Category Archives: Uncategorized

Thursday Things

It’s nice that it’s Thursday already. This week has gone by fast.

Today I started week 3 of Couch to 5K. I can’t believe I have done 2 weeks already. Does the passage of time scare anyone else? It’s like rocket speed.  Anyway, this week’s intervals are:

5 minute warm up/ 1.5 minute run/1.5 minute walk/ 3 minute run/3 minute walk/1.5 minute run/1.5 minute walk/ 3 minute run/3 minute walk/ 5 minute cool down.

Again, not too bad for the longer runs. I still have trouble with how slow running and walking seems compared to biking. You don’t go very far in a short amount of time, and it’s kind of boring on the treadmill. However, I did have my Journey Pandora station playing, so it wasn’t so bad. Usually I watch This Old House, but I didn’t feel like having the TV on today.  If it wasn’t raining, I probably would have been outside. 

It’s amazing to me the difference a year makes. Last year at this time we had a big snowstorm and with how cold it was all winter, there were just piles and piles of snow. This year we have bare ground. March is next week and I will start looking right away for the tulip bulbs to start peeking out because March means spring, right? Even though they don’t bloom until April and May LOL.

Ms. Pixie has been struggling to get completely well. On Monday she seemed so much back to her old self that we both remarked on it. Then on Tuesday night she started having trouble again with urgency and bloody urine again – and she was still on antibiotics! So, Wednesday morning I was back at the vet. I have to say they have been great about having me just bring her right in.  Anyway, it seems she has a really tough bacteria that won’t clear out, so they put her on a broad-spectrum antibiotic this time.

WP_20160224_002

This one she really doesn’t like. It’s been a struggle getting in all in her mouth. I’m going to try mixing some with her food, but she doesn’t really go for that kind of stuff (very finicky eater). Hopefully this will do it. If not, more x-rays for her. I told the vet I was going to start an Instagram account for Pixie so she could start earning some money to pay for her medical bills 🙂  

The amazing thing to me about animals is that no matter what you do to them, they still love you. I have been dragging Pixie in and out of the carrier, taking her to the vet, putting her through surgery, back to the vet, squirting medicine into her mouth every day and she still loves me. I took this picture while I am writing this post:

WP_20160225_002

You think she would hate me, but it almost seems like she is more needy now. And yes, she lays across my arm, which makes typing interesting.

WP_20160225_007

The things we do for our pets, right?? 😀

Remember the master cleaning list thing we made up for deep cleaning? The house was divided into 6 zones and we got through all of them. It doesn’t take long with both of us working together and it’s only once a week for the deep cleaning. We just started back in the first zone this week and you know what? It wasn’t as dirty! Imagine that.  It didn’t take as long and there were a lot less dust bunnies under the couch and a lot less dust — which is a great thing for someone like John who has asthma. So that gives us incentive to make sure we keep to this schedule. The system works!

C25K and Pixie update

Couch to 5K update. I’m in week 2 and it’s going pretty well so far. The running segments are short, so no issues with my leg yet or anything. Yay for that. This week is a brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes (9 minutes of running). Then a 5 minute cool down. If we keep up with this warm weather, I might be able to move these sessions outside in the not too distant future!

Pixie update: Ms. Pixie is doing much better now. We were a little concerned because she just was taking so long to show any signs of feeling a lot better. I was carrying her to the litter pan a few times a day just to make sure she would go in her litter box and not just wherever she was since she was moving around very little. Today she finally has been walking around and seeming more like our normal Pixie. It was a big change overnight.

pix

She is not happy with her new food and isn’t eating as much, but she has to get used to it. She has no choice.  I’ve been giving her more wet food to try to entice her to eat more of something, but that isn’t working too well. When she gets hungry enough, she will start eating it.

I’ve been working extra for all the medical bills this month. We were just talking about how if we hadn’t already booked our tickets to Ireland, we might rethink going. However, I’m lucky in that I can log in over the weekend (or any time, really) and pick up extra work if it’s available. I complain a lot about my job — the management of it mostly, but one of the good things is that if I need extra money, I can usually get extra work to help out. I don’t have to ask. I can just do it. The only thing is that it burns me out. I’ve have worked at least some every single day for the past 14 days.

We did get out and do some shopping to take a break. I had some gift certificates to spend, so no guilt! Went to TJ Maxx and I found a real purty gazing globe for my garden:

WP_20160220_004

And I have a couple dollars to spare on the gift card, too! Of course, we had to partake in this as well:

WP_20160220_003

Relaxation comes in many forms 😀

The good thing about me doing extra work is that I get out of removing wallpaper! Yippee!!! John has been doing a great job and it’s almost gone!

WP_20160221_001

Blank canvas:

WP_20160221_002

Now to choose a color.

 

Slow cooker taco soup and other eats

Thank you all for the well wishes for Ms. Pixie! She is home and resting now. She’s sore and slow moving, but seem content now. I’m just glad to have her home and in a few days she should be back to normal.

WP_20160217_001

I will say that the February medical bills can stop any time now. Between my root canal and crown, John having his own periodontal work and a couple other things done and now Pixie’s surgery, we are now around $4300 in medical bills. Good grief. Good thing I have the ability to work extra, which I will be doing on weekends. At least we live in a time when we can get all this stuff done, though. I don’t want to complain too much about it. 

I got a book out of the library called Cook it Slow, Cook it Fast from Mr. Food Test Kitchen and it has a lot of great recipes in there for the slow cooker and the pressure cooker! We decided on the taco soup this week:

WP_20160214_002

 

I did make substitutions by using veggie crumbles for John, subbed white beans for black beans, and using vegetable broth, but other than that followed the recipe. You just brown your ground beef and add everything to the crock pot. Cook on low for 7 hours or high for 3.5 and it’s done! It almost is more like a chili. Maybe it could use more broth, but this was really tasty!

taco soup

I am excited to do some pressure cooker recipes out of this book. We have a pressure cooker, but don’t use it too often. Time to change that!

Here are a few other things I have been eating the last couple of weeks. 

Football leftovers of red beans and rice:

WP_20160208_001

Staying the that mardi gras theme, we did a little celebrating on that date with some bread pudding at Morgan Steakhouse:

WP_20160209_001

Slow cooker overnight apple oats: – topped with maple cream.

WP_20160212_001

Tomato soup – I will admit this is Progresso. It’s quick and easy and not that bad, actually.

WP_20160212_002

Baked clam strips:

WP_20160213_006

And of course, on a stressful day like Monday was, I picked up some M&Ms 50% off:

WP_20160216_001

I’m trying to measure these out in a small ramekin. I’m focused on Ireland this fall and being in a size smaller pants!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Weekend! Just a note that I decided not to do the Healthy Heart weekend this year. We did it for 5 years and I think that was a good run. For the number of people who read this blog every day, only about 2% actually partipated in it (and those that did are the best 😀  ), so I figured I would retire it unless people really want to have it again. Let me know.

This was me trying to be artsy with John making a heart at breakfast.

WP_20160214_003

It was harder than you would think to take this picture 😀

It was so, so cold here. Bitter, bitter cold. It really was a weekend to stay home for the most part. I actually did some work along with house stuff.  I also did day 2 of week 1 of Couch to 5K.  Still with it LOL! 

Progess on the wallpaper front. The hallway and stairwell are now done and painted. Remember the old?

IMG_1825b

Freshly painted.

IMG_1997b

Of course, the light is on since this picture was taken later in the afternoon, so it seems bright, but it really is brighter – and not so stuffy looking. The walls are Golden Mushroom and the trim is bright white. The Golden Mushroom is the same color as our downstairs foyer and above the chair rail in the dining room to have some cohesion in color.  Now to start hanging stuff on that blank canvas.

We are now on the last room of wallpaper!  The final bedroom, affectionately called the Jungle room. The wallpaper in here is in pretty bad shape, as you can see.

WP_20160213_004

It’s pretty much coming up at all the seams and has some gum stuck to it – which was the case all over the house.  🙄

My favorite part is where they must have had to make a patch and just stuck whatever paper they had up there.

WP_20160213_003

If I remember right, that was one of the wallpapers in the kitchen, although I’m trying really hard to erase the memories of wallpaper…

So close to being done!

We had an early Valentine’s Dinner. We decided to go close to home and went to Sushi Aroy Dee. It’s only 1/4 mile from our house, so we bundled up and walked there. Let me tell you – I don’t know if I would have wanted to go any farther! Cold.  We both got nice warm curries for dinner. John had a tofu curry and I had massaman with chicken:

WP_20160214_007

The rice was served on the side in a heart shape:

WP_20160214_008

How precious!

Pixie has been recuperating this week from a UTI and she now seems pretty much back to herself. She actually was taking her antibiotics reallly well, thank goodness. She doesn’t seem to mind the taste of the liquid – and it smells like bananas, go figure (Clavamox). 

WP_20160214_006

This is where she spends about 80% of her time soaking up the radiator warmth. I need her life.

 

 

New kicks and the superbowl!

We got some long overdue shopping done this weekend. We stopped for lunch on Saturday at Iron Roost. This place is all about the waffle. They use waffles as bread for sweet and savory.  I was in the mood for something kind of Mardi Gras and when I saw the bananas foster waffles on the menu, that was my choice! We started with local roasted coffee:

WP_20160206_002

My lunch:

WP_20160206_003

This was delicious! Pretty decadent, too. I really didn’t eat much for the rest of the day. It was suprisingly filling. Or maybe it was in combination with the 2 giant cups of coffee 😀

We hit up the outlet malls after that. I desperately needed some new walking shoes. I am going to show my shame here and you can see the bottom of my shoes. I have needed a new pair for probably a year.

WP_20160207_006

I only use those on the treadmill and have other shoes for walking downtown in, but I needed fresh ones of those as well.  Easy Spirit had a BOGO sale, so I got 2 pairs.  It’s very, very hard for me to part from my money on new stuff. Old things that need work? Sold! New stuff for myself? I hem and haw. Anyway, I got a pair for walking/jogging and then an every day  pair.

WP_20160207_005

I love Easy Spirit. The toebox is nice and wide and the shoe widths come in wide as well, which I need for most shoes.

On to the best part of the weekend!

We hosted the Superbowl party. True fan, right here!

WP_20160207_002b

We had a mix of Mardi Gras items and we wore beads, since it was a combo party 😀

WP_20160207_009

Buffalo chicken dip, red beans and rice, fruit, crackers and bread pudding:

WP_20160207_010

Praline cookies:

WP_20160207_008

Definitely not a 1500 calorie day LOL!

The game was great! Nobody thought the Broncos were going to win. Honestly, I wasn’t sure they could do it, but I thought if the defense could get to Cam Newton, it would rattle him and they would have a chance.  I did a lot of yelling, I must say. In fact, my throat is a bit scratchy 😀

Now we are champions!!

bronc

Now maybe Peyton will ride off into and orange and blue sunset! Storybook ending, just like John Elway.

 

 

Root canal and dutch treats!

Monday was D-day on the root canal. Having had 2 crowns and a painful experience with one of them, I guess it was understandable that I had anxiety about  a full-blown root canal. 

I double checked with the dentist to make sure I needed one because after my tooth broke, it felt a lot better. He looked at the x-rays and pointed out the dark shadow in the root area, which was a sign of problems, and thought it was best to do the root canal, but it was up to me. I figured it would be best. I have to say my dentist was great! He does 2-3 root canals a day, so it’s old hat to him and his assistant. They got my  gums numb before the injections and left me alone. So, I had to take a picture, right?

WP_20160201_001

The shots didn’t hurt and I felt no pain at all. Once he got into the root and made sure there was no pain, I was given some noise canceling headphones and a choice of music (classical guitar for me) and then I was all set. The root was necrotic inside, so it definitely was a good choice to get it done and soon.  I go back in 2 weeks to start the process with the crown.

I got a package in the mail from Fran with Dutch treats in it after we got back from the dentist! That was nice to receive after the root canal :

WP_20160202_003

These are typical Dutch treats.  Very different from US snacks! One is a licorice mix of sweet and sweet/salty licorice. That was a little different. I’m not a big fan of anise. I am curious to see what my nieces think of these when I see them this weekend. They like pretty much any candy. The other candy was a white peppermint, which I love. I love mint anyway and this hits the spot.  Thanks Fran!

I didn’t do any exercise yesterday, but a day off never hurts. Today I was back on the treadmill and with my soft diet.  I got some of these to drink and they are pretty good:

WP_20160202_001

These are sweetened with stevia. I cannot stand the bitter taste of Splenda, but stevia is less bitter to me.  These were on the sweet side and I like the Cappucino flavor the best.  Normally I eat a protein bar mid morning, so this was good in place of that. I can chew on the one side of my mouth, but I am so tired of one-sided chewing since I broke the darn tooth 2 weeks ago.  First world problems.

Lunch:

WP_20160202_002

Egg sandwich. I got the potato Arnold Sandwich thins. Again, the only variety that doesn’t have Splenda in it. Seriously, why is it in every single darn thing??  I know I’m an outlier at the bitter taste, but goodness me. 

On another happy, happy note – we just booked our flights for our 20th anniversary trip this fall. We are going to Ireland!  We are so excited. We’ve been collecting mileage points and finally got the tickets yesterday.  Now to plan the itinerary. We are flying in to Shannon and staying mostly in the southwest part of the island with a day trip to Dublin. This will be a long awaited vacation, that’s for sure.

I think this gives me kind of a goal to work on feeling great when we go abroad. I want to be in the best shape that I can be in by that point. Keeping the trip in mind will keep me from reaching for that second cookie or handful of nuts. 😀

 

Finished Jenny Lind Trunk!

I finally got the Jenny Lind trunk done! I got this trunk last April and had done another one to sell and then just set it aside for a while because there was just so much stuff going on. Since I have no plans to sell this one, I took my time 😀

I am going to say right off the bat this is my favoritest trunk so far!  I love everything about it. The size is perfect, the shape is unique. The style has the history that goes with it. It’s also the oldest trunk I have worked on – from the 1850s.  That’s some serious age.

Back story: I got this trunk from a gentleman who used to restore trunks, but it has gotten too hard for him as he has gotten older, so he was selling off his stock. I asked if he had a Jenny Lind on an off chance, and it turns out he did! He had already started the restoration process on it, but then you can see the trunk sat in the elements or somewhere after most of the canvas had been removed. This was the day I brought it home:

oldjl

Really, really dirty. The hinges are there, but they weren’t attached to the bottom half of the trunk. That actually made it easier to work on.

jenny lind

Whenever you see a trunk that has been refurbished and it is bare wood, just know that the trunk maker never intended that wood to see the light of day. Trunk boxes were always covered in something, whether that was canvas, leather or metal. It’s just too hard to try to replace a cloth covering without taking the entire trunk apart and putting it back together. It would have been neat to do that, but so difficult and this trunk is actually quite valuable, so I didn’t want to risk destroying it LOL! Plus I kind of like the stained wood. 

I spent a lot of time just cleaning it up. Getting the rest of the canvas off of it, scrubbing and cleaning it.  150+ years of dirt and grime. The metal straps are actually copper – which was a bonus. I have a thing for copper, so that got me excited! I used sandpaper and brasso to shine it up as much as I could.

trunk

I hand sanded all the wood down, but still couldn’t quite get the grayish color out. I even tried deck cleaner, which helped, but at 150+ years old, I guess it will never look new. Now the wood was all dry and thirsty. I put some wood conditioner on it and stained it. Originally, my thought was to just polyurethane the trunk, but because of the splotchy color of the wood, I decided to go with a dark stain. The color is Minwax bombay mahogany.  I love that color. It’s deep and rich with a reddish tint to it. Kind of like mahogany 😀

I didn’t add much new to this trunk. I could have replaced more of the missing buttons and such, but I couldn’t really match them as the ones on this trunk are copper and the replacements I can get would be brass. I didn’t want that to stick out. I bought most of my parts from Brettuns Village. I bought new leather handles appropriate to the Jenny Lind style and a lid lifter. I finally finished it all Saturday afternoon.

jlind1

The handles:

jennylind2

All lined inside. You can see the lid stay on the right so you can keep the trunk open without the lid falling down or back. Pretty handy!

jennylind3

I am going to get a little dark brown piping to go around the seams of the fabric in the trunk to hide those a little better. The fabric is in place with tiny tacks and spray adhesive.

jennylind4

You never know exactly how these are going to turn out. I really do love this one, though. At first I wasn’t sure about the dark color, but I think it brings out the copper.

jennylind5

If only I could do this for a living.  😀  Now to finish another trunk to make some money LOL!

Hello Friday!

I am so glad to have reached Friday! It’s been a brain tiring week. New accounts are hard to learn and work wipes out my thinking capacity by the end of the day as it is LOL.  This week was looooong.  

I thought I would share a couple of bird photos just to get something up here. 🙂  Winter time brings out new birds or the birds change colors.

Cardinal:

IMG_1940s

 

Of course, this is the female and she is always this color. She has been at the feeder every day in the dawn light and in the evening lately.

Goldfinch:

IMG_1954b

This was taken from our second floor window with my zoom, so it’s not the best. The goldfinches lose that bright yellow color over the winter. You almost don’t recognize them but for the black and white wing bands.

New for the fall and winter is the junco. I hope you can see him in this picture. Gray body and white tummy:

IMG_1941b

They are usually ground feeders as well. 

I actually have been pouring over my flower catalogs and have been taking advantage of sales. Who doesn’t love a 50% off sale??  So, I will definitely have stuff ready to plant in the spring!  Helen sent this to my FB page the other day and it pretty much sums it up.

seedtr

😀 😀

I still have all of February to shop Bluestone as well. They do a 50% off sale each week on different plants, so I figure I will find something I like!  A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do to get through the winter, right?

Now we are supposed to go out and see a jazz group play tonight. The show starts at 9 pm. Eeek!  I’m usually ready to go home by that time. Wish me luck 😀

Work and more squirrels.

It’s been busy around here this week. I got trained on a new account yesterday. The nice thing was, we actually went on site for the training down to Saratoga. I so rarely leave the house for my job. Like once a year tops. There are just 2 of us on the new account. It’s nice that they think of me when they need someone. Once in a while I feel appreciated there LOL!  All the new software got set up and we are ready to go tomorrow. That is like warp speed compared to how things usually go with my company, so hopefully that’s a good sign 😀  It will mean more work at the very least, which is great.

I am not sure what to do with the second job that I picked up. I only do that when my regular job is slow, which it has been. The secondary job has been picking up as well. It all comes at once, doesn’t it? We’ll just have to see what happens.

I’ve also got a soap order to make for one of my wholesale customers. She always gets in touch with me out of the blue, probably because I make time for her whenever she does.  She just seems to need it when I start to get busy with other things. Or maybe it just seems that way. So yeah, it got busy round these parts!

More squirrel shenanigans going on. I don’t know if this is the same squirrel, but probably. He was back in the window again today:

IMG_1927b

I wanted to see how close I could get, so I moved slow and pressed my lens right up against the glass. No zoom, I was this close:

IMG_1934b

Beady eyes. At this point he started sort of chirping and almost growling. It was funny and that got Pixie all kinds of excited. Then I banged on the glass to scare him away.  He’s kind of cute, but he’s not supposed to be eating this seed!

We finally got the wallpaper off the hallway and stairwell and got the walls all painted! Now just the window trim and baseboard need to get done. It takes a while doing it in dribs and drabs. Guess that is why people hire that stuff out 🙂

I am getting close to finishing the Jenny Lind trunk, too. I am so pleased with how it is looking! This is the fabric I am going to line it with:

IMG_1919b

I thought it was fun for what once was a traveling trunk.  All that is left is putting on the handles and doing the lining.

We need to catch up on a couple shows. We still have a Downton Abbey episode and the new X-files to watch! Are you watching either of these?

Broccoli cheddar soup and bring on the Superbowl!!!

Cold weather calls for some warm and creamy soup! I have been wanting to try a broccoli soup for a while. John doesn’t like broccoli, so I knew I would be eating this all by myself, but that’s okay!

Panera style Broccoli Cheddar soup

Based on the recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1/4  onion minced
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 4 tablespoons flour
  • 2 cups 2% milk
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1?2 lb broccoli florets chopped into bite size pieces
  • 1 teaspoon of worchestershire sauce
  • 1?4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 6 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese
  • salt and pepper

Saute the onion in the 1 tablespoon of butter in a large saucepan. Add the rest of the butter, let it melt and then stir in the flour to make a roux. Cook for about 2 minutes to remove the flour taste. **Tip: Warm up your broth in the microwave before adding it to the flour/butter mixture. This will keep it from clumping up if it is cold.** Gradually whisk in the broth and bring to a simmer. Then add in the milk, the broccoli, the nutmeg and worchestershire sauce and bring to a simmer. Turn the heat to low, cover and cook for 20-25 minutes. 

Check for salt and pepper seasoning. You can choose to puree some of the soup if you want. I used a stick blender since I like smooth soups. Keeping the heat low, stir in the cheese until melted. Lower heat will keep the cheese from getting grainy.

Then serve!

WP_20160124_002b

This is really good!

WP_20160124_001

I was eating this while watching the Broncos vs Patriots game. Holy crow – what a game that was! The Broncos were underdogs by everyone, include the Vegas odds, but somehow both the offense and defense played their hearts out! John was the calm one and I was ready to pass out 😀

br

I don’t know what the superbowl itself will bring, but hopefully it will be exciting and way better than when they played the Seahawks 😛

Someone who could care less about all our excitement around and yelling?

IMG_1913b

Whew. Now to wait 2 weeks for all the hype. You know we usually have a Mardi Gras party the Sunday before Mardi Gras, and this year that falls on Superbowl Sunday. We might have to have a Mardi Gras themed party!