47 in '21

I definitely should have taken today off work - my birthday. Because it isn't even 9:00 am and I'm dealing with 3 ANNOYING work situations already, and have a meeting scheduled to start shortly. BOTHER.

This is a mistake I won't repeat! Grown adults should always take PTO for their birthdays!

If I had my druthers, I'd be drinking my 2nd cup of coffee on the porch, and finishing my book. (It's a good one!) 

Instead, I will power through this stuff, and then go to Starbucks for my FREE birthday drink (at Kate's urging, of course, so she can have a drink, too), and then probably work on my grocery list and menus for the next week. Don't worry, I find that a fun task. The kids leave for camp on Sunday, so there's gonna be some SPICY FOOD on the list while they're gone! (Do you think about spicy food, and how our taste buds diminish as we age, so we like spicy food more when we're older, as much as I do? I think about it a lot.)

Swift subject change: I just had to do something unpleasant (on my birthday!). I have a friend from college, my "big sister" in the sorority, actually, who is doing a MLM jewelry business. She's been leaving me not only text messages in Facebook Messenger, but also voice memos, so it feels more personal, asking if I want to host parties or buy X for just $10, or whatever. I've been ignoring them for the most part. I did buy some jewelry from her a few months ago, because I was looking for something hypo-allergenic and that's what she sells, but... some of it turned out not to be exactly what I was looking for, and it's not cheap. It was fine, I'm not mad about that, and happy to support her once. Anyway, she had left me a salesy message yesterday (which I ignored), and then this morning sent a Happy Birthday. Argh. I couldn't ignore that, so I had to say thank you, and also "I'm sorry I haven't responded to your other messages. I'm guess I'm not that interested....? Don't want to hurt feelings and I wish you well in the business but I don't want to host parties or anything." Ugh. Makes me feel terrible to write it but please STAHHHHP. (Is it too mean? I'm having Send-button regret! Ack.)

The weird thing is, she's a lawyer. Her husband is a successful real estate agent. It isn't like she depends on this money (I don't think). I just wish she wasn't' so pushy. (She always was kind-of a big personality, though, it fits her.) 

ANYWAY: Fun spicy menu options, let's go! 

Nearly every year they've gone to camp, I've made one of our faves that we used to eat regularly Before Kids: Shrimp Durango. It's super good, but I might need a break from even our once-a-year tradition of eating it. Other options I might try....

Chipotle Shrimp and Rice Bowl -- wow, that looks good. With some guacamole on the side....? Heaven.

Baked Buffalo Wings -- YUM. Definitely a favorite of mine and Shawn's, and I could even make homemade Ranch to dip them in (and bleu cheese for me). Better if I can make them without full-fat butter, and not fried... Or maybe we'll just go to Taco Mac. 

Fish Tacos -- I don't have a good recipe although this one does look good. Usually I use fish sticks, which we keep in the freezer, and make a jalepeno tartar sauce by mixing mayo, diced pickled jalepenos and some of their juice, garlic, garlic salt, and lemon juice. It's always a trial and error recipe but when I get it right, it's excellent.

Sweet Pork Enchiladas - I have a can of green enchilada sauce just waiting to be used... this would be slightly different from the usual enchiladas... but only slightly. It's a maybe.

The dinner-planning funk has been verrrrrrry apparent this last couple of weeks at my house, so it's nice to think about different things to try. Allrecipes.com is so old-school, isn't it? One of the first websites I remember subscribing to, in 2000, probably. 

I might rather eat out all 5 days they are gone, though. We shall see! 

Happy birthday to me! Forty-seven, my goodness.