Frumpy No More

"Winning is not everything, but being number 2 sucks"

I can't even bear to tell you what show I heard that on today, it's far too embarrassing. You know what else was embarrassing? Realizing half way through the day that I looked like a frumpy cafeteria disaster. So you know what I did? I went out and bought something better looking. Not to wear, but to take home and make a mental note that today's outfit was totally unacceptable and tomorrow I should try and do better. Working in a building with a mall has its perks. I'm slowly starting to realize that my outfits aren't exactly yelling "respect me bitches", they're yelling "you must be the least important person here". I'm going to remedy that, or you know at least try for "I Look Good" - That would be just fine too. I picked up the blazer and the striped blouse underneath. It's still too warm to wear this, but I can't wait for the first day that I can. Yes, this would be my second blazer that I bought this season. Yes, I am insane.

So beyond all that idiotness about an intelligent minus the bland internal conversation, what else is going on in my life? I forgot to eat today. I have like almost never done this before. Not since college anyways. I pretty much am constantly thinking about my next meal, but today somehow I just never remembered. I got home from the gym and still wasn't all that hungry, and decided to make eggplant Parmesan because the eggplants are looking so good right now. I did something wrong. I'm not sure what, maybe too much pepper with the bread crumbs? It did not come out well at all, it was really disappointing. This is the first time in ages where I've Effed up a dinner so bad that I couldn't eat it. I mean I ate it anyways, but it was bad. I hope to God that it was the pepper and not spoiled cheese or something because that would be tragic. I haven't poisoned myself in a long time, I hope that I'm past that part of my life... If i die, please bury me in that blazer with the striped shirt underneath and a long necklace: Thank you.

What the Heck!

There's a credit commercial on TV where a woman is looking at shoes at a store and the credit card company has text on the screen that says: Get Cash Back. and then as the woman looks at these kind of crazy green ankle strap shoes, it says: Get Whistles Back.

My husband: Why would she get whistles.
Me: ... I've gotten comments on my shoes before from men.
(although, I was trying to think how long back that was)
Husband: Did they ask if they served an orthopedic purpose?
Me: [Silence]
Husband: Oh my god, it was a funny joke.

I'm still not sure that it's funny...I'm still also not sure how long ago I wore nice heels.

A Widow For One Year

Besides being one of the most disturbing books that I've ever read, it was also one of the best written books. I could see his scenes so clearly, each and every home and hotel and location. The whole time I was reading the book his main characters were so vivid in my mind. There is so much emotion and tragedy, and on the flip side so much love and good fortune. I will remember his characters for a long time. This is certainly not one of my favorite books that I've read, but it possibly the best written book. I felt completely impacted when I was finished, and lately that's what I've been searching for.

Best 30 seconds of my day

At my local Shaw's picking up some bacon so that tomorrow we can have bacon and eggs for breakfast! I haven't had that kind of breakfast in close to a year and pretty much all I can think about right now is a nice slice of bacon. I quickly ran into the store and picked up all my needs.

Scene:
Me in the checkout line with a basket of eggs, bacon, wheat English muffins, assorted frozen treats, etc.
Old man about 75 years old bagging.
Me - "Excuse me, could I have just 1 paper bag."
Old man - looks me in the eye, and hands me 1 paper bag.
Me - Blushing and hands waving around, oh no...I meant for the groceries to go into.
Old man - totally serious face, "you asked for 1 bag", and then a slight glimmer of a smile.
Me - Melting with old person cuteness overload. And recognition that this same old man, who is most definitely a grand parent - or a Papa as my family calls them, well he bagged my groceries that last time I was there and he took the utmost care to not squoosh anything but fit it all nicely.
Me - "Thank you so much, have a nice weekend."
Old man - "See you later kid."

Super papa cuteness. I think that I'm going to try and checkout of his line every time I go to the store now, not that I'm stalking him or anything, but the cuteness is just too engulfing to avoid!

