In here life is beautiful… The girls are beautiful…

Well, soup’s in. It’s all gone already. We don’t have a microwave here and my work is not leftover friendly, so we try to eat as much of whatever’s been cooked right away. Including cookies. It’s almost competitive.

Today, after a walk to Chapter’s for kid dictionaries (Ari had a stellar review at the parent-teacher conference yesterday, it was nice to hear such positive feedback), I decided that soup was just the thing for lunch. Broccoli soup. It’s so easy and it might be my favourite. Here’s how:

1. Saute chopped onion and red pepper in butter and seasoned with salt until translucent, then add a tablespoon of flour and stir it around.

2. Dump in a 900ml carton of stock (I used No Name Chicken stock), and add a chopped head of broccoli. I put about a tablespoon of dried parsley and same of dried thyme and simmered for 6 minutes, or until the broccoli is tender.

3. Blend. Add 1/2 cup cream (half and half is what we have here, for coffee) and serve. I dumped black pepper on mine and a handful of grated cheddar.

That’s it. Easy, fast, delicious, the three most important things about cooking.

I’ve been looking for a recipe for apple crisp/crumble. I like it with brown sugar, oats, apples and not much else. Butter, right? I just want the right proportions. Minimal cinnamon.

Yesterday I got some nice new cotton yarn at The Yarn Boutique, near my house, and I made a quick baby toy for friends who had a little girl a couple months ago. It’s made with the idea that babies shove stuff in their gobs, and small enough for baby hands. And no loose strings or eyes that can come off…

Cool how the yarn striped, eh? I didn’t even do that on purpose, it’s the way the yarn was born!

Erase my answers and enter yours, post it in my comments.
Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following.
They have to be real places, names, things..nothing made up!
Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial.
You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your Name: Caitlin
Famous Artist/Band/Musician: Creed
4 letter word: Crap
Vehicle: Cayenne (ugly Porsche suv)
TV Show: Cops!
City: Cayuga, Ontario
Boy Name: Clarence
Girl Name: Chita
Alcoholic drink: Champagne
Occupation: Chicken wrangler
Flower: Chrysanthamum
Something you wear: Coat
Something you do: Create
Something that you like: Chapstick
Celeb: Carol Channing
Food: Candy
Something found in a kitchen: Can opener
Reason for Being Late: Car crash
Cartoon Character: Chilly Willy
Something you yell: CAREFUL!

We’ve been going through bags and bags of these fingerling potatoes by President’s Choice. They’re SO good. I just boil them and we eat a bunch with butter and salt, and what ever is left over we fry for breakfast. Healthy, right? Since I found the original peanut (or is it a duck?), I am always on the lookout for new ducks. So I was excited when I found this potato:

It looks like one of those crazy Indian Runner Ducks. I love them, they’re like bowling pins with webbed feet. People often tell me that they are excited to find duck shaped things but never do. I happen to see ducks in almost everything I see. In fact, if I don’t see a duck I get confused and worried.

Also in the same bag of potatoes, this:

Cute eh? I doubt we’ll be starting a thispotatolooksliketesticles.com any time soon, but you never know. Shannon wanted to hang them from the back of his newly jacked up truck. How very redneckian of him.

Speaking of Shannon, we had an hilarious adventure at AGO today. Despite that, I LOVE the new AGO. For real. I think it’s nicer than the Crystal at ROM. And we had a yummy lunch at The Grange, from some burrito place, SO very good.

Spent the afternoon with the twins. They haven’t changed much since Thursday, but they are great. I found out that Gabe particularly likes having his picture taken, then looking at the pictures on my camera’s view finder. He laughed and laughed…I admit, I laughed too. Bea is known as the ham, but he’s pretty funny too.

As you can tell, they hardly sit still for one second. Emily, feel free to steal any of these!

I have already been blabbing on about it on facebook, but here is where I say it again: I love Wii Fit. If I had the time, I would fiddle with it every day. I especially like the hula hoop game (only because I love it that the Shannon and Ari miis are in the hula room dancing with me) and all the balance games. I try to do every one, all the balance, yoga, aerobics each time I turn it on. No, I don’t like the strength ones, which probably means they are the ones I most need to do. Too bad I hate doing pushups. If the floor was a little cleaner here it might be more fun.

