Slacker

It's 1:30 PM, and I'm still in my pajamas. I worked in the ER til 2:30 this morning, so I don't feel so bad about my choice of clothing at the moment especially since I'll be back in the ER at 6 tonight. I know I need to update my blog, but I have been a slacker. I don't have a really great excuse; it just seems that every time I try to put my thoughts down lately, the words don't convey the depth of the experience.

To sum up the last 2 weeks in tidbits:

• I really love my husband. We drive each other nuts sometimes, but I love that man so much!!
• My experiments in the kitchen have been exceptionally tasty recently. I've made a ton of chocolate chip cookies, one delicious pot roast (thank you, Barefoot Contessa!), several yummy spaghetti dishes with extra veggies, a yummy butter cake, two batches of java-streusel banana muffins, mango sorbet for the hubby, and a batch of vanilla bean ice cream. I've given most of the food away which is why I haven't gained 50 pounds.
• Swine flu is not my friend right now. Neither are the 300 parents crowding the ER wanting their perfectly healthy kids tested for the swine flu.
• I think we've figured out where we want to move. As soon as our house sells, we'll re-examine the area to see what houses are available, but it's nice to have an idea of where we want to end up.
• On the other hand, I really dread packing this house and finding a moving company!
• Speaking of other hands, I already bought my birthday present even though my birthday is six weeks away. Hubby is taking me to see Fiddler on the Roof when the production comes through Dallas in May. I am SO excited!! I loved that movie when I was little and can still sing all the songs from the musical.

Zzzzz

Sarah = boring. At least my blog seems to make me look that way! I have actually been pretty busy with work but have had enough down time over the last week to make two delicious soups from scratch (crab & corn chowder as well as shrimp bisque), a pot-roast, and two baked goods (double chocolate cake with white chocolate-sour cream icing and cranberry-orange scones). Hubby and I had the opportunity to go out to eat with some sweet friends of ours at a great restaurant on Saturday night and again with another couple we adore on Sunday. We had a busy but great weekend!

I donated blood yesterday, and I've felt a little tired since then, but this feeling is totally worth it. I'm CMV negative, something a little uncommon by the time you're my age, so I get hit up by the blood bank every eight weeks since my blood can be donated to the little ones as well as to immunocompromised individuals. I haven't been able to give every time I'm eligible, but I try to do it as often as I can. I have a firm belief that since I have ordered so much blood for my patients in the last two and a half years, I should help to supply that blood while I am able to do so.

I love that the weather has started to turn cold. We've actually had to put our electric blanket on the bed! As my hubby likes to say, "yes, we are old." I'm curled up on our bed under my quilt and am about to snuggled up underneath the quilt and the electric blanket. Comfort awaits!

My therapy

After the last eight weeks, I desperately needed a day off with no pressing responsibilities or to-do lists. I had a great massage yesterday followed by a quick, short-notice trip to visit my mother-in-law. I had planned to spend yesterday afternoon relaxing, but since we made the trip instead, I decided to use today for my relaxation today.

I spent the morning curled up with Sebastian watching Season 2 of Heroes. Since we missed the season premiere last night, I figure I had time to refresh myself on last season (thank goodness for DVR!). Now I've moved into the kitchen (bringing the laptop and the rest of the season with me) and have started on my own version of therapy -- baking. I trialed a new recipe for a dessert called Serendipity Deluxe bars (3 layers of deliciousness -- all from scratch!) and am waiting on my yeast roll dough to finish its 2nd rise before I split it up into rolls and do the 3rd rise. I'm also testing the new breadmaker to make a loaf of fresh bread for sandwiches. Knowing what ingredients I'm putting into my recipes appeals to me, and making all of these treats from scratch has been so fun. I have some flour left over from the bag I opened today that won't fit into the flour canister, so I think I may make some peanut butter cookies too in a little bit. :)

Hubby's not going to know what to think when he walks in the door tonight! At least I know we're having salads for dinner tonight; that will help counter-balance some of the yummy goodness awaiting us for dessert.

Sister time!

I had the weekend off, so my sister came to Dallas to visit. We had so much fun! Saturday morning Hubby and I finished cleaning the house, and I took Sebastian to the vet to get caught up on his vaccinations. He sure wasn't happy with me that day! By the time we got home, Becca was already waiting for us at our house. It was time to let the fun begin!

