Could God make a bar of soap so big he couldn't use it without dropping it?

One of the things I like is nice soap. I think it's in response to a childhood of very sensitive skin, which drastically limited my soap options. Now that I am older and less allergic, I can appreciate a fancy soap. I usually just get Dial glycerin soaps, because they are nice, not too strongly scented (I still have a fragrance sensitivity, and a tendency toward migraines. A winning combination!) and cheap. The cranberry soap is very nice in the winter - it's festive.

When visiting my parents recently, I discovered that my father has gotten really into going to T.J. Maxx and finding ENORMOUS fancy soaps.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="377" caption="This soap was not made for human hands."][/caption]

I took several minutes to stare in horror, take photos of the soap next to other objects, and determine a strategy for using a soap so unwieldy.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="502" caption="This is one of those bars of Dial cranberry glycerin soap I mentioned. Such a reasonable size!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="502" caption="These are not travel-sized tooth-brushing supplies. These are full-sized tooth-brushing supplies!"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="377" caption="Do you know about "Cul de Sac"? It's the best comic strip ever, and its collections are slightly larger than this soap."][/caption]

 

It's very nice soap, especially if you want to feel very, very small.

The charm of a good potato

I'm still working on that chili I made a couple of weeks ago. I talk about chili a lot, but I don't think I give enough credit to really good potatoes (and, honestly, it doesn't take a lot to achieve "good potato" status. Is it recognizably a potato? You're all set! Good potato!).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="509" caption="This is a bad potato. Actually, this is David Foster Potato, my desk friend potato from 2011."][/caption]

There is a certain, boring thrill I get when the microwave (I'm lazy) beeps and the floury smell of potato wafts out. Then, I cover it in chili, pickled jalapenos and hot sauce. It gets a little less thrilling after the second week, but on a cold night, even leftover leftover leftovers have their charm.

 

Many paths to happiness

One of the things I wanted when I got a house was to have a dedicated guest room, so that if my friends wanted to visit, it would be easy for them to do so. I just had a friend from New York stay with me for the weekend, and it was awesome. I got to show off my house, Donald and James got to make a new friend, and visitors are always a great excuse to go do things in Kansas City that I might not normally do. Things like driving around at night and pointing out the different awesome buildings and neighborhoods (Kauffman Center, Bartle Hall), going to special occasion restaurants (Port Fonda), seeing the symphony (okay, that's a normal one for me) and going to pop concerts (Lady Gaga!). We'd stay up late watching movies, then I'd wake up in the mornings and make coffee and juice, sit in the breakfast nook, and generally have a nice time.

Sometimes I worry that I'm too excited about showing off my life, if that makes sense. This is where I live, these are the things I do, this is the city that I love...I know that I am very fortunate to be in this position, and there are many factors that play a role in it. One of them is that I'm just happy with things as they are. I like it here. I don't spend a lot of time wishing I was somewhere else, I can't image a job that I'd enjoy more (and I have side projects that I'm just as excited about) and I make an effort to become friends with people who are interesting and uplifting.

I believe that there are many ways to be happy.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="One of James' paths to happiness involves helping make the bed."][/caption]

Breakfast for dinner

When I was in grade school, once a month, the cafeteria would offer "breakfast for lunch." This was one of the most popular lunches, and looking back on it, I have no idea why. We'd drown the Eggo-style waffles in so much maple-flavored syrup that they were totally soggy, the sausages were okay but not amazing, and the eggs were standard scrambled eggs. I distinctly remember being fairly unimpressed by pancakes and eggs at home, so I don't know why, when breakfast was moved to lunch, it suddenly became an amazing culinary event. My conclusion is that kids are weird, and I don't understand them.

As an adult, breakfast for dinner is definitely awesome. It's an easy thing to put together if you* want to invite people over, it's novel enough to be appealing yet easy enough to be quick and fairly cheap. (If you're buying fancy local humanely raised guilt-bacon, like me, you may need to add scare quotes around "cheap." However, and I suppose this shouldn't be surprising, this was probably some of the best bacon I've had.) Fancy glassware can be used to serve orange juice, which is delicious, and waffles are a treat for the waffle-iron-less. Waffles are also incredibly easy to make, even when you have a very finicky waffle maker with no timing element, a tendency to get hotter the longer it's on, and an undeniable bent toward destruction. Even slightly over- or underdone waffles are delicious.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="Faaaancy glassware"][/caption]

I don't really have a point. It might have something to do with "night coffee isn't a great idea, and now I'm writing this at 12:30 am instead of sleeping." Also, if you're going to do breakfast for dinner, a dishwasher is a very nice thing to have.

The only bad thing about breakfast for dinner as a social event is that you'll probably have to eat in the dining room, as opposed to the breakfast nook (if you have a breakfast nook). This ties into my earlier post about houses, though...breakfast nooks are delightful. Not a dealbreaker for a kitchen, but an unexpectedly delightful bonus.

