Oh dear!

Well, I suck at blogging regularly! I logged into to look at last year's resolutions and saw I haven't posted a dang thing since April. Perhaps this New Year I'll resolve to blog more often? It's a thought.

So here is last year's list:

1) Become pregnant.
2) Tone up!
3) Knit and crochet passably by year-end.
4) Can more often, one project per month.

And here is my report:

1) HA.
2) I didn't do too badly here! I've gained some muscle and I can also run farther and faster than before, so score.
3) I can knit okay but had a lot of trouble learning to crochet. I have box of cute crocheted animal projects gathering dust. :(
4) I rocked at this and actually got 13 projects done instead of only 12. I've been so pleased that I started a different blog specifically for preserving and have a long-term project in mind to feature local agricultural talent (I am in the bountiful Midwest after all), but I'm currently on the fence about whether to launch it. I'm not sure if I'll have time and even if I do, I should have some semblance of personal time with Eric. I don't know if I should be putting any more irons in the fire, so I'll have to think on it.

With all that said, here is 2011's resolutions list (For now-- it's not the end of the year quite yet).

1) Blog more often (forcing me to be more aware), either here or potentially the preserving blog.
2) Spend more time outdoors.
3) Let myself be less busy.
4) Relinquish expectations.

So this is probably my last post for 2010! What will your resolutions be?

One missed call

This post is about a story submission I sent to the Anything Ghost podcast. I listen to my friend Wayne's podcast, Worlds of Wayne, and Wayne and I have similar tastes that run toward the supernatural so when he interviewed Lex Wahl of Anything Ghost, I was all over that like zombies on brains. You can hear that episode here if you care to take a gander.

So I went and had a listen at Anything Ghost. On Lex's podcast, he reads stories of supernatural and weird experiences that people have every day. He also composes the creepy music. Awesome. Anyone who is a listener can email him their own story, or better yet, record it and send it to him. He likes when people can tell the story in their own voice. I do not have that option, so I just emailed him. You can hear my weird experience here on episode #112. I recommend listening to the whole episode because it's cuh-reepy, but if you really want, you can skip to my story beginning at minute 23:15. He mistakenly calls me Gina but I guess that's better than Jenny. :)

I have a whole list of stories, so I'm sure I'll be posting about this again!

March Project: Charoses-inspired jam

I was all set to make Meyer lemon marmalade when this post over at Food in Jars piqued my interest. What's charoses? It's Passover right now? Why haven't I heard this word before? It sounded tasty, the pretty "cha" pronounced like "challah."

My co-worker and friend Beth confirmed that charoses is a staple of the traditional Seder meal, a savory sweet dish composed of walnuts, chopped apples, cinnamon, wine and honey. It's meant to remind the faithful of the mortar between the bricks that the Jews had to lay while they were enslaved in Egypt.

I followed the recipe at Food in Jars pretty much exactly, and was quite pleased with the outcome: a chunky mix of fruits and nuts, not very sweet but not un-sweet either. Good if you're not much for really sweet stuff in the mornings, si? It was a little hard to spread on a piece of toast, but I think it's a pretty decent morning mouthful. I gave a jar to Beth and await her verdict with matzo crackers next week. As for me, I think it's a success!

I'm going to be an auntie!

So this has been on the super downlow for awhile, but now Melissa's showing so it's pretty much pointless to try to deny it. Can you imagine how that conversation would go?


"Hey! I didn't know you were pregnant, congrats! When are you due?"
"I'm not pregnant. You dillhole."
"...but you have a baby bump. Like right there."
"THAT is my STOMACH, you JERK. What, are you calling me chubby? You think it's cool to assume? OW!"
*bump moves*
"What was that?"
"The ba....my lunch kic....I have gas."

Awwkwaarrd. So now that that's settled, Meliseester had an ultrasound this morning where the sex of the baby was revealed!

TA DA!

If you'll look carefully at the picture, you'll see IT'S A BOT! Just what I've always wanted!! I have lots of knitting to do...gotta keep those steely joints warm. :D

This is what I plan to do with my life.

Some material borrowed from Sara at Sara's Organized Chaos and Nicole at More is Better. I like them and they have good ideas and I have high aspirations. 

