Summer flavors

Have you ever tried Strawberry flavored Cool-whip?
If you answer no, I’m gonna have to say you are seriously depriving yourself.

It seems that it’s only sold in certain stores, and I usually only see it in the spring/summer months….but oooooh my, it is wonderful.

I love Love LOVE summer fruit, and right now our fridge is jam-packed with some of the best. Canteloupe, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, grapefuit, etc. It’s like a mini-market open just for me. I snack on it all day. Mmmmm.

And just to sweeten things up….I added the Strawberry Cool-whip to the mix. Dip your strawberries in that, and see if you can walk away. Impossible. Or add a little ‘dollop’ to some chocolate pudding. Deeelicious. Or crumble up some oreos and make a little snack. Ummm, you know how I feel about Oreos. You could even use it as a light ‘icing’ on a cupcake. Yah, it’s that good.

Just thought I’d let you in on this little secret. It’s out there, and it’s SO good.

Two in one

All of a sudden I get lots of mail. I don’t know when this started, and a lot of it is junk, but it comes every day. This is pretty unusual for me while I’m home. I’m sure some of it can be attributed to the fact that I finally did my “change of address” thing online with the Post Office. (Did you know you could do that online?! Gah, lucky for me because I definitely didn’t think about that before leaving PA for the summer. dumb.) It’s not all bad stuff though; I do get a magazine or two (CookingLight!, Kraft!, etc.), and a load of useless things from the Alumni Association, and a card from the boys I babysat for during school (soooo cute!).

And today, I got two in one. Two packages, in one day. Ooh happiness!

First package: Birthday randoms from the bf, Jack. Yayyyyy! He’s awesome at making packages. We never actually get to celebrate birthdays together, especially for the time being since he’s ummm about 10 states away (ehhhhh. not fun.). So instead, we come up with some kick-ass random things to give each other in a big ol’ box-of-fun. Two things are guaranteed to be included: candy and pictures. You simply can’t go wrong with either. I encourage you to try, it won’t happen. I loooove candy, and uhh…I’m not gonna lie…we take some pretty damn good pictures.

Second package: wonderfulness from Forever 21!! This didn’t come until like 8 o’clock tonight (didn’t know the UPS man was still out and about? what a night owl.), and I had kind of forgotten about it. I only ordered these things last week, I guess, but that feels so long ago. Well, I obviously had to go try everything on. Because that’s what you do when you have about 10 new items just sitting in your hands. Yessss! They all fit, they are all as cute as they appeared online, and they are all being washed so they don’t have that weird packaged smell anymore. Ew. Except the earrings, necklace, and scarf….which I’m still wearing and adoring.

I have to return one of the tank tops I bought at Target today. Apparently, after a week, I forgot what I ordered online. I must have really wanted a green ribbed tank top, because now I have two. Uh, oops.

A Cosmo cured me

SJP would be so proud.

Last night my friend and I decided to go see “Wanted”, and grab a drink before the show. I sort of threw the idea out there without thinking about it, that’s usually what we do before a movie. There are a few restaurants right by the theaters, so it just works. Although one time we skipped the movie because the bartender gave us a free round of drinks, and we figured that sounded like more fun.

We walked into the restaurant that she works at and sat in a booth by the bar. The girl making the drinks was kind of new to the job….this we did not know. I usually order something simple-vodka tonic, rum and diet, ya know…-but my poor appetite for drinking was hovering over me. So, I decided I might as well make it something interesting.

We’ve been in total S&TC mode over here, since my mom has never seen the all the episodes, so obviously I went with the Cosmo.

Our waitress put our drink orders in and the bartender laughs and looks at us…. “Um, if these taste funny just let me know! I’ll just make them again…”

My mouth sure was quick to respond…”Ha, oh no worries! You can just make em’ strong, we won’t complain!”

Huh, don’t know where that came from. I mean, it was Sunday. We were going to a movie, and I really had no interest in getting a buzz or anything. Just wanted a tasty little drink. Ehhhhh.

Well, she did just that. Nice and strong, but a taaasty Cosmo. Thats only the second time in my life I’ve ever ordered one. Mostly because they can be a little pricey $$, and I’m usually thinking ‘Eh, just give me whatever will cost me about $3!” Yup, I’m a cheap date. I don’t like the fruity stuff, I like the simple stuff. Oh yah, and uhh, the last time I ordered a Cosmo……well, that’s just a whooole different story. Gah.

Anyway. My tasty little cosmo may have been the cure to my drinking dilemma. Just leave it at one, sip slowly and enjoy.

On another note-has anybody seen “Wanted” ?? What’d you think?

A little on the crazy side??? Yah, me too.

