Homemade multi-bean soup (beans, pasta, & spices from the bulk bins, plus canned meat & tomatoes): incredibly awesome. Worth eating every day, if I can remember to actually make it in the crock pot several hours before I want to eat.

Result
Within a few cents of the same price per serving. I really, really hate cooking that doesn’t involve a crock pot, Dutch oven, or using a frying pan for under 5 minutes. But I’d rather eat cold Chef Boyardee straight from the can in a downpour than Louigi’s Skillet Dinner (it’s only “dinner” if you use the term very loosely).

2012 will bring a lot of interesting new things. Lyse just started an RN program a few weeks ago and is starting to get into the swing of it while she works the occasional shift as an LPN through a temp agency. Geoffrey has recently been attached to a new reservist group and is learning a lot, and may be deployed before the year is out (although we haven’t heard anything concrete). My youngest has been working as a full-time nanny (living there 5 days a week) for Robert & Claire for several months but that may change in the near future if Claire’s work situation changes. My oldest is moving in with an old friend this weekend, and hopefully that will be a stable situation. I got a spinning wheel for Yule, and now I’m re-learning spinning (since it’s pretty different than a drop spindle!), and doing just the SSDD at work every night.

And way, way too much housework & cooking & laundry & pet maintenance & grocery shopping & running errands & everything else that doesn’t seem to get done unless I do it.

1. I have a cast-iron stomach; the view or even the smell of the most nasty, disgusting, gross stuff doesn’t put me off my feed one bit. (I’ll refrain from details for the sake of the easily-queasy
2. Neither does death squick me; in fact, it fascinates me — in the same way that birth fascinates me, as part of the process of life. (The tagline on my blog does say “I like music, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick.”)
3. I not only don’t mind snakes & other reptiles, I really love them. (As long as they’re not venomous!) I’m a cat person through and through, but I also have a lizard and 3 snakes in my menagerie.
4. I don’t like getting flowers. I’ve always said, “So you’re giving me something I can’t eat or read, which will die in a week, to express your enduring affection? Really?”
5. I’m rather handy. I know the difference between pliers, a ratchet, and hex wrenches, and how to use all of them. I really enjoy building things and doing basic household repairs. The thought of owning power tools makes me squee.
6. I dislike lingerie intensely and think it looks ridiculous. I believe a tank top & panties is sexier than anything at Victoria’s Secret, and nudity is more honest (I feel more naked without my glasses than without my clothes, anyway).
7. Although I’d prefer to be slimmer, I’m not overly wrapped up in how I look, and I don’t have any complexes about it. My body isn’t who I am, it’s just where I live.
8. I think diamonds in jewelry are a stupid waste of money.
9. I’d rather eat steak than chocolate.
10. I prefer driving vehicles with manual transmission.
11. I do not see the point of designer clothes/shoes/purses.
12. I prefer movies with blood, gore, and explosions; I’d rather watch Die Hard or Resident Evil than anything with Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan in it.
13. I like military science fiction, and sword-and-sorcery action fantasy.

13 ways I am a stereotypical girly-girl:

1. I am totally creeped out by insects, spiders, and slugs. I won’t touch them, even the ones that can’t/won’t sting or bite. I don’t shriek like a pansy when confronted with them, but they really do bother me.
2. I love wearing lip gloss. (But only Bert’s Bees Lip Shimmer, because it smells like peppermint and feels heavenly.)
3. It tickles me pink when men are gallant toward me — opening doors, pulling out my chair at the table, offering an arm when we’re walking together or a coat when it’s cold & I’ve forgotten mine.
4. I love wearing matching bras & panties, even if nobody else knows about it. Especially if they’re really pretty (but not lacy or frilly — that makes them lingerie, and therefore stupid).
5. I love jewelry, especially really fancy stuff like tiaras and dangly earrings (but only silver because I don’t like the look or cost of gold).
6. I love wearing dresses and skirts, although I like the comfort of jeans (and probably look a lot sexier in them).
7. Cute baby animals make me temporarily lose at least 50 IQ points, especially if I get to touch & cuddle them!
8. I can spend hours browsing in fabric/yarn stores, and discussing the merits of various fabrics & fibers.
9. I love being called pet names by my loved ones, and it delights me to no end that so many people call me by so many different endearments.
10. I do not comprehend the appeal of team sports. (This may explain my girly-girl attraction to ice skating & gymnastics.)
11. To me, a vehicle is just a machine that takes me places.
12. I don’t really “get” gaming (LARP, tabletop, PC games, or MMOG — it’s all just “meh” to me).
13. I think men-who-smell-good is the best scent in the universe.

My pal Tom commented, “A lie wouldn’t be half as crazy as truth in our case though. Lmfao.”

It’s true. Then I started thinking about how I met some of the awesome people in my life (aside from the blood relatives, because it’s pretty obvious how I met most of them!). In many cases, the truth is damned near stranger than fiction. Just a few examples:

My best friend/roommate Lyse — Back before the Internet, we both belonged to the Mercedes Lackey fan club and I put an ad in the fan club’s newsletter asking for pen pals. Our first letter exchange included me describing my kids as “larvae” and her asking if they were going to pupate anytime soon. Based on mutually-compatible sick senses of humor, we soon bonded into soul-siblings.

