FOR WHICH I'M GRATEFUL

Life is so good.  I hope you're surrounding yourself with some fabulous things today.

In the middle of all your running around today (because isn't that what T-Day has become?), take a moment to look around and realize just how greatly blessed you are.  If you have family that drives you bananas, just nod, smile, and say thank you for the family members who are there to share today with you.  Even if you have a gross, smelly turkey plopped on the table in front of you, just say thank you for the abundance of food at your disposal.  We all have a million things to be thankful for, even if that's a little hard to remember on certain days...  And we should practice the art of giving thanks all year round,  not just in November.

That said, here I go: 66 things I'm thankful for, in no particular order.

1. chubby-cheeked ladies with rattails and potbellies who make my heart go *boom* when they look at me and smile
2. a family who loves my daughter as much as they love me (actually, I think it's a little more than me, but who's counting?)
3. bald nieces with mile-long eyelashes whose giggles make me swoon
4. Sol's godmothers
5. uncles who hold Sol in the air like they're reenacting a scene from Lion King
6. chocolatey brown dogs who give good hugs like it's their job
7. good friends who I stay in contact with, regardless of how far away we live
8. blue-eyed babies who wear camouflage and melt your heart
9. Vanilla Java Porter
10. MY JOB
11. my old job (hear me out), which makes me that much more thankful for my current job.
12. sunrises over marshes on foggy mornings
13. men who wear vests and/or fedoras
14. dark, quiet nights that force me to think about the good things in life
15. bass players with full-blown Jesus beards
16. Macbooks
17. iPhones
18. Honda Accords
19. St. Michael Lutheran Church
20. barefoot drummers who wear wolf shirts and drink pink martinis with salted rims
21. FiveFingers
22. candles that make my home smell like confectionery heaven
23. frozen yogurt
24. hitting all green lights when I'm late for work
25. having a job that doesn't really care when I'm late for work
26. good daycare 
27. Dr. Sheldon Cooper
28. episodes of Friends to which I know every word, but still make me roar with laughter
29. my Nikon
30. Dunder Mifflin (The Office)
31. Tofurky
32. the four seasons (nature, not music)
33. stellar meat alternative products from Morningstar Farms
34. glasses with thick black frames
35. Mumford and all his sons
36. Tofurky
37. shopping trips in Ann Arbor
38. Bierleins who live in SW Michigan :)
39. Kalamazoo Beer Exchange
40. microbrews
41. Biggby coffee
42. Target
43. wi-fi
44. hairdressers named Kristin who turn your hair blue (on purpose)
45. Silk soymilk
46. Pinterest.  PERIOD.
47. Twilight Woods for men (handsoap for shizzle)
48. the word "Word."
49. vegetarian hippies at farmers markets
50. my BOB.  helping me make sure *this* stays a 10 (ha. haha.)
51. Facebook... yes, seriously.
52. running trails
53. pacifiers
54. Downy Unstopables
55. Modern Family
56. forgiveness
57. shopping malls
58. Toms
59. a job in which I can speak Spanish
60. Pandora
61. AE jeans
62. watches
63. Ninja blenders
64. imagination
65. Max Ehrmann's Desiderata
66. The Nutcracker

And after I wrote this, I checked out my Thanksgiving list from 2010 - which is slightly embarrassing, yet shockingly similar.  Give it a read if you have time.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Leave a comment with something you're thankful for :)

YOU SNEAKY VEGAN! OR 'WHAT DID THE COCOA SAY TO THE CHILI?'

What do all these things have in common?

Easy.  They make chili.

Today we had a Chili Cook-off at work.  Employees were asked to prepare and submit a pot of chili for the cook-off.  Then at lunchtime, all employees could pay $6 for as much chili as they wanted (all proceeds went to our Charitable Activities Team).  Each chili pot was anonymous, marked only with a number, so each employee could vote for the best-tasting chili.  Fun, right?

An email went out yesterday afternoon saying that they needed more food for the fundraiser.  I thought - What the heck?  I'll make a pot of chili.  Vegetarian chili.  And I'll put vegetarian "meat" in it and no one will ever know.  Muahahahahha.

