tidbits

• I have to have a root canal tomorrow and because this is me, it can't just be a simple procedure.  I have to go to an endodontist (I don't even know what that is) to have it done because one of the roots of my tooth has a hook on the end.  I feel like eventually it will be funny that I have hook ended teeth, but right now it's irritating.
• It's funny how our opinions of movies/books change as we get older.  I'm watching Jane Eyre and I have always thought that while Mr. Rochester was a bit of a jerk, he was also a dramatic hero who just needed love.  Now I am realizing that he was kind of horrible.  
• My turkey dinner on Monday turned out well.  I normally brine my turkey, but since I had just decided Monday morning that I wanted to cook it, I clearly didn't have time to do so.  Instead I coated it with a Mediterranean spice rub and cooked it on a bed of apples.  It was/is nummy.  
• I forgot to mention in my Thanksgiving wrap-up that for the first time ever, I ate cranberry sauce.  I don't like cranberries.  Never have.  This year my sister in-law said that she adds horseradish to the cranberry sauce and since I am a bit obsessed with horseradish, I decided to give it a try.  It is amazing what a difference just a spoonful of horseradish can make.  It was absolutely delicious!
• I also forgot to mention that I finally bought a car.  I got a 2008 Ford Fusion.  I feel like it's kind of an old person's car, but I really like it.  
• I am feeling the need to de-clutter.  I hate that it's the wrong time of year for a yard sale.  I also hate that I have no yard on which to have a yard sale.

Winning!

This is what I had for dinner tonight-macaroni and cheese made with powdered coffee creamer that expired in 2009* and boiled shrimp.  There were also some chocolate chips, but I ate them before I took the picture.  Jealous?


*I didn't have milk.

Confessions, updates, nonsense

• My travel plans are coming along nicely!  I was going to stay in a cheap hostel, but then a friend of mine recommended Airbnb.  It's a website that allows people all over the world to rent out spare rooms and such in their homes.  Let's compare . . . for $15 per night at a hostel, I could have a bunk bed in a room with 9 other people in it (most of whom are around 20 years old), share a bathroom with many people and get minimal sleep due to said young'uns coming in drunk at 4am.  Or I could pay $30ish dollars per night for a private room with a king size bed, my own private bathroom and stay with a lovely, young Irish couple who live in a nice suburb of Dublin which is only a short ride away from the city center by bus.  And, to make the decision even less complicated, if I stay with the nice couple, I won't have to bring my own towel or keep my belongings locked up so that other travelers won't steal them!  Happy day!
• The weather here has been a bit crap.  It's snowed over a foot since Friday, which I don't really mind, but my power went off for most of Saturday morning.  That, I do mind.  I think the internet has turned my brain to mush because I can no longer concentrate on books like I used to.  I'll read for a little bit, then have to take a break.  Clearly I have newly acquired LADD (literary ADD).
• Why is it that I always end up with the gimpy cart at the grocery store?  The other day my cart clanked the whole way around the store, causing people to stare at me.  I think a better question may be why didn't I take the cart back and get a different one?  Oh yeah, that's right, I'm lazy.
• The definition of bitterness . . . having to pay several hundred dollars on my insurance premium for a car that I NO LONGER HAVE!  Yes, I know I should just be grateful that I have insurance, but I would be far more grateful had my car not been stolen in the first place.
• Lately I have started keeping a small tub of bleu cheese crumbles in the fridge.  Every so often I have a little spoonful and revel in the deliciousness of the mold.  
• I looked out the window the other day and remarked to my OT on how bad the weather was looking.  Then I realized that I was looking at the grayish wall of the building next door.  
• It took me 3 weeks to realize that there isn't a second room at my OT's office that has exercise equipment in it.  What I thought was a special work-out room was really just the reflection on the glass exit door of the exercise equipment in the room I was currently sitting in.  
• Still obsessively listening to Iwan Rheon.  You can download each of his albums (which sadly only have 4 songs each) for under $4.  It is well worth it. 

stuff

I'm going camping in Wyoming this weekend and I just found out it's going to be all couples . . . and me.  I'm sure it will be tons of fun and not depressing and lonely at all!!!

