On how I keep thinking I ought to blog more

But I don't. Cuz I have 2 full time jobs. And young. And this thing, who is new. (Oliver the kitten. ALL my son wanted for his birthday this year. Procured a full month late due to me making sure Miles really wanted to deal with kitten hood. )





Uh, what else has happened in the last 6 months? My birthday... Ha. My dad got me a pinata, and put peanut butter cups and rollos in it. So it won. We bashed it inside since it was dark and cold here in May. I still have this "hat" in my closet if anyone else wants a go.




Crazy monsoon season sunset, circa August sometime. We had the best monsoons this year, it rained SO much. Coming from the desert I still like rain. My yard grows things too. I had Yarrow, and elder berries. (And 43 different kinds of blooming things/weeds/things) The season started with the most neat-0 purple tulips...




This is kitty more recently, he is pushing 6 months. Time to get him snipped. (Though we hesitate only cuz his nifty stripe pattern repeats on one of his testes. And it pleases us. We are easy to entertain...)



And not much else is new. Poor, tired and stressed seem to be the theme of the last 8 or 10 months.

My mom is coming to visit.
Miles started school.
I am the ONLY mom in the whole world who did NOT take pictures of him in his 1st day of school garb. Sorry.
His favorite part is recess and lunch.
Asa and I had our 9 year anniversary. And we Still like each other.
Bountiful baskets in the shizzle and if you can get in on it I can't recommend it enough... only I got okra today. Eeewwww.

Well, that's it for this 6 months...

Kisses and worm snuggles.

It's good, It's funky, It's Funky Good.......

There it is... The culmination of ton of freaking effort on the part of many people, The Shop.


Mint condition 1963 table and chairs. There is a matching buffet that goes with too...


Ashtrays. That's why everyone smoked in the 60's, it kept you thin, and the accouterments were so damn stylish...

We told Miles he was the security manager. He takes his job very seriously, sneaking up to me to ask "Are those teenagers? Should I follow them around?"
Note the blue paint in the hair, he was helping me paint our open sign.

Lampy goodness.


Butterfly cups. And orange stuff. Things are color coordinated as of yet, Green clusters, blue clusters, etc. I kinda like it.

Velvet couch, very yellow.

Giant metal cock! Dunno why this is vintage, but I like his beady eye and angry visage keeping watch over things.

So far, so good. After a week of work, we have managed to turn a tiny profit. Profit = earning more per day than the rent+ loan divided by the number of days in the month.

Combined with my bakery job (hello 3 am, how interesting to see you as the start of my day rather than bed time...) I'm working like 70 hours a week now. Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh......
But the shop stuff is way laid back, so it isn't killing me yet.

Ice cream cake, now with pics...

First, you need an adorable helper. I'd loan ya mine, but I'm keepin' him. He does crack eggs with out peel, though. That pic on the fridge behind him is a cow, getting a shower from a water tower. The little thing by the cows tail is a chicken, of course.


Two cakes, cooled all the way.

Take the same pan you use for the cakes, line it with plastic wrap, and smush in slightly softened ice cream. Place another sheet of plastic on top and smooth out with your fingers. Re- freeze for a few hours at least. (I did mine over night) ( I also did it before I baked the cakes, and then just pulled the plastic wrap out and put the whole deal on a plate in the freezer.)
Cut the rounded tops off both cakes. When I put the batter in the pans, I very carefully spread it out to keep it from getting too dome-y. (Always best to do pinkies out with your man-hands...)


Put one cake, cut side up, on the plate you wish to serve on. Center your ice cream block and trim the edges to fit. Eat trimming with the tops you cut off the cake, with your adorable helper.


Put the other cake on top, cut side down. (The "frayed" edges stick to the ice cream keeping stuff from sliding later.

Frost. I think you should re-freeze for an hour before you frost, but I didn't. Then when I was frosting the sides, melty ice cream was running into the frosting, making me have to stop halfway and refreeze. So, learn from my mistakes. And I have no pics of the final project either, as I failed. But I still have to write happy birthday on it, so maybe I'll get another before consumption tomorrow.

I know baskin robins makes way spiffy jelly roll ice cream cakes, but eh, mine doesn't taste all freezer burn-y and is WAY cheaper, so kiss my grits, 31 flavors.

The forgotten

Our sale priced awesomeness. Lasted about 5 minutes.

Tasted pretty good though.

The cooler. Day one of storm.

The cooler, day 7098 of storm. Also, chairs. You can see one right by the window, there are actually 3 in a row there.

Why does blogger make it so hard to upload pics in order, or rather the order I want them in? And then I get a bunch in and type a bunch up, and post it, and all the pics are in a row and all the "dialog" is at the bottom, not near any thing and not particularly useful as description? Just to stymie me and make me not care about ever posting again, i bet.

The great storm of aught 10...

January 18th thru the 22nd it snowed. the first day 12 inches, the second about 10. the next day it just didn't stop, and then it rained too.
Here are a few pics from the storm.

This is Miles sledding down the front yard. This was the first day, it snowed all night and then was nice. Then it snowed all night again. After a bit, it was steep enough to hit the house, leading to this next pic.



This is Asa building a ramp up the side of the house so Miles could stop before the thud.

By the time the storm ended, the ramp was way buried. So was the sled for that matter.




Out the living room window. Taller than me. Blag. What is this silliness? Who moved me here? Oh wait, it was me. Dammit.


He was measuring the snow for me. And he is 49.5 inches tall.





Renfield in the "wizz tunnel" Bet you he wished he could use the toilet. It took me forever to dig this out too.


Oh look, more.

At this point it is safe to say I am done with snow. REAL done. And it is snowing right now, depending on who you ask either 4 or 12 inches tonight.


But things should grow like weeds this spring and summer and so I shall look forward to that.

Well, folks, it's been a wild ride here in on the old mt top. Four or five feet of snow in the last three days, depending on which side of town you live on, plus rain last night, to melt some and then refreeze, (and coat all the pine needles with ice so when you are out shoveling this morning they stab thru your hat. Good times)
This to the left is the Ice skating rink, it caved in this morning I think.



And This, This is sad. This is/was Bookmans. And Joanns fabric store on the left. My two favorite places. (my Third is the burrito place immediately to the right of Bookmans, no word on its roof, but it hasn't been mentioned. The best used book store in all the land. They are saying complete rebuild.


They made it mandatory that people with flat roofs shovel or evacuate today, since 2 more feet of snow are supposed to fall tonight.

So Asa, sweet man that he is, spent the day at my dads, shoveling his roof (my dad is a t4 paraplegic, no ladders for him. Hell, no leaving his house for him these days.) That's after he did ours, and spent an hour shoveling our own driveway. (Well, chipping the 5 inches of ice up)

I have pics I took, Miles in snow over his head and the doggy tits deep, as it were. I'll post them soon.

Stay warm, and dry. I reckon this storm is heading east.

day 9 in which I was forced offline by bad monkeys.

These things were in our computer, and Asa spent a few hours today getting them out. Or maybe it was some stupid virus that some dumb fuck made up, that made our computer play random music and tooth paste commercials, even when it was offline. Really, I hate the dorks who write viruses. Use your gigantic brains to fight evil, dammit.

I got to do some spy work/recon for some politicos here tonight, to see how many people were at a fundraiser for the incumbent mayor, it's almost election time here, they do it in May for better results. I felt very sneaky, ha ha ha.

And I found out they have a CSA here, which is awesome, come Monday I'm gonna see if we can get in.

That is all, thank you, and goodnight.

Failed miserably, already. Yet, not.

Ok, so on the 5th, Miles and I made a ginger bread house (bought at 75% off, so it was 2.50, that's what I'm talking about) and about 5 minutes later we ate it. Well, parts of it. Cuz why not.

On the 6th, we got approved for the loan for the shop. WIN!

On the 7th, um, Asa changed the oil in the jeep. And I started knitting my first cowl, cuz now (well next week) I'll have a place to sell my goods... WOOHOO)

And I made a really yummy frozen pizza for dinner. (with a bottle of wine that was also 75% off cuz it was wrapped up for New Years.)

And I talked to my mom since it's her birthday.

Day 4 in which next to nothing happened and I am here to tell you all about it...

Today I paid the rent. and went to Michaels. Which is normally a lovely experience for me, but I've never been to the flagstaff Micheals before. Both of the female employees I dealt with were DUMB. Like I ask a simple question having to do with the gift card i got for x-mas and they reply "whu... I don't understand" multiple times. I kinda wanted to kick 'em.

Then my son and I had super awesome delicious Indian food, so that was the best part of the day (in keeping with the best theme of the nablopomo that I can't actually join due to them being wankers. Or maybe I'm the wanker)

Then someone from freecycle answered my post about the moving boxes we had and then actually came to get them... So now I can get to my washer and dryer, at the same time, YAY!

Then I found this, which in many ways is the other best part of my day. Don't click if you don't like foul language a la Charles Bukowski. But oh it's funny. http://progressiveboink.com/archive/peanuts-by-charles-bukowski/

My DH just told me my style of eating pretzels was "satisfying, but complicated."

With that, I'll bid both of you a sweet adieu, until tomorrow...

Day 3,

Ning or whatever, thinks I have an account with them, and won't send me my password reset and won't respond to my email so I can't put the nablopomo icon on my sidebar. Just pretend it's there, I guess.

Look! A kid on an alligator!

Today was cold and sunny.

My blogging skills are sharp and pointy.

We ate really good pizza tonight.

I spent all morning writing a business plan and thinking of ways to advertise and expand slowly that shop we want to buy... If we can make it make 1300 a month, it will pay for itself and the loan we'll have to take out to buy it and if we can get it to make 3100 a month eventually, it will cover most of our household expenses too, which would seriously rock.

Miles tells me that spig-detti and baked potatoes which we cook in the wood stove are his favorite foods. (If you have a wood stove I highly recommend trying it, stab 'em, wrap them in tin foil, and cook. Tasty, and kinda free...)

Home depot has a thing on the 1st Saturday (that maybe different from store to store, dunno) where kids get to make a free project, and we went yesterday and it was way cooler than I thought. Miles made a wooden calender with the rotating blocks to change the date. They got to hammer nails and glue and paint, what kid doesn't love that? Next month is a race car...

Day 2, A new possibiity...

So we have just moved, and haven't got jobs yet, and I met a woman who wants to sell us her funky vintage shop today. It's affordable, it's neat, and she has been trying to kill it subconsciously for the last 3 yrs and hasn't yet. Right now she makes her rent by being open 11-3pm on Saturdays only. She was telling about how she hates running the shop but likes finding the merchandise which is kind of perfect.

I was probably already gonna get stuck with a retail job, how cool would it be to work for my self?

Plus, that would eliminate the need for any special thing to do with Miles, He can come chill after school if the other parent is busy.

The man and I must hash out some details and make some plans, I will share more when I know more.

Two posts in one day? Who am I and what have I done with my self?

I felt the urge to share that I made the most delicious vittles this evening, An au gratin type spaghetti squash. Ah man it was tasty. When my old man went back for thirds he was talking about how lucky he was to have an awesome cooking woman.

I don't measure out ingredients unless I'm baking, but these are the general parameters...

Chop a spaghetti squash in half. Either take the seeds out now, or wait until it's half cooked when its way easier. I use a melon baller. Place cut side down in baking dish with a 1/2 inch of water and bake at 425 for half an hour or so until its soft enough to scrape with a fork and make the strands. While its baking, make the sauce.

Melt a glob of butter in a big pan. Saute a small onion and 1/2 a bell pepper until soft.
Add salt, pepper, a good shaking of paprika, whatever herbs/spices you like. I used oregano, chili powder and chipolte Mrs Dash. Add 3-4 spoons of flour. mix well

Add 2.5 ish cups of milk. Stir. Stir until thickened.

(At this point I added leftovers from the night before last, we had stuffed shells and I had about a cup of ricotta mixture left over) It was so good, I'd add ricotta again. Well maybe, I only bought it cuz it was on sale, usually it's pushing 7 bucks.

Once the milk mix is thickened, add the scraped squash and about a cup of shredded Cheese (I used cheddar). stir until melty then pour into casserole dish. Smooth out and top with more cheese, I used maybe 2/3 C mozzarella . Bake at 350 for about half hour, until top is browned and bubbly. Let rest for 10 minutes before dishing up.

So damn tasty I felt the need to blog about it... Shoulda took pictures and did it up right, but oh well...

Hello again, this time from the insanely different town of Flagstaff. Different from Vegas I mean, It's probably a lot alike other towns in the mountains with 65,000 people and a temperature of 6. Yuppers, it's 6 right now as I type. Ha ha ha, us desert folk don't quite know what to do with this stuff... Though the dog has stopped shedding, since he needs those hairs to stay alive.



These blue sky pictures are of around our house after the first time it snowed. (2nd night here, 8-10 inches) The sky is so pretty here. The snow is too, I really like it, especially when I get to look out the window from the couch at it falling, snuggled in a blanket, basking in the glow of the wood stove.



These grayer pics are during that 1st storm (it has snowed good collectible amounts that needed to be shoveled 4 times in the 2 weeks we have been here). This above one is of the back yard. Yesterday,I thought it would be nice of me to shovel a path for the dog so he could keep his feet dry on his constitutionals. Ha Ha Ha, the snow pack is well over a foot deep and icy, I basically dug some holes and couldn't breathe anymore. (It's over 7000 feet here, something we neglected to think about, and 1/2 way thru unloading the U-Haul, we were dizzy and weak going uh, what is wrong with us? My brother kindly reminded us we were lacking oxygen.) That I failed in the dog path does not however mean I didn't cause muscle aches in my back though...



Extreme close up...



Look at that sky! Oh it's pretty here. Still 6 though.

We went downtown last night to watch the pine cone drop (Flagstaff tradition for over 10 yrs) and it was neat, so much easier to deal with than New Years in Vegas. I bet more people were on the strip last night than were in the entire town of Flagstaff total...

It's awesome to have my brother and his family over for dinner.

We bought a 1991 jeep with our insurance money from Asa's accident, and it has 4w drive, which we need to get up the driveway to our house, ha ha. He is much healed from that one, only a jagged scar on the under side of his chin really, to show for it. (That and the lingering guilt of destroying our car, but it wouldn't have been able to get out the driveway right now anyway. And they don't let you park on the street from November til May so the snow plows can roll thru).

Miles Loves the snow. LOVES it. We had to buy some boots and a few other bits of snow gear for him, but he is out there mucking about everyday. The other day, I'm making soup, he is in the backyard, playing. After a while I hear (I think I hear) Mama! MAAAAMMMAA! I ask Asa, Is that our kid? We go looking, can't find him, but he answers our call with an extra plaintitive MAMA! I'm sinking! Asa has shoes on so he rushes out, at the back of the yard there are juniper shrubs growing, but they are completely buried in snow, Miles thought they were solid and climbed the "hill" only to get stuck. After we calmed him down, oh it was funny.




Yeah, I just unloaded the camera, for the first time since, well, there were pics of my birthday on there, and that's in May... Here are Miles and I on Halloween, about to go trick or treating. I was Bunicula... I miss those rose bushes. I wonder if they grow here. There are irises planted here and there in the front yard, I'll have to learn about them.

Well, that's gist of it. Still looking for work, but that'll happen soon I'm sure.