My best friend from high school Brenda — We were in the same French class in high school, and bonded over the fact that when French-English dictionaries were handed out, we both looked up the dirty words first.

My husband Geoffrey — I had just finished braiding his then-girlfriend’s hair at an SCA event, and she was giving me a thank-you kiss. (It was a little more involved than what you might normally expect from a typical thank-you kiss.) He walked up with a rather annoyed look on his face and said something like, “Who are you and why are you kissing my girlfriend?”

My ex Robert (the World’s Best Ex) — He was an assistant manager at a restaurant where I’d just been hired. I took one look at him and thought, “That’s yummy! I’d like some of that!” Two months later, he moved in with me. A month after that, he got fired for “fraternizing” even though we did our best to keep it a secret, and I had already found another job and given my two-week notice.

My Number One Internet Fanboy Karel — We both collect tag lines. One of us (I think it was me but I’m not 100% sure anymore!) sent a thank-you note to the other for posting a text file of tag lines for fellow aficionados to plunder. We started an email pen-pal thing, which led to online chat-pal thing, and eventually arranged a meeting and realized we had great in-person friend chemistry too.

And just how did I meet my friend Tom? He was a band member for a group that was playing a gig at a hotel where Brenda & I were guests at a sci-fi convention. She & I thought he was hot, so we invited him (and another guy I was hitting on at the convention) to join us in the hotel’s hot tub that evening. It turned out to be an awesome weekend. *grin*

Supporting local businesses is not only trendy these days, but smart. I’m a big fan of unusual plants (soapwort, anyone?), so I tend not to buy from just one or two vendors. Here’s a list of seed companies that I’ve done business with at least once from all over the country, as well as seed companies in the Pacific NW that I plan on ordering from to check them out.

(Want to try growing some interesting herbs & vegies without investing a fortune in seeds? Join Folia, a wonderful online gardening network, and I’ll be happy to set up some seed swaps with you! I’m JeanneS on Folia.)

Companies I’ve Ordered From:
Victory Seeds — Great resource for finding rare & unusual heirlooms, excellent customer service, very good prices. They also sell old-fashioned candies and other nifty items, and have lots of info on their site. Based in Molalla, OR.

High Mowing Organic Seeds — Gorgeous & informative catalog, rather high prices but wide variety with some unusual stuff, good customer service. Based in Wolcott, VT.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds — Lots of varieties available including exotics you won’t find anywhere else, great prices, good customer service. Based in Mansfield, MO with branches in Petaluma, CA and Wethersfield, CT.

D. Landreth Seed Company — Great prices, good variety, very good customer service. Based in New Freedom, PA.

Seeds of Change — Rather high prices, but for a good cause (they do a lot of charity programs & seed donations). Fanciest packaging I’ve ever seen from a seed company, very good customer service, extensive gardening info on their website. Based in Rancho Dominguez, CA.

Companies I Plan On Ordering From:
Territorial Seed Company — Utterly gorgeous catalog with tons of information, good prices. Based in Cottage Grove, OR.

Nichols Garden Nursery — Prices a bit high, nice variety. Based in Albany, OR.

Ed Hume Seeds — Good prices, easy to find since they’re sold in retail locations all over the Pacific Northwest as well as online. Based in Puyallup, WA.

Whatcom Seeds — Higher prices, but immense variety and tons of exotic & hard-to-find seeds. Based in Eugene, OR.

Abundant Life Seeds — Prices look high at first, but higher quantity in most packs than other retailers, nice variety. Based in Cottage Grove, OR.

Wild Garden Seed — Prices on the high side, but interesting variety. Most are Oregon Tilth Certified Organic Seed. Based in Philomath, OR.

Horizon Herbs — Prices a bit high, but probably the most variety I’ve seen on any website (includes culinary & medicinal herbs, herbal extracts, vegetables, grains, trees, and plants). Based in Williams, OR.

I lost both my grandmothers this year, my dad’s mom in March and my mom’s mom in August. Our finances are still wobbly, due to expensive vehicle repairs and Geoffrey having to change jobs (plus not getting paid for nearly 3 months of reserve drill), but we’ve tightened our belts and should be more monetarily stable within a few months. I’ve been to the doctor more this year than usual, and that didn’t help finances either, between the increased co-pays and a very expensive EKG. It’s almost a good thing that tendinitis in my elbow has cut down my crocheting to less than 2 hours a day anymore, because I can’t afford that much yarn!

Just about the only major good news I’ve gotten this year (besides my youngest graduating high school, yay!) is that I’ve lost some weight, 13 pounds in 6 weeks (which isn’t too shabby considering that I’m not entirely sticking to the diet… *sigh*). Plus Geoffrey just got signed up with a reserves command that will apparently be taking him all over the country for drill weekends, which is exciting for him (sounds exhausting & aggravating to me, but then flying triggers my migraines and aggravates other health problems). And Lyse, having graduated with her LPN nursing degree (with very high scores) in July, has been accepted for an RN program that starts in December, which is also kick-ass news.

Oh, and I learned to spin! After dinking around with it a little bit off and on for years but never quite figuring it out, I finally learned — and kept practicing until I got fairly good at it. I’ve made some pretty sweet yarn, and even crocheted a shawl made entirely of yarn that I spun myself! Next challenge: graduating from spinning plain wool by adding angora & other luxury fibers, and learning to spin “slippery” fibers like silk! In a year or two, I may even treat myself to a spinning wheel…

I’m getting really excited about the gardening experiments I’ll be trying over the next several months — hopefully a community garden plot will come through, and I’m going to try winter-sowing whether I get that plot or just have to suffer along with my little bit of earth. At least the vetch I sowed for a cover crop is sprouting!

This weekend I hope to experiment with candy making! It should be fun… or at least educational and entertaining. Two delicious words: whiskey fudge.

I briefly considered (because I am an idiot) doing NaNoWriMo this year, but recovered just enough of my sanity to realize what A Very Bad Idea that would have been. It just sucks because utterly awesome first lines pop into my head, and then the little demon in my head with delusions of literary ability starts wheedling at me, “Give it another shot, go on, it’ll be fun!” No. No, it won’t. It wasn’t even fun the year I “won” and finished my 52,000-word monstrosity of a truly terrible novel, much less the 3 years when I failed miserably. I wanted to discover that I was an amazing fiction author… but you know what they say — “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” Guess I will have to settle for blogging.

But what I want to know is, when do I get to wear my skinny jeans?! It really sucks that losing weight takes so long. *sigh*

I worked in the garden on Sunday, mulching my newly-planted garlic cloves, moving my compost bin (which had, to my surprise, over 60 gallons of partly-finished compost in it), and getting my raised beds seeded with vetch — a cover crop that is nitrogen-fixing, and will act as a compost when it’s turned under in the spring. That is, if it ever sprouts! The forecasted rain never materialized, and now I’m wondering if a cover crop will get a chance to grow before we get too cold. I also sent off an application for a community garden plot, in the hopes that next year I can actually produce most of the fresh vegies & herbs that my family consumes.

It’s been a bad week for migraines, 3 days of them in less than a week. I’ve been doing my best to avoid triggers, but sometimes they happen regardless. I’ve got to do some more research on herbal supplements.

Today, however, I stepped on the scale and FINALLY there was a lower number! Then I realized… oh, hormones. Stupid water retention due to that aggravation that comes with being female. So, as of today, I’ve officially lost 9 pounds since starting the Dukan diet, yay! And thankfully we’re not sick of chicken yet, since we’re still eating a lot of it. (I think it’s utterly impossible for me to ever get sick of steak. Mmmm, om-nom cow flesh!)

And bonus: Fred, my friend Molly’s husband, said if I drop 50 pounds, he will make me a black-and-purple leather corset! Woo hoo!

I don’t know if it’s related to the diet or not, but my ability to sleep has been messed up so gawd-awfully that I was a total zombie at work the last couple nights. Today was the fourth day in a row that I haven’t been able to sleep more than 3 hours without waking up, and have gotten less than 5 cumulative hours of sleep each day. I haven’t been able to pin down any particular reasons that I can’t stay asleep, or get back to sleep after waking. It’s utterly miserable.

I called out sick from work tonight because I’m so fraking exhausted that I can barely walk a straight line (the theory that sleep deprivation impairs you as badly as alcohol is probably quite true, from my experience… but being boozed up is fun, and being sleep deprived is not). I made some moderately stupid errors at work the last couple of nights (nothing disastrous, but still they shouldn’t have happened) and I’m also very concerned about my ability to drive home safely in the morning — “concerned” as in, I think it would be seriously dangerous. I’m extremely eager to avoid being splattered all over I-26, or splattering anyone else, because I dozed off at the wheel.

I’ve resisted sleeping pills — today I did take an herbal “sleep aid” which sadly didn’t help in the least, although I’ve had good results with it in the past — but I’m just about ready to try some Unisom. It’s taking me about 6 times longer than usual to type because I keep misspelling things. Me making spelling errors = horrifying.

At least I’m not having migraines. I’m just trying to count the small blessings here. And on Saturday I get to eat vegetables. I have never looked forward to vegies so much in my life. It’s mind-boggling.

9> “Dude, either get some Viagra or invest in tomato stakes.”

8> “Did I tell you how much you remind me of my mother?”

7> “That reminds me, I need to clean the toilet.”

6> “Mrs. Gallagher, this gets me out of next week’s quiz, right?”

5> “Well, that was, ummm, interesting.”

4> “You know for an old broad, you sure can sweat!”

3> “Uh oh, that looks infected.”

2> “Hey! My rings are gone!”

1> “Whoa, you have a prosthetic leg?! Wait’ll I tweet THIS!”