Monday, May 9, 2011

Cooking With Amy: Mother's Day Edition

For Mother's Day I was in charge of dinner and dessert.  Dad was in charge of shoveling dirt, planting herbs, and getting dirty.  I think I got the better end of the deal!

I found a recipe for shrimp and pasta that you cook in the oven on The Pioneer Woman blog.  Her pictures made it look so delicious and it seemed simple enough.  When it came down to cooking it, my dad started throwing all kinds of stuff into the pan and the official recipe went out the window.

There was no measuring involved and we just added whatever we could find in the fridge.  The sauce had diced tomatoes, LOTS of garlic, olive oil, zucchini, white wine, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.  We tossed the shrimp into the sauce just at the last minute.


Then you were supposed to add the pasta and wrap the entire liquidy contents of the pan into a neat foil package.  Dad knew that disaster was imminent so he made me use a baking dish with high sides.  I wrapped it all up and baked it for 20ish minutes.


The pasta and shrimp finished cooking in the oven.  It looked beautiful but unfortunately was a bit dry since there wasn't really a sauce.  Sadly the meal didn't turn out as fabulous as my homemade ravioli.

But I redeemed myself with dessert.  I chose a simple dish that only required a 40 minute wait in line.


Raspberry chocolate chip and coffee Oreo.
Yum.

   

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Six On Sunday: Mother's Day Edition

1.  Thank you for teaching me valuable life lessons...like which day is the best to buy plane tickets and that paying my credit card bill is non-negotiable.

2.  Thank you for taking care of me...like the time I needed to get my wisdom teeth out.  You took me to the oral surgeon and didn't make fun of me while I was hopped up on pain killers.  Also, thank you for never filming me saying stupid things and putting it on YouTube.

3. Thank you for never letting me get a perm. I know you rocked one for most of the 80's but you convinced me to stick with the naturally curly-ish mess I was born with.

For the record, I (mostly) grew out of these curls.
4.  Thank you for letting me use your washer to do my laundry even though I am almost a grownup.

5.  Thank you for being too awesome to buy a mini van even though I thought they were cool and asked you to get one.  (Especially because you are already what I would call an "aggressive" driver and if you drove a mini van I fear you would become one of these ladies.)

6.  Thank you for putting up with my obnoxiousness...like when I decide it's time for a photo shoot even when you are feeling shy.




Happy Mother's Day! 
I love you!


 

Friday, May 6, 2011

HBBFFL!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEST FRIEND FOR LIFE!


Mmmm...I want to lick my screen.
Today is my favorite Ronald McDonald (but less creepy and with better makeup) look-a-like's birthday.  Her name is Summer and she writes a blog about birthing and parenting the cutest baby ever!  And this birthday is kind of a big deal as she is joining a NEW DECADE!


She is trying it out for me so that when my time comes in February I know that everything will be okay.

If you are asking yourself, "What is the best birthday present for someone I don't know?" the answer is simple: a Happy Birthday donation.

Summer is participating in the March for Babies which raises money for the March of Dimes to fund research and help prevent premature births.  If you would like to donate to a wonderful person and a wonderful cause, please visit her donation page to make a Happy Birthday donation.  In making a Happy Birthday donation you can help celebrate Summer's special day and help babies everywhere have healthy and happy birthdays.*

Thanks! 

* Plus you get 10 awesome points.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

BP Recap Just In Time For Cinco de Mayo

Glitter.
Margaritas.
Dancing.

The 12 hour affair began with a bowling themed engagement party.  And by bowling themed I mean we wore rented shoes and rolled big balls down wooden alleys at pins.  I was on a team with bowling sharks and although no one was particularly taking the bowling seriously, ALL of my team members broke 100 points while I managed a meager 67.

While bowling we ate, drank, and watched a gaggle of 12 year old girls do the "Cha Cha Slide".  Everyone signed a bowling pin for the happy couple and had a champagne toast.  In an effort to redeem myself, I harnessed my powers of estimation and guessed how many photos D had taken of O-town during their relationship.  I guessed 400 and the answer was 397...Vegas anyone?  For my awesomeness, I was rewarded with this:

I don't drink beer so I let the others have at it but I am def. saving that jug!
Fast forward to several hours later and the girls hit up a Mexican restaurant for some margaritas and food.  I was peer pressured into trying guacamole for the second time and I still didn't like it.  Everyone was dressed in their disco best for the evening festivities and I made friends with an older gentlemen who inquired about why we were dressed so strange.

