Changes

If anyone is still following here, you may have notice my change in title from Ramblings of a Hunter's Wife to the new title of Just Me.  Just me is very appropriate now because I find myself faced with a change that I didn't ask for nor did I want but it leaves me with the "just me" status again (or it will as soon as the courts decide we are no longer a "we" anymore).  I don't think anyone goes into a marriage thinking that it will end but I have no personal experience with divorce.  Everyone in my family stays together through good times and bad.  This is how I was raised and this is how I intended for my marriage to go.

I'm running through so many conflicting emotions these days.  Starting with terrible sadness and depression over losing what I thought would be forever.  We were still making plans for the future as late as the holidays last year and the revelation that he was no longer interested in trying to make this marriage work was a huge surprise and a blow that I cannot begin to describe.  Maybe if I had been unhappy too this wouldn't be quite so hard...

Then there is some relief.  There is a part of me that knows that I will eventually be better off without him.  The part that knows that I was sorely underappreciated and also the part of me that realizes that there are men out there who actually want to be with me and interested in what I have to say.  It's been a very long time since I have felt like I'm important too.  There is also a little bit of excitement as well because I will be finally moving back into town where I have wanted to be for a very long time.  I am moving into a brand new townhome that is being built as I write this.  Ok... well maybe not right now considering it is 11pm... the workers have probably gone home by now.  :)

I am completely terrified about the future.  There is so much unknown for me.  How do I realistically trust someone now.  Only a few short months ago I had no clue that I was about to be going through a divorce.  Dating in general terrifies me...  All of the wondering what is going through someone's brain.  People tell me to not think about that but this is who I am.  I can't change that about me...  I am certain I will still over-analyze every person who is interested in me...  This is me for better or worse.  I think most of the time it is worse but again it is who I am.

For now I'm just trying hard to not feel like I've completely lost control of my life.  Wish me luck because I really need it right now.

The many faces of me

I'm that girl who likes change to her hair alot.  And often!

All pictures seen above have been taken in the last 5 years.  My husband is probably confused!  I would like to say they are in order but they definitely are not.  The last one is the latest though.  I'm sure there will be more interesting in between colors when I decide I want to be blonde again.

Did I really talk about it that much?

The analytics of this blog have always interested me.  I am not one to try to write often enough to have a huge blog following or think of myself as being all that entertaining.  Sometimes I get a surprising amount of traffic here and it always shocks me because when I write, I'm writing for my own entertainment.  If it entertains anyone else then all the better. 

However the fact that the most traffic I get from searches on my blog involves crazy large flowers that teenagers hang around their neck for a football game always shocks me more.  Below are the keywords people searched on to find me recently:
 


By the way, I refuse to call the crazy large flowers by name in hopes that someday it will not be the main reason people find my site.

How my morning usually goes

I have all of the typical morning tasks such as showering, makeup, making sure my hair doesn't actually look like I slept on it.  Having dogs gives you a few more morning tasks such as walking them, feeding them and maybe a little bit of playing if I'm not running late. 

However, I have a morning ritual that sometimes gets a little old.  I often come out of the bathroom into the bedroom to this:



 You may be wondering what Max is doing.  What he is doing is part of his favorite game.  It's called "Shove my favorite ball under the furniture and then try unsuccessfully to get it out" game.  And when he can't get it out, this is what I get:




Help me get my ball out!  PLEEEEEEASE!!!

 
And then the process starts all over again:




Maybe if I stick my paw just a little further, I can grab it!

 

Love and Pies - A Pie for Mikey

This is not a cooking blog nor do I think anyone should listen to anything I say about cooking.  However if you know me, you do know that I love to cook and you might even know of my cooking blog obsession.  How I have managed to not know about In Jennie's Kitchen is beyond me.  The manner that I have come to find out about her blog is very sad. 

