sorry, ducklings- i feel awful that it's been so long since we chatted. i've had to focus on some personal stuff, like work being hard, and helping out friends, and dealing with my usual and complete breakdowns in the face of change. so anyways. hopefully, i've gotten all my kinks worked out at my job (me + new boss sometimes = corrective action for me. i should be used to it by now, but i still am ashamed that it happens. i'm blaming it on this job being the first new one i've had in five years, and it being so close to the previous job that i get cocky and make stupid mistakes. lesson learned. i'm moving on now.) and at home (new job also = new pay schedule, which means that i've been broke as a joke for the last three months. hopefully, lesson learned there too... plus it helps one's marital status if one can in fact pay the bills. sigh. thankfully, i'm not single, so i guess my husband does in fact love me.) and with my friends (change is good, even for them.. accept it and move on! be happy!) so i can now focus on the holidays. and the holiday knitting.
the broke as a joke situation means that i'm doing stash-diving knitting for christmas this year, which is fine. i have a bunch of really lovely odds and ends stored aways from previous projects- from mercerized cotton to alpaca to actually nice acrylic (although the price you pay to get really nice acrylic is high enough that i should have just bought natural fiber... i'm occasionally a dummy) so everybody is getting one-skein wonders for christmas. the crazy thing- the nuts thing- the thing that makes me rethink medication, is that i'm making 14 projects this year. dear lord- shoot me now. i do have seven of them done, but seven still to go, and i'm wondering if they're just not gonna happen. plus the stuff i get for folks that hate knitting (they're big jerks). it's nuts-making. thankfully i have plenty of downtime at work. i have to date made three pairs of socks, three hats, and a covertable glove/cowl set. i have to go: fingerless gloves, a small scarf, and five hats. the hats may not be hats by the end... it depends on my mood. the plus side? not having to go the mall for any christmas presents this year. (my "too cool" brothers might just be "too cool" for gifts, is all i say.)
so keep tuned for crazy! it's bound to happen, as i'm just a few inches away from the edge to begin with. i'll also maybe have a recipe for you in the near future. who knows? it could all happen. i'm staying positive, right up until i'm not any more.
Friday, December 7, 2012
Sunday, October 7, 2012
chili time
it's october, folks! my favorite month of the year. i'm not really sure what makes october so awesome- it could be that the leaves have put on their fireworks show for everybody- one last hurrah before sleeping the winter. it could be that there's always that threat of snow in the air. it could be the amazing indian summers we have here. it could be the zombie crawls and trick-or-treating. or, it could be that this is the time of the chilies.
chilies mean fall in colorado. the smell of them roasting on street corners starts in august and finishes in november, but late september and early october are the best time. i can't smell them without thinking of raking leaves and drinking cider and having a fire. it's a cozy smell. there is a festival dedicated to roasted chilies in the town where i work, and my husband and i always go, lugging about at least a bushel of roasted goodness to take home with us. the air is like mace, the pace is frantic, and farmers sweat themselves nearly to death managing the barrels roasters and flame throwers that make the humble pepper a thing of beauty. over one hundred thousand people came this year to celebrate chilies- and we never buy enough. (as an aside- a festival completely dedicated to foodstuffs is a thing of beauty all its own. there should be more of them.)
i never really ate green chili as a kid- a rare thing for somebody who grew up in colorado. it's like the state food. but my parents weren't from here and really didn't like the spicy mexican fare, so i grew up eating a lot of asian inspired cuisine. the first time i had green chili, it was a revelation. (thank you, banana. you gave me the gift of chili too! no wonder i love you.) i can't even put into words the wonder of a good green chili. my best friend and i make it often, and when i'm welcoming somebody to colorado (in this case my brother's new bride! i'll write about the wedding soon- but it was lovely, if really really cold.) green chili is the first thing i make them. it's thick, spicy, warm, and filling, and has the flavors of sunshine and heat to keep you remembering the blistering summer all through the year. it's love in a pot.
Sharon's Gluten-free Green Chili
brown 1-2 pounds of boneless pork (could be stew meat, or chops- whatever is on sale. it's going to cook forever, so it doesn't have to be fancy meat) in some olive oil
add in 1 onion, diced fine, and 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced.
cook until onion is tender, then add in a pound of roasted green chili, skinned and minced fine
sautee together for about ten minutes
in a seperate dutch oven, melt half a stick of butter on medium heat, then add in a quarter cup of gluten free flour (i use Bob's red mill all purpose) to make a roux. cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly, until the roux is light brown. add in 8 to 10 cups of water or broth (if using water, then add in the appropriate amount of boullion to make a broth). dump in the pork mixture.
dice up quite a lot (however much you want, really- i like my stew really potato-y) of yukon gold potatoes and put them in the chili. (i know the potatoes sound weird, but it's traditional if you're making the chili as a main dish. if you're making it as a gravy, you leave em out) add in two cans of rotel. season with salt and pepper- and then walk away. you're going to have to simmer this bad boy for at least 45 minutes on low, stirring occasionally. it's better if you leave it an hour, but that's hard to do sometimes.
come back, and serve it up! we like to have corn tortillas with it, and put sour cream and cheese in the soup, especially if you have little ones eating it. it can be VERY spicy. fair warning. eat it up, warm yourself, and think of summer.
chilies mean fall in colorado. the smell of them roasting on street corners starts in august and finishes in november, but late september and early october are the best time. i can't smell them without thinking of raking leaves and drinking cider and having a fire. it's a cozy smell. there is a festival dedicated to roasted chilies in the town where i work, and my husband and i always go, lugging about at least a bushel of roasted goodness to take home with us. the air is like mace, the pace is frantic, and farmers sweat themselves nearly to death managing the barrels roasters and flame throwers that make the humble pepper a thing of beauty. over one hundred thousand people came this year to celebrate chilies- and we never buy enough. (as an aside- a festival completely dedicated to foodstuffs is a thing of beauty all its own. there should be more of them.)
i never really ate green chili as a kid- a rare thing for somebody who grew up in colorado. it's like the state food. but my parents weren't from here and really didn't like the spicy mexican fare, so i grew up eating a lot of asian inspired cuisine. the first time i had green chili, it was a revelation. (thank you, banana. you gave me the gift of chili too! no wonder i love you.) i can't even put into words the wonder of a good green chili. my best friend and i make it often, and when i'm welcoming somebody to colorado (in this case my brother's new bride! i'll write about the wedding soon- but it was lovely, if really really cold.) green chili is the first thing i make them. it's thick, spicy, warm, and filling, and has the flavors of sunshine and heat to keep you remembering the blistering summer all through the year. it's love in a pot.
Sharon's Gluten-free Green Chili
brown 1-2 pounds of boneless pork (could be stew meat, or chops- whatever is on sale. it's going to cook forever, so it doesn't have to be fancy meat) in some olive oil
add in 1 onion, diced fine, and 5-6 cloves of garlic, minced.
cook until onion is tender, then add in a pound of roasted green chili, skinned and minced fine
sautee together for about ten minutes
in a seperate dutch oven, melt half a stick of butter on medium heat, then add in a quarter cup of gluten free flour (i use Bob's red mill all purpose) to make a roux. cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly, until the roux is light brown. add in 8 to 10 cups of water or broth (if using water, then add in the appropriate amount of boullion to make a broth). dump in the pork mixture.
dice up quite a lot (however much you want, really- i like my stew really potato-y) of yukon gold potatoes and put them in the chili. (i know the potatoes sound weird, but it's traditional if you're making the chili as a main dish. if you're making it as a gravy, you leave em out) add in two cans of rotel. season with salt and pepper- and then walk away. you're going to have to simmer this bad boy for at least 45 minutes on low, stirring occasionally. it's better if you leave it an hour, but that's hard to do sometimes.
come back, and serve it up! we like to have corn tortillas with it, and put sour cream and cheese in the soup, especially if you have little ones eating it. it can be VERY spicy. fair warning. eat it up, warm yourself, and think of summer.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
nostalgia
people always ask me what life was like for me as a kid. i'm not sure if this is a question that a lot of people get, but i guess when you grow up the way i did, folks get curious. it's not every day that people run in to somebody who has twelve adopted brothers and sisters, who was homeschooled from kindergarten though twelfth grade, and who was actually adopted herself. my family is huge, boisterous, and in your face, and how we all survived til adulthood (or mostly adulthood- my youngest sister is eleven. that makes her nineteen years younger than me. yeah, we're pretty weird all right.) is a mystery even to us. my mom also tells me that when she dies, i can write a book as payback for my childhood. so, to both embarrass her (cause it's a bitch, right?) and satisfy some other nosey parker's curiousity, i shall now occasionally write vignettes of my childhood right here. i think it will be theraputic for me, if nothing else, and most likely cheaper than therapy...
we didn't have summer vacation at my house. we had summer, of course. but where other people had time off from school, days to sleep in and be lazy, and camp, my family had... work. see, that's the problem with being homeschooled. even in the summer, you can't flippin' leave. (this was also the case with snow days. school's not closed if you live at school. it's a miracle i still talk to my mother.) my siblings and i would wait and wait and wait for memorial day, hoping against wild hope that this year- this year would be the year that we'd get to relax, maybe go on vacation or to waterworld- something normal and fun. and every year we would be dissappointed.
we'd usually get a day or two where my dad wouldn't wake us up yelling "up and at em!" at seven am (followed by a quick ripping off of the covers) to lull us into a false sense of security. and then, after a day or two of relative leasure, my mom would come up with this summer's work project. she'd always announce it with happiness (or maybe glee) at the lunch table. one memorable summer's work was "we're going to break up the old cement basketball slab, save all the pieces, and use them to build a patio on the second terrace of our back yard! which reminds me. we're also going to build a terrace!" (i do wish i was kidding about this, by the way.) this was usually met with the appropriate amount of enthusiasm- which is to say, none at all, accompanied by frantic phone calls to relatives for temporary custody. and when my mom would say things like "we're all going to work on this for a couple of hours every day, and i'm sure it will be done really fast!" we all knew that what she really meant was "you guys are going to be getting up at six thirty and working for at least six hours every day while i supervise. the girls will get your meals. you won't be getting paid at all or have any reward whatsoever except living in my house, but i will count your work as p.e. credit! won't that be nice!" it was not nice, by the way. (notice the volunteering of "the girls" in the food prep. i am nine years older than my next sister in line, so what my mom really meant was "S will get your meals." i learned to cook for an army by the age of 15. cause have you ever seen how much nine boys will eat after a morning's labor? i got a summer job pretty quick, i can tell you.)
it always looked odd, too. my parents live in a pretty nice area of our fair city, and they (because this needs to be said in my family) are anglo. my siblings, on the other hand? are not. now, just imagine being a hapless stranger driving through out neighborhood at random. my brothers are all in my parent's very nice front yard, dismally swinging shovels and pickaxes in their white tank tops and dirty shorts, all while looking like they would give anything to escape. what do you think you might believe was going on there? yup. they look like a chain gang. ahhh, forced labor. we never really did get a whole lot of people driving down our street more than once, come to think of it.
we weren't allowed to leave the house until our allotted work was done for the day, and even then it was often a struggle. my mom is a great checker of your work, and she's also a perfectionist, so we often ended up doing the same bit of a job over and over til it was entirely correct. (she counted this as "life skills" credit.) this was every summer of my childhood- at least until i got a paying job. my family has always been about everybody making their own money, and they didn't stop me when i got that first job at the movie theater. (for which i also got free movies. it's a pretty cushy deal when you're sixteen.) i think i might have been the only person there who thought of their job as an escape from work. i'm completey grown now, and out of the house, but my youngest siblings are still in the work gang, digging dirt and moving cement all summer. when i visit and see their misery, all i can tell them is "get a job! it's the only way...." cause the words "summer vacation" still don't mean a thing. actually, come to think of it, they might mean "free landscaping". or "those kids as sure as certain not getting into trouble on my watch!" (yeah right.) but they certainly don't mean "freedom" or "fun". at least not in my house.
we didn't have summer vacation at my house. we had summer, of course. but where other people had time off from school, days to sleep in and be lazy, and camp, my family had... work. see, that's the problem with being homeschooled. even in the summer, you can't flippin' leave. (this was also the case with snow days. school's not closed if you live at school. it's a miracle i still talk to my mother.) my siblings and i would wait and wait and wait for memorial day, hoping against wild hope that this year- this year would be the year that we'd get to relax, maybe go on vacation or to waterworld- something normal and fun. and every year we would be dissappointed.
we'd usually get a day or two where my dad wouldn't wake us up yelling "up and at em!" at seven am (followed by a quick ripping off of the covers) to lull us into a false sense of security. and then, after a day or two of relative leasure, my mom would come up with this summer's work project. she'd always announce it with happiness (or maybe glee) at the lunch table. one memorable summer's work was "we're going to break up the old cement basketball slab, save all the pieces, and use them to build a patio on the second terrace of our back yard! which reminds me. we're also going to build a terrace!" (i do wish i was kidding about this, by the way.) this was usually met with the appropriate amount of enthusiasm- which is to say, none at all, accompanied by frantic phone calls to relatives for temporary custody. and when my mom would say things like "we're all going to work on this for a couple of hours every day, and i'm sure it will be done really fast!" we all knew that what she really meant was "you guys are going to be getting up at six thirty and working for at least six hours every day while i supervise. the girls will get your meals. you won't be getting paid at all or have any reward whatsoever except living in my house, but i will count your work as p.e. credit! won't that be nice!" it was not nice, by the way. (notice the volunteering of "the girls" in the food prep. i am nine years older than my next sister in line, so what my mom really meant was "S will get your meals." i learned to cook for an army by the age of 15. cause have you ever seen how much nine boys will eat after a morning's labor? i got a summer job pretty quick, i can tell you.)
it always looked odd, too. my parents live in a pretty nice area of our fair city, and they (because this needs to be said in my family) are anglo. my siblings, on the other hand? are not. now, just imagine being a hapless stranger driving through out neighborhood at random. my brothers are all in my parent's very nice front yard, dismally swinging shovels and pickaxes in their white tank tops and dirty shorts, all while looking like they would give anything to escape. what do you think you might believe was going on there? yup. they look like a chain gang. ahhh, forced labor. we never really did get a whole lot of people driving down our street more than once, come to think of it.
we weren't allowed to leave the house until our allotted work was done for the day, and even then it was often a struggle. my mom is a great checker of your work, and she's also a perfectionist, so we often ended up doing the same bit of a job over and over til it was entirely correct. (she counted this as "life skills" credit.) this was every summer of my childhood- at least until i got a paying job. my family has always been about everybody making their own money, and they didn't stop me when i got that first job at the movie theater. (for which i also got free movies. it's a pretty cushy deal when you're sixteen.) i think i might have been the only person there who thought of their job as an escape from work. i'm completey grown now, and out of the house, but my youngest siblings are still in the work gang, digging dirt and moving cement all summer. when i visit and see their misery, all i can tell them is "get a job! it's the only way...." cause the words "summer vacation" still don't mean a thing. actually, come to think of it, they might mean "free landscaping". or "those kids as sure as certain not getting into trouble on my watch!" (yeah right.) but they certainly don't mean "freedom" or "fun". at least not in my house.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
september is for soup
hi there! how was your labor day? hopefully awesome and filled with the kind of wonder that only the holiday at the end of summer can bring. i've never really been sure of what labor day celebrates, unless it's some unspoken homage to the god of grills or something. if you lived in my mom's house, though, it was meant for labor. she'd make us get up at six in the morning and build something, or clean something, or move stuff around. (my mom is a furniture hoarder, and is constantly having to rearrange her house to make room for another couple of couches or a dresser. she has dressers in the living room. i am sadly not kidding.) i, as the oldest and the only person who had any ability to cook, would have to make lunch and dinner for my millions of brothers who would be hungry, hot, and cranky from the forced, well... labor. this was the story of every labor day of my childhood. in fact, i was often the only cook in my house, and had to perfect the "quick food for a crapton of people" recipes that save my butt in the kitchen to this day. my mom wouldn't let me leave the house until i had something for dinner going, which was my chore for four nights a week. the other nights were pizza night, lasagna sunday, and leftovers. (these nights, by the way? never change. and the lasagna is the frozen kind that comes from sam's. i never can make it to sunday without the nostalgic smell of the many times my mom forgot to take the carboard off the lasagna before cooking it coming flooding back to my nostrils...)
anyway, i learned very quickly that one of the best and cheapest (why cheap? oh, cause i had to make the food budget lists for the family too. i don't think this qualifies as child abuse, but i'm not completely sure on that.) ways to feed the fam was to make soup. one pot meals are always the way to go, as you can cram a whole heck of a lot of stuff into one pot, set it cooking, and then flee the scene while you still have permission to use your dad's car. i've gotten pretty expert at soups of all kinds, and make them whenever an occasion calls for it. my chef husband even steals my recipes for the restaurant sometimes, and that's pretty much the biggest "i love you- and your food" i ever get from that guy. labor day, for me as an adult, means the beginning of soup season and my favorite time of year to actually get up and cook something.
my new favorite soup, since the discovery that wheat makes me seven different kinds of sick, is lentil. there's a bunch of folks who just made that "yukky" face that's sometimes seen on poison bottles when i said that, but trust me. it's good. it's also vegetarian- in fact, it's vegan and is completely non-processed in terms of ingredients and you can get almost all the stuff for it at your local farmer's market, if you're so inclined. i pretty much get all the ingredients at walmart, but i am a poor librarian. do whatever your conscience tells you is right, luke. so here's the recipe of the day: gluten free, vegan lentil soup. the ingredients might seems a little weird, but it's the best stuff ever with some cheese (not vegan then, i guess) on top and some rice crackers or a sandwich. yum. i love september.
