It's the end of January already

Another year goes by and I have neglected my blog once again.  It’s been a combination of me not having two brain cells to rub together, being really busy, being sick all the damn time, and a big ol’ dollop of apathy.

Also, Skyrim.

Hey, Skyrim!  I’m almost level 40, a wood elf, werewolf, queen of two-handed weapons, smasher of faces, Harbinger of the Companions, up-and-coming member of the Thieves Guild, sometime student of the College of Winterhold, Thane of two (three?) holds, and bride of Farkas.  Main storyline?  What main storyline?  I’m already dreaming up my next character.  I could play this game for YEARS.  I just hope that 1.4 patch fixes the damn lag on the PS3.

BRB, gotta ogle pics of Farkas.

I’ve been trying to stick with a weightlifting plan but I’ve gotten derailed a few times by illness and injury.  My hip decided it wasn’t going to work properly for a couple of days, which was both painful and mysterious, as I hadn’t done anything that could have aggravated it.  Then I got sick two days last week.  Then I got sick again yesterday.  I think yesterday was due to something I ate.  I spend the first half of my day in the bathroom and passed out on the couch sweating and shivering the whole time.  I still have some of that kickass cancer patient anti-nausea medication left and that came in real handy.  I was finally able to stop purging and get some rest after that.  I’m debating whether or not to try going to the gym today.  I’ll probably just do a mini session.

I got a call from Memorial Blood Centers last week telling me I’m a good candidate for platelet donation, so I have that to look forward to.  When was the last time you gave blood?  DO IT.

So we got this dog, Shorty (I wish we could change his name), on Christmas Eve.  He’s a six-year-old puggle.  Now that we’ve had some time to get acquainted with him I’m convinced his previous owners were completely insane to give him up.  He’s a sweet little lump of a dog who likes to cuddle.  He’s gentle with Lily and is finally getting into a rhythm with Bindi.  He’s only half curious about the cat and pretty much just ignores Sara now that he knows that even looking at her will be met with a hiss and a swat from that grumpy old beast.  Shorty likes to sleep under the covers and be the little spoon with me until the bed warms up.  He also likes to tear around the yard about once a day or go for short walks before returning to the couch.

Blah, writing.  I don’t know why I’ve had such a hard time lately.

Doing my (frothy) doody

Find out all about Rick Santorum here!  Politics at its best!

Working on it

I've been trying to write.  Blogging.  Fiction.  Anything.  I can't seem to muster enough brain cells together to finish more than a sentence or two.

I've been feeling more than a little scatterbrained lately and my social anxiety and OCD are coming back in waves.  I should probably talk to my doctor about going back on a small amount of medication again but that just seems like quitting, you know?

New Year's Eve this year is looking like a clusterfuck.  A bunch of us are going to the Wild game, then to dinner, then the next part is fuzzy.  Every year a friend-of-a-friend's husband puts on an invite-only party with fancy dress at a local establishment.  A bunch of us were originally against going this year because 1) it's across town, 2) BAR PRICES, 3) the dress code, and 4) getting a taxi on NYE is nigh impossible.  We were going to do multiple house parties and a progressive dinner thing, but then out-of-towners got thrown into the mix and suddenly everyone's like, "let's show 'em around town!"

I haaaaate going out on NYE.  They don't call it Amateur Night for nothing.  The last thing I want to do is stand ass-to-elbow with a pack of suburbanites who come to the "big city" once a year, pay over-inflated alcohol prices (after waiting at an understaffed bar just to order), then worry about how to get home.  Husband and I are more into getting into our jammies, drinking our own alcohol, and going to bed at a reasonable hour.

So we decided to do the hockey game and dinner and then skedaddle back home.  I predict I will be asleep by 11:30.

Dear Target: Your comment form is too short.

Sorry I'm using the generic comment form, but I couldn't find one specifically for Archer Farms.

I'm surprised to find myself writing today about some Archer Farms Lunch Bowls I had yesterday and today.  I've never felt so strongly about food that I actually had to complain to the company about it.  First time for everything, I guess.  I get that I'm complaining about something that cost me less than $1.50 each, but I'm mostly irritated because I work on one side of Minneapolis and Target is on the other, and I don't have a ton of time for lunch so now I have to go back across town to Target (the only grocery store in the area) and buy more food for lunch.

Yesterday I tried the Vegetable Masala bowl.  I'm not going to beat around the bush -- it tasted like burnt dish soap.  I didn't even know what burnt dish soap tasted like before yesterday.  Also, rather than being called "Vegetable Masala," it should be called "Rice, Four Lentils, and About Half of the Vegetable Content of Bowl Noodle Masala".  I took about three and a half bites before I had to throw it away.

