Li'l Momma's Rant-O-Rama

tell me you wish you hadn't thought of this the last time you were stranded in a city over night. this girl was trapped at pittsburgh international airport over night during a blizzard, with pretty much no-one else in the airport... so to pass the time, she made a movie. WIN.

a friend's recent post about a relative's funeral got me thinking about what i'd want done with my remains when i'm gone. i definitely want to donate any piece of me that someone else can use, and then be cremated... past that, i don't know. i cremated Monkey when she passed, and have her "dust" in a funky little box that i bought for it in boston... but for my own ashes, i can't imagine anyone actually wanting to display them or keep them in a soe box or whatever. maybe i'd just want them sprinkled in the litterbox so i could become even closer to my cats.

actually, what i think would be freaking RAD would be to have my ashes turned into a life diamond*. seriously, when i love sparkly things in this life so much, the thought of spending eternity as the center stone in a pretty ring or hanging from someone's ear in a cascade of teeny gems just makes me grin. "oh, is that a pink diamond?" "no, it's my friend jenn". BWAhaha!

shifting gears... jack and i spent another 8 hours at his house yesterday, and there's STILL so much to do. we managed to scrub the bathroom down with bleach, install a new shower curtain and rod, frame and hang some new artwork in the living room, put 2 closet doors back on their hinges, build 2 ikea tables, install new blinds throughout the downstairs, scrub all the scuff marks off the wooden staircase and vacuum all the rooms that had been carpeted. whew. by the time we left i was so sore i could cry. a nap, shower and dinner in the city revived me a bit, but by the time we got home i crashed hard. more to do today, so i'll need to rally soon.


* i'm only half serious. some of the testimonials on that website give me the heebie-jeebies.

all morning i was looking out the window at the massive amount of snow (we got at least 18"), having a mild panic attack at the thought of shoveling... but once we got out there, it was great. jack and i bundled up and started at opposite ends of the driveway, and shoveled for almost 2 hours until we met in the middle... taking breaks here and there to daydream about packing it all up and moving to palm springs. :) but once i got into the groove, i was unstoppable. it's like my body went "yay! exercise!" and i just kept going and going. (my usual shoveling experience is more like: shovel one foot of snow, stop to pant, bitch about winter... shovel one more foot of snow, stop to pant...) there was one point where jack was like "you're going and going, stop for a sec to take a break", and i was like "no! i feel so awesome!!! *grin, grin*" he just stopped and looked at me for a sec, and then declared, "you're high". and i think i was, i think i was on a total endorphin high from all that exercise. hee! once we went back inside, took a hot shower, and had some lunch, i crashed... a little more than an hour later i passed out and napped for almost 3 hours. but seriously, i still feel great*.

the rest of the day has been a really nice snow day -- watched the movie "big fan" on demand (really good, highly recommend), did some laundry, had a yummy dinner of jamaican chicken with brown rice. looking forward to an evening of "the hurt locker" on DVD, cocoa, and snorgling a whole pile of kitties. bliss. :)

* i really think that my new way of eating helped so much with my shoveling today. i've seen such an improvement over the past few weeks in my overall energy, i think staying away from processed food is just making me feel completely different. shoveling less than that back in december had me a total wreck, and back then i was eating whatever the hell i wanted. good confirmation of why i'm doing this!

jack was making pumpkin "cat yodel" tonight, which reminded me of this video from last year. god, i forgot how freaking funny this is, it had me crying from laughter.

today i made a crockpot recipe that i saw in the current issue of Real Simple magazine... i had all the ingredients on hand, and figured i'd give it a try. this could quite possibly the best crockpot pork recipe i've ever made, and i make a lot of pork in that crock (things that sound dirty, but aren't). i just have to share it with you guys... it is beyond good.

Sweet and Spicy Pork

3 lb. pork shoulder
1/2 c. low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 c. brown sugar (i used the Splenda blend to cut down on the sugar a bit)
1-2 tbsp. chili-garlic paste (found in the Asian section of the supermarket)
1 tsp. Chinese five-spice
1/2 tsp ground ginger

place the pork in the crock. mix all other ingredients and pour over the pork. cook on high for 4-5 hours until pork is falling apart. shred pork in crock to mix in with the sauce before serving.

the recipe says to add a shredded head of bok choy to the crock for the final hour of cooking, which would be awesome... instead we roasted sweet potato sticks with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. yummy yum yum!

x-posted to what_a_crock.

i've already started out the year right... woke up this morning and had breakfast with a bunch of my awesome friends, after a fun night of revelry and one of the most cutthroat white elephant swaps i've ever seen. :) logged online to find my feature up on offbeat bride, i can't believe they used my photo of all the ones i sent them! and ariel did a great job with the write-up, we'll see if i get some bulk hoop sales out of it!

i'm really enjoying reading everyone's 2009 recap posts. i'm just way too tired to go back and weed through a year of posts bitching about silly stuff to get to the big things, so i'll just post what i remember:

2009 recap

* went on a fun caribbean cruise with jack and came back with a horrible case of vertigo.
* finished a major project at work and a week later was handed another one that has been the most fun work assignment i've ever had.
* won several awards at work.
* made a couple hundred hula hoops for people all over the world, including a bunch for a very conservative jewish wedding where the bride, fully covered, hooped standing on a table.
* attended 6 weddings -- 2 cousins of jack's, the other 4 good friends. every single one was completely different from the others and really captured the spirit of the couple. we were surrounded by love this year.
* officiated "wedding #4" in boston for one of my best boston friends. got the chance to say "by the power vested in me by the state of massachusetts..." which was super cool.
* got invited to go on the dr. oz show and teach dr. oz how to hoop. after getting rescheduled by the producer, got subsequently screwed by the producer when she booked another hoop company without telling me.
* spent an amazing week in los angeles on a business trip, and got to attend an actual fashion week fashion show full of celebs... had the chance to reconnect with maria bello, a college friend who is now an uber-movie-star.
* completely overhauled one of my bedrooms into a funky green-walled dressing room/guest room. also overhauled the powder room downstairs, turning it from a water-damaged moldy disaster into a cute black and white (and functional!) space. completely overhauled my landscaping, turning the backyard from a weedy tangled mess into a beautiful oasis of color.
* lost 16 pounds and gained it all back within the same year.
* made the leap to agreeing to having jack move in with me. (no, it wasn't much of a struggle. :) )
* adopted an adorable, energetic, love monster of a kitten who drives angus crazy and makes my heart burst from cuteness every day.

if 2010 has even a fraction of all that activity, it's going to be a good year. :)

...to those who celebrate it. for those who don't, i am super-jealous that you get to eat chinese and go to the movies. that actually sounds like a freaking awesome way to spend xmas. another good way to spend xmas is in your jammies -- which is why jack and i have decided that, starting next year, we are totally ganking krisdance's family tradition of giving each other new PJ's on xmas eve. i think that's just the best. *starting the hunt for feetie PJs in adult man sizes tomorrow*

the past few days have been busy, but good. way more hoop orders than we expected this close to xmas... monday night i actually had to stop making hoops because my thumbs were sore and covered in little cuts from the sharp glitter tape. they were killing me. so i got up super early the next morning to finish the last 2 and ship them all out. whew. after all that craziness, and dropping off 3 hoops to a co-worker's house so she'd have them in time for xmas, i braved a drive into the city to do some last-minute shopping. i had bought everything i needed for gifts, but for some reason i had this strong need to have some me-time in the city... wished i had picked a day other than the freaking coldest day of the month to walk around on city sidewalks covered in ice. i ended up just window-shopping for a couple of hours and then headed back to my car to thaw. at least i got an awesome lunch at El Vez at the start, that was almost worth it. :)

jack and i discovered yesterday that, despite all of his running around and terrorizing angus, duck is extremely shy around strangers. we were shocked. last night my family came over for xmas eve dinner (jack grilled bacon-wrapped filet mignons, have i mentioned how lucky i am to have him?), and duck stayed under the bed upstairs for the entire 5-hour visit. as soon as everyone left, he poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear, and then ran for his life down to his litterbox. poor little boy held it for a long time. :)

jack and i told my family about the documentary "food inc" at dinner (not great dinner conversation, but that's my family for you), and then they wanted to watch it on demand after. i liked watching it a second time, i picked up a few stats i had forgotten about from the first viewing. yesterday morning i did my grocery shopping at whole foods instead of the giant i usually go to, and i found myself looking at their selection in a totally different way. while their meat selection is not as massive as giant's or acme's, they source all of it from local farms and only buy from farms who raise their animals humanely. (seriously, after seeing that movie, i will never ever buy perdue brand chicken again.) every farm was displayed right over their meats, with a photo of the farmer and a small description of the farm. it was really nice to feel a little more connected to the food i was buying, support a local farmer, and to feel better about how the animal was treated before it made its sacrifice to sustain me. i also found, to my happy surprise, milk and half & half from free-range grass-fed cows, and eggs from cage-free chickens. and really, everything was only a dollar or two more expensive that the mass-produced stuff i would have bought at giant. so totally worth the extra 15-minute drive to do my shopping... and in a few weeks, there'll be a new whole foods right down the street from me, so excited!

i think i hear jack stirring upstairs... think it'll be time to open presents soon. i hope you all have a fun day full of love and happiness!

ours went from crazy, to relaxing, to crazy in a span of about 12 hours. ( photo and video documentation of the snow saga... )

at some point over the holidays, i might take a day trip up to NYC... i've never been there during xmas, and am thinking of going up there since i have the time. any advice on what to see or do, besides the tree in rockefeller center and the macy's window display?... what else says "xmas in new york" to you? i'm a bit clueless.

it started out completely crap-tacular, because my car battery decided to give up the ghost in the morning as i was taking a hoop to the post office. i managed to make it home, and then jack and i had to trudge out in the freezing cold to get a new battery and install it. as we got home with the battery, though, who was coming down the street on top of a shiny red fire truck but SANTA! yay! he threw some candy to us in the driveway as he drove past, siren blaring and xmas music blasting out the speakers, and that perked me right up for the day. :)

once the battery was installed, i had the afternoon to myself while jack went to help ms_violet and her hubby with their garbage disposal. so i let myself relax -- got my toesies done, and then came back home to snorgle the kitties and watch the documentary "the eyes of tammy faye". (seriously, i have a whole lot more respect and pity for her after seeing it. really interesting.) went out to dinner with jack for chicken tikka ma-hanukkah, and then passed out in front of "fight club" on TV.

the cats were sooooo well behaved yesterday... no chasing, no hissing, no trying to tear the xmas tree down. everyone was lovey and snuggly and purry. that all changed at 4:30am, as the growling and kitty arguing started anew. now i'm wide awake, and they're back to snoring away on the couch. grrrrrrrrr.

it hit me yesterday that it's going to have to be a leeeeeean xmas this year. my vet bills alone for the last month were close to $2,000... then there's the car battery, and the costume for this dance performance coming up, and all the tape and other supplies needed to make hoops for xmas orders... and now my funds are completely tapped out. this is when getting paid once a month really sucks, i need to majorly budget myself for the next 2 weeks.