300th post

i was waiting and not posting anything on here til i had something exciting to say....but then i found myself waiting a lot and giving myself anxiety. just kidding.

i just decided that the 300 post is in and of itself....a pretty exciting deal. it actually is more than that, because i've been doing this for about 5 years now.

so, most of all, more than anything, i'm feeling most thankful that i've gotten to read and know about other people...

5 years ago, i never would have thought that meeting people and sharing stories with people that are even in other countries, was possible.

my life is not a constant source of excitement, but all in all, it's a pretty good life..i like it.

so happy 300th blog to my blog!

Best in Show

We went to a dog show today. if you have seen "Best in Show" the movie, i would have to say that in being incredibly funny and unbelievable, it is also...incredibly true. i always say that there are stereotypes and as hard as it is to handle, they are typically true to some extent. never have i been more convinced of this, as i am when i go to dog shows. this guy above is a baby bull terrier.

this dog was a smooth fox terrier. i don't know what the purple jacket indicated, but this guy won almost everytime he showed a dog

a horse...oh, i mean, an irish wolfhound. we were talking to an owner of one, when he wife came running up, screaming at him, telling him to get his show on the road and he didn't have TIME to talk to people that were not involved in the actual business of showing. yeah

chesapeake bay retriever

this guy was my favorite of the day. he wasn't a show dog...but look at that face. he is a "barkless" dog, a Basenji.

this one had nothing to do with the dog, but i had to take a picture of this lady behind my friend. she reminded me of "coffee talk" from SNL, she had her sunglass lenses flipped up on this shot. she was so cute.

some leftover california

going home

last weekend marked the start of an event that has happened for 28 years in our family. long, long ago, when Vail was simply a backwoods ski resort (o.k. it really wasn't that...even back then) my parents got a screaming deal on a time share. we have since gone there every year, minus 2, maybe.
here's the start of the drive.

along the way, there are many abandoned mines

and then you get closer and closer.

Image by caribb via Flickr

TO THIS

one of the things i most remember about our trips to the mountains...besides inhaling the stale fumes from my dad's diesel BMW and wondering, "i wonder if i die from exhaust inhalation, if there is even a soul around besides my parents to help" yes, i really did wonder that. i would look up and see telephone lines every once in a while, so i'd figure that was a good sign. anyway, one of the things i remember the most is when we would drive through tunnels. There are a lot of tunnels in the mountains here, of course, it's how you get "through" the mountains so fast.

well, ever since i could remember, when we would go through tunnels my dad would blow the horn on the car. it wasn't for safety or for anything of that nature, although he might like it if we thought that. but looking back on it, i think it was my uptight dad's way of "letting go" he was, and always will be, an engineer at heart. very rigid, and there is definitely a right way of doing things. when he does things, he tends to want to do them right.

this horn thing was way out of character for him though..it's like he was having a mini party in the car...if only for a few minutes.



but remember when i say he is an engineer. he likes to have things done right. you couldn't just expect him to use his car horn. so, also from the time i remember, we brought something along the lines of this, on the trip

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have a great weekend, and toot a horn while you're at it.

some things that are going on

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1. i'm now going through my 2nd hearing of the Dr. Wayne Dyer tapes. i'm going through them again, because every once in a while, he has some amazing sayings and i wanted to get them implanted to memory to use for future sessions with patients.

• "you don't attract people that are like what you want in your life, your attract people that are like what you are"
• ""You'll see it when you believe it."
• "The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about."
• "beliefs trump any DNA"
• "there are only two emotions in the world: love and fear"

again...these are no brainers. somethings that kids know inherantly, without having to be told. i think we forget along the way that this is the way it is. i'm rehearing a section about "things" right now. simply stated, if you base your life on the work you do or the things you have, sooner or later, for some reason, those will be gone. then you will be left with nothing. if you base your life on who you are, you will always have that.

