stacey ewing

Gas prices are DOWN! Which means I can get in the car and drive baby drive!

Before they skyrocketed, I used to like hopping in the car at night and driving for an hour down (or up) the interstate before turning around and coming back. Many times, I’ll listen to the same song over and over for two hours…

like this one:

or this one…

or more recently, on a trip to visit Court in O-ca-la…

But this is the time of the year when my absolute fave is to dig out my cd (I wore out two cassettes back in the day) of The Hurting, blow off the dust, and drive for a couple of hours to the first half or sometimes the whole thing depending on the mood. I know, SO 80s but I don’t care. I remain forever indebted to K.H. for my first dubbed copy on tape and to Rach for buying me my first copy on CD. :)

Gas has been so expensive that I haven’t been able to do this in ages but if prices stay this way for just a little longer, maybe I’ll be able to indulge one last time before the holidaze.

Using the very last of the apples from Mercier Orchards, I made two casserole dishes of apple goodie yesterday. The second one, I altered the recipe a bit adding a couple dashes each of nutmeg, ginger, and cloves as well as drizzling approx. 2 TBSP of sourwood honey from Berry’s Honey Farm in Blairsville, GA. We both agreed that that one came out superior to the other.

APPLE GOODIE:
APPLES - peeled, cored, sliced into half-moons (and enough to fill a small casserole dish)

Apple Mixture:
SUGAR - 1/2 cup
FLOUR – 1 tablesppon
CINNAMON – to your taste

Topping:
BUTTER – 3/4 of stick at room temperature
BROWN SUGAR – 3/4 cup (packed)
BAKING POWDER – 1/4 teaspoon
BAKING SODA – 1/4 teaspoon
SALT – 1/2 teaspoon
FLOUR – 3/4 cup
OATMEAL – 3/4 cup

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Make Apple Mixture by mixing the flour, cinnamon, and sugar in a bowl. You’re basically making cinnamon sugar. I use a whisk to fully incorporate all the ingredients. (you can get a little crazy here and shake in some cloves, ginger, and/or nutmeg).
3. Pour mixture over the apples and gently toss to make sure all the apples are covered. (if you’re feelin’ saucy, drizzle about 2 tablespoons of honey over the apples.
3. In a separate bowl and using a wooden spoon, mix the brown sugar and butter until completely incorporated and crumbly.
4. Sift together the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour and then slowly add to brown sugar/butter mixture, working it in until crumbly. I sometimes use my fingers to knead/work it in a bit. When it’s mixed it should look like crumbly pebbles.
5. Add the oatmeal and mix again.
6. Gently pour topping on top of apples. Two schools of thought on this: packing down the mixture or leaving it light and crumbly. Personally, I leave mine light and crumbly and just keep an eye on it in the oven to make sure it doesn’t bubble over. Seriously, you can go either way without fear of reprisal from the Apple Goodie Cops (because they don’t exist).
7. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 25 minutes then uncover and finish it off for 10-15 more minutes until golden brown and bubbly.

Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream. You can also serve it instead with a little bit of half-n-half, milk, or soy milk OR if you’re feeling particularly boring, just eat it plain. :)

*click picture for a larger view:*

Sunday morning I dragged Tim with me to Michael’s, hoping to take advantage of their humongous ribbon sale and to use the 60% coupon I had. I wanted to go early, hoping to beat the church crowd but, unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one who had that “bright” idea. Holy crap, that place was a freakin’ madhouse but well worth the insanity, since I was able to pick up about a mile or two of good project ribbon for $5 bucks and saved myself about $15.

Although we’d really only been in the store for about 5 or 6 minutes, I could tell that Tim was about to start convulsing and clawing his eyes out, so I herded him towards the register. Yes, you read that right- “the,” as in singular, “register” was open with about 20 people waiting in a long line that threaded through the display stands.

The overhead speakers crackled with a frantic plea from the poor girl running the register for “backup assistance at the front, backup assistance to the front!” EVENTUALLY, two fat-cat manager types, who had prolly been drinking coffee and shootin’ the breeze in the back room, slowly wandered up to open two more registers. It was a mass exodus as all the people in front of us jumped ship to the other lanes pushing and shoving one another to make it into one of the new lines.

