Five and a Half Years Later and I'm Still Craving Cafeteria Food

I'm trying to be more organized. It's been in process for years. I'm pretty sure I've posted before about my desire to be a better grocery shopper. Unfortunately, I haven't improved in this area at all. My poor husband has been making grocery runs at least once a week for a while. He's started going when he gets off work at 2:30 in the morning. Apparently no one does their shopping at that time. Who would've thought?

All day today I've been trying to think of meals we could have. We eat a lot of spaghetti, but it's sauce from a jar. Granted, it's delicious HEB sauce and it's very convenient, but today I got a hankering for a different spaghetti. I want the spaghetti from my middle/high school cafeteria. This may not be the story for most people, but the lunches they served in the cafeteria were amazing. And one of my favorites was their spaghetti. It was so delicious. I never understood my fellow students complaining about the school lunches. I wish I could have the recipes for so many of the meals they served. One of which is spaghetti. I've yet to have spaghetti I've liked as much. I also loved their Potato-Corn Soup with Grilled Cheese, Beef and Potatoes with Rice, Tacos, Beef Stew, Risotto (which wasn't risotto at all, but it was delicious!), Nasi Kuning (Yellow Rice) with Fried Chicken, and I'm sure there were others. Sigh. Those wonderful cafeteria ladies sure knew how to cook. I always thought when I moved to the states I'd be bombarded with even more wonderful foods... but oh how I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, there are good foods here. But it's just not the same. The cafeteria food in college wasn't quite the same as the home-cooked (because essentially they were!) meals from high school. And now that I don't have the option of eating in a cafeteria on a daily basis, I miss high school. Wait, that doesn't sound right. I miss lunch in high school. Hah. Maybe there's some way I can track down those recipes.

I fall asleep really early now. And I sleep for a very long time. My body must need lots of recovery from all the nothing I do all day. Halloween is coming up. And I feel that since the neighborhood kids come by the house on days when they don't get free candy, I should go ahead and expect them for a night when they do. And I've never done the trick-or-treating thing. I mean, I went trick or treating once. When I was 16. It's a bit embarrassing to think about now, but I'd never been before and it was the only Halloween we were in the states for. And I thought free candy sounded great. And dressing up. I've always liked dressing up. I don't do it much now because, well, that would be weird, but when I was 16, I saw no harm in making a fool of myself around complete strangers. We were going to dress up the dogs, but I can't see either of them letting us put costumes on them and not trying to chew them off. I thought Sabre would make a great Batman. He's got the dark face and ears... but all the dog batman costumes were goofy and not big enough. I'm sure the kids would have loved it, but maybe another year.

(Can you believe how many sentences I write end in prepositions? It must be my style. How lovely that part of my writing style is so widely accepted as grammatically incorrect. Decipher that sentence, why don't ya?)

I've been enjoying fruit lately. Apples. And kiwi. And hopefully I'll have some strawberries tomorrow. Then I plan to make kiwi-strawberry fruit salad. Which is basically just sliced up kiwi and strawberries in a bowl. Together. But needless to say, I'm looking forward to it.

Fried Chicken. That's All You Need to Know.

A couple weeks ago, I decided I would make some fried chicken for lunch. Travis was at a meeting, and I was hungry. I had some defrosted chicken in the fridge. It was an easy solution. I wouldn't have time to make my usual WONDERFUL fried chicken, but I figured this easier method would suffice in a pinch. I sliced up the chicken, dipped it in egg, dipped it in flour, and fried it in the deep fryer. I took a taster bite of the first batch and nearly spit it back out. It was flavorless. It was dry. I hadn't cooked it any longer than usual, but something hadn't gone right. I threw out the chicken in a state of despair. I asked my husband to pick me up some Taco Bell on his way home, and tried to comfort myself. It was a rough day.

We have a lot of chicken. Most of it is frozen, but we had two chicken breasts defrosted in the fridge today. "Hm... maybe we should make some fried chicken..." But THIS TIME, we did it the right way. When we first got married, I was determined to make wonderful meals for my husband and myself. My first goal was to make delicious fried chicken. I tried a handful of recipes, but none of them truly lived up to my expectations. I finally took matters into my own hands and took bits and pieces from different recipes and made my own fried chicken. And after a bit of tweaking here and there, it was perfect. And even now, it's the only thing I make completely from scratch. I put the "be a great cook" thing on the back burner once I'd mastered fried chicken. Priorities, people. Today Travis did the cooking, I did the cleaning. I say that as if it's unusual, but really... that's just how we usually do things around here. He sliced the chicken, soaked it in my special buttermilk mixture for a good... 5 or 6 hours, and then dipped in my special flour mixture. He fried it up to a golden crisp in our lovely deep fryer. (Don't judge me for having a deep fryer. I need my fried chicken.) And do you know what happened when I took a taster bite of the first (and only) batch? I melted inside. It was flavorful and moist and wonderful. And I vowed to never ever ever, no matter what, fry chicken without first soaking it in buttermilk. Some people may know how to fry chicken without buttermilk-soaking and have it turn out delicious... but I am not that person. I learned a valuable lesson today. We will also eat fried chicken tomorrow. That's just how it's gonna be.

The dogs played outside with Travis and the neighborhood kids for about two and a half hours today. They've now been completely out (as in, asleep) for... an hour and a half? At least. The kids tire them out. And since my wonderful husband doesn't mind staying outside with the kids and dogs for two and a half hours, it works to my advantage. I enjoy the quiet of the house... watch a movie... take a nap... whatever I would like. It makes for a lovely afternoon! This week I finally read three of the five books I checked out from the library a month ago. I put off starting them because I know that once I start a book, all I will want to do is read. And that's exactly what happened. I read one book on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and one on Thursday. Since Travis has Fridays off, I resisted the urge to start another book today. But I have rediscovered how much I love reading. And there's a good chance I will be reading incessantly for the next... however many months it takes before I run out of books to read. (I'm very picky about authors and genres and such when it comes to reading... so while I won't literally run out of books I could read, there's a good chance I'll run out of books I want to read.)

I just found out that Thanksgiving is the last week in November. No one told me.

Just Another Tuesday of Sedation, Urine, and Dilated Eyes

It's been an eventful few days. Well. One day primarily. Yesterday. I mean, I had a wonderful time in Dallas over the weekend. But, thankfully, those days were mostly relaxing and enjoyable. Wonderful food, bouts of laughter while we sat around and reminisced on days when my sisters and I were younger. We seem to have established that I was the bossy and emotional one (what lovely characteristics!), Brit was the trouble-making yet sweet one (how does that work?), and Kris was always so calm that we all remember the very very few times she got upset at someone. It was fun to take a walk down memory lane. Laughter is such a wonderful thing.

But back to my eventful day yesterday. The day started with me calling Sabre's vet about an appointment first thing in the morning. His dew claw (which is the thumb-like nail) on his front left foot must have gotten snagged on something at some point because it was almost completely pulled out. Sabre kept licking it and when I compared it to his right paw, it looked drastically different. The vet said that Sabre would need to be dropped off since there was a chance they would need to completely remove the claw. And even though we knew Sabre would be the biggest baby in the world about staying at the vet's office all day, we knew it had to be done. We dropped him off around 9:00 am. He tried to make a few escapes, but that's why Travis held Sabre's leash. We got a call around 1:45 saying that he had indeed broken the claw alllll the way down and would require sedation and pain medicine in order for them to remove it. We could pick him up between 5:00 and 6:00. So I did. I picked him up as soon as I got off work. He was still a bit loopy and desperate to leave the vet's office. We got in the car and started our drive home.

About halfway home, Sabre started whining. Really really whining. I thought maybe he was just flustered from his not-so-pleasant day. Or the sedation was making the car ride seem strange. I don't know. But either way, he wouldn't calm down. Then, about two miles from our exit, I hear a nice heavy stream of liquid somewhere in the car. I look back to find Sabre peeing all over the back seat. While still whining. (Thankfully we have a seat cover on it. And we just found out yesterday that the seat cover is waterproof. Score!) The smell of urine filled the car, I started to feel queasy and tried rolling down the window (which scared Sabre to death--apparently the wind is too loud when you're driving at 65 miles per hour), he jumped up to the front seat because he didn't want to sit in his pee, the car started dinging every so often because there was someone in the passenger seat without a seatbelt on, I exited early (though how I managed to not crash the car is some sort of miracle!) and drove into a large gas station, walked Sabre over to a nice patch of grass, and he peed again for about five minutes straight. Apparently they don't give dogs bathroom breaks at the vet's office. Wish I'd known that. I called my husband and pleaded with him to come help me. I couldn't drive with Sabre in the front seat because the dinging was stressing me out; I couldn't hold onto Sabre's leash and pull out the pee-covered seat cover and certainly couldn't drive in a urine-scented car; and I was about to have an emotional breakdown in the parking lot of a gas station, while my still loopy dog seemed completely confused. Travis was my hero. He took an early dinner break and came to my rescue. He pulled out the seat cover, found that the pee had NOT soaked through to the actual car seat (celebrate!), and drove Sabre in his car. We put a sock over Sabre's injured paw because the stuff they used to stop the bleeding would stain any fabric it touched AND so he wouldn't lick it constantly. We probably need to get him an e-collar (aka, cone of shame), but we'll see how the sock goes for now.

When people are coming out of anesthesia, we're so thoroughly entertained. They say funny things and act weird. We record it and post it for everyone else to see. When dogs are coming out of sedation, they are just plain strange. All yesterday evening, Sabre was weird. His eyes were ridiculously dilated and he would seemingly forget what he was doing every three seconds. He would start walking and then just freeze. Literally, freeze. No movement whatsoever. He would stop mid stride. We could say his name, call him to us, anything... and he would just stay frozen. And because his eyes were so dilated, when he would look at us, he looked surprised. And scared. And Tatum wanted so desperately to play with him (she didn't like him being gone all day), but he was so loopy he didn't know what to do. It was a weird, weird evening. But we made it home by the grace of God.

And now it's a new day. I'm enjoying some nice quiet while the puppies take their morning nap.

I Like Lists

Things my dogs do that make me laugh...
- Sabre steals my spot on the couch every morning. I think he's teasing me. He likes the reaction I have when I come back in the room and see he's in my spot. It must be very entertaining.
- When we tell the dogs to go to bed (their crates), Sabre will usually go right in (unless he thinks we're leaving the house), but Tatum will weave in and out of our legs or lay on her back right by our feet. She becomes very affectionate when she's supposed to be going to bed.
- When Travis joins me on the couch and kisses me, Sabre goes straight to his crate. Apparently he has sensed a pattern. ;)
- Sabre now sleeps on the coffee table 90% of the time. It's his spot.
- When Travis runs around the room while the dogs chase him, he's most scared of Tatum because she gets so into the chase, she sometimes ends up biting his ankles. It's kind of funny. (Don't worry though, we correct this behavior. And she doesn't do it to anyone else--except Sabre. Which also makes it kind of funny.)

This weekend is going to be wonderful. I mean it. Absolutely wonderful! I get to see my mom for the first time in almost two years! My dogs are boarding with this family in Dallas for the weekend. They have a pool and kids and a big yard. I'm not sure my dogs are going to want to come back with us! My birthday is on Friday so we're going out to eat. I just love eating out. It's a sickness, really. My grandfather is making a big Thai meal for my aunt and myself (her birthday is tomorrow). :) It's a good thing we get to start the weekend on Thursday, because I'm barely able to contain the jittery excitement I'm experiencing. AND THEN. Next weekend (on Saturday), my mom, sisters, and grandparents are coming to visit here for my mom's birthday! I'm hoping that's enough motivation to start hanging some pictures. This house needs to look more lived-in. Needless to say, the first two weeks of October are looking pretty great!

In other news...
- I checked out five books from the library... I'm hesitant to start them because then I won't want to do anything but read. All the time.
- I started working last week. I watch an adorable little two-year-old boy for a couple hours Monday-Thursday in the afternoon. It's nice to get out of the house. Yesterday I was talking to his mom when he said, "Ms. Cassie, stop talking." Hah. He wanted to tell me that he ate a cookie.
- I can no longer eat eggs.
- Today is Taco Plate Tuesday. Makes Tuesdays pretty awesome. (Three tacos, beans, and rice for $3.69!)
- Christmas is going to be wonderful. I know it's a couple months away but... it just is.
- I need to teach Sabre and Tatum the "quiet" command. I've realized its true importance in my sanity.