Amy's Free Library of Rock!

This morning after dragging the kids up and running (at least Sam takes awhile to get going anywhere) I had to take my car in to get inspected because the stickers ran out last month, so while that was being done we went on a long walk down a random nearby street, where we crossed a bridge and watched the creek, saw butterflies, grasshoppers, and a dragonfly, played I Spy with leaves and flowers of various colors, sat on stumps, touched moss, argued over whether pulling up clumps of moss and dumping them on your mother's head was a good thing, and found an empty birds' nest. It was quite a good walk for two toddlers and one grownup.

Then we picked up the car and headed for the lunch buffet at Pizza Hut. That is the greatest deal ever when you have two three-and-unders, and as pizza is one of the few things Sam likes to eat currently, it's all good.

Then we stopped at the mall to finally upgrade my cell phone. I am now high-tech: I now have a phone that (gasp) TAKES PICTURES. Then I decided to torture myself by wandering by the bookstore to stare at the lovely copies of Mockingjay which were probaby there, since I preordered my copy assuming they would SEND it on Tuesday and it hasn't GOTTEN here yet grumble grumble; except it turned out there WERE no copies of Mockingjay in the book store, which seemed to lack an entire YA section period (and the children's section involved a lot of toys), so I am not entirely sure what was up with that place.

THEN I dropped the kids off with Grammy and headed home to get my stuff together for work. Driving into my driveway I could SWEAR I saw a box on my front porch. There wasn't one. Dang lack of Mockingjay.

Anyway, at work I cleaned out and reorganized all the SRC files and papers and such, then started to compose an email to the school librarians, then Deb walked by with a pile of books that had just been delivered and set them on her desk, the top one of which had a light-blue cover, and I became very excited. DUDES, HOW did our very slow to unpack things library get Mockingjay before me?!

So I read four chapters of Mockingjay while on reference. I would have brought it home, but Deb gets to work before me tomorrow, I don't want to mess up her cataloging routine. Anyway MAYBE MY COPY WILL COME TOMORROW. Um, the first four chapters were very good.

Then I came home and put my contacts list into my new phone, realized the memory card adapter they gave me to go with it does not work with my computer, and decided to round up my day for you while I was on here.

That was succinctly done, I must say, for me.

I like to pretend to myself, sometimes, that I'm a Foodie. Except that I'm not. I just like eating. I'm far too cheap to be a true Foodie. I am too stuck on Pantry-Principle grocery shopping to think beyond the serviceable ingredients I have. I don't have a problem using plain olive oil if the recipe calls for extra virgin; I use my plain yellow onions because I haven't got red ones or Vidalias on hand; potatoes is potatoes and tomatoes is tomatoes.

It's sad, really. I enjoy trying new foods, I have opinions about foods, and I really really love eating food, but I haven't got that REFINED TASTE to put me up in the ranks of Foodie-ness.

I was thinking that maybe this is like being a book-lover who only reads bestsellers, or a music lover who only listens to pop. But maybe not. Because, like I said, I do enjoy tasting new things. So maybe I'm like the music lover who listens to ANYTHING, loves it, thinks it's exciting, but just doesn't have the terminology to TALK about it, to discuss the effect of the instrumentation and the countermelody on the overall mood of the piece. I just know I like it.

As my username suggests, I am definitely a Foodie when it comes to books or music, though perhaps there are even Foodier Foodies above me who insist they only have taste for Fine Literature or Classical Music. But I most certainly will tell you the difference between paranormal and horror, between folk rock and country-western, between third-person omniscient and third-person limited and a capella and acoustic. I will immerse myself in those things and go on and on in detail about what works and WHY it works and why the faults it has don't detract from the positives (and when and why they DO), and I will further defend the best of the lowbrow and poke holes in the worst of the highbrow.

But I just can't bring myself to get that way about food. I'm pretty sure this is because I am cheap. But then again, it could mean that I have no taste. OR, maybe that I JUST LOVE FOOD TOO MUCH to be picky! Maybe I just don't CARE when something could be better, or if one thing is subtly different from another, because it's ALL TOO AWESOME!

So it's altogether possible that people that geek out less about books and music than me ACTUALLY LOVE THESE THINGS MORE THAN ME. That I am just a jargon-saddled SNOB in comparison!

Yes, this is altogether possible. But not likely.

Reading online recipe reviews sometimes makes me laugh, the extent to which people will alter a recipe and then insist that they're still reviewing the recipe on the page.

I wouldn't be surprised to come across something like this some day:
"What a fabulous recipe for spaghetti with meat sauce! Of course, we're vegetarian, so I substituted peanut butter for the beef, and since this didn't go with the tomato sauce I substituted strawberry jam for that. Then instead of pasta I put this between two slices of bread, so I can pack it in my kids' lunches! What great spaghetti!"

Come to think of it, there could be a picture book idea buried in this somewhere.

First of all, to those to whom I promised to post a gobs recipe today, I apologize, but I can't figure out where I put the recipe. It WAS right on top of the recipe box, but I can't remember if I picked it up and put it in a pocket or something to take upstairs, or if it just got brushed off and is floating around the kitchen somewhere. Anyway, maybe some other time this week....

Secondly, it's time to take a vote. Jason forgot to get me any sort of birthday present, and I rarely get anything fun for myself and when I do it is some kind of food. So, I'm getting myself one little item off my Amazon list! Me being practical even when I buy something for myself for fun, I decided that the CDs will get much more use than books (which I don't have time for rereading) or DVDs (which I don't have time for watching, especially if they're not rated G), and the household items I have on the list are more for other people to see and know are something I will be happy if they get me, but they're not, you know, FUN. Maggie's the only person who ever gets me music, and owning new music makes me HAPPY... so anyway, I'm deciding between the following options:

Should I get:
--A: Piper at the Gates of Dawn, or
--B: All Things Must Pass; OR
--C: Should I get some other album I haven't thought of but you think I should have, OR
--D: Should I get something entirely unrelated off my wish list, perhaps a book after all, most likely this one because I'm a geek that way?

Okay, I'll count that as a whole post, if I get bored in the next hour I might wax on about books or something separately....

Hurray for collection of surveys!

Also, a recent post in Facebook has alerted me that I should probably explain something-- so, yeah, if you're on Facebook and you are reading this as a Note, you should know that this is actually an imported LiveJournal entry. That way you are not too confused when I refer to it as such. If you are reading this from Facebook and would like to read MORE, then you really ought to get a LiveJournal account so I can friend you there and then you can read the SPECIAL FRIENDS-LOCKED POSTS THAT THE COOL PEOPLE CAN READ. Mostly the nonfriendslocked ones are pretty impersonal. Or, basically, contain little information that can be used to steal one's identity. Since everyone who can read this on Facebook already KNOWS my identity, what the hey, might as well get a livejournal and friend me then....

'K then.

This first is the newest, but it's the coolest because it's about READING AND WRITING:
( The writing one, though the first few questions don't actually have to do with reading and writing. Directly )
--
( food list )
--
( generic lj-esque survey )
( one on pregnancy and childbirth, you know you're dyin' to hear it )

That's all today, folks.

Anybody got any good recipes/recommendations using canned tuna that are not for tuna casserole or anything else involving cream of mushroom soup, lettuce, or noticeable mayonnaise? (she says with a subtext of begging the gods of all things culinary that Sammy will have more daring tastes than his father, so we may be two-against-one someday on dinner choices). It's Lent, Jason tends to freak out at all vegetarian meals that aren't hot pepper pizza, and we get four free cans of tuna a month. A few months ago I found this Asian Tuna Patties recipe which is really awesome, but I don't feel like having it EVERY WEEK. Jason on the other hand would be quite content having it every week, or even more often than that, and can't understand why I keep pestering him to come up with other ways in which he'd willingly ingest canned tuna, besides straight out of the can, which he also wouldn't mind.

Anyway, here's a Concert Survey, ( which is rather comically lacking in concerts )

Yesterday was Maggie and Zeke's wedding! Beeg old party day! Managed to happen even for the gal who's been telling everyone she was going to elope for years-- yes, my family manages to turn everything into a Big Old Party Day. (Instead of an elopement, it was a small ceremony at our-- uh, the parents'-- house followed by a buffet dinner for more people in a restaurant private room, then a few more people hanging out back at the house-- so not a huge traditional affair, but still a decent party).

