#so i will probably have for dinner what i had for lunch: leftover box mac and cheese babey

[peralta-guaranteed]

Hcs on jake's first day of work back after mac is born

- he's got a whole plan devised the evening before that'd let him get back home sooner or not go into work at all. See, he's going to drive to the precinct, and clock in, but then fake a call-out for some field work and just not attend the morning meeting, and go back home, and come back to clock in for the end of shift, and- stop sighing, Amy, it's a foolproof plan, what do you mean you texted Holt and told him about it, snitched on by my own wife?! who wants our baby all to herself?!? I see how it is

- honestly though, it's really really hard for him to face up to 9 hours away form this perfect little family bubble they've had the last few weeks. Even with all the sleep deprivation and clean up chaos and uncertainty as new parents and is that normal? should he be doing this? should we call the pediatrician? let's call Jorge, he's a doctor, he'll know..., he loves waking up to Mac's quiet snuffling sounds when Amy sits next to him in bed while breastfeeding, he loves getting the little bundle handed over for burping and a diaperchange while she cleans herself up and takes a shower. And now he has to get up and shower first instead, put on a stupid shirt and an even stupider tie while Amy sits in their bed still, and then put on a new shirt and a new tie after changing Mac and getting peed on.

- he's also a bit worried about leaving Amy alone. She's a superhero and the greatest mom in the world, of course, and she doesn't need anyone's help, but he also knows all the little things he does help her with that make her day with a newborn easier, and now she has to do that all by herself? She's probably not gonna have the time to steep her breastmilk-helping tea in the morning, or change her PJs and underwear after still being sore and healing from the birth and getting used to feeding, or make lunch for herself and clean the kitchen and prep for dinner while also feeding and entertaining Mac. (She absolutely manages to, of course, but even she admits that she lets some things fall to the side - lunch is a sandwich only - and that he is really a big help for her that she's missing out on now)

- he also annoys the hell out of Rosa the entire day they're out on field work, because he. won't. stop. talking. about. Mac. And yeah she loves the new little squad member as much as anyone could, and she has to admit she has more pictures of him saved to her phone than of anyone else already, but this is Jake we're talking about. Take his usual endless blabbermouth and story-jumping, pair it with sleep-deprivation and the absolute awe of having a child, Diaz, can you imagine, ME, well and Amy too of course and you can guess how the background noise of her day has been. She's going to hand him over to Boyle tomorrow, because he'll love to hear all about it.

- he does manage to get his head back to work after lunch break (and a long text session with Amy), because there's a really interesting case on his desk now. He quietly suspects Holt has made sure that case gets to him, because he's kind of almost excited to come back to work tomorrow to dive into it. Holt would of course deny such base tactics, but he also knows his detectives and how to best encourage them in their work.

- (he's also been shown at least 25 pictures of Mac that he's not seen yet, and remarked on how much he's developed already as the 'social customs for new parents' homepage he read told him to do, and he genuinely considers putting in some requests to head office for a re-evaluation of additional PTO for parents when he watches Jake beam at a new picture of Mac coming in and then sigh when he realises he missed that moment)

- Jake waits not a second longer to clock out than his time sheet allows, and he barely says bye to anyone before he's out the door. He would make the 25 minute drive home in 18 minutes, he's sure, but he actually takes longer because he stops at the Polish place to surprise Amy with her favourite comfort food after what he's sure was a hard day. Not surprisingly, she kind of had the same idea, as he arrives home to a box of Sal's already delivered on the kitchen table. Which is great, because it just means better leftovers for Amy's lunch tomorrow so she can have more than a sandwich.

[vegetalass]

RDR2 Boys Cooking + Eating Habits

Arthur 

Somebody else on here wrote some headcanons about Arthur not being able to cook and just eating microwave food all the time and I just have to say…. That’s canon 

Lowkey though he’s trying his best to get better at cooking

Probably the only thing he knows how to make is pasta 

He adds a bunch of random frozen veggies to water as the noodles are cooking 

And then smothers the whole thing in butter and calls it a meal

Or he puts marinara sauce on it straight from the jar 

And yes, that means it’s cold

He’s also getting better at friend rice, too

But he’s really bad at actually making rice 

If he doesn’t add too much water… He burns the bottom 

Charles makes a mental note to buy him a rice cooker for his birthday 

Makes his own popsicles out of random fruit juices and eats them 24/7 

Thinks this qualifies him as a chef

Eats pickles and olives straight out of the jar with a fork 

And sauerkraut too probably 

Just goes over to john’s house on his pizza nights 

Puts ketchup on eggs

John 

Pizza dad 

Probably orders pizza, salad, and a 64oz soda twice a week 

Everything else is just Dino chicken nuggets, Eggos, hot dogs, quesadillas, and frozen peas and corn 

Food you feed to little kids, basically 

Mostly because he does have a little kid 

But also because it’s easy and takes minimal effort and he doesn’t mind eating it, too

Abigail would be mad but she has no room to talk

The most you’ll see him actually make is buttered pasta (like Arthur) or sometimes beans and rice 

Abigail bought them a rice cooker a while ago so that’s one thing he doesn’t have to worry about 

Probably always has some type of dessert laying around 

Doesn’t mean it’s good, but it’s there 

Abigail buys a bunch of those gross, low calorie ice creams and John ends up having to finishing them 

Family lunches consist of a bologna sandwich on wheat bread with American cheese and mayo, a piece of fruit, a bag of chips or crackers, a go-gurt, and some gummies 

And yes he makes them for himself and Abigail too 

They’re all eating good at the Marston household 

(Not really)

Charles 

Everything he cooks are things that can’t be made in single batches 

Lots of healthy soups, chilis, stew, etc…

Most of the time, he makes too much of whatever it is so he always has leftovers 

Everyone is jealous when he brings them for lunch

Probably finds all of his recipes in the newspaper or random magazines he reads while at the grocery store checkout line

Everyone is like, “Charles… Why are you reading Women’s Fitness?” 

And he’s like, “Check out this salad recipe, though”

Puts hot sauce on everything 

Salad, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers... You name it 

And he’s the king of snacking

All of his snacks are healthy, though

Raw veggies and fruit and quinoa chips from Whole Foods or something like that

Nobody likes this

He’s one of those people who brings hard boiled eggs everywhere as a “snack,” too

And yea, he puts hot sauce on those, also 

He really likes those weird protein bars that are hard to bite into and taste like chalk 

The flavors are either normal stuff like white chocolate macadamia or Protein Power Punch with whey, chia and seaweed 

There’s no in between 

He’s also a charcuterie board legend

Hosea is jealous of this talent

Micah

Spends all his money on take out 

He’s totally one of those weird people who’s entire trash can is just filled with take out boxes and cans of coke or beer

Constantly eating fast food 

You ask him what he bought at the supermarket and he’s like “Pub mix and bud light” 

SIR 

Everything that he does manage to cook only involve one step of preparation 

Unseasoned, fried meats and boiled veggies 

Sometimes scrambled eggs and bacon

If he’s feeling fancy, he will make plain sandwiches

This is very rare, though

Can and will complain about anyone’s cooking

Even if it’s good and he he likes it

There are certain people he can’t do this to, though, or they won’t let him eat

The only person’s cooking he doesn’t complain about is Dutch’s

Constantly snacking from an entire party sized bag of chips

And yes, he eats straight out of the bag and wipes his fingers on his jeans

His oven is dirty

Hosea 

A meal for him is probably a handful of almonds and an applesauce or yogurt cup 

He is constantly making a bunch of those Tik Tok recipes where you just put a bunch of random stuff into your crock pot and add ranch seasoning and cream cheese

*insert all of those memes about mom pulling out the crock pot*

If you complain, he says “Well, you’re always welcome to cook, too”

Wears an apron when he cooks

Constantly eating plain toast with butter

And bananas 

And cheese sticks

Thinks that this makes him “healthy” 

Definitely likes to snack on those cocktail fruit cups and canned mandarin oranges

His entire freezer is just full of ice cream 

It’s all weird flavors like Cherry Garcia, chocolate banana, and pistachio though

Everyone hates him for this

Raisins are his late night treat 

Has a secret stash of candy no one can find 

That’s okay though because it’s mostly Werthers Originals

And Chiclets gum

He picks out all the orange ones, though

Dutch

Tries to re-plate takeout so he can call it his own

Everybody sees through this but they stopped commenting on it like four Thanksgivings ago 

Buys a bunch of those meals from Costco that all you need to do is heat up in the oven

He does like fast food but only from the less popular places

Carl’s Jr., Wendy’s, BK, Arby’s, etc. 

A&W, too, because he’s old and weird

He can totally cook, he just never does 

It’s just normal stuff like spaghetti and meatballs or chicken and rice, though

Tuna fish casserole

He over-seasons everything, though

Mostly because he’s trying to prove that he’s a good cook 

Eats dessert twice, every night 

Once right after dinner, and then later when he’s feeling like a treat 

Will eat in bed

Uses a little bib and tray and everything 

Likes pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Would eat hot wings with gloves on 

He’s the one who taught Arthur to put ketchup on eggs 

Kieran 

The second I realized that Kieran would probably be white trash, my life changed 

Hamburger Helper meals for LIFE

That one cheeseburger pasta? Kieran probably eats that three times a week 

He 100% makes the ketchup-butter sketti from Honey Boo Boo 

“It’s been a while since I done had roadkill in my belly”

His favorite dessert is ambrosia salad or that weird yogurt/Cool Whip covered jello that was popular in the 2000s

Probably has a TV dinner every once in a while, too

Instant mashed potatoes and minute rice type of guy 

Also gives me big microwave cheddar broccoli vibes 

I’ve said this before, but his house is probably stocked with all kinds of on-brand goodies 

Probably always has some kind of chip and cookie around 

Eats dinner in front of the TV

Dips french fries in mayonnaise

All of this said though, he isn’t a picky eater and will eat whatever is put on his plate 

That’s why he’s great to take to restaurants, because he never complains

Honestly it’s just so sweet to think of him making big crockpot meals to share with ppl even if his cooking is a lil.... strange 

Javier

Thinks that the hot dog combo from Costco is a suitable dinner 

Also gets hot food from the grocery store for dinner a lot

Literally will just heat up a can of something and eat it plain 

Beans, chili, soup… 

Doesn’t doctor it up or change it at all 

He’s happy to share but no one wants any

Chips and dip, 24/7

And it’s just Tostitos Hint of Lime chips and hummus

Probably puts hummus on everything, too 

Corn chips, tortilla chips, tortillas, vegetables, sandwiches, etc. 

Will put anything in a tortilla and call it a sandwich 

Eats leftovers cold 

The rest of the gang thinks this is a sin

Makes stir fry with whatever is laying around the house

It’s a little gross because he will try to add leftover beans

Refuses to eat fast food

The only exception he’ll make is for french fries and ice cream

Walks around and eats at the same time

Isn’t above asking the other boys to share with him 

Despite the fact that this only happens if what they’re eating is good

Which is almost never

Sean

Sean can’t cook. That’s the end of it

The most he can make is that weird microwave Mac and cheese where the pasta is boiled in the mug?? 

He never does it tho and just sticks with the normal, frozen Mac and Cheese you can microwave instead

Uses his microwaving ability to make mug cakes

And microwave scrambled eggs

Burns his popcorn every single time

He’s probably set of the smoke detector or fire alarm multiple times

He’s Irish though so of course he’s addicted to potatoes and cabbage

And since he’s from the UK, he likes stuff like beans on toast and marmite

He’s a little nasty too so catch him eating bologna sandwiches on wonder bread

Not even the Marstons are that bad

When he does get takeout, he overspends trying to use a delivery app 

He’s like, “And do I need the extra side of special sauce for $5…? Yes.” 

Cooks like this 

[ranger-lcat]

You Did Good Firecracker

The reason Qrow decides to work for Signal.

And because Qrow and Yang need more interaction.

—

This mission had ended a few days sooner than had been expected. Not that Qrow was complaining. It was an easy reconnaissance mission, that for once hadn’t escalated into some sort of brawl. In fact absolutely nothing had happened and the only thing to report had been, there was nothing to report. 

So here he was, walking up the path to the Xiao Long house, early. Excited to surprise them. 

