A Week's Worth of Good News - in 2 days!

This past Wednesday was a great freakin' day. It started off a little bleh, because I was waiting to get a phone call on whether or not I would get the job I interviewed for the day before. When I didn't hear from the interviewers by noon, I assumed no news was, in this case, bad news. Of course, the phone ringing three times before this conclusion didn't help matters - luckily, one of those calls was my sister, who finally has some time to squeeze me in for hanging out, yay! First good bit of news that day.

Then I received an email that offered me an interesting project to work on that would earn some money, so I wrote back agreeing to meet about it. I also discovered that "Thor" was finally available on Netflix for instant watch - ever since seeing "The Avengers", I've been wanting to catch up on the other movies featuring Avenger superheroes that I hadn't seen, and "Thor" had been elusive. (Turns out I wasn't missing much. ;P) So things were looking up!

The phone rings; it's the HR department from the prospective job. She tells me, voice calm and serious, "The interview panel has made their decision..." My stomach immediately knots itself while I try to tell myself that I already suspected I wasn't getting this one, and at this point I shouldn't be that shocked...

"... and they would like to offer the position to you."

"REALLY?" (I so wish that wasn't my response and that I'd played it cool, but I was legitimately surprised!)

The HR lady laughed and confirmed that yes, it was me they wanted. So did I accept?

I managed to not curse with excitement while accepting the position. :) I start in the fall, and I'm very excited for my new position. Plus it's a relief to know I'll be working for at least 10 months, not to mention I know THIS EARLY in the summer, which is a rare luxury for teachers. I have all summer to plan out the school year - it's so exciting!

The Hubs brought me home what every girl deserves as a congratulation gift - Roses and ice cream. What can I say, the man knows me. ;D My mother was so excited that she posted about it to Facebook before I even got a chance! I also had lots of excitement from my close friends and Facebook peeps, which made my heart swell. And to top it all off, Matt Cain of the SF Giants pitched a perfect game! Ok, that part isn't as exciting to me as it was to The Hubs, but it was still pretty awesome altogether.

The next day also had good news, if you can believe it! Well, ok, it was mixed news - one of my two main health issues is resolving itself nicely, but the other one has actually gotten worse DESPITE treatment. It also turns out that I was misdiagnosed by my previous doctor (which is yet another reason to despise that doctor's practice, UGH), but I've been referred to a specialist to work on fixing the still-existent issue and to double-check the possible misdiagnosis. Working with the specialist now will also benefit me later, because once I get the still-problematic issue under control we can start trying for another (non-furry) member of the family - and since the specialist will need to be a part of my treatment, I'll already be established in their care and they'll be familiar with my medical issues so we can make sure I and the fetus are safe throughout the pregnancy. The best part was that I finally feel like I have started on the path to clear answers and getting my body in shape for a pregnancy, and the doctors I've worked with so far both feel that pregnancy shouldn't be as problematic as I was afraid it would be. It's possible that in a year, we could be ready to start trying, and maybe sooner if treatments go well! This makes me extremely happy, especially combined with the good job news - two areas of my life (career and children) I was really scared wouldn't go my way are now at least making some headway. It's a mixture of excitement and relief to finally feel like I'm moving forward in my life, and now I just have to do my best to not screw it up on my end!

Oh Yeah, I'm a Four-Eyes Now

comic by Sarah Becan - Click to check out her comic site!

So as I was catching up on "I Think You're Saucesome", a super-cute food/autobio comic by Sarah Becan, I stumbled upon this comic, which reminded me that, oh yeah, I have glasses now!

Truth be told, I have technically owned a pair of reading glasses for almost 20 years now, but rarely used them. I needed them when they were prescribed, because my far-sightedness was awesome (20/13 when I was a senior in high school!) but my near-sight was blurry. I mainly used them when I was working on super-tiny craft work, but recently I noticed that they didn't really provided near-sight clarity like they used to. Then I tried on a friend's glasses, and everything became SO CLEAR. OH NO MY EYESIGHT IS DETERIORATING. So I panicked (as I am wont to do, thanks to a mild (undiagnosed) case of hypochondria), bought a Groupon for Stanton Optical, and scheduled an appointment for an eye exam.

