January 29th

Run with Us!

My girlfriends and I are doing a marathon relay

It is May 15, 2010

It is in Corpus Christi, Texas

and each runner will do about 4 miles each.

We need one more person!

Anyone need a girls weekend at the beach + a little running?

Some Birthday Highlights…

Some highlights from my day yesterday

Allie sent me the best video ever made.

and then she sent me these and won my heart

A birthday card from my co-worker

The card RDB sent me…

I know this is hard to read but the first 2 signs say Happy Birthday and the 3rd says, “I like corn on the cob”

this is the inside:

Spot. on.

Oh and the fact that my husband made it the greatest day by remembering everything I ever said I wanted for my birthday.  Orange soda, powdered donuts, Harry Potter #1, delicious dinner.

Greatest birthday of my life.

Twenty Six

Today is my 26th birthday

I totally dig my age.  Because my husband is younger and I am a cougar.  DONT YOU DARE BURST MY BUBBLE; IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!!!

I would also like to note that at 26, I look much younger than my younger husband.  Translation= I get carded way more often than he does and sometimes he has to buy this cougar a beer. 

But seriously, I like where I am.  I like what I have become , even in the last year, but with a long way to go.  I feel like I finally found things that make me feel alive.  Like my husband.

My husband who brought this in the bathroom this morning while I was doing my hair

I must have requested powdered donuts for my birthday months ago when we were at Buc-ee’s.  Mostly because today is the only day I can justify eating them…or eating as many of them as I plan to eat.

Husband remembered.  Husband rules.

To celebrate today, I thought I would catch you up on my list 

As of today, I have a year to complete the rest when I turn 27 on the 27th next year (run on much?).  What’s that called?  Golden year or something?  I never really planned it out that way, I just knew I couldn't finish the list by today, so I gave myself an extra year which works out fine since I make the rules here.

#1: I did some botch re-designing of the blog by myself because I was sick of the old hubbub.  It was so busy and I could never pick something that was completely me; everything was fabricated and I don’t know html and all of that rubbish.  So, I stripped it down to some plain colors.  But I really like it.  And! I am happy to report that Frett Farnell and I have been working on a new design and it should be up…um…before my 27th birthday.  I’m also working on a new / different direction for this blog; just sort of thinking about the content; not writing what I think you want to read, but writing for what I will want to read in days/weeks/years to come.

#2:  We don’t get the newspaper, so I often miss out on the cross-word puzzle attempts.  I got going on one last night that I snatched from the Sunday paper last week, but then I set it down while I did dishes and got it soaking wet.  Probably better that way.  I like to do them on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays, because they just get harder as the week goes on.  I gotta start easy. 

My grandmother, Goggle, is a crossword prodigy.  Can you be a prodigy at 86? 

I shout out a clue, she knows the answer without hesitation…tsars, authors, who invented the oboe, song titles, missing lyrics…all of it.   So, this thing on my list was inspired by her.  She swears that a cup of coffee and a crossword a day has made her into the sharp 86 year old woman she is.  I adore her and I’m glad I have picked up her habits.  I’m due for a coffee refill as we speak.  And speaking of coffee, maybe you should get some too, because I think this post could get way too long.

#3:  Ok, I didn’t just join a book club.  I started one with some of my girlfriends and their friends and it is going to be the best night of my month.  This month we are reading The Help.  If you’re into reading and wine and friends and laughing and making fun of Twilight, you belong with us.  Email me if you’re interested in joining.  We would LOVE to have you, even if you read Twilight.

#4: Waiting for summer, for perfect weather, for the perfect day to go sailing. 

#5: I have my application in for Lifehouse; I am just waiting to hear when they need me.  I am really excited to be a part of their ministry; to build relationships with the girls who live there.  To help them know they are loved and will be taken care of.  And then to teach them things they need to know to care for a baby (halt.  No babies in 2010 (or 2011 or 2012 OR 2013…and then maybe MAYBE we’ll talk about it).  That’s the motto around our place.  I do not have baby on the brain) like cooking/baking, cleaning, life skills …and I can teach them a lot of that, but I am more interested in what they’ll teach me.

