Busy Busy Busy

Hong Kong. 

The city where Derrald and I first met.

There will always be a place in my heart for Hong Kong and this week, as fate would have it, D is returning to HK to interview for a position at HKUST. It's possible that this interview may lead to a job in the very place we first fell in love. Where we first held sweaty hands, played basketball together, first went to the movies, had our first date at Wendy's on campus (now a McDonald's). Seriously. What are the odds?!

While Derrald is away, I will be driving myself out to Wilmington, NC where I am shooting a commercial for three days. Hooray!!! I booked myself a job!! I auditioned for this commercial a couple weeks ago when Derrald was away interviewing at McGill in Montreal... so it seems his absence has been working out for me ;) 

Montreal. 

Another place that I would cherish the adventure of living. One of D's memories of me from our teenage years involved my zeal for learning French. I would go over to the University every week to take lessons from Yolande (our friend Christophe's Maman). I'm pretty sure those long-ago lessons would serve me well in this city :)

While I am listing these wonderful cities for our potential residence, I should probably include D's trip from this last week, USC!!

Los Angeles.

Whilst it does not have the history or memories that HK has for us, and it would not be the foreign, adventure that Montreal offers, LA is...um, AWESOME!!!! I would love to live in LA. And Derrald loved his time there. Hello Beach. Hello Sunshine! Hello Hollywood. Hello Delicious Sushi. Hello Roadtrips to family who are close enough to drive to. Hello Crazy People who live on Santa Monica beach and sometimes take the Bus (remind me to tell you about the time my Dad tried to convince me I didn't need a car in LA cos I could take the bus...um, not in a thousand years!!) Yes. Hello LA.

It's been a very long, somewhat nerve-wraking wait getting to this "interviewing" stage of the job application process. And I know we have a long way to go! Interviews do not necessarily mean jobs... but if these Universities know what's good for them, they'll be wanting the Stices to move in ASAP and seriously, there is not a bad choice among them.  Many a prayer has been said for us at this time and we thank you all for thinking of us. Keep up the good work (it's totally working!!!) We'll keep you posted of our movements and I really hope we will NEVER have to reveal our contingency plan (ie Derrald joins the National Guard and I work as a waitress FOREVER)

A born professional, scholar in business:

It's been a good week in the Stice household and the activity looks to be continuing as we plow into March. Here's to staying busy, busy, busy!

Love Month

Okay, so this post is a little late... February 14th has come and gone, leaving naught but a trail of candy, in our house at least... I know, I know, I'm a health coach, I should spit in the face of candy... but let's face it, when your husband collects candy for 3 months in his cubicle and then splays it out on the floor, in heart shapes, for you to find when you come home from work, well, let's just say you'd be on the floor rolling in it too.

Anyone who knows me, knows how I feel about chocolate. Particularly the good stuff. ("good stuff" being Lyndt, Giradelli, See's and Costco Valentines Boxes from your mother) So it shouldn't come as a surprise to you that about 10 minutes after the rolling, all the candy was gathered up into a container and placed in some hidden location only Derrald knows, so that I can't find it and inhale it like air.

I hope you are all enjoying the extra love this month and possibly using it as an excuse to eat a little candy, buy some flowers for your lady, indulge in a quiet dinner or try out some couples yoga (my gift to D this year - and it totally rocked!!).

Lemon Crazy

We have gone LEMON CRAZY in our house.

It's mostly thanks to Mum's lemon tree which has been blessing us with it's tart, yellow fruit in overloaded abundance this year. Fresh lemons, as in "right off the tree" are delicious. We took about 5 pounds of them back in our suitcases after Christmas break.

Last week I went to pick up a package from our front office and when the girl went to pick up the box she was met with surprising weight. A heavy box. A box of lemons! Mum had sent us an enormous box of lemons and we are now officially out of control.

Here's a few of our favorite ways to use lemons:

Pickled or Preserved Lemons. It's easy enough to find recipes online and we tried our hand at a few different types. I've a feeling we'll be making a few more jars yet.

Simply adding them to water. So refreshing!

And last but not least, in recipes. I'm sure you all have some delicious suggestions here and I would love to hear them. Last night, we have made a Moroccan Chicken dish (YUM) with olives, onions, and preserved lemons.

Right now I am trying to find recipes that work with my 5&1 plan while I am continuing to lose weight... but eventually I will be interested in any recipe you can recommend.

I wish I had a picture of Derrald eating a lemon like an orange. He did this with one of the lemons the day it arrived. He's so weird. But he's also scurvy free, so hurrah! 

We love lemons.

Healthy with Hayley

I've started a new blog. It's called "Healthy with Hayley". It's AWESOME. You should all check it out.

It comes freshly inspired out of our New Year's Resolutions to be healthier and even, if it's possible, happier! Following the idea that when you are living in your optimum body (weight, tone, whatever), you feel more confident and more energetic, I think it's fair enough to conclude that one can also increase happiness. I guess you'll find out because I'm going to blog about it :)

He rides again!

What's that life saying? The one about falling off a horse and then getting right back in the saddle? 

Well, only a week after the initial "derrald-horse-incident" we all trekked out to the paddock where Tiny, (the horse that Derrald fell off) awaited with a saddle. This time the party consisted of myself, my Dad, Mum, Derrald, Brendan and Amy. 

