Baby Shower

What a lovely day!

Yesterday my friend Charlotte gave me a call and said, "please tell me you don't have any plans for tomorrow"....and of course I didn't because I'm unemployed and 7 months pregnant, so unless I'm counting my plans to eat and take a nap at some point then I'm always free. Without any clues as to what was going on, she picked me up about 11:00am today and asked if I wanted to go for a coffee first. I said "sure" so off we go for 'coffee'....we parked the car, started walking and then she steered me into Kastro, our friend's restaurant. She says "We're going here" with her little sneaky giggle she'd had since yesterday, and there I see a table set up, balloons and a few of my good friends waiting for us. What a nice surprise!!

Obviously you know which one is me, so going clockwise around the table from there we have Charlotte, the secret party planner extraordinaire (she is also pregnant, 20 weeks, due in October), Kasia (also pregnant, 24 weeks, due in September), Naomi and Tara (our experienced moms), and Nicci (our single girl who will probably never have children after some of the conversation that took place at that table today) 

We had coffee and this amazing cake! It was like a chocolate mousse inside with just a thin layer of chocolate cake. YUMMY!! It's supposed to say It's a Girl but Greeks don't do baby showers so apparently the Greek guy who was supposed to write this on the cake was completely confused by the whole thing. So we have what looks like one word: ItSagirl...eh, it's pretty close.

We played some hilarious games. This one got some weird looks from the men beside us who were trying to have lunch. There's 5 diapers and each one has a different kind of chocolate smooshed inside.  I had to eat the chocolate and guess what kind it was haha. Apparently there are pictures to follow of me with a fork digging into a diaper...appetizing! I didn't do very well at this game though, surprisingly. Even though this little one has me craving sweets almost all the time (which is totally unlike me, I usually turn down dessert or I take 2 bites of it and don't want anymore) I was only able to identify the milk chocolate. The others were chocolate with marzipan, chocolate with hazelnuts, a nutella-type chocolate and a chocolate with yogurt. The chocolate with yogurt had me totally confused because I've never had anything like that before. I could see there was like a cream center to it, something like a Cadbury's Creme egg but I didn't know what the taste was...I even guessed chocolate orange which had Charlotte looking at me like I was insane haha.

Then we also did 2 blind fold games. For one I was given Winnie the Pooh in the center of the table and a diaper and I had to put the diaper on Pooh while blind folded. I did that without any problem at all so I guess I'll be able to change diapers in my sleep....apparently I was a little rough with Pooh though so maybe I shouldn't count on that...I was also supposed to pin a cloth diaper to Pooh blind folded but when I told everyone that I hadn't actually ever seen a cloth diaper before they let me do it without the blind fold. This really didn't turn out so well. I guess I'll be buying Pampers for Eleni. Sorry Environment. I'll give back in some other way, I promise.

The other blind fold game was guess the baby food.......YUCK!!!! Horrible!! How do they feed babies that stuff anyway?!?! The first one was a fruit blend which was ok but really sugary and I don't think I would want my baby eating something that sugary. That one was palatable at least. The other 2 almost made me gag! Vegetables, and Chicken with Vegetables...ew ew ew ew ew! I couldn't swallow them, I spat them into a napkin. They had the texture of mashed potato but tasted like chicken soup with plastic in it. Again, not something I would want to feed my baby. I guess I will be making my own baby food like I had planned. Anyway, somehow I was good at this tasting game but crap at the chocolate one which is strange.

Then the girls had a game where they had to take a roll of string and guess how long of a piece they would need to go all the way around my belly at it's biggest point. I was looking at Tara thinking she was insane for picking the smallest piece, but in the end it turned out she was almost exactly right. So then of course I turned on everyone else and told them they were all jerks. Especially Kasia, she could've wrapped that piece of string around me twice! It was funny. I'll just have to get Kasia back in August when it's her turn for a baby shower!

The rest of time we talked non-stop about babies and pregnancy and delivering babies and how the first days/weeks/months are after you give birth are and of course our usual talk about Greek husbands since we all have one...except for poor little Nicci. Not because she doesn't have a Greek husband...it's because of all the baby conversation she put up with today. It's a good thing Nicci's always such a good sport but I really think she'll be having some nightmares after this. Especially when the topic of nipple extensions was brought up. I have to admit, I hadn't heard of a nipple extension either but logically I figured it's probably like a nipple shield or whatever we call them in Canada, where if you're having a rough time breast feeding you just put that thing on there and the baby can latch on easier. Tara (the other Tara, you've probably figured out by now that there's 2 Tara's) started saying something about "well when your nipples are bleeding...." and that's when I thought for sure Nicci would either pass out or be sick. Or both..."NIPPLE EXTENSIONS?!?! BLEEDING?!?! WHAT????" Poor Nicci. Actually poor Lorraine! Lorraine is Nicci's mom and I feel like I owe her an apology for contributing to Nicci's shock and probable decision to never give her grandbabies. So sorry Lorraine! I promise from now on I'll only tell her about the fun, happy things so that by the time she's 30 maybe she'll start to change her mind. And Nicci if you're reading this, it's fine, there really only are fun and happy things about pregnancy and babies. The nipple extensions are the worst part and you've already gotten through that so don't worry about it. Lets change the subject....PRESENTS!

