changes in the wind

well, there are some massive changes upcoming and some small changes and all i think are good :) in fact, i tend to thing that change is good in general! definitely opposite to what most people seem to think but.......i'm not most people.

it's interesting to me that even a small change can impact your day in unforeseen ways. for example, we painted the upstairs bathroom and hung a new mirror and every time i see those small changes, it makes me smile! now we're talking a total of maybe 4 hours worth of effort but it's been weeks worth of smiles........totally worth it!!

slightly larger change of local in the thought process which inspires lots of thoughts of further life changes which leads to the largest change of all which i won't post as it's far from official :)

needless to say, i'm excited about what's changed, what's being planned, and what i don't yet know the future holds. for now, i'll focus on beer and how it can change my world!

all for now.....

much love,

~danban

how did you think that was going to end?

had the most odd encounter with a neighbor and fellow dog owner last night and it's left me at a bit of a loss.

we were walking the dogs and hadn't gotten far after crossing the street when we had to stop cause jax had done his duty and we're good pet owners who clean after their dogs. i'd held the dogs in the grassy area to be out of the way of anyone on the side walk while ryan cleaned. the aforementioned neighbor begins walking past us with his corgy. ryan had seen them in the neighborhood before and mentioned that he didn't like his dog near other dogs so i attempted to ensure that our boys were on the far side of the grass from him.

apparently this wasn't sufficient as the neighbor stopped with his dog in front of me as jax jumped to go say hi and sniff the dog. he stopped to forcefully say, "you need to control your dog". to which i replied, "ummm i have control of him....thanks". he wasn't convinced as jax did jump forward a bit to sniff his dog and began repeatedly to tell me that i needed to admit he was out of control. at this point, i'm getting angry with the confrontation and don't appreciate the implication that i'm not a good pet owner and that jax is an out of control dog. so being a little childish i kept responding with "he's in control" over and over and over and over again.

ok i admit at this point i became really childish and said "bite me". i am still in shock about his reply which was to start yelling at me that i needed to walk over to where he was and he would bite me!! i don't remember my exact reply but i'm pretty sure it was along the lines of are you effing kidding me and you are a lunatic!! he then proceeded to tell me if he ever saw my dogs again he would kick them!! of course i told him if he touched my dogs i'd kick him so hard it would hurt me :) very protective pet owner that i am! of course after that he said something to the effect of "fcuk you" and finally walked away. of course as he's walking down the block he keeps stopping to look back though i'm not sure why.....

so what i don't get is 1. why he thought that confrontation necessary rather than just letting us know he was concerned or nervous when he was around jax as he attempts to go sniff his dog, 2. how in his head he thought that was going to turn out well unless he assumed i'd just politely apologize and see the error of my ways which proves he knows nothing about me and my inability to be kind to complete morons, 3. why in the hell he picked a fight with a 5'3 girl accompanied by 250lbs of massive dog and a boyfriend who is not a tiny person and that neighbor assumed that was ever going to work out in his favor, and 4. if he had managed to get me to wrastle with him, wtf he was going to do with his dog.....hand him over to ryan for jax to "get at him"?!?!?!

i mean holy shit dude......have you EVER used that tiny excuse for a brain ever in your assholish life?!?! there is no scenario i can think of that would have ever had that scene end well for him unless he is dumb enough to think i would have apologized for the error of my ways.

the only thing i can think of is that he may have been in a bad mood from the day, displaying a horrible attempt to kindly let me know that my dogs needed additional training, or he's really just a flaming moron/asshole.

the whole experience left me shocked and at a complete loss. i mean boone and jax are liked by all but one dog in the complex and that's not even this dude's corgy! they are trained though i'll admit that they need other dog socialization as they haven't had a lot of it. they are the kindest dogs i've ever met and are scared by damn near everything so are completely opposite of aggressive. it really kind of makes me anxious to walk them now which is another shame. i love walking them and will not let this douchebag ruin that but am not looking forward to ever meeting him again which is impossible as he lives in our complex or the one next to us. it makes me sad that he ruined what promised to be a great walk with the boys and that walking them isn't something i'm really looking forward to at the moment in case i do have to encounter him again. i still don't understand why he had such an outburst and why he was so angry. i mean i'd never spoken to him before in my life!

people like him sadden me as i'm always amazed that humanity can sink so lowly as to lash out at unsuspecting people for no reason other than your own amusement. what happened to do unto others? guess i'll never really know wtf went on with him but it hurts my heart and makes me sad.

all i can do at the moment is hug my boys and look forward to seeing boone huntin and jax wrastlin him to the ground :) the walks will always be joyful as long as i focus on them and the good company of ryan! so that's what i'm choosing to focus on!!

