Happy New Year

This post is a little bit late, but, hey, better late than never, right?

This year I have several resolutions - all of which are pretty intense to tackle:

1.  Get my financial life in order.
2.  Lose some weight
3.  Start exercising or at least moving around more regularly
4.  Pass my PE exam
5.  Create a Living Will

All of these are seriously daunting tasks for me - but I have had enough of my "just go with it" attitude.  Things need to change, and I'm the only person who can make the changes I need to make to be a better me.  Yeah, I just said that.

Thankfully, Greg has agreed to work on all of these with me - so I have a partner in crime.  Which is awesome.

So far, here's what I've accomplished for each goal:

1.  Greg and I re-looked at our budget, set up a LearnVest account that truthfully tracks the money we're spending, and are holding each other accountable for every single purchase we make.  We'll see how we fare at the end of the month when we look at totals of what we spent in January.

2.  I started a diet today.  Thankfully, Greg is on the same diet, as are two of my female co-workers - so I have lots of people to look to for support.  We're following the "Crack the Fat-Loss Code" book - which means that I can't eat any carbs this week at all.  Which is going to be interesting.  But I'm up for the challenge.  The good news is that the diet requires me to eat once every three to four hours, so hopefully I won't feel too hungry at any point in the day and lose my resolve to continue.  Today's menu:
6:30 AM - Egg McLehrer "Muffin" (mini egg/egg white crustless quiche made with turkey bacon and cheese)
9:30 AM - Cheese stick
12:30 PM - Salad with lettuce, cucumber, cabbage, grilled chicken, and dressing
3:30 PM - Tuna fish mixed with celery, onion, and a little bit of mayo
6:30 PM - Steak with steamed broccoli and salad with cucumber and dressing
9:30 PM - Protein shake (probably chocolate raspberry or something like that)

I know you're jealous!  Greg and I have both recorded our starting weights - I'd like to try to get starting pictures also - we'll see how that goes.

3.  I walked one day last week, and once over the weekend - not Great, but better than what I was doing before. This week I'll try to walk more - maybe like 3 times??

4.  The exam is in April - I will be paying for it today - and start studying soon.

5.  Living will documents filled out, just need to get some witnesses to sign off on them and make sure the people I've identified as proxies are OK with taking on that responsibility.

So far, not so bad, right?  Wish me luck!

And, good luck to all of you out there who have resolutions of your own.  You can do it!!!!

It's The Most Wonderful Time...

This year I'm just not in the mood for Christmas.  I want to be in the mood.  I want to be excited about Christmas.  I want to think about things that are pretty, shiny, sparkly, and whimsical.  I want to enjoy the prospect of being able to start again with a new year, and, maybe, unlike year's past, a new me.

Last week, my company had one of the many holiday parties scheduled for this year.  This one was department-specific, and happened to be in good ole' New York City.  In my mind, New York is quintessentially Christmas, and visiting the "city that never sleeps" at this time of year usually gets me to feel more holiday-ey.

The stores are all decked out with unbelievable displays, bars and restaurants are filled with people gathered with friends, the Union Square holiday market is in full swing, and Times Square and Broadway are filled with tourists catching shows and having dinner before making the pilgrimage up to 48th St and 5th Avenue to catch a glimpse of the world renowned Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.  That larger than life fresh cut tree that's draped in millions of twinkling lights, looking over an ice skating rink where new loves hold hands trying not to fall down with an audience of thousands looking down upon them and parents try to teach their children how to glide across the ice with ease.  Opposite the plaza from the tree, stands Saks Fifth Avenue, whose facade is lit up with decorations that blink to a chorus of classic Christmas carols.  To get to 5th Ave from the tree, you have to walk through a canyon of lit up angels with trumpets in hand, making you feel like all this grandeur is just for you.  It really is magical.

So, since I haven't been quite up to the holiday madness this year, I decided that I'd meet up with Greg after my work holiday party on Friday, and we'd go up to Rockefeller Center to see the tree to get me into the Christmas spirit.

Well, all I can say is, it was kind of disappointing.  I don't know what happened.  It could have been the fact that I had imbibed quite a few glasses of wine and was more on the drunk side of sober, or it could be the fact that I'm getting older, or it could have just been the crowds of millions constantly bumping into me as I tried to take a peek - but the tree just didn't do it for me this year.  I took a few pictures with my phone - but as stated above - I wasn't exactly stone cold sober (and the people were bumping into me) so all my pictures came out kind of blurry - but here's the "best" of them:

Not so impressive, right?