The summer of nothing

The end of summer is upon us. Today I wore a 3/4 length shirt which of course screams: hello fall! There are some very sad truths from this season for me.
¤ I bought a maxi dress that never got worn.
¤ I have a new beach bag that was only used on our honeymoon.
¤ I read an embassing amount of books.
¤ We only went on one bike ride and it wasn't through Acadia. It was in fact to Papa Ginos.
¤ I only got 1 pedicure but needed far more.
¤ The driving range never happened for us.
¤ Newport never happened for us.
¤ Al fresco dining never happened for us.
¤ Somehow I got more mosquito bites this year than any other year.
¤ Our place only got messier after the wedding instead of cleaner and more organized.

Although getting married on the first day of summer was great the rest of the summer really just never happened for us. It was lackluster and unmemorable. Bring on the fall.


Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

O Ya

Tonight was a big night. It took us almost a full month to get reservations to O Ya. I'm not saying they're kind of ridiculous, but it wasn't even all that busy, however, a reservation is an absolute Must.

We sat at the chef's table where the sushi chefs used flaming torches on their sushi. It was really kind of exciting, I can't imagine what people at regular tables had to look at because it certainly wasn't as cool as watching them cook slices of tomatoes and duck.

Pretty much any time I go out for Asian, I feel the need to start with some kind of soup. Here, we all tried the miso and it was a really fancy miso. There were all sorts of things floating in there: seaweed, mushrooms, tofu, and other assorted veggies that I couldn't identify.

For the sushi selection, it's really all very dressed up sushi. There wasn't one pedestrian roll on the menu which is fine, but just be ready for the exotic. We chose the wild bluefin maguro tuna nigiri to start. The style of dining is similar to tapas where you only get 2 per plate generally, unless you request more. This is tuna on rice with soy braised garlic and microgreens. It was Fantastic. Melt in your mouth fun!

For the main course the girls got the shiso tempura with grilled lobster. I wasn't really in a lobster mood, but they claim that it was delicious. The lobster sat on top of charred tomato and ponzu aioli was drizzled on top. In the photo are actually 2 orders of this meal.

That's all I have for photos, the rest didn't come out well. For my main entree I had the Okinawan style braised pork which sat on top of Boston baked heirloom rice beans, homemade kimchee (i never saw the kimchee), soy maple sauce, and kinome. I thought that it was very good, the flavor was very sweet and salty. We continued to eat... the plates were far smaller than we imagined. My final course was the chilled daikon dumplings. They were vegetarian and filled with miso nut cheese, homemade kimchee, wakame, and spicy pine nut mayo. I actually didn't like these very much. The mayo ruined them for me. Tash's final course was the house smoked moullard duck tataki sashimi. She is a duck lover, and she was quite satisfied with this. The duck was sliced thin, scorched, and then topped with microgreens and some interesting sauces.

O Ya is an experience. My suggestion would be to order some sake, set aside a couple of hours, and order lots of dishes to try. Half the fun is watching them make it for you. It's on the more expensive side, and is in fact the most expensive sushi place that I've been to but It was worth it.

O Ya A-

These all could have been Tweets

Lots of updating to do...

- We cancelled HBO a few weeks ago but we watched 3 episodes of entourage last night...it is SO MUCH BETTER when it's free. Seriously, it's as if it was actually a good show.
- I like to go Veg once a week, and currently this is my favorite tofu recipe: Yum. it's so good, even if you don't like tofu you will like this. it's cheap, easy, and tasty.
- I hit 8 miles on my long run this past Sunday. It's the longest I've ever run/walked/crawled, and I'm so proud.
- I can't wait for House to come back, this summer tv is shit... it's so shitty that I just read a book about Cancer. That's Right. But it was actually better than anticipated since nobody died: The Middle Place.
- I cancelled Vogue. I know, it sounds dirty, like dust bunny dirty. I really think that I can be fashionable without it...just wait for the crazy outfits.
- I brought a full, 100% perfectly healthy orchid home a month ago, and now it's dead. I don't know what I'm doing wrong with these plants.
- Chugging wine from the bottle can be really difficult. Maybe you need a Soiree... (this is not what a soiree is actually for, Abe knows the inventor).
- We made pickles, and it's a very long painful story. Tips: don't do it unless you Really know how.
- Airbrushing. I do not have a problem that Self air brushed the crap out of Kelly Clarkson on the most recent issue. My opinion is that they could have done more, she looked pretty Real to me and not in a bad way.
- I used a typewriter for the first time in like 15 years the other day. I couldn't figure out how to do anything but turn it on. Turns out that I Really enjoy it now, I go out of my way to use it and I kind of want one of my own...only in robins egg blue though or pale pink. The feel of it was so beyond a computer keyboard, it felt really good.

