Back to the rain!

Greetings! Its good to be back. Two weeks is the perfect amount of time to go on vacation and actually want to come home.

We had a great trip to Mexico and Belize! I need to get my pictures off my camera and organized before I comment any further. It has been a relief to get back to a normal eating and working out schedule. It was good to get the furry friends back as well.

Other than that, its been back to work and the thesis. I had a job interview this morning and it went pretty well, so that is a step in the right direction. I am not going to get ahead of myself, but it would be a great opportunity. I'll just need to be patient.......

We are heading out Corvallis and Bend this weekend for some downhill and XC skiing! Its been snowing, so it promises to be a fun weekend. I just got a tasty mocha and croissant and now its time to do some area elevation analysis!

-KT

Random Musings...

I think that is what rainy weather does to people. Make them think about stuff!!! A and I had a kind of serious conversation last night about our future plans and whatnot. Good stuff. Good thing to have in advance of pre-marital counseling!

These are my New Year's resolutions:
-lose 20 lbs
-Manage our money more responsibly
-take one photo every day (365 Photo Project, or also similar names)
-run a half-marathon (its been a few years since I've done one, and its time to get back into it!)
-brew beer
-do more yoga
-finish thesis
-get married!!!

just a few things to think about :) I am looking forward to 2011! But first, its time to continue packing and getting ready for Mexico/Belize.

-KT

Work at home Wednesday and the end of the sickness!

Its been a whirlwind past few days! My hangover on Sunday gradually turned into the cold that Aaron has had for part of last week. Ugh. I feel like I have been getting everyone's colds over this fall! I should be more proactive in taking a multi-vitamin, I did have some, but they made me nauseous. I bought some chewable ones and they seem alright. I'll have to remember them on our trip. I also found a good flavor of Emergen-C, so I am pleased about that.

Just a cold, but I was pretty congested on Monday and not feeling great, so I worked at home. I also ran a bunch of errands related to our upcoming trip. Therefore, it made me feel much less stressed. I was feeling well enough to put in a full day of work yesterday, AND I found several problems with my PRISM data processing that is annoying. However, I need to make sure that my stuff is all good, so I need to re-run a bunch of statistics. While it is very annoying, I guess this is the best way. *shrug* It is stressful though...

I finally feel that I have recovered from the excesses of Thanksgiving by organizing our food over the past two days and making sure to eat only meals and one snack in between meals. I am still not stoked about being in a bathing suit over the next two weeks, but such is life. I have lost about 8 lbs in the past two months, so I am happy about that. There is still more to go, I have been reading quite a few "healthy living" blogs over the past few days, and it seems like the new Weight Watchers plan might be worth the few extra buck to kick my butt into gear :) Ah, I hate to say this, but it shall be a New Year's resolution! good stuff.

OK, so lots to do today! Thesis work, packing, cleaning and I feel good enough for a run today!!! Its raining today, but there should be several breaks in the rain, so that is promising for a run.

On that note, its time to get to work!!!

-KT

Neat-o!

I just found this on the internet, and how cool is this!!!

What is a normal Wednesday?

I am watching Oprah right now, and she is talking about what is normal....its amazing!

I made myself and the dogs head out for a run this morning, it felt OK.  I think I am still recovering from the weekend!  I had crazy dreams last night...I woke up at midnight and was very confused.  Then, I had a vivid dream in which A and I were skiing in Utah on vacation, and he ate my food!  I was so angry at him.  Poor A, I woke up and was still mad at him.....

I"ve been getting lots of work done today!  but, this one job application is still plaguing me.  Darn essay questions.

Also, these new HD channels are flippin awesome!!!  Time to get some work done before its time to make soup!

Rain. Dark. Cold.

Sounds like the last day of November!  I just got back from a run in wind and rain...I feel better, but it was a pretty crappy run overall!  oh well.  I was just glad to get it overwith.  This time of year seems to be the absolute worse for running outside.  Its just so hard to get motivated!  ugh.

Now, its time for some turkey enchiladas for dinner!

-KT

Recovery Monday!

I really have a case of the Mondays today!  I woke up with a runny nose and not ready to get out of bed!  Then, I forgot to put the coffee pot underneath the filter, and consequently spilt burning hot coffee everywhere!!!  A was not very happy :(

I think it should be a quiet day around the office today...which is good.  I've got a lot that I should finish before heading out to Belize!  I also need to get Christmas presents and send those to my family.  I know what I'm going to get, so that is no problem!!!  I also have to finish one job application...fun times.

