Contingencies

I'm anxious. I woke up this morning and felt like I'd been run over by a truck....so sore and tired and groggy. I couldn't figure out why, as I'd gone to bed early, because I was tired, and had had an unusual amount of sleep. I realized tonight when I went to work for a meeting and felt an insatible urge to yell at everyone for nothing that maybe I was a little tense!

So, I've been setting up contingencies for myself all day, and into the weekend. What I'm stressed about is my ABA presentation, and presenting it by phone to my prof tomorrow, and about what to pack, the cost of the trip, etc etc.

I woke up and D. told me as he was leaving that we were out of coffee...there was none to make. So, that made getting out of bed feeling like I was, a challange.

Contingency # 1:
Get out of bed, get dressed and go buy coffee = then, I can buy a cranberry custard danish from Cobbs, come home and have coffee and danish.

Still groggy and stressed after the coffee...

Contingency #2:
Finish presentation notes and shower = then, I can go look for a black cardigan and buy travel toiletries.

Following a very stressful shopping experience (i know, i know..poor me), and impending long meeting:

Contingency # 3:
Go to meeting, be nice, then come home and have beer and see husband.

Now, need to do a dry-run of my presentation for my DH to prepare for tomorrow

Contingency # 4:
Do presentation practice = then I can dye my hair and do my nails.

Tomorrow is the big stressful day, with a phone meeting in the morning, presenting my presentation to my prof by phone, and a training at one of my teams in the afternoon along with other out of the house work. So, I scheduled it such that:

Contingency # 5:
Get through day, then go get hair cut.

Now it remains to be seen whether the haircut will be a reinforcer or a punisher (see previous post). But, I'm looking at it as a reinforcer for now :-).

Okay. Now to the presentation and then I can dye my hair (don't worry, it's a color I've used before and know will turn out right. Just in case though, i always do it BEFORE going to get my hair done).

Nnooooo!!!

My Hairdresser. The best one I've ever found. Who GETS my hair, who does it perfectly. Is gone. Moved to London since my last cut (okay, it's been a couple of months). Seriously. So, now, I have to brave a new hairdresser at the same Salon 4 days before I leave for the conference. LAME. Okay, I know on a relative scale, this is not a travesty. But. You know.

T-minus 7 days

Okay, it's Tuesday. One week exactly till I leave for Chicago! Holy Moly!

I'm excited about:

M. just informed me we are close to a trader joes, and to a whole foods. TJ's is one of the things I miss most about living in the US. This is good, as it will greatly aid our now well-refined cost-saving, health-helping grocery plan. Here it is: We order a minifridge for our room, (it started with us using ice buckets, then bringing a soft cooler in our suitcases, then realizing we could just ask for a fridge and they'd give it to us), on the first or second day, we go grocery shopping. We buy all we'll need for breakfasts and lunches, yogurt, veggies, fruit, sandwich stuff etc., snacks (last year we OD'd on the luna bars), energy drinks, and wine. We even have a plan for the wine. We buy wine at the store, then "order" wine glasses from room service (again, initially, we ordered glasses of wine from room service to get the glasses...until we realized we could just order the glasses), then we use and wash the glasses throughout the trip, fill up our glasses in our room and take them down to the events downstairs. Its genius.

I get a whole week to hand with M. and C.

I get to meet my theisis supervisor, and fellow classmates I've been in contact with over the last while.

I'm stressed about:

- My wardrobe
- Packing
-Money
- my presentation

I need to make a hair appointment and spend more time on my wardrobe/packing plan. Yes there's a plan. It's a whole Word document. I've been researching packing for Chicago, and thankfully just realized someone I went to highschool with lives there and can give me a heads up (thank-you face book).

Whoo

I am no good at blog titles...clearly.

Well, here are my favorite things about today:

1) I woke up this morning to get ready for Church, actually feeling awake, not exhausted and wishing I was still in bed.
2) Today, someone who I've recently started to get to know, and really enjoy spending time with walked up to me and said "Tyla. I want to be friends! We have to hang out!" Excellent :-)
3) I worked 1:1 today for 4 hours with a client I have known for a long time. I don't do as much 1:1 work now, and usually it is only for an hour or so. I was training someone today, but did much of the work. I really enjoyed spending so much time with this client. I've known them for a long time, and am so proud of how far they've come. It was a very good night.
4) I feel caught up. For the first time in a long time. I feel caught up.
5) I think...though I'm afraid to type it incase it turns out not to be true, that for the first time in years, I may actually be getting better from a cold without it turning into a) a sinus infection, b) bronchitis or c) pneumonia. I'm not totally there yet, but am feeling a lot better today. Still congested a bit and coughing a bit, but much better.

I should really go to bed though :-)

TA DAAAA

Today was a gooooood day. I did lot of out of the house work last week, and have been sick and so all the other stuff I needed to get done fell by the wayside.

But, today I

• Slept in
• Had waffles for breakfast with my DH
• Finished everything I can for the moment for my ABA presentation
• Sorted out a mad training schedule for one of my teams for next week
• Finished off work for one client
• Organized all my internship supervision documentation
• FINISHED preparing everything for my taxes. I do have an accountant do them, and no, they're not late, as I'm self-employed and have till June 14. But, getting everything together seems a garganutan task. Just adding up income totals, kms driven for work, etc etc etc. Finding reciepts.

Every year I vow I will get more organized and I think I do, just still not quite there yet. Maybe when we stop moving around it will be easier :-)

Anyhoo, getting the tax stuff, internship stuff and scheduling sorted out is a big big accomplishment. Whew.

But it's now almost 9pm at night and I haven't been out of the house and am going squirrly.

Also need to figure out what to take to a potluck tomorrow after Church as we are on the "main course" list this week. I'm thinking large cold pasta dish.

More bits and pieces.

"More" because I'm sure I've titled at least two other blog posts with "bits and pieces."

Sick again. Hopefully getting better !?!

M.'s blog just reminded me there are only 14 days till we leave for Chicago for a conference. Holy moly! Where did the time go?!? I guess that's why my prof has been on me about getting the next revision of my presentation to him. Lol. Need to get healthy before Chicago! Do NOT need a re-live of the nasty "airborne" drink concoction (see below).

I bought new shoes. Cheap shoes, but good. Both pairs I can wear my arch supports in. It's not glamorous...but I do have horrible feet and knees etc., and currently have no shoes except my runners (like, work out runners) that I can wear my arch supports with. So, this is a good thing. one pair are a nice-looking (I think) more supportive good walking-(i.e. sightseeing) type shoe, and the other pair are a casual ballet-slipper/Mary Jane type shoe. Both pairs were purchased for slightly over 40.00 dollars. Good deal :-).

My soon-to-be sister in law gave me a sweet jacket and the most comfortable pair of shorts I've ever owned. Long enough not to be self-conscious, and this amazing stretchy material. So good. Love the give-away clothes.

Working. Lots, trying to earn the money to pay for the Chicago trip. And to pay for being away from work for over a week. This is the downside to being self-employed. You don't get vacation pay!

Happy my prof relented and gave me a decent mark on the double-length with no reason exam. All exams had been 2.5 hours up to this last one. I scheduled accordingly. No where in the syllabus or anything did it say the last one was longer. I logged in, and it was a 4 hour exam. Yep. And my testing centre closed two hours after I started writing the exam. I emailed him gently suggesting that for future students it may be useful to know this, and explaining my situation. He never replied, but my score on the exam was much higher than expected. I won't ask any questions.

Looking SO forward to the weekend. I have Saturday off, and am dreaming of sleeping in with DH and maybe even making waffles for breakfast. Need sleep. Cough and work have kept me from sleep. Need snuggle time with DH. Aforementioned cough and work have kept me from this as well :-).

Okay...off to bed, so that I can work and accomplish amazing things tomorrow (that's my plan anyways) so that I can take Saturday off!

Weekend?

Wow...I just read M.'s facebook status saying she is annoyed it's Monday. I second that. 100%!

This weekend whizzed by. I am sick again...not sure what- some sort of chest cold. Started up only 5 days after I finished my antibiotics for the last one! It seems everyone is getting sick repeatedly this year. The viruses are gaining strength!

I headed over to the mainland on the 7am ferry on Saturday and worked all day Sat. I then spent Sat night with my brother and his fiance (she'll love reading that if she sees this!). It was his birthday on Sat, and we had a great night. We had a glass of wine and just relaxed at their place for a while, and then went out for dinner at their favorite restaurant. It was SOOOOO good. We had the most amazing bruschetta I've ever tasted, and i had a yummy Ahi Tuna open face sandwich with salad. We then had a couple of excellent rounds of Mad Gab, which I've never played before, but was hilarious! Overall it was a great night. I'm so happy my brother is marrying C.! I have so much fun with them together!

