Raktijino: Klingon Mom Style

As I missed my coffee this morning, and have sorely felt the lack today, I thought I might share my recipe for "raktijino," or spiced coffee. I have overused several recipes for "raktijino," but none of them seem quite right for my taste. I make my coffee in a French press, since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, also I usually make half-decaf.  I am a wimp, but cut me some slack. I am a breastfeeding wimp, after all. I also don't really measure things that precisely. 

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons ground coffee

Dash Cinnamon

Dash Ginger

Pinch nutmeg, cardamom, cloves

Pinch crushed fennel seeds

Combine spices and coffee in French press, add approximately 8 oz. boiling water. Steep for a few minutes, then stir and plunge. While coffee is brewing, heat approximately 4 oz. milk. Combine milk and coffee, add sugar to taste.  Prepare for an honorable day of, I don't know, bat'leth training or something. 

First Time Parent Panic: Travel

Here is some news for any and all, at least those of you in the United States:  Thanksgiving is next week!  Now, I know you're thinking "gee, Klingon Mom, what's the big deal?  Just dish up some gagh and bloodwine and have done."  That's all well and good, but since we have extended families to think about, travel is inevitable at this time of year.  Flying around the holidays is bad enough as an adult. Now we have a baby.

This will not be our first excursion with Picard.  A couple of weeks ago, we took a little road trip to visit some friends.  He hated it so much.  We thought it would work out great--he fell asleep, we set out, biut after about twenty minutes he woke up and started screaming.  Needless to say, our trip took a lot of extra time, what with the extra stops for milk and diapers and cuddles.  Had I been thinking ahead, I would have thawed a bottle of milk for the trip so he could eat on the road, but he hardly ever has bottles, so maybe that wouldn't have worked.  The plane will be a little easier in that regard; since we'll be holding him, he can nurse whenever he wants to.

The major source of anxiety is, of course, what if he has a fit of the screamies?  I mean, babies cry, and people understand that babies cry, but I am quite terrified of being the family with the [expletive deleted] screaming baby.  And more importantly, if Picard is crying, it's because something is wrong.  Granted, babies don't have the best sense of proportion, but the crying really makes me feel like the worst parent EVAR!  I went to a mom and baby group a little while ago, and Picard spend most of it in a cascade of heart wrenching sobs and ear splitting screams, while I paced with him in a darkened back room until he calmed down.  My greatest hope is that Picard will recognize that air travel is the closest he will get to the Enterprise for now, and that he will find it of some comfort.

I am also feeling a little bit daunted by packing--though that is tempered somewhat by the fact that I am an expert at packing a suitcase, and the fact that we'll be staying with my parents.  Any packing anxiety stems from the fact that I am used to only bringing carry-on luggage, and may have to end up letting go of that practice.  Alas.  I have concerns about handling the carseat, too.  We will have him as a lap child because, frankly, it's a pretty short flight and we'd almost certainly end up holding him for the whole thing anyway.  However, I know what happens to checked bags, and thinking about that gives me the shivers.

Anyway.  I am sure everything will be more or less okay.  In other news, I finally have mustered up the gumption to try cloth diapers, as soon as Picard wakes up from his nap.

Raktajino Klatsch--A Change of Direction

I have had some pretty significant changes in the past year.  Well, actually just the one.  As you might be able to tell from the Brand New Name, I had a baby recently!  Yay!  He's excellent and wonderful and perfect and all things that new parents say about their children.  It has me thinking about what I want him to learn from us and the world.  It has me thinking about what my own admirable qualities are, what is not so admirable about me, and how this will pan out in parenting the little sprocket.  It has me thinking about how much Star Trek I have watched throughout my lifetime.  

My husband and I are nerds.  I say it freely because there is no shame in the fact.  We had a conversation a couple of years into our relationship about "what Star Trek culture we most identified with," and he described me as half Klingon, half Vulcan--a somewhat unorthodox combination that I nevertheless find pretty accurate.  I went with "Klingon Mom" for the new title because it has a better ring to it.  Also, I think it might be slightly more important that Picard* grow up to be honorable than a paragon of logical thinking.  Not that I don't want him to develop that skill.  I want him to grow up to do glorious battle with his own fears and the challenges of being alive.  

I hope to continue the patterns and the household-y stuff, and discuss issues of parenting young Picard, as it appears from my vantage point.  I make to claims to wisdom, or even competence.  We're just doing our best to avoid screwing up too badly.  I like to think that we are probably up to the challenge.  Luckily, I feel like parenting is an adaptive interface--for the first couple of months, everyone just has to have their physical needs met, and once you gain the necessary experience points and acquire the skill ranks, the challenge rating increases.  

In writing this, I feel more that a little trite, since home/family/parenting blogs are a dime a dozen, but I think that nerd parents are underrepresented, much like nerd ladies.  And I'd like to be a part of remedying that situation.  I will try to update regularly.  Maybe aim for a schedule of features of some kind.  We'll see.

Qapla'!

*The child is not named "Picard."  It was, however, his nickname before he was born.

It's an Update!

I am not a very good blogger.  There, I said it.  I am not ashamed to admit.  However, having recently discovered that there are, in fact people looking at this, I feel it that my time might be better spent thinking and writing than doing Sporcle quizzes.  As much fun as they are.  So, what has been going on over the past year?  Read lots of books, obviously.  Working on some knitting patterns, so that is cool.  I hope to have something of that nature to post soon.  Perhaps some reviews of books? 

I will leave you for now with a suggestion of a musical nature.  There really needs to be a mash-up of two Duran Duran songs: "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf."  Title "Her Name is Rio and She's Hungry Like the Wolf."  Go ahead and sing them together in your head.  I'll wait................Totally, right?

And last but not least, the best cover of a Duran Duran song ever. 

What I Wore Today

Today's long-due post will be fashion related, and also a representation of my skills of an artist. Instead of the usual photo of my outfit, I have composed a little sketch, for your consideration. This is also an example of the type of head covering that I wear from time to time, when I feel so inclined.

So, today I am wearing a green track jacket from college (there is white trim in real life, but I forgot to include that), in a clear kelly green with navy lettering. Underneath, a black tee shirt with a cool fingerprint design in yellow and green; a gift from my Aunt and modified from big and boxy to trim and fitted. My skirt is of the homemade variety, made out of two old pairs of jeans, along these lines. The only difference is that using a second pair of pants, I added a gore at the front as well as the back. Because the first pair were flared to begin with, I have a wonderfully swishy mermaidy skirt, with lots of room to walk. Black pointed toe flats from Target about 3 years ago on my feet.

The head covering is one I sort of made up myself, using a hat/hood/cap (illustrated above) I made out of a scrap of interlock knit. The piece was a long, shallow triangle, which I stitched and pleated in the middle to make a sort of hood that goes on like a swimming cap, and leaving long flaps at the sides to be arranged as I wish. It stays in place because it is stretchy, made to fit my head, and has the natural grip of cotton knit. I was missing my long hair today, so I wanted to approximate one long braid, like this style at The Style Underground. (One of the best head covering resources, I think.) Using a long narrow rectangular scarf, I made a long braid at the back, then pulled it over my shoulder for going out and about. While at home, vacuuming, cooking, etc., I toss it to the back and out of the way. Looks cute, and is a good morale booster while I am regrowing my hair!

Film Review: Black Beauty

It sure has been a while? Whoops. I will kick things back off with a review of the 1994 adaptation of Black Beauty. Now, maybe this sort of thing is to your taste, maybe not. I foolishly decided to rewatch this tonight, having nothing better to do, and feeling a little nostalgic. I saw this movie in the theatre when it came out, and remembered this about the experience:

1. The movie was very, very sad.

2. Merrylegs, the sassy pony at the beginning and his antics.

3. There were two old biddies sitting behind me chattering about the movie. And they sounded just like the "pepperpots" from Monty Python's Flying Circus (I lived in Britain at the time).

However, I also remembered generally liking it, and since it had the advantage of featuring my favorite eye candy, not that I will publicly admit any names, (hint: the names should rhyme, and yet, they do not! madness!) it seemed like a pleasant diversion. And so, to the movie review!

Based on the classic book by Anna Sewell, this movie depicts the life and times of Black Beauty, the eponymous horse, from birth to old age. He is born and has an idyllic first few years on an unnamed farm, and is trained up for riding, and eventually sold to a well to do family to drive their carriages. At his new home, he makes friends with the other horses, and forms a special bond with Ginger, with whom he drives as a team. Much is also made of the relationship between Black Beauty and Joe, a young stable hand. Too soon, however, the family must move, and they sell their horses. Beauty and Ginger go the the stables of a nobleman and his wife, who insist on fitting out their horses fashionably, generally mistreating them in the process. After a disfiguring injury, Beauty is sold as horse for hire, and eventually to the family of a hansom cab driver, who treats him kindly until the father becomes too ill to continue in the profession sells Beauty, or Blackjack as he is now known, to be used as a cart horse for a flour mill. Eventually, broken and emaciated, Beauty is at a dismal horse market, when who should come around but Joe the stable hand, now grown.

I have left out the most depressing plot points, in case you want to watch this and experience the trauma undiluted. Beauty's thoughts are expressed by a voiceover, which became very cheesy at parts, but I can't deny its potency as a tearjerker. It's really a beautiful film to look at, though the beginning is a little saccharine for my taste. Foxes and bunnies and hedgehogs and foals! There are plenty of hard knocks to make up for the excess cuteness after the beginning sequence.

Overall, I will give this movie a B+: It was kind of cheesy, but it's ostensibly a kids movie, so I'm willing to let that slide in light of the fact that it was so very effective at making me weep like a fool for an hour.

"Don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared"

Since it's been a very long time since I've posted, and I don't have anything new and awesome to share, I am going to share something old and awesome. I made this little delight years ago, and it's one of my very favorite possessions. I have received many gifts of jewelry over the years, and thus have accumulated a large number of bitsy jewelry boxes--I don't keep my things in the boxes they came in, but they are so nice that I can't bear to toss them. I found a delightful vintage Boy Scout patch in my mother's box of iron on clothing patches, and immediately this project popped into my head. Thus, combined with a festive red velvet box and a little glue, my vision was completed:

Now, you may ask, as well you should, just why would I carry such an item in my purse? It's full enough already. It should be carried at all times, for inside, there is just enough space for:

Huzzah! Be Prepared! Be safe, everyone!