Sleeping Drunken Disease or I had a Virus

OMG! I have been plagued with the sleeping drunken disease for the past few days. Today I am pleased to say that while I slept in late and stayed in bed until about noon, I have been able to stay awake all afternoon and even did a few chores like empty the dishwasher and take out the trash. I suppose I should back up a bit.

Monday - I had noticed that whenever I moved or walked - the room spun around like the tilt-a-whirl rides at Disneyland (I'm old school) or when you are plastered. I had worked the am but hadn't need to drive anywhere - and furthermore - I don't think I could have driven anywhere. The feeling was disconcerting to say the least. So Tuesday when I was still on the tilt-a-whirl ride without buying a ticket, I decided I should go chat with a doc about it. I had to call one of my friends to drive me. (Thanks to Tiff for the ride and the catching up lunch. The cats thank Tiff for the much needed cat food.) Long and the short of it was that the substitute doc (my guy was out) was a semi-retired guy who after several tangents and stories about his house and his stroke, he determined I was suffering from a good old fashion virus affecting the upper respiratory system and my balance. He told me to take my low grade fever home - fix myself a hot toddy with my choice of brandy or whiskey, some hot water and lemon, crawl into the cave and sleep it off. I slept for most of Tuesday afternoon and a good portion of Wed. From time to time, I would drunkenly stumble to the couch for a movie or to the kitchen for some OJ & sudafed. (Thanks, MaryK for the OJ delivery and for letting my dog molest you for a few minutes. She loves you more than cat poo.) I didn't turn on the phone or computer at all on Tuesday. WHAT?! I slept, watched a movie and slept some more.

This afternoon - I am happy to be working on laundry and am going to be putting clean sheets on the bed in about 1/2 hour. I love clean sheets. And having the energy to change my bed - means I am on the road to recovery. And while my to do list for the week has fallen apart, I have gotten some amazing sleep and didn't even need the toddy to do it.

Cute as Buttons!

Circa 1998 - Duke on the left & Damian on the right. And, yes, Duke has a pocket instead of a hand.

Cold & Windy Winter's Tale

Last week when the night time temperatures were in the teens, I took to my bed warmed by my electric blanket and snuggled in nice and tight. I am a side sleeper and this night was no different. Dagny having done 3 perfect circles and landing in a perfect ball with just a few wiggles to get perfectly snuggled in the crook of my legs was happy to share the warmth. Butt to butt we were with her head on my ankles. Newman was curled up just below my chest purring very loudly and happy to have the additional warmth of the blanket. Sadie was snuggled up against my back in the perfect position to stay warm and deny there was a dog and Newman in her space.

I don't mind telling you it was a piece of heaven. My version of a 3 dog night. I was warm and happy and ready to drift off to sleep.

Suddenly without warning, I farted. Loudly. In one fluid movement, Dagny flew off the bed and headed out of the room. It was as if the force of the wind had propelled her from her spot. I started laughing. Dags has really silent but lingering gas from time to time. AND this is the dog that would eat cat-poo if I let her. But I had offended. Dazed and confused she wondered down the hall trying to figure out what to do. She returned quickly because my 1920's house is cold in the winter and the floors are bitter cold. Not much of time for a princess to roam the hallways and pout. Dagny quickly gained her wits and returned to the warmth of the bed. She hoped up and did three perfect circles before plopping down into the perfect sleeping ball and snuggled against me. But this time she chose to snuggle her butt to my shins safely blocked from the wind of a cold winter's night.

Green for the Green, No. 2

I found this site - Catalog Choice. It allows you to opt out of receiving magazines. The service is free and the best part is that you can opt back in on the magazines at any time. You pick which magazines you want and which ones you don't want so you don't have to give them all up! But it is one less thing to recycle! And for me, I feel the need to look through them before I toss them regardless if I need anything in the mag or not.

Update on the bio bags. Go here for a refresher or info on ordering. The trash bags work pretty well though you can't over stuff them like I have done trash bags in the past. And they don't take a lot of weight. Getting rid of the heavy and numerous catalogs should help with the weight though. I still put a lot of things in the bags that probably don't break down - like cans from the cat food but we are working on that one.

Range Hate

I have now yet another reason to hate my range. Everyone is always impressed at the look of the Jenn-Aire but it has been the most frustrating contraption EVER. Okay maybe not ever - but right now this is my tantrum and my blog so EVER.

I started a pot roast today before heading out to my open house. I have a new All-Clad slow cooker that I received from my parents for Christmas. I LOVE it. It really is useful when you have a crazy job with crazy hours like I do. I can start something and run out for few hours and know I have not burned the house down. I love my dutch oven - also a Christmas gift from my business partner, Tacha - but you have to be home to use that because it is not a good idea to leave the oven on or the stove on when you are not here. The dog would not have the disruption of the fire alarm killing her ear drums.

Back to the pot roast. I stumbled upon a recipe of sorts in The Cook's Best Recipe book for Corned Beef and Cabbage when I got the dutch oven back on the 22nd of December. In my exuberance to cook - I had not properly read the instructions for the Corned Beef that had the beef in a rub for 7 days. HELLO - I wanted corned beef and cabbage that day! So, I decided I would just cook the beef and add the vegetables and it would be like a pot roast. Whole Foods was out of cabbage that day, so I grabbed brussel sprouts and some turnips along with my onions, red potatoes and carrots. I loved the Cook's recipe for Corned Beef and Cabbage because you could use lots of root vegetables and pick which ones. For me it was a great mind opening experiment into how much I love root vegetables in pot roast! I ended up with the best pot roast EVER that day.

So back to today's pot roast. I decided today that I would make a pot roast which for me is now lots of broth and lots of veggies. Today I did find cabbage but no fresh brussel sprouts. I added turnips, onions, red potatoes and carrots. The slow cooker quickly began to be too small when I began adding my veggies. So - I decided to transfer the food into the dutch oven and finish it off. Now the dutch oven - is BIG - about 9.5 quarts I think. And by the time I had made the transfer and added all the vegetables, it was FULL. And now we are really entering into the frustrating part of the tale.

While loading the dutch oven into the oven, the weight of the dutch oven knocked down the rack in the oven off track. The rack is wedged and I can't get it out or back on track. So it is just sitting out blocking the door and I can't close the door. I have tried to nudge it but have done nothing more than scrape scratches in the finish of the oven insides. Now there was no disaster with the dutch oven or the food just the rack forcing the door to the oven to remain open for eternity. I have tried it several times and don't want to risk knocking over the entire range with my force of frustration especially with my pot roast on the open flame above. Hopefully I won't need to get into the cabinet that the door is blocking and hopefully the cats won't wonder in there thinking it is a nice warm spot.

I am thinking this is funny. And if the inside of the oven wasn't so dirty I would shoot a picture. I will work on the door in the am over coffee perhaps.

UPDATE ~~~I did get the oven rack out last night and the door shut. I still have don't like the range and youcan'tmakeme.

A special prayer

Dear God,

I would very much like to have a snow day this weekend. I know you have a lot to do, but if we could just have some beautiful snow and some roads that should not be driven on - just on Sunday, I would be grateful. I would promise to do some chores around the house as well as catching up on some paperwork/computer work for real estate.

Thank you for your consideration in this manner,

Sincerely - Me & the dog

Good Dog!

My dog can read! I recently ordered her a new bed for Dagny for the den. I spent $6 extra dollars to have her name monogrammed on the bed. It paid off because she read her name and began using the bed - well the part with her name embroidered on it. The other half of the bed is for me. Yup - I actually snuggle with her on her bed from time to time. Dagny is great with a snuggle as long as she is getting her belly rubbed.

It's SNOWING!

Magazines

I love magazines. I start to tremble when I am in the check out lines at Grocery Stores and Drugstores. There I am nose to nose with them and I WANT THEM. I am particularly insane for mags about decor, architecture, kitchens and baths. From time to time I will find myself ridiculously drawn to ones on storage or organizing.

Once I get them home, I read them. And read them. And read them. Well - I look at the pictures over and over because really that is what most of them are PICTURES. Glorious PICTURES with ideas. One of my treats in life is a nice hot bath, some wine or tea and a a stack of magazines. Somehow there is great clarity with my pics in the tub.

I let a stack go over the holidays because it was time. But it was hard to say goodbye. Very hard. But I loved them fully. And, yes, I did put 'em in the recycle bin because that is what I do now. Recycle. But I told myself if I let the old ones go, I could let new ones into my world. The Cycle of Life of Magazines.

Great Cause

Stillwell's is a local casting agency here in the ATL. Stillwell family lost their dad/husband and then son/brother in less than a year's time - like in about a 6 month time. Both losses were completely unexpected and very devastating for the family. They were a solid family and spent lots of time together in the own house enjoying each other's company. In honor of Bill Stillwell and William Stillwell, a Habitat for Humanity house is being built in their memories. Pretty cool way to celebrate their lives!

Funds are being raised for the house and Clark Howard has kicked in some serious cash (like half of the entire cost) and there is a fund raiser in Atlanta to make up the other half - just eat out on Thursday at select group of restaurants. You can also go onto the Habitat Site and just give some money. I am going to send some cash myself and might just try to hit one of the cool eateries on Thursday as well.

The rest is a repost of Mk's original.....it will give you some details.

In an effort to raise additional funds for the "Two Williams Home", a Habitat for Humanity house built in the memories of Bill and William Stillwell this coming January and February, Clark Howard's website is helping promote a Dine-Out night next Thursday, January 10th to assist in the fundraising effort.

Check out the link below and try to make it to one of these restaurants next Thursday and raise a toast to Bill and "Willy".CLARK HOWARDHighland Tap!Alfredo's!i mean, you could just donate money, but you need to eat on Thursday night!or do both! i mean, shit! (remember this is a copy from Mk's post - so that is HER 'shit' not mine!)

Thanks, MK & Randall for information.

Green for the Green, No. 1

I have tried about 5 times to post on this here blog my New Year's Resolutions. It just hasn't seemed to materialize into anything interesting to read. It has read more like a 3rd grader's forced assignment. So - I have decided to just write about the things I want to do as they come up in my life.



One of those things I worry about and have worried about for a while is the earth being taken over by landfills. I am not sure why I stress about this so much and truth be told - I have worried about this for YEARS - long before the mainstream green movement about us. Perhaps in some part Mt. Trashmore has contributed to my knowledge of how much trash we produce. Mt. Trashmore is in my home town of Virginia Beach, VA. We went there a lot when I was a kid. I remember it as one of the really cool things I did with my step siblings on our own and that I was included in participating in (I will probably now find out they were PAID to include me in gas money or something!). I am the youngest of the 5 of us - so being included in anything was awesome. I was probably a bratty 12 or 13 years old and the oldest one in high school or college - so you can see how uncool I was. Much like ATL's screen on the green - during the summer there were movies at night on the mountain. I remember watching Don Knott's Mr. Limpet on the mountain. Good times.



Back to trash. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am trying to go greener. So I would like to try to introduce 12 new green things into my every day life over the course of the year. For those of you sharp in the mathematics - that is only one new thing every month. Certainly doable! I will share with you and hopefully you guys will have something to share back.



My first green thing of the new year is to try these biodegradable trash bags made by Bio Bags. I ordered the pet poop bags, the kitchen bags and the compost kitchen bags from Drugstore.com. They suggest using the compost bags to keep your produce fresher in the refrigerator and then reuse with kitchen debris and compost. I have a composter that I have not been very good about using properly. Will work on that this year too - whoops I just slipped in another resolution without trying!



I will keep you posted on how I like the bags and my return to composting.