Menu - Aug. 24 - 30, 2008

Last week went all kerfloopy what with Tropical Storm Fay skirting us and school starting and school closing for the storm that never came and all sorts of other stuff.

Second week of school starts today. I'm slowly getting used to having the days to myself again.

My grandfather is doing better and home again. He may even be doing what he needs to be doing to stay healthy, too.

My head is kind of empty this morning so we'll just move right along to the menu.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday
breakfast: waffles, bacon
lunch: hamburgers, chips
dinner: Parmesan encrusted tilipia, mac & cheese, green peas, salad

Monday Mom night (me left alone to write or edit)
breakfast: cereal, OJ
lunch: sandwich or leftovers, fruit
dinner: chicken with broccoli & cheese (frozen), baked potatoes, lima beans, salad

Tuesday
breakfast: eggs, grits, bacon, OJ
lunch: sandwich, fruit
dinner: pork medallions, corn nibblets, carrots, broccoli

Wednesday
breakfast: oatmeal or cereal, OJ
lunch: sandwich, fruit
dinner: boneless round steak, rice, broccoli

Thursday
breakfast: sausage biscuits
lunch: sandwich, fruit
dinner: pasta, salad

Friday
breakfast: oatmeal or cereal, OJ
lunch: sandwich, fruit
dinner: chicken breast fillets, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Saturday
breakfast: pancakes
lunch: foraging
dinner: Salisbury steaks (frozen), mashed potatoes, broccoli

Blue skies, world.

Menu - Aug. 10 - 16, 2008

Last week's menu got all sorts of scrambled but I think we did good, all things considered.

Anything I might have to say to recap last week shouldn't be said, so...

Olympics! How insanely fantastic was the men's 4x100 freestyle relay?? Maybe the French (and everyone else) will think twice before saying things like "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." Silly boy.

This week is due to be a bit on the tense side with my grandfather still in the hospital and K. gearing up for school (by that I mean she'll be trying to hibernate all week) and just stuff happening.

So, on with the menu.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday
breakfast: foraging
lunch: hamburgers, chips, salad
dinner: soup, grilled cheese & ham sandwiches, chips, salad

Monday Mom night (me left alone to write or edit, assuming I'm not watching the Olympics...)
breakfast: cereal, OJ
lunch: sandwich or hot dog, fruit
dinner: baked chicken fillets, baked potatoes, lima beans, salad

Tuesday
breakfast: eggs, grits, bacon, OJ
lunch: sandwich or hot dog, fruit
dinner: pork chops, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes, salad

Wednesday
breakfast: oatmeal or cereal, OJ
lunch: sandwiches, fruit
dinner: stir fried round steak, rice, broccoli, salad

Thursday - Open house at school
breakfast: eggs, grits, bacon, OJ
lunch: leftovers
dinner: shepherd's pie

Friday - Pay day; grocery shopping
breakfast: sausage biscuits
lunch: leftovers
dinner: fish, mac & cheese, broccoli

Saturday - brother's birthday
breakfast: pancakes
lunch: ???
dinner: ???

Blue skies, world.

This, that, and some of that, too.

So, my little vampire called off the trip to the movie again today. Pity. I actually wanted to go today. I could have used the distraction.

A. is due in... sometime today. He called early yesterday afternoon to tell me "done here!" and let me know he was trying to get an earlier flight back. Unless someone at the office changes his flight plans for him, he's stuck. Unless he can catch a standby seat. Either way, I probably won't know until he's landed and texting me with "landed".

Despite her desire to sleep all day, I need to rouse the little vampire so that we can run some of the other errands we had to do today. Top of that list is taking her updated physical form over to the school. After that, um, I don't know. Most of today was planned around the movie and trip to the airport.

I've got to call my mom and see how things are going with my grandfather and find out if he's going into the hospital today and if she needs any help. I feel like I should be there but I'm sure my grandfather doesn't want the kid or I there while he's so sick. Especially the kid, and I really don't have anywhere to stick her until school starts. And I know my mom won't want the kid around because she (my mom) is prone to crying these past few days with her stress levels creeping into worrisome highs, and she just doesn't cry or be upset around her granddaughter.

I'd go to the bookstore to kill a few hours (seriously, I could happily spend days there) but I'm good on books for the moment -- more than good, actually -- and I'd never be able to spend that much time there without buying a stack of books. (The number of books I walk out with increases exponentially with amount of time I spend in the store.)

I keep thinking there's a reason I need to hit either WalMart or Target, but I'm at a loss as to what that reason might be. There's just this nagging pull toward the store that I'm resisting until I know WHY I need to be there. Eventually it will come to me. I hope.

