snakebites again!!

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Do you know what a snakebite is?

I'm not talking about the puncture wound from a snake's mouth. I'm talking about the beverage! I had no idea what these were until a few months ago. A bunch of folks from work gathered at Buffalo Wild Wings (also known as Lauren's Favorite Place to Eat Delicious Wings) for a little celebration of the alcoholic sort. One of the guys from my department ordered a "snakebite" and I had no idea what he meant, being fresh out of college and only understanding mixed drinks like cheap rum + coke and cheap vodka + juice. Turns out, a Snakebite is: 1/2 Woodchuck (hard apple cider) and 1/2 Guinness (super dark beer).

Greg tried a sip of this mysterious drink and immediately loved it. He gets Snakebites at BWW almost every time we stop by and it is super delicious every time. The sticky sweet Woodchuck and the heavy, dark Guinness balance each other out and make it really drinkable. It's layered, too, so it looks really neat in the glass.

Being the DIYer that I am, I decided one evening to figure out how to make these Snakebites for Greg. I knew it was layered (obviously. you can see the layer) and I knew what the ingredients were, so that meant only one thing... experiment time! I ran out to the grocery and got a pack of Woodchuck and a pack of Guinness and started mixing. My first attempt was a serious failure - I poured the Woodchuck into the glass and then tried to sorta pour the Guinness down the side of the glass to rest on top. Evidently this is the WRONG WAY to make layered drinks, since it got all mixed together and tasted absolutely awful. I needed a buffer! I grabbed a spoon and after pouring in a later of Woodchuck, I tried pouring the Guinness over the spoon and on top of the cider. PERFECTO. I mastered it. I made one to taste-test and then made another one in case the first was a fluke :P

My results:

failure on the left, success on the right!

I couldn't wait to impress the dude with my achievements so of course as soon as he got to my house I made one and presented it with a big smile on my face. He was so happily surprised!

See!? So smiley he can barely drink!

or maybe it's because I'm taking his picture?

Now since it's officially cold and autumn/winter up in the frozen north, there's a new flavor of Woodchuck called "Winter" and I'm pretty dang excited to try out some Snakebites with Winter Woodchuck! I hope it's as delicious as regular :)

- L

another member of the family

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Meet Gracie, the newest member of the family!!

first day at home - 8 weeks old

cuddling like normal

 She's a rescue from the local animal shelter. They give her to you spayed and with all her shots - good deal! Going to an actual veterinarian would be pretty expensive (think $100+), and the animal shelter does it almost for free. I'd definitely recommend rescuing a kitten. I was at the shelter looking into microchipping for Wayne and decided to just hang out with a kitten or two while I was there. BIG MISTAKE. Kittens are adorable and make little peeping meowing noises and curl up on your shoulder and fall asleep and are impossible to leave behind without feeling so sad. Of course, the little bugger that they brought in was Gracie (then called Wren). She was so. damn. cute.

I left the shelter without her because I was adamant that I wasn't a "cat person" and that Wayne was more than enough cat for my household. However, after a 15 minute ride home and reading Google hits from "Is my cat lonely?" and "Should I get two cats instead of just one?" I decided that Wayne needed a friend and a playmate because he was SO LONELY and SAD and ALONE. It was all because of Wayne. Of course.

So I went back to the shelter and adopted her on the spot. She's the perfect addition!! Unlike Wayne, she likes to sit quietly with people on the couch and doesn't attack feet or unroll toilet paper. Honestly, he was starting to scratch at furniture and become a really angry adult male cat. Miraculously, since Gracie came home, he's stopped destroying stuff and actually calmed down a lot. It took them about a week to get used to each other and I had to keep her quarantined upstairs while he accustomed himself to a new kitten smell, but they are absolutely inseparable now  :)

double naptime.

 She's cute and funny and if you sit down, she immediately gets on your lap and falls asleep. I like to pretend it's because she likes me... and not just because my house is freezing and she needs someplace warm to nap. In any case, a fuzzy little ball of Gracie purring and sleeping on your lap would cheer anyone up after a stressful day at work!

And of course, because the large-and-in-charge Big Gray Wayne would be sad if he didn't get to contribute to this post:

ooh photo op!

And yeah, maybe I'm a cat person AND a dog person. Sue me.

- L

woot wooty wooters

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My father decided one day that the internet meme-type thing "woot woot" should be "woot wooty wooters"...and we've been using it ever since.

Today is a woot wooty wooters kind of day! Great things at work, nice weather (except a little bit of rain), everyone is healthy and happy, the kitten is less hyperactive than usual, and this weekend will be full of rest and relaxation!

I'm really happy that fall is finally showing itself up here in the northern states. I'm really not a fan of summer heat and autumn has always been my favorite season. There have been a few 30-something degree nights and as a result, the leaves are changing a bit. It makes me think of hot apple cider, pumpkin pie, and curling up with warm blankets and good books. It's such a COZY season, don't you agree?

from here

I can't wait for October!!

- L

V8!

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I have a confession to make: I'm an addict.
A V8 addict.

