Hmm.

I went to the store to buy Milk Duds. I also went to buy peanut butter and milk and Silk and ice cream (plus Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia  fro-yo, YUM) and orange juice and two bottles of seltzer water for my addict of a mother. (To be fair, Chloe drinks almost as much of the stuff when she's home, and my aunts are fans as well. So she comes by the carbonated-water addiction very honestly.) Anyway, I didn't get Milk Duds. There was no post-Halloween candy sale at Martin's, which was probably just as well. Unfortunately, there's a CVS on my way home and they had two-for-$3 sale on bags of Riesens. So now we're almost down to one bag of Riesens. One might think I'd learn that trying to satisfy a candy craving is an exercise in misery, but that assumption would be characteristic of huge underestimation of my stubbornness and idiocy.

Sherlock was rather good tonight. It'll be on again on Sunday on PBS at 9pm EST, or rather, the next (and final, for the time being) episode will be. Don't miss it!

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard this new song, "Come Back Song," on the radio. At first I thought that it must be the guy from Hootie and the Blowfish, because not only did he have a voice that sounded similar to the H&tB lead singer, but he also had all of the same vocal habits with regards to, uh, note patterns and improvisation and such. Then the song ended, and the DJ said that the singer had been Darius Rucker, and I was dumbfounded. Never mind that I had no idea what the H&tB lead singer was named, and that I knew that they weren't a country band. Hey, guess what. D Rucker sang (sings?) for Hootie. Duh.

Anyway, it's a good song, even if the video is shot in that "hey, look at me, I'm cute" style usually reserved for young, fresh-faced new pop artists.




Another song I have been loving lately (I've been on a minor country kick, ok?), by Sugarland:



Yes, there is an official video, and it's ok, but it's ridiculous and I don't want it to influence anyone's first impression of the song. You can watch that on your own time.

I need more Milk Duds in my life.

Perhaps it's time for a trip to the cinema. Not much beats a bag of popcorn with a box of Milk Duds dumped into it, unless it's a bag of popcorn with a bag of Reece's Pieces dumped in. Thank you, Sara, for teaching me so much in my youth.


I did make the new blog I mentioned--it is www.pavedwithwhat.blogspot.com. If you're ever interested in finding out why I didn't sleep enough last night, the answer should be right there for your viewing pleasure.

Yesterday I got paid for this painting stuff, the day before I was told that my Planet Shoes return had been received and my account would be credited and also that my invoice for tutoring had been processed, and today Sara's mom called and asked if I could housesit again, beginning tomorrow. I'm going to be rich. Relatively speaking.



I am still dying for Milk Duds. Isn't the period of time following Halloween one which is supposed to be characterized by a lot of great candy lying around? We really fell down on the job this year. NO M&M's, NO Skittles, NO Milk Duds. What the heck? All we have are stupid Almond Joys and plain Hershey bars and stuff I don't want to eat. I don't know what we were thinking. I might need to go to the store. OMG--they might have a candy sale.

Things discovered (aka shared)

A link I have seen recently on facebook, but didn't click until today: "WTF has Obama done so far?" This is worth the very little time it takes to click over.


My friend Zach is a fantastic writer and a moving-vehicle wizard. Unfortunately he has a weakness. More than one, really, but I don't have links to any of the others at the moment.


Shared with me by my dad the other day, a short NYT article about vegetables. He emailed me the in-line text, so I'll just copy it for you:

Learning to Love Veggies: Readers Weigh In

By JANE E. BRODY

I’m overwhelmed! A recent column asking for suggestions on how to entice Americans to eat more vegetables drew nearly 600 e-mailed responses and a long, long menu of food for thought.

Most of the suggestions came from people who love vegetables and have already figured out ways to incorporate them into their own and their families’ diets. But equally instructive were those from people who said they were not especially fond of vegetables and suggested ways they could be made more appealing.

A recurring theme was that we should stop trying to sell vegetables for their health value (and stop scolding people for failing to eat enough of them) and instead focus on the positive — the delicious flavors and colors that can add so much variety to meals and snacks. Another was the importance of teaching people fast and simple techniques for achieving mouthwatering results.

As Elif Savas Felsen wrote, “If you teach Americans how to cook vegetables and stop yelling at them like some righteous food-health nut, they will learn.”

And Katherine Erickson urged that we “stop calling vegetables ‘sides’ ” and instead design meals around them.

Start Young

Give children a taste for fresh vegetables early on — very early. As soon as my sons could pick up pieces to feed themselves, minimally cooked mixed frozen vegetables adorned their food trays.

