Quiet day at work. Grocery list and meal planning, check. Time to read my book and sip out of my awesome Jane Austen mug that my husband gave me at Christmas!

The Program's the Thing

I emailed the Department Heads at the two local universities that offer degree-programs in SLP. I explained that I had been studying Secondary English until Dad fell ill. I also noted that I have waited a little while so I could be sure it was my calling and not a knee-jerk (psst! Merrian-Webster’s Word of the Day today) reaction to Dad’s suffering.

The problem with one school is that it is a cohort program so I couldn’t start until the Fall of 2013 and I only need 2 pre-reqs nonetheless (Math and Bio for health majors).

The other school, purportedly has a better program, but it MUCH more expensive. But I admit, I want to go there more. I’m now able to get Financial Aid too, so I might as well run with it…?

Oh to be almost 27 and halfway through an amalgam of a Bachelor’s degree. #angst :P

Dinner & A Muppet Movie

I have so much to do after I get out of work at 2. We are having two dear friends over for Dinner and a Muppet Movie. The four of us never got around to seeing it in theaters last Thanksgiving and since its been released on video, er DVD, I was determined to get a good dinner party out of it too! Our roommate is out of town this weekend, which is a little bit of a bummer, but at least our teeny tiny dining table will fit everyone.

Augh, my dining room/library is such a disaster right now. There are books everywhere! Even my wedding dress is in there right now. This gives me an excuse to make James clean with me. Not that he isn’t willing, don’t get me wrong, I am a very lucky wife in that regard. He has no qualms about being given a list and having me send him off to whatever corner with a broom.

The real trick is to find a recipe for dinner. Last time they came over for dinner I fixed Bacon-Gruyère Meat Loaf With Roasted Carrots and Onions from Real Simple. It was so tasty! Which was lucky, because it was an impromptu dinner party. I was sitting at the pub with them and another friend and had the idea to invite them over. I excused myself and asked everyone to come over in 45 minutes or so, asked James to run and buy some wine, and I ran home and threw the loaf into the oven and did a quick clean-up of all the living areas. Phew! I was a chicken with no head for that hour, I was so relieved when everyone showed up and handed me a glass of wine.

But I’ve found something that sounds amazing. I like that its simple and classic but still sounds like some bold, delicious flavors. I have a brand new cast-iron skillet that will be perfect for cooking the steaks.

We only eat meat on the weekends these days, a way for me to feel less guilty about the meat industry (and more importantly to be less financially supportive), save some money, be more green, and be healthy. I was inspired by Graham Hill from a TED Talk in 2010. Cooking vegetarian five days a week is an exploration of some amazing recipes out there.


Also, this is my new favorite cooking site. I was googling around for a Muppet Meal and somehow found the Kitchn. It is joining the hallowed ranks of Smitten Kitchen.

Kitchen Drawer Cleanout

Wednesdays are my days off and I adore having a day right smack in the middle of the week to do whatever. In the last year I’ve spent Wednesdays for the most part, slacking. When I was taking care of Dad in his hospital rooms I didn’t mind one slack day a week. Every other day was either at work or with him, a time I am so glad I had now that he has passed. Anyway, I’m trying to get myself motivated once again.

I’ve been trying to wake up early every morning except Sundays but this week I’m actually doing it. I wish I’d taken Before photos of the drawers in my kitchen. They were abominable. Three were chock full of odds-and-ends (to be fair we called them the “junk drawers”) and the other two were simply badly organized. No longer! Now I have a “cutlery drawer” so our sandwich and veg prep station is complete!

I hauled every bit out of them (so many old pay stubs!) and tossed quite a lot. I have a tendency to hold on to little objects much longer than necessary, erasers shaped like pandas, for example. I kept a few of these things, others went into the “give away/donate” box — I put two books in there, too, I am growing! And now I can have two utility drawers.

This way our small tools, like my “good screwdrivers” (a very long story for another day). And, to make my father proud, all cords are tied up with a zip tie. On the top you can see my binders. The first two white ones are for Instruction Manuals and Takeout Menus, the green is my Wedding binder, and the last is my Household Binder which I was inspired to create after reading a collection of posts by Jen @ I Heart Organizing. Actually, getting down to the nitty gritty and redoing the drawers was also inspired by her site. I heart that place, quite a bit.

I am obviously having way too much fun with my new phone and photo apps.

Caught in the Act

There was a strange sound in our bedroom last night. I grabbed my phone and snapped a photo to see what the heck it was. And then I saw my beagle.

She found a lollipop, somewhere, I suspect originally belonging to our roommate. Sigh.

Two Weeks In, Time To Get to Work

We’ve been married for two weeks today, wahoo! I guess it’s a little early to celebrate too hard since I’m not a Kardashian. Anyway, the weather is gorgeous today and I want to get my hands dirty in my back-yard. James and I built garden-boxes last year to grow herbs and a few vegetables. I did a whole bunch of research and decided raised-garden beds are right for us. Unfortunately this was around the same time that Dad got sick so I never got to use them. Chloe occasionally treats them like a doggie litterbox.

But this year things are different. Everything has changed for me, in good and bad ways I’m just rolling with the punches as best I can. iI can remember exactly what I did last year on St. Patrick’s Day: I worked in the garden and made a stew of stout and beef served with soda bread. Despite my saying everything has changed, I plan to do the exact same thing todaybecause it’s fun. I like the idea of “working my land” (or my tiny rented back yard) and making stew. Seems like an idealized day. I do not, however have a big cotton dress and apron, like an idealized woman living out on a farm. You know, like in that terrible movie about Dylan Thomas (I know Welsh, not Irish but that’s not the point) in which Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley wore sweaters and boots and looked gorgeous all of the time (when they weren’t glammed up and/or nude) .\

Anyway, I’m making this awesome beef stew I found on All Recipes last year. It was so good James begged me to make it again this year. So tonight’s menu will be:

• Beef And Irish Stout Stew


• Soda Bread


• Mashed potatoes (because I live on mashers)


• The rest of the pack of stout I didn’t use in cooking

We plan to stay in tonight, for amateur night. It was enough to see a drunk fellow plow into a parked car last year (when SPD was on a Thursday) but the combo of a Saturday and St. Patrick’s Day is going to be a disaster. I think board games and inside times — maybe we can watch the terrible movie about Dylan Thomas, haha. Or better yet, the awful flick about James Joyce.

I have a thing for blue, green, black and silver together. It would be embarrassing if it weren’t so true. Honestly, the shoes I’m wearing right now are those colors, too. Not to mention it played a part in choosing the template for this blog.

I wonder if color palette is a personality trait that changes as we age. I know when I was wee my favorite color was cerulean. Silver and black entered the collection in high school and it wasn’t until my twenties that green became involved. Also, I wonder if there is a genetic correlation to color choices. My sister is obsessed with the same shade of green, as well. Hmm.

This little girl is so distracting that I only cleaned one-third of what I meant to today.

To Boldly Go

It’s funny to think that “To boldly go” is such an iconic phrase if not completely terrible for any grammarian in your life.

So now that I’m someone’s old lady, I want to get my life started more than I ever have before. And this means I need to get back to school so I can get my degree and then my Masters to become a working Speech Pathologist. In the next week I simply must perform two tasks:

Contact three schools about transferring, setting up meetings to discuss the madness that is my current state.
I am currently 63 credits into a program at Community College that still does not exist. I have been told repeatedly for the the last three years that there “is just a little more red tape” to sort through and to “continue on the suggested track”. Yeah, right. Even more “amusing” at this point is that I want to change my track from Secondary Education - English to a plain Jane English degree. After that I can do a one-year transfer program and then a two-year Masters program at the best school in the state for SLP. I have contacted folks about this before but that was over a year ago before my father became ill and passed away.

Select an art course that I want to be able to fit into my fall schedule.
I started college as an Art major, actually as a Computer Graphics major, and I soon realized that I wasn’t up to design for other people over myself. Selfish? Kinda. Pragmatic? Yeah, I s’pect so. Anyway, I have since stopped drawing, exploring art, and generally doodling be it on paper or in pixels. It’s driving me batty! My skills are dwindling and my drive has all but disappeared. Time to fix that!

The husband and I (hehe) realized a few months ago that we could afford to do this life with only his income. This was back when we were pregnant and hadto look out our budget without any income deriving from me. When we lost the baby I dared not suggest that we continue on with my “retiring” from the cafe job I’ve had for almost nine years and go to school full time. I didn’t want to seem like a drain on him, especially since he was such a prince last summer during Dad’s illness. Low and behold, I gave him such little credit, he suggested it to me. My prince! My knight in shining tin-foil taking up my hand and going to battle to allow me to go to school! Or something like, that anyway.

Favorite Parts of the Wedding

1. James introduced himself to our booze purveyor as “the Bride”.


2. I had to push my glasses up in the middle of the ceremony - and once during the first dance.


3. My cousin-in-law explaining ampersands to his wife and being accused by her that he was playing a joke (English is her second language).


4. Everyone laughed at the “Cantina Song” being our recessional music.


5. My grandmother liked the Buddhist vows.


6. Our after party was in the same spot as another wedding’s after-party and the bride did not seem amused and blew me off.


7. Wedding dress at the gay bar.


8. When James changed our FB status he announced it to the crowd, interrupting a song, because “it’s not real until it’s on the internet”.


9. Both the photographer and I were bummed he did this without us.


10. Fun photo shoot of a wedding fight wherein I’m hitting James with my bouquet and my fist.


11. The bartender - she was sweet, fun, and poured the drinks heavily.


12. Our breakfast was brought to us on a rolling trolley and Eggs Benedict were cheaper (and tastier) than the hotel’s version of a Slam thing from Denny’s.


13. The third day of being married was spent eating another breakfast, which was cheaper, and then going to the Aquarium. “Loaves and Fishes” I dubbed it.


14. My hairstyle looked like Leia - unintentionally.


15. All of that stuff about marrying my best friend and being surrounded by my favorite people, yada yada.

Teeny tiny wedding preview. These little ampersands will dot each table.