Summer Weekends

This past weekend was the kind of weekend I dream about. It was as close to perfect as a weekend involving a hangover could get.

 

On Friday I spent the afternoon working outside on our patio. I put a sign up on my door pointing folks to where they could find me and parked it. It was breezy, shady, and the perfect temperature.

Late Friday afternoon, I spent the happiest hours at the bar in a nearby restaurant drinking wine and flirting with the cute bartender before a delicious dinner with some of my favorite friends/colleagues/posse.

Lots of wine on the table. Lots of empty wine glasses on the table. Home before 11pm and somehow still managed a full-fledged hangover Saturday.

 

I powered through, won my mixed doubles tennis match in 2 sets, and headed up to the lake to see my family for Father's Day. I think the last time we spent a Father's Day on the lake was when I was in high school. To say my dad was excited might be an understatement.

Sunday I came home early (but not before daddy opened his present - a new business school tshirt!) to play another tennis match. Kicked butt on the court for the second time this weekend and raced home to meet my friend for lunch. We went back to the restaurant where the cute bartender works and enjoyed a delightful afternoon on a patio in Midtown. I also learned plenty about him. There may not be relationship potential but he's a pretty fun Mr. Right Now (if Mr. Right Now means I make every effort to walk by the restaurant as many times a day as possible without being weird and hoping he sees me).

 

We got manicures and pedicures, laughed until our sides hurt, and then I came home and ate vegetables for dinner before settling into bed, texting ET about how great my weekend was, and crashing until I opened my eyes on Monday morning. Perfect, perfect, perfect in every single way.

Daddy's Little Girl

It's no secret that for the better part of my life I have been a Daddy's Girl. Not only do we share so many of the same physical characteristics, we share a similar personality. I guess it should come as no surprise then that in my adult life, we are beginning to share many of the same hobbies. The thing that is funny to me is that for so long I have emulated what my dad does, starting with how he tied his shoes (yep, I tie my shoes as if I were a lefty!) all the way up to how he would send a thank you letter to a potential employer. My dad has taught me and shown me so many things in my life and now it seems that it is my turn to teach and show him.

Just like I didn't really want to own up to online dating, I'm not sure I'm ready to own up to having joined WeightWatchers. I guess blogging about it is one way to tell the world! I mentioned last week that I joined WeightWatchers...it's true! And I've been telling my dad all about the process and how it works. He is in the market to lose quite a bit of weight, and this seems like a program that would really fit him and his current lifestyle.
Although it's been a whopping 14 days since I joined WW, I've already found things that I really like about the program and I thought I would share them here, just like I shared them with my dad last night.

1. They never make you feel bad! You get an allotted number of points per day, plus bonus points that you can distribute through the week, plus if you add exercise, you get those points too. I'd have to eat 24 cupcakes to go through all those points!

2. You learn about what foods are "good" for you and what foods to avoid. And not only that, but you have to document when you eat the bad foods. It makes eating 3 slices of pizza and no salad a lot less appealing when you know you are going to have to go back to WW and document those 3 slices of pizza...and then see that you can eat celery for the rest of the day. After lunch last week I showed my dad how many WW points his lunch would have been, and the thing was, he knew he wasn't making awesome dietary choices, but there was no evidence of that (other than his slowly expanding waistline).

3. You can add commonly-eaten foods to your WW online ahead of time, so when it comes time to log something, you don't skip it because you don't have the nutrition stats. I spent 30 minutes today adding about 6 Willy's menu items to my WW queue. Guess what? None of them were under 10 points. Cool. But I also dug through the contents of my freezer and added all my pre-packaged items - frozen Amy's pizzas, Trader Joe's tortillas, and ice cream sandwiches. Now I hardly even have to think when I enter these items in. It makes for such easy tracking!

The most important thing for me has been to stay motivated, and I've done that by telling my dad about it. For the last week he's asked me how it's going, and then told me all the things he ate that day and how many points he thinks they were. It's interesting - my dad often eats fast food for breakfast and McDonald's recently started offering an oatmeal option. Turns out that oatmeal option is 7 points, and an Egg McMuffin is 8. Not such a healthy alternative afterall. Who knows - maybe it keeps you full longer, I'm not sure, but it definitely puts things into perspective!

All I know is I want to see this smiling face for another 30 years, and getting healthy is the only way for that to happen. I am so proud of my dad, so excited to share every little detail of my life with him as I grow up, and I know he is so proud of me and looks forward to hearing about everything I do.

If you are interested in eating healthier and/or losing weight, I definitely encourage joining WW!

Daddys Girl

I wrote a post about my mom so it's only fitting that I dedicate a little corner of the internet to my dad!

If there were ever a child to belong to my father, it is me. I look like my dad, I act like my dad, I talk like my dad, I am built like my dad...in short, I am basically the female version of my obstinate, opinionated, pain in the ass father.

My dad also happens to be the first person I call for business advice, the first person to tell me how proud he is of me, the first person to help me before I ask for it, and the first one to give me his undying love and support.

My dad has pushed me further than I ever thought I could go. And trust me, I have pushed back. I have fought with my dad countless more times than I have agreed with him. I have gone weeks without speaking to him. (I don't think he was disappointed). When I make a mistake, my dad is the first person to point it out. It's maddening sometimes.

My dad is a fighter - not only did he kick cancer to the curb once, but he did it twice. He's battled for 10+ years and never once let it get him down or let it stop him. He may work himself into an early grave, but never will I say that my father is a quitter.

My dad may not be the handiest guy on the planet, and he may not be able to run a marathon, and he definitely can't spell any words with more than 4 letters without asking for help, but he is the reason I am who I am. Everything I do is so that I don't disappoint my dad, so that I can make him proud, and he never forgets to tell me that I have done exactly that.

From 2007 - June

And in case you didn't know, my dad has a fantastic sense of style...

My dad has shown me in so many ways what it means to love someone without words. He is my biggest fan, my biggest critic, and my best friend.

I love you Daddy, and happy late father's day.

I came, I saw, I ate.

A few nights ago I conquered all things apple, and last night I attempted all things Asian. Or, all things Asian that I crave on a regular basis.

My mom has a ridiculously easy and delicious Beef with Broccoli recipe that we have been eating for years. It was that special birthday meal, the meal that we had when my dad came home from being out of town, the one that she couldn't keep us out of the kitchen while she was cooking. Yeah, you can tell she really liked cooking that meal... and after I made it once a week for 6 months, I'd had enough of it too.

Because I was feeling sickly, and because my mom was here so I knew I couldn't screw the recipe up too badly, I decided to make my first attempt at Hot & Sour soup. I was worried because I didn't want to be missing any crucial ingredients that the restaurants include. You know, like lard and copious amounts of MSG. Priorities, people. I didn't want to completely ruin something I love so much.

Well, let me just tell you... I conquered that bad boy. It was SO GOOD. I didn't take any pictures of the process because that really ain't my thang, but I'll just tell you what... YUM. I inhaled. My mom inhaled. My dad said, "Ew gross. You can really cook?" He doesn't like hot & sour soup, and he thinks we should be the exact same in every aspect, apparently including his inability to cook. Sorry pops, apparently my genes aren't entirely Hamilton and there's a little bit of mom in there. Who knew?

I used this recipe -- BAM! -- but I basically halved it. And then I eyeballed most of the ingredients because I'm lazy & my dishwasher was full.



Image from Food Network

 Ingredients

2 ounces dried shiitake mushrooms  (I hate mushrooms & my grocery store had no shiitakes, so we bought regular ones and I did the same thing and then gave all the mushroom bits to my mom. Worked fine.)
10 cups chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup chopped fresh ginger (TOO MUCH GINGER.)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper (To taste... depends on how spicy you really want to go!)
1/2 pound chicken or tofu, cut into small bite-size strips or chunks  (I had every intention of adding chicken but then I just didn't... and I probably wouldn't.)
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons mushroom flavored soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Hot chile oil, for drizzling
2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions (Unnecessary condiments that I likely won't use again. And scallions just suck.)
Bean sprouts (I added these because I love them.)

Directions
Combine shiitake mushrooms and 3 cups of the chicken stock in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and let stand until mushrooms are tender and broth is flavorful, about 30 minutes. Remove mushrooms and discard stems. Thinly slice caps and reserve. Strain broth through a fine mesh sieve, combine with the remaining chicken stock and set aside. (If you buy regular mushrooms already cut up, you can eliminate most of these steps. At least the annoying ones like straining and chopping gross mushrooms!)

In a medium saucepan heat the vegetable oil and, when hot, add the ginger, garlic (BUT DON'T LET IT BURN!) and crushed red pepper; cook for 2 minutes, or until fragrant. Add the chicken stock and reserved shiitakes and bring to a simmer. Add bean sprouts. Cook for 30 minutes. Add the chicken or tofu and stir to combine. In a small bowl or cup, combine the lime juice and cornstarch and stir until smooth. Whisk the cornstarch mixture into the hot soup and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil and serve the soup, drizzled with hot chile oil to taste, and garnished with some of the sliced scallions.


In conclusion, thank you Emeril for allowing me to feel the exhiliration of culinary success. And thank you, also, for allowing me to surpass my parents expectations of me. After my mom devoured her bowl of soup she turned to me and said, "Wow, you really can cook. What do you know!"

Thanks for the vote of confidence, madre.

Maybe now I'll go bake an apple pie, I have a few apples to spare. Do you think I should add mushrooms to that?

She's a Winner, Folks!



symbol for luck in kanji (image source)

If you've spent any amount of time wth me, you have probably heard me whine and cry about my lack of luck. I don't think I have bad luck, I just don't have any. My freshman year of college is the first time I actually remember winning anything in one of those raffle drawings, and it was at Zeta Day in Augusta. The trip had already sucked enough (my friend got a speeding ticket 5 minutes outside of Augusta, we had to leave Atlanta at 7am, you get the idea) so I was SO PUMPED when they called my number. The prizes had been neat stuff like tshirts, mugs, koozies, all the good sorority stuff that you are still excited about as a freshman. So I walk down to the front of the stage and what do they hand me? A basket the size of my fist with 4 plastic strawberries in it and some Easter basket grass. Seriously? What a joke. I was so pissed! That's how non-lucky I am. 



So imagine my surprise when, late last week, I received an email stating that I had won a contest I entered! Granted this had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with my writing ability (and apparently spending habits), but still. I won! I finally won something of value! Woohoo!

Taken directly from Schwab MoneyWise:



Congrats to Kathryn in Atlanta for winning our contest!

Don’t you hate it when your parents are right?

What’s the best thing your parents told you about money—that you ignored? We’ll post the response we think everyone should hear and give the winner $100. (Maybe you should split it with mom and dad.)

A. Winning Entry

When I graduated college I received quite a bit of money from family and friends—enough to create a 6 month cushion in my savings. My dad informed that if I had that same cushion in one year, he would double it. He was trying to teach me the value & importance of having a 6 month emergency fund. Six months (and many beers, pizzas, and shopping trips) later, my cushion was gone and I was broke. I was forced to admit my failure to my dad, but have learned my lesson and understand how important that cushion is.



Yep, that's a true story. It was a dark time in my life where I thought that Moe's, Moondogs, and the Gap could solve all my problems. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast, but...it wasn't exactly a life I could sustain. I've moved on to bigger & better problems, kids!



But seriously, thank you Schwab and I guess... thank you Dad, too. That $100 I won will be wisely spent, I swear!



Father's Day

I was having a hard time deciding what to get for/do for my dad for Father's Day.

Option 1: Season 1 Big Bang Theory. My dad loves this show, as I think a lot of dad's will. Bazinga.

Option 2: A gift card to the Bass Pro Shop. Since moving to Florida, he has become addicted to fishing. This warrants another post in and of itself.

Option 3: Georgia Tech gear. He can never have enough. EVER.

Option 4: Just send a card and call it a day.

Option 5: Treat him to dinner with me next time he's in town (approx. every 6 weeks).

In the end, I went with Option 3! I bought him a pair of GT Croakies, and I bought myself a matching pair. I gave them to him while I was visiting with them in SanDestin over Memorial Day Weekend, and I have to say... HUGE SUCCESS!!! He put them on immediately and even when I saw him today, was still sporting the GT Croakies!

So, if you are looking for a gift idea for Pops Day, hopefully these were some thought-provoking ideas. If not... leave some suggestions in the comments for others!

I'll do a full tribute to my Dad post soon... he's earned it :)