Taxing

Have I mentioned we are procrastinators? Yes both of us are, and even though one of us plugged in HER numbers into the ol' computer days before the deadline, the other one didn't get on it until a few hours before the witching hour. Most frustratingly to the person who gets very stressed out about rules and such.

I kept begging him to work on them sooner (while also begging myself to work on them sooner). The worst part, was that hours before it was time to click that e-file button, we realized there might be a problem with my part of the paperwork. Not knowing enough about it, and no luck in searching the internet for help I concluded that I had screwed up. So little miss high and mighty over here, who was freaking out on her very busy husband ended up being the bottleneck to the filing on time, and off went the extension.

After some frustrated words were shared and knowing the alarm for 5am would be going off too soon, we sat in bed talking about why we do this procrastination thing to ourselves. We didn't come to any conclusions, but being unorganized and living in a slightly functional chaotic way might have something to do with it. Soon we laughed it off with the thought of us sitting there, looking defeated with tax papers all over and the word "FAIL" written over our heads.

Yes, we will be hiring an accountant very soon to help our sorry asses with organization and do's and don't, and hopefully setting up a better financial system for the business. It was one thing when we each were only responsible for our own monies, but now we have to be all responsible as a family and business owners. Man, growing up is hard.

East Coast Trip

Soon, I will be going on the first business trip I've been on in over 4 years. The itinerary is packed with working a conference booth and customer visits. I was completely overwhelmed when I saw I would be flying into Philadelphia, driving to New Jersey, staying in New York, and back to New Jersey for more meetings and then flying home, all over 3 days.

This California girl doesn't know much about East Coast living and got a little upset by the packed trip. My husband, who grew up in Pennsylvania, has assured me that my trip won't be as crazy as I think it'll be. That really, all of the places I'm going to visit is completely reasonable in a few day period.

After closer inspection of the itinerary, my co-worker and I will actually have the night we are staying in New York free of planned meetings and this has definitely lightened my outlook on this trip. I've only been to New York once, and that was the last business trip I was on. I had to work the entire trip, and my only sightseeing adventure included going out on my own at 11pm with my now husband on the phone telling me where to turn on my guided walking tour, assisted by Internet Maps. My hotel overlooked Ground Zero and I pretty much just walked around that area.

I just checked the website of the hotel we are staying at on our night in New York. It is located near the Southwest end of Central Park. I've never seen Central Park! I'm totally going to go for a walk in Central Park!

When I first found out about the trip, all I knew was that I'd be going to Philly, and I said I would be fine as long as I get a cheesesteak sandwich (which I better still get!). Now, I have a whole night in New York to experience. Even if all I get is another phone assisted walking tour, I'll take it.

Any suggestions?

Also, since this California girl is also an engineer in a tech company she also doesn't have any business attire to wear (got rid of all of that stuff ages ago), so she will be going shopping in the next few days as well. Look out closet! You will get to house more then t-shirts, jeans and tennis shoes soon. Hope its nice because I don't think I'll be able to find cold weather clothing in these parts at this time of year.

Finding Old Friends

Last night I had the pleasure to re-connect with some dear friends from my past. As I mentioned here and here, I have joined Facebook and was able to find a friend who I was sad to have not kept in touch with after high school graduation.

This weekend, my friend had a Spring celebration BBQ and invited my husband and I. Very excitedly I accepted the invitation. I was a little surprised that I did not feel nervous or especially anxious when the day came, which would be par for me. I made a few dishes to share potato salad and cupcakes, because as you already know I share food to express emotions. I had to stop myself at two, but I probably would have made a whole buffet to show my excitement.

When we arrived at her house, there was a small amount of squealing and hugging. There was an immediate feeling of welcome and familiarity. Through the night, I saw a little bit of the life she has lived over the last 16 years. I was also able to catch-up with 2 other people I haven't seen since high school, which was an added bonus. By the end of the night, we both felt like we knew each other but really there is so much that we don't know. Perhaps through catching up, sharing and time, we will each find ourselves a new friend.

PS - Neither of us thought to take pictures until the end of the night when we were both pretty tired. But next time, for sure!

Disposable Memories

One of my goals this weekend (other then taxes) was to go through my box of photos to find some memories to share. There were 2 sets of pictures I was specifically looking for, some from Jr High and High School, and some from about 10 years ago.

I am meeting up with a friend from high school this weekend who I haven't seen for 16 years, and I had some funny and mostly dorky pictures of us together from the 80's. We were pretty close back then and after graduation we never spoke again. Frankly I only kept in touch with 2 people. Thanks to Facebook, we have gotten back in touch and if the emails are any indication this weekend is going to be a blast. She recently posted a photo of us from Jr. High and I joked that I would do that same.

The other photos were of a 3 year old's birthday party which I had separated out all of the doubles for her mom. That 3 year old is now 13, and I thought her mom might appreciate the pictures. I remember putting them in an envelope to mail to her but I don't think I ever did. I wanted to make sure she got those pictures as her little baby with blond curly hair is now a beautiful TEENAGER with black and green hair. HA!

Sadly, as I pulled down that box of pictures, I realized that it was far lighter then I had remembered. Very vaguely I remember "cleaning out" this box last year. I think I was tossing photos that weren't in focus, or weren't clear from using a crappy camera, ones I would never put in a book or scan on the computer. Perhaps there were also some memories I decided I didn't need to keep a photo of because I had them in my head well enough. I had probably just watched "Clean Sweep" on TLC and had been inspired.

So now I'm bummed. Sad that the memories aren't quite as clear as they had been on that cleaning day. Sad that I don't have the fun pictures to share, or the history to archive. I do know that there was a large bunch of pictures in there that I had once thrown away when I was still living at my parents and my father pulled them out of the trashcan and gave them to me, telling me that someday I'll regret that.

Papa, you're right. I do.

Tired

Apparently eating Sunday morning cereal is exhausting.

Jabbawokeez!!!!

If anyone has been watching Randy Jackson Presents America's Best Dance Crew on MTV, you already know how awesome this group is. We have been enthusiastically watching from the beginning and although my call for the final 2 didn't pan out (Kaba Modern was robbed!), I did call Jabbawokeez to win it.

Here is the performance that finalized it for them, Evolution of Dance. All of the crews had to dance to the same music, incorporating the same dance phenomenons while still having their style shine through.

They rocked it for me, I hope you enjoy it as well.

Mmmm Crap!

So today wasn't so good of a day. I woke up rather sore from yoga and with a headache, ate breakfast, took pain pills and went to work. Headache continued so I skipped on the yoga today, and instead went to my 3rd lunch out of the week (crap rule - only 2 lunches out per week).

I was hell bent on eating fried food (crap rule - No fried foods), so off we went in search of Fish N Chips (if i'm gonna crap on my crap I oughta do it right!), but the Irish pub we walked into only had beer. So we found a little burger joint and I got a sensible-ish sandwich, which I ate half of, and onion rings, which I again only ate half of even though re-heated onion rings are gross and I would usually justify eating all of something due its poor reheatability.

After being at work already later then I should, I was shown where to find a bowl of mini peanut butter cups, which is my favorite, and I wasn't feeling guilty yet so I had one. (Crap rule - no candy). I was on a roll! What? There are still some Girl Scout Cookies in the fridge? Well I can't have that.... Gone (but I had help with those).

Funny thing about this is that while I was realizing that I was crapping on my crap rules, I wasn't exactly feeling guilty but I wasn't feeling all high and mighty either. I was just feeling like I kinda want some crap today, so crap I got. At least I was making the conscience decision about putting the yummy crap in my body.

Before I left the office I did wander into the gym to do some weights and I had a bunch of asparagus for dinner, so at least I did some of the positive things on my list.

Perhaps my next list should include going to bed at a reasonable hour because once again, NOT SLEEPING! Quiet brain... Be Quiet! Maybe I should've done that yoga after all!

Putting my Face Out There

I've been finding myself reminiscing a lot lately. Mostly about the school years and loosing touch with friends. I am terrible at keeping in touch with people even if they live very close by. My co-workers tend to be my closest friends because I see them everyday. But then (oh about 10 years ago) with the growth in popularity of Instant Messaging, I was able to keep up with more friends so even though I didn't see them everyday they remained part of my everyday and therefore remained close. Of course this only seems to work out with my friends who are able to be online during the day.

What about the others?

In comes Facebook. I know, EEK! Yet another online community project? Well, my young'n co-workers kept talking it, plus a few of my good friends were on there and not wanting to be left out, I joined. Sure most of my "friends" on there started out being co-workers (masses of techy folks all up on the latest online thing), but then I found some bloggy friends, and then... childhood friends! (including one who I found out lives a few doors down from me!)

