This makes me very happy. (And a recipe for homemade almond milk)
Yeah… I started this “diet” on Monday, October 1st 2012. (The fact that it was the first of the month was pure happen-stance. I was just waiting for the Monday after the mother in law went home, as I knew I couldn’t escape carbs right then.)
For those who are interested in what I’m doing, I’m doing the Keto Diet. Which is basically High Fat, Low Carb. Don’t worry, I’m not just eating bacon and fried eggs.
I have lost 6lbs since Monday (as I write this, it is Saturday.) That’s nearly half a stone for my UK friends. Or nearly 3 Kilograms for my friends in other countries.
This makes me exceedingly happy. I can see the difference in my face, my collar bones, and just the rest of me in general.
The weekends are the most difficult for me on this diet, because it’s generally when the hubs and I would make pancakes, or would get a pastry while out doing the shopping.
I’ve found many good resources for Keto Friendly baking, unfortunately I don’t as of yet have the supplies to start baking. Eventually I’ll get everything I need.
This is the first time in my life (adult life I should say) that I’ve started having almond milk. I made it myself even. I made it thick on purpose, using the information I gleaned mostly from this website: Almond Milk Recipe – Latte di Mandorla from Sicily and also this one: Raw Almond Milk
Now here is how I actually did it, and my thoughts.
I put the raw almonds (which I thankfully didn’t have to remove from the hard shell like Anita (Italy) did) in a bowl and poured boiling water over them. I let that soak for 30 minutes.
I then peeled the skins off the almonds. I was expecting this to be such a chore, as a previous coworker (from my stint at British Airways) came in one day with a tub of peeled almonds and complaining how her hands were so sore, and her skin so dry from peeling the almonds with her mother. I think it was these comments that truly put me off making my own almond milk for so long. Let me tell you, that was stupid. These almonds were so easy to peel! Just simply pinch your thumb and index finger on the fat end of the almond and they quite literally pop out of the skin! Occasionally they might stick in one spot, but this was not a bother at all.
Here is where I deviated from Anita in Italy, and went to Sweet Freedom. I put the whole almonds in my blender, added 2.5 cups of water and let it rip. Sadly, I am coming to hate my blender. It’s a cheap one we purchased from Asda, to tide me over, but the truth is… I hate it. Every single time I try to blend something in it, no matter how little or much liquid I have, it always comes out the top. This is unbelievably frustrating, and I cannot wait till I someday get my Vitamix. (Hell, I’d even settle for having my Ninja back.. I never had overflow problems with that! I don’t think I can get a Ninja in the UK though…)
So once I felt that it was ground up enough (not that I could really see), I poured the liquid through a fine mesh metal strainer that I have into a bowl.
I then transferred it into a clean bottle I had, and then popped it in the fridge. Voilà!
Here is what I would do differently: I would stick with Anita in Italy and mostly dry grind the almonds up first. That way I all of the almonds actually got ground up. I discovered after I had set the almond meal to dry that there were still some pretty big chunks of almond left.
I think I would also sweeten it, as I did not.. I am trying to decide how I want to sweeten it whilst staying in the diet. I don’t know if Xylitol would work or not… Though I do have some Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup that I made (xylitol) that I have added to a cup full of the almond milk, and that was quite yummy… so who knows. I’ll try experimenting. (I’ll post the chocolate syrup soon.)
So even if this diet doesn’t last, it is doing very good at making me start making things from scratch again. I love doing that, I love knowing I have complete control over what myself or my family puts in our bodies.
This makes me happy.
To dream of owls, and other things.
Last night, or I should say early this morning I dreamt. I dreamt of owls. I remember 3 owls. Blue owls, different shades with perhaps some green, but predominately blue. I know there were other owls around, but there were only the 3 that were important to the dream. They were of the standard sizes when you have 3 owls. Large, medium, and small. The small was the focus. I think I had a broken finger, as it was bandaged with the pet tape style tape (I think). The tape was black, but I don’t think that makes much a difference.
I was in a house that until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t been in for nearly 16 years. We were in the High Desert of California, a place owned by people I have known nearly my entire life. A home away from home.
My cousin Mimi was making pancakes on a griddle behind the wetbar (why not on the kitchen counter 6 feet away, I’ll never know) and I had this tiny blue owl on my broken finger. It was nuzzling me and preening like any pet bird would do.
There was a dog crate at my feet, nothing special. Most likely an exact replica of the current dog crate that little miss Saki uses. At first I thought it was Saki in the crate. (Though in retrospect, she might have been sitting on the couch next to where Mimi was cooking)
I looked in the crate, and saw Pink. The tiny Maltese who was our last puppy. I remember she looked at me, but was uninterested. When I say tiny, she was the iptome of a ‘tea cup’, full grown tip to tail no bigger than the span of my adult hand. She thought she was the biggest dog in the world though. Bless her.
The focus of the dream after all was the owls.
I cannot remember who else was in the dream, but I do know the house owners (the old family friends) were not present.
I cannot remember anything that was said.
I think I was reading something in the dream, as I woke up thinking it was odd, as why do I remember that you can’t read in your dreams?
All I remember was this tiny blue owl was important to me.
Happy Valentines Day.
“Happy Valentines day to those who celebrate it, and those who don’t. Today isn’t about men getting murdered in Chicago, or little cherubs shooting arrows at people. It isn’t about girls getting everything and demanding gifts and flowers. It isn’t about only feeling the love today. Remember, every day is a day you should remember to say I love you. Not just to the special someone in your life, but to the people who make your life special, and more importantly to yourself. I love you.”
Say cheese!
Sorry, shameless contest plug from another blog….
I love cheese far too much to not do it and risk not winning. I’ll blog about it if I win… And I promise I’ll give all my readers a proper blog soon.
If you want to enter to win the cheese as well.. go check out An Edible Mosaic… I like her recipes, and she’s got awesome photos from all her trips around the world.
“I’m just crackers for Cheeeeeeeese Grommit!”
Well that wasn’t so hard…
I realize I haven’t posted in a while.
I’ve been off my game, in depression, lacking my mojo.. whatever you want to call it. I’ll make no other excuse than that, and will promise to hopefully blog more often.
Today I made Chocolate Chip Meringues.
They are yummy
I’ve never made them before. A few weeks ago, Mother of Mine made some, and though they were good (don’t get me wrong, they were VERY good)… they were hollow. Which is not what we were expecting.
I decided then that I was going to attempt to make some Meringues myself and follow some tips I found on the web.
So when Mother of Mine made some Chocolate Bread Pudding the other day, which only needed the egg yolks.. I had 6 egg whites sitting in the fridge waiting to be used. So as to not let them go to waste, today I set out to do what I had decided on doing a while ago.
I used up every gram of sugar in the house (as most recipes call for only 2 egg whites, I used 6.. so I had to effectively triple whatever recipe I was using)
They were not hollow, but they didn’t rise very much. Next attempt, I will change the bake time/heat ratio and perhaps try the cream of tartar that I left out this time. But these are very good, and could easily be used to make yummy sandwich type cookies.
And not hollow. VERY yummy.
Now, I did not follow any one set of instructions… The measurements I used are in parenthesis, but if you don’t want to make that many, use the first number.
Preheat oven to 175 F
2 egg whites (6) (Make sure they are room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar (1 1/2 cup)
1/4 teaspoon salt (3/4 tsp)
1 teaspoon vanilla (3 tsp)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup toasted nuts (walnuts or pecans) – optional
Beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt and vanilla. Beat gently until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold in chocolate chips. Pipe or scoop out onto parchment lined baking sheet. (I used a 1 Tablespoon measuring spoon as my scoop and gave each meringue 2 scoops because I wanted to make sure I’d get them ALL in the oven at the same time.)
Bake for 3 hours. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN.
I’m serious, under no circumstances should you open that oven.
After the 3 hours are up, DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN. Simply turn off the oven and reset the timer for an hour.
They need to sit untouched in the oven after baking for at least an hour. But you can leave them longer if so desired. What I would do, is bake these right before you go to bed. Then you won’t be tempted to not let them sit that last hour.
It’s coming…
More details to come… but yes, oh yes you are reading this correctly.
Because I could…
I could say it’s a result of the stress I’ve been under the past couple of weeks.
I could say it’s because I have been marginally good when it’s come to my sweet intake the past few days.
I could say it’s because I won’t have anything like this for a while again.
But the truth is… I did it because I could.
So I had myself a bowl of Cookies and Cream Ice Cream (Blue Bell since it just came to Colorado Springs, and Mim had never had it. Being of Texas myself, I have of course had it) topped with a chocolate chip cookie.
I made chocolate chip cookies today for this weekend. I like to feed people who are helping me out, and I’d rather myself have homemade cookies than store bought ones.
I couldn’t find my usual recipe from Martha. So I am trying one of her other ones. I think this is the same recipe I used while I was in England… I thought that they were my usual recipe but I guess not.
When I was in England I blamed the difference on the butter/chocolate chips. I am not fond of the chocolate chips I had in England (Milk chocolate. BLEGH! Give me Semi Sweet or Dark!) and the future Mother In Law does not keep butter in the house. (She runs Cardio wards in hospitals. I personally would rather have the real butter and take care of my heart in other aspects.)
My French Grandmother would roll in her grave if she knew I had used fake butter to bake with. But that is another time.
Today I used real butter, and had proper chips. The recipe I used is still different than I’m used to, but it is quite yummy in deed. Nice and cakey. Almost too cakey.
Today I also made myself some hummus. Made it for the first time. Used a mortar and pestle even. I did use a blender, but as my blender is a tiny thing I decided to help it out by premashing the garbanzo beans.
I think the hummus was a success. It was nummy.
Next up will be to make different flavors, and also to make Edamame Hummus.
Pictured above is also some English Muffin bread that my mum made. It is always a yummy success.
For dinner Mim made crustless Quiche and I must say that I much prefer crustless Quiche to regular Quiche. I’ve never been fond of most pie crusts, and Quiche was not an exception. I think from now on I’ll be making this version as I am fond of Quiche, but always am disappointed with the crust.
I’ll post the recipes up but today you are just going to get the cookies.
And the next time you most likely hear from me will be after Denver’s first ever Anomaly Con. I am quite excited. It’ll be my first time selling anything from The Asylum in a public setting. I will also be harking my scribblings. Yup, as an author. (Well, it’s my artists table that I’m paying for … so it’s not quite being there officially as an author.. but hey, my Asylum.. my rules!) Yup, Aether Horizons will be at the Con. I’m quite excited. It will make me feel all official like.
Martha’s Cakey Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Bake until cookies are golden around the edges and set in the center, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.
Drumroll please….
And the winner of the KAL skein giveaway…
Is “Jennifer S”. Who just so happened to be lucky number 36. Send me a message however you wish… (meaning rav, email, FB… whatev!) please so that I can get your skein to you.
Sorry for taking so long in posting up the winner. It’s been a heck of a couple of days since I opened up this little contest.
Things are finally starting to simmer down a bit as we get closer to Anomaly Con. Oh.. I still haven’t blogged about that. I’m so rubbish at this. That’s alright, most of my readers either already know about it, or are out of state.
My “I’m going to bed early” statement of course went flying out the window as I now see it’s 11:30pm. But I wanted to make sure that I posted this up and such like that.
So now that I’ve done my part…. Night all.. I’m going to bed. I’ll do a proper good blog tomorrow.
And Now We Are 4
4 years ago today, I was having a bad day at work. I was working at WOW! Internet and Cable, and just absolutely hating it. The building was physically making me sick, the people (bosses) were toxic and I was just miserable.
My one respite was talking with friend.
Well on this particular day, it was particularly bad day. And I asked My Guy when he was going to marry me and take me away from that hell hole.
His response “4.5 years” and with that, we started our crazy plan.
We tried to cut that time frame short, and well as you all have read.. that didn’t work out so well.
Today is our 4th anniversary. Once again we are not celebrating together. Which makes me sad. But this should be the last one that we are apart.
Happy anniversary hun.
Now it’s time for me to go have some brekkie. I want French Toast, but I’ll have to settle for an orange. (And I now realize that it is noon and the term brekkie doesn’t apply.)
Pikes Peak or Bust
Alright, so I suck at the blogging. I could make excuses every time, but truth is, you’ll love me or hate me and me making false promises each time won’t solve the situation.
Moving on,
I went to the top of Pikes Peak mountain this past Tuesday.
Now, I have a complete rational fear of windy mountain roads. I’ve touched on this before, but let us not forget that this is an absolute truth.
I generally end up whimpering curled in the fetal position informing the world that “trees are good. trees mean you don’t die.”
So, I sat in the back seat of the full car and had either the dog in my lap, or my knitting. There were only a few times going up that I had to gulp back the panic.
Coming down was another story. Going down is always worse since that’s when brakes tend to fail.
Even though our brakes were newish (meaning I got them replaced just a month or two ago) they were still rather hot coming down the mountain and at the mandatory before half way point break check, ours were too hot and thus we had to wait a while before we could continue.
Now you’ll notice I didn’t speak yet of the top of the mountain. It was pretty…. meh.
Looking out over the city was just not exciting. To be quire honest the west side of the mountain was much more pretty.
Oh and the crows. There was an entire massive murder of crows. I’m not just talking a few… I’m talking hundreds. We saw them on the last leg of going up the mountain. It was beautiful.
I can now say I’ve been to the top of Pikes Peak.
More photos can be found here. Hopefully the link will work. I’m feeling too lazy to just add the photos myself.
Yes, there are a lot of photos of the dog, because as I said my attention was focused on her a lot to quell the panic.
Tonight is derby. Pikes Peak Derby Dames, Slamazons vs ICT Wikita.
It’ll be fun.
Baking After Midnight: Not quite so crack cake.
So this month is cake month over at Baking After Midnight.
I had two goals.
1) To use the buttermilk I had in the fridge
2)To perhaps make something with berries as I have a small container of blackberries, and a large 4lb container of strawberries.
I succeeded in the first one.
The berries, not so much. None of the recipes for using berries seemed even remotely appealing. All of them in my initial search called for berry flavored jello to be added to the mix.
Sigh. I hate all those midwestern women who think mayo and jello are the hight of gourmet cuisine.
So instead of wading through ten thousand recipes involving jello I decided to scrap the berry idea.
Going with the buttermilk situation, I found a recipe for Crack Cake.
It sounded good, and everyone voted for me to do it on FB. Supposedly it’s such a good cake that you can’t only eat one slice.
I halved the recipe, as I didn’t need a 9×13 coffee cake that you supposedly couldn’t resist sitting around when I’m the only one home.
For me it’s Not Quite So Crack Cake.
Perhaps it was my fault… I made the glaze topping with buttermilk instead of regular milk… but every bite I had of the cake tasted salty.
I’m not entirely sure if it’s just the glaze that tasted salty, or if it’s the entire cake it’s self. I’ll have another bite at some point later and only nom the bottom part to see.
Moving along… I’ve discovered that while knitting late at night, it is not a good idea to watch Ghost Whisperer. Specifically season 4, and even more specifically the second disc of season 4. (meaning episodes 5-8)
You will cry.
It’s very difficult to knit lace while your eyes are filled up with tears. Just sayin’.
And with that, I leave you for now.
Baking after Midnight: Dreaming of Pumpkin Pillows
So, hola chicas.
Last night was Earth Hour, and Mother of Mine and I did in fact turn out all the lights. We had a few candles just for illumination sake, and I will be honest here…. we had the telly on. I know I know… the telly should have been off.. so sue us.
For an hour neither of us did any knitting either… which to be quite honest is a weird thing. Normally one of us is on the laptop, the other is knitting. Yes, that’s how we spend our evenings.
Last night I started a project. And apparently, for ironies sake… I wasn’t the only one who did so. My minion over at Random ramblings of this guy (who shamefully hasn’t blogged about it yet… 😛 ) also started on our little pet project last night as well.
What is it, you might ask?
Baking After Midnight.
Kinda self explanatory right?
