Jenyfer Matthews

I love the internet. A day without internet access is an excessively frustrating day (unless of course I am not connected by choice) Without access to my email I feel totally cut-off from the world.

There’s a lot of great stuff on the internet – most of which you will not hear about here first. I admit it – I am not much of an explorer in the cyber world. I log into my email, I look at the blogs on my sidebar (with occasion forays to sites / blogs recommended on my favorite blogs), and occasionally shop. Of course I look things up when I need some information on something, but generally speaking I have a well worn rut from which I rarely stray.

And saying that, I still manage to waste plenty of time on my computer.

My husband on the other hand can spend hours on the internet looking at not much. He’ll have some sort of starting point, and then follow a link here, a link there, and suddenly it’s the middle of the night and the rest of us are sleeping. I don’t understand how he can do it. I just don’t have the patience for endless pointless clicking – because as much great stuff as is out there, there’s a whole lot of crap to sift through as well.

So, what’s your internet style? Do you stay on task or let yourself drift? What are some of your favorite fun sites? I’m open to suggestions

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There are many levels on which this sign does not seem to be working!

Just because I left for Thailand on Friday, you didn’t think I’d leave you alone all week did you?

I spent last week finishing up a bit of work on a couple of quilts. Not because there is anything particularly urgent about them, just because I wanted to. One is a large “winter” themed bed quilt that I’ve been working on for a quite a while and I’m determined to get it done and on the bed by February at the latest. Imagine how delighted I was to finish quilting the border sooner than I expected! I even got the binding edge attached and started securing it. I will likely have it on the bed by the end of January barring any disasters in my schedule. Pictures soon, promise!

The other is a quilt for my son and the urgency there is more his than mine But while I was rooting around in my fabric cupboard looking for fabric to use on the edge of my “winter” quilt, I found a large piece of fabric that coordinated perfectly with the twin sized sea turtle quilt top I completed a couple of weeks ago. I was so thrilled that I decided to get it all layered and ready to go so I could start quilting it upon my return.

Can’t you see why he’s in such a state of anticipation?

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The two different blues were supposed to make it look like different temperatures of water. Not sure that idea works quite as well outside of my head, but it’s done now and my son doesn’t seem to mind!

Thinking about it, between the sea turtles and the queen sized commission that I have yet to start, I probably have enough hand quilting projects to last me until summer vacation and the year has hardly started yet. I always like to think of a new year as a fresh, clean start and here I am already bogged down. I know that I’ll manage to fit in a few other smaller projects here and there (including the two Noah’s Ark baby quilts) but I think that otherwise I am going to try to shift my focus more on personal projects for the second half of the year.

I’ve mentioned before that the children’s tennis coach likes to motivate and reward the children he teaches with prizes from time to time. The rewards vary widely (remember the leopard slippers?) Sometimes he might give them a few pieces of candy and other times he might come up with something high end, like a tennis bag.

Last week my son won all the matches in his group and he got what looked like a stuffed monkey as a prize. Little did I know it wasn’t just any stuffed monkey. He dances too.

I love this monkey so much I got out my tripod and figured out how to take videos with my new camera – I even registered at YouTube to share this with you. It’s amusing and absurd at the same time – I only regret that Queen isn’t being paid royalties every time I press the button on his arm. But really – overalls? Given the song lyrics, shouldn’t the monkey really be wearing a leather jacket at the very least?

I was reviewing the documentation for my trip to Thailand (I leave tomorrow!!) and noticed that the stated age range for this style of trip is 18-39. Since my birthday is Sunday, the cutoff age, I just made it!

As if getting older isn’t enough of a drag, imagine if the tour company had rejected me for being too old. Geez…

I rarely make resolutions – why bother? I know I’ll never keep them and most of the vices I have I don’t really mind!

But when everyone else starts talking about what they are going to do, my own wheels start to turn. And it’s not as if there isn’t room for improvement in my life. So here goes – my goal for the new year is to try at least one new recipe a month. I’m posting it here to keep me honest

Doesn’t sound like much, I admit but I’m kind of excited all the same. Since I’m the one at home, I’m responsible for the bulk of meal preparation in our home. And when our schedule gets busy I admit that I get into menu ruts. I thought about one new recipe a week but that seemed like a goal doomed to fail early. A month seems totally doable – and if I get really inspired there’s nothing to stop me from trying new recipes more often.

I’m happy to say that I already tried January’s recipe this week: Lentil Walnut Burgers, from The New Moosewood Cookbook. It probably doesn’t sound all that appealing to the non-vegetarians out there, but it appealed to me on several levels. I had all the ingredients, the instructions didn’t look too daunting, and both walnuts and flaxseed are things that my husband has been trying to work into his diet to deal with high triglyceride levels.

I normally follow the instructions on a recipe the first go round before I start to mess with it, unless it says something silly like the garlic is optional. (garlic = yum) These burgers were very good – they had a nice texture and flavor and everyone in the family enjoyed them, even my son who isn’t the most adventurous eater. The only thing I might do differently next time is add a bit more salt, but that’s just me. Also, I’d take the time to cut up a fresh tomato.

Overall rating: definitely will make this one again!

With my new camera!