He paused and took a few steps back. Something was off. It took him a second to realize that it was the mailbox, still full of mail. Tai always got the mail at lunch time. Qrow wasted no more time on a leisurely stroll to the door. His knocking is a little more frantic than it needed to be, but so many things were just ever so slightly out of place and it set off alarms in his brain. It took a moment to long for the door to open, so he tried to open it. Gods, the door wasn’t even locked. 

Fearing the worst, he threw it open. Yang and Ruby were in the living room, looking at him. Obviously shocked, but they were unharmed. Yang was closest so she jumped at him first.

“Uncle Qrow!” Yang threw her arms around his waist. Ruby was a second behind to join in the waist clinging. “We’re so glad you’re here.” Yang chokes out. Both of the girls have tears silently rolling down their faces. 

“Woah, woah what’s wrong?” He rests a hand on each of their heads. Looking around for some sort of danger. Nothing seemed out of place, just a little messy.

“It’s Dad. He’s sick and we don’t know what to do.” Yang sobs. 

“He’s been in bed since yesterday, he only gets up to throw up.” Ruby elaborates, also crying.

“Hey, hey, its ok. Let me see him.” Qrow tries to console. The girls detach and each take a hand to pull. Qrow can barely kick the door closed behind them before they pull him up the stairs to Taiyang’s bedroom.

Qrow wasn’t sure what he was expecting. What he found was Tai cocooned is his covers, and a small collection of cups and plates holding juice and toast respectively. 

“I’ve brought him toast and juice like he does when I’m sick, but he’s not getting better.” Yang explains. 

“Ok, can you two take some of these downstairs,” Qrow picked up one of the plates and handed it to Yang, “then bring me a glass of water.” They nodded and went to work, so Qrow sat on the edge of the bed to check on Tai. 

A hand brushing back Tai’s hair revealed hot skin and hair that was stiff with dried sweat. Qrow was worried about the temperature, even though Tai was normally warm—and it made for great hugs—this was definitely fever territory.

Yang has come back with the requested water, so Qrow goes about waking his teammate. 

“Rise and shine Tai.” Qrow shakes his shoulder. Tai stirs and opens his eyes. The haze over the blue and lack of response as Qrow sits him up makes Qrow guess he’s not entirely awake. Qrow has to hold Taiyang up and coax the water down his throat. Half the glass is all the risk he’s willing to take. Tai seems to have fallen asleep again and Qrow doesn’t want him to choke. He tucks Tai back under the blankets.

“Is he gonna be ok?” Yang whispers. 

“He should be just fine. Do you know where your dad keeps the medicine.” 

“In his bathroom.”

“Thanks, you keep an eye on him while I get it.”  Yang nods and sits in the chair she must have dragged in. 

The bathroom was where Tai kept the many medicine bottles. The problem was, it was all for Ruby and Yang. The only ‘adult’ medication was a bottle of painkillers that Qrow was sure Tai kept around for after particularly rough missions. Qrow recognized them from after that one mission where he came back feeling like one huge bruise. 

“Looks like I need to run to the store,” he tells Yang. She looks frightened. “I’m gonna take your dad’s scroll, call me if something happens ok. It should only take me an hou—“ he had to go into town. “Less than two hours. Can you hold down the fort until then?” Yang nods. “You got this, Firecracker,” he tells her, swiping Tai’s scroll from where it was charging on his nightstand.

He found Ruby sitting in the living room, pretending to watch tv.

“Is Dad gonna be ok?”

“Yeah, he is. I just need to run into town real quick and get him some medicine. Do you know where the keys for the car are?” 

“On the hook in the kitchen.” She trails after him as he goes and finds them exactly where she had said. 

Since he was there, he also checked over the kitchen for essentials. It left him silently cursing Tai’s ambition to make most things from scratch. Which Qrow didn’t have the time for. 

“Have you two been eating?” Qrow asks.

“We had leftovers for dinner last night, Yang made eggs for breakfast and we had sandwiches for lunch.” Ruby told him. That, and the surplus of toast, explained the lack of bread. 

“Has Yang been in charge while your dad’s been sick?” 

“She’s been making me stay away so I won’t get sick. I just want to help.” 

“I know you do. Yang’s just trying to be a good sister.” He gets an idea. “How about you help by doing the dishes for me?”

“You are bad at dishes.” Ruby agreed. He always, always, dropped things while trying to help with dishes. On good days it was just silverware. 

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

—

He was trying to be quick, he really was. There was just no order to the list in his brain so he ended up walking down some aisles twice to get everything. Then there was the standing and reading all the medicine labels to figure out which he needed. These were way more complicated than just pain killers. He ended up with two different bottles in his basket as he finally headed for checkout. Which was down to one person, as the rest had been called away to clean up after a shelf had collapsed. 

So an hour and forty minutes later, he was finally almost back. It was just up this road and turn right. Tai’s scroll lit up and started ringing, a picture of the house on the screen.

“Hello.” Qrow answers, carefully balancing the scroll so he could still drive.

“Dad threw up again.” Yang was definitely holding back tears.

“I’m pulling up the driveway. Be there soon.” 

“Ok. *sniff.” 

“I’m gonna need you to open the door for me ok?”

“Ok.”

“I’ll see you in a second.”

“Ok.” 

He hangs up and lets the scroll flop into his lap. He felt bad having to hang up, but he could see the house and he had to park and grab the groceries. 

Yang opened the door before he got to it, so he carried everything to the table. Ruby was putting dishes in the drying rack, using a stool to reach the sink. He leaves the bag on the table and takes the medicine out. 

“Good job, can you two put the groceries while I check on your dad.” Nod. “Thank you.”  He takes the stairs two at a time as he rushes to check on Tai.

Tai was still in the bathroom, panting until he had to lean forward to retch. Qrow winced. It sounded horrible and the fact that nothing was coming up meant it had to hurt. No wonder Yang was so freaked out. Qrow kneels down behind Tai so that when the other was done trying to throw up he could guide him to relax against Qrow’s chest.

“Hey, Dragon.” 

“Qrow?” Gods, he sounded terrible. And judging from the wince it hurt for him to talk. 

“Who else?” Qrow strokes the hair from Taiyang’s forehead. Fever was still present. “You’re not looking so great, let’s get you back to bed. I got some medicine for you.” 

Tai frantically shakes his head. Qrow can feel the muscles contract sharply as Tai coughs and gags. Again the sounds were terrible and nothing came up. 

“I’ve got ya.” Qrow comforts, wrapping his arms around Tai, massaging the muscles that were clenching. Just like a Tai would do when Qrow was the one spilling his guts into the toilet. It seemed to work, as he went limp. 

“Just end me now…” Tai groaned. 

“And how would I explain that to Ruby and Yang?” 

“The girls! I need to—“ Tai’s frantic attempt at standing is stopped by Qrow’s arms.

“They’re fine, I’ve got it covered.” Tai snorted. “Fine, Yang has Ruby covered.” 

“That I believe.” 

“Now will you let me take care of you?” Qrow helps Tai stand and shuffle back to bed. Tai insists on reading the bottles Qrow had bought. Opting to start with the anti nausea one first, and leave the one for fever till later. Qrow did insist on Tai drinking the rest of the glass of water from earlier. 

“I’ll check on you in a bit. Don’t throw up the medicine. Got it?” 

“Got it.” Tai had already snuggled back into his bed. Qrow gave Tai’s hair a final stroke before going back downstairs.

—

Keeping the girls distracted was a harder challenge. Both of them were really worried. It took Qrow promising that with the medicine and the soup he was making, their Dad would be fine. 

“Soup has magical healing powers,” he insisted.

“Even if it comes from a can?” Yang asks, holding it up.

“Well, probably not as good as homemade, but it’ll get the job done,” he stirs it to keep it from burning. If he lost focus it would. His semblance didn’t make for easy cooking, which is why the dishes from dinner were covered in the remnants of boxed Mac and cheese. “Now who wants to get a tray for me?”

“I got it!” Ruby ducks into one of the cupboards.

“Yang can you put a glass of water on it for me?”

“On it.”

Qrow is extra careful balancing the tray up the stairs, last thing he needs is his semblance dumping hot soup on himself. Of course Tai is a little sceptical as the tray is placed in his lap. Qrow had to argue that the medicine and water had stayed down, so he had to at least try. Taiyang is thankfully less stubborn as a patient than Qrow is. And Qrow promises himself to try and give Tai a break next time the situation is reversed. 

After the soup is gone and the next dose of meds were taken, Tai rolls over to go back to sleep. This was probably the most rest Tai had gotten in months. Being a single parent had to be rough. Qrow sighs and runs his fingers through Taiyang’s hair. Coaxing him into a deeper sleep. 

—

Qrow carries the tray of dishes back down into the kitchen. Yang is at the sink washing dishes this time. 

“Where’s Ruby?”

“I put her to bed.” Qrow glanced at the clock. It was later than he thought.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed too?”

“I’m almost done,” she insisted.

“The dishes can wait.”

“No they can’t!” Yang gives him an angry glare, the effect somewhat lost with the tears threatening to leave the corners of her eyes. “Dad never leaves dishes in the sink.”

“Come on Yang, you’re tired. It’s time for bed.”

“No! I’m fine I can do it.”

“Yang, you’ve been doing ‘it’ all day. You-“

“But I didn’t! You had to come in and fix everything!” she shouts. Qrow doesn’t know how to respond to that. Yang sniffles a few times before angrily wiping the tears away. “I—I thought I could do—do it. But it was so-so hard. I—I—I didn’t know what to do. Dad was so sick and—and I didn’t want Ruby to panic—“ 

Qrow pulls Yang in for the tightest hug he can muster. Letting all the fear and worry she was feeling melt. She hugs him back just as hard.

“Yang, you’re twelve. I don’t expect you to know how to handle everything. You took really good care of Ruby. I can’t ask for more than that.” Qrow pets the hair she refuses to cut.“You did good Firecracker. I’m so proud of you.” He let Yang sob and sniffle, just holding her as the weight of the past day or so finally left her shoulders. Once calmed down he carried her to her bed, tucking her in so she could rest.

He quietly slips out and closes the door. He sighs and lets his forehead rest on the door.

“Qrow?” Taiyang is using the door frame of his own door to stay standing. “I heard crying, is everything ok?”

“Your daughter is stronger than I am.” Qrow sighs.

“Yeah. Kinda wish they didn’t have to be.” Tai shivers.

“Come on, it’s time to go back to bed.” 

Tai is still wobbly when he walks, but he’s leaning less on Qrow than he did earlier. Again, Qrow tucks him in and then just sits on the edge of the bed, stroking Tai’s hair. This time he’s more lost in thought.

“What’s up?” Tai asks.

“I was thinking… maybe… maybe… I would stick around  for a little bit. Apply for that job at Signal like you keep suggesting.” 

“I’d like that.”

“Maybe you could put in a good word.”

“I can put in a lot of words, I don’t know how many of them would be good.”

[atomicstrawbrys]

To Love and to Lose, and to Love Again

After a breakup, Arthur gets some sound advice an forms and unlikely bond over some homemade chili. Usuk. //

Arthur had often heard it said that it was better to have loved and lost to have never loved at all. Fresh out of the worst breakup of his life, he was certain that the expression was horseshit. As he microwaved a box dinner for the first time in months, he regretted ever having loved at all. His kitchen was close to barren, now. His ex had brought most the cooking utensils with him and whisked them away again when he moved out. Arthur supposed he would have to run to the store soon to at least get some pots and pans- he’d had them before his ex had moved in, but they’d gone missing once he left and Arthur decided to just let it go.

It would be just like Francis, Arthur thought, to take all the cooking supplies as a final act of revenge. Francis, the fancy restaurant owner who insisted on making dinner each night when he was home and would make meals in advance when he wasn’t. Why, he was probably laughing it up in his new apartment, knowing that Arthur would be forced to resort to little more than Lunchables for at least a few days. Arthur just hoped his cooking wouldn’t be too rusty- he never claimed to be a great cook, but he just prayed that his own homemade meals wouldn’t be abysmal.

As his Kid Cuisine rotated in the microwave, the happy penguin mascot on the discarded box seeming to mock him, Arthur thought back to his breakup. He supposed it had been bubbling up for some time- still, it was hard to believe it was really over. They’d been together since they were fourteen, they moved to the States together, they even talked about getting married. However, over the past few months, Francis had been drifting further away, and Arthur hadn’t noticed until it was too late. Perhaps America itself had caused the change. Many aspects of life here moved so quickly, but only for Francis. Arthur’s own dreams were slow going, and the final straw had been when Francis suggested giving up on his writing. “Arthur would likely never write more than a mediocre success at best, so why bother when Francis could take care of him?”  What, would Arthur be forced to live in his boyfriend’s shadow if they stayed together? Everything finally bubbled over then, and now Francis was gone. Arthur couldn’t even bring himself to be sad- he was sure he would be later, but for now, he was just angry.

