Who's gonna drive you home tonight?

I was driving home from my parents' house tonight, and as I was flipping stations on the radio (I have severe music ADD), I found a song that deserved to be cranked waaaaaaay up. 
   
If I may:
   

   
It just seemed like the perfect song to listen to at top volume while driving around at night with no particular destination in mind. Unfortunately, I had to get home to fold laundry, pack tomorrow's lunch, make coffee... the usual grown up chores.
     
Certain songs hold associations for me. "Nights in White Satin" was never one of them, but perhaps now it will remind me that I should be spontaneous and drive aimlessly around the city once in awhile :)
   
Years ago, before we were old enough to legally drink, a friend and I would drive around in my mom's old minivan listening to mix tapes that my brother made me. I don't talk to that friend anymore, but I can't hear these two songs without thinking of him and the late night excursions for coffee and conversation.
      

    
Ah, memories. Makes me wanna make the 2011 version of a mix tape - aka, playlist of mp3s :) I can call it, "songs for nighttime driving."
     
What songs would be on your list?

Holy Thursday

This is my second year out of the classroom and although I love my new job, I often miss teaching 1st grade. One of my favorite things about teaching in Catholic school was that I got to celebrate the holidays the way I did as a child. Christmas wasn't buried under the PC umbrella of "winter holidays." We set up a nativity scene, sang carols, and lit the Advent wreath. Likewise, Easter wasn't just bunnies and baskets of candy. Together we spent 40 days of Lent preparing for the Easter season.
     
My favorite tradition with my 1st graders during Lent was our Last Supper meal. It was held on the last day of school before Easter break (which was always a 1/2 day). I bought pita bread, grapes, and grape juice (in lieu of wine) for our meal. Some years I added cheese and apples, just for fun. It's not exactly true to a Passover Seder, but I was more concerned with the symbolism of the foods and the sense of community and celebration that we shared during our "meal." 
   
Together, we arranged the desks to form a long table, which I covered with a tablecloth. I lit candles and placed the food in the center. As a class, we said grace, sang songs, and then began our meal. Just like the Last Supper, I broke the pita bread and passed it around the table, letting each child break off his or her own piece. After that, they were free to help themselves to the food and enjoy each other's company. Years later, former students would come back and tell me that the Last Supper meal was one of their favorite memories of first grade. 
   

   
Even though I'm out of the classroom, I still teach CCD (weekly religious education classes for students who don't attend Catholic school). I've been teaching 4th grade CCD for the past 5 years, but I've been able to continue my tradition of having a Last Supper meal on the last class before Easter. This year there was a schedule change, so unfortunately we didn't have time for the meal. But I managed to come up with a compromise. I sent each one of my students home with a piece of bread in a baggie with a scripture quote attached. I told them to save the bread until Holy Thursday, and then break it and share it with family. I also recommended looking up the scripture quote in the bible so that they could read the entire story of the Last Supper. 
   

     
I'm glad I found a way to keep the tradition going, even though we didn't have time for the whole meal. Hopefully some of my students shared the bread and the story with their families tonight. 

The Gods of Water

Apparently I have pissed off the Gods of Water. I don't know when or where it happened, but it must have been a doozy.
   
Yesterday it stormed all day, and last night my bedroom wall and ceiling were leaking - again. This has been an ongoing problem since my 2nd month in this apartment. But this is not where the story begins.
   
When I lived in an apartment in college, there was a hot water pipe that ran through the bathroom from floor to ceiling. It would get so hot that my roommates and I would burn ourselves on it if we bumped into it, and at random times throughout the day it would rattle so fiercely that it sounded like someone was downstairs banging on it with a hammer. It used to wake us up at night.
   
After I moved out of my parents' house and into apartment #1, my roommate and I were plagued with one water problem after another. Oh, and a landlord who did diddly squat about fixing these problems.
     
There was the leak over the refrigerator:
     

     
There was the dripping over the kitchen sink (clear across the room from the fridge leak):
   

This dripped on and off for 6 months before it was fixed.

   
The bathroom. (It was gross.)
   

