Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful.

Hurray! Weather is happening in Tucson today! It's rainy and blustery and cold.

I didn't actually take that photo, I got it from a local news station's website, but that's what's happening right now! We're all in a mild uproar over it too. A week ago, I was complaining about how it was almost November and still in the upper 80s, and today the high will be 57. Crazy! Inconceivable!

I know, Vizzini, I know! It was actually quite chilly yesterday, too. I went for a long run (completing my first full week of triathlon workouts, six of them to be exact. I don't think I've ever worked out six days in one week before) and while the actual running kept me warm, afterwards the cool down was more like icy chill down, so Alex and I had a snuggle.

Selfishly, I must admit that I love it when she's still super sleepy after her naps, because it's way easier to curl up with her. Usually she's too busy and on the move to hold still.

P.S. Those are my Talbots ankle jeans!

Todd built a fire in the fireplace, I made a yummy casserole with pork tenderloin, yam, eggplant, turnip, onion and garlic, and we cuddled up together to watch a really bad movie, Warrior's Way. Tonight I think I'm going to wait on the shrimp pasta I had in mind, and instead make my delicious mushroom soup so we can warm up with it. I'll post the recipe some time this week.
In the meantime, bundle up and have fun with the chilly temps, Tucsonans. Woohoo, winter's here (for a day)!

Edited to add:

It's stopped raining now but look, snow and gorgeous clouds in the mountains!

Mommy's Little Helper

"So where do you want these bags?"

"I'm kind of loving these bags."

"You don't need these bags, do you mama?"

Paper bags and empty old tea tins: a child's playground.

Pet Peeves.

Recently I was blessed with an uncontrollable upper-eyelid eye twitch for three goddamn days. Every few minutes it would trigger itself, regardless of what I was doing, if I was in glasses or contacts, if I was reading or swimming. Then it developed into twitches that only occured when I'd do a hard blink, which is occasionally necessary when you wear contacts and stare at a computer for hours at a time. It sounds better but it was even more horrible because at that point, I knew when it was coming. Like a labor contraction. But obviously worse.

Anyways, because of this lovely experience, it got me thinking about pet peeves. And I figured hey, let's do a list. Warning: I feel passionately about each of these, so expect to see lots of italicizing, capslock and fevered punctuation.

1. Sandwiches that fall apart.

I mean, come on. This is so horrible. It's also intimately tied to my second pet peeve but even if the second one didn't exist, it would still drive me crazy. Sandwiches are portable self contained treasures of goodness and when that stuff comes out the back or worse when the bread breaks apart in your hands that is just unacceptable. And when it's a hot sandwich?! Just... I just... Do not get me started.

2. Sticky hands.

I cannot stand sticky hands. That sort of sounds like a Shel Silverstein poem, but that's the truth of it. It borders on OCD levels of fastidiousness, because if I use too much hand lotion and it doesn't all absorb then I can feel the lotion on my hands, on my palms!! It's so freaking gross. Then I have to wash the lotion off my hands. Then my hands are dry and I apply more lotion. It's an endless, vicious cycle. Ooh, or when you get food on your hands (see #1 for reference), and you only have those measley, cheap napkins that do nothing. And even if you have hand sanitizer... that stuff is sticky too! For God's sake man, I just can't handle it.

3. Eye Twitches.

I mean, look how grumpy this guy looks. And I know I have already gone into this but seriously, three days of eye twitching?!?! I think what sucks is that there is just no way to stop them. You have to ride the storm, or as my brother in law Scott says, "It's like a tire fire. You gotta sit back and just watch it burn."

4. Toilet paper going over the roll.

I know I am in the extreme minority on this, and I recall many, many years ago Oprah herself stated that anything but over-the-roll placement was an abomination to mankind and civilization. Not really but she felt pretty damn strongly about it. I like it behind the roll, discreet, tucked away, clean. Because when it's over the roll, children and cats alike can just paw at it, sending it all to the ground. Granted, Alexandra can and indeed used to take the dangling paper and pull and pull, pulling it out of the bathroom, down the hall and into the den to give to daddy, but it's a far more difficult concept, and clearly not as much fun, than just spinning the roll and sending all the paper down to the floor. Who wants to wipe any of their 2,000 parts with floor paper? Nobody, that's who. Except maybe Britney Spears; that girl goes into gas station bathrooms without any shoes on.

