Oh Piss Off Already

I had promised myself that I wouldn't use my blog as an output for anger. I had said that I would use it for more positive things and just keep a sort of online journal type of thing or whatnot but I can't help it. It's a proven fact that people are more likely to talk about a bad event then a good one so here I am complaining/bitching/ranting or whatever all over again.

My little nephew came over on Saturday afternoon and told us how he and his father joined Weight Watchers on Monday and how they had each lost 5 pounds to date. I was pretty impressed but then again remembered how the wrestlers were in high school. They'd starve themselves to death the entire day, sweat off the water weight and then make their weight at weigh in and then binge right after the wrestling match. CiCi's Pizza was a hit after our wrestling meets. They'd even stay open late for us if we called ahead. Always willing to help out our local school ya know!?

Anyway my nephew went on to explain how the points system worked and he told me how much his favorite foods were worth and how the points were calculated and how he got to his number of allotted points. I was interested. I'd like to lose some weight. I'd like to lose a lot of weight actually.

So I decided I was going to join Weight Watchers with my husband and we'd join our nephew and my brother in law. Hey, don't they say strength in numbers? I know its easier when you have a support team behind you and if two people live in the same house and are on the same "diet" then it had to be good right? We'd help each other out. We'd encourage each other to eat right, to exercise, and we'd help monitor each others points. (Really can someone please remind me that I don't need a large iced vanilla latte every single morning?)

I was supposed to go to my first meeting tonight, to sign up and all that jazz but plans didn't pan out with the rest of the family so we are going to start next week. We are still trying to eat healthy right now not even knowing how many points we'd be allotted.

Sooooo I went on WeightWatchers.ca in order to find out what my "ideal" weight would be and boy was I floored. The ideal weight for me was between 128 and 160. Ummmm isn't that a little, I dunno, broad? I mean, thats 32 pounds difference. I am happily in between that range but the bad thing is that I'm towards the end of that scale. In fact, I'm about to break the woman code and make my weight known to the entire world wide web, well, umm those that are reading this blog. I weigh a whopping 158 pounds. Yes, me. Those of you who remember me from high school, the little twig is now a full fledged branch.

I think one of the things that really irk me the most is I put on my Facebook status that I'm joining WW and I got mixed comments. I got the "it's great, look at me I'm a success" type of responses, I got the "WTF are you talking about you don't need it," and I got the "if you go there others will look at you funny" responses. I think it irks me because no one can tell how much I weigh because I'm one of the few people that dresses for their size.

What do I mean like that? I don't let my fat hang out. I'm not in denial about having gained weight and still try to squeeze myself into jeans that don't fit and do the muffin top thing, I don't still try to wear a small sized shirt and have my arms begging to be free or my boobs (little as they may be) hoping for some room. I have gained weight, I have purchased new clothes, and I dress for my new body.

Does it bother me? HELL YES. I used to be so fucking skinny. I used to get made fun of in junior high and high school for being so skinny. I got called ANA for anorexic (how original), I got called Olive Oil from Popeye because I was so skinny. I was a twig. In fact, I can remember my weight during those times because I was the same weight for 3 years at a time. Grades 7 thru 9 I was 92 pounds. Grades 10 thru 12 I was 112 pounds. After I graduated high school and moved to Montreal I had surgery and I dropped down to 83 pounds then I got put on steroids and I jumped up to 140. After I stopped those I leveled out the playing field and was about 120 pounds and I was sooooooooo happy. Finally a NORMAL HEALTHY weight. I couldn't get called a toothpick anymore....and no one would tell me that I looked like "a chipmunk storing nuts for the winter," (obviously when I gained weight my cheeks filled out). I was at a weight where people couldn't make fun of me.

All of my bones not only had skin on them but also some meat. I was sooooooooooooo happy!! I managed to stay at my healthy weight for many many years. I think about 6 of them (yes thats many years to go between 120 to 125 and back down. I was always right there in that weight).

I then got a new job and got married and I gained weight. I seriously blame a lot of the weight gain on my latte addiction that I never had before I started to work "a real job". So I'm determined to lose the weight I gained. I'm going to try to get myself down to a healthy 130 pounds, even lower if possible but I'm not delusional. I know that its hard and 120 or 125 may not look right on me anymore but I'm aiming for the stars.

