The past couple months the weathermen here in NC will predict snow/sleet/ice storms about every other weekend or so. Very rarely is it predicted in the forecast of Fayetteville/Ft. Bragg but every once in a while they'll say, "Well, we had rain last week, and we all know what rain in January means!"
I had no idea.
"It means a chance of snow in the triangle!" they exclaim with such excitement.
Such BREAKING news.
The triangle= Charolette, NC (West side of the state) + Raleigh, NC (North side of the state) + Fayetteville, NC (South side of the state).
Obviously the east side of the state is the ocean, so, ya know.
Everyone at work will talk about the weather according to the farmer's almanac.
I'd hear about this everyonce in a while in CO, usually pertaining to how much snow we'd get or at what point El Nino was in!
But here.
They'll go by the almanac over a weatherman any day.
Now usually snow here in NC will happen on the Charolette side of the state where there are "mountains."
These mountains I have yet to see, but I hear there are ski resorts, so they have to be decent right? If I remember geography class right, the mountains here are part of the Appalachians.
Now there is another story.
Apparently it's obvious I'm not from here by how I say Appalachians and how I say Louisville, KY.
In NC english the word "Appalachians" is pronounced with a CH sound that holds the strongest emphasis of the word.
AppalACHians.
BTW, the first "A" of the word is sometimes said with a long "A" like the word "ape."
I had been pronouncing it with a SH sound and even more taboo, with a long A before the SH sound.
Appal A SHians.
"Appal" as in "Apple-A-SHians."
The other word that I said "incorrectly" was at work where I actually got LAUGHED at was when I said "Louisville."
I said "Louis" like LOO and a long "E."
Obviously with "ville" at the end!
Apparently in NC english it's pronounced, "LOOL-ville."
So anyways, off my tangent. Back to snow. Well we actually got some.
It's mainly ice if we want to be realistic. I went outside to put some mail out and it sounded like falling beads. Schools closed early the day before as well as the military bases.
John had been in the field all week so we took the "snowed" in opportunity to catch up on telling each other about our work weeks, rewatching LOST Season 5, playing with our pets, and getting to enjoy each other's company. It was GREAT.
Spin was cancelled and so was church so sleeping in on those two days were kinda cool too.
Considering that I don't have any cool quips from the sermon that was supposed to be today. It was supposed to be "Desperate Housewives."
I'm taking the cancelled service as a sign that my side of the relationship is fine, so........... :)
Well the ice was so prevelant here that I even got a call from Jeanette, my co-worker who's husband is in Haiti, that she was iced into her cul-da-sac. She later called me to tell me she fell off her front step in attempt to get the mail, so she's at the hospital right now waiting to hear back what the x-rays show.
I felt like a horrible friend cause apparently she called me first right after her MOM and I missed her call while I was at the grocery store. By the time I saw her missed call and called her back, her aunt was on her way to pick her up and take her to the hospital. Boo me!
She thinks she broke her ankle or reinjured a prior injury, so time will tell.
In the mean time, I have an awesome recipe to share!
While John has been in the field I have been experimenting with finding meals that will work when he is gone. Jeanette mentioned cooking rice in broth and/or cream of mushroom soup, so I did some research and tried this one out and it was AWESOME! Made it as a side with some rotissoire chicken and some veggies.
Not sure what the actual recipe is called, but I'm calling it Cream of Mushroom Baked Rice:
Preheat oven 400 degrees.
Ingredients:
2 c. uncooked rice
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 c. veggie or chicken broth
1/2 c. chopped onion (opt.)
1/4 c. chopped mushrooms (opt.)
1 tsp. dried parsley flakes
1 tsp. dried oregano flakes
1/4 c. melted butter
pinch of salt & pepper
-Mix all the ingredients in a med bowl then transfer to a 2 qt. baking dish. Cook for 35-40 minutes COVERED.
COVERED was my mistake when I made it. I covered it and cooked it for 30 and it wasn't quite done, so I put it on for 10 more minutes and forgot to recover it, so parts of it had undercooked rice. The parts that were finished was SO GOOD, so I highly recommend it!
This week John is in the field for only the first half of the week, so I am going to try another tilapia recipe. If it works out well I'll post it.
Well this last week was the first time I have EVER trained a new employee at a real legitimate job. I've trained people when I worked retail, but for some reason, to me, that doesn't count!
The new girl's name is Meghanne and she is a real sweetie.
She's from NC so she's been helping me with my lack of NC english.
The training went well-ish.
I should have known that when training someone new, after I've been there 6 months, that some things would go wrong, but it would take way to much typing and energy to lay it all out.
Needless to say I survived and learned a lot of what my coworkers thought of me in the process.
The first compliments I got was when I was walking Meghanne around introducing her to people and I got multiple, "Well Meghanne, you are learning from one of the best."
Smiles.
Then on Wednesday or so a co worker of mine that has been at MJ Soffe for over 10 years pulled me aside one morning and told me that she was listening in while I was working with Meghanne. She said I was doing really well and she was impressed with how quick Meghanne was catching on.
More smiles.
Made the negativity and set backs during the week more worth it.
Spin has been going well. But I feel like I've hit a small plateau.
Now part of me thinks that some of this is mental plateau, but I'm not sure.
The other part I'm not sure of is that I think I had a small stomach bug this week, so that's probably why it's more of a mental plateau than physical.
On Monday and Wednesday I went to spin and really just couldn't push myself the way I normally can. I didn't even get a second wind.
Since we didn't have spin on Sat I didn't have a way to test my theory. So I'll have to figure it out tomorrow.
I am having to take Jeanette to work and I assume take her home from work too, so I'm not sure if I'll hit spin this week or how that is going to work.
Sigh.
I really hope I can go, so hoping for the best.
My little brother, Drew, turned 20 this week.OMG.
TWENTY.
That weirds me out more than anything else right now.
I still remember the antigonizing teasing little punk that I beat up all the time.
I remember the first time he pegged me down and I couldn't "beat" him off.
I remember in college when I called home one time and he answered the phone. His voice had changed and I thought it was my dad. It brought tears to my eyes!
I remember him getting his license and getting his first ticket (didn't take long!).
Then I remember seeing him off to college.
Time has flown and I'm so blessed to have such a great bro to talk to.
We don't get to talk often but when we do we have fun and that's all that matters!
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