Baby, I'm baaaaaackkkk!!

I guess I'm back from a lot of things.  I'm back from a busy summer hiatus.  I'm back from a mommy escape weekend to Portland, Oregon with my bestie Ann.  I'm back to work from just two days off (Portland was a long weekend) and I come back to 6 angry voicemails from people who didn't pay their bills over the last three years and 45 emails.  This is not normal for me.  I guess I was just missed.  And this morning?  You know what I came into this morning?

I'll give you a hint.

I'll give you another hint.  It's 4 feet of not supposed to be here.  Welcome back to work!  

It's always exciting around here.  I am living through the first of hopefully not so many experiences of having to go against my personal morals on a project due to higher-ups.  I am sure it is not the last time and that's a bitter pill to take.  I have a lot of freedom to do what I think is best for the City so I have to just keep doing things that I think make a positive difference and keep working for the greater good as best I can.  

Want to see some photos from Portland?  Course you do. 

McMenamins Crystal Hotel.  

 

Ann and Clarice in our room. Don't look at me like that, Clarice...

Waterfall at the Japanese Gardens by the Rose Test Gardens (which we didn't go to)

Ann at the Japanese tea gardens

Then we went to the Chinese Tea Gardens, it was a tea garden battle royal!

But the Chinese tea gardens actually had teas to drink so they win.  

Ann got the maple blunt and I got the gay bar. 

Then we went to Voodoo Donuts.  They were intense.
Not as intense as the line to get the donuts, though...

Foo Dog in Chinatown

Food carts everywhere.  Seriously, these were the places that I ate the best.  So good....

It was seriously the best food on my trip, and the best pic of the trip.  The best pic, me stuffing my face.  But so happy. 

Treat yo'self!!!!

Just keeping it weird. 

And the kids, holding down the fort at the Cleveland Zoo while mama was out.  

Photos not listed...our kick ass night at the gay bar Silverado.  It was an excellent time.

Thanks Ann for an awesome mama getaway treat yo'self weekend!

I've been burned out living with the way you've turned out

Hello world.

Been thinking about new years resolutions.  I'm not that great at them but this is, what, I think my third year of writing this blog so that's at least one New Year's resolution I stuck with.  Should I make some type of health goal, the most stereotypical of all resolutions?  I was thinking about trying to run a 5k this year....but should that be my resolution?  Meh..... I would like to make a resolution to have no more sick children for the year but I think that's asking waaaay too much.  It could be something that I know I would be able to do, like a resolution to continue breathing for the whole year.  That's a bit easy but very obtainable, and if I failed, well, I wouldn't be around to know it... Eh, that's a bit morbid now that I re-read it.

I'll keep working on it.

By the way, the Foodie Cleveland cards came last week.  I'm pretty excited about it. :) Here's what they look like.  There's a Brewster's card, a card for this new wine bar in Hudson, lots and lots of cool stuff.  I'll try to take pictures of the cards and the dinners we order with them as we use them.  :)

Call me third law because you know I say fuck the first two

That wonderful tidbit of lyricism is from my hubby who is a guest rapper on Killer Whale Party's new album which is coming out sometime next year.  Get your copy reserved today...

Anyway, I'm feeling a bit better lately, just super emotional and moody and tired.  Always cold and tired.  Only a little morning sickness each day, now.  There was a comment about why I don't use morning sickness remedies...well, some of them haven't really been working for me (horehound...which makes me sad because I love it so), peppermint has a very minimal effect and ginger makes me want to vomit even more.  So I've been trying to eat small snacks all day long and drink lots and lots, and that seems to be helping.  Also, I changed taking my vitamin from the morning with breakfast to right before bed, and that has helped tremendously. 

So, Asher was in the hospital for a respiratory infection.  I was feeling pretty guilty about the whole thing, Ry took him to the ER while I was working and then they checked him into the hospital, while I was working, and I felt really helpless and out of control.  I went and saw him right after work and stayed with him until he feel asleep, but they said only one parent may spend the night with a child so I went home (Ry and I both decided that it's best for me to save up as much of my sick time as possible for maternity leave next year) and ry spent the next day with him in the hospital while I went to work.  It was incredibly stressful and upsetting for me, especially with my super charged emotional state, and I have been feeling the residuals from it in the form of anxiety, exhaustion and listlessness. 

Asher is going to the Dr. today for a follow up check up. 

So, you know one thing I feel ripped off about?  Pregnant women are not allowed (or not supposed to) eat lunch meat.  Deli meat.  Because it could be dangerous to your fetus.  Listeria.  You know...think about this...it means that most all deli meats (and hot dogs) are contaminated with Listeria on a regular basis and it's okay for everyone else to eat them.  This should make some people question the food that they are fed that is considered "safe" for everyone else.  Maybe old people shouldn't eat deli meat, either.  Maybe the infirm?  I don't want to go on a tirade about deli meats and hot dogs, other than the fact that, Fuck you mr. deli meat maker.  Fuck you very much.

I wish that Joan of Arc wouldn't hang around the park

Hello.  This is just an update on life kind of post.  A mishmash of stuff.  And yes, I am aware that I still owe you a nerf war post.  I promise, as soon as I get the photos up I will, it's just the computer dying has put me behind on pictures, you know?  You know. 

 First, we made sauerkraut yesterday. Me and Ry and Asher, and Martin came to help for a bit, too. We made two buckets, 45 lbs of cabbage each. We were on a roll. Here's some photos of Asher helping for you to enjoy.


