Not-so-centered thoughts

I decided to go to the gym for my run this afternoon, and thought that I might as well join the group yoga class while I was there.  I'm guessing that these are not the calming thoughts that I'm supposed to empty my mind with:

• My feet are cold.
• What am I going to make for dinner?
• What's on TV tonight?
• I should publish that article on Examiner when I get home.
• Top Model with guys...
• My feet are cold.
• My calf muscles are just not long enough.
• What should I bake for next week?
• I should paint my nails.
• My feet are cold.

Namaste, everybody.

Allergic to old age

This weekend, I experienced an annoying first: allergies.  Rudely enough, they started Friday evening, with red, itchy eyes, and an occasionally runny nose.  This is the first time I've 'had allergies', the only other allergic reaction I've ever had being of the more disturbing swelling variety, when I woke up with fingers so fat I couldn't bend them around my toothbrush in the morning.  Ah, college memories.

Anyway, medication was taken and my eyes are a much more normal color.  Apparently, allergies are just one of those things you can accumulate as you get older.  Yay, another reason to feel old.  I'm hoping that this growing into allergies thing which I've heard is so common does not mean that it's going to be an every day issue.  Especially because I'm not sure which exact particulate flying through the air caused it.  I'm inclined to blame cedar, just because it's all around me and it is evil, but I don't really know.  And I refuse to consider the possibility that I'm allergic to weekends.

I'm also pretty sure I'm not allergic to cauliflower, since I just ate the equivalent of an entire head of it in the form of a cauliflower 'mash'.  If you've never tried this, it's a delicious side dish that's slightly reminiscent of mashed potatoes, but with many, many fewer calories.  Similarly to spaghetti squash, though, I wouldn't say that it's necessarily for people who love the starchy originals and hate veggies.  You should at least like veggies to consider this a possible substitute as the co-star with your meat loaf.  But it's another preparation that I hadn't tried until very recently.

A Google search will yield you plenty of results, but the basic idea is to cook up some cauliflower until nice and soft, then blend it down with some liquid and seasonings.  I boiled the cauliflower in water heavily seasoned with bouillon cubes and garlic salt and used a small amount of that as my blending liquid along with some Brummel and Brown.  So yummy.  Really.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that I ate an entire head's worth.  I'm about to explode with cauliflower goodness.

As long as I don't start sneezing cauliflower.

Random round-up: blood and blackberries

There are so many things that happen each week that make me think, 'I should totally blog about that!'  But before I can do that I have to get back to work, or make dinner, or something.  And I never quite have time to take the idea from that awkward space between too long for Twitter and not long enough for its own post.  So here are a few things that popped into my head this week:

• There was a blood drive at work last Wednesday.  I try to catch every one of these, because I feel like this is a really easy way to do a good deed, and I like having the sporadic check on my cholesterol and other basics.  This time around, I successfully donated without fainting.  Not only that, but the lab tech who took my blood was a crocheter, even better!
• Isn't it strange how certain items are more expensive in some stores than others, and vice versa?  HEB has the best value for most groceries here in Austin, but for some reason spaghetti squash is about 40 cents cheaper a pound at Sprouts.  And since Mom and I worship at the spaghetti squash altar practically every weekend, this was a great discovery.
• Also in the produce section, we got a lot of blackberries last week.  So I integrated them into my portfolio of desserts, along with some whipped cream: cran-blackberry oatmeal, blackberry waffles, blackberry cheesecake pudding ice cream, blackberry pancakes, and angel food cake dessert cups topped with blackberries.  See?

• This week, blueberries we on sale, so the same routine will probably be repeated with those.  Last night I had oatmeal, tonight...pancakes?
• The Raspberry frozen yogurt at Tutti Frutti is delicious.  Especially when swirled with Strawberry, and Taro.
• The Australian Open has started!  The return of tennis is a relief, but I'm still finding myself reflexively looking for where Andy Roddick is in the draw, before I realize he's not there.  And neither are a lot of other players, but those are because of injury.  Will Rafael Nadal ever come back?  I hope so.

A trip to the dentist is better than no sleep at all

I went in for my six-month cleaning today.  And there were two things that struck me.

First of all, doctor-patient small talk is already awkward at the best of times.  But it's one heck of a lot harder to chit chat when there are fingers and other implements occasionally in your mouth.  It must be a kind of fine art for dentists and hygienists, to cut through the awkwardness of the situation with conversation, and yet manage to not force dialogue while they are in the middle of something in your mouth.  No questions right before going in for the final floss, for instance.  It truly is commendable.

And second, as my chair was returning to its upright position, I felt oddly...rested.  That makes sense.  I mean, we're talking about 30 to 45 minutes where the most demanding thing I was asked to do was this aforementioned chit chat.  It's one of the few times when you can't multitask.  Kind of hard to use your iPhone, watch TV or draft a blog post.  Perhaps there's a slight uptick in blood pressure as I wait for a verdict on cavities, but really, it's a fairly relaxing break in the day.

And no, this completely random blog post was not brought to you by the remaining effects of laughing gas.  I only went in for a cleaning, and my pearly whites passed their inspection.

Tonight's to-dos

I have various tasks which I would like to make progress on in the three hours or so I have between now and sweet, sweet slumber:

• Cutting the fudge into squares for bringing into work tomorrow (recipe post forthcoming)
• Otherwise prepping other foods to eat while at work tomorrow in order to be nourished beyond risk of fainting after donating blood in the afternoon
• Getting as close as possible to finishing my first knitted item for this tea-themed swap, so I can start on the second tomorrow
• Writing at least a sizable chunk of my NaNoWriMo novel, because so far I have amassed a woeful total of less than a thousand words.  Entering into this challenge directly after a trip is not a good idea.  But I refuse to give in!
• Hopefully not obsessing over watching election results come in, since I'm pretty sure there's no way they'll have declared a winner by the time I go to bed.

