Then vs now

Two years ago my days consisted of working as a Senior Project Manager at Microsoft during the day and with our production team in Mumbai at night.  Deadlines were unrealistically tight, pressure was constant, and rewards were few.  My week started on Sunday evening and ended on Friday evening.  I often worked 16 hours a day managing up to 35 technical and marketing projects simultaneously.  This went on for a little over two years and by the end I was bone tired and suffocating under the pressure. 

Today, my day day looked like this:

This represents just a few moments from my not-very-stressful day, an impromptu visit from Abby and her mom.  But it really brought home how much things have changed since the days when my work life balance was so very seriously skewed and I felt like I was slowly dying.

It's SOMEONE'S birthday today!

Customize your own digital ecard Happy 27th birthday, Elisabeth!  I love you!

28th Anniversary Fieldtrip: The Plan

Tom and I got married over Memorial Day weekend 28 (gulp!) years ago.  My thinking then was that we could go away for a long anniversary trip together each and every year.

Pffffft!  Obviously that was before we had four kids within five years!

For many, many, (many) years, we hardly ever got away alone together because we had four kidlets at home – and who would take four kids under the age of, oh, 18, for three full days?!  But now those four kids are adults who are willing to come back and pet/slash/house-sit so Tom and I can get away for our anniversary. 

And THIS is where we’ll be going:

This all started when our wonderful neighbor, Kim (Abby’s mom) reminded me that Alderbrook Resort, where she works (remotely - she doesn’t commute there every day!) has a Memorial Day special.  We’ve been wanting to head over there for over a year now and what better opportunity than an anniversary get-away? 

So on Saturday morning (oh, please, please, please, weather gods, shine on us!) we’ll get on a ferry*…

and head to “the Ports” – Port Ludlow…

Port Hadlock,

The Dungeness Spit, home to -- yeah, those…

Port Townsend,

and Port Angeles, where we’ll stay in this hotel on the water.

On Sunday morning we’ll take a short trip to one of the most beautiful lakes in Washington, Lake Crescent. 

And from there, we’ll head into Olympic National Forest to visit Hurricane Ridge, from where (on a clear day) you can see pretty all (or a whole lot of, anyway) the Olympic Mountains.  We’ve lived in Washington for almost 20 years now, and I’ve never been to Hurricane Ridge!

And then we’ll head here, to Alderbrook Resort and Spa, which deserves a few photos (right from their website)!

(Yes, we have a waterfront room reserved for us!)

I am so looking forward to some kayaking (oh, pretty please, weather gods, with a cherry on top, please shine on us!), some hiking, and maybe even a spa treatment… or just a good book (suggestions?) and a long nap.

On Monday we’ll head back eastward, but hopefully we won’t be in too much of a hurry (unless Kim calls us to inform us that 50 cars are parked in front of our house… but that’s so “I’m in high school and my parents are gone for the weekend…!”), so maybe we’ll stop somewhere on the way back. 

But where? 

And hey, did we miss a “must-see”?  If you’ve had some great experiences around the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula, do let us know!

*Photos in this post courtesy of Google images and websites indicated there… but photos in future posts regarding this trip will be courtesy of me!

**PS:  Kat, can I borrow your Nikon? 

How to transform your living room in just a few hours -- and spend just a few bucks doing it

Look what we (and by “we,” I mean Tom) did in just a few hours yesterday!

We brought our living room from this…

…to this!

You know how, when you have a project planned, you get up bright and early, rarin’ to get started? 

We don’t!

We were doing this at about noon…

Then it was off to Home Depot to buy paint and supplies (and look at refrigerators and plants… and then go out for a leisurely late lunch).

By the time this photo was taken, it was probably 4:30 or 5.

You know how Pioneer Woman will use any opportunity to show off Marlboro Man’s backside?  You know how he’s usually standing beside his trusty steed, looking oh, so debonair?

This is Northwest Ladybug’s Remodel Man, looking oh, so busy whipped sexy beside his trusty (and self-made!)… um… river rock fireplace.  I know, it lacks that special ring.  But what it lacks there it makes up in… hmmm – devotion?

