Apologies

I've had a handful of posts sitting in draft mode for a while, and an even bigger handful of post ideas bouncing around in my head. I'm finally working on getting the drafts finished and at least some of the ideas written down. Since this blog is really mostly a journal for me and I like things chronological, I am backdating posts where appropriate. Sorry if that makes the feed an exercise in non-linear storytelling!

Also, if anyone knows why my own blog neither auto-feeds posts or shows pictures/links in my feed reader while every other Blogger blog I subscribe to does, please let me know.

I Know What I Did Last Summer

Almost a year ago I posted this list.

Over 10 months later, I am finally getting around to the round-up of how I did. Just in time to start thinking about what I want to do this summer!

• Running. Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Yeah, running did not happen. I signed up for a half marathon with L (again!) and did not train for it (again!) and wound up wimping out the morning of and not even trying (again!). I'm pretty sure L will never sign up for a race with me again.
• I zen'ed out in front of the chiminea exactly 4 times before a couple of my neighbors complained to the condo board and I was told to either get it inspected by the fire department or get rid of it. Spent a morning at work researching NH fire codes and determined that there was pretty much no place acceptable I could put it. So took the chiminea up to Maine for my parents to use, since ME fire code considers it an "enclosed fireplace" structure.
• I had tapas and sangria on Newbury St and it was as wonderful as expected.
• I successfully planned the canoe/kayak/camping trip, and did not stress out too much. The biggest stress was trying to get Creep and all his stuff in my car and then headed north in a timely fashion. We had a great mix of people on the trip, some of whom camped both nights, some who only camped Saturday, and some who hung out during the day and hotel camped at night. We also had a great mix of alcohol, food, guitars, and campfires.
• I hiked a lot during my week's vacation at Acadia with L and Mom, but other than that, no hiking. Need to do better on that this year.
• I did something inappropriate. Multiple times. I do not regret it. And it was wonderful.
• I think I sat in the sun with wine and trashy books every time I was at my parents' house in Maine. Still not enough though!
• Despite having a lot of weekend plans, things did become pretty spontaneous. Lots of impromptu ice cream, wine, dinner, and hanging out. And also some impromptu kissing!
• Meditating, home DIY projects, and skydiving - yeah right! I was certainly feeling optimistic when I put those on the list....
• I was only purposeful in my eating if you count purposely eating lots of very yummy food at several very cozy restaurants and cafes. That was not what my original intent was. However, despite my less-than-healthy diet, I managed to lose about 8 lbs over the course of the summer and fall. No idea how that happened, but if you can get the Drinking Wine and Making Out All the Time diet to work for you, I heartily endorse it!
• I probably did buy a case of wine in restaurant glass and bottle increments. Also not the original intent.
• It took me until now, but I did finally get my reason to open the French champagne. It was a bittersweet celebration, but the champagne was delicious and worth the wait.

3 Months, 1 Week, 5 Days

I survived unemployment. I guess I should be thankful that it wasn't worse. After all, being out of work for only 3 months is pretty good these days; I know several people who were/have been out for much longer. But man, it was rocky.

I was 100% unhappy with the job, the company, and the commute, so you would think that I would have been thrilled when they basically paid me 2 months' worth of salary to look for a new job and not have to drive into the office. Unfortunately, it was winter, it was cold, I was terrified of burning through all my cash and then not being able to pay the mortgage so I never went anywhere or did anything. I wound up hermiting in my house for a few weeks, which was not a good thing. I've been reading back over some emails and Skype conversations that I exchanged with Le copain français, and I can definitely see where I started to come off the rails towards the end of January. I didn't notice it at the time; it took about another 3 weeks (and my relationship completely imploding) for me to actually realize I needed some outside help.

Thankfully the low point was also the turning point. The week after everything with LCF went to hell (and I did start getting help that week, as I thankfully still had health insurance at that point), I got calls from a recruiter and an HR rep about job openings. Both were interested in me, and over the month of March I had phone interviews and in person interviews. The interview schedules for both jobs were pretty much on the same timeline, and at the end of the month, it paid off. I got one solid job offer, and I think I would have gotten an offer from the other company, but they were dragging their feet on making a decision, and I had really wanted the first job anyway.

