So, I was going to try to post every day all month, since July’s topic is FOOD. And I love food. But somewhere along the line, I lost my momentum. But I have two announcements today:
1. Dark Knight rocks.
2. American Idol concert tonight. Woo!
That is all.
Today was the hottest, most humid day I can remember in a long time. I was So. Crabby. I wasn’t happy with any of my clothes, and my body felt huge to me.
Kirtan made it all better, naturally. The room at Jewel of the Lotus wasn’t any cooler than the outdoors, but I quickly forgot about my discomfort when the chanting began. My bad mood disappeared. Magical!
Moon went mini-golfing with a group of friends in the afternoon. She was outside for about 3 hours during the hottest part of the day. I think she was a tiny bit crabby as well, but after she changed clothes and complained a little, she headed to the movie theater with some different friends. (They saw “Hellboy 2.” Good flick, they said.) At least movies are in air-conditioned comfort.
Me, I’ll take kirtan.
Hey, the party last night ended up being a lot of fun… although I’m scratching several sizable new mosquito bites today. It was BYOGI (bring your own grill item) so I bought two sirloin steaks. They grilled up beautifully, and I ate ALL of mine. Oddly enough, it didn’t make me feel overly full because I didn’t have much else.
The guest of honor was completely surprised, and I snapped a picture right as she realized what was happening.
In other news, the American Idol concert is a week from Saturday. Yowza!
…but we’re going to a surprise birthday party tonight, and I’d really rather just stay home and watch So You Think You Can Dance. I’m sure I’ll have fun once I’m there, and I can just watch the tape after I get home.
This is one of those times I wish we had TiVo, because our VCR doesn’t always give us the best quality. Also, the kids have to remember to press “record.”
Today is Moon’s birthday, and to celebrate, SpiritMan and I opened a checking account for her and switched her “kid-friendly” savings account over to a full-fledged statement savings account. With online access, a debit card and everything.
She was happy to see how much she’s accumulated already. For some reason, this whole banking thing really hits home to me that she is almost an adult. Wow.
We also went out for Chinese food at lunch. I think it’s another birthday-cake-for-dinner night.
Salon has an interesting article today about the prominence of bacon in pop culture. Just think, you can buy a bacon bra, wrap it in bacon paper, and festoon it with a squirt of bacon perfume. Sexy!
We celebrated July birthdays (me, Moon and Sister #3) today at the homestead. I was gifted with oodles of spending money, and I just made two online orders with some of it: a Knitter’s Block (which I’ll have to wait until August to actually get) and a pair of Toms Shoes.
Moon is upstairs playing Guitar Hero III, and I’m thinking about joining her soon. I’m moving slowly because we ate so much uncharacteristic-for-us food today. Brats. Cheeseburgers. Ice cream cake. Regular cake. Blueberry cobbler (excellent, and probably the most nutritious of the offerings).
Somehow Turbo is still mobile despite having eaten 3 brats and 4 burgers (or maybe it was 4 brats, 3 burgers). I have a feeling he might not eat again until tomorrow, but I could be wrong.
I guess the whole bottomless-pit-male-teenager thing isn’t just something the writers of Archie and Jughead made up.
My friend P’s sister J died last night after an intense, exhausting battle with cancer. First breast cancer, then several years later, ovarian cancer. She lived 3 hours away but used to come to Madison to do Race for the Cure with us. This was the first year she couldn’t make it. The cancer was back this winter, and she had extensive surgery in January. Then there was nothing more that could be done.
I didn’t mention this earlier, but I saw her last weekend. P doesn’t drive, and her husband works long hours, so various friends had been taking P to see her family. I volunteered for a turn, because I really wanted to see J again. It was a humbling experience. I met P and J’s 93-year-old mother, who is robust and witty. J had a stroke a few months ago, and her vision was affected. She could barely squeak out a few words, and the morphine had her sleeping much of the time. Her skin was stretched over her bones and was yellowed from liver failure. I knew I wouldn’t see her again.
I can’t imagine the loss that her family is feeling right now. The only consolation is that J is finally free again.
What do these foods have in common?
banana
celery
pickle
gizzard
liver
Thousand Island dressing
cucumber
prune
white bread
Tags: nablopomo
I’ve been more and more enamoured with Twitter lately, and it seems like almost every day I see a nifty new way to use it.
Today I discovered Tweet What You Eat. Basically, it’s a simple way to keep a food diary. Just log into Twitter, follow Twye, visit the Twye site, and you’re good to go. All you do then is to tweet a direct message to Twye every time you want to add something to your day’s intake. (Example: ‘d twye 1 cup almonds’)
Then you can go to your page at Tweet What You Eat and see your full food diary. You can even edit your entries there. Pretty cool!