Here are some random pics from my phone because I can't come up with anything else to blog about:

A friend of mine taught me how to make homemade kimchi.  It has these disgusting looking baby shrimp in it.  Delicioso!

I bought this awesome cat plate at DI for 75 cents.  Money well spent!!!

 I did not buy this Jesus statue.  Look into his eyes!!

 The difference between driving around in Wyoming . . .

  . . . and Utah.

 

Homemade sushi from the friend who made the kimchi.  I admit the thought of homemade sushi was a little frightening, but it was actually really good.  

 

This is how much snow was on the ground when I left Wyoming in March.  I didn't miss it then, but I do miss it now.  It's been so stinkin' hot lately!

 

 The friends I'm living with for the moment have two dogs (the brown one and the black one whose face you can see), and a couple weeks ago they were dog-sitting their aunt's dogs.  For unknown reasons they all liked to congregate on my bed.  While I was in it.  It actually totally made my day.

The cousin of my client who has cancer sent me flowers.  How gorgeous are they!  And how sweet is she!  It's always nice to know you're appreciated. 

an update

Job's good. It's really cold. I'm super psyched for Christmas. Ugh. Alright, I guess I can do better than that. Hmmm . . . let's see . . .

• I'm liking being the boss (well, one of four bosses) at Christmas. I've been getting lots of treats. Of course it also means I have lots of staff to give something to. I decided to do cake balls because I pretty much like anything that has balls in the name. Instead of making them with frosting I used cream cheese. They are so much better this way.
• Netflix is taking up way too much of my time. I started watching The Vampire Diaries and I can't get enough of it. Stefan needs to go, though. I'm all about Damon. Stefan is far too whiney and depressing. He's like Edward Cullen without the glitter.
• I got a puppy over the summer and named her Veronica Mars. She lasted two days and then I gave her away. I couldn't handle the getting up every two hours during the night and the constant chewing of my furniture. It's probably a good thing I don't have children.
• Now I have Walker. He's a treeing walker coonhound. I got him from the local shelter where he had been for a year. He's super cute, but also super pesky sometimes. Today I came home from work to find my 25 pound bag of potatoes strewn all over the living room. He also really likes to chew on plastic food storage containers.
• Someone is doing the 12 Days of Christmas for me. There are few things in life that are better than coming home to a present every day. Yay for presents!!!
• I've been kinda seeing this guy, but I really don't like him very much. I don't not like him, but I don't like him, if you know what I mean. He always wants to talk on the phone. I'm not in junior high anymore-I don't need to talk on the phone for hours. I keep coming up with reasons not to talk to him or go out with him again and I need to just suck it up and tell him I'm not interested. It's hard to blow people off in a small town. The chances of seeing them around town are very high.
  
• I got a little obsessive about Christmas this year and got out my decorations the first week in November.
• I've been doing a weekly game night with some friends. Apples to Apples is a great way to get to know people. People have learned that I rarely go with the obvious answer. I'm all about creativity and humor. If you don't amuse me you won't win.
• It's really cold up here. It was like 2 degrees mid-day today. I always know it's really cold when I take the dog out and my nose hairs freeze and tickle me when I breathe. Since it's been so cold we haven't had much snow and now what snow we do have looks all weird like fish scales.
  
• One of my clients is constantly amazed to see me. I go say hi to her every day and every day she looks at me and says "Kim?!?" like she can't believe it's really me. Then she runs/toddles over and gives me a big hug. Then when I see her later in the day at her house, she is again amazed to see me. It's great.
  
• I'm going to attempt to keep track of the books I read next year again. I tried this year (see sidebar), but when I updated it with a bunch of new titles I forgot to save it. This of course irritated me and I gave up on it. I'll try again next year. Not that anyone ever looks at the list anyway-it's much more for my own information.

Alrighty, that's it for now. I would say I'll try to be more regular with my posting, but I'm guessing it probably won't happen. I will try to update after Christmas though. The nieces and nephew are coming, so hopefully I'll have some cuteness to share.