His microwave beeped, and Arthur removed the little plastic lunch tray. Chicken nuggets with tiny sides of corn and mac and cheese. Delightful. As he picked up his plastic fork -yes, Francis had taken the cutlery as well, the silver was a housewarming gift from HIS parents, after all- he heard a faint knock on the door. Raising a brow, he walked over. Was it Francis, here to reconcile? He opened it.

Outside was a stranger. Tan skin and caramel brown hair, with bright blue eyes hidden behind red frames. The man was nearly a head taller than Arthur, and he gave him an awkward smile, holding out a large copper pot. “Uh, hey?”

“What do you want?” Arthur frowned, narrowing his eyes at him. He reached for the chain lock, unsure of whether he should just go ahead and shut the door.

“I um, uh, I live below you? My name’s Alfred! And I sorta heard your whole breakup, um, most people did? I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Your ex came by earlier and said something about taking all the kitchen stuff, I guess he was with someone- I just didn’t want you to go hungry!” The man- Arthur’s downstairs neighbor Alfred, he reminded himself- smiled again. “It’s chili! Lots of it, so you can have leftovers. My granddad’s recipe, too. You can just bring the pot back when it’s empty, no worries, okay?”

Arthur looked away, eyeing the pathetic box meal. Chili was far from his favorite, but, it was a hundred times better than his original plan. He looked back at Alfred, noticing his earnest, sincere smile. He truly did want to help.

“Do you…want to come in? And eat?” He asked, opening the door a bit wider. “I still have bowls and some plastic spoons that I think I got from a Wendy’s.”

Alfred smiled at that, nodding as he followed Arthur into the apartment. “Yeah, um, thanks!” He grinned, setting the pot down on the stove. He turned the burner on low, just to warm it up a little. “You know, I’ve always wanted to meet you. I wish it was on better terms.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Oh? And why is that?” Arthur asked, turning away from him as he got the bowls down out of the cabinet.

“I’ve read your books. I know that they haven’t like, taken off yet, but I loved them and I hate reading.” Alfred chuckled. “I guess I also felt kinda bad because you were always Francis’s boyfriend first, Arthur second, you know? Francis is like, famous around here because of his restaurant and that was all anyone ever talked about. I saw you guys on the local news, I felt bad that everyone kept asking you what it was like to be Francis’s boyfriend, like, hello? You’re a superstar author in the making and they’re asking you if Francis has ever named a dish after you? That’s dumb...” Alfred rambled, trailing off only once he’d noticed Arthur was still not looking at him. “Everything okay?”

Arthur set the bowls on the counter and rubbed his eyes. “Yes, everything is fine. You just happened to say the right thing at the right time. Thank you, Alfred.”

Alfred shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m..glad I could help.” After Alfred filled the bowls, Arthur led him over to his dining room table, sitting down across from him. He thanked him for the meal.

The chili wasn’t like anything Francis had ever made. It wasn’t fancy and it didn’t have some kind of gimmick to make it ‘high-end’ or anything like that. It was simple, good comfort food, and Arthur couldn’t have been happier with it. Alfred was pleasant company too, and wonderfully interesting. He was an archaeologist, and his ramblings about his discoveries and his theories on human history were something Arthur thought he could never get tired of. He answered every question Arthur had, no matter how stupid-sounding. Francis had never given him such a luxury- how dare Arthur not know what “sous vide” was- as the boyfriend of a restaurant owner, it was his duty to know everything about the culinary arts as to not embarrass Francis. Not that Francis knew anything about writing and publishing a book. Alfred, though- he seemed to love questions and answered each to the best of his ability.

The night passed quickly, and soon it was well past midnight. Alfred finally happened to look at a clock, and jolted up, apologizing for taking up so much of Arthur’s time.

“It was my pleasure,” Arthur replied, smiling as he opened the door for Alfred. “You are a very interesting person, Alfred, and it was wonderful to talk to you. I feel loads better.”

“Ha, um, I’m glad!” Alfred smiled, rubbing his neck. “It was really nice to finally meet you- you’re a really cool guy Arthur, so don’t let this get you down too much. Hey, when your books do take off, now you get to say “I told you so.” Alfred chuckled. “Don’t give up just ‘cause he said so. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” He stepped outside.

As Alfred began to walk away, Arthur called after him. “I uh, have to do quite a bit of shopping tomorrow- to replace all my cooking utensils, ha... I’d like some company, if you’re free?”

Alfred beamed. “Sure thing, Art! See you tomorrow!”

And with that, Alfred disappeared around the corner to take the stairs. Arthur leaned in his doorway and smiled a bit. Perhaps it was indeed better to love and lose, because that meant that, perhaps, he could love again.

[this-lioness]

Rubbish Blog Update

After an intensely busy week we made the most of the weekend, which is to say I got as much shit done as possible.

Saturday I had an eye appointment, then we did the weekly shopping and I came home to cook.  Ended up making some freezer meals (broth-steamed quinoa with peppers and onions boxed up with veggie dumplings and veggies, “chicken” patties with veggies and seasoned rice, baked cauliflower mac and cheese, 1 doz hard boiled eggs for lunches, another dozen made up into egg salad.  

I also used some of the leftover broccoli to make some veggie-and-egg white patties to go along with the veg sausage for breakfast.  While we were out today I picked up a bunch of fresh fruit, so now we’ve got a fruit salad we can dip into for lunch as well.

Even though we’ve been inconsistent with the gym, this has been a lifesaver for me, honestly.  I get to cook (which I’ve missed), and on the nights that we go straight to the gym we have a nice dinner ready to be served in a few minutes rather than resorting to frozen processed stuff or me having to grudgingly throw something together when I’m already tired and just wanting to relax.

I set up a “Google Routine” for us that also turns on some nice mood music and lights when we eat dinner, which has been something nice to unravel us from the day.  I made another for the bedroom when I’m doing my nightly routine.  Sade heavy, of course, because I’m nothing if not predictable.

Speaking of which, I picked up another set of remote-controlled LED button lights today, and installed them in the master bath.  So now I can shower to smooth jazz AND have mood lights, stop being jealous.

(It is probably the tackiest thing in the whole entire world to somebody who is not me, but I don’t care, I love it.)

On Saturday night we finally sorted through the pile of convention crap that’s been clogging up the dining room and took a proper inventory of all the art and jewelry I’ve got left.  I took pictures of our sales sheets as well, and tomorrow (haha, maybe, ugh) I’m going to take a critical look at what’s sold well historically and what makes the most sense to reproduce.

The little hand-painted pendants, for instance, which I dearly love?  Just don’t sell that well.  I only have one or two left, so that’s good, but they took forever to sell, and they are really labor intensive to make.  Meanwhile, the acrylic dragonfly earrings were inexpensive to make, fairly quick to produce, and people snatched them up.

It’s been an interesting experience, to be sure.

We have a pile of stuff to take to Salvation Army, but it rained all Saturday so that was no good.  Maybe some time this week.

Oh, and last Wednesday the handyman came by to install the new door!  MY NEW FREE FRONT DOOR!  (I’m very proud of this, and I recognize that it is childish, but I don’t care.  The dude at Home Depot was ringing up gift card after gift card and just marveling out loud how ridiculous it was.  Proud moment for me.)

I started using a new app that lets you take pictures of your store receipts, also allowing you to exchange the points you earn for more gift cards, so we’ll see how I do with that.  Let me know if anyone wants to give it a shot, I’ll send you a referral!

Finally had an orthopedist appointment last Wednesday as well.  X-rays looked normal, so there’s some sort of soft tissue damage or scar tissue or something?  He couldn’t tell without an MRI, and insurance won’t pay for an MRI (softly singing God Bless America under my breath here), so instead he’s sending me to physical therapy for an “abnormal gait.”  Lovely.  That starts this coming Wednesday, we’ll see how that all goes.

We also went to the gym today and worked up a workout routine in the weights section.  I’m off high-impact cardio for the time being, which means no running, and frankly I really think what I need is to regain, and gain, muscle mass.  Cardio has never really done anything for me at all, although running can be very relaxing, and I can already feel age-related muscle loss setting in.  Can’t have that, so off we go for (ideally) 3 nights a week of weights.

It’s frustrating being so short.  Half the machines that I need to use I can’t because I just don’t fit on them -- my head hits the wrong place, the swively bits press against something they shouldn’t -- and in trying to make them work I end up straining something I shouldn’t.  Marc helped me figure out which ones I could fit on, proper weight and seat settings, so I should be good now.  I wrote everything down, and will work it up into a little chart for myself tomorrow.

I may laminate it, I haven’t decided yet.

In cat news, we are going to have to do something about Rosie.  Laugh as we might about her growling at her food bowl, the amount of absolute hysterics she flies into at feeding time, or the lengths she goes to in order to scavenge even the tiniest crumb of food is getting upsetting.

We can’t offer her anything by hand anymore.  If you try to give her a treat she will bite through your fingers without even thinking.  If you offer her baby food on a spoon as a treat she can no longer contain herself to licking -- she will bite and bite and bite the spoon, and can’t seem to stop herself.  I bought her a slow feeder dish and she spent the entire time biting the plastic bits meant to make her go more slowly, just growling and getting more and more upset, until we scraped everything back into her old bowl.  When she does eat, it’s like she hasn’t eaten in weeks, and she’s convinced someone is going to steal it.

She is a completely different cat when there’s food in front of her.

She is still (and probably always will be) a very tiny cat -- probably only 5.5 - 6 lbs -- but she is at a healthy weight for her size.  I suspect whatever malnutrition she suffered as a kitten permanently stunted her growth.

This sort of behavior can have a physical cause (hyperthyroidism, parasites, etc.), but the copious bloodwork they did on her just a few months ago came back clear, she went through several rounds of powerful dewormers when we first found her, and she is otherwise in good physical shape and health.  She’s also, when there’s no food around, still sweet and cuddly and as loving as she always was.  There isn’t a mean bone in her body.

We saw this once before, in a cat that we fostered when we first moved into this house -- Cooper.  We had to give Cooper back, in part because our other cats couldn’t get along with him, and in part because he was an absolute living nightmare to deal with.  He figured out how to scale the barrier into the kitchen, and would dump the trash can and rip through everything he found inside. He would walk the kitchen counters over and over and over again in case he missed something the last time.  Every single day, multiple times a day.  He’d tear open ANY bag, whether or not it contained food, just in case it might.

Cooper was also found as a starving kitten, although he wasn’t one of ours.  Other accounts I’ve read of these behaviors all have that in common as well: kittens (like Rosie) who were found emaciated, plagued with parasites.  Even long after they find a safe home with ample food and regular mealtimes, that insecurity never goes away. What has helped others, supposedly, is making the cat a safe and secure place to eat every meal, and not exposing it to food at any other time or place than at meal time.

She’s already not allowed in the kitchen, we now have Rosie-proof trash bins, and although we’re already feeding all the cats separately I’ve taken down one of the carriers to lock her in at breakfast and dinner (this isn’t as bad as it sounds -- she wolfs her food down in a minute flat, so she won’t be in there long, and I’m hoping that only giving her meals and treats in that spot will help her feel less exposed and defensive. I moved her bowl into the carrier and she went right in to investigate, so we’ll see what happens at breakfast tomorrow.  Even a slight improvement would be good.  On one hand we laugh at this ridiculous, tiny cat growling so unnecessarily and aggressively at dinner time, but after a moment it’s sort of upsetting because clearly she is super stressed out. I guess that about catches me up.  I’m going to take a nice long shower and listen to smooth jazz amid color-changing lights (SHHH IT’S FANCY) and then maybe do something creative for a bit. I love you all and I hope you’re well <3

[lotsofdogs]

Potty Training, Workouts and Swim Lessons… Oh My!

Hey, hey, hey! We’re already halfway through the week! For some reason whenever I arrive back in town after a weekend away, the following week seems to fly by. I’m not sure why – maybe because I feel like I’m playing catch up all week long? – but I’ll take it. Friday is comin’ but for now let’s back up a bit and recap yesterday, shall we?

Morning

My Tuesday morning began with a muffin!

I woke up needing some kind of sweet, bready carb and reheated one of Chase’s beloved whole wheat pumpkin muffins that I pulled out of the freezer to take the edge off my nausea while I read my devotional and eased into the morning. Once I felt a little better, I moved onto breakfast number two which looked like a smoothie bowl that I whipped up with frozen banana, frozen cauliflower, almond butter, light coconut milk (from a can) and a scoop of chocolate protein powder.

I topped everything off with a sprinkle of cacao nibs for some crunch and ate my breakfast as I worked on the computer until Chase was up and it was time to switch into mom mode.

We hung out around the house until 9 a.m. or so, mainly because I didn’t want to leave until Chase pooped in his potty.

Once that happened, we celebrated, danced and high-fived because pooping in the potty is a BIG deal around here right now!

Yes, my friends, we are smack-dab in the middle of potty training in our house! We actually started last week and so far things are going fairly well. (We’re mostly following the advice found in the Oh Crap! Potting Training book with some definite wiggle room since every kid is different. Oh and before you think we had potty training nailed in three days like the internet will have you believe is easy peasy, the first few days were a BEAST and potty training is definitely a work in progress.) One quick question for the potty training pros: At what point did your kiddos begin to actually TELL you they have to go potty? Right now we’re mostly reminding Chase to use the potty and prompting the majority of his trips to the bathroom which I am assuming will last for a while. I’m curious as to when kids transition into regularly telling you they need to go? We’ve had a handful of those moments but right now Chase seems to need quite a bit of prompting and reminding, though accidents are already pretty minimal.

Oh and another challenge? Chase refuses to wear underwear. He’ll wear pants and shorts all day long but he’s commando under his pants right now. Ha! Any advice as to how to make him think underwear is THE COOLEST? We have Thomas the Train and Paw Patrol underwear on hand but they’re getting the side-eye from Chase at the moment and a full-on meltdown occurs if we try to get him to wear underwear. There’s always something, right!?

With two successful potty trips under our belt, I felt confident we could make it to the gym without any issues, so Chase and I piled into my car and headed off to the YMCA for a workout!

Chase hung out in childcare (accident free!) and I completed a biceps/triceps/shoulders workout that looks liked this:

It was a quick but effective one and after more than my fair share of rest days last week, it felt good to get back into the gym.

Afternoon

Once I scooped Chase up from childcare, we drove to his swim lesson. After four months on a wait list for an early afternoon class, we finally got in (our previous early evening time was killer for rush-hour traffic) and Chase and I had a blast splashing and playing in the water. When we were done swimming, we changed into dry clothes and dug into some of the food I packed for us in the lobby.

I threw a banana and a packet of almond butter into my bag for myself but packed a Bento Box filled with Chase’s lunch for him to eat after our swim lesson as well. Chase loves watching the big kids swim and I figured we could have a mini picnic in the lobby while Chase ate lunch and watched the other children.

By the time we made it home, Chase’s naptime was on the horizon, so we played fetch in the backyard with Sadie for a bit before making our way upstairs for a couple of stories.

While Chase slept, I grabbed a shower and actually washed my hair for the first time since Thursday (bless you, dry shampoo) and then assembled a salad for lunch.

My salad came together quickly thanks to leftover salmon and roasted potatoes from Monday night’s dinner.

I ate my lunch and began working at the computer, feeling awfully proud of myself for actually consuming a decent number of vegetables, until I was hit with some serious nausea that had me feeling all kinds of sweaty and sick. Just thinking about my salad less than five minutes after I ate it made me want to puke. (Pregnancy is cah-ray-zee.) Thankfully I never threw up but I ended up sitting on the bathroom floor for a solid 30 minutes as I waited for the feeling to pass. Once it did, I ate a small bowl of cereal which also seemed to help settle my stomach and got back to work.

Since the nausea train is unpredictable around here, I wasn’t sure what to expect over the course of the next few hours but the rest of the day ended up being a good one! I was able to eat an afternoon snack and a sweet treat before Chase woke up and the two of us headed off to a late afternoon prenatal appointment.

Just to clarify since I realize it probably seems like I was just at the doctor’s office, yesterday’s appointment was the standard third trimester bi-weekly OB/GYN visit which is why it occurred so soon after last week’s appointment with a specialist.

My doctor was wonderful and let Chase help squeeze the warm goo on my belly and control the Doppler which he thought was really neat! We were in and out of the doctor’s office in half an hour and left feeling grateful for a positive update!

Before heading home for the night, we swung by a local park to meet up with my friends Carrie and Alexis and their kids so our little ones could run around and enjoy the sunshine. We stayed for just about an hour before driving home where Ryan arrived home from work about 20 minutes later!

Evening

Dinner was a simple one and came together quickly once I cooked some quinoa in vegetable broth with a little taco seasoning. I paired the cooked quinoa with a can of black beans, avocado, green onion, shredded cheese and leftover chopped green beans and topped everything with a bit of Himalayan salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Easy, filling and delicious!

Oh and before you think Chase is an amazing quinoa-eating toddler, I know from past experience there is a zero percent chance he would’ve liked this meal, so his dinner looked more like mac and cheese served with a quinoa-free deconstructed version of our dinner.

Once we were all full, we played around the house for a bit before doing the whole bed time routine. A number of you recommended The Last Mrs. Parrish to me a while ago, so I began reading it last night and so far it’s an easy read that roped me in almost immediately. We’ll see how it ends up!

And that was our Tuesday in a nutshell. Thanks so much for stopping by PBF today!

[Read More ...] https://www.pbfingers.com/potty-training-workouts-and-swim-lessons-oh-my/

[gobigorgohome2016]

Entering Phase 2

As of yesterday, I am 4 months out from my next marathon.  It is time for me to switch gears a little bit and start focusing - especially now that the wedding is over!

Originally, the plan was for Dave and me to get married at a courthouse in June, then have a large party back home after CIM.  Ultimately, as we started to plan we realized it would be a huge hassle to plan two parties (because, of course, we would have had to celebrate somehow after the initial ceremony, and it turns out that we have a lot of friends!).  Also, the thought of planning a party during the peak of marathon training did not sound appealing, so it worked out to have a 60 day engagement and get married before I got into the thick of marathon training.

Yes, my wedding was partially planned around running and I am #notashamed.  

The last 60 days were a little bit more stressful than I imagined.  I grew frustrated with myself when I was especially tired and had to shift around my training, or when - during my wedding week - running took a backseat.  There were definitely a couple times where I thought why am I doing this?  Is this necessary?  I would rather just train.  I had to remind myself frequently that sometimes giving 100% doesn’t look like a nailed workout or a PR.  Sometimes, giving 100% means cutting a run short so that you have time to go to the grocery store and buy real food and fuel, or starting a new, more secure life with someone and getting health insurance.  [I should point out here that I have a dry sense of humor.]

The wedding weekend itself was amazing.  I have always scoffed at people who have said that their wedding day was the happiest day of their life.  I mean, I love Dave and all, but it has always seemed depressing to think that you might peak at the beginning of your marriage and then have to live up to that moment for the next 30 - 60 years.  

I get it, now.

Having all of our favorite people in one of our favorite places was really freaking fun.  The day went by faster than I ever could have imagined.  It turns out all the clichés are true!  

My coach had warned me all along that my training might take a hit because of wedding stress.  I scoffed.  I didn’t believe him.  I’m Anna effing Weber and come hell or high water, I was going to get in my mileage no matter what.  

I almost made it.  Wedding week proved to be my unraveling.  On Friday, Dave and I set out for a 20 mile run in the dunes.  I made it three miles and just couldn’t keep going.  It was one of those runs where you are looking at your watch 20 minutes in and calculating how many more minutes you have left.  So, we stopped and went for a 2.5 hour walk through the dunes instead.  I figured a long run is really just time spent on your feet so if I can’t run, might as well walk!  It was a gorgeous day and it was nice to spend some relaxing time with Dave before things got out of control.  

Friday evening, I got to spend time with four of my 6 bridesmaids.  We went to Chicago and had dinner at The Publican, which was fantastic.  Everything is family style, and everyone sits at a shared table.  The only downside was that it was loud.  Had I known I would be screaming over people the whole night, I probably would not have made reservations there.  However, that would have been a shame because I would have missed out on really good food like snail sausage, squid ink pasta, pork rillette, fried cauliflower, and mussels.  Two of the bridesmaids that were with me were my nieces, and the other two were my college teammates/roommates.  Having 4 of my favorite people together in one place was really, really fun.  

When I got back to the hotel I was TIRED.  I waited for Dave to return from his bachelor party that consisted of eating at the Ritz Klub in Michigan City (best kept secret burger) and then drinking copious amounts of beer.  I gave him one rule:  do not throw up in our hotel room.  He had one job.  I truthfully did not care what he did that night or where he went, I just didn’t want him to puke in our hotel room.  I’m sure you know how this story ends.....

Saturday morning arrived way too quickly.  Everyone told me I wouldn’t sleep the night before my wedding.  Nope, I was definitely out.  

The plan for Saturday morning was to do a “freedom run” first thing.  We started this tradition at Dani’s wedding.  We ran from the hotel, down to the beach.  I jokingly said we should stop by my sister’s house (she flew in from Philly the night before), but we didn’t even have to knock because she and my brother in law were already sitting in the front porch.  We stopped and said hello, then took a selfie:

This is easily the best jumping selfie I have ever taken (sorry Dani!).  Jayne and I wound up getting in 12 miles, which made me feel better about not having gotten my long run in the day before.  

Following my freedom run, I returned to my room to find all the groomsmen and a cooler full of beer.  We chatted and got ready to go to brunch.  Instead of having a rehearsal dinner, Dave and I opted for a rehearsal brunch, which was intended only for our wedding party and officiant.  Really, the whole goal of the weekend was to be as low key as possible.  We had a great lunch at Fiddlehead.  My amazing pre-wedding burger:

My goal in having bridesmaids was to be able to spend extra time with the people who mean the most to me.  I didn’t want them to have any real obligations...no one had to awkwardly walk down an aisle with someone she did not know, hold flowers, or wear an ugly dress.  I asked them to simply wear a dress they already owned that was in a color found in a peacock feather (i.e. blue, purple, green, gold, etc.)

After lunch, we went back to the hotel and spent a couple hours lounging and getting ready.  The biggest stressor of my day:  not being able to get my earrings in.  I rarely wear earrings, so one of the holes was slightly closed and it took me 30 minutes to get it through.  Wouldn’t have been a big deal, but I bought those earrings specially for my wedding day!

Jayne brought a great bottle of champagne that we shared while listening to music and getting pretty.  I opted to do my own hair and makeup.  Besides not really having money in our budget, I just have never been super impressed with anyone else’s version of my style.  I bought a couple items that I wouldn’t normally wear, like primer and setting spray, and felt pretty confident.  Emma brought a bun contraption that gave my hair a perfect bun, and I was happy!

We got to the zoo around 4:30 and I found my dad.  We hung out in the rotary castle for about 30 minutes before the ceremony began.  This was one of my favorite parts of the evening.  My dad has been sick my entire life, and I was never certain he would see me get married.  I wasn’t really emotional about the day until I saw him and it hit me I wouldn’t have to worry about that any more.

We chose a gorgeous overlook at the zoo for the ceremony (which lasted a grand total of 5.5 minute).  Our goal was to eliminate everything from a wedding and reception that we didn’t like.  No long readings or vows. No receiving line.  Nothing superfluous.  We said enough to make it legal and we read some short vows of our own.  

View from our “altar”

after

Following the ceremony, guests were given an opportunity to walk through the zoo or sit and mingle in the picnic area. Our families went above and beyond to make this happen.  

Dinner was true region fare - fried chicken, Italian beef, mac & cheese, and roasted veggies with three types of cheesecake catered by my sister’s cafe, South Bend Chocolate Company, for dessert.  Dave and I had a special dessert:  apple pie made by my mom.

Dave and I were able to sneak away from guests for a few minutes and take a tour of the zoo ourselves.  One of my favorite photos from the evening was a selfie where our ceremony was held.

At 8 PM, we headed over the Guy Foreman Amphitheater for drinks and socializing.  Dave and I both hate loud music at wedding receptions, so we had very light music playing in the background from a carefully curated playlist of songs that have special meaning for us.  We had 3 boxes of wine and 1.5 kegs.

