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Cherry Pumpkin Cookies

Oct 21st, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
4 comments

Tonight, Celeste and I made pumpkin cookies. Despite our measurements being a bit off with her helping and all, they turned out delicious.

Many of you have asked for the recipe. I used, basically, my dear friend Melissa‘s recipe. Only I halved it, and added a few “Daniel” touches.

Cookies for YOU!

Cookies for YOU!

Daniel and Melissa’s Cherry Pumpkin Cookies

Wet Works:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) (softened)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup pureed pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Dry Works:
1 tsp cinnamon
2 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda

Chunky Stuff:
1/2 cup chopped dried cherries (or cranberries)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 tbsp orange zest

Method:
Typical cookie method applies. Mix the wet stuff together. Mix the dry stuff together. Then put the dry stuff into the wet stuff and mix it together. Then throw in the chunky bits. Cook at 375 for about 10 minutes. Serve with cold milk.

Yields about 3 dozen.

Last day

Oct 15th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

Our last day was hectic. In fact, i’m writing this from the plane as we decend into DFW.

I spent 3 hours getting ready for the day, having breakfast, and packing bags. There was just too much to fit into too little of space. My mom gave Celeste a blanket, two stuffed animals, 3 sweat pant sets, and a huge box of stickers. It was just too much.

Leaving late I still managed to get o my brother’s house for a quick lunch before heading to the airport.

Our wait for the gate in Vermont wasn’t too bad. The airport was very crowded though. Our flight to Detroit wasn’t too bad either and we even managed to secure an extra seat.

However, once we landed in Detroit, we got there late. And the jet bridge was broken. And we alteady had to hurry from C24 to B18 to make our connection. The delays didn’t help.

So we ran.

Only to leave an hour and a half late anyway because of some TSA security issue with the inbound flight.

When we finally left, the flight was booked solid, Celeste fell asleep and I could not get comfortable. For 2.5 hours I tossed and turned and increased the crick in my neck. Ouch.

I can’t wait to land. 12 more minutes. It’ll be good to be home.

A slippery slope

Oct 15th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

Yesterday was filled with fun. Perhaps one of my best days yet.

After getting ourselves ready in the morning, C and I went for a hike up Mt. Philo in order to look over the entire Champlain valley. At least that was the goal. Access tithe park was closed, however. So, we could only access the trail that criscrosses up the side of the mountain. It was steep, and rocky, and covered in mud from the rain the day before. We made it about 1/2 a mike before I needed a break. I put C down on a rock to rest and that’s when she decided she wanted no more walking (which, for her, means being carried by me). So, after a quick rest we headed back down which was really difficult thanks to all the mud. We made it though. C fell asleep on the 10 minute drive home BEFORE 11am, so I think she needed he rest.

While she slept I had a really enjoyable conversation with a friend over IM while fixing my grandfather’s computer. More than anything I was grateful for a little privacy, the first that I’d had since I left home.

When C woke up we ate lunch and then piled in the car to head to my Aunt’s house. The drive over the mountain was beautiful. We stopped at the top and I made a snow ball for C to hold. We took a couple of photos too. It was so cool to see the thick, heavy snow fresh on the evergreens at the summit, followed by a band of gold and red and orange of the deciduous trees in the valley, followed by the grey and black outlines of the mountains of New York followed by the grey, white, and blue band of sky and clouds. I only hope the photo I captured with a toddler in my other arm manages to do it some justice.

My Aunt’s house was lots of fun. Good people, good food, good everything. I only wish I had more time there.

The drive home was a bit tense. The same curvy mountain back road that was so beautiful during the day becomes quite scary at night with no light. Thankfully there was almost no water on the roads which meant the drive was easy and I didn’t have any slips.

As soon as we got home we climbed in bed. I tried to get a good night’s sleep, but I didn’t do very well.

Today we head back to Texas. I miss you all so much. You should probably start the emails and phone calls now so I’ll feel good about myself and know that I’m going to see you all very soon.

