Since the last time I posted

OMG I'm totally going to come back and blog and -ish. so said Lara a YEAR ago. Dang. For the last few months I've been thinking I should dust off this space instead of sitting here at night after Morgan goes to bed playing some B.S. game on my phone and watching My 600lb Life or Outdaughtered. (which I'm totally watching right now because I don't know anything about kids and what they do at various ages.)

During all the reruns of My 600lb Life they play previews of Doctor Pimple Popper and I couldn't help it, I had to watch one episode.

I was sitting there, watching the doctor lance this giant ass cyst that a guy had been growing on his forehead for FIVE YEARS. It looked like a horn, a giant red horn growing from his head and he hadn't gone to the doctor because he was afraid it might be cancer so he just let it grow on his head. THEN, THEN, there was the lady who literally had a hump growing on her shoulder and it was THREE POUNDS OF FAT.

You might call that rock bottom, and I thought, you know, I could blog instead of watch a chicken cutlet get pulled out of a lady's neck.

I was making some posts last year, totally on a roll and we had to do some unexpected remodeling downstairs.

 Every scrap of tile in the hall, kitchen and dining room was pulled up and the living room carpet. In addition, the "neutral" wallpaper in the hall and up the stairs was removed, light fixtures replaced, kitchen cabinets repainted, the entire downstairs repainted and I'm sure a bunch of other things I can't remember now.

Totally awesome when you have a 3 month old baby, dog, and mother in law who just began an extended visit. Have you ever stayed in an extended stay hotel with a dog and a 3 month old? I don't recommend it.

However, total bright side, we've been talking for years about selling our house and moving to something a little bigger with more space. We said as soon as we got a baby we'd do it and remodeling the entire downstairs only makes the house more marketable regardless of what a pain it was.

As of last week, we're on the market and the house is up for sale! If you know anyone who's looking for a great house in an awesome neighborhood in N. Raleigh NC, let me know!

 

Seriously, does it not look so much better? No more orange, no more cream, no ugly tile, no wallpaper. It makes me not want to move. lol

So yea, that's my highly un-insightful initial blog post. Baby stuff, house stuff and sell my house stuff. 

No Yeast Pizza Crust

I made a pizza this weekend. This might not seem like a terribly big deal but believe me it was. Kev and I have been on a no-buy July kick and we were determined to eat though the stuff we had in the house by the end of the month. For me that means eating though all my Jenny food and not having naughty. (I owe you all a weight loss update, soon...) For Kev is was me making a pizza instead of ordering one. Baby steps folks.

We had mozzarella, pizza sauce and pepperoni in the house (they're staples) I figured why not? Let's make a crust. I did what everyone does, I headed over to Pinterest for some inspiration. I found a few recipes, make some tweaks and came up with my own version. Full disclaimer, this is NOTHING like a store-bought or pizzaria pizza. This is the pizza that when you're a kid you ask your mom if you can order out and she says
"no, we have all the ingredients for pizza in the house".
And you're like "IT'S NOT THE SAME"
Mom - "It'll be fine, this is just as good as Pizza Hut"

It's not Pizza Hut but it's still a decent version of homemade crust and you feel domestic AF when you finish.

No Yeast Pizza Crust:
2 1/2 cups of all purpose (or self rising) flour
3/4 Cup of water
2 Tbls Olive Oil
1 Tbls Baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Extras:
1 Tbls melted butter
All the oregano, Parmesan cheese and garlic powder you want

Pre-heat oven to 450

First; pour the water, olive oil, baking powder, salt and sugar in your mixing bowl, swirl it around. Then slowly add your flour. Or be like me and dump it all in at once and get a giant flour poof in your face. I used the dough hook on my mixer and it was nice. That dough hook never gets used.

After it was all mixed, I remembered that we have a pizza stone that we've used maybe once. I went digging in the cupboard looking for it. Found it, washed it off and felt I should put some olive oil or something on the stone since the curing died a long time ago.

