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gilamonstre

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PICKLE TEA [Nov. 24th, 2009|08:45 am]
I shit you not, I am drinking PICKLE TEA.

You see, Adagio recently sent me a "gift" of their "savory sampler" (their spelling, not mine) teas when I ordered a few refills of my regular tea. The sampler contained some nice looking stuff like Rooibos, and some weird looking stuff like Artichoke Green Tea, Stweet Potato black tea and what I'm trying this morning: White Cucumber tea.

Now white tea is VERY subtle in general, and the Silver Leaf stuff I tried last week was DIVINE. You had to really take a deep breath and taste it and it had to be brewed and steeped just right, but then it tasted like HAPPY.

CUCUMBER white tea, tastes like white tea with the subtle aftertaste of fermented cucumbers in it.

To my pickle-hating tastebuds which believe that pickles are just perfectly good cucumbers gone off, this tea tastes just like someone poured a tablespoon of pickle juice in a perfectly good tea.

In other words: I won't be finishing this cup, let alone the other 1.5 oz of the sampler. Does anyone else want to try it? [info]akujin00 are you a tea drinker? Anyone else?
link10 ptooies || c'mon, spit it out

A few more photos of the Bean [Nov. 14th, 2009|09:01 am]
A few photos of Sabine from her trip to DC / MD.

(The tri-state area is SO confusing!)
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Hallowe'en is for ladybugs! [Nov. 1st, 2009|06:36 am]

Sabine and her dad fluttered around the block dusting the neighbourhood in cute this year.
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Labeling Sabine [Oct. 28th, 2009|07:58 am]

Sabine Head
Originally uploaded by gilamonstre
For folks who aren't on Facebook, here is the result of taking yesterday off and finally having some free time on my hands. This is why GILA WITH FREE TIME is a dangerous thing.

Anyone with a cat, dog, or baby that NEEDS LABELING, you let me know. I've had a taste of the labeling frenzy and it is good.
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Sabine is 3 months old! [Oct. 22nd, 2009|06:35 am]

So I finally got off my butt and posted a few new photos.
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Garlicky garlicness [Oct. 13th, 2009|08:38 am]
Last night for dinner Dave made Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic which I discovered whilst perusing the Smitten Kitchen site that my sister linked to.

Let me just say, that for a (self-loathing) garlic-hater, this dish (excellently executed by Dave) was remarkably edible. This doesn't sound like much of a strong statement, but I usually have a hard time sitting next to something with even a little bit of garlic in it -- whereas not only did I eat the heavily garlicky chicken (two pieces, even!) I even ate some of the poached garlic cloves whole (hidden in a mouthful of baby potato).

I'm feeling virtuous that I intentionally consumed 8 cloves of garlic last night -- which is more than I've had concealed in my food in the entire year previous. Garlic is GOOD for you, right? And I finally ate some.

I'm even considered using some of the leftover poached cloves to accent a barley crockpot stew that we're going to have tomorrow.

Yep. Garlicky garlickitude, for sure.
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Photos of Sabine [Oct. 12th, 2009|01:46 pm]

5 more photos of Sabine have been posted from this week!
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Peanut butter stew [Oct. 6th, 2009|08:32 am]
[info]gaptoothsanta posted this recipe last week and it definitely struck my fancy and made it last night. Rob made it as a stove-top stew, but since I'm generally out of energy by 5pm especially on work days, we've been eating a lot of crockpot cooking, so I made it in the crockpot.

Here is Rob's recipe:


African based comfort food. This recipe worked well.

Ingredients
Chicken thighs, four, boneless and skinless
Carrots, two, chunked
Parsnips, two, (fresh, yum), chunked
Celery stalks, two, chunked
Onions, two, sliced or shredded
Butternut squash chunks, 1-2 cups
Sweet Potato, one, chunked
Kale, slices, 2 packed cups

1-2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/8 cup vinegar
some red pepper flakes
some sesame chili oil
pepper and salt

1. Brown thighs and onions in sesame oil
2. Add everything else and simmer slowly for a few hours. Stir occasionally, add more broth if needed to avoid sticking.
3. Toward the end, add the kale. Give it enough time to cook, but not become mush. Maybe 30min.
4. Serve over white jasmine rice



As I twittered/twote yesterday, it smelled INCREDIBLE while cooking, and by about an hour before it was done it was making me drool all the way upstairs.

