Yearly Archives: 2011

Today, it snows. The sky is pouring down huge, fluffy flakes at a rapidly accumulating rate (again). Everything is white and peaceful. This means I get to spend this Tuesday wallowing in my pansyness and stay home all day hunkered down in the comfortable warmth of my sweats because the mere thought of driving in this crap still sends waves of panic through my body. This also means I get to dream about all the cute sundresses I want to buy when the miracle of summer (read: leaving the house with less than 13 and 1/2 layers on) finally rolls around. I’m thinking of the day I’ll get to leave our windows open to welcome in the summer breeze during the day, and all the knee-grazing and bare-armed, adorably-patterned or plainly simple frocks I’d like to slip on to run around town in. I’m dreaming of adventurous weekend getaways to cities or towns we’ve never explored before with their mild weather, glowing sunsets, and gushing warm winds that smell of wildflowers. I’m imagining lounging outside on our Adirondack chairs on the side porch, listening to the radio and sipping a beer (or a cool mojito with fresh mint from our herb garden) before cooking dinner over the open flame of our firepit and heading to the drive-in theatre to catch a flick down the road in Amelia. I’m thinking of long walks around the neighborhood at dusk, playing lawn games in our backyard, and bike riding through the Bass Island trail stopping only for a dish of ice cream along the way.

Yes, this is my favorite part of the morning. The part where I snuggle up on the sofa with an English muffin, yogurt and clementine, catch up on the blogs I read, and dream of whatever I dream of that day – finding the perfect job, fun places to vacation to, the things on my daily to-do list, or summer. It is peaceful and quiet and the time is my own for a brief half hour before I stand up to stretch the lazies out and get started on my tasks which keep me surprisingly more busy than I imagined.

We have a lot to keep us occupied over the next few weeks. Now that Ted’s new saw has arrived we want to build sawhorses, build and install additional shelves for the kitchen cabinets, and build the wall-hanging shelving unit for the basement. After that we’ll need to organize the basement and garage accordingly, and finally get our kitchen (and all the bakeware, cookware, and utensils still laying homeless on the floor) arranged with the new kitchen furniture. Now that we’ve lived here a few months and are more settled in terms of knowing what to expect, we need to figure out a budget based on our anticipated monthly expenses. We’re still waiting on the dishwasher to be repaired or replaced, that monstrous leak & stain in the hallway to be fixed, and once we order it, the protective glass top for the kitchen island to arrive. Obviously we have a lot to do, but we have nights and weekends and at our own leisurely pace, we’ll get it done when we can get it done. I’m still looking for jobs and Ted is still busy with his job (he’s in a lull right now, but will be working mostly every weekend on shows come February) and of course we love just relaxing and spending time together, and those things are top priority.

Today, in addition to organizing my desk and more of the same old same old, I am also doing what two carpet cleaning companies could not do – scrubbing the stains out of the carpet. I’ve mentioned before that the family of mini-beasts who lived here before us did a real work of art on the carpets. I seriously have no idea what they thought they were accomplishing by pouring tar, koolaide, bleach and whatnot on their carpets, but they look awful. Luckily only half the house is carpeted, though from what I understand some of the hardwood floors had to be refinished after they moved out as well. Anyhow, in hindsight we should have made the landlord replace the carpeting before we moved in, but that’s neither here nor there at this point. He did send out two different carpet cleaners to try to get the stains out, but the stains just reappeared again after they left. At least we know the carpets are clean even if they are still stained. I happen to have this miracle-in-a-bottle carpet cleaning stuff called Mystical. I don’t know, nor do I care, what the ingredients are (probably stardust, fairy powder and arsenic), but whatever it is, this stuff works. With a few squirts of this stuff and a little arm work, I’ve managed remove, or at least significantly diminish a fair share of the stains on the downstairs carpet. I’m attacking the upstairs office and guest room next. So, why did these carpet cleaners get paid if I’m able to do a better job than the professionals? And furthermore, why don’t they use this stuff? Hmmm. Something else to think about on this snowy Tuesday. I’ll ponder that when I’m on break from pondering about summer.