Turns out, um, my "deteriorating" eyesight is basically my eyesight becoming good ol' 20/20. Which, in my defense, is weird when you're used to having incredible far-sightedness and reason for panic! Actually, the optician said that I am SLIGHTLY near-sighted, but not enough to be a problem for now.

He did, however, notice that my eyes are painfully sensitive to light; he asked if I have trouble seeing at night, and I said yes - it's all blurry and headlights seem SO bright that I can't keep my eyes open. Since I work on a computer a lot (hahaha, "WORK", right) and keep the screen at minimum brightness also, he prescribed the glasses at the lowest prescription possible and suggested I get anti-glare lenses to help with my brightness issues.

I can't even get GLASSES right. I am a dork to the nth degree.

Me in all my 4-eyed glory. I have no idea what is going on with the dude behind me.

To be fair, though, the glasses HAVE come in handy. I wear them when I'm at the movies, driving at night, in a room with fluorescent lighting (which gives me a headache) or if I'm working-working for a long time on a computer and my head starts to hurt. So they're kind of pointless, but not completely. Movies are so much more enjoyable now that my eyes aren't constantly watering and I'm not squinting at the bright movie screen. Plus, to be honest, I love how the glasses look on me, although my head is crooked and my glasses need to be adjusted to not sit crooked on me.

It's funny, I've posted the above picture on Facebook, and all of NO ONE noticed that I was wearing glasses... including people who have known me for years. So either they look natural on me or no one gives a rat's ass what I put on my face. I'm assuming the former for sanity's sake.

Doggy Motherhood

So as I may have mentioned before, you know, just in passing, that I'm a mother. Well, a dog mother. Well, a dog OWNER (The Hubs hates when I refer to Daisy as "our child", although he seems to have made his peace with it xD).

But lookit that PUNIM, how can you not want to claim that cuteness as your own?

Ooof, those big brown eyes, they kill me.

Anyway, it's really difficult having the world's cutest dog, I assure you. ;D In all seriousness, though, I kind of look at our dog ownership as practice for a kid... which means when I feel like Daisy's not happy that I'm failing as a "mother" (which is probably why The Hubs isn't a fan of my calling her our "child", 'cuz she's a DOG).

To be fair to myself, I think she's a happy dog. She's fed, groomed, and cuddled regularly. But there's things that I worry about, where I feel like I'm "failing" her:

• When my back's hurting (or when I'm cranky and don't feel like it), she only gets about a 15-minute walk at a time. She goes out about 3 times a day, but I try to make at least one of those times a half-mile loop, which is at least 20+ minutes. The last week or so I haven't because I strained my back and I'm still recovering, but I feel like I should tough it out. I was walking her for a near-mile loop at one point, and I want to get her back to that. 
• She's not as socialized as she should be, and I feel awful about that. She barks at other dogs when we're out if I don't see the other dog in time and stop her. To our credit, if I see the other dog in advance, we've trained her to not bark by holding her close and saying "No bark" in a firm voice, and she usually doesn't, and when we've taken her to off-leash dog parks, she's been fine for the most part (but we stopped taking her to our local dog park because she got attacked by a big dog). She's also kind of a bully to bigger dogs that we know, and the stress of it has made us stop bringing her to our friends' homes because we don't want her picking on the big gentle dogs. (I think she's just trying to play, but the particular big dogs don't like it).
• On the weekends, I sometimes forget to feed her for dinner. Breakfast is my habit 'cuz I usually take care of her in the morning and The Hubs handles her in the evening, but weekends get kind of blurred and we'll forget. Just once, and not that often, I swear!
• When I play on the laptop, she just goes and lays down... and apparently I'm on it too much (well, duh), 'cuz when she hears the laptop close, she jumps up and gets all excited, which makes me feel just AWFUL like I'm on it too much and she's feeling ignored. :(

Of course, all these fears about how I "raise" my dog makes me nervous for the next step, which is children. Kids are even MORE time-consuming and demanding, and if I can't even "raise" our dog right, how much am I going to screw up our children?