I've been having a good time finding out where people have ended up, and catching up a bit. I wasn't very involved in high school my final year (you know that most important Senior year), as I was dating someone out of high school and working, so I really failed to cement those relationships. Sure there are always friends from school who you grow apart from and many you never see again and that's cool. But these were some really great people, who I would like to know today, or at least be able to connect with again.

I kinda see the whole Facebook thing as a form letter type of blog where people can search and connect IF YOU WANT TO. People can stop by and see what you're up to, contact you if they want, or just leave a comment. Kinda like on here, except you can't ignore someone on the blog, it's out there for people to find if they want to find it. Sure there are tons of silly things on there, but you can use it how you want to use it. And since part of why I started the blog was to connect with people (from my past or future), I see it as a good thing.

Here's to friends! Old and New!

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Update on the crap:
As J noted over here, as soon as you want to cut something out of your diet, it is exactly what you want! I really don't eat that much unhealthy stuff, but I do eat a whole lot of the stuff I should probably moderate. But man I keep thinking of fried stuff.

I did get up this morning to do some strengthening and stretching back exercises (I messed up my back and neck while I was recovery from surgery all slouch on the couch for 6 weeks), and I'm in the process of doing an hour long yoga session (with the TV, which is now paused because going from zero to 60 makes my head spin - literally, ok J, not literally but it does make me dizzy).

Cutting the Crap... for 2 weeks

Last December I had decided I was going to challenge myself to CUT THE CRAP for 30 days. My friend Liz said she'd do it too so we talked about defining what the crap is first. We chatted about it a few times but never wrote down our lists. Last week she said she's going to try for 2 weeks starting after Easter and then see how things are going. Seeing as I am becoming increasingly irritated at the thigh/butt growth but have done nothing about it, I'm in. And since accountability is worth more then my word to myself, here goes:

CUTTING THE CRAP! (and some general healthy living goals)

• no candy
• no soda (including diet!)
• no fried foods
• no fatty foods
• no fast food
• healthy snacks ok - in moderation - nuts, dried fruit, fresh fruit, veggies,etc.
• limited red meat - no more then 2 times per week
• at least one veggie side dish at dinner
• at least one piece of fresh fruit per day
• don't eat when not hungry/stop when full
• breakfast everyday
• work lunch - eating out no more then 2 times per week (saves $ and calories)
  
• water - 2 liters a day
• cardio - 3 times per week for a minimum of 30 minutes
• strength - 2 times per week
• assigned back exercises - 3 times per week
• up to 3 treats per week (moderately sized and using good judgment of course)

Now some of you my note that I made cupcakes yesterday and planned on bringing them into the office today and yes... this personal challenge means I can't even have one of those coconutty goodies which are not too sweet and perfectly dense but not too dense and are sitting within my view. Oh sure, I could have one as a treat but I'm stronger then that and might NEED it more nearer the end of the week! When we were talking about our personal lists (we each have slightly different ones), I mentioned that I was going to bake this weekend and Liz suggested that we could eat it if we made it but I see that as a dangerous loop hole so I'm going to just leave those yummy treats over there for the masses, besides I still have a bowl of leftover frosting at home and I TOTALLY MADE THAT!

It's only 2 weeks (no redbull? My only form of caffeine? Really?) I'll be ok, I know I will. (Most of Dim Sum is steamed right? That makes it healthy, doesn't it?) It's only 2 weeks.

After 2 weeks... we'll tackle portion control.

What crap would you cut out?

Need More Weekend

This weekend had one goal written all over it, PREPARE TAX RETURN!! Did we get to that? NO!

That has been the goal of the last 3 weekends, and its starting to get on my nerves. My husband and I are procrastinators by nature so it's not like I'm surprised. Sure, there have been a few years where I have been one of the many down at the post office mailing my return with only a few hours to spare. But this year is our first to file jointly and I just know it ain't gonna be pretty. Plus... I feel like we can't plan out any big ticket purchases like getting the house ready to rent/sell, booking our postponed honeymoon, or paying off the last of the wedding debt. Sigh!

So what did we do this weekend?

I claimed to be cleaning and purging the crap around the downstairs and in the hall closet while really I was watching romantic comedy after romantic comedy on TV. Not only was I serially watching the romance, I was watching twice the romance on 2 different channels thanks to TiVo. I even watched a movie I said I'd never watch again and it STILL made me cry. Where was Eric during the love fest on TV? He was upstairs napping and working and then napping again. When he came downstairs he asked if I wanted to watch a DVD.... SURE I said, so we threw in 'Becoming Jane'. Does this say something about myself?

Here they are not because I think anyone of you really want to know the movies I watched, but because I want to write them down to see the craziness for myself. (What's worse is I'm sure I'm forgetting some!)

• Monster-In-Law
• Clueless
• Wedding Date
• When Harry Met Sally
• The Perfect Man
  
• Titanic
• 13 Going On 30
• last 4 episodes of Sex And The City
• Becoming Jane - DVD

Sunday was lightly planned out with having my mom over for Easter Brunch and playing some cards, and then going to the climbing gym (assuming the taxes were done), and going to bed early to start the week off right! Of course it didn't turn out that way, but it was quite a lovely day even though the taxes didn't even get touched and the gym didn't get visited.

We both got up at a fairly decent morning hour and off I went to the store for brunch ingredients and Eric headed into the home office to finish a task which has plagued him for weeks. $100 later I return from the store (why can I not go to the store without spending so much?) and started in on the dough making and chilling, and the chopping and sauteing, and the whisking and baking and the frosting and decorating and taa daaa! Easter Brunch is served.

Mom very much enjoyed the Crab and Asparagus Quiche, green salad with pink lady apples and lemon garlic vinaigrette, some chunks of cantaloupe for freshness and finished off with coconut cupcakes. Somewhere in there I also made some mushroom turnovers for Eric to take to work over the next few days so we had to test those which turned out tasty while not the being the prettiest. But I think my mom most enjoyed the hours spent playing cards. We played until the sun started setting which triggered that she had been there for over 6 hours and should be going.

And now the kitchen is clean, leftovers are put away, the last batch of cupcakes are ready to go with me into the office and I'm heading up to bed for what better be a VERY restful nights sleep. (Man I hope I'm not jinxing myself!)

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend (and your taxes are filed and done!)

Not Sleeping

When I'm stressed I wake up around 2:30am and worry and think and toss and turn. Lately my back and neck have been giving me the run around so that has been waking me up and keeping me up, and then the thinking starts and the clock keeps ticking and then the sun comes up. So already the sleeping hasn't been going so well.

Generally it's only the staying asleep part that has been giving me troubles lately, until last night. Last night I opted for some extra pain meds before bed, but instead of being woken up I just didn't feel tired (Musta been the treat of a caffeinated soda I had at lunch!). I tried watching stupid TV to lull me. Then I read some blogs (not to lull me of course!). Chatted with a friend online until about 12:30am. Then I decided to do something dumb and check in on some stocks and options and thought about taxes and fun stuff like that (always a good thing to do when trying to sleep and not worry). None of that worked, so I got in bed and read(poor lovely trying to sleep with my lamp on, dawning an eye mask and ear plugs in). I managed to finish my book with a few tears, which are usually good at bringing on the sleep (Time Traveler's Wife borrowed from J and I LOVED IT!). By then it was 4am so I had BETTER fall asleep, and asleep I fell... until the alarm went off for Eric at 5:15am. AWESOME!

So after already having a few troubled nights of sleep with pain and stress, I had that weird night last night and managed to have a pretty productive day with NO CAFFEINE to ruin tonight. And yet.... here I am. 12:15am and I'm still awake.

Perhaps blogging right now isn't really helping. Maybe I'll try lying down instead. Yea, that might help!

Investment Quandries

You may have heard this somewhere out there and just in case you haven't heard yet THE REAL ESTATE MARKET SUCKS! (unless you are a first time home buyer with a lovely down payment all saved up and ready to be handed to the happily awaiting banks).

4-ish years ago I bought a little townhouse in an OK area of town (I swear we haven't heard gun shots for years!). I was a little desperate at the time as we had to be out of the condo we were renting by a certain date and I felt it was the right time to enter the market. We looked at many homes and townhouses and I honestly don't remember why I picked this one.

I liked the place well enough to buy it thinking we'd paint and update and generally make it a nice stepping stone in the market, but quickly there after I started to HATE it. Then our HOA dues started going up, while seeing less benefit from the community living. We never got around to doing those improvements while normal wear and tear set in. And now, after years of a hellish commute we want to move but wait.... the value has decreased if we could sell at all, the place is far from comparable as most places in our complex have upgrades, so it's a little hard to now take on the expenses of upgrades when we don't know if we'll see the returns.

