Headboard Project

Wednesday evening I got to work on a little craft project I've been meaning to do for a while now - since even before moving - make a headboard!  Really, for a lot longer I've been meaning to actually buy a bed, but we've been shopping for one for ages and haven't found anything we've liked.  So the next best thing to a real bed is a headboard - both to make the bed look more grounded and put-together, and also to provide a nice, cushy surface for our hands and heads to hit instead of the wall. 

 

Plus, it seemed like it would be so simple.  Ah, yes ... lulled by the false simplicity of the craft project.  Will I ever learn that lesson? 

 

Step 1: Gather Materials: fabric, batting, foam, and decorative nails from Joann Fabrics, plus a plywood board and staples from Lowes.  You would think getting the materials would be the easy part, but not when you don't realize that not just the fabric, but the batting and foam all need to be cut by the snooty women at the cutting station who would much rather stand around talking about quilting than help the line of six people waiting for help.  Then I went to get my board cut and accidentally gave the guy the measurements I'd been using for the fabric/batting length (which is longer because it needs to be folded over).  I ended up with a board that was too long and needed to take it back the next day to get re-cut.  Whomp whomp.  On the plus side, at least their safety information is easy to read and *not* obscured by anything.  (Slaps forehead.) 

Step 2: Attach foam to plywood with glue.  The Internets told me to use spray glue, but since I had this rubber cement at home, I figured it would do the job.  Not entirely sure why you need to glue down the foam at all, but I did it anyway.  Not too complicated. 

 

Step 3: Staple gun batting and fabric to board over foam.  Fortunately, I'm just the kind of industrious person who already owns a staple gun.  Just not so industrious that I had the staples for it at home. 

The actualy stapling involved in this step also wasn't particularly difficult, but  the real hard part was cutting off all the excess fabric and batting around the edges.  You don't want a ton of extra stuff hanging all over the back of your board, not to mention extras will keep the corners from folding down nicely, but cutting that much gave me a horrible blister on my finger :( 

Step 4 (in theory): decorate with nails.  My original plan here was to run a border of decorative nails around the edge of the board about 2 1/2 inches in from the sides.  I thought this would give the headboard a much more finished appearance, in addition to holding the fabric and batting and everything onto the board more. 

Of course I say "in theory" because that definitely didn't happen.  I bought three packages of 24 nails, and going through the first package I ended up with 22 bent nails and 2 that had gone into the board.  Luckily, I had the foresight when it all started to go wrong to just start aiming for the corners and figured I would fill in the rest if I ever got the hang of it.  I didn't.  Package 2 got me the other two corners, 13 bent nails, and a total loss of will to try anymore. 

So here's what I ended up with.  It's a pretty grainy picture (low bedroom light and all), but you get the idea.  Soft, black board with a decorative nail in each corner.  Not bad for $100 and about two hours of my time.  Now we can't get a real bed for at least a year, until the pain of this little project has worn off enough for me to be willing to get rid of it. 

Work Party

Tuesday at work I hosted another one of my periodic work lunches (the semi-required task I took on after the coworker who started these lunches retired).  Being in charge of the lunch requires getting soda, cups, plates, and napkins, plus providing desserts and sometimes ordering pizza for those who want it (and hopefully pay!).  For the last lunch I hosted, I opted not to order any pizza.  Most people don't want it, and I thought it would be a lot easier to just not have any pizza than order an entire half pizza for myself with no cheese. 

 

But after a few people asked about the absent pizza at the last lunch, I decided it was best to bring it back this time, and just save the extra cheeseless slices for lunch the next day.  Not such a bad deal, since cheeseless pizza is actually really good!  Plus by nixing the cheese you save about a hundred calories.  Not a bad deal. 

 

For dessert, I decided to make another batch of shortbread cookies.  At the very least, even if no one else liked them I knew I would be able to eat them all by myself if I needed.  Actually, I got pretty close.  They were smaller cookies than last time, but I still ate about eight of them all by myself!  Fortunately, a lot of people who tried them also said they were great - and that they couldn't tell they were vegan!  And then the inevitable follow-up questions:

 

1. What did you use instead of butter?

2. What's in vegan butter? 

 

I guess I need to take a closer look at the Earth Balance ingredient list, because I never know how to answer that second one ...  I just said "oil, I think".  Makes sense, right? 

