Praise for them springing fresh from the world

When you work from home at the shore, you can do this before work. Not too bad, right?

This morning at 6:15, I pulled up my leggings and walked into the ocean, sipping coffee and surveying the dawn of a new day. I wandered back and forth at the water's edge until the sun rose just minutes after 7. As I was walking back off the beach, I thought about how all of my life I've described myself as not a morning person, which is not technically true.

Do I like to wake up to someone talking to me as soon as I open my eyes? No. Do I like to wake up and hustle out the door to face a morning commute? No. Do I like to wake up feeling burdened by a to do list? No. Certainly anyone who has ever had the misfortune of trying to enter into conversation with me first thing in the morning would not consider me a morning person. They'd probably consider me a bitchass.

But but but...there are few things I love more than witnessing the dawn of a new day for the simpler reasons like how the sky looks and how quiet it is and for the loftier reasons like all the possibilities and opportunities I can feel spread out before me in the morning. When I give myself time to wake up as the sky wakes up, I am very much a morning person indeed. I love to be up early, alone, drinking coffee and watching the world do its morning stretch...preferably in nature. The don't talk to me don't look at me until I talk to you or look at you morning person. The morning person on my own terms. The morning person with caveats.

It's been a long time since I wrote a blog post off the cuff early in the morning. It's good to exercise that muscle now and again. This has been your last day of the week version of Deep Thoughts...by Jack Handey. Sending good thoughts to all the people in Hurricane Matthew's path. The rest of you, I hope you're feeling Fridaylicious, my friends. Have a great one!

Thursday Thoughts rising

1. Do people talk to their kids about internet behavior? One of the culprits behind the insane clown bullshit in Philadelphia is a 13 year old girl. A 13 year old girl, threatening to shoot and stab and kill people as a PRANK. Lesson: pranks typically do not involve police and the Department of Homeland Security.  We're failing kids at home or in school or in our communities or all of the above. We think violence and threats and tough guy behind a keyboard behavior is okay or funny or entertaining - in the last two weeks alone I have seen adults invite other adults to physically meet up to discuss political differences. Have we lost our minds? Look what we are teaching our children. All they see is adults enamored with the goddamn internet, so they think life is happening there. It's not happening there. It's happening in real time and there are real consequences. Get their asses off of social media until they learn how to use it and the implications of using it incorrectly...which in order to fully enforce would require adults themselves to learn those things. If you wouldn't say it to someone's face - and be honest with yourself about what you actually would say to someone, okay ? - don't say it online. Christ almighty. p.s. clowns are fucking creeps. Stop it.

2. I was about to throw myself a ticker tape parade because I had nothing political to include in this week's Thursday Thoughts...until I saw people start to make comments like, "I like Pence" online. Which of these things do you like best about him?

• The fact that last month he said he'd like to "send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history"
• That during his 12 years as a congressman, he voted against nearly every piece of environmental legislation?
• That he advocated the use of public funds for conversion therapy, a discredited and harmful form of anti-gay therapy
• That he won't pardon an innocent man? 
• That he slashed Planned Parenthood funding as governor and coincidentally a county had an HIV outbreak...because PP is not the abortion mill he'd like you to believe it is, but instead a health center the community relies on
• That he signed a 2015 bill permitting Indiana business owners to cite religious beliefs as a reason to refuse service to gay and lesbian customers (remember when you could do that based on skin color and everyone was like nooo that's illegal? mm hmm)
• That he advocates for the teaching of creationism in public schools - which is in opposition to the separation of church and state this country abides by

I could go on, but I'll refrain. If you click above Mother Jones will bring it on home. Pence would like this country to go back to the 1950s in all the bad ways - women under the thumb of men, gays in hiding, etc etc - and too often we see politicians share beliefs and say "but they won't act on that." He has acted on these things and he will continue to. Keep that in mind. He's not boring, he's not ho hum, he's a power hungry control freak man who need not be involved in policy or law in this country. If you like him, please, do tell me why in the context of the above. 

3. Today is National Depression Screening Day. It began in 1990 as an effort to reach individuals across the nation and connect them with support services. Today it has expanded to thousands of colleges, community-based organizations, and military installations.

4. I got my first pair of LulaRoe leggings a few weeks ago. I wore them for the first time this weekend. I liked them a lot more than I thought I would. Since then, I've been trolling LulaRoe pop ups for patterns I like. It's a problem. I bought these two this weekend. They really are very comfortable and, as they say, like butter.

5. One of my favorite kitchen hacks remains the lining of a bowl with tin foil to catch bacon grease, so it can just be thrown out or frozen.

6. You will very rarely hear me ask someone what they do. I'd rather hear about what makes them laugh, what makes their blood boil, what issues they vote on, what song makes them think of college, the things they love most in the world. If their profession comes up in any of those topics, fair play.

7. Just over three weeks until our Ireland trip, so my preparations are ramping up. Those preparations include writing a post for things I typically do before a trip...both things I should do and things I shouldn't do but do anyway. Like buy shoes.

8. Tuesday is Show Us Your books, the second anniversary! There will be giveaways. Hope to see you as a linker upper or as a reader and giveaway enterer or both!

9. Reminder: humans make things so difficult. They're actually usually quite simple.

10.  E-card of the week: 

Linking up with Kristen & Gretch  & Kristin

Three Things

I'm a fan of the Q&A games, of lists, of the rule of three. Of three dogs, obviously. So I made these prompts up. I'm curious about your answers, so if you feel like playing along please do so in the comments, for all of them or cherry pick your favorites.

Three things I'd never give up
My independence, sunglasses, painting my nails

Three favorite vegetables
Cucumbers, asparagus, cauliflower

Three shows I watched faithfully from beginning to end
Beverly Hills 90210, LOST, The Wonder Years

Three places I want to visit inside the US
Zion National Park, Seattle, New Mexico

Three places I want to visit outside the US
Iceland, Paris, Moscow

Three things I always have with me
Water, book, camera (phone or real)

Three things that are always in my car
Extra pair of sunglasses, dog poop bags, Totes bubble umbrella

Three most recent phone calls were to/from
Dad, MFD, shore contractor who is capping the windows at the house down there

Three books I read and loved in college
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb, Trinity by Leon Uris, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Three most often used makeup products
Sugar Fresh Lips in Ruby, YSL multi-action concealer, Too Faced Better than Sex mascara

Three things that make me laugh
Poop/fart stories, Funerals/weddings (nervous laughter counts, yes?), falling

Three things that make me cry
Thinking about my dogs dying, when I'm proud of something or someone, frustration

Now you go.

Happy happy birthday to Aunt Carrie today!

Green chile chicken dip

Did you ever unintentionally complicate a recipe in advance, but when it came time to make it you just said fuck it and ended up throwing a bunch of crap together? That's what happened here.

It's been a while since I've tried a new recipe. I slack off in that department over the summer, but I feel like it's been a little longer than that, across the board.

When I needed an appetizer for Lola Jean's first birthday party, none of the solid favorites were ringing a bell for me. Neither was any recipe I was perusing. So I took a few recipes and mixed them up and came out with this dip.

Ingredients
2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups lime juice
2 packets fajita seasoning
2 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonaise
8 oz shredded sharp cheddar, divided into two equal parts
2 4 oz cans diced green chile peppers
2 4 oz jars diced pimentos
3 green onions, sliced thin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cumin
paprika for flash

Directions
Whisk fajita seasoning and lime juice and place chicken in it. Marinate chicken for at least four hours. I like to leave it overnight.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes and let sit for 15. When cooled, shred chicken - I always do this in a food processor but you can do by hand or with a hand mixer.

While chicken is in the oven, unwrap cream cheese and place it in a large bowl to soften. Add mayo, sour cream, chicken, garlic powder, onion powder, and cumin. Mix well with hand mixer. Add green chiles, pimentos, green onions, and half of the cheese and stir to incorporate

Transfer to a greased 7x9 baking dish. Top with paprika and the other half of the cheese.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes at 350, then hit it with the broiler for 8 minutes.

Serve with Fritos scoops, tortilla chips, crackers, or celery.

*********

Haikuesday

First sentence fuck it

That must be a new record... 

or just daily life.

*********

And today is Mae Doll's birthday. Happy happy Mae. 

TWTW: the one with the first birthday

The last time I was home on a Friday night was August 12. This Friday was the perfect night to be home: it was chilly and rainy, our fabulous cleaning lady Linda was there Friday so everything looked and smelled fresh and new, and I had no plans. Hallelujah and Amen. Only SEPTA fucked with me and stole two hours of my weekend off the bat with the 2+ hour chaotic train ride home from hell. Bastards. The only thing I did when I finally got home was cycle laundry and marinate chicken before chilling the fuck out with my homies.

Saturday I rolled out of bed and headed up to The Day We Remember Walk & Run, a charity event hosted by The Barkann Family Healing Hearts Foundation. MFD's business was a sponsor of the event as an affiliate of the Homes For Heroes Program, which means he is committed to providing Hero Rewards (basically a cut of his commission) so that firefighters, law enforcement, military (active, reserve, and veterans), healthcare workers, emergency medical services, and teachers can save significant money when buying a home. He's a strong believer in helping those who help the community, so this program is a perfect fit to marry his personal philosophies to his business.

Anyhoo this event was a great way to honor heroes, our local emergency responders and military. The chair said something that stuck with me, and I'm paraphrasing it here: you see the politics on the TV, but life is really about what happens in our communities - what we give to each other and how we support each other - and you know who controls how things feel and work in our communities? WE do. A good reminder to make sure we're involved and doing what we can before we take to the Internet and complain about things. We really do need to be the change. As a bonus I got pics with the Phillie Phanatic and Brian Dawkins...this plus Bruce on Thursday, I'm set for a while.

Top left pic attributable to the event photographer

Not much doing Saturday afternoon. I hung with the dogs.

In the sometimes food photos are gross looking department, I also did weekly food prep Saturday afternoon: breakfast casserole (recipe coming soon), green chile dip for Lola's first birthday party (looks gross, but it's not, recipe tomorrow), chicken salad over spinach for lunches, and dinner is baked ziti a la Carol and salad.

Saturday night Lori and Amanda came over and we gabbed and gabbed and ate bad food. It wore the dogs out.

Sunday morning I headed to The Pub for some delicious cream chipped beef in a bread bowl (can everything come in bread bowls?) and good conversation with Lyndsey for her birthday and left the dogs with Treat Lady.

A little trip to Target with Lori (that's a straight up kitchen towel hanging out of the back of the pants of the man in front of us in checkout) and Lola party prep.

Then it was time, my favorite girl's first birthday party. Lola's whole gang was there, and Aubrey did an awesome job with the decor as usual. I can't believe my niece has been here for a year. On one hand it feels like she's always been here, and on the other hand I can't believe it's been a year already. She's made the past 12 months such a joy for so many people.

All good things come to an end, including the weekends. 

Go out there and kick Monday's ass.

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending