In fact, he’s been cooking a lot lately. And it’s a good thing because I think our can opener is wearing out on me. (Ha! You think I’m kidding, don’t you).
But the thing is, as with everything my husband does, he puts 150% of his energy into whatever he’s focused on at the moment, and right now? He’s focused on cooking. (Well, cooking and his business). Not only cooking, but cooking new (and strange?) foods.
This week, we are having chicken burgers, southwest breakfast and meatballs (not in the same recipe though …?), not spaghetti and meatballs, but just meatballs, with mashed potatoes.
I don’t help. In fact, I stay out of his way. I only assist with preparing ingredients, sauces or whatever he might need to be mixed and/or added while he’s concentrating on the main ingredient of the moment. I also wash the 1001 dishes he dirties up as he’s cooking.
The man is not afraid to use every conceivable kitchen tool he can to obtain perfection.
He cooked us Southwest Chicken Burgers last night. It was an interesting concoction of ground chicken, jalapeno peppers, avocado and salsa.
Jazz promptly scraped off the avocado and salsa (which I knew he would), but Dude actually tried it as is. (He later scraped off the avocado. Oh well, they don’t know until they try, right?)
Did we like it? Welllllll ….. we didn’t hate it. We’ll definitely put it in our recipe rotation, but I doubt we have it very often. However, it’s worth trying so I thought I would give you the recipe so you could try it for yourself.
3 Tablespoons finely chopped green pepper
3/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound uncooked ground chicken
1 cup shredded Monterey-Jack cheese w/ jalapeno peppers (if desired)
4 Kaiser-rolls (or large hamburger buns – toasted is best)
1 medium avocado, seeded, peeled and sliced.
Bottled salsa (optional)
One
In a large bowl combine sweet pepper, chili powder, salt, and black pepper. Add ground chicken, mix well. Shape chicken mixture into four 3/4 inch thick patties. (Which is rather hard to do as the mixture doesn’t want to stick. But it firms up while it cooks).
Two
Grill burgers (we used our George Foreman grill, but you could use a grill-grill too, only be careful the mixture doesn’t seep between the grill bars) for 14 to 18 minutes or until no longer pink (165 degrees), turning once halfway through grilling.
Three
Sprinkle each burger with cheese. Grill for 1 to 2 minutes more or until cheese melts.
Four
Serve burgers on rolls/buns. If desired, top with avocado and salsa. (Also, toast the buns. TASTY!)
We made a note to actually make guacamole next time and skip the salsa. Though the salsa was good, we think guacamole will be better.
Enjoy!
(I daresay there will be more recipe posts in the future. He has sticky notes on a ton of pages in many of our cookbooks. Stay tuned).
C..C..C..Cold. The high got up to 15 today. That’s freaking cold. I’m pretty sure I was numb the entire morning.
Kevin took the boys to school (because the roads were slick and I’m a big wuss when it comes to driving on slick roads) and he came back to pick me up so we could both go to his office and work. We’ve been following this pattern and it seems to be working pretty good for both of us. We go back home for lunch (except for Wednesdays, that’s our lunch date day) then he returns to his office by himself and stays until five. I stick around the house, catch up on emails then pick up the boys from school.
His office was freezing cold. He turns the thermostat down at night, to save on utilities, and it never really catches back up until after lunch. So, I quite literally froze while I surfed job sites.
Oh yeah. I surfed job sites. In FACT, I found a job that would be perfect for me, but I’m terrified of applying for it. Mainly because they state in their application guidelines that they will issue some sort of work test to see how I do.
I’ll be honest. I’m pretty good thinking on my feet, but honestly? Only when it comes to areas I’m pretty comfortable in. This particular job requires technical writing skills, which I have a Bachelor’s of Science in, but which I haven’t actually used since I gradated. I stumbled into the website design business shortly after graduation and that’s where I’ve been ever since.
If I apply for this job, I will need to brush up on my technical writing skills. Which, in essence, is everything to do with technical writing. The job title is a “Document Specialist” and it’s with a software company that sells software to insurance companies. It sounds awesome. And reading the requirements, I’m pretty much a shoe in … but I’m TERRIFIED.
