Thursday, June 23, 2011

Greetings from (fake) Italy!

 

Hi there everyone!   I know I am super lame with the updates.   Jen has threatened to guest post soon so hopefully you’ll actually see something here more days than you don’t.

I have been in Orlando for work since Monday.   I started my stay at the Grand Floridian.  Yesterday afternoon I moved to the Portofino over by Universal.   I can’t get away from the Casey Anthony trial.  

Disney is great.  I love a lot about it but the culture is sort of…cultish for lack of a better term.   And as hard as I try not to look for hidden Mickey’s I find I cannot help myself.

I’m here with my mom and Jen.  Mom has a business presentation with her trusty sidekick Lauren and my cousin Erin drove up from Boca.   We’re basically loving it by the pool every day.   It’s like 100 degrees in the shade.  We plan to go to Harry Potter World tomorrow (very early – like at 7 am) and then the spa in the afternoon.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.

I went to the gym 2x since I’ve been here.  That’s a pretty big deal. 

We had a terrific dinner at Mama Della’s last night.  The service was great, the food delicious.  The downside was the portions were gigantic and we had no place to take the leftovers.

Erin also thought she saw Kimora Lee Simmons – but that’s another story.

I’ve been lax on the pictures, sadly.   Just wanted to check in and say overall things are good.  This trip came at a perfect time.  I needed a little break from reality and it’s always good to be with my mom and Jen. 

Poor Dave is home alone.  He’s not even with the kids this week.  Just a man and his dog and a backyard full of wildlife.

Hope all is well with all of you.  Next week I’m going to try and get my act together and use this space more frequently.

Thanks for hanging in!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Lost & Found

Just a quick update.  I don’t have much to report these days – but I have a bunch of events this weekend so hopefully they’ll be more to do/see.

My current schedule:

Fri – NY -  Haircut -  Jen’s birthday celebration begins at Otto. 

Sat – LI.  BBQ in the afternoon in honor of Jen’s birthday.  Dinner and Kelly & Chris’

Sun – Hang out on LI – go back home to NJ

Mon – go into NYC in the AM – head to Orlando for work/play for the week.

Wow I’m tired looking at it!

Sweet Mora found my nook this morning.  I’m going to load it up with some juicy summer reading for my trip.

And that, my friends is that.

Except for my catching up with 30 words:

Wednesday

First a drive to Long Island then a drive to the Bronx

A winning game with twelve runs scored

I’m annoyed.  Nathan’s fries shouldn’t taste that good.

But they do.

Thursday

I totally forgot to start watching So You Think You Can Dance until all the auditions were over.

I’m really mad.  Now I have no idea who to root for.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

I can’t find my nook

I will explain further but first – 30 words:

Dave thinks he is more hard core than me at the gym.

He also wears shorts, sneakers and black socks when he works out.

Who’s cooler?  You be the judge.

 

So.  I can’t find my nook.   I bought it with my unexpected gift check bonus at Christmas.  I am a lover of books, I have many and I actually reread them on occasion.  I love the smell of bookstores.  I can spend hours in them.   But I love the nook for the simple reason that I can add more books the minute I finish with my current read.

I read really quickly.

My nook is MIA. :(

I hate losing things.  Mostly because (shh don’t tell him I’m saying this) but Dave loses things ALL THE TIME.  So often that he always has faith they’ll turn up and can move on and do other things till they do.  

I have this thing where I can’t rest until I find what I am looking for.

It’s not that I don’t misplace things.  I totally do.  Often.  But there is a very short list of things that I can’t take losing.  They basically turn me into a bit of a crazy person.

1) Keys.  It’s not been an issue for a while – since I have not driven in quite some time – but I’ve had Jen’s car for about a month and I’ve lost the key 2x.  If I really have to think of it my panic might be because I now have my own mode of transportation.  Not that I was a prisoner every time I was in NJ but my resources were limited.  Now I like that I can run to the store or to Zumba completely on my own.    Me time is at a premium these days.   I’m trying my best to adjust to this new life I’m going to live.  And it’s not a bad thing.   It’s absolutely a life I want – it’s just….A LOT. All the time

2) Wallet.   I am a lunatic when I lose my wallet.  One night (right before I met Dave) my wallet mysteriously disappeared and I’m still not over it.   I have no idea where it could have gone.  One second I had it – next second – gone.  

3) Important papers.  Think passport, drivers license, birth certificate.   They are all now in a plastic envelope under my coffee table thank you very much.   One of the good things about getting married is I have a chance for a new passport picture.  My current one looks like I ate myself and then went back for seconds.

Sidenote:  I remember that day.  I went to CVS with Jen.  I got ready at my parents’ house.  I looked in the mirror and thought I actually looked ok.   Better than ok even.  But I was a huge gigantic hot mess and now people in foreign countries get to see me look that way.

