10 Things I Like - Fall Edition - Sort of

1. The way the leaves have changed soooo incredibly slowly this year. The extended foliage season is deserved after the months of awful weather here. (apparently all that rain was traumatizing as it ended like 2 months ago)

2. The way the neighborhood smells like campfires at night.

3. That once a week, apple crisp is a perfectly acceptable breakfast.

4. Having great friends.

5. That I actually feel disappointed if I don't make it to the gym 4 times a week.

6. Podcasts. I love them. My iPod recent reset and it killed everything on my nano. I have only
restored the podcast section.

7. Sweaters. Warm, cozy, cotton sweaters.

8. Deer pajamas.

9. Slow roasted tomatoes.

10. Spiked apple cider.

10 Things I Like

1. Browsing Etsy and Decor8 for the soothing inspirations.
2. Cooking a meal and serving it to hungry people.
3. The companionship of dogs.
4. Ah-ha! moments. (For instance:one day I realized that I'm not even 29 yet. It was a revelation.)
5. Wondering my favorite vintage shops on a rainy day.
6. Dreaming about living on the beach - while I sit on the beach.
7. Nights when you need to pull the comforter up.
   
8. Reading a memoir.
9. That straw hat I have but was too embarrassed to wear in public until recently.
   
10. Box fans.
    

I should have been a food blogger. (Maybe I still can be....) Why? because lately, all I want to do is read recipes, try recipes, go food shopping, and use every piece of Fiestaware I own to serve (and photograph) fabulous food. Very little else interests me lately which is a serious problem.

Well it's serious in the sense that I would also like to loose 15 lbs, write quite prolifically
on the collectionspace about all things I find fascinating about collecting, finish watching the 1st season of 6 Feet Under, succeed at my insurance job, find the happiness that must have been packed in our office move, and finally recover these chairs in my dining room. That's a lot and made for a great run-on sentence and it's being put on hold for the most part because I am
obsessed with cooking beans and Swiss chard in chipolte tomato sauce.

In other words, I have been majorly distracted lately. I have been distracted before but I am having a harder time getting out of my own this time. So in am attempt to look my demons in the eye I bring you:

10 Things I Like (to be distracted by)

1. Cooking- as I mentioned I just want to stand in my kitchen with a stocked pantry and an endless supply of vegetables and chop and dice until I've run out things to saute and roast, when I will move on to baking and finally eating. Someone else can wash the dishes ;)

2. Color Junction- I have a sickness. I love really dumb games. Curse you iGoogle.

3. Sleeping- On the weekend you are a great way to spend a morning hiding from dogs who want to walked in a cold snowy winter, all snuggled up in my very comfortable bed underneath the beautiful silver gray duvet. During the week you are a great thing to avoid doing for when I sleep all weekend I get all f-ed up and then have a hard time falling asleep at 10pm like I should.

4. Reading- Not that its a bad thing to spend time on, but how much time is appropriate to be spent reading articles about fish oil? Lately I say ALL the time.

5. Vacation Planning- The dream of taking a mid-winter retreat to warmer lands will finally be realized next month and it takes a lot of planning and internet research to be carefree for 6 days.

6. Not Going to The Gym- Yes, not going is also a distraction because I spend lots of time thinking about going, or devising a plan of when to go and then I don't actually go. I do something like play Color Junction for an hour. Then I have to make excuses for myself. Vicious cycle you see.

7. Day Dreaming- Nothing like practicing your award acceptance speech while walking the dogs.

8. Watching bad movies- The power to turn the TV is in my hands and my hands only. "Waiting" was not worth it. Sadly, I did not utilize my remote control.

9. Watching Good Movies- Actually, take this one off. Good movies are not a distraction, they are good for you!

10. Creating Lists (Top 10 type included) for myself- at work and at home I have started a collection of lists. Soon to keep track of them I will have to make a list of my lists and then catalog them, and well thats just silly.

11. Listening to Fresh Air and The Moth podcasts- Actually, I don't know if this falls under distraction or good use of time. Either way I've been really enjoying both lately. I like the stories.

So there you go internet, these are the things I have been using to hold myself back! or something like that. Anyway, I guess this is as close as I will get to writing a new year resolution post. If you'd like to read a properly inspiring one, Holly at, Nothing But Bonfires has written one for you and the rest of us.

Here's to being less distracted in days to come. Cheers!

10 things i like

1. apples slices dipped in caramel
2. days when words come easily
3. the way tuckertino follows me around the house just too see what i'm doing
4. being sent back to bed by the husband because i look too tired to walk the dogs with him. (i like the part that he notices, not the tired part btw)
5. walking through the pile of fallen leaves at the end of the street
6. mad men
7. ravenswood zinfandel
8. watching tv on the web at my leisure
9. that commercial where the guy says "the towels are kinda scratchy"
10. taking my lunch at 1pm so that i can listen to "fresh air" with terry gross

10 things i like...food edition

1. many (revised from most) drinks with rum
2. cherry coke zero (don't worry, not with rum)
3. small summer zucchini sauteed with garlic
4. sourdough toast with real butter
5. rice and beans topped w/ avocado
6. newman's own roasted garlic salsa
7. goddess salad dressing
8. a veggie burger topped w/ lettuce, tomato, cucumber, & aforementioned goddess dressing on a whole wheat bun (who invited the hippie?)
9. tostitos natural yellow corn tortilla chips (see #6 for a delicious pairing)
10. newman's own sweet enough honey flax flakes with rice milk (when did i become a hippie?)

1 thing i like

ok- today i'm sure that i could sit here and think of 10 things around me that i really like- but then why not think of 25 things or 50 things or a 100 things? today i'm too tired to list even 10. i just tried and came up with the most uncreative and boring list imaginable. so instead i will write about 1 thing i like:

1. being tired

i am weird. i know this. but the truth is that i like feeling tired at the end of the day. i like feeling like i accomplished something, like i worked hard, like i lived up to my potential in some way. when i'm tired, i know i'm not bored. i also like falling asleep when my head hits the pillow and not waking up 6 times a night because i'm anxious or restless or thinking too much.

and don't get me wrong, i'm not talking about the kind of drop-dead tired that comes from 10 mile hikes in the mountains or hard physical labor or even the kind of tired that comes from being overworked and over stressed.

i like to feel tired. just plain old tired. at the end of the day because it makes for a good night's rest. so now i'm off to bed.

10 things i like

1. new computer
2. dueling lap tops
3. sleeping for hours
4. the furminator
5. holiday weekend
6. followed by vacation
7. boots botanics skin care
8. chips and salsa
9. watermelon
10. my sister

10 things i like

1. 4 new pieces of fiestawear
2. tablestoteapots
3. the husband's relationship with ebay
4. rice and beans
5. a lime ricky from beezers
6. a hair cut
7. internet research
8. strawberry rhubarb sauce
9. 2 weeks till vacation!
10. sunday mornings.....

10 things i like

1. trader joes and their $3.99 wine
2. nice walks with my little family
3. getting into the car when it's been warmed by the sun
4. driving with the widows down
5. the fact that 30 rock is back on tv
6. reading this article at design for mankind
7. when tucker attacks flies and other bugs as they buzz around his head
8. this idea for a project at the real simple site
9. day dreaming about what i would do if i had unlimited funds in the bank
10. um...i get marathon monday off from work!

10 things i like

1. dogs that walk nice
2. eating out with friends
3. playing with other people's kids
4. gaining back my confidence
5. a good nights sleep
6. a good nights sleep for 2 days in a row
7. talking to sort of famous people about their umbrella coverage at work
8. the two cook books i received for christmas this year. Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. both have come in handy a few times now.
9. spring has sprung and the crocuses are peeking their hearty stalks up through the ground.
10. when sam comes to work during school breaks- because its fun

10 things i like...in my kitchen

1. the espresso machine

2. ruby red grapefruit

3. the vintage cast-iron pot

4. my beavis magnet

5. dried tart cherries

6. french bread

7. the tile my brother made me

8. the red rice cooker

9. dark chocolate non-parels

10. blackberries for $3.99

10 things i like

1. sleeping in
2. mini-vacations with outdoor hot tubs
3. those bags filled with rice that you microwave
4. when the husband downloads tv shows for me to watch
5. soup (lentil, pumpkin, black bean)
6. pommelos
7. pommelo tea to "cleanse the soul and repel evil" (ok i've never tried it but who couldn't use a little soul cleansing evil repellent)
8. heart shaped pie









9. chocolate covered almonds rolled in sugar & sea salt
10. finishing projects

10 things i like and 10 things i don't

i like.....

1. clean floors
2. 40 degrees in January
3. searching for vacation deals
4. voting
5. this dog:









6. and this dog:









7. watching the ninja dog eat a corn chip out of the dirt pile that i just swept up in the kitchen.
8. the smell of peppermint oil
9. the little red rice cooker - how awesome is that thing?
10. this post about reusable shopping bags

i'm not so into......

1. getting peppermint oil in my eye
2. washing the damn floor
3. mice in the house
4. not being able to purchase the vacation deal(s) i've found
5. when my big dog puts up a street protest and makes me look like fool in front of the neighbors
   
6. anything that can be sprayed that is called "french bouquet"
7. the smell of CLR - yuck! gag! ew!
8. when the only cookies left at work are "apple-cinnamon"
   
9. spreadsheets
   
10. people who way over use lysol spray