tuesday

today i took matthew alley shopping with me.

i found some fabric. a man started following us and asked if we wanted to take whatever we wanted from his storage closet, he said he was going to be throwing it all away anyways. we went with him. it was in angies old building. we saw his apartment first! there was a giant stuffed toy tiger sprawled in front of his big tv. it was a really interesting apartment. the basement was neat. the fire door was so cool, with a weight still on it. ive never seen one like that. the walls in the storage hallway were beautiful beadboard. the doors were pretty old wood too. all stained dark and not scuffed up. matthew got some work gloves. we each got a christmas paddle ball. i got some "super spheres" christmas light balls. they have the little light burst star cover things, my favorite kind of christmas lights. i just need to dismantle the spheres. i also got a peugeot pepper grinder and some gold picture frames.



here are some of the lights that i freed them from their wiffle ball. it is turning out to be a much tougher task than i had hoped. hopefully they will be in string form by fall.



i have been wanting a pepper grinder, perfect timing. it is cute too. like a chess piece.



we walked by where the other day yasmine almost stepped on the bird... another bird fell and someone didnt have a friend to tell them to watch out.



flat like a pancake. damn. birdcake. or would it be sidewalk cake because its made on a sidewalk? pancake made in a pan, not a flourmilkeggscake.

chicken, continued

here are the ingredients...



whole chicken
fresh garlic
celery
new potatoes
poultry mix of fresh herbs
magic seasoning
pearl onions
white wine



i watched a tutorial online of how to truss a chicken and i did a much better job this time than i did the last time. look, the bow is tied around the neck. fancy. the chicken is stuffed with pearl onions and garlic.



i cooked it at about 375 until i got a reading of 180 in the thickest part of the thigh. i am still skeptical of my ability to cook meat so i cut it open too, to check the color and make sure the juice was clear.



i meant to put carrots in there too. as you can see, they are still in my carrot dish under my eggies.

so i can cook a chicken by myself now too.
these things i am cooking are good, but they dont taste like something i cook. they taste like something i eat at someone elses house. someones aunts house. now i need to figure out how to cook them so that they taste like i want them to be. they just taste kind of boring. good, but boring.

monday evening!

i got off work early. i got some pearl onions in the cull bin, and that meant that i had to come up with a new unsupervised meat cooking project that i could use them in. i decided on a whole chicken, its the cheapest and i can have chicken all week, and share!
on my way home i found a mirror, an old and pretty one. well, i broke the bottom off in my buildings doorway, so back to the alley it went, a man hanging out was real excited for it to be his mirror, he has a glass cutter and can cut off my broken part. i wonder how many years bad luck i will get if i find the mirror i broke a new life.
i went to ace and bought a window fan, mine disappeared at the old house before moving. now i can bake and hopefully keep the apartment cooler than it would have been otherwise. my ceiling fan is better now too, smartypants matthew switched a secret switch on it that changes the blade direction and makes things cooler. i had no idea that switches like that even existed!
a word of wisdom: dont buy the pieceofshit schwinn patch kits from target. they blow. really. literally.

time to prep the chicken...

friendster

i forgot about friendster, then i remembered and looked to see if my profile was still there. it was. the pictures were all at least 3 years old. i didnt have these pictures anymore so it was kind of exciting.



look at how long my hair was! i want that hair again! beautiful ponytails all the time.



one day cait and i got 40s and biked to the creek. we sat in a secret woods fort that belonged to some boys and they rode cute old bikes, their grandmas cruisers.



then i decided i hated my hair and wanted short hair. this is part of the hair pile.



kirk drew us. it was a fun night.



from my last weeks free clip art sampler.



i dont know if you like clip art, but i love it (you knew that). you can sign up for free at the dover website and get free samplers each week. none of it is copywritten and there are some really neat pictures.

watching oprah wednesday night, late

here are the 2 plants together in one pot. i hope it works.


this is my bruise-y gross arm.


my favorite candies from macys in the basement.