What’s up in Maryland: Grilling and Maryland Republican Primary, 2012

Aynaria 8 Comments

April 3, 2012, has arrived and so has the Maryland Republican Primary, 2012. I’ve already voted. I’m not one to stick to one party, when it comes to voting since I know you can have liars regardless of what party you support, and so I tend to block out what the parties tell me, do my own research, and vote.

Although the polls opened at 7:00 am, I was only the fourth person there when my daughter and I arrived around 10:30 am.

Backyard grilling…

In Maryland, the temperature is supposed to reach 70 F, I’m thrilled. My work is almost finished, so my daughter and I’ll be hanging outside. She’s been itching to ride her bike, and so that’s most likely what happen, while I either skate, or sit on the sidelines working on my crocheted Easter eggs.

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Grilled Bean Burgers: First batch of bean burgers

Grilling

Above is a recycled picture. For a brief time (before I started Celebrate Life) I created a free site on WordPress; Not Your Ordinary Momma (hence the abbreviated name Nyomomma). I wanted to see whether I wanted another personal blog, before purchasing a domain name and adding it to my hosting provider.

Yes, I’ll be outside grilling today. Most likely while my daughter is riding her bike. The weather is warm, the chicken and veggie burgers are marinating, just waiting to be cooked. I’ll be grilling them, along with a few other items. I’ll try to post pictures, so I can share some here at Celebrate Life.

 

Moving forward; coming out of hibernation

Aynaria 2 Comments

Cartoon bear hibernation

This site Celebrate Life, has been in hibernation since it was created a little over two years ago.

Although I posted here, and commented at a few places I wasn’t as active as I’d been with my other personal site.

I believe part of the reason, is finding the time to post. My workload and volunteer activities have increased, and so that didn’t give me a lot of time to do any personal blogging. Family isn’t included in the above equation, because nothing trumps my family.

Sure, I could have let this domain expire, but I knew I didn’t want to do that. I like the name I chose, since it accurately describes my view of life… every day is a blessing.

A few months ago, I started thinking of ways that I could promote the site, although I couldn’t do too much about it, I was able to write my down my thoughts, and slowly gather sites in my NetNewsWire feedreader, that I wanted to visit.

Blog Promotion

This past weekend I started putting those ideas into action. Naturally I’m thrilled that I’ve come out of hibernation with my personal site. It’s only taken two years…

So yes, I’ve started promoting my personal site, just as I used to do with my old one. The thing is, I didn’t see it that way, and to be honest I still don’t.

The type of ‘blog promotion’ I was doing was simply being a ‘good virtual neighbor’. You know… stopping by virtual homes to say hello, joining online communities to further increase my interaction with others.

It was an added bonus, if someone liked a comment I’d left and either stopped by my virtual home, commented, mentioned my site in a post, or added Celebrate Life’s RSS feed to their RSS feed reader. Naturally, it wasn’t the reason I visited others; but those types of things did happen. I’d met people like myself, and that was amazing. Back then, that site had a high page rank, long before I knew what Page Rank was…

Thankyou cartoon

Thank you, readers of Celebrate Life

Granted, it’s still too early for big results, but here at Celebrate Life, I’ve already seen a surge in traffic, and additionally an increase in subscribers that use a RSS feed reader.

So thanks readers (old and new) it’s appreciated.

Photo Source: Gog’s Workshop

A bit deceptive….

Aynaria 8 Comments

Wile E Coyote

This morning, when I looked outside, I was greeted by the suns early morning rays, it was warm and beckoned me to come outside for the day.

In my mind I ran down a list of yard work that could be completed, getting ahead of myself, I mentally checked off some of those items too. Yep, even added grilling to that list, since I’ll make any excuse to do that — rain or shine.

Walking Mr. Bentley, our Shih Tzu, It became apparent that those (seemingly) warm sun rays were deceptive;  inside it looked warm, stepping outside was a completely different story. It was cold! Brr… Things aren’t always as the appear, are they?

Most of the outdoor activities are being saved for warmer days, however, we did plant the onions.

And I’m still looking for the library book…

After coming back from the quilting group my daughter and I just hung out. We read, played, and are in the process of making paper crafts.

You know what? Sometimes, it’s perfectly ok to put things on hold, if it means spending time with those you care about. Besides, I can start looking for the book tomorrow, I don’t procrastinate often, but this time… it’s worth it. I enjoy spending time with my daughter.

My 200th post…

I mainly write my posts via MarsEdit, a blog editor for Mac computers. However, today I logged into WordPress, to update a few addons, and backup my posts. Judging by my stats, this is my 200th post.

Compared to my older personal site, VeganMomma, I’m seriously slipping since I had three times the amount of posts written by this time. Then again, back then I didn’t have as many websites, as I do now. The majority of my ‘free time’ is devoted to my business sites. Also, I let this site, Celebrate Life, sit dormant for about a year before I started posting again.

