Sometimes I like to solve disputes via the Graffiti ap

 
Idle Husband and I actually got into a heated debate one time over whether chickens had 4 legs or not.
I'll give him a point on the fact that if they did have 4 legs, it'd be pretty sweet.

Mmmm delicious!

Remember that first batch of crabapple jelly I mentioned? Remember how we managed to effectively boil all the water out of it turning it into gummy candy? Well, as it so happened, this was the very first jar we opened. How's that for luck?

* Yes, that knife is sticking straight up in the jelly. It's not leaning on any of the sides.

** And yes, it did take all of my arm muscles to get any jelly out, let alone stick a knife in there.

Normal life Greek Joke

I thought I might start a wee series of these. Idle Husband is originally from Greece, so every once in a while he'll come across a Greek word that we use commonly that just happens to translate hilariously in english. It hasn't happened that often, but when it does, we can't get enough of it.

#1

Oxi Clean. Oxi (pronounced 'oh-hee' in Greek) means 'no.' So something that we've come to understand as "this gets your stuff clean" actually means 'no clean' to Idle Husband. It's really hard to look beyond the 'no clean' thing now that I know.

So this happened...

Idle Wife says (4:19 PM): I took the drawer out of the oven, hoping I'd be able to spot my meat thermometer's battery, and instead, I spotted a WHOLE LOT MORE
wow.
just.
wow.

Idle Husband says (4:20 PM): uh oh
what did you spot monkey??

IW sends:

IH says (4:23 PM): NICE!!!!
what a bunch of fuckers!!!

IW says (4:24 PM): there's a hairbrush
a HAIRBRUSH
how the fuck did a hairbrush get lost under the stove?

IH says (4:24 PM): I SAW IT!!!
You have to be a huge fucker that's how!!!!!

IW says (4:24 PM): the cat stuff, like the tinfoil balls and marbles, and the fridge magnets, like I get that stuff. The lids, yeah ok I see that
but the HAIRBRUSH?

IW says (4:25 PM): oops! my hairbrush slid under the stove!
oh well, lost forever it is
I don't know why they've suddenly turned into the slovenly version of Yoda...

IH says (4:26 PM): (laughing) here I am, brushing my hair in the kitchen...

IW says (4:33 PM): Well, I had thoughts of cleaning under the stove, but I couldn't move it. The idea of taking the drawer out only just occurred to me today...
Just when I think we've managed to get rid of all the remnants from the previous owners, this happens.

IH says (4:37 PM): douchebags

IW says (4:38 PM): remember when I kept sweeping up cat food from under the fridge? I shudder to think what's under there
a curling iron?
a shoe?
*cringe*

IH says (4:38 PM): a live cat?

IW says (4:39 PM): more like a mummified cat. Petrified, maybe

Idle Vacation

What can I say about the Edmonton Zoo? Well, aside from being a super walk, it's not so great.

Oh, look. They have a pen of guinea pigs. Erhm, hm.

Gophers! Looking as bored at me as I am at them.

Porcupines! Ok, I really did love him, but that's because I'm already pretty partial to porcupines, and he was eating a sweet potato! Cutely! He was eating it, you guys!

Swans? I don't know. They look like swans, right? But they're black so that's where I start doubting myself. They were in the, oh lookit this! He's gonna come over! Let's stay and watch! category. But then he shot us this glaring, bugger-off look and promptly swam away.

Kangaroos in the darkest, most poorly lit area ever conceived by man -- well, one of them anyway. Taking pictures in this zoo was like pulling teeth.

I love how the fence ruined my chance at making a half-assed lol-owl picture. In fact, forget about the horrible lighting. The fences, chain link, and dirty glass ruined all of my other potential photo opportunities.

This is what all the interesting, exotic animals (you know, the animals you go to a zoo to see) were doing. Luckily, the tigers decided to sleep outside.

