last day of NOvember

So the husband and I got into a spat over leftovers. I find it somewhat humorous. We almost didn't have any leftovers and then it seems like there are so many leftovers but then the last of the dark meat, dressing and gravy was all heated up and piled on a plate and it didn't seem like enough for us both. Good thing I was generous with the last big wedge of Rum Cake (oh, that was so good...)!

Penultimate post of November

I do wish I were eating this right now.

dog threw up

Poor Peretz. Poor us humans, cleaning that crap up.

ate too much yesterday. halfway through the preparations DbR said that Neil and Fafnir might come over for dinner. He showed me how all of our dishes were vegetarian except the bird itself, the dressing which was now stuffing and gravy. I was wowed. DbR then pointed out the paltry five potatoes I had gotten, more than enough for us two but now we were four, maybe even six because Cooper and Jess were possibly coming as well. I was a little nervous and when we took out the turkey I had misgivings as did he, that it was too dry. He knifed out a bit on top of the white meat and it was actually very good as was the skin which he had rubbed with some nice spicy maple spicy stuff. it was spicy.

so it did become the six of us and Cooper brought over all this fancy scotch which was nice to taste and we downloaded star trek onto the magic netflix box and I fell in love with Bill all over again. I wish he was in the movie which is coming in May. boo hoo.

Did you know that I didn't like racism?

But I do love a big sweater and a funny winter toque.

I like Alex Baldwin

I'm sitting down watching Rosie Live and it's schmaltzy but awesome. Alex is on right now and seeing him makes me want to watch Outside Providence again. I'm kind of t'red 'cause when I came home I launched into constant kitchen motion for the last 3 hours. I wasn't even making anything for tomorrow. The last few nights DbR and I have been looking at each other at dinner time and wondering what the heck to eat because all the food in the house is generally earmarked for the thanksgiving meal. Sunday we had frozen pizzas, monday we had...oh, some curry rice thing he whipped up with all the extra stuff he could find and last nght we ate chinese (I had ginger milk bubble tea-yum!) but tonight I knew what was going to happen and I went to Fosters before coming home even though I had promised myself I wouldn't go to the store today. But I went because I wanted to get cake stuff and then while I was there I thought, "I should get dinner stuff." I thought, hamburgers! but since we split a meatloaf club earlier I thought there must be another meat we could enjoy and I contemplated the chicken for a while and while I was I thought "enchiladas" and then forwent the chicken for ground pork. So I came home and while DbR made filling for sweet potato pies and squash stuff I made enchiladas and then baked off the yummy chocolate cookies, pictures to follow.

I really like that Kathy Griffith.

Love is hiding who you are at all times, even when you're asleep

Watching 50 Rock, it's so great. This one actually stars Tim Conway who is pretty funny. It's a good show. Haven't watched any of the new ones, though. "My genius has come alive, like toys when your back is turned." Tracy Jordan

This evening since it wasn't colder than hell or raining like crazy so I decided I would take Pickles on a longer walk than usual. Since it has been dark before I even get home from work I lack the get up and go to go very far with him so I usually just saunter around the quick block. Now I actually know what I was missing and like I said, since it wasn't torture tonight, Pickles and I walked up to the flashing light and the Husband and Peretz tagged along. Just about at the corner Pickles and I saw a cute and curious shih tzu who crossed the street to see us. Pickles sniffed and didn't get too alarming but acted affronting enough to get Ms. Shih to walk back across. But then Cutie acted upsettingly, going over to the corner and crossing the street at the blinking light and then she wavered about the street as if to cross again and cars starting coming along at a quick rate and DbR and I were both very anxious about her. I left Pickles with his pals and crossed over to check out where Ms. Shih lived which hopefully was on her tags. She saw me coming and trotted away, away from Allen, up Beech and happily on her way home. Why was she allowed to wander about freely? Dangerous.



I miss days/walks like this.



