Twitchy Knitter

We has us a new pet mouse! It was living in our piano. It came out. A cat caught it. Then I caught it. We named it Mozart. He iz cute.

Okay, that’s the short version. We found a mouse living in the piano. I didn’t have the heart to do anything about it. So I just decided to let it be. Tuesday it came out and one of the kitties got a hold of it and injured it pretty badly. My youngest son came and got me and told me that the pianomouse was in the kitchen. I went in there to see, and found the mouse nose-to-nose snifing my Sarah kitty. Total cartoon moment. I walked over and just picked it right up. It didn’t freak out, or try to run, or try to bite me. Weird, I know. I plopped it into an old fish tank with some of the old rat toys. It had blood all over it’s face and left front paw. I warned the kids that it might not survive. If it had internal injuries, there was nothing we could do. I told them that the best we could do for the little fellow was to give him a clean, safe place to tend his owns wounds.

Well, he’s doing much better. His left eye is looking good. I have no idea if he can see out of it or not, but it looks like the right one (a little black bead). He still holds his left front paw up when he walks, but he can climb and run with no problem, so I think that’s a good sign. He’s eating and drinking, and peeing and pooping. All good signs, I think. I think he’s going to make it. I hope to only keep him for 2 or 3 weeks and then let him go in the woods behind the house.  (And pray he doesn’t end up in my attic this winter.)

Mouse rehabbing. Whodathunkit?

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There has been Knitting! I made a baby sweater for a friend. A little Kimono top for a baby girl born on July 4th.

Also there’s been yet another Utopia hat. But it looks much better on the recipient than the plain old picture I have of it. If/when I get her permission I’ll post that pic.

I think that’s all for now.

Until next time,

My daughter has been schooled in the ways of making the red beans and rice. Hooray for family traditions! We gathered all of our ingredients and began our lesson.

Of course, there’s the actual red beans, then there’s onion, garlic, bell pepper, celery, salt and pepper, and sausage. Later there’s rice (we prefer brown). I did the major prep of the veggies and let Miss Sadie do the “chopping into little bits” part. She needs some practice with her knife skills, but she’s getting there. And before you ask, my recipe is roughly this:

1 pound red kidney beans

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium bell pepper, diced

1 or 2 tablespoons chopped garlic

a few stalks of celery

some salt

some pepper

8 or so cups or water

some spicy stuff if you feel like it

1 or 2 pounds smoked sausage

Rice (eventually)

Put everything but the sausage and rice in a pressure cooker and cook for one hour after the jiggly thing starts jiggling. Hush up Alton Brown! It can work this way and you know it! After one hour, turn off the heat and let sit for awhile. When depressurized, open the pot. Add sliced sausage and a few more cups of water. Can you tell that I don’t really measure much of anything? Let simmer for as long as it takes to reach the thickness you like. My hubby and I like the red beans to be fairly thick. Meanwhile, cook your rice.

Serve with some cornbread, or buttered bread. Yummy stuff. Eat every Monday…I command you!

Ok, that’s it. Until next time,

Kiddo #3 took his turn at the stove on Monday. At about 3 in the afternoon he asked if we could cook red beans and rice. Nope. Sorry. Too late in the day to start that. So I sent him into the pantry to dig around for something else he might like to have for dinner. I like the way he thinks! Not only did he come up with a yummy dinner, he used up the leftover grilled chicken from Friday night! Talent, pure talent.

We had Soy Ginger Noodles with Stir Fried Veggies and Grilled Chicken Breast, plus Egg Rolls.

Looks good, right? It was. Mr. 10 year-old did a beautiful job, handled everything like a pro, and could not have impressed me more. He made me promise that next week we’d tackle the red beans and rice, though. I don’t think it’ll be a problem!

Until next time,

So the eldest child has decided that he wants to cook a meal, too. He can’t decide what he wants to cook, though. I’ve planted the bug in his ear that since tomorrow (well, later today, if you want to be technical) is Monday he should learn how to cook red beans and rice. Because it’s Monday. And that’s a Monday dish. He said he’d take it under consideration. Bah! Under consideration? WTF? Cheeky little bugger. We’ll see…

Until next time,

Stolen from Stellify…

The Rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

My Result:

1. Van Dyke: Allison, after Picasso, 2. A platter full of cheese!, 3. Andrew Jackson, 4. The green hair club meeting, 5. Scarlett Johansson by heryl Nields, 6. Amazing Circles: Diet Coke Cans, 7. Eilean Donan Castle Scotland HDR, 8. Pumpkin Pie, 9. accept, 10. The KNOT of a Marriage, 11. timid, 12. Rat Scarf As Bondage Aid

I like it.

Until next time,

What with the youngest monkey successfully pulling off a meal last night, kidlet #2 spazzed out and wanted to cook dinner tonight. OK. What did she want to cook for dinner, I asked. Grilled chicken breasts (not gonna happen), peas (do-able), and mashed potatoes (also do-able). We decided that Daddy should do the chicken grilling since he’s got way more experience with the grill than she does. She did, however, choose the seasonings that went on them. And besides, there are bugs out there. That left the peas and potatoes. She needed a little help with the manual can opener, but microwaved those peas like a champ. And let’s just say that instant potato flakes are no match for my girl. She whipped their fluffy little butts!

