Livin' and Lovin' in the ROC city

Do you ever wonder how it’s possible to spend $95 a week at the grocery store? I never walk into a grocery store without my carefully thought out and extensively planned list, if I can help it, because I simply cannot be trusted. Without a precise list of the exact items I came for, I come out with spinach, a chocolate doughnut and garlic paste – random crap you can’t put together a proper or remotely edible meal with. Since I plan each week’s meals on Monday morning and have the chance to scour the cabinets and fridge to see what we’re out of and what we already have in stock before I hit up Kroger, I always have a pretty clear indication of exactly what I need to buy so we don’t waste money on things we don’t need that week or things we already have enough of. I comb through the Sunday paper for coupons to clip too, but usually the coupons are for name brand products or processed foods we don’t eat much of. Sounds like an A+ plan for healthy eating and penny-pinching, right? I like to think so too but I’m always a little shocked when my total reaches the $90+ range.

Since I have the luxury of time to make all our meals fresh and from scratch right now while I’m job hunting, I do. I know that most people don’t have time to do this, so we’re very fortunate to be able to enjoy this. On nearly every grocery trip I stock up on fresh leans meats, fruits, vegetables and dairy. I’d say a good 85% or so of the cart is fresh items while 15% is canned, boxed or processed things. Plus, most of the things I make require lots of ingredients for nutrition and flavor, not just 3 or 4 easy ingredients. Between opting for healthier, fresh foods and a variety of ingredients, I can see how a trip to the store can be pricey. But why is the healthy stuff so much more expensive than the unhealthy junk? I don’t understand the logic behind it. There are phenomenal campaigns going on all across America to fight obesity in children, reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in adults, encourage physical activity, promote healthy eating, and encourage people to help the farmer’s stay employed by buying more produce. I think any grocery store would claim to be on board with supporting and encouraging the health of their community, but their prices seem to say otherwise.

What’s on sale when you go shopping? Reduced-fat milk, whole wheat pasta, broccoli, 94% lean ground beef, and apples? No. It’s the white bread, cookies, chips, sodas, 10% juice “juice drinks”, and candy that’s on sale. I often wonder if I filled a cart with healthy food (fresh produce, chicken and fish, lean beef, rice, and dairy products) and filled another cart with less healthy things (soda, boxed meals, processed meats, fried and frozen dinners, etc.) how extreme of a price difference there would be in the outcome of this experiment, or how much more I could get for $100 if I bought the cart full of processed things. I truly believe that many people out there hear those campaigns. They want to eat healthier, eat fresher, and control their health and weight a little better for any number of reasons. But how discouraging is it when you find you simply can’t afford to fill up on healthy foods, but what you can afford is the stuff all these campaigns tell you to stay away from? I sometimes wonder how much money Ted and I could be saving (knowing it would come with the sacrifice of poor health and bulging waistlines) if I only shopped differently.

It’s pretty sad when so many people have to choose between their health and well-being and affordable food. I’ll step off my soap box, but before I do so, just imagine how nice of a change it would be if the expensive stuff was the junk food and fast food joints, and the affordable stuff was the fresh foods? People would buy what they could afford – fresh, healthy foods – and save the pricey junk food for special treats instead of subsisting on it on a day-to-day basis. Can you imagine how much healthier and happier everyone would be if only this were true? Farmers would have plenty of business, the rate of illness and disease would be drastically decreased, and because people are eating right, their bodies would be working properly, thus boosting their moods and brain power. People would be happier and healthier. With this post, I don’t care about the facts or statistics on health, or farming or obesity. I don’t care about the reasons why food is priced the way it is or why or how it could or couldn’t be changed. All I’m saying is in my dream world, things would be different.

Yesterday I learned a very important lesson. If you should, by chance, happen to make a giant mess of your oven whilst baking an extremely juicy cherry pie that spills over onto the oven’s hot coils despite the drip pan you put under it to avoid such a calamity, then smolders, fills your kitchen with a smokey smell, and burns sugary liquid all over the bottom of the oven that you have to spend 30 minutes scrubbing before returning the pie that you ripped out of it in a fit of panic back into the oven to commence baking (um, this is by chance only. I certainly don’t know this from experience), your understanding husband will take you out to a free Olive Garden (YUM – salad heaven!) dinner using two years worth of Olive Garden gift cards and then to the ritzy Dollar Saver second-run movie theatre to see Megaminds. Good to know. I’ll have to file this away in my brain for future reference. If you screw up badly enough, you’ll get an awesome date night instead. Perfect! I hope you have learned something from this.

P.S. – I’m know, I know. You’re worried about the pie. I did my best to salvage it. Ted apparently likes the smell of burnt fruit because he walked in the door and said it smelled great. Men. We’ll be digging into it tonight during the game, so I’ll let you know. By the way, I think it’s only fair to mention this particular recipe received nothing but 5-star ratings and the reviewers raved about how easy and fool-proof it was. HA! I’m no expert but I have baked my share of far more complicated pies and have never had this problem before – idiot proof my ass…it better be delicious.

Our house is falling apart and I don’t like it.

A repairman arrived 22 minutes late this morning. Now the entire house wreaks like nasty cigarette and he wore his dirty work boots, traipsing dirt and snow all over the house I just cleaned. Ted even showed him that we don’t wear shoes in the house – and as soon as Ted left for work he put his shoes right back on. Our rugs are now totally, visibly filthy and I have to wash our nice bath mat and towels set that I just washed again because he’s using them to set all his greasy tools on. I am none to thrilled about this as I now have to do laundry, vacuum, clean up even more stains, and deodorize the stink. I literally just did all of this two days ago! And I am even less thrilled that I wasted two whole bottles of miracle cleaner yesterday on upstairs guest bedroom stains that reappeared 10x darker overnight thanks to leaks in the roof and floor. WHY.

This. Is. Not. Normal.

Because merely thinking about the leaks and all the work that this dude just made for me today makes me fuming mad, I’m going to focus on something else, like making stew in the slow cooker. In the meantime, if you love to travel, read this article:

The 41 Places to Go in 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!