08.31.04

BooDAH

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:48 pm by Anne

So we went out for chinese food last week to the little joint Shan and I used to go to at least twice a week back before Lily and long before we really had to pay much attention to caloric intake. While waiting in line, Lily pointed over to the large statue on the counter of a grinning and rather corpulent Buddha, “Mahn!” she said. “That’s right Lily, his name is ‘Buddha’.” I told her. Well she went nuts, pointing and chanting “BooDAH BooDAH BooDAH!” We were all smiles for the first 5 minutes while the townies got their orange chicken and mu shu pork until finally Shan suggested I find us a place to sit and he’d get supper.

And still, after sitting her in a highchair and waiting on my mongolian beef with extra onions, Lily continued to crane her neck and point to Boodah.

She is reaching enlightenment so much sooner than Shan and I. How many 20 month old kids know who Buddha is anyway?

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Hormones

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:37 pm by Anne

I got ‘em.

and bad.

This morning started out wonderful. Shan and I both woke up around 6, couldn’t sleep anymore, and talked about getting up. He even suggested, “Maybe we should get up and make blueberry muffins together!” swoon!

While I assembled all the ingredients, including fresh berries from Costco, Shan puttered around the office, and Lily slept like a little angel in her bed. And I began making muffins. Without Shan. At one point he ducked his head in and said “Looks like you have it handled, I’m going to take a shower.” So what are you gonna do? I scooped batter into tins and was all ready to slip them into the oven when I glanced at the melted butter on the counter that I had FORGOTTEN to add. eff me. While scooping everything back into the bowl and overmixing the sublime batter, this time incorporating the butter, I actually told myself, “Don’t let this ruin your day; it is so nice outside!” And it was nice, cool enough to open all the doors and windows.

The muffins were fine, even great, and I had my hot tea, and fed Lily her breakfast while SHan ironed his shirt and left for the day.

The next drama came at the grocery store. correction: the super wal-mart. Ever since this little store opened, I can’t stay away, it’s embarrassing, really. So Lily and I got a cart and got to shopping, mainly for vegetables and dinner fixins. I had seen a nice recipe for pork tenderloin with cooked apples and was all ready to check out when the checker lady had a minor situation. “You want these apples?” she asked me. uh yeah, that is why they are on the conveyor belt. I guess they didn’t have a tag so I told her, “Those are Granny Smith apples, I am pretty sure they are $1.29 a pound.” So she put them to the side and rung everything else up. By the end, a line had formed behind me and she called for assistance. Which took about 8 minutes. A girl walked over and said “oh are those grannies? the number is so and so.” And they rang up for 1.28 a pound. There was no apology for taking for-freaking ever, no acknowledgement that I wasn’t trying to steal wal-mart blind, no nothing. So I was fuming by the time we rolled out to the car. Then my sister called.

Unfold drama number 3.

Babs was driving. “Where are you?” she asked. “Wallyworld.” “Well what’s your problem?” sighhh. So I told her and she was very understanding and empathetic. “You take Mom to the airport?” I assumed Mom would be on a plane headed home by now. “Uhm no. She decided to stay another few weeks.” And I went nuts. To make a long story short, my sister is having a major marriage disaster and it appears the only way to resolve it is for them to split. That said, I am constantly worried and concerned and wanting some kind of resolution to the whole mess, and having Mom there is like throwing a wrench in the machine of progress. Inevitably, I made my sister mad to the point of her just almost hanging up on me. So I called my brother and vented. Well, he was on his way to work but gamely listened to me. Then I called Shan, who was busy and disinterested. Then I called my friend who I haven’t called in forever but she was busy doing something else, so I wound up driving home and calling my sister back and resolving it on my own.

hahahahah.

Then I got Lily to sleep and worked on samples. By the time she woke up again it was nearly time for me to go to work. The sitters showed up and I rushed off with iced tea in a mug I don’t usually travel with. Get ready for Drama #4. I should have expected this one.

The mug is too large for the drink holders so I drove very gingerly. Close to my destination, I got behind a slowmoving mac-truck, had to stop suddenly, and slung my frigging sweet tea and ice all over the car. The car, my dearest darling had just cleaned to the point of a level 4 cleanroom, over the weekend, and I could just see the look on his face and hear the disappointment and accusation in his voice. “Why did you take that mug?” At work, I stopped and dragged some clothing from Lily’s diaper bag to mop up with, scooped ice back into the mug and somehow managed to knock it over AGAIN! This time the tears started and the cursing and luckily no one was in the car to bear witness. Work was fine anyway.

