Oops

Once again, I've had a lapse in blogging.  It's not been intentional, I think I've been too tired to write.  When I do write, I seem to be too close to the events going on and it becomes like reading my day planner.  Not really the look I'm going for, you know?  So a few highlights...

Mr. Lina filmed another Post-Lifer film, "Oh Come All Ye Zombies".  This is going direct to YouTube, hopefully prior to this Christmas.  I did a few things:

• Shirt for a female zombie
• Appliqued humping reindeer onto a sweater for Humphrey (Mr. Lina)
• Yarmulke for Humphrey
• Food for cast & crew for the Sat/Sun

From a sewing perspective, all went well.  The shirt fit, Mr.Lina decided to use my (IMO) crappy first yarmulke not the second larger yarmulke (the down side of not being there for the first day of filming), but he seemed happy.  Food was well received, but there were a few glitches from my perspective.  The first being how exhausted it made me to do it.  The problem with craft services is that you're up prior to the first people going into make up (so they can eat breakfast) and I didn't stop moving until the evening.  I was being pushed to have a nap by one of the producers/actors and when I didn't listen to him because dinner had to get in the slow cooker if they wanted to eat before 9pm, he sicced the director on me.  I did have a nap once dinner was in the slow cooker.  Thank heaven I did.  Filming wrapped up at 10pm, it was 2am by the time I was home in my own bed.  Going to work the next day was painful.

The problem with being so busy is that I didn't get pictures of the actress nor Humphrey.  I did ask someone (with a much better camera) to take pictures for me, but it hasn't been shared around yet.  So I'll blog more about that when those arrive.

So I WAS sewing, but since the film shoot, I've just been exhausted. 

From more personal perspective...

I'm doing okay.  No sadness, no tears, no wonky emotions, no lamenting about lost opportunities.  I am slowly adjusting to the need to move, the more I say it I suppose the easier it gets, but there are still people I hedge around discussing moving with.  I just don't feel quite that comfortable yet.  We are looking online at houses for sale and saying a few "what if's".  Mr. Lina has priced out a storage unit and we'll be setting that up in the next week so we have a place (other than the fairly full garage) to move things that we don't need in the house. 

I've also been emailing a coworker who adopted his daughter through a foster to adopt program in another province.  It's been really good to hear about his experience and how quickly it went for him once they got the ball rolling.  He's also been encouraging not to rush.  He saw couples that went through infertility treatment prior to adoption who were clearly still struggling with closing that door.  It's good advice from someone who has been there. 

For those of you who like cooking with a slow cooker and like pork, I highly recommend this recipe.  I roughly followed the recipe, probably less salt and more cayenne, ground cumin instead of seeds... but I didn't significantly change anything except the orange juice.  We don't drink a lot of juice so I don't buy a lot of juice.  I do buy tetra packs of "fun" juices for punches when it's on sale so oddly enough I had mango juice but not orange.  Feedback from the 20 odd people I fed was very positive.  People were going back for thirds.

Out of the Loop

I feel a little out of touch on blogs.  The weekend went by in a blur of food prep, grocery shopping, going to the clinic and hanging out with Mr. Lina.  Yesterday was a zoo at work, so I feel like I'm playing catch up today.  It's not many days, but I still feel a little out of touch.

Friday night I went through my stash and found the fabric I was thinking of.  I did buy 2m so I should be good for making pj's.  It is a pretty multicoloured stripe with a bit of wrinkle to it, it's going to be perfect for hot weather.  Sadly, I didn't photograph it (bad blogger).  It did not look like I had pre-washed it so Friday I sewed up the cut ends and washed up that and a couple of other light coloured fabrics in my stash. 

Going through the stash to find it reminded me that I bought a few really nice summer weight fabrics last year.  I have a black eyelet that would be so pretty as a dress I think.  Something simple so the pattern of the eyelet can take centre stage.  Maybe put a bright colour behind it.  Plus some black linen, white linen, a patterned linen.  Some of them might have a little rayon mixed in but I know linen was the dominant fibre and what attracted me to the fabric in the first place.  With work places that tend to run hot rather than cool, I think some linen work wear would serve me well.

