My Little Buddy

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

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

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!

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!

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

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

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.