Gone Girl, parental irritation, hermit crabs

Today has been full, cold/rainy, at times unbelievably irritating and at other times great. My Oliver is one of my favorite people in the WHOLE world, but gawd did I want to run for the hills away from him about 50% of the time. Jesus H, people. He pushed every button I knew I had and some that were previously undiscovered. I cannot wait for him to go to bed and tomorrow to go to school. Right now, he's sitting on the floor cutting a shred of paper into a million pieces that I know he will raise cain about when I tell him to clean up, and after a long, protracted cry-fest, he'll pick up two pieces, wipe his nose on me and I'll finally call it a day, dustbuster them up and just be ever that much more tired. Good lord, three year olds. I'm getting older just thinking about this situation. It's a miracle that I do not yet have gray hairs. This morning, as a reward for a deal made two years ago, we set up a hermit crab terrarium for Jack in his room. Jerry and Max (seriously? these are the crab's names?) are, at present, nestled in their sphagnum-filled cave in complete camouflage, apparently acclimating to their new habitat which, I simply must say, is infinitely nicer than their previous home at PetSmart. We can hope they'll live a happy life in J's room; at least their voiding will be contained and, as such, not require some ridiculous pet diaper. As an aside, Percy had to wear his diaper all day. We think he needs to be adorned with a scarlet P, and not for pug.

Have y'all read Gone Girl? Swear to god, I can't put it down. 200+ pages since Friday. How I've gotten anything else done is beyond me but I love immersing myself in a good book. What's for dinner? I don't know, but I am going to make some more holiday goodies ASAP. Hmm....more later.

Spontaneous visits with friends, dinner

You know when you meet someone and you nearly immediately think, "what a cool/fun/spunky/interesting/neat person! Boy would it be fun to know him/her better!"? Such is the case of friends of friends who I met through a fairly spontaneous girls' dinner and have stayed in touch with since, not least because she and her husband run a happy-cow farm as their second job (I loove the roasts I get from them!). Long story short, they swung by this evening to deliver two sirloin tip roasts, and we had such a fun, lovely visit despite the fact that they -on their way to a holiday party- looked smashing, and T and I -definitely staying in- are basically in our PJs. I love spontaneous visits with great people, and tonight was just that. After they left, T and I finished up dinner which was quite tasty. Perfectly browned chicken and this extremely pretty and festive rice. 

As I'm obsessively reading Gone Girl right now, I must bid you adieu until tomorrow.

Kudos/nodos, delish dinner on horizon

I would like to give an enormous shout-out to my husband because he saw one of my bras in the laundry basket and actually put it in the bra-washer to launder it. Say what? Amazing. Will wonders never cease?! I would like to call out, with utter disdain, the dudes I have seen lately blowing their noses out through the air. Do you know what I mean? No tissue, not even a sleeve (wretch; as if that's much better but it is more responsible or respectful to passersby). Unless you are in mile 25 of a marathon, you do NOT need to blow your nose crap out into the ether around you. Revolting. Go find a kleenex, hanky, leaf for god's sakes.

I made so many cookies today that my back aches now. Am I getting old? Whatever, a delicious dinner is on the horizon. A caramelized onion and rice dish studded with apricots, sour cherries, pistachios and pom seeds alongside some seared happy chicken. It smells so good, and at T minus four minutes, I am darn excited!