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Meme: stolen from docbrite
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Apr. 18th, 2008 @ 04:43 pm
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Bountiful Day
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Apr. 9th, 2008 @ 07:07 pm
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This has been a super fantastic, productive day with lots of good stuff happening:
- Charles gave me two big bags of produce from the organic farm where he works.
- I spent a good part of the day preserving said produce. I don't have a canner yet, so, I made two batches of soup for the freezer (Mean Green & sort of a tex-mex-ish vegetable). I also made two batches of kimchee, one with kohlrabi and one with bok choi. First time making kimchee, so, will have to see how those turn out. I generally followed this recipe. The bok choi turned out to be only a half-pint batch. A head of bok choi shrinks way more than I imagined it would after salting. Last bit of preserving is some broccoli that I threw in the dehydrator. I still have lettuce, two kinds of kale and some fennel, which we'll probably eat fresh this week.
- I finally found the (apparently discontinued) wallpaper border I've been looking for for my bathroom! The bathroom is yellow, which is not exactly one of my favorite colors. I've decided to tone it down a bit by adding blue shower curtain, blue wall art & a blue rug. The last touch I wanted to add was a sun, moon and stars wallpaper border with a blue background that I'd gotten a sample of years ago. I've had no luck finding it in stores, though. But, today, I found four unopened rolls at a garage sale. I bought them all, even though I probably won't even use all of one in the bathroom. Girls' room, maybe?
- We found a few other great things at the same garage sale. I picked up some more flower pots and a rug for the hallway. Simon got a really neat looking old military cabinet -- looks like it originally stored guns -- that he put on the screened-in porch to hold various outdoor stuff.
- In between messing around in the kitchen, Jenna and I worked on the garden a bit. Some of the basil went to seed again, so I was able to shake out an envelope of seeds for a friend of mine who asked for some. Jenna's been asking me for pea shoots ever since she tried them at The Wine Cellar, so I planted one of the oblong pots with a bunch of peas for her. I still need to get to the health food store to get the peas intended for sprouting, as you get a lot more for your money than you do in a small seed packet. I also finally got the malabar spinach transplanted to the hanging planter. It's been looking a little sad; hopefully more space and a sunnier location will get it producing. We wanted to plant some cherry tomatoes for another hanging pot, but I couldn't find the seeds. They finally turned up in my office after she left for dinner at grandma's. I'll have to pull those out tomorrow so we can plant them.Current Mood:  content |
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Writer's Block: Last Twenty Bucks
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Feb. 19th, 2008 @ 04:45 pm
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Six pack of decent beer(AmberBock or Yeungling, about $6, Frivolous)
1 pound bag of lentils (practical - 89 cents)
I'd spend the other $13 on stuff I could turn around on eBay to get my next $20.
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Quiz Thingie
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Feb. 6th, 2008 @ 10:54 am
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Copied from ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) moonkiss_smiley: YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, and I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine ... You're on my list, so I want to know you better!
Copy from here, and then answer the questions in a comment and re-post the EMPTY questions in your own journal.
1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
2) What was your dream growing up?
3) What talent do you wish you had?
4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
5) Favorite vegetable?
6) What was the last book you read?
7) What zodiac sign are you?
8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
9) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me? (hmmm...careful!)
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
27) What's your favorite place to hang at?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) If you could live anywhere in the world where would you chose?
35) Do you believe in God?
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?Current Mood:  restless |
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Presidential Candidate Compatibility Test
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Jan. 6th, 2008 @ 09:10 am
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Stolen from sweetpeaches.
91% John Edwards
88% Mike Gravel
86% Barack Obama
85% Dennis Kucinich
84% Chris Dodd
81% Hillary Clinton
80% Joe Biden
75% Bill Richardson
39% Rudy Giuliani
29% John McCain
25% Mike Huckabee
25% Tom Tancredo
24% Mitt Romney
18% Ron Paul
13% Fred Thompson
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
Seeing Edwards at the top of that list kind of surprised me. He rubs me wrong somehow, so I never really gave him as close a look as maybe I should. |
| » Jesus Camp |
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I just finished watching this and I can't stop cringing. Some random observations:
- I'd never seen anyone read a Chick Tract without irony before.
