Lightning Crashes

Now that we own a house, I don't enjoy thunderstorms nearly as much as I used to. Now I worry about trees falling on the house, lightning strikes, hail hitting the roof, and lots of other miscellaneous damage.

We haven't been to the grocery store in over a month now, thanks to our FarmFresh deliveries. Dave is in Portland, Oregon for RailsConf until Sunday, so my dinners have been consisting of random things I've found in the cupboards and refrigerator. Tonight I had cheerios, a grapefruit, and a couple of cookies. Yesterday I had couscous, a frozen waffle, and some strawberries.

I miss him.

I had the most delicious lunch ever today at the City Market. It was chicken salad on top of ... salad salad, with fruit salad on the side. Very salad-y. It was EXACTLY what I was craving. I saved about 1/3 of it to eat as part of my dinner, but ended up eating it as soon as I got back to the office. I'm so pathetic.

This was a pretty self-deprecating post, but I'm still getting over this cold/flu thing and there's no one here to hear me whine. wahhhhhhh

Hey! There's a tornado warning!

Eat My Shortz

I've been doing zillions of crossword puzzles lately, and I think I'm getting pretty good at it. It helps that the clues are repeated pretty often. Everyone at work was excited to tell me that Will Shortz (the NY Times crossword puzzle editor) was to give the commencement speech at IU this year. I guess that's cool, but I wasn't about to drive an hour to hear a guy talk about puzzles.

Uncle Randy and Aunt Julie were generous to invite us to their condo in Pennsylvania for Memorial Day weekend, so that's where we're headed early tomorrow morning! We'll be headed out of Indy just as thousands of people are headed in to see the big race on Sunday. One of these days we'll go.

Last night we went to Abyssiana, the Ethiopian restaurant on 38th St. It was a rough start, with 10 people all trying to figure out what we wanted to eat and share, but it was a lot of fun. The food was really good, and it was perfect "group" experience. After we were sated, the chef came out to ask us how we liked the food; he was so short and cute.

My employer just began a health-care incentive plan thing, where if you are in good health, they compensate you with money. I started telling my coworkers what a great idea I thought this plan was.... really excited about it. So we were all discussing this, and I said how I think people who were overweight should have to pay higher health care premiums because of all the extra health care costs they impose on the greater population. If they have a glandular problem, then that's something else... but if they just didn't exercise and didn't eat correctly, then it's a preventable problem. Someone counter argued the strong correlation between lower-income people and obesity, and how they would unfairly have to pay higher health care premiums than higher-income workers. He was right. How will the behavior change if there is no punishment? I use the word "punishment" not because I'm a jerk, but because there's a Boy George song playing on the radio and my vocabulary area of my brain is blurred right now. If someone gets 10 speeding tickets, their car insurance premiums are increased, and there is an incentive to save money by driving the speed limit. If someone is overweight, should their health insurance premiums be increased? I would think that a shorter life span and the various other weight-related ailments should be enough incentive to not let yourself become overweight, but I think it's obvious that it's not. If anything, people are motivated to lose weight mostly because of aesthetic reasons. Hey, I just remembered about those Whirlpool employees who were riled up because their health care plan imposed higher premiums for smokers. Same issue.

I took a self-defense class today at work and now feel confident that I can successfully knee an attacker in the groin, if needed. I've always wondered how I would fare in a fight, and while I am able to knee people in the groin, that's about the extent of my abilities. Thanks to some mega-padding, I got to try my self-defense skills on a guy, and I didn't perform too well. Is that very Mennonite-ish of me?

Oh, by the way... I brought $160 with me to Vegas and came back with $210. THANK YOU, WHEEL.

Brian McLaren + Tuna

David and I are going to Goshen College (a Mennonite college) on May 9/10th to see Brian McLaren speak about his book, "Everything Must Change."

We confess that neither of us has actually read the book, but I've done a lot of internet reading about him, if that counts for anything. He's part of the emergent church movement, and a board member of Sojourners. I'm really looking forward to communicating with others about his message, whether or not we agree with him, and whether or not we may agree with each other. It's always enjoyable to me to hear others' viewpoints about religion.

Oh, and the tuna? David made some really great tuna steaks for us last night and I just had to mention it. And we finally drank a non-cheapo wine with dinner.

Speedy Delivery!

Last month, we signed up for service with a company called Farm Fresh Delivery. I had read an article about the owners in the Indianapolis Business Journal, and was impressed with what they had to offer, so we decided to give it a whirl. Rather, I decided, and then sheepishly asked David if he agreed. :) It has worked out really well for us because we usually had to drive up to Wild Oats or alllllll the way up to Whole Foods to get good organic produce, and now it's delivered right to our door. Now we don't have to go grocery shopping nearly as often (even though I enjoy buying food....)