I got some lovely presents as well. A very cute summer outfit that will fit her next summer, some onesies that look so tiny I can't believe she'll be that small when she makes her debut, a couple of packs of diapers and a really cute wall plaque that says "The Princess sleeps here"...which of course I'll hang over my side of the bed until August. Oh and I also won a few nipple pads for putting in a good effort at the games. Nicci, don't worry about what those are for.

It was a really nice day! Completely unexpected to because my friend Charlotte is living and working in Germany right now (she's from there) while her husband Vasilis is here taking care of their hotel and she only has 1 week to visit him before she has to go back to Germany again. Her next visit won't be until August so to take the time to get in touch with my friends and organize this was really, really very sweet and very much appreciated.

And now I think I'll take a cold shower...my second of the day...and relax for the evening.

29 Weeks!

Good Morning!

It's Friday again, which means we're another week closer to meeting Eleni!

29 weeks! Only about 11 more weeks to go! I know, I know, first babies are usually late blah blah blah. I'm fully aware of the statistics. I just choose to be optimistic. Did you know that elephants are pregnant for 2 years before they give birth?? Now that's a time frame that I would definitely have a hard time staying optimistic about.

Anyway, I'm not putting up belly pics this week because I still look exactly the same as I did 2 weeks ago when I did the last belly pics. Actually I've looked exactly the same for the last month. Every Tuesday is TP Tuesday on the Facebook forum that I go to for mommies-to-be delivering in August. TP as in toilet paper...confused? So you take a roll of toilet paper and wrap it around your back and belly at the biggest point of your belly. Then you count how many squares it took to go all the way around you. I've been 11 squares for a month. So if you want to get an idea of how big I am right this minute, get yourself a roll of toilet paper and count out 11 squares, wrap it around yourself and see how much room you have between you and the toilet paper...now think of that space having a 25lb weight in it. Craziness! Of course not all the weight is in my belly. Most of it is but some has spread to other areas, thankfully! I can't imagine having that much weight concentrated in one area. Ouch! But anyway, I'll take some photos next week for the 30 week mark whether I'm still 11 squares or not because 30 weeks is a big deal and it should be documented.

According to all my pregnancy books and websites that I read religiously these days, at 29 weeks she is around 3lbs and 17 inches! That sounds about right. When she's twisting and turning and flipping around in there, she seems about that size. And apparently in the coming weeks she'll be packing on the pounds because 17 inches is pretty close to what she should be at birth...she just needs to chunk up a bit between then and now. Actually it's not really a bit. She'll most likely double in size and in fact she could nearly triple. If genes have anything to do with how big a baby will be at birth...she'll probably be pretty big. There's research to say that this is true and of course research that says it isn't true so we'll have to wait and see but IF it's true then I'm expecting her to be a fairly big baby. I was 8lbs 6 oz when I was born. My brother was like 9lbs and something....massive! In Greece they use kilos and grams instead of pounds and ounces (which we should be too in Canada! GOD it drives me nuts that we're not fully on the metric system yet, it makes so much more sense. I blame the Americans!..no offense to my very lovely American friends. I don't blame you. I blame the others.) Antonis was about 3 and a half kilos which is just over 7 pounds. His brother was about the same size as I was. It's funny actually, Greeks will talk about the size of their babies as if a 7 pounder was HUGE....I don't think it is. I'd say 7 pounds is normal but slightly on the small side of normal. In North America we're usually having babies between 7 - 9 pounds. When I told them my brother was about 4 and half kilos....their jaws DROPPED. And of course now that's what everyone is talking about when it comes to how big I am and how big the baby is going to be and "they make giant babies in Canada hahaha"......of course. There actually isn't any logic behind predicting the size of a baby from the mother's size but anyway...blah blah frickin' blah. That's my mantra these days. When people are talking to me about annoying things I just repeat blah blah blah in my head over and over again. I've gotten really good at it too. I can make it so loud that I won't even hear you! It's amazing. I think it's practice for labour actually. Power of the mind. Actually maybe I should check myself during these moments...I just realized there's a small chance I'm saying blah blah blah out loud and I'm not even aware of it. Oh wow. I really hadn't thought of that until now. How rude would that be? But hysterical!!!! Can you imagine?! Someone is trying to give me some "really important" pregnancy/parenting advice and I just start yelling BLAH BLAH BLAH in their face.....hahahaha!!! I am literally killing myself laughing right now! Ohhhhhhh god that's hilarious. But rude.  Very very rude. Hahahaha, no it's funny. I'm pregnant, I can get away with this kind of behaviour right now!

