Being Kate

Moving Day

2010-06-27T05:23:00.000-04:00

Due to some enhanced capabilities, I'm moving to Wordpress. I'm shedding my "Kateypooh" moniker (don't worry Patty, I'll always be the Pooh) for Being Kate.

I haven't been updating my blog as much as I'd like to, mostly because of Facebook and also because I haven't been taking the time to really think about my posts and write somewhat meaningful content. Hopefully that will change.

So come and visit me at my new blog Being Kate on Wordpress. All of the content from ALL of my blogs over the years is archived there as well so there is plenty of catching up to do if you haven't somehow received my life story of the past 5 years. Hope to see you there!

"Reading" Like Crazy

2010-06-07T16:40:00.000-04:00

I've discovered a great way to both read and stay calm during my commute-audio books! My mood has improved and frankly, I am actually enjoying my time in the car these days. I've been reading at home like crazy too, although many of them aren't actually on my book challenge list, I'm working my way through those as well. I don't have a lot of full book reviews to give though; I do think the Classics should be read whether they are enjoyable or not, simply because they are considered literary wonders and were often pivotal works that changed literature as those at the time knew it.

The books I've read and listened to lately are:

Tender is the Night- this was ok. It was a little bit confusing at some points but it was a very interesting piece. I also read The Great Gatsby and I much prefer that book to TisN. Though I will say this-why oh why are we reading these books in early high school? I was actually able to look at it a lot more critically as a grown woman that as a child that didn't understand the underlying themes. (and not because I was a moron)

1984-I freaking loved this book. LOVED IT! It was just really interesting and the end got me thinking so much that when it was over (i listened to this one) I drove about 30 minutes in silence thinking about it. Timeless.

Slaughterhouse Five: And so it goes. I did not like this at all. I liked the interview with Vonnegut at the end of the cd as well as the preface to the book, but other than that, no thank you.

Anthony Bourdain Kitchen Secrets: Loved this book. Sometimes I want to dislike him, but at the end of the day he is just a really straightforward guy and I'm glad that he has the No Reservations francise-it suits him.

Still reading Pride and Prejudice. Book club is next week and I need to get caught up so we can discuss!

I'm almost 30% done with the book club, but I'm almost 50% through the year so I need to step it up! I've just been reading a lot of other books too: Jonathan Kellerman and Harlan Coben both released new titles this spring and I had to read those. I read the Alchemist and started reading Edgar Sawtelle, but I haven't finished that as it got a little strange halfway through. Seriously folks, read 1984.

Wedded Bliss

2010-04-26T11:31:00.000-04:00

Mircea and I have been married for almost two months and it is great! There are some subtle, magical changes between engaged (and living together) to married (and still living together). While Mircea is still really busy with school, and will be for the next four years really, I have been in full on nesting mode. It's kind of funny all the stuff I let go in our house (painting, decorating, etc) from when we moved in, but all of a sudden I'm in full on clean, organize, decorate mode. I live and breathe to make our home comfortable and clean. And sometimes it seems like the cats live and breathe to make our home furry and stinky.

Another interesting item of note is that for the first six weeks of our marriage, one of our friends was living with us as she goes through a seperation with her husband. It was one of those double-edged swords: it was SOOOO nice having my close friend there but it was also hard for my fragile ego to have someone so adorable and wonderful living in our house...and thinking that Mircea wouldn't go "you know, I probably should marry that girl". It's funny how insecurity works, but it's definitely something that I'm working on. I don't feel too crazy though, it was definitely a big change, but still, I need to be able to feel confident in our relationship. I'm only sharing it because it was definitely an interesting way to start out our marriage. :-)

If you haven't seen wedding pictures, and you're interested, there are a few on our wedding blog and tons on Facebook.

I hope you are all doing well, I feel like with FB I'm definitely not as engaged in Blogland like I had been before. I think from updates on others blogs that maybe they aren't either. Either way, I do have some book reviews and yummy recipes to share and will make every effort to update those soon.

Losing Focus

2010-04-15T15:04:00.000-04:00

How many people out there find themselves saying, "could I have A.D.D.?" I find myself saying this at least three times a week and then feeling really guilty that I can't keep myself focused on one thing at a time. I go from task to task, getting distracted by Facebook or emails, the cats, or the phone. I never seem to be able to get anything done. That's why I read in the bathtub-nothing can interrupt me in there.

While pondering this a couple of days ago, I got distracted and started surfing the internet. That's when I realized that yes, I'm getting super distracted all the time, but it's because there are so many distractors-not because I should probably be medicated (for this!) My life seems to be one gigantic distraction. I could go into all the ways I'm distracted, but I'm probably distracting you from your own life. So bottom line, I'm going to make an effort to focus on one task at a time, giving it my full attention from start to finish. The Internet is truly sucking my life away. I've turned into this monster who can't focus on one thing. I watch tv while working on other stuff, I find myself bored to tears if I'm just sitting without some sort of media in my hands. I want out-and I'm getting out.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how they've decluttered their brains and focused on completing tasks at hand?

Reading Challenge Book Review: The Virgin Suicides

2010-04-10T18:11:00.000-04:00

No, I'm not dead, and yes, I'm still blogging. Apparently I'm just blogging in my head though and no one gets to see what I write. Although I had some setbacks in the reading challenge (I just couldn't get into Angela's Ashes, I tried, I hated it) I'm reinvigorated and ready to dive in. My first jump: The Virgin Suicides by Jeffery Eugenides.

I'm not really sure what to say about this book. I really enjoyed his other book, Middlesex, but this book sort of left me with a bewildered look on my face and a big question "why?" The story is told from the perspective of a now-grown man who witnessed the family across the street and the tragedies that struck their teenage daughters. It sort of left me with an odd taste in my mouth because I kept wanting to know "why". Were the girls so upset with the suicide of their youngest sibling that they simply went off the deep end? Were they tired of being repressed by their parents, particularly their mother who allowed them little joy in their lives? Unfortunately, none of these questions have answers, but I do think the book was very well written, though not a "tender, wickedly funny tale" as advertised on the back. Funny it was not. Although I might rent the movie at some point. I'm guessing that point will be a very dark time in my life.

Next stop...Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

When it Rains, it Pours (or should I say Poors?)

2010-02-15T15:48:00.002-05:00

I think it's high time I start playing the lottery. In addition to the roof at our old house, the new tires Mircea had to have on his car and the brakes that are also required (luckily he can do them himself), I thought we'd been spending plenty of money lately. Apparently, there is another plan-to spend more! Mircea came home today and informed me that the rental house needs a new furnace. Oh my stars! The renter has had some troubles with the heat and Mircea admitted he was scared that it might explode. Wow! So yet another expense has found its way into our lives. I know I have not been a perfect person, but Karma is really being a bitch lately. A wallet hungry bitch.

I ain't saying Karma's a gold digger...

Still St Lucia Bound

2010-02-12T11:20:00.002-05:00

I promised I'd update. State Farm will cover the damage after we pay a gigantic deductible. (yes, Mircea has learned his lesson on deductible setting) But at least we're still going as we definitely need the vacation. We're getting married 3 weeks from today-I can't wait!

Snowed In

2010-02-11T10:04:00.003-05:00

Let me just say, getting snowed in isn't nearly as joyous as it was when I was a child. Long gone are the days of playing outside, building forts with the neighbor kids, and eating copious amount of ice cream that my dad would store out in our "snow freezer". Unfortunately, this is not how getting snowed in works as an adult. Getting snowed in involves tons of shoveling (which Mircea wants to do and won't let me help with) not getting mail for 5 days (Mircea didn't shovel in front of the mailbox) and EATING. I'm so bored I'm eating. Not getting on the treadmill, bike or elliptical downstairs. No, I'm eating. And here's why...

The roof at our old house caved in a little bit from the weight of the snow. We just filed a claim with State Farm this morning, but it will take them awhile to get out there. We sure hope it's covered, but people keep telling us that there may be an "act of God" clause that means its not covered. What? Why buy insurance on my house if its only for acts of humans? Surprisingly, humans are fairly competent at home care-at least the humans I know. So the long and short of it is that if we need to pay out of pocket for this repair...we're going to cancel the trip to St Lucia since we got full refund insurance on it, and we'll pay for the repair out of that. Terrible, right? But I can't imagine putting the repairs on our credit card, getting in debt (when we already have a small balance) and attempting to get our heads above water so we can start a family. So alas, that might happen...and it's launched me into an eating frenzy.

This frenzy of course started when I got snowed in with Robyn and Rebecca and we had fancy meals planned to go with our wine drinking. We made such yummy treats, drank tons of wine, and drove Mircea crazy. If I had to be snowed in with anyone, it would be Robyn and Rebecca, but by the end of the time, I was definitely ready to go back to my normal life. Which really hasn't happened yet since we keep having more snow and I've been working from home since my car is really the only one that works in the snow, and Mircea HAS to go to work.

I'll post some pictures later. And I'll post an update on whether or not we actually get to go to St Lucia

I'm Still Blogging (a little)

2010-01-19T11:21:00.003-05:00

The only excuse I have for my lack of blogging is that there isn't a darned thing going on right now. I've put a couple of posts on the wedding blog but mostly it's just been so low key right now there isn't much to talk about.

I do have one exciting thing going on in my life, if you use the term "exciting" very, very loosely. I'm applying for a leadership development program through my employer and the application process is extremely difficult. I have spent a ton of time on this lately, but hopefully the pay off will be there. I'd really like to be a part of a program that can help me develop my leadership skills and make contacts within the command. My application is due the day we go to St Lucia and we don't find out who got accepted until June. JUNE!

Mircea's mom is throwing me a Bridal Shower this weekend. It's so sweet that she wanted to do that, and it's so cute that she's extremely nervous about it. I feel so bad for her-I know what it was like the first time I entertained-I was a nervous wreck. I know it will all go well and I'm looking forward to spending the afternoon with my best girls. I always feel weird when there's a party for me or a "look at me" moment, but all in all, this should be a really good time and there will be some yummy food.

Speaking of food. I would like to stop gaining and losing the same 2 lbs every week. This is ridiculous. I really have nothing else to say about that.

Looking Forward to 2010

2009-12-30T18:14:00.000-05:00

I am really looking forward to 2010. It's going to a big year for me and for my sweet Mircea. I'm proud that all the "lessons" that I've learned and the experiences that I've had over the last few years have made me the person that I am today. I'm excited to get married, I don't have any anxiety over the marriage as I feel I'm finally bringing my whole self to a relationship and trusting the love that I am being given. It's a nice feeling, that's for sure. I think this year will bring a lot of changes in my life (and Mircea's) including our marriage and the prospect of having a family (though that won't happen in 2010-I at least pray it won't, but shortly into 2011 would be fine!)

Even though 2009 had some sadness to it, it was a pretty darned good year. And if you read my Christmas letter, it sure seemed like I traveled a lot while leaving Mircea at home with the kitties. Not this year! Mircea will be returning to school to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree. He's already studying and getting all prepped and I hope that he finds the studies reasonable and he's not killing himself trying to work full time and go to school. I'm proud of him trying, that's for sure.

I think 2010 for me really will have room for a lot of personal fulfillment, and I hope that I will follow through. I'd like to finally learn to knit (stop laughing Patty!) and if I can get my knee fixed I'd like to really start running again. Maybe I can finally learn Romanian too, but I'm not going to count on that. I'd like to lose another 20-30 lbs this year. I managed to lose 20 this year, so I'm happy with that. I guess it proves that some small changes can make a difference but I'd like to put a better effort to it next year. I want to lose weight and get healthy so I can basically get pregnant and gain weight all over again. :-) Not exactly, but I'd like to be my healthiest before getting pregnant so I've got a fighting chance of staying healthy once I'm pregnant and after I have a baby or two.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Book Challenge!

2009-12-21T14:30:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to explore more hobbies for myself and there's no better time to do so than when Mircea starts school in a few weeks. My life doesn't revolve around him on a daily basis by any means, but most evening after our days' events we do end up parking our butts on the couch and hanging out. Alas, that butt-parking will cease and while I've signed up for some exercise classes I also started working on a reading list, which I've already been dutifully crossing books off of. Today I read my friend Sarah's blog and she'd posted this Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge. I think I'm going with the Rory, as I do have a fair amount of free time on my hands and I'm currently averaging about 2 books a week and Mircea's not even in school yet!

Here's my list: My criteria was that I hadn't already read the book-even as a child-which is why my children's book list is short!

Classics:

Jane Austen Pride & Prejudice
Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights
Charles Dickens Great Expectations
H.D. Thoreau Walden (I didn't read it the first time!)
Leo Tolstoy War and Peace

Childrens/Young Adult

L. Frank Baum The Wizard of Oz
Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Kate D. Wiggin Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Modern Classics (I have more of these to make up for childrens)

F. S. Fitzgerald Tender is the Night
Franz Kafka Metamorphosis
M. Mitchell Gone With the Wind
George Orwell Nineteen Eighty-four
JD Salinger The Catcher in the Rye
John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath
Kurt Vonnegut Slaugherhouse Five

Non-Fiction

A. Bourdain Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (even though he was a total asshole on his No Reservations: Romania)
Ann Collett Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals
William Gibson The Miracle Worker
Jack Kerouac On the Road
Michael Moore Farenheit 9/11

Other

J. Eugenides The Virgin Suicides
Henry Farrell What Happend to Baby Jane?
Frank McCourt Angela's Ashes
William Styron Sophie's Choice
J. Susann Valley of the Dolls

Wedding Tizzy

2009-12-15T15:52:00.002-05:00

I could make up a 101 excuses for not blogging (or write a book of the same title and make millions) but in reality it's three-fold; 1. Facebook is faster and more succint, 2. my life is slightly boring, and 3. all i could talk about is wedding planning and even I don't like that...

...but I'll talk about it anyway. I really thought Mircea and I were making it easy on ourselves by having a destination wedding and a casual reception when we return home. It's not easy. It's never easy. There's all kinds of stress about trying to bring your own photographer to a Sandals resort (but I'm doing it anyway), trying to figure out if having a pulled-pork BBQ is fancy enough and your friends won't think you're a cheap skate, and sending out Save-the-Dates, Bridal Shower invites (Rodica wasn't sure what to do), reception invitations and wedding announcements. It's crazy, but I thought that I wouldn't invite people to the reception from miles away b/c I didn't want them to feel obligated to come, and yet I didn't want to uninclude them so I'm doing seperate announcements. The joy of this is overwhelming since it took me two months to decide on invites that I still haven't ordered because I'm a chicken. I did however, do two fun things. I finally talked Mircea into going to the stores and registering for gifts and we spent a couple hours talking about the kinds of things that we liked, the way we saw our stuff long-term and it was just fun. Even if we don't receive those items, it was just a fun day. The second fun thing I did was order favors for the reception. I'd been against favors mostly because they have the tendancy to be just crap, but I decided on a semi-useful favor, at least for our group of friends. I'm going to do personalized shot glasses, fill the bottom with a little bit of finely crushed pretzel (to look like sand) put a few m&ms on top and a little drink umbrella in it. I saw the idea on the internet and thought it was adorable. Plus, since our friends all like to play quarters and FOUR of my shot glasses have been broken to date, I figure I've just found some easily disposed of shot glasses to use instead of my awesome Purdue ones that have been destroyed.

I'll try to post more. But is anyone even reading?

Thanksgiving Post

2009-11-27T03:00:00.002-05:00

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

2009-10-22T15:23:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-08T13:37:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-06T10:35:00.005-04:00

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

2009-09-29T12:52:00.001-04:00

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?

2009-09-26T12:33:00.000-04:00

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

2009-09-24T10:21:00.000-04:00

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

2009-09-20T12:04:00.000-04:00

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

2009-09-17T08:05:00.000-04:00

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

2009-09-16T06:23:00.000-04:00

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…

Baby Baby Baby, Light My Way: Chicago Part One

2009-09-15T13:13:00.003-04:00

I’ll have to divide my Chicago trip into two posts, one being about U2, the other aptly named for all the foods we ate while I was in town. I packed a lot of calories and deliciousness into a very short time but you’ll have to come back for that.