My horoscope has me... smirking.

Your horoscope for Wednesday, Aug 06, 2008
Sagittarius (Nov 22 - Dec 21)

Public recognition may finally be on the way, but you still need to be patient as one thing after another delays the completion of a project. Lack of progress has probably increased your frustration, making you eager or even desperate to get the job done. But don't talk yourself into taking bold action now, for it's not likely a good move. Recognizing that your perspective is bent out of shape today gives you good reason to wait a little bit longer.

Lack of progress has PROBABLY increased my frustration? Oh please. My frustration level has been at a dangerous high lately. If I don't start writing again soon my head will explode. Seriously. Luckily, A. is a smart man and realizes this and is trying to work with me to make that happen.

Maybe that's what I'll do if I'm not needed anywhere else today. I'll work on some character development. I can sit and talk to people in my head for a few hours, learning all sorts of interesting things about them. Maybe after I've gotten to know some of the voices in my head better, they'll tell me their stories. Maybe.

That's it for now.

Blue skies, world.

So very tired now.

Sweet merciful... I am exhausted.

"Very long, very hot day" doesn't even begin to describe it, but there it is.

It's... Monday... and the menu has already been scrambled. Every single meal today was altered. Seriously. I can only hope the week gets better.

Apparently, despite having had such a loooooong day of not being home and not getting to eat dinner until after 8pm, K. still wants to catch the movie tomorrow morning. I suppose we'll see if that happens or not in the morning. Standing rule: if she doesn't get out of bed and isn't ready by 8am (ideally we need to leave no later than 845am) then we don't go.

We found the Village Inn where the writers group meets and, well, I'm already a huge quivering bundle of nerves. As I told A. earlier today, I have no problem driving there by myself but it's going to take a minor miracle to get me out of the car and inside the building. It's been a very, very, VERY long time since I've gone anywhere or done anything like this by myself. On top of the "going someplace new and meeting and talking to strange people" nerves, this involves my writing. And I'm super sensitive and shy about my writing.

I think I need to stop thinking about it and just go to bed now.

Sweet dreams, world.

Menu - Aug. 3 - 9, 2008

Crazy sort of week in which I did a lot of blank staring and frustrated sighing. Getting some recipes posted is a high priority for this week, even if I have to do it at 3am when it's not raining and I'm trying desperately to get my little vampire to go to sleep so I can go to sleep myself.

This new week brings bucket loads of excitement and promises to have me either banging my head against the nearest wall, breathing into a paper bag, or looking around while wondering what the aliens did with my family because they're being far too cooperative. Only time will tell which.

A. leaves town Monday afternoon and should be returning Wednesday night right about the time I want to be falling into bed.

K. wants to see the free/almost free movies both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. I'm inclined to take her since it's the last week of the summer vacation movie "camp".

Thursday night (assuming A. is actually home by then, because let's face it, I'm not too trusting of the airlines lately) brings true weirdness: me going out to a writers group. Alone.

Only two more weeks until school starts. While I'll miss K. and her individual brand of insanity, I'm eager to be back on a more structured schedule in which I'm not only in bed but also asleep by 10pm on most nights and annoyingly perky at 530am.

So. The menu. It's extremely simple and maybe not the healthiest in the world. At least I'm feeding them. (Too many days lately where I've been far too tempted to not feed them...)

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday
breakfast: grits, bacon
lunch: foraging
dinner: fast food (finishing errands)

Monday - A. out of town from mid-afternoon on
breakfast: eggs, grits, bacon, OJ
lunch: tuna salad in bread bowls
dinner: hamburgers, french fries

Tuesday - A. out of town
breakfast: cereal, OJ
lunch: sandwich or hot dog, fruit
dinner: breakfast to order

Wednesday - A. out of town until bedtime
breakfast: oatmeal
lunch: hot dogs, fruit
dinner: mac & cheese, peas, broccoli

Thursday - Writers group meeting
breakfast: pasta, salad
lunch: baked potatoes stuffed with broccoli and cheese
dinner: pasta, salad

Friday
breakfast: cereal, OJ
lunch: sandwich or hot dog, fruit
dinner: orange-glazed chicken breasts, rice, broccoli, salad

Saturday
breakfast: pancakes
lunch: ???
dinner: pork chops, black eyed peas, mashed potatoes, salad

Sweet dreams, world.

Menu - July 27 - August 2, 2008

Do you have any sort of clue how difficult it is to blog or post recipes without power? Even with my laptop, it's hard because, well, the wireless modem doesn't work and, yeah, I could compose the entry offline but my battery drains quickly and I don't have a spare. That's not to say that we've had no power for the past two weeks, just that it's been going out far more frequently than it should.

Update on the past few weeks. Um. Really not much to tell. Spent time playing games, writing (a little), reading, watching movies, sleeping, doing all those summer-fun-but-stuck-inside things we normally do. It rains almost daily, but it's Florida and summer and hurricane season, so it's expected.

There's only three more weeks left until school starts and we're more or less ready for it. Ready in the sense that we've shopped for and bought new (and better fitting) jeans, shirts, shoes, socks, and panties. We've purchased school supplies with the exception of notebook paper (waiting to find it under $0.75 a pack) and whatever specifics might be on the supply lists that we won't get until school actually starts (you know, when all the stores have been picked over and all that can be found are empty shelves where the school supplies USED to be).

We're initiating a "leave mom alone" night to be held on Mondays with the purpose of giving me some time to write or research or read or just hide in the back of my closet and talk to the spiders if I chose. With any luck at all, we're going to be attempting a "let mom out of the house by herself" night to be held on every other Thursday night so that I can actually attend one of the writing groups I found nearby. This means the menus for Mondays and every other Thursday have to be simple so they can feed themselves, or I have to cook in advance so they're just foraging on leftovers. Either way, they've got kitchen clean up duties on those nights and I'm half-expecting to have to do all the dishes that have been used when I get up the following mornings. I have hopes that it won't be that way, but only time will tell.

I'd continue babbling but I hear thunder in the distance and want to get the menu up before our world turns very dark and wet again.

As always, much gratitude for Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday.

Sunday
breakfast: french toast, bacon
lunch: foraging
dinner: foraging

Monday
breakfast: (oops, sort of slept through it)
lunch: tuna, fruit
dinner: pasta, salad

Tuesday
breakfast: cereal, OJ
lunch: leftover pasta, fruit
dinner: meatball stroganoff, green peas, salad

Wednesday
breakfast: waffles
lunch: leftovers / sandwiches, fruit
dinner: fish, french fries, lima beans, salad

Thursday - PAY DAY - grocery shopping
breakfast: eggs, grits, hashbrowns, bacon
lunch: ??? (whether we stop for food or not will depend on how long the shopping is taking us)
dinner: chicken fillets, mac & cheese, broccoli, salad

Friday
breakfast: cereal, OJ
lunch: hot dogs / hamburgers
dinner: steak, baked potatoes, broccoli, salad

Saturday
breakfast: pancakes
lunch: ???
dinner: riblets, baked beans, salad

Blue skies, world.

A... mole?

So, apparently I'm a mole. I think it might be off a bit, but then again, maybe not. Not the way I've been recently.


http://www.animalinyou.com/survey.asp

Mole
Genera and species: Castor canadensis
Collective Term: A business of beavers

Description
It's easy to recognize the mole personality. For one thing, they have a pasty complexion and are usually seen in late night coffee shop, jazz bars, or underground clubs. To avoid drawing attention to themselves, they favor dark clothing and sunglasses and are the first people to volunteer for the graveyard shift.

The mole is a smallish individual with far more power than its flaccid body suggests, although its strength is more mental than physical. With its ability to focus on the job at hand, there is no situation from which a mole cannot extricate itself.

There's something compelling about the mole personality, and in the early sixties it was quite fashionable to be a mole in the form of a creative and philosophical beatnik -- expressing angst through music and poetry. Bob Dylan and John Lennon carried the mole standard into the seventies, but the fashion largely died and moles were forced back underground.

Moles are restless and although constantly engaged in activity, they never seem to get anything done and despite their drab appearance, they have extremely sharp minds and are excellent problem solvers. As reflected in their determined burrowing through difficult terrain, moles prefer solutions with straight lines rather than having to go around problems. When confronted with difficult issues, they never give up -- hacking away with dogged determination until the answer is found. This attribute makes them perfect for jobs in engineering, accounting or diagnostic work.

Sex is not the most important thing in the mole's life but if there is one animal personality that can push all the right buttons; it would be its soul mate, the bat. (like Yoko Ono) The bat and the mole share a love for dark intimacy and when these two get together, black magic is bound to happen.


Careers and Hobbies
Engineering
Songwriting
Grave digger
Researching
Music
Poetry
Coffeshops
Designing

Famous Moles
Bob Dylan, John Lennon.



So, um, just how does one pick up grave digging as a hobby?

Sweet dreams, I'm off to be before I get into any more trouble.