Shrimp is my fave

I could eat it every day. Bravo has a dish that I looooove called shrimp fra diavolo. I found a recipe in Cooking Light for this dish, so I had to try it. Um, yum!! It was a bit spicy. Mike drank three glasses of milk with it (oops), so I'd go lighter on the red pepper flakes, but otherwise it was perfection. The Cooking Light recipe calls for linguine, but I used penne since we're big penne fans.

Here's a link to the full recipe page on Cooking Light's website.  http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001949706

Here's a pic... Although my food as art skills need some serious work.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 cup pasta and about 1 1/4 cups sauce)

Ingredients

• 8  ounces  uncooked linguine
• 2  tablespoons  extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 1/2  tablespoons  minced garlic, divided
• 1  pound  medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 3/4  cup  diced onion
• 1  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
• 1/2  teaspoon  dried basil
• 1/2  teaspoon  dried oregano
• 2  tablespoons  tomato paste
• 1  tablespoon  fresh lemon juice
• 1 3/4  cups  canned crushed tomatoes
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 1  (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain; keep warm.

2. While pasta cooks, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic and shrimp; sauté or 3 minutes or until shrimp are done. Remove from pan; keep warm.

3. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil and onion to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until softened. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon garlic, pepper, basil, and oregano; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in tomato paste and lemon juice; cook 1 minute or until slightly darkened. Stir in crushed tomatoes, salt, and diced tomatoes; cook 5 minutes or until thickened. Return shrimp to pan; cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve over pasta.  (I'd add some Parmesan cheese, too!)

Lordy, lordy, look who's ...

I thought I'd be sad today - my 40th birthday. But surprisingly, I feel very happy and blessed and optimistic. Who I am on this day is a culmination of all of the crazy, wonderful, challenging, rewarding days before this one. I wouldn't change a thing. Those days led me to the friends that I have in my life, the wonderful man that I married, our beautiful new house, and the wisdom that can only come from what I've experienced. I am proud of the steps that I've taken to get here.

OK, sure, there are things that I'd love to change, but who can't say that? This year, I will be doing what I can to make my life and self even happier. My 30s were starting to seem a bit serious. Time to shake that off and enjoy this new chapter.

House progress

Happy Fall! Now if only someone would do something about this stupid 80 degree weather we're having today. It is forcing me to wear 'tween-wear. I hate 'tween-wear.

We finally painted the green guest room. Well, we're almost done, but I figured I'd share a pic now. The neon green was hurting our brains, so we went to Lowe's and picked out a nice light gray with a hint of blue called Bay Waves by Valspar. I love it! Although the paint + primer didn't do it in one coat. We need to do another. Any suggestions for bedding are welcome. The carpet is dark blue.

Before:

Gah! My eyes!

After:

 Aaah. Much better.

We also got some new furniture for the living room. I went outside of my comfort zone and got berry colored chairs. LOVE. We now need to get a table for in between it all. Any suggestions?

Adventures on the bus

The bus is a never-ending source of crazy stories. This short story is about a man who was peddling his wares to everyone on the bus. His wares were these little beakers filled with scented oils. Here he is now...

  Just sitting with my oils. Watching the scenery go by.

I've seen men selling these oils downtown, so the oils are nothing new to me. What was new was this guy just moving around the bus, sitting next to riders, and asking them to buy his oils. He had the oil beakers propped up in this big, three-tiered, wooden contraption. No hiding his intentions. Nothing to guess about there. Isn't that sort of thing illegal on public transportation? Or did he flash his permit to the driver when he boarded? No? Yeah, I bet not. Should I just fill a bag with some Jergens hand lotions and start making some side cash on my way from Oakland to downtown every day? Hmm...

Here he is talking to a rider customer.

 *whispers* Psst. You wanna smell good?

The funny thing was that I didn't hear him talk at all. He must have whispered. Kept his selling on the down low. Huh. Wonder why.

Oh look. He's on the move...

 Thanks, my man. Gotta run...

In the bag are packages of incense. He didn't sell any oil, but two people bought some incense. Score! I think that he saw me giving him the side-eye, so he didn't come and whisper his sales pitch to me. I like it. A no-pressure salesman.