The concert was…amazing. It’s funny, I had been looking forward to it and yet by the actual day I felt like I could take or leave it, which is ridiculous. I was just enjoying my time with Patty and Nikki and didn’t need “the boys” to interfere. Nikki couldn’t have been pulled away by wild horses, so we went.

We got gouged $45 to park at Soldier Field, which is insanity. INSANITY. It was very close though and we walked right over to the stadium and started looking for a place to buy shirts. Nikki found a place and Patty and I walked over to check out Snow Patrol, which was very very good. We were on the main level center stage and when Nikki came back she was like “why don’t we try to stay here”. And “stay here” we did. We basically stood behind the $250 seats for the concerts and got an unobstructed (except for a 6 foot tall guy right in front of me) view of the concert. It was awesome.

The concert was great. They played all kinds of different songs from many of their albums including The Unforgettable Fire (the song has the same title) and even played Ultraviolet, a song that Nikki and I had performed at one of my birthday parties (I vaguely recall Chantelle being in our group but annoyed b/c she didn’t know the song and Nikki and I were bossy) and performed for Patty at the concert. It was just great. Great I tell you! I think all of us agreed that our favorite was the remix of “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” that had the guys as bobbleheads on the big screen. It was just so much fun and it was so worth the flight, the days missed of work, etc.

Recipe Thursday: King Ranch Chicken

2009-09-10T11:00:00.001-04:00

King Ranch Chicken

Ingredients
1 whole chicken (boiled and deboned)
1 diced large onion
3 diced cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can rotel
9 corn tortillas (cut in 1/2 or 1/4s)
1 1/2 cups mild cheddar cheese

Directions
1. Boil and Debone Chicken. Reserve 1 cup broth.
2. In a skillet, saute onion and garlic in oil, add both cans of soup, rotel and broth. Keep on low heat.
Preheat oven to 350.
3. In a lasagna pan, layer tortilla, chicken, sauce, cheese and repeat.Cook in preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until cheese is brown.

I used reduced fat cheese and soups for this recipe and it was still delicious. Soooooo good!! I got this recipe from Robyn's mom, Jeanne Birrane. This is really good served the next day too as it allows the flavors to all mesh together.

My Spidey Senses Said "Run!"

2009-09-08T07:29:00.000-04:00

I was sitting at my desk on Sunday morning trying to catch up on some blog posts for the time we're in Romania (because when I get back it will be all Romania, all the time for awhile) and looked out our front window to see a big honking spider. I went out to take pictures of the thing, and I'll tell you the entire time I was taking the pictures I was thinking "what if this is a trap set by a WAAAY bigger spider?" and I kept looking over my shoulder as though an extra-wombo spider was waiting to pounce.

At least this wasn't as scary as my last spider experience. Ugh, I shudder just thinking about it.

The boy was irritated with me and wanted to come outside. He probably just wanted a big spider meal. Double-ewww!

(yeah, I know this post was boring, but come on, what else do I have going on in my life?)

My Poor Lily-Monster (sort of a pathetic rant)

2009-09-07T11:36:00.000-04:00

It's funny how life works out-Lily was never my favorite cat. She was my Mom's cat, her best friend, her favorite "daughter". When my mom died I couldn't bear to part with Lily so I brought her to live with me and Courtney at Purdue and she and Fernie instantly became enemies. They only band together in the dislike of others, and while they do give each other baths, it always ends in a fight. But after being bedridden with my knee surgery, Lily was by my side every second of the day, keeping me company and actually licking my tears of frustration. She and I are wildly in love these days, and I guess that's good because it seems like we're getting closer to the time in our lives where we have to say goodbye. She's really not doing well at all. She has something called "loose knees" so the back part of her walks sort of independantly of the front of her (like a bus with the accordian middle). Lately she's been struggling with the restroom, and it appears she's terribly constipated, so we've been treating that the best we can. I just feel for her so much and I'm not sure what to do. I don't believe in keeping cats alive just so they can be my friends, but it sucks because her mind is there but her little body is failing her. I'm getting especially nervous because we're about to leave her for 16 days. She'll be here at the house with a friend stopping in every couple of days, but I'm just worried that 1.) she'll think her mommy abandoned her and 2.) she'll be sick and die alone...and Fernie will freak out. I'm not crazy enough to think that I would comfort Lily if she was sick and dying, but at the same time, I don't want her to be scared or alone if she's in pain. As I sat with poor Olive several months back, I think she actually did get some peace knowing that someone was comforting her. I'm just worried. Please pray for my little sweetie. I either want her to feel better and live forever, or somehow communicate to me what she wants me to do.

I'd do anything for this kitty to keep her out of pain. Man, I already miss her and she's not even gone yet. I don't know what my life will be like without my "girls" as little Fernie is getting so old too. The joy of geriatric pets-but at least I've had this time with them.

Greek Quinoa and Avocado Salad Recipe

2009-09-06T09:33:00.002-04:00

Greek Quinoa and Avocado Salad Recipe

I haven't taken a picture of this recipe, mostly because I've had the spoon in it ever since I finished preparing it. This recipe was "banging" as Mircea would say. Last time I work with quinoa (keen-wa) I had some trouble with it-it seemed a little crunchy. It shouldn't be. This time I let it cook longer and it's delicious. All of the ingredients in this make it great, and at the suggestion of another BHG.com commenter I added pine nuts and they really made a great addition. Other than the feta, this is vegan, and I think it can be enjoyed without the feta as well, though it does add a nice tangy twist to it.

I know everyone gets mad at me when I just post a ton of recipes, but I am going to be sharing a couple in the next couple of weeks-in fact, I should probably be sharing them on Stephany's Realistic Eats blog, which years ago she made me a member of and I've only posted one recipe. This lives up to her realistic eats standards though!

I Had a Post All Planned...

2009-08-21T09:53:00.003-04:00

But I don't feel like posting on that topic. In fact, I really have nothing to post on. I've been enjoying everyone else's blogs, with their back to school pics (so cute), their yummy recipes, and just hearing how everyone is making the best of what is left of the summer.

As for me, making the best involves going to Mircea's parents hous to swim in their pool on my off Fridays, so I can just chill and read a book. Hanging out with my friends as much as possible, and visiting Rebecca up in DC as much as I can to make use of our short time together, is another way I spend my time. I just feel so...gasp, comfortable in everything in my life except for my physique, but that was the post I didn't feel like posting today, so that will be another time.

I also think I might soon be called Little Suzie Homemaker. I'm really enjoying trying out some new recipes lately and I'm actually getting an eye for how I'd like to decorate my home, which for once doesn't involve asking my friend Robyn if "this is ok" or "if it's alright if I do this". She has great taste, but I'm finally gaining some confidence.

So short post, but I'm sure I'll provide a movie review for The Time Traveler's Wife, when I return from seeing it this weekend.

Off to the pool!

What's Up, Doc?

2009-08-17T06:25:00.000-04:00

I realize that in the past several months I have been a terrible blogger, which is kind of funny considering the months of drivel that I’ve turned out in the past and that I actually have some cool things that are going on. But are they blog worthy? So instead of full blog posts on the following items, I’ll just throw out a little blurb.

The Other House: Mircea and I met with the Realtor yesterday to talk about listing Mircea’s old house for sale. Yeah, that didn’t go well. The comps in the area were about $40k less than he’d paid for it, so needless to say, we’ll be renting the house out until the market improves a little bit. We’ve had a couple of bites, but we haven’t been marketing heavily as we’d planned to sell. The house does look fantastic now and I need to update the website I put together for it. It turns out that I’m terrible at taking pictures of houses though…it’s hard!

The Dog: You know that dog that only lasted a week at our house? Well I just checked on her at the Humane Society and she has been adopted! It only took the entire summer and her description kept changing to add things like “needs 6 foot fence” and “extremely energetic”. She was a sweet girl and I’m so happy for her!!

My Whine Wine: My wine rack, which is really my microwave stand, is near our back door. And apparently the sun that shines onto it in the evening has destroyed my wine. Luckily I didn’t have much in there, but I did have a couple of favorites that I was saving for my friend Rebecca’s visit. It was awful when we tried it and ended up just drinking some cheap wine I had in the fridge with our ridiculously expensive cheese. So now I’m going to get that set up somewhere else in the house and not destroy my wine. I guess I have really expensive cooking wine now. Mmmm!

Vacation: Only one more month until we go to Romania! I’m so excited, terrified, and even more excited. It should be a great trip and hopefully will be somewhat relaxing. I’m so nervous that all I’ll have with me is my crappy camera, but hopefully it can eek out some decent pictures. I can’t wait to share all of my adventures!

Money Talk: I finally got my raise. It was a debacle but it’s finally here in my paycheck not doing nearly as much as I would have liked it to. But now I can move to other jobs without having weird promotion rules and it’s just for the better. Who doesn’t like a little extra cash (to pay for all that stuff you couldn’t really afford when you didn’t have the extra cash) ?

The Notebook: Seriously, how have I not seen this movie until now? What a great movie. I’d watch it again right now if I could. Great great great great great movie. Does anyone have any comment on the book? Is it worth reading?

Reading List: I’ve been trying to read like crazy this summer. I’ve completed several books, but mostly I just keep adding to the list. I’m currently reading The Other Boelyn girl, and I’ve read some other great books as well. When I can get a decent list together I’ll share them with a recommendation to the folks in the hizzous. Is that how you spell that?

Procreation: I swear that everyone has had a baby this summer. Or found out that their having a baby. Or has practiced making babies all summer. Its been fun going to baby showers (and hosting one!) and fun laughing at all the games and seeing the happy mothers, but man, I’m ready. We’re not going to have a baby for awhile (if we’re blessed with one at all) but I am just ready now. I know that I won’t get to live my free-wheeling rock and roll lifestyle once we have a baby, and I’m totally ok with that. Mircea is ok with it, but he’s not like super excited about it. I’m not sure Mircea is super excited about anything but football, so I’m not offended.

Th-th-th-th-that’s all folks!!

The Wedding Website is Up!

2009-08-13T14:47:00.000-04:00

As much as I wanted to get our own domain I decided to just host the wedding website on a blog and make it easy on myself. Easy it was!

Come see all the fun (ok, it's still a work in progress)

My New Friends

2009-08-11T14:40:00.005-04:00

My friend Katie and I have been talking for months about how we want to get bettas from Petco and have them at our desks at work. Well, we finally did it yesterday and although I had a great plan for a vase with a plant growing out of the top, I fell in love with two fish at the store and I was stuck with the divider option. Yes, that's right, instead of giving one beloved fish a great home, I decided to give two fish a studio apartment adjacent to their worst enemy. Let the fun begin!

I couldn't help myself either. When I picked them up I told Katie "I am naming them Picard (Jean-Luc) and Riker (Will) from Star Trek: Next Generation" (you wanna fight about it?). And so the names stuck, even though there were other great duos to choose.

Aren't they cute in their crappy house?

Bacon, You Dirty Slut

2009-08-02T14:49:00.002-04:00

I felt sort of risque using slut in the title, but decided, that I'm 29 years old and I can type what I want. Oh yeah, and if you don't like it...I'm sorry. :-) See, I can't really be risque without the guilt.

Back to bacon. I've made the decision to eat meat-but only for Romania. I did a lot of research and the places in Romania we are going to are FAR from veggie friendly. And who really wants to be the annoying American saying "i don't eat that"? Well, being the annoying american who asks their fiance to say "she doesn't eat that, yeah, I know, aren't all americans so damned picky?" So alas, I prep my belly. And yes, I said a prayer to all the animals, apologized and said that it's ok if you eat other humans to get back at me. Mean humans.

So basically I've had a Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich (awesome) and some bacon (really awesome). I am trying to keep a positive attitude about this because I really don't want to eat meat and have every intention of stopping the carnivorous frenzy when I return from the good land (not Milwaukee-come on, 10 points to anyone who gets the reference). I'm trying to eat one meaty meal a week and so far I've really just been eating the bacon. I can hear myself getting fatter on that, but it's the only meat I even like at this point. So we'll see.

Yeah I know, boring post, but just as some don't like to talk about their flair, I don't like to talk about my meat.

On a side note, I'm babysitting Mircea's mom's feral kitten. He's a wildman but I think they'll tame him if I can convince them to stop letting him use their hands as toys. A little tough love never hurt a kitten (and by tough I mean ignoring him or using a spray bottle, not actually tough). Cute kitty and I'll post pictures of him later.

To my adoring fans, I've missed you

2009-07-30T18:52:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I'm not doing a very good job updating lately. I thought I'd be all smart and put some recipes up here to automatically update while I was busy or whatnot. Oops-didn't post at all so I look some recipe hound (which I actually am!)

As most of you know there's a lot of exciting news right now, and I'll be honest, I'm having trouble enjoying it. I know that it is stupid that I think a ton of people are out there in the world just judging me like "oh, I wonder if she'll get married this time" or "she'll screw it up again, don't worry", and I've sort of robbed myself of the joy of being engaged to the man I love. I know I'm supposed to focus on the positive, but I just feel so...strange about the whole thing. I wonder if it's what people feel like when they are getting married for the second time around. Sort of that "oh, people won't appreciate this or see it as special". I don't know, I'm blathering, but I guess the only way to prove that this is right, is well, for it to be right and it to all go that way that Mircea and I want it to go (which by the way, is something along the lines of happily ever after)

My parents are coming to visit this weekend and this will be the first "clash of the titans" as I like to call, which is obviously the first meeting of both our sets of parents. It should be an interesting time because I really can't think of 4 different people (even the folks married to each other) and putting them all into one little petri dish (my dining room) should be interesting. My big plan is that if they hate each other, I'll just start drinking heavily and they can bond together to discuss what a lush I am. I guess I get something good out of that, right? Oh yeah, a hangover.

I bought some nice bathing suits for St. Lucia. Bathing suits that I won't be wearing unless I get some (a lot) of weight off. I've not been religious with P90x as my knee has been giving me a rough time, but I started physical therapy again (remind me to tell you that little gem) and I'm feeling some improvements. Trying to eat better for sure...which will bring me to my next post...

(how's that for a cliffhanger since I've been such a terrible poster?)

Recipe Thursday: Hot Spinach-Artichoke Dip

2009-07-09T06:42:00.000-04:00

Hot Spinach-Artichoke Dip
From Paula Deen on Food Network

Ingredients

10 oz package frozen chopped spinach
2 13 3/4 oz canned artichoke hearts
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup fresh grated Parmesan
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Head spinach to thaw and squeeze dry. Drain artichoke hearts and coursely chop in food processor.
3. Combine all ingredients except jack cheese in large bowl. Stir well. Scrape into casserole dish and sprinkle jack cheese on top.
4. Bake 30 minutes. Serve warm with bagel chips or crackers.

I took this to a party a couple of weeks ago and people really liked it. I thought it was pretty decent too. I will definitely make it again.

Sorry for the Recipes

2009-07-08T16:21:00.004-04:00

I had a day a couple weeks ago that I had a ton of time on my hands so I was typing in a bunch of recipes that would auto-post. Unfortunately, I didn't put anything else on the blog during this time, so it's just a bunch of Good Eats that this crappy blog has been spewing out at you. Oops!

As my Facebook friends know, Mircea asked me to marry him on July 3rd. It was a sweet proposal, a huge surprise, and I couldn't be happier to be marrying the man of my dreams. I do worry that everyone in the world is like "are you actually going to get married or freak out like a crazy biotch?" and I'll answer you that "yes, I'm going to get married and I'm putting a lot of effort into not freaking out". I'm not going to have someone else's wedding, which I was essentially going to do a couple years back. Mircea and I are doing what we want and including our friends and family when we return. Our current plan is to get married around the March timeframe at the Sandals resort in St. Lucia. We haven't booked anything, but that's what we're thinking. We're pretty excited and this is MUCH more our style. Dad wasn't too happy about the lack of church wedding at first, but I think he understands that the level of pressure I felt for something like that makes a crazy out of a Katey Pooh. Our intent is to throw a shindig when we get home, a casual sort of reception where we can share our happiness with friends and family. So that's that.

