Beyond Rivalry - householding

Meals This Week

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:45:00 -0400

More Meals

Dinners since last post, so these are from 7 Sept -14 Sept.

Sunday: I made asparagus risotto, which uses arborio rice, white wine, chicken stock (or "chick-un stock" in my case -- chicken-free), onions, garlic, black pepper, a little butter and olive oil, and roasted asparagus. Served that with a green salad of mesclun, carrots, tomato, cucumber, and kalamata olives with a little Caesar dressing. Glass (or almost) of white wine, an Albet i Noya Xarel-Lo Classic 2007, which we bought after a wine tasting earlier this year. The usual s-f fudgecicle for dessert.

Monday: Tacos again, with soy crumbles, taco sauce and spices, onions, along with lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, Mexican cheeses, salsa, and taco shells. With a Geary's Autumn Ale. Sugar-free fudgecicle for dessert. I hadn't made tacos in more than a year until last week and now here they show up again!

Tuesday: Leftover asparagus risotto, to which I added peas and shrimp, plus a green salad with most of the usual ingredients. Served with the Albet i Noya Xarel-Lo Classic (white wine). Usual fudgecicle.

Wednesday: Seafood casserole (a la Amy Dacyczyn): mayonnaise, white wine, powdered mustard, canned tuna, shredded cheese, black pepper, and a celery…

More Meals

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:30:00 -0400

Dinners since last post, so these are from 24 Aug - 6 Sept.

Last Week

Sunday: We ate out for lunch so just had sparse leftovers for dinner: a couple of tofu corn cakes, the green salad with tuna, and T. had half of his lunch meal that was left over. I think we had a new red wine with that, Bohemian Highway 2006, a Calif. cab sav., which I bought the day before at Whole Foods for $6. Sugar-free fudgesicle for dessert

Monday: I steamed two ears of corn-on-the-cob, and I made a one-dish meal of whole wheat rotini with pesto, steamed green beans, and grilled mahi-mahi. I grilled (really, broiled) the mahi-mahi on skewers in the oven for about 6 mins. total, after marinating them for a while in balsamic vinegar, olive oil, fresh chopped basil, and black pepper. Split a Negra Modelo for dinner. Sugar-free fudgesicle for dessert

Tuesday: You guessed it: leftovers! The rest of the pesto pasta mahi dish, and I made two more ears of corn, plus I made another green salad with the usual ingredients (including egg but minus tuna), and then at the last minute I cooked up (pan-grilled) about 12 jumbo shrimp…

Having

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:20:00 -0400

Seems sort of fitting, after thoughts on wanting, to offer (someone else's) thoughts on having. Plus, it showed up in my RSS feeder this morning and I liked it.

At Get Rich Slowly, JD writes an interesting post on having. Having stuff. A few excerpts:

"'You know why you can't get rid of Stuff, don't you?' Kris had asked.

"'Because I want it,' I said.

"'You think you want it,' she said. 'You like the idea of having certain things, but you don't actually use them. You've got dozens of books stacked in the guest room. They've been there since the last time you purged Stuff a year ago. Have you needed any of those books in that time?'
"'No,' I said.

"After I told my friend Amy Jo about our clutter conversation last week, she shared her own thoughts. 'We each have so many interests, and certain things — like books — keep us connected to those interests, or give us the illusion that they do,' she said.

"'But they also clog up our lives and make us less efficient at doing what we are and what we want to do right now. It's hard to let go of the…

Married, Dreaming of Divorce

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:25:00 -0400

An essay at Oprah.com strikes me as funny and true, particularly as I am reading Adam Bede, in which even giving a man goo-goo eyes is reason enough to keep a girl from becoming someone else's respectable wife. Divorce? Ha! Better to drown yourself in a pond.

She's happily married, dreaming of divorce

Funny:

"Nor is Will the Very Bad Man that I've made him out to be. Rather, like every other male I know, he is merely a Moderately Bad Man, the kind of man who will leave his longboat-sized shoes directly in the flow of our home's traffic so that one day I'll trip over them, break my neck, and die, after which he'll walk home from the morgue, grief-stricken, take off his shoes with a heavy heart, and leave them in the center of the room until they kill the housekeeper. Everyman."

(No doubt men can think of Everywoman traits that are equally appalling.)

True:

"Women don't view divorce as a scary, shadowy behemoth. It's an unpalatable yet manageable task -- like changing schools or extreme dieting -- that may or may not yield a better result.. ... We can admit that our marriages aren't lambent, lyrical ice-dancing…

Websites with Narrow Focus, X

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:45:00 -0400

In a continuing series ...

I've been saving them up for this post.

It's Lovely! I'll Take It!, "a collection of poorly chosen photos from real estate listings. With love." And comments. Don't miss it.

potentially nervous: "The world's going to hell. Here are some bunny photos."