I am hoping for a turnaround this evening. We are having dinner with the greatgrandparents and I made these for dessert. I’ve never made, much less eaten panna cotta before, but as I mentioned, we’ve got the blueberries.

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08.29.04

Why relax now?

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:01 pm by Anne

So the babyshower kicked booty. At least I say it does since all the women who attended told me I should be a caterer. hahahahah…let me add that to my list of things to do. I am pleased they were happy though, since I put so much time and effort into baking and presenting and crafting the doodads. In fact, Friday was officially “Barney Day” because I more or less let Lily watch however many videos she wanted. Naturally, after the 4th one, she decided playing between my feet was more fun but then Shan came home early and watched the Putian. At one point, while I was agonizing over decorating the triple chocolate cake (devils food, bittersweet ganache filling with toasted almonds, and a slick poured-chocolate icing that was re-coated a few times for sheer beauty), Lily walked over, and kind of hit the cake with her palm. I did wind up scraping off the frilly part anyway and re-doing it with a different tip but I was still pretty shocked. HAH!

So here was the menu:

finger sandwiches: roast beef, chicken salad, vegetable (not mine)
okra (which were awesome! I used both hot pickled okra and normal)
crudite + dip(not mine)
fruit tray + dip (again, awesome, though I added raspberries and fresh mission figs!)
crab dip (not mine)
brie en croute with strawberries on top (not mine and yummy!)
sausage balls (not mine, and how can you ever go wrong with these little devils of cheese and sausage goodness!)

triple chocolate cake
buttter cake ( this was made for those not wanting chocolate (crazy people) and because it was easier than easy to do. However, I think it would have been EVEN better with a real homemade butter cake and homemade custard. Instant is okay but it’s just not the best.)
cheesecake tarts (incredibly easy and tasty! I used minimuffin pans and liners and got more than 24 of them from one recipe. I had to trim the nilla wafers to fit the tins, and it turns out those crumbs made a fine crust too!)

citrus fruit punch, the best ever on the planet,
iced tea (with a simple sugar syrup provided thanks to Avocado Girl’s suggestion)
coffee

And the party was nice. Ann received a ton of good and useful baby paraphrenalia but the capper was a box sent by James’ Mother. (JAmes is Ann’s husband.) Inside this large box was the first stuffed animal James ever got. His Mom was knitting it on the way to the hospital!) Then various first outfits, shoes, etc and each had a photograph of Jim in the respective items. It was incredible, I have never seen anything like it…so thoughtful. And now I kind of wish I hadn’t seen it because I’ll always wonder, “Hmmm…should I throw this away?” gahhh…

Today Shan and I were both busy. I got on some kind of wretched cleaning kick that wore me out. But the house is clean again and has that nice piney floor cleaner smell. It won’t last, it never lasts. And I had a cute Lily story to relate but I am exhausted.

Mo later.

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08.25.04

oh MY God.

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:09 pm by Anne

I have it figured out. Children’s Dimetap makes Lily ping off the walls. We ran a number or errands today, again, and after returning home at 3PM with groceries to put away, somehow I remembered I had a doctor’s appointment. AT 3PM! Luckily, his office is about 8 minutes from the house. I let Lily finish eating her orange slices, mopped her off with a wet rag, and rushed out the door with a baggie of cinnamon grahams (read: BRIBE).

Of course it took about 10 minutes to get in the parking lot and of course there were no open spots near the front. After finding a space and unhooking Lily, she scrambled and slipped away from me to play at the steering wheel and on her way stepped on my plastic cup of iced tea. It was really fun. Then my cell phone rang. It was Shan calling to tell me about his latest plans on buying a new automoboile. gahhhhhh. Somehow I managed to grab the wee child and make it to the elevator without losing it completely and naturally the waiting room was found it jam-packed with people so we weren’t late at all. So go figure.

Within minutes of settling into a spare seat and setting Lily down, a cousin of Shan’s Ashe (with the twin 4 yr old girls) popped her head in. “What are you doing” She asked and before I could think of anything smartassy to say…” I was calling your name since you got off the elevator!”