The next morning, I slept in a bit, then hung out with C. for while before showering and heading out (J. left early for work). I took the 2pm ferry back home, and then worked from 6-10 over here. So...the weekend went really fast.

Last night I was coughing SOOOO bad! Poor DH had to go sleep upstairs on the couch....It took a long time to go to sleep and I woke up dreary and with a tired body.

So, I've now finally showered and I went out to get a Cobb's bakery cranberry custard danish for breakfast (I'm addicted - they are surprisingly low calorie), and I'm thinking today will be a work-from-home catch up day. Hopefully I can recoup a bit and get better!!

Some good news - I have lost a total of 14lbs since starting to track my stuff on Sparkpeople back in ...ah I think it was Feb I started. Slower weight loss than I experienced on Weight watchers when I did that, but I don't feel at all deprived, I don't really feel like I'm trying to loose weight...so I'm okay with the slower loss, as I think in the long run it's more maintainable.

Need to get back to the gym, but am waiting till I'm healthy. For now I'll just keep watching what I eat.

Pascha!

These photos are from Paschal Vespers yesterday..we forgot the camera at the actual Paschal service. Pascha was beautiful and wonderful as always this year. I think the service wound up around 3am this year, and we left after feasting and celebrating at about 4:30am I think. Yesterday we slept in late and then headed back to Church for Paschal vespers.

I love the "feel" of Paschal vespers. I love everyone trailing in....most of us running late, but not concerned. Everyone still looking a little drowsy, but contented and happy. I love the look of the Church, still beautifully adorned, but with the addition of flower petals strewn throughout the sanctuary, from the celebration that night before (at our church, the priest throws flower petals at us during the Paschal service :-). The church looks like a huge celebration happened the night before.

We then had a big feast, lots of tasty food, then headed home to wind down for a while. Later in the evening we headed over to some friends' for a game of Settlers of Catan. It was an excellent night. We had port, wine, a bunch of cheeses we hadn't tried before, and my poor DH tried desperately to keep the game moving despite everyone's chatter and even a little dancing to MJ. Excellent. Suitably DH won, and we all agreed he deserved to win, as he's the only thing that kept the game together!

And, I think my sinus infection is finally gone; which is good, as I'm almost done the antibiotics. So, I feel renewed after Pascha, like summer is finally arriving, and mostly healthy (it's been a while!). I'm hoping that this will mean I can get back on top of all my work and school stuff, and get back on the bandwagon for my healthy eating and get back to the gym. Being sick put a crimp in all of that.

What the?!

So, at about 3am this morning, I woke up. I thought "why am I awake?" (I rarely wake up once I'm asleep). Listened....no, no cat clawing at the door...no, no husband up and moving around. Why am I...AH! I suddenly felt SO ill I can't even explain it. Once before my stomach felt this bad, and it was when I had a horrible flu and a fever of 104. It was so sudden! So, I was up, sick, for the next two hours. I won't share the details (TMI for blogging relationships), but I could NOT believe how suddenly and crazy sick I was! I crawled on to the couch, not wanting to go too far, and after about 2 hours or so I think, I fell back asleep on the couch. Woke up this morning with stomach in tact, but feeling really drowsy and with actually sore stomach muscles!

I didn't have a fever or anything, so it must have been some type of food poisoning...but I can't think from what? I didn't eat much yesterday, and no meat, seafood, or anything else like that that typically causes food poisoning. Weird. So, now, at 1pm I've finally showered and am drowsily trying to get myself sorted out and complete the work I have to do today.

Of course this happens the morning before Pascha! Ug! I will try to nap later today I think. DH looked very tired this morning as well...so I'm wondering if my being up kept him up. He trooped off to Church, but I stayed home. Maybe we will both nap later today after work and Pascha preparations are done. It's kind of sad though...I don't feel much like picking out goodies for our Pascha baskets! Hopefully by later in the day I will :-).

So...today:
- Work on conference presentation
- Finish work for one of my clients
- Try to go into on-site work for a couple of hours
- Buy food for Pascha baskets
- Tidy house so it's nice and clean when we get home
- Decide what to wear for Pascha.

Definately I will start thinking about the wardrobe early. Last night, I decided I wanted to dress up a bit for the Holy Friday service. I preceeded to try on about 10 outfits, all of which looked not right, ended up wearing everyday clothes and feeling gross and frustrated. But then, at Church, a wonderful person told me I looked really great tonight. I didn't look amazing or really any different than normal...but it's like she knew I needed the boost :-). So thanks, A.

Update

Well, I finshed the paper and sent it off, for better or for worse (I'm feeling like it's more likely the latter). Yesterday was one of "those" days. I woke up late, started work on my paper. At about 11:30am I hit print, showered, got all my materials together for work and headed out for a team meeting. Realized on the way there that I hadn't eaten at all, ran the 3.5 hour training session, picked D. up from work, buzzed to post office to mail paper, then went to Church. Church was good. I love presanctified litrugies, and I hate when I don't get to many of them during lent.

I was going to go into work after Church, but just couldn't do it. Feeling too gross. Came home, ate, crashed.

I am supposed to go to the mainland this weekend for a conference, but am debating not going. I've paid for it and am supposed to be driving people over, so not sure if this will work out, but I just am so behind and so tired and not healthy yet and need the weekend to recoup and catch up. Not to mention, the following weekend it Pascha, and then I'm back on the mainland the weekend after that! I think I need to get to the Dr. to get antibiotics, as it feels like this cold has become a sinus infection (I always get them, not a big deal), but I can't see any time to actually go to the Dr. before the weekend either!

We will see.

I'm also feeling a very big draw to clean. My kitchen is a disaster, the rest of the house is messy, as I haven't been home much the last two days, and have been working on my paper whenever I was, so things have deteriorated into quite a state of disaray. Can't see anytime to clean either, if I'm going to the mainland.

But, my husband just brought me a fresh cup of coffee. That is good.

My Hero

Can you tell I'm writing a paper? Procrastination!!! Back to writing! I will master this dance though. Yes I will.

Much ado about nothing.

Much has been happening lately, which is probably why I haven't had time to blog about it. I don't have time right now, but am of course procrastinating. I think it's been too much to catch up on in one blog though.

Most recently I spent the second of three consecutive weekends on the mainland. This weekend was supposed to be two days of work for me, then a wedding on Sunday. I started getting sick on Thursday, by the end of work on Friday was feeling pretty horrible, and by Saturday was dead on my feet. I still went to work, and got back to my in-laws and collapsed. Needless to say we didn't go to the wedding on Sunday. I was so sad not to go, as this was the wedding of a friend who was our only friend when we moved to MA and helped us so much!!

We came home Sunday night, and I worked all day today, and am now cramming to finish a giant lit review and research proposal that is due on Wednesday. Of course I'm cramming, of course I didn't get it done before now. Ug. SO wishing I had, as I'm still feeling pretty under the weather and would love nothing more than to just sleep.

This week is also, of course a full work-week, re-training entire teams, running assessments and more. Liturgy on Wednesday will hopefully be a blessed break. I also foolishly agreed to have a draft of my upcoming conference presentation to the supervising prof by Friday. Then Friday night I head back to the mainland to attend an all day workshop on Saturday!

Then, hard as it is to believe it will be Palm Sunday and Holy Week. How is that possible? Where did Lent go? But, that means that Pascha is coming soon, and one more school semester will be over, and it will only be a month until I go to the conference in Chicago.

So apparently this was just a post to whine about my schedule. Really - writing it all out here somehow soothes me. I don't know why, but it does :-).

I would just like to not be sick. That's all, then the rest will be managable.

Yummy pasta Salad

I had a number of veggies to clear out of my fridge and needed something for a late breakfast/early lunch. I also had a bit of cream cheese and mayonnaise left over from before lent which needed to be used up...So, here is the yummy pasta meal I made :-).

Orzo and Veggie Pasta Salad

Ingredients
4 oz (1 cup) dry orzo pasta
2 Cups Frozen Peas
2.5 Cups chopped red bell pepper
1 Cup chopped cucumber
1 Cup chopped celery
1/2 Cup chopped dry moraccan olives
1/3 Cup Minced red onion 1 1/2 Tbsp. Light mayonnaise
1/2 Tbsp Pesto
1/3 Cup light cream cheese
1 Tbsp (or to taste) balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp Water

Directions
Cook the orzo. About half way through cooking, add the frozen peas. Meanwhile, chop up all the other vegetables and the olives. Drain Orzo and peas and rinse with cold water in a colander until cooled. Let drain. Add Orzo and peas to vegetable mixture. Make dressing: Blend mayonnaise, cream cheese, and pesto together. Add enough balsamic vinegar and water to smooth dressing out slightly. Dressing should be the same consistency as a thick ranch or ceasar dressing. Fold dressing into pasta and veggies and enjoy!! Chick peas could or feta cheese could be added for protein.
Serving size = 1 Cup
Number of Servings: 7

Nutritional Info: Amount Per Serving ,Calories: 141.6, Total Fat: 3.6 g, Cholesterol: 2.6 mg, Sodium: 186.4 mg, Total Carbs: 23.2 g, Dietary Fiber: 4.0 g, Protein: 5.6 g

The Plan.

So, to make a long story shorter - I started my degree in January of 2007. Normally, people start the degree in September. Typically, it is structured so that you take 2 courses (6 credits) per semester. So, I was 2 courses behind the cohort who started in September 2006. The school wonderfully allowed me to start a semester late (rather than waiting till the following Sept.), and the plan was for me to catch up to the cohort if I could by taking an extra course during 2 of the semesters.

Of course, thus far, I haven't done this. It didn't sound like it would be a problem. But, I've just discovered that due to the way courses are offered, my option is either to a) catch up to my start group by taking extra courses, and actually be done a semester earlier than I'd planned, or b) essentially take an extra year to finish my degree.

So, after some deliberation, I've decided to go with option A and catch up. This is exciting, as it means I'll be done all course work and internship by the end of this year (Dec 2008), but a bit anxiety-proking as it means taking and paying for 21 credits over the next two semesters. So, the plan is, so far:
Internsip and one course during the summer.
Internship, thesis and another course in the fall semester.

Then, if I manage it I will take the spring semester next year to finish off my thesis in time to do my oral defense in May 2009. Just over 1 year from now. Wow.

So, it will be a lot of work, but I think I can put the push in for two semesters to get myself caught up and finished most everything a semester earlier than planned, and a year earlier than I would be able to if I don't take these two heavy load semesters.

So there it is. I'm excited to be at least planning my last two semesters. That being said, I should probably try to get SOMEwhere with my coursework for this semester before it ends in a few weeks. lol.

My cat plays hide-and-seek.

Yes. My cat plays hide and seek and it is the most hilarious thing I've ever seen. D. Started it with her. He would hide behind a wall or around the corner, then jump out when she got close to him. Now, she does the same thing. She was just running around upstairs like a maniac, so I went up to see what all the fuss was and turns out she was just super hyper. So I decided to play a game of hide and seek (really more like peek-a-boo). It's hysterical! Now that I'm trying, I don't think I can quite explain it...ah well. Funny.

Comfort food involving Kale?

Brunch today:

Home made Polenta topped with:

About 1 1/2 cups Kale,
About 1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 clove garlic
About 1 tbsp minced red onion
salt
pepper
about 1 tbsp tomato paste mixed with some water
All sauteed together until the Kale is wilted, and veggies are soft.

I put this on top of home made polenta (yes, my obsession continues).
And sprinkled some hot sauce on top.

mmmmm......

This was the first time I've used Kale. It was really good. I love the color of Kale -it's such a nice rich dark green color. Looks nice with the polenta and mushrooms :-).

Tastes good too.

I know...this is a bit weird to be eating at 10am. Ah well.

My husband.

I love how well my husband takes care of me and puts up with my baby-ness when I'm not feeling well. I'm lucky :-).

Spring in Victoria

This is a beautiful tree in our back yard. One of my favorite things about Victoria is the beautiful blossoms blooming in spring.

I'm hoping to soon post the progression of my little garden plot. Our landlords have very nicely given us permission to use a rather large raised bed. Right now it's still full of rocks, so hopefully today I'll get out there to rake out the rocks and lay down the topsoil. I know very little about gardening, but will give it a shot! I've been reading about needing to test the soil PH and possible put down lime?? I may need to visit a garden centre to find out about this.

Carrot soup and another good recipe site.

My new favorite recipe website is FatFreeVegan.com . I've been using recipes from this site for a while, but am finding it especially useful now that lent has begun, and I'm still trying to eat healthfully. It's so easy during lent to end up eating nothing but carbohydrates (bread, bread, more bread), but I think with this websites help, along with my "Everyday Vegan" cookbook and the Moosewood cookbook, I should be able to manage to eat properly.

Last night I made this AMAZING carrot soup. It is mostly a recipe I got from AllRecipes.com, but I merged it a bit with one from FatFree Vegan.com. I had SO many carrots and potatoes and onions from my most recent Spud orders, and thought soup would be a good use for them :-). What I came out with was the following:

Carrot Soup

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
6 large carrots, sliced
8 new potatoes, quartered
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons curry powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 Can Coconut milk
2/3 Cup water.

Directions:

Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook stirring often until onion is translucent. Add carrots and potatoes, and cook for just a few minutes to allow the carrots to sweat out some of their juices.

Pour the vegetable broth into the pot, and season with ginger, curry powder, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until carrots are tender.

Puree soup in small batches using a food processor or blender, or if you have an immersion blender, it can be done in the soup pot.

Add one can of coconut milk and 2/3 cup water. You can reduce the coconut milk and replace with water, or eliminate it completely to reduce the fat/calories, but it's sooooo good with the coconut milk :-).

Reheat soup if necessary, and serve. Makes 12 cups, 1 cup per serving.

Nutritional Information per 1 cup: 245.6 Calories, 8.0 grams fat, 0 cholesterol, 944.2mg sodium, 40.6g carbs, 6.0 g dietary fibre, 5.0g protein, lots of required daily vitamins and minerals.

It is a super tasty soup. I also made this mock-pumpkin-maple cream cheese thing there was a recipe for on FFV, which is pretty tasty, as well as a beet-carrot cake. Unfortunately I think I put the cake in the wrong kind of pan and it didn't cook through. Also, I think my whole wheat flour may be too old or something.

Rejuvinated

D. has been working on the mainland for the last week. I had to work on the mainland Friday, then had a meeting in Van. on Friday evening, and had to work in the morning on Sat on the mainland.

Friday was a VERY long day, as I took the 7am ferry over (which means leaving home at 5:45am), worked all day till about 3pm then drove straight out to Van for a somewhat..hmm necessary but perturbing work meeting with good potential (i know...confusing). I went out for dinner with a number of colleagues after the meeting, and that was definitely rejuvenating. Being on the island it is easy to feel isolated, and I don't get many chances to connect with colleagues. It was a great dinner out.

The best part about the day was that it ended with seeing my husband! Since he had the hotel all weekend for work, we stayed at the hotel and had a COMPLETE mini-retreat. It was excellent. We literally spent the whole time (that I wasn't working) relaxing, ordered in a Massive sushi feast, which was excellent, as sushi is twice as expensive here in Vic so we rarely have the sushi feasts we used to when living on the mainland. We slept so much, had so much good, relaxing time together and even ordered room service for breakfast!! I don't think we realized how badly we needed some good quality time together until we had it. It really did feel like we were much further away than we were, and really managed (amazingly) to forget about the rest of the world for a couple of days. Now, sadly, I'm home without him - he's on the mainland for another week. But that makes me all the more thankful for a wonderful weekend with him. I love my husband :-). (At risk of an Internet version of PDA).

The Big Give

I just finished watching (I think) the first episode of "Oprah's Big Give." Okay, let me preface this with a few things.

1) Yes, I know, Oprah is making LOADS of money off of this show.
2) I know, it is mostly a brilliant marketing plan for a TV show - it combines both the "reality" TV thing, with the extreme home makover, emotional, make-you-cry-every-time "reveal" angle.
3) I AM one of "those" people who cries at the end of almost every episode of extreme home makeover,

All that said, I think, if you're going to make loads of money off of a reality show, this is the most "ethical" way to do it. Lol.
I love that in every episode, at least 3-5 people/families/groups in need will be helped. I like that it shows what can be done with detemination. That it spotlights people and causes and issues that are important. I am a sucker for this type of thing....that said, this one episode did cause me to think about what can be done. To think about all those things I want to see happen, and think about the reality of what is needed to make them happen. There are goals and dreams I have about ways I want to "give back." Strong convictions I have about certain issues...and I will keep watching. Mostly because this show, at the very least gives an insight into the strategy, management and sales skills necesary to make those types of dreams a reality.

ANYhoo....as I mentioned above, I KNOW that this show is primarily a business enterprise. It is being produced to make money. Oprah's "persona" is being used as a marketing tool to bring in more viewers, and to make even more money. But, being that there are LOADS of reality/big reveal shows out there preying on our guilt of consumption...I think that this one may be one of the more beneficial ones to watch :-).