Yesterday on many of the blogs that I follow, I started to see posts that people were titling a Pie for Mikey.  They also posted the following link from Jennifer Perillo's blog called for mikey.  Be prepared with tissues because it is heartbreaking.  Jennie's husband collapsed and died suddenly from a massive heart attack while riding bikes with his daughter's.  In an instant, he was gone and there were no goodbyes or I love you's.

The food blogging community immediately asked what they could do and she responded with what she felt would help her heal.  She wanted everyone to make Mikey's favorite pie - Creamy Peanut Butter Pie.  It had been on her list of thing to do but she hadn't quite gotten around to making it for him lately.  She wanted everyone to make this pie and share it with the people you love.

So today that is what I did.  I made a pie to honor Mikey and to share with people I love.  Since my husband is out of town this weekend, I will be sharing this pie with a friend I don't see very often and with my daughter who will be leaving for college soon.  As soon as my husband gets home, I'm going to make whatever food it is that he wants and loves.

Where ever you are and whatever you are doing make sure you cherish you time with the people you love.  You never know when there will be no more tomorrows with them.

Creamy Peanut Butter Pie
(Recipe adapted from In Jennie's Kitchen)

Serves 10 to 12

8 ounces chocolate cookies
4 tablespoons butter, melted
4 ounces finely chopped chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
1 cup confectioner's sugar
1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Add the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs. Combine melted butter and cookie crumbs in a small bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well. Press mixture into the bottom and 1-inch up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave. Pour over bottom of cookie crust and spread to the edges using an off-set spatula. Sprinkle chopped peanuts over the melted chocolate. Place pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

Pour the heavy cream into a bowl and beat using a stand mixer or hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a small bowl and store in refrigerator until ready to use. Place the cream cheese and peanut butter in a deep bowl. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioner's sugar. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Increase speed to medium and beat until all the ingredients are combined and filling is smooth.

Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture (helps lighten the batter, making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream). Fold in the remaining whipped cream. Pour the filling into the prepared springform pan. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and chocolate chips, and refrigerate for three hours or overnight before serving.

Homecoming? Really?

It seems that the only time of the year that my little blog gets traffic lately is when homecoming rolls around. My 2008 post about homecoming mums is still quite popular. I need to start writing more. I really don't want to be known as the homecoming mum blog!

Early morning conversation with my legs

A form of this conversation occurs every time I need to get up early to run. Sometimes it ends better than today:

Alarm: BUUUUUUZZZZZZZZ....

Me: Ok! Time to get up

Legs: No, snoozing is good

Me: But I have to go run!

Legs: We will... just let me sleep for a few more minutes

Me: But I need to get this in before I go to work. If I wait there won't be time.

Legs: Yes there will just give me 15 more minutes. Zzzzzzzz...

Me: Sigh... OK...

Alarm: BUUUUUUZZZZZZZ....

Me: Now we HAVE to get up.

Legs: No! Sleep!

Me: I'm getting up and you are coming with me whether you like it or not.

Legs: NO!!! 15 more minutes!!
(At this point, it is a toss up who will win)

Me: Alright, 15 more.

Legs: Zzzzzzzzz

Alarm: BUUUUUUZZZZZZZ...

Me: Dang it! Now I don't have time.

Legs: hehehe

Me: We are so running this afternoon!

Legs: Yeah right!

Ads everywhere!

The hubby bought me a GPS for my birthday recently. It displays ads when I near my destination. Ads!

Is anyone else as annoyed about this as I am?

Biggest Loser 2010 Round 2

Starting at the first of the year, IT has a Biggest Loser contest. To get in on it, you have to contribute $20 to the pot o' winnings. I had been carrying around more weight than I like so I threw in my $20 and hoped I could get motivated this time. You see I had joined these things before and didn't take it seriously and therefore didn't even have a shot of winning.

