Monday, September 29, 2008

How Ruuude!

In the words of Stephanie Tanner. (Does that date me?)

Nathan and I tried out a restaurant on Saturday night that we had a buy one/get one free entree for. It was a quaint little place with a warm, casual atmosphere and great waiters. You could really tell that this was no wham-bam get 'em out fast type of Italian restaurant. We loved it.

Everything had great flavor and we were both really hungry. Apparently, I was even more hungry than I thought as noted when the 17 year old Harry Potter look-alike of a busboy came to clear our plates and took mine while mumbling, "I can see you really enjoyed it."

What the heck does THAT mean?!! Was he implying that I ate a lot? I thought my meal was an average portion of two pasta tube things stuffed with chicken and wilted balsamic spinach on the side. Was it really that much food? How come he didn't say anything about Nathan's plate. Could he not tell I was eating for two? Did Nathan hear him? Did I hear him incorrectly? What did he mean by that? Do I look that fat?

...then I ordered the cheesecake from Carnegie Deli. (sigh...)

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Blame Emily.

I've been tagged by my ex-BFF, Emily. She and I used to be BFFs until she took my blog off her blog-roll because I just happened to take a 2 month sabbatical from writing. Whatev. I'm over it. She makes great book club chocolate cake and I'm trying to be nice to her so she will clue me in on where she buys all of her hair bows. For her daughter. Not for her. That would be weird and we could not be friends if SHE wore the hair bows. So here are"Six Totally Random Things About Myself" :


1. I'm currently obsessed with starting a baby registry. It seems like it would be easy to just pick out things you like, but I've been seriously fretting for at least 3 weeks now if people will think bad of me if some of the items are expensive. I think I've discussed it with at least four others, seeking approval that it would be okay to register for these, even though they're super-pricey. But, gosh-darn they're beautiful.


2. I sometimes secretly wish I was the same size as my husband. Not so much because I want to be thin like him, but it would be really convenient to be able to wear the same size. I hate doing laundry and sometimes it would be awfully tempting to just grab a pair of his undies in a pinch instead of starting a load at 11:45 pm. I am so in trouble for just typing this...


3. I am so excited about the new season of Dancing With The Stars. I laughed out loud when I saw one of my faves so far, Warren Sapp, doing the signature Kid 'N Play dance in his second performance. It reminded of the time in high school that my friend Courtney spent the night at my house and for some stupid reason we decided that dancing in the kitchen in our socks in the middle of the night was a good idea. We discovered that we were really good at doing the Kid 'N Play funky Charleston-type dance. We also discovered that socks on a linoleum floor can be a little slippery.


4. I hate taking roads that I'm unfamiliar with. I'm pretty good with directions, but I live in fear of going the wrong way on a one-way street. And don't tell my husband, but I hate going down roads where I'm not sure if it is two lanes for me to drive in or one for me and the other for the other direction drivers. I know there's some rule about a white line or a yellow or a dashed or whatever, but I figure staying in the far right lane is safest.


5. I was so jealous of other girls talking to Nathan about sports, I started listening to The Sports Animal in the car so that he would be impressed. Now, I'm over the competition thing and just find it more relaxing and entertaining than the cringing music on other stations.


6. I get on the scale every. single. morning. Even while pregnant. I get mad if I forget to weigh before eating something, but I will still weigh and subtract the amount I think the food weighed. I even do a little fudging of the numbers if I forget to weigh until after my shower and my hair is wet. This in no way prohibits me from stuffing my face, but just knowing the number makes me feel better. Is that bad? Discovery Channel's not gonna put me on a food disorder show are they? I still eat french fries. And cake. And cookies. And all in the same day.

I'm going to tag Nathan (either this blog or his weather one), Denae, Charly, Audrey and Aubrey if she has time with her new little one.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Weekend Ups and Downs

This weekend was full 'em.

Friday:
Down: I had to sell a kidney at lunch in order to put down our first month's tuition at the daycare we chose to reserve our spot. It's crazy that one month of daycare will cost more for our daughter than for my husband's tuition bill at UCO.

Up: Dinner with Brooke and Derek was excellent. We had a buy one-get one meal coupon to a place that we had never been. Goldie's has really good fries. A drive-thru orange sherbet from Braum's afterwards was equally yummy.

Down: The four of us never ended up watching the Redbox movie we rented.

Up: Good conversation while watching Van sleep was better than Harold and Kumar any day. Plus added bonus: I remembered to actually return the video on Sunday morning.

Saturday:
Down: I went to visit a friend that works at Starbucks. She wasn't working that day.

Up: I left with a passion iced tea and headed to Ruth's Sweete Justice next door for a cookie. They had this thing called a Magic Bar. It was magical indeed.

Down: Jessica and I ran to see "The Women" at Tinseltown while our guys were golfing. I give it a rating of "ehh."

Up: I got to see the preview again for the movie I really want to see, "Nights in Rodanthe." Plus, I put Jess on song patrol to figure out who the song was by on the preview and she came through on Sunday.

Sunday:
Down: I woke up with a sore throat and a very sick and feverish husband.

Up: I used my emergency Gatorade run for Nathan as an excuse to buy a box of Captain Crunch I'd been craving for a week. I NEVER eat C.C., but it really sounded good.

Up: The Gatorade only cost $1.94.

Down: Somehow my Walmart receipt totaled at $57.86. How did that happen? I should never be allowed to go to WalMart Neighborhood Market unaccompanied.

Down: There was NOTHING on TV except for Nathan flipping between the Ryder Cup and football.

Up: Occasionally, I caught a glimpse of how my Titans were kicking some Houston boot-tah.




Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Quick Plug For The Colonel

I just have to break in and say that the new original recipe chicken strips from KFC are da bomb biggity. Go right now. Buy some. Buy some for me too. That is all.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Lid Licker

Warning: This post is completely random. If you have brain cells that you want spared, I would just click the red X at the top right of your screen now. I've looked back at my posts from a year or so ago and realized I used to be witty and insightful. Now, I've stooped to this:

Confession. I am a lid licker. I know that some people have big executive working lunches. Others shovel in a cheese cracker between dropping the kids off at preschool. I, however, sit at my desk and contemplate the reason that I always lick the lid of my pudding cup before throwing it in the trash. Why in the heck do I do that?

It's not like there's not plenty of pudding ready to dive into in my little snack pack. In fact, the pudding in the cup is ultimately better than the tiny bit hovering on the under surface of my lid. It's creamier and freshly stirred. So why would I choose every.single.time to lick the lid first.

This brings me to question other things that I lick. I've realized that I like to lick the peanut butter off the safety seal of my beloved Jiffy (creamy in case you're wondering). I like to lick yogurt remnants off my Yoplait. And I like to lick the inside of mini snicker bites if they've been in the car too long on a hot day. I definitely love to lick the knife after strategically applying butter and jelly to toast before placing the knife in the sink. Oh. And licking the ice cream scooper before going in the sink is good too.

Why do I do this? And why do I only lick certain things? I LOVE ketchup. But, I would never lick the safety lid of that. And you couldn't pay me to lick the safety seal of my fat free mayo. Yet, I wouldn't hesitate to load up my sandwich with it.

Am I alone in this? Are there any other lid lickers out there? Would anyone like to send me a list of blog topics to write about in which I won't have to talk about my tongue?

Monday, September 8, 2008

Dinner Rut...Help a Girl Out

I'm no Aubrey. I don't really like cooking and currently I'm in a dinner rut. I'm tired of making the same ole thing night after night and thus I've fallen into the trap of skipping cooking all together. I can only make pancakes and some form of Hamburger Helper so many times. Go ahead. I'll wait while you feel sorry for my husband. I'd feel sorry for him too if I wasn't so busy feeling sorry for myself and the lack of funds to hire a personal chef.

So, I'm sending out a plea to my fellow dinner cookers for your tried and true recipes that your family likes. I only have 3 stipulations:

1. The entire meal needs to be complete or ready to go in an oven within 30 minutes. And that includes any required chopping, peeling etc. Spare me the Rachel Ray lecture. Her 30 minute meals do not count. There is no way I can chop an onion in four seconds and although I'm not really a picky eater, I don't really keep capers, polenta, and things of the sort in my pantry. I need regular people food! Ya know, canned goods. Lots of preservatives. High sodium stuff. And I need it to be ready before it's time for me to sit down and watch the latest episode of The Secret Life of the American Teenager. (Stop judging me!)

2. The less the amount of ingredients and pots required, the better. I tend to be a little messy when I cook and my dishwasher (aka loving husband) gets kind of snarfy when it appears that every pot we own is piled in the sink, yet dinner is served in one big bowl. Go figure.

3. No Meatloaf!! That's just nasty. Whoever thought mixing together raw meat, crackers, ketchup and eggs together with your bare hands and forming it into a loaf shape was just plain crazy. Blech.

I do the basics. Spaghetti. Chicken and rice. Beef and Bean Enchiladas. But, I'm wondering if any of you have some other fast recipes I could try out. My husband is shrinking away. And you've seen him. He's not really in the category of "those that could stand to lose a few."

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Top Things I learned From The RNC

1. Republicans canNOT dance.
2. Old people love balloons. And buttons.
3. "Maverick" is more than just Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun.

Okay, I promise no more political posts. This week.

Pit Bull with Lipstick

So, apparently after watching her speech last night at the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin and I are now BFFs. At least that's the best explanation I can come up with as to why the Alaskan Governor was in all of my dreams last night.

When I woke up for bathroom break numero uno (pregnancy is so much fun), I realized I had been dreaming about being on a welcome committee with my mother, and we were to escort Mrs. Palin around the city during her stay. The first order of business was to find her and her family ( 5 kids?! Obviously, they need more to do in AK) a place to live during her time here. Of course a hotel was not in order. It was a dream after all. And, ask Nathan. My dreams are rarely rational. No. No. We had to find the Palins an apartment to live in. So, of course, no regular apartment would do. I had to take her for a viewing of the new penthouse apartments in Bricktown, OKC. We found a great furnished one with easy access to a Starbucks, the airport (for ease of travel) and to the new home of the OKC Thunder.

Then when I woke up this morning I realized I had had another dream about Sarah Palin the same night. This time my mother and I were taking her to a restaurant (Lottinville's) and while we were ordering from our waitress (which just happened to be a lady I work with in real life), I remember it being a big deal that we were going to pay for ourselves instead of having Palin pay for us all. Then when the check came, she admitted that she couldn't pay for everyone because she was "getting rid of all excess spending in her state." There was also some episode involving Palin, myself, and hair brushes in the restaurant bathroom, but that part of my dream-recall is fuzzy.

I thought back today to figure out why I had dreamt the certain things I did, and this is the best I could come up with:

* Why Sarah Palin?: Because I watched all of her speech last night.
* Why Bricktown apartments?: Because I had flipped through a "Downtown" magazine at work.
* Why Starbucks?: Because I had been craving a pumpkin spice latte all day.
* Why OKC Thunder?: Because I had convinced my boss we needed to leave work 5 minutes early to catch the official news conference announcing our new NBA team.
* Why Lottinville's Wood Grille?: Because I had been thinking about wanting to go back with Nathan if we could afford it. Their bread is A-Mazing.

So, I guess you could say Sarah Palin is definitely the women of my dreams. I'll ignore the fact that if I was going to dream about someone I watched on TV the night previous, I wish it had been Anderson. Of course, I would've made him pay for me.

Monday, September 1, 2008

Because someone asked...

So I've had an inquiry from a faithful reader as to when I was going to "show pics of the baby process." Naive as I am, I assumed she meant pictures of the ultrasounds we have had done so far. Then when she mentioned a "weekly/monthly update, " I soon realized she was talking about wanting to see pictures of ME! Are you freakin' serious?!

I would like it clearly stated now, that under no circumstance will I will be taking pictures of my growing stomach and posting it for the world to see. I don't even like looking at my own big belly. Why would I make all of you look at it? Granted, I have been guilty of looking at other people's "bumps" and comparing the growth week by week . But most of those people were skinny to begin with and let's just be honest, I hate those people. ( I don't really hate them. I mean I kind of do. But, I don't really. Yeah, I can't stand them).

There are some very fortunate ladies that when preggo have that cute little basketball perfectly set right there in the middle of their tummy. At this point I'm just hoping my two rolls will eventually become one. (Wasn't that a pretty picture for you.) So this ONE pic is for you, Jenny. I took it this past weekend at the lake. It's the last one I'm taking until February 2009, so you better enjoy: