Just-What-I-Wanted Pear Cobbler

I don't know why, but I'm craving fruit cobbles lately... last night I made a peach cobbler that I thought was only for me, but everyone else kept coming around asking, "What are you making? Oooh! Can I have some?" so by the time it came out of the oven, we all got a tiny scoop and that was it. :) I bought more peaches today, but my eye was caught by these luscious, soft-but-not-mushy pears whose fragrance could be smelled all over the produce section.

I think I'm getting good at making cobbler... apparently it's easier to make than aioli!

This is my "recipe":

I peeled and sliced thin 8 pears (I'm not sure what kind I used, I think they were Bradford?) and dumped them into a 9"X11" glass baking dish; I threw in 1/2 cup flour, 2 tablespoons white sugar, and 2 tablespoons melted butter and mixed them up together, then spread it out evenly in the pan. In another bowl, I mixed 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup oats, and 1/2 cup slivered almonds (and I crunched them up even smaller as I added them), a teaspoon of cinnamon, a tiny sprinkle of nutmet, and 1/2 stick of melted butter. I blended this up until it formed a crumb-like consistency and spread it over the top of the cobbler.

I put it into the oven for about 20 minutes - the crust was brown and crunchy (but not hard), the pears tender, and the juice bubbling and thick. I love the nuts!

If it wasn't so good on its own, I would have added a small dollop of my Haagen-Daz limited edition Honey Vanilla ice cream.

It's been beautifully cool today, with thin lazy clouds that seem to be clearing. I'm looking forward to doing some stargazing in a few hours!

EdResource Updated!

I finally got around to one of my goals today - get my EdResource blog up and running. The design is far from perfect, but I think it's going to have to just stay that way for awhile until I get some actual resources loaded! Anyway, today I got a bunch of Animal Farm related resources up - including a few I created myself last year while teaching the novel to my class. Animal Farm is one of the most accessible "classic" novel to teach to kids, so if you're looking for help, head on over. :)

And if Animal Farm isn't your thing right now... well, other resources will be coming up soon, so check back. I'm hoping to get at least one new resource/unit up each week.

Long Weekend

I realized that this weekend is a long weekend because all my blogger friends are rejoicing.

Every weekend for me is a three-day weekend (until I convince Chris to let me work on Natalie's working Fridays) but these next two weeks are really long weekends... not only do I have Friday off, I get two Mondays off in a row (one for Labor Day and one because Abby and her 'rents are going on a beach trip). Luckily I have plans for both of these weekends, otherwise I think I'd go stark raving mad missing my pumpkin. :) This weekend involves lots of downtime after a really busy Summer and an especially busy August, then a picnic on Monday, and next weekend involves a camping/canoeing trip on the Shenandoah. Yay! I haven't seen "my river" for a few years now and I'm soo excited. Plus, I didn't get to do any camping this spring or summer, and I missed my annual camping trip with friends. I thought I didn't miss it, but I thought wrong - I walked down the camping aisle at WalMart with my dad today and wanted to drive straight home, pack up my truck, and spend the weekend in a tent.

My old phone - the one I just got working on Wednesday - was driving me NUTS (apparently I've become more accustomed to my Samsung than I'd like to admit), so today I caved and went and bought a new phone. I've been usingTracfone ever since I got my first phone, but today I made the switch to Straight Talk, which I feel secure about since it is, after all, owned by Tracfone. I got the Samsung T104G and a month's "All You Need" plan for starters. If I need to upgrade to an unlimited plan, well, it's still cheaper than the average contract phone. I love having video and the MP3 player... quite an upgrade from my cheapo old Samsung! I AM hoping that my old phone springs back to life enough to pull everything off of it, but so far, no luck.

So, last night Maggie and I had so much fun. :) We started off the night at our regular booth at Ruby Tuesday, with a round of Watermelon Spritzers, made perfectly (shaken, not stirred, lol). It's become a little bit of a joke with Maggie and I that we care who the bartender is - neither of us drink, but the bartender is responsible for making all the specialty fruited iced teas/zero proof beverages, and some of them make them better than others.

After dinner, we headed over to Ross, where I was determined to find some cute shoes. I need a pair of sturdy cute shoes, but I have wide feet (I'm practically a hobbit!) which makes it nearly impossible to find cute shoes unless I order them in a size which makes them look like a small pair of boats. I thought I might have scored because the larger size rack was full, but I tried on shoes for about 15 minutes and no luck.

So we proceeded to Catos, tried some clothes on, didn't like any of them, and wandered over to the shoe section... where I found the most awesome. pair. of shoes.

Seriously. Awesome.

Ok, just look already.

Aren't they seriously awesome?!? I've been wanting a pair of sturdy but cute shoes lately, and these definitely fit the bill. Just a little more edgy than my normal style, but sooo fun. And sooo comfy - they were actually comfier than the flip-flops I was wearing that night, so I wore them out of the store and when we got home after going to Wal-Mart, my feet were still happy. Peep-toe, but not so much I have to stress over my ugly toes. And a nice heel! High, which makes my back happy (am I the only one who has way better posture on heels?) but very solid.

After doing a big cleanout of my closet this week, I'm remembering (again!) that it's better to have a few things you really love and feel good about than a bunch of things you feel so-so about. These shoes definitely fall into the first category, along with my favorite silver pumps, and my adorable gladiator sandals I found for a steal ($12) AND in a wide-width and are sooo comfy. And my studded black tank-top. Oh yes, and this purse that I bought on vacation. :)

Isn't it cute? I saw the zipper rosette and flipped with happiness (I'm a little obsessed with zippers lately. Zippers and owls). I also lovelovelove the double handles. It's a little small for everyday use - I practically shop for handbags in the luggage department, lol - but it's a piece that has lots of good memories attaches to it (bought it while shopping with my best friend and her sister and Khy) and makes me happy every time I see it.

My dad and I went to the local WalMart today to pick up some things we needed, and while

I wandered the produce section in search of garlic, lemons, and green cabbage, I ran across some fresh artichokes and knew I absolutely had to have them. I've been craving them ever since I read an article in one of Chris' foodie magazines about artichokes with lemon-garlic aioli. I bought two, brought them home, pulled up a recipe for aioli, and got busy.

If you've never cooked an artichoke, there are some good directions here. I'm a bit lazy, so I usually just chop off the stem until the artichoke will sit upright, stick it in a pot with an inch of so of water, bring it to a boil, and keep adding water as it steams off. When I can pull a leaf out easily, I declare it done.

Well, the aioli flopped. Completely. Maggie even went at it and tried to render it into something edible, and even she couldn't do anything with it. Then I tried to make some garlic butter using the same garlic we'd used for the aioli, and that was inedible, too - I think maybe the garlic was bitter? In the end I melted some butter with a dash of smoked paprika and everybody loved it. I consider it a small victory that the kids cluster around me excitedly to eat artichoke. :)

Two artichokes don't go very far among seven people, though (Anna is the lone holdout in not liking artichoke) so I ended up scrambling some eggs for an egg and goat cheese burrito for my dinner. I also sliced up some peaches I got last night and threw them into a sort of makeshift cobbler, which I'm about to rescue from the oven and share. :)

Absolute Craziness

I am convinced that half the people in the world are idiots. I mean, seriously - there are signs of it everywhere! For instance -

I got an email recently from one of my favorite retailers (I ALWAYS sign up for emails from places I shop... they almost always send you a coupon or special deal as an introductory treat, and this summer I got a coupon for $10 off any purchase of $10 or more as a birthday treat. And if worst comes to worst, and all they send you is sale announcements or new product info, well, you can always press the unsubscribe or spam button). The heading caught my eye, so I opened it to see the following advertisement: "Absolutely EVERYTHING is 40% off!*"

I scrolled down to the bottom to see what that little star could possible be, since, I mean, "absolutely everything" seems pretty self-explanatory. Everything is 40% off! Absolutely EVERYTHING!

So imagine my... bewilderment? chagrin?... when I read this: "40% off does not apply to Product X, Product Y, or Product Z."

Well, then, absolutely everything is NOT 40% off, then, is it? Is this so hard to figure out, people? Sheesh.

Another example - I'm on the waiting list for a class at my college. A waiting list means, obviously, that the class is full, but we're on standby in case someone drops out last minute. It means we WANT to take the class - in my case, badly! - but we're still holding out breath and crossing our fingers and praying.