Ok well I should really pull myself together and figure out a plan for the day. Fridays are always fun because it feels like a little baby celebration day. Next Friday when we celebrate the 30 weeks we'll also be doing our final 3D/4D ultrasound YAYYYYY!!! So I'll have belly photos AND more importantly baby photos coming after next Friday! I'm so excited! I hope we get to see her little face!!

Have a great day everyone!

I Need a Nap

Hello!

I'm writing this in the evening again, second day in a row I've done that because I just can't seem to get myself moving in the morning the last 2 days. Actually I can't really seem to get myself moving ALL DAY the last 2 days. This must be part of the lovely symptoms I've heard about during the third trimester. Fun times! But once again I really can't complain because it's not like I have anywhere I have to be or anything I have to do where symptoms like this really get in the way.

Then again the reason I might be tired may be because of this little beast:

Of course this is probably the 5th video I've taken of her because every time I got the camera ready she'd just sit there, looking all cute and kitten-like, not making a sound...nothing like what she's been like FOR 4 DAYS STRAIGHT! Oh my god, seriously this cat has been meowing constantly, all day and all night! She doesn't even sound like a normal cat! Last night Antonis and I were laying in bed, trying to sleep but of course couldn't because she was busy alerting the entire neighbourhood (and probably the next village over) to her whereabouts, so we started guessing what animal she was. We hadn't seen her yet, only heard her. Antonis thought she was a bird. I was pretty sure she was a cat but I figured she was a cartoon cat. Antonis of course found this ridiculous. It was definitely a bird. 

(sorry for the wobbly video, I was trying to lean out my window but my giant belly was getting in the way)

Don't you think she sounds like a cartoon cat? I'm laughing because the old lady next door has finally spotted her too and she was getting pissed at her for meowing all day and night...then she asked the cat if she wanted some food and the cat came running as if she knew exactly what the lady said. Too cute. If anyone is interested in adopting a kitten let me know. She already speaks Greek!

So anyway, that might be why I'm tired these days. But it could also be that I've been worrying about Papou a lot. Apparently Olympia and Yorgos will be flying with him to Athens on Monday for his surgery. Personally, I think the trip is going to be way to hard on him but of course there isn't any other options at this point because there's no one here on the island to do the surgery. Luckily Olympia has some cousins over in Athens that have already made all the arrangements that he needs, including setting him up with a really good doctor, so all Papou has to do is get there and all the rest is taken care of.

It's going to be strange to go for my daily walk and not run into him taking his daily walk. Lately he likes to give me some pregnancy advice when we have these little walking-meetings. The last 3 times I've seen him the advice has been that I have to be very careful on my walks, I have to go very slowly. I told him "Papou, you're almost 100 years old! You have to go slowly too!"...he thought that was funny. He didn't agree with me but he thought it was funny. When he gets back from Athens and is feeling better we'll get back to doing our very slow walks together.

Here's something else I'm now worried about:

This is an old picture, and it's blurry because the thing was moving so fast I couldn't get a clear pic of it. The comb was supposed to show a size comparison but like I said, it was moving too fast. Anyway, this picture may be about 3 years old but I just discovered last night that one of these disgusting spawns of Satan has moved into my house! 

In Greek they're called what would translate to The 40 Legs. I don't really care how many legs it has, it's scary and disgusting and I hate it and it gives me nightmares!!! Last night I was laying in bed reading a book just before Antonis came home from work, so the house was completely silent...except for the sound of a plastic bag rustling. Remember yesterday when I said there's a cat with half a tail that breaks into my house and eats my bread? Well usually if I hear a plastic bag rustling, it's because of the half-tail cat getting into my bread. But last night the rustling was too faint to be her. This was more like the sound of trying to open a bag of candy in the movie theater without bothering too many people around you...it's was that careful-plastic-bag-crinkling sound. So of course I decide it must be a ghost. Logically. It couldn't possibly be anything else. But I decided to go check it out anyway (don't be fooled by what seems like me being perfectly ok with catching a ghost in my house, in action....my heart was racing and I nearly peed myself. No exaggeration. Terrified. Near urination). Just as I turned on the light and looked in the corner of the room where the rustling was coming from I saw the tail end of one of these things....the massive tail end of one of these things....making it's way between the wall and the kitchen cupboard. My next thought was "get a knife and hack the crap out of that thing before it kills you in your sleep". So I got a knife and started shoving it in that little crack between the wall and the cupboard but I don't think anything happened. That sucker is probably alive and thriving in there, it's probably BREEDING and there's nothing I can do about it other than rip the cupboards off the wall to find it and finally kill it. 

I really don't know what I'm going to do about this yet because obviously I can't go around ripping perfectly good cupboards off the wall. At least that what Antonis says. I disagree with that a little bit. Anyway, I just have to stop talking about it because I can't stand thinking about this grotesque hell monster roommate.  

Here's what I had for dinner. Or part of it anyway. The other part I wolfed down before even thinking of getting a picture of it. Sorry! The baby was hungry! But it was just the giovetsi from yesterday anyway so you already saw that if you read yesterday's blog. I also had a bourokakia which is filo dough wrapped around ham and cheese and deep friend....not the healthiest of choices but so ooey-gooey-melty-cheezy-delicious that you just have to indulge once in a while. But I did have these healthy green beans to make up for my deep friend indulgence...

