My crazy week...tendinitis, a leaking sink, and Coq au Vin.

Yep, it was kind of a doozy...back to work on Wed. after a an overall glorious 6 weeks off (working at a school has it's perks), only to be confronted by a persistent pain in my left shoulder. Now that I'm in my 40's, I've noticed assorted aches and pains, but for the most part they go away. I pretend they don't hurt that bad, then they disappear...this has been working for me, so by day 3, when said pain still had not subsided, I resigned myself to the fact that I would have to really deal with it by going to the doctor, UGH!

I managed a same day appt. in the minor injury center, to find out I have "rotator cuff tendinitis", brought on by...not really sure, probably all the yard work, projects, and lifting of bikes into the back of my truck while loading up for my annual girls-only trip to Lake Tahoe. For some reason, my shoulder decided to hold out just until the very day I went back to work. I few anti-inflammatory/pain meds later, my shoulder feels great, so great in fact that I just finished trimming and weeding the garden and tearing English ivy off the front of my house (charming, but it's taking over).

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be resting it...my daughters are scolding me, reminding me I'm supposed to be wearing a sling that the Dr. gave me, but those things are so confining and they really hinder me from using my arm...oh ya, now I get it!

On my second day back to work, I came home to find water leaking under the kitchen sink, this after cooking a big dinner w/ many dishes to wash. Upon further inspection, water is pouring down around the garbage disposal, which seams to have completely lost it's seal. First, I try to fix it, this is what I always do, that doesn't work so then I call my dad, he looks at it and says he can't fix it, so now I might actually have to call in a professional (the $ signs are adding up in my head). Plumbers are sooo expensive, and no, I do not know one. I remember I've noticed a neighbor driving around in a van w/ a logo on the side advertising some sort of handyman services, if only I could remember his last name or the name of the business. I call another neighbor who knows everything that's going on in the neighborhood and just before she's about to give me the number she asks what the problem is, and upon hearing it, proclaims her husband Charlie can fix it. So minutes later, it's all set, my dad will meet Charlie the neighbor the following morning at 9am to check it out. I'll be at work (and at the Dr. even though I don't know it yet) so he will let him in and be there since the girls are home alone. By 10:30am, I'm medicated, wearing a sling, back at work and have a working garbage disposal, at not cost to me. Charlie, as it were, collects all sorts of construction odds and ends and just happened to have all new parts to properly re-install my garbage disposal. Apparently I'm incredibly lucky it worked for the past 12 years, as my ex had never actually put in the screws that hold it all in place!

Wow, what a difference a day makes! Now I can keep my plans for the evening of meeting 2 good friends, mom, and my youngest daughter (my little chef) after work to see Julie & Julia. An amazing movie, very inspirational and a real "feel good" movie. After the movie we're hungry and ready to cook one of Julia's recipes from MtAoFC, so we head over to B & N only to find we don't really want to pay full price for the book when we can probably find the recipe we need online. My daughter and I decide we will make Julia's Coq au Vin, we already have a cut up chicken in the freezer, so it's jut a matter of picking up a few ingredients the next morning. After early morning soccer pictures, we head over to Trader Joe's and find what we need. We proceed to prepare the recipe, in addition to chocolate chip cookies (a thank you for our neighbor Charlie) and nachos for my oldest who is hungry for lunch. All this going on at the same time, all three of us in the kitchen at once, very rare in my house. My oldest daughter does not cook, as a matter of fact she makes it a point to act completely helpless in the kitchen (all really an act, I know it!) I even get her to make homemade salsa with all the ripe tomatoes spread across our counter top.

Now no offense to JC, who I've been watching since I was little girl and I absolutely adore, but her recipes are a bit antiquated, and take a lot longer to prepare than they really need to. This makes me realize I need to give Julie Powell more credit than I already had, I can't even imagine making all the recipes in that book just as they are written. With all the other chores I could have been doing, I spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen preparing this dish. I could have easily cut and combined several steps. I usually don't follow recipes exactly, tweaking and changing ingredients here and there, but no, I made it just as Julia directed, so as not to disappoint my 13 year-old daughter.

One more thing, not to gross anyone out, but my cats have decided that they now need to mark their territory by spraying all over my house (they're fixed and female, go figure??). Now, I love my kitties and so do my girls, but I'm pretty much at my rope's end as to what to do about it. I've already taken the little one to the vet (250 bucks later!)to find out she is not sick, but "stressed out" by our older cat and the stray who has been sleeping in our backyard. A stressed out cat! You've got to be kidding me! Do they make Prozac for cats???

So, there you have it, a bit of craziness, and a reminder to cherish every day, you never know what the next one will bring, and to always look on the bright side, things could be much worse!

Here are pictures to prove we really did make Coq au Vin, nachos, and choc. chip cookies, all at the same time:)

Coq au Vin for dinner

Chocolate Chip cookies for Charlie
Nachos for Kristil