- that Pentacostal Children's Minister who runs the camp really is the devil. She's right that extreme liberals are looking at those kids and wondering what they are going to be like as adults, but, not quite in the way she was thinking.
- I couldn't help it, but, I laughed out loud when Ted Haggard looked at the camera and said, "I know where you were last night! For $1,000 I won't tell your wife!" Likewise, Reverend Haggard, likewise.
- I almost wish I worked in an office just so that I could start meetings by banishing Satan from the Power Point presentation.
Flippant observations aside, it really is a good documentary. I felt that the child minister, Levi, really did understand and believe what he was saying (unlike his creepy parrot of a sister) and was, all-around, a bright and thoughtful kid. It'd be interesting if the documentary makers revisited him in 10 years to see what his beliefs are like.
Dec. 19th, 2007 @ 08:44 pm
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| » The Social Implications and Etymology of "Asshat" |
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This conversation from the comments on AV Club's "My Year of Flops" could well be one of the funniest things I've read all week:
First person says: "grey-box word: asshat. Your number-one sign that nothing in the comment is worth reading. Including this one."
Causing Sriad to reply: " I rather like the term. It suggest that, rather than being a shit-brain or a pig-fucker, the individual in question is simply wearing an ass on their head. Maybe when the ass comes off, they're a nice person, but right now the ass-hat is on, and it needs to be pointed out."
imaperson submits his interpretation: " I always visualized a person wearing a hat on their ass, making perambulation rather difficult."
Enlightened disagrees: "Nay. The reference is to one whose head is up one's ass (usage: That BMW driver who is weaving from lane to lane is an asshat)."
btw, anyone who is a bad film fan either really needs to read "My Year of Flops," or should be kept from reading it for their own safety. I already have "Free Money" in my netflix queue because the author's panning of it just made it too irresistible.
Dec. 5th, 2007 @ 03:38 pm
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| » Wheee, weekend! |
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Just finished two major projects, and now I have a bit of breathing room. At least I hope they're done... been spending a lot of time the last week or so attending to forgotten last minute details. If I'm lucky, though, it's all in the bag now. Been able to get out a bit the last couple of days. Allie, reveling in her brand new and oft declared Tween status, told me she wanted to go one on one with me for (decaf) cappucinos. I went ahead and let her try it. I don't think the cappucino experience was quite what she was expected, and she's allowed that maybe she's not too big for hot chocolate after all.
We went to Purple Moon over in Dunedin because every other indie coffee house in the area seems to have closed in the past several months. It turns out that we wandered right into the middle of the town's Christmas festival. Had a great time wandering around. There were lots of musicians spread all around, including a really nice little jazz duo and a guy playing the coolest instrument ever. I'd never seen a pedal steel guitar before, but I recognized the sound. It was freaking awesome listening to him do a bunch of 1950s stuff, as well as plays on Christmas tunes. The Christmas stuff had an almost surreal cheerfulness to it, like something out of a Tim Burton movie. I sat and listened for about an hour while Allie ran back and forth between all the craft activities. A couple of friends came over to the house with Simon after he got off work, and we sat around talking unti about 3:30. Tonight, I'm going to go out and see either Buffalo Strange or Full Fledged Unit. I'm more excited about the venue that Buffalo Strange is playing, but more into Full Fledged as a band. So, letting my friend, who is checking out their websites now, decide where we'll go.
Dec. 1st, 2007 @ 06:14 pm
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| » Eventful Night |
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Yesterday's mellow day didn't exactly go as planned.
Simon had been feeling sort of run-down and fluish off and on since about Friday. When he came home yesterday for lunch, though, he was complaining of a pain in his abdomen and looking a lot worse for wear.
We went out for lunch with the kids, and he wasn't able to eat more than soup. Over a period of a couple of hours, he got worse, and I insisted he go to the doctor.
By the time he was ready to go, he was feeling pretty awful, so we went straight to the emergency room. The doctor there ordered tests, since his two theories were Crohn's Disease* and appendicitis. The evening nurses were awesome, super helpful. The only off-note was when they let a nursing student try to put in his IV. Now, Simon's afraid of needles to begin with. It certainly doesn't help when someone who is just learning how to do this botches the procedure. Luckily, the training nurse was able to do the IV in the other arm without Simon even feeling it.
Simon got the same doctor I had when I had my hernia. In the intervening years, his bedside manner has not approved appreciably. *L* (Upon discovering that it hurt when he rapped on the lower right side of Simon's abdomen, he did it two more times for illustration purposes.) I was very happy with the fact that he did not try to brush off Simon's symptoms, as is too often the case when you are uninsured, and ordered the tests right away.
The tests showed appendicitis, so they took him in for surgery around 11:00. The operation went smoothly, and they were done by midnight.
By then, I'd had to go back to the house, because Andy was with the kids and needed to go home and go to bed. Simon's mom had come up to the hospital by then, though, and the two of them called me afterward.
I went back this morning as soon as the kids were at school and spent the morning with him, helping him get ready to leave.
I wasn't 100% thrilled with the day staff at the hospital. They couldn't tell him anything about aftercare. They also forgot to give him the surgeon's contact information and any of the aftercare sheets that he was supposed to get. I found the surgeon's number online, though, and was able to make a follow-up appointment and find out what we are supposed to do until then.
He's very sore, and has spent most of the day sleeping. I was a little concerned about them letting him come home so quickly, as his blood pressure has been very low. But, he wasn't getting any sleep at the hospital, so I figure this is a better place to rest up. The nurse at his surgeon's office said that he can go back to work pretty much whenever he feels ready, but to take it easy. Given how physical his job can be, I'm figuring that he may be home as long as a week.
His diet's restricted to soft foods, so I'm making him some potato soup tonight with a side of scrambled eggs. It's the first time he's had an appetite since this started, so that is good. I'm just really, really grateful that he's okay.
Sep. 13th, 2007 @ 02:54 pm
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| » Is mah birfday, gimme candee |
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Okay, I really, really need to stop typing in LOLCat.
But not today, because it's my birthday & I'll be annoying on the internet if I want to. :D
BF and I went out to dinner on Saturday to celebrate. He took me to a really nice Italian place out on the beach. I'm really hoping city of Clearwater finishes all of the construction out there sometime soon. Pretty much everything beyond the parking lot was blocked by chain link fencing. We had a nice view of the bridge, though, and the food was fantastic. I had sea bass with a lemon-wine sauce, artichokes, tomatoes and capers, then creme brulee for dessert.
Today is going to most likely be pretty mellow. The girls should be home from school soon (It's a half-day) so I'm thinking of taking them out for Chinese Buffet.
Had some unpleasant stuff to do yesterday. I had been trying to negotiate directly with Allie's father regarding child support, but, the guy has basically been stalling and making excuses since March.
Now, he is currently on disability, both SSI, which is an aid program like welfare, and SSDI, which you pay into. He's allowed, by law, to work and earn $1000/mo in excess of those payments. Hell, if he worked enough to meet the threshold, he'd be out-earning me between salary and benefits.
I've learned that he's working under the table at a local bar, as well as doing yard work for the place where his mother works. He's also been getting lots of cool toys for himself. He keeps railing at me about how you can't get blood from a turnip. Well, I figure if the turnip can afford a $1,000 laptop, $400 in tattoo equipment, and a couple hundred in new age books, the turnip can pay its child support.
I turned him in to Child Support Enforcement yesterday. I feel like a bitch for doing it, but this is getting entirely out of hand. I'm really, absolutely done dealing with him. He already has Allie's contact information, and he can talk to her directly whenever he wants. I provided it all last summer when he kept trying to chat with me online, despite the fact that every attempt on his part resulted in me telling him to call her or leave me alone.
I'm going to type up a letter re-iterating all her contact info, save a copy for my records, then send it to him registered mail.
That way, I'm done dealing with him, but she has access if he wants, and I have proof that I never blocked him from contacting her.
But, enough of all that unhappy bullshit.
Other good news is that I got through a bit of a writing block on the novel I've been toying with for the past year. For some reason, I have found that it is very easy for me to write in loud, crowded bars, and easier still with a beer in me. It's not the cheapest way to get around a block, but it's nice to know I have that in my arsenal.
Okay, I'm going to run off and do a load or two of laundry, and maybe even clean the living room. Can't promise that updates will be anything close to regular, but do know that I read and comment in a ton of communities, and I read my F-List every day.
Love ya all!
Sep. 12th, 2007 @ 01:00 pm
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| » I AM... |
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... the Slightly Dorky Nerd Queen:
 Yes, I know this isn't exactly an update. I may do one of those later on.
Sep. 10th, 2007 @ 08:42 am
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| » Cleaned up friends' list |
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Hey all-
I just cleaned up my friends' list to remove some dead LJs and friend a few people who had friended me since the last time I reorganized anything.
If you've dropped off as a friend, but actually belong on that list, please comment me so I can add you back! I'm not doing any big 'net drama, I just hit the wrong button. ;P
Sep. 3rd, 2007 @ 11:25 am
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| » Open Letters |
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Dear Jack-Off Family Member:
You fuck me over for 9 years, and, when the law catches up with you, you ask me to call the court and get you out of trouble? Next time you take a shit, should I fly up north to wipe your ass for you, too?
Just this once, clean up your own damn mess.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Dear Other Jack-Off Family Member:
You sit there with your new girlfriend sitting on your lap telling me how you did everything for the last GF. Meanwhile, she's 8 months pregnant and driving, by herself, to family in East Podunk West Virginia because you left her homeless.
Man up and take care of your responsibilities.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Dear Religious WhackJobs:
Masses of you are descending on my town in about a week. During that period of time, chances are excellent that you will eat in one particular restaurant downtown. If you all fail to tip the server there, I will tell Xenu where you are and send him to eat your souls.
Love,
Lara
Jun. 23rd, 2007 @ 06:28 pm
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| » Is there a herpetologist in the house? |
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*gulp*
I just found this sticking out from under one of the hampers in my laundry room.
The piece is about 15 inches long. There was another 3 inch piece behind the hamper.
My kids have a real bad habit of leaving that back door side open. And there are a LOT of potential hiding places inside my 1920s house.
Does anyone have any offhand idea who my legless guest might be?
Apr. 13th, 2007 @ 01:13 pm
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| » 2-4-6-8! This makes me regurgitate! |
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Allie wants to be a cheerleader.
She brought home the flyer for community football and cheerleading the other day. Gah, this really sucks.
Okay, for starters: I confess to a real prejudice here. I suffered at the hands of the popular kids in school. And, I watched with disgust at the way the cheerleaders were objectified in school, and worse, were totally complicit in this objectification. It wasn't uncommon to see them giggling at sexist jokes made at their expense in class.
Then, there's the flyer itself. This is for cheer and football for kids age 7 to 14. On the football side is a big, brawny football player. What 7 to 14 year old kid looks like that? To their credit, even though the illustration is a boy, nowhere on the flyer does it say "boys only." On the cheerleader side, there is a curvy blonde in a cropped top cheer outfit with a super short skirt.
HELL. NO.
You are not even giving my nine-year-old the idea that she could acceptably dress like that. Even if that is not the uniform, I find the representation highly offensive and inappropriate.
I told her no. Went on to say that I want her to be the one doing impressive things, not to be some ornament on the sideline providing encouragement and reward to the people doing the impressive stuff.
