– Ah, the weekend. I got a lot of cleaning done, although there are still quite a few un-ticked boxes on my great big chore list (a perfect use for my chalkboard wall). I started writing the list on Thursday, and I was reviewing it yesterday and found myself getting angry about items like ‘Kitchen Closet’. What! I don’t want to clean that! Who put that on there? So there are still quite a few things I haven’t gotten around to yet, but I’d have to say it was a productive weekend, nevertheless.

– I had been thinking about going to Whole Foods today, and when my grandma called to ask me to pick up her prescriptions, I figured that was a sign (WF is less out of the way if I’m already at my grandma’s). I needed some organic dairy products, but mostly I wanted to get lunch from their salad bar. I also treated myself to a kombucha, and I got this pain au chocolat to have with my afternoon tea. I’m not sure why there was a compass rose on it (slightly smooshed from my grabbing it out of the bakery case); the others had mathematical equations written in chocolate on top. Mysterious. At any rate, it was delicious, with crispy edges, and my lunch was good too. The perfect treat after a busy week and a weekend of cleaning.

– Actually, it was a two-pastry weekend! I ran a couple of errands (I say ‘errands’, but really I mean I went to the thrift store and Half Price Books) and stopped at Wuollet’s on the way home. This was okay, but it didn’t have the same je ne sais compass as today’s treat. I think I’m pretty much set for pastries for a while, now.

– I’ve long been a Josef Frank fan, and when I saw this cabinet (in ‘Miracle Brown’) on-line, my grabby hands went into overdrive. I think it would be fun to find an old piece of wooden furniture and try painting my own Josef-Frank-esque design on it. When my mom and I were at my folks’ cabin last weekend, she wanted to get rid of a little wooden box (she’d thrifted it a while ago; it had a ceramic duck glued on top; the duck fell off; she kept the duck and didn’t want the box anymore), so I took it home. Using my kitchen houseplants for inspiration, I made this. I’m not happy with the red I used on the elephant ear leaves, but I think I’ll touch that up with another color and then spray some glossy sealer on top. It’s definitely no Josef Frank, but it’s a lot cheaper!

– When I was in college and blogging, I used to say that there was a direct relation between how busy I was and how often I posted. It didn’t make sense, but for some reason I always seemed to get really verbose when I had a big to-do list (maybe because many of those to-do items were essays I had to write, so I was already in typing mode). I’ve been busy this month, but these days that doesn’t translate into more frequent blogging, sadly. A lot of the busyness is work-related, which isn’t exactly great blog fodder (well, some of the teaching stuff is, but I daren’t write about it), and I’ve barley even been taking photos of meals, since they’re thrown together after I get back from class (see the umpteenth veggie burger I’ve had this week above). But now I finally have a weekend with no plans… except crazy amounts of cleaning.

– One complete task on my cleaning check list is the oven. I’ve been meaning to try out this trick using ammonia to clean the burner grates, although it took me a long time to get around to it. My grates are too big for plastic bags, like that how-to suggests, but I found that a big Tupperware-type container could fit two grates at a time. I also used ammonia to clean the pans that go under the burners — on my stove, there are two long pans for either side, so I had nothing that they would fit inside. Instead, I sandwiched them in cling film (with ammonia sitting in/on the pans themselves), which I sealed along the edges by tucking it underneath. The trick worked pretty well for the burners and awesomely for the pans. No scrubbing! If you decide to follow that how-to, they really aren’t kidding about ventilation, FYI.

– I keep a tube of chapstick in the pocket of the sweatshirt I usually wear at home. And today I was lying on the sofa, proof-reading, and the chapstick must have rolled out of my pocket at some point. After dinner, I walked into the living room and saw pieces of something I couldn’t immediately identify on a sofa cushion, and when I got nearer, I realized it was the tube of chapstick — with the twisty end piece (and the screwy part that goes up into the body of the tube) removed, sitting next to it. What amazed me was that there were only the slightest of tooth marks on the tube (obviously, Henny had been the dismantler), and she hadn’t chewed it up at all. In fact, I was able (with quite a bit of force) to get the twisty part to snap back in, and it’s as good as new, now. I don’t think that I, even with my cleverly evolved thumbs and everything, could have separated the two parts the way Henny did. What a funny/weird/smart dog.

