Lisa: 35 x 35

I’m turning 30 this year, a milestone that I think typically comes with a lot of soul-searching and maudlin whining about getting old. Time is going by faster than ever, and I was starting to get concerned about waking up one day as a sixty-year-old, having no idea how I’d gotten there and wishing I’d done more along the way. When I saw Maggie’s list of 100 Things to Do Before I Go, it seemed like the perfect way to take control of the next few years of my life and accomplish some things–big and small–that I want to do for myself. Instead of 100 things to do before I die, my list is 35 things I want to do before I turn 35. I work better with a deadline.

1. Appear as an extra in a movie
2. Attend a fancy-dress ball
3. Be debt free
4. Build a tree house
5. Buy a new car with cash
6. Eat off the fancy china more than twice a year
7. Find the perfect signature scent
8. Fly first class
9. Give homemade Christmas gifts
10. Go on a photo safari in Africa
11. Help someone learn to love to read
12. Ice skate at Rockefeller Center
13. Inspire someone to become a librarian
14. Make Nora the Halloween costume of her choice, like my mom did
15. Meet an honest-to-goodness celebrity
16. Memorize (and regularly use) ten main-dish recipes
17. Order room service in a five-star hotel
18. Own a fabulous designer bag or pair of shoes
19. Paint every room in my house a different color
20. Quit my job and work from home
21. Rent a scooter in Greece
22. Reupholster a piece of furniture myself
23. Sew Nora’s baby clothes or Christmas pajamas into a quilt
24. Sign up for a pottery class
25. Sing in a musical
26. Spend money only on essentials for one month
27. Start a vegetable garden
28. Stop needing validation from other people
29. Tailor all the clothes in my closet so they fit just right
30. Take ballroom dance lessons
31. Teach Nora to knit or sew
32. Walk along the Great Wall of China
33. Wear a bikini on the beach without being embarrassed
34. Weave a rug on a loom
35. Write and publish a book

Sarah: Why I Am Single, a tale of failed car-flirting

Mallory: How was car-flirting?
Sarah: He asked for my number. And I zoomed away. And why am I single? Because I zoom away.
M: Um. You TALKED TO HIM? Whoa. I just smile and think “doot doot I’m pretty”.
S: No, he just smiled at me… and then when I glanced over again he was holding up his phone and pointing at it like “call you?”
M: Ooh.
S: But no, I didn’t talk to him.
M: I think it was a good choice not to give him your number. He was probably sleazy. Just saying. Car-flirting is fun, but I think it is very similar to Myspace flirting as far as the quality of male. Hmm. I wonder if that is a reflection of the quality of female that I am.
S: Lol.
M: ….. I will ponder that.
S: Yeah… plus he wasn’t even driving. HA. I almost just called him a scrub. I LOVE YOU, PRETTY BRAIN.
M: HA! I WAS JUST GOING TO SING THAT.
S: I’m petting my head.

Eight minutes later
M: That “No Scrubs” thing has backfired, because now that song is in my head.
S: Yesss.

Another three minutes pass
M: Nooooooooooo
Scruuuuuubs
Nooooooooooooooo
Scruuuubbs
no no

Sarah: 2008 Cooking Adventure, Week 11

Despite my fear of cooking meat, I decided to brave the carnivorous storm to cook Chicken Adobo (found at Eating Out Loud, via TasteSpotting) for the girls. Let me now insert a preface to this recipe. Before I saw a tasty looking photo and recipe, I’d never cooked, tasted, or heard of Chicken Adobo. I didn’t know what it was supposed to look or taste like, and so my changes to this recipe may have seriously damaged the authenticity of this dish. In fact, in the weeks since making Chicken Adobo, I’ve read a little bit that has made me seriously question if my concoction could even be called by that name.
All of that said, I think it was pretty good. Lots of soy sauce meant that it was pretty salty and I think it’d have a more interesting flavor if I had made fewer omissions in the recipe, but the chicken wasn’t dry and it was easy to cook. Perhaps this means I’ll be cooking more meat in the future. I’m even considering making some Irish Stew (with lamb? How ambitious!) in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. I know you’re waiting with baited breath.
My dumbed-down recipe is after the jump.

Sarah: Moving Recap

Today’s Sponsor:
My move, brought to you by Diet Coke and Dextro Energy.
Whoa. That Dextro stuff completely messed with my mind.

I was nervous that mixing energy pills with my already high soda intake would cause my heart to explode. Oh, and did I mention that I had a cold, so my dinner looked like this:

That’s right. I mixed energy pills, caffeinated soda, and DayQuil. It was awesome (not to mention smart), except for the way that my stomach kept turning.
The point is, though, that I didn’t have a heart attack. I actually didn’t even feel hyperactive and full of energy. I just felt like I didn’t need to sleep. Ever. I think I’ll take Dextro again when I have a long day of work or a long night of studying. You don’t feel frantic, you just feel like you have all of the awake time that you need until your project is done. Or until you’re dead.
Want some Dextro Energy of your own? Well that is too bad, because it’s a European product. So you’ll have to make friends with someone as worldly and glamorous as my jet-setting friend Staci, who lives in Austria. Don’t be too jealous, she can’t help being awesome.

