We are here, we are here, we are here!

Portland is awesome! Our apartment is cool, but the area we live in (Orenco Station) is fantastic! There are several restaurants in the area. There's also a wine store that carries our honeymoon dessert wine that's always been hard to find (Robert Mondavi's Moscato). And there's a great pet store that carries the cat's food and other good quality foods and a grocery store that's kind of a mix of a Whole Foods type store and your normal Shaw's/Star Market/Hy-Vee/Food Lion/Fareway/Schnuck's whatever else they call it type of store.

We made it here early Wednesday afternoon. The truck was unloaded and returned by supper time. Grandma and I unpacked the kitchen while Mom & Jeff took the truck back and then we went to eat at the Orenco Station Grill. We thought it was good, but I just saw some reviews on yelp and nobody else agrees with us. I stayed up late unpacking our clothes and organizing our new, pretty, beautiful, wonderful walk in closet.

Thursday we did some shopping and got most everything else unpacked. We still can't find a shower curtain/bath rugs/etc that we like, but we've got the other necessities. I've been craving pancakes, so we ate at IHOP - yum!

Friday we went to the beach! We went to Cape Meares to the lighthouse. Jeff and I walked up to the Octopus Tree. I saw a big scary beetle and a big scary spider web. But I also got to meet the prettiest red nosed pittie. He was a big sweetie and didn't even bother to sniff Jeff before he started giving him kisses. It made me really sad when the owners said "Thanks for petting our dog - most people think he's some ferocious killer or something and back away."

We drove to Oceanside spent some time on the actual beach. We noticed signs all over saying "Boycott the Anchor!" and bumper stickers saying "You won't see me at the Anchor!" Mom googled when she got home, and it seems The Anchor ticked some people off by expanding and then bringing in strippers.

We ate lunch at The Schooner, which was OK. Then we went to the Blue Heron Cheese shop. They had some amazing cheeses there. We came home, and Mom, Grandma & I went to eat at The Merchant of Venice. Grandma had an amazing tomato soup. Dessert was Sweet Cream, which I need to find a recipe for.

Saturday morning we dropped Mom & Grandma off at the airport. Then Jeff and I went exploring and grocery shopping. We napped, watched Sahara, made carbonara for supper then went to bed.

The P.S.es

P.S. Dill Pickle sunflower seeds aren't as good as you think they might be. They smell pickly. But they lack the sourness. *sniffle* :(

P.P.S. We just crossed into Wyoming. Directly into a section of road work. Where Jeff just hit one of those orange barrely cones. I'm not nervous about the upcoming mountain driving at all. Nope, nope, nope.
Not me!

P.P.P.S. I read him this as entertainment (trust me, on long days like this anything counts) and he says "I didn't hit it!"

Send in the Clowns

That's what I always think of when I see Kearney (pronounced "carnie" like the carnival people), Nebraska.

Jeff, Mom & I left Nevada this morning at about 8:30. We picked Grandma up in Omaha at the airport (she parked her car there) at about 11:30.

Then we trucked it across Nebraska to see Uncle T, Aunt R and Cousin R in Kearney. It was a good place to stop and take a break and it was fantastic to see them again. Jeff & I haven't seen them since Christmas. We got to see their new house (which isn't so new to them but it's the first time we've been there) and we got to meet Violet their new puppy.

Violet is the cutest puppy in the whole entire world. I need to get me a Violet. Or Jeff needs to get me a Violet. She's super soft and funny and likes to give kisses. She's also about as big as my shoe, which made for an interesting time when she tried to carry it around. She was so small Summit didn't even realize she was a dog.

Cousin R really liked Summit. Summit likes all people. She was slightly grumpy because of the whole traveling thing. But she did let Cousin R give her some kisses. And she was meowing very sadly in her carrier as he gave her hugs through the carrier.

Mom, Grandma and I rode together on the next leg, which was an amusing time. I was pressured into flashing Jeff as we passed him and then again at a later time since apparently he missed it the first time.

Also, someone who wishes to remain anonymous misunderstood our conversation about where to eat. I was hoping for a Cracker Barrel since I've been craving chicken & dumplings and okra. When this person was asked if they liked Cracker Barrel, the response was "As long as they have hamburgers!" So we discussed it a bit and decided that since the Cracker Barrel serves family style food they would probably have them. And the person who shall remain nameless wondered why in the world a Mexican restaurant would be serving hamburgers and family style meals like chicken & dumplings. It turns out said person was thinking we were planning on eating at Taco Bell.

Anyway, somehow we managed to miscalculate the amount of time our travels would take us today from Nevada, Iowa to Rawling, Wyoming. It's not 10 hours. Because we've been on the road for 11. And somehow we still have 2 or 3 to go. But I think there will be mountains. Eventually we will actually arrive at our destination at the time we think we will.

And since it's dark in the truck (I'm writing and I'll copy and paste this into the blog later when I have internet access) Mitzie and Summit are especially cuddly. Apparently cats cannot cuddle during the day while riding in 16 foot moving trucks.

The "Easy" Day (AKA Nevada, IA at last!)

The drive from STL to Nevada was supposed to be easy. 5 hours or so, no big deal. Pssssh. That was wrong!

We woke up this morning and Linda made pancakes, which totally hit the spot. Summit and Caper contemplated very briefly making a truce. It didn’t last long, but at least they considered it. Caper is an excellent hostess. Hopefully Summit will pick up on her behavior by the time we decide to get a dog and become an excellent hostess herself.

We also had a brief time of panic when we thought we had lost Mitzie. We forgot to shut her into the bedroom. When I realized the door was open and that she wasn’t under the bed, under the covers, under the dresser, in the carriers or in the closet I called in reinforcements. Jeff eventually found her burrowed underneath the pillows. This is why we don’t let her out in strange places – if we do, we’d never see her again!

On the upside, we played Catch Phrase. Jeff and I enjoy electronic Catch Phrase because it’s an entertaining way to pass the time. We did have an incident where the batteries died, but that was quickly resolved. One of my first words was awesome – it was Q-Bert, which happens to be Q's (the baby we met yesterday, remember? :)) nickname.

Also, we found the Jack Link’s KC Masterpiece beef jerky today, which was interesting. I also got some string cheese. As we were driving, Jeff’s brother Dan was also driving home to Indiana (he came to STL for a quick visit so we could see each other – thanks Dan, it was good to see you!) so Jeff called him and chatted a bit. It seems that it is in appropriate for me to eat string cheese, but it’s acceptable for Dan to eat Moon Pies. I can’t figure out that logic yet.

The last downside of today is that we’re back in the Midwest where there’s corn. You’d think I’d be used to corn and beans by now, being an Iowa girl most of my life. But apparently when you don’t drive for more than 15 minutes at a time for like 3 years, you can’t watch the little rows of corn and beans fly by anymore without getting car sick which is one of my most favorite things about seeing corn. You’d also think I’d have learned my lesson yesterday as we were leaving Ohio. But I didn’t.

Anyway, now that I've fully recovered with the help of an awesome meal of steak, potatoes, roasted green beans and fruit salad and we've programmed the Garmin for the rest of the trip (thanks for letting us steal it Dad!) Jeff, Mitch & I are going to play Mystery at the Abbey.

Boston to Bolivar, NY to Dayton, OH to St. Louis, MO

That's how far we've come! It's been a very long couple of days. I'm blogging in bed at my in-laws in STL. :) It was nice to sleep in a bit!

We left Boston around noonish on Friday. We picked up our copper table (which is just as pretty as I remember it!). Then headed to spend the night with Jeff's Grandma Carm. We got there pretty late, but it was really nice to see her and her new place.

Summit & Mitzie meowed for the first 15 minutes or so of the drive, then calmed down. We have an adapter for the cigarette lighter in the truck that converts to a power outlet, so we've been running a Feliway plug-in off and on to hopefully help with their anxieties. And I also snuck some Rescue Remedy onto their food. Summit came to explore immediately and spent some time sleeping on my lap. Mitz just hung out in the carrier, but seemed happy. I have a cute picture on Jeff's phone I'll post of them cuddling when we find the cable to take it off the phone.

My highlights of Friday include finding Jack Link's A1 flavored beef jerky. And also going through Cuba, NY. OK, so not through Cuba, but we were very near to Cuba. Where they make cheese. In fact, Gramda Carm sent us a care package that included black olives and Cuba Cheese Curds. Yum! Those were greatly appreciated! And we also saw this funny little rainbow. I'll ask Mel (Jeff's Dad) about it. It was just a teeny tiny thing in the sky - not a whole one. I guess there's a real name for them so when I figure it out I'll post about it.

When we were leaving Grandma Carm’s, we went through this little tiny town. I wish we had gotten a picture, but they had this freaky little statue of a squirrel. Normally that wouldn’t be too scary. But it was dressed like Ronald McDonald. Red hair, red nose, the stripes - pretty much the works. Creepy!

I waved to the signs to Toledo, Ohio signs I saw because I “know” someone who lives there. Little did I know I was waving at the same time another person I “know” was going to pick up her new puppy. Congrats, Meghan!

On our way to Dayton, I saw this sign that I can’t begin to accurately describe. It was a sign for a store called “Tubes & Hoses.” What was extremely amusing about it was that the people who made the sign made the letters look like they were made out of hoses. Their “T” looked an awful like a “P.” It was a cheap thrill.

We stopped in Dayton to see A, J and their new (new to us since we hadn’t seen him yet, but he’s 8ish months old now) baby Q. It was really good to see them and to meet Q. He’s a total cutie pie; he likes hair, watches and enjoys drooling. He recently learned to crawl, and when we let Sum out of her carrier she was not excited about that. But she did let him pet her which was very nice. He’s also very close to learning how to stand on his little wobbly legs and has his first teeth. It was a very different experience than seeing S & S's (my old boss and her husband's) 5 week old baby J that we were able to meet on Thursday night.

My other highlights of the day include seeing a convoy of 21 sparkly unmarked school buses. They were almost as much fun to count as a train. And also driving through Summit County, though I think I was more excited about that than Summit was. There was also an amusing sign in Missouri that was advertising free chicken with 100 gallons of gas. However, they didn’t clarify what kind of chicken. A live chicken? A bucket of chicken? Maybe a frozen chicken?

Bwahahahahaha!

Annoying baby is crying again.

And after this morning I never have to hear that kid again!

Please pray that our next apartment is better sound proofed or that there isn't a baby next door. Or a toddler, rather, that seems to be ignored by his mom when he's half-assed crying.

Half-assed crying is still loud enough to wake me up.

See? I told you my attitude sucks after living here in Boston. :-p

So long and thanks for all the fish!

I wish the entire Hitchhiker's movie would have been like the opening. I may have actually liked the movie if it had been.

Everything is packed.

The apartment is a mess.

The cats are in heaven.

Jeff won't let me clean. He says since he'll have at least 3 weeks in Boston with only an air mattress, laptop and a few dishes he'll need something to do. I hate leaving him with a mess. Mostly because he'll have to clean it up and that makes me feel bad. And partially because he doesn't clean as well as I do.

Stephen came over for a bit tonight, and it was good to see him.

I said by goodbye to Colleen. :( I think once we're settled in after the move I'll do some serious chocolate shopping and send it to her as a thank you for being awesome present.

Somehow I'm supposed to sleep tonight. I can't imagine how I'm supposed to do that. I'm so wired right now. I assume I'll be asleep the second my head hits the pillow.

I guess I'll go find out! :)

10+ Things I Don't Hate About Boston

Time for another packing break! Or, as the case may be, time to continue delaying packing. :)

I'm going to miss these things in Boston a lot.

1. Sunset Grill & Tap - they have an absolutely amazing beer list. It's pages and pages long and it's so much fun to go there and try a few new beers that would be impossible to get at a normal bar. Their food is really yummy, too! Especially their sweet potato fries.
2. Old Ironsides - it's a fun ship to visit. A lot of touristy places are only fun to visit once. But we've seen Old Ironsides several times and I love it every time!
3. Dunkin Donuts - they're everywhere in Boston, since they were born here. I love their white hot chocolate. And their double chocolate donuts. I'm not really a donut kind of girl, but I like these. And their new egg white flatbread sandwiches are pretty good, too. And their croissants. There's one across the street at the train station which makes it even more convenient (thankfully we didn't visit very often).
4. Summer Shack - it's also across the street from our apartment. How easy was it to run across the street during Lent on Fridays? And we've never had a bad meal there. In fact, we've liked everything there so much that we bought the Summer Shack cookbook to take with us. Actually, I did have one meal I didn't like there. I didn't realize my fish would come with it's head, tail, fins and skin on. But I've almost managed to forget that!
5. The accent. :) I like living in new places and hearing new accents.
   
6. Colleen. She's our concierge who works the afternoon/evening shift. Colleen is really nice and she's always very up to date on the new hot chocolate product out on the market. We've been surprising each other with new random chocolate things for the past 3 years. :) The most recent would be the Triple Chocolate M&Ms that we got for her.
7. The Fireworks! We've lived here for 3 years and this was the first year we went to the fireworks. It was fun to hear the Boston Pops, and Rascal Flatts was an added bonus.
8. J.P. Licks. I pink puffy heart their ice cream. I'm sooooo going to miss the Oreo Cake Batter flavor!
9. The Asgard - Jeff moved to Boston to start school while we were still engaged, and I stayed at home to plan the wedding. I came to visit him here over Valentine's Day and we stumbled across The Asgard. They have a fantastic tomato and mozzarella sandwich with pesto that I love. It was also right down the street from my Central Square CVS, so we went to eat there now and then. They also have this really yummy chocolatey ice cream Oreo crust and fudge dessert that makes me happy.
10. My pool and hot tub. Yes, I'll have a new pool at the new place. But it wasn't finished last I knew. And I don't know if it has a hot tub. And doesn't it rain a lot in Oregon?
11. Mohr & McPherson. I love their stores. If I'm ever a millionaire, I'm buying so many things from there! And I'll have a collection of copper tables. :)
    
12. My people! I've made some really great friends here that I'm going to miss a lot. :( CVS may really stink to work for sometimes, but I had lots of fantastic co-workers that are now friends.

OK, so I took a really long time to do that, so now I have to pack more. :(

Things I Will Not Miss About Boston

I'm taking a packing break. Since I don't particularly care for packing, and I'm in a grumpy mood I thought I'd post things I won't miss about living here. And in the next day or so I'll post the things I will miss about living here.

1. The crying baby next door. The smokers who lived there before were a million times better. I could sleep all night long without being woken up by the baby (and I am a heavy sleeper, ask Jeff or my Mom if you don't believe me!). Smokers were better even when our whole damn apartment smelled like smoke because it leaked into our apartment through the dryer vent. I'm an asthmatic, so that's saying something.
   
2. Should I also mention the couple that fights upstairs, the screaming children in the pool and the lady who brings her 4 year old kid to the weight room then runs on a treadmill and ignores him for an hour?
   
3. Oh, and the people below and one door to the right of us. They have this awful wind chime that sounds like someone is banging together some 2 by 4s.
4. Or the people below us who smoke on their patio. And are practically deaf and scream into the phone on their patio.
   
5. The crazy drivers. Jeff stresses when he drives. I don't think we've had one drive in 3 years where at some point we didn't think we were going to die.
   
6. The crazies that used to come into my pharmacy.
7. The attitudes of people who live here. People are generally nice, but you can totally tell when someone is from Massachusetts just by their attitude. And when they're mean, they're mean. And irrational.
8. The thunderstorms. They are so wussy. They don't even deserve to be called thunderstorms.
9. The lack of storage in our apartment. In a way, it's nice because we don't have random crap sitting around. We pretty much use everything we have, which is helpful when packing for a big move because we don't have to throw stuff out.
10. My attitude. Boston has made me a meaner person. I don't really like it. I realize every now and then that I've changed in a not so good way, and try to go back to being nicer. The old me probably wouldn't have made an entire post about the things I will not miss and hate about a place.
    

It's a Kitty Wonderland in Here!

Boxes everywhere. Open. Closed. Stacked. Some with tape, others without.

Summit and Mitzie are in heaven. Though I think I'm going to be wrapping Mitzie in packing tape shortly if she keeps pulling the tape off of the boxes and trying to open them up.

I realize packing is fairly arduous. But, I am plenty capable of packing and don't really need help from the little monstas.

This weekend was tax free weekend in Massachusetts (don't get me started about how that's ridiculous). And about a month ago Mohr & McPherson, my favorite store (which happens to be next door and has another one down the street *squee*), had a contest about guessing the origin of items. The prizes were gift certificates. So I didn't win the first place prize, which was $1,000. But I did win 3rd place and got $100. And I was sneaky and sent Mom the answers, too, and had her enter. She also got 3rd place and $100.

Since we knew we'd be leaving soon, we decided to wander down to see what options we had for our Turkish Copper dining room table that we've been eyeing since the very first day we went into their store 3 years ago. They have so many variations that we wanted to see what our options were, how long it would take to get, and how much shipping to Oregon would be.

When we got there, they had the almost exact table we wanted. When we asked about it, we found out the base is unfinished mahogany, and we want black lacquer. No worries, we can handle that ourselves. If we were to custom order it, it would take 14 to 18 weeks. And it would cost about $1000 to ship to Oregon. Blech!

But, the sales lady was really nice. She told us she would give us the discount promotion that they were running. And she would make it tax free by working some magic. She also let me use Mom's gift certificate. So we bought it. And now we just need to pick it up the day we leave. :) I'm so excited.

Chairs? Yeah. We'll figure that out later.

We also got a cool piece of pottery from the Mud Flat Gallery in Porter Square. Mom has a tradition of finding a cool piece of pottery each place we've lived and moving it with us. I've always thought it was cool, and they have some really neat stuff in there. We decided to stop in and see if there was anything we liked and we found a really cool dish. I can't take a picture of it though, because it's already boxed up. They had lots of neat pieces, but as we were buying it we realized it was made by the same artist, Cary Atsalis, that we've been noticing all along. :) And now the name is on my blog, so it doesn't matter if I lose the business card in all of this chaos.

The Series of Unfortunate Events seems to be O-V-E-R!

Even so, I am knocking on wood and keeping my fingers and toes crossed. For at least another month.

The past few months have been the longest ever! Jeff was offered a job in Oregon back in April. I quit my job in May, since were were supposed to be able to move at the end of the month and Jeff could start work in July-ish. Through a series of unfortunate events (mainly bad luck and then his boss being out of town mixed with some other things), we've been stuck here in Boston doing nothing half of the time wishing we could get the heck out of here.

On Friday, we finally got an OK to push Jeff's start date back to October. Considering he was supposed to start in July, which got pushed back to September we were pretty nervous that they'd say "Hell no you can't change your date. We've wasted enough time with you!" Thankfully, they were cool with it.

*huge sigh of relief*

And today, Jeff got the OK from his MIT boss to move at the end of this week. I'm planning on going back to school for a PharmD, and school starts in September. Obviously, the whole October thing doesn't work for me. So, we're driving out at the end of this week. And Jeff will fly back to finish his thesis and do his defense then will fly back to Oregon and start his new job.

I didn't want to jinx anything by posting this too early, so that's why I waited. Believe me when I say that our luck hasn't been so great lately. And I was not going to screw around with it!

What in the heck was I thinking?!

About a month ago, I started the One Hundred Push-ups Challenge. By gradually increasing the number of push-ups you do, eventually you'll be able to do one hundred in one setting. Who in the world wants to do that?!

Oh wait. Me.

At least temporarily.

Well, what in the Sam Hill was I thinking?!

I wasn't happy with my initial start. I just don't have enough upper body strength to do them with good form. So I decided to switch and start over doing the girly on the knee push-ups.

I started Monday, because I wasn't feeling well last week. I flew through those suckers with no problem. Maybe when I get through 100 straight girly push-ups I can move on to real person push-ups.

This week was also the week that I went from heavy weight low reps to lower weight with lots of reps for my weight lifting.

And now my arms hurt so bad!

I am such a wuss.

On the upside, chocolate milk is a really good recovery drink. Maybe this weight lifting push-up thing isn't so horrible after all . . .

The Special Hell :)

So normally I wouldn't joke about Hell. But there's this one line in the Firefly episode called "Our Mrs. Reynolds" from Shepherd Book:

If you take sexual advantage of her, you're going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.

Now I'm most definitely not a child molester. And I try really hard not to talk at theaters.

But!

I do so enjoy turning on the vacuum that we strategically placed in the kitchen this weekend whenever the cats go near it (it's left with the power on, but we have it plugged into a power strip near the futon so we can flip the switch on an as needed basis).

And then laugh as the zoom away as fast as they can.

Is there a special Hell for that? Or for being an evil cat mommy?

I mean it's the most effective way we've come up with to keep the kitties out of the kitchen. And if it keeps them from burning their feet as they walk across the stove top do I get an exemption?

Odwalla, where have you been all my life?

I've decided that I'm addicted to Odwalla's Strawberry C Monster smoothies. I love them. They're orange-ey. And strawberry-ey. They make me happy and I'm a bit miffed they don't come in the big carton size.

And has anyone tried the new M&M Premiums? They are a.m.a.z.i.n.g! I've only tried the Triple Chocolate ones but I'm absolutely positive all of the other flavors must be awesome, too. Try them!

The downside is that they include corn syrup, and I've been trying to cut high fructose corn syrup out of my diet. Who knew that would be so hard? It's in everything! Bread, buns, ice cream, juices, yogurt, ketchup, marinades and the list goes on. And on.

I started cutting out artificial sweeteners a few years ago after hearing all of the issues that it causes my cousin. I went and read more about them and decided they needed to go, and they have. Except for my occasional Yoplait Boston Creme Pie yogurt. I can't figured out how to give that up, but I only eat it once every couple of weeks so I think I'm going to be ok. ;)

Cat's Phee on Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

My title sounds a little yucky, doesn't it? Oh well!

I opened up the fridge and noticed bacon sitting there and it reminded me of the Spaghetti Alla Carbonara we made this weekend. It's an easy recipe we got from the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook my fantastic mother in law gave us. As an aside note, who knew how many cookbooks those people have put out?! I gave up looking after 5 minutes on their website and went and found our cookbook so I could stop guessing and pick the correct one. Anyway, their recipe is amazing!

The best part is that it includes wine. I don't get to drink much wine, because Jeff gets migraines from it. And while I do like my wine, I don't feel comfortable drinking an entire bottle by myself when all I want is one glass. Even with those wine savers who really wants 2 week old wine? Not me. Blech.

However, I do make an exception for a particular companies wine. Cooper's Creek from New Zealand has a line of cat wines with fun labels. Being the animal lover I am, my wine bottles usually get picked based on the animal on the label. My favorite of theirs is the Boss Cat (Fat Cat in NZ) Chardonnay.



But we couldn't find it this time and haven't seen it in awhile. However, I was very excited to see that they were carrying a cat wine: Cat's Phee on a Gooseberry Bush Sauvignon Blanc. It wasn't my favorite ever, but the label was great. Apparently, American's freaked out and wouldn't allow it to be called "Cat's Pee" so they switched it to "Cat's Phee" instead.


They also have a Tom Cat Merlot that I'm on the lookout for, as well as Glamour Puss Pinor Noir. Also with excellent labels.

So, about that recipe.

America's Test Kitchen - Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

Add regular table salt to the pasta cooking water, but use sea salt flakes, if you can find them, to season the dish. We like the full flavor they bring to the carbonara. Note that while either table salt or sea salt can be used when seasoning in step 3, they are not used in equal amounts.

Serves 4 to 6

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 pound bacon (6 to 8 slices), slices halved length-wise, then cut crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 large eggs
3/4 cup Parmesan cheese , finely grated (about 2 ounces)
1/4 cup Pecorino Romano cheese , finely grated (about 3/4 ounce)

3 small cloves of garlic , pressed through garlic press or minced to paste

1 pound spaghetti
table salt
ground black pepper

Note: Pouring the cheese and eggs over the hot pasta, tossing, and then adding the bacon ensures that none of the sauce gets left in the bowl.

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position, set large heatproof serving bowl on rack, and heat oven to 200 degrees. Bring 4 quarts water to rolling boil in large Dutch oven or stockpot.

2. While water is heating, heat oil in large skillet over medium heat until shimmering, but not smoking. Add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and crisp, about 8 minutes. Add wine and simmer until alcohol aroma has cooked off and wine is slightly reduced, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm. Beat eggs, cheeses, and garlic together with fork in small bowl; set aside.

