My New Favorite Things

The kitchen sink pork marinade was a success, but I've simplified the base. The recipe I posted tasted great, and the pork was moist, but the maple syrup really came through--not a bad thing at all, just depends on your sides. Tonight I had pork steak/tenderloins, so I did salt/pepper/21 Seasoning with soy sauce, crushed garlic, course Dijon, lime juice and ginger dressing. This time it was the garlic/mustard that rose to the palate.

Today we saw The Secret World of Arietty, the new Studio Ghibli film. It's based on the Borrowers, which I haven't read in ages. In true Miyazaki form, it's charming, gorgeous, and girl-friendly. My #1 son was a trooper and saw it with me--and the theater was filled with lots of families and lots of girls. We've raised him on Studio Ghibli movies though, so he wanted to see it, too. All the other boys on line were off to see Star Wars, The Phantom Menace. To be fair, we saw that already, on opening night. He's become the 3D movie snob, but he's also become my movie buddy, which is really nice.

Oh yeah, and I would love a pair of boots like Arietty. 

I started using the phrase "My New Favorite Thing" as a monthly wrap-up or a backup when I did the shopping column for the Dig, probably in 2002. It's not so original that I don't think to claim any kind of dibs on it, but it tickled me to see a FB posting by my favorite author the other day using the phrase. (I haven't watched the video yet, so I can't vouch for it. This is a screen shot, so the links won't work, either.) 

Back in 1999 I actually got to meet Neil Himself, and it was wonderful. He did a reading at Waterstone's books in Boston (which is now a school) promoting Stardust and Neverwhere. He signed my advance copy of Stardust that my friend liberated from the bookstore he was working in, and a couple of other things. I'm excited and curious about American Gods as a live action series, but so glad it'll be on HBO. 

Yes, that is my natural hair color, too.

This is my 200th post, and on Twitter I have 200 tweets. It's a 200 kind of day! 

Marinade experiment

Marinade for pork: Salt, ground pepper, 21 Seasoning Salute, crushed garlic paste, applesauce, fig spread, ginger dressing, whole grain Dijon mustard, Tonkatsu sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, maple syrup, leftover peanut sauce from takeout. Wish me luck!

deck the halls & happy new year

As our first Christmas in our new house, for the first time in many, many years, we had a tree. Last year my mother gave me many ornaments that were given to me by her, old friends, my grandmothers and aunts, ornaments I'd made as a kid. It was pretty emotional opening up the last one my Nana gave to me in 1991, before she died in 1992. We also got to hang ornaments our kids have made, and others that have been given to me in the last few years. Needless to say, the tree is pretty crowded. The only ornaments that didn't get hung were the glass ones I bought at Woolworth's in Boston for my first and only non-home Christmas tree in 1995.

This one is from 1981. Even though the hanger is broken, I found a way to make a new one for the tree.  We still need that kind of magic, that innocence. I still think it's weird that this ornament is 30 years old.

As for the outside of the house, that was kind of a fail. We put the lights up around our lamp-post, and that was about all we could follow through with. There's always next year.


We also did the Elf on the Shelf this year. What a pain that was, and I/we didn't even really get creative with Elfie doing stuff during the night--we were lucky to remember to move him most of the time. We got busted one night when I crashed out early and husband forgot to move him. I delivered some lame excuses: "Maybe there was a lot of traffic," and "I think he liked that spot." On the 23rd I put him on top of our dusty, half-assembled, long-unused hookah. (It was a wedding gift.) Kind of fitting, and it's a nice seat for Elfie.  I've been resisting the last couple of years, but #1 Son begged me for one--which is funny because he's on the verge of not believing in Santa. There are a few blogs that extol the fun and naughty things your elf can do (why make more work for yourself?), but I'm with Jen from People I Want to Punch in the Throat, who brilliantly derides the over-achieving elf-mommies.

summer slump

It's been a pretty lazy, hectic summer. Where did it go? Suddenly it's fall. I had my first Dunkin' Donuts pumpkin donut and muffin last week, and tonight had the first pumpkin beer (Harpoon UFO) of the season.

I grew tomatoes, but with the wet weather, I'm waiting for a bunch to ripen. We didn't lose power during Hurricane Irene. My moonvines are well over 6' tall and on the brink of blooming.

O-dog lost a bunch of teeth, including his two front tops. The Rorster is chatting up a storm. He says, "Sure." His favorite story at the moment is "Winken, Blinken, and Nod," an iPad app that recognizes words read aloud and is animated with paper. He turned 2 last week! While there may come a day that I'll miss the slobber marks on the shoulders of my shirts, I'm not there yet.