Everyone else had a little hidey-hole to take cover in so I couldn't get a picture. I think I see fur or tail or something, but I'm not quite sure.

This was taken just moments before she pooped. Idle Husband will never be the same.

Judgement? Go if you have kids. Kids don't notice this junk.

Now I should go and swiffer the stick off my kitchen floor.

Crabapple jelly (ingredients: crabapples, sugar). The colour is so pretty, and the taste is slightly tart and tangy with a hint of sweet.

Our first batch (read: two jars only) was more like crabapple gummy paste. We had no idea how long to boil it, so we ended up boiling most of the water out. I hope I have one of those jars and T has the other. It would be really sad if one of us got both jars because I doubt that batch is even spreadable. Chewable, but not spreadable.

Peach jam (ingredients: peaches, sugar). So sweet, a little tangy, but mostly sweet. I think this would be excellent on chicken, too.

T seems to think the first batch of this was slightly screwed up as well, but I have no way to confirm it.

Frozen plum slices.

Admittedly, we were going to make the plums into jam as well, but when I went to check on them the day before, I found that most of them had started to turn. So I made the executive decision to freeze them. It's too bad because they were so ripe and sweet and juicy straight off the tree, I think they would have made fabulous jam. Oh well, maybe next year.

We also made applesauce (ingredients: apple), but I decided not to take pictures of that since it looks, well, like applesauce and that's not exactly a very pretty and photogenic food.

I started typing food like this, 'phood'. My eyes must still be hungover from staring into a pot all yesterday.

Last night's msn conversation after standing over a steamy pot for 8 hours on one of the hottest days in September

Idle Wife says (5:15 PM): still making jam!

Idle Husband says (5:41 PM): I was worried about you

IH says (5:42 PM): i'm still writing emails

IW says (5:42 PM): well, whenever you're ready to come home, would you pick something up for dinner?

IH says (5:51 PM): ok but it'll be like 7 or something...
......
IW says (6:25 PM): oh. like in half an hour?
IW says (6:26 PM): like half an hour from when T JUST LEFT? like that 7?
IW says (6:28 PM): and how hungry are you?
I could just make soup.
there's also that option, if you want
but standing anywhere near or around the stove is very unappealing to me

IH says (6:33 PM): what'd ya fancy for dinner?
i'm fine with soup but sounds like you're not
want queeeznos??

IW says (6:33 PM): I'm fine with soup, too

IW says (6:34 PM): but what I didn't realize about jam/jelly making is that there's a whole lotta stirring involved.
literally.
we'd have been done by 2 if it wasn't for all the stirring

IW says (6:35 PM): if you could just boil the junk and then put it in jars, that's one thing, but you have to boil and boil and stir constantly until it's JUST RIGHT, which, by the way, the recipe never says what it's supposed to look like when it is JUST RIGHT so, it was a lot of standing, in hot steam while stirring, lifting our spoons every so often to see if it was JUST RIGHT
in hot steam
did you read the part about the hot steam?
my hair is poufy and my pores are unclogged
I guess the latter is something good

IW says (6:36 PM): I would like queeznos, yes, thank you.

The season's first oatmeal

I like it best when it gets cold.

It's the thought that counts and only taste matters.

To be honest, this year's birthday cake wasn't as bad a fiasco as last year's. I didn't have to make another cake, so that was good, but the cake I did make had to be royally salvaged.

I greased the pans really well, promise I did! Anyway, maybe I didn't wait long enough for them to cool or maybe I should have put flour over the butter, but when I inverted the damn things, half the cake crumbled out while the other half stayed firmly lodged in the pan.

The cake tasted pretty good, so I thought I'd just cool them and see if I could fix it with filling and icing.

This is my completely professional birthday layer cake. Prepare to take notes! Since my layering technique is so advanced, I've prepared a diagram to help explain.

