Last Week's Produce Box

It was so beautiful I decided to take pictures to show you all.

The first peek into the box.  The aroma was incredible.  Everything smelled delicious and fresh.  And just look at those colors!  Yum!

Under the first layer of packing paper.  There are avocados there but they're difficult to see.

And finally, the bottom layer. Can you believe all this beautiful goodness?  Fingerling potatoes, spinach, peppers, apples, mangoes and carrots!

Too Crazy to Pass Up

Look what I found in the dryer this weekend when I washed a load of jeans.

As nearly as I can tell it's part of a traffic cone.  Also, my mouse is a regular sized mouse, not one of those miniature ones.

Winter

Winter has finally arrived. It took a while but it made it and it is not messing around.  We had a high today of something ridiculous like 14F.  Crazy.  These are icicles on the bumper of my car.

I'm sending this from my car while the windshield thaws out.  There is actually frost on the inside of the glass.  Brrrr.

IloveColoradoIloveColoradoIloveColorado.  I really, really do but there are times here that I must remind myself of that over and over and over again.  It's not unlike dealing with a truculent child.

Pantry Project

A few weeks ago I discovered that a nearby grocery store was going out of business.  They had all their groceries marked down by 30%-50%.  I made a trip there and spent about $90 stocking up on pantry staples.  A couple of weeks later I went back because I knew there would be bigger mark downs.  I spent $60 or so and got some great deals on canned fruit (not a fan myself, but it makes a quick, cheap, easy snack to pack up for the kids at school), cereal, green chiles, flour, frozen chicken and dried pasta.  It was awesome.  My geekness was in full bloom.

One of my receipts.  This is the $60 one; the $90 one was way longer.

Just some of the bags from one of my trips.

My pantry and other food cupboards after those trips.

Yesterday Paul picked up our beef order.  One-hundred-forty-two pounds of pasture-raised, organic beef.  We sold 20 pounds to Jenn and Caleb so that left 122 pounds to divide between mine and Paul's respective freezers.  We contemplated buying a deep freeze the other day but decided to risk it.  And you know what?  It all fit.  And I still have plenty of room in my freezer for the chicken and frozen vegetables previously purchased.  Paul said he still has lots of room in his freezer as well.  So 142 pounds isn't as much as we thought it would be.

So the Pantry Project is this: not to buy any groceries except dairy, eggs and fresh produce for A Very Long Time.  We'll see how long A Very Long Time is.  Also, I'm going to do my best not to buy produce outside of the Door to Door Organics box.  That may prove to be a little tough because we eat a lot of fresh carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, apples and oranges.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Useless Information

Is there really anyone out there who needs directions for an electric hand dryer? People who really don't know to press and release the button? To rub their hands lightly? That the machine will stop automatically? Really?

7 Billion. For Realz.

This video reminds me of the time I was 9 and our family sat around the dinner table one night talking about how big a million and a billion are. Dad had come up with some awe-inspiring amount of time that it would take 1 million people to walk in front of our mailbox, one right after the other. I can't remember it now but I remember the feeling I had trying to comprehend that then. It's the same feeling I had just now trying to comprehend 7 billion people here.

Paul Rocks When He's Not Scaring the Bejezus Out of Me

We arrived home from Utah late on Saturday night and I didn't want to go home to my house because a) it would be cold and dark, b) I'd have a long hike up 3 stories with heavy luggage in the cold and dark, c) I had no edible food in my refrigerator and d) I wanted to stay at Paul's house. So I stayed at Paul's house.  That meant I had to go home yesterday morning to leave all my luggage, warm up the house, start some laundry and do a quick fridge inventory.

When I got home it was 43F in my apartment.  And a second smoke detector had gone on the fritz and needed a new battery.  When I got home from Arkansas a couple of weeks ago the smoke detector in my room was dead and beeping.  Yesterday the main one in the hallway that controls all the others was dead and beeping.  That one beeps even after the dead battery is removed so that you can't get any peace until you feed it a live battery.  I dumped out an ounce of sour milk, half a dozen single servings of leftover peas, lasagna, guacamole and other assorted rotten foods.  I started a load of laundry and wrote a short grocery list.  Then I left to pick up the kids.

I spent the rest of the day driving to southern Colorado and back.  When we got home we were tired and a little hungry.  I forgot all of that though when I opened the door and saw the Christmas tree lit up.  I knew I had not turned on the lights that morning because I remembered looking at it a couple of times and thinking how sad and lonely it looked with no lights on.  And even if I had turned the lights on, I would have turned them off before I left because I am both paranoid and cheap.

