Happy Thanksgiving!

Ok...haven't posted anything in a while, but I've also been crazy busy with work and baking. My new kiddo at work can turn his tantrums on or off in an instant, which makes my mornings rather exhausting. I've also been working on revising lie 80% of his programs because the woman who wrote them didn't do so great with them.

On the baking side of things, I successfully made gluten-free apple-spice doughnuts! But failed miserably with the cake doughnuts....which I'm ok with, I do NOT like making doughnuts.  Frenchie nailed down what she wanted for Thanksgiving just last Friday....not leaving me much time to prepare. So, get get over the stress, I made 4 dozen mini pumpkin pie cheesecakes with brown sugar toasted pecans....my camera charger is still MIA, so no pics :( Baking for Frenchie started Monday night with 6 dozen mini pumpkin cupcakes, and continued through Tuesday (thankfully a snow day), with 6 dozen mini dark chocolate hazelnut cupcakes and 4 dozen mini flourless walnut cupcakes with a honey whiskey glaze. Then came the coffee cake...by far the easiest, but the one that takes the longest to bake...so while it was doing its thing in the oven I was able to get most of the decorating done. It was all going swell....till I went to remove the coffee cake. And ran the knife around the edge. And missed a spot. At 9:30 pm. Long story short(ish), called mom, she brought more blueberries and came to help assemble the pumpkins. It all turned out fine, (thanks mom!) and the goodies were delivered to Frenchie yesterday morning.

So that's it for now, seeing as how it's Thanksgiving morning and I'm supposed to be over at my parent's house oh....20 minutes ago.

Baking-induced insomnia

So much baking and so little posting. I made the cake for Frenchie...used an old family recipe (how cliche does that sound?) that I've always liked, but found the flavor a little flat. So I personalized it a bit with dark French chocolate and buttermilk....fabulous. Made a divitinty icing and a chocolate ganache to top it off...

Sadly...that was the last picture before my camera battery finally called it quits....wouldn't be so bad if I could find the darn charger. Since the cake, there have also been successful chocolate pumpkin cupcakes with a cream cheese/whipped cream frosting as well as yesterday's amazingness: a spiced honey pound cake with a honey liquer syrup. So very very good.

So this weekend's baking is actually serving a purpose. I recently joined The Daring Kitchen and the Daring Baker challenge for this month is donughts. I have 2 ideas in mind so far, and a potential 3rd....so there might just be copious amounts of frying in my house this weekend.

I'm also toying with a frosting idea (based on the frosting used for the chcolate pumpkin cupcakes) for the chocolate hazelnut cake Frenchie wants...I previously topped the cupcakes with Nutella and a piece of chocolate, but will need something a bit lighter for an entire cake.

So that about sums up my kitchen activities till now...more pics to come once I find the damned charger.

your delusional sunset

Weekend discoveries, bad first, good after (because really, who wants to end on something depressing?)

1. I'm not quite ready to watch romantic comedies....I may laugh at all the funny parts and tear up when appropriate, but I'm left feeling rather bitter at the end. Might need another month or so...

2. My chocolate pumpkin cakes turned out not so good. This is the second time a recipe has gone horribly wrong in 3 weeks. Not good.

3. Cold Stone no longer has dark chocolate ice cream. Sad, sad day (especially as said ice cream was needed in response to #1).

D (because I can't decide if it's bad or good or just plain 'is'): Dog does not like large, inflatable, light-up, ghost-topped, lawn decoration pumpkins. As in full-attack-mode-teeth out-hair up-barking like a maniac and scaring the shit out of me.

5. I heart my down alternative mattress topper. It is fluffy and warm and snuggly. yay!

6. Shopping is cathartic. And raises endorphins (See also, dark chocolate ice cream). And gives me a reason to put off doing laundry for just one more day...or two.

Rugelach, meet mini torte pans!

Ok...so the original plan for baking this weekend was to use the freakishly adorable molds lent to me by Frenchie. I had it all planned out...carrot cake with cream cheese icing. I bought edible spray paint. Colored sanding sugars. I was so darned excited. Until I tried the batter....hmm....well, maybe it would be different when it cooked and the carrots weren't crunchy. Yeah. Nope. Not only was the batter bad, but even if it had miraculously become edible in the oven (I can hope), the cakes refused to come out of the molds. So, no super cute, spray paint and sugar decorated, cream cheese frosted carrot cake. Damn.

