PHOTODORK » Food

Wearing my big girl pants…

Photodork — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 21:54:19 +0000

Today was my first appointment at the anticoagulation clinic, and I was fairly stressed about it. I knew it was only a finger stick, and having performed several of these on myself, I also knew that they don’t really hurt. Still the tiny voice in the back of my head kept insisting that it might, and needles just freak me out anyway. But I managed to be a big girl about it, and now I don’t have to go back for three more weeks. Nice. I finally seem to be making some steady progess towards getting well. I also got my steroid dose reduced on Monday, which has been wreaking little havoc emotionally, but hopefully will squelch some of the physical side effects I have been experiencing.
Today was the kick off for the bank’s United Way campaign. I volunteered to be on the committee this year, and spent the morning parading about distributing information packets. It was generally a good time, and it is for a worthy cause. Hopefully our efforts will be successful.
Tonight Dylan and I are having dinner with my mom. I am excited about it for two reasons: 1- we are having chicken happy meals (not from McDonalds , but of the roasted chickens you purchase at Safeway variety) and 2- I will get to see her new kitty. All in all, it should be a nice night.

Dairy Queen Disappointment

Photodork — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:02:03 +0000

I had developed a fondness of Dairy Queen’s Georgia Mud Fudge blizzards. Chocolate icecream with brownie pieces and pecans swirled in, what’s not to like? And I suppose I should explain that when I say fondness, I don’t mean that I had a dependency, but I seriously enjoyed them. A lot. But alas, there will be no more Georgia Mud Fudge treats for me, because stupid Dairy Queen has discontinued them, and without any forewarning. Dylan and I were supposed to go see Pirates of the Caribbean with my Mom and Bryan this weekend, and we arrived early because Dylan has a little bit of a promptness issue (if he doesn’t see the previews he gets upset). Also, I had to make sure there was time for me to get my special Dairy Queen snack and smuggle it into the theater. So, we wait in line at the Dairy Queen for what seemed like forever (but was actually only 3-5 minutes), and when we get up to the counter and order the girl working the register informs us that they don’t make the Georgia Mud Fudge Blizzard anymore. Just like that. She was a little snotty about it, really. You’d think they would train their employees on how to break such devastating news to their customers in a kinder, more compassionate way. Plus, it was still listed on the menu. I think that they should have made it for me just on principle. Here’s what I really don’t understand: they have brownies on hand because of their Brownie Earthquake creation, they have pecans for other treats, so why can’t they mix them into chocolate icecream and continue to provide the best blizzard ever? Seriously, I’m irked.

I am Boring.

Photodork — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 17:23:54 +0000

It has been same old stuff lately. Just working and hanging out at home. Even though there hasn’t been much exciting going on, I can’t say that I mind the peace and quiet.
My friend Amanda has been in town this week, which has been really nice. She goes to school in Golden and has an insane schedule, so we rarely see each other. She and I work at the same bank and have gotten to visit quite a bit. I have enjoyed catching up with her. Amanda is just fun.
Dylan and I accidentally bought the reduced sugar Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I honestly wouldn’t have thought that it would make that big of a difference, but it does. I knew something was wrong right away, which is what prompted us to examine the box and discover our error. So this is my public service announcement: don’t buy reduced sugar cereal. It’s gross.
Well, sadly that’s all the news I have to report at this point. Except that I found out that one of my medications comes in a format that can be mixed in with icecream. Sweet. I will certainly be following up on that. I don’t really need an excuse to eat icecream, but this would certainly provide me with one, and that can’t be a bad thing.