Enough of that boring stuff, I had a great weekend!  It was awesome to have so many people at our house, and Thanksgiving dinner was a great success.  The turkey took about an hour longer than it should have, but it was pretty juicy and everything else that I made tasted delicious.  We are moving our way through the leftovers, but we made a pretty good dent in them over the weekend.  On Thursday night we watched two Facebook related movies.  The first was Catfish, which is excellent!  That's about all I can say about the movie, except just to go see it and then talk about it :)  The second was "The Social Network."  A and I had watched it a few weeks ago, but it was good the second time around also!

Friday was a world-wind day at Clear Creek, then home to watch two football games!  The Ducks won!  and then we watched the first have of the Boise-Nevada game, when it appeared that Nevada was down we went out to Saraveza and asked to put the game on, thank goodness we did that!  What an ending!  Especially when your guests are from Nevada :)  This began a long night out and about....

Saturday consisted of waffles and OMSI, then out to the Portland City Grill and finally dinner at the Fish and Chip shop on N Killingsworth.  We ended the night at the Alibi and countless YouTube videos at home on the projector.

I'm getting more exhausted just writing all this out!!!  Yesterday was pretty chill and A and I had a nice quiet evening.  We discovered the HD channels on our new TV, and that is pretty awesome!  I think we might need a new DVD player now......we shall see.

I did not take very many pictures this weekend, I should have taken a few more :(  I am saving up for travelling!!!!!!!!  I can't wait!  There is going to be lots of time for reading on the beach and it will be awesome to be in some hot weather again.  I have missed the beach!!

On that note, I should get back to work!

Frigid Tuesday!

Source

Greetings from a frosty Portland!  We got a little bit of snow last night and now it is freezing cold!  Not too cold, but definitely cold enough.  Tonight its supposed to get down into the teens, but back to 30s/40s and raining by this weekend!  Fun times.

I am working at home again today (awesome!).  I am being much more productive than yesterday, at least with the thesis stuff.  I still have lots of cleaning to do!  The fun really begins tomorrow though.  I got my stand mixer in the mail yesterday, so I am all ready to go!  Tomorrow I need to make pies, stuffing, gravy, and breakfast....there was something else......ah yes, rolls.

I'm pretty excited all around.  Now, if only the house could clean itself....that would be awesome.  A few things on our agenda for the weekend include Football, and the Clear Creek Distillery.  Hopefully we will get in some XC skiing also!  and then there's that whole eating thing...awesome.

All this talk about Thanksgiving is making me hungry!  I think its time for an early lunch.

-KT

Snow!!!

A and I had a really nice weekend!  We did some XC skiing on Saturday with the dogs near Mount Saint Helens.  We skiied on the Kalama XC trail for a few hours until the snow got too sticky up high, then it was time to go back down.  There was only a few other people out and about, so we had to break trail pretty much the entire way.  It was a great workout, and tired out the dogs!  They were pooped.  

After all that skiing, I made some chana saag and naan for dinner.  I was skeptical about making saag at home since I enjoy it so much when we eat out, but it turned out delicious!  There was lots left to freeze, so it will make a nice dinner in the future. 

Since the weather is supposed to turn to crap later on this afternoon, rather than deal with Portland's commute with the addition of snow, I am working at home today.  I just got back from my Thanksgiving grocery shopping!  Thank goodness that is over.  I was happy to get it out of the way before it goes really crazy at Fred Meyer!  I hope that the turkey thaws in time to brine the sucker........fingers crossed.

Our house will be invaded by 5 additional people and 2 dogs this weekend....it should be a good time!!!  Nothing on the agenda besides eating, football, Clear Creek distillery and potentially some XC skiing!  Sounds like a great weekend.

In other news, our wedding stuff is really taking shape.  Paying lots o' money to secure the caterer and photographer.  After the new year, we will probably have to start making the invitations and other stuff.  I really don't want to think about it until after Belize!  

My new stand mixer just arrived!  woot woot!  Thanks Oma for the early Christmas present.  

Time to get motivated to run in the rain and get back to work.

-KT

Work at home Wednesday was a success!

I had an extremely productive day at home  yesterday!  I went for a good run with the dogs, and luckily I timed it before the storm came.

