Archive for September, 2011

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September 21, 2011

Jingle Jingle Jingle

So, a while back on Twitter, a bunch of us started talking about a race we could all run together. I can’t remember who brought it up, but it seems to me there were 4 or 5 people interested. The Hot Chocolate 15k was suggested … but that one’s expensive, and seemed above most of our mileage abilities.

But FEAR NOT! I think I’ve found one!

 

The Jingle All The Way 8k.

It’s on December 11th, in DC. The course itself is beautiful (you run straight at the Capitol for a while) … and 8k is only 5 miles (actually, a tiny bit less) … so for those worried about the 15k distance, this should settle that.

Plus, they give you bells for your shoes. ::grins::

The husband ran this last year (it was a 10k in 2010), and said it was great. I had a blast watching the sillies that came out in full costume (Santa and his reindeer, for example) to jog on that winter morning.

Registration is $25 through the end of September and goes up from there. ($40 for race day last-minute registering!) I signed up last night.

For those out-of-towners … we have a tiny apartment, but there’s a couch and an air mattress, plus floor space if anyone needs a place to crash. We’ll make a giant  pot of pasta Saturday night. =)

Now … to find a knee-high pair of red and green striped socks. Who’s with me?

Posted in I Do Stuff!, Whip Me Into Shape | Leave a Comment »

September 20, 2011

Adventures with Alice: Sally Lunn Bread

And we’re back again for more play time in the kitchen!

 

On a related, if off-the-mark note, how cute are these? I got them as a joke for my husband, who would always look cross-eyed at any recipe that used “a pinch of salt” or “season to taste”. Turns out, the DASH spoon is 1/8 teaspoon. Super handy for measuring yeast!

After the mishaps with yeast buying, and a few helpful tips from Cindy (she of the AMAZING birthday cake), we were set. Milk, eggs, butter, sugar, flour, salt, yeast. Can do.

 

Being my first attempt at bread, I wanted to try something simple. The recipe for Sally Lunn Bread (again, via Smitten Kitchen) required no kneading. Um, a full on real bread, without kneading? SOLD. The write up promised that it would be a dense, slightly sweet bread … almost like a brioche, without the hours and hours of work.

 

Let me tell you, Alice had her work cut out for her. During that final mix (after the last of the flour), she was bucking all over the place. I think I’ll do that bit by hand next time. That being said, she was a trooper, and expertly mixed it all up … without whining. What an awesome sidekick!

 

Then it was time to let it rise. I was a little worried I hadn’t activated the yeast right (the temperature for the liquid was SUPER specific in the recipe), considering I’d never done it before. But, I managed to walk away for an hour and came back to it nice and doubled! The photos (above) are a little hard to compare, thanks to my lack-o-lining-up-the-shots … but it was doubled, trust me.

 

Into the pan we go for one more rise. This is where I messed up. Instead of just LEAVING IT ALONE I tried to spread and shape it to the pan. Of course, it wasn’t going to shape. And all it did was cease to rise in the places I’d prodded. Lesson learned. Don’t touch the dough, Sarah! But that wasn’t going to stop me from trying to bake it!

 

Hey look! It worked!! And boooooooy did it taste good! The husband is officially a convert … and has decided the smell of baking bread is the best ever.

But we already knew that, right?

Since it’s fresh, I’m thinking we can’t keep it any longer than 5 days or so. Does anyone have a better idea of time? I want to use what’s left (about a third of the loaf) for french toast (YES, PLEASE), but I’m not sure if I should. What do you guys think?

So … total success! Fairly simple, no long processes, delicious. I’m calling it a win. And, even though my loaf didn’t look like the recipe pictures, I’m still thinking it looked pretty damn good.

YAY! BREAD!

Posted in Adventures with Alice, YAY!!! | 12 Comments »

September 19, 2011

Reclaiming

You know, I’m not often disappointed in APW. It happens occasionally, but not often.

