Green, Green, Green

How appropriate that I would spend St. Patrick's Day in Sacramento at the Green Summit and Exposition. It was all about "green" today. Most importantly I remembered to wear my holiday shirt:
Kari wore hers, too. Nobody questioned our team spirit today.

The green summit was really good. We could only talk our boss into sending us to the keynote speakers and the exhibition hall because it was free. Of course this year had the best classes yet, but not so great that I wanted to shell out the $150 class registration fee myself. One of the keynote speakers spoke about greenhouse gasses and climate change and reporting trends. That is, if you believe all that hooey about global warming. What do a bunch of scientists know?? The second speaker was from the State energy department and spoke about the federal stimulus package and what was available to local and regional governments. Perfect timing since both Kari and I had been asked to look into stimulus funding opportunities for work.
Kari always laughs whenever I whip out my camera in public places like this. Is nothing sacred?! In between speakers we perused the aisles of the exhibition hall. That's code for loading up on free goodies. All the booths have tons of free stuff, but since this isn't our first time we don't have such a 'snatch and run' kind of attitude. Now we actual stop and (cough, cough) ask about the products. What fun is that? Have no fear though, I did manage to get a new shopping bag, a recycled pen and a composting bucket. We tried to get one of the composting buckets last year but got there too late. This year as soon as I saw people walking around with them I grabbed Kari and told her we needed to run to the other side of the hall (where they were last year) quickly and get some. It was like "Supermarket Spree" where we were literally running down isles looking for their booth, grabbing each others' arms and calling out directions. We have no shame for free product. The main difference this year was that there was an auto "green" mall where a dozen or so electric and hybrid cars were parked. We checked out the Zenn electric car that struggled to go even 30 mph and only had an initial charge range of 15 miles. We could probably do two donuts in the parking lot before the batteries died.


We left the summit around 1:00 pm and were greeted by a parking ticket on our town vehicle. Apparently Kari only stuck the blank sticker to the window, but not the actual parking stub showing we paid. Oops. $35 for our mistake. We're going to try and send in the parking stub and get out of the ticket. How gay is that?

I got home around 3:45pm today and immediately went out for an hour long walk to try and compensate for the chipotle chicken sandwich and platter of fries I ate for lunch at the brewery. That will be followed by an extra long visit to the gym later tonight. What an exciting way to spend my first evening alone. Chris was in Sacramento today, too, for a wastewater conference but he'll be there until Thursday. How am I supposed to have a local fireman block party if I'm spending all my time exercising? And then tomorrow night I'm meeting my old boss, Linda (who works at City of Chico), at her work at 5:30 tomorrow night for drinks and grub at Johnnie's (where we went for our anniversary). I already looked at their online menu and am eyeballing a rum and diet coke and an order of spinach pepper dip (spinach & roasted red peppers) with flatbread. Yum, yum, yum. But not so yum that I have to walk 2.5 miles and spend 30 additional minutes at the gym. Nothing's worth that 'yum' again.

Oh, before I forget, check out my new favorite cookies:
They're chocolate chip cookies but made with pumpkin, applesauce and splenda. And best of all, the recipe only makes 8 cookies so I'm not innudated with them. That reminds me that I ate the last two today so I should make another batch tonight. Good thinking! And speaking of cooking, we did make sure to make some corned beef and cabbage this last weekend since Chris would be gone today.
Against Jessica's urging we ended up crockpotting the beef and cabbage because there were no baking directions on the bag. I did roast the red potatoes (in a rub of evoo, garlic salt and southwestern seasoning) though. It all came out really good. There was the perfect amount of leftovers for Chris the next day and that was it. If somebody (maybe Jessica, perhaps) were to supply me with the baking directions I might be persuaded to pick up another roast and try it again. Just saying.

Alright, off to make some cookies before fat camp starts. We're not that interested in it this year, but I'm no quitter. And we're not watching Dancing with the Stars. There are absolutely no "stars" we give a rip about. Why can't they get Mel Gibson? It's not like he's doing anything, right? Or Keanu Reeves? MC Hammer??? Hammer time!!!!