I used the one and only cake stand I have which I immediately discovered is not flat. It bows down in the middle like a really tiny bowl. So when I started putting the filling on the worse of the two cake layers, I broke it in half when I pushed down into the divet to spread on the banana layer. Le sigh. To fix this problem, I broke up some cake pieces and wedged them under like a piece of folded paper under a wobbly table leg. What I lack in skills I make up for in ingenuity. That explains my shim layer. I needed another layer between the banana cream pie fillings for the pineapple, so with cake crumbs, I covered over the first banana layer as best I could before slathering on the pineapple. The peeled off bottom crust layer came from the bottom of the better looking cake since I actually managed to get that out of the pan in one whole piece. So even though it lacked any real substance, it made a very good division between the pineapple and banana. You'll notice that the second banana pie layer is a whole lot thicker than the first one. Well, instead of dividing up my filling so that each layer was equal, I just put it on until I thought it was enough. When I got to the second layer and had put on "enough", I realized I still had about 2 or more tablespoons of filling left and I didn't want to put that small amount back in the fridge, so I kept on spreading.  The rest is pretty self explanatory. The only thing left is the crust of coconut I expertly squished on top of the icing, spilling most of it on the counter and floor in the process.  It's still not quite stuck on, either. Idle Husband pointed out last night that we can't do anything with that cake without making a huge coconut mess everywhere. Right.

I'll give you an honest view of the whole thing. It's flawed, sure, but given what I had to work with, it was very pretty and presentable, despite being a little lopsided.

The taste is absolutely delicious! I could have put a larger pineapple layer, but at the time I was thinking it would be too tart and I really wished I'd added some sugar. After it had sat for a while and with the combination of the other sweet things, the pineapple layer is really nice and not tart at all. We still have half the cake left and we've been snacking on it since Tuesday. I think we're both trying to make it last as long as possible.

That day, though, was like a disaster a minute! I started to make a card for IH (I had this cute connect-the-dots idea), but when I went to erase my pencil outline, it wouldn't and the pencil smeared all over my perfect cardstock. I went downstairs to find another eraser (I'm sure I have a bag of them) but I couldn't find them. Instead, I found these iron-on crayons T gave me a million years ago. Well, honestly, I'd never used them and since everything had become this nightmare for me, I felt like that day was a good day to try something new I'd never tested before ever.

So I drew a picture of a monkey (my pet name for IH) -- well, several monkey pictures until I decided it looked more like a bear and I had to go to the internet to see what a cartoon monkey should look like. And then, after writing "monkey" forwards only to realize it should be backwards, I had to cut that part off my cute monkey picture and intently rewrite it backwards (though I notice the 'Y' is still wrong). Then I chose a black shirt and went downstairs to iron it on, only to realize that the black wouldn't show up. Sigh again. I ended up ironing it on a white tank top basically ensuring that if things went wrong, he'd NEVER wear it out of the house. I didn't know how long I was supposed to hold the iron on and I wanted to keep it on longer, but the image slipped so that's when the ironing process stopped. It worked perfectly albeit a little faded, though I've decided that really works for the tank top. Ah, yup. Perfection.

Oh, but it doesn't stop there. I also bought some of those cute candles shaped like letters. We never do candles, but how could I pass them up? They were so cute! I made him wait while I arranged them on the cake and started to light them. These candles are seriously hard to light and once on fire, I realized that they melt down really quickly. Panicking, I quickly got them lighted and for whatever stupid reason, I wanted to move the cake into the dining room. I think because it was darker in there and I thought it would give a nice effect all candles in the dark. So while the candles were lit, I started moving the cake and pretty immediately, most of them went out before I managed to even get halfway there. So while some were still melting away (stupid D), I had to grab the lighter and start relighting. Anyway, they refused to stay lit and some of the ones that had stayed lighted during movement, had started going out, so I abandonded the idea completely and called him over to blow out the four remaining lighted candles. I think I phrased it like this, would you just come blow out your damn candles already, this isn't working at all. Oh, yeah make a wish.

