Friday, May 29, 2009

Weekend Plans

My analysis of Bones' injury was 100% correct...torn cruciate ligament. He also damaged his meniscus. He had his surgery yesterday morning at the Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Center in Langhorne, PA. Dr. Popovitch performed the surgery. She's the same doctor who fixed Ollie's torn ligament. (She also removed a perianal growth from Ollie. Ollie wins hands down for dog with the most expensive and weird medical issues...he once had strange cauliflower like growths all over the inside of his mouth. The vet needed to get a text book to diagnose the problem because he had never seen them before. And now I'm completely blanking on what they were. It was some wart like/virusy thing.)

CPM and I are picking up the now repaired dog at 4:15 pm today. After that, I anticipate a weekend of hanging close to home. Poor Bones will be sporting a lovely soft bandage on his leg and may need to rock the e-collar to prevent him from chewing the bandage off. I plan to cook in all weeekend. CPM and I have been eating out a lot lately (hard not to when you live near such great restaurants). I need to get back on track with the cooking. I'm also thinking of starting a quilt top.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Sigh...

This is Bones.

Bones

Yesterday, Bones did his usual "I'm going to run down the neighbor's lawns and hit the ones that throw bread out for the birds" routine. He got halfway down his normal route and stopped, picked up his rear paw and limped home. He hasn't put weight on it since.

I've been through this before. Without even visiting the vet, I'm pretty sure he hurt his ACL, probably tearing it. When dogs of Bones' weight tear their ACL, surgery is the only remedy. Our other dog, Ollie, had this surgery 3 years ago. It is expensive and the recovery is no fun. On top of that, Bones has a recently diagnosed heart murmur. My vet is the fastidious type, and will recommend a cardiology work up before any surgery, which equals more money. We visit the vet at 4pm today to find out if I am right. I hope that I am wrong.

I love this dog.

Bones

He was the first dog that CPM and I adopted. He was six months old. We went to the PSPCA "just to look." We had no ID, and thus couldn't apply to adopt that night, but we saw Bones, with his stubby tail, and thought seriously about getting him. All through the next day, we thought about him. Immediately after work, we went to the PSPCA with the correct paperwork, Bones was still there, and we took him home.

Bones is really bummed that he can't run around. He's doing his best to get around on three feet, but it's not the ideal situation for him. I feel terribly for him. I want him to feel better. I was up all night thinking about him, totally stressed about possibly having to deal with this issue again. I slept (terribly) on the floor in an attempt to comfort him. At some point in the middle of the night, he hobbled back down to the first floor, where I think CPM was sleeping.

Sigh. I've been blaming myself since it happened. I had the audacity to think that this was the perfect weekend...perfect weather, perfect activity balance, and then blam, this. Sigh.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Take that!

For some reason, I knew I wanted to make a skirt today. I bought this pattern about seven years ago, before I could sew, just because I thought that one day I would like to try it. Today I did it. The pattern calls itself a "1 hour" pattern. Yeah, right. From cutting to finishing, I spent 4 hours. But it came out fabulously, and I will absolutely do this again. This fits perfectly, with no alterations necessary, and is the ideal work skirt. As usual, my zipper installation could be better, but I'm getting there.

New Look 6843

On a completely unrelated note, this was my set of Scrabble tiles last night. I'm bummed that I couldn't actually play "diarrhea." That would have ruled.

So close...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

It's 2 for 1 Day!

2 Blogs, 1 day, phew. Just popping in here while I eat my lunch (yummy cafeteria pizza, gag) to discuss the delicious brunch that I had yesterday. I was lucky enough to take a vacation day yesterday, because CPM needed help recovering from his race, you see. We both slept late...late enough that an 11am start time for a brunch menu seemed very reasonable. We're big fans of Cantina Dos Segundos for dinner. Their chips and salsa are phenomenal. Sure, the salsa bowls are too big for the tiny tables when you're sitting at a two top, but who cares? Yesterday, we discovered that they will give you these chips and salsa at brunch too! Wow. How was I supposed to fit in brunch after polishing off two bowls of chips with CPM?