Social Butterfly

Phew, what a week! Lots of activity, but in a good way. It got our minds off the fact that our bodies were broken and devastated from the short little jaunt last weekend. Each day following the race some other part of our body would ache. Babies!

Monday night we went to the cheapskate night ($3/ticket) at the Pageant Theater to see Frost/Nixon. Luckily we got there early per the suggestion of a Pageant regular because a lot of the college kids have to watch it for class. It was really good. I haven't been to the Pageant for so long I forgot that they do intermission no matter how long the movie is. I don't think they've done any updating to the inside since last I was there though. Old movie posters, and the mural of Godzilla stomping through the city on one of the walls.

Tuesday was bunko up in the boonies by my old house. I stopped at Pelican's Roost before hand and had a delicious cup of chowder and half a round of sourdough. Really, I just order the chowder to get the sourdough. It's so fabulous and warm. Of course they had lots of food and snacks at bunko, but I resisted.

The 'rents ran up to Medford for a couple of days in the middle of the week so we were on Izzy duty. Feeding and visiting. Chris went over Tuesday and Thursday night by himself, but I joined him Wednesday night. Izzy showed her appreciation by rubbing all over the front of my black zip up sweater turning it into a mohair sweater.

Thursday night was bible study here. I made jambalaya, garlic bread and recreated the salad I had at Johnnie's for our anniversary. It had sliced pears, mandarin oranges, blue cheese crumbles, glazed walnuts and balsamic dressing. They loved it. For dessert I served shortcakes with vanilla ice cream and strawberries.

Friday was a long day in p-town. After work, I had my nails, then I had to go back to work for a late afternoon meeting about Constuction and Demolition Recylcing. I know, exciting. Afterwards I went to a co-workers house for a partylite candle party. I bought a frosted looking lampshade to go over some little jar candles I'd ordered from my nail lady a couple weeks ago. I also got some bayberry tealights and a 24 tealight set of 6 difference scents that was the March special for $10. That's a great deal considering the regular box of a dozen tealights is $9.50.

Since I was up in town so long yesterday I wasn't able to do my grocery shopping so that was the first thing I did this morning after I fed the beast, I mean Chris. While I'm blogging, he's out in the garage trying to finish up with Mr. A. because he is starving for lunch.

Alright, apparently the laundry is not going to put itself in the dryer so I should go tend to that. Unless somebody else wants to take over??....

Go Speed Runners, Go!

Well, our morning jaunt in the park is over. First of all, it is freaking cold at 8:00 in the morning. It wasn't even 40 degrees when we left. We had on pants, sweaters and gloves over our running clothes. Secondly, what kind of gay running gig doesn't let you listen to ipods? We're just supposed to enjoy the sound of nature? Might have been a good point to post on the event website as opposed to announcing it 1 minute before the start time once we've already strapped our music to ourselves and have no access to the drop-off station. Besides that, it was fun.
Chris ran with me the entire time. We came in at the 32 minute mark (for 3.2 miles). Pretty good considering I haven't run a 5K in almost 2 years and Chris hasn't run more than a mile in about 20 years. As soon as we got our timing chips cut off we'll peeled rubber out of there to the Golden Waffle.
Mmmm...poached eggs, dry sourdough toast, hash browns and waffle. And coffee. Lots of it.

