NaBloPoMo-ing poorly

Well, this is now two out of three NaBloPoMos that I've failed at, and I'm starting to think the first one must have been some sort of fluke. In any case, I'm thinking I may not do it again next year. This year, my life was hectic but uneventful, leading to no time and no inspiration for writing. Next year, my life will (hopefully) be a good deal more interesting, but I think I will have probably even less time for writing.

Now that the 90 degree days seem to finally be behind us (knock wood), I've started to plant a few cooler weather plants. I planted two kinds of lettuce, beets, and radishes. I'm really quite excited to get back to gardening.

Continuing the sporadic posting

I could tell you in detail what I've been up to lately, but, as I've mostly been playing Warcraft, I don't think it would make for the most riveting reading. I did do some really kick-ass healing this evening (my character is a priest). R's health bar was dropping and I was all heal, and then R's brother was also running out of health and I healed him, and then they were both running out of health and it didn't seem like I would be able to keep them alive, but I totally did!

Ahem.

I suppose you had to be there. It really was quite exciting.

I made a couple of quiches for Thanksgiving (my family, though they are quite capable cooks, has a habit of making inedible food, such as stuffing and things in Jello). I decided to try out a cheddar and black pepper pie crust, but I think it was overwhelmed by the flavor of the rest of the quiche. I think I'll stick with this crust recipe (but without the sugar, as the sweetness was a little odd with a savory quiche).

Delving into the crazy world of TTC

For those of you who aren't insane parenthood forum lurkers, TTC stands for "trying to conceive." I also do my best to stay the hell away from those cesspits of mania and desperation, but I am about to engage in one of their fetish activities: basal temperature charting.

What that means is I will be taking my temperature every morning at the same time before I've gotten out of bed and making a little graph. It will help determine when (and if) I'm ovulating. I've even bought myself a tricked-out thermometer.

Why would I do such a neurotic activity, you ask? Well, as it turns out, the pill messes with your body a bit. It generally takes 1-3 months for one's cycle to get back to normal, but the effects can last for up to a year (this is also why all the people I know who hadn't used the pill prior to trying hit the jackpot right away, while everyone else takes closer to six months, which is the time frame our doctor gave us). For someone who had a cycle you could set your clock to, unreliability is really disconcerting, particularly when you're hoping that the delay means babies. So, in order to make sure everything is working okay, and to give me the impression that I'm actually doing something, I'm joining the temperature charting bandwagon. Yay.

Three pieces in the shape of a grapefruit

I underestimated the amount of time it would take me to finish my book, so Thursday before my computer class I was left sitting in the car with nothing to do. I wandered across the parking lot to the grocery store, where I saw the most perfect looking grapefruits. They were fat, blushed with pink, and a little soft. I bought two, sat in the car slowly eating one. Due to the statins, it had been about six years since I last ate a grapefruit, and this one was as delicious, juicy, and wonderful as I had been fantasizing it would be.


We decided to play Frisbee golf this morning. The kid in the group behind us was clearly playing his first game, and was very impressed by some of R's drives. He decided R was the Happy Gilmore of Frisbee golf, and started pestering him to make a Happy Gilmore parody movie involving Frisbee golf. Thankfully, he left about midway through the round.


R's mom recently came back from Ireland. As is the case when she visits her homeland, she brings back goodies that can't be easily found in the U.S., usually Tayto crisps and assorted Cadbury candies. During the course of the evening, crisp sandwiches came up as a topic of conversation. R and his family reminisced fondly, while I expressed my disbelief. I clearly am missing something.

Falling off the blog wagon

It is probably a good thing I already failed NaBloPoMo on my own, as otherwise the World of Warcraft expansion would have done it for me this past week. All my spare moments are spent running around a beautiful alpine environment.

The blogging also wasn't helped by the exhaustion I keep feeling in the evenings. Come 10 o'clock, I want to go to bed. Unfortunately, I've been going to an advanced AutoCAD class twice a week for the past three weeks and wind up getting home about 10 pm, which means that Monday and Wednesday are something of a wash. I've been learning all sorts of useful things, but it has been exhausting. It really gives me more respect for my parents, who both went back to school in the evenings to get they bachelor's degrees when my sister and I were little.

Slightly odd

Now that I'm married and trying to get pregnant, sex has suddenly become a topic of conversation with my relatives. After so many years of even allusions to the idea that my boyfriend/fiance and I might have been intimate being somewhat taboo, the change seems a bit strange. Of course, we're not actually going around saying "we're having lots of sex" to grandparents and in-laws, but "we're trying really hard" is essentially the same thing. The nods of approval just freak me out a little.

Holiday eve

Tuesday holidays seem somewhat odd and good for nothing from a distance, but they have their own peculiar charm. Monday, you're filled with energy, as you've just finished up the weekend but you're getting the next day off. It is almost a Friday. The rest of the work week, all three days of it, also seems short and stubby. You're only just getting dragged down by the time it is over. The day of the holiday is the only issue. What do you do to make it special? How can you make it last, particularly when all you want to do is sleep in?

