Walking

"Live isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself".

I don't know who said it, but I saw it in this video:

"Walking" by Mary Mary.

I'm not much on religious music but I catch myself humming this song all the time.  It strikes a chord with me when I'm going about my daily routine--living a life that at 14 I did not think I would ever live.  I didn't think I'd ever get married, or have kids, or have a house of my own that wasn't falling down around me, or live in a place I actually wanted to be.  I'm leaving the shit behind me and walking, and I'm enjoying it.

And after weeks of internal deliberation and being all chicken about it, I finally called the coolest hairdresser in town and booked an appointment.  I'm getting a big ass stripe of color near my face and some feather extensions.  This is a big departure for me, but I think I'm ready for it.  Walk on!

Beer and Swimwear

BOTH SUCCESSES!!!!  Hauling that heavy-ass carboy upstairs to "cold ferment" in front of the air conditioner in our bedroom paid off.  The beer has a nice fizz, a refreshing lemon flavor when you first taste, and a hint of lavender at the end.

The swimsuits both fit and I'm pleased with both.  I'll do a write up with pics later.

Geeking out in the kitchen

Homebrewing and canning are two of my many hobbies.  Yeah, it would be easier to pick up a case of beer or a jar of jam, but where's the fun in that?  I love being able to hand a guest a beer or a cracker spread with my latest savory jam and say "I made this". 
A couple weeks ago, I started a new batch of beer.  My son wanted to help, so I gave him a brush and let him clean out a carboy.

I hope the desire to "help" continues as he gets older.  I can dream, can't I?  Anyway, I got a kit from my local homebrew shop and decided to tweak it a little with some honey and a quick lavender syrup I made up on the stove.  It has a week to go before I can open it.  Hope it's good!

Today while the kid slept, I made some red onion jelly.  I love savory jellies and jams as glazes for grilled meat and spread on a cracker with cream cheese.  I make regular fruit preserves as well, but the savories are my favorites. 

I love the nice red color on these.  All natural!  I find my savory spreads taste even better after a little time on the shelf, so I'm going to stash them in the pantry for a week or two. 

The giant land of suck that is plus size swimwear.

The title pretty well sums it up.  Today I decided to go through the family swimwear in anticipation of our vacation at the end of the month.  To my dismay my trusty miraclesuit has finally given up the ghost.  I got six good years of use out of it, so I feel I got my money's worth.  That suit went on my honeymoon to Jamaica, to the Outer Banks twice, and numerous trips to the Jersey shore and city pools.  However, my back-up suit from Target can kiss my ample ass.  Barely half a dozen uses in 2010 and it's falling apart.  Well, you get what you pay for.

So, I hit the intarwebz in search of replacement swimwear.  I hate about 99% of the plus sized offerings.  I'm NOT wearing a seizure inducing neon floral print.  Don't even get me started on the skirted suits.  Why don't they just write "I'm not fat under here!" on the hem??  I was grumbling about this in front of my son, who has been running all over the house yelling "IM NOT FAT UNDER HERE" for the last hour.  And why did everything in black sell out in MARCH??  Nobody waits until it's actually warm enough to swim to buy swimwear? 
Here's an example of what I'm talking about....

What the fuck????

You can just tell the model wants to rip this suit off and kill it with fire.  This is just one example out of a thousand.  What pisses me off the most is the assumption that fat women don't go nice places and want to wear nice swimwear when we get there.  We're not all sitting in kiddie pools eating frozen twinkies and chugging Meister Brau, assholes.  Although a frozen twinkie doesn't sound half bad right now....

After an hour of searching, I found two that I liked.  I'll let you know if they are keepers when I get them.