“Don’t give up,” L. K. Schoeffel wrote. “Keep making all those veggies a central part of your family meals.” If at first the children balk, reintroduce them again and again. And be sure to eat them yourself.

Introduce vegetables as fun foods, perhaps by reading, together, “The ABC’s of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond” (Ceres, 2007), cleverly written by Steve Charney and David Goldbeck and beautifully illustrated by Maria Burgaleta Larson, complete with poems, jokes, riddles, geography, recipes and ways to grow food.

Create a sense of ownership. If possible, have children help plant a little vegetable garden or grow something edible on the deck or window ledge. Get them involved in choosing vegetables in the store or at a farmers’ market, remark about their interesting shapes and colors, and let children help prepare them. Even a 2-year-old can rinse cherry tomatoes and toss them in a salad.

“Ask them how many peas they can pick up with their forks,” Edward Batcheller suggested. “Help them cut up string beans. Let them learn how to peel carrots. Come up with all sorts of vegetables, fruits, etc. that they can put together to make a good drink with the blender.”

Many readers urged schools to reinstate cooking classes for both girls and boys — learning about food can also reinforce lessons in math, science and geography — with a focus on fresh vegetables that are also served in the lunchroom. But lunch offerings of overcooked, tasteless vegetables will win no converts.

Children and adults often learn to experience new vegetables at other people’s houses — or while shopping. Supermarkets, big-box stores and other retailers can prepare vegetable tastings for anyone to sample.

As in decades long past, children should be served the same foods the grown-ups are eating. No special “kid food,” as several readers put it. Likewise in restaurants, dishes on the children’s menu should include lots of tasty vegetables in place of fries.

Dr. Susan Gardner of Houston asked: “Where are the parents of yesteryear who simply put varied and nutritious foods on the table and assumed that their active and busy children would eat them? No wheedling, no begging, no comment.” Carol Caputo of New York had a similar thought: “Parents today ask their kids what they want to eat. You are the parent, you decide. Don’t discuss food, just serve it!”

For that witching hour when the kids are hungry but dinner is not yet ready, serve cut-up fresh carrots, cucumber, celery or red pepper, or a combination, with a dip like hummus, salad dressingor seasoned yogurt. Edamame beans are a great snack — children love popping them out of the shells.

Hungry children are likely to eat what is readily available. If instead of cookies and chips, there is a platter of ready-to-eat vegetables or a bowl of cherry tomatoes handy, they just may eat them.

Even the most reluctant consumer of vegetables can handle them if they are grated or puréed and hidden in stews, soups, pasta sauces, loaves, quick breads and muffins. My family’s favorites included pumpkin and zucchini breads.

Missy Chase Lapine, who has won fame as the Sneaky Chef, suggested “slipping veggies in the meals people already like to eat, like spaghetti and meatballs. Once people realize that the meal they just loved contained spinach, they become more open to trying spinach straight up.”

Focus on Flavor

“Never boil them,” Walter Jacobsen wrote. “Even if they’re frozen, I think they taste much better, are much crunchier, if sautéed in a flavored oil.” A popular refrain: “What’s wrong with a little fat — olive oil or butter — to make vegetables more palatable?” As some noted, if you reduce the meat portion and buttered bread, there’s ample caloric room for some oil or butter — even pancetta or bacon bits — to season the vegetables.

A very popular idea was a vegetable-rich soup (I used to purée the vegetables my boys rejected on sight), perhaps with tiny meatballs, chicken cubes or seasoned tofu. Consider making a big batch to eat for a few days, perhaps freezing some (labeled and dated) for another day. My lunch the other day was split pea soup that I’d made and frozen in 2008. Beneath it I found turkey andcabbage soup I cooked last year.

Many readers suggested my own favorite: stir-frying vegetables in a little olive oil seasoned with garlic, onion, shallots or balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Another of my favorites: grilling vegetables, which can be done on the stovetop in a ridged grill pan as well as on a barbecue grill.

Roasting vegetables, either individually or mixed, in the oven or toaster oven was another popular suggestion. Cut the vegetables into approximately equal sizes, toss with olive oil, season with salt and pepper or herbs, and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until they reach the desired texture.

Roasted kale crisps for snacks were mentioned often. Margaret P. Mason suggests spreading a single layer of kale pieces on a cookie sheet. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and bake at 375 to 400 degrees. Turn them after about five minutes, making sure they don’t burn.

Juiced vegetables were frequently mentioned, too. Chester Chanin thinks restaurants should offer “appealing fresh vegetable juices as a complimentary side drink before the meal arrives.” I’ll drink to that!

[end article]

I have to say that I love being able to copy-paste something here and not have it screw up the margins, font, color, and text size for the rest of my entry. I'll drink to that. Thank you, New York Times, for using Times font. 