I am right now torturing myself with the Kung Pao Noodles.  Seriously, did anyone actually taste this before rubber stamping the production?  It tastes like sweet, insipid, stale weirdness.  This is not kung pao.  It's not even imitation kung pao.  And I loves me some kung pao.  To top this all off, the peanuts are actually, for real, rancid.  Not even stale.  Rancid.  Another four bites.  Into the trash.

In general I've been quite happy with the quality and taste of other Archer Farms products, but something must have happened in the QA process here.  I have a Couscous Primavera bowl in my cabinet and I'm considering taking bets around the office over how many bites I can choke down before I give up in defeat.

First World Problem

Last Sunday Husband took Lily down to her uncle's house to watch football and spend some quality time with her cousin.  And so I found myself, for the first time in months, by myself with nothing but free time on my hands.

No demanding toddler?  No husband occupying the TV with his video games?  No feelings of being chained by housework and childcare?  What do I do with my time?  The world was my oyster -- or at least the part of the world I could walk to.  Meh, it's easier to stay in the house.  I had options!

I baked some bread and rolls, then watched some Good Eats in the dining room, then relocated to the living room to fire up a video game for the first time in, like, forever.  Hey!  Uncharted 2!  I hear this is a fun game!  But the controls suck ass and I can't see anything and I'm not good at shooting people.  OK, what's on TV?  Crap... crap... 80's crap... crap... same old cooking shows... crap... and shitty cartoons.  OK...  How about some Netflix!  What Would Jesus Buy!  Haha!  Well, this is kind of long but I dig the message, and now it's over... What about the computer?  Don't really wanna play Minecraft right now... Can't do much in Glitch because I'm still waiting for Mining IV and I'm swimming in currants with nothing to spend them on... Don't really wanna click around on Reddit outside of work... Don't feel like exercising... Too tired to read....

I am unfulfilled.

In which my two-year-old completely freaks me out

We moved our bedroom down to the basement this weekend so guests don't have to go traipsing through our bedroom to get to the bathroom and so we can finally have an actual dining room.  With a table and everything.  No more eating on the couch.  And we have room for our Christmas Yule Holiday tree.

So things are in a state of disarray and I'm slowly trying to clean and organize it all.

I put Lily to bed last night and went downstairs to tackle the mountain of clothes that needed to be put away.  A little while later I went back upstairs to bring some towels and some of Lily's clothes up and get a glass of water.  So I was putting things away in the kitchen, then I walked into the living room and my sweet, beautiful daughter scared me half to death.

She was sitting silently on the couch.  She had been there the whole time.

"Play wif my toy," she said simply, holding up her toy airplane we recently unearthed from the basement.

My mind boggled.  The child gate was still latched in front of her closed bedroom door and the bathroom door to her room was still locked.  I have absolutely no idea how she got out of her bedroom.  She must have ninja-climbed over the gate and shut her door.  I didn't hear a thing from downstairs, and I was listening.

The hotel soap

I was trying to publish this from my hotel room in Chicago a few weeks ago but their wifi was shit and I couldn't get the pictures uploaded.  I found it sitting in my drafts folder today.

Between yesterday evening and today I have been in the process of using exactly

one bar of facial soap,

one bar of body soap, zero shampoo or conditioner, and one bottle of lotion.

That is the condition I left the soaps in when I left.  They are still, essentially, two whole and complete bars of soap.  I don't know why I put the shampoo and conditioner in the shower because I was never planning on using it.  I'm funny that way.

I came back to my room this evening to find, in addition to my other soaps and shampoos already in the room, 

One additional shampoo, one additional facial soap, and one additional body soap.

I'm afraid if I stay here much longer the situation is going to turn into this.

And Chicago?  You're beautiful.

 

lol, butts

I suppose it's just the beginning

Halloween was a success. We were unable to find a Foofa costume but Lily didn't have any problem at all being Brobee.  I had to sew the chinstraps to the hat because there was no way on Earth that thing was staying on her head.

We stayed home for once because Monday night Halloweens are stupid and we didn't want to deal with the hassle of traveling to the suburbs this year.  We took a spin around the block and chatted with neighbors a bit, which was nice, then returned home to finish passing out candy.  We had to go to the store twice for candy refills, as we underestimated the amount of children in our neighborhood.  There were only a few kids who looked a bit old for trick-or-treating, and nobody neglected to wear a costume.

No costume?  No candy.  You must parade in front of my door for my amusement.

Staying home meant we put forth a tiny bit of effort to decorate the house.  We had lights around the door, hanging decorations on the boulevard tree, and I actually carved a small pumpkin.  Lily carved a fake pumpkin at daycare.

Time it takes for a fresh pumpkin to start shriveling in the full sun of a west-facing picture window?  Evidently half a day.

Please excuse my crazy window setup.  That's where I incubate seedlings in the spring and I haven't had a reason to dismantle it yet.  Anyone want to build me one of these bad boys for next year?

Somebody must have flipped some kind of switch at work because the last couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy.  I can't even begin to catch my breath right now and I'm going out of town for business tomorrow for three days.

Meanwhile, our 5 day old baby niece is recovering from major surgery, Thanksgiving plans are up in the air, I need to register for spring semester classes while I'm out of town, and I've got about 10 billion projects floating in my head and around the house.

Soon I will tell you about my adventures in once-a-month-cooking.  If I get some time.

Blog-In

This is a blog-in.

---

Dear 2012 Presidential Candidates,

We are your future constituents and we are parents.

We are American mothers and fathers and grandparents and guardians. Our families might be the most diverse in the world. Blended and combined in endless permutations, we represent every major religion, political ideology and ethnic culture that exists. We are made from equal parts biology and choice. Our children come to us in every way possible—including fertility miracles, adoption, and remarriage.

Our very modern families embody the freedom that defines America. We embody America. We are rich in diversity, but we are united in our family values. We come together today, with one voice, to express our grave disappointment in the national political discourse.

The 2012 countdown has barely begun and we are already bombarded with the warmed-over, hypocritical rhetoric of 2008. We are living in a time where 15.1% of Americans now live in poverty, the unemployment rate stands at 16%, and we are spending close to $170 billion annually between the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Given the current state of affairs we would expect every candidate to focus on the issues that truly matter: job creation, debt-relief, taxes, education, poverty, and ending the war(s). Instead, it is already clear to us that the conversation has been hijacked, with the goal of further polarizing our nation into a politically motivated and falsely created class-war.

We will not stand for another campaign year in which politicians presume to know what our family values are as they relate to the nation.

To be clear, here are our family values:

•  Affordable health care, including family planning, for all Americans. We will not tolerate any candidate using the shield of “Choice” to blind us from the issues that really matter. When funding is stripped from organizations like Planned Parenthood, access to sliding-scale health care (including yearly pap smears & mammograms), comprehensive sex education, and family planning is blocked from the poorest of the population.

•  Access to education, and the ability to actually use it. We want quality, affordable, federally-funded full-day, pre-K programs made available in every State, in order to provide an even starting point for all children enrolled in public schools— regardless of the wealth of the district or town they live in.

•  A reinstatement of regulations for banks issuing mortgages and full prosecution for those who engaged in fraud. We want full accountability —investigation, indictment and prosecution— of those individuals and financial institutions who engaged in fraudulent lending practices and who helped create the massive foreclosures that left many families homeless or struggling to keep their homes.

•  A return of strict environmental regulations protecting water, air, food, and land that were removed in the last two decades. We want our children to grow up in a world not weighed down by the strains of pollution and global warming. Between BPA in our products, sky-rocketing rates of asthma in kids, questionable hormones in our over-processed food, and more, we need leaders who will put our needs and safety over the desires and profits of large corporations.

Family planning, healthcare, education, economic solvency and environmental safety: these are our national family values.

Candidates who demonstrate the ability to understand the gravity of these issues, and their impact on our families, and who can provide actual, viable solutions to these problems will garner our support and our votes.

We believe in our democratic system, and we'll continue to use our voices and our votes to see that it reaches its fullest potential.

Sincerely,

Your future constituents,

The Mothers & Fathers of America

If you would like to forward this letter to your elected officials, you can find their contact info at the following links: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtm


To see who else is participating in #BlogIn2011, please click here.

Making do

*Beeeeeeep*  The train doors open.

I squeeze out into the cold.  Hubert looks frostbitten today.  There isn't even a hint of sunrise peeking between the buildings but the sky is violently clear with a bright gash of moon and pricks of stars.

 The brave OccupyMN souls are still sleeping outdoors every night.  I wish them well in my head.  I can't imagine any kind of cold weather camping, much less sleeping in the cold without a tent.  If the temperature in my bedroom falls below 65 I swear my extremities go numb and I can start to see my breath.

I'm not happy about being back on the train.  The day before I tried to start my scooter in the morning and she wasn't having any of it, even after having the battery conditioner plugged in for twenty minutes.  I conceded and walked to the bus stop in defeat.  It's frustrating when the afternoon highs are hovering around 50-60 degrees.

So I am forced to embrace the cold.  I do so grudgingly.  I take the cold, smash it into a ball, and stuff it down into my solar plexus much like I do with the heat and light of the summer sun.  It's like stoking the coals of a fire.  The pain of the cold brings focus.  The focus brings strength.

I pick up my pace.