The three of us (Hubby, Becca, and I -- not Sebastian) went to Chuy's for lunch since Becca and I were craving some creamy jalapeno dip. Unfortunately, they forgot to bring out Hubby's plate, and by the time his food arrived, we were almost done eating; at least they gave him the meal for free since he pretty much had to eat alone! (He did encourage us to eat so that our food wouldn't get cold while we waited on him -- so sweet.) After lunch we did a little shopping and bought tons and tons of red meat for our weekend feasting (my hubby LOVES beef in any shape or form). I made a yummy mixed greens salad with bacon and balsamic vinaigrette as well as fully loaded baked potatoes while Hubby grilled his signature filet mignon. Becca agreed with me that his steak is better than most steakhouses and stated it was the best steak she'd had in years. My boy can grill!! :)

Becca brought us genuine kolaches from the Czech Stop in West, Tx, so we had those for breakfast. Becca and I are half-Czech and extremely proud of it (one of my next goals is to learn to make kolaches from scratch like the ones my grandma used to make), and having the kolaches reminded me of being a little girl going to visit Grandma in College Station and having cream cheese kolaches for breakfast in her little house. After church this morning, we had steak and grilled onion sandwiches, and now that Becca's gone, we've begun a long afternoon of watching football. Go Cowboys! This weekend was just what I needed; I now feel better equipped for another twelve straight days of work.

Happy 4th of July!

I've only been off nights for five days, so I'm still not fully adjusted to living normal hours. Hubby and Sebastian are both fast asleep next to me, but I'm wide awake; at least What Not to Wear is on. :)

I'm about to enter my longest stretch of time off in weeks; I had today off, won't work Saturday or Sunday, and don't have to go to work until Monday afternoon. This is phenomenal!! Hubby and I spent the day scrubbing the house from top to bottom; we are exhausted, but the place looks amazing. Tonight he grilled fajitas while I made guacamole from scratch ... soooo yummy with lime tortilla chips. We also enjoyed a lime curd tart that I made yesterday. After dark, we attempted to walk to the end of our street to watch a local fireworks display about two miles away, but some local geniuses decided that popping fireworks over parked cars and small children was a bright idea, so we left. Poor Sebastian couldn't take it outside; he did just fine once we got him away from the madness.

Tomorrow we're going to run errands, and I may try my hand at another new dessert if I can make a selection among several great recipes I've been wanting to try. All I know is that we are going to relax!

On a different note, I doubt that anyone from the military reads this, but on the off chance that someone does, I want to say thank you to all the brave men and women who are serving our country and to their families for supporting them as they serve. We appreciate your sacrifices and are grateful for all that you do.

The Big Apple -- Part 3

Wrapping up!

Friday

We had been tipped off by the concierge that if we wanted to go to Ellis Island, we needed to get there early. The line for tickets opens at 8:30, but he recommended getting there an hour early. When we got there, we were probably already about 10th in line, but the line quickly grew to over 50 people in a matter of minutes. I was glad we listened! Oddly enough, there's no actual charge to go to Ellis Island or Liberty Island, but there is a charge to ride the ferry. After we purchased our tickets, we stood in yet another line to walk through security prior to boarding the ferry. In further proof that my Hubby knows more people than I could ever hope to, he ran into another guy from his work while we were waiting in the security line. We finally made it on to the ferry and had an AWESOME view for the ride in. We stopped at Liberty Island first. An interesting (and important) fact is that a ticket on the ferry does not necessarily guarantee you entrance to the Statue of Liberty; if your ticket did not say "monument access" on it, you were out of luck. There was a little French lady who did not speak any English in front of us whose son had stepped out of line for a minute, and the park ranger kept trying to explain that she wouldn't be allowed inside the Statue. It made me sad that I didn't speak French! Her son finally came back, and when she realized that her ticket wasn't also for the Statue, she got mad! Oh well, c'est la vie. ;) We had to go through another security line to get inside, and once we walked through the museum, we had to walk up about six flights of stairs to get to the observatory at the base. No one is allowed up to the torch or crown anymore, but the view was still great. Hubby took some great pictures! After we finished on Liberty Island, we went on to Ellis Island; we easily could have spent the rest of the day there, but we were getting hungry! We decided that we wanted pizza again since it's just so different and delicious up there. We had Lombardi's for lunch - yummy! That night we decided to enjoy another steak dinner at Benjamin's Steak House. We then walked over to Grand Central Station before heading back to Times Square. We wrapped up the night by visited the huge Toys R US (there is a ferris wheel inside!) and heading back to the M&M store to buy some candy and a little souvenir for me.

On the ferry on the way to Liberty Island

He always makes me laugh.

Still another beautiful day

Having fun

Hubby took this.

He took this one too.

Saturday
We were worn out, so we slept in late and had Jamba Juice for breakfast. We had to leave the hotel by 12:30 to catch our flight, and since I was craving a burger, we decided to walk over to Ruby Tuesday's and get something nearby that would be quick. The ride back to the airport was not nearly as eventful as the ride over, and we made it through security so quickly that we had an hour and a half to wait before the plane took off. Hubby and I relaxed through the uneventful ride home, and as soon as we made it back to Texas, we drove for about an hour to pick up Sebastian from Hubby's mom (we told him he was going to "puppy camp" for the week). Our vacation was awesome, and I couldn't have asked for a better week with Hubby, but it was still so great to climb back into our own bed and go to our own church the next morning. Anniversary vacation 2008 was a success!

The Big Apple -- Part 2

Continuing on ...

Wednesday

We had initially planned to go to Ellis Island this day, but after our big dinner (and the wine), we decided to sleep in. :) It was wonderful! Since Hubby is a platinum member at the hotel where we stayed, we were able to partake of the hotel's complimentary breakfast buffet each morning. When we went down this particular day, we happened to run into one of Hubby's close business associates who regularly works in New York; after talking for a little bit, the Associate offered to take us out to lunch - yay! This only left us with about two and a half hours to walk around, so we decided to amble over to Central Park. That place is huge! We watched a group of high schoolers play softball, little kids riding the carousel, and a group of people setting up to film a scene for a movie or TV show.

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.

The tulips were amazing.

Strawberry Fields, a tribute to John Lennon

If you look directly over my left shoulder, you can see this weird guy who was dressed up like a wizard.

After Central Park, we met Hubby's buddies for lunch at Bobby Van's Grill; I was so glad I changed to get a little more dressy for lunch! We had the best steaks of our entire trip here (although I honestly do prefer Hubby's steaks -- my boy can grill like none other). After we finished lunch, we walked over to Rockefeller Center and perused the NBC gift shop for a bit; Hubby later ended up getting this t-shirt as a sign of his devotion to one of our favorite tv shows. We did a little more shopping, and I finally found a pair of black high heels that is narrow enough to fit my little heel. I was so excited! We were both getting pretty tired from all the walking and dodging, so we went back to the hotel for a nap before the evening. We had tickets to see Wicked that night, so we ate dinner at a little restaurant right around the corner from the theater. Can I just say that Wicked was amazing? WOW, I was so enthralled! It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

Thursday
After breakfast, we wandered back to Rockefeller Plaza to watch the taping of the Today Show. We actually made it on TV! We got really tired of having this group of pre-teens screaming in our ears over Fran Drescher (the Nanny? really?), so we left and went back to Greenwich Village to get more pizza at Joe's Pizza. The restaurant itself is extremely tiny, so we took our slices and sat out in a little park across the street. It was yet another lovely day, so we had a really good time! Afterwards, we walked down to Ground Zero and looked at some of the historic buildings in the area. We were craving sushi for dinner, but unfortunately the concierge was out that evening, and the girl at the front desk obviously didn't know what she was talking about when it came to recommending sushi (she was sweet, but a boring California roll is not my idea of great sushi!). Thanks to my iPhone, we found Kodama and were able to have some very interesting rolls that I'd never tried before. After dinner, we went to Serendipity 3 for their famous frozen hot chocolate. It was good, but I have to admit that I was a little let down after all the hype (plus I was slightly annoyed that the waiter made us each order one as there was an $8.50 minimum per person -- I only drank about a third of mine, and I knew ahead of time I couldn't come close to finishing one!).

9/11 memorial

9/11 memorial

Like I said, these things were huge!

Our last two days soon ...

The Big Apple -- Part 1

I had to skip work today because the dreaded gastroenteritis has hit me, and I don't want to get all the Heme-Onc kids sick (I'm cross-covering for an intern this weekend). I've been pretty much useless today, so since I've had a nice little nap, I feel that I should do something relatively constructive like blog about our trip.

Sunday
Our plane was an hour and a half delayed in taking off from the airport, so we were late in getting to NYC. When we finally landed and got our bags, we took a car service from the airport to Times Square. Scary!! The driver talked on his cell phone and was yelling in Arabic most of the time, and I was so thankful that we had seatbelts on! He was definitely not paying close attention to the road, but we arrived safely in one piece. After getting settled in, we decided to walk around Times Square for a bit and ended up having dinner at John's Pizzeria; the pie was delicious, and Hubby got to have one of his favorite beers that he can only find in the Northeast. After dinner, we continued our exploration by foot and made stops at both the M&M store as well as the Hershey store. We finally got tired and headed back to the hotel where we slept like babies; I was really surprised how quiet the room was considering we were facing 7th Avenue.

The wind was crazy!

My boy loves chocolate. :)


Monday
We got up that morning, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed out for our Foods of New York tour. Our tour guide was very interesting, and we spent over 3 hours wandering around the west side of Greenwich Village and tasting all sorts of different foods. We had a slice of New York style pizza from Joe's Pizza, samples of fresh bread, pesto, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar from O & Co, a cheese/ meat/ bread/ olive sampler from Murray's Cheeses, chocolate-covered pecans and almonds sold at this really cool herb store called Aphrodisia, chocolate chip cookies from Milk and Cookies, Thai chicken dumplings from Lime, and a final slice of pizza from Bleeker Street Pizza. We also learned quite a bit about local history and architecture and had such a blast! After the tour was over, we walked over to Chelsea Market; unfortunately, we weren't able actually to visit the Food Network, but we did see some really cute shops. I would totally shop there if I lived in New York! We easily walked over 5-6 miles that day, so despite all our snacking for lunch, we had still worked up a good appetite for dinner, so we walked up to Hell's Kitchen and had dinner at Uncle Nick's Greek Cuisine. I had some of the best gyros I've ever had, and Hubby enjoyed some lamb kabobs while we were both introduced to Greek wine. So good!

Hungry at the beginning of the food tour

Bleeker Street Pizza was a great way to end the tour.

These cupcakes from Chelsea Market were precious!

Tuesday
Our anniversary was here! We spent the morning shopping; I managed to find three pairs of petite pants that fit me, and (joy of joys!) they were all on sale. I was so happy! :) Then we went to what we are now referring to as the biggest rip-off of NYC, the Empire State Building. We got suckered into this thing called the NY Skyride; it turned out to be a Kevin Bacon-narrated movie attached to an inside roller coaster simulator. I got extremely nauseated at the end of the ride and took almost 30 minutes before I felt back to normal. :-p After visiting the top of the building, we walked back to the hotel for a nap before dinner. We had dinner at this extremely romantic restaurant called One If By Land, Two If By Sea. Hubby had the quickly seared buffalo rib eye, the beef wellington, and the dark chocolate souffle with rocky road garnish; I had wild mushroom and Parmesan crumble, the cushion of veal with butternut squash and broccolini, and the warm chocolate tart. All of the food was absolutely amazing, and my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. We had an amazing bottle of French Bordeaux wine, and the service was superb. I will remember that dinner for a long time!

So in love

More to come shortly ...

The aroma of freshly baked bread is wafting through my house

Dillards has been running an amazing clearance sale this week. I have been contemplating a bread machine for quite some time but haven't been able to bring myself to buy one. It is hardly a necessity, and the cheapest decent one I could find was a little over $60 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. On Thursday I stopped by Dillards to get some necessary undergarments and made my usual stroll through the home section. There I happened upon a bread machine originally priced at $70 reduced to $50; on top of this, they had just marked it down another $15. I pulled out my Dillards giftcard that I'd been saving for a while, and I had almost $30 left on it. Add in a little tax, and I only paid $8.13 for a beautiful little bread machine!

I've already made one loaf of white (almost gone) and just finished a loaf of honey wheat a few hours ago. The house smells soooo good right now. I think I'm going to try a loaf of French bread tomorrow. This machine is so fun!

I am thankful ...

... that I'm incapable ... of doin' any good on my own.

Seriously, the tragedy I have been watching around me makes me stop and reflect how many things for which I have to be thankful. Let me give an abbreviated list:

• My beloved husband
• My family
• The best dog in the world
• My home
• Indoor plumbing :)
• Delicious food that is readily and easily accessible (and often somewhat nutritious)
• Clean, drinkable water
• My overall good health
• A supportive work environment
• Freedom of speech and of worship
• Easy access to medicine
• Laughter
• My new Barista and the delicious coffee that Hubby makes for me before I go to work
• Christmas CDs that arrive early (yay Amazon.com!)
• A baby's laugh
• Seeing miracles everyday with my own eyes
• Most of all ... my Savior

Feed me!

It's 11:55, and it's almost time for our daily noon conference. It's also almost time for the free lunch they use to get us to come to noon conference. I am starving! Yesterday I could barely eat, and today I am ravenous. It puts me in the mood to go home and use my double oven again! I love the new house.