best-laid plans
Behind the cut is the update I was writing this afternoon before I got "The Call" from daycare. It basically talks about what we did this weekend (not much) and what I've been cooking and reading lately.
Yeah, so Friday's Red Sox game was pretty much teh suck, but it was still nice to be out and be at Fenway, especially for Big Papi's triumphant return from the disabled list. (Well, triumphant in terms of the reception he got, anyway. Going 0-for-4 wasn't very triumphant, I guess.)
We had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday we had a very slow lazy morning, then met grandma for lunch, napped at grandma's house, then went home. Grandma went to pick up Baz and brought him over to our place, and we ordered pizza, which none of the kids ate because we took it out in the back yard and they were too busy playing.
On Sunday we went to Target to buy a new lunchbox for Isaac, as well as some more underwear for both kids (more on that later) and other misc stuff. Well, you know how it is with Target! You say "I'm just going to pick up a lunchbox" and next thing you know you've spent $60. Oh well.
Isaac chose a Spiderman lunch box, which means he won't be able to use it until he starts kindergarten, because his preschool doesn't allow "violent characters" (insert massive rolling of eyes here). Ruthie, of course, decided that she wanted a new lunchbox too -- a "pink kitty" one (Hello Kitty) -- and was very sad to not get one. But well, the one she has is less than a year old and still in fine shape, whereas Isaac's is more than two years old and very battered and icky inside. (It has a zillion nooks and crannies that I find very difficult to clean.)
After Target we went home and napped, then I took the kids to grandma's house again and did some grocery shopping. Also yesterday I learned that bread rises extremely well in a hot car on a hot humid day. ;) I made two loaves of bread, which I really enjoyed after not having made bread in several weeks. I hadn't realized how much I was missing it! I'm also enjoying this new device, which I scored off freecycle, that helps you slice bread. It's like a little box thingie with guide slots for the knife so that you get nice even slices. Hey, it's the little things in life, people.
Speaking of things I've been cooking, I have two new recipes to add to my list, both of which were variations on "how can I make tofu flavorful with very short lead time" and both used basically the same ingredients, but very different techniques so they both count as new recipes for me. The first time, I tried crumbling up the tofu and mixing the curry paste directly into it, then fried/sauteed it in a pan along with veggies. Didn't work too well; the tofu still wasn't flavorful enough and the texture was unsatisfying. The second time, I soaked the tofu first in a mixture of milk and curry paste, then poured out the liquid and used it to cook the veggies, then added the tofu in. I thought that would get the slightly crispy edges on the tofu like when you fry it dry, but also with the flavor of the marinade; didn't really work that way. It was bland-tasting and still soft. Oh well.
In both of those, I used veggies from our farm share: onions, carrots, zucchini, green beans, scallions!! woohoo for the farm share!
In reading news, I did a quick re-read of Wildside by Steven Gould. He's the same guy who wrote Jumper, which I have raved about here before; and Wildside is somewhat similar, but instead of being about a teenage boy who has magical powers, it's about a teenage boy who discovers a gateway to an alternate earth. Except, that makes it sounds all hokey and stuff, which it isn't. It's really an excellent book, highly recommended.
And now I'm reading Blue Shoes and Happiness, the next in the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.
And that's how far I had gotten when Ruthie's daycare called to tell me that she had a 102 fever. Not entirely unexpected, since she had been very runny-nosed for a day or so, and actually we were all very late for school/work this morning because I let her sleep in. She was all wheezy and snore-y from congestion. Anyway, so I went and picked her up, and we had to go past Isaac's preschool to get our car, and I was just going to get the car and go home for an hour (it was 4:15) but Ruthie got all upset, "Pick up my bwuh-zoo [brother]!! I'm-a play wif him!" so whatever, we picked him up too.
Then we went home and both kids were totally bouncing off the walls and I was disgruntled. The way I see it, if a kid's going to make me leave work early and disrupt my whole day, she could at least have the decency to act sick. ;P Also we discovered that the cat had barfed up a hairball on Ruthie's bed, which made quite an impression. She followed him around for a bit going "Don't! Throw! Up! Oday? Oday! Don't!"
And later there was the adventure with the mouse. But this post is already long enough so I'll save that for another post.
In any case, since the daycare has that frickin' 24-hour rule, I can't bring Ruthie back there tomorrow, so I'll have to take the day off. And I just know she's going to be totally chipper and fine and not sick at all, and she'll run me ragged. urgh!
Yeah, so Friday's Red Sox game was pretty much teh suck, but it was still nice to be out and be at Fenway, especially for Big Papi's triumphant return from the disabled list. (Well, triumphant in terms of the reception he got, anyway. Going 0-for-4 wasn't very triumphant, I guess.)
We had a pretty good weekend. On Saturday we had a very slow lazy morning, then met grandma for lunch, napped at grandma's house, then went home. Grandma went to pick up Baz and brought him over to our place, and we ordered pizza, which none of the kids ate because we took it out in the back yard and they were too busy playing.
On Sunday we went to Target to buy a new lunchbox for Isaac, as well as some more underwear for both kids (more on that later) and other misc stuff. Well, you know how it is with Target! You say "I'm just going to pick up a lunchbox" and next thing you know you've spent $60. Oh well.
Isaac chose a Spiderman lunch box, which means he won't be able to use it until he starts kindergarten, because his preschool doesn't allow "violent characters" (insert massive rolling of eyes here). Ruthie, of course, decided that she wanted a new lunchbox too -- a "pink kitty" one (Hello Kitty) -- and was very sad to not get one. But well, the one she has is less than a year old and still in fine shape, whereas Isaac's is more than two years old and very battered and icky inside. (It has a zillion nooks and crannies that I find very difficult to clean.)
After Target we went home and napped, then I took the kids to grandma's house again and did some grocery shopping. Also yesterday I learned that bread rises extremely well in a hot car on a hot humid day. ;) I made two loaves of bread, which I really enjoyed after not having made bread in several weeks. I hadn't realized how much I was missing it! I'm also enjoying this new device, which I scored off freecycle, that helps you slice bread. It's like a little box thingie with guide slots for the knife so that you get nice even slices. Hey, it's the little things in life, people.
Speaking of things I've been cooking, I have two new recipes to add to my list, both of which were variations on "how can I make tofu flavorful with very short lead time" and both used basically the same ingredients, but very different techniques so they both count as new recipes for me. The first time, I tried crumbling up the tofu and mixing the curry paste directly into it, then fried/sauteed it in a pan along with veggies. Didn't work too well; the tofu still wasn't flavorful enough and the texture was unsatisfying. The second time, I soaked the tofu first in a mixture of milk and curry paste, then poured out the liquid and used it to cook the veggies, then added the tofu in. I thought that would get the slightly crispy edges on the tofu like when you fry it dry, but also with the flavor of the marinade; didn't really work that way. It was bland-tasting and still soft. Oh well.
In both of those, I used veggies from our farm share: onions, carrots, zucchini, green beans, scallions!! woohoo for the farm share!
In reading news, I did a quick re-read of Wildside by Steven Gould. He's the same guy who wrote Jumper, which I have raved about here before; and Wildside is somewhat similar, but instead of being about a teenage boy who has magical powers, it's about a teenage boy who discovers a gateway to an alternate earth. Except, that makes it sounds all hokey and stuff, which it isn't. It's really an excellent book, highly recommended.
And now I'm reading Blue Shoes and Happiness, the next in the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.
And that's how far I had gotten when Ruthie's daycare called to tell me that she had a 102 fever. Not entirely unexpected, since she had been very runny-nosed for a day or so, and actually we were all very late for school/work this morning because I let her sleep in. She was all wheezy and snore-y from congestion. Anyway, so I went and picked her up, and we had to go past Isaac's preschool to get our car, and I was just going to get the car and go home for an hour (it was 4:15) but Ruthie got all upset, "Pick up my bwuh-zoo [brother]!! I'm-a play wif him!" so whatever, we picked him up too.
Then we went home and both kids were totally bouncing off the walls and I was disgruntled. The way I see it, if a kid's going to make me leave work early and disrupt my whole day, she could at least have the decency to act sick. ;P Also we discovered that the cat had barfed up a hairball on Ruthie's bed, which made quite an impression. She followed him around for a bit going "Don't! Throw! Up! Oday? Oday! Don't!"
And later there was the adventure with the mouse. But this post is already long enough so I'll save that for another post.
In any case, since the daycare has that frickin' 24-hour rule, I can't bring Ruthie back there tomorrow, so I'll have to take the day off. And I just know she's going to be totally chipper and fine and not sick at all, and she'll run me ragged. urgh!