Random Crap in Life…

My four day weekend is almost over. I love four day weekends, but I do hate it, too. It makes me lazy and not wanting to go to work tomorrow.

Our Thanksgiving was great. We did a co-op with our next door neighbor, Mike and Gina. Gina made candied sweet potatoes, garlic mash potatoes, and roasted vegetables. I made Pennsylvania-Dutch stuffing and cranberry-orange relish. Drew brined the turkey the day before Thanksgiving. We roasted brined turkey before when we were living in KS, and it was so good. The turkey breast had a hint of orange from the brine. This year, we thought we’d try deep frying brined turkey. The turkey turned out good. But not as good as the roasted turkey we had that year. Drew and Becker were in charge of deep frying the turkey. While they were waiting for the turkey, Becker came in and had me make a beer batter for them because they wanted to fry some onion rings. So, we had some onion rings….and deep fried beer-battered apples. Yum…

I don’t really remember what I did Friday and Saturday. Hmmm… Well, today I baked 2 huge loaves of Potato Rosemary bread. I thought we could make turkey sandwiches with them. I haven’t made bread for a long time, a really long time. I think it’s been about 5 years. I’m glad I haven’t forgotten how to make bread, you know…like the dough should be soft and tacky, not sticky, the temperature of the dough should be around 80 degrees, and the dough should pass the windowpane test, etc. And I haven’t forgotten how to roll the dough into a boule! The bread turned out good. Although, it was supposed to be chewy, it turned out to be on the softer side. (I was supposed to use semolina flour, but I was too lazy to go to the store; so, I used regular bread flour instead.)

Why does time seem shorter when you’re a grown up? My nephew just turned 12 last week. I still remember the days when he was a baby, small enough to fall asleep in my arms. Time goes by way too fast! This four day weekend is too short! It’s now 9 pm! (did I use enough exclamation marks?)

People say that having pets is like having kids if not easier. I used to think that having pets is alot easier than having kids because you can leave your pets alone when you’re not home. Jasmine, our dog, roam free during the day, and for the cats, we have a cat door for them to go in and out during the day. There’s a downside to this. Couple of weeks ago, Jasmine felt like she needed to explore the trash can. We came home at 7pm, the trash can was tipped over and the trash was all over the kitchen floor. We now have a small trash can in the cabinet under the sink. That fixed the problem, or so I thought. Last Tuesday, we came home and found that Jasmine had ate a whole bag of cat food we keep in the kitchen cabinet. I now have to find a doggy daycare for her since it seems to me that she’s bored out of her mind during the day. Did I say ‘doggy daycare’? Yes, when we lived in KS, Jas used to go to daycare where she could run around and played with other dogs during the day. We would drop her off at 8am and picked her up around 5pm. She also got nap time from 11am-1pm when she was at the daycare.

What about the cats? Cats are easy to take care of. Yes, they are easy to take care of, but keep reading. This morning, Jasmine kept sticking her nose under the loveseat. I thought that she just wanted the cats’ toys underneath the couch. (Simon plays with his mouse toys and shoves them under the couch all the time. I always find at least one toy under the couch every week when I clean the house. I remember that when we moved out of our house in KS, we found 2 straws and 3 mouse toys underneath the washing machine and the dryer. ) So, Becker lifted the couch up for Jas to get the toy, but…it wasn’t a toy. It was a dead mouse!! Geesh!! And it was big! It was about 4 inches in length from the nose, not counting the tail! And yes, I ran and stood on the dining chair until Becker took the dead mouse outside. Besides the dead mouse we found today. The cats used to bring in snakes, shrews, and smaller mice (much much smaller) before. You’d think that I get used to this by now. Well, this was my little excitement this morning. I wonder if people who have kids ever found dead creatures in their house…

Yes, Random Crap in Life… I think the title explains it all.

So, life continues after New Jersey. I’ve been back in my house in Indianola, WA since October 3rd. Becker and I drove from JFK to Indianola, WA in 42 hours! It’s 2,900 miles! It would have been quicker if we didn’t get lost in NYC trying to find our way to the Lincoln Tunnel. It was not all that bad now that I look back on it, but I don’t think I will do that again.

I started my job at UW last Monday. The commute sucks, but like anything else, I’ll get used to it. I take the bus from Indianola Clubhouse to the ferry terminal on Bainbridge Island, then another bus to UW in the morning. In the afternoon, I managed to find a vanpool that goes from UW to the ferry. I tried taking the bus back to the ferry terminal on Monday and almost couldn’t make it to the ferry because of the traffic in downtown Seattle. I’m glad that I found ‘the chick van’. That’s what the vanpool riders call themselves. Well, duh, it’s because it happens to be all women, and they all are really cool. Ok, I’m done for now. Stay tuned for more crap in my life.