~danban

sin city

headed to sin city this weekend and it's always a love it/hate it kind of place for everyone. it seems like there's almost no one who goes there and just relaxes, goes with the flow, and enjoys the sheer spectacle of it all. everyone seems to go with some goal, intention, unspoken plan in their pocket which i find very entertaining as a spectator.

my enjoyment is the sheer ridiculousness of the entire town and the people in it. yes, i'm specifically referring to the strip and the multitude of outrageous outfits, hair styles, levels of drunkenness and intelligence and not the locals as i'm sure they are lovely people! i have no doubt this weekend i'll see plenty of the above while cruising the strip and hanging in the lazy river.

no matter what happens, i'm sure it'll be an entertaining time and i'll have lots of stories to tell. i'm seriously excited about going to see the jabbawokeez!! hope everyone out there has a good weekend as well :)

~danban

good to dream the dream

so there's a new scheme a brewin in my head and heart! it makes me smile to think about and dream the hope of one day making it a very real part of my world :)

i find it's been a great distraction and a happy place to turn to when work is overwhelming or underwhelming as the case may be. it's good for me to have positive thoughts that can carry me throughout the long nine to five days that consume my weeks.

so here's to having a dream and letting that warm your heart, thoughts, and bring a little color into every day! i hope you find yours to carry you throughout your days :)

hugs,

~danban

it's a love / hate thing

well, back at the blogging world and back into running and it's been too long!

started really running again starting this past monday and it's not going badly so far. yesterday's run was a decent one considering i'm just getting back into it.....2 miles in 23minutes. well off my previous half marathon pace but is getting me to where i can actually conceive of the half marathon in december and january!

part of it is motivated by the desire to feel better by exercising and having a regular routine of exercise. part of it is motivated by my skinny bin under my bed that has all the clothes i used to love to wear but cannot fit into at the moment. the other part is motivated by my Simmones wedding at the end of the year and i plan to look GOOD!

i'm excited so far by the motivation since i've not had it in a good year and a half if not longer. i'm looking forward to the quick progress that i'm sure i'll have as long as i keep it up as i'm sort of surprised by how easy it's been so far!

good running to all!

~danban

movin and shakin

far different than any other move in my life has been the one that is currently ongoing. as i mentioned to my man last night, i've typically be the type to move all my stuff in one maybe two days then in the span of a week or less get it all unpacked, put away, and organized so i once again feel comfortable in my home. this has not been quite that process.......

since this is far more of a permanent move, there are more things to consider than where i put my stuff. now i've got to bounce ideas off another person and see how they land. also consider his alternatives and see what we come up with. there's not just organizing my room cause it's now shared space and there's a lot more of it! it's integration of mine with his and even adding some of ours into the mix.

it's a very odd process and not one that i've had to attempt before. it's taking longer than i normally do to move and settle in though it's been fun in the process! i've been all over the place emotionally though i don't think i've been too difficult to put up with thus far :) i'm very excited to see how it all settles out and when it's all said and done, we'll have people over to celebrate! definitely new and very exciting things so far for 2011!