Last night I was watching the third episode of the fifth season of Buffy and Giles was standing next to a bookcase and was looking at a certain book and I saw that on the same shelf as the book he had taken out and was looking at was the book LINCOLN by Gore Vidal. I think that's pretty cool because that book is great. (As is BURR) I also just enjoy episodes which focus on Xander.

Yay, worlds collide

I know stuff about my neighborhood

As I write this, I am choking a little on some particles which have been stirred up in my cellar by some blowing/vacuuming device which has been used by the guy from Deerfield Valley Heating and Cooling. We paid to have him come in and give the boiler a once over to make sure it is in adequate shape for this cold winter and he cleaned something or something with some tool which blew all sorts of debris dust smoke particles into the air, which have travelled upstairs to where I and the dogs are and it's making it hard to breathe and smells yukky. I also am disturbed by the cloudy quality of the air in the kitchen. Yuck. I did open the back door for a couple minutes but that action did not take much edge off the infusion. Poor Lauri. I feel sympathy for the slobs who live in Beijing and other polluted towns where poor air quality is an everyday thing. yuck.
The guy just came upstairs with a steaming bucket which I assume is filled with hot water from the boiler. I have the dogs on leashes in the kitchen and they are excited and interested in his comings and goings.

Big week has begun. DbR and I, "the newlyweds" are gearing up for our first Thanksgiving. I have never cooked the grand turkey dinner before, I have only made pies and cleaned up while boyfriends and others have cooked and done the dealio which is fine with me. But this year we have no where else really to go and I would very much like some turkey and stuffing so I've convinced Husband to come along with me on the Thanksgiving ride. He seems up for it. We went to Atkins and bought our 9.7 lb Plainville Farms turkey and some cranberries and potatoes and squash and mushrooms. Last week DbR made a super great spicy maple squash dish so I asked him to repeat that and I asked him if he could make a pumpkin pie and he opted for a sweet potato pie-yum. I think I am going to try to make those cookies again and I am going to follow the directions perfectly this time (see yesterday's blog for reference) and see if they can be moister. Although last night people did eat the cookies with gusto and when I complained that I wished they were more moist one guy said, "so they would be liquid" so who knows, maybe I am hypercritical about my cookies. I used white chocolate chips instead of chocolate chocolate chips and that may have been the trouble.

I have been looking through the November 08 issue of Gourmet and there are two main articles about Thanksgiving. One is the huge deluxe thanksgiving meal and the other is, "thanksgiving in four hours!" In the deluxe article there is a recipe for chipotle meatballs which I'd like to try sometime-not for Thanksgiving-and there is this other fancy recipe for wild mushroom bundles which look hella good and I asked the husband to take them on. We need something green at the table, right? So I'm nervous-I want everything to be yummy and I don't want us to argue and get aggravated in the kitchen together but we'll be okay. Yesterday while I made cookies and he the banana pudding, all was well. I wish we had more counter space though!!

Recipes always crap out

Lately I have been making cookies and cakes, etc. using recipes I find in Gourmet or on line. They are not Gourmet recipes, they are usually recipes found on the sides of pages, in the butter ad or the Ghirardelli chocolate ad. They've been turning out not exactly right-today I made these chocolate cookies and they don't look like the cookies in the ad, boo hoo, and they are kind of dry-not sweet and gushy, even though they have plenty of butter and choc. chips in them. I did make some alterations in the recipe which may have caused the imperfect result and it is not like the cookies are crap or anything. They are very chocolatey-just not super soup-y and moist. oh well.

DbR made a big batch of banana pudding, I have to laugh, it is pretty huge. DbR makes the pudding as a bunch of layers: cookie, pudding (made from scratch), bananas, cookie, pudding, bananas, etc and then on top a layer of whipped cream, yum. The thing fills up a large turkey roasting pan-it is fairly momentous. I think the cookies will go hella well with the puddin'. I kind of don't really like the cookies all that much. Anyway, we are bringing those desserts to the Hope + Olive tonight along with our Singstar game to celebrate 2 out of 3 of the proprietors of that restaurant and it should be good. I hope people like my cookies even though they are dry and tasteless.

