In Plain Sight…Ending

Posted by random olio

I am a bit bummed out. There are only two episodes left of the TV show: In Plain Sight. Have you seen it? If not you will want to Netflix and start with the first season. I am getting too ahead of myself though. I started watching In Plain Sight because I was a West Wing addict. I really liked the role Mary McCormack played on The West Wing so when I saw she was on a new show a few years ago, I was intrigued.

Here it is five seasons later and I am sad, because it is the final season and there are only 2 episodes left. If you have not heard of In Plain Sight, it is about two US Marshalls supporting the Witness Protection Program. Not having ever witnessed a crime I really knew nothing about the Witness Protection Program. While this is a fictional show, the storyline is very realistic and it has really made me think about what it must be like to be a witness. Your identity has to be changed. Nothing you did before can be the same. If you are a lawyer, you can do nothing pertaining to law. To give up your life, your job, friends, sometimes your family and start over fresh somewhere else, so you can stay safe because of something you witnessed.

I also like watching In Plain Sight, because well Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack’s name on the show) is a badass. Yes, I use this word a lot. She does not take crap from anyone, she is strong, brave, and has no patience for the trivial parts of life. You want her on your side. Can you tell sassy women inspire me?

So while I mourn the loss of this great TV show, I hope you add it to your list!

Dukes of Hazzard + Big Wheels

Posted by random olio

What activities made you happy as a child? Could you list them right now? If so, do they bring a smile to your face? I started thinking about what made me happy as a kid this past weekend when I came across this picture of me on my Dukes of Hazzard Big Wheel.

me on my new Big Wheel

I LOVED Daisy Duke. She was just the epitome to me at the time of what I would now call a badass. We did not have a TV growing up, so I would live for the chance to watch Dukes of Hazzard at my grandma’s house each week. I remember a local store (I think it was called Zayre’s) had a photo signing by Daisy Duke herself. I do not remember if I actually got to meet her, but I was so proud of that photo with her signature. In my mind she was famous.

I also loved the Dukes of Hazzard theme song. Hey, I am from Indiana. You can take the girl out of Indiana, but you cannot take an Indiana childhood out of the girl. Enough said.

As you can tell from the above picture, I obviously loved my Big Wheel too. It looks like it is brand new and I do know that I am riding it in our living room (flip flops and all). Somethings do not change, I still check the temperature in April to see if I can wear my flip flops yet, and in October to see if I can continue to wear them or if I will freeze.

What I love most about this photo is the absolute glee and happiness on my face. This is my inspiration this week. That I can approach life today with as much excitement and joy as I did on my Big Wheel version of the General Lee.

Are you with me? What Big Wheel riding, Dukes of Hazzard moment of your childhood made you feel like a badass and you smiled from cheek to cheek?

Why are Chocolate Chip Cookies the default cookie?

Posted by random olio

Ah, what a wonderful weekend I had. It was between 75-80 degrees over the weekend, and we did all we could to be outside most of the weekend. I got a little pink, or maybe a little burnt. I do not mind. As pale as I am, I am used to the first sun of the season to leave me a little crisp around the edges. We had brunch outside, ran errands, decided to stay in Portland and do an early happy hour, I sat in the sun and read, and we extensively cleaned up our back yard. A full, sun filled weekend. It is supposed to be nice again today, but then we go back to rain for the rest of the week. I am just grateful for any amount of sunshine we can get right now!

I was also going to make Chris some of his favorite chocolate chip cookies yesterday, but then I was just wiped out after hours in the sun and hours cleaning up the backyard. Instead while parking my butt on the couch, and letting my mind wander a bit, I came to this random question: Why are chocolate chip cookies the default cookie or usually the cookie of choice? At meetings you usually get a choice of ham, turkey or veggie sandwiches or wraps. When you get a cookie it is usually chocolate chip. Why is that?

When I Googled: “Why are chocolate chip cookies the default cookie” all I got was a list of recipes for chocolate chip cookies. So I decided to look at the history of the chocolate chip cookie. This is what I found on Wikipedia:

“The chocolate chip cookie was accidentally developed by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1930. She owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts, a very popular restaurant that featured home cooking in the 1930s. Her cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was published in 1936 by M. Barrows & Company, New York. It included the recipe “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie”, which rapidly became a favorite to be baked in American homes.

Wakefield is said to have been making chocolate cookies and on running out of regular baker’s chocolate, substituted broken pieces of semi-sweet chocolate from Nestlé thinking that they would melt and mix into the batter. They did not and the chocolate chip cookie was born. Wakefield sold the recipe to Nestlé in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate chips. Every bag of Nestlé chocolate chips sold in North America has a variation (butter vs. margarine is now a stated option) of her original recipe printed on the back.”

Ah, Nestle Toll House. Just thinking of the yellow bag reminds me of my grandma. She always made the recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips, and at the time (I am not sure if it is still the case today) the recipe called for Crisco. I never thought anything of it. Now I am grossed out thinking of all the many batches and batches of cookies I ate that were made with Crisco. I use butter today. My mom used margarine, mostly because I think it was the least expensive. She also made a variation of the chocolate chip cookie in bar form, what she called: “Congo Squares.” It is interesting to think my grandma = Crisco, my mom = margarine, me = butter. I guess you do not always do things they way you were raised.

Massachusetts has even named the chocolate chip cookie the state cookie. I love them, and I eat them, but how did they become the cookie of choice? What is your default cookie?

Life size Barbie proportions

Posted by random olio

I was a Barbie girl. I did not really play with dolls, or horses (except My Little Pony), or cars, or trains. I played with Barbies. I had about 12 of them (not sure if that is normal or not). I had a light pink Barbie corvette, a townhouse with an elevator that went up and down with a string pulley (it was the 80’s). I had the Barbie salon where you could use wash their hair, and color it using special “markers” that washed out later. They do not tell you that you can color Barbie’s hair, but you should never cut it (Barbie will never look the same again). I had exercise Barbie, ballroom Barbie, wedding Barbie and wedding Ken, I had bikini Barbie (she got the haircut), and a slew of others I do not remember. All of these were gifts given over many birthdays, and they were dearly loved.

I was reminded of my Barbie memories after a conversation at work yesterday that originated from superheros dimensions to Barbie dimensions. We then found the following article about if Barbie was life-size what would she actually look like. (For those of you that do not click the link you are missing out, it is quite shocking). The article explains that Barbie would be 5 foot 9 inches, weight 110 pounds, wear a size 3 shoe, a 39″ bust, 18″ waist, and 33″ hips. Gulp. So if you still have not clicked the link, do so now.

What is funny about my experience with Barbies (for those of you with young little girls) is I think playing with them got a lot of the girly stuff out of my system. I have a lot of friends that purposely ban Barbie and other toys that do not lead to positive images of women. Then those are the only toys they want. I do not know what I’ll do when I have kids. There is a part of me that thinks that I will feel the same way, that it will just be a yuck feeling I will have about any toys that do not lead to a positive, strong view of women. Having said all that, I loved playing with my Barbies and would beg my sister to play with me. Now I am starting to think that being all girly when I was young has meant I am not as girly now. So maybe it was not such a bad thing.

Regardless of if I got it out of my system, did I know at that age that Barbie was not anatomically correct? Probably not. However, I do think Mattel should fix Barbie so that she is more normal/true to real woman size. Convincing Mattel should not be that hard right? Ha.

Have a great weekend! Hope the sun is shining..

EmpowHER Blogger Network

Posted by random olio

I recently became affiliated with the EmpowHER Blogger Network. EmpowHER is a Social Health Community for Women. I highly recommend taking a moment to explore their website. You will find many women bloggers writing about women’s issues, health and wellness, exercise, eating, weight, etc. While there are lots of pages of things I might not be as interested about (on diseases, or not so happy topics) I am sure that many folks find the resources on the website helpful to them. I wanted to share their website for those of you that might be interested, as I follow their exercise and eating healthy topics.

Exercise and healthy eating is NOW important to me, but it has not always been. I grew up in Indiana, where I might have mentioned in a past blog post that corn should have been listed as the state vegetable. There is a small amusement park/area in Indiana called: Indiana Beach. They have a tagline of: “There is more than corn in Indiana.” I am not sure I believe them! Well, truth be told, I grew up hating my vegetables. It took at least until I was twenty-five years old and married before I would start to enjoy eating any vegetable (thank you, hubby for making them so yummy). I started to enjoy vegetables because of how he prepared them, and also because living in Oregon there are a vast variety of vegetables that grow local and are fresh and easily accessible to obtain, especially with our many farmers markets.

Lots of things have happened in my life since my vegetable breakthrough, I will not go into those now, but I will tell you that what has resulted from all those things is an excitement for eating healthy and for consistent exercise. Friends that knew me from a younger age are still shocked at my transformation with food. I now willingly ask for vegetables at restaurants, crave them, and know that they are benefiting my health. Changing my diet has changed my mood, my energy level, and driven me to be motivated to stay in shape and be healthy. As I have changed my diet, I have also gotten into running. I try to run at least 6 days a week, it has been a great stress release from the day. The other idea on my list to try is boxing, this article about women boxing workouts on the EmpowHER site has inspired me to see where I can start boxing in my area. Here is another good article from their website on 5 Ways to Exercise Everyday.

Take a moment to explore their website!