I turned my hair red...

Now tell me, how in the hell the shade "pecan; medium golden brown" would turn my hair red?!?!? I was tired of playing the "match my original shade" game so I decided I'd do temporary dye until my roots were pretty much grown out or I found the perfect color. Thank God this red is only supposed to last 28 washes. The instructions suggest I don't wash my hair for 24 hours to help preserve the color, there went that suggestion. I have since washed my hair twice since I dyed it this afternoon. I love redheads, but not on me!

Golfers make it look so easy!!

Today was an absolutely beautiful day in Omaha and I found it way to easy to distract myself from studying. Neither Joe nor I have ever been golfing and since it was such a nice day we figured we'd give the driving range a try. OMG, the pros make it look so easy! I'm not going to lie, I swung the driver 8 times once just trying to hit the ball off the tee. Joe definitely got the hang of thins by the end of the bucket. It's safe to say we have a lot of practicing to do before we (if we ever) attempt to make an appearance on a golf course. Thank God we can laugh at each other, because we surely had one hell of a time today.

Pesto Italian Spread

Another gem of Kraft Food's magazine. I made this for a get together last weekend and it was a huge hit! As one of my friends said, "get that dip away from me, it's like crack."

WHAT YOU NEED:

• 1 pkg. (8 oz.) neufchatel cheese (cream cheese would probably work too)
  
• 1/4 cup pesto (I used premade in essence of time)
  
• 1 plum tomato, chopped
• 1/4 cup Finely Shredded Italian Five Cheese Blend
• TRISCUIT Cracked Pepper & Olive Oil Crackers

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat grill to medium heat. Place unwrapped neufchatel cheese on 8-inch square sheet of heavy-duty foil; top with pesto, tomatoes and shredded cheese.
2. Place foil on grill; cover with lid. Grill 8 to 10 min. or until shredded cheese is melted and cream cheese is softened, but still holding its shape.
3. Transfer foil to platter. Serve spread with crackers.

Delicious! Here's the recipe on Kraft's website.

I think my neighbor killed a turkey...

This is really upsetting me actually. We have wild turkeys that roam around our neighborhood. I don't know where they came from originally, but they've made themselves home here. They don't bother anyone and don't even leave turkey terds around for us to pick up.

This morning I look out my window and see one of our neighbors carrying a turkey by its neck to his house. I can only assume he killed it because otherwise the turkeys run away as soon as people get close. I didn't hear any gunshots and who knows about bow and arrows, so I'm truly hoping someone hit the turkey with their car and that's how he got it. I really hope he wasn't hunting the turkeys because we have kids in our neighborhood and that's just downright risky.

I went out for a little and when I returned a couple of hours later, he's on his porch skinning the turkey. Don't get me wrong, I love turkey breast, but these are the wild turkeys of our neighborhood. I just find the whole situation odd.

Table for One...

Joe stayed in Baltimore after we went home for Kristy and Lucas's wedding. (Such and blast and hopefully I'll blog about that this weekend.) Now back to the post... Joe's a picky eater and is always hesitant to try new things and restaurants. Since I'm on my own for a couple of days I opted to try two restaurants on my own.

I was really craving some Polish perogies, but google didn't find a Polish restaurant in Omaha. Instead I opted to try the Czech restaurant around the corner from us. It didn't quite hit the spot, but it was good. I ordered the Polish sausage, sweet and sauer cabbage, and a dumpling. To me the dumpling didn't have much flavor, but I don't think it's supposed to. I really enjoyed my other two items. If I decide to go back I think I'll get the potatoes instead of the dumpling. That being said, I don't think I'd regret leaving Omaha never having gone to the Bohemian Cafe again.

A couple of weeks ago someone brought cake from FarmHousE into clinic and it tasted oh so delicious! I had never been to the restaurant and it looked like a place I'd enjoy so I gave it a shot tonight. I ordered the chicken and noodle casserole special with a side of onion rings and it came with a blueberry muffin. I can't rate the muffin yet since I'm saving it for breakfast. The casserole was a B-...it was way to rich for me. I think I'd really enjoy some of their other items though. The onion ring batter isn't the best I've ever had, but I loved how think the onion slices were. Most of the time I feel like onion rings are almost all batter. And the main attraction, drum roll please, WEDDING CAKE! It's basically their name for strawberry shortcake. It was so moist and just the right sweetness. Now I want another slice. I know Joe would like this cake. I might just have to take one to a gathering sometime.

6 Books for $14!!

I needed some retail therapy today and decided to stumble into Garden Ridge. I've never been there before and I still don't quite know how to describe the store, but that's neither here nor there. Point of the post--I purchased 6 books for $14!! That's cheaper even than the postage to exchange them on PBS. Now you may be thinking to yourself, "They must be crappy books." But they aren't!

I got two Sarah Dessen books. I read Truth About Forever a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed it so I figured, "why not?"

I think the book I'm most excited about is A Thousand Splendid Suns. I absolutely loved Kite Runner and I've been too cheap to buy ATSS off of Amazon. Not surprising, ATSS was the most expensive of the bunch, a whopping $4.

