Guard dog

Look at Red. She's keeping an eye on my mirror which I am currently repainting. Good girl!

A day at the museum

We spent a few hours at the Columbus Art Museum. Admission was free and we focused on the kid-centric stuff. We were hoping to find a post card with a series of paintings in the museum for a scavenger hunt, but there were none. First, we hit this little table that lets you build/create anything you want out of twist ties. The hubster made a knight with sword and the stepson made a sword and shuriken (of course!). But what did I make?

Corn! Because I couldn't think of anything else.





At least the step son could guess what it was. Hubster fail! I think it looks pretty damn good.

I love fresh lemonade

I bought the glass jars with rubber stoppers the last time we were at Ikea. They are great for storing simple syrup and lemonade. Ive been having fresh squeezed lemonade with se of my meals and it's quite refreshing. I like mine a little watered down and not too sweet. It's great for these hot summer days.

Dog picture of the day

I wonder what's she so sad about.




Being stuck inside while Egg Roll gets to sit outside with mommy and daddy unleashed!

Get In My Belly - July 30, 2011

Breakfast

• 1 plain bagel with cream cheese
• Coffee

Lunch

• Turkey sandwich
• Sour cream and onion potato chips

Dinner

• Teriyaki chicken
• White rice
• Corn on the cob
• Small salad

Snacks

• Small dipped cone from Dairy Queen
• 1 peach

Morning run

5.04 miles and I felt like I was going to die. Not promising for November. I thought running in the morning would be the best time to run in this Ohio summer heat, but it's just never a good time to run in the summer. I went running at 9 perhaps not early enough. It was the hardest 5 miles I've ever done and definitely my sweatiest. I had sweat running down my legs which never happens. It's this fucking humidity.

Time to stretch and shower.

Get In My Belly - July 29, 2011

Breakfast

• 1 onion bagel with cream cheese
• Coffee

Lunch

• Soup, salad, and bread sticks at Olive Garden

Dinner

• Chipotle steak quesadilla
• Chips and guacamole

Snacks

• 1/2 peach

Batman!

Apparently, a couple of bats decided to hang out in the corner of the new building where one of the entrances is. One is up high in the corner and another is like 6-7 ft off the ground. It's a little too close for comfort. Like at any moment, it's going to wake up and attack me. I do not want rabies!

I snuck outside to take some pictures. I had a coworker come with me to hit the bat if it attacked me.

Bad Daughter Take 2

Remember how my mom called and scolded me for not sending a Father's day card 2 days before Father's day when in fact I did send a card and it did arrive on time for Father's day?

Well, my dad's birthday is on August 2.  I dropped the card off in the mail box yesterday.  It should get there on time, but we'll see if my mom calls again.

Third Anniversary

The hubster and I always end up going back home to visit my family in August which is right around our wedding anniversary.  August is just a nice time to go back and I find the flights to be cheaper that time of year.  This will be our third anniversary and so far we've done something for everyone.  The first one we went to Walt Disney World in Florida.  The second my parents paid for our hotel in Vegas.  This year will be no different, but on a much smaller scale.  We'll be spending two days and one night at...

As a couple, we've gone at least 2-3 times.  We haven't gone the past few times back to Southern California, so we're due.  We're also hitting up:

For the first time.  When we went to Florida, we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge because the hubster loves Disney and loves to stay on property.  It is convenient and part of the Disney experience.  When we decided to do this short overnight trip, we had talked about where to stay.  There are a lot of options since we'll have one of my parent's cars.  My concern was about cost, location, and parking.  The hubster had brought up staying on property, but Disneyland is nothing in size compared to Disneyworld.  There really isn't an "on-property".  I indulged him and looked up the rates and they were out of our budget.  We tabled that idea and looked into the Anaheim Hilton since I had stayed there before.  It was in walking distance and relatively inexpensive.  I was still holding off on booking because we still hadn't really decided.

Two nights ago, I broached the subject with the hubster again and looked up rates on hotels.com.  Look what  popped up at a significant discount.

So this is where we'll be staying one night at.  It's still more than I would like to spend, but it makes the hubster happy and he's done so well in school and it's his anniversary too.  I'm trying to plan out our itinerary while at the parks to maximize the hotel's features and get our monies worth.  I am sure this will drive him crazy since he's a more go with the flow kind of guy.  To give him credit, it really is a nice looking hotel and I've jogged past it numerous times when I was there for a conference.  Some pictures:

This picture reminds me so much of the Wilderness Lodge in Florida.

I will be taking advantage of this pool.

I also booked dinner reservations at the Napa Rose inside the hotel.  The reservation is at 8:00, but I'm thinking I should move it up so we don't miss the fireworks.  Every time we've gone, we've always left early since we were so tired and also had to drive back down to San Diego.  Maybe this time I'll be able to relax and enjoy the day and not stress out about hitting up all the big rides.  I have been enough times that I shouldn't really care, but it's that whole getting my monies worth thing again.

