Go Erin go!

Well my birthday was this past weekend and it was quite lovely! Alan didn’t have to go to work until 3:00 on Friday, so I decided to have lunch at home with him. The first of my birthday presents was awaiting me then. A DUCK load of duck. Duck breast, duck legs, foie gras, and duck fat. Oh lordy! It’s gonna be goooooood!

Saturday I woke up and headed to Occaneechee Mountain to do a trail work day. First I helped install a new sign marking the trail head. We then headed into the woods to a point of the trail that needed a little work. It needed to be raised up, widened, and leveled. To contribute, I filled buckets with dirt that were hauled down to the where the trail needed it. It was exhasting, but fun. I had lunch with another volunteer and her son and then headed home.

I took a shower and heard Riley bark, so I thought Alan got home.  Then she barked, and barked, and barked some more, which meant someone was probably at the front door.  I didn’t rush out of the shower and figured they’d go away, which it seemed they did.

Alan got home shortly after.  When he walked in, he had a small package that he said was on the front porch.  It all became clear, Riley had been barking at the UPS guy.  I opened the package to find a birthday cake for two!  My best friend in Austin had sent me a cake!  It had a chocolate disc on top that read “Happy Birthday”.  I set it in the fridge to save for later an Alan and I went on our way. 

We went back to Occaneechee to show Alan the sign I installed (he really wanted to see it) and then we went for a nice drive. We later headed out for my birthday dinner to a wine bar in Carrboro that was quite tasty.

Sunday I slept in, which I almost never do. What’s more, I slept in until 10:30! It has been YEARS since I’ve slept that late. It was awesome! Once I came to, we headed to Jordan lake for a mid-day hike. It was really pretty there and so quiet.

My birthday is this Saturday, and I wasn’t especially looking forward to it.  I usually love my birthday and I really don’t care that my age goes up.  I didn’t freak out at 30, and actually had an awesome birthday that year.  But this year, we’re in a new town where we don’t know many people, and my birthday falls on a Saturday.  Given that Alan works at a restaurant, there was little hope of him getting the night off.  My mom will be on her annual girls weekend with her mom and sisters, my dad’s visiting his cousin in PA, and I can’t afford to fly to Austin to spend it with my best friend.  So, I’ve been bumming lately, thinking about spending my birthday alone.

Then it happened.  The early birthday present.  Alan’s bosses found out it is my birthday on Saturday and asked Alan if he wanted the night off!  WOO HOO!!!!!  I am so excited, it now feels like my birthday again!  I’m looking forward to the day and espcially the evening!  Friday I think I may go shopping with birthday money my mom gave me, Saturday I’m doing a Mountain-to-Sea Trail workday in the morning, and now I’m trying to decide what to do Saturday evening with Alan.  He’s offered to make me dinner, or we can go out.  So many possibilities!

WOO HOO!!!!

Alan was giving me a hard time this morning that I need to update my blog.  So, I am.  There isn’t really much to say.  I’ve tried to keep this blog somewhat about running, food, and being married to a cook.  At times, I’ve strayed a little, but maybe I’ll stray more.

I’m not running right now.  I’m just not feeling it.  It could be because I’m not actually training for an event, or it could be that it is pitch black out at 6:00 AM when I usually run.  Since we’re no longer in Chicago, we no longer have the grid of street ligths to light my way at the ass-crack of dawn.  There are a few lights, but it is just so dark, I know I’ll bite the dust on a crack sooner than later, since I seem to be developing an affinity for that.  And I am just not the type to run in the evenings.  I’ve tried, I’ll probably try again some day, but it is just not natural to me. 

In regards to food, I made an awesome papardelle with chicken and mushroom ragu for dinner last night.  It was quite tasty, although I needed to add more rosemary and more garlic.  It was fairly simple to make, but took me much longer than the 30 minutes the recipe suggested (no, this isn’t a Rachel Ray recipe).  I think that’s because I can be quite slow in the kitchen.  And messy.  But it all ends up tasting good, so I’m happy.  I just hate doing the dishes after cooking, which I have to do when Alan works on Tuesday nights.

As to being married to a cook, he’s not happy with his job.  I can tell this mostly because he is not sleeping well.  Not at all.  At least he has the consideration to go out to the couch, but the poor guy shouldn’t have to sleep on the couch.  He should be able to sleep through the night, in bed, not dreading going to work the next day.  And that’s where he seems to be.  He was like this at his last job in the corporate world.  This is not good.  I hope and pray that is simply the specific restauarnt that he doesn’t like, and not the industry as a whole.  We can’t have him change careers again, we haven’t even paid off the schooling on this career change!

