Project: movie clearance update

This will be far shorter than I had planned, and not on topic, either. Why? Because my eye is driving me mad. Just the one. The right one. It feels like there's something in it - soap or something - and has for several days, on and off, but it's getting worse and has been particularly bothersome today. I don't know why. Not only that, but the eyelid is sort of... puffy... just a little swollen. And a little droopy. And almost constantly tearing. It's no better or worse with my contact in or out. Nothing seems to soothe it. I've tried flushing it out. I've tried patching it. I've tried heat. I've tried cold. If it keeps it up, I'll be heading down to the walk-in clinic. I just don't know if I'll break down and do it Friday or Saturday.

Thanks to my eye, I really didn't get much accomplished. Lots of laundry and a couple of movies from the project: movie clearance pile.

So.

Movies of the day:

This Gun For Hire, Into the Badlands, and Dream a Little Dream (amazon link here - on DVD, too!! - 'cause I want that one).

There was also a tape full of... episodes... from tv shows such as ER, Friends, Veronica's Closet. I didn't watch the whole tape. But I did get rid of it.

So! Progress. One tape down, and another is slotted for disposal (after I go back and get the name of the book the movie was based on and the author's name). I'm working on a third tape already.

Project: movie clearance

I have a lot of movies/shows that I've taped off of tv or cable. Sometimes it was because I thought it would be a better movie than it was, sometimes it was because I had to be elsewhere (work, school, out having fun, sleeping) when the show aired so I taped it to watch later.

This has been going on for more than twenty years. Seriously.

Well, at long last, it's time to purge them. However, the problem I face (and one of the reasons I've been dragging my feet on this project) is that I still watch some of them, and there are some real treasures amidst all the clutter of tapes. ('Treasures' being a relative term here and indicating, in this case, a movie so bad that only I, in my unique insaneness, would watch it once let alone repeatedly.) The only real solution I've been able to come up with is to go through them, watching one movie a day and adding to a wish list (link to come) those that I REALLY want to own. With any luck I can replace my taped copy of such movies (often littered with outdated commercials which I find entirely too funny) with a DVD (or if necessary a VHS) copy. I already know a few titles that will be on that list, but I won't spoil the fun of discovery just yet.

This is not a project that's going to take a few weeks. This is going to take... months. I'm sure of it. Most tapes hold no less than two movies. Some hold three. Some of the tapes have hours... and hours... of tv shows that were taped so I could watch them later, then were taped over weeks later as the cycle was repeated until I have no earthly idea what's on those tapes now. There are days when I may get through two or three movies, and there will be days that I get through none. I do not see me getting through more than one tape in any 24 hour period, though, because I'll have to really sit down and focus on the movie/show I'm watching to be able to determine if it's a keeper or not. For me, that's nearly impossible, and it's going to take no less than a two to four hour chunk of time out of my day, depending on how many movies I watch. (That's another reason I've been dragging my feet on undertaking this project.)

And I will have to fight, and fight hard, to resist the creative little sparks firing up all over my brain as I watch some of these movies. A lot of them made me want to write something based on the basic plot premise (or more precisely, re-write the story). Perhaps a reward-type system can be created and set into place so that I can get back to writing. I miss it.

I've already started on this project. Today.

Just one movie though, since I didn't start until after noon. Today's (cheesy) movie: Deadly Game. (Amazon link here, husband of mine, because yeah, I think it's going to be on that wish list.)

Maybe this not sleeping at night thing can be used to my advantage, because is there anything more satisfying distracting than watching cheesy old movies when you can't sleep?

Now, if I can just find that VCR remote so I can fast forward through the commercials...

Making tortillas

Instead of talking about how some stranger (bug spray guy) was in my apartment while I was sleeping this morning, I'm going to recount (with pictures!) yesterday's fun.

On Sunday we made homemade tortillas. Well, technically A. and K. made them, and I gave advice from behind the camera while I took pictures. I have to admit, they were good. Very good. And far easier than I would have thought. Since we've always had a "YUCK"-factor whenever we used any store-bought tortillas (and ended up throwing them all out), I think we'll just make our own from now on.

Yes, I took pictures. I'm behind in posting them, but... eh. I've been busy. I have been making it a habit to cook with the camera within reach (much to the dismay of my family, who often get recruited for the actual cooking part while I play photographer).

