Snow, Snow, Snow

I can't believe they called school off already!  It was canceled before it even started to snow.  It just started a little while ago and it isn't even coming down as hard as it was yesterday morning.  I remember going to school with the feet of snow piled up and it not being an excuse.  Besides, you never know in Wisconsin.  The weather could be predicted to snow 18-24" and then it turns out to 50 degrees.  I'm going to go make it "snow" on some of my pans.  I accidentally left the lids to my can in the pot of boiled water a little too long and it rusted.  Stupid me.  Luckily, I found a way to take it off with baking soda. 



*PS: washing your hair in snow sounds absolutely horrible.  ick.

Holiday Homemade!

I made some of my Christmas presents this year.  I made some essential oil infused Epsom salts, jam, and pancake syrup.  They turned out really yummy and totally awesome.  Woot woot!  I love making homemade gifts.  Yay!

The English Major

Ohhh - I just downloaded my first eBook to my new nook.  YAY!  I am so excited.  I also just filed my first police report.  Tres weird.  I am so enjoying watching How I Met Your Mother.  I love it. 

I recently finished reading The English Major by Jim Harrison.  I enjoyed parts of the book but I was really getting sick of listening to the character talk about his penis.  Penis this, penis that, and oh, there's my penis doing a little jump at the idea of the young girl.  It was almost like listening to Barney as a 60 year old.  The story is of an old man named Cliff dumped traveling across the country to find himself again after his divorce and being forced to sell the farm he had worked at for approximately 2 1/2 decades. He renames states and birds and bangs the heck out of one of his former students (he was a teacher before he started farming). It was just too weird for me.  Besides, he pretty much ends up back where he started. Ugh, maybe I'm too girl to read books by men. 

Mother of Expendable

Legen and I hope you aren't lactose intolerant because the next word is DAIRY.
*Getting a nook for Christmas and being able to watch episode after episode of How I Met Your Mother in bed while writing out Christmas cards.
*Having to file a theft report on your brother's Christmas present but really just being happy I still have a little brother to come home to.
*Realizing there is a WHOLE lot more of your apartment you can see from the street - meh, they can see me dance around like a crazoid...it happens.
*Playing silly games with my nephews and pretty much just covering them in kisses.
*Having a house full of family - all acting loud and crazy (between couch naps)
Legendary Weekend!

I am so multitasking at the moment...watching How I Met Your Mother (if you couldn't tell).  I also watched The Expendables.  All I could think of while the palace was blown to bits was "A woman could have done all of that and still kept the pretty palace in one piece."  All that history and architecture.  It was a sad thing to see it go down in one giant blast.  It was a little weird that the story didn't quite really set up, it just happened.  I'm not really sure what the story line was - we get paid money to blow up that bad guy, see pretty woman, must blow up everything to "save" her.  So pretty much if you just want to watch stuff get blown up, watch it.

Jam

Making jam and syrup.  I hope it turns out!  Off to start projects late at night.  Why not?!?

Zodiac and Inspectors

I really love having notepad.  It makes typing up my blogs super simple when my internet is lagging and I don't want to wait.  I'm on a schedule and I've only allotted 15 minutes to this "activity."  I'll probably go over, but I still want to get some reading and yoga in before I hit the hay.  This weekend was FILLED with yummy baking.  The 3.5" I lost from my waist this year might all reappear if I'm not careful.  I've been taking a lot out and sharing the love with numerous others.  Fill YOUR belly and not mine.  I'm really looking forward to eggs and home made honey wheat bread toasted and drizzled with honey.  I may add a little bit of grapefruit in there to round it out.  My mouth is watering already. 

So, to get to the point: Books.

I'm currently working on The Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter (an Inspector Morse novel).  I have to say, I am not enjoying this book as much as I enjoy watching Inspector Lewis, which is based of this series.  I just made into Part 2 of the book, but it just seems to keep dragging on and on.  I almost cried last week when I realized I had watched the last Inspector Lewis on Netflix.   All the other Inspector Morse novels might just be taken back to the library with a sigh.  I tried.

I also recently finished Zodiac by Robert Graysmith.  It was a very interesting book.  I don't know why I find serial killers and their stories fascinating.  I just do.  Not in the, "I want to become one" fascinated.  More like, "how did they get away with that" or "I can't believe there are sick people like that out there."  I can't believe that they never caught the Zodiac killer.  It makes me very upset that someone out there knows who the killer is but is unwilling or unable to come forward with the evidence.  I can't help but think of the poor families that won't have any closure because there just wasn't enough evidence to pin it to a certain person.  I'm wondering what happened to the woman who escaped from Zodiac and then just sort of disappeared.  I, for sure, would probably try to disappear after almost being murdered.  The book, mostly, made me think how stupid cops could be and how things might have actually happened had there been sharing between jurisdictions. 

It's a Perfect Life

Holiday stress.  I can't say that I am all that stressed.  I feel more stress with the New Year fast approaching and the feeling of spinning my wheels.  The dawning of another year and the same question: what am I doing with my life?  This has me a bit concerned.  I know I shouldn't be worried about this question.  Life is a journey and you uncover the answers as you happen upon them.  I need to stop worrying about the "I want" aspect of "I want my life to be perfect" and just be "my life is good in this moment." I won't stop having goals to constantly achieve, but I won't die if I don't have every one else's idea of a "perfect life."

Pop a Squat

I am so tired today, I can't even think straight.  I don't know if I can even type anything remotely sensible at the moment.  I will say, I've had a lot of poo in my life lately.  Yesterday, my co-worker and I discovered Unicorn poop while attempting to look up articles about North Korea's claim to have evidence of a unicorn.  Then today, I discovered the "Squatty Potty" and an article about how our dear inventor of the crapper cursed us to a life of gut and anal misery by taking away our pooping squat.  No, I did not test this for testy Tuesday.  If you feel so inclined, you may try it.  I think I may have to read that article a few more times and be heavily constipated before I decided to pop a squat.  I held it when faced with a squat toilet in Ethiopia and that was just to pee.  Maybe once it is tested, it is like a Eureka moment and you never want to go back.  My nephew pops a squat when he has to go - maybe adults should too?!?

Cat Lady/Book Lady

I am so tired and still a little car sick.  My bed tonight will not be made of air, nor will I have to share it with anyone.  Ok, well, that stack of books on the other side of my bed doesn't really count.  I haven't watched any good or bad movies recently and I highly doubt that you want to listen to more of my swooning over Inspector Lewis's Sergeant Hathaway.  I won't waste your time, I'm too tired and I really just rather pop a tums and crawl into bed.  I can leave you with the funniest thing I have heard in a while:  "You asked about romantic ventures, does researching which breeds of cats will be most likely not to eat my corpse count?"

Iz won't eatz you!