#6: I’m not saying a word.

#7: DC and I decided it is hopeless slash not worth our time to fix my laptop. We are stripping it clean so we can get rid of it.  Do you know someone that needs a computer?  It works perfectly, I just lost all of my stuff on it, got it fixed, and decided instead of starting anew, I would hop on DC’s computer when needed.  If you know someone (a legit someone, not like you need another laptop in your house because the other 3 are always occupied.  Go outside.) who needs it, email me and we’ll get it to you.

#8: I have been working on running so much that I haven’t been to the gym (Houston seems to think it is Spring currently with a high of 75ish), but, I have an itch to get back there.  I have looked into the testing for the personal training license and talked to some friends who have theirs.  Once I spend enough time in the gym and do some reading and feel like I could be a competent/credible/legit (I don’t know what word I am looking for) trainer, I will look into signing up to take the test

#9: We are going on a trip in February to somewhere I have never been, and it will be a very new/exciting/patience-testing experience for me.  Not so much for the others going, but mostly for me.  I am excited to go, to experience it, to learn, to grow as a person thinking I can do something instead of thinking I can’t.  I wish I could say this is going to be a trip with great benefit, like going to help in Haiti, but it’s not.  Regardless, I have never been and I know I will learn a lot.  By the way, have you given to Haiti yet?  They found a survivor in the rubble yesterday!

#10.  See yesterday’s post.  I think I am a better painter than I thought.  Not that I’m good, but you can at least tell what my painting is.  The thing about painting is I actually really really like to do it, even if it doesn’t turn out very well.  We hung one of my pieces in the bathroom.  I consider that a very honorable spot for a painting; somewhere where people sit and contemplate.  Enough of that.

#11: My mom has recently turned into a free spirit jet setter.  She drives to random places with her friends.  My dad takes her on the best trips.  I called her one Saturday night and she told me she was packing to drive from Houston to Washington, D.C. with my brother the next day.  So, it’s not like I have to talk her into it.  I just need to pick a time and a place!

#12: New job.  This is a hard one.  I have applied for a couple and not gotten them since making this list.  It’s a scary thing putting yourself out there like that; making it known that you are interested in something and that yes, indeed, you will be upset if you are not chosen. 

But here is what I know.  Maybe, 3 years ago, when I started this job, I was made for it.  I was made for listening to the yelling and screaming all day and doing something about it.  Trying anything to make the person happy again.  But, I am not made for this anymore.  I have gotten married and tried TONS of new things, and I have transformed, and what I was 3 years ago is not what I am today.  I am glad I’ve changed, but the job isn’t going to change with me, and it’s just not a fit anymore. 

So, ask me the inevitable, “What do you want to do?” 

Devin asks me that probably 3 times a week.  And this is what I think…I want to keep helping people.  There is no doubt that it is what my heart is passionate for.  I want to do something unique.  I want to have the freedom to do what I do outside or inside, at morning or night, and revolve my job around my life as opposed to revolving my life around my job. 

I love having my blog.  I love running, biking, being active.  I love to read.  I love to cook and bake.  I love to talk to people / meet new people (I LOVE your emails and comments), I am really enjoying trying new things…I just feel like there is so much I could do if I would figure out what some of that “so much” is.

And what about that advice people always tell you?  The stay away from toxic people advice?  What if you work with that sort of people?  What if you’re exposed to that every day, and work is the majority of your day, and you end up spending the majority of your life surrounded by people who just aren’t good for you?  Then what?  How does that help me become the best person I can be?

I’m hoping to figure something out in the next year.  I am praying for something to come up that I cannot turn down that I just have to go for and risk it to do it. 

#13: I have decided to change this one too, but I don’t know what I will change it to either.  Here’s the thing.  I can’t hang with Devin on a bike.  He has sequoia legs made of muscle and I have twigs.  He rides about 30 times faster than me.  If we find a casual ride to do, maybe we’ll get around to doing this.  Yes, so I won’t change it yet.

