My friend Megan shared this on Facebook. My favorite part of the video is when the dog declines a treat offered by the orangutan, and the ape just shoves it in the dog's mouth.
Hi. Is anyone still there? I'm still here, just not so much HERE.
I will get around to the Nymph Lake post super-soon, I hope. I'm waiting on that until Mr. Man puts the desktop computer back together. For now I'm on the annoying laptop, so I'll keep it brief.
I'm currently:
41% full of Tibetan Noodles with Lamb from Sherpa's, where one of the sherpas paid so much attention to Sugarbear she didn't know WHAT to do. It would have been creepy if it hadn't been so sweet. It is clear that Nepalese people really, really dote on their kids.
27% new haircut. Why did it take me 3 months to decide maybe the hair wasn't working. Symptoms: "Hm...should I go for the ponytails or the hat today?". Repeat 90 times.
18% Wow, we stayed out WAY too late last night. I wonder if the Johnsons will ever invite us back ever again??
12% It's that time of year when I really start to get the itch for a dog. I've been surfing the net looking at homeless doggies. There are so many who need a good home, but I'm also pretty happy with the being-able-to-leave-food-out-all-night situation. Plus, it would be nice to get some bills paid down first, before we take on more responsibilities.
If this doesn't equal 100%, I blame the 18%.
In other news, we had a super-foggy morning last week. Here's how my iphone saw it.
Here is a little ditty composed by me & the girls via the Swedish Radio. You, too, can gather your clan around the computer for minutes of fun!
Remind me to tell you about the time (8 days ago) when we hiked up to Nymph Lake.
More to come.
We woke up to a beautiful, snowy scene on Saturday morning. After I cooked up some flapjacks, I grabbed the macro lens and headed out to the backyard. Photos clickable, as always.
Above, you see the flakes piled up on top of the hook on a hanging basket on our deck.
They were just wet enough to stick, balanced up there. These are the flakes which made me grab the camera and venture outside.
While I was working at the farm on Thursday I'd seen just a little bit of snow falling. The weather was a bit warmer, and the stuff falling from the sky wasn't like the snow pictured here. The substance was more like little ice pellets rather than these beautiful, distinctly shaped and floaty flakes. But even so, I remember looking at these tiny bits of ice landing on the ground and thinking "Wow, how many of these things would it take to make even 1 inch of accumulation?". I just know I can't count that high. So when I looked out of the window Saturday morning and saw 4 inches of snow on the deck railing, it seemed truly miraculous.
Honestly, I'm a little bit tired of tomatoes. I KNOW. I can't even believe I'm typing that.
But it's true. I also know that, come February, the merest thought of a home-grown tomato will make me salivate.
After a protracted search through all the closets and the disco ("where in the world did I put those snow boots??") the girls got themselves all bundled up. They played in the yard until they were frozen. It took about an hour. Then they came inside for hot chocolate (which Mr. Man figured out is the solution to the Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle. Sorry if that spoils it for you. It took him all of half a second to solve.).
Why must it be eaten like soup, with a spoon, hm? HM?
I don't know about you, but a cold and snowy day makes me want meat and simple carbohydrates. So I set about making gingerbread cookies (hey, I found snowflake cookie cutters at target!), Bolognese sauce, and focaccia. The entire family pitched in to ice, ice these babies.
It also seemed like a good day to paint fingernails. Somehow, Mr. Man escaped that fate. I'm a little surprised he didn't demand his turn.
Oh yeah, I also made it to the Farmers' Market. It was a sad little market, with only about 8 or 9 vendors braving the weather. Poor things, they were so cold! And there their produce was freezing while I shopped. But I brought home some lovely brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips, yukon gold potatoes, onions, shallots, and an enormous winter squash ( I think it is a golden hubbard).
Well, that was MY Saturday. What did you do with yours?
I ventured out of the house today to go sit in a dark movie theatre. This film was a tonic for my sad, tired, 44 yo, recovering from the flu-assed self. I highly recommend it to any former Austinites who happen to be rather desperately missing your best friends/hometown/Mom/reckless, feckless, punk rock youth. Wait, is that too specific? Well, it did feel sort of custom-made to grab me. <&hearts>
I'm recovering, slowly, from this flu. Junebug has just begun her bout with it, complaining (mildly) of sore throat, headache, sneezing and loss of appetite. That leaves only Mr. Man in this household who has yet to succumb. Surely it is only a matter of days before he falls prey. So the bug and I are laying low at home this Saturday morning, working puzzles and listening to Of Montreal on the hi-fi. I've dispatched the Man and the Sugarbear to my beloved Farmers' Market to buy a few things. Flowers. Eggs. Tortillas. Baby squash (you will know them as butternut squash), some for me to cook and some for the Bear to mother.
**Update** I wrote that earlier today and was unable to post it due to the instability of Firefox's latest version (Shiretoko. I hate you, Shiretoko.). Is anyone else having issues with this? Maybe it's a Linux thing. Anyway, now it's afternoon and the Man & the Bear are off gathering dal and saag paneer and naan, oh my. And bagels. And Monsters VS. Aliens. One thing I know is that applying a thick layer of TV viewing makes almost every illness more tolerable. That's why hospital rooms have TV's. I myself have lately enjoyed A Good Woman (on the Roku. It's a remake of Lady Windermere's Fan), as well as Glee & Modern Family via hulu on the laptop. All good.