So, pictures!

A. made the dough. Sadly, I didn't get pictures of that. I didn't think about it until after they were rolling it out. By the time I had the camera in my hand, K. had taken over and A. was elsewhere. First, she would get one of the little balls they'd made.

Then she got some flour...

and dusted the little ball with it.

After that, she would pat it out, flattening it a little bit.

After she had it more or less flattened, she would start to roll it out using an old Disney glass from Burger King because I am in desperate need of a new rolling pin.

From time to time she would stop to pat it out, sometimes dusting it with a bit more flour.

After she was all done, she would peel up the raw tortilla and put it on a piece of wax paper atop the growing stack waiting to be cooked.

After K. was done rolling all the dough out, A. came in and started cooking the tortillas.

Over and over and over again, until we had a lovely little stack of tasty home-made tortillas!

After the tortillas had cooled and it was nearing time for dinner, I went in and made Simple Taco Meat (see my tweaks to the recipe here).

It was a good meal, and everyone had at least a little bit of fun. Even with the fun factor, I think next time I'll make them myself while they're at school and work.

Oh, and those tortillas? They're good spread with peanut butter and wrapped around a banana, too.

Coming soon: playing with a coconut.

New Menu!

Looking at this week's menu gives me a weird feeling that I can't quite pin down. It's sort of like... I'm forgetting something. Or maybe it's the lack of meat on it. My brood is a carnivorous lot for the most part, and I'm still in shock over their enthusiam for last week's beans and rice meal (I got a spontaneous "this is good mom!"), not to mention their almost eager willingness to have such culinary - meatless - concoctions on the menu twice a week if I feel like cooking them.

This week I'll have to remember to take pictures and scribble down what I end up using when I make the beans. Sometimes my technique of cooking is nothing more than taking a base ingredient (ground beef or, apparently, beans), look over my stock of herbs and spices, peer into my makeshift pantry (the linen closet in the hall), pilfer through the refrigerator, then start adding things together. I "tweak" recipes like that, too. I'll look one over, wrinkle my nose and murmur something like "Ewe. That sounds kind of good except for that ingredient. Hmmm..." or "You know, this would be great if I added..." and off I go, tweaking to taste and rewriting the recipe.

All in all, a glance at the calendar shows me that it's due to be a slow week. Not much planned this week; K. is spending the night with my mom Friday night, and A. and I are going to a house-buying seminar on Saturday (the reason for the fast food at lunch - we won't be home). Beyond that, my calendar is empty (so far). Maybe I'll actually catch up this week.




Sunday: lunch: sandwiches/soup/leftovers (clean out the refrigerator time!)
        dinner: Simple Taco Meat (see my tweaks to the recipe here) with homemade tortillas, salad
Monday: butter (lima) beans, hoe cakes, salad
Tuesday: pasta, garlic bread, salad
Wednesday: leftovers?
Thursday: rice, beans, salad
Friday: ???
Saturday: lunch: fast food
        dinner: pot roast, baked potatoes, mixed veggies, salad

So, how off schedule am I?

I mentioned in my last entry that I was completely off schedule because of the sun burn I was suffering through recently. Part of my healing process is lots of sleep. Unfortunately, while it was great for ignoring the pain and healing, all that 'round the clock sleeping I did for a week threw me way off schedule. Some may wonder, "How off schedule could you possibly be?" Well, let me tell you.

I went to bed at 6.30 (edt) this morning. It took almost an hour before I fell asleep. The last thing I remember is sighing at the cats and asking them why I wasn't asleep yet when I looked at the clock and saw it was 7.07am. They both purred at me and snuggled a bit closer, and I was asleep not long after. I didn't get out of bed until just after 12.30 (edt) in the afternoon.

That's how off schedule I am. I'm supposed to be getting up between 4am and 5.30am, and I've not even slept yet by then! I'm back to this schedule where I'm up until dawn then asleep until noon(ish).