#14: This may be the last thing I do on this list.  I don’t have a clue as to what I could possibly make that someone would actually want to buy on etsy.  Maybe something will come up, but don’t look for me to cross this off any time soon.

#15: If I have to get a puppy by my 27th birthday, it’s not going to happen.  Are you crying your eyes out like I am?  I have never had a dog in my life.  I graciously say that and leave out the fact that I found a dog in college and was strongly encouraged to give her away by two people who will remain nameless who were still paying for my college and my apartment and my car and everything else..  I cried all the way from San Marcos to Houston with her asleep on my lap before I had to give her to an obese family and I just hope that dog is happy.  Little Berkley.  I guess I didn’t graciously leave that story out, did I?  But, Devin and I will still be in our apartment by January 2011, and it is just not appropriate for a dog to get enough exercise, so, I won’t be getting one until at least March of 2011 if not later.  However, if we have any more break-ins in the apartment complex, I may get DC to reconsider.  I am going to change this goal to something else, but I haven’t figured out what yet.

#16: Remember when I said I wrote something for my favorite patient’s book?  The publisher emailed saying my excerpt will be published within the book.  I thought it was just some promo thing or something.  I don’t know what I thought it was.  It’s just a few short paragraphs, but I count it.  I never thought I would actually cross this off of my list.  Ever.

#17: It seems like Devin and I have our good and bad days with waking up early.  When we do it, we love the extra time, but there are days when we just have to get the extra half hour.  I do know that I am pretty much not a morning worker-outer.  Every time I do something active in the mornings before work, I am a) hungrier than any hippo and b) nauseous.  For whatever reason it makes me sick.  So, I stick to evening runs, afternoon bike rides.  I am looking forward to summer when we have hours and hours after work to be outside.  Anyway, I am drawn to spend time reading and being with God, but there is a lack of effort to do that to start my day, and I need to fix.

#18: Tons.  So cool.  We have lots of these.  2 of them are going on our trip in February.  I am so excited for that.  I am so excited to have girlfriends.

#19: I still haven’t been able to do this.  It’s pretty much impossible to make myself do this.  Something is wrong with me.  I just cannot walk into a store, see a dress that I love and fits perfectly, and pay $180 for it.  Or even $90.  For a daily wear dress.  I cannot do it.   Maybe I learned it from my mother.  Every time I go shopping with her, she says she is going to buy something extravagant.  She never does. I never do. 

I have to say, I don’t mind this part of me.  The part that stops and thinks and really weighs the option before I buy more STUFF.  I like that part of me.  I think it is so important in marriage to be able to do that; to decide you just don’t need it; to know it’s not just your money.  Here’s something profound- rethinking your purchases while you walk around the store will majorly help your credit card debt.  And the amount of junk in your house.  Just sayin’. 

I like that part of me.  But, I still want to cross this off of my list.  I said I would do it, so…Lu, let’s go buy something extravagant!

#20: For Christmas, my brother Alex got me a class at the Houston Center for Photography (don’t even talk to me about his photography…it is beautiful and brilliant and he is so talented.  I did not get such talent).  I am finally learning how to work our camera properly instead of just pushing buttons to see what happens, and I am trying to use it all the time.  Plus, I shot Avery and Benny and Addison so this is crossed off, my friends.

#21: I have run? ran? two 5Ks since making my list!  I have a 10K on March 13th, and I went ahead and crossed out that I am not a runner, because I run 3-5 times a week and I love it.  So, I think I am a runner.  This is another one I never would have dreamed I would cross off.  I never thought I would run the way I do now.

