Smoke free?

I've been trying to quit smoking for about 3 years now.. and DAMN that crap is hard. I envy those who can take Chantix (I can't take it) and those who can go "cold turkey" without killing someone.
So my girlfriend Hope, told me about electronic cigarettes. They DO have nicotine but they DON'T have all the tar and chemicals and crap. They come in various strengths of nicotine all the way down to zero (if you just want the taste and hand to mouth feeling).
There is no smoke involved. You inhale vapor and you exhale vapor. (There is a short video on the page I linked.)

Let's talk about the cost. The initial cost is kind of high. It's about $90 for the starter kit but they currently have a 19% discount and they're always having discounts. There are different levels of starter kits but they all come with 5 "Cartomizers" which is equivelent to 5 packs of cigarettes. A pack of 5 Cartomizers costs roughly 9 dollars (not including their discounts) and if you were to buy 5 packs of cigarettes in Arizona off base that would cost you about $32.50 instead of about $7.30. If I buy it ON base it's $21.50 so either way I'm saving a LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT of money and saving money always makes me happy.

I started with the VAPOR KING-Ultimate Ultimatum Automatic Kit ($71 with the discount) plus an extra 4 Cartomizers and with shipping it was 114.32. That is 45 packs of cigarettes costing me $7 more than if I had just purchased regular cigarettes. This is with the STARTING kit. If I buy 4 Cartomizers a month including $9.95 shipping I'll save $132 a month... not including any discounts they're running. If I lost you in all the math basically it's saving you a buttload of money so when it gets here and I've given it a fair trial I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Oh, and since there is NO smoke, only a pleasant smelling vapor (because they have 1000's of flavors you can choose from) I don't have to go outside!!! Double Score!

quack

Ok, I'm back from appointment 2 with this new therapist and I won't be going back. I go in feeling just fine and leave SO PISSED OFF I'm ready to kill people. The "issues" I'm having are with Gary so it makes sense that we handle it in our marriage therapy... why our therapist thinks I need to see my own is beyond me and I'm just going to flat out tell her on Tuesday when we go back that personal therapy isn't working, isn't necessary and isn't going to happen. If she doesn't like it well tough luck and maybe I'll stop going to her as well.

that's that.

All is well in Rachel Land

I wasn't going to post anything about this until I was sure that I had it under control which I do now.
The last month or so have been hell. I've been really really really down...way down in the dumps. I have absolutely no interest in doing anything that I normally like to do. I went to see my psychiatrist yesterday and he upped my Abilify a little bit. I haven't had my meds adjusted in a few years so I guess it was about time. Hopefully within the next few days I'll be feeling better again.
I see a new therapist today. I saw her once a few weeks ago, cancelled last weeks appt. (because Gary was on leave and I didn't feel like going) and so I'm going in today. She annoyed me for the most part, asking your basic quintessential stupid therapist questions. There wasn't really a "click" and I don't spill my guts if there is no "click". We'll see, but I'm not holding my breath. heh

Delicious Pork Chop Rub

This is for my sister:

4 Tablespoons olive oil
4 Tablespoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons chili powder
4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Mix all ingredients and rub on pork chops.
Refrigerate for at least an hour and up to overnight.

This makes a THICK rub for 4 pork chops. Obviously if you want a lighter rub you can cut in half or use more pork chops.

I'd recommend grilling the porkchops on either side until they're done. It caramelizes and makes a great chop. However, if you bake them some how magically it makes a delicious sauce.

Things That Annoy me #920392

Making any sort of noises and/or distractions other than laughter and screams at appropriate times during movies. This includes TALKING the entire film while sitting right behind me and TEXTING the entire movie while you're sitting in front of me and I am BLINDED by the glare of your phone. Yeah, I pretty much hate you.

Day 3, 4 and 5

We've spent the last 3 days chilling out at home with the occasional errand and dog walk. Lots of WoW and raiding and just hanging out.
Friday we went to Jamba Juice and watched a movie that night (The Fourth Kind - it was "ok".. weird but not bad).
Saturday we spent playing WoW all day and I tried to read more of "The Lovely Bones". I'm TRYING to get into this book. It's halfway done but it's just weird. I guess I'm just a Sheldon/Coben girl at heart.
Today we woke up early to raid with some friends... we're 10/12 now for ICC .. not bad for a non-raiding guild. Hung out some more, cooked dinner (which I hated so I wont be posting that recipe) and tonight I'm getting dressed up and he's taking me to see "Date Night" at our favorite theater. I really love date nights with Gary. :)

Tomorrow life goes back to normal.

