weapons of massdistraction

Today was a big day, and it had nothing to do with the holiday. Nope, it marked my first day back to work since we lost Felix. I can’t claim the day was a difficult one. I enjoy what I do and I adore my co-workers. We share common interests and they make me laugh and feel at ease. And I’d talked the husband into baking one of his acclaimed chocolate cakes (aka “the crack cake” - called thusly for its high cocoa content) for me to share with them. So in the morning we got all sugared up, then ordered pizza for lunch, and engaged in some minor Nerf gun skirmishes in the afternoon. No complaints. But I do know my limits. I’m just not ready to go back to working full time. I tire easily and have some healing to do yet. And I want to spend more time with the little man while I still can (he’s in half-day kindergarten for the rest of this schoolyear, next schoolyear it’s first grade all day). So for now I’m going to work part-time. And I’m lucky to work for a company that is okay with that.

In other news, Netflix doesn’t know what to make of the husband. He has eclectic tastes, to be sure, and requests and rates such a strange variety of selections that they seem to be at their wit’s end when it comes to recommending DVDs for him. First off, the number of recommendations he receives has dwindled. Then there’s the matter of quality. His most recent recommendation? The first season of…The Cosby Show. Can I just say wtf?

It’s shaping up to be a busy weekend. Tonight the little man is staying over at Grandma’s house, so the husband and I are trying to agree on a way to spend the evening, you know, together-like. I wouldn’t mind going to see The Beauty King, but the husband, he is not down with that. Mostly all he cares about is going to Kinh Do. He’s recently become addicted to their tofu and potatoes (crispy-fried, like potato chips). But maybe we’ll go see Walk the Line before or after crispy potato consumption.

Now for my a PSA. Tomorrow morning everyone in the area should head down to the annual Pancakes not Prisons! event.

The annual Women’s Prison Book Project Pancake Breakfast is this Saturday, and we would love to see everyone there!

When: Saturday, Feb 11 8am until noon
Where: Walker Community Church, 3104 16th Ave S in Minneapolis (just off of Lake St and Bloomington Ave)
What: All you can eat buttermilk and vegan pancakes, grits, fruit salad, coffee, tea and juice.
Cost: Adults $6/Kids $3

All proceeds benefit The Women’s Prison Book Project (WPBP). WPBP is an all-volunteer, grassroots organization which sends free books and resources to women and transgender prisoners all over the U.S.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must head to the salon to have my hair done. And damn if I don’t sound all girly. Eww.

Kvetchfest coming at ya. It’s been a long frustrating day. Nothing terrible has happened, just a gradual build-up of one minor nuisance atop another until I felt like my brain was going to asplode. It started out well enough. Saw the little man off at the bus stop and decided to take care of some piddly errands afterwards. Thankfully Target opens early so that was an easy stop. But at 9am the mall’s stores (ugh, I don’t generally “mall”) weren’t open, yet the place was teeming with mallwalkers. It was odd to see one elderly gentleman fast-walking to nowhere while listening to an iPod. Which brings me to one of my errands - taking my fairly new iPod mini to the Apple Store. It up and died on me the other day. On top of that, this morning I realized my cell phone was nowhere to be found. It’s just not my week for technology. The especially irritating thing - I don’t use my cell phone every day so I wasn’t sure how long it had been missing. I had visions of some opportunistic individual finding it on the street, days and days ago, and spending the intervening time using it to rack up long distance bills to Russia, or worse…calling the Corey Hotline. But that wasn’t the case. When I got home later the husband quickly located the damned thing…plugged into the charger where I had left it. I am losing my marbles. So my phone has been recovered, yes, but the iPod is still kaput. A slew of Mac lovers had all pre-booked appointments at the freaking Genius Bar, so upon opening this morning the staff at the Apple Store had their hands full. I could have waited, I guess, but I felt my blood sugar levels were dropping (coffee is not, technically, breakfast) and my impatience growing. I made a pit stop back at the house instead, to refuel, before heading out for my afternoon date with the little man, his bio-Dad, and…the passport office. I don’t think I need to elaborate on that one. The icing on the cake? After I finally got home, for good, the husband decided to drop this tidbit: a trip to Hawaii would have cost us less than our impending trip to Iceland, and it would be a helluva lot warmer. He might have mentioned this before we, you know, booked our trip. Pardon me while I go poke my eyes out.

Bonus: Apparently this here blog was the City Pages MN blog of the day on Monday. But this is what they had to say:

“A 32-year-old hipmama blogs about Constantine, being drug-free, and going to Reykjavik at Mass Distraction.”

Hmmm. It seems like they might have just skimmed the bit where I ran out of percocet and figured I’m some sort of recovering addict instead of recovering from surgery. Unless they were referring to my long-time straight-edgedness, which is cool.
Plus: You know who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it seem worthwhile? The fine folks at Drawn and Whip Up, that’s who.
And: With our vacation on the horizon [and yes, I will enjoy Reykjavik just as much as I would have enjoyed Hawaii, dammit, albeit with more clothes on] Flight 001 is one dangerous site for me to discover just now (via PopGadget).
And another thing: Today I think I have abused commas, ellipses and parens even more than usual. So sue me. Umm, I think someone needs to go to bed. Right now.

Two words: stomach flu. Ah, hell…a few more words. Who am I kidding? I’m more verbose than all that. So, this morning’s violent retching has made it feel as though I’ve dislocated my right shoulder. I am unable to find a comfortable position in which to be miserable, but I suppose that only serves to heighten my state of miserableness.
Footnote: This post was typed entirely with one hand. Look ma, no typos!

This morning I was up early, bathed and dressed even, testing out the “Fronch” toast recipe from my new Vegan with a Vengeance cookbook…all before 10am. After breakfast I offered to take the little man to the Walker’s family day festivities. But it was a no-go. And who can blame him, after rushing off to school first thing in the morning, five days a week. So instead he’s been lounging in his pajamas all day long, watching movies on my laptop. Hey, that’s my job! Buh.

Now the husband, he is often skeptical of these new-fangled cookbooks that make their way into our home. And, not unlike many high school home-ec teachers, he prefers an older edition of The Joy of Cooking to all other cookbooks. But he dutifully thumbed through Vegan with a Vengeance and saw that it contains a recipe for biscuits, one that was veganized from an old school Betty Crocker recipe, so he thought he’d give it a go. He is the starch king after all, so he whipped up a batch of those, along with mashed potatoes…while I made the batter-fried seitan and gravy (one of our standards). Mmmmmm, starch-y. We will be making those biscuits again. But I do want to try something from the cookbook other than carb-laden goods. Next on the list, the white bean and roasted garlic soup.

Bonus: I love it when the little man spontaneously bursts into song. It’s especially funny when it’s “I like to move it, move it” from Madagascar, a movie we’e seen exactly once.
Plus: Right now I could be at the Is This Art or Is This Punk? Fest. And I really should be there, considering how close it is to our house, and how rarely anything of interest happens near here, but instead I am watching as the husband plays more DragonQuest VIII. So sad.