If you want something delicious next Sunday morning...

I would highly recommend these cinnamon rolls. They were ridiculously good. And huge. Downright massive.

Two warnings, though. The recipe doesn't mention when to add the cup of warm water, but if you start mixing the dry ingredients with the milk without having added it, you'll wind up with permanent lumps. Also, adding almond extract to the cream cheese frosting makes the cinnamon rolls reminiscent of bear claws. Next time, I think I will try them with it.

Ay

Hmm... It seems I forgot to post yesterday. Much earlier in the month than last year.

Well, just as an object lesson for the rest of you NaBloPoMoers out there, if you find yourself thinking oh, I'll just post later, you're just lying to yourself.

Books, books, and more books

After learning that books checked out within the San Diego library system can be checked returned to any branch, I went online to request another book from my local library. I was relieved not to have to make more than one trip, as the books I checked out were not from the branch closest to my house. Requesting that one book was so easy, though, that I became drunk with power and requested more, picking books from my saved Amazon cart willy-nilly.

I hope I can read them all in time, but I have been doing more reading lately. I read during lunch at the office, as I am all by myself, and two days a week I also have a couple of hours between work and an evening class I'm taking. I'm a lean, mean, reading machine right now.

I still don't get it

They're still tallying the votes, but at the moment it looks like the end run around the 2/3 majority required to change the state constitution may have passed by a slim margin.

What I still don't get, and probably never will, is how gay marriage would make other people's marriages "invalid." It isn't as though people are going down on one knee and saying, "Darling, would you exclude gay people with me for the rest of our lives?"

No, marriage is about love and commitment to one person, and the two people involved (and perhaps god, if you're into that sort of thing) are the only two that matter. My marriage is no less valid if other people's marriages are shams. Shit, plenty of heterosexual marriages fill that slot. Just because some people get married on a whim in Las Vegas, Britney Spears-style, or for money, green cards, or accidental pregnancies, it doesn't mean that my marriage is less well thought out and personally meaningful.

And to all those people who voted for Prop. 8 because they didn't want their kids to learn about gay marriage in school, I ask you: how much does marriage feature in the curriculum currently? Pretty much not at all.


Okay, I think you're all sick of politics now, so I think I'm done with the political posts. Back to the usual tripe!

Woo!

I've got a new nephew! This brings the grand total up to two.

Is it odd that I'm feeling a little competitive about this? Time to put on my game face, buckle down, and have some kids of my own.

F*ck!

I kept hearing about it on other blogs, that some people had bought google ads for Yes on Prop 8. Then I checked my site and damned if I didn't have one as well. I'm going to see if I can change anything on AdSense, but until then, here is this blog's official stand on this issue:

No on Prop. 8! Don't put discrimination into our constitution!

That is all.*

* Your own opinion, of course, may vary.

Three cheers for gaining an hour!

Having struggled all last week to get back to a sleeping schedule appropriate for my employed lifestyle, going off daylight savings time was just the thing I needed to get me to bed earlier. By 10 pm last night I was seriously starting to drag, but I managed to fight of sleep until 10:30, resulting in my getting nearly 8 hours of sleep last night. It was wonderful.

Hopefully, though, I won't be crashing at 10 pm tonight, as I will be attending the first of 6 AutoCAD classes and will be getting home around that time. The class is a follow-up to one I took a few years back which was really helpful and informative. If I'm going to be doing this for a living, I might as well be good at it.

I'm so not a morning person

I was woken up in the middle of the night by R getting out of bed. I looked over at the clock. 5:30. 45 more minutes, I thought. When R came back to bed, he mentioned that it was time to turn back the clock. I wasn't sure, so I decided to go out and check. I put on my robe, and fed the desperate cat.

Sometime during my walk to the kitchen, I realized it wasn't Monday.

The day after

Halloween is a great holiday. R and I get to get rid of a good portion of our junk candy in one fell swoop!

Now, I'm sure you're wondering what the hell I mean by that statement. "Are you giving out years-old Laffy Taffy?" No, though I doubt time would affect that particular confection. R and I just have this horrible habit of buying candy at Costco. We wind up eating a few pieces and satiating our desire, then are stuck with the rest of the package. Worse still are candy mixes with flavors we don't like. We bought a box of Tootsie Roll Pops and it had all sorts of nasty crap. So what did the kids who came to our house get? Watermelon, blue raspberry, and lemon-lime Tootsie Roll Pops. Oh, and mint patties. We've also got a jug of those.

Apparently Halloween is also my opportunity to be mildly snarky to pre-teens. Particularly the older ones, many of whom don't even bother with costumes. I felt fine giving candy to the teenager who was taking his two little brothers trick or treating, but the same did not apply to the bevy of teenage girls escorting one slightly younger boy. "What are you?" I asked.
"A Power Ranger."
"Ah. So you all must be... his harem?" They giggled awkwardly. I only gave them one piece of candy each, even though I was eager to get rid of the stuff.