Then, it rained.
and was windy.
and rained some more.

I started the 100 push up and 200 sit up challenge yesterday by doing the initial test for both.
I did 6 push ups (kind of pathetic, but I am not surprised); and 90 sit ups (which is the level below the highest one).  Anyway, I think this is a good benchmark, and I am looking forward to continuing this process!!!

I also bought a turkey for Thanksgiving.  It is strange to go grocery shopping in the middle of the day!  But also quite refreshing.......and much less annoying.

I also got some work done (shocking, I know!).  I also found out that it was GIS Day yesterday!  and then, we discovered this video through a friend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mCDUf08YLg

It is awesome!  and nerdy.  Meanwhile, I made some pizza for dinner last night.  The pizza included red peppers, mushrooms, red onions, and turkey pepperoni/red sauce on one, then ricotta cheese mixed with basil on the other.  My crust was slightly off, but not too much.  

The storm seems to have moved through now, and we biked into work this morning.  It is MUCH colder out though!  BUT, that means snow in the mountains and I can't wait to get out XC skiing this weekend!

But, first, its time to get some thesis work done!  Onwards!

-KT

Busy, Busy, Busy

I'm pretty sure that the past three days have been the most productive days I've had in awhile!!!

Firstly, I got a wedding dress!  It was the first one I tried on, and then I tried on about 16 dresses total, but the decision was easy.  The lady helping us was super helpful and energetic!!!  All in all, I am pleased.  I am even more pleased that it was not a long drawn out process.

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, and driving/walking around Portland!  All in all it was a nice weekend, the weather didn't really cooperate, but it IS November.  It was nice for my mom to visit also and just do some more normal things in life.  We also ate really well.  Sushi, then some tasty pizza from a food cart, Vietnamese sandwiches and homemade chili for the football game on Saturday!

The buffalo chili recipe was basically 3 cans of beans, two cans of tomatoes, 1 lb of buffalo, 1 onion, 2 bell peppers (red/green), 1tsp cumin and 2tbsp chili powder.  Throw in crock pot and voila!

I think that is about it for now.  I am pooped!  We did nothing today.  Nothing at all, and it was fantastic!  Onwards to a productive week!

-KT

Blah.

Its been that kind of day.

However, I feel inspired right now....by what you might ask?

and

This seems like something I should do.....starting next Monday after my mom comes this weekend :)  Now this I will use the blog to report progress....its perfect also because we are going to Belize/Mexico in 6 weeks...

-KT

Just my opinion and stuff...

Greetings from a soggy city!

It started drizzling right as I left for my morning run.....and pretty much hasn't stopped all day.  It is also cold out there...winter has finally arrived!!!

I feel much better after the past month or so I've been trying to get my running more organized and sort of with the food.  While I am not perfect, naturally, the choices I have been making are smarter and I feel better for that.  *YaY*

Lots of stuff going on this week....busy with work and then my mom coming on Thursday.  I've made appointments at two bridal stores and I hope that goes well!  I think that wedding dresses can be forgiving, but I'm nervous about the saleswomen being too excited about stuff.  My mom and I are pretty low-key, and not really stoked about going out to buy the dress.  *sigh*  I'll try to put on a happy face on Thursday, especially because we really only get to do this once!  So that's pretty cool.  I feel like things are coming together wedding-wise, and after this marathon-wedding madness over this weekend we should be in pretty good shape.

One thing that I've been thinking about lately as I peruse various blogs, especially more "lifestyle/food" blogs, as opposed to food blogs that have recipes only, is that I could not imagine taking photos of every single little thing that goes on in my day.  Especially taking like 2-3 photos of every meal!  I just don't understand.  To be quite honest, I am not really that interested.  I enjoy reading what people do, and a few pictures is great.  Its just the constant commentary on everything, is that enjoyable to do an activity and then write about it later on that day?  Even a mundane activity such as an afternoon walk or bike ride.  I just don't know.  That's great for people who can do that!  I just don't think that there is enough time in a day for me to do such a thing.  Perhaps my blog will never be popular or read by anyone else *shrug*  that's fine.
I've been enjoying writing a few posts a week, everyday would be nice but probably not feasible.

Anyway, that's what I think about while reading my Google Reader.

Back to science.

