Splenda Cookies

Dearest Carey, your wish is my command:
Mild provolone with Ritz and medium cheddar.

I broke in Stir Elton last night by trying a single batch of Splenda's Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

The single batch of dough for 36 cookies looked really small in my bowl (my bowl can hold 14 cups of flour).

The splatter shield/pour spout thingy is great. However, don't try to crack an egg on the counter and make it all the way up to the pour spout. You will lose some egg white along the way. :-)

The Splenda cookies were good (http://splenda.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Recipe.aspx?nprid=76241). Now, I have to experiment and get some of the fat out. I'm also going to try using Splenda brown sugar along with the regular Splenda in the recipe. One substitution at a time, though.

BTW, the chicken breasts were great. I stuffed them with chevre, salt & pepper, diced serranos and chopped roasted red peppers. Rubbed the breasts with corriander, salt, oregano, and southwest seasoning. The warm, drizzled sauces were 1) a puree of roasted red pepper, honey and pureed canned chipotle and 2) a can of green salsa with ranch dressing mixed in.

We are...Marshall!

Ugh, my throat still hurts from squeezing my crying muscles so hard at the theatre. I wanted to all out sob in a few parts, but managed to keep myself from doing it. Matthew McHotty and Matthew Foxy were great (although Mr. Foxy's red hair dye job was slightly distracting).

Can I try my recipe for tonight out on you peeps? I'm stuffing chicken breasts with goat cheese, roasted red peppers and diced serannos (and salt & pepper). I think I'll season the outside with corriander, cumin and oregano and grill. Two sauces will top the chicken: A green salsa and a chipotle roasted red pepper sauce. Does that sound ok?

And then...I will make cookies in Stir Elton John (because every kitchen gadget bigger than our cats needs a name). Stir Elton John arrives tonight. *hop*

BTW, the name was going to be Mrs. Whipple, but Chris voted that down.

Roll Call!

*sets out bagels and cream cheese*

Who is around this week?

I hope everyone who celebrates had a Merry Christmas. I tried to get to everyone's blogs yesterday to send holiday wishes, but my internet at home (dial-up) slowed down mid-afternoon.

Our Christmas Eve with my family was pretty lackluster. The kids are getting older and there were fewer people than usual. We all seemed a little out of the holiday spirit.

I have to say, it was really nice to get a big gift this year. Chris rarely gets me anything, so whatever he gets me is always appreciated. However, the stand mixer went above and beyond my expectations. I hope it arrives tomorrrow. I'll have to find healthy recipes to make.

Speaking of tomorrow, we are going to see "We Are Marshall." *fans self* I will be adoring the hotties.

I'll be a mixing goddess!

I interrupt this holiday weekend to bring you port wine cheese spread and crackers.

And to convey my excitement over my Christmas gift from Chris and my BIL.

THE KitchenAid 600 Pro Series stand mixer. *hop*

Ok, so I don't have it yet. They have to wait til it's back in stock at whatever store had the deal on them (they are very sketchy about the details). So in January, the store will call BIL to tell him it's in. Then I shall be a mixing maniac. Yay-I can make tamales again! And if I want it will at LEAST handle 3.5 batches of cookie dough. You know, in case I want to make a standard gross of cookies. *head tilt*

This item is THE one thing I've said will complete my big want list for a long, long time. I'm so excited. I was thinking an Artisan series would've been enough, but the wise men sought out reviews and such and decided bigger was better. :-)

Boys and their toys

Cream cheese danishes this morning with a piping cup of coffee or hot chocolate...your choice.

Chris REALLY wanted the Microsoft X Flight Simulator for Christmas. He knows he's getting it. We thought we could hook my work laptop up to our big screen tv for him to play. Well, turns out my work laptop doesn't have a big enough video card & I'm hesitant to upgrade anything there myself.

So we go to our desktop, which we purchased in 2002(?) from Dell. At the time, we didn't get a DVD-ROM. The game only operates on a DVD-ROM.

So, now we have to spend around $300 for upgrades. Sigh. For a $50 game, it sure is getting expensive. Oh, and the "flight control accessories"....$120 for the hand controls, $200 for footpedals. He'll be waiting on those.

Oh fer cripes sake!

I can't leave you guys alone for a minute!

I thought I would need a little more time to sort through my thoughts, but having yesterday off helped a lot. Having all your kind thoughts and comments also made me feel nothing short of being one lucky chicky.

I've realized that it's been a transition from being a "poster" to coming over here, blogging and developing friendships. I take emails and threads more personally now, thus I need to decide how deep into OT threads I want to get.

In summary:
1. I can't be friends with everyone online, just as in real life. We all have different personalities, some of which don't mesh. I can, however, follow Breezy's credo & not say anything if I don't have anything nice to say. I don't enjoy making people feel bad, even if they've made others feel bad. Really, nobody wins.

2. I need to be cautious about crossing my blogish fun and my OT life.

3. I have the bestest friends evah.

So, here ya go, bestest friends evah:
Double cream brie, brie with morels, 5 year old cheddar, havarti, provelone and blue cheese spread with assorted crackers, breads, pears, apples and grapes.

Need some time

I think I need to take Breezy's credo into action and just shut up for awhile. I've been digging some holes online in the last few weeks. It was honestly more fun keeping my mouth shut over the years.

In all seriousness, my judgment appears to be failing me, as I should've kept my mouth shut about the Peep Meet and just counted votes. I also shouldn't have said anything about that stupid parking thread. It's just easier to stay out of things and keep any thoughts to myself. Nobody else then feels wronged and I don't doubt my own actions and feelings.

I'm not saying any of this with spite, I truly mean that I'm doing some soul searching and am trying to recenter my judgment about where I want to be in our online community and how my actions can support that.

So have a good holiday! I'll be thinking of you! And I'll still be checking in with my fellow bloggest losers, so I won't disappear completely.

*hugs & smooches*

Seattle

Brie with a cranberry bourbon compote.

I really want to visit Seattle in 2007 and the peep meet is the only way I think it will happen. However, Seattle is trailing Chicago by 3 votes now. poo.

So if you also want to go to Seattle, go vote!

Chicago would be reasonably priced for us. We'd probably just stay in Kenosha (WI) Friday night with a friend and take the train to meet peeps for dinner or drinks. Then we'd come back on Saturday to go to IKEA and hang at the lakefront. We'd probably get a room so we could stay up late with peeps that night. I just really don't like Chicago that much, but I'd absolutely go. It would just be a bonus to be in a city I WANT to go to, even if it did cost more.

A Holiday Challenge

I will first entice you with wheat thins and a tuscan romano cheeseball...and Nutz might roll it in some nutz for us.

I have a challenge that might take a little effort. Stick that camera in your purse. Now go for a walk or a drive. Find your favorite light/yard display in the area (no need to drive to the fanciest neighborhood in the city) and the tackiest display of decor. Post the pics on your blog over the next few weeks.

I have two on our normal drive route in mind. Now I just have to convince Nolay to stop & let me take pictures.

On a better note

Grapes and smoked cheddar today.

I got to spend the morning wrapping gifts for our work unit's "adopted family." I tried channeling Boo, but no luck. The stuff looked amateur. Anyway, the stuff is for a 16 year old single mother and her son.

Tonight I'll finish wrapping gifts for my family and Chris's at home, then hopefully finish writing out cards.

Friday we head north to Chris's dad's house. I'm feeling prepared for the holidays. Shocking!

Putting on my grumpy pants

Blue cheese mixed with herbs and cream cheese, spread on baguettes and broiled til warm & gooey.

I'm usually the easygoing person and I don't let much get to me. However, happenings on OT have been getting to me. My tolerance is waning. I know many of you have already gone through this, but I guess I'm just more patient. :-)

1. The increased amount of scathing indignant comments has been really bothering me. There's a nice way to voice your opinions. Why bring it to the scathing level? Maybe that's just who those people are. I don't tend to like rudeness and self-importance oozing from people. Maybe that really IS a significant part of some people's personalities IRL and the nice stuff I've seen before is only a small part of the whole person.

2. Gun talk. I don't know the right answer. My feelings on guns have changed over the years and I feel bad about that, for Chris's sake more than anything. When he was in the military, his buddies would get together and pleasure shoot. I was ok with that. Dad was a hunter so guns didn't scare me. I plinked with the boys sometimes. But those were grown men. Now Chris talks about taking my niece & nephew plinking with the guns they'd use for squirrel hunting and letting their dad shoot our pistol at the same time. I'm pretty sure teaching the kids "it's fun to plink around with guns" is not a good idea. I'm on board with them sighting in a .22 for the squirrel hunting their dad likes to do and learning how to use it. I'm not ok with them seeing Uncle Chris and Dad playing around with a pistol. I think Chris is irritated my view has become more "shapen" on this subject.

3. I'm becoming ok with NOT wanting to meet everyone on OT. I have no desire, for example, to hang out with Ante Bellum. Would I say hello to her at a peep meet? Sure. Do I have enough info to safely say I don't think we'd ever be buds? Yep. I'd rather spend my energy on others. There are about three people that are regular posters where I've quit reading their posts. I used to read everyones because some people change or have at least some things I agree on. I've found there's a few people that I'm best off ignoring completely.

I'll end on a better note:
I'm still excited about another peep meet. The last one was so great, even though I didn't *heart* everyone there. I was able to get to know some awesome peeps I'd otherwise I have missed out on and got to see some of my very favorite peeps. Yay for the new 2007 Peep Meet...wherever it may be!

Weekend

*opens containers of cookies* Who needs cheese? We've got cookies!

I was at home baking and cleaning on Friday. My mail carrier rings the bell with TWO boxes of cookies! Nice timing, ladies!

