Princesses & Pancakes

Today's post is going to be short and sweet since I'm still battling the plague. I'm still trying to figure out how in the hell I even got sick. I've been taking vitamins, have avoided anyone so much as looking like they were going to sneeze and yet, here we are. 

Since I'm drunk with fever I've pretty much confined myself to my bedroom with Once Upon a Time. Have you guys watched this?! Let me just tell you this Disney junkie is hooked! I started season 1 Friday morning and finished it Saturday afternoon. I then made K drive me to the library so I could pick up season 2 {priorities} and have been watching it ever since. 

On Sunday I managed to pull myself out of bed at the bright hour of 9:30 and made myself some pancakes. It was a recipe I saw not only on Pinterest but also on Dr. Oz. Two-Ingredient Pancakes. 

Yup, you read that right two ingredients. 

Make sure the banana is mashed up well. I also added cinnamon and vanilla for some additional flavor, and because I always add those to my pancake mix. 

I used a hand mixer for mine but you could easily just use a fork or whisk if preferred. I cooked them for about a minute and a half to two minutes on each side. 

End result? I think these need baking powder added to them. They were crepe thin and who wants thin pancakes? Baking powder would give them some needed fluffiness since there's no flour or anything else. Overall, I wasn't impressed with these but I think I'll give them another try with the added baking powder. 

And with that I'm headed back to Storybrooke. Like I told you, I'm hooked. 

Friday Five

For as fast as I feel this week went Friday sure took it's time getting here. Since school, the sudden lack of a car, and deep winter blues have pretty much taken over my life, I had nothing prepped for today. #fail  I need to get back to having everything scheduled and ready, it made things much easier. Of course like I said Wednesday...

Moving right along, since it's Friday and I like to keep it moving at the end of the week you're getting a little Friday Five. If I'm doing it "wrong" I don't even care.

one/ I've had a sore throat since Wednesday and I desperately just want to stay in bed clearing out my DVR... or having a Disney marathon. I turn into a huge brat when I'm sick and just leaving me on the couch in some fever induced stupor watching TV is the safest thing for all.

two/ I'm not Catholic, nor do I actively participate in any religion but I decided I'm going to try this Lent thing. 40 days seems like a good amount of time to kick a habit or incorporate a good one. I'm a french fries junkie so I've chosen to give up fried foods. K tells me this is going to be very hard Don't I know it but I always know that it's only going to benefit me in the long run. All hail Fitness Jesus!

three/ The semester is half over and I'm pretty much just counting down the days until I can register for the fall semester. The ball is rolling on the internship I have to do. Riddle me this... having a full time job is actually working against me. I applied for a position with a children's law group here in the city. Fingers crossed on that.  I want nothing more than to be done with school forever.

four/ Being without a car, even if temporarily is the worst #fwp I'm having as of late. It's been 25 degrees out and I need to take 3 different buses in order to get from MSU to home. Fortunately I only have class 2 days a week annnnnd this coming week is spring break. 

five/ This is a cop out. Remember #1? Well, here we are at Friday morning and it came true. My throat feels like a litter box after my cat has finished digging to China (why are we always digging to China, why can't we dig to Italy?) So I'll be staying home today watching Marathons of Family Guy, Disney and Once Upon a Time most likely getting drunk off Hot Toddy's. 3 day weekend for the win!


And since it's time for Backthatazzup, but you know, I kind of can't. This is fitting.

So uhh, who wants to come sing to me?

I Want it Now | Fitness

Several weeks ago I posted about my workout routine. I'm pretty sure when you post Facebook statuses like this:

... it's safe to say you're in full-blown fitness mode.

Like the tech and blogging worlds, the fitness world is constantly changing. There's always a new workout, a new power food, a new something to buy, avoid, or try. I've had my eye on several things, but here's what I'm coveting this month.

Everyone and their dog has one of these bad boys, but really, I do want one. It will give me a more accurate reading of how many calories I'm actually burning, or how many steps I'm really taking in a day.

Brights by gotjack28 featuring running shoes

I've been wanting a pair of light bright sneakers forever but I've just kept putting it off.

God, admitting this makes me so freaking lame. GNC sells these awesome blender bottles to mix up a protein shake on the go. I want one. However, when the hot sales guy said they were $16.50 I thought better about it.

Gym Clothes by gotjack28 featuring NIKE

Compression pants are the shit! I got my first pair ages ago and wrote about it way back when. I still haven't bought more but I think it's time, especially since I'm in the gym 3-4 times a week. And no, I don't wear them each time. I have yoga pants that I wear too. But all in all, I need new workout clothes.


So there's a look at what I'm hoping to bring home relatively soon. Since Old Navy is having a sale, those compression items might make it into my closet a little sooner than anything else. No complaints there!

