It's the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend, and no one is going to get to work for a few hours, I imagine. So it's perfect time for updating. I got to cross another two things off my list this weekend (three total coupled with last weekend). With T-minus 20 days until I reach my official half way point in this allotted 1001 days, I hope I'm reaching a sort of half way point in the 101 tasks...
#27 - Artistic endeavors
I visited our art museum last weekend for the first time in probably seven years or so. Not too much has changed, except they no longer have my favorite, a concept by Felix Gonzalez-Torres: just a stack of paper with "Veteran's Day Sale" typed on each sheet. The trickery is that you can take one! Felix is long gone, but his studio would indefinitely replenish the stack of paper. Indefinitely must have reached definitely, however, because it's no longer there. Gonzalez-Torres wasn't a huge fan of the whole "no touching" part of an art museum, so all around the world he set up similar situations in the corners of art museums. I have at least five of his works: three sheets of poster sized paper and two pieces of candy. The irony of all this is that I actually got a "talking to" from one of the museum guards for blowing on some sculpture. Too funny!
#69 - Let's talk blood.
Ok, so despite the fact that I claim to know about the proper ways to eat, I was not aware that you need to ingest foods with vitamin C in the same meal that you ingest foods with iron that doesn't come from meat. In other words, while I took a break from meat last month, I also took a break from iron as I didn't really pair oranges with my beans, nuts, and other non animal iron rich foods. So that's great! I loaded up on water, refrained from all alcohol, and I get to the blood center only to find that I'm just two notches below the healthy iron count. So I was rejected yet again, but I've decided to count my two rejections as an official blood donation due to the inconvenience factor. I'll probably try to go back in the next month to squeeze in my official spring donation as I'm still behind from winter. Jeez.
#70 - Will you take my marrow instead?
Going into the donation, I really did have a feeling I'd be rejected again, so had most of my marbles on registering my bone marrow. I mean in that I'd get to experience the "feel good" moment after completing the paperwork and mouth swabs and all that stuff. But no. The tech I dealt with was a real piece of work and after digging into me about my iron deficiency like it was my fault (ok I guess it was sort of), he just didn't exude any kind of gratitude in regards to My Big Moment of offering up the chance to save a life some time down the line. HOWEVER! This sort of taught me a lesson! At the end of the day, it's not about the donor (blood OR marrow)...it's about the person who needs it. I shouldn't really HAVE to feel good about doing any of this stuff. I should just feel lucky that I currently don't need anyone else's blood or bone marrow to survive. So yeah, a bit of a wake up call there. And I've decided that because donating blood, for me, is like the most inconvenient frustrating thing ever, it is the truest form of altruism as I really get nothing out of the experience. Which is precisely why I should keep at it.
#88 - Singing in the rain
Completely switching tracks here, over the weekend we had one of the longest thunderstorms I can remember in recent years. I'd say it lasted from around 9pm to 4am or so, and relatively strong throughout. In any case, the aforementioned boy that has recently entered into my life came over to the apartment that evening and when the rain really started up, he, my sis and I ran outside and really rocked the cliché: jumping in puddles, quoting various rain themed movie moments, the whole bit. It was quite a time! The most hilarious part being the anti-romance of freezing our asses off and then trying to dry all our clothes, particularly J who hadn't really packed extra.
#17 - Be selfish (Memorial Day)
And speaking of the man-friend, yesterday I totally had myself a Katie Day. After several weekends of either having specific plans set, or offering my helpful services to someone, or church and Eucharistic minister duty, etc etc, I took advantage of the opportunity that I had absolutely no responsibility to anyone on this day. So I stayed up VERY late with J the night before, and slept in without a care in the world the following morning. Then I just spent the entire day with him...something I had been very much looking forward to doing at some point. I think a good litmus for the possibility of a future relationship with someone is the spend-the-day-together test. In any case, he passed with flying colors. We grabbed lunch over at the Greek place, walked around Veteran's park, sat on the grass by the lakefront people watching, and even took in the Memorial Day parade. Something that was particularly nice as Memorial Day '08 became more than just a day off this year. It was a solid day and felt nice to just go and do whatever I wanted to do.
So with that said, budding relationship questionmark?? Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves (Right Katie? Right??) The phrase "It's Complicated" comes to mind. And it is. There is a huge grab bag of Pro's when it comes to this particular person. Qualities that I would very much appreciate in a mate. Meanwhile, however, there are a few Con's, and it isn't the con part I'm worried about, but rather the Deal-Breaker variety that are scattered throughout. The bright side, however, is that most of the deal-breakers are fixable and temporary. It's in his hands to take care of them though, not mine, and that's something that will just have to be for awhile. In the meantime, while I find that it's a little to late to keep him at an arm's length, I'm still able to keep our worlds separate. The best we can do is stay honest about it all and keep communication open (one of the reasons for the real late night on Sunday). I consider myself a pretty responsible person, but my responsibility has lead to missing out on what could've been some interesting moments in life. So I know that closing in on 30 is forcing me to take a more Life's Too Short attitude. I'm gonna run with it. I just am. Even if things end in disaster, it can't be any worse than the crap life throws at you even when you ARE responsible!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
long time no blog
It's been a couple weeks, so I should probably update and write a bit. Food, car troubs, dating and more!
#45 - Recipes galore:
1. Two smaller recipes to make one: Black Bean dish and Walnut Cranberry Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette
2. Amazing BLT Pizza - I cooked a thin crust wheat Boboli for 10 mins or so, and topped it with smashed avocado, halved grape tomatoes/shallots mixed with grape seed oil, balsamic vinegar and S&P, a mix of chopped spinach and flat leaf parsley, and then of course bacon. It was seriously awesome...I highly recommend for a party app situation. Good and good for you!!
3. Pat's Favorite Sweet & Sour Meatloaf (via Monica's blog!) - And if the pizza wasn't enough this week, let's talk about this meatloaf. Or should I say LOVEloaf?! The only change I made to Monica/Lorie's recipe was that I used rasp jelly and cooked the loveloaf for an hour. I think my oven's just on the cooler side...it usually takes a little longer than usual with that thing. Plus most loafs cook for about an hour I'd say. TRY IT TONIGHT!!
#50 - Atypical Veggie
Alright so Metro Market's produce section screwed me again. The reason I found the BLT pizza was because it had watercress as the "lettuce". Met Mark ALWAYS has watercress!! Except for now apparently. Foiled again. So like I said, I used spinach and parsley instead which worked really well (parsley has a similar "peppery" flavor).In any case, I'm switching my veggie to Arugula as I know Met Mark has this in stock. Bah, just sticking with watercress.
#87 - Bands
So I've got TWO this month, which is good because I think last month I cheated and didn't really have one.
The Kooks - your Brit Rock which is always a good time, recommend their tune "See the Sun".
Angels & Airwaves - Blink 182's Tom DeLonge's band...GOOD stuff!! They've got a U2 guitar thing happening which is never a bad thing.
And in LIFE news, things have been hectic per usual! I had this whole crazy tire fiasco happen this past weekend. My sis and I both "coincidentally" got flats the same day. I don't know. I wanted to be my own mechanic and change them...I got her lug nuts off, but the tire/wheel was corroded to the car. Then MY lug nuts were way too tight and there was no way I was taking my tire off either. 3-4 hrs later in the chilly drizzle, we gave up. I called for a tow the next morning to take off my tire, and bring Mandsi's car (and my tire) into Firestone. Both needed actual replacing, and I purchased this tire warranty at my dealership, so this involved me driving my car the 15 mi/45 min side street trek all the way over there as I couldn't go over 50mph on the spare. Long story long, they didn't have a tire for me, so I had to do it all over again the next day and I'm canceling my warranty asap because the dealership service dept likes to give a gal attitude.
And in other news, I will mention that the dating life has been relatively splendid as of late. Yep I'm typing it outloud. Ha! Stuff was a little intense and swirly at first and I wasn't so much down with that coming out of a nearly three year relationship, but things have calmed down and it's just nice and casual. I use the term "casual" loosely though because it depends on who you ask. "You call that casual?" Well, by 1950s standards, perhaps not so much. But in today's day and age, yeah I think so. I guess I'm really trying to keep this particular boy at an arm's length, but he tends to reel me in with his charms. Haha! I keep telling myself life's too short. I went through a week long phase where I was mad that I've always been the "good girl" playing by the rules and regulations of life. But here I get this opportunity to sort of get out there and have fun...be a little "bad" if you will. And when I'm 50 and married with who knows what responsibilities, I'd rather look back and be satisfied with the fact that I did XYZ without too much regret. So with that said, the warmer months are fast approaching and how often do you get to experience that all too classic summer romance, its endurance the furthest thing from your mind?
#45 - Recipes galore:
1. Two smaller recipes to make one: Black Bean dish and Walnut Cranberry Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette
2. Amazing BLT Pizza - I cooked a thin crust wheat Boboli for 10 mins or so, and topped it with smashed avocado, halved grape tomatoes/shallots mixed with grape seed oil, balsamic vinegar and S&P, a mix of chopped spinach and flat leaf parsley, and then of course bacon. It was seriously awesome...I highly recommend for a party app situation. Good and good for you!!
3. Pat's Favorite Sweet & Sour Meatloaf (via Monica's blog!) - And if the pizza wasn't enough this week, let's talk about this meatloaf. Or should I say LOVEloaf?! The only change I made to Monica/Lorie's recipe was that I used rasp jelly and cooked the loveloaf for an hour. I think my oven's just on the cooler side...it usually takes a little longer than usual with that thing. Plus most loafs cook for about an hour I'd say. TRY IT TONIGHT!!
#50 - Atypical Veggie
Alright so Metro Market's produce section screwed me again. The reason I found the BLT pizza was because it had watercress as the "lettuce". Met Mark ALWAYS has watercress!! Except for now apparently. Foiled again. So like I said, I used spinach and parsley instead which worked really well (parsley has a similar "peppery" flavor).
#87 - Bands
So I've got TWO this month, which is good because I think last month I cheated and didn't really have one.
The Kooks - your Brit Rock which is always a good time, recommend their tune "See the Sun".
Angels & Airwaves - Blink 182's Tom DeLonge's band...GOOD stuff!! They've got a U2 guitar thing happening which is never a bad thing.
And in LIFE news, things have been hectic per usual! I had this whole crazy tire fiasco happen this past weekend. My sis and I both "coincidentally" got flats the same day. I don't know. I wanted to be my own mechanic and change them...I got her lug nuts off, but the tire/wheel was corroded to the car. Then MY lug nuts were way too tight and there was no way I was taking my tire off either. 3-4 hrs later in the chilly drizzle, we gave up. I called for a tow the next morning to take off my tire, and bring Mandsi's car (and my tire) into Firestone. Both needed actual replacing, and I purchased this tire warranty at my dealership, so this involved me driving my car the 15 mi/45 min side street trek all the way over there as I couldn't go over 50mph on the spare. Long story long, they didn't have a tire for me, so I had to do it all over again the next day and I'm canceling my warranty asap because the dealership service dept likes to give a gal attitude.
And in other news, I will mention that the dating life has been relatively splendid as of late. Yep I'm typing it outloud. Ha! Stuff was a little intense and swirly at first and I wasn't so much down with that coming out of a nearly three year relationship, but things have calmed down and it's just nice and casual. I use the term "casual" loosely though because it depends on who you ask. "You call that casual?" Well, by 1950s standards, perhaps not so much. But in today's day and age, yeah I think so. I guess I'm really trying to keep this particular boy at an arm's length, but he tends to reel me in with his charms. Haha! I keep telling myself life's too short. I went through a week long phase where I was mad that I've always been the "good girl" playing by the rules and regulations of life. But here I get this opportunity to sort of get out there and have fun...be a little "bad" if you will. And when I'm 50 and married with who knows what responsibilities, I'd rather look back and be satisfied with the fact that I did XYZ without too much regret. So with that said, the warmer months are fast approaching and how often do you get to experience that all too classic summer romance, its endurance the furthest thing from your mind?
Thursday, May 1, 2008
may day! may day!
Alright, May 1st and time to get caught up, set up this next month:
#45 Recipe: My last recipe for April was this crab bake sort of thing, SUPER good! From the outset, it seemed like a strange combination of flavors, but it works! The recipe is below...
#50 My atypical produce item for May will be watercress.
#51 So my April Sans Meat worked out splendidly! Like I said in another post, the only 'cheat' was the bacon bits in the tator tot batter waaaaay at the beginning of the month. Since then I didn't have to cheat at all and I'm quite proud of myself! Although I could seriously sink my teeth into a burger today ;) Or bacon...I could definitely go for some bacon. An interesting observation: for the first half of the month, I honestly thought totally giving up meat wouldn't be all that bad. I mean as long as I could have fish and dairy. But during the second half of the month, I really did miss my meat (ohhh yeah). Above all, wings. Just your average chicken wings. You can't get those meat free! So I'm going to have to get over to BW3's this month. No more putting that off!
May's give-up is just going to be soda because I'm lazy and can't think of anything else right now. But hey, that means no mixed drinks (aside from tonic), so that can be difficult.