2. my acupuncture saga: yesterday, the dull pain and ache that i had was still gone. it was amazing. what was there instead was a sharp, knife in your back, type of pain from time to time. that sucks. but i have to say, it's gone today. crossing fingers

3. just a little FYI in case you are ever in colorado driving around on the tollways: when you drive through, you are assessed a fee of $2.50 for each toll. you get sent a monthly bill to the house where that license plate is registered at the end of the month. if you do not pay said bill and the money doesn't clear the account by the due date, you will have a few more charges. these charges are as follows: $2.50 for the original toll, $7.00 for a nondescript fee, and then $70.00 for the civil penalty. yes, you read that right.

i'm moving very, very slowly

Image by alonis via Flickr

so, i went and had acupuncture yesterday. it was an odd experience to say the least. i walked in, and was talking to the receptionist and she was in the middle of saying something to me and just randomly got up and quite literally, banged a gong.

i was like, "Was it something i said?"

anyway, i went in and the doc had me lay, face-down in this massage table, like contraption. then he stuck the needles in. most of them, i didn't even feel, which was strange, considering they were in very sensitive spots. then, once they were in, he twisted them til i had a "sensation" in that area. that sensation was a warmth going through there, and sometimes, just a tinge of something. not uncomfortable at all. then, i laid there. for about 30 minutes, listening to this biofeedback-like tape. the rest of the needles, i had no awareness that they were really in. they didn't hurt, but this one, it hurt slightly, every time i took a breath. so, i was breathing more shallow. by the end of the 3o minutes, the pain was gone around that needle.

then, it was done, the receptionist girl came in and removed them all. then, i waited. i was so relaxed, it felt like i had had a 3 hour massage. i was jello....

in the afternoon, that is when the pain started. it was in the spot where it usually is, in my lower back, around the lower disc area. i was SO discouraged.

then, night came. was getting ready to go over to the neighborhood BBQ, and wouldn't you know it. my pain was gone. like gone gone.

now, i don't know, i am skeptical, but here it is, the next day, and it's still gone.

show me what you are!

i don't know if this rings true for anyone else, but i have found that one of my big preferences in life is to be shown that someone is some way, rather than them telling me that they are. for some reason, i tend to be much more believing of someone that way. i tend to

Image by caruba via Flickr

trust, and honestly and truly believe those situations.

example: when i have read things that friends, bloggers, or family members have written trying explicitly to tell me that they are fine, or they have moved on from something, or have gotten over someone...i, for some reason, never believe it. and more times than not, they'll go through a "relapse" of sorts shortly thereafter. i say this is true for myself as well. i think for many years, i thought about things nonstop...all the while, telling people that i did not. maybe it was a "fake it til you make it" mentality. but now, i see, i plain wasn't being honest with them, or myself.

it's kind of the same way i view extremists...of any kind. when something is black and white, or is described as a definite...i know it's not the truth.

i had a person in my life that spouted off how wonderful he was, how much he knew, and how great he was. i believed it...and i think other people did too. i got comments all the time that went like this: "wow, _____ is either the greatest person i have ever met, and the most talented, or he is full of crap" (note to self and readers: RUN if you encounter someone like this). i just thought that i had gotten lucky to get a gem of a person like that.

if you are wonderful...people will know. it eminates through your pores, it attracts people to you, and makes your life a big karmatic bliss. if not, you're only fooling yourself.

i'm on pins and needles

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

or maybe more accurately, they are going to be on me soon. i'm going in today for the first out of hopefully only one treatment, of acupuncture. i'm so exctied, i can't wait.

but even more of what is making me excited is that in my head, i've already decided that it IS going to work.

yesterday, i took a drive to Vail to go see my parents. i took my new CD collection up with me and listened the whole way. i think i'm through disc 5 of 8 of it. there are some things that are great about it and somethings that are good. but i've not heard of anything that i thought that was not believeable about it.

it's all about using your mind to control your life. or more aptly, using your mind to not control, but to let things be. there are some things that are harder than others though to get through. i think probably the hardest things are the letting go of past problems. one of the most frustrating things to me, when i do it, or when someone else does it, is to contantly be involved in the same problem over and over again. i'm not talking things that are out of our control, but more the things that could be put to rest over a conversation. instead of talking about how many times you've been wronged by someone, why not, either, put that energy out of your life, or talk to them, and let them know the effect they are having. you are the only one that can change things, and you cannot change things in the past...only now.

the end all for me is when i hear the words from someone, "it's just not worth it". whether it be the effort it takes to do a task, or the effort that it would take to solve an issue, or just to have a conversation with someone. it IS worth, it , or you wouldn't be having the coversation about it that you are repeating over and over again. take the time to take care of the relationships, or just don't have them, i think is the harsh way to look at things. if someone is bothering you with words or actions, you are likely going to shy away anyway, to avoid hearing those things. why not take the time to approach the issue, and if it's unapproachable....at least know that. that is peace.

conversation of the day

i was at michaels today, getting something and walked out and down the sidewalk to find t in another store. as i got out of the store, there was a woman in her 70s, yelling to her husband who was sitting in the car with his window open, patiently (yeah, right) waiting for her. the conversation went a little somethin like this:

wife who is holding up really terrible fake flowers: DO YOU THINK WE NEED SOME FLOWERS IN THE FRONT YARD?

husband: well YEAH, but maybe they should be real

wife: well, i don't want to water them

husband: YOU LAZY BITCH

did you know?

