The Year of Healthy Eating

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!
Sarge's metabolism has finally caught up with him.
Pardon me a moment.
AAAHAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!

Ok.

So he has decided that WE are going on a healthy eating, meal overhaul. Oh joy. Well, admitidly we are both in need of this. We exercise, but don't necessarily always eat well. Lots of starches, bread, rice, potatos, pasta, too much butter and margarine, way too much salt and sugar. Yeah.

Sarge insists that he and I eat as few carbs as possible. This sucks. Our meals should be made up of fresh fruit, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats.

Yay. Not.

He ALSO has it in his head that all grains are bad, no seeds, no legumes. WHAAA?!? Screw that, I'm still eating my cheereos and oatmeal.

Anyway, since we are on this "healthy" kick, I though I would put up my Sarge approved super simple Quinoa salad.

You need some Quinoa, fresh veggies, we use cucumber, tomato, red onion, all diced. One can of Black Beans drained and rinsed, one can of chickpeas also drained and rinsed (I know, legumes, but Sarge likes them), 1 package of crumbled fetta cheese. Fresh ground pepper, salt, and olive oil.

Cook your Quinoa according to package directions. Be sure not to over cook, or your Quinoa will lose it's crunch. I use about 8 oz, or half of a box of Trader Joe's Quinoa. Rinse in cold water, and drain well.

Mix together your veggies, cheese, beans, and Quinoa. Add about 3 Tbsp. olive oil, more if you find your salad to be too dry. Add some pepper to taste, and a very little salt; not too much because as your salad sits in the fridge the Fetta cheese will salt it up a little more (found this out the hard way). You may omit the salt alltoghther if you wish.

Store salad in the fridge. Eat it just as it is, or be like me, and mix in some baby spinach or arugula. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, almond slivers, rasins, or cranberies. I guess you can also add some grilled chicken to it as well.

Yum, YUM!!

Of course you can add whatever fresh vegetables you like. Other options would be heart of palm, artichoke hearts, beets, olives, The Librarian suggested some lemon juice. Really, you could add just about anything I think.

My New Love

Oh yum, how I love thee.
Fage.
I buy the plain, I didn't see the ones with the fruit in them at Whole Foods(aaaaaAAAAAHHHH!!! Sound of angels singing). And, I got it in regular, though I think that the next time I'll get the 2%. Or, maybe the 5%, since the 2% has less calories and fat, but more sugar. Oh who knows!! I was just so excited to find it! Had it last night with a bowl of mixed berries, had it this morning with a cut up nectarine. Yum, yum, YUM!!!

Seriously, how can a large grocery chain like Safeway not carry this?!?! I know that this brand has been in all the women's health and style magazines, as the "NEXT GREAT THING!!!!!"

Sidebar: So, the whole Bifidus Regularis , and L. casei Immunitas in yogurt thing. That's in all yogurts right? Not just the ones that are advertised and pushed as such, like Yo+ and DanActive. Because I would rather eat huge tubs of Fage, with it's low sugar content, than a small tub of another brand with high fructose corn syrup as it's second ingredient. Well, I would rather just eat Fage all the time anyway.

And, as much as I love Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, I'm really not up to driving over there every other week to get my fix. Because you know eventually I'll cave to Sarge and bring home a $20.00 Ostrich egg.

File it Under "Need a Life"

Sarge and I were watching Live Free or Die Hard a couple of weeks ago. This is the conversation we had.

Sarge: Who's that bad guy? He looks really familiar.
Me: I don't know. He kind of looks like Ryan Secrest.
Sarge: That's not Ryan Secrest. That American Idol guy right?
Me: I know that's not him. It just really looks like him.
Sarge: Ryan Secrest is not an actor.
Sarge: **Dorking it out looks it up on his laptop**
Me: I know that guy is The Mac, and that other computer guy is Kevin Smith.
Sarge: Timothy Olyphant!! Oh! It's Bullock!
Me: What?!? Really? I guess I don't recognize him unless he's seething with barely repressed rage. Totally not sexy without the moustache and rage.
Sarge: What's that?
Me: Totally looks like Ryan Secrest.

What the heck am I on about? See for yourself.

Ryan Secrest


Timothy Olyphant


Timothy Olyphant as Seth Bullock. Broody and HOT!


I'm only seemingly obsessed with this because I watch too much TV, and that sorta crappy Jennifer Garner movie "Catch and Release" is on heavy rotation. I keep catching glimpses of the guy.

I need to get out more.

BAH!

A couple of annoyances from this week.

Mother loving freaking school FUNDRAISERS!!! That's right, this is the second fundraiser for Piko deGallo's school this year! This time it's Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough, which I understand to be quite excellent. Well the incentive this time is to sell 10 tubs of dough (at $14.00 a tub) and come to "MR. MONEY'S MEGA PARTY!!"
And again, they had the fricken assembly where they get the kids all pumped up about the cool crap they can "win" if their parents love them enough to buy $140.00 worth of cookies. Not happening in the deGallo household this time I tell you. I guess I just don't love my daughter enough.


Gym dudes. Enough OK. Stop freaking staring at me while I'm explaining to my friend how to do something. You're making me think I'm doing it wrong, even though I know I'm not. And if I am doing it wrong, helping me correct her form would go over much better than intensely staring at us. It's just creepy, especially since the exercise we are doing is a stiff leg deadlift. It looks like you're staring at our butts. No love to you.

On a funny note, I have come to realise that even if I loved to exercise I could never be a personal trainer. Well, of course there is all that personal interaction with people, and the fact that I hate to exercise. But also, I'm not that much of a motivator. I'm kind of, yeah....do whatever you're comfortable with, I'm not going to push you. I got all intense with my workout pal, you know "COME ON!!!! ONE MORE!!! JUST ONE MORE!!!!!" And it just made the both of us laugh. Though, I suppose it would be different if it was actually my job to be that way.

Why, why, why do none of the supermarkets in my area (Safeway, Giant, Shoppers, Commissary) not carry Quinoa, Greek Yogurt, or Halloumi? I have to drive to Virginia to get my yummy healthy goodness. But, I guess it's a good excuse to geek out with excitement at Whole Foods (am I the only person who gets excited about cool supermarkets?).

Also, yay to finding jicama at the local Shoppers, and the most excellent fried chicken. Boooo! to having to drive over to Safeway to get fresh Sage.

Boooo! also to the Safeway check out guy who first refused to NOT give me a bag. I only had the packet of Sage, a bag of carrots, and a bag of cheese. And then proceeded to lecture me on how "This is AMERICA!!! Everyone deserves a bag!!" WTF is that?! AND THEN mangled my maiden name (it prints out on my receipt when I use my Safeway Card), granted, my maiden name contains 4 syllables, 4 vowels, and a Z, and is difficult to pronounce. BUT WAIT! Then he LAUGHED at me when I responded with the correct pronunciation , and said "Well, close enough right?".
No, no sir, I'm afraid not.

EDIT: Let me just add that while I was getting ready to mop my house this morning I dropped my copy of Pride and Prejudice into a bucket of PineSol. GARH!!!!

I Feel Dirty

I have just finished, dare I say it...

Jane Austen Chick-Lit.

Yeah, it was pretty horrible. My only consolation about buying this book was that it was only $1.40 from my local thrift Store. Maybe I can put it to further use by using it as tinder to start my next BBQ.

I bought it thinking "Meh, maybe it'll be ok." however it was very unoriginal, the plot of the main character basically following that of Elizabeth Bennet in P&P. With the "real" Mr. Darcy appearing mysteriously along the way to throw her into a tizzy, and then reduced to the basic outline of his character. Proud, yes, snobby, well DUH! brooding, naturally, sexist, sure, but expected of a man of that time. Blah, blah, blah. You could see the plot coming a mile away, the main character (the Mary Sue, if you will)was pretty clueless and unlikeable, subplots mirrored P&P, and the outcome was very glaringly obvious. Uh, Una J. Steane=Jane Austen, DUH!

I still can't believe that I read the whole thing. I should have just re-read P&P.

Grandpa Gives The Finger.

This was in today's paper.

Check it out, Grandpa Jim is giving Amber the ole two finger salute in pannel 3. It's kind of hard to see, but double click on the strip and it'll enlarge.

Complaint to PBS/BBC/Masterpiece Theatre.
RE: The Complete Jane Austen

TOO MUCH KISSING!!!!

That is all.

Anniversary of Horrors

The 16th was Sarge and my 8th wedding anniversary. I didn't write about it until now because I was trying to erase the horrors from my mind.

Actually it wasn't that terribly bad. But in my little, little world, anything that does not revolve around a quiet evening of brand new Mythbusters, and Project Runway on a Wednesday night (see my previous post) is a major disruption.

Just fair warning, this got pretty TL;DR.

Let me start by showing you what I got Sarge for our Anniversary.

Well, OK, so it's more of a joke than anything else, but that should give you an idea of what our day/night entailed.

Our whole family has been hit with a Norovirus type of ailment this week. It started with Piko deG emptying her stomach all night long on Friday night, not too bad right? At least it was Friday. She was absolutely fine on Saturday, we even ended up going to see a movie.

Sunday morning she wakes up with horrible, horrible, gigantic hives all over her entire body. AAAAA!!!!! Hives freak me out, combine with vomiting. We spent the morning in the ER, which by the time they saw us, the hives had resolved themselves. I hate wasting our, and the Doctor's time in the ER. Anyway, Sunday night, I'm up vomiting. Vomiting so much in fact that chunks come out of my nose. Nice, I know. Awful. Well, at least it's Sunday, Piko will be in school the next day and I can rest. Ha-Ha!!! What a cruel joke!

Monday morning, I wake up with body ache and a monkey laying on with a sledge hammer in my frontal lobe. Piko's hives are back again, this time it's migrated to her face, and she looks like Rocky Balboa in the 9th round. MOTHERLOVER! So, Benadryl for her, Motrin for me, and in bed all day. Ugh. Piko bounces back as soon as the Benadryl runs it's course and the drowsiness has worn off. Me, well let's just say that the monkey in my head has now used the sledge hammer on the rest of my body. It hurts to stand, it hurts to lie down. Well, you get the picture.

Then on Tuesday, SECOND VERSE, SAME AS THE FIRST! Piko, massive hives, other eye. Me, smaller sledge hammer. Luckily Piko will be happy to watch Star Wars while I sleep it off. And no appointments are to be had with anyone in our PCM's office. 6pm or so things are getting back to normal when Sarge announces: "Hmmmm, I don't feel so well". AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, he spent the night spewing from both ends (sorry, I know that's gross).

Wednesday, Piko is ok, send her to school. Sarge is now entertaining my hammer happy monkey. We have a meeting to do paperwork so we can leave to Germany. Hey, it's our anniversary! We attend our meeting which involves me being questioned by some lady about my mental health, drug and alcohol abuse, and possible abusive relationship with my husband.

Ok. sidebar here. Now I have two major issues with this meeting. First, the questions ran along the lines of "Do you have a problem with drugs or alcohol? Have you ever been seen for drug or alcohol counseling while on this base? Have you been treated at the psychiatric center while living on this base? Have you been visited by a caseworker from the Family Services office while on this base?" WTFBBQ?!?!?! Please note that we were AT the Family Services office. Do they not keep freaking records themselves?!?! WASTE MY FREAKING TIME why don't you!! Second, and I think this is the worst one. IN FRONT of my HUSBAND she asks me "Do you live in an abusive household?" I just looked at Sarge and kind of giggled nervously and said no, as he rolled his eyes. I'm sure that looked good. Why in the world would they ask a spouse in front of the other spouse if they were living in an abusive household?!?! Like someone is going to give an honest answer. Freaking morons. On top of these horrors, it's apparently going to take another week to get our paperwork back from the Doctor who couldn't be bothered to show up for our meeting. Only then we can get our final orders for Germany cut.

So quick recap.
Piko- Sick, vomiting, hives.
Me- Sick, vomiting, massive head and body ache, dealing with stupid.
Sarge- Sick, both ends, massive head and body ache, dealing with stupid.

Wheee!!! It's my anniversary!!

Then at about 1am, Piko threw up her dinner in her bed. Aaaah, wedded bliss.
Sarge gave me the best anniversary gift though, he was still up, and so did 90% of the clean up, while trying not to wake me up. I just had to put the bedding in the wash, and get Piko setteled back into the hide-a-bed for the rest of the night.

Funny or Sad.

This is a picture of the number pad on our TV's remote control. Yeah, yeah, the numbers are almost completely worn off. You can still kind of see the 2, 3, and 6, but that's it.
I can't decide if it's funny, or just sad that I have proof we watch too much TV.

The Aunties are here!! THE AUNTES ARE HERE!!!

This was Piko de G's rally cry last week.

