January 14th - Escape to LA

Continuing our tradition of going somewhere warm when it's cold, we flew to LA yesterday. Lest you think about breaking in our house, know that it is currently guarded by Canadians and cats. Oh, and a security system.

Astute observers will recall that I actually hate LA, so you might be wondering why we're here. To run in Disney's Star Wars half marathon, of course! And by "run" I mean "kind of jog" and by "half marathon" I mean "5k." Chris will actually be doing the running and the marathoning, and I'll be doing the sauntering and the trying-to-finish-without-being-picked-up-by-the-lose-bussing.

I'm not going to keep track of calories, because it's vacation and all. But I will try to make relatively healthy choices. Plus, it's Disney, so I'll get a million miles of walking in each day.

Breakfast (if you want to call it that) yesterday was a Subway turkey sandwich, while I ran around refilling prescriptions and fretting over if I forgot to pack anything. (Yes: flip flops.)

Lunch was at my favorite C gate restaurant: Vino Volo. You can get food that actually tastes good and isn't horribly overpriced! Plus did I mention wine flights? I had marcona almonds, a salad with goat cheese, and a wine flight. I'm so fancy.

For Second Lunch (what, you don't know about Second Lunch while you're on vacation?) Chris and I split United's cheese plate. Well, at least the cheese that Chris didn't drop on the floor. It's okay--he didn't drop the brie. Plus, I ate all the grapes. Aaaaand maybe I had a mini bottle of gin. Work has been stressful.

On the flight, I anglophiled it up, and watched The King's Speech, and re-watched The Queen. Love the metaphor of the 14 point stag. Go watch it. It's good.

Eventually, we landed in LA very dehydrated. I was surprised to see that they had remodeled the United terminal since I was there last, putting in real restaurants, and generally trying to make it feel like you're not in the 9th circle of hell. Maybe I'll reevaluate my hatred of LAX. Maaaaaaayyyyyybe.

As soon as we got the rental car (or rather, the rental SUV since it's 4 of us and our luggage), we headed straight to In-n-Out burger. OHMYGODITSSOGOOD. I kind of want another one right now.

Now we're off to Disneyland, to have all the fun that $196 per person can buy. We'll give yesterday a Zara, because it wasn't all that great, calorie-wise, but I really don't care. :)

Freezer Meal #2 - Maple Pork Tenderloin with Apples

This is the second part of my foray in to freezer meals - the first part can be found here for Cheesy Shells and Italian Sausage. Today we're making a pork and apples recipe adapted from The Pampered Chef. I love this one--it's so easy to assemble in advance, most of the ingredients you likely already have, and it couldn't be easier to fix the day you want to eat it (dump stuff in pan, bake). So yummy. And pretty. Maple Pork Tenderloin with Apples For this you'll need the ingredients below. You probably have the oil, vinegar, garlic, brown sugar, mustard, and bags in your pantry! You can also easily divide this recipe if you usually only cook for 2-3 people at a time (that's what I do when I make it). 2 pork tenderloins , about 2 pounds total - they can be expensive, so pick these up on sale 3 apples - I prefer honeycrisp but use what you like, or take one of these suggestions 1 small red onion 1/4 cup canola oil 1 clove garlic , press...

Freezer Meal #1 - Cheesy Shells and Italian Sausage

A month ago, a coworker invited me to a Pampered Chef Freezer Meal party. I will admit that I went in to it with a little bit of an attitude: " I'm going to have to buy all their seasonings and the meals will be full of processed goo and not taste great ." Four hours of fun, three glasses of wine, $170 for groceries and seasonings, and 14 meals later, I was happily proved (mostly) wrong. Here's how my thinking changed: 1) I'm going to have to buy all of their seasonings - well, yes. This is a service they're offering after all, and I felt like the $70 was more than worth the ideas and ingredients I got, plus not having to do the dishes and getting a free dinner was a bonus! I discovered a few ingredients I would have normally given the "side eye" to, like cherry balsamic vinegar, which costs the same at the grocery store as it does from The Pampered Chef. 2) The meals will be processed - I was expecting lots of Cream-of-Something-Soup r...

Write a Resume that Lands You Interviews

I've shared this advice over the years, most recently when a number of friends & colleagues found themselves hunting for jobs. Both then and now, I've had people reach out to me to say "oh my gosh, this really works!" or "I applied to a TON of jobs, didn't get any call backs, but then got an offer within WEEKS of putting this advice into practice." So look, I'm not some sort of job application sorcerer, and I'm not saying that the current job market doesn't have challenges because it does. I'm just a lady who used to be a recruiter that noticed which applications made it to the interviewed short list and which ones didn't. If you've read my advice before, I've updated it with advice for covering a Covid furlough/layoff, how to use ChatGPT to write resumes and cover letters, and why Indeed Easy Apply is hurting your chances. And yes, this does take some initial time investment up front, as well as customizing resumes and ...

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