food link love
Well I know some of you liked my cat link love post, and that makes me think a few others might like all the food sites that I’m addicted to! Some are well known, some not, but I drool over them all. No wonder my keyboard is a mess!
- Pioneer Woman Cooks – known for her glorious, yet artery clogging cooking. Oh my gawd! And you could lose yourself in her archives.
- Thursday Night Smackdown – warning bad language and fantastic food ahead.
- Bad Home Cooking – cooking with attitude, just awesome!
- Chop. Stir. Mix. – a couple of my bloggy friends have this site, but they had to both go and have babies! Can’t wait til you start updating regularly again girls!
- On Pans and Kneadles – I always want to make everything on here.
- ChefMom – this is Suburban Turmoil’s recipe site. No pictures, no fuss, just great recipes!
- Food Lovers Like Me – I just started reading this one, but I’m fascinated by her accounts of culinary school. So cool!
- Blissfully Domestic/Blissful Food – it’s only been around a few month, but it rocks!
Of course if you just want to just browse random food blogs, which I like to do sometimes, there’s a couple of great places to do that: FoodBuzz and Alltop. There’s million and one food blogs out there, what’s your favorite? I’m always looking for new ones. 
kitty linky love
Well, we’re on sick day #2. He coughed all night long so I let him sleep in, and now he’s upstairs tucked into my bed watching Sprout. It’s the longest I’ve ever seen him be still.
This post is just for my cat lover friends. You know my cat is like my other kid, and my kid loves cats as much as I do. We love to get online together and look at all the cute cat sites out there. Some of them you probably already know, I mean, who doesn’t know Lolcats?? But there are lots of other cute cat blogs that I love and I wanted to share with you.
- Itty Bitty Kitty Committee – some of the best cat photography on the web, and all for a good cause.
- Phyllis and the Aliens – Phyllis is a sweetie putting up with the aliens – kittens adopted from the IBKC.
- Agnes and Henry – love love love the kittens, who were also IBKC kitties.
- Dudley’s Diary – from the perspective of Dudley the kitten and his big kitty housemates.
- The Adventures of Robin and Finchy – orange tabbies on leashes? I’m hooked!
- Daisy the curly cat – also from the kitty’s perspective. Just started reading this one and I love it.
- Cat lovers site – not only cute pics but lots of good cat information too.
- Blogging Cat – great site – and check out the blogroll there for a whole bunch more!
Okay, now you know my secret blog lurking habit – it’s all about the cats. Got any other good ones for me?
Filed Under blogging, the cat Tagged blogging, blogs, cats, link sharing
sick day
Blah blah blah, I am a nablopomo burnout.
The boy stayed home from school today. His first official sick day, and not by his choice. He was quite upset with me at first since he loves school. I just couldn’t let him go, he had a slight fever and a racking cough that made him sound like a 30 year smoker even though he claims he feels fine. He stopped complaining about being stuck at home though, once he realized I was going to let him lay on the couch under a fuzzy blanket and watch movies all day.
Today gave me flashbacks to some good sick days when I was a kid. Too sick to go to school but not so sick that it was miserable. My mother would bring me chicken noodle soup, orange juice and ginger ale, and if I had a sore throat she made a honey lemon and hot water drink that I still make when I don’t feel well.
Ahh, those days of someone else taking care of you. There was no fun in faking sick though. She had a no TV policy for sickies. You had to stay in bed, or at least quietly in your room. How did she manage getting us to do that? I have no idea how I would make the boy stay in his room. There’s no keeping that one down! Even back then I liked sleep way more than he ever has.
Of course I have bad sick memories too, but they’re just too gross to reminisce about!
nothing
If you know me in real life this statement is going to shock you: I have run out of things to say.
No joke. I’ve said it all before. Too much work to do. House is a mess. Holidays are coming. I never even showered today. I did brush my teeth though – I swear.
In lieu of a real post, I give you a boy’s strange view of the world. Here are a selection of images I found filling up my camera today:
Bat Hound. When you’re 5, there’s nothing more important that one’s toys. Especially toys you just found at a resale shop for $1.
That is some kind of scary! I think that was Sunday am news that DH was watching while I slept in. On top of the tv is a giant balsa wood dragonfly! We might have clutter – but at least it’s cool clutter!
He doesn’t quite have a steady hand yet! But the blur is a cool effect on his velvet art butterflies. 
And Legos. Lots and lot of pictures of Legos. Hey all you moms of little boys who will eventually get into Legos. Take my heed and get one of these long flat bins for them. The kids won’t need to dump the bin in order to find pieces and there won’t be quite some much to pick up at the end of the day week!
So you bored yet?
Yeah. Me too.
the 6th picture
I just had quite possibly the most boring weekend of my life. It rained all day yesterday so we cleaned instead of the raking that we’d planned.
It was nicer out today, but do you know how hard it is to rake wet leaves? Lots and lots of wet leaves? Ugh. Yet we had to get it done, because we may not get another chance before, dare I say it? Before snow flies. It’s supposed to get very cold here in the next few days, and even if it doesn’t flurry, it’s even harder to rake frozen leaves than wet ones. Trust me, I know!
Anyway, rain and raking = boring, so I’m stealing a meme from Motherbumper instead. All you have to do is this: Go to your Sixth Picture Folder then pick your Sixth Picture. Oh, you know there’s supposed to be tagging and all, but since I wasn’t, I’m not going to.
Well, the sixth picture in my sixth picture folder was this:
Okay, okay, I know I’ve posted a lot of baby pictures lately – sorry about that! And this one was blurry – but hey those were the rules! And, geez, he was cute, can you see the dimples on his hand? Nom, nom, nom.
This photo really brings me back. I took it when the boy was only a few weeks old and this was my very first solo trip out into the world with him. I’ll never forget how scared that I would do something wrong! Oh, and yes, that is a tie-dyed outfit, given to us by the nurses at the hospital. I loved it but he grew out of it really fast. Sigh. The story of our lives, eh?
Anyone else need NaBloPoMo fodder? Go for it. Just leave a link if you do it so I can come see!
photohunt: ruin(ed)
“He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
as he wades through the buildings towards the center of town.”
“Go go Georgezilla!”
I had to laugh when I received the Photohunter email earlier this week with today’s topic: ruin(ed). I had just taken this photo of George destroying the boy’s army men set up.
Luckily the boy enjoyed watching George destroy it as much as I did. It could have been meltdown time, but instead we made it fun by singing the Godzilla song. We do love a little Blue Oyster Cult around here! George might have gotten a treat or two for putting up with us.
this bytes
I’m hope you’ll all forgive the following whine – I just need to get it out!
I’m a little disappointed in myself over what’s going on at ChapterBytes. If you didn’t notice, I put the site on hiatus awhile ago. It was fun while, well, while it was fun. But it hasn’t been fun lately, for me anyway. It’s nothing about what’s been written, I love the writers and I love the story. But when I started the whole thing I didn’t think too much about the administration of it all. And the finding of new authors, and the promoting, and the stats, and all the stuff that doesn’t make it fun anymore. And I don’t know what to do about it.
I’ve had some grand plans for it. I bought a domain name, with ideas of self-hosting, and having multiple streams of storylines, and all sorts of cool stuff. Then suddenly those things overwhelmed me. At the same time I struggled with finding new authors to keep the current story going. I felt like I was constantly selling it, always asking for more writers. I almost dreaded a new chapter arriving in my inbox because that meant I had to get the next writer going and I never knew what their enthusiasm level would be. At the same time the logistics were killing my own enthusiasm.
So now I’m left with decisions. Do I let the current site just die where it is? Do I move everything over to the new domain and try again? Do I start fresh with a new “book” at the new site? Do I use the new domain for just my own writing?
Should change the whole concept into a writing carnival with links? I could set a topic or a first sentence or some other prompt each week and let people who want to participate write on their own sites instead?
The thing is – I put up that hiatus post a week ago and I’ve not had one single comment and only one private email. Does this mean hardly anyone really cares? That I can do whatever I want and it doesn’t matter? If it does matter to someone then I’ll feel bad if I screw it up, but if it doesn’t matter to anyone then I’m free – but disappointed. Clearly I’m conflicted.
I’ve also found it really odd that I’ve had two completely different readerships between these two sites. Only rarely has a regular of one crossed over to the other and stuck around. Well, readership is a strange thing in itself anyway, fickle, unpredictable, and apparently inversely proportional to number of comments. I suppose that’s a whole separate post of it’s own though.
I’m digressing. What I’m really doing is asking opinions here – what would you do if chapterbytes was yours? Not that I necessarily do what y’all tell me to, I’m just curious what you would do.
Filed Under blogging, writing Tagged chapterbytes, frustrating, writing
life’s little irritations #10
Insomnia. And all the wonderful things that go along with it. Including but not limited to:
- tossing
- pillow is too hot
- turning
- pillow is too cold
- have to pee
- blankets are messed up
- tossing
- throat is dry
- turning
- ponytail is too tight
- thoughts churning
- eyes are burning
- tossing
- turning
Then there are the actual causes of the insomnia:
- have to pee, of course
- getting up causes me to wake up just a little too much
- getting up causes dh to roll over, thereby disturbing the delicate balance of nose hairs, or something like that, which in turn makes him start snoring
- move to guest bed so I don’t disturb him with the tossing and turning, and he doesn’t disturb me with the snoring. Guess which is more important right now?