So I guess I'll be using this blog to track my progress as well as the comments I get regarding my attendance at WW meetings. I wonder will the people who look larger at me make snide remarks as to why I am there. Will the welcome me with open arms? Will I feel uncomfortable?

But I've come to a conclusion and that is no matter what your weight is you will get comments on it. I've been teased to high hell for being skinny and people sometimes make jabs (literal and figuratively) at my extra weight gain. It's so annoying that no matter what weight you are people are going to pop a comment. To those people, I'd like to pop your fucking face! :) So basically, don't let people get you down. Let their negativity get you down, instead let it motivate you.

Dumbfuck Decorder Required

So I logged into Facebook yesterday and I got a message from a girl. The title of the message was PRVITED.

Here is the message.


HEY JENNY IT D**** STELLA FRIEND HOW ARE U AM AS U KNOW STELLA B-DAY COMING UP I AM PLANNING A SUPPRISE B-DAY PARTY FOR HER I WAS THINK SUPPER AND THEN CLUBING AND I KNOW SHED WOUND LOVE TO SEE U THERE AND SEEN YOUR PLAN ON KILL HER WAT BETTER WAY THEN HER B-DAY LOL STELLA MEAN ALTO TO ME AND SHE DOES ALTO FOR MY SISTERS AND FOR MY MOMMY AND DAD AND ME AND EVEN THO SHE A BOSTON FAN I STILL LOVE HER SO I WOUND LOVE IT IF U CAN COME I WAS THINK THIS SATURDAY NIGHT I DON'T KNOW WHERE YET I LET U KNOW ON THURSDAY NIGHT I INBOX U EVERYTHING THE TIME BUT U ALL HAVE TO BE AT THE PLACE AM GOING TO SAY EALIY BECAUSE DIMITRA GOING TO BRING STELLA SHE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING THANK U AND I REAL HOPE TO SEE U THERE AND AGAING PLS DON'T TEL HER



I felt like replying:

Hi D,

I'm sorry but I seem to have left my dumb fuck decoder ring in my other jeans. Can you please call me and tell me what the fuck you are talking about? So far I've gathered that it's Stella's birthday and you are planning her a party. The rest of it is rather confusing. What is this about killing her? What is this word you keep repeating ALTO? Does Stella sing alto now? I didn't even know she enjoyed singing.

Instead I wrote back.

Hi D,

Sorry but I already have plans for this weekend. I'll see Stella soon so that we can celebrate her birthday! Sorry I can't make it. Have fun.



This is seriously a prime example of why people should NOT drop out of school. Come on man, can't you at least finish high school? I'm shocked that simple words such as a lot, again, she'd, would... can not be writen out properly. Also, didn't anyone teach her the internet rules? Typing in all capitals not only mean you are shouting but it also makes you look like a total douche bag.

So here is my friendly reminder: Be cool, stay in school!

A Walk Through: My House

So the other day I wrote a blog talking about my cleaning lady and how she redecorates and all that fun stuff. Well, my house was clean and spotless that I decided to take pictures so I can givemy readers a nice walk through.

This is the outside of my house. This is the only picture that wasn't taken on Monday. This was taken the day after we signed for the house. The house plus the outside (front and backyard) is about 8600 sq. feet. We have 2500 sq. feet of living space.

It has a double garage. It was a MUST from the husband's wish list One part of the double garage has his IROC parked in it and the other side is just an area for junk. Yeah we park the good cars outside and the junk and old car outside. LOL The car in the drive way in this picture is the old owners car.

Soooo let me welcome you to our neighborhood. We don't really know our neighbors that well but as you can see they all have very nice houses. Our area is a relatively new area and they are still building around it. We know our next door neighbor pretty well. They are a Guatemalan couple with a 16 year old daughter. They are very friendly. The lady who lives across the street from me made the curtains inside of my house. She's a nice person. Her neighbors apparently don't talk to anyone. We haven't spoken to them at all. The people at the corner house are also Greek but they are mean. They spend the entire summer yelling at their kids. I want to punch them in the face on a daily basis. (BTW: The Range Rover is my husbands and the Mercedes is mine.)