You make me happy

• Meagan's Bleu Cheese Salad Dressing (1 jar Best Foods mayo, 1 small thingie buttermilk, 1 thing bleu cheese crumbles, 1 tsp. garlic salt, 1 tsp. pepper)
• The British version of Skins. The MTV version sucks.
• Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper
• Italian Sweet Creme coffee creamer over fresh strawberries
• My Kindle
• Free ebooks for my Kindle
• Not having to translate semi-illiterate texts as though they were a foreign language. In case you were wondering, my name is spelled Kimberly, not Kimburley. And if you thought that was bad, let me give you an exact quote from one of dude's texts: "Hears haw it is, plain and simpel." Really? REALLY??? I am obviously not bitter at all!
• A full propane tank
• "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele
• The end of Hollywood's award season. Could the Oscars have been any more boring? (Could I have sounded any more like Chandler when I said that?)
  
• Jimmy Kimmel
• The Cosby Show
• Payday
• Chicken enchiladas
  

some stuff and some grrrrs

• My friend, Emily, came up for the weekend and we spent most of the time up in Jackson, seeing as how there's pretty much nothing to do where I live. Jackson was fun, though. We ate some good food and did some good shopping. At one store we did both. There's this cool new place called Vom Fass that sells flavored vinegars, oils, and spices. Jars with spigots line the walls, and you can taste whatever you want in cute little miniature Asian soup spoons. I bought several vinegars and have spent the last couple days dipping lettuce leaves in vinegar. It makes me feel very cool to have specialty vinegars. It's the little things.
• I just colored my hair again. The color I used is Chocolate Cherry, which sounds like an African-American-themed porn to me. Bow chicka bow wow!
  
• I'm getting a little tired of picking up extra shifts at work. I had a date tentatively lined up for Saturday, but because we are neverendingly short staffed, guess who has to work on Saturday! My boss keeps saying we have to make do until we can find a new employee. I didn't realize that making do was secret code for "You are a peon and as such, you have to work everything that no one else will work, which, by the way, is everything involving a weekend. So pretty much say good-bye to any little shred of hope you had left of having a social life." At least I'm the lead peon, though, right?!? I can't decide if that makes it better or worse. Oh, and all of those people in my company who complain all the time about wanting extra hours, but then will never work extra hours if it's a weekend, are little bitches. (I would apologize for the unladylike language, but I feel no remorse whatsoever.)
  
• I'm off the meat again. I am now taking spirulina for protein. It's algae and it's 60-70% protein, verses the 22% protein content in meat. It comes in powder form and is a gorgeous dark green color. Unfortunately it smells like pond scum. Fortunately, it doesn't taste like pond scum if you add it to carrot juice or Vitamin Water. Unfortunately, it does taste like pond scum if you burp within a couple hours of drinking it.
• I swore I would never be the kind of person that wears Uggs. They're far too trendy and really, they're pretty unattractive. I've been sucked into their web of fugly comfiness, though, and they're all I wear now. My reasoning for succumbing is threefold: 1. They're really comfy, obvs. 2. They're really warm, which is of the utmost importance, here in the frozen tundra of Wyoming. 3. If I wear them under my pant legs instead of having the pants tucked into them, then you can't really see them. Oh wait, there are actually four reasons: 4. As long as I don't wear them with cut-off jean shorts to the gas station to buy Cheetos (with my nasty weave showing, btw), then I feel as though I'm rocking a much classier Ugg-look than Britney Spears, which is who I think of when I think of Uggs.
• I got an AeroGarden for Christmas. I like it a lot. I want like five more of them with which to grow other things since the growing season in Wyoming is about 3 days long.

here's what's been going on . . .

• Work, work, work.
  
• And when I'm not working, I've been enjoying these new tv shows:

(Sister Wives on TLC-more on my thoughts about this show later.)

• I've also been watching and rewatching my niece, Sariah, preparing for when she turns 18 and can audition for So You Think You Can Dance.
  

• I've also been obsessively listening to these songs:

• I've also (since last night) been wanting to make this cake.
• I've also been spending a good deal of time avoiding deer in the road. I saw 24 on Saturday and 17 yesterday.
  
