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Brat wrote about having soft boiled eggs for breakfast today, and it got me thinking about comfort foods.
I think of comfort foods as ones that make you nostalgic, bring back memories. Things that just make you feel better regardless of your day. Generally, easy things to make. Warm things.
Because that is definitely one of mine. Soft boil the eggs. Make toast with butter. Chop the toast up into little squares. Scoop the egg, runny yolk and all, over the eggs. Mix, salt and pepper to taste, and enjoy. We actually do this for dinner far more often than we do it for breakfast. At the end of the day, that’s when it’s a comfort food. And it’s something that my family used to make every once in awhile, so it’s both nostalgic and feel-good.
Another one, and probably a general one, is chicken noodle soup. John would argue for tomato, but he can get his own blog if he wants to win that argument. Something about the savory and salt and warm. Throw in some biscuits or some crescent rolls or some bread that is warm and flaky and bread, and it’s perfect. Definitely a good meal on a cold night.
Arguably, when I’m sick, 99% of the time the only thing I want to eat is toast, lightly buttered. So maybe that’s another one.
Gingerbread, or ginger cookies. Holidays and home and spice. I have the best recipe for Molasses Spice cookies. We call them Mole Ass cookies. Delicious, and perfect for the holidays.
Applesauce, slightly heated, with cinnamon on top. Tastes good, smells good, makes me think of childhood.
Gooey, melty grilled cheese sandwiches. Yum. Always a feel good favorite.
Any others?
Well, not entirely lazy. There was a lot of cleaning and straightening around the house. And some gardening.
I do not recommend mixing dusting, gardening, and then running a couple miles while the pollen is having a last big hurrah before winter really arrives.
But then it was off to a lazy night of sushi and birthday cake with James, Cara, Shelly and Nate for Nate’s birthday.
Fabulous time.
Plus, there’s just two weeks to go before Shelly is due, so it was sort of a low-key last hurrah of hanging out as couples before one of us couples becomes a threesome.
But then again, we can’t wait for this baby. It’s been 9 months in the making (obviously) and we’ve all been super excited for about 7.5-8 of those months.
Yay baby!
It’s been a long day.
Ten hours at work.
Most of it spent standing in a little box of a room, babysitting a big cranky machine that is being cooled to 0 degrees Celsius (that’s freezing, literally) by a tank of liquid nitrogen. And thus freezing myself.
I was feeling pretty beat when I got the following texts:
From James: Indian food with Cars and I?
From John: Indian food. I already said we’re coming.
How is it that he knows exactly what I want after a day like today before even I know what I want?
Genius. Or ESP. Take your pick.
I’d forgotten that one of the toughest things about NaBloPoMo wasn’t necessarily remembering to blog every day, but rather coming up with something to blog ABOUT every day.
Plus, today was a long day at work, though things are moving forward, so I’m not necessarily feeling motivated to do anything other than sit on my couch and eat dinner when John’s done making it. But I had a good meeting with my boss and some experiments are looking good.
Not much happened today. So some random thoughts as they drift through my overextended brain:
I didn’t make it to the gym today. I’d planned to run a couple miles. I blame work. Why is work-life-exercise balance never easy? And missing today means, since I skipped Sunday, I have to go every day for the rest of this week to hit five of seven days. Man, I wanted Saturday off too! But I’ve rediscovered a love of running that is really helping the process.
I did vote. Just not today. By mail. Several weeks ago. I wish there was a way to let the campaigns know you voted so they would stop calling and emailing and snail mailing and putting ads on TV and the radio and just leave you alone! I’m fed up with a lot of politicians in this country, but I voted, and I voted the way I always vote. Millions and billions of dollars in advertising didn’t change my mind. My party may not be the best, but I still think it’s way better than the other party. I’m sure you probably feel the same way too. So long as you’re reasonable about it, I have no issue with you, regardless of the side you’re on.
Mmmm, steak and asparagus for dinner. Made by John. For me. Mmmmm.
The Sharks lost to Minnesota tonight. On a 5-on-3 power play goal. But I’m still impressed with Nitty, our new goalie.
Our neighbor, whom we already suspected was certifiably crazy, apparently has a warrant out for her arrest. A policeman stopped us last Saturday to ask if we could verify that the warrant picture he had was, indeed, for our neighbor. Sadly, I wasn’t quick enough to look it over and determine why. WHY??? This is now a vague obsession of mine. And it would be really nice if she were kicked out. Or just moved. So I may or may not have mentioned this to our apartment manager. Whoops. Does that make me a bad person? Oh well. Maybe our neighbor shouldn’t have been so annoying at all hours of the day and night.
My cats are getting old. One is in the early stages of kidney failure. The other has diabetes. They’re both doing okay on a new wet food, high protein cat diet. I’m not ready for them to be anything else. They’re ten years old, but I still want them to be around for awhile.
Except, maybe can I get a dog too? Puh-lease???
So maybe can we move and get a dog? That’s the plan!