Get In My Belly - July 28, 2011

Breakfast

• Kashi Go Lean protein bar

Lunch

• White chicken chili
• Corn bread muffin
• Baby carrots

Dinner

• Slice of Costco combo pizza

Snack

• 1/2 cheesecake brownie
• 1/2 caramel walnut brownie
• 1/2 peach

Plans/Goals for the weekend

Things I'd like to accomplish/do this weekend:

• Start Debbie's baby book
• Donate 2 bikes
• Disassemble the entertainment center in the Florida room
• Attend golf lesson
• Run 5+ miles
• Go on a bike ride with the hubster and stepson

Dog picture of the day

Gerber Commericals

Really freak me out.  It's like the worst editing I have seen in a while.  I have to change the channel when I see one.  It's even worse than the diaper commercial with the cartoon babies having blow outs.

Gives me the willies and makes me never want to buy Gerber brand baby food.

Success! New Albany Farmer's Market

I had to leave work early today for a meeting and was able to get to the Farmer's market by 5. Wow, what a difference an hour makes. There were so many more vendors and goods available there. So what does $35 buy you at a Farmer's market?






That's 10 bagels, 1/4 peck of peaches, one loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread, one bulb of garlic, one vegetable focaccia, one cookie, and two brownies (not shown)






Bagels from the Bagel Tree. What I've been waiting a whole week for. They smell so good and I can't wait to try one tomorrow. The hubster and I tried a sample plain bagel and it was delicious. Nice and chewy, I want to eat a whole one now, but I just ate dinner.






From left to right: top row - whole wheat, onion, salt x 2, sesame. Bottom row - onion, everything, plain, sesame, plain






Vegetable focacia - it just looked really good and I was hungry.







Garlic because I love garlic and cooking with it.





1/4 peck of peaches from Branstool orchards. I feel like I'm betraying Lynd's, but this was more convenient and right in front of me. Also can't wait to eat one. They smell divine.







One triple chocolate cookie. It's missing his two friends, cheesecake brownie and caramel walnut brownie which the hubster and I ate after dinner. I, of course, forgot to take a picture. Surprisingly, the caramel walnut was much much better than the cheesecake brownie. I have high hopes for the cookie.






And finally bread from the Lucky Cat Bakery. This is the same bread that I bought last week. I made 5 sandwiches from this loaf, and they were delicious.

I had brought $40 to the market and I'm surprised at how fast I spent it. I can see bagels and bread as weekly purchases. I'll have to expand my purchases and try the veggies sometime this summer.

Get In My Belly - July 27, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 sesame bagel with peanut butter

Lunch

• Turkey sandwich
• Sour cream and onion chips
• Baby carrots
• Greek yogurt
• Pickle

Dinner

• Spaghetti and meatballs
• Small salad

Snacks

• Small glass of chocolate milk

Sweaty Beast

That is what I am. Went on another run tonight and I came home a wet and sweaty monster. So disgusting, but felt so good. I ran my fastest 5k since the end of lacrosse season. This is my third night in a row of exercising and I realized that I need more exercise clothes. I sweat much more now that I'm 28 as opposed to when I was in college. Maybe I wasn't pushing myself as hard as I do now. Well, I'm about to admit to something that I hope others also do, but don't tell anyone (*cough* Vail, Meg *cough*). I sometimes rewear my workout clothes if I didn't sweat too much. Mainly sports bras and shorts. Unfortunately, I don't think I can do that anymore since the last three nights my shorts have been soaked through with sweat. I'm about to break the shopping ban again to restock. I did receive a $10 Dick's gift certificate and a $10 coupon to Sports Authority. Very tempting. I need it though!

Epitome of Laziness or ...

bad customer service?

The hubster loves Hollister clothes for me.  I indulge him by buying some items of clothing there, but what gets me is their lack of customer service.  I shouldn't be surprised since they are part of the Abercrombie and Fitch family and I hate A&F (another shitty customer service story from like 4 years ago which I'm pretty sure I have not spent one cent inside that particular store).  I'm pretty sure they are trained this way because right when you come in, you're greeted with "Hey, what's up?", not "Welcome to Hollister, blah blah blah".  I'm not in high school anymore and I'm not your friend.  Don't talk to me that way.  I guess I am not their target market, but whatever. Would they say that to me if I looked like a mom?

Anyway, it's become customary for cashiers to ask for your phone number or email or some other personal information when you check out.  You give it them and they punch it into their registers.  Do you know what Hollister does?  "Well make sure you visit out kiosk and enter in your email".  Huh?  You want me to take extra time to walk over to your kiosk to give you information which you will them use to spam me with near lewd advertisements or turn around and sell to some other company.  Ummm, no thanks.

Get In My Belly - July 26, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 sesame bagel with peanut butter
• Coffee

Lunch

• White chicken chili
• 1 corn bread muffin
• Tortilla chips
• 1 banana

Dinner

• 4 ribs and french fries

Snacks

• Rainier cherries
• Small glass of chocolate milk

Herb Report

Here's an update on my herb/tomato "garden".

