Randomnity: Because sometimes I feel like I have tentacles, or could very much use some
I'm having the strangest sleeping disorder I've ever been known to have. I fall asleep without too much difficulty. I don't recall waking often or tossing and turning through the night. But I wake up feeling completely exhausted. I have no idea what's wrong with me, but I have a theory involving running marathons in my sleep.
More food porn, because I'm starting to feel inspired to cook again: last night we had a Thai feast. Yeah, that's more like it! I get a little sick of making curry every time I want Thai food. So, Chris and I tag-teamed four recipes from Quick and Easy Thai, including marinaded broiled fish, 2 sauces, Thai fried rice and spring rolls (the cold ones in rice paper). It was a lot to put together and took us about an hour and a half to get everything done. But it totally hit the spot! I felt so satisfied with how everything turned out. I didn't realize it until I was eating, but it was just what I wanted. We made a sweet chili-garlic sauce for dipping spring rolls (and because I like to always have some on hand). I steamed shrimp, soaked rice stick noodles and we both chopped cilantro, mint, lettuce and green onions to put in edible rice paper wrappers for the cold spring rolls (which were so refreshing I have no idea why I don't make these on a weekly basis in the summer). Chris made the fried rice and I handled the marinade and broiling the tilapia (because I wasn't in the mood for sub-freezing grilling). Chris also handled making the accompanying sauce for the fish. Everything came out just right, though I think next time I'll leave the lettuce out of the spring rolls and replace it with fresh basil and the rice could have used some shredded carrot for a little extra color. What's more, everything was just beautiful on the plate! I love it when that happens. Maybe I'll take pics when we do the leftovers. Also, I've never used tilapia for this recipe, usually salmon or tuna. But it turned out fantastic! And now I'm hungry.
It's cold again and I suddenly feel like writing again. Fortunately, I think I've slid into a nice comfortable cynicism instead of what I would call depression. I took last week off of writing because, honestly, what I was putting out towards the end of the week before felt pushed out. I felt kind of like when you squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube and I don't like feeling like personal hygiene products, dental or otherwise. But, last night something else hit which is kind of in the middle of what I'd consider the second book. Then this morning, another idea came to stretch out the main conflict and not have it resolved until a third book, while a new yet related conflict came into view as a possibility for the second book. So, I might jot those ideas down real quick while they're around, then get back to the organizing and decluttering I've started this week.
I finally read the supposedly leaked Eclipse script the other day. I'm not sure what will constitute a spoiler here, so, whatever, skip the rest of this paragraph if that concerns you. I wanted a good laugh and it did NOT disappoint. I was already laughing out loud just one scene into it! Ah, the most ridiculous things are said in the Meadow Of Great Sparkle. I really have to wonder sometimes if the film makers are totally making fun of the whole thing. There seriously are some hilarious, yet subtle tongue-in-cheek jokes throughout the whole thing. Assuming this is the final rendition of the script and not too much gets changed in post production, I actually kind of like how they do the battle scene in respect to Edward's point of view of it (seeing it through Seth's connection to the wolf pack from a distance). The fight with Victoria and Riley seemed much shorter, which might be a good thing. It flowed better than it did in the book where it seemed needlessly drawn out. And, again, we begin and end the movie in the Meadow Of Great Sparkle, which seems contrived and unoriginal at this point. Also, I think anytime it's noted "off his/her look" that translates to "eye sex".
Had a very productive day around the house yesterday but being on my feet in not the best of ways really took its toll on my body. I'm telling you, Chris, we need cork floors in the kitchen! Rid me of this hard assed tile, please! My legs just ached last night as I tried to relax after dinner and even on into bed while I was trying to fall asleep.
We surprised Jonah with a trip to the circus last weekend. It was fun, but I think we'd do better for him just taking him to hockey games. When we got there, we asked what he thought we were going to see: "hockey game." When we left, I asked him if he liked the circus or hockey better: "HOCKEY!" Then I asked him what his favorite part of the circus was: "HOCKEY!" I think the kid likes hockey. Just a little.
I've also got a jewelry blog post simmering, inspired by work I did over the holidays. It seems I do my best work when I'm doing custom pieces with a specific person in mind. I don't just mean the design, but the work itself comes and I'm not sure how. It's not unlike the feeling I had when I was really cranking out lots of writing a couple of weeks ago. Very surreal and like it's not really in my hands, though it is absolutely of my hands, if that makes sense. It wasn't without complications. Late on Christmas Eve eve, I snapped a wire on a setting I was working on for a gift for someone. Luckily it was a gift from me not a commissioned piece, so I was able to just choose something from my existing inventory. As it turned out, they loved what they wound up with, so no harm, no foul. But I still have this nearly done broken setting (as in I was in the process of setting the cabochon into it when it broke). I think I can fix it, but not without soldering. I definitely don't want to scrap that much silver. I would be a very sad panda. I mean, I save all my scraps to one day either sell to a processor or for the likely event that I begin to do small scale castings and/or fabrication (melting down old scrap to make new sheet and wire). But still, I'd hate to scrap it.
