Ha-Ha

What do you think of, or really what do you hear when you see "Ha-Ha." At first I heard part of a belly laugh ha-ha-ha. But now, now I hear a mocking phrase, something that Bart or Homer Simpson might say "ha-ha."
D & I went to Yellow Springs this weekend to eat, shop and ride our bikes on the Little Miami Bike path. We arrived just before lunchtime so we walked up and down the streets checking out the stores. Each store promised to be even more exciting than the last with names like Pangea Trading Co., Garden of the Goddess, and Asian Imports. But alas, for the most part each store had the same kitchy stuff and none were memorable. We didn't go into the art galleries, but I'd hope there we would have found more original and interesting items for sale.
After shopping, we headed to Ha-Ha Pizza. It was directly beside the bike path, and seemed like a better option than the Winds Cafe which would have been more of a sit-down, fullservice place. We took a seat in the only open booth, and waited. Finally we grabbed menus, and the owner/waiter noticed us and apologized. He got our drink order, and then our pizza order. This took longer than I would have liked, but I was obeying the sign on above the salad bar which read something like "quality takes time, please be patient." Hmmm. That should have been a sign.
We watched pizzas come out, wondering how long those people had waited. We saw people get up and leave because they were never helped, and we saw a family get the wrong item only to have its replacement out within 10 minutes. So a pizza CAN indeed be made in 10 minutes there. How long for our two 9-inch pizzas? FORTY minutes! Yes, 40 minutes! Really? And it wasn't even that good. I have the nasty-assed leftovers in my fridge if you don't believe me. Ugh. We wasted all of our hiking time there. I would have rather frequented the Subway across the street. Rowr! I was not a happy camper. And as we left, I noticed all the health code violations going on in the kitchen. Great.
After that, I had food and anger energy for biking. We headed out, but after about 6 miles we realized we were nearly out of time, at least if we still wanted to get ice cream at Young's Dairy. So we turned around, biked to ice cream, then headed back to the car and home. I don't think I'll be visiting Yellow Springs again in the near future. I'm quite disillusioned by the place - on the surface it's so cute and holds such potential! Next time, I'm heading north to the Kokosing bike path.

I find that I'm biking at least twice a month. Honestly, I like hiking better but I think the change in routine is good now and then. I walk all week on the treadmill or around town, so biking is a nice change, I just prefer hiking.

Peanut Butter Mini Cupcakes

I bought a couple cupcake books last week during the height of my cupcake obsession. One is supposedly the only cupcake compendium I will ever need (500 Cupcakes), but I actually like the other better, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.
This weekend, I visited Pink Moon cupcake shop in Powell. Very cute. I had the double-chocolate cupcake but personally found the buttercream frosting too overpowering. Maybe the chocolate cake just wasn't chocolately enough for me. D had a dark chocolate cupcake with some chocolate chip cheesecake baked on top, and THEN cream cheese frosting. Well, I hate cream cheese frosting in general, but the cake part of his was superb.
I spent a good part of yesterday building up my baking supplies. I don't bake often and my supplies were either gone or in tatters. I decided to go with quality pieces. I visited William Sonoma for the cupcake pans, and I was surprised to see they were nearly the same price as what I'd seen at a department store. I visited a few other stores to pick up all the other bits and pieces and then went home to bake. Yeah, I stopped and got the ingredients too. I don't even have flour and sugar on hand regularly. Maybe I just need to completely overhaul my cupboards so I can find the stuff if I do have it.
Anyway, I let D choose the first cupcake flavor. Not surprisingly he chose Peanut Butter Cupcakes (with chocolate ganache). Since these are going to work with me (and some with D) I decided to make mini cupcakes that would go farther. We taste tested them last night and give them a thumbs up! So now it's up to you, my readers from MGH, come get a mini cupcake today and let me know what you think!
I'm going to try to do this weekly. We'll see. I'm not sure what flavor is next week, but the week after a certain flavor has already been requested: Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes (think red velvet but not dayglo red).

For those of you not able to get to MGH or D's store for a sample. At least enjoy the picture below:

As if.

Main Entry: ob·ses·sion
Pronunciation: äb-'se-sh&n, &b-
Function: noun
1 : a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling

Though not listed as a derivative of the word obsession – I’m an obsesser, obsessing over obsessions and most anything else as well. I’m not sure where this “disturbing” behavior comes from. My obsessions are not normally anything I’d call unreasonable though the amount of time I've spent delving into them could easily be labeled unreasonable.

Cesar Milan, aka the Dog Whisperer, talks about obsession in dogs. Dogs that are obsessed with their shadows, water, running, barking, etc. These dogs he says are unbalanced. His remedy is always the same, okay normally the same. The dogs need to find their place in the pack and take comfort in that. Often times the dogs also need to expend energy and do work.

Is it the same with humans? Am I obsessing because I have too much pent-up energy or because I’m not fulfilling myself with work? Is it a flaw (bad) or a quirk (cute)? I’m not sure. Sometimes it feels like a weight and other times it feels fun – isn’t that how an addict would describe their drug though? That’s ominous.

Anyway, only two short months after my vacation I find myself obsessing again. Obsessing over finances, home repair, ancient Mayan ruins, even cupcakes to name just a few items. I can’t seem to just live each day for the sake of that day. I don’t feel stressed. I don’t feel stagnant. In reality I feel like I’m full of ideas and momentum.

So why can’t I just be? I’m good for awhile and then blah. As soon as I get what I’d been planning or obsessing over I just move on to something else. I was listening to a cd about being present and then I stopped. I was doing well; it was boring me; I stopped. I think I need to revisit the idea of being present. I’m an obsession junkie – a planning, research, organization, list-making junkie – and once I allow myself to do any such thing it snowballs. I can’t have even one list. Not one future desire my mind can continually re-focus on and analyze until it hurts.

This penchant for planning could be seen as a gift. Someday perhaps I'll learn to use it for good and not evil. Until then I have to go cold turkey and become present.

Everything's coming up cupcakes!

I’ve never been that into cake, or cupcakes, but lately cupcakes have been popping up everywhere – no, not literally, well kind of literally.

I love dessert. I’m sure someone out there doesn’t, but I think they’re abnormal and quite frankly un-American. Our love of desserts, and overall addiction to sugary goodness might as well be placed in the constitution. Of course there are sides to be taken, and more than the traditional two parties. Do you favor cake, ice cream, candy or something else? Years ago while in Weight Watchers I decided I would cut out all desserts unless they were chocolate. Since chocolate is my favorite, if I was going to use the points it should be on that and that alone. It worked very well, but now I’ve begun to expand my dessert horizons. Chocolate has its place, but it’s also quite cliché. I’m multi-dimensional so how can I have but 1 dessert option?

Nearly nine years ago, I made a deal with my mom. I’d get married indoors, and hence within the Catholic dogma (long story short: we wanted to be married outdoors but my diocese wouldn’t allow that so the issue became outdoors vs. Catholic service) if my mother made the pie for our reception. Pie? Yes, pie. I’ve never been a huge fan of cake, or icing. But homemade, fruity pies are oh so delicious. With an August wedding, why not take advantage of the available fresh fruit and do pies – homemade pies? And so a deal was cut – pies for indoors. Done. Why am I relating this? Sigh. Did you miss the one sentence in there about cake? Yes, it’s true; I’m not a huge fan of cake still. I’m even more particular about icing. And cupcakes are indeed mini-cakes so why are they infiltrating my life, and why have I entered into a possible obsession over them?

I’m not sure where the idea of cupcakes first entered my consciousness (recently). At this month’s gallery hop, D & I strolled around looking at all kinds of artwork. I saw fewer than half a dozen pieces that I liked at all. One piece was a small 5x7 oil painting of a single chocolate cupcake with white frosting. I picked it up to get a closer look. We were in an antique store / art gallery and this piece was placed on a small table too close to the ground to see without picking it up or plopping my butt down. It was much too crowded for the latter. Of course the shop owner saw me, and came over eager to tell me all about the piece and its creator. I didn’t know the artist though the shop keeper told me her name as if I should. I was also told that this small painting was available for $600 and that in the front room a smaller, pink frosted cupcake by the same artist was available for $400. What? Seriously? Okay, in her defense, if there is a famous cupcake artist out there and I’m just ignorant then, fine – let me know. Personally, I had a moment not unlike some I’ve had in modern art museums where I think hmm, “I could do that.”

Maybe two weeks later, while shopping at Barnes & Nobles I swear I saw a sign about cupcakes. I went over to it, expecting books on cupcakes but there were none. I can no longer remember if the sign was a mirage or actually there. Well, the sign was actually there, but I can’t recall if it really mentioned cupcakes or not. Later that evening while unsuccessfully looking for a 5-ingredient (or fewer) vegetarian cookbook at Barnes & Noble, I found myself in the baking section so I decided to look for the elusive cupcake cookbook. There was only one, but it was quite cute. I had no plans to actually make cupcakes and had no need for the book so we headed to checkout with our other goods. As we were leaving, I was reminded that I had wanted a snack from their café (a pseudo Starbucks). And what did my eyes spy as I walked up? Cupcakes!!!! I bought two, one of each flavor (double fudge; lemon blueberry). The next morning I photographed them on various decorated plates – then I ate them. Yum.

Yes, “yum.” Maybe I’m just really particular about cake. I did leave the lemon blueberry one on my plate, a little cupcake corpse. It didn’t live up to my high cake standards. The double fudge though was amazing, and go figure it fit well within my chocolately dessert boundaries. Next? I may actually bake some cupcakes. Stay tuned.

a change in my name

At this point I'm thinking just changing the blog name to "Learning to List," "Lists of random crap," or "My life in lists" would be more accurate of what I'm doing here. Indeed, today I again have no one subject to write about, yet the blog calls me to post an entry. I have no one thing to write about, though when doing these lists something always stands out to me.



My art classes are done for now. I took 2 at my local community art place and they are done. I'm not sure if I'll take more or not. I have purchased some beginner essentials for drawing and watercolor, but I have not done either on my own. Shock. I need to find down time first. As my lack of blogging might indicate, I've been busy.

Our trip to TX is drawing near. Flights are booked, plans are being discussed, movers are being called. I volunteered to babysit my niece and nephew one afternoon. I'm not sure what I'm getting into, but I'm sure I can handle it. They seem very well behaved. I'm a little rusty on diaper changing, but I recall it's rather self-explanatory. Soon all of my in-laws and a very sizeable portion of my family (maternal side) will be living in the country, um I mean state, of Texas. ;)

The summer of house remodeling is underway. We have bids in from 1 of 3 plumbers and hope to have the rest by the end of the month. The front porch has no floor currently but by end-of-day tomorrow it will have a brand new one. This weekend I'll be getting some plants for out there - yeah! We've found a carpet company we think we like, but now we have to find a carpet we like that doesn't "smile." We have three samples here, but of course they all make this face and I'm concerned about that. I need to do more research and check a few more samples. I can't wait until I no longer have to carry a scardy-cat dog up our stairs!

While remodeling, I'm also working to get artwork in storage framed and hung. I got a matt-cutter a couple years ago, but I've yet to really understand how to use - or use it. This is the stumbling block for getting the rest of the pieces up. Perhaps I can focus and master it this weekend. I'm also trying to locate the best place/way to print a photo onto canvas and have it stretched. I have all my beach pictures that are jumping at the chance to live outside the computer.

Typing is messing with my newly painted fingernails so I need to stop. Vanity wins here. I can't have smushed polish on my nails!

Dinner?!?!

I got the email below from my friend, AJ. I have the same issue she does. So I’m planning to take part in her recipe share idea. I only hope I can scavenge a few vegetarian meals from what gets sent in, or maybe things I can tweak.
Anyway, I thought one or more of my readers may be interested too. Let me know via comment or email.


*************************************
From: Amanda
Sent: July 12, 2007

Hi Everyone,

I am struggling lately with dinner ideas.... I either end up making the same things over and over or not cooking at all (mostly the latter). Any others have the same issue??

Here is what I am proposing - Let's share our favorite, go to, best and easiest, healthy, make in a pinch recipes with each other!

If you are interested in participating, please send me an email letting me know. Once I have collected all of the interested parties, I will send out a second email to that group. From then on I will ask folks to use 'reply all' and start sharing those favorite recipes with the group. In the end, we will all have a large list of GO-TO, GREAT recipes!

Please feel free to forward this email - the more participating the better.
Thanks and happy cooking!

