So far today has been pretty awesome.  It’s been filled with warm blankets, Bones on DVD and the crocheting of a hat.  And some goulash–the recipe of which I think I have FINALLY cracked.

See, as a kid my dad would make this stuff that he called goulash.  It’s made with ground beef, elbow macaroni, peppers, a bunch of spices and tomato sauce and oh MAN it is super tasty.  He wouldn’t make it very often, but I remember always being glad to see it show up.

Unfortunately, my Dad and I do not have a good relationship.  I don’t think we ever really did, really but that is neither here nor there.  The point is that, I have been trying for years (years) to figure out his goulash recipe for myself and I can’t exactly call him up and say “hey, how did you make that stuff?”

But tonight I think I finally cracked it.  It is definitely the closest that I have ever come to the taste I remember enjoying as a kid.  And this makes me super happy. Because this stuff is a perfect cold fall/winter evening food.

Here’s how I made it.

You will need:

One big pot

One big frying pan

A working stove

Ingredients:

• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 white onion
• Couple cloves of garlic
• Packet of Taco spice
• 1 small can tomato sauce (80z)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oregano
• Basil
• Cumin
• Chili Pepper
• Ketchup (which seems superfluous since you’re using tomato sauce as well but trust me on this)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 package large elbow macaroni

Steps:

1.  Chop up the bell peppers and onion and then set them aside.  I just toss them into a big bowl all together because that means less dishes to wash at clean up time.

2. Smash then chop garlic cloves and add to the bowl (or whatever you’re using) of chopped up  peppers and onion.

3. Put water into your big pot to boil (for the macaroni)

4.  In your big frying pan brown your ground beef and drain the excess fat.  Return the pan to the burner.

5.  Dump your whole bowl of peppers, onion and garlic in with the ground beef and stir.

6.  Add the taco spice and the can of tomato sauce and some water and stir it all up until it’s well blended and reduce the heat on your burner to low/medium.

Right about now your water should be boiling so go ahead and dump the macaroni in there and cook according to the instructions on the package.

7.  From here add in your spices to taste.   I find that I really need to shake in a bunch of extra oregano and pepper, and just a normal amount of salt, basil, chili powder and cumin. Squirt in some ketchup to add some extra tomato-y taste to your “sauce.”  This saves you from having to open a second can of tomato sauce.

Keep your burner on low and let all of the flavors cook in together while the macaroni finishes cooking.

Drain the macaroni and return it immediately to the pot and return the pot to the stove and turn your burner to low.  Pour the mixture in your frying pan into the pot with the macaroni and stir it all together.

Cover the pot, but leave a little bit of air for the steam to escape and let it burble on low for a half an hour or so, stirring occasionally so that the macaroni won’t stick to the bottom of the pot.  You might add in a little bit of extra water, but it isn’t really necessary.

After the half an hour goes by, ladle some onto a plate and eat! Yummmmmm.

This recipe will probably work equally well in a crock pot, but I haven’t tested it out yet.

Will had THREE helpings and is now writhing in pain because he didn’t stop to consider the way that pasta expands in your stomach when you eat it.

Man, just typing all of that out made me want more.  I’m so glad there is some left over!

Oh man, am I the only one who is super glad it is the weekend (even though I still have work to do)?  I am ready to collapse.  And I don’t know why.  I’m happy that NaBloPoMo has started.  I’m enjoying my work.  I like having the office to work in instead of working on the couch.

Ahhh, the couch.

So today, after Will’s lunch break was over and he went back to work I settled in for a long afternoon of writing and just, well, writing.   I have quite a few projects happening now and I want to make sure I stay caught up with all of them (’cause you know, when you don’t do the work, you don’t get paid!).  And, for some reason that I’ll never be able to understand, the writing/get it done mode I had relished in all damn morning was not going to be picked back up no matter how hard I tried.  So, in a fit of “arrrrgggghhh” I decided to work from my laptop in the living room.  On the couch.  With the television on as background noise because if music wasn’t going to do it and silence wasn’t going to do it, and sitting at a desk wasn’t going to do it, maybe sitting back in my usual “here’s where I make stuff with words” realm would do it.

