Yogurtopia

Sadly, peeps, I ain't got no weekend haps today. The only photo I took is this one:

And that about sums up my weekend highlights. Yikes.

Today got off to an ever better start, since when I opened my gym locker I found a thick layer of shampoo on the bottom of it.

I swear that's shampoo. I just don't know why it looks like that when it's been congealed in an enclosed space.

After my bootcamp class and a shower I headed to Whole Foods to grab a snack before meeting my parents for lunch. For my snack I had some bubbly water, part of a challah roll, and a string cheese stick.

I had never tried a challah roll, and recently a friend said they're tasty. Verdict? It's pretty tasty. I'm not sure if I'd get another but I liked it.

I don't have pictures of my lunch with my parents, but after lunch I did go with my Dad to pick up my nieces from school. I think I almost cried when my niece Riley yelled my name when she saw I was there. I'm pretty popular with the five-year old set.

We took my nieces to Yogurtland for a nice sugary treat. Here's my cup:

That's a bit of strawberry banana greek frozen yogurt, as well as some red velvet regular yogurt.

And, just for kicks, here's a pic of my niece Morgan and her little feets crossed under the table:

I think one of the cutest parts about little kids is when they adopt adult-like gestures and mannerisms, so this really amused me. My amusement also amused my nieces, a lot, but I guess that could've just been the sugar high hitting too:-)

*Have you eaten frozen yogurt recently? If yes, what flavor?

Salmon Friday

It's a new thing, peeps. Every Friday we eat salmon? No? Just me? Uhhh, wait till you guys see what kind of salmon I've been eating too--that'll really lose me some Salmon Friday followers.

First things first, though. This morning was the usual Friday business: bootcamp followed by lunch. I did go to Target in between those two things though, where I purchased deodorant, mascara, lotion, and some Easter Hershey's Kisses. David and I will be out of town for Easter (more on that next week) so I figured I'd better get a little Easter candy action on while I'm still in town.

Lunch was my new usual, veggie sushi.

Seriously, people, it's the avocado. It's so creamy and dreamy, especially with a wasabi explosion.

During lunch I got to thinking about chopsticks, since I own a pair of my own. These are they:

Is it a strange thing to own chopsticks when you hardly ever eat chopstick-worthy food?  I mean, I got these in college from a boyfriend and now they're really coming in handy, but otherwise I absolutely never use them.

After lunch I got to work on my dissertation bibliography. Basically, I have to go through the footnotes on my two-hundred page dissertation and make sure every work I've cited ends up in a long list at the end of the thing. Boo. And useless--who is ever going to read a dissertation on Victorian gynecology?

The good news about this kind of work, however, is that it's mindless, and you can do it for a long time. This is not true about most dissertation work, so it was a nice change from having to think clearly.

I recently broke for a snack, and you'll never guess what it was. Salmon!!! Yes, salmon! And not just any salmon, but salmon in a can.

Is that not, like, the most disgusting looking thing ever? It looks more like salmon brain than salmon fillet. The back story on this salmon is that David has been trying to get me to eat it for a long, long time. It's this brand:

Apparently it has even less mercury than wild Alaskan salmon, and(!!!) it comes in a BPA-free can. And obviously it has all those omega threes and such.

Now, I think those things are all great, but salmon in a can? Umm, no thank you, not a chance in hell. Recently, however, David got me to first sniff it, then try a tiny bite, and it's actually really good! It doesn't taste fishy and actually tastes light and flaky to me--more like canned tuna than canned salmon. So, go figure, I ate some for a snack today, and enjoyed it.

I hate it when David is right. About anything.

*Would you eat canned salmon? Do you own chopsticks?

Schizo Weather

Heya peeps, and Happy (Finally) (Freaking) Thursday! It is sunny and sixty degrees here in Boulder, so right now I'm typing from a sunny spot in a coffee shop, waiting to go to the Humane Society for my weekly shift. (*I wasn't able to get this up in time before my shift, however, so now it's nighttime!) Before you all get too envious, however, I should say that we're expecting a really big storm on Saturday, so though it's spring here today it will be winter the day after tomorrow:-(

Yesterday we had really nice weather too, which was especially nice because we had exceptionally nice plans last night. Our friend Bradley, who has been living in New Zealand for the past six months, came back for a visit, so we met him and a few other friends for dinner at City O' City in Denver.

