Okay, NOW it's Easter

I had a lovely day!  I want the weekend to have about six more days, too bad that's impossible.

I got up late, opened the Easter box Mom sent me and dived directly into the cotton candy.

 

My mom is the best ever!!  Of course, I'll take weeks to get through all this, and now I won't have to buy chocolate, hooray!  I did drop all the jellybeans, which is terribly sad, I only got to eat one or two.  I guess I save on the calories, but sigh, I do LOVE jellybeans!

I spent the rest of the morning writing - I've done nearly 2,000 words today which is good, but still no reply about the manuscript I sent off a day or two ago.  I wish I could rewrite my sci-fi novel and self-publish it to earn a few silver shekels and get my pen name out there , but every time I start reading it I don't know what to do or how to change it - I revert back to the 13 year old I was when I first wrote it!

In the afternoon I had a nice nap, fed the birds, watched them eat their Easter feast, put my own Easter dinner on, and turned on the tv.

 

My Easter dinner was roast lamb shank with garlic cloves and rosemary, pickled beetroot, olive oil and black pepper asparagus, roast potato, homemade bread, dipping oil, and Mulderbosch chenin blanc.  Very yummy, although the Mulderbosch REALLY needed to breathe.  I couldn't drink it at all at first, but then after twenty minutes or so it was lovely.

Then the second terribly disappointing thing of the day happened - I wanted some ice cream, so I went to the freezer...and it wasn't there.  I checked the reciept, and I'd definitely bought it, so I checked the fridge and the freezer again.  Wasn't there.  Frustrated I ran to the car, and sure enough, there it was in the trunk.  Thank goodness it was still sealed and I don't have to spend a fortune getting rotten dairy product cleaned out of the boot!!  I tossed it in the trash and was terribly disappointed, because I'd really had my heart set on chocolate ice cream with the strained strawberry leftovers from making strawberry liqueur yesterday.  

Instead, I had a few marshmallow eggs that Mom sent me and watched the Masterpiece Sunday lineup.  Call the Midwife had me weeping buckets, Mr. Selfridge actually shocked me for once, and Wolf Hall was horribly meh.  Maybe it's because I despise Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and haven't the least interest in Cromwell.  I'll keep watching, but it's really weird storytelling so far - I ran upstairs to the bathroom for a minute and I come down and the wife and children have died of a disease they didn't have the night before, but the husband didn't? 

I was going to be good after Wolf Hall and sat down to write some more, but got frustrated and did the dishes and now I'm watching a Poirot.  How I wish I could write for a living!  Maybe one day.

Saturday Shopping

I spent most of today running around shopping. I went to Stein Mart first, since I had a bunch of coupons.  I got a couple pairs of earrings that may or may not become presents in the future, and one absolutely fabulous hat!

Isn't is a fabulous hat??  The pin is removable, which opens the hat up to all sorts of sartorial possibilities.  A diamante starburst so that I can glitter my way down Park Avenue in sundress and sandals?  A white flower for the beach?  Blue feathers with red sparkles for the Fourth of July?  Also, the department store price was $44, the original Stein Mart price was $25, and between the sale it was on and the coupon I had, I got it for $15!!!

Of course, when I got home I realized I own neither hat stand nor hatbox so for now, my fabulous hat is residing on the railings that surround my loft.  I'll post a picture later.

When I got home I found a box waiting for me - my antenna arrived from Amazon!!  It was so exciting to see it!  I unpacked it, but left it at that for a few minutes, because I didn't have any Command strips to hang it up with.

Then I made a grocery list, being careful to remember that I need to start emptying fridge and freezer now, and then went out to the grocery store.  They had 1 lb boxes of strawberries for $0.97 each!! (There was a polite notice saying that if you bought more than 4 the price would revert to the "normal" price so that all the customers could get a fair whack at them though.)  I only bought 2 because I have a few strawberries left from last week.  I'm going to turn one box into strawberry liqueur and turn the other box into dessert.  The boy at the meat counter was very nice indeed, and chose me the smallest lamb shank he could find since I'm not inviting anyone over for Easter and didn't want to spend too much money.  The sign said lamb cuts were $12.68/pound so I didn't want a big shank that could give me several meals, but it turned out the shanks were $6 a pound so I spent much less than I thought I was going to.  Hooray!  I"m still glad I got a small one.  I love lamb, but eating pounds and pounds of it really isn't good for you.  Poor little boy at the counter though, he said he's never eaten lamb in his life!  I immediately launched into a spiel about lamb chops and shanks and olive oil and rosemary and curly yellow squash and green salads, and he seemed interested.  I hope I have passed on good food gospel!

Once I had put the groceries away I got very irritated because I realized I had forgotten to buy Command strips at the store, so I ran out quickly to Big Lots. I stopped at Ross first and got myself a lovely shirt (which funnily enough came with a pretty necklace attached) for $12.  I'm very happy, I could wear it to school or in the afternoon, or even out at night in a casual place like College Station.

So I ran into Big Lots, feeling a little irritated, despite the new shirt, and was brought up short when right there towards the entrance were BAGS OF HERR'S KETCHUP FLAVORED CHIPS!!!  They were $2 each, and eight whole bags were sitting there, looking tantalizing, so I bought four of them.