– Look, it’s like a Pusheen comic about my two cats! Remember when Birdy was only leetle? I mean, really. Birdy turned two years old a couple of weeks ago. And she’s currently sleeping on her back, paws twitching as she dreams. Little baby cat.

– How good does that pizza look? It was really, really good. I made it on a whim, using Bisquick + salt + garlic powder + oregano + thyme + milk to make the crust, which I rolled out reeeeally thinly (it barely approximated roundness, but that’s okay). I topped it with some sauce I made, onion, green pepper, black olives, veggie pepperoni, and sharp cheddar. It was SO much better than any of the frozen pizzas I’ve had in the last few months. I might be ready to say that I’m not too bad as a cook.

– I use my hand-me-down iPad (a Christmas gift from Rob) a lot — and for a lot of different things. I like to keep it on the kitchen table during the day, in case I want to check something when I’m reading the paper or eating lunch, say. Unfortunately, Birdy is obsessed with the cat game (appropriately called ‘Game for Cats’), so she’s always trying to monopolize the iPad time. Fortunately, it’s super funny when she gets into it.

I think my camera might be stuck on the ‘dramatic lighting’ setting, don’t you? Seriously, what’s up with the moody atmosphere, sandwich? (Okay, the sun had just gone behind some clouds when I took that shot.) I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m part of the BzzAgent program, and from time to time I get samples of things to test out. A lot of it has been non-food items, so I’ve been reviewing the products elsewhere, but the most recent product was Brownberry’s new Health-full bread. I got a coupon for a free loaf and bought the ‘Nutty Grain’ variety to try — just at the right time, since I’m going through a sandwich phase. I try not to pay attention to calories-per-slice, but this stuff is only 80 calories, which is good, if you’re trying to watch your intake, and it’s not dry or ‘weird’ like a lot of the low-cal breads. Something to look for at the supermarket!

This isn’t really a review, but I’m loving oranges right now. I’m more of an apple person, usually (duh), but Sam’s Club has giant bags of big oranges right now, and they’re surprisingly good. My mom had bought a bag and shared a few with me, and then I had to get an entire bag for myself when I was at Sam’s Club on Monday. I also finally figured out a good coffee-to-water ratio for my little French press (it seems to change every time I switch coffee brands), and I thought it looked oddly red-orange while it was brewing.

So, that’s all. Bread and oranges and coffee.

– Don’t you wish I’d update more? I wish I would update more. (I guess you wish that if I’m lucky. You might have just given up on me.) I’ll tell you this: Being sick and starting a new teaching gig can really take it out of a person. Luckily, my germs are slowly receding, and I can only hope that teaching will get easier as I get the hang of it and have more energy. (It’s fun, but wrangling so many 1-5th graders even for an hour and a half is work.)

– I made these chocolate crinkle cookies for my grandma’s birthday. I’ve been wanting to try that recipe for many months, and my grandma loves chocolate anything, so it seemed like a good match. At first, I only made a quarter batch — enough to give to her and a couple left over for me. But it quickly became apparent that a couple wasn’t going to be enough, since they’re the Best Cookies Ever, so I made another half batch a couple of days later. I shared some with my mom and stashed a bunch in the freezer.

– Blah. I was going to write a new post last night, but I’ve been sick the past few days — a horrible, congested, cloudy sort of sick. And then I got one of those awful, mysteriously sore tastebuds, which was driving me crazy. And then, right around the time I was going to start my new post, I started getting heartburn. I just gave up at that point and went to bed. Bah. Who has time to feel gross? (The almond croissant has nothing to do with being sick, but it’s prettier than a photo of a Kleenex pile.)

