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November 2009 Archive
November 30, 2009
Man,
am I glad it's Monday. The whole weekend was tiring and I'm tired of
leftovers and....I'm just tired. (Probably because I forced myself to
get up at 8am, even though I'd only been sleeping for 4+ hours because
otherwise I could have slept til eleven and that is NO WAY to start a
week! lol Someone remind me to go to bed before dark o'clock tonight,
please, because I need to get up a little earlier tomorrow. If you see
me on Facebook at 2am - tell me to GO TO BED. And don't be nice about
it! I get sucked into the black hole of Bejeweled over there like you
wouldn't BELIEVE. Grrr.)
Speaking of which (the leftovers, that
is), in trying to use them up I only created, you GUESSED IT, a ton
more of leftovers. I mean, seriously? ......WTF? I turned the turkey
leftovers into a massive batch of turkey chili. (Which we've BARELY
touched so far.) The ham leftovers got turned into ham salad. (Which
we're actually doing pretty good on because 1) it's good for lunch and
2) did I mention it's HAM FREAKING SALAD? What's better than a ham
sammich, I ask?) I think the leftover potatoes and stuffing might have
to be pitched at this point because I can't eat any more. Nope. And,
mind you, this is after sending our guests home with a huge bag
of stuff. I just way over cooked this year. There was turkey, ham,
potatoes, dressing, brussel sprouts, haricot verts, some sort of squash
(the name escapes me , grr), corn, gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, two
kinds of rolls and three pies. Oh and onion dip as pre-dinner munchies
with a backup of cheese and crackers ready to go if needed. (It wasn't
needed). In my defense, this will be the FIL's last holiday season so I
panicked and over did it. C'est la vie. The amount of dirty dishes in
my kitchen around 3pm Thanksgiving day was so epic we could only laugh
about it. I'm glad I have enough counter space to hold it all or we
would have been stacking 'em up on the floor! lol
One holiday
down, one to go. I'm not going to bother with Xmas decorations though
for at least another week, maybe two. It's bad enough trying to wrangle
Maggie to keep away from the tree. With a 5 month old kitten around, I
can only imagine the daily
destruction. I figure I can only take that for about two weeks before I
start pitching cats off the deck and into the backyard in a fit of
rage. *ahem* So the tree will have to wait a little bit to be put up.
:) It's okay to wait anyway because I have a bunch of half-finished
ornaments to complete. I keep half-finishing stuff and REALLY need to
buckle down this week to finish some of this up.
Here is what I've got MOSTLY finished over the last 3 weeks:
One
glove and one sock. (Xmas presents both so, yeah, gotta finish these.
Especially because I've got at least a couple more things to START and
FINISH when it comes to my Xmas knitting.) 2 Xmas ornaments and 2 more
Blackbird stockings to sew up and make all purty. I think on these last
ones I was waiting to finish up a few more before I did the sewing part
and, to that end, I do have 1 more of each started but,
at this point, I should probably finish these up first. Oh well, I do a
little of something pretty much every night while I"m watching tv so
progress is slow but steady. (I'm too ADD for long periods of work on
stuff like this. I tend to get up a lot when watching tv.) Do you ever
get the feeling my hands NEVER EVER EVER STOP MOVING? lol Not totally
true, as it turns out, because I managed to stay still long enough to
start and finish a book this weekend. :)
November 25, 2009
Football anyone?
I
not only decided to NOT do a whole turkey this year because I just
wasn't into it but we decided to do something new (for us) with it and
smoke it instead of roasting it. It came out.......very interesting.
But in a good way. lol It came out very very moist and yummy without being *too* smoky tasting but the skin....well.
The skin is like a piece of leather stretched over a dead thing. It's
like a Slim Jim that you just can't break down with your teeth. It's
like you could peel it off and use it as a purse. There really is no
other way to describe it. It's got a lovely mahogany color but is
basically inedible due to extreme chewiness. Not that I wouldn't do it
again. I don't usually eat the skin anyway. :)
This method does take
a bit of time to do - hence why we cooked the day before. It was out in
the smoker for 5 hours and wasn't quite done yet but it started to
drizzle out so I had to put it in the oven for another hour (at 300
degrees) to finish it off. For an 8lb. breast that's a chunk of time.
Not sure I can see anyone doing a whole turkey like this *ON*
Thanksgiving day and, you know, eating before 6pm. lol
November 24, 2009
Have
we all lost our minds yet over Thanksgiving and the coming holidays? I
can already smell the DESPERATION and STRESS in the air. (Though,
admittedly, the smell might be coming from just me. lol) I haven't even managed to go food shopping
yet for Thanksgiving and, YES, THERE ARE GUESTS COMING OVER FOR DINNER.
I'm waiting for the hubby to get from work and we're going to tackle
that one together tonight. So tomorrow I just have to finish up a
couple bead orders, do some epic type cleaning downstairs**, and
pre-cook what I can and I'll be good to go for Thursday. (Friday will
be for collapsing in a heap and/or serious napping since I don't do the
'shopping' thing.)