#22: I think DC is doing better with this than I am.  I taught him the alphabet, and he’s getting really good.  I’m not sure how I plan to approach this one, but it may just require some classes or videos or something.  I just think sign language is the coolest language in the world.  Random story- I was in NYC with my brother and his old roommate, Collin…we were at McSorley’s and Collin goes to sit with this table of random people and all of the sudden, he is talking fluently in sign language.  Alex and Collin had lived together for a couple of years and Alex never knew Collin was taking sign language lessons every Monday.  We couldn’t get over it.  I’d like there to be some mystery about me like that.  But I guess it can’t be sign language since I just told you.

#23: Maybe I learned it from my dad, but there is nothing I love more than when we pull up to a railroad crossing with a train coming.  I roll all of the windows down and close my eyes and listen to the sound of the cars fly by.  I never have a camera when a train comes.  Never.  Why?!

When I was little, we would go see Goggle in Pagosa Springs, CO and we would take the Durango to Silverton train.  I just remember how I couldn’t stop looking out the window at the mountains and waterfalls.  When we got back, we would put pennies on the railroad for the next trains coming.  Those trains plain ole flatten those pennies.  It’s so cool.  I want to do that again, but, with as much travel as we have planned already, any train ride will suffice.  AND!  I want an engineer hat to wear during the ride, but that’s a minor request.

#24.  Way. Behind. But here is one I use pretty much daily:

“A man’s wisdom gives him patience.  It is to his glory to overlook an offense” Proverbs 19:11

I love that.  It reminds you to just overlook what that woman just said about you to your face.  Surely she didn’t mean you were fat when she said it.  Right?

#25: DC is so happy every time I put mushrooms into something.  I only eat them half the time.  I find that I really like them raw in a salad, but something about cooked mushrooms makes me dry heave.   However, I love raw oysters.  Go figure.

#26:  June 4-6, 2010  Party in the city where the heat is on.  Wait, we’re not going to Miami.  Is there a song for where we’re going???  Maybe I could just say [insert fist pump]

#27: With everything I have, and everything else that goes on in the world, and everything I have become, and everything I get to see and do, I refuse to let a day pass  without thanking the good Lord for my life and for deciding to bless me with the things he has.  I don’t deserve it.

And with that, I am thankful for another year of LIFE.

Pinot and Picasso with Passion

My old college friends came in town this weekend, and we went to Pinot and Picasso.  It’s a bring your own wine and food painting class (I’ve been once before if you’ve been reading a while). 

This place is brilliant.

Such a fun time.

At the end, I asked Amanda what happened to her painting.  She told me the teacher told her it just means she has a lot of passion.  I’ll let you figure out which one is Amanda.

Running Plans

Many have asked for the running plans I spoke of yesterday.

Here you go!  You can do it!

 

Monday….you, again.

This is a big week, but I don’t have much for today.

My 4 college friends and I spent the day together on Saturday.  It was the best day I’ve had with some girls in a while.  It’s such a good, secure feeling when you don’t see your girlfriends for months, & when you do, everything is honest and like nothing has changed between you.  So much emotion and laughing and pain and happiness and it is just good to know I have friends that you can for-real depend on.  Friends that physically hurt with you when life is sucking.  Friends you can make fun of and know they won’t be all drama freak about it.  Not that I make fun of my friends.  Or something.  I love those girls.

So, pictures of that to come.

Tonight is the first meeting of the book club my friends and I started.  We’re all bringing a list of books we want to read and we’ll probably wrestle or something to decide which book is first.  I haven’t made my list yet.  Anyway, it should be chaos.  Wild, crazy, book chaos.  I’m excited.

So, pictures of that to come.

2 big days this week…lots of partying.  lots of eating.  lots of celebrating.  lots of baking.

So, pictures of those to come.

Today (in about an hour) I am starting my new running plan custom made by myself and Kstan.  This one will train me for my first 10K in March and the best thing about this is DC will be running it with me so I won’t have to try to talk to strangers while I run only for them to slow down so they don’t have to run next to me.

So, pictures of that to come.  Wait, no…I don’t and won’t have pictures of that.  But I could keep you updated if you want.  Or if you want to do it too, I could email you the running plan.

Basically, I have a lot to cover and need to get on the freakin’ ball.

I’ll leave you with this on this dreadful Monday:  Friday DC and I ran 4 miles after work.  By the time we were done, we were so hungry it was dangerous.  I believe DC said, “I am not going to talk because I am so hungry and I might start a fight”.  Is that only hilarious to me?  Anyway, we went to one of my favorites: Ruggles Cafe (I also love Ruggles and Ruggles Green for future reference).  I told him to pick the dessert and bring it back to the table.  This is what he came back with.

I know.

Totally inappropriate.

We brought the cookie home and then I lost it.  Don’t ask questions; it was a long weekend.

Ahoy

My sails have no wind today

I need a pick me up

Or a slap in the face

Or a long run

Or a ride on a boat just like that one

Only the greatest pizza you have ever put in your mouth without feeling like a Fatty Boom Batty!

My friend, Tacie, has names for all of the characters at her gym.  Fatty Boom Batty is one of them.  I can’t even type it without laughing.  Also, Tacie has been walking by a dead bird on her way to work for 4 months now.  If you live in the DC area (ahem my brother who has nothing else to do at the moment), please remove the bird for her.

Anyway, I’m already off topic.

DC and I had this pizza for dinner the other night, and it was seriously the best dinner in the history of our matrimony.  Maybe.  After we finished it, we talked about it for days; about how we craved it, how we wanted it for dinner every night, how DC loved the pizza more than me, how we would hurt animals to have more of that pizza.  What?

So friggin good.

The recipe is here at Cooking Light which I consult every Sunday when I am planning our meals for the week.

EP5k 2010

I ran the EP5K on Sunday.

It’s the fun run that goes on during the Chevron Houston Marathon and the Aramco Half.

It was early.  The sun came up just before the start.

Warm up dance

I sent this picture to my dad after the race.  He replied, “Cool, but you look homeless”

Thanks?

I’m a dork

Then again, I’m not the one who was completely obsessed with the dog stroller.

My finisher’s medal

I beat my December 5K time by almost a minute, and that includes weaving in and out of slower runners/walkers (I didn’t experience this at my first 5K -only about 40 people ran in that one)

By the time we left, DC was saying, “We’re doing the full next year, get ready” and I’m all, “No, YOU get ready” and he’s all…never mind

Friday hogwash

I don’t have a lot going on…so…some random goods for you:

My favorite patient ever wrote a book about his brain injury and his publisher has asked me to write a bit about him and how he changed my life.  Pretty excited.  The book will be out in March and I’ll be sure to link you to where you can purchase it, but for now, you can check out his blog here (I would start in Feb 2008) and the videos here  and here for part two.  And don’t miss my favorite one here.  I came by right after it happened.  Very exciting.  The first 2 videos were made in September.  I saw John after they were made and he was EVEN better.  God is good.

I am running the EP5K this Sunday within the Houston Marathon.  The weather is supposed to be 60s and sunny.  Talkin’ to me!

Just to show my worth at work, I got my birthday card from the department and this was a message inside:

Arlene,

Happy birthday to a great person.  Love you!

Just for the record, my name is not Arlene.

If you haven’t given to Haiti yet, please do so. 

We tried Cedar Creek Cafe for the first time last night with my mom and brother, Zach.  SO good.  DC talked about how it was the most glorious meal ever for hours.  Including this morning.  Dinner was bittersweet though.  Zach, our best friend and brother, is moving to Washington, D.C.  We are so sad but we are so proud too.

Club for Nerds

Last night, in what I would call a roundtable of brilliance, my 2 girlfriends and I brainstormed to start a book club.  Actually, we first made fun of each other for liking certain books, and then we brainstormed the club of awesome wine drinkers who also read good.  No.  First we drank some delish wine, then we made fun of each other for liking certain books (ahem, Twilight, ahem), and then we brainstormed the club of  wine-o’s who also read a page now and then.

