I started off the year as a recent college grad who was holding down three part-time jobs and trying desperately not to become hopelessly discouraged. Looking through iPhoto it appears that, besides working a lot, all I did from January to April was cook and eat. Which makes sense — I had no money and the Boyfriend was still in school — what else are a poor post-grad and a senior college student supposed to do in the cold Upstate NY winter? During these first few months of 2010, I did make scallops for the first time, jump back on the bacon bandwagon, and enjoy several lunches on our back porch, but aside from that there was nothing particularly new and noteworthy in the early months of the year.

April is when it all turned around for me. On the evening of April 1st — April Fool’s Day, mind you — I got a call about a job I had interviewed for in February. The interview had gone so well and I’d immediately clicked with the team, but funding fell through and so did the job. This phone call, however, signaled the rebirth of the job and the hiring of one very thankful Page girl! I’m currently exploring the Development side of non-profit work and I find it suits me well.

This spring brought me a new job and it brought a college diploma for The Boyfriend. And in keeping with the Spring Whirlwind, the Boyfriend, Roommate and I had to deal with the end of our apartment lease in May. The Roommate made plans to abandon us and move downstate to live with her boyfriend, taking Sid, her fabulous cookbook collection, and all of the clothes I used to borrow with her. Meanwhile my boyfriend and I struggled to find a landlord who was willing to rent us an apartment even though we have a dog. Yes, even dogs as cute as Jack are unwanted by landlords.

The stress of not potentially not finding a place that was okay with Jack’s size and overall canine-ness wore away at us throughout the spring until we finally found a gorgeous place in a quiet neighborhood:

I really love our apartment — the location, the size, the style. It’s really perfect for us and our growing zoo.

In June I turned 23 for the first time with the help of my family and some sombreros.

Compared to Summer 2009, July and August were fairly quiet. The gang made a trek north in August to do a little camping — our first group trip together.

And by “camping,” I mean eating, drinking, boating, swimming, eating, kayaking, campfiring, drinking, S’moresing, eating, and sleeping in real beds.

(Jack only went swimming twice: once when he fell off the boat trying to rescue the Boyfriend and as seen above when he ran into the water trying to rescue the Boyfriend and I from our kayaks. That’s puppy love.)

October was a banner month: the Boyfriend got his EMT certification, had a birthday, and carved his first Jack o’lantern.

Jack is so proud he’s fighting back tears.

My big moment in October was the 17th, when my sister and I took a supersecret trip up to Saratoga Springs…

…to get tattoos!

I was incredibly nervous, but it’s been a wish of mine to get a tiger lily tattoo for a few years now. Tiger lilies bloom in the summer right around my birthday and my dad brought my mother a bouquet when I was born.

The pain is not as bad as you think. The actual art of having someone draw on you is far more impressive than the sting of the needles. (By the way if you’re in the Capital Region and looking to get a tattoo, go to Needlewurks. They are professional, friendly, talented, and clean!)

My sister got a Linnea flower after her name.

As the months turned colder and cuddling became more necessary, I began to greatly miss my pudgebucket, Sid. So in November I dragged The Boyfriend to the animal shelter where we found Penny:  

Who, like her doggy brother, is an odd mix of lazy and crazy.

“Excuse me, are you gonna eat all that?”

To round out the year, in December the Boyfriend and I celebrated our anniversary on Cape Cod.

And finally, Santa topped off the year nicely by bringing me one of these for Christmas:

(image courtesy of gdgt.com)

It’s love.

I also fixed myself a mug of green tea to soothe a sore throat.

Celestial Seasonings has this to say about recycling:

Interesting point. I certainly feel a little better, considering we consume about 1,000 tea bags a week in this apartment.
Speaking of consuming vast quantities, I’ve had about eleven of these today.

Maybe only three, but they are addicting. Key lime bars, oh, yes indeed. These are from last night, as well, and they shan’t last long!!
Aside from pondering the negative effects of tea-drinking on the environment, the rest of my riveting night will be spent doing a bit o’ laundry, paperwork, and blogging.

With Sid.
Don’t you always sleep better knowing tasks have been crossed off the to-do list? That’s what I’m aiming for so I can get a solid night’s sleep.
Sid, who has been “helping” me write this post by attacking my fingers with each stroke of the keys, wishes you all a good night.

And he would like to remind you that three-hole punches make excellent pillows.

See the photo in the background? It was my Christmas present to The Roommate and two of our old roommates who came over for a little holiday party this weekend.

The four of us lived together in college and we’ve been close friends ever since.  I have so many wonderful, insane, funny, and important memories with these girls.  I think this photo of the four girls living it up in the car pretty much sums up our friendships.

Weekend recap coming soon: Christmas cookies, party fun, and Sid dressed as the Elf of Holiday Cheer.

