CheezyOranges

Saturday, we celebrated Greg’s Mom’s birthday. We went to Mount Dora and ate lunch at the British Tea shop, which had some awesome mushroom & brie soup, and we all had tea which was fun and the soup was excellent. Afterwards, we looked around in the various shops. There is a doggie bakery there, and they also sell some kitty treats. Thinking it a *great* way to get some real meat into Sylvanis for a change (seeing as even though I picked the best I could, her food still contains an exorbitant amount of corn, meal, and wheat instead of MEAT) I bought some freeze-dried salmon treats. I fed her one as soon as we got home and she gobbled it up. I was happy.
Fast forward to last night. Kitty is trying to pee all over everything, and I look and there’s mucus in her urine again, meaning she’s starting to get another UTI. I hit myself stupid over the head. SALMON IS ONE OF THE FOODS THAT CAUSES PH IMBALANCE AND MAKES CATS HAVE UTI! AUGHGH! So I threw them away, ran to the store for some fresh kitty litter and fancy feast. I got the really really expensive kind with meat and eggs and no fish! She ate quite a bit of the white meat and egg florentine last night. She got turkey and greens this morning. Hopefully, the extra liquid and total lack of fishy requisites will clear up her system like it did the last time. I’ve come to the realization that she’s just touchy on these things, so as long as it doesn’t persist/get worse, there’s no need to see TED. *bangs head on wall*

An Amazing Evening!

The day started out fairly normal. I got up, went to work, lunch, but I came home at 3:15 so that Greg and I could leave early to head to Titusville and then Melbourne. We stopped in Titusville first because there’s a restaurant there called Dixie Crossroads that Greg has been raving about. So we headed down 50 and made our way there.

Firstly, the place was decorated with murals and they had a fish pond out front filled with big, dull eyed fish who wanted food. And pigeons. There were lots of pigeons there too.

Inside, it was really friendly and happy - very coastal. We sat in a big booth and ordered our food. Greg had crab legs and scallops and some shrimp (they had a multitude of combo plates) and I had fish and veggies on the side. It was yummy, and their “corn fritters” were more like corn doughnuts. They served them covered in powdered sugar. Except for eating too many fritters, the whole meal was really good for my diet. So good! When we’re done eating, Greg says there’s a really awesome Indian restaurant out there too. So, if we’re out that way any time we’ll probably stop there, if we can find it.

After dinner, we made our way towards Melbourne. Unfortunately, when we got to Dixie Crossroads, it started raining, and it was spitting at us all night off and on. The 45 minutes or so straight down 95 to Melbourne were quick and easy. We got to the King Center, and after a little bit of a fun time parking (I missed the first driveway), we got a spot and got in. Earlier in the day, I had pulled some cash from my account for dinner/gas, etc. I completely FORGOT they’d be selling merchandise at the concert. Luckily I had enough to get a shirt. I got the CD cover, because the others were cool, but I liked the tour dates on the back, as well. Its too bad my other Weird Al shirt doesn’t fit anymore (too big). If I found it, though I could give it to Greg. He’d probably get a kick out of it. Anyway, we had about an hour to kill, so we milled around, watched the people and Greg bought drinks. The awesome thing is that I knew my friend FDR (filthy drunken Rebecca, even though she doesn’t drink) was going to be there. She was in the same row as us (front row balcony) but in seats far away. I waited for her to show up, we talked a bit, and then the concert started…

Unfortunately, the first thing I noticed was the sound was weird, but other than a few balance problems here and there, the whole concert was amazing. He showed lots of funny clips between numbers and was really full of energy. Some songs, you could hear the whole place singing along. At one point, he either forgot a line or just needed to take a breath, because he stopped singing, and the audience took it up and kept going. It was great. The most amazing thing the whole evening during the concert was that he performed ALBUQUERQUE! Its a 12 minute song, and I swore he said he’d never do it in concert. He did it on the Running With Scissors tour in Albuquerque and that was it. Amazing, absolutely amazing. That was a great encore. Afterwards, I was bound and determined to wait as long as I could to see if I could get an autograph. We went down to front row and waited. A security guard told us to leave rather unceremoniously. On the way out, I even begged some of the people with passes going back stage to get my cd cover signed, but they looked at me and didn’t say a word.

While we were headed towards the car, I saw a group of people waiting near the back, and I headed that way, much to Greg’s annoyance - he was tired and wanted to go home, and was sure the Security Guard meant business. I know that Al tries to come out for his fans if you wait long enough and the other guards seemed to be more cooperative. I ran to my car and grabbed another CD. Greg had the case for “Straight outta Lynnwood” to get signed, and I had the “Running With Scissors” CD.

We waited for a long time, and little by little we got more and more hope that he’d come out to see us. Finally, the guard told us to move to a different location. Excited, we all followed him. After about another 5 minutes, he told us to get in line and follow him. WE GOT IN!

