Yearly Archives: 2012

For the Love of Zucchini

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I should write a weekly series called ”Dishes I Make When Ted Works Late” or “Stuff My Husband Won’t Eat.”

This week’s Tedless entree was zucchini ribbons with grilled chicken and lemon vinaigrette, adapted from this recipe. We’ve been looking to reduce our carbohydrate intake, and this recipe appeared to be a good alternative to a high-carb pasta dish, only healthier. So I decided to experiment while Ted wasn’t around to wrinkle his nose or complain about all the ‘green stuff’.

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It was delicious. I had all the ingredients on hand, and our local country fresh produce market has huge zucchinis for dirt cheap. I’ll definitely be making this again. It’s flavorful, fresh, and light, yet mild, so I think even the pickiest of eaters will enjoy it. Just add chicken and it can go from a side dish to a full meal.

You’ll need: Zucchini, chicken breast, garlic & basil infused olive oil, lemon, garlic, basil, and shredded Parmesan cheese.

Step 1: Wash, peel, and use a vegetable peeler to slice a large zucchini into thin ribbons. Defrost a small portion of frozen diced grilled chicken or cook up a chicken breast and set aside.

Step 2: Whisk together a vinaigrette using about 1/8 of a cup of olive oil (I used garlic and basil infused dipping oil – I would highly recommend it. It adds a great burst of flavor), and 1/4 of a freshly squeezed lemon. If you use regular olive oil, add a sprinkle of salt and pepper to the vinaigrette.

Step 3: Mince a fresh clove of garlic. Sautee it with a dallop of olive oil over medium heat for a minute. Add zucchini ribbons and sautee until warm and tender – about 3-4 minutes.

Step 4: Add a small handful of fresh cut basil to the pan and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from heat. Toss the vinaigrette over the zucchini ribbons, add the cooked chicken pieces, and sprinkle with some fresh Parmesan cheese.

Step 5: Serve hot and enjoy.

Healthy and tasty! Plus I’m embarrassingly proud of the fact that I got to use fresh basil from my thriving basil plant that I planted last year and haven’t managed to kill yet.

Let me know how you like it.

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Mav on the Move

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I excel at balancing.

Don’t let the 8 legs, 4 arms, 2 pinchers, and a tail fool you.

I can balance on any plant using just one leg or my tail.

Cirque du Soleil’s got nothing on me.

I’m Cirque du Solcray!

I can scale these wimpy plants like a pro.

Though the humans did give me a rockin’ Cave of Wonders, which I love, they only gave me two and a half plants. The acceptable orange one, the adequate white one, and the shrimpy blue one in the corner.

Mmmm shrimp.

Bet you didn’t know I can jump!

I’m like a magician of the sea.

But leap I can!

From one plant to the next…

Blink and you’ll miss me.

Peek-a-boo!

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The End

Today they tore down BoarsHead. The theatre I got my professional start at, where I earned my equity points, where I learned how to hang a light, use power tools, build staircases, and run a show. The theatre where I performed in my first professional show, where I enjoyed my first champagne opening after glow party, where I wrote and got funded my first theatre education grant, where I got the amazing opportunity to work with two living playwrights during rehearsals of their plays, where I learned valuable lessons from professional actors, administrators and designers, and where I learned about acting, directing, and playwriting from an artistic director I admire above all others. Where I learned how to shovel snow, drove that stupid old beat up maroon van to Home Depot and back three times a week, and got so sick during tech for the show I was in that Ted had to take me to the ER.

The theatre where I met Ted.

It was the place where I first laid eyes on my husband, the first place we went after we got engaged, and the place that solidified what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

You don’t forget those memories, and you cannot replace them.

It was a tough year but I threw myself, heart and soul, into that place, into that internship, into learning and growing and being and feeling and enjoying and becoming. I left the only home I’d ever known in Texas to go there, alone, and I was determined to succeed, determined to learn everything I could, and determined to make it the best year of my life. And I had a lot of rough times and I had even more happy times than rough times there. But even during the rough times I LOVED BoarsHead. And by the time our green-robed and tie-dyed shirt graduation ceremony rolled around 9 months later, it was my home. The people, no matter how amazing or aggravating, were my family.

