General Updates

I have a lot of friends having babies, and most of them are lamenting having to go back to work, and how hard it is to leave their babies. I understand this, but if it is so hard find a way to stay home permanently. I think it is a horrible tragedy that women, or men, or whoever, have to work, and can't be home with their children. If children are what you want from life, then I think you should be able to fully enjoy, raise, etc. your child, but it isn't possible when today, to live comfortably, you must have two incomes. In some cases to live at all you have to have two incomes.

I consider myself a very progressive woman, but I think a lot of issues with the world today stem from the fact that one parent cannot stay home with the child throughout its young life. This "luxury," which I feel is a basic function of life, is reserved for only the rich, or the very lucky. The rich, who in turn have money to stay home or hire a nanny, and whose children then get the attention, cognitive development, and so forth that makes them successful later in life. One more way the rich stay rich, and the poor stay poor. Now, I'm not saying a poor child won't become successful, I'm just saying that there is an unfair advantage for the rich because their parents have the ability to not need two incomes. It's just a shame, because the world really would be a better place.

In other news, I've been so busy with work I haven't posted here much. I am taking a break early this morning to post an update. I took some pictures of the new place and I will post them later if I have time. Last night I got so excited about finishing all the decorating that I went on a spree, and hung a few things, and sewed a few things. Two things precipitated this burst of domestic energy. One is that the mat for John's degrees came in, and I was so excited to re-use one of our old frames, and put his degrees up with their beautiful new navy mat. In the pictures the mat looks black, but it is a very dark, marbled navy blue. It looks very chic. We also had a custom mat made for an old Keith Parkinson poster I managed to acquire (see dragon art to the left). I had an emerald green mat made for it, and it is such an unusual sized poster that I am happy I found a way to mat it, and frame it without making it look silly. It was 21 3/4" x 31", odd size, no? It now hangs at the top of the stairs and stares down at you as you walk up. Yeah, I'm a dork, what of it? The second thing that precipitated decorating is that we have company on Friday, and I am so excited. Board games, booze, and good conversation. Plus, I'll be making a full Indian meal, fresh naan and all. Mmm, I can already taste it.

Tonight we might head to Bryan and watch Rocky Horror. It's been so long since I went to a live performance of Rocky Horror, and this one is in the gay bar, which should make it all the more awesome. Who would have thought there would be a good gay bar in Bryan...not me, that is for sure, but I am happy for it. It's been since 2006, I think, since I last saw Rocky Horror, which is far too long.

Skyrim is coming out on 11.11.11, and I am so excited. I have been playing Oblivion every night, because I need a fix until mid-November. Goddess help me when Skyrim comes out. John and I will be vying for the Xbox, but it shouldn't be too much of an epic battle as he does have to study sometime, and I don't. 

In not so benign news, my mother's health is quickly deteriorating, and I am having to intervene and take her to doctors. My mother can't get insurance because she has Type II diabetes, and lots of other issues. She has never seen a specialist for her diabetes, which is just crazy. I know it is expensive without insurance, hell it is expensive with insurance, but diabetes is serious.  So, I asked around, and luckily one of our friends knew a premier endocrinologist in Austin, which I am going to take her to see in a few weeks. I'm just happy I have the ability to take time off for such things. In any case, I hope the doctor can help her, because she is in so much pain all the time, and it's getting really hard for her to do almost anything. She has been seeing a doctor in Houston, but he isn't a specialist, and I really don't think he is a good doctor at all. In fact, I think he is an awful doctor.

On other family news, my brother's baby is due any day now. Kaylin will be her name. She is named for the character in Terry Goodkind's novel series the Sword of Truth. Except somewhere, lamely, along the line, her name got spelled in a more modern way, which I think butchers the name, but that is my nerdy side talking. It should be spelled Kahlan, which is a much better spelling. :)  Plus, I might have gone one nerdy step further and used the book character's first and last name as a first and middle name respectively, Kahlan Amnell. Again, I'm a dork, though her initials would have been KAB, hehe.

Well, off to work, enough playing. I will post pictures soon.

Chocolate Frogs with Pop Rocks

This recipe was posted by family and I can't help but share it. It is a recipe for crunchy (pop rocks), chocolate covered gummy frogs. Mmm, I have to try this, and as the people originally posting this point out, Amazon sells gummy frogs in 5 lb. bags. :) Here is the original blog post.

House Cleaning the Natural Way

I recently ordered a few supplies from Mountain Rose Herbs, see my links on the sidebar. Today I can across their blog on green cleaning for your home. I was impressed to find many things that I myself want to replace in our household when they run out, such as a replacement for Comet, Murphy's Wood Oil, and so on. I have always worried about the chemicals I use and their effects on the environment. As these harmful chemicals run out in our household, I find myself making substitutes myself, though using up these chemicals takes some time, as we don't use a lot. See Mountain Rose's Blog here.