We arrived promptly at 11am, their stated opening time. The place was a ghost town. We wondered if it was even open. Granted, it was a Monday and we might be the only two people who take off of work and go out to brunch "just because." We got to select "any table with plates." The server, who appeared to be the only other person in the place, brought us menus, took our drink order, and then disappeared for 10 minutes. Eventually, we got our beverages...I think she may have had to brew my coffee. Then she brought us the chips and salsa and took our order. 30 minutes (a bit of wait that I think may be because we got there so early) and two bowls of chips later our meals arrived:

CPM had eggs benedict with tempeh bacon served on corn bread:
Eggs Benedict

I had heuvos rancheros:
Huevos Rancheros

Both plates were delicious--eggs cooked exactly as they should have been (poached for him, over easy for me) and sauces with the expected twist of mexican spices. My only complaint (CPM disagreed with me) was that the fried potatoes that accompanied both dishes were way overcooked and far too greasy. I am a potato fanatic and I just couldn't bring myself to finish these disastrous representations of breakfast potatoes. Roast these babies next time!

This is why you don't force things.

This weekend CPM participated in the Montauk Century bike ride. That meant that I had lots of time at home to myself, since he was taking the car to NYC. I had big plans: watch the Lost season finale via OnDemand, do some house cleaning, and sew a dress. You are now in awe of how exciting my life is.

Things got started on Saturday evening just fine. I watched Lost and cried at the ending. I ate leftovers for dinner. I went to sleep.

On Sunday morning, I made myself pancakes. Then I cleaned the house. Woohoo!

After cleaning, it was time to start my dress sewing. I've used this Built by Wendy pattern twice before. It should have been very easy. Ha. (I wasn't really in the mood for sewing. I haven't been at all recently, but I decided to force myself, to avoid getting on the Vespa and driving to a mall and spending money on stuff I don't need just to keep myself occupied.) I had fabric that I got at Walmart for something like $2 a yard. I thought that would be perfect. Then I got to the gathering step. Ugh. That fabric was sucky for gathering--it was a woven, of unknown origin, and too thick to gather properly. But I persevered. I got about two steps from finishing the dress. That's when I realized that I had sewn the first part of the collar on upside down. Don't ask how, I still don't know. But the collar goes in before the zipper in this pattern. And ripping the collar out would mean redoing the neck gathering on this shitty fabric and then reinstalling the zipper, which was in wonky to begin with (next time, I'm changing the steps--the zipper is going in at the beginning, instead of where the pattern tells you to do it). I started pulling seams out. I was now 4 hours into my creation. I stopped and thought about it. I realized that if I spent another 2 hours on this dress that I would have such a feeling of resentment towards it that I would never wear it. It would become that dress that I wasted all my time on. I decided that I would therapeutically destroy the dress. And that's what I did.
5/17/09

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Today's Blond Moment is Brought to You by...

Last night was pasta night. I love pasta night. It always means leftovers for lunch. Indeed, I made a small container of whole grain angel hair with veggie sausage and smothered both in sauce to bring to work today. I placed the container in the refrigerator. I packed up the remaining leftover sauce in an identical container and also placed it in the refrigerator. Guess what I grabbed on the way out the door this morning? Looks like it's the cafeteria salad bar for me. Unless I can make an excuse to take a walk and try a banh mi...hmmm. Maybe.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Not much going on...

I'm enjoying the actual spring weather here in Philadelphia. I'm so used to us jumping from winter directly to humid disgustingness. I've grilled twice this week. This was last night's dinner...

5/11/09
Boca burgers, grilled pineapple, grilled corn on the cob, baked potatoes.

Looks like it would feed an army, right? Yeah, that was just for me and CPM. We ate most of it. I have leftover potatoes and corn that I'm chopping into my lunch salads.