It tasted pretty good too, but Dave and I don't really like sweet food much at all (except desserts) so it was a bit sweet for us. I don't know much about "African" foods -- I know lots about Ethiopian (not sweet) and Moroccan (often sweet) cooking so I'm not sure how to de-sweeten this stew a little without changing it noticeably. After discussion with Dave, we decided to try the stew again with the following modifications:

- omit the sweet potatos, maybe use regular potatoes
- add another bitter or sour vegetable, maybe green peppers
- consider lemongrass, which is definitely NOT african but would likely reduce sweetnes

I don't know if basil would help, and Dave suggested oregano... I guess we have lots of experimenting to do.

Overall though, peanut butter and chicken is AWESOME. Next time Kitty comes over though, I'm definitely bleaching the kitchen from top to bottom.
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Sweet, Sweet, Evil [Oct. 1st, 2009|05:31 pm]
[info]littlehoudini told me about this place Sweet Flour months and months ago, whereupon the self-preservation switch in my mind went off and blocked the memory that this place existed.

Then I parked right out front of it on Bloor verywest on an errand.

Still, I managed to walk right by it without noticing.

Then, on my way back to the car, last stop before heading home all done, looking forward to sitting down and hanging out with my Bean outside of her carrier when all of a sudden I feel IMMENSELY PECKISH.

Suddenly I noticed I'm standing outside a bakery.

"I wonder if they have cupcakes" I think, decided that today, my DAY OFF OF EVERYTHING (including laundry, work, etc), that I DESERVE A SWEET.

Three minutes later, $2.63 (after tax) poorer, I emerge with a piping hot sprinkles-and-chocolate-chips cookie in my hand.

A giant, super fresh cookie that it took me the entire ride home to put in mah bellah.
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Oddly cheerful [Sep. 29th, 2009|05:43 pm]
Let's see, my work is piling up and my Bean's schedule is way off thanks to the craziness of the Montreal trip. I'm more sleep deprived than usual this week (someone decided that it was PLAYTIME at 1am this morning) and I could use a seriously drunken evening, but for some reason I am overwhelmingly cheerful about all this.

I don't know if it's the years that it took to finally have Sabine, or if this is a normal phenomenon: Every single time she giggles, coos, or looks me straight in the eyes EVERYTHING BECOMES OKAY. It doesn't matter how tired, hungry, or worried I am -- when she gives me that coy sideways glance and then then bursts out in DIMPLES, I want to explode; I'm so thrilled.

If we could only bottle dimples...

In yoga class this morning my little bean turned to the baby to the right of her and watched her for a while and then grinned her BIGGEST grin and trotted out her entire arsenal of coos. "oooh-ah-ooh" she said. "Aaah-aah-ah-ah" said she. And then she giggled her fool head off.

That's my bean, the giggle-machine.
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Sabine the Monkey [Sep. 8th, 2009|11:23 am]
More photos of the bean have been uploaded. I can't believe she's already 7 weeks old!
linkperuse the spitoon || c'mon, spit it out

babywearing is babyriffic! [Sep. 4th, 2009|01:24 pm]
Babywearing is continuing to be my favourite way to go about my day, even as Sabine crests 10 pounds.

I am in love with it for all sorts of the wrong reasons -- I read about all these noble goals like how it will help with the bean's cognitive development because she will be present and engaged/watching everything I do on a daily basis and this will help her grasp and understand more quickly the random antlike scurrying that we grunups engage in.

I am in love with it because it is so easy.

It is so much easier to clean the kitchen with the bean right there with me, confident that I will hear and be able to respond to anything she needs or wants. It is so much easier to walk Milo and navigate the thick roots and uneven hills in High Park or the sands along the beach without struggling with a stroller. It is so much easier to wander along the sidewalk, or through a store, without the constant excuse-me dance of stroller encumbrance.

I am also in love with babywearing because this way I am in constant physical touch with my little bean. To kiss her, all I have to do is tuck my chin to her little face pressed against my chest. Given that kissing her is the activity that I engage in the most times per day, this is Very Handy.

