Last night we met up with Mike’s boss and a friend of his at Gallagher’s. I converted another person to the Beer Society, so now there are even more people for me to have beers with!We had a nice time, and I got to try some more beers too. I got Mike’s boss to try #9, and of course, he loved it. Woot! One of the beers I had last night was Orange Blossom Ale. It’s brewed in Florida, and it was very tasty. Check the link on the right sidebar to see what I had and how I rated it. I am up to 19! Only 106 beers to go!! It’s still early in the game, so I am taking suggestions – what beers should I try? Comment or email me.

I got up this morning, made some coffee and a yummy brekkie of Trish McMuffins, and relaxed while Mikey slept in. After that I decided to get started on dinner which was a crock pot feast called Beef & Potato Casserole. I browned the meat, washed potatoes and peeled the carrots, then diced them up along with an onion. The recipe calls for tomato juice, so I even made fresh tomato juice with the juicer. I put everything in the crock and started it up. About 30 minutes later I heard a loud POP that sounded like a gunshot. I went into the kitchen and found this:

I have no idea how this happened, but my crock pot is ruined, along with my super fab dinner! How sad and disappointing. I am going to look online and see if I can find a replacement lid, because I’m pretty sure the crock itself is fine. Anyway, this is very frustrating. I guess we will be ordering sammiches or pizza or something for dinner.

I’ve been rocking the Wii Fit Plus for about a week now, and I am feeling the burn in my abs and thighs. I did these lunges a few times and everytime I tried to sit down I cried out a little. Not cool, but very cool at the same time. I am also trying to make friends with my elliptical machine. We were close for a while, but then we drifted apart. I am rocking the rebounder too. I am trying to vary it up to keep things interesting - so far, so good.

I also managed to bowl decently (for me), considering that I hadn’t bowled at all since August. I scored 134, 123, and 106. I also tried a couple of new beers at the alley – Founders IPA and Founders Pale Ale. Both were really good, but the IPA was a little more bitter, and I enjoyed the pale ale a wee bit more. Woot!

Yesterday, I shovelled. It was kind of fun except that George is sort of like the Hitler of shovelling, and likes things done in a very precise and orderly way – “typewriter style” is what he called it. Well I am more of a Trishtastic Freestyle kind of shoveller, so I felt restricted and bored by the precisionality of the “typewriter”. I am an outside the box kind of gal. Anyway, I have tried to shovel lots of times this winter and usually Mike won’t let me help. But I showed him! I shovelled while he was at work so he couldn’t stop me. I am so BA. Behold, the Shovel Queen:

First, I have been taking my vitamins and doing my workouts and I am actually getting to bed at a reasonable time at night – which is awesome news. My workouts are getting steadily better and longer which is also amazing news. So things are progressing and I am starting to get more sleep! Which is even more amazing considering that work has been extremely stressful lately.

Mike & I took the cats to the vet last Friday because they needed their Distemper vaccine boosters. Nemo hates it when he is in the carrier, and he always rubs his nose on the metal bars until his nose is all puffy and sometimes even bleeding. He also got weighed, and he is a whopping 15 pounds. What a hefer! The vet gave us a few suggestions to get his weight down. Otherwise, both Nemo & Buffy are healthy and fine, and there is no danger of Distemper in their future either. I noticed 2 days ago that Nemo was sneezing. A lot. He sneezed all afternoon and evening and would have these fits of like 20 sneezes right in a row. The poor kid! I was really worried. He continued the next morning so I did some research online and found that excessive cat sneezing can mean there is a respiratory infection. So I called the vet and they asked me to bring him back in this morning. I was right, he has an upper respiratory infection and we have to give him antibiotics twice a day for 14 days. Yipee. But hopefully this will help and he will be feeling better soon.

My mom got me a pressure cooker for Christmas, and I tried it out a couple of times this week. I was nervous at first because I have heard horror stories about them, but it is actually awesome. On Sunday I made a delicious pot roast and it only took about an hour! It’s crazy how fast that thing cooks food. I also put frozen chicken breasts in it along with some sauce and chopped onion and mushrooms, and that took 30 minutes to be completely done, and was also delish. My mom also got me a couple of really cool cookbooks that I have been making good use of as well.

