amand_r

1. Guess what you can't wipe up with a Clorox wet nap? Baking Soda. Nope, if spills on the floor and you go to wipe it up, but you just end up pushing it around on the lino. Then when you give up and try to scoop as much of it as you can see, you realize you have just thinned it to an invisible coating of baking soda. And then for days when you step in that area in your socks, you get a squidgy feeling as you slide around in it. Then you realize that you put this in your body: A POWDER THAT CANNOT BE DISSOLVED AND PICKED UP BY THE LIQUID IN A CHLOROX WIPE. (Spider has since informed me that I can clean it with vinegar. Thanks, babe.)

2. Squeezing lemons when your hands are chapped to the point of cracking is not the smartest idea in the universe, lightbulb. However, if you put your fingers in baggies and put a rubber band at the base of each finger, you get to race the clock to see if the pain from cracked skin or the pain from listing feeling in the fingers will make you stop first.

The answer is NEITHER BECAUSE I AM THAT BADASS.

3. Me: Viv, are you done pooping?
Her: No. I got to chillax.
Me: What?
Her: Just chillax, mama.

4. I drove behind a Bronco II that had this on a paper taped to the back windshield: I WILLNOT SPEED JUST TO MAKE YOU HAPPY. I SLOW DOWN FOR TAILGATERS.

5. I have many thoughts on Rhianna's S&M. Some of them are not good. Most of them are nonchalant, which as we all know, is the opposite of chalant. Not to be confused with chalet, or Swiss Chalet, which makes me think of Swiss steak, which makes me want steak. Or those onions that come on top of steak sometimes. When you make a bowl of sautéed onions and mushrooms to put on steak and meats, that's called the kitty. I eat the kitty on fried sweetbreads. Now I want to watch Josie and the Pussycats. Dujour means swiss steak!

6. ( I DID A THING. )

I sent this recipe to paragraphs, but then I realised that it's the best cure for the winter blues.

2 c. milk
3 eggs
3/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. cooked rice
1/4 c raisins (OPTIONAL!)
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Scald milk. Combine eggs, sugar and salt in a 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish. Stir in milk. Add rice, raisins, vanilla. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 325 until set (about 50-60 minutes).

If you have a big enough casserole dish, it's nice to double.

For those of you who don't know, kidlet has been struggling with some illness or another since the beginning of September, and Friday we had our third doctor's appointment when they finally decided to do a chest x-ray. In the meantime she was started on some prednizone for her crackling chest, and we are continuing to try to use the inhaler.

Saturday morning the doctor called to say that the chest x-ray revealed pneumonia, so she has also been started on a z-pak. So.

I haven't really been on my best game, and I'm sorry. Nano has fallen by the way side. I was up every two hours last night to check on her respiration, and TBH, it wasn't because I set an alarm, but that I just keep waking every 2 hours, have been for the last few weeks.

I'm slightly worried because my insurance, it sucks, so we had to go to an urgent care and they just sent me a bill for 155 bucks, etc, and since her doctor visits aren't preventative care, I have to pay like 100 bucks per visit, not to mention whatever they're going to charge me for the breathing treatments. The bill for her inhaler and last antibiotic (which apparently didn't work) in October was about 80 bucks.

That said, I have the money. I just don't like to dip into it.

I was driving home from the doctor's, worrying because they said that if this doesn't clear up, or if it comes back next year we'll have to have the asthma talk, and I was thinking about what THAT would cost, etc etc, and I realised that this? This is nothing. I have the money to pay. It won't be nice, but I can pay it and it won't be on credit. This is not the end of the world. She has pneumonia, not leukemia or something else. We have a roof over our heads. My job is raising my daughter, and I get paid for it. I have been writing, and my first story is coming out next Monday (non-profit, no biggie, but nice). These bad things will pass, and they're not really a big deal. It's not cholera. It's not a hurricane.

I love my girl. And I am thankful every day that we have each other, and everything will be all right.

I'll be back on track later. ( For now, experiments in linzer fail and fragolo update. )

This past weekend I took my kid to DC to see her family and also the pandas, who are like family. Like the shark the panda had millions of razor sharp teeth, which they use like a hacksaw to cut through bone, candy and fences. The Chinese believe that if you find a discarded panda tooth, you have the power to summons Godzilla!

Ahem.

So yeah, here was our trip, pictoral style:

( VIVI AND MANDER GO TO DC (NOT DRAGON*CON) )

STAY TUNED FOR THE HALLOWEEN COOKIE DISASTER.

1. Shower.
2. Smell towel: clean, downy fresh scent.
3. Smell hands: clean, bodywash scent.
4. Smell hands through towel: YESTERDAY'S ONION CHOPPING EXTRAVAGANZA.

EXPLAIN. EXPLAIN.