And so ended another IH birthday celebration. To imagine that I was actually thinking of having a party with guests this year. Me. Arranging a party. With other people. Who would have had to view my lopsided cake and candle disaster. I shudder at the thought.

I guess it turned out pretty good

Idle Husband -- ...and maybe later...we could maybe have some cake...
(slight pause as he lifts his shirt)
IH -- Must maintain the muffin top!

There be a bakin' curse upon this day

Today is Idle Husband's birthday. As I set out this morning to make the cake (to his specifications), I was quickly reminded of last year's birthday cake and the huge disaster it turned out to be. So as I'm desperately trying to salvage what's left of this year's cake, I'll tell you about last year's.

Idle Husband loves ice cream so my immediate thought was to attempt to make an ice cream cake. At the time, we had just moved from my very small, cramped apartment to our house, so I was (in my defense) rusty when it came to baking. I honestly hadn't done it for about eight years. But that didn't stop my elaborate cake idea. 

I gathered all of my ingredients together the day before and after IH had gone to work, I set about with a recipe I'd found on the internet. For the first time in a long time, I found myself with a huge amount of counter space so excitedly, I laid out all the ingredients, and I greased and floured my pans. Quite a far cry from how I used to bake where I would just grab ingredients as I needed them, throwing things together and substituting when I was halfway through a recipe and found I didn't have an ingredient. This time, I was prepared.

After mixing everything together and following the instructions entirely, I put the cakes in the oven and settled into cleaning up the utensils. I still had a lasagna I was going to prep for supper.

The cakes were ten minutes into their bake time, so I decided to check in on them.  As I opened the door, I found them overflowing out of their pans and all over the oven. Bubbling and pouring out the sides like miniature chocolate volcanoes. I panicked a little, then I don't know why, I thought that maybe that was normal. Maybe that's what they were supposed to do and I'd overfilled the pans. I cried a little over the mess I'd have to clean up later, but I decided to let them continue cooking.

Ten minutes later, I opened the door again. One cake had completely emptied itself into the bottom of the oven while the other was in the process of following. Squealing in panic, I grabbed some oven mitts and wore them while wringing my hands, staring inside the oven door. I finally decided that this was wrong. Something was wrong, and I had to put a stop to it. Awkwardly, I pulled them out with their gooey, chocolatey mess dripping all around me. I cursed the recipe I'd used, because I could swear I followed it right to the letter.

When I looked at it again and went through the list of ingredients. I saw my problem. I forgot to add the flour.

They'd included it in the ingredients list but failed to have a step in the process of when to add it to the batter. In my excitement of following the directions, I didn't use my brain and think to check the ingredients, too.

So my big plan to have everything done by about 2 -- to allow for ice cream cake freezing time and cooking the components to the lasagna and assembling before IH got home -- was completely shot. It took an hour to clean up the sticky, chocolatey mess from inside the oven, and then I had to go back to the grocery store for more eggs in order to make the cake again.

My second attempt was more successful. This time I remembered to add flour.

There's been way too many bouncy slides over there

me -- They have another bouncy slide set up at the school today.

me -- Is school even about learning anymore?
IH -- learning how to slide!!
me -- bah! I've never once been on a bouncy slide let alone one at my school!
IH -- there's your chance!

me -- I'm pretty sure they'd haul me away...

me -- ... though, no one's around guarding it...

Fruit Harvest Time

Crabapples

Regular apples

Plums

Tomatoes

The pears aren't ready yet, unfortunately! Aren't they cute?!

