Wordful Wednesday

This was my last pack of cigarettes.

I've decided to quit smoking. I've done it before and I think this time it's going to stick. I started smoking around 4 years ago and I quit after getting sick last February. I was laid up in bed with a horrible virus and by the time I stopped puking, it had been 3 days since I had a cigarette, so I figured I quit. It was not hard for me to get over the initial quitting, but it was hard for me to stay quit. My husband smoked around me all the time and eventually, I caved. First it was one or two a week, then day, then I was back. I didn't start up again until July, so it's only been 8 months. Hopefully that helps. What I think is going to help the most is that this time, my husband is quitting. He decided to quit on his own, which is a positive thing because I know you can't quit til you're ready. We need the money. It costs between $400-$500 a month for a couple to smoke. That's fucking stupid.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVED smoking. I truly enjoyed it. I just like money more. So, it's been 9 hours and thirty two minutes since my last cigarette, and I feel fine. Mr. Fight and I decided we are going to treat ourselves with gifts equal to the amount of money we would have spent on cigarettes to keep us motivated at first. I'd say, "Wish me luck", but luck has nothing to do with it. I'm a tough cookie and I refuse to let something like cigarettes be the boss of me. I know I'm stronger than that.

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Wordful Wednesday

As a person with limited financial resources, it can be a challenge to come up with fun things to do on the weekends, etc. One weekend activity that Mr. Fight and I like best is go to yard sales and antique stores. We can look around for a while, see all the cool or weird stuff and find something small and inexpensive to bring home. We collect salt and pepper shakers, cigarette snuffers, thimbles, Wade figurines from Red Rose tea packages and any other chachka we can put on a shelf for the cats to break. Oh yeah, we like to look for shelves too!

We went to a garage sale recently, which was fun because it was actually in the person's garage, not out in the driveway.

I found quite a treasure!

It's such a cute recipe box! I am in no way Pennsylvania Dutch, but I live in "Dutch Country" and I love the PA Dutch Hex Signs with their folksy decorations. I have a couple of hex signs in my kitchen and this box obviously has that same appeal.

But wait there's more! The box was full of family recipes, along with funny old ones torn out of magazines or off very dated looking packages:

Now I can make you anything you want if you give me a box of cornflakes.

I can say with confidence that this box is from the late 1960's or early 1970's, since I found this torn out sheet from a calendar inside the box:

And you guessed it, there was a recipe written on the back! It sounds like it would not be my favorite snack, but I like keeping old recipes alive, so here it is. It's called "Rocks", sounds delicious, right? If you like dates, I guess it could be good.

"Rocks"

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar (brown or white)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in water
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup black walnuts (chopped)
1 pound dates (cut up)

That's where the recipe ends, so I would assume that you just mush all that stuff together and eat it. I don't know what to tell you about those 3 raw eggs. Bon Appétit!

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Wordful Wednesday

The Associated Press is hassling Shepard Fairey over his use of an AP image. In the article he admits he used the image, but argues it falls under fair use.

AP image on left, Shepard Fairey poster on right (duh).

Here's the article.

The image was changed significantly and the use of the image didn't really affect the original. Of course I'm not a copyright attorney, so what the hell do I know? I do know that it would seem horrible for Shepard Fairey to have to pay the AP "compensation" when he didn't keep any of the money from the poster sales and he charges far less for his work than he could. When Fairey was interviewed on Fresh Air , I believe he said it all went to the campaign and OBEY.

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Wordful Wednesday

It's a winter wonderland!

Here's the snowy view from my front door (which is technically more of a back door since the road is on the other side of the house). The tiki torch looks somewhat out of place in the snow! You can see in the picture that I have a soccer field in my backyard (front yard?) which is nice because I've only seen a handful of soccer games in the entire time I've lived here and the rest of the time it's like I have a ginormous yard.

So because of the snow, I'm taking the day off work. My car is terrible in the snow and I get a bit white knuckled driving in poor weather conditions. I'll have to go in Friday, which sucks because I work Sunday-Thursday typically but I have so much stuff to get done at work since a big portion of my "desk time" has taken a backseat to getting everything ready for the upcoming Monet show. I have been helping install the corresponding children's area and it can be a real time suck. The good thing is that installing an interactive children's area is more fun than paperwork and reports for grants. The bad thing is that all that paperwork is still waiting for me.

I see that the Kraemer Yarn store has a knitting class at 1pm today which I may try to go to...though if I can make it to the store, I could have made it to work, right? I want to learn some of the other stitch patterns besides garter and stockinette because, 1. they're cool and 2. garter stitch is somewhat boring to do (yet perfectly nice and functional) and stockinette just isn't really suited for flat things. (Hello, curly tube!) I really like the ladies there and the "class" is more of a Stitch 'n Bitch that has someone there to fix all your mistakes and help you get through a tricky pattern. Of course the ladies there will teach whatever you want to know, but it isn't a structured class where you all make one thing. It's more like bring whatever you're working on and shoot the breeze. I can tell already that most of the ladies there are expert knitters who are really just socializing. Which is cool, because there are tons of people who can help you if the leader of the class is busy with another knitter.

The seed stitch is calling my name, so I may have to brave the elements.

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