I was elated. They walked us through some hallways and into a room, and there he was!!! Reuben, Steve and John, too. I think I even saw their producer, as well. Greg and I were only 5th or so in line so it wasn’t long before Greg met him and got his autograph. A very very nice lady agreed to take our pictures because I stupidly had left my camera in the car when I went to get the cd. I gave her my e-mail, and Greg offered her a card so she’ll get in contact with us soon I hope. Greg and Al spoke for a while and then it was my turn. I shook his hand, told him the concert was great, that it was my 3rd one and they’d all been amazing. He said it was the first night with a new sound guy and I told him it was awesome, and it sounded great. Overall, he looked really tired, but he was nice, soft spoken - a really great guy. I said thanks again and let the next group have their turn. I made my way around the room with my sharpie and CD and got Reuben, Steve (who spelled my name right on the FIRST TRY!!!), and John “Bermuda” to sign it. I was ecstatic.

While we were waiting outside to get in, I called my friend FDR, who is a bigger Al fan than I, but I got her voicemail. Unfortunately she headed home before listening to it because she never turned up, and I called her afterwards on the way home and told her what had happened. At least we know it’s possible. Amazing. From being kicked out to actually meeting him, it was a great night.
Then we drove home. Greg fell asleep, and I got us home safe with the help of Diet Coke!

Greg makes the most amazing meatloaf. Well, I can’t really say that as I’ve only ever tasted mine and his, and I only modeled mine after his recipe anyway. Its turkey meatloaf, and you add spices and ketchup and eggs and, really that’s about it. The problem here and now is the breadcrumbs. Tonight is the first night of Passover, and after sunset this evening I won’t be able to eat bread for 7 days. Soooo, I have a bunch of turkey burger mix sitting in my fridge with nothing to use it for. And then, I had an epiphany. One, I make the meatloaf before sunset and eat my portion before sunset. OR instead of breadcrumbs, I use matzo ball mix. The stuff already has amazingly yummy seasonings in it to begin with. Mix that with turkey and onions and WOW. I bet you it tastes great.
I’ll get back to this later with a recipe.. if its palatable.

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Thanks World of Warcraft. And sleeping in too much on Sunday morning, too. I didn’t wake up on Sunday until 2, so I couldn’t sleep last night. So I didn’t get to bed until 3. I hate having to wake up so damned early for work, but it beats being at the office every day until 9, I guess. Anyway, 9-5 job gotta do what you gotta do. I just wish that Greg would wake up earlier so he didn’t come home from work at 9. I feel like I see too little of him even though we live together. But, were I to change my schedule so I could go in at noon every day, we still wouldn’t see more of each other. Just we’d both wake up later, so the time to spend “together” would be spent asleep. So it doesn’t work. Though it would make things a bit easier on my brain on Monday mornings. Grah.

Friday night was spent at a Party!
Greg’s friend Charlotte threw a party on the occasion that she was back and visiting from England. She lives in a *very nice* townhome in Sanford. Though I didn’t know any of the people, save Greg, at the beginning, suprisingly I felt not too out of place. At first, I was wary. The people that were there and that showed up were not really my type of close friend person. At least on first impressions. After a while though, they all turned out to be really cool people. Especially once they all started drinking. I was Greg’s DD so I didn’t drink but one or two things early on in the evening. Unfortunately I completely ruined my diet by snacking on all the chips and chocolates. Blah.
So that was an interesting departure from the norm.
Over the weekend, I was bound and determined to ride by bike again, but I didn’t do it because Saturday it was cold and rainy and Sunday it was just cold.
Good thing is that my pants this morning weren’t *quite* as tight, so diet seems to be working, if annoyingly slowly.
Keep at it. Blah. Sleepy.

So yeah, I haven’t been writing in this thing as much as I had planned to. But that’s just typical of myself and journals. Yay.
Over the weekend, my diet went to hell but that’s because I decided that dieting on the weekend was just going to make me miserable and its not worth it. As long as I don’t go too far out of my way to ruin it. So lets see. I had curry, and pizza.. and yeah. Everything else was mostly healthy. I didn’t eat too much at Greg’s parents house yesterday, and I ate more peas than I ate shepherd’s pie. But I did have a big piece of Bethany’s cake. Meh.
When I went to the doctor’s office on Thursday, the evil scale there said I hadn’t lost an ounce since Fall. Maybe that means I’ve just lost what I felt I had gained between now and then. Probably not. Grah. Still means I’m 10 pounds heavier than this time last year, and 20 pounds away from my goal. Grrrr. Well when I’m a grad student, I get my library access and gym access back.

I felt like sushi this evening. But, I didn’t have the time to get the most conventional of sushi ingredients. I even had a hard time finding imitation crab meat that would work. In the end, I had to deal with chunks of the stuff, which were so tightly packaged that I ended up cutting them into strips that way, instead of dealing with taking the chunks apart and trying to find a way to put them into the sushi rolls tightly. The stuff tastes like gefilte fish, except sweeter. Must be the pollock.
Anyway, I thought I would write a quick note on what I did, and a basic how-to make the yummy sushi Greg and I enjoyed tonight. (more…)