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 |  "Clean cup! Move down!" ~~the Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland, Walt Disney cartoon |
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** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Sometimes in life, you have to pick up and move down the table. A regroup, a fresh start. A clean slate. |
| Because when you are Jack Horner apparently you can do anything. Jack Horner marries 19 year old undergrad  For those of you who don't know who Jack Horner is.... He's the paleontologist off of whose work they based Jurassic Park. This story broke yesterday and my mind reels that MSU could remain associated with him; but I'm betting they figure out a way to, because people line up to throw money at this man.  He's pretty much keeping the Bozeman Museum of the Rockies operating with the work he does, so I doubt they'll break ties with him either. Usually I'm very much live and let live, but for me this kind of goes beyond the pale. You don't abuse a position of power like this by marrying a 19 year old undergrad when you are in a teaching/mentoring position over them. You just don't. Aside from the slightly creepy thirty-six year difference, there is the who the heck is going to ever take her seriously in her career ever again factor. They've ruined her career. Sure, blah, blah love, etc. But...freaking wait to marry her til she graduates at least. Holy cow show some common freaking sense! Gah! At this point words fail me. I guess I'm thinking about the fact that this could be my daughter. I'm thinking my husband would beat this man bloody if it were the case. Where are this girl's parents? Ok. Rant over. I leave you with this. "Invalid Entry" |
| Do you ever have those days where you are so busy that you feel like you are going to meet yourself coming and going, but when you get a chance to catch your breath at the end of the day, you have trouble pointing out exactly what it is you were doing with your time? I hate those days. Today was one of them. ~sigh~ I felt like I was in a rush all day, dashing from classes to a business meeting to a chiro appointment to work to home, and I know that somewhere along the way I accomplished things (at some point I wrote a small stone!), but for as busy as I felt all day, I feel somehow I should have gotten more done.  It almost sounds silly when I type it out that way. I was too busy/I wasn't busy enough.  I guess I hate when parts of my day feel like busywork. Remember that from when you were in elementary school? I had some teachers that would give us busywork. That would infuriate me even when I was young. I used to hate the days when we were given "workbook packets" of pure busywork, because you were expected to work on it for at least an hour or two. I was always a fast reader and fairly intelligent. So my little packets would take me about ten to fifteen minutes to rip through. Then the teacher would be pissy with me. I was always content to sit at my desk and read a book, but for some reason that didn't sit well with all of the teachers. I feel the same way about busywork thirty years later. Even when I'm (apparently!) the one doling it out!  Almost forgot again......"Invalid Entry" |
| Ah......I'm so content. Hubby and I spent the morning/afternoon at the opera....sort of. The Metropolitan Opera does a series called Live at the Met. Basically, they've worked a deal where you go to your local movie theater and watch a live performance of a Met Opera. It's spectacular. Today we saw "The Enchanted Island" which is a new production. They called it a Baroque Pastiche. There were arias from Vivaldi, Handel, Rameau....it was just beautiful. And, bonus, it was in English. (Although they did run subtitles.) Here's the link: Met Opera .Placido Domingo played Neptune. He has such an incredible voice. Basically it was a cobbled together story from Shakespeare's The Tempest and some hijacked characters from A Midsummer Night's Dream thrown in for love interest. But it all hung together and was wonderful. Hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although we weren't thrilled with the dipstick behind us who kept loud-clapping at the end of every aria and then at the end gave Placido Domingo a standing loud-clap ovation. Really, dumbass? Those people are 3000 miles away and can't hear you. All you are doing is annoying your fellow opera-goers.  Hubby and I did notice one thing, though. Aside from the stray preteen grandchild, he and I were quite obviously the youngest people in the theater. We puzzled on that during intermission. Is there some age limit to opera of which we are unaware? Do people reach a certain age and suddenly develop a newfound interest in opera? Or did these people love it all along like us and we missed the boat by a few decades? It was curious. When we got there, the top portion of the theatre was mostly filled and Hubby and I don't like to be crowded when we watch things, so we sat in the completely empty lower tier of the theater. It's pretty close to the screen, but we don't mind as long as it's not the first row. During intermission, the cutest little couple (must have been in their 80s) came down sat at the end of our row, broke out a little picnic lunch and dined al fresco. Then, as the curtain call came, they packed it all away and went back from whence they came in the upper tier of seats. We diagnosed a fixed income and a need to eat because of meds. (The production lasted 3 hours and 35 min and began at 10:55am our time--right through lunch.)On Feb 11th, they are performing Gotterdamerrung, but Hubby isn't a Wagner fan. I am, though, so I may ask a girlfriend to go with. We'll see. Oh! I almost forgot! "Invalid Entry" |
| Here are the two small stone offerings I promised: "Invalid Entry" and "Invalid Entry" . Winter has finally come to Montana. Instead of the balmy 30s and 40s we were having, we had negative temps last night/this morning and the wind came up this afternoon. (20-35 mph gusts) Makes it a mite nipply here.   I was in the library working on some online classwork today. Some people are so boorish and have no understanding of polite societal behavior. I wish they'd post rules around campus.  Please silence your cell phone while on campus. No one thinks you are as cool as you do with that dumb ass ring tone. Everyone else just thinks you are obnoxious. Especially when it goes off every 10 seconds because you are having a texting conversation.If you need to pass gas, go to the restrooms or go outside. Yes, it's a natural bodily function, but strangers have no desire to smell the wrong end of what you had for breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack.Perfumes/colognes/bodysprays are meant to be enjoyed by the wearer or someone extremely close to the wearer. If you are wearing enough that it is emanating from your person in an all encompassing fog outwards of five to ten feet, then you need to stop marinating in it. Only someone hugging you or dancing with you should be able to smell your scent. Most everyone else finds it offensive and some find it just (barely) short of a form of assault as it gives us an instant migraine.Having a hushed conversation in a clearly marked study area is fine. Having a loud, laughing, boisterous conversation in a clearly marked quiet area is not fine, the rest of us are attempting to use this area to study. Take your little chit chat somewhere else on campus.At least those would be my rules if they'd let me be Hall Monitor. Until then I suppose I'm reduced to doling out dirty looks and the occasional, "Do you mind?" or "Excuse me." I'm old enough that a good mean mother look can sometimes quell the offensive behavior. |
| Hubby is home. ~sigh~ That was a sigh of contentment. I'm always discombobulated when Hubby is gone. I like him in the house every night. I know that makes me sound like a needy weirdo, but he makes me feel safe and secure. He makes my world solid. Hubby and I have what others might think is an odd relationship in that we both go and do our own things but down in the nuts and bolts....he's my best friend. Having him gone all weekend was hard. I think that a week is the longest we have been apart in twelve years. I don't know how military families do it. I don't think I could. Ok...mushy stuff out of the way. I can have my real breakdown later. Mom and I had lots of fun, but yesterday, I made the awful mistake of letting her help me with a little light housework. Nothing big, just stuff I do each weekend to keep us dug out. I let her vacuum. Seemed harmless enough. I would do the hard, icky stuff, Mom could do a little light vacuuming. Not.Mom decided in her, oh so quiet, oh so disarming, June Cleaver fashion that our vacuum cleaner had had it. So....they would buy us a new vacuum. Wait, what? I just needed the pet hair off the dining room floor, not a new vacuum! No. She's like a super polite steamroller. She nods and smiles and says, "Ok, dear." And then you wind up doing what she wants. So, while we were at Costco, I became the (super!) proud new owner of a Dyson Animal vacuum. This thing is awesome. It does everything but turn itself on and do the vacuuming for you. When we got it home, we got it out and played with it and even though Mom had just vacuumed, we got an entire canister full of pet hair and dander.  Uh....yeah. I guess it was time for me to retire the old vacuum. It WASN'T doing the job.Here's info on it. So I played all weekend, and now I have to do my homework. Boo-hiss. Rather play on site than conjugate Spanish verbs. But, then, who wouldn't? PS--I suck. Bear was sick again today (but she's better now), plus we had the hoopla of the inlaws coming and going. So no small stone. Perhaps two tomorrow. I have extra time at school. Also I think a couple of you asked....I'm an Earth Sciences major with an emphasis on Geography. (It was Geology, but thanks to Calculus, now it's not.) |
| So, as part of the aforesaid girls' weekend, Mom and I get to sit down and watch the Bronco's game tonight and the Packer's game tomorrow. That's right. Just the two of us watching football and eating pizza. It's like some bizzare episode of Twilight Zone. Sitting here with my mother in law watching a football game. We did go see a movie and go shopping today at least. We saw "We Bought a Zoo." it's really a cute movie. Very touching. We both cried. Reminded me of "The Pursuit of Happiness" with Will Smith. You really cheer for the underdog. And, bonus, all thet shops in the mall were having excellent sales. I got some $40 tops for $5 each! Woot! Also...."Invalid Entry" |
| "Invalid Entry" Hubby and FIL left this morning at the butt crack of dawn to fly to Green Bay, WI, so they can watch the Packers playoff game on Sunday. My MIL came up to stay with me while they are gone so she and I could have a girls weekend.  I will miss Hubby, as he and I don't spend much time apart. (For cripes' sake we work at the same place.) But, I'm really looking forward to playing all weekend with Mom. We already got up this morning and went to breakfast when we went and picked up the car at the airport. This afternoon she came to school with me for my two classes. She's so cute. I don't know if I've talked about her here before, but my mother in law is June Cleaver. She's so sweet and nice and yet periodically she'll really zing you. I walked her around campus a bit before my first class and kind of showed her where things are (the student union building, the library, the coffee shop, the bookstore). As I was leaving her in the library, I hugged her and told her goodbye and that I'd see her in an hour. She told me to have a nice class. There was a smiling woman watching us who commented, "They say your kids never stop being your kids, I guess that's true." We laughed and Mom told her, "Yes, but especially when they marry into the family! This is my daughter in law." I laughed and told her, "I'm no kid, I'm forty!" The lady laughed again and said, "My kids are 4 and 6 and I think when they are forty, they'll still be my kids." It was kind of funny. but still true. Well, I've got class in five, so I'll see you guys tomorrow. |
| "Invalid Entry" School is in full swing. I will have two large projects this semester. I have made the sad discovery that my "easy" Stats class was the most failed class at MSU last semester with a 76% fail rate in the class. Super excited by that. Trying to stay positive.I like my Spanish professor. She's nice. And she makes the class fun. But, there is going to be quite a bit of homework and constant studying in order to stay up with the class. I love my Invertebrate Paleontology prof, but I'm not sure about the class. He's my advisor, actually. The class is going to be a lot of straight memorization of obscure extinct invertebrate phyllum. I kind of suck at hard core memorization and regurgitation. I'm not a good parrot. In my opinion, in a real world application, I would simply have a manual handy if and when I ever needed to identify any of these invertibrates in an actual rock. I sort of want to sign a waiver. "I, Teresa, hereby promise that in the event I go traipsing through the wilderness to seek out the Burgess Shale, I will pack in a manual." Perhaps he'll let me and then I can just get a C in the class. That's all I need.I feel like my GIS class is going to be exactly what I expected it to be. I'll leave it at that. Well my in laws will be here soon and I suspect they will be expecting a meal of some sort. A meal I do not, in fact, have prepared. Nor have I, in fact, yet even planned. Perhaps I'd better go get on that. |
| Yesterday the chiropractor asked how my back got this bad. I laughed. I do data entry for a living. Sitting in front of a computer. When I'm not getting a paycheck for sitting in front of a computer, I'm being a student in front of a computer. Or I'm hunched over a book. Or, as I discovered tonight, I'm toting around umpty pounds of books every semester. On a whim I weighed my backpack. Before putting my computer in it, with just my pared down books (I left two out), it weighed twenty two pounds. I was curious so I checked and my stats book alone weighs five pounds. FIVE POUNDS for one book. That's silly. That's half a bag of flour! And I'll be expected to carry that about every Monday, Wed and Friday. I don't think I can. I think I'm leaving it off. The chiropractic bills are killing me. I'll just cheat off a neighbor's copy.Besides, my computer weighs at least another 4 pounds and then there is the cord which probably weighs another pound. Then if I carry a lunch, that adds weight. So I simply can't justify carrying 30 odd pounds around on my back every day. I just can't. I revolt. Think about that. An average two year old weighs about 30 pounds. How would you like to lug around a two year old all day long every day? Juggling it around. Shifting it from arm to arm, one armed. Carrying the child piggy-backed. All. Day. Long. I'm done. I'm paring it down to the bare essentials. I'm getting it under fifteen pounds or I'm not carrying it with me anymore. No wonder my back hurts all the damn time. Screw it, I'm not taking my five pounds of computer to school anymore either. I can use the school computers. That's what they are there for. I can put my data on flashdrives. My phone streams Netflix, so I'm covered there. I'm just not gonna do it anymore. Color me done. Whew. That was cathartic. Thanks for listening that rant, guys. |
| Today was my final day out before school starts. I spent it with two girlfriends. I love both of them because they are both just as nutty as me. A and I went and got our books, only it turned out that none of A's books were in the bookstore. Two of her professors warned her ahead of time so she was able to order books for those two classes, used, on Amazon. However, the other prof only sent out a notice today that his books wouldn't be available in the bookstore, perhaps people should order them. Gee, buddy. Thanks for the notice. Like she'll have time to get them for class on Wednesday. I, on the other hand, got to spend over $500 on books. Oh, yeah. Two of my classes were must-have-the-new-edition's and must-have-it-bundled-specially-for-MSU. Those are always pricy. And you can't order them, you have to get them through the bookstore. Whatever. ~~kickbacks, cough, cough~~We did get to go have sushi. Yum! They both went to sushi on Saturday but were more than happy to do it again today. Same place, even. They were also kind enough to ride around with me while I did a couple of must-do errands. Then we went for chai and pastries at a fab little coffee place downtown.After that A had to go to a dentist appointment and I had to go to a chiropractor appointment, so we called it a day. My chiro appointment was excellent. "Invalid Entry" I love getting adjusted. Somedays getting a good adjustment can be almost orgasmic. It depends upon how "out" your spine is and how much relief you get. I was fairly jacked up today and got a TON of relief. It's a funny thing about certain kinds of pain. You don't notice how badly something is hurting you until it isn't. Then you think, "how was I living with that much pain?" The mind tricks you somehow. |
| Sunday mornings at my house are usually all about breakfast. I love making Sunday breakfast. My dad used to cook Sunday breakfast sometimes when I was little and it reminds me of him. Since Hubby and I are perpetually dieting, Sunday breakfast is often a simple small affair. But, when we have guests, I go all out. Big Texas Breakfast is what one set of our regular guests call what I make. My grandmother's buttermilk biscuits, scrambled eggs, gravy, bacon, coffee, juice, sometimes even pancakes or waffles. It depends on my mood and everyone's willingness to keep eating. I'll even do fresh squeezed juice. Mmmm. Fresh orange juice. Today, though, today we did simple. Hubby got his routine egg white scrambled eggs (although I did dress them up with feta) and his standard whole wheat toast. I like bacon, although it's the low sodium kind for us. And for myself, I made porridge. Actually it's whole wheat Cream of Wheat, but when I was small, I used to think of myself as Goldilocks eating the three bear's porridge. So, when I eat it now, I still think of it as porridge. Mom made it with brown sugar and cinnamon, but I am trying to be healthier, so I have started making it with just butter and molasses. Mmmmm, blackstrap molasses. And coffee. Mustn't forget the decaf. Hubby gets regular you could stand a spoon up in, but I get decaf. Later we'll watch some TV and hang out. Here is my small stone for the day...."Invalid Entry" . I have small stones for the other two days, but I didn't post them. I don't think I will. They are a little more introspective and not really for public consumption.I didn't feel well Friday so I spent most of the day in bed reading and napping. Yesterday I spend working myself out of the giant mess my house was in from a week spent doing nothing housewise. Saturday was pay the piper day. Bear is doing much better, thank you for your well wishes. She's back on regular food again and walking around on her own, albeit a little stiffly. I go tomorrow to get my books with one of my girlfriends. She's getting her Master's and has decided she, I and another girlfriend need to make a day of getting books and prepping for the semester. She's taking us to lunch. I hope we do sushi. That's my favorite and Hubby doesn't like it, so I have to go by myself or with friends. I'll let you know more tomorrow. Perhaps a small stone about it. |
| Last week we took Bear in for her yearly Wellness Exam. She had to have her three year rabies shot and get dewormed in addition to the regular exam. We're not sure what it was, but one of the two or the combination made her very sick. Very sick all over my dining room carpet. Twice. Sunday and Tuesday. We woke up to it both times. She's twelve and very good about letting us know when she needs to go out, so we think what happened was.....unexpected. So, Tuesday, I trundled her back to the vet, could they check her out? When they examined her initially, they said she needed some extensive dental work. On top of that, she's starting to lose some mobility in her back legs. Sometimes she falls (slides) down the stairs (we live in a split level) and sometimes she has trouble getting up on the couch. When they checked her out Tues, they said she was fine and would be ok to have the dental work today. Fast forward to today when I picked her up from all the dental work. She had to be carried out of the vet's office to my car and then when I got her home I had to go ask my neighbor for help getting her out of the car into the house. She can't walk at all right now because of the drugs in combination with her existing hip problems. And I can't carry a 70 pound dog alone. I'm just not that manly! So now she's camped out on my kitchen floor. Crying. Bleeding slightly from the gums where they pulled several teeth. High as a kite. Can't walk. Poor thing urinated on the way in the door and was super embarrassed to have done so in my kitchen. (She's a very dignified old lady. Nice old ladies don't urinate on Mom's kitchen floor.) And I can't explain any of it to her. Or let her know we did it so she'll feel better and her mouth will stop hurting. It's like when we took her to chemotherapy all over again. She trusts us and we keep making her sick. How do you explain cancer or bad dental health to a dog? It makes me feel like a bad pet parent. "Invalid Entry" |
| I had a day out today. I was doing this...."Invalid Entry" I also went to the tattoo parlor and got my ear repierced. I have three piercings in my left ear and two in my right. I got the lowest ones done when I was a small child of eight. Over the years, I've had quite a bit of trouble with them until the last two years when each time I want to wear earrings in them, I have to repierce the left one myself with an earring. It's owie. Sometimes I cry.  Hubby got me some cute earrings for Christmas and I decided enough is enough, so I decided to get it repierced. I was going to just go to the mall and have them do it at Clair's or something, but I was talking to a coworker and she said that she had a friend who had the same problem. The friend went and got the smallest spacer they make put in her ear and ta-da problem solved! So, I talked to one of my friends who has tats and she sent me to her tattoo parlor. The guy who pierced it was super nice. The parlor was also very clean and cheerful. It's run by a woman. It was kind of upscale and trendy. All the customers were women around my age. I told Hubby that this year I think I'm getting my nose pierced. He rolled his eyes. I don't think he is taking me seriously. Boy will he be suprised when I come home one day with it pierced. Tomorrow I'm having breakfast with a friend and Friday I'm going out to get my books for the semester with another friend. It's a busy week! |
Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho...I head back to work today. It's not such a big deal because I'm only working two days a week right now since we are so slow. Just Tues and Thurs afternoons. (I think last week I got a whopping seven hours. ) But that's ok. The work is interesting, it gets me out of the house and what I make each month almost pays for my meds. I also really like my co-workers.  Plus there will be more hours come the summer. Also when school starts up, I won't be available for more than the two days a week. I have a full schedule this spring.I'm excited I'm going off to breakfast with a friend tomorrow morning. She was actually one of my old bosses when I worked at the hardware store. She's gotten a new job and I think they are doing well. I'll know more tomorrow. I haven't seen her in a while. Before I forget, here is today's small stone. "Invalid Entry" I really encourage everyone to try these. They are fun to write. They are completely free verse. It's like a zingy one liner poem, if you will. The trick is to keep your eyes open for things that evoke an emotional response for you during the day. (That's the only real "rule" about them as far as I can tell. They need to evoke an emotional response.) Watching for them has helped me to "live in the moment" of my days. I also changed my mind about my writing book. I was going to work through The Artist's Way, but I remembered The 3am Epiphany and decided to work through it. I'll try to do at least three of the exercises a week, but don't expect to see them all. Some may be shite.  |
| "Invalid Entry" for today's small stone. No work today for me or Hubby. It's a cuddle up and do nothing day again. I am feeling better, though, thank you for your concern. Not sure why I was feeling crummy. Just one of those things, I guess. I'm excited about this week, new semester means new books! I love going to the MSU bookstore. I never know what I'm going to find there. There's all sorts of possibilites on those shelves. That's how I think of it. Possibilities. I think that's why I like the new year so much, too. It's bright and shiny and full of possibilities. Fresh out of the box. A clean slate. A blank page. All ready for me to write anything I want between its covers. I like thinking of it like that. Anything can happen. Good things. Wonderful things for me and my family. This could be the year we win the lottery. Or that I write my urban fantasy novel. Ahhhh...... I like dreaming big. Last year I made a resolution to think and be more positive. I've found that has made a huge impact in my life. I've decided that I'm just going to make that a way of life for myself. Instead of making it a resolution to continue this year, I'm making it a life change. Everyone I have spoken with and everything on the radio and television talked about how awful 2011 was. And yeah, maybe it wasn't great financially for a lot of folks or even for us, but that's ok. We are healthy. We have each other and we have jobs. I hope that and more for us for 2012. And for you and yours as well.  |
| "Invalid Entry" for my first effort at a small stone. I'm not sure why but I've been fighting an upset tummy and headache all day. I hate feeling yucky. I have spent the day doing absolutely nothing, though. So that's nice. I even got in a short nap.I suppose I shouldn't say I've done nothing. I've outlined my goals for the year for myself and Hubby and I have discussed some goals we want to work on together. I think I'll go lay down more now. I'm really not feeling so hot. Happy New Year, folks! |
| Following a link I found in "Invalid Item" I found this: http://writingourwayhome.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-write-small-stones. I'm intrigued. I like tiny little bits of poetry! This one asks you to create a small stone every day in January 2012. Perhaps that will be a goal of mine. Perhaps I won't have a hardcore daily push for them. We'll see. I think I'll email this link to Katya the Poet  . She might be interested in doing a poem a day with me. She's cool that way.PS--Sorry for the second post in a day. I got excited when I found this. |
| We are having strange weather this week. It's very windy here. A warm, dry wind. And the temperature is 53 degrees F. For Montana, in nearly January, that is crazy warm weather. Usually I get a blanket of snow that starts depositing on my yard around Halloween and then I say goodbye to my grass, not seeing it again until March or sometimes even April. There is currently no snow in my south facing backyard and only tiny leftover bits in my front where Hubby made little piles the last time he shovelled the front walk. It's all sere and yellow. Out front where the road and my yard meet there is a gravel easement about five feet wide. It is a low spot in the yard and there is a soggy, boggy spot of standing melt water from the yard. It's like it's Spring Break not Winter Break. And the wind. I feel like we are living in Estes Park again. The last two days the air in Bozeman, MT, has been in a big hurry to be some place else! We've been having recorded gusts up to 75 mph!! I thought it was over this morning. I got up and it was so still and quiet. It was kind of eerie. Then around noon, the wind started up again. Blowing from the west, headed to the Dakotas. Nothing to see here, I guess. Better places to be. Yesterday morning I got up and made more beer bread. For Christmas, our boss and his wife gave us a gift basket with a package of beer bread mix in it. Since we are alcoholics, we don't keep beer in the house. For Christmas I wanted to make up the bread, so I had Hubby pick up a bottle of beer. He went to the liquor store and couldn't get the kind I wanted in anything but a six pack. We wondered what we were going to do with five extra beers. The bread was so good, though, I knew right away what I was going to do. I hunted up a recipe for beer bread from scratch and started figuring out how to adapt it to altitude. (That's always my problem with baking recipes. Tinkering with them so I can bake them at 5600 ft. If I ever include a baking recipe in here, keep that in mind.....it's a high altitude recipe!!) So I tried a couple and after baking one loaf that was essentially a beer flavored brick.  I finally kludged together a recipe that everyone agrees is excellent. It's super simple, too.Basic Beer Bread 2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 3 T sugar 1 T baking powder 1 1/2 tsp salt 1 12 oz beer (use a nice microbrew ale or stout) Stir ingredients until beer is thoroughly incorporated into dry ingredients. Spread into greased loaf pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 55 mins. Halfway through baking, pour 3 T melted butter (don't use substitutes--I prefer the salted butter) on top and then finish baking. It's so nutty and rich. If you use a nice wheaty ale, it really just enhances the flavor of the bread. If you'd like, you can add fresh herbs or grated cheese. I haven't because I like the plain taste of the bread. For extra yumminess, I made a cream cheese spread based on one I saw on one of Guy Fieri's cooking shows. I can't remember his exact recipe, but mine is just peppadew peppers that you pick up at the olive bar in your grocery store (they are a red pepper that's sweet with a little heat), give them a rough chop and then toss them in a food processor for a few pulses. Pull them out and fold them gently into a whipped cream cheese. It's so creamy with just a little bite on the rich nuttiness of the bread. If you can't find the plain peppadews or your grocery doesn't have an olive bar, sometimes you can find them in jars stuffed with goat's cheese. I think those would also be nice split and spread on the bread. Mmmmmm. Now I've made myself hungry. I think I'll got toast a slice then eat it with a little schmear. |
| I've been reflecting on 2011 and thinking about what worked for me in my life this past year and what didn't. I've decided what didn't work for me was that I didn't have a game plan. So, I've decided that for 2012, I need a game plan. First step for any game plan is to sort out what the end goal or direction is. I'm not sure how many of you read Holly's blog "Invalid Item" , but I love it. Two things I love are her list of books she's reading and the side blog about all her yummy food. I love food. I'm carrying an extra mumble-ty pounds because I love food so much. I am always baking something new or trying some recipe off the Food Network but I don't write about it. And that's silly because one of my loves is writing. I was woefully sucky at writing about anything in 2011. I've reviewed my nook library and discovered that 80% or so of my nook books are urban fantasy. Upon reflection I've decided that urban fantasy is my niche. It's my genre. When I finally write the book in my head, it's going to be urban fantasy. So, I'm going to concentrate more on sussing out who's writing style I like and who's writing style leave something to be desired and learn from both. I have also been lax in journalling. Not only here but in my long hand journal. I want to get back to that. I always find returning to journalling difficult after an extended hiatus, so I've decided to follow "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. When I finish it, I'll follow up with "The Water Way." I also want to return to reading more books on the writing craft. I enjoy reading them and they help me stay focused on the goal of BIC time. (Butt in chair ) Because, honestly....that's my biggest downfall. The lack of quality BIC time. Or heck, forget quality...I'd take quantity at this point. One excellent thing I discovered this past fall on accident was that the bipolar meds I'm taking have a 10-12 hour effect window. Period. No fudging. Do not pass go. Thank you for playing. What that means is that for ten years, on the advice of a myriad of doctors, I was taking these damn meds at bedtime. i.e. around 10-11pm Um...what that meant was that I was in effect a zombie until 9 or 10 the next morning. Every day. For ten years. My family and I chalked it up to me "not being a morning person" and went merrily on with my zombified life. Until one day this past fall when I took my pills early for some reason. And then I promptly popped out of bed like a daisy the next morning at 7 am. The light bulb went off and I have moved my pill taking to 7 pm in the evening instead of at bed time. Badda bing. Miraculously, I'm a morning person! It's so simple and stupid, but it has literally changed my life. I am taking two 8 am classes in the spring semester. Something I NEVER would have done in the past.So, now I have the mornings to do things with. Some mornings I'm up at 5am. I figure I can use that time to write. That's so exciting to me. What does all this boil down to for 2012? You will see more recipes and food talk here this coming year. I need to embrace my new Geography major, so perhaps some of the food talk will be geographical. We'll see how that plays out. I'm going to blatantly steal from Holly and start posting what books I'm reading in the header of my blog. A major part of writing is reading. I'd love to know what you are reading, too. I love a good recommend. Also there will be writing and journalling. But you may and or may not see that bit. That bit will probably be for me. We'll see if any shorts make it in here. I was waffling on whether or not to renew this subscription, but, above all, I love to read and I love to write. So.....yes. I'll be renewing. This is a home for me. I love my blog here and I love the people here. Writing.com is home. |
| Some friends and I had a Christmas party last night and we decided that since we are poor, we would have what we called a Dicken's Chrismas. We rounded up old Christmas gifts from years past and regifted them to one another. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of ugly-ass scarves in the mix. There were also random books (some read, some not), CD's, coffee mugs, kitchy kitchen towels and hot pads and some other bits of "what the hell?". You know, as in "What the hell was this person thinking when they gave me this crap? Do they know me at all?!" We had a lot of fun though. A lot of fun, good food and good company. What are silly, tacky gifts beside that? |
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