Day 2

Today started off slooooooooow. I was super tired and in a lot of pain. It's been chilly here the past 2 days and my fibro has been bad. I didn't even want to get out of bed but I had to get to the pharmacy first thing in the morning because I was out of one of my diabetes meds. My meds were free .. again so I called my insurance company when I got home to find out why. Apparently I met my family cap on April 22nd so I have no more co-pays til the fiscal year resets in October. YAY!
I did make it to the library today. I've been meaning to read The Lovely Bones since before I even knew a movie was made but one thing always led to another and I never got around to it. So far it's really good and I'm wondering if I should watch the movie or has it been so mutilated that it's just going to piss me off... opinions?

I made my weekend pasta salad today. A great greek salad. I'll post the recipe later but it's GOOD. And then tonight, Gary took me to PeiWei for dinner and I had a delicious Japanese chili ramen bowl. To.Die.For!

and that's that. No plans for tomorrow yet... :)

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1 small onion chopped
2 cloves garlic diced or minced
1 lb ground beef
1 15oz can tomatoes chopped
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
13 oz spaghetti

Directions:
Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the onion and garlic until the onion is tender (about 2 minutes). Add in the ground beef and cook over high heat until the beef is well browned. Use a fork to break up any large pieces.

Add the undrained can of tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano and basil. Bring all of this to a boil then lower the heat to low and simmer uncovered for about 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the sauce has thickened.

Serve over cooked spaghetti with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese on top.

This will serve about 4 people or in my case (since Gary doesn't LIKE spaghetti meat sauce) about 5 days worth. Mmmmmm



Notes:
- Usually I use about 4 to 6 large fresh tomatoes and a cup of water but the commissary didn't have ANY tomatoes that looked nice so I opted for the canned tomatoes this time.
- Also, you can make this sauce up to 2 days in advance and just reheat it and serve over the pasta when it's dinner time.
- I also add in a teaspoon of kosher salt because I really like salted food and in my opinion kosher salt is the only salt to cook with.

(also posted here)

Day 1

The look on his face when he saw the Custard mix was priceless... the look on MY face when I found chicken Oxo was probably the same. The problem is that they might not ever carry this stuff ever again and I hate ordering it online as it costs a fortune.

So, today is day one of his 5 day vacation. So far we have done nothing productive except go to the commissary.
I'm making him a beef curry for dinner and a spaghetti bolognaise for myself (and yeah, I gave spaghetti w/ meat sauce a fancy name).

Dear Aunt Flow

That is all.

Meh

It was a pretty good weekend. As stated before we played WoW most of it. Sunday he took me out for a sushi lunch and then stopped by Ford to test drive a Fusion. I fell in love with this car. We have to go to Mazda this month to get the oil changed in his car so I'll look at the Mazda 6s but most likely when the pieces fall where they should I'll be picking out a Ford Fusion.
We went and saw "Death at a Funeral" last night. Most of it was down right hilarious. Meh, we had a good time.... even though I was falling asleep on the drive home. (We went to a LATE show).

Gary put in for leave this week. No particular reason, just to have some time off - I like to think it's for me. :D I want to take advantage of a quiet weeknight off to go see that new Steve Carell movie "Date Night".. THAT one is going to be funnnnnnny.

I also have a lot of cooking to do this week. I like when Gary is home because then he can help me and we have fun when we cook together. I'll be posting some recipes here and Donna likes to have pictures on her posts so hopefully my camera doesn't make my food look disgusting.

