Phew!

Dinner for 6 (became 5, someone was ill) is accomplished. I joined UU Fellowship Dinners group. A coordinator mixes different people and asks if you can host. This was my first one, and I was asked to host! I bought a couple of really nice chickens at our real local butcher and roasted them with rosemary and thyme from the garden and sage from the little Farmer's Market. I made a really pretty winter table setting - I took photos, of course. The rest of the dinner was pitch-in. We had salad, mashed potatoes (and I whipped up a quick gravy), bread and lime coconut cake. I don't usually like lime, but the cake was pretty good.  I had Barb Lund, a wonderful potter, Elof and Nedra Carlson, and Linda Pickle, her husband Charlie was the sicko. I had met Barb before, buying a piece from her, but that is all. I met Elof because he is the organizer of the book club that I never attend, but sometimes read the books.

I love that the table cloth and the ribbon have snowflakes on them. I used the clear dishes just because they look so good. 

Cooking!

I made vegan banana bread this morning and for the first time ever put chocolate chips in one loaf (but they're not vegan). Then I tried a new recipe for individual baked oatmeals that I plan to sell at a Farmer's Market. Now I've got an enchilada casserole in the oven. I thought Michael had agreed to cheese, but he hadn't and he's a little disgruntled. That's what happens when you mumble!

I just wanna say

I feel happy today. I was SO happy to meet Lisa and John's babies yesterday. I gave them their stuffed rats and they love them. Work was happy. I got some songs on my mp3 player and y life at work is about a zillion and a half times happier with music. I know I won't be able to listen to it in the busy phone season, but I am really happy about it right now. I still had enough pain today to make me take pain killer in the morning, but it wasn't quite so bad and not so depressing. Day three of no gluten. I signed up to take another dinner to a Buffalo Sister who recently had a baby. Barley in not on her no-no list so I will make the vegetable barley soup I have been planning and give it to her and her family. I almost have hats complete for her little ones as well. That will be nice. Tomorrow is Scrabble and I can debut my new board.

Another weekend has passed and is the past.

I made another list of significant tasks to accomplish and I am still working on some of them. I DID accomplish some wonderful things. I made my first batch of homemade granola. It was pretty good. I think I will refine the recipe and probably change it every time I make it. It is significantly less expensive than buying it. I am probably going to try to make it to sell for Hope's Homemades.

I also made about 9 quarts of spaghetti sauce. Unfortunately it was not from homegrown tomatoes. My crop is not substantial enough for much more than a salad. Canned crushed tomatoes are a little over $2.00 for a #10 can at Sam's Club. two cans of those, jarred garlic, three pounds of onions, cheap Italian Seasoning, a couple cans of tomato paste because I got tired of boiling it and wanted it thick NOW, and hours and hours of work makes LOTS of spaghetti sauce with NO SUGAR added. It's practically a no carb food that way. I refrigerated some because I didn't have enough rings and canned the rest in 15 pints and one didn't seal. Michael ate his first meal of it tonight and declared it excellent and said there would be no trouble using up the refrigerated portions in time.

I have some amazingly FUN and NOT work-filled weekends planned for the next two months. I will report soon. I wrote on my list tonight "blog a little." I plan to stick to that! I guess I am just a tease!

Phew...

I've been exhausted lately. I kind of took a weekend off from dance classes and I don't know if it made me more rested or more tired. I took Friday off to go to the orchestra Basket Bingo with Debbie. The first time EVER I have gone and played instead of volunteering to help sell food or something. Afterward we went out to karaoke for just a little while. Yesterday I slept late, then went to campus and got Michael and his laundry. We spent some time just hanging out, then I went grocery shopping while he transferred some files from the home computer to his new laptop. I made a giant batch of egg salad and we had sandwiches for lunch. I might have taken a nap in there somewhere... then I took him back to the dorm. I came home and showered and got ready and then Ian and Heather came from Indy and we went to dinner and karaoke again! I had a lot of fun singing last night. When I got home I was hyper for some reason and stayed up until almost 4am, resistant to even multiple doses of medication.... So today I slept until almost 1:00. I did some productive things today: cut and froze all the peppers I had picked from the garden when we had a frost warning, made one good meal, finished up the laundry I had started yesterday, cut some coupons, decided on the items and sent out invitations to the roadside stand/ website launch party...watched a couple of episodes of "The Office" read a couple of chapters, paid some bills online, etc....

