Monday, December 24, 2007

A Christmas Miracle!

This is the post I never thought I'd write.  But today, a mere five months after I started, Ritu and I finished taking down the wallpaper in the office.  Not only that, we got the excess glue washed off of the walls and the room emptied out.  Now we just need to spackle, prime, and paint.  (Oh, and have the carpet ripped out and wood floors installed.  And assemble the desk we bought at Ikea six weeks ago which has been in boxes in my living room ever since.)  But this is progress, people, and I have pictures to prove it!












Sunday, December 23, 2007

More Proud Moments

Do you remember when I managed to do this with the kitchen sink?  Today I did it again, but in a monumental twist that I couldn't possibly have managed had I tried to choreograph it, David happened to be walking behind me at the precise moment I accidentally activated the sprayer.  Although the inside of my sleeve captured the brunt of the water, he still managed to get a face full.  He was amazingly good natured about the whole thing, but I'm sure it will factor into his nursing home decision one day.

In other news, yesterday my mother tried to put on her cat as a sock.  And I quote:

Today, I was sitting on my bed, watching TV while getting dressed.  I put on one black sock, and seeing the other sort of behind me on the bed, I grabbed it to put it on.  Only it wasn't my sock;  it was poor Lucy, who jumped off one side of the bed while I jumped off the other.  I don't know which of us was more startled.  <sigh>

I'm starting to think that neither of us should be living unsupervised.


Thursday, December 20, 2007

This Must Be A Sign Of The Apocalypse

I actually laughed at Ziggy yesterday.


Thursday, December 13, 2007

"Along With Some Cool Girls From My High School"

Since I have nothing to say, you might as well go read this hilarious entry from Alice over at Finslippy.

And while you're cruising around, check out this youtube video that Amy posted at The Foil Hat.  Brilliant!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Dooce And Chuck Have Nothing On Me And Emma





I crack myself up.








Viola Pictures

I've been meaning to post this for awhile.  Here you see David, proudly wearing his replacement nameband which a lady from an independent toy store about 50 miles away ever-so-kindly mailed to me. 



My old friend Sarah (you know her as the commenter SarahThinksJanet) just sent me a link to an ebay auction for more of the David namebands.  I politely thanked her and told her I'd gotten a new one, then quickly realized the value in having a spare and hit the buy it now button.  Thanks, Sarah!

I took that picture the night of David's first viola "concert".  He has taken to this viola like nothing I've ever seen before.  I never have to bug him about practicing and four days a week he gets out of bed without complaint an hour early to go to his before school lesson.  Last month we had people over for dinner and he actually offered to play his viola for them.  I think back to all the times my mother begged me and my sister to just play a little something for our relatives on our flute and clarinet, respectively, and it blows my mind that he is so motivated with this viola.  Not only that, in his music class in school they are doing a unit with recorders and he is teaching himself to play songs.   I am blown away by the amount of initiative he's showing and the overwhelming pride and satisfaction he takes from it. 

He  even let me take a bunch of pictures and if you know David, you know how unusual that is:







Monday, December 3, 2007

Livin La Vida Locavore

When I get done with this topic, I'm sure you'll all be begging me for the excitement of guinea pig reports, but here goes.  I'm working on becoming a locavore  (said my friend: What?  A local whore?).  After reading Omnivore's Dilemma and getting halfway through Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  I am convinced that choosing locally grown and made products can make a difference.  Now, Ritu and I aren't entirely new to this.  For three summers we have bought into an organic produce CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).  Each Saturday from May to October we pick up a bin of organic fruits and vegetables from our farmer's market.  My mindset thus far was to see what we liked out of the bin and make use of it as I could.   Often, though, things would go bad before I had a chance to use them.  I always saw those vegetables as supplementary to my regular grocery shopping, but this next year I am going to try and make them the centerpiece.

 I was especially taken with the point Barbara Kingsolver made about how just because we CAN get every kind of produce all year round doesn't mean we SHOULD.  When you consider the preservatives added and fuel used to get my fresh asparagus from New Zealand in the middle of winter, it suddenly becomes a lot less appealing.  Actually, the first locavore choice I made was a choice of omission.  I was at Costco the other day and they had bags of those sweet mini peppers that, it turns out, come from Mexico.  I picked them up, studied the package, and put them back.  (Don't tell Emma.  Those are her absolute favorite.) 

I am fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest where this movement has taken a firm root and we have a nice long growing season and a number of local companies like Bob's Red Mill, Tillamook Cheese, Alpenrose Dairy, and most importantly, Dagoba Chocolate.  I started to do some research and read some web sites, but let's face it, I am a lazy, spoiled American with disposable income and I just wanted to be told what to buy.  Voila!  Turns out New Seasons Market has a program called Home Grown.  On all the shelves and displays you can look for a tag that lets you know if a product comes from Washington, Oregon, or Northern California.  (Granted, it's a far cry from growing all my own food, but it's a step in the right direction.)

I don't usually shop at New Seasons because I thought it was pretentious and overpriced and I had a run in with a wine steward there recently which reinforced all of that.  But I headed out there yesterday afternoon in a driving wind and rainstorm  to browse and read labels and see what I could find. 

On my list, I needed ingredients for soup.  The first night of Chanukah this year falls on a Tuesday.  On Tuesdays we try to follow the tradition of Ritu's family and eat vegetarian.  We decided to have soup and potato latkes.  So, vegetarian soup and, because my mom was coming to dinner, nothing cream based.  Oh, and nothing too vegetably because the kids wouldn't go near it.  That left a lot of potato and corn chowders which just weren't going to fly with a big plate of latkes.  I finally found the perfect choice.  What else would a good Hinjew family eat for Chanukah?  Miso soup, of course! 

At New Seasons I found the tofu and miso paste with no problems, but I got hung up looking for doshi.  I circled the store about three times because I absolutely hate asking for help (yes, I am well aware that I have issues).  Finally, I approached a nice young cheerful looking fellow.  I confessed that I didn't even know what doshi was but that I needed it for miso soup.  He was stumped as well, but went to his encyclopedia of food and looked it up.  He found me something labeled as Dulse which he felt would be the closest thing.  I thanked him and added it to my cart and headed for the check out.  I left the store and was ditching my cart outside the doors when I noticed a flurry of activity behind me.  It was my little New Seasons best friend who had come out into the ran to look for me because he had found another product he thought would work even better.  I have to say that my cynical heart was thawed the tiniest bit by all of this.  I will definitely be going back there to do more shopping. 

Now I'm off to make a white chocolate cream pie for tomorrow's dessert to make up for the fact that the miso soup will probably suck.