1) Go sailboating
2) Go sea kayaking - DONE
3) Visit every Central American country (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras)
4) Write one book of short stories and one novel
5) Get over a fear of caves. Which means....go caving
6) Have two children, one sans epidural, one with
7) Adopt a third child from a poverty-stricken country
8) Make a quilt
9) Get naked on a nude beach
10) Drive the entire North American Pacific coast (Oregon)
11) Get a short play accepted to Shelterskelter and performed that season
12) Go on a summertime Alaskan cruise in and snuggle under the northern lights
13) Spend time on every continent
14) Get close to bison at Yellowstone National Park
15) Go snowshoeing
16) Spend the night in a real haunted house
17) Attend a religious service for at least four major religions (1. Catholic, 2. Unitarian- is that major?)
18) Own and live on a property in Central America near farms and beaches simultaneously
19) Hike though the rainforest to Macchu Picchu
20) Put at least my hand in ten of the world’s natural oceans or large bodies of water (1. Pacific Ocean, 2. Atlantic Ocean, 3. Gulf of Mexico, 4. South China Sea)
21) Learn to make pupusas from scratch
22) Enter a cooking contest
23) Bungee jump
24) Walk on a glacier
25) Buy something extravagant for our parents
26) Take a picture in the towns in which all four of my grandparents were born
27) Take a picture with a celebrity I genuinely care about. Lisa Loeb?!
28) Own and run a successful business
29) Take a train through beautiful countryside
30) Go to the Winter Olympics
31) See at least one World Cup game
32) Snorkel through the Great Barrier Reef
33) Teach a class or seminar
34) See SNL in person


More items may be added as I see fit. :)

What do mandarins and fish fries have in common?

Absolutely nothing.

Aside from being a touch time-consuming to peel all those little oranges, canning clementines was a neat little project. Inspired by Marisa's recipe over here at Food in Jars, I bought a five-pound box of clems at HyVee and set to work with Tracy Bonham and Laura Veirs to accompany me. I adjusted the simple syrup to one cup of sugar to six cups of water and that was plenty sweet-- next time I'll try paring it down even further to 3/4 cup, like Marisa did. All things considered, I was quite pleased with the result.

Five beautiful jars crammed full of mandarins! I gave one to my mother-in-law for her birthday and she must have liked them, because I got the jar back only a few weeks later. I gave another to Jason and Rebecca and they promptly invented a slew of cocktails in which to drop the little slices.

Verdict? SUCCESS. Whatever shall I make for March?

On Friday, I FINALLY got to attend one of my most favorite series of events of the year, the Holy Name Fish Fry. (That is a Facebook page and may not show.) This amazingness puts you through the ringer with a long-ass line and this year's trademark cold-ass weather matched only by the coldness of the beer, but the end result of a happy, heady buzz and crisp-hot, juicy fish are soooo worth it.

We go again this Friday!

I have more blog material but little time and have to hit the books....or book....and later tonight it will be a Sookie Stackhouse book. BUT FIRST THE OTHER BOOK. QUIT TEMPTING ME, SOOKIE!

UNO's voice of George Crumb

He sounds remarkably like my sister....





That's me taking pictures up front. I always get the best seats. :)

Snob Dog on a Toilet

Click here to visit one of my favorite blogs, Martinis or Diaper Genies? There, you will find a contest of America's favorite stuff on toilets, including our very own Inga Binga Newton Magnuson. I sent a link to Eric at work today and he replied "That is both hilarious and incredibly random. LMAO!" Which, coincidentally, is exactly how I'd describe MODG as well.

NOW GO FORTH AND VOTE FOR MY DOG. Please. :)

PS - our floors aren't dirty, seriously, that's my cheapo camera....since I lost the awesome one in the airport on the way to Belize.

An evening with George Crumb

Well, only part of an evening. And, an evening that was actually about a flautist earning her Master's degree. Whom I had never met.

Melisser and Daddo drove the 13-hours from Columbus so that she could make a guest appearance tonight at a friend's graduate recital, lending her signature avant garde George Crumb awesomeness to accompany said friend's (frankly) spectacular flute-playing. I'm so proud of my preetty seester and her beautiful, crystalline voice!

 

Honestly, I never thought flute would be so entertaining! Not only did Sara play lightning-fast, she also trilled her tongue while playing in some parts of the music, or buzzed the flute like a kazoo WHILE pulling a melody out of it. Insane. I actually started giggling with mirth and amazement at the kazoo part because I am eternally inappropriate and love it when people think I am being disrespectful. Speaking of disrespectful, there was SOME girl in the southwest corner of the room who kept making odd "mmm! hmm!" sounds only during the performance....I was so confused and annoyed at her interruption of the flute-nirvana that in trying to figure out what the hell it was, I actually convinced myself it must just be a woman breastfeeding and the baby was making satisfied grunting noises. Yes, THAT is how I made this strange noise acceptable to myself.

