(MMP)Triple step, triple step . .

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Yeah, Sean, it’s snowing here. Most of the schools in the area let out an hour to 2 hours early, and pretty much all evening stuff has been canceled. But the roads are just wet and so far, there’s just a white dusting on the grass and trees. Of course, it’s supposed to continue all night to a total of 7" (I believe that’s the current threat.) I’ve got the base status website bookmarked so I can check it first thing. I won’t be surprised if we get a delayed opening.

FCD called just a bit ago - he’s finished with his work out west and he’ll be coming back home tomorrow. So I’ve got a lot of tidying to do in 2 days. Yeah, I made a wreck of this place since yesterday - so what??

welby, I’m properly impressed. And I’m glad you’re back. Pull up a chair and set a spell!

Sadly, that’s all I’ve got. No amusing anecdotes or pithy observations. No secret news from Rue, no cheap shots at that old geezer, swampy. Guess I’m slipping. <sigh>

42

big sigh of annoyance and possible breakdown My job got ten times harder for the duration of the Christmas season. Alas, I will probably not have a whole lot of surfin’ time until January, so don’t get alarmed if I disappear.

more sighing And all this just after I told a friend that I wasn’t going to need drugs to get through the day. :stuck_out_tongue:

43

welby, good job. But if you want to learn dancing, let me know, I’m an excellent dancer. (Warning: old picture. But I still have the skills).

I put up my tree:

Full tree. Ignore all the mess in the bookshelf!

Tree topper. We didn’t have a good one, so I used a penguin.

I’m off this week, so I won’t be around much, but I did want to check in. Be back later!

44

I haven’t heard from Bobbio! :frowning:

Gotti, my darling, you’ve come to the right place.
**Pumpkin and Black Bean Soup **
6 servings; vegan

1½ to 2 lbs. pumpkin or other winter squash
2 tbs. olive oil
2 medium leeks, (white and pale green parts) halved, well-washed and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
5 to 6 cups vegetable stock or canned broth
15-oz can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tbs. tamari or soy sauce
1 tbs. grated peeled fresh gingerroot
1 tsp. ground cumin
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Quarter and seed pumpkin. Steam until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool.

Meanwhile, in medium skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add leeks and garlic and cook, stirring often, until leeks are softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Scrape pumpkin from peel. In large pot, combine pumpkin flesh, sweet potato, bell pepper and 5 cups broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sweet potato is tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

In food processor or blender, puree soup, in batches if necessary. If soup is too thick, add additional broth. Return mixture to pot. Add leek mixture and remaining ingredients. Simmer until heated through. 10 to 15 minutes.

Per 1-1/2 cup serving: 163 ca.; 6G prot.; 4G total fat (1G sat. fat); 29G carb.; 0 chol.; 467 MG sod.; 4G fiber.

–
It is delicious! I recommend chopping the leeks, though. Just slicing them produces long stringy pieces that are difficult to eat. I did steam the pumpkin, but several people have told me that it’s easier to bake a pumpkin than steam it. I don’t know; I haven’t tried.

45

We used to show a modicum of restraint and hold the recipes until the second page.

Sheesh.

46

Well, Ex, if you posted more frequently, we’d get to page 2 faster! Sheesh!

:stuck_out_tongue:

47

<insert string of swear words of your choice here>

I just highlighted my hair. I felt a wee drab what with the days so short and all.

It’ll probably be fine, but there is this big dollop shaped blonde splat right in the center of my natural part! I didn’t plan that, so I must not have done the app correctly.
<insert more swear words>

Am home from errands and am wasting time.

I need to get my daughter a small Christmas gift. Her BIG present is a plane ticket outta here (well, not quite like that)–she gets to go visit her bestest ever friend in Boston over New Year’s. But, I wanna to get her a lil(very lil) something.

Ideas?
Thunderstorm drills. What’s next? Disaster plans for fog? Humidity warning bells?

Waaay too cold to thunder here–it’s about 17 outside. Nice to see the sun, though.

Drae -when is the big moving day? Don’t do what we did 17 years ago and move in on 12/23…

48

Closing is currently scheduled for January 12, so probably around the 14th–I won’t be able to wait long. :slight_smile: I can paint around furniture, but I won’t be able to spend many more nights in my crappy apartment with my substandard plumbing when I know I own a bell tower.