This has been another boring post from my boring life.
Now to go finish making turkey meatballs for Quagmire and get started on Gary's dinner... nothing fancy - just some shrimp and pasta with a nice salad.

pee ess

Project Free TV totally rocks my socks. I've spent all of my week catching up on shows I wanted to watch but missed the first half of the season... for free... no commercials!!!

jammie days are fun days

Today was a good "first day of the weekend".
Typical Saturday. We got up early to play some WoW with friends. I hung out (in game) with one of my bestest friends who I've called "sister" for about 11 years now.. holy crap it's been 11 years. I did my trip to World Market which is always a good time to me and spent the rest of the day in jammies hanging out with Gary.
Tomorrow is fun day. Have a few things to do in the morning then we're off to get some Blu Sushi for lunch. I can hopefully talk him into a short grocery store trip and then we're going to a movie. The plan is to see "Death at a Funeral" but I'm also interested in "Clash of the Titans" or "Date Night" because Steve Carell is freaking HILARIOUS.

Great... now all I can think about is Sushi.

p.s. Thanks for that pasta site recommendation OCB. I'm going to give this greek salad a whirl next weekend.. minus the mushrooms .. gag.

Well at least Gary made out...

I just got back from World Market (I love that place). I didn't really find what I was looking for (for me) but Gary is making out like a bandit.



Also stopped by the vet for more meds for Quagmire. $75 for 2 antibiotics. I'm in the wrong business. This dog is quickly turning into my million-dollar baby. Did I mention that one of the pills are gigantic and it's hard enough getting him to take tiny pills? UGH!

Gimme some yum!

Now that it's Friday night and Gary is home I'm feeling better. (It's always harder when he's at work and I'm home alone and my mind is wandering) but anyway that is not the point of this post.

I've been thru Donna's little blog of recipes and I can't find anything close to what I'm looking for so ....
Does anyone have any good pasta salad recipes? Hot or cold, it doesn't really matter. I just like to keep one on hand over the weekend because we play WoW all weekend and I need a quick yummy food on hand. You can email me or leave it in the comments!

(It's 1am and I'm going to bed!)

Not so shiny and happy...

I should probably call my shrink tomorrow and set up an appointment. He needs to take a look at my meds and probably make some adjustments. I've been in a huge depression lately and can't seem to shake it. I don't want to talk about it and I don't want to "hang out" to " get my mind off of things". It might work for your [insert random name here] but it doesn't work for me so don't ask.
I don't feel like getting dressed and making an effort to look nice for Gary. He doesn't notice anyway. He sure notices when I "let myself go" but when I make an effort (which I've done almost every day since Aug. 4th 2009) .. nothing.. unless we're headed out on a date and it's the obligatory thing to say.
I don't even feel like cooking. His "girlfriend" was a chef so I just feel.. inadequate.

Yes, inadequate. That about sums up exactly how I feel right now. Is this shit supposed to end anytime soon? 8 months and I still feel like absolute crap. Is it my job to make things better? I'm not the one who crapped on my self-confidence and emotions in the first place... why do I have to be the one who cleans it up?

RAWR!!!

I got him to eat a bowl of baby rice and baby turkey... I should have stuck his pills in there... but NOOOOOO I decide to shove his pills down his throat and squirt water right behind them. It worked on one. On the other he kept spitting it back out so I shoved it back down, held his mouth closed, blew in his face and rubbed his throat. I waited until he swallowed and let him down.. he gets on the floor and sneezes and the pill goes flying across the living room. I GIVE UP! No barf for 12 hours though.

I also bribed Gary today. I told him I would make him curry chicken for dinner if he went to the commissary with me. BIG MISTAKE. He spent 45 minutes in the commissary harassing the crap out of me. Every 5 minutes it was "OoOOooo [random grocery item]"... I was ready to smack him. Then he texts me from the pepperoni aisle? I'm tempted to leave him home next time but it's much more fun to watch him suffer. :D

p.s. Very happy I found Oxo at the commissary today. I was out and now I don't have to have my MIL order me some from Ireland.

p.p.s WTF!!!

Ugh

Please tell me the highlight of my week isn't going to be cutting out the ingrown toenail I've had for like a year...

Or the commissary trip I'm about to take...

Can't always get what you want..?

