Philosophical Nonsense

Saturday was a little rough for me emotionally.  I had to get a refund on Boe's layaway gifts because we just can't afford them.  Unfortunately, one is only able to get a refund on one's layaway at the store at which one put the item aside for layaway.  So I had to get a refund at "my" store where they know me.  It was embarrassing on quite a few levels.  And then to boot, because I wasn't able to put much money on the layaway in the first place and because there is a $10 fee to cancel the layaway, I only got $10.25 back.   I came home feeling an awful lot like George Bailey about midway through It's a Wonderful Life.  That kicked-dog feeling. 

Sunday was a little better.  On a suggestion from a gardener on my f-list, I read up on lasagna gardening.  Well, yesterday I dragged Boe out of the house and back to my store, where we got a car-trunk-full of cardboard boxes and expired newspapers.  Today I am making a run to Starbucks and asking for their spent coffee grounds to spread on my garden-to-be.  We have fall's leaves on top of the cardboard  on a 15' x 20' area up against our backyard's levee wall; this will eventually be our garden.  Last year the weeds and random-seeded plants grew out of control, and our dickbag neighbors called neighborhood code enforcement as their first line of action instead of coming over and talking to us.  We got it mowed down, well, kind of, but we'd rather not deal with those neighbors again.  So the garden will help with that.  Sure, it might not be the prettiest thing ever, but it's something the city can't ding us for, it will be a food source for us, and frankly, I plan to can our extras in my spare time this summer in order to give some away as Christmas gifts.  I have sweet corn, popcorn, tomatoes, hot peppers, watermelon, and cucumbers planned; if I have room I'd like to add some sunflowers and some lavender (sunflowers for the birdies, lavender for me).  I might need to make an additional plot for those.  I can get compost for free through Allen County Solid Waste Management (fees only apply to folks dropping off compostable materials).

My aunt has repeatedly told me that I can have as many lilac starts as I want, and Bitz has offered me her volunteer roses of sharon.  I figure if we plant alternating lilacs and roses of sharon in the direction of the dickbag neighbors, it will grow to become a living hedge.  Between the free composting materials, free plant starts, seeds I already have on hand, and stuff acquired through Freecycle and Craigslist, this year's landscaping should run me less than $20 total.

Dang.  If this turns out to be a success, once we're financially stable we might need to purchase a pickup truck, lol.

I managed to burn the first batch of almonds.  Dammit.  They are stuck to the pan with concrete-like overcarmelized glaze.  This is gonna be a hoot to try to clean this pan. :-/

However, the second batch turned out okay.  Not as good as the pecans, but okay.  So it's salvageable.

I'm doing a test run for the Christmas pecans I'm making for this weekend.  Recipe is here; I added a splash of vanilla extract, a 1/2 tsp of cardamom, a tiny pinch of galingale, a mere dusting of nutmeg (my mom's not real fond of nutmeg or cloves; naturally, I like both), and subbed brown sugar for white.

The house smells AMAZING. 

ETA:  The cardamom overtook the cinnamon just a hair, and they weren't quite as sweet as I'd like.  Hm, I think I'm going to add a 1/4 cup of white sugar to bring the total sugar to 3/4 cup, knock the cardamom down to 1/4 tsp, and try it a bit differently tomorrow.  They are tasty though; Boe will like them because they aren't quite so sweet as the ones I remember from various festivals in the region.  Hm, I wonder if adding a little bit of honey might do the trick instead of the 1/4 cup white sugar...thoughts?

Been knitting like a fiend, and I have 16 washcloths done up.  Time to move on to the hot pads -- first I ahve to nit them, then I get to felt them!  Woohoo!

I was feeling kinda down about being totally broke, so I went online a couple of nights ago and ordered us new phones from Verizon...my choice was the LG Cosmo Touch, which were offered on Verizon's website for free.  Yay!  It's a really nice phone with everything that I wanted on it, but since it's not a smartphone, it doesn't require the 30-bucks-a-month data package.  I'm pretty pleased with it.  Boe was totally surprised, too!