If you’re of the female gender, and live in the Houston area, and love wine and trying new bars/restaurants/cafes and new people and reading and you’re a red head (how’s that for a lengthy list of requirements?!  Kidding about the red hair, but it is preferable…totes joking), email me (link on the left side bar) to get in on this scandalous group.

Chicken Not Pie

Every once in a while, DC and I will see a commercial for some type of food, or we’ll be within reach of something, and I will exclaim, “Oh my freaking gosh I love ____ !!!!”  and usually, DC looks at me with his you-are-a-piece-of-work face and is astonished that I would ever think to put such an evil food in my mouth.

Some examples:  Chinese food, powdered donuts (which I have requested for my birthday.  I’m not here to be judged), Chicken Fried Steak, Oreos, onion rings, all Mexican food, milkshakes…all things I could eat every single day if I did not have a thing called extreme will power (ha!).  But seriously, I know that if I eat even one bite of any of those foods, I’m done for and will pay for it later when I am trying to run and can’t breathe because of the burger lodged in my diaphragm.  So, I do not touch. 

Anyway, this happened the other night with chicken pot pie.  I saw it on TV, told DC I love it, he shunned me, and I was dreaming about a pie made of chicken and vegetables and fatty crust.  I think.  Now that I’m writing this, I am thinking maybe it didn’t happen this way.

Anyway, some facts (if you’re trying to eat healthy or lose weight, I urge you to educate yourself!  So many people try to lose weight by eating what they think is healthy, but come to find out, it isn’t!  Email me if you need some resources or have questions- not that I’m an expert, I just read a lot about it and have been practicing a while-link on the left sidebar):

• A normal chicken pot pie has an average of 500 calories per serving (I just based this on about 5 different nutritional facts I read for different CPPs).   A serving is typically a cup, so, in one single pot pie, you are probably getting about 2 servings.  Maybe more.
• It also has an average of 9 grams saturated fat per serving.  For the average adult, your target saturated fat intake should be less that 10% of your total caloric needs.  If you need 2000 calories a day, you should eat 20 grams or less saturated fat per day.  2 servings of a hot CPP and you’re pretty much done for the day.

In an effort to change the way we are eating (side note: we are very healthy eaters; we are trying to eat more naturally with less processed foods), we picked up Mark Bittman’s book, Food Matters for some research and new recipes, and the first one we tried was Chicken Not Pie.  I was stoked, because as stated before, I love Chicken Pot Pie.

This was our first time to cook with leeks. 

They’re just big green onions, like the size of my arm, and I could probably eat a whole one.

What?!

 

Add some low sodium vegetable broth, lots of spices (try to avoid salt) and some white wine.  You can use water to sub for the broth if you want.

Throw in 2 chicken breasts, cook until almost done all the way through, then take them out and cut them in bite sized pieces

Chop 2 potatoes, add to the leek goodness

Add some carrots and peas (we used snap peas) or whatever you want

add the chicken again

Voila.

We liked it a lot.  Super healthy, very natural, and very light.  Next time we will only use one potato and add more of the wine and broth (but that’s just us).  Also, if you absolutely have to have the bread that you’re missing in not having a crust, I think it could be good served on top of half of a toasted whole wheat English muffin.

Prayers for Haiti

Did you read about / see the terrible damage from the earthquake in Haiti yesterday?

So terrible.  Those peoples’ lives have been flipped. 

When Ike hit Houston, we lost a lot, mostly electricity, and we thought that was bad.

Haiti doesn’t even have the resources to recover.

Imagine having nothing.

Click here for some ways to help…

Amy I may not be James Dean, Amy I may not be nineteen, And I may still be in romper boots and jeans…

Remember the other day, or like all last week…fine the past month or so, when I complained about how dadgum cold it is outside?   And how we, the people of south Texas, do not enjoy such weather?

It was a cold and drizzly night on Friday.  DC and I got home from work and immediately dawned our warmest pajamas for a night in.  Don’t you dare call us lame.  It was wild.  Then, we made a huge mistake.  Well, I guess more than one mistake.  For one, we realized we didn’t have any food in the place, hence, we had nothing to eat for dinner.  Mistake numero dos: we turned on Man v. Food.  Particularly, this episode. (please note the swarm of scooters around 1:30.  love.)

