Leftovers

I'm home sick today and my doctor's appointment isn't until 1:00 so I might as well blog. I've had a stomach ache for over 1 1/2 weeks, generally been achy, and overall just not right. I'd hoped I was finally pregnant, but I guess not. Considering recent fertility bad news it would've been a miracle anyway, but now I'm wondering if it's not THAT, why in the world am I nauseous?

Two weekends ago we had a nice party, with tons of leftovers. Considering I haven't been feeling all that well, I haven't wanted to do much with the food. Since we'll be in Europe this Christmas, we really don't have much time to use up all of our leftovers, which forced me to deal with a refrigerator of food this weekend. We still had leftover turkey, 6 pounds of a 7 pound ham, tons of bread and cheese, and all of the vegetable from Boston Organics that I'd forgotten to cancel (specifically 2 squash, celery, turnips, onions, apples, oranges, pears, carrots, cranberries, mushrooms, and a head of cabbage).

So I decided to make soup. Actually, I've only made one pot of split pea soup, but I'm expecting to eat most of it before we go, and freeze the rest. It's easy on the tummy, used a bunch of the ham, carrots, onions, and celery, and didn't require effort (gotta love crock pots).

I also made a quiche to get rid of the rest of my eggs, use some of the cheese (still tons more to go), reduce the amount of ham, and use up the aging cauliflower. I forgot to save some mushrooms for the quiche, so it was mushroomless. This should get us through breakfasts for the week.

For yesterday's dinner I made potato and turnip mash, which disguised the turnips nicely and prevented their waste. I also roasted one of the squash and made roasted mushrooms as found on SmittenKitchen. Oh MY GOD these were good mushrooms. I was a little worried that I wouldn't keep them down, but I couldn't stop eating them!

In addition over the weekend I made bread pudding and custard. The bread pudding used up almost all of the leftover bread and the custard was made with eggnog that was about to expire (plus it used some eggs).

I still need to deal with apples and oranges, one squash, the head of cabbage, and a couple more carrots. I put the rest of the ham in the freezer for another pot of split pea soup later on down the road.

The apples are easy, I'm going to make apple pie filling and can it, if I can find enough unused cans around the house. Oranges, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. Perhaps I'll just make orange juice one night and call it done. Squash perhaps I'll make for dinner one night this week. Cabbage I'm tempted to make into sauerkraut, but that will require a bit of research. Plus there's the problem that I don't like sauerkraut and will be eating tons of it over Christmas. Gerd likes it though, so we'll see.

All of this is a bit of food to deal with when you don't feel like looking at food.

Too Mean

This is a revised post. Gerd thinks my first one was too mean. Ah well, he's probably right. It was about Karma (or how things all equal out in the end).

This is our former house:

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/south_end/2010/12/water_restored_in_south_end_af.html


On the SAME DAY I found out our old place was covered in water I got a call from HR. Turns out somehow my first paycheck was never cashed. I vaguely remember wondering when I was going to get paid because it seemed like FOREVER. Turns out it was. The check must have gotten lost in the move. As a result I have an extra paycheck, about the same amount we were asking from our landlord for our missing furniture.

Not only that, but I won two tickets to go to the big Christmas Gala ($500/ticket) which turned into a very nice birthday bash.

The heats back on, the car's still sitting in a shop south of Boston, and we're just not using the spare bathroom. Life does seem to equal out after a while.

What a Weekend!

I can't say it was ALL bad. We had a nice party with a lot of great people.

But leading up to the party I decided I wanted to install a bathroom. Seemed pretty simple. I mean, the pipes were all there, the water worked, all we needed to do was get a toilet and a vanity and hook it up. Even I thought I could handle that.

So we started installing stick-down tiles at 4:30 on Friday night, got to the toilet around 10:00, and finished around 11:30. We got up the next morning in time for the trash haulers to take away our monstrous cast iron tub (not the pretty kind) so we could finish installing the tile and put in the vanity. We finished the vanity by 1:00, except for the missing piece.



(Sorry I can't figure out how to rotate these photos)

Did I mention that we were having a party at 7:00 that night? So when I came back from the store around 3:00, with groceries and everything Gerd had an unpleasant surprise for me. Sure, the water worked, but the drain pipe. The drain pipe on the other hand did not work. There's about a 2 foot long crack that runs down to the main line. Flushing the toilet resulted in a gush of water Gerd found while looking for a tool in the basement. At least it wasn't flowing through our heater this time. That was last weekend.

The party went well and nobody seemed to mind our dining room bathroom, or were at least polite enough not to mention anything about it.

But this morning our woes weren't over. The heat turned off around 10:00 and is still out. Thank goodness for home warantees. The heater guy is looking at it now. Other than our disastrous trip to drop off the Mini, we've been wholed into our living room with a miniture space heater and about 6 candles to keep warm. It could be worse, the house only got down to about 60.

After we got a time frame that the heater guy would show up we decided to go drop off the Mini in the mean time. Not so good. We think the engine might need to be replaced. Apparently the coolant hose disconnected while Gerd was driving it and it started smoking. There was another hose that we couldn't figure out where it connected too, but Gerd decided to keep driving anyway (we were only 5 miles away from where we were going). At first there wasn't anymore smoke, but then it came back like before, but this time the engine block was leaking something.






Just when I hoped we were done with bad luck my computer cord stopped working. If I have to replace it, this will be the 4th cord I'll have had to buy for this computer.

So it was just one of those weekends. Hope yours was lest costly, less frustrating, and less cold.

I thought I'd write a novel?

So, looking at November I have to say, I really thought I'd write a novel this month? Crazy.

Thanksgiving was great, the week before it booked solid, and today is Gerd's 40th birthday. Happy Birthday honey!

The month has moved along too fast to be bad. In fact, I've been pretty pleased about my workplace, and been getting happier about our house (until the furnace flooded and died) and overall more optimistic. We're even hosting a house party this weekend (I really must be crazy).

Yesterday I asked my students when winter really begins (hint, not just on the day marked by the solstice). Most said it begins when they get cold enough to put on a coat or that winter comes with the first snow. My own definition?

Seasons change when I start to feel miserable enough that I have to change something in my routine to become happy again. Like, turn up the heat, dig out the warm boots, pack away any dresses that are too tempting to keep wearing, dig out the ski gear, and stock up on soup.

So as far as I'm concerned, winter is here. I've just been so busy with life I forgot to notice.

Facebook

I had great plans for today. A full day off! And it's sunny outside!!!

And I'm on Facebook.

I have to wonder if Facebook is bad for people. I mean, here I am, still on the computer.

But I love Facebook too. Within the space of 30 minutes I found out that one of my friends I haven't spoken with in months is in Arizona, found out my favorite cousin-in-law is home too, sent a message to the seller's Realtor from our house purchase (we liked her more than our Realtor) about contractors in South Boston, and found suggestions for a bunch of high school "friends".

One of those friends was someone I remember well, but who I doubt really knew me at all. Heather M. She and her cousin (I think) Melissa M. were really about as different as two people with the same last name could be. Heather was quiet, a little plump, smart, but non-competitive (at least from a distance). We knew each other, but not very well. I was a bit of an outsider, not having grown up in the area myself.

Melissa was someone even my mother remembers. Cheerleader, possible saluditorian, honors student, popular, she had it all. I wasn't exactly jealous of Melissa, it's just that she was the all American sweetheart. Our high school had many of them. Indiana is full of all Americans. But I couldn't help, even in high school, comparing the two Ms. They had the exact same shade of hair color (brilliant blond).

When Facebook popped up Heather's name, I clicked on her profile and saw two small pictures. You know what, she's beautiful. Now, it could be a picture from a few years ago, but she looks young, happy, brilliant. She had over 100 friends, so I thought I'd see what high school students were on her list. Guess what, Melissa was one of them.

Now I'm not going to say Melissa isn't pretty. She still is. She's still thin, blond, and has a great smile. But I've got to say, Heather eclipsed her, at least over the internet. I'm sure they're both happy people, but it's really nice to see Heather as a happy adult. I always had the impression in high school that she hadn't really figured herself out yet.

Another "friend" of hers was Taylor. One of my high school crushes, who a few years ago I tried to friend. He didn't friend me back, and I can't really blame him. Of course he knew who I was, it was a small school after all, and I'm sure he'd be friendly to me if we saw each other somewhere, but we were hardly friends.

In fact, none of the people I've mentioned were really friends. They were people in the same community as mine. When I miss "them" I think I miss the time of that community. I guess during high school you're too busy enjoying, and alternately hating, being a teenager to recognize how unique high school is in life.

I have to wonder how many community members I have now. I've got people at church I know but don't really know well. I've got coworkers, but it's definitely different that being in school.

So is it good to catch up with these folk? Perhaps, in fleeting glances. I suppose if I still lived in Fishers I'd still be in the loop anyway. Facebook just provides me with a connection to all the healthy, and unhealthy memories of my past.

What is and is not going on...

Well, my nanowrimo didn't get off to a good start this year. Day 2 I ate lamb, which I usually can eat, except couldn't anymore. Instead of normal irritating but fleeting red meat reactions, I was pretty sick for 2 days. Then there was the grain pick up.

I now own 1/2 of my 1/2 share grain share. I've got wheat, spelt, rye, and corn, all of which I'm going to need to find glass containers for, and learn how to cook. Oh, and I need to buy a mill.

My garden is no longer alive since we've met our first frost, but I also haven't managed to pull up the plants yet. That would require figuring out where to put the outdoor compost, and I haven't an idea yet.

I've managed to make almond flour chocolate chip cookies, which are pretty good, but not as good as my moms. Seriously, my mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies, ask anyone. We have also now discovered that gluten free pizza crust is not equal to the regular stuff.

The crazy diet is still crazy, although I'm not sure what good it's doing. After reading about soy milk being, perhaps, not good for people we've now switched back to cow milk, but raw cow milk. We cheated over the weekend too and had a wonderful breakfast in the North End. I think caffeine may make me a smarter person.

Life just keeps on truckin by.

Please Vote!

It's November 2nd! Go vote!!!

(and if you live in Massachusetts go vote NO on 1, 2, and 3).