We’re officially on vacation in less than two days, and I can barely wait. Luckily, we had a three-day weekend to get us in the mindset!
We did a lot of errands, some packing, a lot of prepping, and although we’re not nearly ready at all, we’ll get there.
Saturday was spent lounging, packing a bit, then dinner out at a Japanese restaurant with Elizabeth and Mark. Ramen noodles from a plastic package may be super tasty when you’re sick or need comfort food, but real ramen? Sooooo gooood!
Sunday, a bit of work (oh well, no weekend is perfect), some errands, then John went out for a night with the boys while I had a night to myself. Shelly and Cara were both out of town, so no girl’s night, but I had a pretty relaxing evening just me.
Our Labor Day did not involve BBQs or beaches or anything else normal, but it was by far one of the best days I’ve had recently.
Mostly because it was spent gearing up for hockey season with my two best guy friends–John and James. We had a relaxing morning, then a fantastic lunch out, and I had a Philly cheesesteak for the first time ever. I have no idea how I’d never had one before, but they’re delicious! Two excellent restaurant finds in one weekend!
Then!
Then we went to the Prospects game between the Sharks and the Ducks. It’s basically a game for all the guys looking to get invited to attend training camp in order to try out for the team.
We kept joking it was prospect night for everyone–prospect announcers when they couldn’t quite get the sound system going, prospect zamboni drivers when they missed a spot or two, prospect jeerers when they couldn’t come up with creative taunts but still put in effort. All in all, pretty entertaining.
The Sharks, honestly, had some pretty awesome players. My favorite was a little scrappy 5’6” guy who liked tiny compared to a bunch of the other players. And he was fast. Damn fast. Speedy Gonzalez fast. And he could handle the puck–I was pretty impressed.
There were two other players, also pretty short, who were equally scrappy and good. One of them checked a Duck pretty damn hard, and then was totally willing to throw down the gloves and go at it with him. I don’t think the Shark guy got in more than a punch or two, as the Duck player had probably 6 inches on him, but it was impressive to see him not back down.
We scored in the first period, and had some really good penalty kills. We also had some good power plays–no goals, but they sure shot like they wanted one, which I think sometimes the big Sharks have a problem with. During the power plays, we did the mini Shark bite, since the players were baby Sharks. Fun times.
The second period was pretty dull, and the third one started out so. The Ducks scored, and then not much happened. Just as we started commenting that there hadn’t been any fights, BAM! A couple really good ones. First a decent one, then the scrappy small guy, then another decent one. Always entertaining to watch.
Eventually, we went into overtime, where the Sharks killed off a 4-on-3 two minute penalty, which was impressive. They were really good at clearing the puck, though they needed to work on not icing it!
And then?
Shoot-out!
Their guy missed, so did ours.
Their guy made it, ours didn’t.
Their guy missed…
And who do they send out for that all important shot? A do-or-die shot? Little #70, the 5’6” guy. We started chanting “Ru-dy!” and got a good chunk of the crowd into it.
And he scored!
The! Crowd! Goes! Wild!
All in all, the shoot-out went to 9 rounds, which was impressive–though clearly it went that far because some of these guys weren’t too good at the shoot-out. But also because our goalie was damn impressive. I suppose there’s was too.
And in the 9th round, they sent out scrappy player #2, he of the fight (I think), and he scored the winning goal.
It was a pretty awesome game overall, and a good intro to the upcoming season, which will start right around the time we get home. I can’t wait.
At least I have an awesome vacation to fill some of the time between now and then, right?
Are the ones where you sit around talking and laughing for 5 hours so much that your sides hurt, and you go home feeling sad that the night is over.
That’s the kind of Saturday we had with James and Cara and Nate and Shelly. We all got together for dinner at N&S’s house, planning to eat, drink, be merry and play some games.
Plenty of “You bitch, you stole my sheep!” and “What shield works against chocolate-covered anti-matter raisins?” type of yelling was planned. All in fun, of course.
But instead, we all stood around talking, drinking wine and eating appetizers, then worked on making dinner together, and then ended up lingering over the dinner table, then the backyard patio table, and finally, once the cold air drove us inside, the couches until far too late at night to start board games.
It may not make for an interesting story, but really, nothing spectacular happened. Just a really fun night with the six of us.
And at the end of the night, all I could think of was how much I’d enjoyed an evening of doing nothing with my best friends.
True friends–the ones you can do nothing with and still laugh until it hurts and have the best time possible.
Remember how we have a hummingbird nest right outside our door?
Well, MommaBird hadn’t been around in awhile, or at least not when I was coming and going from home, so I was a bit concerned.
And then, yesterday, as I was leaving the house, two little hummingbird baby heads were poking out of the nest to greet me.
So awesome, and a lovely start to a kick-ass Friday that ended with 21 people in an awesome scuba class (good lord that was tiring) followed by a home-cooked meal from Cara!
Life has been scattered lately. So has my brain.
We’re making massaman curry chicken for dinner. I’m super excited. And hungry.
