Yoshi, No Dye

We had some friends come over yesterday for one last post-graduation (they all just finished their PhD's), pre-move (P&L are moving up north, Y is still looking for a job, but it won't be here) video game-playing hurrah.

To cap (no pun intended) off the day, Steve wanted to make a cake: a graduation Yoshi.  And he wanted to make the frosting with no food dye.

So Steve and I took to the internet for ideas and recipes.  Steve made the cake and a traditional white buttercream frosting to use as the base, and I was in charge of the color-making.  (For the record, red, yellow, and blue were all made using the buttercream frosting.  The greens were a separate recipe.)

Red: Beets.  I cut up a beet and boiled it in a small amount of water, intending to use the water as food coloring.  That yielded a pretty pink color, but we were going for red.  So I tossed the frosting and some beet chunks into the blender, and came up with a much deeper color.

Light Green (not pictured): Avocado.  I used this recipe, minus the lemon extract, because I didn't have any and I didn't want to buy it for half a teaspoon.

Yellow: Turmeric.  I dissolved turmeric in water and mixed just a bit into the frosting.  I had to add some more powdered sugar to thicken it up.  I probably could have added the turmeric directly to the frosting for a bolder color, but that was the first one I did, and I didn't think of it.

Dark Green: Spinach.  Again, I boiled down spinach intending to use the water, but it was too pale a green.  So I tossed some of the avocado frosting into the blender with the boiled spinach leaves, and came up with that nice, rich green.

Blue: Blueberries-plus.  Blue was the most fun.  I'd read about using blueberries or purple spinach.  Blueberries seemed more delicious, so I went that route.  The recommendation with the spinach was to add baking soda to turn the color from purple to blue, so when the blueberries ended up more purple than we were going for, I tried the baking soda.  It was still too purple, so I added some of the avocado frosting, which turned it grey-ish, so in went a piece of beet.  And all together, we ended up with a kind of deep purple-blue, which was acceptable.

And... voila!

The cake was delicious.  Each frosting had a different flavor, some more mild than others, but all tasty.  It did take a good chunk of the morning to figure everything out, but now that I've got these colors down, I'd do it again.  And it was a lot of fun experimenting!

The game-playing, although I didn't actually participate in that part, was also super-fun.  Steve had a dual-screen set-up for maximum gaming enjoyment.

It was a great Sunday of food, friends, and art projects (for me... that will be in another post).  We're really going to miss being able to do this!  Good luck, friends!

First Fourth

Three years ago, two sets of our couple friends came over on the Fourth of July.  We played lawn games, grilled delicious food, and went to the local fireworks display.  It was simple and low-key, and somehow that Fourth has gone down in our collective memory as The Best.

Yesterday, one of those couples, P & L, came over.  We recreated some of that past holiday and made Oliver's first Fourth of July pretty darn fun.

There were games (mostly of the video variety), more delicious grilled food, and fireworks, this time viewed from afar.  I didn't want Oliver's tiny ears so close to a fireworks display, so instead of going to the park with the crowds, we drove up to the mall, which overlooks our valley, to see what we could see from there.  We weren't alone, but it wasn't crowded or loud, which was exactly what I was aiming for.

Tastiest rainbow ever!

We saw lots of private fireworks and probably would have been able to see the professional ones our town puts on, if there hadn't been a malfunction.  (The "malfunction", which we heard about via a text to someone in the group next to us, turned out to be a platform collapse that aimed several fireworks directly into the crowd, injuring an estimated 28 people. I am so, so glad I'd decided I didn't want to take Oliver this year!)

Waiting for fireworks

Oliver fell asleep watching fireworks.  All in all, a pretty fun Fourth!

Recipe Book: Lactation Cookies

I remember hearing about lactation cookies before I was pregnant, and then someone mentioned them at my PEP meeting a few weeks ago.  I was on a mission!  I tried three different recipes before I found one I liked... and then I tweaked it a little.

One just happened to come out heart-shaped!

Chocolate Chip-Coconut-Oatmeal Lactation Cookies

• 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 tablespoons brewers yeast
• 1 cup coconut oil (or butter or margarine)
• 1 ¼ cups packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups oats
• ¾ cup chocolate chips
• ¾ cup unsweetened coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350°

Mix flaxseed meal and water, set aside.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and brewers yeast; set aside.

