7 Quick Takes

1. My brother came up for my birthday this weekend. Never mind that my birthday happened the Tuesday prior – in my family, birthdays get celebrated on the most convenient 3-day weekend where we can get all the reasonably local members of the family together.

This is only important because he gave me the best game, Innovation, for my birthday entirely by accident. I played it over our gaming weekend in July, and knew my dad would enjoy it. So I plopped it on my Amazon wish list via the Amazon app, fully intending to move it to my private “Gift Ideas” list when I had computer access… and then promptly forgot all about it. Until I unwrapped the box on Friday.

I was right, my dad did love the game. We spent all weekend playing it. But now he's ordered his own copy, so it's back to square one for his Christmas gift.

I'll have to review the game soon – I resisted the urge to do so in July because Dad occasionally reads me, and I knew he'd buy it the minute he heard about it. But that's moot now, so I'll whip a review out for it.

Preview: it's all the awesome of Civilization wrapped up in a card game.

2. Oh, I'm now an Amazon Affiliate! So if you buy anything via my Amazon links, I earn a small commission. The vagaries of the internet make it impossible to thank anyone that does personally, but believe me, I do. From the heart.

3. Oh, there was more shoe drama! Dad gave me this wonderful pair of mary janes, perhaps in repentence of the “big ugly feet” incident. I had tried these shoes on at the department store in size 9.5, and they didn't fit. So I put a size 10 on my Amazon wish list… and they were too big! Fortunately, Amazon has an excellent shoe return policy. I needed a 9.5 C/D. I swear, I'm going to go to a shoe store with a camera, a diary, and a tape measure. Then I will try on every shoe in the store that I can fit my feet into, and take copious notes, measurements, and photographs on how the shoe fits. So maybe, just maybe, I can figure out what size shoe to order for each style and silhoutte. Since they're all inexplicably different.

I swear, I don't understand how a woman could be a subjectivist.

4. I tried reading lessons again this last week with GeekBaby. He's just not ready to do it yet. He can do it, mind. He just won't. I keep telling myself that he will burst into it in his own time. Just like walking. And talking. And swimming. And using the potty. I keep telling myself that attempts to force the issue do none of us any good.

This doesn't work. It just makes me fret about sending him to school next year.

4b. On the other hand, I impulse-bought up a copy of The BFG to read to GeekBaby. I read him the first five chapters last night and he loved it, and sat entranced on my lap listening and asking questions. I hadn't intended to read quite so much until I got the book started and realized I couldn't stop! It's too scary for littles to stop until the Giant is revealed as the Big Friendly Giant. I couldn't send him to bed with the image of Sophie being plucked out of her bed in the witching hour by a giant that might be taking her home to eat her for breakfast!

5. I'm making this chocolate espresso bean ice cream today. It's too luxurious for a Friday, but it won't be chilled up and ready until at least Saturday. So that's okay.

I'm not normally a chocolate ice cream fan (nor do I like making custard ice creams, they're too fiddly) but Himself requested chocolate next, and so that's what I'm making. The espresso part is my consolation.

6. A home ice cream maker is one of the best things ever, even if you don't use it to make perfect margaritas. For example: 2 cups of whole milk, 2 cups of heavy cream, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 Tbsp vanilla, vanilla bean paste or half a whole vanilla bean, scraped. Combine all ingredients, and whisk occasionally until the sugar is all dissolved. Churn 25-30 minutes. Put in freezer overnight. You now have about a quart and a half of homemade vanilla (bean) ice cream. For essentially the cost of the pint of heavy cream. And it's easy.

7. If you're margarita inclined, mix together 3 cups water, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup lime juice, 1 cup silver tequila, and 1/2 cup triple sec. Chill this mixture in the fridge overnight (or several hours until it starts to freeze in the freezer, if you're in a hurry). Then churn it in your ice cream maker for 25-30 minutes. Presto, you have about 8 (potent!) restaurant style margaritas. And you can store them in the freezer.

For more, hopefully less frivolous, Quick Takes, visit Jen @ Conversion Diary!

 

7 Quick Takes – Unthemed Edition

1. Since our esteemed hostess has commented on how some of us can’t write quick takes without a unifying theme, I’m going to take that as permission to post without a unifying theme, even if it upsets my OCD. *gasp*

2. My sister had her baby! He looks just like her and is long, 23 inches! That’s even longer than GeekBaby was. Not as heavy though. GeekBaby was a solid chunk of infant up until he gained mobility, then he slimmed down considerably. He’s still rather stocky, but it’s all muscle. Terrifying muscle. Everyone is doing well, and I’m very relieved she got through safely. None of the women in our family seem to have babies easily.

3. We went to Miss Mess’s birthday party last Sunday, and there I discovered that my son is every bit as shy and introverted as I am. We walked into the party, and he freaked and tried to burrow into my neck. He wouldn’t come out for cake, to see the birthday girl, to say hi to Mo-Geek, nothing. Finally he went over to Mo-Geek’s house for a little peace and quiet with Himself and Mo-Geek’s husband (for whom I lack a clever nickname) and after a quarter of an hour peeking at the cranky kitty (and being permitted to exist by said kitty!) he was ready to come back to the party with relatively normal behavior of cuddling up with mommy or daddy and just people watching.

4. I tried to take him in the pool, and am sad to say it’s just not possible for me to take him swimming anymore. He’s too frightened of the water, and he’s too heavy to cling to my back like he used to. He’s over 40 pounds now and he can’t stop grabbing me around my neck which kept sending me under unexpectedly. This makes me sad, I love swimming. I wish I could have gotten him used to the water more as a baby, but we don’t have access to a pool. All the local pools are sudivision only, and our subdivision doesn’t have one. *sigh*

5. He’s started going ‘nyah’ at me whenever he doesn’t like something I say (a behavior he’s imitating perfectly from Satsuke and Kanta in My Neighbor Totoro). This resulted in an almost complete television ban for the week. And I just can’t believe the behavior difference! He’s a completely different child, well behaved, less cranky and demanding… It’s wonderful. The TV ban is now permenant, with one thirty minute episode of something permitted in the evening if he was good during the day… and this includes letting me wash his hair without screaming and sobbing and flailing.

6. It’s that time of year again, the time of year I get obsessed with Japanese food. It starts with an interest in sushi and onigiri and procedes to fish flakes and miso pastes and varieties of seaweed, ad infinitum. Poor Himself. This year I’ve actually bought ingredients. It’s sushi or bust. I can’t make it through the year without it.

7. Did you know you can make perfect frozen margaritas in a home ice cream maker? I used 1 cup of lime juice, 1/2 cup of simple syrup, 1 cup of tequila, 1/2 cup triple sec, and about 2 cups of water. Mix this all together, chill it at least 8 hours, and then churn for 30 minutes. They are pretty good, although my neighbor thinks they’re strong. Also, leftovers store well in the freezer, although they take a small amount of defrosting before they’re drinkable again.

The reason I know what my neighbor thinks about my margaritas is that between the time of purchasing the booze and the successful run of margarita through the ice cream maker (there was an unsuccessful run that delayed matters), I found out I was pregnant. So I can’t have any but the teeniest of tastes to ascertain that the recipe works. Which is why I showed up on certain neighbor’s doorsteps with big plastic bowls of frozen margarita, begging them to take it off my hands. They must have though I was crazy.

It also feels weird to say anything about this so early on my blog, but hey, secrecy hasn’t exactly been working out for me. So if you who are reading this could pray for me and the new baby, I would really appreciate it. I’m due at the end of January.