I was determined to bake though, so I pulled out a Christmas cookie cookbook that my mom got for me recently and flipped to one I've been dying to try: Rugelach. The book says they are Eastern European and the cookie dough is made with cream cheese and topped with fruit and nuts then rolled into crescents. But it was Sunday afternoon. And I had to pick up a friend at the airport in like 4 hours. And hadn't really slept. So the prospect of rolling out the dough and making 40-some odd crescent cookies was not so much appealing. Enter the torte. I used my mom's Italian grandmother's recipe for the dough from her apricot and apple torte, sprinkled milk, cinnamon, and brown sugar on the crust, and topped with honey (not called for in the Rugelach recipe, but makes it oh so much better!). Here are the results:

Running with scizzors

I have a lot of extra energy in the evenings....so I'm making hair clips for my niece, Curly. I had bought her 2 super cute flower clips when she was out visiting this summer, but they were $7 each (absurd!) and my sister wants more. So between me and her Curly will have a veritable garden of hair clips.


The little yellow one with the green ribbon is my favorite so far



Amazing amazingness.

Amazingness #1: Over the weekend, in between two separate 8 hour shopping stints, I made about 70 mini marzipan pumpkin stems and curly-cues...along with, of course, mini pumpkin cupcakes....


The beginnings of my mini pumpkin patch

Amazingness #2: This morning when I stopped in the office at work for some papers Frenchie, my boss, asked if she could place an order for Thanksgiving! She had mentioned it in passing a few times, but this morning said that she definately wanted the mini chocolate hazelnut cakes (see this post) and that she had her mom bring some chocolate from France (French chocolate!!!!!!) for me to make them with! YAY!

Amazingness #C: After informing me about the chocolate (French chocolate!!!!), Frenchie told me she had something I could borrow. Ok...we are currently at a day care/pre-school, so when she takes me into the kitchen telling me how excited I'm going to be I really didn't believe her...till she pulled out 2 of these:

SO FREAKIN CUTE! Yes, those would be little mini carrots. And radishes. And cabbage (cabbages?). And look at the adorable little peas!!!!! I'm planning carrot cake for them and am super excited to spray paint the frosting...I bought a can today to start practicing :) (And yes, that would be a Williams Sonoma bag in the background....which also makes me happy, because, although I did not buy the cute little pans there, I did see other cute little pans there and purchased a fabulous cutting board and spatula)

Amazingness #4: It's 8 pm onTuesday. Which means that a) I survived an atrocious Monday and b) Glee is on. And I'm a Gleek. So this makes me happy! Woo! (But seriously....look at the cute little peas!!!!!!)

possibly permanently scarred

This kinda summarizes my life right now....but substitute a cat and a baking obsession for 2 of the dogs.

That being said, Dog is loosing his manhood on Friday, and I'm feeling kinda bad about it. However, 2 specific incidents have led to this suddenly being a rather urgent necessity....

1--While sick over the weekend, I spent a few nights at my parent's house and, as any good pet-parent, I brought Dog and Cat. Dog was planned to sleep upstairs with my parents and their 2 dogs so I could actually get some sleep....yeah, right. My mom came down to get Dog's bed and went back up....then came back down, this is where it got bad. Mom informed me that Dog started *ahem* humping his pillow....yeah, that part I could deal with...then my mom proceeded to re-enact it, complete with hip thrusts and arm movements. That was something I absolutely never needed to see and pretty much sealed Dog's fate.

2--Although I called and scheduled the removal of his boy-stuff the morning after the previous event, Dog further confirmed that this was the right decision at puppy class that night....when, while practicing "come" (no pun intended) in front of the entire class, Dog decided that he was suddenly and inexplicably turned on by the middle-aged, rotund, mustached female trainer and that he needed to act on that feeling immediately.