Amanda

Independence Day

As a kid, I remember most if not all holidays being spent at my grandparents’ home. It was a tiny little house, maybe 800 sq ft. Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve were memorable with all of us, sometimes as many as 25 or more people, crammed into the house. Summer holidays were a little better because we could be outside. Fourth of July included a bbq, playing in the sprinkler or walking back to the creek, and usually fireworks set off by my dad and uncles. I remember all of these fondly, and actually barely remember the year I got a concussion – maybe I was too young too remember. But I digress.
These fond childhood memories of all the holidays have created a lot of pressure for my current holidays. When my grandma dies, holidays changed and just were never the same. Maybe that’s what made the earlier holidays immediately cement themselves as being very precious. We still all celebrated together but sometimes we were at our home or one of my aunts’ homes. Once in college, engaged, and then married there was of course another change. In some ways it reverted back, just with large gatherings with D’s family and smaller ones with mine for whatever holidays. It wasn’t until we all started moving away that the holiday gatherings essentially ended.
I haven’t been to one in a year or more. In the meantime, I/we have been struggling to create our own traditions. We haven’t stumbled on anything yet, and we end up trying something different each year. Sometimes it’s good, but other times it’s “eh.” Christmas Eve and July 4th are the big ones. Thanksgiving is food, always will be so as long as you’re eating with people then it feels pretty normal. Easter, Memorial Day, and Labor Day aren’t that big of holidays in my mind and our family functions didn’t leave that strong an impression on me.
Yesterday was the 4th. I hadn’t even been thinking what I’d do considering it was in the middle of the week. But then T suggested we do something so we considered a few things – tubing on a river, going to the beach, biking or hiking. Water really needed to play a part so that narrowed things down even farther. We decided to stay close and try the tubing – it was available up near Mohican State Park. We drove up there somewhat early in the morning, considering it was a holiday, only to find the water temps were 70 with breezy mid-70s air temps. That was way too cold for me. If I had packed a rashguard maybe, but I’d left without any. We decided to trade in our tubing tickets for a canoe.
We started with T in front, D in the back and me riding princess-style in the center, no paddling required. There were a few little dips, or rock damns or something we had to traverse – and some super shallow areas – but otherwise it was smooth paddling. Well, we did run into those tree branches in the middle of that first S-curve, but it was fine. We avoided being hit by the mother –daughter-daughter canoe that had zero paddling skills it seemed. At least we avoided being hit that time. They did catch up to us later because we stopped along a sand bank (mud bank) to eat a snack. We tried to out paddle them but they kept paddling towards us. Why? C’mon steer or slow down or something! Annoying.
After our snack, I took the front paddling seat. I have only paddled once before and I was probably about 11. It took me a couple minutes to lose the flailing look, but after that I was fine – no longer being laughed at or feeling I deserved to be either. I settled in, stopped accidentally splashing T, and paddled away. It was really fun. We saw tubers, kayakers, and other canoers on the river too. We passed camp park after camp park and even some cabins and trailer parks. It wasn’t as scenic as it could have been, but it wasn’t bad at all. Parts were really, really pretty and smelled really good – that forest/river/outdoorsy smell. We’ll definitely go back. With all the dead fish and weird river foam, maybe we won’t go tubing, but I’d be willing to try kayaking – or even do canoeing again.
This 4th of July was good. We didn’t even see fireworks, but I still though it was good. Is it a tradition? Who knows. What’s more important is this year I didn’t miss tradition or feel like I needed to set one. The pressure I put on myself about holidays such as this was temporarily – or maybe permanently vanished. Freedom.

Sicko

This past Friday was the nationwide release date for Michael Moore’s new movie, Sicko. Michael Moore has taken the rank of most controversial film producer away from Oliver Stone and done so much more with the role. Love him, like him, or hate him he succeeds in at least getting you (and a good portion of the country) thinking, feeling and talking about issues. I’ve only seen two of his other films and they were quite a bit more partisan than Sicko, just based on where subject matter alone tends to fall politically. This film is far less partisan, thought I don’t think masses of conservatives will be flocking to see any Moore movie anytime soon, regardless of its content. If I’m proven wrong, fine. I shouldn’t think so narrowly anyway I suppose.

This film was on healthcare in the US. It’s not about the large number of our citizens living without healthcare. It didn’t delve into our existing social medicine programs either, Medicaid or Medicare. Its focus was on those of us with healthcare – either private healthcare or healthcare through our employers.

We met person after person, via interviews, who were denied care by their providers. While doctors deemed tests and procedures necessary to diagnosis and treat their patients, the healthcare providers disagreed. In essence this section of the movie boiled down to a) insurance companies are making medical decisions for our doctors and b) some insurance companies have bonuses setup so those employees who save the company more and more money by denying care get higher bonuses & promotions.

Another portion of the movie looked at healthcare in other countries. The study Moore sited lists the US as #37, just above Slovenia & Cuba. This study listed France and Italy as numbers 1 and 2. Moore visited Canada, Britain, and France. He talked to doctors and patients in each country. Of course the point here was to show that other countries do things differently but they are as healthy as us if not healthier. Moore sited a few studies (I don’t have the specifics) that showed even the poorest and most unhealthy UK citizen has a longer life expectancy than the richest and healthiest US citizens. The same was true in France. Why is this? The implication was that they have better healthcare. The citizens did not appear burdened by exorbitant taxes, and the doctors were making a very nice living just like US doctors. The point to this section is apparent – the US should consider socialized medicine for everyone – not just our elderly and poor. Our current system is broken; socialized medicine may be a good fix. It works elsewhere.

