Lately though I HAVE used something similar (though not in a commenting sense). Back when I attempted to read Jonathan Strange & Dr. Norrell, I realized life is too damn short to read things that are too boring or too dumb to justify my time. The third parameter is “too gross” which I thankfully don’t come across that often. The first tG; dr I ever found was American Psycho. Disgusting. I didn’t need any more visuals to haunt me the rest of my life besides the ones I’d managed to get through before quitting. *shudder*

Just recently I used tB; dr on Battle of the Network Zombies. It was also a little too gross but I’ve got to figure if I’m a quarter of the way through and the only thing you’ve been able to do is make me mildly queasy (and not at ALL interested in your world/characters) that there’s nothing in the finale that could possibly redeem it. So I quit. I finished According to Jane but I’ve got to include it on my tD; dr list because of the sheer amount of skimming I did. The last most recent tB; dr candidate was The Angel Experiment by James Patterson. It was pretty much awful from page one. I get it was written for a YA audience but DAMN it was terrible. Don’t get me wrong – not as bad as TWILIGHT, just too awful for me to gut through it.

I’m in the midst of The Passage, which started slow but has picked up nicely. I sort of stalled on Between Sisters (Kristen Hannah) mostly because I started it on my phone Kindle app and it’s not my medium of choice. I DID break my $9.99 Kindle book rule for One Dharma by Joseph Goldstein. I LOVE the book and I can’t wait for the Kindle release. While I’m jonesing for a reread of Eat, Pray, Love I can’t see myself shucking out $13.00 for it – especially when I probably have the paperback lurking around here somewhere. Alas, I prefer reading on the Kindle so much that I actually get mildly irritated to have to pick up a physical book.Who’da thunk?

This is not the anniversary I want to remember, but it’s in there with all of them – my parents’ wedding anniversary (November 4) Dad’s birthday (August 17) my birthday (August 20) my anniversary (May 27) my sister’s birthday (September 27) my mom’s birthday (September 14).

I still miss him every day. When someone dies, people always say “It gets better with time.” It turns out that’s mostly bullshit. Sure, I can have conversations about my dad without bursting into tears – unlike the first year – but my eyes frequently well up. The urge to call him on the phone hasn’t subsided.

I try to keep the memories on top the ones before he got sick but really, you can’t just MAKE that happen. For example, I’m watching 2012 yesterday and while everyone talked about what a shit film it was but how good that one action sequence is, everyone left out the farewell conversation between father and son which pretty much leveled me. It was so much like conversations I had with my dad before he died and suddenly I just couldn’t breathe.

There are parts in books or in films or on TV that get me that way, some small interaction or a glance or a conversation and it just doesn’t ever go away.

Do I want it to? Yes and no. Would it be nice to return to that (comparative) innocence before he died. Yeah. On the other hand, it reminds me every single day to let go of the bullshit, take deep breaths, smile when you don’t feel like it. Every single day you wake up is a GOOD DAY.

I haven’t had a dream about him in a while and that feels okay.

I still want to talk to him.

1. The chicken was awesome and (in keeping with RealSimple tradition) very easy and DELICIOUS. The boys were very happy.

2. I dig those fucking SteamFresh things. I’ve probably eaten more vegetables in the last year because of those bags than I have in the last five years.

3. That might be a slight exaggeration but probably not by much, unless you’re counting vegetables on pizza.

4. I didn’t use the olive oil called for in the breading recipe because I use pre-minced garlic that has a smidge of olive oil in it. Turns out the olive oil was totally not missed.

5. Beer is AMAZING.

I’m also apparently having some blog issues with regard to commenting. I thought it was maybe the theme, so I changed the theme and then ran into a whole other bunch of problems so I’ve resorted to IntenseDebate as a temporary solution. I do like that you can use your twitter login to comment so I’m hoping it works out until I have time to poke at the bugs going on here.

Spouse and I are both set up on XboxLive (yay for prepaid cards on sale) so I’m looking forward to LOTS more BandHero.

In unrelated and totally lame news, I bought a scarf today that matches my rainboots. I’m embracing my lame. I’m also considering dying my hair a pinkish blonde, just for the hell of it. That would also, incidentally, match my rainboots although that’s not my main motivation.

I am INORDINATELY excited to find out that other people hate noise-canceling earbuds. I LIKE being able to hear ambient noise. It’s the kind of thing that keeps me from being mugged or hit by cars. While there are definitely times when it’s good to block everything out, I’ve found I can do that by using my attention span/imagination which makes it unnecessary to render myself nearly deaf. Yay brains!

Something I’m not excited about: finding a dentist. I haven’t been to the dentist since we moved to Colorado and I’m working up one hell of a cavity on one of my right molars. I hate the dentist. HATE.