I roasted these in the oven with a little bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, a couple of chopped up sundried tomatoes and salt and pepper. So simple but SO DELICIOUS! With a little bit of feta cheese on the side (of course).

And today there was dessert! Cherry cheesecake from Tsalikis! The Greek version of cheesecake is not exactly what I would call cheesecake...but I'm also a bit of a cheesecake expert (I don't have any official qualifications to back that up other than I think cheesecake is THE best thing on the planet. Especially my mom's pumpkin cheesecake. Perfection!). It's much lighter than ours, more like a mousse I would say as compared to the thick, rich, cheesy cheesecakes that I'm used to. Anyway it was still amazing so I'm not complaining at all!

That's about all for today guys. I don't know if I'll get back into my routine of writing the blog in the morning (Greece time) or if I'll continue with this evening thing. I'll see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow and decide then. Until then...I'm off to wait by the crack between the cupboard and the wall with a very heavy shoe in hand.....

The Real Housewife of Molyvos

Kalispera!

It's hot. I'm exhausted. My feet look like little sausages. And if I'm totally honest all I want to do right now is take a cold shower and go to bed. But I worked really hard today and if I didn't share it all with you then somehow the day would feel unfinished. Not to mention the fact that I totally ruled Greek Housewife-dom today and I feel like I need to take some time to brag about it.

But first I have to tell you the gossip of the day! This is big!

So one of my mother-in-laws best friends is a lady named Stella. And Stella is Miltos' mom, our best man/best friend (are you with me? that was an easy one actually. I like writing those round-about connections, like "she's the cousin of this guy's wife who's also the aunt of my cousin's dad" type of connections). Anyway, so Stella came by the restaurant this morning to visit Olympia and have coffee. But Olympia wasn't there...I'll tell you why she wasn't there after this...so Stella went home. She doesn't really live that far from the restaurant, it's probably a 10 minute walk at the most, so apparently she was away from her house for less than 30 minutes. She opened the door and found 3 gypsy women robbing her house!!! From what I hear, they must have just gotten into the house because they didn't manage to take anything and as soon as Stella found them she started yelling and screaming and the gypsy's ran away....but holy crap!! A gypsy robbery?! That's not supposed to happen around here! The only robbery I ever worry about around here is when the stupid cat with half a tail sneaks into my house and eats my bread.

No one's been caught and actually I don't even know if she called the police or not but if I get any updates on this I'll let you know...whether those updates are just pure gossip or truth, I'll keep you updated because sometimes the pure gossip can be hilarious. Not trying to make light of the situation or anything, I'm so glad Stella's ok and that they didn't manage to steal anything but if I know Molyvos gossip...this story should take some interesting twists and turns in the next few days.

And I realize I'm not sounding very politically correct by talking about 'gypsies' like this. Who cares if they were gypsy's or Greeks or Canadians, robbing a house is robbing a house. The reason I even mention that they're gypsy's is because I just wanted to give you a taste of what local gossip sounds like. This is exactly how the story will be told again and again over the next week or however long it takes for a new story to replace it.

DISCLAIMER: I don't have anything against gypsy's.

Actually that's not true. When they walk through the streets at 8am on a Sunday morning screaming out that they are selling cheap clothes..."I HAVE PANTS, I HAVE DRESSES, I HAVE SHIRTS FOR MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN, ALL VERY GOOD PRICES!!"...then I despise them. But I despise anyone that wakes me up, especially at 8am on a Sunday morning. I believe in hating everyone equally. That being said, I also don't want to make the locals here sound ignorant or racist or anything like that. They're not. Well I'm sure there's a few but we have a few in Canada to unfortunately. I think the reason that it seems important to them to mention that it was gypsies that broke into the house is because it just makes people feel safer. Gypsy's travel around, they're here one day gone the next. So likely whoever these women were they won't be hanging around here long, which means they won't have the opportunity to break in again. If it was a Greek person or a foreign local, then it somehow seems scarier. This is a small community, everyone knows each other and everyone takes care of each other (for the most part)...it's just not nice to think that someone could do that to one of their own, SO that's my theory as to why the title 'gypsy' is getting thrown around in every conversation. Ok, I've gone off on a tangent. Lets move on.....

But before I get back to today's subject I have to tell you about Papou and the reason why Olympia wasn't in the restaurant this morning. Papous is Greek for Grandpa, and Antonis' Papou is a big part of our lives. He lives with my parent's in law, he just celebrated his 91st birthday last week and he is full of life. Everyday he walks down to the local kafenio (cafe) to have coffee with his buddies and talk about politics and farming and whatever else old guys talk about. Anyway, he hasn't been feeling very well for the past few days so Olympia and Yorgos had to take him to the doctor today and yesterday.