Immediately, my mind raced to all those horror stories about people coming home to strangers in their houses.  Because, you know, an intruder waiting to rob and kill you will always turn on your Christmas tree to lure you into a sense of security, right? Right. I considered sending the kids out into the breezeway so they could get a head start running while I searched the house for the bad guy but it was about 15F out there and deep down I didn't really believe there was someone waiting to jump out and grab me.

Instead, I called Paul and said, "Did you come over to my house today?"  I figured there were a bunch of reasons he might have needed to come over, like to get some wine or to borrow a baking dish or maybe he left a jacket or something here last time he was over. Lots of reasons.  And that's why I've given him a key and such.  Paul said, "Why do you ask?" so I said that my Christmas lights were on and I wanted to be sure I wasn't about to be murdered.  He said, "Maybe Santa Claus did it."  By this time I knew he had been over and so I was going about my business in the apartment, taking off my coat and turning on lights and stuff.  Then I saw my television on the floor of my bedroom.

I went back to the living room.  I opened the television cabinet.  There was a beautiful Sony 32-inch, 1080p, plasma screen HD television sitting in that cabinet.  And it had a cute little red bow on the corner.  It was all connected to the Roku and everything.

I began to freak out in a minor way and the kids around me began to freak out in a major way.  Paul was laughing and saying, "Breathe, breathe, you have to breathe!"

See, I had been planning to buy a new tv for our family with the bulk of our Christmas budget.  I told the kids about it but I told them that it would wait until after the holidays were over and things settled down and I could find a good deal.  But I hate shopping for this kind of stuff.  I know nothing about electronics or what constitutes a good deal.  Plus, getting it home and hooking it all up are things I do not excel at.  If fact, I quite stink at that.

So Paul took care of all of that for me.  Isn't he awesome?  It turns out we got a lot of tv for relatively little money because it was an open box item at Best Buy and Paul is good at the haggling bit, too.  It cost just a tad more than what I was planning to spend so I'll pay Paul back what was in my budget and we'll call it good.

And you know what else?  Paul replaced the batteries in my dead smoke detectors, too.

P.S. This blog is 3 years old.

Utah

I am in Utah with Paul for the week.  He has family here and we're just hanging out, eating, playing games, drinking and sightseeing.  We've had Christmas and we're going to have a New Year's Eve party.  These people know how to party.  It's a very good time.

We're in a small town outside of Salt Lake City.  The geography here is so new to me.  For one, this is my first time in Utah. I'm used to traveling through states where I've lived and I know basically where the major cities are and what their suburbs are.  That is not the case here.  Also, I'm used to mountainous regions being to the west.  Here, we're in the middle of Utah Valley and there are mountains all the way around us.  Another thing -- we're right next to the Wasatch Range.  It's kind of odd to look up and see a mountain peak soaring 11,000 feet above me.  In Denver, you're so far away from the mountains that you can't get a real sense of how big they are.  And once you get closer, the foothills are so huge that you've lost sight of the mountain peaks and still can't see how tall they are.  So this perspective on mountains is quite breathtaking.  I'm loving it.

Last night we took the UTA Trax system into Salt Lake City to see the lights at Temple Square.  I took lots of pictures.  I am, by no means, a photographer and my camera is rather puny but last night we worked quite well together.  I got some good shots that I'm pleased with, especially considering the lighting that was available.

Here's the inside of the train.  They are nearly identical to the Light Rail cars in Denver so I felt right at home.  This particular train was pretty empty.

Some of the scenery out of the train windows.  I was kind of excited to go to Sandy.  You see, one of my favorite television shows is the HBO series, Big Love.  It's set in Sandy, Utah and I thought that Sandy was a fictional place until Paul told me it is, indeed, a real town.  Not only is it a real place, that's where we got on the train.  So I had to take a photo of this sign.

This is the shopping center where we got coffee before walking to Temple Square.  It's pretty and it has lots of cool shops in it.  If I appreciated shopping and crowds more, I'd probably really enjoy a place like this.  But I don't so it's mostly good for people watching and coffee sipping.  And photo snapping.

A pretty cool mural in the Union Pacific Train Station.  I love real train stations -- you know the ones where people can get on an Amtrak train and it takes them hundreds of miles away, overnight with dining cars and sleeping berths and stuff.  All of them are old and very cool with granite floors and big, carved wood moldings and these cool murals.

A cautionary piece of advice that is posted at almost all street corners.  It made me giggle.

Some other cool shots of downtown Salt Lake City.  It's very pretty and there is a lot of striking architecture.  I was just in awe.  I think Christmas is a particularly good time to experience new cities because they're all gussied up for the holidays.  This way, I get to have these beautiful first impressions as my only impressions.