4) Expensive electronics.   I don’t doubt that my nook is somewhere at the house.  I mean it has to be.  I didn’t take it with me anywhere since last Monday night when I looked up the recipe.

I just want to find it is all. :(

In other news – Dave and I have been going to the gym (see above).  It’s early yet – but we’ve been 3 times in the last 4 days.  Not too shabby. 

I made a yummy shrimp and zucchini dish last night.

I have a bologna sandwich for lunch today.

Dave keeps catching groundhogs.  They ate some of his plants so it’s all Caddyshack up in our backyard these days.   I have this nightmare one night they’ll find their way back and be outside our house with pitchforks setting fire to their old home, (underneath) the shed.

There are still birds in our stove vent for the record.  :)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday

 

Thursday

Thursday trivia.  Nice to be in a new place with the same people (give or take two).

I like flat bread pizza.  Houlihan’s serves Cavit.

Pretty much a win/win.

 

Friday

I took a long walk and a half day to be home on time.

I also like Margherita pizza.

I write about food more than normal people do I think.


Saturday

Zumba for an hour then thirty on the treadmill.

Grocery shopping.  I’m not an extreme couponer but I do like saving money.

Plastic string cheese wrappers = my new nemesis.

Sunday

I ran while watching The Food Network.

I took Maddie shoe shopping.

I heard the greatest quote ever from Tamra on The Real Housewives OC Reunion.

Andy Cohen owns me.

Monday

It’s a very good thing I’ve started exercising again.

My love for pretzels is a huge threat to my wardrobe (and wallet).

It’s an illness. I can’t help myself.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Very Vegetable-y

I’m trying not to jinx it – this renewed passion for eating better and exercising.  Maybe it’s the fact that half my summer clothes don’t fit.  Maybe it’s the two dresses my mom bought me that I can’t zip up all the way.   I’m not going to analyze it too much.  I think that’s what gets me in trouble.

Anyway for the last few days I’ve been making vegetables more of a part of what we’ve been eating.  Steam them or grill them and add some spices and done.

I love pasta – but pasta doesn’t love me so much.  I wanted to try something a little bit different.  My initial idea was Shrimp w/Cannellini Beans but we were out.  I have been threatening to make my own hummus one day so we had lots of chickpeas.june 002  In an effort to eat less pasta – I subbed orzo.june 007june 008You basically throw all the ingredients in a pot – even the pasta and simmer away.  For the record I always steam my broccoli and then throw it in at the very end so it doesn’t over cook.june 009   Plus I threw in some spinach.june 013Simmer simmer.june 003  I will definitely make this again.june 015 The other day I had a sandwich for lunch.  It was turkey and cheddar w/spinach and hummus and honey mustard on Nature’s Promise Flax and Whole Grain Bread.june 019 You can now go back to your regularly scheduled program.

Dinner on Tuesday was my attempt to get the kids to eat more vegetables.  2 out of 3 children approved.june 021 Dave got me a new charger for my DSLR battery.  He’s so….great. :)june 023 I basically sauteed onions, garlic and peppers in a little olive oil and soy/teriyaki sauce.   I used a Newman’s Own Sesame Marinade and grilled a steak, sliced it and put it on the side.  I added shrimp to the stir fry mix, some broccoli and spinach and brown rice.  DELICIOUS.june 024 Last night Dave and I had Caprese Salad.june 030I know.  I’ve never made that before. :)   I also grilled some chicken – marinated in white wine, lemon juice and Montreal Chicken Seasoning.june 028 Served with Alexia Sweet Potato Fries and Grilled Asparagus.june 029

In other healthy living news - we are joining the gym tomorrow – I’ve been weaning myself off Diet Coke.  It’s not easy and I’m not sure subbing Crystal Light is actually doing me any favors since they are pretty much sweetened the same way.   My goal is to drink more seltzer and less soda.  White wine spritzers instead of gallons of Pinot Grigio.   On special occasions Vodka and Soda w/a splash of cranberry.  Like that.  You know.  Baby steps.

Aaaaaand that’s all I’ve got – EXCEPT the story about the Dave and the bug in my apartment.

Probably not the best to tell after I show you all that food but I’m afraid I’ll never get to it.

SO.  I got home on Friday last week to find a huge bug near my front door.  I mean HUGE.  Like all the bugs in Manhattan morphed into one giant bug.

OK.  I might be exaggerating but it was definitely big.

Anyway I got one of Dave’s sneakers and tried to kill it but it scurried into the bathroom.  In a total novice move I tried to spray the bug with bathroom cleaner.  It was then it decided to go live in my closet.