Best news of the week: Colorado FINALLY got around to sending me state certification as an EMT-B (I’ve had national certification since the fall). That means I can finally look for a medical job!

Supernatural was back this week and although I’m only halfway through the ep, I’m stoked. I missed the massive amounts of sarcasm and creepy/scary (not to mention hawt). Mercy is on a par with the sarcasm but balances it out with more humor (and laugh out loud, at that). This weekend’s movie lineup includes: Jennifer’s Body, Sorority Row, The Informant, Tenure, The Princess and the Frog and Where the Wild Things Are. Yes, we are random. I may also do a Yg + Spouse recap of Twilight/New Moon because we cracked me up.

I’ve been reading Finch but I’m not gonna lie, the CONSTANT use of. Fragments. Is Really. Annoying. Probably it’s supposed to convey. Speech pattern. Or tone. Mostly. It makes me want to throw. My fucking Kindle across the room. So I keep putting it down. Listening to Oryx and Crake on my ride home from work each day and it just reminds me how much I love Margaret Atwood. The listen is a refresh before I start In The Year of the Flood (ALSO very excited about).

That pretty much sums up all the immediate stuff. I’m going to do a yoga post before the weekend is out (shocking, I know) but for now I’m going back to my chocolate chip cookies and delicious Coors Light. Shut up, I like it. I don’t critique YOUR beer.

One of our ‘family’ holiday gifts was Wii’s Super Mario Brothers and it’s FANTASTIC. Being able to play two players at once is simultaneously the best and worst thing than ever happened to SM – great because no one sits around bored, terrible because if you’re like me then the other person playing will use your character as a springboard. We’ve had a blast relearning an old fave. For those attempting to play: even though it’s tempting to use two controllers, stick with the Wiimote and skip the nunchuks. The game is MUCH easier to navigate without the second controller.

Tonight I tested out Your Shape for Wii (by Ubisoft). I first heard about the game through an online commercial feedback survey at least six months ago. Having seen the promo, I was anxious to see the reception for the game because it looked pretty awesome. In a serendipitous twist, I entered to host a Your Shape Fun, Fit, and Guilt Free party (in conjunction with the new Jello Mousse Temptations) and won. I got a free copy of YourShape as well as some coupons for Jello Mousse Temptations* in order to test the game (and Mousse) with friends and post about it on the House Party website.

Your Shape doesn’t really come with an extensive instruction booklet (there’s a really short one inside the game). With the Wii off, I plugged in the camera and then situated the camera on the Wii sensor strip on top of the TV. I put the game in and it was pretty easy going from there. You can skip the Jenny McCarthy intro by pressing the A button (fyi) but if you’re not familiar with the game it might be helpful. The idea is that you’ve got a coach inside the game and the camera tracks your movements to make sure you use correct form, letting you know what you need to adjust and when.

Most of the reviews I read on Amazon mentioned that the camera is picky about your motions. I made sure that I could fit my whole body on the screen (which seemed to help) and the only issue I ran into is what seemed to be a slight lag in the camera picking up my motion. Regardless, the 15 minute workout I did was DEFINITELY a workout. I’m really looking forward to seeing if, based on my results today, the game will adjust my workout routine for Wednesday.

I was worried that McCarthy might seem kind of annoying as a coach, but the best thing about the game is that you can set your mood at the beginning: Nothing can stop me, Pretty good, You’re lucky I’m even here. I’m guessing the amount and type of coaching changes based on how you’re feeling. I went with “Pretty good” and it was just enough – not too perky, not too persistent, and the attaboys weren’t over the top. The form in individual exercises was really good. Since that’s a pet peeve of mine- and a big part of the reason I stopped using the yoga portion of Wii Fit – I was really happy to see that. The workout scheduling setup was also pretty cool and the fact that you can adjust your workouts by 15 minute intervals is fantastic.

All in all, I’m very happy with Your Shape. I’m looking forward to testing it out more in the next week but so far I’m optimistic. I’d recommend setting the game up wearing a typical workout outfit. I was in baggy flannel pajamas and I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to redo my profile, now that I know how the game works and what can/can’t be in the field of view. P.S. Your dog will not help your score.

*I’d already tried (and liked) Jello Mousse Temptations so that was just kind of an added bonus.

Tonight’s dinner-cooking was inspired by my email inbox again. I did a variation on Meatloaf Wellington – made my usual meatloaf (1.5-2.0 lb ground beef, 1 pkg French onion soup mix, 2-3 T of A1, 1 egg, breadcrumbs) and after I cooked it for about 45 minutes, I drained the fat. Then I took a package of crescent rolls and unrolled them, layering them over the top (and slightly overhanging the sides) of the meatloaf and cooked another 15 minutes. It was FANTASTIC and will definitely be added to the regular line up. I didn’t make a gravy and, because I knew I’d be using the crescent rolls, I baked it in a small round casserole dish and angled the beef in away from the sides. It worked really well.