Well, Sammy has started teething again, this time on the top, and I think he's got THREE about to pop, the two front and the one just to the left of those (the one I no longer have, there's some trivia for you), and I think they're crooked too, but anyway they're just baby teeth so maybe they'll straighten out eventually. ANYWAY, so he (and therefore I) slept really badly the night before and was pretty miserable most of the next day. He's also taken to rolling over and attempting to crawl away IMMEDIATELY upon my putting him down to change his diaper. SO it took a really long time to finally get on the road, but off we went and managed to get there still before everybody else except Jessie, who was carefully and geometrically arranging the dining room table with LOADS OF COOKIES, including these amazing cream-puffy things that were better than cream puffs 'cause they were made with flaky pastry dough.

For the ceremony the guests were mostly just immediate family-- Zeke's grandparents (our Grandpap couldn't make it), his aunt who's more like his father anyway (okay, a second mother), Aunt Dot and Uncle Harry because they're Maggie's godparents, and Aunt Peggy too but I'm not sure why she made the cut and the rest of the aunts and uncles didn't. And siblings of course. And Jessie, because if it had been a more traditional ceremony she might have been Maid of Honor so it wouldn't have been right to gyp her of that. It was officiated by the District Justice who lives down the street and whose daughters I used to babysit and (the eldest of whom) went to school with Maggie, so he started off by telling everyone about how they once all dressed up like the Addams Family for Halloween. The ceremony was short and sweet, and Zeke said "I do" about five times before he was actually SUPPOSED to, and also said "yeah" too at one point I believe (I suppose that's a good sign!); and then we spread out and wolfed down all the punch and as much of the cookies as we had stomach for before we remembered that we had to get to Blairsville for the reception.

The reception was at Pie Cuchina, this nice restaurant we went to after IUP graduation for one that happens to be (and I forgot this) right next door to the apartment building my grandma lived in for many years. There we met more of the extended family and some close friends. This was still quite a crowd (so imagine what MY wedding was like!). Somehow the seating chart got screwed up and a bunch of people got tags saying they belonged at tables that were already full, while meanwhile there was one table that NO ONE was assigned to, so Jason and I ended up sitting there with the Souths and three of Zeke's high school friends. The food here was, well, awesome, but now I'll go into detail: this amazingly awesome punch that was pineapple coconut with lots of frothy ice cream whipped stuff on top; MORE cookies, and cupcakes with a huge phlwap of sugar icing on top; wedding soup; garden salad; pasta salad; this INCREDIBLE cheese tortellini which was just about the best you could ever imagine and is certainly a better alternative to the traditional wedding Rigatoni; salmon with some stuff on it; some kind of chicken; and I think there were green beans also. And rolls. But the tortellini and the punch stand out.

It was a dinner reception, no dancing or anything, so we just hung out after we ate, mostly mingling around in the lobby and taking pictures, and we hung out there quite a long time until it looked like the staff was wishing we'd just leave so they could clean up after us; so then we went back to the house to eat more of those cookies. Maggie and Zeke opened some presents, Zoe explored the mechanics of a piano and then hosted a few games of Candyland Bingo, a few people (I'm not entirely sure who) kept having entirely too much fun with silly string, Sammy crawled around in his pajamas, and there was general joy and hanging-out-ness. Then we went home in time to beat the ice storm that was supposedly blowing in, but I think it ended up just being really cold rain here. Anyway.

I think that's all I have to say, but the important thing is not the words, of course, it's the pictures, so here they are here. As usual, tell me as soon as possible if that's a sucky link so I can fix it.

Oh, and before I forget-- TIME FOR THE CHRISTMAS-AMY DEFAULT TO SPREAD YOU JOY PEACE AND LOVE!

Speaking of music-- well, I wasn't, but I'm about to-- If you haven't played the Guess the Lyric game yet this time, go there now! I salute the five of you who have bravely taken a stab at it already, you all rock. I'll post the answers in a couple days, or, well, whenever I get to it.

For Sammy's Two Month Birthday, he discovered POLKA MUSIC! It was so exciting. It's the church festival, which I have never been to-- well, I've never been to ST. PATRICK'S church festival, although summer church festivals --at least CAtholic ones-- are pretty well standard all over-- and I saw that Thursday evening would not only be Italian Dinner Special night but also the night where the entertainment was an accordion band, and said, ah, that's a fine way to celebrate. I believe it is imperative that one must dance to Polka at least once a year in the course of their lives, and it is therefore important that I expose Sammy to it when I can. So punterschlagen had been wanting to bring Little Larry out for a visit sometime this week anyway and decided that Polka music and the festival's used book sale was a perfect occasion, so the four of us strollered on down the hill and joined the party! ( rest of the story under a cut, because there are pictures )

