Mmmmm.....pizza.

On Friday, John and I had our normal pizza night with a little twist. We make our own whole wheat dough thanks to my trusty Breadman and usually just have a white garlic pizza with herbs. This week, we were craving something a bit spicier. I found this Rachael Ray recipe for Wingless Buffalo Chicken Pizza on the Food Network site. If you're a fan of this type of pizza, definitely check this out! I don't like food that is too spicy but this was just right because you can alter the amount of hot sauce to your liking. YUM! Or should I say "Yum-O!"

P.S. Attention woman at the rec center walking on the track in a sweater dress, leggings, and hat like Blossom would wear: if you're going to wear street clothes while walking laps, just go to the mall and walk. It doesn't cost anything. You'd have to do fewer laps and you wouldn't have to give us runners dirty looks while passing you. Thank you for your consideration.

Living Dead in Dallas

Living Dead in Dallas is the second in the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris. (alliteration alert!) In the first book, we discover vampires have become legal and are mainstreaming with humans. Sookie, a mind reader, and Bill, a vampire, are now a couple. In Living Dead in Dallas, Eric, a head vampire of sorts, wants to lend out Sookie's skills to solve a missing person/vampire case in Dallas. Sookie and Bill go to Dallas, get into some trouble, and......well, I won't tell you if they solve the mystery or not. In fact, that's all the plot I'll give you so as not to spoil anything. That's all you really need anyway.

I'm starting to really enjoy this series. It's similar to the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich in that it's not a heavy read but is pretty entertaining and relatively humorous. Since I'm all caught up the 15 books in Stephanie Plum, I might as well keep going with this one, right?

One down and 5 to go before February 16th unless I want to pay library fines......

Today is a day of cleaning and crafting. We ran all of our errands yesterday so we could just hang out today. Yea! We also think we've decided on switching to AT&T and getting iphones. We were all set to stay with Verizon but, for a number of reasons, changed our minds.

Two Thursday Things

This started on Tuesday, actually. Tuesday morning as I was pulling into the office parking lot, I saw an orange tabby cat walking around all by his lonesome in the cold. As I headed into the building I tried to get him to come to me, "here kitty, kitty". He ignored me but was talking a blue streak. Meowing on and on. Typical feline, but I'm a sucker for an orange cat. My cat Tigger lived into his teens. Later on that day, I saw him outside my window. I couldn't hear him but I could see that he was still meowing. It was cold out there, despite his fur coat.

Fast forward to this morning and I was in the restroom, going about my business, when I heard meowing. That's right, meowing. In the restroom. And it didn't stop. On and on it went. I couldn't tell where it was coming from but it sounded muffled, from the wall, or a neighboring office. Then, as I washed my hands, the meowing stopped. Could my orange tabby friend have somehow made it inside? Did someone else bring a cat into the office? I would love an office kitty. That would be super. He could sleep on my desk when the sun beat down. He would like that, as would I. I'll let you know if the meowing persists, though I didn't hear it anymore throughout the day.

Also today, I had an evening work function. I was dreading this because it meant I had to skip zumba. However, I did have a pleasant surprise while at said function. I was chatting with an older gentlemen that I had met my first year on the job, 4 1/2 years ago. He says to me, "I didn't recognize you at all. Have you lost weight?" I was taken aback slightly because I haven't really lost any weight recently but then I realized that I hadn't seen him since 2005 and since then, I HAVE lost weight. What a great compliment! I accepted it graciously and was quite proud of myself. How nice of him to notice. Not just anybody would ask that question either, I think. I don't know that I would. But, I'm hoping it will keep up my momentum towards my newest goal....wedding weight by anniversary date. So far, so good because I will make my 20 workouts in one month goal for January and will keep right on going through February. Smaller size, here I come!

Oh,. library, you fickle temptress

My best friend, the library, has screwed me. I have a very efficient system of putting books on hold as soon as I hear about something I want to read. Oftentimes, the books are extremely popular and I am WAY down on the hold list. I was 252nd when I first added The Lost Symbol when it was released in October; I made it to #1 just last week. So, while I feel this system saves me lots of time at the library and reminds me of books I want to read, which I often forget, the system has a fatal flaw. Sometimes, like now for instance, I get to #1 on multiple books at the same time. Then, there is a mad scramble to read them within my allotted 3 weeks. I will renew, if I can, but usually there are others waiting their turn patiently and I must return them.

I always get so excited when receiving the "You have a book waiting for you" e-mail. But over the last few days, the e-mails kept coming. This week, I am in the unfortunate predicament of having 4 of my books ready for me at one time. FOUR! Also unfortunate is the fact that I already have 2 out that I still need to finish. This means I have to read 6 books in 3 weeks time. SIX! Some of them will be very fast reads; all of them I am excited to devour. I am doubting my reading speed with this challenge. I suppose, I could just eat the fine if I don't make the deadline. I usually feel like a fine is a well-deserved donation to the library. However, there are others waiting. I don't want them to get restless.

So, for the next 3 weeks, I will do little else but read I suppose. I have craft projects and knitting to accomplish but those have no deadlines. The reading cannot wait.

Yesterday, on my way to the library to pick up said books, I was talking to my mom on the phone and told her of my plight. Six books in three weeks. She has her doubts, I think, of my achieving this goal. Anyway, when I pulled into the parking lot and told her I had to go she says, "OK, have fun with your sex books." You can imagine my confusion at this comment as none of my books are sex related. I just said OK and hung up. Then, I realized she meant 6 books. Six, not sex. As if I would tell my mother when I read a sex book, which I don't do, tell her or read them that is. Sheesh, what kind of person do you think I am?

Ask and ye shall receive.....

We booked our spring vacation! We'll be spending 5 days with my parents in Ft. Myers. I cannot wait!! Nothing but laying out by the pool, shopping, relaxing, and fun in the sun. Miss Sadie is being happily, or unhappily, dog sat by my in laws. How nice of them! Best of all, it's a non-stop flight and it was super cheap. Only $350 total for both of us! Now, if we could just get H&R Block to install on this dying laptop so we could do our taxes.......

P.S. I broke my mall freeze this weekend but I didn't buy anything. So, technically, I didn't break the spending freeze. Yea, willpower!

The Road

I read an interview with Cormac McCarthy recently, though I can’t remember where, that spoke about the newly released screen version of his 2006 novel The Road. And because I’m making an effort to discover new, well new-to-me, authors, I got The Road from the library. Warning: this is not a happy tale. The Road is the story of a father and son who set off on a depressing journey. Though the details and time period are not truly divulged, America has been set on fire, literally, and there are hardly any survivors. The duo decide it best to walk to the west coast where they will hopefully find other signs of life, or at least, a life for themselves.

A long, tedious voyage, father and young son push all their worldly belongings (not much) in a cart down what seems to be the one road left crossing the country. The landscape is covered in ash and soot making food and shelter difficult to find. They travel in constant fear of meeting other survivors with bad intentions, and for the boy, in constant fear of almost everything that they come across. Along the way, a careful dance develops between assuaging the boy’s fears and trying to stay alive.

The Road, for me, was just so so. It was nice to branch out a bit from my usual reads. It was extremely relationship driven without really talking about the characters at all. I guess I should say it was more journey driven, but the journey would not have existed without the characters or their relationship, right? I’d be interested in seeing the movie as the book was filled with descriptive imagery that would be nice to visualize.

Adventures in Wine Land

Now, you all know mama loves the grape. I especially like finding and trying new and different wines. I rarely buy the same bottle twice. That's not true. I usually buy and old standby and a new one when I go to my wine shop. These two were recommended from some friends. (Thanks C & J!) I wanted to pass them along to you. However, you may have trouble finding them outside of Ohio. And by 'may', I mean will. They hail from Breitenbach Winery in Dover, OH allllllll the way up in the NE corner of the state. However, because my wine store is awesome, they stock Breitenbach along with a myriad of other Ohio wines.




The first is a blush called First Crush. It is rather sweet but crisp. And my favorite part is the bottle description, "This youthful wine leaves a pleasant memory." It sure does! I think maybe in another life I'd like to write wine bottle descriptions. They are my fave!








The second is a semi-sweet red called Roadhouse Red. It's sort of syrupy and delicious. Breitenbach says it's a combination of American and French grapes. Mais oui! And the bottle....."reminiscent of good times spent at the old-time roadside tavern and dance hall." I've never spent any time at a roadside tavern and dance hall but I'll start pretending I have when I drink the Roadhouse. Delicious!

So, if you find yourself at Arrow Wine, these retail for $10.99. Otherwise, you could probably find Breitenbach more readily in northern Ohio or of course, if you drove yourself over to Dover and picked it up direct from the source.

Cheers!