Lentil Soup
sautee up one diced onion and four cups sliced carrots in olive oil til they are nice and tender
add in two cans of rotel tomatoes and chilis, undrained (or some diced up tomatoes and green chilis from the market, if you wanna)
put in six-eight cups of water and veggie boullion, or veggie broth, or even chicken broth if you don't care about that
rough chop a big bunch of spinach and put that in the pot too
add in 1 and 1/2 cup of green lentils
season with salt and pepper
add the juice and zest of two lemons
simmer for 45 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
serve with cheddar cheese on top, if you're eating cow products, and put in some lovely almond crackers or a sandwich of some kind. perfect for those days in september that have a little nip to them.
anyway, i learned very quickly that one of the best and cheapest (why cheap? oh, cause i had to make the food budget lists for the family too. i don't think this qualifies as child abuse, but i'm not completely sure on that.) ways to feed the fam was to make soup. one pot meals are always the way to go, as you can cram a whole heck of a lot of stuff into one pot, set it cooking, and then flee the scene while you still have permission to use your dad's car. i've gotten pretty expert at soups of all kinds, and make them whenever an occasion calls for it. my chef husband even steals my recipes for the restaurant sometimes, and that's pretty much the biggest "i love you- and your food" i ever get from that guy. labor day, for me as an adult, means the beginning of soup season and my favorite time of year to actually get up and cook something.
my new favorite soup, since the discovery that wheat makes me seven different kinds of sick, is lentil. there's a bunch of folks who just made that "yukky" face that's sometimes seen on poison bottles when i said that, but trust me. it's good. it's also vegetarian- in fact, it's vegan and is completely non-processed in terms of ingredients and you can get almost all the stuff for it at your local farmer's market, if you're so inclined. i pretty much get all the ingredients at walmart, but i am a poor librarian. do whatever your conscience tells you is right, luke. so here's the recipe of the day: gluten free, vegan lentil soup. the ingredients might seems a little weird, but it's the best stuff ever with some cheese (not vegan then, i guess) on top and some rice crackers or a sandwich. yum. i love september.
Lentil Soup
sautee up one diced onion and four cups sliced carrots in olive oil til they are nice and tender
add in two cans of rotel tomatoes and chilis, undrained (or some diced up tomatoes and green chilis from the market, if you wanna)
put in six-eight cups of water and veggie boullion, or veggie broth, or even chicken broth if you don't care about that
rough chop a big bunch of spinach and put that in the pot too
add in 1 and 1/2 cup of green lentils
season with salt and pepper
add the juice and zest of two lemons
simmer for 45 minutes or until the lentils are tender.
serve with cheddar cheese on top, if you're eating cow products, and put in some lovely almond crackers or a sandwich of some kind. perfect for those days in september that have a little nip to them.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
why am i not sleeping? *now with recipes!*
i gotta be up at 6:15 am tomorrow, ducklings. why, oh why am i NOT SLEEPING? i wish i knew. insomnia is no fun at all... by the time i actually enter dreamland that dang alarm clock will have gone off and i'll be driving my happy ass to the middle of nowhere to provide library services to possibly five people. i just keep telling myself that i love my job (repeat as mantra til i start to believe it) and that i'm thankful to have it. sigh. if i could just get over ambiguous job descriptions, people's hurt feelings, non-working phones, and the fact that i have to deal with middle school aged children, i would have a dream job. apparently this is why i went to college. don't tell my mom.
so, life hasn't been all that fun lately. work is hard, i got an awful creepy crud coming back from my vacation that made my 30th birthday both miserable and anticlimactic, and i completely screwed myself in terms of money and my husband (who is usually the most longsuffering dude on the planet) found out about it. guess which thing has caused the most trouble? yup, the money. i have got to figure out how to handle money. it's a weakness that i have had to deal with since i had money to spend resulting in a horrible credit score, a debt settlement, and a lot of marital spats. well, no longer. i have a budget spreadsheet, which makes me feel quite the adult, and a complete intent to use it. we'll see. the best part is that it does all the adding for me, as i am a moron who has completely failed at all things math. i'm going to say that math is more of a "concept" to us artistic types than "fact" but the "fact" is that math comes up and bites me in the butt every dang time. (i want you to imagine me doing the air fingers thing with the quotation marks in the last sentence.) so i am hoping that this will work. after all, if i can stick to the danged gluten free diet, i can stick to a budget, right?
speaking of the gluten freeness, i have been cooking and i have found a recipe! first off, i was having quite a time finding gluten free cream of mushroom soup and was despairing, as i am american and that's a pretty crucial ingredient to most of our haute cuisine. i was overjoyed to find out that walmart has a gluten free mushroom soup that's quite good and doesn't break the budget. so, i was going to make pot roast tonight, and i always use the packet for the slow cookert, til i looked at it this morning and saw that they third ingredient on the label was "wheat gluten". and then i panicked, cause i already had the roast thawed and i had no beef boullion and what the heck was i gonna do cause i needed to go to work in half an hour! and then i calmed down and made this recipe. it's good too! and i'm not just saying that- the three people i live with also really liked it. so here i go: first recipe on this site- just for you!
Gluten Free Pot Roast (capitalized so you know it's important)
1 5lb rump roast
1 can gluten free cream of mushroom soup (from walmart)
1/4 C gluten free soy sauce
1 small bag baby carrots
1 onion, sliced
1 C water
1/4 C gluten free flour
salt and pepper to taste
season the roast with the salt and pepper. put in crockpot, along with the soup, soy sauce, water, and veggies. (you can brown the meat first if you want it to stay together, i prefer my pot roast as more of a stew.) cook on low 8 hours, or high 4 hours. when you come back to the roast, there should be a lot of juices. take out about a half a cup of the juice and put in the bowl with the flour. add a little tap water til the mix becomes a slurry. add to the rest of the roast in the pot, straining if it's lumpy. this makes the gravy! give it another ten minutes or so and then eat with potatoes or noodles.
ok- gonna try to go to sleep now. i'll see every body on the flip side!
so, life hasn't been all that fun lately. work is hard, i got an awful creepy crud coming back from my vacation that made my 30th birthday both miserable and anticlimactic, and i completely screwed myself in terms of money and my husband (who is usually the most longsuffering dude on the planet) found out about it. guess which thing has caused the most trouble? yup, the money. i have got to figure out how to handle money. it's a weakness that i have had to deal with since i had money to spend resulting in a horrible credit score, a debt settlement, and a lot of marital spats. well, no longer. i have a budget spreadsheet, which makes me feel quite the adult, and a complete intent to use it. we'll see. the best part is that it does all the adding for me, as i am a moron who has completely failed at all things math. i'm going to say that math is more of a "concept" to us artistic types than "fact" but the "fact" is that math comes up and bites me in the butt every dang time. (i want you to imagine me doing the air fingers thing with the quotation marks in the last sentence.) so i am hoping that this will work. after all, if i can stick to the danged gluten free diet, i can stick to a budget, right?
speaking of the gluten freeness, i have been cooking and i have found a recipe! first off, i was having quite a time finding gluten free cream of mushroom soup and was despairing, as i am american and that's a pretty crucial ingredient to most of our haute cuisine. i was overjoyed to find out that walmart has a gluten free mushroom soup that's quite good and doesn't break the budget. so, i was going to make pot roast tonight, and i always use the packet for the slow cookert, til i looked at it this morning and saw that they third ingredient on the label was "wheat gluten". and then i panicked, cause i already had the roast thawed and i had no beef boullion and what the heck was i gonna do cause i needed to go to work in half an hour! and then i calmed down and made this recipe. it's good too! and i'm not just saying that- the three people i live with also really liked it. so here i go: first recipe on this site- just for you!
Gluten Free Pot Roast (capitalized so you know it's important)
1 5lb rump roast
1 can gluten free cream of mushroom soup (from walmart)
1/4 C gluten free soy sauce
1 small bag baby carrots
1 onion, sliced
1 C water
1/4 C gluten free flour
salt and pepper to taste
season the roast with the salt and pepper. put in crockpot, along with the soup, soy sauce, water, and veggies. (you can brown the meat first if you want it to stay together, i prefer my pot roast as more of a stew.) cook on low 8 hours, or high 4 hours. when you come back to the roast, there should be a lot of juices. take out about a half a cup of the juice and put in the bowl with the flour. add a little tap water til the mix becomes a slurry. add to the rest of the roast in the pot, straining if it's lumpy. this makes the gravy! give it another ten minutes or so and then eat with potatoes or noodles.
ok- gonna try to go to sleep now. i'll see every body on the flip side!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
things happen....
again, it seems, i have let too much time lapse between our chats. i am sorry. i care for you, my ducklings, i really do. life just gets in the way of me speaking with you regularly, which honestly is a pretty shabby excuse for laziness. i do have quite a few hours in the day that i could use to speak, but for some reason they're taken up with the very important pursuits of reading trashy mysteries i find on my library shelves and watching youtube videos about mermaids. i really wish i was making the mermaid thing up, by the way. i'm not. ahh, the life of a bored librarian. but let's turn our attention to something a wee bit more edifiying, shall we?
