Oh, Monday...

So I thought that this Monday would be spared from the normal blah of Monday-ness, being as it is a holiday and all. We had a lovely day planned... up early, eat breakfast, do the books, run to the grocery store, and hopefully have a picnic lunch packed up by 10, so that we could head down to Red Rock Canyon with some friends for a picnic! .... well, that was the plan....

Instead, my dear hubby decided to come down with, not one, but BOTH types of the flue. He says he does not believe in mediocrity. While I, too, normally abhor mediocrity, I informed him that in this case, just a little bit of non-extreme would be just fine. Like, just one flue. That would be fine.

Anyways, so we spent the night not sleeping, and the morning in the doctor's office and came home with a much lighter wallet and a bag full of pills. But they seem so far to be working, as he is finally sleeping now, not being absolutely miserable.

I did make a good discovery this morning as a result of our expedition to find a doctor... there is a Crest nearby! Normally our little latino grocery store does us just fine, but every once in a while there are some things that they just don't carry, and Crest is a lovely alternative, so I was glad to find it.

Well, since I have nothing of extreme excitement to write about today, I may as well attempt a bribe.... Instead of a superbly exciting blog post, would you instead accept a recipe? What's that? You'd love to? Oh, I'm so glad! =D

These sourdough biscuits come from a recipe book in my Mother-In-Laws kitchen, and are wonderful! Easy to make, very simple, light, and fluffy, and very good with lots of butter and some homemade blackberry jam.

Oh look! I'll even give it to you in a pretty page you could print out! Aren't I nice. You should be able to right-click on it and save it or print it. Hooray!

Hope you all have a delightful day.... I have homework to do.... woohoo.

Things I like

Welcome to the new year....
I do realize that I have been somewhat less than faithful in blogging this past year.... but here is a new year, and new years are times when you get to try again, true? Of course true. So here's to the new year, new starts, and a new try at this whole blogging thing. Maybe now that I'm not trying to juggle a biochem major, planning a wedding, and fixing a house up, I shall have a tad more time. Let's hope so.

I believe I shall begin this new year by talking about the things I like... I enjoy doing that every once in a while, just to remind myself that I like things. =D

I like sun. Most people know this about me. I love sunshine. I love windows that let in sun. I love laying on my back in the grass in the sun. I don't like dark rooms, cloudy days, or anything blocking the sun. Perhaps I am part cat. I do like having my head scratched.....

I like chocolate. Dark chocolate. Do not dilute my chocolate with milk and sweetness. That is mudblood chocolate, half-breed chocolate. I like real, honest-to-goodness, full-blooded, chocolate. Yes, I am occasionally caught eating cocoa powder. It makes you sneeze, don't try it.


I like cooking. Unfortunately, I like the good old-fashioned cooking that uses up a bucket of butter on a pie crust... and makes a pie every other day. This would not be such a problem, except that I also like to eat said cooking. Like to very much, actually. Don't particularly like to stop eating it. And while I do like salad, I certainly don't eat it in the correct proportion to the other things I eat. Like, I may eat two pieces of pie to every leaf of lettuce. Or I would if I had my way. But there is this little voice in my head... I think my mother planted it there (thanks a lot, mom)... it haunts my bites of pie with visions of skinniness... unattainable skinniness... and adds guilt to my pie-eating. So, I eat a celery stick. With lots of ranch dressing.

I like crunchy leaves. During fall, when the sidewalks leading to my house are covered knee-deep in crunchy leafness, I am in heaven. During fall, I generally find leaves in most of my belongings... evidently you don't splash through leaf-piles without acquiring some leaves along the way.

I like pine-scented candles. I am angry at Yankee Candles for making Balsam Fir and Sparkling Pine (my two favorite candles) Christmas-only candles. How dare they??? Why would they limit my candle happiness to one time of year? There is only one solution to this. Stock up. The After-Christmas sale ends Monday. Guess what I'm doing Monday?

Ok, I think that is probably a long enough blog post for today. Thanks for listening.
Take some time today to think about the things you like... and I don't mean trips to Hawaii and that sort of stuff. I mean, the things that you have today that you like. The stuff that makes every day delightful.
It's fun. I promise.

A couple more scrapbook pages

Digital Scrapbooking

So I recently re-discovered a hobby that I had messed around with a long time ago: digital scrapbooking.
... Rather than try to explain it, I'll just show you, by uploading some of the pages I've been working on recently. Those reading this on facebook will have to come to the blog to see them, since pictures don't post on facebook.

Random Wednesday Ramblings

I'm sitting at the dining room table, drinking coffee. It's cool inside here. I'm listening to a new music group one of my best friends told me I should listen to. Clever fellow, Oliver. Knows what music I will like. It's "Sleeping at Last," in case any of you want to check it out. It's not rock of any sort, I assure you... in case you have been scared off by any of my harder music suggestions. =]

The coffee is quite strong. I made it, therefore it is strong. My coffee addiction helps me get up earlier (although it's not really working at this mid-summer point, with the counter-incentive of mono to keep me in bed). Contrary to popular opinion, for me coffee does not get me up by waking me up with caffeine. No, rather, it works because I am so addicted to coffee that I get a headache if I don't have it. And, because my body is used to having it at around 7am, if I sleep later than that, I wake up with a caffeine headache. And that, my dear friends, is how coffee works to get me up. However, as I mentioned earlier, it doesn't work when I have mono. No, I just lay in bed with a headache, but too sleepy to get up. Fun times.

I have a bug bite on my jaw, and another on my hand, and another on my knee. All of them terribly annoying places to have bug bites. BUT we do have lots of blackberry jam to show for the bug bites. How are the two related, you ask? Allow me to enlighten you. Blackberry jam requires blackberries. Blackberries grow on bushes, and must be picked. Picking blackberries from bushes requires close proximity to bushes. Bushes are the home of all sorts of various small biting animals. Hence, we have blackberry jam and bug bites.

I realized the other night how long it's been since I played piano, because I sat down at my keyboard and started in on one of my well-beloved pieces of music, and couldn't play it smoothly. Took me forever to get through it. I was rather disappointed, and vowed then and there to sit down at my keyboard more often.

Which reminds me, I'm taking piano lessons next semester! Those of you who know my attitude towards piano and lessons may be surprised.... I love playing piano. I don't like to be told how. But, I like to get better at playing piano, and I figured the best way to reach that goal would be to go ahead and take lessons. And, my voice lessons haven't been as terrible as I thought they would be, so maybe the piano won't be so bad either. At least it'll give me an excuse to play piano... "I'm doing my homework!" Last semester, piano was a great way to avoid homework.

And on that note, I do believe I shall go play my keyboard. That is, after I upload a couple wallpapers that I made... they are on facebook too. Yeah, I liked them so much that I kinda uploaded them everywhere. =]