Easter was lovely. Good time with family, and lovely to see my grandparents doing well. Of course, after the left, things got even livelier–liar’s dice and lots of wine were involved. Lovely.
Not so lovely: I’ve been wondering if things don’t work for me in experiments because they just don’t, or because I’m not good at this whole science thing. Other people can make similar experiments work, so I’m starting to feel it’s just me. And I already feel like I suck at science, so this isn’t helping.
On a positive note, though, I got dismissed from being on a jury last week because the case involved disputed scientific evidence of the sort that I am familiar with. Neither the defense nor the prosecution wanted me. I’m guessing one side thought I’d agree with the evidence, and the other side thought I’d agree with the dispute. So apparently this science thing is somewhat worth it. And thankfully I won’t miss two weeks of work!
We went “fun diving” this past weekend with James, Cara and Sydney. We saw a thornback ray. The conditions weren’t great, but the ray was awesome. Plus hanging out with the three of them was awesome.
We’ve got a scuba class next week, and I’m super excited. Sydney is taking it, and I think I’m going to be allowed to carry gear, and hence be a useful member of the staff, so it should be awesome. And if involves boat dives! Whee!
I’ve managed to get rid of most of the tension and pain in my shoulders and back. Now I’m just working on making my muscles strong enough to do normal everyday things.
For the first time in about three months, I don’t have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning. So excited. And starting next week, I only have two a week instead of three!
I’m allowed to bike again, and Elizabeth and I went out this past weekend. It was freakishly hot, but well worth it. We got in a good 15-20 miles, and had a blast. There are plans for a repeat this coming weekend!
My mom, too, is doing really well. No further complications from surgery, energy recovering, doing well. We keep getting favorable reports from John’s mom, which are much appreciated. And I get to see my mom with my own eyes in just over a month. Sweet!
On the flip side, John’s grandmother went into the hospital with lung problems again recently. It didn’t look good, to the point where we were ready to pick up and fly home, but thankfully she too is recovering and back at home.
I still miss my bunny, but it’s getting easier every day. I’m starting to even think of doing something with his cage. John has vetoed that “something” being filling it with a new bunny. Bah. Though I really appreciate all the condolences.
Randomness of the brain: Sometimes helpful. Sometimes not.
The best thing to do with a long, hard, painful day?
(Note to self: Never do that much work in the containment hood after physical therapy!)
Sandwich it between a girl’s night out and a great day.
Wednesday night I went out with Cara for mexican food and drinks and some girl time, which we’d both been lacking lately, and it was just a lot of fun.
Then, today, I got good news from the chiropractor–when I first came to see her, she described the muscles in my neck as “solid”, meaning there was no suppleness or give, and she couldn’t feel my joints because of the tenseness. Today, she said there were tense areas, but the muscle is supple again–it gives, and she can feel joints. Thus, I’m getting better, at least in the sore back/neck area. Whee!
The other fun stuff is coffee with Sydney, who’s done with clinics early today, followed by basketball watching. Then I’m off to dog sit for the evening and weekend. This is the same dog we sat for last Thanksgiving, and I think it’ll be a fun, relaxing weekend.
Plus, it’s only the second full weekend John’s had off this year (and it’ll be at least May before he gets another one, given the April schedule), so we’re going to make the most of it. He has a job, so I’m not complaining too much, but geez, it’s nice to see my husband sometimes, you know?
The plan was to dive, but I think instead we’re just going to be lazy–do a bit of dog walking, a bit of gardening, a bit of house rearranging, and a bit of nothing. Okay, let’s be frank, he’ll be doing the gardening and house stuff, and I’ll be helping as best I can, but still.
All in all, a good set of days. It’s always good to balance the lows with the highs.
Hope your weekend is fabulous!
Arizona went 19 and 13 this year, and 9 and 9 in the Pac-10. They had some quality wins, but a number of not-so-quality losses, too.
Common consensus was that they needed to go far in the Pac-10 Tourney to make it into the NCAA Tourney this year.
They lost their first game.
So when Sydney schedule her house warming party for today, Sunday, from 3-8pm, I figured I’d have something to do to keep my mind far away from the Selection Show.
So we went, we drank, we ate, we played games, we talked, we laughed. We had a great time, and met some really fun people, as well as reconnected with some others. We met Sydney’s new boyfriend, admired her new place, and talked about exploring her new town. We left behind some cake and pasta salad but came home with some tri-tip and some brownies. It was a lovely afternoon.
Upon arriving home, we lounged on the couch for awhile. We did the dishes from the afternoon of cooking some stuff to take to the party. We laughed at the cat when he put his head in my water glass and then got it stuck momentarily. We talked about the upcoming week, with me reminding him to remind me of my doctor’s appointments and him reminding me of his days off.
It wasn’t until John idly flipped back to the TV and Sports Center came on that I thought to check.
And then, there it was. Arizona. A 12-seed.
I don’t know by what grace they got in, but they did.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, come Friday, we’re dancing!
It's all in my head 
