Author: heather

Product Reviews

Food!

heather

Tim and I don’t celebrate Christmas, but I am using of this time off work and the general gaiety of the season as an excuse to indulge a little bit.  My employer is shut down for the last two weeks of December, so I am at home in the Quad Cities.  Tim and I are taking advantage of being back here during mid-day to reacquaint ourselves with our favorite local cuisine.

Yesterday we got beef tacos from Bent River Brewery.  Tim and I discovered this delectable treat this summer, when Bent River would sometimes serve them on Saturdays (they only serve tacos on special; they are not a regular menu item).  Eventually, to our dismay, they stopped serving them on Saturdays and reverted back to only serving them on Wednesdays.  We got them yesterday, and they were deeeelicious.  I wonder if they simmer the beef in a delicious stout or something….

Today we are going to get donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts.  We drove past a roving billboard for DD yesterday, and it whetted our appetite.  After that we are heading to La Rancherita 2 for a tasty Mexican breakfast.  Our goal is to hit Hungry Boy Deli in Moline (hands down the best gyros in the QC) for lunch.  But,  as Tim and I are not bottomless pits, I’m not sure if we’ll have room.  We’ll definitely need to make it there over the next week or so, though.

We also recently discovered some very tasty treats at the store – Tim Tams and Rold Gold Bavarian Dark Chocolate pretzels.  Our interest was piqued by a Pepperidge Farm display at Target yesterday, advertising an Australian cookie called a Tim Tam.  We figured it would be worth $2.50 to see what all the fuss was about.  Tim tams are chocolate sandwich cookies that are also dipped in chocolate.  Australia has good taste in cookies; I mean “biscuits.”  They are super, duper tasty.  I highly recommend them.  You can follow the link above to get a $1 off coupon (as long as you are not using Ubuntu like I am).

Tim was seduced by a well-placed end cap and bought the other treat that we are currently in love with, Rold Gold dark chocolate covered pretzels. The combination of salty pretzels and not-too-sweet dark chocolate is awesome.  Very tasty. Very dangerous.

So much tasty food, so little time.

Cooking/Recipes

La Rancherita 2

heather

Tim and I were lamenting the lack of really good Mexican restaurants in the Quad Cities these days.  Los Agaves used to be good, but the quality of their food has nose-dived as of late, likewise with the Aztecas.  It seems as if they all offer the same things – cheap ground beef inside a lackluster pocket of fried corn meal, smothered in cheese and the cheapest tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream that can be bought.

I resorted to using Yelp in my own home town to find something new and better.  I stumbled upon a couple of good review of La Rancherita  2 on Elmore Ave (by Wal-Mart).  Tim and I had actually tried to eat there right after they first opened, but they do not take credit cards, and we never carry cash, so we walked out.  Well, I had $24.00 in cash on me for some reason, so we decided to give it another shot.

The restaurant itself is nothing to write home about – except for the chairs, that is.  The chairs are the hugest, sturdiest, most colorful things you will ever see.  They look as if they belong in a play-room for giant-sized children.  They are pretty awesome, actually.  On the downside, the outer door opens directly into the restaraunt, keeping the innards very chilly.  You’ll be warmed up stat by the delicious chips and salsa, however.  The salsa is fresh pico de gallo, and it is spicy and delicious, as are the chips.  On Saturday they were selling $2.75 Mexican import bottles, so Tim and I chased our lunches with Corona.

Tim got 3 steak tacos in corn shells.  They were delicious, especially once they were coated in the red hot sauce that is brought to your table with the chips and salsa (by pretty Mexican ladies in Santa hats). I got a torta (always searching for a torta in the QC that can rival El Olmito’s in Muscatine).  It was good, but it lacked El Olmito’s  jalapenos and carrots and ultra- crispy chicken tidbits.  Truth be told, I think that El Olmito’s torta is better because it is all around crispier – the chicken is crispier, the torta is crispier.  Which means that El Olmito must slather everything in oil and/or butter.  It’s probably why my cholesterol and blood pressure is up over last year.

All-in-all, Tim and I really liked La Rancherita.  They also serve breakfast, so over Christmas break, we are going to check it out.  I can’t wait to try some of that pico de gallo on eggs and toast.  Deeelicious.

