I am not a morning person
So why do I keep waking up so damn early in the morning? On my day off! *sigh* I guess there's some good from getting up so early, you can get a lot done just by default. That is if I can pry my ass off the chair from in front of the computer, which luckily I've been doing on and off today.
I lay in bed and read until the slothful hour of 8 am then got up and had a very unhealthy breakfast and watched some cooking shows. I washed up the few dishes, paid my bills, read some fic, watched a couple of shows I missed, did my laundry, made fresh hummingbird nectar and watched the newest season of Hummingbird Wars! BTW? I do have a little male who comes and visits the feeder now. I wasn't sure earlier, I thought maybe the red throat was a reflection from the feeder, but he's the little Peeping Tom who routinely hovers in front of the sliding glass door peering in at me. So cute!
Unlike my unhealthy breakfast I had a healthy lunch of a Chicken Caesar Wrap with a low carb, whole wheat tortilla (yeah I know, sounds like cardboard but is actually quite tasty), leftover rotisserie chicken, Romaine lettuce and Caesar dressing. Delicious! Uh, and chocolate ice cream for dessert.
I pitted and chopped up my big bag of apricots and they're bubbling away on the stove smelling absolutely fantastic. My apricot butter never tastes the same twice because I don't follow a recipe. I just use whatever looks good at the moment. This time, besides the apricots there's some sweet white wine (that's pretty common), a splash of sweet sherry, Splenda (because it's inexpensive) but with some xylitol (a sugar alcohol that's neither sugar not alcohol but has half the calories of sugar), about a 1/4 c of brown sugar, a little sugar free vanilla syrup, freshly grated nutmeg and cinnamon. Oh, and water. I always misjudge how much water to put in it and it winds up watery and I have to simmer it down to a thicker consistency. I've already hit it with the immersion blender and I'm not going to have to strain it because it's already velvety and smooth. It's sweet with a hint of vanilla yet still tart and a little spicy. Absolutely scrumptious!
I'm determined to regularly share my favorite YouTube videos like the Canadian Wood Spider one in yesterday's post. So here's another one with a story.
Years ago I was the manager of House of Hezekiah, an herb, tea and natural living store that I'd visited for years before I worked there. We played CDs during business hours, an eclectic bunch but most the Putumayo music because we sold it in the shop. Everyone took turns being able to play their favorites and one of mine was Dublin to Dakar: A Celtic Odyssey, a compilation of artist and music showing the Celtic roots of a lot of music across the world. My favorite song, the one that always got my plus size ass shaking and bobbing around the store and lightened my mood no matter how bad it was Azwaw 2 by Cheb Mami, a native Algerian known as the 'Prince of Rӓi'. In Arabic 'rӓi' means opinion but it's also a popular music style that's the Algerian equivalent of rock 'n roll. It's often rebellious and filled with raunchy lyrics and party attitude. That's a paraphrase from the liner notes of the CD. *G*
Anyway, here's Cheb Mami (btw, he's the other singer in Sting's Desert Rose song) in concert singing Azwaw 2. I defy you to keep your body still.
BTW, anyone speak Arabic who can give me a translation of the lyrics?
I lay in bed and read until the slothful hour of 8 am then got up and had a very unhealthy breakfast and watched some cooking shows. I washed up the few dishes, paid my bills, read some fic, watched a couple of shows I missed, did my laundry, made fresh hummingbird nectar and watched the newest season of Hummingbird Wars! BTW? I do have a little male who comes and visits the feeder now. I wasn't sure earlier, I thought maybe the red throat was a reflection from the feeder, but he's the little Peeping Tom who routinely hovers in front of the sliding glass door peering in at me. So cute!
Unlike my unhealthy breakfast I had a healthy lunch of a Chicken Caesar Wrap with a low carb, whole wheat tortilla (yeah I know, sounds like cardboard but is actually quite tasty), leftover rotisserie chicken, Romaine lettuce and Caesar dressing. Delicious! Uh, and chocolate ice cream for dessert.
I pitted and chopped up my big bag of apricots and they're bubbling away on the stove smelling absolutely fantastic. My apricot butter never tastes the same twice because I don't follow a recipe. I just use whatever looks good at the moment. This time, besides the apricots there's some sweet white wine (that's pretty common), a splash of sweet sherry, Splenda (because it's inexpensive) but with some xylitol (a sugar alcohol that's neither sugar not alcohol but has half the calories of sugar), about a 1/4 c of brown sugar, a little sugar free vanilla syrup, freshly grated nutmeg and cinnamon. Oh, and water. I always misjudge how much water to put in it and it winds up watery and I have to simmer it down to a thicker consistency. I've already hit it with the immersion blender and I'm not going to have to strain it because it's already velvety and smooth. It's sweet with a hint of vanilla yet still tart and a little spicy. Absolutely scrumptious!
I'm determined to regularly share my favorite YouTube videos like the Canadian Wood Spider one in yesterday's post. So here's another one with a story.
Years ago I was the manager of House of Hezekiah, an herb, tea and natural living store that I'd visited for years before I worked there. We played CDs during business hours, an eclectic bunch but most the Putumayo music because we sold it in the shop. Everyone took turns being able to play their favorites and one of mine was Dublin to Dakar: A Celtic Odyssey, a compilation of artist and music showing the Celtic roots of a lot of music across the world. My favorite song, the one that always got my plus size ass shaking and bobbing around the store and lightened my mood no matter how bad it was Azwaw 2 by Cheb Mami, a native Algerian known as the 'Prince of Rӓi'. In Arabic 'rӓi' means opinion but it's also a popular music style that's the Algerian equivalent of rock 'n roll. It's often rebellious and filled with raunchy lyrics and party attitude. That's a paraphrase from the liner notes of the CD. *G*
Anyway, here's Cheb Mami (btw, he's the other singer in Sting's Desert Rose song) in concert singing Azwaw 2. I defy you to keep your body still.
BTW, anyone speak Arabic who can give me a translation of the lyrics?
Click to view