The Hubs, who is the sane one in the relationship, assures me that Daisy is fine, she's a happy, healthy dog, and that when we have children we will be good parents to them as well. To be fair, I probably AM overreacting (although she does need longer walks - it's good for her AND for me), and a dog is NOT a child (but she IS definitely a member of the family), and doesn't have quite the same demands. I'm glad we didn't have kids earlier in our lives, because I really don't think I would be as concerned back then as I am now, but who knows? Kids change everything, and I look forward to the challenge; as a friend pointed out to me when I mentioned these concerns, the fact that I'm worried about these things before kids are even around means I'll be a good parent. So I'm going to keep that in mind, and work on improving our walking time and weening myself off the laptop. I'm a good dog mom, but I could be a better dog mom, and becoming a better dog mom could help me become a better MOM mom when the time comes.

New Recipe Try-Out: Veggie Meat Sauce

While eating at my friend Tim's house, he and his wife Vanessa kept us loaded up with lots of tasty appetizers, including these frozen pizza bites with this AMAZING tomato sauce. Like, I could not get over how good this sauce was, so I begged Vanessa for the recipe and she was happy to oblige.

So I tried it out, and it makes a TON, which is awesome 'cuz it's a very hearty sauce. Lots of meat, lots of vegetables - but if you puree the vegetables, you don't even notice them.

The sauce, mid-simmer!

Since I'm trying to cut out carbs, I tried the sauce with pre-made polenta which I baked.

The polenta, baked

Et voila.

 Overall, it was ok, but it will be AMAZING next time. The recipe, and what I'll fix for next time:

Timing is everything - especially in cooking.

Y'know, I've been cooking for myself for at least 10 years now.

I've been cooking for more than one person for at least 6.

Yet I still CAN'T FREAKIN' TIME MY MEALS RIGHT!

Ok, I'm exaggerating, I can - some of the time. Maybe even most of the time. Depends on the month.

USUALLY it's a big fat timing failure because I just jump in without having read the recipe directions, just the ingredients. It's a bad habit I developed that I've mostly broken myself of, so tonight, I thought I had it ALL FIGURED OUT, that it was going to work out PERFECTLY. I'd read the recipe directions and knew what I needed to do, and figured out the timing so everything finished at the same time... or so I thought.

Tonight's meal (which is already eaten or I'd post a picture) was oven-"fried" boneless pork chops and a new-to-me recipe, spinach and rice "pie".

photo by Cooking with My Kid!

So, the pork chops I had are THICK - like, over an inch thick. I usually cook them fast at a higher temperature, but I figured they could cook slow at the same temp as the spinach/rice bake and would probably need an hour to cook completely. So, brilliant time-manager that I am, I did the pork chops first, threw them in the oven, then started the recipe, figuring it'd be ready in the 30 minutes I'd allotted to give the pork chops a head start before throwing the spinach/rice bake in the oven while the chops finished cooking.

The rice part of the bake is a rice pilaf box mix that you have to cook before you assemble the "pie". Well, I didn't read the damn directions on the box and LO AND BEHOLD, the particular mix I'd bought took 25 minutes to cook, and needed another 3-8 to "set"! ARGH! By the time my pie was ready to bake, my pork chops had been in there 45 minutes and the pie needed at least 25 minutes MORE to bake.

Not wanting dried-out chops, I took them out to see how close they were to being finished... and they were done. Like, perfectly juicy done. So I took them out, and they sat there while the side dish took its 25 minutes to cook. *facepalm*

The result was actually a quite tasty meal, for all the strum und drang . The Hubs and I like oven-"fried" pork chops, it's a staple, and the spinach/rice bake was actually quite good! The Hubs is kind of finicky, and he had seconds! SUCCESS. My only modifications are to add a little garlic powder and parmesan cheese, and mix salt and pepper in before I bake. It's not BLAND, but a little salt and pepper over the top gave it a little something more, if that makes sense. It probably doesn't, I do that a lot.

The main lesson to take from this is to READ THE DIRECTIONS ON THE DAMN RICE PILAF MIX, and to take the chops off the hot baking pan if they finish before the rest... they dried out a LITTLE bit from waiting around for the stupid side dish. It's not the end of the world, obviously, if anything I wrote about it because even when I break my bad habits (not reading recipe instructions before cooking), I still somehow manage to mess it up. The name of this blog isn't merely to appear clever. ;p