Bake day Part II

Today T and I boiled up enough potatoes and eggs to make a huge potato salad, and we chopped up a ton of beef, red/green peppers, and onion to make skewers. Since this is for a camping/canoe trip, we decided to keep things separate so they'd stay fresh but still be easily combined. About an hour later I opened the fridge to find that T had left the dressing for the potato salad. Since this camp out starts tomorrow, I figured I'd better phone to get them to come and pick it up. It's still really awkward when it's just me and T's husband. Like, he comes to the door and I've already got her stuff in a bag and he just stands there after I've handed it over. So I stammer on about how the dressing is "packed pretty tightly" so he'd better "make sure it sits up cuz I don't know if it's gonna leak." And he keeps standing and staring, so I feel like I have to keep filling the empty void with words. Words that keep getting dumber and dumber until he finally decides to start turning away, and I can shut the door and end the convo-of-death. I don't think I've figured out the art of hello and goodbye yet. Or maybe I'm just super awkward with people. I am pretty socially inept most of the time after all.

The Superstore is not the devil

Yesterday, against better judgement, I decided to try shopping at Superstore for my groceries, and it did not completely suck. I've always hated Superstore. I've been in there a few times for food and in that small amount of time spent, I would increasingly get more and more incredibly annoyed, angry, frustrated, and fed up. Previous thoughts included: Superstore is not user friendly. Superstore does not have deals. Superstore is way too busy -- I mean, packed like sardines, waiting in line to push your cart 3 inches forward busy. Superstore is hard to get around in. Superstore's carts are a dollar, I never have a loonie and they're kept outside and when it's -50 I don't want to push my own frozen cart, through the snow and ice, inside. Superstore is filled with annoying shoppers who take forever to pick out a vegetable, and I don't want to stand idly behind them while they do it. Anyway, mom recently became a fan and she's been going on and on about the savings and the prices and how she doesn't get bombarded with 30 plastic bags each trip. T is also a big fan and if anyone knows how to save it's her (I thought I was thrifty, but she's Queen). So what I'm saying is that I've been hearing the Superstore-love from all sides. I finally decided to give it an unbiased try just because of the plastic bag situation. If I'm shopping with Idle Husband, I can easily use my reusable bags at Safeway cuz I can leave him to unpack the cart while I explain that I don't need bags and I'll do the packing myself. When I'm alone it's incredibly hard. They either start packing stuff into bags before I can tell them or I tell them and for whatever reason they don't hear or it doesn't register and they pack bags anyway or (even worse) they insist on packing the bags for me and they don't do it properly (having gotten way too used to putting one or two items in a bag and calling it quits). So I've just been letting them do their thing and about once a month, I take all my extra bags to the bag recycling bins they've got at stores now. It's been irritating me lately, because I have some really cute bags T and I sewed together that are just sitting around getting no use at all, and I like doing my part to reduce plastic bag usage. Plus if I use my own bags, I only have to carry 3 bags into the house as opposed to 10. So here's what I discovered.

1. Going between 8 and 9 in the morning seems to be a good hour for Superstore shopping. I'm already a big fan of getting to stores early before the rest of the city wakes up, and I tested this timing out on a holiday so this rule should stand up even better on a normal working Monday.
2. It's incredibly hard to read the signs for what's in each aisle. If they could just put one them off centre it would be so much better. If you're not in the middle aisle where you can easily see both signs on either side of you, you're pretty much screwed for knowing what's down the further aisle. I found myself squatting down trying to see under the sign in front so I could see what was in the back aisle. This must be one of those grocery store ploys to force you to go down every aisle increasing your chance for impulse purchases. Tsk tsk, for shame.
3. Finding obscure items (which, for me, turned out to be freezer bags) can turn into an epic, back-and-forth quest (one that I gave up on pretty quickly).
4. It's still populated by the weirdly attentive produce shoppers. Even at 8:30 in the morning, these people are there (luckily not as many of them at once), dedicated to finding the perfect piece of produce. There was one woman at the cheap leaf lettuce who insisted on touching every single bunch. Honestly, they all looked the same to me. Same size, same quality. Same same same. Like, pick one and move on already. There was another woman at the bananas. Picking each bunch up and turning it over only to put it back again. Ok here's my thing with bananas. I don't like them ripe, I like them a little green. The greener the better (if anything they'll ripen in the bowl at home). So here they had a selection of green, green/yellow, and more-yellow bananas. Pick what colour you want, pick the number you want and move on. I don't understand this touching every single one business. I don't think I've ever picked a rotten banana or one that was bruised beyond repair. This sort of thing really irritates me for some reason. They're produce snobs.