The tomato plant is doing really well.  I can't believe it used to look like a little sprout.  When I first re-potted it, I didn't think it was going to make it, but look at it now!



I need to buy one of those wire mess cages to wrap around it.  I think it's getting big enough for one.

Here's a picture of the rest of them:




Unfortunately, not all of them are doing as well as the tomato.  The mint, basil, and dill are thriving.  The parsley and oregano haven't really changed, but the chive and cilantro are hurting.  The chive just keeps shedding more and more.  I really need to re-pot it again.  I don't know what's wrong with the cilantro though.  It was doing great and then the stems bent during a bad storm.  I thought maybe the bent stems were causing a reduction in water, but the damn thing keeps producing more flowers, but no leaves.  I did prune it right after the storm and cut about a third of it off like I read on the internet to do, but still no leaves.  I don't want to give up on it because it's the one herb that I use the most of since I started eating white chicken chili again.  I won't buy another one for the summer, but I'll take more care next year in pruning it so it doesn't get too tall and risk structural damage to the stem.

Bleh then... Ahhhh

You ever have one of those meals where you just have this urge to just work it off because it puts you in a bad food coma?

I had one tonight.  It wasn't even that big of a meal.  Ribs and fries.  It just sat so heavy in my stomach that I had to go on a run.  4.5 miles.  It felt good afterwards.  Multiply that times three and there is my half marathon.  Too bad I'm just getting slower and slower.

Get In My Belly - July 25, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 sesame bagel with peanut butter
• Coffee
• 1 banana

Lunch

• Turkey sandwich
• Sour cream and onion potato chips
• Baby carrots
• Greek yogurt
• Pickle

Dinner

• Teriyaki chicken
• Corn on the cob
• Veggie kabobs

Snacks

• 4 Skittles
• 1 banana
• 1 peanut butter Hershey Kiss cookie

Spin Class

So I put my new padded bike shorts to the test today. It took a Herculean effort to even get me there. I'm just in a slump. Anyway, my legs nearly fell off and my ass still hurt a lot. Spinning is a catch 22. Sitting in the saddle makes my ass hurt, but standing up hurts my legs. So yeah, there is no happy place in spinning. My butt does hurt, but definitely not as bad as it did the first time or more recently down the mountain in Vail.

I think the shorts were definitely worth the money and it'll help keep me going consistently which is what I need.

I'm getting old

No really, I am. I had my first confusing moment with technology. I joined Twitter and I'm completely lost. My user id is @Elaine_san_cmh. Did I do that right? Or is it a #? Anyway, I'm about to look up a YouTube video on how to use it.

Is this what my mom felt when she started emailing and texting? Eep.

Get In My Belly - July 24, 2011

Breakfast

• None

Lunch

• Turkey sandwich on whole wheat sourdough
• Baby carrots
• Sour cream and onion potato chips

Dinner

• Chipotle steak quesadilla
• Tortilla Chips

Snacks

• 1 Banana
• Bowl of vanilla ice cream
• 1/2 can of Cherry Pepsi

Get In My Belly - July 23, 2011

Breakfast

• Kashi Go Lean Protein Bar

Lunch

• 1 Burger King Rodeo burger
• French fries
• 1/2 slice of Costco cheese pizza
• 1/4 fruit smoothie

Dinner

• White chicken chili
• 2 cornbread muffins

Snacks

• 1 peanut butter Hershey kiss cookie
• 8 Rainier cherries

When silliness ensues ...

Trying out a clearanced sleeping bag at Dicks. It's rated for -15 degrees. It was quite toasty and almost ours for $30, but the zipper was broken.

Back to the Future

Will this be me in 10 years? Upgraded from an A4 to an A6 and having personalized plates?

Dog picture of the day

Egg Roll enjoying the new matching foot stool we got this week.

P.s. This doesn't go against the ban because we planned to buy this when we got the chair, but it was sold out!

Epic Fail

Well, it looks like the shopping ban lasted a whole 4 days! What ended our valiant effort? Dick's had an extra 50% off on their clearance items. We buckled under the great deals. Here is what we got:

Nike golf shoes for the hubster - retails for $136, paid $45

Nike golf shoes for me - retails for $100, paid $30
Burton beanie - retails for $25, paid $2

Burton kids snowboard boots - retails for $60, paid $6 (the hubster has plans to eBay them)

North Face jacket - retails for $120, paid $35 (Christmas gift for family member)
North Face backpack - anniversary gift to me from the hubster
Padded bike shorts - $45

Under Armour cleats - $20

But we had a coupon for $40 off $200, so the bike shorts were "free". The jacket is a gift we'll hold on to until Christmas and the bike shorts and cleats are for exercise. The hubster always makes exceptions for exercise and "healthy" expenditures. We didn't go way overboard and it is hard to resist deals. At least it wasn't a $400 coat that broke the ban. I consider this a cheat and doesn't count. As long as we stay good for the rest of the month.