Exciting Food and New Toys

Monday morning started with my favorite indulgence - a chocolate banana protein shake made with Silk PureAlmond in Dark Chocolate flavor.  There's just something about the dark chocolate that's so much more rich and sinful-seeming than regular chocolate soy or almond milk.  I love this stuff. 

When I got home from work I had an exciting package waiting for me at home.  I needed to buy some things from Amazon to use up a credit that was expiring, so I used the excuse to buy a few random things off my wish list - the kind of things I wanted but would probably only really buy when I needed to round out a $25 purchase for the free shipping. 

First exciting acquisition: a Firefly keychain!  Obviously, this is my favorite TV show, so it's nice to have little reminders of it around.  I'm always just a bit happier when I wear one of my Firefly bracelets, so I thought it's always good to bring a little more Firefly into my life :) 

Second acquisition: yet another cookbook ... Great Chefs Cook Vegan.  From the Amazon description:

"Great Chefs Cook Vegan includes recipes from 25 of the greatest chefs, including Thomas Keller, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Daniel Boulud, Charlie Trotter, and many other James Beard Award-winning chefs.  Each chef provides a delicious three- or four-course vegan meal, complete with beautiful photography of mouthwatering dishes like Baby Beet Salad with Pistachio Vinaigrette and Chickpea Fritters, Sweet Pea Ravioli with Sautéed Pea Leaves, Stuffed Baby Bell Peppers with Sunflower Seed Risotto, and Chocolate Cake with a Chocolate Truffle Molten Center."

I haven't tried any of the recipes yet - they do look awfully complicated! - but I will be sure to update when I do! 

For dinner I made something a lot simpler than anything out of that book is likely to be.  I used leftover cashew cream from Friday's dinner to make pasta with asparagus, peas, and sun dried tomatoes.  Even Josh, who's not a fan of asparagus, said we should add the recipe to our usual repertoir.  Not the healthiest, but definitely simple and delicious!

Baltimore Weekend

I am so incredibly sad that I had to list "travel" as a tag on this post about this past weekend spent in Baltimore.  Baltimore shouldn't be travel ... Baltimore is home!  But not anymore :(  Now Silver Spring is our home, so when we had friends visiting Baltimore from out of town last weekend, we spent Saturday night at Josh's parents' house so we could hang out both Saturday night and Sunday morning without killing ourselves with the drive. 

 

On the agenda for Saturday night: dinner at the Helmand.  Josh and I love this place, so we were really excited to share it with our friends.  Unfortunately, the restaurant seemed to be having a bit of an off night (smaller portions than normal, etc.), so I'm not sure they got to see the best side of it possible.  Hopefully they enjoyed it anyway!  In addition to the pumpkin appetizer (always a must-order item), I ordered the Mushroom Lawand - Whole mushrooms sauteed with spices, fresh tomatoes, corn and green pea sauce, (minus the yogurt dressing), and served with spinach and challow.  It was quite tasty, but for some reason I got quite ill from it later in the evening.  :/  Not good ... A particularly off night for the Helmand. 

 

Luckily I was all better by the next morning when we met up with our friends again to grab brunch at The Food Market in Hampden.  When I asked the waiter about vegan options and the possibility of creating something, he didn't make it sound like they were too open to making something off-menu for me, but did let me know that one item on the menu was indeed vegan, so that's what I ordered - the "Veggie Delight". 

 

It was strangely described as "appropriate veg, crispy rice, and spicy soy".  Also oddly, it was the most expensive thing that anyone ordered.  $16 for what you see at left.  That's right, $4 more than the shrimp and grits, and $5 more than Josh's French toast.  "Appropriate veg" is apparently edamame, red peppers, spinach, tomatoes, corn, and some other small green.  It really wasn't bad, but it definitely did wow.  It seemed like the most random, thrown-together dish, that was really just an attempt to make sure there was something vegan on the menu.  Though I suppose that's better than not making sure there's something vegan on the menu. 

 

After brunch we walked around Hampden with our friends for a bit, having a blast checking out all the cute shops in the area, before bidding them adieu as they head off to go climbing this week.  Hopefully we will see them again this weekend before they head home (to California). 

 

Later in the afternoon our stomachs started to rumble again, so while we were out doing errands we stopped into Potbelly for a sandwich to tide us over until dinner.  I was definitely excited to get the Mediterranean minus feta again after having it at Dulles Airport.  Since it was only a few hours until dinner, I got a "skinny" sandwich rather than a regular, but it was just as good! 

 

Even though our friends had left, we'd made plans to stay in Baltimore through the evening so we could watch the Breaking Bad finale at Josh's parents' house Sunday night (we don't have cable, and of course we couldn't wait to watch it until Monday night when it would be on Amazon - too many spoilers!).  Since we would be hanging around, Josh's parents took us out to dinner at Orchard Market and Cafe, a little Persian restaurant that is so tucked away off Joppa Road that I don't see how anyone would ever know it's there!  Indeed, when we went in only one other table was occupied. 

 

Apparently Josh's parents had been there about twenty years ago, so they must have regular customers (even if they are few and far between).  Though it's tiny, the restaurant is nicely decorated and the staff was extremely friendly, including being very understanding about my vegan requests.  The menu has only one vegan dish, but it is clearly marked as such.  There are also several appetizers that can be made vegan on request. 

 

The one dish was Yazdi Khoresh, described as "a medley of vegetables in the chef’s Persian curry, tomato & garlic sauce."  Sadly, it tasted really more like a mish-mash of boiled vegetables with Chef Boyardee sauce - and absolutely no seasoning.  I seriously never salt my food, and found myself dumping a ton of salt and pepper all over this just to make it edible.  The veggie mix was cauliflower, broccoli, celery, carrots, tomatoes, green peppers, and onions - nothing interesting or unique at all.  It felt like the kind of thing I could easily make myself at home, except that I would expect mine to be a whole lot tastier.  I ate about half before passing it off to Josh, who said it was "not bad".  Differences of opinion ...

I won't go spoiling anything about the Breaking Bad finale, but obviously if you watch the show at all it's a must-see.  Then again, if you're reading this and haven't seen it already, I'm sure everyone else in the world has already managed to spoil it for you!

DC Veg Fest

I'm so sore from yesterday's Fran workout!  I can't believe how crazy stiff my legs are today from all those thrusters.  Not to mention my deltoids from the pulldowns ...  I guess that just goes to show how good a workout it was!  I'm going to try to periodically revisit some of the WODs I picked up during my month of Groupon-induced crossfitting and tweak them so that they can be done in my apartment's gym with the equipment I've got available to me.  That's not to say I'll never join another crossfit box, but with the cold weather coming, followed by the start of the legislative session, I don't think I'll be heading to a box until at least late next spring.  Plus I've always got climbing! 

 

Back to trying to catch up on old posts ...

 

Last weekend was DC Veg Fest!  Josh and I had already made plans to hang out with friends that day, but we hadn't decided on where to eat, so I convinced everybody it would be a great idea to head to Veg Fest.  Not so much ... 

 

It was a gorgeous day, which meant everybody in DC (practically) decided to go to Veg Fest too.  It was crazy crowded, and we showed up right at lunch time, so the line for every single food vendor was about a mile long.  To make matters worse, Josh and I didn't eat breakfast before heading out, so Josh was particularly cranky from hunger. 

 

We quickly found the shortest line available (not a good sign when you're choosing food, but we were desperate), which was for nachos.  We took our nachos and a picnic blanket over to the park next to the festival and sat down to dig in.  (The picture above looks so peaceful because we're far away from all the Veg Fest craziness).  The nachos were huge and came with a free frisbee!  They were just Tostitos topped with lettuce, tomato, black olives, jalapenos, chick peas, red onion, cilantro, nacho Teese, and cashew cream.  Josh hates Teese (says it tastes like chemicals), so he declared them "disgusting", but I thought they were pretty good.  I guess chemical taste doesn't bother me. 

 

Unfortunately, because of the crowd we really didn't want to spend any more time at Veg Fest.  We quickly stopped for a cupcake, but no one liked theirs very much - I thought it was way too sweet, while everyone else thought it was too "chewy". 

 

We left and ended up walking around the surrounding neighborhood for a bit before saying our goodbyes.  Unfortunately, it was not a good visit to Veg Fest, but I guess it was still a good time with friends!  The only part I was really upset about is that I didn't visit the Peanut Butter & Co. booth :(  I really wanted to buy three jars of peanut butter for $10 again like I did at Baltimore Veg Fest - such a good deal!  I guess I'll just have to buy mine at the grocery store the old fashioned way. 

Flip-Flopping on the Healthiness

Friday ended up being a bit of a mix of unhealthy and healthy.  I started the morning off with my usual protein shake (healthy), but mid-morning I snacked on some Spicy Sweet Chili Doritos (unhealthy) (aka, the only vegan Doritos) ... (aka, the only Doritos you really need - they're so good!). 

 

For lunch I whipped up a Mexican salad with romaine, grape tomatoes, cucumber, corn salsa from Trader Joe's (that is so amazing, I'm going to start buying this stuff all the time!), and some vegan sour cream.  I would definitely put this lunch in the healthy category, but it was so tasty you could hardly tell! 

 

The day got even healthier when I joined Josh at our new climbing gym, Earth Treks Rockville (our previous gym being Earth Treks Timonium), where we climbed for a couple of hours (mostly sitting around time ... but whatever). 

 

When dinnertime rolled around, though, I made a return to the unhealthy side in a big way ...  And it all started with my good friend, the cashew cream.  I'd soaked the cashews during the afternoon, then blended them up with water, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper.

 

It's the perfect sauce for ... you guessed it ... the best pasta ever!  You can follow the link for the recipe in an old post, but a quick recap is: leeks + shallots + mushrooms + pasta + cashew cream = orgasmic.  If you're going to have an unhealthy dinner, this is definitely the way to do it!

Where Does The Time Go?

I can't believe it's already October?!?!?  Seriously, where does the time go?

 

It seems like just yesterday that it was the start of summer.  It was definitely a busy summer for us, which I guess always makes it seem like it flies by.  But now that fall is officially here, I've realized a few important things:

 

1.  I'm way behind on my blog posts.  I have all these started posts that I need to catch up on writing ASAP. 

 

2.  My birthday is less than three weeks away!!!  And, more importantly, I've been totally delinquent on my birthdady pushup challenge training.  For a while I was going strong, but then life (moving, traveling, etc.) got the better of me and I started slacking off.  When we got back from Scotland I took it up again, but I still haven't been consistent about doing pushups every day.  I've definitely got to get back in the habit or I won't be able to meet my 30 pushup goal. 

 

3.  We've been in our new apartment more than a month and there are still boxes everywhere.  I know the fact that we've been out of town literally every weekend since we moved is a pretty good excuse for our lack of settling, but even on free evenings I've opted for TV watching, reading, baking, or pretty much anything other than unpacking.  I've got to start plugging away or it will never get done. 

 

4.  Beyond my pushup challenge, I've got to get back in the habit of working out in general.  Josh and I have gone for a couple of outdoor runs and visited the clibming gym since moving, but I've only used the building's gyms three times since we moved.  And the convenience of two on-site gyms should mean that I workout more, not less.  I started trying to turn things around this morning by waking up (not bright - it was still dark) early this morning and hitting the gym for a quick 15 minutes on the treadmill followed by a gym-modified version of Fran.  I used 15 lb free weights for thrusters and the lat machine set at 60 lbs for "pullups".  I finished my "Faux Fran" in 11:21.  Not too shabby.  It beat my previous Fran time of 13:09, though that was done with 35 lb thrusters.  (Not sure how the lat machine vs. pullup band compares?)  This will definitely be a good benchmark to use to compare with future Frans.  Hopefully there will be many :)