~danban

the best laid plans can backfire

it all started out so well.......best of intentions.......best laid plans.......and then it almost literally exploded!

like the truly responsible person i am, i started the evening with an hour's worth of torture (otherwise known as plyometrics). after sweating at least a small part of my ass off and most likely severely pissing off the person in the room below me as i'm jumping and pouncing around my room, i set about making dinner.

thus the best laid plan! dinner: balsamic chicken, spinach and feta stuffed mushrooms, and broiled pesto tomatoes.....mmmmmm delisc! was intended to be a wonderful evening of workout, dinner, a little criminal minds, bubble bath, reading then to bed. my reality was somewhat different........

the balsamic chicken asked for two cloves of garlic (yes two whole cloves) and in an effort to be super healthy i decided i could use fresh garlic. plus there's another recipe that i want to cook later in the week that wanted two cloves as well so i set about chopping it all cause why not chop 4 if i already had to do 2 right?!?! oh WRONG! so, an hour after beginning this quest i had all of it to it's raw and wonderful form, half of it chopped, and hated every last little diced piece cause it seemed to be reproducing or at least never ending. by now it was 8:30 and i was STARVING.

second issue with the chicken was that i happened to notice as i was cooking it that the garlic, rosemary (also fresh - dunno why i decided to try to go gourmet), salt, and pepper was supposed to sit on the chicken in the fridge overnight - oops!! oh well fuck it, i'm hungry and moving on.

third issue with the chicken was that i was supposed to use non stick cooking spray and of course had none. had one pan which i was attempting to figure out how to share that with the broiled tomatoes....again, whatever moving on cause i'm hungry. actually at that point i think i decided to give up on the tomatoes cause i was too hungry to be bothered with them at this point. so, naturally i poured some olive oil on the bottom so the chicken wouldn't stick, put the rub of garlic etc on the chicken, a little more olive oil on the top to keep it from drying, and stuck it in the oven. off to tackle the mushrooms......

the recipe called for frozen spinach and you're supposed to plop it into the pan once the water is boiling. well, that can be difficult when you only have two pans and one is huge but the other is tiny. managed to get the spinach into the pan though also managed to splash boiling water all over the kitchen and my shirt! i suppose i was just trying to warm up in this frozen land of albany?

at this point i figure i should check the chicken........which now had burning garlic and rosemary and filled the kitchen with a little smoke! i can handle this! i turn on the ventilation van to high and figure that has to take care of it.

back to the mushrooms! got the stems sauteed and put into the pan with the spinach for the stuffing part of the mushrooms. got the tops of the mushrooms into the pan to cook and figured i was good for a while and that dinner was finally coming together. wrong again!!

the olive oil starts really flaring up and i can't for the life of me figure out why. well, it's cause some had slopped into the tops and that was now spilling into the pan and throwing up showers of magma made of oil all over the kitchen.....yippee!!

i figure fine, i'll flip it over so i'm cooking the tops cause that's gotta keep the lava from spewing out of the pan and all over my arms, the stove, etc. well, that took about a half an effing hour cause it's a LOT harder to flip the tops of mushrooms over than i'd ever imagined cause the tops are round and they like to flip back to where they were splashing yet more hot liquid mess all over the damn place!!

i get 'em all flipped over and about done cooking when i look around the room and low and behold the entire room is filled with smoke! a realllllllllllllly bad idea when you're in a hotel room with a kitchen and lots of smoke detectors and sprinklers!! of course i'm panicking that i'm about to set the alarms off for the whole complex of rooms in my section thus soaking everything i own, they own, and severely pissing off a group of sleeping people........mind you at this point it's 9:30, i'm in albany, and i'm sure they're all asleep by this point.

like a mad woman i opened the door letting in freezing winds and start flapping a towel around to attempt to encourage the smoke to go out the door and not toward the detectors! quite a hilarious sight i'm sure though i was frantic at the time.

with most of the smoke out of the way, i finally assemble the mushrooms of which i bought way too small of caps so after loading them up i still had half the spinach mix left and you couldn't really see that there were mushrooms under the mix but fuck it, i finally had something on the damn plate!

after putting the chicken alongside the mushrooms, i drizzled the chicken with a bit of balsamic, and realized that it actually didn't look half bad! and much to my amazement was actually quite tasty. sorry i do not have any video of the fiasco though i did take pics of the mountain of dishes and the dinner itself and will post them if i get the chance.

hope i brought a bit of entertainment into your life with my attempts at gourmet cooking :) i did learn a valuable lesson.........cooking is best done in pairs and i'm excited for mine to be here soon!

~danban