Bunny business

I mentioned yesterday on Facebook it seemed like a sick joke that I had an Easter interview scheduled - at a Target store! I can't walk out of that place without spending 50 bucks, so the fact that I was heading there in the middle of the day was definitely hazardous.

I managed to make it out of there after only spending $30 (candy for my desk and frozen dinners) because I had to take the train back to my office and I didn't want to lug several bags on the Metro.

Crabby

I've mentioned before that I am not the experimental one in our marriage when it comes to cooking. I don't really like to "try new things" and I don't like to deviate from the tried-and-true recipes.

So what I'm about to tell you could quite possibly knock your socks off.

For over three years, a group of six girls gets together on a somewhat regular basis to gab and eat. We rotate between restaurants and people's houses, and the host usually picks the menu (take-out or otherwise). Last Friday, it was my turn to host, and the deal was that everyone had to bring either an appetizer or a dessert and it had to be a recipe you've never made before.

This had me stressed out to no end. The pressure! I kicked myself all day on Friday for this idea. What if the recipe I chose was terrible?!? Usually Chad is my guinea pig on all new recipes - and he gives honest feedback.

I first narrowed down my appetizer to "dip" and then settled on crab dip. Why? It's so good, it's freakishly expensive at a restaurant, and there's no way I would ever just gamble on a new dip unless I was being challenged. Taunted, almost.

I found a recipe online that was popular, but many of the people who were reviewing it said it was a bit too bland. (It also called for onions, which I don't like.) So I did a little of this and a little of that to make it my own.

And, ifIdosaysomyself...it was fabulous. Even RT liked it.

Ellen's Almost-Famous Crab Dip

8 oz. cream cheese
4 T. mayo
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
16 oz. lump crab meat, drained
1 c cheddar or colby jack cheese
1 round bread loaf (Italian, sourdough, etc.)
1/4 c. cheddar or colby jack
 
Mix cream cheese, mayo, sour cream, garlic, Old Bay, 1 c cheese and a dash of salt and pepper. Gently add in the crab. Put it in a glass bowl and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

While it's baking, cut a hole in the top of the bread, tearing the pieces into chunks for dipping. Put the bread bowl and bits on a cookie sheet. Take the crab dip out of the oven, place it in the bread bowl and sprinkle 1/4 c. cheese on top. Put it back in the oven for 10 minutes.

Take out and serve.

The other food we had was also amazing: phyllo cups with brie, pear and honey; mini quiches with pepperoni and olives, plus some with just veggies and curry; mini mac and cheeses in ramekins, little pastries with hummus and veggies; strawberry shortcake; sweet potato and banana empanadas... And I think I'm missing something.

We ate for four straight hours. I was still full the next morning.

Kid-friendly

I love reading The Onion, a satirical "newspaper" that was started by two students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This caption from their "news in photos" section had me laughing out loud.

And that's never a good thing when I'm supposed to be working.

Happy birthday to Chad!

We had a really fun weekend celebrating Chad's birthday. Or at least I had fun.

On Saturday night, we took Chad's new car up to Baltimore to a restaurant called Roy's. The restaurant, which began in Hawaii, specializes in seafood (and an amazing molten chocolate cake!). They really went all out for Chad's birthday - they even took a picture of us and let us bring it home. Fortunately, our chocolate cake had a candle on it, which I'm nearly positive gets me off of the hook on a birthday dessert. (Right?)

Last night Chad got his present - an iTouch. He's already filled it with apps and games, so I'll likely never be able to get his attention ever again. Let's just say the odds that he'll spend his birthday money on something for his car or his iPod are pretty good.

And then tonight we're doing something totally different - going to see Bon Jovi. What are the chances that they'd be in town on the same night as Chad's birthday? It was almost meant to be. (Thanks to our friends Mark and Brigid for the tickets! I look forward to rocking out with you in about...umm...four hours.)

I've never been to a Bon Jovi concert - in fact, I don't think I've ever seen anyone in concert except Celine Dion, Amy Grant and Phil Vassar - so this is bound to be an experience. Fortunately, my ability to provide a blog update tomorrow will not be dependent on whether I can hear, because that part might be a problem.

Happy 30-something birthday, Chad!

My pitch list, Parts 3, 4, 5 & 6

My life is pretty pathetic considering I've been blogging about nothing other than what we're giving away or throwing away. I promise a better post tomorrow on Chad's birthday.

Until then...

Life today involved de-junking the kitchen. And while I was at it, I also de-junked the dining room, the living room, and the coat closet. Even Chad got in on the action, by going through the "fourth drawer," or the drawer in our kitchen full of batteries, plumbing equipment, owner's manuals, Krazy glue, felt, and heavens knows what else that fixes things that are broken.

This might be the best list yet:

•  I think a rite of passage in marriage is receiving crystal vases. We got about 7 of them. Considering that I don't ever have more than one bouquet of flowers in my house at a time - and even that's a rarity - I really do not need seven crystal vases. Today, two went in the giveaway pile.
• Other things that were eliminated from the china cabinet: a salt & pepper shaker, a weird little wooden eagle and a serving set.
• 9 tea lights that were almost burned down to the nub. This was a particularly embarrassing find.
• 15 magazines (Robert, there's your answer...)
• 6 coffee cups
• 9 kitchen gadgets including 4 whisks. I'm pretty sure after the purging, I still have three left. Why does a person need so many whisks?
• 6 pieces of barware
• 15 VHS tapes - pretty sure since we don't have a VCR, those should have been donated long ago
• 7 hats
• 3 scarves
• 6 tote bags - another particularly embarrassing find. They collect like dust bunnies, I'm telling you!

In sum: 11 things + 7 things from the bathroom + 12 from the bedroom) = 30

I'm starting to worry that I might not be able to fit this in one trip to Goodwill.

My pitch list, Part 2

As part of my initiative to Throw Out Fifty Things, I took to the upstairs bathrooms over the weekend to purge everything that no longer had a place in my life.

Apologies to those of you who are about to learn way more about me than you ever wanted.

This was not the easiest of endeavors because I had recently cleaned out the bathroom earlier this year. I'm not sure why I did this, exactly. I was probably just procrastinating a despised household chore like laundry and got distracted. Regardless, my bathroom had much less junk in it than it had previously, so I was concerned that I might emerge from this task frustrated - and empty-handed.

But after committing to my 50 Things promise, I took a look at the bathrooms with new eyes, keeping in mind the four rules of disengagement in addition to the bathroom specifics, namely:

1) Go for the old and expired stuff first.
2) Are the medicines necessary and appropriate for how you want to feel now?
3) Keep what will help you care for yourself and let the rest go.
4) Get rid of any old notion of yourself.

So after my cleaning binge, I added to my pitch list:

• 6 bottles of stuff from Bath & Body Works (left over from when I used to work there in, ummm, 2001...)
• 3 toothbrushes: I keep old toothbrushes on hand to clean the grimy stuff you just can't get with a towel. But my problem is now distinguishing between what to give out-of-town guests who need to freshen up and what to use to clean my toilet. So, goodbye all old toothbrushes. Life is less confusing for us now.
• 6 bottles of half-used shampoo and conditioner.
• 2 really weird shades of nail polish
• 9 over-the-counter meds (most of which was left over from a trip Chad took to China in 2008)
• 1 hair dryer (who needs three?!?) 
• about a dozen containers of never-opened make up: If you would have seen the "vintage rose" lipstick that was a coveted free gift with purchase on my pale and unimpressed face, you would have laughed out loud

In sum: 7 things (+ 12 from the bedroom) = 19

What I kept? An old perfume bottle - long empty - filled with an amazing scent that I splurged on many years ago during a major upheaval in my life. I told myself at the time that when my last ounce of perfume was spritzed, my life would be better. And it was. But I still like to keep the bottle around as a reminder.

Next week, I tackle the kitchen. Lord help me.

Skimming stinks

I'll make this long story short.

About a week ago, I was contacted by our bank about a few potentially fraudulent transactions. Thinking that they were calling about the huge deposit we transferred from savings to checking as a down payment for Chad's new car, I didn't think much of it.

Did I withdraw $400 from an ATM on Saturday, they asked? Hmm...I didn't think so. But with everything going on with the car purchase, I guess I couldn't be sure.

Did I withdraw $500 from an ATM in Maryland on Sunday? Umm...no. Considering I wasn't in Maryland on Sunday.

Damn.

And that began the long saga of figuring out how someone stole not only my ATM card number but also my PIN while one was in my wallet and the other was tucked away securely in my brain.

It all seemed like one great mystery until today when the City of Alexandria put out a press release on a new investigation about a skimming scam. This isn't my normal ATM, but of course I deposited something there one Saturday while we were taking Lucy for a walk at the park.

So, here's my public service announcement of the week: Pay special attention to ATMs when you use them. Skimmers can look like little bookmarks (like this) or big mammoth card readers (like this). And if you see one, trust me: don't use it.

Fortunately our bank has been great. They refunded us about $920 that was stolen and told me they plan to prosecute whoever did this. Other than some time on the phone and irritation that I have to give up the PIN I've had ever since I opened my checking account in 7th grade (sniff...), I'm relatively unscathed.

PS: I mentioned Chad's new car as a complete afterthought. Here's a photo. This car was a process with a capital "P", but he loves it.

My pitch list, Part 1

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I'm on a tear to de-junk our house. Part of that motivation has come from my second-favorite book, Throw Out Fifty Things. Excited to get started, I had set aside several hours this afternoon to go through our bedroom, drawer-by-drawer and hanger-by-hanger. (If you want to join in the de-cluttering, download the official worksheets and rules either as a pdf that you can print out or a Word document that you can use to keep track on the computer.)

