Return From my Accidental Hiatus

Well, you all know I kind of drop off the face of the map here and there, and this spring has been an incredibly... well, let's use the word "interesting"... time. Going through my photos, I can gauge that it's been roughly over a month since I've posted something, so I've got a lot of catching up to do. That means either a super-long post, or very brief ramblings and more focus on photos. I think I'm a bit more drawn to the second option. 

First things first--in early March I went to DC to appeal to the powers that be to deem me "Broken." Still waiting to hear back on how that went. But let's just say it was an ordeal, and it was kind of a nightmare. I think I slept for two days straight when I came home. 

One of the amazing things--and I have taken tons of photos--has been the progression of my flower bed. The crocuses have stopped blooming, unfortunately, and I'll miss them; however, the wild tulips are starting to come in and they are just gorgeous.  I've planted a ton of stuff since the crocuses bloomed; they kind of got me inspired. I've got bleeding hearts, a strawberry, dahlias, and some lily of the valley in pots around my front yard. I also added some gladiolus and lupine to the back of the flower bed, as well as to some planter boxes in the side yard. Most recently, I sowed some lavender, columbine, and alyssum, and I cant wait to see them sprouting. I've ordered some hens-and-chicks to fill out the ones that exist, and I picked up some red ones yesterday. I also found a "black" columbine and some wormwood, so those need to be replanted.

Perhaps the biggest change from last month is these guys. John Snow the Betta finally passed on after a couple weeks of looking really sickly. I had a couple days with Liu Kang, who unexpectedly died. He has been replaced with Gorgeous George [get the reference?]. He's a dragon-scale Betta, and the picture doesn't show how iridescent and shiny he is. On the other side, say hello to Cash. I've been thinking about getting a dog for a long time--and looking around the past few months. When I saw his face I fell in so much love. He looks a lot like my Nelly, who died a couple years ago. He is Australian Cattle-dog, Dachshund, and American Staff [which is so painfully obvious]. He is amazing and hilarious, but he has a little to work on in the manners and kitty departments. It's a slow process, but we have classes later this week and he is really bright. I forgot how exhausting and consuming it is to have a dog... but I also forgot how good their love feels.

 Another side project I have been focused on is making my desk a more inviting place to work--for homework and to help keep me from laying in bed on the internet all day. I found this old wicker shelf at Goodwill for like $5, but when I bought it, it was solid white. A bit of black spray paint and a silver paint marker, and voila, much better. I'm working on complementing it with trinkets and such lovelies, but currently the bottom shelf mostly houses my laptop. I had a hard time doing homework with the lights not quite reaching, so I bought this cute little hanging thinggie over at Big Lots and filled it with Christmas lights. now that I look over, half the lights are burnt out, so I may switch it back to a candle. But it was a fun and easy project.

This beast hear though... It's technically a three-part project, and completing one set of candles was so exhausting that I didn't finish the other two. It was fun and interesting, but my plan for the small set of candles isn't going to work, so I'm back to collecting glassware to repurpose. The good news is it gave me a chance to experiment and refine the technique, so when I make the smallest and largest set, I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing. This project deserves it's own post though, and I'll be following up on that... uh... eventually.

Lately I've been on a muffin kick. Banana muffins in particular, but if you can make it, I can make a muffin out of it. The pomegranate blueberry ones were perhaps the biggest hit, but I also played with apple-cinnamon, blueberry-chocolate, carrot-raisin-oatmeal, and many others. They are great for a quick breakfast on the run, and they last a week or so in the fridge. 

Two last items, and that'll do it for today. I saw this guy on the street corner, by himself, with what I feel is a very powerful sign. If you can't read it, it says "Pain is not Recreational. Support Medical Cannabis." Basically, WA is now trying to force of of the MMJ shops and retailers to comply with the recreational rules--which basically hurts their business and their customers. In a nutshell, WA's legalization has kind of backfired because they didn't plan enough before they passed it. Some of us predicted this, and it's a damn shame. But we are seeing a lot of states following suit, and I feel that we will see at least MMJ legalized on a federal level within my lifetime, if not medical and recreational. 

The new quarter has started, and even though I haven't been properly released yet, I decided to go ahead and take a full courseload. I never know when I'll get the word that I'm finally free, and I don't want to land on my face when that happens. So I got set up to go to school so I can both use my GI Bill [have income] and work towards a BSEE [do something mildly useful with my life]. It worked my way through college about 7 years ago, so hopefully I can do it again... but this time the schedule isn't going to be as flexible. One of my favorite things about this campus is the rock-stacking. This pile of rocks is stacked differently almost every day I walk by it. I think I want to do something like this in my yard... but I'm not sure where I should try to get the rocks from. 