So imagine my surprise when I get an email from the college today (school starts next Tuesday) telling us to "Please make your final course selections and register for classes you wish to attend, as we would like to form class rosters."

Well, DUH, if we COULD register for class, we would, wouldn't we? It's not like we're sitting on the fence, registered for classes but not paid up yet (which used to happen all the time before they updated the system - students would register for way more credits than they wanted to take, since they didn't have to be paid up til a week after class started, then go to the first days and drop whichever classes they didn't like most). I would LOVE to register and hand them the money in full, if I could get a spot. That's why I went through the trouble of putting myself on the waiting list!

This is also the college that advertised walk-in student counseling/advising sessions all afternoons for new students (you have to meet with an advisor before you can declare your major, sign up for certain classes, etc). I hadn't met with an advisor yet, but I needed to, so I stopped in one day to make an appointment (I had a tight schedule with work and school so I needed to know that an advisor would be available when I had time). I had been taking classes for a couple of semesters already, knew exactly what I wanted to do, etc. When I told the receptionist this, she told me the first appointment she could get me was in December (this is early September). I asked her why, and she said they only had a certain amount of appointments each day and they were filled till December. "But," she added, "Come back this afternoon. We're required to keep our schedules clear for new student walk-ins, BUT NOBODY EVER COMES IN because new students are required to come in and meet with an advisor the week before classes start."

I don't know, folks. Maybe it's just me.

Motivation

I don't know why, but I'm feeling a little bit of pressure lately to keep moving, to accomplish, to get something done. I feel like I've gotten a lot done this week, but when I think about it, I haven't exactly been lazy the last few weeks, either - my attention has just been focused in one or two areas, so other areas suffered a bit. Hence, when Monday rolled around, I felt like I'd let too much slide too far and panicked. Luckily, I think I have everything shored up now, just in time for two long weekends in a row (made longer by the fact that I got this afternoon off since Natalie was missing Abigail and came home early).

I got my room cleaned and organized after it having been rearranged for the mattress fiasco, I got my truck cleaned out (I still need to swing by my mechanic to use their vacuum/wash center, but I'm hoping to get this done later today), I cleaned out my closet and got the excess bagged up to take to either the thrift store or a friend, I got all my laundry done, and now I'm pretty much ready for a little down-time. I'm gonna go take an afternoon nap - the highest of all luxuries, in my opinion - and get ready to go out for dinner and some errands/shopping with Maggie tonight, our weekly girl's night out. :)

On another note... last night I stayed up way too late. Like, by the time I turned out my light it was 11, and I like to be tucked in and snoring by 8:30 or 9. I used to be so good about that, but in the last few months, I think because of the summer and it being hard to fall asleep when it's still light out, I've sort of lost my self-discipline. Anyway, by the time I jumped in the shower to wash my hair, it was already 9:50 and so when I got out, I decided to blow-dry it since I wanted to look nice for gymnastics class and Abby's preschool open house today. I pulled out my round brush and blow dryer, and the little focus-attachment thingy, and as I was retrieving all this (can you tell I only blow-dry my hair once in a blue moon? I have fine hair and it dies quickly under heat, plus it has great texture when I air-dry, so I try to avoid blow-drying like the plague!), I noticed a bottle of Suave heat protector spray I'd picked up on clearance eons ago. So I figured, protecting your hair from heat, that's good! So I sprayed some on my hands and worked it into my hair and began drying.

Right away, I could tell I'd broken rule number one of my treaty with my hair: no product, or at least as little product as possible. My hair doesn't like product. The few exceptions to this are: a quick spray of hairspray if I spray it on my hands and then smooth it over my hair; a small dollop of anti-frizz cream (a SMALL dollop); and some Aussie Mousse+Leave-in Conditioner. Clearly, heat protector spray does not fall into any of these categories.

My hair dried up okay, and it actually looked good - nice and smooth, no frizzies, not too dull - but it felt awful. I could tell it was thinking of ways to make me pay.

Today it still looks nice, but it still feels rotten. I've tried giving it a light brushing, hoping that would remove some of the product, but no go. I'm thinking tonight I'll do a nice deep conditioning treatment before I wash it and hope that we can kiss and make up. *guilty look*

Also - I just checked the college website, and I am now the only person listed on the waitlist for that class I really want to take - EE! I am so happy! I also wrote to the professor asking if I could sit in on the first class, since I could conceivably get a place as late as a week after the start of class, and he wrote back and said to come see him, we'll "work something out." Like I said, thanks so much for your prayers!

