Month: August 2011

Posted on

Calling all foodies…

One of my friends from grade school (talk about the magic of facebook!) has a pretty kick-ass blog that I recently discovered and began following. They review and discuss restaurants in various cities in which they have lived around the world – Brooklyn, London, Hong Kong, and soon Seoul. Not only do they review, but they give you a taste of the local flare, something which I love since Brooklyn is the only one of those places to which I’ve ever been. Jen also posts some of her recipes, which look pretty wickedly awesome. Too bad we all know the extent of my culinary prowess ends with PB&Js or else I might actually give some of them a shot. Maybe I’ll get R to test them out…

So check it:  TomEatsJenCooks

Or find their link over there —–> and click away. Bon appetit!

 

Posted on

Weekend reprieve

This past weekend was awesome. It was just 2 of those days where the whole time you think man, this is a really fun day. And with how busy we’ve been lately it seems like we hadn’t had our fair share of those for awhile. Well-deserved, I’d say.

My sister M and her fiance C came into town from Colorado on Thursday night for some business meetings on Friday, so they stayed at the Iron Horse Hotel that night. Oo la la. On work’s dime that’s a great choice. They stopped by my office after their Friday morning meetings to check out the place, then picked D up at daycare on their way to our house. So she got to leave school early and play with them that afternoon. We then all headed up to St. Ann’s for dinner Friday night, and it did not disappoint, as usual. It’s really called Schwarz’s Supper Club and is in teeny tiny St. Anna, WI, a little over an hour from here. Huge, delicious steaks and perfectly-made old fashioneds, all for a fraction of the cost you’ll find anywhere else. We dropped D at one of R’s brother’s house for the evening, then met friends for dinner and a couple drinks in Elkhart Lake afterwards. It was a beautiful night and a good time was had by all.

M and C spent Friday and Saturday nights at our house, and Saturday we were free all day. Wahoo! M and I went for a run mid-day (ran 3.23 miles in 30:26 for a 9:25 pace. slower than usual, but we had a huge hill in the middle and sprinted the last block), then we all headed downtown to take the Great Lakes Distillery tour that afternoon. That place is really cool. Their spirits are excellent, they have a full bar on-site, and it’s always great to see local businesses thriving with their products. I’m not a straight liquor fan by any means, but even I find theirs palatable. I also tried absynthe, and was surprised to find it not too bad. That evening there was a neighborhood party/summer concert just a few blocks from our house, so we loaded up a cooler with some beers, put it in the bottom basket of D’s stroller, and walked up there to hear some tunes. It turned out to be fantastic. There were approximately 1 million kids running and biking around, and the entire area had congregated on one of the main streets outside our little local grocery store. There was a big tent in the middle of the street where grills were set up and refreshments were being served. So we stood around for maybe 30-45 minutes, had our brews, then wheeled it back home to fire up our own grill. R cooked up the last of the Rausages as well as some brats from a fabulous meat market in Sheboygan, and we feasted. D went to bed around 8, then the 4 of us sat outside by a fire, enjoying the pleasant evening weather and some adult beverages.

Sunday M and C left shortly before 9 to catch their flight home, and then we had absolutely nothing on the agenda for the entire day. No places to go, no chores to do – something I like to call heaven. And the weather was spectacular again, which made it even better. D is officially in 1-nap-a-day territory, as it was the first weekend I couldn’t get her to take 2 naps at home. So when she went down after her lunch a little before noon, I put on my bikini and headed out to the backyard to snooze in the hammock and soak up some rays. Pure bliss, I tell you. The rest of the afternoon was spent just enjoying being home. R sat outside and caught up on some magazines, I played with D for awhile, and we got her water table back out to splash around in, too. She especially enjoyed carrying her little water toys all around the yard and driveway while we were out there. By late afternoon it was time to get her bathed and all the dirt and sunscreen washed off, then dinner for her and a little more playing before reporting for sack duty.

Summer weekends always fill up before the season even begins, so when we get ones like this to just relax and enjoy each other, they feel so wonderful. And guess what? We have another free one coming up again this weekend. Gasp! My heart might just explode with happiness.

Our group at St. Ann's
Fun with Auntie M & Unkie C
Little unstable on this hill...
Playing with Mommy
And playing with Daddy

 

 

Posted on

Things they don’t tell you about pregnancy – #10

Holy cow, double digits! I think I’m running out of topics here…

But have no fear, I do have one for this week. I had often heard that heartburn was a symptom of pregnancy, but having never experienced it before, I had no idea what it felt like. Everyone always warned oh it’s nasty, it’s this burning up and down your chest that feels like fire. Oh awesome, that sounds like tons of fun.