But anyway, lets go inside shall we? The smallest part of my house has got to be the foyer. I hate it. I'm convinced this is the reason that no one takes off their shoes here or hangs up their coats there. It's soooo small. To be honest with you, right now there is no room for guests jackets because mine and George's coats/jackets/hoodies are hanging up in there. I have even taken over the guest bedroom (junk room) closet to hang up my coats and purses and store my shoes. I don't know whats going to happen when we have kids. Where will our clothes go?

The first thing you see when you walk into the house is my formal living room and dining room.

As you can tell our style is pretty simple and elegant. I don't like too much clutter and I'm not a fan of any type of floral patterns or bright colours. My walls look whitish in these pictures but all the main floor and the majority of the upstairs are a vanilla type colour. It has more pale yellow than white in it. This is probably my favorite little table area in the house. That's the "Last Supper" icon that no Greek House is complete without. The candle holder is the only NON PartyLite candle in my house. This is a center piece I won at a friends wedding. See that vase on the top left? Yeah there is normally a crystal vase there. I should ask my cleaning lady where it went. It's my favorite vase and its was one of the favorite things I got at my wedding shower.

Once you get past this open area, you get to another open area. The whole bottom floor of my house is one big open concept. Now we are getting to the kitchen, dinette, and family room area.

The table in the dinette is a pub style table with tall chairs. This didn't come from the manufacturer like this. The guy we bought our furniture had to call in a favor and they made this table and chairs for us and now they mass produce them. Apparently they are huge seller. I love this set. The family room is where we spend a lot of our time. Dallas likes to make himself a fixture in here as well. Our Koubaro Tommy paid for part of the couch set as an engagement gift. I thought that was awesome. The TV is George's prized possession. As you can tell from the pictures, one of our favorite channels to have the TV on is Food Network! The desk top computer also lives in our family room until we finish off our basement. I love that painting. I have 3 of 5 of this artists paintings in my house!

This is part of our half bath. I didn't think you wanted to see a picture of the toliet or the laundry room (but in case you are wondering I have the LG front load washer/dryer with the steam washer thingie. I've never used it but I love knowing I have that option!). The only thing we changed in this bathroom when we moved in was the vanity and the wall colors. The walls are a smokey oyster colour but it looks pinkish in this picture. The vanity is gorgeous but sometimes I find myself wishing when people use the bathroom that they don't wash their hands! Do you know how hard it is to keep this thing clean? I feel like leaving a note, "Please use a paper towel to wipe the sink dry!"

Well let's go upstairs cuz there isn't much else to see downstairs.

So this is part of my upstairs. Coming up the stairs you see the other painting in that set that we own. As soon as you get upstairs you turn to the right and you are in the guest bedroom. The bedroom set was a gift from my parents for mine and George's 1 year anniversary and the comforter set/matching curtains was a gift from my mom for Christmas. It took me two months to figure out why my mom would buy me a queen sized comforter when my master room is a king. Then we have the bathroom that we gutted completely. Everything in this bathroom is brand spanking new. Double vanity with seperate mirrors, a new tub with nice moasic tiles, and a steam shower spa thingie. I love the shower. I can spend forever in there singing while soaking in the jacuzzi.

This is part of the junk room. The other side looks partically the same way. Another book shelve on the other side and more spare furniture. The ugly thing with the frosted drawers came from George's house. I'm slowly working their way out the house and into the garbage pile.. or maybe sell them on craigslist or kijiji. Someone else might like it, it just doesn't match the rest of the house. This will eventually become a nursey. I'm thinking of painting the room a nice chocolate brown colour and then accenting with pale green and cream colors. I am not a fan of the typical blue for boys and pink for girls. By the way, no I'm not pregnant yet, I'm just a planner!!

Now lets check out the Masterbedroom shall we?