So I did.  But I had no igredients for chili.  So yesterday evening played out as follows:

5:00: Melanie is out of work.
5:27: Melanie picks Sol up from daycare.
5:30: Melanie is home.  Melanie runs inside, sets Sol down, runs to grab a coat and some grocery bags.
5:35: Melanie is out the door again.  Melanie puts Sol in the car.
5:36: Melanie's neighbor asks, "Hey, didn't you just get home?"  Melanie says, "Yep, but I'm off to the grocery store now."  Neighbor says, "Yeah, I've been home all afternoon doing laundry.  Gosh, I try to get it done before my wife gets home from work, but it's just so much.  The two of us go through so much laundry.  I just feel like there's not enough time in the day for all this laundry.  Between work and all the things to do around the house, I don't know how my wife and I get it all done."  Melanie cocks her head and thinks, Really, dude?  Is the irony here completely lost on you?  Melanie says, "Yeah, that sounds really tough.  Have a good night."
7:00: Melanie arrives home after completing her grocery shopping.  Melanie, with a sinister vegan smile, prepares a 5-qt batch of vegan chili, in between stepping over Sol on the floor, picking Sol up, setting Sol down, feeding Sol in her high chair, etc.
8:30-9:00: Melanie bathes Sol, feeds Sol, reads to Sol, and takes Sol upstairs to put her to bed.
9:01: Melanie sees herself in the mirror for the first time.  Melanie is still wearing her work clothes, her boots, and her ID badge, while sporting an apron and a baby on the hip.  Ugh.  This is what a mom looks like.
9:15: Melanie is back in the kitchen, finishing the chili.
10:00: Melanie is making cornbread now.
10:47: Exactly 5 hours and 17 minutes after arriving home from work, Melanie sits down.  And falls fast asleep.

But today my hard work paid off.  I didn't win the contest but people thought my chili was daaaaang good.  There were 10 entries, 2 of which were vegetarian (yes, 2) - and the only persons who knew which chilis were meatless were myself and the other veggie chef.  Go us!

My favorite part was sitting down with a group of people who were sampling all the chilis and casting their votes for the best chili.  I had grabbed a big bowl of vegetarian chili, but no one had taken note of which pot I took it from.  When they saw I had chili, they asked why I was eating it, because didn't it have meat in it?  And I told them, "Nope.  I took the vegetarian chili.  Yeah, there are two vegetarian chilis.  And I'm not telling you which ones they are."  Welllll, THAT threw a whole new twist on the cook-off.  Now everyone was more interested in trying to figure out which chili had the fake meat, and which chili had the real meat.

No one could tell the difference.  NO ONE.  Just sayin'.

My chili was rockin', too.  What started out as an attempt at chili turned into more of a "let's-see-what-we-have-in-the-cupboard-and-try-to-incorporate-that-into-this-soup-and-put-some-cumin-in-there-and-call-it-chili."  Aside from the usual chili ingredients, some of the more random things I threw in there: Bell's Expedition Stout, a quinoa/squash puree, sweet potatoes, allspice, cinnamon, and cocoa.  Yeeeeep.  And it was fabulous.

Between the crazy chili and my uber-popular cornbread (which is the absolute best cornbread you will ever try in your whole entire life), it was a good day, culinarily speaking.

RAMBLINGS ON A TUESDAY

I've been swamped at work.  Therefore, very little rhyme or reason to the ramblings today.  ...But isn't that how it should be?

First things first... look at what I'm dealing with now.  She learned about stairs.  What has two thumbs and is not ready for such a mobile baby?  THIS GAL.

This past weekend, I took MiniMon to Ann Arbor: a little hipster haven planted in eastern Michigan; a little slice of Pacific NW nestled in the midst of the Great Lakes.  Downtown is great.  The dining is fabulous.  And the grocery shopping is phenomenal.  Especially if you're a veg-head like I am.

Sol, my sister, my niece, and I arrived in Ann Arbor on Saturday morning, and met my mom and other sister in Sweetwater Cafe.  This lovely lass was sitting at the table next to them and just couldn't help but be all googly over my baby.  Smart lady.  My offspring is pret-ty cool.

I love the city Ann Arbor.
It has some fabulous stores.
Among those shops,
there's one that's the tops.
And it's called Hollander's.
 
(sorry, I know that was shaping up to be a perfect limerick but I just don't have time to rhyme too perfectly)
 But seriously, there's a store called Hollander's, and it sells paper.  And paper.  And more paper.  IT ROCKS.  I got something for my Wall of Whimsy, but I'll post that once it's framed and up on the wall!

Have you ever seen so much paper?

In Kerrytown (Ann Arbor), there's a store called Elephant Ears.  WARNING: DO NOT STEP FOOT IN THIS STORE IF YOU HAVE A CHILD, KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS A CHILD, IF YOU'RE PREGNANT, OR EVEN IF YOU JUST HAVE A HEALTHY OVUM.  It's filled with wonderful tiny things for wonderful tiny people.  Annnnnd they have this shirt: It's Cookie Monster.  In 3 languages.  #solneedsthis  Maybe I should just start a new blog called "Does Sol Need This?"

So we had to eat lunch.  And normally, when I go out to eat, it takes me about 2 seconds to choose what to order.  Because there are 2 vegetarian options in a sea of carnivorous grotesquities [yeah, I just made a word up].
But then you get to Ann Arbor.
And Melanie's party is waiting 30 minutes for Melanie to decide what vegetarian deliciosity [another new word] she's going to get. 
So while we wait, we order samples of different beers (because the beer list is a mile long too... don't even get me started on that). And we order the greatest rosemary-truffle oil french fries ever to touch human lips.  And then Melanie picks her poison: a chickpea-salad sandwich with cucumber yogurt sauce and roasted eggplant.  Ehrmehgerd.  AMAZING.

 Okay, and here's a video of Sol.  Remember how she used to spit her food back out at me?  Now it's the opposite.  She takes a bite, and immediately both her hands go up to her mouth to hold it in.  Can't figure this little lady out.  But it's entertaining, nonetheless.

 

 Now take a look at the following sequence of photos and tell me this isn't love.

 Also downtown, there is a bookstore called Falling Water.  It boasts many fabulous upside-down umbrellas.

 And it introduced me to the greatest book I've ever read.  It's called "C D B!"  by William Steig.  I died laughing.  And I quoted it (and attempted to make up my own version) for the remainder of the weekend.  The book has no words, just letters, but the letters (when read out loud) make sentences.  ie: C D B is "see the bee."  I M N-R-E is "I am Henry."  Just... ohmigosh. #solneedsthis

The below card was in Whole Foods.  Surrounded by cards that featured other quotes by famous people.  This says "Blow out your candles... happy birthday," by D.H. Lawrence.  Call me cynical, but I almost feel like that phrase isn't owned by him.  I feel like someone, somewhere, said that before him.  Maybe that's just me.

These cards were in a bathroom (weird, I know, but seen by almost everyone that way!).  What an amazing message to reinforce in the minds of women everyone.

 The following mints are the cutest little mints you'll ever see.  I got them in the mail from my bestie Kenny.  Aren't they adorbs?

 When in Ann Arbor... you shop at the Briarwood Mall.  I stumbled across these PJ's, and I feel like Sol just needs them.  There's sort of an inside joke associated with dinosaur pajamas, but they're fabulous regardless.  And yes, they're boys pajamas.  I have a tendency to not care which section of the store I'm shopping in when I'm shoppnig for Sol.  My excuse every time?  "It's gender neutral!"  My sisters' response: "No, Melanie... it's not."  #solneedsthis

My mom was in heaven.  Surrounded by her granddaughters, she was one HAPPY lady :)

Oh!  Oh!  Sol's first taste of Pinkberry!  Please see the following photos as a chain of events:
Sol tries Pinkberry, Sol's face shows that she does not care for the Pinkberry, Sol decides that maybe Pinkberry is okay, Sol wants more Pinkberry.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Just in case I didn't see enough cute things that Sol needed (ugh... Christmas shopping, anyone?) I stumbled across this luggage.  Sol and I will do TONS of traveling. I feel like monster luggage would just be an investment.
 

Side note: C D B?

And to relax at the end of a very tiring Monday, I made myself some dinner last night: strawberries, mango, kale, and agua.  MMMMMM.  :)

RAMBLING COMPLETE.