ufos and sweet potatoes

Ufo
Originally uploaded by AnandaDevika

Aw, Monday - how I loathe thee.

Yesterday was one of those fabulous lazy Sundays - not lazy as in I
didn't do anything, but lazy as in I wasn't beholden to anyone else's
whims or schedule. I got my extra hour of sleep in (whoever decided to align the start of DST with Halloween was a genius), took the puppy for a jog around the neighborhood, then settled in the drink coffee and finish Colin Beavan's long anticipated No Impact Man book. My afternoon was filled with the smells of brisket and sweet potatoes braising in the Crockpot and the feel of silk bamboo yarn between my fingers as I worked on a UFO that I found lurking in the corner of my craft room. It was nice to finally finish this particular scarf, which I started last winter but lost in the mess of things and constant activity that is my normal daily life. With that, I've decided to make November a UFO month - I'm going to hunt down and finish all those Unfinished Objects, and make a little space in my guest room for something else - maybe guests? :)

The scarf is from a pattern I found online (here), designed by Amy O'Neill Houck. I did these two particular
colors of yarn because I couldn't find enough of either of them to just
use one color. J I need to remember, next time I start a time-intensive
but lovely pattern like this, that I should pick colors that actually
match my everyday clothing. Fortunately I have ONE shirt that this
scarf matches, and I'm wearing it today!

The rewards of being a volunteer

I’ve been volunteering at my local public library branch for a good ten months now and I find it very rewarding.  Particularly the times when, as a non-paid volunteer, I can find a paid employee of the library to do the icky stuff (e.g. killing large spiders.)  Yesterday I was stopped by a father in the children’s section.  He informed me that his little girl had just vomited in front of the juvenile picture books. I smiled and took this information to the reference desk.  Ah, the joyous things that are not my job. J

 

time is not on my side

Am feeling very crunched for personal time lately. Mostly due to cramming in hours at work (for the sake of building up extra hours, not for any particularly urgent tasks). I used up all my sick time for surgery/recovery time back in May and have been struggling every since with time-off hours. Even after work, between school and other people's crap I am just not doing enough stuff for me! Mainly, I'm being whiny and selfish, but every one should once in a while, right? (Just agree with me - it'll be better for all of us.) IF I had free time (this theoretical day when the Jr. League yearbook is behind me, all of my homework is caught up, and I'm not working on 6 costumes - yes, really, SIX - here are some things I want to try!

• This awesome jeweled tee via Still Dottie (as seen on Craft this morning).
• These reusable makeup remover pads via The Sproutz Store. That one's been in the craft queue for a long time!
• Fusing plastic bags via this tutorial on Etsy Labs. I have several ideas for what to do with the fused fabric, such as this shopping bag via Threadbanger, just need to haul out the iron.
• This ruffled sweater scarf via Craft.
  
• And so on and so on.

But first, the Husker game calls. Then dress rehearsal for the Little Hafla of Horrors. Then a paper on an Integrated Library System vendor (oh joy!). Someday, time will be on my side. Just not this weekend! :)

That takes guts!

From NPR’s Morning Edition, a Chinese male belly dancer.

i hate spiders

I can’t be the only person that would rather NOT see one of these creatures on her towel as she steps out of the shower. Ugh. And yet, it’s happened several times already this fall… The DH is more than familiar with my “spider scream”, the shrill noise I make when startled. This very morning, he pointed one out as it scrambled across our bedroom floor. Great. That will make going to sleep fun tonight.

The worst was two weeks ago at the library. I was at my volunteer shift, shelving Y.A. fiction when I noticed something move out of the corner of my eye. I kid you not, this thing was the diameter of a pop can. I didn’t scream, fortunately. I avoided it as best I could, but it decided to camp out in front of the “N” shelf…and naturally, I had a stack of Nicholson and Olsen hardbacks to shelve… I was hoping that another patron would walk by and scare it into running away, but no such luck. No one else seemed to even notice the spider’s presence. I managed to finish shelving and moved on to graphic novels… carefully monitoring the beast as I travel back and forth from the back room to the teen area. It didn’t move once. Finally, I stopped by the reference desk and asked the volunteer coordinator about his feelings on killing things and pointed out the spider. I’m sure he thought I was just being a huge baby. He promised to step on the spider and sent me on my way. Several minutes later, I heard a series of loud thuds. Then he walked over to me, panting, and dropped two large books at my feet. “Yep, that was a big one. My shoe didn’t work.” Eek. It was all I could do to go back the next week. Thank goodness fo government holidays – no shift today.

Photo obtained from Wikimedia Commons…

one of those weekends

Yep, another busy one.  As usual. J  The puppy, the DH, and I drove home to visit all my grandparents this weekend.  We left out Friday night, and met my parents at my paternal grandmother’s ranch.  Many years back, my grandfather got a contract with the Bureau of Land Management to hold wild horses brought in from out West so that people could adopt them.  The wild populations get too big and this was the solution to keeping the numbers in check.  Works for me. 

 

Anyways, the 5 of us drove to Sumner, NE – the tiny town where a big portion of my dad’s family was raised – and had dinner at Tub’s Pub, a rather decent steakhouse that also boasts a crazy rendition of “Happy Birthday” if you are unfortunate to visit on your special day. 

 

Saturday we went to see my mother’s family.  My grandfather has recently retired to take care of my grandmother, who is slipping away from us a little more each day.  I’m honestly not sure if she knew who I was.  It is very sad. 

