Packratitis

I suffer from packratitis. My husband also suffers from packratitis. This is a problem.

I decided to tackle it head on and clean out one of our closets.

This, of course, was brought on by the fact that my inlaws are starting to go through their closets and I'm sure they're finding stuff and going "why the hell have I had this in here for the last 20 years?" Since I don't want to do that 15 years from now, AND because we have limited storage space anyhow, I figured I'd get a jump start on the process.

I went through 2 boxes of stuff and threw out approximately a box worth of stuff, and have another box worth to give away.

I found a book that I was holding on to because it reminds me of the last trip my family took to South Dakota (never mind the fact that I have a PICTURE OF US AT MOUNT RUSHMORE SITTING ON MY DESK). It's one of those 'pocket sized books' about art. And while we were at the Crazy Horse memorial, I decided it was more important for me to sit in our van looking at this book than it was for me to look at the still unfinished memorial. Yeah, I don't know why I was holding on to it either.

I found a coloring book. That hadn't been colored in. It was bought while I was in high school as entertainment for the 12 hour plane ride to Ireland. This is something that managed to go to Ireland, come back from Ireland, sit in my bedroom for a year, go to college with me, and move down to Austin. All without me looking at it for more than a few seconds. Yeah, that's going to Lon's house next time we go over there.

I found the book that was given to all the chaperones for our Ireland trip. It had itineraries for each day of the trip, lists of which people were on which flights, and listings of which people were the chaperones for which kids.

These are items that I've had for about 10 years that I've used (if you could even call it that) maybe one time. Shawn isn't much better. oh sure, he doesn't suffer so much from the "MEMRYS! PRESHUS MEMRYS!" so much as the "I might be able to use this broken hands free headset I found in the parking lot, if I just fix it..."

[aside] E.G. the man owns like 15 pairs of cargo shorts. 3 of them are sitting on top of his dresser because they need a button sewn on, I don't feel like doing it, he obviously isn't missing them, and yet when I put them in the "donate" pile (with button pinned on in a sandwich baggie), he's like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Those are perfectly good shorts, I just need to sew the button on them!" and so they go back to sitting on top of his dresser for the next year. [/aside]

And THIS is why we have to stay on top of packratitis. Because otherwise, we're going to be like the people you hear about in the news--the ones that died when their stacks of old newspapers and back issues of National Geographic fell on top of them and the fire department people couldn't get to them in time because they were too busy wading through all the little sugar and ketchup packets that are stored in the living room because all the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen are already full.

Dear Random Person Who I Think Can Give Advice

you know like Dear Abby, or Dear Pruddie, or even Miss Manners.

Anyhow, the Dear Pruddie article yesterday had a letter from a Mother of One (soon to be two). In her letter she said she was frustrated because her best friend wanted to name her soon-to-be-born, 50/50-chance-it's-a-girl baby the same name as Mother of One's eldest daughter. And I'm going to go out on a limb, but I gotta say that I just don't see it. Unless you named your kid Xytaghty (pronounced 'Gary'), then I don't think you can really be pissed that your friend wants to name her little baby 'Elizabeth'. Of course you do have to agree on what you'll call the two girls so you don't get them confused, but I'm sure, as adults, you can work it out without resorting to hair pulling, name calling and a bunch of "I saw it first!" type statements.

Though, I guess logically the only time one person would be pissed is if the name is generally considered 'unique'. Take my name for example, my parents went to a movie back when I was in high school and the girl taking their tickets was Catina. When my dad mentioned to her that my name was Katina (but pronounced the same, natch), she got all offended and went on and on about how her dad made up that name and no one else could have it. Come on, I know it's not common, but even I have known at least one other Katina. Yes, she was 70, and yes she was the sweeper down at the McDonald's, but still, her name was Katina and it's different, but hardly unique.

So really, if you truly want to be completely unique and guarantee that your kid will the ONLY one with that particular name, then I suggest you name him/her Xytaghty.

Movies

I figured I would log on to tell you all about the movies. The movies I have seen within the last few days and my thoughts on them.

Indy 4: I guess it was alright. Like most I expected it to sweep me off my feet. And it didn't. It just seemed so...Corny. Of course when I mentioned this to my husband, his response was "When was the last time you WATCHED Indiana Jones?" to which, honestly, it was probably about 15 years ago. So there you have it. 10-yr-old Katina would have loved Indy 4. 26-yr-old Katina? not so much. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't necessarily BAD per se, it's just more like I had my hopes up too high.

The Golden Compass: Oh sure the animation and CGI stuff is awesome, and the actors act well, and overall it was a great movie. Until the end. They ended the movie about 1 chapter from the end of the first book. So I guess the powers that be didn't want to end the movie on a downer...so instead they're going to start the next movie on a downer. whatever. it pissed me off.

