Zeo's Thoughts and Wanderings

Slow going

2009-07-11T18:01:16Z

I'm working on going through my dolls and figures, to put a sale post together. It's just so tiring...once I find them all, then I have to go through and photograph them, then get the pictures online, and make the post, figuring out what to ask for each of them....I got through 2 boxes of sorting, and was ready to give up. It's hot, I don't have a tall enough table to work at without killing my back and neck, and the thought of taking pictures of them, finding a spot with enough decent light to get a good picture, is exhausting me.

What I've found so far:

"Sky" PB 1.0, broken right ankle cup.
"Sky" CG 1.0, complete
Pale-pink CG 1.0, no head, hands or feet, broken ankle cup
Numerous Max Steel figs
Numerous Power Team figs, including blonde female
Numerous Ultra Corps figs
ballerina-body Barbies
pointed-toe horserider Barbie bodies
various Generation Girls
Happy D, redhead incarnation, Flavas
Midge
Diva, from the second-line of Barbie and the Rockers
Captain Sisko, DS9
Stacey-sized knockoff, jointed arms and legs, one arm broken at shoulder pin. Held together with screws, good for Frankensteining?
Kelly and Tommy dolls

And that's just in the two boxes in the bedroom. I have more in the garage. This is going to be a long, tiring day. But I have motivation: the bank account went negative again, I don't get paid for another 10 days, we're out of coffee, and I'm going to need gas before I get paid again.

Memeage

2009-07-10T01:38:44Z

Reply to this meme by yelling "Words!" (or you can just ask for the meme, I won't mind) and I will give you five words that remind me of you. Then post them in your LJ and explain what they mean to you.

Meme from marsdejahthoris

Power Rangers
- I can see that, as MMPR was what started our friendship on its current course. I started watching it my senior year, and taping it since you didn't have cable or satellite yet. We stuck through MMPR, Zeo, Turbo, Space, Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed Rescue, Time Force (where we started the short-lived tradition of getting together for the premieres), Wild Force, Ninja Storm, DinoThunder (featuring the return of Tommy Oliver!)....and then tapered off, as they started to just really lose cohesion.
PR reminds me of long nights at sleepovers, running through scenarios and rp sessions that would become part of our universe fanon, yet never be written down. Notebooks being swapped at homeroom, lunch, gym class and chorus. And of course, the immortal conversation ender, re: why Jason was the leader: "Because he has the biggest Zord."

Writing
-Heavily tied into the above. Yet, the first "story" I wrote was back in Limestone, when I was in Girl Scouts. It was about a troop with my friend Kelli Schoonover, going to a makeup shop. All the other Scouts in the story bought green makeup (to match their uniforms) while Kelli bought different colors.
I wrote fanfiction before I knew it had a name. I remember jotting down an opening to a sequel to Tad William's Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series in the blank spaces around the church bulletin. Those were always favorite scribbling spots. Yet, I managed to quickly write a poem that my mother gave to the minister, to see if he wanted to perhaps put it in the church newsletter. We didn't stay for the service that day, so you can imagine my shock the next week when I found out that Gary read it, and decided it fit the sermon he was giving that day. And he read it aloud, during his sermon. That's something I kind of wish I could go back and hear, to see what was said about it.
I miss writing cohesive fiction. I haven't written anything complete in ages.

Bicycles
-Really? I haven't ridden one since high school; Jeff appropriated mine to use with his friends. Then again, seeing as I ran over one of his my senior year (he had two)... My high school boyfriend was obsessed with bicycles, wanting to be the next Greg LeMond (I think Lance Armstrong beat him to it). Although, I was thinking about that yesterday morning. My clock radio is set to the classical station, and the announcer was talking about the movie Breaking Away, and the Italian Symphony that was used in it. The movie inspired Dana to shave his legs...too bad he chickened out after only shaving one. And then wore shorts to school.

