buttercup

I finished my package for the Spring Swap! I feel so in control. A whole four days early, too. I'm actually pretty happy with the whole kit and caboodle -- I'll post the crafty things on my crafty blog after my swap-person receives The Box.

Of course, I can't mail it til Thursday, 'cause I'm broke and have two doctor appointments in the next two days (for me and Rabbit), but still. It's done. On time. And this was the first MAJOR swap I've done, everything else has been smallish and didn't involve a lot of time on my part except for the Matchbox Shrine Swap.

Enough swap talk. Here, have a recipe. I call it "The Best Quiche EVER" and it's based on a formula I got from Mollie Katzen's The Enchanted Broccoli Forest (also known as "the most beautiful cookbook EVER"):

The Best Quiche EVER

--ll LAYER 1 ll-- (layers are from the bottom up)
* 1 premade pie crust

Place the pie crust in a pie dish or medium-deep casserole dish.

--ll LAYER 2 ll--
* 8 oz. smoky cheddar/Swiss cheese, diced or shredded (if you can't find a combo cheese, I'm sure 8 combined oz. of separate smoky cheddar and Swiss cheeses will do)

Layer the cheese evenly over the bottom of the pie crust. Nibble a little cheese. You know you want to.

--ll LAYER 3 ll--
* splash of vegetable oil (I wanted to use butter, but didn't have any)
* 1 white onion, halved and sliced (chopped might work better, but I like the look of sliced)
* 1/2 lb. chopped baby spinach
* approx. 1/2 tbsp. nutmeg
* approx. 1/2 tbsp. dry mustard (I didn't measure the spices, so I'm not sure if that's 100% correct)

Heat oil in pan over medium-high heat; sauté the onions with the spices until soft and fragrant. Add spinach and sauté just until wilted and a little glossy. Spoon over cheese layer.

--ll LAYER 4 ll--
* 3 eggs
* 3/4 c. half-and-half
* 1/4 c. low-fat milk (instead of the half-and-half/low-fat combo, you can use all low-fat; I was scavenging and had to take what I could get)
* paprika

Beat milks and eggs together, pour over spinach layer. Dust with paprika.

Bake at 375˚ F for 30–45 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes. Eat!

Why do I always hear about this stuff half a year after everyone else? Maybe it's a sign. I'm not sure what it would be a sign of . . . small-town time warp, perhaps?

Nap Pods. The rip-off of the future. Now you get to pay to sleep. I have a weird complex about sleeping in front of other people, so it would never work for me, although I am a firm believer in midafternoon naps. The pods look kind of creepy, too, like your brain is being transplanted while you sleep. (I would rethink the use of the word "cocoon" in the ad copy.)

This week's discovery: finding out that the stuff I love to look at and sometimes buy in that overpriced import store is called kawaii. I heart it, especially when it involves deer. That is all. As far as that item goes, anyway.

And via Dioramarama, I found some new tote-ish things to fill my blossoming need for bags for library books, groceries, lunch, etc. I love a couple of totes right now, but I want more! And I want them all to be different. This is typical, I love so many different styles of art and I enjoy new visual experiences so much that the only thing that will make me happy (as far as tote bags go) is a wide array of the suckers in different styles and colors. Plus it makes for a colorful grocery shopping experience. I prefer DIY bags from the thousands of indie shops out there, but they can be a little pricey. (Understandably! I'm not bitching about people charging what their stuff is worth, just for the record.)

I bought a few tiny trinkets today to satisfy my end-of-month shopping urge, since I can't buy anything major for the rest of the month: A zine grab bag from Sweet Candy Distro and a couple of small and cute things from day-lab, a new find which I can't believe I didn't know about before (two words: Little Boots).

Let's get into the list I like to call "things I (unfortunately) accomplished this weekend":

1) I mailed a swap package to Utah instead of Arizona, where it was supposed to go (transposed some numbers in the zip code somehow)
2) I blew up the element in our stove (it was just twenty years old, really, I didn't break it. for once.) I turned it on to bake the salmon, and five minutes later, POP! I thought the element was ON FIRE, but luckily they just glow and LOOK LIKE fire when they snap. However, this means no oven for at least two weeks until Ben gets his next paycheck. (I have no money this month because of medical bills, so it's all up to him. No pressure. Just no cookies.)
3) I placed a Pocky-related order at AsianFoodGrocer.com and the Paypal cart screwed up and it didn't go through. So the next day I placed a new order. Then today I checked my e-mail, and there are two receipts from AFG.com, both of them saying that the bill was payed with Paypal. I have no idea what's going on there. I have to say, I have been having tons of difficulties with Paypal carts lately.

It actually wasn't as bad of a weekend as I thought, if I can only list three effed-up things.

We bought some seeds -- had to settle for the local farm supply place instead of an online organic shop due to time and budget constraints -- and all that stuff. I accidentally grabbed potting soil instead of seed-starting mix, but hopefully it will work anyway. I'm just waiting for Ben to install the shop light in the laundry room/closet. If it stays warm like this, though, I won't have to worry about that.

We have a little fire-circle thing out in the woods that we got started on. Ben cleared it out and Friday we got the outdoor fireplace out there and he chopped up some wood. Right now the only seating is a few pieces of lumber on some cinderblocks, though. Very white trash. I think I'm going to try to make a border of shade-loving plants just for kicks. It's all very exciting; we've never been able to do any of this stuff before. When I was a kid, I'd spend hours out in the woods in front of our house, raking leaves and setting up little "rooms" with big rocks and such. This is my adult version of that, I think. I need to fireproof it a little more, though.

I got some stuff for my Spring Swap package, which will unfortunately not be too crafty because my swap person does crafty stuff, and my stuff would suck compared to theirs. It's hard putting together a package like that for a "popular" poster -- someone I don't know but almost everyone else on the board does. I like this person's style, though, so hopefully it will all go okay.

That stupid lump in my jaw is still there and I think it's getting bigger. It's like having the top half of a gumdrop floating around under my skin. (Is that too gross?) I have a follow-up ENT appointment next Monday, but I wish it were today. WHY DON'T I HAVE A GP?

This thing's freaking me right the fuck out. See, this is where I need some friend or relative to say, "oh, Karen, you're worried over nothing. It's probably just some freakish reaction to your diet or a cyst or something, you shouldn't get all worked up over it." But nooooooo, all the people I know have to be just as paranoid as I am.

God, I need some new people. I need to get me some opposite-of-yes men.

So they cancelled "Good Day Live," huh? There goes my go-to show for when I'm home sick and have no brain left, or when I'm working at home and need background voices. What will we do without the inanity?

In honor of this momentous occasion, the top five things I will miss most:

5) the constant pimping of various goods and services. and the cooing over said goods and services.
4) the trashiness of Tabloid Thursday. the trashiness of the whole show, now that I think about it.
3) the stupid meta crap that Steve seems to think is so clever.
2) the vapidness of the female hosts. they're not all clueless, but usually one of the two is mind-blowingly so. Jillian was the Queen Empress of all Blank Starers with the added bonus of making it All About Her, but sadly, she's been gone for a while. that doesn't stop the vapidity, though.
1) tie between the awkwardness of the "star" interviews (especially the on-the-set-of-"X Show" interviews) and Steve's aura of feeling that he is So Much Better Than This.

I think I may have revealed too much just by admitting that I know the show exists.

(there was a leap year in there)

Two years ago I was going through one of the most insane experiences I've ever had. Yesterday I sat down to write out the first entry in a journal I'm planning on keeping for Rabbit, and I realized I can remember almost everything from that day; I thought I'd forgotten it all, but it's all there. Everything except the first time I was able to see her. I keep thinking I didn't get to see her, but Ben says the nurses showed her to me. I don't know if he's remembering it wrong, or I am, or they showed her but she was covered by a blanket so I just remember not seeing her clearly, or what. That's not really important, but it bugs me a little. I should be able to remember something like that, right? I chalk it up to the drugs they gave me before the surgery.

It doesn't matter anyway -- now I get to see her every day.

Dear CSI writers,

Portraying one of your main characters as seemingly puzzled/disturbed re: the incorrect association of rape with sex IS POINTLESS when your own show sexualizes violence against women. I hope you weren't trying to make a point or anything, 'cause you screwed it up pretty badly if you were.

And if you weren't trying to make a point, and were just working on that whole exploring-the-character thing, well, I'm pretty disgusted either way, so whatever. Knock it off.

I have avoided ads, testimonials, cooing, and Amazon.com clicks about or leading to anything related to the iPod, because I know I'm a sucker for Apple's designs and little cute things make me want to turn into a giant so that everything can be so small and adorable, BUT ljc posted about her new iPod Shuffle. And said it's the size of a pack of gum. And so now I am in love. Of course, this leads to thinking: "Wow, my daily jogs (er, walks for now) would be so much more FUN if only I had this tiny gum-pack-sized box of music instead of that bulky Walkman that skips and can only hold one CD at a time!"

Curses.

There is no moral here. Or maybe there is, we'll say it's a choose-your-own-moral story.