Updates

Long time no blog! Not much has been going on that is blog-worthy. We are just having a super busy summer and haven't had time to do any work on the house. Well, we seem to just be fixing things that have been breaking. Our house is totally wonderful and fabulous, but it seems a bit rickety for some reason. The shower knob breaks, the tile in the bathroom floor cracks, the hose nozzle thingy in the wall breaks, the deck leaks a bit.. These are the things that have demanded our attention. No fun. We did get the bathroom done. It is purty now. The blue that they had on the walls before was not bad, but it was just not relaxing. Now the water closet is nice and calming.

Old, jazzy blue bathroom:

New and improved Zen bathroom:

 That only took 4 months. Oh and it isn't done decorating-wise. That'll take until Christmas. :p

Our next project is the Master bedroom. If you recall, it used to look like this:

Ick. We are going to remove the chair rails and go with three tan walls and a chocolate brown accent wall. We tried blue, but it didn't work out. It made us feel like we were in the middle of the ocean. Which is ok, but this ocean was stormy and not sleepy and calming. Luckily the paint was free, so no harm no foul.

Don't you just want to get cozy in that room?

So, that's about it. Nothing else to report. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

P.S. My friend Beth reminded me that we also got two new additions to Casa Petruska. Gah! How could I forget?! Thanks, B. :)

Here is our first addition to the family room. 

I feel so grown up with a leather sectional. And someday, Mike will let me eat food near it.

The second addition is our 46" splurge.There are no words. Except  maybe "Football season just got AWESOME."  Go Stillers!

A few of my favorite things (and must-haves)...

Anyone that knows me well knows that I loooooooove beauty products. If you can't find me in the usual spots (in front of the TV, in the kitchen, recently in the garden), I can be found in the aisles of Rite Aid with a full  basket in one hand and my Rite Aid super saver card ready to be scanned in the other. You can always count on a calming body lotion or a sparklyshiny lip gloss to make you feel better if you're a little glum.

It has taken me years to find the best beauty products for me. I had many years where my hair and its antics ruled my world (Any friends care to testify? :P) . I had days when I couldn't get my face to look right because I picked the wrong colored powder or cover up ... which always resulted in someone asking me if I had some sort of food stuck on my face or if I was feeling ok. I feel pretty good about where I am in terms of my face/hair/skin. And I have these products to thank:

I always have to have my loose powder nearby. I've tried pressed, mineral, powder foundation. None work for me as well as loose powder. None better than Almay. I can always count on it to make me look smooth and purty. Which can backfire if my Aunt Carol Hillelson is around. She likes to pinch my cheek (still) and ask how I got such "beauuuuutiful skin. Like buttah." True story.

Speaking of Almay. I like to cover up God's little reminders that I'm a hormonal woman with their Light cover stick.

I have tried liquid cover up, but that just doesn't do the trick. I like to smother those suckers with solid cover up until they can't breathe and retreat.

Before I use the cover up, I kill those 'spots' with Clean & Clear Spot Treatment. It contains Salicylic Acid, which is safe for those of us that are allergic to Benzoic Acid (which was just great to find out in my 30s after slathering Benzoyl Peroxide on my face for two decades.)

The other must-have for my face is some sort of shiny and/or sparkly lip gloss. I don't have one favorite. I probably have about five. Currently, I'm loving Wet 'n Wild's Bronze Berry, which is a total shocker since I bought it convinced that it'd be a waste of $2. My go-to fave, though, is Clinique's Superbalm. But I only get that when I go to the mall once a year. It's my 'fancy' choice.

For the peepers, I like to use shadow as liner. I think growing up in the 80s/90s has ruined me for pencil liner forever. Too many bad memories of poking myself in the eye with the liner while I was getting ready to go rollerskating while sporting a to-the-knees shoulder-padded button down and a white lightning bolt belt. *shudder*  Anyway... I have hazel eyes so I find that using a dark berry shade works great. I use L'Oreal Subtle Berries. Well, I use the color in the bottom right corner. The others I am saving for some night on the town when I want to look older than 23. (Hey! Stop laughing!)

