Today’s topics include the weather, health, and some kick ass recipe, because I like to mix it up and keep it real.

Today we woke up to temperatures of high 60’s. Meaning that today took me an extra 15 minutes to dress, because I had to venture over to the “other” closet and pick a jacket to wear. Let me write that down again:  A.JACKET! People, I dance all over the room sporting the jacket.  No more hot days, no more humidity, no more, no more, its gone bye-bye.

Whooo Hooo!

Times like this I love like living in Florida.  The rest of the time?  Not.so.much.

In other news, it’s been almost a week since the doc told me to STOP.TAKING.THE.PILL.  And Internet let me tell you, I feel like 100% better. I’m not so tired anymore, I sleep better, and I’m actually craving REAL food, not crappy food, but food that is good for me, the one that makes my insides work. And my mood? Obviously has done a 180 turn. Tom, would like to kiss the doctor right now, because according to him “I’m back”.

Yes, I feel much, much better. Which is good. Because, October is going to kick my ass. Its like the sea has opened up and my calendar has become the popular girl in school. I got so much shit going on, I’m sure that by the time November rolls around, I will be shouting for a time out. I got trips, and guest and events and god-knows what else is going to wiggle its way in there.  I guess, I AM BACK.

And speaking of events, this past weekend Tom and I hosted our first dinner party at the house. We cleaned the house, pretty ourselves up and invited a very cool couple (hi guys!) to lavish tons of attention to.  Who am I kidding? It was a chance for me to go crazy in pondering over cookbooks and list making and agonizing over table decorations, dinner party games and… nevermind – I simply COOKED UP A STORM.

And after tweaking here and there, I came up with a great menu. One that I knew was going to test my ability to keep my shit together and not freak out.

I started with a great Aztec Stew, that had lots of chilies, and spices, and took over 3 hours to cook. Which, can only translate to one word:

“AWESOME”!

I decided to pair up this awesome stew with Gnocchi’s, because I like to make things difficult challenge myself. But, after giving it a bit of more thought, I was totally intimidated. I was not sure I could pull it off. I seen my late uncle and nonna (grandmother) make this a million times, and I vivily remember them telling me how easy it was. For real. Handmande gnocci’s? Easy? Not possible.

Apparently I had help from the grave on this one. Let me be honest. Making pasta, and in this case gnocchi’s is not as entirely easy as everyone would have me believe. That’s not to say it’s impossibly hard… not at all. For me it involved a lot of talking to myself, channeling the dead a bit, a chance to throw flour all around, good arm workout and a few hours of set aside for patting it, talking to it and proudly showing off the prefect shape goodness to everyone in the house that would pay attention to me. 

The end results were beyond comforting. The process was super satisfying, and really fun. I made gnocchi’s! My uncle and nonna would be so proud, I’m sure they did a happy dance. I’m going to go ahead and pat myself on the back for this one. Don’t mind me… I will be done in a minute.

I still had to come up with the vegetarian dish and did the most reasonable thing to do. I searched the internet for ideas. And like everything in life, I stumbled into this site 101 Cookbooks and I fell IN LOVE – the kind that you swoon, and cuddle and want to hold forever and ever and never let it go kind.

Just like we all fell in love with the Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash Recipe.

If the stew was AWESOME! And the Gnocchi’s were COMFORTING, the Squash was the dark horse in this line up and it KICKED some SERIOUS ASS.

We ate, we drank, and we talked about the meaning of life. 

Success was all over it, we have to do it all over again.

Random thoughts during this morning’s commute to work

Seriously, how many people need Starbucks at 6AM, look at that line – JESUS.

Lady, the turn signal it’s THERE for a REASON – USE IT!

Should I get a doughnut today for breakfast? I feel like a sugar doughnut, yeah, sugar doughnut it is.

and a latte? Shit, does that match? Who cares I want a doughnut. I should actually eat proteins instead.. but uhh a sugar doughnut, yum!

Holy shit, I don’t have to work on Monday! Thank GOD!

Why are they so many cars out and about?

Stupid yellow light!

Seriously, how many people want a doughnut this early? Could there BE MORE cars in the drive thru? Scratch the doughnut idea. What do I eat now?

Wonder is I can convince Tom for Sushi tonight?

Its pay day!

Remember to pay the rent today, better write that down.

Oh-oh, let the ambulance pass. – Bummer, to whoever needs the ambulance today.

Ohhh, I love this song!

I have to go to the Apple store this weekend

Damn the Powerball jackpot is at 45 million – need to buy ticket and have Tom buy a ticket, let me text him right now to remind him.

What would I do with 45 million? QUIT MY JOB!

Honestly, why do I have to be at work today?

Oh yeah, to PAID THE RENT!

Shit, I need the 45 million!

And a fucking vacation!

Wow, its 79 degrees outside, already? Its not even 7AM! It’s going to be a hot day.

I’m at work ALREADY?

Last weekend recap – in list format

Over the weekend the following good/bad things happened – I wrote it in list format, because it was just chain, after chain of events… and I’m lazy that way….

I have a total of 10 boxes left to unpack, and the only reason they still unpacked is because I’m waiting on Tom to hang the last shelves in the designated office space.

It did not rain on Saturday. Hooray for us!

I sold my bulky armoire for the asking amount with no questions asked. (if only selling property would be that easy!)

I cooked a kick ass Tilapia recipe and impressed the future mother-in-law with my culinary skills – lots of praise followed – felt good - actually felt f*** awesome.

Major car expending averted! Turned out that it took a trip to the corner auto shop, $14 bucks and some elbow grease and we avoided major dealership expending.

It was a beautiful day on Sunday

I left the windows open in my car – you know to “AIR/REFRESH” the car out.

Then it RAINED, because you know, I’m travelling with the “rain doomed” over my head!

Tom FORGOT that windows were open, thus water got everywhere INSIDE the car.

Got home, found out it had happen, had to clean up. Yelled at Tom, when heard THAT lame excuse.

Got LOCKED out of the house by Tom, while I was cleaning the pooled water inside the car.

Called his cell, after borrowing cell from nice neighbors

He did not answer, left really nasty message on voice mail – counted to 10

He called back to tell me … wait for it…

“HE FORGOT”…

He followed with an apology

I did not want to hear it and told him he better haul his ass home.

Had to wait OUTSIDE for him to come back, decided to let it go… but then.. THEN!

Got bitten by gazillion mosquitoes, while waiting for Tom to come back and open the house door.

Then I needed to pee, decided that peeing in my yard was NOT GOING TO HAPPENED.

20 minutes later Tom arrived, opened the door, ran to bathroom to pee and almost tripped over the dog and averted a trip to the ER with some broken bone.

Barely made it to the bathroom!

Then had to run to pharmacy to buy Caladryl or die of the itching associated with bites.

Gave Tom the silence treatment the rest of the night. – it felt good.

Went to bed, woke up and realized that I need to do the whole week ALL OVER AGAIN.

Tuesday, you are doing well so far, don’t you make me sad

The good news: The sun has COME OUT! It has been a beautiful day, one that just cries out for soaking by the pool, with a drink full of alcohol and pretty umbrella on top, while your skin smells of coconut suntan lotion and your iPod plays your favorite song over and over again.

The bad news: Instead of above scenario. I’m at work, inside a poor lighted office, with 4 more ours of work ahead of me and fighting a bit of indigestion from the Crab Rangoon that I had for lunch.

The very bad news: I probably just jinx myself and the rain will be imminent by the time I’m out of here.

Just.you.watch.

Down the rabbit hole of redecorating

Our summer has been pretty spotty so far with lots of rain and instead of cooler temperatures, we have gotten a lot hotter ones. Right now, as I write this (in the office) the weather outside is gray, and wet (rain, rain and more rain) and it’s HOT. As in sticky, uncomfortable, yucky HOT. Oh my god, the hotness is unbearable. And this unbearable hot weather makes you want to do one thing and one thing only… hide under the A/C and sleep it off.

If only we had the luxury of doing that… but we don’t, because we are still in the middle of getting the house ready. Has this become a broken record? YES IT HAS, but there is NOTHING else happening in my life, so suck up my peeps.

But, we are so hating the weather down here south, because, most of the project that we have going at home need major cooperation from the weather gods, since we need sunny, non-raining days in order to work in the backyard by the shed. And those plans have gone to hell, due to the inconsistent weather patters we have been experiencing of late. We had put on hold at least 4 projects that we cannot do inside the house – And it’s driving me up the wall (actually “bat shit crazy” would be a better term) since these projects will give me:

a) shelf’s! So I can put my collection of cookbooks away
b) A finish vanity to store the makeup, jewelry, and knickknacks in the bedroom, making room for my underwear/sock drawer in the already limited bedroom closet.

The projects that have been completed center on the mass building of IKEA furniture we have done. Side note, we have become such experts on this that we no longer look at the instructions; we just KNOW how to build the damn thing.

But all that building has paid off since we have made progress in other areas.

Living room: Sort of done, or at least the component that holds the TV, DVD, Wii, games, and all the other crap that fall into the living room.

Kitchen is 90% done.

Entrance of the house or “foyer”: we decided to turn this small area into a sitting/library area and MY GOD, we just can not come up with the layout that we like, we have moved the furniture a thousand times around the room and we are still NOT happy with the way it looks (NYBoys do you hear that???).

Dinning room is off the kitchen and we have plans for that one, but they are on hold, because we need to build something and of course we need to be OUTSIDE to do it.

The ROOM: There is a room that we are totally on board with and that is the back room, which we named “the room”, because if there is a multifunction room, this one is it. It’s the Laundry room, the music room, the office, the art room, the dog room and god knows what else it’s going to end up being used for. But this room, is done*, (well maybe not the laundry that we put there yesterday).

The Bedroom: The 2 most important things are there, the bed and the TV.. ‘nff said

We of course are not finished; we have not put up any painting, frames, or anything that can be placed on the wall. We have not set out lamps, or any decorative stuff. We have not even painted a wall! We decided to wait for our Design Helpers/insperation (NYBoys and BFF) to arrive and lend a hand in finally whipping the whole house into shape. Because we all been there, any type of redecorating will start with something new needs something new needs something new and before we know it we are down the rabbit hole, into parts unknown.

*I would show you photos of our progress… just as soon as I find the digital camera in the mess!