As far as the move, it took way longer than I thought it would, the number of dead spiders revealed when we removed the furniture was appalling, and the whole experience made me a little sad. Blake had to re-pack my garbage can to make room for everything I threw away. My dad lugged my table, couch, bed, and other items, all in his crisp dress shirt and pants. Lisa patiently packed countless boxes, never calling my stuff the crap that it is. David helped me fill up my storage unit. Oh, and Nora helped.

And now almost my entire life fits into a 5×10 space.

If you’re curious about what my apartment looks like when it’s all emptied out, I took pictures (though I forgot to take pictures when it was decorated. Lame!) and put them after the jump.
That’s all I have to say, really. I lived there for over a year and a half. Countless heads have smacked against the low ceiling, many nights have been spent with the tv on as I fell asleep on the couch. Late nights, early mornings (or mornings that weren’t early enough), dates, lonely weekends, and long talks with friends. This apartment served me well, and I hope to find a new one I like as well.

Lisa: local flavor

Just Cook It

A month or so ago, some friends brought over a meal from Just Cook It, and we all made it together. It was some kind of Thai chowder with chicken, and it was DELICIOUS. The idea is that you sign up for however many meals you want (certain dishes are only served on certain days), and the groceries and a detailed recipe calculated for the right number of people will be delivered to your door. The groceries were beautiful and fresh, and we got just the amounts we needed. Just Cook It serves a very limited area (eastern Salt Lake City), and the meals aren’t much cheaper than dining out, but if you enjoy cooking but hate the shopping and meal planning aspects, or if you want to look like a much more accomplished chef than you really are, it’s worth a try! I think it’s a great option for a date or social gathering where the cooking is part of the activity.

So Cupcake

When a cupcake bakery opened up less than two miles from where we live, Sarah and I had to go check it out. The bakery is called So Cupcake, and it’s a very cute little shop in a very ugly building. The cupcakes have cutesy names like “So High the Moon Lemon,” but we ignored that and got several to try: red velvet, lemon, mocha, and carrot cake. They were all tasty, but my favorite was carrot cake, followed by the lemon. The cupcakes themselves were moist and good, but it was the frostings that really stood out. Tasty–and how fun to have them so close! I figure that if we walk there, we can justify the calories of the cupcakes…

Mighty Leaf Tea

Mighty Leaf isn’t local, but you can purchase their tea online or at a nearby Wild Oats. After seeing a recommendation on Mighty Girl, I ordered a sample pack of different herbal teas, and so far they’ve been really good. As Maggie said, they’re a definite step up from most bagged tea, but you still have the convenience of the tea bag. I’ll let you know which one’s my favorite one I get through the whole selection.

Lisa: Kudos on your correct usage of “amongst.” Ugh.

I use plenty of long and arguably obscure words in conversation, so I’m not sure why I got irritated the other day when someone I was talking to used “amongst.” I was all ready to find out he was using the word incorrectly, but a little research turned this up instead.

among vs. amongst

Dr. Grammar: “Both are correct and mean the same, but among is more common.”
Columbia Guide to Standard American English: a few minor but confusingly-worded differences, such as “amongst has a rather dusty-genteel quality…among is often followed by a singular collective.”
Blurtit: “the word “among” should be applied to contexts when people, or things are stationary (they remain in one place), while “amongst” is used more frequently for people or things that are in a state of motion.”

Consensus: Among is more modern and colloquial, where amongst is more formal and British. Other than that, they’re pretty much interchangeable. So…if you use amongst in regular conversation, you will be correct. Pretentious, but correct.

I was similarly foiled when I tried to find justification for my smirk at the large “KUDO” hand-written on a printout of an email posted in the back room at work. Although I did find kudos in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as expected (“praise given for achievement”), there was also an entry for kudo. To wit:

Some commentators hold that since kudos is a singular word it cannot be used as a plural and that the word kudo is impossible. But kudo does exist; it is simply one of the most recent words created by back-formation from another word misunderstood as a plural. Kudos was introduced into English in the 19th century; it was used in contexts where a reader unfamiliar with Greek could not be sure whether it was singular or plural. By the 1920s it began to appear as a plural, and about 25 years later kudo began to appear. It may have begun as a misunderstanding, but then so did cherry and pea.

So, there you go. Dumb people are allowed to just make their own words. And that is why you’ll find me watching Cops in the evenings, pencil in hand, taking notes ON OUR FUTURE.

Lisa: it’s easy being green(ish)

I’m not going to try to justify my choice to use disposable diapers for Nora, but I will admit that I feel a guilty twinge every time we take a bag full of the little bombs out to the trash. I figure the least I can do is try to balance things out a bit by lessening our environmental impact in other ways. As we all know, white people love saving the earth without having to do that much, and I’m no exception. We’re not single-handedly halting global warming or anything, but these things are super easy AND make me feel better about myself.

