From scratch

To answer everyone's inquiries:

Jen - It's a KitchenAid mixer. It is teh sex, I assure you. It's all shiny and nice. I'd like recipes for lighter things, or things with fruit since it's summer. We have an open produce market, and I'd love to take advantage of some of the produce.

Naomi - My email is indigojones@blazemail.com. Any links you could send me would be great!

Debra - Ooh, allrecipes.com looks good. I like that they're from people, not a company. The directions look really complete.

Tonight I made a vanilla cream pie. I had forgotten how much I like cooking from scratch. When I worked at the museum we'd usually get our recipe assignments in the morning, along with a container of milk that had been taken from our cows that morning, or directions to pull some veggies from the garden. It was very satisfying.

Last weekend I made a cake for Mike's birthday. It had been a long time since I'd baked anything so I used a box mix so I wouldn't screw anything up. It wasn't nearly as satisfying as mixing everything up by myself. There's a sense of accomplishment when you see the finish product, too.

I'll make my bread later tonight or tomorrow. I might want to do it before Mike gets home tonight - I have a hunch he'll be more likely to eat it if he doesn't see what goes into it.

Stand Mixer

Every day Mike is engaged in some creative pursuit. Five evenings a week he spends time in his office writing. His calendar is filling up with band practices and shows that they're scheduled to play. Frequently when he watches TV he brings out modeling clay to work with or a wooden structure to paint. It seems that not a day goes by when he isn't making something new.

I, on the other hand, am at the opposite end of the spectrum. The extent of my creativity on any given day is trying to imagine what the Maury Povich show might be like so I can decide if it's worth changing the channel. I hit a high point in my creativity today when I thought of a way to use some leftovers that might convince Mike that it's a brand new meal and not just chicken that I've had forever.

Today though, all that's gonna change. Today, I've decided on the outlet for my creativity.

I'm gonna bake stuff.

See, today I got an early shower gift from Mike's parents...a fancy stand mixer. I've been wanting a stand mixer for a long time, although I felt slightly guilty about it. After all, I rarely bake. Up until recently though it wasn't out of any desire not to bake*...it was for the following reasons:

1. I didn't have any cookbooks

2. Although I was rapidly accruing the basic kitchen supplies I was still missing a few essentials, such as cake pans and cookie sheets

3. I could never eat all of my own baking before it went stale

Now I have a cookbook and someone who will eat the things I bake (or at least pawn it off on friends). And I also have a stand mixer. My first project will be on Sunday when I construct...BREAD!

Oh relax. If I can bake bread in a cast-iron stove or brick oven, I can make it in my kitchen here.

Also, if you have any favorite recipe websites, I'd love a link. Because this is not going to be like the time I tried to learn harmonica, or the time I was using a peg-square to weave an afghan, or the time I thought I could put myself through college by painting furniture. This is for real.



* I enjoy baking, but dislike cooking. I don't know why.

I <3 eBay

Recently it came to my attention that not everybody uses eBay. I used to be one of you. I didn't understand how to place bids or use PayPal to pay for my purchases. The thrill of winning an auction was foreign to me, and it had never crossed my mind that I'd someday be refreshing the My eBay page over and over until I was sure that I'd won. But one glorious day, all that changed when I saw a Tom Petty poster that was too good to pass up. I didn't win the poster, but a whole new world of online rummaging was opened up to me.

I've used eBay to get a few different hard-to-find items, such as a pack of Pokemon games or an exact replacement for Mike's old camera. But since I've gotten engaged eBay has become a lifesaver twice now. The first time was when I decided that it was stupid to go to the bridal shop and pay their exorbitant fees for a headpiece. The veil alone - just a strip of tulle and a plastic comb - cost around $100, and actual tiaras were even pricier, around $150 without the veil. I found my headpiece on eBay for a mere $15. The second time I scored an excellent eBay deal was recently when I needed some bridal jewelry.

Now, originally I had planned to either use my mom's pearls or take my friend Meghan up on her offer to raid her costume jewelry box, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted something of my own to serve as a keepsake. Of course, I'm way too cheap to actually invest in a fine piece of jewelry to commemorate this occasion. Just get me something big and sparkly from the 'Bay!