Uncategorized

Artistic Experimentation

heather

As I mentioned in my last post (several weeks ago; I’m sorry to say), I worked on an art project a few weeks ago.  At the time, I couldn’t post pictures because the art was going to be gifts to my family.  But, Mom and Dad’s anniversary is over, and all the art was given to its intended recipients, so I can post pictures now.

As I’ve mentioned before, I dislike doing backgrounds when  I draw or paint.  I also enjoy doing calligraphy even though I am no good at it, due to a tremendous lack of practice.  Well, a couple of months ago I ran across Strathmore notecards made of watercolor paper.  I was intrigued and tempted by their small size.  I decided to marry my love of calligraphy with my dislike for large pieces of paper and made these:

With very light pencil lines, I drew centering lines vertically and horizontally.  I then used the Speedball Textbook to find a type of font that I liked.  I settled on blackletter, a beautiful gothic font.  Since, as I previously mentioned, I never practice calligraphy as I should, I cannot reliably free-form the letters.  Instead I sketched them out,  trying to get the angles and shapes correct.  It was difficult to see if the shape was perfect until the lines were filled in, however.  As a result, some of the angles are off.  There is something a little wrong with the bottom of this B, but I can’t quite figure it out…

Once I was fairly satisfied with the penciled-in letters, I went over my pencil lines with a Pilot Parallel pen (quick aside here  – I love this pen.  I hadn’t used it in months and months, but I just ran some warm water over the nib, and the ink starting flowing freely immediately.  It’s super easy to use).  As you can see in some of the more up-close photos, the ink did not lay on the paper completely evenly.  This is mostly due to the grain of the watercolor paper – it’s not the best medium for a calligraphy pen.  I think I should have used an Artist Pen, like the Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen, something that is waterproof and super black.    I also had issues with the ink from the parallel pen bleeding into the watercolor.  I kind of like how it looks, though – a little scratchy, a little messy.  I didn’t want the letters to look as if they were created on a computer.

Once the letters were drawn on with the pen, I started filling them in with watercolor.  My mom lent me several tubes of beautiful watercolor paint, but I resorted to using my cheap little Prang set.  My workspace is very truncated, and the Prang set is so nice and compact.  I mixed colors together that I thought were pretty and interesting, just to see how they would look.  In short, I experimented.

Blue fading to green for Nathan:

Red fading to yellow for Timmy Tee:

Inspired by the Celticness of the C for Charles, my Dad, I did green fading into orange.

To match my Mom’s gorgeous blue eyes, I did blue fading to yellow for Donita.  This is actually Take 2 for Mom’s card.  The first D I did for her was done using Uncial, a more rounded script.  I had a hard time getting the balance of the letter correct, and the color was not quite right.  When I tried to fix it, it just turned to mud.  So, I started over, and the second one turned out much better.

It’s hard to tell in the photos, but on each letter, I threw salt on the paint when it was still wet.  The salt absorbs some of the paint and gives it a slightly mottled look.  I just had to be careful to wait until the paint was completely dry before scratching off the salt; otherwise, smear city.

Once the letters were done, the cards looked a little too empty, so using a ruler I painted a border on each card, using the major color of the letter.

I wasn’t sure what to actually write inside the cards once they were finished.  “Happy Anniversary, Love Heather” just seemed too generic.  Tim gave me the idea to write a haiku in each card.  I haven’t written anything remotely poetic in probably a decade, but it sounded like fun.  I wrote 3 haikus for each person, and Tim picked out the one to put in the card.  They were nothing very earth-shattering or very clever, but I enjoyed writing them, and at least they will never receive a card from someone else with the exact same verbiage on it.

I want to make some more cards, so yesterday Tim and I took the 15 minute trip to Evergreen Art Works to get some more cards.  Unfortunately, they were plumb out.  They had every other single kind of card; just not watercolor cards.  Argh.  However, I kept looking around, hoping to find some cards forgotten on an end-cap somewhere, and found something else super cool – Artist Trading Cards.  They are these tiny (2.5″ x 3.5″) pieces of paper on which people create a piece of art.  The art is then supposed to be traded with other artists at some sort of art swap meet.  It’s amazing how creative people can be on such a little piece of paper.  Check out these images.