This Biggest Loser contest went on for about 3 months and I didn't win 1st place. 1st place was taken by a guy that I'm convinced drank water and ate air for the whole time. I cannot subsist on air for more than about an hour so I ate Lean Cuisines at work and then cooked healthy dinners in the evening. I came in 2nd and won a respectable $100 or so (I don't remember the exact amount). To win 2nd place I think I dropped about 17% of my weight meaning when I decide I want to lose weight, I'm pretty good at it.

What I'm not good at is keeping it off... I have not gained all of that weight back but 8 pounds of it found me again. I blame summer and ice cream! The Biggest Loser competitions at work that I have been involved in have always been just IT people. The latest one is a whole company competition where they have asked us to gather a team of 4 people to compete rather than an individual competition. I was excited to see that we were doing this until....

I can't find a team! I was told I was too skinny. Now while most people would consider this a compliment, I see it as a challenge! I have started my own personal Biggest Loser competition. You may be wondering how this will work... What are the rules, you ask? Well, my goal is to lose more than at least two people on the team that called me too skinny. What do I win? The thrill of being right!!

I think there might be something wrong with me mentally... Oh well... whatever it takes to get me motivated I say. Now off to avoid eating ice cream and cobbler at the IT monthly birthday celebration.

Starting weight: 152.5

Jinxed

Have you ever felt like you were jinxed? Well, maybe not so much you but something that you owned... I knew a girl once who bought a cute little car and loved it at first. And then all of the incidents started... someone broke into it, someone hit it while parked, someone hit it while she was driving, etc. None of it seemed like it was her fault really. Stuff just kept happening to it until she gave up and got rid of it.

I was always a little skeptical of her theory that the car was jinxed. Well that is until now. I'm convinced my car is jinxed. Bad stuff has been happening to it since the very beginning and I'm just about over it!

It all started out good. About 3 or so years ago the hubby and I decided I needed a more practical car. He was traveling a lot and I was often having to haul around the teenager and her friends. This is not easy to do in a Miata and I was always nervous driving around his behemoth of a truck because it was his baby.

We started looking around and I was leaning towards a Volvo C70 because if I was going to have to drive a practical car, it was at least going to be a convertible. Then the gas prices shot up to $3/gallon and we didn't know if it would stop going up... Suddenly going from a car that got around 30 miles per gallon to one that only got 21 seemed like a bad move. So we were back to the drawing board looking for practical cars with better fuel economy.

I had never been a fan of the Mini in the past but it fit all of my qualifications. Backseat... check, fuel efficient... check, fun to drive... check, convertible option... check! So we went to the Mini dealership nearby and test drove a few cars. Here is where things really started going wrong. I didn't realize it at the time but looking back it's obvious. While I was drooling over the Mini Cooper convertible, my husband kept dragging me back to the Clubman (no convertible).

Him: Look honey... there is so much space! It's so much more practical!!
Me: But there is no convertible.
Him: But we will be able to travel in it and save money on gas.
Me: But there is no convertible!!

Then there was the color. I was naturally attracted to the red and black Clubman but someone (I think it was the salesman) talked me into the blue and silver one. Certainly not an ugly car but not what I was attracted to. Basically this purchase wasn't right from the beginning but I didn't think much about it and was happy as I documented here.

I have a new car and I'm pretty happy... and then it happened. A rock hit my windshield hard and the first rock chip occurred on my windshield. It was only about month into my ownership. A week later the second one happened. Only about a month later another one happened but I didn't know about it because it was behind my rear view mirror. As I was considering getting the first two fixed, a long crack developed. I priced a new one and decided that at $600, I would live with rock chips and cracks in the windshield. There have been two more develop since then.

After several of the rock chips happened, I was driving home from meeting my friends after work. The car in front of me drove over a large piece of tire rubber and it flew up. It was the kind of big object flying at your head that makes you instinctively duck and briefly close your eyes to wait for impact. It smashed into the windshield on the passenger side with a loud smack. I opened my eyes back up fully expecting the windshield to be smashed in. It wasn't... WHEW!!! I looked to my passenger side mirror change lanes... where's my mirror??? It was GONE. Not hanging on for dear life but completely missing! I documented my experience with Mini service center in this post.


OK, so we got all of that craziness over with. Surely I've been through enough, right? Ummmmm.... spoke too soon apparently. I am accustomed to cars with trunks. I put my groceries in the trunk and all is well. This car doesn't have a trunk. It has a little space behind the backseats instead. Most of the time this little space is sufficient but sometimes I need more room so I drop the seats down and I have a massive area to carry groceries. Sounds great, right?

It is great right up until you have to make a sudden stop and all of your groceries come flying and hit the back of the front seats. It had happened several times and I had become used to this. So when it happened after a big grocery trip, I just did what I always do and picked everything up from the backseat floorboard and take it in the house. Or so I thought... Do you know how bad chicken smells when left out of the refrigerator for 3 days? I do! Oh and I also know that it takes well over a month for that smell to fade away.

It happened again with laundry detergent that flew to the front. Not a bad smell at all but when the container breaks open and spills in the other floorboard, it's not good. Do you know how hard it is to get laundry detergent out of your car's floorboard? I do (or actually my hubby does)!

So far I've had really bad chicken smell then good but overwhelming laundry detergent smell in that car. We have covered inappropriate smells in the car, right? Nope! Just a few weeks ago some sort of awful dead animal smell would occur when the air conditioner was turned on. It's Houston in July/August. Turning on the air conditioner is not optional. It's a requirement for survival. Great! Another new and exciting smell!! The smell seems to be gone now so the animal that decided to crawl into my air conditioner and die has taken it's little zombie butt somewhere else thankfully.

Adding to all of the above... the rear door inside panel falls off randomly (the dealership doesn't see any reason why), the cigarette lighter tries to disassemble itself when I remove my phone charger, the metal piece on my parking brake falls off when I engage the brake, and one tire wears funny (the dealership also can't find a cause for this other than the tire is being run low which I recently took the car in to have them check and they can't find anything wrong with the tire either).

My car is jinxed!

Help me!!!

Conventional wisdom says that if your husband is snoring that you should nudge him a little and get him to turn on to his side. He is then supposed to cease the snoring. My husband just turned off the TV, rolled on his side and within 20 seconds started snoring! I'm not really sure where to go from here... gag... separate bedrooms... HELP ME!!! I CAN'T SLEEP!

As an added bonus Max is in his kennel in the living room where he always sleeps whining like his is being tortured. Yay! Good times!

On the upside of today, I weighed in for my biggest loser competition and I had dropped 5 pounds in a week. I know that half of that is probably water weight but I'll take it! :)

One more time

So I'm going to try again to get back into shape and eat a little more healthy. You may wonder why I keep doing this to myself. I can tell you exactly why it's happening now and it has nothing to do with New Year's resolutions. I realized the other day that not only are we going skiing on March 12th (merely two months away) but I've also signed up for the MS150 again. I need to get in shape QUICK!

I'm probably in the worst shape I have ever been in and I want that to change! I have decided to make appointments to do things like the stairs at work and spinning classes or running. Today went well. I ate quite a bit better than normal. I did go to Starbucks but rather than the Caramel Macchiatto that I wanted, I got the Skinny Cinnamon Dulce Latte and it was really good! Then after work I went straight to the gym for a spinning class. The class was a lot of fun and I think I might be able to go at least twice a week.

Oddly enough, my coworkers decided to start the biggest loser contest again and I joined that hoping it would keep me motivated. It didn't work last time but you never know what might motivate me so I'm trying everything! :)

Favorite Christmas Recipes

When I was growing up my mom made homeade desserts, candy and cookies a lot. Sure we had the occasional package of Oreos but most of the time it was awesome recipes that she got from my grandmothers or found. At Christmas though, she would really step it up. Here are a few of my favorite candy recipes that she made almost exclusively during the holidays.

