Come on, weekend!

Big things happening this weekend! On a night when I never have plans (Friday), I have plans. The studio I go to for zumba is having another zumba party and I'm guest instructing. I made a new shirt (stay tuned for that next week)! I'm really excited about this and also looking forward to burning some serious calories prior to pigging out on snacks and drinks.

Then on Saturday, I'm taking part in our development's community-wide garage sale. John thinks this is hilarious. He has been not-so-silent about his thinking I won't sell a darn thing. Perhaps I won't but you don't know until you try, right? There are 46 houses participating, which is a small fraction compared to the amount of houses in the development as a whole. But, if you were out for a day of garage sale-ing, 46 stops would be a ton! I'm the only house on my street participating. This isn't great. I hope that means folks don't pass me by. Every single household got a list of participants and a map. It was also advertised in the local paper and on Craigslist. I don't really have much to sell since we just moved in the last 6 months and purged a lot at that time. But, I figure if I make $50 I will be a happy camper. I haven't totaled up my potential receipts if miracles do exist and I sell everything. Better to be astounded at my take. Mostly, I want to get rid of this LARGE corner desk that we got cajoled into purchasing from the previous owners for $36. If I make $37 on it, that's pure profit! I just want it out of my house. We have no need for it. NO NEED!

Here's a stroke of luck for the day......NO RAIN! Here in Ohio, we've had mass amounts of rain this April but on Saturday, 70 degrees and sunny. This will give me the opportunity to spend 5 hours outside taking some of the blinding white off my legs. Last Saturday I read outside in the sun for 2 hours but it didn't even make a tint on my winter white girl skin.

So, let's review why this will be an awesome day:

1) Potential money maker even if only slightly lucrative
2) Possible removal of monstrosity of a desk
3) First real chance to get some sun in 2011
4) Meeting neighbors. We still haven't met anyone yet and I'm hoping if I'm parked outside all day, someone is bound to say hello. I may use Sadie to lure them in.

I only hope I'm not setting myself up for disappointment. John is certain that I am. He will be inside glued to the continuous NFL draft coverage. I won't be sad to miss that. But, he better be prepared help sell, or else I'll be taking all of my earnings to the mall. Alone.

Hell's Corner

Last week I ventured to the library in the hopes of finding something to pull me out of my reading rut. I didn't have much time so my only stop was the "NEW" addition shelf. I say "new" because most of these books were released in 2010 or even 2009, and here we are in 2011. But, I'll take what I can get. Instead of hitting numbers this year as far as book goals go, I am focusing more on reading authors that are as yet undiscovered be me. David Baldacci, popular and bestselling as he is, is one such author.

Hell's Corner is the latest instllatment in the Camel Club series by Baldacci. I did not realize until the very end that there are 4 books preceding this one dealing with the same characters. Oops! Anyway, it follows the events of a bombing in Lafayette Park, also known as Hell's Corner (see title), across from the White House. Former CIA agent Oliver Stone, AKA John Carr, finds himself smack in the middle of the bombing, crime scene and also the investigation despite being out of the government biz for a number of years. The bomb is believed to have been an attempt on the life of England's Prime Minister and thus, Mary Chapman, an MI6 agent, is also brought on board to assist.

As the two delve deeper into the investigation and try to catch the baddies, more and more players end up dead and things seem exceedingly fishy. Stone and Chapman (with the help of the Camel Club) begin to realize they are being played throughout the investigation and the opposition is one step ahead of them with sabotage at every turn. It's a race to the end to discover what or who was really behind the bombing while trying to stay alive, unlike some of their unlucky co-investigative agents.

This brief synopsis was difficult because I didn't want to give away too much. I have been pulled out of my reading rut! I loved this book. It was a thriller full of suspense and intrigue. And, because I'm not very good at figuring out whodunit ahead of time, it kept me guessing right up until the very end. There were lots of surprises, twists, and turns and more than once I gasped out loud while reading. John always laughs at me when that happens but I don't care. I didn't want to put it down and subsequently, finished it in about 2 1/2 days. If you are into thrillers, check this one out! I'm headed back to the library soon to start at the beginning of the Camel Club's adventures. And I think I found a new author to add to my list! Yea hooray!

Rating: * * * *

Recipe Re-blog #16

Happy Easter, everyone!! This is a dangerous holiday because of all the readily available candy. We are lucky, or unlucky, that our parents still treat us as children on this day and give us Easter baskets. Yea! I could eat a Cadbury egg every day of my life. And don't even get me started on Reese's eggs. Those are the devil for sure. Onto business.......you will never believe this but I tried 5 new recipes this past week. FIVE! They were all for our South American Wine Night with our wine club. Chimichurri Chicken: I had never before had chimichurri. I didn't even have a clue what went into it. Psst.....it's parsley. Actually, there were a lot of recipes for chimichurri that I considered before settling on the one I made The only change I made to the recipe was halving the amount of chili pepper flakes. 2 tsps would have been way too much. I made the marinade and let the chicken sit in it for a few hours. Then, we baked it for 45 minutes at 375. It had a really good flavor and I love a freshly made marinade. This one's a keeper. I'd like to try it on the grill this summer. Chilean Rice: My choosing of this recipe was dual-purposed. It's name was South American, and I needed a side dish that I wanted to be rice. I don't know that this is super Chilean in flavor but it was tasty. Even the website where I found it wasn't sure what made it Chilean. My only issue is for some reason, the rice was a tad al dente. I cooked it like I always cook rice. It did sit and re-heat when it was time for the main course but I don't think that was the problem. A kitchen mystery....... Nutella Brownies: If you have never had Nutella, you are missing out, fo sho! It's a hazelnut spread that tastes super decadent but costs about as much as peanut butter. The thing that drew me to this recipe was its need of only 3 ingredients (I skipped the chopped hazelnuts because they were $7) AND it made exactly 12 mini bites. I have been searching high and low for a mini brownie or muffin that only yields 12. These recipes are hard to come by and thankfully, this one is a keeper! The brownies were delicious. I dusted them with powdered sugar to be exciting. Another use for my mini muffin pan! Cake Batter Rice Krispies: Would you believe I've never made rice krispies before? True. And I love them so much. They are a sneaky dessert though. You think they're not terrible for you, and they're not, unless you eat half the pan. Instead of just regular krispies, I found this recipe for cake batter ones. Yes, please! The only difference is mixing in a 1/4 cup of dry cake mix. These were good but I couldn't really taste the cake batter part. Maybe next time I'll try adding more. Half the pan also got drizzled chocolate on top because I'm fancy. Tuscan Flatbread: Our local gourmet grocery store makes a terrific flatbread that we buy very frequently. I thought I've save myself $3.50 and try my own hand at kneading. This recipe had a lot of steps and it made a large flatbread. Unfortunately, this didn't have much taste at all. I was super bummed. I didn't end up serving this to our friends because it honestly tasted like nothing. Maybe I'll make a sandwich out of it or a flatbread pizza or something. For now, it's in the freezer. Even though the recipe is from Bon Appetit, you can skip it.

And I will walk 500 miles.....

OK, just kidding. I'm not going to run 500 miles but this past weekend, I did RUN FIVE MILES. FIVE FIVE FIVE FIVE MILES!!! F I V E MILES! All at one time. This is the most I've ever done. EVER! I ran it in 50:28. This is something I never in my life dreamed I would be able to do. When I first started running, I could only go for 45 seconds at a time before I had to walk. Over time, my walking intervals got shorter and my running ones longer until I was able to run an entire mile. Big accomplishment. It was sometime later that I was able to run a full 3 miles, which was huge for me. In school, I think my fastest mile was somewhere in the 14 minute range. How pathetic is that?! I loathed gym class, especially on running days. Now, running isn't something I despise, it's something that I tolerate and sometimes even look forward to because I know how healthy it's making me. Running is a total mental game too. I've only recently learned this. I didn't plan that 5 mile distance until just before I got on the treadmill and said to myself, "I'm going to do 5 miles today. If my pace is a little slower, that's okay." But, guess what? I didn't really have to compromise my pace at all. Does this mean I'm a runner? If so, I never thought that was something I could classify myself as. I can't wait to sign up for a few races this summer with John. Even though he's faster than I am, I still enjoy this as an activity we can tackle together and congratulate the other one on every victory, small or HUGE! P.S. I think I need new shoes. Another running bonus......shoe shopping!

Tiles Teetering on the Brink

It's quite possible we bit off a bit more than we could chew on our first real house project. We are not in love with the oak cabinets or countertops, or linoleum floor for that matter, in our kitchen. Because we don't have the funds to do a complete kitchen tear out at this time, we thought maybe a tile backsplash would help bring things together a bit. Here is the kitchen prior to tiling. In case you're wondering, the paint color is Sherwin Williams' Reynard.

