It's already August? Wah - ?
Aug. 3rd, 2005 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarflameI spent all day yesterday cleaning like a mofo. It was another of those times I'd been neglecting it and everything had gone to seed. So to speak ;) Once again I have conquered the piles of laundry, hand washed all the diaper covers, cleared all the living room clutter and created floor space in the kids' room...
In the evening we went up to the mall, Grant has someone there who he's doing a site for so he had a meeting. I was at the food court with the kids getting subs - which was a total headache of the guy not understanding that as a pregnant woman I need the MEAT ONLY heated to the point of steaming, and the giant family in front of us ordering didn't speak any english, etc - and then as we were eating I spotted my old friend Ruth. From what I could gather in our visit, she dresses super stylishly, has short elfish hair, a thick Miami cuban accent, and is getting a job at an all girls school for at risk teens. She's going to be teaching kids 6th-11th grade, which is a pretty broad range - and it's crazy how the freaking AT RISK GIRLS' school is more "sane and rational" for her than Homestead High, where they have the swat team out front for violent crime once a week and drug deals go down in class...
Anyway, yeah, Homeschool all the way :P
She sees Memo sometimes, at ArtSouth, but not as recently as I have, and she's single. And still very very small :) (4'11" when she tries, I believe it is). She made the kids laugh a lot by chasing them around like a sumo wrestler in the middle of the food court :D
I made this INCREDIBLE pot roast the other night, based on a link for stroccato that I got from Sara/![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rainingkisses. You rub salt and pepper all over a big old roast and then fry it in a little olive oil, just enough to brown it on all sides. Then take it out of the oil, and dump 2 whole sliced onions and 6 mincedcloves of garlic into the oil. Add 1 3/4 cups of beef broth, 1 cup of chicken stock (that was my doing, they called for red wine but we didn't have that at the time) and rosemary. We also added some fresh basil from the garden at this point. Then add a whole mess of thickly sliced mushrooms (it called for dried porcini, which we would have had to drive all the way to Wild Oats for, and this came out wonderful...) And once all the onions are soft and the liquid has bubbled and all that, pour it all over the roast in a giant roasting pan and bake it at 350 for THREE HOURS. When I went to take it out of the pan with some tongs, it fell into 4 pieces. So good. I can't even describe it. We had it with my chunky homemade tomato and spinach sauce on whole wheat pasta, sprinkled in mozzarella cheese. Grant actually told me it's one of the best meals he's ever had in his whole life and that he would've happily paid big bucks for it in a restaurant :D
I've felt very medivel (...midevil...medievil...how the heck do you spell that?) all week having big plates of red grapes or sliced mangos with cold leftover roast beef, for lunch. I eat it all with my hands like some sort of royal, sloppy monarch. Sometimes I think my pregnant body would happily exist on nothing but meat and fruit.
I feel stylish as heck today, which is silly. But this olive green maternity tshirttalula_fairie sent me is the bomb. I've had it in the bottom of a basket forever with some things I didn't think I'd actually wear, because it has this stupid little tiny pocket on one side of the chest, but I tried it on and it rocks. It's a great color and fit, and actually covers the bottom of my belly.
I don't know what else to say right now. Money stress is not quite so bad as it was last week, as a couple of customers have paid Grant and he did a lot of invoicing others. We just payed the van payment, which is our biggest single bill every month, yesterday, and there is still some money around for odd grocery items or gas. There should be more coming in to help with the business' debt and put towards other bills in the next week. Still no EXTRA, but at this point "closer to enough" is feeling good.
I got out the sewing machine for the first time in forever the other night, and made Grant a new pillow with some receiving blankets and fiberfill I had laying around, and it inspired me to teach Annie about it and do a beanbag with her the next day. Now I want to sew again. I want to sell things, though. I'm working on these little wool diaper cover pants (longies for ignorant among you) for the new baby (knit and crochet) that are coming out SO WELL, and I keep thinking I should sell them, even though *I* want them. We just don't have much more stuff around for me to sell online, and there are still so many things I'd like to buy. More Burt's Bees powder and diaper rash cream for the new baby, and buttermilk bath, and 18-24 month Robeez for Isaac, as he's outgrowing his 12-18 and the Converse I got from ebay aren't going to fit him for awhile. More of these great organic cotton nighttime diapers we tried out for him.
We've watched 3 movies this week. Constantine, with Keanu Reeves, will make you laugh out loud in places at the ridiculous horror slash religious nonsense. Like when he puts on brass nuckles with crosses on them, to hit a demon with. But it was more watchable than I expected, and semi-thought provoking, even though I COULD NOT STAND their "Angel Gabriel". Ugh. Final Cut with Robin Williams was really thought provoking, the premise being that people have these little lifelong camcorders installed in their retinas before birth and then these cutters have the job of going back and editing the footage to make a short film about their life, once they've died, to be presented to remaining loved ones at a "Rememory". It ended terribly though - and by that I just mean that I thought the ending was terrible. Last night it was The Jacket with Adrien Brody and Kera Knightly. It's one of these horrific things where you see the terrible stuff that goes down in asylums, but wasn't as disturbing as I expected. Overall I think that it left me feeling happy and was the best movie of this week. Cursed Smallville episodes running out!
