I'm the Queen of Denial, or, Why Do My Jeans Have Holes Worn on the Inner Thighs?

So I've noticed recently that there is something wrong with my bra. It feels...weird. Like the underwires on the sides keep rubbing on my arms. I had one blow out not too long ago (no doubt to the ample voluptuousness of my girls), my favorite black lace bra with straps like a crane. So the weird bra in question is the utilitarian beige one, you know, the laundry-day brassierre. It feels different because I hardly ever wear it, right?

Right.

F*ck!!! It's not the underwires, it's my gigantic squishy arms!! They have nowhere left to expand!!! They've hit the wall! Crap!!! How did I get this fat? You'd think I'd notice something like that, sheesh, what with all the times I've been in Weight Watchers...(disclaimer: LOVE WW, it really works... If. You. Follow. It. Duh.) Yes, I have been a WW member on three different occasions in the last six years. Sigh. I know what to do. But at this time in my life? I honestly can't tolerate that much structure. It's exhausting. Life is complicated enough, I don't have the energy to think 24/7 about journaling, if I've had all my healthy oils, water, veggies, fruit, milk, good carbs, activity points, blah blah. It's a good system, but doesn't work for me, not right now.

So, What to do, what to do. No more Weight Watchers for me, I've gone rogue. Something clearly needs to be done, but I can't go back. We'll see, I guess I have to take the parts of WW that worked for me, and adapt them to the craziness that is Team Nugget. Sigh.


But I won't give up cheese. You can't make me.


Is there a cheese and wine diet out there? I could get behind that.


:-)


All for now,
Nugget

Bloggedy Blog Blog

Wow, it's been quite some time since my last post...so sorry! I guess I should take the time to recap.

Yes, I found my beloved raffia reindeer, I was not crazy after all. I had indeed purchased them and tucked them safely away, I was just wearing my blinders that day and would have seen them in the box if I had dug a little deeper. Sigh. And as of this moment, I have glued them back together numerous time thanks to the destructive talents of the Sweet Babygirl. The standing reindeer now has a broken leg after giving Tiny Tiny Teddybear several rowdy rides. I will be getting out the glue gun once again, just not till I get ready to put them away! I have to pick my battles.

I think the blizzard is approaching! It's starting to snow! Oh my! It would be really awesome if travel weren't involved in any of the festivities, both for Team Nugget and the fam. Eggnog with a little Cap'n Morgan sounds good right about now! Hot tea will have to do for now.

I think we're ready for the Fete de Noel, except we have one present outstanding (thanks USPS!), which bites. We're not doing much cooking, except for my Mom and Dad who are coming over for breakfast so they can witness the Little Nugget open Santa's bounty! That should be a hoot, pictures to come! I just made spiced pecans to take to Papa and Gigi's along with a fruit tray. Mmm...!

Just got a phone call from Hubby Nugget--he's coming home early! Let the Holidays begin!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! Be safe and stay warm!!!

Nugget

Halloween Festivites, Partay!

I promised pics, and I deliver! A couple of weeks ago, Hubby Nugget and I headed up to the great state of Iowa to partake in the annual "Lazy K Ranch Halloween Party." Apologies to my Facebook friends who have already seen these!

Hubby Nugget and I went as the Progressive Insurance Girl and the Verizon Guy:

My brother and sister-in-law were the Kennedys, after the shooting:

I present the Bobbits....

...and the dismembered member:

Before you get too grossed out, it was made of bologna. And ketchup.

Jello shots are never a good idea:

The naughty pumpkin!

One couple came as the painting American Gothic (by Grant Wood):

It was such an awesome idea that we all had to give it a try:

We HAD to have HN pose with the group to get a "Verizon Network" photo op:

That was so awesome! Finally, witness Hubby Nugget chillin in the coffin that decorated the front yard:

You just can't beat that!

Good times,

Nugget

Pooty-Dooty

That's what my late Grandma used to say instead of an expletive. And it pretty much sums up the day. Nothing horrible, just a fussy Monkey, fussy with a capital F. Mercifully, she just fell asleep (2 hours early, woo-hoo!), she must have been just as exhausted as I have been all day.

So since I'm not feeling particularly bloggy (and still have a bunch of stuff to get ready for work) I will leave you with this lovely photo I took of our wildflowers last summer. Yes, resorting to the picture post already!

Here's to pretty flowers and tasty beverages!

All for now,

Nugget

Team Nugget's Anniversary Gift to You...

To our fellow diners last night, you are welcome.

Yesterday was the anniversary of the founding members of Team Nugget, myself and my Nugget! Four years! Woo-hoo! To celebrate, we planned a nice dinner out at Justus Drugstore, a Restaurant.