1. Reusable grocery bags. We have enough plastic shopping bags under the sink to last until we die. Last time I was at Trader Joe’s, I bought a cute grocery tote made of oilcloth. It’s super sturdy, and big enough to hold a decent amount of groceries. We’re getting better at remembering to bring it to the store with us, too.

2. Seventh Generation laundry detergent. Our local market now sells high-efficiency Free & Clear detergent, which is fragrance-free and vegetable- (instead of petroleum-) based. I bought my first bottle the other day, and as soon as I try it out, I’ll let you know how it is.

3. HP print cartridge recycling. When I was replacing the print cartridges in our Photosmart printer at work, I noticed that the new cartridges now come with postage-paid envelopes so that you can send in the old cartridges for recycling. I sealed those babies up and dropped them in a mailbox the next day. Easy peasy!

4. Reusable soap dispensers. Instead of buying new pumps for the kitchen and upstairs bathroom every time we use up the soap, I got some refillable pumps at Target and a giant refill bottle at Costco. I had a slight misstep with a metal soap pump that corroded from the inside out, but now we have two glass soap pumps (and a matching lotion pump for the kitchen) and all seems to be well. Theoretically, it’s cheaper this way, too.

5. Refillable metal water bottle. I have a hard time drinking enough water when I use a cup. I don’t know why–it’s stupid, really. I don’t mind the taste of tap water, but I just don’t get around to drinking water out of a glass. When I was pregnant, I’d buy those big flats of water bottles at Costco, and have a bottle with me all the time–convenient and effective, but wasteful. It’s supposedly harmful to keep refilling the same disposable bottle, and even Nalgene bottles are apparently leaching chemicals now. Then I read about SIGG bottles on ljc, and they were just so cute I had to go get one at REI ( Blake waited very patiently while I dithered around, choosing the perfect one). My only complaint is that the cap has so many threads that it takes forever to unscrew the silly thing. Ah, the sacrifices I make for my principles!

So, there you go. Five easy ways I’m being a little more responsible. What else should I be doing (within reason)? What do you do?

Sarah: 2008 Cooking Adventure, Week 10

As promised last week, I used another recipe from Gourmet Girl to make this noodle salad:

Asian Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce

1 lb. linguini, cooked al dente in salted water
1 red bell pepper, sliced thinly
2 carrots, julienned
1 can water chestnuts, sliced
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger
1 recipe peanut sauce found here
1/4 cup chopped salted peanuts for sprinkling on top

Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk 2 cups peanut sauce with up to 3 tablespoons of water to thin it out a little bit. Learn from my mistake: Don’t think you’ll be eliminating a dirty dish by simply adding the peanut sauce and the water to the noodle mixture separately. This will not mix them together and the peanut sauce will stay super thick and it will be a gluey mess. Add peanut sauce to noodles and vegetables and toss together until evenly coated. Garnish with chopped peanuts and herbs. Serve warm, cold or at room temperature.

Sarah: 2008 Cooking Adventure, Week 9

Hey.
Hi! You look good.
No, like really good. Have you been working out? Or did you get your hair cut? No? Nothing? Well, nothing is working for you.
Oh, me? Nah, nothing too interesting going on in my life. I moved out of my apartment last week, so there’s that. Yes, I did love it, but it had its downsides too. Well, now I’m living at Lisa and Blake’s house for a little while. I’ll talk more about my moving experience at a later date. For now, I should tell you what I cooked for the girls for the last time we would hang out in my apartment.

I found a recipe on Gourmet Girl for peanut sauce (via TasteSpotting) and used it to make a sort of noodle salad. Because I’m lazy, the peanut sauce is this week’s recipe.

Peanut Sauce

1 1/2 cups chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup sesame oil (i used vegetable oil, because that’s what I had on hand. I think it’d be more interesting and flavorful with sesame oil)
3/4 cup mild soy sauce (This is when I texted Mallory and asked her to bring more soy sauce, because all I had was a tiny bottle. Poor planning, on my part)
1/4 teaspoon curry
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced (I only had the dry powder. Ginger also comes in very small containers. Crap!)

Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth. I don’t have a food processor, so I just whisked the ingredients together. They’d be better food processed. I then added extra soy sauce, because it was a little too sweet and peanut buttery.
Store covered in the refrigerator.

Tomorrow: The noodle salad I made with this sauce for Week 10’s recipe!

Lisa: Babies for Obama

Since Nora had so much fun voting for Obama on Super Tuesday, I thought she might like a campaign shirt of her very own. I designed a graphic to look like his other swag and had Zazzle (who I’ve (used previously) print it up for me. I got it a little big, so that she can wear it this summer when the election’s closer.

Don’t be jealous. You can buy one too! I think I get like a dollar for each onesie sold–and I’ll donate any proceeds to the campaign.

Zazzle’s changed their site around, so here’s the fancy new link to my gallery: