…Oh dear, it’s Friday! I missed Thursday all together!!
Okay, I really didn’t miss it, I was just busy busy all day long.
Starr started moving home right around Thanksgiving. I have really enjoyed having her around, but I am also ready for a little privacy. She will be moving out (again!) this weekend!!
My friend, the one who sent me the Key Lime Pie, also sent me a gift card to PF Changs recently (he is great! And not just because he likes to send us things!!). Starr and I are going to use it for lunch today. This will be my first PF Changs experience.
I really need to work on not taking things so personally. Until I have mastered this skill…it just hurts. A lot.
I took a picture of the White Pizza I made the other day. I made a yeast dough with a mixture of white and whole wheat flour. It was good. Starr says that this is her favorite dinner, but she also said that about the Orange Glazed Pork Medallions I made the next night! She has a lot of favorites…and that makes me happy!
Haiti. *sigh* In addition to thoughts and prayers:
The girl has an appliance obsession. It started with the refrigerator then the dishwasher and oh my goodness, the dryer!! She needs to be inside them, running from where ever she was in order to hop in, often losing her footing and skidding across the floor in her urgency! I think the dryer is her favorite. It is adorable.
Keeping her in my bedroom seems like a really good idea while I’m using the oven!!
I was cooking dinner last night with my headphones on and iPod playing ( I don’t always cook with headphones on, but since Starr has been living here for the past month I have! I can’t stand the TV blaring all the time! Especially when it’s not something that I want to watch!!) when this song came up. It’s been a long time, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it. Later I was looking for it online when I found this video. It only played for a couple seconds when Starr said “I just love that song!” from across the room. I don’t have a mp3 to share, this video will have to do:
You look nice alright
and I like the way you nod after everything I say
like it actually means something to you
And I like your record collection
Townes and Jens with a hint of Rickie Lee
And you’ve cleaned up the bathroom, made a really nice soup
but a bit too much sci-fi in your shelf with DVDs
But there are things you need to know about me
I’m weak right now, so weak right now
I need proof before I dare to open this heart
so I prepared a quiz for you:
Would you freak out if I said I liked you?
Do you walk the line?
Is your IQ higher than your neighbor’s?
And is it very much higher than mine?
Can you sleep when I grind my teeth?
Do you look away if I slob when I eat?
Will you let me be myself?
Can you at all times wear socks
because I’m still scared of feet?
And if I’d fall, would you pick me up?
And if I’d fall, would you pick me up?
Do you talk in the middle of Seinfeld?
Do you read more than two books a month?
Do you get racist or sexist when you’ve had a few?
Is it fine if I make more money than you?
Have you slept with any people I work with?
Is there anyone you’d rather wish I’d be?
Do you still keep pictures of old girlfriends?
Are they prettier than me?
And if I’d fall, would you pick me up?
And if I’d fall, would you pick me up?
Starr and I were talking cookies a couple weeks ago which sparked a thought about oatmeal raisin cookies with grated carrots. Last week, I bought a carrot and adapted an untried recipe. The cookies are not cute, but we both liked them very much. Maybe too much.
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat bran
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil two cookie sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter with an electric mixeer or by hand until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.
In a separate bowl, combine the oats, flour, oat bran, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the butter mixture and stir just until blended. Mix in the raisins.
Drop the dough in scant 1/4-cup mounds about three inches apart and flatten slightly with moistened fingers. Each sheet will hold six cookies. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden and just firm to the touch. When the cookies first come out of the oven, they’re soft and a little delicate, so carefully transfer them to racks. Cool for 15 minutes.
My additions and changes:
I thought I had oat bran in the house, but I was wrong so I used about a third cup of All-Bran cereal (I did not soak it, I just chucked it in dry) and a couple tablespoons of ground flax seed instead. I grated a large carrot and added most of it to the mix with the raisins. I didn’t measure the raisins either and think I was closer to a whole cup.
Starr mentions how much she loves them with each cookie…or half cookie…eaten. We will be making these again. Although, not too often!!
A few of the many projects on my mental to-do list for the day:
Pry Starr off the sofa and get her out of the house for a few minutes. (Done!)
Upgrade WordPress. I have upgraded successfully many times since my first (and thankfully ONLY!) disaster, but it still causes me a few minutes of breath holding each time I start the process. There will be moments this afternoon that this blog does not exist…but the plan is to make the switch quickly and painlessly. (Done..no issues!!)
