Mmmmmm…..

Once I won a ribbon in the NYS Fair for a cheesecake like this….but hers looks better

Dogs Welcoming Home Soldiers

So, I basically ignored anything work or blog related during the holiday.  We went to CT to stay with my parents and Thanksgiving was at my brother’s house in MA (32 to be exact-Oy Vay!).  It all was very nice and I was glad to especially see my nieces and nephew again.  I ate too much and loved it and spent a lot of relaxing time with family.  I made jewelery with my mother (one piece will be given away at the ACRL/NY Symposium as a door prize or raffle . . . can’t remember which), finished knitting a sweater that has been in the making (off and on) for about five years now, got a radio for the kitchen, and raced cows with my parents and sweetie on their Wii.  It was pretty funny. 

Friday was shop for bridesmaids dresses day at David’s Bridal in Warwick, RI.  All three girls found what they wanted.  I decided to choose a color and let them pick the style.  They are going to very pretty.  My dress was chosen, purchased and came in about a month ago and is at my parent’s house.  I tried it on when we got back from shopping just to make sure we got the right size, thankfully we did.  Let me say, that is a huge relief.  I would hate to have to exchange it for a different size.  Now I need to shop for shoes . . . ugh.  Maybe in January.

Back at work yesterday I did my usual reference shift.  I felt a bit like I was at a public library reference desk.  There was a message on voicemail from someone in the city looking for someone else  to make sure they were ok and was wondering if we had an alumni directory with the person’s address.  But the information was only good if it was Sunday night . . . yeah, ok.  The second voicemail message was cancelling the first message saying he found the person and they were ok.  I guess that is good, seeing as we don’ t have an alumni directory.  Then another patron came from the restroom and announced very loudly to me that the toilet had overflowed because they had used it, because they ‘had to go,’ and it finally all went down but it did overflow and could a custodian take care of . . . well, you get the picture.  It was kind of funny because everyone around the reference desk clearly heard the person ‘announce’ the overflow.  I just thanked them and notified the building manager.  Ironically, they did not seem embarrassed at all.  Then again, why should one be embarrassed about an overflowing toilet?  Better to just get it cleaned up.

The rest of the day was kind of shot for me.  I had called the vascular surgeon in the morning to see if I could get an appointment soon and they could only take me Monday afternoon, or I had to wait until January.  So, I ran off to that appointment around 1:30.  And all is fine.  Recovery is ongoing. My right leg is kind of bothering me now but,  I take my Coumadin daily, wear compression stockings daily (I would prefer to wear cotton socks, not these nylon things, but for the winter they are wonderfully warm and they make my legs feel a whole lot better, they really are amazing), put my feet up at home to help the circulation, and get my blood checked regularly.  I have also started going to a hematologist.  Hopefully, he will help me figure out what caused all this in the first place.  So, overall, I am recovering, but it won’t all happen overnight.  Thankfully each day is better and better.

My mother asked us what we were most thankful for this year.  The first thing out of my mouth was “Not being dead.”  And, yes, that is true.  Granted, there is a lot more I am thankful for, but I couldn’t be thankful for any of that without the not being dead part.

I just got back from Thanksgiving weekend with my family. I was a little reluctant to travel there this year: I was scarred from a nine hour bus ride last year, I wanted to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade (as much as that touristy stuff deters me, I gotta do it once), my family didn’t seem that into it anyway, and as sappy as it sounds, I wanted to share the holiday with my boyfriend and his family, whom I have come to immensely enjoy my time with, and who were having a huge gathering. Mind you, I still wanted to spend it with my family – I just wanted them all to come here and everybody be together. I know, have my cake and eat it too… But hey, I’m allowed, it’s my birthday!

So I went to see my family, and it was a smooth ride back and forth (I really lucked out on missing holiday traffic), and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving (as non-traditional as it was) and birthday. The whole family showed up for Thanksgiving, I had a fun night out with old friends, mom and I had the most lovely day together just the two of us, and the cherry on top was getting to babysit my sweet and boisterous three-year-old cousin. We has the best time! Which, of course, made leaving really hard to do. When the wee one cried and wanted to board the bus to “Neh Yoke” with me, a part of me hoped they would let her. Kids really have a way of sticking it your heart, I tell ya.

On the bus ride home, to think positively and distract myself from the separation from my family, I got to thinking all kinds of crazy things, like about getting married (blame the family friend’s wedding on the 27th) and having kids (blame the munchkin I adore), hosting my own Thanksgiving and the menu I would cook (blame me for being a happy hostess foodie), and I actually started doing the math and thinking of how it could work out. Four days in the suburbs apparently turned me into a 1950’s housewife wannabe? Did the multiple trips to the mall and Target brainwash me?! As my boyfriend would say, “SLOW DOWN, KID!”

So I’m back and feeling a bit blue because I do miss my family. But also, I’m still me, and on the two bus rides today in the pouring rain, my standard MTA bus gripes took over. One: Why do the drivers not enforce people exiting through the back door? It’s such a huge waste of time to have the entering people wait for the exiting masses to go out the front door. The buses might actually run on-schedule if people would simply go out the back door. So SIMPLE! Yet, somehow, impossible. ARGH! And two: The people who are aware enough to exit via the back door irritate me too. There’s always some dumbass (or maybe more people are illiterate than I am aware of?) who doesn’t comply with the instructions written all over the doors, at eye-level, in multiple spots on the door, to wait for the green light, then push the yellow tape. That’s all it takes, it’s so EASY! But every bus ride, without fail, either someone tries to push on the doors before the green light is on, or fails to use the air-assist yellow tape – which results in the doors gracefully popping open and staying open for us all to exit – instead, opting to ignore the technologically-advanced yellow tape mechanics in favor of using inferior muscle-power to pry the doors open, which then immediately push back closed on the next person. The inefficient and annoying result: each person has to hold and/or push the doors open, one by one by one. ARGH again!

Sometimes, I think it would be easier to be the dumb fish in the smart pond than the smart fish in the dumb pond.

I’m beginning to lose all faith in Comcast and their lists.
Of course, I agree with a lot of the movies that are on the ‘best’ list, but they put the following on the worst list: Jack Frost, The Santa Claus, The Polar Express, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas [non-animated], and Christmas With The Kranks.

Sure, they may not be ‘classics’, but they are far from the worst holiday movies. In fact, I think I watch all of these movies numerous times each year.
Lame Comcast, lame.

To see the whole list of best and worst, click here.

Ever wanted to Google 4 things at 1 time? Or Google 1 thing 4 times? Now you can on the same browser tab!

Just go to GoogleGoogleGoogleGoogle.com!

thx to my brother for showing me.

All students go through this torturous process of having to research and compose an academic discussion on a given subject. But when your given subject is difficult to actually define, then the routes open to you are vast or incredibly narrow (depending on how one goes about deciphering the subject).

Currently I am a student in the given torturous situation of essay writting. It is actually rather amusing. Because as one sits down and begins to think and/or work on ones essay, all of the worlds problems appear small and petty in regards to the drama one creates in ones own mind.


Its also rather funny to look at a student stressing over their essay… which they still have plenty of time to write… and just think, ‘if they were in a real-life situation of dire urgency and importance and had a minuscule deadline, how the bloody cow would they cope?’ – and these are to be our nation’s next leaders and thinkers?



Just something to think about and reflect on.

I’m never sure whether to use emoticons in emails and blog posts and Facebook posts and the like.  Have they moved into standard usage or are they just the refuge of dorkified wordlessness?  (I’ll grant that they do come in mighty handy in gmail chats.)  Who knows.  The following, though, struck me as eminently smiley-worthy:

There.

Spotted at Idiotprogrammer.

I was invited to an event on fb.
And the thought of having a Primary 5 gathering flashed in my mind.
But to my amusement, it was International Skip School Day.
I thought that might be quite cool.
Though people like me, uh, don’t skip school.
But, it’s on the 25th of February next yearrrrr.

Maybe I could use that day to have some fun.
Nono, I might as well use the day after that.

Hmmmmm.
That’s provided I’m having school lah huh.
Okay, forget it. ._.

I wish I could buy time… Evidence: the chat I had with my friend Eddie.

Eddie: 今日ご飯にいかない
me: 行く
何時？
Eddie: 11時55分
me: 了解
時度販売で会う
Eddie: 時度という言葉あるの
me: 時度＝字度販売機？
時度販売機
me: ははは　それもまちがってる
自動　販売　機
me: はははははは
Eddie: automatic selling machine
me: 自動販売機
やっと
Eddie: you wrote “time selling machine”
wow
i wish
me: Cool ain’t it! I want one of this!
Eddie: in the future
year 3001
me: I will post that!
Eddie: pls
this is so cool
haha

Luke, the computer geek, builds an onion seedling tray of bamboo for his wife, the carpenter. I wonder how Heather managed that? I think it’s sweet

see more dog and puppy pictures

Nifty home-made compost tumbler by Heather and Luke

Taking down the old fence and putting up a new cedar picket fence

Building more garden beds

No idea what she’s building. Nice butt

Raised beds painted a pretty blue

I find it amusing that Heather is acting like I was when I was pregnant with her. I did a few building projects while I still could….and of course I had a garden! Heather always does things 10 or 100 times better than me, though….

I listened to this program on NCPR today and thought about how Heather is not typical…and how sad that is for other kids. I wish more could be set free to learn and grow like Heather! Hmmmmm….what will her son be like????

Heather kept telling me she doesn’t really look pregnant….she looks like she ate too many donuts. Snicker…..looks like a baby bump to me!

That reminds me. The kids love watching Iron Chef. Since we don’t have TV, we watched some shows off Food Network’s website. I enjoyed Ace of Cakes too.

Well, ever since I enrolled in Taleem Quran, my schedule’s at least pertaining to cooking has been pretty much squashed to rush-rush-cook. So there were many days when I had to utilize my oldest daughter’s height and age (at least that’s how I justify it) and put her to work i nthe kitchen to cut down cooking time.

“S, please clean the chicken!”

I had shown her how to clean chicken by trimming the fat and skinning it.

Back in C-bus she was squeamish about it, but now she’s much better.

So, while I went about my work, she cleaned the chicken I had defrosted and often, she’d leave them for me to cook. There were also times when I showed her how to cimply cook a chicken dish by blending onions, garlic, chilli paste and whatever I fancied dumping into the blender, then either baking the cleaned chicken pieces in the blended mixture(as marinade) or cooking it on the stove and dumping thr chicken pieces in while it releases fragrance.

Simply put, I had no time for fancy schmancy dishes anymore. It’s all dump and cook.

I have to say my life is made interesting by the sense of humor my children have inherited from either hubs or me, or both. Don’t know if that’s good or bad actually.

Well, one day, S cleaned chicken and when she was done, I went to the kitchen to cook the cleaned chicken and voila! What did I see?

The roaring 20s! Chicken dance! Bbock Bbock Bbock!!! Didn’t your mother tell you not to play with your food? Even if it’s not cooked yet?

And I think that same day I also stuffed a fish with spicy chilli mixture and baked then broiled it. It didn’t look that presentable after it was done. In fact, it looked like it had a pretty tough time in the oven with blisters all over, but ahh…alhamdulillah we had good food on the table. Alhamdulillah.

Yeah, we Iron Chefs rock!

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