A Once-A-Year Meal

Pardon me for posting so late in the evening. And for posting such a short post after missing yesterday altogether. But I do have my reasons.

You see, dinner tonight found Christopher and I playing host to a couple of good friends. And Christopher made one of his most popular entrees--which we refer to as a "Once-A-Year" recipe: Macaroni and Cheese. 

No. This is not the kind of Mac & Cheese that I grew up with out of the blue box. It's also not the kind of recipe which is going to win an award for being new and innovative on the Food Network. 

It is, however, a high-fat, high-carb, artery-clogging masterpiece which takes more than 2 pounds of cheese (Sharp Cheddar, Colby-Jack, Muenster, and Velveeta) and one pound of pasta, adds in croutons and half-and-half, and comes out of the oven like a warm gooey helping of heaven. (And, with those ingredients, it could send you right to Heaven before dessert if you eat it too often!)

The four of us spent hours at the table eating and talking (we also had garlic bread and green beans with the Mac & Cheese), and finished off with a lemon pound cake which I absolutely love. Our friends just left, and now Christopher and I are both ready to slip into digestive comas.

Christopher's Mac & Cheese may only be a Once-A-Year meal, but it's sure worth waiting for!

Thotful Thursday

Yes, for those of you paying close attention, the title is in reference to Winnie the Pooh and his "Thotful Spot." And I have been finding myself in rather thotful moods this week. 

Maybe it's because we're close to having an entire January without hitting 32 degrees--which apparently has not happened since sometime in the 1970s. A few times this month we've been teased with the possibility of a January thaw (I mean... it was warm enough for me to get my car washed and not have it freeze shut), but today I honestly couldn't get warm. I really need a warm day. 

Or maybe it's because my hair has gotten longer, and I'm debating whether I should cut it short again or let it continue to grow out. I mean, not as long as it was back in my college days (it was the late 80s, so it was really long), but longer than the short slightly-spiky thing I've been doing lately.

Or maybe I'm feeling thotful because I've been gradually reconnecting with a bunch of college friends, lately, and realizing that my life isn't exactly what I thought it would be 20 years out of college. Not that I had any idea what my life was going to be, but even so, that's kind of out there. You see people doing exactly what they said they wanted to do and it's both exciting and humbling. (Well, and a little annoying, too, but you can't admit that, right?)

Or maybe my thotful times are simply being caused by the fact that I was listening to an old Muppet Show record (yes--the vinyl 33 1/3 rpm kind) last week and Rowlf the dog was singing "Cottleston Pie" which is a song which Winnie the Pooh sings when his brain is feeling fluffy. My brain seems to have been feeling oddly fluffier than usual, lately, too.

Here's hoping warmer weather, a good hair day, and a good reconnection or two will soon cause some of that fluff to settle. If not, you'll probably find me downstairs listening to more Muppets... Either way, I guess it's not so bad.

Finding the Lost

There are TV shows which I watch almost religiously. Shows which I record if I'm not going to be around, or which I make specific plans to watch online after the fact. 

And then there are shows which I watch if I remember that they're on, but I seem to always forget about until they're halfway through. These are the "lost" shows in my schedule. 

Tonight's television watching has been filled with the joyful serendipity of finding some of this latter type. 

First of all, I remembered to watch "Leverage" on TNT, but not until I had already missed the first 10 minutes. That's not a horrible thing, since the show is character-driven and fun enough to kind of just "drop into" as it goes along. But it IS a "heist" show, so missing the opening does kind of make it hard to figure out what the end goal might be. Hopefully I'll remember to watch it in the future, because I've liked what I've seen (even if it has only been the final 45 minutes or so of 3 different episodes).

I've also begun watching one of MSNBC's "talking head" shows. I have always been highly opposed to shows with irate hosts yelling at the guests they're supposed to be interviewing, and I've detested the way they seem to be going downhill from show to show. But I stumbled across "The Rachel Maddow Show" a few weeks ago, and I loved it. She's funny--but not mean--and she's so danged smart that you find yourself having to pay attention to keep up. Her commentaries don't pound messages home, they simply float them out for you to catch. She doesn't call people names, she instead flashes a sarcastic smile and bares her opinions without a single word. Okay... She obviously has strong political opinions, but she strikes me as the type of person who would rather discuss them with you than argue. 

I really do need to try to remember to watch some of my "lost" shows more often. I frequently feel smarter after I do. (Kinda like Indiana Jones after a dig... Only not so dusty...)

Bears, Brides and Smart People, Oh My!

That's right, folks, it's Movie Monday! And you're in luck, because I just came home from an actual movie in a movie theater. Plus, with the recent cold weather, I've seen a couple of Netflix, as well, so here we go...

1) The Golden Compass. I saw this one via Netflix, and I think it may have been much more interesting in the movie theater. I really didn't get why the movie was protested against for being anti-God. I was looking for it in the movie, and never saw anything like that (apparently the book is more specific about it...?). Unfortunately, the movie opens up all of these doors along the way, but doesn't go through any of them. In fact, about 10 minutes before the movie ends the main character lists off all of the things they need to do, but they don't do any of them because, well, the movie ends. Very unsatisfying. Check it out for its amazing blend of live action and CGI? Sure. Expect it to fill you up in the cold winter? Definitely not. Overall: C-.

2) Bride Wars. This is the one I saw tonight. Fun enough movie with Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson as inseparable friends who, due to a scheduling mishap, end up with their dream weddings scheduled to be on the same day at the same time. Sadly, a lot of the funniest stuff is in the previews, but there was plenty of other stuff to keep the movie going. And this time of year a happy fluffy ending is kind of nice. Go to it to watch incredibly smart pretty women do great slapstick and comedy? Yes. Pay full price and expect it to fill a void in your life? Oh, I really hope not. Overall: B.