Well, it’s still in its infancy, we are still figuring out what we want it to be… But there might be themed months… and I even see a contest or two in the future (that last part is all mah own planning… don’t go asking Minion as he’ll simply say “huh?”).
So the other night after My Minion put up the FB page, I started tinkering around with some artwork. Hope you like the one above. I have another little badge in the works so you can display your baking love.
During many cycles of working night shifts, or late shifts where I was up till the wee hours unwinding, I rather enjoyed baking after midnight.
In the more recent yearly cycles where I was going to bed at 8pm and getting up at 430, this obviously did not lend it’s self for late night baking.
Then when I started this new chapter in my life… I was still going to bed between 9-11 pm, and still getting up between 6-7. I was alright with this.
Then Daylight Savings time happened… I will admit it kicked my ass. I’ve not yet adapted to it even this many days later. I’m sure part of the problem was that the time change happened the morning after the GBS concert. That night, I didn’t even get to bed till 1 am, and so the vicious cycle started of staying up late, and sleeping in all morning.
As I also quit doing my aqua class (headaches from the chlorine), I no longer had any excuse to actually get my ass out of bed for class at 830am.
So I had been feeling very much like a slug as of late.
I do plan on getting back to a more normal 7 am start time with a reasonable bed time… but at the same time part of me thinks that this might be my last chance to have slug times like this for a long time.. so mayhaps I should take advantage of it? We’ll see.
Moving along… the baking!
I discovered an amazing website thanks to the Pioneer Woman. It’s called Tasty Kitchen, and it’s a little place to get together and swap recipes.
I lurve it. Really I do. And woot. I finally spelled recipes correctly. It’s been a plague on me forever, and finally I appear to have gotten it right without having to resort to spell check. This makes me happy.
What did I make for the inaugural run?
Pumpkin Pillows.
Oh yes, you heard me correctly. Little bits of fluffy pumpkin heaven smattered with chocolate chips.
Fresh out of the oven… they were orgasmic.
This morning, in the harsh light of 9am sunlight… they were pretty darn nummy for brekkie.
Forgive my massive bites from it pre photo. I couldn’t help it. It was calling to me. That siren song of pumpkiny goodness.
So if you are inclined to join us in a little Midnight Baking, please feel free to join our little Facebook group here: Baking After Midnight
There isn’t any commitment. The goal is simple. Bake as often or not as you like. But if you happen to do some clandestine moonlit baking… take a photo… blog.. share it with us.
If you have any ideas of what you’d like to see… send a shout to us.
No matter what… Have fun!
Oh, and the recipe for the Pumpkin Pillows can be found here:
My bloody silly boy…
Oh how I love him.
He’s been off the hook for Valentines Day, because of the following reasons:
1) He’s across the ocean and it’s not so easy for him to woo me from there.
2) I’ve always been slightly Anti-Valentines day. And no, not because I was single and depressed or anything like that.
It’s simply because I believe that love shouldn’t just be displayed on 1 day and only 1 day.
I would rather the completely random gestures during other times of the year.
But the bloody silly boy went and got me flowers.
Beautiful flowers that he managed to surprise me with. This is the first time I’ve ever had flowers delivered, and it did make me smile.
I guess that’s all I’ve really got to say. But for a very good blog about Love and all that, please go check out my awesome friend Marissa, who summed it all up nicely. “You taste like Christmas”
Hope everyone feels the love today, whether you are with someone or not.
Speaking of cupid…
So this evening I was in slight wedding planning mode.
I’ve been thinking about the cake specifically. I know what I want the cake to look like, but I hadn’t decided if I wanted a cake topper or not. Guy and I weren’t doing a “theme” really, other than Fall.
Well, in my searchings I stumbled across these wire gemstone trees, which is actually right up my alley. I have two wire tree’s above my entertainment center. One holds votive candles, the other is a hurricane style lamp. Then I actually have a few random pipe cleaner trees hiding up there as well (they really aren’t as tacky as it sounds.. they were well done and just mementos from a bygone era.)
There is a contest I stumbled across, which can be found here: “Win a Sculpture cake topper!”
Now the one that is up to be won, isn’t the style I’d go with for my cake topper. Nor is it the colors. But I certainly wouldn’t turn down using it as a center piece.
I actually need to talk with Guy about these wire trees to see if that’s what we want to go with, as I think they are pretty, and something I’d have in… oh… my office as a piece of art.
In fact, here is what would be a good one for our “Fall” theme. Though, I’m leaning more towards a bluish more winter combo cause thats just how I am.
or even something like this one…
One of the reasons I’m torn about the Fall tones vs Blue tones, is our wedding colors will be Blue and Silver, but we are getting married October 31st / November 1st. So that is very much fall, and I can intersperse my pagan side into everything without being too obvious.
Her website can be found here: Original Creations
And yes, I did just do this blog post to snag an extra entry in the contest.
“I like to move it, move it!”
So. Wednesday (which this would have been posted on Wednesday if I had not been doing the wordless wednesday) was the start of something new and fun.
Lets back up slightly.
Tuesday night, I finally did something I had been procrastinating on. I purchased my gym membership.
I have never owned a gym membership in my life. I was always afraid that I would end up spending all this money and not going.
Now, Wednesday morning… My alarm unfortunately didn’t go off when I wanted it to. (the 630 alarm didn’t go off, so I wasn’t as awake as I would have liked at 7am when it went off again)
Out of bed by 715 at the latest. Started gathering my things.
I couldn’t find the sweat pants I wanted.
