"Are you going over to watch that show tonight?" This is the husband. He has discovered a newly established pattern.
Saturday he left to play soccer with the guys. He had survived an entire week of my business meetings and lousy schedules, so he went to have fun. I sat in a vegetative state for a while, also recuperating. And then I got a text. From my sister. "Whatcha doin?" My answer "nothing." It may baffle mathmaticians, physicists and philosophers: this is a case where nothing+nothing= something.
We got together and watched a really bizarre 80's movie. That may be redudant. 80's and bizarre are synonymous. We were still wide awake, and somewhat disappointed with the movie, so we were ready to launch into something else... but it was too late for another movie. We opted for a television program instead. This is when we happened upon Numb3rs. And we loved it. Analytical. Problem-solving. Fun.
Monday came. Tempation was there. I couldn't let her watch Numb3rs alone! So I went! Then Tuesday I had to take some things over for the girls to get ready for girl's camp. And while I was there... of course we had to watch again! So, I am sure you can all see how the pattern started.
Last night, to avoid total moocher land, I made dinner. It has no name yet. I'll take some pointers.
I shredded zucchini and sauteed it. While I was doing this, I soaked tvp chicken in hot water with frozen peas. Once the zucchini was sauteed, I added the meat and peas mixture. There were dried onions, garlic, vegetable boullion, cumin, salt and cilantro in the seasoning. I continued cooking that over low temperature. I added a can of cream of mushroom, and continued cooking over low. Then I dumped it all in an oven-safe glass dish, turned the oven on to 350. I crumbled cheese crackers over the top of it, popped it in the oven for a few minutes, pulled it out, and voila! It was pretty good.
So now I think my evenings involve food and Numb3rs! It's a fun way to hang out. =)
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Succotash
Dear Succotash,
If that is even your real name. I remember having a love affair with you as a child. It was summer then, as it is now, and the memories come back. My grandmother made you for dinner out of food from our garden. I recall a delightfully made casserole with zucchini and summer squash, and vaguely I recall cheese. If there was not cheese, I would not object to its inclusion. I seem to recall you were made because it was my mom's birthday. Maybe that's not entirely true, but it seems like it fits. Our Sunday dinner, then, differed from the roast and potatoes and carrots and salad that we usually had. It was a light summer Sunday, and I ate succotash, and I was happy.
I am distressed that I cannot find how to revive that old love affair. At home, right now, fresh from the garden I have zucchini and squash. They beckon to me. They call your name. But I cannot heed their call. I am saddened that I do not have my grandma's recipe for you. My kind friend googled you for me, to track you down, but it was not you. It was an imposter. Lima beans? LIMA BEANS?!? Oh, fair squashy food fit for the summer palate... wherefore art thou?
Your veggie loving childhood friend,
Ms. Vegetarian Craving Succotash
If that is even your real name. I remember having a love affair with you as a child. It was summer then, as it is now, and the memories come back. My grandmother made you for dinner out of food from our garden. I recall a delightfully made casserole with zucchini and summer squash, and vaguely I recall cheese. If there was not cheese, I would not object to its inclusion. I seem to recall you were made because it was my mom's birthday. Maybe that's not entirely true, but it seems like it fits. Our Sunday dinner, then, differed from the roast and potatoes and carrots and salad that we usually had. It was a light summer Sunday, and I ate succotash, and I was happy.
I am distressed that I cannot find how to revive that old love affair. At home, right now, fresh from the garden I have zucchini and squash. They beckon to me. They call your name. But I cannot heed their call. I am saddened that I do not have my grandma's recipe for you. My kind friend googled you for me, to track you down, but it was not you. It was an imposter. Lima beans? LIMA BEANS?!? Oh, fair squashy food fit for the summer palate... wherefore art thou?
Your veggie loving childhood friend,
Ms. Vegetarian Craving Succotash
Monday, May 16, 2011
A Summary of Recent Events
The following post includes a limerick, wherein I commemorate national limerick day (last week), the Civil War (which started 150 years ago this past weekend), and my new experience with a game like baseball that apparently was more common during the 1860s.
In the great North versus South war,
Heartache and loss came to every door.
Had it been solved with cricket,
the target, a wicket,
Our country would have been spared the gore.
The idea was okay, the execution of the idea was somewhat lacking. But there you have it.
In the great North versus South war,
Heartache and loss came to every door.
Had it been solved with cricket,
the target, a wicket,
Our country would have been spared the gore.