As promised long ago, here are the bug's new peepers.
Sugarbear was so jealous of Bug's new ones that she'd taken to wearing bug's old glasses. We didn't like that because they are prescription lenses after all. But she insisted on wearing them. So I popped out the lenses, and now she wears them to school every day. Presumably she does it in preparation for the day when she will need real ones. Won't it be funny if she ends up with perfect vision, unlike anyone else in our family?
Like everyone else you and I know, we've been touched by the (presumably swine) flu. Sugarbear missed 3 days of school last week, along with fully half of her class: 12 out of 24 kids. Now I have it. As flu bugs go, it isn't so bad. But it still isn't great. What worries me is that we haven't even gotten to the actual flu season yet. We still have that to look forward to!
I'd heard it would be cooler today than yesterday, so I sent the kids to school in jeans and long-sleeves. It is sunny and gorgeous and warm now. I'm certain they're sweltering. Unlike Texas schools (and restaurants and offices), their school doesn't air-condition the nipples right off of you. The inside temperature of the school will be close to the outside temp. So I'm feeling flu-ish + a bit guilty about their inappropriately warm attire. Don't you hate it when that happens?
This morning Junebug told me she has a new wart. I looked at it and told her it is a cute, tiny mole, not a wart. She said "What's the difference?". Sugarbear, always alert for these opportunities, piped up, "A mole is a wart that is NOT on your nose".
busy little squirrel. That poem (see below) from one of our family's favorite books describes what I feel like lately. Work, work, clean, cook, type, copy, staple, complain. Being busy is so BORING. I'd much rather be L A Z Y. Wouldn't you?
I feel guilty for neglecting this space, and then just putting up some stupid apology for the neglect. So today I'm giving you a recipe. A lazy person's recipe for a quick and yummy one-dish meal.
Pour one or two tablespoons Olive Oil into a large skillet or dutch oven and heat at med-high setting. Put one pound (ish) of sliced kielbasa or some other raw or smoked sausage into the pan. Lately I've been using a delicious Colorado Bison Andouille sausage. It is spicy and lean and perfect for this dish. Brown the sausage, but don't let it dry out. When it looks done, remove it with a slotted spoon and set aside. Into your pan you now throw diced onion, carrots, garlic and whatever else may be moldering in your refrigerator. Peppers? Corn? Squash? Why Not? Saute until almost done. They should be about 2 minutes away from completely cooked. Now you add 1-2 bunches of kale, torn into semi-bite-sized pieces. Add about 1/4 cup of stock or water or white wine, cover and steam. When the kale looks steamed to perfection and the other veggies are cooked to your liking, uncover and add the sausage back in to the pan. Also add 1-2 cans of drained Cannellini beans. Heat everything through and taste for salt and pepper. If you want it more like a stew, add some stock. Serve with warm and crusty bread.
I had intended to upload a photo to go with this but blogger won't let me. Maybe later.
For now I will leave you with a recommendation. Read Julia Child's My Life In France. That book (and the movie) got me back into the kitchen after a couple of months of feeling utterly uninspired. This afternoon holds more self-imposed busy-ness for me. I'm attending a home-canning workshop in Boulder. I have a sudden, intense urge to squirrel away some peachy goodness. And maybe some home-made salsa.
From Eric Carle's Animals, Animals
by Phyllis Halloran
Busy, busy, busy, busy,
Busy little Squirrel-
Running, running, jumping,
In a dizzy whirl.
Stopping now and then to eat
A tasty little acorn treat-
Busy, busy, busy, busy,
Busy little squirrel.
Farmers' Market haul last Saturday:
Dahlias
eggs
apples
tomatillos
shallots
brussels sprouts
carrots
okra
jalapenos
basil
tomatoes (I know. Our plants are suffering mightily from blossom-end rot. Dag!)
eggplant
yukon gold potatoes
sumptuous red bartlett pears
chevre
and another whole BOX of peaches. 20-25 pounds! Organic! for $30. The ones we don't eat will be sliced and frozen for later.
I apologize for being so absent. I have a whiny excuse. In the past month I've had a cold then a sinus infection then food poisoning and now another cold. It's kind of hard to do anything but barely scrape by. The only thing keeping me going right now is reading My Life In France. Sorry if that is a bit too au courant but I am enjoying it immensely. I need a vacation. To post-war France. With Julia's positive attitude.
I lived in Texas for most of my life, where it seemed there were only 2 seasons: Summer, and Not-Summer. There are seasons, but the signs of change (except for Spring, which was nice) were far more subtle. So it still surprises me to see really obvious evidence of the change of seasons. Yesterday, as you know, was September the first. And look what I saw.
At first when I saw some leaves falling, I thought "Wow, that tree must be sick.". I'm still getting used to these super-normal occurrences, like I'm an alien who just landed. I remember being a kid in elementary school in September, seeing all the apples and fall leaves decorating classrooms and being really confused by them. What was that supposed to symbolize? I never saw any apple trees, and the leaves didn't fall until what, late November? September is still hot as Hell in Texas. And if these decorations seemed weird to me, I can't imagine how it would have seemed to some kid in Arizona. But that all makes sense here, and I'm disproportionately thrilled by it.
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