Cream coconut oil and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, mix well. Add flaxseed meal and vanilla. Gradually mix in flour mixture.  Stir in oats, chocolate chips, and coconut flakes.

Bake 9-11 minutes.


I had some in a container on the counter when friends came over for a barbeque a few weekends ago.  I was amused that the women were absolutely disgusted by the idea of lactation cookies (I think they originally may have thought the cookies had breastmilk in them, and couldn't get past the idea?), but the guys tried and enjoyed them.

And I think they're delicious.  Steve agrees.  I can't really say how much they increase my milk supply, but I like to think they're doing their thing.  Deliciously.

My Hips

My mom told me this little anecdote about seven years ago, I think, relayed to her by her school speech therapist friend.  I don't suppose I'm remembering it entirely accurately, but it went something like this:

The therapist was working with a little boy on being able to say th. 

"Where does ice cream go?" she asked, obviously hoping the answer would be in my mouth. 

"To my hips!" he said, proudly.

That little boy must have been listening to his mother a bit too closely!


There are two reasons this story comes to mind.

First, my hips.  I've had hip pain, which comes about mostly by sleeping and then hangs out for much of the day, for a while now.  But it's reached new heights lately.  This week, I gave up trying to stay in bed with Steve.  Turning over in place takes an effort that usually wakes me up entirely, and with only my Snoogle pillow along one side, I was having to maneuver pillows each time I turned, too.

So this week, I built an entire fortress between my Snoogle and a traditional body pillow on the bed in the nursery.  Bonus: that bed is more pillow-topped than our bed, making it just a tad comfier.  Penalty: no Steve.  Unless he wants to squeeze into the eight inches or so of bed space left.

The result?  I don't know if I'm sleeping any more efficiently (according to my FitBit), but my hips don't hurt.

I'm already super-glad we made that bed work!

The cats like my pillow fortress, too.

 
The second reason that story comes to mind is weight.

In the span of about a year, between 2010 and 2011, I lost 50 pounds.   I gained about ten pounds back during and after my first pregnancy and miscarriage.  (It's amazing how fast that can happen!)  Mostly after, when I slipped into old habits and allowed comfort food to help me feel better.  I just didn't have the energy to worry about making good choices. We got pregnant again before I had time to lose more than two or three of those ten pounds gained.

And now I've already put on about thirty-two pounds (if I weigh myself naked in the morning, so it's probably more) during this pregnancy, with more than seven weeks left to go.  The scale is creeping dangerously close to that number I never, ever wanted to see again in my whole life.

I still go to Weight Watchers (almost) every week, although I don't weigh in and I don't count points.  The meetings are a good reminder to stay on track, to not go overboard with the cookies (being that I kind of did that around Christmas time...), and to eat a variety of healthful foods that will benefit me and the baby.

I've been getting on my little elliptical most mornings for the last several months, and I'm trying to make a point of doing at least ten flights of stairs a day.  And, of course, walking the dog.  It's probably not enough, but it's something.  

As I'm quickly coming up on being a mother, I need to figure out how to find a balance between making sure I'm healthy myself and not making too big a deal about it.  I'm afraid of instilling this I can't eat that because it goes straight to my hips mentality in my children.  I want to model healthy behavior and not have it be a big thing that we all worry about all the time.

So, there's that.  I suppose I'll figure it out as I go...

But, you know, my hips don't hurt today, and that's a big win!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Do you ever have one of those days where you're sad, and you don't know why?  Yesterday was that day for me.  I probably spent two solid hours crying big, fat, ugly tears alone in my house, for no good reason. 

Because there is so much good in my life right now!

Like Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love that there's not much commercialism surrounding it (ignoring Black Friday, like I do) and it's all about spending time with the people you love, and it's a holiday everyone (in America, at least) celebrates, so you don't have to feel weird or hesitant about greeting strangers with "Have a happy Thanksgiving!"  Also?  Delicious food.

I haven't been "home" for Thanksgiving in seven years, and it's still a little strange and sad to not spend it with my family, but I have an awesome family here in California.

This year, it included Steve's parents, two brothers, and brothers' girlfriends, our friends D and T who came out from Palm Springs, Gen, her boyfriend, and her mom who is visiting.  It was fun that D and T, Gen, and her mom are all also from Illinois.

If you're counting, that's thirteen total, which I was a little concerned about having seating for.  (It could have been seventeen, if everyone invited had been able to make it.)  We had our newish table-with-leaves and two card tables end-to-end, and we fit!

