1/2 Cup of Fresh Parsley is not the Same as 1/2 of Dried Parsley

Fun recipe I found in a recent issue of the Real Simple magazine:

Tortellini with Eggplant and Peppers

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 bell peppers, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Kosher salt and pepper
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
1 pound cheese tortellini (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped (NOTE: 1/2 cup of fresh parsley is a little less than 1/2 dried parsley.....)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)

1. Heat the oil in a very large skillet or pan over medium-high heat. Add the eggplant, bell peppers, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften, 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring 1 minute.
3. Add the broth and tortellini. Cover and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the tortellini are cooked through and most of the broth is absorbed, 12 to 15 minutes.
4. Fold in the parsley and 1/4 cup of the Parmesan. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with the remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan.

Again, note, 1/2 cup of fresh parsley so not the same as 1/2 cup of dried parsley. I think I could have used 1 tablespoon of the dried parsley.

Motivation

This morning I had to get up earlier than the chickens at 5 am in order to be in Corbin by 8 am. Part of me is thinking that, if I was wise, I would get up at 5 am again tomorrow morning (and the next, and the next, and the next) to exercise. In fact, I know that would be a really good thing for me to do. But, the other part of me is a realist and knows that there is no way that's going to happen.

And Today's Dumb Thing that I Did....

Went to the Reds' game in Cincinnati and got REALLY sunburned. I SO know better than that. Now I look super cool with the ballpark sunburn - two bright red stripes on your knees where your shorts ended. Argh.

But, the Reds won!

I'll Be Glad When November 5 is Here

Is anybody else sick of all the political ads yet? And the signs in the yards already?! (Though somebody told me recently that it's illegal in our county to have political signs in yards this early....) I've picked the candidate that I will be voting for on November 4, and if you know me at all I'm sure you know who that candidate is, but, my gosh, I'm already sick of hearing about both parties at this point. Not to mention that MBM has many international co-workers....try explaining our political system to them sometime!

2 Hour Bladder vs. 5 Hour Bladder

Car trips with the husband are always a, well, um, experience. I like to joke that I have a 2 hour bladder while the husband has a 5 + hour bladder. The problem is that the owner of the 5 hour bladder is usually driving so it requires serious nagging, pleading, and threats of an accident before he will begrudgingly pull over, engine still running, let me jump out, and do my best to jump through the passenger side window before he pulls back onto the interstate.

Before you get concerned about my health or the husband's driving, I am, of course, exaggerating .....

How NOT to Communicate with Your Spouse

1. Taping something important they need to see to the garage door.

2. Leaving an Evite that was sent to you open on the home computer in hopes that your spouse will, one, see it, and, two, actually read it.

3. Make sighing noises whenever your spouse is around in hopes that they will read your mind and know what you want them to do.

4. Nag.

What have I left off?

The kiss or the handshake?

As you may or may not remember, my husband MBM works with people from all over the world. Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Switzerland, France, Germany, South Africa, etc.

Today, we had about 15 of his co-workers over. Several Americans (though not all from Kentucky) and several from Switzerland and France.

Here's the question: do you shake hands or do the cheek-to-cheek kiss? I didn't do so well this time. But I think I'm going to need to know this for future work-related events.

If I have NEVER met the person before, what do I do? At the beginning? And then at the end?

Eeeek!

MBM is finally home from all his travels. He really went all over this time -- Portugal (I actually asked the question, "What do they speak in Portugal?" Not my smartest moment ever), Spain, England, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and I think there's another country that I'm leaving out.

Of course, while he's gone, I have no choice but to adapt to "single" life or go crazy. So much thanks go to HG, KA, DK, MB, MS and a few others who didn't let me just sit at home in front of the TV and pack on another extra 20 pounds that I don't need.

The problem with that, though, is you get use to being "single". Bed all to yourself, no one using up all the hot water before your shower, and you actually get to control the remote control. I know. Crazy.

But now, two months later, you have to get use to be married again. It's kinda weird at first, to be honest. Stretching out in bed at night, when you hit somebody beside you in the head (who, luckily, is a very sound sleeper and won't even get their butt to the basement when there is a tornado!), scream "Eeeek!" you remember that your husband is actually home.

Girls Do the Stupidest Things for Beauty

Confession: I get my eyebrows waxed. Have been regularly for about a year now. With my Dad's Russian genetics, I gotta.

When I went on Saturday to get my hair trimmed and my eyebrows waxed it definitely felt different. It hurt more then it usually does and continued to hurt.

When I got home, I freaked. I totally had two burns. I think the wax was either a little too hot or got a little too close to my eyelid skin.

