Bad Blogger. Bad.

Sorry, I've been a bad blogger this week. I'm in Houston again and it's pretty boring. I think we did all of the fun stuff last week. Aside from a tasty Cheesecake Factory dinner, I've pretty much gone to the gym, worked, ate, watched tv, and went to bed every day this week. Today we're leaving early because I'm awesome and we're way ahead of schedule, so I'm going to throw in a second trip to the gym because my God, am I eating a lot. I should way 1000 pounds right now.

Next week I get to be back in Charlotte for the foreseeable future, so I can start eating healthy and working out on my normal schedule again on Monday. No more effing around. Like a hibernating bear or some kind of sea mammal, I need to shed my winter weight. I'm thinking about embracing protein shakes and making them my breakfast. I fear that to lose weight I'm going to have to do the unthinkable: cut my daily carbohydrate allotment down to what a normal human being would eat. It's going to be difficult. I heart bread. But those are the breaks.

Next week at work starts Flex Time, a.k.a. The Time That I Don't Constantly Want to Die at Work. I will get to leave at 4:30 daily when I'm in the office. Yay! It works out really well for my 6pm yoga classes, because I get to the gym early enough to do cardio beforehand. Woo! And I have no excuses to not make dinner every night when I get home earlier, so that should help the anti-fatty situation. As long as I restrict the amount of cheesy recipes from my Everyday Italian cookbook, I should be ok. I see a lot of "chicken breast with vegetables" type dinners in my future. Joy. Good thing I have about a dozen cookbooks dedicated to chicken, or I'd be in trouble.

Today I got my email from the Teeter about the weekly specials...they do this cool thing where they track what you buy by your VIC card and then every week they email you about what things you usually buy are on sale. And it's apparently corn on the cob season again! Yay! We love to grill corn for dinner. It's sad that I'm excited about this, but that's what happens when your boring like me. :)

That's about it for now. I'll hopefully have some better updates later this week or when I'm back home.

HATE.

So we're at work on Friday, and it's about an hour before we have to leave for the airport, and our flight gets canceled. Fabulous. And bonus: we can't fly back out until Saturday morning. And double bonus: we already have to go back to Houston on Sunday night, so it almost doesn't even make sense to go home. But we decide to go anyway. Horrible.

I made up for my anger by A. booking us all for the night at the JW Marriott that is across the street from the mall, B. going shopping again, and C. getting tore up drunk at the Cheesecake Factory while eating my favorite food. Consequently, I remembered Saturday why I never get tore up drunk anymore. I felt horrible. Thank god I was upgraded to first class for the flight, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to nap and my day would have been even worse. For the remainder of the day, I laid on the couch watching my saved DVR shows from the week. Good times. What a waste of a day.

And now I have to pack and go back to Houston. It's really not that bad there...but no way can the flight get cancelled again...my sister is coming into town Friday night and Blake's going to be pissed if he has to deal with her alone. I am cranky.

I did just chop some of my fresh herbs from my new herb garden and use them in an omelet, so that made things a bit better. Now I have to do a number of chores. Booooooo.

The Office

The Office was awesome again tonight. Last week it wasn't that great, but this one was just amazing. I definitely need to watch it 2-3 more times to catch everything that I surely missed because I was laughing so hard. Oh, how I heart The Office. It makes me way happier than a TV show should.

Favorite line of the night:

Ryan: Kelly, do you have a question?
Kelly: Yes, actually I have lots of questions. Number 1, how dare you?

Yay!

The Container Store

So today Susan and I checked off yet another of our goals that have been standing since we were in Houston last year: visit The Container Store. We have never seen one before, but we love containers and we love organization, so we figured we'd be all about it. Our only obstacle was convincing the boys that it was a good idea. But today, since we were not going out to dinner right after work, the boys decided to go directly to a sports bar at 5:30pm. So, to avoid the traffic, we figured our only option was to go to the Container Store. And it was glorious. There was so much that I wanted to buy! And although they did boast free shipping anywhere in the United States, I figured that Blake would frown upon it if I sent home an entire $1,500 closet organization system. Someday we shall meet again, Container Store. Someday.

And on that day, this is roughly what my closet will look like. Except with more shoe storage (obviously) and the fancy sliding pants-hanger thingies.

Fun in Houston

Just so that you all don't think I constantly bitch about everywhere I have to travel for work the way that I bitch about New Orleans, I thought I'd fill you in on our activities in Houston. First of all, I'm bound to be in a better mood here because the client is awesome. And second of all, there are lots of fun things to do.

