Happenings

1. We bought a new car. It's awesome. Subaru Outback 2010. It's green, has four doors, windows that roll down, and air conditioning. They gave has 500 dollars for my car. I'm pretty sure that means we drove it until it was dead. And we'll do the same to this one. Well, Rick will. He won't ever let me drive it.

2. Rick got his assignment. We're moving to Little Rock Air Force Base, not only for training for the next 6 months like most of our friends, but for the next 3-4 years. It wasn't one of our top choices for new locations but everything tends to turn out for the best. At least if you think it will. Rick will deploy from there for the very first time, he won't have to travel for all his random training sessions there, my family is close, and, maybe most importantly, we won't have to move again in six months. Did I mention our packers/movers were coming wednesday/thursday of this week? In two days. And that we only found out ten days ago. It's like pulling off a bandaid, it's easiest if you just pull it off really quick. I'm more of a slow bandaid puller-offer so we'll just have to see.

3. Most importantly, Rick finally (FINALLY) received his wings. He's now an official Air Force pilot. Or pilot if you're a Spanish speaker. I'm so proud of him. It's been a long tough year but we made it. Now he owes me thirteen months of laundry and dishes. I kept a tally. He'll probably work that off when we're about 60 years old. Oh, and I got pearls for all of my hard work and patience.

I would load pictures of all these important events but I'm on the desktop with no pictures and probably only have about 3.5 minutes left before it explodes. And I have to go pack all of our underwear so the packers aren't rummaging through it. Thanks for the effort, but I'll pack my own panties.

Plants, Pots and Plans.

So when I said I would be back with pictures of my clean house I lied. Then I was too ashamed to admit it. So I decided I would just not post and let the blog die. Kind of like when I forget to water my plants and they turn a little brown. Instead of nourishing them back to health, I just stick them outside under the brightest sunshine I can find, without any water, and check on them in two to three weeks. By then they are usually shriveled and brown; and I just pull out the plant, throw it away, and stick the dirt filled pot in the corner of the garage with the rest of evidence of my black thumb. I've amassed quite a large collection of potting equipment. I think I may just add that to my garage sale. They've hardly been used.

See, I'm rambling bc I'm so ashamed of not posting pictures of my clean house. I swear it really was clean. In fact, it's clean at this very moment. I even have pictures waiting to be uploaded. But the big news is not that I cleaned the house a month ago. It's even bigger than that. Rick finished UPT on Friday. Hooorrrray!!

Technically we still have to get through assignment night and then graduation to be complete. But he's done with all his graded flights. Nothing left to hook or worry about. Except for where our next assignment will be. Nothing to worry about at all. Only where we will be living for the next 3-4 years. Only where we'll be when he deploys for the first time. Only where I'll finally be able to start really working again. Only where I'll be killing plants slowly one by one.

Cleaning and Bacon

Today, I told Rick I might actually clean the house today. He almost went into cardiac arrest. Or at least shock. I could lie and say that really it just needed to be picked up but really that would be a complete and utter lie. I spent all last week (well, the last two days) getting everything ready for a baby shower for my pregnant gym buddy. So once the shower was over I didn't do anything else to the house. At all. Well, maybe a little but you can't even tell. And of course 75% of the mess is mine. I'm just a procrastinator by nature. Can't you tell? I'm writing about it instead of cleaning it. Hmmm.

But that brings us to today's challenge. I'm going to give myself 1.5 hours to get this house back to shape. That includes cleaning both bathrooms, the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher, picking up the office, sorting laundry, cleaning the laundry room/pit of despair, vacumning the upstairs, dusting, oh and making the bed. Sorry, Nanny, I don't make the bed everyday. My bad. I think mopping should count as bonus points bc I hate it and it takes forever. And so I can really be held accountable I am going to post pictures of the mess beforehand. I almost just threw up while typing that. I can't beleive I'm going to show you to mess that is my house. That's how brave I am. Well, I can count on one hand who reads this little blog so I guess I'm not that brave. Here we go. Remember I said the mess was only 75% mine.

And for a thank you for viewing that monstrosity, I will now give you the trick for perfect bacon. I recently discovered it and never has my mouth been happier and hips more grim.

Place 4 to 5 strips of bacon in a cold nonstick pan. Do not crowd your bacon and do not use a huge pan. Bacon needs somewhat even heat. Crank it up to medium heat. This is a 5 for me. Pour a cup of coffee. Go upstairs and check your email. Let your hubs yell at you that you are going to burn the house down and don't you know that this stuff is fammable. Tell him he can't have any bacon. But go check on it anyway. Turn it over when the up side is getting all bubbly and kind of lumpy and the down side is looking brownish but not black. This is an exact science in case you couldn't tell. Dawdle in the kitchen but whatever you do don't wash any dishes or try and unload/load the dishwasher. The bacon will burn. I promise you. If you think you are up to the challenge lay out a paper towel folded a couple times so it is thick. If not, if you can't bear to turn away for half a second from the delicousness that is unfolding in your pan, bribe the hubs with a piece of bacon to get the paper towel for you. When there are just a few little white fatty looking spots on the down side and no black, take the bacon out. Let cool on the paper towel. This whole thing should take less then ten minutes, I think. If you follow these exacting directions you will have amazing bacon that is the perfect balance between chewy and crisp. Like bacon jerky. Yummm.

Now off to clean. I told you I was a procrastinator.

Food Porn

I think it's funny when people take pictures of food. Especially food they, themselves, did not make. I don't look at a plate of food and think, "That looks delicious. I'm going to take a picture of it." I do think "that looks delicious, I'm going to eat it" Then I do. Unless these people take pictures but don't eat the food. I think that's called the See Food But Don't Eat It diet. Not to be confused with the See Food diet which isn't a real diet but where you chew food, then open your mouth and show other people. That's not funny. It's gross.