Also, while I'm off bitching about things that piss me off about movies, I might as well move into things that piss me off about TV shows...

I refuse to watch "The Unit" ever again. The show pissed me off. This is very similar to the "Let's go pack the luggage!" scene in "The Shining" (the TV mini, not the movie)...So, the unit (special ops, of course) is driving through the desert being chased by the insurgents. #1: They stop in the middle of nowhere for no reason other than to talk to the people they have kidnapped and to offer them tea. When the insurgents get close, they once again take off racing through the desert. #2: When they get to the supply base, the supply base ROTC types chase off the insurgents. The special ops unit then gets out of the vehicles and walk the rest of the way to the base and LEAVE THEIR SNIPPER RIFFLES IN THE JEEP. The best part? The part where Dennis Haysbert tells the Sergeant to radio his troops to come back because they need all the people they can get to defend this supply base during the night. AND HE DOESN'T APPARENTLY THINK THAT THE AFOREMENTIONED SNIPPER RIFFLES WILL COME IN HANDY. At least, this is all that can be ascertained by the fact that he does not immediately send people out to the jeep to get the riffles, and instead waits for the insurgents to get close with the 50-cal gun before sending some of the lackeys off to the jeep, while being shot at the whole time, to get the riffles.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

So, we were watching the aforementioned movie this morning and we're at the part where Toula's dad sprays her fiance with Windex because he burned his hand on a plate. Shawn says,
"ha! just like my grandma!"
"What, your grandma sprayed people with Windex?"
"No, she thought every ailment could be solved with Listerine. Your finger hurts? Soak it in Listerine. Got a zit? Put some Listerine on it."
"Ok, so we've seen this movie like 3 times and you just now decided to share this with me?"
"well, I hadn't thought of it before..."
"Listerine's probably safer than Windex if you think about it... Windex probably has ammonia in it or something."
"And Listerine is just alcohol."
"yeah. Expensive alcohol."

It's just one of those days

you know the ones...the ones that just drag on forever. yeah. sucktacular.

And what's more depressing: I really don't have anything to talk about. Sigh...I really need a vacation.

Farm to Work, Round 3

What we made last week:
More Refrigerator pickles
grilled crookneck and zucchini (this was delicious)
fried okra
fried green onion shoestrings
gumbo (used green onion, tomato, okra)
fruit parfaits (blackberries)
steamed green beans

we still have cabbage, and some green beans. Now then, you may point out that I didn't mention green onions last week...and this would be because i thought we were given 2 bunches of leeks. But we weren't, we were given 1 bunch of leeks, and 1 bunch of green onion. I ended up with green onion.

Unfortunately, Matt didn't eat ANY of his vegetables, so I ended up with his Leeks (Ross and Colleen ended up with his squash and cucumbers). Of course, since Matt didn't eat any of his veggies from the week before; he told me I could have all 20 lbs of fresh produce for this last delivery. I, rightfully, flipped out. I didn't know what to do with 20 lbs of veggies that we likely wouldn't be able to eat. Thankfully, Sergio hadn't done an order, and he normally does, so he paid Matt to have his half of the veggies.

So now, I have:
1 Crookneck
1 zucchini
1 lb okra (I think we're going to try it grilled this time...and I'll probably fry some as well--Shawn REALLY likes fried okra)
1 pint blackberries
1 cucumber
Romaine Lettuce
2 Potatoes
2 yellow onions
1 bunch of leeks (plus matt's bunch from last week)

I think we're having the rest of the green beans tonight...and I'll throw some onion in the meal I'm making as well...Oh, and I'll probably have a salad to use up some cucumber.

Tornado, Tornahdo

After 3.5 years of living here, we finally had our first run in with really bad weather. And we still got off light.

On Wednesday night, there was a confirmed funnel cloud spotted at Lago Vista (about 10 miles west of us), and a possible funnel cloud at 183 and 620 (less than 2 miles from us). So we had fun sitting on the floor of our bathroom waiting out the storm. But we didn't have any hail, or wind...which, is a little odd if there were funnel clouds all about.

We had no damage to plants, trees, or house. The only damage is that IV must think we absolutely hate her for us to put her in the same room as Quazi for 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, some of my friends weren't so lucky--one of them had broken windows at her house (because of the golf ball sized hail), and dents in her car. One of Shawn's friends had broken home and car windows...so yes, we will count our blessings.

Now then, everyone go out and buy a NOAA all hazards radio. Especially if you live in Texas.

Poison Immunity

So...

I have a coworker (don't we all?). And she is starting to build up her poison immunity. Just like Wesley from The Princess Bride.

She does this by pulling the seeds out of the pods from the Texas Mountain Laurel tree (also called Mescal Bean), and setting them on her desk.

She then proceeds to eat food at her desk. Oh sure, she doesn't actually ADD the seeds to her meal, but still...it's gotta be rubbing off, right?