   Oh, this banana bunch has one banana with a slight brown spot! I narrowly avoided disaster! Better put it back. Oh, this lettuce has one leaf that's slightly crumpled, I need to look further into the pile! My quest isn't over!

   Sigh. I can understand doing this with melons or oranges, but bananas and lettuce kinda leaves me going, like, stop being so damn full of yourself, fruit snob. You're not going to pick a better one than everyone else. I guarantee it. Your lettuce isn't going to taste more lettucy because you spent that extra 5 minutes searching the perfect one out.
5. I really enjoyed being able to say no to bags and pack my own. Really enjoyed it. I ended up having 2 bags. TWO!
6. The prices were marginally cheaper. From what I could remember of prices from Safeway and Walmart (my usuals), they might have been equal or 3-4 cents cheaper. Whoop-dee-doo. Mom insists that it's because most things you have to buy in multiple for it to be cheaper and that I didn't see this information on the tags. Well, ok then. Fair enough. I'll look harder next time (though, you'd think they'd advertise their lower prices a little better since that's, like, a major selling point)

I'm going to continue my experiment next week and spend a little more time looking for where things are and getting used to the layout. I think I was so overwhelmed with finding what was on my list, I forgot the normal weekly things I don't put on my list because they're routine items. So I've found myself with a list started for next week and it's only been a day since I went. *rolling eyes* Wish me luck on round two.

"I wish I hadn't have had that orange crush."

I decided to start my old workout routine today, a VCR tape from Tony Little (don't laugh! It got results in the past!) I recorded it on Idle Husband's DVR last year in an attempt to modernize (ok, there was some fight about that because I was just fine using the VCR, but he thought it was outrageous to be using such outdated technology -- I was also recording tv shows onto tapes at that time, too), but slowly, ever so slowly, I started to lose interest. This is saying a lot since Tony Little was the only workout that actually kept my interest. He's got a scraggly pony tail, and he's got horrible '90s workout music, and he's wearing spandex, and he says crazy things that don't make any sense! What's not to love?! It was so motivating despite the fact that I'd been hearing the same things every other day for 6 months. Personally, I blame the DVR. It was slow to start and slow to process and I had to change the tv input and push the buttons at least twice just to queue up the menu and then wait for it to load. SIGH. All I had to do with the VCR was turn it on and push play. Easy. One thing about me and working out is that I can be incredibly lazy. The stupid DVR taking another minute or two to get the workout going was not helping. So on my decision this weekend to start back on Tony, I went to get the DVR working. Well, no surprise, I couldn't figure out how to operate the damn thing. Idle Husband seems to think it's not hooked up properly (we don't use it much anymore) and suggested checking cables. Scoffing at that, I hooked up my old VCR on the tv downstairs and popped in the tape -- old school. Idle Husband -- oh you and your liking of the '80s! me -- Tony Little's back, baby! IH -- with a vengeance? me -- naturally, and with a hearty dose of sexual innuendo

Idle Vacation

We had wanted to go to the Muttart Conservatory for the longest time. I'm in love with plants and flowers. I have about a hundred books and about double that in random plant pictures. Unfortunately, the Muttart Conservatory had been under construction just about a month after we both moved here and has been until recently. We waited patiently until the weekend after the grand opening and scheduled one of our impromptu city vacations for the next Saturday.