That's the wall & ceiling above the showerhead.
This is what it looked like after 4 months, right before we moved out.

    
The sewage that backed up into the only washing machine in the duplex:
   

     
The flooding in the cellar:
     

The white paper in the bottom right of this pic is a floating
glue trap. I like to think of it as an ark for the roaches.
"All aboard! Save yourselves! Women and children first!"

     
We finally moved out of that dump and into a new duplex... this time a 2nd floor apartment, which means no water problems from upstairs neighbors. But it does mean water problems from snow, rain, and a bad roof.
   
Which has led to a leak in my bedroom ceiling:
    

   
I emailed the landlord AGAIN last night. He actually wrote me back this morning and apologized for the inconvenience. Said he's going to bring yet another roofer out to look at it.
   
Gods of Water... whatever I have done to displease you, I am truly sorry. How can I appease you? Shall I sacrifice a virgin? Leave an offering at the altar of your most holy fountain? Dance in the rain at midnight? Just tell me, and I'll do it. Because the smell of mildew and wet drywall in my bedroom is kinda gross. Amen.

Green thumb :)

Part of my Saturday routine is to take care of my indoor garden. I currently have a vinca, 2 violets, 2 small non-flowering plants, and a large floor pot with a leafy plant. (I'm sure all the non-flowering plants have names, I just don't know what they are.) And of course, I also have my windowsill herb garden.

   

When I watered my herbs, I noticed that I had a LOT of basil again. It tends to grow super fast, but I can't always use it all. I've read that it doesn't freeze well, and fresh basil tastes much better than dried. 

   

    
I know I can use basil for pesto or caprese salad, but I was looking for something new. So I searched the internet for recipes using fresh basil... and I found 3 that I want to try. I started with the most simple recipe, since I already had all of the ingredients in my kitchen. 
   

      
The recipe I tried is for basil butter using fresh basil, butter, lemon juice, lemon pepper, and garlic salt (which I substituted with Garlic Garlic, a Tastefully Simple seasoning). I don't actually own a real food processor, so I used my blender to chop the basil... and the kitchen smelled SO GOOD.
    
Then I used my manual food processor to mix the chopped basil with the softened butter, lemon juice, and seasonings. 
  

Next, I dropped the butter mixture in small portions (about 1/2 tablespoon) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment and put it in the freezer until they hardened. Then I stored them in a ziploc bag in the freezer for later use.

So how can you use basil butter? Toss it with pasta, add it to mashed potatoes, stir it into rice, use it to sauté vegetables or chicken, soften it and spread it on hot bread, use it to top fish before cooking... just to name a few. 
  
I hope to tackle the other 2 basil recipes in the coming weeks (once I go grocery shopping). If you have any suggestions for using fresh herbs, please share them in the comments! I hate to see them go to waste.

Lamb

Today I'm going to do something a little different... a book review! About 5 years ago, a bunch of my friends formed a book club and one of the books we read was called Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. I didn't know what to expect when I started reading, but by the time I finished chapter 1, I was HOOKED. I enjoyed it so much that I reread it every year during Lent. (It is, for me, a Lenten staple as necessary as Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, and Cadbury Creme Eggs.)  And now I want to share the wealth with you, dear readers. 
   
This book tells about the life of Christ from the point of view of His best friend, Levi who is called Biff. The story begins when Josh (Jesus) and Biff are six and it chronicles their lives until the time of Josh's death. The tale loosely parallels the well-known stories found in the Bible... however, the Bible only covers the life of Jesus from His birth until age 13, resuming again at the beginning of His ministry (around age 30). Lamb fills in that gap by imagining what happened in those lost years.   
      
The thing that strikes me the most about this book is that it manages to be reverently touching and laugh-out-loud funny all at the same time. I'm sure there are some who might find the humor offensive. If you're one of those people, this might not be the book for you. But I urge you to push past your holier-than-thou attitude and give this book a try. I take my religion seriously, but I'm a firm believer in laughing. And I'm pretty darn sure our Lord has a fantastic sense of humor. I mean, seriously... He gave us stuff like this:
   

  
And this:

  
And of course, this:

    

  
The author himself acknowledges the importance of humor by prefacing Part 1 with this Voltaire quote, "God is a comedian playing to an audience that is afraid to laugh." Don't be afraid to laugh. In fact, I dare you to read parts of this book and NOT laugh out loud. The writing of the Sermon on the Mount comes to mind. I just looked it up now for reference, and I laughed so hard that I cried. No exaggeration. (If you happen to buy the book, keep a lookout for that part... it's in chapter 28. You can thank me later.)
   
Still not convinced? Read this note from author Christopher Moore... or this excerpt from the inside flap of the book:

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal is a behind-the-scenes look at the original boy wonder. A few of the neat things you'll discover in these pages are... 

• What to do if your kid's face suddenly appears on every loaf of bread in town.

• The proper method for choosing a harlot.

• How sarcasm was invented. (Yeah, really.) 

• The history of the martial art specifically designed for boys from Nazareth (aka Jewdo).

• What the rough draft of the Sermon on the Mount sounded like.

• How to tell when an image of the Virgin Mary is a bona fide vision... and when it's just elephant poop.

• How bunnies came to be associated with Easter.

... and much more.

Verily, I say unto thee... go forth and read Lamb. Thou shalt not regret it. 

On the cheap.

Confession time!
  
I love a good bargain. And I'm not just talking Target. Occasionally I'll hit the Wal-Mart. Sometimes I get a yen to stroll through K-Mart. And I've been known to find quite a deal at the Dollar Tree. 

On Monday I had to run some errands, and on the way home I stopped at Big Lots. I've only been there a handful of times, and it's usually hit or miss. You can't go with something specific in mind, because you'll never find it. I like to go in with an open mind and just mosey up and down the aisles to see what's good. In the past I've found a lot of nice things: toy trucks for the son of some friends who were visiting from out of town, cloth placemats in colorful summer stripes for the dining room table, a plush nativity set for my 1st grade classroom, one-subject notebooks sold in packs of ten for $1 (also for my students). 
  

Ugly generic throw pillow. Blah.

So back to Monday. I've been searching everywhere for throw pillows for my chocolate brown Ikea sofa. The only pillows I had were the ones that came with my old couch... and they were the only thing about the couch I didn't like! In Big Lots, I found some lovely celery green pillows with a design stitched in gold thread, for $8 each! The material has kind of a shimmery effect in the light, so it's hard to capture the color on film... but I love them!
    

New pretty pillows!

A closer look at the color and design :)

   
I also found some bamboo cutting boards (2 for $8)...

  
...and a $2 basket for the bathroom. There was room on a shelf and I've been looking for something decorative to fill it. I folded a spare hand towel, put it in the basket, and voila! Instant burst of color, and it fits the space perfectly!

   
Not too shabby. I'm still looking for something to hang on a rather large empty wall over my desk, so I'll be scouting around until I find something I like. 
     
So, dear readers... do you have any favorite places to shop for bargains? Share the wealth in the comment box below and I'll check it out!

Dream a little dream...

I had a dream last night. It wasn't a long dream, but there were enough details for me to be curious about what it meant. So I googled around and found a website for dream interpretation. I know it's not an exact science, but the things I read were pretty interesting.
    
The first part of the dream took place in a car (possibly my own). The details of that part of the dream indicate things like: serious difficulty and hurdles in achieving real life goals, unsure of which direction to take or which path to follow in life, low self-image, allowing others to take control of my direction, hesitant to enter into unfamiliar territory.
     
Hmmm. Doesn't sound promising. 
  
Let's move on to the next part of the dream - the events that occurred after we parked and got out of the car. The details of that part of the dream indicate the following: confidence, fulfillment, satisfaction, harmony, all aspects of life in perfect balance, pleased with something I've said or done. Which is pretty much the complete opposite of the first part of the dream.
   
So my subconscious is telling me that I'm confused?
  
Anyway, for the past few weeks I've been in a rut. I feel like I'm just going through the motions and not really enjoying my life. I haven't been able to put my finger on exactly what the problem is, but maybe my subconscious wants me to figure it out before I drive myself crazy :)