This and That

Four o'clock on a Sunday morning. I've been up since two because I went to bed at six because I did a double on Friday and didn't get to bed until 10 am Saturday morning and then up at 2 to get my hair cut. Needless to say my sleep schedule is really messed up. But that is not what I am blogging about.

I joined Judy's movie review blog now called the Judy and Gail show. (Kidding.) A new post is there.

I made the apple cake with caramel sauce from Women of Great Taste a couple of days ago. One of my favorite recipes from the book. It did not turn out as I remembered though. I think I put one too many apples in and made the cake overly moist. It was almost more of a bread pudding than a cake. But it was delicious. I possibly could have cooked it a little longer.

I think I might have miss measured the sugar in the caramel sauce because I remember it being rich but this was really overly sweet. The cake was better without the sauce. The caramel sauce however was not bad over ice cream and I am thinking about trying it over a little popcorn. When I make this cake I find I always have lots of sauce left.

Lent started this week. As a kid I remember always trying to give something up during Lent and never making it. What I am wondering is, is the rule about being able to eat what you gave up on Sundays a real rule or did we just make it up? For me giving stuff up at Lent is kind of like a New Year's resolution except there is an end point in sight. So this year I am going to try again. I am giving up T.V. At least at home. I can't avoid it at work.

I know that Bill has already done this on a permanent basis and we are beginning to worry about his mental health though his mental health probably has more to do with working with very small pieces of wood and glue than with giving up T.V. I find myself spending a lot of time in front of the T.V on my days off because I am too tired to do anything else or at least that is my excuse. I actually didn't watch much T.V. until I moved to Chicago. I'm not sure what that is all about. I didn't watch it while I was married because I never had control of the remote. It only takes me two seconds to become interested in something and in 3 seconds the channel would change.

I am also giving up computer games (the only two I play is Spider and Hearts). I don't plan on watching T.V. on Sundays but this is why I was asking about the Sunday rule. Can I still play Spider on Sundays?

The reason I am doing these two things is 1)I waste way too much time doing these two things and 2) I am hoping it will help my creativity. I know in the past when I have given up computer games and wasn't watching T.V. that I had to find other outlets so I wrote more and cleaned a little more and did other things I needed to do. I like to think of cleaning as a creative endeavor because then I am not so irritated by it. I'm all about psyching myself out in order to get necessary things accomplished.

Organization is a creative endeavor. I have found my life has become much more organized and then I realize there is much less to organize unlike Jane's life. No kids at home. That is a biggy. Cats require very little organization (much less than sheep and llama's.) I have also found over there years that there are only a few areas that really require organization. For instance I don't know how many hours I wasted in my lifetime looking for keys. Work keys, home keys, car keys. I found that solving just that one thing (putting the keys in the same place every time) has saved my sanity. Presently my only organizational problem is the pantry. I can live with the office (as long as I can find last year's taxes I'm good). But the pantry. Part of the problem is that when Kim moved in I had to make room for her stuff. Just part of having a roommate. So it's a little crowded to start with. Then neither one of us put things back where they belong. I think we both have ideas where things should go. (Sounds like being married.) Anyway maybe I'll get to reorganizing it again today or maybe tomorrow. I have plenty of time, I'm not watching T.V.