Yesterday I'd mentioned that I won some sort of prize in my registration pack. I brought it with me this morning to the information booth and was given an envelope with a certificate for a free years worth of Knudsen's Recharge energy fruit drink. A years worth is apparently 10 cases (120 bottles). They had a whole bunch of them at the end of the race that you could drink. Chris grabbed an Orange one and it was pretty good. Unfortunately, since it's fruit juice it's a little too high in calories and sugars for me, but it's perfect for Chris. The lady at the info booth said you just call them and make arrangements for pick up which will probably be a couple times a year since they do have to pay attention to expiration dates. Pretty cool. The prize is definitely worth more than our registration fees combined.
I finally got a picture of the front yard in the spring. We have a winter and fall photo, but it's been raining for so long that we've been missing our spring photo. We have a big ornamental plum in the front yard that's big and pink and about three more in the back yard. It looks really pretty.
Now we're just resting up on the couch watching truck racing. We have Mama Mia on Netflix for later. Chris was soaking his tootsies and now we're both starting to feel the rigor mortis set in to our calves and thighs. The euphoria is over, it's all downhill from here!

Happy Anniversary

Can you believe it, we've already been married 20 years!! Wait, I meant two years, it's only felt like twenty. Hehehehe.....

Tuesday was our second anniversary which was excuse enough to cut out of work early. We went to the 4:10 showing of The Wrestler in Chico, then dinner at Johnnie's (downstairs from the Hotel Diamond). The Wrestler was really good, but it's not a happy, feel good movie. Dinner was absolutely fantastic. Just as good as the Portland City Grill which I thought was the best food I'd ever had. I had salmon over garlic mashed potatoes covered in a pesto cream sauce with a side of spinach. I also ordered a champagne pear salad. It had spring mix lettuce, slices of pear, mandarin oranges, glazed walnuts and crumbled blue cheese with a citrus viniagrette. So tasty. Chris had a pork tenderloin covered in sauted pepper slices over garlic mashed potatoes with grilled asparagus.



After dinner we came home and enjoyed our lemon cake from The Upper Crust. Real cake from a real bakery is so much better than homemade. That's probably one of the things I miss the most from catering. We always got bites of the wedding cakes from Upper Crust and Mim's Bakery.

The rest of the week was pretty calm. Thursday night was bible study up in P-town and I took today off from work. I needed to go pick up our pre-race packets for tomorrow's 5k run and get our grocery shopping done and I just thought it'd be easier to start my errands in the morning instead of when I get into Chico at 1:00 pm. When I got to Fleet Feet to pick up our race packets there was already a line out to the door. Ugh. But it moved fast and I got there early enough that there were still tshirts available for us too (we were late registrants).
I got a gold envelope in my race packet that said I was golden envelope winner #2 and to turn the envelope in for a prize tomorrow. Go me! The packets also have electronic timing chips in them that we have to zip tie to our shoelaces tomorrow. That's how they time us. My co-worker Denise is running with us on this death march as is Chris' friend Justin. All we're really looking forward to is going to breakfast and pigging out afterwards. We're such wimps.

Lazy Sunday

Big surprise; it rained again today! It's a good thing though, we're almost up to our average rainfall in P-town. It's rained at least 41 inches as of this afternoon and the average is 52 inches for the year.

We spent most of the weekend shopping and playing at home. Yesterday morning we went to Target and Chris got the newest Kings of Leon CD and I bought two new pairs of heels. They're identical pointy toed, sling back, 2.5" inch heels. One in camel, one in patent black. We also stopped at Wally World so that I could pick up my photos and have something to do in the afternoon while he worked in the garage. We were able to squeeze in a quick walk around the block before heading to the 'rents for dinner (even though it did make us a couple minutes late). We had steak (that Chris bbq'd), baked potatoes, salad and asiago cheese bread from Safeway (my new favorite bread in the whole wide world). It was good, I just try not to dwell on how fatty it was. The 'rents don't use 'lite' or 'fat free' anything. Perhaps that's why their food tastes so much better than mine...
Chris hanging out on their front porch, begging for a meal full of meat.

While we were visiting with the 'rents, Mr. A. gave us a copy of an article he wrote and illustrated that's going to be published in some local electric car newsletter. Kind of interesting.