I’m a creature of habit. And since today is Monday, I do Monday things like laundry, washing sheets and towels, dusting, vacuuming, grocery shopping, and other mundane tasks. For as much as sit around wishing the perfect job would magically plop into my lap (btw, I’m only sort of kidding. I do my share of searching and applications, but sadly the perfect opportunity has yet to just appear and present itself to me), I wonder how I’m going to continue to cook dinners from scratch every day, grocery shop, keep the house clean, knock out big home improvement projects, blog, have a social life with my friends (yeah, when I make them that is), do theatre and dance stuff again, and spend time with my husband when I have a full-time job. The answer is fairly simple. It just plain won’t be like it is now. I’ll have to fix quick shortcut meals, grocery shopping will be done one evening after work or on the weekend, the house won’t be as clean as often as it is now, we’ll spend set weekends focused on one home project at a time, I’ll write shorter blogs less frequently, and my weekend and evenings time with Ted will be spent doing chores and other stuff together that we need to get done instead of loafing around and hanging out. In other words, we’ll be just like any other working family in America. And let’s be honest, that kind of sucks a little. It’s definitely not deterring me from finding a job, but I have to admit that it’s nice to be able to get all this adult stuff done on a weekday instead of giving up our free time together on the weekend. And I am going to miss that a little bit when I’m back in the world of employment. But we’ll adjust, like we always do. You take the bad with the good in every situation.

Awhile back I promised that more insightful posts would be on their way….and they are soon. I promise. Just not today.

We sure do know how to pick ’em. This morning while sitting smashed in a pew, unable to see the altar or anything else for that matter, surrounded by hundreds of loud, fidgety kids and space-sucking winter coats in the most crowded mass I have ever been to (ranking right up there with Christmas and Easter services), I wondered what on earth was going on. First of all it was apparently “Sports Sunday” meaning this mass was the kickoff to the sports season for the Catholic school attached to the church. This meant millions of kids and every single member of their family crammed into one mass, instead of spreading the population out across four masses. Then Father informs us in his homily that this is the largest parish in Cincinnati. Of course it is. We thought the first church we attended was enormous and that this one would be more manageable. The first one was most likely the second largest in the diocese. Unknowingly, we upgraded. Not that I’m not happy that there’s lots of people attending church in Cincinnati, but I think I’ve learned my lesson and will stick to Saturday evening or early Sunday morning masses from now on so I can actually get something out of it other than squished.

Feeling pangs of Golden Harvest deprivation (our beloved fresh hippie breakfast hotspot in Lansing, MI) we treated ourselves to a lovely breakfast at an eatery called Annabel’s. It’s a local joint that received excellent ratings on Urban Spoon, so we decided to give it a go. And it was good. It’s no Golden Harvest (and nothing ever is), but we think it’s as close as we’ll get in Cincinnati. Located in the heart of the tiny Mt. Lookout downtown, Annabel’s has ten tiny tables – and that’s it. With so few tables, the place was absolutely packed with regulars who raved about the food and know the waitresses by name. We waited a good half hour right inside the door, but it was worth it. This artsy, bohemian establishment serves locally-grown, mostly organic, totally fresh, and fully homemade food. Their menu is very small and only features a handful of choices, but they all sound delicious! The menu boasts such delicacies as lox and cream cheese, flavorful scrambles, corn blueberry pancakes, bowls of completely fresh fruit (oranges, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, strawberries and pomegranate), and warm croissants.  Though it is a twinge more pricey than most breakfast places (due mostly to the area of Cincy), it’s an excellent place for two to catch a leisurely breakfast. We were also seated about 4 feet away from one of the Cincinnati Bengal’s players and his wife’s boulder of an engagement ring wife.

