My Life, As Told Between (Baby Cakes') Naps

I try to be a good person. Really, I do. I try to keep in mind how lucky and privileged I am and empathize with those who aren’t. I try hard not to judge (too much). I try to remind myself that I could be one of those who’ll need help one day so I shouldn’t begrudge the help offered to others, even if its at my expense. I pay my taxes and don’t complain about them being too high because I reap a lot of benefits from the system. And really, I don’t want people to lose their homes and I see the need for this in the bigger picture. But yeah, a part of me can’t help but agree with this quote from a recent NYT article on the homeowners’ bailout plan: “If all of our neighbors are getting bailed out despite their own bad decisions, arrogance or ignorance, and we’re asked to keep playing by the rules for the sake of the greater good, I don’t want to participate.”

We finally bought a rug for our living room last week. It came rolled up in a long cardboard tube. The tube sat around our living room for a couple of days before I finally put it next to the doorway, where we generally store all the stuff that needs to be recycled but that won’t fit in our recycling can.

Yesterday, I noticed it was back in the living room so I asked T if he had moved it.

Me: Hey Hon, did you move this tube? I put it next to the door so we’d remember to take it down to the recycling bin.

T: (*looking very abashed*) Yeah.

Me: Why?

T: It makes an awesome sword.

We received so much wonderful cookware and so many great baking tools and accessories for our wedding that we’ve actually been inspired to cook. Plus, T and I are trying to save money and eat healthier by eating out less, so we renewed our vow to each make at least one home-cooked meal a week when we got back from our honeymoon. Our first few meals required buying a lot of stock ingredients, but now that we’ve made several different dishes, we’re starting to accumulate the basics. It’s refreshing to actually have things (like sugar and seasame oil!) on hand so we don’t have to buy everything and start from scratch for every dish. It’s even better to have all the pots, pans, utensils, mixers, etc. we’d need to cook.  We were making do with two dinged up pans and a beat up pot for a long time!  =)

T’s friend S got us this fantastic cookbook full of easy, simple dishes which we’ve been trying out. In the last couple of weeks, we’ve made spicy cashew chicken, salmon, and beef bulgogi. We’ve also tested out our ice cream maker and blender and made tin roof ice cream, crepes, and oreo cookie cake. I can’t wait to try some of the other ice cream recipes in this book and am hoping T will be up for some of the more exotic ice cream flavors!

Stay tuned: Next week, we’re planning on using our mixer to make bread!

Alfie was recently invited to a costume birthday party, so last night T and I were brainstorming costume ideas for him. It occurred to us that since he already looks somewhat like a bear, we could capitalize on that and dress him up as Winnie the Pooh. It would be simple, cute, and, most importantly, inexpensive since all it would entail was getting him a red shirt. We greatly underestimated how difficult this would turn out to be.

After failing to find any Winnie the Pooh pet costumes online, or appropriate red pet shirts, we decided to see if one of T’s old, red t-shirt would work. It didn’t.

Alfie was not a happy camper. He was unhappy about being forced into a shirt and extra unhappy about the fact that he kept tripping over the thing since it was too long and too big for him. In fact, although he had it on for less than 30 seconds and we immediately tried to get it off of him, he started panicking and making whimpering noises and generally acting as if we were viciously abusing him instead of putting a shirt on him for 30 seconds. So, yeah, it was a no go. Plus, honestly, Alfie didn’t look like Winnie the Pooh. He just looked like a poor miserable dog in an old t-shirt.

Every night, either I, T, or both of us take Alfie for a short walk around our street before bed. T’s more adventurous than I am and will let him off leash for the short jaunt. Alfie usually stays pretty close, even off leash, but once, when T was walking him alone, Alfie walked ahead farther than usual to explore something laying on the curb around the corner from our condo.  He happily bounded back carrying a big slice of pizza in his mouth.  (How the pizza got there remains a mystery to this day.)

T tells me he tried the “Leave It” command, which works when we’re training Alfie not to eat the kibble in front of him in exchange for even more kibble, but turned out to be less than effective when trying to talk him out of a big slice of pizza in exchange for nothing. However, after a brief wrestling match, T won and managed to extract the pizza from Alfie’s mouth.

The next night, T and I took Alfie out for his nightly walk together. When we neared the corner that served as the scene of the pizza incident the night before, T noted, “I bet Alfie’s thinking ‘I know a good pizza place around the corner.'”

As told to me by T.

We’ve been very diligent about keeping Alfie off the furniture and have been mostly successful so far, helped largely by the fact that Alfie is not actually interested in getting on any of the furniture. Except for a little white armchair in the living room that happens to be in front of a window overlooking the street. He LOVES sitting on that chair and watching for cars and strangers. He also loves that we leave that window open to cool down the living room. So, in order to let him enjoy his favorite seat and still uphold our position as pack leaders, we’ve worked out a compromise. He doesn’t sit on that chair when we’re around and we ignore all the paw prints on the chair.

This delicate balance was threatened earlier this week. You see, lately, T’s been leaving for work around 4:30 am, which means that Alfie is usually still asleep when T gets up. More often than not, Alfie sleeps upstairs, but occasionally, he’ll pass out downstairs (in fact, the only place he doesn’t sleep is in his doggie bed). This particular morning, Alfie was curled up and fast asleep on his chair when T came downstairs. T didn’t know if Alfie fell asleep while watching for cars or deliberately set out to sleep there (unlikely since its necessary for him to curl up into a tiny little ball to fit in the chair), but he did know that for our charade to keep on working, he needed to either pretend not to see Alfie or get mad at him for sleeping on the chair. Thankfully, Alfie solved the problem.

As soon as Alfie woke up and saw that T was there, he quickly slunk out of the chair and stealthily settled onto the floor. Once there, he gave T a look as if to say, “What chair? I was never on any chair. Prove it. Those could be anyone’s paw prints.” T, in turn, gave Alfie a look which he hoped said, “I never saw you asleep on that chair. If I had, I would not tolerated it as I am the Alpha dog and you are not allowed on furniture.”

And with that silent exchange, balance was restored.  The end.

I can’t believe it’s been four years since I started this blog. Unfortunately, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve been running out of material so I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to keep this blog up. The only thing that keeps me posting semi-regularly anymore is the knowledge that at least some of my far-flung friends still rely on this blog to keep up to date on my life. Although, truth to tell, there’s not much to keep up to date on these days.

For example, T and I were in the grocery store this weekend when my phone rang. We both looked at each other and decided that since we’d both just talked to our families and we were both there, it must be a wrong number. When it turned out we were right, T noted, not unhappily, “We live very uneventful lives.”

It’s true. We live very uneventful lives. However, they’re uneventful lives filled with great friends, wonderful families, supportive coworkers, an adorable pet, and each other. I don’t think either one of us would change a thing (well, maybe kids one day, but that’s another story). I love my uneventful life and am thankful every day for it. The only down side is that it doesn’t make for a very good blog! So for those who continue to follow this blog, be forewarned that it will likely consist of posts like the following:

We had a productive weekend cleaning up our place and recovering from the wedding mania. Per my family’s request, we bought a new flat screen tv with the money they generously gave us as a wedding gift. Once we get the tv mounted, rearrange our furniture, and put up our pictures, hopefully our condo will look more homey and less barren!

We also hung out with our friends S and K. S used the electric mixer T’s mom had give us to make us a chocolate loaf. We can now officially say the mixer’s been used. The chocolate loaf was yummy and S showed us how easy using the mixer is. Hopefully, we will actually use it ourselves one day.

We did use a panini maker we’d received as part of an attempt to replicate the Sourdough Jack at home. It was only semi-successful. The hamburger patty was too thick to make the burger as squishy as we like. Back to the drawing board.

When not cleaning, entertaining, and trying to make Sourdough Jacks, we played Spore. Spore is this new computer game that lets you create your own characters and decide their traits and how they interact with the world around them as they evolve. It was surprisingly fun. T’s original character was warlike and died quickly, but thanks to my influence, our new character is cute, cuddly, and friendly and has thrived making allies! She belongs to a race we’re calling the Stubbians.

Speaking of dorky things, I read the Inheritance Cycle while in Maui. It was okay, but I’m incredibly frustrated that, although portrayed as a trilogy, it didn’t end with the third book. Instead, it’s being dragged on as a series. The books were decent beach reads, but not a series worth waiting a year (at least) to finish! Sadly, since I’m incapable of just letting things, I’m settling in for the long wait.