February 2008 Pic of the Month

Ethan Helps Mommy Make Mango Bread

Mango Bread (from Jennifer Jennings)

2 c. flour
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. cooking oil
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
2 c. peeled, diced mango
1/4 c. walnuts
1/2 c. shredded coconut

Mix the dry ingredients (the first five). Make a well in the dry ingredients and add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour into two small or one large greased and sugared loaf pan(s). Allow to stand for 20 min, then bake at 350 for 1 hour.

To Do List Blog

I write a lot of To Do lists. I have one on my computer desktop all the time; I only look at and update it about once a month, but writing things down seems to make them happen a little easier. I suppose some other people have found this as well; one of those people has actually found a way to make a career out of other peoples' lists. I visit the To Do List blog from time to time to see what matters to other people, and to see if they've found any must-do's that I should add to my list as well. This one is just plain classic: Ways to Prove We're Ready for Marriage. Top of the list: Do laundry more regularly. You bet. I could work on that one, too. Actually, I think I was pretty regular with the laundry until I got married. I just did it whenever I ran out of underwear. Now, it's a little trickier. My suggestion to the couple wanting to get married: get exactly the same amount of underwear, and wear it at exactly the same rate. This will save you some grief in the long run.

Ethan's Elephant

This is the little elephant I knitted for Ethan. He's already given it hugs and kisses, and chewed on the trunk, so I consider the project a success. Thanks again to Lorraine and Geek Knitter!

The Obligatory First Birthday Photo

Bloggers to the Rescue

I've been knitting a sweet blue elephant toy for Ethan's birthday, but ran out of yarn. No problem, I thought, I remember where I got it... and started to look online. The yarn's been discontinued, so in desperation, I posted on a few bloggers' sites... people who said they'd made something with the yarn, hoping to find a skein or two, to finish the little elephant's head. Two bloggers came to my rescue: Lorraine and Geek Knitter. Thanks!! If I had an award or two, I'd send it to them. As it is, I'll share the love:

Pipe Dreams

When I'm not doing the things I'm supposed to do, like assignments for school, I occasionally read baby blogs. I came across a new one today, and learned that Halle Berry is buying two of everything for her new baby. No, not twins. Just has two houses, and doesn't want Baby Berry to get confused. So, she's getting two of everything for the nursery, down to stuffed animals. Huh. We take the EXACT SAME pack-n-play and cozy blanket with us when we travel. And we deliberately have ONLY ONE house. How's that for decreasing confusion, Halle?

What I really should be doing is logging on to Texas Tech to find out what I'm supposed to do for my first week's assignments. I dreamed recently that I logged on, and discovered that all I had to do for the first week was download the syllabi, but I'm afraid that's a pipe dream. It will probably be something like, "Assess your immediate (100 mi. radius) community's health promotion resources, and write a 15 page paper detailing current and potential interventions, including management strategies for proposed interventions." Just my luck.

Sweepstakes Update: Jimeale Bag

I recently won a drawing at Cool Mom Picks (where, incidentally, I go about 2-3 times a week to enter drawings because I am addicted to that sort of thing); unfortunately, I didn't claim the prize in time. However, the gracious Cool Moms wrote Jimeale, who created the prize in question, and she sent me a great diaper bag from her line, anyway. A plus: she donates 15% of proceeds to support a breast cancer benefit, Boarding for Breast Cancer. Click on the picture to see the rest of her bags:

Environmental Consciousness for the Underachiever

After Ethan was born, we bought a jogging stroller. I had high hopes of actually jogging with it, but we've found we mostly use it for walks to the park and around the neighborhood. I had been wanting a pedometer to measure my walks since the speedometer/odometer that came with our fancy stroller measures in kilometers (only!), and I'm not 100% sure it works. It is nice to know I'm strolling at 10 km/hr, but it's not really useful information.

I had a pleasant surprise, then, when my sister-in-law and brother gave me what must be the Godfather of all pedometers, if it can even be classified as a pedometer. I think it's actually a high-tech training device for athletes. You know, ultra long distance runners, bikers who regularly traverse states, etc. Not one to be intimidated by looking silly in front of triathletes, I charged the thing up, popped it on my wrist and took a walk... to the grocery store, exactly 1.06 miles from home. This brings me to the point of my post, which is actually about being socially responsible, and my hidden desire to live in a community where people walk to work, to school, to the bank and grocery store. We lived in New York City for a while, and walked just about everywhere. Except Harlem and the Bronx Zoo.

I started thinking about how many places I can walk in our neighborhood; it's not exactly Manhattan, but it is conducive to walking. Within a mile, I can count a grocery store, our bank, our pharmacy, our pediatrician, our dentist :), a mom-and-pop gourmet coffee shop, a massage parlor, a passel of expensive boutiques, salons and antique stores, a pastry shop, a park with playground, a church or two... even Matt's favorite Chinese place. Within a couple of miles, we've got a library, a post office, my doctor, both hospitals, a bunch of fast food, barbershops, dollar stores, more antique places, a couple of schools. It's incredible. I'm thinking about going without my car for a week. Except for walking to work (not crazy about that idea at 5 in the morning or at 7:30 p.m. after a 12-hr shift), I think I could pretty much get where I need to go by foot. And this is good, because I don't recycle anything except for aluminum cans, and I do throw away a lot of plastic bags and diapers.

I wonder if the extra gas money saved would make up for shopping at the expensive grocery store? Maybe. The real question is, will I save more money by not being able to get to the mall, or will I end up shopping at the boutiques? Good thing Stein Mart is close.

Sweepstakes Update: Google, The Evil Empire?

So, from time to time I enter sweepstakes. And I rarely win things, but at least now I know why: Google. In Google's quest to rule the internet, they've added one more weapon to their arsenal: breaking people down by depriving them of hard-won sweepstakes prizes. I won a Jimeale diaper bag. However the prize notification e-mail went into my spam, along with the follow-up letter which went something like this: "If you don't respond by midnight tonight, we'll give your diaper bag to someone else, slacker!" Not really, but I wrote back anyway, a week late, hoping there would still be a cute bag sitting around with my name on it. There wasn't, but they offered me a consolation prize. So, no hard feelings toward Cool Mom Picks. Further update to follow. Meanwhile I will brood on my love-hate relationship with Google as I blog, search, organize and share photos, track internet traffic, and write content for ad-heavy web pages, all thanks to Google.