To anyone associated with Guardian: Life Balance Sheet

Posted on March 12, 2014 by A Dreamer

Can you get me a contact email in the next 18-24 hours?  Your website does not allow for non-customers to make contact.

And I’d rather not vent my spleen about your conference here.

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The broken blog is almost a year old!

Posted on March 8, 2014 by A Dreamer

I am at Spring training in lovely (and more importantly warm and sunny) Phoenix, and I realized, that was when I started the blog last year!

Thanks for hanging out. Here’s a margarita.

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I swear, I’m not panic shopping!

Posted on February 11, 2014 by A Dreamer

Screen Shot 2014-02-11 at 1.10.49 AMSo, the consensus seems to be that we’re going to get some weather starting Wednesday night and it will continue into Thursday.  Depending on the model one is looking at, we could be looking at 3″of snow, or 20″.  Either way, I suspect my classmates with Thursday night classes will get the evening off.  (I’m a little jealous and a tad disgruntled that the storm isn’t coming a day early.  Not because I dislike my Wednesday night class, but because I am student and even at the age of 41, a snow day is awesome.)

Screen Shot 2014-02-11 at 12.03.53 PMThat being said, even the smallest snowstorms provoke massive runs on the markets here – when all is said and done, everyone has all the fixings for a french toast extravaganza and runny noses – bread, milk, eggs, and toilet paper.  I don’t blame people for making the grocery store run – you don’t know how bad the roads will be, how quickly they will be cleared and you look in the fridge and there is 2″ of milk left in the bottle and you’re down to 2 rolls of toilet paper…yeah, you’ve got to hit the store.  I’ve gotten to the point where I’m used to it, and if I see you buying 3 gallons of milk before we get 2″ of snow, I just assume you have teenagers in the house.

What really gets to me is the fact that invariably the day before a snowstorm is also the day that I have to do my regular grocery shopping.  Every swingin’ time.  And though I don’t care if you are doing panic shopping, I am somehow very self-conscious of the fact that it looks like I am doing panic shopping.

But I’m not panic shopping!  Really!  I have to shop today not because it will start snowing sometime tomorrow night, but because I want to make dinner tonight.  I ran out of milk yesterday, the toilet paper is almost gone, and the last roll of paper towels just came out of the package.  I’m low on chicken broth, the grits tin is almost empty, and kielbasa is on sale this week.  (Mmmm, kielbasa and mac & cheese for dinner…)  I also have a craving for ham salad sandwiches.  Or chicken salad sandwiches.  Well, I want both.  (I should probably have lunch before I go to the market.)

So, if you see me at the market and I’m peering in your basket – I’m not judging you for panic shopping.  I love to see what others consider snow day comfort food.  (Last storm, sandwich fixings seemed to be a popular choice.)  I’m also looking for ideas.

So, I’m not panic shopping  because of the snow.  Pay no attention to the extra loaf of bread I just threw in my basket.

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So, it’s been a little cold…

Posted on January 30, 2014 by A Dreamer

2014-01-24 14.42.15 The polar vortex/arctic blast/whatever you want to call it has had our area in a bit of a chill over the past week, along with a good chunk of the rest of the country.  It’s not the end of the world – my furnace is still running and I haven’t had to drive anywhere against my will, so that’s something.  I don’t like the fact that I have to wear so many layers that it starts to feel like my clothing is strangling me, but I just keep telling myself that spring will come eventually.

2014-01-28 11.56.51 In the meantime, the cooler air has brought this.

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14 - 1And this.

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And food.  So much food.  I need this weather to break soon or I am going to gain 20 pounds.  While I’m very pro-salad, a salad just doesn’t cut it when it’s 21º out.  This weather brings out all the comfort food.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAChili!

1 pound lean ground beef
~ 1/2 cup chopped onions
2 decent sized cloves garlic, minced – 3 if they’re small
1c tomato sauce (1 8oz can)
1 small can tomato paste
1 can kidney beans (don’t start with me)
1 tablespoon and 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Brown beef, garlic, onions, drain off excess fat. Add the rest, simmer 1 hour. Eat!

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Egg Casserole!

2 c. plain croutons (I use the cheese/garlic croutons – use enough to completely cover the bottom of the baking dish)
4 oz. shredded cheddar cheese (Or enough to nicely cover the aforementioned croutons)
4 eggs, beaten
2 c. milk
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. mustard
1/8 t. onion powder (I think 1/4 c. diced onions would work fine as well)
dash of ground black pepper
4 slices crumbled bacon (Or a big handful of Hormel’s bacon pieces)

Put croutons & cheese in bottom of greased 10×6×2 casserole dish (my 8×8 worked fine)
Combine everything else, EXCEPT bacon.
Pour egg mix over croutons & cheese.
Top w/crumbled bacon
Bake at 325º for one hour.

Single serve version: Use 1 cup ramekin as baking dish.  Divide all ingredients by 4.  Bake for 35 minutes.

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Brownies!

Go to pantry, find box of brownie mix.  Follow directions on  the box.

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2014-01-24 14.23.51 BBQ Pork Enchiladas!

Go to your preferred Tex-Mex spot in town.  Order accordingly.

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMore chili!!  (The leftovers are always a little better.)

Go to fridge.  Get the leftover chili.

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2014-01-30 14.52.33 Carne Adovada!

See directions for BBQ pork enchiladas.

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2014-01-26 12.59.19-2And so, so many batches of chipotle cheddar grits.

1/4 c. old fashioned grits (NOT instant)
1 1/8 c. chicken stock or broth
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2 ounces shredded chipotle cheddar cheese  (Or regular cheddar and chipotle hot sauce)
salt & pepper

Bring the stock to a boil, add grits, stir well.  Set heat to LOW and cover.  After about 6 minutes hit it with the salt & pepper.  At the 12 minute mark, stir in the cheese or hot sauce & cheese.  Let it go another minute or so, then eat!

Once the weather breaks 50º, I’ll have a salad, I promise.  In the meantime, there is some leftover carne adovada in the fridge that needs to be eaten.

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This is new…

Posted on January 27, 2014 by A Dreamer

After several years of watching Lily sleep on the patio cushions, Carmen finally gets in on the act.

Carmen

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Another shooting

Posted on January 26, 2014 by A Dreamer

This morning, I was out running errands and I turned on the radio to hear the news that there were three dead in a shooting at a mall in Columbia, Maryland. Any number of things could have first come into my head as I heard he news. Shock. Horror. Sadness. Those came a little later, but my first reaction was:

Of course.

Of all the emotions, complete and utter resignation was the first to hit the surface. Of course there was another shooting.

There might be a few halfhearted attempts to restart the discussion on keeping guns away from people who shouldn’t have them, but it won’t go any farther than that – it never does.

I know all the reasons it never goes anywhere, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about any of it.

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This is why I couldn’t leave the couch for the last 25 minutes:

Posted on January 23, 2014 by A Dreamer

Carmen on my lap

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A moment of calm and cuddles

Posted on January 20, 2014 by A Dreamer

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Approximately 30 seconds later they were biting each others feet followed by a full-on wrestling match.

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That awkward moment…

Posted on January 20, 2014 by A Dreamer

Lily on a cushionWhen your realize your hair color now matches your cat.

Trust me, hardly intentional.  Friday I went and saw my hair sorceress for a ~4 month overdue haircut, color (I think the exact words I used were, “obliterate the grey”) and some highlights.  My natural hair color is “just brown” – it is what it is, but through the beauty of chemistry, my stylist takes it to a lovely, not terribly drastic, but “sure as fuck not ‘just brown'” anymore.  It’s a nice reddish-brown and she throws some freakishly subtle golden highlights on it and I suddenly feel a good 10 years younger.  I love it.  (For the longest time, the grey in my hair didn’t really bother me.  Then it became “normal” for my age.  And fuck that noise.)  While my hair isn’t the exact shade of Lily’s red/brown/gold patches – it’s close enough that when it hit me, I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or cry.  I chose laughing, because crying gives me a headache and a runny nose.

Carmen on a boxNow, because I am feeling like I can’t talk about one cat without talking about the other (do see the official title of the blog if you’re confused) – the awesome haircut also came with ramifications for the Prozac Princess, aka, Carmen.  The hazard of a new haircut (at least for women, I can’t speak for men) is that the first washing-of-the-hair after the appointment can be fraught with difficulties.  You don’t use the same products, you can’t use a roller brush without a pair of scissors to cut it out, air drying frizz – all sorts of things can go sideways.  Well, the sideways was happening, so I grabbed the hairdryer to try to smooth things out.  For the most part it worked.  (One friend did say, “it has more volume now” – it’s very nice that he mistakes frizz for volume.)  But in using the hairdryer, poor little Carmen was Not At All Happy.  I knew this from an incident when she was a kitten – she ran in the bathroom while I was using the hairdryer and got scared and I idiotically tried to remove her from the bathroom.  I needed several band-aids after that “rescue” mission.

So, I made sure that she was out of the bathroom while I dried my hair.  When I opened the bathroom door, I made a rather large production of putting the hair dryer into the cabinet.  Then I gave her a bunch of crunchy treats.  (With Carmen, we have a conditioning routine of, “Upset?  Let’s go eat those emotions!”)  I checked on her a few minutes later and she was sitting at the threshold of the bathroom with a look on her face of, “Where.  The Fuck.  Is That Demon from Hell?”

So, next time I see the hair sorceress, I am going to have to ask what hair product I need to buy that will give me a blow-dried finish without actually using the blow dryer.  Because I have a looney cat.

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Last lazy Sunday for a while…

Posted on January 19, 2014 by A Dreamer

CoffeeClasses start back up on Tuesday and I’ve got a Monday session this semester to boot, so this is the last Sunday until mid-May where I won’t be finishing up something for a Monday class.  (The plan is to have things done before Sunday, but I’m also realistic.  I tried to avoid a Monday class, but it was Monday at the main campus or Thursday in Arlington, and boy howdy, that sucked last semester.)

I’m also a wee bit disgruntled that my day isn’t going to be as lazy as I’d like it to be.  Gotta hit the market, clean the kitchen, find the book I have to read for Wednesday’s class, put the schedule for Monday’s class into LiquidPlanner, sort out the rest of the books for the semester, and try to figure out where the best workspace in the house is going to be this semester.

It’s not all bad though – I’m definitely looking forward to my classes this semester – US Urban History and Museum Studies.  Having anchor days again is always good.  (The days do tend to run together during breaks.)  Classes starting means spring is coming, and spring means baseball.  A little more structure doesn’t hurt.  (But not too much!)  All my classes are at the main campus, which means I don’t have to leave at 4:30 for a 7:20 class.  And the uni food court is actually pretty good – excellent chicken salad subs, and the Red Hot & Blue outlet on campus makes me very happy.

So, here’s to a new semester.

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