Last Monday I started, and so far I am still really excited about the job. My title hasn't changed, I'm still an Applications Engineer, and still working in a customer service role. Unlike my last job, though, I'm going to be almost entirely focused on technical support, and the job is 100% post-sale. They already have 2 apps engineers who deal with pre-sales/marketing/prospective customers. So I get to do technical problem solving, advise customers on materials (yay, I'm going to get to use the graduate degree after all!), and eventually do some user training for customers. The company's product is something I knew about from working at my first job in Rochester; it's technology that I've always found really cool, and it has grown leaps and bounds from when I was working with it back in 2004 and 2005.

So now I'm back to 8-5 Monday-Friday, and trying to get used to getting up, going to work, and being productive for 8 hours every day! First week was exhausting, and I'm hoping it gets better damn quickly. I've had just over 3 months off, and for what feels like the first time in my life, I was actually ready to go back to work. I've done just about everything I could around my house without spending any (or much) money; now it's time to go earn some again so I can plan more expensive projects!

What did I do during my unemployment? A little bit of everything:

• Read 60 books. Yes, sixty. 6-0. I know, I can't believe it either. Blame shitty weather and depression that made me not want to get out of bed for the second half of February. I availed myself of the many free ebooks for the Kindle on Amazon. Some were surprisingly good, and a few were hysterically bad. I also reread a bunch of favorite "comfort reading" books.
• Went skiing a handful of times. Not as much as I would have liked, given how much snow we had, but I was trying to be frugal.
• Spring cleaned my house from top to bottom. Thanks to my mom for coming down for a weekend to help!
• Finished 2 cross-stitch projects that I had been working on for a while. One for myself, which I will get framed once I have a little extra cash again, and one as a gift for my Great Auntie, my grandma's twin.
• Lost somewhere around 5 or 6 lbs. Completely unintentionally, and I'm not entirely happy about that since it was kind of a result of the not getting out of bed. Ooops. Eating again, and doing much better now, thanks.
• Re-joined the gym! And actually went a few times! Hoping I can keep it up now that I've started working again.
• Went to Maine a couple of times to visit family; watched a bunch of movies; shoveled a lot of snow off the decks several times over; and was available at a moment's notice for napping with the cats. I'm not sure how they are taking this back to work thing!

Guys I Am Not Dating

So Le copain français n'est plus, and has been ne plus for a couple of months now. The heartbreak is healing and I'm done wallowing in sorrow; now I'm ready for some distraction. I have been told in no uncertain terms by multiple people that I am Not Allowed to Date Coworkers Anymore, particularly with starting a new job. Clearly I need to find a new pool of men.

They say a great place to meet someone to date is volunteering for something you care about or just doing the activities you enjoy most. I spend my free time volunteering with the Girl Scouts and hanging out with my sorority alumnae group. Why haven't I met any available men?!

So I updated my dating site profiles (with help from some friends and a bottle of wine) and put myself back out there into the internet dating world. In the interests of privacy (both mine and the boys') I'm not planning to write about the guys I am dating. I will, however, tell you about the ones I am NOT going to be dating!

1: Guy I found via the "who's viewed your profile" list. His profile kindly requests that you not contact him if you are a "hippy, treehugger, or gay rights activist." I somehow think he would think my relatively centrist viewpoint was complete left-wing mumbo jumbo.

2: Guy who emailed me and didnt use apostrophes where necessary,or any spaces after punctuation.Like this.Very annoying.And surprisingly hard for me to type as an example!His emails would make my eyes bleed after 3 lines.

3. Guy who's wife cheated on him, left him for the other guy, and neither of them have filed the divorce papers yet - and he says so in the first paragraph of his profile. "I'm ready for a woman who won't break my heart." No honey, you're ready for a good therapist. Maybe in 6-9 months you might be ready to date. But I'm not a therapist, and I'm not looking for someone I have to fix.

Thankfully there appear to be a few witty, articulate, and possibly cute ones floating around out there in addition to the above!

Experimental Cooking - Chicken Salad Salad and Mushroom Risotto

Dinner last night was chicken salad salad (chix salad on a bed of greens) and mushroom risotto.

The chicken salad recipe is something I made up myself. I have never liked chicken salad - too bland, too mayonnaise-y, too much of a paste-like consistency. Then the very first sorority alumnae event I went to was an afternoon tea with fabulous chicken salad sandwiches. Tasty, savory, and made with chunks of chicken, not shredded stuff that turns to paste when you add a ton of mayo. I've lost touch with the woman who hosted that tea so couldn't get the recipe, but I tried to remember what was in that chicken salad, did some recipe Googling, and finally just decided to wing it. I'm still not a fan of chicken salad sandwiches, but I really like this on top of Romaine lettuce.

