feminism ain't easy: all apologies

I saw this on the news last night about an exchange between Ted Cruz and Dianne Feinstein in a senate judiciary committee hearing.  It bothered me, but not for the reason you might suspect.

I'm not overly upset about Ted Cruz and his line of reasoning. Sure, I disagree with him.  I also figure if he wants to make his underlying argument look weaker by trying to be condescending, that's his decision.

What concerns me about this story -- and others recounting the exchange between Cruz and Feinstein -- is the mention at the end of her apologizing to him after the fact.  If you watch the conversation in full and not edited for prime time news (available here), you'll see that Senators Leahy and Durbin also had some cutting remarks for Cruz.  In my opinion, none of the comments, Feinstein's included, were inappropriate or disrespectfully irate.  I'm at a loss as to why she should feel the need to apologize for making a strong argument in defense of her opinions.

More to the point, why is it relevant to the journalistic recounting of events?  I can't recall the last time a story on male legislators mentioned that one apologized to another.  Maybe the men of Washington apologize to each other all over the place.  Who am I to know?  Whether they do or they don't isn't my point, though, it's that if they do, we don't hear about it (and probably don't need to).  The fact that major media outlets seem to only find it relevant when a female senator apologizes: that's what I find problematic.

(new) neighborhood wildlife

Our old house was in a great location close to civilization but letting us see the occasional woodland creature scampering by.  We saw foxes a few times and heard a lot of fishercats in the woods next to the house.  There were lots of turkeys, and there was this little guy.

We love the house we've moved to, but there's been a bit of wistfulness about leaving behind the "hidden wooded gem in the middle of the city" location we used to have.  Mind you, I'm glad to leave the fishercats behind, but the thought of just squirrels and chipmunks in the yard was a little boring.

Thankfully, the new neighborhood doesn't disappoint.  Mr. Cecil and I were out on a walk last week, when I noticed about seven or so really, surprisingly, intimidatingly large birds in a cluster of trees.  We turned a corner and found a few of them perched on the roof and chimney of a house.  Stock-still.  With their wings spread out.  It was more than a little creepy, in a fascinating way.

Based on a little quick googling, I think they're turkey vultures.  So, not a threat to small and medium-sized dogs (yay!) but pretty cool to see.

 

how i roll

Oh yes I did.  Radio silence for two months, then back with an atrocious pun.  Pow!

I may never buy store-bought hamburger rolls again.  I won't if The Awesome Husband has anything say about it, anyway.

These were somewhat time consuming in a plan-ahead sort of way, but not overly difficult.  My perspective may also be different now because the process of cleaning up after cooking finally involves putting bowls and spoons in our dishwasher rather than into the sink where they'll mock us until we wash them by hand.  So now everything feels easy-peasy.

Anyway, yeah, homemade hamburger rolls.   We had these with black bean burgers, sweet potato fries, and a salad.  Yum!

new year, new furniture

What better way to spend New Year's Eve than moving a large piece of furniture.  That's what you guys all did too, right?

I've been keeping an eye out on craigslist, at thrift stores, and the like for furniture we'd like to have in our new house.  A desk for the semi-finished basement.  More dining chairs.  They're things we don't necessarily need right away, so we have the luxury of waiting for just the right whatever-it-is.

The other day I found just the right desk listed on craigslist for $50.  I asked if the seller would take $40, and thankfully they took that and weren't offended.  Also thankfully, my parents have an SUV big enough to move furniture (and thankfully they let us borrow it).  The Awesome Husband and I drove over to pick it up in the evening on New Year's Eve.  It's bigger in person than I expected, but (one more time!) thankfully we found that the top and bottom could be moved separately.  We ended up making two trips, but we got the whole thing moved and set up in about two hours.  

I'm so stinkin' excited about this desk.  It's exactly what we didn't know we wanted to find, for a fraction of the price we were expecting to pay.

orange + chocolate = delicious

One of my eccentricities is a very, very strong aversion to wastefulness.  I should probably put another "very"  in there, just to be accurate.  What this meant when I made candied orange peels was that I couldn't bring myself to throw away the orange-infused syrup left behind at the end of the steeping process.  Most of it went into the freezer to await further inspiration.

An idea hit me before the pot hit the sink, in fact.  I added milk to what I couldn't scrape out and stirred it over low heat, then added cocoa powder and whisked it until it was incorporated.  

Orange hot chocolate.  My new favorite toasty beverage for winter.  Yum.

settling in means being festive

Let's take an intermission of sorts from the posts about our old house.  I suppose you could also call it an intermission from not-blogging.  That wouldn't be inaccurate.

We're about 90% settled in at the new house.  There are some boxes left to unpack, which drives The Awesome Husband nuts but doesn't phase me much.  There's some art left to hang on the walls, but I'd rather wait until we're sure of where we want things to go before we go hammering nails every which way. 

Thankfully the kitchen's pretty well put together at this point.  Pots and pans and mixers and appliances are all where they need to be, which made it much easier to make some festive treats last weekend.  There was this wonderfully adaptable recipe, which I made as cranberry lime bread.  And then, because I wanted to make something for someone allergic to eggs, peanuts, and dairy -- the horror! -- I also made a small batch of candied orange peels.  

I think they turned out pretty well.  And hey, in the background and stuff, that's our new kitchen!  

   

love letter to our house: living room

Whoopsie!  I showed you the before and after versions of the outside of our house, then completely dropped the ball on the rest of it.  Moving will do that to you, apparently.

So I'd mentioned in passing that there was some orange shag carpet when The Awesome Husband closed on the house and first clutched the keys in his very own hands.  That doesn't fully convey the amount of 1960s-ness that had to be eradicated from the premises.   Not only was there orange shag carpet covering every square inch of the floor other than the kitchen and bathroom, but there was wall paneling everywhere.  And it covered up wallpaper.  Which covered more wallpaper.  

There were also some pretty sweet window treatments. 

We tackled the walls ourselves with some help from friends and family, and once we gave the orange shag the boot, we paid to have the hardwood floors refinished.  We could have given it the ol' college try, but it wouldn't have looked as good and it sure wouldn't have been done in a weekend.  Best $700 we ever spent.

And then, you know, we put furniture in it and stuff.  Take a look! 

Before 

During

After!