I can’t find any swaps in our area, so maybe we’ll have to start one.  I’m trying to talk Tim into doing some.  He is a super creative artist, and could make some really trippy ATCs.

Well, if I keep writing, I’ll never get to the cards, so I best sign off.  Happy arting everyone!

Uncategorized

My Struggle

heather

In writing this blog, I continually struggle with myself regarding what to share and what not to share.  Blog-writing is all about honesty and openness; that is what attracts readers – the ability to see inside someone else.  At least, that’s what I’ve read blogs should be about.  But, ANYONE can read blogs, which necessarily induces reticence.

By the way, I HATE the word “blog.”  It’s a very unattractive, fat word.  It lacks elegance.  I spent a whole 40 minute trip to work one day trying to create a better word for this online posting stuff.  The best I could come up with was “journlectic,” as in, an eclectic journal.  Tim was not impressed, deservedly I guess.  Journlectic doesn’t quite roll off the tongue.  What else to call it?  I guess I’ll have to consider that on another trip to work.

Ah, work, that is what I am struggling writing about, to get back to my opening point.  I recently changed jobs – moved from Treasury to Accounting.  The whole job-changing (and in my case career-changing) move is fraught with all sorts of writing-inducing feelings and thoughts.  Changing jobs/changing careers is not for the faint of heart.  You feel stupid and overwhelmed pretty much constantly, and just when you feel as if you are catching on, you post a journal entry in the wrong period and your boss can’t close the books until you fix it.  Or you fumble-finger an entry and do it for an amount 10 times larger than it should be.  Ah, my employer is so lucky to have me.

I just read a post this morning on Zen Habits with the catchy title of “The Insidious Perfidiousness of Doubts.”  And, yes, I did have to look up perfidiousness.  It was nice to know that I’m not the only one who has thoughts like this (quoted from the post):

“I can’t do it. I’m not good enough. I’d never make it. I’d only fail and embarrass myself. Why should I dare dream?”

These thoughts plague me daily, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute.  Objectively, I know I’m an intelligent person.  If I ran across myself in the world, I would think to myself, “That girl is smart.  She can do whatever she wants and will be successful.  I wish I was her.”  But looking from the inside out, it’s a totally different story.  I have the above mentioned thoughts running through my head in a constant refrain and wonder if maybe I should go apply at Target for a cashier position.  I like helping people.  I could wear red every day.  I might be okay at that.

How to marry this external proof with the internal doubt, that is the real question.  Even though I’m very stressed about my current life change, I think that taking on this new challenge will be good for me in the long run.  If I am successful in this new endeavor, it will add more weight to the “external proof” bucket and weaken the internal doubt mantra.  I need to persevere and give it time.  I’ve caved in to my doubts too often, which is why I’m 30-something and still don’t have an encyclopedia page (I graduated from high school before Wikipedia existed) written about me, as my high-school classmates voted I would.  Giving in to doubt, I’ve not pursued many challenges and experiences.  The more I held myself back, the more power the internal voice got and the more I listened.

I do have to say though, that not listening to that voice is S T R E S S F U L.  I need to manage that better.  I know that the worst case scenario is not that bad and completely manageable (even if I did have to get a job at Target, we would still have enough money to eat and to make the house payment), but tell that to the feeling in the pit of my stomach when Lucent wakes me up at 4AM, and my mind starts racing about all the stuff I don’t know how to do and don’t yet understand.

I’m just trying to sort this all out and deduce if I’m making good decisions and living the life I want to live.  I haven’t been writing lately because I’ve been working so much, and writing about accounting is not that interesting.  But, I need to make my life about something besides work, so I need to write.  That’s a step in the right direction at least.

Books, Cooking/Recipes, Health & Fitness

Beauty and reconnection on the weekends

heather

Work has been really busy lately.  I know that millions around the world work 50+ hours every week without a second thought, but I’m not used to it.  Not used to it yet.  I feel as if I wake up, drive to work, work, drive home, eat supper, read for 15 minutes and fall asleep.  That is my week-day life.  So, like everyone, I really look forward to the weekend.  I get to see my husband again.  I get to see what my house looks like in the daylight.  I get to spend time thinking about things that don’t involve numbers.  It’s quite pleasant.

