We Made It!

We're alive!!!

We made it through two thirds of the continental United States, driving a not very direct route of 2826.6 miles in six days and seven nights. Holy poop, I'm surprised we're both alive!

The route that we took! This is a screenshot from Road Trippers which I highly suggest for planning purposes if you're thinking about doing a road trip anytime soon. Or also just a vacation, it shows a lot of lesser known places to stay/visit. 

We got back yesterday, 7/5, a little after 6pm. Today has been a day of not entirely settling in. I haven't unpacked anything not related to my daily routine and all my stuff stuff doesn't arrive from the movers for a couple weeks. I suspect I'll be doing these updates semi-slowly as I ease into a routine of normal life again; but normal doesn't really get normal for a couple of weeks.

My crazy schedule is as follows:
This week - a different doctor appointment every day (car doctor (aka oil change), dentist, eye doctor, foot doctor, standard doctor. Basically all maintenance I didn't do this past year is getting done this week)
This weekend - going to Lake Geneva for Bobby's cousin's wedding
Beginning of next week - start a whole brand-spankin new job
Later next week - head to Colorado to stand up in my friend Hannah's wedding
Week after that - first kinda normal week back at home with Christmas in July party on the weekend
Weekend after that - another random get together/party that has a title but I can't remember
Weekend after that - wedding of a family friend
Weekend after that - My birthday and grandparent's 55th anniversary party
THEN I'M FREE

Moral of that story being that if you want to see me before the middle/end of August it may have to be on a week night or you may need to book me ahead of time. I'm not kidding, I'll make a date to see people if I need to.

I hope to be able to blog about the trip during this week and next, being finished before I head to Colorado. That's the goal anyways.

I'll start tomorrow (probably) but for now I am going to edit pictures and chill in the recliners here. I've missed recliners.

Having a Crazy-Fun Time!

Hi all!

I know I said I was going to blog throughout this trip, and I really really wanted to, but then we got busy having too much fun and seeing all the sights! First two nights were Vegas so obviously the nightlife was really important to see and that cut down significantly on blogging opportunity.

BUT I am keeping a list of topics to hit when I do recap posts so the random funny little things that commonly get forgotten when doing a recap but could deserve a post all of their own will be written about! For example in future posts you will hear about the best watermelon on earth and our near disaster today driving at night in elk country (no worries Mom, not a very close call but close enough to get the adrenaline pumping).

So far we have had 2 nights in Las Vegas and now tonight just south of the Grand Canyon. All the pictures we have taken are on my real life camera, not my phone, so the recap posts will have all the pictures.

See you all so super soon, we will be home Saturday!!

My Last Visitors

This past weekend I had my last visitors in California before I move back to the Midwest! And of course we got to cross a few things off my California bucket list.

My mom, Heidi, and Calvin arrived in Thursday night (really Friday morning), I took off work Friday, and then they just left this Monday morning. Things got off to a bit of a rocky start when their flight was delayed FIVE HOURS on Thursday night. They were supposed to leave at 6:45 but didn't get out until 11:30pm from Chicago. At that time they should have been arriving in San Francisco but instead were just leaving. I set an alarm to wake myself up at 1am so I could go and get them when the flight finally landed at 1:30am, feeling to them like 3:30am, and feeling to Calvin like almost time to be up for the day!

On Friday we went to Muir Woods to see some Redwoods! I have been wanting to see them since I've been here but just haven't. Lazy ole me.

These trees were huge. Obviously we knew that going in but they were just SO TALL and really straight for being so old/tall. There was also charring on the bark of many trees so we asked a park ranger when the last forest fire was. 150 years ago. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEAR OLD CHARRING. That's just bonkers.

To do the walking around the park Heidi had put Calvin in this Mobi wrap thing so we didn't need the stroller. We had him facing outwards and with some cute little sunglasses on. He was the star of the park that day. I felt like I was walking with a celebrity. Everyone was laughing and "aww"ing at this adorable little baby with sunglasses.

Best picture from the whole weekend

Muir Woods was great and afterwards we headed back to my neck of the woods where we grabbed dinner and a movie from Redbox and called it an early night after the not very restful night before. We mostly watched the movie because 6:30 was too early to go to sleep and the sun didn't set until 8:30pm...

On Saturday we headed out to my favorite stomping ground, Livermore, to do one last wine tasting! Before we got to that we met up with my mom's friend Val for lunch and it just happened to be her birthday! Then with a full belly we set out to add some alcohol to top it off. We first went to a place I had been once before, Page Mill Winery, because it is pretty and nestled in with the grape vines running along the driveway up to the tasting room. Since it was Heidi's first time I wanted to go somewhere that we could see the vines up close. You could even see the little grapes starting to grow! And of course my mom was enamored with the little kitschy stuff you could get at their shop so we got Calvin this souvenir: 

"I'll have a glass of the house white"

Then we went to my favorite winery, that I'm also a member of, and I always take people to, Ehrenberg Cellars. I got to say goodbye to my buddies there, and I am just now realizing I should have taken some pictures. The first woman who greeted me and made me feel at home wasn't there so they called her up so I could say bye. We ended up buying a ton of wine and changed my address in their system so I can still be a member via shipments 3 times a year. We even upped the level I'm at so it's 4 bottles instead of 2 and Mom and I are going to split the costs since I can no longer be her supplier. If I ever come back here for whatever reason some day I will be sure to stop by and say hello again.