I watch a alot of HGTV and also looked up many videos on tiling online so I considered myself somewhat of an expert. We selected a neutral 1" tile tumbled travertine from Lowe's and went to town. Although it was only about 15 square feet of tiling, it still took us approx. 4 hours to put the tile up with mastic. Mastic is sticky people, word of warning. Also, cutting tiles with nippers is difficult. Especially if they are small. Also, a cute word like nipper doesn't make the job any easier. But we forged on. After the tile was on the wall we treated ourselves to a birthday dinner for me at the Melting Pot. A deliciously caloric reward for a hard day of labor.

Here is what it looked like pre-grout but not quite finished with the mastic/sticking stage. Pretty good, right?

After the first stage was out of the way, we were high on home improvement. Yes, parts of the day were difficult but we got it on the wall and it hadn't fallen to the ground by the time we woke up the next morning. Winner winner chicken dinner!

Then........things went a little south. A lot south. WAAAAAAy South. I read multiple differing opinions on when to wipe off the grout. Something said 15-30 minutes, something else said 4 hours. The box of grout was no help as there were no written instructions, only hand drawn pictures. So, we grouted all the tile, which took 90 minutes. By this point, little did we know we were already totally screwed.

After grouting we said, "OK, let's go for a run, and then shower and eat, and then we'll wipe off the grout." WARNING TO THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER TILED: Do not plan a couple hours worth of activities at this stage of tiling. You will be SO sorry.

We started to wipe off the grout only, it wasn't coming off. It had completely hardened on. The more we scrubbed, the more discouraged we got. This was a disaster. There were heated words (from John), and 20 minutes of heavy sobbing on the kitchen floor (also John --- just kidding, that was all me). There was stomping around (that really was John). There were idle threats of hiring out every single house project in the future and never again attempting things on our own (also John). And finally I was cried out and we went to bed, defeated. I didn't take a picture of this stage because I was too distraught. Just picture tiles with grout so thick you can barely see the lines.

The next day, John headed back to Lowe's for advice. Grout haze remover and heavy brushes in hand, we got down to business. It became quickly apparent that my old toothbrush was the most useful tool possible.....until we discovered sand paper. Thank God we bought tumbled travertine and not glazed tile because it enabled us to sand for 2 straight hours. We sanded off every last bit of grout. I have never sweat so much from physical labor in my life! The sanding counted as our workout that night. Boy, did it ever. But, by the end of those 2 hours we had gone from, "We're going to have to hire someone to rip this down and re-drywall" to "I think we can work with this." What a difference a day makes!

We worked each night that week touching up the sanding and trying to make it look decent. And I think we did a darn good job.

And here is part of it all finished! We're still looking for some nicer edge pieces but for now, it's fine by me! Really, it was all worth it. I didn't total the receipts but I'm guessing these 15 SF cost us about $250.

Money Makes the World Go Round

I feel like all I've done lately is spend money and I have nothing to show for it. I guess that's not totally true. A big chunk of those funds going out went to a recent home improvement project that I'll tell you about in a couple days. I knew how much it would cost and it wasn't terribly expensive, it's just not something super exciting to spend money on, although it does improve the appearance of the kitchen. I went to the mall the other day and only spent $2.14. Everything else was free with coupons! So, what am I complaining about? I have no idea. We're really not overspending on anything, except maybe going out to eat. There's been a lot of that lately. Not good for the wallet or the waistline. Maybe these gas prices are finally catching up with me. Between the two of us, it probably costs $350/month just to keep our cars running. That's no small potatoes and it's not even summer vacation season yet. In an effort to do a little house cleaning and bring in a little change, I'm taking part in our community-wide garage sale. It's in two weeks and I can't wait! I don't have much to sell so I should not get my hopes up about my profits. But, I'm really excited about getting rid of some stuff, making some money, and trying to meet some neighbors in the process. We haven't met anyone yet even though we've been here 6 months. The other day, we tried to meet the woman in the house to the right of us but her dogs scared Sadie and so we had to walk away. They literally scared the crap out of her. She pooped on the sidewalk. Oh Sadie. Thanks for ensuring that we will never have any neighbor friends. Anyway, I promise to report back about the sale. I hope there's nice weather and a lot of traffic. And I also promise to stop complaining and being such a downer. Toodles!

Recipe Re-blog #15

Fifteen! That means we're 15 weeks into 2011. Where does the time go? Into the kitchen, I guess. Tortilla and Black Bean Pie: This is a recipe from Martha that can be found on her website but I was cooking my books as I found it in her Everyday Food. We were having a Meatless Monday. This isn't something I make a point to observe but if it happens on its own, I go with it. John and I both really liked this one! It wasn't too labor intensive and it finished in the oven, which I love! It was fiberrrrific too! Give this one a shot!