On Saturday Tim and I finally made it back to the gym.  I don’t think I’ve mentioned this in the blog, but Tim came down with an “acute viral infection” a couple of weeks ago that landed him in the ER for 6 hours (his family practicioner was worried Tim had menningitis).  It took several days before Tim felt well enough to go back to the gym.  I was off my normal schedule due to the NY trip and the long work-days, so I didn’t go all last week.

It felt great to go back to the gym.  I did my leg weights and the Precor.  I could tell I was out-of-practice because I was sooo tired afterwards.  I have reverted back to the fitness level where working out exhausts you instead of giving you energy.  But I know it’ll get better.

After the gym we headed to 11th Street Precinct for some grilled pork T’s, which were delicious as always.  It was a beautiful, weird fall warm day, so we took a walk along the bike path after lunch, admiring the river, the geese, the lily-pads, and the mansions overlooking River Drive.  We crossed River Drive, so that we could get a better look at the houses on the way back.  They are so huge and beautiful.  One even has an English telephone booth (it looks like the Tartis) on the front patio.

The rich and privileged even get better moths on their grounds than do us lowly peons.  Tim and I saw the most beautiful moth.  Its wings had blue ovals on them that looked as if they had sunsets hidden in them.  This is the closest picture I can find on Google.  It was the most beautiful thing I have seen in weeks.  I don’t know how people can truly believe there is no God, when beauty like that exists in the world.

Today Tim and I have been warding off the back-to-work blues.  So we are making the ultimate comfort food – autumn harvest soup and double corn corn bread.  Cutting up vegetables while listening to a Tim-engineered mix of Modeselektor, Radiohead, and Nightmare Revisited is my  idea of a perfect Sunday.

For desert we bought some Banquet fruit pies.  They were only $ 0.60, so even if they are extremely terrible, it won’t be devastating.  The ingredients actually look fairly good – fruit, wheat flour, brown sugar – heck, these might even be good for us!  Tim and I figure these are the perfect pies for us.  We can never eat a whole pie, nor should we.  These should be perfect for one piece each.

While it’s back to work tomorrow, at least we have next Saturday and Sunday to look forward to.  We have no plans yet.  Maybe I’ll finish my Mom painting.  Maybe we’ll start on our novels.  November is National Novel Writing Month. I’ve read that one should write about what one knows.  Since I know very little and lead a quite, unassuming life, I’ve always believed that my life provides little fodder for writing.  However, I’ve been listening to Romancing Miss Bronte on my way to work, and it’s helped me realize that having an active imagination and un-lazy mind is more important than living an adventurous life.  Emily and Charlotte Bronte grew up in a parsonage and traveled very little, yet they wrote two amazing books that shattered the literary world of their time.  If they could write books out of minds that were raised on fecal-laced water and rotten rice pudding, I should be able to write something worth reading on a mind raised on Iowa goodness and autumn harvest soup.  Unfortunately, I lack inspiration.  I enjoy the actual physical act of writing – of scratching a pen across paper, of filling up pages and pages in cool notebooks.  I just need a good idea…  I have 7 days to think of something.

Uncategorized

Art

heather

Art.  What is it?  What is it not, might be a better question.  I think art can mean anything and everything, depending on the observer.

My Moms and I traveled to NYC last weekend to visit my bros.  We did tons of awesome stuff, including viewing some very interesting art.

The first piece that we viewed was The New York Earth Room, which is an art installation that’s been on display for 30 years.  We ventured off of Houston a block or two, entered a nondescript door, climbed the narrowest, steepest stairs you have ever seen, and arrived in a white room that is covered in 250 cubic yards of earth.  Dark, black, earthy earth.  Earth that looks like it came straight out of an Iowa field.  It smelled exactly like my high school art room.  In other words, it smelled delicious.  While viewing the room, I was like, “Huh, why is this “art?”  But it’s strange, looking back on our trip, it was one of the neatest things we saw/experienced.  It personified that fact that we were in New York City.  To me, NYC has always seemed like a zillion small towns packed into a small place – everyone on the block knows each other, goes to the same restaurants, shops at the same bodegas, etc., especially in the area of Brooklyn in which my brothers live.  Seeing an art installation like the Earth Room really helps you realize that you are in a unique place.  No small town would ever commission a room full of dirt.  Well, they might, but not for artistic reasons.