I hope the stuff I make for Thanksgiving turns out tastier.

Saturday

"notify Agent Zarkov"

watching that Flash Gordon movie from the 80's. Its funny. Seems like Agent Zarkov is a little spaced out in this scene. What's going to happen? Been trying to keep the house warm with the woodstove. It's going okay. I wanted to take the edge off the third floor and warm the kid's room up a little. It just seems so cold cold cold.

wow, it's later than i thought

lately it has been hard keeping track of time. it's dark, it's light, now it's dark again. ok, it's dark but it's still early. no, it's late.
I did all the dishes and some laundry but there are so many plastic and paper bags strewn about the pantry it's disgusting and i wish i knew where my magic wand was put.

bedroom is also a mess. trying to heat the house with the woodstove. doing okay.

I will survive

First otter reaches Farne Islands

An otter has survived a "perilous" three-mile sea crossing to the Farne Islands for the first time, the National Trust has said.

The animal, more commonly found in rivers, has swum from the coast of Northumberland despite rough seas.

Head warden David Steel said he was stunned to find 60 yards of otter tracks on Brownsman Island, which is famed for its bird colonies.

The mammal has not yet been sighted, but it is thought to be still there.

Agitated behaviour by the island's gulls and puffins suggest the new predator has settled in.

Force nine gales

While otters in Scotland do live in coastal areas, Mr Steel said it was "a rare event" to see them by the sea in England.

For one to reach an island three miles offshore was, he said, "incredible".

"It is staggering that an otter could survive the perilous journey out to the Farne Islands, especially Brownsman, which is a long way from the mainland," he said.

"We almost had to rub our eyes with disbelief when we discovered the tracks," he told the BBC.

"We've recently had force nine gales and it can be tricky to reach the islands even on a relatively calm day, which makes this otter's journey a little bit special."

Mr Steel said the otter may be a young animal, fresh from leaving the family fold and seeking its own territory.

"It might be a lonely animal, but it will hopefully survive," he said.

"There'll certainly be plenty of food, plenty of crustaceans and fish to feed upon, but unfortunately, unless another animal swims out here, it might have a lonely existence.

"But there's no reason why we can't get a second or third animal. They are obviously exploring this area so, who knows, maybe in the future might have a small breeding population."

The only worry, Mr Steel said, was about the impact the otter might have on nesting birds next summer.

"Unfortunately, otters are carnivores. They will feast upon bird eggs and small chicks so at that moment it may be a slight concern."

In the late 1950s and early 60s, otters underwent a sudden and catastrophic decline throughout much of Britain and Europe, probably due to the combined effects of pollution and habitat destruction.

home with the guys

I blew off yoga. I'm just lazy. Came home after running a few errands and made a fire while husband made a pretty great dinner-tortellini with gorgonzola and a squashy side dish. Looks like us newlyweds are going to have to put a thanksgiving meal together at home. Might actually be fun, right?

Looking forward to watching an instant download of dirty harry. I used to watch that fairly frequently and I'm psyched to see it again. First, however, a dog walk. Feeling lazy about that as well.

hungry-er than usual

why does one get more hungry than the usual hungry when one is unable to eat as opposed to just not eating? Today I received the second half of my scraping and planing dental treatment, getting the remaining plaque and calculus taken off my choppers. Again, the yoga breath was very helpful. When the needles came into my mouth and poked poked poked at me, I found myself tensing up. When the laser stream hit my gums and other places, I found my brow was furrowed and my shoulders tensed. What I would do is stare at a corner of the drop ceiling and breath through my nose in that conscious fashion and the brow would unwrap, the shoulders would come down, the dental needle faded off and now I have the clean teeth and firm resolve to brush floss and poke with more intent and better purpose.

The scraping/planing woman would often murmur with concern while working on my wisdom teeth and had to come back to them again and again. I tortured her by saying, "well, it figures that the calculus would be attracted to the wisdom tooth!" oh, I know, I know, poor lady.