Do we do minimal work enough to rent it and buy another place in need of work?
Do we take a loss and just get rid of it to get out of the market?

I don't see a point in going through the pains of putting this place on the market until units start selling here. There are multiple foreclosures in our complex and there are new listings in here every week. I'd say there are at least 30 units with signs in the windows and I only know of one in escrow right now and none have sold in months.

So what project do we do first?
What projects will give us the most return on our investment?
Which choices will make our place more desirable then that one or that one or even that one?
And what do I just want to do because I want to do it, and not because it makes the best business sense?
Do we do the projects we had planned but maybe not with the same quality of products?

Money and Homes are heavy in emotions, and right now we need to keep it about the business.

Need To Find My Passion

The other night I was having a stuck in front of the TV moment (for a few hours), and I found myself watching a semi-new show on the TLC network, The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom. It's a show about Stay At Home Moms (SAHMs), who have given up a career or dream to stay at home to raise their kids. Hosted by Tracy Gold of Growing Pains fame, the show arranges opportunities for the SAHMs to "sneak" away from their mom duties to spend some time exploring their dream. The show that aired this week was about a woman who was a chef at a 5 star resort, who became pregnant shortly after getting married. Now with 2 adorable boys at home, she is given the opportunity to prove to herself that she can still make it in a fast paced restaurant and can still create imaginative dishes.

So a few of you may know that during the dot come bust, I took that opportunity of life throwing me a curve ball and went to culinary school. Granted, I returned to the high tech world as a contractor while I was in school, I also took on a number of catering jobs and eventually landed a job at a 4 start resort in Berkeley. I also won a few catering gigs on my own where I prepared wedding cakes, dessert displays and food for cocktail parties. While I loved all of these jobs working with food, I found that I lost the desire to cook at home, and guess what? the joy of the job didn't make up for the low pay scale.

Eventually I went back to high tech full time, while continuing the resort job cooking on the lunch crew on the weekends. This gave me the best of both worlds, high tech pay (to pay off that freakishly high culinary school tuition) while still keeping my foot in the kitchen. But there was another catch.... no free weekends and holidays leads to a very tired cranky girl, and a lonely boyfriend. While the money covered the mortgage, bills and loans and allow the soon-to-be-husband pursue his dream job, I was too tired to enjoy life. So 2 years ago I quit all of my professional cooking jobs and returned to subjecting my co-workers to my experiments, cooking elaborate celebration meals, and finding the time to cook at least one really good home cooked meal a week.

Do you see where this is going?

So as I sat and watched this woman mess up, stress out, and then finally find her groove in the kitchen, full of re-gained confidence in her abilities, I cried (sobbed really). Sure she cried as well throughout her journey and facing her decision of giving up her dreams in the kitchen but I cried as I discovered that I'm not ok with where I am. I haven't felt a loss exactly, and I haven't really wanted to go back to either catering or restaurant work, but mostly I have been feeling numb since I left the business. My husband recently asked me if I feel passionate about anything, and I recall saying no, but now I realize when that numbness settled in. It was when I regained my weekends.

My life was no longer AS crazy as it was. Back then I had to remain incredibly organized and everything was structured and in its place, but when I decided I needed time to relax everything sort of fell apart. My finances haven't been as controlled, the house is a disarray, and low and behold... I think I'm more finicky in general and demanding of Eric.

I had resigned myself to being numb and letting my passion find me by chance, but after seeing my reaction the other night I want to get out there, reign it in, tie it up and never let it go again. I need to find the passion I felt so strongly those few years ago. Whether the passion is in food, or in cleaning the toilet, I want to feel it again. I want to have passion in my life, passion for life, passion about life.

Typo's that Cost Money!

My husband has a landscape design and installation company which specializes in edible plants. You may ask, well aren't all plants edible? Does he grow meat plants (as many of my male co-workers thought it funny to ask, since they apparently don't eat fruits, herbs or veggies)? Well, no. Not all plants are edible in that they might make you really sick and die and no he doesn't grow meat plants. But he does want to give people beautiful landscapes that productively use their land, big or small, to grow the foods they enjoy and to give them a space for their families to spend time in. As you can imagine, this is pretty specialized work so his possible client base is smaller then your run of the mill landscaper and being able to reach out to that population takes some creative marketing.

A few months ago he was contacted by a journalist doing an article on edible landscapes and asked to interview him. This can also be read as FREE MARKETING! Of course he was very excited about this, and the interview went really well but then he didn't here from the author. Today, he was contacted by a publishing house who specialized in re-prints and wanted to sell him re-prints of the article which ran in November 2007. They sent him the link of the article online. Online means searchable, and searchable means MORE FREE MARKETING!

The sad part of this story, is that they spelled his last name incorrectly throughout the article. Since his name is part of the company name, this greatly minimizes people finding and contacting him for his services. BOOOOO! They also didn't include his URL of his website, so again fewer chances of clients from the article.

So to anyone out there, if you are looking for Eric Beegley Landscaping and Design, you REALLY want Eric Beeghly Landscaping and Design. Just to make give more hints to the Google Gods, go to ericbeeghly.com for Eric Beeghly Landscaping and Design.

Enough With The Kitty Diet Talk!

J's comment the other day about questioning the safety of giving broccoli to the kitties got me worried, so I went off on an Internet research tour. Turns out in large amounts it has been found to be toxic, but that is more like a diet based on broccoli, not the occasional treat. PHEW! Many raw pet diet guidelines, (yes, there are people out there who do the raw diet thing and even prepare raw diets for their pets) include a fair amount of broccoli as well. I noted a few people even commented that their dogs gnaw on raw broccoli stems to clean their teeth instead of using bones to avoid any bad bone fragment/internal bleeding mishaps.

I admit that these cats are not your normal run of the mill kitties. Besides their temperament, they have a great love for fruits and veggies. Corn on the cob is GOLD to them. They want to eat the husk, the silk and most definitely the kernels. They know when it's in the house, and have been known to rip through bags, have the fridge door shut on them if a little silk is hanging out of the crisper drawer, and yes... jump up on the table and walk off with a cob in their mouth. Don't ask me how, but its darn cute.

Summer time is their favorite, obviously for the corn but also melons of all sorts. Cosmo isn't skilled at taking bites of larger pieces of food, so we mince up chunks of melon for him. His all time favorite is watermelon, but not the whitish stuff by the rind, he'll turn his nose up at that. He wants the bright red, sweet heart of the most ripest melon, and yes, we give it to him. We always have watermelon in the house in the summer because I eat a ton for its yumminess and it is also high in iron (Anemic girl here!).

And go figure, if we steam it they will eat just about any veggie too. Squashes (winter and summer), green beans, edamame (especially in the pods!). Truly funny to watch, and a pain in the ass because they are in that kitchen whenever we are, and not just when the can opener is used or the sound of dry food being scooped up.

Oh, and just in case you REALLY were dying to know there were no kitty gas problems the other night. Mousy did loose his dinner a few hours later, but there wasn't any broccoli in there so I'm assuming he just ate it too fast which is normal for him. He successfully ate a 2nd dinner later that night.


Mama Bear - We used to think they were Russian Blues as they have a very similar temperament, but really they are mutt kitties and look and act very much like their mama who was another mutt kitty. One of them has the eye color and is slinky like a Russian, but this head is too fat, and the other has the build, fur and eye color more like a Chartreux. Who's to say really, they are my little blue babies no matter what (even though they weigh in at 14 pounds).

HOA's And Good Times

I live in a townhouse complex managed by an HOA. I can totally see the benefits of having an HOA to keep the peace when so many people are living close together, and it's kinda nice to have gardeners and maintenances men take care of things around here (although I still really want my own dirt in which to grow stuff). Generally things go really smoothly and I've had little to complain about in the last 4 years.... until now.

I've sent emails and have left voice mail messages about a relatively simple issue and I just want a response. Sure, I'd like an answer and someone to fix the issues, but please be professional and give me a call back that you received my message and are looking into it, or point me to the right place if you (our property manager) are not the one to handle such issues (which you are). Our previous 2 property managers were AWESOME, so perhaps I have been spoiled for the last few years. But seeing as I sent the first email and left the first voice mail about this one issue starting last OCTOBER, and have since emailed and called, even talked to the old manager who assured me I was contacting the new manager correctly, and still... nadda.