*I have no idea why I'm writing this with a prescriptive bent. Obviously, I am talking about myself. I do appreciate any opportunity to use my fancy glassware. And my waffle maker is obnoxiously tricky to use. It makes a lion, an elephant and a clown. The clown is the smallest, and always ends up a little burnt, like the bucket brigade didn't quite make it in time.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="Breakfast for breakfast at the breakfast nook.This clown is a little deformed, but pretty perfect as far as "not horribly burnt" goes."][/caption]

New sheets

I am kind of into bedding. I like high thread counts, nice flannel sheet sets, interesting quilts and blankets, and old army blankets. I also love down comforters.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="He's helping."][/caption]

James likes bedding too. He reeeally likes bedding. I can't make a bed in the house without his help (which translates to him attacking the sheets, burrowing under every set of sheets and blankets as they go on the bed, and generally being a terrible nuisance).

Anyway, I've got two nice sets of regular sheets and one set of flannel sheets for both my master bedroom and guest room, and a couple of "Bed in a Bag" (do other people know what I mean by this? The cheap, 200-threadcount sets that include comforters and shams and ruffles and stuff. Generally in soothing, neutral hotel colors.) sets for the futon in the office. I had a Kohl's gift certificate to spend, and nothing I really needed from Kohl's, so I thought I'd check out their flannel sets. Now is, weirdly, the time when those start to go on sale. It is freezing outside. It is bitterly, bitterly cold. Now is the time to hike the price up on flannel sheets, department stores! Stop trying to sell bikinis! What is wrong with you? Anyway, I went to Kohl's and found an amazing sheet set for the futon.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="He's trying to catch the owls."][/caption]

My only complaint is that these owls aren't dressed in winter clothes. A lot of flannel sheets feature characters wearing hats or mittens or scarves. Maybe because flannel sheets primarily get used in the wintertime! Anyway, owls wearing scarves would have been better, but these are pretty fantastic. As I was telling my boyfriend earlier this evening, if I were to have friends visit, and they had small children, and those children go to stay in the office, and were also really into owls, they would think I was really cool.

He said that was a lot of hypothetical stuff going on to justify these sheets, but I feel good about it. That imaginary kid and I are going to be great friends.

One of the many nice things about having your own house is that you can do things like purchase pink owl flannel sheets for the office futon and no one can try to stop you. HAHA!

 

Still doing this juice thing

I have made a batch of juice every day since January 22nd. I have spent $30 on supplies. I have started a spreadsheet that tracks what I'm buying, how much I'm spending, and average cost per batch of juice. Each batch is about a liter. I average 6 minutes for prep, 10 minutes for juicing and 7 minutes for cleanup, though today, I managed to do everything in 20 minutes.

The takeaway from this is that juicing is kind of fun, and I really, really enjoy spreadsheets. I enjoy spreadsheets as much as the cats hate the sound of the juicer (it is a lot).

So far, I have managed to not buy any more containers, and I've started taking a big bottle of juice to work in the mornings. I typed "it's better than coffee" and then deleted it. It is not at all like coffee, and it's not better (nor is it worse), but it does have an energizing effect without the caffeine crash.

I have also been tweaking the juice recipe. If I see dark leafy greens on sale, I try them. Tonight, I got a bunch of turnip greens for $0.69 for a big bunch. I am pretty sick of turnips, but the greens worked well in juice and weren't as bitter as kale. I've also switched to collard greens over kale. Another thing I have learned? I'm not a huge kale fan! Why is it so popular? I've been adding spinach to the juice, because I have a huge bag of spinach from Costco and I'm worried that if I don't use it, it'll go bad. I've learned that cucumbers are oddly expensive at a lot of stores, and that a little ginger goes a long way. I've also determined that 2 apples makes for juice that's a little sweeter than I'd like, so I've subbed in a couple of carrots.

Current recipe:
6 stalks turnip greens/collard greens/kale
several handfuls of spinach
4 stalks celery
2 large carrots
1 granny smith apple
1 cucumber
1/4 lemon
thumb-sized piece of ginger

Unsolicited house-buying advice and juice update

I am helping certain people with their house hunt, and I often think about my house hunt, how much I love my house, how terrible my house-buying timing was (I bought RIGHT before the bubble burst, and RIGHT in the tiny window between one set of new homeowner tax breaks and the next set of new homeowner tax breaks) and how my house-buying experience was not really stressful in the ways that I assumed it would be.

Houses are a huge investment. This is probably the largest purchase I will ever make. The short list of things I did was 1. Found great people to help me do stuff. 2. Had a very clear picture of what I wanted. 3. Didn't settle for anything less than amazing.