So when mine struck, I didn’t even think it was heartburn (kinda like i didn’t even think my contractions were contractions, but cramps. hmm, maybe i should have been paying better attention that whole time). The burning sensation I felt was always in my throat, never in my chest. It was kind of a nagging discomfort that seemed to make my mouth water a lot more than usual. As such, I kept thinking man, this sore throat sucks. Why will it not go away?

Yet again, duh, SM. Maybe it was the pregnancy brain, maybe it was just my own typical aloofness, but when I finally considered that maybe heartburn could be felt there, too, I tried some Tums. Ahhhh! (picture that being sung by a small chorus of angels, and that is what it felt like) My fiery, tingling, painful throat was finally feeling some relief. It’s amazing what magic those mushy, chalky little tablets possess. I didn’t even attempt to try the regular flavor ones, though, I went straight for the fruit flavors. Have you ever chewed on chalk? I haven’t, but can’t imagine it’s too pleasant, so didn’t really want to give it a shot. Especially when my body was already doing such weird things from growing a miniature human inside of it.

Dudes, those fruity little circles became my new best friends. But they have calcium too, they can’t be bad! Right? Who knows. I’m sure if you eat 400 a day it’s probably not the best idea, but I stuck to the 2-3 recommended as necessary. And man oh man, did I love those things. They became my pregnancy candy, and we all know how big my sweet tooth is. Think wooly mammoth tusk-sized.

Now I can’t remember exactly when in my pregnancy my heartburn began, unfortunately. But it was a fairly constant companion once it appeared. It didn’t seem to be triggered by certain foods more than others, either, it just seemed to be there at some point during pretty much every day. Fortunately I never had it bad enough to wake me up at night or cause trouble falling asleep, and I never needed anything prescription-strength to calm it. That family-sized little jar of Tums served me just fine. And then once D was born, it just up and disappeared.

How about you mamas out there? Are your hearts burning yet?

 

Posted on

Guilty pleasures

I have a confession to make, which you may or may not find surprising, depending on how well you know me. I am totally in love with junk reality tv. Channels like Bravo and E! tend to suck me in, especially when they run marathons. If I find a string of episodes of a show I’ve been missing, oo wee, look out! There goes Saturday. (ha! yeah right, i mean there went saturday. i haven’t been able to sit down and watch a tv marathon in ages)

The top contenders in my tv land would probably have to be My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant (terrible, i know, but i just can’t help myself!), and pretty much a nation-wide blanketing of the Real Housewives. The RH of Orange County are my favorites and Beverly Hills surprised me last season by coming in a close second, but the rest of them I actually can’t stand. New York have just gotten beyond ridiculous (except Bethenny – i love her! oh – all of her shows make the list too, whatever it will be called for the next season. and her skinny girl margaritas aren’t half bad either. anyone tried the sangria yet?), New Jersey are annoying as hell, D.C. were horrendous, Atlanta are now even too ghetto for me, and was there a Miami, too? I never watched that one. I could tell from the start that I would hate them.

Wait what? You haven’t seen My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding?? Holy shit. Well what are you still sitting here for? Go find it! It is seriously crazy. These gypsies (called irish travelers, living mainly in england) all get married super young and have the most extravagantly tacky, lavish weddings I’ve ever seen. It’s awesome! I watch most episodes with my mouth hanging open in incredulity at what these people find “pretty”. And how do they afford this stuff? I’ve even gotten R to watch this one with me because some of them are so mind-boggling. It appears that most of the women on the show are cleaning women of some sort, the guys work in scrap metal, almost no one makes it past grade school, yet they have ginormous weddings and the girls’ dresses cost like $50,000-$100,000. I’m not kidding! And the crowds at these weddings? Unreal. The kids are all grinding on each other in the hopes of finding a mate, yet they’re super strict when it comes to girls “doing anything” before they’re married. I can’t even explain it all – you just have to go watch. I think this one’s actually on TLC.

What’s with the Teen Mom, you ask? Well, that one I’ve actually watched those girls since they were the first season of 16 and Pregnant, so that means I’m automatically hooked. The newer seasons of 16 and Pregnant, though, I haven’t followed at all. And this one isn’t very high up on my list. If it’s on and it happens to be a rare night when R’s already gone to bed and I have free reign of the tv I’ll watch it, but I don’t clear my schedule for it or even put it on the dvr list.