From Mike I got Star Trek The Original Series Season 1 on special edition Blu-Ray. HOLY COW. It looks AMAZING. They have redone all of the effects and cleaned up all of the film, and it is crazy how awesome it is. There is a little documentary where they explain how they did it, and they show side by side comparisons of the original footage and the redone footage. Just the clarity of the picture alone is great, but on top of that, the redone effects are incredible. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

As some of you may know, Mike’s birthday is next week. We decided to make a weekend trip to Traverse City, so we are leaving on Thursday next week after I get out of work. I am super excited to get away for a couple of days, and also to celebrate Mike’s birthday. It should be really fun, plus we got an amazing deal on the hotel room!

When my stepmom was here, she told me that I remind her of Punky Brewster. I think she was referring to my pajamas. I usually just look in the closet and grab the first PJ things I find that are clean and put them on. When she said that I was wearing my crazy knee high socks that I made, grey cotton capris, a baby blue care bear t-shirt, and a bright blue & hot pink plaid long sleeve flannel shirt. A few nights later, after my family left, Mike, George & I had plans to watch a movie. I put on my jammies, and then came downstairs. They both looked shocked because I was wearing hot pink legwarmers, a purple and black striped skirt, and a fleece top with a crazy print in insanely bright colors. They laughed and made jokes about how much my clothes clashed. Anyway, it really got me thinking. I think I am like Punky Brewster. My favorite knitting projects are always the ones I make with scrap yarn in a crazy assortment of colors. I searched my Flickr photos for “scraps” as a tag and I got this. Hmmm, kind of a lot. Plus, that’s just the items that are complete – I also have 2 scrap afghans, a pair of scrap socks and 2 scrap scarves on the needles right now, and I recently made a draft dodger for the Man Cave from scraps that I don’t have photos of yet. I think maybe Punky should be my new street name? The thing is I do love color, and one of the reasons I love to knit so much is because I love to put colors and textures together in interesting and unexpected ways. So yeah, I guess my stepmom was right – I am sort of like Punky Brewster. You have to admit – the kid had style. I love her whole outfit, right down to her pigtails and jaunty thumbs up.

I have started taking them again as of yesterday. The only reason I waited was because I needed Mike to go to work on Monday and get me some! Now I have a few bottles and I am really thinking this is a step in the right direction. I have also committed to exercising at least 20 minutes every day. I think that this will also go a long way in helping me to get to sleep at night. I am not trying to lose weight at this point – I am so out of shape that I am just trying to do as much as I can and work up to a halfway decent routine. It’s so depressing because I used to go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week and I could rock the elliptical for 45 minutes easily!! I am ashamed to even report in public how long I was on the elliptical yesterday before I knew that my legs were going to be killing me today. But I am really trying and will continue to do so. I know I CAN do it. I just have to work myself up to it slowly, so that is what I’m doing. So far I am enjoying it, so that makes it much easier. I also asked Mike to set up the Wii Fit balance board for me because I want to try out some of the yoga poses. What I really miss is the gym! The indoor pool, indoor track, and racquetball. My mom keeps mentioning that she is going and I am dying with envy over here! The sauna! Hot tub! Stationary bikes!

I finally decided on a new knitting project! I am going to start it tonight, and I’m pretty excited. It’s a pair of long cabled mittens called “Bella’s Mittens”. See a great photo here. Yes, these mittens are inspired by the mittens that the character Bella wears in the Twilight movie. Before you start thinking I’m a complete weirdo, my choice of this pattern had nothing to do with Twilight. I love to knit mittens, and these are really beautiful. I’m excited to do some cabling, too, because it’s been a while. I have a couple of yarns that are possibilities for these, and I’ll have to make some swatches to see which is a better choice, so I don’t know what color these will be yet. Maybe baby pink! But maybe not. The swatches will have to be my guide.

Mike & I are playing racquetball tonight now that we both have suitable shoes. He is so getting schooled. He better bring his A Game, that’s all I’m saying.

Speaking of birthdays, I’m getting really excited about mine. I can’t wait! I need a little mini vacay so bad. I will be very happy to get away from home for a couple of days. So I am literally counting down the days.

Saturday is Valentine’s Day in case you live under a rock and didn’t know that. I got some store bought plain sugar cookies and some red and pink glitter icing so Mike & I can decorate them for him to take to work tomorrow. It should be really fun.

I need some new gym shoes. Buying tennis shoes is a nightmare for me. I’ve never found a pair that is at all comfy for my totally deformed feet. I bought a pair of Champion’s on sale at Target about a month ago, and they are perfect – I don’t even think about crying when I’ve had them on for an hour. But the treads on the bottom are weird. Sort of fuzzy like suede. Which is very uncool when I try to play racquetball! I’m basically sliding all over the place and nearly falling on my rump. So the Champion’s are great for everything but racquetball, and we like to play twice a week. So I need some shoes that will work. Back to the drawing board. I think I’ll look around this weekend.

