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February 20, 2008
quick inventory
First, you must must must go check out the shawl that my mom made. It is magnificent. She is an amazing artist.
Second, after only a few months of having connected it, we have canceled cable TV. I couldn't believe how much of our lives it was sucking away, and I am still especially disgusted by the Disney programming (which, ironically, Disney was one of the reasons we decided to get cable in the first place). I have to admit I'll miss LA Ink--but don't tell anyone. So, we're back to PBS and a handful of local channels, some of which don't come in unless we make the kids hold the rabbit ears.
Third, I give you my current food obsession: the green chile omelet.
2 eggs
1 heaping Tbsp of cottage cheese
little bit (4 or 5 swipes on the box grater) of grated cheese (I'm using Colby/Jack)
2 Tbsp of diced green chiles
Measurements are all approximate. You must love the flavor of green chiles to love this omelet. And if you put too much cottage cheese, it will not stick together like an omelet should; you'll just end up with scrambled cheese-chile eggs. Which are just as good, just less pretty.
Fourth: I'm back to running in the morning. The icy roads and freezing wind are rotten, but my days are far more productive. I definitely feel the difference after only a week of being back to training seriously.
Fifth: The face that Little J makes while he concentrates on buttoning his pajama shirt is priceless. His lips stiffen, his nostrils flare, and his eyebrows float up into his forehead.
Posted by mryonker at 08:51 AM | Comments (1)
February 18, 2008
thwarting winter break
Today we went to the ice rink--as though we don't spend enough of our lives freezing at ice rinks. [That new Dunkin Donuts jingle about "freezing at Pee Wee hockey..." is practically my life right now.] But instead of sitting in the bleachers or working the snack bar, we all skated, including Little J, who is four and is as freakishly coordinated as his older brother. He skated for an hour using this little walker-like contraption, and for the second hour I could barely keep up with him. Big J kept getting in trouble with the rink monitors for "going too fast."
"But Mom!" he tells me, "I don't know how to skate slow!!"
H skated with us for the first hour, and then during the second hour she found a hallway and practiced her jazz routine, garnering a decent crowd of onlookers.
Wednesday we'll go rollerskating (and I'll school the kids then; I spent many a Friday and Saturday night at the roller rink as a youngster). Friday we'll do a movie at the el-cheapo theater.
Tuesday and Thursday are up for grabs, if anyone has any ideas. Maybe we'll venture out and go sledding.
But that involves snow. Blech.
Posted by mryonker at 09:15 PM | Comments (1)
February 17, 2008
winter break
In central New York, the public schools do an especially mean thing to parents.
In the dead of February, when everyone (read: ME) is near insanity with the snow and crappy weather, the schools let the kids have a week off school.
What I have to look forward to this week: Big J on his roller blades practicing his puck-handling with a heavy rubber ball and hockey stick. H working to stick her aerial and back handspring. Little J riding the full-size skateboard (probably in bare feet, which makes my back crawl).
Yes. All of this IN. THE. HOUSE. I'm not even exaggerating.
Posted by mryonker at 09:24 PM | Comments (2)
February 11, 2008
today's weather
Nicole Lee, who provided me with visual inspiration for an entire chapter of my diss, offers this doodle today:
Doodle by Lee. The code for this doodle and other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.
On today, in the pit of February, I suffer through yet. another. snowday.
Yet. Another.
Posted by mryonker at 08:40 AM | Comments (3)
February 10, 2008
the gods must be crazy
_The Gods Must Be Crazy_ (imdb) is a movie about, among other things, a tribe in Botswana that finds a Coke bottle (it had been thrown from an airplane window).
The Coke bottle becomes immensely useful to the tribe: for grinding meal, stretching and smoothing animal skins, and making music. And because there is only one Coke bottle, the tribe, which has heretofore not had to deal with ownership, envy, or theft, is quickly introduced to the negative effects of having and not-having.
A similar thing has happened in my house. Recently, we got cable. And we have one viable TV in the house, in the living room. There is a TV in our room upstairs, which means to watch the TV one has to go upstairs, which we keep at about 53 degrees to conserve heating fuel. So really, that TV doesn't count.
Since the cable came to the Yonker house, the kids' fights have exponentially increased. They cannot agree on what to watch, and so I'm constantly mediating "It's-my-turn!-No-you-just-watched-something-it's-mine!-No-way-am-I-watching -Hannah-Montana-again!" fights. (On a side note: the Disney Channel is odious. Each show is about spoiled, snotty, back-stabbing, lying, disrespectful children who are completely superficial and rude to their parents.)
And I very much want to do what the dude in the movie does: get rid of the damn thing. In this case, the damn cable.
Why, exactly, am I paying more money simply to bring a barrage of ads into my house, and so my kids have one more thing to yell at each other about??
Posted by mryonker at 05:28 PM | Comments (4)
February 05, 2008
this angers me
I live in NY, and because I'm a registered voter but not registered with either party, I cannot vote in the primaries.
I suppose this is a problem I could have remedied before today, so that I could have voted; however. However I didn't. Mostly because I find it incredibly irresponsible that NY still has such an antiquated system. Mostly because I don't WANT to be registered as a party member. But mostly because, as has been my refrain for the last few days, sometimes having to choose is incredibly hard, and it's easier when other people make decisions for me.
Don't flame me; I know the danger in such ambivalent attitudes.
Anyway, because I couldn't vote I don't have a voting narrative. However, I read this post over at elevene today with increasing anger. Not only (or necessarily) because there was a mistake made at a poling station, and not only because it resulted in someone leaving the poll without having been able to cast his vote, but because the jerk at the booth kept blaming some other lady for what was probably his mistake.
Nothing peeves me more than people blaming other people to save their own ass.
Posted by mryonker at 08:58 PM | Comments (3)
February 04, 2008
hotel-staying and traveling miscellany
Room service food is nearly always cold by the time it gets to me. Unless I happen to have a room with a microwave. Then the food will be plenty hot. In my experience, anyway. It's a variation of Murphy's.
Traveling and eating out make for great soup-trying. I've eaten soup at least once on every trip I've taken in the last month. The best? Squash Bisque and Crab Asparagus. Both soups from the same town, incidentally.
At one point, I returned to my room after a full day of walking and meeting people. I decided I would go ahead and drive home rather than stay an extra night out of town, so I began packing up. And I couldn't find my car keys. I frantically dumped stuff out of suitcases and briefcases and laptop cases, searching madly, feeling foolish. And then felt doubly--nay, triply--foolish when I found the ticket for the valet parking where I'd left the car.
Most ironic moment: me laying in a hotel bed, eating free-from-the-lobby chocolate chip cookies, watching George Stella's _Low Carb and Lovin' It_.
Posted by mryonker at 02:49 PM | Comments (0)