I've heard great things about Sara Donati's Into the Wilderness series. I have that particular book waiting for me on my bookshelf and tonight I picked up another Donati book--Queen of Swords.

For the other two books, one is by an author I liked before and the other just sounded fun; Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi and Miss Understanding by Stephanie Lessing, respectively.

Now the challenge is finding time to read these plus the ones waiting on my bookshelf. (I have read 10 books so far this year though).

And the sleeping issues start again...

I've never really had a problem with anxiety, but last year just before Step 1 I had such a hard time falling asleep even if I was down right tired. I'm not taking Step 2 for another 2 months, but I'm already starting to have difficulty falling asleep. It's so frustrating just laying in bed exhausted but not being able to sleep. Perhaps I'm just stressing over my test on Thursday and I'll be able to get back to sleep after that. We'll see.

The Frasers and MacKenzies Are Here!

I received the 5th book of the Outlander series today in the mail--A Breath of Snow and Ashes. The books are long and take forever to read, but I so enjoy them and can't wait to find out what happens.

I'm a little behind on my 25 books in 2009 goal, but hopefully after my next set of boards I'll have more time to read. In the mean time, I cheated a little by reading some young adult books...oh how I missed YA lit.

T Minus One Year

I'll be Dr. Hinkle!!!! Ok, really one year from tomorrow, May 15th, but I doubt I'll have time to blog tomorrow since I'll be busy traveling to Baltimore for Lucas and Kristy's wedding.

A lot of people in our community are professional students graduating Saturday so there are moving trucks all around. I can't wait for that to be us next year! I really really really hope we can much closer to home if not in Baltimore itself.

I Took a Pregnancy Test...

...and I'm not pregnant. I really didn't think I was. I have been really hungry lately and when I stepped on the scale this morning I really wanted a reason for my weight gain. Yeah, it's called poor eating habits and less working out. I think I'll go back to sparkpeople.com and try that again. I used to be so good with moderation. I like to blame married life, but that's just trying to put the blame on someone/something and not take the responsibility myself. Oh how I wish food didn't have calories or the stuff that tastes so good wasn't so damn bad for me.

Kettle Corn!

I heart kettle corn and the microwave version just doesn't compare to the fair's. I decided to give making it at home a try. I was pleasantly surprised with the results! It didn't take more than five minutes and really wasn't a hard clean up either. I'm definitely making it more often!

I watched this mom's you tube video and used her technique of three seconds on the heat, three seconds off. I used Rachel Ray's recipe.

1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1/2 kernels
1/4 sugar
Salt to taste

• I heated my pot and then placed three kernels in the oil. Once I heard three pops I knew the oil was hot enough.
• Pour in the kernels and the sugar, stir quickly
• Keep pot on heat 3 seconds, take off shake pot three seconds. Repeat until popping stops.
• Pour popped corn into large bowl, stir in salt.
• Enjoy!

Our Future Toddler and Star Wars

I stumbled across this you tube video of a three year old explaining Star Wars. Since Joe loves I'm sure our future kids are going to be be surrounded by Star Wars too. I can't wait to hear how they explain Star Wars to us.

Star Trek

I really had no desire to go see it, but I know Joe wanted to and I really wanted to spend some time with my hubbie. OMG, I was totally blown away! It probably helps that I've never watched an episode of Star Trek and went in with absolutely no expectations. I think I'm a sci-fi fan though. I've noticed I not only like a fair number of sci-fi movies, but books too. Who'd a thought? Oh well. So either way, I recommend Star Trek the Movie!

Oh, and we saw it in the regular theater and the graphics were amazing, I could only imagine what they are like on the IMAX.

Activia Update...

Remember way back when, when I said I was going to do the Activia Challenge? I completed it...I wouldn't say my bowels became more normal (I already was fairly normal in that aspect) but it did notice I felt less bloating and gas. A major plus! Well, I got tired of using calories on yogurt, so I slowly stopped eating the activia regularly...I can tell the difference! I've been so bloated this week and gassy again. So, it's back to the activia for me. I tried the light kind and it's not as rich as the regular and has an aftertaste...it's only 30 calories different so I think I'll go back to the regular.

Save the Honey Bees!

Did you know there is a honey bee crisis? Neither did I until tonight. Ends up Haagen-Dazs has started a movement to help preserve the bees. Check it out here. While I haven't had Haagen-Dazs since I discovered Ben and Jerry's, I'm all about helping them save the honey bee. Yes, I know bees are annoying buzzing around, stinging people, even killing people due to allergies sometimes, but so many foods depending on them for pollination. So, let's hear it for the honey bees!

I'm getting new orthotics =)

Woo hoo for doctors with Saturday clinics (yes, I'll try to be one too, at least once a month). The podiatrist agreed I could use some new orthotics, so they casted my feet and my orthotics should be ready in about 2.5 weeks. I've been very disciplined with my new physical therapy program and didn't realize how tight my hip joint was. Here's to hoping my knee pain goes away!

As a side note, the casting of my feet was surprisingly soothing...oh how I miss being able to afford semi-regular pedicures.