I have also decided to try to start eating better. This really is NOT a New Year’s Resolution, just something I’ve been thinking about for a while. I’m not really focused on losing weight, although that should theoretically come naturally. I am trying really hard to eat less meat and less processed foods, and more fresh fruits and veggies. I even started a new Twitter – dishkittyeats. If you are already a Twit, look me up and follow me if you are interested. I am not going to follow anyone back, so don’t be sad if you don’t get the reciprocal add. Anyway, it’s going really well so far, and I am loving all the fruits and veggies. I am really missing my old frenemy Pomegranate, but I’m not ready to kiss and make up just yet.

Another great reason to eat less meat is that 18% of all greenhouse gases are from industrial livestock production. That’s 1/5th of the world’s greenhouse gases! Something to think about, eh?

I bought groceries last night, which is always really fun. I picked up a sixer of the new Bud American Ale. I saw a commercial for it and it looked tasty on the TV. It was warm, so I didn’t try it, but maybe tonight. I also made brownies last night. I read online that you can take any box of cake or brownie mix, and instread of adding eggs and oil, add a can of diet soda for a lower fat and calorie version. I bought a box of Ghiradelli brownie mix and mixed it with diet root beer. They are definitely more of a cakey texture, but seriously, they taste awesome!! The only complaint I have is that the mix I picked out had chocolate chips in it. Because the soda is so much lighter than the eggs and oil would be, the chips fell to the very bottom. So when you get them out of the pan, the bottom is all goopy like melted chocolate. Which tastes fab, but also makes them wicked messy. I will get a regular mix next time with no chips. But seriously, get some low fat vanilla ice cream and nuke one of these for 15 seconds – Delish. I also heard that you can do this with a white or yellow cake and then a flavored diet soda like orange or a lemon lime like Sprite. I think I might have to try that next. With some whipped cream frosting? Yum!

My ring worm is finally gone, so I can go back to the pool today! I’m very excited because it’s been a while. After that, I’m making dinner and then we will settle in to watch Earl & The Office. I’m also working on some custom mittens for a trade on Etsy. This amazing seller is making me a Frech Press cozy from recycled wool with embroidered kitty cats on it. I can’t wait to get it. She says it should be done in about a week. This pic is a similar cozy that she made for someone else. I LOVE IT!!!

Ok, that’s all for today, kids. Have a happy.

I made a couple of batches of granola yesterday. I tried to use Splenda brown sugar and I wasn’t as happy with the results. Once this granola is gone, I will be going back to my regular brown sugar.

I did somethiong totally unprecendented today – I got up early and went to the gym. I know, I can’t believe it either. Even scarier still, I’m considering doing it EVERY DAY. Today I did 30 minutes in the pool. I’m thinking I’ll swim on Mon, Wed, & Fri, and hit the elliptical/treadmill/bike and also do weights on Tues & Thurs. So that’s my plan. It was actually awesome. I didn’t want to get up, but I did, and once I got in the pool I felt great! Plus, I feel great now, too. I think it will help me to stay on track if I get my exercising out of the way in the AM, so I’m really really shooting for that. Wish me luck!

I also got a call from the car chick this morning. Our new Scion has arrived! We can’t pick it up today because they won’t be done with all of our modifications until tomorrow, so we are picking it up tomorrow after work. So yay for that. I already bought a couple of cute things for MY new car (the Buick) – I got a butterfly magnet, and a new steering wheel cover that is brown suede with pink daisies embroidered on it. I’m actually really excited to be able to go places if I want to!! Like out to lunch or even just to the post office or the grocery store.

I think that’s it. Oh! We are leaving for the cruise 2 weeks from this Friday!! Holy Schnike it’s coming up quick. I need to start making my lists.

Ok, so I chickened out of the sweet cabled sweater, and decided on a kid’s sweater vest instead. I know, I know, I’m a lame-o. The good news is I got the whole back of the vest done already & I will start the front panel tonight, so super hell yeah to the quick instant gratification knits! Anyway, it’s turning out super cute and I am happy with it so far.

Mike & I are playing racquetball tonight! It’s been a while so I’m excited to play again. I hope I haven’t lost all my skillz. We’ll see.

I’d also like to mention that Mike took some of my granola to his fancy pants new job the other day and apparently, I am a rockstar there even though none of them have met me. They like, freaked out about my granola. So I will be making more this weekend.

And also, dude, where the hell is our Scion? I am not the most patient and this is getting old.