weekend, and other stuff, except not

Our weekend was good. Saturday we did nothing much. Well, we went to a couple of electronics stores to look at digital cameras ;) and the pet store to look at birds and lizards (not to buy, just to look) and so forth. We also checked out a playground we had never been to before, but it was still a bit too snowy/icy for comfort.

Sunday we went to grandma's house and I went to an informal parents' session about the Somerville schools, organized by a School Committee member and hosted at a coffeehouse. There were moms there with kids in the schools, available to talk about the individual schools and the process overall. It was definitely helpful and I learned a lot, but still have a lot of questions. (I shall perhaps write about this in more detail later.) The next step is to visit some schools. They all have open houses on Jan 23-25, so I have to figure out how to make that happen.

Oh, I also did order the camera ;) Actually, I had a moment of pause when I looked at last month's credit card statement (and went "yikes" :( ) and realized that after this month's statement I'll have enough points for a $25 Amazon gift certificate. So then I thought maybe I should wait until I get that, and use it on the camera. But then I thought I wouldn't get the gc for at least two more weeks yet, and couldn't wait that long! ;) So I just ordered it anyway. It's not like I'll have difficulty finding something else to order with the gc. ;) If I'm feeling guilty I can use it to buy diapers or some such. I did manage to restrain myself from shelling out extra $$ for expedited shipping. ;)

I also checked a couple of my online survey places that offer points, and found that between two of them I had enough points for three 1-GB memory cards. (The new camera uses a different kind of memory card than my old one, which is unfortunate since I've spent so much time building up a collection of cards, but ah well.) So I ordered one of them and we'll see whether I feel the need for more. :) I'm so excited! I can't wait till the camera gets here. I ordered it shipped to the office so I won't have to spend every day this week wondering whether it's sitting on my porch. Of course, with my luck that'll mean it arrives on Saturday.... ;)

In other random news I finally got around to packaging up the three "Thomas the Tank Engine" trains that we have that are affected by last year's recall. (Mind you I have not been letting the kids play with them all this time! They've been sitting on my desk, out of reach.) Then I went online to print out the form that you need to mail in with them, and discovered that they also give you a printable mailing label that includes postage! Good thing I checked that out before going to the post office. :)

OK, I was going to go on, but this is getting long so I'll make the other stuff a separate post, coming soon to a flist near you.

be it resolved

I'm not really a "resolution-making" type, but in 2008 I do have a few concrete goals, listed in no particular order:
a) continue working on getting the apartment cleaned up on an ongoing basis
b) continue expanding my culinary repertoire, i.e., cooking new things
c) continue reading a lot

So I'll probably be posting here a lot about those things, and if it gets to be too unwieldy or whatever, I'll consider creating filters for them -- although in general I'm not a big believer in that approach -- but if you feel strongly that I should do that, feel free to comment. :)

Here are some brief updates on the statuses of those three things for right now.

Cleaning/organizing: Not much to say on this front right now. I am happy with how the living room is looking, although it could use more sweeping (darn hardwood floors show every speck of dirt). The kitchen is so-so. The front hall is looking pretty good since I moved the little table out (we need more space for removing coats/boots when we first come in; in spring/summer I might consider replacing the table). The bathroom and bedrooms still need a lot of work.

I think I might start concentrating on my bedroom in the next week or two since the kitchen is going nowhere right now. This may involve the resolution of my long-ongoing debate about what to do with clothing items that are way too big now. I say "may involve" because although resolving that debate is one option, sticking the aforementioned items in the basement and worrying about it later is also an option. ;) Having a big basement can be both a blessing and a curse. ;)

Cooking: Over the weekend we made oatmeal cookies from the High Flavor, Low Fat Vegetarian Recipes cookbook. The recipe uses applesauce instead of butter, and egg whites instead of whole eggs. They came out quite well: extremely moist and chewy, good taste although not what I think of as a "traditional" oatmeal cookie taste. Still, definitely good and we will make them again. Maybe with chocolate chips, although that will cut down on the "low fat" part. ;) Tonight I'm hoping to try the curry potatoes from that book, and/or the "tofu in gravy" from the other vegetarian cookbook I recently got from mom.

BTW, part of the purpose of doing more cooking is to reduce the number of times per week that I go out for lunch. Even if I go to one of the cheaper lunch places in Harvard Square, where you can get a quite decent lunch for $5-6, that's still $30/week or $120/month or thereabouts, and that's a lot. If I could get to a place where I'm consistently bringing my lunch even just 2 days a week, that would be a big improvement. And even if that lunch is sometimes just, like, a peanut-butter sandwich and some carrot sticks, that would still count (even though of course it doesn't count as "expanding my culinary repertoire").

( The update on my reading project got a little long so it's behind this here cut )

Of course, I also have some less tangible goals for the upcoming period of time, like, you know ... being more patient with the kids, listening to more music with the kids, making more connections with other parents, that kind of thing. And of course, finding a kindergarten for Isaac. Oh, and the more pedestrian/boring goals: finding a new pediatrician, getting myself new glasses, blah blah....

nothing to see

This is a reminder to me to post about the dream where I was getting married.

This is a reminder to me to post about the curry potatoes. yum.

Conversation that has happened thrice in recent days:
Ruthie: (busts out laughing for no apparent reason)
Me: What's so funny?
Ruthie: Ootie!
Me: Is Ruthie funny?
Ruthie: Yah, funny!