1. The library is good. I'm over my books-must-be-new phase, I think, and I thank god for it, because it was a damn expensive phase. Friday was the first day I've taken Rabbit to the library; I have to say that it was a learning experience. The lesson: Do not attempt to introduce your child to the library when the two-year-old kid is hopped up on steroids and tired as hell. 'ROID RAGE AND LIBRARY BOOKS DO NOT MIX. The entire time, she was either:
a) running away while looking back at me mischeviously. I actually thought this was pretty funny, but the librarians and other library patrons did not seem to agree.
b) pulling heavy books off the shelves and "reading" them. I let her pick out a kiddie book to look at, but of course Dr. Seuss does not compare to collectible ceramics price lists. This is a child whose favorite book is the phone book, after all. (Please do not cry, I reshelved all the books correctly. While she pulled new ones down.)
c) trying to reach the books on the library sale tables (which meant I did not get to check out all the tables, disappointing since this was the biggest sale I've seen at our little branch).
or d) pointing to people reading books out loud to their kids and letting them know that that was actually her book.
And the most beautiful moment of all came when I was checking out and the librarian helpfully told me that she's seen a lot of parents have success with strollers in the library. Unfortunately, Rabbit hates strollers and if I had put her in one, she would have spent the entire time trying to unbuckle and escape. Although that would have kept her quiet . . . hmmm. I think I might try it next time. I also need to get a large STURDY tote; it's been three years since I visited the library, and I forgot how many books grab my attention and how heavy a bag of those books can get.

2) It is impossible for other people to mind their own business if you have a child. We were shopping yesterday at Wal-Mart (boo, hiss, whatever, I just had to bounce a check to pay for medicine for my child, so obviously we're low on cash. We shop where we can afford it and make up for it by crying ourselves to sleep.) and Rabbit was in the basket. Rabbit hates wearing shoes and socks, and I can't say I blame her for that. So she took her shoes and socks off and I let it ride because we were in a heated building, the body heat from the hordes of shoppers was enough to make it tropical in there, and she wasn't walking on the floor, so it wasn't dangerous. Ben took her with him while I futzed around in the crafty section looking at fabric remnants. He came back five minutes later looking all red-faced. It seems some random guy looked at my child and said, "Well, little darling, your feet are going to get COLD!" and ten other random shoppers turned to look at my hideously uncaring husband. Sweet god, she was wearing winter clothes, it's not like she was in a sundress carrying a dacquiri, obviously we aren't insanely unaware of the weather. Did he really think we were carrying her around outside without shoes? I would much rather let her go without shoes for twenty minutes inside an overheated building than hear her screaming because we won't let her take them off. And I suspect after two minutes of the screaming, Sir Perfect Child-Rearer would agree.

3) A two-year-old child does not understand why she can't eat cake when there's cake sitting right in front of her, and no amount of "Shh! Inside voice!" will quiet her discontent. My sister's play was Saturday night at 6:30, and because there were only two or three babies attending, the school decided not to offer childcare. Now, 6:30 is cutting it a little close to most babies' bedtimes not to have a nursery, in my opinion. Add to that the fact that there were no "baby" meals offered, only a $10.00 kid's meal, and I wasn't too keen on management. So we gave her some of our food, although of course she only wanted the cake. Later, Mom talked the kitchen out of a leftover hamburger, but of course they made clear that they wouldn't give her the fruit snacks and drink that came with the kid's meal. And the first half of the play I ended up trolling the halls because the play director had yelled at a kid the previous night because his baby niece had started yelling hellos when she saw him on stage. So to prevent my sister from meeting the same fate, I let Rabbit run down halls until she was too tired to complain about anything. I did get to see the second half, which was good, and my sister J was terrific. It's her last year; I'm glad we got to go, even if I did bitch a little (lot) about the lack of childcare.

4) Just because your bank has paid a bounced check and only charged you an overdraft fee in the past, don't count on them to do it again. That one's a self-explanatory lesson. I was already planning to change banks, but now I kind of want to go back in time and do it two years ago. It was only thirty dollars over, I haven't bounced a check in four years, and the bank returned the check and charged me $20.00 for that pleasure. And now I get to pay Target's returned check fee on top of it, PLUS I will be shunned from our Target forever, which is bad because it is full of prettiness.

5) Do not leave your ADD-ish husband alone in a room that contains both your child and a permanent marker. That's probably the most valuable lesson of all.

I am currently craving crafty inspiration, and one of my main feeders is crafty or domestic blogs. My favorites are gone, thanks to the computer bug that ate the WORLD. Here are a few I'm checking out today, some New to Me, some not:
* Going Domestic * ljc fyi * little things
* Wee Wonderfuls * super eggplant * wish jar journal
* not martha * Erica Mulherin -- Currently * angry chicken
* thimble * craftlog and links * Fig and Plum
* Dioramarama (added bonus: tons of links) * Knitting-Sushi in AZ * craftgrrl
and of course * Craftster

I had lots more but they are GONE. So sad. Although it probably saves me a lot of time in the end.