GUILTY DREAMS

Perhaps a manifestation of my guilty neglect of my older daughter with the arrival of little Skyler, I had a horrible nightmare yesterday.

I dreamt that for some reason, we've had to leave Raeven locked in her room in our house (which wasn't my present abode, dunno why) and - brace yourselves - cut off two of her fingers (yes! sob...), according to the wishes of some unknown force. Lokes did it while Raeven was sleeping and apparently, she'd slept through the pain! sob...

In the dream, we packed up everything in our car and took the baby. I was driving off in a hurry while Lokes was at the back trying to get some sleep (he's always sleeping - even in my dream, he is napping, and in the midst of such a catastrophe!) when I just could not bear to leave. And so I did a U turn and returned to our house. It was already late in the day and from the outside, I could hear Raeven sobbing quietly from exhaustion.

"Mommy....I want my mommy...," she cried. A dagger of pain stabbed through my heart as I got out of the car and saw her at the window, trying to look for me. When she saw me, she cried louder, and said to me, "Mommy, look at my hand...pain-pain..."

As I rushed to her, crying, I woke up to my baby daughter Skyler's cries for her mid morning feed at about 5am. I was already crying myself.

I was so upset I had to wake Lokes and tell him about my horrible nightmare. He tried in vain to comfort me and in the end, I just let the dream wear out its effect on me.

After feeding Skyler, I went to Raeven's bedroom and peeped in. Sprawled across the queen-sized bed, she was sound asleep. I slipped under the sheets and hugged my baby girl, thankful that she was safe.

Any dream interpreters out there wanna tell me how I can dream such nonsense?

TEN-YEAR OLD MASH POTATOES

Yesterday evening, I made my famous mash potatoes after a ten-year hiatus from the stuff.

Yes, ten years. Could not believe it myself.

The great news is, Lokes loved it. Could not get enough of it. Told me to save some for today, but since I was too lazy to cook during lunch, I sapu-ed the remaining bowl of Jennifer Tai's Famous Mash Potatoes.

To make YOUR significant halves happy, try this recipe. Goes very well with your own brand of grilled steak (not well with those watching waistlines):

Jennifer Tai's Famous Mash Potatoes

Ingredients:
A whole lotta chopped garlic (like 10 big dinner spoonfuls or three bulbs)
Ideal full cream evaporated milk
Lots of butter
About 20 boiling potatoes (also called waxy potatoes, high in moisture and sugar, low in starch, with thin, yellowish skins)
Bacon bits (you can fry pieces of bacon yourself and then cut them, or get those pre-bottled bits - I like to fry myself)
Salt and lots of pepper to taste

Recipe:
1. Boil unskinned potatoes for about 20 minutes in a big pot of water (add a bit of salt)
2. Mash the 'tatoes WITH skin (that's why we get the thin-skinned kind)
3. Heat up butter over gentle fire and when it's melted, pour in the garlic and stir slowly (don't overfry!)
4. When garlic turns a bit golden, pour in the 'tatoes.This should absorb all the butter and garlic.
5. Once all the butter has been absorbed, pour generous amounts of evap milk. I used half the can.
6. Stir until everything is mashy and the milk has also been absorbed.
7. Add salt to taste, and LOTS of pepper - I used Sabah pepper and lots of it too, really added to the taste for those of you who like it hot!
8. Throw in generous amounts of bacon bits, and it's good to serve.

JT's Famous Mashed Potatoes can also be stored in the fridge and eaten cold. For a day or twolah, not too long.

Enjoy!

Of ALL THE CRAPPY MISTAKES

One of the curses of technology is the need to save.

Save, save, save. That's what we've been trained to do the moment we threw out our typewriters and Kilometricos. Whether it's clicking on the little diskette icon, hitting CTRL-S or Apple-S, or even binding the save function to a handy F key - we know to save like the good, little over-caffeinated paranoids we all are.

So why did I forget to save? Why did 1.5 hours of my first entry for Sunblogs disappear as soon as as I hit the word "Update" on a, what can only be described as dubious at best, web-based content system?!

Because the word was 'Update" on the cursed button and not "save". Because one should not be made to "Update" like some over-caffeinated paranoid.

CHANGE THE WORD TO "SAVE", you morons!

But the lady who helped me get over my grief was sweet.

"You'll write a better version tonight," she'd said, patting my back like someone who's lost a lot of her articles to that overzealous engine.

That'll teach me to not use Microsoft Word first!