Lego, Eyelashes, and an IMPORTANT QUESTION

This morning Jake was playing with his Star Wars Lego when I heard a frustrated yell.  The back window had fallen out of his Palpatine’s Arrest set, and when he tried to fix it, a couple of other pieces came off.  There was no time to figure things out before school, and so I decided I would try to fix it before he came home from lunch.

This is not, by any means, the first time I had attempted to build or fix Lego.  I will start by saying that I am not gifted in the Lego area.  I can barely build a simple box house, and those Star Wars sets are very complicated.  This is probably somehow related to my complete inability to catch a ball without flailing my arms and shrieking.  However, I remembered where all of the instructions manuals were kept, and so I flipped to what seemed to be the appropriate page and bravely began.

Shortly after that, I burst into tears. 

Happily, when Jake got home at lunch and I showed him my attempt, he said cheerfully that I did a great job, and he didn’t really need the window to open anyway.  He never really used that window anyway!

What a sweetheart.  I have a School Council meeting tonight, and I have a feeling his dad is going to be kept busy fixing the window.

Speaking of bursting into tears and having to subsequently fix my mascara, the other day I was shopping and saw a display for a mascara called “The Falsies”, and although the word “Falsies” makes me think of bra-stuffing, I was intrigued.  I had read a few reviews about this mascara and I thought I should try it.  I am going to have amazing, traffic stopping eyelashes, I thought, although to be honest I’m not sure how eyelashes would stop traffic, especially if a person has light sensitive eyes and wears sunglasses all the time, as I do.  Nonetheless!  I have a few girlfriends who regularly get false eyelashes applied – the kind that last for a few weeks – and they look amazing.  So amazing that when I’m talking to them I get completely distracted by their eyelashes and forget what we are talking about.  I’m like one of those guys who can’t take their eyes off your breasts, but with eyelashes.  I briefly thought about getting them myself but decided against it.  Although I’m high maintenance that is a line I just cannot cross, so this mascara called out to me.

Isn’t it funny what you think buying a product is going to be a glorious, life changing experience?  I get that sometimes.  A new pair of panties equals a new lease on life!  New lipstick?  Transformative.  I am a new woman because of this scented hand cream!  So I could hardly wait to try out my new mascara which would give me false lash glam instantly. 

People.  Building hopes up too high can only lead to disappointment in the end.  I wish I could say I was fluttering my enormous eyelashes at you right now, but I’m not.  I mean, the mascara is fine.  Possibly slightly better than my regular mascara.  There is nothing inherently wrong with the mascara, although there might be something wrong with me in falling for the advertising.  I tried to take a picture of my eyes, but have you ever tried to do that?  I looked like I was preparing to make my own tinfoil hat, or that I lived in a small apartment with one hundred pets who were all named Pookie.  So you will have to take my word for it; my eyelashes look nice, but not LIFE CHANGING.  Certainly not traffic stopping.  No one is going to become distracted by my eyelashes while talking to me.

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Some of you know that I’m currently working on a cookbook, filled to the brim with lovely vegan and vegetarian recipes.  It’s an exciting project, and now that Justin Timberlake is singing the praises of coming on down to Veganville, I hope it will be a popular project as well.  Nothing like a little advertising by JT.  In any case, I realized I have a very biased and warped view of the world since I have so many vegetarian and vegan friends; it’s like I live in my own little meatless bubble.  As my husband said to me the other night, most people actually eat meat, Nicole.  Not everyone loves beans as much as you do.  I’m beginning to realize this is true!  So my question for all you meat-eaters is this: how often, if ever, do you cook/serve/eat meatless meals?  If never, why not?  Please leave your answer in the comments.  Maybe we can make it a giveaway!  Random person will win a prize!  Prize to be determined, I promise it won’t be a can of beans, or a tube of mascara.

Comments

  1. How did I miss that you are writing a cookbook?!

    We go 100% meatless maybe one night a week, but we often use Mary Ostyn’s “meat as garnish” idea and don’t have *much* meat at dinner. Fried rice, soup, etc.

    Also, those of us with dairy and egg limitations/allergies buy vegan cookbooks for ideas we can use. As Beck once famously said about Vegan Lunch Box, she just substitutes pot roast where it says tofu.

  2. We do meatless monday regularly, and routinely only serve meat with one meal on the other days, and mostly in small portions. We eat a lot of fish and shellfish too.

  3. I don’t think my pre-vegetarian days can really count since I never enjoyed meat, but I do have a number of friends that I know never ever ever go meatless. Never!

    I am with you on the product being life changing front. I just ordered some bras from the US that I’m fairly convinced will make my rack look like it did when I was 20. Could happen, right?

  4. I would say I eat meatless meals probably 3 or 4 days a week at least. I find vegetarian is often the easier way to go when cooking for one.
    I can sympathize, I too have been disappointed by the exaggerated claims of mascara.

  5. I already answered you on Twitter, but YAY NO CHARACTER LIMIT!!!

    It depends on several factors, the biggest two being grocery budget and the fullness of my deep freezers. Secondary factor is my mood/energy level, since I’m the one that does all the cooking, and using meat requires defrosting, which can be impossible to coordinate some days (you know it’s rough going when the idea of taking a roast out of the freezer and putting it in on a plate in the fridge to thaw for 3 days before tossing it in the slow cooker is OH. MY. GOD. SO. HARD. TOO. TIRED.)

    Over the last 5-6 months, we have been eating mainly meatless dishes (which also ended up being veggie-less dishes….so we’ve been eating carbs. And dairy. And candy. But I digress), but now we’re eating meat every time I cook- the impending arrival of 120 pounds of beef can do that. Once the freezer is cleaned out enough to house all the new beef, we’ll probably go back to meaty meals 50% of the time…breakfast never has meat (even on weekends), lunches are usually dinner leftovers or sandwiches (and I don’t buy lunch meat), and if I cook 4 dinners over the course of the week, at least one will be meatless.

    If I have to stretch the grocery budget, I rely more heavily on eggs, beans and lentils (although I’m angry at lentils- 24 hours cooking in the slow cooker, and they were STILL GROSS AND HARD. Ugh. Ain’t no one got time for that!). Maybe it’s just because I know so many vegetarians and vegans, but the idea that there HAS to be meat in EVERY. SINGLE. MEAL. just does not jive for me.

  6. I eat/serve meatless meals fairly regularly, with the protein source being either cheese or eggs. These tend to be meals I serve when I don’t have the time or energy to bother with a proper supper, so grilled cheese sandwiches, or scrambled eggs and toast … I virtually never do a meatless recipe. (Of course, this is all complicated by the fact that my son has until recently entirely refused to eat meat, subsisting instead on suppers of hard-boiled eggs or whole-wheat spaghetti with parmesan. And my husband has a dairy allergy, so he tends to scrounge for himself at supper and then eat a chicken breast as a bedtime snack … but I digress.)

  7. Simona R. says

    I prefer meatless meals..but my husband likes the meat, so I end up cooking once or max twice a week something for his taste (if he wants steak, he can cook it himself!:). Mind you- I got him hooked on beans and lentils, so he cut down his meat intake even more! Maybe fish or some chicken, but that’s it!

  8. Nan | Wrath Of Mom says

    We eat about 3 or 4 meatless meals a week. However, I don’t think our family is the norm for most North Americans since we eat a lot of “foreign” foods at home.

  9. Ok, I know I have said it before and I am pretty sure I have announced it here but I will say it again. I am ALL about the products! I also freely admit that I am pathetic and that is why I have given up purchasing additional products for Lent.

    As you know, I am a meat eater and still raise my own chickens for meat and eggs. Does vegan mean no dairy, eggs or fish? If ‘yes’ than I have no idea when the last time I ate a vegan meal. We do eggs for dinner about once a week and I eat sushi almost everyday for lunch during the week. Other than that it is either beef, chicken or pork for din din in our abode.

    ‘Why?’ you ask…I guess it is just who we are, the way we were raised and our life style. I will say that I much prefer eating the chicken I raise as I know it had a good life and was treated well. We take them to a butcher who butchers them while we wait. Sounds disgusting probably to a vegan, but I want to be sure they are butchered quickly and with the least amount of stress.

    Now onto more pressing issues, what the eff are we going to do without Wes? I keep telling myself “in Bill we trust” but Wes?? Now in Denver…say it isn’t so.

    PS: Your Hawaii trip looked fab! So jealous!

  10. You’re not fluttering your enormous eyelashes at me right now? ‘Cause I sure feel fluttered at. Fluttttter flutttter.

    I have that problem with new things too..no matter how banal, it’s new and therefore NOW my real life will be begin. No wait, now. Now. I think that’s what the advertising industry calls a “win”.

    We are not all-meat-all-the-time, primarily because we are on a budget that does not allow me to buy the quality of meat I would want to eat All the Time, but also I love beans. And so..we do meatless probably two or maybe three times (dinners) a week.

    Hmm, but the other thing is I don’t like winter meat meals. I like grilled meat the best and I don’t grill year round so I probably eat more meat in the summertime.

  11. 1ST… every time I buy a new pair of shoes or cute top I think it will be life changing..and yet it never does loll..funny it hasn’t stopped me yet lol..but I have lots of nice clothes loll

    2nd..Meat eater here in a meat eater house loll..ohh I love me a good steak! once and awhile…but I am primarily a chicken girl and picky too boot..I hate eating meat on bones so I only do chicken breast all nice and cut clean loll..I will do vegetarian once and awhile but its usually the side dish to a good piece of chicken loll and the mister, he cant live without meat everyday and he hates anything “fancy” he calls…that would include anything vegetarian or a salad that doesn’t consist of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and thousand island dressing..like his mom makes..boring… it I am lucky when I can sneak quinoa in his rice and he he doesnt notice or all bran in muffins and cakes..
    While I like tofu…I just don’t like beans enough and don’t have the time to start trying to get creative with it ..so I stick to a fairly well balanced diet of lean meats, veggies and fruits and try to get some varieties with things like quinoa..with lots of other crap mixed in loll..( I’d be lying if I said I eat well all the time loll)
    Maybe one day we will smarten up and eat less meat( I just couldnt contemplate never eating it)..but for now its just easier and its what we know..

  12. Yes to the constant hope that products will be life-changing – particularly hair products: THIS one will make my hair less weird and needy (no it won’t).

    We eat meatless a couple times a week but not usually vegan – grilled cheese sandwich and soup, meatless pizza, dhal, black beans, eggs, roasted vegetables. My kids don’t love meat, except curried chicken. I’d miss it if we never had it, but I don’t need it every night.

  13. My husband and I trade off making dinners for the week. When he makes them they ALL have meat. When I make them they often do not.

    Further complicating this issue is that neither of my kids particularly like meat (with the exception of ground beef and ham) and neither do I. Given the choice, I will almost always choose something non-meaty to eat. I FINALLY found a way to properly cook tofu so it tastes like it does in various Asian restaurants I’ve been to, so now I’ve been doing a lot of stir fries with tofu for me and the kids when husband isn’t home for dinner. Husband believes tofu is food of evil, thus serving this only when he’s not home. Honestly, left to my own devices I’d get at least 90% of my protein from eggs, dairy, beans, and tofu, the kids probably as well. But with husband around we eat meat more often.

  14. Miss Elise says

    Well as for eating meat, I think you know that I’m stepping into your bubble of vegetarianism a teensy step at a time. It’s a little overwhelming to totally change your eating habits when you are the only one doing it. As for Lego repair you were very brave to attempt it. If I even as much touch my childrens’ Lego creations they fall apart or fall on the floor….so I pretty much leave them alone. Can’t wait for your cookbook!

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