My Favorite Things About Fall

Cooking in the crock pot – I love coming home to a hot supper, even better if I also used the bread machine that day. Warm, already prepared food and fresh bread… That’s a winner!

Cherry Cider. There’s a great local place that sells the yummiest cherry cider, a splash of rum makes it even better on cool nights.

Sweaters. I love warm, fuzzy sweaters, open sweaters and cardigans over colorful t-shirts, hoodies and even old sweat shirts.

Scarves, gloves and socks. My feet have been in sandals all summer, my hands and neck uncovered, I can’t wait to wrap them up in warm cozy things!

Sweatpants. I’m such a bum. I love my sweat pants and “lounging clothes”.

Changing leaves and sunflowers blooming. Set aside your perception of Kansas, because we’re in a heavenly spot with hills and trees; a nice surprise in a flat, Midwestern state.

Hayfields. Something about a hay field with big round bales just makes me catch my breath. I don’t know why.

Orange, brown and yellow fall colors. Nuff said.

Deep layers of blankets on the bed, sleeping with the windows open so that the house is cool and crisp and I’m toasty warm while I sleep.

Drinking hot tea before bed. I think the absolute best way to fall asleep is cuddled up with LT Fromage under a down comforter reading a good book and drinking a warm mug of Sleepy Time with some half and half… zzzz….(Try the new vanilla version of Celestial Seasonings Sleepy Time tea if you get a chance!)

Breaking out the space heater. We’ve got a tall, oscillating space heater that brings the bathroom to a toasty 92 degrees so that stepping out of the shower in the morning feels oh so nice.

I love you fall. Please stay forever.

Lady Fromage's Love Life

While I’m very happily married now, I was, at one time, a single lady. I’d like to share with you a few of the men who weren’t quite hubby-material.

1. The Tuba Player

I was a shameless online dater. Being an introvert with no time on my hands made this a handy way to meet the boys. (So glad I’m past that time in my life!) The Tuba player seemed nice when we talked, he no exes to whom he paid child support, was going to school and he wasn’t really into the club/bar scene. He told me he played the tuba, which, I guess is… unique. We decided to meet for coffee. The man showed up late, with a white Hanes undershirt on, only, he seemed to have forgotten the over shirt part of his outfit. TIP: Don’t wear undershirts on a first date, especially when they have day-old BBQ sauce stains on them. I’m no skinny bee-ach, but this guy LOOKED like a Tuba. I told him at the end of the date that, while he was really nice, it just wasn’t going to happen for us. Nope. Nothing there. Goodbye and good luck. I told him that every time he called for the next month, too. “Hello? Oh, it’s you. Still nothing, I’m sorry.” I finally resorted to swapping cell phones with my mom for a few weeks. It took multiple calls to what she told him was a wrong number to finally get rid of him.

2. The Shoulder Licker

Feeling brave (Or maybe it was buzzed) at a baseball game, with encouragement from my friend P, I approached a nice-looking man a few rows in front of us. Mostly being silly (Or drunk…) I told him the bar we’d be hitting up after the game, he took my number and I returned to my seat next to P and we giggled for a while, then forgot the whole thing. The Shoulder Licker later got in touch to find out where I was (not at the bar). P opted not to join me on my impromptu date, but checked to make sure I made it there okay, and made me promise to check in again shortly. The Shoulder Licker bought me a beer and we started talking, he was very interesting, polite and funny (Or I could have been drunk). Then he kissed me. (Shamefully admitting that I was not only an online dater, but a total kissing slut also) I was totally down for a little tonsil hockey, what I wasn’t prepared for was the long, slobbery licks on my shoulder. If you’re thinking this was romantic kisses down the neck, get that out of your head. It was like making out with my dog. I don’t even want to think about that. Ew. As if that was going to get him somewhere, he put his hand a little too far up my thigh. I did what any girl would do. I slapped him and I left. P and I had a grand ol’ time laughing at that one for a while.

