Every time spring comes I think of that song because I love how ridiculous The Producers is. But it is FINALLY spring in Wisconsin! The farmer's market opened this morning and I got some plum-barb (plum & rhubarb) jam because I was curious. I have yet to try it, but it will doubtless have a unique flavor. It was also ridiculously nice out, close to 70 degrees, so I went outside and continued work on the gardens in the backyard. They probably have not been kept in a very long time...everything is really crowded and overgrown from being allowed to divide and spread year after year in the same exact spot. The most exciting thing about watching things pop up is that I get to see all the springtime plants! I moved to my current address last June, and by then everything was already overgrown like crazy, so I never noticed the plants that had already come and gone or were buried under the monstrosity of hostas, wild mint, and orange daylilies.
Some spring plants that I have found growing include snowdrops (they were blooming at the end of March ^^), some plants growing from bulbs that I THINK are tulips (we'll see! assuming they grow in the big pot I put them in, that is...), and as of yesterday, daffodils! I had always wanted some daffodils because I like them. They were growing, of all places, out of the mysterious pile of dirt and debris that appeared in the middle of one of the gardens after a wind storm knocked a giant branch down onto the garage next door and did quite a bit of damage. I think they'd been there before because they were rather choked in mint roots (mint spreads like CRAZY and is REALLY hard to dig through...), but I was very pleasantly surprised when I noticed something bright yellow growing out of the dead plants and garage debris and realized it was the very thing I had wished for. They are now planted right beside the front steps so I can look at them every time I come and go :) The lily-of-the-valley and sundrops that I thought were dead due to my poor transplanting skills are both coming back, too! Maybe I'm not so bad at this. I also planted poppy seeds today. Normally I'm not that great at raising plants from seed, but we'll see how it goes. The last time I planted flower seeds, they did fine until the maintenance guys at T's old apartment took a lawn mower to them :( My next project is to get some bricks and use them to edge the bed next to the driveway because there is no edging and there's really coarse grass growing all over, and it just looks awful. Free bricks, of course. The landlord isn't trying to fix our leaky basement or even partially reimburse us for all the money we spend trying to divert the water every time it floods, so I'm sure there's no way he'd help pay for something as frivolous as landscaping. I bet they'd have no problem charging more rent for the place because of it, though. Jerks.
Oh, yes - I have a new job that starts April 27th! I'm working back where I used to work as a student, but in a much different capacity. I am fairly sure that already knowing me played no small part in their decision to hire me, but I knew straight away they weren't going to just hand it to me, and I'd have to prove like anybody that I was the right person for the job. I KNOW I wouldn't have gotten my new job if I hadn't picked up the skills I did at this government agency. My current supervisor was happy for me, and had some really nice things to say when I told him I got a new job. I thanked him for giving me such a wide variety of projects and giving me some really good work and leadership experience. No way in HELL am I letting the crazy manager lady know all those nice things, though - she would take all the credit for it, I'm sure, just because she's a big jerk and because she interviewed me and jointly decided to hire me. I'm not even going to tell her I'm leaving unless she asks. After all, she's the main reason I wanted to leave, what with the way she treats her employees and how she makes her hiring decisions and deals with complaints. My last day at the government agency is next Wednesday, and I decided I'm only telling the people that I want to tell, and quietly making my exit for the rest of them. I have Thursday and Friday off, then I start the new job the following Monday. It'll be my first "real job"...I will actually get things like sick pay and vacation time and health insurance that I don't have to pay for out of pocket. Hooray!!! Also, my mom will not be bugging me about jobs anytime soon. :) She was SO happy when I told her yesterday, and that was on top of the good news that my dad was offered his job back two months or so after his company decided to let a bunch of people go and he took a severance offer. No more shaking in our boots - our family is now completely gainfully employed again :)
To celebrate...sushi dinner, now that I can afford it! And a KitchenAid mixer, because I love to cook and it is the most kickass kitchen appliance you could ever want. I'm having a lot of trouble deciding what features I want, but no matter what color (I would rather have red, black or blue instead of white) or features I get I will probably spend around $250-$300 unless I find a super good deal on one. I'm willing to wait until I find a good deal, too...but maybe I shouldn't worry so much. After all, I was planning to spend that much on a denshi jisho until I found a REALLY nice one for $100.