so, three weeks ago, part of my city burned down. the waldo canyon fire, in its incredible day of destruction, burned over three hundred homes in my neighborhood. i don't really have a lot to say about that- the media and local and state governments have done a really amazing job letting people know what's been going on in our neck of the woods. my husband, cat, room mate, and i were evacuated for five days- we weren't in any danger (the fire ended about a mile and a half from our house) but we needed to be out of the way of the firefighters and law enforcement people who were doing their very important jobs. i could go on and on about how much being evacuated stunk, and how i know that i will never ever ever again be able to live with my parents for longer than five days, and how one large cat vs. two small dogs equals total chaos, but it's not important. we're home and we're safe. there are a lot of people who can't say that, and i know or have met a good majority of them. not only do i live near the burn area, but i was a local librarian there for five years, and we're a pretty close community. hearts were broken, and now it's time to heal. i also would like this to be my heartfelt thank-you to the firefighters and law enforcement who took an absolutely horrible situation and made it better. things could have been so much worse, and i thank everybody involved from the bottom of my heart. you're heroes, you know.
also during this wonderful time, i made a rather unfortunate personal discovery. i had been trying to loose weight for my trip to new orleans (i am going for my thirtieth birthday. thirty! geez.) and started a diet where i wasn't eating many carbs. i have been struggling my whole life with intestinal issues, and pretty much thought that i would just have to live with em and that they weren't that bad. well, a side effect of not eating a lot of carbs is not eating a lot of wheat products. i started doing that, and within TWO DAYS i had no more stomach issues. no more symptoms. huh, i thought. so i looked up gluten intolerance on the interwebs, and i had nine out of ten of the symptoms. so no more gluten for me, i guess. i know that there's a test that you get that confirms celiac disease and such, but i'm not going to pay money to get it done. all i know is that i didn't feel good, i stopped eating gluten, and now i do feel good. that's all i need to know.
of course, this means a life change. i don't have a problem sticking to the diet, because i feel better. i do have a problem with being a foodie, as now i can't eat in nearly all the places i want to, and i have a baked goods issue that is as shameful as it is problematic. i am no baker, so making my own won't work for me. i have a bit of grief over no more italian restaurants (yes, the chains have gluten free menus. with salad on them. and gummy pasta with marinara. not what i want, i tells ya.), no more green chili and fried food at the fair, no more cinnamon rolls at the mall..... and the list goes on. but i feel like crap if i eat it now, and i can't believe i put up with that level of discomfort for that long. it's just a life change that is really hard, because i love food and experiencing new foods, and eating out with friends, and the having to be so careful is really quite a drag. sigh.
ok. that was not the same level of suck as the fire, i know. hose of us dealing closely with the fire are still in a bit of shock. someday, i'll be able to write about how much it breaks my heart, seeing my mountains blackened and charred, seeing rubble instead of homes on the hillsides, knowing families who have lost it all.... but the wound is still too fresh. so i'll mope instead about my dietary restrictions and be sad that a favorite part of my life isn't really available to me any more- it's a coping mechanism.
hopefully my next post will be a return to goofy, with maybe a side of gluten-free recipes thrown in for good measure. we'll see. i'm ready for happy.
so, three weeks ago, part of my city burned down. the waldo canyon fire, in its incredible day of destruction, burned over three hundred homes in my neighborhood. i don't really have a lot to say about that- the media and local and state governments have done a really amazing job letting people know what's been going on in our neck of the woods. my husband, cat, room mate, and i were evacuated for five days- we weren't in any danger (the fire ended about a mile and a half from our house) but we needed to be out of the way of the firefighters and law enforcement people who were doing their very important jobs. i could go on and on about how much being evacuated stunk, and how i know that i will never ever ever again be able to live with my parents for longer than five days, and how one large cat vs. two small dogs equals total chaos, but it's not important. we're home and we're safe. there are a lot of people who can't say that, and i know or have met a good majority of them. not only do i live near the burn area, but i was a local librarian there for five years, and we're a pretty close community. hearts were broken, and now it's time to heal. i also would like this to be my heartfelt thank-you to the firefighters and law enforcement who took an absolutely horrible situation and made it better. things could have been so much worse, and i thank everybody involved from the bottom of my heart. you're heroes, you know.
also during this wonderful time, i made a rather unfortunate personal discovery. i had been trying to loose weight for my trip to new orleans (i am going for my thirtieth birthday. thirty! geez.) and started a diet where i wasn't eating many carbs. i have been struggling my whole life with intestinal issues, and pretty much thought that i would just have to live with em and that they weren't that bad. well, a side effect of not eating a lot of carbs is not eating a lot of wheat products. i started doing that, and within TWO DAYS i had no more stomach issues. no more symptoms. huh, i thought. so i looked up gluten intolerance on the interwebs, and i had nine out of ten of the symptoms. so no more gluten for me, i guess. i know that there's a test that you get that confirms celiac disease and such, but i'm not going to pay money to get it done. all i know is that i didn't feel good, i stopped eating gluten, and now i do feel good. that's all i need to know.
of course, this means a life change. i don't have a problem sticking to the diet, because i feel better. i do have a problem with being a foodie, as now i can't eat in nearly all the places i want to, and i have a baked goods issue that is as shameful as it is problematic. i am no baker, so making my own won't work for me. i have a bit of grief over no more italian restaurants (yes, the chains have gluten free menus. with salad on them. and gummy pasta with marinara. not what i want, i tells ya.), no more green chili and fried food at the fair, no more cinnamon rolls at the mall..... and the list goes on. but i feel like crap if i eat it now, and i can't believe i put up with that level of discomfort for that long. it's just a life change that is really hard, because i love food and experiencing new foods, and eating out with friends, and the having to be so careful is really quite a drag. sigh.
ok. that was not the same level of suck as the fire, i know. hose of us dealing closely with the fire are still in a bit of shock. someday, i'll be able to write about how much it breaks my heart, seeing my mountains blackened and charred, seeing rubble instead of homes on the hillsides, knowing families who have lost it all.... but the wound is still too fresh. so i'll mope instead about my dietary restrictions and be sad that a favorite part of my life isn't really available to me any more- it's a coping mechanism.
hopefully my next post will be a return to goofy, with maybe a side of gluten-free recipes thrown in for good measure. we'll see. i'm ready for happy.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
random list of bad clothing choices i saw in chipotle
ok, let's face it. i spend an inordinate amount of time in chipotle mexican grill. i can't help it. they just need to stop putting crack in all of their food- because that's really the only reason i can think of that would result in my level of chronic addiction. also, the burritos are the size of my head. when you're as poor as i am, that's a really big selling point. at any rate, i'm there a lot. for some reason, the chipotle that i frequent has a lot of people who make fashion choices that most kindly could be described as "questionable" and unkindly described as "awful". now, i'm not against making a bold fashion statement, mind, but well- just let me tell you what i've seen:
#1: brown girl in brown, skintight volleyball shorts. now, i know that one of our local high school's colors are white and brown- i get that. but this girl's skin was the exact same shade as her teeny tiny shorts, and i first saw her from behind. she looked like she was only wearing a shirt. a short shirt. i was horrified until she turned around, and then i realized that she had an androgynous barbie doll front. i was still horrified, but only to understand that she didn't care that people might think she was going around bare-assed. ahh, to be seventeen again.
#2: pith helmet and short shorts with sandals on a portly gentleman. it may not have actually been a pith helmet, but dude looked like indiana jones crossed with an elderly day tourist. i almost expected him to burst out with an "egad! an oriole in its natural environment! take its picture with me for posterity! include my whip!" except for that we were in a chain burrito restaurant.
#3 a younger guy with pockets that were entirely too decorated. i don't have much to say about this- you've all seen those guys. but seriously- how do they sit down comfortably? i would think all that ass bling chafes.
#4 hipster in light blue and grey striped shirt, khaki cargo shorts, and black air jordans with knee high black socks. i guess when you're still figuring out your identity, your wardrobe can become confused. it's all: "i'm a sensitive, poetry writing, dave matthews band loving, tree hugging liberal" on top and "i can talk about sports!!!!! see? i have basketball shoes! i'm like a gangster!" on the bottom. gotta play to all the demographics, ya know. who knows what the girls like nowadays, anyway?
in case you guys are wondering, except for one of these, i saw all of this today. my chipotle is, frankly, awesome like that. and no. i'm not telling you where it is. get your own people watching restaurant! (preferably one that puts crack in their food. it helps with the people watching if you have to be there all the time.)
#1: brown girl in brown, skintight volleyball shorts. now, i know that one of our local high school's colors are white and brown- i get that. but this girl's skin was the exact same shade as her teeny tiny shorts, and i first saw her from behind. she looked like she was only wearing a shirt. a short shirt. i was horrified until she turned around, and then i realized that she had an androgynous barbie doll front. i was still horrified, but only to understand that she didn't care that people might think she was going around bare-assed. ahh, to be seventeen again.