Our old house is almost done, which is great. Can't wait for it to be completely finished and hopefully we'll be able to sell it shortly. I have to laugh, our original planned completion date was DECEMBER 2008. Well, August 1, 2009 will have to suffice! Pray that we sell it quickly and for a decent price.

I hope everyone is having a great summer. We've got something big every weekend (except for two) between now and our Romania trip in mid-September, so it's an eventful summer-which is great. Usually we just park in front of the tv all weekend so this is a much enjoyed change.

Recipe Thursday: Dump Cake

2009-07-02T06:22:00.001-04:00

Dump Cake
My Grandma Reed

This cake would be nice to take to a 4th of July picnic, or pretty much anytime. This was one of my favorites as a kid, only I called it "garbage cake" and it sort of stuck with our family.

Ingredients
1 lg can cherries
1 lg can crushed pineapple
1 box yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter (I actually cringed when I typed this. Challenge: Reduce this fat!)
1 cup pecans

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Blend cherries and pineapple in baking dish.
3. Sprinkle with cake mix.
4. Slice butter over mixture and add nuts.
5. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

This was really simply, and maybe a little "poor people food", but it was so good and I loved this as a kid. I loved it AND I hated cherries when I was young, so it must be awesome. Probably all that butter.

Recipe Thursday: Banana Sour Cream Cake

2009-06-25T06:14:00.002-04:00

Banana Sour Cream Cake
Kraft Foods.com and Jenny Lorentzon

I'll post a picture after my birthday, as my plan is to make this as my birthday cake. Either that, or beg Jenny to make it since she asked what she could do for my birthday party. ;-)

Ingredients

1 pkg yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup oil (I used applesauce)
8 oz pkg cream cheese; softened (I used reduced fat)
1/2 cup softened butter
16 oz pkg powdered sugar, about 4 cups
1 cup chopped walnut pieces

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Beat cake mix, eggs, banana, sour cream and oil (applesauce) with mixer on low speed. Then beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 13x9 pan (I used two 9" round pans). Bake 35 minutes. Cool completely.
3. Beat cream cheese and butter w/mixer on medium until blended. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition.
3. Remove cake from pan. Cut in half crossways (this is if you use the big pan, why would you do this?) Spread top w/frosting, top with other cake, frost top and sides. Press nuts into sides.
4. Refridgerate leftovers if you somehow haven't pigged out and eaten the whole thing.

Seriously folks, this cake is freakin' incredible, and I know bananas, and this is banana-riffic!
I also think this would work really well as cupcakes with nuts on top. Yummy yum yummy!

So Many Things...

2009-06-24T18:34:00.003-04:00

Usually my life seems boring, even to me. But lately, Mircea and I have been keeping busy with friends, time on the boat, the kitties, and a little Star Trek. We're also planning our first party, which is hilarious. I'm a nervous nelly over the whole thing (or as my friend Ben says "panicky jane") and I'm panicking about the layout of the food, drink, house, games, etc. I just want to get the flow right. "where does the keg go?" "where does the ping (beer) pong table go?" "is everyone going to want to hang out in our unfinished basement?" I've finally got the menu figured out, and I've selected some fantastic jello shot recipes. Does this party sound really immature? Well, that's the point. It's a "Return to College" Party to celebrate my 29th birthday this Saturday. I thought it would be kind of fun to do all the goofy stuff we did in college (or didn't b/c we were too busy studying or dating non-drinking guys who judged every sip of alcohol you ever took) so Mircea and I are donning Togas and having our friends over for a night of immature fun. A menu that includes a Ramen noodle salad, pizza rolls, and Doritos just can't go wrong right?

On a disappointing note, I'm still waiting to get test results back on Little Fernie. My baby has been losing weight lately and I sort of thought she was just thinning out in her old age. She's 10 this year, but as she is my baby, I expected her to live...forever. Lily is also sick, with her little back legs letting her down and not affording her much mobility. Yukon is suprisingly doing really well right now, and we have a daily argument over his plan of the day. He wants to spend the day in the garage, making a mess and peeing on Daddy's tools. We want him in our upstairs bathroom, on linoleum, peeing in his litter box and sleeping in his little blue bed. Every morning he gets carried up the stairs, swishing his tail and whining. It's actually quite adorable, and his little grumbles are so darned cute too. Why is torturing him fun? Really, I don't feel bad b/c as soon as we get up the stairs he sees his little feather toy and gets so happy so he just has a bad memory.

Ok, crappy update, but I'll let you know how the party goes!

Recipe Thursday: Mashed Cheese Potatoes

2009-06-18T06:06:00.000-04:00

Mashed Cheese Potatoes

Ingredients

4-5 large potatoes
1-2 green onions, chopped (whites and some greens)
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Butter, salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 300

1. Peel and cook potatoes
2. Drain and add the 3 cheese (cream, parmesan, cheddar) and mash
3. Add butter salt and pepper to taste
4. Add green onion
5. Place potato mixture in a greased casserole dish and sprinkle with paprika
6. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour, covered

This was my favorite way to eat mashed potatoes as a kid. My friend's mom made these and my family fell in love. I usually make these at Easter.

Recipe Thursday: Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad

2009-06-11T05:55:00.001-04:00

Horseradish Spiked Red Potato Salad
Gluten Free Goddess

Ingredients

2-2 1/2 lbs small red potatoes
sea salt
1/4 C fruit tasting olive oil
4-6 T apple cider or rice vinegar
1 small red onion, finely diced,
2 T prepared horseradish
2 T fresh chopped parsley
1-2 t dill
1 t caraway seeds

Ingredients

1. Boil skin on cubed potatoes until fork tender. Drain wel.
2. Pour in large bowl. While pototoes are still warm, add the ingredients and toss to coat. Serve warm.

This was really really good. I've made it a couple of times and I think I added a lot more horseradish. Yummy Yummy!

Tiny Little Update

2009-06-03T20:39:00.004-04:00

I've been so busy at work this week that I want to scream. I'm that level of busy where you actually aren't getting anything done because you're just trying to chip away at little things and then something else gets placed on your desk. To top it off, everyone else in management is on leave, and since I'm third in line, well, I just went to the front of the class, so I'm attending all the b.s. meetings etc, while I try to catch up from a week out in training and plan for two additional weeks in training to get my logistics certification. Oh joy of joys. I totally phoned in my pre-work assignment for that and I feel a little guilty, but between every other deadline at the office something had to suffer and it certainly wasn't going to be my every day responsibility to the Fleet. So pllllfttt stupid training class.

I started the P90X system this week. Yes, it seems I'm always starting some sort of new exercise or challenge and rarely finishing it. I think the important thing to takeaway is that I keep starting. :-) P90x is definitely one of the most challenging things I have ever done and it often reminds me how out of shape I am, but there are a lot of modifications that I can make and as I grow stronger I can build into the more difficult work. The only downside to this thing is that you have to work for it. Har har. It's at least an hour a day, with the yoga class clocking in at 90 minutes. I was trying to do it when I got home, but I was just too darned hungry, tired, busy on the other house, [insert excuse here] to be motivated, so I started getting up at 5 to get it done. I will not, however, get up at 4:30 to get the yoga done so I am going to save that one for the evenings and just go to work early that day, which is what I did today and it was great to get there at 6 and get my work done.

Man my life is boring. The most exciting thing I've done all week is have banana flavored yogurt when I went to Bruster's ice cream for the first time today. I was proud of myself because everyone else got this really decadent stuff, but my heart belongs to bananas and my waistline needs the yogurt. I saved about 20 grams of fat according to the nutritional information and my thighs thank me.

Oh, I did get a haircut and I will not be sharing pictures because I HATE IT. HATE IT. It's just not working at all for me, but it has proven my point that I do actually have fairly curly hair and the thickness of my hair sort of weighs it down, making it look straight. Not now boys and girls. I have crazy curl everywhich way on my head (every way but adorable spirals) and yet the front of my hair is really straight...in one word TERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIBLE! I've got a time line...6 months: mullet, 1 year, back where I started. Next time, remind me that I went in there for a trim and only decided to go for a new style because I was paying so much.

Wow, tiny turned into jumbo, but oh well, I needed an outlet so I don't actually scream out loud.

Movie Review: Changeling

2009-06-02T06:36:00.001-04:00

Rating: ***** (5 stars, baby!)

When I saw the previews for this movie I was intrigued. The basic premise of this movie is that a single mother (Angelina Jolie) goes to work, leaving her young son home alone, and returns to an empty home. She waits for weeks to hear any news about her missing child, and suddenly is contacted that her boy has been found. Of course she is elated, but she shows up at the train station only to be greeted by a young boy who is not her child. She vehemently denied that this was her son, but was told she had to take him as he had no where else to go. The LAPD basically coherced her into keeping the child, giving her a million reasons why she was crazy and that the boy was really hers. She continued to deny it and was placed in a sanitarium until she would agree that the child was hers. She wouldn't, and she stayed put until a pastor that she was aquainted with got her out of jail. I won't go into further details because I definitely recommend this movie and don't want to completely spoil it for those that are interested. The movie was based on a true story, and also stars sexy as hell Jeffrey Donovan from Burn Notice (which I've never seen, but would totally watch b/c he's so good looking). For more information on the true story, click here.

My Little Buddy

2009-05-30T06:52:00.000-04:00

Lindsay's son Draigan is, well, the love of my life. I love that little boy so much, from holding him when he was 6 days old, to still insisting on good-bye kisses when he's 6. He'll be 7 this year, and that is just crazy to me. He is the reason I've always wanted boy children (until very recently) and he's also the reason I'm terrified of children as they are definitely different as they get older. The best part about Draigan is that he is a wonderful child, way better than many other kids I know...and yet, he still annoys the crud out of me which cracks me up. I'm totally in love with him, but also wish there was some sort of kennel you could pop kids in for a few minutes to let them settle down. (Sound familiar? Poor Peyton)

I just wanted to share some pictures of my little cutie pie as I miss him like crazy and although I'm lucky I get to see him as much as I do, I just want to kidnap him sometimes...but then give him back when I'm ready :-)

Recipe Thursday

2009-05-28T07:26:00.001-04:00

Strawberry-Goat Cheese Bruschetta
from Better Homes & Gardens May 2009

Ingredients

1 8-oz baguette

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 4 oz log goat cheese (chevre)

1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries

1/2 cup arugula

olive oil

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

snipped fresh herbs

Directions

1. Heat broiler. Halve baguette crosswise, then lengthwise. Place cut sides up on large baking sheet. Brush with the 1 TBSP oil. Bril, 3 to 4 inches from heat for 1 1/2- 2 minutes or until lightly toasted.

2. Slice and divide cheese among toasts. Top with sliced berries. Broil 2-3 minutes or until cheese and berries soften. Remove from broiler; top with arugula. Drizzle with additional oil. Sprinkle salt, pepper and herbs. Makes 4 servings.

Although I get this magazine, I wasn't too thrilled to try this recipe until my friend Robyn said it was great. I made it, sans arugula (since I STILL haven't found it in my podunk town) and thought it was pretty good. I'm not sure if I got a good goat cheese, so I will try this recipe again once I get the greenlight on which kind of goat cheese to go with. I used the Chevre spreadable brand. I recommend giving it a try if you are a fan of goat cheese and you have good control over your broiler, as the first thing I did was burn my baguette.

Movie Review: 27 Dresses

2009-05-26T06:29:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, everyone else saw this movie well over a year ago. Good for you. The last horse finally crossed the finish line, and I'm going to tell you what I think of the movie. I am not going to discuss the premise of the movie because, most likely, you've already seen this. Several times.

In general, I do not care for romantic comedies because the part where there is this uncertainty on how things are going to work out and it seems like the "couple" might not get together really frustrates me. (Which is why I loved to hate the movie, Definitely, Maybe) This movie didn't drag this on too long, so I liked it a fair amount. I also sort of liked that although she totally freaked out on her sister and she forgave her as she probably realized how much better off she was. I also loved that the guy she was crushing on never turned out to be a jerk, which is what often happens and you want to hate the guy...this was not the case. So basically, for a chick flick, this wasn't bad, and I think a guy could possibly watch this movie and not throw up. Or throw a temper tantrum.

I also realize this is a terrible movie review. I'm not even giving it a star rating. I really phoned this in.

Memorial Day Weekend Fun!

2009-05-25T14:33:00.003-04:00

Lindsay and her family came down for the weekend to visit with us and enjoy the Pax River Air Show. We had a pretty darned good time, fishing and watching the Blue Angels perform and then returning to the house for a little cookout. It was nice to have their family there with us, and it was just another reminder that I really look forward to having a family with Mircea. On Sunday we actually went over to the Air Show to walk around, but I learned that 6 year olds have the attention span of a flea, so we only walked around for an hour and then headed off to lunch. Lunch, which happened to be Mexican, which happened to be my FOURTH time going to the Mexican joint this week. (And yet, I still lost weight on WW so I guess you can eat what you want, or what makes sense at the time). We rarely go out to eat, but I had all kinds of stuff this week with friends and Mexican was the easiest choice. And I never had the same thing twice and was happy every time!!

COME BACK AND SEE US!!!!

I've Broken My Blog!

2009-05-16T21:29:00.002-04:00

I've been trying to look at some other templates, even though what I really need to do is send my ideas and pictures to Sean and see if he'll work some magic for me. :-)

I sort of like the idea of this "Hello Sailor" girl, namely because I work for the Navy, but I don't "work it" for the Navy, you know? Plus, um, my gams don't look like that at all.

What do you think of the "Being Kate" title? I've been having a lot of trouble coming up with a new title. I liked the "Lusbian" idea, but frankly, I'm afraid it might be an offensive play on the word "Lesbian" and the last thing I'd want to do is offend someone for their lifestyle.

The idea of the title I'm trying to come up with is something like "somewhere between single and married with children" but that doesn't really say much. Or "at that phase in my life where not a whole hell of a lot is going on". I originally had the title "Perpetual Sarcasm" and I like that, but then I think people will think I'm just snarky and I'm really not all that sassy, I'm sort of boring.

Ideas please! I'll help you if you help me!

Try to Contain Yourselves: 500th Post

2009-05-07T13:18:00.000-04:00

This is my 500th post (cue the marching band). I had all kinds of great and special things planned, namely a move over to Wordpress because I like some of their options better. Alas, that has not happened because of the size of my blog, and I don’t understand why it is so difficult, but my guru is currently traveling so I can’t bug him (shout out to Sean!)

So instead of the fanfare that I had planned, I give you this.

A vow to have some better content.

I’m at a stage in my life where there isn’t really a damned thing going on. I’m not getting married, having a baby, dealing with children, moving, racing, going to school, etc. My blog title could be “Sans Milestones”. I’m just “Kate” and although my life is boring I enjoy sharing it with the 7 readers who have become an important part of my life in the last several years and 500 posts. You guys have been there for me through thick and thin (literally), through an exciting engagement followed by a terrible breakup, to the ups and downs of my relationship with Mircea. You’ve virtually hugged me when I was so frustrated with knee surgery, and you’ve supported me when I’ve given up on myself. I’ve learned so much about myself from this blog and I couldn’t have done it without you. And I learned so much about all of you and that is such a wonderful gift.

A list of “truths” that I live by:

Don’t trust people that drive conversion vans. If you need mini-blinds in your vehicle, you’re doing something weird in there. As well as driving erratically.
The Magic 8 ball is an effective future telling device. And if it isn’t, just shake it and try again.
Pretty much every stress can be solved by a hot bath and a Tylenol PM. With a snuggly calico with an attachment disorder for a chaser.
He who smelt it, dealt it.

Plans for the future

I will be getting a new blog title. I’m working on it, we’ll see what happens. Hopefully it will have .wordpress behind it.
Movie and product reviews. I am easily swayed by the "ad wizards" on television, and I will share my experiences with consumerism.
A post about a day in the life. I was thinking about it this morning. It would be kind of fun to take a camera and document my day.

Product Review: Banana Nut Cheerios aka Heaven Sent Cereal

2009-04-27T11:37:00.005-04:00

If anyone knows anything about me, you know that I love banana and distrust people in conversion vans. I’m a huge fan of fresh bananas, but it’s all the other banana-y stuff that I love. The bread, margaritas, dehydrated or freeze dried bits, popsicles, ice cream- even cough syrup. I love it all. Which is why I about wet my pants when I saw the commercial* for...BANANA NUT CHEERIOS. Say what? That’s right people, the wizards at General Mills have created Banana Nut Cheerios and faster than you can say “binge eating” I was at the store purchasing these gems. And somehow I held out on not eating them until this morning. Here’s what I thought of both of the ways I enjoyed the O’s:

Dried, scooped into mouth like an animal: They were “meh” at this point. They were a little dry and without much oomph, so I was a little scared as I never ate cereal with milk until I was in college and this is a pretty good way to gauge the deliciousness.

In a bowl with a splash of soy milk: HOLY CRAP THESE WERE AMAZING. Seriously. I had taken it to work since I was running late (milk in its own container) and I sat down to my desk and my taste buds exploded with happiness. They reminded me of these awesome Shaklee bars my mom used to feed me when I was a kid (that I can’t find now and get a little teary whenever I think about how I took those for granted growing up) and they were simply divine. I chided myself for only allotting myself the ¾ cup serving size (2 points on WW) as I could have downed the whole box, milk dripping down my chin. They didn’t have any nut crunch to them, which surprised me, as I expected them to be a little like the Cheerios Crunch that I love so much. The nuttiness appeared to be baked in and the whole thing just had that lovely hint of cinnamon that made it taste like banana bread. I’m still riding the high from this morning. I think if you sliced bananas into the cereal your will literally fall out of your seat at the breakfast table. As a side note, Cheerios has coupons on their website so you can save a little dough too (I just signed up!)

I also noticed they have recipes that utilize these delicious little O’s. MMMMM!

**
The Cheerios commercial. (I've updated the link, it will work now so you can see the idiot commercial) It’s not a new commercial it’s a tag on the end of an old one. And do you know which gem they chose? That’s right, the “It’s on the box” commercial where “Steve” is a total toolbox and thinks his lady friend is trying to lose weight because she had Cheerios and he blames his stupidity on the box. It seems like he’s channeling Hugh Grant in this commercial (and maybe a little Paul McCartney) and it’s just terrible. Terrible. She says “what else does the box say (you condescending bastard)?” “It says ‘shut up Steve’” Too bad that wasn’t the first thing the box told him.

Lost in Translation

2009-04-23T12:16:00.005-04:00

I'm not 100% sure if I should be frightened that I had my blog visited by the Saudis...frankly, they are our allies in the grand scheme of things. I do have to laugh at what appears to be a "lost in translation" error when this individual was looking for a certain kind of website.

I should have known that my blog title would draw some attention. I'm still trying to come up with a new blog name...in honor of my 500th post. Yeah, that's right, as of this moment I've posted 498 ridiculous, time wasting items. But what a ride!

Oh, I Forgot to Share

2009-04-19T15:40:00.003-04:00

As if this week wasn't annoying enough, I finally got news from Human Resources on Tuesday. The news? I got screwed over. There are two pay systems that the Gov't is currently working with, NSPS and the old standard GS pay scale. I am on the GS payscale and the job that I was offered for my promotion was on the NSPS scale. The NSPS scale has a rule that you can't get more than a 5% raise...but HR told me that this wouldn't affect me as I was coming in from the GS pay scale. LIES! It did affect me and I would have only received a tiny raise if I took this other job. So I had to decline, which was annoying, especially after a month of wondering what would happen and being told that I would be getting a considerable raise. (Don't worry, I didn't spend the "money") So I'm pissed, and I will keep waiting and hoping that I can get a promotion within my own program, since the past few weeks have been filled with my program trying to keep me. So we'll see. And yes, I realize that I am very fortunate to even have a job, let alone complain about not getting more than a 5% raise opportunity. I realize that economy isn't going so great (the understatement of the century) but in my area and my career field, I seem to be the only one that is standing there going "why?" while everyone else is compensated for their hard work. Ok, enough bitching, but I had promised an update when I heard something.

Oh and the HR lady was a total waste of space. I ended up calling her supervisor who put a new hire on my case, and he was fantastic. He was learning, but he was very polite and courteous and thank goodness they are getting better people there.

My Sweet Little Friend

2009-04-18T13:00:00.005-04:00

As most of you probably know from my Facebook page, Mircea and I brought a dog home last Saturday. She's a lab mix, and I'm sure some of the mix includes pit, but she had the best little personality. Her favorite thing to do was cover me in kisses, but right behind that was biting my arm and humping me, not quite as satisfying as the kisses. We had her for a day a half when her activity level frustrated the heck out of us. She would just run laps around the house, even after I'd take her on long walks in the neighborhood. It didn't help that it rained the majority of the time she was at our house. So on Sunday night I called the lady at the Humane Society and said that I needed to return Peyton (whom they had named Nutmeg) because she wasn't a good fit. Of course, she must have known she was in trouble because she spent the evening sleeping between us on the couch, resting peacefully. So I called the next day and said we'd try to finish out the week. By Tuesday night I was crying to Mircea to take her back because I couldn't handle the biting (mouthing) and humping. She had so much energy! And she wasn't housebroken, she was crate trained, but she believed that the dining room was a place for poopers and peepers. I called the local pet training place, AppleJack, and the cost for the obedience training was $750, which although insane, seemed reasonable for the service they were providing. I don't have a ton of disposable income right now as we just paid a contractor to finish up the other house, so that seemed like quite an expense. But we kept her and I enjoyed the end of the week with her quite a bit. She was really starting to calm down a bit, and stopped the biting and humping with the help of a spray bottle. On Friday morning I talked to Mircea and we decided that we needed to take her back because the cats were going crazy, we were going a little crazy, and we wondered if we decide to have a child in the future how we could manage the menagerie. So I drove her back to the kennel, and she was great in the car (as usual) and was so loving. She didn't get upset when we got back to the place, she just seemed like "oh, ok, this is my house" as she's been living there for 3 months.

I've been crying pretty much since I dropped her off. I hugged her and hugged her goodbye and sobbed my eyes out with her licking my kisses. I'm sitting her 24 hours later, still sobbing and Mircea telling me that it's for the best. I keep telling myself its for the best too, as she probably could have enjoyed life a little better with a fenced in yard, a 10 year old kid, and much more patient doggie parents. I feel like such a fool-I mean, it's been 5 days since I cried to take her back. I think the reality is that she is a great dog, but I think our situation with all the crazy cats doesn't help the situation. She's the kind of pup that deserves to be in bed with her family, farting under the covers and kicking our legs...not locked up in a crate.

I want to get back in the car right now and get her, but I'm afraid if I did it I would regret it, plus I want her to be able to find that fence and that kid. I know I'm acting like a 5 year old, but I got myself all backwards with this. I wanted this magically well trained dog to just appear, and I got so frustrated before even bonding with her. By the time I'd bonded with her, I was so frustrated and Mircea was at his wits ends, so we made this decision. I think I was wrong. I hope I was right and she got adopted today. That sweet little girl deserves a home.

So Peyton, I love you. My impatience got in the way of realizing what a sweet little dog you were, and my inexperience with dogs stopped me from understanding your behavior when I first brought you home. I'm sorry I got your little hopes up, you deserve better than the impatience that Mircea and I had for you. Good luck my beautiful buddy! You have no idea how much you affected me.

Nothing New, Nothing New

2009-03-31T11:25:00.003-04:00

I haven't had much blogworthy news lately and the one piece I thought I had still hasn't come. I haven't heard from the HR lady, even after calling her twice, so I decided to stop by today. She was "oh so helpful" and explained all the things she could have just told me on the phone, but the upshot is that none of them make sense. For one, she has to get permission from my job to let me go, but all of this is before telling me what my salary is, which is the deciding factor on if I go or if I stay. Say what? Plus, when she talked to me last week it was "I'll call you back today with the info, or later on this week" and today the expectation was "it should be this week". Whatever lady, whatever. I'll keep working for pennies over here while everyone else gets promoted. It's cool.

Mircea and I had a birthday party for his Mom on Sunday and I think it went pretty well. Other than the bickering Mircea and I go through every time we prepare the house to entertain, we had a great time and it was nice getting to know his family even better. I have to tell this "funny" story though. We're handing out presents to his Mom and I had written my present in the card. It was a "girl's day" where I'd take her out to lunch and then to get a mani/pedi. So the first thing she does is sort of throw the card to the side, and I said "oh your gift is in there" so she began ripping the envelope and I said "no, I wrote it". So she reads it and exclaims rather loudly "Oh no, the last time I got my nails done I almost lost my arm," and goes on to explain about little cuts that she got on her cuticles and that her whole arm turned black and she had to go to the hospital. Mind you this was in 1990's Romania, but nonetheless, my present to her brought back flashbacks. Thank goodness I didn't buy her a gift card there-at least she could only throw the card back down to the ground. Having said all that, I love his mom to pieces, but it was definitely a funny/awkward, embarassing for me moment. But mostly funny. She said she had a great time and I was so happy b/c she doens't get a lot of pampering and I don't know that she's even had a birthday party in the U.S. so I was happy to do it for her.

I've been making plans with Patty and Nikki, hoping that the three of us can get to U2 in Chicago, but thus far it seems that the internet presale folks are whooping our butts on obtaining tickets. Total b.s. But we'll see.

I owe you some pictures. I spent all day Saturday with my friend Robyn sewing curtains for the living room. They are gorgeous and I love them and I'm pretty good at sewing so I'm looking forward to trying some other projects. I also owe you some pics of the new dining room set, that I am in love with and want to hug when I walk by.

Last, but not least, I want to tell you to try the Amy's Matter Paneer, frozen meal. It was delicious. I hate peas with a passion but thought I'd give it a try b/c I wanted the Paneer part, and it was a delicious meal. Run out and get one...or three.

The Suspense is Killing Me Too

2009-03-26T08:32:00.004-04:00

I didn't mean to give you a cliffhanger at the end of my last post. Certainly not one with such delayed gratification. I am also (not so) patiently waiting for the news. I can tell you what I'm not waiting for...

No, I'm not pregnant.
I'm not waiting for any sort of test result
I'm not getting married

Oh, I'll just spill it, prematurely of course, which is against my better judgement b/c I don't trust anything until it's in writing, but I'll throw caution to the wind. It's not really that big of a deal anyway, just that I got called to do an interview a couple of weeks ago with another program. Weeks had gone by and I assumed I hadn't been chosen for the position. Well, I got a call on Monday from the Human Resources lady saying that they'd like to offer me the position. It is supposed to be a raise, a full pay grade up from mine, which is something I've been patiently waiting for. The conversation went something like this, cementing that Government HR is, well, dumb.

I pick up the phone, "This is Kate"
"You've been selected for a position"
"Really? What program?"
"Ummm," shuffles papers, "Um, it looks like yada yada"
"That's not a program. Look for words like ______"
"Oh, here it is, program whatever. Do you want the job?"
"What's the salary? When is the start date?"
"Ummmm, I'm not sure. Are you interested?"
"I'm interested, but need more details before I can officially say yes or
no"
"Ok, I'll call you back this afternoon with the final offer."

She has not called. I called her yesterday and she said she was still trying to figure out the final offer. Why is that you would call someone when you had no information about the job at all? Does that make any sense? So of course I told my current job and now they are scrambling to try and keep me and get me the promotion that they've been promising me for 6 months. It's just so...strange. Everything is up in the air. Will I be getting the huge raise I've been praying for?

So I continue to look at my phone every two seconds to make sure it is plugged in. Keep your fingers crossed.

I Was Like Dolly Parton on a Trampoline

2009-03-23T13:45:00.002-04:00

Today was my first day with Jillian Michaels and the 30 Day Shred. I had planned on starting last week, but had a lot of pain on my right side due to some painting. I know, hazardous home environment, but my knee is just that jacked up.

So about the shred. First of all, Jillian is great. I think she is a little mannish, but I definitely appreciate how much oversight she is giving, showing you the moves and showing what she isn’t looking for, as well as the encouragement she gives. She really is an excellent motivator! I have some things I’d like to admit, that hopefully I’ll be laughing about in several weeks.

I need to wear like 5 sports bras to do this exercise, 1 didn’t cut it. I had to hold my chest while attempting to do any of the cardio. Pathetic.
I am a 28 year old woman who is incapable of doing a jumping jack. Shut up. First, my “girls” were just bouncing up and down and I’m not a fan of the bounce. And oh the pain. Second, my knee would sear in pain with every jump. So I did a Richard Simmons-esque sort of “jog-flap” to do cardio during cardio time. If anyone could see me they would have died laughing. Pathetic.
I am not flexible. There is some stretching at the end. I am no Gumby. I couldn’t touch my toes, I could barely sit there in the V position. How did I let myself get so out of shape? Even when thin I am not flexible, but this was downright ridiculous. With a capital R.
I can’t wait to do it tomorrow-it was a great challenge!

**Stay tuned for some good news coming up in the next few days. Definitely a self-esteem booster to share.**

I'm Not a Girl...but Finally a Woman

2009-03-18T19:44:00.002-04:00

No, I didn't get my first period this past week (oh the horror story I could blog about there) but I made some purchases and decisions that at least have me playing a grown-up on tv. First of all, I made the decision to take a little interest in my appearance. I am the lowest wo-man on the totem pole at work, and I sort of forgot that when I consider my image. I was wearing jeans to work and baggy sweaters like many of the other shlumps that I work with. Much of that came from feeling too husky for nice clothes (like I looked bad anyway, so why dress up?) and a lack of self confidence, but some also came from the fact that "if everyone else is dressing this way, why shouldn't I?" You know the quote "don't dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want?" Well, I was doing it, but in this aspect it doesn't work. These people all dress like shlumps because they have already "made it". They're GS-14s and 15s, a full two pay grades up from me, and I still need to prove myself. So I've overexplained this, but I went up to Annapolis with a girlfriend of mine as she's been wanting to take me under her wing and turn this beast into a beauty and I told her last week that I was ready.

First, we went to Bare Escentuals and I was given a makeover (is it making you over if you weren't "made" to begin with?) and taught how to apply the makeup. Surprisingly, I was in my element. I looked awesome and my friend was highly impressed with what seemed to be innate makeup application skills. (or is it almost 29 years of watching others do it-osmosis works sometimes) It was nice to cover up my rosacea that makes me feel a little self conscious. Then we went to New York and Company and I got two very reasonably priced ($50 total!) outfits for work. It was a good trip and I was so excited to be able to show off my new wares. In fact, my friend sort of created a monster. After two days of my new outfits I went over to my friend in a panic, "what can I wear tomorrow? I'm out of nice clothes?" It was sort of funny since just a week before I'd been schleping around in my jeans. Whatever. I'm rambling. But I look damned pretty and I'm enjoying taking pride in my body, even if it isn't the exact shape I wish it was. I'm still beautiful and I'm still worth the effort.

And my second "big girl" purchase...I bought the dining room set that I've been coveting for months. Lindsay and I went shopping for housewares and I wanted to stop at the furniture store that carried the set I wanted (Ashley Furniture). Well, they had my set and it was discounted by a thousand dollars so I decided to pull the trigger. It's being delivered on Saturday and although it's more than I've ever spent in my life, other than a car, education and this house, it was totally, totally worth it. Here's the link to the site. I got the table, 8 chairs, curio and server. OOOOOH I'm excited. My home is finally coming along!