Sometimes? I’m really dumb.

No kidding.

I couldn’t focus for crap.  And I tried EVERYTHING I could think of.  NOTHING worked.

God I hate it when that happens.  And its always on the days when you’ve said “even though I don’t have a deadline for this, I will absolutely have it to you by this time on this day.”  and then its that time on that day and you’re looking at what you have and thinking “oh my god, that’s crap.”  And “how is it 9:30 and I haven’t written my NaBloPoMo post yet?”

So, I will be working tomorrow morning while Will has his dentist appointment.  I kind of wanted to go into the city with him and maybe I still will–maybe I’ll lug this heavy ass laptop to the starbucks that is close to the dentist and just churn stuff out.  Mabe a TOTAL change of scenery is what I need.

Or you know, the whole “I hate working on the weekends” thing will be good enough to power me through my stuff so I won’t have to do any MORE work over the weekend.

Sometimes I am so glad for my Rhapsody subscription that I get a little giddy.  I signed up for the Rhapsody To-Go so that I could listen to it on my iPhone but don’t know how much of that I’ll actually be doing since it won’t let me do other stuff and listen to music at the same time (and it kind of drains the battery).  But Rhapsody is how I’ve spent the day listening to Vol. 1 of the Glee Soundtrack without having to pay for it yet.  I have to say?  I kind of love it.  Of course, thanks to Rhapsody, I’ve been listening to the songs almost non stop already but still… there’s just something about this show and these versions of the song.  I cannot get enough.

Incidentally, my dear FTC, this little plug for Rhapsody and Glee are because I lurve them, not because anybody offered me any free trials, free products or compensation in return for my favorable words.

Yesterday I was dragging.  I think it had something to do with not getting enough sleep for a couple of days (McDonalds is now banned for dinner since I was up at 4 AM on Wednesday morning with a very nauseous spouse–he’s fine now).  Today though I popped out of bed and got right to work.  It felt good. I’m thinking it might have something to do with Thursday being my favorite day of the week.

Am I the only one who defines her favorite day of the week by what is on television that night?  Because currently? My favorite day is Thursday (Grey’s Anatomy, holla!) followed closely by….MONDAY.  Yeah.  MONDAY.  The day that everybody else in the world dreads I get all skippy because its the night of How I Met Your Mother, House and Castle.

Incidentally, I do know that I have something of a television…problem.  Thanks for noticing!  You should pay me to write about it at length! Or, you know, befriend me and get me out of the house more often.

Finally: welcome people who surfed on in for Blog Share!  I’m keeping today’s NaBloPoMo post short so I won’t detract from the guest author below.

A couple of days ago, -R- of And You Know What Else contacted me and asked if I wanted to do a last minute Blog Share for November and, of course I jumped at the opportunity.  I had a really great experience with the last one and welcomed the chance to do the anonymous thing again.  Except, well…. I kind of phoned it in on this one.  I didn’t really mean to but check this out:  I had a whooooooole post about halfway written about fear and Murphy’s Law and how Murphy’s Law likes to eff up my life whenever it could and I swear to god, the keyboard wigged out.  The space bar, it stuck down and wouldn’t stop spacing things in my word doc.  And it was so bad that I had to force a shut down on the computer.  That’s right: as I was writing about Murphy’s Law fucking with me, it fucked with me.  Big. Time.

So I kind of chickened out, decided not to tempt fate and phoned it in.  I officially apologize to whoever gets my half assed post!

I really like the post I was given to put up here and I hope you will shower whoever this is with your own thoughts and insights and comments.  I know that last time I did this, I haunted my post’s site for a few days just soaking up the comments.

So, without further ado…

You know that show Intervention? Well, I might need to go on it for an Internet addiction.

I’m afraid to say it, but I have become invisible in my own life. Instead I read about what other people’s lives are like. Thus I have turned into someone who is more present online than IRL (in real life).

I blog

I tweet

I Facebook. Which isn’t a verb.