I will be a (bigger) fool if I don’t apply, I think. I’ll never get over my fear of doing what I’m actually trained to do unless I just take a deep breath and jump in. The problem is, there aren’t many of these types of jobs around Springfield (at least, there didn’t use to be, maybe there are more now – I mean the last time I seriously looked into the industry was back when I graduated from college, in 2003), so I’m not sure how many “practice” opportunities I’ll get before the opportunities run out. You know?
Also, I registered on the hospital health care site today and found another position that looks like I’d be a shoe-in for – it’s in patient registration and the location is pretty close to home. The hours are 6:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, though I would be a “floater” and would be required to work other locations, if they needed me.
I was pretty encouraged by my searches today. I’m feeling excited and scared. I’m working on my resume now, which is another sobering experience considering I haven’t put a resume together in YEARS and I’m trying to come up with a creative spin on my working from home all these years. One of the things I think might be a good thing to point out is that now that our boys are (virtually) grown, or at least are at the stage where they are self-sufficient and not really relying on me anymore, I won’t be called home to take care of a sick youngster and have the time and motivation to commit all of my attention to my job duties.
Kevin has a resume book I can consult, but it’s really old. Do resume tips expire? I know NOT to pull the same “am motivated, friendly and work well with others” stint because let’s face it, that’s what all employers are looking for anyway and putting that on a resume is redundant and mundane. I’m thinking I might make a trip to our local Barnes and Noble and thumb through some resumes books to see if anything new and different jumps out at me.
I also saw a pretty slick “about me” page that I would like to incorporate into my resume/cover letter package. In essence, it’s one page with a picture of me and a short paragraph listing my abilities and accomplishments. I don’t know how “different” that really is, but I’d like to try it, at any rate.
My desk still hasn’t arrived. Kevin said that the company where he ordered the desk from shows it’s supposed to arrive sometime next week. I’m really ready to move into my own space. Though technically, it won’t really be MY space, but just SPACE, since I’m carting a laptop around and pack everything up before I leave so that you can’t even tell I was there to begin with. I have a pretty good idea what I want to do with Kevin’s website, I’ll likely start on that tomorrow, providing I can find some decent pictures to purchase on iStockphoto.com.
I’ve got to do something about this fatigue. It gets to the point where I can’t even concentrate, I’m so tired. And when I say tired, I mean droopy and can barely keep my eyes open tired. I’m back to drinking coffee in the afternoons. It’s funny, but I don’t truly start waking up until around mid-afternoon and I’m pretty awake until around 10:00 at night.
I was late picking the boys up from school today. Did I mention the high was only 15 degrees? I didn’t know they got out of school early today and they were forced to stand out in the cold for about ten minutes before calling Kevin, who told them to go back to the school and warm up. (Why they don’t have the presence of mind to do that to begin with is beyond me). They tried calling me multiple times (I had eight missed calls), but I had the radio on and didn’t hear my phone. (I’ve since changed the ring tone and turned the volume way up). They were frozen and quite annoyed with me. Jazz had the good sense to at least zip up his jacket and pull his hoodie over his head. Dude’s jacket was unzipped and flapping in the wind. When I asked him why he didn’t zip it up, “My hands were too numb.”
I’ve told the boys repeatedly they need to wear something other than a t-shirt and sweat jacket to school when it gets this cold, like a sweatshirt and a heavier jacket. But Dude just told me that that “Looks dorky” and he flat out refuses to dress warmer. This is the part where I shrug and say, “well, then you’re going to freeze and I don’t want to hear about it.”
Teenagers are so STUBBORN. Jazz is at least a little more reasonable when it comes to his clothes, but Dude wears the three exact same t-shirts all the time with the exact same three hoodies all the time and this does not deviate, ever. I have stopped buying him clothes because he simply won’t wear them. God forbid the kid stand out from his peers in any way. I did finally make him get his hair cut, so at least now he looks like a respectable young man instead of a homeless guy. And he will maintain that ‘do as long as he lives here. As I told him, “It’s time to grow up and look the part.” I mean seriously, if you were an employer, would you hire a kid that looks like he just crawled out of a dumpster?
Exactly.
