The one about food

I used to think my recipe blog was a bit rubbish - I took photos but rarely posted them. It was just me blathering on about food really....trying to say more than "oh dear god this is good" and offer recipes if people wanted to make it themselves. I started it at a time in my life when I needed a distraction and wanted something to pour myself into...and now I'm finding I just might absorb it back into this blog again...ish. I'll leave it there for now. There's some good stuff there, but I don't see why I have to separate it out anymore...

I was making squash ginger soup today and some oat mango muffins and was going to take some photos, but then I decided not to. Food lately is a process for me. It's like getting lost in trying to photograph life...I'm just not very good at it and I waste time I could enjoying it all in trying to capture how I FEEL instead of an image or a thing if I'm totally honest with myself. And I can't possibly capture how much I enjoy the process of cooking. I cook to unwind and find that there is nothing better on the earth than popping on music (today was Paul's Boutique) and making whatever pops into my head and then nibbling at it contentedly.

I now have delicious soup for the week and muffins for snarfing and I feel like there should be some sort of scratch and sniff option for food blogs. I was disappointed in my photos compared to other food blogs I love like Oh She Glows but I realised that there's reasons why they are so good - these people do them for a living. They have lights and proper cameras...not a little point and click and a dimply lit blue lit kitchen :)

And so I will eat my muffins and soup and have a beer and celebrate sunday and the reabsorption of food into this blog again.

Ginger Squash Soup (from my head as I went along)

1 quart chicken stock
5 c diced butternut squash
2 t grated ginger
4 cloves garlic crushed
2 c diced onion
splash olive oil
Few glugs of cooking sherry
1T brown sugar
cinnamon and pepper to taste (~1/2 t each)

Saute onions and spices with oil until onions are clear. Toss in the sherry and stir a bit, then add the rest and bring to a simmer and cook until squash is cooked (~2o min). Puree up and enjoy. I'm thinking a bay leaf would've been good or maybe some smoked paprika...next time.
Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go eat some soup and have a muffin :)
Cheers. :)

The original cougar

Am I the only one who finds this song creepy and not sultry?
I do love this remix tho... makes me want to cha cha cha...

Han was WAY cooler than Luke

In my home town, in the schoolyard there is an old rocket monkey bar set. It was a spaceship with a fireman's pole down the centre...we spent every recess and so many evening hours playing there. Sometimes Indiana Jones...sometimes the Dark Crystal... but mostly Star wars.
It was the Mellinium Falcon.
It was the Death Star.
We saved the galaxy over and over again...
We would play until sunset - home time. As the tomboy and only girl tough enough to do my own stunts I was always quite frustrated on the days when I had to be the Princess Leia. On a good day I could be Vader. On a REALLY really good day I was Han Solo. :)

When my brother and I went home a few years ago we wandered about to see old haunts and I crawled up to the gun turret of the Falcon for one last look. I could see the tie fighters at a distance...and I was totally not princess Leia...

the downside of disease research

Sometimes I hate being in research.
Where I work we only do ethical animal research where significant, useful results can be found to help treat disease that cannot be done in any other possible way. I'm involved as little as I possibly can in anything like this because I get very attached to the animals and I have a great difficulty working with them. I know we might help someone with this, but it still doesn't make me feel any better about having to help anaesthetise 5 rats today.
I thanked each one for the gift their lives to help us. I held them gently and talked to them calmly as they went to sleep and petted them to calm them. I hope it was peaceful.

I still feel awful...

I choo choo choose this life

I had a wonderful trip.
It is good to be home, but what a nice time. There was a flash blizzard (WTF?) in Winnipeg the day I was to leave to come back so roads were HORRID and closed, delaying my leaving until 8 PM...and so I got in this AM ~6. I had a nap and shower and came in to work for the afternoon...not quite the best way to end my trip, but my poor friend Grapecat was stuck all night in Toronto after beginning her trip home, so in comparison, it really wasn't so bad. I got to spend a few more hours there with her and her family and see her off on the plane before my bus actually left for real...not a terrible thing.

This weekend was wonderful. The train ride was GLORIOUS, with a glass domed viewing car the whole way...complete with full dining car (salmon!) for meals and the ability to sip a beer while hearing an old man play the mandolin and watch the countryside go by, reading a book for fun and feeling then tension sink out my toes the whole trip. I'm definitely taking the train again somewhere with J. I bet a trip thru the mountains would be beautiful...

I had a great visit. I was able to help them put on a birthday party for her Dad and catch up with her and her mom...and then head out just the 2 of us for an evening to unwind, eat thai food and sit at a martini bar drinking ridiculous martinis and laughing. It was nice to see her and just be around at a time like this - we both needed to destress for vastly different reasons. I'm not always the best talker, but the company was impeccable :)

It was good to relax and share in another family's time together. My food and alcohol intake were absolutely atrocious (restraint? I know not this word...) but it was what it was - delicious! Maple martinis...and all manner of delicious wine. Life is good...this weekend I have had reaffirmed to me that it is indeed this life thing that we're all muddling through that is the process to be enjoyed in all the bits and snippits we are granted. You never know how much of it you have left, and it's the people you share it with that make it so much better. :)

And now I am home to my love and my cats AND my Dad...ready to jump back in with both feet for another week of my crazy life...what photos I remembered to take are to come.