I Wanna Be a Shredhead & Eat Vegan Chocolate

2009-03-18T19:29:00.005-04:00

After reading a review on my friend Vicky's blog, The Mummy Chronicles (highly recommended to parents) , I decided to purchase Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred to kick my ass into shape. My time on the elliptical isn't going that well and the treadmill attempts only make me cry. (Side note: Dr said I may have to come to terms that I can't run anymore. Thanks Doc.)

I watched the video tonight because I hate surprises and I want to know what to expect before I start shreddin' it up. I'm pretty pumped. I'm going to do it tomorrow, hopefully in the morning before work, as long as I don't wake Mircea up with my hollered profanities. So we'll see.

**Also, visit my blog friend Katie and enter her contest to win some Jocolat, which is a tasty vegan chocolate bar. Yum Yum and Good Luck!

Movie Review and Rant

2009-03-03T08:33:00.003-05:00

First of all, I'll start with the rant. Get the pain out of the way to start with, plus I'll reward you by giving you a movie review when it's all over.

I can't run. I mean, mechanically, it seems I am incapable of running. In my knee's defense, I tried to go from 0-60 on running, and I am going to have to start over and try to jog at like 4 mph (which hardly seems like a jog, but the knee doesn't seem to know that) After several weeks on the elliptical I tried to go right in at 6mph as a warm up and that didn't work. So it's my bad, but I'm still a little (lot) depressed about it. I feel like if I can't run I'll never get the weight off, as running has always worked for me. Ellipticals, diet, other exercise-they all help, but the running is key. Ok, rant over.

Movie review time: Mircea and I watched the movie Waitress and really enjoyed it. It's one of those slightly artsy fartsy movies with a lot of "la la" music in it, but it was really enjoyable, although predictable. I've decided that my star rating should be nothing more than level of enjoyment, so on my LOE rating, it's getting 3.5 stars. I don't want to share secrets, but basically a woman is unhappy with her marriage and wants to escape her life, only to find out that in one night of drunken weakness with her husband she got pregnant, making all hopes of escape vanish. The story is basically how she deals with this and who she meets along the way. I definitely recommend it, and although I think you can get a guy to watch it, it might be one of those, home alone, relaxing with a glass of wine chick flick nights. So rent it. NOW!

If Only I Was on a Beach...

2009-02-19T11:18:00.002-05:00

Unfortunately I haven’t run away from Southern Maryland to the beautiful beaches of the Caribbean. I’ve just been busy with uninteresting tasks and I haven’t felt the desire to blog the same old stuff. Remodeling the old house is growing quite tiresome, my renewed fitness is going well and my knee is holding up ok, the new house is great and we’ve been trying to entertain more as we realized we don’t have any friends that we hang out with on the weekends. The most exciting thing (seriously) in my life right now is that I’ve made it my life’s goal to drink 8 glasses of water a day, and sometimes it’s comical how much I have to use the restroom and then calling Mircea to see if he’s finished with his 8 glasses of water. This is my mundane life, but it’s mine and I love it.

It’s funny, I have had a blog for quite some time and I’ve never really had a theme. In fact, I’m pretty sure no one has ever been totally interested in what a single, childless, whiney girl in Maryland is doing. I love reading about my friends’ children, I love reading all the vegan recipes, and frankly, I have very little to offer these days. Although I’m vegan cooking, it’s more mundane. I grab a bag of frozen veggies, steam them, add some sort of sauce variety (usually a Target purchase, they have exotic one) and add a little tofu. I’m not sure that there will be a lot of folks clamoring for that.

I know it sounds like I’m doing my usual whining, and I’m not breaking up with my blog, I just don’t have a lot to say anymore. And I’ll take that as a good sign that I don’t have to cry about a break up, bitch about weight loss (I’m just keeping quiet, I still bitch internally) or worry about the next step in my life. Despite getting passed over for a raise at work, I’m finally happy and content in my life. I know, gasp, right?

I can’t wait to hear how everyone is doing, I enjoy reading your blogs and leaving my inane comments.

A Heart Warming Video

2009-02-05T16:19:00.002-05:00

A nice sentiment and a great story.

Word Filled Wednesday

2009-02-04T08:32:00.004-05:00

Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children.
- Kenyan proverb

I got this email from SparkPeople today and thought it would be nice to share. I agree with much of what was listed, except the picking flowers part because that isn't really helping the Earth...unless you're weeding your garden, but those aren't flowers.

"Reduce, reuse, and recycle sounds great, but do we really think about (and apply) earth management into our daily lives? You might not litter, but how often do you drive your own vehicle rather than carpooling? What about buying "green" products instead of commercial items made with harmful chemicals? It is easy to disregard the dangers to the environment because there are no immediate consequences to our lives. However, think about how the earth will be in 50 years if everyone lived as you are today. Set a good example to your children of stewardship for the earth by recycling, eating fresh fruits and vegetables, and generally appreciating nature. Instead of going to Disney World, go on a camping trip. Turn off the TV and pick some flowers. This world is not ours alone. It is communally shared with all of the generations before us, and all of those to come after us."

I owe you pictures of the new house. It's not all done (not even close) but there are enough rooms to show a little bit of improvement. So you can see that I'm not just sitting around watching Law & Order and the Office. Well, not all the time.
I have been reading a lot lately and have some book reviews to provide. Including The Shack, which everyone is talking about these days.
I need Valentine suggestions for Mircea. Help me out here, he's been the best boyfriend ever (completely redeeming himself from his behavior last year where he won the worst boyfriend ever award) and I want to do something special. And although I know beef jerky is the way to his heart, I thought I'd try to do something a little more special.

Tuesday Bad Weather Funny

2009-01-27T10:15:00.003-05:00

This cracked me up. Someone sent it out as an email and I thought it was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. Enjoy!!

(Here's the reply the teacher received the following day)

Dear Mrs. Jones,
I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith

Love to Hate in Less Than 24 Hours, a.k.a. "The Vase"

2009-01-19T19:33:00.007-05:00

I had made up my mind on this cruise that I wasn't going to purchase any kitchy, touristy trinkets on the cruise. I learned this lesson after a trip to Mexico with my friend Bill when I drunkenly purchased several shirts that were hilarious at the time but make no sense and are highly inappropriate, especially when meeting your new neighbors. (You'll have to get that story in person) So fast forward 2 years to Belize, when I find the item that I want to commemorate the trip. Lindsay and I entered a store called "A Taste of Belize" (I don't remember it, the name is on the reciept that I consult in anger several times a day) and found beautiful wooden products. They are all multi-colored and there were salad bowls, vases, jewelry, a chess set, etc. Beautiful pieces. And pricey as hell. There is a vase on the ground of the store and I asked the shop keeper for the price. "$200," was his reply, which sort of made me laugh and I said to Lindsay "yeah, right". So we walked around to other shops, found some great textiles which we both purchased for our homes, bought some yummy Rainforest Rum Cake, and made our way back towards the ship. Except that I wanted to stop back at the wood shop to buy one of the $45 bowls that I had settled on as a centerpiece for the dining table. We get to the store, the shop keeper wraps up the bowl and I start negotiating a price on the large vase. I get him down to $175 and Lindsay and I agree it is totally worth the price, it's a beautiful piece and will look great in the house. He unwraps the bowl and wraps up the vase. I can't believe I spent that much money, but it is a beautiful conversation piece and a unique addition to our home. I'm happy as a clam as I lug that bad boy on the tender back to the ship and store in it our room. I feel crazy for spending that much money, but feel it was worth it.

Fast forward 20 hours or so and enter the first shop in Honduras that Lindsay and I enter. We both exclaim "wow, they have a lot of those wooden vases" and I ask the proprieter the price of the vase, so I can see what a good deal I negotiated in Belize. Are you sitting down? Sit your butt down and get our the Kleenex kids because this is going to be something special. Have you thought of your guess for the price? Did I over pay by $10? $25, $50, or even a whopping $75? I flippin' wish that I overpaid by even $80. I overpaid by... I'm embarassed, I can't even type this. I'm not telling. Ok, I overpaid by $135. That's right. The proprieter told me the cost of my vase in Honduras was only $45, but she would give it to me for $40 because I had a "nice face." I don't know where they hell she got that I had a nice face because there was smoke spewing out of my ears and blood raining from my eyes. I then began ranting and raving to Lindsay and she will attest that I didn't stop. EVER. It's been a week and I'm still pissed.

Despite popular belief and proof to the contrary from this story, I'm no fool. I considered purchasing another one for $40 and then defraying my costs between the two vases but there was the logistics issue of how heavy and annoying the vase was. So I decided to not purchase another one (or six for the price I'd paid for one-swimming back to Belize and returning them all for a great and wonderful profit-muuuhahaha) and it turned out to be for the best. I had to lug that darn vase around the airport and have a million people comment on how beautiful it was and where I'd purchased it. I tried to smile and say "thank you" but it's hard to be the sucker carrying the albiet beautiful and wildly overpriced heavy vase around the airport.

I haven't told you the worst part of the story yet. I know, dry your eyes from the tears of laughter and pity. I unwrapped it when I got home and it seemed fine. Yesterday I picked it up to bitch about it again to Mircea and THERE IS A CRACK IN IT. There was a little line on it when I bought it, and it didn't appear to be a crack, just part of the wood. Well it cracked into a nice little gash, leaving me with two options in which to respond; a.) covering the crack with some sort of decorative grass that I'm sure Fernie will eat or b.) chucking off the back deck while yelling expletives and most likely holding a bottle of booze in the other hand.

Even I can laugh about this at this point because I've single-handedly boosted Belize's GNP for 2009 and frankly, I've got a good story to tell. Too bad it's at my expense.

***UPDATE: Holy Hell that thing has several more cracks in it and is now sort of experiencing a melting at the seams where it appears that it has been glued. Ladies and gentlemen, I assure you that I inspected the heck out of this thing when I bought it. I have no recourse either, just a big steaming pile of crappy wood in my foyer. That still looks good from a distance but may cause me to have a heart attack at 28.***

When in Doubt, Ask a Random Person with Bright Red Hair

2009-01-15T08:13:00.004-05:00

As I alluded to in the last post, I had the opportunity to enjoy some Romanian companionship on the cruise. But it wasn’t my sweetie pie. Here’s the strange-but-true story of how I came to learn about 10 new Romanian phrases.

I’d been on the ship for a couple of hours and Lindsay and I had just walked around the shops. I noticed that a lot of the workers were from other countries (which explains their excellent customer service. The only rude worker on the ship was an American) and I said to Lindsay “I wonder if there are any Romanians.” She told me that I could probably ask someone as the majority of the crew knew each other. We walk around a little bit more and she ducks into the restroom and I’m alone in the hallway. I see this woman coming up to me and I’d seen her at the jewelry counter so I decided to get nervy and ask if there were any Romanians on the ship. She gives me the strangest look ever and very slowly says, “I am Romanian”. Well, I’m just beside myself with excitement and I’m not really noticing how confused she looks (I realize all this several days later). Lindsay comes out and we talk to her for a few minutes and she says that her daughter works in the dining room and that we’ll meet her this evening. Great, I am looking forward to this, but have to question why this woman doesn’t know much English. I mean, she works on the ship right? HA! I’m an idiot! She doesn’t work there at all. We meet her daughter at dinner and she’s like “My mom said that you were looking for Romanians” and I tell her the story and she laughs. I choose a random person on the ship to inquire if they knew any Romanians. She didn’t work there. I guess her lack of name badge and uniform should have clued me in, however, they didn’t. I don’t think she looks particularly Romanian. In fact, I thought she looked kind of Russian and she was talking to the Russian girl at the jewelry counter (where she was a paying patron, not an employee). So that’s my story of how I ended up introducing a nice Romanian woman to our table (Table 226-most awesomest table ever) and learning Romanian phrases and teaching English phrases. It made me realize how much I really want to learn Romanian and look forward to traveling with Mircea to see his extended family. I’m also very excited that we’ll have the opportunity to visit Gina (the mother) in Brashov, Romania when we visit. The daughter, Oana, works for Carnival and will probably be on the ship when we visit, but maybe we’ll get lucky. I just have to share this last part. Oana bought her mother a two week cruise as a gift and when we got off the ship, Gina had one week left of cruising, but she said it wouldn’t be the same because she’d miss her new friends. Awwww!!

She was so great…I miss her already. La reverdere!

I'm Back!

2009-01-12T14:50:00.006-05:00

The cruise was great! Lindsay and I had plenty of time to relax and read, but I'm a little disappointed that we didn't get a lot of sun...because Lindsay doesn't like it, and frankly, I didn't want to sit up on the deck by myself...plus it's a little loud. I have so many stories to share, but I think I'll do individual posts for each of them, to keep the suspense alive. HA HA!

The first story is free. We had the best people at our dinner table! I had been dreading the dinner table, afraid that we'd have stodgy old farts that weren't any fun. Instead, we sit down to 4 awesome people, who we assumed were a family (as did the photographers). Turns out, it was a Mother/Daughter (Anita/Jennifer) and Father/Son (Alan/Matt) that were the best dinner companions we could imagine. We added one other person to the mix, but that's another blog post. We had a great time enjoying our massive amounts of food with these people, and enjoyed teasing each other about our selections, and making jokes about "diet" cake and "the man the size of a van" who enjoyed many meals as well. It was a good time. Here's a couple of pics from dinner (I only brought my camera once-and I don't think I have everyone, so I hope Lindsay has more pics).

Til the next post...

My New Year's Resolution

2009-01-01T17:24:00.004-05:00

This year I am making a vow to myself, and to others. This is the last year I am making a resolution to lose weight and "get healthy". I have all the tools, all the support, etc., and I have let my laziness get the better of me. The main reason for my "last year of weight loss resolution" is that I am sick and tired of letting my confidence and self-worth be valued by my pants size. I've let that negative self talk convince me that I am insignificant and that my weight should embarass me and make me hide in my house (which I have done on occasion b/c I'm afraid of being in the company of others). So I vow to do two things; lose weight and stop beating myself up.

I am sure I will enjoy too many treats on the cruise, but I am greatly looking forward to returning to a healthier lifestyle. I have been following a vegetarian diet for the past 3 weeks in preparation for the cruise, and although cheese tastes like Heaven, I am really looking forward to return to MD a reborn Vegan. And although my knee is in no shape for running or even brisk walking, I look forward to a slow but steady return to the gym...a habit that I have let go over the years, but realize it is important. I want to be healthy darnit, and I want to fit in my old clothes-both of these things are important to me, but the healthy part is most important. I want to have kids (eventually, still need that ring, marriage, etc.) and figure now is the time to be healthy so I can be in good physical (and mental) health when it's time for childbearing.

I realize I'm ranting a bit, but I'm also asking for some help. I would like you, dear readers, to be my accountability partners. The way I will do this is with a once a week HONEST blog about the challenges, victories, etc of the weight loss, as well, GASP, my weight. Yeah, I will admit my real weight, and although it starts out a little embarassing, I am hoping that soon I will be proud of the changes I've made. So I thank you in advance. I'm done with this yo-yo b.s. I'm ready to enjoy my life- heavy, slim, healthy, active, etc. I want my life back, no more wallowing in chocolate.

5 Days and Counting...

2008-12-30T08:51:00.004-05:00

Until fun in the sun! I am sure that I have mentioned that Lindsay and I are going on a cruise, but did I mention that it is in 5 days?!?! I am getting really excited and also really nervous because I fear the unknown and despise crowds. But I know it will work out and Lindsay is really good at reigning in my insanity. I put on my bathing suit this morning and although I am displeased with my shape, I think it will be fine and no one will be paying attention to me, they'll all be having fun in the sun and so will I! And I'm looking forward to eating some wonderful food on the cruise, and that will probably make the suit tighter but that is not important.

Now for a little Christmas update. Mircea and I went down to my parents' house in North Carolina and although I was apprehensive about the trip, it was fantastic. It was so nice to see my family and share in the season. Everyone LOVED Mircea and continually complimented me on what a great guy I had found. He had a really good time too and it was a positive trip. Unfortunately we only had two days there, as we had to get back home to pick up Yukie from the vet. He was so cute when he got home. He loves his Vet girls but he loves to be back with his Daddy (and Mommy to some extent). He slept with us all night and took turns rubbing up against each of us. The girls were less than happy to have him back, but happy to see us. Great Christmas!!

I enjoyed reading all your posts about your Christmas celebrations, scares, and miracles. I am glad that everyone had a good time with their families and friends. I may have time for one more post before I leave, otherwise, I'll be disconnected until the 13th as Lindsay and I cruise the Caribbean. AHHH!

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

2008-12-22T18:03:00.003-05:00

Ok, the point of this isn't my HORRIFYING ugly picture of myself I took two years ago in San Diego. I was looking through old photos, found this and said "boy, I look like my grandpa" and then slapped myself in here and got not one, but two, Czech supermodels. (yeah, I know) The point of course being that I should be a model. Wait, that wasn't the point. The point was that I still feel there is some mystery clouding my whole adoption and that I really am someone's kid that I've lived with my whole life and that someone is Slovak/Czech. I wouldn't really jump that far b/c of two Czech hotties on MyHeritage, but its something I've been thinking about a lot. To be continued...

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

I Found This in My Email Box...

2008-12-22T11:47:00.001-05:00

and started laughing like a hyena in the office. I have to post this.

I think this video is hilarious and I randomly watch it at work when I clean out my email folders (leaving this of course for the next time I clean). Look for my next Colt's post-it ain't pretty!

25 Questions of Christmas

2008-12-15T20:00:00.004-05:00

Chantelle tagged me for this meme. And today, I say "why not?". So here goes!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Either one. I am TERRIBLE at wrapping gifts. I mean, like I sometimes have to have "filler" paper to cover the seams.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. Always had a real tree when I was little, but with my desire to "save the world one tree at a time we have an artificial tree. And I upgraded this year to a prelit LED tree.

3. When do you put up the tree? Normally Thanksgiving Day, but this year it took a little longer.
4. When do you take the tree down? I like to take it down on January 2nd.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yup! LOOOVE the soy version too.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I loved the Barbie and the Rockers tour bus that had the cassette "boom box" on top of it.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad and stepmother. Oh and stepsister.
8. Easiest person to buy for? any children. I've got them pegged.
9. Do you have a Nativity scene? I have a small scale Nativity music box.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. This year no lame Christmas letter since nothing thrilling happened.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Michigan State sweatshirt from my Dad the year I graduated from Purdue. He said "well, we lived in Michigan." Touche dad. Except that I liked University of Michigan.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie: I liked the Santa Clause.
13. When do you start Christmas shopping? Whenever I can find stuff and match it up with a person
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I did this year.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My sweet tooth is in full swing.
16. Lights on the tree? Clear lights are the best
17. Favorite Christmas song? What Child is This?
18.Travel at Christmas or stay home? Unfortunately we have been travelling.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Maybe
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Nothing this year.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Mircea and I have pretty much opened all our presents already. I can't remember when we do it at my parents house.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Crowded parking lots and crappy traffic.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I have a lot of random stuff, I actually like a fairly sparse tree.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Mashed potatoes. And that yummy broccoli thing my parents make.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? The ability to get in the bathtub and submerge myself in water. Strange, yes, but I miss baths so much with this surgery.

I tag anyone who feels the spirit of Christmas!

Geriatric Friday

2008-12-12T13:09:00.004-05:00

I keep forgetting to post this fun little tidbit. For the past couple of years Mircea has been receiving some very interesting mail. Other than the standard "Miss Ighian" postal confusion (which makes me laugh about Ms. Chanandler Bong) Mircea has been tagged by an interesting group. AARP. I'm talking magazines, credit cards, mailers, voting guidance, etc. I went to AARP's website, only to verify that they do indeed "help people 50 and over improve the quality of their lives". I don't know why this is so funny to us, but it really is. I think it is because there are always the wonderful letters to him about his "twilight years" and that "now is the time to really live (before you die)" I also really enjoy that since we started getting those we've also started receiving other strange mailers to the house, like from Liberty Medical, with a roving review from Wilford Brimley. (You have to click this link...I laughed so hard that they were calling him out on his pronunciation of diabetes.) It's just really funny. I've called them to say that we would prefer that they cease their mailers as it's a waste of paper and we simply recycle it...but they appear to be obsessed with Mircea understanding how his Medicare Part B doesn't cover enough and that he should purchase supplemental insurance. Oy vey. My only idea about how this happened is that his pharmacy company (he does it by mail) sold his information to AARP or some other mailers and they know he has high blood pressure (Or had, actually) and they assume he's considerably older. I just thought it was funny and hope you got a kick out of it too. Have a good weekend.

A Morning in the Life

2008-12-08T10:06:00.003-05:00

I had an interesting morning, but it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. I have spent a couple days sick to my stomach and vomiting and yesterday I had an issue that required the use of Pepto Bismol. I couldn't wait and had to get it as soon as the store opened so I called ahead and made sure that they had handicapped carts as I'm still not strong enough to walk any distance greater than couch to bathroom. (which I've been doing a lot of) They did have the carts so I started my trek. The grocery store is a way different place from the perspective of an electric cart. First of all, they are not the easiest to drive, and I'm able bodied so I can handle it but it wasn't great. I felt the store was really accessible, as I'm sure is required by law, but I was impressed. I was able to get everything on my little list (i figured i was there i'd get the other essentials) except one thing that was at cart level, but if it had been crowded i would have never made it. It just got me thinking as I drove the cart over the brick entry way and thought my leg would fall off from the jostling pain, how judgemental I have been about the cart people, and how pain really does change people, and that the world is very different with any form of disability. I mean, I was talking to Lindsay about setting up the Wii at the new house but I couldn't do it b/c I couldn't bend my knee and get down to the ground-silly right? But these little things are taken for granted and I hope that I never will do that again. I am so lucky that this is just a temporary problem, but I think of all the people that aren't experiencing this on a temporary basis and live this life everyday-they are definitely stronger than I am. In a side note, as I've been laying on my ass for 3 weeks, I wonder if many of the hefty cart people that we see and wonder if they only need the cart b/c they are chunky started out with an injury and the weight gain and pain got away from them and they are in a vicious cycle...I've been lucky to gain only 8 lbs, which is still insane, but I've probably walked a total of 400 steps in 3 weeks, not the recommended exercise for a normal gal.

I was also thinking about people that are in pain. I feel like hell in a handbasket and I'm bitchy as a wet cat and I can't imagine if someone felt this everyday. My mother was in constant pain (and chose to overmedicate to deal with the pain) but she was always so moody and I never understood until I've started experiencing my own pain. And it makes me think about how strong so many people really are-we all know the warrior who has struggled through Cancer, disability, etc., and i am in awe of their strength. I've got some knee pain combined with some dehydration and I was pretty much screaming to Mircea to call me an ambulance as I was "going to die" (yes, he's teased me for that, as I deserved) I can't sleep etc. And I'm not saying that anyone should feel bad for me because I chose this and I am going to be ok. But for those people that didn't, I am sorry that I didn't understand and I wish there was something I could do.

I realize this post is rambling (as always?) but I have just really been thinking the last few days. I'm a wimp. I have zero pain tolerance and am a huge whiney crybaby. I need to grow up and buck up and toughen up. I guess we all want our mommies to take care of us sometimes, but I think sometimes I fall into wanting my mommy all the time to take care of me. Time to take care of myself.

Crappy Commercials

2008-12-07T09:48:00.003-05:00

There are two commercials that are driving me, well, Nuggnuts. The first, I've already indicated. The new McDonald's Nuggnuts commercials. Are they kidding us? Do they really want to draw attention to the fact that if you are eating McDonald's nuggets that you might actually be a Numbnuts? Do they want to draw that line? I love the wedding cake of chicken nuggets, the cocktail party with the nuggets and the beautiful dipping sauces. It is so silly and the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Well, not the stupidest thing...

This is the stupidest thing. The other McDonald's commercial that is a pathetic parody of an R&B song where the gentlemen is singing that his girl is out "creeping" and "are you dipping on me?" as though to indicate that his woman is in fact sneaking around with a 10 piece of nuggets. But she continues to deny him, including his request that she has a 10 piece "don't be stingg-gy".
McDonalds Commercial - R&B Song - The most amazing home videos are here

I think I've done my job here today. Man, this song is so stupid but it does make me laugh my butt off. And if I ate meat, I think it might even make me want some nuggets...NOT!

10 Days of Commercials

2008-12-04T11:26:00.003-05:00

I have been watching tv for 10 days straight and with that I've watched a lot of commercials. Here are some quick observations...

My new favorite commerical is a commercial I originally thought was stupid. It's the Campbell's soup commercial where a guy is sitting at his desk enjoying his soup, exclaiming things like "mmm" "yummy" etc. Another guy is walking around trying to fill out a request for signage for the cubicles and asks the man his name. The guy ignores him as he is engrossed in the soup. Fast forward to the day the name tags are ordered and the guy walks up to his desk and the name on the cubicle is Num Yummy. He says "Who's Num Yummy?" and I laugh my ass off every time. It must be the drugs, but that is now completely hilarious to me. I tried to find a video online but couldn't, so I hope you've seen it so my description makes some sense.
Free Credit Report Dot Com: F to the R to the E to the E to the C to the R to the EDIT Report to the dot to the Com, come on everybody grab your blank and sing along. I used to hate these commercials but now I find them charming and especially enjoy the one where they are at the Renn Faire, because we all know how I feel about that.
I'm tired, so I'm keeping this short. The last commercial is one of the genious "ad wizard" commercials from stupid Comcast. This guy says how much he loves advertising with Comcast because it helps him get to all this customers. He says "My business helps people get their life organized with closet systems, storage units and frameless shower doors" I'm not sure how that helps people out, but that is ridiculous.

There are probably a ton more but I can't think of them. I'm trying to come up with better posts but I still feel icky and don't like sitting upright all that much to type.

Quick Pained Post

2008-11-27T09:28:00.003-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Instead of getting lots of reading done, doing Christmas cards and catching up on the Tivo, I've spent the last several days writhing in pain, and once I got stronger meds, sleeping all darned day. This knee surgery sucked, and the recovery is nothing like I expected. I took (or was given) my first shower yesterday and it was lovely, lovely I tell you. I feel so clean...as I typed that Lily walked out of the litter box and scooted her dirty butt on the carpet. I guess she is feeling clean now too.

It's been an interesting couple of days, filled with nice phone calls from friends, lots of gentle cuddling with Fern and Lily, several terrifying doorbell rings where I prayed the doors were locked. (They were, and it was actually an edible arrangement delivery from work which was super cool)

My post isn't all that great, but I wanted to move the poor Olive picture down a little ways and bring some good cheer. So GOOD CHEER TO ALL and I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I will be enjoying some stuffing and mashed potatoes that were promised to be vegan. I can't trust Mircea's mom on that sometimes, but at least they'll be vegetarian. I've been on an interesting diet the past few days. Since I can't move anywhere and Mircea is working 12 hour days he just leaves me with a weird grab bag of food. Yesterday it was a pretzel and a bag of assorted (disgusting) crackers. Today I got some cold perogies and really watery coucous, but it was better than the nasty grab bag. He's so sweet trying to be my nursemaid and work all those hours so I am trying to think of a good "thank you" surprise when I am finally mobile again. Somehow I have a feeling it will involve a lot of summer sausage and cheese, but we'll see. I may find another way to his heart.

Goodbye Tiny Baby

2008-11-23T15:12:00.003-05:00

She came to us on a beautiful day, her little meows heard through the wind. Today, the day we lost her, was also a beautiful day, but so much sadder than when we saw her little face for the first time.

Poor little Olive was with us for 12 days. She was so little and sickly, but so sweet and loving despite her pain. I took her to the vet for the second time on Friday because she still wasn't eating, and they'd suggested our best option was put her down if she didn't pass her blood tests because she seemed very ill. Her blood came back fine so they put her on an IV try to get some fluids into her little system. It seemed to work and she came home happy as a clam. We had a great day full of cuddles yesterday and this morning, and then things went really really badly. I just held her and helped her the best I could, and she passed away peacefully in my arms, the sweet little angel that she was. We never wanted 4 cats, but now my heart feels empty without her.

This is such a depressing post that I just want it to be over with. I am having knee surgery tomorrow and although I'll have a ton of free time I'm not sure I'll be able to balance the computer on my lap without a lot of pain. Hope everyone has a great Tofurky Day (ha ha) and enjoys great time with friends and family.

I'm Ranting a Bit...

2008-11-16T20:11:00.002-05:00

I'm in a mood tonight. I just feel like blogging because I am too lazy to look for my journal, so here it is.

I am ridiculously nervous about my knee surgery. I have my pre-op tomorrow and my surgery is the 24th. I just don't like the whole idea of it, other than the feeling better and being more active again. There is no reason to be scared but I am terrified.
I am going to San Diego tomorrow for approx 36 hours. I'm very annoyed to fly all the way there and back just to witness 12 hours of lab testing...which by the way if from Noon-Midnight. Which is like 3 pm to 3 am to my tired body, so I'm just thrilled as hell. On a positive note I get to see George, Rebecca, John and Allison, so that is great, but I'll be really tired b/c it's 11 pm for me. But I'll man it out b/c I love them!
Olive (the new kitty) is even more high maintenance than Lily. She isn't eating nearly as much as she should be, and most of the time I'm encouraging her to eat, I've even hand fed her nasty little balls of wet food. And she got her tests all back from the vet and she's fine, so I don't know what her deal is. She has been pretty good with the other cats, but she's mostly lethargic. I don't know why I'm being so impatient with her-it's only been 5 days, but I'm used to my "seasoned" pussy cats.
I'm a little frustrated with all the painting. I want it done so it's all over and the house can look pretty. But man, I'm so sick and tired of painting that I just want to leave the Bratz dolls up forever. Mircea is working hard on the other house and I feel pressure to get this one done perfectly, but that's my fault
Mircea went to the Cowboys-Redskins game tonight with a friend. And the friend's girlfriend and her family. Am I the only one that thinks there is something wrong with this picture? For you couples out there, don't you usually do things as a couple? I'm not annoyed that Mircea went, I'm annoyed that once again his friend only thought of a ticket for him. He did this for a concert too, and it's not that he didn't have other tickets, he gave them to other people. I like that Mircea and I do things seperately but at the same time I'm also sick of all Mircea's "american firsts" are experienced with others. I think I'm just in a bad mood and I'm mad about this for no reason. But a little annoyed nonetheless.
I'm irritated with my waistline. I'm not looking forward to wearing a bathing suit on the cruise, but I know it will be fine b/c it's just me and Lindsay and Lord knows that I won't be wearing a two piece. I'd like to do some activities but I baby the hell out my knee b/c I think I'm sort of saving it up for the flight of stairs at the house. I dread those stairs like you don't even know.
I feel better having typed this out. I have no reason to be too whiney, I'm just a little frustrated and I try to hide that from Mircea b/c he gets annoyed (b/c he can't help me). I laugh at myself sometimes that I let this little crap get to me when there are so many bad things in the world, but man, if I focused on those I'd probably never come out of the bathtub.

Hope you all have a nice beginning of the week. I'll be on a plane-hopefully sans snakes!

I Don't Even Know How to Title This Post

2008-11-15T09:14:00.000-05:00

I'm experiencing a sense of dread as I type up this post. Dread because I know that I will be called the Crazy Cat Lady and laughing because I know I deserve it. A little background might hopefully let you all go easy on me.