I seriously have no reason why the picture of my curtains turned out so dark! Maybe it was trying to mask the fact that I didn't put my laundry away! So this is the master bedroom, and no I don't normally have the teddy bear on my bed. It WAS the play offs and I keep Higgles (named after Chris Higgins) nearby so we can watch the game together! This is my favorite room in the house. The walls are a nice light brown color (mocha maybe?) with very small and neat decorations. I love my bedding too :)

All that is left is the barbeque and the pool but the pool is green right now and I don't feel like posting it! :P Check out my facebook pictures to see my pool in use last summer :)

KeyBoard Confessions

So following in the footsteps of Kearsie over at Soundsliketomatoes and doing a Keyboard Confessions post. Her's are always hilarious. I doubt mine are that interesting but let's give it a whirl.

1. I secretly love it when people ask me what breed dog he is when they first seem him. He's a rare type and I love all the compliments he gets.

2. Today is Administrative Appreciation Day. I was asked to order myself something I really wanted. Wow. The thoughtfulness. I ordered candles from PartyLite to go towards my sells since I'm doing a party this week. I wrote myself a very sweet card too.

3. I booked a vacation to Cuba. My boss does't know yet. Do you think he'll take back my candles!?

4. My bra's are getting tighter. Either my boobs are growing 27 years later or I'm gaining weight.

5. I hope its my boobs getting bigger.

6. I hope its not my boobs getting bigger because I'm gaining weight.

7. I never have liked the word boobs.

8. Or tits. Tits is an ugly word.

9. I hate Twitter. I don't think anyone is important enough to require me to follow their every waking moment. Please, don't update me when you are in the bathroom. That's nasty.

10. I only have one guilty pleasure that costs no money, PerezHilton.com.

11. Oddly enough, I don't really care about celebs. I just love reading how retarded they are.

12. I'm planning my high school's 10 year reunion. The committee seems to have gone MIA and I am considering just dropping off the comittee and using those 12 days to do something else. Like go to Greece or Riveria Maya.

13. I love candles. I love the way they smell, I like how they make a room glow. I spend hundreds of dollars per month on candles. I can't go a day without burning at least one tealight.

14. My LastFM free trial just ended. I didn't know it was a timed thing. I think after listeing to over 22,000 tracks in less than a year they decided I used up enough of their resources.

15. Within minutes of my free trial ending I subscribed for a year. It's the best 36$ USD I've spend in my life.

16. I'm trying to lose 20 lbs in the next 5 weeks so I have a banging bikini body. If Kathy Griffin can be 46 is look smoking why can't I.... I'm 19 years younger.

17. I love Paul Walker. It's unhealthy but I do. My husband knows. He's my "one chance only" guy.

18. Besides me, I think my husband's exgirlfriends were really ugly. I dunno what that says about me. It's not a jealous thing, its that they were really ugly.

19. At times, I think I'm very ugly on the inside. I can't help being judgemental at times.

20. I'm going to be a Godmother on Aug 15, 2009. My cousin and her husband asked me to baptize little Amelia! How can I say no?!

21. I've barely done any work in the past few days. I was busy on Monday planning my vacation, Tuesday I was doing PartyLite related things. Today I've been on the phone all day and am now blogging.

22. I need someone to design a header for my blog. :(

23. I love Kate Voegele's voice. It's so soothing.

24. I wish I could sing.

25. I took pictures of my house and put them on Facebook because I like how it looks after the cleaning lady is over :)

26. I might blog a walk through my house!

27. I've run out of confessions for the day.

Dear Cleaning Lady & Dear Husband:

*Open Letter to my Cleaning Lady*

Dear Cleaning Lady,

I am writing you this letter because I want thank you for the wonderful job you do cleaning my house. In fact, my house was spotless today so I decided to take pictures and post them on Facebook. You do a wonderful job. I appreciate everything you do however I have some comments that I'd like to make and hope that you do not take offense.


1. You are a cleaning lady, not an interior decorator. Can you please stop moving my vases, candle holders, and things around. Everything is put exactly where I like it. I figured you would have noticed when you come back and find it back where I originally had it instead of where you have moved it. I swear, it looks good the way I have it.