My thoughts on this are that if we even rank 1/2 as poorly as the study sites (#37) then we have 15-plus countries ranked higher than us that we could study to see what works and what doesn’t in their systems. We could take the best ideas and incorporate them into something amazing for ourselves and our fellow citizens. So in the end, I think the system is broken and does need fixed. But I don’t personally have any suggestions for how that should look. I know some of the problems and where changes might want to begin, but that’s it. I think most of us know where problems lie.

I believe the issue of healthcare is completely non-partisan. We all get sick; we all need good, reliable healthcare for ourselves, our friends, our families, our children. I really think we could make a change. The movie showed HMOs and healthcare as we know it having started in the early 1970s. That’s only 30 some years ago, so it shouldn’t be so ingrained in our society that it can’t change again.

See the movie. Let me know what you think. Better yet, let your representatives and senators know what you think – and your friends and families too.

Yeah, you're right . . .

Maybe if I blogged more often I would not do blog-lists. This is not the blogging lifestyle I want!

I’ve started hiking. Okay, it’s really walking long distances on paths – clear, mainly flat, paths. But anything over 3 miles I call hiking! First was Hocking Hills, and then this past weekend was John Bryan State Park. I’d like to also walk here more often at either the MetroParks or the gym. I'm taking the lazy days of summer cliche literally.

I've continued with my introductory art classes. I took a mini-watercolor class this past weekend. I did only one painting - an orange & grapefruit from a dish detergent bottle. The class wasn't for beginners or possibly painters at all. We only had roughly 15 minutes out of 2 hours to paint. I was a little annoyed, but at the same time happy because I was not being asked to get out of my comfort zone and paint. But not so far below the surface, I knew I would be much more intimidated on my own at home; the inner critic would be very loud there and I wanted to paint more at class in hopes of silencing her a bit

I'm a bit frustrated. There is a certain someone I want to help. But they won't let me, or can't. I'm not sure. I definitely don't know what else to say to them. And I'm also not sure what I can do. We've talked about things before, a number of times. I've been concerned for awhile, that might surprise them, but probably not. Oddly enought, help is a grey area. What IS help - is it what's best for the person or what they ask for? If those things match, great. What about when they don't? What about when they don't ask for help at all? Do you jump in and help anyway or wait to be asked? I was actually discussing that very point with someone the other day. Their point-of-view was you do not help people (adults) unless they ask because people cannot be helped until they asked for it. I disagreed, and pointed out that the saying is actually people cannot be helped until they accept help. It doesn't matter if they ask for it, just that they accept it. Can I just DO something? Why do I wait? What am I waiting for? Have I been waiting??? Could I have helped earlier? If I don't just do something now, will I ask these questions continually for months or years to come? Yes, maybe that's how it's been going so far. So how do you help someone who won't accept it? Isn't that what exists when the consensus says help = X and the person needing it says it doesn't?

It's old news now, but D is back from Vegas. He wasn't a big winner this time. I personally think the mojo was all off because Jenn was sick. Poor Jenn. She is feeling better now, finally. It's amazing what stress can do to your body. Really amazing, and scary.

We've made a home improvement schedule for the summer - sorta. We've at least settled on what will be on the docket. We've got remodeling the bathroom, 1/4 round up throughout the house, our little outside office cleaned out (it's currently a storage space - watch out Craigslist here we come), having the air ducts & furnace cleaned, redoing the front porch, getting a stair runner installed (I'm so tired of carrying dogs up the stairs!), plus some landscaping and painting. Whew! That's a sizeable list. The reward? Playa del Carmen, Mexico this fall. : )

We have one other trip planned in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to it though it will probably be a pain in the ass. Family + Moving + Heat cannot possibly = fun. We're moving D's mom from Virginia to Texas. It's not the actual move of course, it's how particular and cranky everyone becomes during the move. There will be the occaisional tug-of-war over our time that always exists with family visits. But it'll be fun because I'll get to see AJ & K, little Tori & Joe, and maybe cousin Lori too. Not to imply I will not enjoy seeing everyone else too, I feel bad calling out a few and not the rest . . . J, J, J, A, N, C, and anyone else!

Why do I spell out some names and others? To protect the innocent? To protect the villanous? I'm not sure why. Mainly I abbreviate names like AJ, D, and T because the are the only ones in my life with those letters and I've become accustom to shortening them in emails, etc. I also don't like listing out unusual names it seems like a spotlight on them, one they didn't ask for. More common names fade into the text, you may not be sure which Jen or Joe I'm speaking about.

AND this is plenty long now. Later.