Life's about the little things ...

Yesterday, when we went to the city to visit our youngest for the day. We were strolling down a sidewalk and met a couple and their two children coming the opposite direction . . . just as we were about the pass them . . the little boy (about 3), gasps loudly, throws out his arms to stop everyone and looks down.

Walking across the sidewalk was a ladybug.

What a shame that we forget as we grow to take delight in the smallest of things. It made me smile for the rest of the day.

So, as your start your week . . filled with work, family and life in general.

Don't forget to see the ladybugs!

I smell like an Italian restaurant . . .

I planted ONE basil plant in my garden this year, and despite the Oklahoma drought, I was rewarded with a HUGE basil shrub!  So, with nothing better to do today, I set out to make Pesto.

The house smells AMAZING!  I now have a quart of fresh pesto in freezer waiting for wintertime food adventures (if it makes it that long)

Here's the recipe if you want to try it yourself. Very easy, VERY rewarding!

It starts with simple ingredients, fresh basil leaves, fresh garlic cloves, toasted pine nuts, freshly grated Pecorino (or a mix of pecorino, parmesan and romano)  and a good olive oil.

Ingredients
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts (toasted in a dry pan)
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (I use the garlic infused from Whole Foods bulk isle)
1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese (I like using the 3 cheese blend from Whole Foods (pecorino, parmesan and romano)
Fresh ground black pepper and sea salt, to taste

Wash fresh plucked leaves and spin in a salad spinner. 

I stuff my bullet blender with 2 cups of leaves, the fresh garlic, the pine nuts, the cheese and olive oil. You could also use a food processor, but I think a regular blender would yield a "chunkier" pesto.

I spin it all until I get a nice smooth paste. The finished pesto is smooth, green and oh so good!

I finished it by stirring in the sea salt and pepper to taste and then pack it all into one container for the freezer! I like one container, easy to chip out what you need with a fork . . . or you could freeze in ice cube trays for a more controlled serving. I don't like the cubes myself . . they freezer burn too easy.

Enjoy!   I am now thinking of what I can do with the rest of the herb garden . . hmmmmmm!

I adore random wrong numbers and telemarketers . . . it is an open invitation for serious FUN

I am minding my own business this morning, drinking a cup of coffee, catching up on the Olympics and I get a text on my cell phone from (I googled it) some New York cell phone number.

So, I thought I would play along . . hey . . I had nothing better to do.

Here's how the conversation went . . . (I'm in the blue . . )

I thought they wanted to play . . .  making sad face now  :(

The great circle of life and friendship . . .

(grab a cold one, settle in a comfy chair . . this is liable to be a LONG one folks)

"Friends"

Have you ever given much thought about WHERE you have gathered those close to you? As to exactly when and where you and a certain person became "friends" in the first place?

I have given that much thought recently . . in the matter of a mere week, I tearfully held the hand of one friend and said goodbye as he lost his battle with cancer and joyfully hugged another hello . . . all the space of 7 days. Life is SO amazing.

Be it Divine intervention, Fate, Karma . . . whatever you want to call it . . I consider it to be both amazing and humbling.

Let me tell you several stories, that eventually weave themselves into one.

Both, in part begin with Facebook and Farmville . . yep, Farmville . . that annoying game that clutters up your Facebook feed with requests from virtual "friends" for things like cows, trees and imaginary bones for imaginary dogs.

I began playing Farmville several years ago. Something I SWORE I wouldn't do . . but it sucks in you slowly . . an addiction worse than crack I swear. First it starts off with completing a few simple tasks then to get any further in the game you must have "friends" . . when you run out of real friends . . the flesh and blood ones you already know and can talk into it . . you eventually start asking complete strangers to be your "friends" so you can get more stuff, to grow bigger crops and a bigger farm.

These people must first be Facebook friends . . . and that is truly where the interesting thing happens. Your learn a LOT about people from Facebook . . it is impossible to not show your soul somewhere along the line (at least for me LOL) . . . you post pics of your kids, your family, your home, your life and over the course of time . . the virtual friends begin to feel like friends you have known your entire life . . not all of them . . but MANY do. I think it is simple human nature to reach out to others in time of great joy and great need.

I have a LOT of Facebook friends, many I know in person . . and many, many more that were gathered along the virtual path that I have never met face to face . . but feel I would defend with my life if it came down to it. Some are here in Bristow . . ones that I have never met but believe me, am planning to now!

