Tiny puppies love tiny bananas!

They do! See?

My little 11-pound Woodstock was curious at this banana sized just for him!! We went grocery shopping last night -- finally!!! -- at Raley's and when I spotted a bunch of mini bananas grouped in the basket of regular-sized ones, how could I not buy them?!??!?! I only snagged two because J.D. wanted five very green bananas :) so we came back with the equivalent of six really.

Now I don't know if you guys are aware of this or not, but I've been bitching sad about not having a Whole Foods around, even though we do have a Trader Joe's. However, two aisles in Raley's are dedicated to "organic, natural" foods and it's almost like being in Whole Foods!! They have vita tops there, coconut water, bagel thins, Annie's crackers, really ANYTHING you'd want in a WF! I didn't go too crazy there, however. Since we're 100 percent unsure of where we'll be living on Aug. 1, we're trying to use up foods in the pantry and buy week-by-week or less.

After a very productive trip to the grocery store, we rushed home to make dinner at close to 8 p.m. I really wanted to make our game hen with that citrus basil recipe I found earlier this week, but alas, the hen wasn't fit for consumption any longer. Instead, we grilled chicken cutlets (without a BBQ!!!) in the same citrus basil marinade along with some quinoa and salad.

J.D. was so proud of his grill marks :) And the citrus marinade was so simple! It was light, tangy and delicious :) After dinner, Woodstock was still going nuts! He was biting everything he wasn't supposed to be, including us. So we decided to take him for an evening stroll. Knowing it was going to be a challenge, due to the fact that he hates walking with us unless there's another dog along, Woody surpassed our expectations! He practically RAN the entire time. We went on a mile-ish walk with him and he barked playfully at every person, car and dog that passed by. He even tried chasing cars down the street... little punk!

Since it was still a warm night, I was up for a cold beverage after the walk. My mom found this at Marshall's the other day and I had to have it!

Tazo Vanilla Roobios Tea Latte! Oh man, guys! It tasted kind of like an iced chai :) I just poured some of the mix over ice with some water and milk and it hit the spot! I'm going to continue making this stuff and will be pretty sad when it's gone. Also, notice my new tumbler I got at Bed, Bath & Beyond?? :)

After my drink, I loaded up on my meds and FINALLY SLEPT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THREE DAYS!!! And it was glorious. This morning's meal is where that mini palm-sized banana comes into play.

I treated my irritated throat to a cool smoothie and a bagel thin. On top of the whole wheat bagel I mixed almond and peanut butter, with mini banana and some raspberries.

And it was delicious! On a sad note, the mango berry smoothie broke my blender. But that's ok because it's dirty and gross. And it had no power anyways. So the exciting news here is that we're going shopping for a new one this afternoon!! Any suggestions?!?! After, the puppy gets to go to the doggie park :)

And then.... laundry awaits, again. Dang laundry, it's always taunting me.

Or I could pull a repeat of what I've been doing all week long:

And eat junk and watch movies :)

Last night's selection ended up being Edge of Love streamed on Netflix through PS3. It was a toss up between that and The Constant Gardner. So maybe that's in store for this evening...? Speaking of Edge of Love, did you know Keira Knightley actually SINGS in the movie? And she does it well (even if it's audio-enhanced). I adore her, she's so cute. And my age, which is crazy to me.

What's your favorite thing to eat when watching movies?? I don't usually like Dots, but we had some that needed to be finished. But I looooooove those Pop-Secret 100 calorie bags of KETTLE CORN! Oh yum.

Looks like somebody's got a case of the Mondays

I really liked Amy's post on the Friday Five. So I'm copying it ;) thanks for the great idea!

1.) Mine starts with a case of the Mondays. Even though it's Friday.

