Fat Tuesday- week one

Well, here it is, the first week of 2010, the week I told myself I would start taking my rear end seriously. My plan is to lose 2 pants sizes by exercising. I can't bring myself to do a strict diet. I just like to eat delicious food. I will keep my caboose in mind when I grocery shop, but that is as far as I am willing to go at this point.

I will be using Wii Fit plus, which I find somewhat enjoyable- or at least I did until last night when I did "strength" exercises for the first time. I did 6 lunges on each leg, and today I found that going up and down the stairs at work nearly made me cry. This may be an indicator that I am not in top condition.

The Wii Fit plus measures my BMI, and currently I am at the high end of the "normal" range. It also told me that according to my center of gravity, I have great posture. That sounds fishy to me. I'm a slumper.

So by next Tuesday, I want to have come up with three good workouts and have them saved in the wii. I'm thinking yoga/strength/cardio. I'd like to be able to do 6 lunges on each leg without my trainer encouraging me to make sure my leg is bent at the proper angle. And, I would like to be able to do 5 push-ups.

Wish me luck!

8 things I am going to try in 2010.

I'm not against resolutions. In fact, I am pretty good at keeping them, once I decide to use my Powers of Stubborn for good. Last year I quit smoking, so if I had to choose one resolution for this year, it would be to lose the weight that I gained after I quit. Knowing how difficult it can be to lose weight, I have decided not to make it a resolution, but rather, an... I don't know... strong suggestion to myself. Here are 8 things I am going to focus on this year.

1. Fridays will be Photo Fridays. I will take one photograph on each Friday of the 2010, except the first one, which I missed. (Actually, the photos from Oak Harbor that I posted yesterday were taken on a Friday.) I will post that photo here and write about it.

2. Thursdays shall be Thoughtful Thursdays. I want to be a nicer person, so every Thursday, I shall endeavor to do something extra-nice for someone, and I will blog about it.

3. On Wednesdays, I will try new and exciting recipes and feed them to my family, and I will blog about it.

4. Every Tuesday is Fat Tuesday in 2010 for the Crazy Blog Lady! On Tuesdays, I will blog about the state of my ass. No photos.

5. As part of an ongoing failure mission, I will also attempt to bring organization and order to my life and home. Last week, I had an epiphany about this as I was watching the most fascinating show on television, Hoarders. I was thinking about doing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, but then I noticed that Hoarders was on, so I decided to watch it instead, thinking that my kitchen would just look so much cleaner in comparison to the ones on the show. Pretty smart, huh? Well, it turns out that watching the show motivated me to do the dishes during the commercial breaks so that I did not allow my kitchen mess to deteriorate into a moldy sea of sludge worthy of TV. Note to self: Maybe I should start watching the 600 pound man shows....

6. I would like to get rid of many things, and take on less things. In the past, I have tried to practice "mindful consumption," which is to say that I have tried to carefully consider the impact of the things I buy. It is difficult and time-consuming to give such consideration to every item, and therefore it really is not a practical way to tackle a grocery list. This year, I just want to make good choices about what I buy.

7. I'd like to make more friends. I need to work on liking more people, I guess.

8. I want to play more. I want to play active, sports-type games- which will help on Fat Tuesdays- and board games and wii games.

Happy New Year to all my Crazy Blog Friends. Do you have resolutions?

Things I learned this week- Road Trip Edition

A good way to learn lots of things in a short period of time is to go on a road trip. We were on the road for 4 days, 3 nights- about 800 miles, 14 driving hours. Here's what I learned.

* I learned that it isn't all about ME anymore. At my mom's house, my mom was suffering with a back injury, and her pain took most of her attention. She wasn't able to properly dote. Any doting she could muster was reserved for her granddaughter. I guess it is all part of growing up.
Mom and Madison tried to make sandwich buns for french dip sandwiches, using the Five Minutes a Day bread recipe. They divided the dough mom had in the fridge into 6, and hoped the loaves would rise a little in the oven. They didn't, so grandpa went to the grocery store for hoagie rolls and we had delicious breadsticks that evening with our homemade ravioli, which was delicious.
above, the raviloi as it (they?) dried.

On New Year's Eve, Spencer and I met my friend Jeremy at one of the two taverns in Naselle. It had been about 20 years since I laid eyes on Jeremy, but we fell into conversation easily and naturally. I learned that
*Facebook eases the awkward "So, what have you been up to?" "Oh, you know, a little of this, a little of that" familiarity/formality of reunions.
We had a couple beers and caught up, then karaoke started. I couldn't help but notice the overwhelming lack of talent in the room.

The next day, we headed north to Oak Harbor where Spencer's dad lives. We saw hundreds of elk during the first hour of our trip. Here are a few of them. I didn't learn anything I didn't know about elk.

On our way to Oak Harbor, I texted back and forth with my cousin Megan, who was using her computer to help me with my search for an I am Not a Paper Cup. We decided to get together on the 2nd and conduct a grid search of Lakewood Mall.

We arrived in Oak Harbor in time for the Rose Bowl kickoff. Spencer's dad and stepmother had two tasty pizzas from Papa Murphy's waiting for us. I didn't think I could learn anything from take and bake pizza, but I did.
* I learned that there are things on menus that may taste better than the things I normally order. This surprised me. For as long as I can remember, I have ordered Canadian bacon and pineapple pizza. If Hawaiian was not an option, I would order salad. These pizzas, one a stuffed five meat affair, and the other a savory Italian pie with bruschetta, opened my eyes to variety, which I hear is the spice of life.

Spencer's dad has the two most wonderful dogs on Earth, Max and Scout. They are cute, affectionate, and better behaved than I am. Here they are, Max is the elder gentleman.Here is the view from the couch at my in-laws.Breathtaking, isn't it?

We played Pictionary Man, which Madison received as a gift. It's another game we can play when we have company.
Spencer's parents' house is in a constant state of remodel. Currrently, the master bedroom is under construction, so they have moved their things to the guest bedroom, which is where they insisted we sleep. They slept on couches. I slept like a rock, because my mother-in-law has done what I have often only dreamed of: pushed two twin beds together and pretended, kind of, that they are one king bed.
* I learned the secret of a good night's sleep. I say "kind of" because the beds were made up with separate twin sized sheets and blankets, but were covered with one bedspread. I was able to toss and turn without disturbing Spencer. I could hog all the sheets I wanted, and he couldn't give me a dutch oven. Even though we both slept well, we both agreed that the arrangement would have been better with one king-size top sheet and blanket.

We left Oak Harbor early Saturday morning, headed for my dad's house in Tacoma. He and Spencer had tenatively planned a golf game, during which I was hoping to meet Megan to search for coffee cups. The weather cooperated, so Spencer and dad headed to the golf course and Megan and I met at the mall.
Our first stop was Bed, Bath and Beyond. No IANAPC, But they did have knock-offs for $8, so we each got one. The knock-offs may end up being better cups, they appear to hold twice as much coffee as the original. Here is my I am Not an I am not a Paper Cup:
We also both got As Seen On TV Twin Draft Guards. I am fairly sure that this is the first As Seen on TV product I have ever bought. (Although I really wanted some of those awesome K-tel records)
* I learned the Twin Draft Guards, As Seen on TV, really work as advertised. After we removed the carpet (yes) from our kitchen and installed a slate floor, we were left with a 1/2 inch gap under the door to the garage. I was amazed this morning when the floor in front of the door wasn't even cold. I checked with Megan and hers works just as well. Ten dollars well spent.

A Stupid Thing: The state of public handwashing

As I believe all regular CBL readers are aware, I have been "on the road" for the past 4 days, visiting family in Washington. We had a very nice trip, which I will chronicle tomorrow. But, for the sake of my mother and her routines, I thought I ought to get something off my chest tonight.

I HATE TO WASH MY HANDS IN PUBLIC RESTROOMS.

That is not to say that I don't wash my hands in public restrooms, or that I don't want to wash my hands in public restrooms. I just really loathe what public handwashing has become. We have lost all control over the process. We are no longer trusted to turn the faucets off when we are finished, and germophobes have convinced Big Pfaucets that we don't want to touch a knob, so we get the "wave your hands under the spigot" malarkey. Once we find the sweet spot, we get a 5 second squirt of cold water. Maybe my hands are dryer than most peoples, or less absorbent... but they just don't get wet enough. I have to criss-cross my hands three or four times to just get my hands cold and wet. Then, the soap.
Remember the good old days, when soap came in liquid or powder form, and we could decide how much to use? Those days are gone, my friend. Now we get a puff of time-released foam. Once again, the soap-foam-puffer is motion-activated, so if you don't get the move and stop-to-wait-for-it motion just right, your puff of soap ends up on the counter, and you have to wait like a half hour for the next puff to become available.
If you are lucky enough to lather your hands, the rinse problem presents itself again. And then, the part I hate the most- drying.
I don't know if I can adequately explain the passion with which I despise motion activated paper towel dispensers. We already know I am not a fan of motion activation-but the towel machines have two more big Stupid Things.
1. The "towels" are exactly as absorbent as common office copy paper. (maybe, now that I think about it, this is the reason for the water miser faucets)
2. The dispensers dispense a 4inch long section of towel.

I am not a picky person. When I wash my hands, I want to use hot water, and lots of it. I want to choose how much soap I use, I want it to make a nice lather, and then I would like to be able to rinse it off. Then, I want to use paper towels, not those stupid air dryers, and lots of them to get my hands dry so that they don't freeze.

I am thisclose to carrying around a bottle of hand sanitizer and using that instead of public handwashing, right in front of all the disapproving Good Moms.

I must have this not a paper cup. And also a not a knife block.

I am getting better at making coffee with the new espresso machine. My tamping needs improvement, but it is coming along slowly but surely. Next week, when I go back to work, I will be taking coffee drinks to go, and I need a suitable vessel. I have seen these "I am not a paper cup"s before, and thought that they were sorta cute. I like how simple they are. Now, I must have one. I am stopping at the kitchen store tomorrow to get one. They better have one, or this is going to become a full-on Mission.

While I am at the kitchen store, I also am going to get a magnetic knife strip to replace the knife block on my counter to make room for the espresso maker.

No wonder my dad got rid of this thing, the cost of ownership is ridiculous!

Eight Things I will remember about 2009

Every blog and magazine and newspaper column has to have year-end best-of or worst-of list, right? Well, I am not one to limit myself, I'm just going to do a eight-of. That's how I roll.

* Balloon Boy- One afternoon while sitting at work, this kid captivated me. Or rather, the idea that there may be a small boy in a box attached to a mylar balloon, floating away from Denver captivated me.

* My first, but hopefully not last, novel. Hoo boy, it's a stinker- but I will never forget it.

* facebook- 2009 was the year I joined facebook. I'm glad I did, I reconnected with a lot of friends and family.

* Spring Training- I had a really nice time in Phoenix with my dad and Grandma. I'd like to go again next year, but it might turn out to be a 2011 thing.

*Hope and Change- I remember how excited I was for the new president back in January and February. I didn't cry at the inauguration like I cried at Hillary's speech at the convention, but I still had high hopes. Back then I did anyway. I would be happier with a lot less war and a lot more socialized medicine.


* 2009 was the year that Michael Jackson redeemed himself in death. Funny how no one blamed Joe Jackson for Michael's uh, issues, until Michael died. Out loud, anyway.

* 2009 is the year I gained weight, or, if I want to put a positive spin on it, the year I got all new clothes. I am hoping that 2010 will be the year I lose weight. I'll be re-reading "YOU! on a diet" and hitting the WiiFit daily.

* I will remember 2009 as the year of my blog. I've got three more months left on my contract. Then, I will assess the probability of keeping it up if I don't post daily vs. poor quality. I'm pretty sure I will keep blogging- it's become a habit now.

Things I learned this week- Holiday edition

Here's a CBL secret: There is an ORDER to my posts. If there is going to be an image, it must be chosen and uploaded first, then the post is titled. Only then can the blogging begin. Originally, I had titled this post "Things I learned this year," but then I realized that was an awfully ambitious title. So here's what I learned this week:

* I learned how to cook a prime rib roast. (preheat the oven to 500. Liberally season the roast. Put it in an uncovered pan and put it in the oven. Turn the oven to 350 and let it cook for 3 hours). My mom has been doing this for years, and I guess she had me fooled into thinking it was difficult. I also thought it was terribly expensive, but I got mine at Safeway for $3.99 per pound, which is not much more expensive than ground beef. My roast was 'select' grade, so technically not a prime rib, but it was delicious and I couldn't tell the difference.

* I learned that I am never buying bread crumbs again! I found a recipe on-line for "deviled prime ribs" when I was looking for ways to use the bones from the Christmas roast. The recipe, which turned out sorta so-so, called for the ribs to be brushed with spicy butter, then rolled in fresh bread crumbs and broiled. I found instructions for making fresh bread crumbs- put fresh bread in a 300 degree oven for a few minutes until it is crusty, then tear it into hunks and run it through the coffee grinder. It worked like a charm, and I did not get bread puree like my husband predicted. Each piece of bread made about 1/2 cup of crumbs.

* Of course, I learned that the difference between cappuccino and latte is the ratio of milk to coffee.

* I learned how easy it is to use Red Box to rent dvds. We stopped at a McDonald's after Zoo lights, and the cashier forgot a couple boxes of fries, so they gave us (along with the fries) a couple coupons for free dvd rentals. I have had these coupons before, but I was never really interested in renting from Red Box because I thought they had primarily straight-to-dvd releases. But on the 23rd, we thought it would be nice to have a movie to occupy the kids, so we took a look. We rented the sixth Harry Potter movie and Up a couple days later, which we actually paid a dollar for because Spencer forgot to use the code. Still a good deal, and it's easy.

* I learned more than I probably ever will need to about lightweight golf bags- the kind you wear as a backpack as opposed to the kind you strap into a push or pull cart or a motorized cart- after spending about an hour at Fiddler's Green comparing all the models that just wouldn't satisfy my dad.

* The best thing of all that I learned is that Trader Joe's is coming to Corvallis! The store is built and the signs are up, all Joe has to do now is load the shelves with pad Thai and fresh bruschetta.

It all started with gift cards.

Last year, or maybe it was the year before that, my dad asked for my help researching home espresso machines. He had found himself in the market. I thought it was an odd request, since my dad doesn't even have a coffee pot at home, but he had recently acquired a new girlfriend, and even though she was a proper British tea-drinking lady, I thought maybe she enjoyed espresso as well.
So I turned to my friend the internet, looking for the best value in home espresso machines. I found a couple good choices for him, I thought.
Then, he told me that he wanted to buy his machine from Starbucks. (Why I did research when he knew what he wanted and where he was buying it from is beyond me. But that's the way things go for me and my dad. He makes me suffer.)
He wanted to buy a machine from Starbucks because he has Starbucks gift cards, which he had been saving for a year or two. He is a milkman, and his residential customers give him small gifts at the holidays. Over the past 5 years or so, gift cards have usurped cookies and Hickory Farms packs as the gift of choice, so Dad had a stack of Starbucks cards three inches thick.
Now, a normal person might see a stack of gift cards like that and think,' HEy! I never have to buy coffee again!' But not dad. Even though he does stop at Starbucks EVERY DAY for a non-fat latte, he paid cash and saved his cards, until he had enough for the Ascasco Dream Espresso Machine, which retails for more than my refrigerator. He reasoned that it is better to get something durable for free than something disposable, like cups of coffee.
We shopped around for the perfect Dream. It took about 3 weeks and multiple calls to stores from Eugene to Bellingham to find the right finish, and to get it transferred to Oregon, where *I* would trade the stack of cards for the machine, saving 10% sales tax.
We did the deal, Dad took his coffeepot home, where it looked fantastic on his counter. He made exactly one cup of coffee with it. He did not use it because 1. He worried that caffeine would affect his heart. The daily latte at the Starbucks store seemed to not figure in to this worry. Evidently. only caffeine consumed at home is harmful. And 2. There are a lot of steps involved. Espresso is complicated.
So this year, he brought the machine to me. I have to admit that I was intimidated by it. It is the fanciest thing I own beside my husband's truck. This morning, I unpacked it (Dad saved the original box, of course) and all the accouterments he supplied- pre-measured espresso pods, shot glasses, tampers, a frothing pitcher with thermometer, and an extra handle for the machine. (I remembered tracking that extra handle down. I think it came cross-country.)
Here is the whole shooting match. Isn't it gorgeous?

