Miranda's House of Doom

Last week I started about 10 different blog posts only to have all hopes of productivity dashed.  You see, it started with ice cream, and I’m totally blaming it’s happy, frozen goodness for the fact that I have completely checked out of life for the last 3 days.  The husband have a Marble Slab within walking distance and we never go.  It’s quite sad, actually.  Saturday night we both wanted ice cream, and decided we should take advantage of this lovely place while we still could.  We get out ice cream, we sit down on the bench out front since it was nice and warm, and across the parking lot I see the bright lights of the GameStop.  “Huh.” I thought.  “I haven’t bought a new game in a while, and the husband is studying for finals.  I’ll get something to play so I’m not bugging him.  What was that game Felicia Day was talking about the other day?  Dragon Age?  I’ll get that one.  I haven’t played a good RPG in a while.”

It was down hill from there.

Since Saturday night I have only moved from the couch or the floor in front of the couch to go to the bathroom and to work.  I noticed it was becoming a bit of a problem when I was sitting at my desk resenting the fact that I didn’t have a controller in my hands. 

This game is good.  Seriously good.  I love how the characters interact, and the story line.  The game play is good, as well.  I’ve clocked too many hours on this game in such a short amount of time.  I have not cooked.  I have not cleaned.  I have remembered to bathe myself, but that’s only because I hate feeling dirty.  I can see the end of the game approaching, though, which is good as I will no longer be able to rationalize ignoring my husband so he can study.  Last night he actually hugged me and said “I miss you.”  It may be time to cut back a bit.  Oh, who am I kidding.  He’ll be fine. 

It’s not like he’s going to starve.  He knows where the peanut butter is, and hey, there’s a Marble Slab within walking distance.

No menu this week.  I had a stomach bug last week which meant I didn’t cook.  Just look at last week’s, take off the skillet thing (I believe Martha Stewart doesn’t like things seasoned) and that’s pretty much what we’re eating this week.  This is really great.  I don’t have to think about what to feed the husband this week.  Instead, I can focus on figuring out a good training schedule for my upcoming 5k.

I mentioned this in the last post.  The husband and I are running our first 5k on July 4th.  This is a little under 3 months away, but I need those 3 months to get into good running form.  The last thing I want to do is walk at any point in this 5k.  I don’t care how long it takes me, but I really want to run the whole thing.

This has me thinking that I’m going to have to start getting up at 7 to get my running in before work instead of hoping my evenings will stay free.  I did this briefly last year, and hated getting up that early (I’m not a morning person by any means), but I’m willing to give it another shot.  After running tonight I’ll be getting up at 7 on Tuesday to get a run in.  Hopefully it will work out well.  Come 7am on July 4th, I plan on blowing Uptown park’s trail out of the water.

I haven’t posted this week, but I promise that I have a very good reason.  My niece decided to pop into the world a bit earlier than we were expecting so I’ve been driving down to visit her.  Couple that with two events with my in laws and I’ve been quite busy (expect an entry on La Boheme some time soon!).

My brother in law is coming in this week, so we’re going to have him over for dinner on Friday to grill with a few people.  This means I don’t have to cook that night! I’m pretty excited about this menu because it’s all healthy, not to mention full of protein.  The husband and I are going to be starting training for a 5k starting Monday so I made this menu with that in mind.

I’ve spent my Sunday baking and cooking.  So far I made Shiner Bock hamburger buns, sweet potato fries, and turkey burgers, and I’m still pondering whether or not I’m going to go make banana bread before I go to bed.  The new deep freeze has really made the difference in giving into my baking inclinations.  I now have the chance to save servings of things like extra loaves of bread, hamburger buns, and other delicious things I never had room for.

I’m going to make this a short post.  I want to go shower and get some writing time in before bed.

A good friend was in town this last week that once again brought up that he’s still looking for what we have.  Most people won’t acknowledge that the relationship we have isn’t rare or magical; it’s work.  Everyone gets so attached to the falling in love part like it’s what defines a relationship’s stability.  Once you’re in love it’s supposed to be smooth sailing, sunshine, and happy bunnies.  This is why relationships fail, people.  You trust that love will carry you through, but that’s not how it works.

No one gets to see the gritty parts of someone else’s marriage: the tears, the late night fights, the bending, the melding of two different cultures even if you lived on the same street.  There’s a lot of communicating going on.  Effective communication is like walking through a minefield.  Sure, you could blaze straight through but someone’s going to get hurt.  It’s harder to pick your words with care and to slowly weave your way across, but you come out intact on the other side.  I think of this when the husband has done something that infuriates me.  As angry as I am at the time, in fifteen minutes I’m going to feel better and I want to see us complete and whole at the end.  This is especially useful to keep in mind when I’m grumpy and ready to lash out at anyone standing nearby. 