Annie Lou were fantastic.  Anne Louise and Kim are really sweet, easy to get to know, very happy with our set up and audience.  We had a good turn out of 18 (+2 who paid but couldn't make it, thanks Air Canada) and a two year old.  I thought they were bringing the fiddle player, but Kim plays banjo, and a couple of songs Anne Louise switched to the banjo as well.  It was lovely after the show to see some people commenting on Facebook that they didn't know banjos could sound that good.  They have a new CD that just arrived yesterday, I'm looking forward to hearing it.  The second CD is "Grandma's Rules for Drinking".  Anne Louise heard her mother telling her niece Grandma's rules for drinking and she just had to turn it into a song.  It's quite amusing, I wish I could find a video for the song.  Good thing I don't drink gin, Grandma says it's not good for your complexion.

Kim Barlow, me, Anne Louise Genest, Mr. Lina

I am still figuring out the best way to do afternoon shows.  Usually we feed the artists dinner, they put on the show, they stay the night, I put out breakfast options.  But the afternoon show makes dinner seem odd when you've just snacked all afternoon but often the musicians don't get a chance to snack because people are talking to them or they worry about food flying when they sing, or dairy adding phlegm.  So they need dinner and we don't.  For this show, Anne Louise wanted to stay the night with family in Toronto, so they weren't staying late.  We invited them to come for 1pm for lunch, then we could chat, they would have time to get comfortable prior to people arriving at 2:30 for the 3pm show.  My parents arrived at 1:45.  I still needed to cut up mostly prepped food (maki with smoked fish instead of raw), put out the veggie tray etc.  My kitchen is not organized for two people to do anything so arriving early does not help.  Mom can't hear if you aren't looking at her so even talking and chopping is difficult because I have to stop chopping to look at her and reply.  Going to the clinic from 9-11 also had me feeling like there would be more time for prep than there was.  I was a bit flustered when people started arriving.

For lunch, I made Greek Lemon Soup and a sandwich.  A clear soup and I sort of made a muffaletta and let people cut off what they wanted from a loaf of bread sandwich.  The soup is easy and was very well received, I would serve it again to guests.  Here's the recipe.

1. Bring 4 cups of chicken broth to a boil.  I made about 2 cups of broth boiling a chicken thigh, onion and some cabbage and added 2 cups of bouillon.  You'll want this to be quality broth be it homemade or purchased.
2. Whisk 4 eggs in a bowl.  Add 3-4 tbsp of lemon juice (I used half fresh, half bottled and did a half assed measuring job while squeezing the fresh).
3. Slowly add 2 cups of hot broth to the eggs, whisking as you add the broth.
4. Add eggs and broth back into the pot.  Whisk for the next 4 minutes as the soup heats up and thickens.

Pretty simple, eh?  A lot of recipes call for rice, and I can see how that would be nice, but I liked that it was a lighter meal (and faster) without it.  I floated a slice of lemon to make it look pretty, the book this is from also suggests asparagus tips.

And the clinic...  No surprise here, it is looking doubtful that I will ovulate this cycle.  There are follicles, but they are all tiny.  Considering Sunday was Day 12 and in theory for a 28 day cycle you would ovulate on Day 14, it ain't happening.  If I don't ovulate, then my period won't arrive while taking Lupron-depot so I have to take Provera.  Next appointment is the 23rd (YAY!  I so thought they would make me come in this week just to see if I did ovulate) and depending on how that goes, it is likely that I will be in on the 24th for my Lupron-depot injection and they are going to do an endobiopsy.  So, nothing to do until next Monday.  I had a chat with my manager of what can happen while I'm on Provera and he's totally supportive of me working from home for a day or two and just letting people know I don't feel well enough to come in but well enough to work.  Good enough for me.  Then I can cry when I need to and move on.  I really do have a supportive workplace, I try to count that blessing as often as I can.