The Pinkest Elephant

I have a new Etsy shop called The Pinkest Elephant! I'm selling my elephant paintings which are for kids or baby nurseries or adults who happen to love elephants like I do. They're really cute, fun, and a handmade labor of love. Drop by and check it out!

My Running, right on.

Laugh all you want...I laugh a little bit at myself, but I can't do a long run without water and how do you run with water? You strap it to yourself like a mommy's fanny pack! It's awesome, and one of the better inventions out there in the world to ensure I make it home in one piece. How is my training going? I've just completed week 7, and i'm mostly on track. I say mostly because the past two weeks I had a ton of social plans and during the work week it just kills my training. Every run just feels much more draining and it just makes every step hurt a little bit more so I'm trying to really limit my after work social engagements for awhile so I can get back on track. You say: just run in the morning before work. I say: I can't even say my name before 8am! I've tried working out in the morning in the past and it's been nothing but a useless waste of my time. I have no energy, and only half awake looking like a crazy person with a rats nest for hair and circles under my eyes like a zombie, so the better thing for me is to run after work...and before my butt hits the couch. At this point I feel as though 13.1 miles will be a challenge, but I can do it. The good news is that i'm pretty sure I'm allowed to use my ipod for this race, most races don't allow them due to safety of runners, but since this is a Nike sanctioned event then i'm pretty sure it's ok. I don't know what I will do if I can't use one for that long distance... create a mental shopping list, think of all the toppings that will go onto my In and Out burger when I'm done, balance my checkbook, name my future houseplants, so many things could be accomplished in that dead time besides thinking about how much pain I'm in. I'm getting pretty excited about this, I can't wait to go to California! I can't wait to fly across the country to get free stuff!

Masa

Today we went to Masa in the south end. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it. The drinks were horrible...the worst sangria that I've ever had. It tasted like red wine with a spritz of club soda, and I couldn't even drink the margarita. I couldn't understand how other people could be drinking these things down. There was like extra mix but no tequila, aka Heartburn City and tart beyond tart. For my appetizer I had gazpacho for the first time, and it was not as I thought it would be. It looked like cold tomato soup with baby shrimps and mussels on top. I did Not like the look of mussels in my gazpacho. I did not even like the look of shrimp in there. Even more than that, I did not like this gazpacho, it was too spicy and just not that great. My main entree was dos empanadas - spinach artichoke and wild mushroom sitting on top of some greens. They were actually quite good nice and rich, but who orders a meal with just two small empanadas? I thought they would be bigger to compensate for the fact that there were only two. For dessert we all got the chocolate lava cake with raspberry sauce. It was pretty good, but not the best lava cake that I've had. I had really high expectations for this place, and I was totally let down. My entree was delicious, but the rest of the night was just lacking, it's unfortunate really. I think I would be willing to give it another shot with the regular menu and not the restaurant week menu, I have hopes that it really is better than this.

Masa B-

Auntie

This is one of my nieces... Marriage brought me 3 of them! At a certain age kids need to be entertained. I'm not really sure that I can be creative and energetic enough to keep a 2 year old happy all day long. Abe resorted to chasing her around for 20 minutes, but even that got old to her. Later she wanted me to take her picture with my phone 2000 times. You know I love a cute little girl as much as the next person but really its quite draining. Which brings me to kids. How many kids do we want? My ideal number is 0, 2, or 3. I know I will someday think that pretending to answer a princess cell phone for 20 minutes is hilarious, but I just don't know when that will be. Sometimes I find myself starting to feel the urge and then its completely squashed and buried by spending time with little kids for an hour because I just don't think that I have it in me to do that everyday. In fact, I know that I wouldn't be able to do that everyday. Maybe when mother nature gives me the desire she will also give me the ability and patience. If she didn't that would just be so cruel.





