Raevyn's Nest

Moved, mostly

2012-01-31T14:44:00.002-06:00

I hate moving, more than just about anything I have to do. I think it goes back to my childhood, when, courtesy of the US Army, I was moved 5 times from the time I was born until I was 3 years old. Until I was 25, the longest I lived in one place was 5½ years. To the best of my recollection, all of the army moves were done by professionals, right down to the packing, and several pieces of my furniture bear multiple identification stickers from those moves. I hate packing, and I kind of don't really like unpacking, but I do a little better at the unpacking than at the packing. Saturday, courtesy of some of the most awesome friends, and my 2 youngest nephews, all of the furniture, and 97% of the boxes got moved. Most of what was left is hanging clothes, and miscellaneous stuff, only about half to ¾ of which will get moved, the rest is just plain crapola, and will go in the garbage.
The cats have done very well, especially Trinity & Tegan, who were born in the house we just moved out of. I think the best part for them is that they don't get locked up in the bedroom at night, so if they want to go out on a perimeter inspection in the night, they can, at least as much of the perimeter as the walls will allow. There's only been one accident, and it was on the linoleum floor, so easy enough to clean up. They are still very much sleep with Mom cats, at least 3 of them are. Mollie, however, has decided to proclaim her independence, and she's not going to sleep in the bedroom unless it pleases her to do so, thankyouverymuch, a point she made last night by staying out in the living room on the ottoman.
We have less space overall than we had access to in the old place, but their confinement has gone from about 120sqft (our bedroom, which is where they HAD to spend their nights, and where they remained confined anytime I was gone overnight) to 790sqft, although part of that is closed off until I can get to sorting all those boxes and such. We now live in a 2 bedroom duplex with NO DOGS in our space. The bedrooms are a little bigger than the one we had, and they are also more square, while the previous one was Longer than it was wide. I chose the larger (by about a foot's width) of the 2 rooms simply because it IS larger, but I discovered on Saturday night that I chose even MORE wisely because the window in that room faces the back of the property, which is essentially an open field, whereas the other bedroom's window faces the parking lot on that end of the building (I am in the downstairs unit of a 2 story building), and while the security light is AWESOME to have lighting the parking lot, it also lights up that bedroom pretty well too.
I am quite pleased with the fact that I have finally pared down (9 years after Mom died) everything I own to that which I will actually USE, or I truly LOVE. Now if I can just find those organizational faeries to come get everything unpacked and organized, it will be fabulous! I am not pushing myself to get it all done at once. Last night I picked up a load of stuff (mostly clothes and my small garbage cans) from the old place on my way home from work. My goal for last night was to get the kitchen cleaned up (dirty dishes from the chili I cooked on Saturday to feed my moving crew, plus what hadn't gotten washed on Sunday & Monday), unload at least 1 moving container in the kitchen, and get all the clothes sorted. I managed to accomplish that PLUS clean out a drawer in my dresser that was holding random stuff instead of the clothes it could/should have! I also got the window security locks installed on all the windows except the one I can't get to in the spare bedroom (aka storage bedroom) because of all the boxes. Tonite I have several loads of laundry to get done (thank heavens for the inexpensive Laundromat a mile from home with 25-cent washers & reasonably priced dryers AND free wi-fi (since my home internet is STILL not working, tyvm AT&T for telling me lie after lie throughout the process of getting moved. If you'd been honest in the first place, I would already have everything I need & not be hatin' on you today) that I can use to get my internet fix, and get caught up on some of my FB apps that have suffered the last 5 days since I unplugged on Friday before the move… I figure that by the time I finish the laundry, I'll be ready to get home, hang what needs to dry in the bathroom, put the rest away, and empty another tote in the kitchen before I am ready for bed. At this rate, the kitchen will be put together by the weekend, but not a whole lot else. I just HAVE to finish it before Scarby starts, though I'd like to be able to say it's finished before NTIF, which still gives me 4 weeks to get it all done (aside from the monster in the spare bedroom, which will be reasonably done by the beginning of Scarby, if for no other reason than I'll need to be able to get all my garb organized & easy to choose from & pack for each weekend).

Fresh Bread

2012-01-15T21:47:00.000-06:00

So I've decided to stop spending money on bread, which often goes bad before I finish the loaf. I made a loaf last week that turned out to be entirely too dense to use for sandwiches. So today I found another recipe, over here at the Hungry Mouse. Instead of two loaves, I cut the recipe in half and made just one loaf.
My recipe is below:

1C warm water
1T sugar
1 pkg yeast (yes, I'm still using individual packages, but once I get moved, I'll be investing in bulk yeast, since it's significantly less expensive per use)
2 & 3/4 C self rising flour
1T butter

Since I was using self rising flour, I eliminated the salt that is in the Hungry Mouse's recipe.

I dissolved the sugar into the water in my bowl, then added the yeast and let it sit for about 10 minutes or so before I added in the flour and butter.

I don't have a stand mixer (yet), so I used a fork to get the mixing started, then kneaded by hand for about 5 minutes or so, until the dough was firm and elastic.

I let it rise for about an hour until it rose to a little more than double it's original size, then punched it back down, kneaded it a few more minutes and formed the loaf before I put it into the lightly greased glass loaf pan.

I baked it for 40 minutes at 350 degrees in my toaster/convection oven. My only regret is that I didn't take into account that the back of my oven heats faster than the front, so I neglected to turn the loaf halfway through, in order to brown it evenly.

Overall, I'm much happier with this loaf than I was with last week's, it's lighter, and it tastes better. I sliced several slices, but then stopped because it wasn't quite all the way cooled down, so the slices were a bit gummy. The end piece I ate was delicious, and I'm looking forward to having some for breakfast in the morning... I'm thinking perhaps some chai toast...

Dublin Dr Pepper

2012-01-13T15:33:00.001-06:00

Any of ya'll who know me very well know that I'm a Pepper, to the core. Dr Pepper is the only soda I've ever drunk with any regularity. In a pinch Mr. Pibb, or most generic versions of Dr Pepper will do, but when the server says to me, after I've ordered my Dr Pepper "Is Pepsi ok?", the response they'll get is "hell no, Pepsi's not OK, if I wanted a Pepsi, I would have ordered one. I'll have tea or water instead." I started ingesting Dr Pepper in utero, because during her pregnancy, coffee made my mother sick, so she, being the good TX woman she is, drank Dr Pepper for her caffeine. (After all, this was, you know, before caffeine was bad for us, particularly for developing babies). When I was a little girl, and we lived in Kansas, we would periodically go down to Marshall to visit my grandmother. Her Dr Pepper was HEAVENLY. What I didn't know then, was that the taste difference was partially because she bought the liter bottles (glass ones), instead of cans, and partially due to water differences at such at the plant that bottled hers vs. the plant that canned what we could get a the commissary. Even when we moved back to TX, ours tasted different than hers, though once she moved to a neighborhood near ours, I figured out that by then most of the difference in taste was the glass/can differences.
Once HFCS became the standard rather than sugar for the majority of the Dr Pepper bottlers, I never really thought about the difference anymore, until I was an adult and happened upon some of the cane sugar version. Since I lived in the Dallas & Tarrant county areas, I didn't often come across any of the cane sugar, or Dublin version, because I never traveled into the 6 county area that had always been the Dublin plant's territory. Do I prefer the cane sugar version? Yep, who wouldn't prefer a more natural version. For awhile, I took the longer (timewise) route to visit my bestie because it took me through Granbury and Stephenville, both within the territory, and I could pick up some of the good stuff, albeit at a bit of a premium price (not a LOT more, but it was a bit more expensive). Eventually, I started seeing the 6-packs of 8 oz bottles in some of the small, independent farmer's & specialty markets. When I inquired, I was informed that they drove to Dublin specifically to purchase it, something like once a month or so. By 2007, I was seeing it in major retailers, such as WalMart and Central Market, in TARRANT COUNTY. I also got it out of fountains at several chain restaurants in both DALLAS & TARRANT counties. Did this make me happy? Sure it did, I LOVE that version of Dr Pepper. Did some part of me wonder what was up, since I'd read various places about their restricted territory? Of course. Did that stop me from buying it when I saw it? Nope, if I had the money, I picked some up.
I don't remember when I first heard rumblings of Dr Pepper Snapple Group starting to discuss with the Dublin plant their marketing and labeling, but to the best of my recollection, it's been going on for well over a year, maybe two. When the lawsuit was filed in June 2011, it came as no surprise to me. I don't see it as a corporate greed thing, I see it as enforcing a contract. I recall blips on the news and such about DPSG asking, then telling the Dublin plant to only use "approved" logos. Dublin elected to continue to add "Dublin" to their labeling, rendering it "unapproved". Did they try to get it approved? I have no idea, and now it really doesn't matter. The Dublin plant agreed to a franchise agreement, which spelled out where they could sell the product, and how they could package/label it. They made the decision to knowingly violate the terms of the contract, not just once, but repeatedly. I know of no other franchised products that are allowed to use unapproved, location specific logos or packaging. Every DQ, Burger King, KFC, Whataburger, McDonalds, they all use standard logos and packaging. When I was at the Flagship Whataburger in Corpus Christi a couple of years back, their packaging was exactly like every other Whataburger I've ever been into. Did they place too much faith in the "We are the oldest continually operating plant, so we can make our own rules" idea? Did they think that when push came to shove DPSG would just back down? I don't know, I'm not a party to the inner workings of either organization, nor do I wish to be. What I do know is that as much as I LOVE the cane sugar version, and I'm sorry that it came to this, I can't help but think that the Dublin plant shot themselves in the foot, when they refused to abide by the terms to which they had agreed.
I've gotten several requests to sign at least one petition, there may be a couple circulating, I don't know for sure, and join in a boycott of Dr Pepper Snapple Group products. I've elected not to do so for a couple of reasons. Number one, the time for the petition/boycott was last summer, when the suit was first filed, to show support for the plant and the way it was doing things BEFORE it lost it's Dr Pepper production. As many of us as there are that love the cane sugar version, the reality is that very few of us actually live within the territory that the Dublin plant was authorized to sell in, and therefore the majority of us haven't been drinking it exclusively anyway, and the reality is that even if everyone who signs the petition never buys another Dr Pepper again, it really won't make that much difference to DPSG, their territory is too widespread, and product lines are too diverse. Number two, I don't think that the Dublin plant is the innocent little guy in all of this. They failed to meet the terms of their agreements with DPSG, and in the end, it cost them their franchise. I'm sympathetic to the 14 people who were "laid off", but I question whether or not that was really necessary, and whether that can actually be laid at the feet of DPSG. Could Dublin Bottle Works not use them in another capacity? Ok, they can't bottle Dr Pepper, but they can bottle several other things, why not ramp up production of those, and save the 14 jobs?
I'm sorry that it came to this point, and I'm sure the residents of Dublin are heartbroken and disappointed, but I really think that it could have been avoided if the plant had stuck to its end of the bargain to start with.

Kitchen Lessons

2012-01-08T21:40:00.000-06:00

I've tried in the past to not buy a lot of groceries at a time, to go along with the European trend of getting fresh food from the market every few days, instead of doing a big shop one day a week. The problem for me with that is that if I haven't already planned and done some prep, well, then I end up buying junk. Fridays on my way home from work is when I typically do most of my grocery shopping. This serves two purposes, the first is that I'm not fighting with a million people on Saturday (at any given time), and I've discovered that I find fresher stuff Friday night, that's been stocked for the crowds that will be in on Saturday. I live in what I call a 'country-city'. We're actually a city, but a significant part of our property tax base is rural or semi-rural. My grocery store options are Albertson's, Wal-Mart, Brookshire's, and Save-A-Lot. Most of my staples come from WalMart simply because they have the best prices, and I trust the quality of what I've always gotten there. I don't buy a lot of bulk, especially perishables, because it will go bad, either from not being frozen in time, or from freezer burn, because bulk is generally just entirely too much for one person to use. I do sometimes stop at Central Market on my way home from church on Sundays to pick up something special, or stock up on bulk spices. I'm thrilled beyond belief that when I shift back to the main office, instead of the field office I'm in right now, I will pass an HEB going to & from work!
Today I did my main prepwork for this week's dinners (and lunches, probably, since I need to learn to give up my naps at lunch, so I'll be able to actually sit down and eat something, instead of grabbing a sandwich on the run back to work). I made a meatloaf in my new, smaller slow cooker. It turned out better than I expected, but not quite as good as I'd hoped. Of course, I wasn't paying attention, and forgot to put my sauce on the top for the last 15 minutes, though I'm not sure the sauce would have done a whole lot. I also made homemade macaroni and cheese, using the 5 cheese macaroni & cheese recipe that was used at TGI Friday's a few years ago. I tweaked it a little bit, because I couldn't find any fontina cheese here in the country-city, so I substituted gouda instead, and it was still quite tasty. I halved the recipe, however it still made more than I can eat before it goes bad, so I'm thinking I'm going halve it again, and hope that it will be a more reasonable amount, to minimize the waste.
Tomorrow I'll be having a beef stir-fry, with some brown rice, red peppers, & snap peas to use up a small piece of steak that I froze a couple of weeks ago and need to get cooked before it dies.
Tuesday I've got some chicken breast tenders in the freezer that I'm going to grill on my little countertop grill, and have with some more of the mac & cheese, and some green beans
Wednesday is dinner with my crew, and my one night out this week.
Thursday I may roast up a piece of the pork roast I bought Friday night. I'm going to halve it, because it's almost 2 lbs, and I'm going to save the other half to cook later, so I don't end up wasting at least of half of it.
I browned another pound of ground beef to make a casserole. I've not decided for sure yet, but as it's browned with just some onion & some red pepper, I can turn it into sloppy joes, or Mexican food, or even Italian, though I did spaghetti last week, so it's not likely to be Italian again this week. And since I'll be gone on Saturday evening, and all my other evenings are covered, I may just bag it up and toss it in the freezer to have ready for the next time I need to grab some out of the freezer quickly.
I also made my first loaf of bread just for me. I used a basic Country Bread recipe that I found. I'm satisfied with it, but not totally pleased. I'm planning to use it for sandwiches for lunch or breakfast, and it's a little bit dense for that. I think I just didn't let it rise long enough the second time around. Lesson learned.

2012, It’s Good to Meet You

2012-01-01T23:11:00.000-06:00

2011 was not my worst year, nor was it my best year, and I can't say I'm sad it is over with.
I don't make resolutions, or at least I don't call what I do resolutions. I acknowledge that I totally suck at follow-through. Yeah, I'm really good at making plans and setting goals, but I'm not really very good at actually following through on everything necessary to meet them. A lot of what I'd like to get accomplished hasn't been lately, largely because I really don't like my current living situation. The good news is, that in the next 2 months, it will change, and I'll be back in full control of my little world, instead of sharing a house with someone I don't particularly like. I will be able to have my home the way that I want it, and I won't have to worry about someone else's clothes in the laundry when I need to wash mine, or try to work out a tv watching schedule.
I've gotten my groceries for the week, and am doing my best not to eat a lot of junk or processed, foods. I've bought frozen veggies instead of canned, I made my turkey spaghetti sauce from scratch with a can each of tomato sauce & tomato paste and added my own spices instead of buying a jar of Ragu. Since I have tomorrow off, I'm cooking up a batch of brown rice, and a batch of quinoa that I can then freeze into individual portions to reheat easily. I also plan to clean out the refrigerator of the leftovers that haven't been eaten. My goal for January is to have all of my groceries for the week by Sunday, so I can spend the afternoon getting the pre-prep done, cooking up my starches for the week, getting sauces ready, portioning my meats, so that I can do quick prep each evening, and have more time to read, write, or play with the cats before we head to bed.
I borrowed a couple of books from a friend, because I spend entirely too much time on the computer, and I need to get back to one of my first loves, Reading. The books are The Chronicles of Faerie, which is a collection of 3 stories, and the finale to the series, The Book of Dreams, by O.R. Melling. I've started the first, but frankly, haven't gotten very far because I haven't yet conquered my addiction to the internet, and managed to tear myself away from the computer until it's time for bed. My 2^nd goal for January is to spend an hour a day reading, just because I love to read, and not because I have to read that contract, or that business email.
I need to get more organized, which is really not possible in my current living situation, because I just don't have space to spread stuff out and organize it, but I am determined that when I move, I manage not to move so much CRAP that I've wagged around for too long, so as I pack over the next few weeks, I'll start weeding out the crap and trying to organize as I pack. Goal #3 for January is to get my closet sorted and packed, starting with the Christmas stuff.
I'm not going to try to fool myself into believing that I can accomplish a bunch of huge goals, but baby steps I can manage.

Christmas Musings

2011-12-24T23:49:00.000-06:00

It's Christmas Eve, and I'm blessed to be spending the night on the hide-a-bed at a dear friend's house. Her boys are with their Dad, instead of home this Christmas, so I'm not intruding on the whole Santa Claus thing, and I don't have to make an extra trip back to Weatherford after being here for Christmas Eve church before I go see my blood family on Christmas Day.
It's been kind of a weird Christmas season, at least for me. My current roommate is NOT a holiday sort of person, thus doesn't seem to have a tree or ornaments. My tree is still buried in my storage unit, where it will remain until I get moved into my own place & have space to store my stuff at home. He's agreed to just "ignore" my herd of wooden reindeer on the front porch, 3 of which decided to faceplant when the winds came through earlier in the week. It's been windy enough off & on since then that I decided just to let them stay face down, rather than risking them snapping & breaking on a subsequent faceplant. Other than the reindeer, and my table full of ornaments, there's been no sign that it's Christmas at our house. Next year WILL be different.
I've been a baking fool, and virtually all of my gifts this year are baked goods. I made 3 different kinds of cookies, 2 kinds of scones, and 5 loaves of bread. I take that back, I made 5 different kinds of cookies, one got trashed because they were just AWFUL, at least to my taste buds. Now, to be fair, I was sort of rushed, and may have missed a step, or not had enough sugar, or something, but they were just not cookie enough for me. I hate that I had to limit who I could include in my gift list of baked goodies, but in the end, my toaster/rotisserie/convection countertop oven will only bake so much at a time, and the 3 dozen scones my double batch makes takes 3 pans to get cooked in that sucker, whereas in a regular sized oven, it would take 1 and a half!
I've been blessed with a variety of family (blood & chosen), who celebrate in December a variety of things, Yule, Solstice, Hanukkah, and Christmas. I love and respect them and their beliefs, whatever they may be, and I'm grateful that we live in a country that offers all of us the freedom to choose how, where, and when we worship. I pray that those who cannot be with their loved ones during this joyous season are safe and that they are able to at least talk with their loved ones. I appreciate that so many are willing to give up their traditional holidays with family in order to do their jobs, whether they are sailors, soldiers, marines, airmen/women, police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses or other people who are essential to the operation of places like hospitals, that simply cannot shut down. That you are willing to serve, especially in a military or other first responder capacity speaks volumes to the sort of person you are, and I thank you for your service.
And now, a Texas Style Night Before Christmas, that I first saw over at A Southern Fairytale.

Cookie Swap 2011

2011-12-09T10:17:00.000-06:00

This year, I heard about a food blogger cookie swap. Honestly, I'm not sure how I wound up there, but it was probably a Facebook link, as are many of the places I end up on the 'net. I do follow Love and Olive Oil, which is one of the organizers. I'm not strictly a food blogger, but I am kind of a foodie, and I do like to find new recipes to try, and have begun to post them more and more often. When I first discovered the swap, my immediate thought was to use my favorite chocolate chip peanut butter cup cookie recipe, unfortunately, I first published it on my blog back in 2008, after I discovered the teeny tiny little peanut butter cups in the bulk section of one of the fresh foods stores. Aren't they cute?

Since I couldn't use my favorites, I decided that I should just go through my cookie recipes and my late mother's recipe books and find something I could modify to include the peanut butter cups. I decided to go with the chocolate chip cookie bars in one of her notebooks. I simply substituted the peanut butter cups in place of the chocolate chips.

Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Bars
2 C brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 C melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
2 C all-purpose flour (NOT packed)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C extra mini peanut butter cups (I get mine in the bulk foods area. These are the TEENY ones, not the original "mini's" that come individually wrapped from Reese's. Sometimes you can get a 1 or 2 oz pkg of Reese's in about this size now too) or chopped up regular peanut butter cups

Heat oven to 350 & grease 9x13" pan

In a large bowl combine sugar & melted butter & blend well, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in Vanilla. Add flour, baking powder & salt & mix well. Fold in peanut butter cups & mix through.
Spread into prepared pan & bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until set. Be careful NOT to overbake.
Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Makes up to about 36 bars.

As I don't have a full size oven right now and am using a nice toaster/convection/rotisserie oven, I made up the whole batch, but had to bake it in 2 smaller pans to fit them in the oven.

It was lots of fun, I've already enjoyed and shared my first dozen cookies that arrived over the weekend from KidEats. That recipe is DEFINITELY going into my book!

My Favorite Time of Year

2011-11-30T19:48:00.001-06:00

Christmas has been my favorite time of year for as long as I can remember. When I was a little girl, and even when I was a teenager, I'm pretty sure it had more to do with the break from school and gifts under the tree. As I've matured, though, it's become more about the overall feelings of love and joy that surround the season. Growing up, my Mom was all about Christmas, decorating the tree (an artificial one after the live one that I understand we had my first Christmas (I was all of 2 months old) killed her vacuum cleaner as she tried to get the needles up), getting out her assortment of Santas, angels, candles, and sundry other decorations that festooned any available flat surface in our house. Our tree was always beautiful, in that it held a lifetime of memories of travel, family members gone, and an assortment of favorite things that changed from year to year. I still have an ornament in my collection that was on my late uncle's first Christmas tree in 1934. There are a few others from Mom's childhood as well, and many that were inherited when my grandmother passed.

One year, oh, about 2 or 3 years before she died, she was hospitalized at Thanksgiving. I don't remember the specifics, but it was something related to her diabetes. The day after Thanksgivng, or maybe Saturday after, my oldest 2 nephews & I were sent on a mission to replace her turning Christmas tree stand. She loved that little stand, and after about 10 years, it had finally given out, and she was DETERMINED that she would have a turning tree again, so she sent us to the only store she knew that had them. We paid a small fortune (something like $200) for that stand, but it made her happy to know that when she got home, the lights would be up on the house and the tree would be turning in the front window. When I took my nephews home, the oldest said "DAD!, she spent $200 on that tree stand! $200!" He asked me if I was crazy, and I just looked at him and asked him if HE wanted to be the one to go to the hospital and tell Mom that she couldn't have her turning tree stand. Yeah, he got real quiet then.

The first year Mom was gone, I was still living in her house, and I totally Christmased it out. Her house lights were up, the bushes were lit. All of her knickknacks were out, her tree was in the front window, turning merrily, covered with lights that appeared to twinkle as it turned, and full of ornaments. In the family room, I had MY tree. A real, formerly live tree, also covered in lights and ornaments. It didn't turn merrily, and actually, I think sat a wee bit lopsided in its stand, but it sure smelled good and made the family room quite festive. I wrapped every picture on the walls in wrapping paper to look like gifts, and lit my assortment of Christmas candles: Kandy Kisses (peppermint vanilla), Log Cabin (woodsy), clove, Home Sweet Home (cinnamon & I have no idea what else, just that it smells like Christmas cooking), Woodland trails (also woodsy). Yep, my house smelled like Christmas baking, candy canes, a fire in the fireplace, and a fresh cut tree, and it was FABULOUS! Over the years, I've pared down the ornament collection, because, well, there were entirely too many… I personally owned, at the time of her death the over 50 that I received annually growing up (from Mom, my grandmother, and a cousin), plus I continued to get one from her and one from my grandmother each year until their deaths, so that adds another 20, roughly, plus years of ornament exchanges, and the ones that I'd received as gifts from various other people and ones that I'd bought over the years as an adult, I probably had easily 200. Add in the ones my brother got growing up, that adds another 50 something, and then adding my grandmother's to Mom's, I would bet I had easily nearly a thousand ornaments , hence my ability to completely decorate 2 trees that were 6-7 feet tall, and still have ornaments left over!

This year, again, I'm not in my own place, my tree and ornaments are buried in my storage unit, and so I my decorations are limited to my little reindeer herd on the front porch. That's ok, I'm hoping to be able to get out to west TX and spend Christmas weekend with my bestie, and enjoy her tree, and the magic of Christmas with our little almost 5 year old terror darling. Back in 2006 when he was born, we told his big brother who was then 16, that we were happy to be having Santa back. Said 16 year old has been humoring his mothers since he was probably 11 or 12. I hope that we can keep the magic alive for the little one longer than we did for his brother. I have no idea why the big one gave up the magic so early, but he did. He will have his own little one by next Christmas, so perhaps his brother's magic will last longer with a nephew nearer his age. It's going to be another one of those non-traditional years for me, and it's ok. I'll still get to see my family, both blood & chosen.

Black Friday

2011-11-22T13:39:00.000-06:00

FAIR WARNING, this WILL be a RANT, not a sweet little positive & upbeat post.
Now, I am the first to admit that I LOVE Christmas. The trees, the music, the festive holiday headwear, the festive holiday socks. You name it, I love it. I try to start shopping, or at least planning my shopping early. It annoys me to no end that along about the 4^th of July, I begin seeing ornaments and decorations in stores. I'm not talking about the local Hallmark store that starts teasing about the upcoming ornament release. I'm not talking about the local craft store that starts having crafty stuff, because, frankly, if some things aren't started that early, they won't get made in time. I'm totally cool with that. I'm talking about going into the Garden Ridge and finding that while it's still 127 degrees outside, 25% of the store, right as you go through the door, has already been filled with this year's themed ornaments, inflatables, and various other Christmas stuff. The number of stores (aside from the aforementioned Hallmark & craft stores) that have at least 2 aisles dedicated to Christmas starts growing exponentially sometime in August, and it just doesn't stop. We're lucky if we get to Halloween before we start being bombarded by Christmas music. (again, don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas music. My IPod gets re-synced right before Thanksgiving to add my Christmas tunes, which amount to almost a gig and a half of the almost 19 gig which comprises my iTunes library). While I do have Christmas music on my iPod now, I won't even start using that playlist until at least sometime Thursday, and as we are headed down to TRF for the weekend, I suspect that we'll probably make more use of the "Faire" playlist than the Christmas one, at least on the drive down Thursday evening.
All of that being said, the week before Thanksgiving, and the weekend after drive me bananas! Yesterday I made my FINAL Thanksgiving week run to WalMart. Of course it was a madhouse, and fortunately, I only needed about 8 items, none of which are probably priority items for most folks, so I had no trouble finding them in plentiful supply, and my short list, coupled with my mostly empty basket afforded me the ability to go through the 20 items or less line. Thankfully, most of the folks who comprised that madhouse were NOT as prepared as I, thus they had overflowing baskets and were most definitely NOT candidates for the express lane. I understand that most people will discover, on Thursday morning or afternoon that they've forgotten SOMETHING that is necessary… butter, brown & serve rolls, napkins, toilet paper, something that they need to get through the day. I am totally cool with GROCERY stores being open PART of the day on Thanksgiving. I am NOT cool with the whole "shop WalMart ALL DAY on Thanksgiving". Seriously people? If you dislike your family so much that you want to be away from them on Thanksgiving, stay home & read a book, check into a hotel for the night, but what makes you think that your compulsive need to be at WalMart trumps the employees of WalMart's need to spend time with their family, on what could be their last day away from the store for the 32 days until Christmas? I don't work retail, and I haven't in more years than I care to consider, but I remember my mom doing it when I was a pre-teen. Back then, the Blue Laws were still in effect, so the stores she worked in (at the mall) weren't open on Sundays, but she worked every day except Sundays. I've had friends work retail, even if it was as a part-time 2^nd job during the holidays, and from Black Friday through Christmas Eve, there were no days off. If OT was a concern, they just worked shorter hours every day, a 5-6 hour shift, instead of 8. Oh YAY, I don't have to be on my feet for 8 hours today, just 6, how awesome, and only 30 more days just like it to go… The very idea that we HAVE to start shopping in the middle of the night, when sane and rational people are at home asleep, in order to get one of the 5 televisions that will be offered at a deeply discounted price is preposterous to me.

Number One: WalMart, Sears, and Kmart ALL have had layaway available for several weeks now. You could have put 10% down, paid some each week, and by mid-December you'd have your fancy tv without having to fight 25 other people to get it, then guard it with your life as you spent more time wandering through the store for other "deals" that you'll have to fight for as well.

Number Two: If the only way you can have that behemoth tv is to fight 25 other people to get it for the discounted price, you probably should ask yourself if you can afford it in the long run. Remember when we didn't buy what we couldn't pay cash for? Yeah, that's how I've lived, aside from my car payment for many many years. Sure I have a handful of "toys", but I've saved up to buy each and every one of them. Are they the latest and greatest? Perhaps not, but they do meet my needs, and provide me with a little joy when I use them. The one who dies with the most toys IS STILL DEAD & DIDN'T GET TO TAKE THE TOYS WITH THEM.

Number Three: Remember the days of the Blue Laws (as I understand it, many states still have them)? In Texas the only ones I know of still on the books are related to Liquor/alcohol and car dealerships. Back then, we could buy food on Sundays at the store, but if we needed plates or cups for those groceries to be served on, we were SOL. Back then, we managed to get our shopping done between Monday & Saturday at CLOSING time. I remember when places other than the drugstore, convenience store, or grocery first started being open on Sundays, they were open from Noon or 1 o'clock until 5, then it became 6. Hell, I remember when the grocery stores, WalMart, and gas stations/convenience stores CLOSED, what a novel idea, having actual BUSINESS HOURS, rather than just being open all the damned time. We managed to have whatever we needed bought during the prescribed hours, and if we didn't get it then, well, we did without until the store opened again.

Obviously this is something that riles me up. It's not my intent to piss anyone off, and if you really want to do the Black Friday thing, more power to you, but I'm not going to be sympathetic if you kvetch about crowds. You won't find me at those sales, and you sure as HELL won't find me at WalMart on Thanksgiving (or Christmas, when that comes next month) Day, (unless I have to stop by to cash my paycheck, which would be done WELL before noon) because I know that my right and desire to spend time with the family I'll spend my holiday with is no more important than the same right and desire of those WalMart employees who have to work, simply to satisfy the out of control corporate greed which feeds the frenzy of the American consumer's desire to get the greatest deal.

My Black Friday will be spent at the Texas Renaissance Festival, with some of my very favorite people and fairemily. I think it sucks that so many of them have to forego a traditional Thanksgiving feast at home to be in rustic conditions and make ready for another workday. Rather than feeding the greed of Corporate America (I've got free tickets), I can do some of my Christmas shopping in support of the independent crafter/small business.
Places to check out:
Estelril Enterprises - a fabulous selection of lotions, gels, soaps, salves, incenses and bath salts, all made from ancient Native American and/or Celtic family recipes, using natural ingredients.
Fairely Well Maid - beautiful crochet, sewn, and tatted items
McCord Works - amazing crochet jewelry
Willow Creek Crochet - beautiful arm warmers available in a variety of sizes
Loime Studios - skirts made from upcycled fabric, various kinds of artwork
ClipClocks - Beautiful brooches and pins that have a hidden secret... they hold a clock!
Monkey Skull Craft Works - turned wood art: pens, candlesticks, bottlestoppers; and paracord survival bracelets
The Candle Cafe - amazingly well-scented candles, and truly the ONLY place I purchase candles for many years now

Italian Crusted Chicken Tenders

2011-11-14T20:12:00.000-06:00

I'm working on eating more balanced, healthier meals, and tonite I fixed my favorite breading for chicken to go along with some Quinoa and steamed green beans.
(Serves about 4)
Ingredients

1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon olive oil

5/8 clove garlic, minced

2/3 cup dry bread crumbs

1/4 cup and 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

8-10 skinless, boneless chicken breast tenders

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

In a bowl, blend the olive oil and garlic. In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, basil, and pepper. Dip each chicken breast in the oil mixture, then in the bread crumb mixture. Arrange the coated chicken breasts in the prepared baking dish, and top with any remaining bread crumb mixture.

Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

Quinoa is a whole grain that's cooked in the same manner as rice, 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa, and cook it covered until the water is absorbed. I do about 1/2C of grain and 1 C water, which easily gives me two meals out of it, and I don't get tired of it before it's all eaten so it goes bad and gets wasted. I season my water with a bit of garlic powder, and then when the cooking's done, I stir in about a tablespoon of butter, herbs of Italy, and then top with fresh rosemary.

My green beans have about 1/2 tsp of butter, fresh ground black pepper, and some herbs of Italy.

My portions were about 4 oz chicken, about a cup of quinoa, and a cup of green beans.

One of a Million

2011-11-11T19:52:00.002-06:00

On Veteran's Day, much like Memorial Day, the 4^th of July, and other patriotic holidays, I'm reminded of how lucky I am. I'm an Army brat, a child of the Vietnam era. I was several months old before I met my father, because he was doing his tour in 1967 when I was born, and as I understand it, returned in early 1968 to the States. I know what it's like to be an officer's kid, living on base, and moving regularly. I don't however, know what it's like to have a parent in a war zone.
As I've gotten older, I've come to see my father for who/what he is, an unhappy & negative person. I accepted long ago that he is who he is, and he's not going to change. He's never been a "dad", who was involved with us, except for a few months after he and my mom separated. Some of that may be a generational thing. Some of it may be the fact that his own father was in the military and gone much of his childhood. I don't know, and ultimately it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. When I was very small, I'm told, I didn't like to play games with him because I knew he didn't play fair. His approval means nothing to me, and I long ago stopped trying to get it. I approve of me, and that's what's important. He's missed out on a lot over the years, and it's his loss, because I'm an awesome person, but he'll never get to know that since I refuse to draw him, along with his negativity and drama into my world. I told him long ago that I forgave him for the pain that his actions and attitudes have caused, and I have. I wish him peace and happiness in his remaining years, but in order for me to maintain MY peace and happiness, his will NEVER include me. I see him occasionally, and we've got a sort of peace at those times, as it's much more important to me that whichever nephew or niece is celebrating knows that I love them more than I want to avoid him, but I think he's finally given up and is respecting my request that he not contact me at all.
While I used to wish I had one of those dads who is at all of the games, recitals, or whatever the celebration might be, I know that I am much more blessed than many of my generation, because my father came home from Vietnam, and I had the opportunity to know him, and to form an opinion of him based on personal experience, rather than just stories and photographs.
On this day when we honor those who have served, and those who currently serve, I hope you'll take a moment, as you are thanking them, to thank; offer a prayer, good thoughts, or a hug to their family members, who are left behind for months at a time, never knowing when they'll speak or see their loved one again. Military children are often single parented much of their lives. They deserve an extra hug, any day of the week, because they may have to make the ultimate sacrifice, with no choice in the matter.

My Favorite Vanilla Scones

2011-11-08T14:24:00.003-06:00

I was given a basic scone recipe by a British friend, who told me it's Delia Smith's recipe, however the searches I've done show Delia adds an egg, which is not included in the recipe I was given. At any rate, I've made a couple of modifications that suit me, and thought I'd share it here.

Ingredients
8oz (225g) Self-Raising Flour
1 1/2 oz (40g) Butter (at room temperature)
1 1/2 tablespoons Sugar
4 fl oz (150ml) Milk
1 fl oz (37ml) Vanilla extract
A little extra flour
Method
Pre-heat oven to 425 F
Sift flour into a bowl and rub the butter into it rapidly using your fingertips. After the butter is thoroughly mixed into the flour stir in the sugar, then take a knife and use it to mix in the milk and vanilla a little at a time. Now flour your hands and knead the mixture to a soft dough, adding a little extra milk if it feels at all dry.
Turn the dough out onto a floured pastry board or counter top and roll it out to a thickness of not less than 3/4 inch (2cm) using a lightly floured rolling pin. Take a 1 1/2 or 2 inch pastry cutter and place it on the dough. Tap it sharply so that it goes straight through the dough. Do not twist! Knead the dough together and repeat until you have used as much of the dough as you can.
Place the scones on a greased baking sheet, or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can dust each one with a little extra flour or brush a little milk or egg onto the top of each one. Bake near the top of the oven for 12-15 minutes. When cooked the scones will have turned a crisp golden brown. Cool on a rack and eat them slightly warm. Eat as fresh as possible.
Scones do freeze well, but still eat them within a month.
Since my oven is a counter top version toaster/convection/rotisserie oven, and I like my breads BARELY cooked through, I bake for about 8-10 minutes, and take them out just as they start to turn golden.
***SUBSTITUTIONS***
Margarine can be used in place of butter
Soy milk works just as well as dairy milk, and the vanilla version is what prompted me to add vanilla to my recipe
If you eliminate the vanilla, and don't add some other flavored extract, add an ounce of milk to get the sufficient liquid

November, Again

2011-11-01T21:31:00.001-05:00

In a few days, I will have been here in Weatherford for 2 years. When I first moved out here, it drove me crazy, being so far from much of my support system, my church, and the mid-cities area that I'd lived in for most of my life. I have to say that while I do not want to live in a small town, particularly, the "country city" that has become my home suits me fine now. I certainly don't miss the traffic and congestion of the metromess!

There have been good times and bad times, and I've learned a lot over the last 2 years, about what matters and what is really not that important in the grand scheme of things. Over the next few weeks, there's yet another purge of stuff going to happen. I have a crapload of things that I have not used in the 2 years that I really don't need to continue to hold onto. A good portion of what's in storage can probably go, but I need to not get into that until I'm back out into my own place. Everything that I brought into the house with me I brought because I expected I either would use it, or sell it long before now. To that end, this weekend I am going to pack up everything I'll need for my Thanksgiving trip to TRF, and then start emptying my closet to decide what to keep and actually USE, what needs to be packed up until spring (summer clothes, and probably most of my garb), and what needs to be either trashed or sold either on Craigslist or Ebay.

As much as I was wary of moving 1. Out of the city, 2. Into a house with not just 1 roommate, but 3 adults and a teenager, and 3. Into a house FULL, literally, of animals, it's been a good 2 years. I think it allowed me to forge a stronger bond with one of my dearest friends. It taught me a little more patience. It gave me a little more insight into long-term stress, which, frankly, I could have lived without.

As I go into my 3^rd year in what I once considered "the sticks", I'm grateful that I'm here. It's given me the opportunity to grow, emotionally and spiritually, away from so much of the hustle and bustle of a bigger city, and allowed me to develop new relationships, strengthen others, and realize when it's time to readjust my thinking about some of them, that while they aren't quite what I thought they were, they still matter, for one reason or another, and it's ok for me to put them in a different part of my world.

For now, I'm off to bed with my kitties, tomorrow will come early.

Hippo Birdies

2011-10-05T21:29:00.000-05:00

Yep, today's my birthday. It was a fairly uneventful day. I didn't get my birthday lunch today... because I got it YESTERDAY, courtesy of my boss, who, knowing that he had a meeting today and might not get back to town in time to take me for lunch, decided that we should do it yesterday. I'm good with that. In the end, he never did get to the jobsite today, so I'm glad we did it yesterday! I had about a hundred posts on my wall and private messages, emails, texts and phone calls, which always makes a girl feel loved! Tonight I had dinner with my clan at Razzoo's. It's not my favorite place, but they've got half price appetizers and we can all eat fairly reasonably. There were 4 of us celebrating birthdays, so there was plenty of dessert to go around, since we all take a bite and pass the plate along, even when there's not a birthday!
I came home and turned on my computer to discover that Steve Jobs had died. Wow! I firmly believe that without the success of his Apple OS and the platform of windows that it used, making it much more user friendly than DOS, I would not be as computer literate as I am. I don't use an apple product, other than my ipod, because everything I need a computer to do can be sufficiently and well accomplished in a Windows environment. If I needed more graphic or music kinds of stuff, I would absolutely invest the $ in a macbook or something, but my PC works for me.

Mr. Jobs, your vision and dedication forever changed the way that the world computes, listens to music, and communicates. You will be missed.

Nothin’

2011-10-04T21:51:00.001-05:00

Yeah, I set a goal for myself to write something every day this month… and now my brain has no idea what to write about tonight, and I piddlefarted around too much earlier, and now I'm up later than I need to be. *Sigh* and I have much to do over the next couple of nights to finish getting ready for my trip to TRF this weekend. I've got to finish a chemise, decide what else I'm wearing and get my shit together so I can pack my bag and have it ready to put in the car Thursday night, since I have to be a ½ hour from home by 6:30 Friday morning!

To that end, it's time for me to head for the bedroom with the cats & leave the dopey dogs to their own devices.

Be a Blessing

2011-10-03T21:24:00.002-05:00

Tonite, I was watching television, and since none of my usual shows are on Mondays, I flipped around until I found something interesting. I landed on TLC's Little People Big World, which I used to watch fairly regularly, but I've not watched it in probably a year. Tonite's episode focused mostly on Jeremy's move away from home to attend college. The one comment that caught my attention was when this kid said "I just hope that I can be a blessing." That's a pretty big statement coming from a kid. I know a lot of people who are blessings, both in my life, and in other people's lives, but I don't think I've ever heard any of them say that their goal is to be one.
I've had a couple of hard years, and I've been blessed with some wonderful people who have been there for me in my moments (and months) of need.
I've watched some awesome young people grow up in the past several years… some of them I've known since they were born, others it's been less time, but no less inspiring. The current crop of youth at Epworth amaze me on a regular basis. I've watched many of them grow from infants or small children into incredible young adults. They are good and kind people, and seem to have a sense of security in themselves and the direction they want to take in life, at least the class of 2012 does. I wish I'd had their grace and comfort with themselves and what they want in life when I was their age. Hell, I wish I'd had it when I was 10 years older than they are!
I get kind of wrapped up in myself sometimes, and on some level, that's how most people who are not married and have no children are. I don't think I'm overly selfish, and I certainly never expect anyone to do anything my way or the highway, because all relationships are about compromise on some level. I think, though that I've forgotten lately, that I've been blessed, and so I need to pass the blessings along when I can.

The Golden Rule

2011-10-02T22:00:00.000-05:00

I saw this posted on Facebook a few days ago, when one of my friends either reposted or commented on it. I didn't comment on that post, simply because it was a "public" post, and I am NOT thrilled with the fact that my privacy settings mean NOTHING if my friends don't have privacy settings, so I am very careful about what I will and won't comment on these days.
I was raised in a Christian household, and while we actually went to several different churches over the years, and my father is Lutheran (and I was baptized in a Lutheran church as an infant), my mother was raised in the Methodist Church, and, when where we attended was totally up to her, it was always a United Methodist Church. To say that the Methodist church shaped my beliefs practically from birth would be an understatement. Many years ago, when I was a young woman, I mentioned to one of the ladies who has become much like a second mother to me, that it seems to me that who we (Christians & Jews) call God, and the Native Americans call Great Spirit, Muslims call Allah, or whatever the faith system is calls their supreme being, is the same entity, who is called by different names, and worshipped in different ways, none of them inherently wrong, just different. She patted me on the arm and said "honey, that's because you're a United Methodist." I've truly never understood hate and bigotry in the name of anyone or anything, and I really don't have patience for it.
Virtually every spiritual belief system has some form of what Christians understand as "The Golden Rule". I have friends of various faiths, and really, it doesn't matter to me what their belief is, it matters more that they have a belief system that works for them and brings them the comfort that they need, when they need it. I don't want to convert anybody, hell, I'm not even sure what I would be converting them to, at this point, considering that I embrace parts and pieces of various belief systems into my daily life. I use Native American salves and incenses to soothe aches and pains, and prevent my cold from becoming an upper respiratory infection. I take a moment to be extra grateful for the seasonal changes with solstices and equinoxes as Pagans and other nature-based faiths do. In fact, according to BeliefNet's Belief-O-Matic, I am NeoPagan, Unitarian Universalist, or Reform Jew. I think it's interesting that it shows up that way, but in all the times I've taken it, over the 5 years or so that I've known about the quiz, it always comes out that way. Farther down the line are Liberal Quakers, Mahayana Buddhism, New Age, Theravada Buddhism, Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants, Sikhism, and Jainism round out the top ten.
I admit that I am not a perfect being, but I do try not to do things that would affect others in ways that I wouldn't want to be affected. I try not to say anything about anyone that I wouldn't say TO them. Granted, there are times when I would say it more nicely TO them than I do when I am venting about it, but I'm pretty open, and what you see is what you get. Don't judge me, I won't judge you, and we'll get along just fine.

31 over 31

2011-10-01T23:55:00.001-05:00

I need to be more consistent about blogging if I'm going to have a blog, I really do. October is likely not the best time to choose to do this, but I'm going to do my best to post something every day. There are a couple of times that I won't have internet access, but I think I can manage it. I don't know that I'll find exciting things to post about, but I'll find something, and hopefully someone will get something out of it, besides me.

"Never sacrifice who you are just because someone has a problem with it." This is a quote that I saw posted on Facebook earlier this week, and it really spoke to me. I spent a lot of years trying to be "normal". I so wish that I had heard that before I wasted many years trying to live up to someone else's idea of good, normal, or whatever. Most of my current circle of friends has only ever known the me that embraces and is totally good with her weirdness. Now, when I was a kid, like most kids, I wanted to "fit in". Some of that, I'm sure is related to the regular moves involved in being a military brat. If I wasn't moving, my friends were, as is the nature of that world. I don't remember ever being told that I shouldn't or couldn't embrace my dreams, follow my muse, or anything like that, but I was not particularly encouraged to do so either. I was expected to "do the right thing", graduate high school, go to college, get a degree, then get a job. Getting out of high school wasn't a problem. College, on the other hand, took me awhile, but I did finally finish, with a degree, in an area that I love and have a lot of interest in, however a History degree isn't worth diddly if there is not a plan for education or law school. Sure I love it, and I would love to be able to teach it, but to do that, I would have to sacrifice entirely too much of who I am in order to please "the establishment", and I'm not willing to do that. I wasn't willing to do it 16 years ago when it was time to start taking the education courses if I was going to teach, and I'm even less willing to do it now.

I'm not perfect, and I don't want to be, perfection is too much work, and well, it tends to alienate people. I'm fat, and generally healthy, despite a family history of heart disease, vascular issues, and diabetes. I don't wear the latest fashions, and, frankly, I don't want to. My house is cluttered and messy because I LIVE THERE, it's not a showplace, but a home. I make choices that a lot of folks do not agree with, but they are MY choices, based on what I need and want. My life is about what makes ME happy and keeps me where I need to be emotionally and spiritually. It's a journey, sometimes easy, sometimes difficult, but overall it's been a pretty good journey so far. In 4 days I'll be 44… I remember when mid-40s seemed so old to me. As I age, my definition of old changes. And I don't really think I'm old, or even middle-aged. I like to think I'm pretty cool and hip, though I'd bet that the kids in my world would disagree, which is just fine. I just hope that they see that I'm comfortable with myself and that I live my life on my terms, without allowing anyone else to have the power to make me believe that I'm not good enough, or that the way I live my life is "not good enough".

Hell Wants its Weather Back!

2011-08-01T22:52:00.000-05:00

I LOVE Texas. But, well, I HATE Texas summers. We are up to 40 CONSECUTIVE days over a hundred degrees in my town, though the "official" record (at DFW International Airport) is only 31 days, and 52 for the year. The last time we were less than 90 degrees was May 26^th. Last week, on Sunday, I put a small cooler in my car, because I thought I might make a stop at Central Market on my way home, and wanted to be sure I had somewhere cool to have any cheese or anything else perishable I might purchase for the 40 minute drive home, since, well, it was going to be 105DAMNEDDEGREES outside. Inside the cooler were 2 reusable ice packs, a frozen bottle of water, and a Dr Pepper, in case I got thirsty on the way home. In the end, I didn't stop at Central Market, or anywhere else for that matter, and when I got home, I failed to get the cooler out of the car. Here's the problem, my car does NOT have tinted windows. I know, that's WEIRD these days, but, well, she's 20 years old, and she's got clear windows, so, well, she gets HOT when she's not parked in the shade. There is NO SHADE where my building at work is… Yeah, Monday it was 108, Tuesday 107, Wednesday 109, Thursday & Friday 105. Saturday afternoon, thinking that I would probably make a stop at CM on Sunday after church, I brought the cooler in, so it wouldn't be an oven when I put the ice packs in… and when I opened the cooler, I discovered what happens to an unopened can of Dr Pepper when you leave it in the car when it's 109DAMNEDDEGREES outside (and thus about 400DAMNEDDEGREES in said car).

Yeah, I am grateful for the fact that it was NOT a whole case of them, AND that it was properly contained in the cooler, rather than loose in my car. I didn't measure, but from looking into the can, I believe that about 7 of the 12 ounces originally contained in the can remained inside it… the rest was in the bottom of my cooler!
According to the forecast, it's supposed to be over 100DAMNEDDEGREES for another 10 days, at which point we may get rain and a high of less than 90. Honestly, once it's 95 degrees, it's too damned hot, and it really doesn't matter at all what the thermometer says, I am grateful for my a/c!

Leonides

2011-07-30T20:08:00.000-05:00

My handsome Leo, when Mom brought you home from the shelter, you were but a scrap of fluff, all sweet and tiny. For months you wouldn't eat your breakfast without "pepper" on it, until one day you decided that you didn't need the mineral supplement anymore and refused to eat the breakfast that had it. Oh she had grand plans for you… to have you ride around in the basket on her scooter, snuggle in the bed with her & Mr. Moro. That first week or so, you went along with it, even riding over to her eldest grandson's birthday party on a lovely may Saturday, before you'd even been named. For the record, another grandson, who was 8 at the time declared that we should name you Tigger, like his orange tabby at home. You, sir, however, had other plans. It was your plan to live up to the Leonides name you ended up with.

You became the mighty hunter, bringing through the cat flap all manner of creatures, lizards, snakes, birds, mice, rats, and even a big ole horned toad once. You came into a house with 2 senior cats and one about a year old, and you made your place. You may have been the baby, but you were not content to be babied, you left that position for Mr. Moro. For all your hunting, you were not a fan of strangers, especially men. Whenever someone new came to the house, you hid until one of us could coax you out. You were just not a people cat, or a lap cat. Once Mom was gone, and Mr. Moro, you became a little more snuggly, and once we moved out of that house, and you became strictly a housecat, you suddenly decided that you were a lap cat, and had to be in my face ALL THE DAMNED TIME. Years later, when I spent hours talking and crying with Rhonda about helping her across the rainbow bridge, your sister Bow went merrily about the house, ignoring us, but you stayed close by, as if you were listening to the conversation. As I slept, I suspect that Rhonda gave you specific instructions, because when I returned home from her final trip to the vet, you were the first one there to have snuggle time, and you stayed right in her spot beside me on the bed every night for weeks. When we moved to Weatherford, you didn't like living with a houseful of people, but you eventually adjusted, even welcoming (well, grudgingly at first, but eventually accepting) Mollie and Trinity into our little family. You continued to hunt, whenever possible, by escaping from our room and finding whatever mouse was active and driving you crazy. Your Auntie Erin commented once on the mouse problem, considering that we had a houseful, literally, of cats. I just looked at her and said "well, don't but 2 of them think they are supposed to do anything except look adorable, and they pretty much stay in my bedroom… where there is NOT a mouse problem. You were a good cat, and I am comforted in knowing that you had a good life, a happy life. I know that there were many cats there to greet you this morning as you crossed that bridge. I know you're happy, healthy, and able to hunt and play like you once did. Love, Mamma

BLEU CHEESE

2011-07-05T19:41:00.000-05:00

I LOVE bleu cheese dressing. I always have, and in fact, was 8 years old before I knew that there was a whole shelf at the commissary of different salad dressings! There are several that I've come to like on some level over the years, but my favorite creamy dressing will always be bleu cheese. My earliest memories of salad dressing were Kraft's Roka Blue Cheese, which my father called Roquefort, instead of Blue Cheese. I learned later that not all bleu cheese is Roquefort, as only cheese produced in the Roquefort region of France is actually called that. As I understand it, it's rather expensive as well.

I've tried virtually all of the brands available at the major grocery stores in the Tarrant County area, I think. As far as store-bought, in a bottle or jar, Litehouse (Walmart) and Marie's are my go-to quick & easy to get choices. *don't bother with the "low fat" versions of commercially prepared ones, they just don't have the rich flavor. Central Market has a wonderful version in their bulk refrigerated bar, though I doctor it a bit to add a little more black pepper, and more crumbled cheese.

My absolute favorite though, is the homemade version that I make:
1 pkg softened cream cheese (I've also used reduced fat or neufchatel cheese to reduce some of the fat)
6 oz buttermilk
Garlic powder ~1/2tsp
Basil flakes ~ 1/2-3/4tsp
Black pepper ~ 1/2 tsp
8oz blue cheese crumbles

Mix the softened cream cheese to and buttermilk on low speed in deep bowl (a shallow bowl will splatter EVERYWHERE, trust me on this), adding seasonings to blend well, then add blue cheese crumbles until all mixed in. Makes about 2 & 1/2 cups of dip.

This recipe makes more of a dip than a dressing, which is my preference, however if you want actual dressing consistency, add more buttermilk a quarter of a cup at a time until you achieve your desired consistency. This will also mellow your blue cheese flavor out some as well, so if I am making actual dressing, instead of dip, I add more buttermilk and more blue cheese crumbles because I so love the rich tang of the cheese.

Independence Day

2011-07-04T21:21:00.000-05:00

Seeing as today is the 4^th of July, this should probably be some sort of patriotic post, and it might turn out to be. It's been sort of a trying few weeks around here, and I've mostly been pretty quiet about it. A couple of weeks ago, my inability to make the payments on my 2004 Escape caught up to me. I knew that it would, eventually, and wasn't totally surprised when it did. The repo man was VERY nice about the whole thing, and I still don't know how they managed to track me down here, as all of my bills, etc. go to my PO Box in Arlington, but they did. And then they sent me the nastygram to the PO Box "We have your 2004 Ford Escape. We will auction it off on July something or other (clearly this is not an important detail to me), and if you want to get it back before then, you need to call this number to find out how much it will cost you to do so." Yeah, whatever… Even after nearly 3 years of payments, because of the way that they applied them, even when I sent extra payments specifically marked "APPLY TO PRINCIPAL", on a 4 year note, I still owed more than HALF of the original price of the car, the last time I was told what my balance was, and at this point, it's worth perhaps HALF of that last known balance. I'm so far upside down on it now that it's not worth the payments that they want. I had a plan, which, as it turns out, will likely be more expensive up front than finding something at a tote-the-note lot here in town that will let me make payments locally. My biggest wants are AIR CONDITIONING, and reasonable gas mileage. As much as I'd like to be in another small SUV, I realize that may just not be possible, I'll have to see what's available when I go look, and what kind of $ they want, as well as what sort of payment plan they offer.
For the last 19 months I've been renting a room from some awesome friends, which has been both fun, and trying. I'd lived on my own since I last moved out of my mom's house back in 2001, and hadn't shared space with more than 1 person since my little brother died in 1988. Moving into a house with 2 other adults and 2 teenagers was an adjustment to say the least. We don't always see eye to eye, and we had our share of disagreements, as does any family, but we muddled our way through, and I think we've all come out stronger and better for it. Yep, in this old house, until today, we had 4 adults, 1 teenager, occasionally 2 little girls, more cats than I can count, 2 pigs, a dog, a bunch of fish, and a couple of turtles. As of today, it's me, one other adult (for another week or so until he finds a new place to move with his girlfriend), my 4 cats, the fish, the turtles, and 2 cats that I'm catsitting until the new landlord moves in, sometime in August. The original roomies were offered the opportunity to move closer to family, into a house that while it needs some immediate attention, will ultimately be easier to keep up than this one, and will give them more flexibility in their work schedules, and better attention to the children's needs. When I initially moved in here, I expected it to be a year, at most… unfortunately, it took most of that year to even find work, and was beyond that year before I was earning enough to even consider moving somewhere else. Now I have 4 cats, and well, good luck finding a landlord willing to let me take them in somewhere else. Fortunately, the one I'll be getting is friends with the ones who just moved, and agreed to let me continue living here. I'm truly waiting to see where my company's office moves, as it is rumored to be, and where the next project will be, before I make a decision about where to go, and when. I would LOVE to be able to truly be independent again, but I also know that the first step is making sure that my financial affairs are in order, and renting a room, for a fixed amount every month, which, in all honesty, I believe what I've been paying HAS covered my share of the costs that my presence incurs (utilities & groceries), is NOT the same as being responsible for rent, plus a share of the utilities and groceries. The utility bill for July into August will be telling, because it will be representative of MY costs. The next few weeks are a tiny baby step, and I'm good with that. I would like to say that by this time next year, I won't be sharing my space with anyone else, unless it's someone I'm involved in an intimate relationship, but I'll refrain from saying that's the case, though I'll call it a goal.
As much as I like fireworks displays, I'm absolutely content to be comfortable and cozy in my bedroom, watching TV and hanging with my cats. I don't have to fight crowds, I don't have to be hot, and I don't have to sit on the ground! I am grateful for my cool bedroom, and a working shower that washed away the heat and dirt of the day! I am grateful that I live in a country where I can choose to attend festivities, or not, and I am grateful for all of those who have given their lives, both in generations past, and those who currently serve so that I can continue to enjoy the freedoms that I take for granted. Once upon a time, I took for granted that I was able to know my father, even though he was in Vietnam when I was born, and didn't retire from active duty until I was more than 10 years old. That changed one day, back when the Vietnam Memorial Wall came to Fair Park, in Dallas, in December 1986. I was 19, and having lived my half my life as an Army brat, I never considered that I could just tell Mom that I wasn't going to go. By then, my parents had been divorced almost 6 years, and I hadn't seen or heard directly from my father in almost 2 years, to the best of my recollection. So we loaded up my little brother, who was 17 at the time, my mother, and I think my grandmother went as well. It was the second time in my life that I remember being truly humbled. The number of notes written by children, most of them less than 10 years younger than I, saying things like "I miss you daddy" or "I love you daddy" was incredible to me. That's when I realized that while I thought my friends were lucky because they had "Dads", fathers were active and involved in their lives, and always had been, I was luckier than the children of thousands of men. Sure, mine's a twerp, and I've made a conscious decision to not have a relationship for him, but at least I was blessed enough to be able to develop an informed opinion of him, because he did come home. I don't know if that makes my outlook on the impact that military service has on families different than someone who has no direct connection to the service, but I suspect that it does. I appreciate every single service member, but I also have a huge amount of love and respect for the family members they leave behind, never knowing if they'll return. I am so very grateful that this generation's soldiers are welcomed home with joy, love and support. If you're so inspired, checkout Monkey Skull Craft Works, one of my Rogue friends, who is also a USN Submariner, makes beautiful things on his lathe as well as survival bracelets.

3 a day!

2011-06-26T22:01:00.000-05:00

I think, know I don't take time often enough to count my blessings. This past week could have been a hugely upsetting and disappointing one, and in the past, it WOULD have probably totally thrown me for a loop, caused a major fibro flare, and put me to bed for a couple of days. Fortunately, the way that the cards fell, I am able to adjust, make a couple of changes, and move past the "problem". My life is absolutely not where I thought I would be 14 years after I got my Bachelor's degree, but while I'm not in an ideal place, I'm in a good place, and trying to embrace the lessons I'm supposed to learn, so that I don't have to keep repeating them.
A friend was recently told, as part of a recovery process, to keep a journal of positive things in her life. I realized that I could benefit from doing the same, and it will provide me with both motivation to write and a topic on which I can write, especially when I don't think of anything really awesome to write about. I enjoy writing, and I know that my only hope for improving my writing is to actually DO IT!
Amusing to me night before last was that my Li'lcat, who is still unneutered, (until we know that his brother, who is the standard Dwelf in the family isn't shooting blanks) decided that he is a STUD, much to the chagrin of his adopted sister Girlcat, who was spayed almost 14 years ago, when she was a kitten. She was totally NOT thrilled with his amorous intent… and since his body is about 2 inches shorter (from shoulders to hips) than hers, well, he just couldn't get his aim quite right, so she just had this little short cat with her scruff in his mouth pinning her down! It truly was HILARIOUS to see, though I know that she didn't see any humor to it. I've no idea what has caused him to suddenly decide he's a big stud… there's nobody in the house in season, though there are a couple that could be getting ready to come into season, and his sisters CAN'T come into season.
And today I saw the funniest NASCAR commercial EVER!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJV487KmR_4

Today's 3 blessings are:

*I have a comfortable, relatively climate-controlled place to live

*I have a lot of people in my world that I truly enjoy and can count on

*my cats, bladder, brain & fibro all let me get 10 hours of sleep uninterrupted last night

And tonight I'm going to make myself go lie down before 10:30, in the hopes of 7 hours tonight!