So I found a planner cover at Target for $10. It doesn’t have rings, it’s designed to hold a spiral bound note booklet type of thing. I removed said notebook thing.

I stuck three strips of the soft side of hook and loop fastener (um. Velcro.) to the back of the tablet. Soft side because when I hold it I want to not touch hard side.  I then proceeded to stick three strips of the hard side in  corresponding locations inside the back cover of the padfolio.

That’s pretty much it. I want to say this idea is copywrited or something but it isn’t, but if you make a bunch of money on it hopefully you’ll share.

I’ve never met you, but I know a lot about you. We probably would have been friends.

You liked shoes. You had hundreds of pairs of shoes.

You loved holiday decorations. You must have had rooms and rooms full of them, for every holiday imaginable.

You were  fancy. Like glittery blouses and gold lame’ Mary Jane shoes fancy.

You had a lot of clothes. A lot of them you owned for 40 years and never took the tags off of.

You were my same size.

You liked square dancing and had all sorts of different dresses for it.

You are recently deceased and your family is selling her treasures in a front yard on a busy street.

So, Favorite Old Lady, here’s to you. Here’s to hoping you had a full and happy life, and that your friends and family are missing you tonight. I know about your zest for life and I wish I had gotten to witness it. Also I wish I had gotten to see you in your gold Mary Janes.

Don’t worry about your red dress with the blue flowers… You never wore it, but kudos for getting it on sale! You got it at the Wagon Wheel for about $10 off the original price of $55. I win though, because I got it for a buck. It fits me perfectly and I’m currently plotting a fancy night out as an excuse to have an occasion to wear it. I promise to take good care of it, it is going to the cleaners tomorrow, and I was so excited about it that I tried it on in my basement late at night and made Daniel take a picture of me with no make-up on which I am happily posting on the internet.

Love,

Aimee

PS: I also have a couple of your skirts from Pick-n-Save, and your really pretty full length fuschia dress from the 70s, but those are being saved for another post.

I was asked for the recipe for these, but the truth is I have very little idea how they came about in the first place, because those of you who know me know that’s not how I operate.  They are a combination of a few recipes I saw on epicurious.com while searching for fancy sloppy joes. Yes, I did just say “Fancy sloppy joes”.

They turned out to be kind of more vegetables than meat, which I loved about them.  They are sweet and tangy and pretty delicious, and they have almost no fat and tons of fiber so they are pretty great for those of us who are trying to watch our nutritional values.  Also, I’m assuming they can easily be made vegetarian by sauteeing the vegetables and then adding the tomato sauce and frozen MorningStar* crumbles and just heating them through, then adding the Bragg’s and vinegar.

Here’s (kind of/pretty much)  how to make really good, really vegetablecentric Sloppy Joes.

1/2 pound ground turkey

2 medium zucchini

1 medium yellow squash

1/2 a sweet onion

2 big carrots

1 stalk of celery

1 garlic clove

Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce, or probably salt?)

Apple Cider vinegar (This is the magic)

1 can (the cute little one) of tomato paste

Ground black pepper

Chop up all of the vegetables. Probably a food processor with the grater deal  is a good idea because there are kind of a ton of vegetables involved.

Brown the turkey, garlic and the vegetables in the biggest skillet you can find.  I put a little bit of olive oil in first because otherwise turkey will probably stick because it is so lean.  Don’t worry about draining it, there’s hardly any fat in it, and the vegetables release some water during cooking which you will want to become part of the sauce.  I vote don’t salt it because the Braggs is salty. Do pepper it.

After the meat is brown, add the tomato paste and let it keep bubble cooking.  I don’t know the exact ratios of the Liquid Aminos and Apple Cider Vinegar, but be careful with the Bragg’s! A little goes a long way. Seriously. Start with maybe a couple of very small dribbles. You can’t go back.  Add a small glug of apple cider vinegar and stir, then taste it and if you like it, you’re done. If not, play with it.  I went back and forth with the vinegar and aminos for a few minutes before I felt like I liked it.

I brought it to my friend’s family with hamburger buns from the yum grocery store bakery. I ate it myself on  low carb tortillas. I’m guessing either way works.

I also may or may not have eaten the last little bit of leftovers straight out of the container with a fork.

*This is not a sponsored post. I promise.  You know how I know you believe me? I’m not a food blogger.  I don’t even measure stuff, for crying out loud. I just like the MorningStar ones better than the Boca ones.

Thanks,

Aimee

“Curvy” girls are watching each other too. But we aren’t judging. We are pushing each other. We are inspiring each other. Not necessarily in a “Come on sister! Fat bottom girls make the rockin’ world go round” type of way, or in a “We can be skinny too if we work hard!” Type of way, although yes, we absoutely share those moments.

The skinny girls who don’t know each other don’t smile and say hi to each other. We do. We find each other and smile in kind of a mutual sigh of relief, as in “Oh. You’re here too. We can do this.” Then we both think “Oh. Shit.”

And then we push each other by the fact that none of us wants to be the most out of shape girl in the room. And you know what? I’m totally fine with that. The girl about my same size was scared and needed to be in the back of the Body Combat class. There was another girl who was new, and said she didn’t want to be in the front. So I went to the front.

I survived. Also, I feel like I got more out of the class than I usually do in the back. I hope girl-my-size got more out of it too and that one day someone will guilt her into being brave enough to move to the front.

Girl friends make weekends better. And more colorful.

Last night I met up with a couple of fantastic girls for wings (baked ones) and beer (singular) and got surprised with a bottle of bright turquoise fingernail polish, which I pretty much flipped over, and was beyond excited to try.

Today I asked the internet to decide my fate… gym or nap. My very very dear adopted- sister-friend responded that the answer was “pedicure” so obviously that is what happened. Because I knew there was a bright and unnatural color in my fingertips’ future, I decided on a pretty pinkish coral for my toes.

The blue, which is “Robyn” by Zoya, is even greater in reality than I had imagined it.

I joke a lot about swapping phone numbers with new friends like it is a big deal. Like we don’t follow each other on Twitter and know what the other had for breakfast, and what they were doing the previous evening at about 11:45. But really. Can I just have your number? Can I text you and be like “hey are you going to the new market in your hood?”

For a little while, I was escaping and venting to the Twitter. When a friend told me that one of her friends had asked if I was alright, I realized I had better suck it up and quit bitching.

My Twitter account has been set to private for the past few months, and I started thinking that maybe it is losing its appeal. Really it doesn’t do anything text messaging can’t do, so see above. We can totally still hang out.

I’m still here. I will still tweet and talk about what I had for breakfast. And if you ate hearing from me late at night, you will still know what I am or am not doing. I’ve been thinking lately that rather than tweet and confine myself to a character limit, I might even do a little bit more rambling here.

This led to: I suck at life because I am behind on laundry.

Which led to: If I wasn’t so fat, the clothes in my closet would fit right and I wouldn’t have this problem.

Which led to: Crying because I am frustrated that the scale has not moved downward despite 3+ weeks of exercising a LOT. (I know, I know. but still!)

Which led to: Crying because I am a failure at everything.

EVERYTHING. Really. Crying.

Then somebody mentioned being moody because of a lunar eclipse… So I feel a lot skinnier and like I totally have my shit together now, because it’s just the stupid moon’s fault.

Photo By Melissa L. from BFAS

To grinning from ear to ear with a new friend:

Photo By Melissa L. from BFAS

To realizing he’s found his new sister:

Photo By Melissa L. with BFAS

To being happy and healthy with a family that loves him?

Photo by Sara A. From BFAS, Click through for article

The answer is… Adoption.  Specifically the Spring Super Adoption! This weekend, April 29-May 1, 2011

Dates and Times
Friday, 4/29:     2pm – 7pm
Saturday, 4/30:  10am – 7pm
Sunday, 5/1:    10am – 4pm

Click Through to the official Utah Pets post about the adoption!

]]> http://adventuresandmishaps.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/spring-super-pet-adoption/feed/ 2 flitryss Super Pits 30401_117881034900421_100000355760976_179958_1215601_n 30401_117881028233755_100000355760976_179956_2363149_n (1) Pit Family love is in bloom top