Bye-bye boy parts

Plus one

I hate being sick. Ok...so I get that no one really likes being sick, but maybe I wouldn't dread it so damn much if it didn't always seem to come with reinforcements (namely, the flu or things that masquerade as the flu) and snide remarks. Recent evidence....

Dropped of super cute kiddo on Wednesday and noticed my throat hurt. Got worse quick, called in to work for Thurs. Woke up unable to swallow without feeling like someone was trying to rip off my ears while simultaneously shoving sharp pokey things into my throat. Drove to the doctor....resulting in being told that my allergy to eggs "sucks" (yeah, thanks, hadn't realized that), and that I either had strep or the flu. Did a strep test, waited for the results while alternating between questioning the decor choices and considering passing out on the floor till he came back. Was about to snag the exam pillow and get comfy when he came back....

Dr: Two blue lines! You either have strep or you're pregnant!

Me: (....wait, what? why would they make a strep test that tests for pregnancy too? can't they separate them? I didn't know you could use a throat culture to test for pregnancy...oh...he's waiting for me to say something).......I can't be pregnant, it's not physically possible right now. (was that what I was supposed to say? He's looking at me kinda funny, like maybe he doesn't believe me?....but I'm NOT pregnant! Wait...was he serious?)

Dr: Yeah....that isn't always the best timing for that joke

Me: Joke, right, haha. (you meanie head! Do I look like I'm coherent enough to distinguish a joke right now? Or that I would even find a joke funny? Which, by the way, your's was not!)

So I managed to make it out of there with a prescription for one of the few antibiotics I'm not allergic to. Headed to Walmart to get it filled. And, ok, so I might not have been looking my best at this point. But seriously, how much of a wreck could I have been? So when, while sitting on a bench waiting for my pills, the guy in line tells the pharmacy lady he's "doing better than she is!" (complete with thumb-jerk at me) I was rather put off...or would have been if I wasn't about to fall asleep on the cart handle. But whatever. I got my pills and did my sicky version of the happy dance....it consists of me making it to my car and downing the first 2 pills...not much dancing really. Despite the happy-dance-inducing-antibiotics I didn't exactly get better....in fact, I got worse. I got hives on my elbows and kneecaps (weird, I know), body aches (who knew lying in bed could make your ankles hurt?!), and a major headache (but who needs to be able to turn their head? I have peripherial vision!). Several hours and $200 later we had it narrowed down to strep plus one or more of the following expert opinions:

Dr 1: Said the additional symptoms were due to an allergic reaction to the antibiotics, something I've been told would happen eventually, and prescribed a new antibiotic from my tiny list of options

Dr 2: Said it was not classic allergic reaction but the only way to know would be to continue the first antibiotic and see if I get better or not. Decided it was a bizzare reaction to the strep infection, then proceeded to tell me that hives are always caused by an allergic reaction and gave me an entire handout on them (if you know me at all, you know I'm no stranger to allergies or hives...clearly this woman didn't believe me)

Mom (whose opinion counts because, well, she's mom): Agreed with Dr. 1 and with Dr. 2 about the reaction to the strep infection, and decided that I had a 24 hr flu as well (she got all the bases covered)

Conclusion: So we still don't know what my plus-one was, but it's basically gone. I don't really remember much else from the last 48 hours, except that I may have adamantly insisted that my sister go to her husband's work and call the receptionist a whore. Maybe.

Tranquilizer glove not included

Good things this week (as inspired by Portland):

*Dog is a celebrity. Well, as good as. Everywhere I take him people stop what they are doing to tell me how beautiful he is and the trainer at puppy class pulled me aside after to tell me how great and smart Dog is....this makes me hugely happy : )

*new Calphalon pans for $160 instead of $400

*got a new wireless printer, but didn't know I needed a wireless router....this is still a good thing because it gives me more of a reason to finally get actual internet

*the new cookbook my mom got me....although it is strictly a cookie cookbook, and although typically I thoroughly dislike making cookies, I'm going to give it a chance...there some rolled up apricot raspberry thingies that look promising

*for the last 20 min Cat has been sitting on the back of the entertainment center staring intently at the backs of the wii and antenna and jumping spastically...I'm entertained

One potato, two potato, three potato, cupcake!