The idea was okay, the execution of the idea was somewhat lacking. But there you have it.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
PASSOVER OF THE RESURRECTION
In all the rush from one place to another, the joyful colors of spring and Easter may be seen everywhere. Sometimes in this avalanche of toys and candy and color, it is easy to forget the true meaning of Easter. It is my attempt, with the aid of other Christians celebrating the Resurrection of the Savior, to direct our minds and hearts to the Lord. Many of the traditions of the season pre-dated the Christian celebration of the Savior's Resurrection on that Spring morning hundreds of years ago. But maybe those symbols, just as our hearts, can be "converted" to strengthen us. Below there are symbols and their Christianized meanings, as well as scriptures for each one. I have thought that these would make excellent stuffers for plastic Easter eggs, with the scriptures used for discussion. Then, when we are greeted by these symbols at the stores and in the streets, we can smile as we think of Him who has redeemed us all.
Symbol | Scripture Passage | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
 Angels | Matthew 28:5-6 | Proclaiming that He is risen |
 Blue | John 14:2-3 | Heaven, where we may dwell with the Savior |
 Bunny | John 10:10 | New and Abundant life; We need to share Gospel and multiply truth and be peaceful like our Savior |
 Butterfly | 1 Corinthians 15-3-4 | Our life, tomb and Resurrection brought to pass through the Savior's Atonement |
 Candle | John 8:12 | Jesus is the light of the world |
 Chicks | Matthew 23:37 | New life (leaving tomb); We are protected by the Savior as chicks are protected by their mother hen |
 Cross | John 19:17-19 | Death of Savior, the empty cross reflects that He is no longer there |
 Daffodil | Matthew 24:31 | New life, proclaiming good news |
 Easter basket | Mark 13:27 | Gathering of God's children into His fold |
 Easter clothes | 2 Corinthians 5:17 | New clothes = new life |
 Easter egg hunt | Jeremiah 16:16 | Responsibility of the believers to be hunters and fishers of men |
 Easter eggs | Matthew 27:59-60 | Tomb, awaiting new life |
 Easter Lily | 1 John 3:3 | Purity of Savior |
 Folded burial napkin | John 20:5-7 | He is not here! |
 Green | 1 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 1:10 | Hope in the Resurrection and Eternal Life |
 Hot Cross Buns | John 6:51 | Jesus is bread of life, and the cross represents is His death |
 Lamb | John 1:29 | Lamb of God, the everlasting sacrifice for our sins |
 Orange | Romans 5:11 | Joy we receive through the Savior's Atonement |
 Palm branches | John 12:12-13 | Triumphal entry into Jerusalem |
 Pink | John 3:16 | God's love to sacrifice His Son so that we can return to Him |
 Pretzel | 1 Corinthians 5:7 | Unleavened bread, arms folded in prayer |
 Purple | Mark 15:17 | Royalty, the King of Kings |
 Red | Matthew 26:28 | Blood of the Savior shed to redeem us |
 Resurrection | John 20:11-16 | He lives! We will live again |
 Rooster | Matthew 26:35 | Reminder to not deny Savior as Peter did |
 Sweet spices | Mark 16:1; John 19:40 | Sweet spices were used in preparation for the Savior's burial |
 Tomb | Luke 24:2-3 | He is risen! |
 Tulips | Romans 6:5; John 11:25 | New life, springing out of dead ground |
 White | Isaiah 1:18 | Purity |
 Yellow | Matthew 4:16 | Jesus is the light that leads us through darkness |
Monday, April 11, 2011
Intrigued
Sometimes it happens. Sometimes something (at work, generally) comes up that spurs my interest and I invest time to learn more about it or comprehend it.
For example, my company has a client that makes rubber floor mats, primarily for the dairy industry, out of used tires. I was lucky that the contact with whom I usually speak was patient because that inspired many questions. Where do they get the tires? What inspired this idea? How is it done? In addition to the questions I asked him, I investigated the subject. I am still curious on this topic. If I were in school, I would have written a research paper. I know, I am a nerd. I was thinking that if I were a reporter, I would probably be able to obtain more information. Particularly on what a certain major supermarket chain does with my tires that they make me pay to recycle. In the future, this topic alone may become a post because I think it is neat that this environmentally unfriendly eyesore:
(This picture is borrowed.)
It really speaks to my love the planet (and the cows!) soul.
This same interest, one that meant that throughout the day my thoughts were going back to the same question, happened just last week. A prospective customer called wanting to know some basic but random information. He wanted to know if we could measure the velocity of the water leaving out machine at a specific distance from the point of exit. Sounds simple enough, right? In reality, this question is typically unnecessary for 99.999% of the people who talk to us.
But then there's the random person every several years who asks. At first I thought maybe he was looking for something akin to a speedometer, but for water. I asked my tech service. This is not a product we offer. As it turns out, there are formulas that can help to derive this information (although an apparatus of some sort would be easier, if you ask me. Program IT to do the work, I say). Then... it sounds like physics. And physics, ladies and gentlemen, was not my forte in school. Not in high school. Not in college. But I was captivated. I looked up even more formulas to resolve unknowns. I found more unknowns. I asked the gentleman questions about his application (which was very different from any system we offer or any application we can do). He wanted to create a water curtain, essentially, to act as a sound barrier. I found the application just as intriguing as the math involved. Although my interest diminished after a couple of hard work days and the knowledge that I will probably never come to a suitable answer, just writing about it gets me all fired up again.