-It smelled like snow last night.

-My wrist appears to be re-injured.

-I am seriously considering starting another blog which will do nothing but list the reason, each day, that I did not go to sleep on time the night before.

-I commented on the most recent entry at www.misplacedmama.blogsome.com and received a response! How nice. I like her.

-People (Beth, Art, Tim, Sara) keep trying to convince me to participate in Nanowrimo this year. Thoughts?

Don't we have some kind of speedy communication system now?

One that might possibly allow information to be quickly transmitted from one place to another? Personally, I feel that even if I am accidentally still registered in another Virginia town, since my driver's license says I live a half mile from the polling station here, I should still be allowed to vote. I know we don't want to have people voting in other people's districts, but come on! I have lived in this house since the day I was born! PLEASE let me vote? I am really upset about this. I didn't even get a sticker. I can't even click the "I voted" button on facebook. I didn't even get to help Obama not lose what little control he has in Congress. So upset. I almost cried.



On the plus side, I did finally get Larry's letter mailed. It has a pine cone "America forever" stamp and a drawing of Spongebob (or a Spongebob lookalike) on the back, and a doctor's office sticker that says "galaxy" because the envelope wasn't staying closed on its own and I had/have some celestial dr's office stickers kicking around my car.

Everyone! Everyone!

Towers of Midnight was released today! I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I need to get to a bookstore.



Don't judge me.

David as associated with weather, and also, separately, politics

Tonight's walk with Miley had me resignedly fulfilling my early-fall prediction that cold weather would bring unavoidable thoughts of David. It hasn't been as constant or as painful as I had feared though, which is most definitely appreciated. Even so, having spent one winter sharing a building with him and another skyping him and then exploring Turkey with the man, there are a lot of associations. Often on cold weather nights if I am walking outside I am gently transported to a city street in Adana, shivering and holding hands and walking home from a dinner of iskender and kunefe. It happens. Tonight, as on several or perhaps many others, this was accompanied by a feeling of the quite comforting inevitability of Us. Possibly this is prescient. Possibly this is a coping mechanism developed by a person who has a hard time letting go all at one time. Either way, I'm pretty okay with it. Either way, I know that now is a no-go, and I am okay with that. We'd both need to be somewhat different people from who we are at the moment, and we each are working on that in our own way, toward vague ends, and that too is okay. It's all alright.


I am awake because I have been researching the candidates for election in my district. After the most careful study I have ever done (which, admittedly, isn't saying a lot), it looks like I may be leaning Democratic. I know it isn't exactly polite to discuss politics, and everyone has been slinging a lot of mud and I find that irritating, but I really should vote for someone, and those guys seem slightly better. Our incumbents are Republican and have similar voting records. Both talk a good game, both have supported some decent legislation; both seem to be fairly anti-civil-rights, except when it comes to guns and unborn babies. I am all for protecting unborn babies in most circumstances; however, I am also, for example, all for letting my cousin get married, even if he doesn't particularly want to marry a woman. I also appreciate candidates who give supporting facts for their arguments, rather than just ideas. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of that going on anywhere, but there seems to be a bit more of it on the Democratic side in my city. So we'll see how it all goes.

Vote!

Halloween

I was successfully (whatever that means) a firefly. Costume: short black dress from Marshalls*, orangey yellow tights from Anthropologie, coat-with-tails belonging to my aunt's deceased husband, dad's Greek fisherman's cap with some homemade antennae (thanks mom) crafted from Christmas-ornament earrings and memory wire, a bunch of Bath&Body works body glitter spray (Moonlight Path scent, I think) which I found in the bathroom closet. I remember being given a whole set of that B&B "Moonlight Path" line and being rather annoyed, but I guess it came in handy after all. :) We took some pictures that didn't come out well at all, but perhaps I'll get them put up soon. I went down to Hartley and Lael's house to try to drum up some customers for our candy (no one comes up our street anymore), then came home and video skyped Sara, who approved of my costume, and finally went over to Kelly's to see everybody (specifically Kenny, who leaves for National Guard boot camp in the morning) and play Little Big Planet, horribly. I am really bad. At some points we were all laughing so hard that we cried, because I am so bad. It was a good time.

How was your Halloween?


















*I have a hard time dealing with there not being an apostrophe in the store name. Is it seriously supposed to refer to a group of people or things named Marshall? It cannot be a present progressive verb, because the verb in question has only one "l." Observe: marshal, which would become he/she/it marshals. Long story short, unless the store was founded by multiple business partners named Marshall, this is just one more gargantuan case of punctuational idiocy.