I AM a Southerner

My poor little abandoned blog is such a lonely little corner! Life's at full speed and something had to give, but I was inspired to check in here when I discovered a heretofore unknown passion for pimento cheese.

Grocery store pimento cheese gives me the willys... it's so, so ORANGE. I have Michigan transplant parents so pimento cheese didn't make an appearance on my childhood menus. Thanks to the aforementioned parents, I've always been not quite a sure enough Southerner. That was until I met HOMEMADE pimento cheese. Oh dear golly that stuff rocks!

A tub of this nectar was featured as lunch rations on a dive trip to the Keys last week and I nearly embarassed myself with how much I liked it. So much so, that I came home and googled away to discover a recipe so that I might have pimento cheese for my own self. This may take a while to perfect, but the first batch is in the fridge, so I'm on my way to unlocking the secrets.

mmmm, cheesy goodness!

What is Paul Newman doing in my pantry?

I love Paul Newman pasta sauces, but it struck me as odd the other day to see my mother's heartthrob on a jar in my pantry. I wonder if Matthew MacConaughey will be in my pantry someday...

Through New Eyes

My friends got back from China with their new little girl, Ella, on Friday night. After 20 hours in transit with at least 9 hours of screaming 1.5 year old, the whole family was wrecked and pretty sure they never wanted to get on an airplane ever again. Miss Ella is a complete charmer and I can't stop thinking of what it must be like to be her and to have your world changed so completely.

The drive home strapped into a car seat for the first time showcased her lung power, but she soon keeled over to sleep... taking after her Aunt Debbie who can't sit in a moving vehicle for long without snoozing. Soon she saw her new home for the first time... and her new pet kitty. Do you remember the first time you ever saw a cat? Me, either. I grew up with pets, have never not had a pet, can't imagine life without a pet.

Not so, Ella. It was really funny to witness her first introduction to Tux. Tux, who has never met a stranger, beelined it to the new little person for a look see. Ella's eyes got big, followed by a blood curdling, Freddy Krueger is in the house, scream. Tux nearly turned himself inside out to get away from sceaming baby. Meg and I nearly collapsed from the giggles -- compassionate souls that we are.

Word is that within 24 hours Ella had made peace with Tux and Jake the dog; this week of firsts is so exciting that I'm glad I got to see a couple of them. What a fun, sweet journey.

One Short Flight & a World Away

I'm spending the week in South Texas at a 5,000 acre ranch filled with deer, cactus and mesquite. It's an amazing place to visit to recharge your batteries and slow down to enjoy life and little purple flowers and a friendly ranch puppy. I'm so grateful for the opportunity and the jalapeno bacon...

Yesterday we trekked down to a border town and loaded up on cool, amazingly inexpensive pewter and pottery. I'm definitely conning my friend Sarah into a road trip and joint business venture of "importing" this stuff back home to re-sell.

As we're driving back from our shopping jaunt, the phone rings and it's my friend Meg who is in China adopting a little girl. What a small, diverse world we live in that I can be staring out at dusty plains filled with cactus while chatting with my friend who's heading off for a day on the Great Wall.

I love the opportunities we have in our world today and want to drink even more of them in... gotta sell a lot of chimeas (sp?) and flower pots to make my dreams come true!

Lent Free

I have a long tradition of observing Lent. Usually I give up some food category -- fried, potatoes, chocolate or similar. I'm pretty hard core and usually succeed with the 40-day commitment, but this year I'm just not feeling it. I've already cut out diet sodas with a very occasional indulgence and I'm watching what I eat pretty successfully, so my old stand bys aren't in play.

I think this is probably a really good shift in attitude for me. Instead of challenging myself for 40 days, I'm changing my lifestyle in a more permanent fashion.

Now if I could just re-charge my running...

Don't Try This at Home Kids

Proud to say that it's 36 days into the new year and I remain resolute in my resolution not to drink diet sodas. Yay me. Unfortunately it's proving to be hazardous to my health... I'm developing a love/hate relationship with the water cooler.

Our office has one of those handy water coolers that you put a 5 gallon water bottle on and voila, hot (really, really hot) and cold water on demand. My first run in with the evil-ness of this device was when I tried to change out the bottles. If you drop a 5 gallon water bottle from a height of 4 feet or so, it will bust... dramatically. There's a lot of water in 5 gallons, enough to cover an 8x8 section of floor in about a 1/4 inch of water and soak any (not so) innocent bystanders up to their knees. No problem, it was such a colossal mess that my co-workers are dedicated to changing it before I can eff it up again.

This morning I'm hitting the hot water spigot to steep some tea and in a moment of inattention, I drop the cup full of scalding hot (really, really hot) water all over my freakin' foot. OUCH! No blisters, but still some very angry skin and a sore foot. This would have never happened if I could have just reached into the fridge and liberated a Diet Dr. Pepper... I'm just saying.

Will Run for Food

The 1/2 marathon training is still in full swing (though I am avoiding running even as I type this). This week was a tough one, I just wasn't feeling it. Wednesday night's 5.4 mile run was particularly miserable. Yesterday I was commited to doing 3 miles minimum, so we hatched a plan. I would run from home to the Hickory House and Steve would drive to the Hickory House and then do a big loop to get his run in. Then we would have breakfast.

It was 30 degrees or so and I had a miserable time warming up for the first half, but no thoughts of quitting because breakfast was waiting! Yep, will run for food. Thankfully the second half was much better and I found a groove and felt good. By the time I made it to the Hickory House I was pretty proud of myself and I'd earned breakfast with 3.3 miles of slogging it out.

Guess I better go run...