I am also in love with babywearing just because it feels good. I don't know why, I don't think it's a throwback to how good it felt to be pregnant. In any case, it feels great for now and I'm having a great time doing it.

I'm currently using three different carriers and I just ordered sort of a fourth one. One of my midwives told me when I was pregnant that I would need several carriers if I was serious about babywearing, and I'm not convinced that she's right (yet) but I am happy with the ones I have.

My carriers:

  • A ring sling by Maya Wrap.
    This is the first carrier that I bought, and my least favourite. It's quite pretty and hippy looking, but the one-shoulder carry doesn't have the best weight distribution and is hard to wear just right. I had to go back to the store where I bought it to be shown how to use it properly. It is also only good to 15-20 pounds, so if I still have the courage to be babywearing when the bean is toddling around I won't be able to use in anymore. That being said, I'm glad I bought it. It's advantage is that now that I know how to use it, it is VERY quick to slide Sabine in and out of -- not complex wrapping or tying. Since I hate carrying the carseat around, it is very handy for things like midwife visits where I take her out of the car, slip her in, and can take her in and out quickly for weighings, etc. In the house, I've used it to hold her briefly while I make breakfast, or run downstairs for a quick chore but plan to be back at my desk or seated again shortly after, and it isn't worth it to tie on one of the bigger carriers.
  • The second carrier I bought is the Mei Tai by Babyhawk which is part of the family of "ABCs" -- "Asian Baby Carriers". (I also tried a Podaegi, which is a korean blanket wrap that feels a lot like the babyhawk. I liked both equally but found the mei tai fit my body a bit better. I still think about the podaegi though but it really is so similar that two would be utterly redundant.) I bought the mei tai because it is lightweight, soft, comfy, EASY TO USE (easier than any other carrier I've seen) and I wanted a two-shoulder carrier since the midwife had warned me that the sling wasn't so comfy for long wearing. I LOVE IT. I wear it daily. Even when I was using it wrong, it still felt good. (When I went back to the store they noticed I was wearing her too low and showed me how to adjust it better and now it's SUPER comfy!) It's easy enough to use, if you use it wrong it feels heavier but isn't likely to hurt baby (with a sling they might slip out if you don't know how to tighten it!) and it's quick enough to put on and off. The only drawback is that the really long straps trail on the floor when you are putting it on, so when you are using it to take baby out of the car/carseat to go for a wander, the straps get pretty dirty and I worry about them getting caught between cars.
  • I then bought a Moby Wrap because wraps have EVEN BETTER weight distribution than the mei tai, and I was finding I was wearing the mei tai ALL THE TIME and wanted something else to wear when the mei tai was in the wash. I tried on woven wraps, the non-stretchy kind. They are by far the most beautiful, and the sturdiest -- but they are a bit harder to wrap than the stretchy ones like the moby. The other advantage of the stretchy ones is that you put the wrap on first and THEN the baby, so you can pretty much wear it all day (except for breastfeeding unless your latch is REALLY easy). I put it on before a trip, carry the bean to the car in it, take her out of the car and slip her into it without any re-tying required, walk around with her feeling light as a feather, then slip her back into the car with no fuss. It's super convenient for road trips, or anything where she has to come in and out of the carrier often.
  • This morning (after [info]iolarah suggested it the other day), I also ordered a Water Sling. I decided it was worth the money for a couple of reasons. Firstly, for days where the bean isn't napping and I NEED to get showered to make it to an appointment, I can shower with her strapped to me in one of those. Eventually I will be able to put her down near me in the bumbo which is waterproof, but for any work related trips a sling packs away much better and I definitely won't have all my help-me-shower seats and tricks with me in hotel rooms. Secondly, I TOTALLY want to wade into a lake or ocean with my little bean in a water sling at some point this year. What better excuse to go to Cuba in the winter?


I also looked at the Ergo baby carrier which is hugely popular right now. It is also definitely load bearing, and there are people who travel around by Subway with their four year olds in an Ergo carrier. The midwife was a HUGE fan of this one, and it's quite the quality product. I tried it but found it really bulky for my short little self. Eventually if we need something that rugged for long hikes when she is bigger, maybe we'll consider it or consider one of the really structured baby carriers from outdoor equipment stores, but that's a long way off.