Then I pulled out a cool mat I got a long time ago from Pampered Chef that has circles on it. It's the think I use to roll all my dough and keep the counter relatively clean. I slapped it on the mat and tried to roll it into a circle. Didn't work. Then I tired to be like a pizza guy and toss it in the air to make a circle. This also did not work. Finally I got it rolled out and onto the stone

Yea, dough

 Then I smeared on the melted butter and sprinkled on the cheese, oregano and garlic powder. Bake at 450 for 5 minutes

After the 5 minutes are up, take it out and add your toppings. In hindsight, I should have buttered and seasoned the crust edge.

This was apparently dangerously close to the edge.

I put it back in for another 15 minutes until it was golden brown and bubbly. Then I forgot to take a picture because I'm a shitty blogger. Imagine it's all golden brown with bubbly cheese.

Overall it was a pretty decent crust. In a pinch if you don't have yeast or yeast hates you and refuses to rise, this is a good alternative. I was concerned that it would taste like Bisquick pizza crust and it definitely didn't.

In summary, when you're trying to eat the stuff in your house and want a pizza that reminds you of the kind you mom made when you couldn't go to Pizza Hut, this is for you!

Thoughts on Raleigh Supercon

This weekend in Raleigh all the fandoms came together to celebrate their geekiness in one place, Supercon. Apparently there's a ton of money to be made at these things and a bunch of random people that you don't associate with being part of anything sci-fi can all come together, charge $30 for a selfie (cash only) smile, kiss some babies and leave with a little pocket money until the next gig rolls around. One of the people on my team at work goes to a LOT of cons and did some research. Most get a few grand for showing up, then all the selfie and autograph $. Not too shabby.

Seriously, there was the most random collection of "stars" that I'd ever seen. Old WWF wrestlers, one of the original Village People, some Power Rangers, one of the Doctor Who Companions, nearly everyone who was Clerks, the guy who voices Super Mario. (I mean really? Does he say anything other than MARIO!) THAT GUY, THAT GUY made several thousand dollars this weekend and people waited in line to get an autograph. Then a bunch of comic book illustrators, some cosplay people and a bunch of crap I've never heard of.

There were so many, so, so many sights to behold there and of course I had some thoughts.

 - There are far too many Harley Quins here. Really, some were well done, the rest, not so much. OK, most not so much.

 - Greg "the Hammer" Valentine, I loved me some WWF when I was a kid, really did, the late 80s/early 90s wrestlers were the best. But why does he have an enormous booth? Ric Flair I get, he can have a big booth, especially since he lives in NC and can be seen in the wild. But Greg? Come on dude, that's just a waste. AND! oh AND his assistant was a little person. So much awesome at once.

These guys didn't know each other before the con, met there and walked around taking pictures with people like me. That folks, is the beauty of Supercon, just a bunch of cosplaying wrestlers coming together.

- There was a huge line for someone in a corner booth.
Kev - Who's over there
Me - I think it's a Power Ranger
Guy Standing near me - NO, it's THE Power Ranger. He's been on the show since the beginning.
Me - Uh huh...
Power Ranger Super Fan - He was all the colors and had all the powers
Me - Wow! (starts backing away)
PRSF - And he was on this show and this show. (clearly I've forgotten what he said)
Me - Oh no! The baby is getting fussy, I'd better check her diaper, gotta go! Spoiler, the baby wasn't fussy nor was her diaper full.

 - Dante from Clerks! (and Clerks 2) Is he even supposed to be here today? (Chuckles to self) I should ask him that. I'm sure EVERYONE is asking him that and has for the last 20 years. In college we were huge Kevin Smith fans. Back when he filmed Dogma in Pittsburgh and we were pretty sure we could meet Ben Affleck at a bar. Well, you probably still could.