Hmm. I appear to be getting more and more verbiose as I get into this. I'm on the pulpit now baby, get ready for some preachin'!

5. Messy sheets AKA Unmade bed

That stock photo right there? That grosses me out, just looking at it. I have a very... hmm, powerful compulsion to keep my sheets clean, tidy, and my bed made in order to keep the sheets clean and tidy. You want to give a woman the heebie jeebies and watch her change her sheets faster than you can say Howdy? Then crawl into my bed with street clothes on. OH MY GOD. The very idea is sending me into a tizzy. I mean, I shower at night to wash the day away before I get into bed. The idea of showering in the morning and getting into bed dirty totally grosses me out.

And then, THEN, when Todd and I are sleeping and he's somehow kicked the covers into a big mess? I don't care if it's 3am, I have to get out of bed, straighten them and get back in. Oh and don't even think about getting into bed with dirty feet. Even Todd knows the joy of freshly washed feet slipping into clean, straightened sheets. It's heaven. The alternative is unacceptable.

6. The sound of a dog licking itself

Do I really need to explain this? Everyone who owns a dog knows and hates this sound. Stephanie, a friend of mine, laments over this. Her dog Finnley does this as they're trying to sleep and she'll throw every pillow off the bed at him trying to get him to leave or at least stop. It's obnoxious and gross, and it seems to be never ending. Even just licking their chops, their paws. It doesn't have to be a ~discreet~ location on the dog body, or even the dog body at all for that matter. I will banish a dog from the room for this. I will send Patton outside it drives me that crazy. Ugh.

Well I don't know if this post was cathartic or enraging. I'm on the fence, but I'm also too tired to figure it. Co-hosting bridal showers is no easy task (more on that later this week).

 Feel free to share some of your pet peeves! I think it's fascinating. It's almost more interesting than finding out what a person loves.

Review: Source Code

I know this movie came out ages ago, back in March actually, but since we never have time or quite frankly, the money to be regularly seeing movies in theatre, we have to bide our time, add a movie to Netflix and patiently wait. Enter Source Code.

I love sci-fi thrillers and fast paced movies and I was eager to check this puppy out. It didn't seem to  make a lot of waves however; I don't remember the weekend it premiered, I don't remember how it did at the box office or with the critics, but when it came up on the Netflix list as number one, I got excited. And I was not disappointed. I was actually very impressed, and I loved it. Even better? Todd did too.

The downfall is that we stupidly decided to watch oh, the first 30 minutes in bed on the laptop before going to sleep. Yeah. Yeah, that didn't happen. We stayed up until 12:45am watching the damn thing! It was too hard to shut off.

Source Code is about a young Army man, Colter (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) who is on a mission to keep a train from exploding, but he only has eight minutes in which to perform this feat. And to make it more interesting/daunting, he's doing so in someone else's body, in the past (actually an alternate universe but I don't want to discuss Quantum Physics and embarrass the hell out of myself), and is essentially living the last eight minutes of that individual's life.

Luckily for him, this person is traveling with a beautiful young woman Christina (Michelle Monaghan) and during the repeated attempts to find this bomb, he begins to feel for her.

You can tell he now is interested in more than just finding the bomb (the Air Force's only goal): he'd also really like to save this woman, as well as the entire train. Then he, and we the audience, learn of a twist, which I shall not reveal, that makes his actions all the more heroic and heart wrenching.

This movie was really amazing, and I highly recommend it to all movie enthusiasts. There's thrills, deception, romance, and it never lulls or drags. Even when his eight minutes expire and he's returned to the "cockpit" of the Source Code mechanism thingy, those scenes still crackle with intensity and an urgency that, especially in our case the other night, make it impossible to turn away from.

