Average Jane

Average Jane Gears Up for NaBloPoMo

Even though I already post five days a week and seem to do just fine with the "whatever pops into my head" method of post topic selection, somehow NaBloPoMo makes me feel as though I need a strategy. Therefore, I've developed a schedule for my posts throughout November:

• Mondays - Recipes
• Tuesdays - Childhood photos and memories.
• Wednesdays - Memes - So if you have some, please tag me!
• Thursdays - Stuff I Like/Product Reviews
• Fridays - Potpourri (Whatever I feel like writing - just like a regular day!)
• Saturday - LOLcaturday
• Sunday - Photos

Cagey is doing something similar, although her categories are more coherent than mine.

I'm going to do my best to include photos with the recipes, so you'll be seeing a lot more photos than usual next month. Let's hope my digital camera and scanner don't let me down.

I'm not completely certain how the NaBloPoMo site with its blogging capabilities figures in. Thus, I think I'm going to put post titles with links on my profile each day to prove that I've posted. Is that what everyone else was planning to do?

If you're participating this year and I haven't befriended you yet, please visit my profile and ask to be my friend. This is going to be fun!

Average Jane Isn't Playing This Year

Maybe it's only temporary, but I find that I'm just not on board with the whole idea of doing Halloween stuff this year. I've already had three opportunities to dress up, but I've foregone it each time.

I could have worn a costume for the blogger party on Friday night, but I was going straight from work so it seemed like too much trouble. I was invited to a Halloween party on Saturday, but it started about the time I was ready to go to bed, so I passed on that. It was even suggested that we dress up for the spay/neuter clinic, but I was glad I didn't do so because only one guy ended up there in costume.

Of course, last weekend was just the first wave. Now there's a costume contest and pumpkin carving contest at work on Wednesday, not to mention the trick-or-treaters that evening. Sigh.

Maybe it's partly because I have blue-highlighted hair now and thus have a sort of costume going on all the time, but I just don't feel like spending hours wearing something odd, uncomfortable and probably cold. I'm still getting used to noticing strangers staring at me and remembering that I'm a part of the Weirdo-American community in the eyes of the general public.

At this point, I'm not going to put out decorations, I'm not getting a pumpkin, I'm not dressing up, and I may very well shut off the porch light on Wednesday night and pretend I'm not home. On a positive note, I'll be able to avoid a lot of candy calories...at least until I get to work on Thursday.

Am I being a Halloween scrooge or does the fun just run out eventually for everyone? What do you think?

Average Jane's Weekend, In Brief

On Friday evening, I did one of my favorite things: hanging out with other bloggers. I got to drink some of Dan's amazing homebrewed beer and I also had some really strong Jell-o shots made by Filegirl. Even though I'd never met most of the attendees before, everyone was really cool and I'm looking forward to meeting up with them again soon.

Amazingly enough, I still got up on Saturday morning in time to get to an 8:00 a.m. yoga class. The rest of the day was given over to web surfing and chili making. My husband and I went to a chili cook-off hosted by one of my co-workers and although I did not win, I did pick up some good ideas for making my homemade chili better. I learned that it needs to be somewhat sweeter and could benefit from chunks of grilled pork or steak in addition to the ground beef.

On Sunday I volunteered at the low-cost spay/neuter clinic. I'd meant to stay all day, but my husband wanted me to go to a jam with him in the early afternoon, so I stayed from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and then passed along my last kitten to someone else.

When I got home, my husband was in bed with a stomachache. Not only had he blown off the jam, but he'd forgotten that he had some friends coming over to record. Said friends were waiting on our back steps when I arrived, so I had to shoo them away for him.

Once I grasped that the hubby wouldn't be getting out of bed anytime soon, I went back to the clinic and finished out the day. They ended up altering 101 cats that day and they needed all the help they could get.

One of the last kittens I recovered was a little orange tabby male who was just crawling with fleas. I sprayed him with herbal flea spray (it seems safer for the young ones than the chemical stuff) and combed out as many fleas as I could find, dropping them into soapy water. In the hour or so that I had the little cat, I must have picked off 40 fleas. Every time I'd unwrap him to turn him over, I'd find fleas in the towel.

