this is why i shouldn't be making bread...

...or anything else that calls for VEGETABLE OIL. what the heck is vegetable oil? i have about a gallon of canola oil...is that the same thing as vegetable oil? or is there a special oil made from a variety of vegetables? the recipe calls for VEGETABLE OIL but it wasn't specific WHICH type of vegetable. i need things S-P-E-L-L-E-D O-U-T if it involves cooking.

i am SOOOOO domestically challenged, it's really not even funny...

i suddently have the urge...

...to make bread...what the hell is wrong with me??!! ted leaves for 24 hours and i suddenly get the notion that i can get all domestic? somebody stop me before i set our building on fire...alas, i know if i give in to this urge, disaster is quite likely. either that or a really big mess. as long as i clean it up by monday night, i'm sure ted will never know...so don't any o' y'alls say nuthin!

...who knows...maybe i have a flair for making bread that's been lying dormant within my being and it's finally waking up. i guess this would be a good time to find the apron. and an easy recipe. hmmm. maybe i'll put all that beer in the fridge to good use and make a simple beer bread...

...but don't you think cadence would look so cute with a speck of flour on her nose and cheeks and forehead and chin? i should do it just for the photo op. yeah, i'll have CADENCE make the bread, and i'll be in charge of the camera.

i have to admit that i envy my more kitchen savvy friends. my friend jenn baked her daughter ada TWO cakes for her 2nd bday party, and both were works of art. and my friend esther thinks it's no big deal to whip up a lasagna and a key lime pie to bring over to our place for dinner. oh, and next time it'll be carrot cake, she says. and then there's our sister-in-law ali who can whip up anything from scratch. i'm sure ted's enjoying having someone else cook for him while he's visiting charles and ali in seattle.

well, we'll see if any bread gets made. oh, i did find an extremely easy recipe for pesto polenta lasagna, so i think i'll be making that sometime this weekend. now to find a bread recipe that i can possibly handle without destroying our kitchen entirely...

stay-at-home-mom for the weekend

...so ted and his brother dave left for seattle last night. i dropped cadence off at my mom's on the way to the office this morning and worked a half day. we hung out at my mom's for the afternoon, mainly cuz cadence was napping from 1-3:30. now we're home and i'm officially a stay-at-home-mom until i go back to work on tuesday.

...i'm not quite sure what we're gonna do all weekend. probably go to a bunch of parks and read a lot of books. if the weather's nice on monday, we may go back to the zoo, since we've got a membership.

...i don't know what we're going to eat. i'm so used to ted doing all the cooking. luckily, my mom sent me home with a tupperware of mee-yuck-gook (seawead soup) which cadence loves. but maybe, just maybe, i'll cook something fancy just for the two of us. like mac and cheese or something.

nut 'n' honey

this is a post about nothin’ in particular. just an excuse to intersperse photos of cadence mainly for my own personal viewing pleasure because she’s just so darn cute.

...so excuse me if the photos have nothing to do with what i’m writing about, which, like i said, is nothin’ in particular. i didn’t feel like doing another play-by-play update in the life of the our household, so i guess Nothin’ In Particular is gonna have to do.

...i was recently contacted by an old childhood friend named jin. this is the friend who is responsible for my occasional tendency to hum 'don't say a prayer for me now/save it til the morning after' in my head. she also introduced me to B96 in my preadolescence, but i never dared to listen to it in my own home until sometime in the 7th grade, and even then only secretly in my bedroom via headphones. i was so sure that listening to Phil Collins croon for just One More Night could only lead straight to hell. and that guy telling me to Relax just sounded creepy. but i have to admit i felt a tinge of regret at not being a California Girl, or even a Midwest farmer’s daughter. and the proclamation that Everybody Wants to Rule the World was a clear sign that the anti-christ was soon to come.

...yeah, it’s hard to believe it’s been over 20 years since jin and i were school buddies. i have fond memories, or at least as fond as could be expected for a kid growing up in a fundamentalist cult run by a stocky little korean man who always wore military fatigues and bore an eerily strong resemblance to kim jong il. surprisingly, jin never thought anything weird of us. she said she just remembers us as being a bunch of hearty singers.

...20 years go by really fast. in another 20 years, i’ll be 54. 10 more years after that, and i won’t be able to sing one of my favorite beatles songs any more. oh, and that’ll be the age my dad died. how depressing.

alrighty, let’s change the subject.

...so ted is going on a vacation sans wife and baby. he and his bro david are going out to seattle to visit their other brother charles and his wife ali. they’ll be gone from thursday night until monday night. so what should i do with cadence all by our lonesome? i’ve already cued up some fun movies from netflix (mansfield park for me, toy story for the both of us), so i’m envisioning the two of us lounging around on the sofa vegging out (minus the veggies) and eating bonbons. or cheerios. i plan on watching every minute of the bonus features that come with the DVDs, so that should stretch out the veg time.

...i have to admit i’m a chicken when it comes to going Places with just cadence. that kid can run, and when you’re carrying a diaper bag, trying to maneuver a stroller, maybe sneak in some photos here and there, things can get a bit hairy with a toddler who was apparently born to run FAST.

...which is why i am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new babyhawk. i got one in black in the coral flights of fancy on one side for me, and the crazy scary talen on the other side for ted. for those of you uninitiated into the world of babywearing, if you ever plan on being a parent, i suggest you explore this option thoroughly before embarking on life with a little one. not only will it free up your hands so you can do things, but it's a great way to bond with the little one. believe it or not, babies find our everyday mundane activities infinitely fascinating, and they love the view from a place securely attached to mommy or daddy. if you're handy with a sewing machine (which i most certainly am not), you can even make your own. the possibilities are endless.

...this will be cadence's first extended time (over 12 hours) away from her dada. we'll see how that goes. i personally couldn't imagine being away from her for a whole day, let alone 4 days, but then again, i'm a wuss like that. i am dreading the day when i will have to go out of town for work-related stuff.

...speaking of old friends, my high school friend esther and her husband ryan came over on friday night for dinner bearing yummy food from reza's. we hadn't seen them since new year's eve, but cadence warmed right up to them, as you can see from this photo. and ted was happy to have someone over who appreciated his beers (that would be ryan).

well, that's about it for the Nothin' In Particular category, i guess. time to feed the baby.

my blog doesn't work on firefox...

...and i don't know why...grrr...i've been comparing pages and pages of source code and i still can't figure it out. like WTF?!!! anyhoo...i may have to scrap this entire template...