Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is brought to you by Mrs4444!

Holy cow, it's been 3 weeks since my last FF post! I decided to unplug as much as possible while I took my christmas vacation. It was good!

The time that I didn't spend hanging out with Charlie was spent dancing with my sister. I got the Dance Central game for Kinect and I'm completely addicted. We stayed up way too late pretty much every night dancing to some of the most awful songs ever, that are now pretty much permanently stuck in my head. P-p-p-poker face my p-poker face.

This is me showing off one of my favorite moves - the "Tell 'Em Arms."

If you got Kinect for christmas, you NEED this game.

Football playoffs start tomorrow! Let's go JETS!!

I started my group marathon training this week with a run on Wednesday. I'm still not sure if it's a good idea or a bad idea, but it's going to be fun to try. Our first long run of the training group is tomorrow - a nice 7 miler at 7:30 in the morning, when the temp is supposed to be right around a whopping 15 degrees. At least 200 of my new friends will be suffering along with me :)

Starbucks is changing their logo to remove the words "Starbucks Coffee." The market research background in me thinks this is a bad idea, but whatevs. I'm more of a Dunkin chick anyway, so let them run themselves into the ground.

While I was reading about the change, I came across this article that details the origins and transformations of the Starbucks logo. An interesting read, for sure. I never knew that it wasn't a mermaid.

If you were a child of the '90s, bookmark Things 90s Kids Realize for a sweet trip down memory lane. Remember SNICK and Are You Afraid of the Dark? I LOVED that show. Except the episode with the creepy clown.

Why do clowns have to be so scary, anyway? Of course, they also pay homage to Ren and Stimpy and Carmen Sandiego, two of my all-time favorites.

Speaking of decades gone by, I also happened to come across an article showing us 20 Things that Became Obsolete This Decade. Some of them I'm happy to see go, like dial-up internet and phone books. Other topics made me kind of sad. Either way, it's kind of crazy to think that my child will most likely never have a corded phone in his room. Or in his house, for that matter. Nor will he ever know the joys of repeatedly trying to connect with a dial-up modem only to get busy signal after busy signal and then, finally, the ear-splitting screeching sound of success.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go read about Clarissa Explains it All, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Fruit Stripe Gum. Misty water color memories, of the way we were....

Have a great weekend!

Flying Pig Training - Run 1

Last night I had my first group training run. I was nervous and excited leading up to it. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. It was so neat to be out running through the streets of the city with over a hundred other people who all share the same goal of completing a 26.2 mile run. Much more motivating and inspiring than running on my own in loops through my neighborhood.

I definitely surprised myself - I put myself in the slower of the two groups, the 9:30/mile and above pace. I honestly have no idea what kind of pace I run. I know that on a 3 mile run I'm below 10 minutes, but every time I set off for a longer run I either forget the Droid or don't remember to write down my start time, so I've never actually calculated it. Last night I ran at a 9:30 pace for the whole 4.5 miles. I was shocked to find that I could (relatively) easily keep up with the front of the pack. I guess my solo training has paid off. I don't really think that it's a sustainable pace for me over longer distances, though, so that's something I'm going to need help with. I don't really know how to slow it down. I feel awkward when I try to run slower, but I know that I need to. I'm also going to need new shoes pretty soon, especially given my knee history.

Good times! I'm super excited about the longer run on Saturday.

On Facebook and Hurt Feelings and Children of Divorce

It just never seems to get any easier. I don't usually get this personal about my family life on my blog. I have no problems talking about disordered eating, or OCD, or snissing, or anything like that, but I've rarely discussed my family. I don't really have a good reason why, other than the fact that some of them read here every so often, but I don't usually have a problem sharing my feelings with them, anyway.

Which brings us to today's post.

After thanksgiving, I found out that my dad was engaged. How did I find out? On Facebook. Was it an email message from him? A wall post? No, it was a "status change" and a picture of the ring that his girlfriend posted. They've been living together for just over a year now, the two of them and her pre-teen daughter and their dog, one little happy family. Or something.

I initially thought that maybe she had just gotten really excited and posted right away and that he was going to call to share the news. But a few days went by and I didn't hear anything. C spoke to him a few times for business-related issues, but there was no mention of it in those conversations, either.

In case you haven't guessed, sometimes I'm a little passive-aggressive. So I decided that I wasn't going to call or say anything about it until he brought it up first. Neither of my siblings received a call, either. Don't you think it's just common courtesy to call your children to tell them you're getting married?

