Rainy, but Beautiful

or... Because of Winn-Dixie, not the dog, not the book, but the grocery store

Wonderful day today. It started with the mood-brightening sleeping in. True, it was only until 9:00, but it felt good.

Next, lunch at Quizno's. For those of you who don't know, they recently did the Million Sub Giveaway. Basically, if you didn't register for it within the first four or five days, you missed out. A free small sub. So, Blake and I headed down to our local shop and got our free subs, which were extremely tasty. May I just say that Quizno's is a million times better than Subway? Their food quality if so much better.

Then, I went to the library, which is one of my favorite things ever. The one closest to me is a branch library on the Pensacola Junior College campus. It's not very large, but books are books! I spent an hour in there, just perusing the shelves. It was great... and I got seven books out. They do four weeks, which is just plain awesome.

Then, I went to Wal-Mart for Blake and then, to Winn-Dixie.

I'm from New York State. We do not have Winn-Dixie grocery stores. Our best stores are Wegman's... and what stores they are. *sigh* I do love Wegman's and I miss them terribly, truth be told. Well, today I did my first serious shopping at Winn-Dixie and I am very impressed. The prices, the food, not that much different from Shaw's or Publix (which we also don't have in the north), but the deals! The deals were absolutely astronomically, orgasmically, beautifully beautiful.

Their buy one, get one deals were the best I have ever seen. I got eight jars of Classico pasta sauce , two packages of pork chops, two packages of chicken thighs, two bundles of broccolli, two bags of tilapia, pasta on sale, cheap tuna, sale milk, and cheap Parm-Romano cheese.

I saved $35 with all my sale items. I was in heaven.

To round out the day, last night, Blake and I made chocolate-chip-oatmeal-raisin-cookies. I found a recipe that is hands down, the best cookie recipe I've ever found. Yes, like all other recipes, it could use a little tweaking of amounts, but they're tasty. They also look like a picture in a book, like those expensive cookies they charge you four bucks a pop for at Starbucks.

Now, I'm going to play video games until I make myself motion sick (approx. 30 mins) and then read. Yes, I am having a very good day indeed

p.s.
This motion-sickness thing is creepy. I used to be very, very sensitive to first-person video games when I first started playing, though I've never been sick on anything but a roller coaster in my life. After awhile, my body learned to deal with the video game movements. Then, I received Quantum of Solace and man, it's like being a noob again... thirty minutes tops.

A "busy" weekend

Though I didn't get out much last weekend, I was still busy. No one was more surprised about this than me. I always have a thousand ideas running through my head... things I should do, but... you know the rest of the story.

Friday we went grocery shopping. Friday night is now all about the O Club. It's hard to resist free appetizers between five and six... and of course, the company of friends. Though, Blake and his friends talk about things that are roughly the Empire State Building-level above my head. It's still fun. I like hearing all that technical talk... maybe I'll slip up and learn something one of these days.

Saturday I lugged all of my scrapbooking stuff out of the closet and got to work. Wow. I didn't realize how seriously behind I was. I'm a disgrace. I hadn't scrapbooked the wedding or anything after that. Once I sat down, I was amazed by how many events I wanted recorded for posterity. Moving, moving again, Tiegen's visit, Blue Angels Homecoming, sailing, the beach, Christmas, our garden... and who knows what I will want to scrap in the future?

I feel that I accomplished quite a lot though. As a reward, I cleaned off the kitchen table and we actually ate on it tonight.

Just Plain Cute

Let me tell you about Sadie, my almost 3-year-old niece. She is adorable... and she knows it.


note: her OCD arrangement of a brand new tea set

When we visited in December, to my supreme happiness, she remembered me. We played tag, we hugged, we kissed, general merriment ensued. Blake, though... well, she was still kind of shy around him. You know, cute, little-girl shyness.

That's when we found out about her nervous twitch. We would encourage her to give Blake a hug. She would make shy eyes at him, put her chin on her shoulder and sing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Actually, she would sing the words "twinkle, twinkle, little star" over and over to the actual tune until she felt comfortable enough to just back out of the situation. From then on, I would encourage her to interact with Blake just so I could see the weirdest nervous habit ever.

Eventually, she got used to him.


Blake asks for more tea

Today I get a call on the drive to work (temp job). I am proud to announce that she has learned the rest of the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and it is the cutest phone conversation I've ever had.

Adventures in Bread

Frugality, epicurean snobbery, living through my stomach/taste buds... yes, yes and definitely yes.

