Birthday Dinner

Blake's actual birthday is on Friday, but he's leaving tonight to go to Vegas with his friends for EW's bachelor party (God help us) so we celebrated last night. For my birthday, I usually insist on going out to dinner, but Blake hates going out to dinner because it's unhealthy and expensive, so he prefers that I cook something nice for him instead. I usually throw together some of his favorites and add dessert. Last year I made lemon chicken thighs, for example. But I wanted to try something different this year.

I broke out my new Everyday Italian cookbook and found this recipe for chicken piccata. Blake likes chicken piccata because it's lemony and because he likes capers. But I had never made it before. The recipe was easy to follow though, and it came out pretty good. My only suggestion if you are making this recipe is that you use only like half of the capers it suggests. I was already cutting the recipe in half because it was only for the two of us, and there were just way too many capers. I like them, but they're strong and salty, so I wound up throwing a lot of them away. For side dishes, I kept it simple with plain, Parmesan risotto and roasted asparagus (throw asparagus in a jelly roll pan with salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar; roast at 425 for 10 minutes).

For dessert, I made some chocolate mousse. Nothing fancy though. Blake's mom had sent us a box of chocolate mousse mix a while back because it's his favorite, so I just whipped (ha) that up. What was exciting about it is that I finally got to use the wire whip attachment on my stand mixer to make it. Apparently, chocolate mousse is basically slightly stiffer, chocolate flavored whipped cream. I threw some strawberries on top for show. I was so excited to break in my whip attachment. I have now successfully used all three of my mixer attachments. Yay.

I got Blake a Flyers jersey he's been talking about for months as a gift. He of course wanted the official jersey that the players wear, customized with his favorite player's info and a "C" on the front for captain. He was really excited about it. He figured I was getting him something Flyers-related, but he didn't think I'd be able to pull this jersey thing off correctly. He was borderline shocked that I knew which player to get and to get the "C" on the front and to get the new jersey (apparently they still sell last year's even though the team doesn't wear them anymore. I didn't even see those). It was pretty easy actually. I just found the most expensive customizable jersey on NHL.com and figured that was the right one. It was pricey, but he wore it around the house for about an hour and really liked it, so it was worth it. All in all, it was a pretty good birthday night.

Laughing Cow cheese

As you probably know, I have a bit of what I like to call a "cheese obsession." Every day, Blake challenges me to not eat cheese of some sort, and every day I fail. I eat something cheesy every single day. I think that's the Italian in me.

Anyway, at the Teeter this weekend, I was looking for some cheese for an afternoon snack. I had wanted the baby Gouda rounds from Babybel, but they were out. I briefly considered the original flavor, but decided to pass. Then I remembered the commercial I always see for the Laughing Cow Light cheeses. My Teeter has a fantastic cheese collection, so I was able to find those pretty easily. I purchased the French Onion flavor and moved on.

The good thing about this spreadable cheese is that it comes in 8 wedges (and you know how I loves me some forced portion control) that are each only 35 calories. So when I spread a wedge over a sesame Wasa wafer, I got a delicious 100 calorie snack. I will say that it didn't really taste like French Onion so much, but it was good and it satisfied my cheese craving for a lot less calories and fat than my normal gourmet cheese snack. But I do like to mix it up a little, so I'm hoping to run into the Babybel Gouda next week (only 80 calories each. Yay!).

Ooh, the pain.

So the past two weeks while I was out of town, I went to the crappy hotel gym and did cardio, but I did no strength training whatsoever. The first week, I brought my resistance bands and everything, but I never could make myself use them. By the second week I had just given up.

Yesterday, already sore from my first bout with Yoga in 4 months, I started lifting again. It was fine when it was happening. And then I woke up this morning.

You know how the pain is worst on the second day after you do something? Well I'm in my second day with my Yoga pain and my first day with my lifting pain and it is bad. I fully intended to go to Yogilates class tomorrow night, but if I feel like this I'm definitely skipping it. I know the pain means I'm doing something, but that doesn't make me like it.

I was doing a pretty kick ass job on my carb restriction yesterday until dinner. Blake's grandparents were passing through town, so they took us to dinner. I looked over the menu and tried to get the least horrible thing that I could eat (I'm quite picky), but it was too hard. I had it narrowed down to a turkey melt w/ fries (I think fries would probably be the absolute worst thing to eat), a spinach pizza (I would eat the entire thing, and that's a lot of dough and cheese), and proscuitto and cheese ravioli. I went with the ravioli, knowing that at the most there would be 8 ravioli on my plate so I'd have some kind of portion control. I only ate 6 of them, and one piece of french bread with our mussel appetizer. Not too terrible. And delicious. We went to the Village Tavern and it reminded me of Wake. Good times.

