anagram of brat

Finally got enough tomatoes and the time/wherewithall/rest of ingredients to try out this tomato basil bisque recipe.

Before putting it the blender:


After blending it and adding cream and cheese:


Verdict: is pretty damn yummy, I won't lie.

One kinda funny note - I'd forgotten to gather the basil out of the back pots before it got dark* so I had to tromp outside to get some in the rain. Since the back yard is dark as fuck and our back outside light has never worked, I opted to clip some of the basil in the boxes outside of our front window as those plants were marginally easier to see.** Ya know, thank fuck for Squire Village, complex of weirdoes. Anywhere else, I'm pretty sure a black woman skulking around in the dark in front of someone's living room window brandishing sharp things would be grounds for a suspicious 911 call. But no, the only suspicious witness to my 9pm basil clipping was Ash, who kept meowing crabbily at me because I am SO MEAN and won't let him OUTSIDE and he thinks this is TERRIBLE and CAT ABUSE and such, never mind that he's already proven he's too dumb to remember which door is his own the one time he escaped for an extended period of time. Cats, y'all. smdh.

But I digress. Soup is a success, most of it is now either freezing or just chilling in the big white box of cold downstairs. Between cell23 making colcannon earlier and me finding cherry slurpees at Sevs, not to mention yummy soup stuff, it's very much a comfort food night up in House Browne-Tatro.***


* this was a late night food experiment - we'd had dinner earlier.

** The cats love this, by the way - the plants have grown tall and bushy enough to allow them to observe the complex in stealth mode. When we come home cell23 and I often jokingly ask each other if the basil has eyes. Very often it does - and ears.

*** possibly also a fart like a muthafuckin' BOSS night. Cabbage'll do that.

New glasses are new! And shiny! And dyeeeerrrrrgh! I'm still adjusting to them three days later. It was crazy, I put them on for the first time and WHOA NELLIE THE CLARITY IT BURNS US PRECIOUS! Which is all well and good, it was just a major adjustment. My old lenses were so scratched up and the coating was so dead that the having the new shinies on was... yeah. Whee.

The nice bit is that for the first time I have a workable sunglass type thing. The new hotnesses had a little clip on shade option so I ordered it. Sunglasses, man. I AM IMPERVIOUS TO THE EVIL DEATH RAYS OF THE DAY STAR WHILE DRIVING! Or something.

The last interesting thing about new glasses is that now that I have the new ones, all the dysfunctional patterns of behavior I'd unconsciously developed to accommodate the old busted ones are actually noticable now that I don't have to continue them. I used to hold my head at a weird angle when bending over or looking down to keep the old ones from falling off. Don't have to do that anymore, but noticed I still was last night when I was gathering up the laundry. Blerg. The other is that I hadn't noticed how close I was sitting to various computer screens or holding books and devices. Too close. It's kinda nice to be able to sit back and still see what I'm doing. Probably better for me too from an ergonomic standpoint. Plus they're cute. I'd camerawhore, but between allergies and having the Cold that Doesn't end, my nose has erupted into this special tantrum of cold sore mayhem. It's gross, and I hope it gets at least marginally presentable by Pax. But anyway. New glasses are awesome.

The weekend in general was a good one, mostly hanging with the short people doing quiet things. Lil'Beast was having a super hug and cuddle sort of weekend, which was a nice change. And Kidzilla continues to be her amusing self. I've been especially tickled by the fact that she's already developed a fantastic flounce - she now leaves the room in a hilariously indignant huff if either we tease her past a certain point or fail to behave like her interpretation of rational serious grown-ups. I always thought that was more of a teenager skill, but at seven, she's got it down and it is funny as hell.