By the time I put him in the cat carrier with his siblings, I felt thoroughly itchy and crawly, although I'm sure it was all in my imagination. Even after I went home and changed clothes, I still thought I could feel fleas on me. Yucko.

So that's my big weekend. What did you do?

Average Jane Does Some Baking

In the last three days, I've made Pumpkin Cake Roll twice. Apparently I was so eager to have it this year that I promised it for multiple social occasions. I'm just glad that Spyder reminded me I'd offered to make one for tonight's blogger meetup. Otherwise, I might have forgotten.

I've come to the conclusion that I am incapable of rolling one up without having the cake crack into large sections. Fortunately the filling sticks it together, but it would certainly look nicer if that didn't happen. I wonder if it's my Airbake pan that's causing that to happen? I suppose I could eventually get a regular jelly roll pan and see if that helps.

Here's a little baking tangent that's only relevant because it concerns something I happen to like. Via a comment by Monkey on Rancid Raves, I've learned way more than I wanted to know about Cool Whip. Ew. I guess it's time I switched to whipped cream like a grownup. It'll be the kind in the can, though, because that's so much more fun.

If you find any typos in today's post, it's because Xena decided that she needed to drape herself across my arm the entire time I was composing it. She's gone on to add "nipping the inside of my elbow" and "hooking a claw in my forearm" to her list of intrusions as I finish this up, so I'll just say "Happy Friday" and sign off.

Average Jane is Amused

By cats...

And also by zombies...

Average Jane Loves Craigslist

As part of my effort to continue eating between one payday and the next, I've been listing some of my excess stuff for sale on Craigslist. Man, what a great site! Listings are free, including photo hosting, and it's mainly targeted to people in your own city who are likely to e-mail and then swing by and pay you cash if they decide they want what you're selling.

Over the weekend I sold a pair of PA speakers that I'd owned for 19 years but was no longer using, and I have a buyer lined up for a bunch of DVD sets. I also have an ad up for a chorus/reverb effects unit, but I haven't had any nibbles on it yet. It's starting to make me look around and ponder what else I might be able to turn into some cash.

I found this article very interesting: Living Paycheck to Paycheck Gets Harder. It seems that prices have risen drastically in recent months and even many middle income people (hello!) are struggling to buy groceries between paychecks. I'm almost relieved to discover that it's not just me, but it seems very alarming that things have reached such a state.

I know I sound like a broken record on this topic lately, but I'm just not accustomed to standing in the grocery store and deciding to get an unfamiliar brand of something I want to serve for dinner because it's $.50 cheaper than the brand I usually get.

Thing are not going well in this country right now and it won't be long before these economic problems reach so many people that they can't be ignored. I just wish I knew what could be done about it.

Handy Average Jane

Over the weekend, one of my major triumphs was replacing four bad light switches in our house. The ones by the back kitchen door had been going out for some time now. The one that controlled the light in the hallway leading up to the studio was wiggly and made a sparking sound. The one that controlled the ceiling fan/light in the kitchen sometimes had to be poked and prodded before it would do anything.

We also had two dimmer switches, which were incompatible with my plan to switch completely over to CFLs.

I'd been meaning to address the light switch problems for at least a year, but hadn't gotten around to it. Finally, I took a trip to Home Depot, where I discovered that a light switch costs 54 cents. That's right: I fixed all the nagging electrical problems in my house for $2.08.

I wasn't inclined to play breaker BINGO, so I just shut off all the power to the house. We had a new breaker box put in this year and I doubt I'll ever get around to figuring out which breaker switch goes to which part of the house.

The kitchen switches were really ancient and I'm not completely satisfied that there isn't still the potential for a short. There was no sign of a ground wire anywhere. Thanks, previous owners! Naturally, both switches were completely different, so I had to think long and hard about how to wire them to the new switches. Fortunately, I got them both right on the first try.

The rheostats were much easier to replace because someone had already spliced new wiring (circa 1978) to the old black and white wires. The modern wiring was flexible and easy to strip after I cut the old switches off. Switches 3 and 4 went in quickly, so I had the power off for less than an hour.

I always love adding a new skill to my repertoire. Next on the list: installing a new ceiling fan in the bedroom. That shouldn't be too hard, should it?

Lyrics and Melody by Average Jane

Finally, my original band has another song ready to share with the public. When you have a home recording studio, nothing is ever completely finished, but we decided to at least post it on GarageBand.com and make it available here in its current form.

This song is called Predator, and it was inspired by someone I met who seemed perfectly nice but set off some primal alarm bells. As the lyrics say, he'd "stand too close...stare too long." To this day, I have no reason to think that there's really anything threatening about him, but you've gotta take inspiration where you can get it.

Here are the lyrics, if you're interested:

Predator

You step closer and I move away
Not sure how to feel about you
You stand too close – you stare too long
In my gut I feel there's something wrong

Instinct tells me
I'm not safe with you
Fight or flight...

Predator, predator
Predator, predator
Predator, predator
Predator, predator

Something feral hides behind your smile
Cold eyes send shivers up my spine

Your words sound innocent
But they don't match what's on your face
What do you feel, do you feel at all?
And how fast can I get away?

Instinct tells me
I'm not safe with you
Fight or flight...

Predator, predator
Predator, predator
Predator, predator
Predator, predator

I make sure that we're not alone
Something not-quite-human you betray
My primal senses warning me
And I refuse to be your prey

Something feral hides behind your smile
Cold eyes send shivers up my spine
Catch the unwary in your web
Uncounted victims left behind

I say "get back" and you move away
You can tell that I’m onto you
You won't get me, I refuse to fall
Victim to the predator

(Copyright 2007, all rights reserved)

P.S. If you like the song and missed the previous one I posted, it's called Haunted. Feel free to download it, too - just in time for Halloween!

Guess Who Else Lives at Average Jane's House?

I was in my dressing room changing my clothes after yoga class this morning when I decided to walk over to the window to pet Velvet.

She seemed very interested in something outside, so I followed her gaze and noticed movement at the back of the yard next to the shed. It was two good-sized bobcats, rolling around playing together.

I tried to take a photo from inside, but my camera zoom wasn't good enough so I went outside. I couldn't get particularly close, but I managed to get some shots of both of them together. It's a little difficult to see the one next to the shed. Click any of the photos to enlarge them.

I kept inching closer, which eventually freaked out the one on the right enough that she retreated into the woods. The other one stood up, giving me a great look at his spots.

As you can see, they're not exactly small. I'm surprised that my neighborhood can support as much wildlife as it does. I've seen deer, foxes, coyotes, groundhogs, plenty of rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks, and now these bobcats. I guess the predator/prey ratio is about right, but it makes me glad I only have indoor cats.

Odds and Ends from Average Jane

I forgot to mention one of my latest green initiatives the other day. I'm using GreenDimes to try to scale back the ridiculous amount of junk mail I get. I haven't gotten my packet yet, but I'm really looking forward to seeing the mail brought down to a manageable level while at the same time causing 10 trees to be planted. The company gets extra points from me for having a navigation category on their website called "WTF."

On a tangentially-related topic, my red state has just gotten a little purpler. As I was going through the mail the other day, I spotted a voter ID card. At first I thought it was mine, but I looked closer and discovered that my husband had finally registered to vote for the first time ever. He even registered as a Democrat, which surprised me a bit because he's quite a bit more conservative than I am. I'm so proud.

Thanks to a video featuring one of my friends, I learned about Cabaraoke! this week. It seems that when you take certain cabs home from the bars in Kansas City, you can opt to be videotaped singing along with a song as you ride to your destination.  I can't help but think there must be some fairly significant consent issues there considering that most of the participants are obviously drunk, but the videos are still pretty funny.

Okay, I have to get in early today, so I'll wrap things up. Feel free to say "hi" - I miss de-lurking day already.