The diagnosis is he's having a problem with his heart and the doctor has said the only thing they can do to help him is fly him to Athens and implant a pace maker. So needless to say we're all really worried and hoping that he miraculously starts feeling better so that he doesn't have to go through all of this. None of us are really talking about it much right now, I think we're all just trying to process it. Personally, I adore Papou and he has to stay with us forever. But if it can't be forever, he really needs to hang on for a few more months so he can see his first great grand baby. Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that for now. I'll keep you all updated on this and in the mean time, whatever any of you can do to send some good healthy vibes Papou's way would be greatly appreciated.

Ok, so finally getting back to today's subject...what has 2 thumbs and is the the housewife of the century??? Yeah that would be me (if you picture me pointing to myself with my 2 thumbs...ok that's a visual joke and therefore not so easily translated in writing but it's an oldie so I'm sure you all pictured it anyway)

I have a Greek recipe to share with you today, although I'm not exactly sure what to call it. I started out making Kokinisto (ko-kee-nee-STO) which is a Greek pot roast. But then at the end I added tiny pasta to the pot (something like orzo) which then turns it into Giovetsi (gee-o-VET-zee). Giovetsi is usually made with lamb though, and I used beef but it's not uncommon to use beef instead. So really what makes the difference is the pasta. If you just make the meat, then you've made Kokinisto which you can serve with mashed potatoes or french fries or rice or whatever you want as a side dish. If you make this by adding the pasta, then you've made Giovetsi. The base sauce is exactly the same, so we've got ourselves a two-fer!

So here we go!

Here's the butcher by the way, 2nd door on the left. I had to do a full shopping trip today which means a trip to the butcher, the bakery and the supermarket to get everything, and I actually wanted to take pics of all 3 because they're just so cute but I forgot after the butcher...what else is new...The owners are lovely, a very cute married couple. They decided today that they won't speak English to me anymore because they think it's time that we speak only Greek...they're right. I guess I better pull out my dictionary and start studying the Greek words for animal parts. I know the animals, I just don't know things like the specific cuts of meat or chicken parts, stuff like that.

Here's our ingredients. You will need:

olive oil

about 1lb beef, cut into chunks

salt

1 large red onion

1/2 cup red wine

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (THE ingredient)

2 tbsp chopped parsley

pepper

pinch of oregano OR 3 sprigs of thyme 

Optional:

1 1/2 cups orzo pasta

I WOULD ALSO RECOMMEND ADDING:

garlic - not a lot but it's to your taste

2 bay leaves

1 whole stick of cinnamon, but don't grate it or break it, keep it whole

Step 1:

• Preheat the oven to 350
• pour about 3 tbsp of olive oil (or whatever you want really) into a pot
• brown your meat until on all sides so it looks all deliciously golden...I know this looks grey but trust me, I had some serious golden brown meat happening 

Step 2:

• set the meat aside
• pour some more olive oil into pot
• chop the onion and saute until it's soft
• then you want to add your red wine (it's important that you use red wine instead of white because kokinisto actually means reddening, kokino is red in Greek...although we're using tomatoes anyway so the sauce is still going to be red so if you only have white wine on hand I'm sure that would be good too)
• once the wine is almost completely evaporated add in your can of crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, garlic, bay leaf, cinnamon, salt and pepper
• let it boil for a few minutes and try to squish any of the big tomato bits 

Step 3:

• Put your meat into a dutch oven or baking dish like this one. I actually had to google dutch oven because I wasn't exactly sure what it was...the first definition was actually the act of passing gas under a sheet and then holding someone's head under. Thanks Wikipedia! The answer I was looking for was that it's just a heavy, cast-iron type pot that you can put straight into a fire if you wanted to. Anyway, I don't have one of those so I put it in this and it worked just fine.
• Pour your tomato mixture over top
• Fill the tomato can with water and pour this over top as well
• Put it in the oven for about 2 1/2 hours, checking it every now and then to stir the meat around
• if you're planning on adding the pasta, add it at the 2 1/2 hour mark and cook for another 30 - 35 minutes, you may find you need to add a bit more liquid at this point. I added about half a cup more water

So since we're waiting a super long time for everything to cook now, I decided to fix my tomato paste problem. My problem is that no matter what recipe I use, usually it only calls for about a tablespoon or 2 of tomato paste...but I can only buy it in this honking big can. So here's my solution.....

Take tablespoons of tomato paste and put them into an ice cube tray (this is an old one I don't use that much because I was worried about dying the tray red...but after I washed it it was perfectly fine so don't worry about staining). Freeze this for about an hour or 2, or just until the tomato paste globs are frozen enough to maintain their single portion shape. Then take them out of the tray, put them in a Ziploc back and VOILA! You have 1 tablespoon portions of tomato paste ready for next time!

And I just wanted to show you this. This is actually homemade pasta. I didn't do it, so I don't have a recipe for you unfortunately. That's why I've suggested orzo pasta because it's basically the same thing as this. I'll eventually get a recipe for homemade orzo, but so far I've only helped in the 'shaping' phase. Basically you take the ball of dough, a vegetable peeler and a big pan. Using your vegetable peeler you take tiny nicks out of the dough ball so they look like little bits of rice, and let them fall into the big pan. Then it's cooked but I don't know for how long or at what temperature...actually they might just be dried? I don't know. And I have no idea how to make the dough ball....let me know if you know if you can fill in any blanks!

Sorry this is blurry, wish I noticed that before but it looked good on my camera at the time. Anyway, I'm still waiting for the food to cook so now I'm making a lemon juice-olive oil solution for dusting. Yes, dusting! Who the hell dusts?? I do! We get so much freakin' dust around here it's unbelievable. But if you use lemon and olive oil you don't have to dust as often because somehow it repels dust. Now I only have to dust every 2 weeks instead of every 2 days which is awesome! So just mix it at a 1:1 ration. I did 1 tablespoon each because I just wanted a little bit. Last time I did 1 cup each and I didn't use it fast enough so I ended up with moldy olive oil/ lemon solution. By the way this olive oil is from our olives, so the olive oil is homemade too...I'm not bragging about all this homemade stuff, I'm just saying. It's just how we roll....

This really isn't important but I was bored waiting for the Giovetsi to cook...this is what I put my olive oil-lemon juice solution in. It was the only empty container I could find in the house. If you have a nice container that you know is super clean before you put the olive oil and lemon juice in, you can use it as salad dressing too....not kidding...little salt and pepper and you got yourself a salad in a dust free room!!  If you're using an old sun tan lotion bottle like me, I would not recommend pouring this over your garden greens...but that probably didn't need to be said.

So now it's been cooking for 2 1/2 hours, I added the pasta, stirred it around and decided I needed some more liquid to cook the pasta

And this is our end result! 

Just so you know, you have to serve this with feta cheese. You have no choice. The Greek Gods will come down from Mount Olympus and smite you if you don't put at least a little bit of feta cheese on the side.

So now the whole house is perfectly spotless and completely dust free, there's enough food to feed us for at least a couple days (depending on how hungry Antonis is today) AND I did all of this with perfectly straightened hair in a super cute sun dress...rocked it!

Antonis rating for the Giovetsi....2 big thumbs up!! YESSSS! I always get nervous when I make Greek food. There's just so much pressure! But he hasn't disliked any of my Greek cooking yet so that feels pretty good.

Now it's time to take that cold shower I've been looking forward too, cover myself in stretch mark cream (which is working fabulously by the way...or maybe I should just thank my mom for good genes) and go to bed.

Good night!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTONIS!

Hi!

First of all we have to start by wishing Antonis a very happy birthday today!!! He's 36 today, which I'm having a very difficult time processing. 36!!?? 

4 years ago yesterday we met for the very first time. After watching him dance in fire, which was way to amazing for me to even handle (most likely because I'd already consumed about a bottle of wine by this point) and after sitting and talking and drinking more wine together (which he brought to me "on the house" probably because he noticed I was way to amazed by the fire dancing) I asked him how old he was. I had to! My professor had warned us before we even left Vancouver that Greek boys tend to look older than they are and they will tell you they're older when actually they're only about 16....so of course I asked "how old are you?"  He said, "I'm 32." I said, "Yeah right." He said, "No really! Actually I'm 31 but my birthday is tomorrow and I'll be 32". That probably should have been my cue to drop it but of course I didn't....I insisted on seeing some ID. Which for some strange reason, he showed me. He looked at me like I was absolutely crazy for even asking but he pulled some papers out of his back pocket and gave them to me without saying anything. 

Sure enough, June 5th 1976. 

Actually I shouldn't say 'sure enough'. I still wasn't sure at all at that point because honestly I was having a hard time doing the math. By now I was probably at about a bottle and a half of wine, and this is probably exactly what was going through my head:

....2008 minus 1976 is ummmm.....hmmmm.... ohh wine! Ugh it's so hot!  What was I doing? oh yeah, make sure this guy isn't a teenager.. minus 76 is....ummmmm...I need a calculater...Hahaha, look at what Nicole's doing! She's hilarious! Crap this is taking too long and he's staring at me. He's going to think your stupid, or even worse he's going to think your drunk! 32 sounds about right so just act like you figured it out and move on to something else!

So looking back now we can say, sure enough he was turning 32 the next day, but all I could be sure about in that moment was that he probably wasn't a teenager because 1976 seemed like a pretty long time ago. He was a little annoyed that I refused to go to his birthday party the next night, but it started at 3:00 in the morning and I was NOT getting on the back of a motorcycle with some guy I didn't know in some country I'd never been too at 3:00am in the morning! That just had bad idea written all over it. Ok I'll admit it, it seemed like a FANTASTIC idea....but I'm not an idiot. So I said no. 

But he couldn't have been that annoyed because everywhere I went he would miraculously appear.

And now, 4 years later, I'm sitting at my computer telling you all THE STORY while little Eleni kicks me in the ribs....a lot has changed in 4 years!