Now I'm hella hungry. Just cleaned the bathroom and looking forward to the mount everest of dishes-yay!

arbitrary rulings

today at work i was told that the cfo wanted to change the way i label some invoices which i enter into an accounting program and there was no real reason except for a whim, as i was told...i plead my case and then some kittens came into the office and i fled home with a migraine Ala nausea.

at home i had some alka seltzer and was yet again amazed at its acuity regarding absolution of all physical ailments. today literally as i drank it (and it went down very easy) i felt it healing as i felt it descend my esophagus. it was miraculous. i went upstairs and lay down with pickles under the blanket and felt better as i sipped my peppermint tea.

later i talked to the kid and a brilliant plan was formed for this weekend. i can't wait.

i did not go to yoga and i missed it. but then i went to dinner at the hope and olive. i had the meatloaf. it was perfect.

have i posted yet today?

why can't i remember how to publish links? argh
i remember i knew some stuff once but not any more.
i'm kind of excited because i made a group in facebook and it is very popular which makes me happy.
i miss my kid and i'm not sure when i am going to see him next.
guess i'll drink a beer and watch Buffy.

Make Food With Meat.

I have a headache and I should take a shower. I made a great new group on Facebook! Go join.

watching 90210

today was topsy turvy and for a while i was grumpy and for a while i was sick but now im relaxed and sure, i didn't get to see the concert i wanted to but that happens.

whhops!

where'd friday go? I forgot to blog. it was a nutty day. on thurs I found out that the guy who is Iron and Wine is playing in northampton tonight (saturday) and it was "sold out" except for those token 100 tix at the door. I was pretty bummed because I have been semi-obsessed with "Shepherd's Dog" since it came out last...Nove? Dec? and kind of really would like to see my favorite songs done live. Do I go down to Hamp at 5:30 and hang around to get a ticket? what a drag.

after work I wanted some husband time even though I had scheduled myself to go to an event in Hamp so he and I went out and saw a 7 pm showing of Quantum of Solace which was pretty great. Bond has a car race, a boat race and a plane race (navigating all the vehicles) it was good-there were some teen boys sitting behind us who had to keep checking in with each other about the plot. fucking losers. "who's Vesper?" idiots. and then when we were walking out some teen girl said to her friend, "the last one was so great, i don't know what the deal is"

right after i got home i jumped in my car and raced to hamp and saw winterpills who were great but too short a set and then while the other people who i didn't know played, etc. i had some pretty nice convos with peops i haven't seen in a while, which was a pretty nice catch up. i listened to JJ's rant regarding emails vs. phone calls which i appreciated and met up with Rosemary who is an old friend moving to Amherst. All i could talk about was the possibility of Sal's band playing Montague next week. I hope it happens (bites fingernails nervously).

its raining and crappy outside. i am about to leave for a yoga class at one and david just took Pickles out in the rain for a poo. i feel appreciative and guilty. i'll make it up to him with cake later!

Last Night at the Hope and Olive

last night we went out to dinner at the H+O "just for beer and salads" but we received more food than just that as we sat at the bar.
The highlights were the ribs I had ordered for seven bucks:



which were freaking amazing and that sauce on the side? i may create a shrine of devotion just for that sauce.
The ribs went perfectly well with these, which I think cost three or four:



yes, those are rutabaga fries which come with their own sauce, thank you very much. A very perfect meal is these two dishes together with a pint of Racer Five. I would like to all that for lunch. But wait, I'm a card carrying member of the meatloaf club! the decisions are killer! oh thank you DbR for making these photos available.

wow i almost spaced out...

