Category: Uncategorized

Things I Had Been Looking Forward To Today But Am Not Anymore:

Getting the shoes I ordered last week, which the Post Office apparently tried to deliver at 7:32 last night.  No one was home.  So they left no notice on my door – or if they did it was stolen, or blew away – and now I have to wait for them to re-deliver.  Since today is a holiday.  (Which is not the part I’m complaining about.)

Things I Am Still Looking Forward To Today:

5:00, naturally

I am so getting pizza and playing Oblivion tonight.  I might do something productive, like a load of laundry, but it’s not too likely.

Things I Am Looking Forward To Tomorrow:

Sappily enough, Stephen getting back – even though he’ll have been gone a day.  Also maybe new shoes.  If the Post Office is on the ball and can deliver them before 7:32pm.

Wednesdays are by default better than Tuesdays, anyway.

I’ve already sent Katie about a million messages this morning, so I’m redirecting my planning-energy here rather than anywhere else.  Do feel free to skip this entry unless you particularly want to hear about the recipes I’m planning on doing for Thanksgiving.

Have printed off two recipes for roast turkey; one is a maple-glaze turkey, the other is a maple-syrup-glaze turkey with Riesling gravy.  Honestly the glaze on the first one looks better, but the gravy on the second one sounds amazing.  I may end up combining these two recipes actually.  Oh the second one calls for fresh ginger in the glaze, so maybe I’ll use the second recipe but apply techniques from the first one.  Basically — the first turkey ends up with a crunchy, crystallized glaze whereas the second one doesn’t.

Found a very highly-rated Slow Cooker Stuffing recipe on Allrecipes, which sounds perfect.  Will modify it to be vegetarian, but using a slow cooker will be great since it’ll free up room/time in the oven.  It’s a very traditional stuffing recipe, which is totally fine with me since so much of what I love about Thanksgiving is traditions.

For the mashed potatoes, I found a link to a recipe on Pinterest – but the link doesn’t work, so I’m going to have to improvise.  It’s called Caramelized Onion and Mashed Potato Bake, so I’m going to caramelized a shit ton of onions in a bunch of olive oil, and prepare mashed potatoes separately (with butter and cream most likely).  Then I’ll put the caramelized-oily-goodness of the onions on the bottom of a baking pan, and spoon the mashed potatoes on top, then sprinkle on some kind of white cheese (e.g. mozzarella or some such).  Does that not sound absolutely heart-stoppingly amazing?  Yeah.  I know.

I was thinking about getting pre-made bread for this meal, but since I’m going to do the stuffing in a crock pot, I figure I’ll have time to make some yeast rolls.  Found two recipes from Martha Stewart.  Will probably make the dough the week before and freeze it until that Wednesday.

And I am going to be lazy with the cranberry sauce and/or relish — not making that.  Will have to buy some.

The dessert is going to be great.  I’m going to make a crust and instead of finishing the crust with the typical fringy-thing that goes around the edge (you know, right?) I’m going to put leaf cut-outs around the top edge of the crust.  That will be baked, then the filling added, and on top I’m going to put a bunch of sugared cranberries and serve with whipped cream.  Last time I made this, I put the whipped cream all over the pie (think lemon meringue pie style), but this time – to make the cranberries and the leaves stand out – will just use the cream as a garnish.  Yes, it’s going to be excellent.

Lastly, I mentioned the cheese platter.  This will be to snack on while we’re drinking wine and cooking.  Components will include but not be limited to ——- as much variety of cheese as we can afford (thinking goat, swiss, brie, havarti, cheddar, camembert, etc), figs (if I can find some fresh), green olives, grapes, pistachios, probably another nut (almonds or something), artichoke hearts, capers, honey, and some crackers/crostini/bread thing.

I would like to fast-forward, now, to the week of Thanksgiving so that I can go grocery shopping and decorate my house.

Currently excited about a couple of things, and since it’s Monday morning, I figured I’d write about it a bit.  At least until work picks up some.

I won’t harp on this for too awfully long, but I started playing Oblivion again (which is the Elder Scrolls IV, predecessor to Skyrim) this weekend and am now quite excited about playing more.  I don’t know if you people who don’t play these games realize how amazing it can be to dive into a different world like this, but it is just great.  The graphics are definitely not as good in Oblivion as they are in Skyrim, but they aren’t horrible either.  I remember Matt never liked Oblivion that much, but loved both Morrowind (TES III) and Skyrim; I would totally give Morrowind a shot if the graphics were not so outdated.  But whatever, I’m enjoying Oblivion so far.

I’m also now excited about Thanksgiving.  Hadn’t decided what I was going to do until I complained recently about how I want to host Thanksgiving at my house at some point in my life.  Katie doesn’t have Elliott this year, so she said that she would come to Nashville for Thanksgiving and spend it cooking with me!!!  YAY.  I’ve always wavered back and forth between Thanksgiving and Christmas as favorite holidays, so I didn’t want to not celebrate it the way I want to – but it also takes a lot of gas to drive to Oak Ridge and back just for a few hours.  So this year is going to be similar to two years ago when I made Thanksgiving dinner for myself and Matt – only Katie will be contributing some to the food this time.

Menu will include turkey, gravy, stuffing, Aunt Carol’s Sweet Potato Casserole, this mashed potatoes w/ caramelized onion recipe I found, bread/greens/cranberry sauce and/or relish, and….that might be it for the main course.  And of course I’ll make Grandma’s Magic Chocolate Pie for dessert.  Might do a pumpkin pie too, but that kind of seems like overkill.  The only reason I’m thinking about making one right now is because I just saw a gorgeous pumpkin pie on Pinterest — decorated with leaf-shaped cutouts and candied cranberries.  I could do that with the chocolate pie though, too.  Hm.

So yeah, the day will be spent cooking and probably drinking wine.  There will be mulled wine and cider and a cheese board, and we will probably not be able to walk or even move after we eat dinner.  It’s going to be awesome.  And I’m going to have leftover turkey for a week, which is probably one of the reasons I want to do Thanksgiving at my house.

(Cheese board inspiration, because I love the picture and want to make more of these.)

I think I’m going to Chattanooga this weekend with Stephen.  His family is having some kind of …thing.  One of his relatives started this women’s magazine, I believe, and they’re having a sort of…um, I guess reunion for the magazine?  I’m sure I’m botching it.  But his mom wanted him to come, and I’m actually a little excited about going too.  I haven’t been to Chattanooga in a long time, and I’m anticipating it being a beautiful drive down.  Looking forward to Rembrandt’s for sure – will need to buy some coffee while I’m there.

Hm.  I might start compiling a Thanksgiving list.  I know it’s over 2 weeks away, but the sooner I start planning, the better, right?  Heh.

I bought four different kinds of cheeses today (white cheddar, neufchatel, brie, and goat cheese w/ blueberries).  Just saying.

Also I had banana pudding for lunch, and it was delicious.

Some of my goals (long and short term), listed in no particular order at all.

• Start having monthly dinner parties.  If you’re interested in coming to one, let me know.  Either way, you’ll probably get an invitation at some point.
• Finish Christmas presents before December 24th.
• Clean out my closet and dresser, which will include throwing away all articles of clothing that haven’t been worn in more than 2 years.  Embarrassingly, this will dramatically decrease the volume in closet and dresser both.  Also, to go along with this goal, I’d like to get ALL of my laundry finished, and organize my closet.
• Need to clean my white duvet cover/pillow shams again.
• Hm, speaking of duvet covers, I also need to do a little mending on the feather cover which is currently on my bed.
• At some point in my life, I want to start hosting Thanksgiving at my house.  If I have to do this for a couple of close friends only, that’s just the way it will have to be.  This is a high-priority long-term goal.  I WILL MAKE THIS HAPPEN AT SOME POINT IN MY LIFE I swear to God.  And if all of my family and friends refuse to acquiesce, they will be missing out on some damned good food.
• My hair is looking drab.  I should dye it again.
• Get new lenses for my glasses.  This should be on the short-term goal list…..
• Get a job in a bookstore or a bakery at some point in my life.
• To go along with the previous goal, I either need to start making a whole lot more money, or marry someone rich.  I’m cool either way.

Do you guys ever wish you could take a vacation from your life?  Right now, I would like to take about a week off from work, tell all my coworkers and friends that I’m going out of town and will have limited cell phone/internet reception, and then just stay home and work on reading the backlog of books that I have, and baking things like puff pastry and croissants and pies, and making my house cleaner and prettier than it has ever been before.  Ahhh.  That sounds so lovely.  Especially if I could take this week vacation during the fall, with a mixture of sunny and rainy days.

Well anyway.  I’m off to the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner tonight.  And maybe wash a few dishes if the grocery shopping goes quickly…..