In early September of 2008, when we’d only been there for four weeks, we left a small block of wood about 3/4 of the way back in the “rat cave” under all the seats, where you could still see the yellow parking lot lines on the concrete from when the theatre was an auto repair shop. The block contained our signatures (including the signature of Boaris the Boar, our mascot whose head we had hanging in the intern house), the season’s show titles, and “2008-2009” scrawled on it in blue pen. We left it there for future second company members to find. I’m horrified that it’s sitting, forgotten, in a pile of mangled rubble along with the remains of the stage, pieces of the grid, and those brown double doors I walked through every single day to get to the tech office, auditorium, and shop where we built sets and ran shows and rehearsed our own shows and did laundry and cleaned dressing rooms and painted the stage 4 billion times and had pizza and beer after strike.

I’m mad.

I’m mad that the theatre I loved failed. Mad that the people who controlled the business side of the operation were so greedy and incompetent that they let this happen when the artistic side was still so alive. Mad that they tore down the home where I spent 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for 9 months. Mad that I can never step foot ever again into the place that literally changed my life.

But there’s nothing I can do about it now, or was there ever.  We knew it was coming. We knew it would be torn down because what city doesn’t need another dumb concrete parking structure and less art to give it vibrancy and vitality and meaning?

I guess I just didn’t expect to be so mad about it.

Or to see a video of it in action, here, if you want to see it. That bus station across the street was where I donned a preggo belly one chilly November day to take promo pictures for Hymn & Carol. Seeing that street again, that bus station again, that parking lot again, and that view of the city again, all without the building there makes my stomach churn.

I can still, even with all that rubble, tell exactly what was torn down, exactly what still remains, and exactly what room was what. It makes me sick.

So instead of being mad, I’m going to let my anger fuel my passion, the same kind of passion I had while at BoarsHead. I’m going to let this serve as a reminder to light a fire under my rear so I can get back to doing what really matters to me. I’ll carry on the legacy. I will, instead, remember all the million and one happy memories that place gave us. Surprisingly, I have so few pictures of it. I do have some from Hymn & Carol but since they’re from an equity production, I cannot post them. But for these few, I am thankful. And for BoarsHead, I am extremely thankful.

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To Cleveland and Back

This weekend we took a little road trip up to Cleveland (specifically Mentor – a sweet little suburb of Cleveland about 10 miles down from Lake Erie), where we have family. Mike, Mary Ellen, Michaela, Marcus, and Martin were kind enough to let us crash with them for the weekend, and we got to see even more family – Mike, Carol, and Uncle Dick stopped in for several hours as well. We were super bummed that we were unable to make the trip up to Chicago for Tammy’s memorial service and to see my side of the family two weekends ago because of our work schedules, but we’re thankful that we had the opportunity to see them all last month and to get away this weekend.

Michaela is a senior in high school this year and several weeks ago she invited us to come up to see her school’s musical production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, which she did lighting for. It’s only a 4 hour drive straight north, and in a rare change of events, we both ended up having the entire weekend off due to both UC and Cincinnati Public Schools being on Spring Break, and of course we were eager to see Michaela’s show. So we threw a few things in the car, drove up early Saturday morning, stopped in Columbus along the way, and enjoyed one of the most thoroughly relaxing weekends we have had in a long time.

In Columbus we hit up the lovely Arena District, home to the North Market (similar to Pike’s Market in Seattle), the baseball stadium, and the only Ted’s Montana Grill in Ohio. There we strolled the picturesque streets and indulged in delicious eats – bison ribs for Ted (bison + ribs = Ted Heaven) and a gourmet bison, guacamole, jalapeno, and chipotle ranch burger for me. It was divine, as always!

The rest of our drive up to Cleveland was nice. We had cool, breezy weather, no traffic, and pretty green scenery the whole way there. We spent the evening hanging out with family, enjoying good wine, good conversation, lots of laughter, a big family dinner complete with lots of people, open windows, home cooking, loud kids, and a big dog. It was absolutely perfect. Neither of us have felt so relaxed or carefree in quite some time.

Michaela’s show was wonderful! We especially loved seeing the lighting, but all the students involved in the production did a really nice job! It was so relaxing to sit and enjoy a show just for fun that neither of us had any part of. Plus I’m a schmuck and love classic musicals.

The next morning we went to mass, out for breakfast, and then we said our goodbyes, promised to do this again soon, and Ted and I hit the road for a quick jaunt up to Lake Erie to cover our shoes in sand, dip our fingers in the Great Lake, see a lighthouse, and skip some rocks. It was cold and overcast, but we had a really fun time hanging out on the beach and skipping rocks.