R always chastises me for watching these shows. “This shit is what’s wrong with society,” he will say. “People thinking these shows are real.” Um, hello, I in no way, shape, or form think these shows are anywhere near reality. In fact, I’m always so happy watching them that they are not my reality. That’s part of their appeal – that some people are so far out there that they have shows like these for me to watch. Pure mindless entertainment, plain and simple. I’m definitely not taking notes on how to get my lips that big or hair that bleached or lifestyle so ludicrous, don’t worry. I just like to veg out for half an hour or 47 minutes and watch my trash-fest. So stop hating, Mr. Man Caves, Deadliest Catch, and Man v. Food Nation, among countless others that totally fill our dvr so my little shows have no room to be recorded anyway. (and i always sit through all of his shows with not a peep or complaint. why can’t he just shut up on the very few occasions that he happens to catch 5 minutes of one of mine so i can actually hear it?)

So fess up. How about you? Got any guilty pleasure trash tv shows that you love to watch? Chances are I’ve seen all of them at some point along the way, too, even if I didn’t deem them worthy of repeat viewings.

 

Posted on

Growing pains

Ever since I started this blog, the little dream I’ve had rattling around in the back of my head is to someday get big enough to make this an actual living. So I could stay home with D and any potential future siblings. So I could take care of the house during the days again instead of cramming every chore in after work and having zero free time between the minute I walk in the door and the minute I get into bed. Maybe I’d even get a chance to enjoy living in our house instead of viewing it as one constant project and workload.

But how? How do I make that happen? How do I get SM out there? How do I attract more readers? Does anyone else even care what I have to say enough to read here? I love writing this blog, but do the little snippets and tidbits from my life really entertain people enough to garner traffic? I’m always in awe of some of the blogs I read and their hundreds, if not thousands, of followers and how widely syndicated they’ve become. Granted, I’ve only been writing for a few months compared to years, but still.

I’ve also never considered myself a “writer” by any means. Does that make me less of a blogger? Does it show in my entries and turn people away? Or never even entice them to begin with?

How will I ever be able to compete with the already well-established blogs and their faithful? Not that I’m trying to compete in the sense that I want their readers to come to me, but compete in the sense that I’d like to carve out my own dedicated slice of this great wide internet too. How do they do it? Is there a magic blog fairy that’s sprinkled them with her popularity dust? Is there a list on which I need to get that says, “Hey! Read me!”? Is there that certain je ne sais quoi that all those other blogs have that I’m missing? Or is that just it – there’s “all those other blogs” so I don’t really stand a chance anyway?

Unfortunately I don’t really know how to answer any of those questions. So I’ll just keep typing away, emptying my brain and all its fabulous contents onto these little pages. And for those of you out there reading, thank you! I really do appreciate your stopping by and hopefully hanging out. You’re the ones for whom I like to tell these little stories, even if I have no idea who you are. 🙂

 

Posted on

Our life in pics

I have been remiss in my photo posting duties lately, so I thought I’d devote an entire post to these past couple weeks pictorially. They’ve been really busy for us, so there have been a ton of pictures to go through. Enjoy!

My beautiful girl, just after her 1st birthday
Silly girl
Watchu want?
So pretty (and yes, i do tell her that)
Mmm, spaghetti-Os
Her new favorite ball
She loved playing with the water table at the party
Rausage!
The cake I made for D
Hmm, birthday cake, you say?
Cakey little 1 year old hand
Birthday girl. Her dress had an adorable tulle overlay on the skirt part
R takes cool pictures
Daddy's little girl
Happy birthday, Daddy!
1st trip to the WI State Fair
Rooonnn Dayyyyyynnnnne
Yeah, the Axe!
Snoozing at The Micro
Hey I like this Micro place!
R had to get one of the "Cheapest Beers" at the Fair
Daddy and his silly sunflower
D helping me pack for Colorado
Daddy & D ready for the Packers' preseason
One of R's bday gifts - I thought this pic was so cute of him & D napping in Canada

 

p.s. i finally ran again last night, the first time since last tuesday. i really need to work on getting more than 1 run in per week. but anyway, i ran 3.57 miles in 32:01, for an 8:57 pace. again, pretty much my standard. it felt awful, so i’m surprised i was able to hold my usual pace. i want to get at least 1 more 5k in before the end of summer.