Domestic Geek

My dear old father o' mine had his 76th birthday today. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner to celebrate where we got to finish watching the Broncos win over the Raiders. Dad also got his free scoop of ice cream while being sang to by a group of pretty ladies. Dad just loves people singing to him!

We also went off of Daylight Saving time today. I may have mentioned a time or two or three how much I hate this idiotic practice of jacking around with time. While it doesn't take as long to recover in the fall, I'm still going to be a mess for a couple of weeks. Lame.

I started the cutest little crochet pumpkin pie today. It's called Squeeze n' Sniff Pumpkin Pie on a blog called Crafty is Cool. Here's a link to my project page over on Ravelry if anybody is interested.This will adorn my desk at work later in the week. I was really hoping to crank it out today, but I'm having a bit of trouble with the whipped cream on top. My stupid perfectionism getting in the way again, I'm sure. I also got a late start on it because I couldn't find a darned size E crochet hook anywhere in this house and had to run to Jo-Ann's to get one. I know as soon as I finish this, I'll have E hooks coming out of the woodwork.

I have been wanting chili and cornbread for a few weeks now, but every time I had planned to make it, something came up. Well, today I finally had the time and the universe didn't throw any monkey wrenches in my plans. Except for having to pick up some more whole milk, I already had all the supplies (like I said, I've been trying to do this for a while):



Except for the chili powder and the bay leaves, everything I used tonight was organic, which made Marcus extremely happy. Who knew you can't find organic chili powder? Weird, huh? Even used grass-finished bison for the meat. YUM! Marcus is feeling a little under the weather and since I can't get him to drink my cough remedy with the vinegar and cayenne pepper, I upped the garlic, cayenne pepper and chili powder a bit.

The corn muffins turned out to be the best ones I've ever made. I used a recipe that I found on the Food Network web site: Honey Cornbread Muffins. These things were so moist. It must be the whole milk. Will definitely be making these again soon.



I'm so glad its Fall, I love being able to make stuff like this for dinner!

So, last Friday night Marcus wanted to stop by the Apple Store on the way home from work to purchase a new AppleTV for the bedroom. While we were there, he casually asked the employee ringing up his purchase if they had any of the new iPhones in stock. He was obviously totally expecting her to say no as they have been out of stock everywhere, but she informed him they just got some in. He asked if I wanted one and of course I said yes. We waited for a bit for someone to bring one from the back, but another employee came out and scolded our clerk for trying to sell one before closed. Well, we were there at 8:45 and apparently they stop selling them at 8:30 for inventory purposes. Man, I was soooooo bummed.

The clerk felt bad and told me I could reserve one online and pick it up first thing in the morning. The only problem with that plan was we were going up to HIll City for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary and check out other properties.

*sigh* So close to having a new phone.

The department I work in is overstaffed. We have been most of the time I've worked there. I originally asked to go over there because they were majorly understaffed. I thought I was going to be in a department of 3 people. Now we've got 5 (at one point 6). I've spent so much time dragging my feet just trying to get my hours in that its driving me absolutely bat-shit crazy. I've already lost 4 hours this week and that totally sucks since we're coming into the holiday season. I even thought about going back to the old department, but they don't really need any help over there, either. Oh, well.

Today I called and asked if I could just come in later. I got so much done this morning. I made a pot of soup, made a big dent in the THW Golf poster I was making for Marcus, shoveled the front steps, washed some dishes...all before noon. I got in about 12:30 and knew the rest of the day was going to suck when I saw that they had my office mate working at one of the inkjetters. After I checked my email and saw there was nothing to do, I clocked out on a break and went back to working on Marcus' poster. It was another hour before there was anything to do and that was because someone else in my department went home for the day. I worked a whole two jobs, prepared a third so that I could tackle it in the morning when the client sends the data and then I had to clock out. Five freaking hours was all I managed to eek out. Oh, well. Of course, I got home early and then Marcus got stuck at work and I had to eat my soup all by myself. At least I had his poster done by the time I got home.

So, how did the poster turn out? Not too shabby:

I went to New Mexico early last month. I wanted to go to the Taos Wool Festival and figured I might as well swing over and see my old college pal while I was in the state, as well. Good thing I had Angie to visit because the wool festival and Taos kind of sucked. I'm glad I didn't waste the money to actually stay overnight in Taos.

I had originally intended to go down Saturday and get a room with friends, but an online friend of Marcus' and mine from Texas came to Colorado to visit, so I pushed it a day to drive down Sunday instead.

I actually managed to get on the road by 5:30 am. It was a beautiful drive down - the fall colors were spectacular. I was having a lovely day until I got to Taos. The part of town where the festival was held is kind of a dump. I wandered through the exhibitor booths for about an hour and didn't find a danged thing I wanted to buy. I found the couple of yarn shops that I had found online and didn't find anything cool, either. I figured certainly I'd find something at the quilt store, but struck out there as well. Discouraged, I tracked down a shot glass for my collection and got the hell out of town. I didn't even bother getting any lunch. I just relied on the snacks I had packed and got back on the road.

The roads between Taos and Farmington are a nice drive, though. The canyon was especially pretty. There were some gorgeous purple colored rocks in the canyon walls. I got into Farmington about 2 hours earlier than I expected, but I had an awesome visit with Angie, her husband Doug and their daughter Haley (and their two dogs, Shamus and Mac). I love visiting there. I feel so comfortable. Ang took me to see the Aztec ruins. I was going to go back the next day and sketch them, but it rained all day. I ended up going to a lovely quilt shop instead.

The only sucky thing is I picked up a bug down there. I started feeling sick the last night I was there and steadily deteriorated on the way home. The cough and crap in my chest has been lingering ever since. As I was reading though some posts from a year ago, I was sick this same exact time last year. This is becoming a tradition I hope to not repeat next year.