Le Snow

Some pics from our street during the (most recent) big storm

Death, destruction, madness, mayhem!

Just kidding. The most exciting thing I have going on right now is waiting for the UPS man to bring me my new toy.

For those of you who don't live close enough to listen to me prattle on incessantly about the pros and cons of 1001 digital cameras as I struggle to make a decision, I envy you. For those of you who do (or who don't but who do deal with 100001 IMs on the subject) and answer my fifty jillion "yeah but, what about...?" questions, you'll be relieved to know that I finally just pulled the trigger and did it. Le Sigh. According to amazon, my shit should be arriving shortly- like today, which is why I find myself glued to the front door every time I hear a truck. What if it's them!? I couldn't bear it if I got up to shower, or you know, do something productive and they came while I was gone and then I had to wait another day for my camera*.

I was really hoping to get some pictures of the great storm of o'10 while the proof still exists. I am for truth GUTTED that I wasn't able to capture the whiteout conditions or the 45 mph winds we had yesterday. They were absolutely unreal, as was HN's motivation to strap on his snowshoes and go bounding around the woods in the 7 degree temps just to "see what it's like out there"- not once but 3 times, for about an hour each go. Fortunately or un-, I was in fact trapped by the phone ringing for work and the dueling with this virus thing on my computer and wasn't able to join him, which ended up being ok because I remembered that I don't like 7 degrees that much when the 0 is in front of it and not after. Dog and I did make one attempt to check it out but were both blown back into the house pretty quickly, really only reinforcing my belief that we are meant to be together. I LOVE a dog who would rather hang out under a blanket than be out in that crud. There's a woman 2 doors up with a big fat lab and that dude loves a snowstorm. She has to take him out for hours every blizzard elsewise he freaks out and bes all sad and whining at the door. Star doesn't mind snow but with the wind as it was yesterday she immediately began pulling to go back in the house. I dragged her up the block to be sure, and it was confirmed. HN didn't believe me and even tried to take her snowshoeing with him and she ditched his broke ass and hightailed it home. What's up now? Clearly, he needs to find his own soul-dog because this is not the droid he's looking for.

Eventually my epic battles with the computer virus I picked up somewhere in the nether regions of the internet came to fruition, and as of this morning I seem to have gotten the last pesky registry entry out. Fingers crossed, but I'm not betting anything valuable on it. And thank god too, because that really was a bit of work. I can't believe people even choose just to do security for a living: it was *exhausting!* Hours and hours of work, that pretty much precludes doing anything except sitting there ready to push the "yeah, go ahead and delete that" button whenever the scan found something, or being ready to reboot into safe mode for the thousandth time a day. Not having internet and being all snowed in and crap, I really would have imagined I'd have a pile of knitting or sewing (which I guess I could have except I didn't have the zippers I needed, so I couldn't) or something to show for it but I got nothing. Mildly embarrassing, but I'm moving on.


Anyhow,by today we're thawing out and not that 4 feet of snow goes anywhere fast, but it is melting little by little as the temps rise. I estimate the Saturn should be visible again inside of a week.

More to come.


* Since we were on the subject I just popped over to UPS (again) to check the status and now it's delayed due to adverse weather conditions. Pussies. Who's even afraid of a little snow on the ground? And is there even any IN kentucky? UPS needs to put on it's big boy pants and get a move on. (let us steer away from discussions about the fault being mine for waiting so long to order it in the first place. Seriously, don't be like that.)

Summer "vacation"

I've just been told of our tentative plans for our next summer's vacation by HN. According to him, I need to begin training soon.

My next boyfriend is totally going to be lazy.

My old st after the blizzard of 10

Je m'appelle AWESOME

You know what that is? Well, other than the poor choice in thread color?

FRENCH SEAMS. Because I like, totally know how to sew, so I did that so the inside of the box bag doesnt look like my arts and craft project.

Just saying

Snow

View from bed this morning.

Its that time again...

Time to get all up on those things in cabinets and freezer. This pot tastes like summer!