-KT

Sneezing Saturday

Good Morning!  The sneezing is from all the cleaning that we have done this morning.  Nothing like having a group of people over to watch the Ducks game to motivate us to clean!  It also provides us with a clear deadline (12:30).  Excellent.

Last night we went out to our new favorite bar, Saratoga.  I should mention that this place is only two blocks from our house!  I ordered some soup, but it was wayyyyyyyyy too spicy.  So, I ended up getting a portobello burger instead.  It was really good, especially now that Jubleale is on tap around town.

After that, we headed out to Mississippi to hang out with friends and eventually made our way to see "Due Date" in St. Johns.  This movie is hilarious!  It was painfully awkward at times, but I think that is the point.  Zach Galifinacus (?) is really hilarious!!!  His awkward humor is really funny to A and I.

I think that's it from around here, the rain is coming back tonight and it is going to get dramatically colder this week.  But, my mom is coming to town on Thursday to go wedding dress shopping!  yay.

Onwards to finish cleaning and go for a run!

-KT

I have a case of the......Friday's?

It seems like nothing has gone right this morning so far....

I forgot about the tomatoes I wanted to ripen....and they rotted and were disgusting.

Then, I get to work, (there was a nice bike ride in the mix), and go to eat my oatmeal.  Now, I added some pecans that were in the spice cabinet....they absorbed all the flavors and rendered my oatmeal inedible.  What a waste....I tried eating some, but no luck.  *sigh*  Luckily, I brought a muffin so I've got something to eat.

Let's see what the rest of the day will bring!  I did hear a rumor that the frozen yogurt place on campus is opening today and will be half-price today!  that's something to look forward to.

On that note, time to get some things wrapped up today.

What's on the docket for the weekend?  Ducks game tomorrow, but it starts at 12:30.  I'm not going to watch the whole game!  That's for sure.  Then its going to rain all day Sunday.

Onward!

-KT

Deciding.......what to watch!

Its election night!  That's about all I have to say about that.  I voted!  It'll be interesting to see how the election turns out in Oregon.....probably won't know until tomorrow.

Wedding progress this week....we got a good catering proposal back today!  Which is encouraging.  We'll probably go with it unless something else happens.  Next step, wedding dress shopping!  I'm trying to be excited about it.  Hopefully I'll pick some good shops to go to!!!

We got hair cuts tonight at Aveda!  Which is always good.  Then a quick dinner at Rogue and back home to watch the election stuff.

Lots to do tomorrow on "Work at home Wednesdays".......I hope I get it all done.  Things are busy and stressful between work, the wedding and life stuff for the next few weeks.  Then, a great Thanksgiving weekend followed by a trip to Belize!  all good things.  and with that, time to sleep.

-KT

Attacked!

It turned out to be a nice day here!  It was supposed to rain all morning, but the sunshine was pretty motivating to get some cleaning done!  I did get a lot done, one room at a time...

We went to some estate sales yesterday, they did not prove too fruitful.  I did get a fondue pot!  That is about the excitement.  We watched the Ducks game last night, and the ducks won!  and when the ducks win, A is happy, which makes me happy :)  We went to grab a beer after the game at the new hipster bar near our house.

A and I went for a nice hike this afternoon in Forest Park and as some lady went running by with her dog off a leash this little bugger attacked Penney!  He kept biting her in the butt and since I had her on the leash, she kept getting jostled around and she actually ended up biting me.  Luckily, the owner was able to pull off the little dog and we continued with our walk.  I'm going to have a big bruise on my arm from Penney.  I suppose this is why people need to have their dogs on leashes!  I am glad that it was a little dog and not a larger one.  That would have been much scarier!

On that note, its time to relax before another busy week.

-KT
 

Lazy Saturday

After a great breakfast of WW apple pancakes, bacon and eggs its time to relax!  Just kidding.  Even though I do feel like I could take a nap right about now.

I made the pancakes using a recipe from the Joy of Cooking.  I find that for pretty standard recipes, you really can't get any better.  I also added one grated apple to the mix.  Then, my favorite, I put sour cream and sugar on top.  Apparently this is quite strange, but is normal in my family!

Its a gray day out there so it will be tough to get motivated to go out there and do something.  Hopefully we'll get motivated enough to go for a run or hike up in Forest Park.  Its less busy on rainy days.

Last night we had an epic Netflix fail!  It started with the movie about the guy who invented intermittent windshield wipers, I just couldn't watch it!  Not sure why, something about watching a train wreck in progress was just not going to happen.  Then, we watched two sad episodes of House.  Once all this was over, A found his new favorite show on Discovery Channel...."Snowmen."  Once they mentioned a traffic jam as a "red snake" I had to leave.  I then watched Anthony Bourdain and all was well.

Since I seem to be writing in reverse order...the cauliflower cake was delicious!  Strange, and delicious.  It was like a quiche, but without a crust.

Time to clean!

-KT

Running Musings

After a busy couple of days, I wanted to write a bit about running.

I think I'm in a funk.  A two year long running funk.  Lets start at beginning, shall we?

I ran XC and track in high school and through college I was fairly diligent about running 5-6 days a week or doing some alternate workout.  During the winters, I did a fair amount of downhill skiing.  SO, these are good habits.

After I graduated, I also kept up the running to 5-6 days a week.  I was more focused and ran a few races.  Including a half marathon, and a full marathon.  Clearly that took some dedication and focus.......also, I had much more time on my hands!  I lived 1 mile from my work so there was literally no commute, and I lived by myself.

Since moving to Portland and dealing with many changes including moving in with A, grad school, commuting and probably a seemingly endless amount of excuses, OH, the biggest of which is the puppy.....she couldn't go running with me until she was 6-8months old.  I have found it difficult maintaining a schedule of working out.  I've done quite a few races, including Bloomsday in Spokane, WA.  I also did a triathlon in August, which was pretty sweet.  But, all in all I have been on slight downward slide.  All in all I have gained 15-20lbs since moving here.  I lost a bunch of weight in the spring before moving to Portland, and I was at a pretty ideal weight.

THAT being said, the wedding has definitely put a different perspective on things.  I probably weighed as much as I ever want too at the beginning of the month.  I have been getting better about maintaining a consistent running schedule, and consequently I feel much better!  I am also running faster and loosing weight. I am also watching what I am eating and being more aware of my portion size.  I had a great run yesterday and an even better bike ride home today, hence my thoughts on this topic.  I only hope that my enthusiasm continues.......I"m pretty sure that the thought of photos that will last a lifetime is a good motivating factor :)
A trip to Belize this December and the thought of being in a bathing suit around lots of people is pretty terrifying.

Anywho, I know that I am digressing and writing more "stream-of-consciousness" right now.  Its been prevalent my thoughts right now.  I bought the Wii Fit board and its been good to have something track my progress!

Now, time for dinner.

-KT

Thesis Tuesday

Nothing much to report today!  Lots of thesis work getting done today.....except for when ArcMap crashes!  Such is life.

A and I met with with another wedding caterer today and got to taste some food!  We are slowly getting that part of the wedding sorted out.  It will be such a relief to get this one big part sorted out!  Oh, and the dress.  Veteran's Day weekend I will *hopefully* be able to find something.

Onwards to a work at home Wednesday!  But first, an Anthony Bourdain marathon on Netflix.

-KT

A slight delay in biking home...

Considering I am heading up to that small cross, looks like impending doom!!!  I think I'll stay in my warm, dry office until its safe to venture out.

Someone has a case of the Mondays.....

Ah, yes.  It is a Monday around here.....

It all started with terrible wedding dreams last night.  It started with me forgetting to make a hair appointment.  Then, it rained and we had to move chairs around, and also A was taking a nap and I had to wake him up to go get married.  This was all quite stressful!!!  Not a good way to wake up!!!

Then, I get into the office and I notice that a few things are out of place.....then I realized that my bike and my co-worker's computer was gone!  We recovered my bike and discovered that they stole a pair of headphones, my mittens and a tin of mints.

We have had an extremely unproductive day in the office!
Ah well.  Tomorrow will be better.

It is fortunate that we got the bike, because that is how I am getting home today!  However, my hands will be cold :(

In other much better news, there is snow in the mountains!!!  This means we could be skiing in a few weekends.  This is excellent!

Time to finish out the day and then its time for a chilly bike ride home, followed by indian food!

-KT

Weekly Mealplan

Firstly, Mumford & Sons put on a great concert last night!  We had a great time.  They played a few new songs also, and they were equally great.