 - The original Cowboy from the Village People was there. Randy Jones. Apparently Randy is originally from Raleigh which is partially why he's here. Now days he looks a little more like the biker, for the event he wore his cowboy gear though. I really wanted to go talk to him, but there wasn't anyone else there and I was afraid it'd be impossible to break away if I got started. All I want to know is how he escaped the late 70s/ early 80s AIDS free. I'm totally not being a jerk, he was in THE VILLAGE PEOPLE at the height of the scene. It was nothing but parties and Studio 54 and the Village People were at the top of the party list. It's more than impressive. I mean, that's Rock Hudson/ Rent/ Freddy Mercury AIDS, not Magic Johnson AIDS.

 - Jay of Jay and Silent Bob fame! (again huge Kevin Smith fans back in the day). According to my con-loving team member, "Jason Mews should pay me to take his autograph, who would pay him?". Jason Mews was selling little bottles of what he was calling "Mews Juice". I didn't get close because I was scared to see what it was. Mews Juice could be so, so many things.
Update - It's apparently coffee flavored vape juice. Vom.

 - "Hacksaw" Jim Dugan was signing tiny pieces of 2x4s. Awesome.

- Hey Jimmy Walker from Good Times! One time I was in Atlantic City getting a sub and he was there getting a sub too. Another time at the same sub shop Guy Fieri was there too and everyone was losing their minds. It took forever to get my sub that day and they forgot to put the special flavor stuff on the side. I guess they were too excited about Guy. I didn't have that problem when Jimmy was in front of me. Just another reason for me to dislike Guy Fieri.

 - My cosplaying baby was the cutest thing there.

BABY GROOT!

Finally they meet!

I had one goal at Supercon. One goal. To meet Levar Burton and have him read a book to my baby. I fricking LOVE Reading Rainbow! So, so much and Levar and Morgan would make my life.

Mission accomplished.

And that folks is the story of Raleigh Supercon. 

Thanks Y'all

No really, thank you so much for all of the kind comments here and on Instagram. I've been really salty about this and the longer it went the madder I became. Like I said before. F them. F the haters.

So, where to begin... lots of things have happened since I last posted. Apparently 460+ pictures that need to be uploaded worth of things. Awesome.

Let's do roses and thorns. For those folks who aren't familiar, that's when you post something nice, (roses), and something not so nice, (thorns).

Rose: Still on Jenny Craig, still working on my weight loss journey!
Thorn: STILL on my trip, still not at goal. Let's be honest, I've eaten like crap over the last 2 months because making vegetables with one hand is hard. Eating cereal while bouncing a baby is easy. I've probably gained back 7-ish pounds from my lowest back in March.
Rose: I'm not stopping. This week is my first full week back on track and I've been to the gym 2x this week so far. Coordinating gym and baby isn't easy. In a month I can take her to the kid's club at the gym. One month more...

Rose: I won the Halloween costume contest at work. 

There's nothing bad about dressing up as Hulk Hogan

Rose: Took my first trip to Texas for work in November. I've never been to Texas before and in the last several months I added 4 more states to the list of "states I've visited".

Thorn: It was over the election. It was rough to be in another state and be "on" when all I wanted to do was hide under the covers and drink wine. 

Thorn: AND I missed Hillary coming to NC State the evening before the election WITH BON JOVI. Bon Jovi came with her to the midnight rally. I would have lost my shit. So bummed about that one.

Rose: But hey, you know, Texas was new and it was Austin so most people were super sad and protesting in the streets.

Rose: The brisket was good. 

Rose: We went to NYC and NJ for the family Hanukkah party for the first time.

Rose: NYC during the holidays is cold and awesome. 

Thorn: Really though? I ate my weight in bagels. Other than that, nothing was bad.

Rose: We went to New Orleans to celebrate Kev's birthday and that was pretty awesome.
Thorn: Holy shit I had no idea just how devastating Hurricane Katrina was. That was some BS.
Rose: NOLA is great. The food, the booze... noms.

