charlatan psychic

I have a couple recipes that were a huge success lately. Well, huge success with J.  I don't know what order to put them in. So let's pretend this is dinner. For dinner, we are having Shepherd's Pie. Then, for dessert, Tropical Zucchini cake, with vanilla ice cream.  I don't know what I was looking for when I found this Vegan Shepherd's Pie recipe. It intrigued me, and I decided to try it. I used the cool allrecipes feature to slim down the recipe to 4 servings, since J was deployed and I was only feeding myself. Also, I have yet to follow the exact recipe.  First, I don't like celery. So I never use it. I will sometimes add celery salt instead. Second, I used real dairy. I wasn't going to go buy a bunch of stuff just for one recipe. BUT, I loved it. I gobbled that shit up! Really, it was amazing. I used Smartground meat substitute.  I used the same recipe when my MIL came to visit to make a Cottage Pie.  Ok, ok. let me 'splain. Gord...

I know, I haven't written much lately, but I kinda feel like writing right now. So here is a general update. J and I are getting into a schedule. He's working, but not pulling late nights *knock on wood.* He gets to do his own PT and loves that. He gets up early to run, bike, or swim a few days a week, and we hit the gym twice a week. He'll work out over lunch sometimes, and of course on weekends. I'm trying to run, of course, and hitting the pool once a week or so. Like I said, I'm hitting the gym twice a week with J now. And that means the weight room. He's showing me how to use the Hammer Strength machines, which are like a machine/free weight combo. We do a few things with dumbbells and yesterday did incline sit ups. I feel good when we go, even if I'm sore the next day. When it's nice enough and not too late, we ride our bikes to the gym, which works as a warm up. I even tried a spin class. It was exhausting, but I could feel that certain musc...

It's official! The Big D (deployment) is over for us. J is home safe and sound. It was a long, tiresome trip home for him. He's already at work today. Because today starts the next D - the Rear D. J is taking over the Rear Detachment Battery for the Battalion. He gets to shadow the current Rear D Commander for a while to see what the usual routine is. This means work, and probably plenty of it. Rear D Leaders often have long days, work on weekends, all that fun stuff. It was almost surreal to know he was headed home to me. I had my trip to KS to distract myself. Short trip this year, but good as usual. I actually expected his trip home to take longer and was surprised at how quickly they got it all arranged. He came home yesterday. I was nervous, which I hadn't expected. A good friend who has been through a deployment told me it was good to be nervous. He was exhausted from the long trip and very little sleep, so we just came home. It wasn't like what you see o...