Not the Best Timing

Dave is sick with a cold :( Poor guy. I hope he is well before we leave for Florida on Saturday. It sucks to fly with sinus congestion.

We visited his new workplace last night. That has to be the most beautiful office I have ever seen. I am so completely jealous. And I want to hire whoever did the decorating and furniture-buying. It was awesome.

After that, we had some massive chocolate/pastry/cake cravings, so we bought some Little Debbie chocolate chip cream pies and Chips Ahoy Big 'N' Soft chocolate chip cookies at Marsh. The Chips Ahoy ones were a little disappointing, because they really weren't very big.

We played a little Wii Smash Bros., and then I fell asleep on his lap.

Has anyone been watching Dr. House on Jeopardy???? We were super hyped while watching. This is better than watching the Super Bowl.

http://www.rose-hulman.edu/news/articles/house-jeopardy.htm

Countdown to Bowel Destruction

Our small-group dinner last night was a success. I was nervous about cooking for so many people, but casseroles make it easy. I made homemade mac 'n' cheese and a vegetable casserole. I left the vegetable casserole out all night without refrigeration, but I was bold enough to take the leftovers to work for lunch today. It was eaten approximately 3 hours ago, and I am counting down the time left for my bowels to explode from some sort of wicked food poisoning.

We locked Sprinkles up in our room for the two hours while we had guests, and I could have sworn I heard her trying to get the door open.

A few days ago, Dave caught her in the garage, and he swears that the door to the garage had been closed. She has to have opened it! It was ultimately satisfying to me, because months ago I told him that I thought she opened that door by herself, and he didn't believe me.

Yes, it's an exciting life we lead.

You Are What You Eat

If you're a fan of bread and carbohydrates in general, I command you to go to Trader Joe's to buy their Pretzel Sticks. There's a subtle beauty to the artisan bread that always leaves me craving more.

Pump Up the Chili

Well, it's D-Day. Or C-Day. It's the day of the Chili Cook-Off, and I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get last place. I tried four different chili recipes, and now I've run out of time without finding one that I'm really happy about using. Many of the recipes had too much tomato and too much sweetness. Personally, I like a chili that is super spicy and a little salty. We'll see, I guess! The chili is made already and is simmering in the crockpot, and I am going to attempt to add some Katherine-ness with the addition of unsweetened cocoa, more jalapenos, and some Guiness.


Yesterday we went to the Five Guys burger place in Fishers for dinner. The place has been getting glowing reviews since it opened not so long ago. Dang, that was some greasy shiz. It was delicious of course, but not as good as our beloved Schoop's back in Crown Point. I'm embarrassed for even thinking that Five Guys could beat Schoop's. It wasn't even a contest!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go daydream about Schoop's own hamburgers, cheese fries, and Coke with cherry syrup... Oh God.........

Giants and Giant Pulled Pork Sandwiches

The best thing about keeping the house clean during the week is that your weekends are free of chores! Hallelujah. I guess we aren't good at basic sorts of concepts like that. It only took us... what? 13 months to figure that out?

Friday we went out to dinner at the Thai Cafe in Broad Ripple. Soooo delicious. You can order any entree from their menu in varying degrees of heat. 0, 2, 3, 4, or 5, from mildest to hottest. Why isn't there a level 1??? That always kills us. The last time we dined there, we both ordered 2's and Dave had to get extra napkins for his spice-induced runny nose. This time he went for a 0, and I pressed my luck with a 2 again. It's really not so bad once your tastebuds are rendered completely numb.

Saturday consisted of us buying trash bags and Dave creating a shelf in one of our kitchen cabinets. He did a great job! He even has all of his fingers left.

To top the weekend off, we went to the Sheas' house last night to watch the Superbowl and eat a LOT of food. That was a blast. There were many whoops and shrieks. Baby Lilly slept through the whole thing. What a trooper.

Devour Downtown

It's sad that I've been looking forward to the next two weeks for so long now, but it's true. Indianapolis's winter Restaurant Week has finally arrived. From January 21st through February 2nd, several downtown restaurants have a special prix-fixe menu for $30. Thirty bucks! We love dining out, and we love bargains, so this is a match made in heaven.

We made reservations at Ruth's Chris and Harry and Izzy's. We've been to Ruth's Chris before, but my family will be visiting and I know my dad will want a steak and potatoes kind of dinner.