Let's Play A Game

This is what I bought at the grocery store today.  I forgot my reusable bags. 

Guess how many plastic bags they used to bag my groceries?

Go on...guess.  A winner has been announced.



Veni, Vidi, Vici

For those of you who need to brush up on their Latin, Veni, Vidi, Vici means I came, I saw, I conquered.  Yesterday I conquered my fear of running on a treadmill!  K pointed out that if I want to run a 5K at some point I will actually have to start running.  I have been waiting to start running until I can run outside but seeing as it has rained/snowed 4 out of the 5 days of April, I figured it was now or never.
I started the day off with a "real" breakfast because apparently granola bars and string cheese don't count.  I even turned on the stove!

I spent a large part of the morning peer pressuring K into going to the gym with me.  I ran some errands then headed to the gym with no intention of running on a treadmill.  But I totally remembered to pack a snack which I proceeded to drink out of the carton.

Then used the lid as a tiny shovel to get at the last bit.  Spoons are overrated!

At the gym I did 3 miles on the elliptical and two miles on the treadmill.  But the exciting part was that I did some 1 minute running intervals.  It might seem pathetic but for me it was a HUGE deal.  I have a weak ankle and my biggest fear is that I will roll it, fall forward smashing my head on the front of the treadmill, slide down and shoot off the back of the treadmill into the purple poll behind it.  Then I would be maimed and so embarrassed that I would stop going to the gym...and I would probably cry in public.

But yesterday I ran on a treadmill and did not cry, fall off, or die.  And it happened more than once!  It was kind of definitely a big deal.  Moving forward, I am going to loosely follow the Couch to 5K program at my own pace and see where that takes me.

 

Cooking With Amy: Dad's Birthday Edition

In my family the birthday boy/girl gets to choose whatever they want for a special birthday dinner.  It typically takes me forever to decide but I ALWAYS make a choice otherwise who knows what my dad would make for me.  (This is a man who fed me shark once and told me it was swordfish.)

My dad's birthday was Saturday (Happy Birthday Dad!) and the only instructions he gave for his birthday dinner were, "Surprise me."  Hmmm.  For my mother's birthday, I made yummy crab rangoon and wondered if I could use egg roll wrappers to make ravioli.  You can.  Or at least I can.

I used ricotta and parmesan cheese mixed with spinach for a filling and practiced making different sizes and shapes with the egg roll wrappers.  (A note on spinach:  what a strange vegetable!  As I squeezed the water out of it, it molded into a baseball sized, green handful of mush.)  I also made some tortellini to freeze for later!

The wrappers are so thin that they barely require cooking.  I just tossed them into boiling water for 1-2 minutes and they were done...and delicious.

Because my Christmas Eve trifle was such a success, I attempted to replicate it by making a free standing trifle.  I had to make my own pound cake this time so I tried to make it extra lemony, but most of the lemon rind stuck to the beaters...which I only noticed after I licked the beater (don't pretend you don't do that) and it was quite tart.

I tapped into my architectural skills to construct three layers of goodness.  The whipped cream was the mortar to my pound cake bricks.  It also served as a dam to keep the smashed raspberries from escaping. 

It wasn't as neat looking as the trifle but it tasted just as good!

   

Six On Sunday

1. I learned a valuable life lesson this week.  Tuna and pasta is not a good pre-gym meal.  Especially when you jump on the elliptical, set it to level 10, and try to do 3.1 miles.  I made it 1 mile and did not feel great but thought I was just being a wuss so I soldiered on.  At 1.5 miles, I exercised (get it exercised?) good judgement and stopped.  At 1.6 miles I would have been that girl.  The girl who vomits in public, all over the gym equipment.  Lesson learned.

2.  Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon are BFF for 6 months.  Colbert donated Fallon's money to charity and in return performed the worst song ever the song "Friday" on Fallon's show.  It was awesome.



3. One of my April goals is to cook more.  I've already started working towards this goal and a new Cooking with Amy segment is imminent.  Here's a sneak peak.  Ten points if you guess what I made!

My fingers are short but I swear they are not that short.  It must be an optical illusion.

4.  I'm getting excited about Weddingpalooza 2011.  This summer a whole bunch of lovely ladies are getting married which means pretty dresses, drinks and dancing, and crossing new states off my Places to Visit list.

5.  It's funny how 53 degrees in the fall means socks and sweatshirts but 53 in the spring means this:

One of my favorite things ever is driving around aimlessly, windows down and music up.  Obviously that time is now.

6.  I've been wondering if the inmates who pick up trash on the side of the highway are also responsible for scraping up all the roadkill.  Or will the turkey vultures eventually take care of that?

Just In Case You Thought I Was Joking

I HATE horses.  But I LOVE My Little Ponies.  And I used to LOVE this movie.  When I was little, I would rent it from the video store all the time.  So after I watched Rainbow Bright on Netflix Instant, I added this to my queue to see if it was as good as I remembered.  Let me save you an hour and a half of your life.

An evil witch and her two daughters live on a volcano.  They hate the ponies.  The witch makes purple Smooze to cover Pony Land.

Lickety Split is a prima donna.  She tries to show up everyone at the recital and ruins the dance.

She gets reamed out.

 She and her dragon friend sing a song then run away.

This is where I got lazy.  A lot of other stuff happens but the purple Smooze covers the My Little Pony dream castle.

Some Pegasus ponies are friends with people.  They tickle a giant spider to get to Flutter Pony Land.

Rose, Queen of the Flutter Ponies, refuses to help.  Bitch.