Now we’re home for the day, watching the two NFL playoff games on the tube and rooting for the Packers. We took down our holiday decorations and tree today and it is so nice to have our living room back….spacious, uncluttered, and with much more light streaming in. I love the holiday decorations but by mid-January I’m ready to have our living room back! We’re hoping for a productive week ahead. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

P.S. Packers won! They’re moving on in the playoffs and compete against Atlanta next!

Lookie what we got!

That’s right! Our custom-stained kitchen furniture arrived! We ordered the rolling kitchen island and square shaker breakfast table with 4 chairs in November from a family-owned unfinished furniture store local to Cincinnati. The island adds 26×48″ more of counter and food prep space, plus storage, and with our chairs and table we can finally eat our breakfast and lunch at an actual table. We chose the dark walnut stain on parawood because walnut is the stain we hope to continue with for any future furniture purchases and these are our first few investment pieces. We are really pleased with the color (especially since almost everything nowadays has a slight cherry red hue to it, which we don’t want and walnut stained furniture is very hard to find) and we love how it looks! We have yet to organize it all in the kitchen, but we’re hoping to get to that tomorrow. It’s so nice to have it!

We started out the morning bright and early at Chick-Fil-A for free spicy chicken biscuits. Chick-Fil-A wanted to test them out before adding them to their regular menu, so when we saw the Rose Bowl commercial telling us to “go online and reserve your free spicy chicken biscuit” we didn’t argue. Who are we to turn down free food? I’ll gladly be a test rat – toss me the waiver and a pen and sign me up! Luckily it was pretty good (I’m a Chick-Fil-A fan as it is), though I’d probably recommend it for a meal other than breakfast simply because spicy chicken isn’t exactly the best breakfast food, and who needs heartburn at 7 a.m.? After breakfast we ran a bunch of errands, made two trips to Woodcraft to pick up our new kitchen furniture, searched for a clear protective glass counter top for the new island, grabbed carry-out Jersey Mike’s sub sandwiches for the football playoff games tonight, and rented a movie to use up the last of a nearly 5-year old Blockbuster gift card. Tonight we’re relaxing in our sweats watching football. It’s like New Years Eve part 2. Excellent.

While we were in Sears looking at straight edges and saw blades this morning, a large, gruff-looking man (probably a farmer or workman) wearing overalls caught my attention. Normally I don’t tend to notice other people’s choice of clothing unless it is particularly outrageous or unforgivably hideous – think knee-high 7” high-heeled lace-up boots, hot pink tights, a neon tutu, fairy wings, and ill-fitting turquoise tube top on a 48 year old with bleach blonde hair and black penciled on eyebrows, for example – but this is just an example mind you (inspired by a lunatic I saw at a mall recently…I may or may not have gawked shamelessly). But there’s just something about overalls that immediately captures my attention. Dr. Larry’s book entitled 563 Stupid Things People Do to Mess Up Their Lives (a super quick, easy read, laugh until tears are streaming down your face, absolutely must read book – one of my all time favorites!) describes overalls in this way: “Unless you are a tyke or a farmer, this is not an attractive look. Try to wear pants that don’t extend over your shoulders and wear clothing in general that doesn’t instantly bring to mind characters from Hee-Haw.”

97% of the time I am in unanimous agreement. With the exception of two people I know, I think overalls look stupid on anyone over the age of 24 months, yet I have desperately wanted a pair for years. On roughly 3% of the population they look comfortable and adorable, but almost everyone else just looks ridiculous. I really hope I’m in that 3% because I am on a mission to find myself a non-dorky pair to wear with tank tops this summer – and for everyone else’s sake I hope I don’t look like a doofus in them, because I really don’t care and would wear them regardless. Chances are I won’t hold a candle to the moron in the tutu anyhow, so as long as I plant myself next to the most outlandishly dressed person I can find at all times, I won’t even draw a lick of attention. This is a fail-proof plan. I’ll leave you to contemplate overalls and other poor fashion choices while I steal some of Ted’s popcorn and tune into the rest of the Colts v. Jets game.



“He’s having a stroke?”

“What!?”

“OF GENIUS!”

Name the movie! Anyone? The Producers. It’s from the song Keep it Gay, which is mildly un-PC, but hilarious nonetheless. It takes a jab at the bright, blingy opulence of recent showbiz spectacles on Broadway – think Thoroughly Modern Millie, Drowsy Chaperone, 42nd Street, etc. – by jazzing up WWII with a happy ending, dancing storm troopers and plenty of sparkly sequins in a fantastical melodramatic dream called Springtime of Hilter. As a theatre person, I can definitely appreciate this sentiment, and I have to admit that when it comes to some musicals, the more bedazzled and whimsical, the better. After all (as the song says) “people want laughter when they see a show, the last thing they’re after is a litany of woe.” Save the tears, drama and insightful brooding for the straight plays, where that content is more appropriate and appreciated. When I see a musical I want to be whisked away to the the magical land of ThisCouldNeverHappen where I can put my brain on mute and gaze adoringly at shiny things. With the exception of the title, this has nothing to do with the post, so let’s get on with it, shall we?

Since our new dishwasher is still on backorder, our landlord opted to send out a repair man to diagnose the problem with the current hunk-o’-junk to see if it would be more cost effective to repair or replace it. Mr. Maintenance Man showed up at 9:20 a.m. (um, good thing I decided to get dressed in a timely manner this morning instead of lollygagging around in my red velour footsie pajamas until 11 a.m. – stroke of genius #1) and he had reached a verdict by 9:25. Turns out the little holes on the arm of the washer that the water shoots out of are clogged. Clogged how, you may ask? Plastic candy wrappers. Dear Previous Tenants: In addition to gluing Batman and Disney Princess stickers to the upstairs windows, staining every square inch of carpet with koolaide, and allowing your mini-beasts to decorate the banister with crayons, I can think of no better way to break the dishwasher than to melt plastic candy wrappers in it. A creative way to dispose of candy wrappers and the most original method of breaking an appliance qualifies this one for the stroke of genius (or idiocy if you prefer) #2 award.

The topic of creativity brings us to stroke of genius #3 – dinner! In today’s slow cooker & trying something new experiment I am cooking pulled pork for BBQ pulled pork sandwiches for Ted and Carnitas (pulled pork in corn tortillas topped with fresh red onion, cilantro, tomato, avocado slices, lime juice and sea salt) for me. The stroke of genius surprise ingredient? Root Beer. Yep, marinated in root beer (or for us diabetic conscious folk – diet root beer). It smells delicious and (so far) it is literally as easy as rubbing a pork tenderloin with garlic salt and black pepper, plopping it in the slow cooker with a cup of soda and a handful of chopped onions and turning the dial to “low.” Genius! We’ll pair it with our new board game set from mom and dad, some strawberry daiquiris, and a movie – and voila, a relaxing Friday night – perfect since Ted still isn’t feeling well. Last night I made Chinese Takeout Lemon Chicken & steamed white Jasmine rice using a box of sugar free lemon jello. Ted wolfed it down in a mad fury. Needless to say the lemon jello recipe happily exceeded my expectations. Using jello for something other than its intended purpose (and not destroying the dishwasher in the process)? Say it with me….genius! That’s #4 if you’re counting.

And finally #5, which admittedly is not my personal stroke of genius, but is still a truly genius idea that I plucked off an old college friend’s blog and hope we can implement, is the Date Night Jar. If you’re anything like Ted & I, deciding where to eat for dinner, what to do tonight, which place to go or thing to see, and which movie to watch can be a giant pain in the ass because neither of us want to make a decision (and risk making the wrong decision) when we’re tired and want nothing more than to partake in mindless fun instead of having this conversation:

A: Where do you want to eat tonight?

B: I don’t care. Anywhere is fine.