After A and I slept in this morning, I really wanted to try and be organized with our food stuffs this month.  Especially since we are at the last week of our monthly food budget!!!  So, between today and next Friday I have six meals planned....Curry Squash Soup, Cauliflower Cake, Gnocchi + Cheese, Thai green curry with shrimp, curried ground turkey and potatoes and black bean and chorizo tacos.  I have made some of these before and plan on making the gnocchi and tortillas tomorrow to be ready for the week.
I wish that I could be this organized every week!  sadly it doesn't always happen.  I think that my crazy spreadsheet helped me pick a few recipes out.  I was pleased about that.

That's about the excitement around here!  Penney and I went for a nice run this afternoon before the storm came through!  I made the squash soup and some naan bread.  We headed out to see the new TGR ski movie called "Light the Wick!"  Ski movies are a nice once a year tradition.  I'm pretty psyched for the ski season this year, especially since they are calling for a rough winter here.

Time for bed and onwards to another productive day!

-KT

Mumford Friday!!!

Tonight we are going to see Mumford & Sons!!!  I am super excited, it should be a good show!

Yesterday was a busy day at work followed by watching the Ducks game.  Luckily the ducks won!  This always means that A is happy, which makes me happy.  We a fun night out and discovered a new hipster hang-out near our house, which is pretty sweet.  Unfortunately, its been a sluggish morning following the fun last night :(

Yesterday was an eventful day for another reason...cockroaches!!!  There were two outside our office in the hallway!  Yuck.  Luckily they did not come inside the office, and now they are gone.

I spoke with another wedding caterer today....fun times.  I need to calm down and not get super exasperated when talking to people!!!  It seems like people ask a lot of questions and I'm just not sure of the answers, and why do they expect that I would know that in the first place?  Jeepers.

*sigh*  I just need to breathe and not worry about stuff.

I have a lot of work to do this afternoon and it seems like lots of things to do this weekend!  Concert tonight....ski movie tomorrow night.....and lots of cleaning in between :)

Time for pizza!

-KT

Sunny Wednesday!!!

Penney is jealous of my oatmeal :)  

My day is starting out right, with a delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte....yum!  Soon to be followed by PB+Banana oatmeal.

Today is my designated 'work at home and write my thesis' day!  It is going to be interrupted by two caterer phone calls, I hope they go well.  We have lots of decisions to make with the catering, and considering it is the most expensive part of this wedding shin-dig, its pretty important.  I think one thing that is making it easier is that we have a list of 'preferred' caterers from our venue, so that is helping narrow down the probably endless amount of caters in Portland.

That's enough wedding stuff for one day :)  OH, I lied.  I created two "Pinterest" boards with some of the wedding inspiration stuff I have been collecting.  I created one called Wedding and the other one is Wedding Dresses.  My friend Lori shared this with me, and I think that its better to have a bunch of images instead of endless bookmarks or Google Reader stars.

Paco is not impressed.

One other thing, since I originally wanted this to be a food blog and failed at that, I started a Google Docs spreadsheet with recipes I have tried (they usually have a comment) and then other ones that I have collected.  The link is on the right hand side of the page, and while the spreadsheet isn't the prettiest thing in the world, I hope it'll work for me!!!

Lots to do today.  Time to listen to the latest Planet Money podcast (which, btw, if you have never listened to it, I would highly recommend it!)










-KT

Just another manic Monday!

Good Morning!  I am settling into work today after a chilly bike ride downtown.

I had a fairly productive day yesterday, I tried a new paint stripper which seemed to do the job. Overall, I am mostly there, I just have a lot of sanding left to do.  *sigh*

It was nice to do some manual labor over the weekend and not work on my thesis or wedding stuff, that'll be this weekend.

I am really looking forward to this upcoming weekend!  We are going to see Mumford and Sons on Friday night and on Saturday night the newest TGR ski movie will be in Portland!  woot woot!  Skiing is on my mind since the weather has gotten cooler!!!

Well, I just finished breakfast and have my coffee, so its time to start the day!

-KT

"%Weekend%"

It is finally the weekend!  Even after a short work week, Friday was quite welcome.  We had a fun night out including several of my favorite things...freshly hopped beer, boddingtons, fish and chips, and a nice glass of red wine.  All in all a fun night out!  We did have a quite chilly bike ride home as I think it got into the low 40s last night and I did not have any mittens!  ugh.