Doctors and Donuts

Photodork — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 15:44:33 +0000

I’d like to say I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been super busy…but I think that super lazy might be a more accurate reason. It has been ridiculously hot for about two weeks…it doesn’t help motivate me to do much.
I came down with the flu over the weekend…it was horrible, and I managed to pass it on to Dylan, so he was sick Tuesday. Luckily it was only a 12 hour bug, so even though you were completely miserable for 12 hours, it passed relatively quickly. I have been trying to disinfect our compartment ever since, becuase I refuse to get it again.
I went to the doctor on Monday, not for my flu, but for one of my other various issues and got my steroid dosage reduced to 20 mg. Woohoo! Maybe I will turn into Saroid now, instead of SaROID! Dylan admitted I have been less grumpy lately….I didn’t realize I was in a constant state of mild crankiness, but maybe I was. I hope that I will continue to shrink as a result of the decrease, I actually wore some of my own clothes last week, which was nice.
And yesterday, I went back to the doctor with Dylan. We thought he might have an ulcer due to some stomach pain he was experiencing. It turns out that he actually has something called caustocondritis, which is an inflammation of the cartilidge between your ribs. It is a relief that it was nothing more serious…this is a pretty typical Dylan injury. He can take aleve for a couple of weeks to help reduce the inflammation, but it should go away on its own in a few months. After his appointment we went to the hospital cafeteria, because they have pretty good breakfast there. I was super happy because they had one cinnamon donut left, and those are my favorite. It was our reward for going to our doctor’s appointments.
A crash has just sounded from down the hall…my little ginger cat has probably just attempted to destroy something. He is seriously crabby since we haven’t let him out in a while…it is just too hot right now. But I best go see what he has gotten himself into.

Wild & Crazy Weekend

Photodork — Tue, 09 May 2006 16:56:32 +0000

I traveled with Dylan’s family to Boone, NC this weekend to see Jon graduate. It was a very nice trip…I had never been to North Carolina before, so that was cool. We stayed at this little cabin that was off the beaten path and had a good view of the mountains. We also had some pretty bad mexican food, which I felt sad about because I should have known better. If you go too far East in this country mexican food starts to taste more like Chef Boyardee concoctions than anything else. Think ketchup and BBQ sauce instead of chile and salsa and you’ll be on the right track. Eew. So, you’ve been warned….don’t do it, just don’t.
It was also kind of hectic because our little cat Beda got sick right before we left to travel to Boone. We took her to the emergency vet in the middle of the night Wednesday because she wasn’t doing so hot. It turned out that she just had an upset stomach, but we had to isolate her on Thursday and limit her food and water intake to make sure that she didn’t have an obstruction in her digestive system. Poor kitty… and poor Sarah and Dylan, we were super exhausted for traveling all day Friday. Plus it was hard to leave her, but I knew my mom would take good care of her, because she is a crazy cat lady like me.
We arrived home late last night, so it was a full, long weekend. And today I start my new job at the bank. I will be working in the call center in the afternoons now, I am pretty excited about it. It is nice to have a job again, and it should work out well with my schedule this Fall as well. Yea for me.

Reno’s Birthday

Photodork — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 03:35:29 +0000

So today is my little ginger cat’s 1st birthday. And yes, I am one of those obsessed cat people who knows their cat’s birthday, but not one of those psycho cat people who bakes them a cake and throws them a party. There is a slight difference there, you know…
Anyhoo, I finished the wax mold of Dylan’s new wedding band and invested it today. I will cast on Thursday, so everybody needs to keep their fingers crossed for me. I am very nervous about whether or not it will be a successful casting. First of all, I spent a ridiculous amount of time creating the wax model, and practically went cross-eyed working on it. Also, a reasonable amount of my grade for this class rides on this project. And lastly, it involves lighting and using a fairly big torch. So, should you think of it around midafternoon on Thursday, say a little prayer for me.
Only a week and a half left of school…tralalalalala. I am very ready for a little break. I only have the casting (dum-da-dum-dum-dummmmmmm), two tests and a pretend grant to write before I am finished. Not too bad, although I would honestly really enjoy not having to write a pretend grant…oh well. C’est la vie, I suppose.
I am going to go smother some vanilla icecream with chocolate syrup now, and then I am going to bed.

Prime Rib for Easter

Photodork — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 23:14:23 +0000

I have been meaning to update my blog for awhile now…I suppose it has only been about a week and a half since my last post though. So..not so bad. It is crunch time for school right now, only two and a half weeks until finals, so I have been busy with that. I finally finished my education project last week…yippee! I also had to register for next fall last week, and that was just a mess. UNC has just switched registration programs and the new one is dumb. It took me two days to sign up for three courses. On the plus side, I got into all the classes I wanted to (being a grad student has its perks) and I will only have to go to school on Tuesday and Thursday next semester. Sweet.
This weekend is Easter, and I am very excited to have prime rib with my Mom. I know that eating is not the point of this particular holiday…but its prime rib. And ever since I started having all my health issues, I have turned into quite the carnivore. I’ll admit it’s a little strange…I didn’t eat red meat for about 5 years or so…and now I crave steak like nobody’s business. Weird.
Dylan has just gotten home, so I am going to go see how his day was. More on my adventures later.