Today, though, I am.

I know that sentiment may be unpopular, but hear me out.

In today’s post we have a woman who has trouble with calling her partner “husband”.* For her, the word invokes the old stereotypical husband and wife roles, and she wants no part in it. No problem, that’s fair.

The problem I have is in the resolution of the issue. We just won’t use the word husband! See? Problem solved!

Except that the name of the damn site is RECLAIMING Wife. The intro flat-out says “we’ve talked a lot on APW about making, and not making, that word our own”. So, why are we reclaiming WIFE, but abandoning HUSBAND?

It just … cheapens the whole thing for me.  For all of the effort to really make “wife” into something we’re comfortable with and even proud of, we just throw away husband? Why is it any less worthy of reclaiming, reestablishing, reshaping into something worth keeping around?

To have the same women who comment so hard on making “wife” what they want it to be chiming in with “Yah! Me, too! What’s with that stupid word anyway?!” just irks me beyond belief.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but this whole “I’m only going to fight for it if it’s about ME” attitude really pisses me off.

 

* This is not a rant at the post author. She doesn’t like wife either, and that is totally fair. This rant is about everything else, NOT HER. Promise. =)

** File this under “Rawr Rawr Rawr, Get Off My Lawn!”

Posted in Mow? | 15 Comments »

September 16, 2011

Once More

What, you guys thought I’d leave you hanging with the reunion drama?

In the last month, a new reunion has been put together. For October. At the local Dave & Busters … also known as the place people hung out at while we were IN high school. On the plus side, this makes it local for many many many of the people who will be attending. And it’s signifcantly cheaper. On them minus side … well, you guys have read enough of my opinion on this to figure out the minuses. =)

The latest drama is the freaking payment. YET AGAIN the organizer (totally different girl this time) use her own money to put down a non-refundable deposit. Then took RSVPs, but not payments. Now, she’s trying to collect money. Let’s just say, it’s not going well.

From the past week:

 

Hey everyone, only a few days left to send in your payment, we haven’t received payment from half of the RSVPs, in order to get this show on the road.. We need those payments!! Keep sending them in, hope u see EVERYONE on October 22!!

Payment is due this Friday 🙂 We are in very grave danger of having to cancel because we got your RSVPs, but not your payments. Only about half have paid. We have worked really hard and have given a considerable amount of money for this already, all we need is your payments now. Payment is NOT accepted at the door. If we don’t get your payments in by Friday, we will have to cancel. Links to Paypal have been sent to your email and are on this page. You even have an option to drop by a Wells Fargo to pay. Please send in your payments so we can keep this going.

It’s [name removed] here, and I wanted to write you all because I want to let you all know, we have worked really hard at getting this reunion organized, nice, and fun. We listened to all of you to change the date, changed the entire reunion committee, and changed the venue to make it local. We even made sure all of you gave your RSVP’s before we put our deposits down, to get the excitement rolling again!! Now do something for us and pay!

Hey everyone: If you are in some sort of financial trouble and you cannot go anymore, please let us know…our money is on the line too, and the longer we wait, more money of ours is down the drain, which honestly, is not fair to us. Please let us know. Thank you!! 🙂

Good Afternoon everyone!! Woke up to a lot of payments and e-mails, which is great! It gets us pumped! There were a few questions I would like to answer: You will be refunded if we have to cancel, which I hope we don’t! 🙂 Being honest, we can’t make this happen without your payment! If your plan is to pay on the 16th, please let me know…but if you’re thinking about waiting until the 17th, its not wise because if everyone thought that, this wouldn’t happen.
 
Thank you to everyone who paid today and yesterday, things are coming together and things are looking up, let’s get those payments in by Friday so we can take the next step!! The reunion is only 6 weeks away, it is gonna be such a blast!!!
 
Payment is due this Friday! Don’t wait, pay so we can make this happen!!!
 
