My wedding anniversary is Tuesday. Andy and I will have been married for three years. But Tuesday is a shitty day for a celebration, because of working the next day and being old and going to bed early, so we are celebrating this weekend!
We started last night with an awesome sort-of-fancy dinner. It was at a restaurant that's just over half an hour away, that we went to a few years ago. I remembered it being fancier, and felt a little overdressed in my fancy dress and shiny silver shoes, sitting next to a lady in a pastel sweatshirt and denim capris. But the food was excellent and the wine was great and the dessert was overly generous, so we left happy.
Then, since we were on that side of town anyway, we went to the little town I went to high school in and saw Transformers 3: Whatever It's Subtitled at the awesome little theater there. The movie was exactly what you'd expect from a third movie in a series based on a tv show based on action figures. The model they got to be the lead girl wasn't any worse than Megan Fox (which, really, would have taken some doing) and her big ol' lips make me think that kissing her must be sort of like making out with a warm Clementine.
We got home late and I slept in nice and late this morning, and we've spent most of the day stripping our new-to-us bedroom furniture. The bedframe and nightstands are being stripped with this delightful shit called CitriStrip, which I absolutely love. It's a thick orangish gel that smells like fruit that you paint on, then wait a while, then scrape off. Once that's all done, we're finishing them with an awesome gray shade called Sunbleached. I can't wait to see it all done.
I'm going to go eat some of my refrigerator pickles (WHICH ARE SO GOOD) while I wait for the stripper stuff to set on our next batch. I hope you all are having such an awesome weekend too!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Public Service Announcment
Disclaimer: I am about to talk about pee a lot. (If any dudes read this, which I sort of think is unlikely, I'm also going to mention menstruation! You're welcome!)
I had a minor freak-out this morning when I got up to pee: My pee was pink. At first I thought I had started my period a few days early and with no other warning signs, but upon further investigation realized this wasn't the case. I thought about it for a moment, but I'm not at my best in the morning, so I just sort of figured Andy had done something weird like flush something reddish before he left for work. I went on about my day and managed, because I am a scatterbrain, to completely forget about it.
Mid-morning, I peed at work, and the pee was RED. I suddenly remembered that this was the second time today, and no joke, I started to sweat. I felt fine, I wasn't in any way unwell, but I was apparently peeing blood! Or something!
I started taking a mental inventory of all the things that have been going into and coming out of my body in the last few days, searching for possible culprits. I've been eating a lot of salad, and I had a shitload of cherries in the last few days, but half of those were golden cherries anyway so that wouldn't be it, and I had a bunch of black raspberries, and I ATE A SHITTON OF BEETS. BEETS THAT WERE SO RED THEY WERE ALMOST PURPLE.
I walked back to my desk quicker than is normal, and immediately googled "can beets turn urine red?". It turns out this is a fairly common thing, because before I had gotten to the letter "r" in "turn," google had auto-completed the sentence. The answer, according to the Mayo Clinic, is yes. In about 14% of people, beets can turn your urine red. I am not dying of some bizarre painless bladder infection. Yet.
So. Here is my public service announcement: Beets can turn your pee red, and you probably aren't dying of a bizarre painless bladder infection. Probably.
I had a minor freak-out this morning when I got up to pee: My pee was pink. At first I thought I had started my period a few days early and with no other warning signs, but upon further investigation realized this wasn't the case. I thought about it for a moment, but I'm not at my best in the morning, so I just sort of figured Andy had done something weird like flush something reddish before he left for work. I went on about my day and managed, because I am a scatterbrain, to completely forget about it.
Mid-morning, I peed at work, and the pee was RED. I suddenly remembered that this was the second time today, and no joke, I started to sweat. I felt fine, I wasn't in any way unwell, but I was apparently peeing blood! Or something!
I started taking a mental inventory of all the things that have been going into and coming out of my body in the last few days, searching for possible culprits. I've been eating a lot of salad, and I had a shitload of cherries in the last few days, but half of those were golden cherries anyway so that wouldn't be it, and I had a bunch of black raspberries, and I ATE A SHITTON OF BEETS. BEETS THAT WERE SO RED THEY WERE ALMOST PURPLE.
I walked back to my desk quicker than is normal, and immediately googled "can beets turn urine red?". It turns out this is a fairly common thing, because before I had gotten to the letter "r" in "turn," google had auto-completed the sentence. The answer, according to the Mayo Clinic, is yes. In about 14% of people, beets can turn your urine red. I am not dying of some bizarre painless bladder infection. Yet.
