2014 - A Photo A Day {Weeks 1 & 2}

In an effort to get back to blogging this year, I've decided to try the 365 photo challenge. With the month nearly half over, I am already behind but I think I just may have enough to start. So here goes... my photo a day in 2014!

Week 1
January 1, 2014
After a night out on the town with 3 other couples, we did a costume change into our pj's and rang in the New Year low key. We sure will miss them when they move to Dayton this summer. 2014's first selfie!

January 2
This is what we call the beginning of the "Polar Vortex." I spent the day working from home since we had a lovely winter snowfall right out my window. 

January 3
For Christmas I received boots from my Secret Santa and although they were the ones on my wish list, they were the wrong color. This is their first day out once I swapped them for this lovely brown pair. 

January 4 and 5
I know I have a photo someplace from either the 4th or the 5th... I'll have to check Jared's phone and the iPad but unfortunately nothing to show. 


Week 2
January 6
It is cold. Frigid. The Polar Vortex is no joke, I was supposed to fly out of town today but my flight was cancelled. I made us some yummy chili to enjoy while watching the National Championship game.

January 7
I'm finally heading out of town for my work trip to train Astronauts. I am on one of two flights a day and a half after I was supposed to be in Houston. Off to Texas!

January 8
This is my coworker Tracy and Astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore right after my training class. He was a really nice guy that spent a lot of time just talking with us about space. 

January 9
This is the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) which houses the International Space Station full fidelity mock ups. I pinch myself every time I am in this building, getting to train astronauts for performing experiments in space.

January 10
Back in Cleveland and home in time for pizza night out at a new place. Good Naples type pizza unfortunately I only got a photo of the Italian beer that we enjoyed. 

January 11
Pop the champagne, it's time to celebrate! J passed his plastic surgery board exam!! And yes, the house is a mess and the Christmas tree is still up. 

January 12
We are dog sitting Chloe today while watching the Broncos football game. 

Wish me luck for the rest of the month. I am taking it one day at a time and hopefully this will get me to blog more in 2014.

And They Pay Me To Do This...

I have so much to remember from this week. On Sunday it was still summer and I was wearing a sundress and when I finally returned from what really was like a dream at 2am Saturday it was chilly and the leaves were falling already.

 

I had a week of a lifetime. A dream of mine achieved.

 

Here is a little clip... it was absolutely amazing.

More to come!

Pinch Me, This is Really Happening!

I'm exhausted. Months of preparing our hardware, writing reports, building, testing, and FINALLY it is here. Tomorrow I get to go on this...

and feel zero gravity, just like the astronauts for 40 parabolas of 40 seconds each of weightlessness. Alan Shepard only had about 6-7 minutes total of this experience. And he was strapped down in a seat! I am over the moon excited!! I have a flight suit. I was hanging out all day in the NASA Ellington Field hangar preparing our rig. I need to pinch myself.

I wanted to take a second to write down how I am feeling. A whole lot right now. Nervous. Excited. Hoping my family isn't too worried (Jared and Julie). Wishing Dad was with me. But I am mostly excited. Like a 6 year old little kid the night before Christmas when you just know that Santa is going to bring you the thing that you have wanted the most... in like forever. What I have ALWAYS wanted to do, I get to do tomorrow. So freaking cool.

Fingers crossed for a successful flight with no injuries, a safe take off and landing, good data on our experiment, and mostly, a super fantastic amazing I can't believe I have the job I have day with tons of good videos and photos floating in zero gravity. No vomiting would be great too.

One Week From Today

I've been busy. Crazy busy at work, home, and life. So to catch up with my work news... here is a little video of some of what I have been preparing for these past 3 months... and what I will be doing one week from today. 

I am beyond excited! Fingers crossed I won't vomit!

On My Way To Work

This is what stopped traffic...

I took it as a reminder for me to slow down, smile, and as my Dad would say "enjoy the ride." Happy Tuesday!

Restaurant Week

Tonight we are heading out to Cleveland Restaurant Week with our friends Mary and Steve! Our favorite restaurant in the area is Red.

J has been there a couple times for pharmacy rep dinners and we went for his cousin's birthday dinner once. It really isn't a place we can afford to go so when you see a deal for a three course dinner at $33 you make a reservation ASAP!!

I plan on skipping lunch to fully enjoy my delicious dinner. I had oysters Rockefeller here for the first time and fell in LOVE... hope they are on the menu tonight!! Pics to come since of course, I take photos of my food. I can't help it, it's genetic!

Oatmeal

I eat oatmeal now. It is so weird. Not real oatmeal, instant with cinnamon and sugar flavoring and two yellow packets of fake sugar. And it looks totally gross to me. But it is good for you, good for Jared not to just have coffee and go every morning. Supposedly good for your cholesterol. So, we've been eating it and maybe one day I can move to a more healthy version.

Change Is Coming

We can feel it, the both of us. The uncertainty that is all around us that we are just starting to vocalize. Finally J's training is coming to an end and in 4 short months he will be done. Finished. Officially a Plastic/Reconstructive Surgeon and we are so super excited. I am beyond proud of this man. But with this comes change, possibly some big change. It will mean a new job for J, finally able to be out on his own as a doctor. But it may also mean moving, new places, and who knows what else. 

The search is on for what will situation will be best for both of us and the unknown is hard to deal with sometimes. Especially for the Type A person I am that wants to plan everything. It seems as if we have just gotten comfortable in our lives. Perhaps, as crazy as it sounds, we were meant to live here in Cleveland... but this just might not be an option. So who knows? It is kind of scary. Balancing the good and bad for each of us. What this will mean for my job is really hard to think about. I honestly find it hard to imagine finding a better job than the one I have now. But I am trying not to worry, to remember that I do believe everything happens for a reason.
This is an image of Cleveland taken last week taken from the International Space Station... our home for now. So we wait and try and get comfortable with this feeling. The excitement, anticipation, nervousness, sadness, all of it. Hoping that this next step will also be as great as the one we are currently in, a situation that we never knew we always wanted.

The Magic of an Ordinary Day

We are usually pretty busy here at ECGML doing this, that or the other thing. Traveling, celebrating, baking, or heading out on the town with friends. But this weekend we kept it low key. We spent Friday night in, Saturday we met J's Aunt for lunch, worked out and then watched movies. And today was just lovely... just an ordinary day. The forecast was for a day filled with snow showers so we hit the road for our Sunday drive. We went through our favorite little town, Chagrin Falls and looked at the new home construction of places we could imagine living someday... right next to this barn with Clydesdale horses.

We hunted for pizza by the slice... realizing that we might as well drive the 7 hours to NYC for it. Then headed home to a crock pot dinner, some crocheting, a nap, and watching our little baby kitty play with her latest toy. Just one of those ordinary days that we love.

Fallen off the planet

I'm still here. Honest. I haven't fallen off the planet. So much has been going on these last few months. I can't believe it has been 4 months since I really blogged.

When I returned from Italy I wanted to capture my trip perfectly, waiting for photos from my Dad and cousins and as I did the time just slipped away. There have been job interviews for J, birthdays, football games, Thanksgiving, a trip to Indianapolis, holiday parties, baking cookies, snow, End of the Mayan Calendar party, dinner with high school friends, Christmas, NYE, a work trip to Houston, our 15th year (OMG!) dating anniversary, movie nights, date nights, dinner with fraternity brothers who've moved into our favorite little town, a NYC visit, the Superbowl, game night with new friends in our building, a ski trip, and cooking new dinners.

So today... while figuring out what I was giving up for lent (5 days late and ice cream it is!) I decided to get back to blogging. I hope to backtrack on all those things I missed. Especially since I love getting this little blog printed so I can remember all the fun I get to do each year.

In the meantime, these are the photos from today. Me in red skinny jeans and red/white/and blue for President's Day. Thought I loved them until Jared saw me at the end of the day and mentioned how similar to a clown I looked. I hate clowns. Luckily I can use the jeans for Husker football games in the fall. We received some lovely Valentine's from Madison, Jacob, and Jamie. Love those kiddos too much! I tried my mother-in-laws recipe for stuffed shells and they were so good it put J into a food coma after dinner. Finally a new, well new to me, recipe that he likes!

Snowball

The days have been going by too fast these past few months. Rolling one on top of the other, or snowballing as I like to say. I am two months behind in my posting and my goal is to catch up by the end of the week. So they next few days check back in to see the details on Italy, adventures in Virginia, trips to Indianapolis, and holiday decorating. In the meantime I just completed my holiday cards which are in the mail as of yesterday.

And it is just perfect that there are snow flurries all day today!

 

 

ITALY!

The last 5 days have been spent confirming our Italy trip details. Contacting airlines to figure out international seats, getting new suitcases since European carry-ons can only be 21" high including wheels and US luggage is usually 22"!!, washing clothes, packing, packing, packing, weighing suitcases, copying travel documents, squeezing in time to get my nails done, oh yeah and working all week, setting up international phone plans, and then a phone call... J's grandmother has broken her leg!

We rushed over to the hospital  last night to visit her before we left. She is doing ok, heading for surgery tomorrow and then a long road to recovery. We are sending our prayers to her for a successful surgery and for a safe trip for us over the next week!! Everything always seems to happen at the same time. And now, we are off!

Pork Chops

Continuing my recipe testing, I made these today...

I googled a recipe and The Pioneer Woman site came up. My chops were a little thick, that is what I get for looking up the recipe after I have gone to the store, but they were delicious! Here are the details. Thanks Pioneer Woman!

Ingredients

• 7 pieces Or 8 Pieces Breakfast Chops (very Thin Bone-in Pork Chops)
• 1 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
• 1 teaspoon Black Pepper
• Cayenne Pepper To Taste
• 1/2 cup Canola Oil
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• Extra Salt And Pepper, To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Rinse pork chops. (Yes, I rinse my pork chops. Please don’t be hatin’.) Salt and pepper both sides of the pork chops.

Heat canola oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add butter. When butter is melted and butter/oil mixture is hot, cook 3 pork chops at a time, 2 to 3 minutes on the first side; 1 to 2 minutes on the other side. (Make sure no pink juices remain.) Remove to a plate and repeat with remaining porch chops.

Delicious and simple! Serve with smashed new potatoes.

Out With Friends

I ended up heading out solo a lot this weekend since J was on call. We were able to go on a bike ride and out for lunch before he was called into the hospital... and was gone until Sunday afternoon. I can't wait for this month to be over... it is entirely too much like his general surgery residency. I hardly see him! On Saturday night I headed out to a birthday celebration with a bunch of J's doctor friends, a few that have become mine as well. Who knew you could have so much fun at a small town brewery?!

Sunday it was NASA day at Progressive Field. The Indians were playing the Yankees and John Glenn was going to throw out the first pitch. Of course it turned out to be the hottest day EVER! We only lasted through the 3rd inning and then had to leave. Just too hot out not to be sitting by the pool.

But instead of pool time, we headed indoors. Jared was home and we finally saw the new Batman movie and both loved it. Although, we were nervous and looking around a lot. I wish the shootings at the premiere hadn't scared us so much but we couldn't help it. There are too many crazy people out there. J sees many of them in the OR at all hours of the night at the trauma center. Ugh! Only a few more days to go...

Maggiano's Tomato Cream Sauce and Breaded Zucchini - At home!

Continuing our "restaurant dinners at home" theme, I attempted one of our favorites from Maggiano's last night. The pasta was perfect! But that is because I totally cheated and bought the Maggiano's Tomato Cream Sauce from the store. Literally the same sauce they use at the restaurant. I thought, why reinvent the wheel? If they are selling it, I'm buying it!

So my next challenge was the breaded zucchini and lemon aioli dipping sauce. I went surfing online to find recipes and decided to combine two of them, baking half the batch and frying the other to compare which works better.

Here is the recipe...
• 3 medium zucchini – washed, stems removed, sliced lengthwise into thin pieces.

Batter:
• 1 ½ cups club soda
• ¾ cups plain flour
• ½ cups corn starch
• 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon course ground pepper
• Panko Bread crumbs for breading – poured into a shallow 9×9 dish.

Mix soda, flour, starch, salt, onion powder, and pepper together and pour into a shallow 9×9 dish. Dip zucchini strips into batter. Then dip the strips into the Panko bread crumbs, coating each side.

In a large skillet, pour vegetable oil 1” deep. Heat oil over medium high flame. Add battered zucchini and fry for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown on bottom side, turn zucchini and repeat. Drain on layers of paper towels. Shake Parmesan Cheese over fired zucchini right before serving. Serve hot with Lemon Aioli dipping sauce.

LEMON AIOLI DIPPING SAUCE:
• ½ Cup Hellman’s Mayo
• ½ Cup Sour Cream
• Juice of one lemon
• ½ teaspoon Dill Weed.

Whisk all together in small bowl.

So this is what they should look like...

And these were mine...

They didn't turn out very well but the flavor was there. The baked version definitely won. It was just so hard to get the breading to stick. Looks like we will have to take out the zucchini and make the pasta at home on this one!

End of The World Party Planning

I am a planner. I can't help it, its genetic. So today, Mom and I were talking about the holidays and how we are all going to be home for the "End of the World." And of course, we have to plan a party. It is silly, but fun. And hopefully just a theme and not something that will actually happen.

So let the planning begin!

Date Night

After a long week... somehow we ended up here...

At our favorite restaurant, eating our most favorite appetizer...

With my most favorite cocktail...

Just us, together on a random Saturday date night! Happy Weekend!

Me Time

This week, I'm not sure what day it is... what time it is. I have been working crazy shifts on and off for space station ops for the last two weeks and I am all messed up. Times like this I wonder how it is possible for J to function with as little sleep as he sometimes gets.

So it was Friday and I found myself done with work at 10am, After a nap I headed out to the pool to catch some of the last of the summer sunshine. It is already starting to get cooler during the evenings and I know I will blink and it will be fall.

It was a day of "me" time, lounging in the sun. I made a birthday call to Jenna, attacked the stack of magazines that have been piling up, and started reading a travel book about Italy. Why Italy? Because in a few short months we will be here...

With this view...

And we are soooo excited!! So in that spirit, and being the Feast of the Assumption this weekend, I made a batch of cannolis to take to a ladies night that J's boss' wife was having.

They were a hit! (Thanks Mom!) It was a great "Me" day although I was sad J was on call. Only 5 more to go this month... wow.

Bone Fish Salad... At home!

I've started to copy restaurant dinners to make at home recently. First on the list was the Bone Fish house salad. I think I got it down perfectly! I added it to our baked salmon with mushrooms. Delicious!!

Here is the recipe...

Dressing Ingredients
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon Grey Poupon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons lime juice
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Preparation
Whisk all ingredients in medium bowl. Microwave on high 1 minute or till mixture bubbles rapidly around edge of the bowl. Remove bowl from microwave and whisk 1 minute until mixture forms an emulsion. Cover and chill tor 1 hour before serving.
Salad Ingredients
Chopped up romaine hearts
Tomatoes
Heart of palm
Kalamata olives
Salted Pepitas

Enjoy!!

Champagne Sunday - Finally!

Jared had his first day off in 39 days today. What better way to celebrate than with a much overdue Champagne Sunday!

Now off to the pool and relaxing all day long!