When the children were smaller I had a nice 35mm camera with changeable lenses and a powerful flash. It took wonderful pictures but it quickly became a bit more than I wanted to carry around when I was also toting small children and all of their gear so I switched first to a point-n-shoot 35mm film camera and then to a point-n-shoot digital. I’ve been happy enough with the shots I’ve been able to get with those various cameras but lately I’ve been longing for more.

Now that the children are old enough to move themselves and their own stuff around, I decided to upgrade again. This camera is a nice hybrid: it still only has one lens but it has a powerful zoom and though it has many optional settings, I can totally leave it on automatic if I want to. And because it’s also a Canon, I’m already familiar with many of the functions so once I put the batteries in, I was ready to go.

We took our guests to the Pyramids on New Year’s Day – what better place to take a test drive with a new camera? I normally resize the pictures I post both so they load faster and also so they aren’t as appealing to steal. These images would likely be poster sized if I didn’t resize them!

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This guy was actually posing for someone else – he didn’t notice me because I was standing farther back using my powerful zoom and tricky twisty viewing screen

This shot was taken with the camera at belly level, twisty screen up so I could pretend I wasn’t taking a picture when I was. Obviously I need to check the camera is level before I shoot! Or else get some software that will let me straighten it out some.

But check out the zoom!

You can actually get close enough to the Sphinx on foot to get a decent picture with even a not very powerful camera.

With my camera, I can see his pores. Imagine this picture poster sized. Gorgeous!

Here I was just being silly, but you get my point – the zoom is great.

There’s also a sports setting for continuous shooting – I’ll be able to bore close friends and relatives (and probably even the coach!) with action shots of the children playing tennis and soccer. One of our visitors was saying how these sorts of cameras in the hands of amateurs (like me) are putting professional photographers out of business. I can totally see how when it’s so easy to get great photographs on your own.

I opted to get an 8MB memory card for the camera and on the current settings, the camera reports that I can take approximately 2200 photos. I took a little more than 200 over the weekend just messing around. It boggles my mind how many photos I’ll have to review when I get back from Thailand!

We had another movie night with the children this week and this time watched The Karate Kid. I had high hopes for this movie. “Wax on, wax off” is a phrase that has worked its way into popular vernacular – I still hear it used in TV / movies from time to time.

I’m sorry to say that this movie didn’t hold up quite as well as Back to the Future though. Who knew that “wax on, wax off” was the most lasting element? The rest of the dialogue was cheesy, the direction was clumsy, and I think they made a big, big mistake going for an original soundtrack rather than using real 80s music hits. The best part of the whole movie was Pat Morita’s role as father figure and teacher. Without him, I’m sure this movie would have quietly slipped into obscurity by now.

The movie was one cliche after another, which wouldn’t have bothered me so much if they had been handled a little better. For example: at one point Daniel, the new (poor) kid in town, goes to meet the girl he likes at her country club. She’s late coming out so he goes in through the kitchen (why??) and looks for her in the dining room through the window in the swinging door to the kitchen (Really? So it’s a country club set up like a cafeteria??) Daniel sees her, predictably dancing with his arch-enemy and her ex-boyfriend. He jumps to conclusions and tries to make a hasty retreat and crashes into a waiter carrying a tray full of Italian food judging by the amount of red sauce that ended up on Daniel’s previously spotless white outfit. What happens next? Everyone in the dining room starts laughing at him in unison. Because that’s always what happens in the real world when there’s an event like that.

At the end, Daniel faces his antagonists in a karate tournament and is doing very well. So well that the evil karate teacher advises his students to use illegal kicks to injure Daniel and take him out of the running. The scales fall from the bad boys eyes and though they do what their teachers say to do, the bad boys are full of remorse for their actions and happy when Daniel triumphs in spite of their dirty tricks. Rather than just have the boys meet eyes and come to a silent understanding and truce, the #1 nasty bad boy hands Daniel the trophy with a big smile and says something to the effect of “way to go, you deserve to win”. A big turn-around for a guy who spent the previous two hours kicking the crap out of Daniel and just suffered a humiliating defeat and loss of his karate title, don’t you think?

Best part of the movie? When my seven year old son said that he’d never try to be the silent tough guy and lie about how/why he was getting beat up – he’d come tell his mommy

Oh well. It didn’t hold up for me, but at least the children enjoyed it – they’ve already watched it again. And other than the music, it was still better than My Fair Lady.

My inlaws are in town this weekend for a quick visit before going on to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro and I will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen showing off my skills as the hostess with the mostest. I’ll be cooking for five adults and two small children (with adult appetites). I have several meals in mind, including Hearty Potato Soup (aka as “soup with nothing in it” by my son since it is pureed) with asparagus and beer bread followed by strawberry pie for dessert, vegetable lasagna with garlic bread and salad followed by chocolate cake, and vegetarian chili with corn bread followed by cheesecake for dessert.

(Never do I regret not having a dishwasher more than when I have dinner guests!)

It’s not totally altruism that is inspiring me to go all out – it’s also timing. Next weekend I leave on my trip to Thailand so I’ll be away when my inlaws come back through on their way home. Feeding them well now will ensure that I will truly be missed by all the week I’m away.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

The children go back to school on Sunday (fingers crossed we’ll have no more flu-closure nonsense). The holidays passed much more quickly and peacefully than I expected, but does it make me a Bad Mommy that I’m really looking forward to their first day back??