Back to School…Back to School

Photodork — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 02:19:13 +0000

Only one day of break left…sad day. Dylan and I have been quite productive this week though, ruling up painting the house and such. I also did a fair amount of school work, even though it only served to catch me back up. It would be nice to be ahead for once. Oh well.
So, Dylan has been sewing like a fiend. He made me a swe-et purse. And he did it in about 4 hours. It was crazy. I fell asleep and he woke me up and it was done..just like that. It is awesome…I am very impressed with the whole thing. He is also almost finished with my clown overalls. They are very cool. My bag is the same material: black with brightly colored concentric circles. It rules. I think that Dylan will be posting some photos of them on his site, so be sure to check them out.
I have a bunch of doctor’s appointments this week…blech! I am not particularly looking forward to them. One on Monday about the UC, and one on Tuesday to check up on my brush with the plague. I got my stitches out on Friday…I wasn’t a fan since they were conveniently positioned on one of my raw patches. Hopefully I can just get healthy now.
I am watching Mar Poppins and waiting for dinner to cook, but I have to go make some rolls now. MMM…rolls.

VT and Other General Craziness

Photodork — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 11:06:18 +0000

So…things have been a little crazy lately..which explains my lack of posting. This week was mid-term for me, so I had a lot of stuff do. And I made the wise decision to spend a weekend in VT the weekend before such a busy week. Sometimes I am a really smart cookie. Speaking of which, I need to give a big shout out to Steve and Dylan for saving my butt this week. I had this rotten project that I neglected to do for, oh I don’t know, a month or so, and it was due Monday. So…I started planning Saturday, and on Sunday the two of them pretty much created my sculpture for me. Without them I probably would have turned in a piece of paper with some pictures taped to it. Thanks guys..you rule!
I had a nice time in Vermont though seeing all my family. We went to a crazy craft show one day and ran amuck. It was great fun. And I of course went to Al’s French Fry, which is the best fast food place in the entire world. If you ever go to VT, you must go there or you are just missing out.
Things are settling down now, which I am grateful for. My observation schedule is in full swing and I am spending around 13 hours a week in schools other than UNC right now. It is very interesting to observe the high school level and then teach the elementary kids. There is such a difference.
I have also been starting to feel better lately. My energy level is up and that is probably been the biggest challenge. I was so tired all the time…it really sucked. I like being able to do stuff and not have to go take a nap afterwards.
I still have a lot of work to do…I am especially behind in my fibers class still. We are making Japanese Fireman Jackets. It involves embroidery and a special dye process. Also some sewing. I need to kick it into gear. I suppose I will go do that now.

I am the Champion!!

Photodork — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 23:11:26 +0000

It has been a very exciting hour for me. First of all, I just had my first bit of icecream in the past 6 weeks or so. It was very dee-licious. And, I just beat Snood for the second time ever. I thought that the game must have malfunctioned or something the first time. It is nearly impossible to beat it…but I have just done it again!! Whoohooo!! I don’t know if that makes me super awesome…or just a super big dork, but I’m going for the super awesome angle.
I started observing at Greeley West today. It was the last of my observation placements. I should be in school now just about everyday in some capacity. MW I’ll be at West, TR I teach at UE and F I will be at Ault. Except for this week…cause I’ll be in VT. Yea for me!
So…I quit my job today, which was a little more bittersweet than I expected. I had to quit because I just couldn’t keep up with school and work with some of the health issues I am experiencing. In that regard I was angry to quit, it has been difficult for me to accept some of the limitations I am having to deal with. But, on the other hand, it was a relief, because I’ve been in over my head.
I am looking forward to my time in VT this weekend. It will be nice to relax. Even though mid-term crops up about the time I return, so I shouldn’t be a total slacker all weekend, or I’ll be slammed when I return home. I suppose it would help if I got some of that work done before I left eh? I have about 5 papers to write I think. Ick. I liked photo projects better.