what gives?

So, I'm here. Me and my crappy back. I've essentially been in the bed for five days, and I am totally stir crazy. I watched three movies yesterday. I've read two very long novels and most of another book. I've napped...and I've stared at the ceiling, thinking of all the things I would prefer to be doing. I am very fortunate to have family and friends who've willingly cared for my child since M has been out of town all but one day of my convalescence. So, here are all of the random things I've been going over in my head.

• Val Kilmer's career peaked when he starred in The Doors. That was one of the movies that I watched yesterday. Also, Jim Morrison was way more captivating than Val Kilmer.
  
• Away We Go is an awesome, awesome movie. For grown-ups. Little sisters, stay away.
• Phillipa Gregory should do me a favor and stop writing books. Please. (She reads my blog, right?)
• Robert Pattinson is pretty. Check out Vanity Fair. Oy.
• Today, when I could no longer stand being in the house (and I did actually have to leave the house due to an utter lack of coffee beans), I ventured out. S has needed some new panties, so I hit the Wal-Mart. (Gasp.) I am terribly saddened by the fact that I cannot buy my daughter's undies in the toddler section. I had to go to the GIRLS section and buy her undies next to the training bras. She must stop growing. Must. I am not prepared for this. If there are thong options the next time I have to buy her panties, I will cry. Right in the store. Real tears.
  
• I am hoping that Yum and my hubby had a yummy dinner last night. I am hungry.
  
• I am anxiously awaiting Thanksgiving. Anxiously.

I'll leave you with a couple of pics of our Friday afternoon. The weather was lovely.

S, playing under the table...there were dolls and quilts and stickers and crayons and all manner of fun for a two-year-old.
Then there was mama's fun. Coffee and Bill Bryson...too bad you can't see the heating pad.

princess on high.

While S was at school today, I picked up the rails for her princess bed. Around here, that means her big girl bed. She's been sleeping on the mattress for about a week, but I had to wait on the rails for the bed. Then I had to make a separate trip out for bolts, but whatever. So...S is currently resting in her new princess bed, and she is way, way up there. Her bed is so tall that I have to exert effort to climb onto it. It's a solid six inches higher than my bed. Wowsers. Now if I could just get around to making her quilt...which is all cut and ready to be sewn. Someday...

That's been the excitement around here today. The assembly of a princess bed. It's a pretty low key life around here. Tomorrow we're heading to Chattanooga for the day to visit Hil. Now, that...that will be exciting. Watch out, world.

walkin' the plank

Halloween has come and gone. So sad for S. Luckily, we've had birthdays to celebrate everyday since, so she's been occupied. I mean, there's been cake, people. She'll be okay. She is, however, terribly vexed because someone has stolen our pumpkins. They left the jack-o-lanterns and the mini pumpkin that my mini pumpkin drew all over, but all the rest are MIA. They weren't smashed anywhere that we can find, so someone just stole them. Some other friends had their pumpkins ganked, too, so I think I may have isolated the culprits. I'll keep you all posted.

In the meantime, if my daughter asks you where our pumpkins have gone, the story is that they went home after Halloween.

Trick-or-treating was a success. Our little pirate was awesome and way hopped up on sugar. Here are some pictures of the big day. Have a great Tuesday, peeps.

it's almost time.

S has been begging to go trick-or-treating for a couple of weeks now. We've had to practice at Mellie Mellie's. Needless to say, she's got it down.

Approach door.
Knock.
Say, "Trick-or-Treat."
Receive candy.
Say, "Thank you."
Binge on candy.

It's going to be crazy, people. Crazy. She is super excited about Halloween. She had a party at school on Wednesday, and we were lucky because we had dentist appointments that morning, so M was in town and able to attend the festivities. They had carved a pumpkin in class, so S will know what's going on when we hack into our pumpkins tonight...or tomorrow morning. Whenever.
The real question is: What the deuce is S going to be dressed up as for Halloween?

Her first response was, of course, a princess. But I had wanted her to be a fairy. So, I decided to pull out all the available old dance costumes, get some accessories and let her pick on the big day. Princess costume? Check. Fairy costume? Check. Ballerina costume? Check.

