Happy Half Birthday to Me!

Today we received word that our townhouse was appraised at $25,000 MORE than what we paid for it 2 years ago---HOORAY! In fact, it was appraised at exactly the amount we'd hoped! So, it sounds like we'll be heading in for a meeting shortly to finalize the refinancing process (boy it takes a while....)

In other news, Graham baked for the first time today! The man has never in his life even made cookies but today, he dusted off the mixer and whipped up my favorite "Better Than You-Know-What Cake." I can't wait to try it!

Now I can hear him in the kitchen creating a gourmet specialty for dinner--a recipe we discovered last year--Scallops w/ a Truffle Oil Emulsion served over Pappardelle Pasta. It is absolutely divine! What a good husband I have....

Meanwhile, I am spending the day on the couch YET AGAIN with a completely new cold/virus. After being sick for 2 weeks, I had finally recovered and returned to work only to find out that my respiratory therapist office mate was sick. So thanks to him (I think), I'm sick yet again! Hopefully this doesn't last for 2 weeks again....

Junk

I went for a walk yesterday morning while most of my neighbors were spending their Saturday sleeping in. For some reason, I was noticing just how much STUFF Americans have. I passed by garages filled to the brim with junk and yards with piles of boards and toys and trash scattered around. I even passed quite a few homes where you could tell that the garage was so jam packed that they had to start stacking excess junk in piles on the side of the house. How disgusting! I wouldn't call me neighborhood ritzy but it certainly isn't the ghetto. It's just a bunch of typical American homes. I came away from my exercise routine realizing that I do not want to live that way and don't ever want to get to the point that I have so much stuff my car can't fit in the garage.
So I came home and began to clean. I only went through part of a room but was able to fill up Graham's entire trunk and part of the back seat with give aways (in addition to throwing a bunch of other stuff away). I am on a mission to go through the entire house, getting rid of stuff to keep our life simple-I don't want to look like these other Americans! Graham had me use the rule "If you haven't used it since we've been married, get rid of it" which actually worked pretty well accept for a couple boxes of keepsakes from my childhood that are here to stay. There is much more work to be done

A Terrible, Awful Sound

So we're doing it again. We promised ourselves we wouldn't. Yet here we are. That's right, we're tiling another shower! I was a bit traumatized by our last tiling experience (although I really wasn't involved in the physical labor, I certainly had to live in the mess for 2 weeks!) I don't think Graham was too excited about the whole process last time either. But, even though we were extremely pleased with the result in our Master, we decided that maybe it wasn't worth the pain and effort to want to do the guest bath, especially since we rarely use it anyway. Well, apparently enough time passed for us to forget what it was like and we got the crazy idea to tile once again. I must say that even though there have been a couple of hiccups (such as dry rot forcing us to remove the toilet and place it in the guest room and realizing the tile store did not have the tile we wanted AFTER the bathroom was already torn apart etc), it going much better overall this time around. Graham and his dad have been having a great time using a new tile saw (hence the terrible, awful sound) and installing new fixtures. All the tile is in place now and tomorrow they will add the grout. It is really going to look great!

So for all of you potential guests, please come stay with us soon and put the new shower to good use! (And be thankful that we didn't chicken out and leave you forever to shower with the ugly, cheap plastic walls that were there before).

By the way, I don't have pictures yet but I'll be sure to post one when it's done!

Great News!

We arrived home from Mexico at 1 AM on Saturday, January 3rd. If this date does not jump out at you, let me refresh your memory: it was the date the boy scouts came around to pick up Christmas trees. Unfortunately, due to our late arrival home and the fact that we had to work that day, our Christmas tree did not get undecorated and therefore was not picked up by the dear scouts. UGG! We were left to our own means of getting rid of it. So, we did what any other person would do--we waited a day, removed the ornaments and then threw the tree on the side of the house (just out of the view of any guests or visitors) and hoped for the best. Personally, I hoped it would just evaporate or that nature would very rapidly work its course and biodegrade it into bark and soil for my garden next year. For 25 days, I had no such luck. Until today, day 26....We arrived home from some errands to find that it was gone! My idea worked! I just knew if we left it there long enough, it would disappear! My guess is that, due to the economic crisis, local Christmas tree farms can no longer afford to plant new trees for Christmas 2009 and have been forced to locate, save and reuse trees like ours. Whatever the case, we're thankful that ours has been removed from our responsibility!

I need help/Dell and I are not getting along

I think my week-long sick time on the couch completely killed the laptop (Dell Inspiron E1505). It worked just fine until Friday when I think it joined me in sickness. I'd been watching a bunch of shows from abc and nbc online to keep me occupied, using the laptop as my "tv." It was plugged into the wall the entire time so I know it shouldn't have been draining the juice more than usual.

Anyway, all of a sudden, the laptop will shut down all open programs and log you out of the current username. It it won't shut the computer entirely down, it just logs you out. Then, when you log back in, a sweet little message pops up that reads "Your battery is still able to charge properly, however, it is nearing the end of it's usable life." Then it gives you a link to where you can buy $180 Dell replacement batteries--thanks but no thanks (it's only a year and a half old!)

To make matters worse, if you leave the laptop or close the cover, when you return, it won't "wake up." You have to completely shut down the computer and restart it again to turn it on.

The part I couldn't understand is why is continued to log me out/shut down while it was still plugged into the wall. Who cares if the battery is dying...shouldn't it still work fine if it has the wall/adaptor as a power source??! I did a little experiment and removed the battery so the sole source of energy would be through the adaptor. Lo and behold, the computer still randomly shuts down programs and logs you out (but it does not give the battery message upon logging back in) and it also requires complete shutdown to get it going again after leaving it for 15 minutes.

CAN ANYONE HELP ME!!??? I am so inept when it comes to computers and doing want to go spending $200 on something that won't fix the problem. Thanks!

Confessions of a Dietitian

Wanna know a secret? Even dietitians do not always eat healthfully. Or at least some don't. Okay, so maybe I'm the only one. Normally, I just LOVE whole wheat breads and pastas, fresh fruits and veggies and yogurt and granola. But it is like my tastebuds become two-faced when I am feeling under-the-weather. I was cracking up today thinking about the foods that sound amazing to me when I'm sick:

-thick white toast with lots of melted butter

-toasted white bagels with butter and garlic salt

-plain white pasta with parmesan cheese (from the green can)

Seriously, that's pretty much all I've been wanting to eat. Notice they are all carbs? It is like my tongue and tummy rebel together saying "GIVE ME PROCESSED WHITE FOODS and nothing else!" Oh yeah and my beverage of choice today is White Grape Raspberry Juice with a "shot" of 7-UP (for the record, the juice is 100% juice so I'm practicing at least one thing I preach....)

Hopefully my diet will return to normal shortly (although I must admit I'm LOVING eating a few pieces of white bread here and there--a real luxury for me!)

Whine

I'm feeling a bit under the weather and it is driving me nuts! I am so not a good sick person. A lot of people would welcome the opportunity to lie on the couch all day and watch tv but not me! I don't mind a little of it here and there but not 3 days worth! I started filly icky on Friday night (sore throat) and it is slowly progressing into sinus congestions, overall aches and headache. Graham says he's been able to tell when I've fallen asleep the last couple nights because I start moaning (probably because I can't breathe and the tickle in my throat sends me into coughing fits). Poor guy! I guess I've been keeping him up...

On another note, I went in to the doctor to have my thyroid and some other labs checked because I lost over 6# between Thanksgiving and New Years without really doing squat. So I thought I should make sure my thyroid hadn't flipped on me and caused the weight loss. Turns out that everything is peachy keen, including my hematocrit. I thought for sure it'd be low because the last time I tried to donate blood (in high school), they wouldn't let me because I was anemic. I guess my diet over the past 8 years fixed that issue...Anyway both Graham and I were really bummed not to receive copies of the labs...we're such medical nerds! I'm sure we'll be asking for copies the next time I go in.

Hope everyone else is staying healthy and NOT catching this icky cold/flu bug.