Average Jane

Blog

  • Average Jane Is Immune To Neighborhood Peer Pressure

    Ditto

    I don't put up Christmas lights on the house anymore. Don't get me wrong, I love the way they look. I just don't want to put in the work, accept the risk of bodily harm while climbing a ladder, or spend the money on lights and electricity.

    Every year, the neighbors' houses light up one by one while mine sits there in the dark with only a yellow-tinted CFL on the porch for illumination. Sometimes I have a momentary impulse to go into the garage and pull out my collection of lights, but it passes quickly when I remember how many of them were already dead the last time I took them down.

    If I could afford to have someone else deal with them, I might change my Scrooge-like attitude. For now, I'll have to just let it go until the economy recovers or the lottery fairy stops by (which is incredibly unlikely considering that I never buy lottery tickets).

    On the other hand, I'm considering putting up our tree this year. I haven't done it for several years and I am absolutely positive that Dr. Jones will lay waste to it with a quickness, but I'm in the mood to see twinkling lights somewhere. I think I'll forego breakable ornaments and hope for the best. If he hasn't knocked over the tree or destroyed any ornaments or garlands in the first week, I'll think about adding more decorations.

    I am in a festive mood this year, but I'm also kind of lazy. It's a balance.

    Photo source: Teri Land via Facebook

  • Average Jane Compares and Contrasts

    Two young singers. Similar relationship scenarios. Vastly different emotional reactions.

    Alanis
    (Click through to video – embedding disabled.)

  • Average Jane Dines Alone

    Yeah, I made tuna noodle casserole for dinner. What of it?

    My husband had band practice tonight so I went to the grocery store after work to buy the rest of my Thanksgiving dinner ingredients and get something dinner-worthy for tonight and tomorrow night. I figured that as long as I was already buying mushroom soup and French fried onions, I might as well make tuna casserole.

    And it was delicious, which it always is if you don't make it too often. 

    So just for the heck of it, here's the recipe I use. I'm pretty sure everyone who makes tuna casserole uses this exact same recipe, but who knows? There could be variations I've never even considered.*

    Average Jane's Tuna Casserole

    1/2 pound shell noodles
    1 can tuna packed in water (drained)
    1 can Campbell's cream of mushroom soup
    3/4 cup frozen peas
    A little milk, if needed
    Ground black pepper to taste
    French fried onions for garnish

    Cook noodles according to package directions and drain. Mix with tuna, mushroom soup, peas and enough milk to make it smooth. Sprinkle French fried onions on top and bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes or until heated through and bubbling.

    *As it turns out, no one on Flickr makes a variation with shell noodles. I couldn't find a single photo that looked like mine and I already ate enough of what I made that I can't take a good picture now. And that's why there's no photo in this post.

  • Average Jane Plans A Feast

    Jebediah's gotten into the Miller Lite againOn today's agenda is a big grocery shopping trip to get all of the ingredients I need to make Thanksgiving dinner. I've already gone through the sales circulars and figured out which stores have the best deals. Better still, my company gave each partner a $25 gift card to the store where I'll be buying the turkey and most of the produce, so that will definitely help.

    I'm planning on making most of the classics from my Thanksgiving recipe booklet: roast turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and fresh cranberry sauce. By popular demand, I'll also be purchasing a small can of cranberry sauce for those who choose nostalgia over flavor.

    My aunt is bringing a corn casserole and a pumpkin pie. I'll be making a pumpkin cake roll. Rather than make dinner rolls from scratch, I think I'm going to buy some Hawaiian rolls instead. They taste almost exactly the same and it'll save me three hours of prep time. Also, bread is not exactly a big focus when you have a meal like this.

    As an appetizer for any early birds, I'm baking a small wheel of brie with brown sugar and pecans on top and serving it with water crackers. If I'm feeling really ambitious, I might make Pomegranate Salsa.

    I don't know exactly how many attendees I'll have at this point, but I'm still keeping the invitation open for anyone in the area who'd like to join us. There will be plenty of food no matter how many guests we have.

    When I see all of the angst-ridden articles about people's fears of preparing Thanksgiving dinner, it always puzzles me a bit. It's really a pretty straightforward meal, albeit one with lots of components. As long as your oven and stove burners are all operational, you should be fine.

    My biggest problem is finding somewhere for everyone to sit. I assume we'll have a minimum of seven diners, so I'm hoping I can get by with the big, plastic utility table I generally use for folding laundry. I'll have to bring it up from the basement, clean off the cobwebs and cover it with some kind of tablecloth. Seating will be a mishmash of folding chairs and wooden chairs from a cheap old dining set that also resides in the basement these days.

    So that's my plan. What are you doing for Thanksgiving this year?

  • Average Jane Volunteers

    Samson - http://www.tarasdream.org/animals/detail?AnimalID=3977457Man, it's been a long day. I took two shifts at different Petco stores taking care of the adoptable cats.

    This morning I filled in at a large store that had fourteen cats and kittens. It took two full hours to clean the playroom, kennels and free roam area. The cats were all very sweet and I got to meet some that I hadn't seen before.

    Once I was finished, I had time to go to a friend's brunch and hang out for a couple of hours.

    After that, I went home and got online to continue the project I started last night: adding cats and kittens to Petfinder. It's a time-consuming process but very important because it helps them get found by people who are searching for specific cat attributes, and also makes it easier for people who see them in the stores to apply for them.

    My husband woke up late, but once he was up and around, I took him out to dinner.

    On the way home I went and did my usual Saturday evening Petco shift at a smaller store (five cats and kittens). The younger cats needed liquid medicine and it must have tasted awful because I think more of it ended up splattered on the floor and walls than down their gullets.

    Now I'm finally finished and ready to take it easy, watch some TV and have a glass of wine. I think I've earned it.

  • Average Jane, Elsewhere

    CatsI need to spend my blogging time adding homeless cats to Petfinder so they can be found and adopted. You wouldn't want to get in the way of that, would you?

    So instead, here are a couple of posts I've written at other blogs this week. I'll be back with stuff just for you starting tomorrow.

    TEDxCrossroads Hosted Weekly at Barkley — Of possible interest to you KC folks.

    My name is Celeste. Is that so hard? — You'll probably want to add your own story if you, too, have lived a lifetime of having your name mispronounced and misunderstood.

    Enjoy your Friday evening!

    Photo credit: Cathy Prather

  • Average Jane’s Fragmented Sleep

    IMG_1621The dog and I need to have a talk about schedules. I take him out before bed and the deal is that he's supposed to lie down next to me and sleep until I get up. Instead, he's been getting up in the middle of the night and if I don't leap up and take him outside, he sneaks away and pees somewhere in the house. Then I still have to wake up to clean.

    That's what happened last night. Once I was up at 3:45 a.m., I couldn't go back to sleep right away. I was hungry, so I made a couple of pieces of toast. While I ate them, I went through the grocery store sale circulars that had come in the mail and figured out where to get the best deals on my Thanksgiving shopping. I'll be going to two different stores (my third store wasn't even in the running), but I do that routinely anyway.

    I finally got back to sleep and had some truly ridiculous dreams. I can't remember many of the details anymore, but they were so absurd that I could barely suspend my disbelief while they were happening, much less once I woke up.

    The next two days are going to be extremely busy at work, so here's hoping I can snap out of my daze and focus on writing and organizing. I think the fact that I was still able to pull out a blog post before my morning shower is a good sign, don't you?

  • Average Jane’s Nearly Wordless Wednesday

    IMG_1629

    You only wish you could sleep as deeply as Dr. Jones does.

    P.S. There's still plenty of time to enter yesterday's Red Envelope giveaway, if you haven't done so.

  • Average Jane Is Ready for Holiday Entertaining

    Remember back in April when I was trying to figure out what kind of wine opener to get? That problem was neatly solved when I got an email from Red Envelope after I stopped by their booth at the BlogHer conference. They offered to send me a free product from their Christmas Gifts selection and I choose the Hootch Owl™ corkscrew.

    HootchowlIt arrived yesterday and it's a really nice, solid piece of barware. I selected it in part because I love a good pun as much as the next person, and it turns out to be based on a classic design from the 1930s—which makes sense considering that you don't hear the word "hooch" much these days. 

    This is the kind of device that you'd expect to provide a lifetime of use. I'm happy to have graduated from the cheap, breakable corkscrews to something that is likely to last into the 2030s and beyond.

    I opened a bottle of pinot grigio to test it out and it easily removed the synthetic cork. It's big and sturdy enough to stand on the counter and I like that both wings can be used to remove bottle caps.

    So here's where you come in. Red Envelope is providing a $50 merchandise credit to one lucky reader.

    To enter, please like them on Facebook and leave me a comment saying which of their home bar gifts or personalized pub glasses you would choose for yourself or as a gift for someone else this year. (If you win, you can order whatever you like, so don't overthink it.) Deadline for entries: Sunday, November 20, 2011 at midnight Central standard time. Make sure you provide your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win. Winner will be selected by random drawing.

    Good luck!

    ***GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*** A BIG THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED!

  • Average Jane Is Squicked Out

    Trillian failing to do her job as resident mouser, kitchen divisionYesterday I finally put various pieces of evidence together, investigated further and determined that a mouse has been hanging out in one of my kitchen drawers. Say it with me: Ewwwwww!

    I'd been noticing things in the drawer that looked, well, gnawed upon. The rubber jar opener, a wine stopper, one of my chip clips… At first I thought that Dr. Jones had somehow gotten a crack at them, but I dug around in the drawer and found mouse droppings. Again: Ewwwwww!

    So I took everything out of the drawer, cleaned, disinfected, etc. None of the other drawers in that row showed any evidence of having been visited, at least not yet.

    I don't really know what else to do about the problem other than fill my house with predators. No wait, I've already done that. You'd think that FOUR CATS AND A DOG would be enough to keep mice from coming in at all, much less taking their leisure in my kitchen drawers.

    I'm kind of tempted to just start leaving that drawer and the cupboard next it open all the time. Considering that our undisciplined cats think nothing of strolling across the counters at will, perhaps the next mouse visit could be the last.

    Trillian and the other cats need to step up their game, that's all I have to say.