One of the things I've been enjoying about their visits indirectly is that Kidzilla actually really likes Doctor Who and has been watching the newer series with her father on Netflix. Being the giant fanboy that he is, cell23 is over the moon that she's enjoying it. Yesterday we all watched "A Good Man Goes to War" and it was really fun watching Kidzilla react to the various bits of the episodes, even if a lot of the humor went over her head. (The Sontoran's line about "superior lactic fluid" still cracks me the fuck up.) But that first moment when the Doctor makes his surprise appearance on Demon's Run? She bounced in her chair and clapped her hands; it was adorable. Makes me sort of wonder if the Sarah Jane adventures are on Netflix, though awww, Elizabeth Sladen... *still sad*

In addition to the glasses I also acquired a working printer/scanner thing on Friday, and seeing as I had things to print yesterday afternoon (more on that in a bit) I got it set up. This wouldn't warrant mentioning other than it's Fisher Price My First Wireless Printer (what the hell is this wifi witchcraft? THE FUTURE) and watching the cat warily trying to ascertain what sort of intruder this thing was was unexpectedly hilarious. She'd walk up and sniff it, then it would suddenly start printing and she'd be all AAAAGH IT MOVED HOLY SHIT RUN AWAY!

Why is cat trauma so fucking funny?

Anyway, the reason to print stuff is that thedavin made an attempt to resurrect Drinktank, which from what I understand was a short-lived Squirekids writing workshop involving a nonzero amount of alcohol, and I decided what the hell, I'd go both to spite my socially anxious hermit tendencies and to jumpstart my writing some. Also get over that whole crippling fear of people reading my shit. It turned out to just be me, thedavin and bloodandsmoke in attendance, and none of us drank, but that said, we did join thedavin's family dinner (which was quite with the tasty) and had an enjoyable evening critiquing each other's work. I got some good feedback on the story intro I'd brought with me, as well as some suggestions for where the story could go afterwards. Reminds me, I need to type up the notes I'd made on both of their contributions and send them out. But anyway afterward I went home and spent some time implementing the suggestions received and starting to scribble down ideas for the next step in the story. Clearly the exercise was good for me, as cell23 did comment that it was nice to see me on a roll again. Anyway, we will definitely be doing it again next month. If anything, it will give me Things To Work On during my PAX downtime this weekend.

Holy shit, PAX is this weekend, eeeeeeeeeee. I don't really anticipate having all that much spending cash - when do I ever? - but the excitement of the rest of the Squirekids going is infectious and I am excited about the panels I want to attend and the list of exhibitors. I will probably spend some part of this week assembling my convention survival gear (ha). But yeah, I'm getting excited and looking forward to Friday.

So along with the 75 book challenge (which I haven't started), I have indeed decided to take up 365 again. Lord help me. Also trying to get into the habit of keeping scrupulous track of my money (this should be fun... shoot me) and my calorie intake, seeing as I'm in the weird position of having to try to eat moar.

Wellp, we'll see how all that goes.

Meanwhile cell23 is exploring the strange and amusing world of D&D apps for Sikudhani. He's already found Compendium and a few other things. LOL, again, I'm glad someone's finding good uses for that thing!

Yeah I know it's ass o'clock am, what am I doing up. I woke up two hours-ish ago and its a good thing I did as my iPod was out of juice and none of my alarms were set for the day. At this rate, seeing as they're gonna go off in half an hour I might as well loop through for my work day and nap when I get home.

Yesterday (it still feels like today) was pretty awesome - productive shit was accomplished around the house in terms of cleaning, although in the process I encountered Horrendous Colonies of Green Fuzz. Note to self - I need to be more vigilant about rinsing out my plastic lunch containers when I get home. But I'm perversely proud of myself - apparently it takes three instances of stealth mold attacks now to freak me out as opposed to one, so I suppose I'm getting better with that whole green fuzzy phobia. Still. Need to stay on top of the kitchen a little more cause ewwww.

We has bookshelves in our bedroom now! Lol the cat is so confused right now. She seriously doesn't know what to make of there suddenly being these odd structures she can climb into. Considering I haven't had a chance to really unpack books to fill them with yet, she's been jumping in and out of the shelves in an investigative manner for most of the afternoon. Even caught her curled up on the top shelf of one next to my manga, which was all kinds of both cute and WTF.

Midway through my morning I got pinged by htl_1126, who was all like O HAI I'M IN TOWN AND IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY I'M TREATING BOTH OF US TO HANGAR WINGS AND BEER. Talk about offers I cannot refuse! So out we went and indeed Wings were had. Oh God. Hangar wings. There is something about having them in the actual restaurant fresh out the kitchen that notches them up from delicious chicken crack to a near religious experience. Nothing like the 2 pound $45 ribeye steak cell23 had apparently, but I'm not super picky about my indulgences. Dead thing is dead thing.

I'd been facebook chatting with CuteGirl this past week since we keep being all non-proactive about getting together. Accursed lesbian sheep syndrome. Anyway she works in Amherst so I decided to wander by and say hello at the end of her shift. Ended up staying until she closed and then afterward we went to Barts for ice cream and sweet stuff and shit shooting. I had a lovely time and came home on a cloud of squee. I don't know where that's going but I'm enjoying it. Now hopefully it won't be another three months before we connect up again, but I doubt it will since we now know each other's work/game schedules. Muuuuhahahaha

It dawned on me that I've been on a meat and sugar bender since early Friday. Sheesh, no wonder I'm getting sick. Thankfully it remains a minor cold and once I quit dusting today my nose stopped running like a faucet so hopefully it'll be a short lived one as well. Can I be amused by how every time I'd go to New York for a week earlier this year cell23 would usually come straight down with something a couple of days later and now that he's the one gone, I'm the one all sniffly and ew? Oy.

I'm a little mad I volunteered to work today seeing as I'm nowhere near done with the housecleaning I wanted to get done and don't really feel like going in, but I like getting paid, so off I'll go in an hour. I have errands to run anyway. Still, no complaints about the weekend. None at all. :)

HOOOOO SHIT PICTURE POST FUCK YES

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The sun finally peeked out for a bit today so I went out back to check how the plants took to all the rain.

( FUCK YEAH TOMATO )

Itty bitty baby tomato omg! It's so cute! Can't wait until it swells into a giant heirloom monster of beefy doom!

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It's a good day for kidlet pictures too.

( West Side Tatros )

Jesus Horatio Cracker-Lovin' Christ, these kids are getting so big! Still want to get one of Lovebug and cell23 together today seeing as they're both wearing Superman shirts and the cute is KILLING me.

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And of course Lily says "I'm the star of this post. Yes I am. WORSHIP MY CATNESS." Never mind that cell23 and I nearly made a hat out of her ass this morning for biting and clawing our toes until we got up to feed her.

( Well, it IS Caturday after all. )

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And my obligatory pride cum skyscraper porn from last night made into an icon. Now that I'm past the wellspring of emotion, the picture just makes me smile. A lot.

I need cheering up. Make me laugh people.

Kids are both asleep, and cell23 is across the yard socializing with people over 6 while I hold down the fort. The kiddos were both pretty exhausted after a very busy day visiting their grandparents and attending Athol's River Rat Race festivities (I'd comment on the wacky weirdness of small town annual traditions, but New York has its own annual wackiness like the Village Halloween parade and the No Pants Ride so I will wisely shut up) plus both of them are still getting over yet another "developing immune system ahoy!" bug, so they are so profoundly out cold it's not even funny. Kidzilla didn't even make it to dinner, much less Saturday movie, she came in from the car when we came home and has basically been asleep since. Which means she'll either be bouncing off the walls at 2am or hopefully she'll be able to sleep off the remains of the ick and the mysterious leg cramps she's been having since last night. Six year olds are too young for blood clots right? :/

Late this afternoon as I was recovering from a severe spoon crash from the events of the afternoon, I determined that three year old boys are much like cats: most of the time they're self-centered jerks that want you to do what they want you to do and act weird after they poop. And sometimes, when you feel kinda super crappy, they'll come up, curl up next to you and do something quiet and soothing, like purr/play iPod games with the volume down while you read, and occasionally make sure you're okay by either asking if you feel better or by curiously sniffing your nose and then headbutting you. (Not that I would put the latter expression of concern past Lovebug.) But yeah, it was a lovely calming way to spend the hour between coming home and dinnertime, and I rather deeply appreciated it, especially as there were a few minutes when cell23 and later the cat briefly joined the snugglefest.

Off to check on snoring chilluns, then continue my spoon regen with pjs, a book, and a warm cozy bed.

Haven't done one of these in a while. But I didn't really like my other Lana icon much. I'm a lot happier with this one.