At any rate, that was the drama for the day – mom screwed up. But to be fair to me, I didn’t KNOW the kids got out early, so they should have taken the initiative and made sure I knew that they did.
I’m glad we went ahead and bought a parking sticker for Dude’s car – it looks like he might be driving them both to school very soon. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.
Working at the office today. My desk still hasn’t arrived yet, Kevin called the company and they were waiting on the conference table, which is on back order, so they could ship everything together. But he told them to go ahead and send the desk, just send the table whenever it finally gets in.
It’s freeeeezing in here. Kevin turns the thermostat way down when he leaves at night so it takes a while for the office to warm up. I’m currently working with my coat on and my toes are frozen. But hey, at least our utility bill should be pretty low.
*****
It snowed here yesterday and last night, I think we only got about an inch and a half, but it’s cold, like only a high of 20 cold and the windchill might be in the negatives. Our school district kept our schools open and people are throwing FITS over it. Honestly? It’s cold, and there are slick spots, but it’s really not that bad. I did feel sorry for the kids that had to walk and/or ride the bus this morning, that couldn’t have been fun. Hopefully they were bundled up.
But some of the complaints on the district’s Facebook page didn’t make any sense to me. For example: what about the poor kids that can’t afford winter coats, gloves, etc.? I don’t understand this argument. We have a clothing bank that supplies winter clothing to kids who need that sort of thing (for free!) so I can’t help but wonder why parents wouldn’t adequately clothe their children for this type of weather. Even if they don’t get the clothing from the clothing bank, (did I mention it’s free?), buy coats and other winter accessories when it goes on sale in the off season. In other words, prepare. We live in an area that gets ice and snow every year – EVERY YEAR – it’s not like this is a surprise or a rare occurrence. And anyone who lives in this city knows that our district is rather notorious for NOT calling off school in weather like this so … why aren’t they prepared?
I’ve been truly flabbergasted at the number of nasty comments on the district’s Facebook wall. I also wonder if their reactions are being noticed by their children and what sort of lesson those children are learning from all of this. That when the weather gets a little bad stay home and complain? Most jobs expect you to show up, rain, shine, snow or ice … I just wonder if parents are aware that their children are learning future coping skills from them.
Our boys? Didn’t even complain. In fact, they weren’t even surprised that the school didn’t cancel school. They got up and got ready as usual. They knew that there was no way we were allowing them to stay home, that when something like this happens, we tend to just shrug it off and say, “Oh well. We’ll deal with it.” They don’t even bother asking to stay home anymore because we’ve always been consistent in our answers – nope. We’ll get an earlier start and drive very slowly.
Though I understand everyone has different circumstances and must make the choice whether to keep their kids home themselves, I do wonder how they handle these situations and what sort of lessons their children take away from times like these. Children are sponges, they soak up this sort of stuff whether we’re aware of it or not.
I don’t jump on bandwagons … I prefer to stand back and watch people fight for a seat and make fools of themselves, myself. It’s really quite interesting to watch. Not to mention sad and a little disturbing, quite honestly.
Updated: I couldn’t take the insane comments on our district’s Facebook page anymore. I responded with:
I’ve read these comments all day and I’m confused. This weather is not unusual for our area. We have cold snaps come through every year.
Every. Year.
And every year, people get upset on whatever the district decides to do; the district can’t… win. I’m sure it’s a tough call, either way. It’s our job, as parents, to teach our children to adapt to the situation/circumstance.
I guess I don’t understand why people aren’t prepared. If children need coats, scarves, hats, gloves, etc. there are places you can go to get them: PTA Clothing Bank, churches, charities, thrift stores, garage sales, off-season sales. My point is, we know there will be days like this, have a plan, prepare. Talk to the kids. Prepare them. If they have to wait for the bus, then tell them to stamp their feet to stay warm. If they’re walking, then make sure they have adequate footwear and are wearing hats and scarves. If we’re driving them, then leave earlier and drive slower – show the kids, by example, how to navigate weather like this.
If parents sincerely don’t want to send their kids on days like this, then don’t send them. Again, have a plan, prepare where they will go before hand. And that’s it. Don’t grumble or insult other parents who have other plans or opt to do something different.