It is a thirst for knowledge. A desire to comprehend. It's the thing that makes me the red-blooded nerdy girl that I am. It's true that I am not a brilliant mad scientist, but that's probably a good thing. The truth remains that there come days when a good question comes to the surface... and somewhere in the ho-hum doldrums of same day, same stuff land, I have a spark that elevates me to look at things from a new perspective.
Am I the only one who really gets that interested in some random topic?
For example, my company has a client that makes rubber floor mats, primarily for the dairy industry, out of used tires. I was lucky that the contact with whom I usually speak was patient because that inspired many questions. Where do they get the tires? What inspired this idea? How is it done? In addition to the questions I asked him, I investigated the subject. I am still curious on this topic. If I were in school, I would have written a research paper. I know, I am a nerd. I was thinking that if I were a reporter, I would probably be able to obtain more information. Particularly on what a certain major supermarket chain does with my tires that they make me pay to recycle. In the future, this topic alone may become a post because I think it is neat that this environmentally unfriendly eyesore:
can become this ecologically savvy and humane product:
(This picture is borrowed.)This same interest, one that meant that throughout the day my thoughts were going back to the same question, happened just last week. A prospective customer called wanting to know some basic but random information. He wanted to know if we could measure the velocity of the water leaving out machine at a specific distance from the point of exit. Sounds simple enough, right? In reality, this question is typically unnecessary for 99.999% of the people who talk to us.
But then there's the random person every several years who asks. At first I thought maybe he was looking for something akin to a speedometer, but for water. I asked my tech service. This is not a product we offer. As it turns out, there are formulas that can help to derive this information (although an apparatus of some sort would be easier, if you ask me. Program IT to do the work, I say). Then... it sounds like physics. And physics, ladies and gentlemen, was not my forte in school. Not in high school. Not in college. But I was captivated. I looked up even more formulas to resolve unknowns. I found more unknowns. I asked the gentleman questions about his application (which was very different from any system we offer or any application we can do). He wanted to create a water curtain, essentially, to act as a sound barrier. I found the application just as intriguing as the math involved. Although my interest diminished after a couple of hard work days and the knowledge that I will probably never come to a suitable answer, just writing about it gets me all fired up again.
It is a thirst for knowledge. A desire to comprehend. It's the thing that makes me the red-blooded nerdy girl that I am. It's true that I am not a brilliant mad scientist, but that's probably a good thing. The truth remains that there come days when a good question comes to the surface... and somewhere in the ho-hum doldrums of same day, same stuff land, I have a spark that elevates me to look at things from a new perspective.
Am I the only one who really gets that interested in some random topic?
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Spring up to Hope
The sun is shining for more hours again, and beautiful flowers which I did not plant have poked through the earth and blossomed. The tree in my front yard now has leaves. My daily drives now include more green.
And silently, my soul sighs. It stretches and expands and blooms. It is Spring.
I love Spring. Love love love it. I used to have an equal love of Spring and Autumn, in love with the colors and the cool temperatures... neither hot nor cold. I loved to see nature painted in such colorful, if different, arrays in both seasons. But, in my "old" age I have come to love Spring more because Autumn inevitably means that Winter is coming and Spring tells me that I have survived the cold, dark days and sunny ones are on the way.
I have an inexplicable connection between Spring and hope. I feel more hopeful in the Spring. Logically I know that things do not magically become better simply because more of the sun's rays reach the portion of the planet that I inhabit. My car will still need to be fixed. I will not get a raise. I will not suddenly fit into my cuter clothes now only peeping at me from the corner of my closet. None of those things.
But somehow, in the Spring, I really do think life is on the upswing and that the unhappier details of life will somehow be worked through and improved. Healthy habits can continue to form and become long-term. Past regrets can be laid to rest. Friendships can be repaired and strengthened. Okay, and maybe part of me still thinks that somehow my paycheck will stretch further. ;)
I doubt that the increased production of Vitamin D in my skin is really the genesis of the hope, although perhaps it could be the subject of an interesting study. Winter is already associated with doldrums, so the end of winter is the beginning of more happiness.
I think it is an inherent and incomprehensible connection in my mind. Spring equals hope.
The celebration of the Resurrection of the Savior... of life coming to those who were spiritually and physically dead... comes in Spring. Is it any wonder that new life, new beginnings and new dreams should be associated with Spring? When all the world is awakening from it's winter slumber, with so many warm sunrays reducing the darkness, with reminders of the Savior's sacrifice for me and for everyone... is it really so odd that Spring and hope are conjoined in my mind?
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Proof of my Husband's Coolness
This is the video of my beloved playing "our" song. :D
Watch and enjoy. No pic of him, though. :(