Day Three, And My Time Traveling Experiment Has Ended!

On Monday, my cell phone died. Despite my best efforts, it remained dead. Luckily, I still had my old phone (which had sustained some water damage that has apparently miraculously healed after a year and a half in dry storage, so all I had to do, theoretically, was have the cell phone company switch my number back to my old phone, and I was back in business.

Theoretically.

Has anyone else noticed what a wide rift is between theory and reality?

Turns out the company had to send me a new SIM card for the old phone, which would take 3-5 days to arrive. I should have just bought a cheap new phone and had them activate it (which ironically could have been done almost instantly because it's new). But I didn't. I had three days without a phone.

Well, I got home from work today and my SIM card had arrived! I have to admit, that was fast, even though it took way too long, obviously. :) I called them Monday morning and Wednesday afternoon it was delivered. They were swamped with calls when I called to activate it, so I was on the phone for over an hour, but at long last everything was set up and I had a working cell again.

The downside is, I lost most of my numbers and a lot of sentimental texts and pictures - texts from Robin as she was in labor (yeah, that's my best friend - texting while delivering!), the text I got when Khy was born, his first tooth, etc. And tons of pictures of Robin, Khy, and Abigail. Most of these I think I uploaded and are somewhere in my email account, but I know I've lost a few forever unless my phone decides to have a miraculous resurrection (which has been known to happen, but I'm not holding my breath).

Anyway, I was without a phone for 72 hours, and it made me realize how much I treasure my technology. I hear of folks all the time who long to unplug, who resent the "intrusion" into life that technology makes possible. I couldn't disagree more. I have reached for my phone a million times in the last few days to text my best friend and ask, how was your day today? is Khy taking steps yet (cuz, I mean, I've seen the pictures - this kid's gonna be a track star by the time he's 1!)? how's school going? I saw something you'd like... and I couldn't. We got to chat through Facebook one day but that was pretty much it.

My grandfather has been in the hospital (prayers, please) with fairly serious health problems, and I've had a few moments over the last few days where I just felt like I needed to get to a phone, fast, and make sure everything was ok with everyone I love.

People who feel like technology creates problems - are you sure you aren't using technology to create problems? If I need some space, I turn the phone off. If I don't want to talk, I send the call to voicemail (lest anyone who has left me a voicemail message wonder if I just ignored them, I will say in my defense that I've used this move only half a dozen times in my cell-phone-career, and usually because I didn't recognize the number and didn't feel like dealing with telemarketers). Emails don't have to be replied to today, I can blog when and as often as I choose, and if I don't like to read someone's Facebook status updates or tweets, I just take them off my feed.

I've come to realize in the last few years that while I'm certainly not laid-back, I'm definitely not into the drama. Or, let me rephrase that - there's so much drama that I HAVE to deal with, or that genuinely drives me insane, that I just have no room left for elective drama. People who get into hatefests at work? Seriously? What do you think you're accomplishing by airing your feelings to all? And those folks who post little snipes about marital woes on Facebook... grow up. It's not that I don't care about you and your issues - chances are that if you're on my friends list, I do care about you and all that is in your life. But posting it for the world to read looks makes you look less like a to be pitied martyr and more like a angsty 14 year old.

On the other hand, technology has brought great blessings into my life. I used to be part of an online writer's club that helped shape me into a writer and gave me some very rich friendships, several of which have spilled over into me "real" life. When my best friend moved from Maryland to Alabama, it was back in the days when you paid for each cell phone minute but got free minutes after a certain time at night (yeah, those days) and we waited anxiously for that time so we could stay connected. When texting became mainstream and afforable, it was a godsend.

I was able to share, albeit in a small way, Khy's birth day thanks to texting, Facebook updates, and picture messaging. I was 600 miles and three states away, but I knew when he'd been born, how much he weighed, what he looked like.

I love that randomly throughout the day, my phone will buzz, and there'll be a message from Robin saying, "Miss you/how was your day?/how's Abby?" And I love getting pictures of Khy. :)

In short, I think technology is a tool, just like any other, and whether it creates good or bad is basically up to the person wielding it. I know in my life it has enabled me to stay close to those I love - and for those of you who are going to scream, "But you lack REAL CONNECTION!!!" (yeah, I heard you) - again, this is a matter of choice. I've been to Alabama three times in the last six months, and will go down again more times before the year is out. Our "connection" is just as strong in real life as it is through texts. When my college friends are home, we love nothing more than to get together for dinner and debate and discuss all sorts of issues; in the meantime, when they're away, a Facebook status update lets me sense when someone is having a bad day and offer a word of encouragement, and a text message shares prayer requests. I have a mentor whom I like to write emails to, which gives her time to pray and think over the advice she'll give me when we're face to face.

As for me - technology is here to stay, and I'm sooo glad. :)

Second Childhood

Once upon a time, when there was major snow on the ground, Abby and I used to meet my family up the street to hit my fav thrift store and then go to Burger King to let the kids play on the indoor playground. We haven't done it in awhile, and today most of my family was off on one task or another, but I need a new bedframe since my mattress switch and was looking for a smallish table or bookcase and a basket, so Abby and I picked up Maggie and off we went.

No bedframe, but we did make some major scores!

This is my favorite thrift store - I often find stashes of clothing in my size, nice brands, still with tags, and I bought my old bedframe here, as well as tons of DVD's, VHS tapes, CD's (I have scored some great CD's here for a few bucks apiece!), etc. It's recently undergone a renovation, so we walked around the perimeter to admire it, and on the wall was this "Hunny" pot! Maggie and I shrieked with delight when we found it, and we brought it down and Abby saw it and went nuts too! One of her latest words has been "honey." She pronounces it the way Pooh-bear does - "Huh-nee" - and it's sooo adorable. It was marked $1, and Abby loves buckets, backpacks, purses, etc - loves putting things in and taking them out and carrying them around - so it was definitely coming home with us.

Not three feet away was this ball, in need of a little inflation but otherwise in great condition. Abby uses these balls at gymnastics and loves them. It was also marked $1.

By now I realized that it was a thrifty kind of day, so we swung by the VHS tapes and scored again - twice! A new Pooh Bear video and a Richard Scarry Glow Worm and Gold Bug tape. Each was $1.

I also scored a toy for Khy - a Pooh Bear toy with wire and beads to slide along, with sound effects. It was marked $2.

No bedframe - just assorted headboards and footboards - no squarish basket, no tables or bookcases. We did find an ADORABLE solid wood little vanity in mind condition for $20... if I were a vanity type person, or had a little girl, I would totally have bought it. :)

The best part about it was that when we got to the checkout line and I paid, I glanced at the receipt and realized that everything cost $4. So obviously I was not charged full price, which is not uncommon for me since I'm in there all the time and all the clerks know me.

One of the things I feel like I'm gaining from being Abigail's nanny is that I'm getting to think about a lot of parenting issues before I have my own kids. :) I've always been a big thrift-store fan, and now that I look at things with a 2 year old in mind, I'm convinced that when I do have kids, I'll still be thrifting. My best friend Robin, who just had a baby in February, was sharing with me that used makes even more sense with a baby, because they outgrow things so fast that you're "over" clothes and toys before they've been worn out. A lot of Abigail's clothes are passed down from a relative with a slightly older child, and you can't tell - she has an adorable wardrobe! Anyway, I figure I am practicing for the future. :)

After our thrifting adventures, we went to get sushi at a place nearby. I thought I was craving it. The thought of it was terrific. When it arrived, not so much. The california roll was excellent -very fresh tashing and yummy - but the pieces were so large, it felt impossible to eat. We got an order of salmon roll, too, and I just didn't like it. I had one piece, pulled the salmon out of the second piece, and let Maggie eat the rest. We both got an egg roll, so at least there was something familiar to eat.

I feel sad in that I think I may have found something that I'm not comfortable eating. And I consider myself a fairly adventurous eater. I love trying new things, and I generally appreciate new flavors and tastes. And I have enjoyed sushi in the past, even though it's been a sort of hit or miss thing (depending on where the sushi came from, how fresh it appeared, etc). But today - not having it.