Did you know that they did a study where they took 600 people that had arthritic knees, 200 of them had surgery and some kind of "wash" where they cleaned out all the "gunk" in their knees (yes, i know i'm using quotes a lot but i don't remember the words, am too lazy to go listen to the cd, and don't really care), 200 of them had some other traditional surgery for arthritis in the knees, and then one group, a placebo if you will, had nothing. well, they had their knees cut open, but nothing done. then they were sewed back up.

i'll be damned if the placebo group didn't have the EXACT same results as the other groups.

power of the mind people. it's amazing

i love winning!

i love winning things, or getting them for less, or free! it's not that i'm necessarily in NEED of these things, but it's just the rush of winning them that makes for a good day! i think ebay is ingenius with their marketing of sorts, but having it pop up "congratulations, you won!" whenever you "buy" (read: spend lots of your money) on an item from them. but whatever, you feel good because you feel like you won!

the other week, i won this item

but in CD form. this is that show that i was watching the other night. i just started disc one and am already wrapped up in it. gist from disc one: everything has energy, behaviours (habits) trump genetics, your attitude can change yourself. gist of the gist: you have power and control over how your life is going.

hows that for a friday?

last recipe, i promise...for now

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preheat oven to 375 degrees. brown 1 pounds ground beef...the leanest you can find. when browned, throw in one medium onion, chopped, along with one deseeded jalapeno, chopped as well. cook til onions are translucent. put in two cloves of minced garlic. cook for about 3 minutes. add one 14 oz. can of drained and rinsed beans (i used black beans), and one can of 14oz diced tomatoes (i used italian flavored ones), and 1 cup of frozen corn. heat til liquid from tomatoes evaporates.

in a pot, boil 2.5 cups of water. when boiling, add 3/4 cups of corn meal. whisk in. add 2 T. of oil.

put your beef mixture in the bottom of a 3 quart pan (i used two 1.5 quart ones), take the corn meal mixture and place on top...spreading it and making sure you get the edges sealed.

put in oven for 30 minutes.

EAT IT

oh, the cornmeal part...it will be like polenta....not like cornbread, more like a tamale consistency.

beef satay from cooks illustrated

here is the recipe for the beef satay. i'd skip the peanut sauce...but that's just me. the marinade for the beef was plenty good on it's own. the peanut sauce...needed something..maybe coconut milk? i used flank steak the first time. i wouldn't do it again...because...well, it's flank steak. the second time, we used a trial run of beef round thin sliced and new york strip. they were both good

Gas-Grilled Beef Satay with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

12-18 as an appetizer, 4-6 main course. Published February 1, 2007.
Meat that is partially frozen is easier to slice into thin strips. Asian chili sauce is available in most supermarkets under the name sriracha. About forty 6-inch wooden skewers or twenty 12-inch wooden or metal skewers are required for this recipe. (We prefer metal skewers; even when soaked, wooden skewers often burn.) If you would like to halve the recipe, buy a 1-pound flank steak and cut the remaining ingredients in half. The peanut sauce may be made a day in advance and refrigerated. Bring the sauce to room temperature before serving.


Ingredients
Peanut Sauce
1/2
cup smooth peanut butter
1/4
cup hot water
2
tablespoons lime juice from 1 to 2 limes
2
tablespoons Asian chili sauce
1
tablespoon fish sauce
1
tablespoon dark brown sugar
1
tablespoon minced fresh cilantro leaves
1
medium garlic clove , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 teaspoon)
2
scallions , white and green parts, sliced thin
Satay
1
large whole flank steak (about 2 pounds)
1/4
cup fish sauce
1/4
cup vegetable oil
2
tablespoons Asian chili sauce , or more to taste
1/4
cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4
cup minced fresh cilantro leaves
2
medium garlic cloves , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
4
scallions , white and green parts, sliced thin

Instructions
1. For peanut sauce: Whisk peanut butter and hot water together in medium bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients; transfer to serving bowl and set aside.
2. For satay: Cut flank steak in half lengthwise and freeze for 30 minutes.
3. Slice each piece of steak across grain into 1/4-inch-thick strips. Combine fish sauce, oil, chili sauce, brown sugar, cilantro, garlic, and scallions in gallon-size zipper-lock plastic bag or large bowl. Add steak strips and toss to coat evenly. Refrigerate for 1 hour but no longer. Weave meat onto individual skewers—1 strip of meat if you’re using short skewers or 2 strips of meat for longer ones—and lay flat in shallow container.
4. To Grill: Turn all burners to high, close the lid, and heat the grill until very hot, about 15 minutes. Use grill brush to scrape cooking grate clean. Turn all burners to medium high.
5. Spread half of skewers out over hot cooking grate and grill, covered, until meat has cooked through and is lightly charred around edges, about 7 minutes, flipping them over halfway through grilling time. Transfer to serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with remaining skewers. Serve immediately with peanut sauce

along the same lines....

Image by rachel is coconut&lime via Flickr

we have been doing "experiments" in our house lately. i got this trial run subscription to americas test kitchen. it's awesome. and the two things we've made from it, have come out quite great....even if we've had to make a few tweaks here and there. i made a tamale pie the other night....and then made it again. it makes two corningware pots full. the two pots are always gone by the end of the day 24 hours later.

i also made what was supposed to be beef satay. now, it's evolved to beef on a stick. we nixed the satay...part. i don't know that t even tried the sauce. but i did, and it tasted like a big peanut buttery mess. anyway, we have modified and changed cuts of beef and made it into beef on a stick.

i really like having things where i know how they were made. i think that really, that's the reason why i love to cook, even if it's not going to turn out great. i have found that i don't like preserved "things"...not at all.

watch, next thing you know i'm going to be sucking down aloe vera juice and talking about carob

eating live things

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is it just me, or do you get excited to eat things that say that there are active live cultures in them?

whew!

Image by Axel Bührmann via Flickr

i'm glad to hear that everyone is doing relatively well.

speaking of NOT doing well. we took a ride last night on the new bikes. it was an interesting experience to say the least. you know, sometimes it is best to just be thrown into something that you fear. some people may say that you can get over it easier that way, when you don't have a choice.

i don't feel this way.

i especially don't feel this way when it has to do with me on a bike....and cars.

we went on an organized ride last night. i'll say, that the good points of it were that i got to see other people use hand signals (i didn't because my hands were clenched in the death grip of which i never knew existed) and i got to see how you ride in traffic. the part i didn't understand, i guess, was why you would pay money to go ride in a group? there are no perks to this group, except for the perk of....well, being in a group. but other than that, i was perplexed.

i kind of felt like i was buying friends or something weird like that.

are you O.k???

Image by Thai Jasmine via Flickr

i get on here today to read a lot of my favorite daily reads and everyone is talking about medical this and that! I'm so worried, my internet friends. is everyone o.k.? i am hoping so. see what i mean? like this, and this, and this!

after all that, i am hoping that all is well in your worlds. know that all is good in mine. we had a crazy weekend where t's job was crazy in all sorts of ways. i know....many people would be thrilled to have craziness and a job in general. i am thankful for that and don't want to seem that i am complaining, BUT I'D LIKE TO SEE MY HUSBAND WITH HIS EYES OPEN FOR MORE THAN 20 MINUTES A NIGHT!

that being said, have a wonderful day!

dr. d

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growing up, we watched a lot of PBS in our house. my parents weren't hippies, but well, we have had our share of Peter, Paul and Mary concerts that were blared through the speakers and played on the record player in my day.

one of the people, i remembered the most, is this man, Dr. Wayne Dyer. he was, from what i remember, kind of a self-help guru. what he said made sense, but so much sense, that sometimes, as a kid, i remember going, "well, duh"

i guess as you get older, you realize that those "well, duh" moments that you had as a kid....get somewhat hazy and not so obvious as an adult. life really is very simple. it's not as hard as the majority of people make it out to be. those "duh" moments are just not as recognizable, and that's what makes it hard.

the latest show that was on PBS last night was a show called "excuses begone" i only watched a few minutes of it, but it was seriously thought provoking. basically a study in the fact that most people rule their lives by the excuses they allow themselves to have.

that is the truth

you think you know someone....

i can't believe it. i just got news that someone that i have known for years, drinks like a fish. i had NO idea. i mean, i couldn't possibly be more bowled over by this news than...well...just about anything. i don't mean, drinks like a fish in the good way. but you know....knock yourself out, drinks too much. as shocking as this all is, what i find myself saying, is that "this explains a lot".

i have only had one other instance to even compare this to...i may have spoken about it before, but i have not, since today,had another incident "get" to me as much.

