Tuesday, June 30, 2009

such GLEE!

Good Morning My Peeps! Yes I am shouting out loud today! I stopped by BooMama this morning and was treated to a helping of GLEE! I can't tell you how fast that jump started my day! Glee stars the lovely and talented Lea Michele who I loved so in Spring Awakening on Broadway. I am excited that Spring Awakening is on tour now! Sheldon and I are going to see it again on August first at the Kennedy Center here in lovely Washington, DC!

I loved Glee, they aired the pilot the other night on Fox and the full episode can be seen on http://www.hulu.com/, which may be my new favorite website!

So, watch Glee, buy tickets for Spring Awakening and call me in the morning!

Monday, June 22, 2009

Turkey Dinner

Last week Sheldon and I bought a small turkey to roast. We had decided that we both love turkey and that it is a shame that it is only trotted out on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sheldon actually did all the cooking which is one of the reasons I love him, I like being fed without always having to do all the work! He roasted the turkey with a cut up lime stuffed inside and lime juice on the skin, about halway through the roasting time in put quartered potatoes (skin on) around the edge of the pan. Then he made Rachael Ray's cranberry salsa which consists of dried cranberries, chicken stock, onion and lime juice. It was absolutely divine. Since it was a relatively small turkey it only had to roast for 90 minutes or so. The next day we had turkey sandwiches for lunch, today I have leftovers at work for lunch and there is still plenty left for more sandwiches. I may even make some turkey salad. Sheldon threw the carcus out before I could stop him but next time I will make some turkey and rice soup in the crockpot for lunches. He's not a big fan of soup but I am!!!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Drug of Choice

Cheddar Biscuits from Red Lobster

How do I love thee, let me count the ways.

  1. I love the smell of you wafting from the bag on the seat beside me
  2. I love the crunch of your outer shell
  3. I love the fluffy insides
  4. I love how you melt in my mouth, no butter needed
  5. I love how you entice me to have another
  6. I love how you love me even though I am fatter than I have ever been in my life
  7. I love how I can stop at RL and buy you by the dozen without being subjected to the rest of the menu
  8. I love how a dozen of you are cheaper than a dozen donuts
  9. and the taste, oooooohhhhhh the taste

Elizabeth Berg, Oh how I love her...

http://www.elizabeth-berg.net/site/epage/49632_662.htm

read this essay and tell me how you could NOT love her!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Taking Chance

I had never heard of this movie but when Sheldon and I were in Pittsburgh over Memorial Day weekend we had HBO and this came on. We only got to watch part of it as we were on our way to go do something else, but we both really wanted to see the rest. When we got home I looked it up on Netflix and sure enough it was available. I moved it to the top of my list and we got it a few days later. We didn't get around to watching it until last night but it was worth the wait.

The movie stars Kevin Bacon and is a moving tribute to our boys at war and their long trip home when they are killed in action. It was so visually beautiful and so emotional, but never political or or graphic or hokey. The movie was based on real events and adapted from this story.

I highly recommend this movie. Three of my friends have lost sons in this war, to say Some Gave All is an understatement.

Brand Preferences

BooMama just wrote a post about brand name favorites that caused quite a stir, many of us answered her with our own list. Here is mine:

Things really do taste different. My mama always bought generic or the cheapest of things, when I grew up I refused to EVER compromise when it comes to food.

Kraft Real Mayo - my ex MIL taught me to use only this. I do like Miracle Whip on sandwiches, but never NEVER in recipes.
Dannon Yogurt - cause it is the creamiest, its consistency is like pudding
Tide - cause my ex was allergic to anything else and now I’m just used to it
Jif - really does taste more like fresh peanuts
Natures Own honey wheat bread
Martins potato rolls for hotdog rolls and hamburger buns - I used to buy Martins bread too but I like the Natures Own because it is a little lighter and the slices are a little thinner
Dry Idea for more than 30 years
Helluvagood dips
Toms of Maine toothpastes - because I’m allergic to whitening ingredients and they are about the only brand that hasn’t added that to every tube!

I also only buy real butter, real maple syrup, whole milk and brown eggs.

My Sweet Sheldon thinks I’m kookie cause he doesn’t see the difference in brands, but you’d better not put anything but premium BEER in his fridge!!! :D

He just bought 2 GALLONS of fake syrup even though we still had a gallon, cause we might run out in this millenia and it was on sale.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Ladies Circle

A week or so ago I decided that I wanted to get a group of women together on a regular basis to have some girl time. I live on the perfect street for this because many of the women are already close and they want to hang out with each other. Knowing that women often don't do the things they want to do because of all the things they have to do, I figured that if I hosted something maybe the ladies would stop by. I knocked on doors over the weekend and handed out invitations. Everyone was warm and enthusiastic about the idea.

Last Tuesday was our first get together. Four ladies came and it was lovely. The invitation said to bring whatever crafty thing you wanted to work on, that I had plenty of table space and lighting and we could scrapbook or crochet or whatever. Not everyone is crafty but those of us who are love a reason to sit down and work on our favorite project. I personally love crochet and cross stitch but I have attended scrapbooking crops with my crochet bag just to hang out with friends. I wanted this group to be open and welcoming to any of the ladies whether they were crafters or not. For the first night we ended up sitting at my kitchen table eating the snacks I had prepared and getting to know each other.