First, I just plain love this movie. Second, on Monday (or maybe Tuesday at the latest) the wait will be over! We will know whether we're moving at the end of the month or staying here another year. This is the ENTIRE reason I haven't signed up for a half marathon yet. Well, that and my training hasn't officially begun, but it will soon! So Monday, I'll know if I should sign up for a halfy in the Phoenix area or in the San Francisco/Sacramento area :) I'm also working on trying to find myself a job down there, if J.D. does in fact get this job!

2.) Have you ever had cabin fever before? Do I have cabin fever? I certainly don't have Bieber Fever. Ew. But I am still cooped up in my house! With directives not to go outside, be in the sun, exert too much effort. I'm going crazy. I want to get out and run again, but my cough still lives on.

Kind of related to this, I watched an interesting movie yesterday while I stayed in the house: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It's this crazy (true) French story about the editor of Elle magazine. He had a stroke that left his entire body paralyzed, save for his left eyelid. So the man narrated an entire memoire by blinking to his nurse/assistant. I really want to read the book!

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It's CRAZY, and not because of what he did, but because it's French cinematography. Have you ever seen a French film?!? I majored in French lit/culture, so I've seen plenty in my day. Some of my favorite movies are French (Paris je t'aime, Amélie and Jeux d'enfants). But, there's no denying that French réalisateurs (directors) are crazy. Or on drugs. Or both.

Now, I'm not being ridiculous and comparing myself to a man with full-body paralysis. But there is a neat line in the film where his father claims they're like two peas in a pod because he's stuck in his apartment. That is the only comparison I can make. The main character tells the audience that when you're trapped, all you have left is imagination and memories. And I have been fully living out my imagination through books and film whilst stuck in my house this week. At least I've got a long list of movies I can choose from today, and am not sure which: Pan's Labyrinth, The Constant Gardener, Les Mis, Amélie, or whatever else Netflix has on demand through PS3.

3.) That's a nice lead in to my health. Big question mark there! A second opinion (and $75 later, I'm not going to be able to afford a third) suggested I have allergies and not bronchitis. The Valley is notorious for causing allergies to flare up here, but I've never had them before. So supposedly, I'm developing my first case of allergies. Still unsure about the rash though, which I'm happy to report is clearing up. One thought is that I'm just flat out allergic to amoxicillin, which makes sense given my history of allergic reactions to sulfa. Another though is that amoxicillin causes crazy rashes and measle-like symptoms when the person taking it has mono. I'm not sure how likely this is, since I had mono when I was in college. Pending blood tests will reveal if that is the case or not.

4.) And because of all these diagnoses, my house looks like one of these:

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Yup, a pharmacy. I've been buying over the counter with every suggestion my doctors give me: cold meds, cough syrup, Halls throat losenges, benadryl, calamine lotion, Zyrtec and Aveeno oatmeal baths. Plus the several prescriptions I already possess. One of which is going to be tossed out since I may be allergic!

I'm just hoping one of these diagnoses is correct and the prescriptions make me good as new again! One positive about maybe moving to Arizona... they don't have pollen and allergens in the desert.

5.) And finally.... food. I've been eating out a lot. I haven't felt up for making a run to the grocery store after being with family for the 4th. My fridge is bare. We might be making a run tonight finally to stock up! But that darn game hen still is there, starting at me every time I open the fridge. So I might have to cook him up tonight. I even found a recipe for some sort of basil citrus marinade. Is that a sign? Maybe.

But I have been eating some ice cream now :) Best cure for a sore throat/rash/cooped up patient! Everything's better with ice cream. This is the first time I've had honest-to-God full-fat ice cream in a long time. It's awesome :)

Seriously though, I'm hoping to ease back into running the minute my health returns! And then..... sign up for a half-marathon in CA or AZ!! So my training can finally begin :)

Wish me luck! xx

I hope to GOD no one I know eats this

Right, so if you're like me, KFC's Double Down is pretty appalling.

Well guess what? It gets worse.