And here is the first cappuccino I made with it. It is delicious, even though I used the Starbucks pods and Starbucks espresso is not my favorite. Maybe some day I will get good enough to make foam art. Maybe soon I will learn the difference between cappuccino and latte.

Like a kid at Chrsitmas

We had a really nice Christmas. Two of Madison's cousins spent the night on Christmas Eve. We woke them' up at about 7 to pack them into the car and drive them an hour to Grandma's, where the gift-opening production began. Opening gifts with my husband's family is an annual source of amusement for me. As opposed to what I became used to during my formative years, his family goes for quantity and elapsed time instead of quality or 'that personal touch'. Since his grandpa died about 10 years ago, the job of passing presents out from under the tree has become Spencer's. The children must all wait patiently as gifts are opened one at a time. The opener must announce who the gift is from, especially if it is from Great-Grandma, who sits in the corner and takes a mental tally of who bought what for whom.
This year the whole thing took two and a half hours. Even though everyone under 10 got a dollar-store gumball machine, they all needed to be opened one-at-a-time.
Surprisingly, I only got one scarf/hat/glove set. For the first time in a long time, I got lots of toys for Christmas. I must have been good. I got Band Hero, which I will share with my family since it isn't Solo Artist Hero. We played with it a little yesterday, and it is really fun. Way better than Guitar hero because there are not terrible noises when you miss a note. It turns out that we need another remote for the wii so that the three of us can play together, so we will go get that today and start rockin'.
My Dad came for dinner, we had prime rib and potatoes au gratin crab louis and steamer clams- but no crusty bread because there wasn't room in the oven. It was the first time I had ever roasted beef, so now the bar is set pretty high. Everything turned out really good, which may be a first- usually something is not-quite-right when I make a big holiday dinner.
After dinner, we went to the hotel where Dad is staying and sat in the hot tub, which was a really nice way to end a hectic but fun day. He gave us a wii fit plus, which I asked for. After we got home, we played with it a little before we went to bed, and it is fuh-un. There is a game where you are a bird and you have to flap your arms in order to fly from landing pad to landing pad. How does that little board know when our arms are flapping? I may never know the answer to this mystery, but it sure is fun.

Zoo Lights

Last night we went to Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo. Our group was thirteen strong- 6 parents, 1 19 year-old, and 6 kids between the ages of 7 and 14, one of whom had to use a wheelchair due to his broken leg. It was everyone's first trip to Zoo Lights, but most, if not all of us, had been to the Oregon Zoo before.

We arrived at about 4:00, while it was still light. Our intention was to get there at about 3:00, so that we could see some animals in the daylight, but when 13 people need to get ready to take a trip together, departure times are really just estimates. It turns out we really didn't need to hurry-most of the animals have indoor enclosures where they hang out when it is too cold and dark to be outside.

We saw an otter, a sea lion, a crocodile, an ocelot, three anacondas, two lemurs and about 6 monkeys that I would call 'baboons'- but they had another name I can't remember- and two elephants before it got dark and we decided that we should go get in line for the Zoo Lights train.

Oregon Zoo's website led me and another mom to believe that the Zoo Lights experience would be incomplete without a ride on the train. So we found the end of the line, where a zoo volunteer dressed as an elf told us we would need to wait for about an hour and fifteen minutes.
At this point, my husband and his brother and most of the cold, hungry kids revolted. They campaigned for a warm McDonald's. They were persuasive, but my brother-in-law's girlfriend (Who has the same first name as me- weird!) and I held fast to our resolve to get the entire Zoo Lights experience. So we waited. After all, I thought to myself, this must be an awesome train ride- just look at all the people in line!
It probably took us between 30 and 45 minutes to get onto the train. There are actually two trains that run at the same time, and the loop takes about 10 minutes. My very rough calculations are that each train holds about 200 people- so every 5 minutes, 200 people are moved out of line. It goes pretty fast. But. The train ride itself was not worth standing in line. (it wasn't even worth that couple bucks extra for the ticket) Although there are some light displays that are only visible from the train, the bulk of the lights can be seen better on foot as you visit the animals. The lawn where concerts are held had some cool lighted animals, and in the center of the zoo, all the trees and pathways were lit, and the zoo felt like a wonderland.