Sailor Moon
-Ahhh, the anime gateway drug. I recently sold my DVDs of the movies, and if I can get in touch with Scarlet Otter, I'd send him the rest of my 6" and 12" dolls for his Vixen-Alpha series. But, because of Sailor Moon, I have my username (also related to Power Rangers), even if it did make the guys at MWD think I was in the Navy. :-P Without Sailor Moon, I never would have found Fushigi Yuugi, Revolutionary Girl Utena, or even really ventured into the anime sections at Blockbuster, Movie World, Hollywood Video, or Netflix.

Usenet
-Just the other day, I was thinking about Usenet: afs-m, rssif, The Sandbox.... Otaku Wars; finding both The Strong & the Sequined and On the Edge at rssif, which inspired me to write/post Designs of Greatness; how continually asking about female action figures at The Sandbox led to an invite to Men With Dolls. If YSU's news server had carried afp-r, I'd have been around there, too. I sort of miss Usenet; it seems to have been replaced by message boards and blogs.

Perception of Value

2009-07-04T09:51:24Z

Is it odd that for a brief moment, I thought $8 for 5 pieces of chocolate was a good deal?

I signed up for Godiva's rewards program, because of the free piece of chocolate every month. So now I get their e-mails. July's e-mail is talking about their limited-edition ice cream flavored truffles. Their special deal for Rewards members is a 5-piece sampler for $8. Considering that this is normally $11, not a bad deal.

But then I thought about it more. That's over a dollar per piece of chocolate. That's over a dollar and a half per piece of chocolate. That's...not really a deal. I can get a full-size Snickers bar for 50 cents. For $8, I can get 16 Snickers bars.

"But this is GODIVA chocolate," will come the argument. "This isn't some mass-produced candy bar available at every convenience store."

True. It's Godiva, and Godiva is a luxury brand. This is why Starbucks can charge as much for a cup of coffee as I pay for a whole bag of coffee beans. Perception. Now, I'll agree, Godiva is good. I thoroughly enjoyed the free piece I had last month. It was the Open Oyster, hazelnut praline between 2 milk chocolate shells. But when asked to describe it, well... "A nugget of Nutella between chocolate shells."

If the five-piece sampler price ($11) is a guideline, that makes one piece $2.20. Going by Google, I can get 2 13-ounce jars of Nutella for $7. Throw in a chocolate bar from Fresh N Easy ($0.50), and I can get a similar experience, in a larger quantity.

So while compared to its original price, the sampler deal is a good one, compared to alternatives, not so much.

I will admit, though, that if I had the $8 to spend frivolously, I'd probably get it.

Temptations

2009-06-20T14:34:47Z

Even though I'm gluten-free, there are days...usually Friday nights or Saturdays...where I just want something _normal_. A donut. A brownie. A slice of cake. Something breaded. Something baked that I didn't have to make. And because I don't work on Saturdays or Sundays, I'll give in. I'm not celiac, so it's not an intestinal issue. I don't worry about having debilitating cramps or being tied to the bathroom after eating wheat. What I worry about is my mental state, which is why I only allow myself these temptations on days where I don't have to be at my best the next day.

This is on my mind because last night, I allowed myself a Brownie Batter Blizzard from Dairy Queen. It was good, but I think it was a little too much, because this morning, all I feel like is throwing up. I was going to do a ton of baking today, in preparation for next week, but...there are several contributing factors.

1. Matt found out yesterday that this weekend is the end of his temp job.
2. That bummed him out, so he didn't get the kitchen clean.
3. I cleaned so much at work yesterday that I'm out of cleaning energy.
4. Since he's not working next week, I don't have to make grab-and-go breakfast bars.
5. My stomach is killing me.

I'm still going to get a batch of bread going in the bread machine, and probably start the dough for hamburger rolls, since those are necessary. As to whether I'm going to make the milestone bars or the date bars, well, we'll see.

Sugar Scrub

2009-06-14T20:24:55Z

I know I've made scrubs before, but this time, I wanted just enough for one shower. I love sugar scrubs, but then, I love a good, harsh, scratchy exfoliant. Matt doesn't like them; he thinks they hurt. I guess it could be a little painful, but to me, it just feels oh so good. Anyway, if you're like me, and like a good, deep scratchy scrub, this is awesome:

2 TB white sugar
2 TB vegetable glycerin
small squeeze of Banana Boat aloe vera gel

Mix well.