We woke up to rain today. It'd poured all night so there were puddles everywhere taunting me to skip church. So I did. Actually I slept too late to make it to the contemporary service and would have had to go to the traditional service where they sing hymns and speak in Latin, or something like that. Instead I stayed home and made homemade blueberry scones which came out very tasty. Chris did some more garage work while I did important things, like washing sheets and downloading recipes for dinner. There was a Nascar race on in the afternoon that we watched and then we finally sat down and watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. It was good, but I thought it'd be funnier. I think I say that about everything, though. Our one foray out this afternoon was to The Upper Crust to pick up our anniversary cake. It's white cake with layers of tart lemon curd. OMG it sounds soooo good.

Awww.....look at that. Isn't it cute? I sure am going to enjoy eating it while Chris watches because it sure doesn't look big enough for the both of us. We're both getting off work early on Tuesday and going to an early showing of The Wrestler and then out to dinner at Johnnie's which is downstairs at the Hotel Diamond (next the parking structure and connected to the Phoenix Building). The 'rents gave us a card yesterday with money for a "romantic anniversary dinner". So we can either go to Johnnie's for the evening or eat at La Comida for the rest of the year. Hmmm....choices.

Finally Friday!

It has been a cRazY, wicked busy week at work. It seems to come in waves; all at once or nothing at all. At least our evenings this week have been fairly quite so I could recuperate at home and get ready to do it again the next day!

Here's what those crazy Hartman's have been up to:

Sunday: I went and tried a new church (to me). It's the Chico Calvary Baptist Church in the old Movies 10 building behind the mall. I've heard many a good thing about it so I thought I'd give it a try. They've turned the concessions area into a coffee house and all the obnoxious neon colors are still there inside. They have their service in the biggest of the movie rooms where you sit in the old purple movie chairs. Kind of weird. Then down at the base of the screen they have a little stage where the band is and the preacher hangs out. Good music, good preacher, a little weird to be sitting so close to people (I had strangers on both sides of me). I think I'll go again this Sunday. Other than that, all it did was rain.

Monday: I made salmon stuffed with crab and other creamy goodness from Trader Joe's. I served them on top of beds of a mushroom rice and a side of yellow and green beans. Yummy!

Tuesday: Chris was in town Monday during the afternoon so he stopped at the used book store and picked up some new reading material. He found a copy of a Nelson DeMille book that I don't have so I'm reading that one first while he reads about Nut-zis.
Wednesday: I made shopping list and watched the second half of Biggest Loser. Yep, that's it. And we had potstickers and eggrolls for dinner. We're out of control!

Thursday: It was b.s. night at Lulu's who just lives down on the other half of Ceres (convenient, huh?). Lulu's husband, Bill, had called me the night before and invited Chris out to dinner with him and Kari's husband, Steve, to Tres Hombres. Much to my surprise the Canadian accepted the offer, so he came with me Thursday night to Lulu's to meet up with the other spouses for their "boy's night". We had a delicious chicken and avocado salad and the boys got back just in time for the homemade berry pie dessert. Lulu cut, I plated, and Chris served. For our efforts, Lulu sent us home with an extra slice and some extra berry filling to put over ice cream. Score! The other big event for the day was that we each picked up our glasses. Chris swung by during lunch and got his and I came by later in the afternoon, during my lunch and picked up mine. We're hawt! That's how hot we are. I think my IQ just automatically jumped into the double digits as soon as I put them on. Please keep in mind the photo does not do them justice. A: I don't take great photos, and B: I had a drunk Canadian holding the camera.

Today: Damn you City Cash Coupons, damn you for tricking me into coming back to New York and Company to spend you!!! I had coupons for $45 off of $90 so how could I not?! Thankfully, a lot of the stuff I would have bought (in addition to what I did buy) was out of my size so I had to settle for 5 new shirts and a new pair of slacks. Yes, that's what I call settling. I think my new glasses give me the perception that I look so good in all these clothes that I just have to have them. Yes, it's the glasses fault.

Coming Attractions: We're going to the 'rents tomorrow night under the pretenses of "red meat". At least that's what they promised the Canadian. Whatever it is I'm sure it will be good seeing as how I didn't have to cook it or clean up after it. We're also eyeballing Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist from the Red Box. Stay tuned. I've also somehow conned Chris into agreeing to sign up for the Bidwell Classic with me next Saturday morning. It's a whole slew of different races, but we're signing up for the 5K (3.1 miles). I've already done a couple of those so I know I won't keel over and die (at least not in the first 5 minutes). A co-worker asked me to do it with her and while I was telling (secretly encouraging Chris to join) about it he thought it sounded like a good idea. It's a bike path race over by one mile. I say "race", but it's not like I plan to actually beat anybody unless they're crippled or under the age of 2. I do it to remind myself how much I hate running. And because nobody else I know does it so it gives me certain bragging rights. I figure a 3 mile run right after waking up will warrant us a big steaming hot breakfast at the Golden Waffle afterwards. Mmm...I can taste the waffles now...

Crockpot Lasagna

I have beautiful nails once again!! Thank you, Jesus. It's only one layer of clear gel, but I go back next week to have the second layer put on and the french tips (just like I've worn for years). I was wearing a colored tan gel which has to be drilled completely off before I can go back to clear hence why I was sporting crazy natural nails for a couple weeks. While I was getting my nails done my lady told me she was having a candlelite party this weekend so of course I had to put in an order for a couple of candles. I love that brand for tealights.

By the time I got home yesterday from nails and had lunch it was fast approaching 3 pm which is not a good time to try and get across town to go to CholoMaxx. Instead I went to Trader Joe's and just winged it. No list, just grabbed what looked good for dinners this coming week. Found some california sushi rolls, frozen salmon rounds stuffed with crab, black bean and cheese taquitos, some little pasta purses filled with prosciutto and chicken potstickers (Chris makes some crazy, wicked good sauce to dip them in). Not too bad. We went to B&N last night so afterwards I dragged Chris with me to CholoMaxx to pick up a couple of staples (the normal stuff you can't get at Traders) and finished up at Safeway this morning.

Yesterday Chris made plans with his friend, Justin, who is building a new house downtown to go out to Chris' work in Orland and cut some scrap metal they had for Justin to use at his new house. Since this was happening in the morning Chris had to get up before me and fend for himself for breakfast (never mind that I'd bought him a soyrizo breakfast burrito at Traders that he just had to microwave). I spent most of the morning home by myself, playing on the computer, doing laundry and running to Safeway. Right when I got home I was surprised with a visit from my twin, C. She had a bible study right down the street and decided to stop by on her way back up the hill. We had good talks and it was good to see her. Even though she's now living in town I still haven't made over to see her as often as I thought or hoped I would. I'm a sucky friend, but I think she's figured that out during the last 25 years (gasp!) and has chosen to forgive me.
Chris got home right as she was leaving so I made him take the pic of us for my Saturday picture. She's not really that much taller than me, the ground is sloped right there. Honest!

So after all that wordiness, the whole point of this post is to pass on my crockpot lasagna recipe to Wilson, but I thought Jessica might like it also. This recipe was out of one of Mum's crockpot cookbooks, but I think there's a very similar one, if not identical one in the 2009 crockpot calendar that Jessica and I have. Here it is:

SLOW COOKER LASAGNA (6-8 Servings)

1 lb ground beef, browned
4-5 cups spaghetti sauce
24 oz cottage cheese
1 egg
8-10 lasagna noodles, uncooked
2-3 cups mozzarella cheese

1. Combine the cooked ground beef and spaghetti sauce.
2. In a separate bowl combine the egg and cottage cheese.
3. In the crockpot layer half of the ground beef mixture, the dry noodles, the cottage cheese mixture and the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers.
4. Cover. Cook on hight 4-5 hours or on low 6-8 hours.

It is so stupid easy and delicious. I made for one of my b.s. nights and they loved it. Stop reading this and go make it immediately!