July 21, 2009

Tilts

It's been some while again since I posted. This hasn't been for any particular reason other than life's a little low and lazy these days. We're experiencing the lull at the office, which is fine, really, but can sometimes also feel quite mundane. I've been trying to force myself to get to know Annie*, my new MacBook Pro 13" friend, but I'm so content with her as a blank slate that I'm afraid to fill her with nonsense. Plans are that tonight I sit with her for quite a while, anyway. Craig is making dinner - yes, you read that correctly - Craig is making me dinner! so I will have spare time to maybe go to the gym (if I feel so inclined once I'm home) and then time to sit and be still for a while. Perhaps he will even clean the kitchen?? The photograph above was doctored in PhotoShop with the "tilt/shift" effect, which I have not yet mastered and am kind of striking out with, to be honest. But, that's more to do with not having shot the appropriate photographs to really get the right effect. I have a great, deep, strong, almost possessed desire to understand digital photography organization better, or, in other words, to figure out what I want my way of digital photography organization better to be (the Nikon photos in the PC are a mess, just a disaster), whether it's one giant "art shot" photo folder and files are individually named 0001_Subject_dated, or Dated_Subject, or what. Since I haven't put forth the effort to make the decision, well, then, I'm stuck. I've contemplated Picassa through Google, but the username I have for Google already has hundreds (thousands??) of photographs that I've sent via email, received via email, and so forth, and while I would like continued access to those, that doesn't necessarily mean I want all of my photos from here forward mixed with silly snapshot photos or meaningless endeavors or whatnot. So, I don't know. I'm at a loss. Then there's the whole Do I Want Microsoft Office or iWork...pretty much leaning toward Office, but still unsure.*I'm still reviewing restaurants, though I've been a slacker for a couple of weeks now. I'm going to start contributing to a new blogger's space - I found her through my friend Peter - who is interested in entertaining her clients about affordable dining in the City. My focus will be on affordable eating at home - strategies on how to shop, extend ingredients across several recipes, conserve space in a small urban kitchen, the art (and frugality) of eating leftovers, etc. I intend to keep all of my food photography, food writing, and all other writing that I do in somewhat of a manageable organization, but of course, I've yet to determine that, either! Such a rough life, trying to navigate so many files. :) Well, it nears the end of my day and I've got some decisions to make in terms of aerobics this evening. I'm back on Weight Watchers in a headfirst full throttle way, which means my portions are limited - last night, I made chicken burgers with celery, scallions, bbq sauce blended with Tobasco, and one burger is 6 points. For lunch, I wanted to also have cottage cheese, which is 2 points. I prefer to keep my lunches below 6, therefore I could only have half of a chicken burger as leftovers today. At 4:31 this afternoon, I'm starving. Clearly my body has taken a beating again, beginning approximately the first of the year continuing on through now, eating and drinking whatever comes my way. My new goals: eat only my daily points (19), with at least 3 or 4 of those points devoted to dairy. Vegetables really don't cost points; some fruit does, depending. Pastas and meats load up the points. Tonight, Craig is baking pork loin chops and I will attempt to consume 3 ounces which is 3 points. 3 ounces of meat is like 3 bites. He is making my creamy parmesan orzo on the side, and a vegetable (I always eat ample portions of vegetables, especially asparagus or green beans.) I have a goal for the weekend, primarily because Friday night we're on the train to travel to the Jersey Shore to visit with Al and Michelle, of Cabo fame. They are making us paella (weak in the knees, swoon!) Friday night, then Saturday we're taking their boat out onto the ocean! Fun! Saturday night, Michelle wants me to suggest a recipe of mine so that we can "group" cook - fun, again! But believe me, point counting will be furthest from my mind when we're with them. So if I meet my goal of weight loss by Friday, I can relax in Jersey and not feel like I have to wrap my midsection in caution tape or anything. We are excited for the trip. Al and Michelle are so amazing.*One last thing: Craig and I watched the entire first season of Breaking Bad last weekend. We also went on a food crawl for one whole afternoon. Both were incredible. More to come.