• Oh yeah, and I've also been enjoying views like this:

(None of these pictures are my own. So sorry if you are the person I stole them from. Nice picture-taking, though!)

randoms

• It's sad how excited I get on Saturdays when it's time to go pick up our produce basket. Unpacking it is seriously the highlight of my day. This week we got bananas, apples, Asian pears, green plums, peaches, onions, acorn squash, celery, broccoli, romaine lettuce, grapes, and okra. I also ordered the Italian pack and in that we got red onions, garlic, basil, rosemary, flat-leaf parsley, zucchini, eggplant and mushrooms. I can't wait to cook.
• Lorri and I went to Idaho Falls (The Big City) over the weekend to get stuff for the house. The whole time we were there I felt weird, like something was off and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Finally, as we were leaving, I figured out that there were no mountains. It was disconcerting and it's kind of weird that it bothered me so much. I guess the dominant feature in both Orem and Star Valley is the mountains and when you take them away, it's like taking my security blanket away or something.
• It has been unseasonably warm here lately. Not hot, but like 80 degrees. When your morning starts off around 30 degrees, it's weird to be so warm during the day. I'm ready for it to cool off-I want my hoodie weather!
• There's a conference for developmentally disabled people coming up in October that a bunch of the clients are going to, and I get to go with them. It should be fun. Laramie, here I come! I've never been to Laramie, but whenever I mention it to anyone up here, they laugh. That's probably not a good sign!!!
  
• The Special Olympics are also coming up in October. The clients here are doing bowling and are super excited about it. I love how enthusiastic they are about pretty much everything in life. If ever you are depressed and need a quick shot of gratitude or joy, spend some time with someone who is handicapped or developmentally disabled. They definitely have their grumpy moments, but seeing their faces light up over something simple is pretty darn awesome. It's really hard to be in a bad mood after that.
  
• I also love watching them try to figure things out. They have no poker face. You can see the wheels turning and sometimes it takes a little bit, but when they get it, it's like magic.
  

Who knew?

So apparently all it took to get me out of my blogging funk was some delicious food. I should have known! Last night we had a "Use Up All of the Leftover Produce from the Produce Basket" dinner. I made beef taquitos, Cafe Rio tomatillo dressing, poblano rice and an apple, plum and nectarine crisp. It was all delicious and I am now referring to this meal as my get a husband meal because I'm pretty sure that any guy who eats this will quickly fall under my spell. Or at least his stomach will.

*I'm posting the recipes separately so that when I click on the recipes category, they'll show up individually instead of in a post called "Who knew?"

so . . .

Apparently when I moved to Wyoming, I left my desire to blog in Utah. Admittedly, I've been super busy with work (yesterday I worked from 9am until 1:30, and then 3:30 until 8 this morning), so I haven't had a ton of time, but the truth is, I just don't really care anymore. Hopefully that feeling will go away soon because I do kinda miss it. So until I get back into the swing of things, here are a couple of pictures to tide you over . . .

The place that I work gets produce baskets every week from Bountiful Baskets. Since I go to pick theirs up, I decided to just go ahead and get my own. For 15 bucks, I got honeydew, butternut squash, corn on the cob, tomatoes, bananas, grapes, apples, plums, nectarines, cabbage, romaine lettuce, avocados, mushrooms and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. We also added on the Mexican Pack and for $7.50 we got tomatillos, garlic, onions, limes, jalapenos, and poblano peppers. (You best be believin' I'm going to be making some Cafe Rio tomatillo salad dressing!) This company operates in several states in the area, so I would highly recommend that you check them out. They do this year-round and it's a great deal.



A couple of weeks ago we took the clients to Kemmerer to visit the people who live in another company-owned house down there. Here they are playing at the park there. It was a great park, btw. Should you ever be unfortunate enough to find yourself in Kemmerer, make sure you check out the park.

some stuff

• 27 days from now I will be on my way to Georgia.
• I'm still obsessed with Veronica Mars and still plan on telling you exactly why you should watch this show. In the meantime, I am getting people hooked on it one person at a time.
  