Other good news is that we decided to cut down our eating out to one fast food meal and sit down meal a week, capping at $50 a week. We're well under budget for that since I've been cooking at home a lot more. Baby steps...

Get In My Belly - July 22, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 sesame bagel with peanut butter

Lunch

• Meatball Sandwich - 4 meatballs, whole wheat organic sourdough bread, mozzarella cheese
• Greek yogurt
• Tortilla chips
• Homemade Lemonade

Dinner

• Skyline - 2 cheese coneys and chili cheese fries

Snack

• 1 Lifesaver
• 1 Apple
• 1 Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich

Get In My Belly - July 21, 2011

Breakfast

• Kashi Go Lean Protein Bar
• Coffee

Lunch

• White chicken chili
• Tortilla chips
• Greek yogurt
• Baby carrots
• 1 peanut butter Hershey kiss cookie

Dinner

• Max and Erma's - cup of tortilla soup, cheeseburger, and one cookie

Snack

• 3 peanut butter M&Ms
• 1 twizzler
• 1 apple
• 1 banana

How Disappointing!

After I got home from work yesterday, I rushed to walk the dogs, feed Red, change for Lucky Lax, make sure I had all my reffing stuff, and pack a cooler with ice all so I could make it to the farmer's market and get to Lucky Lax on time at 7 pm.  I hopped back into my car and drove over to the market.  It was a lot smaller than I had expected, but that's ok.  The biggest disappoint was that most everything was sold out or low in stock.  The Bagel Tree which was the main reason I went had sold out of bagels in the first 30 minutes.  I talked with the owner for a few minutes and found out that she just started 2 months ago and this was only their second day in sales.  Selling out so quickly, not too shabby.  So no bagels for me.  Since the markets starts at 4:00, my only option is to send the hubster to get some bagels.  I'll make sure he does this next week.  I really want to try these bagels.  I did manage to salvage the visit by buying a loaf of organic whole wheat sourdough.  It smells really good and I cut off a hunk to eat with my meatballs today for lunch.  I really wanted a turkey sandwich, but by the time I got done dinner with my friend, the grocery store deli was probably closed and I totally forgot to stop by afterwards.

I have to admit that I was a little intimidated by market vendors.  I just quickly walked by each stall.  I didn't even know what I wanted to get.  Aside from the normal vegetables, I wouldn't know what to do with the more less common ones.  I'll have to better prepare for next time.  Definitely not the experience I wanted, but it'll do.

New Albany Farmer's Market

Today is the day.  I feel it.  The day I finally make it to a farmer's market in Columbus.  I have Lucky Lax tonight, but not until 7.  The hubster will not be home any time soon.  He's currently at the museum in Cincinnati. According the website, there is going to be a new bagel vendor there today.  Perfect timing because I only have one bagel left.  I'll have to stop at the bank and get some cash before going home and changing.  Yay, I'm excited. I hope I don't let myself down and end up being a slug at home until Lucky Lax.

Florida Room to Office Space

I have a Florida room in my condo that has served no other purpose, but to hold boxes.  Yes, boxes - boxes from mail order items, boxes from things we buy that come in large boxes.  It fills up with boxes and every so often when I can't stand the sight of so many boxes, they get torn down and put away, and the cycle starts anew.  Then all the torn down boxes which lie flat now increase in number and then eventually get recycled.  I think I'm a closet pack rat or hoarder.  I just keep stuff until I can't stand the clutter or space it takes up and then purge everything.

Anyway, it's a goal of mine to transform this storage room into another office/craft space.  There are a few downsides to this room.

1. Tile floors
2. Two of the four walls consist of nothing but windows
3. We never leave the connecting door open so it's never heated or cooled.  If it does become a habitable, usable space that means an increase in the gas and electricity bill and then it doesn't help that it's 50% windows.

So currently residing in the room is:

• the top half of an old entertainment center (the bottom half remains in our current office as it still serves a purpose for storage and helps frame our drawings)
• a wire shelving rack which stores above mentioned torn down boxes, our snowboard equipment, and some miscellaneous boxes
• 2 bikes
• A random piece from our elliptical machine which we sold
• Snowboard bag
• Boxes that have not been torn down
• 2 sets of golf clubs

The plan and the vision:

I have neither.  Just an idea of what I want to happen.  

• First, we need to get rid of bikes and half the entertainment center.  I'm thinking doing a curb alert on the bikes on Craigslist (one is in good condition - a kids spiderman bike with training wheels, the other doesn't shift).  Even if we tried to sell them on Craigslist, I don't think it's worth the effort for the $30-$40 we would get for them.  
• I want to break down the entertainment center and just drop the pieces off at the dumpsters over in the apartments by where we live.
• Go through the boxes and take the ones we want to keep up to the attic and tear down the rest and RECYCLE them.  I keep thinking we'll need these boxes in the future for some vague reason.  I need to let that idea go and just get rid of the damn things.  If I need a box in the future, I can just buy it.  It's not worth the cycle of saving and throwing away.
• Get rid of unwanted/unneeded items
• Clean the floors - I think we have spiders or something because every time I walk in there, there are the shells of some bugs in the corner with the spider webs.  I'll have to look in to that.  Maybe the bugs will stay away once the room gets more foot traffic
• Buy furniture - I admit we are still Ikea people.  I'm cheap when it comes to furniture.  I have grand ideas to go shopping at antique stores, thrift stores for some great finds, but I'm too lazy and not that lucky.