I kind of cheated on my list-free Sunday rule. When I made my list on Saturday I made a "weekend list" instead of a Saturday list. I didn't get near everything completed, but I'm not kicking myself, however. I feel fine about what I did and didn't do. I definitely need to get my ass moving on the bathroom completion, however. I feel a little uncomfortable hosting a three hour party with only one working bathroom, but if it is, it is.

I have a bunch of pictures in my camera I would like to download and share, but for some reason that seems overwhelming. I have a bunch from Heather's birthday party I said I would put on Facebook and it's been about two weeks and I still haven't done it. I also have some amazing pictures from that Pink Floyd Cover band concert I went to and I'd like to post a couple of them.

Tomorrow I am skipping dance class again. I have a date for dinner with Judy from work. I knew Judy LONG before we worked at the H-T. When I was pregnant with Emily I worked with Judy's daughter Susan at Kmart. I lived with them for a while waiting for Emily and took Emily home from the hospital to their house! I stayed there until my apartment was ready and I could move in. Judy and Susan's kindness to me is one reason I always try to "pay it forward" and have provided housing to so may people over the years whenever I could. This current experience is turning out not so well and I am quite disappointed and upset about it. Maybe it is because it wasn't pure kindness, but I expected website building in exchange and it is my bad Karma for not extending the offer purely from the goodness of my heart like I usually have. Sigh. I need it to be over soon, though. I don't like this feeling of being uncomfortable in my own home and feeling on guard all the time. It reminds me too much of my marriage to an abuser. Must. End. Soon.

Details not revealed intentionally for privacy reasons, but I will reassure you all that it is merely some disappointed expectations and issues of passive-aggressive behaviors and I am in no danger except that of being exhausted and frustrated. I think it has started to evidence a little with the physical symptoms I was exhibiting with the Mom and Dad stress - the frozen and stiff shoulder muscles and the headaches. There is a time-line established for the moving out period, however, and I hope that with that in mind I will be able to avoid getting to the point where the stress exhibits itself physically very strongly.

Well, I think I am going to go search from something to watch and then be calm the rest of the night, even if it takes meds again. I need to make it through a week of work and after tomorrow night be ready to hit those dance classes full-on again!

Genius dinner, bruises, clocks...

Oh, and a Princess too! Emily do you feel honored? I finally got your picture out of that frame that made a funny spot on it and now you are amongst my favorite authors - right between Chaim Potok and John Steinbeck!

Music clock I have made for Mom and Dad. I have learned some good lessons on this one about making things appear more professional - like look at the number 4.
I should have taken an exacto and scraped the edges to make it cleaner.... I hadn't used the stick-on numbers before so this was kind of an experiment with them. I feel nervous that they will fall off.

Same with all the numbers... the instruments and other stuff was better. I think the figure are just higher quality plastics.

Michael and I both agree that the ClockQuirks logo should be in reverse type on this one.
I can still change it. I haven't Mod-Podged over it yet.

I had originally planned to use the instruments and larger musical symbols in place of numbers. Michael said he has trouble telling time without numbers (even though he's a genius, he's a strange kind of genius), and it made me consider that it may also be hard for old people so I put the numbers INSIDE, close to the hands, and the symbols and instruments on the periphery, just for thematic decoration.
At first I used this side for the front because it had some Sousa marches on it, but then I was afraid Dad would be upset that I "ruined" a good record with Sousa marches on it! That is one reason for the exact placement of the logo, although I did plan for it to be UNDER the hub, instead of on top, so the RCA Victor logo and Nipper would show. (Do you know we have a Nipper's Credit Union in Bloomington, right across the street from where the RCA TV factory was for decades?)

The entire thing.

This is the putting-the-heavy, old, English-bicycles-on-the-rack-and- smashing-my-hand bruise.

This is still the unknown-origin-but-probably-carrying-the-very-heavy-vintage-sewing-machine-cabinet-the-night-I-moved-furniture bruise.

