We hit up a few yard sales again today with a portion of my birthday money. I had originally planned to save it all to buy stamping and card making supplies, but the need for instant gratification won out. Out to the streets we went. Fortunately it was already late and most of them had shut down for the day, so there were only a few left to pick from, which meant I spent less money! The trunk was full by 5pm, and I was down 19.25 from my wallet. Here’s what we got…

1st Sale: Total spent - $10.25
Griddle pan. (The one that came in our pan set has ridges and is very thin, this one is flat and nice and thick)
Red tea kettle that opens on top. (The one we got free last month only opens from the pour spout)
Fancy corkscrew. (Because the one we have isn’t very strong)
Smoothie blender (which works like a dream, we washed it up and put it to use with some strawberries and ice cream… I bet I could use it to puree veggies and sauces too!)
Printer. (I haven’t hooked this up to see if it works yet…)

2nd Sale: Total spent - $9.00
Cream colored crocheted afghan. (I love it, Chris says it’s ugly, but whatever… it’s beautiful!)
Bathroom sink and cabinet. (We’re going to paint it and replace the sink in the bathroom…it’s mounted to the wall and provides no storage.)
Paper towel holder.
Big flower pot. (Nothing I found at the local stores struck me… this one is plastic and green, but I just like it. I’ll be transplanting my herbs into it tomorrow)
Small painted terra cotta flower pot and tray. (I don’t know what to plant in this, maybe some more herbs, or lavender.)
Toaster.

Not a bad take, right? Especially considering earlier in the day we got an outside dog house, a cat scratching post, and a large water cooler for free for helping Chris’ Uncle move in next door. He’s most likely going to give us a good sized steel work table too, which will go in my office as a crafting table. I’m beginning to understand why people get addicted to yard sales. It’s an incredibly convenient way to shop. Chris and I have spent just under $150 (when you add in things we’ve found on Craigslist) and furnished the house. And when you get there late, they are wanting to be done, so they start giving you things for free… sometimes there is just a sign by the side of the road that says FREE. That’s always nice too, we got a queen sized comforter with matching shams and pillows, a rolling cart (we use it to hold laundry supplies), and books on the side of the road one day marked free.

We hit up 3 other sales today and didn’t find anything we needed at them. There was a cat kennel at the last one we went ran by, but they wanted $20 for it, and it was obviously used. Seeing as we paid $30 (or $40, I don’t remember) for Whiskey’s extra large basically brand new kennel, we just couldn’t spend that much on a small one for the cat. Oooh, that’s right, I didn’t tell you about the cat!

The night I got home Chris’ surprised me with a lovely gray tabby kitten that I named Huckleberry. It was a “welcome home” plus “Happy Birthday” gift. I was shocked, because he told me he’s allergic… but apparently he wanted to surprise me. And he did! She’s a cutie too. He also got me a patio set (a small round table and two chairs) that actually fits in our tiny kitchen, so now we eat at the table instead of the computer and television. We had pizza night (gluten free for me) and cherries for my birthday dinner. Oh, and he let me go see my Mom and sister for 9 days. A very long 9 days!

My Mom got me a pair of Birkenstocks, and let me eat her wonderful food (tomatoes, mushrooms, something other than mild cheddar cheese, fish, asparagus, rabbit, goose, clam chowder, seriously… we eat pretty simple so crashing at her house for 9 days was a blast) and lounge around watching 8 seasons of Charmed for over a week. While I was down there I went through a lot of my stuff and gave away 4 boxes of books… the local used store “bought” a few of them for in store credit… which I just put on my Mom’s account.. And then proceeded to spend more on used books than I had put on her account… so she let me used some of her in store credit too. I think I got 6 books? We had taco night (for my birthday meal) and watched several movies together.

My Grandparents sent me a nice card with some cash, as did my in-laws, and that’s what I used for garage saleing today. With the extra cash we stopped at the store and got ice-cream (oh my god, they had my favorite Haagen-Dazs that isn’t always on the shelf on sale!), strawberries, yogurt, and ice and went home to watch Atonement, eat steak, corn on the cob, asparagus, and baked potatoes… followed by smoothies! I tossed a chunk of a deliciously gooey huckleberry chocolate bar Donna sent me for my birthday (It came this morning by the way, Donna! It was scrumptious but sticky, so the rest of it is in the fridge at the moment) into the blender with mine and loved it.

