bench monday

It is currently 8 pm and Paul and I are ready for bed.  But instead we are going to be heading out soon to get to pub quiz in Davis.  This will be our second week, and while we do not place (kind of, sort of, close…but we need someone over the age of 35 to answer the stuff before our time), it’s a ton of fun.

Also, I sewed those leggings today, using a shirt I bought at the thrift store and this awesome, super easy, tutorial.  As it turns out, mens shirts are too big for me (even a small one), so next time I’ll buy a woman’s shirt to avoid the baggy knee look.

They are incredibly comfortable though.

PS-Those shoes and that amazing umbrella (which deserves more photos later), both under $3 at the thrift store this week.

Fall Farm Weekend

Yesterday, Pul and I spent the day at our friend’s family farm in Ione, California.  Their farm produces grassfed beef and has an annual pumpkin patch (among other things).  It’s been in their family over one-hundred years, and it’s pretty rad.  Twice a year they host a group of our friends for a farm weekend (spring & fall).  I posted a few pictures from our spring stay here and here.  If you live in Sacramento and are interested in grassfed beef I can give you their information.  They are going to have a bunch to sell in Sacramento on Wednesday of this week, if you let me know before then.

While we didn’t spend the night this weekend (Paul had to work today), we went up in time for a big farm breakfast yesterday morning (biscuits, eggs, muffins).  Then we did the traditional farm tour, which involves lots of climbing in hay and frolicking in fields.

After the farm tour we ate up the big pot of chili we’d made in the morning.  This was consumed alongside copious amounts of homemade cornbread with butter and farm raised honey.

All filled up from lunch we went and fed the cows.  The cows are always free to munch on the grassy fields they live in, but Farmer Dan also grows some hay on the farm to supplement their feed during the winter.

With the chores done, a few of us went on a hike around their upper ranch.

It’s places like this that make it hard to imagine living anywhere besides California.  I love rolling golden hills so dang much.  Do other places have that?

After a close encounter with a possessed pony (it had red eyes and breathed fire…or so the story goes), we were rescued by the rest of the group who met us in the big truck to hang out on a hill to watch the sunset.

After the sunset we made our way back to the farmhouse for more eating.  Yes, most of farm weekends involve food.  We made taco salads with farm veggies and farm beef and some additional supplies brought in by all the visitors.  Although I’m on call and can’t drink, there was much wine and beer consumed by the rest of the group and I’ll admit I tried a tiny sip of bacon infused burbon another friend made.  Before we left for home, we indulged in slices of the lemon meringue and chocolate pies one of my very talented friends baked up.

Pins & Needles

I went in for my second acupuncture appointment today and whooooa boy.

He placed a needle somewhere in the middle of my scalp and it was so damn intense I almost immediately had a horrible tension headache.  I hardly ever swear in public and I actually used the “f” word on the table.  But the time we realized it wasn’t going to get better (sometimes the needles hurt for a minute and then get better), and he went to remove it, my scalp had literally pushed the needle out of my head.  I’ve got a really strong scalp, apparently.

I asked him afterwards why the points in my head are so much more intense than the other points.  He thinks it’s because I’ve got too dang much going on in my head.  He told me to try and chill out when I can.

That’s good advice…Now how to make it happen?

 

PS.

I want to go to Vegas.

If you come with me, I might make you turn into a pirate.

Sorry for the earlier rant, folks.

An update on my uterus

My dad seems to occasionally stop by this blog (hi dad), most recently to let me know that he disapproves of my crock pot use (something about the lack of braising, and it not being real cooking).

Which makes it weird to write about my period, and sex, and stuff like that.  Because even though I will talk about it with anyone, because that’s what happens when you work in women’s health for a long time, it’s still a bit weird.

But I’m going to say this anyway, because what is blogging for, if not getting stuff off your chest in way too public a way…

Please stop asking me if I’m pregnant.  Or telling me that you can tell I’ll get pregnant soon.  Or that I’ll have cute babies.  Yes, I know I’m a young married person.  And I know I work with pregnant ladies and babies all day. And I know I sometimes say I’m hungry, or I have to pee, or I get the hiccups and you might overhear that information.  None of those things mean I’m pregnant.

Sometimes things are not quite as simple as you’d like to believe that they are.  And I promise that if I get pregnant someday, I’ll be blogging about it here.

For now, I need a glass of wine.

Chicken soup for the hungover soul

We didn’t have costumes, or really plan on doing much of anything, but thanks to my parents Halloween ended up being a lot of fun.  My grandma broke her hip again last week so my parents had been in town during the day so my mom could visit her.  I hung out with my grandma, mom, and aunts, cousin, etc all day at the rehab center having interesting, far too detailed conversations about my sex life and fertility.  We’re a very open family, but I’m sure outsiders would be sort of horrified by the conversations.  Paul is resigned to the level of detail my mom/grandma/other crazy relatives get to hear about our sex life.  I try and refrain from posting too many details on the internet.  I’m not that kind of blogger, I suppose.  Regardless, he’s a very understanding man.