After we get up, we’ll have breakfast and pack our bags. We’ll stop in the city to mail something via UPS. Then drive to my brother’s place about an hour north. There, C will get some running around done and hoefully tire herself a hit and get rid of some of the antsies. After lunch we’ll head back tithe city, return the rental car, take a shuttle to the airport, and be headed toward Texas via Detroit.

Weeeee!

here we go

Oct 4th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet

(since I took the time to set it up, I decided I may as well test the new blog by email feature. So, this entry was sent via email.)

I’ve been up since 4am unable to sleep. On the plus side, I managed to get a lot done.

All of our clothes are packed. Except Socks, Underware, Shoes, and Belts.

I drank an entire pot of coffee.

I put a Wonderpets movie, 2 Wonderpets episodes, and 2 Backyardigans episodes on my iPod for C to watch. She doesn’t watch TV, so I’m just hoping the novelty will keep her entertained. $2/episode seems like a lot, but whatever.

I got a handle on arranging some of my music. This means my iPod now has better music than before and is filled closer to capacity.

I sorted out a few Facebook and website things in order to make updating while traveling easier. I don’t know why, but I love being able to do so, That being said, you should now see “Jim Reverend”, “Daniel James”, and “Amorphous” pages on Facebook. Fan them. Livejournal updates will not happen any more. I give up. And revjimweb on Twitter should have all of this, assuming everything is lined up right.

I still need to pack our plane bags, the above mentioned items, and all the random other stuff we’ll need: Laptop, cameras, batteries, sippy cups, blankets, toiletries, stuffed animals, books, etc. I figure I should be able to get to that with C awake. And she’ll be waking up any minute now.

The plan is to go to my dad’s at some point today, hang out there, sleep there, and then get to the airport tomorrow at 5:30am. I’m ready for the adventure. I really think C is going to enjoy it too. Hopefully, she’ll take my attitude toward travel which can be summed up like this: let things go as they go, you’ll get there when you get there, talk to people, watch people, and don’t be afraid to look stupid.

Kyro was a huge lifesaver to me this morning. I honestly don’t even know what he was doing awake or what state of inebriation he was in, but it really doesn’t matter. I was stressing out big time and helped bring me some clarity.

My biggest concern right now is that the kiddo might be sick. I really hope not. I took her temperature while she was asleep and it was 101. So, if she does have a fever, it probably isn’t much.

Enjoy this photo. It’s a picture of her at the park a few days ago.

Posted via email from revjim’s posterous

too nice to stay inside

Sep 30th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
No comments yet
Celeste under monkey bars

Celeste under monkey bars

It’s such a beautiful day out today.

I have a lot to do to get ready for our trip and a messy house to clean.

I should pick up C from school, take up both straight home, make a quick dinner, and get to the cleaning and packing.

But, at the same time, it seems really unfair to keep either of us couped up inside when the weather is so nice.

So… I think we’ll just enjoy the weather, eat out some place reasonable, and deal with the packing once the sun goes down.

The path of happiness is always the right path to take.

What do you do when the weather is so nice?

Travel Preparation

Sep 30th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

Things that I need to do in order to prepare and pack for Celeste and my trip to NY and VT, for which the plane departs at 7:30am on October 5th which is in 5 days:

  • Everything

Another Place

Sep 28th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment

As I have always done with this space here, when a particular topic becomes prevalent enough that someone is either loving or hating seeing post after post of that nature, then it’s time to move that content into it’s own little corner.

I did this once before with Photographs. This blog became consumed with Photos. I posted almost nothing but photos. So I moved them off and away. (Check out my photoblog at Arranging Light).

I even kinda sorta did this another time in the past with a very small subset of my life that needed a smaller audience. That site has since been taken down. But, it’s not quite the same thing since I was creating a new variant of content along with the blog.

