Thanksgiving has come and gone

It's the Friday after Thanksgiving. Mike and I had a good meal yesterday afternoon and then again later in the evening. We still have leftovers, but I expect they will mostly be gone by tomorrow. We really didn't have too much extra stuff like I had originally expected. Boy how nauseous I was after eating the second time last night. I couldn't drink another cup of eggnog because I was afraid I would puke. I ate a few Tums in hopes that my stomach would feel better but it really didn't help. I was afraid to even lay down but, once sleep did decide to take over, I felt OK. Turned out that laying down, for whatever reason, made my stomach feel better. By this morning I wasn't nauseous anymore. I ate breakfast and felt fine, but by the time I ate lunch (a banana and peanut butter and a slice of leftover pumpkin roll) I felt nauseous again. I don't know what it is but it's annoying. Anyways, I'm feeling OK right now so I don't think I'll eat any leftovers for dinner tonight.



Today for "Black Friday" Michael went to Home Depot and picked up a normally $200 Christmas tree for $49. Then, we went and looked at mattresses for our bed. It's getting very difficult for me to sleep in the one we currently have. It bends in toward the middle, whenever Mike moves at night I wake up, the cats take up most of the left side of the bed so I'm stuck in the middle and it gets really hot...the list goes on and on. So, after doing some searching and laying on beds, the Tempurpedic mattress was the winner. We found a place that will sell us the Advantage model box spring and mattress for our queen sized bed for $1299. That is a really great deal! We came home, did some more researching and couldn't find a place to beat that price. I think we are going to get it. They have a zero percent finance option that we'll go with so we can pay it off over time. It will be SO nice to have a new bed that I will actually want to sleep in at night. The couch has gotten to be more and more of my favorite place to sleep lately.


In addition to mattress shopping, we also purchased 3 used Wii games at GameStop for $30. They were having a deal, Buy 2 Get 1 free! So we now have more entertainment at home to keep us from doing the things we should be doing...like working on our house.

Thanksgiving in T minus 2 days

I've never been a big Thanksgiving fan. It's just not a holiday I really feel any connection to. The traditions include killing hundreds of thousands of turkeys and pigs and cooking for numerous members of your family. Since I don't eat turkey or pig and don't condone the killing of any animal, this holiday seems just stupid to me. I understand it's about giving thanks for everything you have but I feel that every other day of the year is just as important for this cause. And since I've pretty much always been far away from my family during the holidays, the numerous family members getting together at one time thing is a moot point. So, usually for this "holiday" I have always either been working or hanging out at the house. There have been some Thanksgivings where I would spend them at my dad's house, or with friends, or, like last year, in Michigan with my relatives, but these are fairly rare occurrences. And I have never spent a Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Valentine's Day with my husband! This just emphasizes how unimportant this holiday has been to me in my past.



This year, Mike and I are going to be cooking up a big vegetarian feast for the two of us to share. We will definitely have leftovers to go through for at least a week, but, since I enjoy cooking and making a spread of food and don't get to very often, we are going full force. We've spent about $200 in total for groceries for the week. I'm going to make one more trip to Whole Foods here in a few minutes to try and get a couple more things and then I plan to come home and start cooking. I'm going to prepare the cranberry and orange sauce tonight and I may start the prep work for the brie cheese in the puff pastry and the butternut squash ravioli. Then tomorrow I'll start prepping the eggnog and make the pumpkin roll. Everything else will need to be prepared and finished on Thanksgiving day. I figure I won't even eat breakfast since we'll have so much food to eat for lunch/dinner/dessert.

So, have a Happy Thanksgiving where ever you may be. Hopefully one day this day can be celebrated every other day of the year as well minus the killing animals part.

Saturday night in Springfield

So today Michael and I stayed in bed pretty much all day. We got up and ate a make shift breakfast (mine consisted of 2 hard boiled eggs and 2 cookies I made earlier this week and his was some nasty ramen noodle dish). Then Mike went and took a nap...so I watched TV in bed. Then, several hours later when he woke up, I continued to watch more TV in bed. It wasn't until around 4 or so that I finally got up and took a shower. Then we finally went out to dinner and used a buy one get one free coupon at a Thai restaurant in Vienna, VA. It was a very yummy dinner. Afterwards we went to REI and looked around for pants for Michael (didn't find any) then to the grocery store. We spent $144 on stuff for the week including stuff for Thanksgiving. And we're not done yet! I still have to go to Trader Joe's tomorrow and get a few more things. For just the two of us, we are going to have quite an extensive menu. So far I've decided to make a butternut squash ravioli in a sage butter sauce, asparagus, mashed potatoes, corn, pumpkin roll and eggnog. I'm sure I'll decide we need something else before the day actually is here. Lots of leftovers I see coming on! I'm thinking we are going to be feasting.

So, to go back in time, yesterday we went to see Louis C.K. the comedian in DC. He was really funny. Usually live comedian acts are somewhat humorous, but not that laugh out loud kind of funny. But this guy made me laugh out loud for at least half of the show. Apparently he is well known although I had never heard of him before. He's been on the comedy channel so he must be someone I should know. I know him now. And I would go to see him again if that opportunity ever presented itself.

Well, it's 11:30p, Mike is sitting next to me on the couch with Stumpey sleeping on his lap and the TV is on, but it's only background noise for me. I guess I'll be signing off for now and giving a big shout out to Dominic! Miss you!!

Well it's Thursday

Which means it's The Office night. So far I've watched My Name is Earl and now that new show Kath and Kim is on. I'm pretty certain this show is only going to make it one season. It's kind of funny, but not in a way that will carry a large audience I don't think.

The last couple days have been pretty unproductive. I made some white chocolate and Brazil nut cookies last night and then I made some granola today. That's been about it. I've been really sleepy today for no apparent reason and I was also nauseated for quite some time. I think it may have been from eating some yogurt that expired on Nov. 11. It didn't look bad so I tried it, but then didn't feel so great afterwards. I still haven't eaten dinner but I'm thinking I should eat something quick here soon. Maybe I'll try some soup. It's supposed to have a 30% chance of flurries tomorrow afternoon and it's supposed to get down into the mid-20's tomorrow night. We have that comedy show to go to tomorrow night and we'll have to walk around the city...in the freezing cold! I'm so glad I recently got a new really warm coat to wear. It may not be the most stylish coat ever, but I will be warm while those other people in their high fashion jackets will be shivering. And that is what is most important to me.

Time for The Office. I must bid farewell for now.

Burr...it's cold outside! Good thing I didn't leave the house today!

For those of you that actually read this, I'm sorry I have been so slack lately in updating. My father was in town from last Wednesday until this morning and we've been busy with renovations. A huge thanks goes out to him for everything that he helped us with this past week! I'm lucky to have a dad that is willing to work so hard to help out his daughter!

The upstairs of the house is pretty much complete now. We still need to rearrange furniture and put face plates back on outlets, and in one room the baseboards still need to be painted, but for the most part, everything is complete. Michael starts his Thanksgiving break on Friday so for the next week after then, we'll be working to get the house feeling like a home. I will say, it's pretty close right now. I will take pictures once everything is put together. We need to start looking for blinds and window treatments now. I will admit I'm not looking forward to moving on to the downstairs. It's so cold and dreary down there. I want to stay where it's warm and cozy but we will have to start on it sometime.

Today I took off from working on anything. I feel a little cold coming on and I just felt like laying around all day. Oh, and playing the Wii. Dad bought us a second controller and a charging station and then I ordered a game called Magnetica Twist online for the Wii. I played that stupid game for over 7 hours today! It's so addictive. That's the same game that I played at my dad's house when I was there in October. And I stayed up until 2-3 in the morning two nights in a row because I couldn't stop! And one of those days I had to get up at 5am to get ready to go to the airport!! It's fun and addictive and now my eyes are dry and my shoulder is sore from the position I was in. But it was worth it!

OK. I guess that's the update for now. I'll try and get back in the swing of things and update this more often...for those that actually care.

Cold Monday...

The weather has been pretty nice here for the last week and a half but not today. Although I haven't stepped outside, I've seen my thermometer and it is only 51 degrees and it's already almost noon. Burr! Tonight the low is going to be 33. I don't like this stuff at all.

Yesterday Mike and I cleaned up all the leaves around the outside of our property. We have a lot of trees around which is really nice, but the leaves they leave behind are not so nice to rake up during fall. It didn't take us as long as I expected, only a few hours, but we now have 10 bags full of grass clippings and leaves ready to be picked up on Wednesday. The yard looks much better than it did and in the process, we discovered we may have deer that cross our backyard sometimes as there was new deer-looking poop back there. Kind of cute!

Today I am very allergenic again. I think it may be from the yard work yesterday. My eyes are really itchy, my nose is running and I keep sneezing. I'm so tired of being allergic to everything around here. I hope I get used to the climate and environment so that I don't have to live like this forever.

For those that read my blog, you will know how I've had jaw issues for over a week now. As an update, my jaw is much better. It is still popping a little when I eat certain foods or move my jaw a certain direction, but it doesn't hurt like it did and the popping is minimal. So, I have to say that it has improved dramatically. I'm still not sure what caused the problem, but I have to go with the way I sleep on my pillow coupled with me eating a half of a bag of Sour Patch Kids. I think I may have just strained it too much and it needed time to heal. Now, I can eat fairly normally and I can also kiss my cats again, which is the most important part!

Tonight Brendan James is going to be headlining for his MTV tour at Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA. Mike and I went to see him a few months ago when he was still a very new artist, and now he's coming back with MTV's backing. Pretty cool. I was planning to go as Vienna is only about 10-15 minutes away, but now I'm thinking otherwise. Mike said last night that he didn't want to go and, although I don't mind going alone, I don't know if I want to go with it being so cold outside, my being allergic to everything, and going by myself tonight. We will see what tonight brings.

I'm having an urge to bake some homemade cinnamon rolls or some other goodies. I also need to figure out what I'm going to make for dinner tonight. Maybe I'll give in and make some pesto pasta...Mike's personal favorite. It's not hard to make, but it takes SO much prep work in pulling off every basil leaf, making sure there aren't any bugs crawling around then grinding them up with your pine nuts that you've previously toasted, olive oil, garlic and Parmesan cheese. It is the Marine Corps birthday today so maybe I should delight him with his favorite meal to celebrate. I mean, I didn't have to go to any stupid ball this year with him, so I guess that would be the least I could do.

Wild Friday nights!

So today I went to Home Depot. I got some more semi-gloss paint, another roller, some furniture sliders and a cable cord. Then I made a trip to PetSmart and got the kitties some new food (usually they get Science Diet Sensitive Stomach), Royal Canine Sensitive Stomach, and some kitty litter. The Royal Canine is a better quality brand so hopefully it will do well with Skore's awful intestinal track and they'll still like the taste.

Once I got home, I decided that a veggie burger was going to be dinner tonight. So, I cut up some potatoes into wedges, tossed them with some olive oil, black pepper, cajun seasoning, blackening seasoning, paprika and cayenne pepper and baked them for a half hour at 425 degrees turning them half way through. In addition, I sauteed up some mushrooms and spinach and added them to my burger. If I had any onion in the house, I would have sauteed that up as well. My meal was wonderful! I went for the American meal tonight and it paid off!

In another note, my jaw is getting better day by day. I still don't know for sure what caused the problem, but it's been about a week now, and finally it's starting to heal. I have an idea that the way I sleep on my face may be the problem though. I'm always sleeping on my left side of my face when Michael is in the bed because that is the opposite direction from him. I'm pretty certain that I sleep where my jaw is pushed out to the right side. Maybe over time it just caught up to me. Anyways, over the past couple days I've been VERY careful about not moving my mouth except when absolutely necessary and not chewing anything that required a lot of force. After two days of that routine, I'm finally getting to the point where I can open my mouth again and not hear too much of a pop. It's still bothering me a little bit, but SO much better than it was just a few days ago. So, looks like I won't need to go to the doctor. Usually I'm pretty good about healing myself. And I think this isn't going to be any exception to the rule.

Yep...that's what I do on a Friday night. Go to Home Depot and eat dinner at home. At least I can gloat that Skye is sleeping beside me. What a cute little boy!

Tigress's birthday!

So Barack made it! I was so moved last night to see him give his acceptance speech. He was obviously touched himself. And, again, the love between he and Michelle is indescribable. I just hope the love between Mike and myself is that obvious to others.

Today I painted and showered. Those were the two highlights of the day. Now I'm sitting on the couch watching HGTV. This is becoming my new favorite channel. I'm getting so many ideas for our home.

My jaw has been clicking and hurting on the right side for the past 5 days. It seems to be getting worse. I'm trying not to eat anything too hard and not open my mouth too wide. But even talking to the cats or kissing them hurts me. It hurt to brush my teeth last night because I had to open my mouth! And yesterday that side of my jaw was swollen. I've never had this problem before. If it hasn't gotten any better by Monday, I'm going to make a dentist appointment. I'm just concerned that when Michael gets home and I'm talking more, things will only get worse. I guess I'll wait and see.

And in closing, today would have been my little girl Tigress's 19th birthday. She's been gone now for 2.5 years, but she will never be forgotten. I love you sweet girl.

Election Day!

I must say...I've never been much of a political person. I've always voted for the Democrat up for election at the time, and always watched the news afterwards to see who would ultimately win the election, but this election has been something special to me. In 2004, all I wanted was someone to get elected besides Bush. I wanted Bush OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE!!! Unfortunately, I wasn't too keen on Kerry. But I still voted for him in hopes that we would be a nation that would come together to get this most awful president in my time OUT. I was disappointed with the outcome.

This year, when the democrats and republicans were still duking it out to see who would end up being the last man standing to run for president, I was torn over the final two democrats, Clinton vs. Obama. It took me a while, listening to both sides and critiquing performances, to decide on a candidate for me. As time went on, I decided that Barack would be my candidate. Don't get me wrong. If Hillary would have won, I would have voted for her just the same, but there was a part of me that felt more of a connection to Barack than to Hillary.

The more time has gone on and the more I see random clips here or there with Obama and his family, whether candid or not, I can tell their family is real. I can see the love between Michelle and Barack, and I can see the love they have for their children. I was moved to find out tonight that they brought both of their girls to the polls today and let them watch as they voted themselves. I just feel they are really good parents that put their girls first. And I see them as having a very stable marriage. This, again, isn't the basis of my decision to vote for Obama, but it just adds to the humbleness I feel he and his family maintain. As much as people have tried to put him down and say that he's all phony and all talk, I see through that. And I think he's going to truly be a great asset to this nation.

I say that prematurely, as no polls have closed and been released yet (except for the small town in New Hampshire where Obama pulled out a HUGE win; but that doesn't count for anything in the big scheme of things). I just have a very positive feeling that Obama is going to win by a landslide margin. And if I'm wrong about the landslide, I'm still sure he's going to pull out a win. I don't think this is just because of the African-American population getting involved (although they have played a very big role in making today happen), I also think there are others out there that have seen the same thing from Obama that I have.

I feel I'm a pretty good judge of character. I haven't met this man in my personal life, but just looking at expressions and noticing certain movements and gestures, I feel I've done a good job judging this one. I am looking forward to things to come. I know no political winners can do all they have promised exactly the way they have promised them, but I feel that things are going to start turning a positive direction for this country and our Earth. We really need a change and I think we are going to get a start to that change.

On another note completely separate from the election, tonight I made myself a spinach, mushroom, garlic and tomato quiche with cheddar and Parmesan cheese. I have never been much of a quiche fan, but I figured since I still had half of my dough from my pot pie crust from last week, and I have plenty of eggs and some left over light cream from a dinner I made a few nights ago, I thought it was a good time to use everything up. And it was delicious! I am starting to really impress myself with my dinners lately. I've been good with desserts and baked goods for many years now, but my dinners were always still lacking. But for these past couple weeks, I will have to pat myself on the back because I've really impressed myself. I just am sorry I was the only one to eat my meal tonight. And I'll have to finish the leftovers myself before Michael gets home. I guess that just means I'll have to make it again. But the first attempt is always more impressive.

Happy voting and happy dinners from the Wilcox Clark household, to yours!

What a nice weekend break

This weekend has been really nice. Saturday morning, Mike and I went to breakfast at this one place out here called the Silver Diner. I didn't want to try it at first. They had one in Fairfax as well and usually "diners" don't pan out too well for vegetarian folks like me. But, a few weekends ago I decided to give it a try. And it was so good then that we decided to go back yesterday. It's a really yummy place. And CLEAN! Not something you would typically think when speaking of a diner. They even serve vegetarian sausage. Of course, I wouldn't order anything like that a restaurant that also serves real meat. There would be too good of a chance that something would get mixed up or touch something meaty. But just that they have that as an option says something positive about the place to me. Yesterday I ordered the pecan pancakes. They were really good! They served 3 on a plate which I would have considered a perfect sized meal, but the pancakes were so thick that I could barely eat half of the stack! Too bad you can't take pancakes home in a to go box! The first time out there I ordered the blueberry and cream cheese stuffed french toast. That was really good as well. I can't wait to try out something else!

So after our yummy breakfast, we went over to the mall to try and get Michael some new fitting pants but failed. Then we went over to Trader Joe's where I got some vegetables to cook last night into a lasagna. It was such a beautiful day. The temperature was in the 70's and it was sunny. It just added to the nice afternoon. We came home and relaxed until I started dinner. My spinach and mushroom lasagna was a hit! I can't believe I've never cooked that for Michael before. It's one dish that is fairly simple to make and mine is always yummy. After dinner Michael left in a personal vehicle that came and picked him up to go to the airport and then off to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Today has been just as a relaxing of a day as yesterday. I read before going to sleep and then had 4 kitties keep me company all night long. It is a rare occurrence that all of them will sleep with me at the same time, probably mainly because there isn't enough room on my side of the bed for them all and Mike likes to kick them in his sleep. But last night, with only me in the bed, all of them were showing their love. Every time I woke up someone else would be beside me. I guess they kept rotating their positions from my feet, to my side to my chest. One time I woke up and Sabrina was sleeping right where Mike normally does. It's just so cute! Right now I'm on the couch and Skye is sleeping with his belly up in the air laying right next to me. I think they know that no one is going to chase them around when I'm the only one home so they are more relaxed. They are the best creatures ever!

So, now that I've had a nice relaxing weekend, eating good food, spending quality time with my cats and reading my book, I plan to get the rest of the upstairs completed this week. I have one of the spare bedroom closets to finish, most of the hallway, and some trim. None of that is including the bathroom which I think we will tackle once we have the downstairs bathroom in working order again. I'm hoping that at least can get started when my dad is in town in a couple weeks. It doesn't sound like too much left, but it will end up taking me all week. It takes a long time to tape up walls and then once you get your first coat of paint down, you can't paint again for at least 4 hours. So really, only one coat can be done per day. I figure, by the end of the week, everything that I wanted to accomplish, should be done. Which is really exciting.

I think it's candy time. I've already eaten some leftovers from dinner last night as well as some Sour Patch Kids, but I feel like something sugary again. We have plenty of left over candy from Halloween, so I guess I'll go dig in there for a bit. I hope everyone had just as good of a weekend as I did. I can't wait until Michael gets home next Saturday to have another one...minus the reading and cat time. Neither works out too well with him in the house.