So I hope he finds a job, and I hope it happens quickly.  I do slightly fear it as well, though.  His hours right now are awesome.  He only works three nights a week, meaning I see him four evenings a week.  And he has Sundays off, so I have a whole day with him once a week.  I love our Sundays together and dread having to give them up.  It’s not a definite since a lot of places are closed on Sundays down here, but it is a possibility I must prepare myself for.  I know at some point in his culinary career, the time and position will come that we see very little of each other.  That will be hard.

So there you go, a post focused on the backbone of my blog.  My life is pleasantly boring at the moment and I am trying to just soak it up and unwind.

Until later. . .

I knew it would happen.  I knew I would get some sort of injury in the kitchen quite like my husband gets from time to time.  I really thought it would be a knife injury with our sharp-ass Ken Onion chef’s knife.  Nope.  I burnt myself.  Stupid mistake.  I browned a pork loin on the stovetop then put the pan in the oven to finish it off.  It was done, I took it out.  I moved the loin to a plate to hold it and wrapped it in foil.  That’s when it happened.  I went over to the pan to cook some shallot in the pan drippings, and I reached out and grabbed the handle.  OUCH!  Luckily it registered with my brain quite quickly and I set the pan down quickly.   It hurt.  But not horribly.  I ran some cold water on it and that helped.  At this point (about an hour later) there is some very mild discomfort and a little shine on a few fingers, but that’s it.  I’ll count my lucky stars now.  Hopefully that’s it.  But I can’t help but think that Ken is going to do something to me that will require an ER visit. 

We’ve been having problems with our kitchen sink draining slowly and finally it came to a head Monday night when I called our landlord and asked for a plumber.  I, luckily, am able to work from home at last minute’s notice, so I told my landlord anytime Tuesday morning would work for me.

Tuesday came and I e-mailed my boss telling him I’d be working from home to deal with the plumber.  The plumbing company called at about 8:00 asking when I was available.  I said all day and they said someone would be there in half-an-hour.  Fifteen minutes later, my cell phone rang and I answered it.  It was a plumber from Roto-Router saying they had a guy on the way who should be there in fifteen minutes.  I said I didn’t know what he was talking about, that my landlord called another plumber.  He said he got a call fifteen minutes earlier for a plumber at my address.  I asked who called him and he gave me my phone number.  I explained I didn’t call him and that I had a plumber from a different company coming. 

I was trying to explain that I didn’t need his plumber and that someone was already on their way.  At this point, I was thinking to myself how the voice of the guy on the phone sounded a lot like my boss.  Then the guy said, “Well who’s going to pay my guy’s travel charge” which completely distracted me from the thought that the guy sounded like my boss.  I said, “Fine, just send your guy and I will deal with two plumbers.”

The guy on the phone said, “Okay, the guy’s on his way.  His name is Dave*.”  I repeated back, “Dave” and he said, “Yes, Dave Smith” to which I said, “Mark*!  You asshole!”  It was my boss.  Prank calling me.  About a plumber, who had the same name as my co-worker.  He was just laughing at me at this point.  Funny, funny, funny.  Ha ha.  (read the sarcasm).  Once he composed himself he asked me a work question and then sent me on my way.  Butthead.

The plumber came and snaked our drain.  The good news?  The drain is now clear.  The bad news?  The drain was blocked by roots.  Ugh.  I swear, I am sending my first born to plumbing school. 

* names have been changed to protect those involved (who will be brutally punked back by me some day.  I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but it will happen) and my career.

I am one post away from creating a “plumbing” category for this blog.

I am a pretty self-sufficient woman. I can change a tire, change oil (and I don’t mean take the car to the mechanic, I can change oil myself, it’s been a while, but I can do it), deal with plumbers and cable guys and other such things in life that stereo-typically are taken care by the male in a relationship.

One thing I am NOT good at, is dealing with things like very large spiders. Small spiders, bugs, silverfish, I can deal with those. But tonight, there was a spider that was at least three inches in diameter including legs. It was about the size of a baseball, if a baseball was flat. Oh my god. Now, I didn’t scream, I’m not a screamer (get your head out of the gutter, Cristen). I did run away from the spider going, “Oh my god, oh my god,” while shaking my hands and arms.

Alan asked what and I told him a spider was in the hall. A spider bigger than a shoe. Then I admitted maybe it wasn’t that big, but still bigger than any spider I had ever seen in my life aside from a taranchula. Well, being the good, wonderful, awesome husband he is, he went, got a shoe and did what any boy would do. He killed it. It shattered into pieces it was so big! Which made me go, “Eww, eww, eww,” while jumping up and down trying not to puke. Then Riley went charging in to inspect, and probably eat, the carcasse, which Alan quickly stopped her from doing.

Ugh. I still have the willies thinking about the thing. That is the only flaw I have found to North Carolina – tons of spiders!

So, thank god for boys. Boys are good at killing bugs and spiders and mice (that’s for another “flash-back” post).