Inane Chatter » food

I’d be more productive if I worked from home because I wouldn’t have to go to any meetings

Zannah — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:30:00 +0000

Today was not a bad day. It was just like every other day this week, though, with a breakneck pace and no actual work that got done. By me, anyway. Other people might be having better luck. And I get it, kind of. I’m managing a process now, and I have other people (will someday have other people – that’s part of what we’ve been having meetings about this week) who have to do the stuff that needs to get done, so I’m not as hands on as I’m used to being, but deadlines are looming and I feel like I need to say I’ve accomplished something! I’m a little worn out. A little frazzled. A little (a lot) in need of extra hours in the day with no meetings. Except who wants more hours at work? Also, who wants to keep talking about work once they’re at home? Not me.

John called to tell me he was just leaving the office and to apologize for how late it is. I’m feeling weak-willed because I have no energy and my head is pounding (and not just the part that’s still tender from my encounter with the window yesterday), so I asked him to be the voice of reason and say “No, we can’t order Chinese food. We’re having ravioli or stir fry or something that’s already in the house and is relatively good for us.” But since it’s so late, and neither of us wants to deal with cooking and cleaning up, he failed in his duty (as the voice of reason) and told me that if Chinese food is the only thing that will make me feel better, then that’s what we should have for dinner. And I gave in. Because I’m weak. Our local Chinese place should hang our picture on the wall. (This hasn’t been a good week for healthy dinners.)

It’s gonna be a scorcher!

Zannah — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:22:31 +0000

I’m preparing for the weekend by making all indoor plans. Except for a trip to the grocery store that I foresee putting off until Monday or Tuesday, I don’t want to leave the house. (I might try to run in the wee small hours, but don’t hold your breath.) I’m going to clean out my closet, which should lead to cleaning out the guest bedroom so it can stop doubling as my work clothes closet, and while I’m at it, I’ll try to clean out my dresser drawers, too, since I noticed this morning that I can barely close them. And now that I’ve published that little to-do list, you have to hold me to it.

Tonight is about Chinese food (Jess, we chose Chinese! I know how much you care…) and one of the movies from the DVR. I’m so ready to be lazy this weekend. Except for the closet cleaning, of course.

Pre-vacation brain drain

Zannah — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:10:12 +0000

My brain is starting to shut down. Work was hard today, and tomorrow I’m going to be mostly useless. You know why? I’m going on vacation! Woo! Not a long one, but it should be nice and relaxing. The worst part (and I’m telling you this in advance to try and prepare you for this traumatic experience) is that there is NO INTERNET CONNECTION where I’m going. I will have to skip updating this here blog for several days IN A ROW. Blog aside, what am I going to do without the Internet? Here’s where I realize I may have a problem. Do I really think I’m going to be scarred for life if I can’t google the lyrics to that song on the radio or find out what weather.com says the temperature is rightnow for a couple of days? I think I’ll manage somehow. And when I come back, I’ll have lots of pictures.

But hey, the withdrawal doesn’t have to start just yet. My vacation doesn’t start until the weekend. According to my brain, however, it started around lunchtime today. Ooh, that reminds me of breakfast today. A guy on my project won breakfast for the office from Chick-fil-A! That place might have the best fast food breakfast in the world. They certainly have the best fast food chicken sandwiches in the world. And since that’s basically what goes on their breakfast menu, I think they’ve got the breakfast trophy all sewn up. Which reminds me…I used the phrase “hungry as all get out” the other day, and that made me wonder where “as all get out” came from. I was driving just then, so I couldn’t google it, and I’ve only just remembered.

[Pause for googling]

Okay, according to one forum, the OED says it was first used in Huckleberry Finn in 1884. I couldn’t find any other references to the origin of that phrase, and I don’t have access to an OED myself (and I don’t subscribe to OED Online, although maybe I should – mm, no, $30 a month), so I can’t check. That’s not very helpful. Maybe I’ll be just fine after a few days without Google. (Look! I can tie things together! (Oh, is it not cool to point that kind of thing out? Better to be subtle and let others notice on their own? Oops. Guess I’m not cool.))

Productivity is my middle name

Zannah — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:09:20 +0000

It rained all night last night. A welcome change, and really soothing to fall asleep to (several times, since I woke up a few times last night). We woke up at 7 this morning to find it still pouring, so running was out of the question. We found ourselves breakfasted and in the basement before 9am, and we spent a good hour making some donation and trash decisions. We’re not done getting rid of the crap in the basement, not by a long shot, but we made a sizable dent. (That looks weird. Sizable. Sizeable? Still weird.) Around 10:30, I went to Costco for Roxy’s medicine and then to Target (yeah, I know – again), and I was supposed to be home before noon so we could leave at noon to meet Erik and Margaret for lunch and a movie. Well, you know how Target is. I got sucked in, and it was almost noon when I got in the car to come home and get John. So we were late. I hate being late, but this time I can’t blame anyone by myself (sorry again, guys!). It didn’t help that I got off the toll road going the wrong way on 7 and had to turn around and THEN wade through the normal traffic in the area. Lunch (at Maggiano’s) was good, but it was more about catching up with E&M, who we hadn’t seen since mid-May, and that was much-needed and much fun. After the movie (Knight and Day – the first half was funny and pretty entertaining. The second half was okay, but less fun.), I bought a new wallet (a nice red, big, adult-type wallet to replace my falling-apart, overstuffed, tiny little wallet that gets lost in my purse and was meant to only hold the bare necessities but got drafted into full-time use because I don’t know why), and we came home, checked on the dogs (they’re fine), and did geeky website things together (I updated my Pages section. See?). Tomorrow might not be so productive, but you never know.

Not creative enough to figure this out

Zannah — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:37:38 +0000

I need a new 0-calorie drink for work. A hot drink. My office is freezing, and I’m already wearing a sweater. I spend all day drinking water, but water is cold. I’m trying not to let myself get hot chocolate or coffee or tea (I add way too much milk and sugar to coffee (and tea) to make it drinkable, and I don’t need the calories from either drink), but I don’t really see any other options. It looks like I either need to learn to drink my coffee (or tea) black (gross – makes me shudder just thinking about it) or I need to start heating up my water. And that’s just weird. So maybe I’ll just suffer.

Success! Kinda

Zannah — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 00:19:38 +0000

I made crepes for dinner, filled with mushrooms, spinach, mozzarella, garlic, and garlic mayo. I say it was only kinda successful because they looked awful. The crepes I bought were a little too thin, so they didn’t fold well. The first one turned out more like sauteed mushrooms and spinach with bits of crepe throughout. The third one looked pretty good. They tasted fantastic. I think next time I’ll use tortillas and call them quesadillas. Screw crepes. Unless they’re filled with strawberries, like the crepes I didn’t use for dinner will be very soon.

(My spellcheck has issues. It’s okay with crepes and mayo (and spellcheck!), but not quesadillas. What’s up with that?)

Breakfast for dinner

Zannah — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:56:03 +0000

It’s a topsy-turvy day, with eggs on toast and cantaloupe for dinner, and I’m not going back to my hair stylist again. Her prices went up, she didn’t do exactly what I wanted her to do with my hair (it looks fine, but it’s not what I asked for), and ohmygod she talks and talks and talks and talks and talks. I can’t take the pressure. And she’s a little heavy on the “God has blessed you” and “you should thank God” for me. She’s welcome to think that and say that to whoever she wants, but you’d think that in a small business like that, you might hesitate before assuming everyone shares your views on religion.

But that’s not what I came here to talk about. I came here to talk about eggs. The most perfect way to eat an egg (other than hard-boiled and chopped into bits with celery, mayo, and tuna on toast) is fried over easy on lightly buttered toast. With another piece of toast to get all the extra yolk that ends up on the plate no matter how careful I am. All the egg needs for seasoning is pepper. Love it.

I could have been happy with biscuits and gravy for dinner, too, but we didn’t have any in the house. And that’s a little harder to fit into my eat-healthy plan than eggs. Sometime this week, I plan to try to recreate the most delicious crepes ever. Salmon one night, and stir fry another…I’ve got the week all planned out.

Thanks, Internet, for helping me think!

We cleaned Target out

Zannah — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:46:15 +0000

For real. We went this afternoon, and now there’s nothing left. It’s all at our house. Such a dangerous place for us to go. “I need new running shorts.” “Me, too, except I need running shirts.” “Okay, let’s go to Target.” “Hey, light bulbs!” “That reminds me; we need a new lamp.” “Weren’t we talking about getting an everyday tablecloth?” “Hangers! We’re out of hangers with clips!” We managed NOT to buy a new vacuum cleaner, even though we need one. We’ll give Target a chance to recover and restock and then we’ll be back for that.

After Target, I dropped John off at home and went to Wegman’s, where I bought out the produce section. Oh! Then I sliced my first whole cantaloupe. I’m very proud of myself. And I ate two slices immediately. I think that’s all I’ll be eating for the next two days ’cause this cantaloupe is that fresh. I need to learn more about picking them out. But it’s so good!

So much for doing nothing

Zannah — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:17:14 +0000

Our do-nothing weekend was surprisingly productive. We made it to the book sale and bought a ton of books, went to Home Depot on the way home, and then spent maybe half an hour re-potting my herbs, planting seeds in the little face pots, and hanging flowers from the front porch. While we were out front, our neighbor came rushing over and gave us a pound cake! We couldn’t imagine what for, but then she apologized for being so late with it and said it’s a thank you present for helping her husband and daughter shovel out the driveway and sidewalk last February. I’d completely forgotten about that, at least partly because I didn’t help. That was all John. Such a good neighbor. And SUCH a good pound cake.

Today, we slept in again (sleeping in is a beautiful thing) and then totally cleaned up our super messy bedroom. Everything is put away, we got rid of some things, we dusted everywhere, and vacuumed the whole room, including under the bed. I haven’t attacked my closet yet, but that’s coming soon. And it’s not that scary.

Pound cake isn’t scary, either. I want some.

Craving healthy food

Zannah — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:28:13 +0000

I don’t make smart food choices when I’m traveling. See yesterday’s post for exhibit A. I bought a custard-filled muffin and a cookie. And that was not an isolated incident. Now that I’m home (Ahem. I’m home now.), with access to a fridge and cabinets and a Wegman’s, all I want to eat is fruit. And vegetables. Salads and turkey sandwiches. This used to happen to me in the Navy, too, when I got back from being at sea for a stretch. Fresh food disappeared fast, and we didn’t get supplies all that often. I’d come home craving leafy green stuff. SO not normal for me. But it’ll be great if I can keep it up.

Keeping myself up today is something else. I’m not nearly as tired as I was the last time I had to get up at 3:30 for a 6am flight (and I’m pretty sure that’s due to getting close to seven hours of sleep last night), but I can feel sleepiness rolling in. I don’t think I have more than two hours left before I’m unconscious. Hopefully John will get home before then. Both so I can see him and so we can eat. I’m hungry and I’m pretty sure I missed lunch today. I had breakfast in Chicago while waiting for my connection (bagel, banana, iced vanilla chai – best drink ever), and that’s the last thing I remember eating. 8-ish. I’m gonna have an apple while I wait.