Here's a picture taken off the official Rockefeller Center website (gives a much better illusion of the "magic" that the tree brings to life):

And here's an even better picture taken by some random person, whose picture I found doing a quick Google Image search:

In my mind, that is the tree I should have seen.  I think our first mistake was trying to see it from the side rather than from the "Angel" point of view - meaning we entered Rockefeller Center from south of that canyon rather than facing the crowds heading directly into that area.  I'm all for getting away from the crowds, but that seemed to be the fatal flaw.  We didn't even really see the angels, and we also didn't see the Sak's Fifth Avenue facade - leaving my holiday spirits in the same rut they were in to begin with.

I have a few more days to get my act together and get my Christmas spirits high.  I just found out that my Mom won't be working on Christmas Eve, so hopefully me, my sisters, my brother-in-law's, my Mom, and my nieces can all gather at my sister's house early on Christmas Eve to sing carols and drink holiday sangria together.  And if holiday sangria can't do the trick, I really will be worried.

Happy Holidays!

Best Travel Mug...EVER!!!

Last weekend I traveled to south Jersey to be home with my mom and my sisters so that we could continue our annual tradition of baking a MILLION Christmas cookies that we can give to our nearest and dearest friends as gifts for the holidays.  It was a ton of fun being with them, making a mess, and baking up a storm!  Here's a shot of our end-result:

Yes, those are full size buffet trays.
Each filled with multiple layers of  artery-clogging , delicious treats.
YUMM!!!!

Anyway - on Sunday morning, my two youngest sisters and I decided to attend mass with my Mom.  Although none of us are really religious, my Mom is, and it makes her happy when we go to church with her, so we did.  Of course, none of us decided we would definitely go until we only had 10 minutes to get out of PJs, comb our hair, and put on some decently non-wrinkled clothes.  As we were rushing around upstairs getting ready, my Mom offered to make us coffee to take along on the ride in travel mugs.  I happily accepted her offer, and just before going out to the car, I threw some milk into the already-prepared cuppa' and hopped into the car.  The coffee was very hot, and I burned my tongue taking the first sip.  Needless to say, because the coffee was so hot, I didn't finish all of it on the 10 minute drive to the church.  Sad that I had to abandon my coffee in the car, I left the mug in the back seat and begrudgingly went into church with narry a half a cup of coffee trying it's hardest to get me to fire on all cylinders.

Mass was fine, nothing earth shattering happened, although, the homily (the part where the priest talks to the congregation after he's read the gospel), was delivered by Catholic evangelist, Gary Zimak.  He didn't have anything earth shattering to talk about either, but he was, at least, interesting to listen to (afterall, you can't be an evangelist and not be charismatic) but, what I got out of his talk was that his facial expressions are extremely similar to those displayed by the actor who plays the character of Nick on one of my favorite TV sitcoms - The New Girl.  (His real name is Jake Johnson, but he will forever be Nick to me.  He's acted in lots of movies you don't even realize until after you become a fan of The New Girl - like the other day I realized he was in 21 Jump St - saw the movie when it first came out, but didn't realize it until I was watching it on showtime.  But, as always, I digress.)

Gary and Jake even look like each other a little bit when they're not making any crazy facial expressions!  Case in point:

Jake Johnson

Gary Zimak

Take away Mr. Zimak's glasses, and add some grays to Jake's hair, and I think they would look like the same exact person.

ANYWAY...what was my point?  

Travel Mugs...RIGHT!!!!

So, after church, we go out to the car, and I make a comment about knowing my coffee, that's been sitting outside in 40 degree weather, won't be warm enough to drink anymore.  My sister Adrea tells me that she bets it will still be warm since the travel mug I used is the best one they have at home and it keeps things warm FOREVER!  SO, without much faith in any travel mug's ability to keep coffee warm enough for me after an hour in a tempered environment, I open the mug and take a sip...and HOLY CRAP BALLS!!!!!  The stuff is hot.  Not lukewarm.  Not pass-able.  IT'S HOT!  (I feel like I should make reference to a Jay-Z or Usher song here - but I'm totally drawing a blank on that one.  Fill in to your liking.)

OH Wait!  That reference should be to Nelly - that's why.  "It's getting HOT in here..."blah blah blah.  I know, I ruined it.  But it just hit me and I had to share.