Most of our party fits in the picture

Steve made the turkey and a mint-chocolate cheesecake.  I made mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cheat potato pie (made with butternut squash instead of sweat potatoes), and pretzel jello.  There was also a rice casserole, farrow salad, "Gen Special" pumpkin pie, Scotch bars, Scottish shortbread, and mint chocolate chip cookies.

I mean, there was food. 

There still is.  Steve and I have had leftovers for breakfast for two days, and for dinner with his parents last night, and we could probably go a few more rounds with what's left in the fridge.  Seriously.

Steve with his (half carved) gorgeous turkey

It shouldn't take a holiday to take stock of what we're thankful for, but it's a good reminder.  I'm thankful for my family: by blood, marriage, and good friendship.  I'm thankful for my animals, who may be trouble, but are always good for a purr, a lick, a tail wag, or a snuggle.  I'm thankful for this baby we'll meet in *gasp* less than five months.  I'm thankful for the baby we lost earlier this year, because, among other things, it allowed us to be that much more thankful for this little one-to-be.  I'm thankful for our home and our jobs and our health, and that Steve and I both have wonderful grandparents to share our lives with, however far away they live.  I'm thankful for the technology that keeps friends and family close.

You know, life's pretty darn good!

Pun'kin Time

Every year, my friend R has a pumpkin carving party.

Pumpkin preview!

This year, about a week before the party, I got a craving for caramel dipped apples, so I asked if I could bring some.

R is vegan.  When we lived together, I was on top of vegan cooking and appropriate substitutions, but it's been... wow, about seven years.  So I'm not on my A-game anymore.  It didn't occur to me that the easy-peasy melt-down-some-caramels method of making caramel-dipped apples was not vegan.  (Caramels are, apparently, made with milk!)

I can make vegan caramel, I thought.  I went to the handy internet and started searching for recipes.  Many called for a wide variety of what seemed like they'd be difficult-to-find ingredients.  Like soy yogurt.  (When I was experimenting with the possibility of being allergic to milk protein, I went on a hunt for soy yogurt.  Not so easy to find.)

Then a friend gave me a caramel recipe that called for margarine, so I thought that swapping it for Earth Balance might do the trick.

Wrong.

The caramel looked good and smelled good, but it was seeping oil.  It didn't stick to the apples unless I pressed it on and waited for it to cool, and then it hardened into a solid caramel shield.  (I'm not sure if I cooked it too long, or if the seeped-out oil made it less pliable.)  I made two rock-hard apples before pouring the rest onto wax paper to make candy.  (The oil seeped out of that, too, all over my counter.)  The candy came out equally hard, but tasty at least!

So I tried another recipe that called for soy milk.  A cup of soy milk, which seemed like way too much liquid when the first recipe had been essentially the same, minus the milk, but I tried it anyway.  It never thickened up into anything useful, although again, if I'd wanted to drink it, the flavor was good.  (I didn't want to drink it.  Down the sink it went.)

After that, my time was getting short.  I gave up on experimenting and went with the tried-and-true caramel-melting method.  I actually had to run to the store mid-dipping to get another set of caramels, but I had success.  Two vegan apples and the rest... not.

The final result

These two (front) are vegan, but possibly hard as a rock.

All in all, the apples went over famously.  There was lots of delicious food, and then we got down to business.  Not everyone carved a pumpkin, but I think they all turned out great.

My owl

J was having a hard time coming up with something to carve.  She wanted to do a Disney princess off a stencil, but they all seemed too complicated (and too big for her pumpkin).  J is a statistician and loves math, so someone said she should do a math pumpkin.

"Do a calculator with hearts!" someone suggested.

"Numbers!"

"How about pi?" I suggested.  "Pumpkin pi!"

J's Pi and Steve's scared ghost

Then C started calling it Pun'kin Pi, because it's a pun.  Ha ha.

Lots of fun.  And I've got pumpkin seeds on the counter about ready to roast, which is a large part of the reason I carve pumpkins in the first place.  Yum!

15 Weeks

There's a small contingent of early-morning (as in, pitch dark outside) dog-walkers in my complex.  We do this elaborate dance wherein we try to be friendly to each other while simultaneously avoiding one another so our dogs don't get all riled up and excited while most of our neighbors are still sleeping.

