Winny de Puh?..

I'm still working on my lesson plan for my demo class/interview tomorrow. I'm still a bundle of nerves. I have no issues with getting up in front of a bunch of 5 year olds. It's the adults that terrify me. My best friend T. gave me the traditional nervousness advice of imagining them naked. That is so not going to work. I guess I'm just going to try my best to imagine they are not there. Close my eyes and POOF! I'm going to have to get up extra early tomorrow because I will definitely need a yoga session before this.

I convinced N. to take a drive with me to Barnes & Nobles last night. I got some good stuff from her mom, but I just couldn't find anything I wanted to do an activity with. I called B & N and they said they had a good amount of children's storybooks in Spanish. Their selection turned out to be minimal, but I found what I was looking for. They had all the Curious George books in Spanish. They had all of these classic books in Spanish too, like The Giving Tree and Tiki Tiki Tembo. They even had Charlotte's Web! N. had to reel me in quickly and refocus my attention to the preschool section. I did however, find a children's book (in Spanish) about Frida Kahlo with amazing illustrations. It was only 6 dollars so bought it. You know.. to read to my own non-existent children. Some of the translations of the books were pretty hilarious. Like this one:

o_O

After our book search, N. took me to get delicious smoothies at Tostado. They're a Dominican sandwich chain here in Boston. The place looks great and the sandwich menu looked promising, but we were both a bit disappointed when we tried the sandwiches a few months back. They left a little to be desired. Then again, we got takeout, so maybe that might have contributed to the "meh" reaction (soggy bread, etc). Oh, and most of them are made with Dominican cheese, and for some reason I thought that meant white Dominican cheese.. like the kind my mom used to fry up or eat with crackers. I was wrong. They use a bitter strong foot-smelling orange cheese I hated as a kid. Blech! I still have some hope though, so maybe I'll give them a try again another time. The smoothies, however, are to die for. They have really good morir soñandos too (for those of you that just said "huh?," it's a typical Dominican drink made of milk, orange juice, sometimes sweetened condensed milk..kinda like an Orange Julius). We got parcha (passion fruit) smoothies last night. They make them with evaporated milk, which makes them super creamy...yum. I kept putting mine in the freezer when we got home, and taking small sips because I didn't want it to end. Wonderful, now I'm having a major smoothie craving. N. bought me a Cuisinart food processor/blender recently so i might do a little experimenting this weekend.

N. is working from home again today. She's still not feeling 100%. I don;t want her to keep missing work, but I will admit that I've really enjoyed this week. It's nice having her around all day, even if she is working. I still get to go sneak in hugs and kisses whenever I want. But the best part is having meals together, of course. She took a break this morning.. and I took a break from my lesson writing.. so we could make breakfast together. We made guava and goat cheese stuffed French toast with home fries and maple bacon.

go ahead... be jealous.

We weren't even that sinful. Only one slice of bacon each. The French toast is made with high fiber whole wheat bread (only 40 cals per slice!) and I used egg substitute. Oh.. and I coated the French toast with Special K cereal for some extra crunch, and used sugar free syrup. OK, so the goat cheese and guava isn't exactly healthy (or the potatoes for that matter) but give me some credit. I tried.

Alright, I really need to stop procrastinating. I have some Curious George to read. Wish me luck, people!

Namaste bitches!

-D.

Hot Hot Yoga...

I know, I know. My blog deficiency is completely unacceptable. I need to set aside a specific time to blog everyday. I'm sure it will be much easier when I have an actual constant schedule. Well, my other excuse for my lack of consistency this week is that N. hasn't been to work in the past two days. It's pretty hard to pull myself away from all that extra quality time. She hasn't been feeling well (which wasn't helped by 90+ degrees temperatures outside). But, I'm not complaining.

We went to see Eclipse this weekend (yes I've joined the gang of teeny boppers in complete Twilight obsession.. so what!) and had lunch at The Longhorn Steakhouse. Food was good... the decor? Made me want to vomit. I mean, seriously, who wants to eat with a giant buffalo head staring down at you? And, who is not disturbed by looking up from a forkful of mashed potatoes to see a lamp made from the hide and antlers of a deer?! I've never wanted to be a vegetarian more. Yuck.

Of course, we couldn't leave without ordering dessert. N. insisted we get this fried cheesecake nugget strawberry ice cream decadence. They served this concoction in a giant sundae glass so tall we had to sit up on our knees to eat it. It had giant squares of battered deep friend cheesecake chunks covered in vanilla ice cream, strawberries and a mountain of whipped cream. We ate at 4:30 PM. It was noon the next day before I managed to actually eat something else.