The weather turned out to be perfect.  High of 77, low of 58, no humidity, and no wind.  If you are familiar with northwest Indiana, you know that this type of weather is practically unheard of for late July.  Normally, it is either raining and windy, or hot and miserable.

Following the amphitheater was the final stop in our wedding crawl:  Blue Chip Casino.  This was where we were staying, as well as many of our friends.  The zoo, amphitheater, and casino were all within a half mile of one another, so it was very easy to get between all three places.  These two photos are my absolute favorite from the night:

The following morning was a rough one.  I don’t think I have drank that much in YEARS.  I didn’t wind up running that day like I thought I would, but I did have a fantastic morning at the beach.

The last part of the day was heading over to my sister’s house to eat all of the leftover food from the wedding and drink the rest of the beer before heading to my parents’ house to open gifts.

We were blown away by the thoughtful gifts we received, many of which were handmade.  Perhaps the one that surprised us most was this one from the zoo:

We had an amazing weekend, but I’m happy to get back to a routine and move on to phase 2, of both life and training.  I am racing the USATF IN 5 mile championships tomorrow.  It will either be awesome because wedding stress is gone, or terrible, because wedding stress is catching up with me.  Either way, I’m really happy with where I am right now.

[pendesvoyage]

iTrackBites Smart Plan Update

The first full week of trying a new point system has been interesting and fun to explore. I love love love that I can eat all the fruits and veggies I want. I’ve also started to think about food differently. 

Because the point system is based on more than calories, I’ve started to think about food on more than a calorie-based system. I’ve begun to realize that 100 calories of donut is different than 100 calories of carrots. They don’t have the same effect on my body, and they shouldn’t hold the same value in my mind. 

Sunday:

I went over my daily bite limit of 34 bites by 5 bites, which came out of my weekly allotment. I prefer not to go over my daily bites at all, but that is what they’re there for, and 5 isn’t too bad. Total daily bites: 39

I was sick for most of this week, so I slept late that weekend. I woke up too late for breakfast, but for lunch I had boxed macaroni and cheese. I love mac and cheese more than most foods in this world. It was the thick and creamy box by Great Value. Total bites: 8

For dinner we had chinese from our favorite chinese place like we do on most Sundays. This week we got honey chicken and sesame chicken. The honey chicken is pretty high-bite, but the sesame chicken was not bad. The white rice can add up pretty quickly as well. Total bites: 18

Then for dessert I had one of the cookies I made for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge. It was delicious but so many bites! Total bites: 13

Monday:

I did very well on Monday. I ate a full day’s worth, but it was all real, whole foods. I kept under my 34 daily bite limit by 2 bites, I remember feeling well-fed and feeling light because I kept my portions in check. Total daily bites: 32

For breakfast I had eggs with cheese, bacon, and a banana. With this system eggs are zero bites, so I had 3 eggs- a sizeable amount that kept me full through the whole morning. The bacon is very low bite, 1 bite per slice. Total bites: 4

Lunch was simple and easy because it was between classes at college. I’d saved half of a chicken and wild rice soup from Progresso that I’d eaten last week and ate it along with an orange and a handful of animal crackers. Animal crackers are one of my favorite snacks. Total bites: 5

Mom made her famous chicken over rice for dinner, a favorite in our house. The bites can add up quickly so I had to be sure to keep my portions within reason. Luckily chicken breast is free so all my bites came from the rice and cream of chicken soup. Total bites: 12

Tuesday:

Tuesday I only went over my 34 bite limit by 2 bites. The real difference was that I ate a lot of fried foods and such. I’ve also been eating a lot of bananas and oranges lately so I’ll add one of those to almost every meal. Total daily bites: 36

Breakfast was just a banana before heading out to my early class. It wasn’t enough. I’m a breakfast fiend. Total bites: 0

I had leftovers from the chicken over rice dinner the night before for lunch. Chicken over rice, even leftover, is a favorite of mine. I also paired it with an orange. Total bites: 8

Dinner was a lot of bites. I had a make n bake personal pepperoni pizza that was actually really good. But then I got hungry later and had fries and a corndog. Frozen fries, though, are way less calories than fast food fries. I almost never get them anymore. Total bites: 22

Wednesday:

I went more over my bite limit than I wanted to and it was a very sad day’s worth of food. Friday is my actual overage day, but I started to crave crap food really bad this week, and Wednesday was a weak day for me. I took Wednesday off from school because my sickness just wasn’t going away and I needed one more day of rest and meds. Total daily bites: 40

I slept in late so I didn’t have breakfast.

Lunch was very light because my stomach was uneasy. It was a chicken corn chowder soup. I don’t like a ton of soups, but this is one I’ll always go for. I only had half the can and put the other half in the fridge. Total bites: 3

By the time I got to dinner I was really hungry. My mom offered to pick up food so I didn’t have to cook, and I took her up on it. I got the 3&3 plate from Slim Chicken’s. It was a lot of food, and a ton of bites, but I’ll admit it was so very tasty. Total bites: 24

Thursday:

Another day of overage, but only by 4 bites. That day had some snacking as well, but not great meals. Total daily bites: 38

Breakfast was just a bagel an a little bit of margarine. I had an early class at school so a bagel was easy and portable. Total bites: 6

Lunch was leftovers again. I love having leftovers because it makes lunches so easy. I am nowhere near being able to make cool lunches for on the go. I had cheeseburger macaroni by Hamburger Helper along with an orange. Total bites: 5

Dinner was fast food...again. My family devolved back into fast food this week pretty badly. My sister went and picked up Chick Fil A. I decided to at least only get the sandwich and make fries at home to save some bites. Chick Fil A’s fries are like 400 calories for a medium. Wow oh wow! Total bites: 18

I had a couple snacks through the day as well. Between classes I had a bag of Cheez-Its. I haven’t bought a new box of the individual bags in a while, but that means they just hang out in the house and taunt me. I love them, but the sodium is a lot and I could choose better snacks. Then I had a late night bowl of cereal. I love Special K cereal and right now I have the fruit and yogurt. Total bites: 9

Friday:

I didn’t go over my bite by much, only by one point actually, but my food choices were very poor. To be fair, Friday is my weekly reset day, but that’s not meant to be an excuse to eat crap all day (that’s for my monthly cheat day). Total daily bites: 35

I don’t have class on Friday, so I didn’t eat until the afternoon and I spent the day in a long bath and under a face mask, so I just put together a snack plate of Ritz, grapes, and cheddar cheese (a favorite combination of mine). Total bites: 5

Then dinner was a smorgasbord of bad choices...delicious bad choices. Sister and I actually made two stops, one at McDonald’s and one at Taco Bell. McD’s is doing the 2 for $5, so I got 10 nuggets and Sister got a Quarter Pounder. Then we went to TB and I just got a Cheesy Gordita Crunch (probably my favorite thing there right now). Total bites: 30

Saturday:

On the weekends I don’t like to exist before 11 am. Yet I still figured out how to spend so many bites in so little time. I did really well until later that night- late night eating always gets me! I went over my daily limit by 11 bites. Total daily bites: 45

Lunch was just a bowl of my current fave cereal, Special K Fruit and Yogurt, with milk. Total bites: 8

Dinner was chicken and broccoli Alfredo with fettuccine. The chicken and the broccoli were free which should mean I was golden on bites, but just wait. Even so, I kept my pasta portion down (mostly because I didn’t have that much in my kitchen) and I didn’t use as much Alfredo sauce as my family would normally use, but they didn’t mind at all. Total bites: 8

Then the late night dessert aka bad choices stepped in and was like “oh, no no. you’re going to eat a ton of sugar and carbs and like it.” So I did. Mom brought home ol’ fashioned donuts (glazed and chocolate) and I just had to have some. I had two glazed and half a chocolate. Total bites: 29

One thing I noticed looking back was that I could either pick a protein-filled, whole foods breakfast or enriched carbs. 

Four bites for a 3 egg omelette and bacon and a banana

or Six for a plain bagel...

It’s most about actually making the food. It’s laziness and ignorance about easy ways to eat good food. I’ll keep on trucking.

I started this system at 258. My weigh in yesterday had me at 254.4. It’s probably more about my schedule becoming busy again then my eh eating.

Lost in dictation,

Jess

[tyleroakley-obsessed]

Ed. Note: Alcenia’s is OPEN for takeout only. Call ahead at 901-523-0200, place your order, then drop by and pick up the most delicious Southern soul food you’ve ever had. Alcenia’s Memphis Hours: Tues. – Fri. 11:00 am to 3:00 pm some Saturdays (call ahead) Alcenia’s is a soul food restaurant in the Pinch District of downtown, and the owner, B.J., is just as famous for her hugs as she is her comfort food. I went for lunch yesterday with my coworkers and a friend. Here is what happened. The first thing you should know about Alcenia’s is that the food is decadent and delicious. More on that in a bit. The second thing you should know is that it’s going to be a leisurely lunch. With a small staff and a focus on freshly prepared dishes, Alcenia’s is not the place for a quick work lunch or anytime you’re on a schedule. You can call in your order ahead, which we did, but still expect to wait quite a while. It’s absolutely worth the wait. Alcenia’s is on North Main, right around the corner from the pyramid. When we walked in, Betty Joyce “B. J.” Chester-Tamayo gave us all hugs and chatted with us. She seemed genuinely happy to see us and made us feel like old friends coming for a visit. We sat down at a table covered in an Easter-themed tablecloth that matched the colorful homegrown feel of the place. The recommended beverage is the Ghetto-Aid, which is just as the menu describes – very sweet Kool-Aid. You’ll want to try it, but unless you have a serious sweet tooth you probably need some water or tea with your meal. For our main dishes we ordered fried chicken (one white meat plate, one dark meat plate), fried catfish, and the meatloaf special. We each got two sides, so between us I was able to taste the cabbage, mac ‘n’ cheese, green beans, and yams. All of our dishes were served with a crispy little hoecake that we proceeded to slather in apple butter. Everything that I tried was seriously delicious, the portions were huge, and the plates are under $11. The mac ‘n’ cheese has a mix of different pastas and cheeses and is topped with more shredded cheese. I loved that the green beans were a little bit spicy. I don’t know what B.J. did to that cabbage, but I’ve never had cabbage that tasty. How tasty? Like, get up late in the night to eat cabbage leftovers for second dinner tasty. Another thing I have to talk about: the tartar sauce. It’s homemade, full of chunks of dill pickle and other unknown goodness, and goes great on the fried catfish. And the fried chicken. Probably on fried anything. We ordered several sides of this stuff and then called B.J. over to tell her she ought to bottle it and sell it. She already sells her apple butter and famous cha cha. Even though we were all stuffed and got to-go boxes, we had to try the bread pudding before we left. It was very moist, almost a literal pudding, with an ever-so-slightly buttery crisp on the top. There weren’t nuts in the pudding, just candied pecans on top, so you really got to enjoy the texture. Guess what? You can also buy the bread pudding and have it delivered. Alcenia’s is open for lunch/early dinner Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and for brunch/lunch on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Saturdays she has chicken and waffles. Final thoughts: go hungry, but be prepared to relax, socialize, and wait for a bit. People like to throw around the term “Southern hospitality” a lot but I think in this case, it’s accurate and authentic. I left feeling better than I did when I got there and not just because of the food. Go there: Alcenia’s 317 North Main Street (901) 523-0200 alcenias.com Alcenia’s on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (2011) Are you a home owner in Memphis, with a broken garage door? Call ASAP garage door today at 901-461-0385 or checkout https://ift.tt/1B5z3Pc

https://ilovememphisblog.com/2020/09/alcenias-memphis-soul-food/

[pisati]

I don’t remember too much about my birthday last year, besides having to work and mom taking me out to the cat cafe and the brewery. but despite having a pandemic birthday it was actually pretty nice.