We saw another piece by the same artist, Walter De Maria.  The other piece was the Broken Kilometer.  De Maria laid out 500 brass rods in 5 parallel rows of 100 rows each.  Click on the link to see what I am talking about.  It was an interesting display, too, but not as cool as the Earth Room.

That evening we attended an art show in Brooklyn.  It was held in a old abbey, full of interesting rooms and windows and more hipsters than I have ever seen in one place.  I felt very alien there, with my non-skinny jeans and grey hoodie.  There was some really amazing artwork and some really, really terrible artwork.  At least, terrible to me.  In listening to my brother’s explanation of “conceptual art” I’ve decided I’m probably more traditional in my tastes.  I appreciate art that takes skill and imagination.  So much of what we saw there and in many other galleries and art museums is what to me, seems so uninspired.  What was the artist who punched perfectly circular holes in a sheet of paper trying to say?  Was he really trying to say something, or was he just trying to get something done for the opening?  Is the story an artist attaches to a piece of work more important than the work itself?

Not that I should be judging artists.  At least these people are trying to create something new to this world.  I say I want to create art, and then I just end up watching Season 2 of Veronica Mars, which isn’t even that good.

What does art mean to me, personally?  What do I consider to be art?  I appreciate art that takes skill to produce, that is creative, that is beautiful to look upon.  Art can be a really great outfit (for example, black leather Vans, faded black Levis, and a grey long-sleeved t-shirt, which is the outfit I’m rocking today), an interesting hair style, or a beautifully crafted desk.  I suppose anything that makes you think twice is art – something that arrests your attention.  That is the kind of art I find interesting and inspiring.

Cooking/Recipes, Uncategorized

I’m baking a chicken

heather

And it smells delicious.  Timmy Tee is fighting a cold, and I had a weird almost-fainting spell whilst bicycling this afternoon, so we need some comfort food.  I’m using a recipe I got from Real Simple years ago.  You basically cut up 2 lemons and 1/2 a head of garlic, shove it into the chicken’s innards, rub down the whole thing with olive oil, salt and pepper the hell of out it, and then toss it in the oven.  It’s super easy, and the skin turns out crispy and delicious.  I’m surprised no one has tried to sell oiled and baked chicken skin by the bag.

It’s been another excellent weekend in the Longoria household.  Tim and I haven’t seen much of each other, since I was in NYC last weekend and in Lakeville Wed – Thursday, and Tim was doing trips the other nights.  So on Saturday Tim drove me to Iowa City where I had lunch with a friend I hadn’t seen forever (ate tapas for the first time ever at Devotay), and then we did a little shopping at Coral Ridge.  Tim found 3 pairs of chinos at Banana Republic for $7 to $20!  I didn’t find much, but it was so nice just hanging out with Tim, spending time together, laughing together, drinking strawberry smoothies together.

We made it back to Dport in time to feed the dee oh gee and then headed to Biaggis for our favorite meal combo – messina salad and chicken piccante pizza.  It was delicious.  The crowd in the joint was pretty interesting – it was full of a bunch of elderly folk and teenagers.  Apparently it was some school’s homecoming, so the place was chock-full of high heels, tans, and awkward hair cuts.  I wonder if we were that annoying at that age?

Today after reading the morning news, we headed out for bike ride.  I don’t know if it was the 3 cups of coffee or the cold wind on my hot face, but once we reached Emeis Park, I felt really not good.  I had to lay down for about 10 minutes while I decided if I was going to throw up or pass out or both.  I didn’t do either, fortunately.  I was able to bike home, albeit at a much slower pace.  It was really weird.  I hate it that my body is so temperature sensitive.  It makes me panic in situations where I get too warm.  Pass Out City, man.

Anyway, it was a great weekend – exactly what I needed after a stressful week of work.  Now, only five more days before the weekend comes again…

Health & Fitness

Ugh

heather

So, how did I do?  I got, what, two posts into the 30 posts in 30 days thing?  I started out with good intentions; I really did.  As usual, life and laziness got in the way.