This has nothing to do with money, with education, with what side of town we live on but all about individual choices and preparing our children to endure these hardships. Just wait until they gets jobs, jobs don’t have snow days. Bosses will expect their employees to show up, regardless of the weather.
As far as the school’s responsibility, I agree with what others have said – if school is going to be in session, then please make sure parking lots and sidewalks are cleared off beforehand so that everyone can arrive safely.
I truly wasn’t trying to be an asshole, but don’t you think this is common sense stuff? I swear, people don’t seem to have the capability to think for themselves anymore. Maybe it’s just me. *shrug*
I gasped when I read about the people being gunned down at the shooting in Arizona on Saturday. I cried when I read that six people had died (including a nine-year girl who had coincidentally been born Sept. 11, 2001 and was there because she was on the student council at her school and was interested in politics) and that Congresswoman Giffords had been shot in the head by a rifle at close range and was listed in critical condition at a nearby hospital.
I thought about all of the families affected by this tragedy. I thought about Giffords’ husband and how he must have felt when he learned that his wife, a woman who had dedicated her life to being a public servant, had been shot. I thought about the parents of the mentally disturbed young man who instigated this tragedy and OMG, can you imagine what they must be feeling right about now?? Can you imagine what they must be going through as parents of the boy, THEIR CHILD, who caused all of this mayhem??
I honestly can’t comprehend what they must be going through right now.
And then, I made the mistake of getting on Twitter and all I felt was RED HOT RAGE at the assholes who, instead of concentrating on the victims of this crime and trying to learn just what happened and why, spent their energies on pointing fingers and placing blame on political figures and institutions all in the name of personal hatred and progressing political agendas.
I was angry, sickened and discouraged by the public reaction that ERUPTED from this tragedy.
The blame game began before the smoke from the crime scene had even dissipated. Suddenly, it became the conservatives’ fault that this mentally disturbed young man (and he has a record of increasingly alarming activities over the years) went Rambo on a shopping center on a sunny Saturday in Arizona.
It was now Sarah Palin’s fault that this happened because she dared to use the symbol for crosshairs on her map to indicate those were the Democrats to beat in the next elections because they voted against health care reform. (Though some dispute they aren’t crosshairs at all but rather the symbol for surveyors, but that’s splitting hairs). Do I think that was a good idea? Oh hell no. I knew that was a mistake the moment I saw the map – I just KNEW it would be a matter of time before the left tried to twist that imagery around to suit their particular brand of blame game.
I’m not a Sarah Palin fan. I don’t dislike the woman, but I don’t worship her feet, either. I admire her guts for putting herself out there and for not being afraid to say what’s on her mind. Do I think she’s the most eloquent speaker I’ve ever heard? Definitely not. Do I think she’s stupid? No, but I do think she’s impulsive and that sometimes cast her in an iffy light.
And I DEFINITELY don’t understand people’s irrational hatred of the woman. Truly. THAT baffles me.
Other than Palin, the left is now blaming FOX News, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and their strongly-worded rhetoric for this mentally unbalanced individual openly firing on an innocent crowd. Let’s definitely NOT put the blame on the actual person who pulled the trigger – that would be the RATIONAL thing to do.
Look. Do I think the right gets a little carried away with the rhetoric at times? Definitely. Do I think the left-wing media reports speculation more than facts all in the name to rile people up and increase their ratings? Absolutely. But it’s all part of the rhetoric game and I’m most convinced that RATIONAL people, and I’d like to believe that’s 98.2% of the population, see it for what it is, an Ethos game – a trick of the trade to play on people’s emotions and get them fired up about what is happening in our country and to try and persuade people to their side of the fence. But placing blame on these institutions just to further a political agenda when in fact, they are not responsible for what happened is irresponsible and pathetic.
And if we’re perfectly honest, (and I usually am because that’s who I am), we could attribute anything to causing this sort of thing happening. Palin could just has easily placed hearts instead of crosshairs on that map and there would be a mentally unstable person out there that would think, “OH! It’s a message! I’m supposed to locate these people and cut their hearts out! I GET it. *winkwinknudgenudge*.” The bottom line is, we can say and do anything, no matter how innocent the intention, and there would be someone out there that would misconstrue the message and cross that moral line.
