Sassymonkey

“Little things,” I tell myself. It’s the little things that I need to do. It’s the little things that matter.”

I’m in a rut. It’s something between the mean reds and the blues. Maybe it’s the winter blahs coming late. Maybe it’s just a prolonged case of what I’ve decided to call “The February’s.” Maybe it’s because I didn’t work out for three weeks. Maybe it’s because I stopped exercising. I don’t know.

I’m trying to shake myself out of it, but it’s one of those things that you can shake yourself out of by doing something big. It’s needs smaller more consistant change.

Sure, I have my list of 10 things to do in March (no, we shall not talk about my February list) but I need more than that.

I’m doing one thing different every single day. Nothing big, just something little.

Because it’s the little things that will shake this and sometimes it’s the little things that matter most.

I swore that this February was going to be better. I did! Last February I was not a happy camper. In fact I think the only appropriate phrase for what I was last February is “raging bitch.” I’ll admit it. A mid-February mini-break seemed to kick me out of it, much to Lee’s relief. I was consciously trying not to be cranky this year. Trying really, really hard. Even the weather has been cooperating.

February still sucks.

And no, I’m not cranky (or at least I’m only normal cranky) but I’m tired. This month as gone by in a blink. It feels like all I’ve done this month is work at one task or another. All I want to do this month is sleep. Cannot get enough of sleep.

Remember how I said I was doing stuff this year? Well my to do list for February is in need of a giant red FAIL stamp.

Let’s start with the one issue that takes the most items off the list – my wrist(s). For the last ten years my wrists have given me trouble (for the ten years before that it was my ankles – my body is awesome). Around this time last year my wrist went wonky. And the year before that it happened when I was Europe. Now if I have fallen at any of those points the wrist issue might have made sense but no, it’s just suddenly all “I HATE YOU” randomly. So on my list I had:

• Finish knitting purple sock
• Do pilates or yoga once a week
• Finish the Wii EA Active 30 day challenge and start another one

I can’t knit because it hurts my wrist. I can’t do pilates or yoga because all the videos seem to involve putting weight on my wrists and I can’t do that. (And yes, I *have* tried modifying the poses and NO it does not work.) And the Active involves using the resistance bands and they hurt like the dickens.  So, automatic FAIL on those three. And I’ve just done a general fail at using the Wii every week.

Lee and I picked up a little side project, helping out our landlord with something. Something that took over our lives for the better course of a week. A week in a very short month. I honestly couldn’t tell you the last time I finished a book. So also a FAIL at the moment are:

• Read a blue book
• Read a green book

Right now I’d just like to finish a book. This week is not looking very promising for that.

The other items are doable. I haven’t uploaded a picture *every* day on Flickr but I’ve uploaded enough that I have no issue saying that I’ve completed what I wanted with that, which was to get in the habit of posting pictures regularly. We still need to make our hotel reservations for BlogHer ‘10 (but hey, we made our cottage reservations for PEI so do we get bonus points for that?). I haven’t baked a pie or make anything from Small Batch Baking but um, there’s time?

Overall? Feburary, you suck and I’m very happy you are a short month. It’s your only redeeming quality.

I don’t do the #momspotting thing due to the fact that I’m not a mom, which means I’d just be #spotting and well, that just sounds menstruation related. (And all the men just clicked away…)

But TW is a #momspotter and she has this meme and it’s foodie and well, you know me and foodie.

1. Which expensive electronic device do you or your children most admire? Snarky answer – I have CHILDREN? OMG! WHERE WAS I? Non-snarky answer – iPhone. Wait, have one. MacBook Air.

2. Do you ever use your computer in the kitchen? Yes. How else am I supposed to follow online recipes?

3. What ratio of new recipes cooked in your home come from the Internet vs from a cookbook you own? Probably 85-90% internet.

4. Does your family regard a recipe as something printed from the computer, on a handwritten card or something on the kitchen netbook? I think a recipe is something I’m supposed to write down/print out for them. Even if I don’t have one and just throw things together.

5. Do you have a television or other electronic entertainment in the kitchen? We have a CD player/radio. Because sometimes you just want to rock out while you bake bread or do the dishes.

6. What is the eating in front of the computer rule in your house? If we never ate in front of computers we’d never eat breakfast or lunch. We try not to during dinner though.

7. How many places can you order dinner online from in your area? I have no idea. I know of two but we don’t really order food often and we’ve gotten delivery exactly once since we moved in here.

8. What is the BEST recipe you have ever made from the Internet? Um…um…I have no idea. I’m pretty sure there are things I make all the time that started off as internet recipes but I don’t know what they are. The fake husband would probably say anything I pulled off Pioneer Woman Cooks.

9. What’s the least used kitchen gadget in your home? garlic press. I’m not even sure why we have one. Close second, meat tenderizer.

10. What is the oddest recipe your family has tried after seeing it on the Internet? I don’t do odd recipes. I’m boring.

Let’s be honest, I spend a lot of time either at the desk, on the couch or in bed. It’s not (just) that I’m lazy but the vast majority of the work I do is on the computer. I only work semi-normal hours. And most of my friends predominantly exist inside the computer (most of the time, every now and then I get to see people live and in person).

I had been wanting to do more. What kind of more I didn’t really know but I didn’t want to do big resolutions. I needed something longer term. But I didn’t want to do another 101 things in 1001 days thing. Life changes a lot in 1001 days. After making my last one I lived in three cities. That blew a lot of what was on it to bits and I promptly gave up on it.

And then Denise came up with an idea – 10 things in 2010. Each month in 2010 she is making a list of 10 things she wants to get done. Some are practical things, some are fun things.

It works. At least it does when you choose wisely. And don’t procrastinate.

In my infinite wisdom I decided that one of the things that I was going to do in January was make a recipe from a cookbook I own but have not used. Easy, right? Except not.

Despite the fact that I have 60-odd cookbooks I mostly cook from a few of them. There are a few I dabble at and two or three that I use frequently.

I thought this would be easy. I try new recipes all the time. What I didn’t really stop to think about was the fact that when the recipes don’t come from the books I use all the time, they come from the internet.

In January I’d guess that I tried about half a dozen new recipes. One was from a cookbook I use a lot, the others were all from the internet.

January 31 rolled around. I needed to cook something.

I sat down and went through a bunch of cookbooks. Nothing called out to me. Some interesting stuff but I was looking for something simple and something that we had all the ingredients for.

After about an hour (no joke) of me and Lee looking through cookbooks we decided on Lemon Cake Pudding from Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two. It’s lovely retro-y goodness.

It took all of five minutes to make and throw in the oven. Done. Item crossed off list.

And the verdict? Tasty cake on the top, pudding on the bottom goodness. We might even make it again sometime.

You can find my February list in the List Lovers BlogHer group. Why don’t you add yours?

Catherine Connors, aka Her Bad Mother, has posted an open letter to protest the practice of pelvic exams without consent.

Go read it. Sign it. Share it.

I was going peacefully about my day when a tweet crossed my path. It was a link to this Globe and Mail article (which will probably go behind a pay wall because that’s how the Globe rolls): Time To End Pelvic Exams Without Consent.

Medical students routinely practice doing internal pelvic examinations while surgery patients are unconscious, and without getting specific consent, at least in Canada.

Guidelines in the United States and Britain say specific consent is required but, by contrast, Canadian guidelines state that pelvic examination by trainees is “implicit.

Implicit? IMPLICIT?

No, I really don’t think it is. I think it’s called violating women while they are unconscious. And because it’s the way I roll I retwittered the link and asked women if they had undergone surgery in Canada. If they were unconscious. And if they weren’t sure they hadn’t gotten a bonus pelvis exam.

The responses I got, from both women and men, were immediate. They were horrified.

One woman had surgery two years ago at a teaching hospital.

One just had surgery.

Two women I know are scheduled for surgery later this year.

One woman wrote the CMA, her MPP and her MP.

The rest expressed their incredulity and outrage.

Look, I know medial students need to practice procedures. I’m not against that and if I was asked if a student could perform the exam I’d let them. If fact, I have.

I am, however,  against someone inserting a speculum into my body without my consent while I’m unconscious for practice.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t understand how it’s not assault.

It takes a lot to get me riled up to the point where I write letters to my MP or my MPP. Nothing has ever pushed me to that point before.

This has. So as soon as I calm down enough to figure out what to say I’ll be writing them. And the CMA. And anyone else I can think of.

I’m pretty ambivalent about meatloaf. I can make it, I can eat it but it’s not really something I love or particularly go out of my way to eat or make, especially when I lived alone. When it’s just you eating it, a meatloaf seems to appear twice as large as it actually is. Lee on the other hand could probably eat meatloaf every day if you let him. He has yet to find a meatloaf that he does not like and I think meatloaf nights rate up there above pizza nights for him. He is a meatloaf maniac.

I try to space out our time between meatloaf meals and I try very hard not to make the same one twice in a row. I keep hoping that I am going to find the Holy Grail of meatloafs  – the one that will put all other meatloafs (meatloafs?) to shame and make me declare that, “Yes! Yes, I do like meatloaf and I’m not afraid to say it.” I haven’t found it.

Luckily there are a gazillion different meatloaf recipes. I’ve made the basic Better Homes and Gardens one that was the first one I ever made. I’ve made ones that used three different kinds of meat (italian sausage, ground pork and ground beef – it was massive). I’ve made ones that use barbeque sauce or some kind of ketchup on top (why is it that ketchup on top of a meatloaf seems so unketchupy and yummy?). I’ve tried ones that have bacon laid on top (mmm bacon) though I absolutely draw the line at the bacon explosion. I say every now and then that I’m going to make a chicken or a turkey meatloaf but then I forget to buy the ground chicken or turkey (it’s not really a shopping cart regular for us).

The one on tap for tonight is from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. It’s kind of an interesting one. You cook it in a dutch oven, then drain off the fat and and mix of tomatoes and chickpeas together for a sauce (well, and other stuff) and throw it back in the oven for awhile. You can put bacon on top of that one too (which will totally depend on if I remember to take the bacon out of the freezer when I get home).

Then there’s always the discussion of what to serve with the meatloaf. Mashed potoatoes? Salad? Rice? Potatoes gratin? Nothing ever seems to fit quite right.

So I want to know – what’s your go-to meatloaf recipe? And what the heck do you serve with it?

Cross-posted at Loving Food and Sharing Recipes.

Excuse me while I whine but I’m still sick and I’m really quite tired of being sick.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very happy to be out of the fever/vomiting/joint pain phase but I’m really, really ready for this cough to leave. This cough that causes me to hyperventilate and get dizzy. This cough that is keeping me awake all night (I’ve kicked myself to the spare room so I don’t keep Lee up all night). This cough that keeps me from being able to have a conversation. This cough that the doctor didn’t not seem concerned about and yet he gave me an inhaler (that seems to do jack shit).

I attempted to go to work yesterday and got sent home, which really is a good thing because until I can actually speak more than three words together without dissolving into a coughing fit I really shouldn’t be around people. Plus I sound hideous.

I’m tired of being sick. And yes, I’m whining.

You know the people that say that how you spend New Year’s Eve and how you usher in the new year sets up the whole next year of your life? They better be wrong.

Because the stroke of midnight found me with my head in the toilet being violently ill. I’m not using the term “violently ill” idly either – two days later and my stomach still hurts. I have the flu. Or something flu-like. I had a sore throat, then I was sick and then joint pain like you wouldn’t believe. If I was 40 years older I would have been a good candidate for a hip replacement. Now my throat is just slightly sore and I’m coughing which makes me dizzy. This is such a fantastic way to end my Christmas vacation.

So far 2010 is off to a rip-roaring start.

I thought I’d give you a peek at what Christmas looks like around our house.

Today we’ll work until around noon. Lee will pick me up and we’ll go home. We’ll clean the fridge out of any leftovers for lunch so that we’ll have room for other leftovers. Then we’ll clean and iron the tablecloth and all kinds of fun stuff like that. I’ll start Christmas dinner prep by making cranberry sauce and brining the turkey. I’ll shower and dry my hair. We’ll order Chinese food and my in-law’s will pick it up on their way to our place. We’ll eat (thus beginning the gorgefest that is Christmas). Then everyone will sit around and watch tv or play Wii. I’ll go back and forth between the living room and the kitchen because I’m still doing Christmas prep (roasting extra drumsticks to use along with the giblets for gravy, making the sweet potatoes). Sometime around 11 will pile into one car and head to mass. We’ll do mass (meaning they do mass and I mostly observe in my role as non-Catholic). We go home, foist the leftover Chinese food on my in-laws because there is no room for it in the fridge and head to bed.

We’ll roll our of bed around 9 (most likely). I used to get out of bed much earlier on Christmas day because we used to eat around noon when I was growing up. However we did not go to mass when I was growing up thus were physically capable of getting up at 6 or 7am. We’ll start the fireplace and put on Christmas music. We’ll open stockings while having a cup of coffee. Stockings are *always* first. Then presents. Then Lee will clean up while I start fretting about what time to put in the turkey. I’ll finish making the stuffing. I’ll set the dining room table. I’ll fret about whether or not it’s time to put in the bird. Yes, there is a theme here. Much fretting about the bird! If I remember I’ll watch the Queen’s Christmas Address (though I’ll probably forget, I usually forget).

Around 1, by which time the turkey is most definitely in the oven, MIL, FIL, BIL and SIL will arrive. More presents. After presents there are snackies. There will me a movie or tv or Wii or they’ll sit around and chat. I will mostly be in the kitchen, fretting over the bird. (Or perhaps hiding because I’m not used to having so many people in my house and it is sometimes overwhelming.) My FIL will peel potatoes and someone else will do the carrots. I’ll check on the bird and baste. Eventually it will be time to start cooking the sides. The turkey will be done. I’ll make gravy. We’ll sit down to eat. I’ll remember I forgot to put something on the table. We’ll eat some more. We’ll do coffee and tea and dessert. We’ll create piles of leftovers for people to take home. We’ll collapse in the living room while Lee and FIL do the dishes.

In the middle of all of this Piper will sit in everyone’s way and hiss.

Eventually we’ll feel like we can move again and people will start to head home. After they leave Lee and I will change into our pjs and moan about how full of food we are and then fall asleep on the couch.

And that is Christmas.