I finally got 3 days off in a row. I did tell my friend Cassidy that I’d help them take their stuff to the UPS store to ship it back to CA, but I honestly thought it would only take part of the day. I didn’t mind grabbing lunch and also staying for dinner, but I didn’t really want to have to be driving all over that part of the DC area all day. which was what happened. I didn’t end up getting home til 1am, and while I DID tell them I could help, it kind of felt like a wasted day. wasn’t really an off-day. BUT Cassidy did cover all my food, got me a lovely birthday cake, and gave me some coloring book-style postcards and a little stuffed brain cell. plus a literal fuckton of crafting supplies they didn’t feel like hauling back to CA. I asked how much they’d want for it; they did say I could just have it but seriously that haul has got to be worth at least $150. there were 6 bottles of resin/hardener and those ALONE have got to be worth $80 at a minimum. they said they’d just ask $40 and like... shit, sure. that’s a goddamn steal.

they also sold me their 4x4 ikea kallax shelf; I remember helping them put it together when they first moved to MD. we took it apart and I had my brother come over sunday to help me carry the pieces upstairs. then put it together entirely by myself, which... I probably shouldn’t have done? I made it work, but that shit is Heavy and also very difficult to put together on your own. even the manual says you should have two people. every muscle in my upper body is incredibly sore now, and I managed to bruise both arms in multiple places (not even doing anything seriously injurious, I’m just an overripe banana). but in making room for it in my living room I rearranged the couches, relocated all my yarn to the new shelf from my old craft shelves (and it took up 12/16 of the cubes 🙃), re-sorted and organized the remaining craft shelves, took the two 1x3 shelves up to the rats’ room (and now they’re being used as towel storage), and actually cleaned up my living room area. my dining room table is sewing-machine-free for the first time since march. I just moved it to the craft shelves, and now I actually have the room there for the machine to just sit. the accessories have their own shelf bin. 

mom wanted to do dinner sunday night instead of today, and I guess that was okay. but it didn’t leave me much down time since I spent all day cleaning and organizing. but it was nice anyway. I got home and mom had blown up some balloons, and she had RHCP playing all evening. I’d requested homemade mac & cheese rather than noodles & co this year, and she found a pretty good recipe. she also made a cinnamon sugar doughnut bundt cake, which was good, though maybe a little dry. but served with ice cream it was better. mom told me she had another piece today and it was more moist today somehow.

mom and my brother had ordered me a bunch of things off my crafting wishlist on amazon, and those had come in during the week. my brother ordered the animal keychain molds, a mica powder dye set, black/white alcohol inks, and a silicone mold kit. mom got me a coaster mold set, another resin/hardener set, and a bunch of the sandpaper with the different grits that I really needed. I was kind of surprised she’d ordered me more things, since she already got me the huge rat cage. and she even told me today I should be getting another coaster set tomorrow, this one with 4 of the same size; the other one she ordered had 4 or 5 round molds but they were all different sizes. I can still make coasters with them, but the biggest one is small-tray sized and the smallest one is like... coin-sized, honestly. it’s tiny. and I can only make one at a time, so a set of 4 of the same size would take 4 days at a bare minimum; longer than that possibly if I were doing layers that needed to cure first. so with a set of 4 I can whip up a whole set at once. 

mom’s boyfriend got me things too, which was super nice of him. they saved it for the dinner night, so I got to open it there. he got me a geode coaster mold, the set of animal butt shaker molds I put on my wishlist kind of as a joke, but also I thought they were silly and adorable. I’m so excited to make those little shakers. also got a set of 3 trinket box molds with molds for the lids, and a little bag of snake charms I’d added so I could use the charms for mold-making; I could make my own little snake charm earrings!

so yesterday was a long day. and then I slept like garbage and woke up early this morning, but I at least got a few things done before Charlotte came over. we planned on a lazy day but since I’d wanted to make yesterday my craft day and never got around to it, I wanted to do that today. Charlotte I guess didn’t have the same idea, but she’d brought her laptop so she could play this video game she and her brother and husband and so on had played together. we ordered five guys for lunch, which is always nice. she brought me homemade cinnamon sugar cupcakes, and gave me a hand mixer, a few bath bombs, and some face masks as a birthday gift. she was right, I really do need my own hand mixer, ha. 

I finally got to work on my silicone molds, and it was super messy. I didn’t realize how much worse it would be than resin. but I tried my best to mix it well. I’d accidentally bought a $25 kit at michael’s a few weeks ago, because I’d picked it up from a clearance section and wanted to price check but forgot and forgot it was in my basket when I checked out; didn’t even realize I’d bought it until I was already back in my car looking into the bag. oops. but I ended up using the whole thing. and I had planned to make a crochet hook mold, so I was excited to try it. mom gave me an old tennis ball can that I cut up, and I used hot glue to seal it and position the hooks. I felt SO bad that it used up almost all of the silicone kit my brother got me; that shit is NOT cheap. and I was terrified I didn’t stir it well enough or mix the parts well enough because that would’ve been such a waste. but I demolded it after the few hours’ cure time and it came out beautifully. I cut slits in it with an xacto knife, so that way I can at least coax the hooks out more easily when I go to demold. it did seem like kind of a waste of a lot of the silicone, since I didn’t use up all the space, but hopefully I can sell enough crochet hook sets that I can maybe buy myself more. I’m nervous about those pours, because they’re not going to be easy, but I’m also excited bc I have a gorgeous, usable mold, and I got a ton of resin for [almost] free that I can experiment with. 

after that I finally got around to some of the resin I’ve been meaning to do. my friend in PA requested some resin earrings; she’s bought so many masks off my etsy for herself and family that after this last order I offered her a resin or crochet thing at no charge. so I’ve got to do some moon earrings; too bad I don’t have more than one moon mold. also my brother babysat some kids the last few weeks of summer and he’d taken them out to gather wildflowers for me to put into resin, so I offered to make them little resin keychains. I got little transparent letter stickers, and I’m super glad they worked as well as they did; the transparent stickers don’t show their borders in the resin so it almost looks like the letters are printed in it. I decided to make letter keychains with each of their initials, and I spelled their names with stickers in the letters. for the girl’s keychain, I added some of the flowers. I’m not sure what to put in the boys’ keychains quite yet. I’m told they’re harry potter fans, so maybe I’ll do some kind of transparent blue with gold glitter or maybe star glitter or something. I also had leftover colored resin from the moon mold so I added them to the J for my mom. nothing like the scramble for appropriately-sized molds when you’ve got extra resin. I also made another set of cat earrings, and I’ll see how those end up. I tried a drop of gold alcohol ink, and hopefully the white helped it sink. otherwise I’ve just got some weird looking cat earrings. 

(update, they turned out weird. gold doesn’t sink :/)

---

I wasn’t quite ready to go back to work today. I had a pretty good weekend, all said. don’t get me wrong, I enjoy what I do. but I feel like I need another gap year. I just want to stop existing for a while. stop having to go out and be around other people. having to talk to other people, all day almost every day. I’m tired. my brain is tired. my last gap year didn’t help with that, so I’m not sure how much good another one would do me. but I just... I need a damn break. 

I have another therapy appointment tomorrow. it may end up being my last one for a while. I already can’t really afford the copay, and I’m switching insurance to one she doesn’t take. my credit card bill this month is incredibly painful. not going to be too upset at not having to spend almost $100 a week to just ramble to someone I barely know. she’s pointed out a few things to me that I didn’t really notice I do, which is nice. but is it worth $400 a month? not right now. not when I’m about to lose my insurance and have to pay for my own. my rent is already half my pay, and now I’m going take a pay cut of somewhere around $100 a month for fucking health insurance. I hate this. I fucking hate the concept of health insurance. insurance in and of itself isn’t bad; property insurance is helpful. but having to pay money for other people to pay money for your healthcare? and you still have to hit a deductible somewhere in the thousands before insurance will even start covering your shit. and even then they can decline coverage or only cover parts of your expenses. literally what is the point

 back to worrying I guess. 

I’ve started a kind of ridiculous undertaking at work as a side project, now that I’m done scanning all the files that were up front. I printed out the list of all the clients in our system that had physical folders, and I’m going through the scanned records and making sure the active ones have new client paperwork and the hours disclosure attached. the head receptionist asked me to start with the ones my former coworker had scanned in, and there are a lot of disclosures missing. some are missing both. I don’t know if he just didn’t scan them or if they didn’t have them at all or what. but I’ve been putting alerts in charts so people know that they need to give the forms to the clients when they come in. we had one client get kind of mad that he’s been coming to us for 10-some years and didn’t want to fill out the paperwork again, even after we clarified it was for our records and for legal reasons. but whatever. 

I don’t know how many physical folders there were, but the list is very long. the folders go from 0 to somewhere in the 8000s I believe, but thankfully a lot are missing. missing as in possibly inactive, so there might only actually be 1000-2000 or so. but I’m going through every single one of them. I made myself a little system with highlighter colors: yellow means the client is active and they need something filled out (and I mark on the sheet what they need), purple means they’ve been seen within 3 years but more than 1 year ago, and they need to fill out something, pink mens inactive, and orange is kind of a catch-all for things like active clients who have recently moved (not sure whether to mark those as inactive). so far, since starting this a week or so ago, I’ve managed to get through 4 pages and a little bit on a 5th. many, many more to go.

the head vet wants to turn the back room into a little employee lounge area of some sort, but we want to get rid of those shelves first too. which means I have 2 big shelves of folders left before I’m officially done. thankfully the files in the back should *mostly* be clients that are inactive, but I still have to go through all of them to make sure. I know I’ve gone back there a number of times to find a folder for an active client because I wasn’t sure whose phone number was whose and I knew it would be in the record. 

---

I’ve been writing this post over the last two nights but I keep falling asleep while I’m writing. I did a lot more resin stuff last night, so I ended up going to bed pretty late. I wanted to finish up those keychains but I’m bad at gauging how much resin I’ll need for things so I ended up with a lot of random extra pours. I’m excited about a few of them; I poured a few into the new molds I made so I’m looking forward to seeing how those turn out. 

not really sure where I was going with this. not really sure where I’m going in general. I’m just going. trying to keep up with work, trying to remember doctor appointments. trying to keep the rats happy and as healthy as I can get them, trying not to let the cat get on my nerves too much. trying to do crafts. trying to remember to talk to people, but I don’t know. I feel lonely sometimes but since I’ve been working so much I kind of just want to be alone. I don’t have the energy for conversations a lot of the time. 

---

hm. maybe another post for therapy thoughts. I was asked to think about a few things.

[skerbango-blog]

Making My Playlist: Don’t Touch That Dial

By Scripty.

The stalwart was the size of a kid’s shoebox.  Roughly seven inches high, four inches deep and eight inches across. The left half of it comprised the speaker, while the right side housed the on/off switch, volume & tone dials, a tuning dial and station maps.  The radio sat on the right of two twin shelves off the cabinetry above our kitchen sink.  The left shelf had a Mother Mary statue and whatever small plant my mother was over-watering at the time.  There may have been an ashtray or small Tupperware cup holding loose coins holding court with the doomed plant.

The radio was in our kitchen from at least the time I was born.  Recently, my dad claims he bought it at a Radio Shack in 1972.  For all my sisters and I know, it came from ether and just emerged on that shelf when the house was built by my grandfather and great-uncle.  I don’t even remember where it was plugged in.  When my folks moved in 1994, I presume the warhorse was left behind, becoming ubiquitous to the house like the coved ceilings or shaded porch.  The radio never teetered on that small shelf, or gave any sense of imbalance.  It was safe, reliable and absolutely unremarkable.   

Looking back, it was in fact an amazingly boring radio.  Boxy and uncool as a household electronic could be, its origin was probably like most of my parent’s belongings.  This normally meant it was either a garage sale find, or something given quite un-imaginatively but lovingly as a gift.

My best guess is this was a 1969 Realistic MTA-Model 11 AM/FM Radio.  I would not be surprised if somewhere, this very radio still worked, regardless of usage levels.  This device existed to do two things well.  The first was to work, day after day, year after year, decade after decade.  

The second was to work best in my mother’s ideal kitchen environment.  The radio was to play at a modest level.  Not too loud - heavens no.  In fact it was never to play loud.  But yet not too soft, as there were three children wearing out the yellow-orange tile linoleum kitchen pathway through the kitchen, between our backdoor and living room.  Not medium either – it was to be played a smidge below medium.   That was the volume and the volume was that.  My mother didn’t ask for much, but us not touching that radio was one of those items.

 This acute volume was necessary to my mother’s routine.  Daily she would be the first one to wake, then she’d get a teakettle of hot water boiling.  Two slices of toast would be topped, usually with butter but occasionally with some Smuckers jelly.  Coffee meant Maxwell House instant grounds, a modest teaspoon of sugar and enough milk to bring the drink a half-centimeter below the rim of her coffee cup.  