So, needless to say, I've been pretty unproductive these past few days. We have one air conditioner (which my angel of a mother bought us this weekend) up in the bedroom, so we've been camping out up there with most of our animals, a big jug of virgin mojito and the laptop (streaming continuous episodes of Lost and the Real L Word). Today, however, I decided to get off my lazy butt and do something to take advantage of the heat. And I don't mean setting up the slip n' slide in the backyard like I did a few days ago (that was awesome by the way, that is until my dog Maya decided to take a turn and ripped it with her claws). I wanted to embrace the heat. So, I pulled out my yoga mat in the living room and did the unthinkable... turned off the fan. In 95 degree weather. I popped in my little yoga video and sat in Lotus position, feeling the sweat slide down by back. N. decided to brave the heat and come down and watch me. I just think she didn't actually believe I would get through the whole thing without passing out (which I almost did once or twice). I made it though. Let me tell you, downward dog poses and sun salutations are a lot harder when your sweaty palms and feet are sliding across the yoga mat. It felt great though. I wasn't even hot anymore. I mean, I could feel the sweat dripping and feel the heat radiating from my skin, but I felt cool inside. I know that probably doesn't make any sense, but it makes sense to me and that's all that matters.

N. is working from home today, and as soon as I'm done writing this, I have to figure out my lesson for Friday. My second interview consists of teaching a class of about 12 four and five year olds...in Spanish... while being scrutinized by the director, CEO and other teachers, How's that for nerve racking. N.'s mother used to be a bilingual kindergarten teacher, so she has a gazillion books and resources in her basement she let me go through yesterday. I don't even know where to start. Keep those fingers crossed people.

OK, so back to the Real L Word. Is anyone else watching this? It's on Showtime (which we don't have, so we watch it a few days late online) and it's from the creator of the L Word, Ilene Chaiken. Hence, why I was hesitant to even give it a chance. If any of you watched the L Word then, I'm guessing you know why. I watched all six seasons of that show for no other reason than because it was the only lesbian TV show on. This woman completely destroyed what had the potential to be a really good show. So, I hear about this show, made by this fool and to top it off, it's a reality show (because Lord knows we need more reality shows on TV). Me and N. watched the first episode and were sucked in. Just like that. Complete addiction. I'm not even sure it's all that good. I'm pretty sure I'm just watching it because of my shameless crush on the dread-locked, tattooed, player Whitney. N. is not happy about this. But, hey I'm sure she prefers this crush than my crush on Jacob the werewolf, or Lucas.. the trans-gendered lead singer of The Cliks, or the hot male bartender at the tapas restaurant we go to. Pick your battles babe... pick your battles. ;-)

Namaste bitches!

-D.

Meet Kyle..the cow. Our latest prize from our plastic bubble quarter machine addiction.

The one about the Pyro Torch

Hello, everyone. I am sorry I have been blog deficient this week. I had my big interview yesterday and spent the few days before it in a mad dash to put together a kick-ass portfolio (and it was truly kick-ass, if I do say so myself!). I think the interview went pretty well. They contacted me by the end of the day for a second interview. Cross your fingers everyone!

Our friend J. came over last night and we decided to test out some of our new fireworks. N. had gotten these long roman-candle looking things called Pyro Torches (yea sounds dangerous, right?). She wanted them because you could hold them in your hand as opposed to the regular roman candles that come with a very large warning : DO NOT HOLD IN HAND! So they didn't have a price but we figure they should cost the same as the regular roman candles (around $7.99). Wrong. They were $20. We didn't figure this out until we had already left so we just decided to shrug and forget we were super broke and should not be spending money on fireworks, of all things.

So I pull one of these bad boys out of the package, I light it and shoot my hand up as far away from my body, shielding my face with my other hand and cringe... waiting for the loud explosion and shower of sparks. I wait. Then, I wait some more. I peek out from behind my hand to look at the stupid thing, thinking maybe I didn't light it correctly. It's lit alright. Just a little flame...burning. J. took the thing from me and tried shaking it. Nothing. Apparently that's what they do. Just burn...like a sad little Olympic torch. J. held it over his head and ran around the yard. That didn't make them any more fun. Amusing? yes. Fun? not so much. $20. What a gyp! Good job babe!

We tried the ground blooms, well I tried them. N. and J. just stood there and laughed at me, because every time I would light one, I would run away screaming like a 3 year old. They spin and change colors,  then crack and jump. I was not trying to let one of those "jump" onto my leg! Then, we played with my favorite ones. Morning Glory sparklers. Yea, I know they don't do anything except, ...sparkle. But, they're pretty. And, they make me feel like I'm a little girl again.. watching my dad light fireworks by the lake in Flushing Meadow Park while I danced around the tall grass with my sparklers. N. wouldn't let me try any of the other crazy fireworks we bought, because she insisted I was either going to set our trees on fire, or possibly burn down our house. Guess, I'll have to wait until Sunday!

