It's a Small Small World

Iiiiiiiit's a small world aaaaaafter all.
Iiiiiiiit's a small world aaaaaafter all.
Iiiiiiiit's a small world aaaaaafter all.
It's a smaaaaaaall smaaaaaaall wooooooooorld.

You can all thank me now for having that song in your head for the rest of your day! Oh. It's not in your head? Okay, well then listen to this video.

Enough with the torture...

We have all experienced some type of "small world" experience in our lifetime. If you have yet to experience one, then you're probably too young. It is always amazing to find out that some thing or someone has come back into your life when you never expected it. There are a few "small world" experiences that stick out in my head.

First experience:
Jorie, who was my roommate while attending the University of Houston, grew up and went to high school in Naperville, Illionois (suburb of Chicago). When I met Jorie, I was dating a guy whose parents grew up and went to high school in Naperville. Small world!

Second experience:
After Jorie and I had lived together for a few months, she was chatting on AIM (AOL instant messenger... the olden days) with an ex-boyfriend of hers from high school in Chicago. Turns out I went to school with this ex-boyfriend in middle school! Such a small world!!

Third experience:
Just a few weeks ago, Luke had a conversation with a friend of ours in Aberdeen. It went a little something like this:
Greg: "Luke, do you know a guy name Beau Buisson that lives in Argentina?"
Luke: "Yeah, that's my first cousin, my dad's first nephew."
Greg: "Oh, well him and his family are moving to Aberdeen."
Luke: "What?"
Greg: "Yeah, him and his wife are visiting next week to feel out the city and house search."
Luke: "That's crazy! I haven't seen Beau in like 10 years."
So a week later, we met our friends and cousins for dinner. I had never met Beau and Andrea before, but it was really cool to meet up with family. I know it sounds kinda weird because we had never met, but it was really comforting. I guess it's something you'd have to experience. Unfortunately, we may already be gone from Aberdeen by the time they arrive, BUT we will still be really close to each other, and Andrea and her daughter hope to travel to London often, so I know we will meet up again soon. SUCH A SMALL WORLD! Should I sing the song again?

Other small "small world" experiences:
Whenever I meet someone new and become friends with them on facebook, I do a little facebook stalking. Let's be honest here people... we all do it. I know I am not the only one. Anyway, there is a connection outside of Aberdeen with almost all of my friends here in Aberdeen - a common friend from college or high school or someone. Its pretty crazy!

I know there will be more of these experiences especially if Luke and I continue to travel and move around every couple of years. It is nice to know that we may never be completely alone, and we might always have some connection to back home.

What is your craziest "small world" experience?

RANDOM FACT:
Disneyland in California was the first to open the "It's A Small World" ride - in 1966.

-Debbie-

The Juicing Craze??

For the past few months, I have been reading and reading and seeing and reading all about this juicing thing. It seemed EVERYONE is "juicing". Okay, that may sound totally dirty if you have no idea what juicing is, so let me clarify, so we can all stop giggling. Juicing is taking a whole bunch of veggies and a just a teeny bit of fruit and shoving them into some type of juicer device and apparently it makes some amazing juicy drink. But I don't get it. This is why...

Here are a few mixtures I have come across:
-brussels sprouts, lettuce, spinach, and apples
-spinach, kale, and bananas
-celery, cucumber, spinach, ginger, and lemon
-beets, carrots, celery, broccoli, and garlic (I think I just barfed a little)
-papaya, kale, cabbage, lemon, and ginger

Hopefully, you get the point. I mean, I love me some brussels sprouts (I make some darn good ones) and I love me some garlic (you can probably smell me from Scotland) and I love me some beets (wait, I don't like beets), but I seriously don't get how all of these things taste good. As juice. I was never a fan of that V8 drink or whatever it is called, so I doubt I will ever be a fan of any of these mixtures. I would like for someone to prove me wrong though! Make me a juicy drink and prove that my anti-juicing ways are ignorant. I dare you!

I just had to get that off of my chest... sorry for the rant... and sorry for the quickest blog post that I have ever done and will ever do, but I have to pack. To pack for friggity-France. To go shoop-shoopin it down the slopes of Morzine!

Have a great weekend!!

RANDOM FACT:
According to this guy, there is a method to how you should intake the juices otherwise you may have some, uh, not-so-pleasant "internal movements".

-Debbie-

#TBT: Prom 2001

I must redeem myself from last week's Throw Back Thursday. Totally embarrassing! But isn't that what being a kid is about?

Senior Prom 2001

Here I am, ready for Prom

It really was not a fun night. Sure I looked pretty and stuff, but it was not a "night to remember". It was "Spring Forward" night, so we lost as hour of our prom night. That sucked!

Anyway, compared to all of my friends, I spent very little money on dresses and shoes and make-up and hair for every dance I attended. When prom rolled around, I told my parents that I wanted to spend the "normal" amount (aka what my friends usually paid) on everything. This pretty much turned out to still be way less than all of my friends were spending on their prom gear. That's okay though because look how pretty! Just kidding.

Update: When I wore this dress, I remember it being really tight around the chest area. Twelve years later, I can still fit into this dress, but it is now loose in the chest area and tight in the hip area. Strange how my body has changed.

RANDOM FACT:
Many high schools do a "Project Prom", but my high school (Clear Lake) did Project Graduation rather than project prom... probably because we all had limos that took us straight to a beach house after prom.
Also, at my high school, you either had to be a senior or be the date of a senior to go to prom. We did not have a Junior/Senior prom like many schools do... probably because the senior class was over 700 students.

-Debbie-

It Never Gets Old...

Actual date of this event: 24 February

I started out the day thinking, "What a beautiful day it is!" I ended the day feeling depressed. So what happened along the way?

Since Luke and I will be leaving Aberdeen for London in ... who knows how long, we still don't know ... we have made a list of things that we want to do before we leave. We have sites to see, towns to visit, restaurants to try. With him being in London during the week, it is going to be really difficult to do everything.

One of his "to-do's" was to visit Dunnottar Castle one more time. He had only been one time, back in August, but I had been three times before (August, Julie, Judy/Tom). Since it was a beautiful day, we set out to do the hike from Stonehaven Harbor to Dunnottar Castle. When I say beautiful day, I mean one of those days that the sun is so bright that we had to pull out our sunglasses that have been locked in their little case since October even though they say don't wear sunglasses in Aberdeen! So beautiful that the North Sea was all different colors of blue and green!! So beautiful that the clouds just added the perfect background!!! So beautiful that we didn't even care that it was 40 degrees outside!!!!

The drive from Aberdeen to Stonehaven has a few teaser views of the North Sea. This is pretty much where the depression began. I looked out at the sea and said, "It never gets old." Luke replied, "It doesn't." And right there is when it clicked that this is a view that I will miss. Although I don't see it everyday, it is so close to me that I could see it everyday if I wanted. How can a body of water be so violent one moment and then so calming and beautiful the next?

Anyway, we parked in Stonehaven and took the trail along the coast. We passed by the War Memorial that was built "in ruins" to commemorate those "ruined" lives.

This trail was actually closed, but everyone else was following it, so we would too. There were two spots along the trail where the land slid down the cliff below. Safe, huh?

one spot where the land gave out

We came upon the small bay that is north of the castle, and instead of staying on the path, we decided to go down the steep path to the rocky beach. We got some shadowy views of the castle from a lower angle. While down here, we enjoyed seeing the different kinds of granite rocks, and gathered a few to take home with us.

Eventually we reached the bottom of the castle and began the climb up the stairs. We decided not to enter the castle, but we took our time admiring its outer beauty. There was even a Piper for some background music (see video). There is no way it can get better than that!

We walked around the cliffs on the south side of the castle which we had never done before. We stopped for pictures and ate a snack and just enjoyed our last views. (Video shows me walking up to the cliff)

In the video, it looks like I go right up to the edge, but I was actually still about 10 feet away.

Since we went off path on the way, we decided to stay on the path going back which gave us higher up views of the castle.

The total hike according to Walk Highlands was supposed to be 3 miles, but since went off course, we did around 4 miles (says my new Garmin watch!). I had to really hold back on getting teary. It was so bad that I didn't even tell Luke my thoughts because I would have broke down into full out crying. Dunnottar is my calm place. All four times, I have visited have been amazing! You would think after that many times, it would get old. It does not! I gets more and more beautiful every time. I hope that I can find another calming place to visit but it is going to be hard to beat Dunnottar. I will miss it!

P.S. For those of you that live in Aberdeenshire, this is a terrific hike for visitors no matter their ability.

RANDOM FACT:
Dunnottar Castle lies on 3.5 acres of land with cliffs of 160-foot drops.

-Debbie-

Fruitless Chicken Salad

After last week's Tasty Tuesday recipe, I had quite a few requests for my Chicken Salad recipe. To me, Chicken Salad is one of those things that EVERYONE has a different taste for. Some people like fruit in their's, and some people don't. Some people like grapes but not apples, and some people like apples but not grapes. Some people like chunky chicken, and some people like smooth chicken. I can't really say what my favorite kind of Chicken Salad is because there are so.many.from which.to choose.  

I came up with my recipe after doing some research on what kinds of ingredients make a good Chicken Salad. I picked a few ingredients that I knew Luke would like. I did a couple of runs with different spices and ingredients. I also did a few runs with and without the food processor. As I have become a better cook, I find that it is easier (food processors are a pain to clean) and quicker (food processors are a pain to clean) for me to NOT use the food processor. Anyway, I came up with a recipe that I enjoy and one that my husband especially enjoys (although I should stop that because he eats it all too quickly).

Fruitless Chicken Salad

Total Time: 15 minutes (excludes the time for cooking the chicken)
Servings: probably 10 or so full sammiches

5 small chicken breasts (Season one side with garlic powder, pepper & Tony's. Bake in the oven. Then dice or shred it.) (Ain't got time for all that? Use 3 large cans of chicken chunks in water, but drain the water first.) (Want to waste time? Buy a rotisserie chicken and pull the meat off of the bones.)
1 Finely chopped Pepper (green is the best, but I like to mix all colors to add up to one pepper - plus its colorful!)
1/2 chopped Red Onion
1/4 cup Crushed Almonds (optional) (I just place them in a baggie and use something to crush them. If using a food process be careful not to grind them too fine.)
1 1/2 cup Light Mayo (or until moist enough)
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard (or to taste)
Season to taste with pepper & Tony's

-Allow chicken to cool before mixing.
-Mix chicken and veggies (and almonds if using them) (A food processor works well here. I suggest dumping it all in together rather than chopping the veggies first, and then adding the chicken. The juices from the veggies will become too much - been there, done that.)
-Mix in the mayo and mustard. Add more mayo, if the mixture is not moist enough.
-Gradually season with pepper and Tony's until you feel it is seasoned enough

Usually, I make Chicken Salad for sammiches where I toast the bread and add cheddar cheese.

I have also made Chicken Salad Salad (sounds like it doesn't make sense but it does) where I put it on top of lettuce and added avocado, tomato, cucumbers, chopped eggs and cheese. That was a good one!

I hope you find time to try out my recipe, but I also hope you become creative and find what works best for you and your family!

Today, I have linked up with Alissa at 33 Shades of Green for Tasty Tuesday!

RANDOM FACT:

London has 32 boroughs. 

(Yep, that's right folks... get ready for London facts. They are never-ending!)

-Debbie-