Tags: noblopomo
We have a birthday tradition in our family: the birthday person gets to choose a restaurant at which to dine on the special day. I chose India Darbar’s lunch buffet, much to my children’s delight. Rarely do we dine in the restaurant. However, we order carryout often enough that the staff recognizes us.
On Turbo’s birthday in April, he chose dinner at India Darbar. When our waiter found out we were celebrating, he brought us complimentary mango ice cream. He gave us some more next time we ordered carryout.
As we were paying for today’s lunch, the subject of my own birthday came up. Our waiter said that if he had known, he’d have brought me a glass of wine. I thanked him and said it was okay since I was headed back to work.
My kids thought it was the coolest thing. And we all loved the buffet. My favorite dish is palaak paneer, but the spinach dish on the line was just as good.
I had to use the flash to take these photos, so sorry about the poor image quality. All the paint is FreshAire from Home Depot. We’re really happy with it. No smell, and nice colors. (I haven’t taken any bathroom photos, but the color we used is Northern Pear Tree, and I love love love it. I would paint my body with it.)
Yes, the painting is complete. I actually finished the final room (the bathroom) by myself yesterday, because Moon was with her best friend B, picking up B’s boyfriend from the airport. B’s internet boyfriend. He’s from Pennsylvania, and although they talk every day on the phone, they had never actually met in person.
He’s staying for 4 days. B’s parents are making sure that they don’t spend a single minute unsupervised.
Moon, B, and T (the boyfriend) came over to play Guitar Hero a few minutes after the new sectional sofa-thing was delivered. T seems like a nice kid, and plays Guitar Hero on expert. I hadn’t played for quite a while, but I can still sort of rock the medium.
Today SpiritMan and I are going to hang pictures and try to straighten up a bit. It’s looking like home.
I’m in my PJ bottoms and a t-shirt, sweaty and paint-splattered… but we’ve finished yet another color. The stairwell is now Canyon Pebble. I just cleaned up the paint supplies, and we’re going to keep taping the kitchen after lunch. It’s starting to come together.
I’ll definitely post pictures after the whole thing is done. Our new sofa unit is being delivered on Friday.
In other news, I’m getting a haircut this afternoon. I better take a shower before then.
My vacation started today, and I’m spending it painting the inside of the house with the kids. We started with the two biggest walls. After 15 years of white walls, we finally have color. It makes a pretty dramatic difference. We just finished a little touching up, and moved the TV and all the various electronics in front of one of the newly-painted walls. I think it opens the space up a bit.
Day 1, and I’m already exhausted. The hardest part was all the cleaning and vacuuming that needed to take place before we could start the real work.
The kids are amazing, though. Turbo is a powerhouse with a paint roller, and Moon is precision embodied.
It’s an hour and a half past bedtime, and I’ll be up in 7 hours starting the next wall.
The gods have been hurling thunderbolts and swirling clouds all day, it seems. I was able to make a quick trip to Home Depot for some painting supplies during a lull between storms… Moon has already started taping, and she wants to paint the hallway tomorrow. It’ll be good to have something done before we start tackling the living room.
A few weeks ago, Turbo decided not to go on his class trip to the Wisconsin Dells, and that ended up being a wise decision. For one thing, did you hear what happened up there over the weekend? Lake Delton drained out, some houses collapsed, and some roads were closed due to flash flooding. The trip was today, which makes me wonder how much actual water park time the kids got before the tornado warnings and pestilence began.
We received an automated phone call right after hearing an announcement on the news that a group of kids from Turbo’s school were stranded and awaiting a police escort so their bus could get them back to Madison. The call was a recorded message saying pretty much the same thing, but with a later time frame. I’m guessing that the kids are back by now (it’s almost 10 p.m.) but imagine how worried all those parents must have been. My anxieties would have taken over my body well before the 3rd or 4th tornado warning.
I’m sure the kids will have lots of good stories to tell, though.
Turbo is officially finished with 8th grade. He decided to wear his suit to the ceremony this morning, much to the surprise of his friends and teachers who have only seen him in shorts, t-shirts and hoodies for the past year or so.
I’m relieved. Next year will be the first time both my kids have attended the same school together since 2002. They’ll even have a class together, as both of them wanted to take first year German.
I won’t need to drive anyone to school or pick anyone up. Now, we just need to get through the summer.
So, I’ve been dizzy since Monday night. Not nauseated, just dizzy. I saw the chiropractor yesterday and I think it helped somewhat. Haven’t felt like doing much in the evenings except knit mitered squares and watch TV. (So You Think You Can Dance = awesome.)
I awakened to crashing thunder at 5 a.m. We’re supposed to have rain for the next four days, and it’s going to be in the 80s. It’s still June, right? What’s August going to be like? Pitta is not amused by this sort of weather.
I am down to the last five squares. Can you believe it? I’ve knit 75 of the things.