Things that are making me smile today.

Jello's new no-sugar added refrigerator pudding. It is SOOOoooo creamy and thick and yummy, especially the butterscotch one. AND it is only 60 calories per serving!! Love it.








And, at risk of advertising for telus (don't want to do that), I love their newest commercial:

People Watching at the Gym

Wow. I don't know if I've become more observant at the gym or if people watching has gotten more interesting. The last two days I've finished up work and what not a bit later, and have wanted to exercise after dark. Not wanting to go walking/jogging alone at night I've gone to the gym at the local Rec Centre. I forgot how much I like it there....I spent about an hour and a half the first night and an hour and 15 minutes the second night and on both nights I left mostly because I needed to get other things done, but was enjoying myself enough I could have stayed quite a bit longer.

So...they have rearranged the gym, and some of the machines I use are in different locations, namely closer proximity to the weight training area. There are a few interesting characters:
- Super fit girl who works super hard and seems shy and keeps to herself
- Boysterous body builder, who makes lots of noise, asks random people to "spot" him (usually female), and obviously hits on superfit girl at least 2-3 times per hour (based on my 1.25 hour observation). Superfit girl has him on planned ignore. She clearly is irritated by him.
- Crazy, and I mean MAD tiny tiny skinny skinny man who goes so fast on the elliptical (using the handles too) that I seriously am hesitant to walk behind him while he's on the machine, as he looks like at any moment a) he will go flying off the elliptical accross the room, and hit the wall before dropping to the floor, b) he will pass out, or c) I will get hit by projectile sweat dropplets. Seriously, I'm always waiting for the gym monitors to ask him to slow down before the machine breaks. It's like nothing I've every seen before.
- A former philosophy prof of mine. This is, for those of you who have heard the story, the same prof I encountered in the pool area of this rec centre 2 or more years ago. I was swimming laps and came up for air to find myself looking at my philosophy prof, who was in a speedo, JUMPING up and down trying to get water out of his ears or something. lol.
- Amazing woman who rows like 15k on the rowing machine. I was on one next to her and had no idea how long she'd been rowing until she asked me to read her distance/calorie report for her (she is blind). I just about fell off my machine! She's really really nice too.

Anyways...I kind of like that the same people were there (many anyways) both nights and that most people know the gym staff who are really nice and walk around checking in with people and talking to them. I think as soon as I have the money I'll buy a pack of tickets or year long pass again...I really like this gym. And because it's a rec centre, the tickets or pass also give you entrance to the pool etc.

Taking up space.

Really I'm just posting a blog, because I'm getting irritated seeing the last one over and over again. Not much to report.

I'm settling in for (BOO!) two weeks by myself, as D. left today to work on the mainland for two weeks.

We had a flurry of socializing this week which was great. We had some frineds over on Thursday to visit and watch some arrested development (always fun!), Friday we used a gift card and went out for dinner at the Keg with a couple from Church, and last night we had friends visiting from up-island. We had good food and a rockin' few games of croquenot. Loved it!

I really really should be studying...I have test tomorrow and another on Tuesday and a busy week...but I'm feeling lazy and blah and having a hard time extricating myself from watching the Oscars...even though I don't think I've seen one of the nominated movies!

Who's a nerd?

For some reason, there has always been this mystique around the American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Mannual. I've never seen the real thing, but have toiled for hours hunting down information on line and editing my papers and reference lists to meet it's critera.

Well, I had to buy it for a class this semester. Turns out it's only about 30.00. Hmm. I did get that "new textbook" excited feeling though (even though it's not an actual textbook), and there is something very comforting and a little bit exciting about having a copy for myself now. Sigh. Nerd-o. I know.

Growing back into myself.

I've been getting sick constantly, been tired alot, unmotivated, unhealthy. I knew what would help, I knew what would make me healthier, happier and in a better place. Getting around to making the changes I needed to was more difficult.

The first step was to go to Church regularly, and to take steps towards becoming more a part of that community. This has been challenging, as I am so often away for work. Making sure I am there every Sunday I'm healthy and here has made a big difference though.

My next step was to get healthier. I changed a number of habits including eating (all of this is still a work in progress) and have started getting more exercise on a regular basis. I'm remembering how much I enjoy this when I do it, and how much I enjoy cooking. Cooking really is realxing and such therapy for me, but along with socializing it goes out the window when I'm busy.

My wonderful mother, worried about my constantly being sick mailed me a care package including all kinds of vitamins, echinaccia, cold fx etc. I've been taking these regularly, trying to heal from the pneumonia, and prevent this looming cold!

Another big piece of the puzzle for me is that I am the ultimate extrovert, and lately, haven't been socializing at all. Partly due to scheduling, partly due to the effort involved in getting to know new people and making connections in the city I've now lived in for 5 years on and off and have yet to really put roots down in.

So, this week the social time just happened. There are a number of things we've been meaning to do, and people we've been wanting to get together and it's all fallen into place this week for some reason. Last night I had a great long walk and glass of wine with a girl friend. Tomorrow night we're having a few people over to watch a favorite series (arrested development!), hopefully, Friday we'll have dinner with a wonderful couple we don't get to spend time with often, and Saturday some friends are visiting from up-island and we'll hopefully have a great evening of making dinner together, dutch blitz and maybe even some croquenot.

My poor introverted husband may collapse before the week is up, but I know I will be energized!

As long as I can keep this cold away and manage to get all my work and studying done despite the socializing it will be a great week :-).

Sugar free brownies..mmm

Magnificent M gave me this recipe eons ago, and I hadn't tried it till yesterday. These brownies are actually really quite good. They are, technically 0 pts if you are doing WW, and only 26 calories. Granted, if you divide them into 16 servings, they are very small, but hey, at 26 calories I won't complain, I'll just eat two :-).

Ingredients
2/3 Cup Splenda
1/3 Cup cocoa
1/3 Cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 Cup whole wheat flour
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 Cup low fat plain yogurt (can substitute 1/4 light or fat free sour creme, or fat free yogurt).

Directions
Beat splenda and applesauce until smooth. Mix in egg, yogurt, and vanilla.
Mix cocoa, flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and add to wet ingredients.
Mix until just blended.
Bake in an 8x8 baking pan at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Makes 16 small brownies.
Number of Servings: 16

Nutritional Info
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 26.5 Total Fat: 0.7 g Cholesterol: 13.5 mg Sodium: 37.5 mg
Total Carbs: 5.0 g Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g Protein: 1.3 g

I heart Trader Joes

A collegue of D.'s was going to the states and offered to pick us up treats from Trader Joes. So, we made her a shopping list and here's what D. brought home tonight!!

In case you can't see...there are Tamari Wasabi almonds, triple ginger snaps, multigrain pita chips, Chipolte salsa, Tuna in yellow curry sauce (I've been dreaming about this!), mini peanut butter cups, multigrain rice crackers and reduced fat cheesies!! So many of our favorites!!!! Hooray!!!

Spending time wtih a childhood friend

This is the third Saturday in a row I've watch the Padington Bear cartoon. That means this is the third Saturday in a row I've been up at 6 am for something or other. Lame. I am dreaming of next Satruday, as it's the my one weekend off and thus far unbooked. The following weekend it will be off to the mainland again for work on Friday and Sat. and a meeting Friday evening.

So, this is actually a fairly good cartoon. And, few know this now, but growing up I had (and still have somewhere) a Padington Bear doll that slept with me every night. Who, for many years I was convinced a) could hear and understand me talking, b) had feelings that would be hurt if (for example) I placed another stuffed animal in the "prized" spot on the bed; or dropped him on the floor, or packed a different stuffed animal in my suitcase when going on a trip, leaving him behind.

So, I guess, if I'm going to be up at 6am multiple Saturdays in a row, it's good to spend some time with my old friend Paddy.

Mraz amataz

So whenever my brother and I get together, he ALWAYS has some new music to play me. Despite how different we are in most areas, my brother has this uncanny ability to peg my taste in music like no one else. He always has a list of songs/artists to play me that I will "love." I always do. Jason Mraz was one of those. He played it for me one day while we were driving somewhere, and I loved it, but then forgot about it. BUT - he made me a CD of Jason Mraz's tunes for Christmas. I can't explain to you how much I love this artist. Mraz combines all the things I love about at least 5 different artists. He's phenomenal.

The video in this clip is lame (shaky), but I had to post this song (there are actually two in this clip, but the first one is the one I was looking for). The sound is the better in this one than the other clips though. So good. So so good. I've been grooving to Mr. Mraz for about 3 days straight now :-).

My favorite quick yummy food.