Today I have a scab -- yes, really -- above each eye and below my eyebrow. I almost wore my glasses to distract but then I just looked like a girl with glasses and two scabs above each eye.

And to add injury to insult, I am attending and presenting at a regional conference this Thursday. LOL.

What a dork!

Okay ladies -- and gentlemen -- what stupid things have you done because of vanity?

373 E-Mails!

In an effort to maintain my sanity, I have a separate e-mail address I use to subscribe to professional listservs, sign-up for professional stuff, etc. You get the idea. It's different from my personal e-mail but still keeps that kind of stuff out of my work e-mail box.

It's a Gmail account, so one nice thing is that it will group "discussions" together, making related e-mails easy to read.

Only, it has 373 UNREAD e-mails. So, all of these are from professional listservs, mostly from just one listserv.

I think I might have to wave the white flag and just mark all as read and delete them. I don't know what else to do. I'm pretty good about catching the job postings and deleting those quickly. But I have this bad habit of saving the other topical e-mails, telling myself that's useful information and I'll read it later. Only later is here and I now have 373 that I haven't read.

Yikes.

Update

Apparently the leak is "non-hazardous" but the company should be coming out to fix in a couple of weeks.

Gas Leak?!

My neighbors just let me know that they're smelling gas coming out of our gas curb box by the street. Sigh. I can't believe this stuff always happens when Matt is gone. I called and reported it. Stay tuned....

Adventures in Branch Librarianship

(or, what you should learn about in management classes)

So far this semester our branch library has:

1. Had a leak in the ceiling which damaged a few books.

2. Had an uneasy incident involving one of our student employees and an angry ex-girlfriend.

3. Had to operate despite unavoidable absences of both staff people at the same time.

4. Found ourselves in an new organization division with a new direct boss.

That's just so far this semester and we haven't even gotten to spring break yet!

When Did 10 pm Become Too Late?

Last weekend some friends invited me to join them for trivia. Sounded like fun and I was actually up for it. Until I learned that it didn't start until 10 p.m. 10 p.m.?! I thought. That's late. And it was even a Friday night. Not like I had to get up super early to go to work the next day.

So I started thinking and asked myself, "When did 10 p.m. become too late?" I mean, it's not like we have kids or anything yet. Though after a long day of work, commuting 45 minutes each way, and some hours at home, not to mention all that other stuff I gotta do once I get home, I am usually ready for bed long before the DVR reads 10 p.m.

The Great Hunter

The great hunter. Isn't she terrifying in her jungle lair? Mice tremble and run away. Or so we hope.

Are You Kidding Me?

The strangest, most awful things always happen while the husband's away. Every time. Yesterday was a crazy, crazy day at work. Plus, I'm sick (I'm going to the doctor today. I swear!) So it actually came as no suprise -- though still quite unpleasant -- when I discovered the present our 100% indoor, never ever goes outside, cat left for me on the floor at the foot of the bed this morning. A mouse. A dead mouse.

Believe it or not, I didn't scream. I just covered it up with something heavy just in case it wasn't actually dead but playing dead. Cho was so proud. I could tell. And this discovery explains the unusal amount of time the cat has spent in the basement the past couple of days.

Orkin is coming on Friday. And, once again, I get to deal with something like this sans husband. Well, you know what they say, "When the cat's away, the mice will play."

Resolutions

It's that time again. The time of year we all make commitments -- sometimes silently and sometimes out loud -- to change something. Scores of people show up at the gym the first week of January, only to disappear a few weeks in. Churches must see more attendance. People try to quit smoking, or stop drinking soda (or pop if I acknowledge my eastern Kentucky roots here), and who knows what else.

And, of course, I want to be better this year too. Yes, I want to eat better and exercise more, but I am refusing to say that I'm going to "diet" or "lose weight." Diets never work any way.

But on the top of my list this year above all those things that could change the way I look physically is that I want to leave work at work. I love my job. But, I also enjoy my life outside of work too. Last year was both a great year and a stressful year. And some of the things that made it great also made it stressful. And more and more over the year I let my work creep -- well, swallow -- my personal time. And the more and more I let this happen the more it affected my interactions with family, friends, and co-workers. There are three things I should know about myself by now: I need to pick out my clothes the night before, I can never cut my hair short again (I think I've destroyed all photos from 2003-2005 by now), and I do not communicate well when I'm severely stressed.

So, no more! I'm going to try to keep work at work. I'm going to figure out ways to work smarter, not harder. And I'm going to ask for help or guidance when I need it. And don't be surprised if I ask you to be a lunch pal who will let me de-stress without judging me.