right now,

my bathroom floor is wet from splashing,

there is toilet paper stuffed into my printer,

i’m missing jewelry,

there are some stains on the floor surrounding a highchair,

i’m also missing many tupperware lids,

and all the rubber stoppers for the door jams,

i routinely carry diapers in my purse,

someone drew on the wall,

there are tiny fingernail scratches on the top of my deodorant stick,

and belly laughter coming from the bathroom.

i’m pretty sure it rained on the day i was born.

the sky spilt on the earth care-weathered and worn.

the clouds in their ache, did shudder and break,

but the rain was never forlorn.

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November is my favorite month

though full of rain and sleet,

for November is the only month

of my birthday–which is neat!

___________________________________

Today I sipped at life’s sweet draught–Hope in large quantities.

The fullness of my cup is replenished by simple things;

eating crepes for breakfast and getting blackberry jam EVERYWHERE,

napping in the afternoon with a child on my chest–drooling,

or holding hands with AJ.

lots of things,

and: antique book appraisal.

Today I bought 12 first edition books ranging from zane grey to alfred tennyson mostly pre-1910. The easy part? Finding search engines advertising the value of similar books. The hard part? Figuring out what characteristics your book has. For example, a book can range from less than a hundred to several thousand simply by having a dust jacket. It’s complicated. I think I’ll take pictures and send them to various book appraisers to see what they say… maybe this way I can replace my camera?

Violet’s “kissy face” is fish lips. Fish lips on a baby are priceless–especially when they are accompanied by raised eyebrows and the leftovers of a smirk.

the yankees win the world series. again. yaaaaay.

Here’s the deal. I don’t particularly care who wins, but just today I was remembering how rude people in New York can be and with a home team like the Mariners I don’t really want to hear about how awesome the Yankees are.

We were in a library in New York back in September during our epic travels across the east coast and AJ was carrying Violet while I pushed the stroller with our bags in it. Since she hated the stroller, this was our typical arrangement. So here’s what happened. We’re heading towards the elevator, and the doors are open with two people waiting inside. I speed up and ask them to hold the door and what do they do? Hit the door close button. I responded by jamming the stroller into the last gap in the door as they repeatedly slammed and eventually spit the stroller feet out. If you don’t want to share the elevator with someone, discreetly hit the door close button–don’t look straight at them as they run towards you and casually reach over and hit the button.

My only consolation is that the Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies–they may have good cheesesteak but that is one dirty armpit of a city.

that’s right, its the third of November and I still have yet to get more than a few pieces of Halloween candy. I’m just holding out in a battle of wits with Haggen grocery to see who folds first. Let me put it this way–I’m not paying any more than 70% off for Halloween candy in November.

hmm. i honestly had an interesting thing to talk about but for the life of me I can’t remember. arg.

Today’s post is about one of my favorite fall meals. Pulled pork on yams. Simple. Amazing. Simply amazing. how’s that for cliche?

The Most Amazing Recipe That I Made Up

INGREDIENTS

1. Go to the store and buy a pork roast. Any kind, at least the size of your head.

2. Buy some yams (1 per person). You could use sweet potatoes, but yams are just so much better. Red garnet yams if you can get them.

3. Buy some barbecue sauce. I prefer Sweet Baby Ray’s because it is so cheap and you have to use so so much, but you can use anything.

PREPARATION

1. Place the meat fatty side up in an oven proof dish that can be covered or a crockpot. If you’re cooking it in the oven, cook it at 350 for 2+ hours depending on size. If you’re cooking it in the crockpot cook it on high for 4+ hours.

here is the raw meat with half the barbecue sauce

2. Cover in barbecue sauce and anything else that looks interesting. Today I used some steak seasoning. Use enough barbecue sauce to completely cover the meat.

2b. Wash, stab with a fork and wrap in foil the yams about 1-2 hours before serving. Bake at 350 on a pan so that they don’t drip onto the oven floor.

3. Cook till the meat is falling apart. The crockpot is the best way to get reliable results, but if you don’t have enough time then you can also use the oven. If you cook in the crockpot there will be a lot of juice and the fat can be hard to sort from the meat unless you pick it all out of the pot before you “pull” it.

4. Pull the pork. Use forks or tongs and generally demolish the beautiful roast into a sloppy mess of meat and sauce. Don’t shred or tear the meat too much.

SERVE

1. Place a yam on each plate. Slice in half lengthwise. It should be creamy soft.

2. Serve the pulled pork directly over the top of the yam and garnish with extra juice and barbecue sauce.

Please excuse the poor lighting and cheap camera.

AJ and I are getting our money’s worth out of our Costco membership. You know you’ve had enough samples for the day when the sample vendor points and laughs when you walk by. In my defense…it’s free food.

Also, I realized today how awkward lingering hugs are. Listen up people, if you go in for a hug and it lasts more than one-one-thousand-two-one-thousand, you’ve just been guilty of a lingering hug. Exceptions to this rule are: someone that you actually know on a first name basis and who would hug you back the same length of time, or someone who is crying. Other than that, please don’t. Or do, whatever. The true test to someone’s character is their reaction when you hug them for longer than five seconds. count it out–it’s really freaking long in hug time.

Here’s our night as told in pictures (with detailed captions.)

Yes, I know I said she was going as a skunk, but she never said any such thing. Next thing I know I’m upstairs sewing fifteen feet of tulle to make a tutu.

Even adding makeup and jewelry to the tutu getup, she was still as happy as a clam. Such a girl.

We headed off to meet up with the cousins. Violet was a little intimidated by all the super heros and the puppy.

This is the ‘08 picture with her cousins. Note the addition of the puppy this year.

Once she realized that they were actually her cousins, she settled down. plus, we gave her some candy.

After a couple more stops, it was time for home and bed. Aren’t these two the cutest ever?

Today’s post goes out to my brother Coloray who caught a king salmon the other day weighing twenty pounds dressed.

I wish I had a picture on me to show you how enormously huge this fish was; it reached from the ground to his hip and he’s 6 feet tall. gi-gan-tic. unfortunately, being pregnant I am now pretty much repulsed by the smell of any raw fish, although that may or may not have had anything to do with the four fish I cleaned the other day. Translation: we’ve got a several pound hunk of king salmon in the freezer all for AJ. Yes, he’s pretty happy.