Finds Vol. 2 and some randomness!

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." 
— Theodore Roosevelt

This quotation is really speaking to me today. I found it used in the teaser for a book, Daring Greatly, that looks really interesting. I certainly have a problem with failing to push myself to just go do and try, even if it means looking silly or not doing it perfectly... or even right for that matter.

With all this solo time on my hands, I've been keeping pretty quiet so I'll do another link heavy post!


1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman

Amazing. Book. I guess I've been in the mood for mind expanding imagery, re: Jagannath, and this book fit right in. It is also fairly short and I plowed through in over a 24 hr period. It is mystical and creepy and left me with bizarre dreams. If that doesn't earn a book 5 stars on my shelves, I don't know what does.


2. Hollywood Game Night 
This show is hilarious. Mom told me I should turn it on and boy was she right, it had me snorting and giggling and I'm kinda glad no one was around to hear the crazy way I was laughing.
Here's "How Do You Do" with some SNL Alums.




3. Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan

Even if you don't have kids, like myself obviously, this book is so funny. He includes drawings from his kids, and goofy family pictures. It doesn't glorify parenting or degrade it, it just points out the embarrassing, demoralizing ridiculousness of it all and the impossibility of not falling in love with it at the same time. I haven't belly laughed from a book so hard since I read Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson. Did I tell you guys to read that? If I didn't, let's pretend I did, because you really must.

4. Whose Line Is It Anyway?

If you can't tell, I've been seeking out laughter lately. It's really helped pass the time with Ed away. I've mentioned how huge a fan I am of this show. I saw the live show in San Francisco with Ryan, Chip (Now Charles Esten thanks to Nashville), Greg Proops and Jeff Davis (major crush on that one back in middle school). If you're not watching the new season of this show, you're seriously missing out. Here's one of my favorite clips from the old seasons:

5. Backstreet Boys - In A World Like This

You can hate all you want but I love this. Takes me back. Never got to see them in concert but I always loved them. There's a special place in my heart for Kevin. :)

And last but not least, in fact, I'm not 100% sure I haven't already recommended this but since they add new episodes regularly....

6. Conversations With My 2-Year-Old

There are about 8 episodes out now, but the first one is still a solid introduction to the series. If you haven't heard anything about it, one man reconstructs conversations with his 2 year old daughter but with a fully grown man playing the daughter.

The "Pants" episode is also pretty amazing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dad and Debbie stopped by for a short visit earlier this week and we had a really nice time. Two long walks, Winchester house, Game of Thrones season 3, a fancy dinner and they even gifted me with a Dyson vacuum when I apparently destroyed Ed's old vacuum. I swear, I didn't do it on purpose! It really helped the second week move a little quicker.

After a lovely dinner out! One of our few group non-hike or hot tub pictures :)

Delicious Ethiopian, I love you.

Winchester House! I can't wait for Fright Night this year!

Weight loss is still holding. I've taken a break from running but I'm still walking and doing other things. Counting down the days until it's time to visit Ck. That's about all for now! Like I said it's been very quiet round here. I haven't been up to much, hence my lack of posting.  Ed comes home on Sunday and I could not be more ready. :)

What I've Been Cookin

Lately, I've been attempting to work in some new recipes. If it were up to me, I'd get real lazy and just have a rotation of chicken/pork cooked on the Foreman grill along with a salad and an option of broccoli or some other green vegetable. Maybe some salmon to spice it up! Boring, I know, but I'm lazy so, simple foods and routine for the win! For instance, we have an almost daily routine of having cucumbers and hummus when Ed gets home from work. We really should invest in Sabra stock...

So I opened up my Pinterest board for cooking and opted to give something a try. First up:

Vegetable Tian

This actually looked freaking delicious to me. It was recommended as a side dish, but honestly? I think it was an alright main dish. If you wanted some protein, you could add in a meat or some quinoa.

Obviously, it's a little labor intensive, in that there is quite a bit of chopping. But once that's done, it's just arrange and bake. When it's done the juices collect at the bottom and it makes for a delicious broth to top everything with. I only had half an onion on hand to action as the base but that didn't make it any less flavorful. I think I'll be making this again, especially with squash and tomato prices being so friendly in the summer!

Next I poked around our cookbooks. I've been enjoying The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook lately and decided it was time to try something new from there. (Also, I highly recommend her blog The Smitten Kitchen)

Corn Risotto Stuffed Poblano Peppers

I've never tried my hand at risotto before. This initial experience was... alright. I didn't get the right kind of rice, so it didn't technically ever turn into risotto... but! I felt much more able to make risotto in the future thanks to just going through all the motions. So, prepare yourself for an improved risotto post to come!

I also did not bother to blister the skins of the peppers which can really help with the bitterness. I imagined little fireballs of poblano peppers if I attempted to blister them with the broiler (v.s. a gas stove top).

Despite not actually being a risotto, this recipe turned out pretty delicious and I look forward to doing it justice in the future.

Also, I bought some new spices, so I've been testing those out. For another Smitten Kitchen recipe, aleppo peppers were listed so I've been throwing them into a bunch of go to meals, like curried cauliflower. Curry makes everything more interesting. If I have no idea what I want to do with a vegetable you can bet it's going to be bombed with curry and peppers.

I'll be poking around to see what else catches my eye to try this summer. We're almost out of strawberry jam again so that needs to be put on the to do list. I've been stalling because you may or may not have heard on the news, it's hot as Hades here. And someone needs to come visit us. Preferably someone who likes cherries more than Ed does so I can make them mini cherry freakin' cobblers. And plums have been delicious lately too... so maybe I'll try my hand at this interesting recipe for Plum and Earl Grey tea ice cream! Fingers crossed I keep on keepin' on with the new things.

What I see when I cook:

This is probably Mom and Ken, although Carolyne and Uncle Tom are frequent visitors to my face time screen!

What I see after I cook:

My favorite sight :)

Food and Other Ways To Pass the Time

Now that our travels have lulled for a little while, I have felt a little bit like this cat. Not interested in doing much. Not running very far. Not trying very hard to be... anything. And that's alright, everyone needs a break every now and then. So I thought I would go through and see what activities we've done in the past couple months that I've forgotten to talk about here!

Ed is busy working away on his wine production line. We're starting to tease out which fruits and juices make the best wines and which taste like... well. Not great. And sometimes we get a little hyper activity going on our pantry. When I can smell the wine in the living room, that's usually a heads up for me to check on the situation:

When things in the pantry are quieted, sometimes I'll go meet Ed for lunch. This particular restaurant, Orenchi Ramen, has been a pain to try to get into. We're talking slammed 10 mins before it opens. We got there 30 mins early, signed up on a list that already had 10 parties ahead of us, and finally got into this place.

Orenchi Ramen (Tonkotsu Base) - egg, pork, green onion, bamboo shoot, mushroom, sesame, nori seaweed

I was super impressed and I'm glad we didn't order anything else - I was freakin' stuffed. If you like ramen, we'll definitely take you here.

Sometimes we'll get together with coworkers. Ryan was leaving the company and had heard I liked to sing so he thought going out for karaoke and dinner would be fun. And it really was.

I'd never done the karaoke where you're in a little room with your friends and can order food and drinks...

The computer was difficult to use because English wasn't the default setting and well, if you didn't know the languages, you were bound to struggle. This was our playlist at one point:

Ed's coworkers would add songs for anyone to sing (anyone being namely me), so I was pretty hoarse by the end of the time. :) It was a lot of fun, Ed's lucky to have some really nice coworkers. After karaoke we went to this Burmese restaurant and it was... delicious. Actually, it was previously a really terrible kabob place we took Austin, Michelle and Brian when the Ethiopian place was closed next door. Oops! Come back guys, it's much more delicious now!

And of course what else do we do with our time? Eat donuts! Well. Maybe not all the time but it's hard to resist the crazy things they come up with at Psycho Donuts. Ed knows I don't like banana anything so if you see one with bananas, that's all his. Mine was a Mom-osa for Mother's Day (orange icing with champagne flavored filling).

These two donuts below are the Sticky Monkey and the Apricotology. So massive. Amazingly, we were unable to finish them. :)

We also found a kick ass fish tacos restaurant about a mile from our place... I'm fairly certain we'll be returning there with great frequency.

And ya'll know, I love me some Potbelly's. Well, by us they have place called Mr. Pickles. Let me just say, these sandwiches were delicious and MASSIVE. We easily made two lunches from the two sandwiches.

I'm still cookin up a storm, trying new things as often as the budget allows. This was my attempt at Medeira cake from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess cookbook. It was pretty delicious. A little too crispy on the edges but great soft center. Side note - who ever got this loaf pan for me, THANK YOU. Shame on me for forgetting, but it is a miracle worker. Nothing ever sticks to it, it cooks so evenly, and it makes the most beautiful crusts.

I'm practicing with the camera my Uncle Tom gave me...

Can you be a photographer that specializes in produce, donuts and cat pictures? Cause that's pretty much what I'm workin' with here.

And that folks, is how you recap several months of completely random activities. Here's to a more coherent post next time.

East Coast Vacation Part 1

Oh so much to cover! I divided our trip into two sections because it was just so manic, it'd be way too much to cover in one post. Also, this will be mostly pictures because sadly, as I feared, I've forgotten a great deal of the little details and stories of our trip.

Ed loves red eye flights!

Thursday we came in and basically just ran around the entire day. I went in to see Mikyla at The Shop in Bethesda to get my hair trimmed for the wedding that weekend. We even got to meet up with Michelle for lunch. One shopping trip and manicure/pedicure later, we had wrapped up our day of errands and could settle in with Mom.

Scheming!

We bought Omi an iPad mini, hoping it's lightweight nature would be more appealing to her than her fullsized iPad. (Long story short, she didn't touch it in the two weeks she had it so it managed to find it's way into my luggage!)

The next morning we started our drive down to Virginia Beach, listening to A Visit from the Goon Squad on audiobooks. Traffic was... epic. Every single major road had some kind of awful traffic and it was truly ridiculous. Rush hour turned into a day long event apparently. We saw some truly awful car crash aftermath so it must have just been something in the air...

We made it to the beach house in time for dinner with Mel and Brian which was a nice little break. Also, I wish we could have stayed a bit longer, the house Mel picked out was pretty awesome and I badly longed for more east coast beach time. I know, I know, I'm not a 'beach person' per se, but I have so many fond memories of visiting Rehoboth that I just get super nostalgic.

Kim's wedding was the next day and because it was on the beach (and raining) I opted to try my hand at a fishtail braid for the first time. Mikyla gave me these nifty hair ties that are bungee cords. If you're looking for something that refuses to budge, this is the product for you!

Finished product. I brought my denim blouse in case it got a little too wet and windy.

Miraculously the rain lifted for the ceremony and it was wonderful. Everyone looked fantastic and the set up was beautiful. Hard to go wrong with beach weddings as long as the weather cooperates!

I forgot to take pictures but there were two other weddings happening along side ours. The mother of the bride told me later they worked out a timing arrangement with them so no one would be disrupted. 

Like I said, the rain held off for the ceremony, and then started in promptly for the reception.

But that didn't stop the dancing! 

Kim's reception dress was wonderful, and she wore a ka-bar (?) knife on a sash.

The food? So good. I wish I had taken a picture of the dinner because it was just great. Dessert was wonderful too, wedding cake and little apple pies! After months of dieting, I was pretty much completely done in with all this eating.

The site they used was amazing, we're talking indoor and outdoor pools, multi-level massive rooms, and an elevator? It was ridiculously nice.

All of the 'buds' got together for a toast or two:

The photographer here, Jamie, would also be one of the people toasting but she was working and expecting - two conditions not great for drinking!

And then it went a little bit crazy after this picture. It was still a great night but yeah, just a little bit crazy as expected. :)

The next morning we had to roll out early to make our way to Rob's graduation. Ok, maybe it wasn't early... but when you have a 3am bedtime, 9am comes up a little too quick. We met up with Susan on the way, forming a little caravan on the way to George Mason for the ceremony.

Everything was very nice and the ceremony went by really quickly. I'm a jerk and did not take nearly enough pictures. I can't believe I didn't even get Rob on stage getting hooded! I did try to cheer a little but got the stink eye from a neighbor in the audience. Oh well! It was a wonderful moment, recognizing a huge accomplishment.

Susan, Ellis and Rob posing in the crush of graduates and families rushing around 

Rob, Alexis and Ellis - all happy and... blurry. Ugh, I don't know what happened. Such a good picture and all three I took came out blurry. Photographer fail.

Unfortunately we were not able to stay for dinner - I had received a call that morning that my mom had fallen down the stairs and was hurting. Mom said she was mostly okay but that she hit her head and knee and wasn't moving around much at all, so we knew we had to make it back to try to help her out. She did send us out to get dinner after we helped set her up and determined that I would teach for her on Monday so we decided staying close and going to Quarry House was a good option.

Seriously. How come I got such a blurry picture of Rob, Alexis and Ellis - and here I get a great burger picture? So frustrating.

So the next day I taught the 830, 930 and 11 to the amusement and confusion of the students. Several of them thought I was my mom when they viewed me from across the pool. They all said marriage appeared to be treating me well and were disappointed to learn that the secret to my weight loss was diet and exercise :)

Ed suggested we go out for lunch and what tastes better after working out for 3 hours than Moby Dick's sushi!

So that covers Thursday - the first Monday of our trip.... one week's worth of activities and pictures left!

(Side note - Mom is alright now, she just needed some time to heal after the fall)