It's a very pretty and peaceful spot to be. I don't know what it looked like prior to the renovations, but it's a gorgeous place to walk around now. They have benches scattered about so you can sit and enjoy the plants and also the climate of each zone. It was surprisingly busy, though, so you did have to walk around a bit to find a good bench. I do have a couple gripes about it, unfortunately. Firstly, for the money, I don't think there's enough there. You can walk around outside and see their landscaped property for free which is just about equal to what's inside plus it's a better walk overall. They have four pyramids. Three remain constant and one is reserved for special installations. When we went, the special installation theme was music and there were interesting instrument displays accompanying the plants, but it wasn't amazing. All of the feature pyramid plants I noticed, I could easily buy in any retail store in the city which really helped to make it less than spectacular. Not surprisingly, it was the only pyramid where we had the place entirely to ourselves, and we spent most of our time there just because it was empty and we like being away from crowds. Secondly, I have a major gripe with the gift shop. Why weren't the gifts plant related? If there had been cuttings of the cacti, for example, I would have been the first one loading up the counter with purchases (I used to have a crown of thorns and would very much like to have one again. I've never seen them sold in stores and it was so hard for me not to take my own cutting -- if it hadn't have been so darn busy, I probably would have). Instead, they had typical gift trinkets I would expect to see in any drug store. Boring. If the focus is on the plants, I don't want to buy a watch made with cheap, washed stones, you know? I was just so frustrated with this given that their special installation room was filled with plants I knew I could buy anywhere. Besides, if I know how to easily propagate cacti, shouldn't they?

It wasn't a terrible waste of time and money, but given the amount of time they took to finish their renovations, my expectations weren't matched, and that's particularly upsetting to me because of my fixation on plants. Maybe this was what they could manage in order to open when they did and maybe it'll be more developed with time. I sure hope so. It's such a great concept and would be a fantastic place to hang out during the long winter months. Maybe we'll check it out again when we've had enough grey and -50 degree weather.

Bake day!

I helped T bake some goodies for her youths' canoe trip next weekend.

Blueberry muffins with a crumb topping.

We were short a cup of blueberries for the last batch so we used raspberries.

Oatmeal muffins with almonds and craisins with a sugar crust.

I've never made so many muffins at once in my whole life! Chocolate chip cookies. Oatmeal raisin and oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies.

Finally! An excuse to use my pretty cups!

Gah! I have such a hard time figuring out what to eat every day!

I feel like I'm not doing anything, so I don't have to eat as much. But I am doing stuff, and I get hungry eventually -- you know, cuz I'm human.

Without a fixed schedule, it's been really hard for me to define an eating routine (and I love my routines). Sometimes I'm not hungry right away for breakfast and then all of a sudden it's lunch or closer to 2 and I think, I should eat cuz I'm starving, but supper's going to be soon and that's the one meal I definitely eat regularly. It's just been so frustrating trying to figure it out.

Anyway, on those days when I'm not immediately hungry (like today), I've been trying to snack instead of having a complete lunch (also hard because I've never been a snacker). I've been really hooked on plain rice cakes with peanut butter and jam or honey, but I'm all out of those. So today I decided to whip up a peanut butter banana shake and slice up some apples.

I don't know where I originally found this recipe (so if it's yours leave a comment and I'll link it), but it's easy and fast and you don't have to have milk on hand (good for us because we don't really like milk so it's very rarely in the fridge)

Peanut Butter & Banana Shake

2 frozen bananas

1 tblsp honey

1 tblsp peanut butter

1 cup water

Blend all that up in a blender until nice and frothy! Enjoy in a fancy cup!

I have arm phobia, guys!

-- I wanted to wear my new tank top today for our walk, but I had to wear a small sweater over it. You know, cuz I hate my arms, right? -- (rolling eyes)

-- But it's so hot outside. So hot. -- And by the time I got to T, I just couldn't muscle through the heat anymore. So against my better judgment, I took my sweater off and walked around with my bare arms all out in public. IN PUBLIC!

-- Be proud of me and my first-ever bared arms in public. -- IN PUBLIC!! (laughing hysterically)