On our way back home we stopped in Columbus again, this time at North Market to try some of this famous Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams we keep hearing about. As someone who adores ice cream, offbeat flavors, and trying new things, Jeni’s was right up my alley! They offer flavors like brambleberry crisp, goat cheese with cognac fig, Icelandic happy marriage cake, pistachio and honey, chocolate cayenne pepper, salty caramel, Savannah buttermint, whiskey and pecans, wildberry citrus lavender, and riesling poached pear. For a complete list of flavors and stores that stock this goodness (including stores in San Antonio, Austin, Chicago, Mentor, and Cincinnati), check out the website. Jeni also makes a cookbook of her flavors, which I promptly added to my wish list along with an ice cream maker, immediately upon my arrival home. Hello Weight Watchers!

I sampled the salty caramel, lavender, and whiskey and pecan. They were super tasty and I’m very disappointed in myself for not sampling all the other unique flavors when I had the chance! But Ted and I really enjoyed the short time we had in Columbus, so we’ll likely be taking another day trip up there to explore and play some more sometime in the near-ish future, so I can sample my little heart out then.

Though we were only in Mentor for a day, the trip was so relaxing, so easy, so go with the flow, so family focused, and so us focused that it felt just like a mini vacation. It was perfect!

Though we’re back to life in the real world now and Ted’s in full swing with both Arcadia show prep and BAMM, I’m on “spring break” from teaching this week, so I have the opportunity to relax just a bit and get caught up all my other jobs and making props, costumes and a set for my kids’ show at Academy of World Languages. Oh, and to make hummus and a fresh, fruity homemade white wine sangria to enjoy porch-side!

How was your weekend?

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Points of Interest

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1. I am plum out of Door County sangria wine until our trip up in September. This is cause for serious concern because summer and sangria really do belong together. I was fool to purchase only one bottle on our last trip. What was I thinking?

2. Maverick has been working up a storm these past two days! Girlfriend has been rearranging the gravel beneath her rock. By rearranging I mean that she has  done nothing but dig deep and remove all the gravel from beneath her rock and stack it up on the sides of the rock, thereby creating an impenetrable fort on the outside and a black hole/endless abyss on the inside. She’s on schedule to reach China by nightfall. It’s so deep in there that you can’t even see her anymore. Which we’re sure was precisely her plan. But since we’ve read that crays sometimes exhibit this kind of trench-digging behavior in preparation for molting, and also because that’s just what they like to do, we’re letting her go to town. She seems to be pretty happy about her newly constructed epic cave of wonders. And we’ve been enjoying watching her – she’s so darn funny! Mav had a pea and a piece of cocktail shrimp for dinner last night – girlfriend eats better than we do.

3. Yesterday we stopped by Speedway to gas up the car. It was 6 pm at the busiest (read: least expensive by a good $0.30 per gallon) gas station in Anderson. It was crowded. We spot a huge fancy black vehicle poorly parked in front of the gas station – not in a parking space, only half pulled up to the curb and half sticking out into the pass-by lane, and completely blocking the only way out of the gas station. Ted and I ruthlessly start taking bets on who the dodo is. Five minutes of traffic-blocking stupidity later, out walks an orange woman (when are people going to learn how unfortunate spray tanning is?) with bleach blonde hair rolled up in four 8″ curlers on the top of her head, wearing the shortest, tightest, most hooter-bearing black mini dress I have ever laid eyes on, with 6″ heels and enough makeup for a national tour. She opens the vehicle’s door, somehow managing to clamber inside despite her ridiculously inappropriate ensemble, and a tiny little yippie dog with a rhinestone studded collar hops into her lap. It was a better dodo than I ever could have imagined! Made. My. Day.

4. Lenten church fish fry Fridays are the best. Tasty!

5. We’re headed to a Cincinnati Cyclones pro ice hockey game tonight at U.S. Bank Arena against the Chicago Express. It’s Pucks & Pinot Night and Singles Night – oh la la & jackpot. We try to hit up one game per season. They’re cheap, highly entertaining, fun, relaxing, and generally have good eats too.

6. Ted’s new haircut = lookin’ good.

7. We finally acquired a really special nativity set for us to display in our home during the Christmas season (thanks mom&dad2)! We’ve been talking about getting a really nice one for the past four years now and have been waiting patiently until the right one came along. Found it! There’s a small group of people that travel to Catholic churches around the country and sell crosses, nativities, and other religious pieces that are hand carved from olive wood by families in Bethlehem. The families make these religious artifacts by hand for a living – and the work is often phenomenal. We love the nativity we chose, and it makes us happy that the money is going to a hard-working family during a time of the year when they often don’t get many nativity sales – which are big ticket items so they generate more revenue for the family than, say, a cross or rosary would. We really love the beauty of the scene we chose and can’t wait to put it up next Christmas.

8. I finally made good on my vow to be a good and loving wife and finally made Ted his blessed, prized, cherished pineapple upside-down cake. For no reason at all other than that I love him (Oh yeah, and that he does my taxes for me).

9. Next week is spring break for Cincinnati Public Schools. Not that I’m in school anymore, so that really doesn’t mean anything special for me, other than the fact that there are a whopping 11 acting classes that I do not have to make lesson plans for or teach next week! And while I have about 175 incredibly awesome kiddos that I’m currently working on plays with, it’s going to be soooooo refreshing to not have to teach for a whole week! Refreshing and unfortunate, because no acting classes = no money, but in exchange I do get a precious few seconds of free time. Such is life.

10. Pictures!

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Spring in Ohio

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I wish you could see how perfect spring in Ohio is.

I wish you could see how brightly the sun shines and how lovely the wind blows.

How wonderful 72 degrees feels.

How fresh the air smells.

How every driver in every car has both windows down and their elbow hanging out the side.

How every house and every apartment has at least one window open from the time they arrive home from work until the time they go to bed.

How the cats sit at the open window sills behind the screens, soaking in the fresh air and listening intently to the chirping of birds.

I smile at them and stop for a moment to say hello and enjoy them, because I miss my own little window-watcher.

I wish you could smell how the air is perfumed with charcoal from all the people firing up their grills as the sun begins to set.

How soft and lush and green the grass is.

How the trees are just aching for someone to string a hammock on them.

How many people are out strolling with their families, playing catch with their kids, walking with their dogs, and running or biking for exercise in the evening.

How many people I see sit down for a family dinner at the table beside an open window.

How many people sit out on their front or back porches – barefooted – with their feet just grazing the grass, and a glass of sangria in hand as honking geese fly overhead.

How nice it truly is at dusk because it’s too early for the mosquitoes yet, but I can feel how close we are to the impending firefly season.

I wish you could see the fire engine red cardinals, royal bluejays, and orange-breasted robins that have taken up residence in our yard and listen to their pretty songs.

How the trees are in full bloom with vivid pink and white and yellow buds, and how the daffodils pepper the highways.

I still miss the fields of colorful Texas wildflowers and I yearn for bluebonnets, but our own view isn’t half-bad either.

I’ve never liked spring. Until I moved to Ohio.

Last night we slept with our windows wide open. This weekend I washed my car, we swept the porch free of dry winter leaves, and took a walk through a lovely cemetery beside our house. Then we sat on our back porch for a good many hours working on our taxes. Yesterday I drove with my windows down, my elbow hanging out the side. I took pictures of flowering trees. I opened all of our windows and made a dinner of Cesar salad, French bread, garlic dipping oil, green grapes, blocks of pepper jack and cheddar cheese, slices of salami, a medley of olives, and a bottle of sangria. We talked and listened to the birds and ate slowly. Then I went for a long walk around the neighborhood before the sun set, and spent even longer sitting on the back porch with that glass of sangria, barefooted, as the geese honked overhead, until nightfall.

I could get used to this.

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Week 1 w/ Mav

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Girlfriend has been a part of our family for a whole week now.

The week has been touch and go and we’re still learning, but she’s really just as wonderful as we imagined!

It seems that she’s finally getting comfortable here.

She was so lively, rebellious, and full of personality at the specialty shop where we got her, but the first several days we had her home she did nothing but hide under her rock and refuse to eat.

I worried that the tank water was bacterial, that the nitrogen cycling process was killing her, that the pH was too high, that the ammonia was too high, that she was molting, that she wasn’t acclimating, that she was sick, that she was scratching too much, that she was dying because she wasn’t eating, that she was lonely or unhappy…and every other worry under the sun.

But the past few days she’s definitely perked up.

Of course we’re not quite out of the woods yet. We’re still in the ammonia phase of cycling her tank, but we’re using an ammonia and nitrite de-toxifier and monitoring her water quality very closely with the test kits, so hopefully all will continue to be well. Owning a cray is like being a damn scientist. Test tubes and chemical drops from her water quality testing kit are absolutely littered across our bar counter. But we’re happy to do what it takes – and it is kind of fun to learn all this stuff!