2. Please stop doing my laundry. I know this sounds ungrateful but I really prefer to do my own laundry. I'm very picky about how things are washed and the bleach in the laundry room is only for using to clean, not actually wash my clothes with it. I don't wash anything with bleach. That's right I don't even wash my whites with bleach because over time it makes things turn yellow, it melts the clothes and pretty please stop washing things in hot water. I love my clothes and wash them with black to retain their color and there are a lot of things I won't throw in the dryer. I love that you are doing this extra thing free of charge but please, I'd rather do it myself.

3. Please do not redo/reorganize my kitchen cabinets. I have things organized in a way that I can find them. I also don't like coming home to find my unopened bag of sugar open and now in a really huge plastic tub that takes up more room then the bag of sugar did. I would understand if it was an open bag and it went into a smaller Tupperware to save space but this thing is massive. Also, don't open my pasta bags and put them in Tupperware. I use my Tupperware for other things. Like, for storing things in my fridge that are already cooked or to send food to my father in law.

4. You know those bottles of infused oil I have on my counter every time you come? No its not because I cooked the night before and forgot to put them back. Those infused bottles are beautifully decorated (hand painted) and have wonderful seasonings inside to make the bottle pretty. It belongs on the counter so its a decoration AND its handy for when I cook. Would it make sense to cook in the kitchen and keep my pots and pans in the bathroom? Nooooope! It also doesn't make sense to have my infused oils in the cabinets. They need to be handy.

5. Please stop putting Dallas' shampoo in the shower. My husband tends to be pretty bobo-ish at times and I'd hate for him to suds up his head with puppy shampoo. Dallas is the only one who uses the bath tub therefore we have his puppy shampoo next to the tub on the shelf thing. I've personally never used puppy shampoo but I don't think I want to know what it is going to feel like if it accidently gets into my eyes? Or imagine my husband goes out and all of a sudden these dogs start chasing him because they smell a freshly washed puppy?

6. The book that is on my night table really shouldn't be put back on the book shelves. I have a hard time finding my book when you do that. Is it under my coffee table in the living room? Is it on one of the book shelves in the junk room? Oh dear lord, please tell me you didn't put it in the basement. It's completely undone down there and to be honest with you, I'm scared to see it!

That is all I have for you. If you have any complaints about me and BooBoo just let me know and I'll work on it. I'd really like it if you could work on these as well and our mutual working relationship will prosper!

Thank You,



*Open Letter to Husband*

Dear BooBoo,

I love you very much and I have very few complaints. If you could work on these two things I'd love you even more.

1. Please for the love of God do not wash clothes. I went to take Dallas' Montreal Canadiens blanket out of the dryer this morning and I found that not only did you wash that but you washed our throws (one brown and one white) with kitchen towels (white) and some black socks and a blue shirt of yours. Honey, you have to wash like colors with like colors.

2. When you walk in through the front door or garage door there is a closet or coat rack and shoe racks. Please put your shoes and jacket there. Do not use my kitchen chairs as a coat rack or the wall between the garage door and the kitchen as a shoe area. I almost tripped on your shoes coming into the house today. Please put your jackets and shoes away or slowly you will notice you own less and less things :)

Love,

Your wifey!

First Class Ticket: To Hell

So I just got an upgrade to Hell. I'm now officially in First Class. I think thats pretty awesome because First Class is obviously the ONLY way to travel right? If I'm going to do something I might as well do it all the way, I don't like half assed jobs anyway.

So how did I get lucky enough to get this upgrade? Well for starters... I brushed my teeth this morning! Oh the horror! Techincally you aren't supposed to put anything in your mouth prior to the Holy Communion. Now I already have a problem with getting communion. Everyone and their mother gets communion from the same spoon. Apparently the spoon is blessed by God and you won't get any kind of sickness from it but c'mon I've seen people with freaking canker sores on their mouths, fever blisters, and just plain looking dirty. I do NOT want to take communion after their mouthes have been on the spoon. Sometimes a simple prayer can not take away all of that bacteria. If I have to take communion from the same spoon can I pleaaaaaase go first? Wait, you mean I have to be at church at like 6am? Yeah I'll risk catching a cold...but you can bet your asses that if I see some dirty sick looking people in line in front of me, I'm gonna step to the side and just leave the church.

I asked my friend the other day, "Why do we take communion", and she was about to give me the long religious answer and I was like, "No why do we really take communion". The answer was that we SHOW that we are accepting God and Christ into our lives. I don't think I need to swallow some wine and have a piece of bread to accept Christ into my life. Just like I don't actually have to show up to Church every Sunday to show that I've accepted him. I can pray from home just as well as I could in a church. Apparently, accepting Christ into your life requires a yearly update, kind of like automatic insurance renewal.

So I do the good girl thing this morning and BRUSH MY TEETH and DRINK WATER and get in the car to go for communion. I tell my husband that if ANYONE makes a comment about me wearing jeans into church I'm going to beat the fuck out of them. It's Saturday morning, 8am, and I'm at church. Be happy that I am concious at this freaking hour on my day off. It's not like I'm about to pull out my dress clothes to walk into church, light a few candles, kiss a few icons (I air kiss), accept communion, take my bread, and walk out. My husband backs me up and says he'll give a beat down to anyone who wants to say anything to me. He really hopes that no one says anything because he hates confrontation and he knows that I'm a bitch. Oh lordy, watch out. I didn't eat yesterday, I'm on a mission to kill someone.

So I am walking from the car into the church and a little old lady starts to tell her daughter about how NOT to dress for church. Jeans aren't permitted (not even Michael Kors!) and women should NOT wear pants to church. I decided to retract my claws. I'm not going to curse out an old lady, even I have my limits. So now I'm in church lighting my candles and doing my cross. A woman about 40 years old starts talking to her friend/sister/lover whatever about how I'm wearing jeans and its disrespectful to God. I turn around with my million dollar smile and give her a stare down.

Me: "Excuse me but we are in God's house right now only he has the right to judge but isn't he the one who said something about NOT judging people."

Her: "You know women wearing pants is against our religion."

Me: "Actually its not. Can you please open the bible and show me where it says women can't wear pants to church? I think you are confusing religion with tradition. It's tradition to not wear pants."

Her: "Then why are you wearing pants?"

Me: "Because I'm not traditional. I even baked cookies last night! Hahahahaha"

Her: *gasp*

Me: *goes up in flames*

Okay so that last line didn't really happen but you should have seen the look on this lady's face. She was like 'why isn't this girl on fire? she wears pants, talks down to her elders, and bakes on Good Friday!!'

So I'm no longer driving the bus to Hell, they decided to let me relax on the trip. I get a free upgrade to first class!

I'm going to Hell in a hand basket....

I'm going to hell in a hand basket.....

For baking cookies! Yep, you heard me right. Today is Orthodox Holy Friday. Today is a day of rest. A day of mourning. Apparently doing anything like baking cookies, cooking dinner, or cleaning your house is strictly forbidden.

I said to Hell with sitting on my ass and doing nothing, I have to make my Easter cookies TODAY. I got off of work early, I had some extra time so I HAVE to make my cookies. I called my mom to ask her something about the dough and she just about had a heart attack! "What? You are making your cookies today? You are doing something JOYFUL on a day like today!?"

Like seriously mom? I start to imagine what will happen to me when I die. Because I'm Greek and all, my little soul will wander around the world for 40 days saying good bye to everything I once knew. After that I float up to the pearly gates where St. Peter is guarding the door with a guest list.

St. Peter:State your name please.

Me: Jenny Georgio-who

*St. Peter starts to scan his list feverishly flipping pages*

St Peter: Oh no, I can't let you in. I'm really sorry. You baked Easter Cookies and Easter Bread on Good Friday in 2009.

Me: (all confused and laughing) Wait you mean thats the ONLY thing keeping me out of heaven? Everything else I've done is completely excusable but baking sends me to hell?

St Peter: Listen, its what the list says. I have no control over it.

Me: You mean you aren't impressed that someone 27 years old made koulraki and tsoureki? My sister in law was 42 that year and she doesn't even know how to dye her eggs much less bake this! Don't I get a pass for not waiting for someone to make them for me?!

St. Peter: You know, traditionally you were supposed to make the cookies on Wednesday and dye the eggs on Thursday. Why did you dye the eggs on Wednesday instead?