For work, I went to Sedona AZ, and while we were there, to the Grand Canyon. It was amazing, and we only saw a small, tiny corner of it. At sunset, there was a storm with thunder and lightning. Driving out after dark, we nearly hit a couple of deer, saw a couple of coyotes on the side of the road, and other animals--bunnies, mice, raccoons--dashed across. 

Knowing the path and walking the path

As I sit here with a sleeping baby on me, this seems especially true is a couple different ways.

We've finally mostly put toddler-boy to sleep in the crib at night. Except when we're both exhausted between 4-6am and sleep is more important than discipline. We *are* still nursing, just at night, though I'm trying to cut down on this, too. At least when he's in his crib, I feel like I'm slowly getting myself back.

With that, I'm taking baby steps toward losing weight, trying a combo of the old Weight Watchers core program, which worked amazingly for me losing baby weight the first time, and also Somersizing. Sure, you can laugh, but at least that'll give me the jump start I need. Apps wil also include Lose It!, a calorie-counter & food logger. Journaling helps. Wish me luck!

o hai blog

It has been a crazy time with moving, house renovating, and now settling in that my poor blog has been sorely neglected. It doesn't help that co-sleeping and laptops don't mix, either. Blogging on an iPhone isn't fun, so I may only post sporadically until one of those items are remedied.

I've noticed that my traffic is up, and I'm wondering if that's a result of being linked to SAM's blog? If it is, then, hi to fans of Mr. SAM. It's fun being a character and co-pilot, and thanks for the support!

if i only had a brain

Happy birthday! We bought you a house.

Well, we didn't really. But we did move out of our condo (sniff), moved in with my parents (!), and closed on a house a week later. In that week Rory turned one, and on his birthday he stayed up way too late and mushed his cupcake. Which I then had to stuff some in his mouth. We also had lobster & corn, and he liked petting the lobsters and carrying around the corn--very tactile!

Two-plus months later, we are still at my parents' house while we renovate. From doing a redo of the bathroom to a total gut of the bathroom, kitchen, and replacing the window in the dining room with a sliding door and covering up the back door. Sounds easy, right? This is in combination with redoing the septic system (taking a few trees out in the process) and replacing the roof, which revealed some rotted siding that also needed replacing. Covering up the back door revealed--surprise!--more rot and a badly flashed porch attachments, so that came down too. (To our inspector's credit, he did say that we'd want to reinforce the deck, and there's no way he could have known about the siding.) Why not replace the bathroom and kitchen windows while we're at it? It's hard not to spiral into replacing A LOT of stuff.  I keep telling myself it'll be worth the wait, and soon it will be over.

We have now reached cruising altitude

blogout

Needless to say, it's been pretty hectic this summer. Owen has been loving his summer camps. Rory is getting huge, and is really crawling around, trying to pull himself up. He loves the cat, and gets very happy whenever he sees one. Rory wants whatever you have, especially if it's a phone or a remote, which as soon as he gets a hold of it, he'll put it in his mouth.

The biggest news that I've been hesitant to share so publicly is that we're selling (or renting) our condo and heading to the 'burbs. (Except for that Tweet over there.) It was a tough decision for us city people, but we need the space, and being closer to my parents will be a big help. We packed up a lot of our condo and put it into storage, so all of my knitting stuff is away, most of the books are packed, and cooking is held to a minimum. It looks strange, and it is strange, but in a good way.

It's 3am, do you know where your brownies are?

I love my husband. And because I usually fall asleep at 9 before I can actually do the things I need to, he picks up the slack, which is awesome. But sometimes he does things in a way I wouldn't.

Take these Betty Crocker low-fat fudge brownies, for instance. He, being a good husband & father FTW, baked them for a school event that is now technically tonight. Before he came to bed, he told me that he forgot to grease the pan--the nice silicone 9x9 pan so they would be extra thick. (Note: for school events, more is better. A 9x9 pan is usually only 16 brownies, while a 13x9 pan can be 25 brownies.) OK, I failed at the first bake, so I can't complain. When I woke up and got out of bed at 2ish to cut and wrap them, they totally broke apart, but in a sticky way. Useless for bringing to a school event, but it's not like they'll go to waste.

Hence, batch 2 of regular fat brownies are now in the oven, in a greased and tin-foil lined 13x9 pan. I just hope our neighbors don't wake up too hungry.

show me your teeth

(And yes, I have been listening to a lot of Lady Gaga.)