Sidenote: MELISSA - Do you know where my extra bobbins and other presser foot are? I noticed they were missing when I first got the machine back, but forgot about it because I wasn't using it yet. There's a big gray plastic presser foot, and another little specialty silver one, and I think 2 more bobbins, maybe 3? I also don't see the stitch ripping tool. I was thinking you might've included the little safety pins as a sort of consolation prize o_O
In the evening we went up to the mall, Grant has someone there who he's doing a site for so he had a meeting. I was at the food court with the kids getting subs - which was a total headache of the guy not understanding that as a pregnant woman I need the MEAT ONLY heated to the point of steaming, and the giant family in front of us ordering didn't speak any english, etc - and then as we were eating I spotted my old friend Ruth. From what I could gather in our visit, she dresses super stylishly, has short elfish hair, a thick Miami cuban accent, and is getting a job at an all girls school for at risk teens. She's going to be teaching kids 6th-11th grade, which is a pretty broad range - and it's crazy how the freaking AT RISK GIRLS' school is more "sane and rational" for her than Homestead High, where they have the swat team out front for violent crime once a week and drug deals go down in class...
Anyway, yeah, Homeschool all the way :P
She sees Memo sometimes, at ArtSouth, but not as recently as I have, and she's single. And still very very small :) (4'11" when she tries, I believe it is). She made the kids laugh a lot by chasing them around like a sumo wrestler in the middle of the food court :D
I made this INCREDIBLE pot roast the other night, based on a link for stroccato that I got from Sara/
rainingkisses. You rub salt and pepper all over a big old roast and then fry it in a little olive oil, just enough to brown it on all sides. Then take it out of the oil, and dump 2 whole sliced onions and 6 mincedcloves of garlic into the oil. Add 1 3/4 cups of beef broth, 1 cup of chicken stock (that was my doing, they called for red wine but we didn't have that at the time) and rosemary. We also added some fresh basil from the garden at this point. Then add a whole mess of thickly sliced mushrooms (it called for dried porcini, which we would have had to drive all the way to Wild Oats for, and this came out wonderful...) And once all the onions are soft and the liquid has bubbled and all that, pour it all over the roast in a giant roasting pan and bake it at 350 for THREE HOURS. When I went to take it out of the pan with some tongs, it fell into 4 pieces. So good. I can't even describe it. We had it with my chunky homemade tomato and spinach sauce on whole wheat pasta, sprinkled in mozzarella cheese. Grant actually told me it's one of the best meals he's ever had in his whole life and that he would've happily paid big bucks for it in a restaurant :DI've felt very medivel (...midevil...medievil...how the heck do you spell that?) all week having big plates of red grapes or sliced mangos with cold leftover roast beef, for lunch. I eat it all with my hands like some sort of royal, sloppy monarch. Sometimes I think my pregnant body would happily exist on nothing but meat and fruit.
I feel stylish as heck today, which is silly. But this olive green maternity tshirt
talula_fairie sent me is the bomb. I've had it in the bottom of a basket forever with some things I didn't think I'd actually wear, because it has this stupid little tiny pocket on one side of the chest, but I tried it on and it rocks. It's a great color and fit, and actually covers the bottom of my belly. I don't know what else to say right now. Money stress is not quite so bad as it was last week, as a couple of customers have paid Grant and he did a lot of invoicing others. We just payed the van payment, which is our biggest single bill every month, yesterday, and there is still some money around for odd grocery items or gas. There should be more coming in to help with the business' debt and put towards other bills in the next week. Still no EXTRA, but at this point "closer to enough" is feeling good.
I got out the sewing machine for the first time in forever the other night, and made Grant a new pillow with some receiving blankets and fiberfill I had laying around, and it inspired me to teach Annie about it and do a beanbag with her the next day. Now I want to sew again. I want to sell things, though. I'm working on these little wool diaper cover pants (longies for ignorant among you) for the new baby (knit and crochet) that are coming out SO WELL, and I keep thinking I should sell them, even though *I* want them. We just don't have much more stuff around for me to sell online, and there are still so many things I'd like to buy. More Burt's Bees powder and diaper rash cream for the new baby, and buttermilk bath, and 18-24 month Robeez for Isaac, as he's outgrowing his 12-18 and the Converse I got from ebay aren't going to fit him for awhile. More of these great organic cotton nighttime diapers we tried out for him.
We've watched 3 movies this week. Constantine, with Keanu Reeves, will make you laugh out loud in places at the ridiculous horror slash religious nonsense. Like when he puts on brass nuckles with crosses on them, to hit a demon with. But it was more watchable than I expected, and semi-thought provoking, even though I COULD NOT STAND their "Angel Gabriel". Ugh. Final Cut with Robin Williams was really thought provoking, the premise being that people have these little lifelong camcorders installed in their retinas before birth and then these cutters have the job of going back and editing the footage to make a short film about their life, once they've died, to be presented to remaining loved ones at a "Rememory". It ended terribly though - and by that I just mean that I thought the ending was terrible. Last night it was The Jacket with Adrien Brody and Kera Knightly. It's one of these horrific things where you see the terrible stuff that goes down in asylums, but wasn't as disturbing as I expected. Overall I think that it left me feeling happy and was the best movie of this week. Cursed Smallville episodes running out!
Sidenote: MELISSA - Do you know where my extra bobbins and other presser foot are? I noticed they were missing when I first got the machine back, but forgot about it because I wasn't using it yet. There's a big gray plastic presser foot, and another little specialty silver one, and I think 2 more bobbins, maybe 3? I also don't see the stitch ripping tool. I was thinking you might've included the little safety pins as a sort of consolation prize o_O