She shaved at least three years off of my life this weekend when I took a break from working on our taxes outside on the porch with Ted and walked inside to check on her. I found her lying on her side, unmoving, legs sprawled upward, beneath her rock like she was dead. I literally lost my mind and turned into a blubbering fool, sobbing because I was convinced she was dying.

She was sleeping.

Apparently crays like to sleep on their side.

Now we know.

She also gave Ted a minor panic attack when we woke up yesterday morning. Ted went to check on her and couldn’t find her in her tank. He looked everywhere – under her rock, on her rock, on the gravel, and on the plants. Repeat five times.

No Mav.

Since crays are sly little escape artists Ted was about ready to start checking the kitchen floor, under the couch, and in the laundry baskets when he spotted her…at the very top of her tank.

Stuck.

Escape attempt #1: Shimmying up the air hose and digital thermometer cord.

She’s a clever one, that Maverick.

Ted freed her.

She did it again three hours later.

But now Mav has a healthy appetite (she especially loves frozen peas, crab pellets, and algae rounds), sits like a queen atop of her rock at night (when she thinks nobody is watching!) with her pinchers dangling off the side, goes for strolls around the tank, has begun digging up the small blue plant beside her rock for redecoration purposes, stretches often, follows your finger across the glass with her body and her pinchers, plays at night (she’s nocturnal), scales the small plants and air hose, and she really likes the moonlight glow that our blue, green, and purple LED picture frame casts on her tank at night. It must be like sitting on the beach at night.

She gets more entertaining by the day. Short of an actual escape, I can’t wait to see what other tricks she has up her shell.

In the next few weeks we’ll likely pick up a few cherry barbs, zebra danios or clown plecos to keep her company – or, you know, that she can stalk mercilessly.

Yup, she’s a darling.

And we’re so happy she’s ours!

P.S. – Yes, I really did just write an entire post about a crayfish. You may retrieve your jaw from the floor now.

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Our Family Expands!

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After a lot of consideration, Ted and I have decided that the time is right for us to expand our little family of two to a family of three. So please welcome:

Maverick

Name: Blue Crayfish (freshwater) or Blue Lobster (saltwater)

Scientific Name: Procambarus alleni

But we call her: Maverick (Mav)

Life expectancy: 2 – 5 years

Max size: 8”

Eats: Anything she can get her pinchers on. Favorites include raw zucchini, frozen peas, lettuce, cooked cocktail shrimp, crab/lobster/catfish/shrimp pellets for bottom-dwellers, algae rounds (her true favorite!), bloodworms, krill, feeder fish, live aquatic plants, and slow tank-mates.

Habitat: Aquatic, but she can live out of water as long as her gills stay damp.

Coloration: Naturally blue, but to aide in retaining her bright hue we added gravel that is similar in color and vibrancy to her shell, and we were sure to give her a slate hiding cave where she feels safe and secure, as stress is rumored to reduce a cray’s vividness and possibly coloration.

Molting: Crays will molt their shell once every few months as they grow. Her old shell will remain in the tank for up to one week after for her to eat as an intake of calcium. Cray’s feel especially vulnerable when they are molting, therefore having a cave to hide in helps them feel a little less endangered.

Habits: Crays make a hobby of stalking and swiping at unsuspecting fish, climbing rocks, scaling the tank’s plants/filter tube/heater, digging and burrowing in the gravel, rearranging their tank decorations, moving gravel across the tank piece by piece, hording food, and swimming really freakin’ fast using their tail as a scoop to propel them forward or backward.

Tank-mates: Crays enjoy the fine art of catching and snacking on any tank-mates that are slower or dumber than their pinchers. But they will also be mercilessly plucked apart while molting by any tank-mates that are more aggressive than they are. Crays are also not very kind to one another. Many crays live alone for this reason. The best tank-mates are small, fast, top-dwelling, non-aggressive fish that the cray (try as they may!) cannot catch but who will not be aggressive toward the cray when they are molting – like marble hatchets.

Qualities: Luckily, crays are fairly adaptable creatures. Though, like any fish, they prefer certain pH levels and water temperatures over others, they are able to adapt well to different conditions so long as they are acclimated properly and the elements remain stable and do not fluctuate vastly or frequently. Stability takes priority over a perfect test kit reading any day.

Aquarium: 20 gallon freshwater – mix of about ½ tap water and ½ reverse osmosis (RO) water – with a lid because it’s totally necessary! Cray’s are major escape artists. “February 26th, day 173, plan Q…” Ted and I joke about Mav’s escape plots.