• Firstly.  Voting today.  I always kick myself for never voting early, though I’m hopeful that the lines will not be as long tonight as they were for the last Presidential election.  Phew.  Had to wait in line for about 2 hours that day.
• Secondofly.  I needed a break from crossing Staples colored folders to stuff that we stock.  To tell the truth, finding the Smead equivalent of a Staples-brand folder really is not the most thrilling thing ever.
• But I don’t mind that much, especially because I like this customer.  They’re a pretty big account, and this may surprise some of you but when their buyer calls me, it’s unusual for our calls to last less than 10 minutes (though if we kept to work-related subjects, they would last about 2 minutes).  We just had a conversation, in fact, about how everyone in Tennessee should be voting “no” on Amendment 1, regardless of their personal opinions on abortion.  If she didn’t live in Hendersonville, we would probably hang out all the time.
• I have been really missing cooking in my kitchen lately, and spent a fairly good chunk of the morning finding new recipes on Pinterest.  Found this one in particular – Sweet Potato and Brie Mac & Cheese – after Cathy mentioned that she has sweet potatoes that she could bring for dinner tomorrow.  This recipe looks absolutely amazing, and I can’t wait to make it!  If I could just blow off work tomorrow entirely, I would make homemade bread to go along with it…. but since I kinda have to work I’ll probably just grab a baguette somewhere.  Ah, the good ol’ days when grabbing a baguette entailed walking to the front of the room.  Now I actually have to stop at a store.  Geez.
• Last night was really great.  I haven’t been spending enough time at home lately, so yesterday after work, I fiddled around with some leather stuff (had gotten some bronzed buckles in the mail so finished assembling something); then I put in Skyrim and played that for a while, and Ryan was so kind as to do a Fat Mo’s run for both of us; after I got tired of Skyrim, I got in bed and watched Pan’s Labyrinth.  Which is SUCH a good movie.  I actually stayed awake for the whole thing (it helped that I got in bed around 8:15).
• Tonight I’m going to clean the kitchen, and do a load of laundry.  I would sort of like to clean the living room, but the current mess is from crafting so I know that it would reappear just as soon as I start working on more projects.  I’m keeping it clean, but not neat.  The distinction is important.
• Ordered two books today — Bill Nye’s new one, and Mallery Ortberg’s new one.  Am excited and sort of wish I could cancel the order and just go to a bookstore.  Meh.  I have to vote instead.  And anyway, it’s not like I’m hurting for books or anything.

At Liesl’s encouragement I’m blogging again, even though I don’t have anything in particular to say.  So feel free to disregard this entry.

It’s Halloween, and I’ve been at work for about 20 minutes.  Came in at 8:30 because my boss asked me to stay until 5:00 and then said that she didn’t mind if I slept in a little this morning.  It was soooo lovely, too.  This morning was rainy and cool, though not as cold as it’s going to be tomorrow.  And I am so awfully glad that tomorrow is Saturday, so I won’t have to get out of bed until I’m good and ready.  I like it when the weather works out the way I want it to.  (I also like it when my sentences are accidentally alliterative.)

Last night, instead of staying home and making a Halloween-themed dessert for work today, Stephen and I drove down the Natchez Trace a ways with some mulled wine and several jackets.  The sun set a little too soon but it was still lovely.  Got to see some colors on the Trace bridge before it got too dark, and then moseyed over to a pull-off to drink the wine and smoke cigars (well, he smoked a cigar).  Just lovely.  After, had dinner around 10pm which consisted of chicken, baked potato, and asparagus.  Have I mentioned that Stephen likes to cook?  It’s a good thing.

Oh, and he’s making potato soup and cornbread tonight, which I’m also looking forward to.  I’m sort of hoping that he’ll be in the mood to watch Zodiac, as it seems like a perfect Halloween activity.  It’s very easy to be distracted from watching movies when you’re handing out candy though, so we’ll see.  I hope it’s dark and stormy tonight, like last Halloween was.  PERfect weather.  For someone who doesn’t ever really celebrate other than handing out candy and sometimes decorating, I do like Halloween.  Hm.  I’m going to have to bring over a ton of candles to Stephen’s tonight.  That’s a good idea.

Ok ok, sorry to keep talking about him, but one last thing – he totally got me flowers yesterday.  If you know me, as most of you do, you know that flowers are one of the reasons that I stay alive.  Sorry, that’s a little dramatic, but you know.  I fucking love flowers.  And 99% of the time I end up buying them for myself, so when someone else gets them for me it just makes me happy.  I added some leaves to this bouquet because they seemed appropriate.  He said he got this color mum because they reminded him of leaves.