Laundry! I keep starting and forgetting it lately….not good! (3 loads…done)
Clean the kitchen. (meh)
Get rid of the snowman in my header. It’s time for a change, I tried to embrace Winter, but it’s not working. (Done!)
Make dinner. We are having (or hoping to have) homemade White Pizza tonight. Yum. (Oven is warming up as I type…)
If I succeed with the first one, I will declare victory on the day!!
Starr twisted my arm today and talked me into renting movies for tonight. But first we had to find her a journal. Not just any journal, but the perfect journal. The one and only journal that she will be pouring her thoughts out to for the whole year! It’s a big deal! Quite the commitment. We spent quite a bit of time at the bookstore…trying not to get distracted by our surroundings and failing! We had fun. We also found what she was looking for!!
Back to the movies. We ended up renting a couple of indie-ish movies, none of the “big” movies looked very interesting.
We both really enjoyed Adam, it was sweet. We also watched Paper Heart before Skye called and made a “better” offer of a late movie at the theater! “See ya, mom!”
Oh well.
The song at the end of the trailer? I know it’s just me, but I recognize the Fruit Bats, who I recently posted about. I really do like them!
It was a few years ago, when I was in a reading frenzy over the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon, that I started visiting the forum where Diana regularly posts. I stopped in a couple times a week and was introduced to a genre of fiction/romance that I hadn’t considered. Male/male romance. I was lead through a link, to another and um, I found that I quite enjoyed these adventures and was hooked. I learned that:
“In fact, most readers of gay-romance novels are — like most readers of straight-romance novels — women who devour 300-page stories of men falling in and out of love with each other…” from this LA Weekly article Man on Man: The New Gay Romance…written by and for straight women…
And then:
Last summer one of my friends, Marie Sexton (her pen name!), mentioned that she was also addicted to this type of novel. I was a little surprised, but happy to find that I wasn’t alone. In addition, she has written her own novel…actually two so far. Her first is being released today! I can’t wait to get my hands on it. I haven’t read it yet, but am so excited for her and this new adventure!
Starr and friends went sledding recently. They always take great pictures, so I wanted to share a couple. She joined Sookie, Skye and M for fun on the “slopes” and then brunch. They had a great time. Sadly I think it was this day, or the next, that M’s family home was gutted in a fire. So sad, but thankfully no one was injured.
Sookie, Skye, Starr and M inside a snow fort that they found.
Starr and Skye…there is something that I just love about this picture.
Last night, Starr, Skye, Sookie and C (the Friends Vacation crew) went to the movies. After buying their tickets, Skye and Sookie took off to the restroom leaving C and Starr together. In a moment C decided that he needed to use the restroom too but loudly expressed “concern” about leaving Starr all alone.
Just then a woman walking by with her significant other leaned towards Starr and purposefully said “Run away!”
Starr was actually shaken by this. She is wondering just what was meant and what she is supposed to learn from the moment and spent quite a bit of time late last night journaling the incident and pondering her feelings about it.
Has anyone ever said something like that to you? A bit of random oddness from strangers?
Have you ever said something unexpected to a stranger??
Name? Kelly. Mysterious? Not really. Passionate? Yes. Lazy? Sometimes. Outgoing? Not a bit. Trusting? Mmhmm. Artistic? On good days. Crazy? Could be. Trustworthy? Absolutely. Graceful? I wish. Sarcastic? Often. Deserving? You bet. Forgiving? Yes. Religious? No. Spiritual? Yes. Uncertain? At times. Confused? Sure. Distracted? Daily. Silly? Yeah. Talkative? Not. Punctual? To a fault. Breakable? Quite.
This is not a music blog. While it is my desire to share free and legal music here (music is a part of me), it is not my goal to critique this music.
If I have posted music, it is because I like it, and it moves me at the moment. It might match my mood, it could be on repeat, or mirror the sentiment of my post. It might be quite random, and just what I wish to share.
*Older links may not always work, as promotional MP3s, in particular, are known to disappear without warning.
Artists and labels: if I have erred and posted a song inappropriately, let me know, and I will remove it.
To download a song: on a PC, right click the link and choose "save link as"
cookbook:
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