Friday, May 25, 2012

The Continuing Saga of Packing

I'm mostly packed. By that I mean I have about 13 more boxes to go, not counting the stuff that hasn't been purchased yet. Like a couch. And a second bed, because the new place is HUGE y'all! To top it all off, we're making some of the furniture. Like a dining table and some benches to go with it. So once again there is a trip to Ikea in my immediate future. Land of the flatpack. And cheap "tupperware". This time I'm going armed with a list. Not so that I won't buy stuff not on the list, but so I don't forget the stuff I need!!

Do you have any idea how much stuff a person can accumulate in nine years? Hint: it's a lot of stuff. I even gave away most of my paperbacks! But then there are the 16 magazine files full of cooking magazines. And... and... and.. it just goes on and on and on...

--Little Bird is still packing

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Multiples of Three

6: the number of weeks I have left in Chicago. I'm moving!!! To Santa Fe!! Really, really soon!

9: the number of years I've lived here in Chicago. It's been fun, this is a great city. I could just do without February.

24: the number of years ago I first came to visit Chicago. I mean really see the place. Mama Bird had come up to work on a show room for a convention, and suggested that I might want to see the city. I was 13 years old. It was amazing and scary and so much fun! I don't think I'll ever forget it.

So I have a few more weeks to soak in as much of Chicago as possible, go to all the restaurants I keep saying I want to try, but never have somehow. Go to the Farmer's Markets. Walk along the beach and marvel at the enormous body of fresh water that is Lake Michigan. Go to the concerts in Millennium Park and eat pesto while dodging poorly aimed soccer balls (if that happens again, I'm gonna stick the corkscrew in the damned ball). Soon I will be posting about how hot and dry it is, and how much fun it is to set up my new place. And that there are snakes out there! BIG ones.


--Little Bird is getting a new nest

Monday, March 19, 2012

Bad Day

Today I had to take my moms cat to the vet to be put down. It's not been a good day. I stood in the exam room, petting her and scratching behind her ears while they administered the shot. Mama Bird was on the phone with me during the whole thing. She was in California and the cat took a sudden turn for the worse while she was gone. The cat was fourteen. It's been a really sucky day.

--Little Bird is crying.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Is There a Cardiologist in the House?

I suppose I could share this hollidays top meals. (when not sure what to write about, write about food)
Pretty much everything we ate this Holliday season was cooked in bacon grease or had bacon itself in it. The diet has been resumed since then. There was the frittata with bacon (natch) and poblanos and mushrooms. There was turkey chili (the onions were "sweated" in bacon grease). There was bolognese cooked with a bit of red wine ( same treatment of the onions). The were BLOATS. That's bacon, lettuce, onion, avocado, and tomato sandwiches.
In the next few months I have to lose about fifteen more pounds, an ordeal that is made more difficult by the frigid temperatures outside. Salads are well and good when it's hot outside, but when it's cold, not so much. When it's cold I want soups, thick creamy soups. I want quiche. With bacon. I want pasta with cream sauce. Alas, not gonna happen much this year. Back to the seventeen day diet for me. Phase one even. Ah, well. It was nice while it lasted.


---Little Bird attempts to get littler

Monday, January 2, 2012

New Year, New Post

Things have been a'changin. First of all, once again, sorry for the prolonged absence. I got a wee bit busy. Mostly outside. Walking. Until I hurt myself that is. But I lost nearly forty pounds doing it. The walking, not the hurting.
Also? I am moving!!! To New Mexico!!!! This year!!! In July, but the purging of crap I don't need starts now. So all my STL friends should consider visiting soon.
Also also? It's my birthday! And it snowed! Thirty seven is the same age Mama Bird was when she made some big changes in her life. I have always thought that by the time I reached this age I'd know more about where I want to be in life. All I know is that there ARE big changes coming. The move, more weight loss, and a wedding to officiate. Maybe I'll find my purpose in New Mexico.
Stealing an idea from another blogger, resolutions. Specifically one word resolutions. Mine is Prioritze. What's yours?


------ Little Bird is flying south.

Friday, August 19, 2011

What I Did This Summer

Sorry I've been gone all summer. I wish I could tell you that I was off galavanting around the world. That I had found a great job. That I had met the love of my life and was busy being swept off my feet.
None of those things happened. I went galavanting (by train) to Texas and Missouri. I went to a LOT of concert picnics. I made a ton of pesto (so much so that my stepfather actually got tired of it!) I didn't meet anyone special.
I did bake some cakes for a family and their kids, and babysit for them occasionally. Their three year old daughter apparently recently professed her love for me (I watch movies with her that she's seen a million times and I refuse to tell her what's going on when she asks for the thirtieth time "Where's her going?") also, I am the cake lady.
Perhaps I will figure out this fall something to write about. Perhaps I can get involved in something worth writing about.
Fall is by far my favorite season, there's a sense of anticipation in the air. The mornings are crisper, there is more hustle and bustle. The food is more... involved. Maybe I'll start posting recipes again, that at least would be something.

Little Bird has been remiss

P.S. The first recipe will involve bacon. The best bacon in the world.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Frustration.

Once again, life at failblog has led me to make another serious post.
I was born with Neurofibromatosis. This is a degenerative disease. It is what will eventually kill me. Assuming I don't get hit by a bus first. I don't have health insurance. I can't afford it. I simply can't. What one insurance company quoted me, I wouldn't NEED the insurance! I could use that money (there was a $5,000 deductible involved) to cover nearly all of my doctors visits.
Most people who have met me wouldn't know about my condition if I didn't tell them. I'm lucky in that regard. Most of my issues area largely "invisible". But for crying out loud! What the fuck is wrong with trying to provide adequate health care to EVERYONE!? It's not like I get sick just so I can suck tax dollars out of anyone's pocket! There are so many people like me who fall through the cracks. There are so many people who are worse off than me.
There are so many people who think that folks like me are idiots and morons for saying that current health care is inadequate. They say that we don't know what we're talking about. I've lived the life. I know from what I'm talking about.
If there is a program out there to help me, they sure as hell make it as difficult as possible to get to. See, part of my issues include learning disabilities, which makes navigating the convoluted ins and outs of the system overwhelming.
It is in a word frustrating.

--Little Bird is fed up.