Monday, October 01, 2012

riffday: well, does she like butter tarts?

1. We got a puppy.

I know.  What were we thinking?  She is adorable.  We were all so impressed that she slept through the night last night, and that she didn't pee inside from the time we got her home about 4:00 yesterday afternoon until this morning around 9:30.  At which point she ambled into Nell's room, hitched herself up over a pile of clothes (picture me running toward her in slow-mo yelling N-O-O-O-O-O) and ... well, you know.  And now she's done it five more times today.  *sigh*

But she is still adorable and we are already in love with her.  She mainly belongs to MadMax, so he named her Sadie.  Sadie will not eat food out of a bowl, or on a plate, she will only eat it if it is dumped out on the floor (or if you hand feed her, but that got old really quick). We only figured that out because Nell got desperate since she had barely eaten a couple of tablespoons of food since we got her home.

I will post a picture as soon as I get a good one, or figure out how to get the one Dean took off his phone.

2. Apparently my mental apparatus is ideally suited for Young Adult literature, because I am loving this class.  We are supposed to write two-page reaction papers for eight of the fourteen books we're reading (our choice), and it turns out that is the perfect length paper for me.  I am the ultimate procrastinator, but with a two-page paper you can do that.  I can start it the night before, get the introduction and a bit written, sleep on it, think about it during the drive down to UTown, and spend an hour or so in the computer lab when I get there finishing it up.  I've done three of them so far and been happy with them all.  I will write book reviews, because several of these are well worth reading-- I'll use YALit in the post title so you can skip them if you're not interested.

3.  A long overdue update on the four-letter word (diet):  I have practically quit using MyFitnessPal and instead am now devoted to Fitocracy.  MyFitnessPal is mainly about calorie counting, and I knew I hated that when I signed up. It's just that the fun factor of being able to log calories online lured me into thinking this time might be different.  But six months later I was sick of thinking about calories all the time.  I haven't deleted my MFP account yet, but I probably will.  Fitocracy, on the other hand, has completely changed my attitude about exercising.  I look forward to it now.  You may remember me griping and whining about how it was oriented toward weight lifting, and it still is.  But that is much less prevalent than it used to be-- the site has exploded with new members this year, and while the lifters are still a big group, they are no longer dominant.  At least in my experience.

My gripe now (because you knew I would have one) is all the flirting that goes on.  I guess I'm just too ancient.  I love the motivation to exercise and the support from other members, but I could do without all the innuendo and the photos that aren't porn but that result in me thinking to myself, hmmm, how exactly do you define porn?  But so far it's easy enough to avoid if I'm careful.  When did I get so old and uptight?

4. I blew out a tire on our fly fishing trip a couple of weeks ago.  It was bad enough that it couldn't be repaired, and I have all-wheel drive which meant all four tires had to be replaced.  Ouch.  Fortunately, they were probably going to have to be replaced sometime in the next year anyway, but still.  The good news, though, is that it made a big improvement in my gas mileage.  I never kept exact records, so I can't give you an exact number, but it used to take just about a full tank of gas to get to UTown and back. Now it I drive down and back and still have more than a quarter tank left. Cool. Plus a quieter ride, and it feels like I'm driving on marshmallows.  What's not to love? 

5.  So some of you caught the post I put up on Sunday and then took down, and as a friend pointed out to me today, if you signed up for e-mailed posts, you still have the e-mail after I delete the post.  I'm so neurotic sometimes.  Honest to pete, I'm 51 years old and I can still lose sleep because if I say that people might not like me.  It's ridiculous.  But I have a question for the e-mail subscribers-- I am very bad about editing a post that I've already put up.  Usually I write them late at night (like tonight), so I figure nobody is up and reading (except Julie)(Hi, Julie!), and so it doesn't matter if I edit it a bajillion times before I'm happy with it.  Does that mean you get an e-mail every time I click on "publish"? If so, I apologize a bajillion times.  I'm not sure I can stop doing it (I've tried unsuccessfully in the past), so if it bugs you, probably best to cancel your e-mail subscription.  Let me know if you have trouble with it and I'll find out how to do it.

6.  The smoke is much better today, and we are finally supposed to get a big wind and rain system  tomorrow, which we are all hoping will put an end to the smoke season 2012.  Good riddance.  I got an e-mail from my sister-in-law in Idaho yesterday where they are actually having the fires, and then I felt bad about whining about the smoke.  At least our forests haven't gone up in flames.