- guest bed is cooooold and wakes me up further
- guest bed is hard as a rock and kills my back
- guest bed has a cat on it who then wants to stick his whiskers up my nose snuggle
- brain will not shut off
- tossing and turning only makes things worse
- give up and move to couch
- well, if I’m in the room I might as well turn on the computer
- screen is too bright
- cat has followed, had a snack, and is sitting on the back of the couch, above my head, starting to puke
- clean up cat puke from 3 different spots, but at least I pushed him off the couch in time
- might as well blog cause cat puke is pretty much the last straw
So then there are the actual things that are in my head that won’t stop spinning. These are each tiny irritations in of themselves, but all balled up together create one big aneurysm of an irritation. The kind of stuff you know you can do nothing about, that there are no solutions for, especially at 4 am and yet you can’t stopping thinking about them but if you don’t your brain is going to explode.
It’s occurred to me more than once that if I could just stop needing to pee in the middle of the night I could avoid the majority of my sleepless nights. Other than actual dehydration, I have yet to find a solution for that though.
Anyway, here I am, wondering if it’s possible that writing all this down will now allow my mind to vacate all thoughts so I can lay down and go back to sleep…except…now I have to be up in one hour 45 minutes 30 minutes. Crud. I have to pee again.
Filed Under life Tagged inner workings of my brain, insomnia, life, life's little irritations
grocery savings
It’s been awhile since we talked about the current high cost of living, but I think about it every time I go to the store. Sure, gas prices have gone down a bit, but groceries haven’t at all. I’ve come up with a few strategies to help me cut my grocery bill, including, gasp, the dreaded coupons.
Yes, coupons. I hate them, but they do help. I follow the rule of “only buy what you normally would anyway.” There are lots of coupons out there for things I don’t use and won’t try just because I have the coupon. I also make sure the coupon isn’t giving me a false sense of bargain shopping – if another brand is a better price even without a coupon of course I’m going with that one.
I’ve noticed more lately that my local grocery store not only gives me really good coupons at check out for items I actually buy, but they have quite a lot of printable coupons on their website. There are, in fact, lots of printable coupons across the web.
The best coupons of all though are the ones in the meat department. I don’t know if it’s just my store, or if others do it too, but when they need to get the meat and poultry sold quickly they put on “manager’s special” coupons on them. Certainly nothing has gone bad, it’s just getting too close for the sell by date for their comfort. Every time I go to the store now, I check the entire meat department to see what the best deal is, not only by sale price, but by how good the coupons are too.
My best deal so far was this week when they had an overabundance of ground turkey. It was already on sale 2 packs (1.25lb each) for $5.00, normally a package is $4.99 a piece so they were already half price. Then they each had a $1.00 off coupon. So I got name brand ground turkey for $1.20 per pound! That’s the best price I’ve ever seen for it, and we use a ton of ground turkey here (we don’t use any ground beef) so I bought 20 packages. Yes, I know that makes me a dork but I had plenty of room in my chest freezer and I now have enough meat to last through much of the winter.
So this is how I shop now. I plan my meals by what’s on sale and I how I can combine it with what I have in my pantry. I stock up on things I know I’m going to use. I also make a lot more soups and stews than I used to. It’s a great way to use up leftovers, and frankly, onions, carrots, rice and other soup makings are still relatively cheap.
So am I missing anything? What have you changed about your shopping habits lately? Do you have any other money saving tips? Can you tell I’m obsessed with this??
Veteran’s Day
Today is the 90th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. Armistice Day was changed to Veteran’s Day after World War II to encompass all Veterans of all branches of our military. I hope you take a moment today to remember those who’ve served this country, fought for our rights, and for us.
One of the guns of Battery D, 105th Field Artillery, showing American flag which was hoisted after the last shot had been fired when the armistice took effect. Etraye, France., 11/11/1918. National Archives.
The announcing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, was the occasion for a monster celebration in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thousands massed on all sides of the replica of the Statue of Liberty on Broad Street, and cheered unceasingly. National Archives.
A few years ago I had a job in which I worked regularly with veterans of all of our wars, talking to them about their experiences and looking at their photographs. I saw first hand how much it meant to them to be recognized and appreciated. How important it was for their history to be recorded. I still tear up thinking about some of them. Now when I meet a veteran I always try to take the opportunity to shake their hand and thank them for their service. It sounds hokey in writing, but it’s not. It’s important, to them, and to us, to never forget.
One of my best memories was in talking to a man who had served in Korea. During our chat I referred to his time in the Korean War and he looked at me strangely and told me how good that felt – that I had called it a war. I knew that for years it was called a “conflict” instead of a war, but a war it was, and the vets who fought and died there have a right for it to be called by its correct name. That meant something to him and now it will always mean something to me.
So if you meet a veteran today, or any other day, don’t forget to thank him or her. It’s worth the effort, I promise you that. And to the veterans in my life – I love you and and I’m indebted to you.
Edited to add: To our Canadian, French, British and Australian friends (and anyone else!) who also celebrate today, it may be called a different name but the sentiment is still the same. xoxo