So. Here is my public service announcement: Beets can turn your pee red, and you probably aren't dying of a bizarre painless bladder infection. Probably.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
I'm a Domestic Goddess, Parts One and Two
Part One: Yes I Am. I finally got around to making refrigerator pickles. Here are my notes, so I don't forget by the next time I do this, and so you can learn from my experiences, or something:
- I read somewhere that it's helpful to make your brine in a pitcher, so you can pour it easily into the jars. I can say for sure that this was an awesome idea. It helps if you use a pretty glass pitcher you sometimes use as a vase, so you get the whole ridiculous shebang done as sweetly as possible.
- I doubled the amount of garlic she suggests and probably came close to tripling the dill.
- I thought at first glance that the amount of brine wasn't anywhere near enough for all the pickles I had, but I was only about a cup short for four pint jars. So, you know, don't double the batch until you're sure you need to. (To make the extra cup, I just divided the recipe in thirds. Duh, I guess, but I felt pretty clever.)
- I cut two jars' worth into spears, one into slices the long way (SANDWICH PICKLES!), and one into slices the short way. One of the spears jars got a serious shake of red pepper flakes.
- I used a total of eight gherkin (? The CSA sheet just said "pickles") cucumbers of varying sizes, so it averaged two small-ish cucumbers per pint jar.
- I have no idea how I'm going to wait 48 hours to try those things.
Part Two: No I'm Not. I just unearthed my smallest Pyrex bowl from the back of the fridge, where it has been hidden since I last made couscous. I have no idea when that was, but I can tell you that it took solid seconds of thought to realize that the black lumps had once been mushroom. There was also an interesting growth of grey mold on the top that seemed to be binding the grains together somehow, as that part of the stuff in the bowl stayed in a big clump even after everything else around it sort of shattered apart. My next-size-up bowl is holding the beets I finally cut up and steamed yesterday, and the bowl up from that is holding shelled peas. Neither of us particularly like peas, so those will likely sit there for a few more days then get eaten out of a sense of obligation and not because we do something delicious with them.
- I read somewhere that it's helpful to make your brine in a pitcher, so you can pour it easily into the jars. I can say for sure that this was an awesome idea. It helps if you use a pretty glass pitcher you sometimes use as a vase, so you get the whole ridiculous shebang done as sweetly as possible.
- I doubled the amount of garlic she suggests and probably came close to tripling the dill.
- I thought at first glance that the amount of brine wasn't anywhere near enough for all the pickles I had, but I was only about a cup short for four pint jars. So, you know, don't double the batch until you're sure you need to. (To make the extra cup, I just divided the recipe in thirds. Duh, I guess, but I felt pretty clever.)
- I cut two jars' worth into spears, one into slices the long way (SANDWICH PICKLES!), and one into slices the short way. One of the spears jars got a serious shake of red pepper flakes.
- I used a total of eight gherkin (? The CSA sheet just said "pickles") cucumbers of varying sizes, so it averaged two small-ish cucumbers per pint jar.
- I have no idea how I'm going to wait 48 hours to try those things.
Part Two: No I'm Not. I just unearthed my smallest Pyrex bowl from the back of the fridge, where it has been hidden since I last made couscous. I have no idea when that was, but I can tell you that it took solid seconds of thought to realize that the black lumps had once been mushroom. There was also an interesting growth of grey mold on the top that seemed to be binding the grains together somehow, as that part of the stuff in the bowl stayed in a big clump even after everything else around it sort of shattered apart. My next-size-up bowl is holding the beets I finally cut up and steamed yesterday, and the bowl up from that is holding shelled peas. Neither of us particularly like peas, so those will likely sit there for a few more days then get eaten out of a sense of obligation and not because we do something delicious with them.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
BABY!
We're on our way home from visiting the Kid and Brian and the new baby, whom I've mostly been calling Rachael Junior. She's so awesome, you guys!
I know that this is the typical reaction to a baby you love, but this baby is the smartest, cleverest, prettiest, most wonderful baby in the entire world. Even her poop is cute. We hung out with her in the mornings after she ate around 8 so the Kid could sleep in, and she was so alert and cheerful. She makes a million delightful bizarre noises.
