Spring is here! Grocery store had organic raspberries, so I thought they’d go perfectly with whipped cream. And since I had some organic chocolate ice cream on hand…

Sunday night Mountainstage came to Morgantown. Which is always awesome.

What was even more awesome was that the Cowboy Junkies played. Yes, the Fountains of Wayne were good (although the guitarist was trashed (annoyingly so)) but… The Cowboy Junkies!

They played “200 More Miles”, “Working on a Building”, “To Love Is to Bury”, and “Blue Moon (reprised)”

Yea, I would have loved to have heard “To Live Is to Fly” but I’m just happy I got to see and hear them live.

Here are two terrible pictures I took with my phone.

Ah…. Cowboy Junkies….

Despite the forecast we had sun Saturday. I didn’t see a lot of it, but I did get out in the (squelchy wet) yard and check on my plants and take some pictures.

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I’m starting to feel overwhelmed by my depression.

Stupid depression.

I’m going to try and stay offline today and see how that goes. Not sure if or when I’ll get back on Sunday, but I’ll probably make a couple Twitter updates over the weekend that you can catch in the left sidebar if you don’t Twitter.

Hope you have a good weekend.

Normally Kat is the more photogenic of the two, but this week Kit actually sat still long enough for me to get a couple decent pictures.

Here is his furriness looking out over his domain.

You can almost make out the bird feeder hanging from the porch. It’s one of four feeders we have to keep the cats entertained. No comments please on how filthy my window is.

You know how special I am? I got loot from Paris!

Ooh la la!

And even better, you know what kinda loot?

CHOCOLATE!

Gina, you’re the best wife EVER!

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that I love to read. And even that understates my relationships with books.

I started reading at the age of four (apparently because I’d memorized “Green Eggs and Ham”). I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. I don’t even remember being read to–but I have plenty of memories of being stretched out with a book in my hands.

I love mysteries from an early age: Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon, and then I received “The Complete Sherlock Holmes” and WHAM, I wanted more. Soon after, I caught part of “A Caribbean Mystery” (this was 1983, so I would have been 13). I initially noticed the show because Jameson Parker was in it, and I loved Simon & Simon. But I quickly shifted my attention to Helen Hayes playing Miss Marple. What a marvelous character! What a marvelous actress!

And then I was off, devouring every single Agatha Christie I could get my hands on. But Miss Marple is still my favorite, and “A Caribbean Mystery” still holds a special place for me.

In junior high school I started reading through my parent’s bookshelves, going primarily for the action/adventure/mystery. I loved “The Odessa File” and sought out more Frederick Forsyth at the library. (I read “Roots” during this time, as well as all the James Baldwin on my parents shelves, but my it was mysteries I sought out.

But let’s not forget fantasy. I read “The Hobbit” when I was in elementary school, and up through my thirties tended to re-read it every year. I also read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” when I was junior high, as well as the book adaptations of the Star Wars books.

Then I got my driver’s license, and gained the ability to escape the house and although I still read, I stopped devouring books, as I much preferred to be out of the house to home and reading.

Fast forward to my second year in college. I was given a copy of David Eddings‘ Belgariad, and suddenly I snatching up fantasy left and right. Two books at this point became favorites: Marion Zimmer Bradley‘s “The Mists of Avalon” and Mercedes Lackey‘s “By the Sword.” I adored reading books with strong female characters, and that’s been my penchant ever since. (I would say about half my fantasy books have main characters that are strong women.)

On the recommendation of friends, I quickly branched out to Guy Gavriel Kay and then Sean Russell.

Then at some point in there I discovered Robert B Parker‘s Spenser series, and then JA Jance.

Then several years ago I found my book Nirvana: they started combining fantasy and mystery. The first was Steven Brust‘s Vlad series. Simon R. Green remains a favorite. But soon followed Jim Butcher and quite soon I discovered Paula Briggs and remembered Tanya Huff. Fantasy and mystery with strong female characters? Awesome!