I chat on IM

I don’t communicate face to face much

I don’t socialize with breathing people much

My phone skills have gone to crap

When I read a post by a blogger saying she is divorcing her husband, I feel as bad for her as I would if a friend IRL told me she was dealing with that. The blogger sometimes will open up more than a friend IRL will and sometimes I know more about her divorce than that of my friend. This might mean that the blogger pours her soul onto the Internet. Or it might just mean I am way too involved in what someone I don’t know is dealing with.

A Facebook friend who is not a “real” friend but an online friend asks for prayers for a sick loved one. And then I remember a real-life friend whose mother just got out of the hospital and think I should call him to see how his mom is doing. But it’s 1 am so I decide to call him later. My Facebook friend receives my instant attention though. I will reply to her status or send off an email sending prayers to this person I have never met.

Why is it that I feel more left out when I don’t get invited to a Broad Summit, or a tweet-up than I do about the weekend trip to the Jersey shore some friends took – the trip I heard about only after they got home? I can’t blame them for not inviting me because I am slowly disappearing into the black hole of the Internet.

A real-life friend celebrated her daughter’s first birthday party a couple of months ago. I missed it because I was traveling. I haven’t seen the pictures of the cake mooshing or the present opening from her party, or even given her the present I have, but on a daily basis I will see pictures from bloggers, putting me at their child’s birthday party.

I keep hearing about how all this online activity is contributing to the breakdown of communication and real relationships. It’s happening to me and I need to stop it. How and why did I start looking into this magic box filled with people for companionship and take the real people for granted?

What if the Internet shut down? Implausible as it may sound, what would I do if that happened, and what if it was a long-term thing? It makes me wonder if my real friends would be there, welcoming me out of my hermitude, or if they will have moved on.

I can’t let that happen. Things are happening in real life as much as they are online. Babies, weddings, honeymoons, divorces, new jobs, layoffs, new homes, ilnesses, successes and failures. I don’t want to miss it, and I know that a friend in need would have me at their side in a snap. But what if I miss that? What if they need me but I have distanced myself so far they don’t call? I already know I am missing the droll day to day stuff.

I have exaggerated in this post to make a point here, and I am not as awful a friend as I might sound. I keep in touch with the real people in my life – albeit not as much as I should or used to – and I know everyone is healthy and doing fiine.

I wrote this post to see if anyone else experiences this, even if just temporarily. And if so, how do you dig yourself out of it and become a more active participant in life? Besides the obvious – just leaving the computer and doing it.

Here are the other blogs participating in this round of the Blog Share.  Check them out!

Not the Daddy
O is for Olson
Red Red Whine
Rediscovering Me
Reflections in the Snow-covered Hills
The Reluctant Grownup
Sauntering Soul
Serendipity Now
Snarke
So, This Is a Treadmill
Thinking Some More
Time for Change
Together They Come
Wondering and Pondering
And You Know What Else
Andrea Unplugged
Arctic-ulate
Bright Yellow World
Bwildered
Catheroominations
Did I Say That Outloud?
Dispatches from the Failed Mommy Club
Full of Snark
Heidikins
Hot Chicks Dig Smart Men
Just Below 63
The Little Goat

Today I am going to punch you in the face with…god I want to say irony but it isn’t actually irony.  It’s more…of a big loud “huh. Well how about that?”  but rest assured I am going to rock your world with it.

As you know, I gave up caffeinated Pepsi a little over a month ago.  It was hard.  I had headaches.  I was sleepy a lot.  And grouchy.  And just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry for a few days because I couldn’t focus.  And yes, it is pathetic to have withdrawals from frackin’ soda, but there you go.  I had three or four days of true suck.

But then?  Oh then…. suddenly, I had more energy than I had before.  I don’t know if it was giving up the caffeine or the stopping of the birth control, but my energy level just…surged.  (The stopping of the birth control is another entry for another time).  Even on nights when I didn’t get the full eight hours that I usually require (to keep me from turning into a heinous raving lunatic) I was fine. I’d wake up alert and ready to start the day and, sure, two days a week I make myself go back to sleep anyway but there it is: Non caffeinated me has more energy than caffeinated me.