After dinner, we headed to The Donkey Show (no not that kind of donkey show) in Boston.  It was a disco themed event that told a somewhat altered version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  O-town danced on a platform with a guy wearing Converse, soccer socks, and tiny shorts and M got to ride through the "car wash" during the show!  We bathed ourselves in glitter, rocked disco ball necklaces and danced until last call.  In short, it was a pretty fabulous evening.

Sadly, I left my camera at home but here are some of the "official" photos from The Donkey Show website.

FYI:  That is glitter not sweat.

Best quotes of the night:

"Can you find the guy with the margaritas?  He is skinny and surprisingly attractive for a small man."

(To the limo driver) "Just to be clear, I am not offering you pot right now."

  
 

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

I'm The Girl...

Who ALWAYS broke the chain letter.

For those of you my age, remember back before email when friends would send chain mail to your house?  Like with the mailman?  You were supposed to then rewrite the letter and send it to (insert some number here) people or you would have bad luck for a billion years.  Come to think of it...maybe all that promised back luck is coming to fruition.*

Here is the part where I try to segue from chain mail to blog awards without making me seem ungrateful and making the people who gave them to me feel like they want to unfollow me.  For the record, I absolutely appreciate being thought of when it came time to forwarding awards (even if I feel like I didn't deserve them).  And the only comparison I'm drawing between chain mail and blog awards is the Amy ignores them aspect.

I've been given three awards by three wonderful bloggers and I've ignored all of them...until now.  Back in March, Miss Jenna bestowed upon me The Versatile Blogger Award.


Jumble Mash gave me an award for being an awesome guest poster on her blog.


And finally, Sunshine told me I am my blog is stylish.

To accept a blog award you are supposed to list some number of facts about yourself.  Because I love lists here are some more things about me:

-  The saying "better late than never" applies to 90% of my life.
-  I like to eat cinnamon Life cereal out of the box with my fingers.
-  Barnes and Noble is one of my favorite places ever!
-  I want to be an author. 
-  I just need a book idea.
-  I always liked the numbers 13 and 3.
-  But I think my lucky number is 4.
-  I made a delicious stir fry for dinner last night.
-  Baths kind of creep me out.
-  I need to learn how video G-Chat works before Friday.
-  My head wants to run a 5K but my body is not cooperating.
-  Sometimes I think I'm too cool for Blogger...
-  But actually I just think that Tumblr would be more receptive to my urge to post 4 blogs a day.

* This cannot be true as I make my own luck.  Just like that guy in Titanic who...um...never mind.

 

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A Letter for You

Dear Official Followers and Anonymous Stalkers,

Now that I have settled on a blog design that I like (and intend on keeping for more than 2 months) I'm turning my attention to my blog content.  I began my blog as "Zero Ducks in a Row" to chronicle my struggles with losing my job but it has blossomed into a collection of random stories about my mundane happenings.

In my stalking of the blog world, I have found that most (Blogger) blogs have a central focus or theme:  new babies, cooking, crafting, running or book reviews.  Platforms like Tumblr seem more receptive to personal blogs about daily musings.  While I write this blog for myself, when you (and by you I mean me) put it out there for people to read you expect and hope for feedback in the form of page views, followers, and comments.

So I want to know what you think!

What do you like love?
What do you hate dislike?
What do you want to see more of? 
Less of?
Any suggestions for blog ideas?

Don't fret, this will still be all Amy all the time.  But I'm curious if you'd love to see updates four times a day detailing every inane facet of my day (like the guy I saw yesterday who put on leather work gloves before pumping gas) or prefer more thought provoking discussions on the difficulties of being a grownup.

XOXO,
Amy

   

Monday, May 2, 2011

The Back Story of # 27

One of my May goals is to cross something off of my list.  A lot of the items are long term goals or things that I have plans to complete at some point later this year.  I took a look and decided that  # 27 is going to happen.  Maybe not this week but some time in the next 30 days.

The Back Story:
I put "Read A Classic" on my list because old books scare me.  I find them difficult to read, hard to understand, and boring (and that is if I actually read more than 30 pages.)  I LOVE to read but I was the girl in high school that refused to start finish any of the assigned reading.  I learned the basics...Gatsby loved Daisy and they ran someone over, either Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn went down the river with Jim, and Beowulf fought Grendel and his mom.

In 8th grade I was in honors English.  Due to a lack of effort, I did not get awesome grades.  By some oversight, I was placed in 9th grade honors English where I proceeded to do worse than 8th grade.  I convinced myself that English was my worst subject and that I wasn't smart enough to understand the material when the reality was that because I wasn't interested in the books we were reading, I neglected to apply myself.  To be fair I was 14 and being asked to read Charles Dickens.  I didn't even know what socialism was so how was I supposed to appreciate a novel about the social and economic pressures of 19th century England?  High school English class killed my love of reading.*

In an effort to make good on # 27, today I did some recon at B&N. 


I'm still unclear on what actually constitutes a classic.  According to the display I can choose from:
Frankenstein
The Wizard of Oz
Dracula
Don Quixote
Walden
Last of the Mohicans
Any novel ever written by Jane Austen

The three that I am considering are:
Little Women (I've seen the movie)
The Scarlett Letter (I've seen Easy A)
The Secret Garden (I've seen the movie)

Any suggestions?  My hope is to read all three before the year is out but my TBR (that is book blog lingo for to be read) pile is like 925 books high.

* Fun Fact:  I buckled down and studied hard for my 9th grade honors English midterm.  I thought I did well.  As the teacher was passing back the midterms, the snobby girl (yes I'm being judgemental) next to me who always got good grades got an 88% on her test.  She turned to me and said, "Well I got an 88, but I'm sure you'll do fine."  I got a 96% bitch...I bet she still hates me.

 

Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Big Reveal

So this is my new "look."

Please lie to me and tell me you love it.

 

April was Blogapalooza

In April I listened to a lot of Adele,  was a substitute teacher for 5th and 6th grade, slacked on the crafting, slacked on the gym, and slacked on the social visits.  I ate more Easter candy (Easter season seemed to rival Christmas season this year), started watching Castle from the beginning, celebrated O-town's impending nuptuals with a fab bachelorette party, averaged a blog post per day, was a guest blogger over at Jumble Mash, played math tutor and killed a lot of bugs.

At the beginning of the month I felt on top of the world.  But the last two weeks of April my spirits took a face plant into the world of substitute teaching.  I had to try out the whole, "if you force a smile you will eventually feel better" theory.  Some days it worked better than others.  But May is a new month...and if you know me you know there are few things I love more than a new beginning. 

Also May is an anagram for Amy...so that must be good luck.

My April goals were:
1.  Work.  In a classroom.  As a teacher.  Done, done and done.
2.  Get back on track with The List.  Still working at on-going goals but I did have a friend conned into offer to help.
3.  Cook more.  Bake more.  I cooked and cooked but didn't bake.  Boo.

In May I want to:
1.  Walk 31 miles.
2.  Buy new sneakers.
3.  Cross at least one thing off The List.

Six On Sunday

1.  It's May Day!  I don't really know what that means but I think it has something to do with twirling ribbon around a telephone pole.  Yes? 

2.  Last night was a 12 hour engagement/bachelorette extravaganza for the gorgeous O-town. (Full recap to come.)  We went here and got to wear these:


3.  We also got to partake in a glitter jar (which required a 3 am shower) because every available inch of skin looked like this:

I am sure that come Wednesday, I will still be picking glitter out of my hair.

4. Staying out until 3 am is not as easy as it used to be.  (Read:  Amy is getting old.)  I laid around in bed until 2 pm today!  I only got out of bed to catch up on reading blogs I missed over the weekend.  If I had a laptop or an iPad blog reading would totally have happened from my bed!

5.  I added a calendar to my home office* to keep track of all my nonsense because my old lady brain has been feeling forgetful.  If you want to have a play date let me know!  I'll pencil dry erase you in.


6.  Thanksgiving dinner on May Day is happening.  Be jealous.

* By home office I mean the place where I eat lunch while I blog stalk you!
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