The Latest Bzzzz

I might have to start a monthly column on my NEW favorite thing, the lastest and greatest of what's cool in the Beehive.

Hot for me this week: I found over 30 exercise classes On Demand on our TV! I began squeeling with delight as I started playing the hip hop dance workout. Awww yeah, learned moves that even Justin Timberlake would be proud of. They have everything from Kickbox cardio, to belly dance, to weight training and they are all awesome.

Is it because I am a shut in, or is it really cool? I swear, it is not like that time when I didn't have cable, and started watching the Home Shopping Network which was one of the few channels that came in on my tv, and I started to get to know the presenters by name. (I swear I never bought anything.)

This comes on the heels of me going from being very active and working out a few days a week, to the epitomy of inactivity. I can hear my thighs spreading now. For 2 months my schedule has been off. It is just not realistic for me to leave the house for 2 hours and go to the gym. It is entirely realistic however for me to roll out of bed and dance like I am at the club before I go to work.

I can't wait to try the other videos.

Wild Rice with Cranberry and Walnuts

Years ago, I went to Cleveland for the week-end to get off campus. (Alright, alright, more than a decade ago.) At the time, I did not eat red meat, pork, or chicken. Having been a vegetarian for only a couple of years, my idea of dinner was a main course of french fries and cereal for dessert.

We stayed with a friend's family and in order to accomodate her guests, the mom went out to a specialty food store and brought back a bunch of gourmet vegetarian options, the likes of which I had never tasted. Wow, vegetarian food was good! It was so amazing to feel included at dinner time. My favorite dish that she brought back however, was a wild rice with cranberry and walnuts. I ate this cold every day until it was gone. For years I tried to recreate it with real cranberries. Recently, I learned that the real trick is to use dried cranberries.

I was at Wild Oats last week and saw a wild rice blend in the bulk section. While in that aisle, I also bagged up some walnuts and dried cranberries which I also use in my granola recipe.

Wild Rice with Cranberry and Walnuts
1C Wild Rice blend
2C water
salt (1/8 tsp. maybe?)
1TBL butter or olive oil (optional)
1/3C Cranberries
1/3C Chopped Walnuts

Put the first four items in a pot on the stove and bring to a boil. When it boils, turn the heat down to simmer, cover, and cook for 45 minutes. Throw in the last two ingredients, mix and serve. The hot rice will make the cranberries soften up perfectly. Now I usually just throw a handful of each in, so I am not exactly sure of the amount, because that is how I cook, a little of this, a little of that. But just eyeball it. If it looks like you are eating a few grains of rice with your cranberries, than add less cranberries, Duh!

IPOD Playlist

Here are my top 10 favorite songs right now in no particular order. On Itunes you can look up the playlists for famous people and buy the songs individually. I figure why not create my own list. I am almost famous to like 50 of you out there. This was really hard to narrow down to 10 favorites by the way.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Gold Lion
The Dandy Warhols – We Used to be Friends
Steve Malkamus – Black Book
The Postal Service – The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body
Damien Rice – 9 Crimes
Built to Spill – Goin’ Against Your Mind
The Decemberist – The Island
Built to Spill – Whenever You Go
Iron and Wine – Cinder and Smoke
Iron and Wine – On Your Wings

Almost Famous

I've been getting a lot of requests for updates on the ice rink. We were holding out to give more news because two weeks ago a NY Times reporter contacted DG about doing a story on our backyard rink for the outdoor living section of their magazine. She had done a search and found DGs blog entry. We were not only excited but also abuzz about the power of the BLOG!

After several phone calls and emails, DG learned yesterday that they decided to go with a story of a Michigan man who builds an ice wall in his backyard. Definitely an edgier story.

It is probably for the best. Two weeks ago, we started watering the hole in our yard for hours at a time with the sprinkler. We got some good layers of ice, but it is not as smooth as we want. We got a squeegie and plan on trying to finish it this weekend anyway. Though there are two frozen poopsicles in it already. (sorry mom)

I May Get Published

The Denver Post has a new travel magazine called ROAM. David is working on the design of it and I am writing an article for it's first issue about our Alaskan Cruise. Writing a few lines for a blog is one thing. Writing for an article that people might actually read is another. I’m already past my deadline and when I finished up today I was at 1,250 words. And in the hard to believe but TRUE files, not one of those words was poop.

Snow Storm Equals Baking and Knitting

Apparently I've gone straight from cute housewife to ready to be an little old lady. So far this morning, I made 3 loaves or oatmeal bread, pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes, and started 3 knitting projects. I’m on a roll with the bread. My plan is not to buy a loaf of bread the rest of the winter. We’ll see how it goes.

I found this awesome new yarn store called Posh in Northwest Denver. Holly and I went yesterday and picked out a couple of projects. They are small but carry some very fun and hip looking yarns. Currently I am working on baby hats for a friend of mine who is having twins. I'll post pictures soon.

Hockey Schmockey

I’m spoiled, and not in a give me diamonds and chocolates way. I am spoiled because when we go to any sporting event, we get either box tickets or really close seats through DGs work. I don't know one toothless hockey player, so to me, box seats amount to free food, free drinks and the dessert cart. Last night we caught the Colorado Avalanche play the Redwings. I went for the dessert cart. Unfortunately we missed because we didn't get there until the end of the third period. Hockey has periods, uh huh. Not half time, not innings, no quarters, periods.

Bowling with the Nuggets

No, I'm not talking about poop again. On Wednesday afternoon when David called and asked me if I wanted to go downtown to Lucky Strike lanes for food, free booze and a couple of rounds of bowling with the Denver Basketball team, I didn't even hesitate. Normally this would not be my bag, as I am not a huge sports fan and beyond Carmello Anthony, I wouldn't be able to pick one of those guys out of a line up. But I work from home now and the only conversations I have are with the dogs, so I literally jumped at the chance.

The big news this year is that the Nuggets just got Alan Iverson. He's apparently very good. Carmello, Alan and this guy J.R. Smith bowled next to us with their wives/fiances/girlfriends. Carmello is engaged to La La, a VJ from MTV who is about 7 months pregnant with his baby. The only other person I recognized was Kelly from Destiny's Child. I swear it was her.

It's hard to be around personalities that don't want to be bothered. Even though it was a charity event, and we were supposed to have a basketball player bowling with us, I still felt like a stalker behind a wall of security. It is curious what the presence of stardom does to people. And speaking of People, this is the end of my STAR post. I don't even have a good gossip to report. Actually, I do have really good gossip about my husband, but apparently that falls under husband/wife confidentiality.

My Husband Smells Like Poop

Ok, not really, but I felt like I had a theme and I was going with it. Can I manage to fit the word poop in every post this week? Let's see.

Though he did make chili this week-end and you know what they say about beans. They are good for your heart. But back to his chili for a second. It is the one meal that he makes better than me! I know it is hard to fathom, but his secret recipe is so good. I LOVE chili night. Chili night equals I get to sit at the computer and play Spider Solitaire.

My Other Dog Eats Poop Too

*Gasp*. It appears that little Miss Tica has picked up a bad habit from her brother. Rassity Frassity. I JUST caught her brown handed today. (Not to be confused with my brown bread thumb.) Our princess has fallen off her pedastal. So sad, so sad.

My mother said I ruined her breakfast with my post from yesterday. That as well is sad, but not as sad as owning two dogs that eat poop.

My Dog Eats Poop

I've often alluded to the fact that Mr. Gibson eats his own poop. It's not a joke. Seriously. It's actually a disease that some dogs have called Coprophagia. He doesn't eat anyone else's poop. No, he's picky and he just wants his own. We've tried meat tenderizer on his food, medicinal powder, and pills. All are supposed to have the effect of making his poop taste vial to him. But what is a more vial than the taste of poop I ask?

Next we tried to clean up after him each time. But this just isn't realistic, especially in the winter when it is -1 degrees out, like it is today. This weather has caused me to coin the phrase poopsicle. Sometimes he doesn't give you a chance to clean it up. He likes it hot out the oven. Many a day, DG and I have run, screaming as if in slow motion across the yard as we see what is about to occur. There is no amount of yelling or scolding that will make him stop. When he was a few months old he swallowed a fish hook in the alley and had to have it surgically removed from his tummy. This past summer, I caught him red handed eating a dead bird. Even the lure of other, better treats would not make him cough up that bird. I glared at him in a stare down, in vain, as he had 2 little bird legs sticking out of his mouth. He's a stubborn one that Mr. Gibson.

But look at him, how could you love him any less? He's my pride and joy. Even as he cuddles up next to me and burbs up the most foulest of odors fully disgusting anyone in a 20 foot radius, he's so darn cute.

So what is the moral of this story? No matter how handsome he looks, no kisses from Mr. Gibson.

My Bread Thumb is Finally Brown

After years of high altitude bread baking failures, throwing out little hockey puck discs and 20lb. lead bricks, I have finally come across a recipe from Cook's Illustrated that works. Or maybe it was my yeast that worked. Whatever it was, I had whole grain TOAST for breakfast this morning!

Out of nowhere at 8pm last night, I decided I wanted to make bread. Rule number 1, don't try to make bread after 6:30pm at night, unless you are a night owl that likes to stay up. Rule number 2, read recipe directions in full before starting the recipe. Half way in, I realized I had to wait 1 hour for the 7 grain cereal mixture to cool. Ok, so if I add up the 30 minutes of adding ingredients and kneading (thank god for the kitchen aid mixer), 30 minutes of rising, another 15 minutes of kneading, 45 minutes of rising, and 45 minutes of baking, what I got was a late night. Counting on fingers, I realized it was going to be 11:30 before I went to bed. What had I gotten myself into? Even with the shortcuts I took, let's just say that DG was sawing z's by the time I got to bed.

But it was all worth it. Next stop, pizza dough.

Brilliant Idea #5

Q: Wouldn't it be awesome if we dug out the back yard and made an ice skating rink?

A: YES (Emphatic)

Step 1: Dig up some snow in your back yard. I love how this picture makes it look like I have been shoveling for hours, when really I just came out of the house to have my picture taken.

Step 2: Level out your rink. (Pre- 2 X 4, there was an attempt to pull me and gibson around on a card table.)

Step 3: Start spraying it with water over several hours. Still working on this one. Check back for more.

NOTE:DG and I, unbeknowst of it, wrote the same entry and posted them almost simultaneously. His is 5 minutes earlier than mine.

Christmas is Over

This weekend, the decorations were put away, the tree taken down and the Christmas music listened to for the last time. Christmas music you say? On January 6th? Isn't that a little gauche? Yes, my sentiments exactly, especially since it has been playing since the day after Thanksgiving. But you don't know my husband. Apparently it is perfectly fine to dance around to Andy Williams like you had never heard him before.

Waiting for Dad

5pm Friday and from my desk in the office, I turned around, only to see this view of the dogs staring out the front window waiting for their dad to come home.

Right on schedule, Gibson started barking the minute he caught sight of DG on the sidewalk. It's ok to greet Dad with a bark, but I try to explain to him that during the day, he is only to bark when the mailman arrives. He is constantly crying wolf however when he sees maybe a leaf blowing across the lawn, or a squirrel climbing the tree, or a snowflake fall or absolutely nothing.

Happy New Years

DG and I got all dolled up and hit the icy roads for New Years. I wore my new fun Bebe top from the SIL, and my new winter coat from the DG. I went from hairy and unshowered to kinda cute. To see all the pictures, go to DGs Flickr site.

Then we went and had dinner at Le Central a local french restaurant with a special fixe pris 3 course menu. Needless to say, it was amazing.

Afterwards we went to Cyn and Jeff's house to ring in the new year. Let's just say that I was DD so I was not even drinking and I still managed to get some promisciously dirty looking pictures taken. Maybe DG will post our midnight video.

The DG Wears Prada

DG has been looking for a new pair of glasses for the entire year. December was crunch time as he had to use up his Flex Benefit or lose it. Of all of the pairs of glasses that he looked at, he ended up with these gorgeous ones. They were my favorites, until we looked at the brand name on them and found out they were Prada. I could give a rip about this brand, but they make him look hot. What you can't see is that they are orange on the inside! Fun.

Remind me to tell you about my Prada I poop on you experience in NYC a couple of years ago.