For now, though, I’ve got a bit of a busy week ahead of me and need to get a start on that to-do list! I’m working on a few guest posts and I’ve got a couple of things to wrap up at work before the break.  This week it’s also my mother’s birthday and my little sister is home for break. And somewhere in there I need to find time to watch my holiday classics: It’s A Wonderful Life and Love Actually.  :)

The Roommies and I took Jack out for a romp in the snow.  I say “romp”…. we may have romped, but Jack sprinted around the backyard like a bat outta hell!

Jack attack!

He was a blur.

The snow really put us in the Christmas spirit so we heated some Mexican hot chocolate and busted out the decorations to festify the apartment.

This is not, as it were, a case of Maker’s Mark.  Although I suppose that would make for a merry Christmas of another sort.

We strung lights about the apartment and in the windows.  And on the pets.

The Boyfriend, meanwhile, was actually working.  It didn’t take long to get our tiny living ready for the holidays!

Even the fish got in on the act.

We found a bag of my Mardi Gras beads from last year.

Jack dressed up as a Louisiana belle.

Hm… perhaps I wanted a little girl dog? No way, I love my patient little puppy.  (Fun fact: today is the 6 month anniversary of his adoption!)

Somewhere during the day I finished up my bagels.  I added salt to half and flax seeds to the other half.

This batch went much faster than the last batch, so apparently I’ve got the recipe down! I really think the trick is adding toppings.  Who doesn’t love toppings?

I have to get started on narrowing down my cookie recipes for Christmas.  If it were up to me I would make 27 different kids and Santa and I would split them all.  But then I would look like this guy:

[Image courtesy of Chicago Tribune]

Only in my case it would be upset stomach, not lust for world domination, that explains the super grumpy face.

If you need me, you can find me drooling poring over these:

This is Sid.

We took him in from a friend who had another cat, a dog, and a baby.  She had to give him away because Sid needed too much attention.  Seriously.

Sid likes:

-Extreme cuddles.  He is a cuddle-bug who will clamber onto your lap, pillow, or desk just to be near you.

-Purring and drooling while you rub his ears.

-Chasing bottle caps.  They make such a wonderful sound when they skitter across the floor.

-Impossibly small spaces. Boxes.  Laundry baskets.  Underneath the bed.  The back of the closet.  Your suitcase.

-Sitting on your keyboard while you’re working on an important email/paper/blog post/project.  He just wants to gently remind you that your priority should always be the cat.

Sid dislikes:

-Playing with Jack.  Jack does not realize this and thinks they are best friends.

-When you kick him out of the room at the crack of dawn.  In his mind, 5am is Pay Attention to the Kitty Time.

-When his 6pm dinner time is not strictly adhered to.  This is an inexcusable human error.

-Playing dress-up.  Despite our efforts to convince him that it really is fun to dress up as a chicken.

Sadly, around 5PM, while I was at work, my energy checked out.  And I have sort of been a blob ever since.  (As I was writing that, I thought to myself, “Sheesh, it’s probably almost midnight — I gotta go to bed!” Think again, Grandma.  It’s 9:48).

Lucky for The Recently-Returned Roommate and myself, The Boyfriend made dinner tonight: garlic and oregano baby back ribs and arroz rojo (red rice).  All I had to do was show up, fork in hand.  And that is what I did.

I am about to fall asleep right here on the keyboard, but before I do, I will broach the subject of cookies.  I admit that I have been in the holiday spirit as of late.  I know it’s premature.  I’m having flashbacks to my youth, when my sister decided the morning after Halloween marked the beginning of the Christmas music season.  During the month of November you could constantly find my mother at the foot of the stairs yelling over stains of “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.” “Turn that off! It’s not even Thanksgiving!” The recent Real Simple issue did nothing to quell my holiday spirit, by the way.  And since no one likes to feel festive all alone, I invite you to sign up for Real Simple’s Cookie-A-Day e-newsletter.  It appears my little sister is now a consultant at Real Simple: from November 1 until New Years you get a holiday cookie recipe delivered daily to your inbox.  Need I say more?

Good night, blogland.

Needless to say there has been a lot of running around, rearranging of the work schedule, and many a trip to the vet.  I’m just happy to have my little family intact again.

Let’s see what I have been up to four the past few days:

1. Dinner at the Melting Pot on Thursday night — Unfortunately the Melting Pot fundraiser coincided with the scariest part of Jack’s medical ordeal.  Jack had been admitted to the hospital that afternoon but we didn’t really know what was wrong with him, and I was on the phone with our vet until late that night.  All of this meant that I was barely aware of what I was eating that night.  I did snap a picture of this though:

Yin and Yang fondue, half white chocolate, half dark chocolate.  YUM.  Despite my deep concern, I was able to snag a few bites of strawberry dipped in this.  People cope in mysterious ways… Check out Ladies Night Out at the Melting Pot.  It’s a cheap and classy girls-only evening!

2. Lazy weekend — The Boyfriend and I were not feeling up to an exciting Saturday while our dog was recovering in the hospital, so we stayed in.  I enjoyed some leftover Chinese for lunch and leafed through the newest Real Simple (Real Simple fans: how do you feel about the new layout? I prefer the old one! Don’t get me wrong, though — it has not tainted my love for Real Simple.)

That night we channeled our inner teenager and wandered aimlessly through the mall.  And I lost The Boyfriend to a $1,000 massaging arm chair at Brookstone.

I was able to convince him to come home with me, but only with the promise of organic, uncured hot dogs from Applegate Farms.  These generous folks sent me a box of their sausages and hot dogs, so we got to work taste-testing.

Seriously, the Applegate Farms hot dogs are incredible.  We had a pack of “regular” hot dogs in the fridge, so I compared ingredients.  The first ingredient on the regular dogs was “mechanically-separated chicken.”  Insert many a ?!!?!!?!???!! here.  In the Applegate Farms’ dogs? Grass-fed beef.  Sea salt and spices.  Garlic, celery, and onion powders.  Paprika.  You know.  Stuff you’ve actually HEARD of.  If you’re concerned with fat content, these babies have only 8 grams, which is decent for a hot dog. They taste REAL.  And if you don’t do beef, check out the turkey or chicken hot dogs.  I’m really excited to get cookin’ with some of the sausages and kielbasa, so stay tuned for some yummy recipes!

I’m off to go make a quick n’ easy Sunday dinner for my family.  When the Roommate gets back from her weekend in Canada, we will all be under one roof again.  I’m sure there will be many cuddles to be had:

]]> http://notesonapage.com/2009/10/where-did-the-time-go/feed/ 3 http://notesonapage.com/2009/10/feeling-a-little-chili/ http://notesonapage.com/2009/10/feeling-a-little-chili/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 05:03:14 +0000 Page http://notesonapage.com/?p=525 As I surveyed the bleak Albany morning while stumbling to the kitchen around 8am, I thought to myself, “This is going to be a chili sort of day.”  Yes, chilly, meaning the adjective that describes any post-August Albany morning.  But also, chili, as in the delicious beefy tomato stew that simmers on my stove while I wait (im)patiently.

And this evening, while I and several bulky bags were forcing our way into the apartment, chili was my ray of hope.  The evening was slated to be a crummy one spent worrying about my very sick puppy and playing catch-up with my to-do list, but chili made it a little better.

While the chili simmered, my glass of wine and I caught up on some mail that arrived for me today.  My postal treat was from my favorite friends at Applegate Farms:

How excited am I?? Christmas has come early! Remember my excited post from a few weeks ago? Seriously, this OOTS lunchbox should be on your holiday wish list.  It’s durable (no bruised apples), dishwasher safe (for you lucky ones), very cheerful, and much less embarrassing than reusing a Target bag (not that Target is embarrassing, of course!).

As I’ve said before, Applegate Farms has some awesome products so be sure to check them out in the grocery store.  They are natural and organic and all-around good for you.  And wonderfully tasty. Maybe we’ll be seeing more Applegate Farms products on the blog in the near future?

Now on to the recipe of the night! If you had the sort of crum-bum day that I did, you definitely need a dose of this medicine:

Page’s Chili

Heat 1 T olive oil in a skillet.  Add 2 chopped peppers and 2 chopped onions and saute for a few minutes.  If you have garlic cloves, mince and add one or two. I didn’t have any so I used approx. 2 t. garlic powder when I added the spices later.

All those colors make me happy

Add about 1 lb. turkey or beef and cook until brown.

Sid provided necessary supervision.

Once the beef is fully cooked, drain the fat and put beef and vegetables in a large pot.  To the pot add: 6 c. (48 oz.) crushed tomatoes, 2 cans (14 oz. each) kidney beans, 3 bay leaves, 3 T. chili powder, 1/2 T. crushed red pepper, all depending on your taste.  Let simmer on low for about 45 minutes.

It doesn't look pretty, but it sure tastes pretty

This recipe makes a vat of chili large enough to feed you, your roommate, and your hungry boyfriend for several days.  You can pair chili with almost any starch (I enjoy noodles or a baked potato).  Tonight I made cornbread from a Trader Joe’s mix I got on my cross country trip this summer.

The mix calls for 1/2 c. of oil, but I substituted the same amount of applesauce like I normally do with cake mixes.  It tastes exactly the same.

After dinner I packed my lunch for tomorrow:

I couldn’t resist a shot! (In case you’re interested, that’s leftover chili and cornbread, applesauce, Stonyfield soy yogurt to try for the first time, raisins and almonds.)

I’m off to care for this miserable monster named Jack.  Hope he feels better soon!