My parents were planning on heading home in the afternoon to get to a Halloween party, but were convinced to stay in town for dinner, which turned into dinner and lots of drinks.  Since I’ve stopped being such a party girl, one drink is a lot for me now.  I never really felt terribly drunk last night, but those six drinks did not feel very good this morning, or the rest of today.  I spent a good chunk of the day in bed watching Hulu, working on the sock I started knitting, drinking Vitamin Water, and moaning.

At some point I got down the last (unfrozen) bit of the chicken soup I made last week.

This afternoon I did some yard work.  While the last few sunny days make me nervous (doesn’t everyone need rain about now?), we started our winter garden really late and the sun has helped with stuff sprouting up.

I also used the crock pot again today to slow cook up some curry.  I can’t believe I lived without a crock pot for the last 26 years of my life.  It’s singlehandedly revived my desire to cook.  I’ll let you know how the curry turns out.  It smells delicious!

Doldrums continued

Thank  you for all your comments about Hazel.  We are working on a few things right away, including trying to get her either daily exercise or brain exercise at least.  Paul took her to the vet today so they can see what’s up with her peeing issue.  I’m crossing my fingers we can get things settled down a bit.  I’m not really big on giving up on animals (or people).

The last few days have been a crazy blur of births, lack of sleep combined with long stretches of trying to catch up on sleep, and work.  The good news is that I actually finished a knitting project (which almost never happens lately).

 

Slipped Rib Scarf

The pattern is a poorly followed version of Stephen West’s Slipped Rib Scarf. It was fun to knit and I was able to finish it quickly, which are two biggies for me.  If it’s not done in a week or so, it’s pretty unlikely that it will ever be done.

Since I was sick a few weeks back I’ve been so unmotivated to cook anything.  Paul has actually been doing a good amount of the food prep around here while I laze around being grossed out by unprepared food.  Once something is cooked I’ll happily eat it–it’s the process of putting it together that’s been getting to me.  I’ve been living off of apples and Luna Bars unless Paul is home to cook for me.

I’m trying to cure that today by cooking up some crock pot soup.  To be more specific, I’m cooking chicken soup–me cooking meat happens about once every two years or so, so who knows how that will go.  And I’m making bread to go with it.  Take that, lack of motivation!  I even had to go to the grocery store to make it happen.

And now a nap…

 

Living with Hazel

It is no joke that Hazel is a difficult dog.  I never, ever thought I’d be the kind of person who might consider giving their dog up, secretly ditching her at the dog park or the animal shelter, or just “mistakenly” opening up the gate and setting her free.  But oh boy do I ever consider it.*

A cute face on the couch she destroyed

Sure, she looks all cute and innocent in pictures.  And she has her occasional moments where she is decent to be around (she is never, ever, ever well behaved at our house).  But really, I have never known a dog to be so disobedient, so energetic, so destructive, so LOUD.  ALL. THE. TIME.  I know most of it is our fault.  She should have had better training as a puppy and we should have been more consistent about it.

Lesson learned: when you are coupled with someone, you can’t continually pawn off the responsibility for something like this on the other partner.  Eventually someone just has to do it.

It’s just really difficult to live with to the point where it’s depressing.  We can’t have people over to our house because she barks, bites, and jumps, but she’s quick enough that she runs away before we can catch her to stick her in her crate or do something to stop her.  She’s destroyed both of our couches (she pees on them for god knows what reason–she’s otherwise potty trained).  She barks all day long if she’s outside, but she won’t come inside unless she feels like it.  She barks and bites if you are on the phone or talking to someone (like a neighbor), I assume because she wants attention.  I think part of the problem is that she needs exercise, but Paul is too busy to take her most days and I can’t take her anywhere because she’s too strong for me and she tries to bolt if she sees other animals/people/cars/bikes/etc.  The list could go on, but you get the picture.

I’ve never seen anything like this before in a dog (and Hazel’s had more training than all of the dogs I’ve lived with), so I have no idea what to do about it.  If we had the money I’d send her away to dog obedience camp, but that’s not an option.  I really have no idea what to do and I can see that she’s getting worse as the weather is limiting her ability to play around outside and the shorter days are making it harder for Paul to take her running.  It’s going to be a loooong winter.

*For those of you out there who think I might actually do this: don’t worry.  It’s just a secret fantasy that is now not so secret.

Breakfast

Homemade apple butter on homemade bread from a coworker (bartered with homegrown eggs).

Cold places

Being gloomy stirs up serious wanderlust in me.  If I go missing, you might want to check:

Some random barn in New England (although if this were the case, P. would probably not be with me, as he is very, very anti-New England).  Besides a short trip to New York that one time, what feels like a very long time ago, I have spent no time east of Texas.  I want to visit.  I even want to visit in the harsh, horrible winter (as P. describes it).

Photo thanks to flickr

Or perhaps I’ll try and wrangle my way into a stay at Urnatur, a Swedish eco-resort that is apparently owned by some distant Swedish relatives.

They use strange looking rabbits, velvet couches, and moss covered tree houses in their advertising.  These people must be related to me.

Southern Argentina, Iceland, and Russia are also of interest.  It seems that I’m looking to go somewhere cold.