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Category: dubious

We don’t need no resolutions

I don’t usually make resolutions. I think you should live the first few months of the new year just as you live any other day.

Oddly, I have some definite plans for the next year.

  • Exercise – I have a gym membership now, so I really should go. This means going to bed earlier and spending less time cuddling Tika (my cat) in the mornings.
  • Finances – more penny pinching and tracking and more of a dent in my debts. I have no idea how this stuff works, so I won’t put a numerical goal on it. If I could be (credit card) debt free by the end of the year, that would be swell. I can not wait to go back to being more relaxed about things… well, maybe not all the way, but not this tight.
  • Relationships – I love my independence. It is very difficult for me when someone’s happiness depends upon my actions. So why am I looking for a relationship? Stop that.
  • Alcohol – I just had to throw out part of a bottle of scotch when I went to drink it new years eve because it had gone all watery with age and air. Therefore, I resolve to drink more this year. There is no excuse for having scotch linger long enough to go bad.
  • Empty space in my kitchen – I shall continue to resist the urge to buy either a deep freeze or a pantry cabinet for the space in my kitchen that would perfectly fit either of those – because I have a well stocked larder even in the limited space I have, and some day I shall have to move.
  • Music – figure out how to cancel my subscription to BMG music thingy. [ETA: DONE!] Don’t listen to bagpipes indoors.

It’s the traveling on that will be the hardest. I ache to take trips. I want to go back to Minnesota; Europe is so close and easy; and I long to see Australia and New Zealand. Maybe I shall compromise by starting a separate savings account as a travel fund… or, I should pay off my debt as quickly as possible and then start the travel fund… but the visible planning might help calm the urges… argh! Anyway, so slap me if I start talking about trip planning – the answer is NO! OOooo… did I mention that Chicago is high on the list of places in the U.S. I want to visit?

It only leads to trouble

Hee! So after those elaborate plans for dinner yesterday, I got home and decided I didn’t want to do dishes to start in on making food.

So I bought a loaf of white bread and had a hamburger.

Happily, however, after a scant cup of stew, a hamburger, and a lettuce sandwich (to use up the leaves that had been pulled off and cleaned but not used to quesadillas the night before), I was quite full and satisfied.

And I did the dishes this morning, so we are on course for bizarre chinese-ish food tonight.

Also, I might be a homewrecker. By accident. And without sex.

See – the new neighbors next door are a woman about my age and her slightly older boyfriend and his daughter.

I am occasionally nice to his daughter when I am sitting out on my porch and she is outdoors playing. Nice for such values that include giving her a young adult novel I had finished (and was reading the sequel to at the time) and giving her a harness and leash for her new kitten who they were letting wander around outside with just a collar and a general optimistic attitude that it wouldn’t stray from the back yard.

And then last week I was making red beans and rice and ended up using too much pork, so I used the entire one pound bag of beans… so I popped my head out and asked the girlfriend whether she’d like some for dinner the next day when it was finished. She said yes, and I filled up a bowl for her… but apparently she has never had red beans and rice and the boyfriend is very very fond of the dish.

Item three. So I was just popping out to get bread, and I paused a moment on the porch to admire the backyard, as I do, and then I noticed the boyfriend was out on his porch – so I covered for my standing a bit there like a dork by saying I was trying to identify the smell. And then I covered for saying he smelled by pointing out that he was smoking. And then mentioned that it was actually a rather nice smelling cigarette (one of those dark ones). And it was three steps down the alley later, when he was saying, “Yeah, it does smell nice,” that I realised I had just complimented the smell of the cigarettes for which he had been banned to the outdoor porch while it was raining.

*facepalm*

If they break up, I will be full of guilt.

Swap one for the other

The original Battlestar Galactica, you know – the one with Lorne Greene, is so much better than the new one.

Driving on highways during the daytime is always worse than driving at night. Driving at dusk, dawn, and 3am joyous.

Dairy products are interchangeable.

The key to running an economic kitchen is just the right amount of storage space – too much, and those exotic sauces and fancy jams start looking sexy; too little, and you can’t stock up on sales. It’s the freedom to be able to buy the six boxes of pasta for $3 that saves you from running out of pasta and getting stuck with a box for $2.50. It’s knowing that you have enough meat in your freezer that you can wait for good sales and never pay more than $2/lb for any kind of meat (and can stubbornly wait for some to get even cheaper – like chicken thighs below $.50/lb, whole chicken and pork shoulders or picnic ham roasts for $.80 – and if you live somewhere these are cheaper, that alone will be enough for me to spend at least 5 good minutes considering moving there). Produce is pure luck, though – luckily, I have people selling lots of good produce cheaply off the back of a truck.

Sewing your own clothes from scratch doesn’t save a dime.

People think I can garden even though most of the pots on my porch are empty. The pots are empty because I have been systematically killing the plants that were passed to me when my neighbor moved out of state. They think I can garden because I have pots.

This *is* my pious face

So I snuck out for lunch and ate at a restaurant so that I wouldn’t have to discuss whether I was or wasn’t eating with the other people in the staff lounge. While I was there, not only did I write a bunch more, but I also had three cups of tea.

Now I really want more tea – but people will see me.

Yes, it is very silly and I am kind of enjoying that aspect.

As for heartwarming traditions – My family was never very good at the whole fasting thing, so every year for Yom Kippur we would remove ourselves from the temptation. We’d all pile into the family car and go for a long drive north (and sometimes west toward the mountains) so that we could catch the best of the autumn foliage. We’d go by back roads, and occasionally we’d accidentally end up in another state, and then we’d turn around and head home in time to stop (almost always a little early before dark) at whatever restaurant looked new and interesting.

farmers’ markets

Wow! The weekday farmers’ market is way different from the weekend one.

There was nowhere to get eggs, but there were different produce vendors than usual, and they were all willing to haggle to get rid of their produce!

I got a quart of peach seconds – so now I need to layer them with sugar and set them to ferment.

I got 7 rolls for $2 – so now I need to eat massive quantities of bread – I did my part by eating 3 with garlic butter and pot roast – Mmmmm.

Two wee little baby melons for half price!

a bunch of bell peppers for a dollar!

and some yummy cheeses – not discounted. Often farmers’ market cheddars taste a bit bitter to me, but not these – so great find.

*rolls about in the glory of good food*