Playing Hookey

I’m taking the weekend off from doing “normal” stuff. I have a few fun projects to do, but I also have my shovel in hand and I’m ready to clean the house and unpack boxes! Wish me luck, I’m going in!

I’ll be back on Monday – have a lovely, lovely weekend!

It’s the Little Things – Really

The other day, for some reason, I was noticing all the things in my life that make my life fun or easier. I realized there are oodles of things that qualify. Here are just a few of them:

My Cuisinart stick blender. I love that thing and use it every day. I make homemade mayonnaise that’s to die for and from that wonderful salad dressings. Plus, I just love watching the emulsification process – it’s cool.

For those of you who’ve asked, here’s my mayonnaise recipe:

1 cup light tasting olive oil (I don’t like the regular olive oil taste in mayonnaise and I don’t use vegetable oil)

3 egg yolks

1 tsp stone ground mustard (don’t use yellow mustard)

1 tsp apple cider vinegar (I think probably any vinegar would work)

1 tsp lemon juice plus more (Real-lemon, since you might use a bunch)

Put the egg yolks in the bottom of a two cup clear measuring cup. Add the rest of the ingredients, then pour the oil slowly into the container. Wait until the egg yolks settle to the bottom.

Put the stick blender on the bottom, turn on, and wiggle it until the mixture turns white. You’ll see clouds forming as the mixture emulsifies (love this part). Now, this is basic mayonnaise. I thin it to the consistency I want by using lemon juice.

For dressing (or a great dip or to top broiled mushrooms) , I throw in a jar (or a can) of anchovies and some really sharp blue cheese. I don’t use salt in the dressing recipe, but you might want to salt to taste after you’ve made the mayonnaise.

The nice thing about this recipe is that you can adjust it to your taste. Just keep it to 3 egg yolks and 1 cup of oil. Also, you can add stuff to the finished mayonnaise to make your own dressings.

Vitabath Rose or Red Cherry bath gel. Oh, yummy, yummy stuff. It lathers like mad and the scent lasts long after the shower/bath.

Paper plates made by Stalkmarket. They’re microwaveable and made of sugar cane fiber.

Potpourri – love the stuff. Any kind.

C.E.T. poultry toothpaste – makes brushing Flash’s teeth fun.

My Dyson vacuum – the silly thing has worked flawlessly for seven years.

The Highwave cup that I bought from Amazon. It’s the only cup I’ve ever used that really keeps stuff hot. Plus, it doesn’t spill when you accidentally drop the cup (let me tell you how many times that has happened in my office).

The passport pouch I hang around my neck when I’m not wearing something with pockets. It holds my cell phone and Flash’s kibble (I’m always equipped with kibble.)

How about you? Do you have any little things that make your life easier or enjoyable?

Laughter – Underrated Medicine

Flash all buckled in to go bye-bye. Please note the "abandon hope, all ye who enter here" expression.

I love that Flash makes me laugh. I adore his antics, and the fact that he runs through the house like a bullet train sometimes, ears flat, nose high, with that look in his eyes that announces he’s playing and having a wonderful time.

I love being tickled by videos and jokes that amuse me. I love silly TV humor and I’m often more juvenile then I like to admit.

In other words, I love to laugh.

I try, every day, to laugh at something. It’s a crusade. If I haven’t naturally laughed by day’s end, I go in search of something goofy, whimsical, or just plain dumb. I almost always find something.

To me, laughter is medicine. It’s a mood altering drug. It’s a pill without a pill. Laughter reminds me that nothing is ever that serious, that humor has a place in life.

How about you? Do you deliberately try to find something goofy in life? What’s the last thing that made you laugh?

What Can I Afford to Lose Today?

That’s the question I ask myself whenever I sit down at my computer. It’s what keeps me sitting at my computer even when I’m exhausted. A few minutes is all it takes to back something up again.

I once had my computer stolen a week before my manuscript was due in New York. Because I’d backed it up to my IPod, I was saved. All the other saved versions – CD and flash drive – had been stolen as well.

Now? I’m slightly paranoid, but my life is on my computers.

I back my desktop with Carbonite.

I back up my desktop to a separate hard drive.

I back up my home network to Carbonite as well.

I back up non-personal files on my network on Dropbox.

Once a week, I back up my Dropbox folder to a flash drive.

I archive my flash drives once a month and begin using a new one. I put the flash drives into my offsite security.

If you keep anything on your computer, I urge you to be redundant in your backups. Malware can destroy a backup file or mechanical problems can mess up a flash drive. A cloud service (like Dropbox) can have a security issue or Denial of Service attack.

You probably don’t have to be as paranoid as I am, but I’d never count on one kind of backup as being good enough.

Chocolate – A Different Perspective

I ordered some chocolate the other day. Since I can’t eat sugar, I ordered a block of unsweetened 99% cacao.

The other day, when I was feeling really lazy and really craved chocolate, I sliced (okay, it required a mallet and a knife) off a bit and ate it.

What I expected was a pucker. What I got was the most fascinating taste.

