Something new and blue

We leave tomorrow morning for a week of bliss. One whole week at the beach! I can't wait to get going! Jess & I are heading up at 10am tomorrow and the boys will meet us there after Mike escapes from work. Yay! Besides reading the 7th and *sniff* final Harry Potter my goal for the week is to learn to crochet. I can't say what I'm going to make just yet (it's a surprise for a certain someone who might read this) but I can show you the wool. I hope it's as easy as it looks because I have a hellofalotta wool to turn into something beautiful! Cross all crossables for me! Cottage updates when I return. Wasaga beach! Just saying the name brings a flood of memories back to me. We had so many good times at that beach when I was a kid. Time to pack!

I can taste it

I believe that a true addict needs only a tiny taste of their addiction to be yanked back into a nasty downward spiral. Tina's cottage + crap weather = old skool Nintendo play = Dr. Mario = beginning of Jaime's downward spiral. I'm hooked. I forgot how fantastic that ridiculous game is! I'm thrilled to say that I came home from the cottage yesterday afternoon and was successful in locating an old Nintendo and a working copy of Dr. Mario within hours of arriving home! Thanks mom & dad for keeping everything of value (including our ancient Nintendo).

I'm even more thrilled to say that Jessy was hooked on the game after I introduced her to it this week so I'm dragging the box up to Wasaga for us to play when we get tired of the beach/movies/eating/drinking/reading etc. Yay! So easily amused.

Time flies

I haven't posted since Thursday because I've been crazy busy. Happily it has been 'fun busy' & not 'school/work busy'. Here's a quick (ha -- that's unlikely) update on the life of Jaime.

The powder room is complete! It's hard to snap pics in such a tiny space so here's one to give you an idea of what the colour turned out to be. Jessy described the colour perfectly when she poked her head in thursday night: "it's like a raspberry". Yes! That's it, our bathroom is like sitting inside of a giant raspberry and I absolutely adore it. Raspberries happen to be one of my very favorite berries and they are pretty to look at too so if you have a screaming desire to know what it would be like to sit yourself inside of one of these fabulous berries you can park yourself in our powder room and get a taste. No pun intended. We need to add some bits to the walls to give your eyes something else to stare at besides the blaring red walls but I'm waiting to find that perfect something to complete our little room.

Thursday evening was fun! I went to the outdoor movie night at Waterloo park with some friends (mom included). I can't believe we waited until the last movie of the summer to hit this event--next year I want to try to hit all of the shows. It was like being at the drive-in but without the noise of engines starting sporadically to ensure cars are going to start at the end of the show.

We watched Casablanca while sitting in our lawn chairs curled up in blankets with a pile of other people. I should clarify, we weren't curled up with other people, there were lots of other people there watching the movie with us.

What a fabulous movie! So many of those classic lines I've heard a million times and said myself: "Play it again Sam", "Here's looking at you kid", "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" - I had no idea they came from that movie. What a great flick! It's made me want to start watching old movies.

Mike was stunned to learn that I'd never seen
Breakfast at Tiffany's. He thinks every girl has
seen the movie! I'm a freak in my husband's eyes. Well I was but no longer am (at least I'm no longer a freak for not having seen Breakfast at Tiffany's but no doubt he thinks I'm a freak for other reasons most days) because Jessy & I watched it on Saturday night! Loved it! I can't believe I have never seen the movie before. Audrey Hepburn is too cute for words and I loved her as Holly Golightly! Such a flighty bird, can't help but love her.

Jess & I got a kick out of the gear being worn in the flick. We spent Saturday shopping and so many of the clothes in the movie have crept back into style today!

Saturday was a superb day overall. Found a new movie to add to my list of favs and a new store as well! H&M opened in Cambridge on friday and the clothes are sweet! Cheap but cute. Bought a pile of new things for work and play--hello 2007 (welcome back 1985).

Friday was fabulous as well! Visited the Children's Museum downtown with my parents and my niece. Neve is hilarious and giggled her little bean off when we played with the giant plastic pin thingo (you push your hand, head, body, whateva against the pins and the outline can be seen on the opposite side of the wall). Eventually she braved the pins herself and thought that her own outline was absolutely hilarious. too funny. kid giggles... what could be better? wish we had brought a camera to the museum, oh well, next time.

Dinner at Shannon & Paul's in Burlington on Friday evening. Yum! Amazing dessert and yummy salad! I love seeing those girls and boys. Good times and lotsa laughs! and Shannon's little people are too freaking cute. Can't wait for Lisa's wedding next month. Seeing Shannon, Amber and Lisa twice in a month?! Lucky me!

This has turned into a novel so I'm going to sign off for now. Heading to, well I'm not actually sure where it is, Tina's cottage tomorrow morning with Jess & Colin for a few days. Sadly Mike has to work so he'll be on his own for a few days. I'll miss you baby! Be back on Wednesday with an update on the trouble caused at Tina's cottage!

Cherries in the potty

I bought some delicious looking cherries and thought it would be very cool to take a pic of them in my new pink, er I mean RED, powder room. Why? Good question. I don't eat in the bathroom usually (unless I'm in the tub and that's only chocolate or tea and only on very rare occasions--the chocolate, not the tea, tea in the tub is a regular occurrence) but I thought that the cherries would look funky in the new room. Don't ask, just nod and smile. Anyways, it's unfortunate but I ate all of the cherries before I had the powder room all ready for its pic. Oh well.

There will be a evidence of our fabulous new room posted tomorrow morning. It's killing me to hold off on putting the mirror back up and the pictures and blah blah blah but I'm being patient because I know I'll be super angry with myself if I smudge paint all over the place due to my impatience.

Speaking of cherries... well not really at all but I'm sure he/she will be as sweet as a cherry so there's the connection. One of my most favorite people on earth is having a baby and I'm crazy excited and so badly wishing I could be with her to witness all of the amazing changes that are about to occur in her life. Unfortunately I'll have to witness from afar because she's in BC and I'm in Ontario and it doesn't seem as if either of us will be moving closer to the other anytime soon. *sigh* That's okay, I can still spoil a baby long distance right?

Congratulations C & H I'm so very happy for the two of you! You're going to make such amazing parents and damn that kid is going to be cute. Different too I'm sure, nothing average about this little peanut considering where he/she is coming from! that is meant as a compliment by the way.

To market, to market to be creeped out by clowns

Another morning at the market with T. Both of us were blah so we didn't make any major purchases, spent our time making fun of the creepy clown who was at the market and who just happens to be the same weirdo clown guy who poked T's sis in the boob with his warped balloon pole/animal while laughing his super freaky 'hee hee hee' at T's Grandma's retirement home. How wrong is that? What an image. Seriously you should hear this guys laugh though, creeeeeepy. Maybe next time I'll bring a video camera and I'll ask him to make a special balloon creature just for T. ha! She would be thrilled I'm sure.

Now he wasn't quite as creepy as the guy up above but that's the image I have in my bean when I think of clowns. I had no idea why I've had this hate on for clowns until my mom reminded me a couple weeks ago that when I was taught "stranger danger" in kindergarten the strangers in the fabulous 80's film were clowns. Phew! That's why I'm so screwed up. Well, it's one piece of the puzzle anyways.

So little time

Oh how I wish I could live off of 4 hours sleep. There is so much I want to do but not enough hours in the day for me to to do it all. I have three weeks of freedom (actually 2.5 after today) before work begins and then another week and I'm back at school. grr. I'm luckier than most because I have had a good long break from work but unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it I suppose, I have been working like a dawg on schoolwork so it hasn't felt like a break. The wonderful thing is that I'm down to 4 courses and will then be finished my degree! 4 courses is less than I took this summer so I can actually see the finish line. Now that I'm free of school and those dreadful exams I can focus on ME. The problem is deciding how I want to fill my free hours.

Every year for the past few years I have done the same thing: promised 8 zillion people that I would visit/hang out/eat out/play "once I'm finished this term". Stupid stupid girl. There are not enough days or hours to actually see everyone and believe it or not I do have a million other things I would like to get done during my 'free time' as well.

This term I have been a bit better about making promises. I haven't made as many which means I have more time than usual for moi. So what to do with my time?

I've painted the powder room and although I'm a little nervous to see how the orange tinted cupboards look against the Strawberry Daiquiri walls, it feels fabulous to finally have that room painted. I think one more coat is all that it needs and then it will be complete! I cannnot wait to see the finished product. Fresh and clean and pink, er I mean red. Yes Mike it's red, not pink! I promise. *Gulp

This afternoon I'm going on a cleaning frenzy and this evening I think I'm going to go shopping! Time to enter the 21st century Jaime. I bought skinny jeans and ballet style flats the other day, it's funny how jumping into the 2000's is actually much like warping back to the 80's. Apparently high topped pants are coming back in and deck shoes too. ick. I solemnly swear that I will not be seen in a pair of high-waist jeans. I think I said the same about skinny jeans but I didn't write it down so you can't hold me to it. Mike hates them (my new skinny jeans) but he is being kind and pretending he doesn't totally detest them, he'll get used to them and may actually learn to love them. They hug my bum and my chicken legs too so they'll give him an opportunity to check out his wifes sticks more often. He says that he's staying in the 90's and there's no way I'm dragging him out. I'll post pics of his new deck shoes when he breaks down and buys them. ha! Can you imagine? Mike in deck shoes, that's a funny picture.

Enough procrastinating already, time to clean. Ta ta for now.

One of these things just doesn't belong...

Hmmm... what's wrong with this picture?
The ugly builder beige walls? nope. (well yes they are VERY wrong and being changed this week but for the purpose of this post the answer is no.)
The crooked window covering? nope. (again, a yes but that too will be fixed following the powder room makeover)
The fresh roll of toilet paper? nope. It made it out of the cupboard and that's fantastic.
The empty roll beneath the new roll? YES!!

What the? You were so close baby, just one more step and you would have completed the empty roll switchover.
I love you mister michael. I love you very very much.

Cookie Monster

Ugh. I shouldn't have eaten all those cookies. The crappy part of homemade baked goods is that I end up eating far too many. I think I ate about 12 of these suckers last night. My belly is mega bloated and still hurts.

I found the cookie recipe in the blog: Confections of a Foodie Bride. It's an Alton Brown recipe and they're called the Chewy Cookie, they're super yummy but not all that chewy. I imagined chips ahoy chewy but didn't end up with it. Really that's ok with me because I was never a huge fan of the ultra chewy guys--John gulped those puppies down when we were kids but I've always been the decadent crunchy cookie girl. These bad-boys are somewhere in the middle. They didn't flatten like I think they should have and I burnt the first batch; the recipe says 15 minutes at 375 but my oven is the oven from hell (I mean that in a good way) so they only needed 10 minutes at 350. hot hot hot. Oh and they were a wee bit salty tasting if you ask me (that's likely because I used salted butter instead of unsalted like it says to). I think my friend the Kitchen Aid mixer might have over whipped the dough and that could be why they didn't squish down. I get all caught up in watching that KA mixer when it's going like hell and sometimes I forget the power of the beast. Yes I'm a loser with a thing for my KA mixer, I've wanted that sucker since I was 12 years old; my mom and a pile of my fabulous family members went together and bought it for me for my shower gift! LOVE IT. Anyways, Mike thought these were super yummer cookies and he's a damn good judge of cookies. I should note that "super yummer" may not have been his exact words. I'll make them again... maybe add some peanut butter next time.

Alton's Super Yummer Chewy Cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup)

2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. (350 for me)
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat.
3. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
4. Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl.
   
5. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed.
   
6. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
7. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
8. Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown (10 for me), checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning.
   
9. Cool completely and eat a pile before storing in an airtight container.

Excuse me miss, your brain is leaking out of your ear

I have a puddle in between my ears where there should be a brain and one exam left to write. I think my biology prof will be entertained with the result of my 9am Biology of Aging exam. I came up with a few brand new theories in place of the ones she asked for - figured if I didn't actually know the answers I may as well pretend I did. Doubt it earned me any marks but hey maybe she'll have a good laugh.