Today . . I got to meet one, in the flesh in person . . . and it was like hugging someone I have known forever. Isn't life grand?

I got my best friend Kitty shamelessly hooked on Farmville (addictions are better shared you know) and somewhere along the way we ended up with a lot of the same "virtual" friends . . the ones you can count on to send you a cow when you really needed it or to feed your pigs or play with your virtual dog.

There are several people we both immediately bonded with . . those people that you meet on the road in life and stop with amazement and say . . "Hey, I know you . . you're like me"

Eventually, you start chatting on Facebook with these new friends . . you comment on their kids, their likes their dislikes . . you somehow become invested in their lives and you share in their joy and their pain and reach out virtually to comfort when the need arises. We both became equally attached to a wonderful person named Michelle Wheatcraft . . . about our age, same likes, dislikes, quirky sense of humor and adventure and often talked about just getting in the damn car, driving to Pennsylvania and knocking on her door LOL . . we're known to do shit like that.

So . . . in the course of many conversations over several YEARS, I discovered that Michelle had relatives in Oklahoma.

So here is where the story comes full circle . . . last week I held the hand of a very good friend while he lost his battle to cancer . . . Ronald Schmidt, a.k.a. local DJ, Dusty Edwards. We bonded 18 years ago when I first moved to Oklahoma with a common background in the County Music industry. I promised him I would be with him to the end . . and I was. We spent countless hours driving to and from various doctor appointments in deep conversation about all types of subjects . . life, love, friendship and including of all things. . . Farmville . . he was my Farmville neighbor too . . I was telling him about a lady I met on Facebook and with Farmville and was telling him about her brother who along with his partner, own a bar in Tulsa (this is where Fate intervenes I believe . . ) and low and behold, he actually knew her brother and had DJ'd parties at his bar. When I told him that his sister was flying to Tulsa for her brother's 50th birthday . . Dusty was SO excited for me, and was looking forward visiting their bar again, with me in tow LOL (said I would need a body guard and he was it . . period) I'm sorry to say we didn't have the chance to do just that. Dusty lost his battle last week. I got to hold his hand, I stayed to the end . . that is what friends do.

And today . . I got to come full circle and hug a new friend hello! Life is funny that way. I think sometimes you just have to be open to the possibilities and see what is already in front of you. Through Dusty, I have bonded with several people in town that were mere acquaintances . . that I now consider to be dear friends. Through Farmville, I have turned virtual friends into REAL ones . . . and somehow managed to find ONE that we both had something in common with. How many kinds of wonderful is that.

Michelle and I spoke on the phone for the first time several days ago and made plans to meet in person when she was in Tulsa. . and she said something in the course of the conversation that terrified me for DAYS. She said "I hope you are in fun in person as you are online" . . and I thought "Oh God . . what if . . " What if we meet and we don't like each other? What if we sit there and have NOTHING in common after all and NOTHING to talk about? OMG . . I called Kitty . . and was almost in tears (she is my voice of reason, and I hers) . . she assured me everything would be JUST fine and by they way . . she hated me because she couldn't meet her too.

We agreed to meet at a local Irish pub, a favorite haunt of mine . . filled with memorable comfort food from my childhood (since I hail from an Irish from the insides out family LOL) . . it was a "safe" place for me . . and a lovely place to make new friends!

From the moment she walked in and we placed a bear hug on each other . . it was non-stop conversation . . . I am in LOVE. She IS like me . . and I am like her and this is what makes this great world go round!! Three hours flew by, accompanied by great food and pints of Guinness . . life is GOOD. To quote something I once heard . . ."time seemed to grow wings and fly".

I brought her a necklace . . a full circle fashioned from the Claddagh . . where two hands make a complete circle and symbolizes love and friendship. (I was going to buy her a cow . . for the Farmville thing . . but a Claddagh just seemed more "right")

We have made plans to meet again hopefully in May . . to take a two week road trip from Pennsylvania to New Orleans . . not making any plans to do anything special other than let the road be our guide (a dream of hers) . . and we're bringing Kitty too, since she couldn't be here today . . she's NOT getting out of the next meeting. . . then I will drag her ass up and down the Appalachian trail for a week of hiking and camping on the trail (a dream of mine).

So here's to old friends I will truly miss . . new ones I have met . . and ones I have yet to meet (so . . . watch out Scott LaCombe . . Kitty, Michelle and I know where you live . . thanks to Facebook . . you never know who might come knocking on your door! . . and we ARE planning on it).

