Long Day

I find that when the work week is short it seems as if the days are longer than ever before. I will admit that last Tuesday was rough, it didn't seem to go well on so many levels. It was one of those days where the question of will I have a glass of wine, the question is will I have one glass or a bottle? Once I finally got out of the office and home it was starting to turn around. On the drive home I got a chance to catch up with one of my girl friends, Jess. It was great to talk to her and realize that life is going to be OK.

Once I got home I took the pup around the pond for a few minutes.

Let's go... I want to see the ducks

For dinner I made one of my all time favorite meals: Get Yo Man Chicken. This meal has a funny name but both the original dinner and the left overs are amazing. I will admit that this meal takes a while to make but it is worth every single second of waiting. The smells of the Lemon and Tomatoes, so wonderful and just pleasant.

Get Yo' Man Chicken

In case you are dying to make it here is the recipe.

Get Yo Man Chicken
          The recipe originally came from here but I have modified it substantially to fit my tastes

Ingredients
1 Tbsp Olive oil
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 medium onion sliced (unless you love onions then use the whole onion)
1 c. Chicken stock
1/2 c white wine (I used Sauvignon blanc)
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 tsp thyme
1 tbsp lemon pepper
Hot rice

Directions
1- Heat the oil in the pan over medium heat, I would used a high walled skillet since you are going to make everything in this pan
2- Dry the chicken with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper
3- Brown the chicken in the skillet, meat side first (the whole side if they are boneless thighs), turn once and brown the other side. Transfer to a plate to reserve.
4- If there is lots of oil in the pan, pour some of it off
5- Add the onion to the pan, cook until tender, about 3 minutes
6- Add the stock and the wine to the pan (also pour yourself a glass), stirring to make sure anything stuck to the bottom is pulled off.
7- Increase heat and reduce the liquid by about half, this takes between 3-6 minutes depending on your stove
8- Pour in the crushed tomatoes and the spices, stir.
9- Add the chicken to the pan and make sure it is submerged in the sauce
10- Cover and cook for 40 minutes
11- Serve the chicken over hot rice with lots of sauce, if you are not a sauce fan you can reduce the amount of crushed tomatoes.

As I waited for dinner to finished I grabbed a quick workout in the house and then pulled up a book and a glass of wine.

I am obsessed with Sauvignon blanc wine

I read for most of the night... wonderful

To be honest I spent the rest of the evening sipping on my wine and reading. It was so restful and allowed me to step back from the rough day I was having so that I would be able to try again the next day. Lily hopped up on the couch next to me and just snuggled me, I think she can tell when I have a rough day and tries in her own way to comfort me. The rest of the week got better but there were still moments when I was just ready for the weekend.

I hope you get a chance to try this recipe it is one of my all time favorite dinners and the leftovers are truly amazing. Let me know if you try it. Also it does work well for date food if you are cooking for a guy, I have done it and it went pretty well if I say so myself.

I am still alive

I am sure that you have been anxiously checking to see if I have posted anything new last week. I will admit that I found that I had nothing to say, it was just one of those weeks. I found myself wondering why am I posting all of this, I am not funny or witty or really anything, so I spent several days not pouting but pouting.

So I realized a few things in my pout: 1- I like to post random things and if you want to read this great if not that is OK too since this is just for me. 2- I am going to try and post 4 times a week and not get stressed out if they are all at once or spread out. 3- This is going to be a year of adjustment... so bear with me as I figure it out.

One of the blogs that I read wrote a post about how this is Britain and we live here, I am going to adopt this for my life. My life at the moment is falling into two main categories and I am going to just put stuff into and realize that it is OK to be unsatisfied with what I have got going on and to move on. So here are the two main categories

This is singleness and I live here:
I have been single for years and sometimes it is OK and sometimes it is worse than blisters from your new shoes. I think some of this right now has to do with valentines day... really like I didn't just spend my entire christmas break being single and alone now I get to do it again for V-day. I have long loathed this day but as I am single I don't have to participate. I think this bothers me because I want to have a man to do all this cute crap for, however he is lost at the moment so I will let it go. Also there are a lot of times in the new city where it would be fun to go and do something but I am always wondering will people stare since I am alone... probably no so I am trying to go.

This is Dallas and I live here:
Most of the time I love Dallas, recently I have had a few moments where I wonder what am I doing here? Then I remember that I am following his plan and that I should enjoy this. Here are a few things that I am struggling with: shoes... I always feel inadequate about my footwear, I do know this is dumb but hey it bothers me, finding female friends- I had no idea this would be so hard but I am trying things and just plugging away, and finding things to do that I like- this is kinda like the activities fair in college so many choices but I don't know what to choose so I just stand there like a dummy.

