Charlie

Good times.
http://khromax.com/

The weather continues to be psychotic but that is all right. I am enjoying it because I don't have to stand out at some bus stop. I went grocery shopping this morning, found a present for Senor Onion's birthday & then took the time to do something just for myself. I went and had hot chocolate with home-made marshmallows. I didn't have any children to watch over, I could just sit and be. It was pleasant as it was pouring outside. It's the little things. Eventually I came home and was back to being responsible Mummy.

I worked on a recipe that is nearly ready. I baked two Christmas cakes, which will spend the next month or so relaxing with some booze. (like someone's maiden aunt) Senor Onion did not nap and made him a little frantic but we got through it together by doing some baking. Thankfully his sister did nap. Miss Biscuit you are earning yourself a pony.

In fun grown-up health news I got my lab results. In many ways I am one healthy horse, but it seems I suffer from a pretty darn extreme vitamin D deficiency veering into the "severe" category. I don't have bendy bones or anything but I now have a prescription for a crazy-high dose of the stuff. The doctor told me that even with eating foods that are boosted with Vitamin D ,(milk, juice and so on) taking a multi-vitamin and going out everyday in the sun -it doesn't do much. In this part of the world we don't get the intensity from the sun in the Autumn/Winter to get our dose. It doesn't mean I should give up walks; (because they do a lot for my health/sanity in other ways) I just need to add more to the diet. I also have some anemia and a B-12 deficiency. (even though I am taking a crazy high amount of that now as well.) An excuse to eat steak? *snorts* This should take care of some things. Hey now we have an extra excuse to think about a vacation some where sunny next year. "The wife...she ails."

Anyhow...

I am making chicken with onions and peppers. I will cook up some polenta and a spinach salad with that. This damn chicken seems to be lasting forever. I will be happy to see it gone. I shall think of it as practice for Thanksgiving.

Now to not move for a few minutes.

So, so sad.

So here I am at the Manhattan Cafe, across the street from my gym! I am going to be productive! I am going to accomplish 1) signing up for Yuletide, and 2) working on grad school applications! Subsets include 1a) writing my Dear YuleAuthor letter, 2a) finishing emails requesting recommendation letters, and 2b) making a Plan for what I am going to do with my resume, statement of purpose, and getting ahold of someone, anyone, at PSU's theater department!

Yay!

I always feel so much better when I have a good solid list.

vruba and I made a little game called Khromax. It’s simple and addictive and has pretty moving colors and sounds.

You can play it on that there web site right now. Or, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch and are willing to part with the outrageous sum of $0.99, you can play the much niftier multi-touch version on those things.

I did most of the programming  — unfortunately breaking my proud multi-decade streak of never learning any dialect of C — and Vruba did some graphic design. Also, bikko talked us into a few sensible things like version control and not being too terrified of openGL.

That game again is Khromax, on the web or on your phone. Tell your friends to ask for it by name!

This is Joan McCracken in "Ballet in Jive" from the movie "Hollywood Canteen". It is a surreal number but fantastic for the dancing. Her career in films was limited (she died rather young and mostly did specialty dancer bits) but her rare appearances were amazing. Kind of like Carol Haney in that respect. I came across this piece tonight and she was equal parts funny and beautiful. Definitely a rare combination in dance.

.....

And now some random thoughts that have nothing to do with anything.

The weather has been hilariously psychotic. Thunder and lightning then glorious blue skies then rain that goes sideways with the wind. A little something for everyone who appreciates vaguely biblical weather. I am waiting on the locusts.

Today was the enormous procession/memorial for the policeman who was murdered last weekend. The route effectively left our neighborhood kind of stuck from going anywhere unless one took a rather bothersome detour. Errands were left for another day. When we went out on our walk this morning we saw some of the hundreds of police cars coming through. It was quite a sight. There were people from all over the Northwest and B.C.

Apparently babies mimic the accent of their Mother when crying. The idea being that it will quickly grab a Mother's attention. Intriguing stuff.

Laughter, good friends and philosophical convictions.

