Jack & Jill Put Up A Blog

Spot: Yawning…
Cat: “Are you serious with that breath?”

I do have sensitive teeth, I do. But, I still have got to whiten. I can’t help it. I lik-a the coffee and red wine. I have tried every brand of those whitening strips. I can’t use them like the directions state because my teeth start to throb, but I convince myself it is worth it.

Recently, I was at the dentist and I found out I had to get an inlay. I was mortified because last summer I got my wisdom teeth yanked out of my very strong 30 year-old Irish jaw and it was the most painful thing I have been through. I had dry socket in two sockets. The pain lasted a month. A month of no sleep, medications making me want to vomit, and it hurt to open my mouth. I sure lost my gut though. The saving grace? My wonderful husband, pudding and jello, no work – I was just laid off and collecting unemployment (another blog someday – it led me to my own business so in their faces), and then best of all – steroids. I was scared to take steroids, but those pills that get such a bad reputation saved me from the mental institution. Relieved the pain almost immediately and they didn’t rip my stomach lining open. I love steroids! (let the google spiders find that phrase)

Anyway, back to the last dentist appointment. I started to cry when he said he was going to work in my mouth and do mean things to me. I felt like such a fool for crying. I didn’t even know why I cried. I guess the memories of last summer affected me more than I knew.

So when my dentist so nicely offered to give me and Jack free whitening to cheer me up and asked me if I had sensitive teeth, what did I say? “No, I don’t have sensitive teeth.” Well, they felt strong that day! But, last night we tried the whitening system. The system were they make the mold of your mouth to make the mouth pieces and you lightly put this jell on them and go to sleep. But oh my good god, our teeth are throbbing. Today our comments have been about noticing other people’s white teeth. “Wow, what they went through…” Push through the pain man! You need white teeth even though white teeth are somewhat freaky looking – am I right? Sometimes it gets out of control especially when coupled with a tanning obsession.

Maybe growing up as a ‘girl’ in a house full of girls (two older sisters) I realized early on beauty is pain. We shave dealing with razor burns and cuts, or we wax all over our bodies – yeow-er-zer. Women in other countries wrap their feet to keep them small because small feet are apparently sexy. We know the list is long, but you get my point.

I asked Jack what he had to go through for handsomeness and here was his reply.
“The wife plucking, poking, and picking at things all over my body and oh my god the sit ups”

Okay, I would feel bad for him if I ever witnessed all these ’sit ups.’

Even with the pain, you all know I will be whitening tonight…or maybe next week

We are huge Monster’s Inc, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles fans. I thought Ratatouille was okay. We have no kids yet, but own them all and frequently watch them. For our 5 year wedding anniversary last month, we took a picture with Sully at Disneyland. Disneyland rocks! But that is a different post.

I love Ratatouille for a different reason – a date night theme night we did awhile back.

It has stuck in my mind as such a FUN date night. The food sucked and the movie was ‘eh,’ BUT what a memorable night! I am really selling huh?

I pretty much spilled the beans here, but we MADE Ratatouille and then watched Ratatouille. We are big on staying in and saving money, but the fun factor shouldn’t suffer. You need to make date night special…somehow. Not only making great food (or trying) and drinks, but also creating your atmosphere.

We always make sure the house is clean. We light candles. Pick a movie, activity or just eat dinner at the table. We listen to records or a new album. Recently, we purchased some French music.

Back to Rataouille, the food. It is a peasant’s dish and making the traditional recipe is just not very good. I won’t say anything about the movie, but there are modified recipes to try.

It was so fun just cooking the Ratatouille, eating the Ratatouille and then watch the movie where they are cooking and eating Ratatouille. We drank wine and listened to French music, and learned about another culture’s dish. So fun!

I have heard of cats and dogs getting along before but this is just silliness to me. This should be on cuteoverload.com. This middle of the day cat and dog cuddling was a regular occurrence, so you can imagine the massive amounts of pictures I snapped of these two.

Let me start out by saying we miss the kitty. We moved to Los Angeles from Denver and the Kitty went to live with my Dad in North Dakota. It was a tough decision, but we did what was best for her. We move around a lot, and my Dad….Well, let me give you his words…”When I die you would have to pry the television remote from my hands so you might as well just let me bring it with me.”

The cat needs lots of attention. So much that she will take it from a dog. My Dad will be there for her, multi-tasking, watching his FOX News.

There are definitive factors in a good and oh so bad snuggle. First, I asked Jack what he thought about snuggling…

Jack Says:
You have to have similar heights
And…you have to WANT to snuggle

Jill Says:
BS on the height – size doesn’t matter (at least not here)
And yes, you both have to WANT to snuggle, but isn’t that like saying “You have to WANT to be in a relationship?” Come on.

Here is the quick breakdown of our snuggling. Skip to the next paragraph if you think you might feel a barfing sensation coming on. But, if you are adventurous and want to try out our formation, here you go. For fun, describe your snuggle – it is harder than you think!

Full length body spooning snuggle: His bottom arm under her neck sticking straight out and holding hands with her bottom hand, his top arm over her body under her top arm holding hands (yes, double hand holding here), both sets of legs a bit apart with her upper leg through his legs and cupping his bottom foot (top of her foot against the bottom of his bottom foot.) If I don’t get this kind of action…I can’t fall asleep! What has become of me?

I remember when I couldn’t sleep in the same bed with him. When we first started dating, in the middle of the night, I would sneak off to the couch. I just couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t do it. New relationship snuggling is so tough, you are worrying about way too much to be able to enjoy it. Over 10 years into the relationship, who cares if someone lets our a snore or…something else…

If pets could talk, I feel this is what they would be saying about this picture.

Spot Says:
“Whatever. At least my ass is warm.”

Cat Says:
“What?… What do you mean?… What snuggling?… What dog?”

I did a search recently for “sear oven steak.” (Wow. Fascinate me.) Top Chef made me hungry for a thickass cut of steak that I just couldn’t shake. I’m not a huge fan of reality shows per se, but watching people revel in their element… always captivating and inspiring to me. Anyway, this past season one contestant, we’ll call him Spike, made this incredible looking tomahawk steak, so called. I’d never heard of a tomahawk steak prior but now its forever branded on me brain.

As I remember he prepared it over an open flame. We’re in a condo so… open flame not really an option. But some of the others put a rippin’ pan sear on their cuts of beef and placed it in the oven. I’d never seen that technique before. I’d always thought the best way to cook a steak was open flame grill style. Maybe it is, but without that as an option, I recalled the top cheffers.

So, “sear oven steak” turned up CHOW.com Food. Drink. Fun. I gotta say, I liked it right out of the gate. We’ve got big print. Big illustrations. Short. Sweet. Exactly what you need when you’re under the gun time-wise. Or adult A.D.D..

I also found another great blog post “How to Turn Cheap ‘Choice’ Steaks into Gucci ‘Prime’ Steaks.” from the very funny SteamyKitchen.com. I found it to be a terrific method to use during the “before you grill remove the chill” time when you let the cut sit at room temp for a bit before you actually cook it.

The hybrid of these two ideas made for a great meal and I didn’t have to shell out for a pricey Dry Aged Long- Bone Ribeye aka tomahawk steak.