DC has more cravings than any female I have ever known, i.e. last night at the grocery store as I was ready to check out after being in that zoo for an hour plus, he tells me, “We have to go get a fun cereal or I will be so sad”.  The cereal was on the complete opposite side of the store.  We walked out with Fruit Loops.  I don’t mess with his cravings. 

Anyway, when this episode came on, the only thing he could think about was ice cream despite the 22 degree arctic blast going on outside.  I tried to get his mind off of it, but by the end of the episode, he asked when we were going for the 53rd time.  You know that feeling when it is 114 degrees and 1 million % humidity and someone offers you a bowl of soup?  And you think to yourself, “I would rather eat nails”?  I sort of felt like that in this moment.

So I did what any sane, normal, rational person would do.  I bundled up to go get ice-cream with him. 

Look how happy he is.  Seriously he wasn’t smiling because I was taking this.  He was giddy the whole way there.  Please note his cycling gloves.  You know it’s cold when DC “the human furnace” has gloves on.

Oh but wait.  We couldn’t go just anywhere.  It was 9:30pm and –4 billion degrees outside.  What kind of ice cream place is open in such conditions?  The Mecca of ice cream.  

and to our surprise, there was a line to the door.

I wanted to scream “YOU PEOPLE ARE ALL CRAZY DAIRY FIENDS!!!!!”

until I saw they had Coffee Oreo ice cream, and then I’m all, “Oh, should I get a large?”

If you’ve never been to Amy’s, it’s a really fun place (sorry, they’re only in Texas…mostly in Austin).  In some of the stores I’ve been to, they throw the ice cream in the air and catch it with the cone for that ooooh ahhhh factor.

There is usually a photo booth.

Which I have never used.  $3 to take awful pictures of me?  No thanks.

I can just do that myself.

Hubbub Hubbub Hubbub

It’s almost the weekend, and I’m fighting a sore throat. Here’s some random hubbub.

This website is a lot like BookMooch, but it’s for movies. Save some money, trade your flicks.

This guy is getting his sentence today. You can read the full article, but in short, this physician in California has the most ridiculous case of road rage and decides to get in front of some cyclists and slam on his brakes. The cyclists have pressed charges, and this guy is going to jail. I thought I’d get the word out in case you’re one of those road rage freaks, or someone who honks and yells at a cyclist for no reason. Stop it.

How many calories do you need a day? What is your ideal weight? What is your body mass index? Do you know? I do.

If you’re in Houston and actually own winter clothing, they are working on the Extreme Home Makeover house this weekend and need your help.

Ice and snow

The best time to snag it

I am off call, and I can fully separate myself from my job. And I am spending the freezing weekend with some coffee, a book, my camera, the Volvo, and the best: my man. Please, do not interrupt.

Stickin’ it to the Man

Aura makes playlists…and I think that rules.

So, I made you this one to listen to while / if you read on

I don’t talk much about what I do for a living on here.  It is confidential stuff.   I don’t like the complete transparency either, but I would give anything to bring a camera to work and get to show you the things I see every day.  Some of your stomachs might not be able to handle it, and then there’s that whole HIPAA law…not to mention the people I see every day probably not wanting their picture taken.

But people have asked, so,

Pretend you are a hospital patient.  At that point, unless you’re in labor (or maybe especially if you’re in labor), your world has already been rocked.  And then things don’t go the way you think they should…or the way your family members think it should…or they actually don’t go the way that they should.

When your nurse doesn’t answer the call bell, and you have to wait to go to the bathroom for hours before they come by, I’m the one you call

When your doctor hasn’t been by to see you since he did surgery on you 2 days ago, and you’re a little anxious, I am the one who tells the Dr. to get his/her butt to your room.  And then I brace myself before he/she screams at me.

