Fun with old food

So, I may have a bit of a collection going, of old small cookbooks from the 40s, 50s and 60s.  Think brochure-sized.  With a subset of Jello recipes.  Because back then, people would put anything in Jello, and I do mean anything.  Meat, shrimp, spam, canned tuna.  Mayonnaise.    Sour cream.  Canned tomatoes. 

So, a collection of favorite online links:

Save Time and Money with a Refrigerator from the Awful Library Books website

The Gallery of Regrettable Food  with pictures (From the genius behind Interior Desecrations and other fun collections.  I especially like the Vacations section.)

Retro Recipes, featuring lots of oldies

Mid Century Menu with more vintage

The MSU Library's "Feeding America" historical collection

Kitsch Bitch on Facebook always has fun pictures.


And someday I'll find a better, more readable, version of this ad from Campbell's Soup.  

Soup Shakes.  Because drinking cold Cream of Chicken soup sounds delicious.

Image won't load.  Will try again.

Garden Failure

This year's actual garden (as opposed to plants in general) is shaping up to be at least a partial failure.  I've planted spinach 3 freaking times in the past two months, and what's out there now would maybe be enough to feed a small gerbil with no appetite.  I don't know why it won't grow, but it's making me angry and frustrated.  The only thing I've actually grown and eaten so far is about 6 radishes.  Spinach and lettuce are failing spectacularly, and the peas are iffy.  Something snacked on part of the first batch, and the second batch is just sort of stalled out.  I may blame the weather - it was a freakish 90 degrees on March 30, which may have done in the spinach.  And it's going to be upper 80s the rest of this week, so I'm not sure planting more spinach right now would do any good.  I'm ready to rake up the first round and replant with fresh seed, but I don't know if it'll grow enough before it gets hot to be worthwhile.

The big plan was to have at least something from the garden for El B's birthday party at the end of May.  Not gonna happen, I don't think.  The peas are blooming and may be ready by then, but there's like 15 plants, and 20+ people in the family.  One pea each? 


This sucks.

Dinner

I actually cooked dinner Sunday night. Shock, shock. Cooking lately has been iffy - DH is on Byetta for his diabetes, which has done some strange (and crummy) things to his appetite. Things he used to love, he now can't choke down. The chicken fingers that El Burrito loves, make DH nauseous. And sometimes, it seems like most of what I can cook also makes him green around the gills. I'm hoping that after we move (see future post), we'll get a treadmill, he can drop some weight again, and maybe, hopefully, the Byetta can either be decreased or dropped altogether.

So, my cooking. It was a serendipitous thing - I went to the library and grocery shopping, since El Burrito has been sick since Friday. At the library, I picked up some books I had on hold, and one happened to be the America's Test Kitchen Best 30-Minute Meals cookbook. I looked through it after I got home, and found a recipe for Pineapple-glazed Chicken that seemed (a) pretty simple and (b) didn't turn DH green. And, we had almost all of the ingredients (we have no cayenne, and no cider vinegar).

So, I went for it. And other than flunking out on reading comprehension and starting off with a lidless skillet, it came out pretty good. Next time, I'm adding more pineapple juice, though - the glaze was kind of skimpy, especially since the recipe was for 4 people and I only cooked 2 chicken breasts. With four, the glaze would have been almost non-existent. Another surprise - it didn't take me much longer than the 30 minutes they estimated, if you don't count waiting for the slightly-freezer burnt chicken to thaw.

I served it up with a box of Uncle Ben's wild rice, plus the leftover sides from the macaroni takeout meal I got at Hyvee to tempt El Burrito into eating (which didn't really work).

I've gotta say, I love the America's Test Kitchen cookbooks. I may have to hunt down copies, or use some of my Amazon certificates to buy some. Their explanations are interesting, educational, and helpful. (Alton Brown's Good Eats is the same way - I like to know the whys behind the methods.) Plus, Christopher Kimball, the host of ATC, rides horses, which gets him bonus points with me.

More decluttering

There's a mild form of spring cleaning going on.

I cleaned one shelf of the fridge last night, and proved that we aren't the pickle-crazy fools we thought we were. (That, or just that we shouldn't shop with coupons when we're hungry.) I'm sad and slightly embarrassed to say that I tossed 5 and a half jars of pickles in the trash. The half-jar was dated 1999. The full jars were slightly fresher, but still a couple years past their prime. Luckily today was trash day, because the pickles were still pickle-scented.

The partial jar of Spanish olives is still in the fridge. Oddly, it has no date anywhere on the jar, lid, or label. We're also still the owners of 2 partial jars of dill relish and a jar of hamburger pickles.

This is why we keep a Sharpie in the kitchen now and put a date on anything food-like when we buy it.

After the fridge cleaning, I changed the filter in the furnace (kind of a pain to do, since you have to perch on the clothes dryer to reach the filter), and cleaned off the shelf over the washer & dryer. Nothing got tossed other than some dust bunnies, but the handful of laundry samples is dust-free and ready to be sampled. Today I used the Tide Cold Water sample, which seems to work pretty well.

I also tested another tip for getting rid of static electricity in the dryer - tossing in a fist-sized ball of aluminum foil. So far, it seems to be effective, although the higher ambient humidity could be affecting things. I think it also left some silver scuffs on the dryer barrel, but they'll go along with the blue-jean stains on the back of the dryer. I also use Downy sometimes (diluted to about 25% of the recommended usage) and half-sheets of Bounce, plus distilled vinegar in the rinse cycle. I don't care much for the Downy's scent, and we take long enough to use a bottle that it goes kind of sludgy at the end, in spite of being watered down and shaken up.

All of that is only used on clothes & blankets, though. The bath & kitchen towels only get vinegar, so they stay absorbent. Using softeners on them sort of defeats the purpose. Plus, a rough towel is good for exfoliating. :)

Questions

Random questions:

• Why do companies put cryptic codes on food products, instead of a user-friendly Use/Eat/Sell by date?
  