#2: pith helmet and short shorts with sandals on a portly gentleman. it may not have actually been a pith helmet, but dude looked like indiana jones crossed with an elderly day tourist. i almost expected him to burst out with an "egad! an oriole in its natural environment! take its picture with me for posterity! include my whip!" except for that we were in a chain burrito restaurant.
#3 a younger guy with pockets that were entirely too decorated. i don't have much to say about this- you've all seen those guys. but seriously- how do they sit down comfortably? i would think all that ass bling chafes.
#4 hipster in light blue and grey striped shirt, khaki cargo shorts, and black air jordans with knee high black socks. i guess when you're still figuring out your identity, your wardrobe can become confused. it's all: "i'm a sensitive, poetry writing, dave matthews band loving, tree hugging liberal" on top and "i can talk about sports!!!!! see? i have basketball shoes! i'm like a gangster!" on the bottom. gotta play to all the demographics, ya know. who knows what the girls like nowadays, anyway?
in case you guys are wondering, except for one of these, i saw all of this today. my chipotle is, frankly, awesome like that. and no. i'm not telling you where it is. get your own people watching restaurant! (preferably one that puts crack in their food. it helps with the people watching if you have to be there all the time.)
Thursday, June 14, 2012
i can't get no satisfaction
hi there ducklings! i thought i might just drop in and give all of you a brief update on my life. it's been.... odd. i'm happy with what's going on, for the most part, but everything i'm doing right now gives me a slight bitter taste in my mouth- like fruit that's still pretty good but just starting to turn, or a really good cheese that might just have sat in the fridge a day too long. like it's still tasty, but there's that hint of "not ok". it's enough to make you think, "maybe i shouldn't have eaten that.... wow, i really hope i don't get sick." even though you enjoyed it. this is what my life tastes like right now.
odd thing number one: my job. for the most part, i love what i'm doing. i'm currently a mobile librarian, which isn't to say that i work on a mobile library, but that i myself am mobile. i drive to rural areas to provide library support to the local schools, enabling the entire population to have access to materials and resources- not just the children who are attending. that is very rewarding. that part of the job i love- seeing the kids and their parents come in every day, planning crafts and story times, encouraging participation in the summer reading program... this is all wonderful, and exactly what i want to be doing. i'm excited to start implementing adult programming in the fall, and to start preparing my communities for the new "real" libraries that will be built starting next year. it's exhilarating. it's awesome, and fun, and makes me proud. but- ahh, you say, where's the bitter with all that sweet?
i hate my boss. with a passion. she's not a bad person, in fact, she's quite nice- but she's absolutely horrible to work for. she never provides information i need, never provides the proper training, forgets to tell me crucial pieces of information i need to do my job properly, and every single time i ask to do something new or different or better or slightly outside my job description, she stonewalls me. simply shuts me down. and belittles me in the process. oh, she does it kindly- i really don't think that she means anything but well in her head- but when i get told things like "well, you just don't know- you're new" or "that's just not how we do things here, you'll understand more once you get your feet wet" or "it's not you your volunteers are working for, it's the district- you need to remember that you have no real authority there" i want to scream. i have been a working library employee for six years. i have received as much training as i was allowed to get. i know what i'm doing. i've done it before. this is making me nuts. i just want to do my job as well as i know how, and i'm not being allowed to. bitter, bitter, bitter. it makes me want to rinse out my mouth.
odd thing the second: my diet. i've been on the fence with the diet thing for a long time. i've been wanting to get healthy for a while- not skinny, just healthy. i have a lot of familial health risks that are directly tied to being overweight, and i'm determined not to have them. i want to still be able to walk up stairs when i'm fifty, and i don't want to get diabetes, so i finally decided to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. what a concept, eh? so i called a friend who has done it, and she helped me come up with a manageable diet plan that i think i might actually be able to follow- i've already made it a record four days. (yeah i know. i'm a pathetic human being with absolutely no will power. so what?) i'm not hungry. i have a lot of people who are helping me. i'm thrilled that this isn't that hard! so what's wrong this time?
my weightloss buddy just decided to move to california. on tuesday. like in five days tuesday. how am i going to do this without my weightloss buddy? i have support from my best friend, and my husband, and i think another friend wants to go on the plan with me, but i need her! yeah i know, i can email and talk on the phone, but it's not the same as knowing that she could drive to my house and slap the shit outta me if i decide that my diet choice that day is going to be eating a pint of icecream and lying around in my underpants watching the mentalist. (i'm not saying i've ever made this choice. i certainly didn't make it a couple of saturdays ago. you have no proof.) i'm just a little bitter. she's making the choice she needed to make, for personal reasons, so i can't begrudge her. i just am selfishly sad that she has to go now! man... it tasted so good.
there are more odd things going on- things that are so good, but have that lingering aftertaste of regret, or anger, or sadness.... i want to be satisfied. i should be satistfied.... but i'm not. i need something perfectly delicious to come along. here's to hoping! (maybe it's just because i'm new.... or not.)
odd thing number one: my job. for the most part, i love what i'm doing. i'm currently a mobile librarian, which isn't to say that i work on a mobile library, but that i myself am mobile. i drive to rural areas to provide library support to the local schools, enabling the entire population to have access to materials and resources- not just the children who are attending. that is very rewarding. that part of the job i love- seeing the kids and their parents come in every day, planning crafts and story times, encouraging participation in the summer reading program... this is all wonderful, and exactly what i want to be doing. i'm excited to start implementing adult programming in the fall, and to start preparing my communities for the new "real" libraries that will be built starting next year. it's exhilarating. it's awesome, and fun, and makes me proud. but- ahh, you say, where's the bitter with all that sweet?
i hate my boss. with a passion. she's not a bad person, in fact, she's quite nice- but she's absolutely horrible to work for. she never provides information i need, never provides the proper training, forgets to tell me crucial pieces of information i need to do my job properly, and every single time i ask to do something new or different or better or slightly outside my job description, she stonewalls me. simply shuts me down. and belittles me in the process. oh, she does it kindly- i really don't think that she means anything but well in her head- but when i get told things like "well, you just don't know- you're new" or "that's just not how we do things here, you'll understand more once you get your feet wet" or "it's not you your volunteers are working for, it's the district- you need to remember that you have no real authority there" i want to scream. i have been a working library employee for six years. i have received as much training as i was allowed to get. i know what i'm doing. i've done it before. this is making me nuts. i just want to do my job as well as i know how, and i'm not being allowed to. bitter, bitter, bitter. it makes me want to rinse out my mouth.
odd thing the second: my diet. i've been on the fence with the diet thing for a long time. i've been wanting to get healthy for a while- not skinny, just healthy. i have a lot of familial health risks that are directly tied to being overweight, and i'm determined not to have them. i want to still be able to walk up stairs when i'm fifty, and i don't want to get diabetes, so i finally decided to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. what a concept, eh? so i called a friend who has done it, and she helped me come up with a manageable diet plan that i think i might actually be able to follow- i've already made it a record four days. (yeah i know. i'm a pathetic human being with absolutely no will power. so what?) i'm not hungry. i have a lot of people who are helping me. i'm thrilled that this isn't that hard! so what's wrong this time?
my weightloss buddy just decided to move to california. on tuesday. like in five days tuesday. how am i going to do this without my weightloss buddy? i have support from my best friend, and my husband, and i think another friend wants to go on the plan with me, but i need her! yeah i know, i can email and talk on the phone, but it's not the same as knowing that she could drive to my house and slap the shit outta me if i decide that my diet choice that day is going to be eating a pint of icecream and lying around in my underpants watching the mentalist. (i'm not saying i've ever made this choice. i certainly didn't make it a couple of saturdays ago. you have no proof.) i'm just a little bitter. she's making the choice she needed to make, for personal reasons, so i can't begrudge her. i just am selfishly sad that she has to go now! man... it tasted so good.
there are more odd things going on- things that are so good, but have that lingering aftertaste of regret, or anger, or sadness.... i want to be satisfied. i should be satistfied.... but i'm not. i need something perfectly delicious to come along. here's to hoping! (maybe it's just because i'm new.... or not.)
Friday, May 25, 2012
los tiempos van cambiando
i'm going to admit it- i like bob dylan. not his singing, necessarily- in fact, not his singing at all (pitch, dude, pitch. if you sing through your nose... well, it's going to sound like you're singing through your nose. but i guess you've become an icon while doing so, so why am i criticizing?), but his songwriting skills. the dude truly is a poet. i've been listening pretty much constantly to "the times, they are a changing" the last couple of weeks, and it sums up what's been going on for me. everything is changing. it's very hard for me, but it's good change. it just means that most of my life plans have to be reconsidered. what am i talking about? well....
i got a new job. finally, after eleven interviews and infinite feelings of uselessness, i got a new job. in a new city, with a new district. it's what i wanted. i can't even begin to pretend that i didn't want this. i knew i needed to leave, and i finally am, but i keep experiencing doubt. this job is going to be hard and thankless, with a lot of driving and working by myself in rural parts of the state. that's not necessarily my problem with it, although the $50 a week gas bill in itself gives me pause. my new boss is already retiring, i'm only getting three days of training before i start, and i am the only librarian for twenty miles during summer reading, which hey! i missed the training. we'll see- i just don't like unknowns. on the plus side, i now have insurance and a 401k. it's almost like i'm a grownup. the thing is, this new job means that i will be moving again in ten months, which i hate. it means that i will soon leave my family and my friends to start a different adventure. it means i might go back to school and finally get that masters that i always dreamed about. it's a lot of life change to get with one phone call- and did i mention that i hate change?
i also, as part of the new job thing, am a proud owner of a new car. i needed one, as the old vehicle was falling apart. the new car thing was ridiculously scary for me. i have horrible credit, and couldn't get a car loan, so my father was helping me find financing. it didn't come through, and didn't come through, until he called me the day before i needed to purchase my vehicle to tell me that a wonderful friend of the family bought the car for me. i cried for an hour. there's nothing quite like unexpected generosity to floor you and shake you to the core. i know that i have a lot of friends who don't believe in a higher power, but it's things like this that make me do so.... i was praying in the shower at the same time as my father was finding out that my car would be bought for me. i kept asking, over and over, that everything would work out beyond my wildest dreams... and they did. coincidence? sure. but not to me. so, i have a new car, and a newfound faith in humanity at the least and god at the most, with all the excitement that it brings. i'm like a little kid with their first car- i keep wanting to buy it things, and wash it, and name it.... names are still being thought of. any suggestions would be nice.
si... los tiempos van cambiando. it's a hard thing to come to terms with, but really, truly, and honestly- it's wonderful. i'm excited.
i got a new job. finally, after eleven interviews and infinite feelings of uselessness, i got a new job. in a new city, with a new district. it's what i wanted. i can't even begin to pretend that i didn't want this. i knew i needed to leave, and i finally am, but i keep experiencing doubt. this job is going to be hard and thankless, with a lot of driving and working by myself in rural parts of the state. that's not necessarily my problem with it, although the $50 a week gas bill in itself gives me pause. my new boss is already retiring, i'm only getting three days of training before i start, and i am the only librarian for twenty miles during summer reading, which hey! i missed the training. we'll see- i just don't like unknowns. on the plus side, i now have insurance and a 401k. it's almost like i'm a grownup. the thing is, this new job means that i will be moving again in ten months, which i hate. it means that i will soon leave my family and my friends to start a different adventure. it means i might go back to school and finally get that masters that i always dreamed about. it's a lot of life change to get with one phone call- and did i mention that i hate change?
i also, as part of the new job thing, am a proud owner of a new car. i needed one, as the old vehicle was falling apart. the new car thing was ridiculously scary for me. i have horrible credit, and couldn't get a car loan, so my father was helping me find financing. it didn't come through, and didn't come through, until he called me the day before i needed to purchase my vehicle to tell me that a wonderful friend of the family bought the car for me. i cried for an hour. there's nothing quite like unexpected generosity to floor you and shake you to the core. i know that i have a lot of friends who don't believe in a higher power, but it's things like this that make me do so.... i was praying in the shower at the same time as my father was finding out that my car would be bought for me. i kept asking, over and over, that everything would work out beyond my wildest dreams... and they did. coincidence? sure. but not to me. so, i have a new car, and a newfound faith in humanity at the least and god at the most, with all the excitement that it brings. i'm like a little kid with their first car- i keep wanting to buy it things, and wash it, and name it.... names are still being thought of. any suggestions would be nice.
si... los tiempos van cambiando. it's a hard thing to come to terms with, but really, truly, and honestly- it's wonderful. i'm excited.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
i've been neglecting you....
ahh, my ducklings, i have been neglecting you. i am sorry. it's been a busy month. for a small recap, i moved into my wonderful, awesome, lovely, and huge new place. it is as advertised- well, except for the kitchen, which leaves a bit to be desired, (i would like to have a word with the people who design kitchens. seriously, guys, wtf? why would you design an entire kitchen with drawers that are too small to fit a silverware tray? i have to keep my cutlery on the counter. also, pantries are good. not having a pantry means that my friend's small children can throw my canned goods at each other. i'm pretty much not a fan of that. ) but on the whole the amount of space is awesome. i never want to leave. plus it has a pool and summer is coming. 'nough said.
i also went on a great big huge trip to go see my biological family. i go and see them about once a year for a week, which is all i can handle without going out of my mind with frustration. it's a unique situation, as i've been a part of my birth-family's life since i was ten. that means that i am a really-truly sister to my two half-brothers, even if they don't feel that way to me. it also means that my birthmom wants to be treated more like a legitimate parent, and i am not prepared or willing to treat her that way. it's hard. my loyalties lie firmly with my adoptive family. they've been mine since the day i was born, and i love them more than life itself. my bio family is mine simply through genetics. i am nothing like them, they understand me not at all (with the exception of my youngest brother. we get each other. i like to think that it's because i've been a presence in his life for so long, but it's not that as much as he really is a very good guy. ), and i can't take their selfish mindset. it's bad. and this time, i took my husbot with me! he had it rough, but this is the one and only time he has to go. we did some fun stuff, we ate some awesome food, and we didn't kill anybody. that's a successful trip.
the worst part of this last month was not getting yet another promotion. i shouldn't be mad about this, by the way. i didn't want the job. but it still stings like nothing i've ever felt simply because it was at the library where i've worked for the last five years. they didn't promote me because they felt that i wasn't professional enough. (also i had a bad interview. that's the part that eats at me the most, because i usually nail those.) then they hired a guy with the same amount of professional experience as me. i hate to say they hired him because he has a penis, but i really feel that's the case. he has flat-out asked me why they didn't hire me, as i'm more qualified than he is. sigh. going to work is hard right now. i just have to keep on telling myself that something will come along, i'm just starting to feel that the job will not be with my district, so i'm looking elsewhere. c'mon pueblo! build those new libraries already!
i'm just so happy summer is coming. it's my favorite time of the year. i can't wait to fish, and go to farmer's markets, and bluegrass festivals, and go camping. i can't wait to wear tank tops, and decorate the library for the summer reading program. i can't wait to not have to work in the university kitchen a couple days a week. two of my friends are having babies, and i can't wait to get started on their blankets. i did also finish a couple of shawls, so i need to get this pictures up. things will be good. they are good. i can feel it.
i also went on a great big huge trip to go see my biological family. i go and see them about once a year for a week, which is all i can handle without going out of my mind with frustration. it's a unique situation, as i've been a part of my birth-family's life since i was ten. that means that i am a really-truly sister to my two half-brothers, even if they don't feel that way to me. it also means that my birthmom wants to be treated more like a legitimate parent, and i am not prepared or willing to treat her that way. it's hard. my loyalties lie firmly with my adoptive family. they've been mine since the day i was born, and i love them more than life itself. my bio family is mine simply through genetics. i am nothing like them, they understand me not at all (with the exception of my youngest brother. we get each other. i like to think that it's because i've been a presence in his life for so long, but it's not that as much as he really is a very good guy. ), and i can't take their selfish mindset. it's bad. and this time, i took my husbot with me! he had it rough, but this is the one and only time he has to go. we did some fun stuff, we ate some awesome food, and we didn't kill anybody. that's a successful trip.
the worst part of this last month was not getting yet another promotion. i shouldn't be mad about this, by the way. i didn't want the job. but it still stings like nothing i've ever felt simply because it was at the library where i've worked for the last five years. they didn't promote me because they felt that i wasn't professional enough. (also i had a bad interview. that's the part that eats at me the most, because i usually nail those.) then they hired a guy with the same amount of professional experience as me. i hate to say they hired him because he has a penis, but i really feel that's the case. he has flat-out asked me why they didn't hire me, as i'm more qualified than he is. sigh. going to work is hard right now. i just have to keep on telling myself that something will come along, i'm just starting to feel that the job will not be with my district, so i'm looking elsewhere. c'mon pueblo! build those new libraries already!
i'm just so happy summer is coming. it's my favorite time of the year. i can't wait to fish, and go to farmer's markets, and bluegrass festivals, and go camping. i can't wait to wear tank tops, and decorate the library for the summer reading program. i can't wait to not have to work in the university kitchen a couple days a week. two of my friends are having babies, and i can't wait to get started on their blankets. i did also finish a couple of shawls, so i need to get this pictures up. things will be good. they are good. i can feel it.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
new, new, NEW!
