An Ode to Goulash

My husband is Hungarian. This is important to know because once every blue moon he becomes very proud of his Hungarian heritage and talks about it for a couple of days.  Tonight we celebrated his Hungarian ancestors by eating goulash.  If you've never had goulash before, its a type of Hungarian meat and vegetable pasta/stew.  It kind of defines a category, like Spam.  BUT unlike Spam, goulash is YUMMY.  I paired it with a glass of Malbec my friend Sara left at my apartment this weekend.  Honestly, it wasn't the best pairing in the world but it was good all the same.  Jordan never even had heard of Goulash before we were married, but I grew up eating it all the time at my Grandma Coco's house.  I would sit between Grandma and Grandpa at their little kitchen table and talk to them about school.  Grandpa would always have canned pears while Grandma and I would eat canned peaches.  It was our little tradition that the girls always got peaches, but I don't know why.  Anyway, my Grandpa passed away several years ago and my Grandma is on her way to joining him.  She's been in the hospital for a couple of months fighting leukemia.  We rarely saw eye to eye, but when I made goulash tonight the memory of eating it with my Grandparents almost made me cry.  I wanted to call her to tell her about the food I made but its too hard to carry on a phone conversation with her because her ability to remember things has pretty much disappeared.  So this meal was for you, Grandma.

Football Cakes and Polar Bears

I'll start with the craziness that was last night.  All of the guys had a soccer game, but they also wanted to watch the KU football game.  Since they were at the same time, everyone agreed they wouldn't watch any of it until they all met at our apartment where they would start the game at the beginning. So, ten o'clock rolls around and my living room is filled with hungry, tired, sweaty boys (since they had just come from their soccer game).  Well, just in case you didn't know, KU lost.  And when I say "lost", I mean big time.  It was terrible.  They guys were all jumping around and screaming.  We're lucky we didn't get into trouble for being too loud again.  On the up side, I made a FABULOUS chocolate cake shaped like a football.  I was pretty stinking proud of myself. 

Everyone left around midnight, which just gave me 7 hours to clean up, sleep, and get ready for the Kansas City Zoo Run.  To be honest, I don't enjoy running at all.  I tried every way possible to get out of the race, but I was stuck.  So at 7 in the morning my family picked me up and we headed out.  I was so relieved when I saw how many people were there!  I thought, "Surely not everyone here is going to run a 5 minute mile!".  It made me at ease right away.  The crowd was so large that it took my mother and myself several minutes to even reach the start line.  But, once we finally got going we realized we were in for a treat.  We ran through Africa, Australia, China, and several more.  We even ran through the sheep's pen!  By the end, my body definitely knew I had gone 4 miles, but it was the most enjoyable run I've ever done.  Next year I'm going to run with my camera around my neck.  So, since I'm into lists lately I'll make another one for reasons why everyone should run in the Kansas City Zoo Run in 2011.

1. Every year the Zoo gives the proceeds from the race registration to help an endangered species.  This year we ran for the polar bears, last year it was for the Chimps.
2. CrAzY volunteers who point you in the right direction, cheer loudly, and dance around to show their support.
3. If you're anything like me, the insane hills give your legs a workout like you haven't had in years.
4.  If you have a killer instinct, several of the paths are so full of curves that it takes some serious strategy to pass.
5.  Free food after the race
6.  You get to spend the rest of the day at the zoo! (heck yes!)  Race spectators also get in for only $6 and can spend the day there as well
7.  T-shirts with polar bears on them
8.  People of all ages run/walk/push strollers.  I even saw an elderly couple walking and the man had a cane.  Don't think you can run/walk 4?  Try the 1 mile race!
9.  The monkeys line up in their pens and cheer for you, or mimic your actions depending on how mean they are.
10.  EXERCISE! If you don't care about polar bears, maybe you care about fighting obesity?

After 1 Year of Marriage...

I have learned more than I could have possibly imagined in just over 365 days.  Who needs school?  Doing life together will teach you more usefull things than your Math 105 class (and for the record, I took Math 105 and learned absolutely NOTHING!). So I decided I would start this blog off with a list of 10 important things I've learned about thriving in my marriage so far. 

1.  Find things you can do together.  I can watch the Cowboys lose over and over again as long as Jordan helps me clean up after the crazy football parties we throw every Sunday.
2. A flying elbow in the middle of the night is nothing personal.  Sometimes people struggle to adjust to someone else in their bed.
3. If you want permission to go buy a fabulous new cocktail dress, ask in the middle of a KU basketball game.
4. The sentence, "My mom/dad always did that for me." never leads to a productive or healthy conversation.
5. Take time to turn off your phone and just hang out.  I know that sounds silly, but it can be the sweetest hour you spend together all week.
6. Having a mutual distaste for Missouri can bring you closer together.
7. Watching TV together might be fun, but should never be considered quality time.
8. Trust each other's instincts.  Know each of your strengths and play towards them.
9. However, if one of your strengths is that you're competitive and your spouse is also competitive, don't play sports or boardgames together on a regular basis.
10. If all your spouse wants to eat is red meat, let him.  Just have some good life insurance for when he has a heart attack at 35.