When you lose your wedding ring and glasses between the 5 rooms you have been moved to throughout your stay, I am the one who traces your steps to find them.  Or not find them.

When everyone promises you something will happen, and it doesn’t happen, I am the one you yell at for hours at a time.

When you hear a code blue…I am usually the one telling the family of the patient what is going on.

When a family decides to withdraw care from a patient, I am usually helping them through that process.

It’s exhausting sometimes, and then some days I am so drawn to it I can’t stand it.  The people I am working with possess extreme emotion and endless anger.  They are complete strangers and I am pulling tricks for them left and right at their demand.  Thus is customer service, I guess.  

Someone bites my head off every single day.  When that happens to you on a regular basis, it is hard to completely separate yourself from it when you’re not at work.  There are days where I have nothing to give when I get home, and I really lose myself.  But home is where I would rather give everything, and where I can thrive being me.

Dear Houston,

Sometimes I see pretty parts of you, and you’re not as ugly and concrete-jungle-ish as I thought.

DC's Black Bean Hummus (in his own words)

Note from Stephanie: my husband is an amazing cook and is THE BEST at putting things you have in your fridge together to make something fantastic.  Like, you could have a squash, some cherry jell-o, some leftover pork chops, and some seltzer and somehow he makes gourmet mac-n-cheese out of all of it.  I do not lie.

Ingredients:

• 1 can black beans drained and rinsed in the can
• Like, a half a jalapeno...a medium one
• 2 pinches of chunks of yellow onion

• 2 gurgles of Olive Oil out of a bottle

• dash of kosher salt
• dash of pepper (fresh ground)
• full ringing of one tired lime...scrape a little pulp out too

• put it all in your bullet, and turn it on (Note from Stephanie: if you do not own a Magic Bullet, you are not living)

but you gotta shake it a little

Done and Done.

Delish.

Note from Stephanie: I love when he makes this.  It is SO good, so healthy, such a great vegetable dip (we put together small things of fresh veggies for our lunches during the week and add a scoop of this to it) or chip dip (we decided to keep our Snyder's Chips around...the ingredients fit our 5 ingredients or less requirements!  Try them out, for serious).  You can also spread hummus on a sandwich, or eat it off of your finger.  Not that we do that.

You Are What You Eat...In Which Case, I am Mostly a Box of Hot Tamales.

As stated in my 2010 goals, DC and I are attempting to clean out our fridge/pantry and start eating food that has less ingredients (the semi-flexible rule is 5 ingredients or less), and we are trying to buy more local and more organic. I have to tell you, it has been amazing cleaning out the pantry. Seriously, if we're going to clear it out and not be wasteful, it is completely necessary for me to eat the entire box of Hot Tamales. and the bag of Light Lays Ruffles. and everything else. You could say I am making great sacrifice to get us started on the right foot.

Saturday morning we made our way to 2 farmers markets. Bliss for this one right here. Bliss. I love them. I love the people, I love the farmers, I love the coffee...

But I mean he had to be the weirdest barista I'd ever seen. No matter, Katz coffee is superb. I look frumptastic. Wait, I remember why. DC and I woke up and I'm like "Let's get it over with and go to the store (before we thought to check out the FMs)" and he's all "LET'S GO IN OUR PAJAMAS!!!" like a 6 year old who ate his whole Halloween candy bowl in one sitting. Oh wait, that's DC every day. Lord help me when we have children. But anyway, I thought it would be fun, but mostly funny, and then I walk in the bedroom to get shoes and he's all "I think maybe I'll put on jeans". Anyway, pointless story short, I threw this on and that's why I look like a bag lady.

We found some really delish stuff that you can't find in the grocery store. I mean you can find lettuce and stuff in the grocery store, but it's not this fresh or big or fun.

One of these things is not like the other. These tomatoes are to die for. DC and I could each eat a tomato for dessert.

We're working on figuring out what to do with everything we bought. We have some research to do, some books to read (like Mark Bittman's Food Matters), and some trial and error to get through.

Eat your heart out.