I BIG thank you to mom2bjm and nutzy for the beautiful holiday treats! I got shortbread spruced up with pretty purple sprinkles, some raspberry/nutty bars, mexican wedding cookies and lemon bars! I haven't had mexican wedding cookies in YEARS. I love powdered sugar. Bonus points to both for excellent packaging. Bonus points to nutz for the pretty tins and mom2bjm for including recipes and cute packaging stickers!

So funny story: I had my baking for peeps done that morning & put them into containers. Had no boxes that were appropriately sized & figured I would buy them at the post office. Well, thanks to nutz & mom2bjm, I had boxes & packing material now! So I packaged stuff up & went to the post office. Stood in line & noticed I put my Canadian peeps cookies in the "for domestic use only" box. And there was enough of a difference in the packages that I couldn't just switch address labels (ok, just the enclosed cards and one item). DAMNIT! So I sent my U.S. peeps package out & returned home to wrap the Canadian peep's box in brown paper. But, alas, all got sent by Saturday morning.

The wine party went GREAT this weekend. Well, other than the fact that Chris ended up with his head in the toilet. People got a little loopy faster than I expected. They all really enjoyed the wine and food.

I have gained 2 lbs in the last week. My guess it's the wine, cookies, cheese and breads I've been feasting on. *licks lips*

Finally, did anyone else see the Packers spank the 49ers yesterday? *laughs maniacally*

More pics

See post below for the first batch. These are of our day with Catt in Livermore.

This is where we are still sober:

This was our new friend Lisa from a town called Tracy...or was it the other way around? Lisa gave us almost full glass samples so she'd have more time to prep to go home. Then she decided to come across the street with us to another winery:


This is the scary looking place across the street. Little did we know, this is where the party was AT:

Catt announced her arrival by banging into the giant display of windchimes behind her.We were obviously noting how cool we were here. I think we may have been singing Hotel California with the guitar guy that was playing...
And the drive home:
My feelings on that:

Me...taking a nap. With Catt's Dolphin pom poms (which got plenty of shaking time during the Dolphins win earlier that day):
See, Carey, there ARE pictures of me. :-)

San Fran Pics

Gasp! Nookie's pics & my pics in the same day? I am missing some pics, as we had three cameras on this trip. So no pics of the peep meet with MTW here. :-(

Ok, here's what you really want...the two SF hostesses with the mostesses:

Unfortunately "The One Without Bravie's Pants" is on another roll of film....

Now, just some general SF pics from the day of our killer bike ride:

Those darn seals:

Now we move on to our day in Livermore wine country with Catt:
She lives near here...I'm so jealous. It was gorgeous:

Chris got to drive Vadar...well, not so much "let" as "grabbed keys and ran:"

More on the Drunken Day on the Other Side of the Bay in the next post...

Port Salut, grapes and clementines this morning.

I ran out of time to go grocery shopping last night. Thus, the cookie baking hasn't progressed as I'd like it to. However, I did start cleaning out my spice cabinet. I think I need to expand it, unfortunately. I'm such a spice ho.

Know what I've realized I HATE doing? Blowdrying my hair. Is blow drying two words, or one? I think it looks better as one.

What a control freak.

Pepper encrusted chevre and sesame thins.

My husband is an utterly insane control freak. His partner ("Jo") asked me to do a favor for her "between us girls." She gave him an envelope to give to me. Big mistake. He had a lil flip out that he couldn't know what it was about. Geesh. I was just trying to do the girl a favor. I told Jo to say the envelope was something benign (such as "it's for the Home & Garden Party I'm having....she booked one from my party last month & he knew that) just because I KNEW he doesn't like not knowing things.

Whatever. I just got pissed and curled up with a book last night. Finished Bleachers (John Grisham) and started For One More Day (Mitch Albom). Both quick reads.

Noteworthy

*shakes maracas* Breakfast burritos with lots of cheese for your a.m. dining pleasure.

I'd like to point out that Breezy was strangely absent from the last entry when we started talking about her moving. I think that's her way of saying "Go ahead, make plans for me." So who is free to help her pack? And who will be polishing her resume'? *ignores the shoving match between momma & carey* :-)

I had a great weekend. Cleaned our basement. Took all the bottles, plants, decor from above the cabinets and washed stuff down. Did lots of laundry. Yesterday we did Christmas shopping and hung out at bars all afternoon. It was a fun way to end the weekend.

Next weekend is packed full. I'm off on Friday to clean for the wine party on Saturday. Then I'll be cookied baking on Sunday.

So, let's say I gave you $300 for Christmas. What would you buy?

Instrospection

First, some pepperjack, sausage and crackers.

*reclines on couch* Feel free to start the timer.

Chris and I got into a good conversation after a few drinks the other night. He's pretty close to his female partner at work (and we were out with her, so that's how this conversation started). We'll call her Jo. He's, for whatever reason, always liked having a close female friend. I think he likes to feel needed and man friends don't always give off that vibe. He enjoys helping Jo with things around her house (she's single with a condo) and giving advice on "man" things. They have become pretty good friends. She enjoys my company, also. While I like her well enough, she's not my usual type of friend. I feel kind of bad that I don't feel more strongly about a big bonding friendship with Jo, but Chris understands that we don't have tons in common.

Thus, we started analyzing friendships of past and present. I realized that I have never been a particular open person with my feelings and thus my friendships were always more about listening to the other person's problems, or just sharing common interests and having fun.

The result of this reflection is that I've had no friends I can say were "so much like me" or "as close as a sister." I had "best friends" where we hung out a lot and went lots of places together. But there wasn't that connection I think exists between many best friends. It was just now that I realized this. It's kind of a sad feeling to look back & realized that I probably missed out on something great by not being more open & bonding. But then again, maybe I just never met the right person to be my kindred soul.

So, I'm really thankful for all of you. While we might not be "best friends," you are the people I open up to most (other than Chris and my oldest sis). You're objective and truly caring people. If I'm ever not open enough or if I don't personally email or call you, it's not that I don't care. It's that it's akward for me. I've always had friends that came to me crying and I'd just listen. I didn't have to do much reaching out. There are some people on here that I do care about and since they didn't come crying to me, I've tried to reach out and extend the hand...but I could do a better job. I'm learning, peeps. Be patient. :-)

Bob and Catt are Smaaahhhhhtt

We are having a party in honor of bob and catt today. I'm breaking out the good cheese: chevre and triple cream brie topped with caramelized onions with baguettes, sliced grapes and apples.

*pops the champagne*

WHY BOB IS SMAAAHHHHHTT
Bob saved me last week. Remember that tooth problem? Well, my entire gum was swollen and I couldn't get into the dentist until Tuesday of this week. I recalled Bob telling about the emergency "curing" of a toothache with Listerine doused cotton balls. I restocked our orange citrus Listerine and checked out other "remedy" mouthwashes in the toothpast aisle. Well, someone had a healing mouthwash where the active ingredient was hydrogen peroxide. So completely not knowing if I was going to create some chemical reaction, I mixed some peroxide in with my Listerine. Whew. No noxious fumes. A steady stream of cotton balls soaked in the stuff for two days took the swelling right down and enabled me to get through Thanksgiving weekend.

Cheers to Bob!

WHY CATT IS SMAAAHHHHHHTT
Remember my cat having a new fetish with tipping and dragging the water bowl across the room? Catt came in with a silly suggestion of putting shiny rocks in the bottom of the dish. While the fountain idea of others sounded more likely to work, it was an additional investment I didn't want to make and since Ali can't do plastic (kitty acne!) and resin also builds up bacteria, that would likely be a little pricey for a flipping water dish.

Last weekend I bought some shiny marbley rocks at the dollar store. Ali hasn't done more than drink out of the dish since. Problem solved!

Cheers to Catt!

Burning Question

I can't wait til tomorrow, I must ask now.

What IS "Fancy" Ketchup?

Yoink!

Cheesy cauliflower soup today because I have to eat soft foods.

I suprisingly had my tooth pulled yesterday. I hate dental insurance. It really doesn't cover crap.

I have been gone so much from work that I don't know where to begin on my projects.

I'm starting to get pics organized from my Nov. trips, so will soon have those to post!

Quick Update

I'm sorry, it's not inspired. I just brought you one of those cheese & sausage trays from the grocery store. It's been a busy week.

My tooth is feeling better. I have a dentist appt tomorrow. I was all ucky & swollen last week. Had the family over for Thanksgiving. It was very relaxed. Went up north to visit Chris's crazy mom. She wasn't overly crazy (other than saying she's retiring early & is happy to move in with us so we can have a baby...um, she apparently didn't listen the last three times I've told her we don't really want children at this point).

Did a lot of walking in the northwoods with Chris hunting. Stayed at his BIL's *cue dueling banjos* and got PLASTERED on Saturday night. Those big bottles of vodka are deceptive. I didn't think I'd drank much, given how much the bottle was going down. Then I realized it's a wider bottle than usual.

Quick. Tell me three things you always have to buy the same brand of. Me: Lipton black tea (for regular iced tea), Pledge cleaner and Diet Coke.

I Got Crabs in Texas.

Quesedillas in honor of the great mexican food I had in Texas.

Everything is bigger in Texas...including my swollen gums. I have a chipped tooth that is infected at the root & needs to be removed. It started bothering me on Friday night & was pretty swollen by the time I met momma & sonya. I hope they didn't think I just had a wad of tobacco in my cheek. :-)

Dallas Report:
The weather was lovely and the conference was great. Our presentation went fine. We didn't have a huge crowd in our session because it was the same time as the Ohio v. Michigan football game. The rest of the sessions were very useful. Unfortunately we were in sessions from about 8-6 every day, plus a few evening "interest group" schmoozing things, so not much time for sightseeing.