Peanut Clusters

1 6-ounce package Chocolate Chips
2 6-ounce package Butterscotch Morsels
12 ounce Salted Peanuts

Heat chocolate chips and butterscotch morsels on medium 6 or 7 minutes. Stir after 3 ½ minutes. Add peanuts and drop on wax paper.


Peanut Patty
3 cups Sugar
1 cup Water
1 cup Light Corn Syrup
2 cups Peanuts, raw
1/4 teaspoon Red Food Coloring
1/2 Butter pinch Salt

Bring sugar, water, and syrup to boil. Add peanuts and color. Cook until hard ball stage. Remove from heat. Add butter and salt. Beat until mixture is too thick to beat, pour onto greased cookie sheet. Break into pieces when cool.



Grandmother Batte's Chocolate Fudge

Note: this is the best tasting fudge I've ever had but it's also the hardest fudge recipe to get correct. I cannot give any guarantees that it's going to harden up properly. However we have been known to eat it with a spoon if necessary. Oh and don't attempt this one on a humid day or it's guaranteed to not harden.

3 cups Sugar
1 cup Milk
1/3 cup Cream
5 tablespoon Cocoa
3 tablespoon Light Corn Syrup
1 tablespoon Butter
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Pecans

Combine sugar and cocoa. Stir milk and cocoa mixture in saucepan. Add Karo syrup. Stir until dissolved. Cook on low flame until soft ball stage. DO NOT STIR WHILE BOILING. Remove from heat and add butter. Cool until saucepan can be held on hand. Add vanilla and beat until creamy. Add pecans. Pour in buttered pan.

Crawfish Étouffée

So I'm a Texas girl through and through. I didn't even grow up in Houston where Cajun and Creole cuisine is common. So when the Louisiana born and raised hubby started requesting that I cook things like gumbo and étouffée, I panicked a bit. What do I know about making a roux? So I decided to start doing some research.

I found The Cooking Bride blog which recently featured a gumbo recipe that looks pretty yummy not to mention many other recipes that looked good as well. However what I was really in the mood for étouffée. So I kept searching and ran across squirrel bread. She blogged about a foodandwine.com recipe for Shrimp Étouffée. She suggested some modifications to make the recipe more authentic. I made it into a crawfish étouffée since I have an abundance of crawfish in the freezer.

I'm not sure I want to turn this blog into a cooking blog because I want to be able to talk about whatever moves me. However, I think I want to start sharing the recipes that work out well for me. This étouffée recipe got two thumbs up from the hubby! If I get more motivated, I will try to photograph my creations in the future. Today you will have to live with just the recipe and my word. :)

Follow the link for the original recipe: Shrimp Étouffée. Below is my version:


Crawfish Étouffée

Yields: 4 Servings

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 cups canned low-sodium chicken broth or homeade stock
2 tablespoon Tomato paste
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1/2 tablespoon Garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 1/2 pounds Crawfish
2-3 scallions including green tops, chopped
Rice, boiled or steamed

Instructions
In a large frying pan or Dutch oven, heat the oil over moderate heat until almost smoking. Add the flour and whisk until it's the color of peanut butter, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the broth and continue whisking until the sauce starts to thicken, about 2 minutes. Whisk in tomato paste.

Stir in the bell pepper, celery, onions, garlic, bay leaf, salt, cayenne, black pepper, and thyme. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook over low heat until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the shrimp and scallions and simmer until the shrimp are just done, about 3 minutes. Serve the étouffée over the rice.

Confirming that everything is in fact better with bacon

Bacon flavored chocolate. YUM!

Fun With Hackers

Today a friend's facebook account was hacked. I found out because my "friend" sent me a message through the facebook chat.