Chicken Salad
makes enough for 2 large sandwiches or salads
About 1/4 of a store-bought rotisserie chicken, skin removed, meat picked from the bones and diced. I like to use both white and dark meat.
Red seedless grapes, quartered. I use enough grapes to give me about a 2:1 chicken:grape ratio.
About 1/8 of a large red onion, diced fine. A little goes a long way with red onion. You can always add more if it's not onion-y enough, but it's a PITA picking it out if all you taste is onion!
Small amount of mayo or Miracle Whip, just enough to hold it all together. I used a little more than one regular spoon-sized dollop.
Dried dill weed, maybe 1/4 tsp. I don't measure, just sprinkle a bunch on.

Dice the chicken and onion, quarter the grapes, and mix them all together in a bowl. Add mayo/Miracle Whip and combine. Sprinkle with dill and stir. That's it! Refrigerate any leftovers immediately.

As for the mushroom risotto, it's more a technique than a recipe I guess. I will say one thing about Le copain français, he taught me how to make a damn good risotto. That almost makes up for the way the relationship imploded. Almost.

A note on making risotto. Every recipe I've read makes it sound fussy and labor-intensive. It's not. You need to be near the stove and keep an eye on it, but other than the rice, I don't measure anything, I don't stir it constantly, and I sure as hell don't boil the stock ahead of time. Maybe it takes a few minutes longer to cook the actual risotto, but I'm not mucking about with all the prep work beforehand, so I think itimewise it's probably a wash. Also, risotto is filling and not at all healthy. See the tiny portion on my plate in the picture above? That's seriously all I can eat at once. The technique below makes twice that amount (hey, I like leftovers!)

Mushroom  Risotto
makes 2 pretty small servings
Glug of olive oil
1/4 - 1/2 a medium sized white onion, diced
Mushrooms, sliced - I used 2 largish white mushrooms for the above and probably could have had another in there.
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/4 c Arborio rice - this is seriously the only thing I measure. It doesn't look like a lot, but it cooks up BIG.
Chicken stock - I use homemade in pretty much everything, but somehow every time I've made risotto it's been with low-sodium boxed broth. Plan on 4-6x as much stock as rice. I think.
Butter
Shredded Parmesan cheese - do NOT use the fake stuff from the green can.
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Saute the onions, mushroom, and garlic about 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent and the mushrooms begin to get soft. Stir in the rice and saute for a minute. Pour in some stock, but not a lot. I usually add about 1/4" of stock to the pan at a time. Bring to a simmer and continue to simmer until most of the stock is absorbed, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to med-low if you have to. When the rice has absorbed most of the stock, pour in some more and simmer again. Keep doing this 3-4 times, stirring occasionally. I usually start tasting after the 3rd round of adding stock to see how the rice is doing. If it's still hard/firm, add more stock. If the rice seems al dente or whatever consistency you prefer, continue simmering until all the stock is absorbed. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low, add some butter (I use about 1/2 Tbsp for the above amount of risotto) and sprinkle on some Parm cheese. Stir the butter and cheese in until everything is combined and melty and delicious. Serve immediately.

This sounds more complex than it is. Risotto takes me about half an hour, start to finish. Same amount of time as a box of Rice-a-Roni, but much yummier.

Please Pardon Our Appearance During Construction

Updating the blog template and trying out some new things. Sadly, I think I'm going to have to learn how to hack the template code to get it to look the way I want it to look. Seriously, why, if you're not going to give me the option to select the font, wouldn't you at least make the blog description font the same style as the blog title font? Grrrrrr.

Update: Apparently using the "Awesome" blog template allows me to customize more things individually than the "Simple" blog template. Who knew?!

Simple Things for Simple Minds

I'm totally amused by the results of this little internet game.


1. Go to Wikipedia and click on random article. The title of the first article that comes up is your band name.
2. Go to quotationspage.com and click on random quotes. The last 4-5 words of the last quote on the page is your album title.
3. Go to flickr and click on explore last 7 days. The third picture is your album cover.

Surprisingly, I can actually see a lot of these as real band/album combos, and I'm having an entertaining evening making up back stories to go along with them. Examples:

Former 80s star Peter Sidorkiewicz is out of rehab and back in the recording studio with his latest, "People Get What They Want".

Emo band Parade Lap will release "The Greater the Conceit" as soon as they are done navel-gazing.

New age instrumentalists Predeal's "Not to Polluted Eyes" comes in an all-organic CD case.

French punk rockers Côtes de Duras are not selling out and remain true to their roots in "Lies We Tell Ourselves".