Visiting Family Ramblings

My thoughts are a bit scattered today.  My in laws arrived last night, I think I'm ready.  They are absolutely wonderful people, they want to help us so much but I am not always good at accepting help.  Financially, we don't need help but they believe absolutely in fairness, if $40 is spent on my BIL, then damn it $40 will be spent on us.  It makes me feel petty to not want it when I understand where it is coming from.  Mr. Lina has taken 3 days off work, I will be going to work.  He has more vacation time than I do, they are his parents, and then I'm not around to feel stressed out about what they want to do to my house.  Although it is a bit like a scavenger hunt when I get home.

Perhaps point form will help make some sense of my thoughts

• I missed reading blogs.  It was great to be focused on work on Monday and Wednesday (seriously I was on fire yesterday) and evenings were about prepping for inlaw arrival, but I missed reading what was going on with everyone.  Good things posts stay up so I can catch up eventually.
• I have a post written on my Elan 645.  I have pictures taken of Elan 645.  Some with me wearing it which will need cropping prior to posting so I don't have my breasts on the internet.  I can't do that on my lunch hour, I'm not keen on doing it at home while I should be socializing with my in laws and I sure as hell don't want to be seen cropping pictures of me in my bra by my FIL.  So, it will wait.
• Mr Lina made an off hand comment the other day that made my heart smile.  I have said he needs time to think about big issues like adoption, it made me realize how much processing he has done.  I have also said part of me is afraid that I misjudged this, that maybe he won't come around, but I know now I was right.  He will with time.
• Still no word from CAS.  Double pout.  I'd be more upset if there wasn't other stuff going on like the upcoming FET.
• I am a complete klutz.  I have managed to burn my right hand twice in the past week, and last night soup burned my arm when it came to a boil as I reached to turn the temperature down.  My aloe plant is getting some mighty short leaves.  And now I have two bruises on my left hand that are a mystery.  Mystery bruises happen because I take daily low dose ASA as a blood thinner, still, two on the same hand is not common, it's usually my knees/shins/thighs where I get a glancing blow walking into tables etc.
• All of the flavours of Loyd mulled wine tea are fantastic.  I picked up the honey rooibos, field berry and raspberry on Tuesday - LOVE them all.  My MIL is talking about visiting Starsky's after one cup of the honey rooibos last night.
• My MIL is Ukrainian, her grandparents moved to Manitoba from the Ukraine to farm, they thought trees indicated great soil but ended up with a lot of rocks and so-so farm land in the interlakes region. 
• So this will be a week of borsht, beet roll ups (little bits of dough wrapped in a beet leaf then covered in cream, dill and fried onions and baked, this is served as a side vegetable, similar recipe), kielbasa (which they pronounce koo-ba-sa and I grew up saying ka-ba-sa), possibly cabbage rolls (holuptsi is how they say it, more later, similar recipe) and perogies (petaha) and meat & potato meals that please my FIL. 
• And we have reached the end of Ukrainian language that made it through 4 generations - all about food. 
• Oh, I forgot about Geedo and Baba (grandfather/grandmother), but because there was still a Baba alive when Mr. Lina was born, he calls his grandmother Grandma.  I suspect that my MIL will claim the name Baba when it's her turn.
• Grandma sent us two trays of cinnamon buns (my MIL is celiac so 2 trays for 3 of us)
• Uncle tried to send garlic sausage, my MIL vetoed that going in her luggage.
• My first visit to MB, I had no idea how any of these things were cooked, my great grandparents are from English, Scottish and French Canadian, I didn't know what perogies were until university.  I thought the little, palm sized holuptsi were a "healthy choice", I mean, it's cabbage with rice in the middle, not the big beef filled ones my mom made.  Little did I know... Grandma saves fat from hams to line the bottom of the dish so they don't burn, there is actually bacon in her holuptsi, that's what the little flecks of meat were, pretty sure she isn't draining off much of the fat first. 
• Grandma thinks that blueberry crepes or plum filled perogies are perfect for lunch after a cinnamon bun for breakfast.
• She also serves mushrooms sauteed in full cream as a vegetable
• You can see why I refer to Manitoba as "the land of a pound a day"
• My first visit, I had to buy pants after 17 days in Manitoba.
• Four framed pictures from Star Wars have been "returned" to my husband.  What am I going to do with a picture of Han Solo?  Chewy and the gang?  They certainly are not going in my bedroom or the guest room.  Pretty sure the artists we host don't want R2D2 and 3CPO looking down at them.
• Although I won't be sewing, my MIL is an avid knitter and sews mostly crafty things or rag quilts.  We will be talking about our competed projects and fabric.  :D

Okay, time to get back to work so I can leave on time and get home for whatever food my MIL feels like making.