What kind of furniture?

I really like the Expedit book shelf from Ikea I bought a year ago and use to hold shoes and mail and my purse.

It lies on its side and I have 3 green baskets that sit in the cubbies.  I think it would be a good storage option for the new office.  It's $70, but the baskets go for $10 a piece and for the office, I'd want to fill all the cubbies, so that's an additional $80.  My local Costco had a similar piece that came with the baskets for $100.  Perhaps that would be a better option.

Next would be a desk.  The hubster and I liked this style of desk the last time we were at Ikea.

I like the legs of the white one better, but not sure it's worth $40 extra, but it could be considered extra storage.  The one that we saw on display was more of a drafting desk and had sturdier legs like this:

You can see that these legs allow you to raise one side higher than the other.  The glass top options are $160 and $120.  The legs we like only come in white and birch and the expedit only comes in birch, beech, and black brown.  I'm a fan of dark furniture.  I wouldn't mind white, but it wouldn't match the room.  I like the idea of a frosted glass desktop as well.  Something like this:

The furniture buying won't start until the shopping ban is over and when the room is finally cleared for furniture.  At least that will give me time to better plan things out.  Also, it doesn't hurt to look.

Homeowning for Dummies

Or maybe just common sense 101?

A few months ago, I tossed the top of my motion sensor activated trash can lid on to the floor one day when changing the trash bag.  It never worked quite right again.  It seemed like the mechanism inside the lid didn't have enough torque to open it completely.  Every so often it would open all the way, but just once.  I thought I had broken it when I tossed it to the ground.  The hubster said it was batteries.  I dismissed him because we had just changed the batteries and the last set lasted for over a year.

The other day it just completely died, so I thought I would try to change the batteries.  Even if didn't open all the way, a little crack at least allowed me to push it completely open.  Once I opened up the battery compartment, it all became very apparent what the problem was.  Two of the battery ends were completely corroded.  I'm guessing that the connection was shoddy and that's what was causing the malfunction.  Since we only had two batteries and there were 4 batteries to change, I chose to only change the corroded ones and rearranged the batteries.  And VOILA, it worked.

So yeah, lessons learned... don't always disregard your spouse and change the batteries.

Get in My Belly - July 20, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 sesame bagel with peanut butter

Lunch

• Turkey sandwich
• BBQ potato chips
• Baby carrots
• Greek yogurt

Dinner

• Breakfast bagel sandwich - 2 eggs, 2 turkey sausage links, colby jack cheese on a sesame bagel
• Banana

Snack

• Apple
• 1 cookie

*Sigh*

Source: Pioneer Woman

This makes me smile and wish I had a Basset Hound again.

How forgetful!

I thought I lost my phone yesterday.  I came back from the pool, had an argument with the hubster, ate dinner, hopped into the shower before I realized my phone was missing.  I have this trick when I can't find my phone and the hubster is not around to call it for me: I use the ipad's facetime feature to call myself.  I figure that if the phone is in the house it's connected to the wifi and will receive the call and ring.  I walked around the house with the ipad and no ringing.  Uh Oh!  Where could it be?

The last time I remember it was taking it to the pool.  Could I have been so silly to leave it at the pool?  I ran to the pool and there it was, sitting on the lounger.  I guess in my groggy half asleep state, I packed everything up except the phone.  I'm glad that very few people visit the pool and my phone was still there.  I would have been mighty angry and upset if some little apartment hooligan had walked off with it.

Abandoned

The hubster decided to take the stepson down to Cincinnati today to visit his mom.  They leave this afternoon and will return Thursday night.  I am unfortunately being left behind.  It's ok, I need some Elaine time.  Now I'm left wondering what to do tonight and tomorrow.  I guess I could be a slug and just sit at home, eat dinner, watch TV, read, those sorts of things.

I feel like since I'm wearing my pretty dress, I shouldn't waste it by sitting at home.  But what should I do?  Who should I do it with?  HELP!

I feel pretty, oh, so pretty

I decided to dress up for work today.  I just bought a new dress this past weekend that is not my typical style, but I really love it.  Since it's been so ridiculously hot and humid this week, I thought this would be a great time to wear a dress to work.

The hubster doesn't love it like I do, and that's because he only loves cute, sexy clothes.  I keep telling him I can't keep buying clothes meant for teenager and college coeds anymore, especially for work.  He thinks that my own perception of myself is too aged.  I am old!  I'm inching closer and closer to 30.  I'll have to decide if I'm having kids soon!

Anyway, I wore these sapphire blue bangles that my friend brought back from India for me, my long layered silver necklace from the Nordstrom Half Yearly sale, and my burgandy peep toe Stuart Weitzman's.  I think I look nice.  An upgrade from my normal work uniform.

Get In My Belly - July 19, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 cheese danish

Lunch

• White chicken chili with cheese
• Tortilla chips
• Baby carrots
• Greek yogurt

Dinner

• 3 ribs
• Small salad
• Baby carrots
• 2 corn bread muffins

Snacks

• 1 chocolate dunker
• Coffee
• 1 Hershey Kiss peanut butter cookie
• Small glass of milk

Revelation

The stepson has been with us since Friday. Since then I've made so much food especially desserts. I've made Rolo cookies and peanut butter cup cookies. All the Rolo cookies are gone and we bought ice cream. If I ever have kids of my own, I'm going to need to watch my weight and be much more strict with my diet.

Get In My Belly - July 18, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 sesame bagel with peanut butter
• Coffee

Lunch

• Pizza Hut pizza - 2 slices of mushroom
• Greek yogurt

Dinner

• Drip Beef Sandwich
• Waffle Fries
• Baby carrots
• Small salad

Snacks

• 7 Skittles
• 2 Rolo cookies
• 1 spoonful of ice cream

Ruh roh

I had a talk with the hubster and we're officially on a shopping ban. We got a little out of control on the spending last month, so it's time to reel it in. So it's only gas and groceries on the Amex with the exception of one fast food meal and one sit down meal (I.e. Max and Ermas). We'll see how well we do.

Genius!

What did I see in my Google Reader tonight?

Pure genius!  Who says registries are limited to weddings and babies?  It's very Sex and the City when Carrie marries herself.

P.S. Happy birthday Chao!  Have fun in Finland.  Bring back some Finnish chocolate rocks for me please ;)

Heat and Humidity

Holy crap, it is hot outside.  I felt like I was swimming walking from one building to another.  I was definitely perspiring enough to make it feel like I was swimming.  It's going to be like this all week.... swell.

Also

What do red lightning bolts mean?

Get In My Belly - July 17, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 cheese danish
• 1/2 cup of coffee

Lunch

• 1 sesame bagel with peanut butter
• 4 cheese sticks

Dinner

• Pizza Hut pizza - 1 slice mushroom, 1 slice pepperoni
• 2 Rolo cookies
• Chips
• Salsa
• Spinach Dip
• 2 "J.W.'s Pink Lemonade"

Snacks

• Cherries
• Greek yogurt
• Baby carrots

Harry Potter

I'm getting soft in my old age, I got all misty eyed while watching Harry Potter. No tears actually fell, but there were some near misses and a struggle. Entertaining movie overall. I find it funny that in order to age the main characters, they just made them fat with the exception of Hermione.

What a weekend!

It's 6:30 pm on Sunday and I'm pooped. Let's see what did I do this weekend.

The weekend didn't start off great since I ended up working overtime during the regular work week and got home around 5:00 as opposed to my usual 1:00 or 2:00. I ran some errands at Meijer and Kohl's. It was a pretty easy night. I bought another pair of shorts for the stepson, a Yoshi tshirt for the hubster, and a cute dress, all for $30 with a $10 coupon and 30% off coupon.

Saturday morning I went on a 7 mile bike ride in the morning with the stepson. After that, we went to Costco to buy some groceries and other items. After dropping of the boys, I went back out to return some clothes and ended up buying a dress and some earrings at Anthropologie. On the way home, I stopped at the grocery store to finish off the grocery shopping.

I came home, stopped at the pool for a few minutes tom hang out with the hubster and the stepson. When we were all sufficiently hungry, we all came home and I made dinner - ribs, corn on the cob, green beans, and salad. Once dinner was over, I finished making my drip beef sandwiches, make a batch of Rolo cookies, and meatballs. I finally got to sit down at 10:30.

Went to bed and woke up at 8:30 for what I thought was the first showing of Harry Potter, but the hubster lied to me. The first showing was at 9:15 and we saw the 10:15. I hate hate hate crowded movie theaters. If it were up to me, I would have opted to see the movie next weekend. But it was a compromise with the hubster. The movie was good. I'm glad there will be no more Harry Potter movies.

After the movie was over, we headed home to meet my friend to watch the World Cup final. While waiting for her to come over, I made my final recipe of white chicken chili. I was adventurous and added jalepenos to the soup. I usually stay away from spicy, but I wanted to give it a try. After portioning it out for the week, I'm questioning this decision.

The game was great except we lost, but I did have a chance to catch up with my friend. I just finished cleaning up and I'm ready for a nap and totally not ready to go to work tomorrow.

Get In My Belly - July 16, 2011

Breakfast

• N/A

Lunch

• Ball Park hot dog
• Baby carrots
• 4 strawberries

Dinner

• 3 Costco BBQ ribs
• Small salad with ranch
• Corn on the cob

Snacks

• 1/4 Costco churro
• 1/3 Costco Mocha Freeze
• 1 rolo cookie
• 1 chocolate dunker
• 1 small glass of milk

Busy weekend

I was on my feet all day doing something or other, cooking, cleaning, biking, errands, etc. And tomorrow will be pretty busy too. Harry Potter in the AM and then the women's world cup final in the afternoon.

Get In My Belly - July 15, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 sesame bagel and peanut butter

Lunch

• Sushi - shared a California roll, tuna and avocado roll, spider roll, and shrimp tempura roll with a coworker, but later threw it all up

After I threw up:

• 2 bites of peach
• 1 coke
• 1 chocolate dunker

Dinner

• Beef noodle soup with bok choy
• 2 chicken nuggets
• 1 mozzarella stick
• 3 waffle fries

Snack

• Sesame dessert

Are you Asian?

In my experience, I think that Asians as an ethnic group are pretty easily identifiable.  Small stature, yellow skin, slanted eyes, sleek black hair, all giveaways that you are looking at an Asian.  Even though we may all look alike to some people, specific Asian groups can most always identify their own kind.  I feel that I can tell the difference between a Korean and a Japanese person vs a Vietnamese person vs a Philipino.  I might be a little rusty since I moved to the midwest, but I sure as hell can tell who is Asian and who is not.

Well, apparently, there is some question about whether I am an Asian or not.  I went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch today since I had a won a bet and a coworker was treating me.  (That in itself is worth it's own post)  A nice looking Asian (I'm thinking Chinese) seated up and promptly asked me if I was Asian.  I stumbled in my answer because I had never been asked that before.  I've been asked if I was Korean or Hawaiian or Chinese, but never just the general Asian.  Come on guy, it's pretty obvious.  Recognize your own kind.  Perhaps you need to visit the motherland to get reacquainted with others since you've obviously spent way too much time in Heath, OH.

Past Obsession?

So I've written twice about the elusive Mackage coat that Nordstrom has for sale during their anniversary sale.  After they had cancelled my order, I had jumped on to live chat to ask if they would have more for sale later and if I can still get the sale price.  The customer service representative that they would have some available on line on the first day of the sale which is today.  So as obsessed as I was, I set a calendar reminder to order it at midnight last night.

Well they meant midnight pacific standard time.  So I had the hubster wake me up at 3 am to order the coat online.  Simple, right?  Ha, it was even available on the site!  I googled it and lo and behold, it was already sold out.  I was a bit groggy and half asleep and it couldn't have been later than 3:15 am.  Something smelled fishy.  It almost felt like didn't have any for sale.  As a last ditch effort, I asked the hubster to stop by Nordstrom today and see if they had any in stores.

He went in and talked to a very helpful sales associate.  She called around to several stores and no luck.  She said she would keep trying and would check their shipment tomorrow morning.  The hubster got several calls from the associate and she heard that there would be more released on line tomorrow.  She took his credit card information and would order it for me when it becomes available.  She said that she did not want my order to be cancelled again.  This is why I love Nordstrom.  My bank account doesn't, but I do.

Crossing my fingers that I get it, but at the same time, do I want the same coat as thousands of other women? I guess I can decide when/if I get it.

Segway! Part 2

My coworker took this video.  At first, I thought he was taking a picture, hence the fobby peace signs, but no, a video.  I look like I have bat wings.



Get In My Belly - Jul 14, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/2 sesame bagel with peanut butter
• Coffee - cream and sugar
• 1/2 banana

Lunch

• Meatball sandwich
• Small salad with ranch dressing
• Greek Yogurt

Dinner

• Five guys litte bacon cheeseburger
• French fries

Snacks

• Bite size 3 Musketeer mint
• 3 peanut butter M&Ms
• 1/2 cheese danish
• 1 white peach

Get In My Belly - July 13, 2011

Breakfast

• 1/4 plain bagel and cream cheese
• Coffe - cream and sugar
• Some cinnamon pastry roll thing
• 1/2 banana

Lunch

• Leftover beef noodle soup with bok choy
• 15 Pepperoni slices
• 15 Carrots
• Greek yogurt

Dinner

• Spaghetti and meatballs
• Garden salad with ranch dressing
• 1/2 piece of garlic bread

Snacks

• 15 tortilla chips
• 8 cherries
• 1 peach
• 1 Skinny Cow Ice Cream Sandwich

I love Kohl's

Holy cow! Buying clothes for a kid can get expensive. So I'm so glad that I have found Kohl's. I had never shopped there before, but it is amazing! They send out $5 and $10 coupons with no restrictions, so it's like free money. Their clearance rocks my socks off. I can outfit this kid for like less than $100 a season. The perfect example of my Kohl's love happened today.

So I bought the stepson two pairs of shorts for $15 originally $60! They ended up being way too big and I had to return them. I had lost the recipt for one pair though. So I went to the store tonight to return them and they looked up my return and I got my $15 back on my card and $10 gift card for the $10 coupon that I used for the shorts. So they gave me $10 credit for a coupon, what other retailer does that? And the gift card doesn't have an expiration date.

It gets better. I found another pair of shorts on clearance win the right size. I go up to the register. They give me a scratched that gives me another 20% off. That puts my $10.80 shorts below $10 and I essentially get money back when I use my gift card! I bet an event like this is what it feels like to be one of those extreme couponers you see on TV.

Yay for free shorts and money back!

Meatballs

I think I make some pretty dang good meatballs.  I had never made them before, but I found this recipe on the Pioneer Woman website.  The first time they were ok because I chopped my own garlic and parsley.  The hubster was not a fan, so I had to modify the recipe.

Here are the ingredients:

• 3/4 pounds Ground Beef
• 3/4 pounds Ground Pork
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 3/4 cups Fine Bread Crumbs
• 2 whole Eggs
• 3/4 cups Freshly Grated Parmesan
• 1/4 cup Flat-leaf Parsley, Minced
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Splash Of Milk
• 1/2 cup Olive Oil

Instead of mincing my own garlic, I use these:

Another substitution is that I use the dried parsley flakes instead of fresh for the hubster's sake.  I also don't follow the quantities listed in it either.  I usually have add more meat (because I buy in full lbs and not 3/4 lbs), cheese, and garlic.  They are so good, and the recipe makes about 50+ meatballs.  I freeze them and pull them out for quick dinners.  The hubster especially loves them in meatball subs.  We're about to finish the last batch tonight and I'm going to make another this weekend.

Here's the rest of the recipe:

Combine ground pork, ground beef, garlic, bread crumbs, eggs, cheese, parsley, salt, pepper, and milk in a large mixing bowl.  Mix well with hands and roll into small balls.  Place meatballs on cookie sheet and place in freezer for 10 minutes.  Heat up olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.  Remove meatballs from freezer and brown meatballs and cook until internal temperature is 165 deg F.

And that's it!

Babybook

It's called Facebook for a reason, not Babybook.  If all I wanted to see on Facebook was updates about your stupid baby*, I would friend your baby, not you.  I should just unfriend these people who only post updates about their baby.  I don't care if your kid just pooped or is tired or needs a nap or needs a nap, but won't take one.  No one but you cares and you are too dense to realize that.

I'm irritable today.

* I don't hate babies.  I know it's not the babies' fault.

Craving

I really want some fried chicken.  I have this craving so much, but it's probably because I never satisfy the craving.  On very few occasions, I'll get KFC, but in the end, I'm always disappointed.  I've yelped a few places for good fried chicken, but the places it comes up with charges like $17... for fried chicken.  No thanks!

Pretty Rings

I cleaned my ring at work today and it's so shiny and clean and sparkly. I also started to wear the first ring the hubster bought me. It's a Paloma Picasso ring from Tiffany's. He gave it to me in 2004. I stopped wearing it when we got engaged, but I think it's due for a comeback.

Here they are:

Get In My Belly - July 12, 2011

Breakfast

• Iced Coffee with cream and sugar
• Half a banana
• Half a Trader Joe's Sesame bagel with peanut butter

Lunch

• Leftovers - Beef noodle soup (mai fun, baby bok choy)
• Greek yogurt
• 15 slices of pepperoni
• 15 baby carrots

Dinner

• Max and Erma's Perfect Pair - Garden Salad and Baked 

Snacks

• 1 Chocolate Dunker
• One piece of turkey jerky
• One peach

Segway!

I finally got to ride a Segway today.  We had an open house for our new building and we have many special guest and VIPs coming in for it.  As part of the festivities, the Port Authority sprung for some Segway tours of our campus.  I can't really say that our campus actually requires a tour, but for a chance to ride a Segway for free, I signed up.

I have to say as lame as they look, they are pretty fun to ride.  It's quick to learn with some initial wobbling, but I caught on and even in heels!  I'm sure my entire company will be laughing at me, but I don't care, I had fun.  Now to track down someone who took a picture.

Nordstrom Fail

Look what I got in my inbox this morning:

Unable to Fulfill?!?!  I'm so sad right now.  I really wanted that coat.  I was so distressed I even woke up the hubster to lament and complain.  He offered no solace and sleepily said maybe it'll come back in stock and I shot it down quickly with "It won't be on sale anymore!"  It's true, it probably won't be, and I am not willing to pay full price for it.  Even at $389.90, it pushes the upper bounds of my spending.  I guess the bright side is I don't have to return my all my other purchases and I "saved" $400.

Asian Mafia Invades Vail

If I were in San Diego, this would not be a big deal. When I moved from Philly to SD, I was overloaded by the sheer amount of Asians there were especially young Asians that were my age. We always so adult Asians in the Chinatown in Philly, but never adolescents.

Even when I moved to San Diego and the Asians were abundant, we didn't have a strong presence in sports except for maybe tennis.  So imagine my surprise when there were 4 of us on a team representing O-H-I-O.  I think we were all taken aback by the sheer number of us.  I think we were weirding some people out with all our Asian jokes.

So we had commemorate all the Asian-iness, and what better way than matching tank tops, peace signs, and dark sunglasses.