Since I'm failing to show a photo of the Rorster in this post, instead I give you "Just call it, 'Another one of my masterpieces,'" from #1 Son. Alternatively titled "Three Circles," it was one of 10 pieces chosen from his school to be shown in the Annual Art Showcase at Boston City Hall. The show comes down tomorrow

I keep trying to get a photo of the Rorster's teeth, but every time he grabs my iPhone to put it in his mouth. The bottom two are in, as is the top left; the top right is just starting to come through. Other accomplishments include trying to pull himself to stand using the front of his bathtub, he's a good sitter, and he had his first Joe's O (Cheerio) this week. He's also trying very hard to talk, with lots of "Mummmmuummmma." He still needs to turn from his back onto his tummy, and the whole sleeping thing. But he is a good scootcher, pushing with his back feet when he's on his back, and he can turn in a circle on his tummy. We're getting there!

Sleeping Beauty

Finally! A night that I'm not crashed out with the Rorster at 8pm and my laptop batteries aren't dead. How about a little updating, hmkay?

The Rorster is a whopping 16 or 17 pounds at 5, almost 6 months. He's rolling around, smiling, cooing--very alert and curious. We're still working on solid food, bottles, and sleeping. I just can't do the crying out thing right now, and I just love snuggling with him after a long crazy day working and running around. We did the No-Cry Sleep "Solution" with Owen, even though it took awhile. And teething! Droolicious. He's fitting into Owen's 6-9 month sleepers.

Owen finally watched Miyazaki's "Laputa: Castle In the Sky" and "Nausicaa." He's enthralled by the Goliath and the flying machines and the robots. We've also been watching Tom Baker-era Doctor Who stories.

Other fun tidbits:

Flapjacks rise better with whole wheat flour, and too many bananas make them soggy.

Trader Joe's chocolate chips are too big for pancakes.

Shaw's Tangerine Lime Sparkling Water tastes just like Fresca.

Smuttynose Hanami Cherry Ale is very yummy.

Vampires, Werewolves, and The Doctor, oh my

New Moon: I really liked it, and was so thankful the CGI was better and it didn't have so many campy moments in it. Could have done without so many circling shots, though. I love the whole soundtrack even more, and hope it replaces Garden State as the default indie soundtrack my massage therapist uses. Right, and I like that True Blood is heading in a different direction than the books.

If werewolves are going to be the new vampire (or zombies), then I highly recommend seeing Dog Soldiers. It's a weird title for a really neat film. The premise is that a training exercise turns into a fight for survival. Starring Kevin McKidd (Tommy from Trainspotting), it's also described as a "soldier movie with werewolves." A lot of thought went into this movie, and it shows. The first two Ginger Snaps films are interesting takes on the genre that were fun to re-watch around Halloween.

Then there's Doctor Who. Like many people, I got hooked on the Tom Baker/Elizabeth Sladen episodes in the late 70s when they showed it on PBS. I think the first episode I saw in 1978 was "Genesis of the Daleks." Watching them again in light of the series reboot, it's been really fun. I didn't follow the series much after the early 80s, either because PBS stopped showing them after school or I got older and lost interest. With the new series, I've only caught a new episode here, another there, and didn't have much cohesion for the plots until recently when BBC America did all-day marathons of both Dr. Who and Torchwood. Jack Harkness definitely needed his own show, and I love that Elizabeth Sladen has The Sarah Jane Chronicles.
"School Reunion" (Season 2, episode 2) is a blast not only because of the dynamic of the companions, but Anthony Head as a plotting alien headmaster is delightful. But really, it's David Tennant's quirkiness combined with good looks that I have a huge crush on; Tom Baker is handsome in a more bohemian way. The drawback to the new Dr. Who is that the writing could be better; it makes me crazy that in every episode he's lonely and the last Timelord. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to the Dec. 19th "Waters of Mars" presentation. Then it will be interesting to see how Matt Smith does as the next Doctor.

more pumpkin-y goodness

Roasting pumpkins was a lot easier than I thought. We had Rory's Halloween pumpkin and the sugar pumpkin Owen picked from his class trip. The jack o' lantern pumpkin I baked whole (it took about an hour), and the sugar pumpkin I cut in half, gutted, and roasted face down on a cookie sheet sprayed with a little bit of oil and covered in parchment paper until the skin was dark. The oil carmelized the sugar pumpkin a little bit, and enhanced the flavor. I had no idea there were some good recipes on babycenter.com, but both I used turned out really good. The jack o' lantern pumpkin tasted more like squash, so I used it for a risotto. Next time, I'll use more stock to rice. I used the whole box, not 8-12oz of rice as the recipe suggested, or a pre-made carrot-ginger or butternut squash soup for a creamier texture. It was a great side dish served with sweet apple chicken sausage.
Surprisingly, the sugar pumpkin yielded at least 3-4 cups of pumpkin, so I used about half for a cobbler, which is essentially a pumpkin pie bottom and a crumbly top using a box of yellow cake mix coated in butter. Sounds dodgy, but the butter hardens the powdery mix into a thick, crusty topping. I still have 1-2 cups pumpkin that's still good for a pie.

