Steve-o the Stingray

I woke up this morning wishing I was a Victoria's Secret Angel. Then, I looked down and realized I'm 5'4" (on a good day)... awww man!

Yeah because I always wear mittens with my sexy lingerie too.... it only makes sense....How can she make mittens look sexy? What a hooker.

So, I continued with my normal life with an autumn apples bowl (they're back with a vengeance)!

Oh how I missed my mornings all to myself... just me, a cup o' joe, Natalie and Matt (miss you Meredith), and my compooper.

This is all of us on Meredith's last day...so sad.... ok, fine it's not me, it's Anne Curry, but we look a lot alike you know

Ahhh....(plus I'm hiding in bed from the giant black roach I saw in the kitchen this morning that ran under the water heater before I could get to it, what is the DEAL?!?!...I am beyond over this...)

Today is the day, the day of my FINAL capstone presentation. It's kind of a big deal...I always feel nervous all day the day of a big presentation (the coffee doesn't help).

I practiced it about 18 and a half times, so I should be good, I just always think I'm going to get up there and black out! It never happens, but still...

It always helps me to calm down if I cook something or busy myself somehow....split pea and ham soup helped a lot this afternoon :)

Green Pea and Ham Soup Adapted from Kath Eats Real Food
Ingredients:

• 1 lb. brown sugar or honey ham chopped (was a lot of ham, could go much lighter on it and be fine...)
• 1.5 cups dried split peas
• 8 cups water
• 3 teaspoons rosemary
• 2 carrot stalks
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 T. olive oil
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic

Directions:

1. Slice celery and carrots and sauté with olive oil until tender. Once soft, add garlic and saute for an additional 2 minutes.
2. Add all ingredients (including the veggies) to large pot and to a boil then simmer for about 45 minutes.

1. Once almost all of the water is soaked up or evaporated, used a masher or beater to thicken mixture and mash the peas.

Enjoyed this guy with some'a these guys!

They're really good, almost have a sweet flavor!

The Verizon guy came today, fixed both cable boxes, made our bedroom HD, and made our internet 5 times faster, literally! His name's Jason. He's my new best friend. He literally hung out for like half an hour teaching me all kind of cool tricks.

Did he look like this you say??? No... why?

I had a bit of time to go for a run before heading to school. You guys are NOT going to believe what I'm about to tell you (I don't even believe it...) but I saw exactly 22 stingrays on my run today.

I have pictures to prove it too!

This is going to sound so gay, but aren't sting rays so majestic? There's something so enchanting about the way they move...

It's hard to tell, but this is a baby one I named Stevo!! It was the very last one I saw too... I think it was a message from God...what is he telling me?!

I was as happy as a little girllll!!!!

Sprockets :)

Then, I ran past the convention center, and realized why they were all here... guess what's going there right now?!!

The Annual Marine Biology convention!!! No wonder all the stingrays were here!!!!! :) Makes total sense.

Cougar Invitational Wrestling Match next weekend.... duly noted as well. Can't wait to see what kind of women come in town for that shindig.

The presentation went well after the professor ripped us a new one! But really, it went as well as it possibly could have considering our professor owns restaurants and we're consulting with one. This is the company we consulted for in Tampa...

Lil' family owned Italian restaurant

Came home to a makeshift leftover dinner of more brussel sprouts (damn you Justin..), sweet potatoes, and sauteed spinach topped with grated parmesan (I obviously grated it myself... ha!)

Could be parmesan cheese, could be dandruff, you'll never know... all I know it, it was tasty...

So, my friend Laura posted this on my wall and I had to share! It's unbelievable to me how much balls (how much balls?? is this grammatically correct?) this guy has...

Read the story here: http://early-onset-of-night.tumblr.com/post/13348728615/tattoo-artist-ryan-fitzgerald-from-dayton-oh-was

And speaking of steaming piles of doo.... this was my dessert!

Two girls, one cup!!! Hahaha, all I did was poop on bananas and it was delicious! Just kiddinggggg... it's chocolate ice cream and SunButter, but tell me that does not look like poop!

I got my final assignment this week done tonight too! Yay!

Today I am sooooo thankful to have gotten my cap stone presentation out of the way, it was really weighing on me, I was up until 12:30 last night turning in last minute stuff for it! 

Lamb Shanks

It was sooo good to be back snuggling with my J-dog last night! I got a great night of sleep and grabbed a gross green apple on the way out the door to the gym (I woke up 15 minutes before class started, ha!)...

Red apples always win in my book...but you don't have much choice when you take your fruit supply from a hotel
concierge.... oops....

I went to strength training class this morning with Bond, Carrie Bond (why does that never get old?)... Have you guys ever done low squats with your hands on the floor for like 3 minutes?! It's the hardest thing in the varld.

Ya like that, you hold it there and pulse... then you go on your toes and pulse for 30 secs. at a time. It's so much fun. Yeah right. It does help to have a jelly bean in front of you though... I mean, I always do.

After that, I spent a good hour and a half making all the obnoxious calls on my to-do list that I absolutely hate to do like Verizon.... 

yep spent a good 50 minutes on the phone with them since 2/3 of our cable boxes are broke-phi-broke, so that was cool. They didn't solve anything either. Poop shoot.

Had my second breakfast to refuel...


Carfee from the market (why does coffee from other places always taste better than when you make it yourself?! 

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And a bowl of Cinnamon Roll yogurt, chia seeds, larabar, kashi, cinnamon, and whipped cream...

Look guys, I am saving the world just by eating yogurt. Ya, I know you're impressed.

mmmm... I usually don't like thick and creamy yogurt (that's not what your mom said last night!) but it's all they had at the market...

Another awesome call was to Chase as to why I haven't been accumulating rewards points on my debit card (they cancelled the program in July, apparently, I was getting way too many rewards for my own good! Shoot, I knew I shouldn't have booked those vacays :)

Oh well, I cashed it in for a whopping $4.13 added to my checking account! King size kit-kat, here I come! :)

Mommy likey

Lunch was kinda weird, but decent. I fried up some shrimp in lemon juice and cilantro. Added 2 eggs, some egg substitute, turkey sausage crumbles, and salsa. Slapped it on top of a fried corn tor-tilla and called it lunch. Along with some kale chips (that were no good)...

I headed to the gorshey (that's how I'm gonna say it from now on in honor of Rachel Brown)... to get all this healthful delicious food! 

Annnddd... guess how much?! Only 85 bucks this week! Victory is mine!!!!


So excited because one of the recipes I am making this week actually called for lamb shanks! Ok...so it was really pork shank, but still!


Watch this video and you'll know why I was excited about it!
Saturday Night Live - Lovers' Hot Tub with Drew Barrymore - Video - http://www.nbc.com

My lover and I usually crave spiced meat at this point in our soak!!

Saw this at Wal-Mart....

No comment necessary.


Guess who got her graduation gear today?!?!?!

Hood and all, and it's for a master's degree hooding ceremony people, not a KKK induction like it sounds! :) PLUS it's Harry Potter colors!!!! What could be better?!?!?!? Hallelujah!!!

When I got back from school, I was in the mood to celebrate! And what better way to celebrate by yourself than to make cookies!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups oats
• 1 cup Splenda (can obviously substitute sugar)
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (from can)
• 1 egg
• 1 T. Orange Juice
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional, but not really)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix all ingredients together
3. Coat baking sheet in nonstick spray
4. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
5. Bake for 11-15 minutes

While I was waiting on Justin to get home I snacked on cauliflower and chipolte ranch dressing! Fresca too (who else lovesssss good ole' fresca!) 

Dinner was ham steak, brussel sprouts made with this recipe http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/goldencrusted-brussels-sprouts-recipe.html, and Justin and my favorite sweet potato recipe. 

Let's be honest, Justin ate ONE, count em ONE brussel sprout , then went to his friends house to play (I'm not kidding). I live with a 12-year-old boy.

This recipe is by my friend Sophie (I asked her three years ago how to make it and I still remember because it was THAT good!).

This might be my fav pic of her ever... it so accurately depicts who she is deep down inside, especially when playing Edward 40 Hands at ja lake!

Sophi's Sweet Potatoes (no not those sweet potatoes...)
Ingredients:

• 3-5 sweet potatoes (depending on their size)
• 3 T. olive oil
• S+P to taste
• 1 teaspoon each of rosemary, oregano, and basil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Slice potatoes into discs
3. Place potatoes in glass baking pan sprayed with nonstick spray, drizzle with olive oil and herbs
4. Place in oven and bake for 30-45 minutes or until potatoes are tender

I worked on my final capstone presentation for tomorrow and settled in to watch the Victoria Secret Fashion Show do all the homework I'm supposed to be doing !

C'mon meow this might possibly be the worst thing ever to do after eating both cookies and ham steak of all things.

Today, I'm thankful for cookies!


The 29th is my lifelong friend Nicole's birthday. She is 24 years young today! Nicole and I were best friends from the first day of kindergarten on.... she asked if I wanted to be her friend, and apparently I said yes because the rest is history! Ever since then, we have been able to laugh over just a look because we know what the other one is thinking, cry together through the many break ups and heartaches, and love each other unconditionally. We basically lived together until the end of my freshman year in college when I joined a sorority! She gets me even if we haven't seen each other in months, and that's what I love about her, she ALWAYS understands. I could not imagine my life without her!


I love you Nicolee!

I love this picture of us!

Here's her with her boyfriend Andrew! LOVE him! She's going to Chile to live with him this summer while he gets his MBA!

You might be a graduate student if....

...you regard ibuprofen as a vitamin.
...you consider all papers to be works in progress.
...you have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.
...you find yourself explaining to children that you are in "20th grade".
...you often wonder how long you can live on pasta without getting scurvy.
...you look forward to taking some time off to do laundry
...you have more photocopy cards than credit cards
...you wonder if APA style allows you to cite talking to yourself as "personal communication"

I think I can say yes to all of these.

Nerd alert!!!!

After a much needed restful night of sleep, I chomped down an apple that I stole from the hotel and peanut butter and headed for a grueling two hour workout to start my week off.

It was soooo good to feel my muscles again! I don't know about you, but when I'm traveling whether it's trains, planes, automobiles, I get all mushy and forget how to move my legs!

Spinning and BodyPump woke em' up again!

I came home to a quick shower, a lunch of the soup that ate my last camera and a bagelwich!

Everything bagel with cream cheese, turkey, and melted cheddar. Perfect for a rainy day!

I spent the rest of the afternoon putting together our team's final PowerPoint Presentation for our capstone class! Ahhhh! I am sooo close to having a Master's degree it's unreal!!

See this? This is 35 slides I spent my whole day on only to find out we're changing our presentation. "Yay."

Rushed off to school for a group meeting to finish up our presentation before a rough draft run through in front of our professor... and we're missing a teammate who's flight got delayed! Ohhh stress!

This is what grad school looks like. Fun, right?

After getting raped in our presentation, I came home and all I could think about was Chinese food. Apparently I wasn't the only one, Justin ordered it 5 minutes before I did. Guess we can't go without Wok N' Roll for more than a week!

The usual....

Egg drop it like it's hot!!! 

Justin and I worked on the couch for a while, seems we both have a LOT of catching up to do at school/work. I got a paper done that's due tomorrow, thank God!!! I have something due every day this week, so if I stop posting, you'll know it's because I killed myself trying to graduate got really busy! :)

Here's a fortune from Justin's cookie that I loved tonight...

And guess what came today?!?!?!?! Our Christmas cards!! I'll post a picture as soon as their out to everyone, don't wanna ruin the surprise, they're pretty fan-freakin'-tastic if I do say so myself!

I promised you a video from our Square One performance two weeks ago, and without further ado, here she is! You have my permission to laugh when I mess up about half way through... Winning.

Today, I am thankful to have gotten so much done! I was really dreading this week, but I'm chuggin' right along crossin' things off my list already. Grateful for a second (and last) wind before the end of the semester!

Seepy time!