thanks carron

tag, i'm it! i thought i would tag myself to do the christmas quiz that carron posted on her blog. need some christmasness!

Christmas Quiz

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Wrapping paper. preferably. not that i do a particularly good job of wrapping, but i like the whole process of it. but sometimes a gift bag is in order.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Real tree. i hate fake tree people.

3. When do you put up the tree?
when i get around to it. which happens to be tonight! better late than never.

4. When do you take the tree down?
after new year's sometime

5. Do you like eggnog?
to be honest, don't think i have ever even tried it!


6. Favorite gift received as a child?
i thought it was really cool when we got a ping pong table. i also really really loved this pink turtleneck with green horizontal stripes from Gap.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Ian. definitely.

8. Easiest person to buy for?
this year i am going to have to say dan is shaping up to be the easiest person to shop for.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
no.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail. was really bad this year and just didn't do it at all. tsk,tsk.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
in my mind you can never get a bad gift on christmas

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I have always loved White Christmas with bing crosby. and yesterday i watched Elf while wrapping presents and loved it! thats a new tradition. my favorite part is the meeting when the midget runs across the table to get at buddy who keeps calling him an Elf and Buddy is standing there wiggling his fingers, like, "come here, oooh look at you!" super funny.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
I usually start right after thanksgiving. i do a lot of it online.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
nope

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
i love this broccoli and cheese casserole that the Higgins side of the family makes using cream of mushroom soup. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

16. Lights on the tree?
white lights

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Sleigh Ride. we played it at the winter concert in high school for four years and i can still remember like every instrument's parts. makes me nostalgic.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
home to hoco.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
i am not allowed to open anything till christmas morning. mom's rules.

22. Favorite Christmas Tradition?
family. food. fun. dad putting lotto tickets in my stocking

23. Favorite ornament, theme or color?
i am a big fan of red glass stuff. i like that my mom got us ornaments each year growing up that had to do with something we did that year. its cool to look back and remember stuff when i see them. ( altho she stopped putting them up on the tree and that has pissed ian and i off for the past like five years. )

24. Favorite Christmas dinner?
broc casserole, salad, thinkly sliced roast beef

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
a camera so these posts aren't so damn boring!!!!

merry christmas everybody!

pictures pictures pictures

just kidding. there are no pictures. but there will be, i promise, after christmas! on sunday dan and i went into the city to walk around, see the tree and get the general christmas spirit with the millions of others who parade the streets of new york during this time of year...it was fun. saw an awesome sidewalk show of two drummers, one on a real set and one playing on large buckets...they were quite good. chowed down on all the new york favorites, hot dogs, soft pretzals and pizza and popped into the Joshua Tree to catch some afternoon football while enjoying a bloody mary. and some french fries (with bacon and cheese). the ferrry ride across the water heading back home was amazing, nothing quite like leaving NYC in darkness on a boat. the week is flying by! last night stopped into Outback Steakhouse for some grub. I crave their pumpernickle bread sometimes. and the whipped butter? like what is that?! its heaven, thats what it is. I had a chopped blue cheese salad, loaded baked potato and a cheeseburger. and a large blue moon. it was so good. only ate half the burger tho cause it was so much food. but it didn't go to waste, i ate the other half this morning on the way to work! anyhow, lotsa snow expected tomo night, can't wait!

Two Words

unlimited. sangria. all i want is my bed. had our office holiday party last night at The City Tavern, a place down the street from our office here in Elizabeth. great food served family style, garlic shrimp, calamari and baked clams to start, huge bowls of garlic oil linguini and penne vodka as a second course, chicken marsala, hanger steak with sauteed onions, Bacalao (spanish cod) and salad as the main dishes. so much food! the men in my office particularly like this restaurant because, in true elizabeth fashion, the waitresses (all Spanish and well, lets just say "well endowed") all wear the skimpiest clothing i have EVER seen. last night was no exception and their Santa's helper's outfits really added to the ambiance, let me tell you. maybe i'm just grumpy. i really want my bed. have a super weekend all!

Raw Meat.

so last night i went into the city to have dinner with my best bud sam. we have the same routine every time i go into the city, namely, we cannot ever decide where to eat. we sit in his apartment for a good half hour to forty-five minutes while he looks online picking out various places and then ruling them out. last night i said no rice and no italian. other than that, anything could go. so we decide on one place finally, the name escapes me, and when we get to the door of the restaurant we notice that its pretty much empty. even on a tuesday, in the city, that is never a good sign. we read over the menu again, tapas mostly, and i see one too many references to suckling pig. now i eat ham, and i get that ham is pig, but when you put the suckling in front of it, i'm done! can't help it. so anyhow, we leave. now we are on the street and back to square one. even a shaking of sam's iphone couldn't give us an idea. so we decided to go to an old staple, Les Halles.
Les Halles is a Parisian Brasserie that has locations not only in NYC but also in D.C. Its also the "home base" of Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential and host of The Travel Channel’s No Reservations. They make a great steak and frites. with bernaise sauce. delicious. i always get this. always except for last night. no last night i made the bizarre choice of ordering their steak tartar. yes, raw meat. i used to eat raw meat a lot with my ex-boyfriend's family, he's Syrian and his mom makes a version of it thats just so good. served with radishes and raw onion and you roll it up in some pita, mmmmmm. i digress. i guess i was missing that? so i ordered it. first of all it was like this huge mound of meat in a bowl. the waiter made it tableside which i thought was going to be cool, but i didn't actually end up paying attention when he came over. (he was a jerk by the way, total jerk.) bottom line: it wasn't like my ex-boyfriend's mom's. i looked longingly at sam's steak the whole dinner and ended up stealing some of his bernaise sauce for my french fries. they, at least, were good. we split a bottle of wine, a pinot noir, and had great conversation. thanks sam! (he didn't even mind me taking pictures of all the food. but none of them came out well, and the batteries died. i am asking for a new camera for christmas.)

really? top five?

so last night we run up to 7-11 ("sevs" as it is affectionately called) to grab a snack and as we are paying we see the large sheet of name brand rice crispy treats that they are selling next to the counter. Well first of all, really? parents are so lazy nowadays they can't even be bothered to make a pan of treats for their kids bake sale? they have to buy a sheet of the crappy name brand ones and cut them up? that poor kid who is the one who has to bring those in! how can that compete with the two inch thick, so much marshmellow they are almost white, greasy hand made ones?! (they still, like, have bake sales and stuff don't they? i got a little worried right there, thinking this may be a thing of the past. like everything else that has disappeared since i left high school.) ANYHOW, this led me to making the statement to Dan that rice crispy treats are in my top five favorite things which of course sparked, "Top five? really?!" hence, the blog list. cause i think he's right. i dont think it makes my top five. at least not today! can you name your top five? i'm just saying. its harder than you think.

stinky

thankfully, there is a kitchen on my office floor. complete with a stovetop. unfortunately for the rest of the office, I would have to say, I use it! and sometimes, end up stinking up the whole place. there was the burnt popcorn that sent everyone down the hall with their hands over their noses, the chicken breasts frying in butter that sent everyone down to see where the wonderful smell of butter was coming from, the black bean burgers that some were enticed enough to buy, the nachos for breakfast with extra extra cheese that had everyone wondering how i could eat anything at any time, and this morning, the egg salad. just finished mashing some freshly boiled eggs and am letting them cool in the icebox and have already gotten yelled at to "cover the damn things up!" OOPS! hee hee! food is fabulous.

oh yeah

and this could be the most boring-est looking site ever. i'll try to work on it!

the beginning of the end?

i really didn't want to start a blog. i just didn't! i really don't even want to read blogs. but. once in awhile i do. (damn you lauren.) and once in awhile i feel like i have something to say. so. here it is. can't tell you how often i will post or what the hell it will even be about, but here it is! The Dan man in my life says that one of my favorite things to say, (usually in response to him taking issue with something ELSE i have said), is "I'm just saying." For example, Me: "You know Dan you really shouldn't feel bad about really needing a morning Coke cause i just saw the drive thru line at dunkin donuts and its obscene!" Dan: "Actually, I don't feel bad." Me: "Well. I'm just saying." and so, my title! (I wish that he hadn't pointed out this particular habit of mine because i was perfectly happy not noticing how annoying i can be. cause i see now, i say this alot.)
alright. well its 10:50 and i have already had a banana on the drive in and salad when i got to work. it was a great salad i made the other night:
--spinach mix (wegman's has great salad mix, and its pretty cheap)
--chopped cucs
--chopped hard boiled eggs (only some yoke from each)
--sliced pears
--chopped celery
--chopped onions
--sauteed mushrooms
--shredded cheese
--apple cider vinegar

i find that with salads, nothing but a yummy flavored vinegar is necc if you have the right ingredients...the secret ingredient definitely is the sauteed mushrooms...sautee them in some olive oil till they are completely tender, let cool to room temp and then add. Wish i had a nut of some kind for this, but it was good nonetheless. and super healthy!
so. i am still hungry. i have serious eating issues while at work. unless i am in court, i just constantly need to munch. so i am off to make some nachos. and i heard there was cake in the office later for a secretary who is about to pop out a baby...i see this day as an opportunity to stretch my stomach for tomo! not that it has far to go. but hopefully i will be able to leave early so i can get in a run while it is still light out!
ok well thanks for listening to my first, and possibly only? blog!