Too many dips, among other things.

That's all there is to it. I just had way too many dips.

My sister's birthday was this past weekend and I volunteered my house for the party on Saturday night. Somewhere along the line, I managed to morph my role in the party into "I'm planning, throwing and paying for the party." (note to self- maybe stop doing this...)

Anyway- it was scheduled for 7:30, so I was hoping people wouldn't come too hungry. Don't get me wrong, I love my sister, but I wasn't terribly interested in serving dinner to 25 of her friends. I did however, want to have some "hearty hour devours" for those who might need a little something to absorb their wine.

I went to Costco (my happy place) to secure provisions. I found a big old ham and bought it. I will do this again. Ham is delicious, and it's easy to eat off of throughout the evening, regardless of sobriety levels. Plus, I'm back on the west coast where you can typically assume that most guests aren't concerned about keeping Kosher. It was a spiral cut and fully cooked number, so all I had to do was heat it up and glaze. Easy enough.

I figured that the table needed a bit more than just a giant ham and some plates, so I also planned on a bread basket and assorted cheeses, a fruit tray with some yummie cinnamon fruit dip, and a veggie tray. And of course the veggies needed a dip. Humm... Ranch dip is good, but kind of tired and not everyone likes ranch style dips, so I'll get some hummus too. But some people like hummus with pita, so I'll grab this bag pita chips too. They were right next to the tortilla chips, and what's a party without tortilla chips? Plus, what if more people than I've planned for for show, up? Tortilla chips are a good filler.... They were thrown into the cart. But crap- now I need salsa. Oh look- pico de gallo is being sampled... yum! Into the cart. Hum... getting a little tex-mex theme here... hey look at this guacamole, (on display next to the pico). Fresh, pre-made guac at a reasonable price? Sign ME up. I should also get some mixed nuts or something for the coffee table... I can use that silver tray thingy with three sections... so I'll need three separate things....trail mix, raw almonds and oooo... chocolate covered almonds.

The theme of the party was 1971-derful (she was born in 1971, so this seemed like a great idea and year-appropriate dress was strongly encouraged) so a had to make a quick trip to the thrift shop for some duds that would help me pull off Yoko Ono. (note to self for next time- a redheaded chick with blue eyes, a black wig and fake tanner on her pale skin will never really be able to accomplish this look- I ended up looking more like Patti from the Millionaire Matchmaker... which I now fully intend to be for Halloween 2010...). While at said thrift shop, an absolutely fetching avocado-colored fondue set caught my eye. What's a 1971 party without fondue?!? It went into cart, along with my Yoko gear. This required an extra trip to the grocery store for appropriate cheeses and wines for the fondue, and stuff to dip into the cheesy goodness.

When I got home from the thrift shop, I had a voicemail from my dad: "Hey- I'm wondering what we should bring- I just got a bunch of chicken wings and was thinking I'd BBQ them and bring them tomorrow- okay, see you then!"

So- have you kept up?

Fruit dip
Ranch Dip*
Hummus
Pico de Gallo
Guacamole
Cheese Fondue w/
-cubed french bread,
-steamed broccoli
-steamed cauliflower
basket of Sliced Baguette
Assorted cheeses
Pita chips
Tortilla chips
Fruit tray
Veggie tray
Copious amounts of dad's chicken wings
Birthday cake

aaaaaaand......

A giant ham

Yes, this proved to be a bit of a HOT MESS and WAY too much food.

The lessons I've learned for future parties:
1) Know your audience- The guests were all my sister's friends, and they stayed for a while, had a few drinks and a polite amount of food, mingled a bit and left. They were not like the guests that we've typically had for our own parties; who arrive, mingle, have a few drinks, eat some food. Have a few more drinks, eat more, sing some karaoke with their new acquaintances and have some more drinks, then devour the food table with reckless abandon with their new best friends.

2) Stick to the plan!!
When I started, in my head, there would be a ham, some bread, mustard, fruit and veggies. The last minute fondue idea was better in my head than it was in practice. The unexpected bushel of chicken wings was no less than a tipping point for gluttony.

3) Shop with a list (that you've developed from your plan- and stick to the list!)

4) Don't try to cater to guests theoretical needs/wants. No one will have less fun at a party due to lack of sufficient dip options. That seems obvious in hindsight...

5) Have a leftover party. I could easily feed another party with the contents of my refrigerator today. If I don't, I'm going to hurting for Tupperware containers for the next week or so, while mine are all in use. If anyone wants to get married today and have their reception at my house (menu above), please let me know. If you want to have a 1971 theme, or a Yoko Ono (or Patti Stranger) look alike as the officiant, I can accommodate.



* toss 1 c of cottage cheese, 1t salt, a clove of minced garlic and some fresh chopped parsley into your blender or food processor. Hit power button until smooth. Make it a day ahead and refrigerate so the garlic can work its magic. Cheap, easy, happy.

Breakfast Burritos? Why not just... burritos for breakfast?

Seems simple enough. As a dietitian, I wholeheartedly endorse burritos* for breakfast. And no need to add an egg to them to make them somehow more acceptable as a breakfast item. Why are we doing this anyway, America?? It's an overkill at best.

That's all I've got today.


*normal, homemade sized burritos of course. Not these monstrosities that the restaurants are peddling these days. You know, just a tortilla, some beans or a little meat, a little cheese and some salsa.

a preview of our weekend

We did zero house related projects last weekend and because of two nights out, we also did zero bike riding. Something about a pounding head on a Saturday morning does not motivate one to hit the trails. So THIS week things will be a bit different.

I'm sure a lot of good things happened in 1986, but I don't count our home's kitchen renovation among them. It's not terrible; the kitchen really is quite homey, but it's definitely due for some TLC. The problem is kitchen remodels are kind of behemoth projects and we don't have a budget for one. Judging from the appliances, which are all a lovely GE bisque color with faux wood trim, I'm guessing a somewhat significant overhaul of the kitchen happened in the mid 80's. At this time, it looks like the counter tops, cabinets and appliances were all brand new. At some point (maybe then, maybe a little later?) pergo-type floors were also installed. The rest of the house has lovely old hard wood floors, so I'm not sure what the deal is with the kitchen. Here's a photo of the one spot where you can see a cross section (from a heat register):



What do you think the odds are there there's a cool layer of 1926 linoleum somewhere under there?!? Anyway- at some point, I'd like to do something better with the floor- be it a return to something that could have appeared in the house when it was built, or something newer, but equally fitting in a modern, functional kitchen. Hopefully a little bit of both?

We're keeping out eye out for lightly used appliances. All of ours work (for the most part- the knobs fall off the range if you look at them funny, the microwave is "finicky" and they all drink up massive amounts of electricity) so we're not in a hurry, but definitely looking forward to someday having more efficient appliances that will serve the house for another few decades. It seems like this is a good time to buy newish used appliances- perhaps folks are trying to sell to sell houses and sell their appliances separately to recapture some of their costs?

Anyway- on the list of things to do:

Refinish the cabinets- cut out the wood panels from a couple and replace with glass.
Install new cabinet hardware.
Remove aging wallpaper and replace with paint.
Get new(er) appliances
Replace or resurface the counter top
Remove laminate floor, restore what's underneath or replace it with something less cheesy looking.



I think we can accomplish this on a modest budget, as funds allow. Because we're not trying to totally remodel the kitchen, we can do these things one at a time, and have a functioning kitchen throughout most of it.
I've already started refinishing the cabinets and so far, so good! I'm making some headway, a couple of doors per day. I also ordered some new knobs and drawer pulls to install, as there currently aren' any. I've learned that lack of draw pulls and knobs is not only a bit annoying, but also has resulted in gross dark areas on each door and drawer where people's hands have touched the surfaces to open/close over the past 20+ years. If there's anything grosser in a kitchen than other people's body dirt, I'm not sure what it is. Let's just say that degreasing has been a major part of this refinishing process...

The new hardware: and


They're darker and less yellow-ish in person.

And here's a before and after picture of some cabinet doors. Sadly, it doesn't really look any different in the after picture...

Only 4.5 months to go...

I'm so excited! I just booked tickets for a trip to Europe this summer and now all I have to do is wait... for almost 5 months...

A few things will be happening across the pond this summer: my sister Lisa will be working in Austria; a colleague is getting married in Poland; and a family friend will be summering in San Tropez. We'll call him "Jet Setter."

Thanks to the gazillions of dollars we've recently spend at Home Depot etc, on our Alaska Airlines Visa, we were able to get tickets on their partner, British Air through our Alaska mileage plan(though we still had to pay a ton in fees etc). We fly into Munich, then about 10 days later, make our way home out of Amsterdam- with a handy little three day stop over in London where we have plans to meet up with Jet Setter AND Lisa. Copious amounts of French champagne will likely be consumed at that point, in honor of the France, who we will not be able to visit on this go-round.

In other news, I'm loving the longer days we're having. Being able to see makes an after work bike ride so much more enjoyable! I had a 100 mile week last week... not so well this week. Unless I crack out 60 miles on Sunday...