Now, to get the eldest child cooking and then teach all 3 of them how to run the washer and dryer. Yee haw, this is turning out to be a pretty darn productive summer after all!

Until next time,

Guess it had to happen eventually. My baby is no longer a baby. Dammit.

My youngest monkey (age 6) cooked dinner for the family tonight. Well, he baked a frozen pizza. But still, he felt very accomplished! He added all the extra turkey pepperoni to it by himself, put it into the oven (under extremely close Mom-type supervision), set the timer, checked it at the halfway point, etc. He got all the salad fixin’s out of the fridge and set up a salad bar on the kitchen counter. He even put lettuce in his salad…not just olives, croutons, and dressing. Oh, he’s growing up!

I’m sort of torn as to how I feel about all of this. Part of me is sad that my baby is getting big. Part of me is really proud of him. Part of me thinks that if I can train each child to cook just one meal I’ll be sitting fucking pretty three nights a week! Lazy, me? Nah.

Until next time,

…at being a wife. No, really. I took a test! http://www.shipbrook.com/maritaltest/

You earned a total of 61 demerits and 47 merits, resulting in an overall score of -14.
This classifies you as a very poor wife - FAILURE! (At least by 1930s standards.)

My husband, on the other hand, got stellar results. Back off bee-yotches, he’s all mine!

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FYI: My A/C did get fixed promptly. It’s now nice and cool in my home (praise jeebus). I am, right this moment, sitting in front of the computer enjoying a cup full of tequila-soaked gummi bears in air-conditioned comfort. Yay!

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I do, solemnly swear, that one of these days I am going to knit something again!

Until next time,

Screw me for being positive! That’ll teach me to have a good Tuesday. Frakking universe turned around and bit me in the ass.

Wednesday my A/C broke, and that’s hideous when the temps outside are creeping up towards 90 degrees. The A/C guy will be here tomorrow morning, but for right now it’s fucking hot in my house and all five of us are pissy and miserable.

Earlier this evening all 3 kids got into a fight outside. WITH SWORDS! The stupid plastic swords have been thrown in the trash and they’ve been told that if they catch any more at parades they may as well turn to the nearest kid and give it away. It won’t be allowed in this house. They’ve also been told not to bring any more home from dollar stores. They’ve been given enough warnings about those damn swords. Done, over, finished, no more toy swords. (Hear that, Grandparents?)

So they all got sent to their rooms, punished and pissy and hot. The little one wouldn’t stop screaming, making the other 2 even angrier. The older 2 were yelling back and forth across the hall at each other about who started what and whose fault it all was. I had to just pull back and laugh at them, otherwise I was going to cry.

Eventually they grumbled themselves out and went to sleep, but we’re all still hot. Hopefully the A/C problem is an easy fix and not something that requires waiting for parts. The high temp tomorrow is supposed to be 90. Ick.

So, in my moment of “If I don’t laugh at my children’s misery I’m going to cry” I turned to my on-line group of Mom friends and they talked me down. Wonderful bunch, they are. They gave me several amazing suggestions on how to consume alcohol without getting overly sweaty due to my lack of A/C. I never would have though of mixing my tequila with my kids popsicles! Brilliant! Or doing shots in a nice cool bathtub. Again, Brilliant! And did you know that Gummy candies absorb alcohol? Apparently you can soak ‘em overnight and it’s easier than making jell-o shots. Amazing. I’m so buying gummy bears next time I go to the store.

Until next time,

You know, it was a pretty good day. Nothing amazing happened, just a pile of little things that added up.

I got a new tattoo Saturday morning and looking at it makes me immensely happy. It’ll probably piss me off tomorrow because it’s just about to get to the itchy stage of the healing process, but I’ll still be in love with it.

There are not 5 people in my house who are sick all at the same time! OhEmGee! That hasn’t happened in I-don’t-know-how-long.

The school year is nearly over, so the kids are on a little bit of a high about that. Plus, there may be summer camp in their futures. (That’s good for me.)

Hubby sent me a text on his way home from work that said “I’m cooking dinner tonight”. How awesome is that? He then showed up with a couple of fresh steaks for the grill and some yummy pesto to put on pasta. I lurve that man to pieces.

I got a phone call from a friend that I love dearly. She called to talk about Days of Our Lives. Then we rambled on about other stuff until the kids got home from school. I love a nice free-flowing convo with a good friend. The funny thing is that I’ve only known her for a little over a year and I feel like I’ve known her forever. From the first chance we had to actually talk to each other it was an instant connection. We’re psychic twins!

I finished reading The Golden Compass. Good book! I need to hurry up and get the second one in the series so I can keep the story going before I forget anything. In the meantime I’ve started reading Eragon.

So, nothing truly heart-stopping, but good stuff. I think it’s definitely a sign that my winter funk has lifted when I can look back at a fairly ordinary day and appreciate the goodness in it. I like that.

Until next time,