So "Quagmire" ordered flowers for our vet on April 7th for delivery on April 9th. It was a gorgeous bouquet of 6 giant sunflowers and greenery. Well, we showed up yesterday at the vet to have them check out why he's feeling bad again and I looked around and didn't see any sunflowers. I saw a HUGE, ostentatious bouquet of flowers with tulips and hibiscus and some baby roses and well I guess they were ok but I wouldn't have ever picked them out. So anyway, we're sitting in the exam room and the vet and tech walk in and just start gushing over the flowers we sent and I said "Oh you got them! Good, I didn't see them" and they said that the HUGE bouquet out front were the ones that got delivered.
I just got off the phone with ProFlowers. Apparently there was a glitch in the system and they just sent out "flowers" to whomever had ordered to make sure they got something on delivery day. I guess that's a nice thing but I really wish they would have called me rather than send this ugly bouquet.
Oh well, the vet LOVED them and ProFlowers refunded me half my money.. (half? ugh.. but it's better than a credit).

Quagmire Update.

He threw up a few times last night. I gave him a pepcid this morning and it seems to be working however he's a little sluggish, his tummy is making funny noises and he's burping a lot. We're hoping that it's because he just missed his Pepcid yesterday. (There were 2 pills in his food bowl and he ate one and we're not sure which one it was). So yeah, I'm a little worried. I might bump his appointment up from next Friday to earlier in the week.
Let ya know later what's up.

Doin' much better than last weekend!

SOMEONE is totally chillin' out on the couch today while Gary and I are in the other room raiding ICC10 (it's a WoW thing)... but yeah he looks comfy and feeling SO MUCH better. (I'm updating between bosses ... )

Reasons I married Gary #27

- killing spiders!

Since Gary isn't home...

Everyone who knows Gary knows that he is an extremely picky eater and won't eat a lot including pasta.
So since he's at work tonight this is what I'm making myself for dinner... (and it makes GREAT leftovers!)

Mac & Cheese
Ingredients:
1 pkg. (16 oz.) elbow macaroni
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. flour
2.5 cups milk (I use 1%)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (I use garlic salt)
1 cup shredded mozzerella cheese
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 pkg (3 oz) softened cream cheese
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (feel free to substitute - this is a strong cheese)
1/2 cup sour cream

Directions:
Cook the macaroni (just do til al dente)
In a dutch oven or pot, melt the butter. Stir in the flour until it's smooth. Gradually stir in the milk and all the seasonings. Bring to a boil (and watch it because milk makes a HUGE mess if it boils over); cook and stir for about 2 minutes or until it's thick.
Reduce heat and add in all the cheese and stir it until it's a melted pot of cheesy goodness. Stir in the sour cream and stir in the (drained) pasta.

Enjoy!

I'm allowed to change my mind

I've decided to NOT import all of my old posts.
1. There are too many and ...
2. after reading them I don't feel like editing the content (man I used to swear like a sailor) and I was also pretty crabby so yeah.. no thank you.

Today's agenda is to take the recipe in the previous post (just the meatball part). Substitute turkey for hamburger and leave out the spices and make meatballs to keep in the fridge for Quagmire's meals. He's still on a bland diet but he is hungry ALL THE TIME and the Hills I have him on is expensive for one and apparently not supposed to be used for an extended period of time. So yeah, his spoiled butt is getting turkey meatballs. Plus meatballs will be easier to tuck pills in to.

Speaking of pills, I need to go choke down all of my diabetes meds... like a small handful of them... blah

Beef: It's what's for dinner

To make Albondigas you're going to need:

3 cans of Campbells Beef Consume (10.5 oz)
3 cans of Swanson's Beef Broth (14 oz)
6 cups of water
2lbs ground beef
1 bundle of green onions diced
4 roma tomatoes diced
1 3/4s CONVERTED UNCOOKED white rice (has to be converted)
Cilantro (I don't use much but I don't like a lot of Cilantro - maybe 1/3rd of a bundle)
1 tablespoon of veg. oil
1 teaspoon Salt (I use Kosher salt - for everything)
1 teaspoon Garlic Salt
1 teaspoon Pepper
1 cup or 2 of sliced carrots
1 cup or 2 of sliced celery
some avocado slices and lime juice (to garnish and flavor on each serving if you'd like)

Aight, so you get a big pot.
Saute the tomatoes and green onions in the veg. oil. Then you add the consume, broth and water and heat to a boil.

