TWTW - the productive yet relaxing one

Friday I had acupuncture at the end of the day and went home to chill the F out all night. It was great. I had a super simple dinner of argula and spinach salad and cacio e pepe, had some tea, and watched Schitts Creek.

Saturday I meant to sleep in but Gus had a poop problem and the dogs knocked over my bedside water glass, lamp, and phone, so I was up and moving by 7. I put away a load of towels and two loads of clothes, did another load of towels, cleaned out the fridge, emptied the dishwasher, cleared the living room cart of all the shit that has accumulated on it over the past year, and got a visit from my mom who came bearing pastries. Saturday afternoon was Annabelle's first birthday where it was nice to catch up with a lot of people I haven't seen since Catie & Joe's wedding in April, then on to Aldi. I was supposed to go there Friday night and should have because it was insane. I lolled around on the couch and read and watched Schitts Creek, MFD had an aborted mission to a mummery gig due to a car fire on 95. I made a nice rib eye with potatoes and green beans and sat my ass on the couch. I also talked on the phone twice! To Laura both times, but still. LOL

Sunday I slept in until 8:30, packed shore towels up to go back there, changed and washed sheets, went to Produce Junction, put away the shit that gets sent to the basement to get put away but just sits there for a while, organized Christmas gifts, ordered the gifts we do for Santa's Family organized by our friends at McCarthy Real Estate, photographed and listed some things to sell on FB, did the weekly food prep, went through a year of magazines, did a hair and face mask, did some work, and painted my nails (Zoya Aubrey + OPI Meet Me on the Star Ferry). I was feeling well prepared for the week by 3 pm. I closed out the day watching CSI season one episodes - man, that was a good show - and working from 8-10. 

Weekly food prep: Breakfasts are hard boiled eggs with power breakfast muffins. Snacks are oranges and celery and PB. Lunches were going to be chicken salad over spinach but I have too many leftovers so they have to go as lunch first. Sunday dinner was caesar salad with crusty italiaan bread/hard salami/mozzarella/green olives. I also made enchilada pasta to use up some enchilada sauce I had frozen (there's enough in my freezer for it to look like I was opening a restaurant) with zucchini and bell peppers from the air fryer + black olives and a can of tomatoes with diced green chiles.

I'm feeling a little better about my life after getting some shit purged and in order this weekend

TWTW - the one bebopping around

Friday night sushi at Ota-Ya in Newtown, Stephen & Aubrey's place, to celebrate Carol's retirement. Finally! She retired at the end of December. Baby Stephen was an angel and slept right through and Lola Jean kept us all entertained and was so good.

Saturday I was in the car by 5 am to head to the shore. I mean if you have to drop lighting off but be back by 10, you might as well arrive in time for the sunrise, right? Awesome treasure hunting too. 

We did a clean up organized by Friends of Poquessing Watershed of Philadelphia & Bucks County in Morrell Park. It was nice to have a neighborhood cleanup happen when we did not have something else to do. Holy shit, litter drives me nuts.

I rushed off to acupuncture at the Won Institute in Glenside for a 1 pm appointment. No pics, I was a chicken with my head cut off by this point in the day so I borrowed a free one from the Internets. While I was waiting for the student acupuncturist to come back in with the instructor, I finished my book. My neck is still jacked up but I can turn my head all the way to the right with no resistance for the first time since June. I will obviously continue to go back to address the remaining pinched nerve shit but what a freaking relief. Thanks to Aub for the info about this place, I was desperate to get in somewhere on Saturday.

I dashed back home to get in the shower and MFD pulled up soon to pick me up. We went to a gathering of friends for John Fetterman. This man is the real deal - more on him tomorrow but his site is accessible through the link. He's running for Lt. Governor of PA and is the kind of person I want in all offices. The hostesses, food, and company were all great. I did not wear my Fetterman shirt to the event, but I wore it earlier for the clean up. Yes, that's dog hair all over it. I have dogs.

We got home a little before 9 and I was fucking beat. These are three of the five pairs of shoes I wore doing all the things Saturday.

I slept in Sunday and it was glorious. Then I set about setting the house to rights because last week was like a tornado. I changed the sheets, did four loads of laundry and put it away, ran and emptied the dishwasher, unpacked all of my deliveries (here we have the housing for dog food, treats, cleaning products, laundry powder, green string lights because the senior ladies in the neighborhood rallied the neighborhood facebook page to decorate outside of our houses and you listen to the seniors, coffee, butt wipes, and a new Roku to replace the one that crapped out on us). I also made plenty of time for the dogs since we were out most of Saturday. I also painted my nails (OPI Back to the Beach Peach) and scheduled out my week. I didn't do that last week and it was a disaster.

Weekly food prep: Breakfast is Kodiak cake waffles with maple syrup. Snacks are hard boiled eggs, bananas, bell peppers with hummus. Lunch is quinoa with goat cheese, roasted red peppers, banana peppers, olive oil, and kalamata and green olives - it sounds like a cleaning out the pantry lunch and it is but damn if the weird combination is not extremely delicious. Dinners are what we were supposed to have last week and never did:  MFD's mom's lasagna from the freezer and ham chowder from the freezer. I also made homemade bread and power breakfast muffins to freeze.

Reading and watching episode one of the Waco miniseries and that's all she wrote. 

Happy birthday to my cousin Tiffany today, and I think I forgot to wish our Derwood a happy birthday on here (he was 1/11), my fab sister in law Aubrey (she was 1/13), and my girl AEB (she was 1/21). I have been the worst lately. 

How was your weekend?

Dog Stew - AKA Poop Soup

Is it wrong to use the word poop in the title of a pseudo recipe post? Asking for a friend.

Gus has been going to acupuncture to address the major sway in his hindquarters. Whatever has caused this (we think a disk problem that is not unusual in pugs) has made him favor his front legs and lose a lot of muscle tone in his back legs. Acupuncture has helped him a lot, but it is fucking expensive. Acupuncture is not just the little needles in you - there's a food therapy component. We operate under the premise that food has energy. Depending on what's going on with your dog, certain foods may benefit them. You can read more here or consult an actual pet acupuncturist. I only play one on this blog and am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. There are other facets to acupuncture and chi that I'm not covering here, but it's quite interesting and I urge you to look into it if you have an aging pet or one that seems to have issues that are not being solved in a traditional vet's office.

Anyway, in order to maximize the in office treatments, I've switched the dogs' diet, taking them off dry food entirely. The acupuncturist suggested Fresh Pet Vital Select grain free for food, to be served with dog stew. They also take a multi-vitamin supplement and get scrambled eggs - the protein is great for them. So they basically eat better than we do.

The burning question on your mind (if one can have burning questions about dog recipes) - why is it also called poop soup? A component of the stew is you - your love and good energy that you're cooking into it. And when I'm cooking it, surrounded by three small eager pugs, I sing to them about poop soup. It rhymes and it makes me laugh and they prance around while I'm singing it and it is a big love fest in the kitchen.

Before you think this is all hocus pocus, this acupuncturist is a certified vet. I sought her out after traditional meds from my vet didn't work. Acupuncture has helped my Gussie tremendously. We were at the vet last night and she couldn't get over the improvement. I love our current vet and I think she's tremendously smart and insightful. I also think there are limits to typical western medicine treatments for animals just like I think there are limits to western medicine treatments for humans. My regular vet agrees - she happens to be calling on my acupuncture vet because she's studying it and will be offering it as a service.

Ingredients would vary if you were using this for medicinal purposes. For straight up good for your dog purposes, this will do fine. You're looking for a 1:1 ratio of meat to veggies/fruit. There is no grain in here because my dogs don't need it, but if you are more comfortable with one you could add some oats. I vary the ingredients, but my basic recipe is...

Ingredients
1-2 pounds organic chicken or beef - cut very small
1/2 sweet potato, peeled and diced very fine
1/2 cup green beans, cut small
1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, cut very small
1/2 cup organic blueberries (frozen2 okay)
1/4 cup spinach, cut small
1/4 cup parsley, cut very small
1.5 tbs coconut oil
Water to cover

Directions
Cook small pieces of meat in a pan or brown and drain if ground. Add veggies/fruit and coconut oil, then water to cover about half. Cook down until liquid reduces and veggies are cooked - about 20 minutes to a half hour.

I give 2-3 tablespoons of this to the dogs per day.

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Haikuesday

Poop Soup is catchy...

but not really edible. 

Okay, not at all. 

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Did I just post a recipe for dog stew? I did. Indeed. I did. 

Thursday Thoughts

1. Monday, you guys know I was a dumbass and left my keys on the hood of my car on the way to work, right? I called my neighbor and MFD in a panic. My neighbor looked on the street in front of the house and MFD drove and walked the neighborhood and he freaking FOUND THEM. Someone had put them on top of the fire hydrant. Kind stranger, thank you for removing them from the street where they'd surely be smashed to smithereens instead of just a little mangled and sans my beloved Dirty Dancing keychain. And thanks to MFD for spending his Monday morning looking around the neighborhood and not bitching about it once. The thing that's bent in the right photo was a flat circle before. Sunday night I ordered a respect apostrophes keychain Lauren directed me to...like my Sunday night self knew key fuckery was ahead or something.

2. Once again, you all rock for joining me and Jana for Show Us Your Books on Tuesday. Later that night I went and read to my niece for the first time (my mom Instagrammed it here) so technically it was Lola Jean's first Show Us Your Books experience too. I think she liked it.

3. Speaking of books, this passage from Summerlong by Dean Bakopoulos rang so true with me where I am right now in life. I've accepted this is the one that I created and the only one I'll live and good Lord I want to live it. I love when I come across a passage like that in a book.

4. I am extremely behind in magazines. I am going to try to get through some this weekend since we have no cable at the shore.

5. The thing that pisses me off when we discuss religion on a national level - like these stupid Starsucks cups - is that people seem to forget WHY this country was formed. People came here to escape a government-imposed religion...to be able to practice their religion freely and for others to do the same. They intentionally made sure church and state would be separate when they laid the framework for this country. Most Christians I know personally are intelligent people and they realize this. They know Jesus is not on a coffee cup, but in their hearts. Their faith is strong, so they don't get mortally offended if someone wishes them happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas. I bet Jesus would be like DUDE, it's a coffee cup used two months out of the year, what does this have to do with me? There is nothing more insufferable than Christian charlatans who are vocally Christian with their words but their actions suggest they harbor hate and fear in their hearts.

6. You know what I like doing? Preparing for Christmas in advance - I like to buy my gifts and get my cards ready so when the season begins for me, I am not stressed out and can actually enjoy it. But I don't like to celebrate, read about, listen to the music/watch the movies of, or anything else before Thanksgiving is over. We complain about how time flies but we rush the hell out of every single season so we can get on to the next thing. I like November. I think it's cozy. I love Thanksgiving, I find it to be a day of great reflection. I like Christmas, but Christmas is not my favorite time of year. A month of it is more than enough for me. I'm giving a big HELL YES to Nordstrom.

7. I booked plane tickets to New Orleans this week for February. In order to book travel using miles, please walk backwards for three blocks while reciting the alphabet in Greek and building a replica of the White House out of used matches. Seriously - the conditions need to be exactly right for a ticket to be obtained. I love when they're like oh, you can fly when you want...for additional cash monies. No thanks, I'll stick to the shitty flights you have available.

8. I'm not happy with the results from the meds prescribed for Gus's back end and leg issues so I'm seeking alternative treatment. On Tuesday, Gus went to an acupuncturist. Interestingly enough, she said my regular vet has called her a few times because my regular vet is learning acupuncture. Anyway Gus did well (I was surprised, he is usually a ruthless beast in public) and I have high hopes. In conjunction, I am taking my dogs completely off of dry food. Would any of you be interested in a dog stew recipe? Because one is coming. Use the force, Gussie.

9. I'll see you all back here Monday for the weekend that was. TWTW is the longest standing feature on this blog - the first TWTW post that appeared here was in October 2011. It became a regular feature in January 2012. It changes appearance and format every now and then, but it's a barnacle that's stuck on me now and, so, you know...also stuck on you.

10. E-card of the week...I don't think I've given the finger in a while...outside of giving it mentally, I mean.

Happy to be stuck with you,