 

We continued on from there back to Lincoln for the football game.  Our dog has never been tailgating before, so we brought him along – my parents spread out the tickets amongst my siblings, so my nephew and the dog got to spend the night at our place with “Mimi & Papa” and the game on PPV.  Good times.  The game was great, of course – nothing like watching a high-scoring shut-out during the 300^th consecutive sell-out.  Only like 45 years in the making…

 

Sunday was spend doing more domesticated things around the house.  Fun stuff like laundry, and dishes, and canning.  I baked pancake-muffins (the best invention EVER), and then canned 3 jars of pears and 10 jars of tomato sauce.   Before all of that got started, I took my mom, my nephew, and the dog to the Nebraska Humane Society “Walk for the Animals”.  The dog promptly stepped in a patch of burrs, screaming, kicking, and biting when we tried to pull them out of his paw, and my nephew almost immediately saw a playground and fell into a tantrum until Mom took him to the slide.  The dog and I did the walk alone, and then browsed the vendor tables until the nephew was sufficiently worn out. 

 

This week won’t be nearly as bad schedule-wise.  No meetings, a few practices, a date with the DH, and plenty of homework to get done… Here we go!

 

on the eve

Here I am, at the end of my twenties. D-e-p-r-e-s-s-i-n-g, no? We are just home from celebrating my "big day", a day early, as the actual birthday will be spent:

a) at the farmer's market
ii) at a bellydance workshop
3) in a grad school computer lab
D) at the DH's band's comeback show
V) all of the above.

Let's go with that last one. It's going to be a busy day.

Off to sleep...but first a pic. Here's Ryker, in heaven...

hoop it up

It's World Hoop Day, didn't you know? Yeah, me neither. Nonetheless, I'm loading some canned good and my hoop (yes, I own one) into the car this morning so I can hit the "Hula Hoop and a Can of Soup" event at Elmwood after work. As long as it doesn't rain, I'll be meeting a couple of belly dancers there to check out the event and then move on to our own rehearsal. A chance to dance outside just sounded too good. :)

Today's breakfast: ice cream and Grandma's chocolate sauce. I made the sauce on Monday, and decided that I just need to get it used up. Really. I do. Wouldn't want to waste it, right? Plus it'll be soothing on my torn-up mouth. I'll do better for lunch, when I have my "real" breakfast: a veggie-Swiss quiche that the DH has already given a big thumbs-up. Followed by an afternoon snack of mashed up raspberries in vanilla yogurt. The yogurt will hopefully keep my digestive track from going haywire what with all the antibiotics I've been taking for this stupid infection. Bleh. Tomorrow I return to my surgeon for xrays of my jaw - hopefully I'm not derailing my progress by taking a week off my rubber bands to recover!

comfort food

Instead of attending a very tempting "Labor Eve" party tonight, I am in PJs, reading and carefully noshing on comfort food - mashed potatoes (with sour cream and fresh-from-the-garden chives) and tuna noodle casserole.  I can't chew.  I can barely get food into my mouth, and not at all without a pre-dinner rinsing with some "magic mouthwash" to kill the pain.  I've had canker sores before, but nothing like this.  I hate braces. 

At least this gave me the excuse of a lazy day; no homework, no housework, no work-work, just "fun" reading and a little work on a patchwork t-shirt dress. 

This book, Lost Crafts, came in the mail yesterday.  While less detailed that I expected (I guess I was imagining more "how-to's"), it is a really extensive guide to "things we just don't do anymore", at least not the typical "we".  Shearing sheep?  Not in Omaha!  For many of the crafts, there is a nice description and some history and photos, as well as pointers to additional resources.  It will be nice on the coffee table for a while, although it might become a gift for the in-laws...

Fall Planting and Planning

Once again, it’s been a relatively cool summer, and my tomatoes have not been what they should.  But since lettuce did so well earlier, and the summer is definitely winding down, I’m going to shoot for a fall crop of salad greens and see what I can come up with.  I need to get out there this afternoon and see how my edamame is doing – I planted some soybeans earlier, and after eating a bag of locally-grown from the Nebraska Food Coop, I’m craving more.

 

Tonight’s other adventure in Produce Land will be peeling, chopping, and freezing peaches.  The DH’s parents had us over for dinner and peach-picking Tuesday night.  I was lazy afterward and didn’t process them right away and I’m thinking tonight is my best chances before they get too ripe in our kitchen.  I’ve eaten a couple fresh – they are divine, and our kitchen smells fantastic!  His folks love peach jam, so the frozen ones will be saved for jam, cobblers and thawed peach goodness this winter.  Also need to freeze some haricot vert that are still lounging in our fridge – hopefully they are OK still.  

 

Last night, simmered up some corn-potato-bacon chowder to try to clean out my veggie drawer.  It was decent and will make a nice lunch (and dinner, and lunch…and dinner) but I’d like to find a recipe for a creamier base.  It was more soup than chowder, definitely.  Still pretty tasty.  Can’t go wrong with corn.  Fried up the chopped veggies that wouldn’t fit in the pot and tossed then in an cheesy egg scramble this morning.  Too much salt, but it was a good start to the day with a thawed chocolate-chip zucchini muffin (or two…).

 

Busy weekend ahead.  Need to wrap up the editing on the Jr. League yearbook, clean up the house, then the DH wants to go to Blue for happy hour before heading to the cinema for Inglorious Basterds.  Not my first choice in films, but I won’t say no to Brad Pitt…  Saturday is the first day of fall library school classes.  I’m enrolled in 2 3-hour Saturday courses and a 1-hour self-paced course.  Bracing myself for hours and hours and hours of reading this semester!  Eek!  After class, Raqs Awn is having their first official us-only show at the PS.  Come out and join us – it’s a collection drive for the Nebraska Humane Society so bring a few cans of dog food and get a discount on admission… J