Monday update

243 today.  No change.

I can't find my pine needles.

I just had them a second ago.

I poked them, tasted them, waved them around in the air.

And now they're gone.

Not here.  Guess I'll retrace my steps.

Nope.

Why are we laughing?

Okay.  You keep laughing, I'll keep looking.

This isn't it.

Not it either.

I think I'm getting warmer.

Nope.  Maybe over here.

WHAT?  In my hair?

I knew that.  Just testing you.

Summer, week 3

It's only week three of summer vacation and I feel like it is slipping through my greedy little hands already!

Remember this list?  Well, I am hitting it hard core!  Pronto!  So if I slip behind on blogging/commenting, you'll know why!

I have made some progress already, btw.

I've written a second draft of one children's story, and a first draft of another one.  (Don't get too impressed, these are easy readers for kids just learning to read.  But funny ones, though, for all the elementary teachers / mamas out there sick and tired of trying to get kids pumped about reading lame-o phonics readers.)  Now I need to write cover letters (or are they called letters of intent?  See?  This is why I get stuck!) and send them off to get published or rejected.

I've also cooked.  Here's a picture to prove it:

I know making a stir fry is nothing to write home blog about, but I just had to celebrate having cooked at all, and especially having cooked something that my husband AND I actually liked.  We have completely different preferences when it comes to food.  He's from Africa, remember?  And I am from the island of TexMexIa.  This is what he eats:

The recipe is here on Home Cooking with Sonya.    Of course I mean the stir fry recipe, not the recipe for the African food. 

I made a few changes though, to make it more 'figure friendly' as RR would say.  I sauteed the chicken instead of frying it, added carrots and pineapples, and used brown rice.  If you're feeling lucky you could just pour some of each of these ingredients in a bowl, mix it up, dump it in a pan with cooked chicken, bring it to a boil, then let it simmer for 10 minutes and serve over rice:

Moving on.  I have not jogged.  Not even jogged in place.  Or jogged to the mailbox.  In fact, I would like to revise that goal.  I want to faithfully walk six days a week instead.  (It's my list, I can do that.)

I would also like to add "veg out" to my list.  That way I have another thing to check off.

Monday update

243 today.   Minus .8 from last week.

Sundays in my city: Greengate Farm edition

C and I had a great time visiting Greengate Farm for some fresh fruit, veggies, and meat. (Confession:  this happened on Saturday, not Sunday.  The farm isn't open on Sundays.)

This is the best kind of farmer's market, because it's really at the farm.  So you can check out the animals, etc...

I really like going.  It's not a huge selection.  It's not a huge farm.  Just nice people and great fresh produce.

Chickens just walk around all over the place.  Which also happens at my house.  But for some reason it really tickles me to see the same thing on a farm.

We also got to see a bunch of pigs. 

I've heard it said that pigs are actually very clean animals.

I'm not buying it.

I also saw this chair.  Sitting on a trailer.  It reminded me of

Archie Bunker.  (Which I assure you I only saw in reruns.  I'm not that old.)

I've been thinking about this chair all day long. 

I wonder if it was being delivered or being hauled away.

Hauled away may seem like the obvious choice. 

But I met the farmer.

And he seems cool like that.  You know, more 'Pole Barn' than 'Pottery Barn'.  An individual.  A free thinker.  I love people like that.

I think it just might have been a delivery.

You know who else I love?

This girl.

There's only so much you can do with a chicken.

You can pet them.

Then you can feed them lettuce.

More lettuce.

Make them jump for it.

Hang some lettuce up for them, like a pinata.

Then you can tickle them.

With a feather, of course.

If they run, that means they like it.

You should chase them.

Monday update

243.8 today.  Minus 2.4 this week.  Yea!  I went walking several times, which must be extra effective when it is so hot and humid!  My big trip is just 7 weeks away, which is really motivating me.

Sundays in my city: ROT rally

Welcome to my first edition of Sundays in my city, a blog party hosted by Unknown Mami. 

This weekend was the annual Republic of Texas motorcyle rally.  Here's a picture I took this morning of some friendly folks on their way out of town.

Every year for one weekend in June thousands of bikers come into town.  They dress tough, but they always seem to be really friendly people.  However, they curse like sailors.  Out loud.  And on their T-shirts. 

Yes, I took this picture while driving.  Oprah would smack  me. 

Sandwich bags

Recently I helped my dear friend FabuLeslie clean out her closet. I came home with a bag full of her cast-offs. My favorite of which was a sandwich bag.

The second I saw it I knew my dream of having a purse specifically designed to carry a sandwich was close to coming true. 
"You have to let me have that one,"  I told her.
 "Why?  Because it's a triangular prism?"  (She knows me very well.  Including my affinity for triangular prisms.) 
"Yes!  And so I can carry sandwiches anywhere, with ease.  And they won't come unwrapped.  Or get smashed."  I told her.

It works.  Like a charm.  Like a turkey-swiss charm.

There's even some room left over for a brownie an apple.


I like it so much that I wrote it a haiku:

sandwich holding queen

so useful for lunch time tube

triangular prism

Of course a pb and j would not work in my newly acquired sandwich bag.  I have Ziploc bags for that.  I am so cheap green that I can't bear to throw them out after one use.  In my family, we joke about how my sweet and practical grandma used to rinse her Ziploc bags and hang them up to dry.  She would be happy to see this very common sight in my kitchen.

I don't know what she'd say about this other very common sight in my kitchen:

But I bet she would say "That's a fine hen."

Anything interesting going on in your kitchen today?

in honor of 100 posts in 2010, 50 words I like

afghan (like a blanket that your grandma makes)
bundle
cheeks
divine
doppelganger
edible
elation
etiquette
grammarian
goober


gumshoe
halitosis
hellacious
highfalutin
hippie
hobnobbing
hog
honky
hipster
locomotive


loquacious
Massachusetts
minutiae
moose
mousse
mushroom
nimrod
noonish
octogenarian
Octomom

octopus
octagon
onesie
pearly
pedantic
pleasurable
pleather
remoulade
rendezvous
ruminate




scorpion
scuba
soupy
spinster
squirrel
tapioca
toadstool
wizard
wonky
wordsmith

Monday update

246.2 this week.  Minus .4.  

Best day of the year

Ahh, the first day of summer.  The longest point from returning to work.  So fresh.  So new.  Like the first bite of a peach log of cookie dough.

Here are my goals for the summer:

1.  Finish and submit one children's story to multiple publishing houses.  I want to be a REAL writer.  They say published writers get rejected dozens of times on average before being published.  I'm hoping to be rejected half a dozen times before 2011.

2.  Get Carolyn to nap in her crib.  (This will contribute to #1 considerably.)

3.  Study up on Spanish indirect object pronouns.  Those suckers have been giving me problemas for years.


4.  Cook.

5.  Jog!  Slowly.

6.  Stop making so many lists.

After pictures

Here's the big reveal.

Still plenty o' hair.

Do you know the Bible story about Sampson?

His hair was the source of his super-human strength.

After Delilah cut his hair, he had only average strength.

I think the curl-hawk was similar for C.

Not for super human strength though.

Just the ability to keep her eyes open for a picture.

What's the opposite of a mullet?

A curl-hawk, of course.

I suppose you could call it a mo' - 'fro.

Party in the front.

B'ness in the back.  And on the sides.

You could also call it the 'before picture'.

Because somebody got a haircut.

Stay tuned.