Me: (looking down sheepishly) Because I was really tired after work on Wednesday and I knew I wouldn't have time for making cookies on Thursday so I did the eggs on Wednesday. Isn't that great? I mean, my eggs were ready earlier...and I finally got the right shade of red!

St. Peter: What do you mean you knew you wouldn't have time on Thursday? What were you doing (giving me a stare down)

Me: (mumbling) Watching the hockey game.

St. Peter: I'm sorry I didn't hear you speak up.

Me: Watching the hockey game. It was game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs and I had to support my team.

St. Peter: (looking at his list again) Oh my goodness. And you had chicken tenders while you were watching the game. You broke your fast!!!

Me: Noooooooooooooooo!!!! I didn't break it. Didn't you get my memo, I'm only fasting every other day....C'mon have some sympathy Pete.

St. Peter: I'm sorry but I'm standing firmly by this. You are not granted entrance into Heaven.

Me: Just fucking great. Heaven doesn't want me, Hell is afraid I'll take over. I'm dead and still have nowhere to go.

After my momentary daydream I started to explain to my mom how it seriously didn't make any sense how there were only certain days I could do things. Why is Wednesday cookie baking day? Why do we dye the Easter eggs on Thursday and WHY OH WHY do they have to be red? Will we go to hell for having purple, blue, green, yellow, orange etc colored eggs? Yes, I get it. Red. Blood. Cross. Totally feeling you on that one but why do all the eggs have to be red? I have many colored eggs. Screw the just red. If I'm going to hell for colorful eggs so are 98% of the people who celebrate Easter. If colored eggs warrant hell I wonder what those heavily decorated eggs warrant? Being flogged, tarred, and feathered in the town square being being banished to life in eternal flames?

So I made a joke to my mother about how this wasn't the only thing keeping me out of hell. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going there already. I bought my bus ticket there with a discount for advance purchase.... okay okay... I'm the one driving the bus!!!!

My mom didn't find it too funny.

Oh..... as for not doing anything work related today:

1. I went to work. I worked hard.

2. I came home and cooked dinner.

3. I baked 200 cookies.

4. I baked 2 tsoureki (seriously not very easy and soooo time consuming)

5. I baked 3 loaves of Rosemary bread and even decorated one of them for Easter by rolling out extra dough and writing a message on top of the bread.

6. I gave the dog a bath.

7. I'm going to jump off a cliff.

Flog: Scallops on a Lentil Bed and Salad

So being Greek Orthodox its now time for us to start our Holy Week and the ever dreaded fast. I never understood why people think its a great idea to fast. It makes you hungry and if you are like me, when you are hungry you are an evil bitch. So given the fact that I take a bunch of medications and might bite your head off I don't fast the entire Holy Week.

I won't eat meat on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (each of those days has a specific reason). So since its Monday and I didn't have work today I decided to make a nice fasting dinner for myself and my honey!

I knew I wanted to cook with scallops since its been a while since I had them but what would I make them with? When I went to 40Westt in Montreal they served me Chilean Sea Bass on a bed of lentils. I wasn't too thrilled with their lentil bed but it was a start right? So I sat my butt down and did some googling until I found what I wanted and then of course I had to change it up to be my style.

Lets start with the lentil bed since it takes the longest to cook.

Bed of Lentils

1 medium white onion, quartered

1 carrot, quartered

1 celery stalk

2 bay leaves

5 cups of water

1.5 cups of lentils

2 tbs. olive oil

Coat the bottom of a saucepan with the olive oil and put the onion, carrot, celery, bayleaves, and water. Put the heat to high and bring to a boil. Once its boiling add the lentils and reduce heat to low-medium and allow to simmer uncovered for about 15 to 20 minutes.

After that drain and discard the seasonings.

Set aside for now.

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

1 tbs. Dijon mustard

2 tbs. Balsamic Vinegar (I perfer to use a hot balsamic vinegar, the flavors are more intense).

pinch of sugar

.5 cups of olive oil

In a bowl whisk together the mustard, honey, sugar, balsamic vinegar and slowly add in the olive oil.