Here is me workin’ the hoop:

That’s Shannon on the left and Ari (although her mii is named Leah) on the right. They are holding hoops that they throw over my head, which I lean to catch. It’s seriously hilarious. If I were the only person in the house, I would set up Wii Fit to have goofy people playing, like Murderface.

I went to visit Emily and her family on Thursday, as per usual. The babies are turning into people, really small people with teeth. They bite each other…and I shouldn’t laugh because being bit is no fun at all, but it’s funny because they haven’t quite figured out that putting one’s fingers in someone else’s mouth can lead to pain. They have both figured out how to climb the stairs, but not how to get back down. Gabe was enjoying a nap while Bea messed around on the stairs, up until she screamed bloody murder and woke him up.

This is a portrait of frustration:

That’s drool rash on her chin. Some people think she needs her bangs cut, but she doesn’t.

While most of my life is perfect, occasionally a wrench does get thrown into the works. Today I had the extreme misfortune of drinking bad orange juice at work. Which led to me not being physically able to leave work for a full 15 minutes after my shift was over. Ugh. Of course I am starving now. Gross, eh?

Also, I broke down and bought a new book: Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. It’s crazy popular right now and a movie is being released soon…but the book sucks. It really really sucks. The writing is dreadful, it’s got no flow at all, choppy and juvenile. It’s like reading the blog of a 13 year old girl who’s self absorbed  and boring. There is virtually nothing compelling about it. Even the characters are dull, flat and substance free.  At first I thought maybe I am just too old for it, but I enjoyed all the Harry Potter books and they are geared for an even younger crowd. Not that they are perfect, I have problems with JK Rowling too, but not like this. I will finish reading it (to be fair, I am only 125 pages in) and write a proper review when I do.

Unrelated baby picture:

Tomorrow I will sit on Gabe and Bea Bea and everything will be ok.

The zipper on my purse broke…2 weeks ago. I was worried every day that stuff would tumble out on the subway or worse, on the floor in a public washroom. I have been looking everywhere for a replacement (and really, I finally got it in my head that I was allowed a nice purse, one that cost more than $16) and I finally found one! At WalMart! Ha ha? It’s not very pretty but it’s a good shape and should last the winter and then I can worry about getting something nicer. Hopefully by then we will know exactly what the future holds.

The outside is pleather, I guess, and is the colour of mustard. Or cat vomit, depending on what you feed your cat. The inside and the top stitching is neon green. It was a whopping $19.99. I also got three new pair of underwear and 4 tank tops. The OP stuff is on sale, $4 for a tank, and they’re really cute.

Also, I bought a chocolate bar at the grocery store the other day for Shannon. I spied it while standing in line (ugh, the grocery store near where I work is the worst for lines, don’t ever go the the Metro at Yonge and Eglinton if your are even remotely in a hurry. I wouldn’t even bother with ice cream there, it would be melted by the time you leave) and laughed and laughed at the title. Upon closer inspection I realized it means “Big Moment”, but “Big Mo” threw me for a minute. Dale Jr is some kind of big ‘mo I guess.

It wasn’t very good-Shannon gave up after 2 squares, but I soldiered on and ate the rest.

Dear Festiva,

I know most people would not expect you to be my favourite car in the world, but here we are. On the mornings I see you on my way to work I get an extra bounce in my step, knowing it will be a better day.

Sorry for the blurry picture, I had to take it clandestinely.

I hadn’t been to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in forever, so going with T today was a real treat. I love anything farm or farm related, so I was in heaven. Also, any fair that gives away so much free stuff that we had to hunt down an extra bag to carry our loot is good. And we had full bellies too. I think I scored 4 free rolls of toilet paper! Woo!

One of my favourite parts is the giant vegetable contest. Nothing like a 38 pound beet to make one’s day.

I could make a ton of pickled beets with that monster.

Above are giant carrot, crazy giant pumpkin and a huge something. I don’t know, it’s so warped, maybe kohlrabi? Haha, I really don’t know but it weighs 61 pounds, and that is big for whatever it is.

I also love the klansheep. They are so chill.

I wish Alpaca were friendlier. They don’t really like being patted. Maybe they are worried that their ‘do will get mussed. And whoever doesn’t love goats must be pure evil. Goats are the best things since sliced bread.

I love my job, I really do!

Well, not really. It’s easier on my brain if I do a little work on them and let them rest over night, so for now, they are done. The problem is that if I let myself fiddle, they start looking crazy, so I stop myself.

Notice any changes?