I called Dave.  Told him to leave work immediately and come kill it.  Then I ran out of the house and went to Old Navy.

I came back, huddled on my bed biding my time.  By around 3:30 I couldn’t take it anymore and went out for another walk.

FOR THE RECORD – my apartment is ONE ROOM.  Just one.  In the 6 years I’ve lived in NYC I have seen about as many bugs and nothing this big unless you count the Palmetto bug that stowed away in my luggage on a trip back from Florida.

(Dear The South – You are not kidding anyone with that fancy name. A roach is a freaking roach. Love, NYC)

Suffice it to say there is not room for me and any sort of critter in that small space.

Dave comes by after work.  He roots around the location of the bug for a bit and finally admits defeat.  Laden with various bags and boxes (You don’t think for ONE MINUTE I am leaving any garbage in that place) we get on the elevator.

Dave shrieks like a schoolgirl man in great distress.

“Don’t be alarmed,” he says “but I think the bug’s in my pants” 

I glare and say  “NOT FUNNY”.

Until I realize he is not kidding.

I am such a wimp at first I won’t even follow him down the hall to the laundry room so he can drop his drawers to find the thing.  Then I decide to go be lookout because HELLO I don’t want him to be the creepy pantless guy in the laundry room.

I have never seen a pantless guy – creepy or no - in my laundry room btw.

So he still can’t find it and gets dressed.  We head out to the sidewalk.

Moments later we see the bug from hell casually crossing the street.

Apparently it had jumped to another location while Dave was trying to find it.

Moral of the story – Dave is stronger than me because I would be in a freaking mental ward at the moment if it had been me rather than him with the bug in my pants.

PS – Thank the Lord for skinny jeans.  They are virtually bug proof.

The end.

Falling behind

Monday

I’m trying to do this 30 word thing because I feel like it’s a challenge.

I find that the challenge really is getting myself to blog on a regular basis.


Tuesday

I walked 3 miles and then went to Zumba.

I think I’ve finally gotten my groove back – so to speak.

I know I still dance like a white girl.


Wednesday

Dave and I worked from home.

I barely got off the couch and never changed out of my pajamas.

Dave thinks my wedding dress should contain LED lights. (Long story)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Things I’m trying to do

Exercise more.

Eat healthier.

Drink less Diet Coke.

Figure out our summer plans without pulling my hair out.

Watch less reality TV lest my fiance run for the hills. :)

Monday, June 6, 2011

Three days of thirty

Friday

Bug is long gone – but not how you think.

Dave should go into the pet control business on the side.

A bit of traffic and Happy 50th to my cousin.

Saturday

Ellie is four. Someday I am sure she'll be a comedian.

I made Maddie spray Matt with water to avoid it myself.

For some reason I don't feel too guilty.

Monday

I made a smoothie for breakfast.

It was made mostly of chocolate.

I'm not so sure that's what the healthy living people are talking about.

And now I'm still hungry.

 

More details to follow on the bug situation.  And also a yummy recipe featuring Shrimp and…chickpeas. :)

Friday, June 3, 2011

Constructive Eviction

There's a squatter in my apartment. A bug the size of a compact car scurried into my closet. I tried to kill him with Comet.

I need to move out.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Memorial Day 2011

A year ago over Memorial Day weekend Dave and I went to New Hope, PA.

This year we went crabbing.

april may 049april may 050april may 048

april may 051I mean Dave, his dad, his sister, the kids and his nephew went crabbing.

april may 054

Dave’s mom and I went to the beach.

And then came back and watched them crab (?) is that the verb?

april may 059

And then we went to Dairy Queen.

I love Dairy Queen.

On Monday we had our geek fest I mean barbecue.      To explain – when Dave was first separated he joined (and now runs) a MeetUp group of people who like to play board games and trivia.  I have never gone to one of the board game events so I only knew the trivia folks.  I’m being mean.  The truth is they were all lovely (if slightly eccentric) people and everyone seemed to have a great time.

 

april may 060

april may 067april may 064april may 069

I made a corn salsa that was to die for if I do say so myself.   You can find it in this month’s Food Network Magazine.april may 062 And bruschetta.april may 063     april may 072 A lot of people brought pasta salad.  Guess which one was mine?april may 073 april may 074  april may 076 The other best seller was dessert.  april may 082I made a flag cake.  It was noted it was not historically accurate.april may 079 

I said eccentric people attended earlier didn’t I? :)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend.  We’re heading to Miss Ellie’s (my goddaughter) 4th birthday bash this weekend.  I am sure there will be plenty to report.

Tardy

Last night my fiancé asked me if I was participating in a blogging challenge. Thirty words a day for the month of June.

I guess so - a day late.