Rose: WE GOT A BABY! Come on now, OF COURSE this is hands down the best thing that's happened in the past few months. There's a much longer story to tell, which I will later. The adoption agency, the matching, the how completely unprepared we were. I mean, we've wanted a baby for a very long time but I'd never changed a diaper in my life until we got to the hospital. And we'd purchased 0 things before she arrived. Literally nothing. I was wandering around Target texting my SIL asking how many onesies a baby needed. Again, another story to tell.
Thorn: There will always be bumps along the adoption road, but in the end, it was so worth it.

Super quick recap, but let's be honest, you know I have some thoughts on baby things. So many thoughts on baby things, but this will by no means turn into a "mommy blog". Kill me first please.

Thanks everyone! 

I'm Probably Back. Really kinda, most likely back.

My three blog readers might have noticed my several month absence. The last time I posted was back in September. Well, nare you fret, I'm still alive and well. But something happened a few months ago, something that kept me away for a while. No, I'm not pregnant.

Someone didn't like something I posted on my blog. They didn't like my opinion and felt that I was responsible for how my words made them feel. Nothing came of it, but it shook me badly. I felt that my little corner of the blogosphere had been violated. My awkward bathroom selfies, workout recaps and low grade snark, made them unhappy. Well, I'm sure it was the snark. Who doesn't like a bathroom selfie and picture of booze?

I was upset, really upset. I am 100% responsible for anything I post, but my opinions are my own, and I'm entitled to them. Words are meant to make people think, and feel, and contemplate places within themselves that they may not always like. Some of the most defining moments in my life were when I received feedback that was tough to take. I remember each and every one of those interactions, how they made me feel and what I did afterwards.

I blogged for a bit after it happened but my heart wasn't in it. That's when I changed the name of my blog and locked down a lot of the personal information. Eventually I stopped all together.

For the last few weeks I've been thinking about it and I found myself getting angry. I like blogging, I've done it on and off for years and I enjoy it. I like having a creative outlet for my thoughts, I like how it holds me accountable and I'm mad that someone took that away from me.

So many times I've been told not to be too loud, not to be too outspoken, to temper your voice and what you have to say. When I was much younger I listened and I did. As I got older I moved into a career where it was expected that I'd be outspoken, I've taken on various leadership roles where those traits are prized instead of shunned and I surround myself  with people who appreciate me for me.

Now it's happening again, and I let it.

FUCK THAT

Seriously FUCK THAT.

My opinion might not always be pretty, but it's mine. I try to be kind but I might fail. I hope my words make someone think or laugh or feel some sort of emotion, that's what life's all about.

I have another reason too, a really good one.

Two months ago Kev and I adopted a baby girl and I will be damned if she ever feels that she can't express her opinion or stand up for what she believes in. All I can do now is be the best possible role model I can be. One step at a time.

Weekly Weigh in #20, #21 and #22

Consistency in blogging is good so that people know when to expects posts. Great advice that I don't follow. Just like in trainer school when we learned never to write on the board and talk at the same time because you're talking to the wall. I failed that part too. Except now when I do train I tell my class all the things I'm doing wrong. Breaking down that 3rd wall.

So, I haven't done a weekly weigh-in recap because I haven't really had much to say. Since coming back from DC, the scale has been a little bitch. My food has been pretty decent, I've limited my non-Jenny food to only the weekends and last week I had sushi lunch on Monday.  I expected to see a little more movement, especially since I'm only down one net pound for September.

I think everyone who's working on losing weight goes though this and it can be weeks of no movement on the scale even though we're doing what we're supposed to. That's when a lot of people give up, but I still have 31 pounds to go and stopping now doesn't get me there.

Workouts
Every week I worked out at least 3 times. Well, most weeks were on;y 3, not 4. I have a dumb injury right now that I got in yoga class. Yes, yoga. I was in the triangle pose, straightened my left leg and heard a pop and it's been sore and unhappy for the last 3 weeks.