Writing Poverty in Canada and its Consequences for the Prof from hell at 4pm. I don't think it's going to be pretty but it's only worth 15% so I don't really care. 'Ennie meenie minie mo' will be the game of choice for this test--oh how I love multiple choice exams.

I can taste freedom, it's within my reach! In 4 hours I'll be on my way to Bridie & Dave's for 12 glasses of wine and some good eats. Happy Birthday Daddy Mitchell! Pah-tay.

Marverlous Mmmmmuffins kinda thanks to Tanya

You hit a certain point in life where meeting new people isn't as easy as it used to be. It's not as easy and in my case it's not something I really cared much about after I met Mike. No I did not give up my ability to think for myself right mike? and although yes I did do what everyone says they're not going to do devote every waking moment to the new boyfriend and place all of your friends on the back burner--sorry luke, cara, jenny and reebs I did find an additional pile of fabulous people who completed and meshed with my network of friends perfectly thank you Mike for having such fine taste in friends. So why mess with a good thing? Well the answer is Tanya of course! I started working at the high school I'm presently at 4 years ago, it wasn't until year 2 that I really got to know miss. tanya (not tan-ya but tawn-ya. get it right or she'll beat your ass with a lead pipe) and it wasn't too long before we became supreme beings. I'm kidding. Fast friends is what I meant to say; sister's from a different mister (and mrs). John (my brother) would have been placed in a padded room by age 16 if he had been graced with Tanya as an additional sister. Somehow we manage to talk an equal amount without talking over each other! It's quite amazing and fabulous if you ask me. There's no dead air when we're together and it really doesn't matter how much time we spend with one another, we fill it with fabulous chatter. So this is my very long winded way or saying that Tanya and I both love blueberries. and peas in a pod but that has nothing to do with this post.

Now to the point of this post. Tanya rescued me from myself by taking me out of study zone early yesterday morning to grab a coffee and some market fresh produce--I could justify the outing because it involved grocery shopping. We bought blueberries that looked delish and when I got home and popped a pile in my mouth I gagged. Mushy blueberries are not my thing; what a fricken disappointment. After much searching I found a recipe posted by mrs.robinson05 on the What's for Dinner board and decided to make blueberry muffins after my exam last night. Thank you mrs.robinson for my new breakfast recipe!

I set the smoke detector off because I didn't set the timer (duh) but thankfully it was the burning cooking spray in the empty muffin tins that set it off and not my beautiful muffins! OH MY GOD. They are delicious and relatively low-fat to top off an already good thing.

Spiced Blueberry Muffins
original recipe from Cooking Light

Yields

14 servings
4 pts per serving for those who care

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen wild blueberries
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) block fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cooking spray
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

Preparation
Preheat oven to 425°.

Lightly spoon 2 cups of flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine 2 cups flour and next 6 ingredients (through cloves) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Make a well in center of mixture.

Place blueberries in a small bowl. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour over blueberries; toss to coat.

Place butter and cream cheese in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed 1 minute or until blended. Add milk, eggs, and vanilla to butter mixture; beat to combine. Add butter mixture to flour mixture; stir just until moist. Gently fold in blueberry mixture. Spoon batter into 14 muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar evenly over batter. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Cool in pans 5 minutes on a wire rack. Remove muffins from pans; place on a wire rack.

Brain Drain Part 1

Exam number 1, Popular Music in Culture, is finished! This means I am now free to empty my bean of some of the knowledge I've crammed into my head over the last 3 months. Make room to stuff some last minute studying in for tomorrow's French exam. Fantastique! Well not really but I'm sure I'll survive and will be back to give three cheers for me. 1 down and 3 to go.

Time to celebrate with a glass of wine! or maybe not... look where that got me last night.

What the hell is wrong with me?

I had a dream last night, maybe "nightmare" would be a better descriptor, and David Hasselhoff was in it. What the hell? How many under 50's dream of David Hasselhoff? Thankfully all I remember is that he had more clothes on than he does in the shot above and he was the present-day Hoff, not the young Knight Rider Hoff you see here. The pic certainly grabbed your attention though didn't it? I love the wrinkle dogs; excellent positioning too non? oh so sexy. (that was dripping with sarcasm by the way)

Anyways, picture the Hasselhoff below superimposed on the tiger hands guy next to him and that's what I remember of him from my dream.

Hoff coming at me with his hands all cramped up in hissing style and he was making grring sounds... I seem to remember talk of biting backs too. What the? He was on the set of that stupid show he's part of that I can't help but watch when I stumble across it when flicking channels: America's Got Talent. The blond Chiquita from Canadian Idol was in it too... I think she was sitting at the judging table and he next to her. If I'm going to dream about celebrities couldn't they be celebrities I like? Maybe a little Johnny Depp action or Adam Brody?

I think there's something wrong with me. Maybe I shouldn't drink red wine right before bed.

Tastes Like Honey Baked Chicken

EC the cat has spent 50% of today meowing her head off because she is a very spoiled pussy cat who doesn't like being locked out of rooms she believes to be her own. These "rooms" include the front porch and back patio; she seems to easily forget that she is an indoors only feline. I finally had enough and decided to make Honey Baked Kitty for dinner.

In all seriousness I picked a recipe off of one of my favorite recipe sites Allrecipes.com based on the ingredients I have in the house and honestly didn't think it was going to be all that great. Much to my surprise not only did I love the finished product but MIKEY LIKES IT too! Finding a new delicious recipe to add to my collection of things to make for dinner that both Mike and I like is always a reason for celebration. Excellent excuse to pour myself a glass of wine... like I ever need an excuse.

The food shot is certainly not award winning but you get the picture (no pun intended).

Honey Baked Chicken (original recipe from Allrecipes, mine is a modified version with less fat and more punch)
Serves 2
Ingredients

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  
• soy sauce (few splashes)

Directions

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees F
2. Place chicken breasts in shallow baking pan. Combine the melted butter or margarine, honey, mustard, salt, curry powder, red pepper flakes and soy sauce and pour the mixture over the chicken.
3. Bake in pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes, basting every 10 minutes, until juices run clear.
   
4. Serve over rice.
   

What's Your Point?

Well here it is: entry numero uno on my pretty pink blog. I've been thinking about starting my own personal blog more and more lately and last night was the night that I took the plunge and went for it.

Why wait? I wasn't sure what to write, I was speechless. Those who know me will snort and giggle over that one. It is only on very rare occasions that I am at a loss for words. If you hear me say (or write) "to make a long story short" you may as well grab a glass of wine and park your butt in a comfy seat because you're gonna be listening for quite some time. I think my problem is that I have been lurking around blogs for nearly a year now and have found a load that I really really like and another load that I really really don't. I want to create a blog that I LOVE and I think that I've placed ridiculously high expectations on myself thinking that I need to come up with the perfect category of blog and a perfect looking blog. Since I couldn't decide what either of those were I put off starting one altogether.

So here I am. I was leaning towards starting a food blog since I love eating and figure it would help me improve my culinary skills while motivating me to come up with new recipes but I think I might have a hard time posting regularly on a food blog and those that I've seen have very little chatter in them. I love to chatter. I think that this blog is going to be a mish mash of things: random thoughts, photographs, updates on my life of craziness, a place to keep track of and share favorite sites/restaurants/stores/stuff, a venting chamber, photo gallery and who knows what else. Maybe part food blog? It's my blog and I can make it whatever I want right?

Why start a blog at all? I have a crazy busy schedule due to being in university full-time while working full-time, I am always on the go. I'm hoping that this blog is going to motivate me to take time to clear the clutter. I want to organize my life a little better and keeping track of my insanity somewhere might be the key, at the very least it is a step in the right direction. Being able to track what I'm doing on a regular basis might be the kick in the butt I need to get things done. No doubt I am very busy and don't have a tonne of spare time but in the spare time I do have I want to accomplish more.

So there. Told you I talk a lot.