A newer, even-numbered year....

blue Sunday

The weather is up then down. Wet, then sunny. It's cold. Sundays are always sort of 50/50; a day off, but slipping away like quicksilver trickling too quickly into another Monday.

It's a blue Sunday.

I'll miss him. I'll miss his breathtaking voice.

M took off this morning to head back for her second semester. She was home for a month, which was terrific. It was almost more difficult today because she left home; last time we dropped her off.

I'm already missing her.


Let's see if we can make this Monday get here a bit more quickly.

M & M

Hola, Casimiro!

We've added another orange item to the compendium.

He's about 5, has some flame-point Siamese in him, and his name is Casimiro.
We didn't know it at the outset, but it's a colloquialism for cross-eyed, which he is, a bit.
He's also had a failed eyelid surgery, so his left lower lid rolls in a bit, and we'll have to get that fixed.
Perfect pet for an ophthalmic tech, but he isn't really mine.....

 

She chose him, and he chose her.

 As you can see, Spot is absolutely thrilled with this new addition. He's had cats before, and has been terrifically blase' about having a feline in the house. Good dog.

 In case you're wondering, he's missing a bit of ear because he was feral (yeah, right, he's a marshmallow) and was rounded up and neutered before someone got him into the system. We think it adds a certain je ne sais quois, gives him a bit of mystery.

He's really not orange, he's a peach.

Merry Christmas, all.

vegebles

Our girlie is a vegetarian. Not a militant one, and she has made exceptions over the years (beef jerky....). She's 17 (OMG) and prepping for her college career. She has a subscription to Vegetarian Times and we look over the recipes and sometimes make them.

Last night, she had a friend over. I made a riff on the Roasted Cauliflower Chilequiles -- made as a large casserole with pepper jack cheese. Her friend stayed to dinner--I have not fed teenage boys often, but they inhaled it. I liked it, too!

Mister Smartypants is not able to deal with cow cheese. I had pulled a recipe for Beef/Bean tacos from the recent Costco mag, and adapted it thusly for the three of us tonight: (no photos, sorry, we inhaled them)

1 shallot
2 tbsp olive oil
2 smallish yellow tomatoes (a bit larger than golf balls)
1 can Trader Joe's Fat-Free refried beans
1 can Trader Joe's black beans
1 roasted Hatch chile (peeled, seeded, chopped--a small can would work if you don't have any frozen from the summer bounty at Whole Foods)
1 pkg 12 Trader Joe's taco shells
Pepper jack/cheddar (shredded)
Goat cheese crumbles

Garnishes; salsas, lettuce, radishes, guacamole, whatever floats your boat.

Preheat oven to 350. Warm the oil and add the shallot and tomato. Add the refried and black beans and stir to mix. Add the green chile and let warm, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes.

Place the taco shells in a 13 x 9 x 2 pan. I put them in a long line and then set 3 off to the side in order to keep the cheeses separate.
Spoon the bean mixture into the shells and top with cheese (whichever). Pop into oven for 10 minutes.

Prep desired garnish--we used leftover salad chopped fine, radishes (ditto) and guacamole (Costco's individual cups of Good Foods Tableside guac is superb). Grab from oven, and give everyone a bowl (in order to catch the good stuff that falls out). Allow folks to dress their tacos, then put on a Late Night with Craig Ferguson show that you've taped and dig in.

Voila! A quick, reasonably healthy veggie meal that we all enjoyed!

Orange ya glad to see me?

Everybody has these, don't they?

My favorite Christmas presents from my mom some years ago--I use the i-pod daily and the mug is my special "Saturday-lounge -around-drinking-lattes" container.

M's hat. Too small for me, but I love it anyway.

A well-used oven mitt made by Miss M many, many years ago.

My beloved riff on the Stormcloud shawlette.

My version of Nest.

Pants!!!

A gift from my girlie.

My phone.

My favorite spectacles....Dutz makes such desirable frames...

This is a long intro, but stay with me just a minute more. Our family car, purchased new and custom-built in 2002, has recently gone into decline. She began aging gracelessly about 6 months ago, and is picking up speed. There was the big issue with brake problems which resulted in our parking brake sticking "just a bit".  She conked out on the DH while he was waaaaay south working, and he took her to a shop, had some work done, and then had the same problems recur. Our shop checked and found that some of the fault was in the parts, some in the labor. GAH. Bizarre actions recently include all warning lights lit on our trip back from Vancouver; ABS, brakes, engine light, airbags--and all the electrics were out until we got home, shut it off, and turned it over again. Then it was fine.

Mr. Smartypants and I are not amused.

As a family of three drivers, we knew we needed a more reliable vehicle. We thought long and hard, looked at our options, and realized that we were going to have to return to the world of monthly car payments.

Since there was no avoiding the unpleasant part, we decided we'd make it as palatable as possible.

Meet our new car.

2012 Dodge Challenger, barely over 10K on the odometer.

a buncha pictures

 

A bad phone photo of a gorgeous patch of water. I want fabric made that looks like this.

Here's a scarf I made with wonderful yarn. Ravelry project page here.

 

M was supposed to take pictures of fractals. This was a backsplash at IKEA.

 

Recently the white car overheated when Mr. Smartypants was at a gig about an hour south of here. We went to get it last weekend and it wasn't ready. We consoled ourselves with another meal from here. Mmm.

Can you believe this was taken from a $5 seat? Way. 

I like the Mariner's stadium, even if they aren't my team.

 

M hates this picture. I love it. This is what's left after making some roasted tomatoes.

 

The cherry and plum trees are losing their flowers, but they sure were pretty.

 

And finally, we were absolutely crushed when we realized that we found this sign after the event had already passes us by.....

That's all!