Clutterbusting, is that a word?

Well, I at least got through the little boy's toys and managed to clear out some stuff. I filled an entire Rubbermaid tub with toys and stashed it in the garage. I should hand them out one at a time in gift bags, he'll think he's died and gone to present heaven. I could certainly put away more, and probably will. I also need to go through his clothes again. Put away cold weather stuff and bring out the warm weather stuff.

Sadly, that is as far as I got. More to come, though. Maybe I can get something more done this weekend. I hope so, I still can't stand it in here, too much crap!!

So very cluttered....

I can't stand it any more, but too busy blogging to fix it. Ha ha!!

Seriously though, we have too much shit! The kids have too much shit!! And it is taking over. Plus the dog drags shit in from outside, well not literally, thank goodness, but plenty of dirt.

All the shit everywhere makes it difficult to clean.

Too many clothes, too much laundry, well, that's not exactly true. It just seems like it because we don't have a very big closet. Figuring out how to seasonally store our clothes would be helpful. It seems like the laundry never ceases because it doesn't, but I just have to accept some shit.

So, I do declare that I will conquer the clutter, one pile of shit at a time.

Starting tomorrow; I'm tired.

Chai Tea

Since I am on a beverage kick, I must talk about another favorite hot beverage of mine. Chai tea. Not the Chai Tea Latte type from Barstucks, although I won't turn it down if offered, but the real deal, preferably from an Indian restaurant or made by some one's Grandmother. (should I ever be so lucky)

I do make my own, which I don't think is too shabby, if I do say so myself. I would rather it be served to me, but as my Beloved does tell me on occasion..."people in hell want ice water".

Anyway, I digress. On to the recipe, such that it is. I don't remember where I found it, I think either in Martha Stewart or Rachael Ray, some time ago.

Black loose tea

Fresh ginger

Cardamon pods

Hot water

Milk

Sugar or honey to sweeten

Peel and chop about a tablespoon of fresh ginger and crush about 6 cardamon pods. Throw them in a pot with about 2 cups of water. Boil water on the stove, add milk once the water boils. I do a 50/50 ratio. Throw in 2 or 3 teaspoons of loose tea. (I get my loose tea from an Indian import grocery store.) Turn off the heat and let steep. Don't forget to turn off the burner or it will boil over and make a huge nasty mess. I let it steep for about five minutes and then fill up the cups running the tea through a fine mesh strainer. Add sugar or honey to sweeten and there you go. Chai tea. It is not so sweet as the store bought variety and less "milky". I think has really nice flavor. It doesn't taste as good as Chaat Express, but close, without driving to Plano.

It's a good thing. Ha!!

DFW theater reviews

http://theaterjones.com/

Here is a link to DFW theater reviews, including ones written by my Beloved.

Coffee Geek

I have to say the Aeropress makes the best coffee I've ever had!! I shout it to the world!! Find yourself an Aeropress if you are a serious coffee aficionado.

It's an unusual looking gadget. It looks nothing like what we expected. It is sort of like French press only different. They run around $40. I know you can get them online, and at high end cooking stores. A good friend of ours works at one of those type places and picked it up for us. The only supplies you need are little tiny round filters that sit in the bottom of the tube. I think the filters are about $5 for a package of 350. (That's alot of cups of coffee) Some are included with the gadget to start you off, of course.

I like to use whole bean coffee and a burr grinder. Our 2 favorite coffees are both from Whole Foods. The organic house blend, which is a mix of light and dark beans and the Extra Dark French Roast, which is extra dark French roasted. I grind the beans to a 3/4 espresso grind. This has been a trial and error experience. Also, notably, every time you switch up coffee beans/brands, it takes a couple of tries to get the right ratio of coffee to hot water. (I never said this wasn't somewhat labor intensive.)

You make one cup at a time and it now takes me about 4 min per cup, not counting boiling the water in the kettle.



You grind your coffee, I put 2 scoops (the kit includes the scoop) of coffee in the cylinder and this is subject to your own taste and experimentation, add the boiling water, stir the mixture whilst counting to 10 Mississippi, and then squish the mixture down with the plunger. The idea being that you are compressing the hot water through the grounds using the air pressure from the plunger. This gives you all the flavor without the bitterness of strong coffee. It is seriously great coffee. It's labor intensive; I feel the need to mention this twice. No flipping a pre-programmable switch and having coffee ready when you stumble out of bed in the morning.



I put milk with sugar in the microwave to heat while I'm plunging the coffee and then viola...




A cup o' heaven.....ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Pride and Prejudice Part Two

Well, Pride and Prejudice, the play was all right. It was done by a community theater company, so it wasn't Shakespeare Dallas, but I enjoyed it.

I don't know that if you were not familiar with Pride and Prejudice that the production would have made one lick of sense, but it seemed as though the people in the audience were following and laughing in the appropriate spots. It could be they were all family and friends and have been helping run the lines for the last 2 months. Whatever...it was a nice night out and a change of scenery going into Fort Worth.

Hubby made an excellent point as we discussed the play on the hour long ride home. (Did I mention we live a long way from Fort Worth?) A novel really is meant to be read on paper and it doesn't really translate well onto a stage. Especially a small one. I suppose that is why the best television production of Pride and Prejudice is 5 hours long. The 1995 BBC version. I need to add watching that one again to my list of things to do.

I have a new knitting project that will take some considerable time to complete, so now that we have the TV up and running in the bedroom as well as the living room, maybe I will knit and watch. We do still have PBS Emma tivo'd that we have not watched either.

Not enough hours in the day, or days in the weekend.....

Pride and Prejudice

Have babysitter, will travel!!

I'm stoked!! Hubby and I have secured a babysitter are going to see a Pride and Prejudice stage play tomorrow night in Fort Worth.

He has a gig where he reviews plays in the metroplex for a friend who has a theater blog. The plays he reviews are usually Shakespeare, but this time we get to see P and P. He has taken Big Boy to a couple plays he's reviewed, and I got to go see a live telecast of The Royal Shakespeare Company preforming All's Well that Ends Well at the Angelika. I am curious as to how P and P will be pulled off.

I like Jane Austen. Hubby got me started on reading the books. He did a thesis in undergrad on Pride and Prejudice and flung the interest onto me, as well. I have seen multiple versions of movies, but never seen it done as a play.

Will report back after the performance.

Book #3, which is really #2

Ok, since I decided not to count the first book, this is really book #2.

Kill the Messenger - Tammy Hoag

I picked this up at 1/2 Price Books from the clearance section for $2 when they were having their new years 20% off sale. So, that makes this book $1.60. Not bad. It was a book club hardback, which probably explains why it was on the clearance shelf. I won't hang on to it. I'll either pass it along, yard sale or donate it. I only keep selected hardback novels.

Well, it is a pretty decent "poor dude got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time" murder mystery. It doesn't have the relationship angle that some of her books have, but it was a page turner with twists and turns and not surprisingly a surprise ending.

It was fluff, but entertaining fluff. Good beach read. Not brain brain food by any stretch of the imagination. Ya!! Just how I like it.