I didn't get any pictures of Bradley or our friends, but I did snap a picture of what David ate.

David had some vermicelli asian salad, which looked okay, but not as good as my veggie burger.

Admittedly broccoli as a side isn't very glamorous, but hey--sometimes it's just about getting a few nutrients in.

Otherwise things here are pretty quiet. David has been really, really busy with work and I'm busy with polishing off this dissertation. This morning I was actually wondering how long after graduation I have until people start asking me what I'm going to do now. Also, for how long will I be able to say "I just graduated?" That second question is the more important one, since there's a very fine line between having just finished a degree and just being a regular unemployed person.

And finally, something totally random. From my spot right now I can see a man outside talking to a friend while he "chews," you know, on some tobacco. He has one of those round little cans of chew and a spittoon too! I'll just file that under "thingsyouneverseeinboulder."

Wednesday Picture Day

That title reminds me of elementary and middle school, when we always had a day that was designated "picture day." Man did my mom and I make some serious mistakes on those fateful days. One year I'm sporting a haircut that is clearly courtesy of my mom (with way crooked bangs and everything), and another year I'm clearly in need of a training bra but have none. Whoops!

Anyway, speaking of tiny little breastuses (uh huh, breastuses), chicken have them. And today I had a hardboiled egg for breakfast. With pepita toast.

After breakfast I went to my bootcamp class at the gym, where I got sweaty and tired. And then I saw this little guy in the parking lot:

Like a little teddy bear/dog mix, right? I just love a pouffy dog.

Lunch was a repeat of yesterday, I'm afraid.

These vegetarian sushis are usually a disappointment to me because I'm hoping to taste a pillow of salmon and instead all I get is cucumber and carrot. But recently they've been sounding soooo good, especially the avocado bites.

After lunch and a bit of work on my dissertation abstract David and I gave Haruki a bath. You all know how much she loves baths, right? So of course I had to grab my camera and coo over how fucking pissed (and cute!) she looked while we tortured her with water and soap.

Bribing her with freeze-dried salmon...ewwww, but it works. 

"I'm going to bite your face off while you sleep for this."

*What embarrasses you when you look back through your yearly school pictures?

Pandora vs. Spotify

What do you all think about that--Pandora versus Spotify? I've always been a Pandora listener, mostly because I really appreciate how it finds you new music that you'll prolly like. It's not always correct, of course, but it does search out and introduce a new artist or song to me every so often. Spotify, on the other hand, really plays into my obsessive nature. I mean, right? When you've started hearing a new song on the radio or something don't you just want to listen to it over and over and over? Most recently for me, songs like these include Kanye West and Jay-Z's "No Church in the Wild" and Zac Brown Band's "I Saw Goodbye in Her Eyes."

Ha. I realize how ridiculous that pairing is, but what can I say? Both songs just do it for me. I should also add that it's okay if you hate country music. We can still be friends. I don't like most country music, and only started liking some of it after my brother Brian moved back from North Carolina with a strong penchant for the stuff.

Anyway, I was thinking about this today because I did some coffee shop work this morning.

No, I wasn't working on Pandora. I'm trying to finish my dissertation conclusion. I have about two weeks to finish it all, and apparently I'm going to drag it out to the very last second. Ugh--that is really unlike me, but I'm trying to reframe it and tell myself that this behavior actually demonstrates really effective time management:-)

After working for a bit I went to the gym for a bullshit elliptical session. I would've stayed longer and worked harder, but I didn't want to. And besides, I had plans for lunch, namely, eating vegetarian sushi from Whole Foods and getting a pedicure.

Today, as I was having my feet cleaned and massaged, I was reminded of how defective I am in certain girly ways. For instance, they always shame me for how callousy my heels are. But I refuse to let them shave off skin because it means that either I'll have to start moisturizing my feet all the time or I'll have painful cracks in my feets (yah, feets) for awhile. Can anyone else feel me? I just don't get why I would moisturize the bottom of my feet. Today the lady giving me my pedicure also looked at my fingernails and asked if I needed a manicure too. Uhhhh, yah, but that's not going to happen. I can keep polish on my feets for a while but on my nails it tends to get cracked and chipped ASAP. I guess I should just be grateful that she kept quiet and refrained from asking if I wanted my eyebrows waxed too.