The week-long hangover

I went out last night with one of my friends. She was feelin’ a Happy hour adventure at Chili’s, and seeing as today marked the start of my ‘work week’ I figured I should take the opportunity to go out for a little bit. Despite the fact that the thought of a drink still repulses me. Gah, 4th of July, what have you done to me….

In my head I’m thinking, hmmmm….does the half price still count if I only order a glass of tonic? How weird would tonic taste by itself? Will I forever be the person who goes to happy hour and only gets one drink?

No. Probably not. But seriouslyyy, something was in that fifth that is not sitting well with me. Fifths of vodka are most definitely not meant to be almost finished by one girl. No no no. Ew ew eeewwwww.

I haven’t had this attitude towards drinking since my freshman year of college. The first time that Em & I were introduced to the concept of an ‘open bar’….at the young age of 19.  And she had to pick me up in the morning, wearing a borrowed pair of sweatpants under her dress. While I walked home still in a dress & heels, in a fresh four inches of snow. By about seven the next night my toes had thawed out and I think I was finally sober again. And totally thought “omg, i’m neeever drinking again.”. Yes, well, lesson learned huh?

Anyway. I guess I could just call the ‘having one drink during happy hour’ being responsible, since I did have work today at 7 a.m. Yup, we’ll go with that.

Next weekend, after the race, I told my parents that we were going to set out on a mission. Find a bar/restaurant. Somewhere to get dolled up for, have a tasty drink, and enjoy a deliiicious dinner after a good long race. Doesn’t that sound like a good night? Oh yes, definitely. This is only considered a “mission” because we’ll be in Utah. In a very small town, that just happens to be right along a scenic highway (perfect setting for a race.). Still clueless? It’s umm, well, very religious. Not so into the whole ‘drinking’ scene. Puts a little damper on the plans.

And then here comes along this current sober-ness (not such bad timing though, you really shouldn’t drink leading up the race….)….and all of a sudden I could care less what we do next Saturday night. Well, that’s not completely true. I REALLY want to see the new Batman movie (“The Dark Knight”). Anybody with me? Seriously. Can’t. Wait.

I’m two weeks away from my 22nd birthday. If I haven’t ‘recovered’ by then, we might have an issue. Not cool Smirnoff, go intoxicate  (and nauseate) somebody else.

Please don’t stop the Muuusic

Rihanna knows what I’m talkin’ ’bout…

I did my last “long” run today, which is really the last real training I’ll do before the race (next weekend!). I set off for my 1 hr 30+ min of jogging business, and stopped dead in my tracks when I looked down at my iPod. It was about to go dead. Extremely low battery. Oooh no. This cannot happen.

Not only does my iPod provide my ‘jams’ to run along with, but it’s my timer. And these long runs are sort of (really) crucial to the training process. This being my last one before the race, I wanted to know that I ran the certain amount of time. Without the iPod, I have nooo idea how long I’ve been running. I don’t have a watch (weird, I know. they bug me.), and it’s not like there are huge clocks all over saying “hi heather! you’ve been running _____ this long. go you!”. That’d be pretty nice though….

Anyway. I stopped, turned right around, and charged her up. I gave it about 15 minutes, hoping that would charge it enough. I don’t really know how long it takes to charge 100%….anybody? I’ve never noticed. Hmmm. When I pulled it off it had about 80% charge. Works for me!

As I started running, I wondered how long it’d last. During the first race I did, it was fully charged and it crapped out on me with about 2 miles to go. I wasn’t expecting that, but figured it had to happen eventually. So, today I realized that without a full charge, around 1 hr 15 min or so, it’d probably do the same thing. Eh, Dangit. Didn’t think about that.

My quick fix was to just turn it off for a little while. I’d much rather have the music keep me going at the end of the run, and have the clock alive to tell me how long I’ve actually been goin’ around. So for the first few miles I ran in silence….

…………..

….Wow. Haven’t done that in a looong time. I wasn’t dying or anything, but it was just weird. So quiet. And I could hear the cars zooming past me. And I could hear myself breathing….Ehhh, I hate that.

Boooringggg.

I went on like this for about two miles. And I thought of Rihanna, and what a good point she has. Then I finally turned up those jaaaams. Ah, so much better.

All for nothing, really. At the end of the run, over an hour and a half later, there was plenty of charge left to spare. Who knew. My little iPod is quite a trooper. Still goin’ strong after three years. Yessss.

Oh, and now I totally want to go download “please don’t stop the music”. It’ll go right onto my “running” playlist.

That itch you can’t scratch….

It’s been a while since I’ve gone shopping. Or even had time to think about shopping. Or had the opportunity to actually do some real shopping.

As soon as I start to get actual money saved up, it seems as though I just want to spend it. Ehhhh.

On that note, does anybody else feel like all they do on their days off is spend money?? Hmmm, not good.

I’m getting all kinds of restless with my clothes, and there is literally NO decent shopping to speak of within a 100 mile radius. I’m not kidding. We have two department stores in our mall (Sears does not count. No no no)….Dillards and JC Pennys. Not that these aren’t usually decent stores, but umm….not here. Here it’s like the C-list stuff that the other stores didn’t sell/want/need. At least that’s my take on it. Probably not too far off.

The closest “real” shopping is in a city about 3 hours away. And uhhh, with two SUVs around here, nobody is lookin to pay for the gas to drive three hours, just to spend money, and then drive back. Well….I’m not….not with the budget I’ll be on next year (daaaaangit).

Anyway. My madre and I had to go out to the mall today, and I wanted to stop at a cheap jewelry store to see if I could find anything. I just had that ‘itch’, I wanted something new, something fun, something I probably don’t need but want to be excited about anyway. Even if it costs $5, I dooon’t care. But guess what, I didn’t see anything. Not. one. thing. Gah.

So then we went to Target…..always a sure-thing that I’ll find something there! And guess what? The only things I bought…? A card, gum, and Hershey’s dark chocolate kisses (not to be overlooked, they are deeeelicious). Ehhhhh.

Obviously, something had to be done. And that something involved the internet, searching, and page browsing. Oooh yes, who could forget about ONLINE shopping?! All the great stores, brands, categories, sales, etc that you need. So wonderful.

Thanks to the loveliness that is Forever21.com, I have 9 purchases coming to me in 5-10 business days, for less than $70. (can you handle all those numbers? Yesssss). And that includes shipping. Goooo me! I gotta admit, I was pretty satisfied with myself. And pretty damn excited to finally have some new items to look forward to.

A few of which included these lovely things…..

(Jen! I totally thought of you when I saw this scarf! )

Aaand a few other things. But I didnt’ feel like saving all the pictures and uploading them. But I’m exciteddd for some new stuff!

(afterthought:: I wonder how many people will find this post during a Google-search for vagasil? Uhhh, sorry if I have mislead you.)

Hangin’ at Havana Beach

LB’s friends have this expression “______’s (insert name) in London!!”
They use this to describe somebody who is faaaar gone. Meaning drunk. Veryyyy drunk.
You have left the sober world, and entered, uhhh London?
You get it, right? Right.

We had a 4th of July party on Friday at our casa. Lots of family friends, food, drinks, water-balloon launching off our deck…you know, the works.

And where was I on Friday night? Oh, I was hangin’ at Havana Beach.

((Recipe: Rum, pineapple juice, and a splash of ginger ale))

After about five too many drinks, it was definitely an interesting fiesta. And an interesting day at the hospital on Saturday. Ehhhhh. I had to take a 20 minute nap in a “meditation room” (how appropriate, I know), because I barely had the energy (coordination, balance….) to walk from room to room. Seriously, Not Good.

According to my sister, when you wake up saying “Omg, I’m never drinking. Ever. Again.”…..that’s when you know you had a good night! Ha. Not so sure I agree, but we’ll roll with it….

Even though I wasn’t allowed to hold a sparkler, it was a fun little party. It’s kind of a tradition around our house to have a ’summer’ party-whether it’s at the beginning, for the 4th, or in August. This is the first time in a few years that we’ve all been able to come home for this weekend, so we went all out. Unfortunately I was also working every day, but I survived.

Yes, this last one is juuust in case you were wondering what exactly a ‘water balloon launcher’ is. Um, it’s exactly what it sounds like. And what is the boy’s faaavorite activity at dinner parties? Launching water balloons. Yup. Actually, it’s really entertaining to watch. Sometimes they go about two feet and get them all soaked. Sometimes it goes about 300 yards and we are all like “oooooh”. Sometimes it hits the target they are aiming for (shed at the park, down below), and then we’re Really impressed.

p.s. I’m in the white, the Sis is in green. Yes, we look alike.

Anyway.
Hope you all had a funnnn holiday weekend!

Easy as 1-2-3

We always have a ‘desert’ around the kitchen. It’s dangerous, really, but mmmm So good.

I’m not a huuge fan of brownies, just because I get sick of the chocolate taste. Really, just a liiittle too much. So I’d rather mix it up a little bit. Peanut butter on top? Walnuts? Caramel drizzle? It all works. It’s all delicious.

Little did I know, hiding on the back of the Betty Crocker Brownies box….is the most amazing recipe brownie recipe everrrr (sick of hearing the word ‘brownie’ yet?). Just sitting right there in front of me, all this time. I never noticed it, until last week……

Cookies n’ Cream Brownies

Click here to get the recipe. Basically, it goes like this….