Saturday night I went out with a bunch of doctoral students...some in our nursing program, some in our school's medical program. The three glasses of wine & two cosmos before dinner might have been a bad idea. When we got to our restaurant, the waiter immediately elected me head of the table, as he could tell I was in an extra good mood. :-) Two pomatini's later, I was in a REALLY good mood. I spilled some on my shirt & whipped out my Tide stain remover pen. They made me sing like Kelly Rippa does in those commercials. *hangs head*

Fast forward to Sunday:
Momma and Sonya were going to meet me at 5 pm near "the big horse statue" in my hotel. As I walked up the the big horse, I could see they'd arrived first. I was greeted by these great big Texas hugs and smiles. I knew it would be a great night.

First thing I learned: Sonya is pronounced "sawnya." I thought it was "sownya." Who knew?

Second thing I learned: Just because they are from Texas, it doesn't mean they know their way around Dallas. :-)

We decided to walk down to the West End Historic District, where all the restaurants are. When I realized where we were headed I said "Oh yea, I know how to get there, we had dinner down here last night!" So the girl from Wisconsin guided the girls from Texas to the restaurant mecca. It's the cutest area...brick streets, horse drawn carriages, christmas lights, the whole bit.

On our way there, some man said that momma was "so beautiful." It's true...she is! She has the most beautiful blue eyes.

We couldn't decide where to eat until they heard I'd never eaten at a Joe's Crab Shack. Unfortunatley, despite Sonya's best efforts, there would be no crazy dancing at this location. She tried to get the manager and waiter to dance to no avail.

We all ate crab (Kim's Peep Meet Rule 43: Apparently you must eat crab with peeps and you must all order the same thing from the menu). Yummmmmm! We also went shirt shopping at Joe's...Sonya & I wanted the one that said "Good Girls Get Crabs," but it only came in a small. I did, however, find Chris a neanderthal eating crabs t-shirt and a cute beer bottle cozie for me. I also got a bag of awesome Texas themed gifts from the girls.

I learned a lot about the wild days of sonya and momma. They swear they are homebodies now. Should we believe them?

We then went for a few drinks at Gator's. We think our waitress might have been interested in sonya. :-)

It was SO nice to meet momma & sonya. They are two of the nicest people you'll ever meet. I only wish it wouldn't have been Sunday and sonya wouldn't have been on-call for work. I have a feeling these two could've shown me a wild time!

*smooches* to sonya & momma...the best things in Texas!

A list for Boo

Pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting today. Oh how I love pumpkin. Yay for pumpkin cooking season!

Thoughts currently running through my head:

1. I need a luggage tag for the new giant duffle on wheels. I have a mini pink caribiner and lots of old plastic name badge holders. Perhaps I'll fashion one this morning.

2. I leave at 12:30 today for Dallas. I have sonya's number tucked in my wallet and we are brewing plans for a sonya-momma-me meet this weekend. Hooooooray!

3. I have a pumpkin donut in my office from the cafeteria. I caved. I think since I bought it, I must eat it. I really need to watch what I eat the rest of this weekend.

4. My boss upgraded us to first class. This is good. However, sitting next to hear means we'll work the whole time. I had a new Marie Claire and my MP3 player all set. *pout*

5. Marie Claire is a better magazine than I thought. Budget Living mag went defunct mid-year, so Marie Claire finished out my subscription instead. I thought it was more like Elle. Instead, it has some really poignant articles along with some beauty and fashion stuff.

6. I chose to watch Top Chef over the Laguna Beach finale last night, so I'm still cool, right? I love Sam. And "I'm So Talented" Josie got kicked off...yay! I'm hoping for a Cliff vs. Sam finale. Similar caliber chefs, yet different styles.

7. I will miss The Office tonight. This makes me sad.

Let the holiday frenzy begin!

Chicken Noodle Soup cheese today. I saw that some Wisconsin cheese factory makes it on tv last night. It's monterey jack with chicken noodle soup flavorings. Weird.

I'm starting to work on holiday plans.

1) Thanksgiving with the in laws. BIL isn't going to see his mother, so we are going by ourselves. Oh well. She'll be sad, but nothing I can do about it. BIL is a big boy that can make his own decisions.

2) Simplifying Thanksgiving dinner. Every year we seem to cut something out. Last year we nixed the rolls (and again this year). This year I'm nixing homemade cranberries. I'd nix the cranberries all together, but I like em on my leftover turkey. So I'm just buying canned. Forgive me Thanksgiving Food Gods, for I have sinned. Turkey frying is still the best thing in the world. The boys deal with the turkey outside and the girls have the whole kitchen and oven for other things.

3) Christmas plans. Holy crap, I think we have Christmas plans in order BEFORE Thanksgiving. That's a first.

4) Christmas cards. I started them last night.

5) Wine party is scheduled for Dec. 8th. About 12 wines with the following food:
ceviche (shrimp & scallop)
cheeses, breads, crackers
dipping oils
olives (for OTHER people, not me)
proscuitto & melon, grapes
chocolate caramel fondue with fruit, macaroons and almond pound cake

6) Christmas cookies. December 9th.

The big question. Holiday Decor. Should it also go up on the 9th? We have nobody coming over for the holidays. Should I bother? Is it just another pack & unpack thing that takes up time?

Canadian Slang & Weird Cat

Burrini cheese and french bread for our Canadian themed post today.

A local radio station had a contest for BNL tickets today. Since BNLs are Canadian, the game was "Guess the Canadian Slang." Do YOU know what a gorby is? Now I do. The caller made a good guess and got it right, so that was the end of the game. Boo. They said they'd play again tomorrow, so I'll try to bring you more Canadian fun words. :-)

My big kitty is weird. She just started this odd habit of moving the heavy ceramic water dish...full of water. Splish splash. Water all over. She puts her paw inside the dish and pulls on it.
Problem solving attempts:

1. I took it off the rubber mat, thinking the mat was bothering her. Nope. The water dish ended up about 3 feet away.

2. I've made sure the water dish is full when she goes to drink. Still not satisfactory. It only lead to more water being spilled.

3. Less water in the dish? Nope.

So now, I think I need to try a new bowl. The current one has high sides. Maybe one with lower sides will please Her Highness.

Feeling overwhelmed

*quickly throws out some gouda and sourdough bread*

My list of things to do this week at work is growing. And I leave for Dallas on Thursday. I wish I had more time to spend there.

We had a fairly productive weekend at home. I checked out the new Trader Joe's in Madison. First time going there. THEY HAD THE WASABI ALMONDS that I had at Catt's house. This pleased me greatly.

We hung pictures and a new candle sconce yesterday. We had a growing stack of stuff to be hung. Do you ever have that problem or do you hang things right away when you get them?

Baked Potatoes

Let's have cheesy topped baked potatoes today. I love baked potatoes. I like them with either butter or sour cream, plus lots of salt & pepper. However, they are fun to make as a meal with lots of other toppings & I think I'd like to do that tonight.

So, get my salivary glands going. What would YOU like on your baked potato?

I'm baaaack!

Sharp cheddar, mild swiss and a lovely brie with a selection of Napa, Sonoma and Livermore area wines.

So much to reflect on.

1. San Francisco was different than I'd pictured. I thought it would be full of beautiful rich people. Instead, people were down to earth and friendly, for the most part. And the city itself was more spread out than I thought. Not as much focus on the coastal areas as I thought there would be. The city was pretty clean and easy to navigate by foot. Public transportation was innovative & fairly clean. I would never again attempt to drive in the city at night. Stupid one ways, angled streets, cable & street car traffice, etc.

2. Wine country was awesome. Sonoma and Livermore (by Catt) were my favorites. Napa's Silverado Trail wineries had a beautiful backdrop, but they were WAY too crowded. And it's the offseason (and it was Friday)? In total, we had a case & a half of wine to ship back. Since we only bought a few bottles at each winery, it would've been uber expensive to have each winery just ship our one-three bottles individually. So we just too it all back to our hotel room & thought we'd hit a Fed Ex. Well, only places with a "wine shipping permit" (as most wineries have) can ship wine out of California. Carp. We figured it was going to cost between $50-100 to ship the wine (which was moot, because we COULDN'T ship it), so we instead bought a giant duffle bag suitcase on rollers and stuffed the styrofoam packaging and wine bottles into it. $39.99 and we were set. I was relieved to see the bag didn't leave a purple trail as I was wheeling it to the car last night. No brokens!

3. Dinner with Carey and Chelli was amazing. I know, I've already talked about it, but words can't describe how warm and funny these two are. I want them as roomies. Chris was completely enamored with them, too. I think he wishes we'd spent far more time with both chickies.

Carey's generosity was amazing, as was her humor. Seriously, she's even funnier in person. A thousand *smooches* for being such a caring, hot dog loving woman. I've met few people that care about their friends more than she does. I think she might have even gushed a bit about missing all her visitors. *bonus smooch*

Catt is warm, welcoming and in so many ways, like me. It was such a comfortable feeling to spend the day with her. We laughed, we cried, we sang, we drank. I hope we didn't do anything illegal. :-) We found awesomely fun wineries out by her. Closing time was a little wacky. We had some great wine and some effing great pizza. And I want some of those darn wasabi almonds. *drool*

4. I had lunch with Sharnina. Yet another warm, friendly person. While we come from different political and religious sides of the coin, there was never any tension. We talked about how OT really opened up our viewpoints and understandings that we'll all never agree, but we can still try to understand and respect eachothers views. But mostly, it was just a lunch between friends getting to know eachother. Her two daughters were soooo well behaved and friendly. We got to draw lots of pictures on the tabletop at a rather fancy restaurant.

I also had the FABULOUS coffee & tea meet with MTW. He brought us brie, bread and candy. Sooooooo good! We blabbered incessantly. No awkward lulls in conversation. I, however, don't think we convinced him to move to Wisconsin. And Peet's? Is awesome.

5. My muscles have recovered from the bike ride. ugh. Meh, I guess the pain was good for me.

6. My conference was average. I wasn't supposed to present at this one, but at one session (of about 60 audience members), got asked THREE minutes before starting if I'd sit in on a panel for my boss (who couldn't attend at the last minute). I had NO briefing on the topic. ACK! I managed to fudge my way through, but was sick afterwards thinking about what I could've said, or what I could have clarified.

7. I had a $3 cupcake. It was good.

8. If you are ever in downtown SF at night & want to get a fun drink, head to the Gold Dust. It's an old fashioned cocktail bar. GREAT bartenders, average prices, very tasty drinks and classic musical entertainment.

9. Other big thumbs up: Lefty O' Douls for a good cheap breakfast, Sinbads for seafood with a view (if you take Carey and Catt, they'll even manage to get a free round of drinks from the waiter), Sonoma and/or Livermore, Golden Gate Bridge, views from the coast (but think twice about renting those bikes!), The Beach Chalet brewery & restaurant, the spicy prawns at Thirstybear brewpub

10. Chris got hit on by a bartender while I was at conference. :-)

SF Day 5

*snore*

I'm so exhausted. We've been on the go since we got here. Tonight we decided to come back to the room after dinner and relax instead of going out. I'm going to catch up on some email....and update you on fun stuff.

We took a 20 mile bike ride. Ouch. We started near Fisherman's Wharf, biked along the Presidio, up-up-up the coastal hills through some pretty high falutin' neighborhoods and then along the western coast over to Golden Gate Park....and back to the Wharf. Why didn't the bike rental guy tell us that we are too fat & clumsy to do this? Well, we did it, but it wasn't always pretty. The highlight of the day was lunch at the Beach Chalet. Yummy food & beers. And some views of cute surfers.

We also had a FANTASTIC night with Catt & Carey. Carey must have been really warm because she was taking her clothes off before we even got to the bed at our hotel room. Did I mention Michelle was at a concert and left Carey alone with us? *blinks innocently*

Dinner with them was awesome. The food was great, the view was beautiful and the company was great. I've never seen two girls milk a round of drinks out of a waiter at a nice restaurant with such ease. I think the waiter was HIGHLY entertained by these crazy local girls. We had fresh crab and so much other good seafood. Yum!

Catt was our awesome host for a Sunday of Livermore wine country and Sunday football (her team unexpectedly won, so there was much celebration). Words can't describe what a fantastic day it was. The weather was perfect, the wineries are crazy fun there and I got to spend lots of time with one seriously awesome chicky. Chris has even adopted her as his big sister. *laughs at the old folks* Oh, and Catt's hometown is beautiful. We want to move there.

Now I'm wrapped up in the conference. Boo for stupid work. :-(

Pictures and more stories to come....ok, how bout a picture for the road....

SF Day 3

*shares brie from MTW with bloggers*

Ok, so let's back up to Thursday night again. I don't remember falling asleep. Although, I had no hangover yesterday morning. Yay!

Friday we were, like Breezy said, screwed up with the time difference and were ready to get up by 5:30 a.m. So we got our rental car (a big ol red Impala...that at least had a moonroof) & headed out of town. We had a 9:30ish date with MTW. I was supposed to call him when we left town, but forgot. Ooops. Had an uber greasy breakfast in Vallejo & then headed to Peet's in Fairfield. Peet's was so good! Chris had coffee & I had tea. We need more tea friendly places like this. Sometimes, I have my fill of coffee.

MTW is a fantastically nice guy. He was so relaxed and we had tons to talk about.We did get some pics, but I'm not equiped to post pics right now. You'll just have to watch his blog.

Then it was off to wine country. Bouchaine was our first stop & it was marvellous. Friendly ladies, a beautiful deck where we were given table service for samples...and generous samples they were. Met another young couple from the midwest.

Then it was off to lunch at Boon Fly. Yummy. Chris ate a kobe beef burger & I had a yummy flatbread. Then we hit Artesa winery. Gorgeous location and grounds, average wines...didn't buy any there.

Then we headed further towards Sonoma to Schug winery. Friendly people, decent wine. Not much sampling, though. After that it was Cline...my favorite. Pretty grounds, friendly staff (mostly old men) and great wines. Bought a lot there.

Headed back to Napa. All the wineries were really crowded and we ended up skipping two. Hit dinner at Julia's Kitchen and headed back to San Francisco.

Do not attempt to drive in downtown San Francisco at night for your first time in the city. Yikes! Soooo many one way streets and such.

Today we were up early again. Now I need to get off the blogs and plan our day. *smooch*

Prop 151

Well, we've been in SF since about 1:30 this afternoon (after a bunch of flight delays). We've quickly realized that "props xxx" are hot items here. So this afternoon we embarked on Prop 151, which was really about drinking.

We checked into the hotel around 2 pm, tried to take a nap, but it wasn't happening. Our hotel is nice, so we snuggled on the bed, watching the lil' tourist channel. Then it was off for food an drink. We've hit the hotel sports bar, Thirstybear brewing, Chevy's, Jillians and 4th Street bar. We got lots of snacks at the bar, so I settled for some pumpkin ice cream for dinner.

I've drunk dialed carey & catt. Tomorrow morning we need to be in decent shape for our Mtw meet at Peet's cofffe. *yawn* This time adjustment is tough.

Vacation time!

*stocks blog with enough cheese to last the week* Bob, that means you can't eat it all today.

Tomorrow I live for my lil' vacation & conference in California, so it might be my last blog for a few days. I'm sure I'll check in at some point.

Any other Bay area peeps up for some Saturday night hoopla? I like hoopla.

Oh, I got a new haircut last night & don't particularly like it. I give up.

POOT 1

That was the name on a license plate we saw this morning. I bet Carey could get it in a California plate.

Chili Cheese fries today! Ok, so it's a little early for them right now, but in a few hours you'll all thank me.

One more dead mouse this morning. This one was in the garage. I think we may have gotten all the current residents.

My sleep schedule is going to be messed up. We've bucked daylight savings time & have been going to bed around 9:15 & waking at 5:15ish. We have to leave the house at 4:30 on Thursday, so that means I'll be up at 3:45 at the latest. ACK!

Misc.

White queso sauce with tortilla chips for your dining pleasure today.

-We have mice. The cats cornered one all day in our bathroom. Chris nabbed it with the bbq tongs on Sunday. Traps were set where we thought they were coming in (in our basement on a ledge). At 4:30 a.m. Loki (cat) was playing with something upstairs. Chris went to see what it was. Dead mouse in trap. The cat brought it upstairs. Ew! One other mouse in the basement and one in the garage were also casualties. We are dealing with the mouse issue more this evening.

-I'm 90% packed for our trip on Thursday. I'm a planner like that.

-We raked leaves for my dad yesterday. It was a massive amount of leaves. I like raking leaves, luckily.

-My boss and I are putting on a conference. It's the second time for this one. Isn't going as well this time. Out of four presenters, each had a personal or family health issue over the weekend.

-GIRL TALK ALERT! I'm trying the new Playtex Sport tampons. I'm in the market for a new kind.

Um, anybody still hungry?

Bacon & cheddar cheese spread today with crackers.

Ali is much better. She even jumped in bed last night & uber snuggled with me. I guess 4 enemas, some IV fluids and a little medicine will help a constipated kitty out. They were initially a little worried about kidney problems given her symptoms, but it turns out she's fine in that regard. Whew! So now we have to deal with what seems like chronic constipation. yay! So, tkit, I definitely sympathize with you & sick Thea.

In unrelated news, apparently someone swiped all the leftover muffins, quiche and fruit from yesterday's meeting. Bastards!

Oh, and I got a new perfume that I like, but Chris said it smells "old." It's Sarah Jessica Parker's new perfume Lovely. I think it smells lovely. :-)

Sick Kitty

No time for cheese today.

I have sick big kitty. She can't keep anything down & has diarrhea (sp?). It's been that way for two days, so time for the vet.

Had to come to work (almost an hour drive here) for an 8:00 important meeting/presentation. Damn it! Now I'm getting ready to head back home.

Hope Nookie has a good flight today (arkie is maybe flying today, too?). Hope Breezy is busy knitting beer bands. Hope the rest of you aren't drowning in self-pity for not being in California today.

Pastrami

An assortment of swiss cheeses for you enjoyment: Regular swiss, Jarlsberg and baby swiss.

So I bought some pastrami from the deli over the weekend. It was on clearance & needs to be used this week. Chris loves rye bread, so I thought he'd enjoy some pastrami sandwiches. Well, the loaf of rye bread is gone & I still have some pastrami. I don't particularly love pastrami, mostly because of the fat in it. Hence, I don't really know what to do with it other than sandwiches.

So if I trim away the fat and cut it up, do you think it would taste good with ravioli or tortellini in a light sun dried tomato and alfredo sauce?

ETA:
These are what Breezy forgot. They are the ones that say "blitzed, bombed, etc" as shown in the upper right. I figured since everyone didn't drink bottled beverages, Breezy could decide who gets to wear which as a bracelet for the evening.

A week late: San Francisco

Roasted veggie and Guyere quiche for your eating pleasure.

Just putting it on San Fran area peeps' radar that I'll be in town with Chris Nov. 2-8th. I hope to see as many of you as we can, so hope you aren't partied out after this weekend!

My dreams have been very vivid lately. Last night I had a few stressful ones. Some guys showed up at our house in a pick up, laughing like that crazy bearded man on LOST, stole our lawnmower and left a bunch of garage sale crap on our lawn. And we were leaving for San Fran that afternoon & didn't know what to do. And I was really pissed at Chris because I got their license plate number at the last second and he wouldn't write it down.

The Shopping Bags

Apparently I'm cranky today. It just hit me when my boss blew into my office with 14 questions all at once. Anyway, let's have cheesecake this morning. It's Monday, we need comfort food.

How did I last so long with only one tv in the house? I LOVE having two tvs! I snuggled under the covers in the spare bedroom Sunday morning & watched two shows Chris would have no interest in.

One of those shows was The Shopping Bags. It's a Canadian show where two hip ladies run around testing products. They, for example, enlist the help of a synchronized swimming team to test shaving products, dancers to test foot baths, men with different beard types to test razors, etc...I love the show. It's on the Fine Living channel if you are interested.

In other tv viewing news, we got our new Dish Network HD box this weekend. The highlight of our new HD channels? Cows Licking Fencepost. There was an hour long show that was just of cows walking around & closeups of them licking fenceposts. Another favorite was Tai Chi at the Golden Gate Bridge. When the show started, it was a little before dawn & you could barely make out the Tai Chi-ers. As the sun rose, you could then plainly watch them. No sound other than what they are hearing (traffic, nature). We had fun checking in on these shows.

ETA: I had a dream that Syren married JD Fortune in Milwaukee. The best man looked like a short Toby Keith and sang "Live like you were dying." I blame watching Tim McGraw on the Today show Friday morning and listening to INXS on my MP3 player last night. It was very odd. I'm not sure what I blame Syren for. :-) Sorry CSTL.

Update & Tortellini

Bacon horseradish cheese spread with crackers this morning.

*gives Breezy aspirin for hangover*

Chris moved the giant tv a little bit & now I like it. Especially after watching LOST on it last night. Muwahhahahaha!

I had cancelled my plans of going to Texas from Nov. 16-20, but now they are back on. Wooohoo!I won't have a ton of spare time, but am definitely up for peep meeting

What should I do tonight with the tortellini in my freezer? Serve with marinara is the obvious choice. I was thinking soup. I'd prefer not to visit the grocery store. Thoughts?

Wapatoolie Party

Hot chili cheese dip and tortilla chips today.

Chris was checking his text messages this morning. His ex-girlfriend (that he still talks to...and it's ok with me) who is in her early-mid thirties messaged him that we are invited to a wap (sp?)party this weekend. People still do this in their 30s? I haven't been to a wap party since I was probably, oh, 20.

I'll just drink the bottle of vodka I bring, TYVM (not that I think we are going).

P.S. I think the new tv is too big and unsightly. And the old tv that's now in a bedroom? Wayyy to big for that space, and hence, ugly. *sigh*

TV shopping and my throat

Squeaky garlic dill cheese curds this morning for my friends. Just don't breathe on me.

Shopping
TV/stereo equipment shopping was funny. We got our store credit card (planning on the 0% financing) and went over to the tv section. First salesman we see was my old boss from high school (at Dairy Queen!). Small world. He is a cool guy.

He gets us pointed to the right tv and then Chris starts looking at home stereo equipment replacements. Decided on 2 slim tower speakers (so we could get the giant, ugly 1980s speakers out of the living room) and a new receiver. Sometime during this, we realized not everything was 0% til 2008 financing...just "targeted" items (none of which we picked out). *frowny face* That was a deal breaker.

Salesman guy hooked us up though and gave us 0% on everything. Yay!

Pill
Is it possible that my tiny bc pill got stuck in my throat on Sunday night and is still there? *gulp cough* Feels like it.

Potpourri

Sticking with the theme, lets have a tray of cheese today filled with provolone, aged cheddar, brick and pepperjack.

Just some random stuff:

1) I love campfires. Friday night was fun with my sister's family. We roasted some chicken & apple sausages (Emeril's) and pizza pudgie pies (hobo pies, camper pies, whatever).

2) My boss keeps flitting in my office...she's been gone for a week. This makes it difficult to finish my blog entry.

3) Our chili only got third place in the chili cookoff this year (the same recipe won last year). Everybody brought their chili cooking up a notch this year & there were some tasty ones.

4) Seriously, that's like 10 times she's walked in during a 20 minute period. Seriously.

5) I'm making mass amounts of egg rolls tonight. Wrappers were on clearance for 50 cents.

6) Chris might be tv & stereo system shopping this week. American TV has 0% interest financing thru 2008.

7) Now she's sitting in my office going through journals.

Guess that's my cue to sign off.

Flannel Sheets

Boursault on french bread slices for our Friday feast.

I bought flannel sheets today for the spare bedroom. Now, if I must leave for Chris's snoring, I will have a toasty bed to climb into. Sigh. We came home & the house was 57 degrees yesterday. We caved and turned on the heat for the first time this season. At least I'm not in New York where they got a ton of snow.

I was grumbling about the yuppies at Target today (while I was buying the bargain $30 Woolrich flannel sheets) and then went & grabbed a cup of coffee at the Starbucks inside (actually, a pumpkin spice latte, skim no whip). If you can't beat em, join em.

Weekend Plans

Fontina cheese & mimosa this morning (non-alcoholic champagne is available for the non-drinkers).

Thursday is the day of solidifying weekend plans. So what are your plans?

Friday
I'll have a campfire & sleepover at our house with my oldest sister's family. We are eating campfire food.

Saturday
Sister is bringing her Kirby carpet cleaner & we are cleaning my carpets. Yay!
Chili cookoff in the afternoon

Sunday
Sleep
Watch football
Read newspaper
Organize junk

Sugar Cookies

We take a break from cheese today so that I may share my sugar cookies with you.

I was home yesterday because of a horrid stomach ache & cramps in the morning. It was a "girl" thing, IYKWIM. The afternoon was much better, so I made sugar cookies. I even made them in fall & halloween shapes: A maple leaf, pumpkin & ghost shape. The leaves are frosted brown, the pumpkins orange & ghosts white. I also sprinkled many of them with chocolate sprinkles.

I used a new recipe which has gotten good reviews thus far:
(Tweaked from Allrecipes.com)

Bakery Sugar Cookies

INGREDIENTS
6 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups butter flavored shortening
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sour milk (add a few drops of lemon juice to milk to make 1 c.)
3 eggs, beaten (I used one egg & the rest in Egg Beaters)
2-3 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, stir together 4 cups flour, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in baking soda, sour milk, beaten eggs, and vanilla. Stir as little as possible, and add the remaining flour as necessary to make dough thick enough to roll out.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Cool on baking sheets.

I hate today...and a shower question.

Someone else has to bring cheese today.

SUCKY MORNING
My day is sucking. It's true what they say: No good deed goes unpunished. Nothing major, I was just trying to be a good sister & get food to my divorced sister. The whole thing has gone haywire from the start. And it didn't get any better this morning. Sometimes the simplest tasks can go so wrong.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

SHOWER QUESTION
So anyway, I'm having soap issues. My shower gels are about gone. I can't decide if I want to buy more shower gel or some nice soap.

I like the smells & ease of shower gel storage (not soap buildup or slippery bars), but I also really enjoy the clean smell of bars of soap & sqeaky clean feeling I get.

Which do you use? Do you have any soap vs. shower gel feelings to share?

Friday Fitness Feature

I bought some Laughing Cow light wedges at Sam's this week. They were cheap. So chow down, blog friends.

Tell me your fitness routine. Cardio? Weight training? Fitness videos? Yoga? A daily walk to the mailbox? Getting the chips from the cupboard before Survivor? Honesty is the best policy.

Now that I've committed at least to my treadmill (I bought it in June & have been using it faithfully since), I need to get a better routine down. I'm inconsistent in the amount of time I spend on it and the supplementary exercises.

Differences

Boursin garlic & herb on toast points today.

Take a look around, blogfriends. We obviously share something in common. Enough that we visit eachother's blogs, send emails and sometimes things via snail mail. And, heck, we even visit eachother in person. Some of us have lots in common. Some of us have seemingly little in common other than a sense of humor and being electronically chatty.

The reality is we are all very different people. We come from different social, economic and physical places. We have different lifestyles, education and interests. Different experiences. All that shapes who we are and how we relate to others.

And you know what? That is what I love most. Not our similarities, but rather our differences. We learn from eachother. The fact that I feel comfortable with people that I only share some similarities with is a great feeling.

That Darn Cat

Today we feature my cat Bartleby. He's naughty, but totally lovable and goofy. Have some lacy baby swiss while you look at El Dorko the Wonder Cat. Note that Chris took the countertop pictures...I'm usually too busy scolding said cat to take a photo.

My new toy

Pepper jack, cheddar, Chihuahua and Asadero quesedillas today with all the toppings & fillings you want.

I received my MP3 players last night. It's a Sandisk Sansa M240 & so far, I like it. I did have to convert old music I downloaded from cds from wma files to MP3 files (since MP3 files are smaller). Other than that, it was easy to use. I loved it for working out. I have yet to figure out the playlist feature.

I meant to tell you about the fun, easy dinner I made Monday night. I marinated chunks of chicken, mushroom and shrimp (would've done green pepper and onion if I had any) for about 30 minutes in a teriyaki sauce & apricot jam mixture. Threaded them on skewers and grilled. I then made a soy & wasabi dipping sauce and put them in individual bowls for each of us. I threw the cooked items into one big bowl that we shared. It was just a fun way to have dinner. Would've been better with more sauces and more grilled veggies. I thought it would be a fun way to eat for kids. Not that I have any.

Lost is on tomorrow. Yaaaaay!

Almost finished

Grilled mozzarella and tomato sandwiches today. MMMMmmmm.

We almost finished the patio this weekend. We worked our butts off yesterday. We were short a piece of edging and some stakes, so we'll finish that up tonight. Then we'll have to put more locking sand down. THEN it will be officially finished. Whew!

We dined out a lot this weekend. Saturday night we went to a nice restaurant with friends. I had the worst salmon of my life. Sunday we took a lunch break to our local bar for a sandwich. Good stuff. Brew City fries are some of my favorite things ever. I was good, though, and we just shared one order.

We stopped at some hick bars on Saturday night after dinner (the restaurant was in a small country town). My friend proceeded to get almost angry at the patrons for being "so pathetic." She didn't say anything in public, but ranted in the car about it. I didn't think her attitude was called for. It was extremely judgemental. Of course, I laughed at a mullet and a guy wearing rubber knee boots...and I recently shared the story of my BIL & SIL with the semi trailers in their yard. Am I a hypocrite? I somehow think it's different, but maybe it's not. Whatever your opinion, I refuse to take back my laughing at the mullet.

