Average Jane

Average Jane Anticipates

I woke up this morning fairly convinced that today was Saturday. I had my Saturday schedule sorting itself out in my head: go to yoga class, go shopping with me, volunteer with local bloggers, go to a jam. It wasn't until I was completely conscious that I realized I'd been trying to skip a day.

I suppose I'm ready for it to just be December already. My December schedule is loaded with social events, volunteer work, a concert, our anniversary, a shopping date with my niece, and much more. Somewhere in there I'll need to decorate my house, buy gifts, bake stuff, etc.

I made a purchase last weekend designed to ensure that I'll be able to handle the coming bad weather a teeny bit better: a new garage door opener remote. I'm pretty sure it's the fifth one I've had since we moved in 12 years ago. Our garage door openers are old-school '70s models with no safety features whatsoever (i.e., if you're underneath the door while it's closing, prepare to be crushed).

The remotes are big, squareish, and easily broken when dropped (notice I didn't say "if dropped.") My latest one had gotten to the point where I had to play "which side of the button works this week?" I realized that if I were zooming out of the garage backwards on a snowy driveway, simultaneously trying to close the door with the broken remote, it was going to be a problem.

So, I treated myself to a new remote and my plan is to find a rubbery iPod or similar case to put around it to protect it when I inevitably drop it. Considering that I've probably spent more than $100 on remotes over the years, I think that seems like a reasonable thing to do, don't you?

Last but not least, it's the final day of NaBloPoMo! I made it! [cue the theme from "Rocky"] I hope I win a prize this year, but even if I don't, it was still fun and much easier than last year thanks to the posting schedule I developed and loosely followed.

A big thanks to all the new readers who found me on the NaBloPoMo site. Stick around! Comment! I'll add your blog to my Bloglines feeds with the other 539+.

Average Jane Moisturizes

(Read to the end of the post about today's GIVEAWAY! In the meantime...)

I don't know about you, but my skin gets so dry at this time of year that I look almost mummified. Fortunately, I've received some lovely samples of skincare products from different companies lately. I've had enough of a chance to use them that I'm ready to give you the rundown.

• Skin MD Natural - I took this company up on their offer of a sample bottle, hoping it would do something about my horrible, cracked fingers and the crepe-y skin on the backs of my hands. I've been using it for about a week and it really seems to be helping. My hands are still somewhat dry, but they feel softer, the cracks have healed, and the rawness has disappeared. I'm giving it a (no longer cracked) thumbs up. Best of all, it's not greasy, so I can put it on right before yoga class and not have to worry about my hands sliding off my mat. (If you're a blogger and you'd like to receive a sample bottle, e-mail me and I'll give you their contact information.)
• Skin Free - I'm trying out four of this company's products: the After Shower Moisture Spritz, Niaouli Butter Stick, Extra Moisturizing Soap & Shampoo Bar, and Super Moisture Body Balm. The Body Balm sample I received was kind of gritty and separated, so I can't really weigh in there. However, I've been using the Niaouli Butter Stick on my horribly dry feet and it seems to be doing a great job on my cracked heels. The After Shower Moisture Spritz is very convenient and I'm looking forward to trying it in conjunction with the soap bar. I like that all of their stuff is made from natural ingredients. The name is a little creepy (overtones of Body Worlds), but I suppose that's neither here nor there.
• Then there's Pacific Shaving Oil, which I read about on Mocha Momma's blog. It is teh awesome, just as she said. I bet it'll be even better once I change razor blades (heh). Hint for bloggers: if you express an interest in the shaving oil in the comments, I wouldn't be surprised if Holly hooks you up with some.

My big box o' samples also included a razor made of recycled plastic from Recycline, some Sweet Spot products, and various Nail Aid nail treatments.

Here's where the GIVEAWAY comes in! I have three different bottles of Nail Aid products that I'll never use because I keep my fingernails cut tomboy-short. I'll list them here and the first person to request each one gets it (one per commenter, please). Simple as that. Just make sure you include an e-mail address with your comment so I can write to you to get your mailing address.

• Grow Tougher - growth + hardener + ridge filler
• Clear Liquid Bandage - broken nail repair
• Brush On Wrap - thickener + hardener

Have a great Thursday. One more NaBloPoMo day to go!

Tag! Average Jane is It

Monkey was kind enough to tag me for my final NaBloPoMo Wednesday meme. Without further ado (and in no particular order per category):

8 passions in my life:
music
animals
the Internet
cooking
yoga
reading
history
and, of course, my hubby

8 things to do before I die:
Travel to see famous ancient sites throughout the world
Fix up every room of my house the way I want it
Write a novel or collection of essays
Cook every recipe in my grandmother's collection
Perform at a large concert venue
Take a drivers' ed class at a racetrack
Learn to play a musical instrument
Make a measurable positive difference in the world

8 things I often say:
That was a bold choice.
Holy schnikes!
Get down from there! (cat on the counter)
Ridonkulous
Is there anything good on TV tonight?
What's our schedule look like today?
I'm working on it right now.
I'm headed to the store. Do you need anything?

8 books I read recently:
"Sex, Murder and a Double Latte" by Kyra Davis
"Passion, Betrayal and Killer Highlights" by Kyra Davis (hey, it's a series)
"Hack" by Melissa Plaut
"Clublife" by Rob the Bouncer
"Water for Elephants" by Sarah Gruen
"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" by David Foster Wallace
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
"Damsel Under Stress" by Shanna Swendson

8 songs that mean something to me:
I've wracked my brain on this one and I can't come up with anything. Of course there are lots of songs I like, but none that have any particular significance in my life. My husband and I don't have an "our song" and I didn't get to choose any music for my wedding. Aside from a few songs that stick in my head because they were played at funerals, I just don't have anything to put here.

8 qualities I look for in a friend:
humor
smarts
flexibility
easy-goingness
interestingness
common interests
fun-ness
supportiveness

8 people I’m passing this on to:
Pharmgirl
Huts
Kennon
Keith
Colleen
Joolie
Megan
Suebob

Tag! You're it!

NaBloPoMo Fatigue Sets In for Average Jane

Four days left to go and NOW I run out of stuff to say. Today's supposed to be another childhood reminiscence, but I can't find the photo I wanted to scan, so meh.

Yesterday was one of those days that started off bad and actually got better.

We'd figured that this week's trash pickup wouldn't be until Tuesday because of Thanksgiving, so we didn't put out our trash on Sunday night. Naturally, the trash truck came by at the usual time Monday morning and we were left surrounded by a week's worth of overflowing garbage pails. Sigh.

When I got to work, I put in two hours of work on a time-consuming project. I was working on an XML file that was out on our network, saving as I went along. At some point, the program locked up. When I shut it down and opened it again, every bit of work I'd done all morning was gone. Not one of my saves had gotten through. I checked the temp files, but there was nothing there, so I had to start over from scratch.

After I got back from lunchtime yoga class, I settled in and worked so steadily that the end of the workday arrived before I knew it. I love it when that happens.

The evening was a lovely combination of chili dogs, "Heroes" on TV, and a bit of shopping at Pointy's Outpost. I know, not very exciting, but that's life sometimes.

Back tomorrow with my last NaBloPoMo Wednesday meme.

Average Jane Gets Cooking

It feels as though I did almost nothing but cook from Thursday through Sunday. We had bacon and eggs so many times that there's a lingering bacon smell permeating the entire downstairs. Except for Saturday when I spent the late morning and early afternoon volunteering at a pet adoption event, I cooked three meals every day.

For the first time since I competed in a co-worker's chili cookoff, I made chili. I took some of what I'd observed about my favorite entries in the competition and modified my own recipe very successfully. Here it is:

Average Jane's Chili

1 pound ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped fine
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 can each: red beans, black beans and pinto beans
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes and green chilis
1 cup frozen corn
1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Few shakes Tabasco sauce
Ground black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste

Begin browning ground beef and add onion, jalapeño, green pepper and garlic. Once beef is fully browned, add beans, corn, Ro-Tel tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste. Stir in brown sugar, spices and Worcestershire sauce; let simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes or more to let flavors meld together. Serve garnished with shredded cheese, sour cream and a pickled jalapeño slice.

Fall at Average Jane's House

Another LOLcaturday from Average Jane

Here's an old photo of our much-missed cat, Kato, preparing to lick the peppermints on the gingerbread house until they ooze red onto the pristine snowcap of the roof.

Speaking of cats who can't be trusted with Christmas decorations, my husband and I have realized that there's no way we can put up a Christmas tree anywhere near our year-old cat, Xena. She would systematically remove every ornament and piece of tinsel, breaking the breakables and snarling the tangleables. Then again, she might just climb the tree and knock the whole thing down at once.

Thus, the tree is going in the bay window of the recording studio this year. I'll content myself with some garlands in the living room out of Xena's reach (assuming there is such as thing as out of her reach).

I don't think I'll put up decorations this weekend, though. Perhaps next weekend.

One last LOL before I sign off. I don't know why I thought this LOLhamster was so funny, but it made me laugh and laugh when I saw it.

Have a great Saturday! Leave a comment! ;)

Average Jane's Day of Eating

For some reason, my husband and I were both up by 7:00 a.m. yesterday, so I made bacon, scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. We tried to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but lost interest due to the vast imbalance between anchor blah-blah-blah and actual views of the floats.

Because our Thanksgiving dinner was really at dinnertime, we had a much smaller feast at midday:

For the big dinner, I made cranberry sauce and pomegranate salsa. I made some modifications to the cranberry sauce recipe based on a recipe at Kitchen Craft. I liked the idea of having some spices in the sauce, so I added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves and 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger to my regular recipe. It was quite tasty! I'll have to add those ingredients as options on my recipe post.

Besides the well-received pomegranate salsa, the other appetizers were assorted olives, boiled peanuts, and fresh mozzarella marinated with sun-dried tomatoes, herbs and olive oil. The dinner consisted of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, mashed sweet potatoes, my cranberry sauce, green beans sauteed in butter with shallots and red pepper strips, ambrosia fruit salad, and French bread. We had pumpkin pie for dessert. I ate some of everything.

Today I'm planning on making turkey pot pie with some of the leftovers (keeping enough turkey aside for turkey sandwiches, of course). I don't know what to do with the leftover sweet potatoes. Any ideas?

Happy Thanksgiving from Average Jane

Enjoy other surreal Thanksgiving LOLs at LOLgrims.com.

Average Jane Starts a New Band

Did I mention that the classic rock band broke up? Well, it did. We played the one gig, then everyone but me lost interest. Or maybe they just said that to get rid of me. Who knows? The end result was the same either way: I took my gear and went home.

So I immediately set about forming a band of my own. My husband is playing drums, we got back a guitarist and bass player from a previous band, and we added a rhythm guitarist who does great background vocals.

Our plan is simple: we want to learn songs quickly, play out often, make as much money as possible, and keep practices to a minimum.

A few weeks ago, we'd chosen ten songs and e-mailed the list to everyone. Last night was our first practice and everyone did a splendid job learning the songs on their own. We each chose two more songs for the Tuesday after next and I'm hoping the next batch goes just as smoothly.

So far everyone seems to be pretty compatible personality-wise. The bass player is one of those people who makes a great show of grumpiness, so we had to explain to the rhythm guitarist that he wasn't in imminent danger of quitting the project. The guitarists sounded good together, the vocal harmonies were awesome, and my ears only rang a tiny bit after we finished up.

We're choosing songs from a huge list of popular tunes from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. Any suggestions for songs we should do? The only requirement is that they be rock songs (no country, rap, pure pop, etc.).