As soon as I finish Bluetoothing my pictures from my old phone (LG ENV2, if anyone cares) to the new one, I'm going to bed.  Tomorrow, er, today is the first day of six in a row to work.

In other news, I've signed up at a couple of paid/reward points sites.  One is Inbox Dollars, and one is Swagbucks.  Swagbucks is the reward point one, and I'd like to earn enough points to get gift cards for family for Christmas.  Then I don't have to stress so hard at the end of the year to stretch our meager budget for presents.  Shoot, if I earn enough points (I'm already at 447 for 1 week of messing around), I might just "buy" myself an Amazon.com gift card and purchase gifts that way.

 Boe and I are having a lovely, if quiet, Christmas at my mother's house in Columbus, OH.  Gifts were small but heartfelt, Maggie is with us, and Mom has wifi.  Life is good.

I hope everyone on my f-list is enjoying a wonderful holiday season.

Our New Year's Eve plans are as follows:  We're going to J.K. O'Donnell's with whichever friends are able and willing to go (looking at you, cubsfan57 ) to enjoy ourselves.  And on New Year's Day, well, I'm scheduled to work 10 AM to 7, so chances are pretty good I'll be drinking lots of Gatorade at work that day...

Love you all.

Algebra test is done, I think I passed, but not with very high marks. I think I figured out why I dislike algebra so very very much.

I'm a language person, as anyone who knows me for longer than 30 seconds could tell you. I know mathematics is just another foreign language, but it's one that doesn't seem to have any cognates in English -- different "alphabet", different rules for language and grammar, different internal logic and structure. There's nothing familiar that I can point to like I can with, say, a French/English cognate, and say, "There! I *know* this, because it's the same/similar to something that I already know" and use that cognate to kind of guide me along the edges of unknown information. The language of mathematics is one that I don't know, can't translate, and not knowing something and *realizing* that I don't know it makes me feel exceedingly stupid. I despise feeling stupid. As I was told once by someone I looked up to, "If you're not pretty, you'll have to get by on smarts." That's been pretty well internalized for quite some time now, as I don't feel pretty and never have (don't worry about complimenting, I wasn't fishing). So feeling stupid completely invalidates me, Krista, the one who has built most of her self-esteem on brains and the ability to use the aforementioned brains constructively.

So that's why I hate algebra.

In other news, I have begun the necessary prep work for creating Christmas presents. I got some super-seekrit measurements for some super-seekrit projects, purchased some necessary items for more presents, and have otherwise been a busy little reenactor-type.

And I'm hungry, so I am thinking that it might be a good idea to actually *eat* something instead of just getting a cup of coffee to supplement other other cup of coffee (aka breakfast) I had earlier.

We spent the day yesterday with my family. It was actually fairly low-key for my stepmom (who normally worships at the Shrine of Saint Martha Stewart) and therefore it was pretty low-key for everyone.

Today we're going to go see The Tale of Despereaux with Elena. Miss Len was very excited to spend time with her Aunt Krista and Uncle Boe. She really wants to meet Frank, Odin, and Fagan and see my house.

Brett and Faye are planning a January 1, 2010 wedding, so things are getting exciting on that front as well. They're so cute together it almost hurts.

The boys enjoyed their Christmas shrimp, and Maggie had some roast beef -- both gifts from the family. :-)

I got up at 3 this morning and wrapped Boe's gifts. They look lovely under our tree.

Maggie went to the groomer's yesterday and smells like sugar cookies instead of wet dog. It's a nice change of pace. She's asleep right next to me now.

Boe very kindly cleaned the kitchen and living room yesterday while I slept. It looks awfully nice. He's also been doing laundry.

So that's the latest and greatest from our place this Christmas Eve.

We just put the tree up -- we're using non-glass ornaments this year because we don't know how Maggie will react to a tree in the house.

Later today Boe and I are going to my Mom's family's Christmas party. It should go well. I still need to pick up gifts for the Christmas exchange at Mom's next week.

Tomorrow is the Adrian Christmas event. Boe and I will be working on presents later today before seeing Mom.