In fact, when my daughter turned 1 year old I started a site for our family, chosen family, and close friends to chronicle her life and share photos of her. Again, this is not quite the same thing since the content didn’t exist before hand.

Well, this new site will be more like the Photographs move. I’m taking content that I would ordinarily publish here, and I’m going to start publishing it in a new place instead. I know that might seem lame and silly and confusing. But I LIKE having a place for everything and a thing for every place. Chaque chose à sa place, chaque place à sa chose.

So… I introduce to you, Amorphous.

(Yes, the name is something I’ve used in the past, as is the URL. I guess I really like it.) This will be the blog in which I chronicle the life of a man aiming to live clean, love dirty, and cry ugly. That person, is, of course, me. It’ll feature stories from my life, tales of adventure, epic road trips, and peaceful evenings in. It’ll dip into love, and life, and freedom, and tolerance. It will, of course, feature my beautiful, precious daughter, and many of the wonderful people that choose to share my life.

It will touch on lots of aspects of my beliefs including clean eating, attached parenting, tolerant spirituality, blatant loyalty, and abstract socialism. It will not, however, focus on any one of these things.

I will be moving away from a “I did this, then I did that” style of writing. Instead of being historically accurate, I will attempt to focus on feeling, and meaning, and purpose. Anything that doesn’t convey that type of thought will be left here at revjim.net instead.

I may even twist facts or ideas or people or reality in order to better make a point. This isn’t to say that it isn’t non-fiction: it certainly is. However, it will convey the truths that live within my mind which may not always be the same as the truths that may have been recorded by a competent observer. To further direct the attention, I will likely never use real names of anyone and, even then, reference people as infrequently as possible.

I’m not sure if I’ll be tweeting to revjimweb when I post there, making links on Facebook, or attaching this blog to FriendFeed. Would any of those things interest you?

I am most certainly not posting to revjim on LiveJournal. You will need to set up a syndication account (which I can do if there is interest) or use a feed reader. I will probably link this blog to friendfeed.

For those of you that subscribe to revjim – world in your RSS readers, you needn’t do anything. This site will be included in that feed. For those of you that subscribe to my writing piece by piece, you’ll want to subscribe to its feed as well if you’re interesting in this content: Amorphous RSS Feed.

Thanks for reading.

I survived the Texas State Fair

Sep 28th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
8 comments

This weekend was packed with fun, the highlight of which was the Texas State Fair on Saturday evening.

waiting for the train

I’m not a big “Fair” person. It’s not that I don’t like it. I can just usually find just as much fun doing my own thing in a less crowded space for less money. And if I bring a few people along with me, it’s just as good if not better. I guess I’m simple that way. But I really thought that Celeste would enjoy the fair, so I wanted to bring her. And Bonnie and Justin wanted to go too, which made it that much more fun.

We stepped on the DART Red Line at Parker Station at about 3pm. And we didn’t step back off until 10pm. Celeste loved every second of it, from the petting zoo, to the Ferris Wheel, to the Corny Dogs.

I had a bout of dad-fail on the way there. I packed two diapers into our backpack knowing I’d grab 6 or 8 more out of the car and then promptly forgot to do so. It wasn’t until we were well on our way on the train that I remembered. We stopped off at Lovers station to buy diapers. Of course a 27 pack was the smallest I could find so I left most of them on top of the trashcan at the train station. Of course, the two diapers I had brought would have been just enough. Oh well. Even worse, the next day I was cleaning out my backpack and realized I’d bought size 5s instead of size 4s. It’s not that I don’t know what size she wears. I’ve been the only one buying her diapers for 8 months now. I have no idea why I bought 5s but I looked for them on purpose. I can remember telling Bonnie “size 5″.

Texas Star

Texas Star

I was a bit frightened in the Ferris Wheel. Heights are heights and I am afraid of them in general. But I know how to overcome that fear fairly well when required. But having Celeste there made it more difficult. I would have been okay if not for the space behind the seats large enough for her to fit through and plummet to her death and her constant desire to climb them. None the less, we all made it out without learning how to fly and I only had to get stern with Celeste once, which I hated doing. I felt like one of those mean parents that are always yelling at their kids for silly things. I wonder if this is how is starts.