...and he's down!

Baby Rory just put himself to sleep! It's maybe the second or third time he's done it. Granted, it's the morning, he's on his tummy, and he's on the bed. For safety's sake, yes, I'm watching him. He'll probably wake up as soon as I sit down on the bed, but still, it's progress. He's also fallen asleep in the swing a couple times (which is good for when I go back to work), even at night.

Sleeping was our biggest challenge with our firstborn. We co-slept and nursed to sleep. We held hands and sang songs in the crib, then patted down and even slept in the toddler bed. We all finally agreed that big Kindergarten boys didn't need help going to sleep, and now it's not a problem. #1 son still comes in to snuggle with us in the mornings, but only if it's still dark.

With boy #2, I'm making some of the same mistakes (like nursing to sleep. Oops.), but I'm also learning to let baby fuss to a small degree. I still really don't want to go the Ferber route, but if it's small, "I'm tired" crying, it's not that bad.

the most pumpkin-y time of the year

Enter the pumpkin: one of the many reasons why I love the fall! Pumpkin beer is one of the best things. Shipyard Pumpkinhead, Post Road, and Dogfishhead Punkin Ale are all good. A friend recommends Southampton Pumpkin, but I haven't found it up here. Dunkin Donuts has trotted out their pumpkin muffins and donuts; I also like the low-fat (!) apple caramel muffin. I've had my obligatory decaf skim no-whip Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks. Trader Joe's no longer makes pumpkin ravioli, but their pumpkin whoopie pies make up for it; tomorrow I'll try the pancake/waffle mix. Au Bon Pain has the wonderful pumpkin harvest soup. Last week, I made the Weekly Yelp touting the charms of Donovan's pumpkin ravioli & chicken, sauteed in a cream, cheese, and maple syrup sauce. While it's all in moderation, it's not the time of year to start Weight Watchers!

On the flip side, I haven't been able to find pumpkin spice flavored coffee, either being served or ground & bagged (like New England Coffee).

6 weeks of daily dilemmas

Eat, sleep, bathe, pump, or go on the computer to check email or shop online? Never mind trying to clean, do laundry, switch the seasonal clothes, write thank you notes, blog/yelp, or knit. The best days are sitting on the couch, nursing, having the baby sleep on my chest, and reading on my iPhone Kindle and/or watching all-day marathons of Dr. Who or Torchwood on BBC America, with the only interruptions being diaper changes, bathing the baby, and picking-up #1 son from school. (Yes, I went with the iPhone. Yes, I love it.)

The first 6 weeks have flown by, and I'm sure the same will be true of the next 6 weeks.

lazy days

After our jaunt back in the hospital for jaundice, we've been having a steady two weeks of getting acclimated to something like a schedule consisting mostly of sleeping in 2-4 hour shifts, nursing, and changing diapers. While I had high hopes of reading, catching up on my yelp reviews, and trying to get back into knitting, I've mostly been enjoying the days with the baby, feeling lucky if I can shower in time and get the baby fed and dressed so we can go pick up the O-man from school. You'd think I'd have tons to write about, and it's not like I don't--I just don't have the energy to pull my thoughts together enough to put them down, then finding a chunk of uninterrupted time to sit down and write.

With the O-man, my mother was always saying to put the baby down. But there's nothing like having a baby fall asleep on you, and it's precious when they're still small enough that the baby fits perfectly on your chest & under your chin.

It's also funny to think that theoretically, I should be still pregnant, and that Rory is really only 39 weeks old. Guess it's time to take down the Baby Namey link!

he's just a little guy

two weeks ago, Rory arrived weighing 6lbs, 9oz! With one week of bed-rest, we almost made it to 36 weeks. Labor was roughly 5-8 hours with 5 minutes of pushing and no epidural. It was a very different experience--more medicalized, more on the clock. He still had to go to the NICU, but he came down to our room at 2am. It was weird in a great way being able to bring him home and get to know him.