Thanksgiving Post

It's 3 am on the day after Thanksgiving, now referred to as Black Friday. I can't sleep. I went to bed at 10 and woke up at 11:45. I'm going to meet my friend at Target but let's be honest, I don't need anything and I'm only going because I couldn't think of a way out. Originally her husband wasn't going with her, so I was going to run interference for her while she ran to claim her Dyson Animal. Now, instead I'm getting myself all riled up about a TomTom I'd like to buy (though I'd rather someone else just magically give it to me for Christmas or a wedding gift) and some cheap digital picture frames, so alas, I cannot sleep. I've tried reading, I had some carbs (that was less for sleeping and more for the pit in my belly) I've cuddled with Yukon under the Christmas tree-I'm unable to sleep. I've been considering just going to Target now and waiting in line, but really, what am I trying to buy?

So in the spirit of being thankful for things that I have but do not own, I'm making a list of things I'm thankful for.

• a wonderful fiance who will soon be my husband and is my forever love. We're far from perfect, but we complement each other so well that I can't imagine my life without him in it.
• a renewed relationship with my Dad and step-mother. We don't bicker, we enjoy each other company and basically we have the familial relationship that has been lacking for the last 8 years. It's wonderful, and I credit all of us for having an open mind and respecting new beginnings.
• a good career. I know that many others out there in the U.S. do not have the luxury of having a steady paycheck and job security. I am very thankful that Mircea and I are both in stable jobs and both of our families have the same blessing.
• great friends. I really do have the best friends. They understand how indecisive I am, they know I'm so crazy, and they still love me. They also know I'm bad with punctuation, but come on, cut me some slack, it's 3 am and I got 90 minutes of sleep in the past 24 hours.

It was a short list. Mostly because I'm getting even more tired. But the list is very long because I have so much to be thankful for and really look forward to the future!

I Know, I Know

I have a million pictures to share (which I think most of you saw on Facebook) but I do have stories about some of the photos and places we've seen but I've just been too lazy. Actually, I guess I've been the opposite of lazy because I haven't had a ton of time to sit down organize my thoughts about some of the events from our trip. Soon. I'm going to be down to like 2 readers if I don't start updating.

Home Sweet Home

Although it feels so good to be back in the States, I miss Romania like crazy. Mircea and I had a great visit and we’re already seriously planning how we can return permanently. More about that in a future post-it’s more of the 5 – 10 year plan, though I’m sure our future children will be upset to find out that we could have lived in the land of fast food and consumerism, but they’ll learn to appreciate the fresh vegetables and free education.

I’m still working on organizing all the photos, writing my blog posts, etc., but I wanted to take a moment to tell the whole story about the last few days of our trip (totally out of order I realize).

On the Thursday before we left I started feeling a little intestinal dissonance. We had some pizza at a local restaurant and I basically went home and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night to a fire storm in my bowels, and after a night of massive vomiting and diarrhea I woke Mircea up and explained that we needed to go to the hospital as I was in serious pain. At about 6 am we had his uncle take us to the hospital where I was seen by the broken-English-speaking Doctor within 10 minutes of arriving and had an IV hooked up within 15. Mircea wasn’t allowed to be in the ER, so I had to utilize my limited Romanian to communicate with the nursing staff. I kept quietly murmuring “Sunt Frica”, which is “I’m scared” and they comforted me and I finally fell asleep from the drugs. When I woke up I proceeded to watch the parade of gawkers that “had to see the American” and laughed that I was probably the first American they had ever seen-sweating through my Purdue t-shirt and hair that looked to be in dreads as it had been a couple days since I’d bathed. I was transferred to the communicable diseases hospital (yeah, that scared me) and Mircea informed the Doctor that I couldn’t stay the 2 days they wanted me to stay and that they had to, and I quote, “get her well enough to get on a plane and get home without setting off any alarm bells” and the Doctor gave me enough drugs to stop me up for a week. (You know how I know that-I’m still living the dream!) I basically spend the rest of the day in bed, trying not to soil myself (FAIL) and drifting in and out of hallucinogenic sleep. It was wild. Mircea was gone most of the afternoon for events that he couldn’t miss and I spent the day under the watchful eye of his adorable but non-English speaking Grandmother. We found our own way to communicate and had a nice time together. At about 5 pm I began hearing the comforting sounds of Heavy Metal bursting through the window as I was lucky enough to have almost front bed seats to a Heavy Metal festival in the square outside. Oh joy! They played until about 10 pm and we’d planned on leaving at 2 am for the airport so my sleep was nothing short of fitful (in between all the bathroom trips-I think I was going on about 2 hours of sleep)

Mircea’s dad picks us up at 2, we somehow get to the airport (I swear I drifted in and out of consciousness several times from the pain) and we wait to get on our plane. During this wait I realized that I couldn’t stand up without throwing up, which really drove home that sense of “wow, this is going to be a nightmare flight” that I’d been feeling. We get on the bus that is going to take us to the plane and I sat in the corner seat and basically began heaving onto the bus…not puke bag, no nothing. Just quiet heaves in the corner hoping that none of the other passengers would report my communicable diseases or freak out. I threw up THE ENTIRE way from Romania to Hungary; mostly just dry heaving into a bag on Mircea’s lap. We got to Budapest and waited in a long security line where ironically another man was getting seen my paramedics as he’d complained about not feeling well right in front of me. We made it up to the lounge and thankfully, slept off and on for about 4 hours and the vomiting subsided for me.

The nine hour flight was uneventful, other than the A-hole Hungarian guy behind me who kept kicking my seat and I finally had to ask him to stop and he freaked out because I had woken him up (so he could remove his boot from my ass) and began swearing in Hungarian. Too bad Mircea was asleep or we could have had an International incident. We’re about 20 minutes from landing when the pilot says that there is bad weather and we’ll be a little late. I’d been talking to the woman across the aisle, asking about Customs, etc., and she’d made the comment to Mircea “get her a Valium; she’s too worked up about this”. Well about an hour into the circling, this woman became insane “Why can’t they land this plane? I’m going to miss my other f-ing flight. Delta doesn’t care, etc.” It was beautiful. Who needs a Valium now, spaz? We finally land but spend another HOUR on the tarmac waiting to get off the plane. You’re not supposed to get up but finally I burst from my seat and explain to the stewardess that my kidneys might actually burst (they might have) and I rushed to the bathroom. Thank God because when we finally got off the plane we had about 30 minutes to go through Customs, recheck our bags, go through Security and get to the entire other side of the airport. I swear to you it was a mile. I SWEAR. AND I RAN THE ENTIRE THING. Seriously. 16 hours before, I’d been puking in the corner of a bus, but I ran my freaking heart out to get on this plane, which we made with about 10 minutes to spare (it was worth it). We finally get to Dulles after a couple of other delays and see Mike and Rodica (Mircea’s stepdad and Mom for those keeping score). We get our bags, load up the car, and start telling them our adventure…when I say “do you smell that-oh, the temp is high!” on the car and we pull over on the side of the road. Five miles from the airport we are broken down. Mircea and I almost break down ourselves, but manage to not throw ourselves into traffic or explode in tears or anger (or pooh).

We all decide that we’ll call AAA, have the car towed locally and get a cab to take us back to the airport when where we’ll get a rental car. Easy, right? Logical? Legal? Yes. The tow truck driver comes first, loads up the Jaguar, and says “I’ll take you all to the airport”. Well that’s nice. For two miles I figure all 5 of us can jam into the truck cab. We’re not in the car 20 seconds when Mike says “How much to take us all the way to Southern Maryland?” Mircea and I sort of laugh like “really, really?” and the guy is like “no, no, too far” and we breathe a sigh of relief. But somehow Mike convinces him to take us the TWO HOURS down to Southern Maryland and we’re like “Mike, we can’t sit this way for this long” so the genius tow truck driver says “why don’t you two go sit in the car?” Fast forward through our swears and complaints and you’ll see my ass being hoisted up into the Jaguar and the driver saying “keep your heads down so we don’t get caught”. The first 20 minutes of the drive were terrifying and Mircea and I cursed Mike quite a bit, I almost peed in the car (“Go right on the leather Kate, he deserves it!”) but I finally fell asleep when Mircea and I took the extra boxer briefs we’d packed (for me) “just in case” and put them over our heads to shield our eyes from the blinding lights of the tow truck. We woke up when we got home about 2 hours later and laughed to ourselves as the truck driver tore up their front yard trying to get out (yeah, we were getting spiteful) and got in our truck and got home, swerving twice to avoid hitting deer.

The Gods were against us returning to our beds, but when we got home (33 hours after we got up in Romania) and we were greeted by the happy purrs of Fern and Lily (who spent the entire night with me, kissing and loving and as I found out later, saying goodbye) we knew we were home, it was all worth it, and we somehow lived to tell about it.

Good-Bye My Lily Love

Yesterday Mircea and I had the unpleasant task of making the decision to put Lily down. When we got back from the trip, Lily greeted us happily, and she and I spent that whole night with cuddles, loving and kisses. The next morning she was downstairs and she didn't move from her spot all day, and I encouraged her to drink water, but she only sat there, occasionally crying out and then getting sick. After we picked Yukon up from the vet yesterday, we returned with Lily to have her examined. Dr. Edwards (our beloved vet at Solomon's Vet-we'll pay the premium price for her) told me we had to get Lily in the oxygen tank immediatly and we did some x-rays to find that my little girl had a mass on her lung and that her trachea was curved. Our options were very limited, and didn't give us a good chance to do anything but stress her further. We made the choice to set Lily free from her struggles and held and comforted her as Dr. Edwards did her selfless task.

Lily was a special girl, and anyone who hugged that little calico body knew she was a cut above. I was one of the late-bloomers on that love for her...until this last October when she comforted me through my recovery, she was always "my mother's cat" first and mine second. But she was my best little friend. I cried into her fur when my mom died, I cried into her fur when my dad remarried, through breakups, falling in love, losing loved ones, etc. Lily Bear was my silky girl who always had enough love in her heart no matter how she was feeling. From the days of the skinny stray that deposited kittens under our porch and filled the void for my mother when I left for college, to the little baby who held out the two weeks while Mircea and I were gone so that she could give us a proper goodbye, Lily was the perfect cat. Sure, she thought the shortest distance between two places was across a set of testicles, and she taught little Fernie to scoot her booty on the floor after going No. 2, but she was a doll. No one will ever take her place in my heart.

I'm comforted in knowing that she is with my Mom now, her first Mommy, and that they are both together again, cat in lap, happy human illiciting that Harley-Davidson purr.

I miss you Lily. I thank you for all you gave me - you were far more than "just a cat".

I'm Grasping at Straws for Post Ideas

Well, sort of. I was looking through my old posts and realized that I posted this and it included me indicating that Jonathan Rhys Meyers was "somewhat handsome" and that I preferred Wentworth Miller. While I wouldn't kick Mr. Miller out of bed, I was crazy. I've come to my senses, don't worry. I absolutely love JRM. So hot (want to touch the heiny) and I fell in love with him in August Rush. I was going to review the movie, but then I looked for pictures of this hottie and decided that I would instead provide a post of hot guys, other than my beloved Brad Pitt Mircea. Mind you, these are in no particular order because really, is that fair to anyone?

I've already mentioned how I feel about him. Let me say, seeing him running towards Central Park in the movie August Rush almost made me die. DIE I tell you. And I know Robyn agreed with me on that one. The entire movie was spent in a transition between crying and lust. It was awkward for all involved.

I loved him in Stop Loss. I think I saw him in something else too, but it barely matters. He's just plain hot and can rock a wife beater like no other. Those eyes, those eyes.

I've tried so hard to push this tool out of my life, but I just can't. He's just so freaking good looking that it kills me. Such a tool though...so he wins the award for "hottest toolbag".

He actually puts me over my Romanian quota, but I love Adrian Mutu. He may have had a coke problem, and likes cheating on his wife, but darnit, I still love him. He's not my husband.

Oh he's so hot like fire. Burn baby burn. I've never seen more than 10 minutes of Burn Notice, and I only saw that much because I was capitvated by Jefferey Donovan. When we hit the commerical break, I was gone-but my love for him remains. He was very good in Changeling as well.

Winning the award for "hottest regular old guy" is John Krasinski. I feel like he's got to be a perfect guy. So it's hard to know if I like Jim or John better, but I say "I'd give either a chance". On a sad note, he has recently announced an engagment. I guess he heard about Mircea proposing and gave up all hope. It's probably best.

Still love you Brad. I even stuck by you with the Jennifer Aniston divorce when I felt that you were a terrible man for falling for Angelina's sexy pout. I forgive you. And I fell in love with you all over again in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. You're on of those guys that I can't help but love-and I'll love you when you're old and gray. You'll be my Paul Newman. Larry Mullen Jr., drummer from U2 wins the award for "Man (other than my Dad and Papa) that I've loved the longest. But I'll tell you, I loved him way differently than the aforementioned men in my life. I don't care that Larry is pushing 90 (ok, 50) he's still the love of my life and I'm so happy that I found this picture because this my favorite frame in the entire Electrical Storm video, which is my favorite U2 song of all time. Mostly because of Larry.

The puffy kitty, teddy bear hot guy award goes to Yukon Glink-Reed-Ighian. He's the most beautiful boy I ever seen in my life, looks AMAZING in a Santa Hat, even looks cute in a Steelers bandana, and it adorable all times of his life, but mostly while sleeping. This little guy almost stole my heart.

I said I wouldn't rank the "hottie guy" list, but Mircea comes in number one. He's got that Romanian charm, perfect teeth, scrubby enough to feel like he's a bad boy, and cleans up well enough that you know your mom loves him as much as you do. So yeah, I lust for all the guys on the list, but luckily, the hottest guy I've ever met (notice the modifier there) loves me too, so I guess I'm pretty lucky.

**On a side note. While looking for pictures for this post I managed to see the following: A picture of Channing Tatum in undies with what is best described as a terrifying package; tons of lists from other bloggers about their hotties and who their husbands will let them sleep with; a lot of homosexual men that share the same love of these hotties; a great interview in Men's Health with John Krasinski. This was fun.

Vegan-Vegetarian-Carnivore?

I think I made a comment on one of my posts awhile back that I was eating meat in preparation for the trip to Romania. I made this decision with very mixed feelings, namely that I would probably enjoy the convenience of eating meat and just go back to it, but knew that I had to as the Romanian countryside isn't filled with convenience foods or people that are willing to tweak recipes for the ugly American (me, by the way).

It's been a little over a month since I started eating meat, and only in the last week have I really pumped it up so that I have eaten meat actually more than veggies-and I'm feeling it. Not to be gross, but bowels work so much better without meat. Lily and I are going through the same thing, only I can manage it a little better than a sweet calico.

I'll tell you what works for me-bacon. And by "works for me" I really mean "scares the shit out of me because I try to find every excuse to get bacon into a meal and let's just say I haven't lost any weight since I started eating meat". I'm posting some recipes that have meat in them, but mostly I can really take or leave meat.

Having said that, I'm in a rough spot. Considering I have probably eaten a total of 10 meals that have meat in them over the course of 40 days, I'm not sure that 'giving it up' again is really what I want to do. Since we have a friend that has a small farm, he's really helped us out by giving or selling us organic, free range, grain fed meat, and frankly, I've never had a problem with that kind of meat. Yes, I still feel that it isn't right to slaughter animals for meat, having said that, this is the world that we live in and me not eating meat isn't going to stop the market from existing. So instead of avoiding it altogether, I may choose to support it as needed (or desired really) but when doing so make the best choices, supporting the local agriculture of Southern Maryland.

So sound off, what do you guys think? I know that most of your are omnivores and support meat consumption, and I'm interested in your take on the whole thing.

The post is almost over I promise. One last thing. I don't want to eat meat. I am just so sick and tired of everyone saying things like "oh, we'll make something special for you" or "oh we didn't think you could go out to lunch with us b/c you don't eat anything at the restaurant". I don't know, it was harder being vegan and I'll tell you, being a vegetarian is like a cheese-filled dream.

This topic is far from over for me. I've got a lot of soul searching to do on this.

Recipe Thursday: Rebecca's Salmon Salad

Rebecca's Salmon Salad Recipe

Ingredients

Salmon fillets, without the skin :)
Something to put on the salmon, I like this vegan garlic paste or olive tapenade or something similar
Organic salad mix
Pine nuts
Tomato
Feta cheese
Avocado
Pitted Kalamata olives
Lots of pepper (I love pepper)
Girard's Greek Feta Vinegarette
I also someties include some red onion

Directions
Just broil the salmon on high for 15 minutes or so. Mix all of the salad ingredients together while the salmon is cooking. Then cut the cooked salmon into pieces and add it to the salad. Be sure to eat it with some great-tasting white wine; Chardonnay, Voigner, Riesling, or something similar. Enjoy!

Rebecca is a champ with this salad. She and I made it while I was up in DC visiting her and it was amazing. I used a different, reduced fat salad dressing and it wasn't as good as what she made, but I felt a little less guilty. (Mine was a Greek feta vinegarette from Kraft) Mircea really enjoyed this salad too and I think we'll make it a household staple.

P90X: Not Just for Beefcakes

At the end of May, I started doing Tony Horton's P90x workout video series. I'd heard about it a lot, and figured "there is no way I can do this", but I figured wrong. I could do it, and I enjoyed the hell out of it, for about a month, when some issues with medication and knee pain forced me to stop. Laziness persuaded me to not pick back up, but Mircea and I have been doing a random P90x workout here and there the past several weeks and have agreed that when we return from our trip we will complete the entire p90x program together. I really hope we do follow through because it is a lot of fun.

A little bit about the series is that there are several different workouts, to name a few, there's a core class, cardio, kenpo karate, a grueling 90 minute yoga, a fantastic stretch, great chest and arms workouts, as well as a legs workout that pretty much killed my knee. The abs workout is great too, but it's only 20 minutes and it's completed after a 60 minute workout so it can be a real killer. As Tony says "Ab Ripper X; I hate it, but I love it", and I echo those sentiments exactly.

I urge anyone who is even slightly interested in P90x to go out and spend the money because it is totally, totally worth it. I do a lot of modifications for things that mostly my knee doesn't let me do, and yeah, sometimes I use 5 lb weights while they are using 30+ but the point is to do it, not shy away from it or become a muscle man or woman.

I started the workout with a woman that I work with, who is about 45 years old and not in very good shape. Neither of us could even do a push up when we started (I can do knee pushups, but that isn't saying much) and in the first 30 days (the only days I stuck with it) I could do 5 regular pushups-something I couldn't even do when I was in high school. Linda, however, as she's completed the full 90 day workout, is able to to do one armed push-ups, and plyo-pushups (where you clap when you come up). She's a freaking powerhouse, and it's funny because she pretty much looks the same. She was laughing that she's far from the super-ripped people they show on the infomercials, but she feels fantastic and is so proud of herself for all she's done. She's going to complete it again and maybe she'll get ripped this time-but either way-she's got a great accomplishment under her belt.

The other funny thing is that when I started this I was getting up at 5 to do the workouts, and I'd get done about the time Mircea came downstairs in the morning and fed the cats. He'd give me so much shit for grunting, etc as I completed my workout, or for lying in a pool of my own sweat sobbing. I kept saying "ok, bigshot, you try it". Well, recently he did try it, one of the easier workouts (Cardio) and he about died. It was hilarious. HILARIOUS!!! The next day we did the tricep and arms workout and he stopped halfway through with a soaking wet shirt (mind you, he was using 8 lb weights). During a set of pushups (i was back on my knees) he basically collapsed and I said "You haven't said it yet", and he turned to me and said "yeah, yeah, I was wrong. I'm sorry I gave you so much crap for this"...cracked me up.

It's definitely a challenge but I dare anyone to try it. If "knees McGee" can last 30 days (and I should have lasted longer) and middle aged Momma can do it, anyone can give it a try. Modification is key, and I often did other exercises when there were knee-centric workouts, and there are options instead of pullups when you're just starting out. Go ahead-try it!

A note on Tony Horton: I couldn't love this guy more. To "know" him on your tv is to love him and he just has a great attitude and even at 5 in the morning I was thinking positively the whole way through the workout. He's far from just another "beefcake". Check out his personal blog. Great guy.

Recipe Thursday: Pesto-Chicken Burgers

Open Face Pesto Chicken Burgers

Ingredients
1 lb ground chicken or turkey
4 Tbsp. basil pesto
1/4 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp kosher salt
4 slices ciabatta or rustic italian bread
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 slices fresh mozzarella cheese
2 cups fresh basil leaves, arugula, or spring garden mix salad
8 small tomato slices
ground black pepper


Directions
1. In a bowl combine chicken, half the pesto, the Parmesan cheese, garlic and salt. Shape in four oval (bread) shaped patties.
2. Horizontally halve cibatta. Brush cut sides of ciabatta with olive oil; set aside.
3. Preheat grill. Reduce heat to medium.Place patties on grill rack over heat and cook approx 10-13 minutes covered until chicken is no longer pink. Turn over once halfway through and cover with mozzarella cheese to melt. Place bread on grill rack and grill 2-3 minutes to toast.
4. Arrange basil or greens on toasted bread. Top with chicken patties, tomato slices, and remaining pesto. Sprinkle coarsely with ground pepper.

These burgers were fantastic. I was craving them days after we had them-and this coming from someone who is eating all meat but bacon grudgingly.

Bubble Tea Lovin' : Chicago Part Deux

The trip to Chicago was fantastic, other than the fact that poor Patty was sick. That turned out to be in my favor though as she picked me up for Midway and we spent the afternoon playing Sing Star, which by the way is almost worth buying a Playstation for. Let’s just say I rocked out several times to Foo Fighters Best of You until I thought my vocal chords might bleed. I also tried to entertain myself and Patty with country music renditions of all the rock songs, and pretty much choked myself with laughter when I turned all the “Isn’t me, Isn’t you”s from STP’s Vasoline into “Ain’t it me, ain’t it you” that I finally had to stop.

We went out to grab dinner and pick up a movie at Blockbuster. I saw a Jimmy Johns and I had to run over there and get a sub. Man, I miss that place so much. (I've just found out that there is one in College Park and one in Alexandria-I see a short road trip in my future) I could have eaten there every meal while I was in town and been perfectly happy. Patty also introduced me to Bubble Tea that night, and until today, I’ve had a Bubble Tea every day since I learned about them. So addictive, but I’ve decided I’m making them at my house since the local place here makes them worse than I think Fernie could make them given opposable thumbs. We watched some good movies over the weekend, including Penelope, Knowing, Push and Pineapple Express, the last one making me laugh my ass off though I’m not really a “pot movie” kinda girl, it certainly wasn’t glorified so I was ok with it.

On Saturday we went up to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where I lived my first year out of college. We went to what used to be our favorite restaurant for beer cheese soup, but they must have changed the recipe because it was abysmal so I have to bid adieu to the Chancery. It’s right next to the newly expanded outlet mall, so we got lots of good shopping in and I bought two beautiful dresses at the Black House/White Market outlet store for a total of $60 (with sticker price being about $360). Very very happy. We rounded out the day with mani/pedis and enjoyed a fantabulous dinner at a Kenosha sushi place. Best sushi I’ve had outside of Florida or California. Sooooo good-a surprise hit in Kenosha! After we stopped at home for another Bubble Tea (just me this time) we watched some movies and fell asleep.

Sunday was great too because we were super lazy waiting for Nikki to join us and then we took her for a bubble tea and then head over to Kuma’s Corner, a heavy metal burger joint that Nikki was interested in visiting. It was super loud so we waited for an outside table and the food was spectacular. We all ate our weight in waffle fries smothered in cheese and pulled bbq pork and then tried our best to eat our huge burgers on pretzel rolls. Incredible. I definitely want to go there again and I think Mircea would love it. They have veggie burgers too, which is fantastic when I regain my veggie sanity.

It was such a great weekend with great friends, great food and funny moments. I always enjoy my time with Patty and it was so nice to see Nikki after all this time that I know we’ll make an effort to keep in touch a lot better from now on. Until the next time we get on our boots girls…