Happy Pre-Valentine's Day

Yeah, I know Valentine's Day is Tuesday, but that's bowling and curling night.  Mr. Lina and I don't see each other until about 10pm.  That's not much time to celebrate, particularly the way we do.  Waaay back in university, I wanted to go to the pub with my boyfriend, he wanted chicken wings, I was looking forward to some pub staple.  I remember being pretty teary that day.  My Nana died from Alzheimer's the previous October and I was happy when she died, this was the end of her suffering.  6 months later, I was filled with grief.  So, when we got to the pub and they were only doing price fixe that was beyond what our budget was, I was pretty pissed and not really in the emotional state to deal with it like a sane person.  After that, I've refused to go out for Valentine's Day.

Mr. Lina and I have our own tradition.  We pick an ethnic theme, we do some research, we throw the grocery budget to the wind and make a 3-4 course meal for ourselves.  And we do it all together.  This year, we decided to do a Cajun theme after having such fantastic food in New Orleans.  First course was fresh oysters, second was gumbo, dinner was Pascal's Manale BBQ Shrimp and for dessert I made beignet with chicory & coffee au lait.  It was SO freaking good. 

If you google Pascal's Manale you'll find a ton of recipes trying to approximate it.  The gist of it is shrimp with tails and ideally heads (we used fresh raw zipper back) that is baked with butter/margarine/vegetable oil, a crap ton of pepper (at the restaurant my nails were black with pepper), Louisiana hot sauce (we used a bit of tabasco), Lea & Perrins and garlic.  We followed the spicing of this recipe but the process and pepper content for this recipe.  It was not the same as what we had in NOLA, but that doesn't mean it wasn't delish.

And gumbo...  We have made gumbo since coming back from NOLA.  I didn't get to eat any while we were there, celery is just too common an ingredient and I like to breathe and have a hive free vacation.  We used this recipe for a base both times.  Ours is more like this:
Make a roux with flour and olive oil (we weren't using sausage/chicken so we needed more oil than they called for)
Add garlic
Add beer, my mom's stewed tomatoes chopped up, green pepper, onion, okra (still not sure that we're treating the okra right, I've never cooked with it until now) and hot peppers (mix from our freezer - red ones from the garden, thin green ones for Indian recipes, and a habanero that Mom brought back from Florida last year), and spices (Mr. Lina did that, I'm assuming he took those from the recipe)
Let it simmer for a while.
Add double smoked pork from Starsky's and simmer a little longer
Add shrimp and simmer until they are pink.

And K-Line, this is all your fault. 

There is some modal coming my way via my parents in Florida.  Shipping will take a little longer (they should be here March 3rd) but it was only $8.  And could I stop at the modal?  No.  A little denim, some silk for a Pendrell (yeah, I bought that when Renfrew was launched), the 25 invisible zippers for $15 bundle, sigh... yes, a few more things.  But I'll post more about that when I see it.

There was a request to see my new shoes.  I am happy to address that.  In fact, both the shoes that I bought for the wedding and the new Nine Wests. 

Nine & Co - Nine West Outlet

So far so good.  I've worn them around the house a bit before taking them on a full day at work, they weren't quite right for my casual Friday outfit.  As 9 1/2 they have a little more wiggle room than the next pair.


Liz Claiborne - Winners

These shoes I bought for the wedding.  Love them.  My feet really hurt by the end of the night but they were comfortable for the first 4 hours.  They have a lovely leather sole that I'd like to protect.  They are just wonderful for dancing because they do slide.  It's probably the first time at a wedding I could actually have some technique while waltzing.