• Why do said companies a) not answer their toll-free number and b) want everything short of a Social Security number before they'll let you send them an email?

I've been cleaning out corners here and there, and came across three cake mixes that didn't have either a Use By date or a Sharpie'd "we bought this on" date. They do have a fairly useless code printed on the box, but it's nothing we can decipher, and the Pillsbury website doesn't have a decoder ring. I took a shot and cooked one of the mixes last week. Yeah, it's a little past it's prime. After it was done (passed the toothpick test), it was maybe 1.5 inches deep. And it shrank around the edges. A lot. It smelled okay, so we tried a slice. Edible, but not so great. We tossed most of it.

Today I tried again, this time with a box that was only best by February 2007. I took the precaution of adding a touch of fresh baking powder. This one came out much better. It's not a pancake.

Tried calling Pillsbury this morning, listened to the recording, and attempted to talk to a live person. The phone rang at least a dozen times before I gave up. I just sent them an email via their webform, asking how to translate their codes.

Today's lesson

Today's lesson:

Always, always, ALWAYS thaw meat in a container - plate, bowl, baking pan, whatever. Do not fool yourself into thinking that the repurposed Walmart shopping bag will keep a thawed roast from bleeding all over the refridgerator.

Ask me how I know this. Go on. Ask.

It's because we tossed a roast in the fridge to thaw a few days ago. DH popped it into a plastic shopping bag first, to contain the leaks. I watched him do it, and thought at the time that it might not be enough, but I planned to cook Mr. Roast the next day (before it was fully thawed) and got distracted before I put a plate under it.

Skip forward a couple of days. Early this morning, my tired self reached in to get Mr. Roast ready for the crock pot, and found a nice bloody mess. Joy. At least it was on the bottom shelf this time. I only had to clean up one glass shelf and the crisper drawer (which, in our house, is full of chocolate in various forms, and two boxes of butter/margarine). Last time, we put the ham on the top shelf. Ham juice all over the fridge, top to bottom. I spent all morning cleaning it up, and the whole place smelled like ham.

This time, the only casualties were some out-of-date cheese sticks that should have been tossed months ago. The margarine seems to have been sealed enough to keep the blood out. And luckily, the foil on a giant-size Caramello bar is sealed around the edges now. I spent an hour or so scrubbing bloody juice off the glass shelf, washing the apples (even though they were in a produce bag), and cleaning up the chocolate chip bags.

The fridge is cleaner now. That's progress.

And now I'm off to read the Shuttle launch blog, since I don't get NASA TV and the news channels don't think a launch is worthy of air time anymore. (I gotta find a full-size copy of that image with Endeavour in the moonlight from the first link. It's probably amazing in a bigger size.)

Hot, hot, hot

It's hot here. Really Hot. Predicted heat index of 113 today, actual temp of 98, although I haven't checked the radio to see if it's actually hit that yet. It's supposed to cool off by Wednesday - "cool" being 89 or so. Hopefully the barns over at Stephens are staying cool; they've got a few horses with health issues that make them not-so-happy when it's hot.

So, we sorted the laundry yesterday, and I got cracking on it earlier than usual. Had 5 of the 7 loads done by noon, and then we just shut the blinds and tried to stay cool. I'm assuming there was a peak alert from the electric company, but I didn't hear anything on the radio at noon.

Got a few things accomplished over the weekend. It was going to be hot Saturday, so we got up earlier than usual (ha!) and were home by 1:00 instead of our usual 5:00. Took a box of stuff to the household hazardous waste drop-off, did some grocery shopping, and stopped at the farmers' markets in town. (We have 2.) I was hoping for some good peaches, since the "Ripe & Ready" (tm) peaches at the store are neither ripe nor ready. They're usually so green you could drive nails with them, actually. We were too late for the good peaches, at 11:00 (the market opens 8-12), all we saw were small squashy ones, $4 for a pint box with about 6 peaches. I did get a $7 quart of blackberries, but for some reason, they don't taste like they did when I was a kid. Either it's because we were eating wild berries, or I just remember eating them with a lot of sugar sprinkled on. We'll have to check back Wednesday, since they do another market from 4 to 6 on Mondays and Fridays. Good peaches apparently move fast.

Coming later: El Burrito stories. The kid's a character.

Reasonable Facsimiles

It's hard to be a fan of "international" food sometimes, if you can't find the food in question, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, when you get back home.

I fell in love with Jaffa Cakes in Ireland, after we bought a box at a gas station. We brought two boxes home with us, and I managed to hoard the last one for almost a year, but then we hit the hard part. They apparently aren't imported to the U.S. a lot (unless you want to pay through the nose for them). Amazon sells them for $5.15 a box, plus $7.15 shipping. For a box of 12, that we spent maybe $3 on in Ireland. Oy.

Jaffa Cakes are these scrumptious cookies/biscuits/cakes with a layer of sponge (?) cake, orange jelly-like filling, and dark chocolate on top. Lovely things, although after a few months, they're a bit dry. We've found a reasonable substitute from LU Pims, but they're also imported (from France, it seems), and not always stocked at the local store.

Sweet Candy in Utah makes chocolate sticks with orange or other fillings, which are yummy. It's kind of like a Jaffa without the Cake.

In Canada, I found mint Aero bars, which are a candy bar type thing. The filling is this fluffy mint-flavored stuff, sort of looks like honeycomb or foam, not mushy but just a bit crisp. And covered in chocolate. Haven't found anything like an Aero in the States. Next time my sister goes into Canada, I'll have to beg her to buy some Aeros for me. She claims you can find them in Detroit/Dearborn, too. I can apparently buy them online for 59p from the UK, but I hate to think what shipping would be. :) Oh, my - there's a caramel version too. Yummmmm.

And then we bought a tin of gingersnaps at Ikea when we went to Atlanta last year. El Burrito loves them, but Sis says Ikea only carries them at the holidays. We bought a bag of gingersnaps (organic) last week, but they're not the same. Thicker, very hard to bite, and they've got a zing to them. This week, I found a box of Anna's Ginger Thins (Canadian) in the teeny "international" section at HyVee, and they're very very close to the Ikea ginger snaps. Plus, not too pricey, at $1.99 for 150g. Not cheap, but we'll have to use some self control and not eat the whole box at once, unless HyVee starts to carry the 3-pound box.

One of these days, I need to take a trip to the international-foods store on the south end of town. I'd probably come home with all sorts of food I've heard people talk about (the downside of being on international chatlists - hearing about Hob Nobs and Tim Tams and Jaffas and other diet-dangerous goodies).

Another Tuesday, with a twist

(No jury duty for tomorrow!)

First, the twist: El Burrito woke up sometime around the uncivilized hour of 5:00 a.m. this morning. I'm not sure what time exactly, since I can't sleep in my contacts and was too tired to look at the clock anyway. So, after fussing and crying in our bed for a bit (or longer), we woke up enough to check his temp around 5:30-ish. Yeah, 100.5, thanks. Pass the kiddie ibuprofen and the syringe.

One call to the doctor's office in mid-breakfast, and they put us on the list to be there in half an hour. It's a 15 minute drive, and that's not counting getting out to the car. We were only 5 minutes late, in spite of my finishing breakfast and changing out of my jammies. It's not an ear infection, and it's probably not the strep he was exposed to 2 weeks back (courtesy of his grandpa). Probably viral, so just wait it out, keep dosing with ibuprofen/acetaminophen, and call if he's still feeling peaked on Friday.

So we came home for a bit, and then ventured back to the library. Because he asked all day yesterday about riding in mommy's car and going to the library for books, so there would have been a mutiny if he'd had to stay home and have lunch with Daddy.

Current library stats: 37 items out, 7 on the wait list. We checked out 7 books today, and returned7, if memory serves. Forgot the stinking DVD, though, that's just overdue enough to block my account. I'll have to drop it off later this week so I can renew everything else.

We returned

• Snow Ponies
• Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature
• The Second Nine Months - reviewed earlier
  
• 40 Digital Photography Techniques
• Closeup Shooting: a guide to closeup, tabletop, and macro photography
  
• No Way Home - I didn't get time to read past the intro of this one, and it felt like a downer of a book anyway. Maybe I'll try it again later.
  
• A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 - the Space Race Begins - This one was very interesting. I'm interested in "space stuff" anyway, and getting a history of the space race was educational. Turns out, one of the first satellites the U.S. launched after Sputnik, called Vanguard I, is still in orbit 50 years later.
  

I did check out 7 more, so no net decrease, but they were all holds, nothing I browsed for on a whim. And one of those, the Vanna White crochet book, will probably be going right back to the library. For interesting reads, I've got the third book in Anne McCaffrey's Petaybee Twins series (Deluge), the autobiography of the Hillstrand brothers (the Time Bandit owners from Deadliest Catch), the Ed Begley Jr. book, and Bruce Campbell's second book.

We spent $2.50 at the book sale. El Burrito got the Sesame Street 1,2,3 Story book, and I got the collected Miss Marple short stories (50cents from the "missing dustjacket" cart) and a YA novel called Spirit Horse. And the little charmer got to see his book-sale buddy, the older lady who thinks he's awesome, and she had another book for him, the board-book version of Owen & Mzee: Best Friends.

The boy has admirers at his regular haunts - the book sale volunteer, the manager at the BBQ place, and the manager at Chevy's, who talked to him last night again. We went out for dinner before the microwave-shopping trip - the chicken flautas last night should have been served with a fire extinguisher!

Flowers & other photos

Catching up on photos from the past couple weeks.


****

I broke down and bought a pair of potted shamrocks (Oxalis regnalis, specifically) after St. Patrick's Day. They were $1 each and a different variety from my other shamrocks, so I brought them home. Still planning to buy some bulbs of the purple variety, though.


***

One of my amaryllis bloomed this week. It was a bit of a shock, since I'd forgotten to water the bulbs for a few months. (The hazard of putting them in a cool out-of-the-way spot.) Of the 7 potted bulbs, 4 are alive. The other three are still iffy, and I won't be surprised if they're dead.



***

I cooked corned beef instead of the usual Irish Stew (with beef, not lamb) this year. It's an interesting taste, but I think I prefer the stew right now. I even got a few parsnips this year, but they tasted more peppery than I remembered (unless that was the seasoning from the corned beef).
Sadly, part of the leftover veg hid in the fridge until they were past their prime.

***

Cute El Burrito story time. We went to the condo lunch this month (Bob Evans - not bad, the chicken & noodles was yummy. Plus, smiley-face kiddie fries.) and had a good time. El Burrito took his toy bus along, and it had some adventures. First it got to drive into the butter packet. Then it got a trip to the Bob Evans Car Wash, courtesy of El Burrito. (This photo is a re-enactment, though.) Luckily, it's dried out nicely, but I had to inform El Burrito that he wouldn't pass Grandpa's bus-driver exam if he kept driving off the table or into the butter.

Then we stopped at JoAnn Fabrics on the way home, and the bus landed on the floor a few times. Found out that Elmer's Glue isn't good for sticking wheels to axles, so it's time for plan B. This bus has one whole screw holding it all together (4 or 5 pieces). The screw fell out at the library one day, and little bus bits were everywhere. Most of them landed in the stroller basket, since the footrest sort of acted like a funnel.

***

I bought some Moda Dea Ticker Tape on sale last month, and tried it out. It's pretty yarn, but my hands aren't suited for it at the moment. Even with a daily slathering of Eucerin, the yarn was still snagging on my fingers. It's another one of those yarns that are pretty, but what do I make with it?

I also tried some Bernat Bamboo, but I really don't care for it so far. It's amazingly soft, but the slubs just throw me off or something. Good thing I bought them both on sale.

***
El Burrito got to sit on a tractor last weekend, and he's still talking about it (and about riding in the truck). I guess the first thing he did was push the steering-wheel nut to see if it honked like Grandpa's truck. Dad got a kick out of that. :)

***

One of his "things" lately is a fondness for laundry baskets. He likes to push them up and down the hall, or sit in them. Sheepie got to ride in the laundry basket one day.

Concerts and such

Well, I got practically nothing done over the weekend. I put two weeks of receipts into Quicken, DH did the dishes, and we did some shopping. Other than that, nothing. We still haven't found the gift card we got for Xmas, the other handset for the telephone, or El Burrito's left shoe.

We did go to a concert Saturday night, and we took El Burrito with us. The local Celtic Arts Association brought Andy M. Stewart and Gerry O'Beirne to town for St Patrick's Day. It was his first concert, other than a few performances at the KC Renaissance Festival. He did very well, considering he had a very short nap and ate "dinner" (graham crackers, goldfish, and apple bits) during the concert. He was very well-behaved. One of the singers was talking to him during intermission, and complimented him, too. Gerry O'Beirne called our Burrito "an advertisement for having babies." (Which brings even more guilt, because I'm not all that crazy about the idea of having another one.)

And then I proved that I have no ability for small talk, asked very awkwardly for an autograph after the show, and was too chicken to ask Andy Stewart to sign the CD we bought. Because I'm a big chicken, even after taking public speaking in both high school and college.

Now, I'm off to make a loaf of soda bread, if El Burrito will cooperate. The crock pot is working on a corned beef brisket, complete with potatoes, carrots, onion, and parsnips (but no cabbage).

I've given up on finding a purple oxalis (shamrock) in town, so I'll be ordering online. I'm tempted to get both a purple variety and one called Irish Mist, but I'm not sure I'll have room for both - they're hard to find online, the best I've found so far is a place that sells in packs of 25 tubers/bulbs. That's a lot of plants. I saw a total of 5 purple plants in stores this year, and I'm guessing the last three were sold before I realized how scarce they are.

I've also given up on finding a Chieftains performance on TV today, because searchable TV listings seem to be scarce as well. We did watch the NYC St Pat's parade today, but it was skimpy on the music. (And I saw a lot of kilts, which I thought were a Scottish thing more than Irish.)

I want a vacation

Actually, just a day "off" would do it. A day where I didn't spend an hour reading to a certain young fellow, or looking at pictures with him on the computer. (I can say no to a lot of things, but when the kid asks me to read him a book, I can't bring myself to discourage that at all. But it's a gigantic time eater.)

But then, it wouldn't be a day "off" - it would be a day spent trying to catch up on all the stuff I can't do while I'm reading, looking at pictures, or whatever. What it boils down to, is that I need to get more organized and try to get more done during the day, instead of saving it all for "later" or the not-long-enough weekends. Of course, I've been saying this for three years or more, and still no luck.

Speaking of luck - Monday is St. Patrick's Day. There's an Andy M. Stewart concert in town this weekend that I'd love to go to, but can't figure out the logistics of El Burrito'ing. I'm going to do the usual crock-pot Irish (sort of*) stew, and soda bread. And keep hunting for a purple oxalis plant to go with my 3 green ones. There were three at Schnuck's yesterday, but they were $9 each, and I couldn't make myself spend that without checking a few other places.

(*) My usual Irish stew has beef instead of lamb; lamb around here, other than chops, is almost impossible to find, and darn pricey when it is found. This year, I think we'll use the corned beef we bought on sale last year, if it hasn't gone weird in the freezer.

Otherwise, I'm determined to get something accomplished this weekend as far as housekeeping goes. We need to vacuum, and I'm tired of scolding El B. for stepping on things in the floor, when I'm the reason that said things are in the floor to begin with. (Okay, me, and the severe lack of space, storage or otherwise, around here.) Maybe it's spring fever, but I've been a little short-tempered all week.

El Burrito and the Balloon Adventure

El Burrito had a little adventure today. Or rather, his balloon did.

He got a balloon for Valentine's Day, because we figured he'd get a big kick out of it. He loved the balloon from his cousin's birthday party, but it was latex and didn't last long. Mylar, because they're tougher than the latex ones, and because they'll float longer. And they mostly just leak instead of exploding. This one is still floating, two weeks later.

(I've got this weird thing about latex balloons - I'm always waiting for them to pop. It's a little nerve-wracking, especially when there are a dozen balloons, a ceiling fan, and pre-schoolers involved.)

El Burrito played with it most of the morning.


The boy loves his balloon. He hauled it all over the place. Balloon in one hand, foil-covered weight in the other, and ribbon dangling behind.


Then, just before lunch, we had a little problem. I was checking my email while El Burrito and the balloon were beside me, when I see a balloon floating past me. Uh oh.

It had pulled out of the knot and headed for the ceiling. And of course, it aimed for the high spot - vaulted ceilings have drawbacks. It perched in the 12-foot-up section, where it got sucked over to the return-air vent a minute later.

So I've got a balloon floating in the highest corner of the room, over the computer and file cabinet, and a Burrito who's loudly concerned that his balloon is Up There. I ended up standing on a step stool, waving a yardstick around for a while. I managed to bat it across the room without tripping over El Burrito, and herded it into the hallway, where the ceiling is a normal height.

And then I retied the ribbon with a much better knot.

***

This was today's lunch:

One 3-ounce Gorton's fish filet (tilapia, char-grilled), half a 16-ounce bag of "California blend" veggies, and some steamed brown rice. The Gorton's isn't bad, I wish I'd bought more when it was on sale. It's a nice change from the peanut butter routine.


And my replacement Chico bag was in the mail today.

Cold weather

It's cold here today. Okay, not North-Pole cold, but below-freezing cold.

So I've got almost 5 pounds of split chicken breast going in the crock pot, along with a whole head of garlic. And in about an hour, I'll go cut up some carrots and sweet potatoes to toss in, and decide whether or not to have DH stop for a loaf of Italian bread on the way home (garlic bread - yummy!! But high-carb.)

El Burrito's latest craze is to sit on my lap and make me scroll through all the pictures on the computer. Especially pictures of him, his family, or balloons. He gets the biggest kick out of it. And believe me, there are a lot of pictures on this hard drive. We have a digital camera, and I don't manage to delete all the "bad" shots.

I'd be much happier, though, if he'd get over this waking-in-the-night thing he's been doing lately. We're not sure if it's another tooth coming in, ear pain, dire thirst, or just the nasty congestion that he and I have had lately. Whatever it is, we're about two hours short on sleep from last night.

I had another brainstorm (small one this time), and put a "missing dogs" ad on the semi-local Craigslist. The Craigslist cities are about an hour from "home" but it's worth a shot. And I'll work on an ad for the local paper this weekend. The deadline is Monday, which always throws me off, because our paper was never delivered until Thursday.

Now I just need to find the paperwork to send with the camera, get the veggies cooking, and work on my sister's website. She moved from Georgia to Michigan last month, so I need to update the location if nothing else.

Back online, and stuff

Back online, hooray! It was the power supply as we thought. That's the third one in 5 years or so, so we need to figure out what's going on to cause it all. Spent last night downloading a week's worth of email and spam, and now I need to find out why some of the email filters aren't working.

Non-family related sad news - the racehorse John Henry was euthanized this week, at the honorable age of 32 years. He raced successfully until he was 9 years old, which is practically unheard of in the "big leagues" of horse racing (I'm not that familiar with the horses that race on the smaller tracks). These days, if an un-gelded colt wins a Triple Crown race, you can probably bet that they'll be retired at the end of their 3-year-old year. I can see the point about not risking their health by racing them unnecessarily, but I also don't think racing an immature (physically speaking) 2-year-old is that logical either. Anyway.

Family-related update: An aunt on Dad's side passed away yesterday, fairly unexpectedly, but she'd had health problems (asthma, etc) for a while. So, probably a funeral this weekend. Uncle is still hanging in, but it's not looking good. He wasn't at the reunion; he had surgery last week to remove some masses that were obstructing his intestines, and ended up having 2/3rds of his colon removed. The prognosis now is 60 days at best, and apparently the cardiologist recommended taking him off the ventilator so as not to prolong the suffering. This is apparently a pretty aggressive cancer. Uncle had spinal surgery last fall, and presumably there were MRIs and such as prep for that, and no one saw any of this mess. My other aunt with cancer is doing well, though. Her T-cell count is better than expected, and she may not have to take the full run of chemo/radiation (I can't recall which she's taking right now).

Otherwise, the family reunions were a good time. However, next year, I swear I'm taking some sort of vegetable dish instead of our usual famous peanut-butter Rice Krispy treats. Because at both reunions, the food was 45% meat, 45% dessert, and 10% pasta- or potato-salad or bread.

Small bit of good news - there's a slight chance of a second Firefly movie. Which would make me insanely happy, especially since it would supposedly happen before the first movie, timeline-wise.

Working on a new leaf

I'm working on turning over a (small) new leaf, brought on by my quarterly dentist visit yesterday and DH's quarterly checkup earlier in the week. We'll see how it goes.

I got a clean report from the dentist, other than one tiny possible cavity, so small that the tip of the probe won't fit into the little spot to confirm it. My gums are holding their own, and one area looks better. Better than it should - he didn't say it in so many words, but my immune system is being more helpful than it should be, considering my sorry lack of brushing and flossing. I was a faithful twice-a-day brusher for most of two years, but El Burrito tossed that train right off the tracks and over a cliff.

I'm still brushing at night - when I take out the contacts, so it's a good reminder. But I'm going to try to work the morning brushing back into the routine. I was doing it when I put my contacts in, but it finally occurred to me that eating breakfast right after I brush is sort of defeating the purpose. So the new plan is that I will brush my teeth when I go roust El Burrito out for his breakfast. It's a two birds with one stone idea - my teeth get brushed, he gets to supervise, I'm setting a good example, and hopefully he won't end up with a mouthful of fillings like me.

Part B of the new leaf is going to affect DH. We haven't got his bloodwork results back to see if the fish oil and cinnamon is working, but his doctor is not really ecstatic about his sugar numbers (Type 2 diabetes) and repeated the "lose weight and exercise" bit. So, when he got home last night, we put El Burrito in the new stroller and walked two laps around the condos. That only works out to about 2/3 of a mile, but there's a good uphill climb on the last 1/3 of the loop, so it's a decent bit of exercise. Given our schedule and lousy time management, it's the best we'll be able to do for a while, but it'll last until the time changes and it starts getting dark before DH gets home from work. I can't wait until we find a house and can buy a treadmill. But, until then, I'm planning for us to do a few laps every night, weather permitting. If I get ambitious, I could take the Burrito for a spin every morning before breakfast, but I don't know how likely that will be.

Part B.b is going to be working on the diet again. That'll take some work and pondering, because we tend to fall back on the typical meat-potato-bread sort of meal that we both grew up with. Hamburgers, steak, tater tots, etc. Or deli turkey sandwiches. Sigh. It's time to dig out the cookbooks and start getting vigilant about the carbs again. More fiber, fewer carbs, less "junk" food. Which means getting ruthless with my sweet tooth and the grocery list. It won't be fun.

Lost: one appetite

Reward offered; if found, please post here.


No, it's not my appetite (although I was reading Peony in Love yesterday, by the author of Snow Flower & the Secret Fan, which I've also read, and the foot-binding scenes are definitely an appetite-killer).

The Burrito, a boy who's always had a healthy appetite, who polished off a whole 15-ounce can of carrots at lunch two weeks ago, and who has never really turned up his nose yet at anything other than straight milk in his sippy cup (which we're working on), has become frustratingly fickle about eating. Until last week, he's been a champ, and he's eaten about anything we've offered. He may not have gone ape over lima beans like he does over bananas (no pun intended), but he'd eat them. Carrots, sweet potatoes, pears, peaches, applesauce, green beans, you name it.

Not any more. The only thing he's eaten reliably this week was cheese, shredded or sliced, and crackers. And apple-wheel cracker things from Gerber, which he likes to shove in his mouth whole. Not the most balanced diet. Today alone, he's rejected apple puffs, sweet potato puffs, apple/plum baby food, sliced carrots, freeze-dried apple bits, and a few tasteeos (store-brand Cheerios). And we're not done for the day, I'm sure. Last night we gave him a few chopped tater tots, a bit of hamburger, and some mixed veggies for dinner. He ate about 3 bites on his own, the rest was a struggle. I managed to get some peas and shredded cheese into him at lunch yesterday (what a combination), by letting him bang the tray with one spoon while I shoveled peas with another spoon.

Can we say "Frustration"?? Yep, I thought so.

Good things: Amazon.com has the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Volume 1, up for pre-order now at 42% off (although they show a higher suggested retail that I've seen quoted elsewhere). The weather's cooled off - it hasn't been over 99 for a week. Found some nice books at the library sale yesterday, for a total of $6.50.

Another unproductive day

Welll, it feels like it, anyway.

Things accomplished: five pounds of split chicken breast going in the crock pot, the condo lunch (a 2.5 hour excursion), and El Burrito fed twice so far. Oh, and three diapers changed.

And it's already 4:30. And I'm hungry again.

For the condo lunch this month, we went to a local brewery/pub. I've been there once before, and I'm still not impressed. DH was right - if you don't order the food when they take drink orders, you'll add a half hour to your stay. So, after arriving at 11:00, our food came out about 11:50. Catfish was okay, but tasted a bit burnt (it was cornmeal breading, my favorite), and the fries were a touch on the soggy side for my liking. The soda had an odd taste - I think the carbonation was out of whack on their soda fountain. But what irked me most was that for some reason, the waiter brought the checks in three trips (there were maybe 15 people today), but somehow didn't print mine up until the fourth trip. By the time I got my check, everyone else had paid and left, and believe me, these ladies don't rush. Lots of chit-chat and all. Nice waiter, but still. He got a $2 tip (almost 20%), just because El Burrito was fussy and I didn't want to fiddle with the math.

Meh. I'm going to go work on the cross-stitch while Burrito is asleep.

Plugging away

I'm typed out after that long post yesterday. Today so far has been a catch-all day. We got started early this morning - DH had an early meeting, and somehow we all ended up awake an hour earlier than usual. We managed to get to the library, Post Office, and Barnes & Noble before lunch; the usual Tuesday library run didn't happen yesterday, so we did it today. And I managed to use some of my B&N certificates that have been sitting around, on the new China Bayles mystery by Susan Wittig Albert.

Side Note: How can I, a book nut, manage to have $50 worth of B&N cards sitting around for most of a year? How? It boggles the mind. I'll tell you how: I went to B&N today looking for two books, the aforementioned Spanish Dagger, and The Children of Hurin. I wasn't really planning on buying Hurin from B&N, since it's 45% off at Amazon, but I thought I'd look. Well, this is how I can have B&N cards hang around a while: I couldn't find the book there at all. Granted, it's a decent-size store, and their organization scheme escapes me most of the time, but still. It's a new book, pretty popular, and it's Tolkien for pete's sake. How was there not at least one copy in the 3x6 feet of shelf space devoted to various Tolkien books?

Anyhow. Back on track. This afternoon I'm catching up on bits and pieces, like finally registering the new camera on the company's website, getting the disputes of our credit reports taken care of, catching up on last week's email backlog, and generally dealing with bits of paper. Later, the decluttering will begin. I'm fed up with this place (again) - it started when I was looking for two pieces of paper that Mom needed. It took way too much hunting to find them.

We (okay, I) need to get back on track with the weight loss, too. DH has apparently lost 15 pounds recently, which I hadn't noticed at all. Yes, I feel like a heel about it. On the other hand, my weight hit an all-time (*) high Monday night. I can maybe write it off as water retention after 4 days in the car, but still. There's a mental block somewhere, since I can sit and read a diet book (last week was Denise Austin's Tone your Tummy Type) while munching Doritos with lunch. Go figure. Not sure what I think of the book's idea, either.

(*) Yes, I did weigh more during the last month or so of pregnancy. Right now, I'm 15 pounds lighter than I was when I came home. The real kick in the butt was that I weighed myself the morning I left for the hospital. That morning I weighed either 207 or 206. Five days later, I came home with an 8-pound baby and decided to get on the scale again. One freaking pound lighter. I know I was retaining a truly insane amount of $84/liter IV saline (no glucose added, I asked), but still. That's so not fair.