3) Smart People. You saw the promos for this before it came out--they showed Sarah Jessica Parker (from Square Pegs and Sex In the City) being aggressively served a turkey dinner by Ellen Page (from Juno) while Dennis Quaid and Thomas Hayden Church look on. Sadly, that promo is only glancingly like the rest of the movie. The rest of the movie is actually really good. It is, in fact, a smart movie. It talks about second chances and taking any chances at all. I wouldn't say it's a happy movie, but it's a movie with a good heart that you want to know more about. Unlike Golden Compass, where it ended with too many blatantly loose ends, or Bride Wars with the expected outcome, Smart People leaves you with just enough that you want more. I saw it almost 10 days ago, and I think I remember more about it than I do about Bride Wars. Watch it on a date night? Only if you both like painfully uncomfortable dates. Watch it, regardless? Definitely. Overall: A-. 

Luckily, I seldom go to movies on Sundays. Why is that lucky? Because I just found out that the next season of The Amazing Race begins on Sunday February 15th. Good thing I've got another 6 nights each week to do my homework for Movie Mondays!

Patience

I seem to be writing about patience a lot, lately, in one form or another. 

There's been me apologizing for making you wait for me to post when my "daily" blogs aren't so daily.

There's been me talking about the idea that February is just a week away, that spring is just a couple of months a way, and that there might be a thaw sometime in there, too.

I've gone on about waiting for customer service. 

I've even talked about how odd it is to wait for a resume reply and/or acknowledgement (which may or may not ever come).

But this week I have found myself trying my best to be really really patient for one thing: Our orchid. 

When I wrote on Thursday that it was "almost open" I really thought it would be open by Friday. But Friday the largest of the buds was still completely green. Saturday, it started to lighten a little, but was still as tight as could be. When I came out into the living room today, I was sure it would be open, and it is. EXCEPT that it was just barely splitting open. 

All day today I've been watching as the first of this batch of buds has gone from just a crack open to being about one eighth of the way open, now. It seems to be gaining momentum, though, and I have high hopes that by tomorrow... or maybe Wednesday... it will be all the way open. 

Then I'll be able to focus my attention on the second bud, then the third, fourth, fifth... 

I figure that if I practice my patience in small doses like this, by the time they're all open it might actually be spring. Or, if not spring, then at least I won't have to be patient too much longer...

It's the Little Things...

It is, in fact, the little things that are getting me through this winter. And I've decided that I'm going to use today's posting to name just a few of them:

1) Yesterday was a warm enough day that I could take my salt-encrusted car to the carwash. My poor car has been covered with sand and grit for at least a month or two. I actually "lost" it in a parking lot a week ago because I was looking for the wrong color of car. But, as of yesterday afternoon, it once again looks dark blue. That's exciting. Along those same lines...

2) When I went to weather.com, today, to check on the next few days, I noticed that the 10-day outlook included the 31st of January. Which means that, if I look tomorrow, we'll already be looking at February. Can spring be far behind? (Okay... spring doesn't come to Minneapolis until at least late March, but I'm taking what I can get!)

3) The tulips I bought, yesterday, and thought seemed a little long-stemmed and... well... "bendy" to survive long, all straightened up in water overnight. They will happily make it through tomorrow (Christopher's birthday), and--hopefully--well into next week. At the same time...

4) The orchid which was "in spike" (ie, was close to blooming) when I bought it last fall--and, since, has gone through a full bloom cycle and lost its last flower a couple weeks ago--has decided it might want to continue to bloom. It has 4 more buds on the same spike, and one is within days of popping. That's amazing! (If you don't know about orchids, there's a whole lot of "wait and see" with them. They usually bloom once every 6-12 months--if you're lucky.)

5) I made a really mediocre Caesar salad dressing (yes, from scratch) the other day. It was depressing. But the croutons were good (and--of course--really easy). So, last night, I used the same general method and made satisfyingly good garlic toast with oregano. (Like I said... This is all about the little things.)

6) Of all of the job-related correspondence I send off on a daily basis, I actually got a personalized response back from one of the pieces, yesterday. Sure, it was simply a "we got your resume, we're looking at them" email, but it was an actual real person contacting me. It was great. And speaking of real people...

7) I've gotten real responses, comments, and queries on some of my postings! I don't get a lot of them, but I've been getting more of them this month. That makes me very happy!

I hope there are some small things--or big things, even--that are helping you through the dark months, too!

Sorry... I Was Watching the Inauguration

I fully admit that, although I was within arms' reach of my computer for most of yesterday, I had not thoughts at all of writing a post. Instead I spent most of yesterday's daylight hours watching the inaugural activities on TV. 

You've all seen as much coverage as you want by now, I'm sure, so I won't go into much of it here. But there are a few things I wanted to mention...

1) I loved that we once again had an Inaugural Poem. I'm hoping to get my hands on it and read it on my own sometime soon.

2) I was thrilled by the amount of music included, and how important it was. Although I'm afraid of how overplayed "At Last" is going to be in the next few months.

3) I think it's amazing that there were no reported arrests related to the inauguration--even though there were close to 2 million people there. I think it's even more amazing considering there was only one porta-potty for every 400 people.

I'm also very glad that by the evening many of the channels on my TV were no longer doing coverage. Even I was over the pomp and circumstance by then and looking forward to seeing what happens next.