Lovely little evening

I'm still working on perfecting this year's list of goals, which should be up tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm making this soup for dinner, using this awesome immersion blender I got for Christmas, waiting for Andy to get home so we can enjoy the hell out of it. To be honest, I saw "carrot soup" and went, "Meh," but then she said she was inspired by that awesome carrot-ginger dressing you get a Japanese restaurants, and I was back in. But hey, it's not like Smitten Kitchen ever steers me wrong, so I shouldn't have been a hater. Fact: just so you know I'm totally faking it when I act like I have it all together, I knew I had ginger in the fridge so I didn't buy any for the soup. Turns out the ginger left in the fridge was just about petrified it was so old. I couldn't even grate it. Basically, I tried to grate it, then just threw the whole chunk in the soup and decided our soup will be fragranced with ginger instead of full of it. Oh, and the onions I used both had green sprouts on the top, so I chopped the weird parts off and used them anyway. Nice.

I just discovered that Hulu has all of the current season of Parks and Recreation, so I think Andy and I will be hooking his laptop up to the tv and spending the evening on the couch with some dogs and some knitting. I'm still trying to finish my mom's sweater - but I've decided when I'm done I'm going to knit myself a badass hat and scarf set to go with my new winter coat, so I'm feeling more motivated!

How are you spending your first week of the new year?

On Man vs. Wild

From the website where I found that picture: "Who can indulge himself  in danger and eat variety raw meat for sake of enjoyment or pleasure?  Bear Grylls has dare to do so. Here are some of his incredible weirdest eating."

You guys ever watch this show? Now that we have the Netflix, Andy and I watch this crap all the damn time. It's amazing. I know that it's staged and that Bear Grylls, the star/host/whatever, does all sorts of crazy shit that is the opposite of what one should do, and I definitely feel like puking during almost every episode, but I still am secretly happy any time Andy suggests we watch it.

Basically, if you're unfamiliar, this dude, whose name is Bear for some reason, parachutes into dangerous areas. In theory, he shows you how to survive so you can make it out or be rescued, but every episode he's all, "Usually, you would want to stay out of the frigid white-water rapids and try to find another way around, but I'm going to show you what would happen if you tried to make a raft out of some twigs and then floated downstream."

Apparently Grylls is also on his own for finding food, because he eats things that no human should eat, like part of a zebra he found, or a live scorpion. It works out okay to watch the show in the evening, because there is no way I can snack while I'm watching it if I don't want to hurl. I actually thought I really was going to barf during one episode when he bit the head off a snake, pulled the spine and guts out, and then ate the rest of it. Sick.

Ever watch this show? Tell me I'm not alone!

TV shows from my childhood

Totally awesome image via

...that I would like to rewatch to see if they're as awesome as I remember. In no particular order.

• Dinosaurs
• The Secret World of Alex Mack (My husband insists that he - and all other pre-teen boys - mostly watched this show in case Alex showed up somewhere without her clothes.)
• Marsupalami (No one else remembers this show!)
• Eek! The Cat (Oooh, Wikipedia says this show was Canadian. I was a cultured nine-year-old. But why did his name have an exclamation point?)
• Land of the Lost (the 90s remake)
• Clarissa Explains It All
• Blossom (I had an amazing denim bucket hat with a pink plastic flower that I wore ALL THE TIME.)
• Eureeka's Castle (Why was it spelled like that?? And I just learned that Bog - of Bog and Quagmire - was spelled Bogge. Ugh. Wait. It was created by R.L. Stine. What??)
• David the Gnome (My dumb three-year-old self didn't even notice that this show was dubbed.)
• Gummi Bears (What? You didn't watch a tv show based on candy you didn't even like?)
• Rescue Rangers
• Darkwing Duck (Any time anyone says, "When you're in trouble," my brain adds "you call D.W." I'm not proud of this.)
• Tiny Toon Adventures
• 3rd Rock From The Sun (Apparently the numeral is part of the title.)

Yes, I did have incredible taste as a child and pre-teen. And yes, it would have made more sense to try to find clips of these shows online to link to (instead of the Wikipedia articles), BUT I seriously don't want to watch them and have my rosy memories of them dashed.

What childhood shows are you afraid to tarnish with a re-watch?

True Life episodes in which I could star

True Life: My Husband Gets Annoyed When I Don't Wear Pants But Leave the Blinds Open
True Life: I'm a Middle Child 
True Life: I'm Not Very Good At Loading the Dishwasher

True Life: I Have a Boring Job But It's Okay, I Guess
True Life: I Pay a Mortgage
True Life: I Am a Female Who Typically Prefers Beer to Wine, As Long As It's Not an IPA
True Life: I'm More Than a Foot Shorter Than My Husband
True Life: I Read Really Fast, But Not Like Speedreaders Or Whatever
True Life: I'm In a Really Happy Marriage
True Life: I Could Stand To Lose Some Weight, But Come On, Who Couldn't?
True Life: I Use My Local Library So Much, I Have My Card Number Memorized
True Life: I Really Like Christmas Movies
True Life: My Dog Keeps Sniffing the Same Spot on the Garage Floor In A Way That Makes Me Suspicious
True Life: I Watched Six Episodes of 30 Rock Online Today


Pretty much just waiting for the call to make one or all of these.

What True Life episodes could you star in?

P.S. Just read the Wikipedia page for this show, and it turns out pretty much any of these could legitimately be a topic. How strange.