Friday, June 29, 2012

My new BFF Mindy Kaling

I just finished listening to Mindy Kaling's book "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" because I spend a lot of time in the car, driving for work and my kids I listen to books. In this case it meant listening to Mindy read her own words. As someone who has been making lists for most of my life, I especially loved her use of lists.
The thing about audiobooks is that it's as if the person is speaking just to you which is why I now feel as if I know Ms Kaling, as if we are friends. Don't worry Mindy. I promise not to stalk you or even bother you should we see each other shopping at Target. Cross my heart.

Driving Papa

My dad is 80. At his age there are issues that crop up. It's expected and understandable but still unnerving.

Today is his follow-up appointment from an out patent surgery he had last week.
Did I mention he is 80?
Here is a tidbit of today's conversation.
Dad "I know you don't like AOL"
Me "What I don't like is that you pay twice for Internet service and the service you get form AOL is actually free"
Dad "they kept sending me a message about something called 1touch or some such thing and it kept popping up until I said OK to it. It's some sort of service that insures you don't lose your files. Ever since I downloaded it my computer is running really slow"
Me "this is from AOL?"
Dad "well ip popped up while I was on AOL and said it would help me but then it took a long time to load and now I can hear it running (insert modem noises here)"
Me "do you need something to store files on?"
Dad "well I saw an add for this Carbonite and It says it will take care of it"
This went on for another 20 minutes.
Looks like I'll be doing some IT at my Dads this weekend. :/

I'm Fat part II

Two weeks ago I saw a living social deal for medical weight loss. It was nearly the same time that I weighed myself and with shock and alarm found I was at my heaviest in a non-pregnant state.  Thankfully I am still not as big as I was when I was pregnant, but that's a small consolation.
So anyway. I decided to go for it. Paid the $49 for two weeks of medical oversight and shots. Today I go to my first appointment. WISH ME LUCK!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Last Night I dreamt of San Pedro and the USS Iowa

Yesterday after our regular saturday morning breakfast with the grandparents we decided to take the kids to San Pedro and the cabrillo marine aquarium.
From there we went over to the Ports o-Call to eat lunch and wander. When the hubby and I were kids the Ports O-Call was a destination where you would take out of town family for a day of ocean adjacent food and fun. Today it's a bit rundown and many of the shops are empty. The ghost of it's former self is lurking all the time. But there are still some cute little shops and the amount of fresh seafood available is overwhelming.
So anyway, we met our friend Joe and the five of us spent a couple of hours walking around. Totally unplanned, we just happened to be there the very day that the USS Iowa was moving into it's permanent berth at the San Pedro waterfront. Three football fields of steal and guns made it's way along the San Pedro waterfront as we stood and watched in the early summer sun.
Maybe it won't mean anything to my kids or even anything to us later in life but it sure was fun to be accidentally part of this historic moment in the life of this giant ship and the people who served on it.

I'm FAT!

Since having my kids I I have struggled with my weight. I am sure that a part of this is because I waited until my late 30's to have kids and so my metabolism was starting to slow down anyway. In my mind I am 140 lbs. At 5'7" thats not skinny, but it's also not fat. Unfortunately, in this alternate reality I live in I am actually quite a bit heavier. I mean quite a bit.
Last summer I went on the Atkins diet and did well. Since then I have had loads of false starts and stress eating (work, kids, schedules, health of parents, finances, and just life in general) which have landed me in this situation.
Today we do the weekly grocery shopping and I will be picking up items for my diet which will start tomorrow. If I am not well prepared there is not way it will work. So. Wish me luck and check back in (ha! as if anyone is looking anyway!) for my progress.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Making Agua de Sandia

The other day I got a wild hair and decided to take the left over watermelon in our fridge and make the sort of watermelon water you find at Mexican restaurants.

It's amazingly easy and you can use the pure for loads of yummy stuff.


So essentially what you need to do is this:

1) Cut that watermelon off of rind and into small cubes

2) Stick in a food processor and pure (don't worry about the seeds)

3) Pour liquid through a strainer (this is a good time to allow your kids to help!)
4) Put the strained liquid in a container to drink later. You can also pour it into an ice cube tray and freeze or a larger container to freeze and eat later.

5) To make the Aqua de Sandia pour some of the pure into a cup and add water. I liked a ratio of half to half but you can add more or less water to taste. Lime is a nice addition as well. I like using sparkling water. A friend came to dinner recently and we tried it with Absolute Citron for an adult drink that is crisp and fresh tasting.

You can also use the ice cubes in water! Here are the ice cubes with some lime in sparkling water. YUMMY! Btw: We buy sparkling water by the case at Costco so I hardly ever run low on the stuff and it's the reason I use it so often when playing with drinks.

Dinnertime Mayhem

The hubby has the night off to hang out with some friends. Typically it's no big deal, we have a simple dinner and then relax before bed.
Tonight the three of us are all tired and not at our best. This afternoon I decided to take them to play miniature golf. The 5yo missed out on a school beach trip today because I needed to work so this was the compromise.
ANYWAY- the three of us were tired by dinner time. So I was making something easy, something child-pleasing. Corn dogs and watermelon fries. As I was cooking I looked over at the 2yo who was standing by the kitchen table (dressed as a princess). All of a sudden she got a look in her face and said "Momma!" and I just knew what was happening. She stood there and peed all over the floor. Did I mention that she was about 30 feet from a kid friendly bathroom with a little seat and a stool perpetually set up for her? So then she starts yelling "PEEEEEEEE!" at the top of her lungs and sort of slipping/walking in the urine. Then the 5yo comes in the room yelling "OMG! Did she pee?! I need to see it! Where is it?!" The corn dogs were done at that very moment and I didn't have an oven mitt on but reached into the oven anyway to grab them before they burned. I truly had no idea how hot those damn sticks got in the oven! So, burned two fingers in the process. Princess-pee-her-pants then went back to the slipping and sliding. I picked her up, threw a towel on the pee and set her to the side. As I was cleaning up the pee she took a step and landed on her butt.
This entire thing took about....2 minutes in all.
Now, it's nearly 7pm. They are in their pj's sitting nicely on the couch as if none of the hijynx ever happened.