– Henny playfully chases Birdy around most days, just for a little while, and Birdy never seems too bothered by it, but I also didn’t think she was really part of the game. But I’ve been working in the living room the past couple of days (just for a change), which is where Henny hangs out all day, so I’ve had a chance to observe her more closely. Or maybe I should say observe Birdy more closely. Because Henny was just sitting on the rug yesterday, minding her own business, and then Birdy started talking to her. Birdy is a very vocal cat, and I swear for about a minute straight, she was looking at Henny and meowing and walking around. Then she walked into the other room, and — boom! — Henny bounced after her, barking. The same thing happened today. So now I think Birdy really is instigating things, at least some of the time.

– I haven’t made my own yogurt or bread lately, but I did make deodorant this weekend. I’d been thinking about using Amy’s recipe for quite a while, and then Shreve of Daily Coyote wrote about it more recently (she lists her measurements in the comments of her post on the topic), and I finally ordered some shea and cocoa butters on-line. I had everything else I needed, including an empty deodorant container, and it couldn’t have been easier to make. I’m not 100% in love with the scent of shea butter, but I can’t actually smell it when it’s on. I’ve been using the deodorant all this week, which included two days of teaching in warm schools (= super sweaty me), and it really, really works. I haven’t used an antiperspirant is years, so if you do, this homemade stuff might be an adjustment. But I think it works even better as a deodorant than the Tom’s of Maine stuff I just ran out of.

– As you probably know (because I like to mention it), I’m a fairly accomplished sandwich maker. I’m judging this based on the fact that other people’s (delis’) sandwiches always taste rather ‘meh’, and mine are awesome. My current favorite goes bread, honey mustard, organic sharp cheddar, tomato slices (lightly salted), baby lettuce, avocado mashed with garlic salt, bread. I lightly toast the bread (one side with mustard+cheese, one side with the avocado) in a dry skillet before adding the other things and putting the halves together. My mom likes to daydream about having her own bakery, but I think I would rather be a professional vegetarian sandwich maker.

– I got this crazy (dumb) idea to make a book out of my earliest blog posts (starting in 2000), and the idea’s turning out to really crazy (dumb). There’s no streamlined way to get the posts from HTML document to InDesign, so it’s a very tedious process. It seems particularly crazy (dumb) because I’m making this only for myself, but I think future-me will appreciate it. I’m not really reading the posts as I format them, but I do catch snippets here and there, and it’s remarkable to me how small the blogging community was at that time. Everybody has (or has had) a blog now, but it seemed so novel just a little over a decade ago.

– On a related note, what do you think college-you would think of current-you? I feel ridiculously lucky most days, so I hope college-me would see and appreciate that. She’d probably be a little disappointed that I’m not exponentially better at guitar, however.

– I’d noticed Beany sitting on the radiator several times lately, so I put a rug on top for her. Booty used to love lying up there, too, but this is the first time Beany’s used it for anything other than a convenient place to perch / look out the window. Now that the rug’s on there, it’s her favorite place to be. I wish I had old-fashioned radiators in all the rooms (they’re only in the kitchen and guest room; everything else has baseboard radiators) — they’re so much warmer and pet-friendly.

– I started a new job today. Don’t worry, I’m still doing the same publishing work as always, but I found a second, very part-time job to earn a little more money. It was a strange feeling to have a ‘first day’ again; it was almost exactly seven years ago that I started with Snowbooks, and the freelance work I do is basically the same stuff. I can’t write about my new gig in detail, of course, but I’m teaching after-school technology classes — mainly movie-making on the computer right now, but there’s a broad range of stuff, from animation to Lego robots. I worked with elementary-school-aged kids in high school and college, and it was fun to be back in that environment again today — a little like riding a bicycle; once you’ve learned it, you don’t forget how to use your teacher voice.

– We had a very mild winter up until about January 11th (the day Rob, who would have really appreciated some snow, left). It’s been colder since then, but the snow has been pretty pathetic. It’s funny, because I don’t even particularly like the cold and snow, but I’m going to feel really cheated if it doesn’t get winterier before spring rolls around. It’s not because I want to revel in the inclement weather; I’ll just feel like I haven’t earned my annual True Minnesotan badge if I don’t have to survive the cold. Not to worry, though — this is Minnesota, after all, so I reckon there are still a good three months for winter to really get ugly.

