I keep an eye on them

sigh. monday.


I have come to the conclusion that my dog got drunk on Saturday night, threw up before he went to bed, and then slept off his hangover on the couch next to me. poor Romeo. well I guess that's what you get for drinking one tablespoon too much of Heineken. little four legged alcoholic.


in other news...
...bruschetta is pretty damn good and should be eaten with goat cheese.
...nothing is wrong with you after eating lots of beets. it's the beets that make your pee 'that' color.
...vitamins should come in jello cases to make it easier to swallow.
...men fart more the older they get. evidently.
...every morning I wake up and look for Russians outside my window.

Food & Wine & Twenty Nine

my husband turned 29 yesterday. happy 30-1 nicky!

I took Friday off in order to prepare for it.. running around here and there the entire day until it was time to fall asleep. then I spent my entire day yesterday in the kitchen getting ready to feed somewhere between 11 and 22 people (RSVPing is always appreciated!).

4 layer yummy dip

- 1 can vegetarian fat free refried beans

- low fat sour cream

- cheese

- tomatoes

yummmmm

Bruschetta

- 2 baguettes

- olive oil, garlic salt, oregano, parsley all mixed

- parmesan shavings

- basil leaves

- tomatoes

brush baguette slices with olive oil mixture and top with a couple pieces of parmesan. broil until cheese melts and looks pretty, delicious, and pretty delicious. top with a basil leaf, and tomato slice.

italian kabobs

- fresh mozzarella

- basil leaves

- cherry tomatoes

- balsamic vinegar

kabob 1 tomato, 1 basil leaf, and 1 mozzarella block. line kabobs up on platter and sprinkle vinegar on top.

chicken

- thin chicken breasts sliced in to mouth size bits

- lime juice, olive oil, fresh parsley, fresh oregano, italian herbs, garlic all mixed for marinade

marinate chicken for up to 8 hours. can throw on kabobs or just pan fry.

sausage

- make husband do the sausage

strawberries and dip

- phone a friend

cut up bell peppers with hummus

- self explanatory

veggie platter

- phone another friend

chips and salsa

- make husband make the salsa

burnt almond cake

- la patisserie

pigs in a blanket

- friend's surprise contribution!

after doing all that, saying "you're 2 years older than me now!" to my husband and several glasses of wine is my reward. happy birthday nick. 364 days till 30.

vodka tonic me!

what's the difference between today and every other day?

I.. did not.. have..
coffee. rather than take the long walk to grab a soy latte, I ate a Yoplait and stuck with water. and surprisingly, I have survived thus far. it may be a different story come 3pm.

some exciting news this week.. I have finally been taken off the waiting list for Two Small Farms. I pick up my bag of organic goodies this Friday and am very ecstatic about this. my bag of surprises include bok choy and beets which, I would never purchase but I already have recipes planned. we will also be receiving tomatoes and cilantro (yet another item I would never buy) but the timing is perfect as Nick will be making his zippy chipotle salsa this weekend.
yum.

in other news...
...never do cardio in cotton pants. ever.
...eating six mini musketeers from a coworkers candy bowl is the same as one whole one from the vending machine. stupid.
...Yoplait is not lactose free. I am lactose intolerant.
...wine, beer, sake, and vodka tonics do not mix.
...I am not the mayor of Burlingame as I may have exclaimed after wine, beer, sake, and vodka tonics.

erasers

today is like any other Friday. I snoozed my alarm 3 times before accepting the inevitable.
coffee, salad, and one slice of cake later and it's 4pm.

most difficult challenge of the day?
refraining myself from grasping two #2 pencils with sizable erasers, wacking everything on my desk and breaking out in song.. specifically Poor Little Rich Boy by Regina Spektor.

easiest challenge of the day?
conquering the world.

Bob Ross and me

my brain has accustomed itself to solitude. it only took my current lifetime. but I am finally ok with this.

what my brain is not accustomed to:
being put on the back burner. that's off. and very far away. on a different stove. in a different house. on another continent.
being put aside is for cold rice. not people.

in other news...
...the black widow living in our garage is D. E. A D. dead. she met my friend RAID who murdered her and her sad husband. for the sake of preventing swollen parts of human bodies, let's hope RAID killed any and all babies too.
...gardening gloves are necessary when trimming rose bushes.
...no matter how great one is at fantasy football, if you don't like it, it is just not fun (internet trophies are about as useful as a picture of a swiss army knife).
...one should not use the leg press machine with maximum weight, the calve machine, the butt blaster machine, and do single leg lunges prior to getting on the stepper.
...just because one cannot hear herself grunt due to a very loud iPod volume while working out, does not mean that no one else can hear her either.
...soy cheese on a pizza is just not as tastey as mozzarella cheese on a pizza.
...not maintaining a stylish do will not only put more money in your pocket, it will also make your head ugly.

I see the bad moon rising

my husband hasn't planned a weekend festivity for us since the day he proposed. almost 2 years ago. don't get me wrong - that was a great day that he planned.. way back then. maybe he thinks he deserves a vacation for that. maybe I just look forward to my Friday nights more than he does.
I enjoy rewards - and Friday is a reward for getting through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. it's a reward for working out all week.. I get Friday night off. so that I can do something other than sit around and watch tv on my couch like I do every other night. so that I can put on earrings and that nice shirt I've had for a month but still haven't worn yet because we haven't done anything that requires it.

so I decided to take action. I developed a plan to change this pattern but alas, it just plain did not work. I told myself I would not propose any plans for our weekend. would not think of anything fun to do. would refrain from sharing excitement about the weekend. and I did such a good job at this.

until he tells me one of his friends wants a poker / guy night. and it's going to happen on... FRIDAY. nice. so not only am I not going out to dinner or wine or a movie or even the front lawn with him, but now I am doing the same old Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday shit solo on a Friday.
I can enjoy doing things alone but one of the joys of Friday involves a nice wine or a beer. and I refuse to go to a bar, with the clubbing young crowd, alone.

but wait a second.

hold the phone.

don't drop it like it's hot just yet.

what it do baby boo...

I see a friend's extra Creedence Clearwater Revival concert ticket at the Saratoga Mountain Winery in my future tonight. ok honey, you go toss around some cards on a small table at a sausage fest. I hope you get some good flops and rivers. I'll be rolling on the river. boo ya.

all those legs make them jump higher. and attack faster.

the moving is complete. boxes are emptied. new tv is on the way. we can sit down and enjoy the olympics without thinking of what the hell we're going to put in that extra closet. everything was honky doory. until I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in person, crawling rampant, in my garage. good thing I have already done a ton of organizing in there because I will never go in the garage again until Nick shows me the carcass of this ginormous Lord of the Rings character that should be paying us rent money.

seriously.

never again will my feet trek through there - even if I'm doing a sprint THROUGH the garage to pop out at the front yard. it is just not going to happen. Nick, of course, did not see it. the man who, when a mysterious noise sounds, he asks me "what was that?" while he remains seated. the husband who, upon being alarmed by me that there is a spider too large for me to comfortably kill without the threat of it possibly jumping on my skin, comes over and coos the spider in to his arms, and sets him free. right outside the door. so that he can step right back in whenever he so chooses. no - he did not see this creature. so of course, he is thinking I am exaggerating. but I swear, this fucker upon meeting my gaze, threw his cloak over his body and became invisible. how he got Frodo's cloak? I dare not ask. Frodo himself is probably hiding in our rafters signaling Spidey with secret baseball-like hand symbols.... "she is.. . desk room.. . go for.. . bunt. correction - right.. . cankle"

since running away from spidey and researching and writing my anxiety away, I think I may know what kind of spider it is. because google images makes us all professionals.

ok so that's not completely accurate. I am just trying to rid of any future nightmares by bringing humor to the table.

but here, in all his / her glory, is the true evil spidey (or at the least the closest google has to offer):

sweet dreams.