And it tastes like summer because it holds tomatoes we canned in Sept, some basil pesto I put up in August and some summer squash from god knows when, though it was def last summer. I can blog about this because I have to stay close by to stir the sauce, and it sort of precludes going very far or doing anything very involved. I often wonder if HN finds it disturbing how many nights he comes home and I have my wooden stirrer thing (essentially the cooking equivalent of a security blanket) in one hand and a computer mouse in the other (and a beer in the 3rd?). Probably not, as he's also pretty weird. I think we're actually pretty even on that one.

Anyhow, I was rooting through the cabinets today trying to make some sense of the rubble from a recent HN camping trip (I ended up with 30 packets of hot chocolate, a pound of craisins, your mother's weight in oatmeal, and a HUGE bag of spicy lo mein noodles; I know not why and it is not mine to question) and put together a grocery list when I realized I was pushing aside tons of food so I could see what I food needed. and I said to my self, "Self. WTF?! How has this happened again? Before the move you were doing so good eating and using whatever you had in house and home and now this whole f*cking place is a mess again. WTF are you doing thinking of shopping while you're knee deep in food? You're a dirty HOARDER!" And then I opened the freezer to confirm this, and the language got much stronger. By the time I looked in the special shelves where all my canned stuff lives, my self esteem was in the gutter.

That shit never lasts for long though and so I picked myself up and laid down some serious f*cking laws. I'm going back on the 1 ingredient challenge, which means I can buy one ingredient to cook a meal and everything else has to come from the cabinets, freezer or my special canning place.

I'm on a mission to eat myself out of house and home. I know where the battle rations ready behavior comes from (Hi Mom!), but I'm super tired of feeling like I have to have 1000 cabinets full of shit at the ready at all times just in case Apocalypse comes and I need white bread and canned food. Not only do I not have the space for it but every month at the same time, I just about break down about it. I know it's largely hormone induced but just because I'm unbalanced doesn't mean I'm not right. Anyhow, garden time is almost here which means more veggies imminent and I can't justify an absurd garden for canning purposes if the canning section is already full so off I go. Titillating, no ?

I'm also instituting a part time vegetarian thing. At least one and hopefully 2 days a week I will go veggie. This is an old idea, ripped off mostly from Mike C but then reminded to me by all this Omnivore dilemmish stuff going around, and all around I just think it's a good idea. Since I have no meat canned and sitting on shelves, I think the one goal will promote the other and if there's anything I'm about, it's cooperation. Unless there's another party involved and then I get a bit tight, but I digress.

So anyhow, expect crazy amounts of boring pictures about me cooking old food I have kicking around the house. Expect also the sewing and knitting equivalent of the same thing, because while putting K-Town (MY room) in order this weekend as last minute party preparations, I stumbled onto the full extent of my fabric and yarn stash and had the same mini freakout as in the cabinets today, so I'm determined that some shit will get done, and done with making do with what I have. That last sentence is almost complete nonsense, and I totally stand by it.

ETA: someone asked what I'm cooking so I guess I'll include the ingredients in case you also neurotically collect food and want to get rid of it and need advice?

Tonight I'm making spaghetti sauce which consists of:

2 16 Oz Jars of tomatoes (one cherry, one lahge) that I found in the canning section
5 (really) small onions off of the onion braid HN made last summer (no more food as decoration!)
Garlic
2 Ice cream scoops of pesto, because i keep it in the freezer and the ice cream scoop is the Official Measuring Unit of Things I Keep in the Freezer
1 ziploc bag of diced summer squash
Oregano
Salt
Olive Oil

Saute the onion in oil until translucent. Add the garlic for a minute or 2. Add everything else but the squash, cook for a long time on lowish heat- you want some bubbles but not crazy bubbles. Cook for an hour or more, stirring a lot so it thickens up and doesn't burn brown all over your pot.
Add the squash, cook a while longer.
Salt to taste. If your tomatoes were too acidic, add some sugar.

Serve over pasta you found way in the back of the cupboard that you don't remember buying but that stuff doesn't go bad right?

Oh, Hai! I am not begging, I thought I heard a cry for help!

Bonus shot of camouflaged dog sneaking around to beg/mad dash for anything that might fall. She does this back and forth thing. Backs up, sits close by- around the corner just out of sight/trouble and occasionally sticks head round corner to check progress and look surprised that I'm here at all. She's quite wily!