Cinderella, Giselle, Snow White, Great-Grandma

When I was a little girl, I always thought that it would be the coolest thing to be able to call birds and have them land on my finger like the princesses in Disney. The farthest I ever really got with that was training chipmunks to climb on top of my head to eat peanuts. I should be grateful for what I've had, but really, I still want birds to come and land on my finger. I'll admit it.

Yesterday, my mom sent me this picture of my great grandma. Apparently she could sing to birds and have them come land on her finger. So apparently it's not only in cartoons and it's not only princesses. At point point, she tamed a whole family of fly catchers in her backyard, and she'd go out with a container of milk, call the little birdies over, and they'd drink from her container.


Don't think that the fly swatter in this picture is menacing. She was just being clever: Fly catchers in both hands.

You can see from this picture also that she's not young. So apparently I have my whole life to work on this goal. You'd better believe this is making it to my list of things to do before I die.

Call Gordon Jump!

I am really afraid that my oven is broken.

(I'm not speaking metaphorically about my womb, either, and those anonymous people who like to suggest that I'm pregnant in the comments section should know that seriously, I'm not pregnant. My lotion really does smell musty, okay, and it smelled musty before I ever met Murray.)

(Speaking of pregnancy rumors, back when I posted about my first design that has been mass printed, I showed the proof to someone at work who then shouted out, "Cicada had her first baby!!" And I think that just about every person's head popped out of their office or cubicle. Seriously. Not pregnant.)

Today I am at home sick, and because I'm not one who prepares for illness, I don't have a stock of comfort food in my home. So I decided to make muffins, which is strange, because I never, ever make muffins. But I was just craving muffins. (Please refrain from comment about pregnancy cravings.) So I decided to make gingerbread muffins, because does anything sound better?

The problem was that when I set the oven to 375, it clicked a few times, and then all the numbers rapidly rose to 375. I could guarantee you that the oven doesn't get that hot that fast. This happened recently before, and I was able to fix it by setting it to 350, waiting for it to get to 350, and then resetting the temperature to what I really wanted. So I tried that this time. It didn't work. I tried about five different times and finally it worked the last time I tried it.

What does one even do when one's oven is broken? I mean, first of all, I think that Gordon Jump is actually dead. So that doesn't help me at all. Second of all, does the Maytag repairman cost as much as a plumber, because in that case, I'm willing to rip apart the wiring myself and fix it myself.

Anniversary Date

I always thought it was cool that Murray and I married exactly six months to the day that we first met: May 3rd and November 3rd.

Today, Murray and I decided to buy tickets to The Swell Season, coming to The Depot on May 2nd. We both enjoyed the movie, Once, and then we were thrilled to see the humble couple get up at the Oscars and give the sweetest acceptance speeches ever. (Thanks for bringing Markéta Irglová back on stage to give her speech after she was cut off!). I'm so glad that their song won Best Original Song because I seriously haven't gotten sick of listening to the Once soundtrack yet. I'm so excited to see them at The Depot because it's such a small, intimate venue.


So I told Murray that it was great that we were going to see this concert on May 2nd, also because it's a day before May 3rd, the day we met, and it's only fitting that we celebrate by doing something bigger than our average fare.

And then I went to program it into my iPhone calendar, to be puzzled---really, really puzzled. May 2nd is a Friday this year. May 3rd is on a Saturday. Murray and I met on a Wednesday (I purposely scheduled our first date for a weekday because then if it goes well, you don't have to wait a whole week to get together again). But even with a leap year, there's no possible way that May 3rd could be on a Wednesday one year and on a Saturday the next.

Sure enough I looked it up, and we met IRL (please note my self-deprecating tone in using that term) on May 2nd.

The good news: We're going out on a big date this year to celebrate the anniversary of when we first met.

The bad news: We didn't get married six months to the day we met. I feel like my whole world view is caving in on me.

Weren't the men supposed to be the ones who are bad with anniversaries?

Anybody have a breath mint?

Everything smells like onions. Well, specifically, my wedding ring smells like onions right now, so I'm going to go wash it very soon.

My brother Richie is in town, which means that we get to eat good food. Four out of five of the kids in my family are cooks, and though we're all good, I'd venture to say that Richie is the best. El Senor is a close second, though. So Richie decided on a menu for last night's meal.

Roast Moroccan pork loin
Sweet and spicy pork loin
Caramelized-onion Gorgonzola mashed potatoes (my suggestion)
Green beans (with pine nuts and onions)
Sautéed mushrooms (with onions)
Corn (with nothing)

We realized after cutting and cooking the 17th onion that every single dish we were serving, except the corn, had onions in it. Good thing we all like onions!

Dinner was a success, but that's not surprising. Everyone is a fan of Richie's tender loin.

What's this?

So I wanted to direct your attention to some of the recent efforts of some close friends of ours.

[wink, wink, nudge, nudge]

ETSY

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