I couldn’t find the swim suit I wanted.
Today was going to be all about my Aqua class at 830am.
I was really nervous. After all I had just spent just under 70$* for my membership.. all so I could start Aqua classes, and I mean… What if I hated it?
Jes picked me up (Mum had the car for her Quilting Day thing) we headed over. Jes needed to update her info with the gym, and I had to confirm that they had me in the system. (Like I said, I only bought my membership the day before… but to be truthful, it was the night before.) I had all my paperwork with me though and was good to go.
Did that awkward gym locker room changing routine. Really.. not that awkward. Just had to put it in there cause I could.
Got in the pool with about 5 minutes till class.
The instructor came over, and noticed the new faces. She informed us that this was the Pilate’s Aqua Class (a Wednesday thing), and wanted to know if it would be alright.
Alright??
It’s perfect!
I had been wanting to do pilates class as well, but my first goal was the Aqua class.
Now Jes has done class before. Hadn’t had much fun because the gym buddy she was with… was less than enthusiastic about it.
I on the other hand, was having a blast. The 45 minute class zoomed by, and there was never a time where I was miserable. There was a time when I was going “Ooooh hello abs!”
And most importantly, and surprisingly was when my abs started going “Oh HAI!”
If you think that aqua class is easy, you’ve got another thing coming. It works you out.
Now of course half the time I was feeling like I was doing it wrong, but turns out at the end of the class the trainer (and even during the class, don’t get me wrong), noted that I had good form.
I guess those years of swim team actually paid off.
Jes and I got out of the pool when class was over, our legs quite wobbly. Jello in fact. Jes and I went to Whole Foods to get some foodage as we were both starving. She then went off to school, and I took the bus home. That was interesting. First time taking the bus in the Springs, and I was annoyed because I was 25cents short and thus had to walk to Michaels to get some more change, and as soon as I walked back out of Michaels, I saw the bus go by. So I had to wait like 45 minutes with wet hair.
But I’m psyched about class.
On a TMI note, it is that part of the month that makes me hate being a girl. First day in fact. Luckily, not till after class was over. But it means I’ve got a very sore back. I’m debating if I want to go to the 530 pm class tomorrow. We’ll see how my back is doing then.
Right now my goal is Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Saturday has a morning class as well, and I just might check that out at some point.
This aqua class really makes me happy… happy that I’m excited about it.
I’ve never been a runner. Okay… I was a runner. It destroyed my knees. But running and I do not love each other any more. Wait… I never loved running. I did it because I had to.
I was a swimmer. But to be honest, I was never a person who enjoyed lap swimming. Don’t get me wrong. There are times I can get that high that comes from the swim… but I haven’t gotten it in years.. Mostly because I haven’t had a pool I could do it in. If I had a pool to do it in on a daily basis, I could get back into that zone.
Yoga and I do not get along. My body is not capable of dealing with the stress of holding poses for that long.
Regular workouts tend to get boring for me.
So all of that sums up that working out… has just not been fun. But this… this was fun!
I can see myself going somewhere with this.
I guess I’m done rambling now.
Later ya’all. I gotta go photograph some prettah yarn.
*70$ was for the first start up costs. First and Last month. My regular monthly fee is less than 30$
Year of Change.
2009 was a year of Change.
At first I didn’t think it really was. After all, 2009 was feeling a lot like 2008.
I still had to get up every morning and go to a job that I hated.
I was still too tired at the end of the day to do what I wanted to do.
But then change creeped in.
Layoffs became more and more. The ground felt very shaky.
I in effect, started a new job. True I stayed at the same company. True, I still answered the phones, and did tech support for people who should never have a computer. True, I was still underpaid. But I still had a job. For which I was thankful.
In 2009 I gathered around me some people whom I truly count as best friends. Sure, I can’t go over to their houses for tea at any time that I want. But they are there for me when I need it. We have our virtual Stitch and Bitches (Crystal, I can’t believe how adept we both are at typing and knitting at the same time lol). I get random and high-larious messages of key singing on my phone (Yeah Marissa, I’m looking at you.). I have friends that I’m already making plans with, to wreck havoc upon London (Yeah Kels and Jo… London isn’t going to know what hit them when we come around!).
I started a business (as it is), and have loyal customers, who have become friends.
I reconnected with family, even if thanks to facebook.
My sister cousin came to town and I actually got to spend time with her.
I’ve seen my grandfather more this year than any year in the recent past.
My wonderful Hunny2Be came to town, and though the universe decided to be mean to us… We managed to have a wonderful time even still.
I lost my job, which was the best thing that happened to me.
I’ve been able to pick back up my writing, which I had unfortunately had to put down due to that hellish job.
As of last night, I roughly outlined the last part of the novella. I’m almost done I think. No, it’s not the original word count I was looking for, but that word count was only for a contest that I didn’t get to enter into.
I don’t have any New Years Resolutions.
I have goals that I’ve been thinking about setting for myself, that just happen to fall at this time.
One goal, to finally start working out more and more.
One goal, finish my novella.
One goal, write every day.
One goal, start learning another language.
One goal, knit and finish my Doomsday Cardigan in time for the wedding.
One goal, get more prototypes dyed up for my business.
One goal, start organizing my stuff for the move.
See these are not resolutions. These were things I’ve already been planning.
For the majority of 2009, my year sucked.
Then it started to get better.
My finances suck. My car broke down, and I got a speeding ticket that will cost me an arm and a leg all in the same week.
I’m determined this next year will be a better year.
It will also be a year of change. A big move. A wedding. A Marriage. I’ll be going to school, even if it’s just free classes till we can afford proper school. I’ll be pushing to get my work published. I’ll be getting my official business licenses and be all official with the govt. I’ll be doing everything I can to help get Hunny2Be into the political position he wants.
It’ll be a scary year for certain. But a year I look forward to.
I hope that everyone is having a good and safe start to the new year.
2010 Allons-y!
‘Twas the night before Christmas, my way.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and I’m spending it in quite the mundane way.
Mum is in Denver, having driven her there just yesterday.
Snuggled on the couch in blankets and socks
Trying to avoid the numbness in my ‘tocks.
Words glaring at me from inside it’s file,
of angels and demons and a foggy British isle.
On the telly it’s whispering Ghosts and Jennifer Love Hewitt,
Ironically, as I write this, just started the episode “Holiday Spirit”.
Knitting sitting unknit,
A shawl almost done, simply just waiting for me to finish it.
The shower is being avoided, due to the indoor crisp winter air,
Frankly I don’t want to get sick with wet frozen hair!
Homemade GingerRoo Cheesecake and Oatmeal Chocolate Chips are drawing me in,
Which is evil and wicked and an unavoidably delicious sin.
This little ditty has gone gotten rather long
Avoiding the real writing I should be working on.
So once this episode is over, avoidance is gone.
The shower, the dishes, and back to writing shall be done.
It’ll be a quiet couple of nights, just Pan and little old me
So to everyone a good season, and I end with Allons-y!
Stupid snow.
The first actual snow happened last night.
Which meant my ass had to get out of bed 30 minutes early. Which means yes, my ass was out of bed at 4:30 in the morning. That means my first alarm went off at 4:00 am, when I took 2 caffeine pills instead of my normal 1.
Yes, I hate my life.
But wait, it gets better.
The snow stopped in the middle of the night. The roads were clear, just had to scrape off the car.
But, it didn’t matter, I was still up 30 minutes early.
Not like I could go back to bed.
Drive to work, mom is going to borrow my car today so she tags along.
I’m at work by 5:20 in the morning.
I figure I could start working at 5:30 thus leaving 30 minutes early this afternoon.
None of the managers are here to ask. Damnit.
I call my manager on his cellphone to get his A-Okay.
He doesn’t answer.
Goddamnit.
Now I’m stuck at work 40 minutes early twiddling my damn thumbs.
My back is seriously tweaking already from having to get up before my normal time. I’ve taken all the drugs I can for it, and none are working.
Every single person I’ve dealt with on the phone has been a cranky bitch, and I’m not in a happy mood. I’ve only been “working” for an hour now and have dealt with just too much crap.
Moving along..
I’m currently reading Diane Mott Davidson’s “Catering to Nobody”
Which, is set in a fictional town that vaguely resembles Evergreen, Colorado.
It’s nice to see a book set in Colorado, even if it is filled with the classic Mountain town cliches. The cliches bother me, mostly because I never see them, so I sit there going “thats not what Colorado is really like.”
But… thats not actually true. I just happen to live in my little world in Colorado, and I end up not seeing half the cliches that are even a block away from me.
What can I say, I live in the slightly posher area of town, I don’t have farmers for neighbors, none of the people I know where fringe clothing or cowboy boots.
Yes, the town I live in is the Republican city of Colorado (seriously, if you try to register Democrat here, they actually ask you “Are you sure you want to do that? I mean are you really sure?“
This is a “military mountain town” so it’s an odd mix of everything and thus does not fall into any cliches other than being the “nexus of all evil” in my opinion.
Sigh… I miss Boulder. In Boulder you got looked at funny if you were Republican. (I had a friend who was borrowing her fathers car while hers was in the shop, her father was uber republican, but did not live in Boulder. My friend was afraid to drive around town due to all the republican bumper stickers. lol)
In Evergreen, I’m pretty sure it’s slightly more on the Democratic side of the spectrum, which is both in the book I’m reading, and also what I’ve witnessed from the town it’s self.
Moving back to the book it’s self, I’m just over half way done.
I’m very torn about the characters.
The Main character Goldy… is alright.
Her 11 year old son is a twit whom is making me not want to bother having kids if all 11 year old males are like that. (Suddenly.. I’m seeing Dogs in my future instead of children)
The 20 year old female that is renting a room from the main character is such a dumb ass twit that I want to scream if she is mentioned on the page.
The book is alright.. if not repetitive.
Yes, she left an abusive marriage.
Yes, she is afraid of loosing her income due to the attempted murders that happened at one of her catering events.
Yes, the cop likes her.
Yes, she needs to “calm” down (seriously every single person has said this to her at least twice)
Do we need to be reminded of this every single page? No.
I will reserve actual judgment until I have finished the book. I could just be cantankerousness in my review due to my sleepy cranky nature at this moment.
I do like some of the recipes that are in it.
Sigh. I guess I’m done for now.
I think I’m going to dye yarn tomorrow.
I hate snow.
I give up.
Universe, you win.
My writing time is very limited right now. Meaning, I have approximately 4 days of uninterrupted writing. After that, who knows when I’ll get to write. As someone will be home, or I’ll be too brain dead from work.
Right now, during 2 of those days (yes, one of them was yesterday) someone has always managed to piss me off to the 10th degree to the point where I cannot write anymore.
That means, I’m giving up. I will not finish this in those 3 days I have left.
So.. You win universe. I am not going to bother working on this novella until after the move.
That is now 3 pieces of work put on the backburner.
Starting next week, all hell breaks loose at work. I’ll be doing everything I can to not have a nervous breakdown, and or get fired. This period of hell will last about 5 weeks, and then hopefully start tapering off.
The week after next I have to order yarn for the goddamn wedding sweater that I’ve decided to knit so that I look freaking half way decent in the goddamn photos. (Thats a freaking joke.) Which, I’ll have to have finished by December.. DECEMBER. Again.. what a freaking joke.
I’m done. My back hurts, my head hurts, and I want to cry. Universe, you win.
A most disgusting sight.
Another quick post because right now I’m quite frosted and so I must keep it short and simple. I can’t even write right now, so I’m just going to work on my knitting.
Posting this before I forget about it.
Wanna know something that absolutely disgusted me yesterday?
I was driving home from the festival. Stopped and Whole Foods.
What do I see? I see a huge ass Hummer parked up on the curb outside the Whole Foods. And this woman loading groceries into the back of it.
Was it Military? Nope. Just a housewife. In a huge ass hummer, parked half way on the curb. Loading groceries from a grocer that is all about being “earth friendly” I wanted to smack that woman upside her head for having the hummer.
There is absolutely no reason what so ever that any civilian should ever have a Hummer.
And there is no amount of Local Grown or Free Trade groceries that will make up for what that person I saw yesterday was doing to the environment.
I’m going to go work on my knitting now.
Joss ripped off SeaQuest…
DUDE. Joss Whedon ripped off SeaQuest DSV!
I kid you not.
And bear in mind, I write this as still a card carrying member of the Mile High Browncoats (alright, I admit.. we didn’t HAVE cards… but if you ever meet a Mile High Browncoat and mention Wicked.. well, the stories you’ll hear. Yuppers folks.. thats me. Now mind you, you’ll be opening a can of worms, and by the time all the stories are told about Wicked and Bree… you’ll prolly end up with UV (Ugly Virgin, whos name.. i don’t recall if I ever knew or not… Oh Jeremy.. thats it.. right?) dropping his pants and Moon laughing her tocks off- at you.) sorry.. lost track there. Yes, I am a Browncoat. I did my part to resurrect our beloved show, and get the movie. So please.. don’t flame me for posting this. I’m just giving ya’ll my observations.
Alright, we all by now know the basic plot of Serenity, which was Joss’ Firefly resurrection. If you’ll remember, the plot was basically this: (avoid if you haven’t watched the movie, as I’d hate to spoil for those who haven’t seen it)
Miranda – a planet where they attempted to manipulate the “Aggression factor” in the population via atmospheric chemical enhancement. – This was bad. It resulted in all but 10% of the population falling dead where they stood. The 10% Became the dirty little secret of the Alliance. This dirty little secret was known as the Reavers. Ravers would eat you alive, then kill you if your lucky. They terrorized space and were really bad.
This movie came out in 2005.
Now, go back to October 1994, Season 2, episode 3 of SeaQuest DSV (before it became SeaQuest 2032) an episode called “Sympathy for the Deep”
Underwater colony called “Miranda Colony” where after 10 years of peace suddenly started going homicidal on each other, including hallucinations and majorly violent psychotic episodes.
To top it off? Telepaths, were involved as well. Telepaths that decided to go homicidal and start killing each other. (River anyone?)
Alright, I’m going back to writing, though I’m exhausted from the Festival (blog to come) I’m apparently awake enough to be able to write. And going back to watching my beloved SeaQuest. Nothing like watching not one, but two Deluise boys when they were at the prime of their adorableness. Not to mention a slew of other cuties. Suddenly, I’m back in the Westlake house.. I’m in elementary school, and it’s Sunday night and the family is sprawled around the family room enjoying some good SciFi.
I really need to stop watching tv shows from my childhood.. they are making me all nostalgic. (Hey look at that, spelled it correctly on the first go. Woot.)
Dear person who tried to steal all my monies.
Hello internet, (specifically the individual who tried to do what they tried to do)
Ahem, I write this letter after a few days reflection on the matter. I chose not to post right away, as I wished to calm myself and actually think of what I fully intended to say.
So it is with a calm mind that I say this to you:
SCREW YOU.
Of all the people in the US of A right now to attempt to steal money from, I am not the person you should have tried your lack of skillz on.
Did you not think I would see the purchase?
Did you not think I would go to my bank?
Did you not think I would notice due to the holiday coming up?
Do you think I will not bring charges against you once we find out who you are?
Let me educate you as to your little error.
I have been living paycheck to paycheck in survival mode for nearly 10 years now.
I obessivly check my bank account daily. Multiple times a day even.
My bank is good at immediately posting up all information about every little cent of my accounts.
So, your little 1$ pre-authroization for “Yahoo Wallet”, was immediately visible to me.
And, as I do not use any online Wallets, I immediately knew something was amiss.
I do not trust online Wallets, for exactly the reason I am writing this letter. I won’t even allow Amazon to turn on the 1-click shopping feature.
Call me paranoid… because I am.
So, the charge you attempted to do, has been disputed. Oh yes, I was at my bank within 4 hours of seeing that little charge. I would have been sooner, but I was stuck at work.
I do not know what you had intended to purchase via Yahoo Wallet, but, you certainly will not be able to do it with my card.
All you have succeded in doing, is making me even more paranoid.