I took a quick video of Dad showing us all how it is done: (working on uploading this)

Then it was Derrald's turn. I tried to convince him to let me post a video I had taken but for some reason D is having none of it. I think it's because I failed to find/attach the theme tune from "the Man from Snowy River" for greater affect. So, I'm sorry friends. There is no proof that he can actually stay on a horse... you'll just have to take my word for it. He did.

Inspired by his success we all decided to have a go. Here are some pictures of me, Amy and Mum, who had to be cajoled into going but showed us all up with her mad horsemanship skills. If Dad was a closet cowboy... what's Mum hiding from us?

                                   

Dad got just as much workout as the horse by running round in front of him!! Lots of fun was had by all. I'm not ready to purchase any cowboy boots just yet... but if Arkansas ends up being Derrald's job destination I've promised to buy boots (and a truck) and now I know I have a horse to ride them with.

Sweet.

A New Game

While it's fresh, I thought I would fill you all in on our New Years Eve activities. I warn you, this story is not for the fainthearted. It involves tastes, the like of which, you wish you had never tasted, and the use of substances, illegal in the United States of America, and a pair of striped pyjamas.

It really all began with a trip to the Jelly Belly factory, a day before New Years Eve.

 

We didn't do the tour because there was no production going on and the line was out of the door... so, we just sampled :) 

Thanks to the geniuses at Jelly Belly who, inspired by Harry Potter and the goodies found at Hogwarts, provided us with jelly beans that were so disgusting to the taster but so hilarious to those watching the taster grimace in horror, we just HAD to make a game out of them. This is what we played during the last hours of 2010.

"Puke-phrase" (inspired by that instinct all children have to mix the most terrible concoction ever and make their siblings drink it for their own amusement)

Equipment needed:

One game of Catchphrase

Two boxes of "Bean Boozled" jelly beans

Begin with a normal game of catch phrase, except, when the buzzer ends on a player and the round is lost, that player must be given a bean from the packet of Bean Boozled. They must eat the bean while the others look on and determine the flavor of the bean. The bean must be kept in the mouth for at least 10 seconds before spitting out.

Now, to understand the challenge that the players face when found holding the catchphrase disk on the losing buzzer I think you need to understand what kind of "flavors" they were up against.

 

*Canned Dog Food  *Barf  *Baby Wipes  *Rotten Egg  *Centipede  *Booger  *Pencil Shavings  *Moldy Cheese  *Toothpaste  *Skunk Spray

 

The fun thing about the "bamboozled" packets though is that they have two identical looking beans in each color and one of them is delicious, like peach or strawberry, and one of them is disgusting, like barf or centipede. You just don't know which is which.

Biting into a jelly bean that could possibly taste like skunk spray and finding out it is licorice is such a relief. In fact, it's positively delightful. But biting into a jelly bean that you've never tasted before and finding out it tastes like rotten egg. Having that taste/smell fill your nose and spread throughout your entire mouth, the stickiness of the jelly bean making sure the flavor gets stuck into your teeth for as long as it takes you to lose another round and gamble another jelly bean to replace the flavor... well, it's pretty bad.

Here's how it played out for D&H:

Hayley: Moldy Cheese, Barf, Rotten Egg, Centipede,

Derrald: Skunk Spray, Booger, Rotten Egg, Barf, Canned Dog Food, Pencil Shavings

Derrald definitely got a lot more "toothpaste" (I never got a single one) and the first person to sample the "canned dog meat" (CDM) was Mum. Brendan is the one who gave her the bean and because we'd been playing for quite a long time without ever coming across a CDM he looked at the red color and thought it was Strawberry Jam or Centipede (which we'd had quite a few of). Mum was chewing away and confusedly said "It tastes like meat". "Strawberry Jam or Centipede" we repeated to her. "But it tastes like meat!" she cried. "OH!!" Brendan looked at the box - sure enough... Mum had just chowed down on a jelly bean that tasted like canned dog meat. The smell of her breath confirmed it. Nasty.

     

Okay. I know I promised you a tale involving striped pyjamas and illegal substances but that part of the story will have to wait for next time. I would like to end with a shout out to the Kuhns for introducing us to Catch Phrase in the first place and to Jelly Belly for being so incredibly accurate with their disgusting flavored jelly beans.

Christmas Beard

We LOVE traditions. We started about a million so-called "traditions" during the year 2010, and only time will confirm whether or not they live on to be actual traditions, but I have been trying to convince Derrald that the "Christmas Beard" should be one of these traditions that live on through the ages.

It would work like this: Every year, on Thanksgiving Day, Derrald will let his beard grow in and keep on growing it until New Year's Day when he will shave it in a grand ceremony symbolic of the incoming new year and starting things fresh with a clean face... I mean, slate. This year he failed to make it to New Years... but we also failed to sit through the entire length of Handel's Messiah (another tradition we are trying to start)... so it's no biggie. I still managed to get a picture.

Think about how much those kiddies (that's right... one day, against all protests the public may wish to make, we will spawn some ninja children) are going to love it every year? And when it goes white? HULLO Santa. Santa Derrald.

It's going to be awesome.

This is what it looked like this year (drinking $4 hot chocolates from a little old hotel in the middle of Danville...)