*Degree should be a BA or higher or equivalent. Assoc. Degree OK.

I HAD SEX WITH GARETH DAVID LLOYD ON A SINK AT DRAGON*CON AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY MANICURE:



( Yes, this sums up my whole D*C experience nicely. )

That was my big fat D*C exp. Seriously, few panels, lots of booze, tonnes of food, great people, EXCELLENT CONVERSATIONS, and a renewed sense of writing. I WILL WRITE THAT FPREG. IT WILL BE AWESOME.

OH AND I THINK I MIGHT HAVE A SEASON TO AIR THIS FALL.

( Oh, and Jack and Ianto's post-it D*C adventure )

BUT FOR NOW, my dad is out of surgery, and I'm waiting to hear how he is, and I have plans to make biscotti with cabernet cocoa powder, and possibly some cupcakes.

I dreamt about biscotti last night.

I made a list of shit to do divided by pages: on page per category, house, work, online, general, errands, etc. IT'S NINE PAGES LONG.

See ya'll on the flip side.

EDIT: I bought their Netherworld Blend and the Reanimator Blend. The latter is great. Haven't tasted the firmer. Go there and browse the teas and coffees.

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON IN THE HAUS OF CHING?



( THIS, BITCHES. )

My uh, my doctor might have upped my prozac. I'm just sayin'.

1. God, season 4 of Angel is such a beautiful moral quagmire. On the other hand, the credits to the latest ep came on and the kidlet—

Kid: AR AR ARR!
Me: O_o? Pirates?
Kid: points to Mutant Enemy logo.
Me: Grrr arg.

2. Last night I ate about a pound of Good n Plentys, aka licorice pastilles, and now I can with a fair amount of surety say that I understand why Fred and George call them Puking Pastilles.

3. I wish we could turn more classic comic panels in to mock Jack Chick tracts.

4. ( There was cooking last Friday! )

5. The Tudors, The Tudors, The Tudors. Okay I never though I would say this, but I felt bad about Thomas Cromwell. I also felt bad for Anne Boleyn, too, so I guess that doesn't say much for me. I can tell that I'll be torrenting season 4 as it airs. DAMN YOU!

6. Dexter, book 3. ( What a fucking disappointment. )

7. The Sopranos--it's not like I haven't seen it before. But damn, I love that ending. And I'm not allowed to talk about it, because I don't want to spoil it for Little Brother.

8. Speaking of—Little Brother and I are collabing, and it's going to be AWESOME, and read by one person. LOLOR5.

1. Some dipshit took my username and like fifteen permutations thereof, so I am available at amanderama on that ask me anything site. I don't know about you, but I always hesitate to do these or anon memes because I'm always afraid that I'm going to get a bunch of anon questions like, "Why are you such a drama queen?" and "Are you this big an asshat in real life?" But I shall have faith in humanity. Like Bon Jovi I am…living on a prayer, slippery when wet, wanted: dead or alive and shit.

I want to lay you down in a bed of roses. For tonight, I sleep on a bed of nails.

2. I have something I need to get off my chest. It's been bothering me for a long time, and I just repress it, squash it down and hide it so that I don't have to deal with it. But it's been eating the inside of me for ages, and I just can't go on any longer--

Why the hell do they put those wire handles on Chinese take away boxes? I get that it's handy, but it prevents me from microwaving the box. It used to be that in the past I was so set on microwaving it that I would wiggle the ends and pull the wire out, but then the carton, which is like form Hellraiser-inspired puzzle box construction, literally needs the wire to hold it together. Look man, I don't want to get another dish dirty, plus, I love eating out of those containers. It's awesome and I'm like Cher in Suspect, walking around my house and eating out of the peanut butter jar (thanks for that idea, Cher). PLUS. It's bed for the environment or something. You can't recycle those wires and they're not biodegradable and I waste water and soap and shit dirtying a second dish.

Seriously, someone has to solve this problem. Solve it before I go insane.

3. Every week I make something to practice a skill that I haven't learnt yet, or make something I've never had before. So help me pick next week's adventur (thanks, Sam!).

[Poll #1538408]

1. Got a postcard from bluejeans07 in Korea! It was awesome! LOL.

2. Kidlet has a runny nose. Poor kidlet. On the other hand, I am sneezing, so that cannot be a good sign.

3. My kitchen is clean! Tonight—the bathroom! Also cleared the dining room table and scrubbed the walls with the magic eraser. I fucking love the magic eraser.

4. The RPS battle starts tomorrow. Brush up your anon skillz.

5. ( Random photopicspam. )

6. Made Asiago potatoes last night that I think put me into a coma. But I compensated by drinking some wine and playing Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. I also made the best chicken livers with bacon and corn puree, but I know how most of you feel about organ meats. They were tasty.