Sunday, January 29, 2006

fashion?

I saw this girl in the mall, walking into various clothing and accessories stores, and I have to object. She's just wasting money if she gets anything in any one of those stores. I mean, who would put on a shirt like that and an old, plain, white bra, then look in the mirror and say anything other than "oh, crap, I better change."
You just don't wear that kind of shirt with that kind of bra. The only possible explanation that doesn't label this girl as fashion ignorant is that her mother insisted she wear a bra, and she insisted on wearing this shirt.
Okay, enough about that, it just bugged me. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Just hanging out

Not that I didn't go out today, but I spent most of the day doing not very much. the little one and I took our time getting up, and eventually got around to our breakfast. I chatted a lot with the chapmaster, and eventually we determined that we would get together and walk around Liberty Park a bit. All in all, it was a rather motivating discussion for me, and left me feeling resolved to do more with my time, which translated into getting the apartment cleaned. I also looked online at prices for available houses in the area. Actually, it seems I would be able to own a home in Magna (not a very great place to be, but near Sandra's family) and I wouldn't be paying much more per month, actually it'd be less if you don't figure in homeowner's insurance, but I figured I'd be required to have that to have a loan. I don't think my lovely wife is very enthused about the house I considered reasonable, but it is a two bedroom with twice the square footage we've got now. Also it would have washer and dryer hookups, which I would appreciate a lot.
Don't get me wrong, it's really not much of a house, but it's a house

More later

CJB Posted by Picasa

Friday, January 13, 2006

Alfredo sauce

Having little to write about in my life, I thought I'd share my opinions about Alfredo and what it's become here in the US. The classic Alfredo, in Italy, is a sauce commonly garnished with cheese, but it doesn't necessarily have any cheese in it, and occasionally doesn't even come in contact with cheese at all through its entire existence.
American alfredo sauce, on the other hand, is a white macaroni-and-cheese sauce. That's all it really is. It's a cheese sauce, which is a good thing, but not alfredo. The american version is actually quite a bit harder to make, since you have to carefully cook cream (which can boil over quickly and catastrophically) long enough and hot enough to make a hard cheese like romano or parmesan melt into it.
The Italian version on the other hand couldn't be any simpler. First you'll need to seperate an egg. Do whatever you want with the whites, it's the yolk you'll want to have ready for this sauce. just get the yolk out and have it in a dish nearby. Take one portion of cooked noodles (as much as you'd figure on eating as a main course) and toss them with some olive oil in a skillet, saute pan, or frying pan, whatever's convenient and relatively non-stick. Once it's nice and hot, add about 1/4 cup of cream. (They sell it here as whipping cream, you certainly wouldn't want to use whipped cream, but if you find it marketed as just cream, I'm sure that'll work too. ) and once that starts to get hot, maybe starts to bubble just a bit, toss in the egg yolk and start stirring it into the cream. Once the mixture is all mixed and hot (steamy is as hot as it needs to get) you've got yourself a pan of fettucini alfredo. Take it to the table and sprinkle some parmesan on it, or maybe just some salt and pepper, I like it that way, or your favorite cheese.
You see how easy that is? oil, noodles, cream, egg yolk. It takes about 5 minutes or less once your noodles are ready. Why do we make it so complicated?

CJB

Sunday, January 08, 2006

And this was after brushing

Thankfully this isn't any sort of disease. When we first noticed it this tongue was pitch black, but brushing started a return to its normal color. The cause is actually nothing but pink bisthmus, a.k.a. pepto bismol. She had one last night as she was trying to get to sleep because her tummy hurt, and this is what we found this morning. It was a little scary for a moment, especially for her, but it's really nothing to worry about.
She's been having tummy aches a lot lately, and after researching on WebMd we think it's mainly caused by missing her mom. She was only there with her mom for about 2 weeks for christmas, so that would be just enough time to start getting used to being there, and not nearly enough time to be ready to leave. She woke up during the night calling out or her mom more than once, but we're hoping that after another week or so she'll readjust to living here.
It makes me sad to see her so upset about being here, but at the same time, she was excited to come back. I just wish we could all be in the same city, so when she missed her mom, or missed me, she could just go over for a visit, or maybe spend the weekend, without getting on a plane. Really, that might happen someday. Seattle's not such a bad place.

CJB Posted by Picasa

Monday, January 02, 2006

And so she's back

Sunday morning she had her third unsupervised plane trip. She has returned, and though she's been sad from missing her mom, she's also been happy to be here. She was sent home from christmas vacation with even moree stuff than she had before, including a huge suitcase. I think maybe her mom overestimates the size of our humble apartment. On the upside her huge suitcase will be a good place to store the things she doesn't need in her day-to-day life, like off-season clothes and excess toys. It's good to have her back, and I'm glad she's not back in school until tuesday, so we get to hang out today.

CJB Posted by Picasa