OK, OK, OK!  Back to the mug.

Seriously.  How is it possible that my coffee, poured well over an hour ago, and sitting in a cold car, could still be hot???  By keeping it in a THERMOS brand mug made with ThermMax Insulation - that's how!!!!  Apparently, the same company that used to make those giant milk bottle things that fit into a lunch box that you had to bring for lunch every day filled with milk because your parents didn't trust you to use your quarter to buy white milk instead of chocolate at school every day - now makes super heat keeping travel mugs for your use and enjoyment.  I was FLOORED!!!  I've been using Starbucks brand coffee mugs for many years - and - seeing as it's a Starbucks branded thing and it costs an arm and a leg to buy - I assumed they were the best heat-keeping travel mugs my hard earned $20 could buy.  And, because I thought I already owned THE BEST, I thought I was just going to have to go through life drinking my lukewarm coffee from my travel mug when I got to work.  There were days when I would get to work and go to take my first sip of coffee and be so disappointed with the temperature that I wouldn't drink it at all or I'd go to the microwave, put the coffee into a ceramic mug, nuke it to get it warm again, then put it back into my travel mug just to be able to drink that necessary one cup I have each day.

Well, after this amazing discovery, I immediately considered taking that awesomest of awesome travel mugs off my Mom's hands.  She has enough stuff already...right?  

Well I made that joke...And was immediately threatened with death if I dared to even think about taking the thing home.  Gosh Mom!  I'm your first born!  Give a little, huh?  Clearly, she wasn't having it.

So, like every logical 30-something, I decided to "Google" the product, and found that Thermos makes whole line of vacuum-insulated coffee mugs and tumblers, including ones that have leak proof seals (the one my Mom has dosn't have that - so take THAT Mom!).  These suckers guarantee to keep hot beverages hot for 5 hours, and cold ones cold for 9 hours!  One review I read said that someone had used one of these things to hold iced coffee for a day, and, when he got home to wash the mug, he found out there was still whole ice cubes inside...after sitting in an office ALL DAY!!!  How is that even POSSIBLE???  I don't care how, really, all I know is that I had to have one. So, off to Amazon I went, and, thanks to my nifty Prime subscription, last night, my new favorite piece of kitchen gadgetry arrived.  I am using it this morning, and even at 10:30, my coffee is still hot and tasty.  I love this thing!  No longer am I forced to rush through drinking my coffee trying to ward off the inevitable cooling down to the point of non-drinkability.  Now, I get to enjoy every sip.  At my leisure.  I may be drinking coffee ALL DAY!!!!  Yeah, it's that good.  Here's a photo of my favorite travel mug (and lots of my various desk stuff).

This baby doesn't look like much, but it's AWESOME.  Seriously.  Thermos isn't paying me to say this at all - but hey, guys, if you're reading this and WANT to send me a free one of these gems, I wouldn't object.  Just sayin'.

And, the best part?  Totally leak free.  I literally sat this thing upside down on my desk this morning, (while it was still full) and peeled off a sticker with a bar code from the bottom, and had to keep it that way for probably 5 minutes, to get all that sticky residue off with tape.  Not one leak!

Sidenote: why do the companies that make stickers for barcodes not make stuff that peels off cleanly?  It's such a pain in the buttox to get that sticky stuff off sometimes.  I mean, come on!  Thermos can make a container that keeps beverages hot for hours on end.  How hard is it to make an adhesive that sticks without leaving behind residue???

Anyway - I think I'll be buying another one of these today.  They make one that's red on the outside that I'm kind of in love with.  The color change is apparently worth ten more dollars since this one cost me $17.99 and the red one is $27.99 - but honestly, I feel like I will be able to keep this thing for years without having to replace it.  Let's hope I'm right!

Sorry for the long post, I'm just SO EXCITED!!!!

Happy 12-12-12 everyone!!!!!  

Oh! To be a Tween Again...

Last week, Greg and I were lucky enough to see the Broadway performance of Newsies.

Which is based on one of my favorite all-time movies EVER!

It was released in 1992, when I was just a young lass of 11 years, and still thought it possible for me to one day be rich, famous, and a pop singer/movie star.  Due to my inherent lack of experience and wisdom that can only come from aging and facing reality in life as we know it, one of the reasons I was so enthralled with the movie was the cast of young men.  Boys, really.  Boys who could act, sing, AND DANCE!  And who were absolutely, without a doubt, hands down the CUTEST boys I had ever seen in my life.  All scraggly hair, with bright eyes and shining smiles - THEY were who people LIKE ME (in the adult verion of myself as seen from my tween-y perspective) ended up falling in love with, and, naturally, one day marrying before we lived happily ever after.  Take a look at this fantastic compilation of clips from the movie.  I mean, COME ON, what on-the-brink-of-hormonal-explosion tweenage girl wouldn't think that the all-star, talented, smooth chested, wise-ass smirking, newscap wearing, boyish smiling cast  lead by a twinkly eyed Christian Bale, is OMG - TO DIE FOR???

Anyway, the play was AMAZING!  There were lots of noticeable differences from the movie, but they didn't detract from the story or make watching it annoying if you know the movie by heart, like I do.  The songs were similar, but not exactly the same as they were in the movie, and there were some new additions that made me understand why the show received a Tony Award for Best Original Score.  I was glad we went to see it and would recommend it to anyone who likes the movie, or just likes well produced, talent riddled Broadway musicals.

In case you're curious, here's a pic of the twinkly eyed not-so-smooth chested man I did marry...true, he's not the best singer in the world (thankfully, he's also not the worst!), but he'll dance up a storm for me any day...even in public places...just to make me smile.

And, yes, he'll also do dishes with my sisters and brother-in-laws after a long day of cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the masses that are my family.  I may not be rich, famous, or a movie star, but I sure am a lucky gal.

Guilty Pleasures

There are several things in life that I absolutely love, yet feel somewhat ashamed to admit for any number of reasons.  In the spirit of Thanksgiving and expressing my gratitude for all the "little things" in life, here's a list of my most secret (or not so secret) indulgences:

#1 - Grey's Anatomy

I started watching this when it first aired - you know, when George and Izzy were still on the show - when it was actually good.  It's not that great of a show anymore - hell - it's basically a prime time soap opera.  But, I LOVE IT!!!!  And I soo sooo soooo want Christina and Hunt to get back together already!  And Mark and Lexie need to come back from the dead to marry each other like they should have for the 6 seasons they were alive and in love without admitting it to anyone but themselves. That kind of stuff happens in soap operas - and not just the ones that air on Telemundo either!  AMIRIGHT???


#2 - Nutella

Yep, I'm just like the squirrel around this stuff.  Get me a small jar and a spoon and I could finish Nutella off within an hour.  Add a jar of peanut butter to that mix and I'd finish it all in 30 minutes or less.  No Joke.  I think I might be addicted.  Are there support groups for this stuff?  *wipes the chocolaty smear off of mouth*

#3 - Facebook Stalking

This is self-explanatory enough as is.  I had a hard enough time deciding to put it up here, I won't bore you to death about all the graphic detail I now know about several folks I went to High School with and family members whom I've never met.  Let's just say that I'm good...very good.  Muahahahaha...

#4 - You Scream, I Scream, We ALL SCREAM FOR:

My freezer pretty much always has some sort of frozen dairy confection enclosed - and I will eat them, at any time of day, without abandon.  What time is it?  ICE CREAM TIME?  You bet your sweet arse it is!  The picture shown above (as are all included in this post) were found using Google image search - but it looks like a delightful trio of flavors I would be honored to slurp down would I be given the option of including three flavors on one chocolate dipped sugar cone!  Oh the insanity!!!!

And, finally, my favorite!

#5 - Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Why, yes, those are the Knights who say Nee!  And you must bring them an shrubbery!  A rather nice one - not too large, nor too small.  And if you don't they will continue to say Nee, Nee!

'Tis nothing but a flesh wound!  Come back here you yellow bastard!  I will bite your legs off!

 

Come back and I will taunt you a second time!

Happy Thanksgiving to One and All!!!!

NEE!!!!

Thanksgiving II: The Return of the XXXXL Ziploc Bags

Yep, we're hosting Thanksgiving again this year.  And, for all intents and purposes, I'm underly stressed out about the whole thing.  Literally I've done NOTHING to prepare, and the holiday is exactly 9 days away.  I haven't looked up one recipe, haven't nailed down my menu, haven't made sure all our linens and such are ready to go, haven't even decided how large of a turkey we'll get or if I will buy it fresh or frozen (and if it's the latter, I need to get on the ball ASAP and get it defrosting this weekend!).

Remember last year when I was waking up in the middle of the night with cold sweats dreaming about dried out turkey?  Well, not so this year.  By this time last year I had shopped at a million stores to buy tons of odds and ends we'd need to decorate our table, made the breadstick-cournicopia that was the centerpiece of our appetizers, and had even come up with really cute napkin rings to adorn each place setting.  This year, thankfully, I will be able to re-use most of what we bought, but I have no clue about how I'll decorate, if at all.  Or what we'll have for appetizers.  I figure a veggie tray from Costco will suffice, right?

The one thing I do know for certain is that Greg and I will definitely brine the turkey again - it turned out to be very tasty last year and I see no reason to change a good thing.  Of course, to brine a 20-lb turkey appropriately, one needs a rather large pot - or - in our case - an XXXXXXXL Ziploc Bag.  Yes, they make them that large (OK I may have exxagerated the number of "X's" shown on the actual bag packaging, but seriously, these bags are ginormous!)  Here's a picture of Greg from last year, man-handling our 22 pound turkey, which fit (with tons of extra room) into one of those aforementioned GIANT ziplocs.  Take note of how the turkey looks like it would barely fit into our sink.  That's because it was almost too large to do so.  The sucker was huge.  But it had nothing on the brine bag!

Here's a picture of the box of bags we bought last year at Target. They come in a 3-pack, and yes, they're safe for food use (at least according to the Ziploc FAQ webpage - see below).

Here's hoping that we can pull off another successful holiday...or that we at least have relatives who love us enough to not care much if we botch it all up and end up eating Chinese.  

Hurricanes on the (Finished) Porch

When I think of the title of this post, I picture me sitting on my fancy new porch, in a comfy chair, with the breeze from our ceiling fans cooling my skin, while sipping on a tall glass of a strong, delightfully fruity drink while reminiscing about my vacation to New Orleans.  I picture neighbors walking their dogs and saying hello while children ride their bikes up and down the street, yelling about whose house they'll be going to next.

Unfortunately, my last week was nothing at all like what I described above.  If you live anywhere in the US (and probably anywhere overseas) you've most definitely heard about the destruction and devastation that Hurricane Sandy brought to the Northeastern United States, in particular New York City and New Jersey.

It was a doozy (yeah, I really said "doozy") of a storm - I know because I was working throughout, and, for the first time in my life, I was actually a little bit scared by the weather.  Seriously, I don't know how the residents of Florida and all the Caribbean Islands do it year after year - hurricanes are NO JOKE!!!  The flooding alone was devastating enough - but the winds are really what got my attention.  There was one point during the storm that I was inside a building, but could hear debris and roof-top mounted equipment being whipped around by the wind...and actually witnessed something hitting an overhead window panel and break the glass.  We managed to clear an entire floor of people in less than 15 seconds.  Thankfully nobody was hurt, but, there was a point where I wasn't quite sure if I was actually going to survive the storm.  There was another instance when I was in a car trying to locate an electrical substation in a parking lot that was in the process of flooding.  I opened the driver's door to get out of the car and was almost pulled out of the car because the wind whipped the car door open so fast and I wasn't expecting it.  I'm telling you people, it was serious.

There are many people out there who have lost everything they own - their homes, cars, clothes, everything!  If you are wondering where to donate, here's an ABC website with lots of links to organizations that are accepting donations: http://abcnews.go.com/US/hurricane-sandy-victims/story?id=17598687#.UJlTkm-QMuc

Thankfully, I'm one of the lucky ones who only sustained very minor damage to my home and was without power for a few days - my biggest complaint about the storm is having to throw away the melted ice cream that was in my freezer after holding onto it a few days in the vain hope that it would somehow be salvaged by the return of power.

As I've been updating this on a non-regular basis, it turns out that Greg and I did manage to finish our front porch project - literally the Friday before the storm hit (on Sunday).  We even hung up the mailbox and our house number to make our completion official.  We were both a tiny bit worried that the storm was going to damage our front porch masterpiece somehow.  Thankfully, our worries were all unfounded.

Here's a picture of our front porch, taken the Saturday before the storm.  Today, it looks pretty much the same except that the leaves have all blown off the roof and are now in a giant pile in front of our house on the curb.  Someday, when the weather is warmer and the threat of nasty weather is still a few months out on the calendar, I plan to actually enjoy a hurricane on my front porch...and I don't mean the weather kind!