While we were at Ehrenberg one of the ladies suggested we go to a local brewery, Working Man, to try the craft brews they make there. Mom and I aren't big beer drinkers but I enjoy it enough and Heidi had been tolerating the wine for us so we went to the brewery for her. We met a nice middle aged couple who are bout to be grandparents for the first time so they were drooling over Calvin. The beer was good, I'm not a huge beer person but there were a couple that I could see myself enjoying. 

Then as the day dwindled we made our way back to my apartment, got some fried chicken on the way, and watched a bit of Netflix before all falling asleep by 9:30pm. We are party animals. 

Sunday was a day we didn't really have solid plans for. We had originally thought maybe making it a pool day but it wasn't very warm and the breeze was strong so we vetoed that one pretty quick. After lounging around all morning we got hungry and headed to get some lunch. While at lunch I remembered hearing about a lake with a park nearby called Lake Elizabeth. We took Calvin on a walk around the lake, about a 2 mile loop, and said that was good for our outdoor activity. We then got some veggies at the grocery store and cooked ourselves dinner to try and use up some of the frozen chicken I have. Then that night we lounged again! It was great!

I took them to the airport this morning and said, "see you in 3 years!". We had been joking this entire weekend that I was never going to get to come home because my background check for the new job was taking FOREVER to clear. It took almost 2 weeks! Finally this morning I got the all clear and was contacted by the relocation company to schedule a time for them to come and whisk my things away. 

It's finally becoming more of a reality now that I have less than a week to prep for this road trip and move. Thankfully the movers are packing most of my things but I still want to clean most everything and decide what I want to take in my car with me vs what the movers can take. I've started to contact my utility companies to disconnect service and am sitting at my desk here thinking of what exactly I want to tackle tonight in terms of organization. 

Tomorrow is my last day at the current job. This is all moving so quickly but I am so thrilled that it finally is moving at all! There were times where I never thought I would leave this state. This job has been a great first stop in "adult" life but I cannot wait to get started at the new place! 

Of course I'll be blogging along the way on the road trip but don't want to post our plans beforehand in case of psycho stalkers. Stay tuned next week for lots of fun and updates!

Drum-roll Please.....

I am moving back to Illinois!

I am so extraordinarily happy that I am at a loss for words. My current level of joy can only be understood by seeing the spring in my step and ear-to-ear grin. I'm just so happy.

Quite a few of you have known of my unhappiness in California for quite some time. My distaste for this state is not well masked. It would be a great vacation spot but living here is not for me. I started casually looking at what was out there job-wise back in October, seriously looking since about February. The goal being to bring me back to Chicago, or within decent driving distance, by the end of the summer. I was firm in deciding not to renew my lease or find somewhere else. I was coming home at the end of August with or without a job! Thankfully I'll be employed and coming back early.

My last day at the current job will be June 24th. Then I will road trip it back to the Midwest and start the new position on July 14th. I'll be a catastrophe modeling analyst for a reinsurance company in Schaumburg. Right across the road from Woodfield Mall. Very dangerous location for my bank account. Basically I'll become a user of the software I currently work support for. This position is more along the lines of what I thought I would be doing currently but was woefully wrong. Everyone I have met at this new company seems wonderful and I am so thankful to not be compromising on environment or career just to be back close to my family and friends. I would have, you guys are great, but it's nice that I didn't have to.

So does anyone have ideas of good places for me to stop along the way back home?! My only "must see" destinations are the Hoover Dam and a magic show in Las Vegas. Thankfully those two are very close to each other. I also want to see a decent bit of Utah because I've heard it is the prettiest, so picking one out of Bryce Canyon, Arches, or Zion national parks. Current plans are to have the Bobby Boyfriend fly out here and then ride back with me so our timeline depends on how much time he can get off work and when I am actually packing up and moving my stuff.

There is still quite a bit up in the air but I am so happy to finally be able to share this wonderful news :) And since no post is complete without a picture, my adorable nephew:

He's so happy I'm coming home!

My Lemons are Ripening!

It's finally happening, the lemons are starting to change color!

Look how yellow they are compared to the baby green one!

I couldn't get the best picture of color but you can see how they're a green-yellow here

I couldn't really tell if they were turning and was getting rather impatient but thankfully the new baby lemons came along and showed me how yellow the old timers are getting. It's all so exciting!

Also exciting: Calvin is 3 months old today! The little cutie pie is chunkin up smiling all the time now, I can't wait to snuggle him!

The Final Day!

After two surprisingly short weeks, I have finished the BuzzFeed Clean Eating Challenge. I overwhelmingly failed at the challenge but I did it. Mostly.

Day 14, in two parts:

This day was done in two parts because yesterday my friend from high school, Lia, was in town for a conference so I went into the city and hung out with her in the evening. Therefore, part one, Saturday, was breakfast and lunch while part two happened today, Sunday, and is the dinner dish. 

I was so happy when I saw what breakfast was for day 14. Instead of making me slurp down a kale-chia-flax-whatever smoothie I got to have the green onion and feta omelette! Yum yum yum

I will definitely keep eating this post-challenge

Lunch was roasted mushroom caps with roasted tomato and feta. It was just eh, and it looked even more eh. 

This may have been my saddest looking meal.

That also left me hungry and I wolfed down the apple snack before heading downtown. 

INTERMISSION: Girl date with Lia!

Lia was in town for a conference over this weekend so I met her at her hotel and we got pizza and frolicked around the classic touristy places. After getting pizza near the hotel we took the Powell-Hyde cable car all the way to Ghiradelli Square. I've lived here for 9-ish months and still hadn't ridden a cable car! Finally got to knock that one off my SF bucket list, we even rode standing up on the outside!

And even had a lovely woman photobomb us

Once at Ghiradelli Square we walked around the shop, got our free sample, and got some snacks. Lia had an ice cream cone as big as her face and I got salted caramel hot chocolate. From there we walked along the warf and went into a museum of old coin operated machines. You may remember it from Princess Diaries.

It took the two of us to beat it on the easiest level

We walked a little farther down to Pier 39 to check out the sea lions and all the touristy shops over there. Then we walked back to the cable car turn around to ride back towards Lia's hotel. On the cable car ride back we were sitting (lots of walking made us tired) but we had the most fun operator guy ever. Every time we passed another cable car we shouted and cheered! And we made sure to sit on the side that looked down Lombard Street as we passed and had a great view of the Bay Bridge.

It was so fun to get to hang out with Lia and I learned I know a lot of random facts about San Francisco now that I was able to share. I should have charged for the little tour haha! It was so nice to just hang out with an old friend and be my weird self, not need to pretend to be normal around new people. Thanks for visiting, Lia!

END INTERMISSION!

Part two: dinner of day 14

Dinner tonight was a weird sorta stir-fry, that seemed to be the theme of this past week. Weird sorta stir-frys almost every night. It had toddler bok choy, carrots, red pepper, garlic, mushrooms, zucchini, and a comically small amount of chicken. I did make a small substitution with the zucchini, it was supposed to be snap peas but I must have used all the of them not thinking I had more things to make...whoops

The chicken marinated all morning in a sauce of olive oil, honey, and tamari. The chicken was quite good and I think i'll marinate chicken in that again but it was just such a small amount of chicken for the massive amount of vegetables that there was.

Nice and colorful!

I did eat around the red peppers and most of the bok choy. It was alright but not my favorite dish of the whole thing. Snack tonight is supposed to be chunks o chocolate but I believe I'll be having some popcorn instead.

And just like that my mission of the past two weeks is done! Its so strange. I need to go grocery shopping again but this time without direction. I'm a little terrified of falling back into eating just crap food again but I already am planning to remake a few things I liked from this dealio. I guess I'll just start there and see where it goes.

Thanks for sticking with me if you've been a regular reader. While I've been told this experience was quite comical from the reader's perspective I just tried to give my honest opinion. I can't help if I'm hilarious (chuckle chuckle chuckle) 

The Homestretch! Days 12 & 13

I think I've eaten too much fiber today, my tummy is making moves as I type this.

Sarah's flowers were delivered! Thank you Priority Unit of 1800Flowers for making this problem right! Still never going to use them again but at least she got the flowers...finally

I even got them to upgrade to a larger size than I had ordered. BOOM BABY!

Now onto.....Day 12!

Breakfast today was supposed to be the berry/yogurt "parfait" again but I ended up with potato chips and apple juice at my desk. Not my proudest moment but at least they were the popchips that are like baked and stuff. I wasn't in a yogurt mood. 

Lunch was supposed to be the chili I didn't make when I didn't feel like cooking so that one was out too...whoops? You can really see I'm being disciplined here and sticking with it.... Instead I had some Chinese food because it was free lunch Thursday at the office and that's what was catered. At least I still stuck with my goal of not thinking about what I was going to eat?

I did have the pear for my snack! And it happened to be a perfect pear. It was everything that every pear hopes to be.

Dinner was talapia cooked on a bed of green onions and baby bok choy with some sauce stuff I whipped up and all folded into a parchment packet. I was a little leery going in but it was actually very good. The recipe called for 6 heads of baby bok choy and I think they meant the very smallest of small baby bok choys. Even when I was grocery shopping I did not buy the recommended amount because my options for baby bok choy were more like large toddler bok choy. I started out intending to use 3 but only used one once I realized how small a parchment area I had to work with, and that was even making a bigger parchment packet than they suggested. 

This is what large toddler bok choy looks like

The recipe also called for shallots instead of green onions but I again forgot to buy more shallots on my way back from work. I think the green onions were a fine stand in and they worked with the color scheme. I completely forgot to take a picture of the pretty finished product so you unfortunately get a picture of the not so pretty almost fully eaten product. 

This was quite delicious and the quickest/easiest meal I've made so far and it didn't even involve the use of leftovers. I was actually surprised by how quickly I was able to make and eat a good for you meal. 

Night time snack was supposed to be the home made hot chocolate again. I still stuck with the chocolate theme but with a little more sugar/calories.

Then came my last weekday of clean eating, Day 13: 

The day started out with overnight oats again except this time with strawberries instead of black berries. Since my strawberries went bad prematurely in the week I used some raspberries I had on hand instead. AND I made sure to smash them up before adding the other ingredients so the flavors could mingle overnight. Well they weren't nearly as bad as my first overnight oat attempt where I had one bite. By the time I called it quits with this version I was surprised to see I had made it half way through. Although I did dig around to find the biggest chunks of raspberry so I don't know how much credit I really deserve. 

There is just something about the texture that continually irks me about this breakfast. It's thick enough with enough chunks that I want to chew it but if I do that then I'll really be grossed out by how much I don't need to chew. Then if I just kinda slurp it down it feels all slithery thanks to the weird jelly like quality of the chia seeds from sitting overnight. It's just too weird and I can't find a good way to eat it. Food should be eaten on instinct, not by figuring out the best way. 

For lunch was supposed to be some of the leftover salad I didn't make because I wanted real food for dinner. So I made a quick sorta version of it without adding some steamed snap peas. No loss there, I don't care much for cooked snap peas. I'll eat them forever if they're raw and I have ample ranch dressing but they're not my thing once cooked. 

The salad I had consisted of aragula, sliced raddish, a little mint, some feta, and leftover quinoa all topped with a balsamic vinaigrette. It was quite tasty and I ate the whole thing. And I completely for got to take a picture. I'm just now realizing it. I could take a picture of the empty container but that's just sad. Just know that it was good, I ate all of it, and it looked like most other salads I've had so far. 

Snack today was supposed to be carrot sticks and hummus but I wasn't feeling like putting in the effort to peel and cut the carrots this morning. Instead I had another one of those perfect pears that was at the peak of flavor awesomeness. 

Dinner today was again surprisingly easy and quick to make without leftovers. It was a quick stir fry type dealio of mushrooms, shrimp, green onions, and some garlic. Tossed with some of the sauce used on the fish yesterday and then served in romaine lettuce leaf boats. Well it was supposed to be served in the boats. Unfortunately my lettuce got funky on the outermost leaves and the inner ones weren't boat material. Instead, I chopped up the smaller leaves and just topped my salad with the stir fry mixture. It was way easier to eat like this anyways!

Again it was very good and I ate all of it! Thankfully after being bad for the past two days I feel like I redeemed myself a little bit today. Snack tonight is apples with a bit of honey. If you look at the summation picture for the day you'll see their version of putting honey on apples is complete chaos. Seriously, are you then going to eat it with a fork or get insanely sticky hands? I just don't understand.

Sheep update: they're still in that field but there is only a fence on one side. This morning I saw animal control wrangling some sheep that had gotten onto the road. What the heck! Why are there free range sheep? California, I will never understand you....

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Into the Double Digits! Days 10 & 11

I cannot believe I have been doing this for 11 days now. It feels like way way longer. And I'm practically done, that's crazy. I'm going to need to actually think about what to eat!

Yesterday: Day 10

Breakfast was supposed to be roasted cauliflower hash and fried eggs. I didn't feel like chopping onions first thing in the morning so I just made myself another roasted cauliflower omelette. 

Lunch was supposed to be an arugula salad with leftover roasted eggplant, leftover roasted chickpeas, avocado, and feta all with a balsamic vinaigrette. I had tossed all the roasted eggplant because it was super nasty nasty so that was out of the salad but overall it wasn't bad. I ate all the greens for once and just had some chickpeas leftover. Not bad, not gonna make it again. 

Snack was supposed to be red pepper and hummus. Ha ha ha, good one BuzzFeed. No way was I going to eat that. Instead I had some ritz bitz cheese cracker sandwiches from the snack closet! We don't have those often so it was a treat. They recently told us the snack closet options were going to become weirdly California style healthy (seaweed chips were mentioned) but instead they gave us the Ritz, I'm not going to complain. 

Since I messed up breakfast and lunch I stuck with dinner. A bowl of shrimps with kale and collared greens and some mushrooms. Kinda like another stir fry bowl but cooked in less of a stir fry manner. Not bad, I ate almost everything and was so full I could only lay down. Sitting up was too uncomfortable, I think the food expanded in my stomach or something. 

The avocado wasn't radioactive, the lighting was just bad

For night snack I had raspberries instead of blackberries because they were on sale this week. Overall, for day 10 I think I did pretty good! Not too much dirty eating mixed in with the clean stuff but I guess the ritz sandwiches are like the epitome of dirty sooooo........

Then came not as good of a day: Day 11

For breakfast they wanted me to make another banana kale smoothie like on the first day where I could taste the green. That didn't happen. Instead I got an egg mcmuffin complete with irresistible hash brown patty. I savored every moment of today's breakfast. There is no beating the egg mcmuff.

Lunch was supposed to be little leaf boats filled with a tuna/egg salad type thing. I didn't have this for two reasons. First: because canned tuna is nasty and I refused to buy it while grocery shopping. Second: I forgot to check what prep I needed to do yesterday night and I did not boil the eggs. Instead I got a chicken cesar salad from Wendy's. Much tastier than nasty canned tuna. 