This morning, one of my neighbors called, "Good morning, young mama!  I heard the news!  Congratulations!" while pulling his two playful King Charles spaniels in the other direction.

No outtakes today!

This week--I hesitate to say it, in case I jinx it all!--the nausea seems to be improving.

Every night I lay as still as possible in bed and try to feel baby movements.  I'm pretty sure I can't feel anything yet.  Sigh.

Because a few people have expressed concern over the amount of protein I'm getting since I haven't been eating meat, I counted up the protein I'll be eating today.  Between the 29 grams in the smoothie I had for breakfast, the 47 grams in various lunch and snack items for my workday, and the 12 grams in the last portion of leftover casserole for dinner, that's 88 grams.  The Internets tell me pregnant women need somewhere between 60 and 90 grams of protein per day.

I'm already encountering lots of people who are sure I'm having a girl, or positive I'm having a boy.  It's entertaining.

Cookin' Fool

I like to prepare as much of the week's food on Sundays as possible, but yesterday I spent an unusual amount of time in the kitchen.

First, talking about those pumpkin spice muffins encouraged me to use up the rest of the can of pumpkin I'd had in the fridge from making pumpkin waffles last weekend. 

Mmm, pumpkin spice muffins.

This pregnancy is doing some unusual things to my palate.  I've never been a die-hard carnivore, but I wouldn't be surprised if this child ends up a vegetarian, based on the amount of meat I've wanted to eat.

I used to be content with a turkey wrap every day in my lunch, but lately lunches have been more difficult.  No turkey for me, and to make matters worse, I'm not able to eat the same thing week after week anymore.

Time to get creative.  This week?  Quinoa salad with cucumbers, onions, and sweet plum tomatoes (my newly discovered favorite type of tomato).

Improvised quinoa salad

Once the muffins were out of the oven and while the quinoa was cooking on the stove, I started on baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese (for me) and leftover spicy ground turkey (for Steve) for dinner.

And then, did I mention this pregnancy is messing with my taste buds?  I was browsing through a slow cooker cook book for dinner ideas for the week, and I came across a ravioli casserole recipe that looked good. 

Me!  The girl who doesn't eat pasta!

I made my first ever mostly-from-scratch pasta sauce in preparation, to pair with frozen spinach ravioli (I'm not quite ambitious enough to make my own pasta...) in the crock pot to cook during the day today.

Our refrigerator is packed. 

Pumpkin Time

Our New Things for 2012 continued this weekend with October's activity: the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival.

Fun fact: Calabasas is derived from the Spanish word for pumpkin or gourd, calabaza.  I'm taking the Internet's word for it that that's an accurate translation.

(Of course, I forgot my camera and it never even occurred to me that I could have taken pictures with my cell phone, so this post has no photographic evidence.  Darn.)

But! There were local artists and crafters, which I love.  The day was overcast and a little dreary, but very fall-like.  It involved parking a bajillion miles away, so we got a good walk out of it, and, and!  There were pumpkin treats.  Of course!

I'm a sucker for pumpkin anything (a tall, skim, decaf pumpkin spice latte is my special treat this autumn, and can of pumpkin + box of spice cake mix = a favorite seasonal dessert), and this festival was like a gold mine.  Similar to the Oxnard Strawberry Festival, but more creative with the food options.

We tried/tasted/shared savory pumpkin empanadas, pumpkin stew, a not-too-sweet dessert pumpkin tamale, and topped it off with a pumpkin shake, made with real pumpkin and spices.  There was also fried pumpkin, pumpkin beer, pumpkin tempura, Greek pumpkin pie, regular pumpkin pie, roasted pumpkin seeds,

Oh. My. Goodness.

It reminded me of the time in college my roommate Aarti and I bought a pumpkin and figured out how to turn it into pumpkin soup. I might be motivated to try it again this year.

I think I'd like to make the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival an annual tradition. 

World Vegetarian Day: My Day in Food

Yesterday, October 1st, was World Vegetarian Day.  Lately, I've been eating very little meat, mostly in the form of ground turkey with dinner.  So it wasn't a stretch to eat like a vegetarian.

Every day, I have Greek yogurt with a cut-up apple and honey for breakfast, cottage cheese with pineapple and/or a banana for my mid-morning snack, cucumbers in a sweet/spicy vinegar sauce and a piece of fruit (along with some kind of sandwich/leftovers) with lunch, and carrots and a second piece of fruit as my mid-afternoon snack.  Dinner is the big variable.