Here is a long list of the things I did during my house-hunting process:

1. Researched mortgage rates and talked to multiple banks before deciding where to go. Things taken into account included rates, fees, closing costs and customer service.

2. Went with a local bank that told me that while they contractually *could* sell my mortgage, they probably wouldn't, since they hadn't ever sold mortgages to other companies. This came in really handy when interest rates plummeted. Modifying a loan is much, much easier than refinancing. I think it took me 5 minutes. On the phone.

3. Found a realtor. I lucked into this one, actually. I decided I wanted to find a realtor, I went to a condo open house, and talked to the listing agent there. I liked her a lot, and she agreed to work with me. She is amazing. If anyone in the KC area is looking for a realtor, I have a recommendation for you. The thing about a good realtor is that, ideally, they will know more about houses than you do. In my case, I thought I wanted a condo. When I described what I was looking for (size, dedicated parking, $120K limit), I was told that what I probably wanted was a house. Yes. Turns out, that was totally accurate. I was able to make a list of things I really, really wanted (true ranch, 3 bedrooms - one for me, one dedicated guest room and an office - garage, basement, hardwoods would be nice) and that helped narrow down houses. She was also very good at seeing what was wrong with houses. As someone who had previously lived in apartments, I did not know things about, say, foundations. She did. That's really helpful. If you can swing it, I highly recommend working with someone who has rehabbed houses, or who has an extensive background in something like that.

4. Looked a ton of houses. I looked for about three months, I looked several days a week, and I looked at two or more properties each time. This was grueling, but it helped me figure out what I liked and disliked about real-world houses. Since my intention was to buy a house that I would stay in forever, I needed to find something that I loved.

5. Initially thought I'd get a fixer-upper for cheap, but then changed my mind and decided it would be worth it to just get a house I already liked and could occupy immediately. I think a lot of people do this. There is something very appealing about getting a good deal and learning how to do useful things with houses. However, I've found that getting a house, any house, comes with a lot of on-the-job learning opportunities, so to speak. Only now can I fully appreciate how unprepared I would have been to fix up a house!

6. Made an offer on a house that I felt okay about, but didn't love. That offer was not accepted. THANK GOODNESS. I would not have been happy in that house. That was an "this is close enough and I'm so tired of looking at houses" house.

7. Found a house I loved, looked at it twice, and paid for a home inspection. Always get a home inspection. It helped me get a handle on the things I'd need to do if I bought the house (in my case, I had to get the furnace flue relined, install a new garage door, get some siding replaced and get the chimney cap sealed. None of these things were awful, and knowing what I was getting into was incredibly helpful).

8. Checked on the utilities. In Missouri, at least, if you're looking at a house, you can usually just call the utility companies, explain what you're doing, and get a monthly bill average for the last year. This is somewhat helpful, but by no means a perfect system. It can give you an idea of how much your bills might be, if people have been living in the house. Though your energy/water/gas usage will probably be different, it's a start. The more information you have, the better.

9. Listened to my realtor when it came to making an offer and things to ask for. A home inspection is going to turn up a LOT of stuff. Some of it is really important. Some of it isn't. I had certain things that I wanted the sellers to fix, and I had certain things that I was okay with taking care of on my own.

10. Closed quickly, and had about a month where I still had my old apartment and the new house. This made moving a lot less stressful. I didn't feel rushed. I also had a very motivated friend with a truck who decided that we were going to move my bed to the new house very early on in the process. It turns out that when your bed moves, you have effectively moved as well. This gave me plenty of time to sort through items in the apartment and clean it up in preparation for my departure.

The end result of all of this is that I've been in my house for almost six years. It's a solid house, it's had a totally reasonable number of house issues, which I have either fixed myself or had fixed by others. I've gotten to be pretty handy, and I feel comfortable tackling a range of house projects. I also never look at other houses and think "I really wish I could live in that house." At most, I think "that house is really cool." And then I think "I really love my house." I do occasionally have fancy apartment envy, because fancy apartments are soooo nice, but it is fleeting. It is more than overpowered by my hatred of moving and my love of this house.

To sum up: It took a long time! It was a lot of work! Totally worth it! Find a good realtor!

Juice update:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="323" caption="Super green."][/caption]

I keep buying containers for juice. In addition to the glass carafe, I now have a 2-liter jug (for big batches!) and a to-go cup thing (not pictured). I made a double batch today with kale, collard greens, spinach, cucumbers, apples, a lot of ginger, lemon and celery. I have made juice every day since the first day I made juice (which I believe was Monday). I have also started a juice spreadsheet to track how much I have spent on things for juice (it does not have a containers column, but if I get any more, I will have to add one). The batches of juice (each batch is just under a liter) have averaged a little under $4, when I take into account the fact that I have a lot of vegetables and fruits that I have purchased but not yet used.