As everybody who reads this knows, i have had problems (to put it mildly) with my lodgings. the husbot and i finally got a place of our own, and then the good room mate finished school. he had gone away for a bit, and bad room mate took his place, creating the life havoc that drained me of my will to live last year. well, good roomie came back. i love the guy, i really do, but he gave me exactly three hours notice that he was going to be staying with us indefinitely. all we got was a phone call saying "hey guys, i'm in cheyenne! i'll be there in a couple of hours! can't wait to see you! where can i put my sleeping bag?" and that was in december. the astute among you will see that it's currently march, and dude is still sleeping on my office floor. something here just ain't working for me.
and, in a weird twist of fate, it's not working for the husbot either. i think the reason he wasn't nearly as put out by bad room mate's behavior was that it never really effected him at all. he could still play his games until the wee hours of the morning, and nobody ever kicked him out of his personal space or routine. he's easy-going at the best of times, and bad room mate wasn't bothering him, so why did action need to be taken? welp, now good dude kicks him out of his computer space at nine pm. and apparently that's the straw that breaks the camel's back. who knew? so, all of us weren't happy with life, people were crabby, things had to change. and i, being the mover and shaker of the bunch, done changed em. go me!
i started looking at craigslist for rental listings that would suit our needs- three bedrooms, two bathrooms, not in the ghetto... and the first person i called had a listing that i thought would work. 3 beds, 3 baths, 3 floors. the best part? exactly four blocks from my library. and the price was lower than our max. of course i went to go see it right after work. and immediately fell in love. it was perfect! everything i could want, and i didn't even need to pay a pet deposit. i pretty much forced the guys to look at it, and to make a long story short, we get the keys in a week and a half. you've never seen three more ecstatic people.
this could be the best thing that happened too me all year, and i'm including in that the time i went to the yarn store and found out quite by accident that they were having a 25% off sale. yup. it's that good. sooo.... who wants to help me move?
and, in a weird twist of fate, it's not working for the husbot either. i think the reason he wasn't nearly as put out by bad room mate's behavior was that it never really effected him at all. he could still play his games until the wee hours of the morning, and nobody ever kicked him out of his personal space or routine. he's easy-going at the best of times, and bad room mate wasn't bothering him, so why did action need to be taken? welp, now good dude kicks him out of his computer space at nine pm. and apparently that's the straw that breaks the camel's back. who knew? so, all of us weren't happy with life, people were crabby, things had to change. and i, being the mover and shaker of the bunch, done changed em. go me!
i started looking at craigslist for rental listings that would suit our needs- three bedrooms, two bathrooms, not in the ghetto... and the first person i called had a listing that i thought would work. 3 beds, 3 baths, 3 floors. the best part? exactly four blocks from my library. and the price was lower than our max. of course i went to go see it right after work. and immediately fell in love. it was perfect! everything i could want, and i didn't even need to pay a pet deposit. i pretty much forced the guys to look at it, and to make a long story short, we get the keys in a week and a half. you've never seen three more ecstatic people.
this could be the best thing that happened too me all year, and i'm including in that the time i went to the yarn store and found out quite by accident that they were having a 25% off sale. yup. it's that good. sooo.... who wants to help me move?
Thursday, March 1, 2012
rejection
remember when i told everybody about applying for the job in a different city? well, i got an interview. it went really well too, but i still didn't get the job. why? because, in a fluke move, somebody applied who had nineteen years of library experience and a master's degree. i was second, as i have a paltry six years and a bachelor's. i hate that. i hate being told that i had an awesome interview. i hate being told that there's nothing i should be doing to make myself more marketable- that i'm already doing it all. i just can't hold a candle to nineteen years.
i'm not so dissapointed i could spit though. i did speak with the community director for twenty minutes about the job, and she did say that they lady who got the job and i were the most qualified candidates by far, and that she really wants me to apply again. she thinks my skills are good, and that i would be an asset to the district, and to keep looking for jobs down there. i appreciate that. so many times when i have interviewed, i've just gotten a curt "we picked somebody else" call or not even that much. i always value the feedback, and i came away feeling like i was somebody they'd hire in the future. she will see my name on her desk again. as soon as a full-time position comes up.
so is this rejection? i don't really know. i feel sad because i would have loved doing the work, and i want to branch out. however, i'm coming away with a good taste in my mouth- something i haven't gotten from this job in the last five years. i feel like i am wanted there. i have never felt like that here. that's good. i'll keep on trying.
as for trying, i finished a couple of things. i finished knitting socks out of my goodbye yarn from my friend, and they look lovely with my furry winter boots. fuzzy boots plus wooly socks equals warm feet, which is good considering that the coldest wettest part of winter should soon be upon us- the time of year that other people call spring. i also completed a hat for my nerd friend. apparently she's currently obsessed with anything nathan fillion, and wanted jayne's hat from "firefly". shockingly (or not, if you know any knitters) i was able to find at least ten patterns for it on ravelry, so i cobbled a bunch together and made my own. it looks good. i got a picture of it, and then promptly deleted it, so i need to get another one. as soon as that happens, i'll post a pic or two. i have a little shawl in the works, and am still trucking along on those mittens! at least i'm staying busy.
ps- i'm a little obsessed with anything nathan fillion too. he's just so dang cute.
i'm not so dissapointed i could spit though. i did speak with the community director for twenty minutes about the job, and she did say that they lady who got the job and i were the most qualified candidates by far, and that she really wants me to apply again. she thinks my skills are good, and that i would be an asset to the district, and to keep looking for jobs down there. i appreciate that. so many times when i have interviewed, i've just gotten a curt "we picked somebody else" call or not even that much. i always value the feedback, and i came away feeling like i was somebody they'd hire in the future. she will see my name on her desk again. as soon as a full-time position comes up.
so is this rejection? i don't really know. i feel sad because i would have loved doing the work, and i want to branch out. however, i'm coming away with a good taste in my mouth- something i haven't gotten from this job in the last five years. i feel like i am wanted there. i have never felt like that here. that's good. i'll keep on trying.
as for trying, i finished a couple of things. i finished knitting socks out of my goodbye yarn from my friend, and they look lovely with my furry winter boots. fuzzy boots plus wooly socks equals warm feet, which is good considering that the coldest wettest part of winter should soon be upon us- the time of year that other people call spring. i also completed a hat for my nerd friend. apparently she's currently obsessed with anything nathan fillion, and wanted jayne's hat from "firefly". shockingly (or not, if you know any knitters) i was able to find at least ten patterns for it on ravelry, so i cobbled a bunch together and made my own. it looks good. i got a picture of it, and then promptly deleted it, so i need to get another one. as soon as that happens, i'll post a pic or two. i have a little shawl in the works, and am still trucking along on those mittens! at least i'm staying busy.
ps- i'm a little obsessed with anything nathan fillion too. he's just so dang cute.
Friday, February 10, 2012
impulse control
my income tax came in. actually, my state income tax came in, even before the federal, so i'm a wee bit confused about that- but no matter, i got money! and as all reasonable and rational people do, i decided that i would save it. nest eggs are good!
and then i spent it.
well, actually, i didn't spend all of it. i didn't even spend half, but i still feel guilty about it, seeing as i've been cut a day at work, and money's a bit tight. ya know how i was making fun of my friend with all the yarn? (whom i totally adore, by the way. she gave me goodbye yarn. obviously she knows the way to my heart. yarn, and three musketeers bars. i will love her forever.) well, ummm..... i spent my money on yarn too. i walked into the yarn shop with sixty dollars. anybody who knows a lot about yarn can tell you that sixty bucks really isn't a lot of money to spend on yarn, and i don't have a credit card. i thought "hey, i'm going to limit myself. i can only spend the money that i have in my wallet. this is good." nope. there was a gas station with an atm within walking distance. and guess who walked her happy butt over there to use it? *points with thumbs* this kid.
it was the sock yarn that did it. oh, they have sock yarn. (i have never been to this shop, by the way. it was a new shop for me, and i think that may have been part of the problem.) i got three skeins of it, and blew my sixty bucks right there. but man, this sock yarn..... well, you don't even know. let's just say that i have a weakness for anything acid green and leave it at that. but three new pairs of socks, in really cool patterns? well, that's at least a month of knitting fun right there. i paid the man, and he went into the back to wind my yarn for me (i might add here- a dude working in a yarn shop? totally hot. he was straight too. sixty, with grandkids, but straight. i love that. and the fact that i thought it hot- quite bothersome.) and i felt quite proud of myself. but then i wandered over to the knitting notions and saw.....
sock keepers. yup. i have been coveting them with all the covetousness of my heart for just about ever. and then i hopped myself over to the atm. i bought three. i never have this many socks in progress. three?? what the hell, me. sigh. and i got needles too. ya know. so i can make more socks. to justify the sock keepers. eiii.
so there it is. i can't tease my friend any more again ever. please don't tell my husband?
and then i spent it.
well, actually, i didn't spend all of it. i didn't even spend half, but i still feel guilty about it, seeing as i've been cut a day at work, and money's a bit tight. ya know how i was making fun of my friend with all the yarn? (whom i totally adore, by the way. she gave me goodbye yarn. obviously she knows the way to my heart. yarn, and three musketeers bars. i will love her forever.) well, ummm..... i spent my money on yarn too. i walked into the yarn shop with sixty dollars. anybody who knows a lot about yarn can tell you that sixty bucks really isn't a lot of money to spend on yarn, and i don't have a credit card. i thought "hey, i'm going to limit myself. i can only spend the money that i have in my wallet. this is good." nope. there was a gas station with an atm within walking distance. and guess who walked her happy butt over there to use it? *points with thumbs* this kid.
it was the sock yarn that did it. oh, they have sock yarn. (i have never been to this shop, by the way. it was a new shop for me, and i think that may have been part of the problem.) i got three skeins of it, and blew my sixty bucks right there. but man, this sock yarn..... well, you don't even know. let's just say that i have a weakness for anything acid green and leave it at that. but three new pairs of socks, in really cool patterns? well, that's at least a month of knitting fun right there. i paid the man, and he went into the back to wind my yarn for me (i might add here- a dude working in a yarn shop? totally hot. he was straight too. sixty, with grandkids, but straight. i love that. and the fact that i thought it hot- quite bothersome.) and i felt quite proud of myself. but then i wandered over to the knitting notions and saw.....
sock keepers. yup. i have been coveting them with all the covetousness of my heart for just about ever. and then i hopped myself over to the atm. i bought three. i never have this many socks in progress. three?? what the hell, me. sigh. and i got needles too. ya know. so i can make more socks. to justify the sock keepers. eiii.
so there it is. i can't tease my friend any more again ever. please don't tell my husband?