Hair. Oh hair. How you have challenged me. My hair is thick and wavy and can be confusing to figure out. But I turned some corner about 4-5 years ago... My hair got tired of fighting me and decided to turn awesome. I feel like it is my gift for having to put up with it being such a moody beyotch for so many years. In order to keep it smooth, I need need need a gloss serum. My fave is by Paul Mitchell. It makes my hair feel super soft and look shiny. Love. Need.

To set the the 'do in to place, I stick with one and only one kind of hairspray. Now don't judge me, but I use an aerosol. I know, I know. I'm sorry Mother Earth. But seriously, this is the only hairspray that works. And for that I can not apologize. Trust me, if Molly and her hair ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

I just discovered the best smelling lotion in the universe while I was in Canada last November. It is from a company called Fruits & Passion and is called Human. The smell is hard to describe, but I will try. It is clean and a tiny bit floral. Huh... that was a sad attempt and totally fails to capture it's awesomeness. But trust me, I have smelled my share of lotions and this one is at the tippy top of the best lotions I've ever encountered.

Ooh, excuse moi. I notice now that I had to search for a picture of it that it is a body souffle. Not a lotion. How fancy am I, I ask you?

If I want to feel a bit spicy (mrow!) as opposed to clean and airy, I go to Rush by Gucci. I am not a perfume kind of girl, but this is crazy good. It smells totally different on skin than it does sprayed in to the air from the bottle. Amazing.

 That covers my must-haves. The things that make my days work and my moods lift. How about you? What are your beauty go-tos?

Oh and thanks to C for giving me this idea. She blogged about her most loved beauty products and inspired me to do the same. Check it out!

Small success

Nothing exciting to post, but thought that I would report that, despite two cookouts and one Chinese restaurant dinner, I am down 2 pounds. I'm supposed to lose 1 pound per week by participating in the Weight Management study. It's now the third week starting today. Things are moving right along. :)   I'm not busting out the bikini yet, but I'm at least wondering where I put it in the house. That's somethin'.

12 weeks

Wish me luck!

I'm starting participation in a weight management study through UPMC today. It's 12 weeks long. The study basically involves cal & fat gram counting plus brisk walking each day. I'll keep a journal and talk to a health coach once each week. Posting about it here will also make me accountable. Although I'm already seriously motivated by the pictures of my arms from this weekend. Yipes! Holy bingo wings!

Today has been pretty good, but man does peanut butter have a boatload of fat grams. Sigh.

Anyone have any motivating tips?

Someone get this guy a latte, STAT!

As most people can attest, public transportation is a constant source of amusement and annoyance. This guy brought a little of both to the game yesterday. He started off just sort of dozing and nodding a little bit. Not a big deal. I've sat next to and elbowed dozers back to the land of the living many times . But this guy... he started to do the slump forward and jerk backwards over and over again and I started to wonder if he was gonna nose-dive forward. Yup... Within two minutes, he was falling completely forward and smacking the back of the woman's head who was sitting in front of him with his lanky forehead. Duuuuude. Not cool. Pop some NoDoz, sit up, and stare zombie-like outside on your way home from work like the rest of us.
 

 (I love that in this shot you can see the woman in front of him turning her head like, "What is this fool doing?!")

Second Part of Random Acts

Lynnette loved her cookbook so much, but I'm betting Candice is still sitting there looking at her gift and scratching her head.

I was so excited to get each winner something personal and timely. Candice just moved in to a beautiful new house, so I though, "Hey. I bet she's doing a lot of gardening over there in that big ol' yard. I'll get her something to help that along."  Searched Amazon... found the perfect little gift. And I do apparently mean little. Here is a picture of my 'random' gift for Candice:

Looks like such a nice, cute gardening bag with useful tools, right? "Aww", I thought, "C will look so dang cute out there digging up weeds."   Advance time to me opening the box from Amazon and realizing .3 seconds after seeing it that it is obviously a product intended for any 6-7 year old nieces or Goddaughters that C may have. Oopsie. I am definitely hoping that the 'It's the thought that counts." theory applies here. And C, I expect you to plant some itty bitty flowers with your itty bitty tools, K? Mwah.

