Spinning away

I've decided to take a spinning class!  No, not stationary bike spinning, fiber spinning! (I've tried the cycle classes and I nearly pass out!)

I'm super pumped, I want to delve deeper into this world of fiber and yarn and knitting and crochet.  I've also decided to take a beginning knitting class.  Lets face it: knitting is the more popular yarn "sport," crocheters usually get sneers from the knitters.  I don't care really, I will continue to crochet because it's easy and fun.  But, you can knit so much  more intricate things than you can crochet.  You can make actual sweaters from knitting, and you just can't do that with crochet.

Pictures from my endeavor to follow!

Baby Boom

Life is all about choices.  We all know that.  (Of course there are an unlucky few who have no choice in some matters....but at this moment I'm being selfish and focusing on me).

My life has certainly been all about choices.  Starting in high school: what school to go to?  What to major in? Where to go to grad school (that wasn't really a choice, I only had 1 option...but I'm not counting that)? What to do with my career? Where to work? Do I really want this dang drive every day?!? What people to surround myself with? Who to "settle down" with? Buy a house? Have kids? Get married?

All of these things I've made choices about.  Some more unconventional than others mind you...especially in the kids/married department.  I made a choice, long, long ago, when I was but a wee one that I did not want children. 

I've never been the "maternal" type, except with animals, but even then the burdens of pet ownership are costly, emotionally and financially.  It started when I was 3 and my younger cousin was born.  Most little girls that age are fascinated by babies, they think of them as living and breathing dolls.  Not me though! I was grossed out to no end by this squirming, drooling, stinky thing that was set before me and introduced as my cousin.

Fast forward about 10 years later and one of my older cousins had just had a baby.  His obnoxious wife asked me if I wanted to hold the child, and I politely declined saying (and yes this is mature of a 12-year-old) "No thank you, I'm not comfortable holding babies."  Her reply to little ol' me: "Well, you don't have to be a bitch about it!"  That caused a little rift in the family that has since been mended.

Anyway, my views on babies and children in general haven't changed much through the years.  I get annoyed to no end when I hear a baby crying, or a child screaming at the grocery store.  I mutter things under my breath that are better left unsaid (or at least undocumented!).  Most times when I'm handed a baby I put my hands up like I'm being robbed and slowly back away from the situation.

I just have no desire to have children.  Most people just think I'm a cold hearted bitch, must like my cousin's wife assumed.  But I'm not.  Really I'm just partially terrified of them, and partially disinterested in being spit up on (or worse!).  I like my life, nay! LOVE my life.  I am free to do as I please, take whatever vacations, I want, when I want, do my own thing (with Wino of course ;) ), drink my wine, and eat fancy food.  Frankly a life with kids would deprive me of one of the things I hold dear in my life: freedom!

I don't want that lifetime responsibility of raising a child.  Nope, that's not for me.  I also don't want to be pressured to ogle and coo at other's children.  If you ever hear me say (after being shown a picture of someones kid) "Oh, it's a baby!" know that I am being insincere and that kid ain't cute.  I'm not one to lie and say something is "adorable" if it isn't.  Pointing out that it's a baby (and putting an exclamation point after that) is my way of being polite.  No, I don't think all babies are cute (I'm totally going to get hate mail for that one....).

My point in this lengthy rant is that everyone around me is having babies (except the ones closest to me, thank god!  I don't want to lose my friends to the "family way" just yet!).  I'm having babies thrust at me at an alarming rate.  I'm proud and happy to say that each and every one of these kiddos is cute (so I don't have to lie) and I have yet to be forced to hold one.....but.....

I'm quickly approaching one situation this weekend and I'm terrified.  No one in my family has had a baby in about 9 years.  But! said younger cousin from my first encounter with a baby, is now a daddy himself.  The family is overjoyed.  This will be my first meeting of the little Jelly Bean, and I'm hoping like hell that my cousin's wife doesn't have a "don't be a bitch about it" moment with me when I politely decline to hold her child.  Yes, I am nearly 29-years-old, and I still refuse to hold babies.  I like my shirts to remain clean, thank-you-very-much!