Liz C's to the left, Nine West to the right

It seems a bit silly to buy two pairs that are so similar, but I don't want to wear those leather soles outside.  I can wear boots and carry them for now, but it's not going to be boot wearing season for too much longer.  And really, $37 for the second pair, how could I say no?  Can you really have too many pairs of black shoes?

A reminder to myself

We had a super quiet weekend planned.  I stayed in on Friday night, Saturday I did some work from home, ran a couple of errands with Mr. Lina and stayed in.  Sunday we went to have lunch with friends and I had another migraine.  So back home for a nap and a fuzzy day yesterday.  It's been so long since I've had migraines, I kinda forgot how much it sucks.

I don't have any pictures at the moment, but I have made headway on my tea towels.  The green set are done, the blue set have the image traced out and I'm about a third of the way through one of them.  Still picking out images for the red set, but I think I'm going to take Lazysubcultural Girl's idea of tea themed.  My SIL really does like tea, so it would be fitting.  It's that or some travel themed images.  I'm trying to use images out of the book I was given for my birthday, but the better tea themed images are for cross stitch.  I know I could adapt it, just not quite sure yet that I want to.

Tonight is our bowling Christmas party.  We play two games, usually Bingo as a team and then something in partners.  Potluck food, a few prizes for the games and it's a fun night that wraps up a little earlier than usual (which is good, I have embroidery to do).  Bingo is a bit of a misnomer, we use the bingo form but fill it with bowling counts, like right corner, aces, head pin, 12, 8, 4, strike, left corner spare...  etc.  The team circles through throwing lane courtesy to the wind and the fastest team to fill the card wins.  People get mighty pissed when the pins get tangled (this happens with string pins from time to time).  I am taking chili rolls as I have for the past 7 years.  It's a Company's Coming recipe, from the hard cover Easy Entertaining book.  The second year I wrote antijitos figuring that made more sense than chili rolls and was hunted down to ask why I wasn't bringing the chili rolls again.  So I stick with what they like. 

This is a little different from the book because it's off the top of my head...
1 package of cream cheese (take it out to soften, or use the spreadable kind)
1 can of chopped green chilies (they are small, not sure how many oz but it's in with the salsa)
a little onion powder
I have chives in my kitchen so I chop up a few, I think the recipe calls for green onion
a tablespoon or so of mayo, just to make it spread easier
tsp - tbsp sambal oelek (chili paste) if you want to kick up the heat, know your audience (this is my addition)
large soft tortillas, about 6-8

I use my mixer to mix everything together, you can use a spatula if you're starting with the spreadable cream cheese instead of the brick.  Spread some over the tortilla, put more at the end where you start the roll and none at the edge you are rolling to - it will spread.  Roll it up, wrap it in saran wrap and let it chill for the best flavour.  I do this the night before pot lucks then slice diagonally the day of. 

Prior to bowling I'm going to see my therapist.  Just me tonight.  I wanted to see her again before Christmas and Tuesday worked for both her and I but Mr. Lina is at curling.  So I'm going alone.  I've been spending the whole time talking anyhow.  I will say I'm feeling better.  Not great, I still have lots of negative feelings at work, but I haven't just cried for no reason in a while. 

Speaking of work, I have a new laptop.  The old one took forever to shut down and start up, it wasn't up to making 3' by 4' maps.  The mapping project was the push for me to get a new computer.  So it's chugging along great, I'm having a good morning, but now I need to connect to the office from my client site and it won't.  It really doesn't matter how well the computer works if I can't get at the network that I need to when I need to.  Harumph.  So, a quick post before the frustration gets to me. 

This post serves as a reminder to myself.  Things are okay:

• My head does not hurt
• There isn't an aura blocking my vision
• My Christmas presents are nearly all purchased
• The tea towels are coming along and I'm finding the work soothing
• I haven't cried in a few days
• My chili rolls rock
• I can eat the pulled pork this year, last year I didn't know the people who brought it well enough for the Spanish Inquisition of allergies, turns out it's Doctor Pepper and ketchup.  I can eat that.