She had been saying for over a week that she wanted to be a ballerina, so I was happy and prepared. Then- BAM! She decided that she wanted to be a pirate. ARRRRRGGH.

So, we went to Target yesterday, and she now has a pirate hat and sword...and a fake earring, an eye patch, and a hook.

I am prepared. She's probably going to end up as a ballerina/princess/fairy/pirate hybrid, and I totally don't care. As long as she says thank you for the treats.

Have a good one, peeps. And be safe.

getting a little too personal.

I have a problem. I need some new undergarments. Well, need/want. Whatever. The problem is that a couple of years ago I swore off Victoria's Secret because their crap is overpriced, under-quality, and doesn't fit me well. Since S was born, I've been going the GapBody route, and I've been happy with it. They've always got basic: white, nude, black. They usually have some colors that I like: scholastic gray, modern red, deep fog.

Right now, they've got some color options that I'm really liking online, but they are very few matching bra/panty sets for my little 34A wearing self. (I think I may have mentioned this before, but I miss my boobs. Love my daughter, miss my boobs.) So, I'm stuck. I'm kind of particular about matching bras and panties. It's like when your mother used to tell you to make sure you wore clean underwear because you never knew when you might be in an accident and you wouldn't want the EMTs seeing you in dirty panties...as a grown up, I've taken that to mean, make sure you wear clean panties because you never knew when you might be in an accident and you wouldn't want the EMTs seeing you in dirty panties and make sure they match your bra because the paparazzi might be following you and take a picture of you and the EMTs and you want them to think you care about yourself enough to match your bra and panties. Plus, it makes me feel a little more like an actual woman and a little less like a full-time former milk factory. I know, I'm strange.

So, dilemma. If I can't get matching sets from Gap, and I refuse to go to Victoria's Secret, where am I going to go? Undies must be cute, comfortable, matching, and leave NO panty lines but still have backs. I am over the thong thing except for dire circumstances. What, oh what, shall I do? Help me, people.

a little tudor obsession

I think I need a break. I've been fairly inundated with the Tudors lately. Reading Philippa Gregory novels. Watching The Tudors*. Watching Cate Blanchett portray Queen Elizabeth I. The thing is, I'm wearing myself out with it, but I keep going back for more. I took a little break and read Les Miserables because, really, there's nothing to get you out of an "I'm Henry VII, and I will rack or behead you with the quickness" funk quite like the French Revolution. Right?? And then there's Catch-22, which I still can't finish. So, I'm in need of a little something new. I picked up a copy of A Wrinkle in Time today, and a friend recommended Mere Christianity, and I've got a couple of books on the shelves here that I'm planning to read, but they're mostly classics and therefore, most likely, depressing.

Any suggestions? What are you all reading right now??

*I do not regret watching this awful show. Really, it's a little too pornographic for my taste. However. However, it has introduced me to my new favorite eye candy: Henry Cavill. Oy.

okay, okay.

I know I've been beyond remiss in my blogging habits. I wish, a la SouleMama, I had some great excuse, but I don't really. M and S have been sick, and now I'm sick-ish, but those aren't valid. Really, I've just been supremely lazy...and I've been spending all my spare time reading. That, of course, means that both my blog and my house have been sorely neglected. Sorely. So, since I last blogged...

• S had the highlight of her life. She met a queen (not drag). She met the DCHS Homecoming Queen and some of her princesses. She got to touch the queen's dress and gloves and crown. It was magical, and I am sorry that I don't have a picture.
• M and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. We watched Vanderbilt get their tails handed to them by Ole Miss. The game was awful, but we had a fabulous day together, and it's so easy for me to see why I love him. We have a lot of fun together.
• Pumpkin Spice creamer has made its way to the grocery for the season. When I thought life couldn't get much better, they put out some Peppermint Mocha creamer, and M bought me two bottles to get me through my little sickness.

Sadly, that's about all that's gone on here. M is out of town for the week. S and I are holed up in the house. It's not so bad...there is peppermint mocha creamer. So, I'm out, folks. Until next time, here's a little S to tide you over.

i'm going there.