Also they have a post on Cold and Flu Remedies.

A salt scrub, massage oil, and bath salt recipe in this post.

Holiday drinks here.

You know what, just read the whole blog, it rocks. Lots of ideas for cooking, herbal infused drinks, honeys, soaps, household care, etc. They rock, I love Mountain Rose. If you want a more local store use Garden of the Ancients (Manor, Texas), whose link is also on the sidebar.

Leather and the Weather

Today will be a high of 74˚F and a low of 49˚F, which is marvelously cold. Maybe this isn't cold to all you northerners, but here in Texas let me just say, woo hoo! I think it is time to take off the heat repellent fabric from the windows and celebrate. 

The best thing about cool days, other than the weather, is the clothing. I wear running pants and tennis shoes in order to walk or bike into work, and after getting to work I change into my work clothes. Many days, even in the summer, my work clothes include my beautiful, precious, knee-high Frye boots, acquired at the good graces of family members as a present for my birthday. Here they are today, sorry for the weird angles:

This morning nothing could have made me happier than the smell of the leather as I put on my boots. There is something to the smell of leather on a cool day that is indescribable. It is the musky smell of well worn leather, of earth and dirt, and all the places you have been. It is the smell of home, and of riding horses in the winter. It is a smell that just sets my heart at ease.

It is officially fall in Texas, and I am officially celebrating with boots, baking, and ____ anyone have another 'b' word, and no not that one.

Though it is "cold," I have had a desire for ice cream. So, one night this week John and I trekked over to the Dairy Queen to eat a pumpkin pie blizzard. Oh my gosh, it was so good. Then I thought, hmm, I have pumpkin pie filling that needs to get used at home...oh yes, this is going there. Last night I made a pumpkin pie, and the crust from scratch, as I usually do. I'd have made all the pie from scratch but as I said we had filling that needed to be used. In any case, the homemade pumpkin pie blizzard was delicious, and now I even have more waiting at home for me later today. Ah, the small things in life. 

Update: Henna Tattoo

I found the original artist for the henna design I posted some days ago, and she agreed to draw up the design for me. However, I haven't heard from her in a bit, so I don't know if she changed her mind. Hopefully she didn't change her mind *fingers crossed*. If she hasn't, then I will be visiting with two Atomic tattoo artists, whose portfolios I really like, in order to get the tattoo done. One of their rates is a fair going rate, $120-150/hour, but I'll still have to save to get the tattoo done. The other artist I fear doesn't post rates because he is well known, and probably has an hourly rate I'd have to save a year for. We'll see, and if all goes well, I'll get my first, and probably last tattoo. I say last because it takes up a fair bit of area, and because I can't have exposed tattoos at work. If I could, well that would be a different story.

Homemade Nutella

For anyone as in love with Nutella as John, and a few of my friends, please see this gentleman's homemade Nutella recipe. The first page is simply ingredients, and there is a link for preparation instructions. I will have to try this for the holidays and give it out as gifts if it tastes good.

Smells like Laundry, Looks like Henna

In a previous post, I briefly touched on how most people's laundry these days smells as if you poured a whole bottle of perfume on yourself, at least to me, and if you like it, well, live and let live. This isn't a post complaining about that, but it is related.

So, John and I hunt, as you all know, and it is very popular for hunters to buy scent-masking sprays, or clothing that has built in smell-masking "technology." I think this is all a load of codswallop. If hunters would stop washing their clothing with perfumed Tide the deer might be able to smell them a little less, and especially the turkey, who have an incredible sense of smell that you wouldn't expect. So, tell yourselves, oh hunters, "I will not buy stupid shit."

It used to be that people said your were buying snake oil, a charm, or getting robbed, but nowadays everyone goes along with the latest product that supposedly helps with X, solves Y, and makes your life _____ (insert positive sounding adjective). This isn't new. This has been going on since the dawn of society. Step away from the latest product, and think logically. If you still want it after that, then hey, that is your choice, we all spend our money on silly and frivolous things (I include myself too), but please spend it on nice frivolous things.

Speaking of frivolous things. I am in love with tattoos and always have been. They are a complete waste of my money at the moment, as I don't have much, but I so love them. I've never been able to decide on a design. I also adore henna, but I don't want to keep having it redone, or to buy a sub-par product and do it myself. That is if I could even do it myself, because I want things on my back, not an easy place to do for oneself. In either case, it came to mind again when I saw a model on Facebook today who had beautiful henna work on her, that I would adore having as a permanent tattoo, but alas, where would I find the money, and I don't even know if a tattoo artist could tattoo something that looked like henna. Does anyone know that answer? It's something for me to look into. Below is the photo of the henna I adored, it is a little blurry, but if you have Facebook, check out the model's original photo here.