Two Weeks Down

Early last week I decided I was going to do it.  Somehow, I was going to start bringing my lunch to work.

I spend way too much on eating lunch all week.  I remember going out to lunch my senior year of high school and being able to get a full meal for under $5.  Granted, I'm pretty much avoiding fast food altogether, but I easily spend between $8 and $15 each day on lunch.

When I'm home for lunch, I do pretty well - tacos or fajitas, fancy burgers, fruit, soup... I can make a good meal.  But when I don't have my grill, or stove, or a good toaster oven... just a microwave?  If I bring something that I need to microwave, then I'm more likely to wind up eating at my desk.

I need to get up from my desk.  When I stay at my desk for lunch, my brain checks out earlier in the day.  Like 2pm.  I just really need to get up, go outside, walk around... something.  I need that mental break in order to last until 5:30pm or 6pm.

And finally, I am really trying to eat better.  I'm not severely overweight, but I am technically overweight, and ideally I should drop about 15 lb.  I need more vegetables in my life, and whole grains, and smaller portions.  Eating out at lunch seems to mean larger portions than I would eat if I brought lunch.

So, what can I bring?

I've done pretty well so far.  I've only bought my lunch once per week the last two weeks now.  I've eaten a lot of sandwiches, which in the past has been difficult for me to keep up with.  This time around I'm avoiding most sliced deli meats, in favor of tuna or steak.  I'm avoiding plain sliced bread in favor of a whole wheat bun, and I've had a few elaborate salads with either tuna salad, hard boiled egg, or salami on top.  I've also had a pasta salad.  Most days I've grabbed my packed lunch and headed over to the University Village near UCI and had a lovely lunch on the outdoor patio/seating area.

One of the best lunches so far has been a cold steak sandwich.  It came from a sort of combination of Evan's spinach salad, a Grilled Steak Sandwich recipe from the August issue of Bon Appetit, and a boring cold steak sandwich I'd made a couple of weeks ago.

My boring sandwich was just that, boring.  It was essentially some leftover fillet from the night we'd made beef carpaccio on a leftover roll.  Nothing else was really on it, but the cold steak was nice, but dry.  The Grilled Steak Sandwich was nice, but I don't think I got enough dressing on mine, and it would be pretty difficult to grill up a sandwich at work.

I had some leftover tri-tip, and put it in a plastic bag, whisked together some seasoned rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, ground mustard, and olive oil to taste, and poured it over the meat.  In another plastic bag I put some fresh spinach, sliced tomato & onion.  I packed up those two bags and a whole wheat bun.

I didn't even put it in the refrigerator when I got to work.  When lunchtime rolled around, I began toasting the bun, opened one corner of the meat bag and poured the dressing and juice into the spinach bag.  I tossed the spinach bag until the bun was done toasting, and assembled my sandwich, leaving half the salad as a side.

Oh my was that tasty!  I will definitely have to have this again, maybe with plain old sliced roast beef if I don't have leftover tri-tip.

We'll see if I can keep this up now.  I'm sure I saved myself some money this week, and probably ate healthier than I normally would.  I'll need more variety soon enough, but soup season is coming.  Now, how to keep it warm while I get out of the office...

Gorgonzola Mushroom Burgers

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, a few of my co-workers recently left the company.  Anytime someone leaves, a group of us will go out for a goodbye lunch.  This time, when Ronnie left, instead of going out to eat, we all drove out to Evan's house and barbecued for lunch.  Like most goodbye lunches, this one ran a bit long, but unlike the others, we spent very little.  I must add it was darn tasty too.  I just love grilled foods!

We kept it pretty simple - hamburgers with the optional condiments, onion, and tomato, a flat-iron steak (pre-marinated from Trader Joe's), and a spinach salad.

Evan made the spinach salad.  He is one of the healthiest eaters I know.  We talk about food at work a lot, as we appreciate many of the same foods, and I must admit I admire just how health conscious he is.

