My Brother-in-law's birthday is tomorrow. I decided to make a cake for Drek to give him tomorrow. I looked up recipes online and found an intriguing recipe for a Vegan Chocolate Cake. I decided to make it, but decided to be adventurous. I used and avocado instead of oil and added cinnamon. The batter was DELICIOUS!! I was tempted to eat the whole bowl of cake batter since there was no egg, but refrained.
I put the cake in the oven and let it bake for thirty minutes. I inserted a knife into the center and it came out all covered in moist cake insides. I tasted it. NOM!! I put it back in the oven and set the timer for ten minutes.
Apparently our oven timer only beeps once, and does not beep very loud. I walked back into the kitchen and sniffed; "What was that smell?" And then I remembered the cake. My jaw dropped and I looked at the clock: The cake had been in there for over two hours.
I got a wheat grinder for Christmas. With the Holidays and moving and such I didn't get around to using it until this last week. It is WONDERFUL! Mei-Mei came over to help me cook and so far we've made whole wheat hamburger buns, whole wheat tortillas and whole wheat apple oat bread. The tortillas were a special treat. I love tortillas but the whole wheat ones are expensive. Mei-Mei's roommate came over to show me how to make them. They are easy and only use three ingredients. I made smothered burritos with them, using my new homemade enchiladas sauce. I love making things from scratch. I love being able to say that I ground the wheat myself. Now I only need to figure out how to make tasty wheat bread. So far, all my attempts have been...blah.
If I ever catch the person who stole Karen (My GPS unit) THE DAY before I moved to a new city in a new state, I will seriously consider throwing all esteems of pacifism aside and stab that guy in the eye with a fork. Or maybe just turn him in to the police. It depends on my mood, and if there is a fork handy.
I can't find ANYTHING. I am constantly getting lost. This is no small feat in a tiny town built on a grid system. Alas, my inner compass does not point north. That is because I do not have an inner compass. With no mountains to guide me, I really have no idea which direction I am driving. I find myself saying things like "The grocery store is on the same road as the bank and is just around the corner from the post office...where was that? Do I go straight or turn?
Today I drove along a road I thought would take me to my landlord's place. It did not. It took me to the freeway. So I got on the freeway, knowing that the landlord's place was right off of the next exit. I drive five minutes on the freeway and take the next exit. I am definitely in the right place, so I turn left, then left again. CURSES! That puts me on the on ramp going back the direction I just came from. So I drive five minutes on the freeway, take the next exit, get on the freeway again, take the next again, take a left, pass the on ramp and then turn left, only to discover it's the wrong street and I should have turned right off of the exit.
Karen, I miss you so much. I hope your new owner appreciates your precise directions, your beautiful colored maps and your whimsical Australian accent.
I have a Library card! Note to self; When moving again, send a postcard to your new address a few days before you move. That way you can a library card away, instead of waiting almost two weeks.
Alas, the library is...disappointing. One floor, not that big, and it seems they have a bigger DVD collection than book collection. A lot of the books on my "to read" list are not available at this Library. No F Scott Fitzgerald books? None? And you call yourself a library. I might have to have Mei-Mei take me to her university's library and see if I can get a card there, or borrow hers. Do you think we look enough alike?
Speaking of books, my wonderful downstairs neighbor just informed me that Dolly Parton has a program you can sign up for and she will send your child a book every month until they are five. WOW!! Not only is that an awesome program and I am thrilled by the idea, but I GET FREE BOOKS! Woot!
Also, the internets guy came today. I have interwebs! So far, working great! Hulu seems to work, which means I can FINALLY watch the LOST season premier (two days late).
This city has an annual tradition called Snow Fest. It's a fun day where the city has all sorts of free snow-related activities in a park. There was sledding and snowboarding and snow graffiti (spraying the snow with spray bottles filled with colored water) and a snowball throwing booth and so on. The biggest event of the day was a Polar Bear Swim, where you jump into a pool filled with water and ice, and climb out into a hot tub. It sounded awesome. As you may know, I HATE the cold, but I LOVE water. It was such a conflict. In the end, my love of water and adventure won out and I signed up. Also, Dude, my nerves are stretched to the max and I thought this would be a moral booster. Yes, I signed up to do a Polar Bear Swim.
First off, let me say, Snow Fest was a blast. I loved it. Second, when they started the Polar Bear Swim, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I thought we all went at once, you know, everyone climes into one end of the pool, swims fifty feet splashing and dunking each other and then climbs out the other side. I planned to glide underwater the whole way. But no, they take three or four people at a time, raise them into the air, then have them jump five feet down into the water one at a time so everyone can gawk at you. There was a HUGE crowd of people and a news camera and a professional camera crew. It became obvious that this was no small event about the mystical healing powers of ice water. This was a huge spectator sport about pleasing the crowd and daring your friends. There were costumes. Costumes; A bunch of teenage boys dresses up as the statue of liberty, a girl dressed in a jail outfit complete with a ball and chain, and a group of ten year old boys with super-man capes (The youngest age you could sign up was ten, and there were indeed a lot of ten year olds). The best costume was a Marvel Comics version of Wolverine. With the yellow spandex and the claws and mask and everything. He jumped off the platform in a full wolverine claws-out-yelling-belly-flop way. It was so great.