She loved it though. She pointed out the hundreds of red and green lights she could see down the street and continued to mention that she went “up in the sky”.

As usual, there was lots of strange food at the fair. I’m not really that eager to try lots of odd foods just for the sake of it. But, for some reason, fried butter just HAD to be tried. So I did. I’m still not sure if I liked it or not. It tasted great. Very buttery, of course. And the batter was delicious. But, at the same time, it was just too much butter.

Celeste loved it when I walked around with her up on my shoulders so she could see everything. This isn’t a posture she usually likes so those muscles on me are pretty weak. Every time I’d take a break she’s grab my face and turn it toward her (something she does in crowded or loud places to make sure you are paying attention to her) and would say “more up on the shoulders!!”.

The Little Pigs

The Little Pigs

The petting zoo was fun for her too. The moment she remembers best was the baby pigs. If you ask her about it, even now, she’ll tell you how there were lots of baby pigs, and a momma pig, and how all the baby pigs were drinking milk. She stared in awe for a long time. She also fed an Emu, pet a Donkey, and mimicked the bleat of a goat. She tried to feed a goat, one grain of food at a time. But the goat decided she was just too slow, took the food from her hands and ate everything, paper cup and all. Celeste thought this was hilarious.

On top of all of that, we saw briefly saw the car show, Big Tex, and the water fountains. Of course, the DART ride itself was an adventure as well, which Celeste loved. It took her a bit to get used to being in the train. Since we got on at the first stop there was time to get her acquainted with how it worked, walking on it, getting on and off it, etc. Once I did that, she was fine with it and eventually took to staring out the window, pointing at everything, and jumping up and down in her seat.

sun set from 212 feet

sun set from 212 feet

The only disappointment was DART on our trip back. On the way there the trains were not crowded and there were people directing you to the right location everywhere you turned. I don’t require this but it was nice to have. On the way back there was no one around and the information we sought out was incorrect. Additionally, there were not enough trains running which meant that we all waited longer than we should have and ended up on a VERY full train. Celeste and I stood for all of the first 12 or 13 stops. It was at the 3rd to last stop that there was finally room for both of us to sit. I didn’t mind standing so much. And despite being exhausted, Celeste didn’t seem to mind too much either. Lots of people offered us their seat, but I knew Celeste wanted the window and would only be upset if we got a seat but she couldn’t stand in the window and look out, so I declined when the offered. Lots of people commented on how good Celeste was being and at how smart she is. I have an awesome kid.

All told, the Texas State Fair was an awesome experience and I’m glad I decided to take Celeste.

keeping forever

Sep 24th, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
1 comment
cookie monsters

cookie monsters

Rows and rows of empty boxes,
waiting for their fills.
Peace, alone, time to waste,
and this handful of pills.

I used to keep a small paper notebook with me at all times. Throughout the day I’d often pull it out quickly to jot down an idea, a daydream, the remnants of a short story flashing through my mind, the chorus to a song, or a quick blurb of prose that seemed profound. Once or twice, I’ve even tried to write while driving or quickly at a stop light. In fact, I really should have gotten one of those personal recorders but hearing my words in my own voice after the fact always ruined it for me.

I don’t keep that notebook any more. I’m still filled with ideas. I still get those quick flashes of clarity. I still find myself tapping into the mind of some imaginary someone and then falling back out again. I still find ways to frame my own situation in the lives of people who are not me. But, I don’t keep the notebook any more.

Much like all the photos I take, there is just never enough time to sort through them all, polish them up, and show them off to people that might enjoy them. In a lot of ways, both the notebook and the photographs are for me alone. But even then, my time is so short, I rarely take a moment to look back over them.