This weekend my goal is to work on some house projects before the rain comes.  I am refinishing a new front door for our house.  Right now I am waiting for the stuff to work its magic!  We also had some rocket fuel breakfast from the waffle cart near our house...amazing stuff!!!  I also found ten dollars at Lowes this morning!  Score!

Hopefully I will be able to get a run in this afternoon, if all goes well with the door.  I am not holding my breath though!  At the very least I should be able to get in a quick yoga workout.  I am also planning on making stuffed peppers for dinner tonight!

Time to get back to work!

-KT

Thursday and nothing seems to be working...

Isn't that the truth.  My model is not working, which is upsetting and frustrating because what I am trying to do is very simple.  But, alas. Such is life in an ArcGIS world :)

In other good news, I forced myself out of bed this morning to go running!  The darkness in the morning is getting more and more noticeable.  It felt good to run, even though the puppy was chasing every singe cat she smelled.

I bought the WiiFit board over the weekend as an attempt to do more yoga without tying myself to a class or a gym.  So far I've been doing pretty good!  I saved a routine with poses that I like, and that seems to be working well.  Its also nice that it keeps track of weight and all that good stuff, even though I have terrible hand/eye coordination and the 'skills' always make me much older than I should be!!!

The picture on the right has nothing to do with anything, but it makes me laugh.  That toy was $15 well spent :)

Onwards to finishing out the work day and a tasty stir-fry for dinner tonight!

-KT

A new blogg-ing!

Yes, indeed it is a new beginning.  As I stated above, my attempt at a food blog was unsuccessful!  While I think that it might be an important part of whatever this is, I will not focus on it.  In short, I feel like there are a lot of changes going on in my life right now and a blog seemed like the perfect outlet.

What are these changes?  In short, finishing my MS thesis, finding a post-grad school job, planning a wedding, and getting married (June 2011!).  I think those wrap up the big things that are going on...I am attempting to balance this with doing regular normal stuff, like playing with dogs, running, losing weight and cooking healthy food!  

Lets give this a go!

-KT 

Spinach and Cheese Ravioli

I've been meaning to try and make pasta for awhile now, and on Sunday I had some time to spare in between watching the hockey game!

Pasta (from The Joy of Cooking):

Spinach and Ricotta filling (from the Paupered Chef):
1 container of spinach
1/2 C ricotta cheese
salt
1 egg
parmesan cheese

1. Make pasta and let rest for 1hr
2. Rinse spinach and cook spinach until wilted
3. Squeeze out all the water
4. Chop spinach and mix with remaining ingredients in a bowl
5. Roll out pasta and then place about 1 tbsp of filling
6. Let rest for ~1hr and then boil for 3-4min.

These turned out really well! I think that getting a pasta roller thingy would help make it thinner and stuff.  Otherwise, they were delicious!

Shrimp with a kick!

1 lb frozen shrimp

~1 tsp ground black pepper

~1 tsp white pepper

~1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

~1 tsp rosemary

5 cloves garlic, smashed and diced

salt

olive oil

1 bunch asparagus

basmati rice

1. Put shrimp into ziplock bag with the spices and olive oil for at least an hour

2. Cook rice

3. Cook asparagus in olive oil in a pan for 2-4 minutes

4. Add shrimp (and everything else) to the pan and cook until shrimp are pink.

This was pretty tasty! The red pepper flakes added the right amount of kick and cooking the asparagus with the additional spices was pretty tasty! The only thing I would change is adding some lemon juice.

Chocolate chip porter beer bread

3 cups flour

3 tbsp sugar

3 tsp baking powder

salt

1 bottle beer (I used Kona coffee porter)

1 cups chocolate chips

1. Mix together dry ingredients

2. Add beer

3. Add chocolate chips and bake at 375 for 1hr.

This was delicious!!! Good use of the porter beer.

Roasted Garlic Potato Soup

1 garlic bulb

1 1/2 cup milk

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp olive oil

5 potatoes

1 onion

chicken stock

1 hunk of parmesan

1 tbsp butter

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees

2. Cut top off of garlic bulb and drizzle olive oil over top. Wrap in aluminum oil and bake for 30 min.

3. Add butter to pot, once melted add onion and thyme. Cook until translucent.

4. Add potatoes, chicken stock, parmesan and then smoosh out the garlic. Cook for 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

5. Blend the soup and add milk. Cook until heated through.

Adapted from this recipe.

I made it with some cheese bread! The soup was quite delicious!