So far this has been a very productive week in terms of baking. I promised my roomie, Portalnd, peanut butter frosting before she moved to Oregon, so that meant I had to come up with something to go with the peanut butter frosting. Don't get me wrong, in the process I ate about half of the frosting on its own, but I didn't think bringing a bowl of frosting and a bunch of spoons to work was going to go over so well. So after deciding against chocolate cake-ness (too expected and, really, not one of my favorite combos for cake and frosting) I did some research online and came across a bunch of recipes using banana cake. This looked promising, till I realized that it was Saturday....and I had to bake on Sunday....and there was no way that I was going to have over-ripe bananas that quick. So nix the bananas. But it led to a random recipe for applesauce cake...oooh! I like apples and peanut butter. And cinnamon. I like cinnamon. So I modified a favorite recipe and here are the results:

Aren't they cute!!!



...and delicious!

Several people at work were a little hesitant about the cinnamon and peanut butter (till they tried it and lovevd it), but it really added some depth to the frosting and the cake. All in all, absolute success.

Second episode of the week....I was approached today by Lady P (aka: my boss and the co-owner of the company) and asked to bake something for Owl's last day of work tomorrow. I was very excited about the whole conversation actually, basically L.P. offered to finance a fabulous state of the art bakery and pay me for it....and buy me a pony. Ok, not really any of that, but she did say that I had her support if I ever left my job to open a bakery, which is almost as good as that other stuff. Anyway, as a result of her offering to pay for any groceries I needed to bake for Owl, I decided to go with the dark chocolate hazelnut cupcakes I've been plotting lately. I'm totally thriilled with how they taste and look (dark chocolate hazelnut cake topped with Nutella and a piece of dark chocolate with hazelnuts in it), but I kinda misjudged their remove-ability-ness....that is to say, they don't come out of the wrappers so easy. But, messy eating aside, here they are:



It's a whole herd of them!



 I have 6 dozen of these....and 8 mini-loafs. I have a lot of chocolate. But, really, when is that a bad thing?

closure

Haven't written in a while, things have been kinda crazy busy. Loads of baking (fourless chocolate walnut mini cupcakes with a whiskey glaze) and even more working. I have already had two 10+ hour work days this week...oi. Dog had his first day of puppy school this week, but we kinda showed up to the wrong class since I wrote down the wrong time...he went through the advanced beginning obedience class when he is most definately not there yet. Oh well, we will try again next week.

Redneck was sentenced last week (my jury duty was cancelled at the last minute!), and tonight the deposition was finally posted online. I still need to go down to the records department because I don't understand all of it, but for the time being I know that he got at least 27 days in county jail and a $450 fine...not nearly enough of a fine if you ask me, but I guess I'm a little biased. I didn't realize how relieved I was going to feel when I finally found out his sentence. It's like the final closure. I stuck with him through the arrest and all that followed, and it wasn't the reason I ended the relationship. I feel like I've been waiting since March to find out what was going to come of it and now it's done.

And I'm exhausted.

Amazingness

I have been bringing my pastry creations to work lately (really good way to bake a ton and not eat it alll). A co-worker had gone huckleberry picking and asked if I would bake something with them. I have been dying to attempt making my own puff pastry for quite a while, and decided that this might be the perfect project for the huckleberries.

Not wanting the tartness of the huckleberries to be too overpowering, I sifted through my cookbooks for a recipe....I was all set to try a cream cheese puff pastry, but on Friday I jammed my thumb (lots of stifled explitives as I was with a kiddo). I couldn't pick anything up without it throbbing, so kneading that much butter and dough was not going to happen. I dove back in to the cookbooks and emerged triumphant with the Joy of Cooking's food processor puff pastry. Now that the cream cheese was out, I needed something else to compliment the huckleberries, so I hit the internet and came across a recipe for huckleberry and fig tart. I kept looking to see if there were any additional reviews about this recipe and found this blog. Amazing. The review of the recipe had me sold.