Random kindness fun

A couple of weeks ago, I drew two blog readers' names for the random act of kindness 'contest.'  I was able to surprise one of them last night with a wonderful cookbook. Lynnette just started her own business - the fabulous happyjack bakery - and I thought that the Sono Baking Company Cookbook would help her find some delicious treats to add to her offerings.



The recipes look scrumptious and the pictures make me drool just a little. I can't wait to taste some of them once Lynnette works her magic with the recipes. Enjoy, my friend!!

I have another fun, random gift waiting in the wings for a randomly chosen blog reader. I'll update on that next week after it is gifted.

I like to make others smile. Smiling is my favorite.

P.S. Shameless plug: Come and visit happyjack at the Whitehall Farmer's Market at Caste Village every Monday from 3:00 to 7:00 pm starting June 14, 2010!

House updates

We're still trying to get everything done at the house in order for it to feel oh so cozy, but the weekends are the only time we have since weeknights go so quickly. So, here is what we've been up to lately:

Mikey cut the grass. Yay! I love the lawn and our wonderful tree. I literally have gone out and patted the tree three or four times because I love owning our own tree.

I planted petunias and a couple of Gerber daisies in the planters out front. I hope they live. I have no idea what I'm doing, but I do it with love.

This is the area in our kitchen that was a broom closet. We (read: Mike) removed the doors from it so that we could put our great garbage can there. We can put brooms in the basement closet. No loss there. But we have some work to do in this little nook. I started off the renovation by painting the top shelf area a pretty lilac color. I went outside of my comfort zone and chose a fun color. I'm still not sure about it so if you like it, I'd love to hear it. I'm fighting the urge to paint over it with a nice, safe Barely Beige color.

What an overwhelming, awesome adventure to turn a house into a home. :)

I didn't forget...

.. the random act of kindness that I'm going to rain down upon two lucky blog readers. Well, maybe not a rain shower. More like a gift under $20. But that's sumpthin', right? A little sprinkling of kindness perhaps. I won't announce who the winners are until after I send out the gifts. Stay tuned...

Just a little bit o' lint

I wonder if the previous owners of the house ever cleaned or fixed anything. I feel like they ran the house close to the ground and then jumped off. We LOVE the house. Never think that we don't. No bad words will be spoken against the house of our dreams ever. We are in love, love, love. The previous owners though... Ugh.

The inspectors had no reason to open all of the closets and look behind paintings, etc. So when we moved in and tried to open closets and finally saw all of the walls, surprise! Half of the closet doors are broken and won't close. The owners nailed everything within eyesight to the walls and then didn't remove any of the nails when they left. If I fell backwards in the house anywhere, I'll pierce my melon on a nail head.

We are currently dealing with two doozies.

1) They must have let every single hair on their heads run down the drain in the upstairs shower. I'm pretty sure they washed the dog up there, too. It is totally clogged and smells like armpit. We tried drain opener, but no luck. We have to move on to the snake now. Scared of discovery once we do. *shudder* 

2) The dryer vent. Here is part of it now...

They must have never cleaned the dryer vent tube or the lint trap. Let those suckers just clog up with lint. The dryer vent tube goes in the drywall, into the garage, and outside through that wall. It is understandably a tough, icky job to get it cleaned out or do it yourself somehow, but ignoring the icky job just causes things like, oh, I don't know... dryer fires. We are pretty sure that tube is totally full of lint. At least the section that we saw when Mike sawed through the drywall is clogged.

Well, looky here...

I just wanna do laundry, people!


I finally got the dryer delivered (love, love, love!)...

and now can't use it until we fix their mess. We did buy an inside vent kit so we can vent in to the basement if we have to, but that will lead to us opening Sauna Petruska down there after a while due to the resultant moisture. We'll get it figured out, but when we someday build our dream house in the country and move out, we'll be making sure the buyers aren't shaking their fists in our general direction and cursing us. Karma... I'm a believer.

Progress is sloooow

We're finally out of the apartment! Sheesh, that was hard work. We didn't realize how much crap we bought and stuffed under beds and in closets and in the basement storage room. Our Feng Shui was so bad. No wonder I felt like my Qi was all wackadooish.

We haven't had much time at all to set up the house yet. We have had time to populate the 'dude room' in the basement with a ton of stuff. No dude will be hanging in that room for a while unless he feels comfortable perched on top of three plastic bins and a pile of winter coats. Although I'm sure if you gave a guy a beer and a room, he would perch anywhere.

But I don't care 'cause I can do laundry at my house. Without quarters. For free. Without dodging spiders in the basement of the apartment. I can't even... I'm so excited. We are using a loaner dryer for now until our dryer comes off of backorder and is delivered. But it works for me. I love them and want to marry them.

That is all of the news I have in terms of house stuff. We are hoping to fix up a lot this weekend. But first Mike has to mow the lawn. I saw our new, nebby neighbor Connie giving our yard the side-eye yesterday. Simmer down, Connie... We'll get to it.

Unrelated P.S. - If you haven't seen this website in my blogroll yet, please check it out. It makes me heart burst every time I look at it. http://www.kellehampton.com/

We're in!

Closing was a success! We had a minor hiccup when we discovered during the walk-through that some repairs weren't done, but their serviceman is coming to the house this week to do what he didn't finish free of charge. Remind me later to tell the story of how when we called the number on the repair invoice from the seller, the phone was answered by some guy on the street who found the phone. Yeah... After that slight issue was figured out, we signed our life away and got our keys - one green key with flowers on it and one Steelers key. Guess who got which. :P

Pan to us jumping up and down outside the house like kids on Christmas morning looking at their Barbie townhouses (ok, maybe just I was jumping..not Mike). The house is so much better than I remembered and I wasn't sure that was possible. It feels like home already. There are more projects than we thought as the sellers sure did hide things like broken switch plates and bad paint jobs with pictures and candles well, but we're up for the challenge. I already made friends with Nancy at Lowe's.

I posted pictures on Facebook. If you didn't see them there, lemme know and I'll post some here. I'm too tired to do much more right now. MAN... homeownership is already exhausting. I discovered my new diet and exercise plan: House poor-ness and forgetting things downstairs.

It is all so great and thanks for being excited with us. We'll be sure to have a housewarming party eventually. The fire pit is calling for friends and s'mores and cocktails. :)

Bee!

I had to share this story...

I started a small riot on my bus today. A bee landed on my arm and I freaked. I stood up and said "Bee!" really loudly. I'm sorry... I've never been stung by a bee and the first time won't be on a confined, moving vehicle. So, the bee then flew away and started flying frantically in to all of the other passengers. They all got up and were swinging their purses and lunch bags at it. This lady behind me was screaming (literally), "Don't kill it! I'll take it and put it in my bag!" A Catholic school girl slammed her 30 lb book bag at it and made it go splat in to the window. The lady behind me said, "Great! Kill it! Very nice. Jeez!" I swear I heard her crying behind me after that. I'm a gentle soul (don't laugh), but it. was. a bee. Never a dull moment on the East busway.

Closing week!

I can't think of much else. Is there anything else going on this week? :P ( Hey Nuelsi - You're moving this weekend!! Are we the happiest chicks in town or what?!) I've got a one-track mind lately! Friday is the closing day and Mike and I are beside ourselves with excitement. We also have taken to reminiscing about special times in our apartment. That is the first place in which we lived together, the place we lived when we got engaged and when we got married. We painted the walls our chosen colors and grilled some delicious dinners out on the deck. We wish that we had more people over for get-togethers, but life gets in the way, I guess. We will miss our porch, our close proximity to Frick Park, and all things East side. I am an East side kid. I grew up roller skating in the streets of Squirrel Hill and thought that I'd end up in the East at the end of it all. Well, I thought that I'd end up in Boca Raton playing gin rummy on a lanani with my sister in the end, but before that... I will miss the East, but am excited to experience life in the South Hills. I have wonderful friends that live over there and can't wait to spend more time with them. I am excited to be near South Park when I hear they have a pony rink and an outdoor theater! Whaaat? That is fun stuff!