According to the Social Security office, to change my name I should either mail them my passport, birth certificate, current SS card, and driver's license--or I can go to their local office between 9am and 4pm, Monday through Friday.

UGH.

Same for DMV, except there I get to pay $77 for the pleasure of changing my name on the car title.

UGH UGH UGH.

I haven't even looked at what I need to do for my banks and health insurance.

&haterade;

Letting some of the what was weighing heavily on my mind out into the open helped a fair amount. I had a nice conversation with Mr. Jenner last night. It wasn't some hysterical conversation. It was rather calm and relaxing. I am attempting to make an effort to let go of some of the stress. Not forcing certain situations and letting go here and there.

Right now I am working my way through a bread and chocolate bar by Theo. It makes many things okay.

Now to find some attractive tops that work with the whole breastfeeding gig. I am beginning to despair when I get dressed in the morning. I don't need a ton of things, but gosh darn I want a couple of things that make me want to get dressed. I think my problem is that I have a waist again and it seems some of the things that are "tres chic" are what I like to refer to as the "hiding a pregnancy" tent top. Obviously if I ever think it would be a fun idea to have another baby, I should time it based on the style of the season. Dammit I have lost weight. I want to show the world. Grumble grumble.

Today I made a bunch of chicken stock, some chicken pie and a batch of muffins for breakfast. Tomorrow I may make a cake. I also took the kids to the library. It was kind of a mad-house. Maybe it was because it was pouring and kids didn't have much outside time. Post-storyhour it is a bit like a rabid cocktail party in the children's section. You have people running around, getting overly emotional and repeating the same story over and over and if you are lucky someone trips over their own feet. Have you ever been to that party? I know I have. Thankfully in the children's section you don't have too many people vomiting in a corner or going through your medicine cabinet.

My first Christmas family of the year. :) I love this time of the year - shooting all of my annual clients, seeing their families grow - and meeting new clients for the first time!

bigger, on black: decluttr.com/4048400516

I think my major interest in sociology is searching for dark matter. And this is the type of sociology where I compare Pomelos to the HDI, and also the type of sociology where I rant about the nihilist bourgeois.

The galaxy can't keep spinning based on what we see, society can't keep functioning based on what we see. Something else invisible is propelling things.

Sophie came to visit and I did my best to play tour guide in this city that is slowly assuming the title of "home." We went to the botanical gardens on a rainy afternoon, staked out a soggy greenhouse for a drawing session over chocolate and camembert.  Sophie is wonderful. Seeing old friends from the states makes me feel a bit more whole. I met a psychotherapist with mauve furniture and I'll see her again next week. The biggest stress this week was a presentation about french feminist writers and Woman as metaphor. My partner bailed, so I presented to my class of graduate students and held my own pretty damn well. The presentation had to be a minimum of ten minutes long but I facilitated conversation for two hours. Bam.

After all that heavy talk, it is time to keep it light or something.
I made a pretty damn delicious chicken for dinner. It was so good that it made Mr. Jenner feel much better. That's right. My roast chicken will cure colds and make blind men see and lame men walk.
I broke up a head of garlic and put it in the cavity and then brushed the skin with olive oil and sprinkled a bit of sel gris and pepper on top. Put it in the oven and let it do its sexy thing. (i.e. roast at 325F 20 min per pound) I peeled/sliced up a carrot, two kinds of potatoes and a delicata squash and roasted that as well. It is part of a recipe I am working on. It was very pretty and it tasted delicious. (I will write more about that in another post) Then I made a spinach salad with dried cherries and chevre. The chicken wasn't dry, had a terrific aroma and like I said makes sick people feel better. Where is my nobel prize for cooking?

There was pumpkin ice cream and lemon sorbet for dessert. And a hot bath for me. I live for hot baths. Hot baths make many things better.

I think it is time to lie down and read Bill Bryson. Bill Bryson chills me out.

I may have severely pinched some sort of nerve around my neck area. If I sit upright for too long I get an awful headache and I also have a tingly sensation up/down my legs and I have a bit of weakness in my hands. Sometimes there is some vertigo as well. (that is always fun.) I have been to to the doctor about it. Right now we are ruling out vitamin deficiencies and the like before sending me off to some specialist to sort out the headaches. (I have an appt lined up for that in a month) I am quite all right if I am standing/walking or lying down. But when one has a fairly young infant there is a fair amount of sitting involved. So there are many breaks through-out the day where I have to go and lie down or go for a walk.

( what else is going on )

OMGWTFYULETIDE signups are open til Thursday the 12th! yaaaaaaay!!!

The new Persephone Book catalogue came in the mail today. I love looking through it and making lists of what I desperately need from them. One of the best books I read this year came from them. It was Mariana by Monica Dickens. I loved it so much and pressed it upon a number of people. I told friends they had to read this and I think I helped build a minor cult for this book. It was just so perfectly written. I have read other books this year but there is part of me that keeps looking for something to match up to Mariana. I want to go to a really good bookseller and say, "Something like this dammit!" The publishers describe the book as,
"a hot-water bottle novel one to curl up with on the sofa on a wet Sunday afternoon."
Nuff said.

Maybe I need to read some more EM Delafield to distract me for the time being until I find that next great book.

This book review looks mighty entertaining.

...

I didn't accomplish a great deal today, though maybe I did. Sometimes it is hard to tell. We baked brownies and then I took the kids out for a walk. We watched this impressive concrete pumper being used to pour sidewalks a block over. We also watched men smooth out the concrete for the sidewalks. I did a few loads of laundry and even got things folded/put away. It struck me that I could build a whole business around going to people's homes and doing just that. It is easy to throw things in the wash/dryer but most hate the folding/putting away business. The clean clothes begin to pile up and it becomes this awful monster in the house. I don't terribly care for folding clothes, but I am a bit rabid about it. It is a slightly complicated task these days because I have a toddler who wants to "help". Though his version of help means throwing things around and being an imp. If I can fold laundry without the assistance of one Senor Onion, it can be a fairly relaxing chore that I enjoy. It is methodical and it appeals to my yen to put things in categories. Don't mess with my piles.
When I wasn't waxing weird about laundry I held a baby. Boy am I ever good at that. Just a lot of holding.
But by four o'clock I was worn out dinner really wasn't going to be made. I decided to order thai food. There is a new-ish place that is up the hill from us and it has decent reviews -for a thai place. And it was indeed all right for Thai food. They were darn quick for take-out, not too expensive and the country-style Phad Tai wasn't all ketchupy. I like their noodles. I am curious to try some of their curry. Spring rolls weren't all that interesting. But that is okay. So we have another place to get food from now and then.

Mr. Jenner has settled down to having a cold/cough. He doesn't have a mancold. I just need to make him tea and tell him to take a throat lozenge now and then. Plus I washed his pajamas and changed the bedclothes on the bed and put a hotwater bottle on his side of the bed. I think that cures a lot of things.

Dinner has been thrown a bit off the past few days so tomorrow I may devote myself to creating something nice. Finally roasting a damn chicken and doing something with the acorn squash.

When I was a little girl my Mother would read me the stories of Strega Nona and Big Anthony by Tomie DePaola. They were delightful and funny books about a Grandma witch and her assistant who was kind of a tall gangly absent-minded guy. Obviously I have taken a lot of inspiration from Strega Nona and the deep belief in certain cures for what ails you. Garlic. Plenty of garlic.

Mr. Jenner had quite a temp yesterday. I made him sleep, drink tea, eat so much garlic in various forms and rest. This morning he has no fever and the chills/aches are gone. He is a bit stuffed up but that is all right. He looks much better and all is fairly well once again at Chez Anglo-America.

The sky is rather pretty this morning. Maybe I will take the kids out for a walk or something. But first there is laundry to attack. For there is always piles of laundry.

About, oh, 20 times a day, I wish I could summon people over, break their staff in two, and then dismiss them from the order.

When I think that recently, it means either 1. Kava 2. Food 3. Sleep

I think I am going to go and get 1&3

But, just because I am temperamental and mean doesn't mean I am wrong. If I could break staffs, I would probably do it.