And then today, Eric's work partner and good friend parked his truck in a guest parking spot while they went to go work on a landscape installation. The only rules for these spots is that they are for guests (which I would consider him to be), and you can only park there for up to 72 hours. Well, considering he got here at 8am, I do not consider it proper for him to get a towing notice at 10:31am. Plus, the freakin' towing warning sticker was put ON THE PAINT, and is very sticky and has now left sticky goo and sticker paper residue on his car. AND... there were only 2 cars taking up the 8 spots and both of them got these stupid stickers on them, so it's not like someone should have called to complain.

Ok, I realize I'm sounding all bitchy and whiny, but I am not going to live in an HOA controlled neighborhood again if I can help it. My irritation with living with HOA's goes beyond these 2 gripes but MAN they have put me in a mood!

Broccoli

Yup, that's right. My cat's love their veggies!

They get an afternoon snack (when someone is home), and I've been wanting to introduce something healthier in that time slot then just more dry food.

Our vet has suggested that an all dry diet is being found to lead to feline diabetes as it is high in carbs. Especially with indoor kitties who aren't as active as outdoor kitties. Who knew?

We also have battles with puking with one and constipation with the other.... GOOOOD TIMES! If you ever see my carpet, please know that we shampoo it all the time and yes we will eventually get the wood floor in!

Trying to take advantage of their love of the veggies, we are trying to supplement their dry diet with some veggie fiber to aide in the puking pooping issues. (Yes, that's right, I'm writing about my cat's poo, get over it! Don't tell me you've never talked about your kids poo). So today I steamed up some broccoli (over cooked it really). They were yelling at me to feed them faster, so I put down two bowls filled with green stuff, and I half excepted they would both look up at me with that WTF look, but nope, they dug right in.















(And yes, they started with 2 bowls, but Mousy eats really fast and likes to help Cosmo clean up.)
They enjoy their fruits too....see here.

A Few Thank You's

Just want to send out a few thank you's out into the ethers....

A Big Thank you to Felicity at American Express Customer Support.
This morning I logged into my accounts to do my weekly financial tasks and found that there were charges on my card which I DID NOT MAKE! True these charges were small - $29 in total - but they still weren't mine and I don't want to think what the next "Not Mine" charges were going to look like.
So the next 30 minutes were spent in queue waiting to speak to a rep, and then Miss Felicity came on the line. She was so kind, quick and knowledgeable. Sure she had to put me on hold a few times while she filed the investigation report and made some other changes to my account I've been meaning to do for a while, but still she remained empathetic without too much sugar, if you know what I mean.
Not exactly what I wanted to deal with on a Sunday morning, but when there are GREAT customer support reps out there working the weekend, it makes it so much easier.


Thank you to Py and Jules for a really wonderful movie experience last night!
Our dear friend Py obtained some passes to a screening of a movie at our local International Jewish Film Festival but Py was not able to attend so they had some extra passes available. Being the great brother that he is, Py was covering a DJ'ing gig for his brother who had gotten in a very painful bicycle accident. Jules gave us a ring and we happily joined her and their daughter at the theater.
Noodle was the movie, and I cannot give it enough praise. Set in Israel, the film is mostly in Hebrew (obviously we watched it sub-titled). I'd add the trailer here, but I could only find a sub-titled version on the official movie site which is all in Flash so I can't link directly to it.
Noodle is a touching drama with comedic moments throughout about a twice-widowed flight attendant, Miri, who's life has been interrupted by a little something left behind by her Chinese house cleaner. The movie is about relationships, a grand adventure and the discovery of something thought to be lost.
The entire theater laughed and cried, and if I wasn't in that huge theater filled with people, I would have sobbed. But not to worry, it's not a heart crushing type of sob, but a joyous one. I had to contain myself to avoid the eye-rolling of the almost 12 year old sitting next to me. Gotta keep face with the kids you know!
If you have a chance to see this film at a screening or when it is hopefully released, I highly recommend it.

Not The Only One

It's almost the end of February and I'm still just not feeling the bloggy thing consistently. I finished the year off strong, but since the new year I haven't been posting or reading much. I kinda figured I was just busy with work and such, as some changes are going on there. Plus we're trying to get ourselves organized at home to deal with the first year of filing our taxes jointly, and we're working on a way to shorten my commute in this downturn of the economy (selling our place and moving is not looking like an option). But I think its more then just being busy.

Then today, Eric was busy starting on a design for a new client so I booted up the ol' laptop. I had been trying to stay away from the computer on the weekends unless it's to do household business stuff so bloggy catch up hasn't been happening... until this weekend.

With over 500 posts to read in bloglines, I started in. I admit I skimmed through some, and outright skipped others (sorry Dooce and Maggie.... you didn't make the cut, I know you're crying about the loss of ad revenue so I'll give you some linky love just for funsies). I didn't comment much to aide in the mass reading venture so I apologize for the silent viewing. Since the exchange of comments is one part of blogging I truly enjoy, I don't usually like to go so long without commenting, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I have friends who have called and emailed me directly who I have yet to reply to, so I've been doing an all around bad job at keeping in touch.

But there was something that I noticed even with my most consistent bloggy friends, many haven't been writing either! Did everyone burn out with NaBloPoMo last year? Is everyone doing a re-evaluation of the time they spend in front of the glowing box? I know many people will make a resolution to post more, but perhaps some people made the resolution to post less.

I don't really feel pressure to post everyday, which is great but I know that we have a community out here and in order to be a part of the community which I enjoy, I have to participate. I still enjoy blogging so I don't foresee quiting. When I post more, my writing improves, I feel connected with some wonderful people, and I find I'm more focused and can process all that is going on in my life. So I'm still in it.... are you?

That'll Teach Me

Mental Note - Just because you did it as a kid, doesn't mean you should do it as an adult.

It's 3am-ish and I'm up with a tummy ache. I'm thinking that since it's only been a few days after dealing with some sort of tummy/etc. "imbalance", licking the spatula and bowl from making cake batter and frosting is a bad idea. I don't think today is going to be as productive as I had thought a few hours ago.

Ugh....

Someone Stop This Woman!

Whoaa! What a domestic weekend I've had! I haven't had that productive of a weekend in ages and it feels great! Well, my hands are a little dry and weathered, but mostly I'm feeling pretty good about now.

After feeling pretty crappy the last few days and Eric working a really hard and long day on Friday, I thought we'd take it easy this weekend. Sure that was the plan, but I woke up on Saturday morning with a fire lit under me. Eric had to meet up with a potential new client in the morning (which he totally scored! Whoo!), so I started the morning off with the ambition to wash everything on the bed, including the pillows, mattress pad, bed skirt, everything, AND scrub the bathrooms top to bottom.

Thanking the good inventors of yesteryear, everything I could fit into the washing machine (and even some things I probably should have taken to a laundr-o-mat) were clean and smelling fresh by the end of the day. I'm sure the Electric Company will be contacting the authorities to make sure we aren't growing some unlawful plants in the coming days, with all of the power I used this weekend. I honestly can't say I've ever used the washer and dryer that many times in one day, and I hope not to do it again anytime soon.

Seeing as I still don't own a mop (nasty things that they are), I tackled those bathrooms on my hands and knees, scrub brush, sponges, towels and even a tootbrush, in hand. The walls were cleaned, the floors were scrubbed, even getting into all of those tight corners and grooves of the baseboards. I'm sure some strange yoga position was achieved to get to the nooks and crannies back behind the toilets. Can we say gleaming? Oh yes, even a day later... still gleaming. I was dreading putting the cat litter box back into the downstairs bathroom as I wanted to keep the shine alive a little longer.... but even after a day of use and some apparently gleeful digging by the cats, a little round about with the broom and it's back to shine-city.

Today I pulled out all of the stops and re-caulked the bathtub, the sink and along the floor. Then I did a little touch up of the tub glazing because I dropped something in there and chipped the glazing we spent $700 on a few years ago and chips aren't covered in their warranty, OF COURSE! This means that I'll have to shower at work tomorrow and Eric showers after he works, so hopefully the shower will be ready for him when he gets home tomorrow night or else he's gonna just have to be stinky and will dirty up that clean bed of ours. (sigh) Perhaps I'll keep this crazy streak going and even get to work early enough for a work out, since I'm going to have to shower there anyway. Hmmm....

Amazingly I was cleaning up my bathroom adventures by lunchtime, so we had a lunch outing with my mother and then headed to her house to play some cards. Can I tell you how much I miss playing cards? Growing up, every Sunday after church, we'd play cards with my grandmother, so you can imagine my dismay when I find out that my love did NOT grow up playing cards so he doesn't get (and therefore doesn't like) the games we've tried to get him to play. To appease him, we usually play word games like Scrabble, but for Christmas he said he'd try to play my mom's favorite, Squeak (at least that's what we call it). We've played a few times since Christmas and today he even asked to go another round and later said he really enjoyed it. Perhaps we'll get him to enjoy card games after all.

