these feets were made for walkin'

Today is my final hurrah of owning a car. Not because I'm so utterly environmentally conscious that I'm giving it up, but because my car needs $3000 of work to pass inspection, and it's not worth that much. And, the inspection runs out tomorrow. I'm trying to work something out, but with the opposite of stellar credit, and not much scratch to work with, it's a tough row to hoe. But, hey, on the upside, it gave me an excuse to reinstall cable, right? [if you would like to give me a car or co-sign a loan, get in touch!]

It's payday (once a month! dang!) and since that is coinciding with my soon-to-be-carlessness, I'm planning a big grocery trip. I'm trying to walk the line between getting enough of everything that I won't have to worry about it for a while, and getting so much stuff that everything goes bad before I can use it. So, I'm trying to think of what I need perishable now, and what is heavy (i.e. not good for busing it) and what can last for a while. I'm having a hard time getting out of the mode of thinking that I'm trying to stock up Little House-style for a long, brutal winter. 'Cause it's kinda fun to think of it like that. But, I don't want to go overboard, which I have a tendency to do anyway with regard to the grocery shopping. Because, E-dawg has offered to haul my sorry ass along with her on shopping trips, Mags has offered use of her car when she doesn't need it on weekends, and Zeke's mom has even said I can use her car whenever I am sitting him. So, it's not like I'll really never be leaving the house again (despite my urge to hibernate). In order to keep myself sane, I'm making a spreadsheet (I love spreadsheets). It will list all items that I require, broken down by which store I want to buy them at (I'm hitting the co-op, Whole Foods and Giant Eagle this evening), and in order of where they are in the store. I actually like to do this even when I'm not stocking up for winter, but usually don't take the time to be that elaborate (or, some may say, anal).


I haven't done a whole lot of cooking in the past couple of days. Mainly just sandwiches and baked potatoes. But, I did get a hankerin' for deviled eggs yesterday. (Is this still leftover from my extended Thanksgiving?). I make mine very simply, like I like almost all of my egg-themed recipes. I just hardboil the eggs, slice in half and pop out the yolk, add (lots and lots of) mayo (until the yolk mixture has kind of a glossy appearance) and (a little dab of) yellow mustard and some black pepper to taste. Then scoop the yolk mixture back into the whites, and sprinkle on a little sweet paprika. Perfection.


But, this weekend I'm planning on cooking and/or baking a bunch. Probably some kind of soup and some kind of yeasted bread. Oh, that reminds me, I need to add mushrooms to the list...and maybe some graham crackers...

Anyhow, have a great weekend, folks!

it was a long week

Hi folks.

Sorry for the lack of blog fodder last week. It was a hectic and tough week, and all the extras (like, bloggin') had to fall to the wayside. I got a very sad fatal diagnosis for my car--which just totally blows 'cause I'm not sure how it's all going to shake out, but it could be that I'll be car-less for a while. On the upside, it's winter, and my mental bumper sticker reads: "I'd rather be hibernating!". So, I may not have much choice. Eh.

This also means that I won't be traveling for Thanksgiving. I'm sad to miss cooking with my mom and seeing my nieces and nephew. But, I'll have it all figured out by xmas (right?!?), so I'll see them then. Savanah (my favorite!) is really bummed. She said that she made me a "special Christmas centerpiece for your table, and you need to have it before then so you can enjoy this whole time!". It was so weird when she told me that. She's five. And, obviously has been possessed by my mother.

the good news, however, is that I'm going to have Thanksgiving with some friends, and Leslie is going to be cooking up a storm. And, she's an incredible cook. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to make those roasted brussels sprouts with cranberry brown butter I posted about a few weeks ago. Yum!

In other news, it was an action-packed week. On Wednesday I took in a show at the Warhol. My Brightest Diamond features one of my favorite peeps, bdub, on the skins. I hadn't listened to much of them before then, but they're really great. Shara, the gal behind My Brightest Diamond, has a truly gorgeous voice. Operatic, even. I went with my pal Tracey, and we'd tentatively plan to scoot out early since we were both feeling kind of exhausted, but it was too good to skip out. Good stuff. And, she's in Sufjan Stevens' band, and I LOVE SUFJAN!

On Thursday I went to the (not safe for workplace clickin'!) Girls Night In going-outta-business sale at Amani. I got some good stuff for not much scratch, and even won a special treat from the raffle! I hear that Karen still has stock to liquidate, so give her a holler!

The weekend was pretty quiet. I met up with the E-dawg parade for lunch at People's on Saturday. I'd also planned to hit up the E. Liberty farmers market, but didn't realize they closed at noon. That's okay, next week. The rest of the city farmers markets ended last week, but this one is indoor and stays open all year! I haven't been there yet. I can't wait to check it out. I was lamenting the long winter with no CSA and no farmers market, but it's gonna be okay. Also, the folks that run the CSA I subscribe to are having winter boxes. You can get on their email list here. The way it works is that they send out an email each week, and you choose whether to opt in that week (and get your delivery location). And, of course, the co-op will be there to supplement everything else.

Okay. It's Monday, and I actually don't even mind. I had a restful weekend, and it's a short week. (Work usually lets us out by 3:00 p.m. the day before a holiday, too!) Good times.

everybody's workin' for the weekend!

[oops...meant to post this on Friday...duhr...]

Woo hoo! TGIF, my people! TGIF! That is what I am talking about. Are you feeling me and/or do you feel me?

And, equally as worthy of a "Woot!" is that I finally got my car fixed today because it is payday! The two front windows have been stuck down for nearly two weeks, and I've had them classily taped up with garbage bags since then. And, believe me when I say, that is not much fun. I had to drive it the other day because I had to go to that credit counseling appointment and then to work and then to pick up my CSA and then somehow get myself down to my dog-sit house, and it was a pain in the behind untaping and retaping--especially when I was doing that during the torrential downpour. It's being worked on Right Now, and should be done by 4:00 p.m. It will set me back $306, which is sucky, but still. The moral of this story is that you should always get a car with hand-cranked windows (that even sounds cute, doesn't it? hand-cranked?). Unless, of course, someone gave you that car for free in which case you should shut the hell up and just be grateful that your ass is mobile most of the time, right? Right.

[and, I never finished it, but still.]