My grade: A+

Creamy Chicken and Gnocchi Dumplings

Okay I need to start off telling you three things:

1. I wanted to use these gnocchis I got for Alex to try; try she did and hate she did, so I was stuck with gnocchis, which I've never been super fond of but as I'm less fond of wasting food, I checked out a Rachael Ray recipe, completely changed/ruined/sullied it, and that's why I'm posting this recipe, because it's now mine.

2. I'm exhausted tonight; I had a rough run, a horrid night's sleep. Please forgive the present and/or lack of photography.

3. Finally, my camera battery ran out in the middle of this recipe, so the last photo was in the sickliest light possible, which is why I only took one. I skipped photographing steps because who wants to feel like they're in a Saw movie? Or worse, the green first Twilight movie? I fixed it with a picture editor on my laptop but anyways, that's why there's lots of pictures of melted butter and only one of the finished product.

Anyways, color me disappointed. Aren't you hungry? And EXCITED?! On to the recipe! While you read, I'll go curl up in the corner and cry/sleep/cry-sleep

Creamy Chicken and Gnocchi Dumplings
Serves 2 


- 9 oz gnocchi
- olive oil, drizzles here and there
- 1/2 onion, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 12 oz chicken (I know, we're pigs but we're athletic I swear), cut into strips
- 1 1/3 cup frozen peas
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 3/4 cup chicken broth (I used beef, so anything is possible)
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup parmesan

I hope everyone remembers that I discussed my heady levels of exhaustion from the day. Anyways, I didn't start taking pictures until after I sauteed my garlic and onion, added my chicken and browned it, and then finally added my peas before I wailed "I was gonna BLOG this" to Todd, to which he said "Can I turn off Dancing with the Stars?"

Anyways, I had already boiled some water, thrown in the gnocchi and cooked it, according to Trader Joe's' instruction, until they float to the top, then two minutes more, then drained them.

Here are the roux players:

The lighting sucks here too. Anyways, I ran out of chicken bouillon so I used beef and it was very delicious. Anyways, put olive oil into a skillet, and when it's nice and hot, add the onion and garlic. Once that softens and starts turning golden, add the chicken strips:

Now let's work on the roux. Add two generous tbsp of butter or in my case, Smart Balance Light:

Wow that looks like a lot! Let it melt:

Yum! Now add your flour and stir to mix it up. It will get super lumpy so it's imperative you have your broth mixed and ready to go. Keep adding broth:

Still lumpy, so keep adding more. Once it's smoothed out, and your sniffer can detect that the flour has cooked, add salt and pepper and some half and half or, in my case, whole milk:

Mix it up and then add some Parmesan to give a little depth to the flavor:

Yummmmm. Ok so here is where the picture get nasty. Once your roux is done, simply pour it over the chicken and peas:

Eh, still looks a little off, which does nothing for the deliciousness. Very hearty and somewhat rich but also very simple in flavors so you could spruce it up further with an array of flavors. More garlic, some oregano, anything! Enjoy!

All Souls' Day.

I have sorrowful news to deliver, but I didn't want to do it. No one likes diving right into the painful things of life and loss, no matter how cathartic it might wind up being. But when I realized that today was All Souls' Day, I knew it was time to officially mourn the loss of both Vito and Kittums, our beloved and dearly departed kitties.

:(

Vito:

Todd's napping buddy. The world's gentlest nipper. The fat, fluffy sweet guy who purred the moment you touched him, who could literally sleep anywhere, who would see a person about to nap and would come curl up, purring. He was also always hungry.

Kittums:

My odd ball kitty, the melodious Mau, the weird one made of cayenne pepper and cactus needles. But also the one pet in our household who showed the utmost patience with Alex. He and Patton were the best of friends. He slept with me, belly to belly, his paws around my neck.

I hope nothing horrible happened. I hope someone in the neighborhood scooped them up. But coyotes have been sighted. And God forbid, it was close to Halloween when they disappeared. I don't want to say any more than that. What I do want to say, is how much I love these two, how much Todd loves them, and how much we miss them, how much we feel the loss of their presence. I want to honor them for the love and laughter and cuddles they've each brought to our lives, in their strange, hilarious, different ways.