I think that I am just in a rough patch with life here in Dallas, I had some great ideas about how this was going to go and so far not a single one has happened. I keep waiting for that great moment where I am going to realize this is why I am here... yeah I still don't know but I have realized that sitting at home alone not trying anything is not going to cut it so I am giving everything a try once. Hopefully when the spring gets here it will get better, I am over this winter (yes I know it isn't really winter but this low lying fog sucks).

Don't fret things are going to get better soon and I am sure I will have so many better things to show you soon. Sometimes you have to go through the dark to get to the light...

Hacked...

So my day was off to a boring end of the day. I am looking forward to going home and I was trying to get several different things finished so that I can head home to the dog... then most of everything went to crap in a hand basket. I got an email from a friend asking why I was sending her strange links, to which I respond with, "don't open it I didn't send it."

The devious link... don't click it if I sent it to you....

Now that I am pretty sure that my email was hacked I was trying to figure out what I needed to do to reset my password and all that entails. Then my boss walks up and goes, what was that link that you sent me? Now I realize that my hacker sent it to lots of people... like professional people. YAY now I look like a nincompoop that doesn't know how to keep her stuff to herself.

At this point I am starting to panic just a bit since I don't know how this happened to me. As I calmed down and went to different sites that are connected and changed those passwords I calmed down but really?!?! I try to be a rule follower most of the time so this is like getting a jay-walking ticket to me. I feel as if I haven't ever done anything to deserve this... and now it is happening. 

Sorry that this is so jumpy but I wasn't sure what I was going to post about today and then this happened... I feel as if I have ruined my day. Oh well at least there is wine at home to console myself from this drama. Have you ever been hacked? Did it ruin you day and make you feel as if you had failed to get things right? I do not like this at all... 

I'll let you know how the wine treats me tomorrow...

Snow in Texas

On Tuesday morning I overslept a little and woke up feeling as if my entire day was going to be a waste and that I would not be able to get anything done. However, as I walked outside with Lily I was treated with this image...

From the back door

Checking out the snow

At this point I was pretty excited because I missed the last time that it snowed in Dallas over Christmas and in some ways I am starting to miss the St. Louis winters. Now don't get crazy not much of the winters but I always loved the first big snow fall of the season, all of the white and pure-ness that happens when the snow falls is very beautiful.

Not too much snow just enough to be cold

You can tell she is super happy

We saw other dogs so back on the leash

Lily loves the snow very very much so I made sure to spend a little extra time with her on our walk. We also spent some time off the leash so that should could run around and play with what little snow we had. It was a great morning and I loved getting a chance to enjoy our walk more than we usually do. The ducks around the pond were very cold but they still looked happy.



I will admit that there were moments when I wished there would be more snow and that it would stick around but then I remember that I live in Dallas and we have no plows and the idea of salting the roads means that they put dirt out. I enjoyed the snow for a while but I am glad that I had a chance to play in it for a few minutes. I am ready for things to warm up a bit so that Lily and I can head to the park and start running outside again but for now I am loving that old man winter has come to visit for a few days.

What do you love to do when it is cold and snowing outside? Do your dogs love the run around until they have a snow beard?

DIY: Kindle Sleeve

Over the holiday break I finally broke down and got a kindle. I really like bringing it to work since it is so light and I can just toss it into my purse and go. I have read a few books on it and I think I will really enjoy it when I am traveling or don't feel like bringing a book or more than one really. I typically just leave my kindle in my purse and toss everything else in the bag. After the first few days I realized that my new kindle had sunk to the bottom of the bag and was in danger of getting lost in there or scratched so I started looking for a sleeve.

As I looked into getting a kindle sleeve I found lots of options online: things that look like a book, something made out of neoprene, and then hard cases. What I really wanted was a fabric bag that can be compacted when not in use and just something simple. I really like to have cases for things that are easily broken, I mean I have an otter box for my iPhone (I will also admit this is the second one as I broke the first). But I think that kindles are relatively durable and the main goal is to keep it from being scratched. I never did find what I was looking for but in the end I realized that I could just make what I wanted.

Ready for travel!

Directions
1- Cut out a pattern from tissue paper, I used 7.5 inches x 16.5 with a two inch flap (add a 2 inch tall triangle to the top of the rectangle)

I will admit that I had to cut out a few pieces and tape them together...

2- Cut out two pieces of fabric using the pattern (I used one printed fabric and one of muslin for the lining)

3- Pin the right sides together, make sure to leave a 3 inch space between some of the pins. Sew two pieces together leaving hole open.