I decided to switch up my usual breakfast and have a spinach-banana smoothie.  1/2 cup light vanilla soy milk, a big handful of spinach, one frozen banana, and two tablespoons of Weight Watchers coconut smoothie protein mix.

spinach-banana-coconut

It was so delicious, I might have another one this morning.

For the last week or two, I've been on an avocado-and-tomato sandwich kick for lunch.

This picture was taken in 2007, but it's the same idea.

I've gotten better at making this sandwich pretty, but I didn't have my camera with me at lunch, so have a picture from my 2007 Photo-a-Day.

And dinner!

Veggie Bowl

A rice bowl with 1/2 an avocado, grilled green peppers and onions, corn, and black beans topped with salsa and sour cream.  Pretty tasty.  Admittedly, a lot of avocado for one day.

Last but not least, I was playing Draw Something with Steve (as you do) and I had to draw a s'more.  Which sounded really, really yummy.  And we totally had all the ingredients.

Pre-sandwiched s'more

All in all, a fairly successful Vegetarian Day.  If I was going to do this more frequently, I think I'd have to get a bit more creative than avocado and more avocado though...

Waffles and Waffles

One of my favorite ways to celebrate a holiday: with Steve's awesome banana pancakes for breakfast.  Yesterday, we switched it up a little and turned the pancake mix into waffles.  Yum!


While we were out running our one errand and going to an afternoon movie (Brave, two thumbs up), I came up with a genius dessert idea to use the two leftover waffles, which had been sitting in a dish on the counter looking sad and unwanted all day.

We got home, and Steve said, "Do you think the waffles are still there, or you think Chloe ate them?"

Chloe looked up from her spot on the couch at the mention of her name.

"Nope, they're still here," I said.

We walked and ran around with the dog for a bit, and then ran over to the grocery store behind our house for about three key dinner and waffle-dessert ingredients.

"Hey, did you put the waffles away before we went to the store?" I asked Steve.

"No, did you?"

We both looked in the refrigerator to see if somehow they'd gotten put away.

And there was Chloe, in her spot on the couch, at least having the decency to look ashamed under Steve's and my stern glares.

"She was alone with those waffles all afternoon and didn't touch them, but we run to the grocery store for ten minutes and suddenly a snack sounds like a good idea?"

"Guess she worked up an appetite after all that exercise..."

Once I had that dessert idea in my head, though we had to do it.

Patriotic Dessert!

And that's how we ended up making waffles twice on the 4th of July. 

Weekend of Epic Awesomeness

I would venture to say this past weekend fell into my Top Five of All Time.  A bunch of the ladies I hang out with planned a Vegas trip, but L and I opted not to go.  I was pregnant during planning time, and besides, clubbing is very rarely my scene.  So instead, L and her husband P came down to spend the weekend.

On Saturday, we drove down to Long Beach to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific for our behind-the-scenes tour.  (Another New Thing for the year.)  It was as close to a funeral as we could get for this baby-that-never-got-to-be, and it was a nice memorial for Steve and me, even if no one else  knew. 

And besides all that, the tour was absolutely fantastic! 

Above the tropical habitat

Baby sharks in their eggs!

We visited the sea otters.  I couldn't find their names anywhere, but while on the tour, we saw a white board in the kitchen and I think it listed the otters (and their meals).  There's a possibility it was sea lions and not otters... but since I can't confirm one way or another, I'm going with otters.  And there was one named Tater!  I'm claiming Tater as "our" adopted otter.

In front of the otter habitat

Tater?

We pet sharks and rays, which is possibly my favorite thing to do at the aquarium.  And we fed lorikeets.

We goofed around in the gift shop and ate at a delicious restaurant on the harbor.

And then we went home and watched Finding Nemo, because it seemed an appropriate end to the day.  Also, you can never watch Finding Nemo too many times.


And if that wasn't awesome enough, there was still Sunday!

I'd stumbled across a photo blog I really like, and she was selling this in her Etsy shop.  We had to have it!  It arrived this weekend, so on Sunday, L and I went to Michael's to get a frame.  And then I had to rearrange all the pictures on my wall. 