**Project Epic Cleaning Upstairs (which is
my main floor) has already been completed. Sunday night around 9pm I
was on my hands and knees cleaning the kitchen floor/cabinet baseboards
with a scrubby and some Murphy's Oil for GOD ONLY KNOWS WHY. The
freaking Swiffer mop is good enough the rest of the year but something
about the holidays makes me feel like I've got to kick it up a notch
and all of a sudden I'm elbow deep in scrubbing down the bathroom
wastebasket with hot soapy water and/or cleaning the inside of the
VACUUM CLEANER WITH A TOOTHBRUSH. (True story. Ask the hubby.)
November 17, 2009
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME.
I posted that whole thing about my yarn storage and how I'm not getting any more yarn ever (or
at least until the end of the year) and what do you think I got in the
mail yesterday? MANNA FROM HEAVEN. I got some beautiful yarn gifted to
me, total surprise, by the totally lovely Lori of Lori Anderson Designs.
How sweet is that? She designed these super-cute penguin earrings from
my penguin beads and they are going to be featured in BeadStyle
magazine sometimes next year. (She gave them SCARVES. Made of YARN.
YARN. How could I not love THAT?) You should check out her web site
because she always has the most fabulous sparkly things posted.
November 16, 2009
Yikes,
I'm behind on posting lately! Tis the season I guess. (The season where
everybody loses their FREAKING MIND. lol) So I guess I'll just do a
big-mega post today to make up for it. Any rate, it will get the hubby
to stop asking when I'm going to update again even if none of y'all
care when if I do. :)
First up - I put up a few new things in
the Bead Shoppe. Just a wee update it is, a couple new fairies and
earring pairs. I'm plugging away on orders still so I haven't had a lot
of brain space to do up new stuff. This month is flying by. I can NOT
believe it's almost Thanksgiving. I mean REALLY NOW? REALLY?????????
*sigh* I'm trying to make a better effort at cooking, again, because we
kinda of got, errr, bad with that in October. Not that it was all take
out, all the time (we usually don't do that more than twice a week but
even that's too much, I think). But it was just a lot of thrown
together suppers and frozen pizzas/chicken. Blech. I hate doing that
too much because it's so awful for you and there is no need for it if I
just plan my days out a little better so I have time to actually, you
know, COOK. Part of the problem is that the hubby goes to bed at 8pm on
the days he works and I like to make beads until 7pm. I'M SURE YOU CAN
SEE THE PROBLEM WITH THE MATH HERE. That's my most comfortable time for
working, for whatever reason. I like listening to the Jay Thomas show
on Sirius radio and he's on during that time period and I'm so not a
morning person it's not even funny. So, while I do work earlier in the
day when I have to, I feel like I'm constantly fighting with my 'head'
to do it vs. being uber-comfortable later in the day. I told him he
should get a new job. lol (I WAS KIDDING.) Anyhoo, I made the most
fabulous meatloaf the other day. What? Meatloaf? Fabulous? Poor
meatloaf - it gets no love but I love it, provided it's done right and
not over-cooked and under-seasoned until a hockey puck would be more
palatable. The recipe came from the PW's new cookbook:
It's
kind of an odd cookbook as far as cookbooks go because it's actually a
cookbook/family scrapbook type thing but I like quirky. Quirky and I
are good buddies, right? And some of the recipes in there are already
part of my regular repertoire, like the Marlboro Man sandwich, which
she had already posted on her web site ages ago. So back to the
meatloaf...I used her recipe with my own addtions, of course, because
that's how I cook. Off the top of my head, I think I added a few more
spices and used less eggs. (It called for 4 and I have never ever used
more than 1-2 eggs for that much meat. The thought of 4 eggs scared me
a little. lol) But it was wrapped in bacon (!!!!) and sauced up just
the same and it was delicious. How could it not be? Wrap anything in
bacon and it will taste like heaven, right? lol And I used really
really really good bacon too that we got from a smokehouse that does
nothing but smoked meats. Best_bacon_ever and totally worth every bit
of the $6 a pound it costs. Supermarket bacon tastes like salty sawdust
in comparison. Next up, I think I want to tackle the chicken fried
steak. I've made that before from an old recipe I have from a
long-gone co-worker but I think I like PW's way better. Though
really now - how can you go wrong with something that has been battered
and fried? If you can't get into that, then you're not a real American.
lol
I didn't mention it here at the time but I totally lost my freaking mind
last month over my whole yarn stash, yes, YARN STASH. It was HORRIBLE.