I like to use this before I even get in the shower, on dry skin. Just scooped some up and scrubbed away, head to toe. Had enough for everything but my back, but since I couldn't reach it anyway, oh well. Then rinsed off in a warm shower, loving the freshly-soft feel of my skin. I'm still occasionally rubbing my forearms to feel how smooth they feel.

Next time, I'll up it to 3 TB of sugar and glycerin, and get Matt to scrub my back for me. As it is, he should be home fairly soon; I'm going to try to get him to use the lotion bars on me for some extra moisturizing. :-D

Body Butter Bar

2009-06-14T16:01:36Z

Okay, so my lotion/balm/butter obsession isn't dying down yet. I recently purchased a bottle of avocado oil to add to my teeny supply stash. I've been using one of my tubes of cocoa honey lip balm almost obsessively all week (yet surprisingly, not at all yesterday....). And today, I made body butter bars.

What I made isn't _quite_ exact; I was about half an ounce short on the cocoa butter, because the jar I bought last week was exactly 4 ounces, and I used some of it in last week's lip balm. Which means I'm now out of cocoa butter. :-( Also, I have learned from this not to buy a one-pound block of beeswax. It's too hard for me to cut it to size, and then getting it into smaller pieces to melt quicker. I thought today, "Hey! I have a spare grater!" But damn, grating four ounces of beeswax takes a long time. I also learned that while the one-cup Pyrex measuring cup may be a fine size for lip balm batches (small lip balm batches), it's too small for this recipe. I instead used a small glass mixing bowl and the microwave.

I don't have any molds, so instead, I'm using the silicone food cups I bought for my lunch boxes, set in a muffin tray to keep their shape. I keep wandering out to the kitchen to see how the bars are solidifying. It's strangely fascinating.

Playing around at Mystic Mountain Sage, I put together an order of basic supplies. It's over $100 before shipping. But, if I cut out the lip balm tubes, caps, and lotion tubes, it'll be...no, it'll still be over $100, but _just_ over $100. Matt's supposed to be allotting me $100 "play money" out of his next paycheck, which is in two weeks. So I guess we'll see what I feel like then. I could always cut the sizes of most of the supplies in half, 8 ounces rather than 16, see what that totals to.

Then again, in two weeks, I may have a totally different obsession. :-)

Randomness from today

2009-06-11T03:19:31Z

I was sitting at the workstation, preparing to redo a mailing project, when I noticed something. Now, to set the stage, one must know that my bangs are long. Long as in, I should have trimmed them last week. They hang about half an inch over the upper edge of my glasses, so yes, they are most definitely in my field of vision. So. As I was working on the computer, I noticed something odd, something clumpy-looking, in my bangs. I took a moment, focused, then swept my fingers through that section of my bangs. I expected to see a clump of thread or some other fabric-based bit of fuzz fall to the desk. Instead, I had to take a few moments to process what, exactly, fell. It was not a bit of fuzz.

It was an ant. A small, black ant. While my brain tried to rumble into gear and figure out just how I ended up with an ant in my hair, my right hand moved of its own accord and squooshed it.

------------------------

At the grocery store after work, I noticed the display of Swedish Fish. Just a dollar for an eight-ounce bag. I like Swedish Fish; I haven't had Swedish Fish in a long time.

"Fish are good for you," I told my husband as I added the bag to the basket. "They're brain food."

Random Favorites

2009-06-08T16:52:38Z

A quick jotting-down of some of my favorite gluten-free foods and resources:

Pamela's Products: chocolate cake mix, ginger cookies with almonds, basic bread mix.
Glutino: crackers, pretzels, wafer cookies, rice macaroni
Kinnikinnick: KinniToos sandwich cookies
Gluten-Free Pantry: chocolate truffle brownie mix
Trader Joe's: brown rice spaghetti and spirals, ginger snaps, licorice scotty dogs, rice sticks (noodles), gf granola
Ancient Grains: quinoa macaroni
Authentic Foods: superfine brown rice flour (necessary for good cookie texture!)
Red Bridge: sorghum beer
Bob's Red Mill: specialty flours and gums, also has recipes (their snickerdoodles rock)
Ener-G: specialty flours
Barbara's Bakery: Puffins cereal
San-J: wheat-free tamari (soy sauce). This is what Pei Wei and PF Changs use as their gluten-free soy sauce, as well
Dynasty Foods hoisin sauce
Thai Kitchen noodle bowls and packets

Living Without Magazine: great resource for anyone with food allergies. Their all-purpose flour blend is my standby.
Recipezaar: has a category for gluten-free. I've found some great recipes there (funnel cakes!)

The bread machine I have also came with a batch of gluten-free recipes. The Country White Bread is my mainstay bread; I like to replace the oil with ground flaxseed, and add sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and poppyseeds for a great tasting, multiseed bread. Much better than the few commercially-prepared gluten-free breads I've tried.

There are a few other resources I use, like the Gluten-Free Club, but its recipes are not as reliable as Living Without's. Plus, if you only sign up for the free recipes, you have to deal with the constant barrage of "Join the club! Join the club! Join the club!" So far, only one recipe I've used from there has become a standard in my stable, and that's the bread/roll recipe. I use that when I'm making a full batch of hamburger rolls.

Also, before spending money on Bob's Red Mill and Ener-G flours, take a look around any neighborhood ethnic markets. This suggestion was made to me back when I first started complaining about the costs of flours, and I've just now gotten around to it, thanks to a LARGE ethnic grocery opening nearby. I found white and sweet rice flours, soy flour, garbanzo flour (gram), tapioca starch, potato starch, and arrowroot starch, to name a few, for much cheaper than at the health-food stores. I also buy my thick rice noodles there, rather than at Trader Joe's.

Crafty

2009-06-06T23:52:27Z

Today, I was in the blahs, and really wanted to do something creative/crafty, something that could be done quickly, something I haven't done yet but have wanted to.

So, after a jaunt to pick up supplies, I made lip balm. To be specific, Chocolate Honey lip balm.

I now have 8 tubes and 2 jars cooling on the kitchen counter. I smeared a little of the overflow on to test it; it seems nice and smooth, and has the definite lip balm feel on, but right now, I don't taste the cocoa or the honey.

I made the tube version, but want to try the pot recipe later.

I've been wanting to get into balm/soap/lotion making for a while now. This is a good first step, plus I still have most of the supplies left (other than the containers), so I can try some other variants of lip balms, too.

Industrious

2009-06-01T04:51:27Z

I got so much done this weekend. Matt had to work Saturday, so I had the house to myself, and could get all six loads of laundry done, most of the dishes that had backed up (three loads of the dishwasher), cleaned out the fridge (chicken had leaked), vacuumed the mattress and got the bathrooms tidied.

Today, we made 2 batches of black bean enchiladas, and I'm making Jell-O and date bars. It's tough to think coherently about lunch at 3 am, so having some things handy is a big help. The enchiladas made enough for three two-piece lunches, one four-piece dinner, and one six-piece dinner. Totally vegetarian, and if you used non-dairy cheese, vegan as well. It'll be nice to just have to pull one of the dinners out and zap it to melt the cheese. I'll have to make another batch of the Milestone bars tomorrow night, so we have breakfasts. Only one left from last week, and though I'll have the date bars, Matt doesn't care for dates too much. Jell-O was made in half-cup Gladware containers, so those are grab-and-go for lunches, too.

Also, one of the grocery stores was running "super double coupons," so we got some other stuff we needed there. Soy milk, rice milk, chips for snacking, more of the lovely True Lemon Naturally Sweet...

I'm off next Monday, and Matt works. Maybe I'll get the bathrooms _scrubbed_, and get the living room tidied as well as getting laundry and kitchen cleaning done.

Two out of three--hopefully

2009-05-27T03:54:40Z

So, the Milestone bars came out tasty, if a bit wet in the center. So, I know for next time, bake them another 10 minutes or so.

The lentil crepes were a total disaster, for wrap purposes. Taste was okay fresh off the griddle, but cooled, they became brittle and didn't taste so great.

