Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Memories

So I was cleaning off the old computer tonight, trying to get anything salvageable off just in case we need to do a reformat. Some of my old recipes are in a Works database format that I can't access with the new computer, so I was printing some out and copying others into a readable format when I ran across a recipe I hadn't thought of in years. As a kid it was my favourite desert ever. It never had a name that I could recall, other than Grandma's Bars.

I swear, I am going to make some soon, even though I know no one else in my family will eat them. I'll take half in to work, lol. But I just have to have them!

It's a very simple recipe. Smooshed graham crackers, brown sugar, butter, and coconut are all mixed together and boiled, then spread over a layer of graham crackers and topped with more graham crackers. Then you frost the whole lot with frosting with a touch of lemon juice in it. Sounds so damned weird, but they are soooo good, lol.

And of course I found the old Christmas recipes. Recipes I haven't made the last few years because we haven't been doing the turkey and stuffing routine. See, I have a secret...

I go into my local grocery store and I order Christmas dinner ;) This year we had a lovely spiral cut ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole and a truly tasteless apple pie. Everything but the pie was delicious. We ate every last bit of the ham, making ham and bean soup with the leftovers. And the only dishes I had were the pan from heating the ham and the plates we ate on. Brilliant! No one spent the day in the kitchen and we had an amazing meal.

Tonight I am using up the massive container of dates that I bought because I hadn't had dates in years and had to have them (yeah, I do that a lot) by making date bread. It's a new recipe, hopefully it will be good.

Anyhoo, better go check the bread. Catch y'all next year!

Edited to add: Bread was not so good. I love allrecipes.com most of the time, but occasionally no matter how good the ratings are on a recipe they turn out to be stinkers. :(

Friday, December 26, 2008

Post Christmas Consumerism

Apparently the new Black Friday is the day after Christmas now with stores offering deep discounts to after Christmas shoppers.

Me, I'm not really planning on taking advantage of any of these sales. But my dear big brother sent me some money for Christmas and I plan on hitting the yarn shop. I originally started knitting the free smaller size version of this pattern. I was quickly distressed by how small everything seemed. I mean I was using the shortest circular needle I could get and I couldn't join my stitches, even following the hint to use two needles together for the cast on. So I switched to DPNs and it still seems very small. And it's supposed to be felted...

The whole thing is tucked away in a Ziplock bag where I glance at it now and then and shake my head, lol. I think I decided a while ago that it was never going to be completed in its current state. So thanks to my brother I can go buy the full sized pattern and more yarn. I'm not worried about matching dyelots, since I am working with two strands held together. I'll just hold one of each dyelot and it will all be good ;)

And now that the weather is cold again I am thinking of picking up my needles and starting my socks again. I actually wore my wool socks the other day and loved them. This next pair is going to be a normal sock though, instead of just the footie socks. My ankles get cold lately, lol.

I've also promised the kiddo we could scrapbook tomorrow. We got my mom a digital picture frame for Christmas, so scrapping for her isn't such a big thing, but Nanny and Granddad haven't gotten a page in over a year. And we've a new scrapbook just waiting for them. (It was actually supposed to go home with Uncle Andrew last Christmas, lol).

Anyway, have a lovely Boxing Day ;)

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Friday, December 19, 2008

Exploding muppets

My daughter has a couple of eyelash scarves that I knit (my first knitting projects actually). One is adult length because it was originally knit for someone other than my munchkin. That is of course the one she chose to wear to school last week when the temps were below zero.

So long story short, she was carrying it home one day and her hands were full and it was dragging and sploosh! Right through a muddy puddle. Hubby washed it yesterday. It's acrylic. It's machine washable, right? Lol. All the clothes in that load look like an orange muppet exploded on them. We will be picking orange strands off of things for a while. Luckily the black pants I wear to work escaped with only two strands that were quickly picked off.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Baby it's cold outside!

On Saturday the temp was in the 50s. On Sunday the snow was falling and the temp had dropped to 3 degrees. Yesterday it was -15 when the kiddo went to school. Brrrr. Today looks a bit better. We actually have a chance to get above freezing, lol.

It could be worse though. I talked to some WoW guildies that live in Canada. Temps are 30 below in places there (an apparently in some places in Montana too). Yikes!

We didn't let the cold keep us home though. Hubby and I went out and did what I hope is the last of our Christmas shopping. Gifts are in the mail to my mother. Cards will soon be in the mail to those that I could be bothered to send them too, lol. And last night was the dear daughter's Christmas show at the school. So we all trekked out to that.

We certainly didn't stay outside any longer than we needed to, that's for sure.

Anyhoo, I'm off to get dressed for work. See yas!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Tribute



Y'all might not know this, but I love pin up art. I especially love art by Olivia, and particularly those she's done of Bettie Page. So I was dreadfully saddened to hear that Bettie Page passed away today.

So here's my little tribute to Ms. Page, the quintessential pin up girl. (I almost feel this is too modest to do Ms. Page justice, my favourite pic ever is this one followed closely by this one).

Monday, December 01, 2008

Mellow Black Friday

Every year I dread the day after Thanksgiving. Shoppers are crazy that day, as evidenced by this and this. So working on Black Friday sends a chill down my spine.

Last year I worked in a mall that decided opening at midnight would be a great idea (this year the mall opened at 11 pm on Thanksgiving night for crying out loud!), so we had to spread out our employees kind of thin throughout the time period. Which really wasn't a good thing, since we were also going out of business at the time and everything in the store was on sale so things were nuts.

This year I work for a company that's a little different. We opened at 6 am, so I did have to be there by 5:30 but that's not terrible. Yes we had a line. Yes we were busy. But things ran so smoothly that by 7:30 am I was able to break out without anyone freaking out. (Last year was, "break? What break? Lunch? We've got goodies on the counter, graze!").

And luckily for us, we've got really nice patient and polite customers :) Lines moved steadily and no one seemed to mind. But boy am I glad another Black Friday is behind me :)

For me.

It's been a long winter. Mentally, I feel even worse off than I was before, though things are finally looking up. I abandoned the gym. I...