When we got home, I ventured into the kitchen to do me some baking. An Angel food cake for my love's birthday tomorrow, and some dark chocolate mini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for the folks in the office. I opened the oven door too soon on the Angel Food cake so it fell a little, but I think it'll be just fine. And I played with the oven temp for the mini cupcakes and discovered that 325 does not a lovely domed mini cupcake make. Infact, it made for flat, wide topped, and slightly sunken in cakes, but still tasty. The second batch turned out far better at 350, and yes I remembered to make note of that on my recipe (which I had clearly forgotten to do last time since I had gone through the same temperature experiment before). I loaded far too much frosting on the cupcakes as well, but I'll just wait to see if anyone actually complains.

Ok... and now I can say I even posted something. Phew! What an awesome weekend! I could say I don't know how I have so much energy right now, but I have a feeling a few licked clean spatulas and "test" cupcakes might have something to do with it. Hopefully the sugar high crashes soon so I can get me some sweet sleep. After all, if I'm going to get into the office to work out in the gym before showering and keeping this productivity going on into the work week, I'm going to need some rest.

Whadup y'all

So um... it's been a month since I've written anything here. I've wanted to. I've meant to. But it just never happened.

That cold I had was passed onto my husband, and hung on for a few weeks. I'm always afraid when my husband gets a cold because he has had some pretty scary sinus infections in the past. We kept up on the sinus rinses and regularly taking decongestants. I don't like to pump the pills, but if it means keeping the cold from turning into a possible surgery, we'll take the pills. It's "mostly" gone now. Phew! (Although I've been home sick the last few days with some sort of tummy badness, I haven't been able to really eat yet but thankfully that seems to be passing now too).

In the last month, I've thrown myself into work and pretty much stopped blogging all together. Obviously no writing, and only a tiny bit of reading. It's been really odd. I still think of post ideas and things I want to write about throughout the day, but taking the time to write just didn't seem to take a high enough priority.

Every few days I have received a comment or an email from my bloggy friends checking in. I realized that the last few posts I wrote about were about depression or possibly depressing subjects. I hope I didn't worry anyone with my silence. Perhaps concentrating on work allowed me to focus on other things, but lately I've been feeling pretty good (minus the cold and tummy ache).

My little rss feed aggregator keeps reminding me of how much blogging fun I have been missing. A while ago I gave up on it telling me I had an ever growing number of posts to read and I marked them all read. And somehow since then it has already racked up 500+ more posts for me to read. Sorry, folks but I'm not going to be able to catch up entirely. I'd like to, and I'll try, but it's not looking likely.

I'm going to try to re-introduce blogging into my world... but slowly. I have a lot of other things going on, and although I really enjoy the connections I've gained through blogging, I can't let it get in the way of life away from the glowing screen. Seriously, I don't know how everyone does it! One way I'm hoping to make it work, is by getting back into commuting via the train. With Google Reader's ability to read offline, I may be able to keep up with ya'll that have your feeds set to publish the full post, but that means I won't be online to comment. And if I can find a seat, I can always write on the train which I find to be a great segue between work and home.

I hope everyone has been doing well, and I hope to get caught up with everyone really soon!

The Waiting Game

I stayed home again today (well I was planning on working from home today anyway, so nothing was really different except I spent the day sleeping instead of working). Interesting globs of stuff are still exiting my head except now I can breath again! The weight is pretty much off my chest and I can breath without the drugs. I'm still taking the drugs though because I can breath even better with them. I do not want a relapse, so I'll continue the same routine of meds, sinus rinses and breathing deeply over hot water (or in the shower) for at least another week. The energy isn't totally back, but it's enough to get out without feeling weak, so I'll be back in the office tomorrow, and funny enough... I'm actually looking forward to it. Enough of this house bound business.

As already scheduled, I got out of the house this afternoon to see my doctor. Not a doctor for my phlegmy nose/chest business, but a doctor for my lady business (tee hee, I said lady business). This was another post-op appointment to check in on how things are healing up since my surgery in August. My doctor is VERY pregnant now, and will be going on leave next month, so she wanted to see me before she left to talk about the next steps and to see how things are healing up.

After pushing and poking around, she's decided that there is some scar tissue, but mostly things are looking good. She asked if we had been talking about timing for trying to conceive, and I said we were pretty much waiting on her to say it was ok. She laughed, but really that is what we are waiting on because we have to get going before more fibroids grow.

Before we left, she did an ultrasound and found ANOTHER fibroid. She wasn't at all concerned about it effecting conception as it was small, 3 cm and its location looked good. Of course I'm thinking that the 2 she removed were only 3 cm at one point too, and it's obviously growing since they didn't see it 4 months ago! In June, we'll do a more detailed ultrasound and an HSG test to see if the ol'tubes are working. She's hoping that after seeing how those tests go she can give us the thumbs up, but still wants us to wait until August to give the old baby house some more time to heal and the scar tissue to loosen up.

For now I'm trying not to think too much about it, because my normal tendency is to think and think and analyze and freak out mostly about what I don't know yet. Plus, I can't really do anything about it, so I'm putting it back there on the back burner to just hang out until we can learn more in 6 months (6 freakin' months).

Have a Glass and Blow it Out Your ...

Thanks to the drugs and my sinus rinse, I can breath today and the coughing episodes are far fewer and more productive (TMI? and the worst part of being sick if I do say so myself).

Many of you mentioned that you've had great success with Mucinex. Well seeing as we're cheap, we got the generic version, which is the same drug that my doctor prescribed the last time I had a bad sinus infection that made its way to my chest. The main difference is that Mucinex is time released and the other stuff isn't. Which just means I take the other stuff more often, which is fine since I've been mostly sleeping through the night anyway.

I noted up there and other here that I've been using a Sinus Rinse as well. It's the squeeze bottle version of a neti pot, which is used to flush your sinuses with water or a saline solution. I know J of JellyJules.com thinks this is gross, but it really is awesome. The actual act of using it is not all that awesome but the results are well worth the few moments of discomfort, the occasional gagging when the saline hits the back of your throat, and watching the "fun stuff" come flying out your nose . And since J gets pretty bad sinus headaches, I really wish she'd try it. Come on J... try it! Be one with your snot!

My husband swears by it, and anytime I feel a sinus infection coming on I pull it out. I admit this time I probably used it a few days too late as the infection got into my lungs, but I know it has sped up my recovery and gives my red raw nose a break from the blowing, so it can heal a little. BTW - does anyone have any remedies for the red raw nose? I've been using lotions and lip balms but they sting a lot, and its looking pretty gnarley.

Today Eric joined up with some friends to help move furniture around their house and out of storage to get the nursery, new home office and new laundry room ready for an expected new member of our family of friends. I couldn't go as I didn't want to get mama-to-be sick. I did have a lot more energy today though, so my usual Sunday chores of the bathroom, laundry and house hold finances got a quick little whoopin'.

I even felt up to going out baby shower shopping when Eric returned. Granted, about half way through walking around the Mega Mart of Baby goods (aka Babies R Us), I felt like I was being pulled down to the ground. I tried to get Eric to look at all of the fun and overwhelming amount of baby goods, and he bought into it for about 10 minutes and then he was done and just wanted to get the items we decided on, and get out. We got out of there quicker then any trip I've ever taken there and only went over our pre-determined baby gift budget by 58 cents, not bad!

We got home and realized I was starving for the first time in days. I had planned on making Mushroom risotto for New Years but didn't feel up to it, so I pulled out all of the prep I had already done and got started on it. The recipe required 1 cup of white wine, and I had 2 open bottles in the fridge so I tasted them to see which was the driest, and measured out my cup. There was a tad left in the bottle, so I pulled out a wine glass and emptied the bottle (I wouldn't want to put that tiny bit in the fridge!). I needed something to snack on with my wine, so I took out a baby bel snack cheese wheel (its a small 1 oz serving of really rich semi-soft cheese that has been dipped in wax... they're so cute!). I guess I was definitely starting to feel better because I've done chores, I've shopped, and now I was cooking AND drinking wine.

As I'm stirring my risotto, sipping the leftover wine and nibbling on my cheese, I'm feeling pretty good by this time and then I realize just HOW GOOD I'm feeling! WHOA! I'm assuming it was the residual cold meds plus a little vino on an empty stomach and I suddenly feel like lead. Forget this risotto business, I want to go to bed RIGHT NOW because I bet I would get the best sleep ever! But no, I must finish this risotto as I've been wanting to make this recipe for a long time and I've already have the expensive Porcini, Oyster and the not as expensive Crimini Mushrooms invested in this dish.