What with the new job, being able to afford the slightly more expensive things that I want, and T buying an HD flat screen TV last weekend, I feel like I'm moving up in the world. ^^
Speaking of cooking, I have been trying new recipes, as always. This ginger-carrot soup is REALLY good - even T liked it! I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go spicy or sweet, and ended up adding the cinnamon and nutmeg after I threw in some curry powder (because curried ginger carrot soup sounded appealing at the time). I would recommend EITHER curry powder OR cinnamon + nutmeg. :) I also had some white fish I put too much cayenne pepper on and T wouldn't eat, so I wanted to try making fish soup with the leftovers. As weird as it sounded to me, I was curious. I decided on this recipe for whitefish soup mostly because the lady that created the recipe is from Wisconsin (I figured this recipe would taste most like something I was used to), and as a fisherman's wife I figured she is probably good at cooking fish and making it taste good. I made a LOT of adjustments because I had no celery or bay leaves, only 1/3 lb of fish that was already cooked (I made ~1/6 of the recipe), and I diced frozen French fries because it was all I had for potatoes (hey, I was desperate to include some other vegetable besides onion and carrot...) and it STILL tasted good to me. I also took the suggestion and added cream (half-and-half actually) to make chowder. I can't wait to try it when it's made properly. Next on my list: jam thumbprint cookies. They always look and taste so nice with the fruity center, and apricot jam (one of my very favorite flavors of jam) tastes particularly good in them.
More updates when things finally start growing and I start working my new job :)
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
2.21.2009
dreaming about coffee and bananas
Another month has gone by! Quite scary if you really think about how time gets away from you. And now for some more random things that have been going on or that I have been thinking about.
1) I don't wear makeup very much at all but I want an excuse to wear this stuff. I love looking at all the bright colors, and will have to decide what would look best on me, and maybe plan next Halloween around it. XD
2) My parents finally met Ty's mom a couple of weekends ago when she was in my hometown for a seminar she was teaching. Unfortunately, she got a less than friendly welcome from my dog. Cooper thinks he owns the place, and is very protective of it, so he jumped all over her and tried to bite her a few times. It didn't help that she's afraid of dogs to begin with...sigh. She was perfectly happy to spend time with us anywhere but the house, and we'll have to put him away if she comes back. Had I known she was going to try to come in the house when she did, I definitely would have put him on a leash. Dinner was really nice! We went to a Mongolian-style barbecue much like the Flat Top Grill here, but it was a lot more casual (and less expensive). I want to know where they get yakisoba noodles in this neck of the woods.
3) Tristan and Reese got different jobs. I miss them, but I know they're doing great in their new places. Guess I'll just have to eat at the Great Dane sometime soon. I figured out exactly how much time I have left there (8 weeks + a few hours), and that's only if they can find enough work for me to do. There's usually something, though. Yay. I got recruited for a state job at the university, and there's one that opened up where I used to work! Surprise! I am definitely applying. I have super awesome references for that one, too.
4) We had an unconventionally romantic Valentine's Day :) We went out on a date earlier in the week and I got surprised with anemone flowers (MY FAVORITE ♥) when I came home from work, and then went out for pizza, and it was the most delicious I've had in a LONG time. I also finally got to try Schlitz beer...it's pretty smooth but bites you at the end with the aftertaste, like PBR (the best shitty beer there is). On Valentine's Day we went rollerskating at this rink with really retro lamps on the ceiling that looked cool, but otherwise was kind of run down and shitty (but that's part of the charm and nostalgia) and the driveway was practically impossible to find. On the way in, I was laughing at these two ladies that were sloooooooowly making their way around the rink, hanging onto the side for dear life, but when I put on my roller skates and began stumbling around I felt bad about it. Then I cautiously entered the rink, got more and more comfortable with going normal speed while keeping balance, and in about five minutes I was laughing at them again. There was also a creepy guy with a Hawaiian shirt that was in the middle skating backwards and dancing to every song all by himself and looking at all the ladies who went by...we're pretty sure he's a 'regular.' XD We went to the mall and bought a Classic controller for the Wii, then went home and bought Super Mario RPG from the Wii Shop Channel. I made some pasta dough for homemade bowtie noodles, and played while it rested. Man, fresh pasta is such a lot of work, but still pretty tasty. If I had a pasta roller I would definitely make it again. I made this sauce to go with it, and it was soooooo good. ^^ Then we played some more video games, and called it a night.
5) I am WAY too excited for it to get warm again so I can start growing plants, especially herbs for cooking. I also want to see if the sundrops will recover from my planting them too deep last year. Apparently they spread really quickly.