This is where I left a hole and it could have been just a bit bigger

4- Turn the bag rightside out, you should be able to reach into the hole and pull out the fabric. Gently push the corners into points (some people like to use a knife or closed scissors, I just used my fingers). Iron the fabric and make sure the points are not curved.

5- Fold the rightsides of the fabric together and pin the sides up. Remember to leave space for the flap. Sew sides.

6- Turn inside out and sew up the hole by sewing right next to the edge of the fabric

7- Sew a hairtie (or whatever you have laying around) to the point of the flap, I will be honest I don't love how this turned out but I think it will work.

8- Fold the flap over and see where you should sew a button on so that the loop will fit over the button.

The kindle looks super snug in the new case!

Now you have a kindle sleeve. This took me about 45 minutes and I was watching a movie. This got rave reviews at work today and I expect that you are a little jealous that you don't have one. However, I will have a little mercy on you and offer to make you one if you ask. I am super thrilled about this and there are a few slight modifications that I might make if I need to make more.

I am super thrilled that this looks as good as I had hoped, what do you think? Let me know if you want one.

Resolutions

As the new year has already started and I have been trying to think of my resolutions I have realized a few things: this will be the first year that I am not in school, I will have time for fun, and I have no idea what to make a resolution about. I think that I have a tendency to make either low expectation resolutions (ie, no way to fail) or way to high expectations (no possible way to achieve) so I am going to try and come up with somewhat reasonable expectations for 2013. So here are my resolutions:

1- Get Fit
I am going to be honest this is first because it needs to happen, I am not really sure how it happened but there seem to be more pounds hanging around me than ever before. To accomplish this I am going to shoot for 20 minutes 20 days a month, and hopefully 20 pounds gone (well see about that). In addition I would like to try and run 5 5K races and one 10K in 2013. I have a super cute black dress that my friend Barrie gave me and I would like to be able to fit into it.

2- Try new things
I would like to try to complete one craft project per month. I would also like to try at least two new recipes each month. I think I tend to get into a rut and I would like to try and stretch my boundaries just a little. In addition to all of this I am going to try and volunteer a few times, maybe every other month.

3- Self Growth
Now that I have an abundance of time since I am not still in school I think that I would like to spend more time studying the Bible. My plan is to be in a bible study in the spring and fall and during the summer find another one if possible. I also want to try and pray expectantly, I often ask for things that I already have or that I don't think he will give me. I would like to try and pray for big things and wait for him to bring them to me.

4- Explore Dallas
I have been in Dallas proper for about two months and I haven't really been out to do much or really anything. I would like to try and go to one new place: restaurant, park, museum, sports event, etc, a month. I am trying to figure out how to enjoy Dallas since I am here, I don't want to look back on these years and realize that I didn't ever try anything. This will be particularly hard since I will have to have a bit of courage to get out there and do things alone.

As I look at this list I am just a little daunted by it but I am pretty excited about what 2013 has in store for me. I am ready to have a whole year that I am not in school, this is the first time that has happened since 1988. Holy cow this is going to be a great year and I am looking forward to what is going to happen.

What are your resolutions for this next year?

Book Review

If you know me well you know that I love to read, I am relatively flexible about what I read but for the most part I enjoy romance or chick lit. Now there is a wide spectrum of books in this range so there is still a lot of variety even though my focus is kinda narrow. I love going to the library because you never know what you are going to find and if I purchase I book I want to know that I will enjoy it and that I will finish it. However, if the book from the library is bad I just put it down and get a new one.

One visit to the library I happened across a Nora Roberts book, so I snagged it and took it home to read. I grabbed the second book in the Bride Quartet Series and loved it. I have since gone on to read all of the books and as I came across them at second hand bookstores I have gone as far as to purchase the entire set. This takes a lot for me but I really really enjoyed them.

In many romance books the plot is very simple... guy meets girl, something happens so he has to rescue the girl, they fall in love. Now don't get me wrong I love this type of story because it tells me that maybe just maybe I will eventually find someone and fall in love and we will get married. But in some cases it would be nice to have a different plot. In these books there is no hero just four friends who find the men they are going to marry and have very realistic struggles.

I love that these characters are strong women who have real jobs and seem to have had a full life before the men came along. They have real fights about love and who gets what space in the closet and things like that. I often pick one of these books up when I am having a rough day because it is almost like hanging out with an old friend. I don't often recommend books to people because I never know if they are going to like it or be offended or what. In this case these books get the Hannah Seal of Approval. My favorite book is Savor the Moment, it is about a baker. I want to be a baker

What are your favorite books? What books do you pick up on a long day?