stick it to the man!

I just ate a bunch of oreos for breakfast because i'm mad at my dental insurance. Tooth decay and all that. (in hindsight, this will probably backfire on me, but it tasted good!)

Understand your policy before you go to the dentist! We have a new insurance this year, from husbands office. We found out the hard way that we're only covered for $1000 per year (that's roughly a cleaning and 2 metal fillings), and that even though they say we're covered for major work at 50% (up to the $1000 of course), we're pretty much not covered for anything, ever. They have this sneaky little "waiting period" set up so that you don't qualify for any major work (crowns, root canals, bridges, etc) until after you've been a member for a year*

*more specifically, until after EVERYONE IN YOUR OFFICE has been a member for a year! ie, when we switch to my company's dental in the fall (which there is no doubt we'll be doing) everyone in husband's office will have to restart their waiting periods! Isn't that absurd?!?! How do these insurance companies get away with these things!!???!!??

Rant complete.

Cookie's Revenge

I broke my tooth on a cookie. OOOooohh, the irony!!

I bit lovingly into a soft chocolate chip cookie, and suddenly i felt like i was eating a rock (not typically found in soft delicious chocolate chip cookies). A porcelain filling came out! and then, THEN, i bit down on the broken filling, and broke ANOTHER filling! And it's all the cookie's fault! Or maybe the dentist's. I think I'll blame the dentist. Grrrrr!!! Two holes in my mouth! And no cookies, because I'm afraid to eat! :(

Where the heck did June go?

Ok, so i've been a terrible blogger. But that doesn't mean i've been neglecting my cookies. Actually, I think I OD'd on cookies yesterday, i even woke up with a belly ache in the middle of the night that i fear may have been cookie induced. I love my country, I love my cookies.

I've been so busy! I don't even know what I've done in the past month of not blogging. Well i guess i do know if i stop to think about it... i've gained a few pounds. So, number one on the list of things i've done this month is eat.

Things I've done this month:
1. Eat
2. Work A LOT
3. Bake
4. Eat baked goods
5. Drive to Boston and back in one day
6. Throw a Bridal Shower (well, helped throw)
7. Host friends from Spain
8. Run around like crazy trying to make up for working instead of entertaining friends from Spain
9. Work some more
10. Totally failed to go to the gym or pool
11. Took friends kayaking on 4th of July (yay not in nyc!)
12. Missed 4th of July fireworks, disappointing visitors :(
13. Ate cookies
14. Slept roughly 20 of the first 28 hours after friends went back to Spain
15. Sweat. It's f*ing hot out!
16. Also, somewhere in there was father's day?
17. And a tree fell on my parents house
18. And my sister moved back to Boston and started her job! Yippee!

still to come: Friend's Bachelorette, Mom's surgery, and friend's wedding!

I'm out of time to make a picture. Maybe next time!

I grew 3 greenbeans!

My greenbean plants died. I'm not sure what happened, but they are no longer of this world. BUT, while pulling up the dead plants, i found 3 beans! They looked a little dried out and sketchy to me, but my sister's boyfriend rinsed one off and ate it! He declared it delicious. I'll take it! Gardening success! (hey, there's a way to spin everything, right?)

I had a wonderful weekend with my sister and her boyfriend visiting. We even went to the beach! It was great! (see right). Then my sunscreen exploded at dinner and i peed my pants with it. What can you do, that dress is ruined. So the next day we went shopping! Unfortunately not for a new sunscreen-free dress, but for my sister's new work clothes, because she got a job! Hooray Sissy!! She's moving back to Boston next week, where I hope she'll be very happy :)

Though my sister is spending her last week of freedom in my apartment, I am not. Horrible timing, but duty calls and I am in Charleston, West Virginia for the week. Fun, right? Actually, it might not be so bad, i get to drive around a lot (and i like driving), the weather is nice (so far) and everything is super lush and green and hilly, seems pleasant (since my allergies aren't bugging me yet, can't say the same for my coworker!). I might even get to set foot in Ohio tomorrow, my first time in WV and OH! Checking off those states one by one... I was almost in Virginia today! (At least i think it's in VA...) I spent 4 hours sitting in the DC airport, looking at the Washington Monument out the window, waiting for our tiny 2 propeller plane to show up. Luckily, i've been to both VA and DC before, so i don't have to have an inner battle about whether 4 hours in the airport counts as me being in VA. Phew!

I went to spain!

I'm having a problem. Actually, I'm having several problems.

1. For the first time ever, i have pink eye! gross!!
2. I have pink eye in BOTH EYES! iiiick!
3. I have a partialy stuffy nose
4. Because of this partially stuffy nose, i have little to no sense of taste or smell
5. Because i can only barely taste anything, i can't stop eating everything in the kitchen to see if i can taste it.

Luckily, none of these problems started until Sunday. Which means, i didn't have any of these problems on my trip to Spain! (Though it seems spain may have caused the problems. they all started on the airplane ride home...)

Spain was AWESOME!! Lots of great people, lots of great sights, and lots, and lots, and lots of great food. (My pants were loose when i left the US, but they were tight when i came back. Crap! Totally worth it though!)

Vacation food highlights:
- one of our hosts made us a savory zuchinni flan, served cold with a tomato and onion chutney. AWESOME! Unfortunately i couldn't eat too much of it, because right before, he served us:
- some kind of gazpacho (has a different name, but i can't find it anwhere) with hard boiled eggs blended in, served with extra chopped up eggs and jamon serrano. Mmmm!
- i love manchego.
- nobody eats manchego WITH jamon, one or the other.
- they drink a lot of yogurt in spain. It's not kefir, it's watery yogurt. I got yelled at several times for suggesting it might be like kefir.
- I'm dissapointed in churros. Maybe i didn't have very good ones?
- chocolate (drink) is awesome. regular chocolate (to eat) is awesome too, of course.
- marzipan can be delicious!
- cheap wine tastes good, unlike in the US.
- tapas are great, you get to try everything!
- cafe bombo/bonbon is delicious. espresso with condensed milk.
- pa amb tomaquet is a great idea.
- patates braves are basically spicy fries. even husband didn't know this.
- best place to drink a beer: on the beach in barcelona
- i tried paella for the first time, pretty tasty. Reminds me of really good chinese fried rice, but don't tell this to anyone in spain, they hate chinese food. Guess the chinese restaurants there suck?
- tiny whole fried calamari are delicious. Don't think about the fact that you're eating their brains.
- tiny whole fried fish are disgusting. Think about the fact that you're eating their brains, and scales, and fins, and everything.
- tortillas are not the flat wraps that we know in the US via mexico, they are (usually potato filled) omeletts. They can be delicious!
- i had nothing healthy for breakfast every day! Sometimes a croissant, sometimes an ensaimada, sometimes a sandwich, sometimes all of the above!
- i ate this weird black rice sausage-like thing, it was delicious! Turns out the black was blood. Gross! (but still delicious!)
- i got to try a cake that's made in santiago only on holy years, which is rumored to be about once every 10 years, but i really have no idea about these things. It was an almond cake, and very tasty! Do you think i'll get in trouble if i try to make it on a non-holy year?