A: You pick.

B: No, you choose. I picked last time.

A: I don’t want to make a decision.

B: Well, I don’t either. I could eat anything and be fine.

A: Skyline Chili?

B: Ehhh…

A: You said anywhere would be fine!

B: I know, but…

A: Okay, how about Don Pablo’s or Montgomery Inn?

B: Either one. Which one do you have a taste for?

A: I don’t care. I’m just hungry.

B: Well, which one is cheaper? Or closer to where we are now?

A: OMG!!!! Make a freaking decision already!

B: We can see a movie afterward too.

A: Which one?

B: Uh….

Sound familiar? Enter the Date Night Jar. You each scribble down names of restaurants you like or have never tried, meals & drinks to cook, board or video game titles, movie titles, and activities (hiking in the park, going to a play, exploring downtown, bowling, make a donation basket for the homeless shelter, etc.) – from mild to wild the more creative the adventure the better – and when you’re at a loss for what to do one evening or simply don’t feel like thinking (it happens – we’re both good at being decisive in our professional careers, but when it comes to down time at home – zip), you pull a strip of paper out of the jar and that’s what you do! Instant creativity and stroke of genius #5.

I hope any one of these strokes of genius (except maybe a bucket list of previously uncharted methods of destroying your kitchen appliances) leaves you inspired today. Enjoy your Friday!

Did you know that wrapping paper costs $5 a role? $5!! I have never purchased a role of wrapping paper before, so the insane holiday markup for paper strikes me as a huge ripoff. I mean, they know that at some point throughout the holiday season you’ll need it, so why not jack the price up so you can fuss and fume in line as you smack down your hard earned cash and mourn the loss of the adorable stocking stuffer you aren’t getting someone because you’re $5 short? Since I’m cheap thrifty and cannot fathom paying $5 per role for wrapping paper that will inevitably get torn, crumbled and discarded in 4.3 seconds , imagine my glee when we hit the cheap after Christmas sale jackpot at Sear’s last night. We were there to place an order for the DeWalt worm-drive circular saw that Ted has been drooling over for the past few months (payed for almost entirely by gift cards and a rebate card from the purchase of our washer and dryer…sweet!) and we happened to pass by the now sparse seasonal section. And then we saw it. An aisle bin stuffed with role upon role of wrapping paper glory for only $1.24! Four for the price of one – our 2011 Christmas budget is silently rejoicing. Since we only went through a scant role and a half this year, I’d like to think these four pretty bundles are a sound financial investment for the merrymaking future. Want to see them?

Colorful, functional, and reasonable – they’ll do. As for the purchase of the saw, we see it as another wise investment opportunity to right a wrong in the world. For a professional and handyman such as Ted to own a truly impressive collection of tools so common and so obscure that most people probably haven’t even heard of them, but to not own a saw is downright nonsensical. So now he owns a saw (or at least he will when it arrives). It’s amazing how many tools one person can have, but if you’re missing just one piece (oh, I don’t know, let’s say a saw, for example), you can’t put together the puzzle (or our basement shelves). Furthermore, I cannot recall the number of times I’ve heard this phrase in the past two months “I could fix/build ____, if only I had a saw.” Investment success.

On the topic of success: Chili, cornbread, and rhubarb crumble. Beautiful, culinary, success. The whole house smelled of yum yums (matching sets of Yum Yum sweats next year, anyone?). The chili was thick, hearty and busting with flavor. It was the perfect compliment to the sweet, crumbly cornbread and both paired expertly with the gooey, tart crumble. YES. Even more exciting is the realization that there are leftovers. I love leftovers and I am long overdue for a luxurious lunch. And come Saturday we should actually have a kitchen table on which to enjoy a luxurious lunch (another investment!) . Our kitchen island cart and kitchen table & chairs should be all stained and ready to pick up on Saturday sometime between our free Chick-Fil-A and Smoothie King breakfast, holiday de-decorating and playoff NFL games. Excellent.

A few days before we left for Wisconsin our neighbor invited bulldozers and a small crew of workmen to dig up her backyard. We were curious and monitored the mysterious object’s daily progress – but not too closely because that would make us nosy neighbors and busybodies and besides all that, we have far more pressing matters to attend to than our neighbor’s property. Having ruled out an irrigation system and animal enclosure and knowing that whatever it was would probably be completed upon our eventual return, Ted and I placed a bet. He thought it would be a windmill, while I went with a solar panel. I’m sure you’re relieved to know that the results are in! As we drove down our driveway last night, we spotted a gleaming solar panel decorating her backyard. Genius! Even though the addition of a solar panel to our home is completely out of the realm of possibility since a) we didn’t win the lottery and b) we don’t own the house and who wants to spend mega bucks vastly improving a house you don’t own, I’d be curious to know how much one costs. If we ever build it would be awesome to go with geothermal or solar energy.

Today we are playing catch up. Though my to-do list is miles long, I know most of it is not time restrictive, so instead of stressing over the daunting task of completing everything on it ASAP, I’m just getting it done over the next few months as I can get it done. Upon return from any vacation, there’s always the immediates – grocery shopping and laundry. I figure that, plus organizing my priorities for the remainder of the week and making dinner will account for a good chunk of my day. Ted is back to work and probably catching up on a million emails and preparing for the busy quarter ahead. He’s also feeling under the weather (probably a cold, which is a real bummer) so I think we’ll take it easy this week. The weather is sunny and warmish (compared to Wisconsin that is) and there’s zero snow on the ground – I love it!

Culver’s, it’s the next best thing to Kopp’s. Every time we visit Milwaukee I take advantage of the opportunity to indulge the inner fat ass in myself. You see, Milwaukee is a haven for disastrously plump-inducing delicacies like heart-attack pizza and gut-rotting cheeseburgers. There’s just something about that rich and creamy Wisconsin cheese that makes eating crap food in Wisconsin irrevocably addicting. Before we even arrive in the dairy mecca, my brain is already teeming with an alphabetical and color-coded list of places we must eat at. In Chicago there’s Swordfish Contemporary Sushi. In Green Bay there’s Chili John’s. And in Milwaukee there’s Pizza Shuttle and Kopp’s. Don’t let the stupid names fool you, these places are genius and worth every single calorie if you’re lucky enough to know about them. Having already planned our meetings with Swordfish and Chili John’s, we opted to save Kopp’s for last, on airport day. I like to think of it as Milwaukee’s goodbye present to us. I’ll gladly risk the looserish and friend-deserting move of describing a large, savory cheeseburger to you on my blog because it really is that good. And when I saw the sign proudly proclaiming that today’s special was the Turtle Sundae – that was it. Game over. Kate, Tim, and dad joined us before Kate drove us to the airport and it was the most perfect way to end our vacay – surrounded by good food and good family. If we had kaboodles of money laying around and these places shipped, you can bet my waistline would be bulging. Thank the Lord for astronomical refrigerated shipping prices or I fear my gluttony would get the better of me.

We arrived safely in Cincinnati around 7:30 tonight. It was a 50-minute direct flight – a totally reasonable commute. Untrustworthy Delta (Doesn’t Ever Leave The Airport) surprisingly pulled away from the gate at exactly 5:20 and arrived early with no shenanigans. Count me impressed. At home we happily discovered everything just as we left it – cold and clean – with the exception of three minor snafus. Our new dishwasher was not installed over the holidays, a mysterious and truly gargantuan stain appeared on our hallway floor, and a box of what were probably very beautiful flowers arrived for us before Christmas but after we’d already left Ohio. Presumably they froze on the porch for a few days, melted with the warm rains, and then came inside via our landlord and sat in its box without water or light for a week. Needless to say, we were unable to revive them. Sad face. But the intentions of the sender were greatly appreciated.

It’s great to be back.