It promised to be a tasty evening of wonderful cuisine. Here is the blurb from the website:

"We believe real food raised with painstaking care by local small farm producers, prepared lovingly by skilled artisans served in an ambient beautiful space is an experience everyone should enjoy. If we can’t make it from scratch, we won’t serve it." --Justus Drugstore

Last night's menu included Striped Bass, Braised Pork, Roasted Chicken, Kobe Beef, and Rabbit, all locally raised. Mmm...(I don't even like rabbit and it sounded good!)

So we get there early to take advantage of the "window of opportunity" that is the Little Nugget's tolerance level for fine dining. That entailed lots of snacks and distracting yet quiet toys. It worked well with our dining experience in Denver last spring, so there you go.

Soon into the door we discover that this place isn't too kid friendly, no boosters, but hey, that's OK, it's a sophisticated vibe, and our girl is cool with it. I made some joke about duct tape, but I don't think the woman who seated us had kids, or she would have pissed herself with laughter.

They brought us menus and water, (Little Nugget immediately noticed the straw was absent, apparently she requires straws now, but this wasn't a straw place...she rolled with it though, good girl!) First off, the waiter patiently asked us what our meal plans were for the Little Nugget. Uh, raisins and rice cakes for appetizer, then what ever she'll eat off our plate? He allowed us a few moments with the menu (which as I mentioned had rabbit and stuff, and she realistically would prefer eating play-doh to that stuff, but we were trying really hard to make it work...).

Moments later, with all her snacks quickly disappearing at an alarming rate, our waiter came back over to discuss the menu and gently assert that entrees take some time (as indicated in above statement), all the while, someone was getting fidgettier by the second. Dude, I was getting nervous. None of the toys were working. Not even the stickers. I started having flashbacks to last weekend.

He gave us another "moment" but I noticed he was taking orders from all the other tables, even though they had came in after us. Normally I would have been a little put off, but I think he knew. And we knew. And he knew that we knew that he knew the Little Nugget was not going to make it though the dining service. And for that, we are grateful. And our fellow diners should be too. Because this could have turned out very unpleasant for EVERYone in that ambient space.

We packed it up, and they seemed relieved, and frankly, so were we. But now where to eat? Restaurant dining was out. So we headed over to our local grocery store and loaded up a rotisserie chicken, bottle of chilled champagne and a couple of salads from the salad bar, and snuggled on the couch at home!

It's all good!

All for now,

Nugget

No Threads Tying Any of this Together into a Unified Theme...

Just some more random thoughts that were too complicated for a tweet, but not substantial enough for a whole post.

Item number 1: This morning Little Nugget asked me to "Take off panties," (all signs point to impending potty training success!) and when I picked her up, I emerged covered in urine that squirted from her squishy pull-ups like an overripe tomato. Her reaction? "It's full." Indeed! Who knew LN would have such a dry sense of humor? Good stuff!

Item number 2: Not content to put away my gardening tools for winter, I decided to make a tiny little "greenhouse" out of my minuscule office window, which frankly gets more sunlight than any window at home. I found tiny little pots at Michaels and planted little sedum and scottish moss starts, so hopefully I will have a nice little group of plants for the garden next year. Pictures are forthcoming, of course. And it makes walking into the office a little happier in the morning.

Item number 3: (Totally hypothetical scenario and in no way represents any known person, fictional or real) Today at work the departmental pestical stopped by and stuck his head in my office, said he was going to make a run for coffee, and would I like him to pick me up something? I'm still stunned. And I fully expect that he's done something to jeopardize my job and is just covering his tracks by pretending to be nice. If this story was about a real person, I'd be SO on to him!

Item number 4: We cannot keep clothes on the Monkey. She's going though a semi-clothed phase. I hope she outgrows it before high school.

Item number 5: Yea! Hubby Nugget just got the heater to come on! Yea! Time to whip up celebratory Manhattans!

All for now,
Nugget

Team Nugget Puts on it's Best Bib and Tucker, Day 4

Sorry about the title to the post, I'm running out of ideas and hit a Wild Wild West slang directory. The point is, on day four we had some serious plans!


Plan 1: Play in the forest. Plan 2: Take a nap. Plan 3: Go out to a fancy dinner in Denver.


Plan 1 was a no brainer, and we headed into the woods with glee. Monkey took time to tickle the tree, why it needed tickling, I don't know. But tickle she did.

No discussion of Colorado is complete without the obligatory shot of alpines from below, reaching high into the beautiful, crisp mountain sky.

Next, the Little Nugget felt compelled to shake "hands" with another tree. She's a complicated girl. But it makes for some awesome pics.

We stopped for a mid-hike photo op!

We were happily playing with rocks when it suddenly started to snow! Not sure you can see it here, but know that any visible white specks are frozen precipitation:

Since I was wearing black, we tried to capture the snow on camera with me posed in a most dorky snow-gathering game-show-hostess fashion:

So inside we went as the mountain temps plummeted, with grand hopes of naps and sleep and rest...and yeah, that didn't happen. Somebody didn't take a nap despite our best efforts to provoke her into slumberland. We were pretty sleepy, does that count? Uh, no. Plan 2, unsuccessful.

On to plan 3. Dinner at Rioja in Denver. Of course on the drive there, we were assuming the Sweet Babygirl would nap in the car. No. Not until oh, 5 minutes outside Denver. Crappidy-crap-crap. Usually those are the makings of impending doom, but we were optimistic. Fools.

OK, we were early, which was good, so we drove around the city and got to see some of lovely downtown Denver. We saw many signs proclaiming that Denver loved the Nuggets, and we were touched by the sentiment. ;-) Folks were so nice! We love you too!

Our reservation time was drawing near, so we decided to head towards the restaurant and park. By then the Little Nugget was awake, and decidedly NOT happy about that situation, and Hubby Nugget had to pee, so we found a spot tout de suite, only to discover that it was 15 bucks an hour! HA! Dude! Don't get me wrong, I'm no rube, I know it's costly to park in the city, I'm just saying, we were hoping to find a better deal, cuz that's just how we roll. So round and round and round we went. After 10 more minutes of screaming Monkey and increasing urinary distress on behalf of the Hubby Nugget, we finally said OH DEAR GOD LET'S USE THE VALET!

So we whipped the car up to the curb, scrambled out, and the Little Nugget upon disembarking mid-meltdown, saw fit to throw a tube of Burt's Bees lip balm as she emerged from the car, barely missing said Valet. After profuse apologies, we took off around the block to walk it off, and luckily the meltdown subsided, but Hubby Nugget was quite uncomfortable, so we headed to the restaurant a little early. No problem, they had our table ready! Sweet!

OK, how to describe our dining experience...FAN-f*ing-tastic. OK, first off, Monkey was distracted by the enormous bag of usually forbidden toys, plus I gave her a snack cup full of mangos, nuts and marshies. Honestly, she was set and could have really cared less that we were there. She was in her own little world playing with all these tiny, intricate things that I brought for her. Sah-weet! This is most unusual, and quite enjoyable. So let's get on to the sweet-assed meal...

Appetizer: (from their online menu) Flight of artisan goat cheese: Camilla, Caprino lucano di Grotto, Harbourne Blue. rhubarb-strawberry jam, almond cracker, red wine gelee

Team Nugget loves us some goat cheese. So much that I want a goat (don't laugh, I know I already have The Bug, and that little bastard is as close to a goat as you can get). Blue cheese is not a fav of mine, but slather come rhubarb-strawberry jam on it, and it rocks pretty hard. But the best was the red wine gelee, kind of like a red wine gummy bear, only soft, and not bear shaped, and crusted in sugar. Dude. We paired a wine with that, but I don't remember the name. It was good too. I should have taken pics.

Entrees: For Hubby Nugget, Grilled Hawaiian blue prawns and crispy pork belly, green papaya salad, chili-vinegar gastrique, sweet ginger peanuts, peanut sauce. For Me: Seared sea scallops, lemon crème fraîche crispy risotto, mango arugula salad. Found a pic of mine online:

I can't even begin to describe how yummy this was. Hats off to chef Jennifer Jasinski! It was awesome. I paired mine with a pinot noir, and Hubby Nugget paired his with a Spanish wine. I'm really terrible with remembering wine names. Must improve that as we plan to open a winery one of these days...note to self...

Now Hubby Nugget REALLY wanted to order salad & or soup too, and it would have totally rocked super hard, but I said we have GOT to order dessert at a place like this. It was a good call because we got this:

Dessert: Warm cashew tart, chocolate and espresso custard, toasted cashews, vanilla bean ice cream, Hawaiian sea salted caramel; and Sweet goat cheese and black mission fig filled beignets with ruby port wine reduction. Pastry chef Eric Dale deserves a kiss on the mouth for the goat cheese beignets! Seriously. I can't remember the last time I had something so delicious. We had these with champagne, white and rose. The rose was SO good with the cashew tart.