Overall, despite my moaning earlier in the week, I had a good birthday… it was just spread over several days, which made it much sweeter in the end. Thanks everyone, for your wishes and support. <3

Said Ben, to John on the most recent episode of lost… and how right was he? My fickle bitch lately has definitely been my muse. Buuuut… she’s back, and I’m loving it.

See? (All with the exception of the last one are for my characters in LKH role play.)

A few weeks ago I blogged about my hair woes. Over the weekend I made a choice and got it cut. I sort of comprimised between short and curly, and long and limp… the result is something I sort of like. I was getting used to having long hair… this new cut is still on the longer side (for me, as I am used to it no longer than chin length), and I can french braid it, and pull it into a pony tail…

I haven’t decided if it’s cute or not… I think it’s the bangs giving me the most issues. The sytlist didn’t listen when I told her my hair isn’t naturally stick straight, and she cut them to short… so they sort of bounce and curl all on their own. Meh, my hair grows fast, they’ll be ok in a few weeks. I also decided to get rid of the gray… The first two pictures are my old, long, limp and gray hair… then me, and a picture post without Whiskey, who is getting huge, would be incomplete. I believe there are more of him in there, than me!

I still haven’t mastered gluten-free dumplings, but man oh man, do I have arepas and drop-biscuits down. Having my day to myself again has given me plenty of time, even while sick, to experiment, and oh… have I! A few weeks ago at Cash & Carry they had big cuts of meat on sale, so we got one for about $30… It made 12 steaks, 1 night of fajita meat, a gallon baggie full of stew meat, a round roast, and 1 long roast… which I made last night. The meat is a little tough, but still good… it just requires some careful cooking.

We already had the fajitas, and instead of using flour tortillas, Chris and I stuffed the meat and peppers into arepas and enjoyed. Since then I’ve made arepas twice again, and can’t keep out of them. Real food! Real bread! The texture is perfect. I slice them open and stuff with cheese, then cook like a grilled cheese sandwich… let me tell you, I am not missing bread anymore. They are good with just butter, or tomatoes, and avocados, yum.

The roast came out tough on one end, and it was huge… so I saved a good chunk of it, chopped it into little pieces, and simmered in the juice from the veggies all day in my little crock pot… with some fresh lemon thyme, and dried oregano, basil, and more thyme… oh, and left over garlic from last night! Then I made a gravy with sorghum flour, and added in the meat and juice…the beef was falling apart, and oh so succulent… the long cooking hours really made the gravy something else…normally we eat meat & gravy over mashed potatoes at least once a week, because it’s easy and cheap… but tonight I was craving biscuits in a bad way.

So I googled gluten-free biscuits, pulled up a recipe that reminded me of my mothers, and went to work. They are divine, simply some of the best biscuits I have ever had… fluffy, moist, soft…spooning gravy over them and mashed potatoes… oh yeah, we’re going to be doing that a lot more around here. Chris doesn’t like drop biscuits (he liked canned biscuits), and is still adjusting to the new textures of gluten-free food, and even he liked these…I am looking forward to getting up tomorrow and putting butter on one for breakfast…

And gawds, I am still sick. The coughing isn’t as hard, but a fit still lasts forever… my ribs are tender to the touch, and my shoulders ache… mix that time of the month in with it, and I hurt all over… but the sore throat isn’t so bad, I can talk, and I don’t feel like I’m walking around in a head fog. Of course, Chris has got it now, and we’re trying to keep it from getting as bad as mine… lots and lots of tea, cold medicine at night to make sure he sleeps, already have him on Mucinex since he is coughing some… and the Breathe Right strips at night… well, those are for me… so I can get some sleep! He snores so loud when he’s sick, and I broke my headphones a few weeks ago…

Although the late nights his snoring have caused for me have led to some incredible role-play in ruby’s room lately… so I can’t complain to much.

I have had the worst chest/head cold the past few days. So bad I lost my voice, and was text messaging Chris to have a conversation… and coughing up blood. It’s a good thing I’d already quit, because there is no way I could have talked for 8+ hours a day. We were so broke too, that I couldn’t get any meds. But then… I got a card in the mail from my Grandparents… with money.

I was supposed to do something “nice” for us with it. Hahaha… yeah, I went to the store and got oil, sugar, a tomato, some hot pockets for Chris, frozen gluten-free mac & cheese (it was ok), Muxinex, breath right strips, and some Irish cheese. The cheese was nice. Oh my god, so yummy. Seriously, I loved it. Chris took a tiny bite and hated it, but he’s not a cheese fan. It was worth the price, and definitely hit a 10 on my nice scale.

I don’t know if it’s the cheese, or medicine, or pot of tea Chris made me… helping me feel better, but I do… for the first time in days. Maybe quitting blogging every day has something to do with it too.

Before the blog I was blond, naturally.

I can remember hating my hair. It was stick straight, woefully trapped somewhere between blonde and ugly, and impossible to keep up. For years I was a tow head, but puberty hit me a top the head with bottle of hair dye, and my hair started to get nasty. Dishwater is not an affectionate, nor a very descriptive term, if you think about it… my dish water never looks like fine, medium blonde hair that needs a good washing…

I’m not sure what led my Mom to dye my hair at the age of 12. I remember the box, it had a pretty girl with big eyes, and a bright smile shaking out a short mane of beautiful golden locks. It stank, and itched, and I wasn’t allowed to look into the mirror until after my hair was cut into a short page boy, blow dried, and fluffed around my face. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. My hair didn’t look anything like the woman’s on the box. It had reacted to the dye and turned a fabulous shade of strawberry blonde that made my eyes glow, and my skin look flawless.

Since I was just starting to struggle with pimples and blemishes, flawless was a good thing. The hair do was so easy to keep up, I never had to do anything with it… I had no curl at the point in time… so it laid flat and smooth with a slight bounce at the end, and when I wore green my eyes went from the color of dried feces to a rich, mossy green brown. At that time I was attending a school that was 98% black, and 2% white, and let me tell you… I suddenly stood out more than I ever had before. It was the first time I realized I could have some sort of power over boys.

The first time I went to school with my new hair classmates I’d never spoken to before would walk over and stroke their dark fingers through my glossy hair and tug playfully, their voices light, teasing… friendly, as they called me Goldilocks. I wore my hair like this until I was about 15. Most people never even questioned it. We moved later that year to Washington, where no one had ever seen my mousy hair… and for all they knew, I’d been born with that glorious golden red hair. And then puberty changed it’s mind, and my hair started to frizz, and curl… and darken.

It suddenly became to expensive to keep my roots touched up, and my hair grew out. Brown, wavy, and unmanageable. It still wouldn’t stay in a clip, but suddenly I need hair products, and a different sort of brush, and new make-up… because my skin tone looked completely different with that new hair. It was awful. I’d cut it off short, hoping to make things better, and never seemed to realize the shorter my hair was, the curlier it was, and the thicker it grew in. Of course, I couldn’t have a pretty shade of brown hair, it was still mousy, on the dull side… and trapped somewhere between light, and dark… so I dyed it again. I’d pick out a lovely shade of brown, and when I blow dried my hair I almost cried. It was red.

Glossy, almost not red, red hair… and I decided to go with it. I wore my hair like this for a while and just for a change once in a while I’d lighten it… but could never quite attain that brilliant shade of strawberry again. I gave up and embraced the brown, and let hair grow out. Then I started to get gray hair. At 17 I yanked out my first bristly, curly little hair, and cried. I didn’t have any luck at avoiding premature gray. My father was gray, my mother was gray, I had an uncle who’d been heavily gray by 13, and my Momo already had a full head of white hair.

The gray hair grew worse, and I went back to the bottle. I even went to the stylist, and had my hair done professionally, and always… I’d come out with something slightly red. I wanted so desperately to have brown hair, plain, simple… but it’s never worked. So I either embrace my inner temper (oh, who are we kidding… I do more than embrace my temper, I dance with it) or deal with the gray. I’m seriously considering a trip to the stylist in a few weeks, and having it chopped off back to my chin (I haven’t had a cut in a year!)… and getting the gray covered. There was a brief consideration… I wanted to try and get that strawberry blond again, but I decided against it. I’m hoping to go back to something like this…

It curls better the shorter it is, and it’s nice to be able to scrunch and go… most days I just French braid it and forget about it. It is nice to have some length, but I’m overly fond of it anymore. What do you think?