Product Review: Banana Nut Cheerios aka Heaven Sent Cereal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!