I was a little surprised to hear from her since we had pretty much lost touch after she moved back to Oklahoma except through facebook. However I'm always happy when I do get a chance to talk to her so I entered a conversation with my "friend." Here is the conversation with my friend Teri:


Teri
hey Carol!!!
you there?
12:41pm

Carol
howdy!
12:42pm

Teri
I'm in a kind of mess at the moment!!
12:42pm

Carol
whats up?
12:43pm

Teri
I'm stuck in London right now!
12:44pm

Carol
there could be worse places to be stuck I suppose... what are you doing in london?
12:47pm

Teri
I had a visit to resort on vacation in london and get mugged at a gunpoint
12:49pm

Teri
you there plz come online
12:49pm

I'm getting skeptical but I want to make sure it's not actually my friend. If it's my friend, she will ask me to call someone for her so I'm going to play along to see where this is going.

Carol
holy cow!
that's awful!
12:49pm

Teri
all cash, creditcards and my cell phone was stolen off me
i'm freaked out..\

I'm starting to anticipate that there is going to be a request for money and start googling "facebook scams." Still playing along though.

Carol
wow... I was so scared that would happen to us when we were over there. Can the embassy help?
12:52pm

Teri
yes
still thank God i still have my passport..
12:52pm

Carol
that's good... I was about to ask
where are you right now?
12:54pm

Teri
in a public liabrary
my return flight leaves few hrs from now but am having problems sorting some bills..
12:57pm

Now I know it's not my friend. Again if I was the only person she was able to contact, I could see her asking me to get in touch with her family. Now I'm just waiting for the request for money.

Teri
Carol i want you to send me few $$
1:01pm

And there it is. I want to warn my friend of her account being hacked so I run off looking for her old phone number hoping that she hadn't changed it. She had unfortunately. So I emailed her and tried to contact her on her yahoo IM to see if she is online.

Teri
?
you still there?
you still there?
1:02pm

After some discussion with the college student about how she had just heard about this scam, we decide to have a little fun with the hacker. I come back but the hacker had gone offline. I was disappointed!

Teri
?
Teri
what happened?
??
1:21pm

Hooray! The hacker comes back online but I'm not positive if it's really my friend or the hacker. If it were actually my friend she would reference the email I had sent her about the facebook hack.

Carol
what happened with what?
1:23pm

Teri
you were not talking..
1:25pm

Whew! It's the hacker! Opportunity for a little good clean fun.

Carol
Oh sorry! I was checking and I really haven't got any available cash right now! But I did call my friend, Brittany. You remember her?? She just moved to London!
1:26pm

FYI, my friend and I never had a mutual friend named Brittany.

Teri
how much can you spare me as we speak..
1:27pm

Hacker is obviously trying to get away from the discussion about our mutual friend.

Carol
I've got nothing but Brittany said she would help! Give her a call 02072431619
1:27pm

The number is a tattoo parlor in London. My apologies to Portobello Tattoos and Piercings if the hacker actually called. I'm guessing they didn't.

Teri
ok
1:28pm

Carol
Let me know how it goes!

I was hoping for some continued conversation but alas, it was not to be.

A bit later my friend really did come online to give me and I assume a few other people the following message: "Holy crap, someone hacked into my FB account. I'm not in London and I'm not being held for ransom." A bit scary for her to be hacked but it did provide me with a little bit of Friday afternoon entertainment.

The Mister of All Weebles!

Alternate title: Things that cheer me up - Part II

A little background... This is a video that my sister-in-law took of my niece. She is performing the dramatic spindle scene from Sleeping Beauty. I particularly like her evil laugh at the end!

In case you are not up on your Disney classics, here are the subtitles:

[Ominous music]
"Touch the spindle, touch it I say!"
"You simple fools. Thinking you could defeat me, ME, the mistress of all evil."
"Well here's your precious princess!"
[Evil laugh...]




In case you would like to do a comparison you can find a clip of the scene here:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4000710681/

I may be a little biased but I like my niece's version better.

Boooo Boooo Liar Boooo

Alternate title: Things that cheer me up!

I told you not to chew on your bandages!

What a difference a day makes

The bayou yesterday as I was driving home (the result of about 12 hours of torrential rains)

The bayou today as I was driving home