I've made this a few times. Each time it's slightly different. The key ingredients are:

Red peppers, chopped bite-size (were on sale at the small store down the street today.
Chorizo sausage, or hot italian turkey sausage, or some type of hot sausage. If you use non-spicy variety as I did tonight, add red pepper flakes and ground chili to add the heat :-).
Tomato sauce...I like the tall thin jars of it you get at the Italian deli's...simply purred tomatoes.
Olive oil, usually 1-2 tbsp
Lots of garlic (2-4 or more cloves)
Gnocci, usually 1 package.
Salt, to taste.

Tonight;
Sauteed the 3 red bell peppers and 4 turkey-chicken mild italian sausages in the olive oil, with the garlic, red pepper flakes, ground chili and salt.
Added the tomato sauce.
Cooked the gnocci while everything else was cooking.
Mixed the cooked gnocci in with everything else, cooked for another 5 min to let the flavors all "meld."
Topped with chopped fresh basil (came in my SPUD order, have to use!).

Depending on what I have in terms of oil, herbs and spices, and what is on sale/reasonable in terms of meat, this varies slightly. It's good with regular pasta too, but for some reason I like it more with Gnocci.

We had this with the Sumac Ridge Cabernet-Merlot which was on sale at the wine shop up the street. We DID walk to the wine store and to pick up the couple of needed ingredients for dinner.

We came dangerously close to eating out tonight, but opted for this instead. Though not the healthiest meal, it's not too bad, and better than what we would have had eating out. We have managed to keep up our new eating-at-the-table tradition; D. took the time to tidy up the things that had accumulated on the table while I cooked...and is now being wonderful and doing the dishes :-).

The wonderous grain...

Tonight I tried a new recipe from my Moosewood cookbook. I made the Cormeal pancakes. I've realized I love everything cornmeal- cornbread, corn muffins, polenta, all of it! These pancakes are very yummy, filling and a bit more on the savory side than typical pancakes, with a cornbread type consistency. We had them with turkey sausages and a spinach salad. We had maple syrup and/or sour cream on them; both recommendations from the book. The book suggests adding corn and cumin to the basic recipe for a variation...may be yummy, will have to try another day. Here's the recipe:

Cormeal Pancakes (Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home).

Fill with grated cheese, or serve with salsa and avacado, or top with sour cream, yogurt, applesauce or maple syrup.

Ingredients
1.5 cups milk
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1.25 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
2 Tbsp butter or margarine1 tablespoon maple syrup

Directions
Combine milk, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, cornmeal, flour, butter or margarine, and maple syrup in a blender or food processor and whirl for about 30 seconds, until well blendd. You may need to stop the blender or processor and scrape th sides of the container with a rubber spatula to be sure no dry ingredients are sticking. Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet. our the batter onto the skillet to make several pancakes about 4 inches in diametr. When the pancakes puff up and begin to form bubbles, flip them over and brown the other side. Remove them on to a plate and keep tehm warm in a low oven while you cook the remaining batches. You may need to add a little oil to the skillet wit subsequent batches. Serve Hot. Makes 20 4 inch pancakes. One serving= 4-5 4 inch pancakes. Number of Servings: 5
Note: If you prefer to mix the batter with a whisk or electric mixer, melt the butter or margarine first.
From the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home book.


Hmm...this blog is becoming more of a food blog lately, isn't it? I think it's just because I've been trying new foods lately...and maybe have made a bit more time in my day to cook.

Crazy for roasted red pepper purree

I found another use for it. Now, this will sound weird, I know, but here's my lunch today:

Spinach with left over shredded red cabbage (from fish tacos last night), with lime juice squeezed on and a bit of Annies Goddess Dressing.

A (yes) cream cheese and roasted red pepper purree sandwich. I know. It sounds weird and a bit gross. But it was good. Cream cheese on each piece of bread, and a think layer of the purree between.

Anyways...

How well do you know your Seinfeld?

I'm watching a hysterical episode of Seinfeld, and felt a need to share these few gems. Can you name the context and/or episode? Laugh hard and out loud.....

“It’s good cape weather..breezy, sunny.” – Jerry to Elaine

“If I like their race, it’s not racist.” – Jerry to Elaine

“My boys need a house” –Kramer to Jerry, Elaine and George

“So why are you seeing her again?” - Elaine
“Well, she is a woman.” – Jerry

“There’s nothing holding me in place! I’m flippin’ I’m floppin’.” - Kramer to Jerry, Elaine and George.

Work at home day...sweet!

I haven't had a complete work at home day for a long time. I love work at home days. I can clean the house/make healthy lunches and dinners while I work, or as a break from work. I can get caught up on work, get caught up on school, and all those other miscilanious work/school related things. I can go for a walk as a break and get some exercise in for the day. On the menu today is:

- Tidy house (dishes/tidy rooms/maybe start laundry).
- Program writing
- Start my next units for school (just had tests)
- Hash out thesis ideas and try to decide my topic for this semesters papers (this course is *theoretically* supposed to be the one in which you start some of the ground work for your thesis...of course that means you need to a) know what you want to do and b) know you'll have access to the clients you need to run it when you actually run it a year from now).
- Re-analyze data from practicum project (it will never end) in preperation for submission to another journal (rejected from the last one!). Note, I do not mean "Re-analyze; wink wink, nudge nudge" the data. The reviewers suggested we re-analyze the data an additional way, to make a better argument for why we chose a particular procedure. So, just so we're clear. No data-fudging happening here.
- Cook the spaghetti squash sitting in my fridge and figure out a way to eat it for lunch...lol.
- Meet with a collegue at 1pm to finish preparations for a workshop we're teaching this weekend.
- Tackle invoices
- Start to look at what I need to get together for taxes (UG). At least this year I just have to pull it all together and get it to the accountant.

That's enough for now. I know it sounds like a lot, but ...I get to do it all from home in my lululemon pants and fleece socks. Which makes it managable.

Now, I'd better get to work. lol.

Red Pepper eggs

I just made scrambled eggs with purreed roasted red peppers mixed into them. They are SO tasty! This purreed red pepper is one of the best finds I've made in a long time. I purchased it at a little italian deli/market called Ambrosio. It is so nice to add to sphagetti sauce, pizzas, and apparently eggs! Mmmm...

rockin'

I just realized that my statistics exams are all OPEN-BOOK. Text book and notes. Now, normally I'm actually not a fan of open-book tests, as usually I do better with closed book. BUT, I have double the needed time to write these tests (b/c they always over estimate it), and most of the material is stuff I did in my undergrad stats class, and in that class I had to write the exams with nothing!

So...that being the case, I'm going to bed. At 9:30pm. I know. But I'm exhausted and my brain is not working. So better to sleep now, get up early and study.

Accomplishments

- Walking 30-min a day relatively regularly.
- Eating at the kitchen table instead of in the living room (often in front of the TV).
- Eating less sweets (over the last few days anyways).

Things to work on:
- Drinking less wine :-)
- Eating less last-minute food (especially when I have good, healthy food at home ready to be re-heated)...usually comfort food I opt for instead of healthful food.

Eating at the table...when I grew up, in my family, and for much of my married life so far (often due to not having a dining room table :-)) I have acquired the habit of eating in front of the TV/in the living room. One of those few things all weight loss/healthy eating/general good living guidelines have in common is "do not do other things while you eat" i.e. do not eat while watching TV, reading etc...D. and I keep saying we will move to eating at the table, but for some reason it seemed such a hard transition. So...what did we do?

1) Initially, I simply set up a "mail" area to hold the bits and pieces that ended up on the table...and put place mats on the table as a reminder that we were NOT supposed to pile bags, books, mail, etc on the table.
2) That worked well, but then we also actually changed to a smaller table so that it really fit in our kitchen, and also bought a shoe-rack to hold the shoes in a better way so they didn't interfere with the dining area. SO much of a difference. The table change has made a huge difference. It is square vs round and smaller than the other one, but actually fits our space, so we can use it without feeling cramped. And...every night since we've made the switch, we have eaten at the table.

AND...now, I really really look forward to dinners with D. at the table. It encourages me to plan dinners more, and that leads to healthier dinners. I look forward to the time to talk, to tell each other about our days, and spend one-on-one time together before (often) returning to work or studying.

BUT..still there are nights like tonight, when, despite having good, tasty, healthy food in the fridge...I stopped and bought bread and dips and wine. Hmmm...need to work on that. But, we DID still eat at the table :-).

Mmmmm.....

Homemade granola and organic yogurt for breakfast. Yum. Except, I ate it an hour ago, and I'm kind of hungry again already. That always happens when I eat breakfast before 7am.