I made the puff pastry and set about finding fresh figs in North Idaho (not an easy task) and was about to settle for dealing with dried, when the produce lady at the natural foods store became my angel and held the last pint for me till I got there. With a minor modification to the filling recipe, I was ready to go. The result was amazing mini huckleberry-fig turnovers with an egg-milk wash and raw sugar on top. I had extra filling left over, so I made my mom's raspberry torte, substituting the huckleberry-fig filling in place of the raspberry jam. The results are below:

Mini turnovers cooling...so adorable and delicious!

Fig-Huckleberry torte....also amazing yummyness.

Figs+huckleberries=absolutely delicious. I was kind of hesitant about the figs (never having had anything figgy but a Fig Newton), but they compliment the huckelberries perfectly. Not sure if I will be able to find more figs around here any time soon, but if I do I have several more recipes I would love to try. In the mean time, I will enjoy the turnovers and torte!

Why you scream-a like a girl?

So far this being single thing has consisted of many first-experiences too. It started with spending a Friday night sneaking to the nearby fields and stealing mint plants. Then getting a dog, discovering a love for baking miniature things, taking off for an unplanned weekend to visit my sister. Ok....so the mint-stealing-night was probably the biggest first (unless you count the time we stole cactus, but that's a whole nother deal). But regardless, yesterday marked another major first...first crush in two and a half years. I feel very high school-ish, but it's almost unnerving to realize that you are super excited that you have a mini-crush on the cute guy at the toy store. The past 2 weeks have been so stressful that the silly-giddy-self-conscious feeling really threw me off. But in a good way.

In other positively happy news, jury duty has officially been cancelled! This is good for several reasons....or two. 1-I really couldn't afford to miss that much work, and 2-Now there is no chance of me running into Redneck on the day of his sentencing....woo!!!! Plus, my hours with Chatty at work have been reduced, super excited. I also have more hours with Wolfman (dat-a make-a me happy!) and with Whiner (not so happy). However, I am also scheduled to work with one of my favorite kiddos, Banana (that one was for you DonkeyOwl)...which makes me super happy. So all-in-all, not a bad day. Or two.

Maybe we weren't meant for this love

This has been a rough week. I was sick Sunday and Monday, got a phone call Tuesday morning from my mom saying that my dad was in the hospital, cancelled work for Wednesday, stayed at the hospital with my mom, sister, and niece till 1 in the morning, found out a close family friend will likely be losing his fight with cancer much sooner than expected, had to pull Dog out of day care because he was getting hurt by another dog, and got chewed out via email by an aunt I barely know. With all that's been going on, the highlight of the week so far has actually been something I've been dreading for 2 months....returning Redneck's odds and ends to his mom's house.

Since I broke up with him I've been finding little things here and there of his, some of them important to him (his dog tags, his grandfather's knife) and some that he would probably never notice were gone (a t-shirt, corn cob holders). I have been putting off bringing the things to his mom till I found the (hideous) cake plate that had been her mother's, because, really, who wants to do something like that twice? I finally found the cake plate and had planned on bringing everything over on Monday, when the week just started going downhill rather quickly. Throughout everything though, going over to her house stuck in the back of my mind, taunting me. Should I call first? What if Redneck was there? What if his daughter was there? What if no one was there....could I just leave the stuff on the front porch so I wouldn't have to come back?....I was a smidge terrified/preoccupied with it.

So this morning I got up, put on a dress, sexy sandals, and did my hair (sorta...). I visited dad in the hospital and told him I was going over there later so I couldn't back out. I made it through my work day, and thought I might just get physically ill on the way over to her house. But you know what? It wasn't bad. She gave me a hug, thanked me profusely for bringing her mom's cake platter (she had forgotten that she gave it to me) and asked how my family/job/etc. was. I glossed over things (family's great, job's great, etc. is great) and we made small talk, both avoiding bringing up Redneck. She wished me well and we said good bye. It was the most calm and exhausted I have felt all week. And I know it's been 2 months, but I finally feel like I'm finding a bit of closure. A little ironic that it happened this week...Redneck and I were supposed to be getting married on Saturday. Two great friends agreed to join me that night for a "no one is getting married" celebration, but I've still been feeling apprehensive about it. Today helped to settle that feeling a bit. So I'll keep going. I will help mom bring our family friend to the hospital tomorrow to visit dad, I will go to work, find a new daycare for Dog, snuggle with Cat, help Portland move in with me, go out Saturday night, and celebrate.

