Well, we had quite the whirlwind coupla days!
All went very well. My sister and brother in law arrived safely on Thursday afternoon, and we had a great time during their visit, which ended this morning....going everywhere and doing everything, despite the intense heat.
The chance to see cousins we had not seen in decades came to fruition, and it was fun and interesting to get caught up a little.
After dropping my sister and brother in law at the airport this morning, though, we found ourselves feeling completely exhausted, and barely able to function, today.
There were errands that had to get done, so we forced ourselves, but wow....I have not felt this completely tired out and exhausted since the move. I feel almost sick.
We got home from grocery shopping, and I fell into bed and slept for a solid hour. We have spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch.
Chances are, we feel like we do because it was 97 on Friday and 99 on Saturday, and we spent a lot of time out in the heat.
Friday, we were at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial site for quite a while, and then we went to the state capitol, which was not consistently air conditioned inside, then traipsed around downtown for quite a bit of the evening.
Saturday, we went shopping in "Cow Town," and then out to the Cowboy and Western Heritage museum, before going to my cousins's house for the party. There, we took a long walk on her property, and spent enough time outside that I got one of my headaches, which I still have today.
Anyway, aside from the after effects, it was all good! Everyone who was here from out of town left today.
My cousin who lives here has invited us over for the 4th. I am so tired, I can't even think about that yet!!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Just stuff
Dave is getting my car windows tinted this afternoon/evening (he's been there for over 4 hours already...didn't think it would take this long).
He says the tint should help the A/C to work better, and to make the car less god-awful hot during the summer.
It's already been in the 90's every day for a couple of weeks now, and it's supposed to hit 100 tomorrow...and this is going to be the norm through August....so this is a good idea, I think.
We couldn't really afford it right now, but that's what credit cards are for.
Dance class has been interesting. I have really been struggling with it a lot on some levels, and having breakthroughs in other areas. I know that I have a LONG way to go before I get my "groove" back. The class is filled with younger, well practiced, we perform in clubs every week type dancers.
I feel humbled, and sometimes embarrassed.
For this week's choreography project, though, I put the music on for the first time to listen to it, and started dancing.
This has not happened previously. I may have a choreography ready for class tonight, though I am not sure I want to perform it for the class.
I like the music, too, which I think makes it easier.
Well, I need to start working on that, since I leave for class in about 90 minutes, and need to make dinner in the meantime.
He says the tint should help the A/C to work better, and to make the car less god-awful hot during the summer.
It's already been in the 90's every day for a couple of weeks now, and it's supposed to hit 100 tomorrow...and this is going to be the norm through August....so this is a good idea, I think.
We couldn't really afford it right now, but that's what credit cards are for.
Dance class has been interesting. I have really been struggling with it a lot on some levels, and having breakthroughs in other areas. I know that I have a LONG way to go before I get my "groove" back. The class is filled with younger, well practiced, we perform in clubs every week type dancers.
I feel humbled, and sometimes embarrassed.
For this week's choreography project, though, I put the music on for the first time to listen to it, and started dancing.
This has not happened previously. I may have a choreography ready for class tonight, though I am not sure I want to perform it for the class.
I like the music, too, which I think makes it easier.
Well, I need to start working on that, since I leave for class in about 90 minutes, and need to make dinner in the meantime.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Family reunion
We went to the Red Earth festival yesterday. Lots of amazing Native American artists from all over, and a huge arena for dancing.
We watched the Grand Entry, but it took something like 2 hours, so we didn't see any of the dance performances or competitions, because the grand entry took so long.
We were hungry, and had other stuff we had to do...but I think the Red Earth is one of the largest Pow Wow type events in the country. It was frustrating to wait all these months, and not see any dancing...but it was still kinda cool to see the art.
Heard from my cousin up in Edmond...the party plan for this weekend is coming together. It was originally supposed to be a surprise birthday party for my Aunt Judy ( my cousin's mom), who lives up in Guthrie...but due to her various infirmities, it is no longer scheduled to be a surprise...