My mom is on the bus, on her way here. I should probably be cleaning like a mad woman, instead of sitting here typing away. My mom is a bit OCD and if there is just one little tumbleweed of my dog's white fur on the floor, I will not hear the end of it. God forbid anyone think she didn't raise me right. Then again, it's all useless anyway, since no matter how much I clean... she will come and do it over again and innocently claim she didn't know I had JUST cleaned it. I love her.

Namaste bitches!


-D.

Just call us the Lewis and Clark of Roxbury...

I hope everyone had a happy and safe pride weekend! Well, those of you in NY, Toronto or any other place celebrating pride this past weekend. Due to my current financial circumstances, I was stuck here.. in Boston (which had it's Pride weekend two weekends ago, which I also missed). It was also my best friend's 30th birthday (she lives in NY.. Hi T.!), so I was really bummed about not being able to be in NY. Despite the disappointment though, it ended up being a great weekend.

N. had already taken Monday off, since we were supposed to be at NYC Pride on Sunday, so we had a nice 3 day weekend ahead of us. In my quest to find something free for us to do here in Boston, I came across a Roxbury Garden Walking Tour (we live in Roxbury, in the area known as Fort Hill or Highland Park..or as I like to call it: The Hill), given by an organization called Discover Roxbury.

Now, ever since I moved here, I was amazed at the suburban feel of this neighborhood. I'm not even sure "suburban" is the right word. It doesn't look like it's in Boston, let alone a short 5 minute walk up a hill from a bustling urban area. Once you climb that hill, it feels as though you are.. somewhere else. The traffic signals disappear, buildings evaporate and are replaced by large houses with wrap-around porches. Giant hundred-year-old trees shade the sidewalks (if you even want to call them sidewalks, because they are so narrow that only one person can fit on most of them). There are so many birds chirping that it gives you a headache. And it's.. green. Everywhere you look, everything is covered in green. Ivy snaking up houses, whatever sidewalk is even there is half covered by wildflowers and rouge patches of tall grass. Most of the houses are pretty old, some even look tattered and abandoned.. but many have been restored and many newer houses built to replace those that burned down in the fires of the 1970's and 80's. There is still a large amount of empty lots in the neighborhood, many abandoned and overrun by weeds, but some have been turned into beautiful community gardens. Apparently, this area of Roxbury is famous for its gardens and urban/sustainable "farming". There is even a woman, a few blocks away from our house, that has a farm. Yes, a farm.. complete with chickens and rabbits.

I don't know why we haven't really explored our neighborhood. I mean, I walk my dogs to Highland Park all the time. I've seen the pretty houses and caught glimpses of some community gardens from behind a chain link fence... but we never really knew just how amazing this neighborhood was. That is, until Saturday.

The tour started at 10am at a community garden about 2 blocks from us we didn't even know existed. The garden was pretty enough, and we got to hear all about the history of Roxbury. I learned a lot... that is what I could actually hear. There was a Creepy McCreepster guy constantly interrupting with his outbursts about birds. Apparently he's a lunatic bird watcher and thought we would all love to hear him name every single bird that flew by. Weirdo. But, I digress.  We left the community garden and climbed down this steep hill, back out onto the street. We walk down to this "dead end" (well me and N. always thought it was a dead end)... it isn't. It's actually a hidden portal into Wonderland..I sh*t you not.

 

Told you...

So, none of this was just random gardens. These were actually people's homes. It was a cluster of about 3 houses, all with gorgeous gardens. But, none were more amazing than this one. This house and garden is owned by an older gay couple .. with a dog named Bernice (Bernie for short). Bernie came on the tour with us. (Yes, there's "family" in our neighborhood! There was even a lesbian named Michelle on the tour..AND she's originally from Brooklyn !)

We loved us some Bernie.....

OK.. back to the portal to Wonderland...

This is about where my jaw dropped to the ground and I couldn't seem to mutter anything else but, "wow.." and "Oh. My. God." This couple bought this land... land they claimed to be abandoned and littered with trash, broken washing machines and all sorts of filth.. and transformed it into.. THIS. They said there was a big sloping hill they didn't know what to do with, so they decided (just decided, like they were deciding on having chicken or fish for dinner) to build a waterfall and a pond... with a bridge.

This is their backyard, people.. their flippin' backyard.

 

There's a public trail that cuts across their property, so they made a little meditation corner, complete with a Buddha. They made a mistake telling me that, because I have decided to perch myself on that rock at least 3 times a week. I may even bring a tent and just squat in their backyard.

 

We finally left that oasis, and continued the tour back around the hill...

..and ended at the farm. A farm in the middle of Boston... run by a woman who calls herself Garden Girl. It was absolutely amazing what this woman accomplished on 3/4 of an acre of land.. in the middle of the city. She is growing practically anything you can imagine and has a chicken coop.. with real live chickens in it.

She didn't have goats though, so I was a bit disappointed. But, she did serve us fresh honey mint tea, so I'll forgive her.

By noon, we were back at our house, standing in our backyard.. our heads filled with possibilities. I am so building a pond. N. isn't happy about it, but I don't care. I NEED a pond.

Sunday, we went to N.'s mom's house and a couple of hours later were on our way to New Hampshire with $80 of her brother's money to buy him fireworks (we were secretly itching for an excuse to drive there anyway). When we got to the place, we found out everything was 2 for 1, so you know what that means. Yup, we got fireworks too! Looks like this weekend is going to be interesting.

Alright people, this post is definitely long enough and I've probably bored you all to tears (I'm aware that not everyone finds gardening as exciting as I do). Off to bed I go. But before I go, I'll leave you with a photo of my new Honey Moon Beer Security System:

I dare you to try and take one of my beers.. go ahead. ;-)

Namaste bitches!

-D.

F*ck You Very Much! :-D

In Honor of Gay Pride... a dedication to all the homophobes (via Lily Allen):

Happy Pride everyone! :-)

-D.

Falling off the (food) wagon... again.

So, I totally lied about having fish and veggies for dinner. I even lied about the glasses of water. We had Ethiopian food. And a glass of pinot grigio.

I will point out, however, that I did not intend to lie. I had every intention of eating a healthy meal of fish and veggies. I even defrosted the fish and marinated it. Then I went to pick up N. from work and went to UPS to mail out the painting my friend Julius bought from me (he bought it about 3 months ago, and I'm finally sending it now.. I know. I'm horrible).. and it was hot as heck outside (the last thing i wanted to do was go home and cook!). Then we were driving through the South End and N. started going on and on about this Ethiopian place (Addis Red Sea) she had gotten takeout from once and how great it was and blah blah blah. Well before I knew it, we were parked in front of the place perusing a menu and poof we magically had Ethiopian food for dinner. The fish got banished back to the fridge. I should also probably mention that we made another detour on the way home.. we stopped at Flour and got Creme Brulee, chocolate banana bread pudding and lime cornbread cookies (amazing!).

I told you we have a problem.

N. really liked the Ethiopian food. I wasn't too crazy about it. We got this beef dish called Gored Gored. They serve everything on this huge folded up piece of bread/pancake(it's really like a really big crepe) but the consistency of it is too... rubbery, and absorbed too much of the oily sauce from the beef. The sauce on the beef was really good though, spicy..but good. It came with this potato and cabbage thing and also a  yellow/greenish mush that N. thought was lentils. I didn't try it since I'm slightly allergic to lentils. It also looked grainy like it might have had some chopped up nuts in it or something (I'm deathly allergic to nuts.. which makes my food obsession a bit dangerous!). The place is pretty cool and I would try the food again just to have the experience of eating there. It's on  a lower level so you have to climb down a flight of stairs and walk through a little hallway. It's dim and cavernous. The food is served on these tables that look like round trays and the people that work there are very friendly.

We've been pretty good today... Whole wheat toast with light chive cream cheese for breakfast, and curry tuna sandwiches for lunch (we won't count the Honey Moon I drank with my lunch).  I swear it's fish and veggies for dinner tonight. I'm going to make it early that way we won't be tempted to get takeout. We have to go grocery shopping and that means driving through Somerville. Temptation everywhere. We do our groceries at Market Basket. If you live in Boston and haven't done your groceries here, then get on it! Very diverse options and amazingly low prices. It can get a bit crowded though, so wear steel toed boots and be prepared to elbow people out of your way. We're on  a budget, so just basics today.

On a bright note, our garden is coming along nicely. Soon we won't have to buy veggies anymore!

 We've already harvested Romaine lettuce twice and we've used all of our herbs (except the mint, because this rascally little squirrel keeps coming along and digging it out!). I planted way too much kale so we've eaten some of that, but kale lasts all the way till winter so we have plenty of time. Everything else just started blooming this week. So excited!

This is our little jalapeño plant. Look at all the little baby peppers in there. They're tiny but they're there. Look closer!

 baby tomatoes!

I only planted in this raised garden bed that was already here when we bought the house. The previous owner gave us this song and dance about not being able to grow much because there isn't enough direct sunlight or whatever and she did her gardening at the community garden up the street. Well, I guess she just didn't have a super giant green thumb like I do! I wanted to make sure things would grow before I started tearing up our lawn and turning it into my secret garden (which I will do, you'll see). So next year, our garden will be much bigger. We might even be able to start selling at farmer's markets! 

I want to build a small chicken coop in our backyard and get a goat. N. won't let me though. She threatened to leave me if i get any farm animals. She also said I'm not allowed to get any more pets until one of our current pets kicks the bucket. Apparently two dogs and two cats is about all she can tolerate. She told me this when I tried to convince her that we should totally have ferrets. That didn't go over very well, but I gave up on that mission. The goat, however, is not so easy to give up. I have a thing for goats (no not in a bestiality kind of way you pervs... I just think they are so darn cute). I make N. frequent petting zoo's a lot more often than is normal for to 30 year old (gasp! It hurts to say it.) women. But we'll leave my goat obsession for another post.

I think I can squeeze in a quick yoga session before I have to pick up N. from work. Lord knows I need some serenity before dealing with the mobs at Market Basket.

Namaste bitches! ;-)

-D.

Brinner and mutual footrubs...

So, remember yesterday when I was writing about how we're "expanding" and needed to get in shape and all that crap? Well, I'm sure many of you have no idea just how serious our food obsession is. This is why we cannot seem to stop eating.. our dinner yesterday:

N. and I had a little spat over IM yesterday and I decided that my peace offering would be to make Brinner (that's breakfast for dinner for those of you that obviously aren't cool enough to know that :-P). Little did I know that N. had a little peace offering of her own... a 6 pack of Honey Moon (a summer ale by Blue Moon which is the only beer I drink..except for Corona's when I have no other choice). Did I mention, that I made a vow to myself to limit my alcohol intake to weekends only?

Well, i did.

That sure as heck is out the window now that I have a 6 pack of my favorite beer in front of me. Sigh.

OK, back to Brinner. I told you before how I feel about pancakes... more importantly how I feel about BANANAS and CHOCOLATE CHIPS in pancakes. So I whipped out my Barefoot Contessa cookbook (absolutely adore Ina Garten, Martha Stewart wishes she could be that cool), and found a recipe for Banana Sour Cream Pancakes. I halved the recipe and added mini chocolate chips (with the diced bananas at the end). These pancakes are orgasmic. She uses a little lemon zest in the batter and they puff up to an almost sponge cake-like consistency.

My mouth is watering as I type this.

After I made the pancakes, I felt guilty because this is supposed to be my peace offering to N. So why am I making my favorite breakfast food for dinner? So now I had to make eggs Benedict, of course. I had no English muffins or crusty bread.. whole wheat sliced bread just wasn't going to cut it and the hamburger buns left over from last weeks BBQ was just too mushy. Then I remembered N.'s Texas Toast addiction. She'll slather anything on those babies. So, I grabbed two of those and threw them in the oven. I looked at the time and realized I wasn't going to have enough time to make hollandaise sauce from scratch and attempt to poach eggs (last time I tried that, I went through an entire carton of eggs and just ended up with boiled egg white soup). I took the easy way out. I fried the eggs (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter though so cut me some slack!), and I had a packet of instant hollandaise sauce in the pantry (just add water and boil!). I added some fresh herbs from our garden to it (thyme, basil and rosemary) and..

Tada! Banana Sour Cream Chocolate Chip pancakes & Eggs Benedict over Texas Toast with Herb Hollandaise sauce. 

For dinner. 

And beer.

I swear we're going to have to start rolling each other around if we don't cut this crap out. To add insult to injury, after inhaling our heart attack on a plate, all we did for the rest of the night was sit on the couch and watch episodes of Lost (yea, we missed the whole Lost craze and decided to watch it on Netflix instant streaming. We are now Lost addicts. Currently on Season 4) and rub each other's feet. Yes, we lie on opposite ends of the couch and rub each other's feet while we watch TV every night. Don't laugh. We both love to be massaged and we were always trying to find ways to get the other one to owe us massages. 

I made you dessert! You owe me a foot massage! I did your laundry! You owe me a back massage!

Then it became about keeping score. 

Oh well I massaged your feet twice last week. It's my turn!

So this became our solution. Mutual foot rubs. Everyone is even. No one owes anyone. And the best part is that it lasts forever, because if you stop massaging then your pleasure ends too. Hey, don't knock it till you try it. 

I'm making fish and veggies for dinner tonight. And two glasses of water.

-D.