New Year’s Eve’s Eve Birthday

Yesterday The Hubs turned another year older.  As usual, he refused any offers of celebration, going so far as to hope that no one at his new job realized it was his birthday (he was out of luck).  Silly Hubs!  I say live it up, but that’s not his style.

Instead, we continued what has become his usual birthday celebration – tacos, a gooey butter cake, and a quiet evening at home.

But, unable to ever leave well enough alone, I tried to take every opportunity to make the same ol’ same ol’ slightly more special.  My tasks began with the tacos.

Rather than use the typical store bought tacos, I used The Dish on Delish’s ungreasy taco recipe.  It’s really easy and I absolutely loved them.  You want the recipe?  Okay, in the spirit of celebration, I will share:

You start with regular corn tortillas.  Spray them with canola oil cooking spray [I sprayed them on both sides, so the spices would stick but the tortilla wouldn't].  Then sprinkle them with chili powder to taste and kosher salt.

Then drape the tortillas over a bar of your oven rack so that it creates a shell.

[Next time I'll drape the tacos over 2 bars each to make a wider shell base.]

Bake tortillas for 7-10 minutes at 375. So yummy!

[The Dish on Delish also has a yummy recipe for lean & spicy taco meat if you're interested - muy  delicioso.]

Once the homemade tacos were done, I set the table with all the fixins, another fancification.  The Hubs keeps it simple, adding only cheese to his tacos, so I usually don’t go to the trouble of worrying about other toppings for myself.  But for this fancy occasion, we had all the options.

After the even-tastier-then-usual meal, the celebration continued with gooey butter cake and presents. The gooey butter cake was too, well, gooey to put candles in, so instead The Hubs blew out the candles on the centerpiece:

Do you think the wishes will come true even if the candles weren’t on a cake?

And last but not least, the present:

If you ask me, this is The Hubs feigning surprise at his new replacement iPod [His old one broke a month or so ago and he has been "borrowing" mine ever since.  So really this was a gift to the both of us.].  He swears he didn’t know, but look at that face.  Doesn’t that look like a fake surprise to you?  Either way, he was definitely happy – even moreso that I did the dishes for him.

All-in-all it was a good New Year’s Eve’s Eve birthday, if I do say so myself. The nice thing is that, since today is New Year’s Eve, the festivities can continue – steak anyone?

An Election Marriage Metaphor

I don’t know what to say about last night’s election.  In part, I have too much to say to say much of anything.  I am overwhelmed with emotion and am elatedly hopeful about the future of our country, a feeling I haven’t had in my adult life (I was 18 during the 2000 election).

But I also know how the other side feels.  They are disheartened and uncertain.  They felt certain of their convictions and are discouraged to find that 53% of their country disagrees with them.  I get it.  And I get it because I’ve been there for the last 8 years.

I cried all night on election night 2004.  Admittedly, I was slightly over-emotional.  I think my youthful zeal ran amuck.  I also felt personally defeated that I had been unable to convince my then-fiancé to vote with me; the loss of that one vote was crushing to me.  I worried about the future of our country and about the future of my relationship with this man whose political beliefs seemed so far from mine.

But get this: both the country and my relationship with my now-husband made it through.  Yes, the country is worse for the wear, but The Hubs and I are all the better for working through and understanding our differences.  I married a fiscal conservative, and I’m okay with that.  And you know what: he voted with me last night. What a difference four years makes, right?

My point is this: difference is good. I’m almost (but not quite) glad that the Democrats didn’t get their 60 seats in the Senate because our country was built on a foundation of checks and balances where it’s not only important but a requirement to hear from and work with those who disagree with us.  Hubs and I have come to a political understanding because we worked to understand why we each feel the way we do and we accept our differences of opinions.

So by remembering the crying, frustrated girl I was 4 years ago, I have hope that our country can mend the immense political divide that has been created in the past 8 years.  Yes, your guy may have lost, and I am truly sorry for you and understand the need for a mourning period.  But I also truly believe that the guy who won is invested in working through our differences and getting out country to a place where we can respect and even be grateful for each other’s differences and not feel the need to move to another country because of them.

And, if nothing else, that is quite a victory.

Invasion of the Husband Snatchers

I might have mentioned this before, but my husband is not a morning person.  One of the best parts about having Potter is that now I can use him to wake up Dave rather than doing it myself because it is a huge pain.  And it’s no better when he knows he has to get up and sets his alarm clock to do so: he hits snooze as many times as possible and, when he finally gets up, he’s grumpy (or at least not spirited) for a couple of hours.  I, who am no less than a complete joy to behold in the mornings, find this annoying.

Which is why I’m looking into the possibility that something has body snatched my husband and replaced him with a replica.  Dave, swear to God, bounced out of bed when his alarm went off at 6:40 this morning and, after getting out of the shower and hearing my alarm going off, came into the bedroom to wish me a high-pitched good morning.  For a minute I thought I had woken up in opposite world where my dog is well-behaved, teachers of all kinds (even TAs) make good money, and my husband is a morning person.  But Potter is still a rotter and my bank account can attest to the shabby teacher salary, so it’s not that.  Must be a body snatcher.