And the cool thing is that it's turning into quite the family reunion! Aunt Judy had 4 kids, and all 4 are coming. I have not seen some of these cousins in at least 35 years..maybe longer.
So long I can't remember, in other words.
And my other aunt from Iowa is coming in, too. They are the only 2 left of the 4. Both brothers are gone, my dad and my uncle....
So, my sister and brother in law, myself, and my 4 cousins and their various spouses and offspring will be together next Saturday. I can't wait!!
I just wish my brother could be here, too.
In other news, Dave sees the ENT doctor tomorrow for the long awaited follow up to his sleep study. I wonder if they will treat his snoring, or just say "Gosh, sorry your wife can't sleep..."
My sister and brother in law arrive on Thursday. I will take off from work 2 hours early that day, and all day Friday. The party is Saturday...so we will be busy.
Chances are also good that we will somehow connect with my aunt from Iowa, Aunt Janet, on Friday, and do something that day.
We're hoping for a downtown OKC day that day, including the art museum, and the OKC bombing memorial site.
It should be a good week, if we survive the heat! (current heat index is over 100)
We watched the Grand Entry, but it took something like 2 hours, so we didn't see any of the dance performances or competitions, because the grand entry took so long.
We were hungry, and had other stuff we had to do...but I think the Red Earth is one of the largest Pow Wow type events in the country. It was frustrating to wait all these months, and not see any dancing...but it was still kinda cool to see the art.
Heard from my cousin up in Edmond...the party plan for this weekend is coming together. It was originally supposed to be a surprise birthday party for my Aunt Judy ( my cousin's mom), who lives up in Guthrie...but due to her various infirmities, it is no longer scheduled to be a surprise...
And the cool thing is that it's turning into quite the family reunion! Aunt Judy had 4 kids, and all 4 are coming. I have not seen some of these cousins in at least 35 years..maybe longer.
So long I can't remember, in other words.
And my other aunt from Iowa is coming in, too. They are the only 2 left of the 4. Both brothers are gone, my dad and my uncle....
So, my sister and brother in law, myself, and my 4 cousins and their various spouses and offspring will be together next Saturday. I can't wait!!
I just wish my brother could be here, too.
In other news, Dave sees the ENT doctor tomorrow for the long awaited follow up to his sleep study. I wonder if they will treat his snoring, or just say "Gosh, sorry your wife can't sleep..."
My sister and brother in law arrive on Thursday. I will take off from work 2 hours early that day, and all day Friday. The party is Saturday...so we will be busy.
Chances are also good that we will somehow connect with my aunt from Iowa, Aunt Janet, on Friday, and do something that day.
We're hoping for a downtown OKC day that day, including the art museum, and the OKC bombing memorial site.
It should be a good week, if we survive the heat! (current heat index is over 100)
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Another recipe
Paula's Picadillo
1 lb extra lean ground beef
3 scallions/spring onions/green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 med white potato, chopped
1/4 C chopped green olives
1 diced red pepper
1 small can tomato sauce
dash favorite red wine
liquid from the jar of olives*
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t dried organo
1/2 t Piccapeppa sauce (or your favorite hot sauce to taste!)
Cooked short grain brown rice
Place the ground beef in a large skillet or soup pot, and brown thoroughly. Pour off any excess fat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until fragrant.
Reduce heat to medium, add oregano, cumin, tomato sauce, piccapeppa/hot sauce, and wine. If not "soupy" enough to come to a nice simmer for the potato to cook in, add a little more wine, and some of the liquid out of the olive jar.
(*my absolute favorite product to use for a lot of cooking with olives is Mezetta Italian Anti Pasto Salad marinated in California Chardonnay. I cook with the olives and the liquid, and I eat the peppers and garlic out of the jar! NOM!)
Add chopped olives, potato, pepper, stir well, cover, and simmer until potato is tender.
Serve over cooked rice, or, do what I did, and mix the rice right in to the pot to soak up whatever liquid is left (there won't be very much).
