I was browsing blog posts earlier, and keep seeing the following sentiment: "You must be living under a giant rock if you don't know what's going on with the financial markets."
Why, yes, yes I am living under a giant rock, thankyouverymuch. In this rock, we limit our tv viewing to 2 "short shows" a night, and Charlotte seldom requests the evening news (only when she's used up her allotment of boob tube time and is wheedling for more). Even with the news on, it's rather difficult to pay attention over talkative preschoolers, clingy toddlers, the dishwasher, the washing machine, and something burning on the stove.
But I work! That means I must commute! Therefore, I drive, and there is news on the radio. Sure, but when the 10 minute commute contains 8.5 minutes of commercials, 30 seconds of traffic, and 30 seconds of weather, there's not much room for anything else. And honestly, if I surf 3 or 4 stations on the dial and only get commercials, I switch to a CD. And I'm not entirely sure which AM station NPR is on, but I don't think I have it programmed.
After the kids go to bed? Well, sure I could sit down on the sofa and watch the 10 o'clock news. Or I could do laundry, dishes, check email, exercise, run errands, and read a book (sometimes all of the above after 8:30pm). And I'm pretty much brain dead by 10. And I don't think my husband wants to carry my snoring body upstairs from the couch every night. No, there's no TV in our bedroom.
Don't I read blog posts and internet news sites? Honestly, if more of them would quit blinking huge multicolored banners and obnoxious popup ads, I might. I like my reading simple and non-migraine-inducing. And short, as I'm technically working (at a job that doesn't pay me to read the news).
So, I found out on Friday that there was a financial crisis, when I first heard about the $700 billion dollar bailout congress debaucle. I mean, sure, mortgage companies were having trouble, but that wasn't exactly news anymore. And wasn't there just a big hurricane in Texas? See, I don't miss everything that goes on in the world.
$700 billion worth of crisis? Wow, this rock's heavier than I thought.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
To Dye For
I ought to have pictures. I say that a lot, but unless I actually start taking the photos, and setting aside time at home to both organize photos and write a blog post at the same time, it doesn't happen.
Saturday afternoon we had a fun, easy party tie-dyeing t-shirts. Inspired by an article in Family Fun magazine, I bought a bunch of Rit dye, several plastic tubs, and fabric paint. I baked a pumpkin spice cake, a loaf of cheddar-beer bread, made a spinach dip for veggie sticks, cut up apples with caramel dip, and provided apple cider, sodas, and darned georgous weather. Ok, so I didn't "provide" the weather. Mother nature was very accomodating once she heard my party idea. And she feared the result of us having to sweep out the garage.
I must not have been th only one in St. Louis who liked the tie-dye idea, as between 3 stores, I only scored 3 packages of orange dye. And with around 15-20 people showing, I knew that would not suffice. So we had black, purple, and green available too (though we never mixed up any green as it turned out). And not everyone decorated their shirts like pumpkins. My husband's has a large feline face,. Charlotte's is a orange and green splatter paint design on top of a black (gray) shirt. Mine (in purple), says BOO with a pumpkin and a cat face as the O's. (The "boo" goes across my chest in a series of tie-dye rings, and I thought if I left it as plain letters, then folks would be mentally adding a final "b" to the word...)
The shirts were cute. The company was great. The only bummer was that Trystan was sick with an ear infection. He was crabby and clingy all Saturday.
Thanks to everyone who came! I'm sorry we missed some of you who couldn't make it! And I apologize if there are folks we know in person who didn't get our last-minute invite (we had several that may or may not have gone to correct email addresses, or just were never opened by their recipients). I do have more dye if anyone's interested :)
Saturday afternoon we had a fun, easy party tie-dyeing t-shirts. Inspired by an article in Family Fun magazine, I bought a bunch of Rit dye, several plastic tubs, and fabric paint. I baked a pumpkin spice cake, a loaf of cheddar-beer bread, made a spinach dip for veggie sticks, cut up apples with caramel dip, and provided apple cider, sodas, and darned georgous weather. Ok, so I didn't "provide" the weather. Mother nature was very accomodating once she heard my party idea. And she feared the result of us having to sweep out the garage.
I must not have been th only one in St. Louis who liked the tie-dye idea, as between 3 stores, I only scored 3 packages of orange dye. And with around 15-20 people showing, I knew that would not suffice. So we had black, purple, and green available too (though we never mixed up any green as it turned out). And not everyone decorated their shirts like pumpkins. My husband's has a large feline face,. Charlotte's is a orange and green splatter paint design on top of a black (gray) shirt. Mine (in purple), says BOO with a pumpkin and a cat face as the O's. (The "boo" goes across my chest in a series of tie-dye rings, and I thought if I left it as plain letters, then folks would be mentally adding a final "b" to the word...)