The only disadvantage of all these carriers, and carriers in general is that our fancy messenger-shaped diaper bag with the little skulls on it is hard to wear at the same time. A sling bag like that can't be worn over the torso since it would squish baby, and worn on the shoulder it's just unbalancing and slides off all the time. I keep wearing it over both my back shoulders like a makeshift backpack, but it's a pain in the ass (literally, it bumps against my ass when I walk) and is uncomfortable.

So yesterday, Sabine and I babywore (babywandered?) our way down to MEC along with a friend of mine and tried out all their backpacks. I'd been researching diaper bag backpacks online for weeks but everything I was finding was either $200, or horrific looking, or both. Usually both.

I wanted something with a laptop pocket too for travelling so that I can have just one carry-on back instead of two, or in case I get off my ass and go spend some time work/nursing in a cafe on Roncesvalles with the bean before summer is too far over.

I found one within my price range (given that at this point I have spent enough on baby carriers that I've almost purchased a whole stroller -- if I would buy just one I would still go with the mei tai) and it's butt ugly but exactly the right size, shape, and number of pockets. Sometime soon I'll start transferring stuff from the current diaper bag over to it. In the store, we loaded it up with my current diaper bag plus other stuff we found on shelves and I wore it AND Sabine around for about a half hour and while it was tough -- as long as I had good posture and kept my abs engaged it was definitely doable.

So there. I'm not just a geek, I'm also a nerd. A baby carrier nerd.
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Sabine's first modelling experience?! [Aug. 24th, 2009|12:30 pm]
Of all the things I expected, planned and dreamed of doing with my daughter, taking her to a professional photo shoot was never one of them! (Unless maybe she wants to when she's older and it doesn't interfere with school)

It was for a good cause, though -- Credit Valley hospital was doing a fundraiser and Kirsten put out a call for newborn hands. Seeing as it's just her wee hands they needed, we figured it wasn't quite so much of a privacy issue -- not something likely to haunt her as a kid in school.

What an odd experience, though. For someone as camera shy as me, just walking into the studio building was a bit intimidating. The stark white decor and perfect looking everything was such a contrast to our cozy, cluttered, book-filled home where we've spent the most part of the last five weeks.

Sabine was extra popular which is no surprise, and the photog was a bit amazed with how quietly she sat through the whole thing. Ironically, for a wee babe who was born at home and has never worn a hospital bracelet, there are now hundreds of photos of her wearing one.

The setup was amusing, had I known that I was going to be in the photos (again, just my hand) I might have been a bit more reluctant to go! They put me in a hospital gown and both of us in hospital bracelets and promptly took hundreds of closeup photos of her wee hand gripping my giant finger, wearing a profound message on her teeny little bracelet.

The campaign is for a good cause and I'm proud that my daughter is already contributing to help improve healthcare in Canada in her own minute way.

The $100 she earned went straight into a piggybank that we'll keep for her until she's older.

We'll post a few photos when the photog tells us it's okay to do so (and sends us copies!)

(cross-posted from facebook)
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Photos of Sabine [Aug. 14th, 2009|02:10 pm]

Folks have been demanding photos of Sabine -- for those of you not on Dave's Facebook where he has been posting them, I've uploaded them to flickr.

Here you go!
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FPS question! [Jul. 16th, 2009|03:39 pm]
Any of you gamer nerds out there played an FPS called Nexuiz?

[info]johnmoehrke's son wants to install it on the family PC and he's looking for pointers, warnings, or advice...

What's it like, for an open source FPS?
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Milo... the fierce blondasse [Jul. 6th, 2009|09:13 pm]
In France they have this habit of taking a root word and adding "asse" to the end or "ard" and turning it into an insult. Eg: Conard or Conasse (moron), Petard ou Petasse (slut)... and the favourite of all blondes everywhere: Blondasse (bimbo).

Milo, much as I love him, is a posterchild of a blondasse and someone should nominate him for a photo in the next edition of Larousse.

Why?

Because, on our walk this evening, Milo the fierce hunter caught a fieldmouse in mid-flight across the meadow we were in. This thing was moving so fast I didn't even see it and it ran right through my field of vision. In a surprising demonstration of swiftness and dexterity, Milo had it dangling from his mouth before I even realized he was moving.

That's when I heard the squeaking (with my sad human ears) and (with my slow human eyes) espied the NEST of wee little shiny black squalling mousies that Milo's victim must have been running home to.

Oh no, you'd think, Milo caught the adult he's going to decimate the wee little newborns!

Well, if Milo wasn't such a blondasse, you'd be right.

Instead, I clapped my hands and made a funny face at him and he got distracted, then excited, and then he ran off in the other direction (dropping the first mouse).

Yup. Swift enough to catch a fieldmouse on its home turf, dumb enough to miss the incredibly noisy rest of them.

Ya gotta love him...
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WOW. [Jul. 5th, 2009|06:43 pm]
[info]gothjen and [info]margrock are fucking heroes.

There has NEVER been this much space in the basement.

The office has NEVER been this free of clutter.

The stroller is assembled, with attachments and accessories safely installed.

The carseat is neatly unpacked and ready to be installed.

The packing materials are folded and put away, awaiting that far-off recycling day.

There is a neat pile of stuff for goodwill in the basement.

There is a neat pile of stuff for garbage.


WOW.
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Nesting in 4-D [Jun. 24th, 2009|01:36 pm]
My brain has been taken over by an obsessive compulsive alien puppet master that has turned my idle thought processes into itemized lists of errands and tidying.

I'll be walking down the street with Milo, trying out a new route, observing this or that other dog and their person, when suddenly I remember how dusty the baseboards next to the refrigerator are. Suddenly I can't wait to be home, on hands and knees, scrubbing the fuck out of that baseboard.

This from a woman that won't vacuum until the dust bunnies become a tripping hazard.

My life these days is divided into three tasks:

1. Work stuff, which is slowly diminishing
2. Sleep, napping, or just plain resting
3. LISTMAKING and list-crossing-offing

I have urges to build myself the perfect labouring nest. I have visions of acrobatic circus silks, climbing harnesses, and multi-tiered hammocks suspended from elaborate pulleys and steel structures (arranged in complex non-euclidian geometries where our house is suddenly built like an MC Escher drawing), that I can retreat into when labour starts and move every which way when I need to -- to ease pain, encourage effacement, or help the baby turn.

I have urges to rebuild this house from the foundation. I have visions of which bricks I would use and the way I would scrub each belonging prior to placing it in this clutterjungle of a house.

I make lists and then cross off items as I realize I've already done them. I'm an ex-lifeguard and ex-first responder -- my first aid kit is in a large toolbox and has been since 1994. I put together a list of what needs to be assembled into a baby first aid kit, and then crossed it off as I realized that I was listing the contents of my existing kit. I have sterile gauze in shapes and sizes you probably never new existed (unless someone once stabbed a pencil four inches into one eye).

Some days I put "sit in the rocking chair and read" on my list. I picture Dave nodding approvingly when I "complete that action item". Hey Dave -- I'm a third of the way through a novel on that action item today! (Charlaine Harris == CANDY)

I am clearly losing my mind, but at least I'm entertaining the hell out of myself on the way...
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more babyness, I know, I'm getting repetitive. [Jun. 18th, 2009|08:12 pm]
I did my first load of baby clothes laundry yesterday. My first load ever, ever.

I was instructed last week at the "ambush" that all those clothes had to be washed before baby wore them!

I had to read the washing instructions.

Today I started to put them away.

For all my words and all my writing and all the poetry I've ever breathed -- I can't describe what that was like.

I can't wait to meet this little babe.
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FREE Elliptical machine [Jun. 12th, 2009|06:37 pm]
It's official, I haven't touched the elliptical machine in 2 years and therefore am not likely to ever use it again.

We bought it five years ago, so the model is hard to find on the weeeb, but it most closely resembles this model from Sears, except it's black.

It's quite heavy, but much more compact than the machines at the gym -- made to fit a home exercise area. The "computer" on it is broken, but the elliptical works the way it did when we first set it up.

I don't want it anymore, and don't want to make a buck off it (although we probably could) I just want it OUT of the office closet since we want to put a set of stairs up to the attic in there!

Anyone who can get up the muscle and transport to get it out of the closet, down a flight of stairs and home can have it FOR FREE.

Let me know!
link9 ptooies || c'mon, spit it out

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