In the Evening...

 

In spite of my shorter work days, I still find myself busy in the evening.  Tonight I ran out to Aldi after dinner to pick up eggs and canola oil so I could make oatmeal raisin bars.  The recipe came from one of the cheap books I got at the dollar store last weekend.  I made these bars on Sunday and brought them to work on Monday.  A colleague who lives out of the area and visits periodically came in with two boxes of muffins from Tim Hortons.  I didn't think my oatmeal bars stood a chance.  There were quite a few left when I went home, so I figured I'd have one for breakfast the next day.  Nope.  They were gone.  The architects were gushing about them.  These are good -- they are not too sweet and they are very chewy.  In addition to the fiber from the oats, I use white whole wheat flour.

Doing Dinner

 I've been sticking to my goal of making a healthy and fresh dinner every night.  We are eating around 6PM and trying to include a salad with each meal.  This meal is very vegetable-heavy.  We love our pasta but are trying to cut back.  In the past, I would probably have added some bread to this meal, but as much as I like bread, it's not a good way to maintain a healthy waistline.  sigh.

Coffee Talk

 There is generally some left-over coffee on the weekend.  Today, I made the rest of it into iced coffee to bring to work.  Along with the coffee, I added a tablespoon of sugar, some Giradelli cocoa, and a couple of ounces of milk.  While I was at it, I crushed in a dairy digestive tablet.  I am generally fine with 2% milk, but sometimes I flirt with lactose intolerance.

Friday F**K-up

In keeping with my new Friday chore-day tradition, I managed to break something else while cleaning this week. It is embarrassing to admit, but when I stripped the big bed, I didn't notice TBG had his nook there.  So, I washed it.  It's dead.

Picture Yourself...

Last night I had to take some extra time to pick clothes for work because we were all going to get our pictures taken today.  Having a good head-shot is part of professional life these days and I believe they are important.   I see a lot of poor pictures of people and while I understand you want your picture to capture who you are, some pictures really make no sense from a business perspective.  Now I might see myself as a non-conventional person, but unless I was looking for a job on a psychic-hotline, I would think twice about getting creative with something like this.

My Recent "Win"

The greater distance I put between myself and my last job, the more convinced I am that I made the right choice.  My last day was officially 1/26.  Now that I am down to part-time and working in a healthier environment, I have noticed a number of things -- thanks in part to my FitBit.

First, I am moving more.  At my old job, there were days I only took about 2000 steps.  I am now over 7000 on most days and am no stranger to hitting 10,000.  My goal is set at 8000.

Off-Label

I have become obsessed with labels lately!  This means I look at paper differently.  When I see a wine bottle, I am hoping the label will soak off easily.  The same for beer.  Our house had a bunch of old magazines to get rid of, and before they went into the recycling bin, I cut out graphics.  The end result is that I am making my own version of prayer candles -- after all, I pray for pilsner and worship wine.  I also like weird stuff.

I am Territorial!

We headed up to North Tonawanda (referred to as "NT") for a walk today.  It does have a nice village-y field but is pretty deserted on Sunday morning (except for church traffic).  TBG often snow-shoes with a girl friend on Sundays, but there is no snow.  He was going to meet her for a walk and I put the wifey-kabosh on that.  I am sometimes territorial over time with my guy.  There is no problem if he wants to go snow-shoeing with someone else since I am not back to full form and can't participate.  But when it comes to a walk, I want to do it together.  If I was going to go for a long walk with the dog, it made no sense for him to go for a long walk with someone else.  Does that seem strange?  An additional walking mate would not have bothered me at all, but I wasn't going to sacrifice the time.

I am a Jar-Head

I spent a lot of time this weekend filling jars.  TBG used to complain that I wouldn't put jars in the recycling tote.  He's changed his tune to indicate we need to plan for more storage space for them when we eventual re-do the kitchen.  He's seen how much we save and how much  healthier our meals are because of my jar obsession.

Books & Boots

Dollar Tree is a good source for cheap books.  I stopped in today to see what they had and I found six worth grabbing, four of which will be gifts.  I also grabbed a small spiral notepad because it had a cool design and I like having them on hand.

Un-Freaky Friday

 

For the most part now, Fridays will be my house-work day.  Last week, we were out of town, and the week before that, I broke the washing machine.  Having reduced work-hours meant I could catch up on clothes washing during the week.  Today I tacked beds.  I had two sets of sheets and pillow cases to wash.  In addition to that I picked a "project" task of washing the king-sized bedspread and a couple of pillows.

Cheap Wardrobe Staples

I have read that Gwyneth Paltrow adores $200 t-shirts and her GOOP followers gobble them up.  The thought astounds me.  I would surmise that after one or two wearings, I would dribble some food or splash some sauce on mine and it would be forever stained.  Hence, my fondness for cheap cotton versions.

The Dirty Side of Winter

This is what our front yard looked like today.  It is really gross.  I really hate when the snow gets so dirty that you don't want to have anything to do with it.  In fact, I won't even walk Teddy in our neighborhood because it is so dirty.

Ready for Valentine's Day

I am set for Valentine's Day and I did it economically!  The roses are from Aldi -- $3.99 for six. I got them this afternoon and they are hiding.  I'll sneak them out tonight and they will be in the kitchen waiting for TBG in the morning.  After work, I stopped into the store to pick up cereal and saw this great price on the roses, so I figured it made sense to buy them then to have them for first thing this morning.

My Comfort Zone

TBG and I lead a quiet adult life that probably seems boring to most people, but it works for us.  This past weekend, we stepped outside our comfort zone.  We didn't bungee jump or zip line.  No, we spent time in the world of high school athletics.  It was strange!  Friday night we went to a high school basketball game and on Saturday, we went to a cheering competition.  We might have well landed on Mars!

Winter Workout Gear

I dropped my gym/pool membership last year and even though I now have more time, I am not going to re-join any time soon.  While I do have more time on my hands, I don't really have enough to spare to go back to the gym full-boar.  Although it can be a challenge to get exercise in the winter, I have my own work-out -- walking the dog in the snow.  Yes, fitness is important, but keeping my life in order is a higher priority.

My Daily Do

It had been suggested to me at my last job that I had OCD.  Things that were disorganized or made no sense drove me crazy.  The thing is, I'm not obsessive, I'm efficient.  Having to do things three times because procedures were inaccurate or changing, taking chances that something you did was right -- with the idea that you could just go back and fix it later, drove me up a wall.

What's Cooking

 

Now that I have more time to cook, I can make more meals that are "two step" efforts.  We had shrimp & chicken gumbo for dinner tonight.  The base was the stock I made using the shells from Friday's lobster dinner.  Last night, I made beef stew for our Super Bowl dinner, with buttermilk biscuits on the side.  There were enough biscuits to have with leftover stew and our gumbo too.  Gumbo is on the menu for lunch now!

Friday Night Splurge

We ate in Friday night, as is my plan from now on since we are scaling back.  That didn't mean we didn't splurge.  For dinner, we had lobster, with shrimp & crab ravioli on the side, along with a fresh garden salad.  We washed it down with champagne.  Rather than spending over a hundred bucks on a meal out, I cooked at home and spent under forty dollars.  The big spend was on the crustaceans --  but they were ten bucks a piece, frozen, from Aldi.   I wrapped them in foil, crammed them with lemon and added some butter.  They were baked at 425 for 25 minutes.  I used the carcasses and drippings to make a stock which I will use for either a lobster chowder or bisque next week.  I also logged the meal and only ended up 123 calories over budget.   It was a smart splurge!

Bring your Dog to Work

I was one of the organizers for "Bring Your Dog to Work" day at my last job.  Unfortunately, I was out on disability when the actual day came along.  Now I am bringing Teddy to work with me every day.  It has been great!