Recession Part II; Week One

As you can see from the title of this blog, I have divided this recession into parts.
According to my calculations we are in the second stages of the recession.
The job part.

As I stated before, my new gig will most likely be quite comparable to the unemployment I was getting. So while it's not exactly a step up, hopefully I will do this job well and get my scheduled raises, and then it WILL be a step up. Not a huge step. But a baby step...and soon I will be able to say:




And to keep the nautical theme going, the first week of the new gig just sailed on by.
As most of you know, I hate being the new kid.
People who know me find this to be shocking, as most people say I'm outgoing.
But this is true only in situations where I feel comfortable.
So if I don't know anybody AND I have no idea what I'm doing.
It spells critical uncomfortability for Jj.
However, if we were allowed to drink on the job, this might change.
I'm just being honest here, folks.

With that being said. By the end of the week I was at least treading water. I was able to take some phone calls, schedule some appointments, answer some questions, etc. So I'm hoping by the end of next week things will be better.

I haven't been fired yet, so that is a plus.

What I find humorous about the job is how BUSY/CRAZY everyone says it is.
Obviously they have never worked at a coffee shop when you have a line out the door.
So it doesn't seem that crazy (knock on wood). But maybe I just don't know enough about anything yet.
Which could totally be the case.
This is what I do know:
1. We get lots of birds.
2. The dr's, thus far, have been incredibly nice and approachable, which is a nice switch from other mecial practices I've worked at (vet and human).
3. The people seem pretty nice, I suppose. Lots of moms. I think I will get along with the other receptionist quite well as she reminds me a bit of my mom in her demeanor and how she relates to people. Plus she has a huge St. Bernard mix that I got to see. So so cute.
4. It's already 100% less depressing than the WHS. PLUS!

I will keep you posted as to how week two goes.

In other news:
The 5K training is coming to an end!
I run my 5K on SATURDAY!
I'm not looking to win (obs), just to run the whole thing. This could be quite the task as I totally slacked on training this week, due to E's wonky schedule. But this week we should be good to go. Upon completion of the 5K, I'm considering keeping the training going and training for the Al's Run, or I think now it's known as the Brigg's Stratton Corporate run for Kids or something.
For us native Milwaukeeans, it's Al's Run.
This would be an 8k in October, which would mean two months to add another 3Ks.
We'll see.
We'll see how the 5K goes.

Farm Share news!
Well E and I have been very successful eating most, if not all of our farm share during the week.
Most of the time we both enjoy what I prepare.
I'm not afraid to try making new things, knowing that usually E or I will end up eating it.
I've also learned I don't like beets, but at least I did try them.
Yesterday was a fail and a half for me:

Upon receiving our farm share and divvy-ing everything up I realized we had a lot of carrots. Upon looking through the vast array of cookbooks I have acquired, I found two recipes that looked interesting.

The first was a carrot salad, taken from the cookbook PO got me for my birthday:

This is a vegan recipe and while I thought it was interesting, and I will eat it, E didn't like it at all, and I probably won't make it again, although it was incredibly easy:

• 1/2 lb carrots
• 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 sm. clove of garlic, finely minced
• 2 tsp. chopped fresh chives
• salt to taste

Peel carrots; grate on the large holed side of a four sided grater. Transfer to a bowl and stir in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, chives and salt. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Like I said, the recipe is incredibly easy, but there was something about it that seemed "too much." We couldn't decide if it was the lemon juice, or if it was because I used fresh-from-the-farm-super-punguent garlic. I should also note we did not have chives, so I skipped those. That may have helped. This was the half-fail recipe. All though now that I think about it I may try it again but with the chives. We'll see.

The epic-fail recipe I made was a dish called Carrot Timbales, which I had never made before. And although the process seemed rather long, it wasn't anything we could handle...I thought we would be making mini-quiches as the recipe called for this egg/milk mixture to be mixed with the carrots and onion. Except then in got weird. Then it instructed us to put ramekins in casserole dish, fill with hot tap water (the casserole dish) so only a 1/3 of the ramekin wasn't in the bath, and then cover with foil. They cook then you open the oven door, loosen the foil and cook for another 10 minutes. Then you let them sit for ten minutes and invert them and eat them.

After putting the casserole dish/ramekins in the oven E became enlightened with some information:
E: Jj I don't think you're going to like this recipe.
Jj: Why?
E: Well I think the reason we have to do the water thing and cover with foil is that we're steaming the eggs.
Jj: Ew. So they will be like poached eggs?
E: Yeah, I think so. But I could be wrong.
Jj: I'm totally not going to like this.

So we waited. We followed the instructions and.
E was right.
It was like five little poached eggs meals.
And if you know anything about me, it's that I only eat eggs dry.
Scrambled hard.
Quiche baked well.
There cannot be a hint of ooze from the eggs.
And these were the ooziest of ooze. Steamed eggs.
Whoever thought of such an idea?
Ga-ross.
However, if you like steamed eggs, and vegetables, this could be the recipe for you.
Email me and I will email you the recipe if interested.

Another Epic fail?
The Brewers. My team is slowly bleeding out and there is nothing I can do. First we lose to the Nationals. Now the Padres.
To clarify:
The Nats have the worst record in ALL of the MLB.
The Pads are in LAST in the NL West.
The good news is that E is a Padre fan, so there is at least that.
But still.
Ugh.