Poker Face

I would say that most of the time I go through different experiences and really question what God wanted me to learn. This week, however, I got the message loud and clear. I hear you God, OK, now hopefully I've learned my lesson and this difficulty I have won't be such an issue anymore, right? Then why do I have a pit in my stomach even just typing that...ugh. Oh well, I digress...

Remember one of my last posts I shared with you all how I was feeling used and walked on? Well, if you recall, I didn't do anything about it except whine. Obviously I didn't learn much from it, eh? Well, maybe that's why God decided to give me the week that i had last week.

Does anyone else out there have trouble with confrontation? It's not even so much that I have trouble with it, but that I tend to swing way too far one way or the other. It's either I confront you and tell you how horrible you are and we are forever enemies, or (what usually happens) is I decide to let things slide and hope that you will come around and realize your rudeness or selfishness or insert hurtful adjective here. In the business world, that doesn't so much happen. Weird, I know, that's what I thought. You would think that people would have the same morals, ethics and kindness when doing business that they would otherwise have when dealing with their family or friends.

Well, I'm going to give a big thanks to our condo management company, our Chamber of Commerce, a fellow doctor and others (you know who you are) who really pushed me to learn when to say "uncle." I had to stand up to each and every one of you and I didn't get to say that we are forever enemies because I have to work with you whether I like it or not.

Now if I could just work on that poker face and not let them see how hurt and full of emotion I was when discussing with them...

Smell That?

Before refrigeration, we had to depend on color, smell and the consistency of our food to know whether it was edible. Now, 90% of all of the money that Americans spend on food goes to fast food giants. So why do we reach for the two all beef patties, special sauce, onions, cheese, pickles, lettuce on a sesame seed bun instead of carrot sticks and apples slices?

Well, turns out canning, freezing, dehydrating and storing food gives it a cardboard taste. No one wants something that tastes of cardboard. So what’s a fast food chain to do? Take it to the lab. Chemical factories came to the rescue in an attempt to reproduce the original taste of foods. That unique taste that a fast food burger has actually comes from a scientist in a white lab coat applying a few drops of specialized chemicals dubbed “flavoring.” Some even got smart and started claiming “natural flavoring.” Don’t be fooled; there is little to no difference between natural flavor and artificial flavor. Both are man made additives doing what they do best-enticing your sense of smell. Up to 90 % of flavor comes from the aroma of food. Our taste buds can account for bitter, sweet, salty and sour but our sense of smell is where it’s at. Basically, the science behind the scent of your perfume is the same as the one that is added to give flavoring to your sausage biscuit.

Maybe one day we will all be able to buy a big vial of burger essence to sprinkle on our carrot sticks and save ourselves calories. At least then we would know there was some sort of nutritional value behind the flavor. As is, the nutritional value to a fast food burger is about the same as eating the plastic wrapping surrounding it. Don’t let the nostalgic aromas get to you, reach for the carrot stick instead.

Lagerquist, Ron. http://bit.ly/4hOGaE

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend was great! Mike wasn't on call for the first weekend since I can't even remember when. He had to reintroduce himself. I didn't even recognize him without the computer attached.

Friday, our new dining room furniture was delivered (see below). Ooh-la-la!

Saturday, we went to dinner and movies with Jeff, Crystal and Valerie. We saw "All About Steve." I really don't understand the bad ratings this movie received. I laughed and laughed. I really believed Sandra Bullock to be a kooky nerd. Way cute. We went to the Inwood Theatre that one of my friends has been trying to get me to go to for ages. I'm glad we did. The seats were A+. You know how usually you go to the movies and the weird fabric is all creepy from previous soda spills and you don't wanna know what else? Not these! They were vinyl I think. And clean. Imagine that? No creepy stains. You don't have to squint in the dim lighting or do a test brush off with the palm of your hand to make sure it's soda free. AND they didn't lean back at a weird angle or have a bump for a headrest that never quite sits at the right place and causes you to get a crick in the neck. Crick free! (In case you're wondering, I'm really not that picky when I go to the movies. However, after experiencing such a comfortable seating arrangement at said theatre, I couldn't help noticing the difference.)

Sunday, we did some shopping for the house - picture frames, new vacuum, etc. I will never again question whether or not my vacuum is sufficient. I will just go buy a new one. After vacuuming and wondering "Is this working like it should?" we finally just went and got a new one. I was excited to use it and even though I had just vacuumed that morning, I decided to use my new one. What was hanging out on our carpet despite the vacuuming done just hours prior was frightening! Pet fur=necessity for fully functioning question-free vacuum.

Our friend, Chris, came over later and the boys hit the xbox while I spent HOURS trying to print out some wedding photos from Walgreens. What a nightmare. Load. Drive to Walgreens. Images too small. Drive back. Reload. Drive to Walgreens. Half of images too small. Drive back. Rinse and repeat until 3 AM. I was determined to get some photos printed. I ended up with a beautiful wedding album. All worked out nicely. :) Eventually.

Monday, we did more shopping for the house! We found a wrought iron patio set at Academy on sale. You must note that we drove everywhere to try and find patio furniture. What's with no one having furniture? Is it the wrong season? Did they all sell out? It was mind boggling. Home Depot, Target, Walmart...you all let us down. We did end up with a killer deal at Academy with a way nicer set than we expected, though so take that other stores that wasted our time!

You know what's funny about buying things like patio furniture? When you're standing there in the isle looking at a round table with four chairs, you think "Oh yeah, that'll totally fit in my car." Then, your husband stands in line to pay and you swing the car around to load it and the Academy store worker says "it won't fit" and you think "OK, Mr. Academy-store-worker. You don't have to help us load it if you really don't want to but you don't have to lie about it." And then you and your husband try to shove in a round, unforgiving, wrought iron table top that just doesn't seem to budge into the backseat of your Civic and it hits you. You are that couple. Parked at the entrance of Academy, pushing on a tabletop so hard that you are sweating. And it's going nowhere. Everyone can see that it doesn't fit except you. But you keep pushing. And you keep hoping that people walk by you fast enough not to notice that it doesn't fit and it never will. Then you set the tabletop aside hoping that you can somehow strap it to the roof of your car and you focus on putting the four patio chairs in there. Somehow...

Don't worry folks. An hour later...success! Then you get that "See, I told you it would fit" smile on your face even though you really shouldn't because in reality, you had no clue that it was actually going to work and there for a while you were pretty certain that it wouldn't. Not to mention your husband had to go back in the store for rope to tie down the tabletop to the roof of your Civic while you drive down back roads with the windows down and your hazzards on acting like it's a totally normal occurance that you completely planned. Perseverance, my friends. Perseverance.

With our new patio furniture, we really wanted to enjoy dinner outside. Since we live in a condo, we can't have a grill on our patio and there's no space downstairs which is a pretty sad situation considering how good Mike is at grilling and how much fun it is to change up the pace from cooking in a hot kitchen. Mike decided this didn't have to be so. He wanted to get a huge George Foreman grill and cook out on our new patio table. So we did and it was a success! What great ingenuity my husband has. You never would have known that our steak fajitas weren't prepared on a gas grill (unless you noticed the extension cord running outside. Hehe). He is an excellent cook!


Something about spending the evening outside listening to music on the patio, or maybe it was just that neither Mike nor I had to worry about work or schedules, I'm not sure, but the greatest thing about Labor Day weekend was just being. Really enjoying Mike's company. Pure bliss.

My Dishes Have a Home!

BEFORE...

Don't Inject Me

I'm sure you're not surprised that I found an anti-swine flu vaccine song and video. :P