asteroid B612

I've got nothing else this morning. You really don't want to hear me wallowing in hormonally induced ineptitude.

So I will share so many cool things I've seen around the internet:
Maia's Hand Quilt via The Artful Parent, one of my top favorite blogs! You really should check her out.

Speaking of quilts, I'm so pumped about this exhibit opening this weekend at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gee's Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt

I have no desire to make a quilt right now, but I love looking at them.

And speaking of hands, I loved this banner as seen at Ohdeedoh

(I'm envisioning fabric paint, though....hmmmm)

And totally on another topic, angry chicken linked to all these yummy looking cracker recipes on the king arthur flour website. (never thought to look there for recipes.) I'm SO going to have to try this. There's even a recipe for digestive biscuits. Yum. (though, of course, they would need to be dipped in chocolate)

Ok, back to your normally scheduled constructive life. Coffee's drunk.

One of my many mom attributes is that I carry snacks around in my bag, usually just pretzels or goldfish. This was exaggerated a little bit when I was pregnant; I carried meals, add in a couple peanut butter sandwiches and some apples. At the end of my pregnancy, I started to run out of energy to maintain the level of the larder in my purse. So on Thursdays when we went into the city for speech therapy, we ended up going to the McDonalds at the hospital, um, a lot. They have big windows to entertain my little boy with city buses, taxis, ambulances, and trucks. And it was much more navigable than the cafeteria, which is desirable when you're huge.

We hadn't been back since I had the baby, but we went this Thursday before speech. Folks, the cash register lady recognized me! "Oh, you had your baby! He is so cute! *cooing* say hello to Miss Pam!" I'm not kidding. I didn't know whether to be pleased or embarrassed.

A few minutes of quiet. E has just left for school. M catnaps. Blueberry pancakes sizzle. Our friends got me hooked on Trader Joe's buttermilk pancake mix. Third time this week I've made pancakes...with lots of blueberries. Mmmm.

My aunt and four cousins and my mom (who was hanging out with them) stopped by yesterday to say hello to the baby. It was such a fun impromptu visit! And E had a blast playing with my cousins.

And on these HOT days in late July, we eat lots popsicles and crank up the AC. T minus 8 days 'til vacation in Maine.

* I don't know why I've been in such a bloggy mood lately. But I am.

* I got my haircut this week. I like my short, short hair. I never have to deal with it. But I do have great hair (not to give myself airs or anything), so sometimes i feel guilty for liking it so short. I always get happy vibes from the stylist when s/he cuts my hair. What I don't like is when they get a vision for my hair. It's usually not in my vision. Thankfully, this last time the stylist managed to keep her vision to verbal conversation about the potential of my hair. I have found that I tend to get the haircut that I want from male stylists. My hair style is short and feminine, and men seem to accept that more than women.

* We started eating cold cereal again this week. There are few times in life when I buy cold cereal. At the beginning of my pregnancy when I need to put something in my stomach asap, and I usually get a gingery cereal to help with the nausea. At Christmas, when we can choose our favorite cereal. And now at the end of the pregnancy when I just can't seem to make anything happen. We're pretty big fans of oatmeal, and not buying cold cereal saves a lot of money. But there are just some times when you need cold cereal in your life. Incidentally, now I can add cold cereal to the list of Things Ellis Will Eat (he does like oatmeal, too--just not granola).

The unusually high percentage of arabesques in my womb has no correlation to the inordinate amount of chocolate thin mints I just ate. None whatsoever.

I love Val Day. I think it's fun. I love the homemade valentines, cookies (because usually I never got around to decorating C'mas cookies, so it's my time to redeem myself), and a yummy dinner with hubby. We don't make a big, expensive holiday. But I like the opportunity to do something a little extra special. We actually ended up celebrating the day after this year, because it was more convenient.

We had some little kids over yesterday for a little Valentine's party.

I laid out crayons, paper, glue, and glitter glue, and they made valentines for their mommies. Some kids needed a little more help than others. But the craft went well, and made me really happy.

I cut out PB&J hearts for lunch for the kids. And after the moms ate (no hearts for us: with 3 pregnant and 1 nursing mom, we were just concerned about FOOD), they decorated a few cookies. for Ellis the cookie merely served as a platter from which to eat frosting.

In the evening for our Valentine's Dinner, I tried to recreate our favorite meal from our favorite Lebanese restaurant in New Orleans. It's simple and dippy. But I don't have a lot of experience with Mediterranean cooking, so I had to look around a bit and consult with a friend for what to do. It turned out pretty near perfect. Trader Joe's helped a lot, too. I got the hummus, baba ganoush, and tzatiki sauce from there, and a preseasoned, boneless leg of lamb. For the lamb, I didn't do a real kebab on a spit. I cut it up into cubes, pan-seared the chunks with red onion and then baked it for a little with tomatoes. And then stirred in a yogurt-tahini sauce. SO GOOD!!!! And so tender! We ate everything with pitas "al fresco" (in the living room). Pretty much perfect. Afterwards we watched Paris, Je t'aime. So everything went as planned and was a lot of fun. I love dippy meals. We're going to have to do this more often.

Today was a balmy 67 degrees. Unseasonal for early February in Pennsylvania. It felt like winter in Louisiana, where you're not sure whether to wear a jacket or a Tshirt.

Chris and I have been passing a weird mood back and forth all week. I think we miss NOLA. It was Mardi Gras yesterday. Today I wore the same maternity Tshirt I wore to the last Mardi Gras parade I went to, when I was pregnant with Ellis. I wore it today as I stood stirring a steaming vat of gumbo. I don't think it's possible to make gumbo in quantities smaller than Big Vat.