I could go on and on, but that’s a post for another day. Here’s some of my reading history, over the next couple weeks perhaps I’ll discuss some of the things I’m reading now that I absolutely love.

Everyone feel free to join in.

I skipped the gimme of “cow” since that might take this game in a somewhat obscene direction.

Ready?

crocus

So I finally got into see the happy doctor today. (This was a rather long and convoluted process that involved getting an appointment with my regular doctor, and then eventually having him get me an appointment with the happy doctor.)

She’s increased my meds by half again, and we’re going to see how I do over the course of the next for weeks.

However. I’m already taking the maximum effective dosage for my anti-depressant, which is why my regular doctor couldn’t help me, since he didn’t want to change my meds. I also had discovered this on my own over the weekend when discussing different medications with a friend.

So I’m not trying to be negative, but I’m not actually expecting this medication increase to help much. But it won’t hurt. And it puts off having to try a different medication and the possibility of another Wellbutrin debacle. (Wellbutrin is counter-indicated for anxiety. I hadn’t realized until then that I was suffering from anxiety.)

So I’m still chugging along. I could really do without the despair sessions in the evenings, but perhaps the med boost will help alleviate them. And the increase in OCD symptoms.

So wish me luck. And wish Michael luck too, since he’s the one who has to put up with me.

While Grandmom was gone, Michael and I enjoyed the foods that Grandmom can’t eat. One of our favorites is chicken wraps.

This recipe came as a modification of one my my favorite lunches at the hospital: Wrap day. Unfortunately, they use fried chicken breast nuggets, which are not particularly healthy. These get more of their heat from the chicken than the ranch dressing.

Yes, you could use sour cream instead of the spicy ranch, but really, it’s the dressing that makes the wraps. And about a quarter of the time we forget to make the rice, but I prefer the rice because it lets me use a lot less chicken.

Chicken Wraps
3 chicken thighs
1/2 vidalia onion, sliced
1 small red pepper
~1/2 head minced/crushed garlic
~1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
~1/2 tsp cumin
~1/2 tsp dried cilantro
~1 tsp dried oregano
~1/2 to 1 tsp red pepper
~1 tbsp lime juice
~1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
Melinda’s mango hot sauce (or other hot sauce)
whole wheat or other flour tortilla
Spanish or taco rice
shredded colby jack cheese
lettuce
tomato
spicy ranch dressing

Make the rice.

Slice the chicken into smallish pieces.

Mince the garlic into the olive oil.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add a tablespoon or so of canola or other high heat oil to the skillet. Saute the onion and red pepper.

Saute the chicken: add the chicken evenly to the pan and ignore it until it is cooked at least halfway through. Once the chicken is thoroughly cooked, add the garlic and other spices. Add the hot sauce and then follow with the lemon and lime juice. Add more lemon juice as needed, so make sure the spices evenly cover the chicken and onions.

Turn off the heat.

Heat the flour tortillas (we use the microwave).

Add chicken, rice, cheese, lettuce, tomato and ranch dressing to the tortilla.

Wrap and eat!


Great. Now I’m really hungry, and who knows when we’ll be able to make wraps again!

OK, not wild exactly, but I’m enjoying photographing the spring flowers. There’s something about the young stems and flowers of early spring plants that is so delicate, which is in direct opposition to the fact that these plants and flowers have to survive late snows, frosts, and occasional freezing temperatures.

Sunday afternoon was beautiful at the arboretum. Temperature was about perfect at 59, the sun was shining, and it was just beautiful for walking around.

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Here are some pictures from my yard–things are starting to bud.

I have two bleeding heart plants, an all white and the more typical pink and white. This is the pink and white, which seems to like it’s location and is now spreading. Hoorah! More plants! For free!
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We met my aunt at Hancock today for the Grandmom exchange. Hancock is about halfway betwen our houses, and Hepburn’s is a nice place to meet, since I can buy fresh apples or whatever they happen to have in stock, as well as apple butter, jams, apple sauce, honey, and many other local products.

They also have fresh pies, but we refrained from buying one of those (much to Grandmom’s disappointment.)

To entertain myself on the way out I tried to get pictures as we were driving along. Stuck in the backseat on the way home, I txt’d everyone to death.

Here we are several miles away from the cut.

Getting ready to go through the cut. The sides are high enough that we lose satellite radio reception while we pass through.

Sky was very pretty.

Here’s a sight familiar to anyone whose been driving this road since it was Route 48–and perhaps even when it was Route 40. Good thing Noah didn’t move that slowly. (See Eric: still there, and still completely unchanged.)

I’m also pretty sure that Noah didn’t make his ark out of steel girders driven into the ground.

Here are some botanical type pictures from our trip to the arboretum.

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We saw some strange things on a walk at the arboretum on Thursday.

Ah yes, the infamous “utility corridor” habitat. They’ve been trying to increase the range of that one.
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This song has been running though my head all day. Perhaps you’ll take solace from it as I did.

Yesterday, a friend (and a member of the [perhaps metaphorical] group the UCF) suffered a unexpected and terrible loss.

Instead of hanging out here, please take a moment to tell those you love how much they mean to you.

I don’t know about you, but I need some cuteness in my life right now.

So, despite the fact that IE sucks, otherwise the new theme seems to be working well.

If you’re curious how it worked, what you’re looking at is something like this:

Here’s what goes in the index page:

<div id="wrap">
<div id="content">

Posts go here

<div id="bottom">
<p>This is text at the bottom of the page. Maybe. Maybe not.</p>
</div>

</div> <!– content? –>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?><!– opens two separate include files, sidebar 1 and sidebar 2 –>

</div> <!– wrap? –>

And here’s that part of the style sheet:

/* This division contains the remaining divisions in the design */
#wrap {
width:100%;
text-align:left;
min-width:75em;
}

/* This division contains the main content, including the posts */
#content {
float:left;
left: 0;
top: 185px;
width: 71%;
min-width: 33em;
max-width:58em;
padding: 2em;
min-height: 225em;
}

#sidebar_1 {
float:left;
width:15em;
padding:.75em;
}

#sidebar_2 {
float:left;
width:15em;
padding:.75em;
}

What I need to do is place both sidebars in another container, so that the second slidebar doesn’t slip under the content when viewing a single, short post.

What worked was placing a min-height in the content area.

Please let me know if you’re having trouble with this format in any browser besides IE6.

Oh, and that bottom section will eventually have something in it. Once I figure out what wants to go there. (I wanted something that stretched 100% like the top image, but no luck with that yet.

First: I’m OK. Don’t freak out. Nothing out of the ordinary is going on.

Just trying to work through, and this is today’s effort.

This is what it’s like for me: depression.
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I’ve created a theme switcher on the sidebar. If you’re using Internet Explorer 6–and can see through the mangled mess–switching to IE Safe Random Black will clean up the formatting issues.

I was planning on adding a theme switcher after I created a white theme (for those who complain about my black theme) but I realized I needed the switcher sooner rather than later.

“Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

And I wasn’t even at work until today!

I’ve taken a mini vacation from work to try and get myself together. Didn’t go anywhere, and the strenuous activities were cleaning out the fridge/freezer/cabinets and dropping of donations to Christian Help and getting rid of the recycling.

Mostly, I read. (I’d wanted to go to the arboretum and maybe take pictures, but until late this afternoon, the weather was abysmal.)

Yet I’m still tired.

My goal was to see how I felt at the end of this vacation, and then decide from there if I was going to call the doctor about increasing the dosage on my anti-depressant. I think the answer I’ve gotten is that although I’m better, I’m still not what I’d consider good, so it looks like I need to make a phone call.

It’s a hard decision to make, even though it shouldn’t be, because no matter what I know rationally, it still feels like a personal failure, being unable to get myself out of this on my own.

It’s stupid that the brain and the gut can disagree so soundly. Especially when both are at fault in failing to properly regulate my serotonin levels. :)

Well, I didn’t bake much, but I have finished seven books.

And the night is still young. I could still bake or read something yet this evening!