*Do you wax anything? Your car, maybe?

Candyland

Well, peeps, the week is here, again. And it's still not quite spring. Boo. Any.freaking.day., Mother Nature. I am really ready for spring. It feels so close, but then again it snowed again here today. Not a lot, but just enough to remind us that winter isn't over.

The weekend, however, was great in terms of weather. There were a few minor events, among them a date night with my husband...ewwww...still so strange to say husband. On Saturday we went downtown to have dinner at Hapa Sushi Grill on Pearl Street. Afterwards we walked on Pearl and shared a piece of banana bread at a coffee shop for dessert. One of the highlights of the evening was discovering a new store on Pearl Street. It's called Rocket Fizz,

and it's an actual candy shop! While there used to be a candy shop on Pearl Street, it closed down about a year ago and left a real dearth of candy options in town.

I'd say I eat candy approximately five times per year, but despite that ex-anorexic bullshit I really really love looking at candy shops. Especially when they're like Rocket Fizz and have lots of candy that is from foreign countries or the olden days. For example, here are a few highlights.

These two are British, I believe.

And these three are just plain weird/interesting:

Does anyone else like to personify cinnamon and gummy bears, just because they kinda do seem like little creatures? Or at least like they should be real little creatures?

I guess I shouldn't be throwing stones and little gummy creatures, however, since my eats today have been just about as random as chocolate-covered gummy bears. They include:

Hardboiled eggs:

And no, I didn't eat all that salt. 

Fancy olives:

And acorn squash:

David doesn't like stuff when it's even slight burnt, so I pulled the burnt parts off his half and stuck them on mine. 

Real nutritional powerhouse day, I tell you.

*What about you? Did you eat much nutritional powerhouse stuff today?

Friday Musings

Today was just another day at the office. First up, bootcamp at my gym. I really like the classes at my gym, but every time I see someone riding their bike outside during the winter I get envious. If only I wasn't such a chicken you know what when it comes to riding when it's cold out. Um, also, there is still a lot of snow on the ground from our recent storms--these riders are actually pretty kooky.

After boot camp I grabbed a quick bite before going to the movies. Soup, actually. It was mediocre, but luckily I also got myself a vegan oatmeal chocolate chip muffin to take to the theatre with me.

Once at the theater, I saw Amour. You might remember it as that French movie with a strange preview and two old people. It actually won for best foreign film at the Academy Awards last week, so I figured that despite the likelihood that it would be slightly depressing I'd go see it.

It was slightly depressing, as it's the story of an older couple and how they cope with one of them--the wife--growing infirm and dying. There wasn't much of a soundtrack to the movie, and most of it was close shots of the two main characters as they move through ordinary activities in their day-to-day existence. This, I think, could easily have been a wasted tactic, but here it works to make you feel the "realness" of what you're watching. After all, in some ways it must be easier to believe that what you're watching is "real" if its a portrait of someone washing the dishes rather than a portrait of, say, a Belgian spy that's come from the future to kill you.

Before I get all movie critic on you, I'll just say that yah, it was a good movie, and superbly acted. It made me think a bit about a time when I'll be close to dying, and I wondered during the movie if married couples feel a great sense of accomplishment about their lives together when it's clear that that life is almost over. I mean, will I look at David and feel elation at the life that we built together, and how much we share and shared?

Speaking of coupledom and death, do you and your partner discuss who will likely die first? Anybody? We do, and it's really a pretty contentious issue over here at Nikki Cooks Kale. After all, I eat a shit ton of kale, I'm ten years younger than David, and I'm ... duh, a female. All these things are in my favor, but for his part David has longevity in his genes: his grandpa only recently died while in his late nineties. And, as David loooooves to point out, he doesn't use lots of girly smelling products that (according to him) are probably building up in my brain and body causing cancer as I type this.

Sorry for the morbid subject matters, people. But look on the bright side: Daylight Savings Time starts in less than two weeks, AND!!! Easter is at the end of this month!!! That means more daylight, more happy time, and Reese's Egg Cups are in our future--yes!

*What is your favorite Easter candy? Do you often think, around this time of year, that the last candy holiday is approaching? After Easter there isn't another candy-crazy holiday until Halloween in October:-(