I kiss the ground I walk on that there isn't a Friendly's anywhere near me. Because they are selling these beasts for a meal:

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So, so, so disturbing on many different levels. It's called the Grilled Cheese Burger Melt. Nothing quite screams fast food like a burger sandwiched between, well, two sandwiches. We saw this on last night's episode of the Colbert Report and he called it something like a meal for your meal's meal. Or something equally ridiculous.

But what he didn't mock -- frankly because it's so sad this might even be below ridicule -- is the "nutritional" information. Get a load of this:

• 1500 Calories
• 870 Fat Calories
• 79g Total Fat
• 38g Saturated Fat
• 180g Cholesterol
• 2090mg Sodium
• 101g Carbs
• 9g Dietary Fiber
• 4g Sugar
• 54g Protein

I hope you have a bedside heart monitor after consuming this. Now just imagine what a side of jumbo fries and a soda would add on top of that?! I don't even understand the point of fast food companies anymore. Why are they still in business?!?!? And WHO is actually ordering this burger-sandwich-thing??!?!?!?!??!?!

Appalling, right?? I guess that makes SNL's Taco Town skit not quite as ridiculous-sounding as it once used to....

If that's not enough -- all you Food Network fans, help me out here -- how's the Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, Arizona?? Side note, that's actually the area J.D.'s looking for this job opportunity. He should hear back on Monday or Tuesday about that. But back to the Heart Attack Grill. Who wouldn't want to eat in a restaurant that features a self-proclaimed Quadruple Bypass Burger, trampy waitresses dressed as nurses who check your vitals and drinks in syringes?! Sign me up for that......

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.....Wait, not.

I feel like laying off fast food for a while now.

Hi, I'm Monique and I'm addicted....

...to oatmeal apparently. Oatmeal for a meal is no longer enough for me. I have to bathe in the stuff -- literally. Last night I took a bath with a cup of finely-ground oats.

Because I sort of look like this:

Alright, maybe not that bad, but it's pretty bad. I've got gnarly rashes alllll over my body, I've been trying (unsuccessfully) not to scratch, I'm missing work and I slept from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. today. Because....

I'm allergic to the antibiotics I've been taking to manage my bronchitis. I don't know why all this crazy stuff happens to me, but it does.

So since I don't want to leave you with gross images of that in your head anymore, here's what I've been up to since the 4th.

On the 5th, J.D. went to a conference in San Francisco for his work and I hung out with my parents during the day. We took the puppies on a walk at the high school cross country trail near my parents' house. Woodstock kept up and ran with me!

Lily did not.

After the run, we went back home and my mom made us Croque Madames for breakfast. It's basically like a grilled ham and cheese sandwich with bechamel sauce and a fried egg on top. Delicious!

While my mom and I went discount shopping, J.D. had his second interview with a company based in Arizona. It must have gone well, since the guy he interviewed with invited us to a party held later that night in San Francisco. That meant I had to hurry back home and rummage through my closet (keep in mind at my parents' house) of something suitable to wear. I opted for a dress and hopped on BART with him to go grab some dinner in SF before the party.

We selected a Singapore restaurant where I had coconut fried rice with tiger prawns. I pretty much ate this entire bowl.

The party was pretty fun and I ended up knowing a handful of people there. We stayed until about 10 p.m. and left after I got handled in pool. Sad really.

Then yesterday more of the usual. I went to work for a day, while J.D. finished up the conference. Since he took BART into the City, I made plans to pick him up after work. We met after work and my parents also came along, grabbed some burgers and then caught the 7:30 p.m. showing of Knight and Day. I thought it was a pretty cute movie :) Took my mind off itching at least.

For dinner I had a teriyaki ELK burger with sweet potato fries. Last time we ate at Fuddrucker's, I had a bison burger I believe. At some point, I'm ready to try the ostrich!

Polished it off with two cupcakes split amongst four people. J.D. carried them back from SF -- almost an hour on BART! We sampled chocolate-covered strawberry (left) and mango (right) cupcakes. While they were incredibly sweet, they were also incredibly tasty!