#68 I didn't really go to town on some food splurge this month. I kinda forgot about it. So this morning, I had a half bagel and half donut for breakfast and am NOT exercising at noon...haha! Oh well, I tried.
#87 Speaking of slacking, I have NOT been up on this 'new band/artist' task. I suck. So how about my new artist for April will be David Cook from American Idol bwah!! He's way hot though and is voice is brilliant. I rarely embed videos on this blog, but here's his rendition of "Eleanor Rigby"...pretty rad!
Sooooo yep, that's it. I haven't really rocked the list for awhile, so I'm just in complete slack mode right now. Well, Ninja Report is in full swing, so that's what my focus is at this time. My OTHER focus is trying to figure out various dramas going on these days. May day indeed!
Ok Southwestern Crab Bake recipe!
I made it one way, but in the following recipe I'm changing the chip idea. They originally called for chips to cover the bottom of the baking dish, but ya know, they get pretty mushy...so I think crumbling them over the top halfway through sounds good to me!
8 oz. Crab Classic, Leg Style, cubed
1 can tomatoes with diced chilies
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 small can whole kernel corn
1 pkg shredded cheese
green onions, olives, salsa, whatever you like for toppings!
1 bag tortilla chips (I used these newish BEST EVER Tostitos flour chips)
In a saucepan add tomatoes with chilies, cream of mushroom soup, milk, mushrooms and corn. Stir well, heating to simmer. Butter a 10 x 13 inch baking dish. Cut crab into cubes and place in the bottom of the dish. Pour soup mixture over the crab and top with shredded cheese and green onions, olives, etc. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. Top with crushed chips and bake another 10 minutes. Then let stand for 10 minutes as the dish is SUPER hot! Enjoy!
#45 Recipe: My last recipe for April was this crab bake sort of thing, SUPER good! From the outset, it seemed like a strange combination of flavors, but it works! The recipe is below...
#50 My atypical produce item for May will be watercress.
#51 So my April Sans Meat worked out splendidly! Like I said in another post, the only 'cheat' was the bacon bits in the tator tot batter waaaaay at the beginning of the month. Since then I didn't have to cheat at all and I'm quite proud of myself! Although I could seriously sink my teeth into a burger today ;) Or bacon...I could definitely go for some bacon. An interesting observation: for the first half of the month, I honestly thought totally giving up meat wouldn't be all that bad. I mean as long as I could have fish and dairy. But during the second half of the month, I really did miss my meat (ohhh yeah). Above all, wings. Just your average chicken wings. You can't get those meat free! So I'm going to have to get over to BW3's this month. No more putting that off!
May's give-up is just going to be soda because I'm lazy and can't think of anything else right now. But hey, that means no mixed drinks (aside from tonic), so that can be difficult.
#68 I didn't really go to town on some food splurge this month. I kinda forgot about it. So this morning, I had a half bagel and half donut for breakfast and am NOT exercising at noon...haha! Oh well, I tried.
#87 Speaking of slacking, I have NOT been up on this 'new band/artist' task. I suck. So how about my new artist for April will be David Cook from American Idol bwah!! He's way hot though and is voice is brilliant. I rarely embed videos on this blog, but here's his rendition of "Eleanor Rigby"...pretty rad!
Sooooo yep, that's it. I haven't really rocked the list for awhile, so I'm just in complete slack mode right now. Well, Ninja Report is in full swing, so that's what my focus is at this time. My OTHER focus is trying to figure out various dramas going on these days. May day indeed!
Ok Southwestern Crab Bake recipe!
I made it one way, but in the following recipe I'm changing the chip idea. They originally called for chips to cover the bottom of the baking dish, but ya know, they get pretty mushy...so I think crumbling them over the top halfway through sounds good to me!
8 oz. Crab Classic, Leg Style, cubed
1 can tomatoes with diced chilies
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 small can whole kernel corn
1 pkg shredded cheese
green onions, olives, salsa, whatever you like for toppings!
1 bag tortilla chips (I used these newish BEST EVER Tostitos flour chips)
In a saucepan add tomatoes with chilies, cream of mushroom soup, milk, mushrooms and corn. Stir well, heating to simmer. Butter a 10 x 13 inch baking dish. Cut crab into cubes and place in the bottom of the dish. Pour soup mixture over the crab and top with shredded cheese and green onions, olives, etc. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. Top with crushed chips and bake another 10 minutes. Then let stand for 10 minutes as the dish is SUPER hot! Enjoy!
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