I got off my ass and actually made dinner tonight, and to reward AJS for taking care of the huge amount of post-expiration date dairy products in the refrigerator I made pizza entirely from scratch :)

There was roasted asparagus,




home made sauce



pizza dough which had an extra teaspoon of salt, tj's roasted corn, onion and low fat mozzarella cheese.

Before oven time,



after :)

There's a chicken in our refrigerator, waiting quietly to fulfill its delicious roasted destiny. This is significant for several reasons. One being a desire on my part to make and eat delicious healthy meals, (but I've promised myself to not whine about my weight-loss struggles on this blog, so enough about that) and the other being that my husband is kinda eating meat now. He got tired of leaving himself out of special meals and not ordering what he wants in restaurants (I'm sure it was easier being a vegetarian as a single guy living off your microwave and whole foods burritos). We also read this book:



Among other points, it talks about how consuming meat in moderation(as a garnish) and staying away from processed foods is better for you and the planet. Nothing too shocking there, but a reminder accompanied by recipes from a real chef certainly help me follow through on good advice.

What I'd forgotten about getting a new computer is how psycologically freeing it is to start a new hard drive from scratch. All of the word files from my old laptop are safely backed up on an external hard drive and I pick and choose the ones I want. I'm not faced with deleting anything, nor am I cluttered by the endless word files from my website, lesson plans, etc. Kind of like moving in to a new house.

My task at hand now, while I am home and AJS is working hard at his temple, is to re-do my practicing talk for an upcoming guitar festival where I am not only participating as a teacher, but have a student competing. I won't say I won't be nervous, but I have faith in his abilities and look forward to hearing him play.

Today is fat Tuesday, which was celebrated in our house by going to Taco Tuesday. This is not an infrequent occurrence at 3830, but one that we partake in regularly enough for the overly friendly waiter to recognize us and awkwardly inquire how we're doing. Tonight we were pleasantly surprised to meet up with some friends, one of which is our neighbor, and among other topics, talked about the idea of lent.

As one who is pretty much an atheist, I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that you get closer to the sufferings of the historical Jesus by giving up some of the trappings of our modern society, but I do like the personal challenge of doing without something for a period of time. I also think its more beneficial to give back to society in the form of money or time rather than giving up chocolate or facebook. I think that for "lent" I will:

- do a creative access gig
- donate money to a charity
and track all my food until the 6th annual Great Friday party. I'm taking that day off.

There are a zillion things I should do but right now, but I am blogging. I'm also easting too much garlic-broccoli pasta. And drinking wine. And watching Grey's Anatomy. All of these are fun things and perhaps regrettable tomorrow, but at this moment, are what I can focus on.

I've gotten some fancy material possessions in the last week. Sometimes I get a little nervous about my conspicuous consumption, but if its tax deductible its ok, right?

Here's the first exciting item:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNWXrpZbpII

If I were cooler, I could embed it, but I'm not. I haven't yet stood on top of my now un-godly expensive guitar. I also haven't thrown it off a roof or out the back of a moving car. Or driven the car on top of it. But if I have to do any of these things, it will be ok.

I've also just obtained a very fancy new computer. And just obtained means a few hours ago. My trusty previously-blogged-about macbook pro died three weeks ago and I've been sitting on pins and needles waiting for the new refresh to get a new one. And it is here :)




Running a "business" means I am on my computer ALL the time. I design posters. I update my website. I email parents CONSTANTLY. And I need to edit video and audio. So while I could get by without a 17" quad core 750GB hard drive macbook pro...its easier and cleaner to have the right tools.

I heart Weiner!

The snow situation is historic, and frankly scary. I keep wanting to post things on facebook about my fears about losing power, the deck/front porch roof collapsing, carbon monoxide poisoning, or eating the dog but I stop myself to not add to hysteria. That last concern is a joke. Or at least at this point it is. We will have almost FOUR FEET of accumulation when all is said and done. Its been my expereince that Baltimore can't even handle 8 inches well, so this amount is going to be ridiculous. Evergreen ave. had to dig the street by hand because there was no slow plow came by. See you all in May.
(I don't know exactly who took this photo, but I found it on "Charm City Mom" blog)