The other day I got an email about a southwest chicken bake using green chilis and tortillas. I sauteed diced chicken with the two shallots leftover from Thanksgiving and 1/4 of a red onion, salt, pepper and some cumin. I took 5 small cans of diced green chilis and put them in a bowl with 1 small jar of salsa, 1 can of kidney beans and about 1/2 c of chopped frozen spinach. Just before combining with the chili mixture, I added the remainder of a package of frozen corn. Stir everything together and then I put a tortilla on the bottom of a round casserole dish, filled it with the chicken mix, topped it with cheddar cheese, then continued layering. I topped it with a tortilla and cheddar cheese. Bake for 1 hour at 350. It made enough that I have dinner for tomorrow and leftovers for the weekend, plus a casserole that I put into the freezer for baking later.

Considering I won’t be home from 8am until almost midnight tomorrow, I’m feeling pretty good about my advanced prep skillz. Now I just have to clean the kitchen before I leave for work in the morning.

The old hard drive remains impervious to my efforts to access files. I’m searching for things which will let me at them but in the meantime the only thing I’m really MISSING is my holiday card list from last year. Damn and blast. I was quite proud of myself for having done that, too. This year I’ll upload it to Google docs and save myself this sort of aggravation in the future.

TV this week has been awesome. The Glee midseason finale was about as close to perfect as you get on television, plus a fantastic closing number. Criminal Minds cranked it up a notch by forcing a leadership decision. Also, the killers who want to pretend to date their victims still creep me out the most. The Mentalist was great tonight and it was nice to see the chemistry returning to normal. The odd insertion of a new Red John team didn’t really ever fit right for me but Jane is funny enough that I didn’t care.

I’m still plugging through East of Eden, though I’ve been distracted by work lately and not making as much progress. I’ll take it to job 1 tomorrow and get some pages in while it’s slow in the afternoon.

Mom is headed to Mexico this weekend. I hope she has a great trip – she deserves it. My next (last?) holiday task is to bundle up cookies and mail them out.

The recipe email I got today was for Chicken Souvlaki. I don’t plan my meals a week at a time. It’s not that I’m a picky eater but sometimes you get a taste for something and then whatever you’d already planned doesn’t sound very good. Et cetera. What I do is stock staples regularly: chicken, ground beef, onions, potatoes, cilantro, parsley, lemons. I use coupons and sale papers, and keep an eye out for deals on additional things (crescent rolls in a can, boxed couscous, rice, yadda yadda). What that means is when I get an email like the Chicken Souvlaki one today, I can make a quick (and inexpensive) trip to the grocery to grab what I maybe don’t have on hand and then get cooking.

I first had souvlaki in Greece, on spring break during my semester in Italy. Martha Boomer and I sat in a tiny restaurant in the sun, only a couple of other people in the place, and I ate the most amazing Greek salad and souvlaki EVER. I’ve tried recreating it a dozen times but there must be something in the way they cooked the pork or how long they marinated it or something. While I’ve come CLOSE I’ve never managed to duplicate it.

This recipe was phenomenal. It used mostly things I had on hand – the only thing I was missing was dill so I didn’t bother running to the store. I substituted a pinch of dried cilantro and 1/4 teaspoon of lemon juice. I also used Greek yogurt rather than just plain yogurt. Not perfect tzadziki sauce but pretty darn good. Because we live at high altitude, our cooking time is a little different. I browned the chicken well on both sides, pulled it out of the pan and cut it into much smaller pieces, and then returned it to the pan with the lid on. It turned out perfectly. I also didn’t put olives in the tomato salad as neither Husband nor I are huge olive fans.

The chicken had GREAT flavor and my half-assed tzadziki is a keeper. Because there’s just two of us, we have extra tomato salad and tzadziki so I’ll make more chicken on Friday so Husband can eat the leftovers for dinner.

Speaking of Italy, I spent some time this afternoon framing photos of the area where I spent that semester overseas. I also had some great pics of Rome and Venice that I’m in the process of printing for the dining room.

Tomorrow is another day off so I’m going to pack up some cookies and (hopefully) finish with the pictures. My hard drive cover arrived today, too, so that means Dead Toshiba Surgery!

I say this as I am currently reclined on my sofa, dogosai on my feets, and no power cord in sight! It’s delightful! Liberating, even!

One of the great advancements that’s happened since my last computer purchase is an improvement in the touchpad to eliminate right and left clicks with an actual button. I can do both by tapping the touchpad and it’s GREAT. Don’t get me wrong- it’s definitely taking some getting used to but the new laptop is so far and away better than the old one that it makes me feel like I’ve been driving a Ford Model T for three years and just got a Jag.