Sigh, anyway, choices are hard, especially when you don't want to offend people you care about.  I'm just praying to keep a good relationship with my cousin.  He should know that I'm not a baby fan, and will hopefully not even offer her up for my embrace.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Shamed

Here we are: April 30....do you remember what was supposed to happen today? Naturally I do. I was supposed to have my NaNoWriMo '10 novel finished and ready for editing today.

Yes, I failed, but I have justified reasoning and actually changed my game plan about half way through April. After struggling to pick the story back up, I realized that the rear end of my story was so full of fluff and padding for November's end of month scramble that it was impossible to continue without editing first.

I have to figure out where my story really leaves off and where the BS begins. So, I've been going through this entire time and actually reading what I wrote (what we're not supposed to do in November) and editing as I go. This process is much harder than I had expected, but then this is the first time that I have ever made it to this point in the novel writing process. It's hard, but exciting!

There are people out there!?

Wow!  I've got to say I'm impressed!  Here I thought no one was out there reading, but Blogger just added stats and I'm pleased that there are actual readers (or at least visitors) to my blog!

I've heard that to be a "successful" blog you need to have a focus.  I have too many areas of interest to choose just one focus though, so I think for now the blog is going to continue to be just "me."  You'll see bits about crocheting (I need to buy some yarn, for heaven's sake, so I can get on to another project), about jogging (I'm really, really trying to start up again), and during the month of November, you'll get my usual barrage of NaNoWriMo stuff. 

I do realize that some of my posts are unpolished.  I don't claim to be a professional blogger, I've got my day job and I'm sticking to it!  So bare with me as I try to refresh myself for this coming year.  I've been a bit run down this winter, and so blogging has taken a back seat to just keeping my eyes open long enough to eat some dinner and make it to my cozy bed.  (Hopefully the recent discovery of my Vitamin D deficiency and the ensuing action being taken against that will help me find some energy again).

As you may remember from my post, NaNoWriMo: The Finishing I have given myself until the end of April to have my novel from 2010 wrapped up and ready for editing.  I'm sad to report I have accomplished exactly 0% of this.  Of course this past month has been busy, but excuses-excuses right!  I'm going to kick-start my attempt starting tomorrow night (I'm going to do my own NaNoFiMo for the month of April).  It has to be done by April 30.  So, starting tomorrow, I will be giving (semi) regular updates about my progress.  I really need this accountability.

That's all for today.  Thanks for reading, and if you're a "regular" please drop me a line.  I'd love to say "Hi!"

Green Stuff

Sadly, I'm not speaking of money.  That's is short supply these days (what with gas prices spiraling out of control!)

No, I'm speaking of St. Patty's Day.  I used to be religious about wearing green on March 17.  I suppose it's that ingrained fear you pick up in elementary school that someone's going to pinch you if you get caught without it.  The last couple of years though, I've been purposefully not wearing green.  Here is the conclusion I've come to:  in the grown up world there's no more pinching!  Hooray!  It's safe to go out into the streets sans green!

I did pop in a green nose stud this year, just to be safe (that fear still lingers), but it was nothing noticible, lol.

The story might have been different had we spent the holiday with Pepper's family.  You see: Pepper is Irish, and we usually celebrate his fake birthday on St. Patrick's Day (since he was born on X-mas day, his family gave him the option of choosing a new birthday and he chose March 17).  They usually throw a huge shin-dig for him, and frankly, you don't want to be caught without wearing green around an Irish family (particularly his, they're a fun-loving group).  But, there was no party for Pepper this year, so Wino and I didn't have to drag out our green attire.

Unlike many, we didn't go out last night and get drunk off of our pattooties.  We didn't even really acknowledge the holiday (since neither of us is Irish) except to call Pepper and wish him a "happy fake birthday."  Then we settled down and had us some good ol' fashioned mac n' cheese (from Costco's take n' bake section.  It's SO good!) and a couple glasses of wine.  Yeah, we're boring ;)

NaNoWriMo: The Finishing

After November finished, I couldn't even look at my novel without feeling sick.  I'm sure this happens to most of us who attempt to conquer this goal.  You just get sick of typing like a mad-man (or woman, in my case) and every ounce of creativity has been drained for your fingers.

I didn't even want to think about my novel.  I accepted the pats-on-the-back of congratulations, but when anyone asked "so what's it about," I usually deflected the question with a hearty "it's really crappy, don't worry about it."

In my heart though, I know I'm a decent writer.  I write the sort of plots that I know I would enjoy reading, and with this novel, I actually have a beginning, a  middle, and an end (well nearly so).  That makes me feel great, but I still didn't want to think about the thing until just recently.

Here's my problem: my life has gotten "loose."  Let me explain - I'm not sleeping around, don't ring the alarms! - I have no structure right now.  Starting in July I had so much structure that it was easy for me to complete tasks: 1) C25K, 2) Crochet-a-long mystery afghan, 3) NaNoWriMo.  All of these things overlapped last year, and I'm a creature of habit, if I know I should be running at 5am, I do it; I know I should write on my lunch break, I do it; I know I should be crocheting from the moment my butt hits the couch, I do it.  After X-mas, NaNoWriMo was over, my race was done, and afghans were gifted, I felt sort of lost.  I still do actually.  My weight loss leveled out, I haven't exercised in months and until just earlier this month I haven't really had a project to crochet.  I've lost all my steam!

I came to this realization just an hour ago: I need goals in order to accomplish anything, I need structure and deadlines to really keep myself on track!

I was reading an excerpt of my 2010 NaNovel during my lunch break and I was enthralled by the plot, I wanted to read more.  When I finished the 1700 words, I immediately wanted to pull out my laptop, hit print and start editing and finishing my novel!  I think I may have my motivator again!  I've given myself until the end of April to have it finished and ready for editing.  I've also vowed to start running again.

I need to give myself some structure so I can get back on track in life!!

Foodie Extravaganza

I've got tons of places to review for this blog, so sit back and prepare to take notes!

Wino and I took our journey to "The City" (as those of us in central CA often refer to San Francisco) for our cooking class through Sur La Table (in February).  The series we took was Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Basics.  No, he does not teach the class, but he designed the series and all of the recipes seemed to be basically his own, and using his styles and techniques.  The first class was knife basics and included cooking tons of starches. It was fun!  We made mashed potatoes (using a potato ricer, which I would not waste my money on, I'd rather just mash mine using the old fashioned masher), rice pilaf (a little bland, but with a few alterations would be pretty good), spaghetti with tomato sauce (very basic, but really good), fennel and haricots verts salad (basically fennel, blanched green beans, orange slices and a citrus vinaigrette-this was my favorite recipe from this class, I'm SO excited to make this!) and last a french omelet.  I did not partake of the omelet, I'm not a fan of eggs.

This class was on a week by itself so we did an "up and back" trip that day.  It was nice but we didn't really get to mill around the city much.  However!  The next two classes were back to back and on a Monday/Tuesday, so we decided to make it a little vacation and go over on Sunday.  Here's where the real adventure began!

Sunday, we decided to go over early and hit SFMOMA.  I love MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)!  They were having an exhibit on wine, and well, you know how much we both love wine!  It was a fantastic exhibit!  We had a blast, and only paid half price to get in since half the museum was closed due to setting up new exhibits.  After that we went to dinner.  We had heard about this place called American Cupcake from the Food Network and wanted to try it.  We were intrigued because they touted their wine and cupcake pairings, and even did a tasting flight with three mini cupcakes and three different wines.

At first we thought they just had cupcakes, we were SO wrong, they also had a pretty basic "savory menu" (their words).  Things like mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup, Cobb salad, fried chicken, etc.  You get the idea.  We figured we would just eat whatever they had and go for the gusto with desert.  Ho, ho, ho boy were were surprised when even the dinner food was fabulous!  Here's what we had:

I had the basic Cobb salad.  The pulled pork sliders sounded good too, but I wanted to keep my dinner light to enjoy the cupcakes....when the salad came out it was beautiful!  Little fresh cherry tomatoes cut in half littered the top of the luscious greens, a quarter of a beautiful green avocado lay sliced vertically and fanned out over the pieces of crispy apple-wood smoked bacon which was a lovely compliment to the moist roast chicken breast.  It was gorgeous! It was delicious!  I would say the best salad I've ever eaten at a restaurant, EVER!  My mouth is watering as I write....

