Tollhouse in the House

"Use It!"
* cookbook entitled Nestle Toll House Best-Ever Cookies -- We made the original Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookies. I was satisfied with the taste and texture (though they are a teensy bit more crumbly than I fancy). Hubby's first assessment was "excellent," but that was in the context of praising Bub for being such a good helper in the kitchen. He later clarified that the cookies were "very good, not quite excellent status, but better than the others you have made lately." Wow, my heart is full. To be fair, I would not call the cookies "excellent" either, but my main complaint is with appearance not flavor. I just don't think they look that pretty, not even on the front of the cookbook.

Cookbook Challenge Stats: 8 down / 45 to go

"Lose It!"
* melamine (maybe?) bowl, second biggest in set of five -- the edge of this bowl cracked and broke off a couple of months ago, but I had soldiered on in the spirit of "using it," but I noticed today, when combining the dry ingredients for the cookie dough, that the crack had caused a fissure (?) all the way down the side of the bowl. And so, I lost it, which is too bad because it was my favorite "just right," go-to bowl for mixing things.

Win? Lose? Draw?

When I was in Ohio, my mom had a box of a dozen or so cookbooks that she was "losing." You know where this is heading, right? I wanted some (all?) of them. Now, the old MEP might have thrown them all into her messy car to take back to Chicago (provided hubby was not riding along--if so, she would have taken some of them, but hidden them in her bag or something). New MEP settled for two that looked really intriguing and took up next-to-no room in her newly cleaned car. But, when she got home, she "lost" two of her cookbooks to make up for it. So there. The Cookbook Challenge remains on.

I think I mentioned already that a few weeks ago, my friend E... did this cool thing on facebook where she posted a note listing all the books she wanted to give away. I "called" three of them, which she gave to me last week when I saw her. To atone for bringing more books into the house (even free ones), I added five more to my book giveaway box. That box is getting mighty heavy and soon, very soon, I do plan to work on my own book giveaway for friends and readers.

Trying to bring spring

"Lose It!"
* one cocktail sort of dress that I wore often in the early part of this century -- no longer looks that flattering, and as I've said before on this blog, on the increasingly rare future occasions when I might be called upon to dress up, I'm not going to turn to an old frock -- who wants to go to a celebration and hear, "Oh, you looked so much better in that dress seven years ago."

* several more shirts, including three turtleneck sweaters -- if I purge the turtlenecks, will spring come?

* diaper bag -- I'm not done with diaper bags altogether, but I am done with this one.

"It's like an extension of your purse."

The above is said with disgust by my husband in reference to our car. Encouraged and greatly assisted by my mom, I cleaned out our car this evening. I won't detail it all, but I "lost" a lot in the car clean-out--dvd cases, remote control for portable dvd player that died six months ago, a couple of golf balls that didn't look that nice to me, several happy meal toys, and many, many, many, many, many goldfish crackers.

Inspired by the clean car, I went ahead and cleaned out my purse and "lost" expired coupons of the sort printed out at the grocery story when you check out (coupons are for products I actually buy, but I almost never use them because I cannot find them in my messy purse), old receipts, eight hundred (feels like) Macy's coupons, capless and crusty chap stick, and many, many, many goldfish crackers.

March Sadness

Sorry if it seems I've fallen asleep at the wheel, but it's go, go, go when we're in O-hi-o! Not much time for blogging with a full schedule of visiting and eating too much.

Still deflated by the Muskie loss, I did venture into my parents' garage a few moments ago with an eye toward losing, but it's pretty full and difficult to navigate and I didn't want to open up the garage doors this late at night so I'm settling for a semi-lame "Lose It!"--though every little bit helps.

"Lose It!"
* one of the two copies of Sacred Hoops by Phil Jackson in my parents' garage -- doesn't belong to me, but I figure my parents don't need two copies of the same book that is so beloved that it is taking up residence in a cardboard box in the garage. Plus, seemed an appropriate choice during March Madness.

* my copy of Cynthia Voigt's Izzy, Willy-Nilly -- teenage love, drunk driving, "crippled for life" (phrase from the back of the book). Not my cup of tea . . . if only Marco had stuck to tea at the party.

Belting it in.

The boys and I are hanging out at my parents' house this week so it's a little tougher for me to use and lose this week. I will try to be creative though and may even venture into their garage to see what stuff of mine might be keeping them from parking even a single car in a garage that should house at least two cars.

"Use It!"
* belt of mine from years ago found in a dresser drawer

ChiNOs

"Lose It!"
* pair of chinos from 1999 or so -- I have distinct memories of wearing these pants to work when I was teaching high school. They were long, roomy, and comfortable. I liked how they looked with a plain black shirt. I tried them on today because I have this crazy idea that I might challenge myself to going an entire week without wearing sweatpants (just tossing this idea around) and thought I could add these to the rotation. I discovered that the chinos are no longer long, roomy, or comfortable. I don't think I've worn them since I moved to Chicago eight years ago and know now that I never will wear them again.