The Blame Game

Our department has codified blame.

Let me back-track and explain.

I work in the technology field, which means that I mostly work with men. 

(Parents - please, please, please encourage your daughters to take math and science classes - the technology field is sorely in need of women!)

I like working with men.  (Note - generalizations coming up... these are based on my experiences and may not be universal).  Men are focused on work, but can have a good time.  There are generally not any backstabbing/jealousy/relationship-y type things going on. Men usually have the best and most accurate gossip, because all the other women tell them things while they are flirting with them... And the teasing is fun.

So back to the blame game...

It started out accidentally about two years ago.  One of the guys in our group started saying that everything that happened on Wednesday was his fault... and we took it and ran.  We have now broken it down so that everyone knows:

Monday is Hugh's fault.
Tuesday is Jason's fault.
Wednesday is Kevin's fault.
Thursday is mine.
And Friday belongs to Jamie.
Weekends and float days (any day someone is not in on their own day) belong to Rick.  (Normally this would be broken out, but we are currently down one person.  Once we've hired our new person, S/he will be responsible for float days.)

What does this mean?  It means that anything that happens on your day is your fault.  Stock market down?  Your fault.  Oil prices up?  Your fault.  Unrest in the Middle East?  Your fault.  Celebrity scandal?  Your fault.  Political scandal?  Your fault.  Snow, earthquake, flooding...  all your fault.

Of course we like to take credit for things too - is it a beautiful, sunny day?  You're welcome.  Pay day?  You're welcome.  Favored team won the Super Bowl?  You're welcome. 

What does this do? 

One it give us a running inside joke, which helps with our team moral.  I think this is important, especially right now, since we work for the state and the state is currently cutting a lot of things, maybe including our jobs, and with an uncertain future, anything that helps with moral is a good thing.

It is also very freeing to be able to blame someone for things that are nobody's fault.  It's like a mini closure every time.  And by rotating and codifying the blame, everyone gets to both blame and take the blame.  This ensures that none of us are too stressed by the blame we take on, and we can still laugh about things outside of our control.

What do you think?  Are there slightly crazy or deranged things that your team or department do that tie you closer together and help you get through the day?

Tell me what you thing... since everything that happens today is Hugh's fault.

Mmmm.... Spaghetti

I've never been a big beef eater.  There are things that I understand are essential to life. 

Butter.  Sugar.  Cream.  Shrimp.  Mmmm....

But beef was never one for me.  Kidlette is the same way.  She'd rather eat chicken or beans than beef.  About a year ago, as part of the whole life changing kick, I decided to stop eating beef.  This was not a big deal for me, and G. seems to be taking it well.  I've been using a lot more ground turkey and ground chicken, and trying to substitute veggies for meat in dishes.  The experimentation has been fun.

Last night I made one of my all time favorite, quick, easy, everybody loves dishes.  Spaghetti.  With zucchini.

Easy peasy to make.


Ingredients:
2 Medium to large zucchini.  (You can use a summer squash as well - adds pretty color!).
1 can mushrooms or 6-8 fresh mushrooms, sliced.
1 tablespoon olive oil.
Salt and pepper to taste.
1 jar spaghetti sauce.
Noodles (Spaghetti or any other size and/or shape that catches your fancy).
Grated cheddar and/or Parmesan.

Start water boiling for noodles.  While that is heating up, add olive oil to a large pan.  Heat on medium low heat.  Slice up zucchini and mushrooms and saute in oil, adding salt an pepper to taste.  Don't over cook - they still need to be a little firm.  Add noodles to water.  Add sauce to zucchini.  Grate cheese.  Drain noodles, dish up with zucchini sauce and sprinkle with cheese.  

Blurry picture aside, this is a huge hit in our house!  Hope you enjoy it too.
 

Wednesday Musings

I'm really struggling with my sugar intake.  I get hit with these incredible cravings, and it's like I can taste the chocolate.  Yesterday I was doing well, until I opened some chocolate a co-worker gave me a couple weeks ago.  I was only going to have one little piece, but then... and then I got home and made corn bread with sugar in it and honey on it... then after Kidlette went to bed I pulled a couple of cookies out of the freezer and cooked them for G. and I.  It's like a domino effect.

I've started using cinnamon in my coffee instead of sugar, which works ok.  I have the fridge stocked with sugar free pudding, jello and fruit bars in case I get a sweet craving.  But...  Is it just a matter of will power?  Am I weak?  It is so frustrating!

Today I will start again with fresh resolve...

Moving on, let me tell you about magic sauce.  There is a great post about it over at Angry Chicken.  Let me tell you... YUM!  I poured it over chicken and rice this weekend... about 4 times.  I even got G. to try it and he liked it!  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  Please try.