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to a fancy mall on Monday night. Then last night, we went to see the Astros play the Padres. They won and I ate a hot dog and a soft pretzel and I drank beer, so I was happy. Tonight we went to one of the most fabulous restaurants ever, Truluck's. They have the most delicious cake in the history of time, and Susan and I have been dreaming of it ever since we had it last year. It has an oreo crust and it's chocolate espresso ice cream layered with coffee ice cream with chocolate sauce and walnuts on top. They also have tasty wine flights and the most gigantic lobster tail I have ever seen, which is now in my belly. I feel that I will now beach myself like a whale on my hotel room bed and pass out. We get one dinner a week that we get to run through, and I never argue with free lobster and wine, so I usually wind up wanting to vomit after these affairs.

Also, Carly just got voted off of Idol? WTF. I liked her. I don't care how much better Syesha did this week, something about her bothers me and I wish she had gone home instead. Boo. Now if only the 12 year olds would stop voting and we wouldn't have to hear Ballads Written for Forty Year Olds by David Archuleta every week, I'd be thrilled.

Houston

This weekend was pretty good, as evidenced by the posts below, but I did have to leave for Houston Sunday night which kind of sucked. I enjoy it in Houston though because the client is good and the people I'm traveling with are fun. And today was fabulous.

We basically have to go and eat dinner immediately after leaving the client's office otherwise we sit on the interstate for 2 hours trying to get back to the hotel. The interstate system in Texas is possibly the worst thing I've ever seen. It's just interstates on top of other interstates, running parallel and perpendicular to other interstates all over the place. And the traffic is unbelievable.

Sean wanted to watch a basketball game that was on at 6, so we were driving around looking for a sports bar to have dinner at and we found one at the Galleria, the most fabulous mall I've ever seen from the outside. Susan and I have been trying to come up with an excuse to make the boys bring us there since we were in Houston last year, and this worked out wonderfully. It is a beautiful mall with all sorts of fancy and wonderful stores, but much like the highway system, it was difficult to navigate. However, I had a 15% off BR coupon that went into effect today, so I was determined to find BR. And when I did, it was huge. It was two stories, and there was a totally separate Petites BR store. it was crazy. And when I paid, they said that because this was the first day of the coupon, I got 20% off instead of 15%! Woo!

I got this dress, but in blue polka dots instead of the pink...the pink was just a bit too bright, and it washed me out. I also got a belt I've had my eye on for a while, a beautiful purple and white silk skirt (I wanted to find the pic online but I couldn't find it...boo), and a green and white striped sheer sweater that would look good with either jeans or as a bathing suit cover up. I almost also bought a little green t-shirt dress I've had my eye on, but I didn't want to go overboard. I'm going to have my eye on that dress for when it goes on sale though, and I should have about $30 in gift cards saved up by then to use on it.

Seriously though, I have GOT to stop shopping and do something else for a while. Or I am going to be poor.

Finally: Herb Garden

(originally recorded in ghetto Word version on Sunday afternoon)

Well, we had to stop at three different places, but I finally obtained all of the herbs that I wanted to plant on Saturday. I also got some seriously cute little pots to plant them in. How fabulous is my mini-balcony-garden? Also, our winter pansies still look awesome…and we refuse to buy summer flowers until they die because it would be a tragedy to dispose of such pretty little flowers. And the weather’s been so nice lately, that we might even have dinner at on the balcony this evening. Yay!

pound cake

(originally recorded in ghetto Word version Friday night)

I made a chocolate espresso pound cake from my Mastering Cakes book Thursday night because my sister was coming into town for the night on her way to Myrtle Beach and I figured she's be hungry when she arrived. I'm not a huge pound cake fan (it seems too dense for me), but I bet it would be good to dunk in coffee (if I drank coffee). The next cake in the book is Angel food, but it might be a few weeks before I experiment with it since I'll be out of town for the next couple of weeks and then I have weekend visitors for several weekends in a row.

Here's the finished product. There was a glaze on top of it that was pretty good.

weekend posts - wait for it..

