I Am Not Afraid

To ask stupid questions. Never have been. Whether this is to my credit or discredit depends on your point of view, I guess. The upside for me is that I learn many new things this way. For example:

The expression "running full bore" does not, as I had thought for, well, forever, have anything to do with the speed at which a wild pig runs in the woods. (And yes, I did think it was spelled "full boar", in case you were wondering about my spelling skills. Which, I might add, are stellar. Crap, better make sure there are no spelling errors in this post. If there are any, it's due to typos. Promise).

Anyway. Rather than bore (boar?) you with the details, here is a link to an old article in the NY Times magazine by William Safire (Sapphire!), the columnist who writes weekly musings on language and grammar. I must, however, give credit, to my dear husband Mike - who explained it, diagrams in all, in very clear, concise terms.

What else. Tonight I cooked a yummy (in my opinion) Sunday dinner. Roast pork (six hour pork roast recipe from epicurious), sweet and sour red cabbage, and polenta. Boy do I ever love comfort food. I love cooking with the fresh fruits and vegetables of spring and summer to be sure, but my true passion is slow cooked meats, hearty grains, and winter vegetables. Stick to your ribs stuff.

Last night we went into Portland to Luke and Rae's house for their first annual pumpkin carving party. They host an Easter egg decorating party every year, which is always tons of fun. However, despite our last minute pumpkin acquisition at our old neighborhood Freddie's on the way to their house, we never even carved ours! Oh well, still a week or so left until Halloween, right? Speaking of, I need to figure out a costume for Mateo...it will be more fun when he can choose his own, I think.

A demain, mes amis.

Misty

It's been really misty in the mornings these days. I love it when the farm is shrouded in mystery, as is wont to happen when the mist hangs in the valley. Really hearkens back to the days of olde.

Hmmm not much going on here. Hosted knitting circle at my house yesterday. Note to self: do not cook anything with the word "crumb" in the description when you are feeding a group of 6 babies and toddlers. Thank goodness we have a decent vacuum cleaner.

I tried to go to storytime at the library today, but it was canceled. Argh! Is today talk like a pirate day? I think it should be.

Today I'm going to make oatmeal bread, and bake ginger cookies. I love to bake. Tomorrow is KCatherine day, I have a date with Katherine in the morning, and Catherine (and Jack!) for lunch.

Other than that, just mulling over some things in my head, and making sure Mateo does not crack his skull on anything. The general is on the move!

Thirtysomething

My 20s are officially over.

I feel good about it! It was a great decade. I think I took full advantage of being young. Not that 30 is old. 30 is the new 20! But my 20s were great. I lived in many beautiful cities. I met tons of wonderful people, who are now scattered throughout the world. I was able to do what I wanted, and had a great time. Now it's time for the next stage...and I'm excited.

All this of course would not be possible without the love, support, and guidance of my family and friends. Mom and Dad especially, thank you for bringing me into this world and for giving me the opportunity to live the wonderful life I've been able to live so far. You have set a great example for me that I hope to emulate now that I have a child of my own. If Mike and I can be even half as good parents as you are, I'll be happy.

Happy Birthday to me!

The beginning of the end

Or is that the end of the beginning?

Mateo has figured out that there's a whole world that exists above him, and he's determined to figure it out. It's so much fun watching him pull up on things, mumbling and grumbling to himself. Sometimes he gets excited and shrieks. Sometimes he crawls over to the floor vents and yells downstairs...as if he knows that there are people down there. Desjawn and Sherry think it's funny. Oh! Speaking of which (they're the women who work downstairs, btw), we now share the house with not one, but TWO more dogs: Sherry's miniature chihuahua, Axel, and Desjawn's toy pom, Brandi. Maisie could eat them both in about 2 bites. Brandi sleeps in a little basket at Desjawn's feet; yesterday she was wearing a pink t-shirt that said "princess". Axel sits in a basket on Sherry's desk, and sometimes spends time in a Mexican-print woven shoulder bag that Sherry wears. Mike thinks it's ridiculous. I kind of agree, but I also think it's kind of cute.

I'm eating roasted squash seeds right now. I'm going to make soup today from some Heart of Gold squash I bought. I picked it out because I thought Mike would like the fact that it was named after a Neil Young song. Right?

OK back to it...gotta clean the bathroom before Mateo wakes up from his nap.

Stats

Mateo weighs 19 pounds, 12 ounces.

He is 30.5 inches tall.

I am going to be 30 in 3 days.

Aaaaaaaaaaaah!

I LOVE MY NEW FREEZER

I LOVE MY NEW FREEZER

I LOVE IT

I WANT TO MARRY IT

Seriously though, having a separate freezer is THE BOMB DIDDLY BOMB. It allows you to:

a) buy a LOT of meat. So far we bought about 35 pounds of pork from our friend Katherine, and about 30 pounds of beef from Stirling. Price is comparable to what you'd find at the supermarket (well, maybe a bit more expensive depending on the cut, but when you average it all out, it comes out about the same...not to mention the fact that you know exactly where the meat came from, how it was raised, what it ate, for Pete's sake we even know their names!) While I am all for eating a plant-based diet...there is nothing quite like the braised pork chops with apples, onions, and FENNEL POLLEN (I don't know why I'm shouting so much, I must be really excited) that I made last night (or was it the night before last? I cant remember) that was SO FREAKING GOOD I could swoon.

b) get really geeked out about organization. For example, I have one shelf for beef, and one shelf for pork. One shelf for leftovers. And the side door is for ingredients, like chicken stock. Oh! That's another thing. I can make my own stock now and actually have a place to store it. But more about the organization! I posted a list next to the garage door (the freezer is in the garage) that lists everything in the freezer, and I taped a pen to the wall so I can cross off what I've taken out. I list things as I add them in as well, of course. Don't know what to have for dinner tomorrow night? How about 2 servings of chili and cornbread, conveniently labeled and located on the top shelf? That's what I'm talking about!

c) be ready for THE APOCALYPSE! THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND! ARMAGEDDON IS ALMOST UPON US!

d) you CANNOT make an omelette without breaking eggs. Ever cook will tell you that.

One of these days, I'm going to get really excited about our NEW CHICKENS, and I'll tell you all about it.

Warm

One of the nice things about sharing space with Mike's office is that the women downstairs like to be comfortable. For instance, it's a bit chilly this morning - 36 degrees according to accuweather.com - and while Mike and I ordinarily would just suck it up and be cold to save money and energy, the office women run cold and knock on our door asking us to turn on the heat. Yay! So we're roasty toasty in here...almost too much, but I'd rather be too hot than too cold.

Mateo has started pulling up on stuff. Yikes! He hasn't started "cruising" yet but I can tell he's contemplating it. He still army crawls everywhere - we call him The General. Because really, who are we kidding - he's in charge! ;)

And yes, our new rug really DOES tie the room together.

It really does tie the room together!

So I haven't blogged in over a month...or more if you don't consider me listing random foods I have/have not eaten a legitimate update. Sorry about that. I just get in a rut and don't feel like posting anything. Hopefully I will be inspired with the cooler weather. Hmmm. Anyway, I just wanted to write something. I have some new cute pictures of Mateo to upload, so look forward to those. In the meantime, I need to go, since Mateo is about to eat some wires, and I think he just pooped. Later.