It's a little hard to see in this picture, taken not long after I moved in, but here's what it used to look like:

Before

And after

L and I had booked massages and facials (my first of either!) to celebrate her birthday, so we went off for an afternoon of pampering while the boys worked on the project we'd had to postpone from Steve's birthday last weekend:

Bookshelf/end table!

There's a possibility this will become a cabinet someday, or it may just stay a bookshelf.  It will definitely get stained one of these days soon.  We were in desperate need of some kind of end table by the couches there--we'd been using two cardboard boxes duct taped together with a tablecloth thrown over them.  This is so much nicer.

And to round out the weekend, L wanted a fruit cake to celebrate her birthday. 

Me: Like a Christmas fruitcake? 
Her: No!  Like a cake made out of fruit!

Fruit Cake

It was pretty amazing.  Watermelon "cake" with kiwi, plum, and raspberry decorations.

So, yes.  Weekend of Epic Awesomeness.  Happy sigh.

Inch by Inch

This is what Steve and I did for his Birthday Project.

I keep saying things like this, but I've lived in this condo for almost four years, and I've passively wanted our little garden patch to look nice for, well, almost four years.  Admittedly, I wanted it to look nice without having to do anything to it myself, but life doesn't really work that way, does it?

This is, apparently, the year of finally doing things.

So, scraggly garden patch + trial run at Growing Stuff = Project!

While we were shopping for plants, I said to Steve, "Don't let me forget to take a before picture."

Of course, I forgot to take a before picture.

So here, have a picture of our garden patch from before I even officially owned the condo:

Before

Imagine those bushes to the left scragglier and yellower.  Picture lots of little weeds and a giant swatch of ivy taking over the back half.  (When I planted the ivy, along with a hyacinth that didn't come up this year, I wasn't sure it was real.  It was.)  The little shrubs to the right are gone, and it wasn't me who pulled them out.  (Landscapers?  Prior roommate?)  I don't even know when that happened.

Did I mention that neither Steve nor I has any idea what we're doing in a garden?  We don't.  We chose plants based on their sun/shade requirements, because that little patch gets kind of wonky sun.

We spent the day pulling all the plants and weeds out, turning the dirt, and adding new soil.  And then we planted.

Ta-da!

We may have planted things too close together.  I don't actually know!  I don't know how large things will get.  This could have been better researched... but where's the fun in that?

Two of those plants are starting to flower, which is pretty exciting.

In addition to our door-adjacent garden, we decided to put the never-used balcony off the guest room to good use.

We bought already-started basil, tomato, and mint plants, and then on a whim, a little grow-your-own-salsa packet, which includes jalapenos, onions, cilantro, and another tomato plant.  We'll see how those go.

I'm pretty excited to see how things turn out.  If it goes well, maybe next year we'll rent a little plot in the new community garden behind our complex and grow actual food in the actual ground.

Where Science Meets Dessert

A new shopping area has been sprouting up in town.  It started with a Target, and suddenly it has several more shops and restaurants.  Steve and I tried out one of the newest ones after dinner tonight: Sub Zero.  (This is going to sound a little bit like an ad, but it's not.  It's just a pretty cool place we discovered.)

It's an ice cream parlor where your dessert is in liquid form, and then they freeze it in seconds with liquid nitrogen, mad scientist-style.  The guy making our ice creams even gave us a little science lesson while he worked.  In fact, the whole place is set up a bit like a lab, down to the measuring cups being shaped like beakers. 

You can choose your base, from custard to yogurt to soy, rice, or almond milk.  I tried custard tonight, but I'm anxious to try almond milk.  Experimentation!

I am a huge fan of frozen treats.  And something about this place took me back to the days of watching Mr. Wizard on TV.

Ice cream + geekery = ♥

Here, have a local news article about it.  I hope this place does well.  Judging by the line out the door on a Thursday night, though, I don't think it'll have too much trouble.

I Can

Houseguests are an excellent distraction, a cushion against real life.  We didn't get to do any of the fun-vacationy stuff we'd planned, but it was really good to have my sister here.  We mostly just hung out around the house and baked (and ate) ALL THE CARBS.  We made whole wheat yogurt bread, strawberry rhubarb crumble, and strawberry bread.  Yum.  (Back to eating balanced meals now...)

