New Years Resolutions

I went back to last year to look for my resolutions to see if I'd actually managed to keep any...and I didn't make any! I did a meme thing that Keris had done but that was it.
This confused me.
But I decided to put the Stuff in my sidebar, I thought. I wrote something about stitching too, I thought.

Well I did, but not in Jan 2007...in Jan 2006!

It's this here post that talks about it all. Quite apt really. It mentions the cross-stitch projects as:

Oranges & Lemons design - finished.

Stained Glass Footstool - abandoned, why continue making a present for your exes granny?

Desperate/Domestic Zero/Hero - there's a funny story about these...

(They link to Flickr where it says how long it took to turn #2 into #3)

Yes...well...they ARE quick to stitch, I've just been doing other things!

I don't really have any New Year Resolutions, other than the Stuff in the sidebar which will be continuing. The 2008 goal was kindly supplied by my old neighbour Angela who also took me to Ikea yesterday and helped me buy useful things (including two beautiful plates that I must photograph).

I would like to not be drinking on my 30th birthday (I know, I may have only turned 29 seven days ago, but I will be 30 this year and 31 next year!) for a couple of reasons, I would like to have my divorce go through quick and easy without having to have any contact with the Yeti, I would like to be able to afford to buy a house when I move in June (oooh, a flying pig!). I think this year there are lots of "I'd like" things but not that many "I will" things.

I shall do a little more thinking on it, and probably eat one of those Creme Eggs while I take the Christmas tree down.

Happy New Year Folks.

Day Off

I had a nice relaxing day off today. I did a few productive things in the morning, then spent the afternoon playing on Neopets which was fun and earned me 23,846 Neopoints.

I had another culinary success tonight, I know! Two in less than a week!
I adapted my spicy chicken thing that I've made a couple of times.* This time I left the chicken breasts whole and didn't defrost them, just sat them in little dishes of tin foil, splashed them with lime juice, sprinkled the spice mix over the top, wrapped them up and stuck them in the oven.

It worked really well, I thought I might have used a little too much lime juice but the roast potatoes soaked it all up off the plates and it was all scrummy.
I'm not sure if it quite counts as a separate recipe though.

*Just had a look through the archives to discover that I haven't written about it so can't link. Basically it's a mix of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and cayenne pepper (and sometimes a little thyme) that I sprinkle over/rub into chunks of chicken breast and then fry up. When it's done you add a slosh of lime juice to the pan and throw on some spinach. When that's wilted, it's done! We've had it with noodles, mash, rice and on its own and I really like it. Easy cooking, but PROPER!

Nom Nom Nom Nom

Tonight I did some actual proper cooking.



and it tasted flipping gorgeous!

So I can add Toad in the Hole (or Sausage Toad as my mother calls it) to my very short list of things that I can cook.

I am so very proud of myself I am going for a very hot Lush-filled bath! (and Anthony is going to do the washing-up while I'm in it)

Books/Boxes, Boxes/Books...

I have been putting off starting to pack. Partly this is because I wasn't sure if I was ready to move, partly because I had no idea where to start!

I'd collected a load of boxes from work (the first of many loads I think), got some brown tape (although I want a tape gun now) and even found a black marker to write on the boxes with - but didn't start.

Today I did.

So far I've done five boxes (1 x Penguin, 2 x Transworld, 2 x HarperCollins) of books, only the tip of the iceberg. I had to be careful about how I started to pack them too. What I wanted to do was group them in boxes the way they need to go on the shelves...but I'd be here til next June doing that! In the end I did it the "booksellers way" - by size.

It was quite freeing really, grabbing an armful of 'A' format (think most crime, horror, fantasy) and filling a whole box with them. Some Anne McCaffrey, the Chalet School series, the Redwall series, a scattering of Enid Blyton, a few Kelley Armstrong... they all went in together. I've emptied one whole bookshelf of 'A' format, leaving behind the occasional stray hardback for an author.

Yes, it might be a bit of a bitch when it comes to unpacking, but better that I faff about arranging them and listing them on spreadsheets then, rather than doing it now and not being packed the day before I have to move.

Since I have also rediscovered LibraryThing it's a good thing for me to pack my books quickly. I keep losing whole chunks of time by popping on there to just change a couple of covers to the correct ones for my editions and then getting sidetracked. I actually even made it a paid account since on a free one you can't have more than 200 books, but when I loaded up my spreadsheet it loaded all 500+ and I had a note from them to say:

*****
Hi Kate,

I've noticed you've managed to catalog more than 200 books yet remain an unpaid account.

As the terms of use state, "LibraryThing users may not subvert the system. For example, right now there is a bug that lets you add more than 200 books without paying if you do it in a special way. If you do this by accident, fine. If you do it on purpose, you have legally promised to pay us $10. Fork it over."
*****

So I did. (Especially since I'd had that note back in Oct but only went back on there the other day and they hadn't deleted anything or suspended my account).

When I went upstairs I decided that the first thing to tackle should be a big box (Penguin) full of paperwork that was part mine, part the Yetis. It turned out to contain things like my debt management paperwork from three years ago, old cards, copies of C.V.'s and all sorts of leaflets and tat. I got ruthless. If I found any of my payslips I kept them, but everything else went into a bin bag. Yes there were things like P45's and P60's in there, not to mention chequebooks and exam certificates... BUT NONE OF THEM WERE MINE!!! Like I'm gonna throw my stuff away like that hehe. Very very satisfying in a way.

I eventually stopped packing boxes when Foley came and sat on the one I was trying to seal in a "Both of us have had enough of this, come and have a snuggle" kind of way. So Foley is snuggling on my lap while I type this, and I'm actually cooling down enough to need to put my jumper back on.