The granola is from a recipe I got from the people who ran the bed and breakfast we stayed in on our honeymoon. It was so good, I asked for the recipe, and they gave it to me! It's been a treat to make periodically since then.

An excellent discovery...

So, my brother made me a CD of a band I used to LOVE, but had completely forgotten about - Moxy Fruvous. I listened to it the other day, re-fell-in-love with them (there was dancing, and karaoke quality singing), and hunted around on YouTube for a video of them to post. I found some HYSTERICAL videos that people had made set to their songs. I have to post at least three of them...

The first one is set to one of my favorite songs of theirs, King of Spain....


The second one is a hysterical stick-man music video of their song Spiderman. Anything stick figure-based is hysterical to me for some reason.



And last but not least...My baby loves a bunch of authors...Warcraft style?? This song is another one of my favorites of theirs.



Love it. All of it!

Fennel and Orange Salad

I made this last night for dinner, along with pasta and pesto. It's one of the recipes from my new Moosewood cookbook. I've heard so much about fennel in the last while, and have wanted to try a recipe with it. I had a bunch of oranges, and realized fennel was relatively inexpensive at the store, so picked some up and tried out the recipe. This recipe is so incredibly simple and inexpensive but so wonderfully refreshing and tasty!! It goes very well with a heavier pasta dish or stew (so says the Moosewood) and I think would go well with a fish dish as well? Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 fennel bulbs
4 navel oranges
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Directions:
Slice the fronds end and the very bottom off the fennel bulbs and cut them in very thin slices. Section the oranges and cut the sections in half. Put all this into a bowl. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste, and mix it all together. Let sit in the fridge for 20 minutes before serving.

That's it! Super simple. Very tasty.

Ah need some woh motivation

Does anyone else know the song reference I just made in the title? ("I want somethin' else...to get me through this...semitone kind of life...).

I'm finding it very difficult to get motivated after being sick. So much work has piled up it's hard to get moving. My classes started on the 16th, and I haven't even cracked a book yet. Ug!

I'm going to try to get back on track today and get caught up on my client work and at least crack a book or two for school.

Had a great but exhausting weekend. I was on the mainland teaching a workshop with M. Well, okay, let's be honest; researching, developing, writing and teaching a workshop with M. My favorite moments of the weekend were:
- Being woken up by M. at 8am with her saying "Sooooo....you up for a little Ikea this morning?" (only at her house would I get that wake up call - of course, it got me out of bed immediately).
- The 2.00 breakfast at Ikea...mmm..
- As always....wandering the showroom.
- M. and I making Vindaloo, homemade Naan, raita, and a giant mess for dinner. At 8pm, when we'd barely started the work, we had managed to create a giant disaster to clean up!!
- M. handing me licorice at 3 am saying "Do you want some stale licorice" and me and the stale licorice being just what I wanted! For some reason it tasted so good!
- Realizing that Staples didn't open till 10am the next day, when our workshop started at 10am, that the photocopier at Shoppers was broken, and in the process of running back and forth to find somewhere to photocopy handouts, spilling the lovely americano M. had made me all over the car (it now has a lovely spilt coffee scent).

All in all, it was a good weekend. I love teaching, and especially teaching with M. I only wish I had more time to research and teach! Maybe one day :-).

OH NO!

Being at home sick for the last couple of days has meant that for the first time, I have been completely sucked into American Idol. I'm addicted. I can't get enough. Oh no.

Can't wait to cook!

I recieved a gift card to Bolen Books, and waited till well after Chrsitmas to cash it in. I bought this cookbook with it about a 2 weeks ago, and it is EXCELLENT!

I've been eyeing this cookbook up for a while - I'm fairly sure I've been directed to it for more than one dish I've tried and asked for the recipe for.

It's put out by the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York. It's primarily vegetarian, egg and fish dishes (no red meat or poultry). The recipes look amazing, and they all can be made in under 30 minutes.



The first ones I want to try are:
Pad Thai (the simplest looking recipe for this I've seen I think).
Cornmeal Pancakes
Fruit Ricotta Mousse

I love getting a new cook book! Now to get healthy, and find the time to actually cook some new things. That's the challenge, especially when my classes start today, and I'm now going to be ridiculously behind in work due to being sick right after the holidays.

What!?

So, I've been sick for almost 2 weeks now...started with a high fever, then the fever went away, but I've had this crazy chest congestion and cough that still hasn't gone away. D. kept telling me to go to the Dr., but I didn't, until today. So, as it turns out, I have pneumonia. Pneumonia!?! What? Apparently they call it "walking pneumonia" when people are walking around with it (rather than being bedbound). So, being that it's relatively contagious still for the nextg 48 hour (until the antibiotics kick in) I've had to cancel work for the next two days...and I guess I will stay on the couch??

So maybe I'll blog more the next couple of days :-).

Pizza

Here is the recipe for whole wheat pizza dough:

Ingredients:
3/4 C + 1tsp water
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 1/4 C whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2tsp active dry yeast (or 1 1/2 tsp fast rise yeast)
toppings

Directions (as remembered by me :-):
Put the water and oil into the bread pan. Put the flour sugar and salt into the bread pan, and tap the pan down so that the flour mixture covers the water. Push the flour to the edges in the corners and sprinkle the yeast over top. Put the bread pan in the bread machine and set on the dough cycle.

When the dough cycle is finished (1.5 hours on my machine) knead the dough for 1 minute, then let it rest for 15 minutes. Roll it out to 12-14 inches and put into a pizza pan that is oiled and sprinkled with cormeal. Let the dough rise for 20-25 minutes. Top with your favorite toppings and bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

The toppings I made last night were:
Pizza one:
- dough brushed with olive oil
- sprinkled with a tiny bit of mozzarella
- topped with apples, caramalized onions, blue capri blue goat cheese
- sprinkled with a tiny bit more mozza

Pizza two:
- pesto on the dough
- topped with cappocoli, mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and mozzarella

MMMMmmmmmmm.....I love the home made pizza :-)

Tragedy averted

I have been craving home-made pizza made with an amazing whole wheat pizza dough recipe for about a week now. I had everything needed to make the pizza but wanted to wait till I was feeling better and could really enjoy it...but I got tired of waiting and decided to make it last night.

When I went to put the ingredients in the bread machine, I couldn't find the recipe!! I wanted to cry! This recipe was given to me by a dear friend after she made us pizza with it once. I can't explain how good this dough is - it MAKES the pizza, and usually means you can only eat one or two pieces because it's so filling! (Of course, 1-2 pieces is what one SHOULD normally eat).

So, after looking for it for an hour, I realized we could just phone our dear friends, and then we'd get to talk to them too! So, we did, we got the recipe and I made the pizza AND we had a great catch-up conversation with our friends. I will post the recipe and my pizza concoctions in another post :-).

Dinner tonight.

I just made this for dinner:

Fig and blue cheese stuffed pork tenderloin. It. was. so. good. I made garlic sauteed green beans and wild rice cooked in a mushroom broth to go with it. We had the Therapy Vineyards Chardonnay. The pairing was good, and the meal was fantastic. And get this: the recipe for the pork tenderloin is from Cooking Light! You can find it here.

The great thing about this recipe also is that it's relatively inexpensive. Pork tenderloin is very reasonable, and the small amount of blue cheese is inexpensive though it adds so much.

I'm on a new kick to eat at the table. Okay, maybe you all eat at the table every night. But, we live in a smallish apartment and have gotten into the habits of a)using the kitchen table as a dumping ground or "hot spot" as fly lady would say and b) eating nearly all meals in front of the TV.

We're trying to live more healthfully and every single health guideline, weight loss plan etc. says "DO NOT" do other things while you're eating. Do not watch TV, read, drive etc while eating. Okay, so here's what I did to combat our TV eating: 1) Created a "mail centre" to drop all the mail and pens and bits and pieces that were collecting on the table. 2) Put 2 place mats on the table. This doesn't sound like much, but so far it has helped. Especially the place mats- I walk in with my bag, purse, mail, groceries, but when I reach to put them on the table and see the place mats, I redirect them to where they should be stored (bag- in office, purse- on hook, mail- mail centre, groceries - put away immediately). So, with the table clear, it is easy to eat there. We had a candlelit dinner tonight :-).

So...here's to hoping we can keep up the trend. I really really want to defrost the other pork tenderloin in the freezer and make this meal again!

Dead Like me.

A great new show: Dead Like Me. It's a showtime series I think that we caught a couple of time on TV and then bought the first two seasons on DVD with a gift card. It's VERY good. Excellent fliming (to my undiscerning and unknowledgable eye...so maybe I should say "cool" filming), dry humor and just...good. Like it. Lots. Watched it. Lots. while I was sick.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...