My father was a fireman, so his mornings were either spent rushing to the firestation, preparing to leave the firestation waiting for his replacement, or sleeping in from his constant workload.  So my mother and her routine set forth our mornings.  

Every morning she would read the vast sum of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, poring over the front section, the metro section – especially the obituaries, the sports and comics.  The order she read them varied, usually whatever looked bleakest captured her attention.  That might be a murder, the recent Cleveland sports atrocity or bad news for Judge Parker. Then she was off to make some lunches, race through getting herself ready and us kids prepped for school.  Sometimes there was a third slice of toast, or perhaps letting our dog out the backdoor.  

This routine took time.  Normally, she started around 5:45am - but often earlier.  Given these early hours and the house being a classic postwar bungalow – her discretion led to the radio’s volume being this modest level. She’d hear the top news and light rock, finding zen her before the day took shape.

My two older sisters shared the upstairs, while I was assigned the cozy bedroom between the main floor’s kitchen and bathroom.  Not only did this room sit as a breezeless hotbox in the warm months, it bracketed the two noisiest rooms of the house.  The smacking of the screen door (as my mom let our mutt Daisy out) was yet another noise that I remember serving as an unofficial alarm clock. What I mean is that there were many, many mornings that my mom and I shared a very early breakfast: her and I, two meager breakfasts, the morning paper and that radio.  Sometimes I’d share in the white toast but normally it was cereal and 2% for me.

That radio station would change every so often, if by often - we meant every other Olympics.  These channels would be of the Casey Kasem Top 40 variety, some soft light rock with some pop sensibility.  I was too young to know the world of more definitive rock was out there, but I wasn’t being denied content either.  As I knew it, the radio existed to play the likes of Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, Elton John, America, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, along with the Bee Gees or even some Jim Croce or Dan Fogleberg.    

I was born right at our nation’s bicentennial, so these morning encounters became frequent in the early 1980s and continued for the next decade.  Some mornings few words would be exchanged, but it was not due to lack of love or warmth.  I respected her routine, and I was more than happy to scour the daily box scores of the sports page (Indians CF Brett Butler is among the AL’s top five in triples, and Harold Baines leads the majors in GWRBI!) or attempt to discern the JUMBLE answers before everyone else.  The sports page could disappear when my father’s Metamucil-fueled decampment necessitated, although he did settle for the crossword on many occasions. As I said, I was the youngest so it was best for me to embrace that morning détente before my junior rank was called front and center.

There were other radios and sound systems in the house.  The living room had a console stereo system.  This stereo cabinet had a turntable that would pick up an album and turn it over.  Then the turntable would move the LP and play an LP below it.  But I recall it working less and less over the years, its top soon shuttered and then it served as a catch-all for our family’s clutter. Sometime after I started elementary school it disappeared.  

Via my sisters, I inherited a smaller phonograph.  The photograph was in something akin to a typewriter case, a orange-red box about 16 inches square.  This had one speaker and played an assortment of 45’s my sisters gave me. St. Elmo’s Fire, Tainted Love, Hey Mickey, and such were part of a 20-30 disc collection they gave me.  But the youngster in me had no idea the record needles were that fragile and after breaking a number of them, my mother had enough and away that went.

Our basement had a rec room, with slate tiles and a very cold and sometimes wet floor.  If we didn’t empty the dehumidifier bucket, the basement and furniture down there developed a peculiar funk but my mother trained us well to empty that with regularity. We sometimes had some soccer or battleball-type games down there, along with a Big Top Pinball machine that my Dad got in 1980.  At some point a modest 8-track player was down there but I only recall there being a few tapes for it that we ever played.  I know there were some with movie music, as some Star Wars shootout music and another with the Rocky theme, along with your Captain & Tennille yacht-rockish fare.  

The garage had a General Electric transistor, that was perched on a thin shelf in a odd manner designed to bring in the right AM stations so my dad could hear the Indians or whatever he wanted.  Although he was constantly working on our fleet of jalopies, he rarely used the radio while working on them.  The radio came on mainly at the end of a work session, where we might be fixing a new outlet on an extension cord, or stripping the copper or brass of something before we sent it to the garbage.  Cleaning up the garage floor was a constant affair, as sawdust was sprinkled on the oil drippings to keep us from stepping in the slicks.

But the kitchen radio was the main cog of our AM/FM needs.  It was also played after family dinners, when my siblings and I were on kitchen detail.  We had no dishwasher appliance, so it was standard operating procedure for my sisters and I to do the dishes and clean the table afterwards.  

Deana, my oldest sister, would start with a few pots and pans while my other sister Marcy and I cleaned off the table and managed the leftovers. Then a formula of the oldest washing, the middle child rinsing and yours truly drying.  All dishes were to be dried and returned to the cabinets.  Once all the dishes were washed and rinsed, the drying and putting away became communal.  I was the youngest and worst at the dishes, so I was assigned the plates, salad bowls and drinking glasses.  These I could do without leaving some water on them.  

My parents would disappear after dinner, re-runs of M*A*S*H or The Rockford Files awaited them.  But we were permitted to turn the radio on for the dishes. Eventually we tired of the soft rock mainstays, as child cannot live on Bread and Herb Alpert alone.  We weren’t supposed to touch the dial or volume, as the decades of use had tempered the dials to love their home settings. Other stations and volumes could work, but not necessarily with ease. But my sisters were daring and would change the dial, usually to the nearest alternative.  These were fun nights but sooner or later they’d forget to change the dial back and mother would set things straight when her morning routine was greeted with an unfamiliar disk jockey.

And so that radio stayed, and played, for years and years.  My father told me bought that from a Radio Shack in 1972. Mom said they sold it at a garage sale when they left the house in 1994.  

There are many more formative music experiences for me, but I think it started with that radio.  Unobtrusive playlists and mild volume made it the background music for my first years. My parents moved to their current residence in the fall of 1994, and the new house had a radio set in the kitchen wall. My mom has it set to her station, and she still reads the paper every morning.  She’s retired so the routine starts later in the morning, but those songs remain the same.

[burnttoastgypsy]

27 April, 2018

   Blue here, bringing you Burnt Toast on a chipped plate. Yum! Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m a pretty good cook but that’s not what I’m going to be writing about. At least, not right away. There’s this thing I like to do that I think we can relate too on some intimate level. It’s really rather simple. I like food. Not just any food, but good food. Especially here lately, I’ve started to really enjoy trying new foods that I have either not heard of, or heard of but never had the opportunity of trying. Adventurous? Probably not like Jack Sparrow, but hey… It’s a pretty big deal for me!

  Some of my best childhood and teen memories include going to restaurants and discussing the quality of the food and service as well as guessing the seasonings and ingredients used in the dishes that we ordered with the only important person in my life at the time - my mom. Whether it was Pizza Hut or Captain D’s, or something even more exotic like The Crab Shack in Tybee Island, Georgia, it was a fun game that we liked to play. Now, at the time the most adventurous I got was visiting the same restaurants and ordering the same dish just to try my hand at another guessing game of what they did with the food. Fast forward ten years, I’m not that same kid.

   Today, I’m a single twenty-seven year old working for a big company - nothing too fancy - trying to make do with what life has handed me. I’ve fought that nasty disease called anxiety, paranoia, depression and low self-esteem for the majority of my life. Okay, so all of my life. But there comes a time when you have to tell yourself that enough is just enough. Some days, this anxiety is crippling, and there are days that I feel like spending hours that I could put to good use just hiding in dark corners from my demons. It took hitting rock bottom to finally tell myself that I can either let things knock me down and keep me there, or find something that makes me happy to pick myself back up.

   Burnt Toast.

  I started visiting restaurants I’ve never been to in an attempt to try new foods and venture outside of my comfort zone. My comfort zone is my bed, a blanket, and Rookie Blue playing on my Mac desktop while my dog is breathing in my face. At first, I started going with my friend, we’ll call her Chuckles because she has an amazing laugh that’s so damn contagious I wish i could bottle it for rainy days. She makes me smile. Chuckles and I would go to movies, and then dinner or the other way around.

   But we didn’t have the same days off, so I had to try this out myself. Baby steps. I went to the Layton Mall to Spencer’s, and then Box Lunch - by the way, they have the absolute BEST Disney swag collection in the entire WORLD. Next, I went to the theatre by myself. At first, it was scary. Then I took my amazing dog, Kodak, with me. That was an amazing experience! He’s also one of the reasons I came up with Burnt Toast.

   The point I’m getting at is…

    Every week or every other week, I’m going to visit a new pub, cafe, diner or restaurant. I’ll take pictures of my meals and beverage, I’ll write reviews, name prices and leave contact information in my blog so those who are traveling to Utah or live in Utah and want to try new places will know what to expect! Plus… This is going to be fun!

   On a side note… I’m going to go back a few months and review a Chinese buffet in small Taylorsville, Utah.

King Buffet

  It was like any other day, and every other time when I would make a split second decision to decide something new. Planning doesn’t exactly work out for me. And boy… I was craving Chinese food something awful that day! So it’s around 2pm on a Saturday, which I found was REALLY smart of me judging by the line that was leading out the door. I walked up to the counter and told them, embarrassingly enough, that I needed a table for one and then took a seat to wait. The wait wasn’t so bad. I suppose if I had a bigger party, we’d be waiting longer but it’d be a party so we really wouldn’t care.

   My waiter, or waitress because they had long hair and beautiful features and questionable piercings that I couldn’t really determine if they were gender specific or just general piercings, quickly seated me at a table that would have easily housed six people. Not awkward at all, as I watch bigger families slide into small booths and cast glares at the big girl thinking she’s gonna have a smorgasbord right there in the already all you can eat buffet. Excuse me… I didn’t asked to be sat at a huge table for my lonely self!

   After my drink was ordered, I set out on the challenging mission to get a my first plate of food for that smorga-whatever-it-is that the dagger shooting eyes insinuated previously. Oh man, the food looked amazing. Craw fish, noodles, rice, and Teriyaki chicken, oh my! I got a little of everything and went back to my table.

And then went back for another plate… Why not?

After getting my plate of meats and veggies and all the bad stuff in between, I sat down and got to work.

I was disappointed.

The rice was crunchy for one, the Craw fish was amazing but everything else was either dry or over cooked. The sushi wasn’t even that good - sushi was a new thing for me, too. So I’m probably not the best judge on that.

I didn’t finish my food. I know, I feel horrible. I could have taken the leftovers to the homeless men in Smith’s parking lot, but I don’t think they allowed that. At least, not for free. So, deciding that since I was paying for food I wasn’t finding any joy in, I went back to the buffet to try some more sushi, grabbed a couple of odd things like fried octopus tentacle (I called it a testicle to my co-worker when I was explaining this story to him. He thought it was hilarious.) and a couple of craw fish.

After grabbing another plate, I went back to my table and started plating this already plated food in a way that I thought was appealing. I had fun just taking pictures and posing the dead fish and… other dead fish with rice and whatever was rolled up in that sushi. A few pictures later, I did devour the sushi and craw fish, then went home.

All in all, I’d give the experience a 2.5/5. I’ve had better Chinese buffet before. The service was great, the waiter/waitress was prompt and kind but I couldn’t get past the quality of food. But hey! That doesn’t mean there aren’t other Chinese buffets that I can try out in the massive city of Salt Lake. One of them is bound to be amazing!

King Buffet

Taylorsville, UT

[2wheeldwarrior-blog]

Wild Camp to Tok, Alaska

708 Total Miles

Got up really early but it was cold outside so I made coffee, crawled back into my sleeping bag and went back to sleep and as a result I didn’t get on the road until 1000. Breakfast was rehydrated potatoes and another cup of coffee.I saw a coyote today, my first wild coyote ever. He was scrounging for something along the side of the road but when he saw me he bolted for the cover of trees. Bummer since I would have liked to have taken a picture of him.I made it to Tok which is pronounced Toak or Towk or Toke, but it’s spelled Tok which makes no sense since there are at least three different ways of spelling it that would make more sense than Tok. Here are a few random things that might interest you…

FOOD I have a lot of food with me having prepared for a 10 day ride without access to anything other than what I had with me. It turned out I actually got quite a lot of food along the way. In total, three truckers stopped to give me food, a tour bus operator and my new friends from Texas, Sara and Wayman. In addition, I was able to eat in Coldfoot and again at a couple of places between Coldfoot and Fairbanks, so by the time I got into Fairbanks, I still had a lot of the food I had started with.I took a picture of some of what I’m eating so you guys can get a look at the diet. I don’t focus on healthy eating out here…I focus on high calorie in as light weight a package as I can get.Breakfast - either last night’s leftovers or oatmeal with dried berries / coffee with cream Lunch - Tuna, cheese, pilot bread, crackers, cream cheese, peanut butter Snacks - GORP with peanut butter, GORP with Nutella, snickers dunked in Nutella

Dinner - pasta with tuna, mac and cheese, instant potatoes with tuna and cheeseSome of the above things might sound gross to many people but this combo really works for me. Most of the stuff in this list is super light and there’s just enough variety to break things up.The Pasta Roni dinners are taken out of their boxes and put into ziplock bags to save space. I started with 7 of these Pasta dinners and still have 4 left. They’re too much for one meal so I save the leftovers in the ziplock bag they came in and eat it for breakfast.The Mountain House mac & cheese dinners are three servings and I’m never able to finish one in one sitting, no matter how hungry I might be. I eat as much as I can and then the leftovers for breakfast.CLOTHES

I only packed one extra shirt that I didn’t need, which is surprising since I thought I was taking too many clothes on this trip. At the last second, Bekah gave me a fleece zip up hoodie and a very lightweight black skirt. I told her I wouldn’t use either one of them and she insisted I take them, just in case. She told me to just toss them if I didn’t need them. As it turns out...I have needed both items. The fleece hoodie I have slept with every single night I’ve been on this trip and the black skirt is invaluable for discretely changing out of cycling shorts in front of people which I had to do at one of the campgrounds.The following list is what I’ve brought with me.

For Sleeping:

Black fleece bernie (for keeping head warm and pulling down over eyes to block light) Arcteryx pullover base layer Patagonia long john bottoms Warm socksFor Riding: two cycling shorts two cycling shirts one patagonia base layer shirt (haven’t used once but brought for cold cycling days) one black stretch pants (for wearing over cycling shorts in cold weather)

Jackets: Patagonia lime green nano-puff (that goes on every adventure with me) Bekah’s Fleece Zipup hoodie Patagonia waterproof shellExtra Stuff: cycling gloves ski gloves balaclava (not needed after Atigun Pass though handy to have - just in case) Bekah’s black skirt two pair cycling socks cycling “clip in” shoes with recessed bracket white shirt and long sleeve grey flecked shirt (for flight home with black cycle pants) canvas flats (used as camp shoes and also for flight home)

The Canadian border is less than 100 miles from here and I'll be in Canada for the remaining cycle time I have left for this leg of the Adventure. I'm returning to work early, at least 13 days earlier than I expected, which is going to cut into my distance, but the road isn't going anywhere and I want to keep my job so…I won't make Seattle and since the Cassiar Highway is about as remote as the Dalton Highway, there's not much chance for an airport between here and Seattle. That leaves the Alaskan Highway with the hopes of getting to Edmonton. That's ambitious though, and leaves little time for enjoying the trip. If I can get a flight prior to Edmonton, I'll try for that. Probably Dawson Creek... "The Wind" is working on it for me... I'll keep you posted.next

[bodaciousbogart-blog]

Test Run February- Week 1 - Meal Planning

This week's meal planning is a little wonky because it's technically starting in the middle of the week. On Monday I was in recovery mode from the weekend (we ate and drank our way across SF for my bday) and Tuesday was my grocery shopping day. 

Here's what I ate for Monday. I hadn't officially started my new plan, so it's not pretty. 

Breakfast - the last 2/3 c. of some blue-box-Mac-and-cheese  

Lunch - a grilled cheese, two glasses of cold brew (the first with 2T of almond milk, the second with 1T of sweet cream) 

Dinner - 1/2 c. of prepared polenta, 1 c. roasted zucchini, 1 c. sausage/tomato/mushroom ragú (from scratch). 

Dinner was obviously the most reasonable meal and clearly the one I had the most energy for. I don't normally eat Mac-and-cheese and I certainly don't reach for it at breakfast under regular circumstances but I was still feeling like crap from the weekend and I hadn't done any grocery shopping yet for the week. 

Tuesday also looks a bit wonky, because it was my shopping day... hence the reason why, again, dinner looks most reasonable.  

I didn’t get to breakfast or lunch really!  I was struck by a terrible bout of sleeplessness and was unable to remedy it as my neighbors are having their roof replaced (it’s very very loud).  I did have a concha that BP brought home to me!

Dinner - Tandoori Chicken Thighs.  This recipe is AMAZING!  It’s super easy and so flavorful!  I served it alongside some shaved brussels sprouts and some rather disappointing ready-made smashed cauliflower.

Here’s what I have planned for the rest of the week.  I’ve decided not to list to it day by day.  I’ve found in the past, giving myself options instead of a regimented schedule sets me up for success. I also don’t usually plan 7 dinners for 7 days.  This gives me a chance to eat up any leftovers and helps me stick to my budget.  It keeps me from wasting fresh produce (which is the area I’ve needed most improvement upon in the past).  You’ve probably noted that my Meal Plans don’t include snacks.  I’m not good at snacking responsibly and I also don’t really get all that hungry in between meals in the first place.  I try to keep fresh fruits and vegetables and roasted nuts on hand, but usually I only feel myself getting hungry right before a meal--so I take the opportunity then to make sure I’m staying hydrated which will usually keep me focused.

Breakfasts:

 Hard-boiled eggs or ‘Lazy Devils.’  A few notes about this recipe:  I like mine topped with guacamole (we happen to have some from the tienda on hand, but if we don’t, even smashed avocado with some S&P will suffice) and also with a thin smear of mayo and a piece of prosciutto on top! Also, you don’t NEED an Instant Pot to make Hard-boiled eggs but a) I love my Instant Pot and b) it makes perfect HBE even with farm fresh eggs.  

Overnight Flax Meal.  Before I started eating low-carb, I was a big fan of overnight oats.  It actually really bummed me out to give them up, so you can imagine how excited I was to find a substitute.  It’s not a perfect copy; the texture is definitely creamier with the flax meal, but the overall flavors are pretty similar.  The recipe I have linked is a great one--I use chocolate protein powder instead of vanilla because it’s what I have on hand currently and I also enjoy a splash of cold brew with the almond milk.  I’m pretty sure this recipe lends itself to some tailoring/experimenting as well, and I’ll let you know if I come across any delicious additions!

Savory Ricotta Bowl.  Inspired from this article, this option is a little more decadent that my usual weekday breakfasts, so I’m saving this for brunch on the weekend.  I’m planning to do some chopped greens, roasted garlic and a crispy egg or two in ours.  I’ll serve BP’s with a slice of crusty bread.

Scrambled eggs with wilted greens and a medium (about 1 c. worth) avocado.

Inside Out Scotch Eggs.  I’m going to try this over the weekend; I’ll only make a few instead of a whole dozen obviously.  But I’m very excited!  BP really loves scotch eggs!

Lunches:

Okay, confession time.  I’m TERRIBLE at eating lunch.  I’m in-between jobs at the moment; lots of folks incorrectly assume that this means I have all the time in the world but what it actually means is that my days are just structured differently and I often forget to take time out of the day to sit down and have an actual lunch.  So for the rest of this week, I’m going to try to remember to have lunch, and I’ll more than likely rely on leftovers from previous night’s dinners!  Lunch options could also include:

Previously linked ‘Lazy Devils”

A smashed avocado with S&P

Lunch meat-and-cheese rollups with greens or a veg

Dinners:

Dinners are my most favorite meals to prepare.  While I’m not a huge fan of leftovers, I don’t mind eating them for breakfast or lunch (as opposed to having the same dinner two nights in a row).  It’s also usually the meal that BP and I get to share because of his schedule so I try to do my best cooking then.  For this week I have the follow meals planned, though I’m not necessarily preparing them in the order they’re listed:

Chicken Caesar Salad.  I was going to make this vegetarian, and I still might; it will just depend on what sort of proteins we consumer earlier in the day!  No recipe for this as I am confident in my Caesar dressing making skills!

Tofu Veg Bowls.  I’m either going to make a garlic Dijon marinade or a spin on a peanut sauce marinade... I just have to see which ingredients I actually have on hand (this will help me stay in budget).  I’ll probably whip up a batch of rice in the Instant Pot for BP for this meal, but for myself, I’ll double up on vegetables to round out my bowl.  Again, no real recipe, other than the marinades... which I’ll whip one up the night before I make this meal, then bake off the tofu in the oven until they’re barely crispy, and then mix them into some steamed vegetables--I have the aforementioned vegetables to get through and I almost always have a bag of frozen green beans on hand.

Low Carb Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy.  I’m the most stoked for this one!  I make no apologies for my love of Salisbury Steak, and I’m excited to have a healthy alternative.  I’m not following this recipe to the letter, but it is the basis for this meal.  I’m serving it with either cauliflower mash OR this cheesy cauliflower gratin and then whatever veg strikes my fancy!

That should cover everything through Friday.  For the weekend, I’m relying on leftovers--both from dinners and then whatever else happens to be lying around. If I’ve added anything, I’ll make note of it on the weekly recap/following week’s Meal Plan (I haven’t quite decided if I’m going to do two separate posts or combine them into one longer one).

[tyleroakley-obsessed]

Originally published March 2014. Updated February 2019. Alcenia’s is a soul food restaurant in the Pinch District of downtown, and the owner, B.J., is just as famous for her hugs as she is her comfort food. I went for lunch yesterday with my coworkers and a friend. Here is what happened. The first thing you should know about Alcenia’s is that the food is decadent and delicious. More on that in a bit. The second thing you should know is that it’s going to be a leisurely lunch. With a small staff and a focus on freshly prepared dishes, Alcenia’s is not the place for a quick work lunch or anytime you’re on a schedule. You can call in your order ahead, which we did, but still expect to wait quite a while. It’s absolutely worth the wait. Alcenia’s is on North Main, right around the corner from the pyramid. When we walked in, Betty Joyce “B. J.” Chester-Tamayo gave us all hugs and chatted with us. She seemed genuinely happy to see us and made us feel like old friends coming for a visit. We sat down at a table covered in an Easter-themed tablecloth that matched the colorful homegrown feel of the place. The recommended beverage is the Ghetto-Aid, which is just as the menu describes – very sweet Kool-Aid. You’ll want to try it, but unless you have a serious sweet tooth you probably need some water or tea with your meal. For our main dishes we ordered fried chicken (one white meat plate, one dark meat plate), fried catfish, and the meatloaf special. We each got two sides, so between us I was able to taste the cabbage, mac ‘n’ cheese, green beans, and yams. All of our dishes were served with a crispy little hoecake that we proceeded to slather in apple butter. Everything that I tried was seriously delicious, the portions were huge, and the plates are under $11. The mac ‘n’ cheese has a mix of different pastas and cheeses and is topped with more shredded cheese. I loved that the green beans were a little bit spicy. I don’t know what B.J. did to that cabbage, but I’ve never had cabbage that tasty. How tasty? Like, get up late in the night to eat cabbage leftovers for second dinner tasty. Another thing I have to talk about: the tartar sauce. It’s homemade, full of chunks of dill pickle and other unknown goodness, and goes great on the fried catfish. And the fried chicken. Probably on fried anything. We ordered several sides of this stuff and then called B.J. over to tell her she ought to bottle it and sell it. She already sells her apple butter and famous cha cha. Even though we were all stuffed and got to-go boxes, we had to try the bread pudding before we left. It was very moist, almost a literal pudding, with an ever-so-slightly buttery crisp on the top. There weren’t nuts in the pudding, just candied pecans on top, so you really got to enjoy the texture. Guess what? You can also buy the bread pudding and have it delivered. Alcenia’s is open for lunch/early dinner Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and for brunch/lunch on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Saturdays she has chicken and waffles. Final thoughts: go hungry, but be prepared to relax, socialize, and wait for a bit. People like to throw around the term “Southern hospitality” a lot but I think in this case, it’s accurate and authentic. I left feeling better than I did when I got there and not just because of the food. Go there: Alcenia’s 317 North Main Street (901) 523-0200 alcenias.com Alcenia’s on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives (2011) Are you a home owner in Memphis, with a broken garage door? Call ASAP garage door today at 901-461-0385 or checkout http://bit.ly/1B5z3Pc

http://ilovememphisblog.com/2019/02/alcenias-memphis-soul-food/