• In the case of my sister in-law, I'm getting her hooked, then taking the DVD's with me when I return to Utah. Sorry about that and I hope you found them at the library.
• I have discovered the joys of Luxe Lavender nail polish.
• I have also discovered the joys of coconut M&M's. In addition to being delicious, they also have a lovely color scheme of brown, green and white. They make me want to decorate something in those colors.
• Some friends are throwing a going away party for me and I am extremely concerned that no one is going to show up.
• Did you hear about the two-legged lamb?
• I'm sad that I only get to hang out with my co-workers (the ones that don't irritate me) for a few more weeks.
  
• "Cold Hearted Snake" by Paula Abdul is playing in my iTunes. I love shuffle.
• I just bought this and this.
• I'm selling my freezer. It's a 21.1 cubic feet Gibson. Any takers?
• I'm also willing to sell just about anything I own because I don't want to haul it with me across the country. Email me if you want something, anything.
• It has been brought to my attention that no one has heard of any of my songs of the day, except for when I'm all excited about discovering a new song that everyone else has apparently already heard and loved. Sorry about that. It's because I choose to educate myself musically instead of allowing myself to be force fed music by the radio stations. No, not really. I just hate having to switch stations all the time to avoid listening to commercials. So basically, it's because I'm lazy and would rather just push play on my iPod.
  

I am currently enjoying . . .

• The Seventeen Magazine Project
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
• The FURminator (Seriously-if you have a pet, you need this.)
• Being outside (Yes, Traci, my deck does count as the great outdoors!!!)
• Tootsie Rolls
• Hoppipolla by Sigur Rós
• Masterpiece Classic's adaptation of Little Dorrit
• the countdown for the season finale of Glee tonight
  

several things . . .

• I just got an ice cream maker and I'm obsessed with sorbet. I've just been making a simple syrup and blending it with fruit. I've done blackberry and cherry so far. Blackberry was better, but both were really good.
• Dinner tonight was delicious-grilled veggies and shrimp. We did leeks, peppers, zucchini, squash and cherry tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes were awesome.
• Just watched Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. It was cute and surprisingly funny.
• I can't believe the season finale of Glee is this week. I hate it when there's a huge break in the middle of the season; it makes the second half seem ridiculously short.
  
• Speaking of, in the last episode, when that horrible person, Jesse St. James, egged Rachel, I may have gotten a little teary. That was just taking mean to a new level.
  
• I'm on a country music kick. I can't get enough of this song. Or this one.
  
• These next couple of months before I move are going to kill me. I'm obsessing about it and time is just not moving fast enough.
  
• I randomly went to Wyoming this week for a night. If ever you are going to be really sick or need medical attention, I would suggest that you do it at St. John's Medical Center in Jackson. It was the nicest hospital I have ever seen. No worries, though, I wasn't a patient, I was visiting a friend.
• I'm giving up soda. Again.
  
• I've been behaving completely out of character lately and spending time outside. And not only spending time outside, but actually enjoying the great outdoors. And by great outdoors, I mean sitting on the deck in our backyard. Baby steps.
  

stuff I'm enjoying at the moment

The soundtrack to Spring Awakening. So good.












Whale Wars



"Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" by Rufus Wainwright




any book by Susan Jane Gilman


baby bok choy



eos smooth sphere in sweet mint

today's highlights

1. I finally got my dress for my cousin's wedding. Also got a little black shrug to wear with it and black heels. I'm not entirely sure about the shoes, but at this point I've already started breaking them in and I just can't be bothered to find shoes that will not only match a little bit better, but that also come in my size and are actually at the store and don't have to be ordered. (I have big feet-size 11. Oprah wears 11 too. And so does Paris Hilton, but she doesn't get to be in my big foot club because well, she's Paris Hilton.)



2. I watched yesterday's episode of Kell on Earth and loved that Kelly and Andrew crashed Tandrew's blind date. If you aren't watching this show, you need to be. Not getting Bravo is no excuse-they put the episodes online.

