My Style at This Point in Time

Turns out, I enjoy clothing and fashion. I make use of a couple distinguishing accessories – a bow tie and cuff links.

The bow tie is as much functional as it is an identifier. It does not dangle in my work the way ties did for my first year of practice and most anyone that sees me wearing it is somewhat amused. I’m happy to amuse the masses and also to be able to go to sleep at night and not worry that my tie did or ever will dip in my bowl of soup – at least not until the day I die face down on my desk!

The cuff links and requisite French cuffs are borderline not worth the hassle and extra time they require throughout my day – flipping the cuffs back, finagling the prong of the link through four shifting holes of fabric, my habitual pressing down of the link against my arm, and their snagging on the edge of my laptop computer. They don’t have the practical appeal that the bow tie does, and for that they may be retired or phased out at some point. I haven’t yet decided, as they make for a good gift and I enjoy wearing the variety of cuff links I’ve acquired to this point.

Going forward, I’d like to develop more of a uniform and I’d like it to be a well-fitted navy suit and white shirt. As it stands, I have four or five very different suits, which I have to switch between burgundy and black belt and shoe combinations. I don’t appreciate having to have both colors and would rather eliminate the black belt and shoes.

And finally, what initially got me onto this subject was the following sock selection advice that I read this morning in Valet Magazine: “As a rule, match your socks to the clothes, not the shoes. Meaning you should wear socks just a shade darker than your pants, but not as dark as your shoes.”

# 3 – Apricot Chicken

Success! This dish was divine.

Ingredients – chicken, 12 oz jar of apricot preserves, 1 onion chopped up, little bit of crushed red pepper flakes, 1 tsp soy sauce, and a little squeeze of dijon mustard. It was wonderful, flavorful and a little spicy.

Super easy to make and we heated it up the next day and it tasted just as amazing.

Chris’ Rating – 9

Lindsey’s Rating – 8

# 2 – Cranberry Roast

One Word. Yuck.

Ingredients – 2 lbs stew meat, 1 can whole cranberries, 1 onion chopped, 2 table spoons soy sauce.

I think I overcooked the crap out of this…10 hours on low in the crockpot. The flavor was great but the meat was chewy. It was so disappointing because the house smelled out of this world when we got home from work.

In the future I would use less soy sauce, another can of cranberries and maybe some chopped up celery.

Lindsey’s Rating – 4

Chris’ Rating – 6 (I think he was being generous).

#1 – Applesauce Delight

Today marks WEEK ONE! of my latest and greatest idea (and endeavor too a. cook more, b. become a better cook, and c. eat at home more!) 52 WEEKS, 52 CROCKPOT RECIPES!

Today I made Applesauce Delight!

Ease of making – 9.5….basically the only thing I had to do other than get the ingredients out of the fridge and toss them in the crockpot was chop up the onions and garlic.

Ingredients – 1 and 1/2 cup applesauce, cinnamon (I just poured some in), red pepper flake (same as cinnamon), pepper (same), 1 yellow onion chopped, and 3 garlic cloves chopped up, 3 frozen chicken breasts. Put it all in the crock pot – I was kind of behind after a long hike with yogi, so instead of 8 hours on low, I cranked my baby up to HIGH! 4 hours later, the house smelled amazing, kind of sweet and I was pleasantly surprised. In all fairness, I borrowed some ingredients from last night’s meal at Terry and Robbi’s (Mashed Potatoes and Corn Bread) and served it all up on a plate.

I LOVED IT! Chris liked it until he found a little piece of paper from the frozen chicken that I had forgotten to remove, but he ate seconds. It was a little spicy and really sweet at the same time and the chicken was divine and tender…yum yum yum.

Lindsey’s Rating – 9

Chris’ Rating – 8

Lemon Tree Love

His eyes focused, for a moment, on the contrast of her otherwise pale skin with the flush of her cheeks as she walked towards the spot where he was leaning on a fire hydrant.

“Hello, handsome,” she said.

“Hello, gorgeous,” he said as he extended his hand, palm up, and revealed a bright yellow lemon. “I snuck this from the corner tree for you.” She looked over her shoulder, checking to see if the lonesome housewife that planted the tree last spring had seen, or was seeing, their exchange, and then she took the lemon from him and clutched it in her small hand. It was firm and cooler than the muggy Foggy Bottom air that choked the city this time of year.

“Thank you,” she said. Then she kissed him, and kept kissing him until it felt, again, like the lonely housewife was watching. There was more love in her lips than he could hold in his heart. He broke away and smiled at her – at the old row houses – at the poorly parked cars and the cracked cement sidewalks.

Written from 1:10 pm to 1:32 pm on Tuesday, February 21st, 2012 in my office in Traverse City, Michigan.

William Safire’s Rules for Writers

Remember to never split an infinitive.
The passive voice should never be used.
Do not put statements in the negative form.
Verbs have to agree with their subjects.
Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.
A writer must not shift your point of view.
And don’t start a sentence with a conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.)
Don’t overuse exclamation marks!!
Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
Always pick on the correct idiom.
The adverb always follows the verb.
Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.