Really, who does that? It's not terrible but my leg wasn't thrilled when I ran the North Hills 5k on September 10th. I've still been going to kickboxing and lifting weights. I ran a little and it's not awesome the next day. I went to the chiropractor yesterday and showed him where it was and he said it was probably my hamstring. Ugh..

Last week:
Saturday - Garage Sale No workout
Sunday - Yoga
Monday- Body Comabt
Tuesday - Meeting at NCSU
Wednesday - I convinced Kev to take me to the movies. We saw Sully and it was a lot of Tom Hanks looking pensive.
Thursday - Body Pump
Friday - My jeans were too big and I went shopping for new ones

What I'm eating this week

I apparently deleted all my food pictures. Last week I had sushi lunch and it was delish. I also rediscovered my love of JC cheeseburgers which is interesting because burger meat scares me. I had food poisoning from a burger several years ago and it takes a LOT for me to eat one. For some reason I love the JC one. I swear there's crack in the food.

Picture

Weeks 20, 21 and 22 in order.

I really think that one of the best things I've done this time is to take a picture each week to see the visual difference even when the scale isn't moving.

I felt a difference in my pants the last 3 weeks and there was a pair that buttoned and was wearable but not great, that went to fitting pretty well the next week. Then on Friday I went on a hunt for new jeans and it went surprisingly well. I found 3 pairs of jeans, all in a 10, that fit well and didn't make me sad. Yay.

I guess the moral of the story is that the scale can be a jerk and to keep pushing because it'll eventually catch up.

Oh, and don't forget there's still a few days left to sign up for the GYPO Style challenge! It closes Friday and the outfits start on Monday!

Have a great week!

Anniversary Weekend pt. 1

I'm just gonna warn you now, there's a LOT of pictures in this post. Like a hella lot.

Kev and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on August 27th, (I can't believe it's been 10 years!) and we were trying to think of where to go to celebrate. We thought about the beach, but I don't do well just sitting somewhere for 3 days. I need to move around. I can do one full day at the beach and maybe another half, but I just don't care about the water. There, I said it. I don't care about the beach. Then we thought about Canada, but the flights were really expensive. I kept mentioning Williamsburg VA, but then I realized I'd just been listening to a lot of Hamilton and I wanted to see something historical. When we thought about what we wanted to do, a trip to Washington DC met all of our criteria! Endless stuff to look at, founding fathers, food and booze. Win!

I left Raleigh and flew into Reagan International where Kevin picked me up. It was odd, I've never had trouble finding where my baggage was being off-loaded but I wandered around for a while looking for it. Finally, I saw my bag off to the side, not on the conveyor belt, like it had been sitting there for hours. I landed, maybe 15 minutes prior. It was all very odd.

Anyways, Kev found me and we headed to our first hotel. Before he decided to go up before me and visit his family, we'd planned on driving up Friday and staying halfway, now we were in DC for an extra day and our "special" hotel was booked Saturday - Monday. We stayed at a Kimpton hotel, which is always fun and quirky and they allow pets, so there are dogs everywhere. We stayed in one in Pittsburgh last time and there was a giant dog bed in the room.

I was pretty hungry and we decided on sushi for dinner. I stink, and I don't remember the name of the place, but it was fancy AF sushi. I love me some bogo or discounted rolls, and this was not that, but it was some of the freshest and most delicious sushi I'd ever eaten.

I started with a saki-tini which was pineapple flavored and yum

I went with the an assortment platter and Kev got a similar one. It was plenty of food for me, but Kev though that he'd need to spend $100 before getting full. After we left, we went to Georgetown and stopped at Good Stuff Eatery where Kev got a burger and some fries. It was a progressive dinner. 

Across the street was Georgetown Cupcake which got mixed reviews from my Facebook friends. A lot of people said it wasn't worth the hype. The were good but not really line out the door around the block good. 

The were pretty

I had the butterscotch waffle cone cupcake and it was gooooood. 

The next morning I woke up ready for a day of sight seeing. Even though we said we weren't exchanging presents, Kev had a surprise waiting for me.

He'd gotten me a super cute bracelet. I actually wore it that day while walking around and it tarnished. This is not my first piece of Tiffany silver and it should not tarnish, especially in one day. We brought it back on the way home and they really concerned about it and I wasn't confident that it wouldn't happen again, when I was miles away from a Tiffany Store, so I opted to return it. (I ended up with a David Yurman bracelet instead). Tiffany fail. I have pieces for 10+ years without any tarnish. 

Anyways, on to the sightseeing!

Andrew Jackson on a horse!

The White House!

We tried to get tickets to the White House tour, which you need to request in advance and get a letter from your Congressman (I kid you not). We were denied because "there are too many kids having tours and they're more important". (I'm paraphrasing) Damn future leaders of the country wanting to see the White House. 

More White House

Everyone give it up for America's favorite fighting Frenchmen! #Lafayette

If you want to go on the tour of the Treasury, you have to request that in advance too. Which we didn't. Instead, I have to take a far away shot of the Hamilton statue.

He's there.

For the day we decided to get tickets for the hop on hop off tour buses and go see the major monuments, I'd never been to any of them before. 

The Capitol

Washington Monument was up first. Unfortunately the elevator was broken and you couldn't go up to the top.

The view to the Lincoln Memorial was AMAZING

The Jefferson Memorial from the bus.

Coming up the stairs.

Sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder. #Jefferson

Oh, hey, look at that. Founding Fathers say that you can come to this country and not be persecuted for their religious beliefs. Huh, it's still timely today, isn't it. 

Gorgeous view

Peace out Jefferson

A tour of all things Hamilton, but not actually seeing Hamilton wouldn't be complete without a little Arron Burr. But just a little Burr.

Yea, Hamilton just kept talking trash about Burr for years until he finally challenged him.

After we got our fill of Jefferson, it was back on the bus and over to the Lincoln Memorial

The outside

The view from the other side was pretty sweet too.

What Up Abe?

We still had some time, so we stopped at the Archives and saw the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Deceleration of Independence. You can't take pictures inside the archives, but it was pretty awesome to be able to see the documents in person.

Finally we got back to the hotel. We'd moved from the Kimpton to ... The Jefferson. Yep! A historical hotel full of nothing but Jefferson. The place was amazing and the service impeccable. When we got back from sightseeing, this was waiting for us.

They gave us non-chocolate strawberries because of my soy allergy. 

I took a nap and then it was time to get ready for our anniversary dinner. We had reservations at the Prime Rib which is a pretty schmancy, jacket-required restaurant. When I tell you it was full of nothing but old mobsters, I'm not exaggerating, and I'm known to exaggerate. I LOVE OLD MOBSTERS. Like, so much. It was perfect. 

The cocktail napkin

We sat at the bar for a bit and had a drink and listened to the live music, which was a pianist and a bass player, both old and awesome. The bartender (who you could tell had heard some stories in his day) made me what might be the strongest cosmo of my life. And he made extra in the shaker. When I was halfway through he topped me off. Soon the table was ready and I stumbled to the table.

Soon came cosmo #2 which was rimmed in crushed ice. 

Pretty

We were eating at the Prime Rib. We had Prime Rib. Kev had some sort of potato and I wanted corn, because I hadn't had corn in a while. I remember it being really good. Then I think we shared a piece of cheesecake. I'll be honest, I was pretty tipsy at that point. 

We soon made it back to the hotel. I think we took and Uber, it was a long day and everything was kind of a blur at the end. 

That was our official anniversary! It was a pretty awesome day and a great way to celebrate 10 years of marriage!

Linking up with Amanda - Meet @ the Barre! AND