She eats like a pro, too. She makes those hilarious little piggy grunting noises while she's eating, then eats so fast she has to pause to breathe for a minute. As Brian put it, "My kid is so fat she gets winded from eating."
Four days are nowhere near enough to get in all the squeezing and smushing and smooching that will need to tide us over till the next time we see her, which will probably be early fall. This is when it sucks the most that the Kid lives six hours away.
Andy's curled up with the baby on the couch right now, and just told her "Auntie Rachael's blogging about you, baby." She wrinkled her nose and grunted at him. I'm going to go kiss her fat cheeks for a while.
I know that this is the typical reaction to a baby you love, but this baby is the smartest, cleverest, prettiest, most wonderful baby in the entire world. Even her poop is cute. We hung out with her in the mornings after she ate around 8 so the Kid could sleep in, and she was so alert and cheerful. She makes a million delightful bizarre noises.
She eats like a pro, too. She makes those hilarious little piggy grunting noises while she's eating, then eats so fast she has to pause to breathe for a minute. As Brian put it, "My kid is so fat she gets winded from eating."
Four days are nowhere near enough to get in all the squeezing and smushing and smooching that will need to tide us over till the next time we see her, which will probably be early fall. This is when it sucks the most that the Kid lives six hours away.
Andy's curled up with the baby on the couch right now, and just told her "Auntie Rachael's blogging about you, baby." She wrinkled her nose and grunted at him. I'm going to go kiss her fat cheeks for a while.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Obligatory holiday post
 |
| Eco-friendly fireworks! Via |
Today I try to appreciate all the awesome stuff that comes with being an American - like cheese in a can, and Froot Loops, and, I dunno, freedom to say that Bush sucked a lot without worrying about being arrested.
I also appreciate veterans like my grandfathers on both sides, and my dad and my brother, and especially my brother-in-law, at whose home on an Army base I'm currently staying. (Surprise! Don't rob my house while I'm gone!)
What do you appreciate today?
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Baby names
In what might become a regular feature on this site: Actual baby names from my city in the last few months. (Please note that I do not choose names that are more obviously ethnic - like you'll never see me be like "haha samir is such a dumb name!" just because it's not a mainstream American name. Please follow that guideline in your comments.
First names:
-Matteson (middle name is a dude's name, so I'm guessing they're just really into the last-name-as-first-name trend and didn't bother to say it out loud: This is Madison spelled stupider)
-Ni'Vaya (Nevaeh - "heaven" backwards - spelled stupider)
-Zaiden
-Dezyre
-Emilee
-Ellyson
-Kai-Lin
-Kyler
-Chole (do you think they misspelled Chloe?)
-Kloey (I know they misspelled Chloe)
-Jahsi're (the apostrophe is stupid, and even stupider in the middle of a syllable)
First-middle combos:
-E'lenai Azriel (Azrael is the angel of death, but spelled stupider)
-Cali Fiona (Cali is not a full name and these two together do not flow at all)
-Adleigh Clementine (WE'RE HIP, YOU GUYS)
-Samiah Karmella
-Callahan Alexander (this is the name of someone the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would pick on)
-Christeona Nylean
-Cordai Ladarius
-Mariabella Teriana (so many syllables!)
-Mary Sunshine
-Blaze Temperance
TRIPPLE WHAMMY: Reign Supreme Tarez
Twins:
-Veronica Nella and Victoria Svitlane
-Diandra Rosemarry and Diandre Andrew (Do you think they'll pronounce it "Rose-Maury"?)
-"Aiden" and its cohorts: Zaiden, Jaeden, Baden, Jadian, Brayden, Brayden (yes, two of them), Jaedyn, Aiden, Ayden.
-Last names as first names: Matteson, Cameron, Landon, Jackson, Camden, Clayton, Mason, Parker, Colton, Callahan, Carson, Preston, Addison, Greyson, Marley, Ashton.
Thoughts?
First names:
-Matteson (middle name is a dude's name, so I'm guessing they're just really into the last-name-as-first-name trend and didn't bother to say it out loud: This is Madison spelled stupider)
-Ni'Vaya (Nevaeh - "heaven" backwards - spelled stupider)
-Zaiden
-Dezyre
-Emilee
-Ellyson
-Kai-Lin
-Kyler
-Chole (do you think they misspelled Chloe?)