They’re called emotionally unstable and they don’t have a political affiliation, they have a mental disease. HUGE difference there.
And before you think I’m trying to justify the right and their rhetoric because I am, after all, a conservative myself, not so fast. There have been COUNTLESS examples of the left doing this very thing in the past. For example, does THIS map look familiar? What about the phrase, “BEHIND ENEMY LINES” construing that fellow Americans that dare to disagree with the left’s agenda are enemies? Or what about this map, along with a complete legend labeling Republicans “targets” – you don’t think THAT might incite violence? That’s blatantly strong rhetoric, don’t you think?
And let’s not forget Obama’s juicy little comments he’s made over the past several years:
Obama: “They Bring a Knife…We Bring a Gun”
Obama to His Followers: “Get in Their Faces!”
Obama on ACORN Mobs: “I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!”
Obama to His Mercenary Army: “Hit Back Twice As Hard”
Obama on the private sector: “We talk to these folks… so I know whose ass to kick.“
Obama to voters: Republican victory would mean “hand-to-hand combat”
Obama to lib supporters: “It’s time to Fight for it.”
Obama to Latino supporters: “Punish your enemies.”
Obama to democrats: “I’m itching for a fight.”
My point is, BOTH sides are guilty of explosive rhetoric. I’m not saying it’s right, and I’m certainly not condoning it’s usage, but it’s part of the game. We could sit here and point fingers and give examples for HOURS, maybe even DAYS, and then … what? Nothing has been solved. Nothing will be done. Two wrongs don’t make a right … and never will. I wish it wasn’t like this. I wish we could sit down and have rational discussions about our political differences and then come to a fair compromise. But it doesn’t work that way. There are too many variables and it’s really up to the people to use their heads and maintain their tempers – otherwise, you have THIS type of thing happening. People diverting blame and fabricating reasons all to further incite people and drive that political wedge.
So I implore you readers, when something like this happens (and unfortunately, it will again because we are a fallen nation full of evil and sin), I hope you will STOP, GET THE FACTS AND THINK before angrily waving your weapons or jumping on a particular bandwagon.
The future of our country honestly depends on people keeping a level head.
Do me a favor, put the blame where the blame BELONGS. Don’t fabricate an enemy – we have enough real-live enemies as it is, we don’t need any more.
I’m sitting here, munching on half of an apple (I gave the other half to Dude) and thinking about the french film that Kevin and I just watched in his instant Netflix queue. What is it about reading subtitles that make a movie so intriguing? Is it the fact that you have no choice but to pay attention and read the subtitles or risk becoming hopelessly lost within the story? Or does reading the subtitles put a voice in your head and make the characters just that much more interesting?
At any rate, the movie was Amélie and it was truly adorable. The character was adorably shy and you couldn’t help but love her. I’d recommend it but I warn you, there are boobs.
But it’s French, would you expect anything less?
It was a good day.
I met Kevin at his office and together, we worked on putting his office together. Not physically, but we ordered business cards (I ordered myself some too – from Vista Print, because they were free, except for the postage), I recorded the voice mail for his office, (because he thinks my voice sounds so much better than his even though it’s HIS office and HIS business), we brainstormed some ideas for his logo and even nabbed some pretty good design ideas for his website design. I reserved his domain name and we contacted the man who is in charge of putting up lettering on the business doors. We mapped it out, know where we want to put it and now we’re hoping the cost doesn’t give me a heart attack.
We even went to Office Depot and bought a “Will be back at such-and-such time” sign.
Things are moving right along.
I spent the entire day at the office with Kevin, and came home – Kevin had driven his truck so we had separate vehicles. I worry that we’re spending too much time together – living together, working together, but Kevin doesn’t think it will be a problem.
And I don’t either … right now. But since I don’t exactly fancy plotting his death some day because I’m so sick of being around him, I still plan on finding a little something-something for me to do just to put a little space between us. Kevin mentioned he saw a lot of clerical jobs available with the hospital …. Hmm … I never thought of working in the health care industry.
I like it.
Dude graduates in exactly 130 days. This thought is never far from my mind.
Write From Karen 