Until today.

Last night I was kept up late because a certain husband stayed up until 1:30 in the morning (which felt like 2:30 to my poor hates daylight savings time changes body) and ever since waking back up at eight this morning I have been dragging.  And the weird thing is that I don’t really feel tired.  I feel…. non focusy and in need of some serious zoning out time.  I’m fighting my way through them because, hello, work totally comes before my addled brain’s need to just slack off for a few hours.

I don’t get it.  I’ve had all of this great energy and today I’m just… bleh. meh. whaddevadood.  I have to admit I’m kind of disappointed because yesterday rocked so hard.  Apparently today my get up n’ go has gotten up and freakin’ went.

Thoughts?

On Mondays and Wednesdays we get up at six in the morning because Will has class at eight.  Every morning I pummel him awake (how the hell he doesn’t hear his loud ass blaring alarm clock is beyond me) and then, once he has left for school I go back to sleep.  The thing is, at six I usually feel like “I could totally just stay up and get some extra work done.”  And, truth be told, I probably could but nobody wants to see the lunatic I’d probably turn into by the time 2 or 3 rolled around.  So, I settle in on the couch with a DVD and think “I’ll just lay here and if I haven’t fallen asleep after this episode, I’ll just get back up again.”  And, of course, I always fall back to sleep and wake up again a couple of hours later.  Having the television on leads to some funky dreams, yo.

Weirdly, the only time I can fall asleep with the television or a radio on is when I need to take a nap.  At night, when its bed time and I’m settling in for the long haul, having noise grates on my nerves and keeps me awake.

Today after I woke up from my “morning nap” I was totally tired and was just about to talk myself into taking a day to just veg on the couch.  Thank God I had deadlines because they kept me awake and going and I’m really thankful for that.  If I had given in and just crashed on the couch all day I’d have gotten really irritated with myself for being such a work wuss.  I mean, for jeebus’ sake, I work from home.  My commute involves walking to the spare room.  It isn’t like it is a taxing endeavor.  More importantly, today I have gotten a lot done.  I’m working on entering a new type of writing and it is scary but it is also exciting and has far better “support my family” potential.  But it involves a LOT of work–chance taking “oh my god what do I do next?” ‘s and letting myself take a day off from that would have been disastrous.  All it takes is one day of giving in and being lazy to completely bork your whole week (or month).

So… go me.  I had a case of the Monday’s this morning and I kicked its ass.

Hooray for NaBloPoMo!

Last night I told Will that I was getting excited for this year’s NaBloPoMo and his response was not really a “good for you!” but a “doesn’t that thing end up stressing you out every year?” And to that I say Pffft.  Okay sure, 2007′s was stressful–it was the first time I made myself do the post every day thing.  But last year’s wasn’t that big of a deal–I was posting pretty much every day anyway and before I knew it, the month was over.  This year I’m looking forward to it.  I’ve been in a posting funk for a few months because of all of the other stuff that has been sucking my time and I’m hoping that NaBloPoMo will help put me back on the right track.

Other weekend wrappy post type stuff?

This is the first weekend that Will and I have had entirely to our selves since we got back from our honeymoon.  So far.  There are still a few hours left so there is still time for someone to crash in upon our pajama’d lazy little oasis of hanging out.  We left the house for a couple of hours last night to get some food and to buy some DVDs (our experiment of not spending money until Christmas shopping? Epic FAIL) but other than that we’ve been hanging out in our pajamas, eating junk food and generally being unhealthy and lazy.  It (so far) has rocked!

We did not have a single trick or treater, unless they showed up between 7:30 and 9.  Which is certainly possible.  Last year I think we had 3 or 4.  Maybe next year we’ll live in a more family friendly neighborhood and actually need the three huge bags of candy we bought.  This year, though, we have plenty of left over candy.  Yay! More Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for me!

I desperately wanted to think of a third thing right here but…I’m out.

Bring on NaBloPoMo 2009!  (And I haven’t even had any caffeine!)