-Kloey (I know they misspelled Chloe)
-Jahsi're (the apostrophe is stupid, and even stupider in the middle of a syllable)
First-middle combos:
-E'lenai Azriel (Azrael is the angel of death, but spelled stupider)
-Cali Fiona (Cali is not a full name and these two together do not flow at all)
-Adleigh Clementine (WE'RE HIP, YOU GUYS)
-Samiah Karmella
-Callahan Alexander (this is the name of someone the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would pick on)
-Christeona Nylean
-Cordai Ladarius
-Mariabella Teriana (so many syllables!)
-Mary Sunshine
-Blaze Temperance
TRIPPLE WHAMMY: Reign Supreme Tarez
Twins:
-Veronica Nella and Victoria Svitlane
-Diandra Rosemarry and Diandre Andrew (Do you think they'll pronounce it "Rose-Maury"?)
-"Aiden" and its cohorts: Zaiden, Jaeden, Baden, Jadian, Brayden, Brayden (yes, two of them), Jaedyn, Aiden, Ayden.
-Last names as first names: Matteson, Cameron, Landon, Jackson, Camden, Clayton, Mason, Parker, Colton, Callahan, Carson, Preston, Addison, Greyson, Marley, Ashton.
Thoughts?
Friday, July 1, 2011
On cats
I recently took care of my parents' two cats while they were out of town squeezing their new granddaughter. And I just want to say, I don't really get cats.
I'm not a dog-lover. Don't get me wrong, this isn't one of those "Cats are so aloof!" posts. No. This is a post about pee.
Because I want to say to every single cat-owner out there: Yes, your house does smell a little like cat pee. Yes. I know you don't think it does. But it does.
Thankfully, my parents hide their cat box way in the back of the basement, so no guests ever have a reason to go there, plus the cats are incredibly well trained and only use the box, but I've had to scoop that box this week, so DAMN. THAT'S GROSS.
The problem, I think, is mostly in cat litter. We had a cat - actually, I insisted we get a cat - when I was a kid, and in all the years and all the different litters we used, there was not a single brand of litter that in fact kept the cat pee clumps from breaking apart and mixing themselves back in with the otherwise-not-stinky litter. And what the hell are you supposed to do with the pee clumps along the sides of the box? Those things are never coming out neatly. Ugh. And I think cat owners are used to thinking that better litter means good litter instead of yeah, it still breaks up but not as bad as that last brand.
Yeah, picking up dog poop is gross too. But at least that's outside, and the pee doesn't make my eyes water. I have known precisely one home that had cats and didn't smell like pee. The owners have SIX CATS (which is nuts in and of itself) and have a morning and afternoon chore routine that takes upwards of forty minutes that includes scooping each box twice a day (more if it needs it) and changing all of the litter in the house once a week (or more if it needs it). And I'm willing to bet on eighty-four-degree days like today, some rooms in their house are not particularly sweet-smelling.
Okay, go ahead with the hate comments: are you a cat lover? Am I totally wrong here?
I'm not a dog-lover. Don't get me wrong, this isn't one of those "Cats are so aloof!" posts. No. This is a post about pee.
Because I want to say to every single cat-owner out there: Yes, your house does smell a little like cat pee. Yes. I know you don't think it does. But it does.
Thankfully, my parents hide their cat box way in the back of the basement, so no guests ever have a reason to go there, plus the cats are incredibly well trained and only use the box, but I've had to scoop that box this week, so DAMN. THAT'S GROSS.
The problem, I think, is mostly in cat litter. We had a cat - actually, I insisted we get a cat - when I was a kid, and in all the years and all the different litters we used, there was not a single brand of litter that in fact kept the cat pee clumps from breaking apart and mixing themselves back in with the otherwise-not-stinky litter. And what the hell are you supposed to do with the pee clumps along the sides of the box? Those things are never coming out neatly. Ugh. And I think cat owners are used to thinking that better litter means good litter instead of yeah, it still breaks up but not as bad as that last brand.
Yeah, picking up dog poop is gross too. But at least that's outside, and the pee doesn't make my eyes water. I have known precisely one home that had cats and didn't smell like pee. The owners have SIX CATS (which is nuts in and of itself) and have a morning and afternoon chore routine that takes upwards of forty minutes that includes scooping each box twice a day (more if it needs it) and changing all of the litter in the house once a week (or more if it needs it). And I'm willing to bet on eighty-four-degree days like today, some rooms in their house are not particularly sweet-smelling.
Okay, go ahead with the hate comments: are you a cat lover? Am I totally wrong here?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)