The woman in front of us hesitated before making a break for it and since Tim and I were very last in the line of 20, we moved all the way up to position #3 at the original register! As we stepped forward to claim our new spot, I saw the woman who had hesitated, turn her cart around and rejoin our lane, muttering to herself in disappointment as she pulled up behind us.

Three price checks and a manager void later, it was FINALLY our turn, but I grabbed Tim’s arm and motioned the woman to move ahead of us, “Go on ahead, you were originally here before us.” She was so surprised and said, “Are you sure?” I smiled, “Absolutely.”

Tim and I made fun of the Martha Stewart & Rosie O’Donnell craft books as we waited.

It was finally our turn and as we stepped up to the counter, the woman in front of us, turned around, handed each of us a dark chocolate square she’d just bought from the register counter “impulse basket” and said, “These are for you for being so nice, thanks again!” We’d barely managed a startled and very surprised, “Wow, Thanks!!” before she zipped out the door, heading towards her next destination.

Man, what a sweet thing for her to do! Neither of us expected anything like that- I had just felt bad for her, knowing what it’s like to gamble on a lane jump and lose big.

“So, WOW! Thanks again, nice lady with the yellow cart and armload of crafty stuff!” :)

This morning we slept in a bit (which means I snoozed the alarm about 10 or 15 times before finally turning it off and getting up. Our awesome little travel clock, the one I bought Tim 10 years ago for his Alaskan cruise ship gig, finally gave up the ghost :( so we’re back to an old giaganticon digital monstrosity that is terrifyingly loud, so snoozing the alarm isn’t as pleasant as it once was. heh that didn’t stop me this morning… :)

I got up and got around so I could meet the Accidental Environmentalist at the Farmer’s Market for the Need-a-Bag Project. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of stopping by the bank on the way there and got stuck in a line (someone two cars up had obviously NEVER used an ATM machine before…sigh) so I was running about 10 minutes late and the poor girl was nearly frozen by the time I got there.

A.E. had already done all the work of collecting the bags and stowing them away for next week, so we got the heck outta there toute de suite and regrouped over at Kay’s Coffee on 34th for a cuppa and a muffin. Had SUCH a great time chatting and catching up that I almost lost track of the time. We parted ways- AE was off on the great saturday candle wick hunt and I headed home to gather up The Tim.

The boy was ready to go when I pulled into the parking lot so we hit the road and headed down to O-ca-la to meet the Wood-Harvin for lunch! We all grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed over to Gander Mountain so the Wood could look for jeans, the Harvin to find a gift for his pa (and some shoes) and for Murray to fondle all the hiking gear in the store. I was just along for the ride and tried not to pay too much attention to the stuffed critters scowling down on us from shelves and poles, cursing all of us and our children and our children’s children… After 2.5 hours of goofing off (hey, the place is pretty big!), the Wood-Harvin had to go back and help Momma Wood prep for a party.

Tim & I drove home and when we got in, we fed the kitties right away before they decided to take matters into their own hands (thank god they don’t have opposable thumbs, we would’ve been screwed long ago…). He went in and practiced for a couple of hours and I finished book #3 of the weekend.

WARNING! SPOILER ALERT AHEAD: He and I met back up over pad thai and watched a Japanese Ninja vs. Sammurai Shakespearian-based Love Story where EVERYONE dies in the end. God I hate those movies sometimes, can’t there ever be a happily ever after ending just once?? They were such a cute couple… sigh. Oh well, at least the ninjas were cool (yeah, I KNOW, ninjas are ALWAYS cool!). :)

What a great day. :)

Well, according to www.typealyzer.com my blog is a ESFP on the Myers-Briggs scale. How about that…

ESFP – The Performers:
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead – they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation – qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Good to know that one of us is entertaining as I consistently test INFP on the M/B scale. Thanks Bloggy for picking up the slack! You’re a real pal!