We did plenty of movie-watching, too.  Captain America, Free Willy, *NSYNC: Live from Madison Square Garden (apparently old *NSYNC concert videos are my nostalgia/comfort entertainment), and we went to see Dark Shadows.  Dark Shadows instead of The Avengers, which I just couldn't go see again because the last time I saw it, I was pregnant and thirsty and paid $5 for a bottle of water because I didn't want to drink anything with sugar or caffeine.

But houseguests go home eventually, and everyday life is pointy.


You know what one of the hardest parts of miscarriage is?  The things I can do.

I can clean out the cat's litter box now.

I can eat an apple without scrubbing it with soap first.

I can have fully-caffeinated coffee in the morning, sushi for dinner, goat cheese, a turkey sandwich, a glass of wine...

I had a headache for two days, and it didn't even occur to me until late in the second day that I could take Advil.

It'll be a week tomorrow and it's getting a little bit easier to do these things without crying.  A little bit easier, but not entirely. 

I make a wish on the clock whenever I happen to catch it at a "significant" time: 11:27 (my birthday), 6:17 (Steve's birthday), or anytime the numbers are all the same.  5:55 is my favorite.  I've done this since I was a kid.  For the last three months, my wish has always been please let this baby be healthy.  The first time I went to wish on the clock after we found out the baby had died, I automatically made my usual wish, then realized my mistake.  It was an awful moment.  I've had to be really conscious of that.

I'm upset that my boss won't let me take the time I was off last week as bereavement time.  I either have to use up the rest of my sick time for the year, or use vacation time.  Sure, my time off was medically necessary, but more than that, it was emotionally necessary.  I needed those days so that I didn't just sit at my desk all day at work fighting tears.  And it certainly wasn't a vacation.

Okay.  I promise this blog won't be all Debbie-downer. 

I can find joy in life, and I will.

Berry Good

Did I mention that my sister is visiting for the weekend?  I can't remember if I did, but she is.  We threw Disneyland out the window (sadface), but we still made it to the California Strawberry Festival today.  (Side story: Jessica and I were asked by a stranger if we were twins--again!  This is the third time in recent memory that this has happened, and I find it hilarious because I don't actually think we look very much alike at all.  I mean, related, sure, but twins?  Maybe it's the sunglasses.)

Sisters, not twins

It was really pretty neat!  We had strawberry pizza, like you see there, which was really a sweet dough crust, whipped cream, and sliced strawberries.  Simple but delicious.  We also had chocolate dipped strawberries, a strawberry smoothie (me), strawberry beer (Jessica and Steve), and roasted sweet corn (the only non-strawberry food we consumed).

Nom, nom, nom.  There was so much ridiculous food there I can't even begin to tell you.  Fried strawberries, strawberry nachos, strawberry shaved ice, strawberry wine, funnel cakes with strawberries... and then regular fair food, like meat on sticks and Chinese and corn dogs and what have you.  Also things that looked delicious, like tandoori naan and Thai food, but we ate too much strawberry-themed foods to even think about regular food.

There were a few different bands playing on various stages, carnival games and rides, contests, and an entire street filled with arts and crafts.  I love arts and crafts!  This is what I bought:

Trying to take a picture of the tiny necklace...

Extreme close-up (easier when it's off)

If you can't tell even in my close-up, it's a four leaf clover in glass.  All his jewelry was made with four leaf clovers.  He showed a picture of the huge clover field he planted, just so he can pick four leaf clovers.

I figured it's good luck for a healthy baby next time.

I also bought another really cool thingamajig, but it's a birthday/housewarming gift and I don't want to spoil it for her.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, perfect for a festival.  The last thing we bought, on the way out, was a flat of strawberries.  Steve weighed it when we got home--12 pounds!  We bought 12 pounds of strawberries.  ALL THE STRAWBERRIES!  And they are the best damn strawberries I've ever tasted.  They happen to be at the peak of ripeness, though, so we kind of need to use them up rather quickly.  I'm experimenting with a strawberry bread (because we're all about the bread around here lately), and I want to make a strawberry-rhubarb crumble if I can get my hands on some rhubarb.  We might end up freezing some for smoothies.

I forgot to take a picture of the Strawberry Festival sign, so Steve improvised:

And then the cat got in on the fun:

Stealer!

It was the perfect way to spend today.  And it was one more New Thing to check off our list this year!  I really need to go back through all my blog posts and figure out what New Things we've done.  I'm pretty sure we've been fairly consistent with at least one New Thing a month so far, which is cool.  Yay for keeping New Year's Resolutions.