Grease Monkey

Two days ago I got a flat tire on my bike, and upon inspection, I realized two things: 1) I'd managed to get a pretty big puncture in the tire itself, not just the tube, and 2)My bike was really dirty! Bikes get grimy fast when ridden during March in the northwest! So I gave her* a little spa-day yesterday and she's now sporting a new kevlar tire, a sparkly chain and a gunk-free cassette. However, I feel like grime is a lot like energy- it can't be made or destroyed, only transferred. All the grime seems to remain on my hands (and on the bottom of the bathtub in which I dumped the dirty water bucket...)

Does anyone have any good tips or tricks for getting rid of greasy gunk with normal household items/cleaners? I'm looking to avoid a trip to a drug store for a heavy duty hand degreaser. Lemon juice? Baking soda? Anything?? Any advice would be appreciated as right now, despite the fact that I've washed my hands about a gazillion times, it still looks like I dug myself out of a grave this morning.

On a more fun note, we took a ride out to Redmond yesterday evening by hopping on the Burke Gilman trail and connecting to the Sammamish River trail. It was somewhat nostalgic; we rode past 60 Acres, which I am happy to report "still smells like soccer practice" and also past lots of mobile homes and campers that take up residence on the banks of the Sammamish Slough. It was refreshing that this area hasn't been "repurposed" as some sort of high end water-front property (probably aided by the fact that much of this are has an unmistakable odor of slough). I never realized how handy this trail was- it isn't too crowded and nearly pancake flat. I highly recommend it.

By the time we got home it was dark and I was freezing cold. So concluded my night with hot shower and watching a movie by the fire in my Snuggie**. If that's not hedonism, I don't know what is.





*My bike needs a name. All suggestions will be considered.
** Yeah, I have one. And it came with a free book light. Jealous??

String' on The Office?!

I heard a promo for an upcoming episode of NPR's "Fresh Air" today in which they teased me with the news that Stringer Bell (okay, his real name is Idris Elba) will be on the show soon, discussing his new role on The Office as Michael Scott's boss.

I'm intrigued can't wait for the interview or to see him in a comedy... though I'm guessing he'll be sporting a dead-pan no-nonsense attitude.


On a related note, if you haven't watched The Wire, do it now. Go to Blockbuster and start with season one. Do it. I don't care if you loved Oz and want to talk about how great Lost or Dexter is. Just watch the Wire. You're welcome!

Love... is a burning thing...

And I... love my new fireplace. (yeah, I'm singing it).

I'm so excited for our first project that we can actually SEE and FEEL and, for the first three hours, smell*.

Behold: the new gas fireplace insert!


It's almost done- the little riser box that will cover the base is still being made, and should be installed in a few days.

Here's the before:

Our house had a lovely masonry fireplace when we bought it, but it had some chimney issues that needed repair if we ever wanted to use it for something silly like... lighting a fire. Our options were to hire a brick mason to fix the chimney's ash dump or to embrace the comforts of our times and install a much more efficient, easy and comfortable solution: a gas insert. If you know me, you know that I have a special place in my heart for wood stoves and wood burning fireplaces. But I have a very different and foul-flavored place in my heart for stacking cord wood, maintaining chimneys, breathing in smoke, cleaning ash etc. Plus, the idea of buying wood for a fireplace just sounds silly. Isn't one of the perks of wood burning fireplaces is that you're heating your home off the fatta' the land? If you're going to have a wood burning fireplace or stove, you should chop and haul your own fuel source. This I believe. Since the age of about 12, I've been OVER the idea of chopping and hauling. Thus, the gas insert was a clear winner.

My only concern about an insert in our fireplace was aesthetic: that it would detract from original masonry. And I learned that, to a certain extent, this is unavoidable. We have an arched brick pattern that doesn't nicely fit any of the prefabricated fireplace surrounds on the market. We thought of having one custom made to match the radius of the arch, but after looking at some photos of sample work from some a few reputable dealers in town I realize that it would be a lot like trying to match a paint color; there was a high risk that the end product would come out looking like we almost got a good fit. And for the kind of money involved, I wasn't too interested in an almost-looking result. We looked at a lot of options and spoke with a lot of people and finally found a good fit in someone who seemed to "get" that a fireplace was not just art and not just a furnace: it's a little bit of both. That company was Sundance Energy, and they've been great from start to finish; from sales to pricing to installation. Interestingly enough, I only called them on a whim in response to a direct mail coupon. All of the places that were recommended to us were overpriced and I felt underwhelmed by their quality in terms of service and product. Go figure.
But back to my point... we decided to abandon the idea of an arched surround, and go with a square that would overlap the existing arch. I'm glad we did. The arch is still visible from the outer perimeter of the masonry, and the doors of the surround echo that shape without being matchy-matchy. The doors also have the same pattern as the two leaded glass windows in either side of the fireplace, so it looks right at home in the living room. I think so at least. What amazed me--and I know this will sound stupid--was how much the fireplace really warms up the room. I'm not sure if it conveys in the photos, but the empty fireplace was really a cold black hole (visually and thermodynamically!) and I didn't realize that until it was gone.

So I'm going to sign off and and go sit by the fire. I predict I will be spending a lot more time in my living room from now on. I really wish we would have done this even earlier.


*I was told to let the thing run for about three hours, during which time it will burn off a smell I can only describe as "new doll smell."

All sorts of new and exciting changes

Hi readers! (Okay, adding the "s" to reader is a bit of a stretch, but I retain hope)

At the encouragement of Wohn, and the realization that a lot of silly things happen to me on a daily basis, I thought, in the name of Ginapalooza, I'd stretch out my fingers, dust off my brain and issue a fearsome "bring it on!" to carpel tunnel syndrome. I'm back in Seattle after three years in glorious Washington, DC, and have finally settled in (more or less) to my new house, so no more excuses!

A lot has happened in my life over the last few years, primarily my uninteresting migration from (depending on how you know me, please fill in the blank here)into a married lady who is everyday becoming closer to perfection in the domestic arts. And when I say "domestic arts" I of course am referring to the skills I have adopted of late in the areas of plaster wall repair, attic ventilation, lock set installation and recreational saw'sall operation. Of course I also take pride in my set of fine bone China and make a mean pork chop. But you knew that part already.

I suppose nothing nourishes one's dream of becoming an amateur handyman quite like the purchase of a new home. Specifically, a new home that is anything but new. In January, we closed on the purchase of a 1926 Craftsman in the friendly Seattle neighborhood of Maple Leaf. Since then, I've spent a lot of money at Home Depot, and learned a lot about myself and my marriage. Some bad, but most of it good. One thing is certain: I clearly need to start blogging again.

I want to be clear; this will not turn into a blog about my new adventures of home ownership. I am not a first time home owner, and have already experienced the ups and downs of that rigamarole. I've experienced and processed the "hot damn, I really wish I could call the landlord to fix this!" moments (and there have been several), and I now seem to be finding a lot of this stuff actually kind of enjoyable and dare I say...fun. (Keep in mind of course that this could very well be my subconscious brain trying to help me cope with the costs of home ownership by categorizing them as "fun." I wouldn't put it past me.) I'm not sure if it's because the hardware stores in Seattle are so much better than the terrible ones I experienced in DC, or out of the necessity, as we now have more work than we can afford to pay someone else to do; but I'm suddenly finding that same sense of joy and excitement in hardware stores that I used to find in tack stores when I was a little equestrian with big dreams of having my own horse some day.

I used to love spending time at Mills Tack shop off of Northrup Way in Bellevue. The smell of leather and saddle soap; the peg board walls full of bits, nose bands, hoof picks and blankets. So many tools of the trade that I could use for my some-day horse*. I get that same feeling now at a good hardware store. Only now I actually have a real house in which to play with all of these toys. I mean tools.

In the three months that we've had this house, we've hired licensed professionals to update the electrical service and replace the old knob and tube wiring that was supplying much of the house; replace the furnace with a newer, more efficient model which is not on the verge of death; install a gas insert in the masonry fireplace; and repair a non-functioning kitchen range vent. We've also tackled some projects ourselves: installing dead bolts on all of the doors, repairing a non-closing storm door, replacing window sash locks, installing smoke detectors, weather stripping windows and doors, sealed leaks in some duct work, replaced old scary mystery insulation with new fiberglass insulation (R-49, woo hoo!), rehanging a bathroom door so it opens out instead of in, patching up some spots under the eaves of our attic where resourceful critters could easily get in and camp out for the winter, and creating hundreds of square inches of attic ventilation (still need to do one more roof vent, but we now officially have soffit vents).

My next goal is to be make storm windows for the house. We've got these beautiful old double hung windows that are lovely to look through, terrible to sit next to; I think they're made of mesh. Id like to have storm windows made in time for next winter, and I figure I'll probably need a year to accomplish this and should start now. But before I can make storm windows, I need a STURDY WORK BENCH! I have BIG IDEAS that this bench is going to be my inaugural project that marks the beginning of a fabulous new hobby. Yes, as of today, I fully plan to never buy another piece of furniture again, because I'm going to make it all myself! As long as I can keep all of my fingers, nothing can stand in my way! I'm going to start with with my bench, thanks to the instructions from my very own copy Start Woodworking magazine, which is like, Skipper to Fine Woodworking's Barbi. This is good, because when it comes to wood working, I am very much a Skipper; flat shoes and a can-do attitude.

Wish me luck. I'll be sure to post photos soon...


*I still want to have a horse someday, but still can't afford one, as all of our money seems to be going toward this money pit of a house...