It was fun, even if there were 60 mile per hour gusts all day and it was pretty chilly.  You make it outside, unless you really like having a huge mess all over.  Cause it's messy.  We still have more cabbages left, too.  I guess we bought to many when Asher, Katya and I went to the farmer's market in Edinburg (I know it's far away, but their cabbage is so huge and cheap at 1.50 for a 10lb head).  So, the kraut is fermenting and in a month I'll be canning it with my mother.  
 
I am thinking about making a third bucket and selling it by the jar.  I wonder how much people would pay for it and if people would want to buy it...I don't know, really.  I mean, I love kraut, and fresh kraut is always better than that store garbage...but I don't know if many people share my love for kraut.  
 
In other news, I just discovered recently a character flaw of mine.  I over react.  I was kind of surprised when I realized it, and then knew it to be true.  I asked my friends about it and they told me that, yes, in fact, I do over react.  At first I was a little upset that no one told me.  I mean, isn't that what you should do when your friends are being crazy psychos?  But, as my hubby pointed out, a good friend would just accept you for your faults and tolerate you, or just avoid you when you were crazy (if your friends are guys) and hang out with you when you weren't, but would never tell you when you were being a crazy super psycho bitch.  
 
So, I'm gonna work on my over reacting. No promises, because often I don't realize I'm doing it until after the fact, but I'm going to try.   

Anyway...not much else to say right now.  Have two Halloween events on the same day next weekend, so that will be a challenge...I don't know, I need to talk to JJ...

I should probably get to work.

Zombipocalypse, 2011

So, this weekend was the first ever Zombipocalypse.  It rained.  It happens.  I mean, zombipocalypses could potentially happen at anytime so, it makes sense to be prepared.  Here are the photos and some quick little side notes.  First is the preparation.  I made zombie fingers.  Basically I used the fresh bacon from the CSA and wrapped it around rod pretzels and securing them with toothpicks, then baking them in the oven for about 20 minutes.  I was worried when they first came out because the bacon had made the pretzels soft.  I let them cool off before I coated them in chocolate, though, and they hardened right back up.  And were amazing.  I should have gotten a second pack of bacon, but I was worried they wouldn't turn out and I would ruin all that bacon. 



Zombie fingers...





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pre-zombie fingers...




Bear helped mama with her costume.



So, day of party photos now.  Mostly just chilling.  Since it rained all weekend we ended up hanging in the house and the garage.  We put up a sheet over the garage door and projected movies and music, it was pretty boss.  Ry was diligent and actually got a fire started, too.  So we had that, though it was cold cold cold and I didn't spend much time outside because I didn't want little bear outside.  Oh, did I mention I let him stay up til 11?  We were going to let him go til he dropped but he refused to drop so we eventually put him to bed.  He had a blast.  I think it's safe to say we all had a great time. 

I did makeup for ry, myself, bear, tom, the shig and Brittany.  I got better as I went on, my makeup (which I did first) was considerably the worst.  Rachel's makeup, which she did her self was pretty awesome, and Jess pain did a pretty good job, too.  Honestly, most of our zombie compatriots were pretty excellently made up.  I should have made Rachel do all of our makeup, though. She was much better at it than I was. Oh well, practice makes more zombies. 

 JJ brought these lovely treats, which I'm going to pretend she made with CSA eggs as well:



Deviled eggs level 2, eyes of the damned.



Zombie casual hour.  Just chilling and mixing. 



Keef of the dead and his lovely zombie drove all the way from
Maryland to hang with his undead companions.

Silly survivor.  It's only a matter of time before you are one of us.

Zombie hoard smells brains. 

Hey, I can see you out there...

We even had a zombie Chell.  She made her own glow in the dark companion cube and leg braces.  Awesome.



What zombie party is complete without the second coming of Christ?
And his beautiful prom queen of the damned, of course.



I always feared my child would be the death

of me...

Hanging out with a mushroom man, frying turnips in my frying pan

CSA post this week!  Here's the rundown of what we got:

1 lb pumpkin sage linguine
2 lb log of butter made from grass-grazed, organic milk
2 ct eggplant
2 red peppers
2 ct winter squash (varieties include butternut, acorn, spaghetti, honey bear, heart of gold, and a few more)
approx 1.5 lbs heirloom tomatoes
1 lb yellow wax beans
Quarter peck Gala apples
1 head leaf lettuce

Any goombas around to
throw these at?

The story on the tomatoes...so we get an email about the heirlooms that says they didn't get a hold of the Amish guy soon enough so they won't be heirlooms but just slicing tomatoes.  No big deal.  We get to the back of the truck and find out that the tomatoes are not happening at all.  Also, no big deal.  It happens.  So they are substituting one of the following:  apples, cantaloupe, turnips or kale.  It went kind of like this:

Turnip and potato fritters...delish!

Truck guy:  what do you want to substitute? 

Me:  Hmm....I've never had them before, give me the turnips! 

He looks at me, shrugs, and then gives me like 3 lbs of turnips.  There were a lot of turnips.  Good thing I had friends to come over and help me eat them all.  I was a little nervous about how they would turn out but...they were delicious!  I ended up using this recipe from Simplyrecipes.com, I used all of my turnips and made a double batch.  So good. 

Planning on cooking the eggplant, peppers and summer squash with the pasta tonight.  If it turns out good I'll post photos...

And the apples this week?  Absolutely amazing.  Did I mention how much I love doing this CSA?  There is talk that they might do a winter CSA as well...oh I hope they do!  I'm already excited. 

Oh, and a side note, the 2lb log of butter is 5inches tall and 6 inches long.  It's absurd.  And awesome. 

A normal sized Gala apple for size comparison