Emma’s Fantabulous Blog

I havn’t been sleeping much recently. I usually wake up in the middle of the night & then go back to bed, but since we started the whole moving process I’ve been unable to fall back asleep. So here I am.

There’s a huge moving trailer in our driveway & the local movers arrive in under 2 hours to start packing everything we own into it. So shortly, I will have no internet access. Tonight we’ll stay at our friend’s (Russell, Jenny & little Zoe) house tonight, which is so awesome of them to put up with an iguana for the evening.

Then bright and early tomorrow morning, 6amish, Devon, Fifi and I start our homeward bound journey. Day 1 will be a 17 hour drive from the Seattle area to Rapid City, where we’ll spend the night in a pet friendly motel. The next day we’ll do some sight seeing as we drive through South Dakota, including photo ops for Fifi in front of Mount Rushmore & the Corn Palace. 4 days after starting our drive, we should arrive in our new home (have I mentioned that D & I are homeowners?!?!) late Sunday night.

Today is the beginning of that journey. I’m excited & terrifyed. So much to do, and so far to go. Even with all that, I’m so glad to be getting back to Massachusetts. Home. To our home.

I swear I’m going to write a book describing in excrutiating detail, why Seattle drivers suck so much.

This comes after another car came thisclose to sideswiping me in a intersection this afternoon. Another event inspiring my book: about a week ago, a shitty Seattle driver completely totaled my friend Christian’s brand-new limited-edition Audi after said-shitty-Seattle-driver ran a redlight and tanked into his car. A witness said that he hear her rev the engine instead of trying to break, like most drivers (who aren’t in Seattle) would do.

I can’t wait to get the hell out of this fricking town where apparently EVERYONE needs to take a boatload of Driver’s Ed refresher courses.

In getting checked out for a home mortgage, the mortgage company ran credit checks on D & I. I was pleasantly surprised.

*brag alert ahead*

According to Equifax, my credit score is 811… (Yeah, bitches!) Which was better than Devon’s. (Not that his is bad, by any means.) It’s just hillarious, because my credit history is WAY shorter than his. Also I’ve never been the primary holder of a credit card.  Not like I’d want to dispute my credit score or anything. I’m just surprised that I have a great score when I have a realtively small credit history.

It’s kind of like when he first added me to his car insurance plan & his rates went WAY down, He should be stoked that I can help us get a better mortgage rate.

Suze Orman would be so proud.

Wow. All I can say is wow. (*And that I’m slightly jealous that I didn’t have waffles at D & I’s wedding.*)

This wedding is Klassy. But you gotta love it for the bride and groom getting hitched in a space near & dear to their heart. ALso I love the bride chainsmoking in her wedding dress (in addition to all of the bridesmaids, wedding guests, etc…)

You gotta check out the slideshow of the wedding at the bottom of the page. Love it!

This is a really cool B&W to Color illusion.

SO, in moving to Boston & buying a house, we have to factor Fifi’s habitat into the equation. Currently Fifi lives in a small laundry room & is kept comfortable with humidifyers, a space heater and a variety of lights and basking levels. In our new home, we decided that it would be best if we got her an official enclosure. Looking around online, there were a couple of options, although many iguana owners choose to build their own…. Devon and I arn’t carpenters and we wanted something that wouldnt look like a 5th grade shop class assignment.

We came across the Rolls Royce of reptile enclosures. J. Worlds. Beautiful pieces that look nicer than many set ups that I’ve seen in zoos. There’s also a neat water feature with a sump pump that can be plumbed directly into you home. Super easy cleaning. Everything is hand-crafted, and it appears to be amazing quality. Also Jay, the craftsman, hand delivers the piece & sets it up for you & shows you how it works. Pretty rad, no?

After a brief consult with Jay, he said that he would be able to create a special set up to suit Fifi’s special needs. While he normal just puts vines in for reptiles, he would build some basking shelves for my balance-lacking 3 legged lizard-baby. He’d also put more vines in, so if she does happen to fall, she’ll have more chances to grab onto things to break her fall.

Basically we’re going with a model similar to this:

Fifi’s gonna be sooo excited!

We got hitched 3 years ago, today. We’ve made it through 3 blissful years of marriage & now we’re about to embark on our newest journey together: buying a house. It makes jumping off a cliff together seem like nothing, doesn’t it?

You make me insanely happy & I’m the luckiest woman ever, to find someone who balances me out so perfectly. You’ve put up with my “career woman” endeavors this summer & for that I’m so grateful…. Cuz man, was I a major pain in the ass. With me being either exhausted, depressed or angry every night when I came home. But you took wonderful care of me, like you always do. Cooking me dinner when I was nomb-y & exhausted. Letting me tell you about the day’s horribly depressing events when I needed to get it off my chest, even when I knew you REALLY didn’t want to hear it.

You’re a great man & a great husband & it’s been an amazing 3 years. I’m looking forward to the rest of our lives together. Jumping off more cliffs together & enjoying the ride. I love you, Devon.

With the eventual move back to Boston quickly approaching, I’ve found myself needing to go through closets & cupboards to get rid of stuff that we don’t want or need & also use stuff up that’s sitting around if we can. Like finally eating those canned peaches that I bought a year ago, or putting that half empty tub of risotto rice to good use.

On FoodAndWine.com you can type in ingredients that you have & the site will pop up recipes that use them. I was looking for a recipe that might use up some long grained basmati rice, a can of crushed tomatoes,  a can of unsweetened coconut milk and an onion. Low and behold, something actually popped up and it looked really yummy: Brazilian shrimp soup. I did some minor tweaking to their recipe & the result was delicious, easy and cleared out some cupboard space.

Brazilian Shrimp Soup (serves 4)

Ingredients:

2 TBSP Olive Oil
1 Onion, chopped
1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
3 cloves Garlic, minced
3/4 cup long grain Rice
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 28-ounce can of crushed Tomatoes (about 3 1/2 cups)
4 cups Water
1 cup canned unsweetened Coconut Milk
1 1/2 lbs medium Shrimp, shelled & cut in half horizontally
1/4 tsp Black Pepper
1 TBSP Lemon Juice
1/2 cup fresh Parsley, chopped

Directions:

In a large pot, heat the oil over moderately low heat. Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the veggies start to soften, about 10 minutes.

Add the rice, cayenne pepper, salt, tomatoes and water to the pot. Bring to a boil and cook until rice is almost tender, about 10 minutes.

Stir the coconut milk into the soup. Bring back to a simmer and then stir in the shrimp. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are just done, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in the black pepper, lemon juice and parsley. Serve.