And actually, I’d probably be thrilled to move in on 12/23–I could spend my birthday in my new house, and I’d be guaranteed at least one day of paid vacation to unpack. :smiley:

49

::Lightbulb On:: :smack:

Y’all just reminded me…time to put up the no snow signs. :smiley:

::Makes note to Mr. Anachi to get the signs outta garage::

50

I’m sorry; I have been remiss.

Nice to meet you, welby --is your first name Marcus? (bet you get that alot).
Why, yes, I’ll take my chances–er, dance with you, it that’s what you’re asking.

51

I getted my waffle house paycheck today. All 27 dollars of it. I love waiting tables.

I really have to go to the bathroom. Sorry, dance partners that I didn’t have. (Unless welby was going to let all 4 of the HMMP group dance together.)

52

<snerk> there’s probably more action in the bathroom than on the dance floor.
<snerk>

53

That can be said for every club I’ve ever been to. :slight_smile:

54

OK, I’m officially a grinch. I can’t figure out why the lights on my supposedly pre-lit tree won’t light. So I’m wrapping it all up and putting it back in the attic. I don’t want to mess with it, especially since we won’t be here for Christmas anyway.

Humbug.

55

You forgot the “BAH!” part.

That’s okay, this is the last year for the lights that I have for my tree. I’m going to have to break down and buy some new lights. Some flash, some don’t. Mine have that knob thingy that will let you set the lights to full on all the time, to twinkly, to runnning, etc. Some of the lights have burned out. I have two strings of those and then I had to supplement with other strings. It won’t matter too much once the rest of the decorations are up, I suppose.

Oh, and they don’t sell angel hair anymore, so I can’t make my wintry little wonderland in my fireplace niche. Well, I can, but I’ll have to get all crafty. I don’t like that batting stuff with sparklies. It’s flat and blah. So, I bought some fiber fill stuffing, which I’ll pull and sorta rake out. Next, I’ll spray glue it and shake that sparkly snow looking stuff on top of it. We’ll see how it turns out. It probably won’t, since I’m not really a crafty person. But, it’s worth a try.

Well, back to work.

56

Good lord! The last time I had an IM open was when I was sending our DC pics to supervenusfreak ('cause the printer’s hooked up to his CowMachine). Before that the hiatus was pretty much on the order of two years…I hate IM…

57

Fiiiine, jayjay

::turns other way::

::turns back around::

Has anyone else seen this? I wonder if I cry enough, if my mom will forgo an entire month of income to buy me one. :stuck_out_tongue:

58

ems YAY! On gettin’ your car back.

I’m all packed up for my trip up nawth. I talked to the guy I’ll be working with this afternoon to make plans to meet up at the airport, rent the car and get to the hotel. He doesn’t drive, so I get to use my mad snow driving skilz tomorrow. He’s from Arizona, btw. I can drive in snow. I know, cause I once drove from Cincinnati to a litty bitty town in Indiana 70 miles away while it was snowing. At night. I was so proud of myself.

ACBG is such a sweetie! He told me that he’s driving me to the airport tomorrow. I was planning on driving and just leaving my car. He said he’d rather take me out to the airport and come get me Friday night than for me to pay the $15.00 per day to park. AWWWWW… Of course he also pointed out that I’d be all tired and grumpy at eleven p.m. Friday night and didn’t need to drive cause I’d probably run over somebody on purpose. It’s like he knows me all too well. :smiley:

59

Does anyone know of online patterns for making children’s hand covers out of fleece? I’m thinking it would be pretty easy to just put some elastic around a bit of fleece and make some thumbless mittens. Would this work for slippers do you think, or would the fleece be too slippery? I know some underpriveledged kiddos who need some warm clothes, I have a yard and a half of good quality fleece I was going to use as a throw, but I’m going to make a couple of shawl/ponchos for them instead. I was wondering if there might also be a way to make quick and easy hand and foot covers too? Anyone got any ideas? They are one and two years old, the two year old is in size 3T, the one year old is shorter, but as heavy as the two year old. Thank you ahead of time.

I wish I could knit or crochet decently, I’d be making socks for them right now instead of posting here. :frowning: The dad’s got a paycheck coming Friday, but is way behind on bills so can’t get a lot of things. The Salvation Army in the town the live in recently burned down, so that option is out for him atm.

60

ZC - is this what you meant?