Charlie

Here he is, in all his toothy glory:


And my knee. Pretty cute, huh? And so polite. hasn't barked yet. It's been fun having him here. Cynthia's especially fond of him, but hopefully he'll find a good home soon.

Foster home

We made kind of a split-second decision to foster a dog from the pitbull group.
The woman who rescued him will keep looking for a permanent home, but she can't keep him at her home right now so we offered to take care of him till the end of May.
He's pretty cute...A red heeler/english bulldog mix; Quite a bit smaller than swiper, but the same basic shape. I'll get some pictures up later.

Quitting

Well, it's that time of the month again...Time To Quit Smoking And This Time We Mean It. Really.
I think we had our last one Monday. So that would make this three days san cigarettes. Not bad, considering that usually we relapse after about eight hours. I'm trying a new approach this time; When I diet, I put on a piece of unfamiliar jewelry and everytime I see it I think "You're not depriving yourself of food, You're giving yourself the gift of smaller pants."
Now I'm thinking, "You're not depriving yourself of tobacco, you're giving yourself the gift of not having to tell the kids you've only got six months to live."
We're doing pretty good so far. I have this really harsh post-nasal drip, which tastes like an ashtray and makes me not want to smoke anyway.
Of course I'm eating like crazy, so I stocked up on snacks which will probably take longer to kill me than cigarettes.
There are things they don't tell you about quitting in the brochures...Constipation, joint aches, deep black depression and an inability to think clearly, wrapped up in a sense of impending doom.
But I think it's getting better now, and we may actually make it to the end of the week alive. There's a kite festival this weekend, that should be fun. Also, I'm going to try to wrangle Mr. Legs into taking Swiper to the dog park on Sunday to go hang out with the pit bull people.

Pico de Gallo:

3 Roma tomatoes
1 Haas avacado
1/2 Red onion
1 Handful of Cilantro
3 Tbsp lemon juice

Mince all, toss together. Enjoy with anything.



Epihany (epiphiwhat?):
Colors do matter. Pico de gallo with red onion looks way better than pico with white onion, almost magical. I take back all the mocking things I ever said to Mom about her 'color contrast' obsession.

What is Swiper?

I think I finally figured it out.



That is a picture of a Carolina Dog, or an 'American Dingo'.

More pictures here.

Opinions?

Temakizushi!!

Cook a pot of sushi rice (der). Have on hand all your favorite fillings; for me, that would be thinly sliced cucumber, avacado, finely grated carrots, imitation crab, shrimp and bean sprouts. You're supposed to use a sheet of nori sliced in half, but that's too much chewing for my kids, so I slice it in half again, like this:

Slap about two tablespoons of rice on there. You can smoosh it out flat, or leave it in a wad. i prefer wad.

Notice the position of the longest corner, down and to the left or right; the rough side of the nori should be facing up.

Next, fill with crunchy goodness. This is shredded carrots and a slice of omelette.


(I wouldn't reccomend the egg.)

Then just roll it into a cone. The longer point should go over the top, and just stick it in place with a few grains of sushi rice.

Martian Child

I just finished a really sweet movie called Martian Child. It's got John Cusack and nobody else that I really care about in it. I was hoping for something like Grosse Point Blank: Baby Blues and ended up with a decent story bogged down in politically correct, new age parenting weak-kneed slush.
The bones of the story are good; It's about a recently widowed Sci-Fi writer who adopts a defective kid who thinks he's an alien. There's also a stock Hollywood "nutty girl with a heart of gold" who's most notable achievement in the whole film is that she first shows up in an outfit almost identical to the one I wore to my sister's wedding. (Sorry about that, Sister.)
It made me think alot about myself, and how I've been for the past month or so. Night time is when I do most of my thinking, and each night I've gone to bed wishing I hadn't yelled so much, or been so bitchy to the kids, or had put just a little more effort into the whole parenting thing. I used to be so enthusiastic about it; When the oldest learned to read, learned her letters, I was so much a part of it. Now I just feel like I'm faking it. I get up in the morning just trying to keep the house from being destroyed. I count the hours until bedtime. Most of my pleasure comes from my morning walk alone, reading about the gardening I hope to do, or the cigarette breaks I take on the front porch, back wedged against the door to keep the screaming hordes from following me.
I guess burnout happens to everyone, but unfortunately I can't put the kids on hold until I work out my issues. I was so angry about a huge mess that happened in the front room today, I just started throwing toys back into the bin. My oldest walked up, on her tiptoes, and whispered "Can I help you, Mommy?" in a very concilitory tone, and I know that moment is going to be wedged into her brain for the rest of her life.
I don't want to be remembered as the mood-swing mommy.