This is one of my greatest triumphs so far. I paid a mere $1.87 for this pendant, complete with genuine rubies and diamonds.

Okay, genuine lab-created rubies and diamonds. But what do you expect for $1.87?



My friends are already teasing me about the creative money-saving measures I'm taking for this wedding, but I don't care. You can't help but pity those who are so unenlightened about eBay.

Making Friends

Mike has expressed the desire for me to actually exit the apartment and make friends.

Actually, I shouldn’t pin it all on him. I’ve been bitching quite a bit about not knowing anybody in the city, and last night he gently suggested that if it bothers me so much, I should start taking steps to meet people. I began getting stubborn almost immediately. What would he know about it, I thought. He’s lived in Milwaukee County his entire life. He’s never had to move to a strange city and start all over. He’s had most of his friends for years. He doesn’t understand.

However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he had a point. My friends are awesome and I love them, but my nearest friend lives about 45 minutes away and my family lives even farther. I definitely missed having someone local to hang around with. Plus it wasn’t unreasonable to expect me to make a few acquaintances around Milwaukee.

But how? Have any of you tried to make friends as a non-college-student adult? It’s impossible! Especially when you have no hobbies, no friendly neighbors, no time to take classes, a volunteering position that really doesn’t provide social interaction, and a job in another state. I’ve become convinced that people have children just so they can talk to someone other than their spouse from time to time.

So last night I was perusing meetup.com in hopes of finding a group I could hook up with. Even if I didn’t make any good friends it would at least get me out of the house every once in awhile. Unfortunately it was not a productive plan.

Let’s see…Southeastern Wisconsin Paranormal group? Nah, we’d probably just sit in someone’s basement watching X-Files reruns. Big Beautiful Women group? No, I get told all day by the media that I’m not thin enough, it’ll just confuse me if another group turns me down for not being curvy enough. Crossdresser and Transvestite group? No, I don’t want to be in a group where everyone is prettier than me. Vegan group? No, I love the meat, I can’t cut myself off. I wonder if I could be a spy for the Democratic Meet-up group and infiltrate the Republican Meet-up group? Nah, my life is complicated enough already. Animal Rights? No, they may get angry when they find out I’m holding four cats prisoner.

I brightened when I saw a group for Furries. I know a lot about Furry! I thought. I bet I could fake it! Then I realized that I was about to start being a poser for the sake of hanging out with furries. Where has my life gone? <>

In the end I just gave it up and decided to try something else. Like having imaginary friends.

Oh, just kidding. I won’t resort to that unless I find out I can’t have kids.

Walking

Mike has to dress up tomorrow, and lately we've been discovering that his supply of dress clothes that actually go together is running low. I'm amused by this because he always dresses up for his band shows (you can see a picture of how they dress up here), but I guess he mostly wears short-sleeved shirts while playing. Since it's work he's dressing up for tomorrow it would be nice for him to have a shirt that would hide his tattoos. So I told him that today I'd pick up a long-sleeved dress shirt while he's at work.

I wanted to go to the Grand Avenue Mall downtown, but I couldn't remember where to park. Ashley showed me once, but I forgot. Instead of paying for a spot in a parking garage I decided to walk. It would be a round trip of a little over three and a half miles, and I figured it would make good exercise.

I also had another reason for walking instead of driving - I've been having a tough time adjusting to living in Milwaukee. It's so big that I can't get my bearings, and there are bad neighborhoods within the city. Unfortunately they're scattered around I don't know where they are, so I've been pretty much stuck within the familiar three-block radius of the apartment unless Mike comes with me to tell me where to go that's safe. Not being able to get out and do things by myself has made me exceedingly cranky, and I've been snapping at Mike more lately and becoming kind of a control freak about the things I can do, such as keeping the apartment clean. Walking cures that. On Saturday night I walked all the way to the bookstore where Mike works at 9 PM at night, and it made me feel very free and happy. I figured another excursion would have the same affect. So this morning I strapped my mp3 player to my bicep, put on my most comfortable sandals, and headed out to the mall.

After walking a few blocks I realized that I hadn't brought my camera, which I regretted. There are so many things you see while on foot that you never notice when driving. I stopped admire the slightly melancholy air of the old, empty factory buildings, and the stubborn beauty of a wild chicory plant growing around a chain-link fence. The morning thunderstorms had given way to bright sunlight, and the air was hot. It was a beautiful day.

I got to the mall and hit up Old Navy's clearance aisle as well as TJ Maxx, which had surprisingly good men's dress clothes. I think you have to plow through a whole lot of gaudy to find anything good in the women's section, but men's shirts are fairly generic and safe. Plus, they had boxes with dress shirts that come with matching ties! What will they think of next?

I started to make my way back home, and realized that my feet were beginning to hurt. I probably should have worn sneakers instead of sandals, but it didn't occur to me until it was too late. On the way home I stopped three times to rest my achy feet. By the time I got home my feet were throbbing, I had a stitch in my side from climbing that last hill, and my shoulders were sore from toting the bag. It only added insult to injury when I hopped on the computer and learned that my 3.5 mile trek had burned only 155 calories. Curses!

Despite the tiredness though, it was a good walk.

In other news, I don't think that I would have eaten Planter's peanuts prior to 1962, because up until then their mascot was nothing short of terrifying. Check it out and just tell me I'm wrong. That little peanut was the stuff of nightmares.

Re-surveyed

I think I did this survey once before, in my old Diary-X blog. But I liked it then, so I'm doing it again.

1: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:

There’s too many books in here to decide which is closest to me. In this room alone we have four, six-foot-tall bookcases crammed full of all kinds of books.

2: Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?:

The living room wall, which is about two inches from my shoulder. Not much of a stretch.

3: What is the last thing you watched on TV?:

Law & Order: SVU. I *heart* SVU. Someone once told me they didn’t like it because people kept getting raped, and it was so seedy to think about rape all the time. I somewhat agreed, until I realized that in the other L&O versions, people DIE. That’s gotta be worse.

4: WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what the time is:

8:45 AM

5: Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?:

8:35 AM. Curses!

6: With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?:

The ceiling fan, the cats licking. The sound of one hand clapping. Philosophical, I know.

7: When did you last step outside? What were you doing?:

The last time I was outside was at about 11PM last night, when I took a box outside and put it near the trash.

9: What are you wearing?:

A bathrobe. Hey, it’s still morning!

10: Did you dream last night?

Yes, I dreamed that people were giving me marriage advice. Someone told me that I should always wake up before Mike, otherwise he wouldn’t respect me.

11: When did you last laugh?

This morning, when Mike hit the snooze alarm and sang, “I’m gonna sleep innnnnn for ten more minnnuteees.”

12: What is on the walls of the room you are in?:

Photos taken by me, my friends, and my sister. My beloved Harald Sohlberg prints. Two framed posters. Shelves that Mike installed. A silver cross. Lots of bookshelves.

13: Seen anything weird lately?:

Yesterday Edison learned how to balance upright while sitting. He looked just like a meerkat.

14: What do you think of this quiz?:

Lovely!

15: What is the last film you saw?:

Clerks II. I highly recommend it if you liked the first Clerks.

16: If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?:

I wouldn’t buy anything – first I’d gleefully pay off my student loans.

17: Tell me something about you that I don't know:

I’m not double-jointed. Yeah, I know you had your suspicions, but you were never sure, admit it.

18: If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?:

World peace. Duh.

19: Do you like to dance?:

When I’m alone or drunk.

20: George Bush.

Hate him.

21: Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?:

An accident. Oh, just kidding. Maybe Bernadette, or Catherine?

21: Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?:

I like boys’ names better. I like Augustine, Isaac, Isaiah, and Tobias. Lately I’ve been growing fonder and fonder of Philo (pronounced with a long i and a long o).

22: Would you ever consider living abroad

It depends on why I was living abroad.

23: Will you pass on this survey?:

Nevarrr!

Less than three! Less than three!

Happy birthday, Mike!