And now, the main event for last night:  Temple Square.  I must preface this by saying that a friend-slash-co-worker recommended that we "go to Temple Square to see the lights" and I kind of went, "Oh. Yeah, I guess that sounds nice."  I mentioned it to Paul in passing, not really expecting that we'd go because 1) we're neither one religious, and 2) Paul was, at one time, LDS and doesn't have much inclination to revisit that.  So I didn't think there was much reason for us to go.  But when I said it, he was like, "Oh yeah!  We should do that.  The lights are pretty fantastic and the history is interesting."  So we went.  And I am so glad we did.  It is beautiful!

See what I mean?  Gorgeous, no?  I am simply amazed that my camera took photos this clearly at night.  It was really something.

After we finished with our lightseeing (get it? Lightseeing instead of sightseeing? Ha ha!) we got back on the train and headed to a place called Trolley square.  I hear that there is lots of history surrounding that place as well but I'm unclear on most of it.  Anyway, here it is:

Yes, it's a crappy, crappy, crappy picture.  The rest of our group was running across the street while I was taking this picture and I was in a hurry to take it so I didn't get left behind and then a car almost hit me.  Oops.  But I'm okay.

We decided to eat at Old Spaghetti Factory which is inside the shopping mall at Trolley Square.  This is what the wait line for Old Spaghetti Factory looked like.  Lisa, Paul's sister-in-law, went in to ask how long the wait was for a group our size (8 of us) and came out to report that it would be at least an hour.  So some of the group went off to shop and the some of the group went off in search of beer.  I went in search of beer because I am not a shopper.

We actually ended up waiting about an hour and 20 minutes for our tables but it was definitely worth it.  Old Spaghetti Factory isn't exactly original or authentic food but it's very tasty and a really good deal.  I ordered an entree that was easily enough for both Paul and myself.  It came with iced tea or coffee, all the bread I wanted, a side salad and, the best part yet -- spumoni!  Yumyum, yummy, yummolicious!  I would have taken photos but the lighting was terrible and nothing would have shown up.  I did get a picture of the trolley car that is inside the restaurant, though.

Pretty cool, huh?

When we were done eating we walked back to the train and I got some more photos of things that I found to be interesting.

This was pretty neat.  It was at the stop where we waited for one of our return trains.  It's a poem written by a 14-year-old girl named Ruby, I believe.

 This was a funny little train seat all by itself.  Cole called it the lonely hobo seat.

And this is what greeted us when we arrived back in Sandy.  It was freezing fog -- quite the interesting sight.

Anyway, as you can see, we're having a fantastic time.  There is lots of great stuff in store for our remaining days here, too.  I'll be meeting Paul's mom tomorrow and maybe meeting an online friend on Thursday.  I hope the weather cooperates.  We're under a severe winter storm warning right now and it doesn't end until Thursday night or Friday morning.  Gah.

Yay for Arkansas!

Yay for the people in Arkansas, anyway. At least some of the people. This is a good time. All the siblings, I repeat all, are here. That's no easy feat considering our circumstances and geography. We are having a blast.  So, until I can devote more time to a follow up post on this subject, I'll leave you with some word snapshots -- a toast to the matriarch in honor of her graduation; rounds of Boggle with iPhones at the ready for proving or disproving a word's legitimacy; a dozen chatting, laughing people crammed into the kitchen because that's where we always end up. And there's so much more to come!

Sent via Pony Express

I'm Too Emotional & Too Cynical

Found this video.  Watched this video.  Teared up over some of the footage, giggled at other parts of it.


As it ended, I felt affection for this world and all its inhabitants and our interconnectedness.  And then I thought to myself, "This is really just a commercial for Google."

Thanksgiving

Whoa.  Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday because I love to cook and I love to eat.  I love food, period.  Christmas is my second favorite holiday because it has all the same foods (at least, in my family it does) but it also has shopping which I'm not nearly as fond of as cooking.

Anyway, Thanksgiving.  It was delicious.  I made a turkey for the second time.  Last year was my first and I brined it with a pretty sweet brining solution -- "sweet" as in fruity, not as in a surfer dude's "Hey, man! Sweet waves today!"  (Although, surfers usually surf in salt water and brining solutions do contain a lot of salt.  But this really has nothing to do with Turkey Day.  Sorry for that brief foray into my distracted thought process.)  This year I went a little more savory.  There was nothing wrong with last year's brine but I wanted to try something different.  This year's brine was still sweet but more tempered with things like bay leaves and peppercorns and rosemary.  It was so good.  My mouth is watering thinking about it again.  Also, the turkey was huge.  We had to brine it in the massive pot that Caleb uses to brew beer.

Jennifer and I went in together on the cooking and food prep at her house because she's the only one with enough space for that sort of thing. I love her kitchen.  It's huge.  On Tuesday night I went to her place with my car full to the gills with cooking utensils, ingredients, baking pans and my mixer.  We set up the brining situation and called it a night.  (Another plug for living in Colorado -- this turkey and its pot were so big there is no way we could have fit it into the fridge but it was cold enough that we could leave it to sit in the garage all night!  Yay for temps in the low 20s!)

On Wednesday I went back to Jennifer's house, changed into some comfy PJs, poured a glass of wine and got busy!  We chopped veggies and nuts, shredded cheese, mixed pie crusts, mashed potatoes, whipped up pie fillings, dried bread crumbs and had a grand old time.  Friends from Texas arrived late that night and the children had a great time playing video games and chasing each other all over the house.  The adults opened more wine, turned up the music and continued food preparations until 3:00 am.  It was so much fun!

Thursday morning began bright and early with more cooking, roasting, boiling, baking and stirring.  We finally ate around 2:00 pm.  Everything was really good.  I wish I'd had the ability to eat more food but even that night when everyone usually eats the first of the leftovers, I was still too full.  Bummer.

After the meal we sat around the dining table and had a nice Pinot Noir tasting.  The friends from Texas brought a couple of Pinot Noir wines from New Zealand (they lived there for 9 months last year!  Lucky!) and Paul brought over a couple of Colorado Pinot Noir wines.  We all sampled and critiqued and tasted.  Then we opened a dessert wine and a honey wine to try with our desserts.  It was a superb time.  We should do it again before next Thanksgiving because we deserve to eat like that because it's Tuesday sometimes, you know?

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing Carcassone, one of our most favorite board games.  I think I can mark this holiday down as one of the best ever; it ranks right up there with the first Thanksgiving after The Divorce and with the New Year's Eve I spent alone with my homemade pizza and sangria.  Yum.  Truly can't wait to do it again.

List of Stuff, Updated

1. Like I said previously, I am tired of 'random' and 'rambling' so this post is not called that.  It's also not called that because it's an update of a previous post so it's named after that one.  Got it?
2. Antibiotics.  Solomon is taking his horse pills grudgingly, with much choking and coughing and gulping of orange juice.  He has a flare for the dramatic, in case you couldn't tell.  Samuel eagerly awaits the next dose of "the pink stuff" and asks at least a dozen times per day, "Is it time yet? Please?"
3. Miriam woke up Thursday with a supersuper sore throat.  We went to the doctor.  She was diagnosed with strep also.  Big surprise there.  I'm still scratching my head over that one.  /sarcasm
4. I'm even closer to the end of this semester's classes!  Double yay!
5. I did not go to Starbucks to do homework because Miriam camped out on the couch with a pillow and the remote.  Instead of homework, I paid bills and worked on The Budget.
6. My favorite Starbucks drinks are still the whole milk latte and the peppermint mocha.  I went to Starbucks yesterday to do homework and had a cranberry bliss bar with my whole milk latte.  Those were the best tasting calories I had all week.
7. It's been very quiet at "Neighbor's" house since Wednesday.  I can hear her still over there.  She's been vacuuming and still slams doors and cupboards frequently but I haven't heard kids or screaming.  I'm not sure what to think.
8. Still planning to write about Thanksgiving.  I'll get to it eventually.
9. The entire 5th grade took a field trip to the middle school yesterday as a teaser for the orientation, I suppose.  Solomon proclaimed it, "Awesome!"
10. And again, that's all the stuff.  I don't have to pee this time but I do have to go fold some laundry.  As usual, I'll write more stuff again later.  See ya then!

List of Stuff

1. I would have called this post "rambling" or "random" but I'm tired of those words.  "Stuff" is sufficient.
2. Solomon and Samuel were diagnosed with strep throat this week. I'm alternately loving and hating antibiotics. Loving for the obvious reasons -- my kids won't be stricken with rheumatic fever or kidney failure.  Hating because Solomon gags and nearly vomits both the pink, liquid stuff and the quartered horse pills.  Gosh, my life is glamorous.
3. Miriam went to bed tonight with a sore throat.  I reallyreallyreallyreally hope she is not worse in the morning.  I don't want to deal with another round of antibiotics if I can help it.
4. My classes are almost finished for the semester.  Yay!
5. If I'm not taking Miriam to the doctor for a strep test tomorrow morning I'm going to spend most of the day at Starbucks working furiously on the nutrition assignments I have neglected for the last 2 weeks.
6. My new favorite Starbucks beverage is a whole milk latte.  Well, at least during 10 months of the year.  From November to December it's the peppermint mocha.
7. I reported "Neighbor" to CPS yesterday.  For realz.  That's the first time I've done that as a concerned citizen and not as a mandated reporter.
8. Thanksgiving rocked.  It really deserves its own post and I'll do that soon but I couldn't leave it totally unrecognized in this List of Stuff.
9. I got a note today from the middle school welcoming my soon-to-be middle schooler and me to the campus.  We are cordially invited to attend an orientation for the 2011-2012 school year next week.  I had a miniature heart attack.  And then I recovered and added the date to my calendar.  And then I had another miniature heart attack.  I might have another heart attack next week.
10. That's all the stuff.  Well, it's not really All the Stuff Forever but I kinda have to pee so that's all for now.  I'll most likely write more stuff later.

I :heart: Tofu

Who'd have thunk it?  I started eating tofu several months ago because I wanted to expand my food horizons and all that jazz.  I was wary but I quickly discovered that when prepared correctly it's quite tasty.

Correctly prepared consists of draining thoroughly between towels and two weighted plates for several minutes, preferably an hour.  Then I slice the tofu into small cubes or triangles and marinate them in olive oil and either soy sauce or balsamic vinegar and whatever spices and herbs suit me that particular day.  I've sauteed the tofu in a skillet with mixed results.  I think I've discovered that braising chunks of tofu in the marinating liquid is best.  It provides the greatest consistency in texture.

Two of my favorite tofu-containing dishes, for your drooling pleasure:

This is quinoa, prepared in a tabouleh salad.  The recipe is from T.  She's an awesome cook.  I haven't actually eaten any of her food but the pictures she posts of her food make me wish I had eaten it.  Lots of it.  For the purpose of full disclosure her recipe did not have tofu in it but I added some because I wanted to.  Also, I put mushrooms in it this particular time because I was lacking some of the other stuff that I would normally put in it.  Yum.

This is spaghetti squash, recipe courtesy of me.  I roasted the squash in the oven.  After the strands were separated out I tossed in some sauteed onions, garlic and mushrooms.  There are also tomatoes but I don't saute those because they get too mushy.  Instead I remove the pan from the heat and add the tomatoes so they are just barely cooked by the heat of the vegetables already in the pan.  I added in an alfredo sauce which was quite creamy and delicious.  (And yes, there is a chip on my plate.  Please ignore it.)

I have also made pita sandwiches with tofu that was marinated in olive oil and lots of red pepper flakes for a spicy kick. The tofu and wheat pita were accompanied by shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, sliced avocados and sharp cheddar cheese. Those were really, really good.  Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of those.

Anyway, those are a few of my recent forays into tofu consumption. You should try them. You know, if you've never tried tofu but have been curious about how it might fit into your diet. Or not. I suppose it's not necessarily for everyone.

Other Worlds? Or No?

Last Post re: Samuel's Pockets (Maybe)

I decided to document the growing pile of crap on the top of the dryer.  If you can't stop the madness you might as well join in, right?  So every week after I did a round of laundry, I photographed the pile of stuff and captured the new additions.  Here they are, in order.

Here we have some pebbles, a Starburst wrapper, an arm from an action figure, staples and some other unidentifiable stuff.

This week we added some silly bands, a weird bolt/screw thing and a bobby pin.

This time we found a dollar!  It was quickly reclaimed.  There are also a hair clip, part of a broken earring, a day-glo spider, a tiny bubble wand and more pebbles.

More of the same.

This week we added the remnants of a busted balloon animal, beads and more pennies and pebbles.  

How does one kid find, become attached to, and collect so much crap?

Did You Know ...

... that there's a Donald Trump game that's not The Apprentice?  I could have lived my whole life without knowing this.

Open Letter to My Next Door "Neighbor"

Dear "Neighbor",

Before we go any further, let me just explain the " ".  You get " " because neighbors are supposed to be neighborly.  You, my "friend," are not.  Neighbors sign for packages for each other or maybe they come over and ask how long the power has been out in the building when they can't turn on the lights after work.  They wave at each other on the sidewalk or they chit chat at the pool.  Sometimes they give each other a squirt of ketchup when their pre-schooler is begging for ketchup on his hot dog and they've run out.  See, that's the kind of passing relationship I have with the chick across the breezeway.  And I'm not saying that you and I have to have that relationship because not everyone does.  That's okay.  But can I ask that I not know the better part of the goings-on in your place?  Please?