Filter: ChemiPure’s Carbon Ion filter and a regular polyfiber filter.

Additives: 2 mL of SeaChem Prime, 2 mL of a tap water dechlorinator, and the occasional dose of liquid calcium for invertebrates to keep her shell healthy.

Lighting: Fluorescent, about 6 hours a day, with the tank situated out of direct sunlight.

Tank Accessories: Filter, pump, submersible heater, digital thermometer, and wall bubbler.

Substrate: 25 lbs of blue and white gravel mixed, thoroughly rinsed with no soap.

Decorations: Gravel, 4 artificial plants, and a slate rock/cave.

Aeration: Pump with under-gravel wall bubbler to relieve water pressure and oxygenate the tank with bubbles.

Cleaning: We’re working our way through the first “ammonia to nitrite to nitrate” cycle, so after this first cycle is complete we’ll be doing a bi-weekly or monthly 10-20% water changes with RO water, gravel vacuuming, and scrubbing the inside of the tank with an algae pad. Filter gets changed once every six months.

Testing supplies: API Freshwater Master Liquid Test Kit to test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, and pH. Because our tap water is so freakishly alkaline, we have to use the API High-Range pH test kit for pH’s of 7.6-8.8 (which is actually saltwater tank territory, not freshwater….thanks, Ohio).

Temperature: Range of about 55-75° is ideal. Ours is set to stay around 71°.

pH: Typically a range between 7.0 and 7.6 is ideal. Crays prefer slightly cooler, harder, and more alkaline water. But because Cincinnati has insanely hard water with very a high pH value, our tank is sitting between a 7.8 and 8.0, even with the addition of ½ RO water – which generally has a neutral pH of 6.8-7.0 – to lower the tank’s pH. Researching all this crap for the past two weeks, attempting to remedy it naturally through much trial and error (which created an unfortunate bacterial bloom that forced us to completely flush the tank and sent us right back to square one), and then just accepting it because that’s really all we can do at this point without chemical interference – which can negatively effect stability and lead to pH spikes and crashes – has been a battle of epic proportions. I’ve learned more about RO water, pH, kH, gH levels, and the inner-workings of the nitrogen cycle than I ever wanted to know.

Acclimation: When first brought Mav home from the store we floated the plastic bag with her in it in the tank for about 1 hr so the water temperatures could assimilate. Then every 5 minutes for the next 30 minutes we added a small amount of tank water to the bag so she could adjust to the different water quality and chemical balances in our water versus her tank’s water at the store.

And I thought getting a fish was as easy as it was when I was a kid – buy tank, fill with faucet water, throw in some gravel, and insert fish. HA.

I love her eyes – they’re so big and awesome!

So what do you think of our new addition?

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Problem Solving 101

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What’s a girl to do when USPS has lost a package she’s been desperately awaiting delivery on all week and kind of needed like, yesterday….which is, coincidentally, when it was also supposedly delivered? Except, of course, it wasn’t and the post office just can’t seem to track it down.

When you’ve been working on a project for well over two weeks and it just keeps getting more and more complicated and more and more frustrating with no solution or end in sight? When you don’t feel smart enough or well-equipped enough to figure it out?

When you’re tired of waiting and waiting and hearing “no” everyday?

She does the only thing she can do:

(via)

She angrily bursts into the kitchen fresh from work – right past her husband without so much as a “hello” – while stiffing tears of frustration, and still wearing her work clothes, she makes boxed funfetti cupcakes.

Then devours three.

And she feels just a little bit better.

Sometimes you really just need a damn cupcake.

Amen.

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A Favorite Around These Parts

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{recipe here!}

So not the most glamorous picture, but YUM.

A great lenten Friday treat for sure. We love these in this house!

Last night we made these salmon burgers with cilantro mayo, loose spring mix, and roasted lemon asparagus.

The cilantro mayo is life-changing. It’s really that incredible.

Ted ate three.

(Salmon burgers, not bowls of cilantro mayo or lemon asparagus)

They are, in fact, healthy – especially if you use low fat mayo, non-stick no-fat cooking spray instead of regular oil, and whole wheat sandwich thins burger buns.

I also added green onions to the patties, substituted the egg for egg beaters egg whites, and this time found that they stay together better while cooking if you use 3 Tbsp. of regular finely crumbled bread crumbs and then 3 Tbsp. of panko.

Do you have any favorite no-meat recipes for lent?

Have a lovely weekend (and start of spring break if you’re lucky!)

P.S. – Try these and let me know how you like them!

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