Mad props for the bread too, I could have really been happy with just a plate of bread and a glass of wine, really! I mean come on, lavender biscuits?! You can bet I'll be harvesting my lavender plants this summer and trying to whip up a batch of my own! And the sourdough was superb. Jeez, my mouth is watering!

After the food orgy, the waiter complimented us on how well-behaved our daughter was. He remarked on how he and his wife never go out to nice restaurants because the kids just can't stay still that long. We tried not to snort champagne out our noses and thanked him for the compliment. He got a big tip, too, :-)

So we walked out like rockstars, Babygirl lookin all sassy with her awesome outfit and supercute black patent flipflops (a la Walmart!). All the women just about pissed themselves at how cute she looked (patting myself on the shoulder!). Walked up to the valet stand, they fetched our car and the dude commented on how he'd never had chapstick thrown at him! Now that's good stuff!

In all, day 4 was a smashing success!

More later,

Nugget

Ho Ho Ho!

Monkey has been chirping "one!" all day today. I'd like to think she's cognisant enough of the whole Santa thing for her to mean that she recognizes it's one more day till Santa comes. But nah, she just likes numbers.


She does know something's up, though. The first clue was the dumptruck load of presents brought over by Gammy and Dapaw:

For the record, two of those are for Me and my Nugget, and two are for Gammy and Dapaw. The rest are to the Little Nugget. They certainly love to spoil their only granddaughter!

She's been amazingly well-behaved around the tree, which is generally not the case for the rest of the house. She's quite curious, so it's quite a shock that she didn't check some of them out prior to the official unveiling.

Prior to her bedtime, we made Santa and Mrs. Claus some hot cocoa and put out a cookie for Rudolph. I know for a fact that the Mr. & Mrs. like a little somethin' somethin' in their cocoa, so I added a dash of Irish Cream. It was yummy! (I mean I bet it's yummy!!! I hope they enjoy!)

"Santa's" deposit for the Little Nugget. Because he is very conscious of the environment and seriously pressed for time, presents from Santa are not wrapped. So this will be what the Little Nugget wakes up to!

Gammy and Dapaw will be coming over to open presents, then we are heading over to L & R's house for some turkey and hanging out!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Nugget

Spreading Preciousness Throughout the Land

One sports bar at a time.

Little Nugget and I ventured out to run a couple of last-minute Christmas errands (we plan to hole up for the next two weeks and let the amateurs fight it out themselves). It's colder than shit, btw, not an important part of the story, just annoying (it's like 5 degrees).

So we go to the post office where there is a HUGE line. I dreaded the whole experience anyway, the post office is bad enough, let alone with an impatient toddler. But she was surprisingly happy about the experience, probably because she had a captive audience. She treated the other patrons to her rendition of the alphabet song, recited colors, and the piece de resistance, her dramatic interpretation of nap time, "Night-night! (followed by fake snoring noises)" That was a crowd-pleaser. Then she finished the show up by making her froggy perform a little dance. Thank you very much! We'll be playing all week!

The show continued at our next destination, a chain restaurant where we picked up some gift cards. These were available in the bar area, and it felt like I was going to be struck by lightning for bringing my babygirl in there. But ok. We belly up and wait while the 'tender was taking orders from the group of burly dudes at the bar. So Monkey looks around for a little bit, looks over at the guy seated a couple seats away from her and shouts to him, "HIGH FIVE!!!" He was stunned to say the least. High fives were exchanged, then she exclaims "YEA!!!!". She then notices that this man is wearing a cap with the logo of our favorite football team, then shouts "GO CHIEFS!!!" and throws her arms in the air. This required another round of high fives, etc. You get the idea. A little charmer this one. She made quite an impression. Even shook his hand when we left.

How is it possible that we produced such an extrovert?

Nugget

Snow Day!

I had cabin fever so bad that against my better judgement, I went back to work today despite the warning of this season's first decent snow. The fact that I couldn't wait to get back to work is freaky enough, but in the snow...that's just crazy-talk.

Most people at my place of employ could care less if you show up or not, just so long as they don't need anything from you at that moment. And this being finals week, it's pretty quiet. So why did I go? Why?! Because I care about what I do, call me a stupidhead.

So like a goober, I'm scanning away and S, our administrative assistant/unofficial power source of the department says to me, "Go home! Boss-man would want you to!!!" Can't argue with that.

So now Palooza and I are safely at home (not much snow here, it went south of home and bull's eyed work) and I'm settling in for some cocoa while I work on paperwork. I know, I'm too dedicated to such a low-paying job. But hey, I have a job I like. Just having a job is a good thing nowadays.

Mmmm...marshmallows!

Nugget

OMG...

Seriously.

The Chiefs Suck.

Sigh...