His salad was really simple - fresh spinach, thinly sliced tomato, thinly sliced onion, a splash of seasoned rice vinegar, splash of balsamic vinegar, sprinkle of salt, and olive oil.  That's it.  It was so simple, and yet so tasty.

Even tastier - putting the spinach salad onto my burger.  I'm not a mayo or mustard girl, I put barbecue sauce on my burgers (or ketchup if there is no barbecue sauce).  The dressing on the spinach went beautifully.  Small bites of the steak with a bite of salad was awesome too.

So a few days later, I decided to make burgers at home, and add a few things that I love - mushrooms & gorgonzola.  I used a few leaves of spinach from Evan's spinach salad as the lettuce, and put the whole thing on a whole wheat bun.  (I'm trying to eat more whole grain foods right now.)

I don't ask Bobby what he wants on his burger anymore, I usually just make a single for me and a double for him, assemble it the way I want and he eats it.  This time when he started into his burger, he said it was one of the best burgers he's ever had.  He's asked for it a few times since.

Gorgonzola Mushroom Burgers with Spinach Salad

burger patties and buns of your choice

barbecue sauce

1 spoonful of cumbled gorgonzola per patty

1 slice of provolone per patty

2-3 medium crimini mushrooms per burger, sliced

1/4 small white onion per burger, cut into strips (I like them kinda chunky)

handful of washed fresh spinach per person

1/2 medium tomato per person

seasoned rice vinegar

balsamic vinegar

olive oil

sea salt or course salt & pepper

Grilled your patties, and when appropriate top with the crumbled gorgonzola and one slice of provolone.  While those were grilling, cook the mushroom/onion mixture and make salad.

In a pan over medium-high heat, swirl canola oil, add sliced crimini mushrooms and white onions, salt and pepper.  Cook until soft.

While the burgers are grilling and the mushroom/onion mixture is softening, make your salad.  Put the washed spinach and sliced tomato in an oversized bowl so you can toss easily.  Toss the spinach and tomato as you dress it.  Splash with each vinegar (probably about 2 tsp. of each per person), sprinkle with salt, and drizzle with olive oil (probably about 3-4 tsp.) per person.  You've added enough olive oil when it doesn't smell too vinegary for you.

As the patties finish, toast your buns.  Pull a few leaves of the spinach, and some of the sliced tomatoes from the salad and put on your bottom bun.  Add on your patty, a healthy scoop of the mushroom/onion mixture, add a dollop of barbecue sauce to your top bun and you are done.

Divide the remaining spinach salad among the plates, and don't worry if you have extra mushroom/onion mixture, it's good by itself on the side.  Or on top of the salad.

Aftermath

At 3:30ish this morning, I woke up to a tickle on my arm, and when I reached to itch it, it stung me.

Wouldn't you know, I have a bee hive in my house for three months and don't get stung; I have it removed, and that night I'm stung by a bee.

Bobby must have been sleeping pretty lightly, because he asked me what was wrong when I cursed the bee. We laid there silently listening for buzzing. The next one found Bobby instead of me. "There's one next to my knee on the sheet. If I move it's probably going to sting me."

All I could think about were the stray bees leftover in the house, and my bare feet. I found my cell phone and my glasses on the bedside table, and illuminated my way to the light switch. The bee near his knee flew up to the beam at the ceiling.

Now that the hive was gone, I have no qualms about killing the few bees that are left. They will most likely die anyway, right? So I grabbed a magazine and swatted the two bees left flying around our room. We checked the bed, and made sure to cover up with at least the sheet.

In the morning, there were still some random bees flying confusedly around the back room. There was a streak of honey on one of the windows back there too, as if a bee had thrown up or something. We'll have to make sure to wear shoes or watch where we are walking until these bees finally clear out.

And We're Clear

Bee Company #2 (Pro Pacific Bee Removal) arrived this morning to do an estimate, and came back at 5pm (right on time) to start the removal. They set up a little plastic room around the hive, cut open the wall and sucked the bees out with a "bee vacuum."