i had a friend who was a very good friend. i'd say she knew the very most about me than anyone had. we had ups and downs...ins and outs. but she was a friend and a friend that didn't get mad when we put cat reindeer antlers on her head or drew penises on her face while she was passed out.

she got married, to an equally as wonderful guy. but even more so. this guy treated her like gold and not because he had to. he just did and it came naturally to him. she had never had anything like that happen to her. i used to wonder, "how on earth did she get that lucky?"

they moved to CO and strangely enough,i never saw them. this was weird...because she was one of those needy friends...not in a bad way, but in the "when i move there we are spending all of our time together" kind of way. but no...that's not at all the way it was.

she was doing weird things...like staying out all night with her 20-something co-workers and getting wasted. she took a trip to visit her family without the husband and on her way back, she got a call of some sort.

her husband had found pictures on their computer of her cheating...with the trainer that she had asked him to hire so that she could be in shape for the wedding.

THAT one, my friends, threw me for a loop. i couldn't support her in the way that she wanted, which was to tell her that it was o.k. that she did that...i just couldn't. what i could do, however, was to help her get her life in order, so that she could move out, as she was being asked to do. she didn't want that. and so, instead of calling me when she got back to town a few weeks later to get the remainder of her things, she remained mad at me and we have not spoken since.

i've stayed friends with the husband. he really is a gem, and is not living a life that is full and deceit free.

but that is one instance where i was sure that i knew someone...and they definitely proved me wrong.

you just can't GIVE someone one

i love nicknames. they are so funny and so random as to how they came about. we have them for just about everyone in our neighborhood. they aren't mean or vindictive, but they DID help us remember everybody's name when we moved there.

there is:
i need a dick. This is Anita and Dick
julie rick. that live across the street
CD, which is short for this one lady's name, who is a self proclaimed republican nazi (o.k., maybe she didn't proclaim herself that last part...but someone did)
Betty boobies. who is the woman who doesn't speak english that wore a shirt with betty boop on it, except it had the caption of "betty boobies" when my husband went to drop off mail to her.
giblets. giblets is the dog that lives across the street that has a name simliar to this, but t couldn't remember it.

i have tons, in fact, i rarely think of my parents ever saying my real name.

what is intriguing is that you cannot just GIVE someone a name and have it stick.

well, t got one the other night, and by god, i think it might stick

we were at our neighbors the other night, having a bbq and we ended the night by roasting marshmallows outside over their super cool fire pit. t was reminded of a time in his childhood and then proceeded to tell the story...or try to.

he started out by saying, "When we were little, we did flaming mallow farts" now, i knew that likely, that was NOT what he meant to say, but for the life of me, i couldn't interpret what he even might be getting at...not even a clue. he tried again, "when we were little, we did flaming mallow FARTS!" at this point, i'm dying. i cannot control myself and i know our neighbors were wondering what on earth he was trying to say.

then finally, he said, "we had flaming mallow FIGHTS"

our neighbor cindy said, "i think we have a nickname"

Big Mama

The most awesome thing ever happened when we were going on a ride this weekend. The guys were ahead of us, and we were cycling behind them. we saw the guys start flagging us to slow down and turn around because the roads were flooded. they asked, "did you see the turtle?" i was like, "what turtle?" my friend thought it was a fake concrete turtle, so she argued that it wasn't real. we went back and lo and behold....big mama. this poor girl had been run out of her home by the flooding. she was laying eggs as we stood there. we called Department of Wildlife to tell them...

it was just amazing watching this all unfold. oh, she was about a foot and a quarter across.

summer in colorado

dr. philism

i'll admit it. i like the guy. i do.

he has this saying that i like too

"the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior"

i like this for many reasons...but i started wondering...does this say that we have no capability to change....ever?

hey, you asked for it

i am always of the mind-set, that "if you have something to say, say it" not with irreverance, not with malice, not with anger...but you don't know if you'll regret not saying something 4 years down the road.

but, on the flip side, if i'm going to voice my opinion and i'm not sure if the person wants to hear it, i will ALWAYS ask them if they want my thoughts.

which is why, i do not understand, with all the previous things being said, why certain people will ignore you after you give them such advice or thoughts from your head.

i have a friend, she is wonderful, has been a friend for years. she was teased when she was younger (who wasn't) over weight issues. for the past years, she is nothing but a stick. she is tiny.

i got a message from the a few weeks ago stating something about all the 15 pounds she had gained and how she needed to diet. i saw her the other day for the first time in about a year or more and she was TEEEEEENNNSY. in the bony way.

after we met, i asked her, "hey, i thought you said you needed to lose 15 pounds, how did you lose it that fast?" the reply was disturbing.

it was that she was at her "fat" stage NOW. that she had weighed 15 pounds less (read: less than 100 pounds) before and she just couldn't lose the weight now. it was that the students at school that she taught, called her the slim fast queen, because that is all she ate (read: drank). it was that she went to the bathroom when she was done eating. it was that she was so full after not a lot of food. it was that she struggles with the fact that she has a daughter that she doesn't want to be teased....ever.

i said what i could then, but i had more to say. she had to go, but i asked if i could give her some ideas over email. she said yes.

my email was NOT mean, was not belittling, was not anything, but what i thought was helpful, or at least the kind that said, "hey, i've been there too, and i don't know how i got over it, but i did....maybe some of these things are how"

it makes me sad that sometimes when we most need someone to listen, that it is US that run, because we don't want to have to talk. or that when we most need to listen ourselves, that we are the ones that run, because we don't want to hear.

and the winners are...

LMAO

my friend truisha posted some pictures of herself the other day like this and i laughed for hours. i had to dig mine out. these pictures can make me laugh, even if there is nothing to laugh at. we took them a couple years ago at a game place in denver. yes, these are me and t, and i know they are blurry, but to me, it makes them even funnier because you can't see the distictive lines. HA! i'm smiling just looking at these

it's just a new perspective...that's all

i went to a doctor yesterday for my back. this one was a little different than the ones before. whereas the others told me, "just don't DO that then, if it makes you hurt", this one said that he thinks he can fix it so that i can do those things. where as the others have sterile waiting rooms, this one had tea and fountains and orchids. Whereas the others told me i have a surgically modifiable problem, this one told me that there is no need for it and that it would have been a shame, had i gone through with it all.



i went to this man yesterday, who my mom had gone to, and my grandma had gone to before that. i always have this kinship with people who are asian. i know, it's obvious why, but i always like seeing people, that look like they could be related to me. i like people who have stories throughout their lives of getting asked, "what ARE you?" like me. i can dig that.

i noticed in his doc jacket, a boutineer pin. you know the kind, the one that you got stuck with if you were lucky (or lame) enough to be going to a dance of some kind with your bangs curled under in one swoop, along with your totally 80s hair poof? anyway, i thought, maybe he wear flowers in his jacket sometimes. um...no. part way through my examination, he takes it out, however, i do not see this, and starts poking the crap out of my foot with it....all the while saying, "Does this feel like a pin prick?"

i may not be the sharpest tool in the shed doc, but yes....yes, it did feel like pin prick. BECAUSE YOU WERE PRICKING ME WITH A PIN.



anyway, he gave me herbs and natural remedies that he thinks will help me out. I'm scheduling my acupuncture for next week. he took the full hour to hear all about ME. in fact, at one point, he even asked me, "what do you think that means?"

i would love to tell you

that i have hated every recipe that i have tried from www.thepioneerwoman.com. i really would. because if i had tried one thing and it had sucked, obviously, never would have tried something again of hers. but, my issue is more the fact that every single stinkin thing, has been so stinkin good.

i have tried this and this and this and i will say, they all, have literally been restaurant quality dishes, no matter how simple they all are. I am trying the shrimp risotto next weekend. my mouth is already watering!!!!

my name is .....

and i'm a recovering shoe addict.

i took a trip this weekend to DSW that had opened in the town that i work in, oh, about 6 months ago. this was amazing for a couple reasons. first off, that a DSW opened up in that town, and secondly, that i had not been there yet.

this was not by mistake...oh no no. it was deliberately driving by, while i stole glances at the store.

i had a shoe problem. i love shoes...i don't love clothes, purses, or really anything else. just shoes. i had a pair of pink patent leather ones that were used and too small but i think i bought them just to see them in my closet. i had a pair of cat ones. yes, you read correctly. they were like doc martens but had a cat face on the front. i had a pair of $500 ones that i wouldn't wear for three years, because they were too expensive and something might happen to them.

well, since that time, other things have come up (read: mortgage) and shoes are but a distant memory for me. until my mom said, "hey let's go" hearing no complaints from me, we tore off to the store (i was driving) as fast as somewhat legally possible.

i'll have to say. i was sorely disappointed. i tried these on

and i'm not saying i still may not get them. but i'm just kind of wondering who can run around in these. they are really great. but they are, i think, about 4" tall.

and then, more than anything, i was disappointed that everything was black and brown. what about some of these?