Aren't they lovely???

After that I came home, put up the antenna, and tested it out.  ABC isn't turning up which is VERY irritating.  I looked on the website and now it seems you can only watch the full episodes online if you subscribe to a cable service?!  Which is such BS, they're supposed to be BROADCAST tv, FREE tv!!  I'll hold off on canceling until I leave, I think, and then when I get back just move the antenna around and pray I can get ABC.  The internet says I should be able to get it, dammit, and I want my Agents of SHIELD, Castle, and Forever!!!

Anyway I've reconnected my cable now, and since there's nothing on tv right now I'm watching Netflix.  For dinner I'm going to have the lovely eel sushi I bought at the supermarket this afternoon, and I have a gorgeous grapefruit that I'll have for dessert.  That reminds me I have strawberries to cut up.  I wonder if I should make cornbread muffins for tomorrow?  They're not terribly Easter-y but I need to use up my dry goods so they don't get wormy.  I also got asparagus, so my dinner tomorrow will be roasted lamb shank, roasted rosemary potatoes, asparagus, and pickled beetroot.  Oh, and maybe cornbread muffins.  Not terribly special, but it'll be a good meal all the same.

Mom sent me an Easter box and it arrived yesterday - she gave me strict instructions to not open it until Sunday morning and it's tempting me awfully!  But I'll be good.  I do have some marshmallow eggs she sent me in my Spring Break box, I can eat those.

I tidied the entire apartment again today.  I sometimes think I clean too much, but there are worse things.  I do need to vacuum more, but I hate doing it so I don't, not enough.

Inspector Morse has ended so I suppose it's time to go do the dishes and cut up those strawberries.  Maybe I'll even start the strawberry liqueur!

Happy Easter!

Okay, so today is only Good Friday and not actually Easter, but that's okay.

I didn't give up anything for Lent, but I never do.  I did, however, start putting out seed for the birds again, and a few weeks ago even handcrafted a feeder out of a bright green plastic bowl (3 for $1 at the dollar store) and some jute (1 roll for $1 at the dollar store).  I haven't caught anyone but the squirrel eating out of the feeder, but dozens of birds flock to the old tree stump where I spread seed as well.  I can see them both clearly from where I sit on my couch, and it's so much fun to see birds hopping and playing, and hear them chirp and sing.

I spread  some seed out when I got home half an hour ago, and not five minutes later a pair of cardinals (I think they're mates, one is brownish so she must be female and the other is bright red and most likely male) appeared like magic and had a light lunch.  I got some good pictures the other day and posted them on facebook.

I guess they'll miss me when I go home for the summer!  I can't wait to do it though.  I miss my parents, the kitties, the house, the pool (!!!), and I love how much money I save by shutting up the apartment and putting my utilities on hold.  Even if it IS a huge pain in the butt to carefully remove anything and everything valuable and haul it to Florida with me.  I worry most about my guitar.  I'm always so nervous about it warping when I drive in all the heat, especially in summer!  Still, other than my computer, camera, and guitar I haven't anything much valuable and those all come with me in any case.  My costume jewelry isn't remotely valuable but it comes too because I wouldn't dream of being separated from it :D

Plus, I always have management check on my apartment regularly when I'm gone, so I'm sure nothing bad will happen.  I mean, what kind of criminal wants a bunch of textbooks, my winter clothes, and a cupboardfull of toilet paper?

In other momentous news, I'm finally giving up cable.  I mean to do it soon, definitely before I leave for the summer, but I can't decide if I should cut it right at the end of April, or do it in the next few days.  My bills have been going up horrendously - they were originally $85 a month, and just recently they've been getting worse and worse, slowly at first, but this past month I paid $110, or something similar, and next month will be $126!!!  Internet by itself (which I MUST have) is about $50 a month, maybe a little more these days, so what I mean to do when I get back in town is order Sling, which is a streaming tv service!  Between that and the digital in-home antenna I've already ordered from Amazon I'll get all the channels I want but three, and for a total of $25/mo ($20 for the basic package and $5 for the add-on sports package) I'll be saving bucketloads of cash.  I will miss Houston PBS (out of signal range here, blah), TLC, and BBC America dreadfully, but there are worse sacrifices to make.

My German has been going well lately, my tutor is pleased with me, and shows me so by loading me down by ever more tests and quizzes to take.  I'll be so glad when I pass my proficiency exam and can stop taking tutoring!  Of course, then I'll be up to my eyeballs translating documents all the time, but at least I can do that whenever I want and my Thursdays will stop being so long and tough.

This summer I must work on Portuguese though, because I'll be home and Dad can teach me.  I have a set of CDs that I haven't even opened yet, but I'll try to get started.  The sooner I can become re-fluent in Portuguese the better!

I'm not sure what bird this is, a nuthatch maybe or possibly a wren?  I've really gotten out of touch with bird-watching and bird species, which is a pity, but I really don't have time for much these days.

Bluejay here is SUPER wily.  I can never get close to him!!

I believe this guy is a collared dove. He's a sweetie and I see him and his friends around all the time, cooing and nibbling seeds cautiously.

One of the luckiest shots I've ever taken!  That's the male cardinal I mentioned earlier with him.

And the female cardinal!  I have one shot of them together, but it's not really a good one.