever put it in did a very bad job. The pipe to take the water out of the basement ended 3 feet from the foundation and pooled in a low spot on the lawn. The water basically rand right back into the basement almost as fast as the sump pump was trying to get it back out. We cut off the pipe and replaced it so it bends immediately as soon as it is outside of the foundation, and then runs parallel to the house for 20 feet and empties at the front of the porch. The porch doesn't have a full foundation, so it's now 10 feet from where the basement wall is, and comes out at the top of a small incline so it can run downhill AWAY from the house. The sump pump is already running much less often and the ground where it came out originally is drying out. The pipe is a little ugly right now, but in better weather we'll paint it to match the foundation, and landscape around it.

We also got started on the Master Bedroom renovations. They are going really well, but slowly. Between the sick critters, Anthony getting sick this week, and about a billion other things coming up, we're not as far along as we'd like. But, I'm so unbelievably happy to have started it. The drywall is all up, which was an interesting process. I'd never done it before, and Anthony had never done ceilings, so we were learning as we went. But the room already looks so much better. Which is pretty pathetic actually, that sheets of drywall and a bunch of screws looks good. But anything is better than the murder room. (So named because of the crummy bright red paint job that looks like someone was slaughtered and then their blood was used to paint the walls). We wouldn't have been surprised to find a body stashed in the closet.

Anthony starting the mudding. It's something I want to learn how to do. Although I think he'll probably do most of it, and I'll do most of the painting. We're also probably going to re-finish the bedroom floors. They're pretty scuffed up. But they're a decent oak, so they're worth putting a little time and money into. I have a new duvet cover, and we picked paint to match. And I am getting really antsy to be able to actually start the decorating process.

Edesigns

2007-03-29T12:31:00.000-05:00

For those of you who know me in real life, you probably know that Erin is in the process of starting her own business, EdesignsFashion. But for those of you who've never actually met me, I'll bring you up to speed. She's a fabulous clothing designer and I'm really excited that she's putting together a website with the clothes she's selling. She doing Edesigns, a collection of women's ready to wear clothes, babE, clothing for little ones, and Edesigns Bridal, which is custom made bridal gowns. She's made several wedding dresses, including her own! And she just got a commission for another.

She's always been fabulously creative and her clothing and accessories are awesome and they're all incredibly good prices, so be sure to check her site out!

Here's one of her creations, her Bodice Ripper Button Down. She's still photographing her designs and putting them onto the website, so there's a lot more to come.

Late February

2007-03-29T12:21:00.000-05:00

In between moving into the house and unpacking boxes we've done a few more things. We're replacing switchplates, outlets, and outlet covers as we go. We also added a turn knob to the dining room light fixture, since all it had was the turn post before. We replaced the old mail slot, because it was letting in HUGE drafts of air, and added door sweeps (the metal and rubber pieces that keep drafts out) to all of the exterior doors. It has also helped a ton in getting rid of the last few drafts the house had. I am amazed but with those few small changes (and hunting down the last couple of windows that didn't have the storm windows tightly fitted into the track) we have a toasty warm house. It's amazing how much the storm windows do. Most of the windows appear to be the ORIGINAL wavy glass, but with the storm windows in place there are no drafts! It's only cold if you put your hand right on the glass.

We also put in the curved shower curtain rod (so worth the 40 dollars we got it for). We also convinced one of Anthony's old co-workers to sell us a rainfall shower head (one of the large diameter type) for 10 dollars! Major score there. So we have a nice comfy shower, even if the rest of the bathroom looks like electric blue butt.

The weather was decent enough to work outside for an hour or so. We removed the awnings on the house and it looks SO much better. They were hideously ugly. And while I understand that they were probably put up to block the tons of light that comes in the south and west windows...I would much rather use curtains to soften/block the light. They're more attractive and much more adjustable. The only good thing about the awnings is that they're aluminum, so we can take them to a scrap metal place and get money for them! Woot!

We also ripped down the wild grape vines that are attacking the side of the garage. They're doing some damage to it, so we wanted to get them down as soon as possible. We left them on the fence, they'll be very pretty there, without doing damage. We also took down the weird ugly metal medicine cabinet box in the bathroom. The wall looks crummy underneath, but it's still an improvement. I also got the rest of the kitchen cabinets cleaned out and some more kitchen things unpacked. We're not unpacking everything until the kitchen is done. But we realized that we'd never be doing anything but dishes unless we had more than 4 plates and 4 forks and 4 spoons. We also took down the hideously ugly cover for the doorbell chimes. It looked like something straight out of 1974, and we aren't crazy about any of them out there, so we took off the cheesy metal "decorative" scroll on it, and spray painted the yellowed plastic. It's black now, and while it doesn't look great, it's tolerable. My dad is going to make a nice 4 sided wooden cube to hang on the wall to cover it eventually. But in the meantime, it's gone from hideous to unnoticeable.

Cleaning House

2007-03-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

Basically the minute we had keys to the house, we started working on it.

We did a ton of cleaning. Sweeping the floors, dusting, and scrubbing the kitchen and bathroom. The fridge was pretty gross, there was mold in the freezer and spills in the fridge. But we sprayed it all down with some pretty heavy duty cleaner, and it looks like a brand new fridge. It is in perfect condition, and is a nice model. We also scrubbed down the stove. It's a gas stove and I am so happy to have it. It also looks about a million times better after a good scrubbing. I used oven cleaner for the first time, and I was really amazed at how well it worked. I never felt the motivation to scrub out an oven in a rental house/apartment, but it's amazing how much more motivated I am now that it's all OURS. The dishwasher looks almost brand new, and didn't really need much done to it except for a quick cycle run through it and the outside wiped down. The vented microwave is 14 years old however. It does work. But it's very small and sort of ugly. If we find a fabulously good deal on one, we may replace it, but in the meantime it works well and we got it cleaned up nicely.

The garbage disposal wasn't working, but Anthony took it apart and it works fabulously now. We hadn't planned on replacing the kitchen sink faucet yet, but it was dripping and leaking, so we went to Menards (where Anthony used to work) and talked someone into selling us an almost 300 dollar Delta faucet that is no longer in stock for 50 dollars. It's really really nice. He also had to replace the pipe to the dishwasher since the people who installed it before did a terrible job and did it all wrong. Something made him curious about how it was installed so he took it out, and discovered what could have led to a serious serious leak if we had bumped into it hard. But it's all fixed now and installed properly, so we shouldn't have to worry about it in the future. We also got and installed a dining room fixture (there is no lighting at ALL in the living room and dining room, so we decided to get one earlier than originally planned). We also got and installed a digital thermometer. Oh, and we got a remote for the garage door opener. Which came in handy this weekend since it was so cold.

One of the first things we did was to rip down the shower doors, which were disgusting and ugly.
We also got a price for a new shower surround (around 50 dollars for a nice quality but basic model), and decided that we will replace it instead of attempting to scrape out all of the nasty old caulk. The tub is in MUCH better condition than I thought it would be. We poured a bottle and a half of CLR in it, and it worked wonders. The bathtub had a nasty black film on it, and it looked like it had been scraped and the enamel was worn away. But we were wrong. No major scratches, and it's gleaming white. The toilet was also very very stained with mineral buildup, but we used more CLR and it's perfect looking too. We also replaced the toilet seat because it was disgusting. And for 5 dollars, a brand new toilet seat is COMPLETLEY worth it. We're going to get a curved shower curtain rod to give us more space, and we already have an extra long shower curtain, so I think we'll hang it higher than normal, since Anthony is rather tall.

The House

2007-02-21T17:46:00.000-05:00

Since I told you about the process of finding a house, I figured I should probably show you what the actual house looks like. There's already a narrative on my Flickr page as you go through the pictures, so I'll leave it at that. But in short, it's a beautiful old house built in 1922, that people were dumb enough to put up horrible horrible wallpaper in, and paint atrocious colors, but were smart enough to leave the trim unpainted and the floors in good shape. Well, the floors upstairs could use some work, but overall, it's very very nice. It's also in serious need of some updating. The horrible horrible wallpaper needs to come down, and the atrocious paint colors are going to get fixed. We'll be updating outlets and light fixtures, and generally making the house as lovely as we possibly can. The budget is somewhat limited of course, but between Anthony and my skills with tools, Anthony's mad negotiating talents, our ability to bargain shop, and our very good taste, I think we should be able to do quite a lot. We're planning on keeping with the general feel of a house from the 1920's, although of course with updated technology and such.

It won't get done all at once of course, but the idea is to get as much done as we possibly can in the next few months, and have an open house at the end of spring/beginning of summer.

House Hunting

2007-02-21T17:24:00.000-05:00

Due in part to the horrible horrible roommate, we decided to look for a house. We thought about getting an apartment, or renting a house, but we would have ended up spending just as much money renting, if not more, than we could spend buying a house. And when I say we, I mean Anthony. In the interest of not complicating our relationship any more than is humanly possible, we decided to keep everything in his name. He has the mortgage on the house, I pay rent. We split utilities. If one of us dies or we break up, there won't be a huge legal issue. Obviously I'd have to find a new place to live, but that's nothing compared to trying to sort out the legal mess of joint ownership on a house when we're not married. When we do get married, it will be a different story, but until then, simple is best.

I have to take a moment to get all mushy and romantic about it, though. When we were talking about it with my parents, Anthony said "It's my house, but it's our home." Take a moment to say "awww" or gag, whichever suits you. The plan is definitely to get married within a few years though, so everything is being done with the idea that it is our place. So I get to put in lots and lots of input on it.

We spent the very end of November and the beginning of December driving around shopping for a house. We had a pretty specific idea of what we wanted. Two stories, requiring some fixing up, and old with lots and lots of character. Also, a full basement, an actual garage, and wood floors. We found a long list of possibilities just by driving around, and then perused the internet. A friend of ours had a real estate agent he was very happy with, so we went with her. She was helpful, although we did a good portion of the real work ourselves. We actually found the house we decided on, but she did help by setting up the appointments to see it, and dealing with the paperwork.

The home buying process made me realize just how old we really are. There was a night, when we were sitting in the living room on our laptops and Anthony was making up a budget for the house and I was researching Capital Gains Taxes and we were both very happy. Yeah. Like I said...old.

We toured about 6 or 8 houses with the real estate agent, before we found the listing for one we thought was a possibility. We went out again with her, and it was the first house we went to that evening. We were both really impressed, and felt very comfortable in it, but figured we should give the rest of the houses on the list a chance. So we toured more. And went out another day right before Christmas to tour a few more, and see this one again. We definitely decided this house was our favorite, and Anthony put in an offer in on it the week after Christmas. Thanks to the buyer friendly market, the fact that the house is a foreclosure and Anthony's excellent credit score, he had no problem getting the house for less than what they were asking. Closing was at the end of January and by the first week of February, we moved in!

Fall

2007-01-31T14:52:00.000-05:00

The fall mostly consisted of trying to settle into the new place, get ready for Erin's wedding, and dealing with a roommate.

I was Erin's maid of honor, so I planned her bachelorette party. We met at Erin's mom's house, and made Mardi Gras type masks. Lots of feathers and rhinestones and general wackiness. They turned out really cute and we had a lot of fun making them. Plus, it was something a little more us than penis veils. After the masks were done, we went out to dinner, and then to Windsor to go out drinking and clubbing, and crashed in a hotel there after. It was fun, although I think it made all of us feel like we're getting a bit old.

Erin and Kyle's wedding was wonderful. I finished the dress I was making for it, and it was very cute. Plus, it's something I'll want to wear again. Her dress was gorgeous and everything turned out beautifully. She got all of the bride minions incredible shawls, a different color for each of us. Mine was red with a gold scroll pattern, and it was perfect. She also got me a really pretty antique looking silver compact with a mirror on one side, and a picture of the two of us on the other. It was incredibly sweet. I had a horrible time writing the speech for the reception, although it finally came together really well. In order to keep from crying during it, I ended up shaking through the whole thing, but apparently I appeared more composed that I was.

We liked our new rooms and loved the furniture we bought to replace what was lost in the fire. However, the roommate situation has been a nightmare. I think we have both come very close to murdering him on a daily basis. I'll try to keep this from turning into a rant, but suffice it to say he's a thoughtless, drug dealing jackass. Oh, and he's incapable of turning off his freaking alarm clock, or waking up to it. So if he's gone and leaves it on, we have to go in his room to turn off his THREE alarms. And if he's here, we have to pound on the door/go in and shake him to get him to wake up. Yeah, not an ideal situation.

The rest of the fall has been taking some time to relax and enjoy each other. And finally being able to hang out with friends again. There were a lot of people we didn't get to see over the summer. And so we've been doing a bit more of that. Which has been very enjoyable. Anthony has been gone about 5-7 days or so out of every month. I miss him while he's gone, but it's great money, and it isn't all bad having time to myself every so often.

Early Fall

2007-01-31T14:22:00.000-05:00

One incredibly wonderful thing that happened was that Anthony got a new job. He'd been trying to find one in his field for a year and a half, so it was about time. One of my fabulous former neighbors, Kracker, called Anthony up one day and said "hey, are you still looking for a job?" And he went in for an interview, and a few weeks later had a great job. He works for a company that designs and manages software for casinos. It's a completely random job, but they pay well and he's really been enjoying working there. The sort of threw him into the job and turned him loose. A week after he started work, they sent him out on a trip.

And that was the week we moved. The lease on the temporary apartment was up in mid August so we found a new place. We knew it wouldn't be a place we'd stay forever, but we hoped it would work for a while. It's an old house that we're sharing with someone Anthony worked with at his old job. We have two rooms, and the dining room and kitchen to ourselves. The two rooms were painted hideous colors, and I really wish I had taken pictures of them before we got rid of them. The room we're using for a bedroom had peach walls, sky blue trim and doors, an unpainted plaster ceiling and there was blue carpet on the floor. We ripped up the carpet to find nice dark stained wood floors, painted the walls a coffee with milk color, and the doors, trim and ceiling white. It is 100 percent better now. The room we're using for an office was a sickly purple-grey color, with hunter green trim and doors, and blue carpet. We ripped up the carpet to find the dark wood floors again, and painted the walls a dark grey with white trim, doors and ceiling.

We moved everything in, and Anthony left for his work trip the next morning. I was left with a new roommate and a living room full of boxes. I got about a third to half of the way through them by the time he got home. I came close to wanting to kill him during the process though.

June, July and Early August

2007-01-29T12:13:00.000-05:00

After the chaos of the fire and attempting to deal with all of the insurance bullshit things did NOT settle down like we'd hoped. Shortly after the fire, we found a temporary apartment to live in, and got new aquariums. For your information, it is possible to fit a 55 gallon aquarium tank, stand and hood, and 29 gallon tank and stand in a Civic at the same time. It was sort of like playing Jenga in a car, but we made it work. The fish got set up and we more or less got settled into the apartment. Temporary rental furniture wasn't exactly wonderful, but it worked.

One good thing that happened was Erin's bridal shower. We had a great time and it was a nice break from everything else. After that, Katie and I disassembled our apartment and started packing. Our lease was up at the end of July, so we had a ton to do. In the midst of the packing and move to Anthony's temporary place, his motorcycle was stolen. Right out from in front of his apartment complex. In order to save a bit of money and because he wasn't really riding it often, he only had PLPD insurance on it, not full coverage. So of course the insurance wouldn't replace it. (sighs)

I also was incredibly frustrated when in the last few days before my lease was up, I got an infection in a cut I didn't realize I had. It made painting the apartment back to white and lifting heavy boxes a really big pain. By friday it had gotten so bad that I decided I should see a doctor on monday. But saturday night I was in excruciating pain to the point of tears, and went to the ER. I had to wait forever of course, thanks to an onslaught of people coming in with heat stroke/dehydration. But I finally got seen, given Morphine, and I napped on and off for a few hours while I waited for a surgeon.

I've decided I am completely unimpressed by Morphine. The drug, not the band. I am in love with the band. The drug made my shoulders tense and I felt like a slug. I had no ambition to move or do anything. It did take the edge off of the pain though, so that was a huge help. I got seen by the surgeon, they cleaned up the infected area and sent me off with a prescription for antibiotics. I spent the next few days recovering, and was starting to feel great, when I woke up one morning covered head to toe with a rash. I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics, but luckily it wasn't a serious reaction, just annoying. I now know I shouldn't take amoxicillin.

The rash cleared up in a week, and things were starting to look up. We were trying to figure out a place to move once our 3 month lease was up. My parents went on vacation for a few weeks and I had my mom's car while they were gone. I went home a few times to check on the plants, get the mail and make sure the horses were ok. On the way home one evening, I stopped to find a birthday gift for Erin. I turned left at a light, and got hit by a car. A woman ran a red light and slammed into the rear passenger door of the car. I was alright except for a burn on my arm from the air bag, and some really sore shoulders. The car was totaled though. Anthony came and picked me up, and the car was towed away. I came home, and got in a hot bath with tea and chocolate and stayed there for a few hours. I wasn't at fault, and there was a witness to prove it, but I felt horrible that I totaled my mom's car.

It was officially the summer from hell.

Seven Months

2007-01-29T12:10:00.000-05:00

Yep, it's been over seven months since I've done anything with this. In my defense, I have a perfectly valid excuse. Or many of them. I'll catch up on everything in a series of posts to keep it simple.

Hell

2006-06-12T14:52:00.000-05:00

We spent a hellish few days pricing the items Anthony owned. After the day of sorting, we each spent another 6 hours or so typing up the items into an excel spreadsheet. Every single item, down to the nuts and bolts and extention cords. In order for Anthony to get the 40,000 dollars the insurance company owes him we had to make this list and price every single one of those items. We went to at least a dozen stores and spent three full days writing down prices, and at least two of those days were 10 hours each day. At the end of each day we collapsed into bed and slept really deeply, but I don't think either of us got more than 6 hours of sleep a night for at least a week and a half after the fire. Anthony missed an entire week of work, but the insurance should pay him for his time out of his displacement costs.

The grand total of the pricing of every item came to 68,000 dollars. Obviously, substantially more than his 40,000 dollar insurance policy. Granted, some of that doesn't include the items that we salvaged, but he may also have to sue the landlord for the difference that still remains. That probably won't happen until he gets done with dealing with the insurance. Aside from the several thousands of dollars they've given him to replace the basics and live on temporarily, it'll take at least another 2 weeks to a month to get the final check from them. It's going to be one hell of a summer for us.

Sorting

2006-06-12T14:26:00.000-05:00

One of the most stressful days was when we sorted through the entire apartment. It took six hours for a crew of about 8 or 10 people to get through everything. Anthony and I each took a room and half of the crew. We had notepads and pens and wrote down every single item. There was a gigantic dumpster parked under the living room window and everything being tossed went out that way. A few things got packed up in boxes. Most of the dishes and glasses and silverware were salvageable. I had a bit of a fight at first to get them to carefully pack the cookware set. We have a very nice stainless steel Cuisinart set, and two Calphalon One pans with lids. They are way too expensive to be treated like shit. They were going to just put them in a box loose, without any wrapping. I had to strenuously object and tell them that they HAD to put paper between each item, and wrap it carefully. I had a similar fight when it came to the Beaujolais glasses. The appliances sitting out had to get trashed, gallons of water tend to create problems for electronics. The immersion blender, and panini maker actually survived, since they weren't drenched with water. I was in charge of sorting through the kitchen and bathroom. Nothing from the bathroom survived, except for the very nice shower curtain hooks. Anthony had the living room, which was completely trashed, and the bedroom, which had a few salvageable items. Amazingly enough the desktop computer he built himself survived and so did the monitor and the LCD tv and dvd recorder. There was one piece of luck in our favor, because we got them all when they were on sale for ridiculously great prices, and would be very hard to come across again.

It's incredibly depressing to see all of the things you hand picked so carefully be tossed away. We spent so much time making that apartment ours, even though I hadn't moved in yet. We shopped carefully for great deals and things we really loved. I'll admit there were a few things I wanted to replace, but not this way.

A few days after the sorting, the cleaning company and insurance tried to pull some bullshit about charging for the cleaning out of the apartment. Despite the fact that Anthony hadn't been told that he would have to pay, he was given the impression that it was a service the insurance offered. He knew he would have to pay for the salvageable items that the company cleaned, but never that he would have to pay for the crew, their labor and a dumpster. They claimed they were going to charge him 6,000 dollars. That money would come out of his 40,000 dollar item replacement fund. After some negotiation, they backed down to charging him 1,000, and he may go after his landlord for it, since it is technically his responsibility to clean out the apartment because the fire was his fault.

Instead of paying them to clean the few salvageable things, we took them back to Anthony's new place and did a quick rinse in the sink and then sterilized them in the dishwasher. It's comforting to have the same plates to eat off of, and the pots and pans we love.

Second Fire

2006-06-08T15:05:00.000-05:00

Tuesday morning after we wandered around the apartment trying to comprehend the damage, we went and check on the fish. Despite the tank full of ash in the bedroom, they were all alive, in both the 29 gallon tank and the 55. We made a quick run to the store for large buckets and aerators and spent several hours making sure every last fish was in the buckets. We even managed to get four of the little tiny baby fish that had been born several months before. We took them to my place and they stayed in buckets on the dining room floor for about four days. I also managed to grab a few of my clothes from the closet that didn't smell like smoke, a few sentimental items and a couple other random things, like the box set of Firefly DVDs that had been in the duffle bag in the bedroom. One of the items of clothing was a gorgeous dress my mom bought me last summer. I wore it to a wedding Anthony was in, and it was (originally) a 250 dollar dress. She didn't pay that much for it, of course, it was on sale, but I would have been devastated if it had been destroyed. We also rescued the irreplaceable antique diamond ring my parents bought me and the necklace Anthony bought me for our first Valentine's Day together. Plus, my medication. All very important things to save.

On wednesday Anthony tried to go to work. Partway through the day he got a call from the field agent from his insurance. He went to the apartment and discussed what was salvageable and what wasn't with her. The bedroom was in fairly good shape, the ceiling was still intact and there hadn't been too much water sprayed around. Shortly after she left, while he was sorting through a few things in the room, he smelled smoke. He could see it coming down from the ceiling above the closet, got out, and called the fire department again. They arrived very quickly, but the closet ceiling collapsed and almost everything in the closet was completely soaked. The bedroom got an additional soaking, and what had been completely salvageable, was now damaged.

Living Room

2006-06-07T11:27:00.001-05:00

Table and chairs.

Missing ceiling.

Chair and insulation on top of the table.

The firefighters tried to cover the tv in a tarp, unfortunately, it didn't save it.

The couch turned on end.

Kitchen

2006-06-07T11:15:00.000-05:00

The microwave that used to be on the wall.

Pots and pans still on the wall and the hole in the ceiling.

Appliances covered in water and insulation.

Kitchen shelves and the hole in the ceiling again.

The final shot of the missing roof and ceiling.

Bathroom

2006-06-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

The bathroom ceiling.

A closeup of the aquarium and yes, the fish are alive in there.

The aquarium in the bathroom.

The bathroom sink and the cabinet.

The top of the bathroom cabinet.

Aftermath

2006-06-06T10:26:00.000-05:00

The morning after the fire we woke up at 8:45 to the sounds of torrential rains. Anything that hadn't been messed because of the fire and the water from the firefighters, was now getting poured on. I think both of us were tempted to just crawl under the covers and never get out of bed. But, there were fish that needed our help, so we got up and got ready. It stopped raining as we left and we got to the apartment just as the landlord was about to open it up for us. Anthony had seen it the night before, but I hadn't and I was absolutely amazed at the damage. My first thought was that it looked like a cross between the hurricaine Katrina disaster and Pompeii.

The actual fire was pretty much contained to the crawl space between the ceilings and the roof. In huge sections there was no ceiling anymore and giant holes in the roof. The beams were blackened and in the bathroom, kitchen and living room there were huge chunks of ceiling on the floor and everything was coated with soggy insulation. I'll do a few separate posts with the pictures from each room.

Fire

2006-06-06T09:44:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to write this post for a week. I haven't really had the time or even known exactly what to say. The short version of this story is that last monday Anthony's apartment burned down. The long version begins here...

Last monday was incredibly hot. When Anthony got home from work the apartment was really warm, despite the window air conditioner he had put in the living room the day before. Plus, it was interfering with the tv reception. He switched it to a different outlet and was talking about putting in a second air conditioner in the bedroom. We sat on the couch for a while relaxing, and all of a sudden about 20 minutes later, the power went out. It wasn't any huge surprise. For the year he's lived there, we've had issues with the power. Anytime anyone ran more than one appliance at a time, the circuit breaker tripped. Plus, the breaker included his apartment, and the guy's next door. If Guido used the microwave, while we used something, the power went out. He complained a million times, and all the landlord did was get a bigger breaker...which didn't solve much of anything. What really needed to be done was to re-wire the entire building.

He ran downstairs to flip the breaker, and it failed again. He went down again and this time, half of the power went back on, but not all of it. There was no power in the bathroom, kitchen or half of the living room, but it was fine in the other half of the living room and the bedroom. Since we couldn't figure out what was going on, he called the landlord. The landlord eventually came over, and didn't know what was wrong either, but promised to call an electrician in the morning. We ran an extention cord to the fridge, so we wouldn't have all of our food spoil, and hung out in the bedroom with the fan on and tried to stay cool. He decided to put the other air conditioner in the bedroom window so we would be able to sleep that night. He was halfway done when we both noticed that we smelled smoke, I asked him about it and he said "oh, it's probably someone in the park using a grill". At the time, it was a perfectly plausible explanation, his place is right across the street from a park, and it was Memorial Day. Lots of people all over the city were grilling. A few minutes later I went to the kitchen to shut the window because he was almost done with the air conditioner. I noticed that I could smell smoke too, and thought it was odd that it had blown all the way around the building, but again, didn't think too much about it.

Within a few minutes, the downstairs neighbor was pounding on the door and yelling "get out of the building, it's on fire." I don't think I've ever moved so fast in my life. I grabbed a robe and threw it on, and we shoved the rabbits in their travel cage. On the way out, I grabbed my purse and phone and Anthony got his wallet and keys and phone. We ran down the stairs and outside. There were already at least five or six fire trucks there. The next few hours were a very surreal experience. We sat in the parking lot across the street and watched the fire. Everyone who lived there got out without any injury and got their pets out too. One of the girls wasn't home, but the firefighters got her dogs out. I ran out of the house wearing only a bra, underwear and a robe. I did manage to grab my pajama pants and a tshirt on the way out, so with the help of a neighbor, I changed in the parking lot. I wasn't able to grab any shoes, so I walked around barefoot. It was hard to tell where exactly the fire was coming from, but it was definitely near Anthony's apartment, and since he was on the top floor, shooting out the roof. The firefighters went up on the roof and cut holes in it and broke windows out to try to let the smoke out and get access to the actual fire. They got to the apartment around 8:30 at night, and didn't leave until around 12:30 or 1 am. We had no way of telling how bad it was, or if Anthony had lost everything.

We talked to the fire marshall and told him what happened, but for the most part, all we could do was wait. By the time they left that night, they had told us that it had probably started due to faulty wiring, and it appeared to start over the bathroom. Once the fire was out, and things had settled down some Anthony asked the firefighters to check on his fish. He has two big aquariums, one is a 55 gallon, the other is a 29 gallon. They are very nice fish and he's incredibly attached to them, so it would have been heartbreaking if they had died. Amazingly enough, they were still swimming around in their tanks. Once most of the firetrucks had left, we were able to run to the store to try to find portable battery powered aerators for the tanks. Of course, they didn't have any, so we just grabbed some extra batteries and went back. He still had to talk to the fire marshall so I took his car and brought the rabbits back to my place. They were incredibly stressed out because of the chaos and noise around them. Driving a stick shift with bare feet was an interesting experience. At my place, I got the rabbits situated with fresh food and water, grabbed some shoes and went to the bathroom. I laughed when I finally slowed down long enough to glance in a mirror. My lipstick was still on and looked great. The claims that Lipfinity lipstick is longwearing isn't an exaggeration. It really does stay on through EVERYTHING.

I drove back to Lansing to pick Anthony up. He had finished with the fish and the fire marshall. He had an aerator that survived, and he managed to get it running for the 55 gallon tank. The smaller tank just had to fend for itself. We were both pretty much in shock as we headed back to my place. Anthony was sick to his stomach, but realized that it was at least partly due to the fact that he hadn't really eaten that night. We stopped at the Beaners coffee shop that's open 24 hours. It was the place where we had our first date, so it was a comforting place to be. He had a bite to eat and I had some chai. We headed back to my apartment and crawled into bed around 3 am still in shock.

An Interesting Day

2006-05-16T14:36:00.000-05:00

Anthony and I had a very interesting day yesterday. We managed to buy a new phone and a new car in the same day. Granted, I bought the phone and he bought the car, but still.

My Verizon contract was up , so I switched to Alltel and he added me to his account. It's much cheaper and I don't have to worry about using up minutes when we talk. For any of you who know Anthony, you know he talks a lot. :) We'd been planning that for a while, so it wasn't any great surprise. I was annoyed though, I had planned to transfer my old number, but apparently Alltel isn't allowed to sell in the Detroit area. Some bizarre FCC regulation apparently, where they're limited on the places they can offer service. Apparently if they don't have a store in that area code, they also can't transfer a number from there. (sighs) So, I have a new cell phone and a new number. If you know me, and didn't get my email about it, let me know, I'll make sure to get the number to you. The phone wasn't exactly what I would want, but it will work. It's a flip phone, which doesn't greatly excite me. For whatever reason I never feel like they fit against my head well. Maybe it's because I have such a small head. But, this was a best of them, and it is very nice and shiny. It's black and silver and has a camera, which is kinda nice I guess. I highly doubt I'll be taking many pictures though, it has decent resolution, but it'll annoy me that it isn't a "real" camera. Plus, it was a good price, and I like Kyocera. That's what my old phone was and I never had any problems with it.

After the Alltel store we went to the Honda dealership. We had been talking for about a year about Anthony getting one. His truck is great, but it's bigger than we need, and uses a ridiculous amount of gas. It was perfect when he had to drive in the West Michigan snow to get to school and work, and he couldn't count on the roads being plowed in time. Much less practical in Lansing and even more impractical when we're in Chicago. He spent weeks restoring the Fiero so we could use that, but it has been cranky and has been requiring additional work. The original plan was to get the truck ready to sell. It was what we were going to do yesterday actually. That was until Saturday night on the way home from a wedding we went to, the Fiero decided that it needed a bit of a strange shimmy when it was driving at 70, and pulling to the right whenever he accelerated. Apparently it was due to a rather serious problem, which would have required some rather difficult welding, which would be time-consuming and/or costly. So, we went to look at Hondas. Apparently they were completely sold out of brand new ones, because everyone decided it was a good idea to get smaller cars because of the gas prices. They did have two used ones though, and one was very nice. We took it for a test drive and absolutely loved it. So, we spent 6 hours at the dealership negotiating for it. Well, I should be honest, Anthony did the negotiating. And holy hell is he good at it. They dropped their price by more than 100 dollars a month for payments, and upped what they would give him for the truck by about 4,000. All it took was him saying "you'll have to do better or I won't be buying a car" about 8 times. The poor sales guy had to run back and forth to talk to his manager, but finally, they agreed to what he asked. Which was for them to pay off the rest of his truck and make his payments about the same as what he paid on the truck. So, the truck is gone and he's only paying 5 more dollars a month. The Fiero will be sold in the next few weeks, so if you know anyone who really wants one, let me know.

The car is fabulous. It's a 2004 Honda Civic EX sedan. It's a really dark silver color, with a black and grey interior, CD player, a moon roof, has 19,000 miles on it and is in nearly perfect condition. Plus, it's a manual, which makes me incredibly happy. I get bored driving automatics. It also has incredibly good gas mileage, about 35/40 miles to the gallon, which is easily twice what the truck was getting. So, while somewhat unexpected, it was very nice that everything worked out so well. No more paying 50 dollars to fill up the gas tank. No more trying to jam our stuff into a tiny car. No more vehicles trying to break. Reliable transportation, great gas mileage, lots and lots of room in the trunk and backseat and it looks great. What more could you ask for? It is so nice to feel like everything worked out well for once. We've had a string of really crappy luck in the last six months and it finally feels like it's starting to turn around. One of the best things about the car though, is that it's almost exactly what we would pick out if we had all options available. Well, as far as a Civic.

Given an unlimited budget, I'd want either a Maybach Exelero (more pictures) or a refurbished coupe from the late 1930's or early 1940's. With all the modern conveniences, of course. The Exelero is incredibly sweet looking, what the Batmobile should look like. Or at least what Bruce Wayne would drive to the opera. There's only one in the world, and I'm entirely sure it's more car than I could handle, but it is gorgeous and fast as hell. And the coupe is a little more within reach, and would suit me quite well I think. However, in the meantime, the Civic is perfect.

Catching Up

2006-05-16T13:50:00.000-05:00

As usual, this time of year is pretty hectic. I still haven't sewn the skirt or the apron yet. But, I did get Erin to come up and help me take in my shirts. I now have 8 or 10 shirts that I need to do. The plan is to work on it this afternoon, but we'll see if that happens.

Before the shirt pinning, Erin and I registered for wedding gifts. And no, Erin didn't leave Kyle for me, I was just helping out. After Target and Bed Bath and Beyond, he was pretty burned out on registering, so I went with Erin to do Marshall-Field's. We had an amusing Mohawked guy help us out a bit and we managed to do a pretty good job getting quite a few things done. I nearly cried when she registered for a Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I want one so bad. I tried to convince her that she could register for two and give me one. But, she was afraid Kyle and I might get into a knife fight over them when they open gifts at the brunch on the sunday after the wedding, so no luck there. She tried to tell me that I could always get married and register for one myself. But that's probably dishonest if you do it just for the mixer, right? I'll probably break down and buy one once I have the money, I highly doubt I want to wait until I get married, cause that could be a good few years from now and I want a mixer NOW.

In Other News

2006-04-18T13:40:00.000-05:00

Anthony bought me a new laptop. I have a perfectly nice desktop that I love, but it is so nice to have a laptop to use when I want to hang out in the living room and chat while I watch tv or when I am at his place. He bought me one last year, for an amazing $15. It is probably almost 10 years old, and moved at about the pace of a dead snail. I try not to complain, because it was very sweet of him to buy it for me in the first place, but it has been getting more and more frustrating lately. It takes forever to start up or shut down, and the power cord was very touchy, if I jiggled it at all, it would unplug and kill the whole computer, since there is no battery in it. Most frustrating. Apparently he was either A. sick of my whining, or B. just very very sweet, but he found an amazing Dell laptop on eBay, and got it for me. A bit more than $15 but still an amazing deal. It's only a few years old, has a wonderfully fast processor and a secure power cord. No battery, but because it's so recent, if I want to spend 50-100 dollars, I can probably get one. It's exactly like using my desktop, in laptop form. It's nice and light too, even with a good size screen. I love it to pieces and never want to let it go.

While I'm gushing about how awesome my boyfriend is, I should also mention what he got me for Easter. "Firefly" on DVD. We had copies that we made from Erin and Kyle's DVDs, but we've been wanting the 'real' thing. Apparently he found it for a great price at Target, so he got it for me. Plus, a pretty green vase to replace the one he got me for Christmas this year, that I busted last week. (sighs) I have been SUCH a klutz lately. And a jump rope, and a baseball. I've been wanting to play catch, I had a baseball mitt, but he didn't so my parents bought him one for Christmas, but then we realized neither of us had baseballs. Oops. Now we are fully equipped to play catch in the park across from his place. Also, my parents bought us Scratch, which is the velcro and tennis ball version of catch. Yay for kids toys. They really are the best.

Other Projects

2006-04-18T13:39:00.000-05:00

I have a lot of other projects in the works right now. One is a skirt I was supposed to be making for Easter. I wasn't able to finish it because I decided it would be fun to slash my finger open. I figured with the way my luck has been going lately, I probably would have managed to sew right over top of my fingers. I will also be sewing an apron. I make teriffic messes when I cook, and I am tired of ending up with flour and who knows what else, all over my clothing. Another project will be taking in some of my clothing. I've been running and doing some strength training lately, so clothes are getting a bit big on me. Since clothing doesn't seem to be made for people who have a chest that is significantly larger than their waist, I need to add a few darts and take in the sides of some shirts, especially button down shirts. I think I may have Erin come help me for an afternoon sometime soon. It's so much easier to have someone else help me do the pinning.

Easter Eggs

2006-03-27T16:43:00.000-05:00

I added some very fun eggs to my Etsy website. Every spring I hollow out real eggs and paint them and add a few beads. I usually give them to my family and friends. It's kind of time consuming, but they always turn out well and everyone usually likes them a lot. This year I decided to make a bunch for Etsy. They turned out really well and I am hoping they sell well.

That part was written weeks ago. I've been trying to upload some pictures of the eggs (multiple times) and Blogger apparently don't think that's a good idea. So, if you want to look at the eggs, you'll have to take a trip to my site www.driftingvisions.etsy.com . I sold three, but they were to my dad, so I am not quite sure how much that counts. He gave them as gifts to his sisters. They all seemed impressed, so at least that's good. I'll probably be having a sale on them, kind of a 'it's after Easter, but it's still spring' sort of thing. We'll see if that works. Plus, I have my standard 10% off for anyone who knows me and buys one sale. Anyone who is interested, email me, or send me a message on Etsy, or leave on on here.

My Green Thumb Is Finally Sprouting

2006-03-09T16:16:00.000-05:00

Any of you who know my mom know that she's the Queen of Flowers. She can pretty much get ANYTHING to grow. I love flowers but I haven't really inherited that gene. I'd sort of prefer to just have plants learn to take care of themselves. I just am not the nurturing type. I forget to water plants, I never remember how much sun they need or what to do when they're done blooming. Thank goodness I don't plan to have children, I'd probably forget to feed them for days and leave them at the grocery store.

For Christmas my mom got me some narcissus bulbs, and a huge amaryllis bulb. The narcissus grew like mad and had beautiful little white blossoms. But, they don't last long and before I could snap a picture, they were done. I sent them back to my mom to be planted outside in her garden. The amaryllis steadily grew three very tall stalks and then did nothing for a week or so. And all of a sudden two of the stalks have buds that burst open and have 8 incredible huge blooms. I managed to get a few quick photos of them yesterday.

And in the week it took me to finish writing this entry, the third stalk bloomed and has 5 blossoms, bringing the grand total up to 13. That has to be some sort of record I think. Apparently it's a kinky little bugger though. I had to tied it up to a chair in order to keep it upright. The heavy blooms and tall stem in a lightweight pot made it a bit top heavy. I came home one day to find it tipped over onto the carpet. Luckily it didn't make too much of a mess or get damaged. I dragged a chair over to the window and tied the stem to it. (shakes head) flowers that are into bondage....why am I not not surprised?

I'm a bad, bad man...and it's SPRING!!

2006-03-07T19:33:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I've been terrible about updating this lately. I know, I should be taken out back and shot.

I am so happy that the weather is finally cooperating. It was warm enough to go out running today. Well, maybe I shouldn't call it running. It was more like jogging interspersed with walking. But it's a start, and it felt good to be out and moving. I didn't push too hard, so I'll try to go out again tomorrow or Thursday, weather permitting. This is Michigan, so we could get 20 inches of snow overnight. There is a really lovely wooded area north of my apartment complex to run in. There are wide flat paths through the trees so once the ground is no longer squishy with mud, it should be a great place to go. I had to stick to the paved paths that run alongside and through the center of it today. I tried going onto the grassy path and almost sunk up to my ankles in the mud. As much fun as mud can be, this was more like quicksand. I did have the overwhelming urge to tear off my shoes and socks and splash around in the little stream that runs along the woods. But, I am sure the water is still icy cold and the ducks would have given me weird looks. Once it's a bit warmer out...I may just have to do it anyway, ducks be damned.

Chicago

2006-01-12T10:07:00.000-05:00

I've been contemplating a move to Chicago for a while. There are a limited number of grad schools in the country that I can go to, and Chicago, Boston and New York have the best of them. Or at least, the ones I am most interested in. I'm sorry, but I just don't think I can live in Ohio. I've been to all three cities, on both field trips for school and actual vacations. Boston was wonderful but it didn't really click with me. New York is of course amazing, but completely overwhelming. I just can't imagine living in New York. The thought of paying that much money to live in that small of an apartment is unfathomable.

I've always loved Chicago on every trip I've ever made there. The most interesting thing is, every single person I've mentioned the move to has gotten a really big grin on their face and said "I love Chicago, it's such a great city." It's good to hear. So far the only negative comments I've heard are "it's cold as hell", "traffic is horrible" and "it's expensive". All of which I knew. I've lived in Michigan for 24 years, I can live with cold. Surprisingly, Lansing gets less days of sun than Chicago, and the average winter temperature is only about two degrees colder in Chicago. I don't plan on having a car, and Anthony will just have his Fiero, so it should be relatively inexpensive to drive, and we both plan on using the El for just about all of our transportation within the city. It won't be cheap, but paying more to live in a city with some culture and a nightlife is more than worth it.

I'll be kind of sad to leave Michigan. I was born here and always lived here. I've never moved more than 45 minutes away from where my parents' live. I have some wonderful friends. I know the area. I've found the neat shops that I adore. The Oriental Mart, Tuesday Morning, Sushi Ya, and Beaners. I know where to find the cheap groceries, the weird and fun decorating stores, the good coffee, and inexpensive amazing sushi. I know what parks are nice to take a late night walk. I know every inch of campus and the ideal gardens to photograph. I feel like I'm finally settled in here. So why do I want to leave so bad?

Sadly, Michigan is starting to feel like a dead end. The job market is awful and the economy is struggling. 85 percent of college grads leave the state after graduation. And Lansing isn't exactly a hotbed of cultural experiences. It's hard enough finding a pizza place open past 1am on a Friday or Saturday night, or a nice restaurant open at ALL for dinner on Sundays. The best theater is at the Wharton Center. But, they're Broadway touring shows, the same that could be found in any city of a decent size. I'm ready for independent shows with actors just starting out, jazz clubs on a Friday night and clubs that have a little bit more to offer than drunken frat boys.

Ask me if I made the right decision sometime next fall after I've hauled Anthony's two huge aquariums up 4 flights of stairs, walked 6 blocks in the rain to get to the El, and when I realize I have $1.50 to my name after paying the bills. I can almost guarantee I'll say, "yeah, I can't imagine living anywhere else.".

Christmas Break

2006-01-09T19:56:00.000-05:00

Since I haven't had the time to post in the past few weeks, I have a lot of catching up to do. The day of my birthday I headed home for break. Every year my parents and I go see "A Christmas Carol" at Meadowbrook around my birthday. This year we figured out that this was probably the 17th time I've seen it. This year we took my aunt, who absolutely loves the story. It was nice to see her and we went out to dinner before it. The production was fantastic, as always, and I never get tired of it.

The next morning I went to work at the meat market. I won't say much about it, other than it was as I expected. Pure unadulterated hell. Anthony ended up working there for three days. He now knows why I hate it so much. They let me leave a few hours early on Christmas Eve which was amazing. It made the rush to get to the other side of the state a little more tolerable. They also sent me home with a whole ham and two pounds of shrimp. They pretty much immediately got frozen in smaller portions so I shouldn't have to do much grocery shopping for a while. Yay! When I got home I took a shower, threw on clothes, put a few things in a bag and headed out the door. We got to Kalamazoo by 8pm, stopped at Trevor's to drop off Earl Grey Truffles that we made. I was loved and drooled on by Julian, Trevor's fantastic dog. He's a huge hairy sweetheart of a dog. I am much more of a bunny/cat type person but I would be thrilled to take Julian home. He's hilarious, sweet AND well-trained. We stopped by Scott and Kendalyn's to drop off their truffles, unfortunately they weren't there, so we headed out to Anthony's parents' house.

When we got there the whole family was still there. We had a quick dinner and opened gifts. I can truthfully say I've never been stared at by 30 or so people while I open gifts before. Kinda freaked me out. But I got a delicious Wasabi and Pear candle and a cute evening purse from Anthony's parents. Plus cards from some of his siblings, and lots and lots of cookies. Two of his nieces fought over who got to sit next to me, it was kind of cute. Most of the people left after a few hours and we stayed to talk to his parents and brother until about 1 am.

Armed with a large thermos of coffee Anthony decided to drive back to my parents' house instead of stopping in Lansing that night. I slept most of the way home. It was foggy as hell though, so it was a bit of an interesting drive for him. We got to my parents' place around 4 am and snuck in. They didn't realize we were there until the next morning when we woke them up.

Birthday Dinner Success

2006-01-09T19:44:00.000-05:00

My birthday dinner was lovely. Lots of very good friends showed up. We had Cranberry Topped Brie with French Bread, two kinds of homemade spaghetti (one vegetarian, one with meat), a fabulous walnut, pear and spinach salad with raspberry walnut dressing brought by Erin and Kyle, molasses cookies, and chocolate chip and butterscotch chip cookies from Smitty. Chris brought some fantastic sausages that we had with mustard and horseradish, and a bottle of champagne. Plus a ridiculous amount of wine and mead brought by various people. We had a fire and sat around in the living room eating, drinking and talking. Later, the boys played cards while we girls sat in Katie's bedroom horrifying the guy Katie is dating with much talk about sex toys. I also got several wonderful gifts. Erin made me a grey fleece scarf with a mermaid on it, and blue earrings. Katie got me black satin pj pants with a Chinese design, and lotion called Moonlit Path, one bottle with really thick body lotion and the other that is very shimmery. Suzette got me a chocolate candle in a tin that is decorated with vintage style pictures and naughty sayings. I also have a Christmas cd from Smitty that I have yet to listen to. Ooops. All in all, it was a wonderful dinner and I am so glad so many people could make it.

Dinner

2005-12-13T20:20:00.000-05:00

I've been terrible about posting my menus lately. We made a fantastic dinner tonight, entirely made up out of our heads.

Apricot Meatloaf: Ground beef, diced apricots and onions, and all sorts of spices. Cinnamon is amazingly good with meat. We put apricot jam on top and let it bake until it was caramelized. Mmm.

Spiced Orange Sweet Potato: We baked sweet potatoes and mashed them with milk, a teeny bit of butter, orange juice concentrate, cinnamon and a smidgeon of cayenne pepper.

A few days ago we made another amazing dinner, hooray for the discount market in Lansing that has such fantastic meats for incredibly cheap prices.

Scotch Glazed New York Strip Steaks: We seared the steaks with cinnamon, chives, salt, papper, parsley, garlic powder, and onion powder, took them out and deglazed the pan with some very nice Scotch and apple cider vinegar. They were perfectly cooked and insanely tender. We had them with really simply done peas and it was just right.

Birthday Dinner

2005-12-13T20:16:00.000-05:00

I am having a get together for my birthday. My birthday's on December 18, but I'll be celebrating it on Saturday, December 17th. If you'd like to come, show up at my apartment with a dish for dinner or a bottle of wine. Hope to see you there! If you need directions, or an idea of what to bring, email/call/leave me a comment on here/send me a carrier pigeon, whatever works for you.

Christmas

2005-12-10T11:59:00.000-05:00

And once again, I am going to hate the holidays. I am working at Marv's again this year. And I think I'm going to kill myself. The thought of spending one more break up to my elbows in bloody steaks and sticky boxes of ham makes me want to find the nearest bridge. Practically the minute exams are over, I try to cram in a birthday celebration with friends, see "A Christmas Carol" at Meadowbrook Hall for something like the 20th time in my life and then I work. I don't sleep well the week before Christmas, I don't have time to enjoy the tree, or listen to Christmas carols, or leisurely finish making handmade presents. I work. Twelve hour days in a freezing store with under-educated white trash who can't DO any better. I get out of work at 4pm on Christmas Eve, and this year, I'll run home, shower, drive almost 4 hours to Grand Junction to spend time with Anthony and his family, turn around and drive back to Hartland. Getting maybe 4 hours of sleep somewhere in there and opening presents with my parents and Anthony and then going to my grandmother's house to do the same and have dinner. After which I will sleep. But the fun isn't over yet. The 26th will be a "pretend" Christmas Eve because my mother can't bear the thought of not celebrating it with me. Then, the rest of the week until New Years Eve I will work AGAIN. Freezing my ass off while bitchy people complain because THEY ordered the wrong damn crown roast. And this year I don't even have a hilarious middle aged Italian man to get into water fights with and to feed me shrimp. (cries) I'll miss you Vince. New Years Eve I'll get out at six, run home and shower and go to Ann Arbor for Chris's shindig. I will have a drink and then most likely pass out unconscious because I am tired and bitter that I didn't get to enjoy the holidays.

I suppose the logical question is "Well, why the hell do you work then?" Because I feel like I owe it to my parents. Because it's taking me forever to get through my damn degree and they have paid for my housing and living expenses for five years. Because they don't make me work during the year to help, they just ask that I work at Christmas. Is it too much to ask? It shouldn't be, but yes, it definitely is. There are homeless people freezing in the streets, drug addicts fighting to break their addictions, people dying from every conceivable disease out there. And I complain about my job. And I don't feel guilty about it.

Merry Fucking Christmas everyone.

Terrible Person

2005-12-10T11:57:00.000-05:00

I am a terrible person. I have had absolutely no inclination to update my journal, in well, forever. Despite the fact that there are all sorts of things happening that I could be talking about.