I am making myself post tonight, though, because I need to get myself back on track before I get to out-of-control.  And by “out-of-control” I mean coming home from work, sitting on the couch and watching 2 hours of television while eating supper chased with some Doritos.  Not good.

Life has been extra busy lately.  I started a new job today, but I’m still doing my old job too, at least until they hire a replacement.  I’ve been working on a couple of projects and also trying to update all of my notes/standard work instructions and trying to train my 2 coworkers in a few weeks what has taken me 3 years to learn thoroughly.  We’ll get there; it’ll just be a busy October.

And when I’m busy at work, I tend to let other parts of life slide.  I don’t exercise as much.  I eat worse food and more of it, and I watch more TV.  I feel as if I’ve “earned” it, even though “earning” a tasty, unhealthy meal won’t lessen its bad effects on the body at all.

I need to get back to where I was last winter, before our Spring break trip – working out 3-5 days per week, doing yoga every Saturday, and eating healthy food in proper portions.  I felt so much better, I had more energy, and my skin was so much better. I actually had some ab definition!

So, tomorrow morning I am going to get up and go to the gym.  Unlike today, I’m not going to eat 2 cups (was it really 2 cups?  eesh) of Tim’s delicious home-made mac & cheese for lunch.  Perhaps I’ll have a PB&J on whole wheat bread with a Honeycrisp.  Whatever I do, I need to get back on the healthy wagon.

I absolutely have to exercise Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week.  Thursday afternoon Mom and I are flying out to NYC to visit my bros.  That is about 10 delicious meals that I need to prepare my body for with some preemptive exercise.

So, I better head to my tea and my bed, so I can get to sleep and get up at 4:30AM.  Good luck to everyone else out there who is trying to maintain a healthy life style.  Laura – I saw you’re doing Zumba tonight.  I hope you had fun.  You’re looking great!

Movies

Post Dos – My Favorite Movie

heather

This is going to be harder than I thought.  I returned home from getting my hair done, ate some supper (delicious scramby eggs rolled into a burrito with red pepper flakes, jalapeno slices, and extra sharp cheddar), watched 7 minutes of Modern Family (I don’t see what all the fuss is about), and now it’s 8:41, and I still need to write a post before retiring to bed by 9PM!  Whew, best get started.

Favorite movie.  Again, this is a tough one.  I think I can narrow it down to two this time, however.

1.  Serenity.  Tim and I had never heard of Firefly when we went to some random movie and saw the trailer for Serenity.  We thought that it looked like a cheesy movie, but it looked like it could be good.  So we saw it in the theater.  I LOVED it.  It was such a perfect mix of adventure, laughter, love, and loss.  Amazing.  I have seen the movie at least 5 times, and we’re watching it again Friday night.  One of my friends FINALLY broke down and watched all of the Firefly episodes, so I am making him come over to watch Serenity with us.  I’m going to stare at him through the whole movie to make sure he is reacting appropriately and appreciating this marvel of a movie. If he isn’t, so help me.

Soon after seeing the movie, I had my wisdom teeth removed, so Tim and I moved our mattress into the living room in front of the TV, and watched the whole season in two days while I recovered.  We capped off the weekend with Serenity, of course.  I almost regret having seen them, only because it means that I can’t watch them for the first time ever again.  They are that good.

2.  The other movie that I watch all the time, whenever I can’t figure out what I really want to watch or if I’m feeling blue or if I’m just feeling chill, is the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice.  Don’t get me wrong, I also love the 4 hour BBC production.  In fact, I would have called that one of my favorite movies prior to falling in love with the new version.  Actually, if I think back, when I first saw the new P&P, I wasn’t sure that it compared that favorably to the BBC version (case in point – the awkward, tacked on ending scene).  Much like Mr. Darcy, it improves upon further acquaintance. I love the setting, the beautiful English countryside, Keira’s beauty and perfect delivery, Mr. Darcy walking through the misty fields, meeting Elizabeth and realizing he still has a chance.  Ah, so good.  It’s the ultimate feel-good movie.  It’s so relaxing and peaceful to watch.  The scene where Darcy meets Elizabeth after the church service, during which Elizabeth discovers that Darcy is the reason Jane & Bingley were separated, is pure gold.  They so passionately despise each other that they can barely resist each other.  It makes my heart skip a beat every time I watch it.