Before getting started, I had to keep in mind the four "Rules of Disengagement":

#1. If it—the thing, the belief or conviction, the memory, the job, even the person—weighs you down, clogs you up, or just plain makes you feel bad about yourself, throw it out, give it away, sell it, let it go, move on.

#2. If it (see above!) just sits there, taking up room and contributing nothing positive to your life, throw it out, give it away, sell it, let it go, move on. If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Throwing out what’s negative helps you rediscover what’s positive.

#3. Don’t make the decision—whether to toss or keep it—a hard one. If you have to weigh the pros and cons for too long or agonize about the right thing to do, throw it out.

#4. Don’t be afraid. This is your life we’re talking about. The only one you’ve got for sure. You don’t have the time, energy or room for physical or psychic waste.

Now, here's the drawback: each item does not count as one "thing" to throw away. Instead, each category counts as one thing (ie: I only get to count socks as one thing even though I purged 8 pairs).

By the end of the afternoon, here was my list: 6 sweatshirts, 9 dress shirts, 4 skirts, 1 pair of pants, 1 suit, 1 pair of overalls (why, oh why, did I still have those?!?), 10 t-shirts, 2 pairs of gym shorts, 8 pairs of socks, 7 pairs of shoes, a pair of pjs and 2 necklaces. Total: 12 things.

(Side note: You should see my closet. It's amaaaazing!)

Chad also went through his stuff. What went into the pile: 3 pairs of jeans, 2 sweatshirts, 2 sweaters, 5 dress shirts, 2 suits, 6 ties, 2 pairs of pants, 9 t-shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, 4 pairs of socks and 6 pairs of boxers.

TOTALS - Bedroom
Ellen: 12
Chad: 11

The extra bonus? I just plugged all the stuff we donated into ItsDeductible, which tracks our charitable contributions, and our "junk" is worth an $1,100 tax write-off! As Chad said, "That's free money." And not too bad for stuff that was literally just taking up space.

Next week: Bathrooms.

My excuse

See how I just snuck that blog post last night on you like it was any other night? No apologies for why I left you hanging for two weeks. No insight on our really riveting life. No excuses.

Well, I haven't exactly been just lounging around.

Last Monday, I left for San Francisco.

Then I blogged
and blogged
and blogged
and blogged
and blogged
and blogged
and blogged
and blogged

I was so blogged out I couldn't blog a sentence more.

And then I spent a fabulous two days with my California family. A late afternoon nap, a good book, an incredible excursion to a Berkeley supermarket (I'm so jealous - I want one!), and lots of great food. It was fun. I'm trying to talk Chad into spending a week there this summer.

And then I came home.

My favorite things, Part 4

Well, I wrote about My Favorite Things in Sept. '07, Feb. '08, and Jan. '09 (good GRIEF time flies!) so I suppose it's time for a update. Here's what I'm loving right now.

Amlactin: If you have really dry hands, this is good stuff. Rachel's dermatologist recommended it, and my hands haven't been this happy in years.

PowerSox: These are amazing socks if you do anything that requires speed (kickboxing and running, for me). I stumbled upon them a few weeks ago to replace my sad little holes-in-the-heel socks and am wishing I bought more than three pairs.

My new L.L. Bean hoodie: I was reintroduced to L.L. Bean after receiving the warmest gloves I've ever owned at Christmas (thanks, mom!). And then I got a catalog from them in the mail featuring a new women's line. Instead of looking about 30 years older than I feel, a lot of it was cute. So when Janice and I were at the mall a few weeks ago, I hunted down the only L.L. Bean in our area and tried one on for size. I've been wearing it practically ever since. Besides, who can't get behind this spring-y shade of green!?!

The Game of Things: Hilarious and good for all ages. Every time we play this (six or more people is preferable), I fall out of my chair laughing.

The song, "I'm Alive" by Kenny Chesney and Dave Matthews:

So damn easy to say that life's so hard
Everybody's got their share of battle scars
As for me I'd like to thank my lucky stars
I'm alive and well

The lyrics are a good reminder that we've all got issues. But at the end of the day, well, most of what we have is amazing.

Undercover Boss: New. Favorite. Show. CBS. Sunday nights.

The Happiness Project: I'm actually a little bitter about this book because I was going to call this blog "The Happiness Project" a few years ago but the name was already taken. Now I know why. Still, this is a great read and provides little tidbits on how to live happier, even if you're generally happy to begin with. The "commandment" I keep reminding myself is "Act the way you want to feel." If you have $15, buy this book. You'll read it more than once.

If you have ten more dollars, buy my second-favorite book I'm reading now, Throw Out Fifty Things, which walks you through each room of your house with a simple list of four ways to know if you should keep something or pitch it. Cathartic! (And if you buy both books together, the total is $25.27, good for free shipping from Amazon.)

PS: Hoodie from L.L. Bean, People magazine subscription, iPod headphones, two books = my Christmas money is nearly spent.

PPS: If you read either of these books, I want to know what you think!