I know that chocolate is often used without sugar in recipes such as chicken mole. Or that it was used in Central America as a bitter, spicy beverage. Did you also know that the cacao bean was also used as currency? Or that chocolate originated in the New World? Just imagine, all those years of being without chocolate in Europe.

This was the first time I’ve ever eaten plain chocolate and appreciated the complex flavors of it.

I’m looking forward to trying chocolate without sugar in different recipes.

How about you? Ever taste plain chocolate?

EDITED TO ADD:

The first draft of this post was rife with errors. My only excuse is that, well, I don’t have an excuse. In my world, everything needs to be edited.

Goodreads – Time Suck or Good Idea?

I’ve been a member of Goodreads for a year or two, I think. However, I haven’t really gotten involved until recently.

I’m giving away books through Goodreads, reviewing the books I love there, and generally interacting. I’ve received some recommendations for books that I might have missed, otherwise.

So, here are my questions: Are you involved in Goodreads? Do you like it? Do you enter the books you’ve read? Do you find recommendations there? Have you joined any groups?

The Jar – Or How I Learned to Think Over the Wall

For four years, from the time I was 13 until I was 17, my father handed me a jar every night. In the jar were slips of paper on which he’d written topics, things like “NATO treaty”, “capital punishment”, “the existence of God”, etc. Except for those times when he was TDY, I was expected to take one side of the argument on one of these subjects and debate it with him. I couldn’t go to bed until I had made a reasonable case for or against. I never got to choose which side, by the way.

I’m sure people would consider such a thing child abuse nowadays. Perhaps it was, because there were many nights when I was in tears. I was so bloody tired of hearing my father say, “You’re wrong and I’ll tell you why you’re wrong,” that I could spit.

Yet those debates were invaluable to the person I became. I can wrap my mind around two sides of an argument because that’s the way my brain works now. It’s a handy skill to have as a writer. I think of ideas and concepts as a wall. I’m able to peer over both sides and see that two separate people can hold divergent viewpoints without one of them being stupid or ignorant.

The other day, I was channel surfing and happened onto Toddlers and Tiaras. The way I feel about this show is rather visceral. I don’t like anything about it. But you know what? I wouldn’t call the mothers ignorant. Nor would I call them stupid. I can understand that they do not hold my viewpoint. I don’t share their viewpoint.

One of the fascinating things about my nightly training in debating is that I always lost when I resorted to emotions. I had to learn to push my emotions aside, especially when I was given the task of defending a point of view that was opposite of what I truly felt. The result is that I can distance myself from the feelings of a particular issue with relative ease.

But I understand that other people weren’t subjected to nightly debates like I was. Some people feel that the only way to win an argument is to call others stupid or ignorant. For them, it’s a normal, natural, and a winning strategy to use pejoratives – or resort to emotionality – if other people don’t share their views. That tactic has always struck me as juvenile, and reminds me of grade school. “You’re a stupid pants.”

My thoughts about dealing with those kind of people? I can’t talk to them. I walk away. It’s a better decision than trying to reason with someone who isn’t using reason. For that, I credit my father and the infamous jar. Am I always able to walk away? No, of course not. But when I don’t, I regret it. I hear my father saying in that booming voice of his, “You’re wrong and I’ll tell you why you’re wrong,” and I roll my eyes.

How do you handle people who resort to name calling when trying to win an argument?

Tomato Soup and a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

The proofing is going wildly fast. I think it has to do with using Scrivener on this book. When I saw problems, I corrected them immediately and that’s where Scrivener is gold for me. It allows me to “see” things easier.

So, I’m bopping along, absolutely amazed that what normally takes a week has taken only a few hours, when it hits me.

I’m really, truly almost finished with this book. How do I know?

I’m starting to crave comfort food.

I want a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich.

Last book it was chili with cheese sprinkled on top.

The book before that it was my mother’s New Mexico enchiladas. (Stacked, not rolled.)

None of which I can eat, of course. However, I may make an exception this time, or find some acceptable (and edible – for me), substitute.

Do you have comfort foods? Do you reward yourself? I know we’re not supposed to use food as a reward, but sometimes, it just feels right.

 

Enough to Say Grace Over

I use that expression all the time. I probably use a lot of southern-esque expressions, like:

Bless your little heart.

Don’t fret about it.

Rode hard and put away wet (definitely a western expression).

Finer than frog’s hair. (Ever see hair on a frog? Pretty damn fine, right?)

Down and dirty (which I’ve been told is Southern. Is it?)

Plumb – as in “just plumb stupid.” I confess to not using this one all that often.

Go hog wild.

Do go on.

Stomping grounds.

Two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

And, a southern poem:

A gum chewing girl and a cud chewing cow

Are just alike yet different somewhow.

Ah, yes, I see it all now.

It’s the thoughtful look on the face of the cow.

How about you? Any southernisms you use?

Free Book Friday

I’m on Free Book Friday. Scoot over there for a chance to win one of four copies of A Scottish Love.

http://romance.freebookfriday.com/2012/01/scottish-love-by-karen-ranney.html