Sorry I'm Late

Big meeting this morning. I'm happy to share bagels and two types of cream cheese with you. We have baked apple, blueberry, pumpernickel, honey oat, sun dried tomato, olive oil & rosemary and poppy seed bagels. Cream cheese is either plain lite or garden veggie lite. I wanted the pumpkin, but it was full fat.

Random stuff:
1. My new Sandisk MP3 player will arrive on Monday. Yay! I can workout to tunes in the basement (the cd boombox I was using doesn't work very well). I also got a headphone splitter so Chris and I can both listen to it on plane trips, as well as both listen to dvds on the laptop.

2. Work is crazy busy, but it's ok. It's not so bad I can't handle it. And most of the work is really interesting.

3. Chris is home sick today with a cold. I haven't caught it...yet.

4. I don't have to work tonight! A coworker wanted a shift & offered to pick mine up. Yay!

5. Brokeback Mountain was odd. I have mixed feelings on the movie. First complaint: It should've had subtitles. I couldn't understand the cowboy mumbles half the time.

Question: Do you ever get up in the middle of the night and either get something to eat, drink something other than water or sit & watch tv? I don't...just wondering if others do and what drives them to do it.

A funny In-Laws Story

American cheese slices today, because it fits with the silliness of the story. I can whip them into grilled cheese sandwiches if you'd rather. Bear with me....this story is worth it.

My BIL (Chris's brother) married a woman from a rather poor town in the middle of Wisconsin. She had her own graphics business downtown and lived in a 1980s vintage single-wide trailer home on a few acres of land her father had given her. Since BIL had no place of his own, he moved in with her.

Her business was failing and he didn't have a permenant job (floating around military temp positions), thus it was what they could afford. They decided to start breeding labs...in the cramped trailer. Yep, the puppies had to live in there for weeks after they were born. They also had several cats. They love entertaining friends, but we all hated going over to their cramped place.

Well, SIL moved her business into the trailer to get back on its feet. So then, it was REALLY cramped. It's a graphics business, so lots of printers and computer stuff. They also started doing vinyl signs and still had other large equipment to deal with, so they rented a semi trailer and parked it in the lawn. Next to the old, completely dead, ripped up convertible and three other vehicles. You get the picture. Well then they decided they needed TWO semi trailers to store all their personal stuff because it was cheaper than renting a storage space. Sigh.

Well now BIL has a military job making around $45K/year and their business probably brings in around $20K. Yet, they don't want anymore debt, so they continue to live like this. It bothers me because they always want everyone to come and hang out at their place. It's cramped, littered with crap and boring. I don't enjoy my stays there.

Recently SIL's brother built a standard door and decks on each of the semi trailers and she put patio sets out for their two employees to take breaks from their jobs in the semi trailers. SIL's business is now moved into this shed thing they put in the yard. It is probably the best looking thing there.

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THEIR WORLD!
1. They are buying a big chunk of hunting land. Have no intention of putting a house there, just a $40K giant garage that will have a rustic living quarters for the hunters. *head tilt*

2. They made that $900 on the rummage sale and are buying exercise equipment. To put where you ask? Well, they've sold so much personal crap that they have room in that second semi trailer! They are going to insulate the trailer, run duct work between the two to heat them both, put an exercise room in the back and a woodworking shop in the front.

3. Why a woodworking shop? Well because of the rash of constant storms that runs through their area (you'd think this would prompt them to build a house with a basement), they had lots of downed oaks last year. They had a guy come with a portable saw mill and plane out oak planks for them. For wood flooring. Well, since they aren't building a house, they have all this wood. They went shopping for a dining room table this week (they don't have a dining room nor space for a table in any other room). They said it's all crap, so they are buying $2K worth of equipment for BIL to MAKE a dining room table.

Ahh, the fun never ends. I'm thinking about getting them dueling banjos for Christmas.

Rummage sales vs. Donations

I'd better serve something light today since I was a snackmaster yesterday & ate more than I should've. Feta is one of the lighter cheese, so we'll have bruschetta with feta cheese sprinkled in.

My SIL made $900 in a two-day rummage sale last weekend. Yes, they actually DO have that much junk to get rid of. So much, in fact, they are having another one this weekend.

I don't have rummage sales because we live in the country. Not many people would come. And I really don't have that much stuff. I have clothes and old media (books, cds, movies). That's about it, other than a few random kitchen items here & there. Thus, I take a box to Goodwill every three months or so. I get a tax deduction and it's immediately out of the house.

So which do you prefer to get rid of stuff: rummage sales or donations? Or do you prefer to let the junk stack up in piles until you die? Do you like to SHOP at rummage sales?

Tuesday post

Could there possibly be a more boring post title?

To make up for it, I am serving Emmenthaler, Medium Cheddar and German Rauchkase with an assortment of Toasted's crackers.

I had yesterday off, but got little accomplished. I had lunch with my friend, which took hours. I had to go to my old hometown, 30 minutes away. I also had some errands to run. None of which went well:

1) Walmart for sand & cat litter. They had no sand left.
2) Car wash: I had very little cash on me & thus didn't have enough time on the hand sprayer to get the car really clean. Chris pointed out this morning that there were about $3 in quarters in the car *smacks forehead*
3) Goodwill: I had a box to drop off after moving in my winter clothes over the weekend. I stopped in the shop & found a small humidifier for our bedroom. Got it home, it doesn't work. Good thing I can return it.
4) Thought about stopping at Dairy Queen. Didn't.

I feel extremely boring. It's not like I got to meet John Edwards or anything.

Rare weekend post

I'll share my double glouchester and honeycrisp apples with you.

After work I went to Whole Foods. I love peeking around that store. I bought:
Heirloom tomatoes
Foreign brie & double glouchester
super soft wheat pita bread
2 kinds of hummus
2 kinds of pesto
A whole grain boule bread with pumpkin seeds
Oat bran pancake mix

The pancakes were certainly wholesome, although not great tasting. The cheese is good. The rest I'll be munching on this weekend.

Then it was off to the library. I checked out some good magazines, two San Fran tourism books, another yoga book and two movies: Brokeback Mountain and Prime.

Next it was a coffee shop. Well all the effing coffee shops on the westside of Madison close friggin early. So I went to Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte, skim no whip. Read a wine country tourism book.

Went to the movie. Invincible was quite bland. Nice, but bland.

Went to Old Chicago afterwards. Had two drinks and a salad that was delicious. Stopped at the bar by our house for a beer. About died from the amount of smoke. Came home, checked chat, had a glass of wine & played for a bit on OT.

Slept in the morning til 8:30. Had all three cats on my lap while watching tv. Now, I'm avoiding working outside because the weather looks very ominous.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Toga Party!

*whips cheese wiz & sprays it at Swami* That's for all the yelling in my blog yesterday. :-)

Put on your best toga, BYOB and party with me! Chris is the proverbial "Gone Fishing," so what a better way to pass the time!

Describe your toga and then vote on which OTHER thing I should do IRL tonight.

1) Go to Whole Foods & wander around, return books to library, find a coffeehouse with some live music & relax.

2) Grab girly pizza toppings, go home & make a pizza, have some wine & find a movie on PPV (I think Brokeback Mountain is still on & I'd like to see that).

3) Go see a movie in the theatre right after work. Either: The Last Kiss, An Inconvenient Truth, or All the King's Men. There are a few others I'd like to see (such as Little Miss Sunshine, but I think Chris would really like to see it, also).

Bothersome things

Cheesy swiss quiche this morning. I'll even leave the mushrooms out of half.

1. McDonald's will now be serving breakfast all day. Will this lead to breakfast burrito cravings after nights of drinking?

2. This Home & Garden Party thing I'm hosting for my friend. She sent me an email saying I must pick a 'theme' so that we can play games & have an auction. She suggested a chocolate these, apple theme or fall theme. They can bring items related to the themes or wear clothing related. Great. Effing great.

3. I watched The Biggest Looser while making dinner & a pie for Chris's potluck. It made me feel like my workouts are real pansy-ass and I need to step it up.

4. Chris will be away all weekend & I can't come up with something fun to do on Friday night (I work Saturday night). I might take myself to a movie.

I'm creating a new reality show

Deep fried mozzarella stix and marinara sauce for your stomach's pleasure.

I have a new reality show idea where I will compete and WIN! It will be called Finding Things. Only women will be contestants for their ultimate finding things ability. Men would be at such an obvious disadvantage, as they were not born with the finding things gene.

Why will I win? Because I'm the best.finder.ever.

We have to get our septic inspected every three years. It's the first time we'll have to do this since we built the house. The inspector is coming this morning. Yesterday Chris announces we must find the keys to the septic padlocks. Hm. I didn't even know there WERE keys. So, I launched into my preliminary questions to him:

1)Are the keys on a ring or together somewhere else?
answer: They are in a tiny 1x2 inch padlock box
2) When was the last time you saw them?
answer: In my hand when the septic installer handed them to me.
3) And you have no idea what you did with them?
answer: nope.
4) What does the little box look like?
answer: plain, grocery bag brown
5) No pictures on it?
answer: no

Ok, so you realize that the last time he had this small box was before any of the interior stuff was done in the house and there were boxes and piles of materials all over the place. There was no spot for safe keeping. The only spot would've been in the camper we had on the land at the time (we've sold it since that time).

After mulling about 5 possible spots for the keys, I went on my search. They weren't in any of those places. In the basement there were two boxes of misc. caulk, nails and leftover cabinet parts, etc. Lo and behold, guess what I found in one of those boxes. I win.

Five minutes later Chris lost his little rachet he was using the prior evening while working on the garage door. It wasn't anywhere in sight. However, thinking of all the possible places to set things, I realized he had the truck tailgate down to work on the overhead section of the door. Ding ding! Under the tailgate, on the bumper sat the rachet.

See, I would win. Don't even try to challenge me.

Pile Inventory

Broccoli cheese soup in bread bowls today. I think Carey will love me for that.

Next person to see Glowie, smell her purse. Does it smell like cheese?

On to your piles. Inspired by MM's closet inventory, I'm asking you to tell me about your piles.
1. How many piles are on your:
Desk?
Kitchen Counter?
Kitchen Table?
Next to your bed?
2. Is your clean or dirty laundry in piles?
3. Do you have piles of magazines? What are those magazines & what are you planning to do with them?
4. What other dominant piles are in your house?

Dinner Exchange

Fresh from my weekend trip to the apple orchard, we are having Honeycrisp apples and sharp cheddar.

I had a decent weekend. We finished lots on the patio. Should be done by the end of this coming weekend. Saturday night we went to Prime Quarter (a grill your own steak & fish joint) for my sister's birthday. It's the freshly divorced sister and she brought her new boyfriend. We had a nice time. Drank too much, but oh well.

Sunday we smoked fish at my other sister's house (my BIL has a nice Bradley smoker). We also pre-made & froze a bunch of dinners. We made full recipes of everything & split it in half. Especially with casseroles, lasagne, etc, Chris and I can't eat a whole one & leftovers get old after a few days. So this way, I made 2 & she made 2, yet we came home with 4 different meals. Nice to get the variety. And it only took about 30-45 minutes.

We bought a ton of foil pans at the dollar store & are going to try & make one meal (and split it in half) each week. Then when we see eachother next, we'll swap entrees. I think it's about $10/dish we prepare for chicken, ham, turkey type-meals. For hamburger based meals I'm sure it would be cheaper. And that was buying EVERYTHING needed (except for dry seasonings). Normally, I'd have a lot of the ingredients already in the house, but I went to hers & just hit the store for everything that morning.

I made:
Bruschetta chicken casserole
Ham & cheese puff

She made:
Hot chicken salad casserole
Turkey, veggie & wild rice slow cooker stew

Home parties

Grapes and Gouda today.

What home party products do you like? Which do you hate?

I don't hate going to parties when it's a company I like. I just wish we could skip all the stupid games & presentation crap & just look & purchase. That's why I'll usually buy something, but won't attend the parties.

When I was selling TS (technically, I still am til the end of the month), I tried to keep parties short & sweet, moving the products right along for people to taste. And sometimes we just did a 10 minute intro & let people do buffet style. It was all I felt comfortable with. I'm not a salesperson.

Anywho, I like:
Pampered Chef
Tastefully Simple
Party Lite

I hate:
Home Interiors
Home & Garden Party
any of the jewelry parties
Longeberger

I'd like to attend (never have) one of the pearl parties, a tea party, and a Body Shop at Home party. I don't hate Mary Kay, they just have less & less that I like and have really raised their prices over the last five years. I frankly can find more I like a Walgreen's for less cost.

I have now TWO friends selling Home & Garden Party and I don't particularly like any of the stuff. I grudgingly agreed to host a party for my friend that just started. Yuck. I like the bean pot, but already have one. I bought candles & they sucked (except for the jarred ones). Everything else I've kind-of liked has been really expensive. I don't like it well enough to spend $65.

oven fixed!

Spinach and guyere puffs this morning. My oven is fixed. I was without an oven for a week. No biggie, really. I just used the grill, stovetop and crock pot a lot.

The serviceman was here at 6:35 this morning. Ugh. This weekend we realized the oven was officially broken after tearing it apart. We needed to call the service company Monday morning. I was sad, as I knew it would be expensive. Well, as I was cleaning out our "important papers box" (since it was a rainy weekend & thus good for that kind of stuff) and transferring items to our little fireproof safe, I found extended warranty certificates we'd purchased for our stove & fridge. Yay! I'd forgotten all about that! So this service call cost us nothing. Groovy!

It's drizzling outside. I thought we were done with rain...sent it to the East Coast. Harumph.

I missed the Rock Star finale last night. Chris couldn't tape it, as the last storm blew some input thing on our tv. So his coworker might have brought her tape in today for me. Otherwise, I'll watch some online tomorrow (at work with the speedy net). I stick by my earlier analysis that Supernova wanted Lukas to help them bring in a younger (more music-spending) crowd. Toby (& to some degreeDilana) would have made the 30-40 year old fans (former Crue, GnR, Metallica fans) happy. Unfortunately, our age group on its own doesn't fill concert venues and make for skyrocketing hits.

Home Today

*peeks out from pile of cats*
I have today & tomorrow off of work! Yay! Parmesan Artichoke dip with toasted baguette today. Mmmmm.

Well, I did have to bring some work home with me. I've spent a few hours on that. Bleh.

I did, however, get up by 7 & caught Meredith Viera's premiere on the Today show. I like her so much better than Katie. She made a cute comment when Matt asked her how she felt. She said, "I feel like it's the first day of school & I'm sitting next to the cutest guy in class."

Then I watched part of the View. Ugh. I enjoyed Rosie in very, very small doses once upon a time. Hiring her was a poor decision, IMHO. She dominates the others far too much and says some stupid shit. The View is not the place to talk about Cutie Patooties. I wish that word had died long ago.

Boogie, Erica & Janelle were on the View. Rosie told Mike off repeatedly. It was funny for a bit, then it was just rude & old.

Chopsticks (paging Bob)

I don't think there is cheese to eat with chopsticks, so instead I'll stab some swiss & cojack bites with toothpicks for you. Enjoy.

First, Mr. Lights & Mr. Weltek wear the same cologne...well, used to anyway, before the cologne purchase of last weekend. And Mr. Weltek used to wear Cool Water, like vols. Only he would bathe in the cologne instead of spritz it.

Ok, back to my regularly scheduled blog topic.

I had to go across town for a training all morning, so had nowhere to keep my lunch cold. Thus I had to eat out. I decided to go to the Chinese restaurant with the mongolian bbq. I decided to eat with chopsticks, which presented a dilemna at two points during my meal. How do you eat things larger than one bite? For example, I had an extremely large piece of sushi. Definitely a two-biter. I picked it up with the chopsticks and bit it in half. The rest fell apart & onto my plate. Then, I had a long slice of chicken that was a three biter. Do I pick up the large piece with the chopsticks & nibble a bit off, placing the rest on my plate? What's the protocol for this? Bob should know.

Power Outage

How bout some spicy cheese to wake us up this morning? Habenero Jack cheese with Ritz today.

We woke up to a power outage this morning. It wasn't even really stormy. It was just raining for about 48 hours straight. I usually get up at 6:15, but since it was pitch dark, I crawled back into bed. The power came on around 7:00, so we just got to work a little late. It was nice to sleep in.

The weekend was good. A nicer weekend than I'd had in a long time. Friday night we celebrated our anniversary (the stone place closed at 5pm, so we couldn't get the stone that night). We went to Red Lobster because Chris had been craving a big seafood pig out. We hadn't been there in years. The food was better than I remember. It wasn't overcooked & they had some unique flavors. He had some kind of wasabi shrimp and tequilla lime shrimp with a side of king crab legs. I had sweet chili salmon & shrimp. It was spicy & yummy. And let's not speak of the cheddar bay biscuits. After that we bought Chris some new cologne. It was nice because there was nobody else at Boston Store's cologne counter so we had plenty of time to smell everything. He ended up with CHROME.

Saturday I worked & my niece was staying with us. She did lots of cleaning for money since she's saving for a saddle & there was crap I didn't want to clean. So now I have dust free baseboards, window sills, dining room chairs, top of fridge and such. Not to mention an uber clean fridge. $25 well spent (It was only going to be $20, but Chris said the fridge was a really nasty job).

Sunday it rained all.day. Loved that! We stayed inside watching tv & doing some light cleaning. I curled up with a book, did the treadmill & some yoga (I'm learning from a book). I also gave Chris a haircut. It's the second time. Gets a little easier each time.

Questions related to todays blog:
1. Do you like Red Lobster?
2. Have you tried yoga?
3. Have you ever cut your spouse's or children's hair?
4. What would you like my niece to come & clean?
5. Men's cologne. Got any in your household? What kind?

How to Ruin an Anniversary

*whips out block of string cheese* I have no energy to be a polite hostess, so you'll have to help yourselves to the cheese today.

So tomorrow is our 6th wedding anniversary. We have been having some relationship stress lately, so neither of us had made any plans for tomorrow. I have to work a 4 hour afternoon shift, but that's not a huge deal. I figured we'd go out to dinner on Saturday night & make an effort at a nice "date."

However, in the last 48 hours, life has gotten in the way of any anniversary romance:

1) Chris has poison ivy. In his ears, on his arms, on his face, on his neck....and on um, *points down there*...yeah...there. Note to men: Never mow in unknown areas, then come in & go to the bathroom.

2)My 11 year old niece, whom we adore, called last night. She asked me if she could come over Saturday & spend the night because her little brother has a soccer tournament all weekend & she doesn't want to go. Doh! AND she wanted to come home with us Friday night because her family was leaving so early Saturday morning. Double Doh! I told her I'd have to check with Chris & call her back. I agonized & discussed with Chris. I called my sister & said "thanks a lot, dork." She of course had forgotten it was our anniversary & felt semi-bad, although was determined to still find a solution.

3) Patio work. We've gotta get this thing done & this weekend is the time to do it.

So tonight we'll be picking up the stone and celebrating our anniversary. We'll either hit a restaurant on the way home, or pick up some seafood to cook up at home. Not my perfectly envisioned time, but we'll make do.

The Perfect Stone

Fontina & crab puffs today because I'm in a good mood.

We found the perfect stone for the firepit! Now we can finish the patio! It was a little sad though, because they have all sorts of fancy stone that I WISH I could've afforded for the whole patio (the Menards 'no interest' thing was what allowed us to do this now). But anywhoooo, we'll bring the truck to work tomorrow & load up. Yay!

I have two major things I need to complete by tomorrow @ noon. One is a human subjects research Institutional Review Board application. These are what you need to fill out after you are awarded a grant in order to do any research with human subjects. It's so detailed and you need to create a bunch of accompanying docs such as consent forms. Not fun. I hate these.

Then I need to compile a bunch of stats for a big talk my boss is doing in a few weeks. This means I have to search through a ton of reports I printed yesterday, mining for pieces of interesting, applicable data. I don't mind doing this, it's just something I need to imerse myself in.

So share details of what YOU need to get done today. Then we'll get to know your jobs a little better. If your job is taking care of kiddos, I do NOT want to know about poopy diapers. Remember, I interview people in nursing homes. I can break out pressure ulcer descriptions.

How can we fix the road rage?

Now serving colby longhorn & crackers on the lido deck. I have a topic today that some

I know some of you are road ragers. Is it pretty much constant or does it just fester at times? For you non-road ragers, are you one of the dilly-daliers that takes it slow & steady, not worrying about traffic around you? Is that a happy place to be?

Chris's road rage really grates on my nerves and leaves him frazzled by 8 a.m. For both of our sanity, we need to solve this lil' dilemna.

I'm baaaack

*squirts Febreeze*
Gah! What has been going on in here?

Warm brie with caramelized apples, served with french bread for you today.

Thank you to all of you. Your kind words meant a lot last week. And for those that listened to me drone on & on...double thanks. I felt like I was hit with a ton of bricks & it took me a bit to dig out. While things aren't great, I at least feel like I have my bearings again.

I missed you guys. I promise to catch up on blogs over the next few days.

My "diet" has been going ok. Other than having breakfast at a bar yesterday. And the feta appetizer at my sister's house. And the four beers on Sunday night. But other than THAT...*thumbs up*

Ooooh, and only 6 more weeks left of the part-time job! Yay!

Courage & a break

I have a fantastic buffet of cheese items today. This includes brie in puffed pastry, squares of cojack, provolone & swiss, gouda fondue, dill havarti on toast points, port wine spread with crackers, and bacon & cheddar stuffed mushrooms.

Earlier this weekend I thought about something that I wanted to post here: Courage.

Something all of my friends have in common is that they have shown courage in some way or another. Sometimes it's not in obvious ways. Sometimes it's in big ways. When I continued to think about this, and the limited history I know about you, my online friends, I also find it's true here. You are all courageous people. Whether it's weathering the storm of depression and raising children, battling an illness, living with prejudice around you and standing up to it, facing demons from your past, supporting loved ones in times of strife, or leaving bad people behind you at home or in a job, you've all demonstrated courage in some way...sometimes daily. I just think you all should remind yourselves you are courageous and should be proud. *smooch*

Then, as the weekend progressed, life slapped me upside the head. I need a little time away from here to sort things out IRL. But I wanted to post that little bit about courage first just because I *heart* you guys and think courage is an important trait. Now, I figure it's a good note to go out on for awhile. See you around OT or blogland eventually.

*smooch*

Rain, rain

Ok, we'll do the Laughing Cow wedges today since there are some babybel haters out there. *rolls eyes*

So it's Friday. What time are we meeting for drinks? It's been one of those weeks. Where are we meeting? MTW's dog house? What will you be having?

Happy Thursday!

Laughing Cow Mini Babybels today.

First, I have to say I love Luna's new cheer. Grate, grate, grate job! LOL!

I worked from home yesterday & couldn't get online for very long. The cats chewed up my laptop power cord, so the laptop was dead. I had to use our desktop which connects to the net at the speed of pondwater & thus, I dedicated online time to work-related stuff. *pout*

The "diet" is going well. I'm focusing on smaller portions with the biggest section of my plate being veggies. I'm steering back away from too much fat in my cooking (I was being too generous with cheese & olive oil lately) & bought a big ol bag of Splenda (next time I'm sending my sister to Sam's Club for it...like Costco as MTW suggested but we don't have one here). I have a ton of bottled water on hand and have been doing really well drinking that.

Exercising is going ok. Since I got the deal on the treadmill, etc at the auction a few months ago I've been faithfully exercising at least 3 nights/week.

My biggest challenges:
1. Snacks. I have a bad portion control thing with snacks. I don't find small portions instantly gratifying and thus want to eat more. I need to be more patient & wait for the small snack to settle in & then check my hunger.

2. Someone to make me oatmeal in the mornings. I had a bowl of oatmeal yesterday & it was sooo satisfying. However, I don't really care for instant oatmeal & I'm too lazy to make real oatmeal every morning. Will you make it for me?

3. Finding time to cook some weeknights with the pt job. It will be over soon (7 weeks), so I just have to suck it up til then & try to pre-prep some meals for Chris to cook.

Thanks for all the great advice & support, you guys. I realized if I lost 10 lbs by the end of the year, I'd be down 20 lbs since Dec of last year and all my clothes would fit well. And then Luna might sing the grate job song for me.

Diet time

Low fat string cheese for us today. It's time I get off the junk food binge. The time is perfect because produce is fantastic right now.

So what is everyone's take on these things:

1) Do I seriously limit my caffeine intake? Is it worth it or will I feel too sluggish? I drink regular coffee in the morning (2-3 cups) and 1 Diet Coke/day currently. Is that too harmful?

2) MM says I shouldn't ingest certain body fluids. Does this mean I'll have to spit out my saliva? I might get a spitoon for my desk.

3) What are your favorite health related websites?

4) Can I made a big batch of brown rice & freeze it in smaller portions for quick side dishes? I've never frozen rice by itself, but I imagine it would be ok. Anything else you can think of making for side dishes in "bulk" & freezing that's diet friendly?

What to write about...

I've got nothing. Well, nothing but some warm parmesan crisps for you to snack on.

It was a boring weekend. Friday we went clothes shopping for Chris. He got a few new pants & jeans, lots of shirts and a pair of shorts. He ventured beyond his usual styles...I was so proud of him! Next frontier: shoes.

I got two new bras. I've been buying cheapies & it was time to get a few nicer ones. JCPennys was having a good sale.

We are dog sitting. She's my sister's golden retriever. She's a great dog, I just feel bad for the cats. And the sneaky dog slept on our bed a few times when we were gone. Never when we were home, only when we were gone.

We had a little birthday party for my dad last night. I made a yummy cake: 1 white cake mix with a raspberry dessert mix and fresh raspberries mixed in swirled with 1 dark chocolate cake mix. Filled with chocolate buttercream & raspberries, frosted with the rest of the buttercream and topped with chocolate shavings & fresh raspberries. It obviously made two cakes (since I used 2 mixes), so today my coworkers & I will be eating cake.

Childhood Meme

Thanks to Survey's blog, I now have something to post today! Enjoy some garlic provolone on turkey sandwiches today.


Pick any 3 things that you remember from your kidhood (ages 0-18) and describe them. This could be anywhere from people you were around a lot, to a certain family vacation, to a certain moment that you remember. Be creative!

Bonus Question: Where did you grow up (location-wise)? Did you like it? Do you still live there? Why/why not?

I'm concentrating on my pre-14 years, as things got dramatic after that & there's too much to choose from!

1) My fourth birthday.
We always had small family birthday parties with cake & ice cream when I was younger. I don't ever recall having "birthday wish lists" before I was 7 or 8, so my parents just bought whatever they thought I'd like. Well, on my 4th birthday they hit the nail on the head. And it wasn't even a cool "toy."

I got a little kid sized table & chair set. It was a nice wooden set, perfect for playing school, office, or doing art. I felt so grown up! I have a picture of me sitting at the table in a cute dress & party hat. Dumb memory, but it's really vivid for me.

2) Getting my own room, Age 8
We had 3 bedrooms in the house. 3 kids+parents= someone sharing a room. When I was a baby & my sisters were 7&10, they shared a room. That lasted til my oldest sis turned 14 or so. At that age, I happily moved in with my next younger sister while oldest sis got her own room. I felt so grown up. I'm sure middle sis hated it. However, we became buddies. Later, my oldest sister graduated & moved out.

So one summer day when I was 8, after I was at the local swimming pool, I came home to mom saying I could move into the red bedroom if I wanted. Oh yeah, red carpet, baby! I was soooooooo excited! I could put up my own posters & listen to whatever music I wanted on my little boombox! My own place to sit & read Teen Beat & my Sweet Valley High books. Sigh. I still remember the weather, the lighting and the smells from that day.

3) Trip to Florida, age 14
Mom had cancer & knew she might never again get to Florida to see her step-sister & step-aunt (her only two living relatives she knew of besides her mother). So she wanted to make it a girl bonding trip & invited me & my sisters. For whatever reason, middle sis didn't come. So my oldest sister, mom & myself hopped the plane to Boca Raton. It was my first plane trip as an adult (we went to Florida a few times as a child). The trip was a lot of fun. I was treated as "one of the adult ladies." While I didn't bond with my mom that much during the trip (it was more her time to spend with her step relatives), my oldest sister and I took off for Disney World. It was the first time I spent much time with my oldest sis, as we were ten years apart & until then we lived in such different worlds. So I fondly look back on many details of that road trip & smile, as it was the begining of a great friendship between my sister & I.

Bonus: I grew up in rural SW Wisconsin. I liked the country life. I missed some of the close friendship opportunities, but most kids my age were in the same boat & our parents allowed sleepovers sometimes. I enjoyed the quiet, imaginitive times I had and the sounds and freedom of the country. We lived there my whole life.

Those things definitely impacted my desire to get our first house in a rural location. I didn't know we'd end up 30 miles from the town I grew up in. I'm pretty opposed to going back to my actual hometown to live. I can't deal with constantly seeing people I know & don't care to talk to.