Wednesday, July 30, 2008

11th Anniversary

This Saturday is our 11th anniversary. I cannot believe it has been 11 freakin' years that I have been married. I am certainly
NOT THAT OLD! I got my hair cut last week and Mark called while I was there. The very sweet, young lady cutting my hair asked if that was my boyfriend. I was actually confused, like I haven't heard "boyfriend" in awhile, y'all. No, I said, my husband. She asked how long we have been married and was shocked when I said 11 years. I think really she was looking for a good tip but I was flattered that she thought (or pretended to think) I was much younger.

I can't say they have been 11 straight blissful years, but I can say that once we stopped trying to change each other, things have been a whole lot of fun. We were laughing recently about some of our old hang-ups. We had huge fights about stupid things like curtains. I wanted him to be the kind of guy that cared about curtains and he wanted me to be the kind of girl that didn't care. Can you imagine? This from a man who's dream of life as an adult included a loft apartment with a b ale of wire as a coffee table. Well, now I just choose the damn curtains and put them up myself. Live with it. Also live with the fact that we will NEVER have a baled wire coffee table.

I used to pretend to like more things but that didn't last. I tried really hard to love comics since he collects them and draws them but I could never do it. Mark always makes me give the thumbs up or down on on the comics he buys every month. I choose randomly based on the cover art and rarely give more than a half thumbs up. The only artist I really like is James Kochalka, and even then its just his American Elf stuff. But I do love that because it is autobiographical and he and his wife remind me of us. Like in this one.

We have completely different taste in movies, books and TV. He likes to say "if there's crap on TV you will find it" but he seems to find every episode of Murder She Wrote or Matlock on, every time. He has the same taste in TV (and movies,comics,video games) as an 80-year old man or a 12-year old boy so I think my slight addiction to reality TV and E! is better or at least equally lame. And sometimes he pretends to hate what I watch but secretly loves it. The latest example of this is the awesome new show, The Two Coreys (don't pretend you don't love it too).
What we have in common is politics, values, being introverts, humor and food. We love to find new restaurants, try new beer and wine, email each other political stories, crack jokes and make up stories about our cat(s). In fact, I was recently watching High School Musical: Get in the Picture! and was slightly embarrassed when Mark came in the room (it really was a new low, even for me) so I said I wouldn't be watching but Miss Gimp insisted; she has a crush on Nick Lachey. Mark took offense at this and exclaimed that she does not, she loves Sexy Shemar Moore
(we can't say Shemar Moore in our house without the Sexy in front, its a rule). I said that yes, definitely, he is in her top 10. Miss Gimp has not disclosed her other top 8 choices.
So, as we head on into middle age and I still think in the summer of 1997 I made a very good decision and I can't imagine any other life. But I can imagine more money, not working, traveling the world or many, many other fabulous additions to my quite adequate existence.

Happy Anniversary, sweety.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Farm update


People have been asking about our farm share and how its working out. We love getting all the produce and we have tested many new recipes to use it all up. For a while we were getting peas, and by peas I mean like TONS of peas. I put them in omelets, stir fry, salads and mixed with any veggie we happened to eat that night. Now we seem to be well into greens. Salad greens, swiss chard, and kale. By kale I mean TONS of kale.

The salad greens are great because I take salad to work and we eat a lot of salad with dinner or for dinner. In the picture above we tossed the farm greens with NJ tomatoes from Mom and Dad and organic carrots, radishes and onions from Wegman's. So far we are keeping up with the supply. The swiss chard was enough for one meal and I found a great recipe from the Cafe Flora cookbook my brother gave me. The yummy lemon dressing also called for garlic, which we have from the farm too! I love garlic, maybe too much and refuse to use garlic powder so getting fresh garlic bulbs is awesome. The chard was so good I would definitely make it again.

Kale is another story, It's not my favorite. Mark loves it so there's something I guess. We are getting kale in large quantities, 3 bunches last trip! I had to look up recipes that I would want to eat, it took some time. I found two great options, made one last week and one this week. Last week it was Colcannon from the Vegan Yum Yum blog (which I have on my rss feed and LOVE). I used Boca meatless sausage instead of the seitan because it was easier. Didn't taste the kale really at all so it was a hit.

This week it was Kale and Sun Dried Tomato Hummus also from Vegan Yum Yum. OMG y'all! It was delicious! We ate it with the salad above and the leftovers we ate with crackers the next day. I could eat that every day.

Well, we have one bunch of kale left and its almost time to go back to the farm so I guess I need to get back to recipe hunting.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Sewtastic!


I make things. It's kinda amazing. As you know
I now own a sewing machine. After staring at it and sometimes circling it in an attempt to determine whether it would bite, I actually got it up and running. The first thing I did was hem a skirt, then I made a really ugly, misshapen toy snake for baby Haywood and then I made this purse, another purse, a skirt and altered a blazer. How's that for crafting?

My past sewing experience was sketchy at best. Mom had an ancient machine that I used in Junior High. I took a class at the local fabric store and made a pair of palm tree print boxers. I tried to use my new skills on Mom's machine to make a dress but I gave up and Mom had to finish it. In high school my friend designed his own prom outfit but couldn't sew. I volunteered. Mom remembers coming home to see this massive mistake in progress and biting her tongue. I remember fighting with my friend as he screams "I thought you said you knew how to sew!!!" When I told Mark the story he said it reminded him of "that episode of the Cosby Show" I think you know the one.

Hence the trepidation. But, I discovered that I remember the basics and can actually finish projects. It's fun. The purse above was made using a free online pattern from Ric Rac and fabric I bought online at ReproDepot for my birthday. It took me more than an hour but I am a novice. I modified the instructions as I went along and lengthened the strap to be able to wear it hands-free. I liked it so much I made a second one the very next weekend.

This skirt is something I made for weekends in the summer and especially for my Disney World Vacation in August. Its comfy with an elastic waistband. Many of my blogs have been buzzing about using old bed sheets from thrift stores as fabric for sewing. I had wanted to try that. Then I saw this on the CRAFT blog and it was perfect. I went to Goodwill and purchased a twin bed sheet. It's green and white cotton with an eyelet trim. I loved the detail for the hem. I also loved the fact that it was the last Saturday of the month and that meant everything was 50% off! So this sheet was $.60, for reals.

In between sewing projects I joined BurdaStyle and posted the pictures. I think I want to make the Charlie Bag from Burda next.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

I Ruled the School

.....In my mind.

I have been thinking about high school often lately (Rochester Adams High, class of 1992), things keep reminding me of it. The graduation announcements I received in the mail started it, I think. Then my friend Kristin emailed me about a song we loved in school

for the record: Maryn Cadell



To top it off my other friend Kristen's birthday is July 2 so I have been thinking about her and weaving some craft magic for her amusement, which will be late, as always, because that's who I am and I can't change. Happy Birthday Kristen!!!

So, these two girls were and are the best friends a gal could have and we had fun in high school. I was new to Michigan and came from a truly awful junior high experience so it was nice to find people that really got me and supported me and I hope I did that for them, too. Trips to Royal Oak, scouting costumes for plays from area flea markets, camping, and everything else we did while trying to be as grown up as possible.

I was thinking today about other music I loved in high school and came up with this list:

Violent Femmes
Jane's Addiction
The Cure
The Smiths
Morrissey
Primus (jerry was a race car driver)
REM
They Might Be Giants
Pixies
Senior Year: James Taylor and Carol King over and over again

I googled top hits of 1990 and 1991 and got a list of crap I never even considered listening to.