WE CANNOT MAKE THIS HAPPEN WITHOUT ALL OF YOU!
 
Thank you so much to all our classmates who have stepped up to the plate the last couple of days and made your payments on PayPal and gone into your local Wells Fargo!! It really shows how much everyone appreciates the committee’s hard work and how pumped up everyone is for our reunion!! It’s gonna be a blast!!!
 
only 1 day until payment is due!! We need your payments to make this happen! 🙂
 
Just a heads up, we haven’t received enough payments yet to put the next deposit down, remember there is only 1 day left!!! Let’s do this class of 2001!!!!
 
Payment is due tomorrow!!!!! Send them in! We need to make this happen!
 
Tomorrow is the last day to pay, hopefully people come through so we can make This happen!!! Email us if u have any questions or concerns
 
Only hours left to make your payment for our reunion!! Hope everyone comes through!! Let’s do this!
 
 
And THAT doesn’t even include the emails they’ve sent, and personal messages they’ve put on people’s FB walls. I’ve been emailed four times saying they haven’t received my payment … and responded that they didn’t get my RSVP either, so stop harassing me.
 
Hmm. Something tells me this isn’t going to happen.
 
Oh … and for those of you wondering about the caliber of people I went to school with? Here’s a bit I snagged from one of my classmate’s pages. All spelling errors are hers:
 
Religious Views
 
Political Views
 
Favorite Quotations Life is drama drama is life deil with it. Go foreword to the future and never look back. To know you is to love you to love you is to know you. Quote form st tng’s data
 
::snorts::
 
Have a good weekend, guys. =)

 

Posted in Mow? | Leave a Comment »

September 14, 2011

Regret

Over the last couple of days I’ve been reminded of just how much I was enjoying my life a few years ago … and how much I miss that.

First off, looking up a construction project here in DC, I came across this. Half way through it I realized just how masterfully put together it was. And my appreciation grew. Because this is what I used to do for a living. Offering Memorandums, they’re called. Marketing at it’s finest … making an area, a project, a company look attractive, spinning the demographics, detailing all the little things that make this package SPECIAL … and then, of course, laying it out so it all comes together nice and pretty. It was a job that allowed me to be creative, and at the same time hold my completed work in my hands, and know I’d done well.

I lost that job due to world-wide layoffs (I was with a Fortune 500 company at the time) in July 2008. Commercial real estate was coming to a crashing halt, and there was no way I was going to find a comparable position with another company.

It took me until April of last year to find ANY position in commercial real estate, and this time, I’m on the property management side. It’s something I enjoy, and am good at, but sometimes I really miss the marketing. REALLY miss it.

Then there was Monday night. Driving home from bible study, I called my dad to catch up. He filled me in on all KINDS of things (he’s working again, my sister got a car, an uncle moved, etc etc etc) that I would have heard about right away, if I were still living in California. I miss it. I miss being able to be close to my dad and my siblings (the rest of the family is an entirely separate post). I HATE that I will not be there to tag along with my sister as she plans her wedding. I mean, sure, I’ll be involved in the planning (mostly because I don’t mind putting myself in front of her when psycho-opinionated-family-members start up, having had it done to me) but … when she shops for her dress? When she wants to sit down and giggle over magazines? When she’s overwhelmed and needs a good cry, hug, and some wine?

Not to mention that I haven’t seen our nephew since he was 2 weeks old. The husband has NEVER met him. Baby boy is teething now, it’s been so long. And the godson is growing up far too fast. I’m incredibly blessed that he’s the type of child who remembers everyone … he doesn’t forget me when I’m not around for 6 months. He knows me, and knows that I’m special. But I hate that I’m missing this last year before he’s off to school.

Basically, I’m just down in the dumps about it all. The fact that the long dark winter is only a few weeks away is not improving my mood. So I sit here. Wallowing to myself. ]

::sighs::

Nothing to see here. Move along.

Posted in Me Time | 5 Comments »

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