I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle names in this blog as I use pseudonyms for everyone except my dog and myself. I think I will confuse myself if I make up names for these ladies as I am still learning their names, not to mention the fact that I don't know them well enough to make up a new name for them! Let's try descriptions for now.

One lady is a Puerto Rican attorney with three kids. She is the type of person who questions everything, she has a very inquisitive mind and is very smart. Maybe The Closer fits her. She isn't crafty so I told her she could read to us. Before you know it we will be wearing hoop skirts and stitching by kerosene lantern.

Guest number two is a lovely British transplant who has lived in the states for over 50 years. She is small and delicate and soft spoken and yet she shocked us all by announcing that she wants to be on Dancing with the Stars! How about Ginger for Ginger Rogers, the most famous dancer I can think of...

Guests three and four are a mother and daughter originally from Indiana. The mother lives in the basement of her daughter's house with her husband of 59 years who is suffering from alzheimers. We will call her The Preacher's Wife. The daughter lives upstairs with her husband and four children, for now I'll call her the Preacher's Kid or PK.

The ladies were all completely lovely and everyone was enthusiastic about having this kind of a get together. I never specified whether I wanted to do it every Tuesday, but I think I do. This week only the Preacher's Wife came, as I said I never specified so I imagine Ginger wasn't sure whether or not I was doing it again. PK send word (and cookies) through her mom that she couldn't make it. I didn't hear from The Closer or any of the other ladies from further down the street, but I'm gonna make sure everyone knows this weekend that it will be a weekly thing.

PW and I had a lovely visit. We sat in my office/craft room and I cross stitched while she told me about her life. I asked about her children and her siblings and just let her entertain me. I don't know why I wasn't in the mood to chatter like I normally do, but I was much happier listening than talking last night. This was more noticeable later when PW left and I called the girl who lives directly across from me. She is my closest friend so far on the street. She is adorable. She is a stay at home mom of three and is orginally from this area which is unusual in the DC suburbs. Let's call her Patsy. I love that name. I called Patsy when PW left, to offer her some of the brownies I had made for everyone. She has not been able to come either week because her husband is in crunch time at his work and comes home late. Last week I took her a plate of snacks and told her all about it, this week we talked on the phone for an hour. Well, she talked, I listened. About halfway through she said "I'm babbling, usually you chew my ear off and this time I'm doing all the talking." As I said, for some reason I was just in a listening mood. It was a lovely way to spend a rainy evening, cross stitching on a project I haven't touched in months and gabbing on the phone with a girlfriend, something that no one seems to have time for anymore!

Weightloss

That's correct, the chart to the left is accurately portraying the fact that I have GAINED all the weight back. I am heavier than I have ever been in my life except when I was pregnant and I'm almost caught up to that number!!!! It is obvious that when I exercise the weight falls off, so I just have to get off my butt. I really, really, really want a treadmill and a rowing machine for our home gym, but there are so many other things we are buying for the house right now that those items are pretty far down the priority list. I HAVE to do something though! I hate being this heavy, I have heartburn, I snore, my back hurts, all symptoms that I'm sure have more to do with the extra weight than to my ever advancing AGE! The fact that Sheldon is skinny as a rail doesn't help any, but even he says that my eating is fine, he's the one eating icecream every night, not me.

If nothing else I will strap on the iPod and run up and down the stairs at the house tonight!!!!

Monday, June 1, 2009

May Resolutions

May Resolutions: hey, not bad, I did 9 out of 10 this month!!!!


  1. Go to a Museum - Matt and I went to see the Jean Shin - Common Threads exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum here in DC. It was a really cool exhibit using recycled materials. There were all sorts of textures and colors and as we entered each room I would say, "Oh, this is my favorite." Each time we read the description on the wall we were blown away by the backstory. It was a VERY very interesting, thought provoking exhibit. If you live nearby GO!

  2. Spend time with an Old Friend - I had the most amazing conversation on facebook with a bunch of folks that I went to high school with. I had had a dream about a friend of ours who died at age 42 of heart attack and we all remembered him with stories. It was lovely.

  3. Try a New Recipe - http://sarahneverstops.blogspot.com/2009/05/bacon-bowties.html. Oh the beauty of bacon.

  4. Spend Some Quality Family Time - had Mama, Cricket and Miles over for Mother's Day. It was a lovely visit, the first time Mama saw the new house and the first time we all saw Miles' new hair. Plus we gorged ourselves on PW goodies!

  5. Make Sheldon Watch One Chick Flick - Somehow this man has managed to avoid every chick flick, but not for long. It is now my mission to make him watch my favorites. We started with Steel Magnolias. He said it was "Cute." humph.

  6. visit my Mama - see number 4. :)

  7. EXERCISE - walked for an hour Friday night and an hour Saturday morning in the neighborhood. Need to do it every day, but at least I started! (Yes I have gained ALL the weight back! YES, I need to do something!)

  8. go letterboxing - yay! It is letterboxing season again. Sheldon and I found two in Pittsburgh! Oh what fun!

  9. Sell Something I Don't Need Anymore - fail, but I at least made inroads in this, I did gather everything in a box in my office, now I just need to take pix and post them on craigslist.

  10. Crochet or Cross Stitch Something - started crocheting a baby afghan for one of Sheldon's co-workers.