5 on Friday

1. Confession: I love the Miley Cyrus song Party in the USA. I feel dirty now that I've said it out loud. But it's true, the radio always gets turned up when it comes on. Back in December my girlfriends and I had our annual sleepover (yes, grown women can still have slumber parties) and I discovered it's not just me! When that song came on, we ended up with an impromptu dance/karaoke party in the kitchen. Nothing better than a bunch of 20- and 30-something women dancing around in their pajamas singing Miley Cyrus songs. I know, it's every man's fantasy.

2. A while back, Nemmie passed along a recipe for a chopped salad. It's actually Ten Restaurant's signature salad. I have never eaten there, but if they came up with this salad, I might just have to. It is seriously my favorite thing to eat, I pretty much make it weekly during the summer. I dont know if it's the mustard vinaigrette, or the blue cheese (mmmm, blue cheese) or what. But I love it! I could eat it every day.

Make it. Eat it. Love it.

Nemmie's Chopped Salad (aka Ten Restaurant's Signature Salad)

Salad:
romaine lettuce, chopped (about half a head)
iceberg lettuce, chopped (about half a head)
1 tomato, seeded and chopped
4 green onions, sliced
6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
penne, cooked and diced (not too much, about a handful of uncooked pasta)
blue cheese crumbles, to taste (I love blue cheese, so I dump in most of the container)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, grilled and diced (season with salt & pepper before grilling)

Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp water
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried oregano
dash black pepper
dash red pepper flakes

Mix all of the salad ingredients up! The mix all the vinaigrette ingredietns up, and pour it over the salad! Then mix it all up! Then eat it!

3. My dogs make me laugh every day. Sometimes they are a huge pain in the ass though. Having them around means the house is never clean. They have scratched the hell out of the hardwoods. Walter likes to occasionally mark his territory still....in the house. But even still, they make me laugh every day. The door that leads to the basement is all scratched up, because Wallter gets so excited to go in his crate that he tries to claw his way through the door whenever he knows it's time to get in his crate. The little ledge between the kitchen and family room is all scratched up because when Penny gets excited, she gets on the love seat next to it and paws at the ledge. I have had to give up my favorite blanket for snuggling up with on the couch because Max loves to snuggle with it more. The window frame in the living room is completely destroyed because all three of them go nuts and try to break through the window whenever somebody walks by. But how can I be mad about any of that?!

The previous owner of our house had installed a cat door from the family room to the garage. It is still there. And whenever I come home, if the dogs are out of their crates, the first thing I'm greeted with is Walter's head with his big googely eyes poking through the cat door to see who just pulled into the garage. And Max gets so excited to see you that he jumps in circles when you come home, and half the time damn near knocks himself out by slamming into the wall or the furniture in the process. And little Penny, she's so happy to see you that she practically starts hyperventilating, and she wont go out to potty until she has been petted by everyone. No person is ever that happy to see you.

They always make my day brighter, I cant imagine ever not having dogs in the house.
4. I have to work tomorrow morning, I really dont want to. I hate having to work on Saturdays. I only have to work about 3 Saturday's a year, but I still hate it.

5. However! I am happy just to have a job. This week, Gardner laid of basically their entire planning department. Which has made more than one planner in the metro a little nervous. If Garner was able to eliminate the entire department, what's to say that other municipalities won't soon follow suit?? Everyone is still having to trim their budgets, and since development is still slow, planning departments everywhere are not nearly as busy as usual. What's even more awesome, is that our 2011 budget is supposed to be approved at the end of July. So....if I were to get laid off, it would be about 6 weeks before I have the baby. Awesome. Just what I need to worry about. But, there's nothing I can do about it right now, so I'll just continue to keep myself as busy as possible and hope for the best.