Cut up your favorite lettuce or spring greens and drizzle this on top.

Scallops

Heat up some olive oil in a saucepan (again I perfer a hot chili oil as opposed to plain oilve olive) and throw your scallops on it. Remember, scallops when cooked have a clear colour, it should only take a couple of minutes to throughly cook (pan sear) scallops.

While your scallops are cooking you can begin the second part of your lentil bed.

Add very little (like a quarter cup) to the lentils in the saucepan they are already in. Season with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. By the time your lentils have absorbed the remaining water your scallops should be completely cooked.

Take a plate and scoop some of the lentils on it. Drizzle the lentils with a bit of red wine vinegar and then place your scallops on it! Tada. You have a great meal!

Mystery Date Night -- Keeping the Romance Alive.

So the other day I was reading a blog TheNearlyweds when Jen gave me an idea. Her and her boyfriend, oops fiancé', do a date night every once in a while. I thought it was a great idea and a nice way to spend some time together.

My husband and I were married for 2.5 months when his mother passed away and it hit him really hard and it affects our relationship big time. Not only were we dealing with him mourning the loss of his mother but we also had to "take in" his father. No we didn't move him into our home but we would have him over all the time, in fact as I write this blog he is sitting on the couch across the living room from me. So needless to say, George and I don't exactly get to spend a lot of time together unless its bed time. We enjoy entertaining so we invite friends over, we like to go out with our friends, and then the times we want to be alone, his father feels lonely so George will bring him over.

We’ve butted heads about this a few times. I don’t mean to be a bitch and not want his father over all of the time but c’mon, all of the time? When do we get our alone time? Why can’t your father go to your brother’s house? Why can’t your father get a hobby? How come he isn’t bored Monday through Friday but suddenly he’s bored the days he knows you are home?

But I give in and someone goes and picks up the father in law and drops him off at the end of the day. But any way you look at it, it too has strained the relationship. The “newlywed” experience wasn’t really grand for me; much less for George.

So when I read Jen & Ted’s blog, I loved the idea. We used to date a lot before we got married and engaged and it was so much fun. We’ve decided to do a mystery date night and we set out some ground rules.

1. We will do mystery date night every two weeks only taking off December because of the holidays and January of 2010 because we have a lot to do for my sisters wedding.

2. It MUST be done on a weekend (Friday or Satuday night or Sunday DAY).

3. Although it’s a surprise (mystery) you have to tell the other person how to dress. (No dresses for a surprise horseback riding trip).

4. Must be paid for through our joint account but it also has to be reasonable, we have no set budget for this but we will use our best judgement.

5. We can’t do something that will embarrass or scare the other person. (So no nude beaches (like I’d go!!) or jumping off of bridges or out of planes (being pushed out isn’t the same as jumping right!?)

6. No other couples unless its agreed upon by both parties.

7. The non planning person must agree to go wherever the planning party says. Person planning must do the driving.

8. Once I become pregnant I am allowed to veto any planned date night due to feeling sick, not in the mood for it, or I’m just being emotional and want to cuddle in bed with Dallas and Twilight.

9. We sign a 25 year contract for this (like a mortgage) with certain terms for 5 years (current terms) and we can renegotiate the terms every 5 years.


So the rules are pretty straight forward and George decided that he wants to be the first to plan our date night. We are doing our first date night on our Good Friday (Our as in Orthodox) so I’m wondering what its going to be. I hope its not something super religious but he did tell me to get dressed up.

Now I need some ideas on something we can do together that we’ll both enjoy since George made sure to take away my best ideas (bungee jumping and sky diving). A few ideas I had were:

Going to a vineyard and doing some wine tasting
Going to some museums downtown since George loves history and we’ve never gone to the museums in Montreal.
Go to Granby Zoo when it opens.
Horseback riding
Fishing (ewwww this one is going to kill me)
Take a cooking course together
Surprise picnic.
Sending him away for the majority of the day so I can cook and clean and then have a nice romantic night in, with candles and all that usual nonsense I laugh at.

Any other ideas? Can you guys help me out with things that guys enjoy doing that won’t make me squirmy?