Entries from March 2009 ↓

Jon always takes me to the most romantic places.

Like old, abandoned forts with falling down walls and dangerous metal pieces sticking out.

Although I’m never going to be one of those people who thrills at broken down buildings, this one was actually pretty cool. It was right on the ocean, with a rocky beach and all these trees.

There may also have been zombies.

Check out more pictures in the flickr set.

Oh, Twitter. Why are you always causing me to delay my gratification?

Quit being broken. It’s not cute and 2.0 anymore. It just makes me grumpy and more prone to use Facebook.

On a related though less important note, your bird icon scares me. It reminds me of the PacMan ghosts.

Please stop that immediately.

Image credit: twitter.broken.com and ghosts.

On Monday, Jon and I woke up and discovered the world was covered in snow.

We decided that, dedicated workers that we were (i.e. not willing to take a vacation day because of a snow storm), we would brave the elements and go in to work.

As you can see, this was a great idea.

We did make it in alive, although I sure had a lot to say about the local people who didn’t show up. If I can drive an hour and a half in a Honda and survive, a couple of miles are not going to kill you.

I was beaten at hardcoreness, though – one of my co-workers walked to work that morning.

See more pictures of Leanne and Jon’s Excellent Adventure here.

Once in awhile, I like to cook for 15 minutes and produce a dinner. I grew up in a house where my Mom fixed these complex, from-scratch, balanced meals every night, so it still feels like cheating, but I can live with the guilt if it comes with pizza.

Here is a very easy recipe I threw together tonight, based on what was in our refrigerator:

Take a can of Pillsbury pizza dough. You can get this in the cold foods section at Stop & Shop. I like making dough, actually, but sometimes it’s more fun to just stab a can and have it instantly. Also, this dough must have a kind of oil or egg wash on it, because the crust is always nice.

Toss a bunch of ground beef in a skillet & brown. Put some olive oil in another pan with chopped peppers & onions. When the meat is brown, throw in a (big) spoonful of pizza sauce (available in a jar, I like traditional Ragu), then dump in the sauteed vegetables. Mix it all up.

Spread some more sauce on the pizza dough, which, if you are a good person, is laid out on a pizza peel that has been sprinkled with corn meal.

Dump the beef & veggie mix on top of the dough. Sprinkle a bunch of mozzarella cheese on top.

Put the pizza on a pizza stone that also has been sprinkled with corn meal. It makes a difference – the stone makes a nice crisp crust and the corn meal adds the sweet gritty taste you associate with takeout pizzas.

Bake for however long the dough container tells you. I think it’s 15 min at 400 degrees. Feast like beasts.

9 months seemed like a very long time at the start of this. It’s been almost a year of our lives, and the baby has made himself fully present in our lives since the first month, if only by inadvertently causing me to explore the limits of physics via projectile vomiting.

This Friday, it will be 9 WEEKS (or 10, depending on how eager he is to taste cheeseburgers via his own digestive system). It seems like such a short time, but actually, we’re pretty ready for him now.

We’ve got the crib set up, and my grandparents’ love seat in the nursery, and curtains hemmed and put up, and even this frightening stuffed animal holder that seemed like a good idea at Ikea, but looked like a hanging cage for lab animals once we got it home and put it up.

I need to put together the dresser, and we’d like to decorate a bit, but Jon’s cleaned out all the extra pieces of furniture and books and papers we’ve been storing in the second bedroom.

There’s bedding to obtain, and diapers and bottles and things, but for the most part, we are feeling ready for this baby – as ready as first time parents can ever really be.

Daycare has taken awhile to work out, but we’ve finally found a place we like, and we’ve worked out Jon’s family’s visit for after the baby’s born.

I’m starting to make preparations for maternity leave at work, and have been testing out easy-to-make meals for after the baby’s born.

So, take your time developing, little baby, but we can’t wait for you to arrive.

(Although, if you’re thinking about it, try to arrive quickly, like, say, 2 hours after I go into labor.)

It’s Baby Fever: Read about the Wood’s baby, who might arrive in 9 hours, or Jasper Daniel Blachly-Nelson, who arrived at the end of December.

Image credit: crib

I can’t help it.

I know I shouldn’t support a site that has a tab called “Lol Builder.”

I know in my heart it is wrong.

But they just make me laugh all the time. It cannot be helped.

It’s the little pointy ears and the big kitty eyes and the asinine captions.

Resistance is futile.

Image credit: lolcat