The replacement body’s excuse is that today is his first day at this new job.  Actually (if I’m buying into this reasoning) I think it has less to do with being at the new job than it does with not being at the old job.  He is so thrilled to not have to deal with the everyday grievances that his old job presented him with.

So, body snatcher or not, I hope the new job lives up to Dave’s expectations.  Only time will tell.  In the meantime, I’m going to keep a running tally to see how long this bouncy-morning-person persona lasts.  If he’s this excited to wake up next week, I’m calling X-Files.

What, you don’t know?

I just realized that I haven’t told you all the “big news” yet.  This guy:

got a new job.  Yay, Dave!  As of a week from Monday, Dave will no longer be employed by State Farm and will, instead, be making sure they (and other insurance companies) comply with federal regulations at the Florida Office of Insurance Regulations (or at least I think that’s what his job entails; I know for sure the employer is right).  The best part about the new job for Dave is that it is step one on his path to becoming an actuary. But the best part about the new job for me is that it comes with awesome insurance.  And considering that we currently pay for insurance entirely out of pocket (read: lots of money, not so much coverage), I am particularly pumped about this.

In other changes in the Altmaier household, I have started eating “grown-up” cereal.  No more Fruit Loops  or Honey Nut Chex for me.  In an effort to eat more fiber and less sugar, I am now munching on Banana Nut Crunch.  I must tell you, this is a day I never thought would come.  Sigh.

You might also be interested to know that this guy:

is about to get to spend a whole weekend home alone, with no parental supervision.  Isn’t he a big boy?  Okay, that’s not entirely true.  But he is going to be home alone for most of a weekend.  The second weekend of October, Dave and I are going to Mt. Dora, Florida to spend the weekend with Dave’s grandfather; Dave and Papa will spend the weekend cycling while I read (for a change of pace) and hopefully do some shopping.  For the first time, we’re leaving Potter behind and entrusting him to the care of his new pet-sitter, Nida.  Nida will visit twice a day to feed him, play with him, and take him on a lengthy walk that will hopefully keep him so tired that he’ll forget that we’ve abandoned him.  Keep your fingers crossed.

And that’s about it.  I’m so absorbed in school these days that I was fairly oblivious to the fact that the price of gas in Tallahassee jumped to $5.50 last Friday and then even more oblivious when I didn’t realized that it had dropped back down again.  You might say I’m a wee bit busy.  But aren’t we all?

Heat Hate

It has been insanely hot here this week.  The heat indexes in the upper nineties (at the least) have seemed worse than usual because, for the past week or so, incessant rain has kept it quite cool.  And while usually Dave complains about the heat more than I do (running a lot everyday might have something to do with that), I have not been handling the heavy humidity well.  The short walk to my car gives me a headache, and I spend the rest of the day feeling run down and nauseous.  Not pleasant.

And who knows when the heat will let up, but I certainly foresee myself spending a great deal of time indoors for the next little bit.  At least that means I’ll have plenty of time to get some reading done.  On the other hand, I could take a sheet out of Dave and Potter’s book and spend my afternoons like this:

Pros and Cons

Pro: All of the cards, emails, general well-wishes, and a certain Cheesecake Factory gift certificate we received for our anniversary.  Thank you all for thinking so much of us.

Con: Ants.  Stupid. Little. Ants.  For those of you that don’t know, Tallahassee has huge ant hills all over it during the summer.  And for some reason the little buggers always seek out my feet and take out a big chunk.  Last year I started to be afraid to wear flip-flops to take Potter out.  The torture has already begun this summer; I have a dime-sized welt on my foot to attest to it.

Pro: There’s about to be an IHOP less than a quarter mile from my apartment! Woot!  Now, I know that IHOP is greasy and very much bad for me, but it’s oh so good.  And I’ve never lived in the same town as an IHOP, so it has always been a traveling/vacation bonus.  And now there’s one right next door!

Con: Fantasy baseball.  Or, specifically, Dave’s participation in and obsession with his fantasy baseball league.  It’s constant.  First thing in the morning? Check the fantasy team. First thing when we get home? Check the fantasy team. Right before bed? Check the fantasy team.  I think I’m about to have to form an intervention and take him to Fantasy Baseball-a-holics.

Pro: Yesterday I picked up some stargazer lilies on sale to put in our bedroom (I’ve gotten in the habit of having some fresh flowers in the house most of the time). Now our bedroom smells awesome and I’m reminded of our wedding every time I walk in there (stargazer lilies made up the majority of my bouquet).

Con: Kilz paint. Today we helped a friend primer the interior of his new home (and were happy to do so).  Because the previous owners were heavy inside smokers (you could see the outline of the bed in their master bedroom because of the smoke stain), he used Kilz paint primer to neutralize the smell.  Now Kilz absolutely did its job and they will be much more comfortable in their new house because of it.  But the fumes were absolutely toxic.  I’ve had a headache and slight dizziness the rest of the day because of it.  If you need to use the paint, go for it.  But be sure to have great ventilation and maybe only work on one room at a time rather than the whole house.

Pro: We have been having a ton of rain here this week.  We’ve gotten at least an hour or two of good, hard rain every day since Thursday. So the weather (when it’s not raining) has been incredibly comfortable lately: perfect for walks with my dog.

Con: Potter is very, very gassy today.