My purse is now locked up whilst at work.
Never shall I order anything via the internet at work anymore.
And my personal firewalls have been upgraded.
Instead of only checking my account a minimum of 6 times a day, you’ve now made me compulsively check it another random handful of times.
This, is not a challenge that I am presenting for you. I am simply stating fact. Go find someone else to try to rip off. Or better yet… Get a job. Earn your own damn money, and leave mine, and all the other innocent hard working people’s fundage alone. I realize the state of the economy is bad. I realize that the unemployment rate is the highest it’s ever been. But dude. Seriously, don’t steal from those who are just scraping by. If your going to go after anyone.. go after those fat cats who get thousands of dollars in bonuses when their companies go belly up. Leave my patheticly small accounts alone.
Sincerly,
Your recent “near” victim.
_____________________________________________________________________________
And on another note, my banker was very impressed with how quickly I jumped on everything. Yup.. I’m a dragon when it comes to my little “cave of treasure”. (Oh, and a correction from the previous blog. This happened on Thursday, not Friday.)
Poor Customer Service: Crystal Palace Yarns
I am feeling cranky, as I have now had to send 3 emails to get a question answered, and it has still not been answered. Thus to me.. that is poor customer service, and they will most likely loose my sale.
Hello,
I am inquiring about the Panda Cotton yarn you have for sale.
I realize that it’s “Wholesale quantities” only, but I’m curious if you will sell to someone who does not (yet) have their wholesale license.The reason I ask is because I have come across some companies that will only sell if you have the license, but there are some who will sell without it, but just require the wholesale amount, and the notice on your website did not address that.
I do not have my wholesale license yet, because I am moving to the United Kingdom in less than 12 months, and I was planning on officially starting my business then, under their rules and obligations. But if I can start ordering from you and building my stock now in the US, it will make my transition easier next year.
Thank you,
Erin Gallagher
His reply:
Hello Erin,
In the UK our products are available from
[information removed by me, as I don’t want to post it on my blog]
Sincerely, Andy
Sigh. This does not answer my question.
So, thinking it was just I hadn’t made my question clear enough.. I sent a response..
I chose to be a little more direct.
Andy,
That actually didn’t answer my question.
I am inquiring about ordering Panda Cotton now, if it does not require a wholesale license.Now, again my question is this : Do you require a wholesale license, or do you just require a wholesale quantity to be purchased.
Next question:
How much is the cost of the Panda Cotton?In regards to the UK sale, I will tackle that in 12 months when I move. But I still need to know the answers to the above questions.
Erin.
His response:
Erin,
Sorry, but [name of company] handles all sales in the UK.
I think it is their policy to sell only to those with wholesale license. I think that eventually they will answer your question.
Good luck.
SErioUSLY?
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?
I just said, I do not need to know about the UK sales AT THIS DAMN TIME.
Alright, lets try this again.
Short, quick, because frankly.. I’m loosing my patience. It’s a simple question.
Andy,
My question is related to sales in the US, not the UK yet. (Like I said in my previous email, I will deal with purchasing in the UK, 12 months from now. Not now.)
Didn’t even sign my name, because at this point they are about to loose a damn sale.
If it weren’t for the fact that they are the only ones who have undyed Bamboo/Cotton/Elastic sock yarn for sale… I would no longer be dealing with them.
So far, I am not impressed with Crystal Palace Yarns. And as of right now, I am one unhappy consumer. BIG MISTAKE ANDY. Big damn mistake.
If it was just that they required a wholesale quantity to be purchased. Which, the confusion started because the website says “Wholesale Quantity Only” It does not say “Wholesale License required” and there is a very big difference between the two.
Why does this need to be so damn complicated?
I’m tempted to call, and speak to anyone other than Andy, and preferably his boss. Because Andy is loosing them customers. And in this economy, that is not something you want to do.
Now, if he continues to not answer my question.. I will get downright bitchy, and I will voice my opinion on Ravelry. I can ruin their business quite easily, just by voicing my opinion.
At this point, I honestly think that I will rather do business with the UK shop, which means they won’t get any of my money for OVER 12 months. Tisk tisk.. Thats not fiscally responsible of them now is it…
It happened.
My life is about get 100% worse.
No, I’m not being melodramatic.
As of July 31st, my desk is gone.
The irony of this.. is that tomorrow marks my 2 year anniversary on this desk.
They offered me a position on the Department of Education desk. Which is a nightmare for me. But I would have been stupid not to accept it.
If I didn’t accept it, I wouldn’t have gotten unemployment. So, you can see why I needed to accept it.
But this is going to be life altering, because for over 9 months now, I’ve worked through my lunches and left early on Fridays.
This started due my unfortunate almost like clockwork, migraine showing up on Thursday. I would work through my lunches, so that if I had to leave early on Thursday, I wouldn’t miss any pay, and also wouldn’t then have to work nearly a 12 hour day on Friday.
I do not know if they will let me do this on the new desk.
The new desk scares me.
They fire people over there.
And they have mandatory down time during the summer. Meaning, your still employed, but not working. This, is not quite as scary for me, as when I’ll be moving over there, is past the Down Time period, and as I am moving at the beginning of the summer next year, I don’t think I’ll end up being affected by the MDT.
But also I shall have the stress of a brand new desk. To me, it’s a brand new job. It’s just at the same building.
Also, I will be a regular agent again. That means inbound calls, and no control over what I get.
That means, my stress level is going to go through the roof.
I honestly want to cry.
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