Cooking without GPS

The other night, as I splashed balsamic vinegar into a bowl for caprese salad, I realized, I can't share this recipe with anyone, because I'm not following a recipe. As a matter of fact, even when I do use a recipe, odds are, I don't follow it strictly, unless it's a baked item where very specific measurements can make or break the finished product. So I have decided to call my method of cooking “cooking without GPS.”

For example, a pot of pasta sounds straight forward, right? Wrong. If I use canned sauce instead of make it from scratch, I'll add a dash of this and a pinch of that to make it taste better. Often, when I'm cooking, I'll add stuff that may not necessarily be in whatever recipe I'm loosely following just because it smells good.

Last winter I made chili from scratch to take for the fellowship meal at church. After lunch someone asked me what my recipe was. It's not very helpful to tell someone, “Well, there's not exactly a recipe. I just threw stuff into the pot until it smelled & tasted good.” 

Just tonight, while eating supper, I had an idea. We had huevos rancheros, and I thought, "Hey, I bet putting chicken breast in the same sauce I used for huevos rancheros would be REALLY tasty!" So sometime soon I'm going to have to try that idea, maybe with a little sour cream.... And now I'm going to go to bed hungry after typing this out!

Still Not a Ginger!

Recently it was announced that Peter Capaldi would be taking the reigns as the 12th incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who. This announcement, of course, caused quite the brouhaha.

There were the “Oh, that's awesome, he's a talented actor, he'll do a great job” camp, the uber-annoying “OMG HE'S OLD AND UGLY, I WANT DAVID TENNANT BACK” camp, the “But he's been in Who before. Why could't they pick a new face?” camp & the “We wanted a woman Doctor” camp. Each camp, since this is the internet after all, trying to prove their point was the most valid and that the other camps were dead wrong.

I, for one, am disappointed by only one thing. One great, glaring thing. Peter Capaldi, though he is a talented actor who will undoubtedly put a wonderful spin on the iconic Doctor, is NOT a ginger. At the rate it's going, the poor Doctor will never get to be a ginger. And that's my only problem with the casting of the 12th Doctor.

My Longstanding Feud

I have a nemesis. An unrelenting foe that dogs my steps and makes my life miserable.

I have a longstanding feud...with gravity. Unfortunately, I am almost always on the losing end. I even have the scars to prove it.

There's the scar on my nose & hairline from losing a battle when I was around 6 or so. Numerous ones on my knees. A particularly spectacular one on my right forearm when I was in my early teens.

Gravity has a nasty habit of sneaking up on me when I least expect it. I can be walking along a nice, perfectly flat surface, and BOOM, trip. So either gravity is jumping up and tripping me, or I'm stumbling over the Silence.

Somehow, I doubt I'm going to get any points on the scoreboard in the battle against gravity anytime soon.

Word of the Day - Part 2

Onomatopoeia

on·o·mato·poe·ia  [noun]

The naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (e.g. buzz, hiss, meow)

The Great American Double Standard

Today is a bit of a ranting-post type of day. 

Today is my daughter's 4 month birthday. It is also, apparently the 2^nd annual Public Display of Breastfeeding (PDB) Day! According to The Bump the goal is “To empower moms and show the world that if a mom chooses to breastfeed, it’s her right to feed her baby whenever and wherever she needs to. The more people who see moms nursing in public, the less of a big deal it’ll be.”


The fact that there is a need for such an event drives home to me the great double standard in America. People don't single out and berate women in clothing that their boobs practically pop out of, but heaven forbid if a woman sits discreetly in a corner of a department store to feed her hungry, cranky infant.

It's a double standard that in public places things like this don't raise an eyebrow. 

But this creates a firestorm of outrage from supporters & detractors of breastfeeding. 

Even supporters of breastfeeding are divided into the “cover” and “not to cover” camps on what is “appropriate” when breastfeeding in public. It's all ridiculous. There should be absolutely no controversy at all about a woman choosing to feed her child the way nature intended in whatever fashion works best for her and her child.






I choose to cover in public because A) my daughter is like me, and is easily distracted by new & shiny things and the cover minimizes distractions & B) I'm not personally comfortable with whipping out the girls in front of everyone and their brother every time my baby is hungry so the cover helps me maintain a personal sense of modesty. Other mothers choose not to cover because their babies will not tolerate a cover.

I think the world would be a much better place if overly photoshopped & enhanced advertising like this caused outrage.

It would be a much better world if nobody batted an eyelash and continued on their day if they happened to see this.

If a mother is being a good mother, no matter how she chooses to feed her child, the public should butt out and leave her to be a good mother!

Why I Love Being a Geek/Nerd

I am a geek. And a nerd. If you go a Google search for information on what makes a person a geek, or a nerd, undoubtedly you will come across posts, articles, infographics, & funny pictures detailing the differences between geeks and nerds and the different types of geeks and nerds that there are out there. And, of course, the differences between geeks and nerds. Here are some examples.



It takes a bit more digging to uncover that it's not that cut & dried. Just as there are different types of geek/nerd, there can be different combinations of different types. Because life would be boring if you could only be a computer geek, or a sci-fi geek!

I am a mixture design geek, sci-fi geek, book geek, etc. I love to read. Real, physical books. I love watching sci-fi & fantasy TV shows & movies. I love certain, select anime. I love graphic design & photography, and can make a bit of a game of identifying fonts in advertising. And I'm full of useless tidbits of information. (e.g. Dr. Seuss invented the word nerd.)

Before I embraced my geekiness/nerdiness, I spent far too much time worrying about what other people thought of me. But doing some growing up made me realize, who cares what other people think? I am probably a little fatter, weirder, and obsessive than what society considers normal & attractive, and I DON'T CARE! I am happy in my little world surrounded by friends & family that love me, quirks and all.

Simon Pegg puts into words perfectly why it's great to be a geek.

Geeky Baby Names

My daughter has the kind of name that geeks & non-geeks can embrace. Geeks love the connection to the sadly short lived brainchild of Joss Whedon. Non-geeks see it as a pretty, if slightly unusual name. I love it for both reasons.

When we first found out that I was pregnant, picking a girl's first name was a no-brainer. The hubby & I both loved the name Serenity. We didn't completely settle on a middle name until after she was born, though. We went with a family name for her middle name. It didn't cross my mind for a while that her middle name is also a bit geeky due to a character in an anime having the same name.

Because I'm a geek and a mom, I like looking at lists of geeky baby names. I've compiled a list of my own personal favorites (and of course mention where they come from.)

Boys Names
Rory (Dr. Who) - Rory Williams, the unexpected BAMF from the Who-verse who just couldn't stop dying.

Logan (X-Men) - The Wolverine. 'Nuff said.

Malcom (Firefly) - Captain Tightpants, FTW!

Thorin (the Hobbit) - Not the nicest dwarf, but he has the most usable name in the real world.

Ian - Naming your kid after Sir Ian McKellen comes with double geek cred, since he's Gandalf & Magneto.

Girls Names
Amelia (Dr. Who) - Spunky, fiery, red-headed companion to the 11th doctor. Comes with the bonus of not being overtly geeky.

River (Dr. Who & Firefly) - River is the double geek cred name I like for girls. River Song in Dr. Who and River Tam in Firefly are both strong, if slightly mental, women.

Éowyn (LOTR) - She killed the Witch King of Angmar. If that isn't a strong female namesake, I don't know what is.

Linnea (After botanist Carl Linnaeus) - This is one of the geekiest, without sounding geeky, names that I like. It doesn't get much geekier than naming your daughter after a flower that's named after a botanist.