Mild Amusement

Bread has always been a staple for me. We owned a bread machine in my house when I was growing up, so there was usually a loaf of bread somewhere around. It also played a prominent role in the infamous "mandatory" breakfast , so it's a part of the Mild Fiancée and I's lore, too. The Mild Fiancée likes to bake, as well, so we tend to have flour and eggs lying around the house. I help out where I can (I eat the bread, too, after all), but I'm by no means an expert. So, whenever she says that we need a certain ingredient for our bread, I tend to go along with it. That was the case when she suggested that we needed vital wheat gluten. Now, this is not something that I have ever shopped for before. I didn't really make bread, I certainly didn't make wheat bread, and I don't ever try to add gluten IN to the food. Still, we decided that we needed vital wheat gluten, so we set about to shopping for it. At one point, we decided to see if Amazon could deli...

As I've written about for the last few weeks, the Mild Fiancée and I traveled to Miami recently . We had some interesting moments getting checked in, but all in all, it was a good time. That was especially true for the Mild Fiancée. See, she was on vacation at the time. That meant that she was free to explore as she wanted. She found a bakery that had guava and cheese pastelitos  (that last word basically means "pastries"). We had Cuban sandwiches for dinner one night because she found a place that had good ones. Heck, she even took a SoulCycle class because there happened to be a gym offering those classes near the hotel. Of course, the beauty of this plan was that she had the freedom to explore. If she wanted to hang out at the beach or lounge by the pool instead, that was also an option. And she took up the pool option. I have the text messages to prove it. Better yet, because she went to the hotel pool more than once, she struck up a conversation with some of ...

The backstory for this post was that the Mild Fiancée and I were traveling to Miami. We'd thought ahead and packed some snacks (read: pizza), so things were already starting out well. We even managed to impress one of my coworkers in the process, drawing chuckles from all (read the previous post if you want the details). Alas, things were not going to be quite so perfect the whole time. When we arrived at the hotel, we strolled up to the counter and gave them the information for our reservation. I've done this a bunch of times, no big deal. They found our reservation, but then the guy behind the counter grabbed the phone and started talking to someone. I didn't think anything of it, and let him do his thing. It turns out he was trying to find a room with a really good view. That was awfully nice of him, so we chatted amongst ourselves as he went about his business. Eventually, he was satisfied that the room was up to snuff, so he put the phone down. The catch, however,...

I had a business trip to Miami come up recently. What made this trip different from business trips of the past, however, was that the Mild Fiancée also came with me. She just so happened to have a week off from work, and the hotel was already paid for, so we figured we'd splurge a little bit for her to also enjoy the Miami sun. The first sign that this trip was going to be different actually came before we even got on the plane: we packed snacks. I'm usually terrible about thinking ahead for meals, so I either consume a bunch of snacks on the plane or end up waiting until we touch down to get a proper meal. Not the Mild Fiancée. She spotted this potential problem coming a mile away, and made sure that we had portable food that we could easily snack on. To reiterate, she fixed a problem before I even saw it. She's kind of awesome like that. So, we got to our gate, and bumped into a couple of coworkers. They were also attending the same conference, and they'd beaten u...

A while back, the Mild Fiancée and I got some take out. I honestly don't even remember what kind of food we got for that meal, but I remember that we didn't make it at home. The reason I remember this is that the meal came with a drink. Specifically, it came with one of those Hawaiian Sun juice things. It came in a bright red can, so I suspect it was the Strawberry Guava Nectar flavor . Since I linked to the actual nutritional facts for that particular beverage, you can see just how much sugar is in that can. To give you some idea of what that really means, a normal person who consumes a 2,000 calorie diet is supposed to consume between 225 and 325 grams of carbohydrates ( according to the Mayo Clinic ). For a healthy adult, that basically means that the can is about one eighth of your total daily intake of carbs. Mind you, diabetes runs in my family, so I have to be extra careful about how much sugar I consume. Basically, I can't have eight of these things in a single da...

As the Mild Fiancée likes to remind me, I am a rule follower. Sure, there are minor deviations here and there, like jaywalking. But for the most part, I read instructions, follow directions, and color within the lines. It's served me well enough all these years, so it's just how I roll. The Mild Fiancée, however, is not as rigid about the rule following. In fact, that's why it came up in the first place: I expressed some concern about not following the rules exactly, and she proclaimed, in semi-exasperation, that I was a such a rule follower. I don't even remember what the discussion was at that point, but I do remember the subsequent commentary. It had that distinct ring of truth to it, and I could only nod along. One of the places where this starts to show itself is when we cook. We like to try new recipes (like that healthy mac n cheese recipe from a while back), so that means we're often reading ingredient lists or watching some YouTube video for what to ...

Fun fact: at work, we are allowed to enter our own titles in the company address book. I realize there are a lot of ways that particular fact could lead to some amusement, but keep in mind that this is a corporate job. So, all in all, people tend to keep it pretty tame. Basically, people write down something like "Manager" or "Business Analyst." There are a couple of reasons for that. First of all, it's a business casual outfit. You may not have to wear a suit and tie, but you do have to keep it professional. Secondly, and more importantly, other people can see those details. That's sort of the point of an address book: you should be able to look people up (it's a big company, and I don't always know someone's phone number or email). So, if you put down "The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread" as your title, someone is eventually going to notice. I'd even venture to say that a bunch of someones are going to both notice and laugh ab...