I think today wore sammy out, he's really cranky this evening with no particular reason why. He just seems overtired, but can't seem to settle down. He's in his crib now and periodically will start howling for thirty second intervals, then fall asleep again. Possibly a cross between gas and overstimulation. (hey, apparently I had the exact same digestive issues as a baby-- but worse. Says my mom today)

But it was a good day in general: it was Sammy's baptism! I stayed up when he woke me for his 6:30 feeding so I could go out and plant the tomatoes (which I didn't get to after I bought them yesterday) and shower, and spent the morning tidying the house a bit and feeding sammy again and also eating. The plan was that I would go to noon Mass (and my family came too), and then Jason would bring Sammy afterward (since the baptism was after Mass), so he could be put into his nice outfit at the last minute rather than spit up on it and so he wouldn't have to cry through Mass. This turned out not to be a problem because Sammy ended up sleeping all that time anyway-- even while being put into his new outfit. Of course, he STARTED sleeping-- and soundly-- at about 11, so though I MEANT to feed him one last time before I left, I didn't want to wake him, so of course when he finally DID wake up RIGHT before the baptism began he was STARVING, but seemed calmed enough by Jason's finger and by the interesting new sights and smells of the service so that he wasn't INCONSOLABLE until the very end, and was generally very well-behaved-- even seemed to be enjoying himself some of the time! There was one other baby being baptised at that time-- he had an older sister who decided it would be fun to play in the baptismal font during his baptism-- I thought that was pretty funny. Anyway, it was all really nice and I felt really happy. And his name sounded really nice when the priest said it, nicer than I'd even thought it sounded before (and nicer than the other baby's name I think, too). Think it really is his proper spiritual name.

Then afterward we went home and ate fruit and dip and Sammy opened presents-- okay, I opened presents for sammy. He got lots of BOOKS-- most of which were religious in nature, obviously, but two of those were actually written by a woman who used to go to the Weirs' (actually the Beeghleys') church, which was cool; and he also got a Mother Goose collection which shockingly we didn't have yet, and a book about a knight and a dragon, which I thought was very appropriate. And he got an engraved Noah's Ark bank that said "Sam I Am" and a ball with a bell in it, which I think we will have a lot of fun with. And I got two mother's day cards. My parents found one that was for Daughter's First Mother's Day and my sibs one for Sister's First. They make cards for EVERY possibility, don't they? We were saying how amazing it is that we've got this wall of baby cards, many of which are specifically BOY baby cards, and we didn't get a SINGLE DUPLICATE. Anyway, we were going to have a late lunch that my parents were bringing, except they forgot it at home-- well, they forgot the main course, they brought salad and bread and of course the fruit dip appetizer; so my dad ran out and got these pre-marinated pork tenderloins at shopnsave which Jason then grilled-- they turned out Pretty Awesome. And there was also chocolate-chocolate cake made by Mim-mim. We had a nice afternoon, and since everyone else was holding Sammy, I lost track and fell asleep on the couch and everyone let me! That's just all you need, there.

And of course in the middle of typing this Sammy woke up for REAL, crying in a "feed me, change me" way instead of an "oh my god the world is so terrible get me off it now" way, so I went through the whole bedtime routine since it was time for that, and that successfully settled him right asleep, so now I will join him. In being asleep. I get my own bed, which fits me much better than a bassinet.

I know the reason I've been depressed the past few days is hormones and boredom and I know I'd feel better if I DID something interesting, but I can't think of anything. I think this would be the perfect opportunity to do something it will be harder to do with a baby, but the only things I can think of that fit that description, a) I ALREADY physically can't do; b) require money; or c) both (example: going to the movies. Not an exorbitant expense, but like I can sit there for 2 hours without making at least 3 bathroom breaks and getting extremely uncomfortable!)... or d) we've already done today? never mind.

I got a chicken out of the freezer yesterday so we could feast on chicken today, because that would be interesting, and I thought that if I bothered to get a chicken out to defrost then something would happen so we wouldn't be able to use it after all! Well, Murphy's Law, you'd THINK that would happen. But it's time to start the chicken now if we want it for lunch (we have a late lunch since Jason doesn't eat dinner until 8), so I will go do that, and that will keep me occupied for a BIT.