Mircea and I were over at the old house on Veteran's Day to do some demo to another room. We were working for about an hour or so and I was taking some stuff out to the truck when I saw this weird creature in the yard across the street. It was just yelling it's little head off, so I got a closer look (those who know me well know I'm blind but refuse correction) and saw it was a cat. A little tiny cat who looked similar to the cat who had been snitching Yukon's food a couple weeks prior. So I went inside and got some cat food that we still had there and went across the street to offer it. The cat was timid at first but then started eating so hungrily that I almost cried. Even Lily doesn't eat like that! I gingerly picked the cat up and just felt all bones. This cat is literally vertebrae. So I walked the cat across the street and said to Mircea, "well, we've got to do something" so we put the cat in one of the cat carriers (that is still in the shed) and took it back to the house and got it warmed up away from the other cats. We took a quick look at it's privates, saw it was a boy, so we named it (the original) Maverick, as our old house was on Maverick road and that's where we found him. So I called the vet and they said I could bring the cat over. We sat at the vet together for about an hour b/c there was an animal emergency and I let Maverick out of the cage and we cuddled for awhile. The receptionist was like "oh let me see him" and then she looked at his privates and said "This is a girl silly, but it was hard to see". We all had a good laugh that I didn't know the difference between a girl and a boy and I sighed in relief that I still only had one baby boy. But what to name the cat? Hell, I didn't even know if the cat had a disease or not, but I was thinking of names. Turns out, she checked out fine in the initial tests and I'm waiting to find out if she has worms, so I bundled her up and brought her skinny butt home. She really is sweet and she seems to be getting stronger with every day, so that is good. We named her Olive because it just suits her. I'm enjoying getting to know her and I'm glad to be able to help her get healthy. Here's a picture of our little sweetie, that we're still trying hard not to get attached to just in case something happens.

New House Photos

2008-11-13T20:54:00.004-05:00

I know you are all just besides yourselves waiting for pictures of the house. Well, wait no more, at least for before pictures. Mircea and I have been hard at work repairing, painting, cleaning, etc. So I'll have some after pictures pretty soon to share as well. I'll start the photo tour with the good, but it gets pretty ugly pretty quickly (but nothing a little paint can't fix).

Supporting our teams. Go Colts!

The view from the front of the house. You can see the Chesapeake Bay from the house and we can see more and more everyday as the leaves fall. I'll take it!

The fireplace...I'd already started priming the room.

In a sad turn of events, I hadn't started priming this room. We think they ran out of paint while they were painting it. Love the pink carpet too. The previous owner had two little girls.

Mircea should be ashamed of this picture. It doesn't show that gorgeous Bratz doll wall border on the wall. I'll retake that one later so you can see. It's crazy.

The dining room. Which we will use approx 1x a year, but it's nice to have the space. I had a blast steam cleaning all of the carpet. And it still needs replaced, but alas, I'd need a second job to afford that.

The master bath. My favorite room in the house. It's about the size of our old master bedroom so we definitely appreciate all the room that we have. It also has a two person soaking tub, and Mircea actually got it to work. So we used it once...but man if it didn't take so much hot water I'd be in there daily!

A not so exciting picture of the master. I told Mircea he is fired as photographer. Chantelle, wanna come over?

The kitchen, a total mess b/c it was cleaning central.

The living room, which is actually our office because what the heck would we do with a formal living room. It's nice to have the big office space too.

Well, that's all I have. The after pictures will be slightly more exciting, and I'm sure this is just so thrilling for everyone, but I'm so happy to get to share this experience with my friends. I thank you for all your support through this roller coaster ride (and the many I seem to allow myself to be a part of) and listening to me vent. You're the best, and there's a hot pink guest room with your names on it!

Teaser Update

2008-11-05T13:46:00.003-05:00

I only have about 5 minutes to make a quick update so here goes.

Despite the slight delay we are getting all settled into the house. I've done a ridiculous amount of painting and have a huge arm muscle to prove it. Next week is the kick-off for "getting the old house done" so we'll be very busy, just not at the new house. I know that I owe everyone pictures but our home computers aren't set up and darned if my camera doesn't hook up to the Navy computers.
I am enjoying spending ridiculous amounts of money. Ok, that isn't really true, but there are certain things that I have had to purchase which despite the cost bring mass amounts of joy. My new washer and dryer literally make me sing with happiness, I may even include a picture when I do the house tour. We also bought a King sized bed. We have not slept in it yet because we don't have the frame and box spring yet (we're getting them tomorrow) but we tested it out by me doing a somersault and Mircea couldn't feel me moving so I think we may actually be able to share a bed without killing each other.
The cats are adorable in the new house. Yukon hasn't been begging to go outside (nor peeing on anything stationary) so he has just been a little bundle of joy. Fernie has always loved stairs so she is happy, and Lily is still completely confused and acts brain damaged so pretty much everything is normal.
It was great to see that so many people voted in this election. Regardless of political affliation it is great that the American people exercised their right to vote and made history with their participation as well as their selection. But boy oh boy, the doomsday attitude in my office is starting to crack me up.
Hope everyone is doing well and I'll catch up with your blogs when I have some free time. I miss my online buddies!

Finally!

2008-10-27T20:26:00.002-04:00

I'm about to go watch the Colts on Monday Night Football but I wanted to do a quick update that we did close today. I'll tell you more later, but it didn't go as planned but it turned out to not be that bad. The house is beautiful, everything we ever wanted, and we realized today that we can see the Chesapeake Bay through the dining room. Woo hoo!!!!!

Thanks for all your support with this roller coaster. Hugs to you all!!

Horror Story #1

2008-10-24T12:02:00.007-04:00

I am not a homeowner yet. We were on our way over to do the walk-through and our Realtor called and said "the dog is still here, and so are they". We drive up and it's all true. So then Pam (our realtor) calls Felecia (their realtor) and says they'll be out in 15 minutes. When that time passes we call back, and she says another 15 minutes. Mind you, we've got 30 minutes before we're due to close. So Felecia calls again and says "they've got everything out do the walk-through". We go in. These are a few of the pictures I took.

Mind you, the whole time we're there Pam is on the phone with Felecia and the homeowner (who apparently left so she could find a new place to stay...TODAY) telling them the condition, like 4 kids are in the house with the huge rottie trying to clean up a little bit but then ended up just sitting on their asses when they could hear us saying that we weren't going to accept it. Their realtor was trying to convince us to go to closing and accept the house (like I said, the seller signed yesterday) and they'd have it cleaned out by tonight. Oh yeah, like we're going to do that. Then Pam called our lawyer who says that if the seller doesn't release us from closing on the house today that we are actually in default since she already signed. Felecia said that the seller would sign the paper, but it looks like we'll close on Monday morning. I'm not surprised. I've always known this would go like this which is why I was so quiet the whole way through and then I went and jinxed myself by posting the picture last night. The house is in shambles. Shambles. Mircea took the entire weekend off work (several grand mind you) we got all the utilities switched over, and I have two days off next week. Our whole house is packed.

I need a pity party. I'll update you as I know more but I had to document this as it is simply unbelievable. How's that for robbing us of all of the joy of our first home together.

And yet part of me feels so much sympathy for them. They are basically getting kicked out of their house and didn't even have a place lined up to live. But then I don't feel bad because they always knew they couldn't afford this place and got in over their heads. It was so bad, I can't even describe. These are just a couple of the pictures I took on my phone. It was bad. Bad bad bad.

Homeowner's Eve

2008-10-23T21:40:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is a big day for us. We'll do the final walk-through in the morning and then head over to the title company for closing. The seller is actually doing their paperwork today so it will be interesting. We're a little concerned about the condition of the house but we'll find out at the walk-through. Hopefully they didn't make a big mistake by damaging anything because Mircea and I are completely prepared to walk away if they did any damage to the house. No worrying now though, I'll deal with it tomorrow.

So I probably won't be blogging for awhile, but when I come back I should have pictures of the house (taken by moi) and hopefully no moving horror stories. Here's the outdoor picture of the house from the listing, but don't worry, we'll make it prettier and give it a paint update (in the spring).

Wish us luck!

Movie Review: 88 Minutes

2008-10-21T09:50:00.002-04:00

ZERO STARS!

This movie, 88 Minutes, starting Al Pacino and a host of B list celebrities, was terrible. Laughable.

Ridiculous. Stupid. Do you even want to know anymore?

The premise of this movie is that this forensic psychologist's testimony put a man in jail for a brutal rape/torture (yes, the movie opened with this and it was uncomfortable). Well, fast forward 9 years and it's the day the man is to be executed and all of a sudden another murder with the same M.O. happens. Which of course raises doubt that this man was the real killer and he gets a stay of execution. Well Al Pacino gets a phone call and says "you have 88 minutes to live" and for the next roughly 100 minutes we watch what could best be described as this guy's "worst day ever" and it's laughable, ridiculous, and corny. We only finished the movie because we had to know what happened. Let's just say it was dumb. Really really really dumb. OMG it was dumb. So the movie ends, and I turn on Monday Night Football and feel a little better. But still, it's on the list of terrible movies like Wicker Man and Twisted. Blech!

This Made ME Hoot

2008-10-17T11:59:00.000-04:00

more animals

The Kids

2008-10-16T05:38:00.000-04:00

Most of my friends have human children. I have fur babies, and at this point in my life, I'm happy with that, except when they are vomiting, flinging their litter around or, horror of horrors, spraying pretty much everything in sight (damned Yukie). So I wanted to share some pictures of the little cuties. They really are a joy to have in my life, despite their fur and nagging. They are all unique and I hope that when I have human children they take on some of the characteristics of these little guys. I might have already posted this photo. I don't get many of Lily because she is pretty much always doing the same napping pose and when I get close she wakes up and makes a sleepy cute face. Pretty much every picture. Mircea walked into the kitchen a couple days ago only to find Fernie up in a basket that sits on top of the cupboards. So cute. She was pretty much yelling at us while we took the picture. All the cats do this, but I happened to get this picture of Fern during her dinner where she pretty much had her head buried in her food dish. They love that Fancy Feast.Yukon getting "in" to the catnip. They were wild that night. I have a video to post later.Yukon is a Steelers fan, which can be a problem in a Colts-Eagles household, but we manage. He grew up in a Steelers house, so I thought it was only fair that he could represent. So I bought him a little hankerchief which he proudly wears on game days. So cute, with the exception of my stringy wet hair and glowing red eye scaring up the photo.He fell asleep about halfway through the game. He has his own room, which is the bathroom, and all that stimulation from the game got him going. I often have to touch him to make sure his is breathing because he is always just sort of zonking out and he really gets some deep sleep.

Hope you enjoyed the dorky photos!

Seen On the Way to Base

2008-10-15T08:38:00.002-04:00

While I understand the theory behind this license plate (Devil Dog- Marine Corps) I think it is a bit much. I mean, come on, who puts the number of the Beast on their license plate? That's all, I just thought it was taking things a little too far.

Paint Colors

2008-10-14T06:42:00.001-04:00

I'm trying to make some paint decisions and it is literally killing me (no, I did not mean figuratively) as I consider all the options. I have to paint every inch of the new house (in an underwhelming announcement we close next Friday-but it can still fall through, no jinxing, I am not partying until keys in hand...and the party will be awhile b/c i have a lot of work to do) and I just don't know scheme I want for the place. I know I want neutral tones for the living room and general "all house" color. So I think I've finally determined the living room color (sort of a latte-it's called "Wicker". Whatever, this is all unimportant. I need you, kind reader, to help me make a decision. I am totally married to having a green bedroom. Sort of a dill but it's called pine needle. Married to this. Except I found a beautiful blue color that I like and then I love the idea of having a slightly less blue bathroom to complement it because that would be nice and peaceful for the tub. Light green doesn't seem as soothing. Help help help. What do you think? I can't have the green bedroom with the blue bathroom, that just seems wrong. And the bedroom is the second room I have to paint as that and the living room are pretty much the only rooms that will have furniture in them because the house is such an upgrade in size. Oy.

I've got one picture I can share, and it's a horrible tease because it's the only picture I've taken of the house and it was just so I would remember what color the kitchen counter is. And although it looks gray and you'd think the Wicker theme wouldn't work, it has beige flecks in it to stay neutral. And yes, it's only the counter, but I'll post pictures (before and after) once we move in...oh how I'm counting the days. It's 10 more days...

It's That Time of Year Again

2008-10-13T17:59:00.000-04:00

Yes, Ye Olde Renassaince Faire. I believe I mentioned last year in the aforementioned post that I hate the Renn Faire. Hate it. Robyn's husband went the first year, but last year he boycotted stating that he would "Never ever go again". I followed suit last year and said the very same thing, in a much higher voice. Alas, when Robyn asked us to go this year, I made the crucial mistake of not simply telling her "no way in hell" and asked Mircea if he would like to go. He said "oh yes" in an even higher pitched voice. Plus, we haven't seen Robyn in a long time, and Ben moved up to D.C. a couple months ago, so it is best that we spend some time with them. And then Mircea drops this little b.s. bomb on me. "Kate, I want to work next weekend so I won't be able to go to Renn Fest. But after work I'm going to go watch the Eagles game at a friend's house." Are you effing kidding me? So now I'm going to the damned Renn Fest without my stud muffin. I'm swearing, vowing, promising...NO MORE DAMNED RENN FEST.

**I wrote this the night before we went to the Renn Fest. It's just how I remembered it, but not as hot as last year, thank goodness. And, my Skinny German wasn't there, which is total b.s. since that is pretty much the only thing I was slightly interested in. Also, darned Lindsay made mention of a fried Oreo (that she'd never had either) and I was obsessed with the idea of having one. So Ben's girlfriend and I got some fried treats-some Oreo's and a Twinkie. We each took a bite from the Twinkie and it was trash-worthy, and the Oreo's only redeeming feature is that there was chocolate in it. Our verdict: Underwhelming. Don't waste the calories. I really don't want to go back again, but somehow I have a feeling I'll get drug there. Whatever. It's $12.50. Oh and lest we forget, I missed watching the Colts kick the pants off the Ravens, which is great living near Baltimore. Yeah we stole them, and then we brought them back to kick your butt!!

Cooking Catch-Up

2008-10-11T05:29:00.005-04:00

I'm not going to pretend that everything I've made in the last few weeks looks wildly appealing. Or that my pictures are very good (I really like my old camera) . But the food was all pretty darned delicious. I'll share some of the recipes, some aren't mine to share.

I decided that I wanted to have some italian food, other than pasta with sauce. I decided that there was no reason I couldn't bread tofu, bake it, and put a little pasta sauce on it. It was awesome. In the oven the tofu sort of took on a cheesy sort of texture and flavor and it really seemed like a huge mozzarella stick. I put a little Follow Your Heart Mozzarella on it and it was just delicious. Easy peasy. I popped it in the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes, flipping halfway through. Oh man, that was so good. I had that last night.
I have no idea what this is. I think is is tofu, zucchini, squash, and maybe some tomatoes. Whatever it was, it's pretty and colorful and I guarantee tasty because if I don't like it, it goes into the compost.

This is that herb soup I posted about from Veganomicon. It was good but I had an overload of dill so it was a bit much. Those crackers in there are the Everything crackers from Trader Joe's. They are a must buy.
I have to shout out to Lindsay that she opened my eyes to the idea of a vegetable fajita. I don't like peppers. Oh wait, I never had them. I don't like green peppers, but red and yellow are really good. These were my super colorful fajitas with a lot of avocado on there. And I didn't have sliced olives, so I just threw some whole ones on there. DELICIOUS!!
From Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. My "poop icing" version of a chocolate on chocolate cupcake. Tastes like Heaven. HEAVEN.
This is the pineapple quinoa meal from Veganomicon. I thought it was ok. I like the quinoa but this left a lot to be desired. I blame myself b/c I didn't have all the fresh ingredients, but such is life.
This last one is Rodica's (Mircea's mama) version of potato salad. It basically consists of black olives, tomatoes, green onions, cucumber, red pepper, olive oil, salt and a little vinegar. It is awesome, except I don't like cucumber or red pepper (raw) but she was here and it was her special request. Seriously, it is delicious. Plus, it's the best part of being vegan-potato salad you don't have to refridgerate. Is that really the best part? Maybe.