It is just possible that I may be over-reacting. And, ultimately, it is not my choice what kind of people my kids are going to be.
And, yeah, it hurts to tell her no when she wants something.
I'm pretty sure that I'm making the right choice here.
We're on the wait-list for Girl Scouts. Hopefully, that will take the edge off her desire to get into cheering.
Apr. 13th, 2007 @ 11:07 am
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| » THE Bed. |
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BF and I have a change jar, and the money in it goes towards indulgences that we purchase together. We've emptied it once for a vacation, and now have it full again to buy ourselves a new mattress.
We've been sleeping on a futon for a good year now. While it's adequate, it's certainly not the most comfortable thing I've ever slept on.
That distinction goes to the bed at a hotel he and I splurged on for an overnight away. We frequently joke about gong back to steal one of their mattresses by lowering it out of the window & strapping it to the roof of my car for a quick getaway. The bed in that hotel has achieved proper noun, even mythical, all-caps-worthy status: THE Bed.
We started mattress shopping a couple weeks back, and, in general, it's been a pretty unpleasant experience. This is my first experience actually buying a new spring mattress. I never realized that mattress salesmen were up there with car salesmen in terms of pushiness. And, if there is anything that is going to push me right out of your store, it's a hard-sell, particularly a disingenuous one. Like the guy who, after we'd pretty much agreed to buy a mattress set, tried to sell us a $99 mattress pad. And, during that sales pitch, inadvertently disclosed that the reason we should buy it is that his company's mattress warranty was basically useless. Good going, man.
We walked out.
By coincidence, this mattress place was right next to a large fancy furniture store I normally wouldn't even enter, since $1200 couches aren't exactly a wise investment when your kids are still as young as mine. However, since we were already there, we decided to go in and see what they had.
We were greeted cordially at the door by a man in an elegant suit with an even nicer British accent. He led us back to the mattresses, and treated us to a quick primer on mattress pricing and features. We tested out a few, but were a bit dismayed by the prices.
However, our very nice salesman pointed out one that was most likely going on sale (or, "on offer," as he so charmingly put it) as of tomorrow. BF lied down.
"Baby," he said. "Come check this out."
So, I stretched out next to him.
It was THE Bed. The one from the fancy hotel. The one we've joked about for a year or more.
And tomorrow, it will be a quite affordable $399.
It's not every day I get treated nicely by posh salesmen and then go home with my dream bed.
Apr. 11th, 2007 @ 08:25 am
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| » *grumble* |
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This is how my morning was supposed to go:
- one hour massage paid for with the gift certificate I got for Christmas
- register kids for camp
- come home and work
How my morning really went:
- rush to get to massage appointment because they decided to tear up yet another road in downtown
- arrive 5 minutes late to find that the MT is not there yet
- get a call from her 15 mintues after that saying that she was sick yesterday and overslept today and would be there in another 15 - 20 minutes.
- find that today, on the second day of registration, there are no more spots left in the camp my kids wanted to go to this summer
This day sucks. On the bright side, I get a longer massage session on Thursday, since I opted to reschedule instead of wait.
Apr. 3rd, 2007 @ 11:56 am
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| » Oh goody, another f*cking learning experience: |
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Heh... checked my horoscope today, and I'm really not sure how to take this one:
A recipe for success is almost the same as a recipe for disaster, but with one key added ingredient: a positive outlook. Look upon everything you do as a learning experience and you can't go wrong.
Maybe I lack a positive outlook, but that just isn't reassuring, lol....
Feb. 28th, 2007 @ 06:10 pm
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| » Free Education |
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MIT has made course materials, including video lectures, available for 1600 of their course.
Check them out here.
You don't get college credit for studying along, but, it's great for those who want a chance to expand their horizons a bit. I'm a big media and communications law geek, so I'm going to follow along in their copyright law class.
Jan. 13th, 2007 @ 05:40 pm
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