3. While I was in Vegas over the weekend (don't you love how I just threw that in there, nonchalantly, like I'm this world traveler and have this fabulous life!), I stopped at Trader Joe's because they have a great vegan selection. One of the things I got was a Vegetable Panang Curry (third item down), which I ate today. It was so good. So good. BTW, Trader Joe's needs to be opening up a store somewhere along the Wasatch Front ASAP. If you can open stores in Wisconsin and Minnesota, surely you can branch out into Utah.

4. This actually occurred last night, but I'm still riding the high from it . . . Gossip Girl is finally back after an exceedingly long hiatus!!! And if Gossip Girl's back, that means Daily Intel's Gossip Girl Recap is also back!!!

5. Even more sassiness!!!!

delicious

For dinner tonight I made:

Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

fingerling potatoes
olive oil
sea salt
pepper
garlic
seasoning of your choice

Peel the potatoes and parboil for like 8-10 minutes, then drain. Put them in a baking dish, then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic, sea salt (you can use regular if you must, but I really like the bursts of flavor from the little salt chunkies), freshly ground pepper, and whatever seasonings you like (I used Greek seasoning because it is my favorite of all time.). Cover with foil and bake until done. Mine took about 20 minutes for about a dozen potatoes. BTW, I got a bag of fingerling potatoes at CostCo and it had several different varieties, including a purple one. I thought the purple potatoes were a lot more dry than the others, so next time I think I'll use those for something else that maybe has a sauce with it.

Italian(ish) Bread Salad

good bread (I used a baguette)
artichoke hearts
roasted red peppers
shallots (You can use onion; I had a shallot that needed to be used.)
garlic
tomatoes (I only had regular, but I would recommend that you use grape.)
spinach, torn into bite-sized pieces
olives (I used kalamata, it was just what I had on hand.)
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt (I used kosher)
pepper
seasoning

Rip the bread into bite-size pieces and combine in a bowl with the artichoke hearts, peppers, scallion, garlic, tomatoes and spinach. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar, then season with salt, pepper and other seasonings to taste. I think for this kind of salad, you're supposed to wait a while to allow all the flavors to combine, but I liked the bread better at the beginning, when it was still a little chewy. It definitely had more flavor after it sat for a while, but I didn't like the texture as much. Fresh basil and other herbs would have been awesome in this, but alas, I was using what was around the house and I didn't have anything like that. (And yes, I did just use the word alas.) This would have also been delicious with fresh mozzarella, but that doesn't jive with the whole vegan thing, so yeah.


I'm sorry I don't have measurements for anything. I was just kind of messing around, using what sounded good.

cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater!

So you know how I've mentioned that I've been doing the vegan thing? Well, I stopped by the store this morning to get a banana for breakfast, but all the bananas were green. Do you hear me? ALL THE BANANAS WERE GREEN! And an orange didn't sound good and I can't eat an apple without washing off all that waxy crap first, so I had no choice but to get a doughnut. Yes, that's right, a doughnut that was most likely made with dairy products. My justification was that there was no nutrition label, so technically I didn't know for sure that said doughnut actually contained milk or eggs. I was feeling semi-good about my decision, but then I ran into someone I know. Someone who reads my blog and who has possibly read about me going vegan. And I ran into this someone immediately after grabbing my doughnut from the case. Why, oh why is there always a witness to my secret shame? Now granted, she probably didn't even think about my healthy lifestyle for even a second, and she probably would never have thought about it had I not been blogging about it, but still . . . I knew. Oh, and to top it all off, I'm having a bad hair day due to the water heater malfunctioning. Oh well, the deliciousness of the doughnut made up for it all.

And since I'm being honest . . . when I say a doughnut, I actually mean two doughnuts.

Heaven, I'm in Heaven!

Mark just brought me this breakfast sandwich from Ernie's Sports Deli. It's delicious. And it has 3 different kinds of meat on it. Plus fake cheese and a fried egg.

And now I want to vomit.

And then maybe eat another one because it was that good.

Tastiness

Have you checked out the Pioneer Woman's new Tasty Kitchen site? I'm slightly obsessed with it.