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
ambition
ahhhh. finally. after too many months, i seem to be pulling myself out of the funk that i've been in. it's been since september, i think, that i really was completely happy and at ease, and i am truly thankful to return to even a shadow of my former happiness. i don't know whether it was the seasons changing (winter is always hard for me) or my relationship/ room mate issues chronicled in another post, but this winter was challenging. i'm hoping it's getting better. with the return of my positivity, i'm suddenly becoming professionally confident again.
today i did something that i never have done before. i applied for a job with a different district, in a different city. i have NO IDEA if i will even be considered for the job, but i meet all the criteria. it's not like it's far away- only a thirty minute drive from where i live now- but the fact that i'm even actively looking elsewhere is a huge step for me. quite the departure from the norm. of course i'm scared. but i keep telling myself that the worst thing that could happen is that they will tell me no. and how badly off would that leave me? exactly where i am right now. and really, that's not bad at all.
i keep wondering why this is something that is hard for me. after all, i just put in an application- it's not like i'm a shoe-in, or that they even know me. i don't have an interview. it was just the application. nothing more. i guess it's more symbolic for me- a sign that i don't have to be tied to the same city i grew up in, that i'm completely willing to branch out. (i'm trying to forget that most of my in-laws live there, and that i spent quite a lot of time there when my husband and i were dating. it's a new city, dang it.) and i want this. i want to do more. i'm professionally ready to do more. and with nine rejections in my district, i think that perhaps a change is in order. and i'm ready.
and i'm totally putting the cart before the horse. i know this. i can't let myself get too excited about anything, because at least for me, that makes the rejection so much worse. but.... but..... i'm excited. because i made that first step, and that's one of the best feelings i've had in a very long time.
in other news- i am knitting for me and loving it. i finished the first of a set of colorwork mittens (my first time doing colorwork, which knocks one of those new year's resolutions right off the list. one down, like nineteen million more to go) and it looks lovely. i'm really happy with how they seem to be turning out! i've also finished one of a pair of boot socks for me (are yall starting to sense a theme here?) and i love them as well. the yarn for the socks was a goodbye present from my library friend who retired (the one with all the yarn... remember her?) and it's a little sad to knit it, but the socks will be lovely. next up- stash enrichment. i used all my yarn at christmas. and with the income tax coming in...... ahhh, dreams. it'll be good.
today i did something that i never have done before. i applied for a job with a different district, in a different city. i have NO IDEA if i will even be considered for the job, but i meet all the criteria. it's not like it's far away- only a thirty minute drive from where i live now- but the fact that i'm even actively looking elsewhere is a huge step for me. quite the departure from the norm. of course i'm scared. but i keep telling myself that the worst thing that could happen is that they will tell me no. and how badly off would that leave me? exactly where i am right now. and really, that's not bad at all.
i keep wondering why this is something that is hard for me. after all, i just put in an application- it's not like i'm a shoe-in, or that they even know me. i don't have an interview. it was just the application. nothing more. i guess it's more symbolic for me- a sign that i don't have to be tied to the same city i grew up in, that i'm completely willing to branch out. (i'm trying to forget that most of my in-laws live there, and that i spent quite a lot of time there when my husband and i were dating. it's a new city, dang it.) and i want this. i want to do more. i'm professionally ready to do more. and with nine rejections in my district, i think that perhaps a change is in order. and i'm ready.
and i'm totally putting the cart before the horse. i know this. i can't let myself get too excited about anything, because at least for me, that makes the rejection so much worse. but.... but..... i'm excited. because i made that first step, and that's one of the best feelings i've had in a very long time.
in other news- i am knitting for me and loving it. i finished the first of a set of colorwork mittens (my first time doing colorwork, which knocks one of those new year's resolutions right off the list. one down, like nineteen million more to go) and it looks lovely. i'm really happy with how they seem to be turning out! i've also finished one of a pair of boot socks for me (are yall starting to sense a theme here?) and i love them as well. the yarn for the socks was a goodbye present from my library friend who retired (the one with all the yarn... remember her?) and it's a little sad to knit it, but the socks will be lovely. next up- stash enrichment. i used all my yarn at christmas. and with the income tax coming in...... ahhh, dreams. it'll be good.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
finally! christmas knitting pictures!
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| one tiny little dolly skirt. the pattern- mine from my head, with a little guidance from ravelry. |
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| a little dolly jacket |
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| the dolly jacket with the girl-sized partner (for my littlest sister. would you not die to get these?) |
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| almost all the socks i made- there are two pairs missing as i gave them away early |
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| the finished and complete dolly outfit! |
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| mom's socks- basic sock recipe a la stephanie pearl-mcphee |
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| courtney's socks, same pattern |
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| anna's socks- topographical socks from ravelry, and her baby's socks too! oh so cute. |
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| dolly jacket from out of my head |
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| and the same with the hat! |
Thursday, January 5, 2012
down time
so, i know i promised yall knitting pics of all the holiday goodness. sorry about that... i seem to only get to post from work. seriously, i'm not a slacker, but we seem to have... well, an excessive amount of downtime lately. generally, i don't mind being lazy, and generally i like my job, but lately it's been hard to get up and come in to the library. we've remodeled, and reconfigured, and had efficiency experts in, so we've streamlined the job process. too much. but hey, i have been able to get to level sixteen in online bejeweled, and i am VERY up to date on my facebook. spam emails do not accumulate. all this is a long way of saying that although i get to post regularly, i haven't quite stooped to bringing my camera to work. yet.
why can't i give you knitting pictures from home, you ask? well, the husbot and friend we have staying with us have taken over the computers for a indefinite LAN party, and i can't even get over the mountain dew bottles and cheeto bags to get to the computer, let alone wrest it away from the husbot for a minute or two. i guess the moral of that story is never marry a gamer, but it's too late for me. i can only give advice.
however, i have started new projects! i bought new yarn! oh oh oh i am so excited. my first stranded colorwork pattern is on the needles, and i have only had to frog it once so far. i am making mittens, because my hands were cold right before christmas. now it's 50 plus degrees out every day, but i am doggedly working away on those mittens- after all, this is colorado, and it will snow in april. which is when the mittens will be done. hopefully. i also bought a lot of sock yarn, but i am waiting for the mail man. actually, i am waiting for my friend's mail man, as i bought yarn on her account. i have no credit or debit card (this is a good thing) so i figured if she was going to buy a million dollar's worth of yarn she could tack a few skeins on there for me. and now she's in louisiana on family business and i am antsy in my pantsy. why? because i get to knit for ME! so excited!
so anyways, i thought i'd give an update in my downtime. cause what else am i going to do? pretty soon, i'll be gambling away the family fortune (don't make me laugh) in online poker. help me.....
why can't i give you knitting pictures from home, you ask? well, the husbot and friend we have staying with us have taken over the computers for a indefinite LAN party, and i can't even get over the mountain dew bottles and cheeto bags to get to the computer, let alone wrest it away from the husbot for a minute or two. i guess the moral of that story is never marry a gamer, but it's too late for me. i can only give advice.
however, i have started new projects! i bought new yarn! oh oh oh i am so excited. my first stranded colorwork pattern is on the needles, and i have only had to frog it once so far. i am making mittens, because my hands were cold right before christmas. now it's 50 plus degrees out every day, but i am doggedly working away on those mittens- after all, this is colorado, and it will snow in april. which is when the mittens will be done. hopefully. i also bought a lot of sock yarn, but i am waiting for the mail man. actually, i am waiting for my friend's mail man, as i bought yarn on her account. i have no credit or debit card (this is a good thing) so i figured if she was going to buy a million dollar's worth of yarn she could tack a few skeins on there for me. and now she's in louisiana on family business and i am antsy in my pantsy. why? because i get to knit for ME! so excited!
so anyways, i thought i'd give an update in my downtime. cause what else am i going to do? pretty soon, i'll be gambling away the family fortune (don't make me laugh) in online poker. help me.....
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