Dear Life, You Win

Hey girl (guy) hey! Did I really just say that? Oy. Here we are at another Monday.

In any event, I'm hoping to survive this week. On Saturday I mentioned how one of my goals this month is to save. I have been saving and I've been doing well, however, life decided to give me a giant FU on Saturday morning.

I noticed my car was overheating so I pulled over. When I finally made it to where I could stop for good, there was this gross orange looking foam all over the radiator reservoir. Fast forward 3 hours and I'm sitting at STS pretty much hoping against hope that whatever is going on is a minor fix. I should be so lucky.

Not mine, but this is what it looked like. Just more of a light orange/ Like sherbet.

Fast forward another 3 hours, yep, I sat at STS for 3.5 hours, and they tell me that something has clogged my radiator and it will need to be replaced. Estimate? $600+  Ummm what?! More than that I'm told that by replacing the radiator it will only give them the ability to see if it can be resolved. Let's see if we all follow. I need to pay $600 to replace something that may or may not fix my car? And even if I do replace the radiator I may then have to replace the thermostat and possibly the water pump? What in all the hell.

So I spent Saturday trying to act like all hell wasn't breaking loose. In my head I'm freaking out. Like, I just lost my kid in Wal*Mart freak out. I'm not car ignorant so I had Googled before I went to STS and the worst case scenario, which is probably what's going on, is that I have a blown head gasket. If any of you have any idea what that means.... cue the break down. If not, here's a little mechanics 101.

That's basically the inside of your motor. Pistons power the cylinders that pump in the "holes" in the engine block. In short, this is what makes the car go.

This is a blown head gasket. As you can see, it can cause several issues. Without a proper diagnosis, and only through searching Google and skimming through forums, I'm guessing my problem is the one at the bottom: "coolant in my oil, and oil in my coolant". This would create that nasty milkshake foam you saw up above. So what's the big deal? It's a repair that will cost over a grand... which I don't have. /end rant

So, welcome to my weekend. No idea what to do. I'm generally just pissed at the world right now but sitting and doing nothing isn't really my thing. Sooo, unless I come across a friend of a friend, etc. that could do this for relatively cheap, I'll be taking on this endeavor myself. I'll be damned if I'm going to shell out $600 for something that realistically I can do myself. Between You Tube, my Dad, car geek friends and my actual common sense, I know I can get this done. Especially since buying a radiator is only around $155 after tax. Labor sshmabor.

Other than that, K and I went to Chili's Saturday night. I think it was a pity margarita. I didn't hate it. Yesterday we went to a friend's 40th birthday party. Lots of laughs were had so yesterday turned the weekend around.

That's all I've got for you today because tomorrow I'll be "down the shore"!

March Goals | Lioness

I can hardly believe March is officially here. Where is this year going? However, if March means we're closer to spring and getting rid of this damn snow, I'll take it. Mother Nature, you're only goal is to get summer here. As for me, here are my goals for the month.

Cross off on item on my 101 in 1001 list
It's not that I've been slacking on these tasks but... I've been slacking on these. I want need to cross off everything by the time the deadline rolls around. The only way it's going to happen is if I start tackling them. Easy ones first obviously.

Be on time
This is ridiculous and I should be am embarrassed to admit it but I am the worst when it comes to being on time. I just got lazy I suppose. So much so that I'm always scrambling to get out the door at the last minute so that I can get to work reasonably late (10 mins.) This HAS to stop. It's unacceptable.

Save, Save Save
I'll elaborate on this on Monday but for now let's just say that I need to pretty much save every penny I come across.


Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Let's welcome March with a roar shall we? Say hello to Mr. March.

Linking up with





 

February Recap

We finally made it to Friday. I don't know about you but this week was like that damn Lambchop song in that it would. not. end. I know you're singing it now. You're welcome...

February has to be one of my least favorite month's of the year. It's always bitterly cold. It didn't help that this year we received snowstorm after snowstorm. On the flip side, we're one month closer to spring and summer. It's also another month of goals in the books.

I was above and beyond successful in my goal to love myself by getting back into the gym. As of today I worked out all month long. Here's a glimpse of my fitness tracker.

Boom!

I have to say, I feel amazing. The scale has gone down, I know I'm getting stronger and I'm constantly reaching for healthier food options. I love when I get into this mindset. Now that I have it, I just need to hang on to it!

Thanks to Nikki's inspiration, I also wanted to map out a sort of life plan for the next two years. This proved to be a little harder than I thought. We all know I'm a lister so I had to make a conscious effort to make this more of an outline as opposed to a giant to-do list. I think I succeeded. It's in list format of course, but each task has several bullets beneath that are steps I need to take in order to achieve the goal. I mapped out things such as landing a new job, paying off the IRS, paying off student loans, buying a new car, etc. Basically, it's an outline of the bigger goals.