CPM rides an insane 145 mile bike race this weekend, so I'll be hanging solo. Maybe I'll sew something. I'm not sure yet.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Random Thoughts

Today's breakfast treat: a fresh Philly soft pretzel with low fat cream cheese. It would have been even better if I had taken the extra few moments to pop it in the toaster oven, but I couldn't wait.
***
I love the webcomic xkcd. This week it has featured strips based on one of the greatest television shows of all time, Firefly. Check it:



You probably don't get it. You should buy the show and watch it so you do get it. It's only 12 episodes long because Fox canceled it. Dumbasses. That show was brilliant. Joss Whedon can do no wrong.
***
I've been doing this Year in Pictures thing over on my flickr page. I'm taking one picture every day (except on the days that I forget). Mostly they suck because I don't take any time to think through what I want to accomplish and just use my DSLR like a gigantic point and shoot (except I keep it on aperture priority instead of auto--to pretend that I know what I'm doing). Sometimes they don't suck--I'll let you know when that happens. It's a learning experience. Today I will receive my 50mm lens, which will hopefully help me take better shots. Be prepared for macro shots of dog noses.
***
This weekend is the giant corporate suck waste of a holiday known as Mother's Day. Not to be confused with other corporate suck waste holidays such as Valentine's Day, Father's Day, and Administrative Professional's Day. Whatever. I generally despise days such as this one, but I still celebrate with my mom because I've learned that skipping it makes bad things happen in my life. I'll be making a trek to the wilds of New Jersey to visit her. My wonderful spouse is joining me, for which I am eternally grateful, as I hate driving long distances solo. I have yet to make my mom's gift. I need to get crackin'!
***
I'd like to send a personal thank you to the Sun for making an appearance today. Stick around for a while, please.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Eating In

Last week CPM and I were bad. We ate out for dinner three times. Okay, I admit, I was feeling crappy. Bloated. Cranky. You get the picture. Throwing together a meal just didn't appeal to me. I was easily convinced to eat out at: 1. Tokai (Sushi) 2. White Elephant (Thai) and 3. Farmicia (Delicious). When Saturday rolled around, I knew I had to make up for my lack of motivation during the work week.

Saturday night I made the house favorite Cuban Black Bean Patties. This time I simply made a jasmine rice and roasted asparagus to accompany the patties. We also had leftover pineapple salsa in the freezer, so that got defrosted. We quickly realized that the salsa on top of the rice was the most awesome surprise combination. I will absolutely do this again. For dessert, we ate a vegan cherry pie that I had grabbed at Whole Foods. Topped with Haagen Dazs Pineapple Coconut Ice Cream, it was divine.

On Sunday morning I had a hankering for stuffed french toast. Honestly, I had planned this hankering. The day before I had purchased the materials needed to make my own copy of the fancy one at Sabrina's: a loaf of challah and cream cheese. I had the rest of the necessary items at home: pecans, vanilla, eggs, milk (soy), sugar. Pretty quickly, I had two plates of this:

Stuffed french toast

I did make a fruit sauce with frozen strawberries, cherries and raspberries. When I put that on the french toast, it looked kind of like a murder scene:

5/3/09

Still delicious. Next time, I will stick the french toast in the oven for a few minutes after it is seared to get the cream cheese filling to be more melty.

Sunday night we had simple "sausage" and pepper sandwiches. CPM prefers this sausage. I like this one. I used the Lightlife version this time. I also roasted some new potatoes with garlic. Tasty. Leftover cherry pie and ice cream for dessert? Of course!

And that is how Monday night found us once again going out for Thai food. Hey, it was raining! It's been raining here in Philly for about 2 months straight it seems. I'm growing mushrooms behind my ears. I needed the pick me up that only the perfect glass of Thai Iced Tea can provide! I promise, I'll be cooking the rest of this week, if by cooking you understand that I mean "tossing lettuce and vegetables on plates with dressing."