Happy

Ok...so drunken panko coconut chicken was fabulous (few minor tweaks, needs salt), coconut rice recipe was awful--the liquid to rice ration was totally off so it ended up as more of a coconut rice mush. Flavor was all right, again though, some adjustments needed. Aside from that, here is a little bit of happy.

Therapy.

Not sure what the attraction is, but I love making desserts in my mini muffin tins. Maybe it's because I feel justified in eating more than one because they're so small. Previously, my forays into mini desserts have been limited to mini cheesecakes...

Lemon blueberry cheesecakes

However, after my last failed attempt at mini coffee cakes, I have made some adjustments and am insanely pleased with the results...

mini coffee cakes with chocolate pecan streusel topping

So I'm bringing about 3 dozen to work, gave some to my parents, have a plate of them to bring to the neighbors, and still have almost a dozen for me! Yay for baking!

Probably I need this week to be all done and stuff.

Today was not so much good for my sanity or morale. Getting the 3rd degree from a client's grandpa kinda topped the whole thing off. Seirously. wtf. My consolation brownies didn't turn out so hot either....kinda ran out of flour and forgot to get more....oops. Although, after eating an entire frozen pizza, brownies were likely not to be the best for a happy tummy, so I guess it worked out allright (plus, I'm refrigerating the creamed sugar and finishing the brownies tomorrow). I'm ready for this week to be ALL DONE.

practicing my happy dance

So I have jury duty coming up. I was totally excited about it (sorta being paid to totally not be at work? um, yes!)...till I found out the dates. Turns out I have jury duty on the same day that Redneck is being sentenced (yeah...I picked a winner). When I went to the court house to ask if this was a conflict of interest the woman's over-tweezed eyebrows almost shot off her forehead and she asked if I was serious. I considered telling her that no, I was just bored today and this seemed like a good way to spend my time, but decided that a simple 'yes' might be a smidge more professional. She told me that on my first day to let the people know and they would decide if I should be there or not. Personally, I do not think I should be in the same building as Redneck....I'm typically a semi-rational, calm-ish person (or at least I like to think so), but I might just burst out into song and dance if I see them leading him off in handcuffs...not that I've been practicing the song, just the dance.

Anywho (does anyone say that anymore??), I made the panko-walnut crusted chicken tonight....good concept, bad recipe. It called for the chicken to be baked....turned out terribly dry. Good flavor, but dry. I think I will go the pan-fried route next time. I am, however, now a huge fan of panko. How did I not know of its existence?? Oh well, I have found it now and am in love.

Chicken or steak?

I love to cook. And bake. And guess what? It's here! It's finally here! My shiny new Kitchen Aid stand mixer is sitting happily on my kitchen counter! It's first duty was to make mini coffee cakes to take to work, and I must say that it accomplished this admirably. Unfortunately, I over-filled the mini-muffin tins and now can't get them out without destroying them. Oh well, I suppose I will just have to scoop them into a tupperware and get rid of them some other way that does not require much in the presentation department (any volunteers?). And while these taste great, there are a few more tweaks I want to make to the recipe (I already changed the streusel topping to one that is much more moist), so I guess it all worked out.

I have really enjoying cooking dinner for myself over the last week. I mean, I have always loved cooking--the planning of it not so much, but the actual cooking part I find extremely relaxing. And now that I'm cooking for just me, it's gotten even better. Redneck ate for the simple fact that he had to to survive, enjoying a meal, but never really appreciated the flavors of a meal. I got frustrated with this and worked myself into a rut. There were only so many things that we both liked. Chicken is one of my favorite things ever and he does not like it (see "Who does that?!" from previous post). But, then again, I'm a pretty darn picky eater, especially when it comes to vegetables...as in, I generally don't eat them.

So anyway, this past week has been fantastic for cooking....capellini noodles with meat sauce and homemade garlic bread, beef stir-fry cooked in butter with rice, a fabulous cheeseburger, soprasata with french bread and grapes, and tonight, steak alfredo with tortellini and garlic bread. In the last week I have rediscovered how much I love to enjoy food....eating slowly, enjoying the rich buttery flavor of the stir-fry, the little kick of the oregano in the meat sauce, the sweet woodsy flavor of the soprasata, and the hint of rosemary in the alfredo. Tomorrow is up for debate at the moment....I'm torn between trying out a new recipe for breaded chicken with walnuts or pan-frying a flat iron steak with home-grown garlic mashed potatos. These are the tough decisions in life.

Left behind....

In the past week, Dog has discovered many buried treasures in my backyard. I don't view them as such, to me they are simply icky, but I can respect that he is a dog and is not grossed out by old dirty socks the way I am. This morning I was enjoying breakfast on the deck when Dog came loping out from the side of the house proudly carrying his latest find. After a few minutes I went down to play with him and try to identify what exactly he found. Turns out he found a diaper. An old, used, disgusing, rolled-up diaper. In my yard. Ew. As I'm carrying it to the garbage sandwiched between two pieces of somewhat less icky garbage to avoid touching it (still disgusted by the fact that I had to touch it to get it out of his mouth), I am cursing aloud the crazy people who owned this house before me and wondering who does that?! I mean, who throws a used diaper into the backyard?!

I've found myself asking that question a lot lately (the 'who does that?' one, not the one about the diaper), primarily about the people who lived here and about Redneck. When Redneck and I first moved in to this place back in May we found various drugs and related items (these people had a 1-year old son and the wife was 8 months pregnant). But it goes beyond that to little things i'm finding that have been done half-assed, as my dad would say. Everything from nailing broken kitchen drawers shut, to a hole punched in the wall of the nursery, to silicone being used to seal absolutely everything. At first, Redneck and I were both asking "who does that?" about these people (seemed reasonable, given the amount of bizzare stuff they did to this place). Then, when I ended it with Redneck, I found myself asking it about him. Who puts some one else through that much crap? I sorted out all his belongings and put them in the garage, and changed the lock on the house. In return, he used the closet door I was storing in the garage as a ramp to get his motorcycle into his truck, punched holes on the inside of the closet door, and (my personal favorite of WTF moments) unscrewed and took all the lightbulbs from the garage. WHO DOES THAT?!?!?

So I guess my point in all of this isn't just "who does that", but who sticks around and lets it happen? I'm really not being all depressed and whatnot, just wondering how I let myself get so sucked in that I put up with all of it for 2+ years. I am slowly putting my life back together, with the help of great friends and family (and Cat and Dog). I decided this morning, while disposing of the utterly ucky diaper, that I was going to try to be more like the people who lived here before, metaphorically only, and attempt to leave the crap behind...literally in their case, figuratively in mine.

So I was pretty nervous about this whole living alone thing, but I've discovered a few perks in the last few days...
1. I get the entire bed (minus the corner that Cat takes)
2. I get all the storage space in the bathroom
3. Ok....I get all the space in general
4. If I want to have Doritos for dinner at 11 pm no one is going to complain
5. I get to lick the brownie batter bowl without having to share. In fact, I get to eat all the brownies without having to share...which means they could last longer! (but probably won't)

I'm sure I could come up with a few more, but the brownie one makes me pretty happy at the moment, so I'll end it with that.

Spending my first night back in my own house after kicking Redneck out six weeks ago. I suppose I'm blogging to establish some sort of routine in my relatively newly-single life....or something. Also, while Cat and Dog are great company in many ways, it's not very encouraging when they doze off in the middle of an admittedly one-sided conversation. So here goes....

I really don't feel like writing out some long, detailed history so here's the short version: Met Redneck, started dating. Moved in together, changed jobs, Redneck got laid off, found a job, got laid off, was re-hired, we got Cat, he got laid off and re-hired, we got engaged, he got laid off (you get the pattern here, right?), etc. I bought a house, called off the wedding, visited an amazing friend, kicked Redneck out, moved back in with parents, got Dog, stayed longer with parents, re-pained my house, bought a fridge, visited sister, moved back into house with Cat and Dog. Started blog.

So now that everyone (whoever "everyone" might be) is caught up, I guess it's time to get off the computer and get used to being in my house again. Wish me luck.