So what if my schedule is a little off and I'm keeping vampire-ish hours? It may seem like nothing, no big deal, to a lot of people, but it matters to me. When I sleep half the day away like this, I feel lazy. Never mind that I was up all night puttering around, picking up this bit of clutter and fussing with that bit of laundry (ok, ok, or reading). I feel like I've wasted half the day I could have spent doing... anything... with my family. I get frustrated because we could have gone on a picnic, or to the zoo, or on a photograph hunt, or... anything. But no, I was sleeping. Again. Because I was up all night. Again. I get angry with myself (and snap at people around me), then I start feeling like a failure because I can't even sleep like a normal person. And try as I might not to have them, it's just such unbidden and unwelcome thoughts that always lead to a depressive episode that has me out of commission for days, sometimes weeks. Human emotions are just weird that way. We can't always control them, no matter how hard we try.

I do believe I'll have to do something drastic in coming days to snap myself back to being diurnal. The only questions are Which day? and Do I snap this cycle by sleeping through a full day and night, or do I do it by not sleeping at all one day? Both would work, but both are bound to produce a most unproductive day - either because I'm asleep or because I'm doing zombie impressions - and the not sleeping option is sure to have me whining about being tired, suffering a headache, and snapping at people unnecessarily because I'm so tired that my patience has curled up somewhere in the corner of my mind to take a nap without me. Both will leave me feeling groggy and out of sorts for a few days, but with reinforced sleeping patterns (where I actually go to bed at night whether I'm tired or not and get dragged out of bed by 5am, no matter how little sleep I managed to get) I'll be better off in a week or two.

Whichever course of action I decide upon, the bottom line is that I need to be diurnal. If I were alone, with husband and child, the whole nocturnal thing would work. But I'm not, so I must be diurnal in order to give my family the attention it needs.

And sun burns aside, seeing daylight and being outside, being in the sun every once in a while is just good for me.

Observations

It started while I was recording the most recent expenses (recorded here). It occurred to me that we've been shopping almost every night lately to the point where it's become insane. It took me a while to figure out what was going on, but I finally did, and then realized that it wasn't just the financial arena suffering.

The source of all the trouble is, primarily, the horrendous sun burn I've been suffering through. On a secondary level is me just being busy and focused on other things.

Under normal conditions, I let A. borrow my car but for the most part I have my car and do all the shopping during the day while A. is at work and K. is at school. However, we've not been working under normal conditions lately. Since he got back into town, A. has been using my car exclusively. He has offered to let me keep it to run errands a few times (with him either taking his car or me driving him to work), but with the extensive burns I suffered recently, driving (much less doing all the stretching and bending involved with a short woman shopping) was out of the question unless absolutely necessary. I was just in far too much pain - not to mention so extremely tired while healing - to put a shirt on my burns and go shopping. Anywhere. For anything. So A. has been driving me to this store or that one after he gets home from work.

Also, because I've been working at less than 100% (who am I kidding? I don't work at 100% normally! But I'm not even working at the level I normally work at...) I didn't really have a comprehensive shopping list. It was more like "Oh... we need..." and a few days later we were doing the same thing. A total lack of planning on my part.

The whole healing process has had me out of sorts and now has me completely off schedule, too. I've been doing only the most minimal but mandatory blogging. My waking cycle has become completely nocturnal, and the sleeping patterns are just weird. I haven't been able to clean much or stay on top of clutter control because moving has been painful, even after I started peeling.

In addition to the whole sun burn and related issues, I've just been off-kilter. I'm not to a point yet where I can focus on various crafts, much less spend as much time as I'd planned on blogging and other things.

And school issues. Wow. We've had things going on at school several times a week for the past month and a half.

It's really just little things - little adjustments in life - that have everything skewed, and I guess, looking at the big picture, I can breathe a small sigh of relief that this isn't the normal trend. Though I do suppose that anyone looking in through the small windows I'm creating with my blogs would surely think I'm boring and insane, but no, that's not the case. (Ok, maybe it is, but not because of this!! I'm just going by what others tell me.) Things are just a little hectic and out of balance lately. Things will get back to normal soon, though.

Mother's Day Give-Away

The lovely ladies over at 5 minutes for mom are holding another wonderful give-away contest, this time for Mother's Day. They will actually be featuring multiple contests with multiple prizes, all in the name of Mother's Day. For the basic information, you can check this sticky note of theirs. The first prize they're offering up is an Apple iPod Nano with chocolate.