Granola bars are in the oven now. Worst case scenario? They don't hold together as bars, and I get granola cereal. So either way, it's a win, I think. :)

Three-Day Weekend

2009-05-25T15:08:26Z

I hope everyone has a lovely day off. We're going to be spending it cleaning and baking for the upcoming week. Matt's got a temporary job, on the same side of town where I work, so we're carpooling again....but his shift starts at 4:30 am, and mine not until 9. So we need some grab-and-go breakfast stuff, and lunch-type stuff, and snack-type stuff. This is what we're making:

Milestone Snack Bars - breakfasty-type stuff

Indian Lentil Crepes - for sandwich wraps

Chewy Granola Bars - snack-type stuff

Made the Milestone bars yesterday, as well as some peanut butter muffins, just for the weekend. I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins, and they taste pretty awesome. Could've stood to bake a little longer, as they're still a little wet in the middle. I think I had that problem the last time I used mesquite flour, too.

Drive-Ins Rock

2009-05-10T14:17:21Z

Okay, so like 2 years ago, we went to the Glendale 9 Drive-In, and saw Surf's Up and Spiderman 3. I've been wanting to go back to the drive in ever since, and last night, we did. Monsters vs Aliens and Star Trek.

Monsters vs Aliens was cute and fun, but probably not one I'll rent or see again unless it's on cable as I'm flipping through.

Star Trek, though.... Wow. As kane_magus put it, "Continuity is well and truly FUBAR, and I'm okay with that." I did tend to point out tropes, and the whole time-travel aspect was done in a somewhat less headache-inducing way than most. I thought all the main crew members were honest to the original portrayals without being impressions or caricatures of the original performances. Kirk...it was the little things. The way he sat in the chair! THAT was Kirk.

When it finished, I looked at Matt, and said, "I will DEFINITELY see more in this series with this cast."

As for the drive-in itself...it was still a blast. When I was a kid and we went to the drive-ins back in Limestone and Allegany (both now out of business), it was still the speaker-on-door setup, and everyone still pulled into the spaces, and watched inside the car through the windshield. In high school, the Limestone Drive-In was already out of business, but Allegany was still open, and had switched to the local fm-broadcast for the sound. But still, everyone still pulled in.

Now, out here, with the prevalence of SUVs, minivans, crossovers and pickups, about 95% of the vehicles were _backed_ into their spots, back doors/gates open. Having a wagon, we were no exception. We just put the back seat down, and filled the back of the car with pillows and blankets. The sound is fm-broadcast, and they even have music playing before the movie and during intermission (although I think we heard the whole loop twice). The funny thing is, that with everyone's back gates and windows open (good cross-breeze as we're starting to hit triple digits during the day and it's still a wee mite warm at night), we hear not just our own sound system, but everyone else's, too.

I had signed up for their e-mail newsletter, and had a coupon for $1 nachos (not a bad deal, they're normally $3.75), so we got to check out the snack bar/arcade. It was clean and well-lit, always a plus.

So while I'll be getting their weekly newsletter, we most certainly won't be going weekly. For one thing, Matt's still out of a job, so we scraped to get the $13 to go last night. For another, we didn't get out until 1 am, so even if we _could_ afford the admission weekly, we couldn't afford the sleep-loss.

All in all, I'm glad we went, as we haven't really done anything fun since Matt lost his job.

80's fun

2009-05-05T14:20:16Z

Last night on Encore WAM, we ran across Earth Girls Are Easy. I loved that movie in high school, and I still enjoy it. Yes, it is VERY 80's, with a very young Jim Carrey and Damon Wayan, but it is still a FUN movie. Didn't know Larry Linville was in it, but then again, it might have been too small a part.

A comment during the movie, after the "unveiling" of the aliens: "Ah, Jeff Goldblum in his sex-symbol days." Matt's reply, "He had those?"

And now I have "Cause I'm A Blonde" stuck in my head. On repeat.

Another chapter in the saga

2009-05-04T03:58:18Z

Three years ago, I gave up gluten to help my mental health. That seems to be working, and I've adjusted to living gluten-free.

Back in September, I started having fierce abdominal pain. I had an ultrasound and an upper gi, and they diagnosed mild acid reflux. Prilosec and lots of Tums. Okay.

