July 2009 Archives

And now I'm back! Did you miss me? I spent a lovely few days out in the San Francisco Bay area visiting my friends Laila and John and their little boy Noah. Laila and I talked until we practically lost our voices, covering as many topics as we possibly could in the time I was there. Sample topic range: Writers everyone loves whose books we just can't get into to which people from high school looks seriously different now to the joys of making risotto (Laila makes an awesome risotto) to why healthcare reform matters.

Noah showed me the joys of the Penguins of Madagascar cartoon and beat me at Wizard Stratego. He also tried to explain Bakugan to me, but I have to admit, I didn't get it. They took me to the Marin headlands so I could see the Golden Gate Bridge and then they took me to the movie theater so I could see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I'll leave it up to you to decide which one of those was more important. We lounged around their lovely house, relaxing and just hanging out.

It was a great visit. Laila and I have been friends since we met in biology class on the first day of our freshman year of high school, and no matter what we're doing together, we have a good time. Few people seem to understand me as well as she does, and I wish she didn't have to be so far away.

Proof that I did one touristy thing:

Buddha at the bottom of a big rock: (Whoops, I'm jet lagged and sleepy! Buddha is no longer sideways)

Mr. Gecko:

To paraphrase Lloyd Bridges in Airplane, I picked the wrong week to give up caffeine. After a serious bout of insomnia last night because my brain just would NOT stop, I went to Starbucks this morning. Once Iced Grande Skim Chai later, I'm convinced that was one of the best decisions I have ever made. You know that scene in Willow where Val Kilmer gets let out of the cage and then he jumps around declaring "I feel BETTER!" and waving his sword? That's me, right now.

Between the move and the five million things that have to get done in relation to the move, all the traveling I have coming up in the next 30 days, the fact that I have to find a dress to wear to my cousin's wedding and oh yes, dog sitting for my mom, this is just not the time. I can cut caffeine out of my life after we move.

Now I'm off to go zoom around at work being super productive. I could conquer the world today. All Hail Caffeine!

I gave up caffeine years ago. I get cysts, you see, and limiting caffeine makes the cysts go away. Plus, I wanted to have a baby, and giving up caffeine is supposed to make it easier to conceive. Maybe. Either way, you're not supposed to have caffeine when you're pregnant and I thought I would be pregnant (ha!) so I gave up caffeine. I did not particularly enjoy the process of giving up caffeine. I got headaches. I was cranky. I was tired. But I did it. After the initial giving up period, I still had the occasional cup of tea or bottle of Coke, but it was not a regular thing with me.

And then somewhere last fall or perhaps over the winter, caffeine crept back in to my life. I was so tired all the time, so lacking in energy and the motivation to do anything that I needed a daily dose of caffeine just to keep moving forward through my day. Sometimes two doses, morning and afternoon. As crutches go, it was a pretty good one - not terribly expensive, always reliable. But now the time has come to say goodbye to my friend caffeine again. I still get cysts, and I still want to have a baby, too. I have not had any caffeine since Wednesday. Here, for your enjoyment, is a re-enactment of my body's reaction to this development.

Thursday morning:
Body: Um, hey, I'm kind of tired over here. You should get more sleep. How about we stop at Starbucks?

Me: Nope. We're just going to have to tough it out.

Body: Not sure I like the sound of that.

Thursday, lunchtime:
Body: You know what would go perfectly with this lunch? A Coke.

Me: I don't think so. We shouldn't have much Coke, what with the diabetes and all.

Body: But there's a soda machine right there in the kitchen. Delicious, icy cold Coca-Cola.

Me: Not gonna happen.

Thursday afternoon:
Body: Tea?

Me: Ok. How about some nice Decaf Constant Comment.

Body, incredulously: You're seriously not going to give me any caffeine? Fine. Enjoy this SKULL CRUSHING HEADACHE, then!

Me: Ow.

I did about half of my Spinning class on Thursday night with my eyes closed, because the overhead lights were killing me. Friday went much the same, with my body periodically suggesting that what I really needed and wanted was caffeine. Sweet, energizing caffeine. At one point on Friday morning I shuffled into the restroom, bleary-eyed and zombieriffic, and was horrified when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I swear, even my hair looked tired.

I think this giving up process took about four or five days the last time I drastically cut back my caffeine consumption, so I'm almost there. Until then, I'll be the tired looking one closing her eyes at odd moments and muttering about tea.

My Sidekick, once such an advanced and cool gadget, is now sadly behind the times. It frequently has trouble finding a signal even though T-Mobile assures me they are constantly expanding their network. Accessing the internet through it is a slow and often frustrating process. It is time for a change.

First, there's the iPhone. I was initially iPhone resistant, but now I covet the apps and the 3G internet capability. The one problem with the iPhone is that I know from my Touch that I hate the keyboard. I text at least as much as I talk, so the keyboard interface is pretty important. iPhone users, does it get better with practice?

Then there's the Blackberry Storm. One of the guys I work with has it, really doesn't like it, and says he's going back to the iPhone. That's the only opinion I've heard on it. Of course, there are other Blackberrys and they do seem to be much loved. Do you use a Blackberry? Which one? How is it for using the Internet?

I don't know anyone who has a Palm Pre, and thus, know virtually nothing about it. I read a couple of reviews that said, "eh, it's not bad, but it's no iPhone." Got another opinion to add?

Google Android phones. I've read these have potential, but still a long way to go. Thoughts?

What phone do you use? Are you happy with it? Please let me know in the comments.

In honor of Bastille Day yesterday I had every intention of digging up a photo of me from one of my two trips to France, but then I remembered that my scanner isn't working and I'd have to reinstall it and find drivers and wow that is way too much work for a photo no one even cares about. I really would like to scan those photos in at some point, but not right now. I'm afraid the world will just have to wait to enjoy photos of 18 year old me in Carcassonne and at the Eiffel Tower.

So instead, I give you a delicious, but completely un-French recipe I tried for the first time this weekend - Roasted Potato, Chorizo, and Pepper Quesadillas

1 ½ pounds Yukon Gold potatoes - I used baby Yukon Golds - cut into 1-2 inch pieces
Olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 chorizo links, sliced into 1 inch pieces. There's a surprising selection of soy chorizo out there. I went with LightLife Soy Chorizo, because I thought it had the best texture. Of course, if you're not a vegetarian, you can use real chorizo.
1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper and 1 orange pepper, chopped - I used about 2/3rds of each pepper
8 ounces of Colby Jack cheese
4 burrito-style tortillas. These are the big ones. I prefer to get ones on the thinner side.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

Toss the cut potatoes in some of the olive oil to coat. Spread on a baking sheet or roasting pan. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, then flip potatoes and cook for another ten to 15 minutes.

Heat some olive oil in a deep saucepan. Saute the onions and peppers over medium heat for about five minutes, until they start to soften. Add the chorizo slices and cook until they are browned on one side. This takes about five more minutes for the soy chorizo. Stir in your roasted potatoes and cook for another five minutes or so, until the sausage slices are cooked on both sides.

Take one of the tortillas and spread a thin layer of cheese over half of it. Top with the potato-chorizo-pepper-onion mixture. Add a thin layer of cheese on top. Fold the rest of the tortilla over. Then cut the whole thing in half. Repeat with the other three tortillas.

Take your filled tortillas and place them in a pan over medium heat (may have to do this one at a time) and cook for a couple of minutes, until the tortilla gets slightly browned on the outside and the cheese melts. Then do the other side.

I thought it was fine and very flavorful plain, but certain other people liked it topped with salsa and queso.

There is a game that I play sometimes, during my long commute or when I'm wandering through the neighborhood on walks with Seamus. I look at cars and I imagine who I would be if they were mine.

I could be an outdoorsy camping and hiking type in the Jeep Wrangler, a high-powered businesswoman in the sleek black Mercedes sedan, a rugged and capable farm girl in a pickup truck.

Or I could be a sports car driver - going classic in a cherry red 67 mustang convertible with a black top (I see this car all the time and it is gorgeous) or more modern with one of the new Mustang Fastbacks. Then there's always the Porsche Boxster. Can't leave out Porsche when looking at high performance automobiles. I've always liked the look of older Corvettes too. The ones from the seventies are long and lean, but there are also some good looking ones that I think are from the fifties, more compact, but still with very nice lines. I will always have a soft spot for the Magnum PI era Ferrari as well.

If my fantasies are going in a completely different direction, I could be a suburban mom in a Volvo station wagon, a fun seeker in a Mini (old or new), or a driver who went for the exotic with an Aston Martin. Ooh, or a Karmann Ghia. While I still harbor a grudge against VW for my crappy Jetta, the Karmann Ghia predates that particular era.

I never seem to imagine myself in cars I don't like, so Hummers and Escalades and pretty much every modern Lincoln, Buick and Pontiac are out. As are your boring, everyday sedans. Which, naturally, is what I drive.

Would I be a different person if I bought a different sort of car? I'm not sure I would. No matter what car I got, underneath it all, I'm pretty sure I'd still be me, the ordinary, prosaic and practical Honda Civic Hybrid type. It is nice to pretend, though.

What's your dream car?

If I had written this a couple of days ago, that title probably would have been "Hyperventilating" because while I like to pretend that I am good with change, the fact is that I always need some time to adjust, even when the change is positive.

For the last year and a half, we've been debating whether or not to buy a single family house. Prices were down, bringing houses we never could have afforded before into our range. We initially hoped to move closer in, but while prices have dropped in Montgomery County, they haven't gone quite low enough. Besides, we've come to like Frederick County.

We didn't have all that many requirements. The house had to be bigger than our townhouse. It had to have a nice kitchen, and we really wanted a finished basement. We looked at to-be-built homes and existing homes, scouted neighborhoods, and changed our minds about what we wanted fifteen different times.

We even went so far as to put down an offer on a house back in February. It had sat for seven months, and then half an hour after we submitted our offer, they got another one, all cash, for $25,000 more than our bid. In this market! We had a second choice house in mind, but when we went back to give it another look, a pipe had burst and flooded two floors. So that was out. For a long time we were focused on Urbana, which is a little closer to work, and a very nice neighborhood - great library, good grocery store, and I have a friend who lives there - but the right house never seemed to come up for sale. After the layoffs in March, we took a break from looking because I just didn't feel confident about spending any money at all. Thankfully, the stock market, while not completely recovered (and seriously, don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise) has improved to the point where I no longer fear a third round of layoffs. Recently we started poking around looking at listings on the Internet again, just to see what was out there.

And then we saw it. The house that we looked at and said "well, we've got to go see that one." I called the realtor last Sunday, we saw the house on Tuesday, loved it, put an offer in a day later, and it was accepted this weekend. I still can't believe it. This place is perfect for us. It is a custom-built house on a couple of acres, but only a couple of miles from where we live now. Custom-built sounds fancy, but in this case think less Fake French Provincial and more Old Fashioned Farmhouse. It has all the neat quirks and nice touches like hardwood floors, built in benches and a porch that a historic home might have, but without the hassles that come with the plumbing and wiring of a house built in 1880. It is nestled in some trees and tucked back from the road, beautifully decorated and landscaped. And apparently it is going to be ours.