The shirts were cute. The company was great. The only bummer was that Trystan was sick with an ear infection. He was crabby and clingy all Saturday.
Thanks to everyone who came! I'm sorry we missed some of you who couldn't make it! And I apologize if there are folks we know in person who didn't get our last-minute invite (we had several that may or may not have gone to correct email addresses, or just were never opened by their recipients). I do have more dye if anyone's interested :)
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Food ramblings...or maybe tummy rumblings
Ever find yourself halfway through a recipe before you realize that you're not making what you thought you were?
That was me last night, assembling cookies for a potluck at work. I pulled out a bag of chocolate chips and was following the recipe on the side--nothing fancy. I don't really read the directions on cookies--you cream butter & sugar, add the egss, then add all of the dry ingredients. The only tricks usually involve refridgeration and roll vs drop. So, I had my creamed butter/sugar/egg, and was mixing together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder? Doh. It was a double-chocolate recipe. Ah well. I have plenty of cocoa powder on hand. I could probably have left it out, because its normally added in addition to flour and other ingredients, but I didn't have another recipe handy to verify (feeling lazy...my cookbook collection wasn't more than 10 feet away). I ended up swapping the straight chips for some white-chocoloate/semi swirl ones that were in the cannister. Et voila. Yummy cookies, a trifle fancier than I planned.
It's been an odd week, cooking-wise. On Sunday I made a dish that resembles more the style of food I ate as a kid: a hamburger pie/casserole. The base was ground beef, frozen mixed veggies, and canned tomatoes + tomato paste (which happened to be "italian style", so it ended with a sort of spaghetti-sauce flair), topped with mashed potatoes (powdered from a box) and baked. It tasted better than I actually expected.
Saturday night, I had made some yummy mocha & chocolate chip scones with a coffee glaze. Double and triple yum. I'm still trying to decide what kind of scone batter/dough works best. Some I've tasted remind me more of bisquick biscuits than scones. Most require heavy cream. This one called for milk instead of cream, but added eggs. They were good, but didn't last as well as some others I've made, tasting kind of stale after about 2 days. I'd love a dense scone, like St. Louis Bread Company serves (I dearly love their cinnamon scones), but I'm not sure what to add or subtract from any of my recipes to achieve their heft and crumble.
The rest of the week so far has consisted of frozen pizza, tacos, and Subway. Nothing inspired, not particularly gourmet, but generally well-recieved and moderately healthy. Ok, so the frozen pizza was questionable. But tacos aren't bad, when they're served on a huge bed of lettuce with salsa (and I don't do sour cream).
Now I'm hungry. Doh! And me with no snacks, except for my box of cookies for the lunch....
That was me last night, assembling cookies for a potluck at work. I pulled out a bag of chocolate chips and was following the recipe on the side--nothing fancy. I don't really read the directions on cookies--you cream butter & sugar, add the egss, then add all of the dry ingredients. The only tricks usually involve refridgeration and roll vs drop. So, I had my creamed butter/sugar/egg, and was mixing together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder? Doh. It was a double-chocolate recipe. Ah well. I have plenty of cocoa powder on hand. I could probably have left it out, because its normally added in addition to flour and other ingredients, but I didn't have another recipe handy to verify (feeling lazy...my cookbook collection wasn't more than 10 feet away). I ended up swapping the straight chips for some white-chocoloate/semi swirl ones that were in the cannister. Et voila. Yummy cookies, a trifle fancier than I planned.
It's been an odd week, cooking-wise. On Sunday I made a dish that resembles more the style of food I ate as a kid: a hamburger pie/casserole. The base was ground beef, frozen mixed veggies, and canned tomatoes + tomato paste (which happened to be "italian style", so it ended with a sort of spaghetti-sauce flair), topped with mashed potatoes (powdered from a box) and baked. It tasted better than I actually expected.
Saturday night, I had made some yummy mocha & chocolate chip scones with a coffee glaze. Double and triple yum. I'm still trying to decide what kind of scone batter/dough works best. Some I've tasted remind me more of bisquick biscuits than scones. Most require heavy cream. This one called for milk instead of cream, but added eggs. They were good, but didn't last as well as some others I've made, tasting kind of stale after about 2 days. I'd love a dense scone, like St. Louis Bread Company serves (I dearly love their cinnamon scones), but I'm not sure what to add or subtract from any of my recipes to achieve their heft and crumble.
The rest of the week so far has consisted of frozen pizza, tacos, and Subway. Nothing inspired, not particularly gourmet, but generally well-recieved and moderately healthy. Ok, so the frozen pizza was questionable. But tacos aren't bad, when they're served on a huge bed of lettuce with salsa (and I don't do sour cream).
Now I'm hungry. Doh! And me with no snacks, except for my box of cookies for the lunch....
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