Frenzied Daddy

And I thought it was blanc mange.

My “office” is right around the corner from the television, and we’ve lately been watching the Food Channel. Good Eats is especially awesome; I love how Alton Brown goes into the science behind the cooking. A few days ago the family was watching “Everyday Italian” and I was working; but I could hear the recipe, and it sounded pretty tasty. The host made Lasagne Rolls… Made with proscuitto ham, spinach, ricotta, rolled up in lasagne noodles with marinara sauce spooned over the top.

I had some leftover spaghetti sauce and some “bakeless” lasagne noodles, so I thought I’d whip this up. I made it with black forest ham rather than proscuitto though- I wasn’t prepared to spend $7 for 3oz. I had been only half listening to the process, however, so I totally missed the instructions to make the sauce.

My dad taught me to make white sauce, way back when. It’s the base for gravy, for macaroni and cheese, and even to a certain extent lemon merangue pie. The recipe called for a basic white sauce too- and this person called it ‘bechamel.’ Wow, I’m using french recipes to cook italian foods! But I didn’t make the white sauce, and the recipe probably suffered for it. But it was still darn tasty.

My dad used to sing with ‘us kids.’ Singing was a way to pass the time when we were driving somewhere distant; my memories of the time singing with him are the main reason I don’t ever want to have a DVD player in the car; there’s a feeling of connection that I want to foster. I also remember him, once in a long while, reciting Casey at the Bat. And while I remember him reciting this poem too, it might have been in a kid’s poetry book, and when I read it I heard his voice. He only did it once or twice, if he actually did it, but I loved it. It’s definately something I can hear him speaking. This is the guy who taught me “How in the heck am I gonna wash my neck if it ain’t gonna rain no more,” and “Mary had a little lamb, she kept it in the closet… and every time she opened the door, she found a little deposit.”

Little Orphant Annie
By James Whitcomb Riley

To all the little children: — The happy ones; and sad ones;
The sober and the silent ones; the boisterous and glad ones;
The good ones — Yes, the good ones, too; and all the lovely bad ones.

Little Orphant Annie’s come to our house to stay,
An’ wash the cups an’ saucers up, an’ brush the crumbs away,
An’ shoo the chickens off the porch, an’ dust the hearth, an’ sweep,
An’ make the fire, an’ bake the bread, an’ earn her board-an’-keep;
An’ all us other childern, when the supper-things is done,
We set around the kitchen fire an’ has the mostest fun
A-list’nin’ to the witch-tales ‘at Annie tells about,
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘at gits you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!
more …

Ok you guys are scaring me.
Which one of you came looking for baby nemo zombie pics ?

I’m not going to apologize for being quiet so long.

Ms B, as it turns out, had endometriosis, which led to some internal bleeding in the fallopian tubes, which caused necrosis, swelling, torsion, and the dainty little egg-chutes to do their damnedest to act like clown balloon animals. She’s had some surgery, we’ll try to get by with no more surgery and just a daily set of pills, but we’re open to the possibility that more surgery is necessary.

She’s been home with me since about September 18 (give or take). I’m sure it’s been enlightening to her as to what working from home’s like for me. Lately I’ve been getting up at five (I’m on a rotating on-call schedule), working for a while, taking Miss B to school, taking Miss K next door to be cared for by our neighbor. Then I “work” until about 12:30 when I have a conference call that’ll last anywhere from 1 to 2 hours, go get Miss B, go run some other errands, come home, fix dinner and work some more.

Working from home has been a challenge. On the one hand, my work desk is in the room with everyone else and the television, and I get all kinds of distractions. I’m getting better about focussing on the work though. This was an interesting discussion about the difficulties of working from home. Did you know there are offices you can rent that have receptionists, internet access, mail service– all the works of a normal office? I sure didn’t, but on reflection, that’s what CGI Production uses, for the most part. But I don’t think I’m ready for that yet; and it’d be an extra 200-500 out of my monthly budget (Yeah, I looked into it. Some “executive suites” are downtown!)

Speaking of “monthly budget.” That’s a laugh… I’m working hard at all my little projects, and I’m doing ok, but not well enough to pay all the bills on my own. Ms B has a good short term disability package, so that’ll be a big help … and now the washing machine has conked out.

So the quietness? Worry over Ms B, worry over finances, and some serious head-down work on some issues. But in an effort to “not work all the time,” which is my worst problem with working from home, I’m going to be making an effort to play with the kids more and to blog more. Because I like it.