I drink at least one can of the salty vegetable goodness every day. Some days, I have two cans. Some days, I have two cans and a drinking glass filled from the bottle of "high fiber" stuff I keep in the fridge. The weird thing is that I hate tomatoes. Hate them. With a passion. I don't like fresh tomatoes, baked tomatoes, cooked tomatoes, diced tomatoes, or pureed tomatoes. In fact, pretty much the only thing containing more than 60% tomato that I enjoy is ketchup, and even then - only in small doses. I thought I hated everything with tomatoes. Then I met V8. We'd known about each other for a while: I'd seen the bottle sitting in the fridge after grocery shopping and sometimes I'd catch my Mum with a glass during lunchtime. I studied it. It was thicker than drinks should be, and that weird red color, and obviously made from dreaded tomatoes, and had some ridiculous number of vegetable servings per glass (that can only mean that it tastes gross, right!?). I just knew I'd never try it. Ever.

Then, away at college and without easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables, I started looking for ways to increase my vitamin intake without taking sixteen pills a day. I wanted some sort of drink that I could grab as part of breakfast or a quick lunch addition. At the Giant Eagle (aka "Jynt Iggle") I noticed V8 Fusion. It was in a cute little bottle, and a funky purple-y color, and had pictures of grapes and apples on the front! AND it was two servings of vegetables per glass! Everything I always dreamed of. I bought a bottle, tried it, liked the taste, and drank it constantly from then on. Fast forward three years and I'm in my year-old house with a big kid job and I'm feeling sluggish and tired again. I think, 'Maybe I'm missing vegetable servings?' It's a possibility! So, I go looking at the supermarket - Hannaford - for my lovely V8 Fusion. I find it, buy a bottle, take it home, have a taste and... EW. It's gross. It's sticky sweet and reminds me of those sugary syrup-and-water drinks in the plastic bottles with the faces molded into the material. You know the ones:

yep. there it is.

Blech. I couldn't even finish one glass. What was I to do? I loved drinking my vegetables and although I owned a blender, I preferred using it for milk/frozen strawberry/yogurt smoothies. Deeeelicous. I wanted something that came in a bottle, pre-made, full of vitamins and veggie goodness, and tasted okay. Back to the grocery store I went, hoping that there would be something better out there. Then I saw it - a bottle of "high fiber" V8 juice. The regular kind of V8, tomatoes and all. I was all, 'Hey, why not? I'm an adult now, technically, and if that's what adults drink then maybe that's what I want.' I bought it.  I brought it home. I stuck it in the fridge and STARED at it for the next three days...and finally worked up the courage to pour a half glass. First sip? Not exactly fantastic. It was thick, just like I thought. It wasn't grainy, really, but it wasn't smooth. But weirdest of all; although it was faintly tomato-ey, it was in a filling toasted-cheese-and-soup sort of way. I kinda liked it. I wasn't in love, but it would do for now.

After a week or so of my daily V8 regimen I started feeling better. I had been fighting a cold for a few weeks and it finally cleared up. I had been so tired every day, even after 8 or 10 hours of sleep - suddenly I had more energy. I wasn't superwoman, but I felt more human. That was the beginning of the addiction... Now I drink V8 as my everyday normal choice of beverage. I still hate tomatoes in everything else and still refer to them as "poison", but I honestly don't mind them in the V8. So. Moral of the story? Drink V8 juice. It's not so bad.

koral competition MKM

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So that prize I was talking about a few posts ago? It's finally here!! And it is....

*drumroll please!*


this!:

photo from: here

A competition brazilian jiu jitsu gi, size A2, koral MKM, lightweight, white, and exactly what the boyfriend wanted!! He had been using a raggedy old blue one and I refuse to be seen with him while he's wearing it. It's so old! And sweat-stained! And washed so many times that it's basically BABY BLUE.

ew.

so in honor of his return to The Academy in Portland, I splurged and surprise-bought him a brand spankin new gi. He mentioned that he would love to have a Koral brand gi, but that they were too expensive to justify getting one when he had a 'serviceable' blue one. I heard that and immediately started searching for that exact gi, on sale, that could be here in a reasonable amount of time. I was hoping SO HARD that FedEx would make it here before his gi-required jiu jitsu session on Friday. Laurenworld struck again!! Although he had some stuff to finish tonight before (academic) class tomorrow, it turns out it's barely a page of homework (ok, exaggeration) and I more or less insisted that he go to jiu jitsu class tonight and try out the new gi. He was SO EXCITED about it and put it on immediately and said it was the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for him - I felt so fuzzy and warm that I had gotten the correct type of fightwear from all the options online. I win!

Other than that, I've already delved slightly into a bottle of Barefoot Moscato as a reward for making it through this week (and for being the best girlfriend ever).

so good.

And yes, I know that it is technically "dessert wine" and that I'm not technically enjoying any "dessert" at the moment but I did have a scoop of grasshopper pie ice cream when I got home a little while ago so that counts, right? Right? I was allowed that scoop of ice cream, okay!? I've already lost more than 60% of the weight that I'm looking to lose and I'm really, really, really happy about it! So far I've been able to steadily decrease that number on the scale just by drinking far less beer and eating far more vegetables than starches. Hurrah healthy living!! I finally realized that my mumma was right the whole time by portioning dinner as mostly vegetable, part protein, and a little starch. Who knew moms were so smart?

And because I'm on a Pandora kick and it's giving me adorable songs, here's the one stuck in my head currently:

- L