I Mean, This is "Normal," Right?

So what were you doing at 9 or 10 pm on a Saturday night? I was apparently baking. Yup. Because I'm still transitioning off nights, so why not? Banana muffins are my new "thing."

Side note, I want a cat or dog named Dinah, so I can be in the kitchen with her, every time I cook. Ha.

So, I had leftover blueberries from last time I made muffins, which was only like a week or so ago. At the Met, I saw a little thing of pomegranate... Uh... Thingies. You know. I figured, "well, I dont see this every day, and they already did the work for me, and I kinda like pomegranates... Sooo..."

...this totally happened.

You know what else happened??

1. Can you guess? If you work at Dirty Oscar's Annex, you probably can. After scooping out half the basic banana muffin mix to use with fresh strawberries, I got down to the team business out the day: Dead Elvis Muffins. Damn straight, I made bacon-peanut-butter-banana muffins.

End of story.

A Bit o' This and A Bit o' That

So I haven't been updating very often, but I've been decently busy. Luckily I have trained myself to take photos as I go, so I'm just writing about things afterwards. Lately I've been on this very odd bi-phasic sleep schedule. I'm not really sure why this happened, but if I had tried to do it on purpose, I couldn't have done it. Just seems like I can't sleep for more than about 3-4 hours at a time anymore. But it's a nice deep sleep, and splitting it up actually seems to be giving me more usable hours of the day--so long as I don't mind tip-toe-ing around to bake cornbread and spray paint things at 2 am.  I have been waking up in plenty of time for work, which is nice, and I do still get some awesome night time cuddles, plus day time hang-out time, too. The other reason it's nice is because it's flexible--so when I switch work schedules every two weeks, it's not really going to be a big deal. 

So what have I done? Well, I picked up a few little wooden holiday ornaments last time I was at Michael's and finally got around to painting them. Of course, you know my idea of "painting" is a little... well... yeah. They're clear coated, just waiting for that to dry before I flip them and spray the back side as well. I have a pair of stars I did with a paint pen as well, and a dozen or so clear glass globes that I haven't yet started to play with. I know Christmas isn't for a while, but this kind of stuff I don't mind doing in advance. No Christmas tree or lights until after Thanksgiving though!

after the metallic paint but
before the granite layer.
I'll repost when it's upstairs!

 Speaking of painting... This has been a sort of long-term pet project I've been dealing with for quite some time. I can't find the page now--I just looked for about 30 minutes--but I read about how you can use spray paint, painter's tape, and plastic bags to create a faux-marble finish on just about anything. The author had done it to her patio/doorstep and it looked fantastic. She also recomended it for garage flooring as well. I really wanted to try this, but I doubt the rental company would like that. I had an old bookshelf sitting down in the garage missing a couple shelves. I was originally going to turn it into an entertainment stand for the big tv, but we ended up just buying one from Big Lots instead. But, I had already gone to Home Depot and had them cut the new shelves I measured out. I figured I might as well keep the project going, although it took me weeks to crack at it a little at a time. For example, I started the black lacquer coat, found out the hard way that I was one spray can short. I picked up some granite spray to work with. I taped out a random square-based pattern--wishing now I had actually measured and marked it--and sprayed down the layers. Unfortunately though, the painter's tape [which isn't supposed to stick to anything really] pulled up the lacquer. Feeling a little frustrated, I decided not to redo it, but instead I just went over the lines with regular acrylic paint. I threw on a clear coat after that, and I might do one more clear coat just in case. Since one corner of the giant bedroom upstairs has kind of been turning into a kitchenette, I wanted to use this as both a counter [the coffee pot needs a solid place to live] and a wall/divider-type thing. Now my only delay is whether or not I'm going to wait until after laying down the tile flooring to bring it upstairs or get impatient and do it now. I wish I could find the floor in a different color, but I guess that one's not so bad.

...the letters are backwards because the glue is drying.

Another project I looked up, bought supplies for, and then ignored for a few weeks was the yarn-wrapping. These are just basic wooden letters, wrapped in yarn with a little bit of tacky glue. The only problem I ran into was zoning out and not realizing that I ran my way mostly through the red and white yarn. So it's not as solidly covered as I'd like, but I like the texture of it anyways. I'm not sure how I'm going to mount the layers onto the heart [I was definitely planning on the letters hanging over], and figure out how to hang it [thinking something to do with thick black wire, but not sure how to attach that]. The plus side of this project was having the epiphany that it would make a great gift for some other couples I know.