Keeping a relationship healthy is also about choice and sacrifice.  I explained to this friend that had Luis and I made different decisions about what we wanted as people that we would not have survived as a couple.  After the husband and I first started dating I had been given an offer to move to Massachusetts, and I was seriously considering making the move.  I knew that our budding relationship would not survive such a choice, so I thought about what was best for me.  It didn’t take long to realize that if I left I would always wonder what could have happened between us.  I’m glad I stuck around, but it was also the best decision for me at the time. 

I am still a creature of wanderlust.  I always want to see new places, and experience new things, but I can’t just expect my husband to go along with my desires.  Had I run off to Massachusetts I may have ended up living somewhere else shortly after.  This would have been fine.  I didn’t have another person to consider.  Now, if we move it will be because we both want to, and until then I will make plenty of trips in my own head and continue to check out real estate in random locations.  It is not a good time to move for the both of us so I will wait until that time comes, if it ever does.

What it comes down to is you have to make sure you keep this other person in your life present in your mind.  This isn’t easy, and it takes a while to do, but it’s worth the effort.  I wish I could get this friend of mine to take a deep breath and be patient.  To figure out what he’s looking for in a partner, to learn more about himself and find the balance that it takes to be both present and giving.  My marriage is still new and shiny, but I think by keeping these things open and in the forefront of my mind that it will still be shiny and happy even after twenty years.  I’ve got to hold out for the good presents, after all.

As part of an effort to be more responsible the husband and I have been trying to cook more often as the amount of money we were spending eating out was, frankly, obscene.  It was decided that we were going to make a serious effort to eat in more.  I planted a garden to provide us with home grown veggies (watch for the upcoming post “Garden Watch: 2010!”).  I got into meal planning.  Lord knows I’ve been collecting recipes for about a year now, and have enough that the husband and I could eat something different every night of the week and still go about two and a half years without repeat.

You’d think that I’d cook more since I actually enjoy it, but that isn’t the case.  I’ve had to get into the habit of banging pots and pans around after being spoiled by restaurants every night.    Part of my unwillingness to cook since I moved out on my own was that I have always lived with people much better at it than me.

My brother has always been a remarkable cook, even when we were little.  He and my mother (a terrific cook in her own right) bonded over cooking together.  I didn’t want to get in the way of this, so I stayed out of the kitchen.  After college I moved in with my best friend who can make vegetarian food that knocks your socks off.  She made me my first curry, and I will always be grateful.  Surrounded by such awesome people I never really had to worry about providing my own meals.  More often than not I would come home from things and food would be there for me like magic. 

Eventually I moved in with a carnivore that has always had a warming drawer that provided him with tasty food.  With no warming drawer or best friend to provide meals, we were on our own.  Then after a few arguments concerning vegetables it seemed like eating out was instrumental in the success of our relationship.  He’s gotten more lenient recently, so I figured I should reward him with delicious things to encourage the devouring our or plant based friends.

Our menu plan for the week is above.  By posting it on the internet I feel like I’ve got thousands of people that know what I’m supposed to be eating thus making any trips to Chick-fil-a a massive cop out.  We’re also trying to cut out most red meat (if you see my husband tell him how brave he is), limiting it to once every couple of weeks for starters.  I’ll probably do some sort of “This is what we’re cooking this week” post every Sunday or Monday.  Occasionally I’ll post recipes of the things we’ve made if they turned out well.  I hope you enjoy them!

When the Kindle first came out I was skeptical, and I don’t mean just a little.  I was in the “why use that new fangled electricity when candles work just fine on my remote homestead?” camp.  I love books.  I like the way they smell, and the way paper feels.  It’s a tactile experience as well as an intellectual one.  But books take up space.  Lots of space.  I live in a little 2 bedroom townhome with another person and a menagerie.  Space is an expensive commodity in my house, and after new shelves were put up in the study/exercise/storage room and there was still no room for another couple of boxes I realized we had reached an impasse.  The husband told me I wasn’t allowed to buy any more books until we had somewhere to put them.  Those of you who have had the pleasure of meeting my wonderful hubby know that he is almost physically incapable of telling me no.  That’s how you know we’d reached critical mass.

Why not go to the library, some suggested.  I love libraries, but the Houston Library system doesn’t really cater to my needs.  The West University one is slight better, but still doesn’t do it for me.  My only real solution was to go for an eReader.  I’ve been quite glad I did.

I’ve only had my Kindle for roughly two weeks, but it’s also made my life easier.  It fits in my lunch bag, so I don’t have to bring another bag to lug around a book, sometimes two if I’m close to the end of one.  I will never have to pay for another Laurel K. Hamilton hardcover again unless I really want to.  This, my friends, is HUGE.  I follow several urban fantasy series that have been declining over time.  I still pay full price for them in hardcover, but end up being disappointed.  You’d think I’d learn, but not so much.  I’ve gotten a lot more reading done since I got my Kindle from sheer portability, not to mention there are no longer paint swatches scattered all over my house (I use them as bookmarks).

Will the Kindle replace regular books for me?  Never.  I still love paper books, but I will continue to be more selective of what I purchase to take up space in my home. 

Now if you’ll excuse me.  I’m on Chapter 5 of Dead and Gone by Charlaine Harris.  I’d love to get some book recommendations from everyone.  Tack them on in the comments!

Hello everyone.  My name is Miranda, and I’m a blog collector.  It started with dabbling in an online journal years ago.   Soon I was hitting up LiveJournal twice, sometimes 3 times a week.  I moved to Blogger to critique books, and then got distracted by the shininess of my own website.  Eventually I even got a word press blog for cooking.  I know now that I have a problem, but I’m on the road to recovery.  I’m quitting those other blogs and focusing on this one.

What does this mean for MirandaCardona.com?  It means I’m no longer going to only talk about my writing.  I’m going to talk about cooking, marriage, life, books, writing, and other shiny objects.  My life is multifaceted and I want one place where I can record everything.  I’m hopeful this will cure me of my mental wanderlust.  One day at a time, right?

This will also be great for keeping my family updated on what’s going on in my life.  A good majority of the people I love live far away from me, and we don’t get to talk as often as I would like.

Check back later.  I’ll hopefully have something worth reading.

You’d think by now I’d just give up for good.  Every time I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo I’ve crashed and burned, and I always vow that I’ll never try again.  I always try again.  This year I’ve teamed up with a good friend of mine, Kris, for some healthy competition.  I’m going to get 50k in on Triptych to finish out the first draft (or be within 10k of it) and he’s going to tell a story with 100 pictures in 30 days. 

I need this.  While working on a gaming project I’ve been completely ignoring my own work, and that’s got to stop.  The sooner I can get a draft of Triptych out the sooner I can get to rewrites, and my year’s goal was to have the first draft of Triptych done.  NaNo’s a good time to do this as  I only know where the story needs to go and no clue as to how it will get there. 

This also means NaNoWriMo haiku’s for the month of November, probably posted to my Twitter.

See you in November!

Wednesdays are boring.  Seriously boring.  Claw your eyes out just to have something to do boring.  So I figured that making sure I have something to post and think about every Wednesday might dispel the tedium.  Every Wednesday I’m going to do a post on things I’m excited about.  I’m also hoping this will put me in a better frame of mind, because it’s hard to find something happy right now.

1) The weather.  Really.  I mean that.  In Houston September is generally a continuation of August’s slow rolling boil, but for the last few days it’s actually felt like fall.  This fills me with so much giddy joy it’s hard to contain.  I love fall.  I love the way it smells and the way the air tastes.  I’ve already brought out all the pumpkin spice/apple cinnamon candles.  Here’s to hoping the weather lasts.  If it goes back to baking me slowly I may cry.

2) Food Blogs.  I’m more than a little obsessed with cooking right now to the point where collecting recipes is as good as doing the real thing.  I could honestly spend all day looking for new recipes to add to my YummySoup! app.  Julie and Julia is partly to blame, but I think it also has something to do with Fall coming and the need to feel a bit more control in my life.  Last night I talked the husband into trying ceviche. 

3) Sheldon Comics.  One of my best friends has been sending me random comics from this online strip for a while and I started reading it this morning.  It is now almost 4 o’clock and i have no idea what happened to my day.  All I know is that I must own a talking duck, and soon.

4)  Being done with the Couch to 5K Program eventually.  I’m not a speedy runner, but I’m trying, at least.  I should be able to run for half an hour straight by the end of October.  This fill me with glee.  First stop 5K, next stop triathlon!

5)  One More With Feeling Sing-a-Long.  Discovery Green is constantly hosting pretty awesome events in Houston, and the Buffy Sing-a-Long is this Saturday.  We’re picnicking and I’m tremendously excited.  Amber Benson will be there.  There’s also supposed to be a trivia contest.  If my friend Kris (www.loukasarts.com) doesn’t win, I will be very surprised.