She took a seat next to me and told me a friend of hers had delivered early this morning. Then she volunteered to watch Lily while I went in for my appointment. Which saved my life. Shan had a meeting he couldn’t get out of and Lily can’t handle being still. Unless she is asleep. Or unless Barney is on TV. And Barney only works for about 5 minutes at a time. While we waited, Lily walked all around the room, patting strangers, trying to get into their purses, staring at babies, and climbing on chairs or behind chairs, and defiantly telling me “No!” to my gentle remonstrations. I tried the cookies at first but after she consecutively dropped 3 of them on the floor, I remembered the “please no eating” sign. Then she ran around in circles, tripping a few times, but the worst was when she grabbed a handful of pamphlets and scattered them all over the floor…because I had to drag my pregnant butt over and pick them all up again. Ashe couldn’t believe it. “I never see her act like this! My parent’s will think I am making up a story when I tell them about Lily!” All I could say was “dimetap” and such a kind and understanding look passed over her features that I felt we had really connected on the mothering realm.

HAH.

Many samples coming in tomorrow. And working in the morning from 9-noon will cut into baby shower plans. I’ve got to bake the three chocolate cake layers, toast almonds for the ganache filling, make the cream cheese fruit dip, and run to Costco for roses. Shan is going to be in charge of wrapping moss in thin wire which will go around the ouside of the rosebowls and I am going to cut some ivy to stash in with the roses for some nice trailing greenery. Still need to get grapes (purple and green) from the grocery store for the fruit tray. Oh laws.

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Nesting

Posted in Uncategorized at 9:49 am by Anne

So yesterday I made myself a little crazy by deciding on a whim to organize the nursery and move the furniture around to accommodate two little girls. We don’t have the luxury of giving them separate rooms yet and at this point, I don’t even think it will matter to either one. Not until they start wanting ‘privacy’ and that doesn’t strike until the dreaded pre-teen years.

Anyway, I split her toys up into 3 groups: one for good will, one she has outgrown that will work for new baby, and current toys she knows and loves. Then I dragged the bookcase around to the opposite end of the room, moved the crib, swept, cleaned, and installed this new bed rail for Lily. The bed rail is so much better than having the big crib pushed up against the bed! hahahahah…We sucked!

Then I baked a pumpkin pie. Why? Because we had the greatgrandparents over for supper and Grandaddy likes pumpkin pie as much as me!

Lily seems to be oscillating between cranky baby and crazy wild hellion baby. The dimetapp works somewhat but I wonder if it is also the reason she is so hyper. You’d think if her body is fighting an infection that she wouldn’t be so energetic. Could it be allergies? Air quality right now is kinda lousy, all kinds of spores flying around in the heat and humidity.

Baby shower countdown has begun. Today I need to run to a party store and look for a really perfect cake thingy for the top. More on that if I find it.

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08.22.04

Cranky at the Crank-Off

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:25 pm by Anne

Well, Lily was for sure. She started off in a foul temperament, battling me all Saturday morning with fits of anger and would-be despair if I wouldn’t agree to her certain wants. I loaded all the ingredients for the peach cobbler icecream (custard base, macerated peaches, freshly baked pie crust squares to be added in the very end) in the car and off we went. Then the Lily hand-off commenced with various family members taking care of the urchin as she ran around, stomping in water puddles or playing in rock salt. To be honest, I was not especially comfortable with her in that kind of an environment, mainly due to my overprotective mothering fear of her at large public events. It would have been different if I had been watching her the whole time. In any event, the icecream making began, judging commenced, and this year I didn’t make the cut. No big deal, though, my heart wasn’t really in it. I felt very pregnant and halfway through scooping icecream for the maddening crowd I just had to bail. So I set the spoon down, left the icecream tent, found Shan, swooped up Lily, and drove my tired feet/back home. All while Lily screamed angrily from the back seat. The best part was having her fight me as I strapped her in the carseat.

At home, we took baths, ate a little, and I got her to sleep for a nap so I could take care of some of the freaking 50 SAMPLES I had gotten on friday! gahhhhhhh. While peeking in to check on her sleeping, I noticed Lily having trouble breathing out of her nose. Uh oh. Can her cold be back? She woke up, sneezed, and boogs shot everywhere and all was explained. Her cruddy little combative attitude was all because she was sick. again. Poor little miss.

Today she is much the same. I don’t know if this is a new cold or the old one that never went away but it stinks whichever it is. Shan and I just went to get her some children’s dimetapp, per recommendation of Aunt Kris, and I’m hoping it helps. Again, the bad nose is her only symptom.