A misplaced library book

Aynaria 5 Comments

Book Creepy Cute Crochet

It’s frustrating when you’ve misplaced something…

You can spend hours (sometimes days looking for the item) hopefully, your search ends because you’ve found the item — and not because you’ve given up out of frustration.

One of the crochet books I’d requested from the library, Creepy Cute Crochet by Christian Haden, has gone missing.

It’s a bit frustrating when this happens, especially since I’m no longer guilty of misplaced library books, but I know who is… my daughter. The last few times library books miraculously surfaced in my daughters room. I’m certain she has it, after all she did ask to borrow it, it’s just been misplaced.

Last month, when I did all that  house cleaning, I didn’t do too much with my daughters room… However we’ll be tackling her room today, right after my quilting group ends. She’s not too pleased about the room cleaning, she’s at that age when she likes having her things arranged in a certain way, and I try to respect that… but I also know at times she needs a gentle nudge from mom. This is one of those times.

I told my little princess, the room cleaning,  is something that needs to be done, and the added bonus will be finding that misplaced library book. While cleaning, I’ll gently remind her of keeping items (especially those you don’t own) in one place. I’ve given her two cloth bags for to store her library books, still puzzles me why she doesn’t always use them.

Regarding today’s quilting group… I’m bringing my daughter along with me, the ladies have heard about her, and those that don’t attend church are looking forward to meet her. Additionally, one of the other ladies, is bringing her granddaughter, who’s nine years old, which is one year older than my daughter.

 

Chapati; Indian flatbread? No… more like Indian pancakes

Aynaria 7 Comments

Chapati

After my daughter’s grief for her guinea pig subsided, I decided to do some experimentation with chapati.

I love chapati aka Indian flatbread, but haven’t made it in a few years. Which is kind of strange, since I absolutely adore the bread…

Besides, the common ingredients that are found in chaptis (or rotis) I also added chopped onion to the ingredients. I also included some of the dhal I’d made yesterday, and although it turned out well it wasn’t exactly a flatbread, more like a savory pancake.

If I’d let the dough sit for an hour or so, and rolled the dough balls out into thin circular sheets, it would have resembled the chapati you see in this post. But even with its flaws, my daughter absolutely adored them, and ate two of the chapatis.

It’s nice to see that her grief hasn’t ruined her appetite… the girl is always hungry! My daughter calls what I made, ‘Indian pan bread‘. I think it’s an appropriate name, don’t you?

Tomorrow, I’ll post a picture of my ‘Indian pancakes’, but now I’m off to hang with my daughter.

Word of thanks

Many thanks to those who offered there condolences to my daughters furbaby on Facebook and here, she really appreciated all the kind words.

April fools day; sadness

Aynaria 7 Comments

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I’m not sure what made me check, but before heading out to church this morning, I discovered that my daughter’s guinea pig (Daizy) wasn’t moving. Her name wasn’t spelled incorrectly, check out the post about our guinea pigs, if you want to know why her name isn’t spelled like the flower.

Unfortunately, my daughters little fur princess died sometime this morning. My daughter was right behind me, so there was no way I could prevent her from seeing her little pal (and delaying the outburst of tears that came).

As expected, we didn’t make it to church today. Her choir was singing at our Lutheran church this morning, but they wouldn’t have heard my daughter — not with all that sobbing. Truth is, I’ll miss Daizy too, she’s the black guinea pig shown in the above photo. She was our most active of the two, and quite feisty.

I found a suitable burial cloth for Ms. Daizy, and buried her beside our most loveliest rose bush. Incidentally, my dog Lalita is buried there too.

Healthy food, prepared correctly, is delicious

Aynaria 2 Comments

Indian spices

Creating tantalizing meals that are simple to prepare, nutritious, and delicious, is something I’ve always enjoyed. Meal creation is one of my favorite activities.

I’ve been cooking since I was four years old, even then I liked to create my own meals — without following the directions aka recipe laid out for me, and that part hasn’t changed.

The majority of the meals my mom prepared were healthy, however, she didn’t stray from traditional food preparation, whereas I wanted to explore. Living on my own, gave me the opportunity to use the foods I was used to in different ways. It also gave me the chance to try new things.

I’ve always enjoyed shopping for food, that would enable me to create the numerous dishes While frequenting my favorite foods stores, in my early twenties,I developed a friendly relationship with some of the employees.

Because of my age and working in the corporate environment, some of the older male employees (probably in there 60’s) were shocked, that I adored cooking. A few would joke with me that I couldn’t possibly be a good cook. Too which I promptly replied, “You’re only saying that, because you want me to bring in some of the meals I prepare, and sometimes I would.

Some people dismiss healthier food options, simply because the food they tried was cooked incorrectly. Thanks to technology, those who want to learn how to prepare a food properly can easily access that information via articles or an online video.

Lord Krishna’s Cuisine: The Art of Vegetarian Cooking, is one of my favorite Indian cookbooks. It serves up a tantalizing mix of recipes along with facts about the various ingredients that to into making the dish. I rarely follow recipes, and so this cookbook (like my others) are mainly a resource I turn to get ideas, or inspiration.