3. The Swing Dancer

Another shameless online connection. The Swing Dancer was a perfect combination of charming and silly when we talked. We met up at a bar to play pool, and he actually seemed to have potential, which was more than I could say for anyone else I’d met thus far. I agreed to a second date where we went, yes, Swing Dancing. Being terribly clumsy, this was not perhaps the best activity for me. There were no sparks, but he was not nauseating to be around. Afterwards, we went back to his place to watch a movie (I do in fact mean watch a movie, and only that). This was where I decided he was not marriage material. “His place” was his parents’ basement. TIP: No one wants to meet your mommy and daddy on a second date. He finally, after agonizing over his collection of EVERY SINGLE DISNEY MOVIE MADE, chose the (actually, pretty cute) animation, “Happy Feet” as our feature presentation. We descended into the basement, where, when he turned on the lights, I was surrounded by glass encased shelves filled with porcelain dolls. I hoped, I prayed they were his mother’s. They were not. I couldn’t run away, Lady Fromage is sometimes too polite for her own good. I did, however shoot him down when he began praising himself for his “kissing and massage skills”. Um. Nope. Play with your dolls, honey, I’m outta here.

4. The Reds Fan

My mom set me up with the Reds Fan. He was, oddly enough, her boss (Her much younger boss). He was single, I was single, he was well educated and polite and she thought we might like each other since we were both big baseball fans. The Reds Fan brought flowers when he picked me up for a Saturday Rockies game against Cincinnati. My mom really dropped the ball when she failed to inquire about was what team he liked. Some people take politics seriously, or religion, my thing is baseball. If you don’t like my team, I don’t like you. The Reds Fan was, well, a Reds fan. We spent the entire afternoon cheering for opposing teams, and not in a friendly banter way, this was as serious as open heart surgery. We both knew that our loyalties would never allow us to be together, but we finished the date over pizza and a beer. All of his stories at supper revolved around alcohol, each one ended with “But I’m really not a lush or anything,” My mom later informed me that he was arrested for drunk driving, his license was revoked and he was sent to jail. The best part of that date? The Rockies won.

I consider myself the luckiest lady in the world to be married to LT Fromage, who is a good dresser, a great kisser, has never collected any porcelain dolls (In his parents basement or otherwise) and above all, likes the right baseball team.

Hooray for the 3 Day!

What a wonderful long weekend! Isn’t 3 days off just perfect? And, it of course means there is a SHORT WEEK ahead! Hooray for the short week!

Friday night we went to a hole-in-the-wall Jamaican restaurant with some friends. The company was even better than the rum punch (which was soo yummy!) and we were oh-so-excited when our friends N&A announced they are getting married… tonight! N&A have been engaged for a few months, but A is finishing an internship in Germany so she won’t be coming to the US for a while yet, which means their “real” wedding will have to wait, but they made an appointment with the Justice of the Peace* to make things official in the meantime. LT Fromage and I are so honored and happy to be invited to share this day with them!

*While it doesn’t make much sense in the “civilian world,” Justice of the Peace weddings are a pretty common thing among Army couples (LT Fromage and I did it too). There are some serious benefits to being a married Service Member and being married to a Service Member, and sometimes a wedding just doesn’t fit into your schedule right away, as with N&A.

LT Fromage and I had a great time on Saturday, despite being very over-dressed for what turned out to be an uber-relaxed, down-home, country style wedding. For future reference, when canned beer is served from of coolers in the back of a pickup truck before the ceremony even begins, cut off jeans and a halter top are apparently appropriate attire. A suit and tie and Sunday best dress look quite out of place (Now I’m not knocking it, it was their day to do with what they wanted, but the invitation didn’t indicate that there would be hay bales, otherwise believe me, we would have dressed down…).

In addition to fun things like dinner dates and weddings, we slept in (After a long week of pre-5 am mornings, still being in bed at 9:30 feels incredible), had big breakfasts of French toast, pancakes, eggs, hash browns, bacon and sausage, orange juice and fresh ground coffee and didn’t worry about doing the dishes until long after lunch time. We finally tried out a recipe for Auntie Annie’s Soft Pretzels (I made mine with jalapeño and cheddar while LT Fromage chose cinnamon sugar… Both were dee-lish!). For supper, I made a pineapple and mussel red curry from my new Currie Cuisine book (which was very tasty!).

On Sunday I made BLTs (with baby spinach instead of lettuce, and veggie bacon for me, of course) for lunch, served with sweet potato fries and cold sodas. The weather was simply perfect so we went to the shooting range, which is a little far away but when the trees are still full of leaves and the sunflowers are blooming, it’s a beautiful drive. LT Fromage is a much better shot than I am, but we had a great time, as we always do, and my aim is ever-improving.

We were even able to watch 2 full movies this weekend(Man on Fire and Youth in Revolt), which doesn’t sound like a big accomplishment but movie-watching is something of an indulgence for us these days, since 2 hours of down time is hard to come by anymore. Not to mention the time we spent reading! (We’re both avid readers, what can I say?). Lounging on the couch, reading, eating and watching TV together...Pure bliss.

I hope everyone had an equally wonderful long weekend!

Oh yeah, and I got a letter from my school, letting me know I made the Dean’s List. NBD ;-)
::happy dance::

Bad News/Good News

Before I start, I have a quick confession:

I ate a fish taco last night.

I saw Bobby Flay make one on Throw Down a few months ago and it made my mouth water; I’ve wanted one ever since. For more than 6 weeks, I’ve been craving a fish taco. (Which is weird. I never liked fish much, even before I became a vegetarian… thirteen years ago.)

I’m sure the one I had couldn’t touch Bobby’s, but it was actually pretty dee-lish. (I’m so sorry, fishy, for eating you!)

Moving on.

A few things that seemed bad this week, but turned out to be pretty okay:

1. I almost jumped through the phone to strangle my momma the other day for inviting my sister’s in-laws over for Thanksgiving (or so I thought!). We don’t even have room for our OWN families, much less sissy’s in-laws! As is it, we already have to book hotel rooms and borrow ovens and cookware from friends to make it work! Thankfully, I was misunderstanding the story my mom was telling me; my SISTER and her HUSBAND are coming for Thanksgiving, INSTEAD of going to her in-laws! Phew! Thanks, mom, for not inviting the whole world over to MY house for the holidays! Hooray for sissy and my new brother-in-law joining us after all!

2. We’re going to Florida for a wedding this month, which is going to be super-duper fun! Because A. We really like these people (LT Fromage’s former commander, the one he replaced, and one of my good Non-Sucky Army Wife friends) and B. I’ve never been to Florida and the beach sounds amazing right now. Well, yesterday the hotel we’d booked called to say they’d made a little uh-oh and overbooked so our room was not in fact available. LT Fromage was about to jump through the phone to strangle the reservationist. But then this happened: to say they’re sorry, they offered us a BEACH HOUSE one block away for $100 LESS than we’d paid for the hotel! Boo-yah!

3. This deployment news is actually turning out to be pretty alright. Without divulging too much (Because none of this is definite yet, and some of it is a secret… sshhh!), we’re looking at a very short deployment beginning at the most perfect time. If all goes well, LT Fromage will leave precisely when I plan to quit my current job and start working from home. Actually, MY FOLKS’ HOME! Going home is actually good news for me because I love my family and moving back home will be pretty cool. Not to mention it will save us a big wad of cash (Like, 3 months of rent, utilities, etc!) Again, timing is everything, and there’s one more element that needs to fall into place (the secret!), but it’s looking good, really good! :-) And of course, for LT Fromage, deploying as the Commander of his troop, well that’s pretty freakin' sweet for him!

(On a side note, deployment means another run of NTC (yep, he’ll have to go again) which will delay our Vegas vacation; but we should be able to go afterward, and even stay in Vegas longer than we originally planned, so that’s not even so bad.)

I’m so excited for Thanksgiving, everyone we wanted to come will be here, and no one will be there that we didn’t invite! Our mini-vacay to Florida is just weeks away – Beach House here we come! And for the time being (Until the Army changes things again, which they inevitably will), this deployment isn’t looking so bad after all!

Holy Cow!

I have a slight obsession with cows.

I drink my coffee from a cow mug. I have a cow print apron and a cow print chef’s hat; cow salt and pepper shakers, cow cream and sugar holders. Cows adorn the kitchen walls in picture frames and vintage metal signs. I have cow socks, a cow baseball cap and cow t-shirts. Last Christmas, LT Fromage bought me big, black cow spot magnets to transform our fridge into a Holstein (My favorite cows). I have stuffed bears dressed as cows, floppy cows 3 feet long and tiny cows to hook on key chains. My most treasured cow is one LT Fromage gave me for our first Christmas, his name is Sir Loin and he sleeps in bed with us every night.

Yesterday, as I was searching for cow pictures on google images (true story), I stumbled upon a website where I made a very exciting discovery – There are MINIATURE COWS. How I never knew this I’m not sure; I would have thought that surely they would be listed in my “Field Guide to Cows”, but somehow, they stayed under my radar until yesterday.

Long ago I successfully convinced LT Fromage to let me own my very own cow (one day, when we’re not renting and have more than a little fenced yard). Now, instead of preparing for the arrival of the “real” Sir Loin, we can look forward to bringing home the Petite Sir Loin!