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Ginza

There is a long debated subject in Boston on which sushi spot is better: Fugakyu in Brookline or Ginza also in Brookline. I've been to Fugakyu many times and really loved it but I finally got the opportunity to try Ginza last night with friends so I couldn't pass it up. It took them maybe 15 minutes for them to come get our drink order and because it took so long of course we were thirsty and the boys ordered 33 ounce beers. The Asahi beer actually makes my Sapporo look small.

Then another 20 minutes or so to take our meal order, and let me tell you that it was 8:30 and I really needed to eat something. We got appetizers of course: fried oysters, shumai, gyoza, and scallops in their own shell. These shumai were easily the best I've ever had, but the hot mustard is easily the hottest mustard on the planet! Be careful there, I almost burned my tongue off. The scallops in its own shell was really interesting because I've never seen a scallop shell before, and this one was huge and filled with chopped scallops, crab, and stuffing of some kind. It didn't taste very Asian, but it was good. For the main event we ordered a ton of sushi, and this is actually not all of it...we had more come later.
I thought the superstar here was the eel. Abe's favorite was the chutoro, which is fatty tuna...sounds bad, but it was actually good, I even thought so. Either way, there wasn't one piece left on this platter by the end. Of course our evening didn't end there. I've done many a sake bomb in my life, but Abe has never done one before so the boys couldn't think of a better time to try it out. The waitress even gave them a brief lesson, which was very helpful.

Which one is better: Fugakyu or Ginza? I say that Fugakyu has a better atmosphere and faster service, but Ginza has the more superior sushi.

Ginza A

Bald P

A tribute to our friend Bald P. We don't call him Bald P because he's bald... Maybe we do, I don't get it though because he shaves his head...I mean he's not really Bald. Anyways, Bald P is making the move from the east coast to the west coast this weekend and his presence here will be missed! I've known him for as long as I've known my husband, and he's just always been someone that I considered a friend right away. He threw this crazy Halloween party a couple years ago at his apartment and not only did we completely and utterly destroy his house, but that is the last time that I can remember myself partying my ass off while wearing a costume and having liquor poured down my throat from 3 feet in the air. He also hosted the last Fakesgiving (Thanksgiving but for friends and not actually on the day of Thanksgiving) where the boys fried a turkey. When some of us went on a cruise, Pete was the one who fed my Cleo. He actually walked over to our apartment and fed my pet guinea pig (who in her old age was not very friendly) and didn't make fun of me once. Not even one joke about me owning a hamster or a gerbil. Also, he was the keeper of our spare set of keys at our old apartment and he actually had to let us each in on several occasions. One day Abe was out on the deck on our second floor place and somehow he locked himself out in the cold in the winter. Bald P actually left work early to come and rescue Abe from freezing to death. I mean that is friendship! So as Bald P leaves Boston we wish him well, and know that the west coast is getting a really great addition.

Saving is Fun

I had a bad day, but in the spirit of trying to be somewhat positive I'll try to ignore the bull and get to the good stuff. Last year we left MetLife and went to Progressive to save some money on our auto insurance. We saved a few hundred dollars and it was a good move for us. This year we left Progressive (significant rate increase for Nothing we did) to go to Liberty Mutual, and do you want to know how much money I saved us? $437. I know right? I am getting very good at finding us excellent auto rates. We now pay under $800 to insure our vehicle. In the past month we have saved $600 on our Comcast 3-2-1 package, $80 by putting my gym membership on hold for one month, and now $437 on auto insurance. Also, this week I took my work friend out for lunch with a gift card and we got to spend some time together and eat big hearty salads for...$0, it was even better than packing my lunch. Let's not forget the excellent deal at fenway: fenway frank, cotton candy, soda, all for $5. I'm sure nobody thought they would see the day that we actually made some excellent saving decisions!

Bear right! Left Frog

This lobster is not actually anything that I've eaten today but it made me kind of happy. I'm having one of those days\weeks where I'm feeling very unsettled and uncertain. It probably does not help that I'm so tired from the game last night either. I have so many questions swirling in my mind right now and no answers for any of them. One thing I do know is that we have a friend moving to the west coast on sunday and it will be like the end of an era. Do we want to stay in our apartment or leave or buy or leave this city for another? What would I do for work? What the freak will I do for work!? I feel like right now the universe is at a crossroads for almost everyone that I know. It seems like decisions are looming over everyones heads right now. And all I really know is that I have to run after work today rain or shine with a blister going on. I feel like I need some life guidance when normally I'm the one handing that out.

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We did the wave...

Me and my BFF went out to the Red Sox game tonight. We were really worried that it was going to get rained out but luckily the weather cooperated for us and just did a little sprinkling here and there. I love going to Fenway, I think that sometimes I take it for granted since I live so close to the park. We sat up in the bleachers which actually is my favorite area to sit in because of all the activity. Tonight we saw 6 people get kicked out for poor behavior of some sort, which I should probably be ashamed that our fans would act that way, but it seemed like pretty harmless stuff and certainly nothing that I wouldn't do. If you're going to Fenway anytime soon and you're a chick, you might like to know some of our little secret... if you order a kids meal you will get a Fenway frank, full sized cotton candy, and a soda, all for $5 when a frank alone is $4.55. It's probably the greatest discovery ever! I only say that it's good for girls because I don't think I've ever seen a guy eat cotton candy before. We were hoping to see a fight during the game, but the players were on their best behavior, and we won! I don't know the next time that I'll make it there, but I can't wait. See you later Jacoby!

Aveda Smooth Infusion shampoo

I had a gift card to the mall that was getting depleted by $2 each month to keep it active so I wanted to just spend it and not keep losing money on it. There was only $8.70 on the card so I thought that it would cover a bottle of shampoo. I walked into Aveda because the smell is so intoxicating when I pass by each day, and a sales lady just really took over. She had a million questions on my hair and matched me up the the smooth infusion shampoo. I was pretty skeptical, I mean my hair is pretty smooth already. Since I had the gift card I bought the shampoo which turned out to be $21!! I mean I got a discount off of that, but still, I think that is kind of pushing it. However, this morning I tried it and I did really love it! My hair is smooth and silky without being flat, and it just kind of looks a whole new kind of clean and healthy. I love it, and I will certainly put it on my Christmas list : ) That's right, I'm already thinking about my favorite holiday. It's right around the corner, get your wrapping paper now!

Meritage

Tonight I visited Meritage in the Boston Harbor Hotel for restaurant week. It's not the easiest place to find within the hotel, but once you get there you will be thankful. The layout is nice, it is very open and spacious and has nice modern lighting. It has the old school Boston feel but more contemporary. This restaurant is very big on pairing wines properly with each course, and we probably should have done this and taken their advice but we didn't. I ordered us a bottle of sauvignon blanc since it's my favorite and probably did not go with anyone's meal very well. I'm sure the waiter cringed one of those huge silent cringes when I pointed to the cheapest bottle of wine on the list but he took it like a champ. For my starter I had the yellow tomato soup. My favorite presentation of soup is when they pour it into your over sized bowl at the table, and that's exactly what they did. It was really nice and light and kind of amazing how much flavor was in such a fine broth. I got the filet mignon with carrots, broccoli and mashed potatoes for my main entree. The filet cooked perfectly medium rare as I requested, and it was one of the better filets that I've had. The portions all looked very petite, but honestly I was quite full after the entree. For dessert I had the red fruit tasting plate with rhubarb crumble pie, honey semifreddo with balsamic glazed strawberries, and sour cherry cheesecake. The honey semifreddo was the best one out of the three. Overall, I really enjoyed this visit and I would Love to go back! The food was really very good, and the wait staff was friendly and attentive.

Meritage A

Sparkle & Metal

I love these handmade earrings! These are a great day to night accessory. They can be found in the Sparkle & Metal shop on Etsy for only $19.99 along with a whole bunch of beaded earrings. Check it out if you are in need of some great accessories for the end of summer parties or maybe for a wedding!

I've got a time turner!

I would like to introduce you all to my newest toy! It's Hermione's time turner/necklace. Everyone is rolling their eyes at me I'm sure! That's Ok, I can fully embrace my own dorkyness and accept that nobody else will understand why I love this so much. It fully functions in that it turns the way it turned in the movie, and the sand drains properly. You know for all those times that I'll want to go back in time just a bit to punch someone in the face.