July 08, 2009

Ladders

Home alone, again! No, as much as I miss Craig, it is kind of nice, too, briefly, to have some quiet KB time. Last night I accomplished quite a bit before falling asleep on the couch until 4 a.m., at which point my eyes tried to unstick themselves open (contacts in) so that I could snap off the tellie and crawl into bed for a few hours. So, of course, when the buzzer sounded at 6:30, I was conked out and dreaming that someone wouldn't turn off that annoying buzzing sound, when lo and behold, at 7:30, I realized that it was my annoying buzzing sound! I sped through my shower/lunch packing/etc., and was out the door by 7:40 (though Craig will never, ever believe that!) (well, and, 7:30 is actually 7:20 since we have the clock set 10 minutes fast.) Oh, well. It's slow at the office with so many people away, and with the gradual descent/shutdown of the job. I called myself a slacker when I made it in, no worries. Tonight I am again roasting chicken split bone-in breasts, and instead of crashing the mad flavor with salad dressing, I'm eating it solo alongside my creamy Parmesan orzo and asparagus. I toyed with the idea of a goat cheese sauce for the chicken, but decided against the hassle, since I'm only aiming to impress myself tonight. :) Today was a long, long day, but with everything I accomplished, I made it through, at least! Tonight's plans include popping in some old Dexter after I clean the apartment somewhat, and old Dexter is like Christmas Day around here, for me, at least.*I shot the above photo in Chicago and was pleased with the results, mainly with the depth of the colors, and the lack of noise in my blacks (that's so hard with a dSLR unless you've got mad skills, which I do not.) I love my Nikon. It might be my best friend second only to Craig. So, while we were hanging out with all of the babies, we became enlightened that little Brady loves ladders. No one is quite sure why, but it's intriguing. Of course, I love the idea that a child is obsessed with something so rife with meaning as ladders. :) He calls Craig's dad "Papa" and kept demanding to see "Papa's Ladder." I swooned over this. Once, he even threw a mini tantrum because late one night we wouldn't let him see "Papa's Ladder." Then Brady also has this thing where he calls the other men in his life "Misters." He called his Uncle Dave "Mr. Dave" and his Uncle Craig "Mr. Craig." Last night, Craig ate over at Kara's while he was in Indy, and this morning in the car on their way to daycare, Brady asked Kara, "When is Mr. Craig going to visit again?" (swoon!) That reminded me of when he was calling me "sissin" when he couldn't pronounce "Kristin" and how he woke up one morning asking for "sissin." I love the babies! They are nothing but a big batch of cuddly cuteness and brilliance.*Before signing off and getting back to my regularly scheduled KB program, I want to remind myself that filling out recipe cards is one of my loves. My recipe book is sorely missing out right now. I've found like a trillion new recipes in the past year and not filled out one recipe card in recent history. Not cool. Must make note.*Also, Eberhart has written us a lease extension thru October 31st. Oh, please, please, please, Brooklyn work assignment, happen. Please. It would make right around 6 or 10 people I know very, very happy, along with maybe around 20 others. No. sleep. til Brooklyn! (Beastie Boys get played regularly around our office these days.) Enough for now, off for a night.

July 07, 2009

4ths

It's Tuesday following a very relaxing and all at once exhausting trip to Chicago to visit Craig's family for the 4th of July Holiday. I only say exhausting with regard to the travel itself: United Airlines experienced "computer glitches" Thursday morning at O'Hare, and as luck would have it, we were departing LaGuardia via United to travel to O'Hare! Of course! But, we endured it and wound up safely in Chicago after just a handful of hours of delay (we were quite lucky considering the number of canceled flights into and out of O'Hare!) Thursday night, Craig's mom served us lasagna and salad and garlic bread, and it was nice to eat someone else's homecooked food (particularly since her lasagna was awesome!) Friday morning we woke up refreshed, ate breakfast (eggs, bacon, English muffins, coffee) and Craig's dad drove us to the Southshore train station so that Craig and I could travel into Chicago for the day/night. It was really nice, just Craig and I wandering the clean streets of downtown Chicago, eating Chicago-style pizza for lunch, indulging in 312 (the latest Goose Island brew) seeing the sights and shooting photographs. We saw a lot, stopped in a few bars, ate dinner at a place off the Southport stop and headed back to the train only after seeing some city fireworks. Saturday morning we awoke to the find Kara, Ben, Brady and Jake (who had arrived the evening before while we were in the city), and we suited up for the Whiting Parade, a Whiting July 4th tradition. It was spitty, but not too intolerable, and following that was the barbecue, also awesome! Erica, Dave, Hannah and Lauren had arrived in time for the parade, too, and I can't explain how much I just adore the children. I love being familiar to them, and I love having them hugging on me. Such sweet ones. Sunday morning, Kara made us this terrific "Dutch Baby"-esque recipe for breakfast, which was a light souffle bowl filled with strawberries, blueberries, bananas and topped with a light bit of honey, which she told us was straight from the bees from one of her co-workers (how cool would it be to have bees??? I know!) and we spent some of the afternoon with them before they packed up and headed back to Indianapolis. Sunday evening, Craig and his parents and I traveled to Dustin and Fiona's in Wrigleyville for another barbecue; for this, Dustin grilled "beer can chicken," which was unbelievably great, and we sat outside on Dustin and Fi's cute patio, sipping drinks and chatting. Then Monday we woke up to travel our separate ways: Craig was called to Indianapolis for a few days to work on what we hope will be our future New York work assignment, and I suffered an insufferable canceled United flight, stood in a million-person long line at a gate for hopeful re-assignment, lucked out and landed a 7.25 flight (first class!) back to LaGuardia (despite how much you irritated me this weekend, United, thanks for accommodating me!) And now I'm home, sans Craig, roasting chicken breasts, planning to catch up on DVR'ed shows and eating a ridiculously healthy dinner before turning in. Things are really good, except for the office, which is a ghost town right now, and boring!, but this too shall pass and soon enough we will learn of our fate which we so hope will find us remaining in New York City for a couple of years longer.*Meanwhile, Michael Jackson died, which was unsettling for pop rock in general, but the media has overplayed it to the point that Who Cares Anymore! Seriously, we need the media to quickly close this chapter and move along to something more earth-shattering, like Who is doing something about our coked out economy and when are things going to look up for those of us still here. Etc.*Hasty post, but have many things on the agenda before the chicken is done, like emptying the dishwasher and figuring out what's excessive in the fridge that can be discarded.*I got to talk to Craig for almost an hour earlier tonight, and his voice is so comforting, despite our brief separation. I miss my best friend but am glad he is there getting good things done for us. :)