I'm at a client's office right now in Houston, and this is the first internet access I've had since Thursday...I'm a huge dork, so I have a word file that I've updated throughout the weekend to paste in here later tonight, so updates will be plentiful when I get back to the hotel. Also, don't think I'm some psycho who writes up 4 separate updates and posts them at once...know that all of this evening's posts were writted out at separate points throughout the weekend :)

Weekend goals: The Early Edition

Tomorrow I won't be in the office because I'm headed to Wake for some recruiting action. Since Blake and I are cheap and don't feel like paying for internet access in our house, I figured I'd bang out my weekend goals a bit early this week. I have to leave for Houston on Sunday night, so the weekend will be a bit short but warm (finally). And I'm going to see Carrie Underwood in concert tomorrow night. Yay! Here's what I also want to do:

• Hit the gym twice, and also lift tomorrow morning at home
• FINALLY plant my herb garden
• FINALLY get up to the lake for boat maintenance
• pack (boo)
• cooking: two dinners and a tasty pound cake
• maybe head back to Borders, as I just received a 20% off coupon
• read a bit; maybe go to the 'brary and see what they've got goin on

It's going to be a pretty boring weekend because I'm attempting to not shop. I just spent a small fortune on a birthday gift for Blake. I will however shop next weekend when my 15% off BR coupon goes into effect. There is (at a minimum) a belt there that I have been eyeing up while waiting for a little sale or coupon action. Yay.

And I once again forgot to sign up for Humane Society volunteering...I should probably go ahead and sign up for next weekend immediately. I should consider making a haircut appointment for an upcoming weekend as well. I've been digging my long hair, and I usually like it long for the summer, but I saw a super cute shorter cut picture in a magazine last week, so who knows.

Happy April 16th?

So apparently if you are a CPA, it is unnecessary to come to work on April 16th. Now, we are deterred from taking any unnecessary vacation time between mid-January and April 15th, but are people really so desperate to sit on their asses (which is exactly what they'd be doing in the office, mind you) that they're taking PTO the first day that they can? There are no partners or senior managers or HR personnel anywhere near this place today. And I don't remember seeing anyone super drunk at the After Tax Season party yesterday, so hangovers should be at an all time low.

I bring this up because those of us that actually showed up today are going to wind up doing pretty well for ourselves. Basically, I'm going to leave between 2:30 and 3 and no one will be the wiser. Except for the several managers with whom I've discussed this plan and who are in on it as well. Sweet. And bonus: I actually got a lot done around here today. More than I would have if I was here for 8 full hours with the entire office being here. This has worked out wonderfully.

Isn't it nice that when you really hate your job you can become extraordinarily excited about really lame stuff? Silver lining, people. Silver lining.

Cat pictures

Most of you probably have very little interest in my cats, but I do not care because they are like children to me. Except less annoying. Here are some silly pictures from the last several months.

Norman: he's naughty but he's cute.

Wylie: I don't have as many pictures of him because he hates me and he usually doesn't do anything interesting.

And this is what happens in my house when Blake and I try to flip the mattress over.

And this is my idiot boyfriend. The Flyers made the playoffs. Fantastic.

mini bundt cakes

And now the post we've all been waiting for. I had this bundt cake recipe from cooking light, my new mini bundt cake pans, and a dream. And for the most part it worked out pretty well. They are absolutely mother-effing delicious. If you ever consider making a bundt cake, make this one. Seriously. Here is the finished product:

Now, this experiment was not without some chaos. I will warn you to NEVER fill up the bundt pans more than halfway. The bottom of the pan is actually the top of the cake, so you want the cake to rise while baking just enough that it creates an even bottom for the cake to stand on. I filled up the pans about 3/4 of the way and what came out of my oven looked like cupcakes. Not good for bundts. So, I used a serrated knife and cut off the muffin tops before applying the glaze. The good thing: Now I have muffin tops to eat. Tasty.

I think the glaze is the best part. It makes the whole cake really moist. And the recipe was surprisingly easy. I think my first bundt adventure was a success!

Weekend Achievements

I think that overall I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday, Susan and I decided to blow work early and go to Cooking Uptown, a fabulous cooking supply/classes joint off of 7th street that I am obsessed with (side note: anyone want to take a pizza and calzone making class there on May 24th?). I needed to buy a bundt cake pan for my upcoming adventures in baking. I also ran into about 1000 other things I wanted to buy but talked myself out of because my birthday is in June, so I can just get other people (Blake) to buy these things for me.

I wound up with this adorable little mini-bundt cake pan. As you may know, I LOVE making tiny desserts because I have what I like to call "portion control issues." This is also why I shouldn't be left alone at a buffet (especially at the Golden Corral). The pan is just so damn cute and it makes these tiny delicious cakes. The cakes will be discussed in more depth in a future post once I get my pictures uploaded.

I also went to Borders, where I of course spent way more money than I wanted to. I got the Everyday Italian cookbook on Susan's recommendation. Giada is fabulous, and she has three cookbooks and it took me a really long time to settle on one because they all looked amazing. I went with this one because it included a recipe for tiramisu, which I have been wanting to learn how to make. I also got the Williams-Sonoma Mastering: Cakes, Frostings, and Fillings book. I've been wanting to learn to do serious baking for a while, and this is how I'm going to do it. It shows you all sorts of basic recipes and several ways to change them up, and it presents the easiest recipes first, which is key. Next weekend I will be making a pound cake. Regular pound cake is a really easy recipe that I'm pretty sure I can handle, so I'm going to make a chocolate-espresso version I think. The people I work with are going to hate me for bringing them cake every Monday, but they'll deal with it.

I successfully went to the gym both on Saturday and Sunday mornings (yay me) and I did most of my cleaning...I have to mop the floors tonight because I got lazy yesterday. We never made it to the boat because of the crappy weather. But look how pretty this rainbow was! It was right outside of our window. The picture quality's not great, but it was really a pretty sight.

I also finished reading Wicked. It was good, but it was long, and I'm not sure that the whole fairy tale thing is really my genre. I may try the sequel book still though because it was a good story. I started reading a book I got at Borders by Jen Lancaster "Bitter is the New Black: Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office." This is more my style. It's mindless and funny, which is how I like most of my reading this time of year. Once I'm super bored in the summer I'll get into smarter stuff.

I think that's about it for the weekend. I'll post again later with Bundt cake fun and perhaps a few new kitty pictures since I just unloaded my camera for the first time in about 6 months. Happy Monday everyone! :)

Obsession: The Office

Ok, pretty much everyone that knows me knows that I'm obsessed with The Office. I quote it all the time. It's just amazing. And last night was their first new post-strike episode and it was hilarious. Even though I typically don't enjoy the episodes that take place away from the office environment, it was still fabulous. Please let there never be a TV-ending strike again.

30 Rock was also fantastic. If you don't already watch it, you should. It's just really really funny.

And if you missed either of these shows, you can watch them for free on NBC.com...something that I will surely be doing from work at some point today. Yay!

Weekend Goals: the "I Stink" Edition

So since last week when I predetermined my goals for this weekend, I've already botched two of them. Well, one is my fault and the other is the fault of Mother Nature. I've been trying to plant herbs for WEEKS now but we keep getting rogue days where the overnight low is close to freezing, and some daintier herbs, like basil, don't appreciate such low temperatures. Yesterday and today it is 80 degrees and beautiful outside, but then next Monday - Wednesday will have overnight lows in the 30's. Damn it. I'm considering buying the herbs anyway and just bringing them inside overnight on those days, but I don't know if I want to chance it.

Also, I'm an idiot, and I forgot that to volunteer on weekends at the Humane Society I have to sign up by noon on Thursday. I realized this at 2pm on Thursday. So I guess I won't be making my triumphant return there until next week. Boo. But I did sign up to make a monthly recurring donation to them last week, so I don't feel too awful about myself.

Susan and I are considering blowing this joint after lunch and either A. drinking wine on my roof or B. going shopping, depending on how long the upcoming rain holds off. Yay. Also, I'm pumped to make tasty kabobs tonight. So the weekend's looking good already.

Weekend Goals:

• Go to the gym at least once, but hopefully twice. This fat isn't going to burn itself.
• Cooking: kabobs tonight, ravioli tomorrow, and enchiladas Sunday. Also, I'm going to try out a chocolate bundt cake recipe on Sunday at some point. I've never made a bundt cake before, so it should be exciting.
• Hit the By Design warehouse sale. We got our pretty new kitchen table at the warehouse sale a few months ago for an amazing price...and I'm looking to get a buffet cabinet of some sort.
• Runs to the grocery store, Target, and Home Depot (it's high time to get this whole screen door situation under control. And possibly the tile flooring for the balcony as well)
• Boat maintenance.
• House cleaning: kitchen, bathroom, windows, mopping...boooooo.
• Possible run to Borders...I have a gift card and I haven't been there in forever
• Reading
• Attempt to stay away from the mall. Even though I just mentioned the possibility of going today. Also, that's where the aforementioned Borders is. I suck.

Happy weekend everyone!

Afternoon activities

So I ran at the gym again today. I increased my routine time from 35 minutes to 45 minutes and I feel pretty good about it. Here is the unfortunate thing: it is absolutely georgous outside. Like 75 and sunny and breezy and I had to come back to work for the afternoon. Boooo. I'm going to go ahead and guess that my productivity will be at an all time low for the rest of the day. If today was Friday I would have not come back to work and I would have gone home and sat on my balcony, or perhaps the rooftop deck, to read and drink wine and eat cheese and crackers. I may actually do that tomorrow if it's still pretty out.

Tonight is going to be glorious, because it marks the return of new episodes of some of my favorite shows: 30 Rock, The Office, and Scrubs. I know I'm trying to not watch as much TV, but there are just some shows that I will never be able to drop. I'm looking forward to eating the last of my veggie lasagne from the weekend and enjoying some happy TV watching time. Also, I'm going to cut up and marinade the ingredients for the kebobs we're grilling for dinner tomorrow night. Yay!

Obsession: Risotto

As Susan and I have discussed about a thousand times, risotto is surely the nectar of the gods and should be enjoyed as often as possible. It is by far one of the most delicious, versatile, easy dishes to throw together of all time.

I started my love affair with risotto when I saw this recipe in my Everyday Food magazine about 3 years ago and I immediately became obsessed. Once you can make regular risotto, you can add all sorts of tasty stuff to it. Last night I had risotto with orange bell pepper, yellow squash, green beans, and tomato. It was scrumptious. I've also experimented with adding meats, like rotisserie turkey and chicken or pancetta, and about a million different veggies. It's all gold. If you go to the recipe search on Cooking Light's website and put in risotto, it pops out about 50 amazing ideas. But who really needds a recipe? Here are some basic ways to add different ingredients:

• For adding vegetables that need to be cooked a bit first (like when I used the bell peppers, squash, and green beans above), saute them until cooked and then add them to the risotto just as the last of the broth is being absorbed.
• For adding items that don't need to be cooked first, such as tomato, add it when you're stirring the cheese once you've removed it from the heat.
• For adding frozen veggies (I like to use peas), or already cooked meat, stir in as the last of the broth is being absorbed and wait until they've heated to add the cheese.
• For adding raw meats, like bacon or pancetta, add at the beginning, when you are sauteing the onions.
• For adding dried mushrooms (such as porcini...delicious), rehydrate the mushrooms in water overnight, and then use the water in lieu of half of the required broth.
• For making tomato risotto, use tomato juice in lieu of half of the required broth.
• For some basic substitutions that change the taste slightly, use red wine instead of white, use vegatable, turkey or beef broth instead of chicken, substitute feta, mozzarella, or pretty much any other cheese for parmesean, or use leeks or shallots instead of onions.

I like to have risotto as my main dish, with a spinach salad on the side. Blake (because of his whole 'needing meat to constitute a meal' thing) likes to have it as a side dish. It's just so delicious. I must have been a fatty in a former life, because I love food way too much for my own good. :)

Blog inspirations, volume 2

Who knew that ALL of my roommates from college had blogs? Well, at least the roommates that I still talk to. Check out Alannah a.k.a Mallie's Blog.

And I just learned about getting my comments under control...let us not forget about the disclosure in my first post about how retarded I am with computers. :)

Per request...

Alannah, who might be the only person that reads this blog (hi mal!) has requested pictures of my kitties. So without further ado, here are pictures of my furry little children. The pics are a few months old, as I hoard pictures on my camera until it is full and then unload them all at once:

Norman likes to play fetch (for real), help me cook, and be as naughty as possible.

Wylie likes to climb into things, love Blake but hate me, and drink out of the bottom of the shower.
And here's Blake with the boys. :)

Oldie but goodie

There are times that I come home from work and just want to sit on the couch and not move for several hours. However, I still want to eat a tasty dinner, and let's face it, Blake's not going to make one of those for me unless I want to start eating red meat. So last night, I turned to one of my fallback meals: fajitas.

I have been making fajitas since freshman year at Wake, in the Collins 3A kitchen with the lovely and talented Dana "D.Lo" Givens. While my recipe has changed slightly over the years, it's still basically the same meal. And if you do it right, it takes less than 20 minutes to prepare. Also, no matter how many new and fancy meals I make, fajitas are always one of Blake's favorites.

Simple way to make this meal in 20 minutes: use a frozen veggie blend and rotisserie chicken. I like to keep a pepper and onion frozen veggie bag in the freezer for occassions such as this. But note: do NOT use the same amount of sautee-ing oil when you're using frozen veggies as you do when you use fresh ones...because when they thaw out in the pan, it creates water and it winds up making the veggies greasy. I have made this mistake before. It is not pretty.

Basically, I throw the veggies in the pan with some spices until they're heated, shread up some of the rotisserie chicken that I have on-hand for use in my lunch salads, and once that's heated up, you throw some fajita shells in the microwave for 30 seconds and you're done. Keep in mind that the spice blend you choose can make all the difference. My favorite is garlic salt, black pepper, season-all, and lemon pepper. And if I want it to be spicier, I add red pepper flakes.

I don't feel that I need a side dish with fajitas, but Blake likes chips and salsa on the side, which is just about the easiest thing ever. He has requested refried beans, but I hate beans, so he's on his own there. A simple and delicious dinner is key when your DVR is recording 4-hours worth of important prime time viewing. And on that note...how much did the Idol suck last night? A lot, I thought.

Side note regarding my gym activities yesterday: I'm much less sore than I thought I would be from the running. I may try that again tomorrow. Today we go low impact on the elliptical I think.

Kick it up a notch

So, as I mentioned in my last post, I read a lot of fitness-related magazines on a monthly basis. And I am always reading that cardio becomes less effective when you do the same routine over and over again, but I'm basically lazy and really like my slow-and-steady 65 minute rolling hills elliptical routine. But if I honestly want to lose weight, I should probably cut that down to like once a week and mix in some new stuff right?

So today, I had to fit in lifting and cardio during my extended lunch break at the gym, so I usually do 50 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes of lifting (it helps that my gym is a 10 minute walk from the office and that I come in an hour early and eat lunch while working to make up for the daily 2-hour lunch extravaganza). Today, I had a lot to do, so I decided I would let myself off the hook with 35 minutes of cardio if some of it involved actual running on the treadmill. So that is what I did. Now, I simply did 5 minute intervals (2 minute run with 3 minute brisk walk) but I'm thinking that if I could do this relatively easily, I should be able to slowly up the running quotient and eventually be able to actually run for like 30 minutes without having to stop and walk. This is my new goal. I'm going to work the running/walking situation in at least twice a week. At least that's what I'm going to say now; once my entire body hurts tomorrow I might feel differently.

Also contributing to the variety are the new fancy ellipticals that the gym got a few weeks ago. They adjust to your stride length and can function as a stepper or a jogger or a hardcore runner. And they are extremely difficult. It's in the rotation, but the gym hasn't gotten in the TV's for them yet, so I get bored after 30 minutes or so. I'm also going to get on the stair mill more often I think. Gotta mix it up.

An aside: I love it when the gym gets new things. I am like a kid in a candy store. I've been dominating the new lifting circuit they have set up as well as the new ellipticals. I didn't go to the gym for two weeks because I was out of town, and then I go back and there's all this new, shiny stuff. It was awesome. I may need more excitement in my life because I shouldn't be as excited as I am about this stuff.

In other news, I made myself a completely delicious salad for lunch today. I don't see any way that I wouldn't immediately drop 10 pounds, considering I've gone from eating out 3 meals a day for a month to eating homemade salads for lunch. Maybe I should stop making cookies every weekend? That may help.

Lost hobbies

During busy season, many of my hobbies go by the wayside to make room for working 65 hour weeks. During many of these weeks, I work 12 hour days Monday - Thursday, 8 hour days Friday and Saturday, and have to fly someplace on Sunday night. So I do pretty much nothing but work, eat, sleep, and get to the gym if it's at all humanly possible.

Now's the time of year that I try to resume my normal hobbies. Yoga, cooking, volunteering, shopping, all of the things that make me happy that I make enough money to afford to do them. And then last night, when there was nothing on TV when I got home from work, I remembered another one: reading. All I've read for the past 3 months is accounting workpapers and various magazines that I read either on airplanes or while Blake is forcing me to partake in some boring sports watching at home. I subscribe to kind of a lot of magazines actually. Cooking Light, Fitness, Shape, and Self. And recently I've considered adding Women's Health, because I've been buying it at the airport when I run out of other magazines. Also, I buy LIfe & Style when at airports. I realize it's trash, but it's entertaining.

I started reading Wicked in December when I went home for Christmas (I typically read a lot there, because I'm usually car-less unless my mom or sister is around). I'm about half way done. I knocked out another section last night. I think when I finish it, I'll resume my normal summer library routine. The main branch of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Library is 2 blocks from my house, so I like to visit there frequently when I have the time.

Another lost hobby: needlepoint. Yes, I am like a granny. I made Dana a pretty baby blanket when Reagan was born, and now Kristin is pregnant, so I'm considering doing the same for her. But she's due in November, and summer isn't typically a time that I sit around sewing, so I'll have to see if I have the time. Blankets take forever. Maybe I'll go small and make some bibs instead.

Weekend Adventures

I am happy to say that I accomplished everything on my list for this weekend, except for the helping Blake with his boat stuff because he didn't feel like doing that, so we will likely move that to next weekend.

I had one of the best mall trips of all time because I actually made more than I spent. I stopped by Banana Republic with my receipts from the past two weeks to check for price adjustments and lucky me, all of their sale merchandise is an extra 20% off now, so I got $78 back! Again, I'd like to remind everyone that it is important to save receipts and check for adjustments if you happen to be in the mall within 14 days after your original purchase. That just about made my weekend.

I wanted to go back to cooking this weekend, and I decided that I needed a fancy parmesean cheese grater/lemon zester. I went to Sur la Table and got this little number. I LOVE it. I have used it for almost every meal this week. I got what is technically the zester size, but it still works with the parmesean cheese and it makes me want to grate cheese and/or zest on everything. I have used it for every meal since I got it. It is amazing.

And I cooked this tasty vegetable lasagne; one of my favorites, but Blake hates it because it has no meat and is full of vegetables. He is like a small child sometimes. The recipe is from cooking light and I had it with a spinach salad and some crusty italian bread dipped in olive oil and herbs. Delish. I make it with the no-boil noodles because it's way easier.

I get to go back to yoga tonight! This is a wonderful day.

Back in Charlotte!

I'm back in Charlotte, and I get to be here for two whole weeks! Yay! I can't wait until it's July and I get to be here for months on end. It will be glorious. Here are my goals for the weekend:

• Go to the gym Saturday and Sunday...because I pay them way too much when I'm out of town for a full month, so I need to get my money's worth on the weekends
• Get a mani/pedi...it's sandal season again in NC. Yay!
• Go to the mall. yes, I know I've done this every weekend this month, but that's what happens when I'm cranky from being out of town. Also, I need to go to Sur la Table to get a parmesean cheese grater, because cooking resumes tomorrow (with sauce and veggie lasagme...mmmmmm).
• Go up to the marina to help Blake with some boat maintenance (clearly I have no desire to do this, but he's been doing all of the house upkeep for the past month, so I should be cooperative at least this once).
• Drop off the clothes that I cleaned out of my closet last week at Goodwill

I really wanted to be able to to go the nursery and buy all of the herbs that I want to plant this year, but the good nursery is closed on Sunday and it's going to storm all of Saturday, so I don't think that's going to work. That will be for next weekend. Also on tap for next weekend: return to the Humane Society for volunteering.

It's amazing how much my mood improves when I'm at home instead of in shitty New Orleans.

Reasons I Can't Wait to Get Back to Charlotte

New Orleans is starting to wear on me, so it's list time.

1. Blake and the cats
2. My own bed
3. Being able to cook myself breakfast, lunch, and dinner rather than constantly eating out
4. Going to my own gym rather than crappy hotel gyms
5. Going back to yoga
6. All of the shows saved on my DVR
7. Walking to work in the morning, coming and going as I please
8. Having access to my full shoe collection
9. My couch
10. Overall, New Orleans is not all it's cracked up to be

Blog inspirations

As I have mentioned, I read a lot of blogs even though I just recently started my own. Here's a list of other blogs that I appreciate, and think you might be down with too:

• The Jordana Project - college roomie's blog. Inspired me to start my own. Heart!
• thesuperficial.com - hilarious celebrity gossip site.
• bb9dish.blogspot.com - because I'm sadly obsessed with Big Brother and read the spoilers.
• Things I've Bought That I Love - shopping blog written by the immensely talented Mindy Kaling, who is also a writer on my favorite show, The Office.
• officetally.com - blog about The Office (again, I heart spoilers).
• Stuffwhitepeoplelike.com - hilarious.

When I come across other fabulous blogs, I'll update. I like to help people by giving out new procrastination ideas :)