Apparently not. The first I "officially" heard anything about it was on christmas eve, when he mentioned that they were planning a very quick wedding and were considering the Grand Canyon as a possible location. Very quick, as in maybe February. And would we want to come to the wedding?

The nonchalance with which he asked if we would want to be there really stung. Sure, we've had our issues, but we've (or is it just "I've"?) worked so freaking hard to rebuild our relationship over the last five years. So "would we want to come?" WTF kind of question is that? He's my freaking FATHER, not just some random guy planning a wedding. Is that even an actual invitation? Not to mention the logistics of trying to plan a cross-country trip with a toddler on such short notice, plus the unbudgeted money for plane tickets and a hotel and vacation time. We've been saving up to visit C's brother in Seattle. Can't do both.

Even if I were to scrape the extra cash together to bring my family out there, my brother and sister certainly couldn't. They're both on tighter budgets and tighter schedules. "Paid time off" isn't even a phrase in their vocabularies at this point. And he knows that. And he knows that it would be hard for me to come with such little notice. Yet he'll go through with it anyway. Whether or not his own three children will be there.

My parents have been divorced for 14 years now. Many of those years were packed with drama and nastiness. More than any of us would have liked, but what's done is done. I'll spare you the details for now. Maybe in another post. Maybe not. He and I didn't speak for years after his second wedding. Then I got engaged, and C and I started planning our wedding, and I slowly began really trying to bring him back into my life. It started out small, with lunch meetings here and there, trying to get to know each other again. He had a massive heart attack on the plane ride home after one of those meetings. He very nearly died. That's when I realized that it was time to let go of the hurt feelings and the nastiness of the past and just focus on moving forward.

Five years since then and a lot of things have changed. But some things still haven't. It's like deja-vu all over again. New woman, new kids, new family.

And Away We Go

This evening I'm doing my first run with the Flying Pig Marathon training group that I've signed up with.



I'm feeling a little intimidated by the goal that I've set for myself. Sometimes I think "no problem, I can SO do this!" Other times it's more of a "WTF am I thinking?" mentality. It seems to vary day to day and mile to mile. I feel like I'm just randomly guessing at what I should be doing, so having some sort of set schedule and people who I can go to for advice on pacing and eating will be good for me. I tend to thrive in that kind of structured environment, which is why P90X worked so well for me. I'm hoping that I'll be successful this time around, too.

I keep telling myself that it's ok if I only end up running the half marathon, but I know the overachiever in me will be disappointed. For the time being, I'm going to pretend that option doesn't exist. That could all go to hell in a handbasket next week, but we'll just take it one day at a time :)

Top Posts from 2010

Happy 2011! Other than the fact that 2011 is a prime number, I'm excited about the new year. So much potential! In honor of the flipping of the calendar I decided to pick some of my favorite posts from last year to share with you. I tried to pick one from every month, but I'm horrible at making decisions, so it didn't quite work out that way. I'll be returning to normal blogging activities this week :)

Enjoy!

(Yes, I know there are 13 posts, and I hate the number 13, but if I added another one there would be 14 and I hate that number, too, so I would have had to keep going until I got to 16, and that would just defeat the purpose. I might as well just tell you to read the whole blog.)

Faith Envy

Tantrums: The Whole Story

Through the Eyes of a Toddler

Things You Want Wednesday - Stronger Muscles Edition

From the Mind of an 8-year-old

Chicken Nuggets

P90X 90 Day Pictures!!

Things You Want Wednesday - Good Friends

Is the Internet Making You Stupid?

Goodbye, Dear Friend

All is (Almost) Right in the Baseball World

On OCD, Again.

10 Years Ago

Vintage Bean

I found this a few years ago when we were unpacking the ornaments. It's from 1988 - I was in 2nd grade, 7 years old, and that was my catholic school year, hence the plaid :)



We got Nintendo that year and I had chickenpox for christmas.

Blogcation

Another christmas has come and gone, and it was great to spend the holiday in New Jersey and Pennsylvania with my family. This is the last time for a while that we'll be out there for the big day. We agreed a long time ago that when we had kids we would spend christmases at home during the "Santa Years." Charlie traveled out of town every year growing up, and he doesn't exactly have the fondest memories of being away from his own house for every single christmas. Part of me (ok, a lot of me) is sad that it's going to be another few years before we start up the east coast christmas express again, but the other part of me is really excited for Toddler Charlie because he'll get to have those christmas memories of waking up in his own bed in his own house. I always forget just how lucky I was that my entire extended family lived in the same place. No one was ever missing from our celebrations.

I'm lucky enough to have a super long christmas vacation this year, so I don't go back to work until January 4th. I try not to spend too much time on the computer when I'm home, and the XBOX Kinect Dance Central game is taking up a lot of my time and energy after Toddler Charlie goes to bed, so I won't be around too much until after the new year. Hope you had a fantastic holiday season with your families!

Bean and the Sibs, Christmas 2010. This is why we're hot.

Peppermint Trifecta

I've said it before, but I LOOOOOOOOVE peppermint and chocolate, and this was certainly three successful outcomes.



I stole two of the recipes from Beantown Baker and made a very slight adaptation to each to up the peppermint goodness.

Starting at the top, we have peppermint fudge. I used her standard fudge recipe but used mint chocolate chips instead of plain chocolate chips. It's the easiest fudge recipe in the world, so I suggest you check it out. When I say "easy," I mean EASY, as in less than 10 minutes to prep. The hardest part is waiting for it to chill in the fridge.

The Peppermint Bark is my favorite holiday trick, because everyone always thinks that it's so impressive and that it must be so hard to make. I probably shouldn't tell you this, but it's really one of the simplest things ever. I kind of wing it, but the recipe that I've come up with, if you can even call it that, seems to work pretty well. I'm not even going to break it into steps, because you don't really need to:

Melt 8oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate with 1/2 tsp of canola (or vegetable) oil and 1/2 tsp peppermint extract. (You can melt the chocolate in a microwave, but I prefer a double-boiler.) Spread onto wax- or parchment-lined cookie sheet (thickness is a personal preference!), then sprinkle crushed peppermints on top.

Chill for an hour, then melt 8oz white chocolate (not the fake white chocolate candy coating, the good stuff! Look for cocoa butter and milk, not hydrogenated oils.) with another 1/2 tsp canola oil and 1/2 tsp peppermint extract, spread over chilled darker chocolate, top with another round of crushed candy, and chill overnight. Break into pieces when it's set.

Finally, we have the phenomenal peppermint cookies. This was a new recipe for me, and they're my new favorite, for sure. Again, slight deviation from the recipe in the form of peppermint extract - I doubled the recipe and added a teaspoon to the cookie dough. I also added a half teaspoon to the chocolate topping, which was just enough to add the minty kick but not be overpowering. Finally, I opted to crush my peppermints a little bit finer, just because there will be toddlers eating my cookies.

So there you go, three of my new favorite christmas recipes. Now, if only Ben & Jerry's would release a Peppermint Ice Cream to go along with them, I'd be totally set.

My only regret is that I didn't make it to Beantown's Peppermint Brownies. They're definitely at the top of my list for next year!

One of Those Nights

Charlie woke up right around 1:30 because he needed a drink of water. He went right back to sleep, but I wasn't so lucky. I tossed and turned for two hours after that thanks to a stream of random thoughts running through my head.

It started out with thinking about how to explain shadows to a toddler (that's his newest obsession - the shadow on the ceiling that appears when he turns his light on and disappears when he turns it off. "Where did shadow go? What's shadow doing?"). Then it moved on to reminiscing about how I was too scared to walk down the hall to my parents room because I was just positive that Skeletor lived in the hallway closet. Where did that come from?



Then I started thinking about the other things I used to be afraid of when I was little, namely that vampires lived in the sewers and would come up out of the toilet when you flushed it. I used to stand as far away as possible and push the flush lever with one finger and then turn around and run out of the bathroom as fast as I could. Sometimes I even enlisted my siblings to come sit by the door and tell me jokes while I flushed so I wouldn't have to think about it. We were weird like that, and called them "bathroom jokes."

That led me to thinking more about the house I grew up in and how weird it was - my dad and my grandfather built it and some things about it were just "off," like how there were no closets other than in the upstairs hallway and there was a huge window in the bathroom right over the toilet and only a little tiny window in the playroom.

The next logical step from there was to start thinking of the neighborhood kids that we used to play with, and my friends from elementary and junior high, and how we used to go christmas caroling and play the piano and sing awful show tunes.



Then I relived the day we moved to Ohio and how bad it sucked and how miserable I was. But I made friends, some of whom I miss dearly. So I started thinking about my old friends and old times and how much trouble we used to get into, and what would have happened if I had started dating my old buddy from high school when he showed up in my philosophy class in college, before I had met Charlie, and then being glad that I didn't, because I have a very lovely life and if we had dated even for a few weeks I probably wouldn't have ended up meeting Charlie, at all.

I thought about the music we used to listen to and the million games of laser tag and the slam book and some other random happenings that I'm not about to broadcast to the interwebs.



And after that it was just random, like trying to remember where we had dinner on our anniversary each year, or studying the flashing light on the smoke detector and wondering when we last changed the batteries, or thinking about the peppermint bark setting in the fridge and the other stuff I had made over the weekend and whether there would be enough to share with everyone and enough to take with us for the trip.

And it just wouldn't stop. Fun times.

Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is brought to you by Mrs4444!

We had a snow day yesterday. Daycare announced a 2-hour delay (of course, after I had already gotten up at 5:15 and was ready for the day), then an hour later my offices announced that they were closed for the day. By the end of the day it looked like a bomb had gone off in the living room and I was absolutely exhausted. I wonder if this is how my parents felt after snow days?

I introduced Charlie to Rudolph. The original Rudolph, with Herbie the Dentist and Cornelius. He's become absolutely obsessed with it and asks to watch it pretty much every night. I never realized how long that movie is. An HOUR! That's a long movie. I also never realized just how mean those reindeer were, and how annoying the movie was. I almost feel guilty for how many times I made my parents watch it with us.

You know what other kids christmas movie is super sad? Frosty the Snowman. I had flashbacks to crying on the couch when Frosty took the little girl into the greenhouse to save her - you just knew that he wasn't going to make it out alive.

Charlie's final christmas present is on it's way! My friend up in the cold north of Ohio made him a toddler-friendly light saber, complete with glow-in-the-dark yarn.

I continued my holiday baking last night with Peppermint Fudge. I took a recipe from a favorite cooking blog - Beantown Baker - and changed it up a little bit to mix my two favorite flavors together.

Pictures and recipe adaptation coming soon!

Tomorrow my baking continues with a cookie-baking mini party with one of my favorite friends, who I haven't seen in way too long.

I strained my quad muscles on Wednesday and I'm placing 100% of the blame on my not-so-high heels. I spend way too much time in them wandering a random college campus while I was there for career day.

Can you believe I was invited to speak at career day? It's one of those moments when you realize that people expect you to act like a responsible adult.

Have a lovely weekend :)

Recipe: Gnocchi with Butter Thyme Sauce

Have I mentioned before that I LOVE gnocchi? LOVE it. Like, I could swim in it. I can't get enough of it, but it's time-consuming to make, so I don't get to enjoy it very often. What's that you say? Buy it pre-made? Blasphemy!

Gnocchi is an excellent winter food, and since it's been well below freezing here, I decided to make up a batch of gnocchi to make myself feel better.

I've gone through a few different recipes, and this one from Giada is definitely the easiest. We usually freeze half of them - we eat the fresh batch with the butter sauce and then eat the frozen batch with tomato sauce and bits of mozzarella. Yum!

Gnocchi with Butter Thyme Sauce


* 1/2 cup unsalted butter
* 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
* 1 (1-pound) russet potato
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
* 1 large egg, beaten to blend
* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup shaved Pecorino Romano


Pierce the potato all over with a fork. Microwave the potato until tender, turning once, about 12 minutes. (I always bake my potatoes in the oven. I'm sure the microwave works just as well)

Cut the potato in half and scoop the flesh into a large bowl; discard the skin. Using a fork, mash the potato well. Mash in the salt and pepper. Mix in 3 tablespoons of the egg; discard the remaining egg. Sift the flour over the potato mixture and knead just until blended. (If you have a Kitchen Aid Mixer this is as simple as turning the power up to four)

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each piece between your palms and the work surface into a 1/2-inch-diameter rope (about 20 inches long). Cut the dough into 1-inch pieces. Roll each piece of dough over a wooden paddle with ridges or over the tines of a fork to form grooves in the dough. (I don't usually bother with the perfect ridges. They don't look as nice, but my time is valuable)



(At this point you can freeze the extras - I lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet and stick them in the freezer for a few hours, then transfer them to a freezer bag after they're frozen through)

Cook the butter in a heavy medium skillet over medium heat until it begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat. Add the thyme leaves. Set aside.

Cook the gnocchi in a large pot of boiling salted water until the gnocchi rise to the surface, about 1 minute. Continue cooking until the gnocchi are tender, about 4 minutes longer. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the gnocchi to the hot thyme-butter in the skillet. Toss to coat. (Alternatively, cook your gnocchi in the skillet with a little bit of butter or olive oil. Sometimes I like mine to be brown on the outside to add more texture.)



Spoon the gnocchi and butter sauce into shallow bowls. Top with the Pecorino and serve.