Friday Funny

2008-10-10T05:33:00.001-04:00

I found a new blog that cracked me up. This is the blog of unnecessary quotations. Always a "good" time.

Enjoy!

Check Out This Little Gem

2008-10-09T06:24:00.001-04:00

I was talking to Marc today and he asked if I had seen the website called Cake Wrecks. I hadn't, but I spent a little time this afternoon laughing my butt off at some of these cakes. Hilarious!!

Here's one that I ran across, not the funniest one, but it had Eagles on it, so it was a shoutout to my sweetie. I've also included the commentary.

You know your mom is cheap when...you have to share your own birthday cake. With a boy. (Yeah, I'm taking Ashley's side. Why? Because a) she likes Disney stuff, b) she's enduring what I'm assuming must be a sports logo on her birthday cake, and c) she's a girl. But mostly the Disney thing.)I like the unintentional irony of having Eeyore on the cake, though. A glum donkey for a glum-ass cake - it's quite appropriate. Still, I have a few questions:

1) Since the "Eagles" logo is blue, why is the icing green?

2) Can anyone see the colors green & purple together and NOT think of either Mardi Gras or the Joker?

3) How come Glen gets his name capitalized, but not Ashley?

4) Did anyone else first read this as "Happy ashley Birthday Glen"?

5) Doesn't Glen's side look bigger? Hey, I think it IS bigger. Mo-oooommm!!!

My First Curry

2008-10-08T10:47:00.002-04:00

Last night I decided to go on a journey to India. So I put on my jammies, went into the kitchen, and pulled out my Penzey's Sweet Curry and looked around my kitchen for what I could flavor. There were really only three things I had at the ready, but my meal turned out awesome. All I did was chop up 4-5 shallots, 4 red potatoes, and a package of Trader Joe's extra firm tofu. I got a big ol' skillet and heated up a tiny bit of coconut oil and pan fried the whole lot of it (after sprinkling some curry power on). It took FOREVER because it's kind of hard to pan fry raw potatoes. It turned out awesome though and I just added a little salt when it was done. I didn't take a picture because I was so hungry yesterday, but I'll take a picture next time I do it. Any suggestions for the potatoes? Do I have to boil them first or just cut them really small?

Feeling Blessed

2008-10-06T19:10:00.004-04:00

I am one who usually rants. I know, you're surprised at that revelation. I want to take a moment to share with my readers (all 3 of you) the things in my life that make me feel blessed.

Wonderful friends. Some old, some new, some local, some far away, you are all so special to me and I thank you for the gift of your friendship.

A good job. In this time of financial strain and struggle I am thankful that I have a career that affords me less worry than some others may have during the struggles of our economy.

My wonderful pets. I am so thankful that they found their ways into my life and I consider every day with them a gift. The three of them are unique and bring me great joy...most of the time. When Yukon is lost, Lily is whining and Fernie is puking I'm annoyed, but I am thankful for their friendship as well. I love being their "Mommy".

My family. We're not close, but we try our best with each other and I'm thankful for the relationship that we do have. I love my father very much and appreciate the sacrifices he gave for my well-being.

My Mircea. We've had our ups and downs, but he truly is the love of my life. Our relationship has grown in our time together and I look forward to our future. And he's a cutie pie

My health. Despite what often feels like falling apart, I am doing alright and have no terrible damage. A bum knee, a chubby rear end, terrible allergies, and allergy on-set asthma isn't going to kill me, and there seem to be solutions for all of them. Sadly, it's not donuts.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day and remembering to count your blessings. I forget a lot of the time, and I hope to remind myself more often.

I'm a Little Freaked Out

2008-10-03T11:43:00.003-04:00

I am going to have knee surgery. I haven't scheduled it yet because 1.) I'm terrified and 2.) They call me to schedule it and I just had my appointment today. 3.) See 1.

I went to see an orthopedist today who said that the problem with my knee isn't all the jazz that can be fixed by PT (which hasn't been working) and that I was born with my knee being out of joint. He said a fair amount of people have this problem, but if they don't run or exercise they won't know it. I hope he's not just trying to snip me, but he seemed to be sure it would be easy, outpatient and should help me resume my normal activities. But I'm still terrified. And I will be awake, and I'm even allowed to watch, which I most likely will not be doing as I will definitely be vomiting on myself. I can't watch anything that resembles a surgery or opening up of a body, or...oh, I can't talk about it. Seriously, had to put the computer down and put my head between my knees for a second.

I'll probably schedule the surgery for mid November, which shouldn't interfere with some other stuff going on in my life. I need to be able to climb stairs because I will not always live in a 1 story house. (Or will I?-see not jinxing)

Ok, enough of that. On a side note I pretty much followed the receptionist all the way from her house to the orthopedist. She lives a street over from me I guess and I just noticed b/c she drove a Prius, but I was on her ass and kept making all the turns she made, and then we walked in together. I asked her how many MPGs she gets...her answer: 40. What is the point? I get at least 50, at 40 y0u could have just driven a Civic. People, you've got to learn the techniques. She should be ashamed.

As If I Don't Disclose Enough

2008-10-02T15:30:00.003-04:00

Chantelle tagged me to particpate in this meme. Like I don't tell you random stuff all day, but in the spirit of bloggyness (it's a spirit) I'm all up for participating. (oh and chantelle, i share your number 1, big time. it's weird)

The Rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog. Some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as linking to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The stuff...

1. I remember so much about random people in my life that it borders on obession. I remember conversations with random people in classes, remember their names, etc. I can't remember what I did at work yesterday, but I remember the day that Beth Bringle wore the same shirt as me. WTH?

2. I am always afraid of "jinxing" something. I won't talk about the football game (Purdue/Indy) on the day of, I will always speak in hypotheticals regarding sports, raises, large purchases, etc. I will NOT relax this whole house thing until I have keys in hand. (and i won't say anymore about the house because I'm afraid of jinxing it. Seriously, I had more written here and had to delete it because I was too afraid to share)

3. I have two classics that I sing in the shower. Consistently. They are Rhythm of the Rain and Last Kiss (not pearl jam's version-well, not always). If I'm home alone in the shower I will belt these two songs out. And I remember the first time I sang them in the shower at my house in Goshen. There's number 1 coming into play. I also cry every time I hear Last Kiss on the radio, like sobbing, blubbering tears.

4. I want to have a male child. And I want to name him James. So when I sing James Taylor's Baby James it will mean more. I'm not kidding.

5. I think that I should be on a game show. I am super good at trivia and I always kick ass at Cash Cab and Jeopardy! Jeopardy being the more difficult one, but I just know random shit.

6. I use waaaay too much toilet paper. I feel bad about it too because I know it isn't environmentally friendly, but I use the awesome charmin and lots of it.

7. I want to go back to school to be a veternarian. I've looked up all the prereqs and I really want to go to school again for it. And I'm not sure why I didn't go the first time around. I think it is because my parents were telling me they weren't paying for school and I just went to college to be with my then boyfriend. Guess I got lucky because I did very well at Purdue and now I have a great job, but I didn't really follow my dreams because no one really ever instilled that "sky's the limit" mentality in me. Whatever, I can push James (the son I don't have) into following my dreams so I can live vicariously through him. That's good parenting.

I'm too lazy to tag people. If you feel like posting this, please do so. If not, you're a spoilsport.

Ha!

Ugh

2008-09-30T18:45:00.003-04:00

Yes, this happened in my town. In my neighborhood, less than a mile from me. And it is terrible and there is a special place in hell for people who abuse/kill/hurt children. No one knew where Lusby was, and now it's the place where evil lived. Sick.

I've been dreaming about eating meat a lot. Which is weird. Last night I had a dream where Jim and Pam (from the Office-not the actors, the actual characters) took me to Burger King and I got a double cheeseburger. And had my hair petted by Jim. Ahhh, lovely.

I also dreamed that I was looking for a place to tinkle. And kept finding places (one was the Burger King bathroom) but couldn't seem to pee. I finally found a quiet place in the basement of a courthouse (whatever, I'd driven my motorcycle there) and was just about to relax enough to pee when...the alarm went off. I'm pretty sure I was one second from wetting the bed b/c I really had to go when I woke up. Not sure why I'm sharing this, but I guess it's easier to wet the bed as an adult than I expected. Especially since the only time I've EVER wet the bed was when I was on medication the first night I was in San Diego. Yeah, I wet my jammies a little and the hotel bed...but moved the next night and washed my jams, so it wasn't so bad. It was only a little!!! Why am I admitting these things? Katey Piss Pants!

I made some lentil soup from Veganomicon. No good. Does anyone have a good lentil soup recipe? I admit, I thought it would taste better with some ham, but God knows I don't want that.

I am obsessed with Metallica lately. Yeah, I know, whatever.

Too Much Drama Today

2008-09-24T20:37:00.004-04:00

Today our little town had some "big city issues". You can read a little blurb here. Basically, a woman who worked at a local bank was kidnapped from her house at gunpoint (with her two small children) forced to drive two armed men to the bank where she worked and told to rob the bank. She did as requested, and the gunmen dropped her and her family off in a parking lot, and then ditched her car a few miles away where they got into another car and haven't been found. The victims are fine, called the police and an all-out manhunt began. Actually it began earlier than her release, as the bank teller who assisted her at the bank (they were coworkers) called the police as well. So ALLLLLLLLLL the roads in St. Mary's county were blocked off, stopping anyone from going out. They had helicopters everywhere, and they kept coming back to base to refuel and it was very creepy. The problem for me? Well, I had my allergy appointment today, over the bridge in Calvert county (where I live). Well, the news reported that they'd closed the bridge. So I left waaay early and got to pass all this drama as it was still happening. I had to go through several "armed" check points but since I was in a white prius and not a black nissan it was a little easier to get through. I get to the bridge and it's open...but there was a 4 car pile-up on it, so it was still slow, but nothing like the detour I might have had to take. It was very dramatic, they haven't caught the suspects, but the victims are fine, though shaken up. The area is really getting a little scary lately, especially in a "triangle" of crime, from area roads.

As for the allergy test-I don't have the full list of everything I'm allergic to because they are mailing it, but out of the 31 allergens they tested for, I was allergic to 28 of them. Cats, dogs, molds, all plants, dust, all the good ones. I am now drugged up to help with the allergies and related asthma, so we'll see how it goes. I may be getting allergy shots, but we aren't planning that for a few months because I have a lot on my plate right now and we want to see how the meds work. So sorry Lily, you can't sleep with me anymore. And by sleep I mean, kick and scratch me all night, pushing me into Daddy who yells at ME for being a bedhog when it's really your rolley poley body. But I'll let you in when Daddy works late, don't worry!

Lots of Miles on My Car

2008-09-23T17:18:00.002-04:00

I had quite a long weekend. With a lot of driving. On Friday I drove up to Northern Virginia to see Lindsay and her family. About 30 minutes in I got a call from our Realtor and had to turn around to go sign a paper, so I was a little sidetracked. I finally got to Lindsay's and we went to Sunflower cafe again for lunch, which is the vegan restaurant. So good. I got the same meal again (the bento box) and Linds got this avacado and jicama sandwich which was also really good. Then we went to Penzeys, which is a spice store. I about died with excitement. It was like the best place ever. Then we went to Trader Joes to pick up some Lambrusca. Delicious! Our last stop was Cake Love, which is a cupcake/cake place in the mall. They had vegan cupcakes, which is nice, but I will confess...I didn't choose the vegan cupcakes. I didn't. None of them were chocolate so what is the damned point? So yes, I ate some eggs and milk. And butter. AWESOME. The terrible flatulance after, not so much, but delicious at the time! I thought the cupcakes I make are a little better, but whatever. Probably the guilt factor added to that. Then we came home and went out with her husband and son to the local Mexican place. Yummers!

The next day was my day with her son. We were planning to go to the Air and Space Museum, but at the last minute he decided he wanted to go to the Marine Corps Museum, which we'd been to before. Good for me because it was super close, but I still want to take him up to the Udvar-Hazy. Maybe next time. Then we had a nice lunch at Burger King (his request) and he was very happy with the toy in his kids meal, even if it wasn't the Dragon that he wanted. Then we went to Wegman's to do a homework assignment for him, and then we were back at the house. Fun fun. Shortly after that I left...and I left my steam cleaner there because Lindsay's husband was still using it since I'd offer it's awesomeness to them. So I get home after the 2 hour drive. Oh, and Lily had vomited everywhere. Nice. So I had to clean that up sans steam cleaner. Whatever...still had a little stain. On Sunday, Yukon wasn't feeling well at all, and I ended up spending the day with him, watching him and consoling him. He had an infected tooth following his tooth extraction last week. Great. Well it went into Monday and I took him to the vet and they gave him meds. Which he threw up as soon as we got home. Making a HUGE mess. So I called Lindsay and the best option was that I was going to drive all the way back up there to get the steam cleaner because I desperatly needed it. So I drove ALL THE WAY UP THERE AGAIN. Got there, peed, and turned right around. Crazy. But the carpet looks great!

Please Respond as You See Fit

2008-09-18T13:37:00.005-04:00

This was recently brought to my attention through an email from peta. Do not read if you are faint of heart, and certainly don't view the video.

I don't think everyone should be Vegan. I don't think that people shouldn't eat meat and that ALL farmers treat their products this way. What I do think, is that large conglomerate companies are much harder to keep track of and employ individuals that aren't "farmers" but "factory workers". This abuse of animals is terrible, terrible, terrible, and while I believe that is is an anomoly and not the norm, I certainly won't be purchasing products from Hormel until I hear that the inviduals involved have been terminated and their practices changed. Whether you care about the treatment of animals or not, the fact that workers urinated into the areas where they feed the animals may be of interest to you.

Again, please don't take this as terrible propaganda but I felt it was my responsibility to get the word out to my small circle of friends that Hormel wasn't such a great place to get your meat products. I know Mircea will cry b/c I won't buy him Dinty Moore anymore, but I know that our tastebuds aren't worth the pain inflicted on those animals that provide us life sustaining nourishment.

Off my soapbox, but this just boils my blood and makes me afraid of the world we live in where humans could treat ANYTHING this way.

UPDATE: I received the following email in response to my letter to Hormel. They are saying that they are not the owners of the hog farms, but indicating that they are suppliers for Hormel. They also provided a link. I am not sure if this completely apeases me, but in fairness, they did respond.

A video was released the evening of September 16, 2008 that showed images from a
hog farm in Iowa. It is important to note that the farm in the video is not a
Hormel Foods' farm and the people are not Hormel Foods' employees.
We find
the images in this video appalling and they are inconsistent with our standards
and industry standards for animal handling.
The abuse on the video depicted
practices that are completely unacceptable.
We expect all current suppliers
to adhere to the proper animal handling standards from day one and continue to
do so throughout our relationship.
We are working with our supplier to ensure
this activity is no longer taking place, and they are investigating this matter
and will take appropriate disciplinary actions, including terminating
employees.
Underscoring our company's zero tolerance policy, we have in the
past terminated employees, truckers and contracts with producers when animal
welfare issues have arisen.
Animal welfare and animal husbandry have always
been top priority at Hormel Foods. This is simply about treating animals
humanely because it's the right thing to do. We take our zero tolerance policy
for the inhumane treatment of animals very seriously and have implemented many
standards outlined in our responsibility report :
http://www.hormelfoods.com/responsibility/process/animalWelfare.aspx.
Rochelle
Kroc
Manager Of Consumer Response