 

Very impressive. I talked to Sara afterward about how much I'd liked her recital, and she said she and Melissa have tentative plans to put together another performance sometime in the future. Yay!

 

Scene change. On Friday night, Meliseester and I went to see Marriage of Figaro at the Orpheum. It was gorgeous! I love the opera. I wish I could remember how many I've seen. This one in particular I kind of had to strain to see, because a dude with the widest head in existence sat in front of me. You never would guess from his narrow face either. Maybe it was just the hair at the back of his head. So I got to invade some personal space on either side of my seat, at least until I figured out I could sit on my coat. There was also a group of students that came in late, traipsed in front of a whole row of people, and then half of then decided they had to go to the bathroom or something....twice. To end the night, here is a conversation I had with Melisser:

Me: "Where's the 'Fiiiigaro, Figaro, Figaro, Fi-ga-ro!' ?"

Melissa: "Actually, that's Barber of Seville."

Captain Obvious: "...but this opera has 'Figaro" in the title."

More Knowledgeable Opera Buff: "Indeed, but the part you're talking about is in Barber of Seville."

Argumentative: "Are you sure? I don't remember any Figaro in that one."

Singer with Operatic Range: "Did you see Barber of Seville?"

Me: "...no."

She: *raises brows*

But despite all this silliness, I had a wonderful time with my beautiful seester!

January's project: Strawberry Balsamic Jam

I made this with a combination of recipes-- the Canning 101 recipes from Pioneer Woman, because they are for a simple strawberry jam...

I <3 Pioneer Woman

...and, the no-pectin strawberry balsamic jam from Savory Sweet Life:

Alice is cool too.

I was intrigued by the balsamic addition presented by Alice, but really wanted to make a jam I could give away if I wanted. Also, I'd made the plain strawberry jam from PW for Christmas gifts already.

The verdict?

It tasted just like the regular strawberry jam. I didn't have them side by side or anything, but it sure tasted like regular strawberry to me. And the color wasn't as pretty as when I made the plain. I wonder if it had to do with subbing in two tablespoons of balsamic for two of lemon juice, since the juice can help brighten the color? The world may never know. In any case, I have some tasty jam for toast in the morning, and that's a win.

Haiti sounds devastating

I donated $20 to disaster relief efforts in Haiti and encourage you to consider it as well. It's sad that our first donation of the year is to assist in such appalling circumstances. I can't imagine what it must be like to go through such a damaging earthquake-- or to be an aggrieved family member in the US with no word and no information other than what surfaces daily.

Mercy Corps
Doctors Without Borders

It is launched!

For the few Omahans who read this, I present to you the Metro Neighborhood News!

http://metroneighborhoodnews.com/

This new publication should have arrived in your mailbox yesterday or today, and features news, stories and events specific to your particular region of Omaha. You will receive this newspaper every month, along with approximately 255,000 other residents of Omaha and the surrounding areas.

I hope you'll spend some time with the paper and maybe click through the site a bit and check it out. You can read stories about your own neighborhood, leave comments, take polls, and register as a member of the site. If you are so inclined, you can also search for "Metro Neighborhood News" on Facebook and become a fan, or follow us on Twitter.

To see some brief TV news coverage of the paper, please go here and click the link entitled Women Matter: Newspaper Taps Work From Home Moms, at the top of the page. Or you could go to www.KPTM.com, then News Features, then Women Matter. The brunette lady with the adorable little boy is my editor, Summer Miller.

I am the copy-editor for the publication, which is super exciting since the OCD perfectionist grammar nerd in me has always wanted to be a real life copy-editor.  Hurrah! I'm thrilled to be involved with such a massive project in such an important way, and perhaps I'll even write a few stories of my own. I see great things for 2010!

A goal not written is but a wish.

These are my 2010 goals...Eric's to come. I do lots of musing at work but try not to bother Eric during the workday unless I'm sending him something funny.

1) Become pregnant. Oh, also stay pregnant for the requisite nine months and give birth to a healthy child-- just sayin, in case the universe feels like taking my initial wish literally and then playing a nasty trick.
2) Tone up! Um, not necessarily in this order. And if #1 is achieved, I reserve the right to stay undefined in the middle.
3) Knit and crochet passably by year-end. It would help if my fingers didn't turn into thumbs every time I picked up a crochet needle. And for knitting to become less hard. But regardless! Passably.
4) Can more often, one project per month. This month's is secret because it's for someone who reads this blog. :)

Ready, set, go!