Eeek . . .but it's "Healthy Food"

My girlfriend Kitty and I were just discussing this issue yesterday . . . about nutrition labels and portions and how food companies try to trick us (and succeed).

This is a product that I have bought many, many times . . although not in the last year or two.

I picked up a bag the other day . . . without looking at the label first . . a NO NO in my book these days, but I was in a hurry . . and you know how that goes.

You sprinkle this tasty mix on your salads that contains fruit and nuts to make them tasty and more interesting . . healthy right? wrong, wrong, WRONG!!

THIS why we read labels . . and THIS is why you need a food scale! It's really easy to look at this and say "oh, it has fruit and nuts and is ONLY 30 calories" (this is where they get you by the short hairs ...)

Look at the SERVINGS too ... there are SIXTEEN of them in this little 4 oz bag! Lets do the math ... 30 x 16 is 480 whopping calories . . added to your healthy bowl of lettuce and vegetables (and we haven't added the dressing yet ... EEK)

I remember making a salad for dinner for my husband and I and adding the entire bag between us . . it was NOTHING on the salad it seemed . . just a little extra crunch and flavor. That being so . . each one of us was adding an additional 240 calories, 12 grams of fat, 40 carbs and 32 grams of sugar . . . in the words of the infamous George Takai . . . OOHHHH MYYYYY!

Below is what a 7 gram serving actually looks like . . . would that fill you up? Me too neither!

And the really insulting thing is that it says on the front . . Great for Snacking . . the package contains less than two of my handfulls . . . a supposedly good snack.

The moral of this rant is . . this is why you READ YOUR LABELS, and compare SERVING SIZES to nutrition data and do the math . . then think about how you can do it healthier! Fresh non-sugary walnuts and fresh fruit (dried fruit packs a concentrated sugar whallop) . . . not only tastes better, it fills you up faster. Buy a good food scale too, one that weighs in grams and ounces and tares out the weight (meaning can stick a bowl on it, zero it out, add an ingredient . . and zero it out and so on).

They are cheap, easy to use and you will wonder how you lived so long without one!!

Losing my marbles . . .

Wow! It's been since June that I played with my blog? Bad, bad, bad Grace!!! LOL

Let me start the new year off with my losing my marbles!!

Last January . . . after living for several months with the most awful pain in my right shoulder . . I finally gave in, quit whining about it and went to see my doctor. He confirmed what I already knew deep down . . I tore a tendon in my shoulder (lifting heavy things like railroad ties and fence posts . . without being warmed up and by being OUT OF SHAPE).

He put me into supervised physical rehab 3 days a week . . which turned out to be a turning point for me. I have struggled with my weight for YEARS . . . trying this diet and that one, only to lose some then gain it back when I quit the diet.

Part of the rehab of my shoulder were a series of strength training exercises to improve the range of motion I have lost . . much like regular circuit training in a gym. Much to my amazement . . my body responded to it like it was MADE to do this sort of thing . . who knew??. My therapist Gordon worked both sides of my body to create a balance and through this . . I lost weight . . . by doing NOTHING but exercising. Wooo . . did a light just go off in MY head. I knew all all this was possible . . I was an athlete in high school and college . . but somewhere along the way . . I fell out of this groove.

Soooo . . long story shortened (as much I can can . . . I love to ramble ya know) . . I went straight from rehab to a personal trainer . . same three days a week . . same 30 minutes each session.

I have LOST 70 pounds and 45+ inches to date!! Woo Hoo!!! just by weight lifting . . very little cardio (weights are where it's AT girls . . .) although I have fallen in love with kickboxing . . . especially when I am allowed to hit a real person (scary what that might say about me . . LOL).

My weight yo-yo's . . up, down, up, down . . . but eventually still down. I don't stress about it . . . I'm really in NO HURRY. I no longer DIET, or stress about it . . I JUST LIVE!

I KNOW NOW THAT THIS JOURNEY IS FOR LIFE! And I have met some of the most amazing people along the way (what a bonus!)

That brings us back to the marbles . . . goals are good! and sometimes I need reminding just how far I have come and how far I have to go.

Sooooo . . . on my kitchen window sits TWO jars . . one for representing pounds I have lost (one marble . . one pound) and one with pounds I need to lose. For ME . . it keeps me grounded and in check (and pisses me off from time to time when the marbles clink into the WRONG jar dammit) . . . but it makes it fun (and I'm all about FUN!!)

So here's for losing your marbles!!! (for the RIGHT reasons . . LOL)