Cheers! :)

Memories....

He heh...my friend Cindi is on the Ellen show today...thanks to her ridiculous high school hair. It's a show about ridiculous paid for photos. She has some stiff competition for hers...yes I used to eat with her in the cafeteria with that hair.
Ah. Memories. :)

he he heee. I love it.

Slow Train

Very shortly I will be off on a little mini adventure to the great metropolis of Winnipeg to visit with the ever wonderful Grapecat and her parents for the weekend. She is home visiting from the UK and I'm giggly that I can take a few days away to see her. Strangely there are no direct flights there from here, so instead (for about the same time and way less $$) I will be taking the train there. I haven't taken a train in Canada before, so I'm really excited. I am loaded up with library books (reading for fun!) and snacks and music and my lappy and looking forward to a nice relaxing trip there and a great relaxing visit. I just have to do all my chores before I go, mail off my taxes and set up some algorithms here at work so I can log in and run some while I'm there and not miss a thing being away for a few days (I love technology!).
He hee...
So excited :)

yeaah...I'm the taaax maaaaannnnnn...

Just realized I have to do my taxes tonight.
May I say ...whee?

*cough*

Easter rocks

Mmmm...my fantabulous Easter weekend included:

-2 whole days off
-sleeping in both days
-muffins!
-LOTS of wine and cheese
-hugs from my Dad
-napping and reading in the sunshine with J
-Cat snuggles
-giant omelete
-pewter mugs full of ale
-couch cartoons
-homemade apple crisp with iced cream (Yes I made it. Yes it was the best thing ever)
-canoodling of the highest order

Ah yes. Geo saw it all...and it was good.
I feel positively normal :)

Yes I've still got it and it's not for you.

I went to see MSTRKRFT and the Crystal Method spin DJ sets last night. It was a great show...good music. We met up with some friends and danced our faces off...The music was great, and it was at a local bar I've never been to. It was set up well, nice place with lots of room to dance and not too crowded...it was, however, a reminder of the crappiness of our current culture.

Once again, I was rubbed the wrong way (literally) by "club" culture. You see - I'm a child of the ravey hippyish sort of dance culture - happy, kind people there to enjoy the music. Some of them genuinely odd, but while they may pay you a compliment or check you out, it's civil and respectful and you don't have to worry about a smile to an occasional stranger ending up with a groping or someone assuming you're "out on display" and try to pick you up. I can smile and say "thanks, I'm here with someone" and that's the end of that and we can be friends and share a beer and a dance.
You know -normal behaviour?

I have no problem with someone finding me attractive and wanting to talk to me or ask me if I came with someone. I find it funny really. Why? Well, the thing is, I grew up a tomboy. A fat tomboy at that. I'm not a social animal...I've really come out of my shell the the last few years. To me, guys are pals...I actually get along with them better than girls. When I talk to guys I don't think of them *that* way. I smile at people and look them in the eye when I talk to them. Perhaps the fact that I am happily married removes that whole factor from me entirely when I interact with other people. The thing is - in all other parts of life if I smile and make small talk with someone it does not give them a free ticket to try and grab my ass.
And so why -WHY in a club is this different?

And so I appeal to all men out there.
Yes you.
This is important.

Women are people. Individuals. We are more than our appearance and we are fascinating creatures...witty -intelligent. It's OK if you find us attractive - that is flattering....but *think* before you act- how would you want to be treated? How would you like your SISTER treated? What gives you the right to make any physical contact with someone else without their permission? If you make a venture out to see if someone is interested and the girl tells you "no thanks" or "I'm happily married" or especially "you're making me uncomfortable" that means hit the road. Walking up to someone and trying to grope them, touch them, kiss them or otherwise be icky and animalistic only goes to show just how little of a man you really are.

Let me be clear on this, as there seems to be some of you who didn't get the memo- it doesn't matter what we wear, where we go or if we are nice to you - women are NOT objects. We are not asking for it. We are not obligated to perform or please you in any way unless we so choose.
Get over it.
Grow up.
Be a man.

The thing is - even if I were single...even if I were lonely...this sort of approach disgusts me. It's not the sexy part - I get that. I understand attraction and lust and desire, and I can admire someone who is physically attractive to me - but seriously people -to act creepy in a PUBLIC place...if you're willing to act like this in a public place? I don't want to know you. This demonstrates to me far more about your character than I can ever explain to you.
And don't blame it on the booze. I know plenty of guys who can be very drunk indeed and still not become Mr. Copafeel...it all comes down to YOU and how you feel about yourself and others and women in general. This stuff matters...

I'm tired of people going "oh you know guys! They're just that way!"

Bullshit.

My husband is NOT that way.
My friends are not that way.
It is not OK.

Please -aim for something higher. Something better.
I'm tired of this sort of thing...

Note to self - sometimes the warnings are real

Dear self,

After updating your iPod, when it says "do not disconnect" on the face of the iPod you really honestly shouldn't disconnect it without properly ejecting it.
...OR you have to reset it to factory standards and then have a marvelous time putting everything back onto it.
Again.

You should know better.