This is another busy week. I am expecting another load of samples to come in, I need to contact a client who hasn’t paid in like 3 months (not fun), grocery shop, gym (if Lily’s nose isn’t weeping), and get started on preparing for throwing a baby shower this weekend. gahhhhh. The food will be awesome as all get out. More on that later, you better believe!

And my sister graduates from the 6 month long police academy tomorrow night! So congratulations to that little turkey who can finally beat me up.

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08.20.04

Too creamy

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:17 am by Anne

Oh crumblebums, that icecream recipe is not going to fly. It is entirely too creamy. And there wasn’t enough peach flavor. The part where you separate out the peaches from the icecream base seemed wrong to me but I suspect it was because if you let it freeze all at the same time the fruit will cling to the machine blade and mess it all up. I’m not sure there is time to make a new batch, especially since I have gotten samples from out the wazoo and are expecting a new batch this afternoon and you know what? I’m pregnant. So if it doesn’t happen, that will be fine.

That’s become my excuse.

What? The cereal was left out all night? I’m pregnant. There’s no OJ in the fridge? I’m pregnant. You are all out of shaving cream? Well write it on the notepad, I am pregnant!

Oops. Baby woke up!

later gators.

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08.19.04

Breakfast

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:06 am by Anne

Yesterday I tried my hand at some overnight cinnamon rolls, and wouldn’t you know it, because my thoughts rotate around food, I managed to wake up on my own to set them on the counter for a half hour prior to baking. It’s nice being up before the other two blokes but I can’t promise it will become a habit unless I continue with this new recipe enterprise for breakfast. It’s nicely overcast outside with prevailing humidity and the only way out of it is for it to rain. I sure hope it rains.

This years annual icecream crankoff is saturday and I’m not loooking forward in the same way as I usually do. Something about being nearly 6 months pregnant and sitting out in the hot hot sun for hours is not very appealing. The good thing, though, despite my ennui, is I finally came up with an icecream recipe. After conquering the chocolate category last year (it only took 3 years of submitting), I am going to try something new. The fruit category, specifically peaches. Last night Shan took Lily on an around the world drive to various car parts stores while I stayed at home and made two different batches of peach jam. One was spiked with jamaican rum while the other was ameliorated with cinnamon and Tuaca. That’s the nice thing about brandy and alcohols in general, they don’t really ever go bad, and I am telling you, this bottle of Tuaca was from my pre-married, where’s the party, days. Of the two, the Tuaca-laced, really intensified the peachy goodness and as a direct result, I have a bowl of diced peaches marinating in the stuff with a bit of sugar and lemon to try an experimental quart of drunken peach icecream this evening. I’ll probably need to come up with a better name for the contest, though.

Ugh. And of all the movies to rent after a half year hiatus, “The Secret Window” was just bad. I can’t wait to watch “Big Fish” though.

Lily and I are back on the gym bandwagon, after missing all of last week due to a bad nose, and she took to it like a fish to water. When I went to pick her up, she saw me and grinned, and then ran away laughing. Another little girl, about the same age, followed her so I guess they are becoming toddler friends…which is awesome! I was wondering when that would happen.

No change on the potty training front, as in, no nothing. We just have it sitting around to climb on or to store little people figures.

Lily is improving with counting though. She knows what comes after ‘one’ and ‘two’ and ‘three’ and even if she can’t make the precise words phoenetically, she knows the sound…maybe up to five. Smart girl! We count a lot. Not that I believe she knows exactly what counting is as a notion unto itself, but soon.

Yesterday was ran a number of errands together and I was memoentarily struck with a poignant sense of appreciation and melancholy. We were having a really nice day together, just the two of us, and in a few short months our sole time together will be over. My poor Lily! I love her to the ends of the earth and back again and can’t imagine spending less time with the pumpkin. I probably should look into getting a book on how to adjust her to a new little sister and suspect there will be more to it than what we did for the dog, which was to bring home a baby blanket from the hospital for her to sniff around on.

Long post due to delinquent postings lately. I’ll do better.

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08.11.04

Dogs, Antibiotics and Caramel Apples

Posted in Uncategorized at 10:08 pm by Anne

Okay, I have to make an amendment. The dogs are not both tied to the tree in the neighbors back yard, just one of them is, and she is on a pretty long leash. They do that just to prevent her from leaping over the gate, which is lower than the fenceline I think. Anyway, I chatted a little with the next door pregnant lady today and she is so sweet. Apparently her husband wants the dogs to be strict outside animals but she would like to have them inside as well. I told her to keep at him. Shan originally wanted Darwin as an outside dog and that lasted…hmmm…it never even started, she’s always been an indoor-outdoor pup. I really think things are going to be okay. It’s just a matter of adjusting.