While that's heating up get your meat ready.
Ground beef (thawed), 3/4 cup of converted white rice, the salt, pepper and garlic salt. Mix that up really well.

Once the liquid is boiling start pinching off meat bundles into the liquid. Don't worry about making meatballs. It takes too long and seriously just pinching the meat off and dropping it into the water will get it done in about 3 minutes and the pinches stay together perfectly because the liquid is boiling.

Add in the cilantro, carrots and celery and the rest of the rice (1 cup) and let it all simmer for an hour.

Slice up some avocado and juice some limes and toss it on the top of each serving.

That's all Folks!

Black is the new red... I swear

Last week before Quagmire drama I decided to color my hair red again. It didn't go so well. The roots took it GREAT and the rest of my hair stayed black. I guess it's a sign because I'm headed back into the shower to dye it back. Hopefully it won't fall out from all this coloring. So yeah, stained forehead and fingers. I can't wait!

p.s. Quags just ate food FROM A BOWL!!!!

It's been 2 years.

I can't believe it's been 2 years since I burnt my hand. The scars are still very much there but I have absolutely no movement problems or pain or anything at all. (I'm done blaming Dana for this by the way.. :D )
I'm also (if I can remember how to log into my old blog) going to be transferring all of my archives from my old blog (juiciestbite not all the ones before that) over the next couple days. I'm not taking the comments. Just the posts.
And now I'm in the mood for a chocolate, diabetes coma.

Patiently waiting for...

- my husband to come home.
- my dog to start eating.
- food to get in my belly.
- my percoset to kick in.
- my husband to come home.... (did I mention that one?)

Life is good...

Nevermind that 3 days ago I was crying my eyes out but I sincerely thought we were going to lose the puppers. I picked him up about an hour ago and noticed he smelled like heaven and they said that they gave him a courtesy bath and I said ... "I know what he smelled like.. so basically you're saying you couldn't handle the odor" and we all got a chuckle and we hit the road.
I washed all of his blankets this afternoon and had already lined the couch. You should see this couch. It's huge. It could sleep 7 people and somehow this 15lb dog takes over the ENTIRE thing. I gave him a little water and he hopped his chunky butt right up on the couch and he hasn't moved for an hour. I think he's pretty stinking happy right now. Could also be that I told him he could sleep with me tonight and that Gary would be on the couch. Not sure how that's going to go over with Gary but oh wells...
Now I get to spend the next few weeks making homemade dog food for this dog. Rice, chicken, hamburger, turkey, cottage cheese, chicken noodle soup... these are all foods the vet said to be feeding him. Sounds gross to me but I imagine for a dog he's gonna be pretty happy.. oh and eggs.. he's allowed to have scrambled eggs.. he LOVES scrambled eggs.

I about had a heart attack but someone paid for Quagmire's visit today. Every last penny. We still owe $1350 and have some blood work to pay for next week but that is about $550 we don't have to worry about (right this second because I WILL be paying it back). Our friends and family have been amazing and we love you all so much. Thank you!

So yes, life on a couch with a sweet smelling puppy is good...

Mobile post

Oh, I almost forgot to check posting by phone which is totally cool in my opinion!

HOW could I forget?

As almost everyone in the world knows, my dog Quagmire has been pretty sick for the past week. We got great news from the vet this morning and I'm going there around 4pm to pick his chunky butt up to take home. At some points over the last few days I really didn't think he was going to make it so even though the call came in at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am it was the best phone call I think I've ever received!
Thank you for all of the prayers and donations for his astronomical vet bills. Gary and I really really really appreciate it!

Wiping the dust off...

Ok, so after blogging for 8 years and not blogging for about 18 months I've decided to give it another whirl. I can't promise any great words of wisdom or witty posts because let's face it, I lead a boring life that revolves around my husband, my pets (mainly my dog) and cooking and WoW.
I'm going to use blogspot because I'm slowly letting all 22 paid domains go and I don't want to start up with designing again and I'm keeping myself clean of all previous blog drama and just wanna hang out with friends.

And on that short note, I'm off to go drink a V8 and eat an activia because I'M OLD and that's what we do.

p.s. This blog title was approved by Donna who allowed me to shamelessly steal it from her.