As a result, I'm afraid I cannot be witty and engaging, or share any more details on my Tokyo trip.  I will tease you, however, with hints.  I will soon share the details of yarn stores, Halloween parades, and food both fast and slow.  Until then, happy Election Day , my fellow Americans!  And happy watching the insanity from the outside and marveling to the rest of the world.

Reclaiming the ridiculous

The teenage years are pretty much your earmarked era of unfortunate fashion choices.  It's expected that you will naively submit to a lot of trends that don't age well, and you get a sort of pass on judgement (but not on mocking).

I feel like while I did participate in some questionable trends, I wasn't fully able to realize my potential for making myself look ridiculous, partly because of my weight.  I just didn't feel comfortable in some things, even when I was able to find my size.  This is my excuse now when I find something that I want to wear, even though I know I've entered that phase of life when really you should stop making fashion faux pas.

Like, say, last week, when I found a pair of hot pink corduroy shorts in the clearance section of Kohl's. I knew I had to try them on, and told myself it would almost certainly end there.  But when I put them on, I just couldn't help it.  They were silly, and they made me smile.  And at 70% off, I decided that they didn't need to be particularly practical.  So I bought them.

I haven't worn them yet, but I'm thinking they'll be perfect with some black leggings, pink sneakers, a t-shirt and jacket for going on the Hill Country Yarn Crawl.  Because first of all, it's an outfit that reflects the fun of the event.  And I'm going to put faith in my fellow crafters not to judge me too harshly.  I'm still a child at heart, after all.

Old Navy makes me feel old

I have a tendency to lament 'I'm so old!' a lot.  Mostly I'm being facetious, I know that I'm not actually old.  But I'm still shocked when I see evidence of how quickly time flies and how soon I transitioned from teenybopper awash in the trends as they took over, to the point where the 90s is considered...nostalgia.  Wow.

Particularly jarring are the latest slew of Old Navy ads.  First, it was a series themed around back to school that starred the 'kids' of Beverly Hills, 90210.  That show missed me by just a few years, the purview of say, my best friend's older sister.  And she's married with a kid now, so it makes sense that the store is looking to push her pop culture buttons to get her to make her clothing purchases there.

But now, now I see the Backstreet Boys providing the soundtrack to a parade of skinny jeans in a rainbow of colors:

Boy bands, now that was something I was right in the middle of.  BSB, 'N Sync (my personal favorite), LFO, 98 Degrees, and even Brits BBMAK, I was singing right along with them at every opportunity.  I even went to an 'N Sync concert, the Pop tour.  Back then, of course, no one would have been caught dead in these pants.

But now, here are a much older gang of Backstreet Men, as it were, putting their catchy chorus back into my head while reminding me that I have entered the second phase of my sellability as far as companies are concerned.  Now I am not the teenager with allowance to spend on CDs and magazines.  Now I am the young adult, possibly with a family and buying trends for them as much as for myself.

I know it's a little weird to be demarcating the stages of my life based on what I'm being sold and how, but it's a big part of the cultural context.  Plus, I can't help but get a little meta about myself.  It's the liberal arts student in me.

Love's Labor Day weekend lost

Ah, Labor Day.  At this point almost completely devoid of any political association to labor organizations or unions, the basic idea seems to be a day of rest to commemorate all the work we do the rest of the year.  If I'm to trust in the commercials, that rest should be gotten by holding neighborhood barbecues, shopping for all of the best limited-time-only deals, watching college football and counting down to NFL football.

Hmm, I think I did my Labor Day wrong.  Because here's a rundown of some of the things I've been up to the past three days:

Watching tennis.  I did see some college football, and I did of course make sure to keep track of the score in the Longhorns' game (hook 'em!), but mostly I was concerned with my dear Andy's winning Friday night and Sunday afternoon, as well as a few other matches.  I'm still annoyed that the Tennis Channel takes the night coverage on the first weekend, since I lack the multi-million channel package that requires that particular network to be available to me.

Drafting blog posts.  Because I love you.

Organizing my online recipe database.  A few months ago I decided that I would use a Gmail account to collect recipes online.  It was recommended to me because of the labels you can attach to messages, so I can e-mail myself a recipe and tag it as being 'Sweet', 'Cookie', 'Chocolate', and 'Caramel'.  Then when I decide that I simply must make something caramel, I can scan through my options easily.  Plus, I can reply to the thread to take notes when I try the recipe and rate how it went.  So now I'm going through all of my bookmarks and Instapaper clippings, composing e-mails and then agonizing over whether caramel, butterscotch, and toffee each deserve their own label.  Decision: they do.


Baking.  Because it's a three-day weekend, not an existential crisis, people.  I'm still me, and my co-workers still need tasty treats to survive the next work week.


Knitting.  See my previous statement about this not being an existential crisis.  There's always a cycle when I'm at my dad's house.  It starts with Friday night thinking that I might possibly finish my project before returning to my mom's house and 'Oh no, I might have to go an entire day without knitting to do!' panic taking hold.  It peters out, though, as I fill the weekend with a few other tasks and end up still not at cast off by the time I'm safely with my stash again.

Going out for froyo and a film.  The big adventure of the weekend.  Went to see 'Sleepwalk with Me', I'll have more thoughts on that, and of course a review of the frozen dairy treat, later this week.  On the subject of films, I also watched the restored version of 'Metropolis' last night.  Nothing like a 1927 silent German classic of cinema to give you that warm sense of self-righteousness in your cultural consumption.

Painting my nails.  I'm actually in the middle of this right now.  Right hand needs a top coat, then onto the left.  OPI's Steady As She Rose, in case anyone is wondering.

Whew!  Who says I haven't been laboring this weekend?