Okay, Julia. I'm pretty close to done with you. My arteries just aren't up for this. Nor is my wallet.

So, here's the scoop. If you saw Julie and Julia, you might remember the scene toward the beginning where Amy Adams is having a little moment talking about butter. She's basically having a verbal love affair. And, I was buying it. I have purchased a lot of butter in the last few weeks. And today I weighed four pounds more than usual. I'm not saying they're connected, but they're probably connected.

Anyway. I've made Supremes de Volaille a Brun. Sounds fancy, huh? Not really. It's chicken breasts sauteed in butter. With a brown butter sauce. Served with buttered potatoes and buttered peas. I mean, come on. Are you sensing a theme here? Butter. Butter. Butter. So much butter. I am getting more than a little sick of it. When M took his first bite of the chicken, he bore a quizzical expression...one that said, "seriously, what are you feeding me?" He asked what was in the dish.

"Nothing really," I answered. "Just a little parsley and a squirt or two of lemon juice in butter."

The light bulb flashed on.

"Butter, that's it," he replied.

When the first thing that hits your palate is butter, there is too dang much butter. I mean, the chicken was good, but if I'm going to give myself a heart attack, I'm going to add some flavor and make fried chicken the way I always have. And I'll make mashed potatoes. Julia's buttered peas can stay.
I've also made another clafouti, and it was good, but it wasn't great, and those suckers do not keep well. That's a strike against in this house. We like to keep a dessert around for awhile.

So, Julia isn't faring well around here. I find myself looking over her recipes and consulting Ina Garten's versions. Then I remember that I love Alice Waters. And Orangette. And I've decided that, for the most part, I'll only plan on immersing myself in French cuisine if I'm in France. So, toodles, Julia. For now.

I'm going to make Orangette's tried and true chocolate cake.

did you know?

Sunday is the beginning of Banned Books Week. I had never heard of it before, but A was telling me about it the other day on one of our many trips to Reading Rock last week. Now I feel like I should start a crusade on behalf of all the challenged books in America. I really don't understand banning books. Really. If someone could explain it to me?? Probably I still wouldn't get it because it's just not the kind of thing that I can understand. My brain doesn't wrap around things like banning books or art and hatred and all those things that I think are basically the same thing: a product of a lot of fear and a healthy dose of ignorance. Anyway, I'm planning to devour as many banned books as I can next week (though mostly classics that I've never read). I've already started Catch-22. It's not a terribly easy read, but I'm determined. And you know how stubborn I can be.

Anyway, here's a link to some information and some lists of books. I would love it if at least one of you devoted readers would pick up even one of those books next week. I don't know why it seems important, but it does. Maybe it seems extra important because of the ridiculousness happening in our beloved county right now.

That's it for me today, peeps. I'm going to go nurse my sore arm. Stupid flu shot.

quit buggin' me.

The Ouiser family has been victimized by the stomach bug. Well, not the whole family. I've been drinking Emergen-C like mad, so I've stayed well. S has been hit by what seems like two separate bugs...one that caused projectile vomit on Thursday and one that caused ED (explosive diarrhea) yesterday. M had something last weekend, and his stomach is still a little wonky. Anyway, there's been way too much belly-achin' round these parts. Otis even did some barfing yesterday to get in on the action. Peer pressure, you know?

Anyway, it's kept us on our toes.

Other than that, things have been pretty low key. I haven't been able to do too much cooking since there are sensitive tummies in the house, but I did manage a couple of Julia recipes last week, and I obviously think really highly of myself because I tinkered with her recipes. I will say that the results of one experiment were delicious, so I'm not sorry. I was making her potato and onion soup. Her recipe called for just simmering all the potatoes and onions in water before pureeing them. Then there was some salt. That sounded a little bland, so I cooked the onions in butter first, then I added a little garlic. Then the potatoes and some chicken broth. It was very yummy. Not bland. I also made her blueberry clafouti, and it was good, but my tinkering with that one did not end as well. I cut the sugar a little, and it needed it, so I added a little extra confectioner's sugar to the end product. So, right now ol' Julia and I are tied 1-1. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Okay, that's enough for now. I need me some coffee. Stat.