And now here I am a day later, still trying not to scratch my disturbing-looking skin. I'm still waiting for the doctor to call me back, but I've certainly stopped taking the medicine.

I promise to resume to regular blogging when this clears up. Until then, oatmeal will be reserved for my baths alone. And if you've noticed, Woody's cone is off! So at least he's doing well now :)

"I'm on a boat like Leo"

Explicit language can be heard in the following video, but, it is from SNL after all.

And I'll get to that a little later. But since you all loved "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" as much as I do, I felt like indulging in yet another video for y'all. In celebration of July 4th!!!!

After laying out for a bit yesterday, I whipped up a Salade Niçoise for lunch and we drove an hour west to my parents' house. Upon our arrival (Woodstock couldn't wait, he leapt out of the car to meet his sister Lily, my parents' dog) we started prepping contributions to a dinner party! My parents' friends invited the four of us over for dinner and then a free fireworks show.

...Except there were technical difficulties with the grill, so we just ended up dining, drinking and chatting until well past 10 p.m. A great start to the three-day weekend!

The evening's festivities kicked off with some French and Spanish rosé wines -- my favorite chilly summertime drink! I'm so French.

And then in true South of France summer fashion, followed by an appetizer of steamed moûles (mussels) and bread to dip in the garlic wine sauce!!!

From the front porch, we sipped our wines, ate bruschetta and moûles until the sun set.

Once dark, out came an array of food for the main course! It was some of the messiest BBQ chicken I've ever had. So messy and dark, you'll have to use your imagination ;) Alongside it we sampled a cold orzo veggie salad, corn on the cob and succulent, drippy watermelon. Watermelon is probably my favorite summer treat!

Except maybe for S'MORES!!! Nothing says camping or summer quite like it. Lucky for me, my mom had a recipe ready for me to prepare the minute I walked into the door. Dessert was a heaping tray of s'mores bars which, unfortunately, were not enough after everyone indulged in seconds. I could honestly eat the entire tray of these bad boys:

And I nearly did ;) I'd FOR SURE make these again!! And now you can too, because I found the recipe online.

Soon after there was sleeping to be had. By everyone else. Coughing and hacking awaited me yet another night. I still arose early, however, because July 4th sailing in the San Francisco Bay was in store for this morning!!!

For breakfast my mom made us mango smoothies (after noticing I'd been having a lot of mango dishes in my blog over the last week, she's so cute!) and we polished off the strawberry-cherry muffins she'd made a few days earlier.

So on to the sail: it was SUCH a beautiful day in the Bay!!! The fog stayed on the opposite side of the hills during the duration of our sail and there was just enough winds to push us around the Bay. In my parents' neck of the woods it probably hit 100º but over by the water it hovered around 70º! Can't get much better than that!

I only got slightly ill -- miraculous when you learn that I get disgustingly sick every time I'm in a car for over 15 minutes -- towards the very end of our three-hour ride. In the middle I snacked on some potato chips to get what little salt I needed to keep feeling fresh. I also sampled a small lunch platter that everyone else had when we docked.

Potato-egg salad alongside a tuna-bean salad. Delish!

We made out some of SF's horizon through a light marine layer of fog and also sailed back and forth over Angel Island, the Ellis Island of the West Coast back in California's early history.

When we returned, I helped let down the sails to help us glide into the dock and camp for lunch. It included more salad, watermelon and a special beverage treat from France (my papa's favorite):

Again, a fantastic holiday morning! We came home, crashed on the couches and watched some of the beginning stages of the Tour de France! I have no idea what's in store for this evening, but we're contemplating going to watch Knight and Day.

Here are a few pictures from the morning's sail! Enjoy :)

Happy Fourth, Everyone!!!

Question: Did you watch the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest?!?! I think that's one of the funniest "sports" broadcasts there is!

Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!

Yeah, it's weird and random (I ♥ Family Guy for just that reason!!), but this actually inspired a twist on my breakfast this morning!

Almond butter berry toast, almond butter berry toast!!!

Ok, not quite the same thing but it did kind of remind me of eating a PB&J sandwich. Things started off with the egg coating that included: a splash of skim milk, vanilla extract and lots and lots of cinnamon. Then I grilled up two pieces of whole wheat toast and topped them with nature's three berries (blackberries, blueberries and raspberries). I actually have little frozen packets of these berries that I like to thaw out and use the juice in lieu of syrup. It's naturally sweet! Finally on top went drizzles of the AB, some crushed up walnuts and more cinnamon.

A great start to a day. Especially since yesterday ended so horribly. I was up all night coughing again. This time, I felt like I ripped my abs from it. Seriously, I woke up this morning and had a six-pack. I've never had a sick-pack hahaha.

So let's catch up with where I left you all yesterday then. After lunch I dicked around online for a bit and then actually did roll up my sleeves and set to work. Remember this before shot?

Come on out, after!!! (I feel like a trashy talk show host, this is so fun!)

I went nuts!! I swept all the floors in my house (no mopping yet, that's for another day) and did three weeks of laundry. I even washed the bed sheets on our bed (not pictured). The one above is the guest room, so I guess we can finally have people over again haha. I also cleaned out and replaced my Brita filter. That's a gross chore. And did I mention I did laundry?! I felt like that went on forever. If you can't tell, laundry's my least fav chore.

When J.D. came back from work, we were not in game hen mode for dinner -- again. I swear we're going to eat that thing someday! So instead we finally gave into my week-long craving for Mexican!!!! All inspired by this new purchase:

They were really interesting as a nacho base! Inside my nachos went lean ground turkey, reduced fat refried beans, spinach, carrots, broccoli slaw, tomatoes, avocado and salsa.

And on the side I had a very pink strawberry-pomegranate margarita (or two)!

I may have been a little buzzed after 1.5 shots worth of Patrón in my drinks. Such a light weight!!! In fact, I think I do BETTER at Jeopardy! when I'm "drunk"! If I ever make it on the show, I hope to be about three drinks in during my debut. (Only half kidding).

Nerd alert!!

Since I'm still bronchi girl (as J.D. likes to call me, he's a sweet bf isn't he??), I can't really run yet. I think my lungs would explode. So after dinner/two episodes of the greatest show on the Earth -- no, not Barnum & Bailey -- we went for nearly an hour walk. That's the same distance it takes me to run 22 minutes, haha. It was a nice end to the evening.

After coughing and turning all night, I woke up at 9:30 and took the dog out to do his business and eat his breakfast. Before I set out to make my own food, I had a little more cleaning to do.

Yep, another before and after:

And like magic, the after:

I'm thinking about lounging by the pool for a bit to manage my pastiness. Maybe some day I'll have a summer tan ;) Then after the three of us are packing up and heading to the Bay Area to hang out with my fam for our three-day weekend! Woohoo!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY WEEKEND, everyone!!! I loooooooove summer. Please don't rub in the fact that I'm unable to participate in my 5K tomorrow :( I'm still super bummed about that.

Since you've been good and made it through this entire post, I'll leave you with a special treat. Cone and all.

Woodstock wanted to show you his new tricks he's been learning in puppy class! Please excuse his cone :) He's sad he can't run in the Weenie Nationals this year because of his cone. Just like his momma, he can't quite run this weekend. But next year, he'll be trying out!!!!

What's your least favorite chore??? Besides cleaning toilets, mine has to be doing the laundry. It's never-ending.

No more spooning

Oh, wouldn't you like to know....?

Actually, I'm just not going to have three-consecutive meals that require spoons today. In fact, breakfast started out with a straight injection right into my veins. Why would I write something like that?! You know I'm just kidding ;) Today's meals have started out to be an amalgamation of leftovers.