There may or may not have been
Amaretto in that mocha...

Last but not least. Snack Bar had long ago asked me if I would make homemade mac-n-cheese again. Again, I bought ingredients... and then... couldn't get around to making it. I finally had a day where I had the time and the motivation, except it was the same week of whatever most recent WoW expansion was released--there's no way he can raid and eat mac-n-cheese at the same time, that's just inconvenient! So I made up the chicken-broccoli-mac that he really likes, and got the brilliant idea to turn them into cupcakes! I sprinkled a bunch of cheese on top of course. The secret is to spray the cupcake pan with butter spray, and then cover the cups with breadcrumbs. They popped right out of the pan perfectly! I thought I had regular mac noodles, but I remembered incorrectly and had to stick with penne. Close enough. Definitely something I will make again!

I can do All the Things!...

...I just have to not have a job, is all.

I started my stay-cation Wednesday night, and have been doing more or less whatever I want, when ever I want. Yesterday, that amounted to painting my fingernails all glittery, painting some stuff, reorganizing the music on my external drive, making cocoa krispy treats, visiting a house we want to rent, and finally mustering the energy and attention span to pull through on the Shepherd's Pie I've been promising for months. And somehow I still felt lazy.

Part of that feeling was me rebelliously procrastinating, and part of it I attribute to medications. After another argument with doc ending in tears, I ended up with new medication. I should have followed the transition plan a little better, but I was so frustrated that I basically stopped taking the gabapentin and Efexxor to semi-detox my system, but it left me feeling like crap yesterday. Begrudgingly, I started the Cymbalta yesterday. I get to the point where I feel like the meds aren't helping the chronic pain and fatigue, but if I stop taking them, I feel even worse, like I have the Black Death. So far I can say I feel much more 'normal' on the Cymbalta, however, the nerve pain in my hand and feet shows up more easily.


Anyways. Point was, I felt lazy yesterday [and enjoyed every second of it that I didn't feel like I was about to pass out]. But today I got a random bee in my bonnet and did even more things. I started by undoing the destruction I had released on the kitchen. After that, I attacked the living room, and even put away about half the things cluttering up my desk. Not that I use my desk, mind you, but the clutter drives me nuts. I can never seem to take care of it because all I really do is work and sleep--hence why I asked for some time off. I took my time cleaning up and let the ADD have it's way with me: tidy this, paint some stuff, tidy that, find a photo to hang, put away clothes, feed the fish... something like that. I packed up the cardboard and took it to the dump, stopped by Goodwill for some job-interview-pants, got lost in Michael's for a while, and finished my outing with a trip to Wally World. Picked up some Sonic for late lunch, put new sheets on the bed, dyed my hair, and painted more. I'm having a blast, and I can't wait til I can do this for more than five days. I know I'll get bored with that eventually and want to work again, but... worth it.

Last but not least, obligatory kitten cuteness. Lots of fetch was played, and many lasers were chased.

PS. Almost forgot that I am also a secret nerd and SO excited for this.

Apparently I CAN bake.

For years and years, I could never bake. My cookies... turned out like big flat muffins. Everything came out half-burned and half-uncooked. Somehow after deployment, everything I've put in the oven has come out tasty as all hell. Okay except maybe the 'anchor' cookies... they were taste alright, but boy did they ever look wrong. Anyways, Since I'm getting back into das blogging, and happened to bake today, tadah, easy blog posting on the books.

I was out of town for about a week, and there was a bunch of bananas on the counter, which I knew no one would eat while I was gone. All that really means for me, is to get prepared to make some sort of banana bread-type yumminess. I wasn't sure if I could find the same recipe I used last time, but luckily I did. Of course, I can't really 'go by' a recipe. I tend to use it as a jumping off point, and then have fun with it. Last time I ended up with dark-chocolate chip oatmeal banana muffins. They were delish. This time, I had some extra apples too, so I set out to combine these theories.

So. Diced apples plus that caramel apple dip, about three spoonfuls, and microwave for a couple minutes. 1.5 cups of flower, a dash of cinnamon of course, and 1/2 cup each white sugar, brown sugar, and oatmeal. 3 mushy bananas. 2 eggs, a generous splash of milk, and some vanilla extract. bake for about 50 minutes at 350. They come out very dense. This recipe will get you almost exactly a 3x6 muffin pan. I'm sure you could make it in a bread pan or whatever, but that's not my style. I use baking spray on a nonstick muffin pan, and I know they're done because when I stick a fork in them, they lift right out of the pan.

AND. Obligatory cute cat photo... Mr. Bill Apollo is learning how to be Maru 2.0, the American Box Cat.