Chicken is chicken is chicken

Last Monday was the first day of my Calculations & Dosages class. We started off with an introduction; name, major, if we had kids, etc. A lot of people were listing their animals, so I decided I was going to be cheeky.

"Hello. I'm Ket. I'm majoring in veterinary. I have one little girl. Four dogs. Oh, yeah, and 95 chickens."

The class paused. My teacher peered at me. "95?" She asked. I nodded. Class resumed.
Later on, the instructor was going over the class rules.
"I don't care if you eat a bag of chips or a candy bar," She mentioned. "But if you bring in steak and potatoes, you'd better bring enough for all!"
Me being my cheeky self, I piped up. "I can bring in roast chicken!"

One of the girls sitting down the row squeaked. "Wait." She said. "You actually eat your chickens!?"
I kinda gave her A Look. "Well, yeah." I said, wanting sorely to add (and what else would we do with 95 chickens?).
Her face took on a horrified look. "You mean you slaughter them?"
"Uh... yeah." I said, peering at her. She gagged, but by now I was curious. "Are you a vegetarian?"
"Well, no." She said with a valley-girl twang.
Confused, I asked "So... you eat chicken?"
With a teenage-girl e yeroll, she goes: "Yeah... but it comes from the store!"

I waited a moment to see if that statement would click in her head. Meanwhile, our teacher is looking between us with a pained, I'm-trying-not-to-laugh look on her face. The class was silent.
After a minute, I realized that this girl just didn't get that chicken = chicken... whether it's from the store or in your backyard. Either way, the bird dies...
"Yeah." I said, and turned back to the front of the class and opened my book.


Now, this isn't the first time this has happened. I got a similar response when I mentioned in a chat room online that I slaughtered chickens. "Well, yeah I eat chicken, but it comes from the store!" It seems to be... well... a pretty common response. Despite the lack of sense of it.

Next time, I'm going to reply with "Yeah, and someone slaughtered that store chicken too, I bet!" all cheery and smiley-faced.

No-Bake Oatmeal Fudge Cookies

Two years ago, Ben gave me a recipe. "This never works for me," He said, "But maybe you can make them. If you do, I'll marry you. Or something."

Apparently, Ben's lack of cooking finesse stepped in every time he tried to make these delightful cookies. Mostly, I believe this is because time is crucial in this recipe, and Ben... well, he's just not very observant. I can see him leaving the fudge on for five minutes (it's supposed to be on for ONE) and getting a block of fudgey mess instead of cookies.

But anyway, here's the recipe. It's egg free, but milk and butter are essential. I've never tried it without the peanut butter but I imagine it would still work. (EDIT: I tried it without peanut butter... and it was melty and gross. Apparently the PB is needed after all!)

No-Bake Oatmeal Fudge Cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Butter
Pinch of salt
3 TBL cocoa
2 Cups Sugar
3 Cups Oatmeal (Quick oats work best)
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1 Tsp vanilla

Directions:
(I have gotten the best results by using a wooden spoon for all mixing, not metal or plastic!)

Mix milk, butter, salt, cocoa, and sugar in a saucepan. Bring it to a rolling boil. After it hits a rolling boil, boil for 1 minute. Time is crucial - too much and it will solidify too quick, and too little time and it won't solidify at all!
After one minute, remove from heat. Mix in oats, peanut butter, and vanilla.
Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. DO NOT scrape the saucepan! Let cool until set and firm. Fudge should not be shiny; it should be pretty dull after it sets.
I don't recommend using the fridge to set these... They turn out more sticky and less firm.

This makes about two dozen medium sized cookies.

Problems?
1. Fudge doesn't set and is still sticky and runny after more than 20 minutes: You didn't boil the mix long enough.

2. Fudge is crumbly and doesn't hold it's shape: You boiled the mix TOO long.

3. Fudge is grainy, has a sand-like texture: The sugar didn't melt all the way OR you scraped the pan, scraping accumulated sugar crystals into the cookies.

4. Cookies disappear minutes after they're firm: Hah. :D This isn't a problem! It's the expected outcome! As you can see in the picture, two of my cookies have 'mysteriously' disappeared... and they're not even all the way firm yet. XD


Anyway, today I'm making three batches of these for Ben to take to work tomorrow. I'll probably end up making another whole batch just to keep here at home and munch on. :) Enjoy!

I've been awake since 4:30AM...

Stupid. I think I have a UTI. It's painful. And we don't have a family doctor who can get me in quickly. Cranberry juice, here I come.

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, and then this morning I woke up around 4-4:30 and just could not go back to sleep. I took a shower, tried to relax, and have been alternately staring at the wall and reading old journals. I'm hungry, but I know if I leave to get food Mori will wake up, and Ben probably won't wake up with her. I have finals today. My crotch hurts and I feel like I have a constantly full bladder. I don't want to spend four-six hours at school doing nothing. I'm hungry.

However, due to a sporadic cleaning last night, the house looks good. The floor is vacuumed. The dishes are done. Laundry is caught up. It feels good.

But damn, I'm hungry. And I can't find my hairclips, which would be nice to pull my wet hair off my neck.

I must be insane. Regarding school, at least.

Alrighty, so, when I found out I was pregnant, I had a plan in mind for school. I'd take summer quarter full-time, loaded with classes. Autumn quarter would be half-time, to accommodate a growing baby-belly (and the misery that comes with it). Winter I would take off, because who can go to school with a newborn? I'd resume full-time for Spring, which starts in March.

Perfect plan, perfect timing, says I.

However, that just got blown to bits. Lots of itty bitty bits. Because if I half-time it in Autumn and don't go at all in Winter, I won't have the pre-reqs I need for the vet tech program in time.

So now, Summer finals are Monday. And I'm scheduled for 13CR for Autumn. Granted, they're mostly 100-level classes, so they shouldn't be that difficult, but still. (Chem 100, Math: Calculations/Dosages, Speech and Algebra 2). Autumn goes from Sept. 14th-ish to right before Christmas. I'll be about 8-mo pregnant during finals. I must be insane.

And to top it off, I can't take winter quarter off - I have to be at least part-time, otherwise my financial aid gets all screwy and I won't have it for Spring. So I've got a line-up of online classes that I think I can handle, including Business Comm, Med. terminology, and "Freshman" seminar.

And then Spring I start with 200-level classes, and by Fall I should be taking the VET schedule, which is, ah, well, INSANE.

But anyway, there's a scholarly update. Cheers!

(Oh! And SPORE came out yesterday. Now I have to hunt down a copy. MINE, I say, MINE!)

I screwed up... But we survived!

Hello! We're back from Saint Louis!
Saturday was hectic. I mean, major hectic. It all started well, though. There I was, doing laundry, washing some dishes. Morrigan went down for her afternoon nap and I thought to myself "Maybe I should look up our flight times for tomorrow so we don't miss it!"

I sat at the computer, loaded up Expedia, and got our itinerary. "Dum, dum, dum." I thought. "Okay, flying out on Saturday the 30th at 6:55am... wait, wait. Saturday? HOLY SHIT! That's TODAY!"

Apparently dipshit me booked the flight a day early on accident. So, there I was, 12:20pm on Saturday, looking at an itinerary that said the plane had left six hours ago. I immediately busted into tears and called Ben.

"Ben!" I said. "I screwed up. The flight's gone! The flight's gone!"
Ten minutes later, after he could get me to coherently tell him what happened, he made a brilliant suggestion. Call the airport and see what we can do.

I called American and told them how much of an idiot I was. They said "No problem, people miss their flights all the time. Just bring in your ticket and we'll fly you stand-by tonight."

Tonight? But Ben was at work! So, after I hung up with American, I sheepishly called Ben back and told him to come home so we could rush to the airport to rush onto another flight and not have to pay $300 extra for new tickets.

He did, and we did, and we got on a flight. Two hours later we were in STL.

Over all, the trip was good. Stressful, tiring, and definately wore me out, but it was good. Ben met a good chunk of the family and still hasn't divorced me (an amazement in itself) and mother behaved herself remarkably well. We spent a whole evening with daddy and Brad and Nina, playing Wii and showing Mori their turtle. We had lots of eat-out food, which my body did not quite agree with, and got back in one piece.

Now today, it's off to school for final exams and off to work tomorrow for Ben. Morrigan graciously slept all through the night last night, which means so did I, and it seemed to recharge us pretty well. To complete that recharge, I'm going to First Watch to have a nice, alone, quiet breakfast before throwing myself back into the throes of student life.

Ciao!