As for the food portion of my goals, I fell like a soufflé. Making new recipes just didn't happen this month. I did, however, organize my recipe binder. Now everything is organized by the type of dish that it is: Soup/Salad, Appetizers, Main dishes, with subcategories for pasta, chicken, fish, and other meats, Breakfast, etc. Let's just hope I can start making some of them!

Do you set monthly goals? How did you do?

True Life: I'm a Hoarder

I was in the midst of drafting a different post the other day and I had a moment where I had to stop and think about something. This thought had never really occurred to me before but it's something that I'm now noticing... a lot. You guys,

Ok, so you're never going to see me on an episode of Hoarders because this...

... will never be my life. I detest clutter way too much to ever allow this to happen. Purging makes me happy. Clutter makes me want to scream at puppies.

The thing is, I've realized that I do hoard certain things. Call it hoader tendencies if you will. And if you really think about it, you'll realize you have them too.

Pens
God I'm so weird. I have this thing for really smooth writing gel pens. This one here, oh man. I specifically use them when I need to sign things. They write like butter. Just without the oily mess. Seriously, I recommend buying these. You're doodled on pages will thank me later.

Notebooks
I can explain this plain and simple - I love stationary. Books, notebooks, post-its, looseleaf paper, you name it, I probably have a lot of it. I'm big on recycling so if I've only used 1/2 a notebook for school, I'll reuse it. If I'm done using it for school it becomes a to-do notebook and keeps all my random notes.

Recipes
I'm no chef but I'm a big fan of time spent in the kitchen. Trial and error are my best friends here and nothing is off limits. Except maybe all the recipes I've searched for, printed, hole punched and categorized. All that effort and I've actually made... 4 of them? Someone stop the madness.

Exercise Routines
This one is just craziness. Every month my Shape magazine comes in the mail. I scope out the  cover and then flip through it mindlessly. Then, later on in the month, I actually sit down and read it. When I'm done it goes on the coffee table. After about a year's worth of a pile has accumulated I start to feel guilty about saving them. So I go through them all one by one and rip out the fitness routines. I then put them on my desk. Where they stay, untouched.

Lotion
I don't even know what to say about this because, really, I'm not sorry about it. I get too good of a deal steal on Black Friday to even pretend that this one is bad. I use them all... eventually.

So there it is for all the internet to see. I've outed myself as a semi-hoarder. What do you hang on to?

And fun fact of the day... I'm taking over at The Blog Baton on Instagram today! Stop by to see what I'm getting into for the day.

"Celebrities" and Why I Love Free Drinks

Vegas. Sin City. The ultimate adults playground.

Well, I've never been there. But I have been to its loud mouthed, shady, cousin Atlantic City.

Atlantic City is... special. If you've never been, just take the trip. If you're expecting Vegas, expect to be let down because it's nothing like it. It's got a swag and grittiness all its own. I made my first trip in 2008.

It all started when a group of girls I was friends with were all, 'Hey, want to go to AC this weekend?" Umm. what? Naturally, I was immediately down for the trip. Turns out it was a comped room at Harrah's through a guy (John) one of the girls knew. $60 for a weekend at Harrah's? Sign me up! I asked my then roommate if he wanted to go with us and, although hesitant, he agreed. We left Friday after work and the ride down was full of laughs, crazy conversations and sing offs. All signs of a good weekend. 

As soon as we got to the room I dropped my bag and expressed my excitement. You know, since it was my first time in AC and all. 

After we were all settled and changed we headed down to meet John. He got us into one of the VIP bars with the people he was with. That's when all the fun started.

Two of the three girls were fawning all over John like he was Ryan Gosling. Since Ryan isn't my cup of tea I obviously wasn't interested. I was sitting with my roommate talking when this woman plopped down next to him and asked if he "wanted to party". Again, ummm what?. After figuring out what 'party' meant we declined and continued talking. Then I realized she looked quasi-familiar. So I needed to take a picture. 

"Roseanne"

Immediately after taking this picture she asked where I was from. I said Fort Lee. She asked if that was in New Jersey and I said yes. Her response? "Yeah, good luck with that" Da fuq?

The rest of the trip was filled with the same dumbfuckery. 

Gotta love photo bombs

These people. In-sane. 

The weekend as a whole? A complete blur. I don't remember paying for drinks, nor do I recall sleeping. These pictures are only from the first night. There was a solid two days of this that just aren't blog worthy.

Unfortunately, this weekend gave me unreal expectations. I'm sorry, you want me to pay for that drink? I can't have a room at Harrah's for less than $350/night?

AC, I don't accept this. Work on yourself, I'll be back.