Sometimes things just go my way

So you all know how I feel about price adjustments. The only thing that is better then the all-important price adjustment is when you see something you really want but you don't buy it and then it goes on sale. This weekend my sister and I were at the mall and we went into Aldo (love). I saw two pairs of shoes that I wanted, as well as a pair that I already have in one color but it's so comfortable I want it in another color too. But I was not prepared to drop $300 on shoes due to my overwhelming amount of BR purchases of late. My sister got three pairs of shoes. I don't know how she can afford them. But then again, I shopped a lot in college too.

Today, I went online, and saw that ALL THREE pairs are now on sale. $200 for three pairs of shoes sounds much better than $300.

I really heart these shoes. They are a pale yellow and would look killer with navy blue. Unfortunately, I usually avoid navy blue because I don't have appropriate shoes. I can solve that problem by buying these shoes. And then buying a navy blue dress that I've had my eye on at BR. And the grass green skirt from BR too...which would look good with yellow as well. And a yellow shirt to go with it. (You're probably thinking right now that buying these shoes will result in a further $500 being spent on clothes to go with them...but you have to realize that I don't care.)

The first pair below are pretty cute as well. I considered ordering them online, but when I tried on the floor sample this weekend they were slightly uncomfortable, so I need to try them on again before I commit. Whenever I buy new shoes I think to myself "Do I have another pair of shoes that I could easily wear with the same outfits as I'd wear these with?" If the answer is yes, I then ask myself "But is the other pair sub-par in some way and I can evict it from my shoe wall to replace it with these new shoes?" This first pair is very different from my other black sandals, so it qualifies for purchase. This second pair (which I already have in tan but is SO COMFORTABLE that I want them in every color now) looks like another black pair that I have, but that pair was $39 at Off-Broadway Shoe Warehouse and will probably fall apart any day, so it can easily be evicted. Perfect.

I have a serious shopping problem. It's amazing that I'm able to save any money at all.

I may be tired.

So I made my triumphant return to Yoga class last night. I get to be in Charlotte for the next three weeks, so I figured I should get back into my usual habits. I haven't made it to Yoga since busy season started up, so it's been about four months. And sweet mother, did it hurt. I am in a significant amount of pain today. But I digress.

The real point of this entry is this: I am a sleeper. I need 7-8 hours a night to properly function. And a lot of the reason that I don't go out much on weekends is that it interrupts my sleep schedule. I generally go to bed by 11 on weeknights (12 on weekends) and I'm up at 6 on weekdays (by 8:30 on weekends). But Saturday night I was out until 2am, so I slept until 10:30 Sunday, and I couldn't fall asleep at 11 Sunday night, so I was tired at 6am yesterday, and it's basically a chain of horror until I'm back in my normal habits a few days.

So yesterday in Yoga class, during the final resting pose, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep.

I mean, the point of that pose is to meditate a few minutes, reflect on your time in the class, and relax after the strenuous workout. I usually doze off a bit. But I'm fairly certain you're not supposed to narc out. When the instructor started speaking again to end the class, I behaved like I do when my alarm goes off in the morning. I was like shocked into awake-ness. I'm pretty sure I had a weird dream too, but I couldn't remember it when I woke up. I don't think it's a good sign that I can fall into deep dreaming sleep at the drop of a hat. I mean, 9 times out of 10, I fall asleep the literal second my head hits the pillow at night, but I was laying on a thin rubber mat on a hardwood floor, and it didn't bother me at all. Not good.

I need to get back on my sleep schedule, stat. I was NOT happy when my alarm went off this morning, even though I was dead to the world by 11 last night. Something has to be done about this nonsense.

In other news, I decided to listen to Blake after about three and a half years and embrace protein shakes. I always thought I couldn't be satiated by breakfast unless it involved a carb of some kind, but yesterday I had a protein shake and some strawberries and I wasn't hungry again for like five hours. I was impressed. It doesn't have much fewer calories than what I usually eat in the morning, but I'm trying to reduce my carb intake so as to begin a rampage on my belly fat. The only carb materials I had yesterday were a handful of croutons in my lunch salad, a whole grain wasa wafer w/ peanut butter after the gym, and a bagel for dinner. OK, so the bagel wasn't a great idea, but I didn't get home from Yoga until 7:30 and I was STARVING. At any rate, this is all much better than the approximately 15 bread servings I usually have on a daily basis. I'd like to lower that to between 4-6. And I successfully got in 9 fruit/veggie servings yesterday, so I consider that a victory. I say I'm going to try to lose 10 pounds roughly every other week, but I'm serious this time. And I have very few excuses this time of year as well.