How I Spent My Stimulus. Tell your story.

Kim's Page o' Chopsticks. Chopstick wrappers, actually. (Thanks, Mike.)

Skunked

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 12:35:00 -0400

Our dog was skunked last night when she went out for her last pee of the night, around 9:15 p.m. She got it in the face and neck. At first she couldn't open her eyes and was foaming from the mouth. Though my spouse saw the varmint trying to escape our fence, he wasn't sure in the dark, seeing it at a distance from the rear with its tail held aloft, whether it was a skunk or a porcupine (it looked large), so we checked the dog's face for quills, and bites or bleeding, while she was still out on the deck. Finding none, and smelling a strong eau-de-Pepe-Le-Pew, we assumed a skunk spray.

We called the emergency vets, who told us to rinse her face over and over with warm water, which we did in the tub upstairs. We didn't really want to bring her in the house but it was dark outside, we don't have a portable tub or wading pool or anything large enough to use as one, and we weren't sure where the perpetrator was. After the warm water rinse -- by now her eyes were open and she'd stopped foaming -- we scrubbed her with a…

What I'm Reading Online: We All Need -- or Don't Need -- to Improve!

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sat, 31 May 2008 12:05:00 -0400

>> at Zen Habits, 12 Practical Steps for Learning to Go With the Flow. A simple list. I like the quotes, especially this one: 'Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.' - Chuang Tzu. I wonder whether the idea of accepting whatever I'm doing is consistent with Christianity, with prayers of confession, etc.

>> from Life 2.0, Follow Your Bliss. The central idea, similar to the quote above, is 'no need for self improvement.'

"The central premise behind all the self improvement stuff (although often unseen as it can be oh so subtle) is that there is something wrong with us, something flawed that needs to be improved, something we need to do in order to be happy, healthy, successful and fulfilled. It is this unexamined assumption, that we can be improved and therefore must be less than perfect, that keeps us in chains ... that reinforces this illusion of brokenness, powerlessness and being a victim-of-circumstances-beyond-our-control, which we see reflected back to us in the world we perceive around us."

Instead, this weblog counsels "an alternative to self-improvement, a spiritual path or another kind of…

Brand Timeline Portrait (R)

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:00:00 -0400

Following Jane's lead, I'm blogging the (visible) brands I use today:

7:15-7:45 a.m.

Getting up, getting ready ... Zadro is the Shower Bug I listen to in the shower.

I'll note only this first use of Quilted Northern ...

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7:45 a.m.

Getting dressed ... socks and necklace don't seem to have a brand on them ...

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8:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.

What's happening in the virtual world?

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8:15 a.m.

Dog feeding and cooking rice for future dog meals ...

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8:45 a.m.

Feeding me, vitamins (some are not branded), cleaning up ...

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9:45 a.m.

Going out -- need jacket, gum, shoes, and a treat for the dog ...

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11:00 a.m.

Returning-home treat for the dog ...

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11:00 - 11:52 a.m.

Now what's happening in the virtual world?

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11:52 a.m.

Going out again for a walk ...

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12:05 p.m.

Got a phone call while walking ...

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1:00 - 1:30 p.m.

Home and reconnecting ...

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1:27 p.m.

Water plus tonic water ... Lunch was leftovers in a non-brand plastic container, so no brands to record. Then in the garden.

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1:50 - 2:00 p.m.

Playing with the dog ...

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2 - 2:30…

What I Did and Didn't Do - Preamble

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:45:00 -0400

Yesterday, I thought I did nothing. Nothing worth the while, nothing to reflect on, nothing 'good.' I probed that, feeling that I had done something, and something worthwhile, even if it was nothing that fit the cultural and partially internalised rubric of worthiness, and came up with this list of what I chose to do (and what I chose not to do):

I slept late because I was tired from dreaming.

I listened to some of Morning Edition on NPR.

I made the bed.

I watered house plants and hanging plants.

I clicked on the Animal Rescue site and all the other rescue sites.

I read and responded to email, including listservs. I read my feeds via Bloglines several times during the day.

I entered the HGTV "Green Home" sweepstakes, as I do every day (until this Friday).

I did two loads of 'dog' laundry (her blankets, bedding, etc.) and a load of dishes.

I reconciled the checkbook with the bank account online.

I made a batch of brown rice for the dog.

I moved money from a sweep account at an online brokerage into a mutual fund there.

I did minor research of a house for sale in town (pure…

Money Woes - Profiles of Real People

noreply@blogspirit.com (mmw) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:35:00 -0400

This series at CNN Money, which presents more than 50 brief, first-person profiles of individuals and families struggling financially with job loss, downsizing, reduced home values, student loans, gas and food prices, etc., is enlightening and disheartening at the same time. I empathised with the stories of many folks; this one really speaks to me.