A sweet surprise... and a rough morning

Don't you hate it when you wake up still drunk from the previous night out? Me too. But, even after dealing with my drunken escapades from last night, my sweet husband surprised me with a lovely breakfast in bed this morning. It didn't eliminate the massive hangover that was a few hours from rearing its ugly head, but was a nice treat nonetheless. So, in my semi-drunken state, I happily devoured my strawberry pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

The rule in our house, if someone cooks, the other cleans up. So, after laying in bed getting more and more hungover, I decided that I should take care of the kitchen - K had taken the doggie for a run, so I thought it would be a nice surprise to have it cleaned up by the time he got back.

I don't think he could have used more dishes if he tried to make breakfast. There were literally 4 food smeared pans, multiple cutting boards, a plethora of random bowls, glasses, and other seemingly unnecessary utensils covering almost every surface in the kitchen. WTF? The man can surely cook, but is not the most efficient chef in kitchen.

I suppose I deserve it, after my drunken antics from last night though...

Thank God That’s Over

I had to give a Very Huge Presentation this morning. I had to brief the company VP and several other directors on the outcome of a project I’ve been working on, all before 8am this morning. What the hell, so freaking early? Even though I consider my job not that interesting, I was definitely feeling some work related adrenaline this morning. I didn’t even need my usual coffee or tea to wake me up, that’s for sure.

I thought I was prepared and confident in the material I’d be presenting. I’ve done similar presentations to these people before. I even would go as far to say I’ve been known to “knock it outta the park” in these high level briefings. No sweat, right?

For some reason, I lost my grasp on the English language half way through. What the hell – I was doing so well for the first half? After a few seconds of frantic regrouping, I managed to word vomit the rest of the information in a slapdash manner. At least, that’s how it sounded to me. There were no questions from the executives I just assaulted with my haphazard information, just nodding, so I can’t have fucked up that much, right?

Why do I still feel like crawling under a rock?

I just remembered – I have to do this again next week. Fuck.

I Joined the 30 Day Shred Bandwagon

So, after trolling around the blogasphere for the last few weeks, I have seen an enormous amount of bloggers raving about this 30 Day Shred workout. In 20 minutes a day, 30 days later you're supposed to see significant results to your figure.

Sounds too good to be true, methinks.

Seeing as though the half marathon training plan is on hold for now (we haven't decided on a race and my knee injury is flaring up again), I decided I needed something to break up my running routine in the short term. And I could use a little more muscle tone, it has to be said. So I said, what the hell, I'll give the 30 Day Shred a go.

Well, the DVD arrived in the mail today, so within 20 mins of it's arrival, I had changed and started Day 1, on level 1. 20 minutes later I was glad it was over. Actually, I found the cardio and stomach portions very manageable, just the arm strengthening exercises a KILLER. Still, though, I am skeptical that in only 20 mins over 30 days such a huge result can be yielded, so we'll see. My plan is to Shred for 3-4 days a week, run the other 2-3 days, and see if I get the amazing results everyone raves about.

My goal is to not lose any weight really (at 119 there's not much I should be losing), but to tone my ass up. I will report back with results... hopefully my skeptical ass will be proven wrong!

Would You Consider This Odd in a Marriage?

Doing the Laundry. Not a very amusing topic, I know…

I was talking to a friend to today about her and her husband’s laundry protocol (we usually have more exciting convo’s than laundry talk, promise) and it got me thinking that perhaps K and I are weird about our laundry operating procedure.

I do mine, he does his. Every single time.

No mixing of our clothes in the washer and/or dryer, and we both fold and put away our own garments, on our own time. Just like roommates would do, we wait until the washer/dryer is empty before loading our own dirty laundry. We even exchange the same roommate pleasantries like “Dude, your stupid laundry has been sitting in the dryer for 4 days…” or “I think there’s mold growing on your wet clothes that have been sitting in the washer for what, like 3 weeks now?” However, those comments are a rarity around our harmonious marital home, so it works out perfectly 97% of the time.

I guess we are both just very particular about how we choose to launder our clothes, so it’s the perfect solution for us. I have to wonder, is this more common than I think? Or is this just a misguided newlywed thing? Is it impractical to believe that once we have kids, our perfect solution will no longer be viable? I sure as shit hope not… this could get dicey.

You have got to be kidding me… The Bachelor

So last night, K and I were watching the Olympics and during commercial breaks we would flip to another station. We stumbled upon a travesty of a reality show… a show that I’ve never watched, but have been hearing about for years.

The Bachelor. WTF?

Now, first, I must defend our choice to actually watch that show longer than a cursorily drive by . I saw that they were filming in St. Lucia, which is where K and I are going on vaca later this year. We really know nothing about St Lucia except it’s in the Caribbean and likened to a tropical paradise. And that we won a free trip there when we won the Newlywed Game Show a few months ago (that’s another day, in a more positive post). We were really just trying to check out what the island looked like, get a feel for the place.

Anyway. The Bachelor. He has to be one of the least genuine or least original people ever to denigrate my TV set, and don’t get me started on the women. Now, I’m just being totally logical here, but how on earth can a women “be in totally in love” with a guy who a) she has known for less than 4 weeks b) she knows that he’s banging other women at the same time he’s making moony eyes and relaying proclimations of love or 3) he can’t come up with one original emotion that was not force fed to him by the producers. Everything he said sounded like he was reading lines from a play. A nightmare of a play. I sincerely hope the reason that the Bachelor series is so popular, is because it’s a hilarious train wreck, and watching vapid, intellectually devoid women cry is a fun pastime for us Americans. Not because this mess is anything to aspire to. Christ.

Man, I sound like a bitch. OK, rant over.

Reason #135 Why I love my Husband

This is adorable. In fact, I’m smiling like an idiot as I type this out.

Last night, K and I were sitting in bed, watching TV before bed and he was eating fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies (which means the chocolate chips were extra melty). I look over at him, and am delightfully shocked to see he somehow has gotten chocolate smeared all over his face – his mouth, chin, and even a dab or two on his cheeks and nose. I starting grinning like a fool, and K gives me that “what the fuck are you smiling at” look. He has no idea that his face loosely resembles a 1 year old who’s eating cake for the first time. For some reason, that struck me as super cute and melted my heart a bit.

PS – The reason why this is so funny is because K is a confident, rocket scientist who can also throw a mean spiral, and it’s rare to see a more whimsical, childlike side of him, which I happen to find both hilarious and endearing.

PPS – I’m sure K will be thrilled to read a this post (a post written explicitly at his expense), but this is just one more reason why having an anonymous blog is the definitely way to go.

Half Marathon Training Status

As I promised in a previous post, I stated that I would status my half marathon training progress. Except that the race we picked fell through for various reasons, and haven’t yet decided on another one to run. To be blatantly unoriginal by using this word:

Current training curriculum = Fail

As the intelligent Lawrence J. Peter once wrote, “If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.”

Yep, that quote pretty much sums up why we fell off the training wagon… the not knowing where we are going = we have nothing specific to train for and the somewhere else = going for long walks with our dog, huddling under the covers from the excessive California rain and subsequent destruction, getting sucked into the West Wing series on Netflix starting with season one.

I am pretty annoyed with myself to say the least. After reading through the other blogs I’ve been stalking lately, it seems like everyone is training for a half, and kicking ass while doing it.

K and I have been looking into other races around the area, and nothing is jumping out at us, so I guess we’ll keep looking. However, this is no reason to slow down on my training, so I will be posting my new “maintenance” training plan so I am at least accountable to someone.

My ass thanks you in advance, dear readers. All 5 of you. ;)

The Most Un-American Superbowl Food

Sushi.

Yep, that's what I'm bringing to the Superbowl party K and I are attending today.

I know, what the fuck?

As a Midwestern girl living in Cali, I fear that my family would disown me knowing that on such a day of gorging on fatty, cheesy, carb loaded food, I choose to bring raw fish. All rolled up with raw veggies.

But, I'm totally feeling the sushi today, so that's what I'm bringing. Deal with it. K, bless his heart, is totally on board, which is why he's the best husband ever.

Oh yeah, we're not going to be total dochebags - we're going to bring a 12 pack of good beer as well.

Oh, and PS - GO COLTS*!!!!

*I have been a Colts fan for years, attended at least 20 games in my life, so I'm looking forward to another Superbowl win by my hometown team. Even though I went to college with Drew Brees, I still want to see the Saints get their ass kicked.

I Love 3 Day Weekends (like, every other week)

First, I gotta say, that even though the company at which I currently work appears to be old school as you can get and run by the “old boys club” – they are surprisingly progressive in certain areas. The best example is that we are on an alternate work week where we get every other Friday off. That means 3 day weekends at least twice a month. Fucking sweet, right?

Basically, we still work 80 hours over a 2 week period… 9 hr days Mon-Thur, and 8 hr day Friday, and if you do the complex math, that should equal 80 hrs. I don’t mind being here 9+ hours during the week – most people work that anyway, and don’t get the freebie Friday off like we do. If anything, that little bonus has kept me here at this company longer than I’ve wanted ... but going back to a consistent 5 day work week is almost unthinkable.

So, the whole point of my inane ramblings is that a 3 day weekend is almost here! K (my husband, who also has the same work schedule) and I try to mix up our 3 dayers; we don’t like to plan every 3 day weekend to do some hard charging travel – we’d be broke as a joke if that were the case. But this weekend we’re going up to Mammoth Mountain for some kick ass snowboarding. We heart snowboarding. A LOT. We bought season passes on the cheap, so we’re making every effort to get up there at least once a month. We found a hotel that accommodates pets, so our fantastic new doggie gets to experience snow for the first time in her life too!

Yay for 3 day weekends!

A Foray into Baking: Flatbread from Scratch

First, I gotta say this – while I love to cook, baking is just not my forte. Sure, I can take a store bought mix, chuck in some eggs, water, and oil and come up with a fairly edible cake. I don’t really count that as baking as much as being literate and possessing the ability to follow directions.

So, oddly enough, I got inspired this weekend to try my hand at baking – like make something from scratch. With yeast. I decided to start with a baked good that I particularly enjoy – flatbread. I figured with flatbread, if it came out tasting like shit, I could always mask the taste with some gruyere cheese, roasted veggies, bacon, etc. I swear, you can put bacon and gruyere cheese on an old moldy shoe, and it still would taste killer.

Anyway. I found a simple recipe that only has like 5 ingredients, including thyme as an aromatic, and thought how hard can this be? Basically, the recipe called for all the ingredients to be thrown into a food processor, and then let it rise for an hour, and then you have flatbread dough. Next, you just have to roll out the dough as big as you want it, and then toss it on the grill (or grill pan, if cooking indoors) for a few minutes on each side and then you’re done!

I just said I grilled the flatbread. In a grill pan. On my stovetop. Shit. I just realized that by using a grill pan negates my attempt at baking. Oh hell.

It still tasted awesome though.