March Goals: Review.
+ Go to the coast, at least once.
Yes! We went to Cape Lookout and had beer at Newport. We were only there for a day and it felt so incredibly amazing to be not-in-Portland.
+ Make at least 3 new meals.
Yes. It was another Budget Bytes month, as it should be. I'm starting to feel less and less guilty about my cookbooks collecting dust. Recipes you find online always taste better.
#1: Sweet potato & chorizo enchiladas.
I didn't get any really good pictures of these, so this is what you get. Uh, chorizo, and sweet potato, and lots of cheese on top? I have no idea how these could be BAD. Although I learned I was really bad at folding them tightly, probably because I think I included way more chorizo than the recipe called for and accordingly stuffed too much stuff into each one. Anyway, still delicious. Do you like our 70s olive green stove? I do!
#2: Greek turkey burgers.
Real good, especially the yogurt sauce that goes along with it. I'm actually really not a fan of sun-dried tomatoes, even though I feel like I should be, so I substituted those with just some chopped up plain ol' tomatoes, which seemed to work just fine.
#3: Chicken chili verde.
Okay, this recipe was a big accomplishment for me. Mainly because it calls for using two BONE-IN chicken breast halves. And I couldn't even find skinless ones at New Seasons, so I had to pull that icky shit off. I really contemplated just buying some boneless chicken breasts and chopping them up, but I understood that the point of the recipe was to let it all stew in the broth, bones and all, making for the maximum flavor. So I did it. And when I took the chicken out after stewing in the broth for an hour, it was amazing--the meat just fell off the bone! And it was super easy to shred it! As the picture shows! I felt SO PROUD OF MYSELF GUYS. Anyway. This was super hearty and tasty, and the best part is that it makes a TON of food and really holds up re-heated, so it made many a good lunches. Also, when she says "top with shredded Monterey Jack," I don't know if she meant, "shred and then use an entire block of Monterey Jack," but, well, that's what I did.
+ Finish freaking Great Expectations, which I am still trudging through, a week after I had my actual book club for it. I am determined. Then, actually read Mrs. Dalloway in time for our next book club.
Ugh. UGH. It took me almost all month long to finish Great Expectations. And I'd already READ the shit in high school! And as I mentioned, our actual book club meeting for it was way long gone! But I had some weird determination that I had to finish it. What a freak I am. Anyway, even though it felt like a never-ending uphill journey, I finished it and did actually enjoy it. However, I did NOT, consequently, finish Mrs. Dalloway in time for our book club on it last night. I got close, but not quite. I was angry at myself, knowing that I wasn't going to be able to finish it, all week. Even though I know that: 1) half the people in the book club wouldn't have read it anyway, and 2) we spend most of our time just drinking beer and bitching about student teaching. Anyway, as you can tell, apparently maybe the pressure of book club isn't that good for my mental state. (The beer and the bitching is great, though.) In conclusion, though, I do think that Virginia Woolf was a freaking crazy genius.
+ Read all newspapers for the month of March.
No. I believe I will keep making this goal for myself and never ever reaching it, forever.
+ Start seriously looking for a teaching/education job for the summer somewhere. Or, if not, start to seriously decide what I'm going to do for the summer. I have some alternate ideas (mainly, trying to get paid to write stuff), I just don't know if they're actually realistic/feasible.
Uh, no. This is actually going to bite me in the ass, I think. The truth is I got kind of latched onto the idea of spending this summer trying to write a lot, as well as trying to plan our wedding for next year, while working part time at Starbucks and volunteering at the library, and also starting to volunteer at a homeless shelter for youth downtown. But, you see, I am poor as hell and all of these ideas are extremely stupid ones. Are they the ones I will probably do anyway? Yes.
+ Not get too down on myself for being in the worst financial situation of my life and not being able to pay half my bills. :(
Uh, well, hm. I got my student loan money for spring term, so I didn't feel too bad, because I actually had money to pay my bills. However, this money will soon run out, so I'll be able to look forward to the rest of April, May, and June, and henceforth the rest of my existence, feeling on the constant edge of panic because I don't have money for groceries. OH, and also, we borrowed a shit-ton of money from Kathy's dad yet again this month to fix the transmission in our car. Yayyyyy!
+ Go to the movies once.
No! I don't think we went out to dinner once, either, other than getting lunch at the coast. I mean, going along with the money woes I just talked about, this is probably okay. But, we have like, gift cards to good restaurants! And movie theater coupons! And there are approximately 10928832382178 second run movie theaters in Portland that cost $2! What the frick and frack.
+ Write in my blog at least eight times.
Four times, so, no. See, what happened this month was that I was really pumped (after spending the first week or two spending my life in front of my computer on my work sample) because I had spring break, and thought I would have ALL THIS TIME to do ALL THIS STUFF, including ALL THIS WRITING AND READING! And then I picked up a bunch of shifts and worked a lot and hardly had any time to do anything. So. That's a fail.
+ Update my gay youth lit webpage!
No! I am such a gay failure! *cries*
+ Do some work with my pictures. Upload one new gallery on daffodilly.net.
Although I don't have an actual gallery uploaded yet, I did start work on one for Tahoe, which was fun. So stay tuned.
+ (Somehow) buy a plane ticket for Kathy's cousin's wedding in June.
Yes! One success. This was actually great because in addition to finding some good rates, Kathy had a whole bunch of Delta credits so we were able to get them for REALLY cheap (relatively). Really pumped to get to go to the East Coast, spend some more time with Kathy's family, and also hopefully see my sister and Dave.
+ Go on FIVE runs.
Four! Which is not bad.
+ After spring break, I am going to start spring semester as a new woman, and start biking to Lane again. So starting in the last week of March, try to bike at least 4 days a week.
So after the conclusion of this first-week-after-Spring-Break, I biked twice, walked once (takes about forty five minutes), and drove twice. Again--not bad!
+ Go on another drive with Toby.
Yeah! Well, we took him on a "drive" to Powell Butte, which isn't very far away, and which isn't a very nice drive. But Powell Butte itself is very nice. We walked around a bit on a trail, and we actually couldn't remember the last time we had seen Toby SO excited. It was short and sweet since Toby can't walk that long, but it was so great.
Yes! We went to Cape Lookout and had beer at Newport. We were only there for a day and it felt so incredibly amazing to be not-in-Portland.
+ Make at least 3 new meals.
Yes. It was another Budget Bytes month, as it should be. I'm starting to feel less and less guilty about my cookbooks collecting dust. Recipes you find online always taste better.
#1: Sweet potato & chorizo enchiladas.
I didn't get any really good pictures of these, so this is what you get. Uh, chorizo, and sweet potato, and lots of cheese on top? I have no idea how these could be BAD. Although I learned I was really bad at folding them tightly, probably because I think I included way more chorizo than the recipe called for and accordingly stuffed too much stuff into each one. Anyway, still delicious. Do you like our 70s olive green stove? I do!
#2: Greek turkey burgers.
Real good, especially the yogurt sauce that goes along with it. I'm actually really not a fan of sun-dried tomatoes, even though I feel like I should be, so I substituted those with just some chopped up plain ol' tomatoes, which seemed to work just fine.
#3: Chicken chili verde.
Okay, this recipe was a big accomplishment for me. Mainly because it calls for using two BONE-IN chicken breast halves. And I couldn't even find skinless ones at New Seasons, so I had to pull that icky shit off. I really contemplated just buying some boneless chicken breasts and chopping them up, but I understood that the point of the recipe was to let it all stew in the broth, bones and all, making for the maximum flavor. So I did it. And when I took the chicken out after stewing in the broth for an hour, it was amazing--the meat just fell off the bone! And it was super easy to shred it! As the picture shows! I felt SO PROUD OF MYSELF GUYS. Anyway. This was super hearty and tasty, and the best part is that it makes a TON of food and really holds up re-heated, so it made many a good lunches. Also, when she says "top with shredded Monterey Jack," I don't know if she meant, "shred and then use an entire block of Monterey Jack," but, well, that's what I did.
+ Finish freaking Great Expectations, which I am still trudging through, a week after I had my actual book club for it. I am determined. Then, actually read Mrs. Dalloway in time for our next book club.
Ugh. UGH. It took me almost all month long to finish Great Expectations. And I'd already READ the shit in high school! And as I mentioned, our actual book club meeting for it was way long gone! But I had some weird determination that I had to finish it. What a freak I am. Anyway, even though it felt like a never-ending uphill journey, I finished it and did actually enjoy it. However, I did NOT, consequently, finish Mrs. Dalloway in time for our book club on it last night. I got close, but not quite. I was angry at myself, knowing that I wasn't going to be able to finish it, all week. Even though I know that: 1) half the people in the book club wouldn't have read it anyway, and 2) we spend most of our time just drinking beer and bitching about student teaching. Anyway, as you can tell, apparently maybe the pressure of book club isn't that good for my mental state. (The beer and the bitching is great, though.) In conclusion, though, I do think that Virginia Woolf was a freaking crazy genius.
+ Read all newspapers for the month of March.
No. I believe I will keep making this goal for myself and never ever reaching it, forever.
+ Start seriously looking for a teaching/education job for the summer somewhere. Or, if not, start to seriously decide what I'm going to do for the summer. I have some alternate ideas (mainly, trying to get paid to write stuff), I just don't know if they're actually realistic/feasible.
Uh, no. This is actually going to bite me in the ass, I think. The truth is I got kind of latched onto the idea of spending this summer trying to write a lot, as well as trying to plan our wedding for next year, while working part time at Starbucks and volunteering at the library, and also starting to volunteer at a homeless shelter for youth downtown. But, you see, I am poor as hell and all of these ideas are extremely stupid ones. Are they the ones I will probably do anyway? Yes.
+ Not get too down on myself for being in the worst financial situation of my life and not being able to pay half my bills. :(
Uh, well, hm. I got my student loan money for spring term, so I didn't feel too bad, because I actually had money to pay my bills. However, this money will soon run out, so I'll be able to look forward to the rest of April, May, and June, and henceforth the rest of my existence, feeling on the constant edge of panic because I don't have money for groceries. OH, and also, we borrowed a shit-ton of money from Kathy's dad yet again this month to fix the transmission in our car. Yayyyyy!
+ Go to the movies once.
No! I don't think we went out to dinner once, either, other than getting lunch at the coast. I mean, going along with the money woes I just talked about, this is probably okay. But, we have like, gift cards to good restaurants! And movie theater coupons! And there are approximately 10928832382178 second run movie theaters in Portland that cost $2! What the frick and frack.
+ Write in my blog at least eight times.
Four times, so, no. See, what happened this month was that I was really pumped (after spending the first week or two spending my life in front of my computer on my work sample) because I had spring break, and thought I would have ALL THIS TIME to do ALL THIS STUFF, including ALL THIS WRITING AND READING! And then I picked up a bunch of shifts and worked a lot and hardly had any time to do anything. So. That's a fail.
+ Update my gay youth lit webpage!
No! I am such a gay failure! *cries*
+ Do some work with my pictures. Upload one new gallery on daffodilly.net.
Although I don't have an actual gallery uploaded yet, I did start work on one for Tahoe, which was fun. So stay tuned.
+ (Somehow) buy a plane ticket for Kathy's cousin's wedding in June.
Yes! One success. This was actually great because in addition to finding some good rates, Kathy had a whole bunch of Delta credits so we were able to get them for REALLY cheap (relatively). Really pumped to get to go to the East Coast, spend some more time with Kathy's family, and also hopefully see my sister and Dave.
+ Go on FIVE runs.
Four! Which is not bad.
+ After spring break, I am going to start spring semester as a new woman, and start biking to Lane again. So starting in the last week of March, try to bike at least 4 days a week.
So after the conclusion of this first-week-after-Spring-Break, I biked twice, walked once (takes about forty five minutes), and drove twice. Again--not bad!
+ Go on another drive with Toby.
Yeah! Well, we took him on a "drive" to Powell Butte, which isn't very far away, and which isn't a very nice drive. But Powell Butte itself is very nice. We walked around a bit on a trail, and we actually couldn't remember the last time we had seen Toby SO excited. It was short and sweet since Toby can't walk that long, but it was so great.