All of a sudden, every day there would be a new small moth in the
living room to kill and every day I knew it was coming from SOMEWHERE
within my yarn but that whole scenario (moth infested yarn) was so
horrific to me and stressful, on top of everything else that is going
on around here, that I ignored it. YES IGNORED IT. I thought maybe
they would stop coming. Hey, it could
happen. In some bizarro world where pigs fly and full-fat ice cream
has no calories. Ahem. I finally I couldn't ignore it any more so after
a MONTH of this going on, I begged the hubby to deal with it, while I
stayed in another room so I didn't have to see it for myself. And, it
turns out, it wasn't that bad. They were coming from a baggie of
leftover yarn balls that was in a small organizer I have on the side of
the couch and not from the cabinet nearby where I had a good portion of
my yarn stashed. (An old VIDEO cabinet. Remember those? VCR tapes???)
So that was a relief. But it made it clear to me that my hap hazard way
of storing it all was pretty bad and pretty susceptible to moths. I'm usually pretty
good about keeping my hobby stuff organized. I've got everything in
plastic bins, etc. in one 'craft' closet downstairs as far as my fabric
stash and cross stitch stash goes. But, for whatever reason, my yarn
has just been piling up wherever I feel like it. I had some in that
video cabinet, piled up on the two shelves of my nightstands, a few
skeins in a basket on a shaker shelf in my bedroom, etc. It was just,
like, everywhere. lol (And
actually - I just remembered I still have two skeins in a basket on the
hutch in my dining room. HAHAHa! I totally forgot about that one.) I
happened to come across some plastic bins at Target on clearance so I
grabbed those, sorted everything by dyer/company and threw a whole
bunch of cedar blocks around it. Which makes it really easy to take a
pictur, being in one place, so here:
That
is my yarn stash. Or, uhhh, most of it. WHAT? YOU THOUGHT THAT WAS IT?
Ooo ho ho, if you thought it was, you don't know knitters very well. I
did my best is what I'm
trying to say. There are 7-8 skeins (IN BAGS) in a container on the
side of the wingback in my bedroom. All economy stuff, nothing special.
And there is a teeny bit of
kitchen cotton downstairs (ALSO IN A BAG) in my craft closet. No more
than 10 skeins there, I would say. *cough* And I, um, put a few half
used up skeins (solid colors I use for small projects) back into the
video cabinet. OKAY SO I TOTALLY FREAKING FAILED AT GETTING IT ALL IN
ONE SPOT. But I *tried* and there is NO DOUBT it's way better than it
used to be. Everything now is contained, bagged, and stuff with cedar
blocks. So basically I still have way more than I need but at least
it's locked down (hopefully) from wool-eating pests. And the BULK of it
is now in those two containers so, in my mind, I still have room for
more yarn because I can still close them, no no no, I mean I can totally see
I have enough now and won't be buying any more......after I get that
skein of striping yarn I just bought from Knitterly Things. Once I get
*that*, I'm done. For at least this year. Definitely this year.
Definitely. :)
November 4, 2009
Anybody else watch V last night?
I wasn't going to because ABC has
a habit of getting me hooked on a show and then dumping it before the
season is done. I've been burned too many times to trust them any more.
He's a very bad boyfriend, that one. lol
But, damn it, the freaking commercials got to me so I decided I would watch it.
Unfortunately, I didn't remember I had come to this conclusion until 8:06pm, so I missed the first 6 minutes. Heheheh.
My verdict:
I
liked
it but didn't love it. It seemed like a total rip-off in
theme/feeling of The 4400 and, what do you know, I saw an article this
morning where I learned the main guy behind the show was also behind
The 4400. Ya think? He even brought over good old dependable 'Tom' the
actor with him, seemingly playing the same type of person.
(Though it's nice to see him get some work. I always liked him on The
4400. They should do some guest spot/crossovers with his old female
partner and Billy Campbell/Jordan to have it come full circle. lol) I
heard some rumblings that the main lizard lady was miscast but I didn't
see that. She seemed lizardy to me with that quiet stare! lol (Though I
can totally see Michelle Forbes rocking this role out. Too old now & too close to her True Blood role, I guess, which is a shame.)
I'll
watch
the last 3 episodes they have on this month before it goes on
hiatus (til March????) but I'm 99% sure there is no way in hell
something so science-fiction-y is going to survive on ABC. No way, no
how. Invasion couldn't do it (I miss you Will Fichtner *sniff*) and
this show won't do it either. So don't get too invested in it. Trust me
- you'll only be disappointed.* points to Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy
Money, Invasion, Once and Again, My So-Called Life, OH I'VE BEEN BURNED
ALRIGHT.)
November 1, 2009
Hrmph.
What *exactly* am I supposed to do with almost half a bucket of
leftover Halloween candy? (I GET FIRST DIBS ON THE PEANUT BUTTER
CUPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
We did get a lot of kids but, obviously, 3-4
pieces each was not enough. (I started off with a full bucket *and* a
smaller plastic monster head container too. ) Those last few kids we
got made out like bandits because they got huge handfuls of stuff from
us to try and get rid of more. lol Hell, the delivery guy who delivered our chinese food made out like a bandit. Here, here - take some candy. PLEASE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TAKE SOME CANDY! I think he took it just because we scared him into doing it. Haha. *** Back to Articles |
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