Then there's gardening on my mind as well, though admittedly in a back burner sort of sense. I've got something like 10 weeks or so (depending on how the spring weather goes this year) until time to set out summer plants. Which means it's definitely time to sow seeds. I've got to clear my orchids out from where they are currently in order to have room for seed trays. Which means at the turn of the month, I'll be picking up a couple of plant stands to house 8 of them in the dining room again. That will just leave a few smaller plants here and there to relocate. I need to sit down and plan all this out. If I'm right about what I did last year, I should only need to reorder direct sow stuff, like zinnias and such. I also need to figure out if I'm relocating the raised vegetable beds this year which will probably depend on if we get the last section of fence replaced this spring. If I'm building new beds, that means I need to get some stuff like onion sets, garlic and seed potatoes (or just buy what I want from the store and cut them up myself) and things of that nature for the existing veggie bed. I also might sow a few rows of cilantro, parsley and scallions to have on hand all summer. If I'm not building new beds, it'll be business as usual, except I might skip the squash this year until I can figure out what's going wrong with them every year.
And last, but not least, I'm also thinking about sewing. Chris gave me a serger for Christmas and I feel really bad that I've not so much as removed it from the box yet. Truth be told, I'm kind of intimidated by it, as I was when I first got my sewing machine. But I know the only way to learn is to jump in and do it, so I'm just going to have to play with it. I'm excited to get started mocking up my first project of the year, which will be a bolero jacket for branflake's wedding dress made from the lace and fabric of her mother's wedding dress. It's a really cool concept and I'm going to have fun doing it. After that will be my bridesmaid's dress for the same event (in charcoal silk velvet). And that's going to be a really, REALLY fun project to work on (if not nerve-wracking, yes, bias cut silk velvet, yes, I chose my fabric, yes, masochist). After that, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I want Celeborn and Maleficent done this year, but we'll just have to see. Also, Elseworld Batgirl shouldn't take a ton of work to finish up, nor should POA Hermione. But above all else, the wedding stuff has to be done. Then I'll see what month it is.
More food porn, because I'm starting to feel inspired to cook again: last night we had a Thai feast. Yeah, that's more like it! I get a little sick of making curry every time I want Thai food. So, Chris and I tag-teamed four recipes from Quick and Easy Thai, including marinaded broiled fish, 2 sauces, Thai fried rice and spring rolls (the cold ones in rice paper). It was a lot to put together and took us about an hour and a half to get everything done. But it totally hit the spot! I felt so satisfied with how everything turned out. I didn't realize it until I was eating, but it was just what I wanted. We made a sweet chili-garlic sauce for dipping spring rolls (and because I like to always have some on hand). I steamed shrimp, soaked rice stick noodles and we both chopped cilantro, mint, lettuce and green onions to put in edible rice paper wrappers for the cold spring rolls (which were so refreshing I have no idea why I don't make these on a weekly basis in the summer). Chris made the fried rice and I handled the marinade and broiling the tilapia (because I wasn't in the mood for sub-freezing grilling). Chris also handled making the accompanying sauce for the fish. Everything came out just right, though I think next time I'll leave the lettuce out of the spring rolls and replace it with fresh basil and the rice could have used some shredded carrot for a little extra color. What's more, everything was just beautiful on the plate! I love it when that happens. Maybe I'll take pics when we do the leftovers. Also, I've never used tilapia for this recipe, usually salmon or tuna. But it turned out fantastic! And now I'm hungry.
It's cold again and I suddenly feel like writing again. Fortunately, I think I've slid into a nice comfortable cynicism instead of what I would call depression. I took last week off of writing because, honestly, what I was putting out towards the end of the week before felt pushed out. I felt kind of like when you squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube and I don't like feeling like personal hygiene products, dental or otherwise. But, last night something else hit which is kind of in the middle of what I'd consider the second book. Then this morning, another idea came to stretch out the main conflict and not have it resolved until a third book, while a new yet related conflict came into view as a possibility for the second book. So, I might jot those ideas down real quick while they're around, then get back to the organizing and decluttering I've started this week.
I finally read the supposedly leaked Eclipse script the other day. I'm not sure what will constitute a spoiler here, so, whatever, skip the rest of this paragraph if that concerns you. I wanted a good laugh and it did NOT disappoint. I was already laughing out loud just one scene into it! Ah, the most ridiculous things are said in the Meadow Of Great Sparkle. I really have to wonder sometimes if the film makers are totally making fun of the whole thing. There seriously are some hilarious, yet subtle tongue-in-cheek jokes throughout the whole thing. Assuming this is the final rendition of the script and not too much gets changed in post production, I actually kind of like how they do the battle scene in respect to Edward's point of view of it (seeing it through Seth's connection to the wolf pack from a distance). The fight with Victoria and Riley seemed much shorter, which might be a good thing. It flowed better than it did in the book where it seemed needlessly drawn out. And, again, we begin and end the movie in the Meadow Of Great Sparkle, which seems contrived and unoriginal at this point. Also, I think anytime it's noted "off his/her look" that translates to "eye sex".
Had a very productive day around the house yesterday but being on my feet in not the best of ways really took its toll on my body. I'm telling you, Chris, we need cork floors in the kitchen! Rid me of this hard assed tile, please! My legs just ached last night as I tried to relax after dinner and even on into bed while I was trying to fall asleep.
We surprised Jonah with a trip to the circus last weekend. It was fun, but I think we'd do better for him just taking him to hockey games. When we got there, we asked what he thought we were going to see: "hockey game." When we left, I asked him if he liked the circus or hockey better: "HOCKEY!" Then I asked him what his favorite part of the circus was: "HOCKEY!" I think the kid likes hockey. Just a little.
I've also got a jewelry blog post simmering, inspired by work I did over the holidays. It seems I do my best work when I'm doing custom pieces with a specific person in mind. I don't just mean the design, but the work itself comes and I'm not sure how. It's not unlike the feeling I had when I was really cranking out lots of writing a couple of weeks ago. Very surreal and like it's not really in my hands, though it is absolutely of my hands, if that makes sense. It wasn't without complications. Late on Christmas Eve eve, I snapped a wire on a setting I was working on for a gift for someone. Luckily it was a gift from me not a commissioned piece, so I was able to just choose something from my existing inventory. As it turned out, they loved what they wound up with, so no harm, no foul. But I still have this nearly done broken setting (as in I was in the process of setting the cabochon into it when it broke). I think I can fix it, but not without soldering. I definitely don't want to scrap that much silver. I would be a very sad panda. I mean, I save all my scraps to one day either sell to a processor or for the likely event that I begin to do small scale castings and/or fabrication (melting down old scrap to make new sheet and wire). But still, I'd hate to scrap it.
Then there's gardening on my mind as well, though admittedly in a back burner sort of sense. I've got something like 10 weeks or so (depending on how the spring weather goes this year) until time to set out summer plants. Which means it's definitely time to sow seeds. I've got to clear my orchids out from where they are currently in order to have room for seed trays. Which means at the turn of the month, I'll be picking up a couple of plant stands to house 8 of them in the dining room again. That will just leave a few smaller plants here and there to relocate. I need to sit down and plan all this out. If I'm right about what I did last year, I should only need to reorder direct sow stuff, like zinnias and such. I also need to figure out if I'm relocating the raised vegetable beds this year which will probably depend on if we get the last section of fence replaced this spring. If I'm building new beds, that means I need to get some stuff like onion sets, garlic and seed potatoes (or just buy what I want from the store and cut them up myself) and things of that nature for the existing veggie bed. I also might sow a few rows of cilantro, parsley and scallions to have on hand all summer. If I'm not building new beds, it'll be business as usual, except I might skip the squash this year until I can figure out what's going wrong with them every year.
And last, but not least, I'm also thinking about sewing. Chris gave me a serger for Christmas and I feel really bad that I've not so much as removed it from the box yet. Truth be told, I'm kind of intimidated by it, as I was when I first got my sewing machine. But I know the only way to learn is to jump in and do it, so I'm just going to have to play with it. I'm excited to get started mocking up my first project of the year, which will be a bolero jacket for branflake's wedding dress made from the lace and fabric of her mother's wedding dress. It's a really cool concept and I'm going to have fun doing it. After that will be my bridesmaid's dress for the same event (in charcoal silk velvet). And that's going to be a really, REALLY fun project to work on (if not nerve-wracking, yes, bias cut silk velvet, yes, I chose my fabric, yes, masochist). After that, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I want Celeborn and Maleficent done this year, but we'll just have to see. Also, Elseworld Batgirl shouldn't take a ton of work to finish up, nor should POA Hermione. But above all else, the wedding stuff has to be done. Then I'll see what month it is.