I do not need to hear you slamming your kitchen cupboards or your bathroom door. I can live without knowing that your current favorite song is "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz.  (What kind of a name is 'Songz' anyway?)  I can especially live without hearing "Bottoms Up" at full blast at 6:20 on a morning when I do not have to go to work and my children don't have school.  Thanks for getting us up in time to make it to school though.  If this was yesterday I might be writing you a different letter.

Also, I do not like your children gallivanting all through the breezeway, knocking on my door and then running away, asking my children for their phone number, slamming their bikes into my walls and screaming at each other.  Although, I can see why this is appealing to them; I'd rather do those things than be in your house with you screaming at me constantly, too.   That's another thing -- your children did not ask to be born to you and from what I can tell, they deserve much better than you.  I'm very close to calling CPS on you and that's not hyperbole.  While I'm at it, I'll file a complaint against you with the landlord for noise violations, too.

Signed,
Your Ticked Off "Neighbor"

P.S.  I drew that picture up there just for you.  I meant the angry face to be me but now that I'm looking at it again, it looks more like a constipated bunny.  That's okay.  It's the thought that counts, right?

In Which We are Accosted by Zombies (& I Fear for Humanity)

Downtown Denver was overtaken by zombies a couple of weekends ago.  Paul and I, along with our friends, Jen and Scottie, were caught unawares.  It was weird.

It began innocently enough while in line at the liquor store.  Paul and I were buying ingredients to make martinis because we wanted martinis later in the weekend.  The people behind us were dressed up like zombies and said they were going to a zombie crawl.  I thought, "Huh.  Interesting.  Their make up is pretty cool,"  and then, "What the heck is a zombie crawl?" Then we moved on.

Later, we went the train station to meet Jen and Scottie.  The plan was to take the train downtown for an evening of dinner and live music.  While we were waiting on the platform at the train station I saw a small crowd of zombies join the rest of us humans.  And then a larger crowd of zombies arrived.  All of a sudden it hits us: the aforementioned zombie crawl is a Zombie Crawl (capital letters necessary) and it's downtown.  The accumulating crowd of zombies does not strike me as so interesting and/or cool any more.  They're kinda freaky and slightly disturbing.
 
Finally the train arrived and we boarded with the zombies.  With each successive stop the ratio of zombies to normal people became more unsettling.

By the time we arrived at the 16th Street Mall and we were surrounded by zombies.  And these were serious zombies.  Some of them had chainsaws.  Some were covered with blood.  Some were chasing each other and other humans and screaming.  Some were staring blankly and wandering aimlessly.  Others were limping on partially disabled limbs.

It was all rather obnoxious.  It seems that zombies are not terribly clear on who is involved in their game and who is not. Or maybe they enjoy running into innocent bystanders and then offering a half-hearted, "Oops, sorry, dude," before turning to run into another victim.

On the train ride into the city we had decided that we would eat at Tokyo Joe's so we got our bearings and took off in that direction, on foot.  Paul remarked, "This bothers me.  It seems like people with nefarious purposes could get away with a lot under the cover of a zombie uprising."  I agreed.  Who could tell real screaming from fake screaming in this mess?  How would you tell if someone was really being chased or just pretending for the sake of the zombie "fun?"

Tokyo Joe's was completely overrun with zombies. I think maybe they congregated there because raw fish flesh can be similar to raw human flesh.  It took forever to get our food -- something like 25 minutes to get our sushi.  That is much longer than is normal for Tokyo Joe's.

When we finished eating we needed to get to the club where Jen's friend, Josh Fischel, was playing.  It was several blocks away so we walked a bit to the train and re-boarded.  After we took our seats, we were joined by some young tweens.  They were in the 12 to 14 years old range and giggling hysterically while glancing warily down the train car at a trio of 30-something zombies.  The tweens were not zombies.  It appeared to be a game of tag between zombies and humans that had migrated to public transportation.

The zombies began to lumber toward the group of tweens.  The tweens shrieked with hilarity as the zombies approached.  It was quite the ear-splitting cacophony.  My ears were ringing.  Jen, Scottie, Paul and I looked at each other, rolled our eyes and gritted our teeth.

By this point in the evening we'd had about enough of zombies.  We'd been bumped into repeatedly by bloody zombies, been subjected to screaming and wailing and had to wait extra long for our food.  Patience was thin.

So Paul leaned across the aisle and said, "Excuse me, do you mind taking the zombie uprising that way?" and motioned toward the opposite end of the train.  No one heard him amidst the screaming and thrashing around in the aisles so he stood up, stepped closer, raised his voice a bit and repeated himself.

One of the 30-something zombies finally looked at him and said, "What? Are you serious? We're just having some fun with the kids! You should sit down.  Just sit down, sir!" Paul was rendered speechless, as were the rest of us.  She continued to shriek at Paul and demand that he sit back down.

I was in shock.  I've never seen someone over-react to a such an extent over a simple request for politeness and consideration.  I could only sit there and laugh awkwardly.  Jen refused to look at them.  Scottie, who might be considered a little hot-tempered, was not about to sit there and let the zombies take over.  So he stood and began shouting back at the 30-something zombie.

Her friends got into it then and one of them called Scottie "Tattoo."  Clever, huh?  Now, let me explain: Scottie is, indeed, tattooed.  Very tattooed.  He's proud of his tattoos and he has a right to be.  He has a large star on the side of his neck which, at first, was all anyone could see.  Almost every other inch of his body is covered with ink as well.  He decided to take this opportunity to show everyone on the train the tattoos they hadn't seen and began pulling up his sleeves, his shirt in the front and the back, his pants legs and anything else that needed to be moved to show off his artwork and shouting, "Oh?  Tattoos?  You want tattoos?  How about this one?  Or this one?  Or maybe this one here?  And there's one here!"

Meanwhile, zombie and friends are still screeching away in the background.  There's a lot of, "It's just for fun!" and "Chill out!" and, my personal favorite, "It's a free country, isn't it?"  I'm going to interject something else here -- I hatehatehatehate when people use "It's a free country" to excuse their obnoxiousness.  Yes, this is, to an extent, a free country.  However, a great founding father once said something like, "The right to swing my fist ends where another man's nose begins."  I'd like to extend that a bit and say, "The right to act like a raging idiot ends where someone else's peaceful evening with friends begins."  Can I get an amen?

By this time, the tweens had become very emboldened by their zombie aggressors and started shouting things like, "Asshole", "Dildo" and "Penis wrinkle."  Yep, you got that right.  A bunch of junior high kids using a bunch of words that they'd most likely never use in front of their parents and probably aren't entirely certain of said words' meanings.

About that time 30-something zombie gets tired of yelling at Paul to sit down (because he was still standing in the aisle, dumb-founded) and begins saying things like, "You know what?  I'm a bitch.  Yup, I'm a bitch and I'm proud of it."  Well, at least she's right about that, huh?  And then, the best line of the night: "You have ruined my spirit! Ruined it!  Are you happy now? Ruined my spiiiiiiriiiiiiit!!!"

I guess her ruined spirit took the fun out of screaming at a perfectly normal, polite person because they began to wander off then, while muttering more obscenities and insults to our collective intelligence and parentage.  Two stops later we had to get off the train for our destination and as we disembarked we got another earful of "Penis wrinkle."

We spent the rest of the evening telling each other how ruined our spirits were.  And we've all had several good laughs about the situation since then.  But holy cow.  Ridiculous over-reaction much?

Sustainable Food

I'm so excited!  It's Thursday.  And it's an "other" Thursday!  That means it's my day to get a big box of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables delivered to my doorstep.  I wait for this day every other week like it's my birthday or Thanksgiving or something.

I was recently directed to this service, Door to Door Organics, by someone on a message board.  It's a service that brings food to you, for a fee, of course.  Some of it is local and some is not.  All of it is organic.  I clicked on the link thinking, "There's no way they'll be delivering in my area. And if they are, I'm sure it's not affordable." But I was wrong on both counts. Yay for being wrong!

I started out ordering the smallest box available in my area because I wasn't sure what to expect.  Then Paul and I decided to go in on a larger box together.  There's enough in the bigger box to last both of our households for 2 weeks until we get another box.  I have had to supplement occasionally with a few store bought carrots or broccoli because we're always running out of those things.  I also bought grapes last week because Miriam and Samuel have been begging for some and we haven't had any in our boxes.  But for the most part, this is how we get our produce.

Several months ago Paul and I bought 1/8 of a locally raised, humanely slaughtered Longhorn.  We anticipated eating that beef for a long time but the animal wasn't as large as we expected and my meat was gone pretty quickly.  Paul and Cole, who consume considerably less red meat than we do at my house, just finished off their portion last week. Now, in January we are going to buy 1/4 of a Black Angus bull.  It's been grass-fed up to now and will be for a few more weeks.  The last few weeks of its life it will be fed organic grain.  We're okay with that because the guy can assure us it has been given no antibiotics or hormones.

So between the beef and the organic fruit and veggie box, we're getting a large percentage of our food from sustainable sources.  Love it!