I don't know Dave...I'd start watching your food if I were you...

What is it with this man?

He keeps stepping in things. At least this time he realized it...

On Friday, Shawn got home before I did, and since it was only 6 pm, he decided to let the cats outside. As he's walking from the living room into the kitchen, he notices that one of them threw up, so he steps over it and opens the back door for the cats to go outside. He turns around and walks BACK into the living room, and STEPS IN THE CAT PUKE. The cat puke he has ALREADY stepped over once.

At least this time he noticed he stepped in it and immediately took off his shoe as opposed to continuing the walk around the house.

Farm to Work, Round 2

So, I guess I should finish explaining the different recipes we tried and how spectacularly we failed at using all the veggies.

Last time we did this (2 weeks ago), we ended up making the following things:
Spanish Rice (tomatoes and onion), with sauteed squash (Crookneck and zucchini)
Omelettes (onion)
Borscht (beets, half a cabbage, onion)
Frittata with Salad (Kale, romaine lettuce)
Stir Fry (broccoli, cauliflower, crookneck)
Breakfast Potatoes with fried egg (Potatoes, onion)
Refrigerator Pickles (cucumbers)
Oven Barbeque Chicken with Smashed Cauliflower (Cauliflower, potatoes, onion)

And we only threw away 1 crookneck, and half a cabbage.

[aside] Coworker Beachy's wife found a cake recipe that made use of shredded beet. It wasn't too bad actually...but I would say that I wouldn't tell people it had beet in it until AFTER they ate it. [/aside]

This week I went halvsies with one of my coworkers (who also found out that 20 lbs of fresh produce is a lot of produce to go through in 2 weeks). This week we got:
Cucumbers (lots of em) (split)
Zucchini (lots of em) (split)
3 crookneck squash (split, we got 1)
1 lb Okra (split)
1 lb Green Beans (mine)
1 head of Romaine Lettuce (Matt's)
1 small Cabbage (mine)
1/2 lb Blackberries (split)
2 bunches of Leeks (split)
8 potatoes (split)
2 tomatoes (split)
AND I managed to give away one of my zucchinis (so now I only have 1), and 2 of my cucumbers (so now I only have 3).

On the downside, I now need to figure out something to make that uses Leeks (Yes, I know, Leek and potato soup), cabbage, and Okra (actually, I think this is usually just eaten plain, or fried, the trick is just finding out how to do it).

Update in regards to Saving the World

After I posted the picture of our living room fan lights, the third light went out. As promised, we went to the store and got some more CFL lights for both the kitchen and the living room. Let the record show that I suggested getting two packs of the fan lights because I figured the last light would go out soon. Instead, Shawn opted to get the one pack and said we'd "make another trip to the store for the second pack when last light burns out."

So we come home, and install all the lights. Shawn turns on the lights in the living room. :::FLASH::: And that is when the last incandescent burns out.

That, kids, is called Irony.

Saving the Planet

Our laziness will save the planet. True story.

This is a picture of our kitchen with the lights turned on:You'll notice that 3 of the 5 lights are burned out. And they've been like this for a while. We are too lazy to replace them. Oddly, all three burned out bulbs are of the new CFL variety. And the one incandescent that we still have in the kitchen is one of the two that is still working. We have not bought any incandescent lights since these specific style CFLs have come out.

Here is a picture of our living room:In this picture, you'll notice that 2 of the 4 lights are burned out. Shawn's waiting for one more to burn out before we go out and get the fan CFLs...he says it's because it would look funny with 2 incandescents and 2 CFLs. I know the real reason--it's because we're lazy.

But, the beauty about lights is that if they aren't working, they aren't pulling any energy. And that, ladies and gents, is how we're going to save our planet--by being lazy.

About my Garden

Me: You know what's weird, John?

Beachy: What?

Me: I got like 130 hits on my garden blog the other day...because this lady posted on her blog that I had started a new garden blog.

Beachy: Well, isn't it good that people are visiting your blog?

Me: I guess...but I mean, it's just so boring. It's all like "I planted stuff. But it died."

Beachy: No, Katina. Take responsibility. You need to say "I planted stuff. I killed it."

Me: Well, yeah....I guess I planted stuff and then killed it.

Beachy: Liberating isn't it?

Dinner Tonight

So, we still have veggies from the Farm to Work dealie. Thus, tonight we had:
kale and ham frittata with a romaine lettuce side salad.

Now, we only have cauliflower, cucumbers, potatoes and a squash left. Oh, and one of my coworkers who got the Farm to Work delivery today gave me a tomato (as repayment for last week--I think he missed the part where I said "here, have 2 tomatoes, I don't like them so I know I won't eat all 5 of these.")

Yeah, next week, we're going halvsies with Matt and Kate.