The Once and Former Blogger

I've been asked more than once recently if I was still blogging. I guess the reasonable answer, despite this post, would be no.

See, when I was working on blog 1.0 (13 days from monday), I was working from home and spending countless hours in front of the computer screen, mindlessly surfing the infinite expanse of the 'net about as much as I was actually working.

I quit that blog once I realized that the life of a pregnant graduate student wasn't really conducive to published pointlessness.

Then came The Troubles, and so came blogger brigita 2.0, aka Sugarmouth, publishing My Cancer Deployment. It was all personal updates all the time, thus more journal than weblog, but it served a multitude of purposes until I finished treatment, so I stopped blogging there.*

I got a few new blog followers with MCD and thought I should try to parlay that into a new post-C blog. So I ported my old blog over to its current URL and repurposed brigita.blogspot.com for my third and current blog, Sugarmouth. The idea was to keep up with the personal anecdotes while throwing in some actual weblog content.

And I guess we know how well that worked out.

The thing of it is, my life is pretty mundane these days (as I have mentioned more than once before). There really isn't all that much of note to relay (at least nothing I haven't already mentioned in Facebook status updates) in the way of the personal life, and I'm not surfing interesting sites any more, so I guess I'm in a bit of a rut. One I'm not super fired-up to break out of, anyhow.

I guess the point of this non-post is to kind of apologize to those readers that check in on me on a regular basis, only to find the same old post languishing at the top of the blog and to let you guys know what's the what. I haven't forgotten about the blog so much as I've forgotten how to blog.

Of course now that I've said that, watch me pull the total blogger cliché of saying "Yah, I don't really have that much to say, I'm going to take a break from blogging..." and proceed to blog more in the following week than I had in the four previous.

So...more as it happens?

*...sort of...

Pieces of Me

Great news from the guts front: I got my drivers license renewal form in the mail the other day and along with it came a set of orange dot DONOR stickers. I (and everyone else in my GI support group) had been under the impression that we cancer veterans had to keep our spare parts to ourselves.

Rather than languish under flawed assumptions, I thought I should give a call to the authorities on the subject, and what did they tell me?

I can still donate my organs! Ok, well, maybe. It depends on circumstances that we didn't get into, but the good news is that I'm a definite maybe! Hooray!

A Short Story:

I am boring, bordering on the worstest blogger evar.

Boring makes for a boring blog, but a pretty nice, predictable life.

But yeah, pretty wicked boring.

The end.

The UnUpdate

Hey guys! So, how're you all dong? Good, good...

So yeah, um, you know how I haven't been posting all that much? No, there's no reason for it (emphasis on No Reason) or anything, just been kinda busy with a whole lot of nothing in particular.

ANYhoo, so I'm not really going to be posting all that much for the next week or so either because the mother-in-law is rolling into town tomorrow and then I'm hoping to do a big purge and get all my sh!t in one sock for the neighborhood yard sale the following weekend.

I know, I know, you are so jealous. If I weren't already me, I'd be jealous, too.

DREAMLOG: Mommy Edition

I think I dreamed last night that I had forgotten to order a cake for Violet's 2nd birthday.

Is this the Mommy version of naked final exam stress dream? And since when do I order store-made cakes?

This is Not a Negotiation.

Toddlers are kinda like small, sticky, pee-pants terrorists like that.

It's Like an Orange on a Toothpick

Remember the hat that I wore pretty much all last summer to keep off of my photosensitive face? The one I got in the Allure Safe in the Sun Beauty Box? The one that's actually kinda cute? Probably not, because I wasn't exactly posting a lot of pictures of myself last summer.

Anyhow, that hat? It doesn't fit me any more. Because my hair is back, in all of it's unruly, prematurely white glory.

I Scream, You Scream

OMG more food news: It's Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's today (12p-8p).

A Tale of Yummy Overpriced Snackfoods

Like many people, I have a major love/hate with Whole Foods: I loooooooooooove all the great stuff they have, hate signing off on three figure receipts.

One of my most favorite things by Whole Paycheck--besides their Seedilicious bread and their ridiculously fantastic cheese selection--is their Protein Packed Salad. Or, was their Protein Packed Salad, until they unceremoniously discontinued it about a year ago.

There were a number of questions asked of the folks behind the deli counter and some mourning in between the whole cancer thing, and then time passed, and then POOF! I was perusing the refrigerated prepacked food section and there it was! My Protein Packed Salad!

What's so great about my PPS? Well, here's the ingredients list, for your edification and my insurance, just in case it goes all POOF again:

Edamame, wheatberries, quinoa, celery, red peppers, carrots, red onion, scallions, and dressing (cottage cheese, canola mayo, honey, parsley, cider vinegar, dill, sea salt, black pepper).

It's so super fudging good, I hope you're all able to find some at your local WF!

I'm Published!

Ok, so it's just another place on the 'net, but I got paid for it*!

Dealing With Cancer: A Kick in the Ass.

It's a 3-part series, so you might have to poke around to find the other two parts. Me, verbose? Never.

Ok, so the $$ is only enough to pay for 1.5 parking tickets, but still...

It's Almost Market Season!

This is so great for a thousand different reasons, and to celebrate the onset of spring I really need to get off the computer, off my ass, and over to the fabric store--yes, the fabric store--so I can make Martha's No-Sew Market Tote.

I think if I got the hang of making these, I could also tweak the pattern a little to be able to use them for produce bags for my usual shopping.

Step one: get off the computer...

Call Me Cindy Lou Roux

It sounds like The Kid is up from her nap and throwing bricks out of her crib, so I'll have to keep this quick, but I just wanted to say that I made some pretty kickass mac 'n cheese from scratch--my first roux!--last night and holy POOP is it good.

I'm sure the recipe is somewhere online--but like I said, bricks--so I'll just post the scan that my CIA-educated brother-in-law sent me for now and try to find the recipe later...

WINO ALERT!

So, you know how you get invited to a BBQ or dinner party or some similar food/alcohol/socializing event and you're all "Uh, we need to bring something...how about wine? Yeah, wine is good...but how many bottles? Do you know how many people are supposed to be there? How much should we spend per bottle?"

Maybe that's just me. I am more of a beer girl: I know what I like (read: lots and lots of hops and just when you think it's pretty good and hoppy, ad more hops).

That said, can you imagine how much of a hit of the party you would be if you brought wine in a paint can?! Of course there's the question of whether or not the wine's any good, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

I'm such a sucker for clever packaging...

[via]

Making Good On Culinary Promises

I got it into my head a while ago that rather than depend on our local Thai establishment(s) as a source for the delicious Tom Kha Gai (or really Tom Kha Tofu) soup, I was going to take a field trip to the Asian grocer and make it myself.

Fast forward several months to yesterday, when I finally did make it out to the grocer and picked up all the ingredients (save the necessary peppers--they were all labeled "PEPPER" and that is definitely a thing you want to get right).

Oh MAN was it good, even though I started it way too early which may have muddied the flavors a bit and definitely wound up in it being less a soup and more of a curry-type thing, which we served over rice.

I'd post the recipe except that I kinda fused about four recipes I found, doing my usual "little of this, little of that" non-style of cooking despite it being my first time.

Basic ingredients include stock, coconut milk, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, chilies, fish sauce, lime juice, veggies and protein of choice. I also garnished with scallions, cilantro, and bean sprouts 'cause I'm nice like that.

Glad To Be 1,000 Miles From the Chesapeake Bay

One less thing I can't eat without a pound of guilt: Crabs Feel Pain.

This Just In

News anchor gravitas + self-aware self-assured self-mockery (see: SNL, Daily Show, and Sesame St.) = me tardy to the Brian Williams crush party.

I Am a Dog Walker Stalker

I have done my best to refrain from flogging myself here on the blog over our making the incredibly difficult decision to surrender our dog Cleo. She was troubled, she was broken, and she sincerely made it difficult for us to live our lives--social and otherwise--without a heaping pile of stress, but she was ours. She was mine.

As I've said before, giving her up was so hard, but I knew for as hard as that was, if Cleo ever did any harm to Violet, it would be like a knife to my heart.

And this is how I made my peace with our turning her over to a shelter. A kill shelter. Ok no, I still haven't really forgiven myself.

But she was picked up by the local rescue. And while that helped me sleep a little easier, I still continued to feel guilty, thus stalked her guiltily online, sending first the Christmas stocking my mom had made her, and then a donation to the rescue who saved her. Because the guilt, it keeps on coming.

That is, until today. Today the guilt subsides a little bit more because Cleo is no longer available: she's been adopted!!! Oh sweet St. Francis of Assisi, our dear Cleo has found a permanent home! I really, really hope that it's with the guy she's lounging on in the picture because he bears a passing resemblance to Jody, with whom she shared many a snuggle and nap, and I would think that that would make the transition a little easier on her.

Be well, little monkey. I still love and miss you terribly.

Another One for the Water is Wet Files:

I love The Eff Word and make no apologies for it.

Recipes of Relative Ease*

I'm wary of launching another ongoing installment over here at Sugarmouth on account of the infrequency with which I try new recipes, but I wanted to share the following with you, gentle reader: The Best Broccoli of Your Life.

I tried the recipe out tonight and not only is it tasty and fairly healthy, but it is wicked easy and doesn't require any exotic ingredients or cooking implements.

I made a test (ie small) batch in the toaster oven this evening and think I will cook it for longer than the 22:22 I did to up the crunch factor and use more Parmesan the next time as well.

Apologies to the blogger from whom I stole this link...I can't for the life of me remember where I came across it.

*A bit of a stretch, I know.

New Sugarmouth Segment!

Hey y'all--I think it's time to launch a new recurring segment here on the ol' blog:

Things/People to Which/Whom I Would Sincerely Like to Dole Out a Most Unladylike Beatdown.

OMG, you guys, have you been getting those spam emails, hearing the radio commercials, or catching parts of the over-lengthy TV infomercials on colon cleansing? Because, did you know that you aren't overweight, you might actually have up to 30lbs of poop jammed up in there like "spackle or paste?" And that all you need is a good "detox" or to take a bunch of pills or get a colonic and poof! You're going to be a size six again? </sarcasm>

Holy fucking shit (pun intended), this nonsense positively makes me want to spit nails. Doctors have either have to use the threat of cancer or brute force to get their patients into the GI clinic, but from the preponderance of these damn commercials, it would seem that folks are lining up for these "cleansing" scams!

Hey quick-fixers! Do you want to "detox" your body? Drink more water, eat less processed crap, and get your heart rate over 120 for more than 20 minutes more than twice a week!

Ok, now I'm about to blow. Your. MIND. Wanna hear something really crazy? This "program" will also help you LOSE WEIGHT! Whatta coincidence, right? </sarcasm>

The other thing that makes me fucking nuts is these quacks tout claim to be "nutritionists," which ANY unqualified jackass can call themselves. I mean, who wouldn't trust their intestinal health to an evangelist and a "nutraceutical formulator "?

Of course, nowhere on their websites does it say where these HUGE douchebags got their college degree(s), which leads me to believe that they, in fact, have not matriculated from an accredited institution of higher learning.

But I could just be biased. I could be way too invested in the topic. I mean sure, doesn't this guy look like an expert on what's good for you and your colon?

</sarcasm>