The reason why Tom is doing the work and not me is because I would have barely taped anything…

I probably wouldn’t have done a careful test swatch…

I might not have painted carefully around the edges first…

And I wouldn’t have known to pre-clean the brush by creating some fine art.

At this point, blink and you’ll miss it!

By 8:00 PM or so (see, it’s still light outside!)  it was all done!

And only about 16 hours after beginning (and that includes a good eight hours of sleep), it looked like this!

Next – a single wall in our bedroom!

An impromptu Wienerschnitzel, rotkraut (or blaukraut?), and käsespätzle dinner

Since Peter graduated from Washington State University a few months ago, he’s been living at home and looking for a career job in his field (Environmental Science), but on days like today I wonder whether maybe he has a calling as a chef.

For no real reason, just because, and simply because it’s Friday and the sun was shining (or select a reason of your choice),  Peter suggested that we try our hand at making Wienerschnitzel, which he loved when he went to Germany earlier this year. 

So we made – and ate, appreciatively – this:

Lecker! (That’s delicious in German.)

First we started the rotkraut, which is what my Bavarian mother always called it, but I’ve been informed of late that it’s more correctly called blaukraut. 

Fine. 

First we started the purplekraut…

This has to cook for quite a while, and all it does once you’ve thrown it together is cook, so it’s good to get it on the stove.  I cut up the colored kraut and placed it in a pot, along with sliced apples, sautéed onions (leaving some for the käsespätzle), a few tablespoons of brown sugar, a splash of red wine vinegar, some fresh lemon juice, a few bay leaves, and some whole cloves (which I sealed into a little tea thingamabopper).

(You know by now that I rarely actual post recipes, right?)

Then I covered the whole mess, put it on a fairly low heat and pretty much ignored it, causing it great angst (and full cooperation).

In the meantime, Peter dealt with the veal.  Yes, veal. 

I know, I know – you thought I’d been reformed when I wrote this post just a week ago.  And you’re thinking I’m kinda hypocritical to buy (and eat!) veal of all things – and you’re absolutely correct. Please do not remind me about how the poor, adorable baby cow spends his whole life in a tiny..

Sigh.

(Does the fact that last time I ate veal was with my mom – rest her soul -- in Salzburg in 2001 make any difference?)

Anyway, Peter and his hypocrite of a mom prepared the… um -- meat.

and then put it aside while we…

…got the käsespätzle going.  Four cups of flours, five eggs, and just enough very cold water…

…to make a thick batter that we beat the living daylights out of

We prepared our spätzle maker (a wonderful gift from Laura, our beloved German exchange student) and waited for the pot of water to boil.

OK, now this is the fun part!  I plopped big ol’ spoonsful of batter onto the spätzle maker…

and Peter did the hard part.  (I can say it’s fun because Peter did the hard part!)

After the spätzle was cooked, we layered it with grated Gruyere cheese…

and the rest of the sautéed onions.

Oh, and some… um… melted butter.

The we tossed it in the 350 degree oven and forgot about it for 20 minutes (causing no anguish at all because anything with this amount of calories knows its badass).

Then we turned our attention back to the schnitzel.  To create the delicious crust, we needed some flour, some egss, and some bread crumbs, each in a separate flat-bottomed dish.  I can’t show you the process because it took both of us to do this and my hands were covered with goop, so there was no way I could hold a camera. 

Basically, we just dried each piece of meat, salt and peppered it, covered it with flour (and then tapped it around to get rid of extra flour), then dipped it in egg, and finally covered it with bread crumbs.

Then we fried it on pretty high heat, turning each piece very carefully only once.

By the time the meat was done, so was the käsespätzle, warm and delicious, from the oven.

And so was the purplekraut which I gave in to and stirred a few times while it was on the stove.

Then we woke up Tom who was fast asleep on the couch. (It’s Friday, so we’ll allow it… as long as he helps clean up… which he did!)

And THIS is what tonight’s completely impromptu dinner looked like. 

If you think it looks good, you oughtta taste it!  And there are even leftovers, should any other kids want to come home this weekend! Hint-hint…