...blogging today! I've sort of set as a goal an everyday/blog November, like I did last year on nomoblolo or whatever that website is. I noticed immediately that DbR blogs every day easy, doesn't have to even try, it seems, to blog two sometimes three times a day. I can sort of get like that, take an easy once a day but today, well, good thing blogger is on cali time.

today was annoying at work but the smoke cleared after lunch. one of my bosses sent me an email requesting a bottled water and candy run. that makes me laugh. then i walked down the cold drizzly street to do a bank run, which was fine since I bundled up and had my rain hat. sure, it wasn't as great as a September afternoon running into Thurston Moore kind of walk down the street but it was interesting and gives me a template upon which to compare those sweet summer afternoons.

then i went to yoga and it was a drag driving down the drizzly dark fiveten. the class was worth it though-sure i couldn't do standing head to knee but my camel kicks ass and everything gets thoroughly charged from that. bacon sandwiches for dinner rounded out the domestication of me.

My bras always seem too small

Today I had my teeth cleaned for the first time in twenty years. As I wrote before, there is much calculus which needed to be chipped away by the periodonal assistant. She was very nice. I felt the need to apologize for the gross plaque and for the need for her assiduous care. She used an instrument which sprayed a laser sharp stream of water onto my teeth and gums and I had to have the water (and blood!) sucked up by the vacuum straw again and again. The left side of my mouth was so numb that I kept feeling like I was drooling all over her and myself and I may have been but she was very kind and assured me repeatedly that all was well.

There were times when the laser stream was uncomfortable against my gum or I was simply swept away in the small panic of mouth care. It was then that the yoga practice I have been involved in came very much into play and proved extremely useful. When the dentist was in with the big Novocaine needle I was nervous and at other times during the scraping and planing I could feel myself get a little anxious. During those times (and in general during the procedure) I would look up at the drop ceiling and pick a spot in particular and breath in and out through my nose with deliberation. This usually worked to mellow me out and also to give me the needed oxygen. If I still needed mellowing I would count my breaths, not going over two-1.2.1.2-this also helped me to notice that my brow or face was scrunched up and who needs that? I would smooth out the whole package with precise prana.

Yoga almost mellowed me out

I am watching that tv show FRINGE and there is some gross thing inside someone's chest, some alien parasite and its grossing me out. It is so gross that I almost rather walk the dogs instead of watching. I don't really want to walk the dogs, I'm feeling kind of lazy and uninterested in walking around the block. I just want to sit around and be lazy.

Meanwhile, I went to yoga today and kept my blood sugar fairly high-around 200 through the class which I know is far from ideal but I was able to keep my energy up and did all the poses except for two--and I never do those two. I did really well, I think, but now I'm feeling pretty fucking lazy.

Tomorrow: tooth planing and scraping! yay!

cats and their toys

Harriet writes: she's doing great. getting and giving all the cuddles anyone (and dog) can stand. yay. i think i made the right decision there although i do need a mouse and mole killer. she was supergreat in the hunting department. good cat.

weird day

i'm cold and i tried to snuggle up with my husband but Pickles got in between us and it became awkward so i got up, flossed the teeth and came upstairs to my lovely bed which has plenty of room for me. cold though. that situation will rectify once i get down under.

today i went to yoga and it started out pretty nice even though there were some new girls who sat filing their nails and doing their hair while waiting for the class to begin. i always lay down in shavasana to calm my worried mind as well as i can before the class starts. these gals were not doing that. they were newbies. the blond gal next to me kept glancing over at me which i generally hate but i was able to tune her out alright. the class is an hour and a half long and by the 8th or so pose (out of 22) i was feeling weaker and more nauseous than usual. this continued the rest of the class and it never occurred to me that i had low blood sugar but i did and my energy ebbed and i only did one pose out of every two or so. it sucked. anyway, this is boring but i had planned on blogging once a day and right now this is what i am thinking about. when i first got to yoga and was just chilling on the floor noticing the other yoga practisers doing their non-yoga prep i was thinking about how i should write an essay about how strange people are with their workouts. it seems to me that if you go to the yoga class you should or, well, you might want to get in the mood, to wholly immerse yourself in the mindset of the Bikram practice once you get into the room and are about to start but i guess one has to come to that realization on their own. or not. i just find it distracting when people are distracted. i guess i'm a little bit of a yoga nazi. i'm sure i was distracting today when i was pacing around wondering what the hell was wrong with me when all i needed was a little vitamin water.

i know, whats wrong with me? i've only been a diabetic for 28 years, seems like i'd know the symptoms, right? well, i tested my blood sugar before the class and the meter read 300 which is hella high, that should keep me fine through an hour and half of major sweating. but either the test was incorrect or that insulin i had taken 3 hours earlier suddenly hit. that's unlikely. the test was wrong. in the car after the class i tested 72! yoink. i got home ok and there was chili and biscuits waiting which is always nice.

so thats my dumb post for this weird day. there is more that made it weirder but its personal and who knows, my mom could be reading this.

and you know about my interest in u.s. presidents and their families..

Just a thought about the united states for a minute. Slowly, as I get used to the idea that O actually did win and that the society in which I live actually is “better” than I gave it credit for, I start coming to startling and hopeful ideas. Maybe we American humans can start actually looking at each other, perhaps being more friendly and less antagonistic to each other. If this certain man was elected in by us united states citizens, maybe my fellow citizens aren’t the assholes I’ve believed them to be for the past forever.

Was I still hopeful back when Clinton was president? When did I become so jaded? Can I retrieve my non-jadedness? I think Clinton was just a quick relief, a good ol’ boy who fit in the u.s. presidential cookie cutter in a not great way. I like him and I have more respect for him now, I think, than when he was president, but while he was president, I certainly wasn’t renewed with hope for my country and awakened with astounding ideas of unity and fellowship the way I have been because of O’s election.

There’s a chance, a very happy exciting chance, that we right thinking awakened people can perhaps grab back this country and make it less of a killing belligerent monster that it has become under BushJr’s watch and, in the big picture, which it has become post ww2. Can I actually open my hope chest?

good ol' mom

So, My mom got a computer and needs a quick tutorial and so I asked David if he wanted to come on over to Syracuse and help her to figure stuff out that the ol' lady is new to learning. Always up for an adventure he said yeah and so here we are. I helped her pick up some sites and favorite some stuff and now she's on flickr-whee.

maybe going to visit Norm soon

something funny that happened today

Hail those playfully competitive sibling proprietors! the lucky ones: eaters and local foodies like me and DbR.

rainy days and mondays

The oldies channel is really getting me down today. Someone is really programming the sad ones.
I think I have a predilection.
Don't let the sun catch ya crying, yo.

feeling better feeling okay

Happy the election is over
Happy that hellish woman can fade into oblivion
Happy that the u.s. isn't as fascist as I had feared
Happy to make plans to visit the white house sometime soon

dinner is nigh

eh.

i am so nervous

what if obama wins and the republican party gears up to wipe us all out in 2012? what if the political machine of the u.s. is creepier than i expect and our new democratic president doesn't have the protection that our current president/murderer is given and tragedy ensues? why does my country's government fill me with dread/horrible certain darkness? I'm worried I'm worried I'm worried I'm worried I wish I could spend the day with Gore Vidal I'm worried I'm worried I'm worried I'm worried

ha!

I thought I had all of our accomodations squared away for the Hawaii vacation but the lady realtor emailed me and said she has a heavy heart because she overbooked during the time of our stay. I detested her vague delivery more than her incompetence.

Anyway, it is actually a good thing because I was enjoying the act of finding and deciding, investigating and mapping so here I have a whole new opportunity! yay for me.
I will find a way better place. It may not be next door to the shaved ice place in Haleiwa that DbR fancied so wholeheartedly but maybe we'll see this guy:


Here's hoping the Republican mob doesn't rule the u.s. like I fear it do.

German for 'Levensies?

Mittagspause

yay, November one

So, halloween is over for another year. I have to say I am a little bit relieved, as usual. We went around to a couple places and it was fun, etc. but I spent too much time last night feeling kind of hungry. I still am a little bit hungry. Carol and Dana had a pretty great to=do over to the Apollo Grille. There were some interesting peops but not enough food, ha ha. David won second place in the costume contest-Thanks to me! ha ha.