Anyway.  I would like to be able to share with you guys the craft projects I’ve been working on, but alas, you’re not going to be seeing them until Christmas.  *sigh*

So I have to admit that seeing so many people dressed up is making me want to dress up.  I almost wish I had a costume.  I might go home and grab that gauzey black piece of cloth I wore as a shawl last year, which, coupled with the black lace skirt I have (and lack of adequate lighting) looks witchy.  Hm.

Well.  Anyway.  That’s all I can think of at the moment, unless you want to hear me complain about how weird my face is looking today, and how flat my hair is.  It’s clear I swear!!!

UGH I want to go home and craft.

I ordered this spacer set ——–

———– and man I just would like so much to be using it right now.  Also I had a fabulous idea for a Christmas present for Dad, and would like to be working on that right now, too.  My Christmas gift ideas are slowly morphing into leather craft ideas, so don’t be surprised if you get something leather-y (but, uh, don’t be disappointed if you don’t).

Someone asked for a tutorial/pattern for the thing that I posted on Imgur/reddit, and I’m thinking about making another one out of a softer, lighter leather (and using the stitching tool to make my stitches look more professional, too).  I also ordered a spacing tool – it basically creates a groove that runs perpendicular to the edge of the leather – but have not gotten that one yet.  I should probably wait to start the new [thing] until it comes.  Might as well.

I know this entry really is not very interesting and it’s definitely not informative, but it’s helping me distract myself anyway.  Only about an hour and a half until lunch anyway.

I would write about my weekend, and the last couple of days, but I haven’t really gotten much sleep lately and don’t feel terribly wordy.  In brief: I went to Knoxville on Saturday, got to see a bunch of family and some exciting children’s books, then came back home on Sunday and ended up going to Hidden Lakes with Stephen.  It was a gorgeous day for a little hike.  Mm.  Yesterday, went with Katie to see Ben Folds perform a few pieces with the Nashville Ballet, which was enjoyable.  Then went to Stephen’s for a movie, and did not catch up on sleep at all last night.  I’m very much looking forward to my lunch break because I’m going home for a nap.

Tonight, I want to fit in more than I’ll be able to.  I’d like to take a bath, and work on leather stuff, and hang out with Stephen (I kinda like him, if I hadn’t mentioned).  I’m thinking that I’ll probably have to cut one of those things.  But maybe not!  But cutting the bath will allow for more crafting time, so we’ll see.  Hm.

Not sure what my problem is, but if I share politically/socially controversial things on FB, I start feeling like I’m imposing my beliefs on other people and usually end up either swallowing the guilt or deleting the posts.  If it’s something I think is actually very important, I’ll leave it up, but right now I’m just going to vent here.

The New Yorker just shared this article on their FB page.  It’s about a lesbian couple who are suing a sperm bank for $50,000 because the bank did not give the mother the sperm she had requested.  I can understand being upset about that sort of thing; I would imagine that family health history would play a part in choosing a donor, and this negates that planning.  However, the article details other objections that the parents have to raising a mixed-race child, such as having to go to a black neighborhood to get the kid’s hair cut and worrying about being able to send her to an all-white school.  The article says, “The complaint emphasizes that ‘all of Jennifer’s therapists and experts agree that for her psychological and parental well-being, she must relocate to a racially diverse community with good schools.'”

My thought is — the kid does not care what color her skin is.  If the parents care SO MUCH that they are suing the sperm bank over messing it up, that just tells the poor little girl that she is not good enough, that her parents would love her and want her more if she was white, and that it is inherently better to be white than to be black or mixed.  These are some of the worst messages that parents can communicate to their children, and the fact that they are concerned enough over this to go to court does not even seem to try to mask their racism.

The article notes that because the mom is a lesbian, she has experienced ostracization and she did not want her daughter to have to go through that with her peers.  First, the fact that the daughter is going to grow up with two mothers puts her out of the “norm” anyway.  Second though, and maybe I am nothing but a sheltered white girl myself, but I don’t see how this is even applicable.  Mixed-race people are not fighting for rights the way that homosexual people are.  I agree that neither of these things should be a reason to pass judgment on an individual (the color of your skin is as much your control as the color of your eyes, or your sexual orientation) (actually your sexual orientation is even less your control), but all I can think of is how horrible it would be to discover that your parents had sued a sperm bank because you turned out to be the wrong color.  The article quotes — “Jennifer does not want [her daughter] to feel stigmatized or unrecognized due simply to the circumstances of her birth.”  Seems to me that if the mother didn’t want her daughter to feel these things, that she would accept her fully as her own daughter and not even mention the color of her skin.

Sometimes I suspect that people who have grown up feeling stigmatized are more likely to stigmatize other people.  But again, sheltered white female here.  What do I know.  I just observe.