Then came the afternoon snack, the only thing I ended up actually preparing and eating today. Whoops? It was a "pudding" of blended frozen banana and frozen avocado with some almond milk. It definitely jiggled like a pudding would but the consistency was just like runny, warm pudding. So odd. But it didn't taste horrible. I had about two thirds before it got too warm and runny.

This picture doesn't show the every so slight green tint that makes you think it's gone bad but is really just the avocado. 

While that carried me throughout the day, I was oblivious to what awaited me when I got home for dinner. I was quite displeased to find a stinkin salad was on the menu tonight. There are just some nights when you need meat and tonight was one of those nights. I'll make the salad again in a couple days and have it for lunch so I'm not worried about missing out on the experience of missing a new dish.

Instead I had a healthy choice cafe steamer for dinner. Rosemary chicken and sweet potato, one of my favorites when sprinkled with a little bit of garlic salt. Thankfully that hit the spot and I didn't feel as bad about it as I would have if I had substituted ice cream for a meal again.

I didn't have the snack tonight, didn't get hungry although writing about food is making me hungry again. I do have a nectarine that is in it's prime so that may be my next target.

Thanks for reading, only a few more days of the challenge to go! As your reward for making it all the way through, here is a picture of the random herd of sheep I passed by on my way home today. I do not live in an area you would think sheep would graze in but alas there they were.

This is just open land for sale...with sheep apparently. I wonder if they're a package deal?

Semi-Clean Eating Days 8 & 9

Before we get to the food review, a small movie review.
About Time: everything a rom-com should be. It make me laugh, cry, and got a little cheesy at the end
Secret Life of Water Mitty: I now want to go to all the places and see all the things and hang out with all the small children of random contries. So if you feel like feeling like that afterwards then see it. If you're suffering from severe wanderlust like myself it will only make things worse.

Now, Onto Day 8:

 

Sunday started out with a smoothie so of course I was a little scared. Thankfully it was normal and basically just blueberries and yogurt. I had a bit of it and then it started to separate shockingly fast. I didn't finish because of the "what on earth is happening" factor. 

Lunch was surprisingly good. It consisted of the leftover tomato sauce from Saturday's dinner cooked with some spinach thrown in (it called for asparagus but I swapped) and then you make two little wells to crack the eggs into and cook it covered for a few minutes and end up with something similar to this:

I did cook the eggs a little long so the very top layer was a bit rubbery but overall it was good! I'm not sure I'll ever have all the ingredients together again to make this but I may order it in a restaurant. I could have used some toast though to eat the extra sauce with. But alas, this pesky thing is "gluten free"....fun haters.....

I can't say I did very well with snacking. I did have the strawberries but I may have also had some m&ms. I'm a Colliander, you can't deny me chocolate.

Then came the brownest dinner of my life. And I've had some pretty darned brown meals before. Dinner was a bowl of roasted chickpeas, roasted cauliflower, and roasted eggplant all mixed up with hummus and then topped and mixed up with a combo of lemon juice and greek yogurt.

I forgot to take a picture of it before I mixed it all together because I was Skyping with Bobby at the time. Blame him for distracting me and the ugly picture. 

It was weird, and gritty, and tangy, and just wrong. I had had a couple bites but tried to avoid anything that had hummus or yogurt on it. Either I made this horribly wrong or the person who taste tested this had no taste buddies. So gross. I had ice cream for dinner to treat myself after going through the pain that was that dish.

Yeah, I didn't have the dates and two almonds either.

Now we're caught up to today, Day 9:

Today wasn't too bad overall. I was a little shaky on the execution but it went better than most days, which isn't saying a lot but it is saying something.

The apple omelette sounds weird but it was actually pretty decent. Thinly sliced apples cooked in the skillet then cooked with the egg and omeletted. Unfortunately I super suck at omelette flipping and it ended up more like very large chunked scrambled eggs. Whatever, the shape didn't change the taste!

It was sweet because of the apples but like strangely savory at the same time. If you're looking to shake things up at breakfast I suggest giving it a try, not bad!

Lunch today was interesting. Three wraps made with the leftover turkey meatballs from Saturday, sliced tomato and avocado, and mustard. The interesting part comes in when they got wrapped in collared greens. Raw collared greens.

Before I wrapped them up, obviously. 

At lunch I attempted to eat them with the wrap but the greens were just too leathery. They took some time to chew cooked so I don't know why they thought these giant leaves would make a good wrap. I guess they don't rip easily? I ended up unwrapping each one and just ate the innards and threw out the greens. Oh well!

Snack was supposed to be yogurt and blackberries but since I've had so many issues with the yogurt I went for carrots and hummus again. Executive decision = made

Dinner tonight was a stir-fry of sorts. Quinoa mixed up with sugar snap peas, mushrooms, scallions, and scrambled egg.

I quite enjoyed this meal! Ate the whole thing! Only thing it was missing was a shallot that I had forgotten to get on my grocery shopping adventure. I bet it would have been even better had I included it. It did also call for some of the tamari (fancy soy sauce) which I did add but I felt the bowl needed a little something extra. So I added a bit of House of Tsang sauce!

Thank you Heidi and Garrett for introducing me to the magical quality of this sauce

With a little bit of the tsang, my dinner was top of the charts yummy. This is something I could see myself making again, quick, easy and only one pan!

And as a reward for making it to the end, a picture of the always adorable Calvin!

He was hungry too

Days 6 and 7: Getting Derailed and Back on Track, Hopefully

If you were the fifth person to read this after I posted you were my 3,000th view on my blog. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Also a huge CONGRATULATIONS to all my friends who graduated from Valpo today! I wore my alumni shirt for the first time today as I can no longer be in denial that I've graduated since there is the next class graduated now. Time to admit to being a big kid!

So as you maybe noticed I did not blog about yesterday's food yet. That's because of a couple of factors. First, it was Friday and I didn't feel like doing anything all day until I got all fired up and pissed off at 1-800-Flowers to write that blog post. But once my steam ran out I was just dead weight for the rest of the day. Second, I reached a new low in terms of actually preparing/eating the food.

Day Six:

The day started off with the chia seed mango pudding which I had previously said I probably would not like and that I would be making the scallion/feta omelette that I had skipped to partake in bagel day. Good think I know me so well because the "pudding" was mega weird.

Somehow the mango got de-mangoed in whatever happened overnight in this cup and there was absolutely no flavor. There were supposed to be pistachios in this mixture as well but I am not made of money nor did I want to shell all those little buggers so I skipped them. However, I do not think they would have helped. This is yet another breakfast that only got one taste and went right into the "heck no" column and my trash can.

So instead I made my omelette and it was wonderful! This is something I will definitely be making again.

The little bits of cooked feta? Yeah they were amazing.

To make this lovely concoction you thinly slice the white parts of the scallion and put those in your skillet with some olive oil to cook for a bit. I happen to have olive oil Pam so I just used that instead of straight up olive oil so I could coat the pan evenly too. Then after the whites have cooked for a bit you add the green and let them soften up for a bit before dumping in the egg and omelette-ing it up. So yummy, everyone should try it and be happy forever.

Then for lunch I had a salad of arugula, leftover green beans from Thursday night's dinner and the salmon also leftover from Thursday. That had yet another homemade vinaigrette of lemon juice, dijon mustard, and olive oil. The salad was surprisingly good considering the salmon had been a little funky to be the previous day but I am guessing the dressing helped with that.

I tried to make it pretty but the salmon liked to hide

But while I was eating it, and enjoying it, all I could think about was how it wasn't chocolate and peanut butter ice cream. So after I had about half I went and got myself some ice cream from a nearby Baskin Robbins. Hey, it was Friday!

Since I was mega full from all the salad and ice cream I skipped the afternoon snack of carrot, "seedless" cucumber, and hummus. Whatevs, no big loss there.

When I got home from work in my Friday "I don't even want to move or do anything or open my eyes" attitude I knew dinner was not going to be cooked by me. I hemmed and hawed over this one for a good minute or two, I did already have all the ingredients I would need and I had said I wanted to try each meal. That was before I went through a week of cooking everything for each meal from scratch. It's a lot of work and I just wanted to be a couch potato. What sealed the deal for me not cooking was that I was to make myself chili. I'm not the biggest chili person. If the meal had been something that interested me I may have stuck with it but chili is not the way to my heart. It's actually probably the opposite of the way to my heart.

So I hemmed and hawed again and went with Panda Express and Krispy Kreme. I stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way to the panda, it was the right side of the street, and got two donuts. I ate one donut on the way to the panda and another after I had finished my food. I am not proud of it but it was so so so so so so tasty. I love donuts.

Can't stop, won't stop

So Day six was a huge bust for me but at least I had a good omelette. And a donut.

Day Seven: HALF WAY DONE!!

Yay! Today marks half way through this challenge dealio! I had a major decision to make today. Do I continue or do I give up and admit defeat and that I'll probably end up on My 600lb Life someday? This was a serious thought for about two minuets then I decided I liked not having to think about what to make for food more than I like being lazy. I chose to be mentally lazy over physically lazy. Since I'm going ahead with week two, today was also grocery shopping day.

But first breakfast. I don't know why but this inventor of this challenge HATES breakfast. They make it the worst meal of the day, by far. Today was to be steamed asparagus and two poached eggs. First problem, I don't like asparagus. The shaved stuff in the salad the first day was fine but I just don't like it when its in the stalk form. Not my thing. So I decided I wasn't going to have it. I'd have toast instead.

Next problem with this breakfast that I did not anticipate was how freakin hard it is to poach an egg. The challenge gives you very specific instructions on how to poach your eggs so I wasn't really worried when I should have been very worried.

Crack each egg into a separate small bowl or mug, then stir the water in a circle gently with a wooden spoon to create a whirlpool. Drop 1 egg into the center of the whirlpool. The white will wrap around the yolk and start to set. Let the egg poach in the water for 3 minutes, keeping the temperature steady. Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Repeat with the other egg, again creating a whirlpool before dropping in the egg.

So I made this little whirlpool and watched in horror as the first egg just dissolved into the water. Almost immediately the pot of water gets cloudy and I've lost the yolk. I try to poke around with my slotted spoon and gather up what white I can but it's almost useless. I do eventually find the yolk and decide to keep it captive with my spoon while the poaching happens.

it was madness

I thought maybe the water wasn't hot enough so I turn it up just a bit and let the water reheat before attempting the next egg. This time I don't mess around with that whirlpool and just drop the egg right onto the spoon in the water. I was able to retain more of my egg this time but it was still sad looking when I finished.

pathetic

I broke the yolk and sopped that up with my toast. It wasn't too bad. But then I tried the egg white. Oh my gosh why do people like poached eggs? There was no flavor in the white and I can only take so much runny yolk. I had maybe two bites of the white and threw them away. This was the ultimate failed experiment in breakfasting.

So I made myself another scallion and feta omelette :) yum yum yum happy happy yum

When I read what I had to do to make my lunch my first thought was "are you kidding me". One of the steps involves massaging lime juice into kale leaves and that's where I said hell no. If I was not going to get a massage in return, that kale was not going to be massaged by me. Since lunch today was supposed to be a kale salad I ended up skipping the lunch for today. I scrounged in my cupboards and had a nutrigrain bar or something.

After lunch I went grocery shopping. Just a warning now, I will be skipping a few of the meals next week. Just by looking at the grocery list and not buying some of the ingredients I know this will be happening. For example, I did not buy the canned tuna. I refuse to eat canned tuna. Nasty stuff. So I'll either be making substitutions as I go or I'll be eating the occasional meal out or scrounged up.

Grocery shopping this week wasn't as expensive as last week as I bought some things last week that are still going to be used for this coming week. I did also get a few extra things to retain my sanity like cookie dough and strawberry shortcake ice cream bars. Can you resist the strawberry shortcake bars? I sure can't and am probably going to go get one from my freezer after I finish this post.

Since I had failed so spectacularly yesterday and again today with making all my meals I had to stick it out and make the dinner. I had to get back on track because this was a slippery slope I was on.

Dinner tonight was homemade (of course) turkey meatballs on a bed of collared greens topped off with a homemade tomato sauce. I had never had collared greens before so my curiosity was back in the game with me and motivation was restored!

The recipes are in the BuzzFeed article so I won't get into details of what all was in the meatballs or tomato sauce but they were both decent. The meatballs were actually quite good and I can definitely see myself making them another time. The tomato sauce was a bit acidic for me but this challenge is a no-sugar thing so I stuck with their recipe. The collared greens were okay. I had to chew them for longer than expected which was kinda weird. But the flavor from the sauce was pretty powerful so I can't really tell you what collared greens themselves taste like.

I forgot to take a picture before I added the sauce. I realized this immediately after adding the sauce.
Also, this may be my worst food picture so far

Dinner was good overall, I ate most of it before I got full. Something I have noticed about this challenge is that I fill up from these meals very quickly. I suppose it makes sense since I'm eating so many greens and other filling things but when I can't finish something I like it makes me sad.

Snack tonight I think is like a clementine or something? I haven't given it much thought since I'm definitely going for the strawberry shortcake bar. I may have popcorn too since I got some movies from Redbox while at the grocery store. I rented About Time and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I haven't heard anything about About Time but I love Rachel McAdams and I've hard that the Mitty movie is enjoyable, but slow to start. We shall see!

My fight with 1-800-Flowers

(I'm writing this post with a scowl on my face. I tell you this to set the mood)

My fight with 1-800-Flowers began April 22nd. Hopefully it will be resolved May 22nd. 

Because I am such a nice and loving sister, I thought it would be a happy thought to send my sister surprise flowers to work on her first day back since having the baby. Something to make the day away from him a little easier and happier. 

I spent tens of minutes picking out the perfect flowers to send to her that would be both small enough as to be easily transportable when she took them home and had them on her desk, and so they would be delivered in a vase from a florist and not in a box where she would have to do work to enjoy them. I settled on a lovely arrangement called "French Countryside" 

They're adorable right?

The day after I order these flowers I got a call from their customer service telling me the florist who would be fulfilling the order did not carry the blue vase and asked if I would be okay with a replacement. I really like the blue vase but the flowers are the real gift so I agreed to a replacement vase. ONLY replacing the VASE. Even checking my order online the arrangement was titled "French Countryside" and on track to be delivered May 1st. 

Now comes May 1st and flowers are delivered. Thankfully they did make Heidi's day and my goal of making her smile and tear up a little at my lovely card was accomplished. Unfortunately the flowers are entirely wrong. 

Very pretty, but it's like the opposite of what I ordered

Now I know some of you more level headed people out there might be thinking I'm nuts for putting up such a stink and blogging about this. It didn't intend for things to spiral like they did. 

I sent an email via the customer service section on the 1-800-Flowers website letting them know of either the miscommunication or error somewhere down the line. I was expecting to get an apology and maybe a coupon for future purchase or something. They answered very promptly, within an hour or two, apologizing for the mix up, giving me a $20 coupon for 1-800-Flower or their sister companies, and promising a redelivery of the correct arrangement the next day. Awesome! When I heard this I was over the moon. Goes to show that if you speak up when an obvious error has been made that things will be made right. Or so I thought. 

The next day the flowers are not redelivered. Then the following Monday the flowers were not redelivered again. I gave them a day of grace knowing it was Mother's Day season and there are lots of flower orders. On Tuesday I emailed 1-800-Flowers again, saying that I appreciated their customer service efforts on behalf of the corporation but I didn't think the florist had the same commitment to customer service and the flowers had not been redelivered yet. They again emailed me back, promised a $20 coupon, and said the flowers would be delivered the following day. Well again the flowers didn't come. 

But I thought to myself, she got flowers, the sentiment was there, I made her first day back at work a little easier, I'll drop this because I'm getting sick of no results from 1-800-Flowers. Meanwhile, flowers I had ordered at the same time as I had ordered Heidi's were delivered successfully to my Mom without any issue. So ya know, one time thing. Right??????

Well I used one of the $20 coupons to send flowers to my old roommate, Sarah, who always says how she wants someone to send her flowers. I even had another of our friends figure out for me when Sarah was going to be in her office next (she travels a lot) so I could make sure she got them. I felt like a little flower fairy/secret agent! 

I had wanted these flowers to be a surprise so I waited and waited all day on Monday (5/12) for Sarah to text me all excitedly that I'm the best friend in the whole wide world and how surprised she was. That text never came but I received an email with a delivery confirmation from 1-800-Flowers. Hmmmm......suspicious

So I spilled the beans to Sarah to see if they had arrived or if she hated me but no flowers had come to her office. Suspiciouser. So we waited to see if maybe they were delivered after business hours and maybe they would be waiting for her at the office in the morning. Morning comes and there are no flowers happily waiting.

This time I call customer service because I work in customer service via email and I know that if you want something done the way you want it done and as quickly as possible, you call. Also please know that since I work in customer service I am very nice to all the service people I talk to; I live by the golden rule. I may be ranting here but I did not try to make their days any more miserable. (Except the last chick, I got mighty firm with her.) 

So I talk to some guy who apologizes, promises a $20 coupon, and a redelivery for the next day. I counter his offer by saying I'll waive the $20 coupon in exchange for redelivery that same day (5/12). I had called first thing in the morning so this shouldn't be a logistical problem for a service that offers same day delivery. He talk to people that can make decisions and lets me know they will redeliver that day and I will still received that damned $20 coupon. I have a theory that anytime you contact customer service they automatically send you the coupon. 

Day two of waiting for the flowers to arrive comes and goes. Once it is after business hours in the central time zone where the flowers should have already delivered I called customer service again. This time I got a wonderful person on the other end of the line who offered to have the flowers redelivered the following day, give me another freakin $20 coupon, and refund half my money. Finally something different! I told him a partial refund is fine with me as long as the flowers get there the next day, I am not going to pay for a product that never showed up but half off is a nice gesture. Since he was so helpful with this debacle I brought up the failed redeliveries of Heidi's flowers and got half off those as well. Fantastic, I am happy again and (fingers-crossed) the flowers will be delivered on Wednesday, 5/13. 

On Wednesday I do not even wait for the end of business day to call customer service again. They have an hour left in Sarah's work day to deliver the stupid flowers and I am going to find out where they are and when they'll be getting to her. 

So I call. And I talk to a woman who informs me there is still time for the flowers to be delivered and I should not be worried. Are. You. Kidding. Me. I have every right to be concerned that these flowers will not be delivered. In my previous calls with customer service they have put me on hold to try and contact the florist (without success, which is suspicious so either they're not really doing it or the florist is shady) so instead of losing my cool at "don't be worried" lady I sternly tell her I have had numerous failed redeliveries and can she please put me on hold and call the florist to give me an update on my order. She puts me on hold, probably turns to the person next to her and they talk about how demanding I am, then comes back to me and says she is just getting a busy signal but will try and call them again and then update me via email on the status of my order. I ask that she calls me instead and that I appreciate her trying them again.

I don't get a call or email from her and the flowers do not show. Three days, no flowers, no signs of progress towards making me happier than half my money back. Now I am livid and am pulling in the big guns. I contacted the Better Business Bureau.

I filed a complaint with the BBB of New York, where 1-800-Flowers is headquartered, on the evening of 5/14 stating that I had not received the product I had paid for and would like to have the product delivered. Next day I got an email from BBB saying they had filed my complaint with the company and they would keep me posted on any progress, and asking if I do resolve this issue with the company on my own to let them know. Coolio. I like to think I've made my high school consumer education teacher proud

Then this morning I get an email from the "Priority Unit" of 1-800-Flowers. They have received my complaint from the BBB, will refund the rest of my money, and want to deliver the flowers using a different florist at no cost to me. I will give the Priority Unit props, I can tell my complaint is being handled by an actual person and not just the usual $20 coupon and a redeliver speech. Since Sarah is out of the office on business for the beginning of next week the flowers are now scheduled to be delivered on 5/22, ten days after they should have originally been there. 

The interactions I have had with the Priority Unit have been great. Each time they ask me something they ask me kindly, literally. "Will you kindly confirm the delivery address", "Will you kindly confirm the delivery date",  "Would you be so kind as to reply with..." you can tell these are the people that deal with the crazies. 

Apparently if you want something other than the usual run around with 1-800-Flowers you need to go for the throat and get a consumer agency flexing muscle on your side. I just hope the flowers actually come, I do not have high hopes but I'll let you know. One thing is for certain, I will never be ordering flowers from 1-800-Flowers again.