Tonight's Event

A sort-of guest post - an email from my mom and my response:

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From: Conacat [my mother]
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 8:12 PM
To:[me]; [my brother Peter]; [my other brother David]
Subject: Tonight's event

Just to let you know, there was a 4.9 earthquake 1 mile south of San Bernardino at 7:50 PM tonight. All we got was a bit of a 'jello 'feeling. None of the hanging things in the house moved a bit.

No glassware clinking or other noise usually connected with an earthquake. We probably wouldn't have noticed except we were sitting in front of the TV.

We are fine and so is the house, etc.
Love, Mom

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From: [me]
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 10:38 PM
To: [my mother]; [my brother Peter]; [my other brother David]
Subject: RE: Tonight's event

Just to let you know – the sun came out today for the second time in a month for a total of 75 minutes. I took the gun out of my mouth so I could run out and get some pictures to prove it.

And now I’m convinced that when they show the forecast on the late news, they throw in one day (in 10) that has the partly sunny graphic – all the rest are rain/cloud graphics – and it’s a total lie.

They want people to think that someday the sun will actually come out because if they don’t cling to that tiny shred of hope for sunlight, the morgues wouldn't be able to handle the mass suicides.

There was no glassware clinking or other noise usually connected with the appearance of the sun. I probably wouldn’t have noticed except I was staring slackjawed at the TV showing a scene of a sunny neighborhood in Miami when I realized the light in the other room was coming from outside the house.

We are fine and so is the house, etc.
Love, Hazel

Fighting Hibernation

Now I get it. There are only few options for dealing with a nuclear-type ("nucular") winter.

One, take up snow sports as if your life depended on it, which it sort-of does, getting you up & out of the house nice & early to slip and skid your car up to a mountain so you can slip and skid down the mountain all day, getting home too tired to care about not seeing the sun for weeks.

Two, pack a big bag and get on a plane and fly anywhere the sun is shining and it doesn't get below 60 degrees. Stay there until the temperature here stabilizes somewhere above 50 degrees and it's not raining every day.

Third, hibernate. Eat your body weight in starch along with four or five large steaks every day for a few months, then go to bed. Stay there.

Ignore all the usual reasons you used to get out of bed (except your bladder). Like, the time. Who cares what time it is? It's WINTER is what time it is, which means it's time to stay in bed until it's spring. Cats hungry? Feed them then go back to bed. They'll join you later and make hibernation that much more cozy. Hungry? Grab a baked potato/muffin/doughnut/pizza/beef stew on your way back from the bathroom and eat that in bed.

We've tried the first option and enjoyed it, but then the rain came back and made the roads nasty with ice. Call me a spoilsport, but I don't enjoy sliding all over the road on the way to the mountain. And when I get there, I want to clearly see the run below me.

I'd love to choose option two, but we're not quite there yet. I have a special type of trust fund - it's the We Trust You To Make Your Own Money fund. So, that makes option two a non-option for now.

We're gradually choosing option three. We're waking up later and later, and even after waking up we linger in bed for quite a while. It's warm. And so dreamy comfortable. We can listen to the radio or watch TV. Hang out with the cats. There's no room service, but so far that hasn't been a deterrent.

The more we sleep, the faster time passes, which means spring will be here in just a few cat naps.

Ready for Fun

Bring on the winter festival of fun! My good friends Ms. Crafty and G-money SnowSports will be visiting in January and there's already a week-long list of activities to look forward to.

Skiing, ice skating on an actual frozen lake, tubing, and snowshoeing. I don't even ski and I want to go right now.

Cabin fever? It would seem so.

And, I get to wear snow pants. Never had snow pants before. I saw them at Costco the other day and today I went back to get some.

If you've ever shopped through the clothes at Costco, you know it's not as much like shopping as it is like digging through a huge mess of a closet.

Whatever size you think you want will always be at the bottom of a heap of clothes, everything unfolded and chucked hither and yon.

I dug through the pile for so long, I thought management was going to come out and ask me to please be on my way. I even fended off several women who thought they might try to brave the pile - they saw my determination and realized I'd be there a while.

What I was digging for was a pair of black pants in the only size they did not have - small. Lots and lots of extra larges, larges and a few mediums and even one XTRA small.

The one small I found, alas, was purple. Well, more like "wine," or burgundy, or claret let's say. Not my favorite, but paired with the black turtleneck sweater I found on the table behind the pants, I'll look a little less like a cat burglar.

Now I just have to re-break in my very old ice skates and I'm good to go. Today I did the dishes in them and practiced spirals in the living room. I should probably look for a job pretty soon.

Mmm... Steamed Vegetables

On these cold, damp winter days, I can't think of any food group I want less to do with than vegetables.

I was just reading a recipe that included steamed vegetables and the idea of sitting down to a plate of that made me wince.

Maybe if those veggies were then pureed and added to a hearty base of potato leek soup, or perhaps folded gently into a cheesy, creamy macaroni casserole-type dish, or maybe thrown out into the yard for the squirrels.

The other day I stumbled upon a rather satisfying new breakfast concoction that's perfect for this time of year.

We had some leftover smashed potatoes to which I'd had the foresight to add the "fairy dust of food" - chopped bacon (sorry vegans). Now, we all know that eggs and potatoes are great together - but even better: eggs, potatoes and BACON.

So into the skillet goes a little butter, then the leftover smashed, bacony-good potatoes. Let those warm up and if you like, get a little color, but don't stir them - just move them around gently - keep them "clumpy." Once the potatoes are heated through, throw in your scrambled eggs and cook just until almost done - don't dry 'em out.

Season to taste and enjoy. Research proves that this recipe works well with any leftover potatoes.