ahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! moving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

last time we checked in with our domestic operative, she was frantically trying to get things done before the big day. so, how is she faring now?

well, ok... i guess. i'm down to 17 squares on the one wedding afghan, the other one is started, progress is being made on the baby 'ghan, and all wedding crafts were completed in time! some of the other stuff has hit the back burner for now, but once i'm done with all these stupid blankets i'll be ready to just finish something off nice and quick already.

the move is, um, interesting. going from a 2-story, 4-bedroom house with separate kitchen and living areas to a small, 2-bedroom condo has been an experience. a good one, though. we got rid of $500 worth of stuff (through garage sales and resale) and used that plus some of our wedding money to upgrade a lot of our kitchen and living area things. i've got a quilt in the works for our bed, so we really didn't blow any of our money on that stuff. we got all new dishes and cookware (yay!) and a bunch of small appliances, and we bought an endtable for our bed, new lamps, pillows, blankets, storage... and i couldn't find a shower curtain i liked so i'm making one. seriously. the only damask-green shower curtain i could find was $90 from some online boutique. i bought ivory and green damask from joann's for $15 and a strip of mottled gray for the bottom for $4. now i just have to sew them together.

well, that and put away a ton of stuff. our dining area is currently invaded by a ton of boxes. i wouldn't be surprised if more of them hit the resale store, or, if they won't take it, goodwill, or barring even that, the garbage. downsizing is good for us. really, it is. funny thing is we got most of our furniture in, but it still didn't quite feel like home until all the books were unpacked and i started hanging things on the walls and cooking dinner in our new kitchen. tonight we had morrocan chicken and couscous.

Heat a burner to medium heat... coat a medium frying pan with a thin layer of olive oil. place in two thawed chicken breasts, sprinkle liberally with morrocan spice mix and sparingly with cinnamon (cardamom would really be better). drizzle with a bit of soy sauce, and spoon in 4-5 canned apricot halves and a few tablespoons of juice. when the chicken is done, remove them and the apricots to a serving dish and turn the burner up to high to reduce the juices down to a nice thick glaze. serve with couscous!

then, we were thinking the couscous was such a nice mix between breading, rice, and pasta, that it would be really good to stuff meat with. so now i really want to try stuffed pork chops with couscous, garlic, lots of fresh basil, pine nuts and a bit of olive oil. mmmmmm.

i've been itching to can lately, but i have shoes to put away. sort of a non-sequitor, but completely true.