Out to Lunch

Today, I had a really good morning with Jackson and Olivia. First we went to storytime at a book store. Sometimes I take them to library storytime and Jackson gets a little wild. He pays attention to everything but the story. Not so this time. The story reader at the bookstore was loud and animated, which helped a lot. Before we left, Jackson got a new fire truck book. He loves fire trucks. Here he is being silly with the book. He is giving it a kiss.

Next week, they are going to have a special animal storytime with real live chinchillas, bunnies, and guinea pigs for the kids to pet. We will be there for sure. I don't know who will be more excited, me or the kids. I mean, chinchillas! Who doesn't want to pet a chinchilla?

After storytime, we went out to lunch! Why is that a big deal? It was the first time that I took both kids to a restaurant by myself, without Tony or another family member to help out. And it wasn't bad! Now it feels like a whole new world has opened up. We can go out to breakfast or lunch during the week sometimes! If you have little ones, you know how important it is to get them out of the house and avoid cabin fever, so this is a great development.

We went to Tino's, a Greek cafe. They have a veggie plate where you get to pick five things. We had salad, tabouli, baba ganoush, hummus, and dolmadas. We also got extra stuff - falafel and spanakopita. Jackson liked the falafel, and Olivia was partial to the baba ganoush. I was feeding it to her on pieces of pita bread, and she would open her mouth and crane her neck like a baby bird. But instead of regurgitated worm, she got delicious smoky eggplant! (Olivia 1, Baby Birds 0.)

I didn't take any pictures because, you know, I was busy feeding two kids by myself! But it was yummy and I'm sure we will go back.

For dinner, I made Mushroom Kale Potato Pizza with Garlic Sauce. I revised my recipe a little (the edited recipe appears in the linked post). To save time, I sauteed the mushrooms and kale together, rather than steaming the kale separately. That way, I did not have to wash out a steamer basket. Yay for fewer dishes! I also threw some sauteed vegan Italian sausage on top this time.

I'm sorry about the terrible photo. My camera is on its last legs and the settings buttons get stuck. It's OK, I've had it for almost ten years, so I think I got my money's worth. I ordered a new camera, can't wait til it gets here. Isn't it cute? It's not fancy, but it will work for my needs. There are some vegan bloggers who ought to be professional photographers. I would love to take photos as gorgeous as theirs, but the truth is that right now I don't have time in my day to pursue learning those skills. I've taken photography classes in the past and maybe some day I will again. For now cooking and yoga (and, 

oh yeah, blogging!) are my hobbies and I can't seem to wedge in another one.

Anyway, I'm just excited to get a camera that doesn't run on AA batteries and uses a 16GB memory card rather than 64MB. Can you say old school? Haha.

Finally, I have to share my belated Mother's Day present from Jackson and Olivia. Belated only because it has been drying in the garage for the past week and a half, unknown to me! Tony didn't want to bring it into the House of Chaos until it was completely set. The kids decorated it with the beads. They might have had some help from their daddy. J's little handprint and Livi's littler handprint next to it are killing me -- my heart melts every time I look at it. Can they stay this small forever?

Technologically Challenged

I'm back -- hopefully my camera issues are on their way to being worked out. This week I learned that my nearly 10-year-old digital camera was not compatible with my new computer. The solution: buy an item called a card reader. It snowed all day yesterday and I didn't feel like taking the babies out on the icy roads to track down this item.  But the weather was much better today, so now I have my card reader (as well as a new printer, because my old one was also incompatible.)

Now, instead of loading the pics directly from the camera, I take the memory card out of the camera, insert it in the card reader, and load them from there. I lost several pics while figuring it out, but I think I know what my error was, so hopefully I won't lose anymore. I'm annoyed that technology becomes obsolete so quickly. My printer was only five years old and worked just fine and my camera, although ancient, is also in good condition, so why spend more money on new stuff?  But at least the card reader was only $15...a lot cheaper than buying a new camera, which was my other option.

Anyway, after making the necessary technology purchases, I decided I needed some retail therapy --buying something I wanted rather than something I needed! So we headed to the nearest Lush store at the mall over in Danbury.

Now, if you know anything about Lush, you are probably thinking, "This girl is complaining about spending money but she can afford Lush?" Their products are a wee bit pricey.  And no, I can't normally afford them. Years ago, I could.  But in a single-income family, fancy bath products are not in the budget. Fortunately, my rad brother gave me a gift card for Christmas!

Jackson didn't leave the mall empty-handed, either.

What I wouldn't give for a Lush bath bomb of that size...

We stopped to eat at the Desert Moon Grille.  They are sort of a healthy Tex-Mex place, really casual, you order at the counter and help yourself to chips and salsa.

Two kinds of salsa -- the green was hot and had a vinegary aftertaste; the red tasted like it had sugar added to it.  I didn't really care for either one, but Tony liked the green.

I had the fajita soft tacos with tofu.  They tasted really fresh and were not heavy at all, the way some Tex-Mex can be.

It's making me really happy to be able to load up pictures again.

How is your weekend going? Doing anything fun?

Camera Woes

So, yesterday I couldn't do a proper post because I misplaced my camera cord...well, I found it last night, only to discover that my ancient digital camera is not compatible with Windows 7 on my new computer. Now apparently I have to buy something called a card reader, before I can upload anymore pics. Oh well, at least this solution is far cheaper than having to buy a new camera.  For anyone who's interested, I've used a Canon Powershot A40 for almost 10 years.  Although it is bulkier than the new cameras, I'm pretty attached to it. When it got ruined on my trip to Boston last year, I ordered the same model off ebay for $50 because I had no desire to shell out for a new camera. We actually bought a new camera a couple years ago and ended up giving it to a relative because we didn't think the picture quality was as good!

Having said that, if the card reader thingy doesn't work out, do you have any camera recommendations? What do you use?

The snow is coming down again here...looks like we will be spending the weekend staying cozy indoors. Hope you have a great weekend!