We obviously couldn't watch, because we don't all have bee suits, but the technician was kind enough to take pictures for us. This next one is a little blurry, but you can see that the bees had filled up the left side with honeycomb and honey, and the pale comb they've just started building on the right side.



When they had finished, the tech allowed us to come see what they'd taken out. The bee vacuum sucks the bees up and spits them into a wood frame box with screens or plexiglass on the sides. We could see all the bees buzzing around inside it. He also showed us the honey and honeycomb that was pulled out of the wall.



There were, understandably, a few bees that had escaped and were now wandering around on the honeycomb he was showing us, and around the courtyard just outside our bedroom. I asked why the bees weren't attacking him or us, considering we were playing with their comb. He explained that the bees were confused and disoriented, and that they weren't being protective of the comb because the queen was in the box. The tech estimated that the hive had been in our wall for three months.

After removing everything, they painted the inside of the wall with a bee repellant so they would not return, and closed up the small gap in the roof where they were getting in.



They started work around 5:30, and by 8:30 they were packing up to go. Very good service in my book. There are a few stray bees wandering around trying to figure out what's going on, but the hive is now gone.

Building Trellises

My parents came by to spend the day with me, finally putting up the trellises for the grapevines while we wait for the bee man to come take the hive away.



The beeman did not show up between 9 and 11 like he was supposed to. We tried calling the home office, but they were closed for the weekend. I had the phone number of the estimator, so we tried him. He answered, but was unable to contact the technician or the owner. There wasn't really anything he could do for us. Mom finally called another bee removal company. The new bee company was sending an estimator between 1 and 2pm, so we stayed in the backyard working on the trellises.



We'd been pretty productive though. At first we all worked together to get the posts bolted into the simpsons, then dad added the 2x4 on tops. It's unusual to have the top bar, but since I don't have a long line of posts with earth anchors on the end, we had to do something to keep the posts from bending inwards. After getting the wire up, I thought the trellises came out quite nicely.



At 12:20pm, the technician from the first bee company finally called. He offered no explanation, but said that he was leaving his house and was on his way. I noticed that he was calling from an 805 area code and asked how long he expected it to take him to get there. "About an hour."

I called my mom, who had gone to visit my grandpa. She said to just let the estimator from the new company and the technician from the first company come. She wasn't taking any chances relying on the first company at this point.

But when she came back from her visit, the estimator called to verify the directions, and she told him that we may not need him to come out now. She'd call him back and let him know.

Well, 1:30 came and went. So did 2pm, and 2:30pm. Still no one had come. I called the technician (I love caller ID), and left a message indicating that I hoped he was still on his way. At 3pm, mom called the estimator back - he was already in San Clemente, and would have to schedule it for Monday morning instead.

We had one other thing to build as well. I planted some peas in my kitchen garden, and I needed to construct some trellises for them to grow on.



A few stakes and jute, a hammer and a staple gun. I had my trellis



3:30. Mom called the technician one more time and he answered. He claimed that he had not said he was on his way, and that he would be here at 5pm. Excuse me? No, it wasn't that long ago, I know what I was told.

I really just want him to show up and take the hive away. I"m not particularly afraid of bees, but I don't like having them in my bedroom wall. And I don't like that I can't walk around my house barefoot without being very careful not to step on any bees.

Come 4:30, he calls again. He won't be coming. His excuse? The company was supposed to give him money for gas and they never did. So he's not coming.

Mom called the new company to confirm. My co-worker also has a beehive in his house, and come Monday, I'll be sure to tell him not to use Adkins Bee Removal. Hopefully, the new company does a better job.

Snip, Snip

I've done it again - I chopped my hair off.

My hair had reached my waistline. I was tired of it, it was pretty damaged, and I just kept it up most days anyway. Now it is back to above my shoulders.

It's funny to see people wince when they make the cut... like they were taking a finger or something. I didn't even mean to grow it out that long - I'm just to lazy to make an appointment to get it cut, so I only wind up going once a year or so. But I like it when it's shorter.