You can also choose to leave your green onions raw, but I have an allergy to something in raw onions, so I always cook them. Picadillo is also used as a pastry stuffing. You would not use the rice in that case.
1 lb extra lean ground beef
3 scallions/spring onions/green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 med white potato, chopped
1/4 C chopped green olives
1 diced red pepper
1 small can tomato sauce
dash favorite red wine
liquid from the jar of olives*
1/4 t ground cumin
1/4 t dried organo
1/2 t Piccapeppa sauce (or your favorite hot sauce to taste!)
Cooked short grain brown rice
Place the ground beef in a large skillet or soup pot, and brown thoroughly. Pour off any excess fat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until fragrant.
Reduce heat to medium, add oregano, cumin, tomato sauce, piccapeppa/hot sauce, and wine. If not "soupy" enough to come to a nice simmer for the potato to cook in, add a little more wine, and some of the liquid out of the olive jar.
(*my absolute favorite product to use for a lot of cooking with olives is Mezetta Italian Anti Pasto Salad marinated in California Chardonnay. I cook with the olives and the liquid, and I eat the peppers and garlic out of the jar! NOM!)
Add chopped olives, potato, pepper, stir well, cover, and simmer until potato is tender.
Serve over cooked rice, or, do what I did, and mix the rice right in to the pot to soak up whatever liquid is left (there won't be very much).
You can also choose to leave your green onions raw, but I have an allergy to something in raw onions, so I always cook them. Picadillo is also used as a pastry stuffing. You would not use the rice in that case.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
steamy
So, we're still doing fine. It's been horribly hot, and everyone tells me "This is nothing. Just wait!"
We went to a picnic last weekend and it was literally 100 degrees in the shade. My migraines have been coming less frequently, though, and I am still going outside every day, even if I don't want to, to try to get adapted.
Anyway. I have decided that the people here are weird.
One of my co-workers had her car heavily damaged by a horrific hail storm several weeks ago. The insurance company totaled it, and wrote her a fat check.
This past Monday, I asked her if she'd gotten started car shopping over the weekend, and she said no, she had not started yet.
I even asked if she was still thinking of getting the same kind of car she had before, as we had talked about this situation at great length a couple of weeks earlier.
She said she wasn't sure.
At lunchtime, I was in the kitchen, and looked out the window to see her getting out of a brand new car, with those temporary plates you get when you buy a new car, and don't have a license plate for it yet.
Yeah. She lied RIGHT TO MY FACE, and for what purpose?
She and I had started to be friends. She is the person who trained me, and had been so kind and helpful with showing me the ropes. We even went to lunch on a couple of occasions.
So why?
The next day, she was bragging to EVERYONE but me that she got a new car. It wasn't until the day after that when she came up to me and said "HEY, wanna see my new car?"
I was the last person in the office to be asked.
WTF?
Anyway, I have decided to take a step back from that whole friendship idea.
Then, one day this past week, one of the other girls in the office was celebrating her birthday. She went around the office, to each person, one by one, and invited them to a lunch outing.
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, but me.
On that day, they all left, and I was in the office alone.
THAT was pleasant.
I have also talked with my cube mate, who is, like me, NOT FROM OKLAHOMA, and she agrees. These people are weird.
I have also noted that when we have breaks in dance class, the other students, who all know one another and have been dancing together for possibly years, break up into little groups, all with their backs to me, leaving me standing alone.
We have been in class together every week since mid May. But I am still the out cast. The new comer. The unwelcomed one.
It's so very odd.....and I am really struggling to not take it personally. Succeeding, bit by bit.
I suppose it just takes more time here for the locals to accept outsiders than it does back in Chicagoland.
SO--we're off to get our weekend errands done. We are hoping that, if we can swing it, we will get up extra early tomorrow and try to get in a bike ride before the temperature makes it impossible.
We'll see if that happens!
Also, this has been a difficult week for me because one of my dearest friends back home, P, is getting married today, and I'm not there.
Money and not enough paid time off kept us from making the trip.
I wish her and J the very best.
We went to a picnic last weekend and it was literally 100 degrees in the shade. My migraines have been coming less frequently, though, and I am still going outside every day, even if I don't want to, to try to get adapted.
Anyway. I have decided that the people here are weird.
One of my co-workers had her car heavily damaged by a horrific hail storm several weeks ago. The insurance company totaled it, and wrote her a fat check.
This past Monday, I asked her if she'd gotten started car shopping over the weekend, and she said no, she had not started yet.
I even asked if she was still thinking of getting the same kind of car she had before, as we had talked about this situation at great length a couple of weeks earlier.
She said she wasn't sure.
At lunchtime, I was in the kitchen, and looked out the window to see her getting out of a brand new car, with those temporary plates you get when you buy a new car, and don't have a license plate for it yet.
Yeah. She lied RIGHT TO MY FACE, and for what purpose?
She and I had started to be friends. She is the person who trained me, and had been so kind and helpful with showing me the ropes. We even went to lunch on a couple of occasions.
So why?
The next day, she was bragging to EVERYONE but me that she got a new car. It wasn't until the day after that when she came up to me and said "HEY, wanna see my new car?"
I was the last person in the office to be asked.
WTF?
Anyway, I have decided to take a step back from that whole friendship idea.
Then, one day this past week, one of the other girls in the office was celebrating her birthday. She went around the office, to each person, one by one, and invited them to a lunch outing.
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, but me.
On that day, they all left, and I was in the office alone.
THAT was pleasant.
I have also talked with my cube mate, who is, like me, NOT FROM OKLAHOMA, and she agrees. These people are weird.
I have also noted that when we have breaks in dance class, the other students, who all know one another and have been dancing together for possibly years, break up into little groups, all with their backs to me, leaving me standing alone.
We have been in class together every week since mid May. But I am still the out cast. The new comer. The unwelcomed one.
It's so very odd.....and I am really struggling to not take it personally. Succeeding, bit by bit.
I suppose it just takes more time here for the locals to accept outsiders than it does back in Chicagoland.
SO--we're off to get our weekend errands done. We are hoping that, if we can swing it, we will get up extra early tomorrow and try to get in a bike ride before the temperature makes it impossible.
We'll see if that happens!
Also, this has been a difficult week for me because one of my dearest friends back home, P, is getting married today, and I'm not there.
Money and not enough paid time off kept us from making the trip.
I wish her and J the very best.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
other stuff
I forgot to mention that Dave doesn't have to do the stress test, because the angio he had in April was enough for the doctor.
Also, he has a sleep study scheduled for tomorrow night. Hopefully, they will then prescribe a cPAP or something for his snoring, and we can finally get some sleep...both of us.
Dance class is going okay. I was supposed to choreograph a tiny piece of music between last week and tonight, and I ended up lying on the floor crying. I have serious blocks, for some reason, and have often referred to choreographing as equal to trying to pull my own spleen out.
It's JUST THAT FUN!!
I can learn someone else's choreography NO PROBLEM, and polish it up, and make it my own...but to create one from thin air?
Not so much.
I wonder if I will make it through all 10 weeks of this class if I can't even choreograph 1 minute and 44 seconds.
Gawd.
Also, he has a sleep study scheduled for tomorrow night. Hopefully, they will then prescribe a cPAP or something for his snoring, and we can finally get some sleep...both of us.
Dance class is going okay. I was supposed to choreograph a tiny piece of music between last week and tonight, and I ended up lying on the floor crying. I have serious blocks, for some reason, and have often referred to choreographing as equal to trying to pull my own spleen out.
It's JUST THAT FUN!!
I can learn someone else's choreography NO PROBLEM, and polish it up, and make it my own...but to create one from thin air?
Not so much.
I wonder if I will make it through all 10 weeks of this class if I can't even choreograph 1 minute and 44 seconds.
Gawd.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)