The risotto turned out pretty tasty, although I know I still couldn't taste the complexity of the flavors. There were roasted and sauteed fresh mushrooms and reconstituted dry mushrooms in the dish. There was an herb steeped broth, and tasty white wine. It was finished off with a pat of butter, good Parmesano Reggiano and fresh parsley. All of that work, and all I could really taste were the high notes of the wine, so it tasted acidic to me. Eric said it was deep and complex and tasty. I'll have to take his word for it though. Sigh.

So I guess I'm feeling better, as the energy is coming back and I actually wanted to get into the kitchen tonight. Oh sure, feeling better just in time for Monday to roll around. Yipee!

and so it continues

All you parents out there, I tip my hat! Well I do in general, but today I have no idea how you can parent when you're sick. I'm still blowing, and coughing, and drinking all the liquids I can handle. I'm basically feeling like a big baby all curled up in blankies on the couch with my cup of hot water. I can't imagine feeling this way and having a little person depending on me.

My wonderful husband went out again today to pick up drugs to loosen up the fun stuff in my lungs (because what we had of that stuff expired a few years ago. Which I guess is a good thing because that means no one has been THAT sick for a while). I am feeling better though, and trying to keep my germies away from Eric because when he gets sinus infections, doctors get involved that want to perform surgeries on his head. He said he is sort of enjoying this time, because usually I'm forcefully self sufficient and he enjoys getting to do things for me and feeling needed. How much does he rock?

Anywho - life still continues while being sick. Well I'm sure someones life is continuing, but mine has been full of an uncomfortable amount of television watching and dozing throughout the day.

I'm determined to get out of the house tomorrow to do some baby shower shopping. One of the best parts of having a friend get pregnant, is getting to buy cute little baby stuff! If I don't get out, at least I hope I have something a tad more interesting to write about... unless you want to hear about the joys of the Sinus Rinse.

Looking like Rudolf's distant cousin

On Monday we went to see a movie (a rare occurrence for us), and about half way through my throat was killing me. I thought I was just really thirsty from the popcorn so I drank a ton of water, but it didn't help. The next 2 days the throat continued to burn... and then the cough started up. Yesterday I was feeling ok and even had dinner with some of my girlfriends a few of you might know, Autumn's Mom, J and Tommy's (and Caroline's) Mommy. I got home and dutifully did my new back and neck exercises which pretty much just pissed off my back and neck. I went to bed starting to feel a little congested and between the back and neck pain and now congestion, I got little sleep. Plus Eric was experiencing muscle cramps from a late night climbing session so he was tossing and turning through the night. Just about anytime I fell asleep, he rustled about. ARGH!

Sometime in the early morning I laid there trying to decide if I should email work now, or just see if another hour would do me well enough. I did get a good hour of sleep in after I got Eric to get up and walk around to help out his cramping. But even with that hour I stayed home sick today, which I don't like to do but with so little sleep and now feeling the weight of a full blown cold, I thought it would be better to go back to bed. So to bed I went.

At one point I dug through any cold medicine I could find, and found that most of the pills expired in 2003, so out they went. The only newish drugs we had only covered some of my symptoms, so this evening Eric went out to stock up on soft Kleenex for my poor red nose and better drugs (still waiting for them to kick in).

While he was out he also picked up some junk food, Panda Express. I was a little hungry but couldn't taste much so I wanted something spicy. My parents even came over with a fresh pot of chicken soup but it just wasn't hitting the spot. I ended up putting chili sauce all over my veggies because they had no taste, and I think everything else was tasty, because my mouth was burning from the spice but that was all I could really taste.

Today a storm came through that caused messy roads, uprooted trees and power outages all over the area. It ended up being an ok day to be feeling crappy, but I'm sure ready for it to be over.

You mean I have to actually do it?

I've become very lazy. A little too lazy in fact. I was working out hard before the wedding, was going to see my therapist regularly, and seemed to have things in order and the sun was starting to shine in my day, but then all of that fibroid hub-bub happened and I just slide into a state of whatever. I sort of dealt with depression before, by sort of I mean I admitted I was experiencing something, started a little meditation practice but that was about as far as that got. Well guess what? It doesn't just magically go away.

To boot, I have been prone to back, neck and general joint pain for much of my life, and when you hurt for a long time, you just sort of become passive about it except when it flares up (I suppose emotional stuff is the same). While I was sitting on my butt recovering, I slouched a lot. I had a hard time finding positions to sit and lay down in with the incisions, so I wasn't very kind to my spine and it told me about it. Even with seeing a massage therapist every other week, my back and neck continue to tell me all about it.

I used to see a chiropractor for many years, but found that my pain was never really getting better, and I was only gaining short term relief. Yes, yes he'd asked me how much exercising I was doing and if I had reduced my stress, and my usual answer was 'not much' and 'no'. I casually tossed his advice aside because I was young and my body would recover (and I was dumb).

Well, Eric is getting tired of my complaints and me not doing anything about my pain, so I FINALLY saw a doctor and asked for a referral to Physical Therapy, and after a long wait my appointment came around this week. (ok, so spousal nagging is needed sometimes!)

Surprise! He said that although I'm very flexible for my age (which I didn't agree with, but whatever, I still think I'm a 10 year old gymnast) that the muscles around my spine and neck are very weak. That the most effective and important thing for me to do is to strengthen them. He gave me a number of ball exercises, I'm to do all the yoga I want (since that seems to help), AND I have to do cardio at least 3 times a week. He said the rock climbing sounds like an excellent activity to build core strength as well, but I have to be aware that I'm not arching my back (I guess I do that more easily then keeping it straight which is how he thinks I tweaked the muscles in my back).

Even though I was all bummed about gaining weight since my surgery, and I'm planning on starting a pact with a friend to no junk eating for at least 30 days, I'm having a tougher time processing that I need to fit in time to work out. But if I want to get in shape, loose weight, and not be in pain anymore, I guess I actually have to get off my duff and work out too. I mean, that is why I joined the gym right? (and no I haven't gone since that first day, but I've been sick - cough cough) Plus, exercise had been the key to keeping depression at bay in the past, so hopefully it'll do the trick again this time. (grumble grumble)

I suppose I should go find that ball now.



Oh and the new template? I was trying out the "easy" changing of the template feature in Blogger, and I forgot to save my old template so I guess I am stuck with this one until I have time to muck around with the code. As a warning to any other Blogger user who wants to play with their template... there is a bug right now that errors if you try to edit the template via the "Edit Template" section. So the only changes you can make are with the widgets and applying the stock templates. Weee!

Looking for sparkles in white

Oh my, I forgot to mention in my last post that I got to go Wedding Dress shopping last weekend!

My very good friend, Amy, is getting married in September, and she asked me to join her and her best friend from college to go look at the 2 dresses she narrowed down to after her shopping trips with her mom over Christmas. We didn't find one of the dresses, but no bother because the other one was PERFECT! Amy was a great sport and also tried on other dresses we pulled for her, even though in her heart she already knew. They say you know it when you see it, and she did.

It brought back memories of my planning this past year, but Amy is far more organized and knew exactly what she was looking for. It was a great little afternoon of giggles and ideas and sharing stories.

I wish I could post some of the pictures I took... but Amy occasionally shares my blog with her fiancé and we can't have him see a hint!

Congratulations Amy, you are gorgeous and we can't wait to see you and your love joined together.

Last week of 2007 update

Huh? What do you mean I didn't post anything about Christmas? What? I haven't posted anything for a week? You've barely heard anything from me this month?

Well we can't have that, now can we?

So I guess we're in for another quick update-a-roo!

Christmas
This is our first Christmas where we didn't go anywhere, and hence our first Christmas tree, and OUR first Christmas with my parents. Well I think so anyway. Most of the last 7 Christmases, Eric and I have either been apart, or on the East Coast with his family for Christmas, and one year we went to Canada to visit my brother and sister-in-law. I have been craving to build our own Christmas Traditions, but Eric really just wants to be with his family. Neither of us put much effort into this holiday to make it special though, so I can't expect miracles.

We agreed to no gifts with the siblings and between ourselves, and only to give to the kids in the family. My brother still had a DVD shipped to us, but I'm not sure if the coding will work in our player as its from the UK (anyone know?). My mom gave us a box of See's chocolate which I have been promptly making disappear, usually around breakfast time the craving hits me.

On Christmas day I cooked dinner and my parents came over to eat. I made Prime Rib for my father, a lovely salad for Eric which was also supposed to be special for my mom, but I failed to remember to put in the freshly roasted beets which she loves (and they are still sitting at the back of the fridge where I put them to cool). I also made Yorkshire pudding which was a first for all of us. If you've never had it, Eric came up with a great description, Meat Doughnuts. Mmmm batter fried in beef fat! I roasted up some Broccoli and Garlicky Potatoes (separate dishes), and finished off with a rather un-traditional Christmas dessert of Strawberry Shortcake. My father only cares for 2 desserts, Lemon Custard Pie and Strawberry Shortcake, and since some lovely Florida strawberries were in the store, shortcake it was. Unfortunately, I forgot my mom can't have strawberries due to her diverticulitis, so she got seedless Strawberry Jam on her's.

Most meals with my parents are a little stressful, at least I find them to be. But who knows, maybe it's just me being super sensitive to any tension in the air when they are concerned and I just can't relax. Hell, I probably put that tension in the air. The bickering was at a minimum this particular meal though. I'm pretty sure my mom caught my pleading stare when my father started going on about his cough and how he stopped taking his Blood Pressure medication because it gives him the cough which keeps him from singing, or sleeping and therefore he can't enjoy life. This complaint comes up just about every time he has us as a captive audience, and every time I ask him to call his doctor who will adjust his medication, but nooooo he has now just decided to stop taking the medication instead. Usually my mom voices her frustration about this continuing complaint, and then things get uncomfortable, and bickering proceeds. But this time, she made a few little comments and didn't push and the subject was able to be changed. So thank you mom!

I'm hoping after we have kids, that this time of year will become the magical time I remember it being. But I guess if I want it to be special, I have to get off my duff and do something about it. Maybe next year.


New Hobby!
Eric and I have been talking about checking out a climbing gym, and this weekend we finally did it. We knew they would get a rush of new people starting in the new year, so since we said we'd do it this year, we went this weekend.
It was a blast! I suck at it, but I still had a good time. Eric has strong arms due to his work, and he has climbed in gyms and outdoors before so he was able to scamper up those walls pretty easily. He kept wanting to push himself so he kept choosing harder and harder routes, which gave me some practice in belaying and catching him when he would fall. I simply couldn't get it through my head that if I fell it was ok because the rope and Eric would catch me, so I played it really safe and stayed on the easy routes. I discovered I am afraid of heights though and would consistently freak out at the same height on the walls. Only once did I make it past that point and on to the top, and that was sure will because I was totally freaking out. I'm also grossly out of shape, and my upper body strength is even worse then I thought. I'm a tad sore today, but Eric is even more sore.. tee hee!
As we always do when we get excited about something, we jump in head first and usually that means we jump in with our wallets. After one single go, we joined the gym, bought shoes, harnesses and the whole get up. We did this with snowboarding too, and we haven't been boarding for years (we say its because of the expense, but somehow we can throw money at other things instead). At least this time, this is an activity where you have to have a partner to belay you, and even though Eric's skill far surpasses mine, the gym offers difficulties that can challenge both of us. No more getting left alone on the mountain. Plus, a month at this gym equals a single day lift ticket, so it seems a little more reasonable.


Umm... let's see, what else?
Tomorrow I have a big goal for myself (us). A day of purging and cleaning out closets. Clothing, crap, stuff, and junk closets. Just like we did when we were kids, we have, on more then one occasion, just shoved stuff in a closet or two when company was coming over. Do that a few times and you loose the floor, and then you loose stuff, and then you start re-buying stuff you thought you lost, and then you loose the floors in a different closet. So as not to overwhelm myself, I'm going to start with my clothing closet as I haven't seen the floor in there for at least 6 months.

I'd also like to put together a list of goals for the year. Not so much resolutions, but just some things I'd like to do. We'll see if that happens, but I'm not setting my sights too high, because I do indeed hate failure.


Phew... only 2 more minutes until we hit midnight, so I'll wrap up this babbling update and I'd like to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Christmas MeMe

I was tagged by J at Thinking About for this MeMe about my favorite Christmas things quite a while ago, and since I haven't been really bloggy active this month, now is an excellent night to do this one.

Please share 12 of your favorite Christmas things: they can be memories, traditions, songs, presents, beliefs, whatever it is about this season that you love

So here goes:

1. Baking! My mom used to bake cut out butter cookies at this time of year and us kids got to decorate them with colored egg whites and sprinkles and such. We'd box them up and give them out to the family friends. I have continued this tradition with my own little twist and have added quite a few new varieties to the mix, but I still use the same butter cookie recipe my mom used (Joy of Cooking 1975 edition - Rich Roll Cookies). This year the cookies and candies were made a little too late to ship, and I worked to much to hand deliver, so my co-workers got the brunt of the butter and sugar extravaganza. Don't worry, some will still get shipped out after the big day.
   
2. Annual Newsletters - Not as many people put the annual newsletters in their holiday cards as they used to a few years back, but just so those that do still do them know... I love them! I understand that a lot of people find them impersonal or tacky, but whatever! Ours lives have gotten very busy and hectic and I'm that type of person that lets relationships slide, so I enjoy seeing some of the year's choice pictures and reading up on the events of my friend's families. Not everyone chooses to be so public as a blog.
3. Holiday Music - I LOVE the music of the season. Be it Mariah Carey, Nat King Cole, or Mr. Hanky. I love it all. Beware though... I love to sing it all as well. And don't be surprised if you see me skipping and hmming my way through a busy retail establishment this season. I may be out in the hussle and bussle but the music is everywhere and I can't help but to move when it moves me.
4. Seeing Friends and Family from afar - As is now common in this day and age, we have family and friends far from where we call home. So this time of year is a extra special because we usually get to see some of those people we don't get to see throughout the year. Most years we travel to see my brother or Eric's family, but this year we didn't go anywhere so we got to see some of my good friends who just happened to traveled home.
5. Trees - As I got a little older, my parents kinda stopped doing the whole Christmas tree and decorations thing. This time of year is the busiest for my mom with all of her doings at church and her piano student's recital, she just got to the point where the decorations lost priority. So when I was about 15 I started getting the tree with my boyfriend or my brother, and would make sure it was decorated. So when I moved out, I made sure I had a tree as soon as trees were available. However, after Eric and I started dating, we always traveled at this time of year, so we didn't bother with a tree... until this year. YAY! And being the kind of guy Eric is, he wanted to get a live tree we could use year after year. The idea is to root prune it to keep its growth stunted. We'll see how it works out.
6. Lights - Someday I want to put up one of those synchronized light shows you see on YouTube and the news. I've read all about the technology and will watch the videos over and over again online. There are even some in our neighborhood, but for some reason we haven't made it out to go see them... guess we're lazy (so I'm sure I'll never get around to actually designing one myself). As a kid we'd drive around and check out all of the displays, of course back then I was mostly amazed by those plastic light up figures. My favorites being a house down the street that put up a light up nativity scene on their roof. I'd make my mom drive me by their house over and over again as soon as they would put it up, and I'd cry the night we'd drive by and it was gone.
7. Fudge - Why is fudge only made at this time of year? Huh? Why? I even buy fudge at madly expensive prices at those amusement park candy shops, and even once in an airport. I loves me the fudge! Which is funny because I'm not a huge fan of chocolate (well unless it's See's).
8. Gift Wrapping - I love to wrap gifts and adding ribbons and pretties. This year we didn't do much in the way of gifting, but I was still adding bells and ribbons to the bags of cookies (which are still sitting on the kitchen table because the pull of the afternoon nap was great).
9. EATING - Every year I over indulge on the eating pretty much through the month of December and I give myself complete permission to eat whatever I want without guilt or exercise. Ok, not completely without guilt, I am still a girl with the same stupid image issues after all.
   
10. My love - It was back in 2000, just a few days before Christmas when Eric and I first started hanging out. He and I had been co-workers for a few months and he had asked me out a few times, but I kindly kept declining as I'm naive that way and had no idea he was actually asking me out. I thought he was just being kind and suggesting that this suburban girl should go to a club and get out into the city more, but the biggest part of my naiveté was that I also thought he was gay. He claims that I finally asked him out, when really I only said, "Are you going to so-in-so's Christmas party? You guys should totally go!", to him and his boss standing at the front desk. His boss bailed, and he caught a ride with me and a few people. It got late, really late, and he walked with me back to my car in the financial district, where we talked and talked for the hour it took to walk I don't know how far. I drove him to his place to thank him, and he said, oh so lovingly, "I've got a couch if you're tired!". So romantic! I said I was fine to drive home, and we had an awkward good-night moment somewhere between a kiss and a hug, and I slowly caught on that not all really nice guys who listen to Techno music, and enjoy dancing are gay!
11. Snuggling - I'm not one for the cold, and thankfully it doesn't get too cold here in these parts but it does get cold enough for fuzzy socks, fluffy down comforters and lots of snuggling with my love. He also makes for a great bed warmer, so this time of year his overly zealous metabolism doesn't go to waste!
12. The New Year - Although this season is full of cheer and love and all of those warm fuzzies, it is also the gateway to the new year. Of course a year is just a measurement of time, I still see it as a point to start over, or to set goals. This next year is hopefully going to hold a lot of exciting memories and travels. Already I'm hoping to go on our honeymoon to Hawaii, I'm planning a hiking/ferry/car trip with my brother through British Columbia to Alaska, a ton of challenges are in store at work, Eric's business is really picking up, we're hoping to move closer to my work (Housing market hear our prayers!) and maybe, just maybe my doctor will clear us to start trying to start our family.

Phew! Well if that wasn't a mouthful! So there you have it, my top 12 Christmas "Things". With that, I want to wish you and your loved ones a VERY MERRY Chri...uhh... HOLIDAY SEASON!


P.S. If the cookies don't get shipped out, and my waste line doubles - please know that those two events are mutually exclusive.

Way Random!

I have been rather busy lately and have not had much time to read any blogs as well as write anything for my own. So here is just a quick update and some quick thoughts for today:

Osteo Update
Eric saw an Endocrinologist and that system is in check so it is not the cause of the low bone density. The doctor had some thoughts that the test might have been inaccurate since the scores for his lower lumbar were so dramatically lower then any other area, so he's going to check on that. Another possibility is that since he has been a runner since he was a kid, that it's possible that his legs got more bone when he was growing and his spine is weaker because of the activities he was involved in while he was developing. And... then there is the heredity thing. He has the frame for osteoporosis, and it runs in his family, so he has upped his supplement taking and dark green leafy veggie eating, which doesn't hurt anyway!


Baking Marathon 2007...
has begun (2006 found here), but way later then planned, and it's not looking likely that these goods are going to be shipped before Christmas this year. Well they might be, but they won't make it by next Tuesday. Some new recipes (well, new to me) were made yesterday, as well as a 2nd go at my Sister-in-Law's favorite cookie, Amarettis. I've decided that the recipe is faulty and not me, because 2 times the same recipe resulted in the same flat, way too chewy cookies. Ok, maybe it is me, but I'm going to look for a few recipe or I'm just gonna buy some for her at the local Italian deli.
Tonight I will turn my attentions to rolling, cutting, and icing (if I have time) some gingerbread bites. I was going to move onto some fudge and toffee making, but my co-workers have requested the gingerbread. Here's a picture from last year.




Update on the bed decision...
of dropping down to a queen, or trying to squeeze a king up the stairs -- We're going to optimistically wait until we move because we'd like to stay in a King bed, and it seems silly to buy a Queen to fit up the stairs of a place we will hopefully not be living in, in a years time. HOPEFULLY! Thankfully I'll be starting Physical Therapy for my back and neck in the new year, so that may help with my pained sleeping situation.


Update on the Persimmons
I think I'm going to leave the persimmon pulp to Eric as he didn't even peel them before pureeing them (he was tired and cranky by this point), but I will ask that after 6 months if they are still in there that he toss them. That is some precious freezer space! The fruit leather he made turned out great (in a persimmony sort of way). The dried fruit when totally dry weren't too astringent, but still a little. So even though the office was taken up for about a week with all of the drying, I'd say it was a successful project (even though I didn't help much!).


Random Thought
After devouring a bag of chips at lunch today I casually flipped over the bag to read the nutrition information and I'd like to understand why do they say that the # of servings in this snack size bag of chips is 2. Do they think people will actually split this with someone? Or perhaps eat the noted 1oz serving size and then have the rest the next day? Why even bother? Or is 1oz of chips a standard serving (which I'm sure the answer)? Perhaps it's a marketing mind game so I think I'm only eating 150 calories but really its 300 because I can't have just one!



BTW - I wrote this post yesterday (Monday), kinda throughout the day whenever I had a few spare moments or needed a break, but like the first half of this month has gone, I got busy and never got back to post it.
I'm working through the holidays, so in case I don't get around to posting the few posts I've already written, or don't write any new ones, or heaven forbid I don't get a chance to stop by your place to catch up and leave a comment or two....

I hope everyone has a Very Happy Holiday and a Wonderful New Years!

Persimmon Explosion

This past weekend, my lovely husband went to work with a volunteer group that goes to people's houses to pick the fruit they can't consume (or give away). He has worked with them for a few years, but this month they were working at a house in our city. And at this time of year, that means Persimmons.

This tree was HUGE (as he describes it) and they worked for 5 hours with 4 guys to pick all of the fruit. 1.5 pickup truck beds full of persimmons later, Eric came home with a load of boxes to go to our county food bank (the other guys took a load to their local food bank). Eric wanted to sort the persimmons as the overripe ones wouldn't transport well, so that left us with the cull to deal with.
Eric says he loves persimmons, but he tends to prefer Fuyu's (crisp round ones) over the type he had picked, Hachiya (squishy, astringent, drop shaped ones). He had read that dried persimmons aren't astringent and are just yummy sweet. We've tried dried ones before from a friend and they were great! So Eric set to it...except we don't have a food dehydrator.

So our office has turned into a giant dehydrator room (and in my opinion it stinks! really!). He has a fan and stacked wire racks with slices and trays of persimmon mush spread out over half of our desk which lines 3 of the walls (the rest of the desk if covered in his design work - so I'm avoiding that space right now).

Last night, Eric apparently decided to also try out the juicer we got as a wedding gift and although it worked at first, it later started spewing mush everywhere and leaking. Then I suggested he use the blender or the food processor as the juicer isn't meant to deal with that amount of mushy fruit (I did this without stepping in to the kitchen because I have issues seeing it a mess when I haven't been the mess maker). Around 11pm things got really quiet in the kitchen and I stepped in to see if I could help ....

I need not go into the details of the next 2.5 hours, but I have reclaimed the kitchen and the cookie baking prep will begin tonight!

Anyone have any ideas of what to do with a couple gallons of persimmon pulp?


Photo by elroy

TAKE THEM!

A few years ago, my husband's family was going through some stressful times and his mom came out to stay with us for a few months. We got her to come out pretty abruptly so she didn't pack much and a lot of shopping was done out here. When all was clear, or as clear as it was going to get, she went home and she handed me the remainder of the bottle of Calcium suppliments she had bought out here and said, "Make sure Eric takes these".

So, being the good future-daughter-in-law that I was, I asked Eric to take them. He poo-poo'd the idea of a 20-something year old guy should be taking any suppliments let alone Calcium. Calcium is for old women. Since that initial poo-pooing I have continued to ask him to take vitamins. I'd even set up his little pill caddy with them and that is the only time he'll take them. When its easy he'd take them because bending down to pull out the bottle under the cabinet is too much effort.

(You're probably already catching on to what the moral of this story is... but I'm going to make you wait anyway....)

Last year or so, Eric was playing kickball and threw a ball to throw someone out and when he did that he must have pulled some ligaments because he was in a lot of pain for about 2 months after that. He had thought he had broken a rib but the urgent care doctor thought it might be possible, but unlikely. Especially since he was only playing kickball and it started to hurt badly after throwing a ball. No big impact and at this point he was only 31 so he couldn't have broken a rib!

(Psssst - go take your calcium pills!!!)

This past summer he was working on a client job (landscape designer), and he was working with a crowbar or something and he felt something give in his chest, followed by lots and lots of pain. He showed me his chest when he got home (bow chica bow bow -- ok not really), and there was this bump sticking up just under his sternum. I had seen this before with a previous boyfriend (I used to get around alright!), who had broken a rib and a kite boarder friend of mine said that most kite boarders break a rib and end up with that bump. Months went by and Eric finally saw a doctor for a general physical and he showed him the bump... and again the doctor didn't think he could have broken a rib although it looked like it.

(Did you go take your calcium yet?)

Reluctantly, Eric's doctor scheduled a bone scan because Eric was asking for one but he's only 32 and a man, so they wont' find anything, but since he's insisting....

(Go have a big glass of milk too... and maybe some cheese!)

If you haven't guessed yet, we got a letter from Eric's doctor this weekend which said he has osteoporosis of the lower lumbar. He'll go in to see the doctor this week and we hear there is some miracle pill men can take but women can't, so hopefully that'll fix him up good because Eric has a life goal to live until he's 100 and to go out healthy and spry, so this news has been a bit of a blow to his indestructible self view.

So the lesson of this story is 2 fold.

1. If you suspect something is up and your doctor is sorta ho-hum about running tests... push!
2. LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER!