I love my Mom! And my farmer's market.

When we were driving cross country on our move and spent the night back home, Mom made this awesome, yummy, creamy fruit salad.

I've kind of been craving it and decided I should make it. You can pretty much put in whatever kind of fruit you want, which works great for me since I'm allergic to some fruit and not to others. Plus, today was the Farmer's Market and they have some amazing fruit.

This morning I got up and went shopping for fruit (and veggies, but I hit pay dirt with the fruit). I found fresh blueberries and raspberries and apples and grapes and strawberries oh my! The strawberries in particular are to die for.

I came home and made my little fruit salad and it is fantastic. Here's the recipe! Obviously, I changed some things around. And I also didn't measure out anything. Fruit, liquid. I just threw it all together and it worked. :)

Awesome, Yummy, Creamy Fruit Salad (my version)

• 1 box of instant vanilla pudding
• 1 apple, chopped up
  
• a small bunch of seedless grapes, rinsed
  
• a can of mandarin oranges in their own juice - keep the juice!
  
• a can of pineapple bits in their own juice - keep the juice! (or you can be like me and get rings on accident and just cut them up on your own)
• a big carton thingy of strawberries, sliced, halved, quartered into whatever size bites you want (a full pint)
• a small carton thingy of raspberries (a half pint, I think)
• a small carton thingy of blueberries, rinsed (also a half pint)
  

1. Spoon out a little bit of the mandarin orange juice and toss it with the apple in a large bowl (you can use the really pretty new bowl you got at your local pottery store if you want - it will look gorgeous!). so the apple won't brown.
   
2. Drain the rest of the liquid from the pineapple and mandarin oranges into a small bowl.
   
3. Put the pineapple and oranges into the large, pretty bowl.
   
4. Add the apples, strawberries and grapes to the large, gorgeous bowl.
5. Add the package of instant vanilla pudding to the bowl of reserved pineapple and mandarin orange juice and whisk until thickened.
   
6. Pour pudding mixture over the fruit in the wonderful bowl and toss gently to coat.
7. Add the blueberries and raspberries and very gently toss (they go in last so they don't get smushed).
8. Refrigerate. Or just eat the whole darn thing (not the bowl) because it's amazing. Fantastic. Unbelievable. Wonderful. Yummy.

P.S. If you're bad at cutting apples (like me) be careful so you don't accidentally cut your finger (like me). Because if you just moved to a new place (like me) chances are you don't have or don't know where any band-aids are (like me). Unless, happily (like me), when your Mom and Grandma helped you move (like me) one of them was kind enough to leave two circle, circle, dot, dot band-aids on your bathroom counter that you stashed underneath your gargoyle because you were too lazy (like me) to find a real place for them (like me). And also be very careful when you cut up your pineapple that you messed up and bought in rings instead of tidbits (like me) because if you get pineapple juice in your cut (like me) it will really, really, really hurt. Trust me.

Done for the week!

I am very happy to say that I am done with my Couch to 5K and Hundred Pushups for the week. I've been jogging inside on the treadmill at our gym and I've decided I like it much better. For one, it's much cooler. And running on a treadmill keeps me from pushing myself too hard and screwing up my asthma.

My pushups for this week were really hard. I swear when I started on Monday I was doing far fewer. I realized today that the Hundred Pushups Challenge updated the website sometime afer Monday and changed the number of pushups you do during week 2. Pffft. No wonder I was dying! I didn't think I was totally crazy when I did 12 pushups to start on Monday. I did manage to knock them out on this new super mean hard level, though.

Now I can relax for 2 days before I have to start on week 3. That's not to say that I won't go play on the elliptical for a bit this weekend, but at least I'm not required to do anything, and it's a nice feeling.

I love my duck!

Today was a good day. I got lots of stuff done, and my laptop is all set up the way I want it. I did Week 2, Day 2 of my Couch Potato to 5K program and kicked it's butt. I did my pushups, and those kicked my butt. My arms still feel like spaghetti.

I got to webcam with my Mom and it was good to see her. She got her hair cut - it's really cute!

Also, I've decided I love the DVR. It records things for me. America's Test Kitchen. House Hunters. And very importantly, Veggie Tales. :) Veggie Tales is on TV here and I love it. The only thing I don't like is that they have a different opening song. :( And the episode I watched tonight? It was about rubber ducks. And Larry the Cucumber loving his duck. Oh how I missed the little French peas. Though come to think of it, one of them is named Paco. Maybe they're peas from Mexico or someplace they speak Spanish? He definitely has a Spanish accent.

I love ducks. I loved how there were lots of duck things in Boston. The Make Way for the Ducklings statues in Boston Common. Real life ducks. The Mother's Day Parade where kids dress up with ducks. The only duck thing I've seen here are duck eggs at the grocery store.

Screw You, DHL!

If you ever need to ship a package don't use DHL. They suck. Seriously. Even if you have to buy it someplace else and pay more, it's worth it.

We ordered my new laptop and the only shipping option was through DHL. We paid for the 2 Business Day shipping that is "guaranteed" to be delivered by 5PM on the 2nd business day.

Yesterday was the 2nd business day. I waited around all day for my new pretty pink laptop. I couldn't really go anywhere because I didn't want to miss the delivery man. I couldn't even shower, because in my experience delivery companies tend to suck. And just because they say they'll leave something at the front desk doesn't mean they will. And darn it, I wanted my new lappy top!

At 5PM last night, it wasn't here. So Jeff called DHL to figure out where it was at. He was told that the driver was still out and it should be delivered soon. At 6 there was still no sign of the DHL man (though FedEx and UPS were kind enough to drive by and taunt me). So Jeff called at 6 to find out where it was at. He was told that they'd been very backed up and that drivers were doing deliveries until 8 or 9 pm, but assured him it would be delivered. At 8:30 or so, he called again. And was informed that the truck hadn't made all of it's deliveries for the day and had returned at 6:30 PM.

I was furious.

Jeff called this morning to make sure it was going to be delivered today. They couldn't find my laptop! They didn't scan it in last night when the driver brought it back. And they didn't have any record of it going out. So over an hour later, they're looking for the package. They find it, and they didn't even bother to send the laptop out with today's deliveries. Apparently they didn't have enough trucks. And the trucks they had? They didn't have room for a 12x16x8 inch box. Nope, not their trucks. They're packed full!

They told Jeff that if I wanted, I could go pick it up. So after guaranteeing that there would be zero issues with me going to pick it up (meaning there wouldn't be an issue with me picking it up when it's addressed to Jeff or that they wouldn't have any issues finding it) I headed over to DHL. It's a 30 minute drive.

When I got there, there was a man in front of me who was pretty angry who appeared to be picking up a package. While he was talking to someone on the phone, a cranky woman who looked to be pregnant but was possibly just tubby offered to help me. She spent about 15 minutes looking for my laptop. You know how you're never supposed to ask if a woman is pregnant until she's popped the kid out so you don't offend someone? Yeah, I wanted to break that rule today. I told you, I was mad. And I'm mean when I'm mad. I didn't, though. I should get a cookie. But I'll take my laptop instead, thankyouverymuch!

I gave her my ID and she started to get all pissy and was like "Well don't you have anything that has this name on it?" Because it was addressed to Jeff.

I was like "Nope! That's my husband. I don't carry his ID around because he generally needs it."

"Well do you have anything with this address on it?"

"If I did, I probably would have given it to you. As the case may be, I just moved here. If you'd like my library card you can have that but that's as good as you're going to get."

So she starts getting all bitchy at me and I ignored everything she said and just stared at her. The evil stare. The stare I give Summit when she's being obnoxious. The stare that stops Mitzie in her tracks when she's pulling up carpet or something stupid. The mom stare. The hairy eyeball. The look of death. Whatever you want to call it, that's what she got.

Finally, she gave me my laptop. As I was leaving, the guy who was there first was like "So how come yesterday and today the tracking number online shows that this package was out "with courier for delivery"?"

"Oh," she said. "Because they meant to take it."

As I walked out, he started to yell. And he can yell much louder than me. It made me happy.

So, now we get to file a complaint with Dell to have them refund the shipping and handling. Because you know, I'm not paying someone else to do their job. I'll pay myself to do their job. Heck, it was probably more environmentally friendly for me to drive the car over there than for them to bring their big stupid ugly yellow truck to my place. And then I'm filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and DHL about their crappy service.

There are some things you just don't do. And messing with a girl and her new pretty pink laptop? That's pretty high up on the don't do it list.

Week 1 is done!

Week 1 of my Couch to 5k runs is done! I did my last run this morning. Or was it afternoon?

It was afternoon. I remember very clearly now. Jeff called me at 8:50 this morning to wake me up to tell me that the Iowa State vs Iowa football game was on TV in high definition (I don't like non hi-def football - it's not worth watching, IMO) and that I should watch it. Just in case you're wondering, 9am is to freakin' early for football. I fell asleep at halftime and woke up to watch the 4th quarter. And the Cyclones didn't even win. Pfft.

ANYway, I survived the run. And I came back and did my Hundred Pushup Challenge. I started that over last week because I wasn't really in the mood to be doing pushups on hotel floors as we made our way cross country during the move. Now that things are settled in I intend to get back on track and do my 100 pushups. In a row.

Seriously? Don't any of you care about me? Why do you let me do these things to myself? Y'all should smack me upside the head when I come up crazy ideas and say "Em, that's stupid! Nobody wants to do 100 pushups at once!"

Does anyone have any ideas how all of Mitzie's eyebrows on the right side of her face went from being 3 inches long to half an inch long while the left side is normal? No? Me either. If you think of something, tell me. It's kinda freakin' me out.

It's the small things in life . . .

that really matter.

Summit has been grumpy. And mean. And irritable. And mean-spirited. And lots of other words that all mean those same things. Pretty much she's been wandering around with this sort of look and attitude about her since Jeff left. She misses him (can't really blame her!). It's hard getting stuck with me when you're a huge Daddy's girl.



Tonight, she was almost blissfully happy. Obviously, Summit is only truly blissfully happy when Jeff is around as the picture below shows. Jeff seems to have a much better lap to flop down on. But I like to think tonight could have been a close second.


Why was she so happy? I picked her up out of her cat condo. And I gave her a hug. And for 5 minutes, I cuddled with her. I let her nibble my finger. And headbutt my face. I scratched under her chin and held her like a baby. I gave her noogies. She gave me hugs and did happy feet on my tummy. I let her give me all the Eskimo kisses she wanted even when her whiskers tickled my nose. And as she was falling back asleep 5 minutes later, all I had to do was sigh and she'd start purring like a maniac all over again.

The small things make me happy. Apparently the small things matter to cats, too.

Couch Potato to 5k

I read about this program a year or two ago and thought it was a great idea. Jeff and I actually started it and kept up with the program for a few weeks and then stopped. It's a good program to slowly work your way up from not being a runner to being able to run a distance of 5k in about 2 months.

One of the Amazing Ladies challenged the rest of us to do the entire Couch Potato to 5k Program (C25k) and then run a Turkey Trot at Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is more than 2 months away, but this way there's room to repeat a week if needed. I don't know if we'll do a Turkey Trot, but at the very least I am determined to run 5k on the treadmill or something if we don't somewhere near Thanksgiving. Though there is something to be said about running it with 20 other Amazing Ladies (or however many of us there are) and some of their dogs and husbands all across the country to encourage each other.

I convinced Jeff to try it with me again, so he's doing his own version and will start running with me when he gets moved back here. I'm starting at week one because my asthma kind of kicks my butt if I just start trying to run a mile out of the blue.

I do wonder, though.

• Would you continue the program if your mp3 player reset itself 3 times during your first workout?
  
• And you stuck your key in your shoe (because you don't have pockets in your shorts and one hand holds the mp3 player while the other holds your inhaler) and it suddenly disappeared?
  
• So you had to stop in the middle (when the mp3 player was actually doing the right thing) of your program, sit down in the grass to take your shoe off causing you to break out in a rash (because you're allergic to grass) and look for your key?
• Only to find that it wedged itself between the sole of the shoe and the insoles you wear to make your shoes more comfy?

I will totally be repeating Week 1, Day 1 later this week. *le sigh*

Ebony & Ivory

by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder was the number one song in the US on the day I was born.

Hall and Oates' Kiss on My List was Jeff's.

And on the day we were married, Carrie Underwood's Inside Your Heaven was number one.

An Amazing Lady posted this on our boards a few days ago. I'm very jealous of people who got Call Me by Blondie and other good songs.

How about you? What songs were number one on important dates in your life?

Behold! The Power of Cheese!

Cheese will make me go to a grocery store just to see if they carry my favorite cheeses.

I wanted to check out the Whole Foods that's near us. The grocery store near us says they have a cheese section. They do. They have my Cotswold with Chives cheese that I like, but that's about it. It's very small.

I went to Whole Foods with the specific purpose of looking for my favorite Piave and Robusto cheeses, so I walked straight to the cheese section.