This is my genius dinner. Quinoa is my new grain for experimentation. I had raging success with pasta salad and tonight I decided to make "Hawaian Haystacks" and use Quinoa instead of rice. Hippie Boy gets a more complete protein and I get closer to my fifty grams, and have a whole-grain, more complex carb. Also we both like them with lots of veggies so our fiber is even higher. Yes that is a huge pile of college recruitment materials under Michael's plate. When we bring in the mail I put his in "his place" at the table and he is supposed to take it and sort it and recycle or keep as appropriate. He finally did that with this pile after dinner. Of course I did not include the other end of the table where my un-put away art and craft stuff is. Hey! I'm still working on it!
Yummy! I cooked some chicken breast separately to add to mine. I used to use one can of mushroom soup and one can of Cream of chicken, because I don't really like it with straight mushroom, like many people use. Now I use one can mushroom, one can cream of celery so it's veggie and I still like the flavor.

Happy place....

Here is the Hippie Gnome "at home" among the herbs!

Except I knocked him over when I used the hose around that direction
and I am afraid that the tip of his hat will break off so he may move again.

Here is my first harvest from the garden! Grape tomatoes, rosemary, basil, and thyme.

Up close!

Here is the product, supplemented with supermarket
grape tomatoes, also including fresh mozzarella.
It was delicious and fresh, real food.

Too dark, a couple of dads at the Bike Team party looking at the photo albums.
We also all viewed a slide show of pictures, LOTS AND LOTS of pictures.

Here is Michael at the party, not a very good picture of him.

This is another bike team member whose name I can' remember. I feel bad about that.

Left is Ian, Right is Ned, Right in black T-shirt is John, and then Michael in back.
The woman in the green shirt in back is Jeanne. She is John's mom,
also an orchestra mom and has a daughter that was in orchestra with Emily,
so we have known each other quite a while. The party was at their house.

Here is something interesting about Ned. Emily had a kid in her class named Daniel Bingham. He was the geekiest science dork EVER. I used to laugh at his clothes all the time, because he was SUCH the stereotype, I thought. A few years ago I got an email from a friend from church whom I have known a LONG time. We were both pregnant at the same time and had our babies 5 days apart. Then we both went through hellish divorces.... She sent me an email saying she was was SO sorry, and hadn't told me sooner, but she was going to get married in a couple of weeks and invited me to go, although it was going to be a rather small event. So I went to the wedding and afterward while I was talking to her and her new husband I realized he was Daniel Bingham's dad! I hadn't recognized Daniel at the wedding because he was in nice clothes or something! THEN when Michael gets to high school he started talking about "Ned" all the time and going climbing with Ned. It took me a little while to figure out that Ned was another Bingham. I knew Daniel had a little brother but Emily always called him "Little Bingham" So now Michael is really good friends with Ned and Ned is stepbrother to Emily, the baby born five days earlier than Michael! Isn't it strange how people end up connected? It has been nice because Carol and I can talk easily when the boys stay out too long and stuff like that. I am not always comfortable with other parents until I get to know them and sometimes it takes me a LONG time to get comfy. Well I've known Carol almost the entire 25 years I've been in Bloomington, know her entire family and it's just really nice. I was disappointed she and Geoff, her husband, didn't come to the party tonight. Ned is kind of like that, though, he does things on his own a lot more than Michael does. Michael will miss him this year. He is a year older and has graduated and is off to Cornell nest week.

These are what you get when you do well in a bike race in Japan;
bags of rice, noodles, some pumpkiny thing and fans.
The notebook is a journal in which each of the team members
wrote an entry on the way home.

The fans.

Cindy Kvale, the coach, and Jeanne divvying up the rice.

More good sharing!

I had a good day, didn't get any of my outdoor tasks done, but accomplished some errands, LOVED getting herbs out of my garden and using them, and enjoyed the party, although I was mostly in my "silent observer" mode. It was relaxing.

Tomorrow we are going up to Indy to see Emily and Heather and have some lunch. We also need to trade a few goods back and forth from borrowing or forgetting and stuff like that.

SO - I want to unload the dryer and then my heiny to bed!