6) We hosted a potluck last weekend for Ty's tae kwon do club, and had some friends over for dinner last night. We had enough food from the potluck for a whole week of lunches. But only for me, because Ty doesn't like beans or chili. XD I made chicken cordon bleu and these potatoes and an apple-toasted walnut-blue cheese spinach salad for the dinner party and I loved every bite of it, except for when I forgot to take the toothpicks out of the chicken and chomped down on one. Also, Whole Foods has the most delicious (and cute) cakes, and they brought a flourless chocolate one for dessert. mmm ♥ I have been trying a LOT of new recipes lately. Next on my list is pumpkin muffins and toasted coconut shortbread cookies, once the chocolate mint ones I made are gone. I'm surprised I'm not gaining any more weight with how much I've been dealing with food these days and not exercising. Since we moved to a new work building, my access card to the old one that had an exercise room in it got taken away. The day after we moved, someone was bugging my supervisor for the card because it's technically his, so I had to give it back. :(
The last couple of days I have been thinking about the coffee smoothie Molly and I concocted one rainy day with a banana in it, and finally made one for breakfast today, but it wasn't quite as good. I need to have her over again so we can make the good ones.
1) I don't wear makeup very much at all but I want an excuse to wear this stuff. I love looking at all the bright colors, and will have to decide what would look best on me, and maybe plan next Halloween around it. XD
2) My parents finally met Ty's mom a couple of weekends ago when she was in my hometown for a seminar she was teaching. Unfortunately, she got a less than friendly welcome from my dog. Cooper thinks he owns the place, and is very protective of it, so he jumped all over her and tried to bite her a few times. It didn't help that she's afraid of dogs to begin with...sigh. She was perfectly happy to spend time with us anywhere but the house, and we'll have to put him away if she comes back. Had I known she was going to try to come in the house when she did, I definitely would have put him on a leash. Dinner was really nice! We went to a Mongolian-style barbecue much like the Flat Top Grill here, but it was a lot more casual (and less expensive). I want to know where they get yakisoba noodles in this neck of the woods.
3) Tristan and Reese got different jobs. I miss them, but I know they're doing great in their new places. Guess I'll just have to eat at the Great Dane sometime soon. I figured out exactly how much time I have left there (8 weeks + a few hours), and that's only if they can find enough work for me to do. There's usually something, though. Yay. I got recruited for a state job at the university, and there's one that opened up where I used to work! Surprise! I am definitely applying. I have super awesome references for that one, too.
4) We had an unconventionally romantic Valentine's Day :) We went out on a date earlier in the week and I got surprised with anemone flowers (MY FAVORITE ♥) when I came home from work, and then went out for pizza, and it was the most delicious I've had in a LONG time. I also finally got to try Schlitz beer...it's pretty smooth but bites you at the end with the aftertaste, like PBR (the best shitty beer there is). On Valentine's Day we went rollerskating at this rink with really retro lamps on the ceiling that looked cool, but otherwise was kind of run down and shitty (but that's part of the charm and nostalgia) and the driveway was practically impossible to find. On the way in, I was laughing at these two ladies that were sloooooooowly making their way around the rink, hanging onto the side for dear life, but when I put on my roller skates and began stumbling around I felt bad about it. Then I cautiously entered the rink, got more and more comfortable with going normal speed while keeping balance, and in about five minutes I was laughing at them again. There was also a creepy guy with a Hawaiian shirt that was in the middle skating backwards and dancing to every song all by himself and looking at all the ladies who went by...we're pretty sure he's a 'regular.' XD We went to the mall and bought a Classic controller for the Wii, then went home and bought Super Mario RPG from the Wii Shop Channel. I made some pasta dough for homemade bowtie noodles, and played while it rested. Man, fresh pasta is such a lot of work, but still pretty tasty. If I had a pasta roller I would definitely make it again. I made this sauce to go with it, and it was soooooo good. ^^ Then we played some more video games, and called it a night.
5) I am WAY too excited for it to get warm again so I can start growing plants, especially herbs for cooking. I also want to see if the sundrops will recover from my planting them too deep last year. Apparently they spread really quickly.
6) We hosted a potluck last weekend for Ty's tae kwon do club, and had some friends over for dinner last night. We had enough food from the potluck for a whole week of lunches. But only for me, because Ty doesn't like beans or chili. XD I made chicken cordon bleu and these potatoes and an apple-toasted walnut-blue cheese spinach salad for the dinner party and I loved every bite of it, except for when I forgot to take the toothpicks out of the chicken and chomped down on one. Also, Whole Foods has the most delicious (and cute) cakes, and they brought a flourless chocolate one for dessert. mmm ♥ I have been trying a LOT of new recipes lately. Next on my list is pumpkin muffins and toasted coconut shortbread cookies, once the chocolate mint ones I made are gone. I'm surprised I'm not gaining any more weight with how much I've been dealing with food these days and not exercising. Since we moved to a new work building, my access card to the old one that had an exercise room in it got taken away. The day after we moved, someone was bugging my supervisor for the card because it's technically his, so I had to give it back. :(
The last couple of days I have been thinking about the coffee smoothie Molly and I concocted one rainy day with a banana in it, and finally made one for breakfast today, but it wasn't quite as good. I need to have her over again so we can make the good ones.
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