This morning I tried to administer Lily’s antibiotics and she became very upset. I think she spit out nearly half of the dose and then cried big alligator tears into her sliced pears. So I drizzled the rest of the medicine over her waffle and she ate it up. Mostly. By lunchtime I had planned on making her a tortilal rollup with cheese and turkey and half of her antobiotic. First I administered via oral syringe half of the antobiotic which resulted in spluttering and crying and even worse tears that required hugs and kisses and comfort. Then I gave her the rest in her lunch and she ate most of it. It was so stressful I called the Dr to see if there was an easier way to get her to take the amoxicillin. As luck would have it, the office was closed woth only a secretary there doing busy work so I was SOL and advised to call in the morning. Then I thought to call Shan’s sister.

Kris told me how she used to do it with her kids. Literally, first you sit on them or similarly immobilize them (based on age and size I imagine), then you pinch their nose, give them the medicine, and blow in their face which supposedly makes them swallow it.

ugh. Surely there is a better way? Otherwise I am looking at 9 more days of misery here.

Chicken lettuce wraps along the vein of PF Chang’s for supper. Before starting dinner I got a hankering for brownies. So I started making a half recipe of these sweet babies. Halfway through the batter mixing, as I pulled the granulated sugar from the pantry, I also managed to knock the bottle of rice wine vinegar onto the cement floor. The only good thing is that Lily was sleeping during this miserable debacle. Glass went everywhere, from end to end in the kitchen and even out into the dining room. I have never seen such a blast area and cleanup took nearly a half hour. Even after sweeping and vaccuuming, I still found a few extremely small shards so had to mop as well. Basically it sucked. Then Lily woke up and I finished the brownie batter and popped them into the oven. A very good recipe by the way.

After supper and brownies I stepped outside with Lily. Tonight is the coolest evening since winter. It is so lovely outside that it got me to start thinking about autumn, how I love autumn despite Texas having little to show for it. These thoughts led to foods and again I got a hankering. This time for caramel apples. The very best caramel apple recipe I have ever made was from Martha Stewart’s Living magazine…of many years ago. Who knows where it went but I didn’t find it on her website so I pulled a version off foodtv.com . After all that, the recipe was the worst ever. Only later did I redo my search and found Martha’s but here it is for anyone to see. I haven’t tried the spun sugar element because it seems like overkill.

Now Lily is sleeping and I have a mess in the kitchen to clean. wah-hoo!

PS No barking tonight so far!

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08.09.04

Dog Breath

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:27 pm by Anne

Well, that went nicely.

After supper tonight, Shan and I walked over to our neighbors home with Lily and introduced ourselves. They are a bit younger than us but seemed very nice and even invited us in to look at all of their remodeling. The neighbors profusely apologized for the barking dog and surprised us by showing us a new dog they had just picked up at SPCA that evening. Later, Shan and I agreed that it was a little strange to get another dog, in order to stop one from barking, but whatever.

That night, the barking started up again. By 11PM, Lily was sleeping and I was seriously considering it but the noise, the noise would not allow it. So, Shan hooked up his electric water sprayer again and we began the water treatments. An hour later, I heard a light tapping at the front door. Shan jumped out of bed to find an irritated neighbor (and his large brawny cousin) standing on the doorstep. All I could make out from the conversation was that he was mad we were spraying his dog. Apparently he had gotten a shock collar for the barky (and it was working! not) and wanted us to give it a try. So Shan compromised. He recognized the neighbor was big enough to come over and talk about it and promised that he would do the same the next time the dog woke us up. After that, although I was a little worried, there was no barking and we slept. Until Lily woke up and popped back in around 3:30. by then, the dog was whimpering and practicing its normal bark. Again it came to the Shan. He jumped up, and went next door.

So they had another meeting and the neighbor agreed to set the collar on the highest setting and acquiesced about the water treatment. He was just concerned that Shan would try to hurt his dog, which would never happen. It’s not the dog’s fault; she is just adjusting to a non-apartment lifestyle. So they compromised again and Shan came back home.

Now during the day, the dog barks incessantly but she is getting a little better at night. We still had the contraption hooked up last evening but I just hope this little problem will go away so that we can have a pleasant relationship with them. Right now, I suspect they both think we are asses. Oh well.

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