And for your viewing pleasure, an apple we got in our first organic box.  It actually had a living worm in it!  Do you see it?  It's the white-ish, wormy looking thing coming out of the seed pod.  The kids didn't believe that actually happened.  We gently transferred the worm to a pot of dirt on the patio and then ate the apple.

In a Blogging Mood

I'm in the mood to write.  My house is clean, the laundry is (mostly) done.  (There's a large basket that needs folding but I'm going to ignore that.) A really funny episode of The Office is on.  I lit approximately 17 candles around the house and they smell incredible.  I have a glass of decent merlot at my hand. There's a formerly happy chicken defrosting in my kitchen; it'll soon be roasted and made into chicken pot pie.  It's fall and I'm fortunate to have a comfortable, warm, well-stocked home.  For some reason I feel the need to describe all of this to you.

Also:

• Solomon lost a tooth today.  It's the first tooth he's lost in at least 2 years.  I know he hasn't lost one since we moved to Colorado.  I told him that he should check under his pillow tomorrow for the Tooth Fairy's prize.  He said, "Can you just give me the money now?  Like you're buying my tooth?"  So I did.  And I laughed heartily.
• I took Solomon to the doctor today because he's had increasingly worse heel pain in the last few days.  Instead of being something worrisome, it's just inflammation that happens sometimes in kids who are growing and healthy and active.  He should be fine in a couple of weeks.  I'm grateful for all of this.
• I'm taking the Spanish placement test tomorrow so I can register for not-Spanish I next week.
• I bought lots of bulk spices today for less than $1.00.  Total.  Not each.  Total.
• I saw my endo today for a post-op appointment.  Everything is good.  Assuming my thyroid panel is all normal I'll see her again in 6 months and if the thyroid panel then is all normal and if I never have any weird thyroid symptoms, I'll never see her again.  She's a nice person and all but this makes me happy.  She said I was her easiest patient all day.

And that's all for now.  I should probably have made some of these items separate blog posts but I didn't.  That's how I roll.  I reserve the right to elaborate upon any, all or none of these items in the future.  That's also how I roll.  (You know, until now I didn't know I 'rolled' at all.  That just came out of no where.  Apparently I roll that way, too.)

Poor Little Buddy

Samuel has recently become engrossed in a game called Spore.  I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's similar to TheSims in that you create a being and live as that being until you die.  In Spore, the main difference is that you also evolve.  Your character begins life as a single-celled organism that moves about eating other organisms and growing appendages and adapting to its watery surroundings until it can live on land with the other legged creatures.

Well, Samuel began a civilization a few weeks before the kids left for their fall break.  Tonight he went back to his saved game and continued playing for a while.  When he and I went into the bathroom to work on his teeth cleaning routine he told me that his character's buddy had died.  His little creature was living in a nest with another similar creature and the two of them went off to conquer a band of other creatures.  During the fighting his buddy was mortally wounded.  He seemed a little sad when he told me this but he quickly rebounded and said, "It's okay, though.  I'll find another buddy," and that was that.  Conversation moved on.

About 20 minutes ago Solomon came to me and said that Samuel was in bed, crying.  I went to find out what was wrong.  He was sobbing really hard and couldn't talk.  I asked a bunch of questions and finally surmised that he was crying over the loss of his creature's buddy.  Poor little dude.  I feel so bad for him.  And at the same time I can't help giggling a little to myself because it's kind of silly, too, you know?

Also, it reminded me of my own brush with virtual mortality.

When I Grow Up ...

Around the dinner table tonight, we got on the topic of future plans for making a living.  It comes up every once in a while and I'm always interested to hear what the kids have sprouting in their imaginations.  Miriam said she wants to be a teacher, probably an art teacher.  Samuel wants to be an artist or an inventor.  Solomon wants to be a scientist or a veterinarian or an astronaut or something else that I can't remember at the moment.  That boy thinks big, and I do mean BIG.

I don't know if I gave enough thought to the "When I grow up ..." stuff when I was a kid and I want to encourage my children to think about it a lot. I want them to feel confident that they can do whatever they want to do.  I want them to explore different ideas and dreams.  I want them to pick the most satisfying and fulfilling one they can.  I want them to know that it's going to be difficult, that it will take a lot of hard work and discipline and determination. I don't want that to be a surprise to them.

I'm glad they're seeing me in school. I hope to be an inspiration to them in their future endeavors. I also want to be an example of how not to do things: for example, finish school before you move on to having children. Because both things are very hard to do, but they're exponentially more difficult when you're doing them both at the same time.

When I grow up, I'm going to have raise 3 amazing human beings.