Remember when I ran my first 5K in eight years (for those of you who've followed me over from blogger), and they had TOOOONS of Muscle Milk bottles? And how I may or may not have dropped a few extras in my goodie tote? Well, I figured now's probably a good time to break back into those bad boys.

This morning I had the chocolate Muscle Milk with some "extra" mini Clif bars from that race.

I kind of liked the bananas 'n' creme Milks, but the chocolate one was just too chalky for my liking. I could only drink a little under half of the bottle before giving up. The Clif bar held me over nicely though, even if it's teensie-weensie.

At work today I started updating all the game schedules on our website for my sports (soccer, basketball, baseball). Here's a note of interest (mainly for myself): from August until May my sports will be going to Costa Rica, Hawaii, Oregon, Las Vegas, Montana, Kansas and Myrtle Beach!!! Oh yeah and since we play home-away with conference teams every other year, this is the "away year" in which all my teams play AT Santa Barbara -- home of my alma mater UCSB!!!!

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What a CRAZY travel schedule this is!!! During the school year I work these teams over three different seasons (fall, winter, spring). When my teams are home I do stats at all our home games and when they're on the road I travel on the team bus/plane and am their official radio announcer. So I'd be going on allll those lovely trips! Makes for an interesting résumé, but a gnarly home life.

We're still in location limbo, however. As you may have guessed by now, J.D. didn't get the job at Pepperdine, but the two of us have been applying for other jobs. If the next round doesn't work out, we'll be here another year.

After wrapping up stuff for the week I went home from work about 1 p.m. During the summer we work until 4 p.m. M-Th and until 1 p.m. on Fridays to make up for the excessive nights/weekends we work during the year. Actually, it's supposedly a rule because of all of California's rolling blackouts, but I'll justify it as I will, thanks!

Lunchtime came around and I fed the puppy then fed myself. With leftovers. See, only one spoon made its appearance in my meals today.

More leftovers. I originally had planned on finishing off that soup with a Little Caesar's breadstick! But when I opened the fridge they were MIA. I think someone ate them all last night ;) Oh well, I settled for another piece of pizza today. I wasn't, however, going to settle for bland taste like last night's piece so I added some more Tuscan spices to the pizza and a few fresh leaves of basil. Much better! You can also see in the background how I finished the remaining Bossa Nova and also added in a white nectarine.

If you know me, you know I love my sweets. Of course I had some after lunch. This time, it was something new!

Last night I stopped at CVS Pharmacy to pick up some items to clean Woodstock's site of incision and also some more aggressive cough meds to help my sore throat. Nearly $100 later, I came with all of that and more! Like these Three Musketeers Truffle bars! They were buy one, get one free!!!

You know, they were good, but when you crave a Three Musketeers, you crave a fluffy Three Musketeers. This one tasted much more decadent. The "crisp" is more like a dense toffee filling. Good, but not what I was in the mood for.

Now that I'm back home, I plan on rolling up my sleeves and doing some more cleaning. Or more vegging out in front of the TV and passing out ;) Only time will tell.

Either way, I need to do some loads of laundry and also fold the massive pile of clothes that sit on the guest bed. It's going to be a loooong day. At least we have Monday off! I'm going home tomorrow to be with my family in the East Bay. And while I did plan on running a 5k for the 4th, sadly I had to cancel due to my sickly lungs. Instead, I hope to get some long walks in today and the rest of the weekend.

And tonight we're hoping to finally cook up that game hen!

What are your 4th of July plans?!? I hope to catch some of the Tour de France!!! Have a good weekend, everyone!

Eat everything with a spoon

I did just that today. Let's start off with my best of intentions this morning. I woke up after not having slept all night again, it's really not as fun as it sounds ;) Chest and throat sore from my late-night cough fest, all I wanted was something warm and yummy for breakfast.

Good old fashioned oats (haha, get it, that's what the label on my container actually says... ). I was extra nice to myself and drizzled it with a little maple syrup over the half banana, strawberries, flax seeds, omega 3 trek mix and cinnamon. And oh yeah, we were low on spoons, so I had to use a frozen yogurt spoon. Good thing I keep a stash of those in my utensil draw. Does that mean I go too often.... or does it mean I also have a habit of "collecting" plastic spoons in cases of emergency such as this....? You'll never know.

Hey guys, want to take a guess as to what I drank with my breakfast?!?

Another selection from my box 'o tea. I almost went for chai this morning. Almost ;)

Well then I showed up to work fashionably late at an appropriate time for someone of my health, and not even 30 minutes into my day did my boss send me home to rest up. So rest I did.

I first rested by doing the dishes. Then sweeping the entire downstairs. Then vacuuming all the baseboards and cleaning spiderwebs. I'm glad I got to stay home today because I also got to bond with the other sick member of the house. Woodstock's been doing great; he did the cutest thing EVER today. I heard him attempt his first big boy howl. Or, whatever noise it was a 10 lb. puppy produces in hopes of howling. I freaked out and thought he was hurt, but it turns out he just couldn't find his toy. That nasty cone keeps getting in his way ;)

Then my hunger got the best of me. So I heated up some of last night's leftovers. Are you surprised I even had any extra orange chicken to spare?!?!

My usual trio of meal, drink and Rx. Today, I was determined. And due to my stubborn nature, I successfully used the chopsticks with this meal. Take that...... meal?

When I finished, I laid on the couch to watch another episode of Rick Steves' Europe travel videos saved on my DVR. Does that make me a nerd?!!? If it does, I don't care. It was on France's Côte d'Azur and then I watched a second on Provence. Both areas I'm VERY familiar with, after living in Antibes (in the Côte d'Azur) for the better part of a year. Oh yeah, my 101 year old great aunt lives in Provence, so I had a lot of chances to go over there!

Me and Yvonne, my great aunt from France!

And this is where I used to spend a TOOOOON of time when I worked/lived in Antibes! It's a view of La Baie des Anges, which stretches all the way down to Nice, as seen across the water. This picture was taken in October. Ahhh, the good life :) I would certainly like to go back there again.

Well, coming back to reality after that trip down memory lane, I barely got through the second travel show before I realized I'd slept for nearly three hours. Apparently I conked out. And I had an empty carton of ice cream in front of me ;) Don't worry, there wasn't even a bowl left I just wanted to do my part and help clean out the freezer. Or, soothe my throat, whichever you choose to believe!

When J.D. came back home we nixed our original plan to make game hens. Instead, I craved something odd. Soup and pizza! Being the sweet guy that he is, J.D. drove to Little Caesar's to pick up a $5 pizza while I heated up a bowl of Progresso's tomato basil soup. Except, I hate this soup!!! I tried it once and found it waaaay too sweet for my liking. Alterations were in order, so in went some Tuscan herb blend and for some more flavor, a few pepper flakes. Oh and some fresh basil. Muuuuch better. I'm a firm believer in modifying canned soups.

As per usual, I needed some dessert. I bring you Monique's twist on frozen yogurt:

Literally, it's yogurt, frozen. I put it in the freezer for about an hour then topped it with dark chocolate almond spread and some fun, purple sprinkles. It's not exactly like frozen yogurt, but pretty darn close! And chocolate always seems to make everything better ;)

Before I go I wanted to let you guys all know something. I'm moving my site to a new domain name!! So update your bookmarks/readers/other means of stalking me to http://www.shesgoingdistance.com I plan on blogging solely from there now. Still have some work to do on the site, so bear with me! Also, thank you all SO MUCH for all your well-wishes yesterday!! It made me feel so loved :) You guys are awesome.

Question: What's your favorite nerdy thing to watch on TV when you're in veg mode?? Since you already know mine, I'll tell you something else super nerdy. I subscribe to iTunesU podcasts. Like listening to university lectures about French lit, or American lit, German grammar lessons, astronomy, religious studies, you name it. I think it's important to keep educating yourself even after college.