Sunday is baking day. Here is what I did:



Meet my bread. Three loaves, all from my now-beloved sourdough starter. The two outside loaves are plain sandwich bread. The inside one is cinnamon raisin. Behold!



I didn't put in enough raisins... or enough cinnamon. As I was putting it in the loaf pan I thought to myself, "oh crap, this rises again." Meaning: I put in enough extras after I kneaded it, but before it bakes, it rises again until doubled, which means that technically, I have to put in twice as many raisins and stuff. That being said, it's still ultra-tasty and makes awesome breakfast toast.

There is only one more bagel left and Blake loves cinnamon raisin toast. Bread is easier than bagels... trust me. Oh, here's a picture of the bagels I made last weekend:




They were tasty. Though by the end of the week, I was bagel-ed out. Actually, I think I was just sick of all the chewing that went into consuming them. Bagels are so dense.

Bread is easier to chew... and today's loaves made the apartment smell amazing!

Bread

I'm doing it. I'm making my own bread. I wasn't sure about it. I mean, it's only marginally (if at all) cheaper than buying bread. Yes, it's much healthier, but frankly... very time consuming.

I, however, have lots of time to make bread. Also, one taste of the homemade bread and I am a complete gone-er. I'm buying more bread pans this weekend, plans to make three loaves at once.

Now, I don't know if I mentioned my previously failed homemade-bagel incident. It was a sourdough bagel recipe, but I think my starter was effed up. They were... well... hockey pucks. They sat like rocks in my stomach (and Blake's) for the entire night.

Last weekend, I used traditional, packet yeast to make bagels. They didn't have the flavor of sourdough, but they certainly are tasty.

The bread though, is from the starter. Awesome. Smaller than a store-bought loaf, but more bread I think. The store bought loaves are 80% air I think. The homemade bread is dense, and the sourdough flavor is so subtle and tasty.

So, let's see how long this homemade bread trend last. I hope forever.

Officially Old

There is one song, and only one, that makes me cry every single freakin' time I hear it. That is "His Only Need" by Wynona. It's a story of a man who finds his true love. Each time I listen, in under five minutes, I feel like I know these people. Like they're real, with feelings and love and children. That's why I cry.

Tonight, at 7:30p.m. I am officially an old woman, or at least middle-aged. I cried when I heard "Somewhere Other Than the Night" by Garth Brooks. Yes, a Garth Brooks song made me cry. Geez. Here are the lyrics:

He could see the storm clouds rollin' across the hill
He barely beat the rain in from the field
And between the backdoor slammin' she heard him say
"Damn this rain and damn this wasted day"
But she'd been waitin' for this day for oh so long
She was standin' in the kitchen with nothin' but her apron on
And in disbelief he stood and he stared a while
When their eyes met, they both began to smile

Somewhere other than the night
She needs to hear I love you
Somewhere other than the night
She needs to know you care
She wants to know she's needed
She needs to be held tight
Somewhere other than the night

They spent the day wrapped up in a blanket
On the front porch swing
He'd come to realize he'd neglected certain things
And there are times she feels alone even by his side
It was the first time she ever saw him cry

Somewhere other than the night
She needs to hear I love you
Somewhere other than the night
She needs to know you care
She wants to know she's needed
She needs to be held tight
Somewhere other than the night

To know she's needed
She needs to be held tight
Somewhere other than the night

Reading the lyrics like a poem, they're plainly cheesy, but there is something about the melody that just lets the words weave their way through the notes and it's so beautiful.

What really gets me is that it's not a make-you-cry-song. I don't cry when I hear "100 years" by Five for Fighting, and that is certainly more emotional.

Now, I want to clarify that I did not cry because Blake doesn't ever tell me he loves me. I didn't cry because I feel underappreciated or because he doesn't want anything from me but, um, certain things.

I felt like an old, married woman as the first tears welled up in my eyes.

Man alive. Sometimes I'm way too emotional.

Cheap Valentine's Day

I have my Valentine's Day plans... in my head. They involve my husband, a home-cooked steak and a movie.

One of my favorite spots, Wise Bread has all sorts of ideas for Valentine's Day. Gifts under $10, free gifts and ideas for cheapies like me. I came upon a list of Frugal Valentine's Gifts. I really enjoyed some of them. Then I came to #8: Write a Song. Unless you're Elton John, you're love song is more likely to be hilariously cheesy than soul-wrenchingly beautiful.

I can just picture the kind of song Blake would write for me. Let's see.... what rhymes with booty? Just kidding.

It reminds me of the Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore movie "Music & Lyrics." Have you seen it? There are two songs that are sung by the main characters that both describe their relationship and their individual feelings. They are cheesy, but there's something about them that's really, truly touching. Hugh Grant doesn't have much of a singing voice, but the songs are more about the truth of love than gushing about beautiful eyes and flowing hair and slender gams and other such things.

Blake once wrote me a poem for Valentine's Day. I won't publish it here. It's copyrighted... which is to say, he would be embarassed if I let everyone see it. He wrote it freshman year of college. Suffice to say it was... well... like "Music & Lyrics," a romantic comedy. So here is my Valentine's Day Poem.

Don't
by Joy

Don't buy me dinners that cost more than a horse.
Don't take me to a movie that is rude and is coarse.
Don't buy me a field's worth of flowers.
Don't try to woo me with your magical powers.
Don't ask me to marry you, we already are.

Don't forget to kiss me extra sweet.
Don't forget to rub my feet.
Don't forget that I love you more than all.
Don't forget to bring the Luminol
Don't ignore me on Valentine's Day
or bad things will happen to you
hence, the bringing of Luminol.

Decor

Apartment living renting is interesting. We can't paint and we think thrice about putting holes in the wall. Today, one of my greatest fears came true. We became victims of the Firing Squad. The Firing Squad is when all of your furniture lines the walls like its being lined up to die.

Really, it's just the entertainment center and desk that are standing shoulder-to-shoulder, ready to face down the gun barrels, but still, they're two large, major furniture pieces. So, I'm trying to work around it.

We just moved the desk into the living area. Blake has lots of studying to do now and we figured that he could have a desk in the bedroom and have a media/electronics-free zone. He liked the idea. He gets to concentrate. Frankly, being unplugged scares me to death. I blame Syracuse University. I never had high-speed before college... now I'm ruined for life.

Anyway, he's studying and I'm... blogging... and contemplating the space around me. The things that keep me sane are baskets. When we first got married, one of my first purchases were "stuff baskets." Since Blake and I had dated (attached at the hip) for five or so years, I knew his habits. I knew that if I didn't give him a place to put his things, I would have to help him hunt for keys and play the "honey where" game a million times a day.

Of course, stuff baskets are dangerous. They can become the dreaded catch-all, which ends of being less of a time-saver and more of a pit-of-crap. Once in awhile, I weed out his stuff basket. I don't have a stuff basket anymore. I needed it for the living room to keep the remotes in. But I still keep baskets everywhere. One by the front door for keys, the aforementioned remote basket, bread basket, book basket.

When I got married, I believe I got no less than four wicker baskets of varying shades and shapes. I thought, "what the heck am I going to do with these freakin' baskets?" Now, I find myself wishing I had more... that I could basket-ize the whole apartment.

Man, I'm such a freak.

Feeling Better

I like doing things that make me feel like a better person. I feel guilty about that. There is a big difference between doing things for the sake of being a better person and doing things so you can feel like a better person. But where is the distinction?

Take the herb garden for instance. That is something that, I feel, in a small way makes me a better person. I'm not doing it to make myself feel good.

Working out is something I do to make myself feel like a better person. Sometimes, I'm ashamed to say, I feel smug after a particularly good workout.

On another note, I've decided to try making my own bread. Temping means my jobs are spotty so I have the time and baking bread is (marginally) cheaper, but vastly healthier than buying bread. Today I tried bagels. Didn't turn out so well. I "caught" wild yeast and tried the old-fashioned method using this article. I really enjoyed the process, but my bagel dough didn't rise worth crap. I don't think I gave the "sponge" phase enough time.

But I'm not losing heart. I have a husband who dearly loves bagels and I dearly love him. So, I'll give it another shot because frankly, bagels are expensive. Even though he pronounces it ˈbāgel... crazy kid.

Apartment Garden

Another stab at expanding horizons. Another frugality, "things-adults-do" experiment.

Blake and I bought plants today. Observe:



Rosemary in the green and parsley in the cream. We also are starting oregano, basil, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers and habanero peppers from seeds. So, you'll either hear happy updates on our "children" from now on or whiney complaining about their slow demise.

Nevertheless, I'm optimistic. What can I say? It's my nature. Damn optimism always pushing its way to the front of my conscious.

On another note, we're all moved in to our new apartment. The other apartment was too big, and it felt all wrong for Blake and me. Three bedrooms, large living/dining... there was to much empty space. This one bedrooms... it just fits. We've both said several times that this apartment feels like us.

So, new apartment, new plants... I know it's cheesy, but it's a new start for a new year.

I even made New Year's Resolutions. Disgusting, but hopefully effective.