Hiking

I used to hate hiking.  Growing up, our family went hiking/backpacking/camping as often as possible.  It seemed like every weekend I was dragged into the woods, hiked up and down miles of trail, and forced to sleep on the ground.  Never!  I swore to myself.  Never will I do this voluntarily, as an adult.

Flash forward 25 years.  I must admit, my preferred vacation is a week on a tropical beach, or a week seeing historical sites in Europe.  But I've also made peace with hiking.  And, as my relationship with exercise and my body has changed, so has my attitude toward outdoor activities.  And I find that I am enjoying it.  The woods.  The beauty.  The peace.

Color me shocked.

So this weekend my good friend Aunt L. and I went hiking.  It was a gorgeous day.  Cold but clear.  Sunny.  Good friends catching up.  A VERY happy dog.  Perfect.

The sun was bright.  

The day was clear.

I miss the heat of the south, but the beauty of the Pacific Northwest is breathtaking.

Like I said... A VERY happy dog!

We started out at Dosewallips Campground, on Hood Canal on the Olympic Peninsula.  Some of the best hiking in the world is in this part of the county.

Thank you Aunt L. for a perfect day!

Downsizing Part 3 - Moi

So last year I started on this downsizing kick.  I wanted to downsize our lifestyle.  I wanted to downsize our budget.  And I wanted to downsize me.

I've never been thin.  And when I'm depressed or stressed I eat.  And I love to cook - and bake, so that doesn't help.  When I got pregnant with my daughter I was 230 pounds.  Four years later I was 294 pounds.  We went on a cruise and I couldn't buckle the seat belt on the plane.  I couldn't fit into the theater seats on the cruise.  I was wearing a size 24.  My four year old told me her friends at school asked her why her mom was fat.

It was time for change.

I decided that instead of a diet, this time I'd try to change the way I eat forever.  And the way I exercise.  Forever.  It took me a long time to get started.  The cruise was in November.  I joined a gym in January.  I started eating salads (really big salads!) for lunch in February.  Every time I mastered something in my routine, I added something else.

By October I was down to 240 and a size 18.  I was working out for about 45 minutes every day.  Life was starting to feel much better.  

Did I mention I was a smoker?  Yup.  About a pack a day.

I woke up one morning in October, and I didn't want a cigarette.  Just didn't want one.  And (although I have had some cravings) I have not had one since.

My therapist thinks that I was using nicotine to manage anxiety and depression, and when I started working out regularly, I didn't need the nicotine any more.

I must admit, that after I quit smoking I did replace the behavior a bit with chocolate. 

I'm currently at 247.  I gained back seven pounds in the five months since I quit smoking, although I am still working out at least six days a week for about an hour each day.  It seems like I've been working out to support my chocolate habit recently.  So now I have to say good bye to my friend sugar.  It will be hard.  I depend on sugar when I am tired, grumpy, PMSing, happy...  you name it.  But sugar is going to have move on.

My goal for this year?  I like to get under 200.  I haven't been under 200 since before I got married.  Like maybe 1999-2000?  Wow.  So there you go. Good bye sugar, hello 199. 

I will depend on you guys to help keep me honest.

Downsizing Part 2 - Carpooling

Do you remember the freedom you felt the first time you drove in a car by yourself?  The day I got my drivers license and was allowed to take the car, fill up the tank by myself, and pick up my friends for a drive is etched in my memory.  To me it meant freedom, being a grownup, independence, emancipation.

I grew up partly on farms in the country, and partly in a middle sized town on the west coast.  While we had some buses in town,  for the most part public transportation didn't exist.  When I was a kid either you walked, rode your bike, or talked an adult into driving you.  When I turned 15 1/2 (the age you could get your permit) I was attending private school, so there was no drivers ed program.  I had to go to a private driving school on Saturdays - and believe you me, I was there and on time for every single class!  I remember learning to drive, the conversations with my parents, the frustrations and joy.

All this to say - I love driving to this day.  I love my car.  I love being in control.

However.

I now commute for two hours each day.  And I have driven this commute for the last three years.  And I am tired of driving every day.

So recently, in the spirit of downsizing our lives, of spending more family time together, and in the spirit of Mom doesn't want to drive every day, our family has started to carpool.  My husband drives.  He drops me off at work, Kidlette off at school and then takes himself off to work.  Then does it all in reverse at the end of the day.

Bonus:  We save money.

Bonus:  We've just increased our daily family time from four to six hours.

Bonus:  I don't have to drive in the dark and rain with all the semi trucks.

But part of me longs for that feeling that I had at 16 when I first held my drivers license in my hand.

Monkey Bread

I made Monkey Bread for my Monkey.

This is a pretty easy recipe with  pretty awesome results.  We used apples.  I image that you could experiment with the type of fruit to add...

 And the results don't last long, at least at our house!

 Monkey Bread (with apples - because life is just better if apples are involved!)

