Sometimes I wish I were a three-year-old boy

Or, at least, that I had one readily available.
Today would be one of those days. See, on Friday, we realized that our plumbing wasn't working quite right; whenever you did a load of laundry, the water backed up into the basement sink. It was kind of weird. So we called the plumber.
After spending ALL day at our house yesterday, the drain guy determined that we needed an excavator to dig out the sewer. Or something.
This morning I woke up to lots of "beep! beep!" sounds, of what turned out to be a backhoe backing up. Or maybe it was some other kind of truck. (By the way, I would never ever ever recommend getting the stomach flu on a day when your house happens to have no plumbing. It ain't pretty.)
But anyway, today we had all sorts of really cool construction trucks plus a REAL LIVE policeman on detail, all in front of our house, digging holes in the ground so that we could flush our toilets. This is vaguely cool if you are a twenty-two year old at home in bed with the flu. If you are a three-year-old boy, however, life just doesn't get any better than that. So I wished I knew some who lived in Cambridge. Unfortunately, my stash of three year old boys is currently in Hanover.
Oh, well.

Hearty and Delicious

Hearty and Delicious. That is what I am.
Actually, I think that it is kind of distasteful to use food adjectives to describe people. Lentil soup, on the other hand, IS hearty and delicious. And the other day, I made some.
I started out by chopping up some carrots, onions and garlic:


(I also peeled some potatoes and cut them into half-inch chunks, but I didn't take a picture of that.)
Then I cooked some bacon in olive oil in a big pot, and added all the vegetables to that:


Once the onions were soft, I measured out a pound of lentils (posing with the chicken broth that is going to be added in JUST A MINUTE! Isn't cooking just so EXCITING?)


Then I added the lentils to the veggies, and poured in the chicken broth. ACTION SHOT:


Then I let it cook. And it looked like this:


I decided that I like my lentil soup thick and stewy, so I added an three-quarters of a cup of lentils. This was a mistake, as now I need to add water to the soup every time I reheat some. I also whirled the soup with a stick blender to make it thicker and stewier. This was not a mistake.
Also, I cooked some collard greens and served them with the soup. That also was not a mistake. It was delicious.
Eating this many green beans in one sitting is, however a mistake. And that is saying a lot, since I love green beans.


You can find the recipe for lentil soup here on Epicurious. I love that website. And the internet, for that matter. I added bacon to the recipe, because I like smoky meat in my lentil soup. Next time I might add a little sausage, as well. I also would have added kale instead of collards, but they didn't have any at the grocery store when we went at 11 o'clock on a thursday night.

I'm still here

I'm still here, but it's two days before Christmas, and I haven't bought a single present yet! What's a girl to do?
NOT update her blog, is the answer. I have to get shopping!
Updates later, I promise. Including, but not limited to: forging signatures of famous people, my mom's birthday, and lentil soup! I bet you can't wait!

On Kittens and Domesticity

I got home two days ago, right in time for the worst snowfall in a while. We got at least a foot. In BOSTON.
As a result, I spent yesterday trapped inside my house. I used the time quite productively. I made dinner, did laundry, and watched Bionic Woman.
I also noticed that Sooki, our kitten, has yet to fully grasp the concept of cleaning herself. (She has also yet to grasp the concept of not being a huge pain in the ass, but that is another post for another day.)
And so, today, after beginning the domesticity by baking a baguette (it wasn't rock-hard, but not exactly amazing, either), I endeavored to help the cat out. So I gave her a bath.
And you know what? Neither of us died.
I would consider that a success.
Even though she still stinks.

That's It. I am officially crazy.

I have officially turned crazy.
"But Abbie," you say, "you've always been crazy. It is one of your many multitudinous charms!"
That may be so, but NOW, now I've turned into one of those people who talks about their health all the time. Even in their blog.
Here are the ailments that have afflicted me in the past three weeks:
-MRSA
-Weird Cold Thing that had no cold symptoms but did come with a truly attractive swollen neck and a fever that made me think the MRSA was killing me.
And Now:
Strange Spot Disease. My entire upper body, including the palms of my hands, is covered in itchy red spots.

And it's all I can talk about. Maybe I'll take a break from posting and come back when I have something actually interesting to say.

Or maybe not.

EDIT: James requested a picture of my spotted hand. This is the best photobooth + the library light can provide. I swear it's worse than that in real life.

Oh, It's Bad

I am currently sitting on my bed, an open pizza box by my side, my abnormal psych textbook open to the substance abuse chapter, my computer blasting Holly Near. And I'm wearing sweatpants.
Oh, finals, what did you do to me?

Makes Me Wish I Was Five

Remember Quints dolls? You know, the five tiny little baby dolls? All their accessories were stuck together, so you got a carriage built for five, or a highchair built for five, complete with five spoons stuck together?
They were awesome.
Anyway, I just discovered this on ebay.
And part of me wants to buy it.
I'm trying to resist.
Really hard.