Oh! The uptown farmers' market opens this Saturday! I'm so pumped! It's about a block and a half from my house and it has delicious, fresh, cheap fruits and veggies. I'm going to go crazy on it on a weekly basis because our Teeter bills have become a bit high for my tastes (thanks, gas prices, for your impact on my groceries. I hate you).

Ok. I should work now.

Tax rebates!

So this has to be the best thing ever to happen on a Monday morning. I was checking my bank account balance, as I always do on Monday mornings, and it appeared unusually high. I was afraid I had forgotten to pay my student loan or something, so I looked at it more closely...and noticed $600 from the government. Happy day!

Now, I really am happy about this because I have spent $400 at BR in the past two weeks (but I did manage to get that price-adjusted on Saturday, so we're down to $350), and Blake's birthday is Friday so I spent in the $300-region for that, and I can use this extra money. However, I also have a frequent-travel bonus coming in a few weeks ($240!) and a birthday coming up in a month, so I'm not really hurting for cash. And therefore, when my mom comes here this weekend, there is a high chance that an expensive coach bag will be acquired.

I have been obsessed with this particular bag for MONTHS. I wanted it in deep red, which it no longer comes in, but at $800 it's a little high to request as a Christmas present. And my sister was greatly uncooperative when I suggested that she work at Coach again this Christmas so I could get it for 50% off. The only issue I saw was that it can't be put over your shoulder, which could get annoying...but it's so pretty.



Then, at the mall in Houston last week, I stumbled upon this one. It's so cute! It's only a little bit smaller (both are more than big enough to hold all of my necessaries as well as my work-stilettoes for my hike in the morning), it's $200 cheaper (and therefore directly within government-rebate range) AND it can be worn over the shoulder. Which I know because I walked around the store with it on my shoulder to see how I felt about it. I felt good.



There are a LOT of other things I want to buy right now, but I can probably wait for my birthday for those. I haven't bought a fancy new purse in like a year and a half. Unless you count my Coach computer bag, which I don't because my mom got it for me at the outlet.

Also at the mall this weekend I almost got another cat. I have always upheld that we can't have more than two cats because if the cat to person ratio in our house exceeds 1:1 we would be weird cat people. But I was willing to become a weird cat person for this particular cat. She was 2, just like our boys, and female, which is good because when you bring a new cat into a home with males, they don't feel as threatened if it's a female. She only weighed 5 pounds, so she was even tinier than Norman, which I didn't even think was possible, and which means she'd be easy to accommodate in our tiny condo. Her name was Cupcake, which I took as a sign because I love cupcakes, and she was wearing a harness and had a leash, which means she'll walk on a leash (don't judge me, Blake got a harness and leash to try out on our boys at Target last week. I think he's insane, and I don't want to be seen walking a cat). She would be in my house right now except that I noticed she had an "I've already been adopted" sign on her crate. I was happy that she got adopted and everything, but I wish she was mine. We're in trouble when I go back to the Humane society to volunteer. I have to try to not let myself get another kitty.

Nothing else really exciting this weekend, Jackie was in town so we went out Saturday night, but that's about it. Good times.

Rant: Airports are stupid

So I arrived in Charlotte from Houston tonight at about 7:15. My sister is flying in from Baltimore to arrive at 8:45. So it would be stupid for me to go home. Instead, the plan was to grab dinner (note: i love Quiznos flatbread salads), and then do a little bit of shopping/internet surfing/reading while I wait on her flight. So I get off the plane and proceed to the nearest flight status board. It is just departures. I go to the next. And the next. Only departures. So I figure I'll go to the main board in the middle of all of the terminals. Only departures. Ok, so I understand that it's been almost 10 years since people without airplane tickets could go through security to pick up their loved ones at their arrival gates. But is my situation so uncommon that they've decided that arrival boards inside the terminal are obsolete?

So I find an airport directory board, and I approach it hoping I can find either a guide to which airlines fly out of which terminals or at a minimum an information desk. No dice. There is a symbol for information in the key, but not on the map itself. Awesome. Well played, Charlotte Douglas International Airport. I surrender.

So I booted up the 'puter and looked it up online. Because fortunately the airport does have wireless internet (the fact that it was just enabled a few months ago, however, is ridiculous. But I digress). Unfortunately, she is traveling AirTran, which is shitty, and which has yet to confirm her arrival gate even though she lands in 45 minutes. So I'm going to keep checking that I guess. It does actually show her baggage claim number (really?), so I can pretty much guess what terminal she'll land in. I may just go find an AirTran employee and ask them about it/give them a piece of my mind. This is way more work than it needs to be.