I wouldn't grill that

Things you would not expect at a work related cookout: a grease fire on the grill from attempting to grill bacon, a rock band competition, and a parent leaving while saying: "peace out bitches!" Today, we went to a work cookout/housewarming party for Abe and it was really fun considering sometimes people feel like they can't really let loose in front of co-workers. Everyone was super nice and drank lots of beers and ate lots of hot dogs and steak and had a great time in general. There was a fierce rock band battle at the end of the night, and although I didn't win or even participate because I don't jam to that, it was pretty eyeopening. Some people Really Love video games even more than us! I drove us home at the end of the night, per usual, but this time I could actually see where I was going. I saw a poor person laying on the ground after being hit by a car and people loading him onto a backboard. It did Not look good, but I was happy to see that he was being taken care of with plenty of firemen. It was my first time driving at night with my new glasses and Oh My did it make a difference. Abe didn't backseat drive me once, and normally he'll do it at least 3 or 4 times. So I totally apologize if I've driven you at night in the past 6 months because I'm sure it was probably a scary experience for you, but from now on it will be much better!

Chez Henri, we salute you

Tonight, we did the impossible! We finally remembered a restaurant really close by that we've always wanted to try: Chez Henri. It's one of those places where you already know it's going to be fantastic before you even set foot inside. The location is a bit tucked away so we always forget about it, but we will certainly remember it from now on. The menu on the website isn't totally current, but you will get the idea, it's French of course. For my starter, I had a homemade cavatelli pasta with mushrooms and assorted fresh veggies topped with a piece of duck prosciutto. This dish was delicious. You could really taste each and every tiny piece of veggie, and they worked together perfectly and it was very pretty to look at. I wish that I had taken photos because the presentation of dishes was exceptional. My entree was half a roasted chicken with zucchini and summer squash and chive mashed potatoes with a little splash of gravy. This is not something that I would typically order, chicken is something that I only order if I know it's going to knock my socks off because I can eat sucky dry chicken in my own kitchen thank you. I must have had a feeling because this chicken was super slow roasted and fantastic. The flavors just oozed right out of it and sang to me: "do you remember your friend the chicken from river rock farm?...i'm that chicken". I needed a little assistance to do it, but we ate the whole plate. Let's talk about the service here. It was really nice. The hostess was really cute and very friendly, our server was totally attentive, and the people delivering our meals were quick and efficient and didn't get in our conversation. I wish we could have stayed for dessert, but on the same block is Berryline! And either because i'm a chick or because I'm asian, I made abe go. I got my yogurt with mochi, pineapple, and mini gummie bears. I didn't save enough room though!

Chez Henri = A+ all around for food, service, ambiance
We can't wait to go back.

Thursday Suck Day

Today was just not my day.
I usually roll into work at about 8:50 (because the early bird catches the worm, am I right?) but not today. Today, the scathingly fluorescent lights didn't see my tired face until 9:45 because I was stuck on the stupid train. This has been a horrible week for the T system in Boston, and today was the tipping point. They can give me any excuse they want, but it wasn't a medical emergency so I can be totally unhappy about the delays, there were multiple problems at different points throughout causing massive annoyance. Then to make things even better we had a 4 hour internet and email outage. That was delightful. In order to avoid some of the dead time, I walked to the bank to make a couple deposits but I didn't change my shoes and somehow by the time I got back my super cute patent leather mary janes had given me 4 blisters on my beautiful feet. These shoes have done this to me before, but I love them enough to keep trying to break them in. While on my walk to the bank, I popped into Barnes and Noble...which is actually a hundred times easier to navigate than Borders. I found the section I was looking for on my own, but where was the book I wanted? Not there. I see the author's previous book right there, so where's the new one? Turns out the book is coming out September 1st. Suzanne Collins wrote this really amazing book The Hunger Games for young adults and somehow I heard she'd written the followup book called Catching Fire, however I heard wrong that it was already released. I'm such a nerdy bookworm! I know, it's cool though. For dinner, I was on my own so I decided that I'd eat some leftover stuffed shells and try a new cauliflower recipe too since I didn't want it to spoil. In about 20 minutes I ate 4 stuffed shells, balsamic roasted cauliflower, and a bowl of cherries. This was obviously some really bad judgement. It's like i knew deep down that this mixture of flavors would never go together, but I ate it all anyways. Then what happened? I didn't puke like you thought I might, but I had to lay down on the couch curled up in a little ball of tummy unhappiness and thought about how much I hated the T and how I never want to combine fruit with cauliflower again.