And honestly, I'm still a bit discouraged or mad or something over the last time we really tried to lose weight. Somewhere between the engagement and wedding, DH was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. We cut out non-diet sodas, joined a gym, spent at least 3 hours a week at the gym, and started eating salads with dinner. Not just a typical salad, either. Ours involved half a head of lettuce per person, and were served in a 3-lb butter tub. Lettuce, radishes, carrots, mushrooms, very few croutons, a sprinkle of bacon bits (imitation), and moderate amounts of fat-free dressing. DH lost 30 pounds in no time. People noticed. I lost maybe, maybe, 5 pounds. And that was on a good day, scale-wise. And that bit about "you're making muscle while you lose fat, so you may not have a net weight loss" doesn't explain it either. The only difference I noticed was that I gained just enough leg muscle that my only pair of shorts didn't fit anymore. Other than that, I couldn't tell a difference and neither could anyone else. It was very discouraging.

In other news :) Gilmore Girls last night was one of the better episodes this season. It's finally back on track after the insanity of the past season or so (I blame the former producers for writing their show into a corner that had no exit). Unfortunately, there are only two episodes left of this season, and no word yet on if there will be a "next" season or not, and what form it will have if there is another one. So, thanks to some lousy writing last season, a full year was wasted on stupidity and insanity, instead of a decent show. Sigh. I can only hope for another season, whatever form it takes. Rumors include: a half-season, a quarter-season (8 episodes), a full season without Rory since Alexis Bledel is hesitant, or no season at all. Personally, if Luke & Lorelai can get back on track, and Emily & Richard show up occasionally, I could probably handle a Roryless season. Heaven knows her storyline lately has been vague, and with that timid preschooler voice, I find it hard to take her seriously as a journalist anyway. Long-lost daughter ideas should be left to the soap operas. They have more episodes to devote to the drama.

The Road Trip

As promised (is anyone reading?), the tale of our road trip to see Loreena McKennitt in concert. This could get lengthy, so sit back and enjoy.


Day 0.5 - Wednesday:

We left Wednesday evening, and drove down to my parents' house to drop off El Burrito for a weekend of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. We intended to leave here by 7:00 and be there by 9, but we left about 90 minutes later than expected. It didn't help that the weather was uncooperative. It was raining so hard at one point that we were only going about 15 mph. And since it was a small back road, pulling over wasn't an option - the shoulder on those roads is about 6 inches wide before you hit the ditch or the fencerow, so unless you find a driveway you can't get completely off the road. El Burrito proceeded to be a fussy-Gus until about 3 a.m., and would only sleep if DH was holding him. Not a good start, since we had a long drive to come.

Day 1 - Thursday

Left a bit later than planned, again, and drove in the rain until we were somewhere in Illinois. We ended up going up I-44 to St Louis, then out through Illinois, down through Kentucky, and into Nashville. Had lunch at a McDonalds in Mount Vernon IL, I think. I'm not crazy about McD's, but it was our best option. We had a bit of trouble twice with the Mapquest directions. Worst was in St Louis, when Mapquest gave us the right exit, but the wrong side, so we ended up going the wrong way. The other problem was getting to our hotel; the directions involved a u-turn, which was freakishly wrong. I think the problem there was that while the hotel's address was on one street, their entrance was on another street (which to my thinking, means their address should be on the entrance street). We got it on the second pass, though.

We ended up staying at the Best Western near the airport. There was a big marathon in Nashville last weekend, so everything downtown was booked, unless we wanted to pay $300 per night. Ha! The final price at Best Western was just over $50 per night. Now, granted, it's not the best hotel, but it worked. Their free breakfast was pretty sorry, and the light over the desk was pink and gave off about as much light as a firefly. And we forgot to ask for a non-smoking room, so you can imagine the odor. On the other hand, there were restaurants just across the street, and a Waffle House in the parking lot. And the route to the concert venue was impressively simple.

After we checked in, it was dinner time. There was a catfish restaurant just across the street that one of the guidebooks had talked up, saying it was local, good, and very popular. Well, not popular enough, I guess, because when we got there it was closed and out of business. We settled for the Cracker Barrel two doors down, so I still got to eat catfish, but I fail to see the point of driving 8 freaking hours across parts of 4 states, just to eat somewhere I could have eaten here.

Then it was time to figure out what to do the next day, and go to bed. This is where I had trouble. Too much to do, not enough time, and I am still in the habit of taking time estimates from guidebooks seriously. As if the mess in Ireland didn't show me the light there (because honestly, if Rick Steves can really accomplish everything on his sample itinerary in one day, he must drive like Earnhardt or have mastered time travel). We ended up planning to go to the Parthenon in the morning, the Hermitage in the afternoon, and probably Belle Meade in the morning as well since Frommers estimated 30 minutes for the Parthenon.

And after that little headache, we finally got to bed around 1 a.m.

Day 2 - Friday



After a weak breakfast thanks to the hotel freebie, we drove downtown to Nashville's Centennial Park to see the Parthenon. Frommers' 30 minute estimate was a joke. I think we spent at least 90 minutes there, and I took a lot of pictures. It's amazing. For the Tennessee Centennial in 1897, they built an exact life-size replica of the Parthenon, including replicating all the friezes for the facades outside. It was built mostly of plaster, so it was renovated with concrete in the 1920s. In the 1980's, they added a statue of Athena Parthenos. The original from Greece was lost in antiquity, so this one is based on the few descriptions that remain. It's 41 feet tall, and gilded with 8 pounds of gold leaf. "Wow" doesn't begin to cover it. There were a lot of schoolkids around that day, and the preschoolers were much better behaved than the junior-high kids.

After the Parthenon, we went to the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson's home. DH picked this one over Belle Meade. I'd rather see Belle Meade, as it's a horse-breeding estate and I'm not Jackson's biggest fan (the whole Trail of Tears idea lost him any points he might have gotten from me). We had a little trouble getting there, as we were going by the free map from the hotel. Given that this map had the hotel's street on the wrong side of one arm of the lake, we should have known. The cross street we were looking for did cross the road we were on, but they didn't connect - it went under the parkway we were driving on. We could see the estate, but we couldn't get to it.

We ate lunch at the Hermitage cafe, which is probably the best cafeteria-style food I've had in a while. More catfish, yum! The visitors center was also hosting an art exhibit called the Spirit of Nashville, with scenes done as old-style posters. The estate is picturesque and interesting, though. The tour of the actual home wasn't as informative as it could have been. The main theme of the day seemed to be the antique hand-painted wallpaper, which told the story of some Greek myth that I can't remember. It wasn't the original wallpaper, either. The original was "lost" somehow about 20 years ago - that's all the docent said, "we lost it" but no details other than it wasn't lost in the fire that they had. Anyway, this wallpaper had been found at a summer home in France, and they bought it. Identical to the original, though.

Other than the house, the tour is a do-it-yourself thing most of the time, unless you're in time for the 4-per-day seasonal theme tours. There is a horse-drawn wagon tour that focuses on the slavery aspects, but there was an extra $7 charge for that, on top of the $14 each entrance fee.

While we were there, I got a phone call from an online-friend who was also going to the concert. We had talked before we left, and planned to get together for dinner and ride in to the concert together. As it turned out, we were at the same hotel, too, which made things even easier. We ate dinner at a little Italian place across from the hotel, and drove downtown. We had a bit of a time finding a parking garage - we could see a couple of garages, but thanks to some one-way streets, we had to circle them a few times before we could get to the entrance. The first one we tried was mostly empty (yay!) and only cost $5 (Yay! again).

We ended up at the Ryman about 90 minutes early. We were there to see Loreena McKennitt, who is known mostly to non-fans for a radio-mix version of "The Mummers' Dance" about ten years ago. This is her first tour in 9 years, and the last tour was very short, with only 5 dates in the U.S. and 3 in Canada. So, when I heard that she was touring with her latest album, I said we were going, hell or high water. Thanks to a listserv of Loreena fans, I was able to get tickets during the pre-sale, and we ended up in the front row. (!!!). Okay, actually, there were about a dozen folding chairs in front of us, but we were in the first row of permanent seats. They were worth every bit of the 8 hour drive and Ticketmaster's lousy fees.

Anyhow. We were early, so we used the facilities, checked out the Ryman gift shop (I didn't buy anything), and got our tour souvenirs before the show started. We splurged and came home with the CD/DVD set of the PBS special, a t-shirt, and two posters. One was the standard tour poster, and the other was a special print done for the Ryman concert by Hatch Print, just around the corner. Then we found our seats. The seats at the Ryman, by the way, are church pews, since it was originally a church. Uncushioned pews. Oddly enough, I must have the right size seat for old pews, because I was more comfortable there than most folding chairs I've sat on. DH did not have such luck, though. :)

The show started promptly at 8:00, and was awesome. There aren't enough words to describe the performance. Loreena was amazing, her accompanying musicians were stellar, and the music was phenomenal. The acoustics at the Ryman were great, and I wonder if it's not partially due to the wood - the stage is wood, the seats are all wood, and the main floor, at least (I'm not sure about the balcony) was also wood. You could feel the music vibrating through your feet. We own her first live album and have seen the live performance at the Alhambra on PBS, but even those didn't compare to the full live experience.

The show was a full two hours, plus 30 minutes intermission, including 2 encores. And then our luck got better. Jeanne, my online pal, had also gone to the concert in Asheville NC the previous night. As luck had it, she met another fan there who was a former roadie, and knew where to wait outside in hopes of meeting up with the performers. That information held for the Nashville show, and after waiting outside near the buses for half an hour, we got to meet briefly with Loreena McKennitt herself, and the band. (Yeeeeee!!) I got my Hatch print signed, DH got his program signed, and we got to shake her hand. One lucky guy was having a birthday, and she actually sang "Happy Birthday" to him. She's a very nice lady, although she doesn't seem to seek out the spotlight like some artists do.

Day 3 - Saturday

Not much of a day. We got up, loaded the car, and had breakfast at the Waffle House next door. We took a different route back home this time; we skipped most of Illinois and crossed the Mississippi south of Cape Girardeau instead. We had lunch at the Lambert's Cafe in Sikeston, which was an experience. Their food is good, but they're always busy-busy-busy. We got in line at 1:10 on a Saturday afternoon, and had a 45-minute wait. The parking lot was full of tour buses and church vans, and while we were waiting, they took in a group of 35, and another group of 48. Oy. And that didn't make a dent in the crowd waiting outside, which was noisy enough to really get on my nerves. The piano playing over the loudspeaker didn't help. They do throw the rolls, by the way. We only got one, while we were waiting for our order. I'm not a great catcher, so I got one as the roll wagon went by and didn't try to get one tossed at me. After that delay, we finally got back to my parents' house at 7:00. No one was home, because El Burrito and the grandparents were off at an anniversary dinner for a friend of theirs.


Day 4 - Sunday

Breakfast with the grandparents and my brother (and his girlfriend). El Burrito got to see Toby and Missy, the bottle calves, again, and pet the dog just a bit. Then we drove home, unloaded the car, relaxed for an hour or so, and drove out to the in-laws' place for a birthday dinner. We got home for good about 10:30. We spent at least 24 hours driving over the four days, but it was worth it.

The bad news we discovered when we got home was that the VCR had mutinied. It's been acting up lately, denying that it has a tape in it and such. That's what it did while we were gone, and I didn't notice the flashing "timer" light before we left. So, thanks to the mutiny, we had no tape of Stargate and Atlantis to watch last night. I managed to borrow a copy from someone online, but I'm looking for a new VCR this week. I can not wait until we move and can dump cable, sign up for satellite service, and get a Tivo-like device. We'll still need a VCR for the old archive, but a Tivo-ish job with a big hard drive will make things a lot easier. (Because, see, I have this habit of not labeling video tapes. Which causes problems when looking for an hour or so of tape to reuse, or trying to find something I taped last week.)