This supposedly shows what parts of the brain that were dominant during writing:

We dropped by the Farmer’s Market this morning to put away the bags from the Need-A-Bag? Project. Tim was groovin’ to a Sco tune on the player and opted to sit in the car (in his usual state of Saturday Bill Stewart bliss) while I jumped out to pull the few remaing bags from the fence to put away for next Saturday’s Market.

As I grabbed the last bag, one of the farmers was trying to get her truck out through the gate so I stopped, opened it up all the way for her, and moved the radio flyer wagons to the side so she wouldn’t have to get out. She waved an enthusiastic ‘thanks’ as she drove on through and after she passed, I grabbed the bag bag and started through the gate.

The second I stepped across the invisible line into the market proper, the guy playing guitar up on the stage, as if on cue, broke into an instrumental rendition of the Firefly theme song! hahaha! I couldn’t believe it! It was awesome! Tim was in the car so I had no witnesses, except for the Amish guy and his wife who smiled at me as I passed their table (they were probably laughing at the stupid grin plastered on my face). haha

As we drove home, we waited at a new light on 43rd and watched a GIAGANTICON pickup truck (seriously, it was a BIG truck- the guy was truly “compensating” here) try to make a u-turn through his green arrow. The truck was so big, he had to stop, shift into reverse, stop, shift into drive, go forward, stop, shift into reverse, stop, shift into drive, and finally swing around.

We both started howling in laughter. Me: “C’mon, jump the friggin’ curve, it’s not THAT high!” Tim: “Why spend THAT much money on a vehicle THAT large if you’re not even gonna attempt to navigate a little urban landscape now and then??”

Our light turned green and we caught up to Truck Guy just in time to stop and wait for him to sloooooooooowly take a wide right turn into an apartment complex. Tim: “Careful, don’t hit the curb there buddy…” We can almost hear the ‘cha-ching’ cash register noise as his truck burned through two gallons of gas making it through this second turn.

I begin to accelerate and only get about 10 feet before Tim shouts, “Holy Crap! LOOK AT THAT!” I glance over just in time to see an orange and white cat, the size of a german shepherd, intensely balanced on four paws, all tippy-toed and hump backed, with tail sticking straight out behind him, seriously working something out of his system directly in front of the bank sign- an unmistakable feline commentary on the current state of the economy.

We decide to stop at Harbucks for coffee.

With a score of 98%, I’m finding this endlessly funny. :)

I’m so flippin’ excited! Our National Novel Writing Month (www.nanowrimo.org) Write-in Event for next week in the InfoCommons is shaping up quite nicely!!

Christy approached local mystery author, M.D. Abrams, and asked her if she would come in and speak and offer encouragement to our Nanowrimo Event participants. Marjorie agreed and will be coming out to speak at 6:30pm!

Then I contacted three of my fave authors to see if they would be interested in participating in a live chat with our participants and they were both game!! Jeaniene Frost, paranormal writer and author of the Night Huntress Series will be chatting with us at 5:30pm. Ilona & Gordon Andrews, urban fantasy writers and authors of the Kate Daniels Series (ACE Fantasy) will be chatting with our group around 7:30pm. Then at 9pm, Ann Aguirre, sci-fi writer and author of the Jax series (ACE Sci-Fi) will also pop on and do a Q & A round with our group.

I’m holding 30 minute “word war” contests throughout the evening and giving away “Murder on the Prairie” (signed!), “Halfway to the Grave,” “Magic Bites,” and “Grimspace” to the participants who write the most words during that time. Ann Aguirre contacted me and said that she would even mail a signed copy of “Wanderlust” to one of the winners as well! So, my childrens, prizes galore next Wednesday, prizes galore!!

Anyway, I CANNOT wait! These writers have been SO awesome and VERY giving of their time. Approx. 75-80% of last year’s participants were working on some kind of sci-fi, paranormal, urban fantasy story and the rest were working on novels & mysteries so I think our Nano participants will be ab. thrilled to find out who is on the docket for next Wednesday!

This song has been stuck in my head all day:

sorry, RSSers – you’ll have to click through to see/hear the player. :\