I finally blog to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We had a whirlwind holiday with two trips to the mainland, visitors in between the trips, and me coming down with the flu when we got back.

Highlights:
1) The bag of goodies from Trader Joes a wonderful friend brought me.
2) Seeing so many friends we don't get to see often.
3) Spending time with family, and especially getting to hang out with my parents, brother and his girlfriend and my nephew, who I haven't seen for way too long.
4) An addition to #3...seeing extended family that I haven't seen for a really long time.
5) An excellent wedding reception at the Memphis Blues restaurant in N. Van on New Years Eve! (This is where I saw the extended family).
6) Our new coffee maker. Mmmm...
7) Surprise additions to our SPUD organic grocery delivery - dear friends added in some "treats" (amazing cheeses and yummy bread!) to our order unbeknownst to us!

Overall a good, though busy holiday time. After we got home, a couple of days ago I came down with the flu everyone has had this season with a fever the whole thing...but the fever is pretty well gone now..just the cold-related stuff now...oi. Hopefully I can get better soon so I won't have quite so much work to catch up on next week. Ug.

Decorating

We decorated last night :-). I put on Christmas music...deocrated our little 3 foot tree. So, I bought ornaments at Ikea. They were a nice little matchy set, that I knew would be just about the right amount for our tree, and inexpensive, so I thought "okay, perfect." I opened them up last night and realized that a) They didn't have string to hang them attached to them but b) They came with string (this plasticy stuff that was IMPOSSIBLE to tie a knot in, and all pieces were too short) so that I could c) Spend about 1.5 hours tying and stringing the strings on the ornaments!!! "Some assembly required." Bah! Anyhoo, D. helped me finish them and they're up.

I did discover the benefit to decorating on Dec. 19 - I went to Michael's yesterday and all decorations were 50-70 percent off! I actually bought a garland for the stairs railing, along with the tree and a couple of other things. Very excellent. It's all fake this year. I can't wait until we have our own place/ a bigger place so that we can buy a big real tree.

I'll be like a ping pong ball over the next week and a half. I'm on the mainland today for work, then back home tonight, then back over there on the 24, back to Vic on the 26, back to the mainland on the 30, back to Vic again on the 1. Crazy!

Today

Well..my plans for today:
1) Get caught up on all my other client work...and various bits and pieces related to work.
2) Do my out-of-the-house work.
3) Find a small Christmas tree and finish buying the little extras for Christmas gifts.
4) CLEAN my house.
5) Go to the gym if there's time. I recently went to the gym I used to go to before we moved to MA with a client, and remembered how much I loved it there. I think I'm going to try to get back into the habit of going there while I have a break from school and finding the time is a bit easier. Mostly because I had forgotten what an escape going there was. As soon as I walked in I felt more relaxed - so I think I will go back there :-).

I think life will be easier when I don't have school. I just realized yesterday that all I have to do this week is work, and that that actually makes a big difference. Not that I've been putting tons of time into school (as I should be) but it's just the fact that I don't have that, or marking hanging over me needing to be done in all my spare time. One day I'll be there!! Then I'm sure though, that something else will replace school!! Ah well..I will enjoy these little breaks while I have them :-).

Livingrooom!

Livingroom BEFORE: Livingroom After:

Well, it's all done. Not QUITE as exciting in th pictures as it is in person (the room just feels much better), but it definately makes a difference :-). Mellowing it out and adding some art definately helps the small room. This was a low-budget re-decorating...in that we didn't buy any furniture, just "accents" and a cheap Ikea area rug and art, throw pillows etc. But I'm happy with it :-) . I couldn't find my camera (ug!) so took the pictures with my laptop..so their not super good quality. There's also a cool new hanging lamp in the staircase that you can't see in these pictures..the only downside to it is that it is much brighter (even with a low-watt bulb) thn I had planned on...I was looking for mood lighting, not light the whole room lighting! That's okay though. I hung a bamboo blind on the wall behind it so that it wouldn't reflect off the glaring white wall as much and that seems to have helped.

Oyyoiyoi!

Well, at LONG last a) My classes are finished for the semester and b) I've finished my stack of marking!

I now have a bunch of other stuff to get caught up on that I have neglected over the last week...but this frees me up to do that, thankfully.

This also means that as soon as I have a moment (well more than a moment) to spare I can re-decorate the livingroom. I am very excited about this :-).

I thought I had more to say. Hmm.

Salt and Pepper Oatmeal

I was just telling friends about this yesterday..and that make me crave it this morning. When I was growing up, my dad would often have oatmeal with butter, salt, and pepper rather than the usual sweet accompaniments.

So, this morning, I made oatmeal, added the margarine, salt and pepper and mmmmm! I forgot how good it is. I know it sounds weird, but it IS pretty tasty :-).

The dinner at Cafe Brio last night was amazing. By no means fast-friendly, but it was soooooo good. Unfortunately we missed the appetizers because D. had the start time off by about an hour or hour and a half! But we made it in time for the dinner and socializing afterwards.

They had, as the "activities" for the evening both a gift exchange and a gingerbread house making contest. They got gingerbread house kits from Thriftys that had everything you need to make the house. Alas, we didn't win the contest...but it was fun anyways.

Whirlwind times and reinforcement contingencies

Whirlwind times these are. DH was away for work for 1 week, then home for a two days, then gone for another week, then home for a day and a half, then gone for another three days. Then, a day later I was gone for work! There was actually a point in there where we were both on the mainland for work, and didn't see each other. Mad? Yes.

I just returned home from a mainland trip. I went over Thursday night, worked all day Friday, had a relaxing evening by the fire with my in-laws visiting, then....then....today, I went to Ikea!! D.'s sister and I have been wanting to go to Ikea together for a while, and as luck had it she was available today. So, I introduced her to the full T. Ikea experience (This is the Ikea experience I was inducted to by Magnificent M. I can't help but think of her whenever I'm there...):

1) Make the "Whaaaaa!!!" sound as you spot the sleek blue and yellow building that holds so many wonderful things from the highway.
2) Start in the cafe, get a coffee...smell the cinammon buns so that you can start looking forward to one at the end of the trip.
3) Proceed up to the showroom (never skip the showroom).
4) Visit the couch you'll get when you have the room and the money.
5) Visit the various kitchens...decide which one is the one you'll get when you have your own house and the money to afford it.
6) Oooh and awww over various decorating ideas and specific items throughout the showroom.
7) After about an hour and a half of showroom browsing stop in the cafeteria for lunch. Of course, spend no more than 5.00 on a yummmy lunch.
8) Debate which items you will/will not purchase, what items will go together and fit in your rooms.
9) Refreshed, head down to the self-serve area.
10) Debate for ridiculous amounts of time what to buy. Go back and forth through the shortcuts to compare artwork with rugs, with lighting.
11) Once said debates are resolved, pick up various bits and pieces needed (serving spoon, candles, measuring spoons, kitchen sheers) for very very low prices :-).
12) Cart full, head to browse the "before you line up" area. Today I picked up Christmas ornaments, wrapping paper and gift tags.
13) Normally scope out the self-serve area, but we skipped this step today.
14) Line, up, mentally calculate the cost of the items in your cart, then decide what to take out and leave in the shopping bag bins by the till. Today, I was caught re-handed ditching items by an Ikea employee...she was nice about it though :-).
15) Pay, congratulate yourself on how full your cart is for such a reasonable price, and on NOT buying the various items you visited but resisted buying.
16) Purchase any 1-2 of the following from the cafe: Frozen yogurt, hot dog, or cinnamon bun. Today it was cinnamon bun.

Can you tell it's been a while since I've been to Ikea?? Lol. I managed, for a ridiculously low price, to purchase items for an almost complete living room makeover. No furniture, but all accents that will greatly improve the feel of the living room! My SIL was an incredibly good sport, and provided the necessary assurances that I "needed" various items, and suffered through my indecisiveness about what to purchase without giving even the slightest hint that she was becoming irritated with me (ANYone who has been with me at this shopping stage KNOWS how irritating my indecisiveness gets!!).

So, now to the reinforcement contingency: I am not allowing myself (and D. will hold me to it) to set up the new living room until I've finished marking the pile of exams that are still looming. I think I am now significantly motivated!

Tomorrow we have Church, and D's work Christmas party, so I won't have much time to mark, especially since I have two exams to write myself on Monday. So, Monday night, Tuesday, maybe Wednesday will be marking mania in and around my other work. Then I will get the room set up.

I will post pictures when it's done (before and after of course)!

Lunch

Mmmmm....I thought to make this on my way home for lunch and I have NO idea why I thought of it, aside from the fact that I had all the ingredients, and thought it might taste good.