1) Mix and Bake the brownies as directed. (Only exception: use a 13 x 9 pan)

2) Cover the top with vanilla frosting. Go crazy, use as much as you want.

3) Top it off with crumbled “chocolate cream-filled sandwich cookies”. Aka: Oreos!!!! Gah, I love Oreos. They can seriously do no wrong. If a recipe involves Oreos, it should come with a warning::watch out, get what you want now! Because Heather will consume ALL of it.

Looking for a quick and easy desert for a 4th BBQ…here ya go! Who doesn’t love brownies? And really, who doesn’t love Oreos?

Happy 4th of July!

Now, go make a drink and have a brownie. Yummm.

Honest to Golf

The truth? Ugh, I’m no good.

I went out for the second time today with the padre. We were joined by my brother and his gf. She’s my buddy and not great either, but she definitely beat the crap out of me (we weren’t actually keeping score, but I know I did Not do good. Oh, no.).

I’m trying. Really reallyyyy trying. Golf is, um, reallyyy hard. Nobody warned me of this. I didn’t think it was super easy, but gaahhh.

My Dad is serving as my coach, it’s his natural tendency. He’s pretty darn good at this golf thing, so I’m taking the advice as it comes. But there’s just so damn much to think about. This is generally how my thoughts would read, before EACH swing (tee off, hit, chip, putt, whateeever)…..

“Watch the ball..”
“Use your hips, and rotate with your back…”
“Keep your shoulders straight….”
“Don’t swing with your hands…”
“Let your left hand pull through…”
“Keep your hands in front of the ball…”
“Left hand on top, wrap your right around”
“Visualize your swing…”
“Don’t swing too hard, let the club do the work…”
“Follow through in one line…”
“Swing down, hit the ball…not the dirt under the grass, or the air above it…”
“Aim with your feet and the rotation of your hips…”
“Push the weight off your right foot, and end with it on your left…”
“Don’t stand up while you swing, stay low, don’t lock your knees…”

Yes. I’m totally serious. I have learned that ALL of these things are what makes a golf swing good. Or great, if you’re lucky. Usually I’m not, but every once in a while I get this freak-beautiful-shot that goes into the air and sails right to where it’s supposed to be. Ah, what a feeling. Watching that stupid white round thing fly.

Don’t even get me started on the ‘putt’. It’s completely different. But I’m not too bad in that area.

I’m not giving up just yet, although I did “quit” a hole or two today. Ehhhh. Oops. I’m not proud of this, but ya know what? The course was busy and people were behind us and that stressesss me out. So, instead, I just picked up that little white ball and walked it up to the green. Things are much easier that way.

No, really though. I will keep going. I’ll get better. In the words of my very wise Padre, “You didn’t learn to play the piano by just doing scales. But you did have to start with them.” (in reference to why I need to go to a driving range so I can get used to my ’swing’). Gotcha’ Dad. You’re a good teacher, so I’ll keep practicing, and I’ll get there. I may not have your 12 handicap anytime soon…..the goal for now is just to hit the ball every time I swing. That’s not too much to ask, right? Ehhhh.

Just a few rain drops

I’ve been home for over a month, and today…for the first time…it rained.

The night sky has been a dark grey for the past week or so, teasing us with the smell of rain, but never delivering. I thought after four years of Pennsylvania weather, I would never care if I felt rain again. I forgot what the desert can do to you…..

Just the smell made me wish it would just start spontaneously pouring. As much as I actually hate when it does that (what if you’re out?! what if you forgot your umbrella and you get soaked?! what iiiiif? ugh.), I do miss the rain.

I spent most of the morning sitting on our deck with my crossword and my new book. It was a clear blue sky and a verryyyy warm 100 degrees. Around three o’clock the clouds started rolling in from the North. I could smell it. Fresh rain, on its way. The lightning was going, the wind started up–everything in the mix for the perfect summer storm.

This is what makes the desert so different. It was like two completely different days. Morning-hot desert sun, no wind and not a cloud in sight. Then….all of a sudden, it’s there.

My Mom and I decided to go for a walk, hoping (actually, assuming) it wouldn’t rain. Since, uh, it never does.

As we finished and started walking up the hill to our house, I was a little disappointed. I thought maaaybe, just maybe, we would get at least a few drops. And I said “I’m kinda sad it never rained…”.

Cue: HUGE rain drops. Falling. On me. Yesssssss.

It started dripping, and then actually raining. Huge, huuge rain drops. Coming straight down and dotting the sidewalk. It was beautiful. In perfect desert fashion, it lasted about 2 minutes, and stopped. But, oh, did it feel good.