The Best Morning Ever

Yesterday I was dreaming of punching a fake talking skeleton who wouldn't shut up into a wall. Then Rick woke me up by shoving a piece of bacon in my mouth. It was the best morning ever.

Excersizing

So if you could kindly refer back some posts ago you would see one of my goals was some ditty about going to the gym more (and if it actually wasn't, it should have been). For the past months, I've been trudging my booty to the gym at 10 in the morning. Yes, I know that is like the middle of the day but when one of your gym friends is seven months pregnant that's what happens. It also happens that she kicks your butt, but that's another embarrassing story and I trangress. We've been doing the elliptical machine for two plus months now. I, on like level 20 out of 25 levels, go for about 30 minutes depending if there's anything good on tv. I've been pretty proud of myself. Going to the gym, getting out of the house. It's the little things that become accomplishments when you aren't working. But again I trangress.

The other day, when I went with my friend who is not pregnant there weren't two open elliptical machines. Working out at the gym isn't the top priority for us, talking is. So the elipticals were obviously out. We decide to work it out on the treadmills. We go to the very end of the whole line of them, way off in the corner where you can't see the tv and no one is near us. Ten minutes later we finally get the stupid machines started (there are way more buttons on a treadmill than an elliptical). I'm just walking along, adjusting my speed/incline, watching Rachael Ray when my friends teadmill starts squealing. Loudly. Every freakin' turn. It's basically screaming to the entire gym.. hey look at those girls. It's embarrassing so I turn Rachael Ray up so I can pretend I have no idea why they are staring. She (my friend, not Rachael Ray) changes treadmills and I'm so relieved I decide I really should run on this treadmill.

Good idea except I can't remember the last time I ran. I do remember that I hate running and that Rick always makes fun of how I run. So no pressure, just increase my speed a little, turn the volume up so I don't miss a single addition of EVOO and go. And then my treadmill goes ka DUNk, kadunk, Kadunkadunk....continuously for every single part of my 1.25 miles. At frist I nerviously try and push buttons to fix it. Kadunk, kadunk. It doesn't work. Then it dawns on me. It asked me to put in my weight and I lied. That must be it. ka dunk. The treadmill isn't adjusted to me being three pounds heavier. kadunk. Obviously. kadunk. Except 1.5 seconds later I realize that's the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Oh well. kadunk. kadunk. Turn up the volume. kadunk. Rachael Ray is still on and boy, is she looking heavy. kadunk. Finally, my ordeal is over, my knees are weak, my legs are sore and my hearing is shot.

That is my day at the gym.

Then I found twenty dollars.

I really didn't but if I did the story might be better.

Post # 347

Oh, is this not post #347? Darn. I must have miscounted. But this is the best post ever. Almost.

Three reasons why this is the almost the best post ever

Reason #1: It is about food
Reason #2: It was already written. I'm copying an email I just wrote to my sis-in-law.
Reason#3: It is about Mexican food, which is my favorite next to Italian, Thai, Japanese. Oh and Greek.

Reason #1 is almost the best post ever: Copying into blogger sucks. Big time.

But hold on to your horses. Here we go......

Chicken Enchiladas

Filling:
1 tbl. butter/margarine
2 tbl. minced onion
1 clove garlic, chopped, pressed or grated
2 chopped tomatoes
2 c chopped chicken
salt/pepper to taste

Melt butter in large saucepan. Brown onions and garlic, add tomatoes
and simmer 5 minutes. Add chicken, salt and pepper and simmer 20
minutes.*

Other stuff:

12 corn tortillas
5 oz can chopped green chiles
1 lb shredded monterey jack cheese
4 chicken boullion cubes
1 pint half and half

soften tortillas in microwave for about 30 seconds (or can dip in hot
oil to soften**). Put a spoonful of chicken mixture in each tortilla.
Sprinkle with cheese and chilies. Roll up and fasten with a
toothpick.*** Arrange in 9x12 baking dish, top with remaining cheese
and chilies. Warm half and half in small saucepan. Dissolve boullion
in that and then pour over enchiladas. bake at 350 for about 25
minutes or until cheese is melted and inside is bubbly.

* I don't ever measure this stuff but just throw a bunch of everything
in there and cook in down a lot. Oh and I had about a 1/2 teaspon of
cumin powder.
** I would just call this frying. I am just repeating word for word
what my mom wrote. I just use the microwave.
*** Whoops, I never use toothpicks either. And I add chopped fresh
cilantro here. It's why mine are better than my mom's. Shhhhhhh!

This is supposed to feed six. In our house it feeds us. The two of us. And is the lunch for whoever gets there first.

Now for the spice of life:

(okay, blogger, seriously....you're going to make me retype all of this? I hate you.)

Rick's Salsa (I'm giving him credit though it is my recipe...I mean, my mom's)

1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 small can Rotel
3 green onions, chopped into large pieces
1 tbl minced garlic, or 2 gloves
1 large jalepeno, deveined and deseeded (or not if you like it really spicy)
cilantro
lime juice

Throw all this stuff into a blender, cilantro last. Say "ok, I made the salsa" and walk away without turning it on. 30 minutes later let your wife (or husband) look at blender and say,"I thought you made the salsa," listen to significant other say, "I did." Sigh. Turn blender on high until it is all mushed together. Eat with a lot of chips and let the forgetful significant other take the credit for making it. Heck, even let him (or her) call it his salsa.

This makes quite a bit so have a gigantic bag of chips. Or you can freeze it. I did that and it turned out ok, I think. I can't remember if we ate it or not though.

Good luck!!

PS. Can I come to dinner?

PPS. Blogger sucks.

The End.