3. When water comes to boil, add pasta and 1 tablespoon table salt; stir to separate pasta. Cook until al dente; reserve 1/3 cup pasta cooking water and drain pasta for about 5 seconds, leaving pasta slightly wet. Transfer drained pasta to warm serving bowl; if pasta is dry, add some reserved cooking water and toss to moisten. Immediately pour egg mixture over hot pasta, sprinkle with 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes or 3/4 teaspoon table salt; toss well to combine. Pour bacon mixture over pasta, season generously with black pepper, and toss well to combine. Serve immediately.

**We drain our bacon pretty well because my stomach doesn't like greasy, fatty foods. We leave a tablespoon or so to add flavor. You could probably also throw the garlic in with the wine so it won't be raw garlic flavor, but we like garlic so we don't mind it raw.**

Pets are NOT disposable!

And they are not even on the same level as weeds or annoying sock issues. If you think your pet is one of "life's little annoyances" you shouldn't have ever gotten a pet. And they should put you up for adoption on petfinder.com.

So much for reading Real Simple anymore!

I'm almost as mad about this as Jeff is about having to go to jury duty in the morning. And he's pretty ticked off.

Houseflies and Drama

So a message board I go to has had some drama on it and it makes me sad. I know we'll pull through it though, because we're in the process of trying to start a nationwide pet rescue group. There are so many of us that it could be really amazing.

One of the amazing ladies mentioned how when she was little, she adopted a housefly that had fallen into her pool. She liked to save them, and normally they'd fly away. This one, though, was hurt so she tried to save him.

It reminded me of when we were little. We were at Lake Okoboji for our week that summer and Joe and I had to take naps. Neither of us wanted to, so we just stayed awake. Joe started catching flies and pulling their wings off. I saw what he was doing and it made me cry because I felt bad for all of the flies. And if they didn't have wings, could they still be called "flies"? Wouldn't they have to be called "walks" instead? It was a rough afternoon, espeically when Joe got to get up earlier from the nap than me because he was being "good."

(I told you my blog would be about whatever randomness came to mind!)

Irony

So I got my copy of Breaking Dawn last night. We left around 10:30 and got to Barnes & Noble around 11ish. We walked in and got a wristband then wandered the store for a bit. They stated calling groups, and when they called our group we ended up being first in line. We waited a lot less than some people who had pre-ordered. It's kinda fun being one of the first people on the East Coast to have a copy of Breaking Dawn. My receipt said the time was 00:01.

The ironic part of all this is when I woke up this morning both Edward and Bella the Bettas had passed away. :(

It was not such a good way to start the day. The book isn't completely fabulous like the others were, either.

The upside is that we don't have any food in our apartment, so we ended up ordering Wings Over for supper. There don't seem to be many wings places in Boston, and they generally do a decent job. Oh, and also I got to eat Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. We don't have it often, but it hit the spot. And because I was feeling sad Jeff let me get a croissant with egg & ham AND a double chocolate donut!

Bella-chick(s)

Bella is my beautiful female Betta. I don't remember exactly when we got her, but it was sometime after February when we got Edward, the boy Betta. They were in the same tank after getting bad advice that they could live happily ever after with each other, which was totally wrong. We put up a divider but she's a sneaky little thing and devised various ways to get around, under and over it to Edward's side. You'd think this means that she likes him, but instead she preferred to nip his fins and shred them up. :(

I finally got tired of it and went and bought her a little 1 gallon aquarium to live in until we move to keep the peace. She seems to like it there and is especially fond of her plants. Today, her heater finally showed up. So I changed her water and stuck it in, and hopefully soon (it's taking far too long, if you ask me!) her water will be a nice and toasty 78 to 80 degrees. That should make her happy.

Isn't she pretty?

Has anyone realized where I got my Betta's names from? :) And also realized what day it is? Jeff and I are going to a midnight release party tonight to pick up the last book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn. I've been reading like a mad woman for the past two days so I could get caught up and sucked back into the series. I'm about halfway through Eclipse, so I'll make it with time to spare.

And the best part about the whole thing? There's a Cheesecake Factory that's open until 11:30 so I get cheesecake!