Happy April Fools. Or, if you're like most of the grouches on my f-list, including me, Let Me Know When It's Over April Fools!



I'm rather glad that the April Fools snow we got was nowhere like as bad as the April Fools snowstorm of 1998 (I think) where after a mild, snowless winter OMGSURPRISE 3 feet and Smith wasn't gracious enough to close campus, even through none of the professors bothered to show up. Fun shit.

Youtube's viral 1911 vids are pretty cute, as is Google's Helvetica gag, Wikipedia's front page, and the Dragon Cave turning all its dragons to carrots. WoW's Crabby the Dungeon Helper got an actual audible snort out of me (but I'm one of those people that were amused rather than annoyed by the Office Assistant). Less impressed with Gmail motion. bellarisa's troll on facebook was actually really funny once I stopped having a heart attack. Otherwise, April 1 this year is kinda bleh, which is fine; anytime anything of note happens on this date it tends to not go well for me, so I'm genuinely okay with bleh.

In other news surviving the first day without coffee with lots of water, a cup of tea and extra strength tylenol. Getting work done and planning projects for the weekend, and since the weather's finally eased up, trying to psyche myself into getting laundry done, though that will very likely fail. Whatevs, not like I have to have anything nice clean before Sunday morning.

I'ma go find and hug a kitty now. She will hate it. I don't care.

~~

So this has more or less been my morning thus far:



Ah cat ownership. It seems I wake up most mornings with thoughts of murder and taxidermy in my head as I stumble downstairs to feed Her Dicktastic Majesty after she spends at least an hour of running around our room making a hot and cold running ASS of herself. Loudly. Cats do not get the concept of "I don't care if it's feed you time, let me sleep."

Today's plans - stay off the social internets (with the exception of google talk), craft the mother of all to-do lists, drink mad amounts of coffee while I still can, and make shit that needs to happen happen. You?

Had an interesting twist on the old dream where you show up to a final exam to a class you never went to, in that I was preparing for a trip overseas that was happening in a few days and only just realized I never got my passport. The part where it got weird is as I tearing about The House frantic about this my mother (who often shows up in these dreams alive and well) calmly told me to stop freaking out and go look in the freezer with the rest of the Important Papers. Right, okay. Not sure what all my subconscious was trying to impart to me there, but felt it was just off the wall weird enough to note for posterity.

I've never had a passport, incidentally. I should fix this. I'd like to GTFO of the US for a while someday. Still unsure as to where I'd go, but it'd be nice to go somewhere.


I have solved the mystery of why I fell out of the habit of getting up at the ass crack of dawn, seeing as I have started doing it again. Hungry cats. Lily has figured out that the quickest way to wake up her humans is to kick my glasses off my nightstand, the sound of them falling to the floor instantly rouses me. Dick. Also the soporific effects of warm glomphy bedtime companion do nothing for my early rising abilities, especially as he routinely fails to get out of bed until fifteen minutes before he has to be at work. But yeah, apparently kitty needing foodins is a far more effective alarm clock than anything else I've tried. We'll go with that.

I started watching Community with the boy last night finally. Two eps in and it is cute, snarky fun, not to mention another opportunity to ogle Joel McHale. I can't get over how old Chevy Chase is. My mental picture of him is from Christmas Vacation, what the hell happened? Oh, yeah, 20 years, right. I'm still a little O_o about that, honestly, that it's been almost two decades since a whole lot of random pop culture and music I remember loving/watching/listening to. And then I remember I was a kid 20 years ago. And then the whole "20 years ago" thing hits me and my brain just kinda melts a little around the edges. I'm not sure how/when I got old enough to say "20 years ago" and have that refer to an actual period of sentience in my life. What. Just bring me the Geritol and Dentugrip now.


Today is Stan's birthday. Also today is when Dad gets out of rehab and goes home with Ruth thereby to terrorize her for a couple months while we all finish tending to The House. Looks like phone calls will make up a significant portion of my day.

I've been all thinky this week. Some good. A lot bad, honestly. Mostly neutral. And deeply thankful for the handful of things in my life that are going very very right and keep me going through the rest of it. One of which is STILL ignoring his alarm clock and snoring behind me, lol. I should go kiss him before he lumbers out of bed.