Wino had the Red Velvet Fried Chicken.  Now, before I describe this don't sneer!  You have to try it to really appreciate it!  This is chicken dipped in their red velvet cupcake batter, then rolled in crumbled red velvet cupcakes, then deep fried.  I sneered when I heard this and promptly opted for the salad.  BUT I tried some to be a good sport and O.....M.....G.....you wouldn't even know it was cupcake batter that the chicken was fried in!  It also came with the most creamy, flavorful mashed potatoes, and a delightful "slaw."  Ugh, it was good!

Ok so that was just dinner, we were both thoroughly impressed already, but the best was yet to come....desert!  We wanted to do a cupcake flight.  We did each did a "Walk of Shame" flight, which consisted of a lemon, a butterscotch and a coconut cupcake, paired with a Sav Blanc, a Chardonnay, and a Merlot, respectively.  The cupcakes were light and moist on their own but what really made them was the light, airy, but rich "frosting" (I'm hesitant to call it frosting because to me frosting is heavy and too sugary).   It was like a little yummy pillow of loveliness set atop the cupcake and I nearly died and went to heaven when I took that first bite of the lemon....I love lemon anything that this blew. my. mind.

Needless to say were were highly impressed by this place, even the ambiance was great.  It was all white (counters, floors, walls, ceilings, furniture) and they had probably a hundred globe lights hanging from the ceiling of various sizes that had multi-colored LEDs that would shift color depending on the music.  It was great!  We had a blast.  I highly recommend this place to everyone!

--Ok intermission time--If you need a potty break here you may want to go.  I've still got two more days to talk about!--

So Monday we had session two of our cooking class.  The topic was stocks, soups and sauces.  This was my least favorite class, most of what we made was seafood and I don't care for seafood.  There wasn't much to eat at the end of this class.  Most of what we made was being saved for the next day's class.  Here's what was on Monday's agenda: rich chicken stock, fish stock, mushroom soup (yicky!  but then I don't like mushrooms, Wino enjoyed it though), mussels steamed in white wine (Wino loved this, and even though I wouldn't eat it I wouldn't mind making it for friends because it's so easy!), and lastly sauteed chicken breasts with Bearnaise sauce.  The real technique for that one was the Bearnaise sauce.  That is REALLY hard to make.  We blew it and ours turned to scrambled eggs.  It's very temperamental, so instead we made the chicken breasts for the rest of the classes' sauce to go on.

Since there wasn't much to eat during this class we decided to do an early dinner at a little place called Spice Kit (again something we found from the Food Network).  They do "authentic Asian street foods."  Their set up reminded me of Chipotle, super fresh ingredients, very simplistic menu - choose your starch, choose your meat, choose your side, ba-da-bing you've got a delicious meal!  I had the Banh Mi sandwich with the beef short ribs and it was SO good, Wino had the Ssam (I called it a huge fresh spring roll) with the roasted pork and was also very impressed.  They also do something cool for a side: lotus chips.  Very yummy and I highly recommend.  The one thing neither of us was crazy about was their ginger-peanut slaw. It was ok, but nothing spectacular.

We wandered SF for a while then decided we needed to treat ourselves to our ritual Ghirardelli sundaes.  They were great as usual though we left feeling stuffed!  The next morning we set out to find some breakfast (smart phones are SO handy!) and we found this quaint little mom n' pop Crepe place.  I'm in love with Pacifica now and I want to move there, just so I can go to this place every Saturday morning for breakfast.  I had their pesto chicken crepe and it was phenomenal!  Yum!  We were so stuffed that we didn't really eat for the rest of the day (yes, even in our class!)

So for our last day of class the following was made beef bourguignon (I really thought this would be more interesting than it was, it's just beef stew!), we learned how to roast a chicken (SO simple, but kind of messy, we've tried this one at home and had a little snafu, but it was still good), seared steaks (yummy!), and fish stew (again I did not partake).  Overall, I'm glad that we took these classes, we really had a lot of fun and now we both feel more comfortable in the kitchen.

Sigh, ok, that was the trip.  If you have any questions about my babbling, feel free to shoot me a comment!