As I had mentioned, The Librarian came for a long awaited visit to deGallo Land. We truly were spoiled when she lived in Richmond and would come up to visit us at least twice a month. It was a sad, sad day when she moved away.

Anyhoo, Piko deG was elated when Aunty Librarian came. Not only had she not seen her for almost a year, but Aunty Librarian was taking her to Hell on earth Build A Bear, for a belated Christmas gift!!!! Or, as Piko told everyone she knew "MY Aunty Librarian was too busy to go shopping for Christmas, so she is taking me to Build A BEAR!!!!!!!"

Oh the bliss to be in her favorite store in the world, with her favorite person in the world!!! This was The Librarian's first visit for full blown picking and stuffing at BaB. All I told her was take a deep breath and bring your credit card.

And as you can see that my shrug jacket thing came out quite well. She must like it because she wore it all week.

It was a good time. We were smart about it and went at about 1:30 on a Monday afternoon. I think that we were the only people in there. I know I go on and on about how much I hate this store, but actually it's quite fun when the place is empty. I've also dug myself a bit of a hole, because we're actually going back. Yeah, yeah, but Piko deG raised all of her grades significantly this quarter at school, and as a reward I'm taking her to buy a new doll outfit, complete with shoes, which on a normal day I refuse to buy.. I'm such a sucker!

I did say AuntieS right?

Well, my other good friend Red the Air Hostess happened to fly into DC for a meeting the same week that The Librarian was here. I was a bad mom and pulled Piko de G from school (with much guilt and hand wringing on my part, I was actually accused of being a Drama Queen about the whole thing) for another day so that we could all go to lunch.

Here is the happy bunch taking advantage of the unseasonably warm weather, walking in DC on our way to Zaytinya for lunch. The best Hummus EVER!! I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone. Seriously yummy!

Again with the leopard print shrug I made.

What a great week for Piko deG.

And on a geeky personal note, the Jane Austen Masterpiece Theatre three-month tribute starts tonight! Whee!

The Week in WIP

Many, many projects going on this week. Mostly Piko related. Usually after her Halloween costume is done she gets no more projects until after Christmas.

My very first clothing item actually made from a commercial pattern. This is going to be a little shrug jacket, and I'm going to make her a matching one for her favorite stuffed animal.

This one if for me. I think that I have been saying that I am going to make a quilt for my own bed for about a year and a half now. This one is going to end up on my bed eventually. The stitching is very slow going.

A pair (or more as it seems) of Cecily Beanies, for Piko and the Librarian, so that they can be beanie buddies while she's here for a visit.
Another project for Piko. Refurbish these thrifted infant clothes into clothes for her stuffed animals. You may remember my anti-BuildABear-ness. Well, I have discovered that those animals fit well into 0-3 mo. infant clothing. Just a snip to the seat of the pants for a tail hole, shorten the sleeves or straps on a cute shirt, and a perfect fit.

There were some completed projects this week too. Kiki got a new custom gown.


We took down the Christmas decorations! Huzza! And reduced our decoration cache by two huge boxes. Though the candy cane tree is still up. Piko needs to eat those candy canes.

79 squares were completed for my 2nd "MY" quilt of the year, based off of my pattern for The Librarian's quilt.

And, more fabric came in for future late birthday gifts.


Did I mention that The Librarian is visiting?!?! We are so happy. I had to sit Piko down and get her to understand that she is going to have to share her.

Take Away My Race Card.

For the first time in 34 years I vacuumed on New Years Day!!!

DOH!!! What a dumbass.

Ok, what?! You say.

Yeah, well, I've had it drilled into me that you should not sweep on New Years Day because you will be sweeping all of the good luck out of your home for the rest of the year. I'm guessing that vacuuming is the same thing.

I realized what I was doing about half way through the livingroom. And I actually considered emptying the vacuum canister into a Ziploc and keeping it. But how would I even begin to explain to Sarge why we needed to pack a Ziploc full of dog hair and dust to take with us to Germany.

Not that our new year got off to an auspicious beginning anyway.

Another saying that I have been brought up with is that you should do things that you enjoy or that are fun on new years day because that is what you will be spending the next year doing. Not that this has ever come true for me. This morning I was up at 5:30 cleaning up cat barf from under the bed. An old crusty crunchy one, and a nice wet juicy fresh one. Yay me.

Can't wait for 2008!