Now, it's May, and I still have what basically feels like stomach cramping. Wednesday, I decided I wanted to try a "folk remedy," so that morning, I had a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with 2 teaspoons of honey in a glass of water. Held my nose and chugged. I also had a lighter breakfast than normal, just an egg, not an egg and cheese on tortillas. I didn't have any pain on my drive to work. I figured the acv was working, so I repeated the next morning...but had the pain again.

So I thought about what was different, and realized....Wednesday, Matt cooked my egg without any oil or anything. I remembered him complaining that griddle was losing its non-stick. Thursday, he cooked it in butter.

Now I'm wondering if I've developed a lactose intolerance added to my gluten intolerance. I don't want to go flat-out testing it right now, but I think I am going to seriously cut down my dairy. Problem is, my fave gf bread recipe and fave gf roll recipe both call for powdered milk. So it looks like no bread for the time being.

Plus side, however many years after Andrea suggested it, I finally priced out alternative flours and starches at the Oriental supermarket, and found a lot of the ones I use, for a heck of a lot less than the "natural foods" stores.

Words from the past

2009-04-24T03:48:05Z

Every so often, I start thinking about books I read in elementary school, junior high, and high school. I read a _lot_of books back then, and I can only remember bits and pieces, sometimes cover art, sometimes passages, but never the author and rarely the title.

I started again today thinking about the young-adult/teenage novel bin at the library back home. I read _so_ many of those; they were quick reads; I could finish one in about an hour. One, I thought I remembered the title as "Jeff and the Fat Girl." I think maybe the cover art mentioned something about Jeff, the narrator, which is why I remember it that way (that, and my brother, named Jeff, threw a fit about me reading this, because he wasn't interested in fat girls. He was seriously pissed that I'd read something that implied he liked fat girls). Apparently, the title is just "The Fat Girl," author Marilyn Sachs. This is a book I kind of want to go back and read again, to see if my perspective on it has changed with age and weight. I remember my original feeling was that Ellen, the titular fat girl, seemed very disrespectful of Jeff in the end.

In the book, Jeff realized that Ellen overheard his disparaging comments about her weight, and feeling guilty, went to her house to apologize. In doing so, he got to know her better, and started taking an interest in her. Together, they made over her image, so she wasn't just fat, she was also FABULOUS. I remember a large Afro-style hairdo, and bright, bold caftans. Jeff became entranced with this gold caftan at the plus-size shop, picturing Ellen as a golden goddess for prom. But, in their makeover, she does start to lose weight, and when he picks her up for prom, she's not the golden goddess of his dreams. She's lost enough weight to fit in "normal" clothing, a size 16 if I remember. Her hair is cut flat and short, and she's in an "ordinary" white dress. During prom and after, in her own debut as "normal," Jeff sees that she's just another shallow, ordinary teenage girl.

Now, when I read this the first time, I was a teenager, and about 125 pounds, size 8. I remember reading the description of the golden caftan, compared to the plain white dress, and thinking Ellen was stupid. I'd much rather be a golden goddess than a plan, ordinary, "normal" girl. But now, being 255 pounds, size 22....if I got the chance to shop on the "normal" side of the store, I think I'd take it, golden goddess be damned.

Another book I remember the basic plot, but not the title of, had a girl whose older sister thought to be weird, because the girl liked to go to funerals. It turned out (not a spoiler) that the reason she liked to go to funerals had to do with the people and their clothing. It was a lot easier to get into a funeral than a wedding, both occasions where people tend to dress their best. The girl liked to sew. Just sew. Not design, not create, but sew (another reason her family found her weird). The girl had a thing for her older sister's boyfriend, and ended up making him a camel sportcoat. He eventually left the sister for her, but the girl, after being with him for a few months, started to realize he was very tiresome. She had made him the camel sportcoat because it was the in-thing in his collegiate crowd (IIRC), put leather patches on the elbows for him when the elbows started to wear thin, and when he started making hints that something else (something of a more expensive fabric, IIRC) was the new style, she finally broke up with him. I can't remember the title or author on this one, much the pity.

Maybe the next time I'm back east, I'll stop in the library and see if any of these books are still there.

My amusing thought of the day

2009-03-18T14:51:49Z

From tvtropes.org's "INSPACE" page:

Stories are often recycled from other shows, with the setting changed with just enough of a gimmick to make it look different. The characters will have the same character types, sometimes even the same voice actors. Sometimes these will be direct spinoffs, with the same characters with one major time or setting change. Later varieties included "AS KIDS!"

The majority of these are seen as nonsensical updates according to whatever else was popular at the time. Putting the series into space, though, is the big one.

And an individual entry, regarding the original 1970's Battlestar Galactica series:

The entire series was heavily inspired by series creator Glen Larson's Mormon faith, making it effectively The Book of Mormon IN SPACE!

...and finding that was triggered by Matt's comment, regarding yesterday's Sci-Fi Channel programming, "Did you know they made a Leprechaun 4? Leprechaun 4: IN SPACE."

Personally, I wasn't aware of more than 2, and that's just by skimming over the boxes in the video store waaaay back when.

Early....

2009-03-07T12:45:56Z

It's five-forty am. Matt and I've been up since 4. We're getting ready to head out to the grocery stores. The alarm, set for six, won't go off for another 20 minutes.

I don't know why we woke up at 4. We just did. Well, no, amend that. Patch was rattling the bedroom door something fierce to try to get in, so that woke us up, but after that, we were just awake. So, we're going to get a head start on the day. We went through the grocery ads last night, making lists and marking out our route. Seven stores in all, most likely. I don't like price matching. I hated it as a cashier, so I try not to do it as a customer.

I don't think the sun's quite up yet. For some reason, this feels like folly, this early-morning foray into the world. But it must be done.

Amazed

2009-03-02T14:55:24Z

I am amazed. Okay, to start, my hours got cut starting last week. I now work 9=4:30 instead of 8-4:30. Everyone's hours are getting cut, so only losing one hour a day is acceptable, given that it could be a heck of a lot more.

But, I'm still making myself get up at 6, like I did when I worked at 8. That means I have an extra hour around the house. Last week, it still seemed like things were being cut close. Today, however, I got up, took a shower, got dressed, browned the pierogies in butter for my lunch, packed the rest of it (grapes, string cheese, yogurt and an apple), warmed up breakfast (leftover pancakes with butter and honey), ate breakfast, and still had forty-five minutes of computer time. I'm just stunned that I managed that.

It worked! It worked, it worked, it worked, it worked!!!!!!

2009-03-01T03:38:20Z

One thing I've seriously missed since going gluten-free is pierogies. My mother-in-law had a recipe for them, and I've been wanting to adapt it to a gf-version for some time now.

Today was that time.

The only substitute I had to make was for the flour. Now, that's always a tricky part. I decided for this first batch, I'd try something simple: Living Without's basic all-purpose gf flour blend: 1/2 cup rice flour, 1/4 cup tapioca starch, 1/4 cup cornstarch. I had to make 5 cups worth (easy enough when the recipe makes one cup), and then add 2.5 teaspoons of xanthan gum for elasticity. The rest of the ingredients stayed the same.

Matt and I were worried. Very rarely has one of our gf-conversions worked on the first try.

This did. They boiled well, didn't separate more than expected, and actually tasted and felt like pierogies!!

I am thrilled!!!

.....now to boil 32 more.....

Lunching

2009-02-25T14:28:06Z

I'm on a roll. Today, and the past two days, I actually packed my lunch. I'm calling it "mock-bento," because when I think of "bento," I tend to think of two things: 1) Japanese-style food, and 2) cute factor. I've been packing primarily salad with some extras, and I haven't gotten to do anything "cute" yet. But the salads have been tasty, even if my stomach the first day reacted to it.

"SALAD?" it asked. "What the hell do you want me to do with _salad_? I don't know what to do with _salad_! You don't eat salad, you eat _chocolate_!" I had horrible cramps and pain as it tried to break down the spinach, lettuce and carrots. It lasted from half an hour after lunch until after I got home from work that day. Driving home was agony; I was in pain every time I had to move my foot from the brake pedal to the gas pedal. Thankfully, I still have some Digestive Advantage pills, so I took one yesterday morning to prevent a repeat performance, and it seems to have worked. Now I have to remember to take one again this morning!

I've been taking pictures of my lunches, so probably over the weekend, I'll see about uploading them. I've been watching bentolunch for a week or two now, and if the pictures turned out okay, I'll probably post them there.

Hmm, now I really miss my extra userpics...I had one of sandwich-making that would fit this post. :(

Saturday

2009-02-22T16:03:56Z

Well, we left the house early, because I wanted to price some ingredients at LeeLee (Oriental supermarket) and wanted Matt to come with me. We had to go early because it does have a very strong fish smell, and later in the day, he wouldn't be able to handle it. So, we did our pricing there (I want to make dashi, miso soup, and a broth for the soba noodles I got last time I was there, but with the smaller paycheck this time, not happening this week), then went on to The Dented Can, over in Peoria. We were out of xanthan gum, and it's over $10 a bag most places (close to $12 direct from Bob's Red Mill). The last time I'd been to The Dented Can (over a year ago), I saw xanthan gum there for considerably less.

We ended up spending $10 there. What did we get for our $10? THREE bags of xanthan gum (Bob's Red Mill, a bag of Bob's Red Mill GF chocolate chip cookie mix, and a bag of (yet again) Bob's Red Mill GF rolled oats. Definitely worth the trip.

The next thing on our agenda was going down to the Phoenix Matsuri Festival, downtown. Unfortunately, when we got down there, it was PACKED. What with how I'd been feeling the past week, we decided not to go. So, we went to finish our grocery shopping. Stops at Fresh N Easy, WalMart, and Safeway, and we were done. I didn't get to go to Ikea, didn't get the box I wanted to start bentoing, but I did get a three-pack of divided Rubbermaid containers that would actually work better (and be a better size: 800-some milliliters rather than 2 quarts). So, I have those, I have foods for lunches, and I have a drive to make "cute" lunches. We'll see if that actually happens.

Blargle grargle blah.

2009-02-21T04:00:53Z

..and apparently, I want to type ; for l. I had to retype that subject line three times to get all the right letters in the right places.

So anyway. I had to take 2 sick days this week, even though I can't afford them. At first, I thought it was just something I ate Wednesday night ripping me up on Thursday, but it was still doing it today, so I'm blaming a stomach bug. No use going to the doctor, he'll just say it's a virus, drink plenty of water, that'll be $20.

Work's slowing down. Starting Monday, I work starting at 9, instead of 8, and probably still out at 4:30 or 4, depending on the day. I didn't think to ask that when I called in today. My paycheck was about $100 less than I thought it would be; possibly because of being short a few hours when I took the time off for Ellen's visit. I had enough PTO to cover MOST of it, but apparently not all of it. And I probably didn't bank enough in the time since I've been back to cover my sick days this week.

Matt's still job-hunting. Two of the companies from the job fair had promised to call him back about an interview, but nothing yet. So it's now been over 2 months with just my paycheck, and a lot of help from family and friends. I still have some doll stuff to try to sell, fabric and other craft things, but that won't bring in a lot. I just wish he could get a job, any job at this point. We've proved that we only need $500 more a month to survive. But without that....

Now's the time I'd be overjoyed for Publisher's Clearinghouse to come knocking on the door with the giant cardboard check.

My stomach rumbles...

2009-02-15T23:09:36Z

I've been reading bentolunch on LJ, and today, when I took a nap, I dreamt about food and packing lunches. Woke up with a strong desire for rice and eggdrop soup. :-P

Now that's interesting...

2009-02-15T01:18:51Z

I got a message on Facebook from my brother-in-law. "Guess what? Check your flair," he said. Okay...he's been into making flair. So, in trying to find the link to Pieces of Flair, I go to his profile, and see a note there... I blink at it, then resume searching for the app, with even greater intent.

Sure enough, there's a real simple flair there, white background, red letters:

UNCLE MATT AND AUNT JEN!!!!

Dave and Tammy's first baby is due in late September. I'm to be an auntie again. At least Dave had the courtesy to tell us BEFORE the baby was born, unlike my brother.