This is my new favorite photo of Henny. We went up to the cabin this week, for some cold air and solitude. My parents’ dogs have lots of half-chewed toys up there, which Henny helped herself to. I can tell that Henny is pretty happy/comfortable at the cabin now, because when she’s on the sofa and I go into another room, she doesn’t budge. Usually, when we’re anywhere besides at home, she has to follow me everywhere.

It was pretty cold this week (Thursday’s high was something below zero, Fahrenheit), so there was no exploring the great outdoors. Mainly I just read submissions for work. But I finally finished this evil puzzle. I didn’t think it looked all that difficult when I picked it up at the thrift store, but everything besides the border and the barn was stupidly tedious. Puzzles (especially second-hand ones) are like any piece of furniture from Ikea that you’ve ever tried to put together. Right when you get yourself all worked up about the piece that they obviously forgot to give you, you suddenly have to admit, ‘Oh, here it is.’ (P.S. — I never do puzzles at home because A) I have better things to do and B) cats.)

I also watched TV at the cabin, and every station seemed to be running endless commercials for the season premier of Archer. I don’t generally care about animated series, but the promos made me laugh even after the twentieth time, so I tuned in. And now I’m watching the first season on Netflix. It’s smart and stupid, which seems to equal very funny.

My mom drove up on Wednesday to look at some shops and get lunch, which we did at Tobies. (I don’t understand why it doesn’t have an apostrophe, but it doesn’t.) While buying some bread at their bakery, I noticed they had a couple of copies of The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. I’m a fan of the VlogBrothers on YouTube, and although I’ve never read any of John’s books, I had to inspect these copies for signatures. Every copy of the first edition was signed by John, and his brother Hank put his own mark on a bunch of them, too. Well, one of the Tobies copies had both the signature and the Hanklerfish, so it left with us (in exchange for money, of course), and now I’ve read a John Green book. My brief review: very sad, funny too, two thumbs up.

– I made another batch of cheater granola, this time with some packets of berry instant oatmeal that I wasn’t crazy about. For a time, I was really into these packets as a quick snack, but there were a few kinds that I tried and didn’t like all that much, so they’ve been sitting in my cupboard for months and months. So now I’m able to use them up, AND I don’t have to buy cereal for my yogurt. (I’m not sure why I like the flavor as granola and not oatmeal, but I do.) I recently made cranberry sauce from whole berries I’d frozen after Thanksgiving, so I used a tablespoon of that instead of apple sauce this time. The ‘recipe’ is five packets instant oatmeal (flavored), 1 Tbsp vegetable oil, 1 Tbsp apple (or cranberry) sauce; bake at 250F for 40 minutes, stirring a few times.

– Rob left on Wednesday, but I brought him to Sam’s club before he left, since it’s such a ridiculously American place. I bought a big bag of potatoes that I now have to get through (I think I’ll make and freeze french fries or something similar), so I made a baked potato with broccoli and white cheddar for lunch. I also got another bucket of organic lettuce, which meant that I had to make more seitan sausages, as I really like them on salads. So that’s sausages, granola, and cranberry sauce that I’ve made in the past few days. I’ve also been washing lots of bowls and pans!

– And one last thing that I made (sort of) is this sweater. That’s a before and after photo I’ve linked to (here’s another angle). Several weeks ago, I went through a pile of clothes that my parents had in their basement — stuff they had cleared out of their closets. I brought quite a few things home, including several of my dad’s sweaters. I thought I’d use them to make leg warmers and shirts for Henny, but then I decided to see if I could alter a few into wearable sweaters for myself. I cut off the sleeves, narrowed them, narrowed the body, and then reattached the sleeves (positioned differently, making the shoulders narrower as well), and I thought it turned out pretty well. I’ve got a couple more I want to do this with, and I might try to create a tutorial of the process. It’s so easy!