Friday is going to be a better day, I can just feel it. You know what is going to make it better? The fact that I have Hermione Granger's time turner in the mail!! I've wanted one for so long, and now it's only days away!

Panda's Stuffed Shells

1 pound of italian style lean ground turkey
2 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper
1 tbsp. of dried onions
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
reduced fat mozzarella cheese
1 jar of tomato sauce
1 egg
salt and pepper
a box of jumbo shells

cook the jumbo shells as directed on the box, and then drain and cool. cook up turkey, garlic, pepper, and onions with some salt and pepper until cooked on the stove. in a bowl beat egg, and add breadcrumbs. mix the turkey in well and add 1/4 cup of the tomato sauce. put 1 tbsp of the mix into each shell and place into some kind of oven safe container (just one layer). when the container is full spread the sauce equally over the tops and then sprinkle cheese to your preference. cover with tin foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. you will just melt when you eat these!!

The magical 'stache

Today I picked up my new glasses and it was as if I had been living in the dark ages for years. I mean, do we not have modern medicine and technology worth spending billions of dollars on to fix things like nearsightedness? For the first time ever I was able to sit on the couch and watch the kitchen timer countdown to my delicious stuffed shells. I was floored with the difference!


(Abe decided to grow a mustache...)

He is home sick thanks to a trip to a dirty country, but this was actually a blessing. He Finally got around to cancelling HBO, and Comcast is no longer controlling our lives. He said he was going to do it, and then just didn't for a few weeks, but now it's been done and we're saving $600 a year on our cable/internet package. First of all it's absurd that any of that would be $600 at all, but what can we do really? We need internet and we need some kind of tv otherwise we'd probably be productive with our evenings and who really wants that? We like to keep the economy going.

Tonight, I finished Harry Potter #7 for the second time. It was as if I had never read it before, and it was even better this time around. I really love those books, and I'm really not ashamed to say that I am completely and totally devastated that there will be no more to come. The great part about this story is that my memory has the capacity of an edemame so I'll be able to read them all again next year and blog about it again I'm sure. I should note a few things down to compare to next time...warning, do not proceed if you haven't read book #7 yet.
Favorite character: Hermione
Favorite sub-character: Remus Lupin
Favorite bad guy: Bellatrix
Things I don't understand: Why couldn't they just ask Dumbledore in the painting what to do? Why couldn't they just make food multiply when they were hungry in the woods? Why did they actually think they had to wear the locket? When the sword appeared to Neville...did that mean it totally disappeared from Griphook for good?

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

One of my friends requested that I make banana bread with chocolate chips. I was really skeptical because I don't like chocolate that much and I Really don't like chocolate in my breakfast foods like muffins or pancakes or anything like that. I made it the same way as the last time I made Banana Bread seen in this post, and I just poured in about a 1.25 cups of chocolate chips into the batter. It was delicious, very moist and sweet and indulgent. I'm not sure that I've ever eaten so much banana bread before!

Because my friend is so tiny, I made her a petite sized loaf and baked it for 40 minutes as opposed to the 55 that the regular sized loaf baked for. I think it's just the cutest little thing! I wonder how long my adventures in baking phase will last...

New Eyes

In addition to my new hair, I got new glasses on Friday and they'll be ready next week. I had 20/20 perfect vision for 26 years and only in this last year things have kind of gone downhill. I'm almost always the DD for my husband so driving at night had become too difficult for me and we found that I was driving 45 miles an hour in a 55 because I couldn't clearly follow the lines and I was just too nervous to go any faster. That problem should now be solved along with being able to read the clock timer on my microwave so I know when my baking is almost done and being able to read projections during presentations. This should be really life enhancing, but I never had vision coverage before so I just never knew any different. It was a nice welcome to becoming a dependent on Abe's benefits! It was kind of like: What no $100 copay? OMG, I've hit the jackpot!