Lately, I�ve been all about domestic projects. I�ve been looking into sewing machines and looking at sewing patterns. I found a couple of different ways to turn plastic grocery bags into totes. I�ve been cooking up a storm.

Today, it finally struck me as different than my normal self. It is normal for me to surf the web looking at various home projects and recipes, but not to this extent. I think the last time I was this projecty was when I was in junior high and high school. I used to craft and cook like a mini-Martha Stewart back then.

The change came when I went to college. I no longer had time. After college, I still didn�t have the time, or at least, I decided to use my free time in different ways.

Now, I�m thinking about my life in a different way. I would rather be doing what I want to do most of the time, rather than try to fit my life in around my job. That doesn�t mean I won�t be working or that I won�t be productive. I�ll just be productive in the ways that I want to be productive. I guess that means that I want to recycle plastic bags manually, but whatever, I�m weird like that.

I also realized that I forgot how to crochet, but I think I remember how to knit.

Cooking at home is going well and getting better. I don�t know if it�s the palate change from being mostly vegan, but I�ve learned a few variations on a cheesy vegan sauce that works well with a lot of things. Last Friday, we got crazy and ordered pizza with no cheese, and I whipped up the sauce and put it on the pizza. We both loved it.

Also, did I mention that I love my new crockpot? If not, I love my new crockpot. This appliance combined with my food processor makes it possible for me to prep a large meal in just a few minutes. The crockpot does the rest.

The only pain is cleaning the food processor. It is dishwasher safe, but it�s so big and bulky that it takes up a lot of space in there. With most of the recipes I make, it only really needs a quick hot soapy bath and it�s clean, so I do it by hand. It�s relatively easy, but it�s the most annoying part.

I consider myself to be mostly a mediocre cook, but even with recipes that seem to come out merely ok to me gets high praise from my peers. I guess it�s because the people of my generation never learned how to make anything more complicated than kraft mac and cheese.

�You made this?! In your own kitchen?! All by yourself?!�

I had the good fortune to spend a few years at my grandmothers side, and her side was always in the kitchen. She raised 8 kids on her own. If there�s one thing she could do, it was feed people well on a budget. She totally rocked the bulk raw ingredients.

I�m having a dinner guest over tomorrow night. My reiki teacher, who did end up meeting up with my brother in Istanbul. She says she has something for me, from Turkey. I guess my brother must have given her something to give to me.

So, when I got home, I decided to make cookies that I�ve nicknamed, �the most friendly cookie in the world.� These cookies are vegan, fat-free and gluten free.* I took a vegan cookie recipe and adopted it to make it gluten free. When I went to Vermont, I left these cookies sitting on the dining table in our group cabin, and next to it, someone left another bag of cookies. They looked like they came from a professional bakery. First of all, my vegan and fat-free cookies actually disappeared faster. (Maybe because people were trying to not be greedy and decided to eat the cookies that were clearly homemade; therefore, cheaper?)

However, while stuffing a few in her mouth, a friend of mine did say, �I love these cookies!� I said, �Oh? I made them. They�re vegan.� She paused, looking a little disturbed that she just accidentally ate something vegan, and liked it, but then decided the jig was up and kept digging in. I opted to not even mention the fat-free part because that would make them totally inedible, psychologically speaking.

Again, maybe it�s the palate change thing, but I tried one of the professional bakery cookies (because mine were GONE), and I found them to be way too sweet, rich and fatty tasting. I could barely choke it down.

So, anyway, I made these cookies again tonight. Adam wasn�t home, so I had my laptop on the kitchen table for company. I had all of the windows open and I was blasting a Margaret Cho stand-up routine. I was waiting for my neighbor to come up to my window and yell something like, �You know my kids play outside here, right?� I told Adam about my fears later, and I joked that I�d just yell out the window that he should just keep his brats inside (It�s funny because I�d never do that).

He commented that it would make more sense for me to tell him to send his kids to the park across the street, because seriously, there�s a park across the street. We live on a very short block with row houses all around it. There�s a little square parking area in the back. The neighbor has a couple of kids that play back there. Sometimes they even get out a portable basketball hoop thing with wheels and play basketball. There�s a full basketball court in the park, which is, like I said, across the street. My guess is that he�s somehow determined that having his kids play in a place that is part alley is somehow safer than a park with trees, and soft grass, and no traffic running through it.

It doesn�t really bother me that much. It bothers Adam more. I didn�t grow up in the suburbs. I grew up in the city. I was one of those annoying kids that played in inconvenient areas.

Because I grew up in the city, the sound of traffic lulls me to sleep, but crickets grate on my nerves. When I go camping, I wear earplugs. You know what�s great about earplugs? When there�s no sound, sometimes the brain will actually produce it�s own sounds to fill the void. Some people hear music. I hear traffic. Nice soothing traffic.

Anyway, after the cookies were made, I prepped some of my crockpot meal stuff for tomorrow. I chopped the veggies in the food processor and threw them in the freezer. Chopping veggies in the food processor is a fairly easy thing to do, but doing anything outside of my normal morning routine is extremely difficult. I function primarily on habit in the morning, and if something breaks up my routine, I�ll barely make it to work. I�m even a little wary about how I�ll get the veggies from the freezer into the crockpot, along with the other ingredients.

I need time in the morning to ungroggify. I usually wake up extra early for this purpose. Speaking of groggy mornings, I�ve been going to bed early and sleeping soundly, lately. When I wake up in the morning, I feel like I�m waking up from the dead. I guess I must need it.

*Unless you happen to be a true carnivore, like a cat or a snake (This is Adam�s footnote, really - always thinking, that one).

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