The internets are all atwitter about Tiger Woods but it turns out I just don’t care. I’m more worried about when Chuck is going to return to Monday night TV.

Tonight I worked my first training shift and it was pretty great. I’m definitely going to enjoy work this holiday season.

In other internet news: troop levels in the Middle East. Here’s the thing. Back when Hils and Barack were just campaigning for the office of President and we were already embroiled in all this shit, I knew it was a bad idea to start promising troop withdrawal. You know why? Because ANYONE could see that there wasn’t a CHANCE we would be getting out SOON. And by ‘anyone’ I mean ‘people who don’t have access to national security information.’ Why did I say that? 1. Korea 2. Germany 3. Afghanistan

You can’t go into a country, dismantle its government, disrupt its infrastructure (such as it is) and then BAIL OUT. That’s not how it works. That’s pretty much NEVER been how it works. Ergo, there was no chance we’d be getting out early. My major bitch with this, by the way, was that in order to GET a job all the candidates LIED about this fact. They all knew there was no chance of it happening – hell, they all started backpedaling on it DURING the campaign. All I want is for people to be HONEST about it. Be STRAIGHT with people about the realities of the world. Maybe then the country would put on its Big Kid Pants and get a grip.

Oh. P.S. Dick Cheney, you can go straight to hell for saying you had nothing to do with the epic clusterfuck that you ACTUALLY STARTED in Afghanistan as a result of all this Iraq nonsense. Asshole. Hell might actually be too good for you.

And since I went on a political rant, here’s a moment of zen:

I’ve been adding back my favorite software: Filezilla, Zune, Calibre, LastPass and Skype are all safely onboard. All that remains is to resurrect the old hard drive and transfer the bits I want onto my new and dear toy.

Today was eventful, as I also started my new part-time job! I’m pretty excited about working extra hours over the holidays. Employee discounts don’t suck, either.

Tomorrow I’ll hopefully wrangle up some photos – of the house AND the laptop. In the meantime I’m going to keep tweaking the lappie while we watch Star Trek.

Tonight I may start the torte or cranberry sauce – I haven’t made up my mind.

Technorati detail: 7F7AW5GMW9HB and N69SS9HRAVQ9

Coincidentally, in order to make room for a large turkey in my freezer I had to thaw several pieces of meat (steak, pork chops) and figured pork chops love applesauce- why wouldn’t they love cranberry sauce!? Golden opportunity. As a last minute addition, I used some refrigerated breadsticks and Steamfresh Roast Potatoes and Green Beans in Rosemary Butter Sauce. I can’t say enough nice things about the Steamfresh vegetables. They don’t overcook the veggies, which is a HUGE deal for me. What can I say- I’ve got texture issues.

So. Pork Chops and Cranberry Sauce.

Pork Chops, Cranberry Sauce, breadsticks, roast potatoes and green beans.

Cranberry Sauce Recipe

1 bag (12 oz) fresh cranberries, washed/drained

3/4 c sugar (I used white)

1/2 cup plus a dash Tawny Port

1/2 cup orange juice

1tsp (ish) grated ginger (I used the store-bought-in-a-jar kind)

juice of 1/2 a lemon

Place cranberries, sugar, port, OJ, ginger in a pot on med-high heat. You want the berries to boil for about 10 minutes, so once they got to the boiling stage I turned down the heat and stirred constantly. In fact, I didn’t realize until I was already started that I didn’t have OJ so I actually put the other ingredients in the pot, turned the heat on low, and made a quick grocery run. No harm, no foul. When I got back, I added the OJ and ginger. Basically I used the ‘cook until they pop’ theory – waiting until the berries got so hot they began to burst their skins.

I very nearly forgot the lemon juice- important because WITHOUT it the sauce was almost too sweet. After the sauce is done, transfer to a fridge-safe dish. Add lemon juice on top of sauce DON’T STIR. Refrigerate. Most recipes say to cool at room temp before placing in fridge. I didn’t do that, it worked out fine. Then, stir sauce just before serving. It was a perfect balance of sweet and tart. Two thumbs up.

Baked Pork Chops

Heat oven to 350. I sprayed a pan with nonstick spray and placed the chops in the pan. I dusted with salt, garlic powder, and pepper just by eyeballing it. Then I flipped the chops and dusted the other side with poultry seasoning, paprika, and then added breadcrumbs. I baked them for about an hour (high altitude- for those below 10,000 feet it would probably be closer to 40-50 minutes). They turned out JUST right.

I also took pics of yesterday’s cheesy bread appetizers.

Martha Stewart Savory (non-pumpkin) Puffs

The recipe is here, just in case. The background looks a little weird because I cooked them on parchment paper.