I'll take pictures on Closing Day and post them here. I can't wait to show everyone the wonderfulness that is Casa Petruska! I can't believe the house is going to be ours. It has been a LONG time coming. I think that is why I feel so dang excited. I've lived in apartments for the past 20 + years. I can NOT believe that I will have my own yard, my own driveway, my own washer & dryer. Seriously, I'm going to have to get out of the habit of asking to have all of my change be given in the form of quarters. And I realize that I'll also have my own pipes to pay to get unclogged, my own furnace to have fixed... but I will welcome those frustrations with bear hugs and smooches because in the end it means that my husband (weehaw!) and I will have our own home (yahoo!!!). What a crazy, wonderful year and a half it has been!

Random Act of Kindness

My friend, Erica has a great cooking blog. Shout out! ... Simply Satisfying. On her blog, Erica ran a Random Acts of Kindness contest and I won! :) I love winning things. As anyone who knows me can attest, I'm a sucker for free stuff of any kind. And gifts. And samples.

Scene: Mike and I come home from work. I see a package on the stoop. I have no idea what it is since all of the Amazon gifts that I ordered for Mike's birthday were already received and wrapped. The package is addressed to me - from some Bath & Body Shop in New York. I have no idea what it is, but I'm smiling big! Inside are five containers of bath salts and a note saying that it was from Erica. I totally forgot about it, so it was SUCH a great surprise. With the stress of the house purchase, I can definitely use a nice soak that smells like vintage chardonnay. Thank you, Erica!! :)



To pay it forward, I'd like to run my own contest. Here are the rules:

Post a comment to my blog saying the thing that makes you happiest. Also post your email address.

I'll pick two people and send you something that I think that you'll like.

Hopefully it will make you smile like Erica's kind act did for me.

The Petruskas found a new home!

Everyone probably already knows this, but I wanted to blog about it anyway so that I can document my feelings about this and smile in the future when I read it. Smiling's my favorite. :)

So, we started our search for the perfect house in December 2009. We trekked out to the South Hills one Sunday during a Steelers game to see two open houses. Don't worry, die-hards... the Steelers already lost their chance to be in the playoffs. :P The first house that we saw was a brand new Single-Family Home in South Park. Mike loved it, I liked it a lot but not the location. It isn't near public transportation and is on top of a pretty steep hill. (Side note: Turns out that a friend of mine may end up buying this house!) So we moved on to the second and final open house of the day. I knew as soon as I walked in that I loved it. I felt giddy and saw fireworks. Mike was pretty much 'Meh' though, so I shelved my schoolgirl house-crush for the time being.

Pan to over two months, hiring of a realtor, and viewing of approximately 15 houses later, I mentioned to Mike that we should take a look at the house that I loved because it was still on the market and we weren't finding anything that we loved. He agreed and I began to lob prayers up to the house gods for him to love it. We went, with our agent, to see it and I could see the love in Mike's eyes while we were there. Wahoo! However, I didn't bug him about it because anyone that knows Mike knows not to push that boy towards a decision. So I gave him the hopeful side-eye when I saw him looking over the house brochure several times that night. Eventually, he said, "Ya know, we should talk to Michele about whether there have been any offers on the house and if she thinks that it's a good value." I shot an email to Michele before he could count to two and crossed my fingers and toes.

Long story sorta short, we made an offer the next day and within 24 hours, we had ourselves a deal with the seller. WeeHAW! I can't even explain how excited I am. This house is amazing to me.

Here she is now...



Isn't she pretty? I'm using 'she' like the house is a boat, I know. Just go with it. There is a little bit over 1900 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, a finished basement, a firepit, a garage, a deck. I consider us very fortunate to be able to start this adventure come April. 39 years and thousands of laundry machine quarters later, I am ready to be a homeowner. I'm sure that it will be scary and nerve-racking, but I'm ready for it all.

Inspection is this Thursday. If you see me walking funny, it is because my toes are crossed.

P.S. The health stuff is still going - minus the South Beach. I folded. I was too cranky for life. I'm deciding how to get back on track and will blog when a decision is made.