Archive for February, 2010

• Dear February, You Suck

  Date: 2010.02.22 | Category: sometimes I ramble | Response: 4

  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.

• The #momspotting meme

  Date: 2010.02.03 | Category: meme | Response: 2

  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.

• Sometimes I do things

  Date: 2010.02.01 | Category: Uncategorized | Response: 11

  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?