Saute a bunch ( I used 2 handfulls of leaves) of spinach in olive oil, with one clove of crushed garlic, and salt and pepper.
Just as the first leaves start to wilt, add in pre-cooked, thawed shrimp (I think I used about 1/2 or 3/4 cup).
Saute for a minute or two, squeeze in the juice of 1/2 a lemon.
Saute until leaves are just wilted and shrimp is heated through.
Eat.

SO good!! I think it would be good over rice or somthing as well, because the combination of the wilting spinach, and the garlic and lemon created a really yummy broth!

SO good.

Good things

I'm trying to return to the original purpose of this blog, which was to make time for things that I often forget to make time for. So..today...good things about today:

1. Accomplishing an amazing amount before 5pm, due to waking up so blinking early.
2. Mint tea and cinnamon toast. I haven't had cinnamon toast forever!
3. Chuck. I'm loving that show. It was on tonight.

Sleepless in Victoria

Well, I'm up early, b/c D. was taking the 7am ferry over to the mainland for work, and I took the opportunity to get up early with him in hopes of getting lots done today.

I had a really hard time going to sleep last night. My brain was whirling at breakneck speed thinking about:
-Client A
- Client B
- Potential thesis topics and exactly how I could execute said potential research. I thought about this in way too much detail when I didn't have a pen or pencil and paper or computer to record my thoughts. Can I remember what I was thinking about now? Not so much.
- My to do list for today and this week.
- That I couldn't sleep.
- That I may be keeping D. up with my tossing and turning when he had to get up early.
- Concentrating on laying still while I was thinking about everything else to minimize the disruption to D.

Lol! Now I'm debating showering and going into work uber early to get a good start on the day...or to stay at home and do my work from home and school stuff. I think I may go out to work so I can then come home and have a longer period of time to get things done in when I get back.

Bastet is confused - she is doing her weird dog thing (if I haven't told you about this yet - she has this stuffed dog she has a bizarre relationship with. Late at night, usually about 10 min after we go to bed she carries it around and meows in this bizarre meow that is a combination of the way mother cats meow to their kittens, and a predatory meow. She has a very bizarre relationship with this dog). It's morning Bastet, not evening!! lol!

Bits and pieces

1. I found a great recipe website: All Recipes. The recipes can be printed in multiple formats, you can modify the number of servings and it automatically resets the ingredient amounts for the number of servings you want. If you create an account, you can save recipes to your recipe box, print out ingredients, all kinds of things!

2. Great, simple pizza/focaccia type recipe:

Mix 2 1/2 tsps of active dry yeast with 1 cup warm water till dissolved.
Add 1 tbsp of oil and 2 1/2 cups flour and mix till it forms a ball.
Let rise on oven while you heat it up for about 15 minutes.
Set oven to about 400 degrees.
Slice peppers (I used red, yellow and orange) thinly, and tomatoes in about 1/4 inch thick slices.
Sprinkle pizza stone with cormeal, and roll the dough out on the stone.
Brush dough with olive oil.
Sprinkle with kosher salt (or sea salt), fresh cracked pepper, and italian seasoning (I think a mix of rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano?).
Lay tomatoes and peppers out on the dough.
(Optional) sprinkle with feta cheese.
Bake for about 15 minutes in the oven. I check it and turn it at 10 minutes, then watch it closely till it's done.
Grill in oven for the last 1-2 minutes.
Slice and serve...would make a good appetizer I think.

3. I'm going through IKEA withdrawal...I'm in serious need of a trip. When I told M. this, she said "What do you need?" I said "Well...a door mat....umm...a dish rack...and you know." She said "And you can't get a door mat anywhere in Victoria?" So, maybe I don't NEED much from Ikea, but I think it's more the Ikea shopping experience I need. I've also added to that list of things I need from Ikea: Throw pillows, maybe art for above our couch, candles and a few Christmas decorations, a new duvet cover....hmm. All these are things I know I can get cheaply at Ikea. I'm sure I CAN get them elsewhere, but I KNOW I can get them cheaply there ;-).

4. D. is away for work again this upcoming week. I'm going to try to make the best of it and get caught up and ahead (hopefully) on work and school things. I get a stack of marking on Friday, so I'll need to be caught up on everything else before then.

5. I'm hoping, once again to get back on the health bandwagon this week. Still running out of time in the day...eating not enough veggies and fruit, and too much junk, and not making enough time for exercise, sleep, and other non-work and school related things.

6. I know it's that time of year, but I'm just tired. Not physically, but mentally (mostly). I'm finding I'm in one of those phases I go through (and I'm sure everyone does) periodically where it's just tiring thinking about another week starting, when often the previous one hasn't ended...and because I'm tired, I'm constantly feeling like I'm doing the bare minimum to get by in all areas of my life, and thus doubting whether I can really keep up with this job and line of work I've chosen. Like I said though, this is a phase...I know it is, we all go through them and it will pass. Just tired though right now.

Our weekend away!

We had an excellent weekend away.

We started in Nanaimo on Friday night. As usual, we were flurried and rushed trying to get out of town, but made it onto the highway not too far behind schedule. We spent an excellent Friday night with friends in Nanaimo. There was good food, wine and even some juggling, MJ, and many other good tunes. The next day we went to Coombs Market (had the best samosa I've had in years there!)..but alas there were no goats on the roof. I did score some strained tomatoes (I know, exciting only for a very few people), "sticky toffee" cheese, geman ginger cookies (spekulates...sp?), and a few other things. I love Coombs. I managed to restrain myself and didn't load the truck up with random dishes and decorative items, but I did kick myself for not bringing the cooler!

We then headed to Comox to visit some other friends. We had coffee with D., who was our lone Canadian friend in Mass., and who has since also moved home and was visiting family in Comox. We stayed with some other frineds and had a WONDERFULLY lazy day and a half. Saturday we slept in, went out for brunch, picked up some firewood and went back to their place. These friends are house-sitting in a house with a wood-burning fire place. So, we stoked the fire and spent the day lazing around, visiting with some people who stopped by, listening to music, playing dutch blitz and just relaxing by the fire! After a run for dinner ingredients, we made a yummy dinner of homemade meatballs and pasta and apple crisp for dessert. Played more dutch blitz, and watched the crazy storm (winds were up to 100km in Comox).

Yesterday we woke up to no power, went out for breakfast again, then went for a drive. Problem was, it was hard to go for a drive, because there were trees down accross all the roads!! It was mad! There was even one of those giant trampolines with the safety netting that had lifted up and flipped over an 8ft fence and landed on the side of the road on the other side of the fence!! Insane!

Anyhoo....we made it home safely, and I begrudgingly went back to work 2 hours after getting home at 9pm, and am just about to get ready to head out again this morning.

It was a great weekend though, much needed!!

Polenta....who knew?

I bought Cornmeal the other day, with plans to make home-made polenta to go with a lentil stew. It was really easy, and really really good.

The problem is, I'm now addicted to polenta. It's my new comfort food. Here's what I had for breakfast:
Polenta cooked on the stove top (corn meal, water, salt, margarine) till it was like a hot cereal.
Then I mixed in cut up ham, tomatoes, cheese, and olives, salt and pepper and a little hot sauce.
It was SO good. It did NOT look appetizing, and it sounds really weird, but it was really really good. I think I may be developing a problem. I guess though, it's better than ice cream, and ridiculously cheap.

Funny, I never would have thought of polenta as a "comfort food." Bizarre.

Well, I've cleaned, now I have to study and work like mad all day so I can leave for the weekend without worrying. We haven't actually done anything on a long weekend or taken a long weekend off for a really long time, and both of us are feeling burned out and needing a mini-break. So, after work today we're driving to Nanaimo to spend an evening with some friends we've recently re-connected with, and then are spending Sat and Sunday night with some other friends in Comox.

I'm looking forward to the weekend SO much, but I'm just hoping I can get everything in order so I don't have to work or study while away, and/or don't have to worry about how things are going back here!!

Rebel

I felt kind of like I skipped school today. D. wasn't feeling well, and called in sick to work. I decided that I would move my day work to tomorrow, since I have to be out to do a presentation anyways (which makes it already not a "good" Saturday). So we kind of had our typical "Saturday morning" today, on Friday. This means we sleep in, lay around doing nothing, have waffles or eggs and turkey bacon for breakfast (today it was egg beaters and turkey bacon)and just hang out together. I said to D. at one point "I feel like I'm skipping out on school." He looked at me and said "Rebel." I found this very funny.

Anyways...the lazy time is over...time to finish this presentation for tomorrow before I head out for late afternoon/evening work out of the house. But, it was a nice morning :-).