2 cans of biscuits
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon divided
1 - 2 chopped apple(s)
1 1/2 sticks butter plus extra to butter pan
1 cup brown sugar

Generously grease tube pan with butter. In plastic bag, put sugar and 2 t cinnamon. Using 1 can at a time, cut biscuits into pieces. Put in bag and shake to coat. (I cut each biscuit into about 8 pieces and put about 4 pieces in a time in the sugar mixture). Layer in tube pan, sprinkling apple pieces over each layer except last one.

Meanwhile...
Boil together butter, brown sugar, and 1 t cinnamon. Pour mixture over biscuits. Bake 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before inverting.

Downsizing life

Last year things seemed to be getting away from us.  We had moved into a new house in 2007 - our dream house really.  28000 square feet.  3 acres.  Orchard.  Garden.  Multiple Shops.  Views.  Country living with double ovens. And don't get me wrong - I love my house.  I have a downstairs master with a fireplace, my daughter has the whole upstairs to herself, my husband has a custom built shop for all his toys...  But it started to seem like we were all living different lives.  And there were rooms we never used.  I spent so much time and money decorating the "formal" (it has no TV) living room, and we could go weeks with out going in there.  We spent all our time in the kitchen, the family room and our bedrooms. I started to ask myself - did we really need all of this space?  After some internal dialogue time, I started talking it out with G.  Do we really need this?  Is this what we want for the next 20 years?  Are we missing out on family time that we will never get back?  And on top of all of these questions was the fact that we were commuting about 45 minutes each way every day.  So, in the mist of the worst economic downturn our generation has seen, we put our house on the market.

We have had our house on the market now for six months.  Not one offer.  It feels like living in limbo.  And the costs associated with keeping your house show ready, especially when both parties work full time in another town?  Not cheap, either monetarily or emotionally.

I've been paying someone to come in and clean for the last five months, but she is moving away,  and the job will now revert to us.  So I'm back to figuring out how we as a family are going to keep our house in a show ready state, while being away from the house 11-12 hours a day, eating nutritious home cooked meals, not neglecting our animals or child, and still maintaining some family and couple time.

Yikes!

I know that I am not alone.  I have a wonderful partner who takes on 50 percent (or more) of the child rearing.  G takes on all outdoor chores, so unless I want to garden, I don't have to worry about anything outside at all (and with three acres there can be a lot to do!) 

Once we sell the house we'd like to move back to the town where we work.  We want to buy a duplex that needs to be remodeled, and live in one side while we work on it, then move to the other side and renovate that.  We have done lots of renovations in both houses we've owned, and G.'s dad and brother are both contractors, so we have lots of help and advice.  Our goal is to have several rentals by our late 50's, so that we can use them for retirement income.  But we can't get this plan started until we sell our house.  It's that limbo thing again.

What about you?  Do you know anyone trying to sell a house in this market?  What are their coping strategies?

Happy Valentines Day!

I made these individual Pizza's for Kidlette's Valentines Day party at school.  She is in kindergarten. They were super easy, and I thought super cute.  When I showed them to her, she said "Mmmmm, can I have one?"  I guess that's an endorsement?

Valentines Day Pizza

These are really easy to make.  Ingredients:  English muffins, pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni.  Split the English Muffins, spread a dollop of pizza sauce, cut out the cheese with a heart shaped cookie cutter and place on the muffin.  For the pepperoni, I folded them in half and then cut a heart shape (just like all those paper hearts we made in school), then placed on the cheese.  In the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes and we have 11 happy Monkeys!  (Kidlette's kindergarten class are the Monkeys).  Note - I saved the cheese and pepperoni scraps for the Calzones I'm making for dinner later this week.

What did you make for Valentines Day this year?

The Cast of Characters

So I thought I'd tell you about the folks who will figure most prominently in my stories...  there is Kidlette, who is 5 and a whirlwind.  There is G.  We have been married for almost 9 years and he is my rock.  There are assorted dogs and cats.  And there is moi.  I am 39, work in the Information Technology field, have lived all over the country, but currently make the Pacific Northwest my home.  I love to cook.  I love to read.  I lost 40 pounds last year.  I'd like to loose another 40-50 pounds this year.  I try to exercise about 6 days a week.  I obsess about money.  I'm currently on a downsizing kick (more about that later).  And I thought this would be a great place to talk about all the things I love and/or obsess about!

First Post

I've been an avid blog reader for a couple of years now, and I've been thinking about starting my own.  Not sure who will be reading this (if anyone) but the things I want to talk about are: money, dieting, cooking, kids, life and all that.  Money - I have some, and I'd like to retire someday, so I'd like to have some more.  Dieting - yes.  Kids - one who is both the light and frustration of my life.  Cooking - whenever I can. 

In for a penny, in for a pound.