We did save it though, and I will be donating it.

Breach

Bobby woke up at 4:30 this morning. The buzzing was a little louder this time.... and there were a few bees in the bedroom. By the time I woke up, he'd figured out why.

The bees had burrowed a hole through the wall into our room and were coming in and out as they pleased.

Yes, through the drywall. The can apparently dig, or burrow, or whatever.

Bobby got some liquid nails and filled in the hole so they would stop coming in. At least temporarily. The bee people are supposed to come Saturday to clear out the hive... hopefully the bees don't dig another hole before then.

Reunion in the Park

Today was a popular day. I had an invitation to a birthday party/poker game, a birthday party for a 5 year old, and Bobby's family reunion at a park.

I really wanted to go the 5 year old's birthday party. I know that sounds strange, but I haven't seen my friend, her mom, since her wedding a few years ago. I figured Bobby would still be working on his parents' pool, and Emma and I could go to the party - I was sure she would love being around a bunch of other kids too.

But as I was mentioning it to Emma, I saw the flyer for the family reunion that same day... and vaguely remembered that we'd missed it last year. His mom seemed saddened by our missing last year, so we made sure we would go this time.

Initially, I was thinking we could go to the reunion for a while, then leave after a few hours and head to the birthday party. Alas, we've only just made it home and we are all downright exhausted. I have a nice little sunburn too.

Still Buzzing

I took the day off of work today, postponing my PTO break even date, so that I could be here when they removed the bees. I'm pretty excited about the whole process, and I wanted to be here for the show.


It was apparently a bad day for me to be away from the office... turns out the Exchange Server decided to take the day off too, so I was getting calls at 8am. You would be amazed at the panic that ensues when people cannot send or receive emails. It wasn't anything I could fix anyway, so I directed them to the guys that set up the server for us, but that didn't stop a few of them from calling me repeatedly to see if I was sure there wasn't anything I could walk them through over the phone. Right, because you want me to experiment with the server using a proxy that doesn't even know what a page break is. Um... NO!


The bee guys arrived shortly after 9am, but they didn't seem to be prepared. I had to show them where we think the bees are, (though we already showed the estimator), and after looking around for a bit, the mentioned that they were going to do the removal from the roof. Mom was quite adamant that was not going to happen.

We have a crazy roof. Almost magical even. Aside from the hallway where the air conditioner ducting is, the whole house has vaulted ceilings, and the tounge-in-groove 2x6 spruce that you see is the actual roof. With the roofing material right on the spruce, the house's insulation was terrible, making the house a sauna in the summertime. So when my parents were doing all the work on the house a few years ago, they had a new roofing material put on. It's like 3 layers of insulating material, then the shingles. (The downside is that it actually blocks cell signals - we can't make calls on our cell phones inside our house - this is actually the single most frustrating thing about our house.)

This crazy roof was quite expensive, and my mom is very protective of it - she was not about to let them go in through the roof. The technician said that if they go in through the roof, they can do the live removal, if they go in through the inside, they would have to exterminate the bees first.

This is not what the estimator told me. He had said that they could do the live removal, and patch the drywall and repaint. To me, this indicated that they would be going in from inside the house.

So we started asking more questions. Bobby asked what they move the hive in. "Well, normally they give us a box for the hive, but we don't have one today." We also noticed that they didn't have any drywall tools, or roof tools, or anything that might be necessary for cleaning up afterwords. The tech then admited that he'd never done a live removal indoors before - only from the roof.

This is not what we signed up for. The technician and mom both called the office to clarify what we wanted to have done. Eventually, the appointment was rescheduled for a week from tomorrow. Until then, we still have bees!

So Long

Three people quit this week. Well, sort of. One guy's last day was Friday, and two more will be leaving tomorrow. I work for a small firm (20 or so full time people), so that's a lot for such a short time. I've been here a (long) while now, so I've seen a number of people come and go, but I always find it a little saddening to see people go. Not that I think they should stay, just that I will miss them.