I want them to come home. I want them to come scurrying towards the back sliding door, begging to come in and curl up with us. I want them to be warm and safe and happy, unharmed, whole and perfect in their individuality, their sweetness. But if they are on the Rainbow Bridge, then I hope they know that Todd and I will be there one day and we will all see each other again.

Let's take a walk down memory lane:

Kittums who unknowingly climbed into my dog's food dish.

Vito is the kitty on top of the cuddle puddle with his brothers and sister.

We love you two. Please come home, please be safe, please be okay.

Triathlon Training: Commencing Week Three

I hesitate to fill a post with my ramblings over my exercise, but this is important to me, and maybe someone out there will find it and enjoy it. I'm actually improving in endurance and strength, and that excites me, and therefore I want to natter on about it for 45 minutes.

Yesterday was the start of week three, and I'll admit, it's hard making sure I fit in a workout six days a week (I have yet to accomplish that, having only made it to five last week). With a husband, child, job and household vying for my time, clinging to a training schedule proves to be a scrambling, hectic thing. I hope I can keep it up, because I'm really, really enjoying it. I'm already getting stronger, after just a couple of weeks of doing these different types of exercises.

Last Tuesday I did a run, almost four miles actually, and despite some slight twinges due to nerve damage in the ball of my left foot, it was... dare I say, easy? Enjoyable, even. I didn't do any speedwork, aside from a natural ebb and flow when I got tired or a burst of energy, so I was never completely spent. And I never go past three miles normally because of the fear of that nerve damage. But that longer run made me feel good.

Last Friday, I did my first transitional workout, which means I did two sports back to back: cycling and running. I biked 10 miles (I was slower after four consecutive workouts) and then came home, grabbed the dog and a slurp of water and headed out for a mile long jog around the neighborhood. The first four blocks I felt like my legs were made of jelly, and my knees were blobs of um, other such gelatinous products.

But then I fell into a rhythm, my knees stopped screaming "We are still on a bicycle, what are you DOING" and I felt exhilerated. Those first four blocks, I wasn't sure I could handle a triathlon. The last eight, however, was a mad rush of endorphins, pride and motivation. Half of me wanted to run longer, maybe even three miles, see if even this early I could complete two out of three legs.

Then I ran too fast to Young the Giant's "My Body" and I felt like I wanted to throw up when I got home (the dog, however, was jubilant). Then Todd looked at me with a sort of awe, and that got me hooked, too. What I saw in his eyes is what I felt coursing through my veins. Both of us were impressed.

Yesterday I did my usual 25 minute swim, which I do twice a week. Except since we're on week three now, I had to swim an additional 100 meters in the same time frame. Last week I was doing 1000 meters in over 30 minutes. Yesterday, I did 1,100 meters in 25 minutes. Swimming is my weakest leg by far, and knowing that swimming is 90% technique makes it more daunting. But I did some drills, I worked on my form and even though I had farther to go, I did it with more efficiency.

I did my modified circuit training after my swim, focusing mostly on my arms and upper body but also my glutes. I did the same rounds as I had done last week, yet today I'm hardly sore. My muscles are learning, growing stronger, and I cannot stress enough how much of a thrill that is. I mean, I don't have cable TV so maybe I'm just desperate for entertainment, but growing stronger, both physically and mentally has me captivated.

I'm more and more determined to stick to this, to see it through and compete in a triathlon next year. It's giving me strength and confidence. A bit of stress, I'll admit, when it comes down to fitting in an hour at the gym or on the track, coming home to a circus, a juggling act with quality toddler time, making Alex dinner, walking a dog, putting her to bed, showering, making our dinner, and trying to have quality time with Todd that doesn't include me slumped on the sofa going "buh-buh-buh-buh-buh" like Goldie Hawn in Overboard.

But I'm in it to win it. Well, I'm in it to finish it without throwing up .