Anyway, I had planned to swim in my swimsuit (what else?) but it soon became apparent that that wouldn't work. Not only because it wasn't a costume, but for modesty reasons. All the other girls were wearing T-shirts and shorts. Also, this was my first time out in public in bathing suit after Ash was born and I was VERY self-conscious. I decided I just couldn't go up in front of the crowd and the camera in my bathing suit. I still wanted to do the swim, I just couldn't do it in a bathing suit. So I ran home to change into a summer wet suit. Summer wet suit are the thinnest wet suit and aren't designed to protect you from extreme cold, so I thought I would still get the full effect. Let me emphasise I wore the suit to protect my fat from the cameras, not to protect me from the cold.
It was cold. VERY cold. There was no air in my lungs, my hair was instantly frozen, and I had a headache by the time I climbed into the hot tub. It was SO GREAT! As I was climbing out of the pool, this little kid threw a snowball in the water. Thanks, kid. We appreciate you keeping the ice levels up.
I would do it again. Maybe not in front of the crowd, but I would do it again.
The move went great. Friday night Ismail and Ben and Yelli came over and helped us move some of the bigger stuff into the truck. They were so wonderful to come help us! The next morning everything was ready to go! We actually had a few people from the ward show up (I know, I was shocked too) and Drek's family was wonderful and came. We got it done less than an hour! The truck was loaded, the donuts were consumed and we cleaned a little before saying our goodbyes and leaving.
The drive was actually fine. Acouchi rode with Drek in the Uhaul. Drek said she meowed for the first three hours before her voice left and she couldn't meow anymore. She was not happy. Ash rode with me and woke up about an hour in to the drive. We pulled over and tried to entertain her, change her and give her a bottle, but in the end she just screamed for ten minutes before falling asleep for the rest of the ride. She does not like her car seat. Poor thing.
The fish are still alive. Acouchi likes to drink from their bowl, but doesn't want to eat them. Mmmmm! Fish flavored water! So we packed the fish up in the car and took them along. They didn't make a single peep the whole ride up.
We made it here safely, and in great time. We got here and Curtis had arranged for all the cousins to come help us unload. Mei-mei also brought a few people to help. We unloaded really quickly and Drek and I felt so welcome! It was so wonderful to have support on both ends. People were so wonderful to help us.
Our downstairs neighbors are wonderful. They have four kids, the oldest one being seven, the youngest one being a few months older than Ash. I love them. They love Acouchi. They are letting us borrow their Internet until ours is set-up (scheduled for Feb 4, two weeks AFTER we called them and two days after LOST season six premiers *whine*). I love the mom. She is so very wonderful.
On Saturday we went to bed very tired and Acouchi went to bed very angry. Sunday morning we woke up and Acouchi was in a great mood. She decided she loves the new house and maybe the move wasn't so bad after all. We went to church and the ward was surprisingly friendly. I', not sure if it's the ward or that making friends is easier when you have a kid, but either way, we feel very welcome here. After church we checked Drek's phone (mine is still lost) and discovered three missed calls telling us that Anna was having her baby!! I have a new niece! She is tiny, but doing well. Ash got to see her new cousin and I got to see my new niece through the little window in the hospital. She's still in the NICU so I haven't got to hold her yet, but she is doing well and should be out soon!
So here we are. We have been in our house for a week and one day. The only rooms I can say are officially unpacked are the kitchen and the living room. Upacking is more difficult with a baby. But we are safe, warm, and happy.
Drek's dream was to have the moving trucked packed with identical boxes. Each box the same size and shape as every other box. He decided banana boxes were the best way to accomplish this. The problem is that banana boxes come from grocery stores, and they don't break down. This means that the grocery store can't keep banana boxes. As soon as the box is empty, it is thrown out. Also, no one unloads bananas at one time, bananas are unboxed through out the day. It's tricky. So, we would call in the morning and ask them to save as many boxes as they could. We would drive down a few hours later and they were always kind enough to have around nine boxes waiting for us. Sometimes they would have seventeen, sometimes thy would only have three. It didn't take long for the produce workers to anticipate our needs and save the boxes for us without us calling. They would smile when we walked in and go get the stash. We became known as box lady and box man.
The final count is ninety-three banana boxes. And also four non-banana boxes. Of those four, two are plastic tubs, one is a box full of files and one is a special insulated box for china. I think we won the box game.
To answer the title; Desmond finally tells boxman: "Smells like carrots." Other answers are "Freeze!," "Chill," "Ice to see you!," and "We're stuck in a bloody snow globe!"
Our car was broken into this morning. We are moving tomorrow. This year is looking a lot like last year, except the nausea has been replaced by migraines.
Yesterday Krisling and I volunteered at the aquarium for Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day program. We had a blast. The volunteering part was cleaning our paint brushes, folding pamphlets (pamphlets that said what fish you should not eat, which fish are ok, and which fish is fine to eat as far as stopping over-fishing goes. Do YOU know if the fish you are eating will be extinct in three years?) and cut up cardboard for birds. It doesn't sound fun, but it was SO MUCH FUN! Afterwards we got behind-the-scenes tour of the aquarium and then got to wander around the aquarium. Krisling and I pet the stingrays and starfish and got shocked by an electric eel! And the two tickets to Disneyland don't hurt either!