So all of these notes and all of these photos stay with me. I carry them from place to moment as if packed tightly into box after box after box. A few times in the past, either by choice or by accident, I’ve emptied all of those boxes. Seeing them that way brought a sense of peace but, in the end, it was mostly just lonely.

So instead of emptying the boxes, over time, I’ve just stopped filling them up. I take fewer photos. I jot down fewer notes. Yet I maintain the illusion that I’m keeping these days with me always because there are all of these boxes forever following me around.

It’s just an illusion, though. I feel as though sharing my words, my thoughts, and my photos with others will cause them to live forever. Whether it’s peace, clarity, happiness, sadness, arousal, understanding, or knowledge, when something I’ve done carries forward into another life, it’s as though that thing lives on forever like a beneficial virus being passed from carrier to carrier.

With this in mind, it seems simple enough to just share these things, even unpolished. But that conjures up new fears. What if being so prolific and unfiltered in those things causes it to suffer the same fate I often do here in thought? What if all of these photos and moments and thoughts and dreams and ideas so precious to me become nothing but brain vomit to be kicked through and cleaned off of shoes and feet with disgust? What if it just gets in the way? Not only would I have trouble accepting that, it would have an effect the opposite of my intent.

slowly twisting in the wind

Sep 22nd, 2009
by Jim Reverend.
6 comments
with each new shade

I see you there

  • There is a certain peace that comes with the understanding that something I was afraid to try wouldn’t have worked out anyway. With the sadness of loss comes the satisfaction of knowing.
  • I’m taking Celeste to the Texas State Fair this weekend. If I go on Friday it’ll be a mad dash to pick her up from school and get out there and I’ll probably drive and park and all of that. But if I go on Saturday the DART Light Rail now has a Green Line that runs to Fair Park. I’m thinking about parking in Plano and taking the Light Rail down. Maybe stopping for a late lunch at Mockingbird Station along the way.
  • Celeste hasn’t slept well for many nights. I know she has a sinus and ear infection, probably due to the change in weather, her teeth coming in, or both. I prefer not to give her Antibiotics every time she gets an infection but if this lasts much longer I’m going to take her in.
  • As a way of increasing my aerobic activity and neutralizing the negative effects of electronic sedation without having to totally cut myself off, I’m in the market for a stationary bike, elliptical, or other aerobic exercise machine. I’d prefer to get my exercise under the big blue sky or a blanket of stars. But, often the only time I can find for it is once Celeste is asleep at which point leaving the house isn’t an option.
  • At some point in the past this site changed from a technical blog about web development and gadgets to a photo blog (which has moved). It has since changed again to become a blog about parenting, health, clean food, and life. I’m finally okay with that.
  • I’m finally starting to accept Kyro’s advice: I’ve lived a lot and experienced many things. Talking to a girl I don’t know shouldn’t be difficult. Even if I happen to have a baby on my hip.
  • My In-Laws will more than likely be visiting Celeste during our trip to NY/VT. I am strangely okay with this. During my marriage to Jess I lived in great fear of their disapproval. This no longer plagues me. I see them simply as a set of people wishing to share Celeste’s life. They are good people, they bring a positive influence to Celeste, and there’s no way that’s a bad thing.
  • I overspent in the past month. Which really isn’t a good thing to do before a vacation since I’ll likely overspend then too. So I’ve got myself on lockdown for now.
  • I need to find someone to care for my kitties while Celeste and I are in the Northeast. I hate asking for favors.
  • Tonight is my first Tuesday without Celeste on the new schedule. I’ve got a light dinner, cleaning, web site editing, and photography on the slate all in small, undefined portions.
  • I think my new glasses were made wrong. They hurt my eyes. A lot. So I have to go get them looked at today. If there is something wrong with them, hopefully they can get them fixed before I leave for the Northeast. If not, I’ll be wearing contacts and my old glasses. I have a picture of them, but I’d rather not put it here. Let me know if you want to see. Don’t worry, I’m fully clothed. ;)
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