The nice man working behind the counter asked if I needed help, and burst out laughing when I told him "Nope! I just moved here and I just came to check and make sure you have a good cheese department with my favorite cheeses I could get in Boston!" After he finished laughing, he gave me a sample of Parrano, which is a Gouda/Parmesan type cheese. It was a.m.a.z.i.n.g!

I have a new favorite cheese. And a new favorite cheese man. And you know what? This store might be even better than the other store in Boston because they carry wine and beer. None of those silly laws saying only liquor stores can sell me wine for my cheese!

Oh, I should also probably mention that they do carry my Piave. But I didn't see the Robusto as I was distracted by the Parrano.

My Head is Going to Explode!

Keeping track of 3 times zones is 2 time zones too many.

I'm in Oregon, so I'm 3 hours behind Jeff. There's a clock that's still set to Boston time.

The computer is set to my time.

Daddy just called and we talked a bit. I keep sending Mom text messages in the evening thinking I'm ahead of her (was it 1 or 2 hours ahead in Boston??? I can't remember . . .) but in reality, she's probably getting them at midnight or 1 am.

Jeff should be getting to Boston around 7ish, Boston time. 4 my time.

Too. Many. Time. Zones. Brain. Hurts.

I survived!

Living in Boston for the past 3 years was kind of nice because of the public transportation. Boston isn't really a city that Jeff and I were the least bit interested in driving in. We had access to a few Zipcars (my beloved red with leather interior and sunroof Volvo S40 Shoshnik lived in our apartment's parking lot) that we could rent by the hour when we needed to drive. But Jeff was the only person who was allowed to drive. That's limited my driving for the past 3 years to visits with family when I would steal a car to drive into Ames or around Nevada. Nothing hardcore.

Today was my first real drive in 3 years. Jeff had to head back to Boston this morning. He had contemplated taking the MAX to the airport, but realized since it was a holiday he would have had to leave at 5:30am. So we drove, and I drove myself back and am still currently in one piece. I even managed to send Jeff a text while stopped at some red lights. Yay me! And a huge thanks to Elaine/Colleen/Eileen/Navi for helping me not get lost (the Garmin's name hasn't been officially decided yet).

Since I can't come up with anything else to write about, I got this from one of my Amazing Ladies blogs.

Any items that are in BOLD I've eaten.
Any items with an asterisk * means I will not ever eat them.
Also, I'm putting any random comments I come up with in italics. Please note that wikipedia is your friend!

The Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros
4. steak tartare *
5. Crocodile (though I have eaten alligator!)
6. Black pudding (also known as blood pudding) *
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho (this would need to be eliminated if it had tripe in it)
13. PB & J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart (Oh my God! These are my favorite things to eat in NYC!)
16. epoisses
17. Black truffle (once I find out if I'm allergic to mushrooms I'm in for trying them!)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns (I just found out I can get these at my Farmer's Market!)
20. Pistachio ice cream (before my nut allergy days it was one of my favorites)
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras (uh, no, it's animal cruelty in my mind and I won't be a part of that)
24. rice and beans
25. Brawn , or head cheese *
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de Leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna Cauda
31. Wasabi peas (ask Jeff about these :))
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. salted lassi
34. sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (cognac yes, cigar no)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. gumbo
40. Oxtail *
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects *******
43. phall
44. Goat’s milk (does goat's milk cheese count?)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (YUM!)
46 fugu (Pufferfish)
47. chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. prickly pear
52. umeboshi* (I'm allergic to plums; these are related enough that I don't think I'll go there)
53. abalone * (more allergy issues)
54. paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. poutine
60. carob chips
61. s'mores
62. sweetbreads (only if the chef is amazing, and I'd probably order a 2nd meal for backup)
63. kaolin
64. currywurst
65. durian
66. Frogs’ legs *
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. haggis *
69. Fried plantain
70. chitterlings , or andouillette *
71. gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74 .gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill ******************** (heck no! WHY would anyone eat roadkill?!?!)
76. baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail *******
79. lapsang souchong
80. bellini
81. tom yum
82. eggs benedict
83. pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-michelin-star restaurant.
85. kobe beef
86. Hare *
87. goulash
88. flowers
89. Horse *************************** (is it clear enough I won't touch that?)
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. soft shelled crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. lobster thermidor (no more shellfish for me)
98. polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
100. Snake *