Random Thought

Today I didn't count Charlie's breakfast blueberries to make sure there was an even number. I felt a little twitchy as I dumped them into the bowl, but I handed them off and started doing something else.

I'm still standing.

I still feel a little weird about it, but I'm still standing.

White Wine in the Sun

I posted this video last year because I heard it on a podcast and totally fell in love with it. This song pretty much sums up how I look at the holiday season from an agnostic standpoint; as a celebration of family.



Being so far away from my family and having a small child of my own, this section at the end makes me cry every time I hear it.

And you my baby girl
My jetlagged infant daughter
You'll be handed round the room
Like a puppy at a petting zoo

And you’re too young to know
But you will learn one day
That wherever you are and whatever you face
These are the people
Who'll make you feel safe in the world
My sweet blue-eyed girl

And if my baby girl
When you're twenty one or thirty one
And Christmas comes around
And you find yourself 9000 miles from home

You’ll know whatever comes
Your brothers and sisters and me and your mum.
Will be waiting for you in the sun

Because that's really what it's all about, after all. Being around the people who love you unconditionally. Forget about the dancing animal toys and the webkins and the leapfrogs and the legos and all the other junk that dominates the month of December - what matters are the memories and the connections and the life that we make for ourselves and the impact that we have on others. I think everyone can get on board with that.

Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is brought to you by Mrs4444!

Guess who was the favorite Friday Fragmenter last week? Moi!



Thanks to Dunkin Donuts for the inspiration. And for this morning's coffee.

You know you're in trouble when an Eminem song comes on in the car and your 2-year-old pipes up from the backseat - "I like this song!"

No better way to start the day than being handed an entire mashed up cereal bar as said 2-year-old exits the car.

Charlie had his first holiday concert last night. It was hilarious. Of course, I didn't get a good picture because there were too many people in front of us, and then afterward he was too hyped up on christmas cookies to sit still for a good shot, so this will have to do.

I got my early christmas present - Jeter has a finalized contract to stay with the Yankees. Totally made my day week offseason. Four more months until baseball comes back!

Funny FB status of the week: An amazing movie with an AMAZING song....one of my all time favorites ♥

Any ideas what movie she might be talking about? If I told you to guess 100 possible movies, I bet it wouldn't end up on your list.

Really? Amazing? I didn't really find anything about that movie to be amazing. Anything other than Ben Affleck, anyway. Yum.

ESPN launched a special website for women this week - espnW. I'm not sure how I feel about it. On one hand, I like that the female sportswriters have a place of their own where they can showcase their work without constantly being overshadowed by the Buster Olneys and Michael Wilbons of the world. On the other hand, I don't really think that female sports fans really need (or want!) a separate site. I'm just as capable of reading and comprehending a sports-related article as any other man out there, maybe even moreso, when the discussions turn toward sabermetrics. I think it's a bad step for them to take.

The Office totally redeemed itself with the Holiday Party episode last night. I haven't laughed so much during an episode since pre- Pam and Jim's wedding. One of the best quotes came from Michael, and I had to select it as my QOTW because it reminds me so much of my New Hampshire-raised husband, who is rather snobby when it comes to the quality of his trees :)



Michael (poking at the office christmas tree): No, no, no, no! Fake Tree! No, no, no! Holly's coming from New Hampshire! Someone from New Hampshire looks at that and thinks it's a burning cross!

Have a lovely weekend!

10 Years Ago

10 years ago on Wednesday, I went across the street to Calhoun Hall to borrow a calculator from the cute engineering frat boy that I met at a party. I needed it for my stats exam the next day. How sad of an excuse is that? Of course, I ended up staying there way too late, involved in a drinking game of Jenga. Four days later he came to my apartment to watch Chasing Amy, and the rest is history.

This picture was taken at Winter Formal in February, 2001, about 2 months after we started "dating."















It's amazing how fast 10 years goes by when you're having the time of your life. Love you mucho smoocho, Pookie!

What was I thinking?

If you ever catch me saying something like this again:


It's officially fall, but the high today is 91. WTF, Cincinnati? I want my cool weather.

Come find me and slap me. Then remind me how frigid a high of 22 degrees is. Of course, all Charlie wants to do is play outside. I caved and let him out for a whopping five minutes so that he could try out his tricycle, which was a very late birthday present. How could I say no?



He did have gloves on, but they only lasted about 30 seconds. I went to the store to buy him some of those little glove clippy things. You know, the ones that look like claws that attach to coat sleeves? Do those even have a proper name? I literally asked the salesperson where I could find the "little glove clippy things." That's special.