Cook, you fool!

Back during the freezing cold winter months, Caitlin and I had our 2nd annual soup/chili making day. Caitlin's friend Beth came up with this recipe so we dubbed it "Caitlin & Nicole's Ode to Beth." It's super easy to make, freezes well, reheats well and it just down right good.

Caitlin & Nicole's Ode to Beth

The Ingredients

1 jar of alfredo sauce
1 carton of chicken broth
1 bag of frozen leaf spinach
1 bag of frozen cheese tortellini
1 rotisserie style chicken

The Instructions

Mix alfredo sauce and chicken broth in a large soup pot. Use a whisk to help with the mixing. Heat slowly. Remember that you are heating a cream sauce and you don’t want to burn it. Heat to a slow bubble. Add tortellini to the soup. Stir. Cook for a couple minutes and then add spinach and chicken. Stir and put a lid on it. Let it all hang out and heat up for a few minutes. Serve and enjoy.

Notes

The ratio of alfredo to chicken broth is 1:1.

If you have it, feel free to use fresh spinach. Just be sure to wilt it before adding it to the soup.

The rotisserie chicken could always be replaced by healthier, baked chicken. The rotisserie chicken is just easier to find and brings a lot of flavor to the mix.

This dish is delish with beer bread.

Walk, Don't Run

My friend Michelle asked me if I would be interested in walking a 5k with her. Turns out I was interested. Due to some scheduling conflicts, we finally decided on a 5k that is scheduled for Oct. 18th. So yours truly will be walking the 5k part of Fulton Hill's Run to the River 10k/5k Walk.

I'm kind of freaking out about the hill part. I have found that when Richmond puts hill in the name, they're not playing around. I'm from flat, coastal land so I am not used to the verticalness that is all around me.

Let the training begin... starting right after Labor Day.

oy vey iz mir

So here's the thing about moving to a new city - it takes a lot of freaking energy and time. But here I am, in my new city, with a lot of boxes to unpack and no idea where anything that I need is located. Everything is calming down and going back to a normal pace. I haven't finished unpacking but it seems to be coming along rather well. I am so over looking at boxes and wondering "Gee, I wonder if what I need is in that box or that box. Ah well, I'll just run out and buy a new [insert needed item here]."

Here are some pictures of the unpacking job that awaits me and my new city.

Seek and Try to Find Area





A view of my new city from the Belle Isle foot bridge





A view from the top of my apartment building

Move towards the light, Lil Bastard

As I'm sitting here surfing the internet, wishing there was ice cream in my freezer, I can hear Lil Bastard chowing down on the Decon I put under the loveseat. So this confirms two things: 1) Lil Fucker is dead (I say this because LF didn't come around until 2 a.m. whereas LB is obviously an early riser); and 2) LB will soon depart this realm.

Meanwhile ...

please enjoy this picture of the beach. It's calm and serene, unlike me at the moment as I sit here trying to pretend there isn't a mouse six feet from where I sit. Ahhh!!

R.I.P. Lil Fucker, Die Lil Bastard

I'm 99.98% sure that Lil Fucker is dead. He ate a lot of the Decon and I haven't seen any evidence of him in the past few days.

However, this morning I saw new droppings, in new places. I do believe I have a new freeloader. I shall call this one Lil Bastard (yes, like the song).

Whereas Lil Fucker was more a couch and desktop kind of mouse, Lil Bastard really likes the bathroom and the area behind the trash can.

Lovely.

A Mouze Is In the Hizouse!

Yes, I have a mouse in my apartment. Which wouldn't be so bad if 1) I lived in a space larger than 600 sq. ft.; and 2) if it didn't shit everywhere. The other day I went to Books-A-Million and bought some books. While I was checking out, a chocolate bar caught my eye. I don't really care for chocolate (I know, I know) but this one had peppermint stuff on top and I am a sucker for peppermint stuff. Yum-o! I buy the peppermint chocolate bar along with the books. I bring my purchases home, put the bag of merchandise on my desk, and go on about my life. (This is what I always do. I buy two or three books, bring them home, leave them in the bag and let them sit on my desk for a few days. One day I will walk past the desk and remember that I bought books and ta-da!, Merry Christmas to me... except that I paid for them and it's not December. Odd, I know. But whatevs. Walk to your own drummer, people.) So pseudo-Christmas Day comes. I start reading one of the books and put the others on the bookshelf for later. I put the chocolate bar on the kitchen counter, unopened, so I'll remember that I have a tasty treat. In addition to the chocolate bar I also have a piece of Dove chocolate on my desk, which I actually forgot was even there as it was a little piece that was attached to a holiday card I received from a co-worker. (For someone that doesn't like chocolate, I've got a lot of it just laying about.)

So what does all this have to do with the mouse (who I've named Lil Fucker, BTW)? I'm setting up the back story so you don't just think I have random food sitting about the apartment, just hold on a second.

I stayed home Monday because of a stomach illness. While home for the day I see mouse droppings on my desk. Eww! So I clean them up and proceed with disinfecting the desktop. While moving everything off of the desk I see that Lil Fucker has eaten the Dove chocolate. I figure that must be what it came in the apartment for. I clean it up and move on.

Now I'm in the kitchen throwing away my paper towels and putting the disinfectant away when I see that Lil Fucker has eaten half of my chocolate bar with the peppermint topping!! Now I'm pissed. But I figure he's eaten the two things that were sitting out. Surely he has moved on since there is nothing left here for him and off to bed I go.

The next morning, I go in to the kitchen to get a drink of water. As I'm standing in front of the sink, drinking my water, I see that Lil Fucker has SHIT ON MY DISH RAG!! Apparently, Lil Fucker has no home training.

Even though he has eaten all that was sitting out to eat, he does not appear to be moving on. Lil Fucker needs to be taken care of, in a Sopranos kind of way. I make a trip to Lowe's and get traps to catch Lil Fucker. I also make a trip to Eckerd to get bait - a Symphony chocolate bar. I set a trap on the kitchen counter and a trap on the desktop.

Wednesday comes and goes. Empty traps.

Thursday morning. Empty traps.

Thursday evening I get home from dinner and check the traps. I see that Lil Fucker has shit on top of the trap on the desktop. I check the trap in the kitchen. He shit next to the trap. Lovely, the mouse is a smartass. I called my dad to update him on my mouse situation. I tell him the latest developments. He thinks it's soooo funny. Laughter ensues. While I'm talking to him, I'm cleaning Lil Fucker's shit off of the trap and counter and in doing so I tip one of the traps. I put my hand under it to catch the chocolate bait that should be inside. Nothing falls into my hand. I look inside the trap and surprise! NO CHOCOLATE! It. Is. On.

I tried to be nice. I bought traps that would just catch him while giving him a tasty treat, but no, Lil Fucker had to go and be a smartass.

I just got home from Wally World, where I purchased four boxes of Decon. Let's see you shit after eating that, Lil Fucker.

I’m off to the second Capital of the Old Dominion!

I wanted to let everyone know that I am moving to Richmond this spring.
No, I don’t have a job yet (although I do have some prospects).
No, I don’t have an apartment yet (again with the prospects).

What in the hell are you going to do in Richmond, you might ask (and knowing all of you, that’s what you’d ask). Well, for the spring and summer I’m going to be working, hanging out around town, figuring out where stuff is, taking weekend trips Buckingham and Charlottesville and getting ready to go back to school. School?! Yes, school.

I will be attending J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College. J. Sarge has a Paralegal Studies Program that I want to attend. At the end of the program I will be the proud holder of an Associates Degree. The program has been approved by the American Bar Association. In fact, it was the first program in the Commonwealth to be approved.

My current boss has asked that I stay on until April and I have agreed to do so.

So that’s that for now.

Questions, comments, well wishes and any insight into The Fan and Downtown area of Richmond are welcome.

The Little England Inn

I live in an area of Hampton that has large Victorian homes and mini-Victorian homes. Some of the larger homes have been divided up and turned into apartments (like where I live) and a handful have been turned into inns. The nicest one in the neighborhood was recently placed on the market.

It was very scary. Would someone buy it and turn it into apartments? Would a single family buy it for their Cheaper by the Dozen family? Would someone buy and keep it an inn? Would anyone buy it at all??

It was on the market for quite sometime. Finally, one day, news broke around the neighborhood that the deal was done; place sold.

The inn that had been run by a very nice husband and wife team was really sold. Who bought it? Are they from around here or, heaven forbid, from Up North? Are they going to keep it an inn? Are they going to change the look of the house? No one knew.

The very nice husband and wife packed up everything they wanted and had a yard sale to get rid of the rest (I two very nice Napoleon chairs and an oval mirror, thanyouverymuch). Every time I passed the inn I just shook my head in disbelief.

The New People moved in. They are keeping it an inn. The New People do not look friendly, or like inn running kind of people. They leave kids' toys strewn about the yard. They have over cut the grass so low that the grass blades aren't even half an inch tall. The lawn is more brown than it is green; it's terrible looking. They put these huge, ugly mums on the steps of the side porch. They have a fan and random objects sitting on the side porch!

I miss the very nice husband and wife.

The time comes when ...

You realize that you are on the internet, or just the computer sans the internet part, a helluva lot! So what better idea is there than to start a blog! Seriously. Ok hear me out on this. So I spend a lot of time on the internets. A lot. I don't even want to begin to calculate how much time. I'm interneting my life away over here.

I'm on the computer and internets during the day for legit work stuff (checking on case filings, MSPB appeals, searching Fed. R. Civ. P. with the ease of CTRL + F). When I get home I feel the need to answer the siren call and veg out on the internets (because I wasn't on the computer enough whislt at work). I'm on the computer for most of the day. There are bathroom breaks, that helps.

Sure I'm all caught up on Britney's day, I know my MySpace friends moods at that instant, I know who the musical guests are for all the late night shows (thank you Rolling Stone for your newsletters), I know the balance of my checking account (that's got to be one of the few remotely "grown up" interneting occurances of my day) and I've seen Natalie Dee's drawing of the day. But what does that really add up to? Not much people. Not much.

So here we are. Here we are. Indeed.