So,  HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANTONIS!

Here's some pictures of my beach day yesterday...

I went to Psiriara, or Delfinia beach as we usually call it. This is the famous nude beach I've told you about before but don't worry....I waited until everyone left to take pictures so my camera wouldn't be tainted by naked old people butts! By the way, I can definitely tell my hormones are heightened right now because I was getting SO pissed off about this old guy next to me who would NOT stop wandering around. I actually wanted to yell at him to go sit down on his towel, no one needs to see you showing it all off! UGH! I didn't say anything though. It took some time talking myself through it but finally I decided that I had chosen to go to the nude beach and the chances of seeing naked people were pretty high, so I just need to calm down, drink my lemonade Slurpee-thing and mind my own business.....

So that's what I did.
Here's a view of the village from the beach. I'm not sure why it looks cloudy though because it was a perfectly clear day. And HOT! My god it was hot! It was probably around 30 degrees which normally I can deal with...clearly pregnancy and hot weather will not be that easy...

 As I was leaving I walked through cloud of butterflies!! There was probably about 30 of them floating around and landing on me, it was so cool!! I tried to take some video of it but then I decided I just wanted to watch them. This one seemed to want to come home with me....

Antonis is definitely not a fan of pets though so I had to tell her she would be better off to stay with her friends...and she floated away.

It was a lovely relaxing day, and the water was the absolute perfect temperature. BUT...unfortunately this little paradise is just a little bit too far for me to walk to and from now. Getting there is alright, it's downhill and takes about 25-30 minutes from my house (25-30 minutes if you're 7 months pregnant. Much less if you're not). But coming back is really hard. Uphill, HOT, and it took me about 45 minutes. I'm still feeling some of the back pain that I was dealing with yesterday and I'm pretty sure that walk had something to do with it. I got home, took a cold shower to cool off and wash away the salt and sand and sweat, I ate some dinner and laid on the couch watching movies all night. I was not feeling great. But I'm really thankful that I don't have anything I have to worry about right now other than myself so I can lay down on the couch all night if my back is killing me. Those days are soon to be over SO I'll take all the advantage of them I can.

As for today, I'm not really sure what to do or what to expect. Tonight I'll go down to the restaurant and hang out there. I'm sure Antonis' mom has baked him a cake so we'll do that. I'd bake him a cake but he actually really hates cake and always refuses to eat it anyway so I don't see the point of giving someone something they hate on their birthday. Once Eleni's here though something tells me he'll change his mind about birthday cake. Little kids get crazy when they see birthday cakes covered in candles. 

Little kids make everything more fun.

Day Off

Hi guys,

Last night I spent HOURS sitting at my desk, on my computer. I had a bunch of boring work to do that I've been putting off for ages but finally last night I decided to just get it done. But unfortunately, because I was sitting hunched over the computer for so long, my back....and pelvis....is killing me today. I have some sciatic nerve stuff going on, a lot of lower back pain, somehow my tailbone hurts ?? Anyway, pregnancy is not a big fan of sitting for too long and bad posture so I'm going to take the day off from blogging today, and facebook and email and reading food blogs and anything else that could keep me in this state of feeling like I'm 105 years old. Instead I will be focusing on swimming and stretching and maybe a little bit of walking if it's not too painful. We'll see. Whatever I end up doing I'll take the camera with me and fill you in tomorrow.

But before I go, I checked up again on the comment box problem we've been having. From what I understand, all the settings are in place so anyone should be able to comment without a problem. I've disabled the Spam so nothing will go in there, I'm not doing comment moderation so that I have to look at your comments before they get posted to the blog, anyone and everyone should be able to post anything and it should show up right away. Hmmmmm, I was throwing around a lot of "should" in that last sentence....
I think the problem might be if you subscribe to the blog by email. If you're reading the blog in the email view, you can't comment from there. If you want to comment you have to actually go to the taramcclure.blogspot.com site to comment. And there's no setting to change that unfortunately. So maaaaaybe this is the problem? I don't know, I'm running out of ideas so maybe check that out and see if it works for you or if it doesn't and then email me or facebook me and let me know if you're still having a problem.

Also if you're reading this on your phone, you probably noticed I changed the mobile view last night....simply because I didn't like the look of it. But since I don't actually have a fancy phone to test it out on, I have no idea if I just made navigating around the blog from a phone more difficult. Let me know if it's pain in the ass on the new mobile view. If it is I'll switch it back to the old one.

Ok, that's it for today. If I stay here any longer I'm worried my bones and ligaments and tendons might all fuse together in this position and I'll never be able to get up from the computer again! My doctor would definitely not be pleased to deliver a baby from under a computer desk!

See you tomorrow!

Get Lost!

Good Morning!

And a good morning it's been so far! No reason in particular, I just really like Sunday mornings. Actually I really like Sundays in general. Sunday is THE day to be lazy and not feel guilty about it. 

Whoever invented Sundays is my hero.

Last night I couldn't be bothered with laziness however. In fact, I was on a mission! I decided after dinner that I needed to go to my favourite bench, way up high in the village and get some pictures of the sunset over the harbour. The only problem with that was it was already just after 8pm when I decided to do this and I still needed to shower off the salt from my afternoon swim. I know, I know, my life is so stressful!

I was out the door by 8:30, with about a half hour of daylight left BUT I needed to get to the bench before that half hour was up so I didn't miss the giant glowing orange and pink sun sinking into the Aegean.

No problem! Except Molyvos isn't exactly the easiest place to get around if you're 7 months pregnant. Or old, or injured, or just plain tired. But if you go have an intense passion for StairMasters then you'll LOVE this place. The village is built on a steeeeeeep hill and basically anywhere you walk....it's up. My guess is that in ancient times invaders didn't stand a chance against Molyvians because by the time they got up to the top of the hill to take over the castle, they were so tired and out of breath that all our side had to do was kick them in the shins and send them packing. Oh yeah, there's a castle at the top of the hill. It still looks in pretty good shape so I think my theory is probably pretty spot on (don't quote me on that)

On top of that there's all this tiny, twisty, vine-covered, cobblestone paths that I swear can magically appear and disappear at random. I've lived here for 3 years and no matter how many times I walk through certain areas of the village I get the sense that I've just walked on a path I'd never walked on before. And this place isn't big at all! It's smaller than Cumberland. Well, smaller than Cumberland now. Probably about the same as old Cumberland when most of us were kids hanging out in April's Chest (for my Greek friends and other friends that don't know what Cumberland is, it's the village I grew up in...April's Chest is a long story that you'll have to ask me about over an ouzo one night)

To cut to the chase....I got lost.

Here's some photos I took along the way as I madly searched for my bench.

 Ok, this looks familiar so I must be on the right track...

Hmmm, actually maybe I'm not on the right track after all...did someone just paint this house blue or am I lost?

 

Oh what a cute little balcony! Give yourself a high five if you can find the kitty cat in this pic (that's not really fair because she's kind of a blurry blob. Hint: look for a blurry blob)

Wait a minute, where the hell did this staircase come from?? And more importantly...where does it go??? And this is where it became clear that this was about to be a failed mission. Funny story though. I found an  old lady sitting outside her house up here that was very excited to see a pregnant lady wandering around. She asked me to stop so she could ask the usual questions: how many months are you? when are you due? where are you from? is your husband Greek? (that one is always followed by an "ahhhhh bravo!")

Then she asked me to give her my hand. So I did. She took my hand, closed her eyes and sat there quietly for a few seconds. I swear, in those few seconds that past an eerie wind blew past us....Then she opened her eyes and told me it was going to be a girl, she will look very Greek, she will be strong and healthy at birth, and strong willed throughout her life.

Huh. 

I thanked her and carried on my way.

I had to refocus after that. There is a mission at stake here! I must find the bench before it's too late! But to make matters worse, I found Mountain Lions. So of course I had to stop and take a few photos of them.

But still no bench.... 

Focus Tara, focus!! 

Ok, I can see mountains over there to my left so that means I have to keep to the right...

Good, now we're getting somewhere. If I can see the sea I'm in the right general area...I just don't know if I need to go up higher or back down a little ways...keep looking...

Turned out I was just a bit too high, but I finally I spotted my illusive bench just below me....

 FINALLY! I'm here! 

But sadly...I'm too late to catch the sun. 

It's even to dark to get a good picture of the bench I'd spent all this time looking for. 

I guess I'll just have to do another mission another day

A view of the village at night, from the top. It's still pretty gorgeous up here even if I didn't catch the sunset. And it's so peaceful. I took some time to think about stuff...mostly the old lady. Was that even real?? That was kinda creepy..but cool.

Finally I decided to make my way back down the hill and check out what was happening at the restaurant. One last village picture though because I HAVE to tell you about this house. This our good friend's house, Dimitris (actually it's his parents house), and I swear I am not joking when I tell you this....

THEY HAVE A SOLID GOLD TOILET!

I'm serious! We went there for New Year's Eve one year, I think it was my first New Year's here actually. 

Anyway, we were all downstairs which is a fully equipped house downstairs with kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, livingroom and whatever else. But then we found stairs...where does this go Dimitri? He said there was another house upstairs. So we go upstairs. Sure enough, it's another fully equipped house upstairs with kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom, livingroom and whatever else....but it is FAAAAANCY! It was like walking into the Queen's palace! I didn't stay up there long because I was afraid I'd break something but had a little look around, ducked my head into the bathroom...yeah, solid gold toilet! INSANE! 

Hopefully we get invited over again so I can sneak a pic of the toilet...

that was a really odd sentence to write...

And then I made it to the restaurant. My brother in law gave me a couple of scoops of dark chocolate ice cream, we watched a show about the dinosaur extinction and then we finished the night off with a 'drink' at Pirates (I had a virgin mojito which was of course phenomenal because Ina made it)

So I may have missed the sunset but it was still an all around pretty awesome night!

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!