Hunger Games: Catching Fire Fan Camp

I am very pleased (ecstatic really) to announce that I was chosen to attend the Catching Fire Fan Camp weekend November 16-18th. I was assigned District 5 (which is not that far off from what I do for actual work.) I will be planning on writing a special guest post for CC2K, an site devoted to all things Geek, but I will also be sharing with you some of the highlights that might not make it into that article.

Sloppy Joes!

If there's one thing Josh loves, it's Sloppy Joes. So in my quest for low carb options I have come up with the following recipe, which is a great substitute if someone you love is having trouble parting from their Manwich.

Ingredients
1 Spaghetti squash
1 lb. ground beef- grass fed if possible
1 can (6-8 oz.) tomato paste
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1 onion
3-6 cloves garlic (or more if you are a geeky garlic girl like me!)
2-3 tablespoons vinegar (red or apple cider, or both)
2 tablespoons worcheshire sauce
4 tablespoons of coconut sugar (words in place of the brown sugar!)
1/2 c. beef broth

Preheat the oven to 375. While it is preheating cut the spaghetti squash in two, lengthwise and place open side down on a cookie sheet. Get the oil into a skillet or non stick pan and heat it up medium high. When those are ready, place the spaghetti squash into the oven, set the timer for 30 minutes.

Add the ground beef, onion, garlic to the skillet and brown the beef, softening the onions. Take the rest of your ingredients and whisk them together. After about 5-7 minutes add your liquid mixture to the ground beef mixture and turn down to a simmer, let simmer for the last 20 minutes your spaghetti squash is in the oven.
When the timer goes off on your spaghetti squash take a peek in the oven, you'll know if it's done if you start to see browning at the cut edges. Leave it in for a few more minutes if you don't see it, or if your fork doesn't penetrate it easily.
Take a spaghetti squash half and put it in on a plate, no need for a bowl since the squash creates one. Add a heaping helping of your sloppy joe mixture and you are done! Little effort for maximum flavor.
See how exciting it is?

Breaking Bad Blanket Part 3

My last post was when I was partially done with the blanket and I haven't done anything else. I haven't had time to come up with any new recipes. I have mostly been cooking from Peace, Love & Low Carb as she has some fantastic, cozy winter low carb recipes.

But last night I finished the blanket, at last! Took longer than I expected towards the end. (Man those big rows!) But I am glad it's done and I can go back to my needle felting for the wedding. Getting those done are my next priority, craft-wise.

What do you guys think, compared to the show? All we need is some haz suits and we are set.

Breaking Bad Afghan Update!

It's been a couple weeks since I posted about the afghan. I am chugging along on it. A little over halfway done. I just realized yesterday that I hadn't done an extra chain between my squares, (oopsy). But I don't mind. I like my granny square afghans a little bit tighter. So we will see how much extra/how much I come up short, at the end of the project and access how to do the next one, since I promised a few of them!
Can you tell how it's coming?

I am hoping to finish the project this week so I can bring it along for the viewing of American Werewolf in London this Saturday at Cinespia. I am very excited because Werewolf Ale will be there, along with Mr Frodo Baggins. It's my quest to track him down and sneak into the DJ booth so I can ask him to sign my LOTR tattoo and have it inked on there permanently! What a dream that would be! There are still tickets left if you guys are interested!

Reflection

I haven't had time to reflect on having this blog running for a year, (yay 1 year anniversary!) because of personal family emergencies over the last few weeks. September was not been an easy month for me, or many of my family members. But it was full of more personal growth and insight than possibly the entire year so far. I had some great fantasies when I started this blog about doing it every day of the week, and taking the weekends off, but after a few weeks it became clear my life was far too busy and hectic to continue at that pace, but at the same time I learned that people cared about it, and read it, and missed the posts when they weren't there, so I vowed to myself to keep it up, but only at my own pace, waiting for inspiration instead of forcing ideas, to ensure I am only posting valuable things for you.

In the coming month I hope to share with you some posts on my favorite season (autumn) and my favorite holiday (Halloween!) I have some ideas brewing for short stories, costumes and movie suggestions for the month. (My favorite candy is Mounds, my favorite scary movie is Cabin in the Wood, and the key to a good Halloween party is fabulously spooky food.)

I just want to remind folks in the Los Angeles area that the El Capitan does 3-D showings of Nightmare Before Christmas all month, and if you haven't seen it in 3-D yet do yourself a favor, don your Sally patchwork dress, or Jack Skellington whites and head out there for it.

YA- Y NOT?

Warning: Contains ME! Confessing in all my glory and humility.
I don't recall having explained to you, readers, why I have such an affinity for YA literature. And I think it is time, if I am going to continue to recommend and discuss books with you.

My childhood ended when I was 11 years old and my mother died. I am not stating this for sympathy, merely to set our story. I took on the task of preparing my little sister and I for school in the mornings, allowing my dad, who went to work at ungodly hours (i.e. any time before the sun comes up) to have some peace of mind about leaving us alone. (This was in age long ago -20 years- when people understood that giving children responsibilities isn't some horrific form of torture, or ruining the end of childhood, (I am looking at you parents who won't let your precious Duddykins have jobs as a teenager, thus ensuring whiny college student syndrome) but a natural progression into adulthood.

Being entrusted with this kind of responsibility as a teenager turned into a sacred bond between my sister, dad and I. He TRUSTED us. And in turn we tried to be worthy of that trust. Both of us, me especially, kept to ourselves and did not engage in the reckless, explorative activities of our peers. My weekdays and weekends were filled with drama club, poetry club, 3 part time jobs, and my nights were filled with hours of television and writing. (I confess, I wrote more often than that, filling notebooks with fan fiction as teachers attempted to pass knowledge onto myself and my classmates. One teacher even got furious enough to take away my notebook for the remainder of the class. -I had more paper) I still got decent grades, A's & B's, only C's with Mr Burke, my horrible but good natured math teacher of years 9, 10, 11. (They failed to realize I didn't work well with that teacher, rather they just assumed I wasn't very good at math. Ahh, public schools.) Hours of Buffy, Roswell, X-Files. I was an insomniac sci-fi junkie. My close friends lived in other parts of the world. I was a part of the burgeoning internet generation, a giant in the world of Buffy Fan fiction. People KNEW me. (I even met a fan who ended up at the same college as me! Imagine that!) And as such, my dad didn't know enough to question me, or (thought I was smart enough to let me) went to visit an internet friend in DC while we were on a family vacation. (A few metro train rides away from where we were staying.) I did not get kidnapped or raped. I met a very nice girl with dreadlocks who went to a hippie art school. This was the epitome of my sixteen year old adventuring.
(Here is a photo of me at 16, visiting my aunt in Minnesota. On the Right is a friend I met through a Hanson chat room.)

But before I lose you down memory lane I will attempt to get back to the story. Emotionally, during those years, I shut down. I ran on autopilot. I lived in my stories so I could be a rock in the real world. I could be relied upon to take care of things. I could not connect to my peers who lived in a world where they dated, partied in the quarry, even drank and smoked pot! I felt so other from them and the characters on my shows and in the books I read. Even the Baby Sitter's Club girls got around more than me! (This all changed in college. I ran the gambit of trying things, although mostly reasonable things. (Tattoos! Kissing boys! Falling in love for the first time.) Nothing so wild as my television shows depicted. I am sorry to tell you I have no stories of cocaine filled nights in NYC. But something was still missing.

No matter how much I had come out of my shell I was still locked away, partially. It has taken close to a decade, the love of a good man, friends who do not judge, and a little YA heroine you might have heard of, by the name of Katniss Everdeen, to understand and break down the barriers I had put up over 20 years ago.

YA fiction lets me live my high school years in ways I was afraid to, in ways I coveted. I vicariously make stupid mistakes with these peers. From Harry Potter, to Tris, to Lyra, to Katniss, I get to try again, find new paths, to find comfort. Many of these characters feel alone and have lost a parent, sometimes two, and as a result I feel closer to them, than my peers, who used to stare, owllike at me, as if they could glean why I was chosen by the universe to lose a parent, and if it was contagious.

And that, my readers, is why I choose to live, half grown, in a world of possibilities, with the pain of first love and loss close to my heart. I don't know any other way.

Breaking Bad Crochet-A-Long

So it's been awhile since I have posted anything crafting related, mostly because I want to keep the wedding craft gifts a surprise for those who win them. But I am starting a new project that I would like to share with you readers and it is going to be a Breaking Bad Granny Square Afghan. It will be based on the one constantly featured on the back of the White's couch on the show (which Josh is insisting I watch, currently.) Much of my excitement about the show is being able to reproduce crafts from it, a la Firefly. (Long live the Jayne Hat!)

So to begin, I found this nice website:Breaking Bad Inspired Afghan. Then, I purchased the amount of yarn required in the right colors, something I hardly ever do. Look at me growing up and planning a project in advance! Check out all this yarn!
Tonight I am going to begin working the first color (pumpkin) and I will be updating you with pictures and I can answer any questions for any one else who want sot participate.