At least we had fun at the game, chattin with brother and sister-in-law G&N.

We had two extra seats that we couldn't give away to friends or family (a big sign). We sold them to a scalper in the parking lot for 15 bucks. Face value: $120. Priceless. At least it bought us 2 drinks at the game in which to drown our sorrows. Sheesh. And guess what: the Scalper couldn't even resell our tickets!!!! The seats were empty.

Pathetic!

All I can say is we'd better get a good draft pick out of this!

All for now,
Nugget

Bras, Booze and the Radar Blues: a Night on the Town with Team Nugget

Team Nugget had a grand night out on the town Friday. Let me tell you about it.

It all started when by some freakish coincidence my large mammaries busted out of the only two bras that I own in the current post-baby size. Not wanting to roam free, the girls needed to be housed. Little Nugget and I headed over to Satan's House of Cheap Brassieres to procure a containment apparatus, but alas, selection was bleak. To make matters worse, Little Nugget was playing her favorite game, "pull everything off the rack and chew on the tags" It was distracting to say the least. So they may have had what I wanted, but I was somewhat distracted. Anyway. So I decided to head over to my FAVorite store with a red bulls eye logo later in the evening when Hubby Nugget could watch the Babygirl and I could peacefully peruse the undergarment section without having to re-shelve everything.

So Hubby Nugget gets home from work, and I tell him my plan, to which he says, "Let's have a family outing!" I'm guessing that only Team Nugget would plan a family outing around bra shopping, but we needed Triple-sec to make a Sidecar later in the evening (Sidecar = brandy + triple sec or cointreau + lime juice = yum!). Bras and Booze--it was the making of an adventure!

Post-Nugget nap, we headed out to dinner. Food was tasty, and we were mildly amused by the blowhard at the next table who dominated not only that conversation, but all others around him what with his volume and know-it-all-ness. We had a secret weapon, though--a very loud toddler by the name of Sweet Babygirl, who punctuated his conversation with raucous outbursts of "FIVE!" "NINE!" "NINETY-NINE, NINE, NINE!" We apologized, but we weren't very sincere about it.

Next stop, bra-central. Traffic was horrible, though, and people were driving in these horrible clusters, continuously slamming on their brakes. Hubby Nugget saw his spot, and stealthily managed to pass the traffic by escaping to the left lane. Then we saw the policeman. Oops. We were doing 74 in a 65. Little Nugget was highly amused in the back seat, just sat there giggling and looking at the pretty lights. Hubby Nugget was not amused. I thought crappidy-crap-crap that's gonna be an expensive bra now. So after a few minutes, the officer brings back Hubby Nugget's drivers license and tells us to slow down. OMG he let us go with a warning!!!!!!!

We get to Target and we're practically jumping up and down in the parking lot!!! Bra and booze were acquired and I scouted some sweet new fall clothes for the Monkey (will wait for a little sale, otherwise known as discount stalking). Once home, all was well.

Good times!

All for now,
Nugget

Sometimes You Just Want a Dirty Screw

Provocative title, eh? Well get your mind out of the gutter, people, I'm talkin' drinks here, not whatever you're thinkin. :-)

We were getting a little tired of our usual tasty beverage so I did a little trip back down memory lane and recreated the drink recipe that Team Nugget, pre-Little Nugget, invented. At least we think we invented it. I will share the recipe with you, but first, indulge me in a retelling of the drink's inception.

The nuptials of Team Nugget were quite an affair, done up on a lake with an awesome pig roast, and tons of food and drink. To ensure no guest went without, we purposely overestimated amounts. Now Hubby Nugget's friends are whiskey drinkers, so we made sure their needs were met. In spades. I don't remember how many 1.5 liter bottles we bought, but I'm sure it was at least 3 (Hubby Nugget remembers it as 5, and that could very well be correct). It was a lot of booze!

However, at the reception, turns out everyone was in a wine/beer mood, and only one bottle of whiskey was consumed. Which left us with A LOT of leftover alcohol. What to do with 4 super-sized bottles of liquor? Get creative and play bartender! Viola! The Dirty Screw is born!

We generally don't measure, so you may want to experiment to adjust it to your own taste:

The Dirty Screw

1 part whiskey (bourbon works too)
1 part triple sec (or cointreau if you want to get all fancy and french)
2 parts orange juice

Pour ingredients in a glass, add ice, stir and drink it up! (makes one drink)

Yummy! The name comes from the fact that it's a variation on a Screwdriver. But I think it's a little tastier, especially with bourbon.

I will refrain from making any lame sex jokes. But you can fill in your own blank.

Enjoy,
Nugget