Hi all,
Spanakopita: a greek dish using filo dough to sandwich layers of spinach, garlic, fetal cheese, spices and egg. Sounds delicious, no? Granted, I was going to use swiss chard today instead of spinach, and also going to add leeks and mushrooms. I saw was because after the morning of a co-op run and vegetable prep, the power decided to go out. Well, technically a power line went down because of a run-in with a tree, but the end result was the same. We couldn't get the oven lit. We got the stove top no problem, but literally took the oven apart trying to find the pilot. We eventually decided (as we couldn't get a gas smell either) that there was probably a safety mechanism that prevented the actual oven from being used during a power outage. Stumped, the only thing that came to mind was soup. Luckily, housemom decided that ordering pizza was a much better idea, and who am I to disagree?
Though I knew I would (and did) get crap from Sam about what I'd done all morning.
We also had a visitor for lunch, and so it wasn't much of a "home cooked meal" for him. He was a good sport about it anyway. The kicker was, the power came on at about 11:45. Just late enough to have ordered the pizza, and not really be able to cook anything else anyway in time for lunch.
After a short rest hour, we got together for orientation and set off to the new project site - an elder care community. It's still in the fund-raising stage, but could start as early as this summer. At any rate, we got a little tour and saw the plans and then started to scrape paint off of the huge deck. Actually, the girls did. We were short quite a few tools, and so all the guys decided that they'd play soccer. The entire time. The leader didn't say anything, which is kind of annoying, and I had a good time with Schmee, but it still kinda pissed me off. We could've gotten a lot more done if we'd had fresh hands working in shifts - but they obviously didn't care. It was in pretty poor form, and I was disappointed in them.
Dinner was a mushroom/leek/veggie soup (shocking, right?), and was pretty good. We were down 3 people, and so it was a pretty quiet meal as well. Afterward, as I was upstairs, I suddenly heard bagpipes. Maria had mentioned something about it earlier, but we all hadn't heard anything. Sure enough, "The Bluebells of Scotland" notes were wafting through the window. I told housemom, and after a minute, was able to see a procession (?!) following a lone bagpiper near the border of the woods in the neighborhood. It took me a few minutes (and a trip outside) to figure out it was one of the neighbor co-worker's father, who is visiting this week. Still, a bagpiper?!?
Have to admit, he sounded pretty darn good too!
Anyhow, I have a chocolate cake to bake tomorrow ("Death by Chocolate" - as promised to Flo to celebrate his birthday!), and that'll keep me busy in the morning.
Hope all is well,
Steph
Showing posts with label Orientation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Orientation. Show all posts
Monday, May 10, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
And So it Goes, And So It Goes, at Least I'm Not the Only One Who Knows
Hi all,
So I'm taking requests and expanding my readership. It's a shame that I can't be stumbled upon randomly now, but I'll probably open it up again some time in the future.
Anyhow, ready for something awesome?
According to my 2010 Word of the Day calendar (super Christmas gift!), today's word is: Kerfuffle. I like that the calendar lists that it is "chiefly British" and means disturbance or fuss. I think I mainly thought it was one of those words you can only use in casual conversation - like "schnibblet" or "titch" or "ginormous". I think it should be obvious that my professors probably missed out on some solid essays containing "kerfuffle". Although, I do believe that I mainly say "kerfluffle", and that it sounds a bit more cuddly. In the future I shall try to be more sensitive to British slang.
Meanwhile, today was a sweltering day. It was 80 degrees by 9 this morning, which made cooking such an oh-so-appealing concept. So I made the "African Rice Salad" which I chilled and we had leftover pizza and lasagna with another cabbage/carrot salad. A pretty good lunch. I also did a lot of cleaning, since I had some extra time from lunch. A pretty productive morning.
We had orientation class this afternoon, and right before it, it decided to pour again (it did it once in the morning, a mere 3 minutes after Franklin had set off to drop off the milk can and do the mail. Poor man came back absolutely drenched!). I consider it to be short-term karma, as the youngest child was intent on beating a metal pole against the stone walk way, a sound I could hear through my earplugs. Naturally, he got drenched. And an evil smile might have graced my face.
We had a meeting to discuss what we're going to do for the rest of orientation. We'll do a few fun trips and a few work/info trips. Should be good. However, I also started to get very itchy again. I think I ate something on Friday that I may be allergic to. I have a lovely spotty rash on my arms and legs. It seems to come and go a bit, so I'm wondering what I could be allergic to. I have a follow-up appointment at the Dr's tomorrow, so I guess I can ask then. I'm assuming it's a food thing, because with my environment ones I usually just have sinus or breathing issues, which seem just fine. Plus, I'm on my meds, which should take care of it.
Oh well, a good excuse not to shave my legs.
Hope all is well,
Steph
So I'm taking requests and expanding my readership. It's a shame that I can't be stumbled upon randomly now, but I'll probably open it up again some time in the future.
Anyhow, ready for something awesome?
According to my 2010 Word of the Day calendar (super Christmas gift!), today's word is: Kerfuffle. I like that the calendar lists that it is "chiefly British" and means disturbance or fuss. I think I mainly thought it was one of those words you can only use in casual conversation - like "schnibblet" or "titch" or "ginormous". I think it should be obvious that my professors probably missed out on some solid essays containing "kerfuffle". Although, I do believe that I mainly say "kerfluffle", and that it sounds a bit more cuddly. In the future I shall try to be more sensitive to British slang.
Meanwhile, today was a sweltering day. It was 80 degrees by 9 this morning, which made cooking such an oh-so-appealing concept. So I made the "African Rice Salad" which I chilled and we had leftover pizza and lasagna with another cabbage/carrot salad. A pretty good lunch. I also did a lot of cleaning, since I had some extra time from lunch. A pretty productive morning.
We had orientation class this afternoon, and right before it, it decided to pour again (it did it once in the morning, a mere 3 minutes after Franklin had set off to drop off the milk can and do the mail. Poor man came back absolutely drenched!). I consider it to be short-term karma, as the youngest child was intent on beating a metal pole against the stone walk way, a sound I could hear through my earplugs. Naturally, he got drenched. And an evil smile might have graced my face.
We had a meeting to discuss what we're going to do for the rest of orientation. We'll do a few fun trips and a few work/info trips. Should be good. However, I also started to get very itchy again. I think I ate something on Friday that I may be allergic to. I have a lovely spotty rash on my arms and legs. It seems to come and go a bit, so I'm wondering what I could be allergic to. I have a follow-up appointment at the Dr's tomorrow, so I guess I can ask then. I'm assuming it's a food thing, because with my environment ones I usually just have sinus or breathing issues, which seem just fine. Plus, I'm on my meds, which should take care of it.
Oh well, a good excuse not to shave my legs.
Hope all is well,
Steph
Monday, April 26, 2010
Hi all,
It was a wet and rainy day today. Rather gloomy, and prone to sudden and sporadic showers that were just light enough to make wearing a raincoat barely worth it. This morning I used the leftovers (frozen) from my mushroom and barley soup to make a mushroom risotto. When Sam came to take a peek, he exclaimed in dismay: "Why is it purple?!?"
Well, from the red wine, of course. Although I was then told that risottos is made only with white wine, this was impossible as we only had red on hand. Not to mention that I'd made the soup with red wine, so it was more practical to continue with it. It turned out ok, a little gummy after setting, but had pretty good flavor. I also had to raid the seed room for cabbage, as the co-op's supplier didn't get their shipment of lettuce, and so neither did we. So, risotto and coleslaw for lunch!
After lunch I trekked over to the woodshop to meet Flo to work on the planters. He'd also made a box planter, although after putting some screws in (which went every which way...not looking too pretty at this point...), it isn't lining up right anymore. The one with the angles is looking pretty good, and hopefully they'll both be "finished" by Wednesday. As long as they hold dirt...
Our orientation outing was canceled due to the rain. We were apparently supposed to be scraping paint off of a building. One co-worker raised the question (finally) of why we were doing all these jobs - what did they have to do with "orientation"? So after a half an hour of some manual labor - we seemed to be getting farmed out for this a lot lately - we sat down and had a discussion over what we thought it should be like. It lacks cohesion and a purpose, and hasn't really helped to "orientate" us to anything. So hopefully this will prompt some changes.
Since housemom changed the seating arrangement, I've noticed how little she noticed how much and even how Maria interacts at the table. At dinner I always did a "1 piece of bread and then more after soup" since housemom is always talking about meeting nutrition requirements. So it was almost funny to see her struggling to get Maria to finish her bowl of soup after she'd let her have 2-3 pieces of bread first. Not to mention she was talking about how we have to maintain her weight, and I don't quite think she believed me when I was telling her how often I have to remind Maria to just eat. Her child-like wonder can get her so revved up on questions that she just doesn't think about it.
I'm a little irked that tomorrow I'm going to have to stay home so housemom can take her youngest into the ER. He's been having a reoccurring problem for the last 2-3 weeks (not life-threatening, but painful) and she should've done it then. It's probably petty to resent being kept from going to something I actually really look forward to (since I'm really starting to get into the real work at the stain glass workshop) and she treats it as though it's not important. Yet she's always going on about the value of work, no matter how small it is. Housedad has an appointment tomorrow himself, so you'd think that would somehow be able to work out. Apparently not. It's just frustrating that I have to keep picking up the pieces. It's clear that her children are her first priority, but that does shift a lot to me. Housedad and Sam share a lot of the work for their care, while I was pretty much taking sole care with Maria. It's true housemom does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, but it's sometimes hard not to feel as though I'm taken for granted.
I know it's great that I get to be out of the house at all in the mornings, but it's just disheartening to finally have a chance to do something I feel I can be passionate about and then get it taken away - it doesn't inspire confidence that I'll be able to stick with it.
Hope all is well,
Steph
It was a wet and rainy day today. Rather gloomy, and prone to sudden and sporadic showers that were just light enough to make wearing a raincoat barely worth it. This morning I used the leftovers (frozen) from my mushroom and barley soup to make a mushroom risotto. When Sam came to take a peek, he exclaimed in dismay: "Why is it purple?!?"
Well, from the red wine, of course. Although I was then told that risottos is made only with white wine, this was impossible as we only had red on hand. Not to mention that I'd made the soup with red wine, so it was more practical to continue with it. It turned out ok, a little gummy after setting, but had pretty good flavor. I also had to raid the seed room for cabbage, as the co-op's supplier didn't get their shipment of lettuce, and so neither did we. So, risotto and coleslaw for lunch!
After lunch I trekked over to the woodshop to meet Flo to work on the planters. He'd also made a box planter, although after putting some screws in (which went every which way...not looking too pretty at this point...), it isn't lining up right anymore. The one with the angles is looking pretty good, and hopefully they'll both be "finished" by Wednesday. As long as they hold dirt...
Our orientation outing was canceled due to the rain. We were apparently supposed to be scraping paint off of a building. One co-worker raised the question (finally) of why we were doing all these jobs - what did they have to do with "orientation"? So after a half an hour of some manual labor - we seemed to be getting farmed out for this a lot lately - we sat down and had a discussion over what we thought it should be like. It lacks cohesion and a purpose, and hasn't really helped to "orientate" us to anything. So hopefully this will prompt some changes.
Since housemom changed the seating arrangement, I've noticed how little she noticed how much and even how Maria interacts at the table. At dinner I always did a "1 piece of bread and then more after soup" since housemom is always talking about meeting nutrition requirements. So it was almost funny to see her struggling to get Maria to finish her bowl of soup after she'd let her have 2-3 pieces of bread first. Not to mention she was talking about how we have to maintain her weight, and I don't quite think she believed me when I was telling her how often I have to remind Maria to just eat. Her child-like wonder can get her so revved up on questions that she just doesn't think about it.
I'm a little irked that tomorrow I'm going to have to stay home so housemom can take her youngest into the ER. He's been having a reoccurring problem for the last 2-3 weeks (not life-threatening, but painful) and she should've done it then. It's probably petty to resent being kept from going to something I actually really look forward to (since I'm really starting to get into the real work at the stain glass workshop) and she treats it as though it's not important. Yet she's always going on about the value of work, no matter how small it is. Housedad has an appointment tomorrow himself, so you'd think that would somehow be able to work out. Apparently not. It's just frustrating that I have to keep picking up the pieces. It's clear that her children are her first priority, but that does shift a lot to me. Housedad and Sam share a lot of the work for their care, while I was pretty much taking sole care with Maria. It's true housemom does a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff, but it's sometimes hard not to feel as though I'm taken for granted.
I know it's great that I get to be out of the house at all in the mornings, but it's just disheartening to finally have a chance to do something I feel I can be passionate about and then get it taken away - it doesn't inspire confidence that I'll be able to stick with it.
Hope all is well,
Steph
Sunday, January 17, 2010
I Saw Fireworks
Hi all,
But they didn't last long. Only about 15 seconds, and no one knows why. I guess there were a few birthdays in the village today, so maybe it was a birthday tribute? No idea.
They were almost as exciting as the response to my delicious lemon and blueberry pound cake. It had a beautiful glazed exterior from the pan and was dense, moist and delicious on the inside
(ha ha KT...).
We also have about half of it left...exciting.
Today was a bit of a circus, we had a visitor who got to be climbed over like a jungle gym by the children. After the last fiasco with nail polish (one had to be tossed, the other had the consistency and appearance of chocolate paste + wouldn't come off with the "all natural" remover), I'd smartly picked up some nail stickers. There's enough for about 10 times I think, for only a dollar. Plus, she can peel them off whenever she likes!
I fortunately did not have to go to service today, and instead caught up on my cleaning task that I missed yesterday: cleaning the bathroom. It may seem as though that's not a very good deal, but I like having the time to plug myself into my ipod and sing away. It almost became clean too quickly (although it gets cleaned lightly almost every day, so that's not saying much!).
Tomorrow I have the orientation training (not sure if I'm a fan yet...though it's probably not optional) so I won't be at the co-op. Hopefully there will be an activity or two this time, as it would be nice to actually get to know some other people! All in good time, I suppose.
Hope all is well,
Steph
But they didn't last long. Only about 15 seconds, and no one knows why. I guess there were a few birthdays in the village today, so maybe it was a birthday tribute? No idea.
They were almost as exciting as the response to my delicious lemon and blueberry pound cake. It had a beautiful glazed exterior from the pan and was dense, moist and delicious on the inside
(ha ha KT...).
We also have about half of it left...exciting.
Today was a bit of a circus, we had a visitor who got to be climbed over like a jungle gym by the children. After the last fiasco with nail polish (one had to be tossed, the other had the consistency and appearance of chocolate paste + wouldn't come off with the "all natural" remover), I'd smartly picked up some nail stickers. There's enough for about 10 times I think, for only a dollar. Plus, she can peel them off whenever she likes!
I fortunately did not have to go to service today, and instead caught up on my cleaning task that I missed yesterday: cleaning the bathroom. It may seem as though that's not a very good deal, but I like having the time to plug myself into my ipod and sing away. It almost became clean too quickly (although it gets cleaned lightly almost every day, so that's not saying much!).
Tomorrow I have the orientation training (not sure if I'm a fan yet...though it's probably not optional) so I won't be at the co-op. Hopefully there will be an activity or two this time, as it would be nice to actually get to know some other people! All in good time, I suppose.
Hope all is well,
Steph
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