updates

On the brown rice front: after talking to my dad, we decided to make the rice saturday morning. while shopping for the rice, we found brown basmati rice, which not only will add a little flair to this otherwise dull bland mild menu, will cook faster, or so the goddess of rice, aka fuzzybutchkins says.

On the baby presents front: i strayed a little from my original idea, going with 2 books (Click Clack Moo and Fox in Socks), 2 CDs of non-irritating children's music (Kenny Loggins' "Return to Pooh Corner" and the album from Tom Chapin with "Family Tree" and "This Pretty Planet" on it), and a hand-sewn sample of the fabrics for the baby quilt: tiny pink checks, tiny purple checks, and a pale yellow fabric with pink-and-purple flowers on it for the squares; white fabric with purple, green, yellow, and pink stripes for the backing; and pink baby blanket edging for the edging. Not exactly a color scheme I'd have chosen, but it matches the baby's room almost exactly. The shower itself was interesting. the Malibu (mer's car) died on the way there, so i got a nice long walk in the 95-degree humid heat home for the jetta while mer waited for the tow truck. i'll let her regale you with that story on her own lj if she so chooses. so we were an hour late to the party, where i got asked quite a few questions about where i was going to school...at the time i couldn't figure out why (was i looking particularly young that day or something?) but then i realized i was there with my "roommate", and apparently these people only had roommates in college. ah, well. we cut out early, citing the drama of the car troubles and the "long drive" and headed home, but not before getting "pocket angels" that had been blessed by some holy catholic guy as our shower favors. the irony was not lost on me that the outfit i was wearing did not have any pockets.

on work: the lease exchange (just one of the many projects this year) is coming to a close. by 5:00 tomorrow, it will be done. well, my part in it will be. to celebrate, i'm actually *taking vacation time* next week. i realized there was going to be a lull, and i'm taking advantage of it. monday and tuesday. and since mer will presumably still be temping for her mom, it will be alone time! yay! there has definitely not been enough of that in my life lately. of course, now that mer's dating someone in the same state, my alone time might increase. much happiness on that front, for a lot of reasons.

on fandom: i get my firefly dvds back tonight. i believe there will be a marathon next week when i'm off. also, i am feeling like a total squee-ish fangirl after having seen veronica and logan kiss for the first time last night. how did i miss out on all the original veronica mars goodness? why did nobody beat me with a tv guide and tell me to watch this damn show from the get-go? most importantly, why are the first season dvds coming out *after* season two starts? not fair. at all. of course, the fact that vm s2 premieres on the 28th and the serenity premiere is on the 30th make that a very good week indeed. statistically speaking, it also makes it a very good week for work to explode and for paige to be born. just sayin'.

that damn answers meme

1. Go here.
2. Pass it on.
( my answers )

why do i do this again?

the gallon of gravy is made, and bagged, and chilling. the glasses are washed and packed, as is as much of the serveware and stuff that i can pack this far in advance. there's another load of stuff finishing in the dishwasher. tomorrow after work, i do last-minute produce shopping, chop herbs, make sauce for ziti, roast the beef, slice the beef and the ham, make the sauces/broths for the chicken and beef, bake the rolls. fuzzybutchkins gets to unpack and pack the car(s) while i cook. saturday morning, get up nice and early, trim and bake the chicken, assemble the ziti (including boiling the pasta), make mashed potatoes, pack the rest of the crap. fuzzybutchkins gets to make the rice and haul more shit around. then we head to the site, cut the fruit, unpack all the shit, reheat and plate everything, bake the ziti, cook the beans, make the coffee, assemble the punch. Lunch service is at 1:45 (buffet). after lunch is done, while the attendees are doing the socializing-and-presents thing, we clean up, pack up, smoke lots, make sure the water pitchers stay full. Then we cut and serve the cake, pack up the glasses, and go the hell home. event's over at 5. there will be takeout for dinner.

i'm already exhausted, and i haven't *done* anything yet. every event i do, i hit this point where i ask why i do this (it's certainly not for the money), why i put my body through this. i always push through it, and once i get in the kitchen the day of, i'm sailing. feeding people...there's something spiritual about it for me, a giving, a connecting, that i just don't get anywhere else.

wow, i'm tired. there was a rant there, a stream of conciousness that i just lost. time to empty the dishwasher and put myself to bed.