They have a change of heart.  The Flutter Ponies vomit sunshine and glitter on the purple Smooze, making it retreat.

They all live happily ever after.

Sadly, it wasn't as entertaining as I once found it to be.  Although I did remember a surprising amount of the movie for not seeing it in 20+ years.  I guess I should start renting grown up movies again.  Sigh.

This Is Not A Joke

This is happening.  Hello 1986.

Adios March, Aloha April

In March I dodged a lot of road kill, read some interesting books, tried to train my hair to need less shampoo (unsuccessfully), bought a lot of GLEE songs with my iTunes gift card, joined the gym, said goodbye to the snow (hopefully), splurged on something to make the solo gym days more fun, let my apartment get messy, did away with Flashback Friday (because no one reads blogs on Friday) and adopted Six on Sunday (because I like making lists!)*, ate a lot of string cheese, stopped eating Easter candy, blog stalked some new people, and made yummy waffles (and by made I mean put chocolate chips, strawberries, and cream on top of toasted frozen waffles.)

My one goal for March was to sign up to substitute.  Of course me being me, this took about 3.5 weeks to accomplish but I am officially a substitute teacher...I think.  (I haven't actually been called to sub yet.)

March is typically one of those months that seems to go on forever but it flew by for me.  Probably because of that whole not doing anything productive with my life thing.  Of course when you want time to slow down it inevitably goes by even faster.  In February, I commented that with March comes spring.  I was mistaken.  March brings mud and roadkill season.  Hopefully April will bring spring.

In April, I want to do 3 things:
1. Work.  In a classroom.  As a teacher.
2.  Get back on track with The List.
3.  Cook more.  Bake more.

* Just spelled because wrong in three different ways (becuase, becasue, and becuse) because I'm super talented.

Story Of My Life: String Cheese Edition

My love of string cheese (and all foods meant for five year olds) should come as no surprise to you.  This past week it has become my favorite after-the-gym snack...something to do with protein rebuilding muscles.  But today I had one for breakfast.

I opened it with a letter opener...obviously.

The end was sealed all the way to the top.  What else was a girl to do?

Open it from the other end...apparently.

Sigh.

Some may see this as me being unobservant and ditsy.  They would be wrong.  I see this as being a self-sufficient, creative problem solver. 

Amy: 1  
String Cheese: 0

Audience Participation Required

I can listen to the same song on repeat for HOURS.  And I can listen to the same CD in my car for MONTHS.  But I am in dire need of a new gym mix to fill this bad boy girl up. 

I will accept any and all song suggestions.  I listen to and enjoy almost every kind of music.  New and old.  Cheesy and um...not cheesy.  My only requirement is that it be somewhat peppy (read: fast or strong beat) to keep me going.

So here is where you come in.  I need all my lovely readers...official followers and secret stalkers to leave a comment suggesting a new song(s) for my gym playlist.  I want to hear from everyone.  No excuses!  (You can comment anonymously if you feel so inclined.)

THANKS!!!

A Morning Without Scrambled Eggs: The Aftermath

Today began with a rocky start because my body wanted scrambled eggs but I fed it a granola bar instead.  From there it was a slippery slope.  In an effort to be fiscally responsible thus accomplishing #10 on The List, I paid my rent, credit card and cable bills and eventually my parking ticket (although I still have yet to file my taxes.)

Back in mid-March I got a parking ticket. 

I was parked in a place that I have parked for the last two years but they changed the signs from weekend parking to tow-zone.  I was annoyed but ultimately it was my fault so I tried to pay the $20.00 now before it became $25.00. 

I examined the ticket and you can pay in three ways:
1.  At city hall (in a city I live 30 minutes away from).
2.  By money order or postal note (which I have never heard of).
3.  Online.

Obvi, I choose option #3.  Well...you can't actually pay on the parking ticket website.  You have to create an account for a third party collection agency and pay through them.  And they charge a fee to pay online.  Ugh.  But I can't send the city a check directly and I refuse to drive the 30 minutes to pay in person.

So I create my account intending to use my Visa to pay the fee.  But although the Visa logo is shown, they don't actually accept Visa for parking tickets.

WTF?  When have you ever heard of ANYTHING taking Discover but not Visa?  So I can't mail a check but I can't pay online with Visa.  Within the account I created, I had to create something called an ACH which is an acronym that means electronic check (I guess).  I can't mail a check but I can pay a fee to use an electronic check?  In the words of Chandler Bing, "Could it BE any more difficult?"

After figuring out how to pay my parking ticket I went to have words with my bank.  They have released new debit cards that are more akin to library cards than credit cards.  When mine was peeling apart, I had a new one printed.  That one didn't swipe so I had another printed.  That one swiped when the card was vertical but not when it was horizontal.  Arg!  Today I had yet another card printed.  That would be card #4 in 3 weeks.  This one better work otherwise the next words I have with my bank will be, "I'm closing my account."

As there is no grocery store in the tiny town I live in, I split my shopping among three neighboring towns.  And because they are still small towns, I inevitably bump into someone I know.  Today at the grocery store, I got in line then realized I forgot to get bananas.  As I turned to walk away I heard my full name. (Side note: My last name is only 4 letters, one syllable so I am often referred to as Amy _ _ _ _ like it is one name.)  So there I was looking a hot mess after sleeping on the aforementioned (almost) french braid face to face with my mentor teacher from my last teaching gig.  It was good to see her but I should know by now to brush my hair before I leave the house.  C'est la vie. 

I guess the moral of the day is wash the dishes so you can make scrambled eggs!