7. Hmmm, I'm running out of things to say here but it seems like I should have seven items.  OK, here's one:  what is your favorite meatless meal?  Nell is vegetarian and I need ideas.  Fortunately she will eat eggs, because I have 45 eggs in my refrigerator right now.  There you go.  Seven items.


11 comments:

  1. I think my favorite veg meal might be Mexican cornbread with salsa and sour cream. (If you don't know - you just add a can of cream style corn, whatever peppers you like and some cheese to your cornbread mix. Reserve some cheese and melt it on the top at the last minute. We like to add pimentos, too. They add a little taste and they look pretty. Oh, and being a southern girl, I ain't eating no sweet cornbread. We mix one part non-fat buttermilk and one part white corn meal mix and pour it into an iron skillet that's been generously coated with olive oil.)

    I didn't know if you had an all wheel drive you had to replace all 4 tires at once. Interesting.

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    1. wow I love the Mexican cornbread idea. I will try that. I'm a southerner but I like sweet cornbread. I try not to mention that when I'm back in the South.

      The tires thing might be because my tires were aged, I'm not sure if it's always true.

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  2. 1. Love puppies!! Yes, please, on the picture. We house-trained both our dogs by watching them like a hawk - we always had an assigned watcher - for 2 or 3 days and every time he or she started to squat we'd holler NO, scoop them up and take them out and then praise lavishly for outdoor performances. Worked really well both times, it just was hard to non-stop watch them.
    2. I love YA lit. Reviews, please!
    3. I need one that will track how much protein, carbs, fiber, etc. for my day since I seem to be edging toward borderline pre-diabetic. FoodDiary did, but charged $9 a month.
    4. Bummer, but yay for smooth ride and better gas mileage!
    5. After a time or two of getting updates and not being able to figure out what changed I decided to ignore the updates.
    7. Quesadillas with cheese, black beans, corn, red pepper and cilantro. Salsa or guacamole on top.
    Pasta with pesto sauce is a big hit at our house, pasta with marinara sauce, check my blog for pasta with spinach and red pepper and feta. Welsh rarebit (mmmmm, really good on sourdough). See if you can find a copy of the Moosewood cookbook. It's all vegetarian and good stuff.

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    1. 1. OK, picture coming up in a minute.
      2. will do some over the weekend (I hope).
      3. I just went and looked-- MyFitnessPal does carbs, protein and fat, not fiber. But it is free. And it's fun, too-- lots of very nice people. I just don't have time to keep doing two sites, and I like Fito better (but it doesn't have food tracking at all).
      4. yes!
      5. sorry about that. I'll figure out how you can unsubscribe.
      7. Great ideas! We have done quesadillas before but I hadn't thought of them in awhile. I have one of the Moosewoods but might have to get more if we need inspiration.

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    2. No, no don't worry about the unsubscribing. I just know now to go read when it's a new one. It's all good.
      I do need to track fiber so I may have to go back to myFoodDiary. I'll check around to find one that works for me.
      I forgot about Epicurious.com. There is a great search feature on it, up in the upper left corner. You can either browse or do an advanced search if you have a particular ingredient you want to use. I don't always use the recipes I find, but they often give me an idea for something to make.

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    3. Actually MyFitnesspal has about 15 things you can track and fiber is one of them. You just have to go to diary settings and pick what you want to see.

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  3. Favorite Easy Egg recipes:

    huevos rancheros out of family cookbook. It looks a little gnarly on paper, but try it once. My whole fam likes it.

    Eggs Benedict using Canadian Bacon, poached eggs and the Knorr's Hollandaise pkg mix. Another easy family favorite

    Final out of family cookbook, Greek Pasta with feta cheese, garlic, tomatoes and lemon juice. YUMMO

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    1. thanks for the reminder of the ones in the family cookbook! I will try those. We have tomatoes from the garden so I might do the greek pasta one soon.

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  4. I'm vegetarian. I regularly make homemade guacamole for supper, hummus and a platter of veggies, pasta with olive oil and things thrown into it (like sundried tomatoes, or chopped up tomatoes, or whatever), veggie burgers (I prefer Sol brand), chick pea salad, black bean salad, corn chowder soup... oh and a fun one is "dragon bowls" - recipe here:

    http://www.straight.com/article-353032/vancouver/rainbow-dragon-bowl

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    1. Thanks, Mabel-- the dragon bowl looks awesome! And your list of ideas sounds like all our favorite vegetarian meals. I'm trying a recipe for zucchini hummus today, will let you know how it turns out.

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