Bad Luck Continued

2005-10-18T22:03:00.000-05:00

So things keep getting worse. I left my camera with my dad, because I noticed that half of the flash is darkened. I wasn't sure if the bulb in it burned out, or what. Apparently it's more serious than that. It has a problem with the wiring in it. Apparently something in the circuit is going screwy it and making it over-fire. So it'll cost 25 dollars for the to look at it, probably 70 to fix it, and it'll be gone for 3-4 weeks. Fan-fucking-tastic. The money isn't a huge issue, my parents will pay for it, but I can't have it gone for that long. (sighs) I love my camera, and I feel completely lost without it. Plus, it's one of the few things that makes me money, I don't want it gone! I think I'll wait until after the holidays to take it in. I can use my external flash instead, and cross my fingers it doesn't fuck that up. They aren't really sure if it will or not. (grumbles)

I don't care who I have to bribe/coerce/threaten/sleep with to get my luck to turn around, but damn it, I am sick of this shit!

Menu Four

2005-10-18T08:48:00.000-05:00

It's been quite a while since I've done any of these, so here's hoping I remember how they turned out.

Apple and Horseradish Glazed Salmon with Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage: The salmon was amazing. It was so easy to make and incredibly yummy. The sweet and sour cabbage was not as fantastic. The idea is great, I've had it before. But apparently this wasn't the recipe for it. It wasn't zingy enough. Plus, I think we sliced the cabbage too thick. It never got wilted enough. So, I'll make the salmon again and find a new recipe for the cabbage.

Crustless Broccoli Cheddar Quiche: Unfortunately, this was very blah. It didn't taste bad, it just didn't have much flavor. For some reason the egg taste neutralized all of the cheddar and broccoli flavor, and all of the seasonings we put in. I might try working with this recipe, adding more herbs and salt and pepper but if I find a recipe that looks more interesting, I'll try it instead.

Cornbread and Bean Skillet: This was fantastic. It was kind of dreary out, and I was having a crummy day and this was such good comfort food. Amazingly enough, it was incredibly healthy too. Basically, I dumped a bunch of spicy beans into a pan and made Jiffy cornbread with cheddar cheese. The raw dough was put on top of the beans and then simmered over the stove until it cooked through. It was warm, and the mix of spice with the cornbread was delicious. I might put in one can of regular tomatoes in place of one of the two cans of tomatoes with green chilis. It was a little overwhelming. This also made great leftovers.

Warm Spinach-Pear Salad: So good, and so simple. We made it with a bowl of leftover squash soup. Mmm. The salad was fairly substantial and with the soup was plenty for a meal. I love hot dressing salads. For once, I found one that doesn't involve using bacon grease as part of the dressing, so that was exciting also. I will definitely make it again.

Chicken with Tomatoes and Mushrooms: This was very good too. It needed some time to cook, but the actual preparation was simple. It didn't call for very many ingredients either, which was nice. I was pretty much guaranteed to like this recipe though, anything that calls for two pounds of mushrooms is fine by me.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili: This recipe didn't taste exactly how I thought it would, but it was amazing. It had a very mexican flavor, which I don't normally associate with sweet potato. It also had a garnish of a little bit of sour cream mixed with cilantro. I added lime juice, and it was even better. I'll certainly make this again.

Feta, Olive and Spicy Sausage Pizza: Using pre-made crust, we brushed olive oil on it and sprinkled garlic, salt, pepper, and rosemary on the crust. We baked that for a few minutes and topped it with feta, black olives, spicy sausage, tomatoes and mushrooms. We baked that for a little bit longer and it turned out AMAZING. Really quick and incredibly good.

Roasted Chicken Noodle Soup: I roasted a chicken, fairly early in the day. I stuffed it with fresh basil and rosemary and put carrots, onions, celery and garlic around it. After it was done roasting, I put the whole thing in a pot of water with all of the drippings and let it boil for about 5 hours. By the end of the night it had completely fallen apart and the whole apartment smelled good. We strained the liquid, and saved it, picked apart the chicken for the good meat and put it back with the broth. We added more herbs and vegetables and noodles and let it cook for another fifteen minutes or so. It was probably the best soup I've ever had. We made a ridiculously large amount of it, so we've been having leftovers all week, and we even froze some.

Curried Cider-Braised Pork Chops and Horseradish Smashed Potatoes: Both were delicious! The pork chops were simple to make and curry is so yummy with cider. It probably would have been even better with sliced apples. I invented the recipe for the potatoes and they were superb, if I do say so myself. I boiled potatoes and then smushed them up with milk, a little sour cream and butter, rosemary and horseradish. The horseradish added a really interesting flavor to it but it wasn't overwhelming at all. Katie tried them, and she really liked them, which is saying a lot, because she's the pickiest eater I know. Luckily, this time she ate something I made, it didn't make her throat close. Hooray for food allergies. No peach shakes for Katie I guess...

There were also plenty of meals of leftovers, and dinner at my parents' house, and I was gone for a while and even a night of sushi. Mmm, sushi. So there aren't as many recipes as there would have been otherwise. I might have forgotten something I made too...

Randomness

2005-10-18T08:31:00.000-05:00

This past week has not been going well. I wanted to start making and selling greeting cards with my photographs on the front. I bought the cards and envelopes, plastic sleeves to put them in, mounting tape and I picked out photos to use. When I went to order the photos I realized there was a huge problem. York Photo doesn't print 3 by 5 pictures. I assumed it was only that particular company, so I looked on Snapfish, and Shutterfly, and every other online photo processing place. No luck. I went to Meijer, hoping that they could at least print them if I brought in the negatives. I nearly cried when the woman there told me that 3 by 5's are getting discontinued everywhere. Apparently 4 by 6 is now standard. Also, apparently "no one uses 3 by 5's." At that point I was so frustrated I almost screamed "I use them you bitch." But, she was just some lowly photo processing peon. She had no say in it, so I bit my tongue and thanked her for her time. I can use the 4 by 6's on the cards I bought, but they don't look anywhere near as nice. The bigger border was so much better. But I suppose it's asking too much to have things go the way I planned.

I went to Delaware, Ohio this past weekend. My cousin Marthena was having a baptism for her twin babies. While I'm not a particular fan of either the church or babies, it wasn't a bad weekend. Well, sort of. My streak of bad luck did continue. I left half of my stuff at home that I needed, including shampoo and all my styling products. I also somehow managed to leave the gift I had for them in my apartment. I spent MONTHS knitting two baby blankets, and they're sitting here on the floor in their nice gift bag. (grumbles) I also managed to slam my head on the corner of a wall while sitting down. Oh, and I was convinced I'd lost a sock at the hotel, only to find it in one of my bags. Plus, on the way home, I apparently dumped my wallet out of my purse and left it in my parents' car. So I have no money until they either mail it to me, or I go meet them somewhere. Fantastic. Anyone else want to add to my lousy week??

Naked Pillow Fights

2005-10-11T14:28:00.000-05:00

Erin and Katie and I decided that we haven't been spending enough time together, just the three of us, so we had a girls' night at Erin's. She kicked Kyle out of their house and I stole Anthony's truck and went up to St. Louis. We spent lots of time talking, eating and drinking. The usual. We also watched "Dead Like Me", a show Erin's been yammering about lately. It's hilarious. Very weird and quirky. I need to hunt down the DVDs, and start it from the beginning. As Katie put it, "What kind of crack do you have to be on to come up with stuff like this??" Sounds like the perfect show for me... We also were incredibly girly and played with makeup. The guys were lucky they weren't around, there's no way they could have made it through the evening without a makeover. (cackles)

Katie slept in the guest bedroom, to avoid having 20 pounds of Boris kitty jumping on her head and licking her. Erin and I stayed in her room, and got tromped on by Boris most of the night. We stayed up talking until about 5 or 6 am, and got up at 9, we haven't done THAT in a while. We also managed to get semi-freaked out because the house was making strange noises. I swear Anthony and Kyle snuck up to the house to freak us out so Erin and I would end up cuddling. (laughs) apparently their secret plot worked, we did sort of end up smushed in the middle of the bed. But I'll let you decide if the three of us ever had the naked pillow fights everyone was so hoping would happen...

Stratford

2005-10-07T15:25:00.000-05:00

My parents and I went to Stratford, Ontario last weekend. They picked me up at the apartment friday afternoon, and we drove straight there. We got in around 8pm and checked into our bed and breakfast. Technically it is a guest house, since they don't feed us breakfast. I had a room on the top floor. They aren't wildy exciting rooms, but they are clean and cute and the old lady who rents the house is really nice. We walked around town to find a place to eat. We went to a Chinese Canadian restaurant. That phrase is absolutely hilarious to me...there's something about Chinese Canadian that cracks me up. Maybe it's cause I am used to hearing Chinese American...but I swear there's just something inherently funny about Chinese Canadian food. First of all, what the hell is Canadian food??? Moose? Beer? Anyway, the Chinese part of the menu was fantastic. We had really good soup and egg rolls. None of us were starving, so it was a great dinner. We went for a walk and looked at all of the fantastic old architecture. There are tons of gorgeous brick houses.

On saturday morning we went to a cafe for breakfast. It's called the York Street Kitchen and it's very fun. It's a tiny hole in the wall place, with bright painted walls, and colanders as lamp shades. I had a sandwich called the H.M.S Pinafore, a bagel, goat cheese and smoked salmon. I get it every year when we go. We spent most of the morning and afternoon walking around town. There are a ton of cute little shops and gorgeous gardens. For dinner we went to an inn. They had amazing duck. (drools) Mmm, duck. We went to see the Shakespearean play "As You Like It". It was a different interpretation, it was set in the 60's, and The Barenaked Ladies composed and arranged the music. They did a fantastic job, and I am tempted to get a cd of the music they did.

We went for a picnic on sunday morning after stopping at the grocery store. We ate along the river and then headed out. It was kind of a long drive back because we stopped in Michigan to look at more bricks. They were making their final decision this week. They're either going with a brick that they can get now, so the bricking will be done this fall, or one that will put it off until the spring. I'm not sure which one they went with. Anyway, it was a good trip and I love going.

Serenity

2005-10-07T15:11:00.000-05:00

I loved it! It's taken me a while to get around to posting (yeah, I am slacking again). I saw it last friday...the first showing available. We managed to see it before Anthony had to go to work, and I left for Stratford. (sighs happily) I was so happy with it. They managed to make it hilarious, suspenseful, and incredibly shocking. There are a lot of people complaining about a particular scene in it, but although I didn't like the scene, I thought it was well done and necessary. I'll avoid mentioning what it was in particular, for the people who haven't been able to see it yet. But it brought a different feel to the movie...it created doubt about the ending to the movie, and the possibility of any sequel. Say what you will, but I thought it was well done. I am just so happy it came out and I got to see it. My parents want to borrow the DVDs. My mom caught one or two of the episodes when it was actually on, and she liked it, but it was kicked off the air before she got to watch it more than that. I think it's sort of cute that my parents are getting into "Firefly".

Movies

2005-09-26T21:40:00.000-05:00

Anthony and I went to see "Lord of War" last week. I was really surprised by it. Not only did I enjoy it a lot, it was more thought-provoking than I expected. Going into it I expected more of a comedy. It had some hilarious moments, but it also brought up some interesting points. I was impressed that they were able to make a movie about gun running that neither glorified it, nor made it out to be a heinous crime. That opinion was left to the audience to decide. The filming was incredibly well done without being over the top artsy. More than worth seeing.

Erin and Anthony and I watched "Corpse Bride" saturday night. It was every bit as wonderful as I expected. The combination of Johnny Depp (swoons) and Tim Burton is always perfect. It was funny and sweet, and a bit ghoulish all at once. Other than the ridiculously loud audio for the first 20 minutes, it was perfect.

Now I am counting the days until "Serenity". It's driving me insane. I am also going to be very cranky if there isn't a midnight showing on thursday night. Otherwise I'd have to wait until sunday to see it. I am going up to Stratford for my annual trip with my parents. I love the trip but it is quite annoying that it had to be the same weekend as the movie release. If anyone has heard about midnight showings, please let me know.

Menu 3

2005-09-23T21:59:00.000-05:00

Man, I really need to come up with a more exciting title than 'Menu 3'...

More recipes...
Greek Rotisserie Chicken Salad - I had half of the rotisserie chicken left, so I added it to a Greek salad. I forgot to get tomatoes, but other than that it was great. Greek dressing is pretty easy to make from scratch so the whole meal went together pretty quickly. Nothing wildly new, but perfect for a simple, healthy dinner.

Spaghetti and Meatballs - We made the meatballs from scratch and clearly this is NOT a recipe I have mastered. The recipe was my mom's and hers are usually fantastic. Mine...not so much. They didn't taste bad, although I think I could have made the recipe a little more exciting. The biggest problem was that they completely fell apart. I need to ask my mom how she does it. Plus, I think we made them a bit large. The faster they cook, the less time they have to crumble. A non stick skillet would have helped too. They tasted pretty good with the spaghetti noodles and sauce. The sauce wasn't homeade, but I added a few spices and a bit of wine and it was really good. Yay Kroger!

Squash Soup - The squash soup recipe is originally Kyle's I believe. It is always delicious. I made a retardedly large amount of it, because squash was on sale for 39 cents/pound. I made the basic recipe: sauteed onion, squash, and stock. Only this time it was beef stock, not chicken. Grr on Kroger not having my Better Than bouillon stock base. How rude. Once it was all cooked down Anthony attacked it with his immersion blender until it was smooth. We divided it into two large bowls. One of the bowls I made a sweet soup. I added apple cider, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and a bit of brown sugar. The other was savory with milk, salt, pepper, rosemary and grated Gruyere cheese. They were both amazing. I froze four huge containers of it. Now I can have squash soup whenever my little heart desires. (swoons)

Cherry Glazed Pork with Green Beans and Feta - Another great recipe that is nice and fast. It's a basic sweet and sour sauce made out of cherry jam and red wine vinegar. It took maybe 15 minutes to make and most of that was just letting it simmer. I've been trying to eat a lot of green beans lately because they're really healthy, but there are only so many ways to prepare them. I was excited because I created another one tonight. I sauteed them in a tiny bit of oil with salt and pepper. Just before I took them off of the heat I added a bit of crumbled feta cheese. Mmm, so good. It caramelizes the cheese, and it's a wonderful blend of sweet and salty.

We also went to dinner with Ashley and Kracker, and Erin and Kyle. It's nice to do the dinner party thing again. Ashley made lamb, and mashed potatoes and carrots and Yorkshire puddings. I'd never had them before but they were really good. The lamb was wonderful too. Apparently Al has a slight obsession with gravy, which we teased her unmercifully about. My contribution to dinner was a key lime pie. I've made plenty of them before, but this was a new recipe. It was amazing. Just a few different twists on the standard recipe that made it really outstanding. Since the recipe came from someone online, of course I got harassed. Erin accused me of having secret pie affairs with strange men online. I have to admit, she's right. Luckily my boyfriend doesn't mind if I talk dirty about baking with other people.

Menu 2

2005-09-19T11:46:00.000-05:00

More recipe reviews...

Pasta with Butternut Squash and Spinach - This recipe didn't taste how I expected it to, but it was very good. It wasn't too time consuming and made a ton. I was able to put a lot of it in the freezer, and have some for lunch the next day. The only thing I would do differently would be to use chicken stock instead of water, but I was out. I also added rosemary (yeah, I know, I'll put rosemary in anything) to make up for the lack of stock. I think I'll keep rosemary in even if I make it with chicken stock next time. It gives the dish a little more depth. We had the pasta with a really good Chardonnay. It was one I'd had before, and I love it. Kroger has it on sale on a fairly regular basis for around 5 dollars.

Barton et Guestier Chardonnay, France 2002 - A really good chardonnay. Not much of an oak flavor and it's easy to drink. It has a very full flavor, warm and buttery. There's a definitely apple taste. A good white wine for fall.

Rotisserie Chicken and Tuscan Bean and Wilted Arugula Salad - I bought a rotisserie chicken from Kroger because they were having a really good sale. I've been wanting to try this salad for a while. I used spinach instead of arugula, added a tiny bit of vinegar to the dressing (warm olive oil, lemon juice and zest) and cooked the onion instead of leaving it raw. It was phenomenal, and with the pre-cooked chicken it was really quick to make. I haven't enjoyed a salad that much in a long time.

Honey Glazed Pork Loin with Applesauce - I was a bit disappointed in the way this recipe turned out, but I think it had more to do with cooking difficulties than the recipe. I didn't have any aluminum foil, so the edges of the tenderloin got a little crispy. Adding water to the roasting pan helped, but I didn't do it until half way through. The flavor of the honey glaze was wonderful though. I usually prefer to make applesauce with a variety of apples, but this time I only made it with Granny Smith apples. It's definitely better to do the mix, there is a better texture to it. The apples cook at different rates and it makes a much chunkier applesauce. It had cinnamon, ginger, orange zest, apple cider, and honey in it. The flavor was different in a very good way.

Chicken with Pear, Sage and Cheese and French Peas - I am absolutely in love with this! It was so easy to make, and delicious. It was flattened sauteed chicken with Gruyere cheese melted on top and a sauce of pear, sage and cider. I've been so excited about fall arriving, and this was the perfect fall food. The traditional way to make French peas is to steam them in a pan lined with lettuce and seasoned with butter, salt, pepper and nutmeg. I didn't have the lettuce, but I kept the seasonings the same. Well, less butter, but enough to leave a nice taste. The nutmeg adds the perfect flavor. From start to finish dinner probably was done in less than 15 minutes. Mmm, quickie gourmet. ;)

Disappointed

2005-09-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

I am incredibly disappointed that I haven't sold anything on Etsy yet. It's an awesome site and I know some people have been doing really well on it. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. There's a limited market for handmade crafts. Plus, I am trying to sell photography and that really isn't a high demand thing. Fairly soon I am going to make up some photo cards. Nice white cardstock with a photo mounted on the front. I am hoping that will be a little more appealing. I did make some changes to the site, and Stav made me a spiffy banner. I'll give it a little more time and see if the changes have any effect. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I can always use feedback. The link to the site is Drifting Visions Etsy and it's also to the right. Any kind of feedback; on the photos, the prices, shipping, my avatar, the descriptions or even suggestions of what kinds of photos you think people would buy. If I don't have something similar already I'll go out and take the pictures. I also am listing two of my photos on Crafters United to donate the profits of any sales to Hurricane Katrina Relief. The money goes directly to the Red Cross. Sooo, if you've been wanting to donate to it, and get a fantastic photograph, check it out.

I've been planning on making up a weekly menu for months now. I know it would cheaper, easier and healthier, but this is the first week I've been able to get around to it. It's actually going really well. I even managed to sort of incorporate it into the camping last weekend. It's also a good way to get me to try out new recipes. I have thousands of recipes that I've never tried. Here's a list of what we did this week and a quick review:

Chinese Grilled Pork and Spicy Green Beans- This morphed into grilled chicken because of a small pork disaster. The pork I had bought THE NIGHT BEFORE was green when I pulled it out of the refrigerator. It was from Kroger, and I've never had a problem with them before, so I am just assuming it was a strange fluke. If my food turns weird colors again, they're in trouble though. The Chinese marinade was awesome with chicken and would no doubt be just as good with pork, if not better. I will definitely try to make it again with the proper ingredients. I also broiled it instead of grilling it this time. The Spicy Green Beans were fantastic. Spicy and sweet at the same time and I could probably eat pounds of them in a sitting. Luckily they are quite healthy, so that won't be a problem.

Pesto Chicken Packets - Amazing. We took them camping and everyone loved them. Very simple and healthy too. It was just chicken, tomato, zucchini and a tablespoon or two of pesto. We wrapped it all up in foil and put it on a grill over the fire for 20 minutes or so. Also, halved tomatoes with pesto, salt and pepper in foil on the fire are also incredible.

Cream of Broccoli Soup - Very good. Surprisingly healthy for how good it tasted. It was simple to make, and really inexpensive. The recipe calls for rice to thicken the soup, and then some cream or 2% milk. I usually only buy skim, so instead I added a little bit of cream cheese. No doubt it would have been even nicer with cream, but in the interest of not dying before 25, it seemed like a good compromise. We did add a little too much pepper, but other than that, it was a great recipe. I even have a decent amount of it to put in the freezer.

Curried Chicken with Plums and Ginger and Sweet Potato Wedges - Anthony made the chicken and it was fantastic. It was pretty simple and didn't take long to make. The ginger was supposed to be crystallized ginger, but at $12 a bottle, that wasn't happening. If I can find it in bulk I will probably buy a little bit the next time I make it. Using powdered ginger instead wasn't a problem though. The chicken thighs were insanely tender, and mixed with the sweet plums, spicy curry, and green onions they were to die for. I made baked sweet potato wedges with salt, pepper, lemon juice and a tiny bit of cumin. They went really well with the curry and were really quick to make since I put them in the microwave for 5 minutes before I baked them.

There are a few more recipes for the week that I'll update as we go. If anyone wants any of these recipes, let me know. If you have any fantastic recipes to barter, that would be even better. Also, if anyone wants me to make these recipes for them, they either need to pay me/bribe me with backrubs or a bottle of wine but I will cook for hire.

Camping: Take Two

2005-09-14T08:02:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was fantastic. Anthony and I met Erin and Kyle at their house, and followed them north to the Au Sable River Primitive Campground at Sawmill Point . We got a site, set up our tents, started a fire and made dinner. Pruden and Sung got there around 11. We basically spent the weekend relaxing around the fire, cooking and swimming. We hiked down a dune to the river and despite none of us having suits with us, we decided to jump in anyway. The hike back up the dune was nothing short of torture, but probably a sign that I need to hike up hills more often and NEVER do it three days after I give blood. Despite the heart attack, it was more than worth it. The view was gorgeous. I'd like to go back and take a canoe/rowboat out and explore the river. On our way out on sunday we drove east to Tawas. We had lunch near the beach, and went swimming for a couple of hours. Anthony literally had to drag me out of the water. I hadn't had much time to swim this summer and I miss it so much. I always feel better when I'm in the water. It makes my arthritis disappear and I feel so relaxed. It's sort of hard to explain, but I always feel more centered and more myself in the water. Like all of the day to day things that drive me crazy just don't exist. It's just me and the sky and the water. This might have something to do with the fact that I was in the water before I could walk, when I was barely 6 months old. I spent 90 percent of my summers from then until we moved at the age of 10 in the water. If it was daylight, I was in the water, and plenty of times even when it was dark. I doubt I'll be able to make it swimming again this fall, but it's top priority next year. Kyle suggested winter hiking...I don't know how I feel about it, but we'll see. If nothing else I do want to make sure we (Anthony and I, and Erin and KYle) try to go once a year. I always forget how much I enjoy it until I go.

It's A Party!

2005-09-07T22:41:00.000-05:00

Katie and I finally decided when we are going to have our housewarming (apartmentwarming?) party. To make things easier, we decided to make it a combined housewarming/Halloween party. It will be Saturday, October 29. I suppose that makes it a pre-Halloween party, but the same rules still apply. COSTUMES for everyone. I will be sending out invitations. Probably just by email but we'll see. Everyone I know/have ever met is invited. So, give me a call, send me an email/IM or post a comment to let me know if you can make it. The more the merrier.

...and she's out...

2005-09-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

I donated blood tonight. I had a feeling it was going to make me really lightheaded. And apparently I was right. They drew the blood and as she finished up I got really flushed all of a sudden. It's always my first clue that I'm not feeling well. I got flushed, and then cold and clammy and really dizzy. It's never a good sign when you feel like you're going to fall over when you're laying down. They gave me an ice pack to put on the back of my neck, and had me breath into a paper bag. I spent about 15 minutes just lying there. Then they put me into a wheel chair and wheeled me over to a cot. I spent about another half hour relaxing. They kept feeding me peach juice, which for Hi-C was actually fantastic tasting, and a couple of cookies. Anthony of course had no problems. Punk. He was very helpful though. I am sure Erin will be relieved to not have to cart my passed out body around again. I had the same thing happen when I donated blood in high school. Only that time I actually did pass out cold...more than once. Poor Erin. No one should have to deal with me when I go limp as a noodle. I felt much better this time at least.

Catch Up

2005-09-07T21:11:00.000-05:00

So I guess I've been slacking about posting. My excuse is that I've still been unpacking. Plus, classes started last week, so I have been trying to get those in order. MSU bites my many testicles and my schedule NEVER WORKS. I always spend a few weeks switching crap around and trying to scramble to get organized. The weekend before they started, Anthony and I went camping. We went to Sleepy Hollow State Park. It was so nice and relaxing. We did go for an 8 mile hike with my parents. I wish I could go hiking every weekend, it's always exercise I actually enjoy. We took the rabbits with us. They actually did really well. They were very calm and didn't seem to get stressed out from any of it. Even with dogs barking and kids shrieking. I wasn't sure if it would bother them or not, so it was kind of a test run. We set up their cage next to our tent and covered it with a tarp. (grins) I have such good critters.

Other than that I don't think I've had anything terribly exciting happen. I did have my mom's car for about a week and a half, so that came in handy. I had a chance to go up and hang out with Erin for an afternoon, and have dinner with Erin and Kyle. I've been shopping like a lunatic lately, I went with Erin, Katie and Anthony, all on separate occasions. In my defense I actually didn't buy anything that was over 20 dollars, and that was for jeans. I needed a few things for the fall. Or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Secession

2005-08-19T12:53:00.000-05:00

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're
taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe
this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of
the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You
get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get
Alabama.
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay
their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian
Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single
moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and
we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need
people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently
willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you
don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you
success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to
spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the
country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92
percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines
(you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90
percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all
living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools,
plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88
percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92
percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90
percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually
100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University,
Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was
actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless
we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that
evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and
61 percent of you crazy b*****ds believe you are people with higher morals
then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they
grow in Mexico.

Peace out,
Blue States

Thank you Suzette. That was one of the most entertaining things I've read in a long time.

No More Ghetto!

2005-08-19T08:58:00.000-05:00

I am finally done with the ghetto fabulous house at 1002. It is empty, clean and I will never ever have to go back there. My sinuses are rejoicing. Anthony, Katie and Ion were a huge help cleaning it out. Katie came by several nights after work to get the last of the stuff, Ion cleaned up the kitchen (a monumental task). And Anthony is my hero. He cleaned out the ENTIRE basement. For those of you who don't know what it looked like, imagine a garbage dump. With a working washer and dryer. He did it one evening when I went home to my parents' house. It was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I was dreading the thought of cleaning it. Anthony and I took a truckload of trash from the house to the apartment and filled up a whole dumpster here. Ion and Katie came over yesterday to help me get the rest of junk out. I am so relieved to be done with it.

Now I just have to finish unpacking and organizing everything here at the apartment. It's still a bit chaotic at the moment and people are coming over tonight. Speaking of which (should that be typing of which?) anyone who wants to go out to the club tonight to celebrate Joe being home on leave and Erin and Brigit's birthdays, let me know and I'll give you directions. We are meeting here at 9pm.

Moving

2005-08-15T21:42:00.000-05:00

This past week or so has been absolutely exhausting. Between trying to pack and clean I nearly went insane. The house we were in hasn't been cleaned in about 10 years and it is absolutely disgusting. There is crap there that I don't have a clue who it belongs to, or what to do with it. Here's a quick timeline of what last weekend was like.

Friday: Pack, clean, run to new apartment to pick up keys. Take up a load of kitchen stuff. Collapse for a few minutes. Take a quick shower, attempt to look somewhat presentable. Go with Katie to a party in Flint. Drive Katie home from party because she was way too drunk to drive. (By the way, her new G6 is VERY fun to drive). Shower, collapse in bed.

Saturday: Get up ass early to pack a few more things. Go to apartment with 700 gallons of paint. Paint until our arms fall off. Thank you for all of your help Brigit, we love you! Order a GIANT order of Pokey sticks (story to follow when I have more time). Go back to house. Pack/clean more. Collapse into bed again.

Sunday: Get up ass early. Pack and clean more. Wait for parents to arrive. Load 10 million boxes into a moving truck, Anthony's truck and a my parents' huge van. Drive 5 miles to the new apartment, unload. Collapse.

Sunday wasn't actually as bad as I thought it was going to be, between Katie's parents, my parents, Katie and Anthony we got things loaded and unloaded fairly quickly. After we unloaded we went out to lunch at Clara's. A couple of us had their breakfast buffet. It was so good. That might have been partly because we were starving. I'd been wanting to check it out for years, but I hadn't ever been there on a sunday afternoon before.

Megan is...

2005-08-09T18:46:00.000-05:00

megan is the devil
megan is an angel
megan is partially correct
megan is a loser
megan is green
megan is doing an interview
megan is leaving
megan is a rat
megan is so offended
megan is born
megan is number 2000
megan is thrown to the ground
megan is connected to the following things
megan is here with all of us
megan is only 3 years old
megan is my pride and joy
megan is not dying from aids
megan is available to perform with such musical combinations as duos with guitar or piano
megan is admiring the sky
megan is listening to us today
megan is the one who publishes the movies
megan is at wit's end when circumstances change her life in ways she cannot even contemplate
megan is trapped in the game while an electrical fire is sweeping the building
megan is king for a day
megan is the cutest baby
megan is hardly average
megan is straight into this acting stuff in a big way
megan is in her second season with the big red
megan is becoming
megan is confident that everyone can master the basics of floral arrangement
megan is passionate about this genre of literature and this approach to teaching history
megan is very precious
megan is in the fifth grade
megan is happy to oblige
megan is more active now because she feels so much better with the treatments
megan is starting to look more like michael
megan is still a little unsure of what to do with
megan is on stage
megan is one of the leaders of the in group
megan is no longer so frantic
megan is the young adventuresome woman who stows away on the pirate ship as the captains boy
megan is being featured on many canadian tv guides
megan is looking for dustin
megan is now back in school
megan is coming downstairs for her date
megan is saying hello
megan is a great
megan is the very first to actually mention and discuss it
megan is a new and hot model with a great body
megan is doing an interview
megan is unbelievabally thrilled to be in miami
megan is a babe btw
megan is our new friend
megan is delighted
megan is hardly average
megan is not here by choice
megan is an author and freelance writer
megan is no longer so frantic
megan is living the dream
megan is flattered
megan is unable to resist the temptation to create this new machine
megan is so cute
megan is straight into this acting stuff in a big way
megan is up at 4
megan is completely fictional
megan is happy to oblige
megan is clearly an accomplice
megan is just a pawn in soneji’s elaborate chess game
megan is going steady with the team quarterback
megan is now 6 years old and is a true character
megan is already the number one ranked female surfer in the united states

I found a very entertaining site called Googlism . It searches the web for all sorts of interesting things related to your name. I have to say, there were a few parts it was definitely right about. Megan is...the devil. The odd thing was, that was actually the VERY FIRST on the list. I didn't move it around. I deleted a few, and some were repeats, but there you go, if you ever wondered what your name has been doing without you...

Crazy Weekend

2005-08-08T22:52:00.000-05:00

This weekend was insane to say the least. Anthony and I left Thursday morning, drove to Kalamazoo, picked up his tux, drove to his parents' house (a half hour past Kzoo), relaxed for a few, got dressed, drove to a rehearsal at Western, then to a dinner in Kzoo, and back to his parents'. The next afternoon we got partially ready, and went back to Western for the wedding. It was very nice. I sat around knitting for the first couple of hours. Anthony was a groomsman and had to put on his tux and be in the pictures. I waited to dress until just before the wedding. No point in ruining the gorgeous dress my mom bought me. I inadvertently matched the bridal party, which worked out, because I sat at the head table. It was a nice wedding. Not exactly my taste, but anyone who knows me should know that when I get married things are going to be a bit creative...The ceremony was gorgeous though. On a deck behind the building, overlooking the trees. It was very pretty and the ceremony was sweet. Anthony looked incredibly hot in a tux...it's official, guys should wear them more often. After the ceremony we went inside for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Then we went to the reception. They had very yummy crab stuffed salmon, and an ice cream cake. The cake was made by Coldstone Creamery. Apparently it was the first wedding cake they've ever made. Kendalyn talked them into it. It was really really good. I am never a big fan of wedding cake, but if you include ice cream...much better. We hung out with Anthony's friend Trevor for a while at the wedding. He and I spent quite a while discussing what wine snobs we were.

The rehearsal dinner the night before was great. It was at a little bistro. Mixed greens and vinaigrette with goat cheese, chicken and mushroom pasta and berry crisp with vanilla ice cream. Plus, a good chardonnay. Mmm. And it was free...even better. Anthony got a great groomsman gift. A box of 10 Beers of the World from World Market, and an engraved bottle opener.

When we got back to his parents' house after the wedding, a couple of his sisters were there. It was a family reunion weekend. We slept in as late as we possibly could the next day. Luckily we had his old bedroom instead of having to stay in a tent like the rest of his siblings. I am still kinda overwhelmed by the whole family. Mostly just the amount of people, especially kids. I haven't been around that many kids at one time since I was in elementary school. I have finally met ALL of his sisters and brothers. Plus, I got a little time to sit down in smaller groups with them. It's no longer scary, just still something I can't quite wrap my brain around. I do really like how much they look after each other. As his sister Leanne said "we may fight with each other, but if anyone outside the family tries to say something bad about one of us, the rest are there to back them up." It's a nice thought. That was the one thing I hated about being an only child. I apparently am being adopted into the family. One of his nieces gave me a hug when she left and said "cause you're part of the family too now". It was sweet. We also played Bingo (a demented version) late into the night for various prizes. I suck apparently....my luck is non existent. But Anthony won a giant jar of pickles. Erin and I always said we'd buy one at some point. Well, now I have more pickles than I know what to do with. I did get a cookbook as a consolation prize. (sigh) There's some good recipes in there though. We also roasted marshmallows and made hot iron pies. They are something Anthony has been raving about for months. They're two slices of bread, with butter on the outside, and pie filling in the middle. You put them in little metal presses on sticks and put them in the coals of the fire. QUITE delicious.

Ugh, all I've talked about for the weekend was food. I expected to have gained 5 pounds when I got home, but amazingly enough, I lost a little. That is nothing short of miraculous. We headed out Sunday morning, and drove back to Lansing. I collapsed on the couch, and Anthony went to work. Like I said, the weekend was nothing short of insane.

Ooh, also, on the way home we stopped at a garage sale. We got a big oval mirror and candle sticks for my new apartment, a wooden salad bowl set, and a mesh splatter cooking screen for his place. All for under $15.

And They're Here!

2005-08-03T17:37:00.000-05:00

Well, Marthena didn't give birth that night. They managed to keep the babies from appearing until early wednesday morning. They're both healthy and so is Marthena. They'll stay in the hospital for a few more weeks because they are so tiny. Andrew weighs 4lbs 4oz and Bryan weighs 4lbs 10oz. I am just really happy they're doing well. I guess this means I need to finish up the second baby blanket I am knitting. Although with this weather, they won't need it until January.

Bad Babies

2005-07-28T21:34:00.000-05:00

My cousin Marthena is pregnant with twins. She isn't due until the end of September. She has been having contractions on and off for several months now. Apparently they've decided they are ready to arrive. Bad babies...no cookie for you! She has been on complete bedrest for that whole time in an attempt to keep them from arriving early. This has been driving her mildly insane of course, since she used to working a ridiculous amount of hours and is an avid runner. Not the ideal candidate for this. But she's been reading, and being crafty and my mom went to visit her for a week. So she's been tolerating it.

Apparently tonight she is going into labor for real. She's only 31 weeks along. Which means they are considered in the size/age range of "routinely survivable". One of them is 3 lbs. 11 oz. and the other is just over 4 lbs. And they're giving them steroids to help their lungs develop. They'd like the labor to be delayed but at this point it seems like it might have to just happen now.

It's really scary though. I may not be a fan of babies for myself, but I certainly would like all of my second cousins to arrive safely in the world. Send good thoughts out to northern Ohio that they and my cousin do well.

Books Everywhere

2005-07-28T20:59:00.000-05:00

So, this reading thing has gotten ridiculous. I finished More, Now, Again by Elizabeth Wurtzel. It was really good. I've been meaning to read her books Prozac Nation and Bitch for quite a while now. This one was about her addiction to Ritalin and cocaine. It was very good. Not necessarily a fun book, but well written, interesting, and actually gave me a little insight into what it's like to have an addiction. I figure if I am ever going to be a therapist some day, it's not a bad idea to at least read about people with problems. Even if my classes don't give me an opportunity to actually interact with them in person. Here's a quote from it that I really liked:

"You're not understanding what I'm saying!" Is she yelling? Dr. Singer never yells. "This is why you do drugs. This is why you feel terrible. You think it's because you feel everything too much. But it's not. It's that you don't feel things enough. All those times that you panic and get hysterical waiting for some guy, any guy, to call you, it's not because your feelings are exaggerated. It's because you don't feel at all."
"That's crazy." I think I may be about to cry, but I don't. "My feeling are excessive and inappropriate and, too much for anyone to handle. So I do drugs and it's manageable. "
"I don't think that's true. I think if you weren't afraid to feel things , it would be ok. If you were not afraid to hurt when you hurt, it wouldn't be so bad. But then you push it away, and you end up going crazy and feeling crazy about nothing - about waiting twenty minutes for a call - because you don't allow yourself to just feel what is really there. "

I finished it this morning. Last night, while in Meijer, Anthony picked up Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. After I finished More, Now, Again I got on the computer, checked my email and then decided I absolutely had to start Harry Potter. Now, I KNEW I wasn't going to be able to stop. Harry Potter may not be a stimulant, but damn it, those books are addictive. You'd think I would have learned something from the first book, but apparently not. At noon I started reading, stopped only to grab something for lunch and take a quick shower. At a little bit before 5, I finished it. I read 650 some pages in under 5 hours. It's official, I need help.

On the plus side, it was a great book, I loved it. And now I can't wait for the people I know to finish it so I can start talking to them about it. In the meantime I'll attempt to keep my mouth shut. Also,l I am not feeling terribly patient about waiting for the last book to come out. Over a year seems like an awful long time when I'm ready for it NOW.

Evil Storm

2005-07-25T10:24:00.000-05:00

This was an....interesting...weekend. Saturday, Stav and I worked more on the website while they had a garage sale. I sold a few things too, and made a little bit of money, which was really nice. The site is getting closer to being done. I registered for my domain name and bought server space on www.godaddy.com . It's actually a pretty decent price, and Stav uses them also. I actually got to do some of the work on the site myself. I now have a little bit of an idea of how to use Dreamweaver. I know about a billionth of what is possible, but hey, it's a start. I mostly want to learn enough to make sure I can add pictures and update the links myself. I don't want to make Anthony and/or Stav have to do it all of the time.

Saturday night we went to Harper's. There was a going away party for Stav and Paul. (sighs) I am really going to miss those guys. I can't believe they are leaving. As Erin was talking about in her journal, it really is the end of an era. People are moving, getting married, having kids...and I can't believe it's all happening so fast. Somehow it seemed like it wouldn't all end...that there would be a way to have things just go on the same, forever. I suppose that's really naive, and I always knew it wouldn't actually last, but that didn't stop me from hoping. I'm going to miss running next door to borrow a book, drop off the rabbits for an hour or two while our house is getting "fixed" by construction workers, or just hanging out there for a BBQ. All of the random bar/club nights, and parties...They're some of my very favorite people. I also doubt I'll see Nancy or Kracker much, even though they aren't the ones moving to California. The going away party was a ton of fun. It was in the VIP room at Harper's, and we all got in the club free. We also had free champagne (really good champagne too) and food. Ooh, and we got fun hats! They had random fedoras laying around. They had a couple of different colors, I thought I was wearing one that was grey, or light blue but it ended up being purple. Apparently black lights really mess up my sense of color. It was incredibly funny when we left the club. Erin, Kyle, Katie, Anthony and I were all wearing the hats and there was a huge line of people waiting to go in as we left. Six people or so made comments as we were leaving about them...mostly whispers of "are they VIP's?" We all walked out like we were very important...and then cracked up when we got across the street.

I woke up Sunday morning when Anthony left for work at 6:45, and then again at 8 or so when the storm got out of hand. It had been raining/storming most of the night, but it started to get insane around 8. I drifted off for a few minutes between the lightning and thunder strikes, but I bolted out of bed at 8:20 when it sounded like our house got hit. There was an incredibly huge crash and the house shook. I am not actually sure what near us got hit, but it has to have been very close. Our power went out at the same time, and as of last night at 9 o'clock it was still out. I had sort of a lazy morning, I wandered around East Lansing with Ion and Stepha, to see what was going on with the power and to try to find food. We didn't have any luck with the food, but it was kinda fun. I also read most of the day. It's amazing how much more reading I get done when I can't turn on my computer. I finished reading "The DaVinci Code". I really enjoyed it. It was the perfect book to read in an afternoon. I am not quite sure why people made such an huge deal about it though. Yeah, I can see why it irritated the Catholic Church, it just always seems so silly how big of a deal people make about things like that.

I was supposed to take engagement pictures of Erin and Kyle on Sunday. The storm nixed that idea. Kyle got kidnapped by Consumer's, and was gone all day. Erin ended up coming down anyway, and she and Katie and I went out to dinner. We went to Old Chicago, we'd never been there before so we decided to try it out. It was actually really good. Erin and I split a small pizza. When the waitress brought it out, she put a piece on each of our plates, and then dropped the other two pieces on the floor. It was pretty funny, but I felt really bad for her, she seemed horribly embarrassed. It worked out well though, because we got a new pizza for free, so we ended up getting more than we paid for. We also got honey raspberry ale, which was yummy. I am still not a huge fan of beer, but I have found a few I like. They just have to be higher end. The three of us also split a giant cookie. It was so good. We also took half of it home. It was just a fun dinner. The three of us haven't had much time to just hang out and talk in quite a while. On the way home we got hit on by a bunch of redneck guys in an Explorer (or something similar) with a decal on the back window that said 'get er done...". Very quality guys. They yelled something out the window that sounded like a cross between Yetti and King Kong. We never did hear what they were saying...Erin made some fantastically funny comment about it, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. We all ended up laughing so hard we cried.

Sleeeeep

2005-07-23T06:07:00.000-05:00

I am so tired this morning. It could have something to do with the fact that it's 7am and I am awake. I'm not sure what exactly is going on with my brain. It seems to think that when Anthony gets up for work, I should too. (sighs) The rabbit chewing on the metal cage isn't helping either. I left my trusty spray bottle at Anthony's place too, so I had to resort to putting a small amount of water in a glass and throwing it at him. I have one soggy, pissed off Jack right now. Squirrel is still cute and relatively well behaved though. I was so shocked the other day when I had to yell at her. She's picking up a few bad habits from Jack. He's mellowing out though, so I guess it will even out eventually.

We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the other day. It was awesome. Bizarre, but awesome. Then again anything starring Johnny Depp and directed by Tim Burton is pretty much guaranteed to be a little off. I actually liked it a lot more than I liked the original. I know that's probably going to get me tarred and feathered, but it's true. Maybe it's cause I saw the first one much older than most of my friends...but I dunno, it always just seemed like one really annoying drug trip. With candy. Willy Wonka, as played by Johnny Depp, was also mildy annoying, but it seemed to fit a lot better with what I remember from the book.

Another movie I liked that I forgot to mention was War of the Worlds. Despite Tom Cruise's annoying habit of, well talking, his movie was great. He may have gone off the deep end in his public life, but it hasn't affected his acting. The movie wasn't exactly what I expected, but it was still really good. I have to say though, it wasn't the alien creatures, or the gore that freaked me out. It was people. The scenes with people desperate to survive and how utterly mindless they became nearly made me sick. I have a strong stomach for most things, after all, I loved Kill Bill and Sin City. But a couple of the scenes showing how easily people fall into the mob mentality made me absolutely ill. Yes, I know. I'm weird. But, aside from that, it was a very cool movie.

Mmm, tuna

2005-07-18T21:35:00.000-05:00

I made an awesome dinner tonight. Tuna steak seared for three or four minutes on each side, with fresh raspberries on top. I made cold peas with a wasabi dressing too. It was so light and fresh tasting. Perfect summer food. I decided I could probably eat a whole tuna by myself at some point. However, considering the price of good tuna, I am quite sure I couldn't afford that.

Giant Pig of Death

2005-07-18T20:21:00.000-05:00

This weekend went really well. We had fun hanging out with my parents, and got some good ideas for the bricking of their house. They also got me a new bunny cage. It's actually a dog cage, but it works really well, is easy to clean and folds up for transportation. We already have one at Anthony's place, he bought it for me. I gave them back the cage my dad and I made. It's just a bit too small for two critters to stay in at once. And now I'll have a cage at their house so I don't have to haul one back and forth.

Anthony's graduation party went well too. Meeting the whole family was kind of overwhelming, but it wasn't too bad. I got to meet people a few at a time, so that helped. His grandma is really cute. I'd pay a lot of money to see her and my grandma talk. I think they would be really entertaining. I was glad I finally got to meet them, and that it wasn't quite as scary as I thought it was going to be. They party was a luau theme and the roast pig they made was yummy, if alarmingly huge and scary looking. A few of his friends and Erin and Kyle came, which was really nice.

7:54 AM

2005-07-16T06:54:00.000-05:00

It's 7:54 AM and I can't freakin sleep. I woke up around 6, and haven't been back to sleep since. I woke up because the light in the kitchen was on. Now, I have no idea WHY it was on. It was off when Anthony and I went to bed, and neither of us remember turning it on. I still maintain that there's no way it was me. For one thing, I am remarkably adept at maneuvering in the dark. I think it comes from being blind...I'm turning into a bat and developing sonar. I can now use echo location to find my way around. I never turn the light on to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water. Plus, this apartment is pretty light, from all of the street lamps around here. It was the kitchen light that's about 6 feet up on the wall too, which would be the last light I would turn on. If it's isn't easily accessible, there's no way I'd bother to go for it when there's a switch right at waist height. I blame either Anthony, or the rabbits. Jack? Squirrel? Were you guys having a party last night? I think I better go check the fridge for missing beer.... What is really weird is that I am not even tired.

I'll be "getting up" in about a half hour. We have to get ready to go to Hartland today. Anthony and I are getting haircuts from Malissa. Mine has grown at least 4 inches in the past 2 months and I can't take it any more. After that, we're going to my parents' house. They are planning to replace the wood siding on the house with brick and desperately need my advice. Apparently they are incapable of making brick decisions without me. Frankly it's a good thing they asked for my help, I am MUCH more efficient at deciding what looks good. When the house was getting built we spent 4 hours in the tile place. I picked out tiles for my bathroom in 20 minutes and STILL like what it looks like. They agonized for hours and really hate what they have. After we drive around for a while and look at brick houses we are going to have a BBQ. That was kind of random too, they just decided they needed to make dinner for Anthony and I. It's great...I am always thrilled to have other people make me meals, just a little surprised by it.

After dinner we're headed back to Lansing to feed the bunnies and then to his parents' house in Grand Junction. That means a total of 4-5 hours of driving today...fun. Anthony's graduation party is tomorrow and it was easier to drive there tonight than early tomorrow. I finally get to meet his whole family. All 9 billion of them. I've met his parents and his brother Brad. There are EIGHT other siblings, who are all married and have at least three children. YAHHHHHHHHHHHHH. As an only child, I am confused and frightened by this. Wish me luck, I think I'm going to need it.

Pthhbbbtttt

2005-07-16T06:46:00.000-05:00

May I just say....HAHA, I knew before you did Erin! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm referring to the fact that the other half of my brain is now engaged. Kyle told me he was going to propose the day he got the ring, which makes me feel quite special. So I knew a whole two weeks before Erin did. I also got to see the ever so sparkly ring. Erin seemed determined to trip Kyle and I up, she mentioned something random about weddings nearly every day for those two weeks. All I have to say to Kyle is, 'I'm impressed', you managed to keep a secret from the nosiest person ever. Well done.

So I'm a Fugitive Who Can Transform Into a Huge Dog...SWEET!

2005-07-13T18:50:00.000-05:00

In honor of the new Harry Potter book coming out and the fact that I just re-read "The Order of the Phoenix" in one day.

You scored as Sirius Black. You are the most loyal friend anyone could ask for because you'd go to any length to ensure their safety and happiness. You're free-spirited and very difficult to confine to a caged life. You love being in the company of those you love and love to show them how much they mean to you. You loathe those who only live for self-gain and show disloyalty. You're a great person but sometimes its needed of you to think more rationally than being quick to jump into things.

Harry Potter Character compatibility Test
created with QuizFarm.com

Mmm, chocolate

2005-07-13T11:37:00.000-05:00

Apparently I've been craving myself...

BROWNIE BATTER!
You scored 77% SWEET, 74% CHUNKY, and 74% UNIQUE!

brownie batter ice cream with a rich brownie batter swirl

Mmmm....you are a very sweet mix indeed! You are warm, loving, and
caring to all those around you, but you're not boring in the least! You
have a wild streak and a creative, unique streak, too. You are a great
friend, an interesting person, and you know how to have fun without
ending up crouching over a toilet bowl. Nice!

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 67% on SWEET
You scored higher than 80% on CHUNKY
You scored higher than 78% on UNIQUE

Link: The Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavor Test written by weered1 on Ok Cupid