Trucks, Castles and Memory Lane

And, the 1000 points go to.... HEADLESS!!! With the firstly guessed correctly answered.... um...... ANSWER!

::much applause and whistling and hooting::

Congratulations! That convo and many others weirder yet took place in the 1974 movie Young Frankenstein - a movie I never saw until I met JustPat several years ago and she weirded me out by ominously telling me to "Stay close to the candles, the stairs can be treacherous." the first time she gave me a tour of her house. I had no idea what she was talking about since she wasn't carrying any candles, and the stairs were not at all treacherous. That very next New Year's Day I was introduced to the movie and I've never been the same.

(see previous post if you are lost right now)

In other news, there is no new baby news. I'm still here and still very round and in fact sittin on my big purple exercise ball right now, easing the pressure on my back and pelvic area. It's just the right height for working at this particular desk, so that's really cool.

Last night I lay in my bed, not sleeping, listening to Mocha kitty rumble contentedly while leaning her big belly against my big belly.
I heard a truck drive by that sounded just like my dad's old truck. OLD truck. I think it was a Ford. Turquoise colored. I dont know what year it was, I'd have to ask my mom. It had that old engine sound that super old trucks make. I can't describe it very well because I'm not knowledgeable about engines but when I heard that engine last night I also could smell Dad's truck. Like I was in it. Ancient vinyl, musty seat stuffing, rusty metal, grease and engine grime smell, motor oil, catalytic converter-less exhaust, earth, and hard working Dad. I used to peel away the rubber mat on the floor and watch the road whiz by underneath because the floor had holes rusted through in places. I thought that was very entertaining. And it was a manual transmission, of course - that sometimes didn't want to cooperate without a hearty bout of double clutching and creative cursing and swearing from the driver. I remember what the door sounded like when it slammed. And how cool I felt putting my foot WAAAY up on the tire and swinging myself over the side when my brothers and I would pile in the back to go pick corn.
All that just from some old truck driving by at 3AM.

Bemis and Bunhead

"Werewolf!"

"Werewolf?"

"There. "

"What?"

"There, wolf. There, castle. "

"Why are you talking that way? "

"I thought you wanted to. "

"No, I don't want to."

"Suit yourself. I'm easy. "

For 1000 Big Bombastic Bonus points... who can guess where that conversation came from?
(JustPat is not permitted to play, because she is the resident expert on this topic)

And No, it wasn't Amazing Man and me trying to sound like the characters on West Wing...

Like Flat Diet Pop

Amazing Man and I have been catching up on old episodes of West Wing - thanks to his mom for supplying the first season on DVD for Christmas! WEEE!!

So now, we keep trying to talk like the folks on West Wing - you know, really fast and zingy and witty and all.

But we're not as good at it as they are, because we don't get to have people write our lines for us.

Menu

Lest you go thinking we eat all highbrow around here all the time I'd like to report the menu from last night's dinner:

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
Van de Kamp's Fish Tenders
Peas
Chocolate Pudding with Cool Whip

In other rambling news:
This year I feel no pull toward "doing Lent". Absolutely none. People are blogging about it already, getting geared up, thinking about it. I think it's a good thing, not knocking it at all, just happy not to feel that conflicted-ness I've sometimes felt in the past about it. "Should I be doing this? Am I missing something big because I'm not doing this?" Even though I'm not Catholic, I believe that in some cases we Protestants have thrown the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. Still, this year, I am happy to report that I am At Peace about not including Lent in my life - at least for now.

Having a newborn in the house might be an Enforced Lent of sorts, but I guess that is another subject altogether.

And yesterday I washed all the newborn clothes and couldn't believe all my squeeking: "Isn't it soooo KYOOOOOOT!?!?" SQUEEEEK! What makes us SQUEEK like that about baby stuff!?

Maybe it's ovaries? Because Amazing Man doesn't do that.

The Adventures of Ma Po Dofu

On Being Martha Stewart - or Not, Really.

Made a successful batch of Ma Po Dofu (Spicy Chinese tofu and ground beef or pork) last night - from SCRATCH! I'm so proud. It's not that it's hard, I just never got around to getting all the right ingredients. See, the sauce pouch I usually buy for it is kind of expensive and I got to thinking that in Asian countries this dish isn't considered a fancy dish or anything, I ought to be able to just make it myself a lot cheaper. So I looked in my Asian cookbooks and lo and behold there was a simple recipe! All I needed was Dark Soy Sauce because I usually only keep the Light on hand. So I went to the Asian Market and found Dark Soy Sauce (only 99 cents for the Superior brand really good stuff) and stocked up on other things I was low on like Sushi Rice and canned bamboo and water chestnuts. I don't know why it took me so long to finally buy Dark Soy Sauce, because it's very handy in Asian cooking and I often regret not having it.

Anyway - I made the stuff for dinner. The recipe beats the pouch hands down and is actually HOT, instead of the "We were just kidding - it's not really that hot" that usually happens with pre made mixes.

I approach recipes like I do much of life. The recipe is mostly a guide. Might be a really good guide, but it's not a law. I don't always measure, and I hardly ever follow any recipe exactly. For instance, I forgot to get green onions yesterday while I was out and was too tired to go back to the store so I substituted dried chopped onions from my spice cupboard. That is definitely not entirely kosher - green onions would give the dish a distinctly different taste, I realize. But it was just fine that way, and next time I will try to remember them. This variety of outcomes partly assures we never get bored with my cooking.

For me Adventure Cooking/Eating goes like this: "Hmmm.... I wonder how this would taste with that?" or: "I don't have any of that. I wonder if this would work instead?" I've made some fantastic discoveries and I've also created some disasters! But the disasters are rare, because the good usually outweighs the bad in this particular event.

I have a friend who says that the worst thing in the world she can think of happening to her is if she puts something in her mouth that she doesn't like. And whenever she says that I think to myself: I can think of much worse. MUCH, MUCH worse. Like, maybe getting beaten up or broken up with or shot or having someone steal your identity.... If you put something in your mouth and you don't like it, you can spit it out. (maybe gag a little in some cases) Then you gulp some more water or wine or beer or coke and you're good to go. If the taste is still there, you go brush your teeth and rinse with Scope. Voila. All gone. 10 minutes tops is the duration of your misery. But if you try something new and it's GOOD..... then how fun is THAT!? In my opinion, the risk of gagging is not really that huge in comparison to the fun potential.

Robert Fulghum says this in his book Uh-Oh, Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door:
"The recipes in the cookbooks and the meals we really eat are not the same thing.
Just as a map and the highway it describes are not the same thing.
The map does not tell of sun, roadwork, grumpy companions, or the games played with children in a car. And the cookbook does not speak of the pleasures of winging it alone in the kitchen in the dead of night, eating without rules.
Maps and cookbooks help - they are one way of describing reality.
Manuals have their uses.... but they are not to be confused with the living. "

There is Alchemy in the living. Wonder and Curiosity form an idea here, another there, an adventure, an experimental what-if...

"Uh-oh" + "oh-wow" + "uh-oh" + "oh, God" = "ah-hah!" - Robert Fulghum



~ This post was inspired by a combination of reading Robert Fulghum in the tub last night, Ayekah's post this morning, and of course - dinner last night.

Bad Coffee and Cheerios on the Floor

It's pretty hard to come up with much blog material these days. It's not easy to concentrate and not much is going on besides waiting. I keep hoping today is the day. I keep hoping that each cramp or gas pain or Braxton Hicks contraction will turn into the real thing, but it never does. I realize first pregnancies often go late and hardly ever early, so I could be in for a few more weeks...

So this morning, I spilled Cheerios all over the floor because I didn't know there was a hole in the bag. I said "Darny Darn Darn Darn!" - wait. No, it wasn't exactly that. I'm sure it was something really eloquent and sweet though...

They're still there. I wish the cats liked cereal, or that I had trained the Vacuum better when it was young.

And I made a pretty bad pot of coffee too. I'm just not at the top of my game today I suppose.

But alas, I will not cry over Spilt Cheerios or Bad coffee. Now, if it were Spilt COFFEE and bad Cheerios....

THAT I would cry over.

Soul Man

Today, I had the urge to revisit my old friend Mrs. Miller. It's been a long time.

Which led to some more surfing of Frank Rosa's Vinyl Museum.

Ok, and I don't mean to make fun... But: Jesus is a Soul Man

Wait. Yes, I DO mean to make fun! BAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!

Because I remember listening to The Cathedrals growing up.
Come On... admit it. Some of you did too!!! Really, this is a safe place, you can 'fess up.

And I wondered why my friends didn't want to come to church with me....

Group Shot

Captainwow has made some new Frenz! He's pretty excited about it. That's him sitting on the Frog Prince's lap, right by the teddy bear. He looks so happy!

Aren't they all just so darn KYOOOOOT!?!?

So ya, no baby yet. We're just playing with his toys!

Pregnant Craving

Whatever Captainwow Wants

based on the song Whatever Lola Wants

by Sarah Vaughan

Whatever Captainwow wants, Captainwow gets

And little Bun, little Wow wants you

Make up your mind to have

No regrets

Recline yourself

Resign yourself, you're through

I always get what I aim for

And your cinnamon and sugar buzz

Is what I came for

Whatever Captainwow wants

Captainwow gets

Get on my plate

Don't you know you can't win

You're no exception to the rule

Resistence is futile .. give in

Whatever Captainwow wants

Captainwow gets

Dansez-Vous!

Groovin' on Pink Martini this morning. YUM!

<---With off the beaten track tunes, a CD jacket like that, and our own Little Dude on the way, how could I resist!?

Just in case you noticed any energy shift in my writing lately, (or lack thereof) I'm writing from a different place in the house these days. And from a new desktop PC! Amazing Man and I have combined our "offices" in order to have an actual baby's room. The logistics of getting both of our old outdated PC's networked, or up to snuff or whatever, seemed about as painful and/or expensive as buying a new one, so we just did that. It rocks. Back and forth, it rocks! We haven't got the Feng Shui exactly worked out in this room yet, but it's coming along.

I've been so out of touch with Processor speeds and such things. I didn't even know what a firewire is, I didn't know that PC's come without serial ports and floppy drives now. I didn't know that even the cheap ones come with slots for memory sticks and all kinds of plug in crap in the front, and plenty of USB ports and SPEED and CD writing and woah, the sound card is miles better and the Geek in me is doing a very animated happy dance about it all. Actually my inner Gadget Geek is dancing with my inner Martha Stewart today, since I get to make sushi for dinner tonight!

Meanwhile, my old emachine makes a good footrest, right here under the desk while I rip CD's and transfer old files and get Quicken set up and all that good stuff!

All that comes with coffee and a cinnamon roll and a snoring kitty curled up on the futon. ::sigh:: Life IS good.